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dtx1

2,518 karma · joined July 28, 2017

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dtx1··on MNT Reform Next
> I have schematics for every circuit and case part. I can (and have) use these to make whatever changes I want. If I run into trouble I have direct access to the engineer who designed them.

And have you made any change to any circuit? Especially any change that you would have had to make to any of the other linux first notebooks on the market?

> It uses standardized batteries I can get from many vendors for the foreseeable future.

Yup 18650s are cool, yet I have replaced the batteries in many Thinkpads and Dells and never had an issue with finding a new one on ebay. Solution to a Problem that isn't really one if you buy any device not made from glue.

> If the screen breaks there are at least four different part numbers I can order to replace it.

Unless you are buying a Macbook that has been true for so many Notebooks.

> Instead of buying a new laptop every few years, I finally have one which has no secret sauce and I'm not locked into a vendor. Since I work in IT, I know how to take advantage of networking and distributed systems to leverage faster computers when I want to. In short, it's the computer I've always wanted.

There's so much secret sauce in these. Again, the Firmware of the RK3588 isn't open source. No one here has any idea how these chips work and what kind of backdoors or basic security failures they might have. This isn't an RiscV CPU with open specs, it's an off-the-shelf ARM SOC from a chinese vendor that has never managed to release a SOC that has upstream linux support even a year after being released. You are imagining this device as something it provably isn't

> People can and will pay for a sustainable product made in a first-world country by workers earning a living wage. If you want a cheap Intel laptop, there are hundreds to choose from. The existence of a product which doesn't fit the norm doesn't make it "shit," it just makes it something you personally won't buy.

You know, i personally find it pretty offensive to see a website claim their hardware is "Open Source" or "Open Hardware" and asking an unreasonable amount for it and then having to scroll through the website to find an "eh so this isn't actually open source we just screwed an SOM into a 3d Printed case and called it a day. There's still lots of firmware that is closed source".

I wouldn't be writing this if this was REALLY open source. If there were 0 binary blobs. But that's not something they have achieved. So now it's a Product, sold by a FOR PROFIT company and that has to compete with others. And this doesn't. And to argue like this was this ultimate open source no vendor lock-in forever free device this factually isn't is just disingenuous.

dtx1··on MNT Reform Next
> How is Framework 'proven' to be more 'future proof' than the MNT Reform devices?

Framework has shipped multiple generations of hardware with upgrade SOCs/Mainboards in the same form factor. MNT Reform is already on their second generation case and mainboard form factor with no reasonable upgrade for their first gen in sight.

> Why should it? I can understand if it doesn't cover your needs, but to me it seems like a decent, functional laptop that might do just fine for a lot of people.

I challenge you to do any real work for a week on an RK3588. When your done, you will understand why.

dtx1··on MNT Reform Next
Neither does the RK3588, which is precisely the point I was making.

From the MNT Reform Website https://shop.mntre.com/products/mnt-reform

> RK3588 > Binary DDR and GPU firmware

That makes it just as closed source as the corebooted novacustom stuff: https://novacustom.com/coreboot-laptop/

dtx1··on Ask HN: How do you organize work as a solo developer?
David Allen's Getting Things Done as a Method is still the GOAT of self organization for me. I personally use a hacked together Obsidian Notebook because it was the only tool that was flexible enough for me.
dtx1··on KDE Again Operated at a Loss During 2023
So... Where did they get the money that they spent then?
dtx1··on We built the city of Colombo in Cities:Skylines
And Running on an overclocked epyc processor with dual 4090s you get a whole FPS in it too!
dtx1··on Lego to replace oil in its bricks with pricier renewable plastic
I can unfortunatly only link this German Video for a good example just how bad lego sets have become: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tvyp2VGNL14

Comparing an old police station with the modern one but at 3:57 Left side Modern Police Station 100€ with basically no parts, right side old station from the secondary market for 45€. It's literally twice the size and part count.

One the other hand, look at this: https://www.bluebrixx.com/img/items/107/107505/600/107505_2.... It's bluebrixx flagship medieval castle. That thing is a) HUGE and b) Pretty Beautiful.

dtx1··on Lego to replace oil in its bricks with pricier renewable plastic
Bluebrixx produces in the EU
dtx1··on Lego to replace oil in its bricks with pricier renewable plastic
https://www.bluebrixx.com/en/
dtx1··on Lego to replace oil in its bricks with pricier renewable plastic
Legos Quality in the last decade has been on a steady decline to an absurd degree. Most of their sets now are substandard in part count, part quality, full of stickers and it's all star wars and other tie ins while the prices skyrocketed. Meanwhile the Competition has stepped up significantly and there are now multiple manufacturers selling lego compatible pieces and sets of equal or higher quality for significantly less.
dtx1··on Boox Palma Review: A Phone-Sized E-Ink Android Device That Isn't a Phone
https://foundation.mozilla.org/en/privacynotincluded/onyx-bo...
dtx1··on Microsoft Remote Desktop will be renamed to Windows App
Great Idea, I am sure that will make it much easier to Bing it when Issues arise. Right? Right?
dtx1··on Bypassing airport security via SQL injection
> 05/17/2024: Follow-up to DHS CISO about TSA statements (no reply)

> 06/04/2024: Follow-up to DHS CISO about TSA statements (no reply)

There should be a public Shitlist of Organisations that don't get the Benefit of Responsible Disclosure anymore, just a Pastebin drop linked to 4chan.

dtx1··on COSMIC Alpha Released
I hope that cosmic manages to kill Gnome long term.
dtx1··on How to verify boot firmware integrity if you prioritize neutralizing Intel ME?
The correct answer is coreboot+heads
dtx1··on Sovereign Tech Fund to Invest €686k in FreeBSD Infrastructure Modernization
> Sovereign Transportation Fund to invest €686,400 into Highway Infrastructure

This isn't generosity. They probably need it for a Hospital or something.

dtx1··on Anthropic publishes the 'system prompts' that make Claude tick
It's almost more amazing that it only kinda sorta works and doesn't go all HAL 9000 on us by being super literal.
dtx1··on NSA releases 1982 Grace Hopper lecture
The NSA being the good guys for once feels strange. Especially caring for public interest.
dtx1··on Is Telegram really an encrypted messaging app?
Have the room owner create an AES 256 key, send it to all Party members via 1:1 e2ee, encrypt room messages with that AES key.
dtx1··on Apple explores robotics in search of life beyond the iPhone
iPad OS/MacOS Notebook like a Microsoft Surface but with an actually usable User Interface would be the obvious next step to me.
dtx1··on Modern Wardriving (2023)
I don't quite get the point of this. Basically any home or small buisness router is going to have a password or it's a public wifi hotspot anyway. Am I missing anything?
dtx1··on I've built my first successful side project, and I hate it
I think certain personality types just have a really different view about risk than we do. I once talked to our CEO about it and he was like "I'd risk it all again, I like to play!". There are people who LIKE to take those kinds of risks, I'm certainly not one of them. But one must also not forget the upside: get really, really rich from the work of others.
dtx1··on Reversing the AMD Secure Processor (PSP) – Part 2: Cryptographic Co-Processor
I never understood why AMD is not at least making the source of these available. I would actually really like a secure cryptographic processor that's been extensively vetted and trustworthy.
dtx1··on SponsorBlock – skip sponsor segments on YouTube
Firefox, UBlock, Sponsorblock. Only way to tube
dtx1··on Google Pixel 9 Pro
Graphene only supports pixels.
dtx1··on OpenBSD 7.5 via QEMU on Hetzner physical machine (no phys. access / KVM console)
Linux/Unix Kernels allow you to do some insane stuff. My best current example was swap on VRAM but this is even better.
dtx1··on Defcon stiffs badge HW vendor, drags FW author offstage during talk
One part of me wants you to DMCA the living daylight out of them. The other part is currently seeding torrents and thinks copyright is kinda dumb. Anyway, shitty thing to do by the defcon people.
dtx1··on Researchers discover potentially catastrophic exploit present in AMD chips
Step 1: Lease a Server for a month Step 2: Compromise that server Step 3: Cancel the lease Step 4: Wait for it to be reused Step 5: Next Customer in line is now compromised
dtx1··on Researchers discover potentially catastrophic exploit present in AMD chips
It's also unclear wether a virtualized guest can use this exploit. If so, it's a matter of hours until every cloud provider gets infected.
dtx1··on Researchers discover potentially catastrophic exploit present in AMD chips
Oh did they find the NSA Backdoor or are all hardware firmwares just leaking like a sieve?
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