Brin owns *two* 2010’s computers now

~ Brin ~ 1 Comment

{{previous post in sequence}}

riseofthecommonwoodpile:

smartphone storage plateauing in favor of just storing everything in the cloud is such dogshit. i should be able to have like a fucking terabyte of data on my phone at this point. i hate the fucking cloud

​

riseofthecommonwoodpile:

this is gonna make me sound very Old Man Yells At Cloud but i just hate how many things in my life assume i will always have access to a quick, reliable internet connection and almost cease to function without it. Obviously certain things Have To Have An Internet Connection, but i want to be able to listen to music if my service is bad. i want to still watch movies if Netflix is down. i want to have a working map when i can’t get a cell signal. nearly every tech product these days bears the fingerprint of the extremely internet-rich places they are developed, high rent offices in Seattle, San Francisco, etc.. I think often the idea of the internet not being available is so remote to them it doesn’t even factor in to development. i remember when the Xbox One was debuted and Microsoft was almost mockingly like “if you don’t have reliable fast internet, then don’t bother buying this”, and there was such backlash they completely went back on so much of that. But now that attitude is just the tech norm.

​

heroofthreefaces:

I don’t trust the cloud.

This makes me happy I don’t use my phone for going online

​

maryellencarter:

i mean you can get a terabyte phone but it costs like $1600 USD (give or take a couple hundred, idk, i’m not looking it up)

what really pisses me off is that the samsung flagship phones have completely phased out their sd card slots. you can’t get a cell phone with expandable storage anymore

​

brin-bellway:

Yeah, it’s such bullshit that it’s a whole ordeal to dig up a model with a microSD slot now.

I *do* have a 2020-model phone (a slightly different model of which is still in production) with a half-terabyte microSD† in it. (For CAD$155 instead of CAD$70 I could have gotten a full terabyte of microSD, but I didn’t have the budget. Mind you, I *could* upgrade later, without having to replace the whole phone…) But that’s because a microSD slot was my single highest priority when deciding what model to buy, absolutely non-negotiable: if I’d cared any less, I’d probably have ended up with a Pixel or a OnePlus.

—

Hmm, I wrote an extremely outdated guide to orienting your phone setup around not having reliable Internet access in 2015, and a substantially outdated guide in 2018, so it sounds like I’m due for another one. Be right back.

[three months of on-and-off tinkering later]

Okay, here’s “Tips on Offline-First Smartphones, 2023 Edition”.

—

†Some of the specs for that phone model you’ll see around will say it takes “up to 128 GB”, but don’t be fooled: 64 GB – 2 TB microSDs are the same backwards-compatibility tier. If a phone can take 32 GB, it might not be able to take 64, but if it can take 64 it can take 2048.

​

necarion:

I am told it legitimately (to a small degree) helps with waterproofing. Because a very small number of users like to swap out the SD cards regularly, like for photos and stuff for easier transfer. And some number of them are bad at it and tend to break the waterproofing around the card slot, which makes the phone less safe if dunked.

Now, this seems (a) true, and (b) like total bullshit. I don’t think I’ve ever met a person who talks about regularly swapping SD cards. And the ones who are doing it for semi pro photography stuff are generally going to be types who are more careful (or use, like, real cameras).

Right now you can get a 1TB SanDisk SD card (a better brand) for $100 USD. I’m sure the memory isn’t quite as fast as whatever is integrated into the phone. But also, 1TB can easily be fitted into that footprint. I’ve also seen chromebooks recently sporting 64GB, which is absolutely unacceptable and clearly them trying to offload like 5 year old stock. And honestly, that is part of it – the lower end processors or memory are outdated stock they are trying to get rid of. But also, since the base model seems to have been stuck at 128 for about 3 years, they are obviously still *making* the 128 for phones.

There is that point that upgrading storage (128gb to 256 gb for $100) does subsidize the lower models of phone. But also, this could easily be done for 512 to 1024GB for a $150 markup for similar profit margin (the cost to upgrade 128 to 256 sd card is about $10, from 256 to 512 is $25, and 512 to 1024 is $50.

(sorry about the additional delay: it’s been a weird couple of months)

—

The waterproofing complaint has the same vibe to me as, like, when people complain about the Internet connection being slow on an airplane, or that their laptop battery only lasts for five hours. All this time I have been taking for granted that these aren’t things it’s feasible to do (except *maybe* for the ultra-rich?), and the way I find out that things have changed is by overhearing people complain about the exceptions where things *do* still work the way I thought they did.

I just double-checked and indeed my phone model is not waterproof, exactly as I had unconsciously assumed of a delicate bundle of electronics with replaceable internal components.

—

(also there was a while there where I was having some file-sync issues and *was* regularly pulling my microSD card so that I could plug it into my laptop and sync it through there, but I’ve sorted that out now)

—

And yeah, I don’t feel like I have a good grasp of the reasons for what’s going on with internal storage.

Tags:

#101 Uses for Infrastructureless Computers #Brin owns *two* 2010’s computers now #reply via reblog #adventures in human capitalism #disappointed permanent resident of The Future

~ Brin ~ 1 Comment

maryellencarter:

heroofthreefaces:

riseofthecommonwoodpile:

riseofthecommonwoodpile:

smartphone storage plateauing in favor of just storing everything in the cloud is such dogshit. i should be able to have like a fucking terabyte of data on my phone at this point. i hate the fucking cloud

this is gonna make me sound very Old Man Yells At Cloud but i just hate how many things in my life assume i will always have access to a quick, reliable internet connection and almost cease to function without it. Obviously certain things Have To Have An Internet Connection, but i want to be able to listen to music if my service is bad. i want to still watch movies if Netflix is down. i want to have a working map when i can’t get a cell signal. nearly every tech product these days bears the fingerprint of the extremely internet-rich places they are developed, high rent offices in Seattle, San Francisco, etc.. I think often the idea of the internet not being available is so remote to them it doesn’t even factor in to development. i remember when the Xbox One was debuted and Microsoft was almost mockingly like “if you don’t have reliable fast internet, then don’t bother buying this”, and there was such backlash they completely went back on so much of that. But now that attitude is just the tech norm.

I don’t trust the cloud.

This makes me happy I don’t use my phone for going online

i mean you can get a terabyte phone but it costs like $1600 USD (give or take a couple hundred, idk, i’m not looking it up)

what really pisses me off is that the samsung flagship phones have completely phased out their sd card slots. you can’t get a cell phone with expandable storage anymore

Yeah, it’s such bullshit that it’s a whole ordeal to dig up a model with a microSD slot now.

I *do* have a 2020-model phone (a slightly different model of which is still in production) with a half-terabyte microSD† in it. (For CAD$155 instead of CAD$70 I could have gotten a full terabyte of microSD, but I didn’t have the budget. Mind you, I *could* upgrade later, without having to replace the whole phone…) But that’s because a microSD slot was my single highest priority when deciding what model to buy, absolutely non-negotiable: if I’d cared any less, I’d probably have ended up with a Pixel or a OnePlus.

—

Hmm, I wrote an extremely outdated guide to orienting your phone setup around not having reliable Internet access in 2015, and a substantially outdated guide in 2018, so it sounds like I’m due for another one. Be right back.

[three months of on-and-off tinkering later]

Okay, here’s “Tips on Offline-First Smartphones, 2023 Edition”.

—

†Some of the specs for that phone model you’ll see around will say it takes “up to 128 GB”, but don’t be fooled: 64 GB – 2 TB microSDs are the same backwards-compatibility tier. If a phone can take 32 GB, it might not be able to take 64, but if it can take 64 it can take 2048.

Tags:

#reply via reblog #oh look an original post #disappointed permanent resident of The Future #Brin owns *two* 2010’s computers now #fun with loopholes #101 Uses for Infrastructureless Computers

{{next post in sequence}}

~ Brin ~ Leave a comment

bulbous-oar:

rustingbridges:

has anyone else noticed it becoming less straightforward to keep apps updated on android or is this just me

I feel like the update all button used to be prominent in the google store and now it’s buried under twelve menus and I can never remember where it is

in theory google should just sneak the updates on to my phone but for whatever reason this does not reliably happen

wow we have very different experiences

i’m constantly trying to prevent google from sneaking updates onto my phone, mostly unsuccessfully

i don’t want 11 of the 16 GB my phone has to be spent on app updates for google-sponsored spyware and an ever-growing black box “System”

if I could just close off the internet entirely except for the browser and the individual apps I use, that would be amazing

>>if I could just close off the internet entirely except for the browser and the individual apps I use, that would be amazing

I use NetGuard for this and I recommend it.

You might be interested in the rest of this comment I wrote on the subject, too.

Tags:

#Brin owns *two* 2010’s computers now #the more you know #reply via reblog #disappointed permanent resident of The Future #fun with loopholes

birdblogwhichisforbirds asked: How would you suggest replacing apps that require gps to work? Before smartphones I never went anywhere by myself unless I’d been shown the route multiple times by someone else. (This is due to Brain Problems, which I can explain more if necessary.) “learn to read paper map” is not workable advice for me. Should I get a gps that’s compatible w walking (do those exist)? Or do I just have to accept being spied on if I ever want to go anywhere alone (still better than being dependent real ppl imo)

~ Brin ~ Leave a comment

ms-demeanor:

No need to explain more, brain problems is brain problems and sometimes you need a particular tool to get around them. It’s not your fault for needing the tool and that’s part of why I’m so angry that protecting your privacy falls so heavily on the users instead of the manufacturers (my beef with smart homes: let me show you it – smart home devices are incredible for lots of disability reasons but not a one of them is really secure, so if you require smart home devices to improve your quality of life or make you more independent you’re forced to allow these invasions to your privacy)

So some GPSs do have good routing stuff that works with walking – Garmin comes to mind, and I know there’s stuff that’s a bit more “users shared this” than “google is watching you” out there among sporting/adventure/outdoor users.

But what you’re describing is a legitimate problem with mapping software that has to check back in with cell service or internet service instead of using simple GPS – it’s something that has really irritated me about using google maps over the years: I should be able to load a map then turn off my cell service and have it run along on GPS only (see many trips I’ve taken that have cell service for 98% of the drive then I have to rely on guessing for the last 2% because the gps isn’t updating because I’m out of cell tower range).

I think your best bet if you keep using your phone is probably to do something like disable location on most of your apps and then only enable your mapping app when you’re using it (and make sure that ad locations is off and don’t use the highly specific locations). Strangle the permissions as much as you can.

HOWEVER this ask got me to do some research and it looks like OsmAnd might be a good solution – it has offline maps for drivers and for pedestrians and the description of it includes some of my favorite tech-related words: “robust open-source” – the maps are totally open source though the app is not so keep an eye on those permissions too but at the very least any info collected doesn’t go straight to google.

(navigating offline maps is good though, this is super good, I’m going to install and test this app because I WANT THIS.)

Tags:

#yes this #OSMAnd is so good #the interface is kind of a Lot sometimes but you can pretty much just ignore bits you don’t want to deal with #and I love having offline maps that *don’t fucking expire WTF Google* #and! if you run into a problem with the map data‚ you can just *go on OpenStreetMap and fix it* and it’ll be in the monthly map updates #I’ve also heard some praise for Organic Maps‚ though I haven’t tried it myself #I used MapFactor’s OSM-based version for a while and it was fine #so if you’re not particularly seeking open-source apps and don’t like the other two maybe try that #recs #Brin owns *two* 2010’s computers now #101 Uses for Infrastructureless Computers #maps

~ Brin ~ Leave a comment

jadagul:

fnord888:

transgenderer:

mostly like switching from mac to windows but losing imessage sucks. being able to text from my computer was so convenient. afaik theres no windows equivalent for interfacing with my iphone, or even an android. maybe if i had a windows phone? pain, suffering, etc

I believe Google Messages for Web will let you send text messages from a desktop. It definitely does if you have Google Fi but I think it works if you link your phone number from another carrier as well.

You can sync any android phone (I think? Definitely the Pixels, and I assume others) to your desktop via messages.google.com. I think that doesn’t work for iphones though.

There might be other solutions as well but I don’t know them.

I hear KDE Connect has Windows and iOS versions. I use it (well, the Linux and Android versions) and it’s great.

Tags:

#Brin owns *two* 2010’s computers now #reply via reblog #recs

~ Brin ~ Leave a comment

jadagul:

This passage from the ACX Society of the Spectacle reader review really struck me:

Now our role models are media creations. Some are literal fictional characters (James Bond); others are nominally real people (Kylie Jenner). But both are merely representations – images usurping an essential formative role. ‘William Shatner’ and ‘Robert Downey, Jr.’ are only marginally more real than Captain Kirk and Tony Stark, yet they occupy way more headspace than people that live down the street.

Most people can name more celebrities, in more detail, than people they’ve known in person. I know the names of Will Smith’s kids – I don’t even know if my best friends from high school have any.

Like—is that true? Can that possibly be true? How does that happen? It’s asserted as if it’s just obvious, and it seems like a shocking claim to me.

(Now, the entire review feels like this somewhat. But this passage really stood out as sounding completely insane to me.)

This struck me as one of the *relatively* sane bits of that article, although I think it says more about rootlessness than it does about [knowing a lot about celebrities]. I *don’t* know whether my best friends from middle school have kids, because I live in a different country from them now. I think I *would* have heard if my friends from high school had had kids, but if we had all scattered to the winds it would be another story. I have spent over *three months* trying to start getting to know people down the street, and in that time the volunteering group in question has held exactly one meetup that they *both* remembered to tell me about *and* didn’t cancel. (I shudder to think how hard it would be if there hadn’t even *been* a volunteering group already in place.)

—

To me the completely insane part was this bit:

“We’ve all felt the shockwaves of the Internet explosion.  Life is *different* now. It takes an act of will to put down your phone so you can focus on the TV.  Low battery is an emergency. Losing signal is bereavement. Navigating without GPS is an anxiety attack.

Do you remember what it was like, not so long ago?  How exciting it was to play videogames with someone a thousand miles away? How cool it was the first time you streamed a movie on an airplane? That sense of possibility and promise, like all the world was in the palm of your hand?”

In order of appearance:

1. If I have access to a TV (implying that I’m at home), why am I on a phone and not a laptop?

1a. I generally do have my laptop open while watching TV, *because* I generally only watch TV as a social activity with online friends.

2. I frequently go entire days without touching my phone; on most days that I interact with my phone I do so for only a minute or two; on most days that I interact with my phone for more than five cumulative minutes it’s because I’m updating its software or local files. Note that I have it set to sync SMS messages to my laptop over KDE Connect, so I do not need to touch my phone to notice that I have received a text or even to respond to it.

3. Low battery is an occasional annoyance. The worst-case scenario is that because my phone is dead I don’t notice the text from my boss offering me an extra shift on short notice, which *did* almost happen to me yesterday but fortunately I still had 6% left. I suppose I shall be *slightly* more careful, given that reminder that functioning phones are *occasionally* unexpectedly important.

4. *Despite* low phone battery not majorly featuring in my life, I carry two USB cables, a small solar generator, and an AC adapter at all times whenever leaving my home. Surely someone who cared desperately about maintaining phone charge should be, if anything, *more* careful?

5. I didn’t even *have* a SIM card for over *six years* after getting my first smartphone. Even now, my data plan is 250 MB per month: an occasional backup, not remotely something I can afford to leave on all the time. Everything about my smartphone is oriented around Internet access being erratic and/or heavily rationed: the *point* of a smartphone, for me, is that it can be made largely self-sufficient, that you can keep your digital belongings not only with you but *accessible* even when you are far from home and signal alike.

6. I did not have GPS until 2014, and I assure you that navigating without GPS was *always* nightmarish even when I *hadn’t* experienced anything better.

7. I *do* enjoy watching over a friend’s shoulder from two thousand miles away while they play a video game and we chat about it, although our schedules haven’t worked out lately.

8. Wait, streaming movies on airplanes is possible now? Since when? I was last on a plane in 2015 bold of OP to assume I can afford to travel and that was definitely not a thing, although it *was* a downmarket airline so maybe fancy planes could arrange for it. Do they still call it “airplane mode”?

9. The world *is*, almost literally, in the palm of my hand.

Tags:

#Brin owns *two* 2010’s computers now #reply via reblog #101 Uses for Infrastructureless Computers #proud citizen of The Future #adventures in human capitalism

~ Brin ~ Leave a comment

rustingbridges:

rustingbridges:

I’ve really got to figure out how to actually use open street maps

@brin-bellway the sticking point that inspired this post was that I make fairly heavy use of google maps’ various annotation features. including the synchronization with contacts, but also various lists of things I’m interested in

I used to have annotations set up on some OSM based app, but that app decided to be expensive and I haven’t figured out how to do this on the one I’ve currently got downloaded (osmand+).

but the main one is that the search doesn’t seem to work very well and the directions often seem a bit wonky. so any time I’m in looking up directions and in a hurry I don’t want to fuck around with it, and just use google maps. which is most of the times I use google maps. and so because I never use it I never get comfortable enough with it to use it under pressure. so here we are

I never use Google Maps annotations, so I’m not sure if I can really help you there. I do use uMap [link] sometimes: is that the sort of thing you mean?

The search and directions can be a bit wonky, yeah, although I like how any map problem I run into is only ever a problem once (because I go on OSM and fix it when I get home). Nice to get the warm prosocial fuzzies.

Tags:

#reply via reblog #maps #recs #for historical reasons I will go ahead and tag this #Brin owns *two* 2010’s computers now #even though I now have a 2020-model smartphone

~ Brin ~ Leave a comment

dirtyoatchai:

b0d19d4810abd11a1c07ba2bb02fe3131a2b2e4b

😟😳😳😳

 

squadron-of-damned:

#idk what this means or if i do this but ig i’ll just hold my phone with my pinky stuck out from now on?? 

Good question, also no that won’t help.

88dce5443d89c41cda5e9dc7879cd60a36b1f71f

shitty MS Paint 3 minutes doodle, nto entirely accurate: When you have your pinky hooked on the “bottom” edge of the phone for the extra security so it doesn’t slide out of your hand that easily, you’re wreaking damage on your hand, since the pinky is extremely askew from it’s resting position. You might have noticed that when you hold your phone like that for long time it begins to hurt, like when you are gripping a pen too tightly for example.

Green lines – the fingers are going their natural way. Red line – the pinky is way off, that’s bad.

 

theclockworkjules:

Me: Oh, good thing I never-

Me, looking down at hand: By talos this can’t be happening

 

poipoipoi-2016:

There’s a very simple out-patient surgery that gives you most of the feeling back in most of your hand most of the time.

d7b840984d8f709f7caa76f43f1472f63db9bdc3

Chicks dig scars right?

 

rustingbridges:

I got one of the ring things that folds out and I find it quite nice (altho I placed it a little high on phone, I ought to move it down)

also I put on a bunch of grippy stickers. really improves the experience imo

Tags:

#I had the opposite reaction to theclockworkjules #”oh god do I do this??” #”oh god I probably do this” #”oh no” #(”at least I don’t hold my phone as much as a lot of people do (because I mostly use my laptop instead) #so maybe hopefully it won’t hurt me too much?”) #next day: *holding my phone* #*looks down* #”…oh” #”apparently I do *not* do this” #”phew” #PSA #injury cw #Brin owns *two* 2010’s computers now #(…that tag is officially outdated now that I have a 2020-model smartphone‚ but fuck it)

~ Brin ~ Leave a comment

eightyonekilograms:

argumate:

ugh when your phone dies your authenticator accounts die with it, that’s a nuisance.

Authy stores your authenticator codes in the cloud, which seems like an unacceptable security risk until you have a phone die with no way of restoring from backup and it took all your 2FA codes with it.

If you’re using Google Authenticator, I recommend Authy with a complex passphrase instead unless you’re Snowden-level paranoid.

Back when I used Google Authenticator, I put TOTP on as few accounts as possible precisely because I was worried about the lack of backups.

Then I learned about andOTP, and now I put TOTP on everything that allows it and keep an export file in my backups. The password on the export file is a bunch of gibberish kept in a KeePass vault.

(*SMS* verification, however, is still bullshit.)

Tags:

#reply via reblog #recs #Brin owns *two* 2010’s computers now #101 Uses for Infrastructureless Computers #amnesia cw?

oh my god i’m cleaning out my desk and i found my first phone

~ Brin ~ 1 Comment

{{previous post in sequence}}

scotchtapeofficial:

tumblr_inline_oqoru7etay1rpryux_500

it was a fucking house phone that i was so stoked to have because it was mine that i kept in my own room and i cannot believe technology has progressed at the speed of FUCKING light to the point where this is a hilarious artifact to have had in like 6th grade and now theres kindergarteners with iphones

 

princess-peridot:

How did you know if you dialed the right number

 

scotchtapeofficial:

each button made a different tone so the numbers you dialed a lot became a subconscious melody in your head and if you hit the wrong button by accident it would sound like a wrong note in a song you know by heart

 

teaboot:

i can’t beleive that is a legitimate question in my lifetime

 

poipoipoi-2016:

It’s a legitimate question *now*.  

Because people don’t do this and this is terrible UX. 

 

brin-bellway:

Do you notice how the question says “how did you know if you dialed the right number” *full stop*, but the *answer* is specific to “numbers you dialed a lot”?

Yeah, dialing numbers you *didn’t* dial a lot–which was just about all of them if you were a kid! it’s not like kids have much reason to talk on house phones, not being in charge of coordinating any appointments and not having had much time to accumulate friends-no-longer-in-physical-proximity!–was *exactly* as anxiety-ridden as it sounds. It’s such a relief to have screens to double-check with. Even *dumbphones* like the phone at work have screens now.

(Plus phones with screens *also* make the button tones, as a second layer of defence. Do y’all not have the button tones on your smartphones? Did you turn them off?)

 

maryellencarter:

I’m not sure if the button sounds on my phone defaulted to off or if I turned them off by choice, but I have never felt any need to turn them on. This probably relates to the fact that I can’t remember a melody without words and that phone numbers do not adhere to the melodic principles of Boethius anyway (okay, I never actually made any sense of Boethius, but he was the “Great Book” cited on Why Music We Don’t Like Is Objectively Bad and as a side note Stop Liking Pentatonic As A Scale It’s Unchristian) uhhh where was I. Right. I can’t remember numbers anyway, I can’t remember the little tune associated with the numbers, so they just all sound wrong. It occurs to me though, and the deficiencies of my auditory memory may be assessed by the fact that I’m not actually sure, but in the part of my day job that involves helping set up brand new phones and then telling the person “now please dial our test call number which is such and such”, I don’t think I usually hear dialing beeps before the announcement. Maybe new smartphones come with the dialpad beeps off by default.

There is a distinct possibility that smartphone button tones are opt-in, and my family is just in the habit of switching them on. As it happens, my first-ever SIM card† is currently in the mail, so I guess it will soon be time for me to investigate a phone app’s settings myself.

—

@sigmaleph​ [link], there’s still the part where you’re waiting for them to pick up! And it’s been my experience that often *somebody else* will pick up the phone, and then you have to sort out whether this person is sharing a phone line with the intended person or whether they’re completely unrelated.

—

†not counting the PC Mobile one that came with my first phone, which I never activated

Tags:

#reply via reblog #Brin owns *two* 2010’s computers now #proud citizen of The Future #amnesia cw #is the blue I see the same as the blue you see