Today's links

The Framework is the most exciting laptop I've ever broken: If you only pay attention to how things work, you'll be screwed when they fail.
Hey look at this: Delights to delectate.
This day in history: 2002, 2007, 2012, 2017, 2021
Colophon: Recent publications, upcoming/recent appearances, current writing projects, current reading

A disassembled Framework laptop; a man's hand reaches into the shot with a replacement screen.

The Framework is the most exciting laptop I've ever broken (permalink)

From the moment I started using computers, I wanted to help other people use them. I was everyone's tech support for years, which prepared me for the decade or so when I was a CIO-for-hire. In the early days of the internet, I spent endless hours helping my BBS friends find their way onto the net.

Helping other people use technology requires humility: you have to want to help them realize their goals, which may be totally unlike your own. You have to listen carefully and take care not to make assumptions about how they "should" use tech. You may be a tech expert, but they are experts on themselves.

This is a balancing act, because it's possible to be too deferential to someone else's needs. As much as other people know about how they want technology to work, if you're their guide, you have to help them understand how technology will fail.

For example, using the same memorable, short password for all your services works well, but it fails horribly. When one of those passwords leak, identity thieves can take over all of your friend's accounts. They may think, "Oh, no one would bother with my account, I've got nothing of value," so you have to help them understand how opportunistic attacks work.

Yes, they might never be individually targeted, but they might be targeted collectively, say, to have their social media accounts hijacked to spread malware to their contacts.

Paying attention to how things work without thinking about how they fail is a recipe for disaster. It's the reasoning that has people plow their savings into speculative assets that are going up and up, without any theory of when that bubble might pop and leave them ruined.

It's hard to learn about failure without experiencing it, so those of us who have lived through failures have a duty to help the people we care about understand those calamities without living through them themselves.

That's why, for two decades, I've always bought my hardware with an eye to how it fails every bit as much as how it works. Back when I was a Mac user – and supporting hundreds of other Mac users – I bought two Powerbooks at a time.

I knew from hard experience that Applecare service depots were completely unpredictable and that once you mailed off your computer for service, it might disappear into the organization's bowels for weeks or even (in one memorable case), months.

I knew that I would eventually break my laptop, and so I kept a second one in sync with it through regular system-to-system transfers. When my primary system died, I'd wipe it (if I could!) and return it to Apple and switch to the backup and hope the main system came back to me before I broke the backup system.

This wasn't just expensive – it was very technologically challenging. The proliferation of DRM and other "anti-piracy" measures on the Mac increasingly caused key processes to fail if you simply copied a dead system's drive into a good one.

Then, in 2006, I switched operating systems to Ubuntu, a user-centric, easy-to-use flavor of GNU/Linux. Ubuntu was originally developed with the idea that its users would include Sub-Saharan African classrooms, where network access was spotty and where technical experts might be far from users.

To fulfill this design requirement, the Ubuntu team focused themselves on working well, but also failing gracefully, with the idea that users might have to troubleshoot their own technological problems.

One advantage of Ubuntu: it would run on lots of different hardware, including IBM's Thinkpads. The Thinkpads were legendarily rugged, but even more importantly, Thinkpad owners could opt into a far more reliable service regime that Applecare.

For about $150/year, IBM offered a next-day, on-site, worldwide hardware replacement warranty. That meant that if your laptop broke, IBM would dispatch a technician with parts to wherever you were, anywhere in the world, and fix your computer, within a day or so.

This was a remnant of the IBM Global Services business, created to supply tech support to people who bought million-dollar mainframes, and laptop users could ride on its coattails. It worked beautifully – I'll never forget the day an IBM technician showed up at my Mumbai hotel while I was there researching a novel and fixed my laptop on the hotel-room desk.

This service was made possible in part by the Thinkpad's hardware design. Unlike the Powerbook, Thinkpads were easy to take apart. Early on in my Thinkpad years, I realized I could save a lot of money by buying my own hard-drives and RAM separately and installing them myself, which took one screwdriver and about five minutes.

The keyboards were also beautifully simple to replace, which was great because I'm a thumpy typist and I would inevitably wear out at least one keyboard. The first Thinkpad keyboard swap I did took less than a minute, and I performed it one-handed, while holding my infant daughter in my other hand, and didn't even need to read the documentation!

But then IBM sold the business to Lenovo and it started to go downhill. Keyboard replacements got harder, the hardware itself became far less reliable, and they started to move proprietary blobs onto their motherboards that turned installing Ubuntu into a major technical challenge.

Then, in 2021, I heard about a new kind of computer: the Framework, which was designed to be maintained by its users, even if they weren't very technical.

https://frame.work/

The Framework was small and light – about the same size as a Macbook – and very powerful, but you could field-strip it in 15 minutes with a single screwdriver, which shipped with the laptop.

I pre-ordered a Framework as soon as I heard about it, and got mine as part of the first batch of systems. I ordered mine as a kit – disassembled, requiring that I install the drive, RAM and wifi card, as well as the amazing, snap-fit modular expansion ports. It was a breeze to set up, even if I did struggle a little with the wifi card antenna connectors (they subsequently posted a video that made this step a lot easier):

https://twitter.com/frameworkputer/status/1433320060429373440

The Framework works beautifully, but it fails even better. Not long after I got my Framework, I had a hip replacement; as if in sympathy, my Framework's hinges also needed replacing (a hazard of buying the first batch of a new system is that you get to help the manufacturer spot problems in their parts).

My Framework "failed" – it needed a new hinge – but it failed so well. Framework shipped me a new part, and I swapped my computer's hinges, one day after my hip replacement. I couldn't sit up more than 40 degrees, I was high af on painkillers, and I managed the swap in under 15 minutes. That's graceful failure.

https://guides.frame.work/Guide/Hinge+Replacement+Guide/104

After a few weeks' use, I was convinced. I published my review, calling the Framework "the most exciting laptop I've ever used."

https://pluralistic.net/2021/09/21/monica-byrne/#think-different

That was more than a year ago. In the intervening time, I've got to discover just how much punishment my Framework can take (I've been back out on the road with various book publicity events and speaking engagements) and also where its limits are. I've replaced the screen and the keyboard, and I've even upgraded the processor:

https://guides.frame.work/Guide/Mainboard+Replacement+Guide/79

I'm loving this computer so. damn. much. But as of this morning, I love it even more. On Thursday, I was in Edinburgh for the UK launch of "Chokepoint Capitalism," my latest book, which I co-authored with Rebecca Giblin.

As I was getting out of a cab for a launch-day podcast appearance, I dropped my Framework from a height of five feet, right onto the pavement. I had been working on the laptop right until the moment the cab arrived because touring is nuts. I've got about 150% more commitments than I normally do, and I basically start working every day at 5AM and keep going until I drop at midnight, every single day.

As rugged as my Framework is, that drop did for it. It got an ugly dent in the input cover assembly and – far, far worse – I cracked my screen. The whole left third of my screen was black, and the rest of it was crazed with artefacts and lines.

This is a catastrophe. I don't have any time for downtime. Just today, I've got two columns due, a conference appearance and a radio interview, which all require my laptop. I got in touch with Framework and explained my dire straits and they helpfully expedited shipping of a new $179 screen.

Yesterday, my laptop screen stopped working altogether. I was in Oxford all day, and finished my last book event at about 9PM. I got back to my hotel in London at 11:30, and my display was waiting for me at the front desk. I staggered bleary-eyed to my room, sat down at the desk, and, in about fifteen minutes flat, I swapped out the old screen and put in the new one.

https://guides.frame.work/Guide/Display+Replacement+Guide/86

That is a fucking astoundingly graceful failure mode.

Entropy is an unavoidable fact of life. "Just don't drop your laptop" is great advice, but it's easier said than done, especially when you're racing from one commitment to the next without a spare moment in between.

Framework has designed a small, powerful, lightweight machine – it works well. But they've also designed a computer that, when you drop it, you can fix yourself. That attention to graceful failure saved my ass.

If you hear me today on CBC Sunday Magazine, or tune into my Aaron Swartz Day talk, or read my columns at Medium and Locus, that's all down to this graceful failure mode. Framework's computers aren't just the most exciting laptops I've ever used – they're the most exciting laptops I've ever broken.

Hey look at this (permalink)

It's Not Just You: NYC Has a Serious Dungeon Master Shortage https://hellgatenyc.com/no-on-wants-to-dungeon-master-any-more (h/t Naked Capitalism)
FTC Restores Rigorous Enforcement of Law Banning Unfair Methods of Competition https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/news/press-releases/2022/11/ftc-restores-rigorous-enforcement-law-banning-unfair-methods-competition (h/t Brooke Fox)

This day in history (permalink)

#20yrsago Argentina: stranger than fiction https://infinitematrix.net/columns/sterling/sterling54.html

#20yrsago Reliable TCP’s weird symbiosis with unreliable IP https://www.joelonsoftware.com/2002/11/11/the-law-of-leaky-abstractions/

#15yrsago John Scalzi’s snarky science fiction tour of the Creation Museum https://whatever.scalzi.com/2007/11/12/your-creation-museum-report/

#15yrsago Geek Mafia: Mile Zero: nerdy caper novel, the sequel https://memex.craphound.com/2007/11/12/geek-mafia-mile-zero-nerdy-caper-novel-the-sequel/

#15yrsago A dusty epidemic of cremains at Disneyland https://web.archive.org/web/20071213025122/http://www.miceage.com/allutz/al111307d.htm

#15yrsago JK Rowling sues to stop publication of Potter reference book https://web.archive.org/web/20071115040824/http://machinist.salon.com/blog/2007/11/13/harry_potter/

#15yrsago Gitmo operating manual leak https://web.archive.org/web/20071216093109/https://www.wikileaks.org/wiki/Gitmo-sop.pdf

#15yrsago Magic and Showmanship: Classic book about conjuring has many lessons for writers https://memex.craphound.com/2007/11/13/magic-and-showmanship-classic-book-about-conjuring-has-many-lessons-for-writers/

#10yrsago UPS to Scouts: no more money until you drop anti-gay policy https://www.bizjournals.com/atlanta/news/2012/11/12/ups-cuts-funding-to-boy-scouts-over.html

#10yrsago Wall Street is not made up of “numbers guys” https://scienceblogs.com/principles/2012/11/12/financiers-still-arent-rocket-scientists

#10yrsago Tune: Derek Kirk Kim’s alien abduction romcom https://memex.craphound.com/2012/11/13/tune-derek-kirk-kims-alien-abduction-romcom/

#10yrsago Ken Macleod on socialism, Singularity, and the rapture of the nerds https://web.archive.org/web/20130121093234/http://www.aeonmagazine.com/world-views/ken-macleod-socialism-and-transhumanism/

#10yrsago Super Scratch Programming Adventure! an excellent way to get started in Scratch https://memex.craphound.com/2012/11/12/super-scratch-programming-adventure-an-excellent-way-to-get-started-in-scratch/

#5yrsago Equifax’s total bill for leaking 145.5 million US records to date: $87.5 million https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/business/hack-cost-equifax-only-87-5-million-for-now/

#5yrsago One week after release, iPhone X’s Face ID reportedly defeated by a $150 mask https://www.theverge.com/2017/11/13/16642690/bkav-iphone-x-faceid-mask

#5yrsago The secretive wealthy family behind the opioid epidemic are using the same tactics to kill public education https://www.salon.com/2017/11/15/the-super-wealthy-oxycontin-family-supports-school-privatization_partner/

#5yrsago Bernie Sanders: to fix the Democratic Party, curb superdelegates, make it easier to vote in primaries, and account for funds https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2017/11/10/bernie-sanders-how-to-fix-democratic-party-215813/

#5yrsago Watson for Oncology isn’t an AI that fights cancer, it’s an unproven mechanical turk that represents the guesses of a small group of doctors https://www.statnews.com/2017/09/05/watson-ibm-cancer/

#5yrsago Roy Moore’s scandal is just the tip of American evangelical Christianity’s child bride problem https://web.archive.org/web/20171119043741/http://www.latimes.com/opinion/op-ed/la-oe-brightbill-roy-moore-evangelical-culture-20171110-story.html

#1yrago How to be safe(r) online https://pluralistic.net/2021/11/13/opsec-soup-to-nuts/#secured

#1yrago American corporate criminals in the crosshairs (finally) https://pluralistic.net/2021/11/12/with-a-fountain-pen/#recidivism

Colophon (permalink)

Currently writing:

The Bezzle, a Martin Hench noir thriller novel about the prison-tech industry. Friday's progress: 526 words (61019 words total)
Picks and Shovels, a Martin Hench noir thriller about the heroic era of the PC. (92849 words total) – ON PAUSE
A Little Brother short story about DIY insulin PLANNING
The Internet Con: How to Seize the Means of Computation, a nonfiction book about interoperability for Verso. FIRST DRAFT COMPLETE, WAITING FOR EDITORIAL REVIEW
Vigilant, Little Brother short story about remote invigilation. FIRST DRAFT COMPLETE, WAITING FOR EXPERT REVIEW
Moral Hazard, a short story for MIT Tech Review's 12 Tomorrows. FIRST DRAFT COMPLETE, ACCEPTED FOR PUBLICATION
Spill, a Little Brother short story about pipeline protests. FINAL DRAFT COMPLETE
A post-GND utopian novel, "The Lost Cause." FINISHED
A cyberpunk noir thriller novel, "Red Team Blues." FINISHED

Currently reading: Analogia by George Dyson.

Latest podcast: Sound Money https://craphound.com/news/2022/09/11/sound-money/

Upcoming appearances:

Aaron Swartz Day and International Hackathon, Nov 13
https://www.aaronswartzday.org/asd-2022-livestream/
Arthur C Clarke Award (DC), Nov 16
https://www.clarkefoundation.org/2022-awards-event/
Library Futures Webinar, Nov 17
https://us06web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_Q6p4qpFVRi6BFLsawaCgdA
Chokepoint Capitalism at the Peale Museum (Baltimore), Nov 18:
https://www.thepeale.org/event/book-talk-chokepoint-capitalism/
Big Ideas Live (London), Nov 19
https://news.sky.com/bigideaslive
Conversation with Tim Wu, Informed/Knight Foundation (Miami), Nov 30:
https://informed22.interkinnect.com/
Australian Digital Alliance Copyright Forum (Canberra), Feb 17:
https://digital.org.au/2022/11/08/doctorow-giblin-first-speaker-announcement-ada-forum-2023/

Recent appearances:

How big tech traps consumers and shafts creators (Irish Times)
https://shows.acast.com/inside-politics-2/episodes/how-big-tech-traps-consumers-and-shafts-creators
Copyright Waffle
https://soundcloud.com/user-243274189/copyright-waffle-episode-21-cory-doctorow
Surviving Apocalyptic Economics (Team Human)
https://www.teamhuman.fm/episodes/surviving-apocalyptic-economics-doctorow-giblin

Latest books:

"Chokepoint Capitalism: How to Beat Big Tech, Tame Big Content, and Get Artists Paid, with Rebecca Giblin", on how to unrig the markets for creative labor, Beacon Press/Scribe 2022 https://chokepointcapitalism.com
"Attack Surface": The third Little Brother novel, a standalone technothriller for adults. The Washington Post called it "a political cyberthriller, vigorous, bold and savvy about the limits of revolution and resistance." Order signed, personalized copies from Dark Delicacies https://www.darkdel.com/store/p1840/Available_Now%3A_Attack_Surface.html
"How to Destroy Surveillance Capitalism": an anti-monopoly pamphlet analyzing the true harms of surveillance capitalism and proposing a solution. https://onezero.medium.com/how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism-8135e6744d59 (print edition: https://bookshop.org/books/how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism/9781736205907) (signed copies: https://www.darkdel.com/store/p2024/Available_Now%3A__How_to_Destroy_Surveillance_Capitalism.html)
"Little Brother/Homeland": A reissue omnibus edition with a new introduction by Edward Snowden: https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250774583; personalized/signed copies here: https://www.darkdel.com/store/p1750/July%3A__Little_Brother_%26_Homeland.html
"Poesy the Monster Slayer" a picture book about monsters, bedtime, gender, and kicking ass. Order here: https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781626723627. Get a personalized, signed copy here: https://www.darkdel.com/store/p2682/Corey_Doctorow%3A_Poesy_the_Monster_Slayer_HB.html#/.

Upcoming books:

Red Team Blues: "A grabby, compulsive thriller that will leave you knowing more about how the world works than you did before." Tor Books, April 2023

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https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

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