one of the biggest "go screw" messages we could ever deliver to rampant venture capitalism is to slowly but surely move towards owning only things we can rebuild and repair nigh indefinitely at low cost of ownership over lifetime.
@djsundog low TCO as radical praxis hmm hmm i like it
but also these things usually have a high upfront/capital cost
how do we mitigate that?!
@bea @djsundog I think at least for a certain generation of Europeans they accepted the (higher) upfront cost of equipment in return for it lasting longer and being repairable (was the case well into the 1980s). its possible one issue isn't even merely the evils of capitalism, but that SMT electronics was bloody difficult for service techs to work with without access to strong magnifiers and specialised tools (should be less of an issue today as you can buy the tools from electronics suppliers)
@bea @djsundog it certainly was the case over here a lot of AV equipment was only available to better off people or you got handed down stuff from older generations (e.g audio equipment with valves on the output stages was in use well into the 1970s and even 1980s especially in places like schools (all my junior schools had either Philips or Grundig valve radios, which even today are sought after by collectors..)
and it's not impossible to mitigate these things it's just a matter of figuring out the what and how of it like
do we do this through mutual aid? people chip in to distribute the up front cost and and the tech gets acquired as funds become available?
the conventional ways of doin stuff individually i feel like breaks down if we wanna scale these things
@djsundog @bea I had to look up what massdrop was as it isn't as much of a thing here in the UK. Perhaps not a surprise TBH not only does it appear to be used to sell niche/high priced items, you are almost certain to get stung for import duty on them if they are made outside the EU (this isn't so heavy on components/assemblies especially compared to finished products)
@bea @djsundog there are already #European organisations building #FOSS or at least #hackerfriendly hardware such as the #rfexplorer, working directly with well run factories in Asian countries. (I've recently got one of these and am impressed by what it is capable of for the price and you can buy the individual circuit boards for other rf-related projects)
http://j3.rf-explorer.com/