🌳💻 Issue #7
Right to repair, Hardware Youtube and LTO
When I was a kid, my uncle had a bunch of schematics for all of his electronic appliances. When something was broken, you could quite easily fix it. Because of the available data, and also because it was a much bigger and simpler circuit than today’s tiny phones.
Which doesn’t mean those phones shouldn’t be repairable as well. The right to repair movement abides to this exact principle. When you spend a big amount on a device, you expect it to last for as long as possible. Not throw it after 2 years.
The right to repair movement has just started
An article from The Verge showing that, while some progress has been made through new laws in states like California, repair is still hindered by design choices that make devices difficult to open and repair, as well as software locks that prevent the use of non-OEM parts. Advocates are pushing for stronger laws and regulations to address these issues. The fight will likely continue as the movement works to counter resistance from big tech companies.
Hardware Haven
This Youtube channel talks about hardware stuff. Making a NAS for your home, running servers from cheap hardware at home, and, like in this video, testing some small form factor computers.
What stood up to me isn’t the first part of the video, where you hear about the hardware itself and its capabilities, but rather the second part, where it’s power consumption is compared to other options. Showing an Excel sheet with the simplified math behind the reasoning.
If you run a server from home for that long, then the new computer is worth it compared to a refurbished more power hungry machine, etc. This is refreshing to see on Youtube. I hope this guy gets more views and people start to consider power draw as a real argument when buying hardware.
Link-time optimisation (LTO)
You now know that, as a software engineer who has worked both on web and desktop applications, I like to welcome any help possible in making my apps faster and more optimised. Both for my customers and for the energy consumption that any (lack of) optimisation represents at scale.
This article is an introduction to the compiler flags you can use to optimise your programs better at link time. Meaning it’s not really compiler flags but linker flags. But you know what I mean. Right?