I don’t think people understand how bad this is going to get.

@thomasfuchs — @parismarx did a very good series back in 2024 about this called Data Vampires, and I believe is writing a book on the topic now https://techwontsave.us/episode/241_data_vampires_going_hyperscale_episode_1

@thomasfuchs I've brought back to life a couple of old Google Pixel phones by installing LineageOS. The batteries were pretending they were dying — turns out they're totally fine.

I had good results with an old & slow 2008 Windows laptop converted to Linux. It blew me away — it's more responsive than my much newer MacBook.

Just an option if someone can't go out and buy a computer now.

@sternentau @thomasfuchs Why the /s ? If you look through Epstein's correspondence you can get a pretty good idea of what kind of research they were doing and what they are building. Skynet would be better IMHO.

@txtx used computers and phones will massively increase in price as well as supply dries up

(So better be quick!)

@foolishowl line goes up

@ij you can’t really use data center stuff for personal computing (except maybe for some turbo-nerds); and it will take a while for production of parts to ramp up again

@thomasfuchs Gotta admit, all those circular deals between Nvidia and their oligopoly friends are starting to work for them (at least until the ai scam bubble pops).

I guess they saw the chip shortage around the COVID era and are doing what's needed to replicate that everywhere they can.

@thomasfuchs This is like having rich people buying up all of the housing stock and renting it back to the rest of us.

@thomasfuchs Isn't it already too late?

@thomasfuchs Hey! I'm a turbo nerd!

@thomasfuchs Agreed that it will get bad. But the issue won't be that we can't afford to upgrade our computers or buy new ones. The tech industry will simply stop manufacturing hardware that gives us any computing autonomy.

We'll be presented with 'thin-clients' in various forms and we'll use them however big tech decides we should.

@thomasfuchs the free market will regulate itself, right?!

@thijs lol

@JoshMurray @thomasfuchs Transmeta Crusoe! Now there's a name I've not heard in a long time... a _long_ time.

@thomasfuchs yeah well...
The end game here is to force people into the cloud for everything. And then crank up prices when there's no more PC on the market suitable to do things offline.

@thomasfuchs If only we knew where a huge cache of memory chips, conveniently gathered into one location that is extremely poorly guarded and designed to be unmanned, happened to be...

@gordoooo_z @thomasfuchs
The prices seems to have stabilized at stores in the last 2 months for the DDR5 kits that I have looked at. Still it is very expensive and I have delayed my planned upgrade until the prices drops or I'm noticing performance loss of my current PC.

200$ for a 32GB kit DDR5 is cheap compared with the prices in my country, here the prices are twice as expensive.

@thomasfuchs

Story time! In September I got a mail from the IT center at my job that my laptop will be replaced. So I ordered a new with high spec and received it in beginning in December which is slower than usually. The laptop works well for me but in the end of January I received a mail that the motherboard could be impacted with bad connection for the charger and the charger could stop working at any time. So the motherboard should be replaced. Unfortunately no motherboards are available.

@thomasfuchs oddly enough, memory can work for decades and I learned to do math in school… in my head! I know!

@thomasfuchs I'm more afraid of the cascading effect that could make suppliers go bankrupt and stuck with hardware unusable in consumer electronics. So next 3-5 years may be optimistic.