orthogonal to alive @avi@computerfairi.es

@onf Android is based on the Linux kernel. Linux, as an explicit design decision made by Linus Torvalds, lacks a Hardware Abstraction Layer. The upshot to this is that kernel changes break all hardware drivers; this is intended to force hardware manufacturers to open-source their drivers, but in practice they just stop updating anything as soon as the hardware is off the market.

When Android updates, all phone hardware drivers have to update. But each Android phone is different: cellular radio, wi-fi radio, Bluetooth radio, CPU, GPU, display, touch panel, microphone, GPS, audio system, etc., so the OS update is slowed down to the slowest driver update. Google’s control over this is restricted to whatever agreements they have with hardware manufacturers, but Android’s specs are open and Google has a test suite with a guarantee: if your driver and hardware passes these tests, you can sell your phone and call it Android Compatible. So Google doesn’t have any way to require that manufacturers keep their hardware up to date, except as pertains to phones that Google itself is manufacturing and selling.

Meanwhile, cell phone radios pose their own problems. They’re a bit like cable modems: they have to share a communication channel with their neighbors, and a sufficiently haywire modem can screw up a network for everyone in an area. This is why Comcast only lets you use one of a few modems (and prefers to just lease you one) - those are the ones they tested.

Cell phone modems are somewhat standardized, and carriers can push firmware updates (involuntarily!) to users for network management purposes. But Android OS updates can screw up the radio in ways separate from how the radio firmware screws it up, so the carrier wants to test it first. Consider: if Samsung releases an OS update that accidentally chews up 1GB of mobile data per hour, who will pay for that data usage? Samsung who never agreed to do that, the users who don’t have $25000 lying around to it for the overage, or the mobile phone service provider who just kinda has to eat the cost and pay for customer service agents to soothe angry customers and try to explain what happened and clean up the mess?

Most users get phone tech support from their phone provider, which is another reason carriers want to approve OS updates - if it’s broken, they’re taking the first line tech support expense, which can add up. Apple is different-ish in urban areas because they have their own stores and branding offering tech support, which makes carriers willing to be less picky about updates, and Apple uses much more uniform hardware and does have special agreements with carriers to get OS patches out faster - with Apple taking some of the risks of a bad update that, under a conventional model, would fall on the carrier instead.

Google is trying to fix this but it’s hard, because part of the problem goes all the way to the bottom layer of the OS and is made worse by limitations of what is financially viable for manufacturers of cheap phone parts.

So, Google Play Services - an awkward and bloated “everything bucket” that is just as disorganized as you expect, although there’s constant work to try to clean it up - is a necessary workaround. The more that is handled by the updateable component, the less is stuck in code that is very hard to change, which is important as exciting new security holes are discovered; better for them to be in the code that is practical to replace on the deployed fleet in a timely manner.

17776 is homestuck for boomers

I think this is what annoys me about companies and orgs with a 99% white male base going "we wanna be DiVeRsE"

You wanna be diverse, that's fantastic. Do you know how to *BE* diverse??

B/c if you're goal is to hire more black/brown folk, and you haven't *REALLY* reflected on how you treat black/brown folks in your day-to-day, then what you're REALLY saying is:

"we'd love to be diverse but putting in the work to not be a racist cuts into my Outer Worlds time, and you know how that is".

@apLundell i'm thinking about stuff like food blogs, like the only reason recipes on the internet are completely fucking insufferable to read is because of SEO

like sure life ain't fair but if you're not working to make it more fair then what's the goddamn point

Today on SubSimulatorGPT2, bots discuss a fake incident from 2011 that involved a steak-eating ritual that turned deadly

yo this is a story all about how
my life got flipped turned upside down
and i'd like to take a minute just sit right there
i'll tell you how i became the witch of a town called blair

there's a guy called "john" on here and nobody's done anything about it

People ask me "what's workplace racism look like?", and I ask them, in turn "you ever have the CTO say that he got a complaint that you were 'typing too loud'?"

And they're like "wtf 'typing too loud'??"

Then i point at their face and go "that, like, amplified, mate"

the NSA probably monitors this site and low level agents have to report back to their superiors, "it's mostly 'bussy' and anime screenshots and they share a lot of food recipes and cat pictures"

I don't think cis people should be allowed to have gender bc it's not fair to the rest of us who had to work hard for it

the reason cis people don't understand transness is because every cis person who starts to get it becomes trans

ever think about how you’re a mean one mister grinch is just a diss track?

Boost to tell Watson he's a handsome boy