The quest for a 50 year old computer

Imagining a computer that lasts 50-years means changing how we see tech.

YouTuber Jay Summet recently revealed his hack of an HP printer cartridge that allows him to bypass the digital locks that the company uses to stop 3rd party ink cartridges and parts from working. By disguising his banned cartridge as a genuine HP part, he is able to print and avoid the price-gouging tactics by the printer company which puts their ink at $10,000 a gallon, versus the roughly $150 per gallon a consumer pays for non-DRM protected printer ink.

Cory Doctorow writes that these tactics to control how users interact with products is spreading like a virus: a virus he has termed enshittification, a term that captures the increasing pattern of degrading products and imposing costs on consumers for the sake of corporate bottom lines.