[PLUG] Librem 5 dodopaddle

[Keith Lofstrom]

This looks intriguing:

http://www.linux-magazine.com/Online/Features/Librem-5-and-the-Challenge-of-the-Free-Phone

... although as a "late adopter" for nonessentials,
I'll wait to ask somebody else who has had one for
six months, and seen a detailed engineering teardown.

The most attractive aspects are the (claimed) hardware
switches on the radios.  I would add an additional 
feature - a truly independent "broadcast detect"
circuit that lights up (and stays on for perhaps 30
seconds) when the device emits any form of broadcast.

I would not trust a device completely unless it was
open source silicon, with "hardware double entry 
accounting" for interface transactions between chips
and subunits (counters in hardware matched to counters
in the software, flags raised if extra bytes are 
unaccounted for), but that won't happen until a rich
privacy-obsessed geek pays for a lot of $$$$$$$$ chip
design and manufacture.  I don't have that on this
desktop computer, so I'm not holding my breath.

I tried using a dodopaddle (functional description
of a so called "smart phone") for a month;  I could
not make it do what I wanted, as opposed to being
seduced to do what the designers and sponsors wanted.

I've watched other users lose their ability to navigate
the world mentally, make independent decisions, create
artwork and longform text, or respect others face to
face.  These devices are not "smart", they just seem
smarter and smarter as their fleshy appendages ( AKA
"users") become less capable and more dependent. 
The Current Occupant was elected for his tweets.

So ... I hope a truly libre phone will create a 
user community that owns the environment, rather
living in Apple or Google company housing.  The
latter might have prettier furnishings, but a jail
is a jail, even if you can pick some of the locks.

Keith

-- 
Keith Lofstrom          keithl at keithl.com