Get the latest tech news

It's time to make computing personal again

Adventures in vintage computers and retrogaming. Includes articles on classic games and obsolete computers.

Internet surveillance, the algorithmic polarization of social media, predatory app stores, and extractive business models have eroded the freedoms the personal computer once promised, effectively ending the PC era for most tech consumers. A common thread between many of the issues hinted at above and in both Doctorow and Zitron’s work has been the rise of the ubiquitous Internet, which has allowed content owners and device makers to keep an eye on (and influence) consumer habits remotely, pulling our strings like puppeteers and putting a drip feed on our wallets. Additionally, section 1201 of the DMCA made it illegal to circumvent DRM, allowing manufacturers to lock down platforms in a way that challenges the traditional concept of ownership, enables predatory app stores, and threatens our cultural history.

Get the Android app