this post was submitted on 12 Aug 2025
12 points (92.9% liked)

Louis Rossmann

506 readers
1 users here now

Louis Rossmann Community on Lemmy.world: For fans/supporters of Louis Rossmann and his work

About Louis Rossmann

Louis Rossmann is a repair shop owner and a vocal supporter of the Right To Repair movement. He runs a YouTube channel with a variety of content - from board repair videos, to news and updates in the technology space.

His insightful and reasonable opinions on technology and product ownership tend to attract a lot of attention.

Community Guidelines

  1. Be nice
  2. Respect others' perspectives
  3. No advertising
  4. Follow the rules of the instance we're hosted on: https://mastodon.world/about

Interested in being a moderator for this community? Positions are currently open.

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
 

SponsorBlock, Timestamps, and Generated Summary below:


SponsorBlock Timestamp:

  1. 4:08.668 Highlight
  2. 7:40.800 - 7:51.921 Endcards/Credits

Video Description:

Links:

  1. https://www.judiciary.senate.gov/committee-activity/hearings/a-time-for-truth-oversight-of-metas-foreign-relations-and-representations-to-the-united-states-congress |https://web.archive.org/web/20250811152014/https://www.judiciary.senate.gov/committee-activity/hearings/a-time-for-truth-oversight-of-metas-foreign-relations-and-representations-to-the-united-states-congress | https://archive.ph/yu1Kj | LIVE: Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on Meta’s foreign relations [01:54:59 | APR 09 2025 | Associated Press | youtu.be/KiRr5J8Alm4]
  2. https://futurism.com/facebook-beauty-targeted-ads | https://archive.ph/7O2kg
  3. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_v._Microsoft_Corp. | https://wikiless.com/wiki/United_States_v._Microsoft_Corp.

Generated Summary:

This video argues that modern tech companies are engaging in anti-consumer practices far exceeding those of the past, and proposes a symbolic act of resistance: changing your profile picture to Clippy. The speaker suggests that Clippy, despite being annoying, represents a simpler time when software wasn't designed to exploit users for data or subscription revenue.

Key Points:

  • Modern Tech Exploitation: Companies now profit from user data and manipulate them through subscriptions and planned obsolescence, unlike the simpler software of the past.
  • Clippy as a Symbol: Clippy represents a time when software, though flawed, primarily aimed to help users without ulterior motives.
  • Sons of the Harpy Analogy: The speaker draws a parallel to the Sons of the Harpy from Game of Thrones, suggesting that a collective display of dissent (represented by Clippy) can challenge corporate overreach.
  • Specific Grievances: The video lists several grievances against tech companies, including:
    • Changing terms of service after purchase.
    • Ransomware-like practices that disable purchased products.
    • Censorship and biased content moderation.
    • Data mining and privacy violations.
    • Obstructing users from repairing their own devices.
  • Call to Action: The speaker urges viewers to change their profile pictures to Clippy on various platforms (YouTube, Slack, etc.) to signal their discontent and solidarity.
  • Cultural Battle: The speaker emphasizes the importance of winning the "cultural battle" by raising awareness and fostering a collective understanding of these issues.
  • Small Acts of Rebellion: The video suggests subtle ways individuals within companies can push back against anti-consumer practices.

Highlighted Information:

  • "Clippy simply wanted to help." This phrase is repeated throughout the video to contrast Clippy's innocent helpfulness with the perceived malicious intent of modern tech companies.
  • The speaker hopes that a mass display of Clippy avatars will make company CEOs realize that "they no longer live in a world where they can get away with over the consumer."
  • The speaker acknowledges the duty not to infringe IP rights in the process, noting that "It is in fact the manufacturers who have the relevant rights, not consumers."

About Channel:

I started as a studio repair technician at Avatar & started a Macbook component level logic board repair business. This channel shows repair & data recovery work & shows how to perform these repairs step by step. There are many things that make it hard to fix things now; willful actions from manufacturers to limit access to parts & schematics. I talked about this to try and spark mainstream recognition of the "Right to Repair" movement.

Restrictions placed on repair were just a canary-in the-coal-mine for many of the anti-ownership, anti-consumer practices that would become common in every industry, which I discuss & try to push back against every day.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] if_only@sh.itjust.works 2 points 3 months ago (1 children)

What exactly is wikiless? Just a Wikipedia mirror?

[–] jimmydoreisalefty@lemmy.world 0 points 3 months ago

It is a privacy-focused open-source front end.


Wikiless is a free open source alternative Wikipedia front-end focused on privacy.

The source is available at Github https://github.com/Metastem/wikiless.

The original developer that made Wikiless is, "Orenom". He has gotten DMCAed' and "Metastem" has forked it to continue keep it maintained.

  1. No Javascript or ads.
  2. All requests go through the backend, client never talks to Wikipedia.
  3. Prevents Wikipedia getting your IP address.
  4. Self-hostable. Anyone can setup a private or public instance.^[[1] https://wikiless.com/about]