[cryptome] Re: Buying a A New Laptop? - coreboot
- From: John Young <jya@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: cryptome@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Wed, 18 Mar 2015 10:58:09 -0400
Is it possible to buy a piece of analog or digital equipment
which does not have a device ID, that is, are their any wholly
empty, neutered and unidentifiable.
Even when crafting one's own device the components are
likely to have manufacturer ID (often several, easy to find hiding
the hard).
Some reports claim "untraceabel" bootlegged, contraband,
"anonymized" gadgets have hidden codes, means to track,
exculpate or beguile those trying to escape snoops.
Kind of like those in crypto, comsec, Tor, SM, "open" offerings
salted with protection and escape hatches for the inventors
against being blamed for misuse like the Silk Road artist.
Layers of deception, especially from and against those most
eager to give advice with impeccable credentials and seven
or more decades of faux humble but mean as as a royal
courtier cum civil libertarian (la cheat de roi, c'est moi).
That photo of Stallman hugging a CN GNU-chipped puppy is
classic dog show kibble smoke and mirrors. Stallman is also shown
kibble-hugging Julian Assange, along with a long perp-line-up of
celebri-tree huggers-urinators.
At 09:36 AM 3/18/2015, you wrote:
On Wed, Mar 18, 2015 at 7:36 AM, Douglas Rankine
<<mailto:douglasrankine2001@xxxxxxxxxxx>douglasrankine2001@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Hi Coderman & Colleagues,
Tx for your advice...and all those new avenues
for exploration which you have opened for me... :-).
The librem 15 looks interesting...
:-). Cheers... :-). It would be nice to get
a new "empty laptop" and install linux software
of my choosing. I will explore it further. As
you know, I am not a "techie"Â It took me a
long time to learn how to use Ubuntu...still
learning as a matter of fact. I am not into
gaming...don't have the interest, but watch a
lot films and listen to podcasts, and of course surfing the web and emails.
Is it really empty or are you just being lulled
into the idea that it's empty and therefore it's as safe as you make it?
Why not buy a system without a hard drive and
then buy your own to install in there? Surely,
there's security in sourcing components from multiple vendors...Â
I quite like Ubuntu and of course Thunderbird
and Firefox and I like VLC. The only problem
with Linux, I have found so far, is that I have
never come across a bit of software with which I
can use to upload and download the songs on my
Ipod satisfactorily. It is one of the reasons
I have kept Windows OS so that I can use Apples' Itunes...
<http://www.wikihow.com/Manage-an-iPod-in-Linux>http://www.wikihow.com/Manage-an-iPod-in-Linux
 I've used Floola in the past when my
environment was infested with Apple
devices. It worked for my needs - have you tried it?
Â
I shall have to look up all those terms like
"trisquel" and "BSD" and Qubes...as I don't know what they mean.
The BSD operating systems have forked from the
Berkeley Software Distribution (I believe that's
the breakdown of that acronym). One of the
original building blocks of Yahoo...Â
I see that the laptop doesn't come out until
April 1915 and that it is some kind of
crowdsourcing financing. I shall have to be very
careful there. I wouldn't want to lose me money
by making a poor investment... :-).
One learns sumfink new every day... :-).
One thing that I'd recommend before plonking
down cash on a device of any kind - investigate
how well documented the hardware is. If the
only documentation that exists is a Quick Start poster.... what does that say?
--- A
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