Also before Pfizer and Moderna results, we just got a scary mutation on the spike protein in Minks farms in Denmark. This could easily make any vaccine based on the spike protein worthless, which may explain why suddenly western companies starts selling their vaccines...
And a personal comment : you should forget the idea that the Law will protect you from bad government/institutions decisions.
GNU Taler is electronic money, not a currency. Neutral, every one can make its own currency. Transaction is secure (trust in the e-money) because of GNUnet; it even addressed the Sybil attacks concerns.
Trust on the currency comes from real life trust. A bank for the Euro. A human for a novel human-made currency.
Then, Exchanges that trust 2 different currencies can buy/sell those currencies.
From what I got, the future should look like :
-You choose the RISC-V design first.
-From that design, you choose the fab that will produce the design. Each fab has its own price and trustfulness.
If the problem is the lack of trustful manufacturers, then RISC-V simplify the work of any fab that want to become this trustful manufacturer.
When we talk about security on Intel CPU, it's tragic. When we talk about security about RISC-V, it's a complex problem. That's a massive improvement. But yes, the work is far from over.
I'm not a fan at all of cryptocurrencies, but there are some interesting cryptographic ideas behind Polkadot (with Jeff Burdges) and Golem Project (with Joanna Rutkowska) to use those networks security to bring trust back to the laptop/phone level.
There are three major revisions of Mali GPUs: Utgard (-4), Midgard (-T) and Bifrost (-G*).
There were 2 reverse engineering efforts. Lima (Utgard) and Panfrost project (Midgard and Bitfrost). Both were included in Mesa 19.1.
And the "long term" is not about "every pinebook will have a reverse-engineered GPU in the future", but : "if you buy these GPU, you know every compilers you write that makes special uses of the specific GPU capabilities will never need you to install the new proprietary CUDA driver to continue your optimization, no blob in this part..."
Also : You can run Linux-libre, thus riding the FSF train (GuixSD) and stop caring about not-free hardware.
My idea is that a pool of free-hardware computer can be used to build up some community networks and clusters of hardware sharing their resources.
If you run a GNUnet node on a RISC-V router running seL4 [0] to log into your bank account, then it's pretty useless if your laptop runs an Intel CPU that access your keystrokes. Or if you use a cellphone.
But with those RK3399 platform, it's another level of security. I'd say that the pinephone / pinebook will not ruin your potential for network security. And that the trust is defined by the fab, and thus if Pinestore (and their fabs... are they located in Shenzhen ?) is doubtful, at least their design is getting easier to copy and make a trustful version yourself.
Also, I want GuixSD with GNU Hurd and seL4 sharing GPU resources for Vulkan rendering in the community. Not all this is ready yet, but I could never dream about it without the ARM phones/laptops/SoC.
Thanks to Alyssa Rosenzweig and the Panfrost team for reverse-engineering the Mali GPU.
We can start moving out of the Intel/AMD backdoors and start to equip ourselves and our communities with trustworthy computers : ARM-based for now, RISC-V-based for later.
It's been my mind for a while now, and I'm still not sure with whom I stand here. Roughly, Zizek says : Any kind of mental breakdown that changes you will be related to your subsconscious. Nietzsche : Lol, when you reach my level of psychosis, you really have to pull yourself out all by yourself.
Considering that no solution exist anywhere to the global problem we face, I'd reconsider the value of "useful/useless".
Fake easy-solutions are good to make you feel better before work, but it prevents you from going into deep thinking from which real solutions may emerge.
Wait a minute, you state something that Chomsky never said (the "alternative 100% top-down central-managed solution") , and then call him "not very useful" for this fake statement? He's not saying Mondragon is bad, just that within capitalism, these solutions are still fucked on the long term.
If you really want to judge him on his real-world solutions, then take at look at Michael Albert's Participatory economics that he's been supporting for a while : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Participatory_economics
But according to me, what Chomsky lacks in his analysis is some hegelian stuff, so I'd recommend to go further and dig some Slavoj Zizek and Deleuze and so on..
"What is your favorite good article that you contributed significantly to, or assisted significantly in it obtaining good status?"
Ser Amantio di Nicolao : I have not worked on any good articles.
And a personal comment : you should forget the idea that the Law will protect you from bad government/institutions decisions.