I worked in Japan for a while, and with a Japanese team when I was stateside, and they've got a messed up work culture.

Someone above has already noted that you're expected to come in before and leave after the next senior employee. They have to as well, etc. The workers (and sometimes their direct manager) like to leave as a group too; where I was, it was to go directly to a bar for snacks and drinks. Daily.

But that's not their work, that's just why they stay so long and don't go home.

Here's an example of work: Someone does a presentation with an excel page showing a chart. It is decided they want to see the chart with a few different numbers. So, they will go back to their computer, print out the excel sheet, get some genko yoshi paper (looks sort of like paper with boxes on it), transcribe the excel data onto that, highlight the items to be changed, transcribe THAT, then take that and type in all the numbers again, triple checking after each stopping point. Despite the higher number of points of failure, the redundant checking almost always allows them to avoid mistakes.

Result: It takes them about a week to update 5-10 numbers in a 300-400 point dataset.

Also, their work culture is based primarily on seniority and not standing out. If you work hard, do really well, it's seen as you're not a team player, you're trying to make others look bad, get promoted at the expense of others. They love foreigners visiting their offices though, because they're free from the rules and can do a few weeks of work in a couple of days, so the team reaps the profit without the social stigma of working efficiently. ... but sometimes you need to not clean up your desk (so it doesn't look like you're ready to leave) and just bolt, because I'm telling you, every day it's a bar.

Quite irritating to do a search and not have the ability to do a simple browser-enabled find until I scroll around and load more of the page.

So the problem with the kill switch is an age old one: the weak point is the people, and it's gonna be reaaaaaaly easy to bribe the folks to simply not pull the switches, or disconnect them in advance.

I've worked with TSMC in the past. I've been to Taiwan, I've had a week's worth of starbucks coffees from one of the Fab 12 building's 7'th floor kiosk in Hsinchu city. Let me tell you about the culture there.

More than 2 decades ago, we came in with what at the time was cutting edge Big Data analysis software we'd created. Now a days it'd be called machine learning or AI, but back then, it was Big Data. It could track down issues and correlate cause and effects with semiconductor data. Hey, you've got a common short on layer 12 because of copper growth issues with your scrubber pass on layer 6. Or in one case, when operator #3401 is logged into the transport machine, yield goes down by 12% and the number of scratches, closed vias, and particulate defects increases by 6%. Good stuff.

Anyway, we bring our software in, do a demo - which takes about a week - and our point of contact could not care less. He tells everyone that we're unnecessary, not needed, he can do what our expensive SaaS does, himself. So we have a little challenge, blow him out of the water, and that's after he stripped OUR data of identifiers, so we can't tell if the data is a voltage test or resistance or defect identifier or whatever. Anyway, he stays in the meeting to discuss things after the presentation of results, and comes out later grinning.

We go to pack up and he's got 4 guys with him - "You can't take your laptop out of the building," he says. It's had their data on it, even anonymized, and they believe it's a security risk. We might be spies. They caught some last week.

Now while we were there, we had to run all the analysis from the laptop, which remained on site, locked to a table. One night, we found our analysis was interrupted and the hard drive had been removed while the system was still running. They had made a copy. Tried to steal our software.

But we knew this was going to happen. This is how things work in Asia, and our code was CPU locked, so it wouldn't work without a lot of extra work. So by the time we were ready to leave, they realized they needed the laptop itself to run it. Or maybe it was just easier in any case. So we said we had to wipe it to protect our IP, which they had no problems with. So we got out our tools, and took the motherboard and hard drive out and ...

"What are you doing?!?!" - one of the folks left to watch us cried. "Oh, we're destroying it so it can't be used." "YOU DON'T NEED TO DO THAT!" he shouted, as another one sprinted out of the room to get the manager. I'm drilling through the cpu when he gets there, his face bright red, "This isn't necessary" he says. "It's okay, we don't mind," we respond. "We want to make sure no one can use our software."

He kept trying to get us to stop, saying how unnecessary it was, and I'm pretty sure as I was snapping the hard drive disks with pliers that he was crying - either from fear or rage, I don't know - but that was that. We declined their literal spyware-laden "replacement laptops," and noted how the two non-special-software laptops which had been used to create the presentation and had also had data on them - were not included in the 'keep' order. ...
The purpose behind this story is to note that the overwhelming mindset in that area of the world is deep, fundamental and systemic lack of morals. If you can steal or cheat, you do it because it's a moral imperative to take what you can. It's at every level, in every aspect, from business to business like this, or business to personal; corruption, embezzlement, graft & kickbacks (I've got a whole story about "red envelopes"), and in this case, outright blatant theft.

It's basically a hustle culture turned up to 11.

So I have no doubt that if China were to invade, you'd find these kill switches surprisingly non-functional or simply never used, because the folks who would use them were already well paid not to.

... or did they not realize that "government agencies" was one of the biggest reasons to have E2EE?

If we reduce the need to commute, there's less wasted, only occupied-during-the-day unnecessary office space, less cars, drivers, or need for overpriced, dirty, noisy, bright, energy-sucking ultra-dense, high crime, mega cities with no way to easily work forwards home ownership (one of the more lasting mechanisms for generational wealth and some of the cause of minorities in the US being behind the financial curve).

Sure, we make structures like 80 story skyscrapers and apartments with walls so thin you can hear your neighbor breathe obsolete, but we get an arguably cleaner, safer, cheaper, more open lifestyle in return.

Down with cities.

Also, pointed out by many, this is also not coming from a good place. They're making these statements to blunt the impact of folks calling for the right to repair to be enshrined in law.

There's also no guarantee they'll abide by what is basically just a press statement, or whether they will actually allow ANY repairs. They could easily block users by any one of a million processes that they can effectively deny access to even if technically a process exists. This technique is used by lots of folks with agendas, from anti-abortion to pro-gun-control groups to make something effectively inaccessible even if it's technically legal.

As someone who's work touched on the 3'd party agg equipment sales market - primarily working with AGCO - this is not as good as it seems. You might be surprised to hear that these machines are as locked down as apple devices.

So for one, they control the parts. This means that you still need to go through them to get authentic parts because they may even have software blocking non-authentic parts (there is a big market in used authentic parts). In fact, when it comes to software locks, almost anything, even part replacement, requires re-activation.

That software is a second bit. Think of it like this: if any of your idiot lights on your car dashboard turns on, your car will stop, and you'll need a dealer to come to the car to re-enable it - though I hear some of this can be done remotely now. They say they will make the diagnostics available - but that doesn't necessarily include the "authorize third party parts" functionality will be added, or heck, even if the soft unlock is part of it.

Now, they'll make things available "at a fair and reasonable price." Here's what that sounds like to me:
- Users need to pay an annual fee to register and get a "John Deere Independent Owner Repair" authorization, probably for a single machine.
- Users will still need to purchase authentic parts directly from JD or an authorized reseller
- Users will have to pay a fee to purchase the diagnostic (and other) software, plus any additional security mechanisms such as dongles
- Users will not be allowed to modify or repair certain wide swaths of the product, likely relating to core functionality, under the names of 'safety' or the claim that people altering these parts will result in equipment that does not meet legal/regulatory standards (they already included this in their statement)
- Once repaired, other functionality will be disabled until official repairmen show up to check things over
- They're not going to let users modify their software, which means no adding functionality like remote access, third party gps modules, etc. ... etc

Most of these points are assumptions, but you need to understand the iron grasp they've had on these guys balls, completely unopposed, for decades. They're not going to just let go. They've been squeezing for as long as they've existed, and as you can see in the article, they're not letting go - they're just changing their grip and monetizing it while they're at it.

Art exists for two purposes: to enrich the creator in the act of creation (which apparently has no value here by either the AI or complaining creators who feel undone), and by the consumers - the very humans that are ... what ? Losing our identity? Our identity.

What does that even mean? Some shared yet indescribable feature that we all have but can lose, perhaps that we can fight for and regain? Seriously, let me know because you can check every atom and you won't find a measure of the "human spirit" among a person.

This is the problem; the fallback on the ineffable, unknowable, that without quantity or quality, to claim such and such has value over another when it often comes down to the fame of the artist or arbitrary, personal preference percolated past a prism of cultural precepts instead.

There's a trick in there, isn't there? Automation reduces the value of human work on a sliding skill scale. Since human work equals money in most places, and money is required to live in most places, that's a problem waiting to happen, especially as the lower ends drop out and the skills require ever more specialization to remain relevant.

Hopefully, we figure out the social context of having devalued the value of work to near zero so we can end up with a utopia rather than a revolution, but who knows.

As for why this is popping up now, I suspect that it's because artists have long felt themselves immune to this advancement, believing that there's some ineffable quality to their works that represents soul or spirit or emotion, that cannot be quantified, much less reproduced on demand. Even cyberpunk & dystopian authors seem to have this mental blindspot : AI can terraform worlds, coordinate space battles across light years, run planets, cater to every human whim ... but somehow cannot paint, or act, or compose music. Back to ST:TNG, look at the reverence with which the writers treat these concepts when it comes to the Data-trying-to-be-human theme. He never gets it "just right," when the (post-binar updated) holodeck seems to have almost no problem simulating every aspect of humanity.

I think this is just getting some special outrage because of this lack of foresight. They didn't think it was coming for them, not so soon, not so close to the gates. It's like what happened when folks were able to reprint sheet music so easily, and the original creators flipped the hell out, tried to fix it with laws and performance rights and so on. It'll be the same thing here.

Man, this is tricky to condense into coherent thought because there's a lot of angles to take here; the hubris of successful creators, the definition of 'human made' when using technology ... but I think I'll stick with the first thing that popped in my head: AI is a tool.

It is no different from switching from a finger to a brush, from a hand-crank projector to a motor driven one. From tedious black and white single cell animation to digital compositing of those hand drawn color cells or wooden puppetry to those with malleable silicon, life-like skin.

What it has done is made it easier to produce the vision in the creator's head.

I remember watching an episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation, where adults on a hidden planet wanted kids so bad they stole them from the Enterprise. The kids were scanned to find out what they were best at. One kid was slotted to be a musician, another a sculptor, and they were given tools that allowed their minds to produce music and sculptures without the constraints of technique borne through intense study and devoted practice.

This is what technology brings to every act of creation it seems - from woodworking to painting, architecture to movie making. When asked why Avatar 2 took so long to make, one of the reasons Cameron cited was the technology wasn't up to spec to what he wanted to do, until recently.

It seems that with each advance you're going to have two broad groups: those that want to use the new tech to create even more ... and there's always the old guard who try to gatekeep.

"It's not fair," they'll think, but it comes out in claims that every gain in efficiency is offset by a loss in detail or capability or - if they're really out of absolutely every idea - they'll start claiming it lacks 'soul' or 'human emotion' - even when it's indistinguishable, or in some cases, superior to completely hand crafted details. Look at the folks who get overly excited about records vs digital recordings, about practical effects vs. digital.

Is it really a problem that someone who may not have great skill with the brush but has a vision can now create, say, 90% of what they're imagining? Perhaps even use it as a tool to drive to 90% when their vision is a bit unclear? Is it a problem if in the future, that tool can give them 100%, however far off that may be?

I'm just waiting for one of them to slip up and admit, "It took me years of intense study and devoted practice and it's just NOT FAIR that you can do it so easily."

Oh right.

The "Gooble Boxes," in that episode of Rick and Morty.

... I say, thank you, bring it on!

Look, I'm not saying you kill all the folks who refuse to mask up and get a vaccine. Just enough to adjust the voting blocks, and the majority of elected officials in state government.

And for my third wish, take the racists too.

You think that the folks wearing these things aren't looking for this exact sort of lack of control?

You're just threatening them with a good time!

... that no one bought into the scam that is pre-orders. At least the company will have to produce an actual working product before people pay for what may or may not be hot garbage.

At least that's one bullet dodged!

I seem to remember Garmin primarily being a distributor of relatively expensive encrypted mapping databases required to keep their hardware products up to date. You had to pay a small ransom for the privilege of updating your device so that it would actually remain usable. Ran in the range of $100, somewhere often between 30% and 50% of the unit price, yearly, and only for specific regions.