I guess bullshit is easier to make than shoes.

The only criterion is: are billionaires into it, or does it threaten them?

The FCC ruling prohibits the sale of new models of consumer router. It doesn’t forbid the continuing use of existing routers or, if I understand it right, the continued sale of models that were already on sale. So you can continue to use existing models as WAPs or routers. But when the tech and the security moves on the FCC wants the USA to be left behind.

Time to flash the old Netgear router with some open source firmware.

It’s not clear what makes Netgear’s currently foreign-made routers safer than, say, an Amazon Eero 7 or a Google Nest WiFi Pro.

This is all evidence that it’s not really about safety. It’s a clumsy attempt to strongarm tech companies into setting up factories in the USA. It may also be an attempt to create an environment in which it’s easier to install US government backdoors on every home router.

The lobbying power of tech companies that profit from proprietary technology and feel threatened by open source. The same people who are behind DRM on everything from ebooks and music to printer inks, and legal restrictions on repairing the devices you own.

If you’re building your own router I’d recommend OPNsense. I hear PFsense is also good.

How about the bit where they say home routers have to be approved by the DHS or the “Department of War”? This is not normal.

So the application process is “drop us an email and we’ll tell you where to deposit the money.”

If you search for “install OPNsense” or “install PFsense” you’ll find quite a few guides. It’s not difficult to get going with these, but you should expect a bit of a learning curve if you’re coming from preconfigured home routers. It’s worth it though: these are far more powerful systems than regular home router software and give you much more control and advanced features like VLANs and intrusion detection.

That deals with the need for a WiFi access point, but not the main router functionality. Another approach would be a low-power PC running OPNsense or PFsense with a WiFi card repurposed as an access point. Or, if the new policy concerns only routers and not access points, a PC for the router plus a dedicated WiFi access point (some device that is not capable of being a router).

The USA is doing an impressive job of sanctioning the USA.

Yes. I run OPNsense and it’s very good, and all you need is a machine with two or more Ethernet ports. But this option is becoming more expensive with the crazy prices of RAM and storage.

It’s that, and also an invitation to bribery, and also a demand for surveillance backdoors. And your router may need your biometric data to protect the children (but not from billionaire pedophiles).

Fridman, the podcast’s host, defines AGI as an AI system that’s able to “essentially do your job,” as in start, grow, and run a successful tech company worth more than $1 billion. He then asks Huang when he believes AGI will be real — asking if it’s, say, five, 10, 15, or 20 years away — and Huang responds, “I think it’s now. I think we’ve achieved AGI.”

Lex Fridman is a fucking moron and his pretentious podcast is unbearable. These people are so dumb and unimaginative. Of course they think the test of general intelligence is the ability to be a profiteering capitalist techbro, and intelligence can be measured in how many billions you can screw other people for. Maybe when the revolution comes it will dawn on them that they were wrong. A person can dream…

I guess you’re not waiting on an MRI.

Like most things, you are not as private and protected as you seem to think you are.

That doesn’t seem like a great argument for doing something that further reduces privacy and protection.

Trump’s tariffs on the whole world are also effectively self-imposed sanctions on the USA.

Hey, they believe in extremist terrorist stuff like investing in public services for the good of everyone. Clearly these people are crazy and dangerous.^*

*to the wealth and power of billionaires.

Thanks for that link. It has a lot more detail.