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@dalias do you have any guides or resources for this. I’m just starting out, hoping to repurpose some or all parts in a home assistant setup. I have teardowns but beyond that not sure how much I can reuse. Speakers, enclosure … ideally would be hooked to a pi or similar device as the new brain.

@mc_lewis It should be possible to overwrite the firmware and use the whole computer as a replacement for a rpi. But I'm not sure how much work has been done getting access/bypassing whatever lockouts they have.

@dalias @mc_lewis someone was working on this a few years back, might be a good starting point: https://hackaday.com/2021/03/22/amazon-echo-gets-open-source-brain-transplant/

@enron @dalias @mc_lewis It is still a wireless microphone connected to the Internet, and you have little-to-no feedback on what its internal state is like (unlike a PC or phone).

Without a hardware cutout switch on the mic, its tempting fate.

@tasket @enron @mc_lewis It's only connected to the internet insomuch as you want it to be, and only doing the things you programmed* it to do.

When you're not running Amazon's spyware OS it shipped with, it's exactly the same situation as any PC or phone.

(*) I'm using "programmed" in the more originalist sense, not of being the one who wrote the code but who put the instructions, whether written by themselves or someone else, onto the machine to direct its function.

@dalias @enron @mc_lewis This is founded on the conceit that a machine will only do what you tell it, and not what others (like, hackers) tell it.

Amazing how quickly that notion insinuates itself when "open source OS" is mentioned: The illusion that you control something perfectly. You don't know what surprises are in there or in what respects the cheesy reverse-engineered drivers are lacking.

it's exactly the same situation as any PC or phone.

Just no. And the fact that brands are trying to sell these cheap un-PC-like devices en masse is the main clue. If I slice a mic out of a laptop or phone, it still functions fine when I attach a headset. Do the same on a spy-tchotchke device and its reason for being is gone. The fact that it has been physically streamlined for that role is part of the problem.

@tasket @enron @mc_lewis Um, the topic of the branch of this thread you replied into is repurposing malicious devices like Alexas as subsidized general purpose computing devices, ala a raspberry pi. There's no reason to keep or use the microphone unless you want it, and no reason it needs to be connected to the internet.

@dalias Sorry, I don't give much notice to "branch of the thread".

Software isn't going to fix everything that is wrong with a piece of hardware. And part of what's wrong is that people may notice such a surveillance device and assume you have certain intentions. And that people with tech fetishes don't (yet) take those social issues into account.

@tasket "Don't repurpose hardware but instead trash it and buy new from an org that hires surveillance cops and brags about it (rpi), because the repurposed thing might look like a surveillance device" is sure a take...

If you're worried about that for real, throw away the housing and just mount the board. This makes more sense anyway if you're using it as the guts for something like a router, pihole, 3d printer, robot, etc. Or if you're using it more like NAS or backup or something you'd just put it in a closet not in your living room like a spy device.

@dalias After the article says this:

"an absolute no-go for the more privacy minded among us, and honestly, it’s hard to blame them. The whole thing is pretty creepy when you think about it."

...they proceed with a video showing their repurposed unit in the original housing.

I appreciate the agency to explore and tinker, but repurposing the bag-of-glass kit for a real function is tempting fate. You think you repurposed the tractor as an ATV without realizing you still have a body-mangling tiller still attached. The people who wrote the reverse-engineered drivers don't know what's really in that silicon AND, yes, you are likely depriving FOSS-respecting hw vendors the chance to grow their business.

It is a false economy.

Putting this in context, I've been recommending routers with Mediatek chipsets because that co. maintains open source drivers for them, and they work great with OpenWRT. No one around here f*cking cares. They want to brag about how their Netgear trash fought them and they won some little victory over it, or maybe go back to the "Oh Nvidia" wailing wall for some predictable Linux commiseration. I think the stupidity is breathtaking.

Based on what I'm seeing, there will be a LOT more pain from the tech sector. None of the various flavors of big tech fetishists are going to stop it or even slow it down.

@tasket OK I think you're replying a lot more to an out-of-band article that presumably had some technical information (and possibly also disagreeable advice? I haven't read it) than to myself or anyone in the actual conversation here.

I'm not speaking for anyone's particular approach to repurposing, just the principle of repurposing.