Re:Read this before you buy that TV streaming stick
by bigmattystyles on Thursday July 30, 2026 @04:22PM
(#49115250)
To be fair, everything is Chinese made. I would be even the Apple TV and NVIDIA Shield are made in China and if a state actor is determined to get a malicious payload in....
Re:Read this before you buy that TV streaming stick
by miladyincontrol on Thursday July 30, 2026 @04:45PM
(#49115523)
To play devil's advocate, when someone says "Chinese made" they're usually well aware of your point, and are more using it as a common way to describe product mills spitting out countless devices with dubious quality or configuration.
Of course theres good products made in China, and plenty of entirely Chinese brands killing it doing their thing.
Re:Read this before you buy that TV streaming stick
by 8note on Thursday July 30, 2026 @07:22PM
(#49117097)
its pretty straight racism though.
its US software companies that are the worst of the worst in terms of adware and malware being shipped under monopoly control
Re:Read this before you buy that TV streaming stick
by Eisenstein on Thursday July 30, 2026 @09:09PM
(#49117914)
Its based on the most common heuristic people have developed in regards to the phenomenon. What do you think about 'alphabet soup company' instead, referring to the tendency for names to be a mix of random letters? Otherwise, you can try and create a better term for 'unaccountable third parties using US platforms to dodge liability for their product made out of the cheapest components and software possible' and see if that catches on.
Yes it is also the US companies that are a problem but these are two separate problems and need different terms.
Re:Read this before you buy that TV streaming stick
by SecretDreams on Thursday July 30, 2026 @10:49PM
(#49118450)
There's enough evil malware provider blame to go around.
Re:Read this before you buy that TV streaming stick
by wvh on Friday July 31, 2026 @06:50AM
(#49121515)
It's not racism at all to be weary of (any) political system, its overreach and the incentives of the people living in it, be it China or America or Russia.
The word racism is vastly overused these days.
Re:Read this before you buy that TV streaming stick
by parineum on Friday July 31, 2026 @10:18AM
(#49123483)
> its pretty straight racism though.
It's not. Firstly, because countries aren't races. Second, because it's just a leftover from a time where that was a good heuristic.
Re:Read this before you buy that TV streaming stick
by fc417fc802 on Thursday July 30, 2026 @04:47PM
(#49115551)
This isn't about state actors though. There's a world of difference between a name brand (possibly even a Chinese one) versus what I would term "chineseum". It's nothing to do with China per se and everything to do with purchasing from the extreme low end of the market. It just so happens that the vast majority of that segment is manufactured in China at present.
Re:Read this before you buy that TV streaming stick
by r_lee on Thursday July 30, 2026 @05:02PM
(#49115744)
Made in China and random Chinese brands are two very different things
Re:Read this before you buy that TV streaming stick
by ChrisRR on Friday July 31, 2026 @04:19AM
(#49120432)
Often they're exactly the same things
Re:Read this before you buy that TV streaming stick
by inigyou on Friday July 31, 2026 @05:42AM
(#49121012)
Often the USA brand is just buying the random Chinese design from the same factory that brands it in random letters, and tripling the price.
Re:Read this before you buy that TV streaming stick
by r_lee on Friday July 31, 2026 @10:06AM
(#49123311)
if you think the Apple TV or Nvidia shield example applies to this then I don't know what to say
Re:Read this before you buy that TV streaming stick
by speerer on Thursday July 30, 2026 @04:58PM
(#49115684)
I think normally when people say Chinese made in this way, what they're really communicating is that there's no (meaningful) brand. All they know about it is that it is from China.
Re:Read this before you buy that TV streaming stick
by worik on Thursday July 30, 2026 @04:49PM
(#49115574)
> To be fair, everything is Chinese made
Yes. Chinese manufacturing is quite a phenomenon, useful and everywhere
But to be completely fair, a $40 video projector has a warning label. The price
Re:Read this before you buy that TV streaming stick
by a96 on Friday August 07, 2026 @04:59PM
(#49216182)
You can put a bigger price tag over it. It won't be any better.
Re:Read this before you buy that TV streaming stick
by ponector on Thursday July 30, 2026 @05:48PM
(#49116286)
My Samsung phone is made in Vietnam.
Re:Read this before you buy that TV streaming stick
by SiempreViernes on Thursday July 30, 2026 @04:56PM
(#49115648)
This is an age where even teacups demand internet connectivity to fetch firmware updates
Re:Read this before you buy that TV streaming stick
by contravariant on Thursday July 30, 2026 @05:12PM
(#49115865)
I mean I get why my cups need frequent java updates, but still.
Re:Read this before you buy that TV streaming stick
by histriosum on Thursday July 30, 2026 @11:12PM
(#49118576)
Finally, a legitimate use case for HTTP 418…
Re:Read this before you buy that TV streaming stick
by red-iron-pine on Friday July 31, 2026 @10:53AM
(#49123956)
and they thought it was an April Fools joke, hah!
Re:Read this before you buy that TV streaming stick
by Ballas on Friday July 31, 2026 @01:53AM
(#49119468)
And then what happens if someone accidentally pushes the saucer firmware to the cup update?
https://hackaday.com/2022/03/18/welcome-to-the-future-where-...
Re:Read this before you buy that TV streaming stick
by earleybird on Saturday August 01, 2026 @01:05AM
(#49131207)
You get a Saucerfull of Secrets :-)
Re:Read this before you buy that TV streaming stick
by yencabulator on Monday August 03, 2026 @11:27PM
(#49164088)
I believe the correct behavior can be inferred from the RFC:
Re:Read this before you buy that TV streaming stick
by tollgategit on Friday July 31, 2026 @05:05AM
(#49120742)
And yet, it is now still just as stupid to do it as it was before we arrived here.
I hesitate to blame the victim here, but why on earth would you do that? “$40 Chinese-made” didn’t give you pause?