February 27, 2026
Carding calculators is wild
Open source calculator firmware DB48X forbids CA/CO use due to age verification
Dev says “No CA, No CO”; commenters cry clickbait and legal chaos
TLDR: An open-source calculator firmware says Californians and Coloradans can’t use it after 2027/2028 because it refuses age verification, citing new state laws. Comments exploded with claims of clickbait, debates over whether a calculator counts as an “OS,” and jokes about “ID checks for SIN, COS, TAN,” spotlighting legal confusion for open source.
An open‑source calculator project just did a dramatic math drop: DB48X’s maintainer added a notice saying people in California and Colorado can’t use it after 2027/2028 because it won’t do age checks required by new state laws. The repo links to California AB1043 and a Colorado bill, and the dev flatly says it does not, cannot, and will not implement age verification. Cue the comment-section fireworks.
One camp is calling the whole thing overblown. “Clickbait title,” snaps one user, arguing the notice is just a principled stand that open source shouldn’t be forced to card its users. Legal nitpickers showed up with rulers and red pens, wondering if a calculator firmware is even an “operating system,” with one commenter noting they don’t see a definition and another quipping about “covered application stores.” Meanwhile, the pragmatists asked the real question: Does it run apps? If not, does the law even apply?
Amid all that, a worried voice summed up the vibe: “IANAL” (not a lawyer), but this feels “quite problematic.” Is the warning a legal shield, a license clause, or just a bright red “use at your own risk” sign? The memes wrote themselves—“Show me your ID before you hit SIN,” “carding calculators,” and “2+2 requires parental consent.” The internet’s doing the math—and nobody agrees on the answer.
Key Points
- •DB48x added a LEGAL-NOTICE.md restricting use by California residents after Jan 1, 2027, and Colorado residents after Jan 1, 2028.
- •The notice cites recent legislation in California (AB 1043) and Colorado as the basis for restrictions.
- •The project states DB48x is probably an operating system under these laws but will not implement age verification.
- •The change is recorded in commit 7819972, signed by Christophe de Dinechin, adding 13 lines with no deletions.
- •The repository is shown as forked from swissmicros/SDKdemo; no code changes beyond the legal notice are described.