Google has made China's censorship easier because Chinese Google users are now less aware of their oppression. Can you be oppressed and not be award of it? In terms of information, yes.
The bottom line is that Google is no longer a window on the world. It is the window on what the Chinese government wants its citizens to see. In my book, that's flaming red evil. If they'll bend to assist censors, they can stoop to anything.
Yes, thank you Google for supporting censorship. Our world is better off when people do not know what information they do not have access to. A dumb populace is a controlled populace. We need more Googles and fewer Harry Tuttles.
Sorry, but I didn't think of Star Wars even once when watching Starfighter. Any movie that involves ships dueling in space is a Star Wars ripoff? Is your last name Lucas by any chance?
> Shouldn't I be free to use whatever third
> party software to check my email?
Sure, you're free to use whatever third-party software you want, so long as it is made by Google.
Is your cookie starting to crumble?
Not all web sites use logins, thus the need for cookies. Plus, the cookies remove the need to login. Why must I log into every web site every time? I'm on the verge of returning to Explorer.
I switched to Firefox after tha ballyhoo on Slashdot. To date, I've deleted all of my must-save cookies 4 times. The browser is not oriented toward someone who selectively accepts cookies and regularly flushes their cache. It's WAY TO EASY to accidentally hit the wrong "CLEAR" button and make your life miserable. At the very lease, Firefox needs an "Are you sure?" prompt, if not a complete reorganization of how the configuration settings are presented.
You must be new here. You're flamebait if the moderator disagrees with your viewpoint. It's a ping-pong match watching messages get modded up and down 10 times in a day, only to have them end up where they started.
Don't mind me. If you think I'm acting strangely, it's only because I've been holding in my urine for the last 12 hours, too afraid to perform for the urine cam.
Forget about getting a state or federal technical job without a degree. Most require a degree to "weed people out." And the higher the degree, the more you earn, regardless of actual job duties. That's been my experience.
Boring? How can you say you found the new Battlestar Galactica boring? It sucked through and through. Didn't you orgasm?
Re:and a horse is a horse, of course, of course...
on
We the Media
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· Score: 1, Insightful
No, professional training isn't what's required to get my respect. Respect doesn't even enter into the equation.
I require trust. I need to know who is speaking to me, and what their influences are. I trust the reporting of the local newspaper, and understand when to question the slant on a news report. Professional training helps because then the act of reading the reporting is easy and painless. Most blogs are not easy to read, unless you like reaching "the point" at the bottom of 5 pages of text (hence my 'stream of consciousness' remark).
In my reading, blogs are more akin to talk radio. They express a point of view with little attempt at getting the "other side" of the story. Professional news organizations at least make the attempt.
In other words, I trust a blog no more than I trust what my Aunt Bessie is saying about the neighbors as she peers out between the curtains of her front window. Sure, Aunt Bessie has a place in this world, but most of the time, I don't have the time or interest to listen. Aunt Bessie will always have a place becasue what drives Aunt Bessie is her own self interest.
What you attribute to bias in professional news organizations is sometimes due to directives from top management, but more often due to incompetence, laziness and simply not hiring enough reporters to do the job right.
None of my positive remarks apply to the handful of national news organizations in America -- they're all a joke (as any fan of Jon Stewart's Daily Show can attest). I'm talking about regional and local news media, who live and die by their reputation.
Crap is crap
on
We the Media
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· Score: 5, Insightful
I agree, crap is crap. Professional news media will always have a place because they employ trained writers. I'll read a blog for fun, or because I know the blogger personally, or because I have an intense interest in a specific blog topic. But if I'm reading hard news or human interest pieces, I am *not* going to entertain an unfocused run-on stream of thought -- which is what many bloggers write.
More importantly, with a professional news organization, I know who I am dealing with. Too many online entries -- from blog postings to product reviews -- are not authenticated. I know who the editor is of my local newspaper and I know the corporation and politics of the company who owns the newspaper. I'll take that over Joe Schmoe because I don't know which axe he's grinding.
The overextending comment is not exactly a new concept -- many people have spoken such ideas -- and it was merely background information to understand that a person like me will support Google. If you don't know that some people believe Google is going in the wrong direction, try searching for the terms "google evil" and "google sucks." There is more than one viewpoint in this world.
First, I did not say it was wrong for a company to expand its offerings. I am personally disappointed at some of the directions 'beyond search' that Google is pursuing. But anyway, that's beside the point. I provided that information as mere background about where I'm coming from in saying I'll support Google. Read some of my other comments in the thread.
Second, don't be a Nazi. I'll say 'slave' anytime I want. Praise Jesus.
Mere expansion isn't evil. As a company grows, begins taking shareholders, has more and more competitors on a global scale, etc. it becomes difficult to stick to a moral and ethical mode of conduct. Not impossible, but difficult.
This is not a new idea. Read this Wired.com piece, Google vs. Evil. Subhead: "Now the geek icon is finding that moral compromise is just the cost of doing big business." Or anti-Google sites like Google Watch. I'm not saying Google is evil, but they're doing things that start to raise eyebrows.
I'm not choosing services based on branding. I said nothing about branding. My choice is based on morals. It's like choosing to shop at Costco instead of Sam's Club. Maybe all you see is two store names. I see one company that treats its employees as valuable and another that treats them as cattle. When I look at M$ and Google I'm looking at their business practices, not their names.
Read my comment again. I said nothing about superiority of Google's product. Many people simply hate M$. Not just techies. Lots of average people dislike M$ or have grown to dislike M$ by reputation. So, someone like me, who believes Google is already partially evil, will embrace Google if my alternative is M$.
I'm a big arguer that Google is overextending its reach. It being wrong for Google to expand outside the 'just search' business. And I believe Google is partially evil now and will become entirely evil within the next few years.
That said, Microsoft has assured Google's success. Slaves across the world are looking for any alternative to M$. Linux hasn't pushed that envelope. But web services? Everyone can safely and easily embrace Google over M$ for web services. Make me choose between Google and M$ and I'll choose Google every time.
Leave it to Apple to complain when the functionality and usefulness of its product is expanded at no cost to them. Darn these increased sales! Make it stop!
The world is what we make it. If you don't believe you can make a difference, you never will. You can bank on that. It's the new mob mentality. The mob enables the RIAA to exist. The RIAA counts on you to do your part for their survival.
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Ha! Instead of answer an honest question, mod it away.
Please explain. I am a dumb Windows user. I've never touched Linux.
Google has made China's censorship easier because Chinese Google users are now less aware of their oppression. Can you be oppressed and not be award of it? In terms of information, yes. The bottom line is that Google is no longer a window on the world. It is the window on what the Chinese government wants its citizens to see. In my book, that's flaming red evil. If they'll bend to assist censors, they can stoop to anything.
Uh huh.
Sorry, but I didn't think of Star Wars even once when watching Starfighter. Any movie that involves ships dueling in space is a Star Wars ripoff? Is your last name Lucas by any chance?
> Shouldn't I be free to use whatever third > party software to check my email? Sure, you're free to use whatever third-party software you want, so long as it is made by Google. Is your cookie starting to crumble?
Not all web sites use logins, thus the need for cookies. Plus, the cookies remove the need to login. Why must I log into every web site every time? I'm on the verge of returning to Explorer.
I switched to Firefox after tha ballyhoo on Slashdot. To date, I've deleted all of my must-save cookies 4 times. The browser is not oriented toward someone who selectively accepts cookies and regularly flushes their cache. It's WAY TO EASY to accidentally hit the wrong "CLEAR" button and make your life miserable. At the very lease, Firefox needs an "Are you sure?" prompt, if not a complete reorganization of how the configuration settings are presented.
You must be new here. You're flamebait if the moderator disagrees with your viewpoint. It's a ping-pong match watching messages get modded up and down 10 times in a day, only to have them end up where they started.
Why don't they just increase their asking price? Duh. I don't believe this story for a second.
Don't mind me. If you think I'm acting strangely, it's only because I've been holding in my urine for the last 12 hours, too afraid to perform for the urine cam.
Forget about getting a state or federal technical job without a degree. Most require a degree to "weed people out." And the higher the degree, the more you earn, regardless of actual job duties. That's been my experience.
Boring? How can you say you found the new Battlestar Galactica boring? It sucked through and through. Didn't you orgasm?
I require trust. I need to know who is speaking to me, and what their influences are. I trust the reporting of the local newspaper, and understand when to question the slant on a news report. Professional training helps because then the act of reading the reporting is easy and painless. Most blogs are not easy to read, unless you like reaching "the point" at the bottom of 5 pages of text (hence my 'stream of consciousness' remark).
In my reading, blogs are more akin to talk radio. They express a point of view with little attempt at getting the "other side" of the story. Professional news organizations at least make the attempt.
In other words, I trust a blog no more than I trust what my Aunt Bessie is saying about the neighbors as she peers out between the curtains of her front window. Sure, Aunt Bessie has a place in this world, but most of the time, I don't have the time or interest to listen. Aunt Bessie will always have a place becasue what drives Aunt Bessie is her own self interest.
What you attribute to bias in professional news organizations is sometimes due to directives from top management, but more often due to incompetence, laziness and simply not hiring enough reporters to do the job right.
None of my positive remarks apply to the handful of national news organizations in America -- they're all a joke (as any fan of Jon Stewart's Daily Show can attest). I'm talking about regional and local news media, who live and die by their reputation.
More importantly, with a professional news organization, I know who I am dealing with. Too many online entries -- from blog postings to product reviews -- are not authenticated. I know who the editor is of my local newspaper and I know the corporation and politics of the company who owns the newspaper. I'll take that over Joe Schmoe because I don't know which axe he's grinding.
Yes it is. But thank's for the expletive.
The overextending comment is not exactly a new concept -- many people have spoken such ideas -- and it was merely background information to understand that a person like me will support Google. If you don't know that some people believe Google is going in the wrong direction, try searching for the terms "google evil" and "google sucks." There is more than one viewpoint in this world.
Second, don't be a Nazi. I'll say 'slave' anytime I want. Praise Jesus.
This is not a new idea. Read this Wired.com piece, Google vs. Evil. Subhead: "Now the geek icon is finding that moral compromise is just the cost of doing big business." Or anti-Google sites like Google Watch. I'm not saying Google is evil, but they're doing things that start to raise eyebrows.
I'm not choosing services based on branding. I said nothing about branding. My choice is based on morals. It's like choosing to shop at Costco instead of Sam's Club. Maybe all you see is two store names. I see one company that treats its employees as valuable and another that treats them as cattle. When I look at M$ and Google I'm looking at their business practices, not their names.
Read my comment again. I said nothing about superiority of Google's product. Many people simply hate M$. Not just techies. Lots of average people dislike M$ or have grown to dislike M$ by reputation. So, someone like me, who believes Google is already partially evil, will embrace Google if my alternative is M$.
That said, Microsoft has assured Google's success. Slaves across the world are looking for any alternative to M$. Linux hasn't pushed that envelope. But web services? Everyone can safely and easily embrace Google over M$ for web services. Make me choose between Google and M$ and I'll choose Google every time.
Leave it to Apple to complain when the functionality and usefulness of its product is expanded at no cost to them. Darn these increased sales! Make it stop!
Oh wait, the worms *are* Gods.
The world is what we make it. If you don't believe you can make a difference, you never will. You can bank on that. It's the new mob mentality. The mob enables the RIAA to exist. The RIAA counts on you to do your part for their survival.