..and it already has legions of people already exclaiming that this is the best device yet, despite the fact that nobody has seen as much as a drawing yet.
Then again, how did Windows Vista get all those rave reviews?
I've been using this for years, but I do get solid lockups with very large files (over 4GB) which has made me very nervous.. Any idea where I screw up?
Desktop and laptop are still WinXP (home) until I make up my mind what I'll replace it with (it's narrowed down to OpenSuSE or Mandriva), but for some use a Windows desktop is still more suitable (I'd love Paint.NET to run on Linux, for instance).
OK, I assume the Audi V8s are by necessity more efficient, but what makes the GM V8 so special other than being used in the US - maybe because there will be no more spare parts for US cars?
AFAIK Audi (and others) are still happily making decent V8s so it's not like the "world of V8" is coming to an end.
Thanks for the Referer flag, I'd been meaning to look this up.
However, if you want ANY sort of privacy you would simply not use Google services, whatever you do to Gmail is backdoored by the fact that your email is scanned. Google service users are one policy change or one coding mistake away from disclosure.
As a matter of fact, if you're into privacy you should stack your defences. Get an email account in a country where privacy still counts (just check where Google keeps running into problems, so that would be either Japan or Switzerland), so use, say, gmx.ch, which takes care of the legal angle (a data tap would then have to be set up via international channels, which takes effort and is thus not as casual as what, for instance, the UK RIPA law allows or a corrupt cop can "organise"). Use Scroogle or IXquick (I've seen them mentioned in the thread already). Flush caches, and all cookies except the ones you really need.
For added fun you could stick a timer on your router. If you kill it for more than 30 minutes before powering it up again, most ISPs will issue a new IP address from the DHCP pool, which makes a mess of records held together via IP address.
I must admit it's interesting that all of a sudden, people are asking about privacy. A good month ago everyone showed their brainwashing by trying to defend Google when the Swiss asked them to respect their privacy laws. Weird - what changed?
I don't like labelling at all, because it's almost like a tattoo - once you have it will never go away without leaving at least s scar. Putting a kid in that sort of isolated club creates other risks - not knowing how to survive in a mixed society. Unless you're of royal birth there is no way you can simply pretend the world isn't there, and social skills are as important as intellectual ones.
Thankfully I can afford a good school so he does get the attention he needs as well as the social interaction, and it seems to work. Hurray:-)
LOL, no, the guy's in manufacturing REAL stuff, grin. He's actually quite interesting because he doesn't like BS at all, and that's why he seriously pissed off the UK delegate to Davos who was full of it - much to the amusement of all others present.
He also sponsored Focus on vision who supply adjustable glasses to developing countries. That reminds me, I need to buy a few of those to show to others, I very much like the idea and the charity.
Mine taught himself to write from age 3 (using BBCs "words & pictures" series) - all we did was help him shape the characters and provide wagonloads of markers and notepads. At age 3.5 he was writing and reading so fluently that at the end of the year he and another girl at his school with similar talents were doing the reading for the nativity play. Next he discovered London Underground and learned the whole layout by heart (which I only discovered when I wondered aloud how I got from A to B and he proceeded to tell me off the top of his head). I am not sure yet if I should label him, but he *is* special (and very sweet).
Aspergers and autism come in levels, it's not a binary thing. As long as the person is functioning you can work with them, but you'll have to accept them being different. This is where being literal can also help, and I thus like the whole idea of that company.
I know an investor who has one separate company where he employs all those people your average HR manager wouldn't touch. They don't know 9 to 5, and hierarchy is alien to them. His return on investment is huge - this group solves practically every problem thrown at them, and fast.
Me personally, I'm just being awkward because I'm trying to become a genius by reverse process. So far it's not working, but it's done wonders for clearing my social diary:-)
..the CRIA were taking people to court for choosing piracy over handling stolen goods? I mean, if you take something and sell it on without paying for it that is called stealing, no?
Well, I'm with a previous poster here: 10 violations per song is ridiculously low given some of the artists on that list. The have the exact figures, so use them. If they cannot produce those numbers that implies guilt anyway, because those same numbers are required to PAY the rights - not having the numbers would demonstrate a lack of intention to ever pay out.
Time to break out the popcorn, I think. This could get entertaining. Any chance of a repeat in the US?
I think you have more or less formulated the ONLY viable argument for Google DNS: as a hardened service for their OWN software.
I won't use it because I don't want to provide more data to Google (ditto for not using Chrome, FF works better for me), but I'm not dissing the service itself - it depends on your tolerance for risk, and of your need for a DNS. I'd use OpenDNS in that case.
The really interesting part of this whole thing is that some people are becoming more aware that there ARE actually choices in DNS, and that it's not just an invisible part of the Internet. If no one ever uses GoogleDNS, this whole debate would be a major win for that and no other reason.
That's also why the decline of the use of FTP is a shame: less and less people will know how to spell "anonymous". I once compiled a version which required "miscellaneous" as anon password, just to wind up some people - it was very, very funny watching that..
That was the gist of my comment: just be aware of the possible risk. If I really had a problem with DNS I'd change it - plenty of resources to choose from, and some are in countries with strong privacy laws. What I simply do NOT want to do is enhancing an already extensive dataset they have with even more information, so I'll say "stop" here. If others find that OK, well, good for them. It's just that some arguments are plain irrational, and that has intrigued me because it means people take an emotional decision. Weird. But also not my problem:-)
Hmm, paranoid - not sure. I know how hard it is to delete data once you have given it (read: impossible), and I am very well aware of just how quick you can mosaic match different data sets.
I'm not paranoid because that would mean using Slashdot over TOR and changing user names a lot..
As for "not knowing if my current ISP doesn't do this" - to be accurate, it's "whoever resolves my DNS queries right now", and those I use are located in a country with very rigid, well enforced privacy laws. That puts to barriers in the way to abuse: firstly the data lives in a safer place, and secondly, international use will require international collaboration. That means they will only do it when it's worth the effort, so the casual insider abuse risk is less. You can see what easy access to information can do when you go to the UK at present, it's turning into a police state..
And yet, if I *am* a criminal there will be nothing in the way to get that data - and I'm 100% fine with that. That I don't have anything dodgy to hide doesn't mean I have to go onto a central market square and undress:-).
Oh, it's very entertaining to see everyone coming out of the woodwork defending Google against any common sense - it's fascinating. I saw that first happening when they got rapped on the knuckles in Japan for not respecting local culture, and the same happened to them in Switzerland. They have done a good marketing job, but that doesn't make them right, or removes the risk of what they do.
There is no "good" or "bad" Google - it's simply a matter of analysing the possible risks, and deciding if you want to take them or not. And I choose not to, simple:-)
Fine, tell me how much you earn. And take down all your curtains. Oh, and just discuss that new business idea with a loudhailer so someone can set it up faster than you. And see just how long you can visibly take notes of what that muscular bloke says when he's making a phone call to his girlfriend. Make sure you have dental coverage..
There is a reason why privacy was named as a basic human right. There is also a reason why there have been unprecedented levels of indoctrination against it when two governments in particular mounted the biggest raid on your tax money ever. Interesting that few see the correlation..
Sigh. Let's start with some basics (and no, I don't rant, but the reasons why I'm more informed than you appear to think are my own).
(1) Information given is information lost. It's gone. There is no undo button, the data has leaked. Ergo: start thinking about information BEFORE you hand it over.
(2) You don't know NOW how that information is going to be used LATER. You did at least allude to that by acknowledging that they could change their terms later.
Now for the more advanced stuff.
(3) The myth of the anonymous IP address. Sure, a lot of people into file sharing would love the IP address NOT to be significant, but that's ignoring reality - the technical issues that the RIAA has are a consequence of long term observation - here you are talking about a sequence of events in less than a second. In the days of dialup, an IP address was a heck of a lot more transient than it is now - especially for home users. Sure, a corporate address is usually a presentation of a NAT so it's harder, but standard Jo Blow ADSL gives you a long term correlation between a user and their DNS resolution for sometimes a week. If you want a new pool IP address you actually have to kill your router for a good half hour or so to allow your DHCP lease to time out. Not to mention that it's not going to take long for geo-tagging to identify the ADSL users from the corporate ones and so assign probability.
(4) Synchronicity. Google query (unique UID) followed by a sequence of DNS lookups. I think you can assume with high probability that it's the same user, and keep tracking him/her/it for a set span of time. Various appoaches, but mosaic matching is the easiest, you just have to vector the match probability down over time.
It doesn't take a tinfoil hat. Google may well be very true about what they do now. But that has no bearing on what they'll do tomorrow, what some marketing droid dreams up tomorrow, or what they will be asked to do tomorrow. That they "can be replaced at any time" has no relevance whatsoever, the mainstay of the sheep out there don't realise what they're doing (witness Facebook, Picasa et al). They will only come bleating when it's far too late, like UK citizens now worried about CCTV.
I'm perfectly OK with anyone using Google for whatever. Not my problem, have a nice day. Just don't ask me to walk along with the sheep.
That's exactly my point - I *know* the value of my data because it's my job, and you won't catch me using Google for anything more than searching (usually via Scroogle).
That was indeed the whole argument behind my remark: look, more data you hand off - which implies I won't. I resolve in a country where data protection is very strong, so anyone wanting to use those records will still have to follow proper process. I am perfectly OK with someone having access to that data for defendable, legal reasons.
I'm absolutely NOT OK with someone doing this at will and on a whim, such as is happening in the UK right now, and I will thus certainly not put any data in the public domain where it can even be used without any legal control (and no, I don't believe what they say, your average con man will also not tell you he's about to rob you blind - I believe things that can be proven and are transparent).
The UK has sleepwalked into edge-to-edge CCTV coverage because it didn't recognise the rights encroachment, and I see pretty much the same with Google, unchallenged. All you need is ECHELON and CARNIVORE (sorry, DCS1000) feeds added and you have another NSA - but this time with data voluntarily submitted..
Am I paranoid? Probably. Better safe than sorry - you cannot erase data on the Net..
"if you have nothing to hide, then there isn't an issue"
Oh dear, so you post your salary and full bank statements on Facebook, leave the curtains open at night and never close the bathroom door to take a leak..
Universal declaration of human rights, article 12. Read it.
OK, hit the brakes for a moment. You actually believe what they say without ANY evidence to back it up?
Let me give you a heads up then. Read their privacy policy. So far, so good, no? Now read chapter 1 of their Terms of Service and see how it takes precedence over EVERYTHING else. Still feel comfortable?
I'm astonished at how much leeway Google is given in spying on everyone's life..
The especially odd part about the complaint is that Google has an upfront, posted policy about what they are doing as far as retaining your DNS requests, which I've never seen from an ISP
Well, fine, but if a burglar puts a notice on his balaclava that he's going to rob my house I still reserve the right to prevent that from happening, polite notice or not.
I think I was illustrating that his specific example had a background that wasn't helpful. Hell, I think I might even have used English for that, unbelievable as it appears.
Slashdot Mirror
It will tell you that you have voided your warranty before it dies..
..and it already has legions of people already exclaiming that this is the best device yet, despite the fact that nobody has seen as much as a drawing yet.
Then again, how did Windows Vista get all those rave reviews?
Exactly :-)
I've been using this for years, but I do get solid lockups with very large files (over 4GB) which has made me very nervous.. Any idea where I screw up?
Desktop and laptop are still WinXP (home) until I make up my mind what I'll replace it with (it's narrowed down to OpenSuSE or Mandriva), but for some use a Windows desktop is still more suitable (I'd love Paint.NET to run on Linux, for instance).
OK, I assume the Audi V8s are by necessity more efficient, but what makes the GM V8 so special other than being used in the US - maybe because there will be no more spare parts for US cars?
AFAIK Audi (and others) are still happily making decent V8s so it's not like the "world of V8" is coming to an end.
Puzzled..
Police: "First, make sure it's dead."
BANG. "OK, it's dead. Now what?"
In case you didn't realise, Basel actually has a casino.. :-)
No, but it is in principle obtaining personal information by deception..
Thanks for the Referer flag, I'd been meaning to look this up.
However, if you want ANY sort of privacy you would simply not use Google services, whatever you do to Gmail is backdoored by the fact that your email is scanned. Google service users are one policy change or one coding mistake away from disclosure.
As a matter of fact, if you're into privacy you should stack your defences. Get an email account in a country where privacy still counts (just check where Google keeps running into problems, so that would be either Japan or Switzerland), so use, say, gmx.ch, which takes care of the legal angle (a data tap would then have to be set up via international channels, which takes effort and is thus not as casual as what, for instance, the UK RIPA law allows or a corrupt cop can "organise"). Use Scroogle or IXquick (I've seen them mentioned in the thread already). Flush caches, and all cookies except the ones you really need.
For added fun you could stick a timer on your router. If you kill it for more than 30 minutes before powering it up again, most ISPs will issue a new IP address from the DHCP pool, which makes a mess of records held together via IP address.
I must admit it's interesting that all of a sudden, people are asking about privacy. A good month ago everyone showed their brainwashing by trying to defend Google when the Swiss asked them to respect their privacy laws. Weird - what changed?
Well, it's the perfect answer to "I've got an app for that" - I have a son for that, which I find personally more fun. :-)
I don't like labelling at all, because it's almost like a tattoo - once you have it will never go away without leaving at least s scar. Putting a kid in that sort of isolated club creates other risks - not knowing how to survive in a mixed society. Unless you're of royal birth there is no way you can simply pretend the world isn't there, and social skills are as important as intellectual ones.
Thankfully I can afford a good school so he does get the attention he needs as well as the social interaction, and it seems to work. Hurray :-)
LOL, no, the guy's in manufacturing REAL stuff, grin. He's actually quite interesting because he doesn't like BS at all, and that's why he seriously pissed off the UK delegate to Davos who was full of it - much to the amusement of all others present.
He also sponsored Focus on vision who supply adjustable glasses to developing countries. That reminds me, I need to buy a few of those to show to others, I very much like the idea and the charity.
Mine taught himself to write from age 3 (using BBCs "words & pictures" series) - all we did was help him shape the characters and provide wagonloads of markers and notepads. At age 3.5 he was writing and reading so fluently that at the end of the year he and another girl at his school with similar talents were doing the reading for the nativity play. Next he discovered London Underground and learned the whole layout by heart (which I only discovered when I wondered aloud how I got from A to B and he proceeded to tell me off the top of his head). I am not sure yet if I should label him, but he *is* special (and very sweet).
Aspergers and autism come in levels, it's not a binary thing. As long as the person is functioning you can work with them, but you'll have to accept them being different. This is where being literal can also help, and I thus like the whole idea of that company.
I know an investor who has one separate company where he employs all those people your average HR manager wouldn't touch. They don't know 9 to 5, and hierarchy is alien to them. His return on investment is huge - this group solves practically every problem thrown at them, and fast.
Me personally, I'm just being awkward because I'm trying to become a genius by reverse process. So far it's not working, but it's done wonders for clearing my social diary :-)
..the CRIA were taking people to court for choosing piracy over handling stolen goods? I mean, if you take something and sell it on without paying for it that is called stealing, no?
Well, I'm with a previous poster here: 10 violations per song is ridiculously low given some of the artists on that list. The have the exact figures, so use them. If they cannot produce those numbers that implies guilt anyway, because those same numbers are required to PAY the rights - not having the numbers would demonstrate a lack of intention to ever pay out.
Time to break out the popcorn, I think. This could get entertaining. Any chance of a repeat in the US?
I think you have more or less formulated the ONLY viable argument for Google DNS: as a hardened service for their OWN software.
I won't use it because I don't want to provide more data to Google (ditto for not using Chrome, FF works better for me), but I'm not dissing the service itself - it depends on your tolerance for risk, and of your need for a DNS. I'd use OpenDNS in that case.
The really interesting part of this whole thing is that some people are becoming more aware that there ARE actually choices in DNS, and that it's not just an invisible part of the Internet. If no one ever uses GoogleDNS, this whole debate would be a major win for that and no other reason.
That's also why the decline of the use of FTP is a shame: less and less people will know how to spell "anonymous". I once compiled a version which required "miscellaneous" as anon password, just to wind up some people - it was very, very funny watching that..
That was the gist of my comment: just be aware of the possible risk. If I really had a problem with DNS I'd change it - plenty of resources to choose from, and some are in countries with strong privacy laws. What I simply do NOT want to do is enhancing an already extensive dataset they have with even more information, so I'll say "stop" here. If others find that OK, well, good for them. It's just that some arguments are plain irrational, and that has intrigued me because it means people take an emotional decision. Weird. But also not my problem :-)
Cheers :-)
Especially if mining my (again, trivial) data contributes to the open source/philanthropic efforts put forth by them.
But, but, Bill Gates does philanthropy things too! But you're not using Bing? You are aware you are depriving people of charity now, aren't you?
(no, I'm kidding).
Hmm, paranoid - not sure. I know how hard it is to delete data once you have given it (read: impossible), and I am very well aware of just how quick you can mosaic match different data sets.
I'm not paranoid because that would mean using Slashdot over TOR and changing user names a lot..
As for "not knowing if my current ISP doesn't do this" - to be accurate, it's "whoever resolves my DNS queries right now", and those I use are located in a country with very rigid, well enforced privacy laws. That puts to barriers in the way to abuse: firstly the data lives in a safer place, and secondly, international use will require international collaboration. That means they will only do it when it's worth the effort, so the casual insider abuse risk is less. You can see what easy access to information can do when you go to the UK at present, it's turning into a police state..
And yet, if I *am* a criminal there will be nothing in the way to get that data - and I'm 100% fine with that. That I don't have anything dodgy to hide doesn't mean I have to go onto a central market square and undress :-).
Oh, it's very entertaining to see everyone coming out of the woodwork defending Google against any common sense - it's fascinating. I saw that first happening when they got rapped on the knuckles in Japan for not respecting local culture, and the same happened to them in Switzerland. They have done a good marketing job, but that doesn't make them right, or removes the risk of what they do.
There is no "good" or "bad" Google - it's simply a matter of analysing the possible risks, and deciding if you want to take them or not. And I choose not to, simple :-)
Fine, tell me how much you earn. And take down all your curtains. Oh, and just discuss that new business idea with a loudhailer so someone can set it up faster than you. And see just how long you can visibly take notes of what that muscular bloke says when he's making a phone call to his girlfriend. Make sure you have dental coverage..
There is a reason why privacy was named as a basic human right. There is also a reason why there have been unprecedented levels of indoctrination against it when two governments in particular mounted the biggest raid on your tax money ever. Interesting that few see the correlation..
Sigh. Let's start with some basics (and no, I don't rant, but the reasons why I'm more informed than you appear to think are my own).
(1) Information given is information lost. It's gone. There is no undo button, the data has leaked. Ergo: start thinking about information BEFORE you hand it over.
(2) You don't know NOW how that information is going to be used LATER. You did at least allude to that by acknowledging that they could change their terms later.
Now for the more advanced stuff.
(3) The myth of the anonymous IP address. Sure, a lot of people into file sharing would love the IP address NOT to be significant, but that's ignoring reality - the technical issues that the RIAA has are a consequence of long term observation - here you are talking about a sequence of events in less than a second. In the days of dialup, an IP address was a heck of a lot more transient than it is now - especially for home users. Sure, a corporate address is usually a presentation of a NAT so it's harder, but standard Jo Blow ADSL gives you a long term correlation between a user and their DNS resolution for sometimes a week. If you want a new pool IP address you actually have to kill your router for a good half hour or so to allow your DHCP lease to time out. Not to mention that it's not going to take long for geo-tagging to identify the ADSL users from the corporate ones and so assign probability.
(4) Synchronicity. Google query (unique UID) followed by a sequence of DNS lookups. I think you can assume with high probability that it's the same user, and keep tracking him/her/it for a set span of time. Various appoaches, but mosaic matching is the easiest, you just have to vector the match probability down over time.
It doesn't take a tinfoil hat. Google may well be very true about what they do now. But that has no bearing on what they'll do tomorrow, what some marketing droid dreams up tomorrow, or what they will be asked to do tomorrow. That they "can be replaced at any time" has no relevance whatsoever, the mainstay of the sheep out there don't realise what they're doing (witness Facebook, Picasa et al). They will only come bleating when it's far too late, like UK citizens now worried about CCTV.
I'm perfectly OK with anyone using Google for whatever. Not my problem, have a nice day. Just don't ask me to walk along with the sheep.
That's exactly my point - I *know* the value of my data because it's my job, and you won't catch me using Google for anything more than searching (usually via Scroogle).
That was indeed the whole argument behind my remark: look, more data you hand off - which implies I won't. I resolve in a country where data protection is very strong, so anyone wanting to use those records will still have to follow proper process. I am perfectly OK with someone having access to that data for defendable, legal reasons.
I'm absolutely NOT OK with someone doing this at will and on a whim, such as is happening in the UK right now, and I will thus certainly not put any data in the public domain where it can even be used without any legal control (and no, I don't believe what they say, your average con man will also not tell you he's about to rob you blind - I believe things that can be proven and are transparent).
The UK has sleepwalked into edge-to-edge CCTV coverage because it didn't recognise the rights encroachment, and I see pretty much the same with Google, unchallenged. All you need is ECHELON and CARNIVORE (sorry, DCS1000) feeds added and you have another NSA - but this time with data voluntarily submitted..
Am I paranoid? Probably. Better safe than sorry - you cannot erase data on the Net..
"if you have nothing to hide, then there isn't an issue"
Oh dear, so you post your salary and full bank statements on Facebook, leave the curtains open at night and never close the bathroom door to take a leak..
Universal declaration of human rights, article 12. Read it.
OK, hit the brakes for a moment. You actually believe what they say without ANY evidence to back it up?
Let me give you a heads up then. Read their privacy policy. So far, so good, no? Now read chapter 1 of their Terms of Service and see how it takes precedence over EVERYTHING else. Still feel comfortable?
I'm astonished at how much leeway Google is given in spying on everyone's life..
The especially odd part about the complaint is that Google has an upfront, posted policy about what they are doing as far as retaining your DNS requests, which I've never seen from an ISP
Well, fine, but if a burglar puts a notice on his balaclava that he's going to rob my house I still reserve the right to prevent that from happening, polite notice or not.
I think I was illustrating that his specific example had a background that wasn't helpful. Hell, I think I might even have used English for that, unbelievable as it appears.
You may thus want to look up irony, here's a link.
Oh, and the short form of "he is" is "he's". Notice the much misused apostrophe.