It seems to me that Google is becoming more and more abusive.
When I go to web pages, often the NoScript and Ghostery add-ons list one or more Google processes. Google is following web site visitors everywhere.
Google allows cell phone providers to prevent updates to its Android operating system. That forces people who need security to buy new cell phones.
In general, it seems to me that hardware and software providers are becoming more and more authoritarian. They take advantage of the fact that most people don't know much about technology.
In my opinion, Microsoft's Windows 10 is NOT USABLE! How can you deliver a computer to a customer when you know what you are delivering is spyware? One article: Windows 10 is possibly the worst spyware ever made. Quote from that story: "Buried in the service agreement is permission to poke through everything on your PC." A previous comment about Microsoft: Window 10 Spyware.
Technology companies are not only abusive in their design of products, they are abusive in other ways, also:
Adobe Systems: Adobe Flash, The Spy in Your Computer -- Part 1 Adobe seems to me to be one of the original abusers. The company demonstrated to others that average people don't know how to protect themselves from technology abuse.
It seems to me that poor communication discourages people from being interested in Physics. "The Universe should not exist" is clickbait dishonesty by the media.
It would have been far better to explain the conflict being observed and acknowledge that not much is known in that area of interest. It is FAR too early to draw conclusions.
What the CERN scientists may have discovered is that the "basic assumptions of the standard model of particle physics" are incorrect.
My understanding from reading a book by Paul Allen, Idea Man: A Memoir by the Cofounder of Microsoft and from other sources, is that others wrote the code, or most of it. However, that was never openly stated, apparently.
Quote from that Amazon page, taken from the book:
"While much has been written about Microsoft's early years, Allen has never before told the story from his point of view. Nor has he previously talked about the details of his complex relationship with Gates or his behind-closed-doors perspective on how a struggling start-up became the most powerful technology company in the world. Idea Man is the candid and long-awaited memoir of an intensely private person, a tale of triumphant highs and terrifying lows."
My impressions: The book is definitely NOT "candid". Allen's relationship with Bill Gates was definitely "complex". Allen is definitely an intensely private person.
Paul Allen's relationship with Bill Gates was so intensely unfriendly at times that Allen decided to disconnect from Microsoft. Allen had a lot of Microsoft stock; that's why he is rich.
Every culture has typical cultural limitations. Some people in a culture teach themselves to avoid the typical limitations of their culture.
I have, for example, taught myself some of the typical advantages of the Brazilian culture.
Being CEO of Microsoft is extremely challenging both socially and technologically. It seems, from what has been made public, that Satya Nadella is not good at dealing with the immense social challenges of managing Microsoft.
Possibly some other person originally from India could be a better manager for Microsoft. That person would, of course, have to know the U.S. culture since so many people who work for Microsoft are part of that culture.
Has Bill Gates been successful in spending his money? Is there evidence he has deep knowledge about technology? Is there evidence he has deep knowledge about programming, for example?
Over many years, I have seen almost no evidence of Bill Gates having depth of thinking.
Bill Gates and Nathan Myhrvold wrote a very poor book together, The Road Ahead. Quote from the Wikipedia page:
The New York Times review called the book "bland and tepid" and reading "as if it had been vetted by a committee of Microsoft executives"; it is "little more than a positioning document, sold in book form with accompanying CD-ROM and designed mainly to advance the interests of the Microsoft Corporation."
That New York Times book review suggests that Bill Gates and Nathan Myhrvold were deliberately engaged in fraud, and deliberately eliminated anything of value from the book before it was printed.
Amazon and Microsoft contribute to making Seattle a MISERABLE place to live. The world, not just Seattle, needs better city management. (Posting this again, with improvements.)
Seattle: Together with Amazon, Microsoft, and inadequate city management, Seattle is an extremely miserable place:
Traffic:Seattle one of the worst U.S. cities for traffic congestion, tied with NYC (March 31, 2015) Quote: "An additional 23 minutes a day spent in traffic may not sound like much, but when it adds up over a year it becomes 89 hours." (Whoever wrote that must be accustomed to Seattle misery. An additional 23 minutes a day spent in traffic sounds HORRIBLE.)
Slow internet: Many areas of Seattle have poor internet connections. See the article, These places have the slowest Internet in the country. (June 25, 2015) Quote: "... Seattle... CenturyLink (CTL) customers trying to access particular sites from 9 p.m. to 10 p.m. will have unbearably slow speeds."
Important questions for city managers and residents of Amazon's new city: 1) Do you want to invite a company to your city that has a history of abusiveness? 2) Could the managers of Amazon's new city manage Amazon's growth, or would it be almost completely out of their control?
Title of the parent comment: "The heady days of the dot com bust..."
Recently I asked someone who works for an investment company if the U.S. stock market is in a bubble again. The answer was, "Yes, that's why we are buying stocks of foreign companies."
If, as in the years before 2008, stock brokers can convince a huge number of people that the stock market will continue to rise rapidly, the brokers can sell what they have for a huge profit, and there will be another crash, as in 2008.
It seems to me that companies have discovered that most people don't have much knowledge of technology, and are easily manipulated. So now it seems to me that companies are competing to see who can be most abusive. A few of the many examples:
Adobe Systemes: Adobe Flash, The Spy in Your Computer â" Part 1 Adobe seems to me to be one of the original abusers. The company demonstrated to others that average people cannot protect themselves from technology abuse.
In India, I talked with many people about cultural pressures there. They were happy to talk about that and we had almost no disagreement. I learned a lot.
I often talk with people about cultural issues in the U.S. and in other countries.
More licensing!! The new license will say, on the 455th page of fine print, in complicated legal language, that Microsoft executives can go into your refrigerator any time they want, and eat your ice cream.
Why do they want to do that? They like the feeling of dominance.
There has been progress in dominance in other areas:
When Microsoft tricked Windows 7 and Windows 8 users into installing Windows 10, Microsoft removed Windows Media Center, also: Microsoft kills off Windows Media Center.
Choosing someone who is a good manager is choosing a person who, partly, is good at resolving conflicts. Often cultural pressures limit a person's abilities. Sometimes a person is able to avoid cultural pressures. One example is Dorsa Derakhshani, an Iranian Chess Grandmaster.
Satya Nadella is apparently not as destructive as Steve Ballmer. Ballmer was rated the worst CEO in the United States.
Quote from an article in Forbes Magazine about Steve Ballmer: "Without a doubt, Mr. Ballmer is the worst CEO of a large publicly traded American company today." Another quote: "The reach of his bad leadership has extended far beyond Microsoft when it comes to destroying shareholder value -- and jobs." (May 12, 2012)
08:40 Charlie Rose: How much time do you spend at Microsoft?
08:42 Bill Gates: I'm there about 15 percent of the time. And I get to work just on the R and D part.
Part of "R and D" at Microsoft is Windows 10 putting ads on screens while people are in their offices trying to work. The Microsoft managers who participated in that are amazingly lacking in social ability, in my opinion.
Microsoft's primary location, Seattle, is a miserable place:
Traffic:Seattle one of the worst U.S. cities for traffic congestion, tied with NYC (March 31, 2015) Quote: "An additional 23 minutes a day spent in traffic may not sound like much, but when it adds up over a year it becomes 89 hours." (Whoever wrote that must be accustomed to Seattle misery. An additional 23 minutes a day spent in traffic sounds HORRIBLE.)
Slow internet: Many areas of Seattle have poor internet connections. See the article, These places have the slowest Internet in the country. (June 25, 2015) Quote: "... Seattle... CenturyLink (CTL) customers trying to access particular sites from 9 p.m. to 10 p.m. will have unbearably slow speeds."
Slashdot Mirror
It seems to me that Google is becoming more and more abusive.
When I go to web pages, often the NoScript and Ghostery add-ons list one or more Google processes. Google is following web site visitors everywhere.
Google allows cell phone providers to prevent updates to its Android operating system. That forces people who need security to buy new cell phones.
In general, it seems to me that hardware and software providers are becoming more and more authoritarian. They take advantage of the fact that most people don't know much about technology.
In my opinion, Microsoft's Windows 10 is NOT USABLE! How can you deliver a computer to a customer when you know what you are delivering is spyware? One article: Windows 10 is possibly the worst spyware ever made. Quote from that story: "Buried in the service agreement is permission to poke through everything on your PC." A previous comment about Microsoft: Window 10 Spyware.
Technology companies are not only abusive in their design of products, they are abusive in other ways, also:
Microsoft: Microsoft Is Filled With Abusive Managers And Overworked Employees, Says Tell-All Book.
Apple: Cupertino Mayor Says Apple 'Abuses Us'
Apple again: Criticism of Apple Inc.
Adobe Systems: Adobe Flash, The Spy in Your Computer -- Part 1 Adobe seems to me to be one of the original abusers. The company demonstrated to others that average people don't know how to protect themselves from technology abuse.
Adobe Systems rents software: Software as a Monthly Rental
Firefox marks most of the add-ons I use as "Legacy".
It seems to me that software and hardware organizations are pushing for more and more control.
"Bill Gates Is No Longer The World's Richest Person..."
Think how painful that must be. Okay, everyone, let's send him a dollar to help him get back on top.
It seems to me that poor communication discourages people from being interested in Physics. "The Universe should not exist" is clickbait dishonesty by the media.
Read the scientific article, A parts-per-billion measurement of the antiproton magnetic moment. There is nothing dishonest.
It would have been far better to explain the conflict being observed and acknowledge that not much is known in that area of interest. It is FAR too early to draw conclusions.
What the CERN scientists may have discovered is that the "basic assumptions of the standard model of particle physics" are incorrect.
More clickbait dishonesty:
CERN Antimatter Experiment Suggest the Universe Shouldn't Exist
CERN Research Finds "The Universe Should Not Actually Exist"
The Universe Should Not Actually Exist, CERN Scientists Discover
CERN Scientists Find Further Evidence That the Universe 'Should Not Exist'
The universe shouldn't exist, scientists say after finding bizarre behaviour of anti-matter. Quote: "We don't know why the universe isn't destroying itself." That is at least in the direction of being honest; we don't know why.
I'm guessing that media writers didn't want to try to understand the actual issues, so they all adopted one writer's wild exaggeration.
I see NO evidence that anyone at CERN is dishonest. The dishonesty seems to be only in media reports.
Maybe CERN scientists should not exist?
Seriously, "Universe should not exist" is not a good description of the physics.
See Microsoft BASIC for 6502 Original Source Code [1978].
My understanding from reading a book by Paul Allen, Idea Man: A Memoir by the Cofounder of Microsoft and from other sources, is that others wrote the code, or most of it. However, that was never openly stated, apparently.
Quote from that Amazon page, taken from the book:
"While much has been written about Microsoft's early years, Allen has never before told the story from his point of view. Nor has he previously talked about the details of his complex relationship with Gates or his behind-closed-doors perspective on how a struggling start-up became the most powerful technology company in the world. Idea Man is the candid and long-awaited memoir of an intensely private person, a tale of triumphant highs and terrifying lows."
My impressions: The book is definitely NOT "candid". Allen's relationship with Bill Gates was definitely "complex". Allen is definitely an intensely private person.
Paul Allen's relationship with Bill Gates was so intensely unfriendly at times that Allen decided to disconnect from Microsoft. Allen had a lot of Microsoft stock; that's why he is rich.
"Gates has himself admitted he was never any good at coding."
Can you give a source for that?
"Keep imagining Indians cant make decisions..."
Every culture has typical cultural limitations. Some people in a culture teach themselves to avoid the typical limitations of their culture.
I have, for example, taught myself some of the typical advantages of the Brazilian culture.
Being CEO of Microsoft is extremely challenging both socially and technologically. It seems, from what has been made public, that Satya Nadella is not good at dealing with the immense social challenges of managing Microsoft.
Possibly some other person originally from India could be a better manager for Microsoft. That person would, of course, have to know the U.S. culture since so many people who work for Microsoft are part of that culture.
"Education starts at home..."
Has Bill Gates been successful in spending his money? Is there evidence he has deep knowledge about technology? Is there evidence he has deep knowledge about programming, for example?
Over many years, I have seen almost no evidence of Bill Gates having depth of thinking.
Bill Gates and Nathan Myhrvold wrote a very poor book together, The Road Ahead. Quote from the Wikipedia page:
That New York Times book review suggests that Bill Gates and Nathan Myhrvold were deliberately engaged in fraud, and deliberately eliminated anything of value from the book before it was printed.
" 'hipster'* / counterculture paradise like Portland..."
Portland is no longer the city it once was. Now there are constant traffic jams and the increased pollution caused by slow-moving cars.
Portland City managers are allowing the construction of large buildings with no parking.
Amazon and Microsoft contribute to making Seattle a MISERABLE place to live. The world, not just Seattle, needs better city management. (Posting this again, with improvements.)
... CenturyLink (CTL) customers trying to access particular sites from 9 p.m. to 10 p.m. will have unbearably slow speeds."
Amazon: Worse than Wal-Mart: Amazon's sick brutality and secret history of ruthlessly intimidating workers (February 23, 2014)
Amazon: Inside Amazon: Wrestling Big Ideas in a Bruising Workplace (August 15, 2015) Quote: "The company is conducting an experiment in how far it can push white-collar workers..."
Amazon: Amazon Under Fire Over Alleged Worker Abuse in Germany (February 19, 2013)
Microsoft: Microsoft Is Filled With Abusive Managers And Overworked Employees, Says Tell-All Book (May 23, 2012) The Microsoft headquarters is in Redmond, part of the Seattle metropolitan area.
Seattle: Together with Amazon, Microsoft, and inadequate city management, Seattle is an extremely miserable place:
Traffic: Seattle one of the worst U.S. cities for traffic congestion, tied with NYC (March 31, 2015) Quote: "An additional 23 minutes a day spent in traffic may not sound like much, but when it adds up over a year it becomes 89 hours." (Whoever wrote that must be accustomed to Seattle misery. An additional 23 minutes a day spent in traffic sounds HORRIBLE.)
Slow internet: Many areas of Seattle have poor internet connections. See the article, These places have the slowest Internet in the country. (June 25, 2015) Quote: "... Seattle
Important questions for city managers and residents of Amazon's new city: 1) Do you want to invite a company to your city that has a history of abusiveness? 2) Could the managers of Amazon's new city manage Amazon's growth, or would it be almost completely out of their control?
Title of the parent comment: "The heady days of the dot com bust..."
Recently I asked someone who works for an investment company if the U.S. stock market is in a bubble again. The answer was, "Yes, that's why we are buying stocks of foreign companies."
If, as in the years before 2008, stock brokers can convince a huge number of people that the stock market will continue to rise rapidly, the brokers can sell what they have for a huge profit, and there will be another crash, as in 2008.
Okay, then.
What do you recommend for some other OS, such as Linux or BSD?
"Really, the most important thing is to use client-side SMIME or PGP encryption..."
I haven't found a client-side encryption system that is easy to install, or one that gives me confidence in its design.
Advice? We need it for ourselves and we support many people who use the Windows OS.
Good point.
It seems to me that companies have discovered that most people don't have much knowledge of technology, and are easily manipulated. So now it seems to me that companies are competing to see who can be most abusive. A few of the many examples:
Microsoft: Window 10 Spyware
Microsoft: Microsoft Is Filled With Abusive Managers And Overworked Employees, Says Tell-All Book.
Apple: Cupertino Mayor Says Apple 'Abuses Us'
Apple again: Criticism of Apple Inc.
Adobe Systemes: Adobe Flash, The Spy in Your Computer â" Part 1 Adobe seems to me to be one of the original abusers. The company demonstrated to others that average people cannot protect themselves from technology abuse.
Adobe Systems rents software: Software as a Monthly Rental
In India, I talked with many people about cultural pressures there. They were happy to talk about that and we had almost no disagreement. I learned a lot.
I often talk with people about cultural issues in the U.S. and in other countries.
More licensing!! The new license will say, on the 455th page of fine print, in complicated legal language, that Microsoft executives can go into your refrigerator any time they want, and eat your ice cream.
Why do they want to do that? They like the feeling of dominance.
There has been progress in dominance in other areas:
Spyware:
Windows 10 is possibly the worst spyware ever made
Quote: "Buried in the service agreement is permission to poke through everything on your PC."
Malware:
Microsoft is using 'malware tactics' to trick people into upgrading to Windows 10
As I said, many were tricked into "upgrading" to Windows 10. One story: Microsoft is using 'malware tactics' to trick people into upgrading to Windows 10
When Microsoft tricked Windows 7 and Windows 8 users into installing Windows 10, Microsoft removed Windows Media Center, also: Microsoft kills off Windows Media Center.
More about Microsoft's abusive management: Microsoft's history is filled with abuse.
Choosing someone who is a good manager is choosing a person who, partly, is good at resolving conflicts. Often cultural pressures limit a person's abilities. Sometimes a person is able to avoid cultural pressures. One example is Dorsa Derakhshani, an Iranian Chess Grandmaster.
Microsoft's history is filled with abuse:
... CenturyLink (CTL) customers trying to access particular sites from 9 p.m. to 10 p.m. will have unbearably slow speeds."
One fact about Microsoft under Satya Nadella gives a useful overall view. Windows 10 is possibly the worst spyware ever made. Quote: "Buried in the service agreement is permission to poke through everything on your PC." Nadella has been CEO of Microsoft since 2014.
The management of Microsoft by Satya Nadella seems, to me and many others, UTTERLY incompetent: CNET Editor Rails Against Non-Consensual Windows Updates.
Possibly Satya Nadella was chosen as CEO of Microsoft partly because he was the least socially annoying manager.
Microsoft has a long history of being abusive to everyone, not just customers. Microsoft Is Filled With Abusive Managers And Overworked Employees, Says Tell-All Book.
Ballmer was worse?
Satya Nadella is apparently not as destructive as Steve Ballmer. Ballmer was rated the worst CEO in the United States.
Quote from an article in Forbes Magazine about Steve Ballmer: "Without a doubt, Mr. Ballmer is the worst CEO of a large publicly traded American company today." Another quote: "The reach of his bad leadership has extended far beyond Microsoft when it comes to destroying shareholder value -- and jobs." (May 12, 2012)
Bill Gates still manages Microsoft:
See the Jan. 27, 2017 Charlie Rose TV interview, Bill Gates and Warren Buffett. Quoting from the transcript:
08:40 Charlie Rose: How much time do you spend at Microsoft?
08:42 Bill Gates: I'm there about 15 percent of the time. And I get to work just on the R and D part.
Part of "R and D" at Microsoft is Windows 10 putting ads on screens while people are in their offices trying to work. The Microsoft managers who participated in that are amazingly lacking in social ability, in my opinion.
Microsoft's primary location, Seattle, is a miserable place:
Traffic: Seattle one of the worst U.S. cities for traffic congestion, tied with NYC (March 31, 2015) Quote: "An additional 23 minutes a day spent in traffic may not sound like much, but when it adds up over a year it becomes 89 hours." (Whoever wrote that must be accustomed to Seattle misery. An additional 23 minutes a day spent in traffic sounds HORRIBLE.)
Slow internet: Many areas of Seattle have poor internet connections. See the article, These places have the slowest Internet in the country. (June 25, 2015) Quote: "... Seattle
Google is also badly managed.
To me, the management of Google seems less and less competent. Wikipedia says Sundar Pichai, CEO of Google was given that position in October 24, 2015. The reorganization of Google into Alphabet was completed on October 2,
What phones?
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