Whatever. You know, Microsoft STRONGLY recommends that you DON'T put any personal information in your publicly available profile display.
WHY is this such a big deal? Why is it a compelling reason that _because_ someone is a lesbian or gay, you have to ADVERTISE in a forum that is the FARTHEST from relevant as putting you like CATS in there. It serves NO purpose. Microsoft's sandbox, so Microsoft sets the rules... if you still choose to break them, you have been warned.
I truly don't get the bloody uproar. This is a non-issue. You can bitch all you want, but it's still a non-issue. Bitching about it won't turn it into a Rosa Parks-esque incident. Life's too short to bother if someone can say "I'm a carpetmuncher!" in their GAMING PROFILE. Jesus.
Because you play with 12 year olds. If they happen to get it right that your mom is turning tricks down the street for $5 a handjob, that's just a lucky guess. It doesn't affect Team Fortress in any form or fashion. Nor would it if someone stumbled on the idea you were a poofter. Either play with your friends only that you know are your friends (not someone who asked to be your friend on Live or some IRC channel), and you won't have to worry about "mom's little secret."
Horseshit. Why should someone be banned for a word that someone else finds offensive? What if your name really IS lipshits?
We could go on and on, but let's remember one thing... it's THEIR Xbox Live, not ours. And like I asked before, WHAT does your sexual orientation NEED to be displayed for? So you can get a higher score in something? WHY BOTHER? I don't put "I love the ladies" in my profile... and does it affect my online gaming? Not in the least. It's frivolous, and it is Microsoft's rulebook. Don't like it? Don't join.
Why would sexual orientation come up in a game of Team Fortress? Trolls are trolls, and they will spew nonsense no matter what game you're playing. If someone called you a fag on a game, just because you might really BE gay, doesn't mean they KNOW and are somehow repressing your right to be a friend of Dorothy......xbox live is a place to play games, not discuss gay-friendly coffee shops. I mean, seriously.
Yeah, because I can think of oh, DOZENS of games that would be enhanced by putting in your sexual orientation. Honestly... this is a tempest in a teapot, brought on by someone with a hair-trigger on the "help I'm being repressed!" button. It's a fictitious profile that contains a gamer picture, a motto, and can list the games you play. Unless this woman was trolling for trim, why does anyone need to know she's a lesbian to play Halo?
Sometimes I wonder if people aren't just doing this shit for attention. If you're gay, straight, have a sheep as a lover, I don't fucking care. It's XBox live, not fucking match.com for fuck's sake.
IF a HDD died at the same age as a battery, you'd bet your sweet ass they'd want them removable. I have a 14.4GB IDE HDD that STILL works in a 1997 model Dell. If a battery lasted THAT long, I'd not care if they soldered it to a pipebomb that went off if you tried to remove it.:) The HDD's I yanked out of my G5 were 6 years old (well the boot drive was the original in the machine so only 5), and they still work after a bit o' cleanup and some TLC.:) I bet that can't (or won't) ever be said for a battery.
That's a shame, really. (At least they didn't burst into flame!) I've had little trouble with my "dodgy" rev-A MBP (other than the fact that it's not a Core 2 Duo... and the internal DVD burner is the shittiest this side of actual shit) and its battery after 31 months of continuous use. It even doubled as my main desktop while I was swapping the HDD's out of my 5 year old G5.
But like the iPhone and iPod Touch, I am not keen on buying a laptop that doesn't just let the battery pop out. Engineering or not, marvel or not, I want to know that I can take a quick trip to "batteries-r-us.com" and get myself a new laptop battery with no hassle, no trip to a genius bar, and no trip to the overpriced malls that Apple Stores tend to breed in. Not that the stores aren't a marketing marvel... just not my marvel. I love MacOSX, but if the trend continues, Leopard will be the last iteration I use. (It is the last one I can use on my G5) I refuse to bother with the "computer as a work of art" any more. I just loved the OS. I didn't care if the computer looked like a cube or a brick. I guess I'm just getting old, and my old computers are working just fine.... but for those who enjoy that sort of thing, I'm not badmouthing you (or Apple)... it's just not my cup of tea.
I use Linux, and it's not a major stretch to make it my primary OS. But that's just me. The fact that the new 17" MBP battery isn't welded to the frame is a good thing, but in the grand scheme of things, will it stay that "simple"? My 2nd Gen iPod has a semi-simple way to replace the battery... and they even supply the tool.:) Which is why I still use it, and have no need to buy another. Of course it is FW only... and Apple's got a bug up their butt to remove Firewire.:) Artificially restricting (out of the box) G5's from using some features of iLife '09 disturbs me more than the non-user-replaceable batteries. They're no better than Microsoft (or anyone else) in that regard.
I remember when games on the Amiga would use shortcuts and tricks in the architecture to squeeze out performance, but if you updated your Workbench and/or Kickstart, Commodore acknowledged some stuff would break. Them's the breaks.:)
Perhaps Aspyr was using a deprecated function call that changed, was warned it would change (or Apple's more like Microsoft and just doesn't tell anyone), and forgot (or just plain didn't) fix it before the inevitable breakage would occur? If Apple changed something out from under the API and didn't tell anyone (I find that hard to believe), then yes, Apple's to blame and the Quicktime engineers should be forced to watch Steel Magnolias as a punishment. Otherwise, let's be sure we aren't flailing the blamestick all over the place because of something someone "assumes" is the cause of the Sims 2 breaking.
Right. Let's see... Quicktime still works but the Sims 2 doesn't. Quicktime doesn't seem to break anything else, so logically, it MUST be Apple's fault. I think the rest of the Quicktime users who aren't playing the Sims 2 would disagree with your placement of blame.:)
Yeah, that's about the size of it. How many Constitutions have the French had? It'll take a minute for you to count them...
The brilliance of this whole republic is, you don't have to live here. And if I had to guess, you don't. If not, feel free to move along to some place free of guns. Oh, that's right... unless you want to live on Xanadu, there ain't such a place. Lightweight. Or should I say, idiot. Thanks for proving my point.
No, crime A (in this context, moron) isn't a CRIME IT IS A TORT. It's A CIVIL MATTER. Get it? I don't think you do. Drivel indeed. How do network monitoring provisions help in a STIMULUS BILL? Hmm? Obsess much? Get a grip. This sort of underhanded nonsense that is passing off as actual governance is what pisses me off.(and should you, if you're American, even the UK's got its nutty crap coming down the pike) People need to realize it's not "stealing", it's not criminal, and yes, it's a CIVIL matter that is getting FAR too much attention in the age of perpetual copyrights and the ass-raping of the Public Domain by Disney and the rest of the problem. Yes, they are part of the problem.
The Congress and Media Cartels are _NOT_ going after the criminal copyright infringement (comprehension hard for you is it? Read it again... sound out the words), they are going after the incidental and CIVIL infringement as IF it were criminal. See the point? Probably not. These sorts of things are a distraction. They BARELY nail anyone selling bootlegs on the street corner in NY, but they spend millions tracking college students and trying to extort money from them. I wouldn't expect you to understand, because you missed the entire point of the post.
Are you high? Yes, I bet you are. Because the strawman you just yanked out of your butt is COMPLETELY IRRELEVANT. Know what that means? Oh, did I use a big word? Sorry. If you want to talk about futility, it's me responding to a moronic AC who thinks with the same veracity he washes behind his ears. You couldn't pull a rational thought out of your cranium with pliers and a jackhammer.
Leave the real conversation to the adults next time, would you?
Yet they keep trying. (Just like the anti-gun nuts) I'm certainly getting sick and tired of it all, myself. You can find some nice out-of-print things on torrents, and with no DRM at the iTunes Store and Amazon MP3 store anymore, there's little incentive to get most music via torrents.
But, whatever your view on torrents and filesharing in general, it will happen even with draconian witch-hunts and overzealous (and in the US Unconstitutional) legislation and police action. And yes, I'm going to say it... the world has more pressing matters than to persecute filesharers. When you (collective government and media cartels) have solved ALL OTHER PROBLEMS in the world, maybe we'll let you finish off the whole copyright witch hunt. (I said MAYBE, asswads.) But until then, stop it.:)
If there's something someone wants (think China, South America, etc) and it's overpriced even for the US, it's going to be bootlegged and sold on the streets. China's not doing anything (in spite of the good show they put on last year) to combat this sort of thing because they don't give two ape-shits about American and European "copyrights". But they persist, like the war on Drugs, trying to eradicate something that will never go away. It's like putting toothpaste back in the tube, but they insist on wasting money. Hey, if it were all their money, I'd probably not be so irritated... but the money belongs to the creators, yet it's going to this political bullshit (like the "traffic monitoring" provisions snuck into the stimulus bill here in the States). I guess the 4th Amendment is really dead now. "Because it's for the children."
And things like the Bill of Rights are not laws, but simply written down to let the government know what things are not theirs to take or hamper. Those rights exist outside their jurisdiction and are not subject to laws that are written to suppress the liberties granted by something higher than the folks in D.C.:) And the Constitution is written to inform the government that they exist at the courtesy of the people, not the other way around. Jefferson made that abundantly clear....
No, but if you tried to sell it as a new car, they would. Used, that's fine. But Pystar's taking hemis, then mustangs, repackaging the mustang with a Hemi and selling it as if it were a Dodge Challenger "for the rest of us." It's as close to a car analogy I can get.;)
THAT is what the issue is. And whether or not Apple can forbid it. Here's to hoping this gets a decent amount of unbiased scrutiny. Otherwise this is just bread and circuses.:) Apple's not going after you if you want to make a Hackintosh. They are going after you if you want to SELL a Hackintosh as your own creation, or as a duly informal representative of the OSX fan-base.:)
But who thinks HP computers are reliable? Anyone? Anyone?:) But seriously, you're missing the point. Why are there Cadillac Escalades when the Chevy Tahoe is the same thing? Aside from a few fancy-schmancy add-ons, it's JUST a Tahoe. But you sure can't get a Caddy for the price of a Chevy (we're talking new here). The same holds true for Apples. Sure you can buy a cheaper laptop, but if you want those fancy-schmancy add-ons that Apple is famous for, you can't just go get a Tahoe. And what we're seeing Pystar do is the same thing most people are attempting to do when price comes up... it's the SAME hardware... why is Apple limiting us? It's the SAME tahoe, why is GM limiting us Chevy buyers? (Admittedly, that's a stretch as to quality/value, since the platforms are so similar.)
It's not a perfect example, but that's why we have choices. Some choose OS X, others choose Vista... For everyone who thinks that the 'apple tax' is laughably stupid, there are some people who find Vista itself laughable. To each his own. Enjoy your $1000 laptop, as I enjoy my $2000 laptop. Is it better? Taste is subjective. Did I pay too much? (I also have a $300 netbook heh.) If it's not your money... so what? Barring the fanboy rants of course. (If we would just ignore them, they'd go away!) So the issue exists that what Pystar wants isn't always what it seems. And we're along for the ride, wondering what is left after the courts get hold of this. Should be interesting.
Then when you start the app, notify the user of an update. DO NOT INSTALL A DAEMON UPDATER THAT YOU CAN'T GET RID OF.
Microsoft had it wrong. And if Dragging and dropping were all it did, then it WOULD NOT INSTALL THE MALWARE UPDATER. Doesn't this make any sense to you? It's sneaky, and it's wrong. There IS no excuse. Don't tell me that someone who is notified of a security update when the app starts isn't good enough. If they don't, that's their tough luck.
And I wasn't dismissing the effort. Just the climate. People are far too trusting to begin with.
IT Professional that "doesn't get it" certainly means that person isn't much of a professional as a warm body. Still, getting it out there might help... and God knows Windows needs the push. It's time to stop the admin bullshit. It's 2009.
Why can't something that has nothing to do with Google Earth not be installed? People want to install Google Earth. They DO NOT want to install Google Updater. What's so hard about that to understand? What is Google trying to be, Microsoft? (Movie Maker, IE, Outlook Express, Messenger, etc. etc.)
why not make it a "check for updates on startup" (of the app), and allow the user to disable that? Is that so hard? OR, be forthright enough to tell users AT THE TIME OF THE INSTALLATION that they're agreeing to install an app that they have no control over, and one that keeps coming back even if you get rid of it? I don't see the point, nor do I see why Google insists on making it some kind of requirement that they are obtuse about in their instructions? What happened to "Don't be evil"?
I remember what these sorts of things are called... malware.:) It really is my computer. If I choose to install something, I should be at the very _least_ aware of the consequences of the installation. AND if I remove it, stop trying to put it back. If it isn't on the computer, there _is_ a reason. So, I'm not installing Google Earth until they fix it. It's not worth the hassle and wasted cpu cycles.
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You didn't hear the cluestick coming, did you?
Whatever. You know, Microsoft STRONGLY recommends that you DON'T put any personal information in your publicly available profile display.
WHY is this such a big deal? Why is it a compelling reason that _because_ someone is a lesbian or gay, you have to ADVERTISE in a forum that is the FARTHEST from relevant as putting you like CATS in there. It serves NO purpose. Microsoft's sandbox, so Microsoft sets the rules... if you still choose to break them, you have been warned.
I truly don't get the bloody uproar. This is a non-issue. You can bitch all you want, but it's still a non-issue. Bitching about it won't turn it into a Rosa Parks-esque incident. Life's too short to bother if someone can say "I'm a carpetmuncher!" in their GAMING PROFILE. Jesus.
Because you play with 12 year olds. If they happen to get it right that your mom is turning tricks down the street for $5 a handjob, that's just a lucky guess. It doesn't affect Team Fortress in any form or fashion. Nor would it if someone stumbled on the idea you were a poofter. Either play with your friends only that you know are your friends (not someone who asked to be your friend on Live or some IRC channel), and you won't have to worry about "mom's little secret."
Horseshit. Why should someone be banned for a word that someone else finds offensive? What if your name really IS lipshits?
We could go on and on, but let's remember one thing... it's THEIR Xbox Live, not ours. And like I asked before, WHAT does your sexual orientation NEED to be displayed for? So you can get a higher score in something? WHY BOTHER? I don't put "I love the ladies" in my profile... and does it affect my online gaming? Not in the least. It's frivolous, and it is Microsoft's rulebook. Don't like it? Don't join.
Why would sexual orientation come up in a game of Team Fortress? Trolls are trolls, and they will spew nonsense no matter what game you're playing. If someone called you a fag on a game, just because you might really BE gay, doesn't mean they KNOW and are somehow repressing your right to be a friend of Dorothy... ...xbox live is a place to play games, not discuss gay-friendly coffee shops. I mean, seriously.
Yeah, because I can think of oh, DOZENS of games that would be enhanced by putting in your sexual orientation. Honestly... this is a tempest in a teapot, brought on by someone with a hair-trigger on the "help I'm being repressed!" button. It's a fictitious profile that contains a gamer picture, a motto, and can list the games you play. Unless this woman was trolling for trim, why does anyone need to know she's a lesbian to play Halo?
Sometimes I wonder if people aren't just doing this shit for attention. If you're gay, straight, have a sheep as a lover, I don't fucking care. It's XBox live, not fucking match.com for fuck's sake.
IF a HDD died at the same age as a battery, you'd bet your sweet ass they'd want them removable. I have a 14.4GB IDE HDD that STILL works in a 1997 model Dell. If a battery lasted THAT long, I'd not care if they soldered it to a pipebomb that went off if you tried to remove it. :) The HDD's I yanked out of my G5 were 6 years old (well the boot drive was the original in the machine so only 5), and they still work after a bit o' cleanup and some TLC. :) I bet that can't (or won't) ever be said for a battery.
That's a shame, really. (At least they didn't burst into flame!) I've had little trouble with my "dodgy" rev-A MBP (other than the fact that it's not a Core 2 Duo... and the internal DVD burner is the shittiest this side of actual shit) and its battery after 31 months of continuous use. It even doubled as my main desktop while I was swapping the HDD's out of my 5 year old G5.
:) Which is why I still use it, and have no need to buy another. Of course it is FW only... and Apple's got a bug up their butt to remove Firewire. :) Artificially restricting (out of the box) G5's from using some features of iLife '09 disturbs me more than the non-user-replaceable batteries. They're no better than Microsoft (or anyone else) in that regard.
But like the iPhone and iPod Touch, I am not keen on buying a laptop that doesn't just let the battery pop out. Engineering or not, marvel or not, I want to know that I can take a quick trip to "batteries-r-us.com" and get myself a new laptop battery with no hassle, no trip to a genius bar, and no trip to the overpriced malls that Apple Stores tend to breed in. Not that the stores aren't a marketing marvel... just not my marvel. I love MacOSX, but if the trend continues, Leopard will be the last iteration I use. (It is the last one I can use on my G5) I refuse to bother with the "computer as a work of art" any more. I just loved the OS. I didn't care if the computer looked like a cube or a brick. I guess I'm just getting old, and my old computers are working just fine.... but for those who enjoy that sort of thing, I'm not badmouthing you (or Apple)... it's just not my cup of tea.
I use Linux, and it's not a major stretch to make it my primary OS. But that's just me. The fact that the new 17" MBP battery isn't welded to the frame is a good thing, but in the grand scheme of things, will it stay that "simple"? My 2nd Gen iPod has a semi-simple way to replace the battery... and they even supply the tool.
I remember when games on the Amiga would use shortcuts and tricks in the architecture to squeeze out performance, but if you updated your Workbench and/or Kickstart, Commodore acknowledged some stuff would break. Them's the breaks. :)
:)
Perhaps Aspyr was using a deprecated function call that changed, was warned it would change (or Apple's more like Microsoft and just doesn't tell anyone), and forgot (or just plain didn't) fix it before the inevitable breakage would occur? If Apple changed something out from under the API and didn't tell anyone (I find that hard to believe), then yes, Apple's to blame and the Quicktime engineers should be forced to watch Steel Magnolias as a punishment. Otherwise, let's be sure we aren't flailing the blamestick all over the place because of something someone "assumes" is the cause of the Sims 2 breaking.
But never let that stop a non-Sequitur!
No, remember when Windows 98 DirectX updates broke certain games (the list is too long to mention), and it was the GAME's fault not Windows?
Who was brainwashed again? Never let that get in the way of a silly argument, though...
Right. Let's see... Quicktime still works but the Sims 2 doesn't. Quicktime doesn't seem to break anything else, so logically, it MUST be Apple's fault. I think the rest of the Quicktime users who aren't playing the Sims 2 would disagree with your placement of blame. :)
Yeah, that's about the size of it. How many Constitutions have the French had? It'll take a minute for you to count them...
The brilliance of this whole republic is, you don't have to live here. And if I had to guess, you don't. If not, feel free to move along to some place free of guns. Oh, that's right... unless you want to live on Xanadu, there ain't such a place. Lightweight. Or should I say, idiot. Thanks for proving my point.
HAHAHAHA. YOU'RE FUNNY. Thanks for reading only the caps.
Grow up, dipshit. It's called EMPHASIS.
Tell that to the Founding Fathers. I'd rather be in company of those "nuts" than you, idiot.
No, crime A (in this context, moron) isn't a CRIME IT IS A TORT. It's A CIVIL MATTER. Get it? I don't think you do. Drivel indeed. How do network monitoring provisions help in a STIMULUS BILL? Hmm? Obsess much? Get a grip. This sort of underhanded nonsense that is passing off as actual governance is what pisses me off.(and should you, if you're American, even the UK's got its nutty crap coming down the pike) People need to realize it's not "stealing", it's not criminal, and yes, it's a CIVIL matter that is getting FAR too much attention in the age of perpetual copyrights and the ass-raping of the Public Domain by Disney and the rest of the problem. Yes, they are part of the problem.
The Congress and Media Cartels are _NOT_ going after the criminal copyright infringement (comprehension hard for you is it? Read it again... sound out the words), they are going after the incidental and CIVIL infringement as IF it were criminal. See the point? Probably not. These sorts of things are a distraction. They BARELY nail anyone selling bootlegs on the street corner in NY, but they spend millions tracking college students and trying to extort money from them. I wouldn't expect you to understand, because you missed the entire point of the post.
Are you high? Yes, I bet you are. Because the strawman you just yanked out of your butt is COMPLETELY IRRELEVANT. Know what that means? Oh, did I use a big word? Sorry. If you want to talk about futility, it's me responding to a moronic AC who thinks with the same veracity he washes behind his ears. You couldn't pull a rational thought out of your cranium with pliers and a jackhammer.
Leave the real conversation to the adults next time, would you?
Yet they keep trying. (Just like the anti-gun nuts) I'm certainly getting sick and tired of it all, myself. You can find some nice out-of-print things on torrents, and with no DRM at the iTunes Store and Amazon MP3 store anymore, there's little incentive to get most music via torrents.
:)
But, whatever your view on torrents and filesharing in general, it will happen even with draconian witch-hunts and overzealous (and in the US Unconstitutional) legislation and police action. And yes, I'm going to say it... the world has more pressing matters than to persecute filesharers. When you (collective government and media cartels) have solved ALL OTHER PROBLEMS in the world, maybe we'll let you finish off the whole copyright witch hunt. (I said MAYBE, asswads.) But until then, stop it.
If there's something someone wants (think China, South America, etc) and it's overpriced even for the US, it's going to be bootlegged and sold on the streets. China's not doing anything (in spite of the good show they put on last year) to combat this sort of thing because they don't give two ape-shits about American and European "copyrights". But they persist, like the war on Drugs, trying to eradicate something that will never go away. It's like putting toothpaste back in the tube, but they insist on wasting money. Hey, if it were all their money, I'd probably not be so irritated... but the money belongs to the creators, yet it's going to this political bullshit (like the "traffic monitoring" provisions snuck into the stimulus bill here in the States). I guess the 4th Amendment is really dead now. "Because it's for the children."
And things like the Bill of Rights are not laws, but simply written down to let the government know what things are not theirs to take or hamper. Those rights exist outside their jurisdiction and are not subject to laws that are written to suppress the liberties granted by something higher than the folks in D.C. :) And the Constitution is written to inform the government that they exist at the courtesy of the people, not the other way around. Jefferson made that abundantly clear....
Everything else is gravy.
No, but if you tried to sell it as a new car, they would. Used, that's fine. But Pystar's taking hemis, then mustangs, repackaging the mustang with a Hemi and selling it as if it were a Dodge Challenger "for the rest of us." It's as close to a car analogy I can get. ;)
:) Apple's not going after you if you want to make a Hackintosh. They are going after you if you want to SELL a Hackintosh as your own creation, or as a duly informal representative of the OSX fan-base. :)
THAT is what the issue is. And whether or not Apple can forbid it. Here's to hoping this gets a decent amount of unbiased scrutiny. Otherwise this is just bread and circuses.
But who thinks HP computers are reliable? Anyone? Anyone? :) But seriously, you're missing the point. Why are there Cadillac Escalades when the Chevy Tahoe is the same thing? Aside from a few fancy-schmancy add-ons, it's JUST a Tahoe. But you sure can't get a Caddy for the price of a Chevy (we're talking new here). The same holds true for Apples. Sure you can buy a cheaper laptop, but if you want those fancy-schmancy add-ons that Apple is famous for, you can't just go get a Tahoe. And what we're seeing Pystar do is the same thing most people are attempting to do when price comes up... it's the SAME hardware... why is Apple limiting us? It's the SAME tahoe, why is GM limiting us Chevy buyers? (Admittedly, that's a stretch as to quality/value, since the platforms are so similar.)
It's not a perfect example, but that's why we have choices. Some choose OS X, others choose Vista... For everyone who thinks that the 'apple tax' is laughably stupid, there are some people who find Vista itself laughable. To each his own. Enjoy your $1000 laptop, as I enjoy my $2000 laptop. Is it better? Taste is subjective. Did I pay too much? (I also have a $300 netbook heh.) If it's not your money... so what? Barring the fanboy rants of course. (If we would just ignore them, they'd go away!) So the issue exists that what Pystar wants isn't always what it seems. And we're along for the ride, wondering what is left after the courts get hold of this. Should be interesting.
Then when you start the app, notify the user of an update. DO NOT INSTALL A DAEMON UPDATER THAT YOU CAN'T GET RID OF.
Microsoft had it wrong. And if Dragging and dropping were all it did, then it WOULD NOT INSTALL THE MALWARE UPDATER. Doesn't this make any sense to you? It's sneaky, and it's wrong. There IS no excuse. Don't tell me that someone who is notified of a security update when the app starts isn't good enough. If they don't, that's their tough luck.
Truer words have never been spoken on Slashdot. Cheers :)
So what we're seeing is, either install Linux, or trust Microsoft, Google and Apple not to fuck up your PC. :)
I don't like them odds, to tell you the truth.
And I wasn't dismissing the effort. Just the climate. People are far too trusting to begin with.
IT Professional that "doesn't get it" certainly means that person isn't much of a professional as a warm body. Still, getting it out there might help... and God knows Windows needs the push. It's time to stop the admin bullshit. It's 2009.
Why can't something that has nothing to do with Google Earth not be installed? People want to install Google Earth. They DO NOT want to install Google Updater. What's so hard about that to understand? What is Google trying to be, Microsoft? (Movie Maker, IE, Outlook Express, Messenger, etc. etc.)
:) It really is my computer. If I choose to install something, I should be at the very _least_ aware of the consequences of the installation. AND if I remove it, stop trying to put it back. If it isn't on the computer, there _is_ a reason. So, I'm not installing Google Earth until they fix it. It's not worth the hassle and wasted cpu cycles.
why not make it a "check for updates on startup" (of the app), and allow the user to disable that? Is that so hard? OR, be forthright enough to tell users AT THE TIME OF THE INSTALLATION that they're agreeing to install an app that they have no control over, and one that keeps coming back even if you get rid of it? I don't see the point, nor do I see why Google insists on making it some kind of requirement that they are obtuse about in their instructions? What happened to "Don't be evil"?
I remember what these sorts of things are called... malware.