You're absolutely right and I agree 100%. They *should* fleece us Westerners, so they have lower production costs, money available for expansion, and selling more laptops. All the excuses about not being able to sell in individual units is bunk, especially when you have clearly pointed out that MA wants them in bulk -- OLPC CAN sell them, they just won't out of sheer stupidity (what else?).
Just because *OLPC* arbitrarily decided that these won't be resold doesn't mean these won't be resold. If a legal market cannot be provided an illegal one will spring up. Kids or their parents will sell these laptops, or simply have them outright stolen. And what's OLPC going to do, monitor all these laptops non-stop? No! By releasing these to consumers, OLPC would heavily discourage resale.
Consumer demand is going to result in a new, different producer simply making clones. That is if there is a profit incentive for producers to do so... I would think some enterprising Chinese might be able to do it. If not, then another market (a "black" market) will develop where kids will just sell their laptops to get cold hard cash to Westerners so they can feed themselves, or... have their laptops stolen and sold on eBay... yeah, sounds like OLPC is making a fantastic move.
First, the parent poster was calling himself a diehard libertarian and not a liberal... we're going to ignore the fact that some libertarian believe liberal Nazis stole *their* term. Now let's consider what exactly is an evil company? I don't know. Are tobacco companies evil? Maybe. What if some people enjoy their nicotine? You're going to deprive them of that right so that they can be "safe," as you would like it?
If the facts are present, people should be allowed to act in their own best interest, however they may define it. Granted the facts are not always present and this is where government comes in by insisting on truthful presentation and enforcement of such information (I am not a diehard liberal).
Capitalism does not ensure a happy, utopian paradise. That's left up to spiritualists and philisophers. What it purports to do, and actually does very well, is distribute limited resources in the fairest manner (whoever wants to work for it, get's it).
That said, the Bill Gates Foundation has to arbitrarily define what is "good". That's going to piss off some people and not piss off others. They will never satisfy anyone, so why even bother. Billions of dollars are being given away, either way. Even if they invest in supposedly "evil" companies, I'm willing to bet the net benefit might be greater.
In Economics terms, this is a time when government intervention allows the market to actually be more efficient. Discriminatory practices are inefficient for the society at large. Here's just one article:
http://www.bu.edu/econ/ied/dp/papers/dp145-Lang- Manove.pdf (while the model indicates that it may actually improve corporate profits, it will be a net loss for the economy)
Someone is selling wifi access for $10/month to anyone that wants it in my apartment building and it's openly advertised throughout the building. There is a clear notice that this has nothing to do with the management company nor the ownership and it's a private enterprise. It's gone through without a hitch -- the notices have not been taken down and niether management nor ownership has said anything.
First you do know that the high oil prices are due to a lack of refining capacity and people driving prices up due to terrorist scares, right? The Arab "world" is not seeing much of that money, it's mostly a few people getting rich (the ones already rich). Al-Qaeda is one of the few terrorist organization deriving money from oil, and that's because of Osama bin Laden (former member of the Arab royal family).
Not to mention, "If I was the U.S. administration, I would recommend to hush up any possible ties between Sequoia voting machines and Venezuela.". Yeah right! I want the U.S. administration to investigate these magic black boxes even MORE. If that means their fervor needs to begin with a Venezuelan machine, fine, eventually the suspicion will spread to other e-voting machines. I personally don't see how this is a significant improvement over regular paper voting, especially considering all the cons.
And while we're at it, maybe Hugo Chavez doesn't want Bush, et. al in power because they're a trigger happy administration. Maybe Hugo Chavez is going to try to make the U.S. look bad no matter what political party is in charge. What I do know is that Hugo Chavez is corrupt(1) and he may just do whatever he feels would provide him more power, in the international and domestic arean. If this means screwing with U.S. votes, why not? Last but not least -- hell, maybe the terrorists really do want American troops and bases out of their land.
Sources:
(1)
a)Toro, Francisco (October 25 2004). "100 Good Reasons Not to Believe Venezuela's Chavez". Analitica.
b)Marcano, Cristina, Barrera Tyszka, Alberto (2005). Hugo Chávez Sin Uniforme: Una Historia Personal. Random House Mondadori, 50.
Flash has improved by leaps and bounds, with the earlier Flash drives supposedly lasting 1000 read/writes. Nowadays, from what I can gather the average Flash drive lasts 300,000 to 1,000,000 erase/writes. Good, but still finite and, relatively speaking, more finite then HDs. Flash also has cycling quality control problems, which are not as severe in the HD industry. All that said, I'm not saying Samsung shouldn't go ahead and make its hybird hard drive, but consumers should realize that the Flash component won't necessarily have the necessary longevity. This will proably be true with Samsung drives, because they're not likely to place small init files onto Flash but cache larger data (after all, what's the point of caching these small files if the performance improvement is going to be so low and just one time).
Consider that before the Renaissance (which you blow off as "very few rich aristocrats in 14th and 15th century Europe") Europe, and "white people," were pretty backwards. My ancestors were part of the the Gupta Empire, then the Ottoman Empire, and many others. In general, these empires were technologically and culuturally "superior" to European empires. That is to say, relatively speaking, we enjoyed a higher level of comfort, less starvation, less disease, and more free time to just think.
After the Renaissance, Europe re-discovered art and science and began an explosion of ideas that, basically, let it conquer the world. These weren't rich aristocrats. These were geniuses. The likes of Michaelangelo and Galileo. You have to ask yourself, if those values were so stupid and so useless, how did they manage to lord over the world (and maybe, still do)?
My conclusion is: their system works. Copy it. Of course, that's what I get out of it. Does this mean there isn't a better set of values and a better system? No -- there may very well be a set of ideals that are far better... i.e. leading to better quality of life. China would be wise to not ignore these values wholesale, and as a matter of fact, they're not. It's why they've privatized their markets. It has made them much, much wealthier. Can political freedoms be better for them, as well? History, if it's any guide, seems to indicate a definite yes.
Lastly, you may think: well, it may have worked well for Europe but who's to say it will work a different culture? Because the Chinese are not aliens. They are human beings, where even cultural whims, are led by evolution and nature. I mean, are the Europeans so special that they would find a system that only works for them? Capitalism in moderation, rule by the people, scientific inquiry, and basic freedoms (press, religion, speech; naturally, with limitations) are the best tools we have and for all intents and purposes nothing has ever shown to work better.
My own mother country is waking up and realizing that these are not "inventions" as much as they are discoveries, and they can be put to use now for a better livelihood while working on something "better".
I've gotten eBay messages that look pretty authentic. The only reason I know they aren't is because I changed the default of recieving HTML e-mails ot text. I'm not even sure why HTML is the default.
That said, a lot of people easily go through with these links and they're often working for days on end. I don't know what you're talking about, honestly. I check this links and try to do stupid things like fill in my username as "fuckyou" and my password as "f_u_8_c_k_9_y_o_u"... yeah, I'm a geek with some angst. Anywho, the antifraud organizations at most of these places, like PapyPal are way flooded and they hardly do anything about it.
I mean think about it... if things were so dandy why did PhishTank startup and why do these phishes even exist? It's because they are highly profitable for whoever is running the scam. It wouldn't be profitable if the organizations and their antifraud departments were doing a bang up job and shutting things down left and right. It would be downright frustrating and would not yield a profit... so much time spent for so little when you may as well flip burgers and make more money. Of course, that's not true -- Phises are highly profitable because there is very little effective action being taken against them.
Actually you're right. The skin is not alone reponsible for the allergic reaction; it is in combination with the protien in cat saliva. The hair, if it weren't for the saliva, would not actually be a huge problem. I've never seen a Sphynx, although I imagine it obviously sheds skin and may indeed groom itself (and hence cover itself with the protien). I would like to know how much grooming, relative to other cats, it does.
As a cat allergy sufferer, I feel the strong urge to tell everybody on what kind of cats do not cause allergies. None. Exactly none. Not even the one mentioned in TFA; although, reduced. Hairless cats do not solve the problem as the allergies are caused by flakes of dead skin cells. The Sphynx maybe hairless, but definitely still has dander (defined as dead skin cells and clumped hair).
That said, allergies have a large psychological component. I know from being, uh, "light and airy" on, uh, "mild mood enhancers" that my allergies are not as bad. Perhaps your friend has a mostly psychological reaction and little physiological reaction.
Let's say Linspire, or a similarily "friendly", Linux distro manages to become mainstream or even semi-mainstream. Let's say then that some major applications are hacked together to run natively on this new "mainstream" Linux. So here are we are with Quicken data on the hard drive and a huge security hole running as root... kind of like the problems Windows definitely (spyware, anyone?) has running as an admin.
Sweet. But, seriously, let's not have Back to the Windows.
It seems to be on topic and merely his opinion on Stephen Colbert. I must admit though, being high, it was real easy picturing The Simpson's Comic Book Guy saying the above...
I currently work for a pharmaceutical company, and in a visit to a research lab I learned just how much computing power they throw at these problems. They do have supercomputers, intranet clusters, etc. to try to solve these problems. They are so incredibly complex, however, that those are not enough.
Big fucking deal. My CPU cycles cost me money. In electricity, the upfront costs, etc. Yes, my money. Not my parents' money, not a government grant, and certainly not a tax write off along the lines that they can. Oh, I guess I can write it off. I just won't be getting as much money back or getting it nearly as quickly. Not to mention, I must subtantiate that I use it to generate a income, which isn't always easy.
Why bitch then? Because the WSJ is complaining that I give away my CPU cycles to bullshit causes. Well, they are mine and I did pay for them. And if the WSJ wants, the pharmas can pay me for what they consider worthwhile. Until then, if I want to use my car to go hang out with friends rather then serve as a personal chauffeur (for free, nonetheless!), guess what? I'm going to fucking use it to hang out.
Slashdot has completely distorted your perception of reality. I'm 22 years old. I can round up 10 early-20-somethings and 10 early-60-somethings. Their knowledge of UNIX will be roughly the same. I promise you; kids/students my age have no idea what the fuck's UNIX. It's impressive when they've heard of Linux.
I got rid of Windows on my sister's computer and replaced it with Linux. She is happily chugging along and I no longer have to make Geek Squad like repairs (i.e. spend 2 hours running Ad-Aware and Spybot, because scheduling them to run never quite works right...). Linux simply works for her, not becuase it's Linux but a proper solution for her. Over half of her friends actively question why she would use Firefox. And her family friends... they don't have a fucking clue how to use her computer, because it's "Linux"... they're just to stupid to realize it's the same point and click interface (well, KDE's running) and it would take them 10 minutes to pick up the different interface. My sister learned KDE without any training from me. She just got it. Only questions she's asked me is "How do I sync my iPod?" but nothing along the lines of "How do I type a paper...". These are 18 year olds...
Your reply amounts to name calling... this is what the parent poster said some Slashdot poster's do... and believe it to be entirely logicial. You're judging his intelligence on something as useless as poor spelling... Psychology is based on cigars and violins? I'm a huge fan of the hard physics (I'm a math and computer science major) and give my psych major girlfriend a ton of shit for her major, but even I know that there is some truth to pyshcology. It would be a dumb idea to base a person's hiring worth entirely on one test, but coupled with an interview and a resume, the behavioral test is certainly valid.
Oh and yes, I've had one on every single job... I think they're fairly easy to "trick".:-)
So are you going to go to space for sheer "coolness"? Sure, we might. Why do you think fashion and beauty are so important in human societies? Besides, I'm sure other planets and the far reaches of space offers things that we can't even imagine right now. Additionally, our adventures into space have given birth to several things we use daily: digital-signal processing, cordless power-tools, cool suits, video stabilization, etc. Imagine all the cool stuff we'll get from the side effect of going to Mars; cool stuff that'll benefit humanity.
How about actually looking at the web site in question: radioislam.net. Go ahead, go have a looksie. Who is this site's hero? Who's struggle are these "freedom fighters" fighting for? Why it's none other then Ahmed Rami -- directly off the web site! Oh and look, who is most like? Otto Ernst Remer! And who is Mr. Remer, why a Nazi (now dead)!
Go back to that page that gives that pleaseant description of Ahmed Rami, take note how it implies that Hitler's regime was legitimate. And sweet Allah, Hiter is painted as Muslim. Why as a fellow Muslim, Hiter sure sounds like the ideal Muslim man to me... or not!
Now, go have a thorough look at that site, you'll see the Jews are the enemy and, apparently, the Holocaust never happened... there is a huge difference between Germany and France's anti-semitism/anti-Nazism laws when compared to China's censorship laws. As an analogy, think of all the laws in the U.S. granting black wo/men rights, when preceding laws did not specifically forbid such rights... that is except for the tons of Jim Crow laws. The laws bar Jim Crow laws and explicitly grant rights for those idiots it was not already clear. Thus, in modern day Germany and France there are laws against Nazism and anti-semitism to prevent its rise and to serve as a declatory statement: "That is no longer us". Of course, discrimination against blacks has not disappeared (nowhere near), and certainly anti-semitism in France and Germany has not disappeared. In both cases, the laws help the situation.
What China is doing is simple fascism. I, personally, can't eloquate the difference between "good" censorship or "bad" censorship, but I bet Google (and the average person) can easily tell them apart. Did you notice Google making a big PR statement with censorship in France and Germany? No, because Google knows, and the public knows, there is a difference with the censorship in China. The inability to find pro-Nazi stuff isn't going to hurt you much, but the inability to see entire aspects of your life from a critical angle is going to really suck... Google is stifling freedom to useful information.
How will Google solve its problem of ethics versus bucks? No idea, but for now it seems it has found a suitable compromise to itself and its shareholders. But please, for fuck's sake, lose the "Do No Evil" and the PR about how things are just dandy...
Slashdot Mirror
You're absolutely right and I agree 100%. They *should* fleece us Westerners, so they have lower production costs, money available for expansion, and selling more laptops. All the excuses about not being able to sell in individual units is bunk, especially when you have clearly pointed out that MA wants them in bulk -- OLPC CAN sell them, they just won't out of sheer stupidity (what else?).
Just because *OLPC* arbitrarily decided that these won't be resold doesn't mean these won't be resold. If a legal market cannot be provided an illegal one will spring up. Kids or their parents will sell these laptops, or simply have them outright stolen. And what's OLPC going to do, monitor all these laptops non-stop? No! By releasing these to consumers, OLPC would heavily discourage resale.
Consumer demand is going to result in a new, different producer simply making clones. That is if there is a profit incentive for producers to do so... I would think some enterprising Chinese might be able to do it. If not, then another market (a "black" market) will develop where kids will just sell their laptops to get cold hard cash to Westerners so they can feed themselves, or... have their laptops stolen and sold on eBay... yeah, sounds like OLPC is making a fantastic move.
If the facts are present, people should be allowed to act in their own best interest, however they may define it. Granted the facts are not always present and this is where government comes in by insisting on truthful presentation and enforcement of such information (I am not a diehard liberal).
Capitalism does not ensure a happy, utopian paradise. That's left up to spiritualists and philisophers. What it purports to do, and actually does very well, is distribute limited resources in the fairest manner (whoever wants to work for it, get's it).
That said, the Bill Gates Foundation has to arbitrarily define what is "good". That's going to piss off some people and not piss off others. They will never satisfy anyone, so why even bother. Billions of dollars are being given away, either way. Even if they invest in supposedly "evil" companies, I'm willing to bet the net benefit might be greater.
http://www.bu.edu/econ/ied/dp/papers/dp145-Lang- Manove.pdf (while the model indicates that it may actually improve corporate profits, it will be a net loss for the economy)
Someone is selling wifi access for $10/month to anyone that wants it in my apartment building and it's openly advertised throughout the building. There is a clear notice that this has nothing to do with the management company nor the ownership and it's a private enterprise. It's gone through without a hitch -- the notices have not been taken down and niether management nor ownership has said anything.
Not to mention, "If I was the U.S. administration, I would recommend to hush up any possible ties between Sequoia voting machines and Venezuela.". Yeah right! I want the U.S. administration to investigate these magic black boxes even MORE. If that means their fervor needs to begin with a Venezuelan machine, fine, eventually the suspicion will spread to other e-voting machines. I personally don't see how this is a significant improvement over regular paper voting, especially considering all the cons.
And while we're at it, maybe Hugo Chavez doesn't want Bush, et. al in power because they're a trigger happy administration. Maybe Hugo Chavez is going to try to make the U.S. look bad no matter what political party is in charge. What I do know is that Hugo Chavez is corrupt(1) and he may just do whatever he feels would provide him more power, in the international and domestic arean. If this means screwing with U.S. votes, why not? Last but not least -- hell, maybe the terrorists really do want American troops and bases out of their land.
Sources: (1)
a)Toro, Francisco (October 25 2004). "100 Good Reasons Not to Believe Venezuela's Chavez". Analitica.
b)Marcano, Cristina, Barrera Tyszka, Alberto (2005). Hugo Chávez Sin Uniforme: Una Historia Personal. Random House Mondadori, 50.
The DHMO site is a joke, you know...
Sources:
http://www.techworld.com/storage/features/index. cfm?featureid=2814&pagtype=samecat
http://www.bitmicro.com/press_resources_flash_ss d.php
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flash_memory#Limita tions (yeah, yeah, Wikipedia isn't authoritative, but it's good enough)
The parent is right... the phenomenon has taken place multiple times, way before 476 years.
Consider that before the Renaissance (which you blow off as "very few rich aristocrats in 14th and 15th century Europe") Europe, and "white people," were pretty backwards. My ancestors were part of the the Gupta Empire, then the Ottoman Empire, and many others. In general, these empires were technologically and culuturally "superior" to European empires. That is to say, relatively speaking, we enjoyed a higher level of comfort, less starvation, less disease, and more free time to just think.
After the Renaissance, Europe re-discovered art and science and began an explosion of ideas that, basically, let it conquer the world. These weren't rich aristocrats. These were geniuses. The likes of Michaelangelo and Galileo. You have to ask yourself, if those values were so stupid and so useless, how did they manage to lord over the world (and maybe, still do)?
My conclusion is: their system works. Copy it. Of course, that's what I get out of it. Does this mean there isn't a better set of values and a better system? No -- there may very well be a set of ideals that are far better... i.e. leading to better quality of life. China would be wise to not ignore these values wholesale, and as a matter of fact, they're not. It's why they've privatized their markets. It has made them much, much wealthier. Can political freedoms be better for them, as well? History, if it's any guide, seems to indicate a definite yes.
Lastly, you may think: well, it may have worked well for Europe but who's to say it will work a different culture? Because the Chinese are not aliens. They are human beings, where even cultural whims, are led by evolution and nature. I mean, are the Europeans so special that they would find a system that only works for them? Capitalism in moderation, rule by the people, scientific inquiry, and basic freedoms (press, religion, speech; naturally, with limitations) are the best tools we have and for all intents and purposes nothing has ever shown to work better.
My own mother country is waking up and realizing that these are not "inventions" as much as they are discoveries, and they can be put to use now for a better livelihood while working on something "better".
A wall of shame is a brilliant idea! If I'm motivated enough, I might tell PhishTank -- but knowing me, maybe you should.
That said, a lot of people easily go through with these links and they're often working for days on end. I don't know what you're talking about, honestly. I check this links and try to do stupid things like fill in my username as "fuckyou" and my password as "f_u_8_c_k_9_y_o_u"... yeah, I'm a geek with some angst. Anywho, the antifraud organizations at most of these places, like PapyPal are way flooded and they hardly do anything about it.
I mean think about it... if things were so dandy why did PhishTank startup and why do these phishes even exist? It's because they are highly profitable for whoever is running the scam. It wouldn't be profitable if the organizations and their antifraud departments were doing a bang up job and shutting things down left and right. It would be downright frustrating and would not yield a profit... so much time spent for so little when you may as well flip burgers and make more money. Of course, that's not true -- Phises are highly profitable because there is very little effective action being taken against them.
Actually you're right. The skin is not alone reponsible for the allergic reaction; it is in combination with the protien in cat saliva. The hair, if it weren't for the saliva, would not actually be a huge problem. I've never seen a Sphynx, although I imagine it obviously sheds skin and may indeed groom itself (and hence cover itself with the protien). I would like to know how much grooming, relative to other cats, it does.
That said, allergies have a large psychological component. I know from being, uh, "light and airy" on, uh, "mild mood enhancers" that my allergies are not as bad. Perhaps your friend has a mostly psychological reaction and little physiological reaction.
Sweet. But, seriously, let's not have Back to the Windows.
You don't like Family Guy?! The Nintendo Wii is nothing special?! Grown men playing with LEGO block is sad?! Dude, are you Jeff Albertson? :-)
It seems to be on topic and merely his opinion on Stephen Colbert. I must admit though, being high, it was real easy picturing The Simpson's Comic Book Guy saying the above...
Capitalism is always nice with a healthy dash of socialsm.
Big fucking deal. My CPU cycles cost me money. In electricity, the upfront costs, etc. Yes, my money. Not my parents' money, not a government grant, and certainly not a tax write off along the lines that they can. Oh, I guess I can write it off. I just won't be getting as much money back or getting it nearly as quickly. Not to mention, I must subtantiate that I use it to generate a income, which isn't always easy.
Why bitch then? Because the WSJ is complaining that I give away my CPU cycles to bullshit causes. Well, they are mine and I did pay for them. And if the WSJ wants, the pharmas can pay me for what they consider worthwhile. Until then, if I want to use my car to go hang out with friends rather then serve as a personal chauffeur (for free, nonetheless!), guess what? I'm going to fucking use it to hang out.
Ok...
Slashdot has completely distorted your perception of reality. I'm 22 years old. I can round up 10 early-20-somethings and 10 early-60-somethings. Their knowledge of UNIX will be roughly the same. I promise you; kids/students my age have no idea what the fuck's UNIX. It's impressive when they've heard of Linux.
I got rid of Windows on my sister's computer and replaced it with Linux. She is happily chugging along and I no longer have to make Geek Squad like repairs (i.e. spend 2 hours running Ad-Aware and Spybot, because scheduling them to run never quite works right...). Linux simply works for her, not becuase it's Linux but a proper solution for her. Over half of her friends actively question why she would use Firefox. And her family friends... they don't have a fucking clue how to use her computer, because it's "Linux"... they're just to stupid to realize it's the same point and click interface (well, KDE's running) and it would take them 10 minutes to pick up the different interface. My sister learned KDE without any training from me. She just got it. Only questions she's asked me is "How do I sync my iPod?" but nothing along the lines of "How do I type a paper...". These are 18 year olds...
Yeah, no fucking way 20-somethings "know" UNIX.
Your reply amounts to name calling... this is what the parent poster said some Slashdot poster's do... and believe it to be entirely logicial. You're judging his intelligence on something as useless as poor spelling... Psychology is based on cigars and violins? I'm a huge fan of the hard physics (I'm a math and computer science major) and give my psych major girlfriend a ton of shit for her major, but even I know that there is some truth to pyshcology. It would be a dumb idea to base a person's hiring worth entirely on one test, but coupled with an interview and a resume, the behavioral test is certainly valid. Oh and yes, I've had one on every single job... I think they're fairly easy to "trick". :-)
Thank Skuld-Chan(302449), he's the one who figured it out -- I still don't understand why he hasn't been modded informative...
So are you going to go to space for sheer "coolness"? Sure, we might. Why do you think fashion and beauty are so important in human societies? Besides, I'm sure other planets and the far reaches of space offers things that we can't even imagine right now. Additionally, our adventures into space have given birth to several things we use daily: digital-signal processing, cordless power-tools, cool suits, video stabilization, etc. Imagine all the cool stuff we'll get from the side effect of going to Mars; cool stuff that'll benefit humanity.
Go back to that page that gives that pleaseant description of Ahmed Rami, take note how it implies that Hitler's regime was legitimate. And sweet Allah, Hiter is painted as Muslim. Why as a fellow Muslim, Hiter sure sounds like the ideal Muslim man to me... or not!
Now, go have a thorough look at that site, you'll see the Jews are the enemy and, apparently, the Holocaust never happened... there is a huge difference between Germany and France's anti-semitism/anti-Nazism laws when compared to China's censorship laws. As an analogy, think of all the laws in the U.S. granting black wo/men rights, when preceding laws did not specifically forbid such rights... that is except for the tons of Jim Crow laws. The laws bar Jim Crow laws and explicitly grant rights for those idiots it was not already clear. Thus, in modern day Germany and France there are laws against Nazism and anti-semitism to prevent its rise and to serve as a declatory statement: "That is no longer us". Of course, discrimination against blacks has not disappeared (nowhere near), and certainly anti-semitism in France and Germany has not disappeared. In both cases, the laws help the situation.
What China is doing is simple fascism. I, personally, can't eloquate the difference between "good" censorship or "bad" censorship, but I bet Google (and the average person) can easily tell them apart. Did you notice Google making a big PR statement with censorship in France and Germany? No, because Google knows, and the public knows, there is a difference with the censorship in China. The inability to find pro-Nazi stuff isn't going to hurt you much, but the inability to see entire aspects of your life from a critical angle is going to really suck... Google is stifling freedom to useful information.
How will Google solve its problem of ethics versus bucks? No idea, but for now it seems it has found a suitable compromise to itself and its shareholders. But please, for fuck's sake, lose the "Do No Evil" and the PR about how things are just dandy...