Linux - tweak for 1-2 hours, spend 4-5 hours downloading packages, 2-3 installing, then the rest of your life telling all your friends "yeah well when _______ comes out of beta it will have the same features. .."
This is way different than 1984. Gmail is not the only email service, let alone government sanctioned or forced upon anyone by Mini-Whatever. You don't like Gmail? Don't use it. That's the advantage of a market-driven society over, say, 1984. I know it's very popular on Slashdot to declare any successful corporations (Google, Microsoft, Apple, etc.) the next big evil 1984-esque overlord, but the fact remains they're all still (for now anyway) just businesses.
Furthermore, as the summary points out, Google comes out and says they can keep your emails as long as they want. Not a perfect analogy, but if you write something incriminating in a physical letter to someone, the Man can go dumpster-diving and get that letter, and anything else in the garbage, and use it against you, whether you threw it out before you sent it or your recipient threw it out. Unfortunately, once a judge decides there's probable cause, your privacy pretty much goes out the window, whether you use Gmail or clay tablets, and companies giving in to subpoenas is nothing new.
So mod me -3 Moron if you wish, but I fail to see how this is a big deal.
You may be right, but why should that stop us from trying to improve it? Complaining about the system's flaws is the responsibility of the intellectual elite -- journalists, academics, artists, and nerds, among others -- of any society. As a matter of fact, I would like to live in a utopia where all the laws passed are fair and just, even though I know it is unrealistic. Isn't that the idea that the U.S. was founded on in the first place? If we give up on that idealism, and give in to the cynicism of "it may not be a perfect system but it's still the best there is", I say it is actually no better than the alternative.
Slashdot Mirror
Linux - tweak for 1-2 hours, spend 4-5 hours downloading packages, 2-3 installing, then the rest of your life telling all your friends "yeah well when _______ comes out of beta it will have the same features. . ."
This is way different than 1984. Gmail is not the only email service, let alone government sanctioned or forced upon anyone by Mini-Whatever. You don't like Gmail? Don't use it. That's the advantage of a market-driven society over, say, 1984. I know it's very popular on Slashdot to declare any successful corporations (Google, Microsoft, Apple, etc.) the next big evil 1984-esque overlord, but the fact remains they're all still (for now anyway) just businesses. Furthermore, as the summary points out, Google comes out and says they can keep your emails as long as they want. Not a perfect analogy, but if you write something incriminating in a physical letter to someone, the Man can go dumpster-diving and get that letter, and anything else in the garbage, and use it against you, whether you threw it out before you sent it or your recipient threw it out. Unfortunately, once a judge decides there's probable cause, your privacy pretty much goes out the window, whether you use Gmail or clay tablets, and companies giving in to subpoenas is nothing new. So mod me -3 Moron if you wish, but I fail to see how this is a big deal.
You may be right, but why should that stop us from trying to improve it? Complaining about the system's flaws is the responsibility of the intellectual elite -- journalists, academics, artists, and nerds, among others -- of any society. As a matter of fact, I would like to live in a utopia where all the laws passed are fair and just, even though I know it is unrealistic. Isn't that the idea that the U.S. was founded on in the first place? If we give up on that idealism, and give in to the cynicism of "it may not be a perfect system but it's still the best there is", I say it is actually no better than the alternative.
Pfft, nerds don't use AOL!