I dare contend that the service is not free. You exchange privacy and personal information, that will be marketed to and aggregated to track your other activities across broad networks, in exchange for their services. This does not negate your point that they can close it down and that whining is irrelevant. I do, however, stand by my belief that it is not free. It does not cost money but there is an exchange of goods being made. In my mind that makes it not free. I should think that most here would be in agreement, no?
I really admire their marketing genius. I really do. They started out with the inclusion of the phrase, "Don't be evil." That phrase, from their inception, was nothing more than a marketing ploy, a gimmick, and so many folks (including hopeful people from the FOSS community, I mean even the hard edge freedom fighters from OS communities) tried so hard to love and promote Google.
The cold, hard, reality is that the not being evil bit was (and is) a market strategy that had a massive effect. Coupled with their propensity to keep everything in the perpetual state of beta-class they cut off services frequent enough so that people notice and get hurt by it. They track and market that info. They market to you based on that information in the form of ads (if you have them enabled) and there are still many who see no wrong in this.
I, personally, use GMail and YouTube. I sacrifice my privacy to make use of their services though I have the tracking disabled as much as I can and I do not see their ads. I recommend others do the same.
Are they less evil than other companies? Nope. They are more evil than some. It is in the business they do, by default, and they can not (or will not) avoid being evil. In fact, being evil is so ingrained you could say that it is their business model and that they would have not succeeded or gone bankrupt without it.
I am surprised that they do not put their own ads on their scraped/cached content and serve those up as the default links. No, really, I am surprised that they have not tried that. I, too, tried to support them at the start. I tried to believe that they would do their best to avoid being evil as much as possible. Then they got big... The rest is, shall we say, history.
What is funny is how this shows the wisdom of/.ers... There was just an article on here that was about Google Photos. Some folk were quite adamant that trusting Google with them was a bad idea because they just disable services or just drop whole chunks of stuff with very little warning. This does not appear to be a major thing, one without workarounds at least, but it does demonstrate the wisdom of/.ers. Now, who said that/. was no good any more?
Heh! Did I finally find something that is obscure on/.? After intentionally trying (and failing) someone always was able to reference it and reply. Now, with a really easy one (they even had books - bad books but quick reads) I did not get some witty reply in just an hour or less. Using Google is cheating... Also, the movie was awful but awesome at the same time.
LOL Somehow I managed to graduate with fairly decent grades. They were earned grades back then too, you did not just get a C or higher for showing up and putting in a modicum of effort. Hmm... Anything below a grading of 76% was a failing grade too. I think that I am lucky as learning and testing have always been easy for me. I am certainly not smarter than others, I am just able to learn something quickly and retain enough of it to ensure that I test well. If I do not apply that education then it is quickly gone. Once I have applied it in a hands-on type fashion it sticks in my long-term memory. No, I have no idea why. Meh...
Back when the Sun was new and I was in high school I had a giant afro. This was way after they were popular. Anyhow, I could hide a whole beer in it if I balanced properly. I also regularly hid joints in it for scholastic purposes, of course. We would smoke and go to school... Anyhow, my Senior picture was interesting because I wanted to be close to the camera so much of my hair extends beyond the boarder. If you look close you can see something white in there. It is not lice nor an artifact from the camera.
*best Emo Phillips voice* Ah, memories... I remember the last thing my grandfather said to me... "Ah! Truck!"
We write to a public audience every day, mostly. That is what this post is, right here. What is up to you is to judge the quality of it and to ensure that you post functional and effective missives so that they are understood and incapable of being misinterpreted except by autistic slashdotters.
I always thought that, instead of bombing brown people we should take a couple of choppers and a team over and just still that whole Mecca thing and promise to return it when they have cleaned their own house.
Thanks - it all started with cluster headaches in my youth (yay - powerful opiates when you are 12!). Later it was buying them and chipping with H. Then I learned about the lovely Fentanyl and I could wear the patches during the work week! Then I figured out how to extract the Fentanyl using heat and an acidic substance. (Harm reduction - I will not detail it here.) You eventually get an injectable substance that will knock your dick into the floor. Nodding on H? Nothing even like it - much stronger. The warm blanket and the disappearing legs? That was an eternally (seeming) bliss. Chronic insomnia did not help either - this was an EXCELLENT way to go to sleep (respiratory depression anyone?) and I am fortunate to have gone through it and lived but I was always generally safer than most. (You can do another shot, you can not undo a shot.)
Being a junkie, a functional one, is an art form. The first step is to find an OLD junkie. They exist. Find one and learn from them. Learn safe IV practices (change sites, always towards the heart, clean rigs, etc...) I thought, for the longest time, that I was not addicted (or a junkie - it was medicine damn it!) because I could stop. I did and my brain broke for five days. It took someone (sort of a cook, housekeeper, neighbor) telling me that I did not have a catheter before the rest of the world/room came into focus. I am glad I paid someone to always check in on me. I am not sure how I used the actual bathroom and reconciled this in my head... The funny part is that I have paid good money to hallucinate like that and never had anything so complete. I have eaten bibles for of blotter, quarts of liquid, peyote, mescaline, and myriad 'research chemicals.' Nothing, I mean nothing, came close to what my broken head fed me. That is when I said I must make it to a detox and called someone to drive me. (I, of course, shot the hell up a bunch before going. So much for the initial five days...)
This being SlashDot I am certainly not accountable for my own actions (I kid, I am fully accountable) so I am going to blame it on Curiosity. In college I was curious so I took a few organic chemistry classes. I eventually even found an old strain of poppies in a nice lady's flower garden and scored big and made diamorphine (I hate that term - but it is H in case you do not know) but it was not enough to keep me occupied. So, I had something in a base with a known evaporation point for the good stuff and, well, the rest is history (I am not wanting to give directions).
We could strap wireless access points to the cows and have steak every day. I will come out of retirement for that. Can we go in the barn if it is raining?
I realized, long ago, that I can not be pro-choice. I am choice-accepting. I no more support a forced abortion than I do a willing abortion - I do accept the latter, I absolutely detest the idea of the former. I am also pro-gun. That is one of the major reasons the Revolution started. Schools do not talk about WHY the British were marching to Concord, they only state that they were. (They were going to take the canon and disarm the vocal minority.) I, though, own a rather large number of firearms. I even carry - usually open. I have never shot anyone when not in service of the government nor have I even drawn my weapon in anger or for the purpose of using it on a human.
PCB is fantastic! Their CCA run jail - not so much, I was not there long. They do not like self defense it seems. I did some consulting there and stayed on the other side of the bridge at the Econo Lodge right on Rt. 98 across the way from the noms at the Omelet House or some Chinese dinner with a forgettable name. I have been to the bars in PC and PCB. I have chilled with the strippers at the Omelet House after. I would not sleep with any of them but they always knew where the fun was.
Slashdot Mirror
I dare contend that the service is not free. You exchange privacy and personal information, that will be marketed to and aggregated to track your other activities across broad networks, in exchange for their services. This does not negate your point that they can close it down and that whining is irrelevant. I do, however, stand by my belief that it is not free. It does not cost money but there is an exchange of goods being made. In my mind that makes it not free. I should think that most here would be in agreement, no?
I really admire their marketing genius. I really do. They started out with the inclusion of the phrase, "Don't be evil." That phrase, from their inception, was nothing more than a marketing ploy, a gimmick, and so many folks (including hopeful people from the FOSS community, I mean even the hard edge freedom fighters from OS communities) tried so hard to love and promote Google.
The cold, hard, reality is that the not being evil bit was (and is) a market strategy that had a massive effect. Coupled with their propensity to keep everything in the perpetual state of beta-class they cut off services frequent enough so that people notice and get hurt by it. They track and market that info. They market to you based on that information in the form of ads (if you have them enabled) and there are still many who see no wrong in this.
I, personally, use GMail and YouTube. I sacrifice my privacy to make use of their services though I have the tracking disabled as much as I can and I do not see their ads. I recommend others do the same.
Are they less evil than other companies? Nope. They are more evil than some. It is in the business they do, by default, and they can not (or will not) avoid being evil. In fact, being evil is so ingrained you could say that it is their business model and that they would have not succeeded or gone bankrupt without it.
I am surprised that they do not put their own ads on their scraped/cached content and serve those up as the default links. No, really, I am surprised that they have not tried that. I, too, tried to support them at the start. I tried to believe that they would do their best to avoid being evil as much as possible. Then they got big... The rest is, shall we say, history.
What is funny is how this shows the wisdom of /.ers... There was just an article on here that was about Google Photos. Some folk were quite adamant that trusting Google with them was a bad idea because they just disable services or just drop whole chunks of stuff with very little warning. This does not appear to be a major thing, one without workarounds at least, but it does demonstrate the wisdom of /.ers. Now, who said that /. was no good any more?
Heh! Did I finally find something that is obscure on /.? After intentionally trying (and failing) someone always was able to reference it and reply. Now, with a really easy one (they even had books - bad books but quick reads) I did not get some witty reply in just an hour or less. Using Google is cheating... Also, the movie was awful but awesome at the same time.
LOL Somehow I managed to graduate with fairly decent grades. They were earned grades back then too, you did not just get a C or higher for showing up and putting in a modicum of effort. Hmm... Anything below a grading of 76% was a failing grade too. I think that I am lucky as learning and testing have always been easy for me. I am certainly not smarter than others, I am just able to learn something quickly and retain enough of it to ensure that I test well. If I do not apply that education then it is quickly gone. Once I have applied it in a hands-on type fashion it sticks in my long-term memory. No, I have no idea why. Meh...
Back when the Sun was new and I was in high school I had a giant afro. This was way after they were popular. Anyhow, I could hide a whole beer in it if I balanced properly. I also regularly hid joints in it for scholastic purposes, of course. We would smoke and go to school... Anyhow, my Senior picture was interesting because I wanted to be close to the camera so much of my hair extends beyond the boarder. If you look close you can see something white in there. It is not lice nor an artifact from the camera.
*best Emo Phillips voice* Ah, memories... I remember the last thing my grandfather said to me... "Ah! Truck!"
Also, pithy??? You should do something about that lisp... ;)
We write to a public audience every day, mostly. That is what this post is, right here. What is up to you is to judge the quality of it and to ensure that you post functional and effective missives so that they are understood and incapable of being misinterpreted except by autistic slashdotters.
My favorite bumper sticker:
It will be great when schools have all the funds they need and the Air Force has to hold a bake sale to buy another bomber.
I am a neckbeard you insensitive clod. No, really, I am a neckbeard and it is long and wonderful.
Wow... STEAL not STILL.
I always thought that, instead of bombing brown people we should take a couple of choppers and a team over and just still that whole Mecca thing and promise to return it when they have cleaned their own house.
I tried to do a sit in but I broke my monitor.
Thanks - it all started with cluster headaches in my youth (yay - powerful opiates when you are 12!). Later it was buying them and chipping with H. Then I learned about the lovely Fentanyl and I could wear the patches during the work week! Then I figured out how to extract the Fentanyl using heat and an acidic substance. (Harm reduction - I will not detail it here.) You eventually get an injectable substance that will knock your dick into the floor. Nodding on H? Nothing even like it - much stronger. The warm blanket and the disappearing legs? That was an eternally (seeming) bliss. Chronic insomnia did not help either - this was an EXCELLENT way to go to sleep (respiratory depression anyone?) and I am fortunate to have gone through it and lived but I was always generally safer than most. (You can do another shot, you can not undo a shot.)
Being a junkie, a functional one, is an art form. The first step is to find an OLD junkie. They exist. Find one and learn from them. Learn safe IV practices (change sites, always towards the heart, clean rigs, etc...) I thought, for the longest time, that I was not addicted (or a junkie - it was medicine damn it!) because I could stop. I did and my brain broke for five days. It took someone (sort of a cook, housekeeper, neighbor) telling me that I did not have a catheter before the rest of the world/room came into focus. I am glad I paid someone to always check in on me. I am not sure how I used the actual bathroom and reconciled this in my head... The funny part is that I have paid good money to hallucinate like that and never had anything so complete. I have eaten bibles for of blotter, quarts of liquid, peyote, mescaline, and myriad 'research chemicals.' Nothing, I mean nothing, came close to what my broken head fed me. That is when I said I must make it to a detox and called someone to drive me. (I, of course, shot the hell up a bunch before going. So much for the initial five days...)
This being SlashDot I am certainly not accountable for my own actions (I kid, I am fully accountable) so I am going to blame it on Curiosity. In college I was curious so I took a few organic chemistry classes. I eventually even found an old strain of poppies in a nice lady's flower garden and scored big and made diamorphine (I hate that term - but it is H in case you do not know) but it was not enough to keep me occupied. So, I had something in a base with a known evaporation point for the good stuff and, well, the rest is history (I am not wanting to give directions).
So curiosity and chemistry are to blame.
Do not cross the streams.
We could strap wireless access points to the cows and have steak every day. I will come out of retirement for that. Can we go in the barn if it is raining?
Is that you Remo?
I pretty much need it for communication with some family. I will also be gone for a year and a half. I would rather give away my left arm.
And has this worked?
I realized, long ago, that I can not be pro-choice. I am choice-accepting. I no more support a forced abortion than I do a willing abortion - I do accept the latter, I absolutely detest the idea of the former. I am also pro-gun. That is one of the major reasons the Revolution started. Schools do not talk about WHY the British were marching to Concord, they only state that they were. (They were going to take the canon and disarm the vocal minority.) I, though, own a rather large number of firearms. I even carry - usually open. I have never shot anyone when not in service of the government nor have I even drawn my weapon in anger or for the purpose of using it on a human.
Not taught in most schools:
Do you know WHY the British were matching to Concord?
The Tea Party had nothing to do with the Revolution.
(They were going to disarm the residents of Concord.)
Human fetuses do not create their won components by comparison.
Fetal Hunger Games?
PCB is fantastic! Their CCA run jail - not so much, I was not there long. They do not like self defense it seems. I did some consulting there and stayed on the other side of the bridge at the Econo Lodge right on Rt. 98 across the way from the noms at the Omelet House or some Chinese dinner with a forgettable name. I have been to the bars in PC and PCB. I have chilled with the strippers at the Omelet House after. I would not sleep with any of them but they always knew where the fun was.
1/8 or 3.5g of an ounce (of cocaine).
My comment clearly answers those. I do not need to type it again because you refused to read.