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Patch reliability is unclear. Unless you have an immediate, pressing need to install a specific patch, don't do it. |
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TOP STORY Going Google (apps), Part 1: Move your mail | |
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By Woody Leonhard
Are you getting tired of struggling with Microsoft’s increasingly complex, sometimes arcane, and always expensive versions of Office? |
Columnists typically cannot reply to comments here, but do incorporate the best tips into future columns.[/td]
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I was recently asked to become a board member for the computer club in the gated community where I live. At a recent board meeting we were discussing email etc. and it was the same thing again… Google this, Google that. We happened to be talking about helping people setting up their emails, and quite frankly I nearly bit my tongue off at one board member in particular with her Google this Google that attitude. I finally spoke up about it, and asked why she was so in love with Google. Her answers were so bizarre they aren’t worth repeating and it clearly showed she had no clue about other services.
Long story short, I put on a short class comparing services Google, Microsoft, AOL, Yahoo. She and others had no clue that Google was using their email content to send them adds……. My final words….. The choice is yours!
Oh and one final note….. I ran a “Scroogled” ad for them
I like others that have posted in this string have nothing to do with anything Google, and have removed everything from my computer that has any association to Google. I use Bing as my search engine, and it does just fine……
As for the cloud, I have 2 SkyDrive accounts, and what data is on one, is on both. But! I also keep the files that are truly non replaceable on a USB attached Maxtor 500 Gb hard drive, that I can access from my Windows 8 Phone through SkyDrive.
Just my $.02 worth! 
Hi t8ntlikly, I notice you have a big issue with Google Services >>
Google this, Google that!
Back in the day, I used to be the same way about those who used AOL and Norton. It had gotten to a point where if I got a sniff of either of those products on a machine that was showing signs of problems, I would walk away. I did not want to have anything to do with neither AOL or Norton, as I felt they were doing a disservice to the computing populace!
But then, I realized that my grief was not against people that used those products but against those companies that did evil-ish things to the unsuspecting peeps! I think the original Google motto was “Do No Evil“ but I must admit Google was a game changer in the industry and allowed users many benefits although their existence was primarily for profit and not to be our best pal!
You may not like Google and I may be suspicious of putting all my eggs in that Google basket but diversity is a good thing, even if done out of naivete or without exploring alternative choices or simply choosing the lesser evil based on other requirements each user may have!
:rolleyes:
In the past 6 years, I have become more adamant against over-priced Apple products but instead of going on my high-horse and categorically chiding those who use Apple products, I graciously accept that Apple was a game changer (as was Google) and has become a status symbol for many! I also have a strong disdain for monopolistic business practices, yet (as with Google) my negative feelings are not against the users. Heck, my g/f has two iPhones and I am still obliged to service and maintain those products on her behalf!
:^_^:
What I am trying to tell you is to get off your high-horse and stop attempting to be an evangelist for such things. It really is not the right fight and it will age you quicker and people will call you unkind names, behind your back. Especially those whom you have to live around/with!
And Oh, BTW, the proper terminology is
Google this, Apple that!
Al,
Thanks for your detailed response to my last sentence: “If you want to be private, stay off the Internet!”. I appreciate the care, consideration and eloquence of your response. It’s so much nicer (and more informative) to read carefully composed information! I did not mean to be inappropriate, and I think that anyone who felt it was inappropriate has misunderstood me. I meant what I wrote in a friendly, honest and courteous way. Please try to imagine me smiling while making that statement
In my opinion, the Internet is not really private; the Internet is basically public. I think when you go on the Internet it’s like walking out your front door, visible to anyone who wants to watch. If you choose to use Google’s free services, you are granting them the right to be compensated for those services through the sale of advertising. No one at Google reads your Gmail, but keywords are indexed in the same way the rest of the Internet is indexed by Google’s search engines. The result is the ability to predict what may interest you. I like targeted advertising; I’d rather see advertisements for goods and services which interest me, rather than totally random advertisements, most of which will not interest me. I also prefer to pay for goods and services rather than get them in exchange for seeing those advertisements. If you compare what you give up with what you get, I think Google offers an amazing set of free services, and I’m thrilled to have access to them.
Hi, Douglas,
Thanks for your post. I assure you that there was not a single shred of animosity in anything I wrote, merely concern, as that last sentence came across, to my ear at least [Ah, the perils of the printed word!], as a rather abrupt and dismissive retort to Mike’s thought-provoking post, so I tried, however inarticulately, to rise to the defense of both Mike and the standards of the Lounge. Fear not, however; I shall henceforth do as you suggest and try to imagine you smiling (:)) when making that statement!
Now, as to your analogy:
In my opinion, the Internet is not really private; the Internet is basically public. I think when you go on the Internet it’s like walking out your front door, visible to anyone who wants to watch.
I’m afraid that you’re missing a big distinction. If I post something on the Internet – whether on one of my web pages, or on Facebook, through a tweet on Twitter, or whatever – then you are absolutely correct. Posting on the Internet is indeed public, perhaps the most public of all acts, analogous to putting your information on a huge billboard for all 7 billion people in the world to see, a lesson that desperately needs to be brought home strongly to children and teenagers [and some politicians!] who post all sorts of inappropriate or private things and suffer (or cause suffering to others) accordingly.
Here’s your missing piece, though: While to post on the Internet is of course to make whatever you post public, that does not apply to other forms of Internet use. Posting is indeed like going out my front door and putting a billboard in my front yard, and that private detective you mentioned in a previous post has every right to read and take note of what I’ve posted. However, if I am sitting in the privacy of my own home and reading a page on the Internet, that is a private act, and neither Google nor any other company has the right to monitor what I am reading, any more than your private detective has the right to walk into my home and watch over my shoulder as I read the newspaper, noting what stories I read and what ads I look at. Likewise, your private detective cannot legally open and scan my posted letters or emails, nor monitor my phone conversations for words to “index” (a lovely euphemism for “monitor and file away for whatever future use we choose”). My private reading, my private writings, and my private speaking to others are just that – private – and that privacy is rightly protected under law and indeed enshrined in the U.S. Constitution under the Fourth Amendment. That privacy can only be legally invaded by law enforcement officials who must convince an impartial judge that they have sufficient just cause for invading that privacy and that an order for a wiretap or a warrant for the seizure of papers should be issued.
I’m glad that you and others are thrilled with Google’s services and I genuinely wish you every success with them. I have no doubt that they are well designed and make your computing life better and/or easier, and that is a good thing. Please just accept, however, that there are many of us – often, though by no means always, with more than a little gray hair – who care deeply about our personal privacy, not because we have anything nefarious to hide, but as a matter of principle, in part because we have studied history and know that when dossiers or profiles have been accumulated on individuals in the past, it has given tremendous power to those who had that information and has resulted in terrible abuses of human freedom. I am absolutely not saying that Google or any other company has specific harmful plans in mind to misuse any information it gathers, but the fact remains that information is power and there is no guarantee that any organization with that much power will remain uncorrupted, human nature being what it is, nor is there any guarantee that such information will not fall into the hands of others who may misuse it (e.g., under government subpoena).
In short, Google (and anyone else) has every right to read, scan, “index,” or do whatever else it wishes with anything that I or others post on the Internet. It has no right, however, to monitor my Internet reading, my emails, or my Internet phone conversations if I use such a service. Those are, and should always remain, private, so speaking for myself – though I suspect also for many others like those who have posted thoughts similar to mine on this subject – my privacy is not negotiable.
I wish you well.
Cheers,
Al
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