I'm not sure if I'm the only one thinking this, but is Google becoming the new Big Brother?
Why am I thinking this? Let's list off the "free" services Google provides:
Search Engine
Gmail
Google Maps
Google Earth
Google Documents
This Blog along with the rest of Blogger.com
Google Moon
Probably a lot more things that I don't know about, say...Google Laundry Service
One of the things that you'll notice when you sign up for Gmail is that it points to the Google Privacy Policy page in the terms of service. From what I understand, this page is the overarching Privacy Policy for most Google services. The statements that get my attention are the ones about the Log information and User communications. It basically says that they are storing a whole bunch of information about you including the e-mails you send. It just takes a slight shift in the culture at Google in order for these free services to change into more sinister data collection techniques.
The thing that really freaked me out was when I used Google Maps to put in an address and it came up with a high quality street view picture of the address I was searching. Holy crap! Someone from Google walked down that street and took a whole bunch of pictures...enough pictures so that you could go back and forth down the street and swivel the perspective. These guys are everywhere!
The one thing that is keeping me from completely jumping off the Google bandwagon is their sense of humor. At one point, if you zoomed in enough on Google Moon, it showed a whole bunch of swiss cheese. Unfortunately, they took that feature out. However, they still are offering jobs for working on the Google Moon Base, the Googlunaplex. Check them out here. While there are still people at Google which have this kind of sense of humor I'm OK with them keeping my information. However, once they get rid of that site, I'll know that the tide is turning and I'll have to cut all ties with Google. That will signal the change from the friendly big brother who keeps you out of trouble and will play catch with you to the mean big brother who will snitch on you for picking your nose.
Monday, June 16, 2008
Wednesday, June 11, 2008
Comments on Friending
I'm finally getting around to the posts that I promised myself I would write when I got more time...
Over a month ago, Ryan wrote a post about how he's been getting a lot of friend requests on Facebook and Myspace lately. One thing that he notes is that he's gotten a couple from people he didn't expect. I'll have to say that I was probably one of them. He's a couple of years older than me, we didn't really hang out in high school; in fact I completely forgot that he played bass (which is obviously a huge part of his life). The thing was, when I saw his name linked with some of my friends, I said "what the hell, from what I remember, he's a nice guy and he plays the bass to boot, I'll friend him". I ended up doing that with a couple more people and before I knew it, I had people that I never thought would be friending me sending me requests. It gives me a nice warm fuzzy to be known. =)
Now, I'm not kidding myself. Many of the "friends" aren't traditional friends by any sense. For a large percentage, it's just of way of saying "Hi, I know you. I'll look at your pictures and see what you've been up to. You can contact me if you want, but no big deal if you don't." However, it's not always like that and I enjoy the random e-mails that I get from people who do more than friend me and read my blog.
High school for me, like Ryan, was not my favorite 4 years. While I don't ever remember being shoved into a locker, I do remember various incidents of people throwing/pushing me. The more memorable ones are:
- Pushed into the pond at the Helmer Nature Center (actually happened before H.S. but I'm still counting it)
- Thrown, repeatedly, into a pool
- Thrown into the bushes
- Pushed into a garbage can
In full fairness, I have to admit that all of these incidents with the exception of the pond involved horsing around with my friends and I gave as good as I got. However, I still remember that you pushed me into the pond Katie Coakley and Monica Williams, and I will never forgive you...just you wait...bwaa ha ha ha! Oh crap, how lame is it that I actually admitted that two girls pushed me into a pond. I'm going to go hide in a locker now.
By the way, Ryan, I own a Samuel Shen carved bass as well. I don't get to play as often as I like, but I love the rich sound that it makes when I'm playing competently.
Over a month ago, Ryan wrote a post about how he's been getting a lot of friend requests on Facebook and Myspace lately. One thing that he notes is that he's gotten a couple from people he didn't expect. I'll have to say that I was probably one of them. He's a couple of years older than me, we didn't really hang out in high school; in fact I completely forgot that he played bass (which is obviously a huge part of his life). The thing was, when I saw his name linked with some of my friends, I said "what the hell, from what I remember, he's a nice guy and he plays the bass to boot, I'll friend him". I ended up doing that with a couple more people and before I knew it, I had people that I never thought would be friending me sending me requests. It gives me a nice warm fuzzy to be known. =)
Now, I'm not kidding myself. Many of the "friends" aren't traditional friends by any sense. For a large percentage, it's just of way of saying "Hi, I know you. I'll look at your pictures and see what you've been up to. You can contact me if you want, but no big deal if you don't." However, it's not always like that and I enjoy the random e-mails that I get from people who do more than friend me and read my blog.
High school for me, like Ryan, was not my favorite 4 years. While I don't ever remember being shoved into a locker, I do remember various incidents of people throwing/pushing me. The more memorable ones are:
- Pushed into the pond at the Helmer Nature Center (actually happened before H.S. but I'm still counting it)
- Thrown, repeatedly, into a pool
- Thrown into the bushes
- Pushed into a garbage can
In full fairness, I have to admit that all of these incidents with the exception of the pond involved horsing around with my friends and I gave as good as I got. However, I still remember that you pushed me into the pond Katie Coakley and Monica Williams, and I will never forgive you...just you wait...bwaa ha ha ha! Oh crap, how lame is it that I actually admitted that two girls pushed me into a pond. I'm going to go hide in a locker now.
By the way, Ryan, I own a Samuel Shen carved bass as well. I don't get to play as often as I like, but I love the rich sound that it makes when I'm playing competently.
Saturday, June 07, 2008
Geeking Out
Reason's why I'm particularly geeky at this very moment:
1. I'm writing on my blog on Saturday night
2. from the Ubuntu Linux OS on my computer
3. which I just installed today
4. and configured as a dual boot machine so that I can still play games on Windows
5. while wearing my glasses with only one temple
6. and having to look up "glasses" in Wikipedia to find out that the things that go from the front of the frame and hang over your ear are called "temples"
7. and writing an extremely long run-on sentence but writing it off as OK since the sentence is in list format
8. and thinking it's a good idea to link to Weird Al Yankovic's White and Nerdy YouTube video is good way to pay homage to this geeky post.
OK, I'm going to go have a beer now and see if that makes me any cooler.
1. I'm writing on my blog on Saturday night
2. from the Ubuntu Linux OS on my computer
3. which I just installed today
4. and configured as a dual boot machine so that I can still play games on Windows
5. while wearing my glasses with only one temple
6. and having to look up "glasses" in Wikipedia to find out that the things that go from the front of the frame and hang over your ear are called "temples"
7. and writing an extremely long run-on sentence but writing it off as OK since the sentence is in list format
8. and thinking it's a good idea to link to Weird Al Yankovic's White and Nerdy YouTube video is good way to pay homage to this geeky post.
OK, I'm going to go have a beer now and see if that makes me any cooler.
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