Google The New Evil Empire?

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jemimah
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#31 Post by jemimah »

I'm a huge fan of drop.io for filesharing and cloud storage. It's anonymous, ad-free, and free of charge up to 100MB - plus you can create as many free drops as you want. If you want to send someone a huge file, just upload to a drop and email them a download link. It has a lot of neat collaboration features too, though I don't think it can open and edit documents yet - I haven't tried though, it might.

Admittedly, it's has bit too much ajax to be pleasant on a really slow connection, or with a really old browser, but it does work.

IMAP mail with a real mail client is the way to go on slow connections - much less frustrating than webmail. I think even Gmail supports IMAP.

Frank Cox
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Alternatives

#32 Post by Frank Cox »

I personally am mostly interested in a way to exchange documents, not so much collaboration. For those who are here are some alternatives..

http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/5-great-al ... -consider/

Zoho gives you a gig ,5 gigs 3.00 a month ,15 gigs 3 users 15.00

Peeepel will not accept your Gmail profile url to sign in, that puzzles me. It would tell them what they want to hear.

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Pizzasgood
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#33 Post by Pizzasgood »

If you have data you want nobody else to view, encrypt it.

If you upload an unencrypted document to a webservice, they can see it, period. Whether they do anything with it is completely dependent on their morals. Laws and contracts don't matter. Those only kick in after the fact, and only if caught.

If you want privacy, take it into your own hands. Encrypt the data.

Inconvenient? Maybe. But more inconvenient than having the data become public?


As for Gmail vs. Dialup: just use a mail client like Thunderbird or Sylpheed. Gmail supports IMAP. That would be more bandwidth efficient than any "basic" webmail page, not to mention more ergonomic. You still benefit from Gmail's spam filter too.
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seaside
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#34 Post by seaside »

I remember a couple of years ago exchanging executable files in Gmail by simple renaming or eliminating the suffix extension.

I think they did this as a protection against viruses in Windows, since Windows keys on extensions, and if it's not an executable extension it won't run.

So, unless they've changed how they do this, it's probably a reasonable tradeoff between convenience and protection.

To the issue of information use .... It all boils down to - exactly which places can you expect privacy? And maybe the prudent answer is to say "none".

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xman
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#35 Post by xman »

There are two reasons for gmail users to turn new Google Buzz OFF :(:
1) Security hole (http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/a ... ckers.html),
2) Privacy (http://content.usatoday.com/communities ... -storm-1/1).

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Lobster
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#36 Post by Lobster »

Yep I turned Buzz off
(liked it though)

Google are donating 2 million to wikimedia
http://techcrunch.com/2010/02/16/google ... oundation/

Maybe even the evil empire can do good?
Darth Gates seems to be helping some of the most
vulnerable people with his Gates Foundation
http://www.gatesfoundation.org/Pages/home.aspx
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firak
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#37 Post by firak »

Google is not an evil, but not always friendly and onest.
I' m disapaontend about google apps.
was a promise that will have totally compatibility wt. any computer and any kind of document.
In my company we use it.
I face problem wt. browser compatibility &
the documents graphically sometimes mess up or loose parts.

Also there are some problem of privacy, easily you can make a mistake and share a document to the word.

goggle apps is still en experimental tool, still i like it and use.

VK6FUN
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Location: North Baandee, Western Australia

#38 Post by VK6FUN »

Perhaps it's time to remind people of a few computing and internet basix:

1) If you do not pay for software, do not expect it to work. Computer programming is a lot of effort. Those who make the effort are entitled to be rewarded for it.

2) The internet is an uncontrolled medium. Do not expect any material you put on it to be in your control.

3) Business and commerce is based on predation and exploitation. Don't trust anyone until you meet them face-to-face.

4) Computing is about manipulation of data. Expect to see a lot of fraud and manipulative behaviour in cyberspace.

cheers

pete vk6fun

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xman
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Google Buzz violated its own privacy promises to consumers

#39 Post by xman »

xman wrote:There are two reasons for gmail users to turn new Google Buzz OFF :(:
1) Security hole (http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/a ... ckers.html),
2) Privacy (http://content.usatoday.com/communities ... -storm-1/1).
Google has agreed to settle Federal Trade Commission charges that it used deceptive tactics and violated its own privacy promises to consumers when it launched its social network, Google Buzz, in 2010. FTC requires from Google comprehensive privacy program and regular independent privacy audits for the next 20 years: http://www.ftc.gov/opa/2011/03/google.shtm.

disciple
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#40 Post by disciple »

VK6FUN wrote:1) If you do not pay for software, do not expect it to work. Computer programming is a lot of effort. Those who make the effort are entitled to be rewarded for it.
Is this a joke?
I have used an awful lot of different software packages, and observed that the more they cost the less likely they are to work.
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disciple
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#41 Post by disciple »

Google The New Evil Empire?
There was a two page article today in our "news"paper from Technology Review, about all the effort Google is supposedly putting into making the internet and browsers in general (not just their own sites and browser) faster, because they want world domination with their cloud computing, and they think that people will be put off it by any slow internet experiences. And I think, "huh? faster? Why don't they fire the moron that keeps rewriting their search page to make it slower?"
And it's not just their search page.
Maybe I should start using the old gtk1.2 Dillo - that would make it fast, assuming it still works :)
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cowboy
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this is scary

#42 Post by cowboy »

now, this new feature announced in Gmail, TODAY, is really scary.... :wink:

http://mail.google.com/mail/help/motion.html
[i]"you fix what you can fix and you let the rest go.."[/i] - Cormac McCarthy - No Country For Old Men.

disciple
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#43 Post by disciple »

Right... is anyone else inclined to think they've lost their marbles at Google?
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rjbrewer
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Re: this is scary

#44 Post by rjbrewer »

cowboy wrote:now, this new feature announced in Gmail, TODAY, is really scary.... :wink:

http://mail.google.com/mail/help/motion.html
Aren't you aware of the date today? :lol: :lol: :lol:

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disciple
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#45 Post by disciple »

Ah... maybe I would have picked it up if April Fool's hadn't finished almost 24hrs ago here. Or maybe not - they seem to have a good grasp on how crazy I can believe they are :)
That's almost as bad/good as the "QGIS is going proprietary" announcement.
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