First Impression of Google’s GDrive: Scary
Maybe I’m a little paranoid right now because I’m reading James Bamford’s, The Shadow Factory, but this story about an offering Google is bringing to market perhaps later this year is a bit disconcerting.
The concept behind the GDrive is that you would access the internet through some sort of device and what you now know as “your computer” would reside on one of Google’s benevolent servers. The way I think of it is the old dummy terminals in offices where the computer you worked on didn’t store or run anything locally, it gathered all of your data and software from a mainframe or server as you needed it.
Two things jumped to mind when I read about this product. First, why? We’re getting into a time where we do things with technology merely because we can. For instance, cell phones with cameras. I don’t want a camera on my cell phone. I don’t use it, when people send me pictures from their phones, half the time I can’t see what the hell they are unless I get them onto my computer. A camera on my phone might have utility if I were a spy, but I’m not.
Second is trust. Why should I trust Google, a private company with ALL of my private data. I can’t even trust the federal government to respect my private information, why trust Google or any other business? I thought about everything on my home pc and I’m screwed if that data is breached. I take above average security precautions, and most importantly, when I choose to, I can unplug from the Internet and I’m my own safe and secure little standalone just out doing my thing. If all my crap was coralled in the GDrive data barn, that stuff is out there, connected, (or connectable) 24/7.
How long will it take for the hackers of the world to get bored with exploiting Microsoft products and turn their attention to Google, once it has all of our stuff? After all, the end game in this is not to make PCs obsolete, it’s too make Microsoft Windows obsolete. With cloud computing, who needs the obligatory copy of Windows that ships with every machine? If Google were to supplant Microsoft in its core business, the target is now on Google’s back. Last time I looked, Google didn’t have all the smart programmers and mathemeticians on its payroll.
The good thing about product offerings is that we, the public, will get to make the choice. It’ll take some convincing for me to send the contents of my hard drive to Google.
Full Disclosure: I use Google for the ads and analytics for Clips & Comment — I’m totally satisfied with that service — Oh, and my homepage is Google search.
Why Does Google Kiss China’s Ass?
I’m one of those people who love Google – but fear Google. The love is for the fact that they came out of nowhere and did something better – search – and more unobtrusively, that they changed the whole state of the art. I love the fact that they used the core values and spirit of ingenuity that made them a successful search engine and monetized the net for the masses through their better ad program. I love Google labs … the list goes on.
I hate the fact that they condone and act as China’s censorship police. I hate the fact that they stand up for their values only in the countries like the U.S. where they have rights. In its relationship with China, Google has lost the mantle of “revolutionary.” Google’s principle of “don’t be evil” is rendered meaningless when it becomes, “do no evil unless it means missing a business opportunity in a huge market.”
For some years now, Google has been allowed to do business in the Chinese cyberspace because it allows the Chinese government to use the Google search engine to effectively block out news and other information from the Chinese people. Today, Google and others said they were sorry to the Chinese government for the fact that some searches yield naughty links among their results.
Google is big enough and popular enough that it could tell the Chinese to go pound salt. If the popular search engine and other Google apps were taken away from the Chinese people, perhaps they would bring them back through a popular consumer uprising. Google would rather take the path of least resistance – even if it means doing the harm of being the handmaiden of an oppressive national government.
I was in a bookstore the other day and took note of the smut mags atop the magazine rack. Although not a consumer of those magazines, it’s always comforting in a way to see even a mainstream bookstore keep a few around. Why do they? Because they can. They’re just making a small statement that this is American and we don’t censor — and neither should an American company.
Being “not evil” means not helping others (Chinese government) be evil as well.
Please excuse the ‘Hype’
Well, for I don’t know how long, the Google AdSense code I added to my page has been running an ad for the anti-O movie, Hype. This is pissing me off, but it is an apparent weakness in the AdSense system. I don’t necessarily gush over anyone here, but I think my comments – and the clips I choose for that matter – make it obvious I’m for Obama.
New to the blogosphere and trying out these ad programs to see if this ol’ blog will pay for the hosting. If anyone has any experience with AdSense and how to keep this from happening, I’d love to hear about it. I have submitted the Hype movie URL to the content filter, so that should take care of that in four hours or so. Any ideas on how to avoid unwittingly shilling for assholes like Ken Blackwell and his propaganda projects would be appreciated.
Saturday A.M. – Google, Rove, Patriotic Symbols
- Even Googlers Have Something to Complain About - New York Times
- Rove Goes on Attack for McCain – New York Times
- Americans Great at Symbols, Not So on Sacrifice – New York Times
The symbols of patriotism — bumper stickers and those flags the size of baseball fields — have taken the place of the hard work and sacrifice required to keep a great nation great. – Bob Herbert, New York Times
Karl Rove knows how to win elections. But, what of the Rove legacy?
Ds and Rs, conservatives and liberals, have been ultra-polarized since the Clinton days. The mass of people in the middle being pulled back and forth between the two dominant parties to the point many have tuned out.
Over the past 7 years Rove has proved he’s a master political manipulator, but to what end? The George W. Bush coalition of social conservatives, big business, and the neocons have further divided America with an economy only the investor class could love, fear of the barbarian hordes that is the rest of the world in their view, and an ill-conceived, poorly planned, nakedly transparent war for oil in Iraq.
