DISCOURAGING: Google URL Shortener links will no longer be available

Wednesday, June 11, 2025

https://developers.googleblog.com/en/google-url-shortener-links-will-no-longer-be-available/

Nie mój cyrk, nie moje małpy . . . literally, “not my circus, not my monkey;” figuratively, “not my problem.” — Polish saying

 I guess monkeys are “problems” in Poland, and circuses are where “problems” come from. If it’s not your monkey, and it’s not even from your circus, then it’s not your problem. — https://goo.gl/X7VEKG

# – # – # – # – # 

Google URL Shortener links will no longer be available

JULY 18, 2024

*** begin quote ***

In 2018, we announced the deprecation and transition of Google URL Shortener because of the changes we’ve seen in how people find content on the internet, and the number of new popular URL shortening services that emerged in that time. This meant that we no longer accepted new URLs to shorten but that we would continue serving existing URLs.

*** end quote ***

Once again a demonstration of the Internet axiom, “If you’re not paying of a product, then you are the PRODUCT.”  Sometimes even if you are paying, it still gets “deprecated”  —  a fancy word for “FU, we don’t need you”! For example, Pocket from Mozilla.  In this case, a service is disappearing.  

https://umatechnology.org/what-does-it-mean-when-an-app-gets-sherlocked-by-apple/

Being “Sherlocked” is a term that encapsulates the dramatic and often ruthless dynamics between smaller developers and larger tech companies like Apple. It serves as a reminder of how innovation and competition can shape the tech landscape, sometimes to the detriment of those who initially paved the way.

Not just APPLE, but GOOGLE and MICROSOFT do it as well.  Without the decency of acquiring the original developer.  Not that “guaranties” the product or service will survive. Some are acquired to kill the competition.

There is no doubt in my mind that Google intended to SHERLOCK BITLY (https://bitly.com/pages/products/url-shortener) but for whatever reason they decided not to.  I suspect that there was not margin in it for Google.  So after “pushing” it, like so many other GOOGLE “products and services” they give it the FU treatment and  “deprecate” it.

Sad for the Users who used it and good for BITLY.

And, for anyone who still “trusts” Gooferment to be a fair referee with respect to anti-trust issues, why do you think “corporations” “contribute” aka payoff politicians and bureaucrats?

Now I have to go and replace all “goo.gl” uses in my blog.  Argh!

—30—

Leave a Comment » | DISCOURAGING | Tagged: , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by reinkefj

WRITING: Poor Joe

Friday, November 1, 2024

 The DNA Database Incident

It was a beautiful sunny day when Joe woke. The birds were singing, the sun was shining, and all was right with the world.

In a joint Google-Apple-Microsoft-IBM data center, they were just preparing to populate the total DNA global database. It was the result of a decade-long project run out of the Human Genome Project. IBM Watson had been given access to the HG project and all available DNA records. It was asked one question: what was the relationship of the human genome to DNA? Scientists had debated nature versus nurture until they were blue in the face. Nothing had emerged, and there was conflicting anecdotal data on both sides.

Watson worked the problem for a month. The operators could see the process meter—which was only there to keep the humans from pulling Watson offline. All cores were running. Finally, Watson deployed a simple function:

“`

IN = F(THGGNA, T)

“`

The scientists were baffled. What that meant was that the entity was a time-based function, and every human was basically unique in an unpredictable way. A clone wasn’t really identical to the original because of the time function. While the individual and clone may be close enough for transplants, one could be identified uniquely. Bottom line: there could be only one Beethoven, and only one in that place in time.

From that, the scientists developed a unique human identification system. The political elite had always wanted unique tags for people that couldn’t be mimicked or duplicated. The computer jockeys set about generating tags, and life was going to change. The generation was started and left in the care of an operational staff.

And like most things, Murphy’s Law was still in effect and very persistent. During the late night shift, during a rousing game of pizza-tinfoil baseball—using the pizza boxes as bats and the tinfoil from under the pizza rolled up as balls—there was a high fly ball. An operator bumped a solid-state disk drive as it was processing Joe’s record.

Poor Joe. He was now not in the DNA database and a non-person as far as the Universe was concerned. On the plus side, he was never charge for anything he stole, since he didn’t exist. On the minus side, he was never able to do anything that required identification. Poor Joe.

—30—

Leave a Comment » | Writing | Tagged: , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by reinkefj

SECURITY: A static social security number is the flaw in EVERY financial security scheme

Saturday, October 12, 2024

https://www.theregister.com/2024/10/04/comcast_fcbs_ransomware_theft/

Cybersecurity Month
About a quarter million Comcast subscribers had their data stolen from debt collector

  • Cable giant says ransomware involved, FBCS keeps schtum

Connor Jones
Fri 4 Oct 2024 // 20:13 UTC

*** begin quote ***

Among the data types stolen were names, addresses, Social Security numbers, dates of birth, and the Comcast account numbers and ID numbers used internally at FBCS. The data pertains to those registered as customers at “around 2021.” Comcast stopped using FBCS for debt collection services in 2020.

*** end quote ***

As with ALL problems, digging down for who’s at fault, eventually end at the Gooferment.

I remember n=my original Social Security card as saying in big red font all caps “NOT FOR IDENTIFICATION PURPOSES”.

I’m sure that the tin foil hats of that era would have opposed it for either “THE MARK OF THE DEVIL” or “where is your papers please” or just the enumeration of privacy concerns.  And they, like almost all Conspiracy Theorists, would have been correct.  Look what a mess SSN has created.

At the root of the problem is the SSN.  

Fundamentally insecure!  Medicare abandoned the SSN on its own medicare cards.  Never explained but probably due to fraud.  Which still is a huge problem.

I suggest that the SSN be abandoned.  Credit cards use a 16 digit number with error correction in it and the “secret” card code on the back.  Why can’t the same be done to replace SSN.

Sure “credit reporting agencies”, banks, brokers, and all would have to retool.  

So what.

No one ever voted to approve this Universal Identifier.  

So let’s unvote it out.

Surely SCIENCE can come up with a better one.  Maybe based on our DNA, or biometric, or maybe nothing is best.

Google and Apple now have passkeys based on their device’s “biometric”.  

Even that would be better than SSN!

# – # – # – # – # 

FOOTNOTE: The word schtum means to remain silent. Specifically, it means not sharing any information, or telling anyone what you know. Schtum is most often used when referring to information that is harmful or sensitive in nature.

—30—

Leave a Comment » | SECURITY | Tagged: , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by reinkefj

JOBFINDING: Remember your real job is finding your next job

Sunday, May 5, 2024

Google has laid off its Python Foundation team (1 minute read)

Google has asked its recently laid-off Python Foundation team to train its replacements, who will be in the Munich office. The company similarly laid off its finance department a few weeks ago, moving positions outside of the country where they are cheaper. The Python Foundation team maintained a stable version of Python within Google, tools to keep thousands of third-party packages constantly updated from their open source versions, highly customized tools, and much more. It also acted as a help desk for Python users at Google. The team performed its duties for years with fewer than 10 people. 

# – # – # – # – # 

Anyone, who thinks that by doing a “good job” their employment is “safe”, here’s a wake up call.

Remember your real job is finding your next job.  Ignore this at your own peril.

—30—

Leave a Comment » | JOBFINDING | Tagged: , , | Permalink
Posted by reinkefj

POLITICAL: “Private” companies have become the propaganda arm of the party in power over the US Gooferment

Monday, August 1, 2022

https://www.breitbart.com/tech/2022/07/27/bokhari-big-techs-blueprint-to-stop-a-red-wave-in-2022/

Bokhari: Big Tech’s Blueprint to Stop a Red Wave in 2022

Allum Bokhari 27 Jul 2022

*** begin quote ***

Republicans think a “red wave” is inevitable in November. But the Democrats still have one big advantage: the ever-tightening grip of Big Tech censorship, which will be used to prevent undecided voters from encountering even the most mainstream conservative news in the runup to the next election. Republicans will have a strong message — but what if voters are prevented from hearing it?

In the runup to the 2020 U.S. presidential election, Google completely suppressed Breitbart News from its search results. Compared to 2016, Breibart News went into the 2020 election with a 99.7 percent reduction in visibility for its links on Google search. The censorship was so severe, no-name blogs with plagiarized headlines and content would appear in search results before the original Breitbart News articles. On searches for the term “Joe Biden,” Google cut visibility on Breitbart News links to zero.

Then, a few weeks before the election, Big Tech teamed up to suppress one of the biggest stories of the cycle: the Hunter Biden laptop story. A post-election poll found that 17 percent of Biden voters would have reconsidered their decision had they been aware of the laptop story alone, not counting the hundreds of Breitbart News stories voters didn’t have access to due to Google censorship.

Biden’s margin of victory in three swing states was less than a percentage point, making tech censorship a pivotal factor in the outcome. There is no law preventing Silicon Valley from not only repeating this plan in 2022, but scaling it up to a massive level – and that’s exactly what they are doing. The groundwork is already being prepared, in a number of ways:

#1 “Independent” Watchdogs Downgrading Conservative Media — NewsGuard Discredits The Right

#2 Facebook Suppressing The News — If The Wrong Side Is Winning, Call Off The Game

#3 Taxpayer-Funded Censorship — NPR Creates Misinformation Bureau

#4 Regulatory Gridlock — No Recourse For Citizens

#5 The Institutionalization of Censorship — Facebook’s $150 Million ‘Oversight Board’

*** and ***

Like the “misinformation” panic, the point of the Oversight Board is to give a veneer of process and legitimacy to Facebook’s suppression of non-progressive viewpoints.

Going into the 2022 midterm elections, if Silicon Valley gets its way, voters online will see only what the elites want them to see. That January 6 was the worst attack on democracy ever. That Republicans killed people by pointing out masks don’t work. That women in red states are being driven to coathanger abortions.

In short, Silicon Valley will ensure that the misinformation of the establishment gets a megaphone, while any conservative counterpoints are silenced. We already know from 2020 that this works. The question is, what are Republicans going to do about it?

*** end quote ***

As a little L libertarian, “private companies” should just make a profit and stay out of politics.

In these examples (i.e., Disney, Google, Facebook, Big Media), they have become propaganda arms of the Big Left wing of the Democratic Party and using their control of Gooferment to silence their opposition. 

“We, The Sheeple” must recognize that the game is rigged and punish all involved.

As painful as it is, consumers must boycott Disney, Google, and Facebook.  Until they change their ways, they are PNG.

—30—

Leave a Comment » | Political | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by reinkefj

TECHNOLOGY: Old hardware gets a new life?

Friday, February 18, 2022

https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2022/02/google-turns-old-macs-pcs-into-chromebooks-with-chrome-os-flex/

CLOUDREADY BECOMES CHROME OS FLEX —
Google turns old Macs, PCs into Chromebooks with Chrome OS Flex
Google acquisition results in free, downloadable Chrome OS.
SCHARON HARDING – 2/15/2022, 12:00 PM

*** begin quote ***

Google is positioning Chrome OS Flex as an answer to old Mac and Windows PCs that might not be able to handle the latest version of their native OS and/or that might not be owned by folks with budgets to replace the devices. Rather than buying new hardware, consumers or IT departments could install the latest version of Chrome OS Flex.

*** end quote ***

Sounds like something I want to try and maybe better than trying to run some version of Linux on old junk?

—30—

Leave a Comment » | Technology | Tagged: , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by reinkefj

TECHNOLOGY: APPLE and GOOGLE with suck at tagging photos

Wednesday, November 17, 2021

I like to phot everything that passes through my hands.  ID cards, letters, people, etc. etc.

From time to time I need to find the “needle in a haystack”.  Unfortunately, I can’t “tag” photos to indicate what they are and why they’d be important.

Argh!

I have to create “albums” and “folders” and what not that some developer thinks is “kool”.

Argh!

Why not tags like Twitter and Facebook?  Why reinvent the wheel?  Like labels in Gmail but not in photos.

Argh!

—30—

Leave a Comment » | Technology | Tagged: , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by reinkefj

APPLICATION: Address Book — anyone have a good solution?

Sunday, November 14, 2021

I’m really tired of struggling with various address books  — IOS, OSX, Android, Google.  Does anyone have an evernote template that could be the universal address book.  I remember an old Windoze app “Little Black Book” that just allowed one to print out specialize address books for different purposes.  For example, I used to print various ones for older relatives that only had “their” items of interest.  Now, it just seems to be a virtually impossible to print something that would look like an address book without a lot of manual effort.  Any suggestions?

—30—

2 Comments | APPLICATION | Tagged: , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by reinkefj

TECHNOLOGY: GOOGLE is one interconnected mess

Thursday, October 28, 2021

Accidentally deleted my Google Pay account and now Google FI and Google One are all screwed up.  My pixel 5a is a unable to be used as a phone.

Argh!

Been on the phone with support for two hours today and 90 minutes yesterday.

Wonder if I can return the phone and start over?

Argh!

—30—

Leave a Comment » | Technology | Tagged: , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by reinkefj

TECHNOLOGY: Dropping Google and returning to the “less evil” empire of Apple

Wednesday, November 11, 2020

2020-Nov-11 1257

Ok, I admit that my attempt to move from Apple to Google was a complete and utter failure.

Google:

  • By killing Google Cloud Print, it made my printer “obsolete” with no alternative. (Was the final straw!)
  • Google docs and sheets are no where near as good as Microsoft Office.
  • Google’s “end of life”-ing chromebooks is inexplicable.
  • Google’s 4a offering was “unsubscribable”. (A tech giant should be able to do that!)
  • Google has no support comparable to Apple’s.
  • Google Fi’s beem a disappointment compared to Altice Mobile.

Apple

  • Has a remarkable consistency in their infrastructure.
  • While killing iTunes Apple Music, iWeb, and a parade of obsolescence, it has been as disruptive as Google’s “end of life”-ing chromebooks.

I’ll continue to watch the field, but it’s no sense wasting anymore time.

I’ll still recomend chromebooks with the caveats about printing and “end of life”-ing.

Argh!

(My apologies for the bad advice!)

—30—

Leave a Comment » | Technology | Tagged: , , , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by reinkefj

« Previous Entries