JOBFINDING: Remember your real job is finding your next job

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. 

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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.

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

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.

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TECHNOLOGY: Old hardware gets a new life?

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?

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TECHNOLOGY: APPLE and GOOGLE with suck at tagging photos

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!

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APPLICATION: Address Book — anyone have a good solution?

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?

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TECHNOLOGY: GOOGLE is one interconnected mess

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!

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

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!)

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RANT: The “social media” ARE utter frauds, regressive cheats, and petty censors

Letter from L. Neil Smith
Dear Ken,

Twitter, it says here, has kicked the amazing actor and articulate political pundit James Woods off its vaunted platform for no other reason than that he writes truths that make the left all butt-squirmy. To me, this is the absolute last straw. These “social media” things originally presented themselves as futuristic channels of free and open communication. They are, instead, utter frauds, regressive cheats, and petty censors, stuck in the discredited and obsolete collectivist past, determined to drag everybody else back there with them.

They are also corporations, and, as such, fully as subject Bill of Rights limitations as any other tentacle of the government.

As a lifelong libertarian thinker and writer, I hate, loathe, and despise regulation of any kind. But I hate this elementary school neo-puritanism even worse. I hate some snotty asshole snatching my mail out of my mailbox. I want to hear what James Woods has to say, and I don’t buy a single syllable of the pseudo-tech bullshit they spew as an excuse for trying to control people’s lives.

I have fought censorship all my life. If Twitter fails to restore Woods’ account and never bothers him or anybody like him—Alex Jones, for example—ever again, I will begin to advocate publicly that it—and other enterprises like Facebook, Youtube, and Google itself be seized by Federal Marshals and turned over to the US Postal System. At least they pretended to mind their own damned business, and you could be locked up for messing with a mailbox.

Please pass it on.

L. Neil Smith, author of The Probability Broach 
and The Lando Calrissian Adventures, et al. 
lneil@netzero.com

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I agree!

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CHROMEBOOK: “Planned Obsolescence” or “End Of Life”

One of my beloved Chromebooks — ET101 Samsung — updated the Chrome OS and popped up an “End Of Life” message.

What?

It’s EOL when it dies.

Is this part of Google’s attempt to follow in Apple’s “planned obsolesce” “architecture”?

Personally, if the Chromebook is supposed to be the “toaster” appliance of the computer age, then it should old go “end of life” when it goes to chromebook heaven.  I have toasters that lasted until the lady of the house decided the exterior could no longer be clean enough.  Not my problem, but an example of “Western Electric” telephone handset engineering.  Capable of operating after a flood or a nuke.

I am very upset.

And as if to rub my nose it (i.e., EOL), google helpfully offers me a selection of upgrades.

ARGH cubed!

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http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-5819169/Apple-hits-claims-designs-iPhones-fail-force-consumers-buy-new-one.

‘Planned obsolescence is the craziest thinking in the world’: Apple hits back at claims it designs iPhones to fail so consumers have to buy a new one

  • VP of marketing Greg Joswiak refuted that Apple uses ‘planned obsolescence’
  • In an interview with noted Apple blogger John Gruber, he called those claims ‘about the craziest thinking in the world’ saying the firm wouldn’t do that
  • Joswiak said Apple paid special attention to older devices with iOs 12 update
  • Comments come as Apple gave customers discounts for battery throttling
  • Apple has been charging £25 ($29) for replacements since December

By AARON BROWN and ANNIE PALMER FOR DAILYMAIL.COM
PUBLISHED: 19:07 EDT, 7 June 2018 | UPDATED: 19:18 EDT, 7 June 2018

* * * * *

Yeah, right.  I believe that!

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TECHNOLOGY: “Don’t be evil” should be “Don’t be stupid”!

2018-May-23

FROM GOOGLE NEWS FEEDBACK

*** begin quote ***

SM Boyd via Google News Help Forum <news+APn2wQczRBc769E16bjrxQV_s5edMPsyvh1fprm8_RnbkdJmVLGZ-kp7ii-@googleproductforums.com>
3:14 AM (5 hours ago)
to Google

From these posts and many others I’ve seen, Google clearly has NO idea what people were doing with their Google News pages. Google News used to be my home page, but that will change as of tomorrow. I have no use for half of the topics Google THINKS I do, and I have not been able to understand Google’s need to change for the sake of changing over the past few years. It seems as though Google is screwing up their products because “NEW & IMPROVED!!!” is only coming from the GoogleBubble. From all the data I know Google collects, you would think they would know how users are using their products.

To screw up something as basic as a News webpage leaves me wondering if I shouldn’t move away from Google products altogether. Gmail, maps etc. There is never a warning that something fundamental is going to change, it just happens, and users are left wondering how to recover what they’ve set up. I notice Google has demoted the famous “Don’t Be Evil” motto, maybe it’s time for a new one to live by: “Don’t Be Stupid.” They keep shooting themselves in the foot, but the billions keep rolling in, so I guess the actual users don’t matter. Whatever. The internet is much more than Google.

*** end quote ***

Maybe this isn’t the biggest tech blunder since IBM ceded the PC to Microsoft or “No one would want a computer in the home”?

But then again, maybe it is.

I was moving from the Apple ecosystem to Google’s.  Maybe like  other feedbackers, I have to completely rethink that?

Like the last election,  Which is the prettiest horse in the glue factory coral.” Google versus Apple? Gasp, maybe even Microsoft gets in the running?

Argh!

Google, don’t be stupid!

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Google News updates – WikiTribune

The latest Google News update changes many features, including user categorizations; saved selections and easy access to sections

Source: Google News updates – WikiTribune

* * * * *

And most folks are not very happy about it.

​(Got my first “story” into wikitribune.)

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RECOMMENDED: Google’s PhotoScan app

https://www.google.com/photos/scan/

7. Search Scanned Photos

Google recently released a new free app called PhotoScan with the aim of letting you digitize all your old photos. If you’ve installed the app, you can access it by clicking the three lines at the top left of Google Photos, then clicking “Scan photos”. Going forward, simply search for scans whenever you want to see all the photos you digitized.

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CLOUD: Google is “blind” to what3words addressing

https://what3words.com/ 

When I search for “where is what3words shed.varieties.menu”, I get send to the what3words website.

Doesn’t Google understand that shed.varieties.menu is a location using this universal addressing scheme.

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I guess not!

So much for google being the all-seeing all-knowing tool.

Argh!

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SERVICE: Google’s Gmail sending more “stuff” to spam

This week I had a lot more good stuff going to spam on Google.

I use “in:spam” to check weekly.

If you use Google’s Gmail, then you might want to check too.

I also use filters to ensure that “stuff” doesn’t get put in spam.

FWIW

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CLOUD: Google’s new “Remind Me”

http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2013/08/check-out-googles-new-remind-me-feature-for-tv-shows-authors-and-more/

Check out Google’s new “Remind Me” feature for TV shows, authors, and more
Easily follow your favorite media properties in Google Now.
by Ron Amadeo – Aug 30 2013, 5:51pm EDT

*** begin quote ***

The “Remind Me” button works in search results on mobile and desktop, and the cards will show up in the Google search app for Android or iOS. You can view and remove your current reminder subscriptions from the “My Reminders” setting in Google Now or by searching for it again.

A reminders app is always useful, but a cloud-powered reminders app has more potential. Here’s hoping Google adds a bunch more supported categories (like sports teams). App integration would be great, too. Just scan my Play Music library for all favorite artists and add them as reminders. This should be live for everyone by now, so try searching!

*** end quote ***

After the Google Reader fiasco, I am reluctant to get excited about ANY Google “service”.

Plus TV is dependent upon which market and service you’re in at any given time.

And, a “reminder” to watch TV is counter to the whole “turn of the boob tube” meme.

Now a better way to stalk … err, I mean, track Taylor Swift’s << @twsift13 #tswift13 #tswift >> activities. That could be useful to this fat old Swiftie.

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IPAD: can’t interact with contacts from gmail client

Interesting.

From the natve GMAIL client on the IPAD, I can’t figure out how to save a contact.

Argh!

AND, it apparently doesn’t support the native IOS address book.

I am really getting tired of having to maintain addresses.

Plaxo had promise but all they wanted was to spam, charge, and interfere.

Maybe I should write an X500 directory service.

LinkedIn, Facebook, and everyone else has a different agenda.

I just want one synced address book!

Argh!

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SERVICE: DNS — ISP, GOOGLE, or OPENDNS; OPENDNS for me

http://www.forbes.com/sites/eliseackerman/2012/02/25/a-closer-look-at-google-public-dns/

Tech|2/25/2012 @ 5:34PM
A Closer Look at Google Public DNS
Elise Ackerman, Contributor

*** begin quote ***

What role has Google played in the DNS ecosystem? Do you see them as a competitor or a partner?

Google has helped raise the importance of DNS above the network engineering community, which has been really good. They’ve also worked with us to advance the state of the art for DNS performance, something we’ve really enjoyed working with them to make happen. It’s not so much competition as it is choice in the market. If they started defaulting Chrome to use Google DNS, I think that’s something we would take issue with, but for now, we like the idea of people using a DNS other than their ISPs, that’s a good idea for a lot of reasons.

What are some of those reasons?

I like the idea of separation of services. ISPs provide a pipe. Other vendors provide security. Other vendors provide email. When one party controls all the services, it’s a “synergy” for the company, but rarely for the consumer. With DNS in particular, there are performance and security benefits that third party DNS providers offer that ISPs aren’t incentivized to do since DNS is a cost-center for them, and a profit-center for us.

*** and ***

I think anything which promotes heterogeneity on the Internet promotes stability. Diversity in services, service providers, and separating the layers of the networking stack are all important. Your ISP no longer provides you email because everyone either uses their own or has an account with Hotmail, Gmail or Yahoo mail. The same way people unbundled their email from their ISP, I think they should do with their DNS. Separation of services has been a long-standing best practice in the security community, and it applies now more than ever. In that vein, I’ll reiterate my view that I think Google controlling search, the browser, and the network or DNS layer is a dangerous trifecta that the consumer will probably be best served avoiding.  I’m sure we’ll find out soon enough.

*** end quote ***

I’ve been a fan of separation of duties.

ISP EMAIL has always been a trap for their Customers. That “customer@isp.net” is the property of the ISP; not the Customer. Once you give that out to enough people you’re locked in.

Why not use a DNS service that has an incentive to be loyal to you?

Since finding OPENDNS, I have not had an DNS outages. I know that VERIZON, COMCAST, and GOOGLE have had outages.

Easy decision fmpov.

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SERVICE: GOOGLE+ slugish start

GOOGLE+, Google’s version of FACEBOOK, is off to a slow start.

Somehow, not really sure how, I scored an invite.

Initial setup was trivial.

Added about forty folks whom I thought could benefit and enjoy this new “facebook”.

The big attraction to me was the ability to update, like “tweet”, to a specific subset of identities. My highschool mates versus my favorite headhunters versus my relatives.

Rumor hath it that adding someone to a circle triggered an invite.

So I loaded a dummy email (i.e., one of the many I have for various purposes) and about 12 hours later, it received an email update but no invite. So much for that myth.

It’s not very useful without participation. I could effect the same result with a big CC list.

Also, it appears that I can’t control the display name of the identity in my circle.

Also, it appears that there is a weak linkage to GMAIL’s contacts. With no “update”. I went to GMAIL’s contacts and I can’t figure out where the “name” for an identity is coming from. I loaded an email into GOOGLE+ and put in the name in the format I like. Poof, it gave it a different name that is not related to anything I have for it. Weird? And, I can’t fix it.

Finally, putting a post in the Google group for support, generates an email summary of a hundred or so messages, at semi random intervals.

Interesting?

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SERVICE: GOOGLE APPS FREE is getting “smaller”

*** begin quote ***

From: Google Apps Team <apps-noreply@google.com>
Date: April 28, 2011 6:41 PM
To: @reinke.cc
Subject: Update on changes to Google Apps

Hello,

We recently announced upcoming changes to the maximum number of users for Google Apps. We want to let you know that, as a current customer, the changes will not affect you.

As of May 10, any organization that signs up for a new account will be required to use the paid Google Apps for Business product in order to create more than 10 users. We honor our commitment to all existing customers and will allow you to add more than 10 users to your account for reinkefaceslife.com at no additional charge, based on the limit in place when you joined us.

Sincerely,
The Google Apps Team

*** end quote ***

It would seem that anyone with a domain should register it with Google Apps to preserve future flexibility.

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