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

Tuesday, September 25, 2018

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”

Friday, June 8, 2018

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!

— 30 —

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!

–30–

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

Wednesday, May 23, 2018

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

Monday, May 21, 2018

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

Source: Google News updates – WikiTribune

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And most folks are not very happy about it.

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

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RECOMMENDED: Google’s PhotoScan app

Monday, April 17, 2017

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

Monday, April 3, 2017

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

Friday, December 12, 2014

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”

Wednesday, September 4, 2013

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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SOFTWARE: Google changes CHROME and makes me reconsider that too

Monday, March 18, 2013

When Google nuked GREADER, it also took the extension that supports RSS feeds out of CHROME.

Now, I’m rethinking EVERYTHING I do with GOOGLE.

Argh!

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IPAD: can’t interact with contacts from gmail client

Sunday, March 17, 2013

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!

–30–

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