Google's new "service" - playing to The Herd
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As reported by the Turtle (and his comments are great, if PG-13 rated, so check them out), Google is planning on offering a service whereby you can transfer files from one computer to another computer through their servers. This was reported in Wired News. In the article it states,
Google is offering a new tool that will automatically transfer information from one personal computer to another, but anyone wanting that convenience must authorize the internet search leader to store the material for up to 30 days.
That compromise, sought as part of a free software upgrade to be released Thursday, might be more difficult to swallow now that the Bush administration is demanding to know what kind of information people have been trying to find through Google's search engine.
"That compromise...might be more difficult to swallow now that the Bush administration is demanding to know what kind of information people have been trying to find through Google's search engine." - duh, ya think? You have a right to privacy, and this simply lets you completely renounce that right. This type of thing scares the crap out of me.
I think Turtle said it best in his retort. Also, this has a quote within a quote - is this recursive quoting? Sorry, the geek in me digresses...
"We think this will be a very useful tool, but you will have to give up some of your privacy," said Marissa Mayer, Google's vice president of search products and user experience. "For many of us, that trade off will make a lot of sense."
What in f*** is this woman shooting up? "For many of us?" Name me ONE. It might make sense to someone who has just smoked up a lot (and I mean a lot ) of high-quality cocaine or possibly mouse shit, but I'm sitting here thinking, who the f*** would do this?
[NOTE: bleeped out the f-bomb, mainly so I don't have to listen to Chris Byrne bitch ;) --Rock]
I'll tell you who would do this - The Herd.
Remember who we're talking about here people - who Google's primary audience is for this (ahem) "service" - The Herd. The Herd is the collective (in this discussion, US) society. They are like little children - wanting all their desires filled RIGHT NOW, without thinking about the consequences of their actions.
"Oh, I have nothing to hide, this is really helpful! What harm can come from it?" they'll think.
"Google is a great company! They would never do anything wrong with my info, or give it to anyone?" they'll think.
"I'm sure Google will delete it right after I'm done with it - they TOLD me they would!" Will be their retort.
Remember, The Herd is a collective idiot.
The Herd thinks Fox News is gospel.
The Herd keeps shows like "Jerry Springer", "Cheaters", "COPS", and "Fear Factor" on TV with high ratings.
The Herd thinks Saddam Hussein had something to do with 9/11.
The Herd drinks the koolaid, stands in a line because everyone else is, and generally wants to be spoon fed life in Living Technicolor with a MTV soundtrack.
Companies like Google (and M$) LOVE The Herd.
God, I despise The Herd. It disgusts me. It is the lowest common denominator of society, and magnifies all our faults. The Herd defines groupthink.
Luckily, most of you have broken free from the herd, probably at a young age. Now you need to Do What's Right - teach your children to not be a part of The Herd. Help friends and relatives caught in The Herd to break free as well. You can't save them all, but save those you can.
I leave you with a great quote from an unlikely movie:
"A person is smart; people are dumb panicky dangerous animals and you know it." -- Agent K, Men In Black
Rock
Sometimes I wonder whether the world is being run by smart people who are putting us on or by imbeciles who really mean it.--Mark Twain
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Comments
@Nathan and others -
If you carefully read what Rocky wrote, he did not say "anyone who would use this service is ignorant". He said that anyone who would assume that because it comes from Google (and you could subsitute any other name here) there can't possibly be any downside to it, and blindly uses it without considering the possible ramifications, is an idiot. If you know what you're doing, and you considered the risks and decided to do it anyway, fine.
I've recently read several articles, and had several personal experiences, that have shown me there is a large percentage of American adults who simply don't do their research on things, and get burned because of it. The problem is the same whether you are failing to balance your checkbook, read the fine print, or consider what might happen to your document during the 30 days it is on Google's servers.
Rocky is simply encouraging us to remind those we love to be "smart" about the decisions they make.
Posted by Maria Helm At 09:50:54 AM On 02/17/2006 | - Website - |
Posted by Adam G At 10:39:08 AM On 02/16/2006 | - Website - |
So be careful of taking this to far. It is way too easy to say, "I have studied and thought this thing through, and since he/she disagrees, they must not have done as much (or any) thinking." In doing so you are excluding ideas, concepts, and perhaps people that might have merit. We can have this problem with respect to politics, religion, software and many other issues.
If you believe that you are free of the Herd and that any individual is not, then you are bigoted in that respect.
Newbs
Posted by Newbs At 01:09:06 PM On 02/15/2006 | - Website - |
The Herd thinks CNN / CBS / ABC / NBC / BBC and others are reporting the News without agendas.
The Herd thinks those who watch Fox News are idiots.
The Herd keeps shows like "60 Minutes" and "Nightline" on TV with high ratings.
The Herd thinks the US deserved the 9/11 attacks.
The Herd thinks the FSM is a funny parody of faith based groups.
We all tend to be part of the herd, not just those whose political or religious beliefs are different than ours. It is so easy to believe that folks with different opinions than ours are somehow misguided or simply stupid that we categorize them as the Herd so we more easily can discount them.
Not gonna happen, not gonna fix the problems we all face until we start treating each other with a little more respect..
Newbs
Posted by Newbs At 11:46:00 AM On 02/15/2006 | - Website - |
Here's a company that has been leading the charge in solving real problems on the internet, making a tremendous amount of value available to people absolutely free, and everyone wants to gripe about what data gets stored where, and who sees what, and whether they filter results.
If you don't like it, DON'T USE IT. What business is it of yours whether other people want to take risk on file transfers via Google. Did you know that many MANY very savvy users already do this via Gmail? Has it occured to you how arrogant and paternal you're being by calling everyone who might leverage this service ignorant?
Posted by Nathan T. Freeman At 09:35:57 AM On 02/16/2006 | - Website - |
@7 - Joe, but remember that "the herd" loves Google. The more you can integrate with Google Search and Gmail the better!!
@ Rocky - I can't believe people still thing that Iraq and Al-Qaeda aren't/weren't connected. Even Bill Clinton stated so!!
http://www.canadafreepress.com/2005/rosett071305.htm
http://www.washtimes.com/national/20040624-112921-3401r.htm
http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/003/033jgqyi.asp
Posted by Chris Whisonant At 03:34:44 PM On 02/15/2006 | - Website - |
Hey, wait a minute....
Rock
Posted by Rock At 11:08:40 AM On 02/16/2006 | - Website - |
All sweeping generalizations are inherently wrong, including this one. Having said that, there are some statements that we can make that will apply in most instances.
There isn't just one Herd. There are many Herds. There are liberal Herds and conservative Herds.
Specifically, the supporters of the FSM are not members of a Herd (at least, there's no such thing as an FSM Herd), because the entire purpose of the FSM is to challenge conventional wisdom. Unless one is willing to redefine a Herd as any group of people who agree on an issue, people who respond to an issue by challenging it are not Herd members.
It is absolutely possible to be a critic of evolution without being a member of a Herd. That said, many critics of evolution are Herd members who haven't researched the issue themselves.
If you believe something to be true because Bill O'Reilly said so, you're a member of a Herd.
If you believe something's true because Al Franken said so, you're a member of a different Herd.
People who watch Jon Stewart are much less likely to be Herd members than people who watch Bill O'Reilly or listen to Rush Limbaugh. That does NOT mean no Herd members watch Stewart, or that all O'Reilly and Limbaugh fans are members of Herds. It is a statement about the relative TYPES of shows those men run. Stewart's show is all about poking fun at everybody (moreso Republicans at this point, but they ARE in control of our entire government so they're the obvious target), while O'Reilly and Limbaugh agressively push specific agendas.
If you sit in a house of worship (of any denomination) and repeat rote responses without thinking about them, you are a member of a Herd.
To the respect issue, the MEMBERS of a Herd should be respected insofar as they are human beings. Their OPINIONS, however, deserve absolutely no respect at all, because they are not informed opinions - they are mindless reiterations of someone else's opinion.
Posted by Rob McDonagh At 02:32:28 PM On 02/15/2006 | - Website - |
;)
Posted by Brian Benz At 04:25:21 PM On 02/15/2006 | - Website - |
I am not talking about a specific "herd". I am talking more about herd mentality. The simple fact is that the bulk of US society would rather not think for themselves. They blindly follow whatever groupthink leader they happen to associate with - conservative/liberal, religious/humanistic, etc.
My frustrations - and the point of this post - was with people who happily go along with groupthink/herd mentality, without putting for the effort (hell, any effort) to investigate and formulate a thought for themselves. People who live by the soundbite tend to die by the soundbite.
The net-net is that we should set the example of people who think for themselves. People who carefully weigh matters and formulate their own opinions. People who are not afraid to say "I don't know what I think about that - I haven't given it much time to investigate" rather than blindly regurgitating what they heard from their favorite pundit.
Luckily the type of people who frequent this blog - and I am talking about all of you, even if we have differing opinions - tend to not fall into the "herd" category. Most of you think for yourselves, and act accordingly - and I respect and admire that. Now let's train our kids to do the same thing, and encourage our friends and relatives to "get outside their comfort zone" on occasion and give things some considered thought.
Rock
Posted by Rock At 03:43:11 PM On 02/15/2006 | - Website - |
I submit that those not in the herd tend to think for themselves - whatever their conclusions may be. I'll answer each of yours individually.
** You're right about news agencies. The herd thinks they're reporting without agendas. I don't. Every organization has agendas.
** Some of the herd thinks that; I tend to think that if you give any news agency credit as reporting the whole, unbiased truth you're thinking like the herd. So, people who religiously watch any news channel are herding.
** 60 Minutes and Nightline do not have high ratings. They are on TV because it gives the networks the air of reporting "hard news and analysis".
** I disagree - I think the bulk of the Herd thinks that attacking Saddam was right because he was involved. I would submit that only a very small minority thinks we "deserved" the attacks. I sure as hell don't. But I do think our response was not well thought out, and attacking Iraq wasn't it.
** The Herd definitely doesn't support the FSM. I would submit that the bulk of the people who like FSM and understand the underlying parody are largely not a part of Herd mentality.
And no way in hell I'll respect The Herd. They're too easily led.
You've missed the point. I don't characterize anyone who doesn't think like me as a part of The Herd; I characterize anyone who blindly follows what they're spoon-fed as a part of the Herd. The crux of it is this: do you challenge everything you're told? Do you investigate? Do you form your own opinion based on actually looking into things, or do you just mimic what you're told? Are you afraid to say "I don't know", and instead would rather go along with the crowd? These things define The Herd - not their political, religious, economic, or moral beliefs.
Is that more clear?
Rock
Posted by Rock At 12:00:59 PM On 02/15/2006 | - Website - |
This is a really good description of the situation, that is developing out of it. Maybe they are not mailicious right now. But the potential is there, and it is simply a question of time, until such a setup is misused for whatever fraud, malice handling ...... may be done with it. So yes, everyone here, break out yourself from the Herd, if you aren't already, and help everyone else to get out of the Herd as fast as possible.
Jens
Posted by Jens At 10:52:22 AM On 02/15/2006 | - Website - |
It's free software that allows you to establish your own little virtual private network ...expose whatever folder(s) you want and transfer the file(s). Works great at home from our laptops to the main machine, but my son can also use it from college to the home machine.
I can't imagine ever using the Google file xfer service
Posted by Joe Litton At 02:02:30 PM On 02/15/2006 | - Website - |
Posted by Alan Bell At 03:23:23 PM On 02/15/2006 | - Website - |
RoB
Posted by Roberto Boccadoro At 12:10:38 PM On 02/15/2006 | - Website - |
"Visitors to this site might recall that I did not have very kind things to say about Google Desktop Search (GDS) when it first came out in beta. Well, Google Desktop Search 3 makes me even more queasy..."
Full post as well as links to my past postings on GDS at http://www.controlscaddy.com/A55A69/bccaddyblog.nsf/plinks/CBYE-6LV38J
and I don't even use any language that needs to be bleeped out
Oh and I think the F word gets an automatic R rating from MPAA
Posted by Christopher Byrne At 11:05:28 AM On 02/15/2006 | - Website - |
Posted by Nathan T. Freeman At 09:59:38 AM On 02/17/2006 | - Website - |