Governments pose greatest threat to internet, says Google's Eric Schmidt

rwal · 1 day

no of course I don't think that - that would be the exact opposite of what I have been talking about...

point is that Iraq is run by a government - a government which has replaced another government - but Iraq's resources were not nationalised - as you point out, they are controlled by corporations - corporations which were not given those resources through any democratic (or even meritorious) process

governments change, corporations remain a constant - of course the public does have inherent power - that is what government is all about!

you exercise that power by ensuring your government keeps corporations like Google in check - it is no accident that Google is making such anti-government rumblings - how else do you propose actually setting some boundaries for such a beast, short of legislation?

the power of your wallet?

when is the last time Google asked for your money?

or Halliburton, for that matter?

you want to exert some influence on a vertically integrated multinational corporation, don't come to me with some naive notion about holding your dollars to ransom - instead of trying to reinvent the wheel,I would suggest you think about how your government can already do that

(and yes many politicians are indeed corrupt - often corrupted by corporations - see my original point about the difference between removing a regional governor and a regional manager)

neutralsoymilk · 1 day

clearly you didn't follow the link / hear elsewhere that quickflix has been offering movies on-demand / streaming for some time, now...

do yourself a favour

check it out - they offer you exactly what you want

(btw if bandwidth allowances are a concern, streaming uses less than, say, torrenting-even at less than a 1:1 seed ratio -especially if your ISP includes uploads in your allowance)

rwal · 1 day

not true

information is not just data - even if you have agreed to allow their various arms to collect data about you, from your Google searches to the YouTube videos you have watched, to all the non-Google sites you have visited using the "world's most popular browser" etc - the analysis - the tying together of all that data into a "profile" is also information and it is not information you have freely given them, even though it is information specifically about you

ever owned an Android phone? if so, was it bought directly from Google or was it manufactured by someone else and Google is merely a third party, not unlike Microsoft, when you buy a PC from Dell or HP?

do you know how freaking hard (AFAIK impossible in some cases) it is to get an Android phone to not reach out to Google every time you want to... install software on your phone, use a web browser (not the one that came with the phone) to do a search (even after you have changed the default search engine), check your calendar, use GPS, I could go on...

there was mass outrage, lawsuits and paranoia when it was even suggested that Microsoft might be doing that sort of thing with Windows

if I substituted "your government" for the word "Google" in the above sentence about Android phones, would that make you more or less comfortable?

can you ask your government to see all the information it has about you?

can you ask Google to see all the information it has about you?

paulswhite · 1 day

this part gives me pause:

from a script by Travis Beacham (“Clash of the Titans”).

zoidbort · 1 day

it makes him Heinrich Dorfmann

zoidbort · 1 day

Also

paulswhite · 1 day

DAE think all of those sounded like they fill the spectrum between "meh" and "terrible"?

could not get excited about a single one

meanwhile, apparently Awake has been cancelled...

Bovice1 · 1 day

what is Star Trek: Cardinal?

kindrudekid · 1 day

just for fun, I timed myself typing and then Swyping that quote-

keyboard: 46.4 secs Swype: 69.6 secs

slower - but not that slower...

neutralsoymilk · 1 day

just to be clear, I agree with you on principle (about on-demand) - but can you tell me the problem with quickflix (beyond the fact it does not offer a "live" element, which I am completely uninterested in and also contradicts your earlier statement about offering services at my chosen time)?

rwal · 1 day

clearly (or you at least don't fully understand the concept of plural form)

when is the last time you voted on one (referendum)?

has there even been one in your country in your lifetime?

by all means enlighten me how encryption is going to be a tool for democratisation and shifting the balance of power away from "the wealthy, politically active" as opposed to enabling the censorship of digital information and helping to secure the power of a ruling elite?

I can think of at least one example where encryption has done the exact opposite of that - copyright monopolies

digital "protection" is not a benevolent technology putting food into the mouths of starving artists - it is a blunt instrument wielded by rich multinational corporations over the heads of as many governments as is inhumanly possible, designed to ensure the "rights" to our ideas - couched in terms like "property" and "theft" - will always belong to these "corporate citizens" and not actual people - the only legitimate stakeholder according to the actual principles upon which the concept of copyright was derived

do you own the data Google collects about you - can you ask to see it?

do you own the data your government collects about you - can you ask to see it?

long_live_king_melon · 1 day

reminds me of this

long_live_king_melon · 1 day

who issues parking tickets in your town -the police or the local council?

I would suggest emailing that photo to whomever that authority is, cc'd to the local newspaper

see what happens

long_live_king_melon · 1 day

ah yes, that is a nice example of the form of parking my friends and I have referred to for many years as "cop-style"

neutralsoymilk · 1 day

http://www.quickflix.com.au/

neutralsoymilk · 1 day

you have to understand something about film & television (content) producers in the United States - in particular the DVD cartel...

they don't resist new technologies because they are dinosaurs afraid of change, they do it because they can get away with it

they set up protections very early on, learning from the lessons afforded by the music industry, which had failed to ensure the continuing monopolies of the plastic disc (CD) markets, by encrypting the content

both industries may well point to iTunes sales as a measure of success but only one still has significant sales in plastic discs, while the other has long since abandoned that market...

so long as the kinds of legislation which punish the likes of the Optus TV Now service - or the myriad other attempts by many companies to bring you audiovisual content without armies of lawyers trawling through the quagmire of copyright protectionism (which is now being written without any Public involvement whatsoever) - continues to exist, they will continue to get away with it

-and there ain't a damn thing any of us can do to force them to change

-and that includes "piracy"

EDIT: case in point

rwal · 1 day

it doesn't matter if you believe that, or the complete opposite, or something in between- the fact remains governments can be REMOVED through sheer force of will, whereas corporations are far more insidious...

who is running Iraq these days?

who controls Iraq's oil resources?

rwal · 1 day

let's not forget the lessons that took us literally thousands of years to learn - governments are FAR better than feudalism and autocracy

which one of those categories does a corporation run by a board of directors fall under?

coz it sure ain't democracy

rwal · 1 day

as opposed to what?

rule by some mega-corporation which promises you it doesn't plan on "doing evil" -is that the alternative on the table?

fuck that

I'll take an imperfect democracy over "he who has the gold makes the rules" every time

rwal · 1 day

GOOGLE collects far more information about and has much more direct influence on the lives of a far greater number of people (and organisations, for that matter) than ANY government - and that includes the self-described Leader Of The Free World

experimenthouse · 3 days

as someone who has been writing software since I was seven years old, back in the 1980's I have never - not once - ever - been motivated to write a piece of code, simply because I believe(d) someone is going to pay me for it

I work to create it because I want it to exist - it is a purely selfish motivation that has nothing to do with commerce

as someone who has dabbled in both film production and also being in a rock and roll band, my motivations for these pursuits were similarly selfish and from a commercial perspective, they have cost me far more money than I would expect to ever make from them

I knew that before I did them - and I did these things, anyway

they do exist because I worked to create them and I would rather they cost me money than not have done it, because that's not what drove me to create them in the first place

kindrudekid · 3 days

Agreed - but touch typists have been touch typing for much longer than smartphone users have been Swyping - on a 4" screen...

kindrudekid · 3 days

who says you need to touch type?

this is the next generation of human-computer interaction - quaint legacy devices like QWERTY keyboards with tactile feedback are nice and comfortable for people of a certain age, but not entirely necessary, as touch-screen technologies have already shown

kindrudekid · 4 days

shyeahright...

Linux support for Netflix is also "on the agenda" - has been for how many years, now?

until I see some sort of USB HID type specs, I think I'll wait...

kindrudekid · 4 days

if I understand this correctly, you can set up the interactive field over your desk-top, say, and map your movements onto a virtual mouse/keyboard/whatever - while resting your wrist?

similarly, it seems to suggest the 3d field can also be setup directly in front of your monitor, turning it into a (virtual) touch-screen...

maniaq

TROPHY CASE

maniaq

TROPHY CASE

you'll need to login or register to do that

create a new account

login