I think the criticism is totally fair. The big internet companies have done a terrible and cowardly job of making the case for a free (as in freedom) and open internet. But it's also a farce for the government to punish them for that, but that's not what Ron Wyden said in the quoted twit.
> Hate to keep having to point this out, but the recent big stories discussed in this article occurred at Uber, in San Francisco. Not Silicon Valley. Please try to get that right in the future.
Is that a distinction that's relevant to this issue? Or at all?
To me the question is: why can Apple even do this? How can they push system updates to a locked phone?
The answer of course, is that they still feel like they own your phone as much as you do. This gets back to the issue, discussed here often, of companies remote-deleting content on your device because you don't really "own" the content or even the device.
Maybe stuff like this make these companies give some control back to their customers. Of course, Stallman would say that the until everything is free software, you'll never own your device.
Google already has a big stable of sites that they wanted to integrate by putting them on the bedrock of Google+. That's harder to do since there is almost nothing in it for the people using those sites. Thus Google ends up forcing people to adopt Google+.
Facebook, on the other hand, is the bottle layer on which they are building their own suite of sites. Many even have directly analogous Google versions. This is a much sweeter pill for people to swallow.
I can't help but wonder if this was the plan all along. Apple looks like the good guy and the record labels, the people who negotiate the shitty deal, look like they don't have the artist's best interests at heart.
To be fair, "tech magical thinking" is something that Silicon Valley has worked very hard to promulgate. Not at all surprising that it would come back to bite ya in the ass.
This is one of the very few blogs (not counting blogs of friends, flogs?) that I read consistently. There's a reason for that and it's not because I agree with everything that's said here.
And it's something (again, disclaimer above) we mostly try to avoid.
Want to confess? I'm curious what stories you were tempted into writing knowing that'd get you a flood of views? And did it work?
There is a difference between knowledge and information. 23andme was selling information as knowledge ("23andme can save your life") with, in the vast majority of cases, nothing to back it up.
While it awaits the agency's approval, a process that could take years
Maybe they should have started the process years ago then. Instead they ignored the FDAs requests that they tone down their massively overblown advertising campaign and even doubled-down on it. This went on for years before the FDA got fed up with the whole process. The FDA gave them too much leeway on this and should have come down on them years ago.
Let's not pretend (like Michael Dearing seems to be doing) that everything was hunky-dory in the "social fabric" of Silicon Valley before the NSA got involved.
Reminds me of the Identity chapter of the Hyperbole and a Half book: "isn't it awesome that I didn't patent this idea that was obvious and used for ages even though the patent wouldn't have held up and it would make me a laughingstock?"
This "more information = more better" fetish has gotten a little over the top. More information isn't helping the NSA find terrorist; it's making it harder! What we need is more knowledge and converting information into knowledge is pretty hard, and especially hard in medicine.
Don't forget that there is massive power asymmetry at work. Facebook (and advertisers) isn't going to kidnap you and send you to a secret prison and torque you for years because of flaw/oversight/oops in their database mining. The government, on the other hand, can totally do that.
Re:
Re:
Is that a distinction that's relevant to this issue? Or at all?
(untitled comment)
Then he's got a lot of work to do before he can call himself a philanthropist without being laughed at.
(untitled comment)
The answer of course, is that they still feel like they own your phone as much as you do. This gets back to the issue, discussed here often, of companies remote-deleting content on your device because you don't really "own" the content or even the device.
Maybe stuff like this make these companies give some control back to their customers. Of course, Stallman would say that the until everything is free software, you'll never own your device.
top-down vs. bottom-up
Google already has a big stable of sites that they wanted to integrate by putting them on the bedrock of Google+. That's harder to do since there is almost nothing in it for the people using those sites. Thus Google ends up forcing people to adopt Google+.
Facebook, on the other hand, is the bottle layer on which they are building their own suite of sites. Many even have directly analogous Google versions. This is a much sweeter pill for people to swallow.
(untitled comment)
(untitled comment)
(untitled comment)
Want to confess? I'm curious what stories you were tempted into writing knowing that'd get you a flood of views? And did it work?
Ego te absolvo,
-krish
Re:
Re: Re:
(untitled comment)
Maybe they should have started the process years ago then. Instead they ignored the FDAs requests that they tone down their massively overblown advertising campaign and even doubled-down on it. This went on for years before the FDA got fed up with the whole process. The FDA gave them too much leeway on this and should have come down on them years ago.
(untitled comment)
(untitled comment)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mission_patch
It's kinda like a tee shirt given out to people affiliated with the launch. They have a long tradition of being weird and kinda unsettling:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_NRO_Launches
I like the one for launch 49 with the motto "Better the Devil you Know":
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:NROL49_patch.jpg
(untitled comment)
Good job!
(untitled comment)
(untitled comment)
right up until the point where they do
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(untitled comment)
I knew it! Terrorists are flocking to Kansas City (and soon Austin) for that sweet, sweet Google Fiber!
(untitled comment)
it's about power
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