Comments | altivo: Not so busy, not so productive

altivo

Not so busy, not so productive

Feb 14, 2010 20:18

I actually took a nap in the middle of the morning today. Because I felt like it (or felt bad enough) but it's very rare for me to be able to sleep in daylight even for a few minutes, let alone a full hour ( Read more... )

rants, farm

Comments 19

mondhasen February 15 2010, 03:10:39 UTC

It sounds good that you told them to buzz off. I'm frustrated with these services and their lack of control over privacy issues.

altivo February 15 2010, 12:01:21 UTC

It's difficult for me to understand why they just don't "get it" but I suppose as with so many computer and net related issues, the designers are too young to have the vision and experience needed. They simply can't see the potential issues involved.

shiningriver February 15 2010, 04:52:37 UTC

"We had pink pancakes for breakfast, which is sort of a tradition. Gary gave me a teddy bear with a "HUGS" sweatshirt on, and I gave him a big soft plush husky pup."

That's nice to have someone who cares about you so much. You are one lucky horsie!

altivo February 15 2010, 12:02:02 UTC

Indeed, and I am well aware of it. ;D

hrrunka February 15 2010, 07:25:30 UTC

...and don't forget the sign on the door saying "Beware of the Leopard!" ;)

I don't think it's the first time Google have screwed up a privacy issue, and I doubt it'll be the last, unfortunately.

altivo February 15 2010, 12:03:44 UTC

I always ignore "Beware of the Leopard" signs. I know too many nice leopards for that to bother me. ;D

Now if it had said "Beware of the Bear" I might have had second thoughts.

rustitobuck February 16 2010, 02:55:28 UTC

Yes, you should always be very careful around those wily bears...

altivo February 16 2010, 03:04:26 UTC

There are really nice bears too, of course. But I have encountered some nasty ones as well. ;p Haven't found a bad leopard in the barrel yet.

schnee February 15 2010, 11:02:19 UTC

I'm about to trash Google's "Buzz." They pushed it at Gmail users pretty hard, as in saying "no thanks" just meant they kept asking you again and again.

Really? I declined it once and haven't heard from it since then (there is a "Buzz" link in the sidebar next to "Starred" now that I don't need or want, but that can be dealt with using AdBlock or your chrome/userContent.css, assuming you're using Firefox).

Of course, after reading the rest of your entry, I'm glad I declined, too.

altivo February 15 2010, 12:09:53 UTC

I think you'll only get that sign-up panel again if you log out of Gmail and back in, as I do when I move from machine to machine at work. Or they may have fixed that issue, but it was definitely happening in the first 24 hours or so.

If you haven't touched Buzz or used that link at all, so you have no connections and no profile for it, then you can go down to the very bottom of the page and click "turn off Buzz" in the tiny options in the footer. That should get rid of the tab and make things look the way they did before the monstrosity was released from the lab.

If you looked into the Buzz tab even just once, though, it has created a profile and automatically linked you to other people and applications. The "turn off Buzz" option does not undo that, and you'd want to undo it all and delete the profile first. Unless you do that, all the potential privacy issues still remain active, only you'll get no notification if anyone starts probing around.

schnee February 15 2010, 12:42:39 UTC

I just tried to log out and back in, and didn't get another message asking me about the whole thing, so I assume that was a glitch that got fixed (or an attempt at obnoxious marketing that turned into a blunder and was scrapped).

No, I haven't used it at all, although as the article hrrunka linked pointed out, that apparently still doesn't keep Google from forcing it on you behind your back, anyway. x.x I got it all disabled now, though, I think - I hope.

altivo February 15 2010, 12:52:10 UTC

The really OBNOXIOUS thing about what Google did was that automatic profile creation business. They joined you to other people and other people to you, based entirely on an automated examination of your e-mailing habits. If you ever doubted that Google is tracking what you do, now you know. Worse, once they made those connections, ANYONE could see who you had been e-mailing by just following you on Buzz, even if you weren't actively using Buzz yourself. This sort of thing is just inexcusable ( ... )

Thread 9

rustitobuck February 16 2010, 02:58:40 UTC

Aw, Sounds like you and Gary had a great Valentine's Day. That was the best part of the posting by far.

altivo February 16 2010, 03:12:10 UTC

I have to agree. That was certainly the best part.