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Don’t Mess with The Google

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Re: Don’t Mess with The Google

#181

Post by majewsky »

kkarakk wrote: post #169
hn_user2 wrote: post #110

This is a big wake up call for me. I have everything in google: Drive, email, voice, docs, sheets, etc. I was actually about to sign up for Fi. The convenience of everything in one place is great. But I don't think I had quite thought through a disaster like this. With this article in mind, need to reevaluate. I guess either regular local backups and/or diversification of service providers would be a good step.

devil's advocate(or in this case, google's i guess), unless you do something shady prohibited by google's TOS(which i recommend you read and understand if you value your data), google is pretty good about everything. even when they shutter services they give you plenty of advance warning and have options to takeout backups of data easily always remember google offers all of these services for free and you're still ge…

> even when they shutter services they give you plenty of advance warning

The original article is about how this is absolutely false in the case discussed.

Re: Don’t Mess with The Google

#182

Post by x0x0 »

sundvor wrote: post #150
brongondwana wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We also stalk you on... I mean, we read the same tech news sites you do. (I'm on third line ticket duty right now, so if you have something significantly more complex than RTFM, or an actual bug, you'll probably be talking to me this week) The most common cause of getting locked out other than you abusing your fastmail account is having your credentials stolen and used for spam/fraud, which is why we recommend 2 fact…

Nice. :) Reading this in the context of this thread made me setup my own trial account, with a new domain name. As soon as those MX records propagate, I'll be good to test it for a while. Wish you had a dark theme, that'd be my only feedback for now (Stylish also works). Appears to be very fast, but of course, my account is 100% empty.

ime: it stays very fast, even with 1.5k emails in inbox, ~30k emails / 2.5G total in various folders.

Also, changes propagate faster even than gmail. If you have your inbox open on 2 computers and move an email out of your inbox on one of them, you'll see it replicated in near real time on the second computer. I don't know how they do it, but it works really well.

Re: Don’t Mess with The Google

#184

Post by Klover »

setq wrote: post #170

First post, might as well be a cautionary tale. My father, a pretty old programmer by anyone's standards, regularly warns me of this sort of thing. He was pretty much shafted by CompuServe many years ago on a miniscule scale compared to what is possible now. He lives his life in what I previously described as a paranoid bubble of data control. Until I inevitably burned myself with Google. I have no idea what happened…

Questions: how did you get lightning assuming you're talking about the browser for Android which does indeed not require Google integration, on a Nokia 106?

And is this link by Google not an easy enough of a solution for backing up your Google stuffs? https://support.google.com/accounts/answer/3024190?hl=en

Re: Don’t Mess with The Google

#185

Post by perlpimp »

setq wrote: post #170

First post, might as well be a cautionary tale. My father, a pretty old programmer by anyone's standards, regularly warns me of this sort of thing. He was pretty much shafted by CompuServe many years ago on a miniscule scale compared to what is possible now. He lives his life in what I previously described as a paranoid bubble of data control. Until I inevitably burned myself with Google. I have no idea what happened…

Going on a tangent, there should probably be a set of universal backup formats that can be advertised as being somewhat portable. So that, if you need to can take your mail and other online business stuff elsewhere if need be. Beyond this article a user might start working for some place that does not allow external app use, but they can bring their data with, to be loaded onto the service. I guess like github and git. but with mail and calendar stuff.

my 2c.

Re: Don’t Mess with The Google

#186

Post by pavanky »

hn_user2 wrote: post #110

This is a big wake up call for me. I have everything in google: Drive, email, voice, docs, sheets, etc. I was actually about to sign up for Fi. The convenience of everything in one place is great. But I don't think I had quite thought through a disaster like this. With this article in mind, need to reevaluate. I guess either regular local backups and/or diversification of service providers would be a good step.

As someone who has done this, including project fi, I maintain my own backups on a personal server at home and another one on a VPS.

Owncloud / nextcloud provide automatic syncing of photos if need be. I sync up all my important documents but as of now I don't see the point of backing up my emails. The last missing piece is syncing my contacts which is also possible in my current setup.

With that said, I am still going to use Google services because of their convenience. I just like knowing that the data I care about is safe.

Re: Don’t Mess with The Google

#187

Post by wnm »

brongondwana wrote: post #75
a3n wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Fastmail. I'm just a regular (paying) customer, not a business or anything. I've opened a small number of tickets, one or two of the RTFM variety. I've always got a human response and satisfaction, even a "here, let me RTFM that for you." I can't imagine being locked out of my fastmail account for anything other than abuse of my fastmail account . Or not paying my bill.

We also stalk you on... I mean, we read the same tech news sites you do. (I'm on third line ticket duty right now, so if you have something significantly more complex than RTFM, or an actual bug, you'll probably be talking to me this week) The most common cause of getting locked out other than you abusing your fastmail account is having your credentials stolen and used for spam/fraud, which is why we recommend 2 fact…

some feedback from a happy fastmail customer: please add 2 factor authentication via sms! I neither have a smartphone or yubikey.

Re: Don’t Mess with The Google

#188

Post by whyagaindavid »

brongondwana wrote: post #124
morganvachon wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not the OP, but I've been looking at Fastmail for a while to replace Gmail for a robust dedicated email service. I haven't felt the push to pull the trigger yet, until reading this article.

We (FastMail) are really nice people :)

This is quite biased that you hijack a thread.

Re: Don’t Mess with The Google

#189

Post by setq »

Klover wrote: post #184
setq wrote: post #170

First post, might as well be a cautionary tale. My father, a pretty old programmer by anyone's standards, regularly warns me of this sort of thing. He was pretty much shafted by CompuServe many years ago on a miniscule scale compared to what is possible now. He lives his life in what I previously described as a paranoid bubble of data control. Until I inevitably burned myself with Google. I have no idea what happened…

Questions: how did you get lightning assuming you're talking about the browser for Android which does indeed not require Google integration, on a Nokia 106? And is this link by Google not an easy enough of a solution for backing up your Google stuffs? https://support.google.com/accounts/answer/3024190?hl=en

I'm talking about Lightning as in the Mozilla calendar. I don't use a smartphone any more.

Google takeout isn't or at least wasn't comprehensive at the time. There are other lock in items. Also it takes time and effort moving it somewhere else still, isn't instantly useable etc unless you can read vCards and iCal feeds..

Re: Don’t Mess with The Google

#190

Post by rebootthesystem »

sacradix wrote: post #106
rebootthesystem wrote: post #71

This sort of thing truly needs to run into regulatory force. I don't believe in government being up our collective skirts for everything but regulation does have its place and this, I think, would be appropriate use of such power. And this does not apply to just Google. We've had run-ins with Google, Facebook and Amazon on different fronts and for different issues. And, in all cases, our clients had their accounts su…

I don't know if it's so much attributable to malice as it is that it's their business model of working hard to satisfy the 99% but neglecting the concerns of the 1% that cause trouble and take up a lot of labor without yielding commensurate return to the bottom line. I don't know if regulation is the solution, but at the least, we should be mindful of this and try to arrange their lives to be anti-fragile to these un…

I am going to be harsh here. It's not malice. It's the lack of an education. No, I am not talking about college.

I am talking about manners, caring, being considerate, respectful and not insolent, petulant and completely oblivious to what human decency and respect entail.

Places like Facebook are almost entirely populated by a generation of young people who are intellectually smart yet socially vacuous to an unbelievable extent. It is an insolent, immature generation where 27 year olds can actually behave like my 9 year old's do, or worst. And, in many ways, it's like Vulcans with shitty attitudes. No human part at all. An empty logic machine operating with a flawed and fucked-up version of logic they have created.

That's what's going on. They now rule the world and have very little in the way of human decency within them as a guide. And, of course, through intense age discrimination there are no adults to teach them how to behave in the face of real human beings, with real lives, kids, businesses, problems, bills to pay, concerns and needs.

This is the only context within which a person could possibly decide it is OK to utterly destroy someone's income without as much as a conversation.

And, since they don't seem very interested in correcting their behavior (or don't even understand why they should) it might be time to throw the only possible correcting factor people on the outside can reach for: Government goons.

It sure feels like it's about time. Too many of these stories out there.

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