If this is true it is very disturbing. I have a Google Apps for Work account, I wonder if anyone of these people did. They would lose their business email access.
Don’t Mess with The Google
441–450 of 504 posts
Re: Don’t Mess with The Google
#442Earlier quoted context omitted.
I accept Microsoft followed many predatory and anti-competitive practices. They were a nightmare and deserved a good anti-trust kicking. But hammering them for bundling a browser was just plain stupid. If they didn't bundle a browser, how would people download a competing browser? You'd have had to get hold of a browser on CD somewhere and install it manually just to use the internet. How would that have been an impr…
ftp ftp.netscape.com
You've convinced me. Ordinary consumers should be expected to know how to use command line tools and have memorized service addresses, without having browser access to look any of it up. That's clearly the answer to improve usability and expand consumer access in this situation. How could I not have seen it sooner.
Re: Don’t Mess with The Google
#443This 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…
Thank you for these reports!
@"good government style reaming", I just wanted to add that interestingly, a government (at least a democratic government) operates exactly the opposite of Google/Facebook.
By which I mean that there is democratic control over their policies, there is a hierarchy of courts and tribunals, there is a structured appeal process, and there are certain rights that no one, not even a court, can take from you.
It's almost as if at some point, people all around the world noticed that if an organization becomes so big that it's services might be considered "infrastructure", a different approach to decision-making is advisable. And they made that organization adhere to those principles, sometimes by force.
Re: Don’t Mess with The Google
#444Earlier quoted context omitted.
ftp ftp.netscape.com
You've convinced me. Ordinary consumers should be expected to know how to use command line tools and have memorized service addresses, without having browser access to look any of it up. That's clearly the answer to improve usability and expand consumer access in this situation. How could I not have seen it sooner.
Windows explorer supports ftp. Type ftp://ftp.mozilla.org into your run menu or explorer address bar and you'll get a folder view pop-up. From there it should be rather trivial to find Firefox from inside their ftp directory (not as simple as clicking a download button, but still). I'm not sure if getfirefox.com runs an ftp server.
I'm not aware of any popular OS that doesn't have ftp support on the main UI (except Android, which doesn't have a file management app anyways; not sure about iOS). Nautilus has ftp support. So does thunar, dolphin, konq, etc. You can type ftp addresses into the address bar in osx, iirc.
Re: Don’t Mess with The Google
#445I recently made a decision to stop running my own mail server, figured it was long, long overdue to pay someone to handle my email for me. Stories like this are why I didn't pick gmail for this service, which would have otherwise been my first choice.
Can I ask what your email stack was? I'm working on a project that's a cross between TOR and bit torrent to provide free (encrypted) email to the masses that doesn't monetize data. I've been on a crash course of all things email lately.
Ancient, set up maybe 15 years ago. Postfix, spamassassin (which wasn't effective, spam being the bulk of the problem pun intended), RBLs, and a nice almost two decade old .procmailrc for categorization.
I'm still in the process of trialling new providers. I'll be using fetchmail along with my existing procmailrc. The part I'm outsourcing is the spam filtering and availability on the MX.
Re: Don’t Mess with The Google
#446Earlier quoted context omitted.
We do have those formats. Mbox for mail, iCalendar for calendars, vCard for contacts. They're all IETF standards. Google provide data export from nearly all of their services in standard formats. Where no established open standard exists, they provide clean HTML or JSON. https://takeout.google.com/settings/takeout
I wouldn't actually call Mbox a standard. Thunderbird supports it, but I'd argue it sucks as a way to escape Gmail, because no competitor to Gmail supports it as an import method. In fact, even Gmail itself can't import from Mbox. It may be a standard in that it's defined somewhere officially, but it's not really a standard in the definition that it's commonly used. As someone who has nearly completed their GExit, I'…
On the one hand, there are many mbox variations and you may encounter some difficulty in getting your emails out of the Takeout mbox file.
On the other hand, please understand that there is no better option. Said differently: Google Takeout has made the BEST choice here. I giggled with delight when I saw they chose mbox.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mbox
[...] 1975 [...]Re: Don’t Mess with The Google
#447Earlier quoted context omitted.
Google doesn't have a say on what you can do with your phone. Google does have a say on what you can do with their service. These people were clearly trying to game the system. Google caught them red-handed and has now exercised their rights.
But the phone's terms did state (according to TFA): “You may only purchase Devices for your personal use. You may not commercially resell any Device, but you may give the Device as a gift.”
This is (one of) the problem with EULAs: even if I noticed that while not really skimming the EULA, I would ignore it as it seems completely unenforceable from a legal standpoint. I buy something from you and you get to determine what I can and can't do with it? Don't let EA and the other AAA game makers hear about this!
Re: Don’t Mess with The Google
#448Earlier quoted context omitted.
But the phone's terms did state (according to TFA): “You may only purchase Devices for your personal use. You may not commercially resell any Device, but you may give the Device as a gift.”
That's exactly my point. I'm critiquing their policy.
Sorry, I read it as protecting their policy
Re: Don’t Mess with The Google
#449Earlier quoted context omitted.
ftp ftp.netscape.com
You've convinced me. Ordinary consumers should be expected to know how to use command line tools and have memorized service addresses, without having browser access to look any of it up. That's clearly the answer to improve usability and expand consumer access in this situation. How could I not have seen it sooner.
Life before bundled browsers and Google:
"Sue, how do I get that browser thingie?"
"Erm, Jane wrote it down for me... here's the Post-It"
"Thanks."
We survived OK.
Re: Don’t Mess with The Google
#450Earlier quoted context omitted.
I wouldn't actually call Mbox a standard. Thunderbird supports it, but I'd argue it sucks as a way to escape Gmail, because no competitor to Gmail supports it as an import method. In fact, even Gmail itself can't import from Mbox. It may be a standard in that it's defined somewhere officially, but it's not really a standard in the definition that it's commonly used. As someone who has nearly completed their GExit, I'…
Couldn’t you import the Mbox archive in Thunderbird/Claws-Mail/something and then copy the mails to whatever cloud provider you wish to use?
And it's pretty easy. I have a few accounts on Thunderbird and I can drag and drop e-mail directly from one account to another, I think they are .eml files. You can also have local accounts just for storage.