Richard Stallman and Hideo Kojima were right.
We didn’t lose control of the Web – it was stolen
51–60 of 185 posts
Re: We didn’t lose control of the Web – it was stolen
#52Earlier quoted context omitted.
The consequences of that asymmetry go much further than just a price difference. It's about a whole raft of applications that are simply impossible or at best extremely hard. The internet was meant to be peer-to-peer not server-to-consumer. Adding more servers, even at $5 won't change that.
But it can never be truly peer-to-peer or decentralized due to the economics of last-mile connectivity. Connecting machines in a neighborhood is more expensive and difficult from an infrastructure perspective than hooking up a computer in a server farm. This in of itself changes the costs and expectations of the parties involved which means things will likely slump back to a permutation of this status quo even with a…
Only if you assume high bandwidth cost. If it's more convenient to do something at home, it is cost-dependent whether people opt for the more cumbersome but cheaper centralised solution.
The current last-mile problem is that there is not enough demand for high-bandwidth applications to justify rapid improvement (we'd all have 10 gig connections by now if the 2000's trend had continued).
Re: We didn’t lose control of the Web – it was stolen
#53I've been thinking of closing my Facebook account, but I'd lose contact with so many friends and family. They don't use email or any kind of instant messenger any more, and nobody makes phone calls any more. If you're not on Facebook you might as well not exist.
Convince them to install Whatsapp? If they have a phone its an easy way to keep in contact and send text/image/videos without all the FB BS. I wished I used it sooner!
WhatsApp is owned by Facebook, so I'm fairly sure it still comes with the FB bs..
Re: We didn’t lose control of the Web – it was stolen
#54Earlier quoted context omitted.
Convince them to install Whatsapp? If they have a phone its an easy way to keep in contact and send text/image/videos without all the FB BS. I wished I used it sooner!
WhatsApp is owned by Facebook, so I'm fairly sure it still comes with the FB bs..
By BS I mean the inane feeds of other peoples lives.
Re: We didn’t lose control of the Web – it was stolen
#55I've been thinking of closing my Facebook account, but I'd lose contact with so many friends and family. They don't use email or any kind of instant messenger any more, and nobody makes phone calls any more. If you're not on Facebook you might as well not exist.
Then don't exist. My wife and I dropped our accounts. Been great. We don't get involved in the SJW or the almost alt-right furors. We text our immediate loved ones. I call my mom. In their place we have actual friends. Real people that we play Cards Against Humanity with. Who understand that IBS means me dashing off and having my wife play my hands for a few hours. Then we go out and have a good time. If it's a choic…
I do these things while also having a Facebook account that I check on occasionally to see how old friends and distant relatives are getting on. I don't really understand why the two would be mutually exclusive.
Re: We didn’t lose control of the Web – it was stolen
#56Earlier quoted context omitted.
It shows the problem with short-term vs long-term interests. For people it made a lot of sense to use these services individually. But collectively, it leads to undesirable outcomes.
"Collectively, it leads to undesirable outcomes." Clearly, there have been very desirable outcomes for most people using these services. Otherwise, no one would use them. I don't think the short-term vs long-term tipping point has been reached quite yet.
Sounds like just-world fallacy. There's plenty of examples of people who take actions that do not lead to desirable outcomes. The idea that people choosing something in itself proves its value is nonsense.
Re: We didn’t lose control of the Web – it was stolen
#57The web wasn't stolen we gave it to them. You didn't have to sign up for Facebook. You don't have to sign up for googles services. Look how people like RMS use the web .
It shows the problem with short-term vs long-term interests. For people it made a lot of sense to use these services individually. But collectively, it leads to undesirable outcomes.
It could just be a network effect you know. Standard startup idea these days is to do whatever it takes to hook people in and then use network effects. Seed some social service in whatever way it takes, at some tipping point, people who don't like your service still need to participate because it's where the other people are.
Re: We didn’t lose control of the Web – it was stolen
#58I don't think we really need more regulations in this area. There is already a bunch of privacy related laws on the books.
Plus using data to improve the user experience, recommendations(YouTube, Netflix), targeted ads seems pretty neat(I prefer ads about tech products, my interests compared to makeup or pads). The products get better and improve. Facebook doesn't sell your information, they let advertisers use it to target you. Probably more profitable to let companies use the data instead of selling it.
Companies like LexisNexis and Acxiom are the ones I'd be really worried about. Some states DMV's even sell databases. I'd be more worried about them, Google and Facebook are way better corporate citizens than these mega databroker companies would be. At least Google and Facebook you can opt-out of. LexisNexis, good luck opting-out. Last time I checked only law enforcement who fear they are in danger can opt-out.
Regulations are what kills innovation. Probably since the government has mainly left the internet alone is probably why it's one of the most innovative industries. Imagine having to read a 300 page 2 column paged document and wait on a lengthly process before you are even allowed to put up even a blog.
Then all of this talk lately about "fake news" just seems like censorship. I am worried that some day the internet will be over regulated and censored it will be just like cable television at some point.
Re: We didn’t lose control of the Web – it was stolen
#59The worst part is that if you're employed, it's probably a job requirement to use at least one of these surveillance capitalism platforms. Most people I know in tech have to be on Slack. Most people I know in advertising and PR have to be on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. For some jobs, like journalism, even the "troops on the ground" are required to post and tweet. Even for jobs without the social media taint, a…
I like Slack, our team communication has never been better,
I like Facebook (messenger) because it's a common platform for all my acquaintances.
Are we forced to share anything (really) personal though?
Re: We didn’t lose control of the Web – it was stolen
#60When TV was the main mass communication system you needed a single antenna or a single satellite to project to unlimited people in the projected area. While that was one-way and the internet is two-way, the internet introduced the requirement for the projector to have the infrastructure to support millions of users individually. That means the main technological reason Google and Facebook took over was that you need money to take over the internet, you can't just do it for free, and those like Wikipedia that did it in a less profitable way had to be very proficient in collecting donations.