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Google Pixelbook – A High Performance Chromebook

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Re: Google Pixelbook – A High Performance Chromebook

#161

Post by fauigerzigerk »

joshuacc wrote: post #142
sergiotapia wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I uploaded full seasons of a very old 90s cartoon and my account is disabled. I cannot even purchase YouTube TV to try it out. Of course, reaching out to support is moot - their RoboSupport sucks. I will never purchase a Google product if I can help it and will steer clear of them in any team setting where I can affect the decision.

> I uploaded full seasons of a very old 90s cartoon and my account is disabled. I cannot even purchase YouTube TV to try it out. You violated the law and their (rather reasonable in this case) terms of service and are shocked to find they'd rather not do business with you?

Draconian punishment without warning and without recourse in response to a single misstep would indeed be very surprising.

If that is what actually happened then it invites regulatory action considering Google's unparalleled market share and reach.

Re: Google Pixelbook – A High Performance Chromebook

#163

Post by BinaryIdiot »

joshuacc wrote: post #142
sergiotapia wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I uploaded full seasons of a very old 90s cartoon and my account is disabled. I cannot even purchase YouTube TV to try it out. Of course, reaching out to support is moot - their RoboSupport sucks. I will never purchase a Google product if I can help it and will steer clear of them in any team setting where I can affect the decision.

> I uploaded full seasons of a very old 90s cartoon and my account is disabled. I cannot even purchase YouTube TV to try it out. You violated the law and their (rather reasonable in this case) terms of service and are shocked to find they'd rather not do business with you?

> You violated the law and their (rather reasonable in this case) terms of service and are shocked to find they'd rather not do business with you?

When I worked in the Intelligence Community I had to go through multiple FBI investigations and polygraphs. Every single one of them asked me about laws I may have violated in the past. One of the agents even said (paraphrased, of course) "Maybe you downloaded some movies? It's illegal but many don't realize it and probably most people do it".

Pirating is one of those crimes that has become normalized. The parent may have realized it was illegal but didn't think much of it and probably didn't realize it would lead to his account being completely disabled.

The trouble with Google accounts and becoming disabled is it can very likely ruin a good part of your life because of how much of your data they hold and there are zero ways to redeem yourself if you did do something wrong and there are zero ways to resolve the problem if it was due to something inaccurate or false (which has happened especially if someone else gets into your account).

Re: Google Pixelbook – A High Performance Chromebook

#164

Post by raesene9 »

ehsankia wrote: post #155
raesene9 wrote: post #146

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To speak about that third case the very real concern I would have there is that it appears he got access to his account back by being able to attract enough attention from Google management, as he was well connected and had a relatively high profile twitter account (> 100k followers) That kind of solution is unlikely to be of use to customers who don't have the ability to bypass the common process...

That may or may not be true, but it's by definition hard to tell because the cases that don't get attention, you don't hear about. So it's hard for us to tell for sure. But in general, considering that billions of people have Google accounts, the fact that you can count these cases on your fingers and that you don't see articles about it every week means that it's probably safer than flying by plane. Let's be honest,…

that's an interesting assumption, an alternative interpretation would be that as they're so common they're no longer news-worthy.

Either could be true...

Re: Google Pixelbook – A High Performance Chromebook

#165

Post by notheguyouthink »

grzm wrote: post #150
notheguyouthink wrote: post #138

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I switched to Fastmail. Note that my main concern was being banned by Google, so security/privacy wasn't my focus. I say that because I believe Fastmail is still in the US[1], which brings up privacy concerns imo. Recently on HN I saw another email provider that offered fully encrypted email, perhaps end to end, but I've already committed to Fastmail so I didn't follow up with them too much. I'm happy with Fastmail f…

Fastmail is based in Australia. https://www.fastmail.com/about/company.html

Hmm, I'll have to do more research, but I thought they used some American hosting. Perhaps I'm mistaken! I'll make a note in the comment, ty!

edit: I take that back, I'm not wrong, yay \o/.

https://blog.fastmail.com/2013/10/07/fastmails-servers-are-i...

They are in the US, it's just that the company itself isn't. So depending on your level of distrust of the US, that may or may not be an issue for you.

Re: Google Pixelbook – A High Performance Chromebook

#166

Post by ihsw2 »

JohnTHaller wrote: post #82
cauthon wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> What I see a lot of "power users" doing is simply using their Chromebook to remote into their desktop for their application work. Naive question - how would one set up a desktop at home to make it securely remotely accessible?

Most folks I know use Windows Pro and Remote Desktop. VNC and the like are options as well. Then there are the closed source paid commercial options.

Can confirm, am using Remote Desktop with Windows 10 Pro. Very happy so far.

Re: Google Pixelbook – A High Performance Chromebook

#167

Post by gressquel »

RcouF1uZ4gsC wrote: post #66

I think a major issue is what happens if Google locks your account for some reason. There have been instances in the past where Google has locked the account of a user for some TOS violations. http://m.gadgets.ndtv.com/mobiles/news/google-pixel-reseller... http://m.washingtontimes.com/news/2017/aug/1/jordan-b-peters... http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-08-21/one-statistics-prof... Given that Google has a propensity…

By using chromebook, you are almost giving away your entire digital life. Such data will be abused by Google to sell ads, as it has happened many times before.

What a horrible piece of privacy abusing junk this Chromebook is.

Re: Google Pixelbook – A High Performance Chromebook

#168

Post by bogomipz »

notheguyouthink wrote: post #102
RcouF1uZ4gsC wrote: post #66

I think a major issue is what happens if Google locks your account for some reason. There have been instances in the past where Google has locked the account of a user for some TOS violations. http://m.gadgets.ndtv.com/mobiles/news/google-pixel-reseller... http://m.washingtontimes.com/news/2017/aug/1/jordan-b-peters... http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-08-21/one-statistics-prof... Given that Google has a propensity…

Previously everything of mine went through Google. Email, phone, phone number, search, etc. I've migrated everything away (except Google Voice) for this very reason. My life would have came to a grinding halt if they banned me, and I couldn't even email them about it.

Could you share your email transition strategy? Any tips? Do you still end up checking the account?

Re: Google Pixelbook – A High Performance Chromebook

#169

Post by raesene9 »

victorhooi wrote: post #157
raesene9 wrote: post #146

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To speak about that third case the very real concern I would have there is that it appears he got access to his account back by being able to attract enough attention from Google management, as he was well connected and had a relatively high profile twitter account (> 100k followers) That kind of solution is unlikely to be of use to customers who don't have the ability to bypass the common process...

It wasn't necessarily the publicity. He reached out through normal channels, but these things normally take some time to process, since they normally have to be reviewed by humans. It's one of those things where you want to tread carefully. I mean, say my account got hijacked. I want to get back in. So does the hijacker. I would much rather prefer waiting an extra day or so, than risk having the hijacker purporting t…

erm from https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DHz1WNEXcAEVEHr.jpg "I spoke to the leadership there and they restored accounts"

doesn't sound a lot like the standard support process to me.

Re: Google Pixelbook – A High Performance Chromebook

#170

Post by ehsankia »

colemannugent wrote: post #91
bubblethink wrote: post #56

I hate this trend of dumbing down product specifications. I don't know who started it (probably Apple?), but everyone does it now. Like what fucking i5 or i7 processor ? Is the storage soldered even for the nvme option ? It doesn't help that Intel keeps playing tricks with their naming either. i7 used to be quad core, then it became dual core for thin laptops. Now they are back to low freq quad core in some SKUs. For…

I think the reason why things like this piss people like us off is because this product isn't targeted at us. "Normal" people don't care what is in a device as long as they can justify the cost with the perceived value they see in the device. For them the sticker saying "i7" on the laptop makes it a "top-of-the-line" laptop and justifies the cost as they expect to pay more for "top-of-the-line".

Also, numbers often don't mean much, or at least not what most consumer think they do. I've seen so many people choosing product A over product B because the "ram" number was bigger and the price was lower.

The situation is that as hardware levels off more and more, with Moore's Law slowly dying, the onus falls much more on software to make up for it. That's why a phone like the Pixel feels much smoother and responsive than other Android phones, which run on the exact same hardware.

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