bgw (u/bgw) - Readit News

bgw commented on US cell carriers are selling access to real-time phone location data zdnet.com/article/us-cell... · Posted by u/voctor

mr_toad · 7 years ago

Or just turn off location services when you’re not using them.

Turning off Google Now & location services will radically improve battery life on standby.

bgw · 7 years ago

That has no affect on this tracking.

bgw commented on US cell carriers are selling access to real-time phone location data zdnet.com/article/us-cell... · Posted by u/voctor

wpietri · 7 years ago

For those who want to try out LocationSmart, you can use it here: https://www.locationsmart.com/try/

They were about two blocks off, and located me by cell tower. Apparently they don't have (or at least don't admit to having) A-GPS level data for me.

bgw · 7 years ago

mine was 4.5 miles off

bgw commented on Google is Crushing the Internet theweek.com/articles/6934... · Posted by u/dforrestwilson

angry-hacker · 8 years ago

Or just people on the media are pissed off. They have that leverage anyway over Google to spread their thoughts through media.

I personally think Google should be separated or made a dumb pipe, this would be the most American thing ever!

bgw · 8 years ago

The telecoms need to be made "dumb pipe[s]" in the US before we start worrying about Google.

bgw commented on Google is Crushing the Internet theweek.com/articles/6934... · Posted by u/dforrestwilson

aorth · 8 years ago

> Before rolling it out, Google asked Warner [CelebrityNetWorth.com] if they could scrape his data and credit him. Warner declined, but Google did it anyway.

Money quote. Google's rich snippets are friendly to users, but hostile to sites where the data originates.

bgw · 8 years ago

How are they "hostile to sites where the data originates" when Google is the primary driver of traffic to those sites?

bgw commented on Google is Crushing the Internet theweek.com/articles/6934... · Posted by u/dforrestwilson

pekk · 8 years ago

Google produced more relevant results than Altavista. That's about it. They didn't build or save the internet. Without them, search engines would have improved anyway and we'd be just fine. Google was never a charity and we don't have to protect such corporate behemoths from criticism.

bgw · 8 years ago

Search engines have improved. Bing, DDG, Yahoo are all better than Altavista. But none of them are as good as Google. That being said, no entity is above criticism. The monopoly criticism just doesn't fit though, unless we're redefining what that word means.

bgw commented on Google is Crushing the Internet theweek.com/articles/6934... · Posted by u/dforrestwilson

nickpsecurity · 8 years ago

"Yeah, this guy's history of how Google got to where it was ("it was just luck!") is truly baffling."

It sort of was, though, given it started with a good, nearly-irreplaceable algorithm protected by a patent for 20 years. All kinds of people were looking for one. They lucked out. Whereas, I'd buy the hard work argument if they didn't have a patent on it, competition was allowed, and they still became Google of today.

bgw · 8 years ago

How far would IBM or Microsoft or Apple have gotten without patents?

bgw commented on Google is Crushing the Internet theweek.com/articles/6934... · Posted by u/dforrestwilson

wazoox · 8 years ago

Basically you're explaining that they earned a monopoly for a reason. That's true. And there are always true advantages to monopoly (standardization, economy of scale, prices stability ...). However monopolies harm the economy and the public good in the long run.

See, that works for any past monopoly:

I don't have a strong opinion about whether or not Microsoft should be regulated or not. [...] It's bizarre to accuse the company that made the PC into what it is today of somehow crushing it.

I don't have a strong opinion about whether or not AT&T should be regulated or not. [...] It's bizarre to accuse the company that made the telephone into what it is today of somehow crushing it.

I don't have a strong opinion about whether or not Standard Oil should be regulated or not. [...] It's bizarre to accuse the company that made the oil industry into what it is today of somehow crushing it.

bgw · 8 years ago

It has always been strange for me to understand Google search as a monopoly. First, there are competitors. Second, it's free (yes, I know you pay with data). Third, you can use the internet without using any of Google's services (except adsense, I suppose). How is Google's search a monopoly when it's the user who is deciding they prefer it to Bing or Duck Duck Go or Yahoo? Perhaps my understanding of monopoly is incomplete because this makes no sense to me.

bgw commented on Anthony Bourdain on not having debt wealthsimple.com/en-us/ma... · Posted by u/bootload

refurb · 8 years ago

Not sure if you're living in the US, but I do and I have the exact opposite viewpoint. The amount of waste, corruption and poor planning by the gov't makes me feel like I'm throwing money away. I'd rather give it a charity since then I'd know a majority of it had an impact.

I think if the gov't was a bit more efficient and could be shown to be good stewards of money I'd probably hate paying taxes a lot less.

bgw · 8 years ago

Government spends money with more accountability and with more efficacy than charities do.

bgw commented on Internet firms’ legal immunity is under threat economist.com/news/busine... · Posted by u/JumpCrisscross

rtpg · 9 years ago

I think this is more allusion to the Prez calling CNN FAKE NEWS all the time rather than a value judgement by GP.

There's an argument to be made that CNN smells blood since January 21st and is looking to be the ones that make the kill. The fact that news orgs have to choose coverage priorities is, in itself, political.

Even if the coverage itself is impartial, would 24/7 coverage of Trump be non-political?

bgw · 9 years ago

Yes. A lot of media critiques try to discern bias in the content. However, bias exists prior to that. What and who is covered is bias. Ignoring a topic could be bias not how the topic is covered.

bgw commented on Internet firms’ legal immunity is under threat economist.com/news/busine... · Posted by u/JumpCrisscross

jbuzbee · 9 years ago

they can actively filter hate speech or abusive posts just fine

And how, pray tell, do you identify "hate speech"? Who's the judge? You're going to get a different answer in Iran than you do in Switzerland. Not to mention the obvious, that the answer to to speech you don't like, is more speech, not censorship.

bgw · 9 years ago

Disregarding context in a narrow focus image, how can you differentiate between male and female nipples?