Per Whosawhasis’s suggestion, I installed AdBlock in my FireFox browser. I also installed a Facebook tracking blocker, since Facebook was really creeping me out. In this short time, it really feels like the internet just became a friendlier place.
Awesome. Thanks Whosa!
This is actually my second post with the same subject/topic/title. :/
As a joke I did a google search for “cell phone for elderly” because a friend of mine has this ridiculous habit of taking pictures with his iPhone UPSIDE down. Sure, it’s easy enough to turn it back upside right – but wouldn’t it just make more sense to simply hold the phone correctly in the first place?
Anyhow, now all the google ads I see are for cell phones for the elderly. Great.
I’m not a fan of Facebook or Google Plus. However, Google’s new “real name” policy is really getting on my nerves. My Google Plus account is under the pseudonym of “MakerBlock,” so I might as well save them the trouble of suspending my accounts and just delete it now.
Eric Schmidt recently publicly stated Google Plus isn’t a social networking service, it’s an identity service. The justification for this position was that Google Plus would be better able to serve us by knowing who we really are as well as ranking downwards those people who really are evil. But, really, Google’s business is selling advertising to those people most likely to be interested based on their research of those people by studying, on a grand scale, every aspect of their lives. 12
I get that the person who logs into Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, or Google Plus aren’t the real customers, that we’re just the product. This makes sense and, in some cases, seems a fair trade. It’s a funny line these businesses must walk, however. Cater too much to the advertisers, and you lose your audience. Cater too much to the audience, and perhaps you’ll lose advertisers. I understand, from a business perspective, wanting to know as much about your users as possible. But, after a certain point it just gets creepy.
No one was really offended by Facebook’s policies until relatively recently – a few data breaches here, a few account suspensions there. And then they stopped people from treating the data those people created (or consumed) as portable. People were fine with Google Plus until Google really started enforcing this position.
I suppose, for me, the fundamental issue may just be respect. I think Google and Facebook have lost respect for their users. While their business models clearly require observation of the user, it is the difference between watching animals on a wild life preserve versus watching animals in the zoo. When those policies start to close in around the user – and they can start to see the high walls and feel like they are being watched – that’s when people start to grumble and leave.
When I began blogging for MakerBot, it was with the stipulation that I would be able to continue to blog under my pseudonym. This was not a problem at all. In fact, I was assured that many people go by their adopted ‘nym’s which are more reflective of who they are than their given names ever were. I’m saddened and disappointed that Google+ does not recognize this and is apparently banning people from their Google accounts for using pseudonyms.
Seriously, guys? E-mail addresses, logins, Google accounts, they’re all pseudonyms of some fashion. If Google+ is supposed to be the equivalent of posting my driver’s license online to confirm my name, physical address, and organ donor status, you can delete my account right now. If, instead, it is about letting people use the names they’ve chosen to participate in social interactions with people who really only know them by those names… Then stop banning people.
</rant>
So, apparently NOW I can access Google Groups while still logged into my Google account. However, now I can’t be logged into two separate accounts at the same time.
I think this is more irritating.
Is there some kind of Google competition for ways to be more aggravating? ‘Cause they’re winning.
I’m used to seeing 3D printing services advertising in the Google ads on Thingiverse.
Then I was searching for dog barking collars. A few hours later, back to Thingiverse… dog collars?!?!
Cut it out!
Apparently I can’t access Google Groups. Which sucks. I have several different Gmail accounts and I can’t use any of them with Google Groups. As a result, I can only read what’s going on in the Google Groups on my RSS feed – and not respond to anything.
Google, this may not be evil… But it is just plain mean. Cut this out, please, and restore access to Google Groups to Gmail users.
These look promising…
http://www.ohyeahcad.com/download/
I’ll try them out and let you know.
As I’ve mentioned before, I do all of my 3D modeling in Sketchup. It’s not open source, but it is free.1
Well, I’ve been monitoring the Capolight Electronics Blog lately – and it’s a good thing too. Besides having some seriously amazing information about the thermal properties of plastic, he’s just posted about some useful importing/exporting plugins for Sketchup. As easy as Sketchup is to use, it’s just not very good at exporting to STL. I haven’t tried these plugins out – but I’m hopeful they will do the job.
If you try them out, please let me know how it goes!
Ricardo Santos managed to create PLA in his home. My Portuguese is pretty rusty. Well, to be exact, non-existent. However, that’s what Google is for! Thanks Ricardo!