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Industry critics warn of danger in giving internet leader more power David Smith, technology correspondent The Observer Sunday 25 January 2009  Google is to launch a service that would enable users to access their personal computer from any internet connection, according to industry reports. But campaigners warn that it would give the online behemoth unprecedented control over individuals' personal data.The Google Drive, or "GDrive", could kill off the desktop computer, which relies on a powerful hard drive. Instead a user's personal files and operating system could be stored on Google's own servers and accessed via the internet. The long-rumoured GDrive is expected to be launched this year, according to the technology news website TG Daily, which described it as "the most anticipated Google product so far". It is seen as a paradigm shift away from Microsoft's Windows operating system, which runs inside most of the world's computers, in favour of "cloud computing", where the processing and storage is done thousands of miles away in remote data centres. Home and business users are increasingly turning to web-based services, usually free, ranging from email (such as Hotmail and Gmail) and digital photo storage (such as Flickr and Picasa) to more applications for documents and spreadsheets (such as Google Apps). The loss of a laptop or crash of a hard drive does not jeopardise the data because it is regularly saved in "the cloud" and can be accessed via the web from any machine. The GDrive would follow this logic to its conclusion by shifting the contents of a user's hard drive to the Google servers. The PC would be a simpler, cheaper device acting as a portal to the web, perhaps via an adaptation of Google's operating system for mobile phones, Android. Users would think of their computer as software rather than hardware. It is this prospect that alarms critics of Google's ambitions. Peter Brown, executive director of the Free Software Foundation, a charity defending computer users' liberties, did not dispute the convenience offered, but said: "It's a little bit like saying, 'we're in a dictatorship, the trains are running on time.' But does it matter to you that someone can see everything on your computer? Does it matter that Google can be subpoenaed at any time to hand over all your data to the American government?" Google refused to confirm the GDrive, but acknowledged the growing demand for cloud computing. Dave Armstrong, head of product and marketing for Google Enterprise, said: "There's a clear direction ... away from people thinking, 'This is my PC, this is my hard drive,' to 'This is how I interact with information, this is how I interact with the web.'" | ||||||||||
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 worriedThe Observer Sunday 25 January 2009 **I think about this a lot. The British Library's head says that deleting websites will make job of historians harder Historians face a "black hole" of lost material unless urgent action is taken to preserve websites and other digital records, the head of the British Library has warned. Just as families store digital photos on computers which might never be passed on to their descendants, so Britain's cultural heritage is at risk as the internet evolves and technologies become obsolete, says Lynne Brindley, the library's chief executive. Writing in today's Observer, Brindley cites two examples of losses overseas. When Barack Obama was inaugurated as US president last week, all traces of George Bush disappeared from the White House website, including a booklet entitled 100 Things Americans May Not Know About the Bush Administration, which is no longer accessible. There were more than 150 websites relating to the 2000 Olympics in Sydney, she continues, but these, too, vanished instantly at the end of the games and are now stored only by the National Library of Australia. "If websites continue to disappear in the same way as those on President Bush and the Sydney Olympics - perhaps exacerbated by the current economic climate that is killing companies - the memory of the nation disappears too," Brindley writes. "Historians of the future, citizens of the future, will find a black hole in the knowledge base of the 21st century." Historians have become increasingly concerned that while the Domesday Book, written on sheepskin in 1086, is still easily accessible, the software for many decade-old computer files - including thousands of government records - already renders them unreadable. The ephemera of emails, text messages and online video add to the headache of the 21st-century archivist. "Too many of us suffer from a condition that is going to leave our grandchildren bereft," Brindley states. "I call it personal digital disorder. Think of those thousands of digital photographs that lie hidden on our computers. Few store them, so those who come after us will not be able to look at them. It's tragic." She believes similar gaps could appear in the national memory, pointing out that, contrary to popular assumption, internet companies such as Google are not collecting and archiving material of this type. It is left instead to the libraries and archives which have been gathering books, periodicals, newspapers and recordings for centuries. With an interim report from communications minister Lord Carter on the future of digital Britain imminent, Brindley makes the case for the British Library as the repository that will ensure emails and websites are preserved as reliably as manuscripts and books. "This vision of a digital Britain must include the critical public service of preserving digital Britain's collective memory and digitising the unrivalled content within the British Library." The library plans to create a comprehensive archive of such "notoriously ephemeral" material from the UK web domain - there are about eight million .uk domain websites, growing at a rate of 15-20% every year. It also has a collecting and archiving project for the London 2012 Olympics. In 2007 the library worked with Microsoft and the National Archives at Kew to prevent a "digital dark age" by unlocking millions of unreadable stored computer files. Microsoft installed the Virtual PC 2007, allowing users to run multiple operating systems simultaneously on the same computer and unlock what are called "legacy" Microsoft Office formats dating back 15 years or more. The library and national archives have set up projects to capture daily exchanges of information almost entirely now transmitted by emails and texts. Government departments are storing emails and archiving them at Kew, and the library is encouraging individuals to store theirs voluntarily. Historians regard some of today's electronic data as a vital legacy that must be protected. Tristram Hunt, of Queen Mary College, London University, said: "It's essential that mainstream institutions such as the National Gallery or the White House or the Ministry of Defence keep email correspondence, and I think they're quite good about that now. We saw all that come out in the Hutton report and it was fascinating. That's an absolutely essential historical record." But Hunt argued that libraries and other institutions need to be selective. "On the other hand, we're producing much more information these days than we used to, and not all of it is necessary. Do we want to keep the Twitter account of Stephen Fry or some of the marginalia around the edges of the Sydney Olympics? I don't think we necessarily do." There is already one stark warning from history. The BBC's Doomsday Project of 1986, intended to record the state of the nation for posterity, was recorded on two 12inch videodisks. By 2000 it was obsolete, and was rescued only thanks to a specialist team working with a sole surviving laser disk player. | ||||||||||
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 peacefulOver here at Dj, however, I do not just make random posts because I feel that a lot of little commentary type entries have a tendency to annoy friends who must wade through them to get to their more important friends' posts, so what I do is use my melo for that. The difference with melo [melodramatic.com] is that it is more of a 'way of life' site than this. It's like, people get up in the morning and log in to melo, and no matter what they are doing whilst at home and many times even at work, they are on melo in the background. I know some people who use it like other people do Twitter. They continually post little entries or comments, called gspots, to let everyone know what is passing through their minds even though many might not care. They check their melos on their phones and make posts from there. When they come home from a night of sociality, they get on melo and either answer their gspots, make a post about their day or get on the Wall and chat back and forth with people in semi-real time. I say semi-real because many times there is a substantial lag in submitting a line of text and when it appears on the wall, especially if you have a retarded connection like I do, but I dun use the wall anymore anyway. You also can see all the users who are on the site, so if your friends are on, you can go and say hello. With melo, you also have the option of folders, so that your 'front page' might look a certain way all the time much like a standard web page with an index, yet you could be making posts all over the place behind this placid front page which others access with links to the specific folders, which you can decorate much like you can decortate the rooms in your house. I had someone come on my front page the other day and ask me where all the new stuff was because much of the time my front page has the same pretty rose picture on it that Hashi gave me because it is my 'standard'. But I have one folder I post shiznit to all the time called 'Like Twitter but NOT'. It is simple and readable, and I dun feel bad for putting unimportant thoughts on it. I get more feedback from those posts than I get many times from bigger ones. Because everyone has a tendency to know or have heard about others on the site, the term melodramatic also comes into play. 'Tis like a small town environment where everyone knows everyone else, or THINKS they know. People have arguments, people take sides, people run amock! It's kinda fun sometimes and kinda lame other times. :-p People can say what they want about the site. Many of us use it to suit our own needs and convenience and choice in online 'friends'. I think the concept behind it is great, however. I just wish it worked a little faster. :-p | ||||||||||
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**This is important. Please read. Trojan.PWS.ChromeInject.A, which registers itself in Firefox's system files as 'Greasemonkey,' collects passwords for banking sites infoworld.com | ||||||||||
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From my Alterslash feed: 'Good news for anyone who needs to collaborate remotely on a writing or editing project — coding too. It’s especially good news for those using Windows and Linux. Mac users have had SubEthaEdit for a few years now. With EtherPad, two or more people can edit a document and see all the edits simultaneously. EtherPad’s main differences from SubEthaEdit: it’s a Web application that de facto supports many platforms without the need for a central Mac OS X host; and it’s free.' Here is the Etherpad link. :) | ||||||||||
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 shocked The 43-year-old was reportedly furious at finding herself suddenly divorced in the online game Maplestory. Police say she illegally accessed log-in details of the man playing her husband, and killed off his character. >>Read on **That's kinda scary... :O | ||||||||||
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surprisedTITLE: WARPED COMMUNICATIONS, INC. ACQUIRES DEADJOURNAL.COM CONTACT: PRESS@WARPED.COM EMBARGO: 10/6/2008 BEGIN CONTENT: -- Warped Communcations, Inc. acquires DeadJournal.com -- Warped Communications, Inc., a Georgia corporation, is pleased to announce the acquisition of DeadJournal.com, a journaling website started in 2000. DeadJournal provides a darker-themed place for people to record their lives, images, thoughts, rants and raves. >>Read more | ||||||||||
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 devious I have shamelessly stolen this from my dual Lj/melo friend Ursula (nuclearsnow on melo and blacklight_halo on Lj). Thanks for finding this Ursula. Now I just have to get a certain someone on the messenger when he is totally drunk and not paying attention! haha! ;)Virtual Vow.com "Do you want to get virtually married to your MySpace sweetheart? Do you want to show your affection toward another but aren't ready for the "real" thing? Would you like to let your friends and family know you're in love? Well, this is the place for you! Virtual Vow lets you get married online, in a virtual setting. Although the marriage is not legally binding, and doesn't give you any additional legal rights, it does give you the ability to get "virtually married" when it otherwise isn't "legal" or possible. It demonstrate to everyone how much you care for your partner! And best of all, it's completely FREE! Another benefit of Virtual Marriage is the fact that you can marry anything! There are no limitations or discrimination on VirtualVow.com. • Do you love your dog or cat? Marry it! • Do you love your truck? Marry it! • Do you love your motorcycle? Marry it! • Do you love your website? Marry it! • Do you love a celebrity? Marry them! Once you're married, you get a full Virtual Marriage Certificate suitable for framing and printable at any time. You'll also get a set of customized graphic buttons and images that you can put on your website, blog, or MySpace page. You can get started by sending a proposal or, if you know you're already in love, you can go directly to the online wedding page." Yessss!!!! :D | ||||||||||
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Mood:
 cheerfulAwww, I think this is so cute that even though Sara 'disabled' Hashi's bigcatpants melo due to extraneous reasons which we will not mention  , his li'l BCP logo still figured prominently on the Meloversary '08 party cake this weekend. ;)Big Cat Pants Forever!  Image source | ||||||||||
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 contemplativeThe other day I read a link from my friend's Lj that was so astute and so excellently written concerning the present political crisis in this country, yet only one person had commented. Sometimes I read the latest posts link over at Dj, and some of the people will be having a major crisis in their lives, yet not one comment will be posted. Have these people no friends? Or are people on social networking sites such as Dj and Lj just there for their own vanity and ego? Do people not want feedback? Or do they get it from other sources? Why journal it then in public? I think about all these things, and I wonder.  'Backstage'  'The French Window' By Ignat Ignatov | ||||||||||
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