New Topic
Post Reply
Follow Topic
I remember back around the time of IBM 86486 machines, when we still were
working with DOS. Back then, there were articles once a year
about how we were going toward diskless terminals. We`d have a monitor,
and the "necessary" floppy drive for booting up, but we`d immediately
go out into a network for everything else.
These terminals never happened. Then came better computers, Windows,
and the Mac started taking some strong market share. Unix, Linux, and
all sorts of new things started happening. Along came the Internet,
then came the World Wide Web, and every year or so, we`d be talking
about online applications.
Even today, everyone is jumping up and down about how exciting it`ll be
when we no longer need a desktop or home computer. We`ll log into the
web, and get everything we could possibly ever need, all online, and
the world will end in an explosive orgasm of networked Nirvana. Right?
At work, we had a helluva time coming up with a way to send emails to
prospective customers (real estate agents). We wanted to embed HTML
formatting, along with a few images, and for a variety of reasons it
couldn`t be done at this particular location.
The solution was to open a Gmail account, then pick up everything
locally through Outlook Express. Did this, pushed that, changed
something, and WahLah!....it worked.
Until today.
Now it seems that Google has decided to "help" us by fighting spam. I
first noticed this two days ago, when I sent myself an email from work
to remind myself about a Web address. It wasn`t delivered, and I was
told that the message "looked like spam."
The Google Earth truck drove by and sprayed the building with automatic
machine-gun fire, blew out the windows, and over a loud-speaker, said,
"You`ve been warned!" Okay...so that didn`t actually happen...
When I got home, I put myself on a white-list in my home email, then re-sent the original....it went through.
Today, I tried to send about 10 emails, individually, to prospective
agents, and none of them went through. My "daily quota" had apparently
been exceeded, regardless that people used to believe that was around
500 messages.
Nowhere was there much info, but there were quite a few posts about
people scratching their heads as to what happened. Y`know what
happened? Google decided to take control of it`s free product, and tell
me how I can send mail, what sort of mail, and whether or not it
approved of my mail.
Throughout history humanity has battled between centralized control
versus individual freedoms. We have democratic republics versus
totalitarian dictatorships, but we also have peer-to-peer networks
versus client-server and network administrators.
We learn about free products where we can host a Web site or do
backups, but there`s fine print. There`s ALWAYS fine print: At any
time, the company reserves the right to charge money, and if you don`t
pay, they`ll wipe out your data or Web site.
Microsoft continually believes that all of us would love to store all
our information somewhere else; preferably on a Microsoft-controlled
network. Then they don`t understand why more people aren`t doing this.
So they continually "improve" Windows in such a way as to make it more
and more the de facto standard to place your data somewhere where you
don`t control it.
Google docs, applications, email, calendars, and so forth, all are
wonderful things, right? Everyone says so, and can`t understand why
some people don`t get with the program and do everything
collaboratively. I wouldn`t be surprised if we don`t see laws passed to
force those of us who`d rather have a home machine to use online
everything.
So waddya think? It`s certainly Google`s right to change the way they
offer their free email system. I can`t argue with that. I guess I
thought, though, that they actually cared to have a working system. I
do know that I`ll always have my critical applications and all my own
data.....in my own possession. I might temporarily store some stuff
elsewhere, but only a copy, and only temporarily.
Now that we can`t email 20-40 people a day from work with information
about the homes they`ve viewed, we`ve gone to a more difficult system.
That`s fine, it`ll mean more wasted time, harder work, and other such
nonsense. BUT!...at least our customers will actually hear from us.
Anyone else having second thoughts about "global village," and "one big happy family?"