Linkblogging For 13/02/10
Beatles post tonight, assuming this migraine dies down.
Firstly, while I thought I had reason to be mildly annoyed at Google, at least it didn’t decide I automatically wanted to be bestest friends with an abusive ex and a bunch of people who want to rape me, like it did with someone else… meanwhile Twitter has handed a gift to repressive regimes.
(The first link there has since been turned into a private blog and will not be viewable if you click it. I won’t republish what the author said, but the mere fact that she’s now *had* to close her blog down, as a result of Google’s actions, should say a lot…)
Andrew Rilstone is blogging at a more regular pace again. Here he’s got a short tale about the police, which just might be a metaphor. Mark Steel is less metaphorical on the same subject.
The Mindless Ones have another competition.
Marc Singer continues his run through his comics syllabus with a quick look at Watchmen.
And Justin completely demolishes the government’s response to the Binyam Mohammed case.
And after looking through that list (torture, stupidity, war and abuse) I think my migraine’s worse, not better…
(But this has cheered me up – Cerebus valentines:
Cerebus valentine
Google Buzz – most annoying thing ever?
I have a Gmail account. I also use Google Reader. Google have now introduced something called ‘Google Buzz’ which connects these two together, along with a load of ‘social networking’ crap. (I recently actually got a Facebook account to see what they’re like. They’re scary. I don’t want the rest of the internet to turn into Facebook please).
What this effectively means is that because I emailed, say, my landlord, a few months back, Gmail now thinks we both want to be bestest facebook-type friends and read everything the other thinks. It also added him to my Google Reader ‘people you’re following’, without asking me. (And i can’t click ‘unfollow’ because he hasn’t approved the request, the request I didn’t send…)
I *like* separating different aspects of my online life. I resent, utterly, this continued trend towards every ‘service’ linking with every other, and just *assuming* that I want everyone who has ever been a part of my life, however casually, to be deeply embedded in every aspect of it. And I also resent that there are some people I know who will *only* use those services, forcing me to share every aspect of my online life or none of it.
What’s so hard about actually clicking ‘yes, I want to add this person’, that that functionality should be taken away?
I’m seriously considering dumping gmail, for a start… I want an email account, not a constant stream of ‘status updates’ and flickr pictures from people I barely know…
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