Pawnstars scroogled advert not a laptop

[woodsmoke]

I generally like Pawn Stars but I detest this, also there is an odd reference to "Office and iTunes".

At the end is a line that the Google Chromebook "is not a real laptop".

But more interesting is a line partway through that "most PCs have Office and iTunes".

So....Microshaft is promoting iTunes? headscratchingiconthingyhere.

Of course they are also getting an indirect jab at Linux.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TjQhYBKInwo

woodsmoke

[richb]

"A Chromebook is not a real computer because it does not have Windows and office." I hate this commercial as well. But advertising is designed to sell your products and if you can do it by denigrating others products you will. Just like politicians trying to get elected. So it is not very surprising MS is using this tactic.

[Feathers McGraw]

This won't work on people who already know what a Chromebook is, because they're geeky enough to know better.

And... the people who didn't know what a Chromebook is, now do.

I don't get the strategy.

[thomasfieber]

I agree...this commercial was garbage. It is unfortunate that MS decided the best way to sell computers was to bash another product. The thing is, they must see Chromebooks as a legitimate threat to their PC business, otherwise why bother? Chromebooks have their place, and PCs have theirs. I don't really see what MS has to gain from this strategy.

[GreyGeek]

So far, Win8 sales are way below projections because they have failed in the market place. The ad itself isn't any different than any of Microsoft's other ads -- just as deceptive and with lots of disinformation. Microsoft is notorious for tracking people's personal info. There was a website devoted to it called f***kmicrosoft.com which detailed how Microsoft created a hidden folder and stored in it logs of all your offline and online activities. Those logs were uploaded to Microsoft every so often and then reset. After that website revealed how to eliminate Microsoft's tracking of your activities Microsoft made the creation of those hidden files part of the boot up process, if they had been deleted, so that the everyday user could not defeat the snooping. Combine that with Microsoft's GUID, unique to each PC/USER, and which is added every document created on Windows, including Office document and emails. That allowed Microsoft to track who created documents or sent emails, and many other nefarious things.

[woodsmoke]

hmmmmm

Sooooooo I think that now I understand what the "extra" code in a "docx's" wrapper might be. There is the obvious stuff that supposedly enhances the ability of the document to be accesed through the internet, reduce size of images, etc. all the doc "x" stuff, but there is other code in there also.

And THAT is why, I have posted elsewhere, that if I put my .ppts on a cd and read them from the cd, then microslop cannot put the "white sheets" on a .ppt. It is harder for them to alter just a document however.

interesting..........verrryyyy interesting.....

woodsmoke

[SteveRiley]

I don't get the strategy.

The strategy is to trash the competition. It's what everybody does on this side of the pond

I agree, though -- that's a rather pathetic commercial. Pawn shop owners never say "utilized," and Boris Yeltsin is apparently not dead!

I would be curious what you guys think about some of the other attacks against Google on the scroogled.com site -- after all, the various claims about privacy invasion aren't exactly disputed.

[Feathers McGraw]

Chrome OS cons... the first thing you read if you download that PDF is this:

Go offline with Chrome OS and it's apps access denied!

What a hideous sentence! Lol. I'm actually quite surprised that Word didn't kick up a fuss about it.

In pretty sure some of the claims in that document are outright lies. For example, MS are trying to tell you that you can't watch videos offline... which is completely untrue. You can't watch videos offline unless you have them on local storage. How is that any different from to a Windows PC?

As for the Chromebook Can'ts, it's more a list of Microsoft manufactured roadblocks. MS are complaining that the Chromebooks can't open their proprietary document formats correctly!! Bloody cheek.

MS are being very misleading about cameras. You CAN connect a camera as external storage via USB or SD card. You just can't use the manufacturer crapware that comes with it. Personally, I've never used the software that comes with cameras anyway.

Gmail
They're completely right on this one. It's hella creepy.

I have Gmail, but I don't use it for anything other than receiving communication from Google. They're welcome to scan that as much as they like!

I do, however, use Hangouts. I've judged it to be worth it, because it works beautifully on tablets and doesn't kick up a fuss like WhatsApp. If I want to send a private message I use ChatSecure (used to be called GibberBot) which encrypts the messages.

Ad-free searches for schools
Not a bad idea, but nothing worth making a big deal out of. They're right, but it's small fry. You could also use DuckDuckGo for this.

Microsoft do much worse in schools, namely teaching dependence on their proprietary software and formats. That really bugs me, because they've been doing it for so long that nobody seems to realise they're even doing it!

Google Shopping
I've found some really good deals on some very obscure items using Google shopping. For things like camping equipment, I also check numerous websites manually and really rummage around. Google shopping usually still has the cheapest option. IME, it's a useful tool, and I was never under the impression that it want influenced by ads.

[richb]

For the record, I use Gmail exclusively.

[Feathers McGraw]

For the record, I use Gmail exclusively.

You don't fancy tearing your hair out trying to configure your own email server, then?

[richb]

You don't fancy tearing your hair out trying to configure your own email server, then?

No hair here. I just find Gmail serves all my needs, has very good spam filtering, and I do not receive unwanted emails from any merchants. So if they are tracking my activities they are not making very good use of them.

[Buddlespit]

beat me to it

You don't fancy tearing your hair out trying to configure your own email server, then?

He has no hair.

edit: you beat me to it

[Feathers McGraw]

Pahaha

[GreyGeek]

For the record, I use Gmail exclusively.

So do I.
When I first connected with GMail and G+ I read their TOS's. That's why I never post my personal information, beyond my name, a small bw photo, or my personal info. My gmail address is how the public email's me because it is independent of any particular ISP, which I change when ever I feel like it.
My GMail is set to forward the email it receives to my ISP. I have KMail pointing at my ISP. When I send private messages to my family and friends I send it via my ISP, which probably isn't any more secure, is probably also being scanned, so I never send email containing information that I want to keep private unless I send it as an encrypted attachment.

When Microsoft bought Skype they also changed their P2P node arrangement. Now they use a Linux server farm running their patented "Legal Intercept" spyware, which inserts itself into the Skype audio stream (video as well?) so that it can be recorded by anyone with access to the Linux servers or a VPN connected to them. THAT is being scroogled! So, when you use Skype, don't say anything you wouldn't say in a court of law under oath, or that is where you may find yourself. So much for free speech.


Apple used iPhone's GPS to keep of record of the travels of its customers, until someone discovered it and blew the whistle. To track someone's travels all that had to be done was access the iPhone's logs and download them. While most juristictions require a warrant from a judge to plant a GPS tracker on a car, by using the suspect's iPhone a warrant was bypassed.

Microsoft and Apple should behave. They live in glass houses and there are plenty of bricks lying around.

EDIT: I forgot the reason why I posted this -- Google's free apps (Maps, Hangout, 25GB GDrive, Trend, Scholar, etc...) are excellent and OS neutral.

[Feathers McGraw]

Microsoft and Apple should behave. They live in glass houses and there are plenty of bricks lying around.

Very well said.

I'm not sure which I'm more concerned about: being spied on by big corps for profit, or being spied on by my own government, without my consent.

I hate the former because it's all part of of them trying to subconsciously control people, and I hate the latter because it makes a bit of a mockery of democracy.