Posts by schultzter

Google's Chrome divorce still on the cards as Trump's DoJ plays hardball

ELI5

How does selling off Chrome actually work?

I've seen estimates saying it's worth $20B but that's because of the Googley bits that were added to open-source Chromium; and there are plenty of alternative Chromium based browsers out there - even Microsoft has one! Those have either replaced the Googley bits with their own equally evil bits or they're selling point is the lack of eny evil Googley bits.

So how does Google sell something for $20B that anyone who's really interested in can get for free already?

And who would be interested in having a browser, and has the expertise to maintain and continue developing it, that has $20B lying around that hasn't already built a Chromium based browser (don't say Apple because a. they're openly hostile towards the Chrome way; and b. Chromium was originally based on WebKit that Safari is based on).

Maybe they can do a swap with ByteDance?!

Australia passes law to keep under-16s off social media – good luck with that, mate

Re: Have got start somewhere

A better start or first attempt would be to provide more funding for after school programs, sports and culture programs, more play grounds and facilities for kids and support for parents.

This law allows the politicians to say "look at me, I'm thinking of the children - vote for me again!" while they point at big evil foreign tech and the adults to feel all warm and fuzzy because "back in my day when the world was perfect..." and the kids don't care because they've already move on to the next thing (this law is already obsolete)! And the best part is banning things and blaming foreigners means you don't have to raise taxes or offend local employers!!!

Epic judge orders Google to let rivals set up app stores

Re: Hmmm

I read this as meaning Google can't create fake competition by sponsoring other app stores from it's own app store revenue (but since they're dependent on Google $$$ they will of course bow to Google's suggestions)

1. the remedy is worse than the problem; and

2. there's no app store monopoly on Android.

Re: "permit third-party Android app stores to access the Google Play Store's catalog"

Great! The judge is inviting every twit who can cobble together a crappy web site splattered with ads to scrape the Play Store catalogue and haul off anyone who isn't paying to where they're landing!

FCC Commissioner calls for crackdown on Apple's iMessage gatekeeping

Re: iMessage isn't very useful...

This is why I don't understand the fuss: if you want cross-platform advanced messaging the choices are there.

And if you were able to go to the app store and install Candy Crush, Angry Birds, or whatever I'm sure you can figure out how to install another messenger! And I know many people who do.

The caveat being in North America unlimited SMS/MMS is included in even the most basic of mobile phone plans where as limited amounts of data only show up in mid-tier plans and only become viable in high-end plans. So a lot of us have to use SMS to have reliable messaging which on iPhone means iMessage so it may as well be your one-and-only messenger.

Android iMessage app Beeper releases working update of blue-bubbled tool

Re: BBM

If BBM had released Android and iphone clients early on we could have avoided all of this!

Meta's fix for teen online mental health? Hold Apple and Google responsible

Age verification?!

I am afraid of the mechanics of age verification and would probably be more comfortable circumventing it than providing the necessary info!

Re: Support for a federal law? Eh? It already exists.

I installed Google Family and it works great on the kid's Android devices, partially on the Chromebook, breaks the Chromecast, and not at all on the school devices (iPad, Chromebook, and Windows).

So until there is interoperability for any and all platforms I'm not interested in any technical solutions (and I'm relatively comfortable with technology).

Australian Senate committee recommends bans on Chinese social media apps

Re: Don’t ban them because they’re Chinese

This!

Way too often free & democratic countries craft laws that ultimately single-out one company because only it "fits the criteria" so stop the theatrics and pass laws that apply equally!

Tokkers can Tok like Tweeters can Tweet – for now

Re: "While Threads was launched as a completely new platform"

It's just really frustrating on Threads because you automatically follow the same people on Instagram so you start out with 90% overlap!

Where's my money?! Now USA Today publisher sues Google over online advertising

Rant, eh!

The obvious problem with Canada's link tax law, Bill C-18, is that it's thinly veiled copyright reform! But bragging about copyright reform, especially two elections in a row, doesn't grab the headlines like a David vs Goliath story of defending Canadian values against tech mega corps! So we end up with a convoluted law that will fail judicial challenge, was already obsolete before it was passed, and does nothing to actually help news publishers. Sure it helps shareholders of the major incumbent publishers and gives the politicians something to puff their chests up with but that's about it.

What they should do is

a. Collect corporate taxes from Google, et al like they should and use that money too fund journalism, cancon, etc equitably; and

b. Change copyright law so fair use is a bit more nuanced and Google, FB, etc can't hide behind it

> they are a vectors for scams and malware

I think the FBI said it first!

Has Amazon found the ultimate lock-in? Cheap cellphone service for Prime

Re: Bundles are traps to be avoided.

That's a nice theory, but far from reality. The bottleneck is usually physical infrastructure, whether it's running lines through neighbourhoods, putting up base stations, or building retail stores. So these virtual systems, whether it's MVNO's or online shopping, are the only way to compete once an incumbent has settled in. I mean there's five hardware stores in my area, but only one in my neighbourhood - so who do you think gets 90% of business just by virtue of proximity? And if they don't have what I want the next stop is Amazon because they are literally at my door step (virtually)!

Meta threatens to pull all news from California rather than pay El Reg a penny

These laws make FB the owner of our news

The Australian, Canadian, etc politicians love to beat their chests and claim to have protected their national culture against US internet tech giants.

But follow the money, if FB is bankrolling the news then it's controlling the news. The Australian law is quite explicit: only pay if you link, so who do you think FB is going to choose to link to? In Canada, most small independent news publishers, who would benefit most, aren't even eligible to claim compensation under the news law.

Do you really think the politicians are going to admit they screwed up and actually handed the keys to their country to a foreign corporation?

Copyright!

Funny you should mention copyright, that's specifically the problem with Canadian version of the law and it had carve out a "fair use" exemption to avoid contradicting our copyright law. If instead we had updated our copyright law to recognise copying has evolved then we wouldn't have needed a law requiring FB et al. to become the masters of our news industry.

Meta threatens to stop sharing news in USA to protest publisher payment plan

It "works" down under because the politicians who want to get re-elected say they did a great job! Look up the juice media on YouTube and watch their videos about the news media bargaining code to get a different opinion! It's parody, so if you're easily confused now you know.

Re: How will they determine what is "news"?

In Australia and Canada "what is news" is determined by the politicians so basically campaign contributions make that determination!

Nitrux 2.5: The latest update to a radical Linux

Experiments, not failures

Rather than refer to all these genuine efforts as failures or wastes of time consider them successful experiments that taught us something.

It's easier to try something new when you can boot into it off a USB key rather than have to install it into your current setup.

Google gets the green light to flood US Gmail inboxes with political spam

Re: Spam

One person's spam is another person's valuable information or delightful entertainment. Unless it's malicious criminal deception it's really up to each user what they want to filter.

Google account != Gmail

They don't make it obvious but you can create a Google account for all their other services without having a Gmail account.

Google snubs South Korea's app store payments law

Re: Real world?

Indirectly YES.

Succesful shops move to more desirable locations where the rent is higher.

If you have less revenue you move to a location with lower rent.

As for payment systems it wouldn't surprise me to find out a mall operator who provides basic infrastructure like heat, lighting, etc. also provides data networking and payment processing and requires them to be offered - even if you tell customers you prefer cash or e-transfer. The payment processors contract with the mall probably stipulates some kind of exclusivity to the extent it's legally allowed.

Canada wants Big Tech to share its riches with news publishers

Which lesson were learned from the past?

The Australian law was great for the politicians, it let them claim a David v. Goliath victory over US mega-corps, regardless of the actual results.

So did the Canadian politicians learn that they can win a few votes by appearing to wrangle some foreign tech companies into submission?

Or did they learn that the law needs to ensure Facebook doesn't become the gatekeeper of what news is shared; and Google has to support actual journalism and journalists - not just shareholders; and the definition of news outlet needs to be objective and subject to oversight?

Re: Who gets to choose which newspapers?

I believe they had some pencilled in some basic criteria, like minimum staff size and regular publication and minimum scope (i.e.: a company's press releases did not qualify as news but two guys blogging about community events could qualify).

EU law threatening 'commercially painful changes' for tech out tonight

If only

> the ability to send messages to users of an entirely different messaging platform.

GTalk?!

Enough said.

Australia will force social networks to identify trolls, so they can be sued for defamation

Re: Another go at Juice Media

I was going to say the same thing. I wish The Register, off all news outlets, would stop repeating the claim that Australia won when they really just handed over the golden goose on a silver platter!

Australian regulator finds Google dominates adtech, seeks powerup to fight back

Re: Break Google up.

I've tried alternatives to Google but the tight integration between services is what makes Google's so awesome (like Apple if they're your thing). If Google were split up others would rush in and we would be back in the same place again!

Google opens Workspace to anyone with a Google account, but you'll need to cough up for the good stuff

Re: paid GSuite accounts as second class

I had the same issue, went back to a consumer account.

My understanding is consumer accounts now have access to business features so I doubt they'll doing much work to provide business accounts with consumer features.

Resistance is futile!

Report commissioned by Google says Google isn't to blame for the death of print news

FAIL - News Media Bargaining Code

FB got exactly what they wanted.

G for exactly what they wanted.

And for both it was legitimised and enshrined in law.

Re: News Media Bargaining Code

Ha!

FB got exactly what they wanted and made a token contribution to their hand picked winners.

G didn't send a penny down under, it all went to the shareholders in NYC. In exchange G is hosting the content so yet another way for them to slurp your data - without you even visiting a G domain!

Proposed collective action aims to take Apple to task over its 30% App Store cut on behalf of 20 million Brits

Re: Competition is the answer.

Only if you're a first time buyer. Once you're in an ecosystem it's prohibitively expensive to get out. It would be impossible for me to switch now and repurchase all the apps and media on my current phone, and my family member's devices, and the ancillary devices we have in the house.

WhatsApp: Share your data with Facebook, or we'll make our own app useless to you

I blame Google for this mess!

If they had just stuck with GTalk and kept it on jabber/XMPP and the servers open we could be living a messaging nirvana! They could have added SMS/MMS, GPhotos chat, GDocs comments, and what not to the steam. Third parties could have built their own clients and Google would have been shielded for monopoly accusations.

But instead here we are bickering over which messenger to use if we want to stay friends!

Irish privacy watchdog sticks GDPR probe into Facebook after that online giveaway of 533 million profiles

Re: Googlified

It's more convoluted than that. They need to maintain parental consent and can't advertise to kids under the age of 13. So kids are expensive and un-profitable! Something similar exists in most countries so they leave it as an exercise to the reader to infer how & why the question is being asked that way they avoid stating it explicitly and constraining themselves to it.

End-to-end encryption? In Android's default messaging app? Don't worry, nobody else noticed either

Re: Hey remember Hangouts?

Ahhhhh, Hangouts!

Remember Google Talk?

If Google had kept using an open protocol and rolled in SMS, Photos, and Docs messages they could have had the killer messenger that actually purple wanted to use for real reasons!

No desktop SMS

I've tried Signal a few times but it always comes up short. There's no Chromebook client (even though it's just an Electron app) and SMS from the desktop isn't supported. Ultimately my contacts are using SMS or Messenger (which I can do from Insta now and soon WhatsApp) so the argument for Signal is limited.

Apple-Google COVID-19 virus contact-tracing API to bar location-tracking access

Re: I hoped for a second

Yes, they can separate their app stores by country, or at least what you see available to you according to your region and the region(s) specified in the app. There are a number of factors they take into account when automagically filtering apps.