May 14, 2011

"Google Introduces New Computer-Like Object, Where Everything Happens On the Web."

Oh? Great.
Benefit? It's a neat idea.

Drawback? Do you feel lucky?
Well, I'm not feeling lucky with Google this week. I'd like to like the cloud, though. You know, one reason that I've stayed on Blogger is that I want my archive to be around after I'm dead. I trust Google to continue on indefinitely, and because Blogger doesn't demand payments, I wasn't worried about my blog going away when I'm not here anymore to pay my bills.

So like, Google had become an idea of the afterlife. And now, they're all about the cloud. It's becoming so God-ish. Google as God. It's a mystical experience we are having here in the world, getting absorbed into The Whole.

The link goes to Ace of Spades, whose next post is "Google Pulls Althouse's Blog And Isn't Telling Her Why?" Why?! Well, clearly, I have sinned, and Google has said unto me — I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.

And I enjoyed the comments over there, even the ones that brought up the old show about "nutting." At some point, the commenters get into my political orientation:
I know that Althouse gets lots of link love from Instapundit, but I've never been all that impressed with her. She'll talk a good game about not being a liberal, but if you read her blog long enough you can tell that she's still emotionally wedded to the Democrats.

So no matter what complaints she has about the Democratic candidate, I doubt she'll ever be able to bring herself to vote for a <shudder> conservative. Plus she tends to be rather thin-skinned and quick to anger.

Meh.
Heh.

IN THE COMMENTS: Some advise me to switch to Catholicism and Don't Tread 2012 points to...

57 comments:

RuyDiaz said...

Ann Althouse: politically conservativ-ish, emotionally Democrat.

Sounds about right.

tom faranda said...

Eternal life is what you're after? Better go Catholic!

Shouting Thomas said...

Yes, I'd suggest Catholicism.

So, the question:

The desire for immortality, which is the basis of religion, seems to be deeply imprinted in the human psyche.

Doesn't this suggest that that desire, and the religion that this desire creates, serve very useful purposes?

Doesn't this suggest that God does, indeed, exist?

Toad Trend said...

The era of the cloud.

RuyDiaz said...

Doesn't this suggest that that desire, and the religion that this desire creates, serve very useful purposes?

Yes.

Doesn't this suggest that God does, indeed, exist?

RuyDiaz said...

In response to Shouting Thomas' second question:

No, the desire does not suggests the existence of God.

Synova said...

I'm reminded of a science fiction story where someone becomes telepathic and is able to hear all the real thoughts people have about her. She can't deal with knowing what people really think.

I didn't quite buy the premise of the story; that she would be driven mad.

I figured that only a little thought would mean an understanding that the weight of a critical thought was far less than the weight of a criticism that seemed necessary to express directly.

And all of a sudden I had this picture of the internet as a place where the line between what is important enough to be expressed to a person is mixed up with the milder sorts of thoughts that are observations of no particular weight. And it reminded me of that story about telepathy.

Rick67 said...

I'm torn between conspiracy theory and honest technical breakdown.

On the one hand am curious as to *which* blogs experienced the most trouble. Can one discern a pattern in terms of politics? Throw in the now infamous nitecruzr rudeness although it seems pretty clear he was being a royal jerk and not truly representing Google itself - despite Google's well known political leanings.

On the other hand am genuinely interested in the technical issues. I have a PT job taking care of computers and network. Get Linux Journal. Read - and don't entirely understand - articles about different kinds of databases. Have installed and run several database driven sites on my own web space.

Let's assume - in fact we don't have to this is pretty well known - that Althouse is one of the biggest Blogspot blogs in terms of *content* and *traffic*. Let's also assume that Blogspot/Google are using a database of some sort to hold all that content. Don't databases start getting a little shaky at certain sizes? Although surely Blogspot/Google use only the most robust/scalable db's and it seems unlikely that even the size/popularity of Althouse could have crashed the db.

Carol_Herman said...

"CASE STUDY" ... It's the way advanced college students learn to study businesses.

Besides listing the company's flaws, it tries to correct the problems.

Google? Oh, boy! They have an ad out today trying to get businesses to put all their services & accounting ON LINE! Then, you saw the blow up, here. Plus, Glenn Reynolds has added his links, today, too.

It may be a good time to sell the stock.

You know, there's a good chance "blogger" will eat this comment. And, it won't post. Just say'in. (While I still copy my copy before I hit the send button. A habit Blogger got me into months, and months, ago.

themightypuck said...

I used to run the DMCA operation at an ISP. If you want to fuck with someone's online presence, just complain to their ISP that they are violating IP.

themightypuck said...

Also, the cloud is better than not the cloud. Just compare buying content from Amazon and Apple. Amazon is far, far, superior.

Ann Althouse said...

" Don't databases start getting a little shaky at certain sizes? Although surely Blogspot/Google use only the most robust/scalable db's and it seems unlikely that even the size/popularity of Althouse could have crashed the db."

Yes, I assumed that the problems that others were experiencing could have manifested themselves differently on my blog because of its size. I have had other problems where things don't work because of the size. For example, in "manage posts" when I do a search, it only goes back about a year, instead of pulling up posts from all the years. That loss of functionality really affects things I want to be able to do. If I click on a tag, I don't get the stuff going all the way back.

And at one point, the blog just stopped displaying the whole month if you clicked on a month in the archive.

I think Google doesn't kick you out when you are too big, but they really aren't oriented to working right for you. You just get the idea you're better off leaving (or you don't). It's like some marriages. One person wants the breakup, but doesn't openly ask for it, and the other one eventually leaves.

David Smith said...

"Trust, but verify." Backup regularly, keep copies of your backups in multiple locations, and test the backups by periodically restoring. That's just old-time sysad wisdom. Suspenders AND belt.

My issue with "free" services is that they are only there while they make sense to the provider. A change in management philosophy or profitability and "poof" it's gone. No contractual responsibility, no recourse. Which is not to say "don't use them" but it is definitely to say "be prepared for them to disappear at any time."

Shouting Thomas said...

Immortality, Althouse, resides within your progeny.

I particularly enjoyed a recent Peggy Noonan piece about Pope John Paul II, when he celebrated mass in Poland during the Solidarity rallies. The crowds chanted:

"We want God! We want God!"

Ann Althouse said...

"Immortality, Althouse, resides within your progeny."

In the modern world, some people forget that human beings do not die in the order that they were born, so be careful who you say that to.

Troy said...

Oh no Ann.... this is song is more appropriate....

http://youtu.be/bcO2atop2vI

The Unclouded Day

Shouting Thomas said...

In the modern world, some people forget that human beings do not die in the order that they were born, so be careful who you say that to.

Yes, it's a crapshoot.

That's why, in my mind, one should have as many children as possible.

I failed to take my own advice, producing only two daughters. I should have kept going until I had six children. Because, now, I have a shortage of grandchildren. Only one, but perhaps some more on the way. One of my sisters already has five grandchildren!

Going to my younger daughter's engagement party today.

edutcher said...

Cloud computing is fairly young, so this sort of thing will happen until the wrinkles are worked out.

That said, I'd still want backups some place. When I was getting my CS degree, one of my instructors always told us, "Never lose control of your data".

Particularly since Google has that "ruling class" attitude about what's important.

Ann Althouse said...

"Immortality, Althouse, resides within your progeny."

In the modern world, some people forget that human beings do not die in the order that they were born, so be careful who you say that to.


Shout could get an earful from The Blonde on that score.

Troy said...

The Unclouded Day
rather.

Original Mike said...

Lack of control. Trust. Privacy.

This is why I have no interest in the cloud.

Troy said...

Exodus 19:9 "The LORD said to Moses, 'Behold, I will come to you in a thick cloud, so that the people may hear when I speak with you and may also believe in you forever.'" (NAS)

Come on Mike... the cloud takes you to the Promised Land. :-)

Anonymous said...

165 Hey it's all the witty comments that were lost that are the real problem. Don't you guys realize they are gonna come for you too.

Posted by: trooperyork at May 13, 2011 09:37 PM (6UPPZ)

_________________

Indeed.

Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Anonymous said...

You have sinned? Oh, come on. That's a little self-centered, don't you think?

It was likely a technical problem. Even if your blog was taken down due to a campaign by your enemies to report your blog as "abusive", that's still a technical problem. It's also unlikely, considering all the other problems that Blogger had yesterday.

You want a blog platform that will stand up to any sort of traffic and remain on the Internet in perpetuity? That's a big demand and you shouldn't be surprised that it isn't available for free. You get what you pay for.

Besides, do you really think that anyone is going to care all that much about your posts 10 years on? 20 years on? Blogging on the matters of the day is not a format that ages well.

You should live in the NOW, Althouse!

Fen said...

Google: "Nice blog ya got there. Shame if anything were to happen to it"

Anonymous said...

"I don't want to achieve immortality through my work. I want to achieve it through not dying." --Woody Allen

gerry said...

Immortality requires humility.

paul a'barge said...

OK, all ya'll listen to me closely now because I'm going to tell you something really, really important about the cloud:

You need 2 clouds.

What ever you do if you go cloud, make sure that you go with a redundant cloud as well.

Thinking about putting everything on Google Cloud? Fine. Just figure out how to have everything you put on Google Cloud replicated on (say) Amazon Cloud.

Here's the bottom line: only idiots trust Google.

Ann Althouse said...

"I failed to take my own advice, producing only two daughters. I should have kept going until I had six children. Because, now, I have a shortage of grandchildren. Only one, but perhaps some more on the way. One of my sisters already has five grandchildren!"

It's not enough to have children (and to keep them alive). You must also cause them to want to have children. We forget that! We teach them to love freedom and personal fulfillment.

BJM said...

Slightly OT, anyone notice photos of Woody Allen smooching on young babes at Cannes? He's jumped the May-September shark into the creepy pool.

Dody Jane said...

I adore Ace

edutcher said...

Ann Althouse said...

"I failed to take my own advice, producing only two daughters. I should have kept going until I had six children. Because, now, I have a shortage of grandchildren. Only one, but perhaps some more on the way. One of my sisters already has five grandchildren!"

It's not enough to have children (and to keep them alive). You must also cause them to want to have children. We forget that! We teach them to love freedom and personal fulfillment.


Why not do both? Freedom and personal fulfillment are good things, but, in the way this society has framed them, are sometimes imbued with an Obamanesque narcissism.

Perpetuating the race, as we are finding out, is still necessary and fulfillment can be had in raising a family as much as anything else.

The last few years have shown us counting on the government to protect us is a losing proposition.

Ann Althouse said...

"You get what you pay for."

So you just pay a lot for stuff and it's always great? I never noticed that. I'm getting plenty of email warning me away from this or that company. You can pay and it will still be bad. The very fact that people think "You get what you pay for" encourages companies to price high and take advantage of people. Google has an extremely valuable *reputation* to defend. That is a powerful motivator. Google has many billions of dollars at stake. It's motivated by *its money" and it is making much more money than these lesser companies.

So, economics matter, but stop thinking in silly, old-fashioned aphorisms. It doesn't add up.

Ann Althouse said...

"Why not do both? Freedom and personal fulfillment are good things, but, in the way this society has framed them, are sometimes imbued with an Obamanesque narcissism."

You should do both, but a lot of us boomers forgot to.

C R Krieger said...

Ah, The Cloud, better known as The Cloud of Unknowing.

In contrast to "the Cloud of Forgetfulness".  All very Catholic Medieval Mysticism.

And in the case of Google, maybe both clouds at the same time, Unknowing and Forgetfulness.

Regards  —  Cliff

Jose_K said...

I trust Google to continue on indefinitely like Panamerican,RCA of America, Zenith, Atari, Osborne, Commodore, Sinclair ,Compuserve,
archive.org has the same chance of being forever

James said...


So, economics matter, but stop thinking in silly, old-fashioned aphorisms. It doesn't add up.


So how is Google doing in restoring your almost 8 years of blog posts and comments?

You really do get what you pay for.

edutcher said...

Ann Althouse said...

"Why not do both? Freedom and personal fulfillment are good things, but, in the way this society has framed them, are sometimes imbued with an Obamanesque narcissism."

You should do both, but a lot of us boomers forgot to.


I hear ya, Sister.

Ann Althouse said...

"The Cloud of Unknowing" is one of the best books I've ever read.

Michael said...

Google does indeed have a "reputation" to uphold but in the startlingly large space of the cyber universe the contretemps surrounding a single blog, or indeed every blog, will have zero consequences. Thus do we fear the too large, the keepers of our secrets, our government, the ponderous but dangerous corporate world.

Anonymous said...

Althouse said...

Google has an extremely valuable *reputation* to defend. That is a powerful motivator. Google has many billions of dollars at stake. It's motivated by *its money" and it is making much more money than these lesser companies.

Well, look what happened when you turned to Google for help. The front-line Google Help person trashed you and didn't give a shit about Google's reputation or their billions of dollars at stake. Many of your posts and comments are still missing, right? And this isn't an isolated incident; Blogger has problems *all the time*.

How do the developers at Google justify this? They think in silly, old-fashioned aphorisms: You don't pay for it, so Google need not provide professional front-line support, nor phone help, nor need they be diligent in solving your problem. Your idea that they are concerned about their reputation and their money is only theoretical.

I am reminded of this TechCrunch post from April, imploring Google to offer a better-service, higher-cost version of GMail.

Perhaps Google would realize the benefit of offering a better class of service if more people with large audiences (like you, Althouse!) were to demand it and offer to pay for it.

J said...

Catholic tradition may in general be superior to that of the boneheaded WASP/mormonic/zionists but that's only an aggregated mean. Many individual catholics may be as irrational and tasteless as a baptick (ie, see shouting TomRom's obscene rants for example), and for that matter most don't know Aristotle from Apollo. But unlike the WASP-zombies they do have some great architecture and ahht.

edutcher said...

English translation:

I hate everybody who ain't me.

Does this surprise anyone?

Anonymous said...

Hey! You! Get off of my cloud!

rhhardin said...

Is there any communication from Google on whether or when the archives will come back?

Or did they just give you your dashboard back, in effect.

They have all the stuff somewhere.

rhhardin said...

The immortality of the soul is itself as old as the crust of the earth. What other belief will replace it, if it is to be replaced? It will not always be a negation.

Lautreamont

Michael said...

You know, I understand the "I'd like my archive to hang around" thing, but I have to think trusting to a big corporation to maintain a business strategy for more than about 15 minutes is the last way to do that.

Nothing is more typical in internetopia than for Conglomerate X to buy Service Y and then decide five minutes later that it no longer fits with its corporate strategy and and to kill it. (The one I fear is that Flickr, which under Yahoo keeps moving away from being user friendly and toward being Yahoo corporate synergy friendly, will get so screwed up that it won't do what I pay it to do, and I'll have to relink a few billion photos on my blog.)

I don't know the answer to this question, but trusting that Google will want to run Blogspot forever doesn't seem like it to me.

rhhardin said...

What will keep old stuff around is future potential interest in old stuff.

Once it's in bits already, it's cheap to save.

Instead of a few old photographs from 1900 done by a single corporation, you'd have visit-2005 spaces with as much material as you want.

Anonymous said...

I have 2 questions:

What is the benefit of the cloud? Why would I possibly want to use it? Anytime I leave my office I have my laptop with me. It will have been synchronized with my office computer in the past 24 hours so will have everything I have. That includes all e-mail going back to the mid 90s.

Why would putting it in the cloud be of any benefit?

The only possible benefit is offsite backup but I would never use Google for that.

I ask this knowing what the cloud is having heard and read many discussions of it. I wind up feeling that I am missing something. I just don't see any possible benefit to giving someone else any control over my stuff.

John Henry

Anonymous said...

Question 2:

(Blogger will not let me post both in the same post. Too long?)

The other thing I do not understand is the concept of a spam blog. I understand how a blog could have spam on it. I can understand how it might be dedicated to spam.

But so what? If it were spam, I would not go there. Unless I liked that particular kind of spam and no doubt there will always be someone who does.

Is it just a bandwidth issue or am I missing something?

John Henry

Freeman Hunt said...

You should do both, but a lot of us boomers forgot to.

A lot of children of boomers picked it up anyway by watching some boomers exclusively pursue freedom and self fulfillment to no good end.

Freeman Hunt said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Freeman Hunt said...

If you just want to cruise the web, the Google computer-like machine is excellent. I have one from the beta test, and it's the most used computer in the house. Boots and comes out of hibernation faster than you can probably imagine and has a real keyboard unlike the iPad. The battery seems to last forever.

No one in the house uses it to write or store media though.

James said...

Freeman has it pegged. This device is a toy and not a tool. It's good for cruising the web but not for actual computing. Don't expect to go anywhere you need a password or to write and store anything that is more meaningful than a simple happy birthday to a relative.

Freeman Hunt said...

I go lots of places where I need a password. It still has regular browser encryption.

Anonymous said...

I'm not thrilled that Google powers my phone. I don't trust them one iota. And, given their Democratic propensity, why don't Republicans hold massive hearings to make them explain their lack of support for privacy and the like?

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