[conspire] Google Play store says "From now on, reviews you write will be posted publicly using your Google+ name and picture. ..."

[roger at rogerchrisman.com]

I enjoy Rick's perspective on where I and Tony with his monkey mask
that only other Google product can see (it is his, what can I call
this, avatar) sit on our Google shelves. Still, I feel that in the
long term my email is more efficiently and reliably maintained by
Google that it would be by me. I value this stability just like I
value the stability of having my money in a bank database instead of
in my own possession or god forbid in my own database.

I think Google's business model and services are sane and reasonable.
I am as comfortable having a Google account and using Google's
services as I am using a bank. It makes good sense to me. Although I
do enjoy knowing someone who stuffs his own email under his own
mattress.

Yes, my Conspire subscription predates my Google account and there
really is an email server on a shared webhost at rogerchrisman.com
that forwards all this list mail to and from my Gmail account. That
wastes electricity (probably not much) and is sloppy but hasn't broken
yet so I haven't fixed it yet. Maybe I'm still on the fence about how
to handle my email, at least enough to not fix this. I hope the UN
WCIT[1] does not try to fix it for me.

[1] http://www.mercurynews.com/mike-cassidy/ci_22100695/cassidy-dubai-internet-conference-threatens-our-wide-web

I bet it is not too hard to move one's lifetime of email from one
webhost to another if one studies it, although I bet it is easy to
screw it up, too, and I failed to understand and do it right in the
past. I am glad it is easy to move money from one bank to another.
Banking services is an older and more matured product than email
services. Still, banks have learned about selling stuff to people; my
bank is always trying harder than I would like to sell me more of
their services and I'm just a peasant. I like it less than I like
Google's ads but I think all the banks do it now and I don't want my
money under my mattress.

Is Rick the only one among us running his email on his own self hosted
email server? Come on now, someone speak up. Where do you stuff all
your important email?

Roger :-)

On Wed, Nov 28, 2012 at 12:52 PM, Rick Moen <rick at linuxmafia.com> wrote:
> Quoting Tony Godshall (togo at of.net):
>
>> Posted this to Google +.  Curious what people on this list have to say
>> as well...
>>
>> Nexus 10 just updated, and when I went to Google Play Store, it said
>> "From now on, reviews you write will be posted publicly using your
>> Google+ name and picture. ..."
>>
>> I dukgo'd for it and found coverage of this issue from Android Police
>> 9 days ago (attached).
>
> You seem to have omitted the attachment, but, being the curious fellow I
> am, I looked around and can provide the direct URL:
> http://www.androidpolice.com/2012/11/19/apk-teardown-coming-to-a-play-store-near-you-app-reviews-will-require-a-g-profile-pre-order-support-and-more/
>
> Not intending to advocate for a personal prejudice, just to explain:
> I've personally had no use whatsoever for online 'stores' for
> applications, etc.  Differs[tm].  I infer that 'Play Store' aka 'Google
> Play' aka 'Google Play Store' is a online Web-based store
> (https://play.google.com/) for purchasing music files, gift cards, and
> Android applications.
>
> Purchasing anything requires signing in using a Google account.
>
> According to
> https://support.google.com/googleplay/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=1141080
> , before you're permitted to purchase Android apps, you have to pair a
> 'supported' Android device that is registed to Google under the same
> login, and using a Google account that has been migrated to the new
> Google Apps infrastructure, _and_ you must have a propietary application
> called Google Pay Store preinstalled by your device's manufacturer onto
> your Android device (that application being available only under licence
> by Google, Inc. to Android-device OEMs).
>
> Oh, and nice!  Not just any Google account.  It has to be one that's
> tied to a GMail or Google-hosted e-mail account
> (https://support.google.com/googleplay/bin/answer.py?hl=en&topic=2450444&answer=2521798),
> or you're not OK.  And that account must be set up to work with Google
> Wallet.
>
> And your Android device requires direct Wifi or mobile-telephone packet
> Internet service with connectivity directly to Google Pay over TCP and
> UDP ports 5228.  Because God forbid that you were permitted to control
> the process yourself and determine what's permitted to occur between a
> grasping privacy-invading company and your personal computing device.
>
>
> So many derisive comments, so little time.  Do I really need to start
> listing the reasons why none of this is in any sane user's interest?
>
>
>
>> I think people will switch to reviewing only apps they like from now
>> on, and withdrawing reviews rather than changing them when they
>> encounter problems.  And I'll be able to trust the reviews a lot less,
>> since anyone saying anything has potential fear of retaliation.
>>
>> New thought (new to me): Is Google pushing a "war on negativity"?
>> There's a +1 and not a -1 in G+, after all.  Are we being not so
>> subtly brainwashed into thinking everything is rosy in the
>> googleverse?
>
> If you're willingly serving as a Google product being sold to its
> customers, complaining about the colour of the shelf you're displayed on
> is sort of missing the larger picture.
>
> My opinions, yours for a small fee and waiver of reverse-engineering
> rights.
>
>
>> Nexus 10 just updated
>
> Cool, is it fully supported by CyanogenMod, yet?  Oops, no.
> http://www.cyanogenmod.org/devices
>
> So, not yet usable with an acceptable operating system.
>
> I am not willing to be stocked as Google, Inc. product.
>
>
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