Why can’t I get a gmail account? 🙁 Of course, even if I could, the 6 character minimum means no zeno at gmail. Oh well.
Aside
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this is a land of mystery and wonder
Why can’t I get a gmail account? 🙁 Of course, even if I could, the 6 character minimum means no zeno at gmail. Oh well.
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but… but… they track the content of your emails! heresy!
*shudder*
Yeah, why the hell do you want one? You read BoingBoing.
zeenoe
Probably because they’re still in beta enough that they don’t want randoms like us signing up. Oh well.
Of course they track the contents of your e-mail. If they didn’t keep the entire contents of your e-mail on their server, it wouldn’t be too useful now, would it? Other than perhaps storing your e-mail for as long as they want (which they may not actually do, and most services do anyway for backup purposes), I can’t think of anything wrong with what they are doing! Brandeis certainly stores the complete cleartext contents of any mail on their servers. That’s how a mail server works.
I think what Jess was talking about, and what people are complaining about Gmail in general, is that it “reads” your e-mail to deliver targeted text ads. That said, I’m okay with that. Google’s text ads are generally much less obtrusive than Yahoo’s, or anyone else’s, and I’d rather have targeted plain-text ads than randomized graphical ads. Besides, as long as it’s an algorithm reading my mail, I’m okay with that. Would I be okay with a human being reading it? Not so much. But unless Google gets oppressive – at which point you can STOP USING THEIR FREE E-MAIL – there’s no problem with some targeted advertising being inserted so Google can, y’know, give away a free service.
How do I know the algorithm they have running that matches up relevant ads to email content doesn’t also match up email content to a certain list of dangerous beliefs and ideas which would then alert the government?
I’ll stick with Brandeis mail, thanks very much — even if Brandeis could do something like that, I doubt they would.
There’s also the strange thing that I read about wherein, rather than send replies individually, it apprently aggregates them, or something.
Screw ’em, I’ve got a real email. 😉
Real? Nah, I think Verizon is the figment of some monopolist’s imagination. And I wouldn’t trust them for email.
They’re working just fine for me. for both email and DSL.
Given that Carnivore is an acknowledged, deployed system, who gives a damn about Gmail? It’s like worrying about your hairdo when your clothes are on fire.