Google Voice

So, Google's services are completely boss and I cannot understand how they can afford to do all these things for free, even with adsense revenue.

So, I punch in a few things on my phone, they do some things. BAM! Now I have a new number to call for voicemail, but I don't need it. I can check my voicemail online. I can get a text of the transcript.

The transcripts are pretty funny sometimes. Online, you can listen to the message alongside the transcript, and they have the words they aren't too sure about in lighter grey text. Some of it's spot on, some of it is hilariously wrong. At least they know how sure they are.

This totally solves the problem of that little voicemail icon on my phone. It's like inbox numbers, or facebook status counts. Little icons and numbers that denote things not done bug the hell out of me. I always have to mark everything read. It's a sad compulsion, but back to google.

So yea. I really like Google Chrome now. Voice is ballin'. Talk is still nice. Blogspot rocks. Google Docs is so useful; Google Calendar is turning into my main calendar now.

Maybe Google Chrome OS wouldn't be such a bad thing to use on a netbook after all.

Google

So, everyone knows me as the technology guy:


My techie friend's know me as the Linux guy. My Linux-y friends know me as the KDE-head and all around software genious.


So A lot of people have asked what I think of Google's big announcement. Google Chrome OS.


Well, I think it's horrible. I honestly think it's awful and google needs to review their motto ("don't be evil").


"Well that's a bit extreme!" You may say. Let me tell you why I think this.

• It's a shitty web browser they're using to make a shitty Operating System.
• They've been deciding to go against products it was a huge advocate of: Firefox, Ubuntu, OpenID, Open HTML5 video , etc
• They're reinventing the wheel: They start with the linux core, but the rest of Chrome OS is going to be written from scratch. Why? They're not using the X.org graphical system. Google is wasting everyone's time, especially it's own.
• It steals thunder away from wonderful products: Ubuntu Netbook Remix has finally become stable and is a million times better than any dumbed down version of Linux or Windows that has ever been shipped with a netbook before. Google is going to kill desktop linux if it succeeds.
• Technical: This is another thing they should have used Qt for, but didn't
• Total loss of privacy: They want to move everything to the Cloud. For those less technical, that means they want to keep all your files and information on their computers where you use the internet to access it. They want total control over your computer life so they can better serve advertisements to you.
• Google is an advertisement company: I just remembered this. Notice how everything they do is free, yet they're still filthy rich? That's because they make revenue via advertisement services. You want to advertise? You want your website to make money? You sign up for Google's adsense as either a host of ads or customer of advertisement delivery. Advertisements are evil by nature, which goes against their motto.
• Have you realized how dependant we are on Google already? I try, but find it hard to use anything but Google for search, every web browser has it as default. Youtube is where you get your 15 seconds of fame. Adsense is how you make money on the internet. Blogger (for those of you on facebook... my notes are automatic copies of my blogger entries.), shit I'm using google right now! (Looks around to see if men in black are here to take me away)

This general move to the Cloud is frightening. Richard Stallman may be a sexist, psychotic freak, but he made a good point to warn against the universal move to putting applications and personal info on the internet. All of these services require you to agree to an End User License Agreement (EULA) of some sort. Have any of you bothered to read them?