pikemurdy

I have always treated the internet as essentially public. Despite the privacy policies of websites I use, I make assumptions that any tweet, any Facebook post or comment, any entry on my blog or the like is completely public. This is a policy based upon equal parts common sense, paranoia and seeing friends find out the hard way that their tweets were not as private as they’d thought.

Google recently announced the coming of an updated privacy policy. I was a bit upset, but I shrugged it off. A few days later the Wall Street Journal published a report that Google did a bit of technological trickery to track users even if the user had blocked such tracking. This seemed to be crossing an ethical line, and I couldn’t just shrug it off.

There is an old saying I heard somewhere: if you’re not paying for something, you’re being sold.

It should be made clear that Google’s search, Analytics software and email services are top-notch, and I believe they deserve to be compensated. I regret that no one at the company seems to have figured out how to make money, except through advertising. I currently pay cold, hard cash for my email service, hosting, even the content management system running this site. I (and probably many others like me) would certainly pay a yearly fee to Google to take ads and tracking off my search results, however that’s not an option. Or at least allow me to not tie what I see on YouTube to messages I’ve sent to my wife through Gmail.

Advertising companies have long made a lot of money from knowing who people are and what they like. For example, CBS knows certain things about the audience of Late Night with David Letterman. They know that it’s primarily male, with a median age of 54. What CBS does not know, is about the individuals watching. CBS doesn’t know about me.

Principles being principles, I decided to stop using Google where there is a suitable alternative.

The nagging feeling that I use Google for everything is all that held me back (building loyalty instead dependency is a subject for another article).  But the thought of becoming even more dependent certainly encouraged my leaving.

The first thing I did was get my personal email off Google. A few years ago, I started routing my pikemurdy email through Google’s servers. I did this for reliability and spam filtering. This was my hardest decision. But I backed up my email, and changed my mx records and now host it elsewhere.

Next came Google Docs. I’ve never been a heavy user of Docs, because Google Docs offers very little, except that it can be accessed through a web browser. Numbers, Excel and Pages work much better. I converted the few spreadsheets I had to files and placed them in my Dropbox folder. Yes, I know about iCloud syncing of Pages and Excel, but with Dropbox what’s the point?

I then visited google.com/history and deleted my browsing history, and my Google+ account. To double check everything, I visited (and I highly recommend you do the same thing) the dashboard.

For RSS reading, I decided to return with my old favorite, NetNewsWire. Unfortunately, the only way to sync the feeds between devices is to use Google, so I would have to make do without synchronization. But I can probably live with this.

I switched my default search engine to DuckDuckGo.com, chosen because of their honest privacy policy. At this point I realized that Google was, in fact, not as essential to my life as I had thought.  This was easy.

No Google at all?

All that I have left that I use is Google Analytics, this is tied to a secondary Gmail account. This is not my pikemurdy account which I use as my primary email. I have a secondary account which I believe still has a Google+ profile, but I’ve only logged in once. I’ll eventually zero out that account as much as possible as well.

I still intend to use Google every once in a while. Google needs to make money, and deserves to. I don’t mind seeing ads when I search, use maps, or even when I use the developer tools that Google provides.

What makes me feel queazy is Google using my search history in concert with my email to track my “interests” and advertise and feed content to me based upon the results. The easiest way to prevent this is to simply sign out of Google and never sign back in.

What do I expect to happen?

Nothing. I don’t expect Google to change its privacy policy or even attempt to “keep my business”. I simply expect to not have to sign into Google very much.

Sometime in 1997 or 98 I clicked an icon that looked like an eye. I was a still a student. It was the first time I opened Adobe Photoshop. The software was amazing to me. I don’t remember which version it was, either 3 or 4, but I remember being simply amazed by the fact that I could adjust the contrast of a photo without going to a darkroom.

A short time afterward, I changed my major from Mathematics to Art. After that, I concentrated on graphic design. Nearly instantly two companies dominated my computing world: Apple and Adobe. Apple made the hardware tools. Adobe made the software tools.

Apple produced crap. Adobe produced gold. I was not well versed in computer history. I knew who Bill Gates was at the time, but I don’t recall knowing who Steve Jobs was.

Since 1997 (or was it 98?) my attitude about the two companies has reversed. At the time, I didn’t give Apple too many more years to live. I knew that Adobe was a company with its sights firmly set on the future.

I recall being very, very excited about everything Adobe did.

Times change.

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Looking at blogs and technology sites, you wouldn’t guess this: but graphic designers rarely spring for the latest software. It’s expensive, and rarely does it make a significant impact on workflow and efficiency. Most of us are concerned more with what helps us create, not what is shiny and new.

In late 2003, I acquired Adobe CS (Creative Suite 1). This was a rare thing. Brand new software. State-of-the-art software.

I recall being very, very excited about it. New features. Faster. Shiny.

Not long after version CS2 was released. After that, Adobe bought a company called Macromedia (who made Flash). When CS3 was released, the company I worked for purchased it, but it was mostly out of compatibility issues (and Quark seemed less and less like the horse to ride).

I’ve not been excited about any version of any Adobe product since Creative Suite 1.

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One fellow from Knoxville, Tennessee being not “excited” about a product is hardly enough for a company such as Adobe to be worried about. But CS1 came out in 2003, and I’ve not been optimistic about anything Adobe has done for eight years.

I don’t get excited about new Adobe products, I get worried about new Adobe products. With each upgrade more features are added. Usually features that do not help me. With the passage of time alternative products start to replace the bloated, expensive software that Adobe produces.

Graphic Design is not there yet.

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Now I get excited about new Apple products. I worry about Adobe products and wonder how much longer they have left.

Adobe recently stopped production on its mobile version of Flash. To me, this seems like a step in the right direction. They also seem to be throwing their weight towards open standards, creating products like Edge.

Flash crashes constantly. Photoshop is a bloated mess. Dreamweaver is… Dreamweaver. But lets not give up on Adobe yet. This is the company that created Postscript. There may be some awesome to come. Hopefully, Adobe is just going through some growing pains, the same as Apple did in the nineties.

Lets hope.

A slew of tributes all over the internet. Most are very nicely done. A couple here are at the top domain level (so will be temporary).

Wired’s Tribute to Steve Jobs

Video Tribute from Wired

Panic

Iconic Photos

The White House

Tim Cook

Apple

John Gruber

Also of note: Commencement address delivered by Steve Jobs to Stanford

There are many more out there.

UPDATE: The Onion’s Take

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I’ve recently heard—and had—conversations on the subject of “P.C. versus Apple”. If you know me, you know I’m firmly in the Apple camp. This is mostly because I prefer the Mac OSX operating system. But also I do like the way Apple computers are built and designed. Sure, you can get a plastic laptop for $500, but it will not be nearly as tough as a machined aluminum MacBook Pro. On any $500 laptop the keys will undoubtedly be chintzy and the hinge will probably squeak and bow as you open it.

Perhaps more frivolously, Apple products are sleek and pretty. I like the way they look.

But there is one area that Apple is soundly defeated in the P.C. versus Apple argument: variety. If you are looking for a lot of choices, Apple is not your company. For example, there are currently two Apple laptop lines, the Air and the Pro. There are a couple of tiers within each of these lines, but that’s it. If you want an Apple laptop, those are your choices. You have two choices.

There are people (smart people) out there who seem to simply hate Apple and all of its products. Despite shouts about pricing or just being “too designy” I think many computer buyers get frustrated at how few options Apple offers. Add to that, with the exception of the Mac Pro, most of Apple’s computers are somewhat limited in their configurability (when you buy a MacBook Air, you don’t get to choose the WIFI card).

Of course, this lack of variety isn’t hurting Apple. They have clearly differentiated themselves, even on the product line strategy. And being different is helping them.

When shopping for a P.C., it becomes obvious is how confusing it is to buy a computer. Dell’s homepage asks if you will be using the computer at home, work, public sector or large enterprise.

Here is how Peter Bright, writing for Ars Technica, explains shopping at Dell.com:

It’s even worse if I just browse without searching. The options I get are just… meaningless. Yes, I want “Everyday Computing,” so I want an Inspiron. But hang on, I also want “Design & Performance,” so I want an XPS. Wait a second, I want “Thin & Powerful,” too. So maybe I want a Z Series? But the only line that apparently matches my broad search criteria — lightweight, 11-14” — I wouldn’t even consider because I don’t want a “gaming” laptop, and so I’m never going to click Alienware!

I used to use a Dell as my primary computer (back in the days of Windows 98 versus Mac System 8), and I enjoyed tinkering with it. Over the three years or so that I owned it, I upgraded the video card. I upgraded the hard drive twice. I eventually added a CD burner. And I really enjoyed tinkering with the computer guts. I learned quite a bit about computers in the process.

But over the years, I’ve let that go. Really, I had to let it go. I no longer really have time, nor the inclination, to be unendingly modifying my work station. On a typical day I may be color correcting photos, editing videos, writing HTML & CSS or doing layout in an InDesign file.

These days, tweaking or modifying my computer is downtime. It’s lost time. It’s lost money. And it’s frustrating. My computer strategy these days is simple: buy a top-of-the-line computer, max it out in terms of hard drive space and RAM, and use it as long as possible. Sure, I miss tinkering with computer guts, but I can get over it because tinkering with computer guts doesn’t help me get anything done.

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Ars Technica link via Daring Fireball.