Archive for the Technology Category

Google The Gatekeeper Wall (June 28, 2021)

Posted in First Amendment, Google, Monopoly, Technology on June 28, 2021 by e-commentary.org

. . .

K          “I was at Firefox to avoid the Google fist and simply sought to duck over and go to duckduckgo.  Das ist verboten.  Google monitors all requests and demands another step in its monitoring of Internet traffic.  When the desired website is one of the sites blocked by Google, the demand appears.  The Behemoth blocks.  But Google does not block a search of nyt.com or msm.com.  Google has offered absolutely no reason why it needs to determine whether the request is coming from a robot.  The one thing its AI knows is that the request is not coming from malicious software, a browser plug-in, or a script that sends automated requests but rather is coming from a very sentient and sapien human being.”

J          “Not only are they monitoring your searches, they want you to know that they are monitoring your searches.  They are brazen because they can be brazen.”

. . .

K          “I went to Firefox to search for ‘Mother Teresa’ and the request was sent over from Firefox to Google and then deemed suspicious.”

J          “Search for ways to promote world peace or cure cancer and your service may be terminated.”

. . .

K          “The CAPTCHA security measure is a clever acronym.  Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart.  Alan Turing’s legacy endures.”

. . .

J          “The Internet is evil.  There may be a dozen solid reasons why the Internet has improved our lives, but in the final analysis, it is evil.  Google’s hip motto was an ironic and prescient admission of just what Google and the Internet would do.”

. . .

[See the e-commentary at “Should You “Friend” The Tech Beasts And Behemoths? (October 23, 2017)”.]

Bumper sticker of the week:


About this page

Our systems have detected unusual traffic from your computer network. This page checks to see if it’s really you sending the requests, and not a robot. Why did this happen?

This page appears when Google automatically detects requests coming from your computer network which appear to be in violation of the Terms of Service. The block will expire shortly after those requests stop. In the meantime, solving the above CAPTCHA will let you continue to use our services.

This traffic may have been sent by malicious software, a browser plug-in, or a script that sends automated requests. If you share your network connection, ask your administrator for help — a different computer using the same IP address may be responsible. Learn more

Sometimes you may be asked to solve the CAPTCHA if you are using advanced terms that robots are known to use, or sending requests very quickly.

IP address: 97.73.244.131
Time: 2021-06-18T19:52:05Z
URL: https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-1-d&q=duckduckgo

Yes, indeed, it is really me trying to discern Truth.

Google: “Be Evil” (September 28, 2020)

Posted in Amazon, Elections, Facebook, Google, Magazine Reference, Monopoly, Privacy, Society, Technology on September 28, 2020 by e-commentary.org

. . .

K          “’Don’t Be Evil’.   An age of overwhelming edgy sarcastic anxiety and detached cynical irony really is not a healthy and productive age.”

J          “Our society has not aged well.  Bad wine.  White wine that has gone sour and not red wine that improved with age.  And Google and Facebook and Amazon provide the most perverse ironies of our age.”

. . .

[See “The Big Tech Extortion Racket” in “Harpers” dated September 2020 by Barry C. Lynn.

“In 2018, an Irish technologist named Dylan Curran downloaded the information Google had collected about him.  All in all, Curran found, the corporation had gathered 5.5 GB of data on his life, or the equivalent of more than three million Word documents.

In an article for article for “The Guardian”, Curran wrote that within this trove he found

“every Google Ad I’ve ever viewed or clicked on, every app I’ve ever launched or used and when I did it, every website I’ve ever visited and what time I did it.  They also have every image I’ve ever searched for and saved, every location I’ve ever searched for or clicked on, every news article I’ve ever searched for or read, and every single Google search I’ve made since 2009.  And . . . every YouTube video I’ve ever searched for or viewed, since 2008.”

In addition, Curran discovered that Google keeps a detailed record of what events he attends and when he arrives, what photos he takes and when he takes them, what exercises he does and when he does them.  And it has kept every email he has ever sent or received, including those he has deleted.”]

[See the e-commentary at “Goggle” and “Facebook” and “Amazon” and other topics such as “Privacy” and related issues.]

Bumper stickers of the week:

Bye Don 2020 (also sported on lawn signs)

Re-Elect The Mother Fracker (also sported on ball caps and t-shirts)

Google:  Evil Or Vile?  An Indictment? (June 24, 2019)

Posted in Google, Technology on June 24, 2019 by e-commentary.org

. . .

K          “Evil.”

J          “Vile.”

. . .

K          “Shuffle the letters.  I could live with vile.”

J          “I could live with evil.”

. . .

K          “Five years ago in response to a request to access ‘e-commentary’, Google provided ‘e-commentary’ on page five.  Three years ago in response to a request to access ‘e-commentary’, Google provided ‘e-commentary’ on page three.  One year ago, in response to a request to access ‘e-commentary’, Google provided ‘e-commentary’ on page one.  One week ago in response to a request to access ‘e-commentary’, Google did not provide ‘e-commentary’ even after scrolling through the first ten pages of responses.”

J          “Was that machinated by a machine or a man?”

. . .

K          “When you ask Google to deliver the specific and unique website https://e-commentary.org, Google should deliver the specific and unique website https://e-commentary.org without any analysis or delay.  However Google developed an algorithm that precludes the only possible response in our universe and instead provides links to Bible commentary and 30 raunchy photos of Melania that Trumpi does not want you to see.  Even going ten pages into the response, https://e-commentary.org is never even acknowledged.  Even after replicating the inquiry ten times during the day every day for the last ten days, Google does not redeem itself.”

J          “There is one and only one and no more than one response to an inquiry seeking the site https://e-commentary.org.  That response is https://e-commentary.org.  e-commentary is trademarked.  As an example of a search engine that works, merely type the trademarked ‘e-commentary’ in DuckDuckGo and https://e-commentary.org is the first response.  That is the only response.”

K          “That is ducky.  Merely type ‘e-commentary’ in Startpage and https://e-commentary.org is the fourth response.

J          “That is a good start.  Merely type ‘e-commentary’ in searX and https://e-commentary.org is the first response.”

K          “That is a searing indictment of Google.  Merely type ‘e-commentary’ in DISCONNECT Search and https://e-commentary.org is the first response.”

J          “There is no way to disconnect from the Google monster.  Merely type ‘e-commentary’ in MetaGer and https://e-commentary.org is the first response.”

K          “The Germans get it.  Merely type ‘e-commentary’ in Qwant and https://e-commentary.org is the second response.”

J          “That is quaint.”

. . .

K          “In a kleptocracy with many, many rules and many, many laws, but not the rule of law, one does not have any rights or recourse.”

J          “If you do not serve the Google interests, you do not exist.  But to its credit, ‘e-commentary’ quotes Captain Tony and Jerry Garcia among others.  Google should factor those facts into its factorials.”

. . .

[See the e-commentary three years ago at “The Great Google Wall (June 27, 2016)” and other e-commentary under the Categories “Google” and “Technology”.]

Bumper stickers of the week:

“If I’d written all the truth I knew for the past ten years, about 600 people – including me – would be rotting in prison cells from Rio to Seattle today.  Absolute truth is a very rare and dangerous commodity in the context of professional journalism.”  Hunter S. Thompson

“The more flak you get the closer you are to the target.”  World War Two bomber’s observation

“Monitoring The Masses:  The Card And The Chip (January 12, 2015)” Revisited:  The “Fondle Slab” Enslaves Us All (January 28, 2019)

Posted in Apple, Banks and Banking System, Cell Phones, Credit Unions, Privacy, Technology on January 28, 2019 by e-commentary.org

. . .

X          “We are doing it to ourselves.  The ‘Chip’ is not even implanted; the ‘Card’ is never discarded.  The ‘Chip’ and the ‘Card’ are consolidated into the ‘Fondle Slab’ we call our Cell Phone, our electronic love machine.”

Y          “The Cell Phone is a hard ‘Card’ embedded with the ‘Chip’ and cherished and adored as the most important possession and appendage of each and every subject.”

X          “The ‘Fondle Slab’ is the first thing we scramble for in the morning, the constant companion we clutch and caress throughout the day, and the last thing we embrace at night.”

Y          “They can access and assess the pictures we take and see who and what we saw and what we did and where we were when we took the pictures.  Who, what, when, where . . . and surely why.  And without asking us or paying us.”        

X          “We pass on buying infant formula to pay for the Slab.”

Y          “The enemy has been met.”

. . .

[See the article “Holding U.S. Treasurys?  Beware: Uncle Sam Can’t Account For $21 Trillion” in “Forbes” magazine by Professor Laurence Kotlikoff dated January 9, 2019 and an acknowledgement of his and Professor Mark Skidmore’s pioneering work looking behind the curtain at dodgy government accounting at “Third Annual Noble Prize In Eco-nomics (October 8, 2018)”.]

[See the article discussing excessive spending and trust betrayed by J. Mark Watters and Sarah Vega with the National Credit Union Administration (NCUA) titled “A $450 dinner, $45 whisky: Political appointee, aide ring up the expenses” in “The Washington Post” by Robert O’Harrow, Jr. dated January 19, 2019.]

[See the e-commentary at “Monitoring The Masses:  The Card And The Chip (January 12, 2015)” and “The Mandibles, FRNs, SDRs, IMF, G20, WTD! (September 5, 2016)”.]

Bumper stickers of the week:

Big Brother in a little box

We have met . . .

Everything Monopolized, Nothing Economized.  Completion Of “The General Theory Of Economics” Is In Remission . . .  Oh, And Happy Halloween! (October 29, 2018)

Posted in Economics, Economics Nobel, Market Solutions, Markets, Monopoly, Noble Prize in Eco-nomics, Price, Technology on October 29, 2018 by e-commentary.org

. . .

J          “Bummer.  After all that time and thought.”

K          “And all that fun.  I tell you I realized that if it was going to be done and if it was going to be done right, I would have to do it to get it done right.”

J          “Been there.  Done that.”

. . .

K          “A construct such as the IS-LM model is largely malarkey but is heuristically valuable.  Today, the fundamental problem trying to describe and direct the operation and function of the economy is that there really is not an operating and functioning economy.  With all of the distortion, intervention and manipulation, price is not tied to anything real.  Every business, every single business in every single industry, is a monopoly.  The business is the industry; the industry is the business.  From pork to politics.”

J          “Yet only a few folks have discovered and understand that we cannot discover price.  Price discovery now is so passé.  Without price, we cannot communicate in the economic marketplace.  And the central bankers working alone and together destroyed the language of the marketplace.”

. . .

K          “He left Iowa with his father marketing the hogs to five potential buyers and returned to find that one buyer sets the price.”

J          “And both Senators from Iowa are Republicans.  You don’t have to ‘go figure’ when ‘it figures’ so clearly.”

. . .

J          “And the Swedish central bankers reward those individuals who provide the economic cover for the crimes and misdemeanors of all the central bankers by giving their ignoble ‘Nobel’ Prize in E-con-omics to the most successful errand boy or girl.”

K          “The Noble Prize in Eco-nomics is the part of the answer.”

. . .

J          “The most vexing monopoly is the government/corporate syndicate that precludes any competing alternative entity.”

K          “The twisted irony is that most industries, and all the major tech industries without exception, are basically ‘natural monopolies’ and thus ‘utilities’ such as the water company.  A utility is a monopoly.  A monopoly must be regulated.  Yet the tech companies/tech utilities own the government and quash any regulation.”

. . .

J          “The Republican political monopoly firmly supports the current economic monopolies who in turn own the Republican political monopoly.  The Death Spiral is spiraling but not changing.”

K          “In a fortnight, the slow boiling coup d’état by the Republicans could be completed by the Republicans.  If the Democrats do not take the House, the control of government will be concentrated in one mega-corporation – the Republican Party, Inc. / the Corporation, Inc.  The political ‘campaign’ is aptly namely for battle because the Democrats are charging east up Jenkins Hill trying to retake the southern flank of the Capitol and the House of Commons under intense enemy fire.  We need to hire the friends and fire the enemy.”

J          “The Presidency is a lock, the Judiciary is the stock and the Congress is the barrel.  Lock, stock and barrel.” 

K          “For the next two years at least, the Presidency is indeed a lock for the Republicans.  For the rest of our time on this Planet, the judiciary is a laughing stock and a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Republican Party, Inc. / the Corporation, Inc. doing their bidding.  And the Republican Congress has the ordinary citizen over a barrel.”

J          “Hook, line and sinker.  We are hooked, they have us firmly on the line and all of us are sunk.”

. . . 

[See the discussion in “This is Not a Market” in “The Automatic Earth” by Raul Ilargi Meijer dated April 23, 2018.]

[See the scary e-commentary last Halloween at “Are ‘Prices’ Language?  Are Antitrust Laws Grounded In The First Amendment?  How Do We Forestall The ‘Frightful Five’ And Other Monopolies. Oh, And Happy Halloween! (October 30, 2017)”.]

Bumper sticker of the week:

Free markets now!

National People’s Radio?; National Public Radio?; National Petroleum Radio?; National Propaganda Radio? (June 11, 2018)

Posted in Boycott Series, Journalism, Neoconservatives, Newspapers, NPR, Press/Media, Radio, Technology, Television on June 11, 2018 by e-commentary.org

. . .

K          “As long as they broadcast Saint Terry Gross, I will support them.”

J          “Too often they are really just a house organ for the neo-liberals in domestic policy and the neo-conservatives in foreign policy.  National Propaganda Radio, I once broadcast.”

K          “Their message is fundamentally ‘analog journalism’ rather than ‘digital journalism’ even if the transmissions are in a digital format.”  

. . .

K          “They are caught in a sticky dilemma.  They cannot get too far ahead of the listeners or they could lose listeners.  But if they get too far behind the listeners, who will lead the listeners.”

J          “I asked an NPR fund raiser in a red state if they change their advertising strategy after they receive a donation from one listener in an effort to attract the other two listeners in the state.  Tough sell.”  

. . .

J          “Do they broadcast ‘Alternative Radio’ or ‘Counterspin’ or ‘Democracy Now’ or ‘51 percent’ on the play list?  That is the benchmark of commitment.”

K          “One option is to support programs not stations.  Contribute to stations in America that broadcast enlightened programs not necessarily to one’s local station.  And then listen to podcasts rather than the local station on your own time.”

. . .

[See the e-commentary at “The Medium Mandates The Message.  Analog v. Digital: Monopolization & Monetization. Oh, And Happy World Press Freedom Day! (May 7, 2018)”.)

Bumper stickers of the week:

The ‘narrative’ is the story

The medium mandates the message

The Medium Mandates The Message.  Analog v. Digital: Monopolization & Monetization. Oh, And Happy World Press Freedom Day! (May 7, 2018)

Posted in Antitrust, Awards / Incentives, Blog, Cyberactivities, Journalism, Monopoly, Newspapers, Press/Media, Pulitzer, Pushitzer, Technology, Truth on May 7, 2018 by e-commentary.org

. . .

K          “Analog affirms the status quo, digital negates it.  Challenges it, really, with a goodly number of exceptions.”

J          “Yet digital is moving toward and merging with the analog business model which is all about business.  Analog is already monopolized.  Digital is aggressively monetizing.”

K          “The medium mandates the message.”

. . .

K          “Some of the digital messengers are not as beholden to the powers that be as the analog members.  Digital messengers are more likely to connect two disparate and distant points, to realize that two plus zero is not three, and to accept that two or more persons can work together to reach an end, usually to the public’s detriment.”

J          “A few stray digital messengers are acting as the town criers.  The best that a commentator of conviction can hope for is to be a prophet with honor and not to be convicted for writing that challenges the established disorder.”

K          “But no one is listening.”

J          “Makes you want to cry for your town.”

. . .

K          “Six corporations monopolize the popular media.  Most of the digital sites are in the monetization phase and may be forced to modify or mute the original message to survive.”

J          “Yet you cannot thrive if you do not survive.  Decades ago, the editor noted to a friend on the first day of his summer newspaper internship that the most important mission of the newspaper is to make payroll.  No payroll, no paper.  He was not disappointed by the stark insight.”   

K          “Making payroll is painful.  One of the sites challenging inequality has something like seven levels of membership and another sells t-shirts and decoder rings.”

J          “No can thrive if no can survive.” 

. . .

K          “Digital is regressing to the mean, digital is regressing to analog.”

J          “No can thrive if no can survive.”

. . .

[With a nod to Marshall McLuhan.]

[See the e-commentary at “First Annual Pushitzer Prize In Commentary For 2016 (April 18, 2016)”, “Boycott (Advertisers On) AM (Anger Mongering) Radio (March 5, 2011)”, “World Trade Center Building 7 And The AIA (May 18, 2015)”, “A ‘Journalist’ Declares War On Journalists . . . And Journalism (November 28, 2016)”, “Dispatches From The War On Journalism: The New ‘Nixon’s Enemies List’ (December 5, 2016)”, “Blogging Bloggingly About Blogs:  A Thing In Search Of A Name (November 1, 2016)”, “Debasing The Dialogue (April 14, 2014)” and “On Courage and Truth (March 17, 2008)”.]

Bumper stickers of the week:

“Every great cause begins as a movement, becomes a business, and eventually degenerates into a racket.”  Eric Hoffer

“Only the small secrets need to be protected.  The big ones are kept secret by public incredulity.”  Marshall McLuhan

May 3 – World Press Freedom Day

Third Annual “Cameo In Courage” Award For 2018 (April 9, 2018)

Posted in Amazon, Awards / Incentives, Cameo In Courage Award, Courage, Facebook, Google, O'Bama, On [Traits/Characteristics], Privacy, Profile In Courage Award, Technology on April 9, 2018 by e-commentary.org

. . .

K          “The envelope please.  . . .  This year, the ‘Cameo In Courage’ Award is awarded to . . . Chelsea Elizabeth Manning and Julian Paul Assange.  Courage is rare.  It must be celebrated.  It is one of the “rare-earths” within the human heart and is very rare on this Earth.”

. . .

And a tip of the hat to the great nation and good people of Ecuador that provide a home and a haven for Mr. Assange.

And a partial tip of the lid to former President O’Bama for commuting all but four months of Ms. Manning’s sentence.  A presidential commutation reduces the sentence being served but does not change the fact of conviction.  A presidential pardon would have forgiven the criminal offenses.  But at core O’Bama lacked the fortitude and courage to pardon Ms. Manning and Mr. Snowden and Mr. Assange.  He could have just done it.  

[Please send nominations for the “Cameo In Courage” Award for 2019 and a supporting letter by January 25, 2019 to e-ssay@gci.net and send the entry fee to your favorite charity.]

[See the e-commentary at “Hero or Traitor? (June 10, 2013)”, “Second Annual ‘Cameo In Courage’ Award For 2017 (March 6, 2017)”, “First Annual ‘Cameo In Courage’ Award For 2016 (May 9, 2016)”, “Award Deadlines (Livelines?) (July 25, 2016)”, “Profile In Cowardice Award (May 12, 2014)”, “Profile In Courage Award, 2015 (May 11, 2015)”, “Chelsea And Ed:  Time For “Con” “dign” Treatment (November 30, 2015)” and “On Courage and Truth (March 17, 2008)”.]

Bumper stickers of the week:

“In a dozen plus years and without a debate or a vote, technology has deprived us of privacy.  With little debate and many hasty votes, Congress has deprived us of privacy at every opportunity.  We as a society should create a rebuttable presumption in favor of privacy even if it appears to sacrifice security.  Our personal insecurities are actually creating greater national insecurity.”  See “Hero or Traitor? (June 10, 2013)”.

Boycott Facebook.  See “Boycott Facebook (August 2, 2010)”.  And Google.  And Amazon.

Love is elusive and transitory; the Internet is forever.

The Internet never forgets.

What’s said on the Internet stays on the Internet.

“Net Neutrality” Now. Oh, And Happy Thanksgiving! (November 20, 2017)

Posted in Amazon, Apple, Facebook, Google, Microsoft, Net Neutrality, Technology on November 20, 2017 by e-commentary.org

. . .

K          “The proposed elimination of the regulations that provide some measure of protection for net neutrality was slated to be foisted on the folks just before Thanksgiving.”

J          “They are getting a jump on sneakiness this holiday season.  They usually sneak such things by the people just before Christmas.”

. . .

K          “Maintaining net neutrality is critical and pivotal.  Someone defined net neutrality as the principle that Internet service providers and governments regulating the Internet should treat all data on the Internet the same.  They should not discriminate or charge differentially by user, content, website, platform, application, type of attached equipment, or mode of communication.”

J          “Sounds like the Equal Protection Clause of the Internet.”

K          “Or the Due Process Clause of the Internet.”

. . .

K          “The folks at Battle For the Net and Fight For the Future are battling and fighting for us.”

J          “I dropped a dime on my Congresspeople and demanded that they protect true net neutrality.”

. . .

K          “Some stores are already foisting their Groundhog Day stuff on us.”

J          “I’ve seen that before.”

. . .

[See “The Upside of Being Ruled by the Five Tech Giants” in “The New York Times” by Farhad Manjoo dated November 1, 2017.]

[See the e-commentary under the Category “Technology”.]

Bumper sticker of the week:

Net Neutrality Now

Are “Prices” A Language? Are Antitrust Laws Grounded In The First Amendment? How Do We Forestall The “Frightful Five” And Other Monopolies? Oh, And Happy Halloween! (October 30, 2017)

Posted in Amazon, Apple, Constitution, Economics, Facebook, First Amendment, Google, Internet, Language, Microsoft, Monopoly, Price, Radio, Technology on October 30, 2017 by e-commentary.org

. . .

K          “Prices for goods and services are a language spoken with numbers (7) not letters (L).”

J          “I love language.  French is the language of love and the language of diplomacy.  Accounting is the language of business.  So Prices are the language of a free market economy?”

K          “Yes.  Russian is one of the languages of literature.”

J          “So is French.”

K          “And English.”

. . .

K          “Monopolies distort Prices which distorts speech.  By distorting Prices, the public is making inaccurate and incomplete decisions and paying more for goods and services while the corporations are not internalizing externalities.”

J          “Price may just be the real Esperanto.”

. . .   

J          “The current monopolies are in part the consequence of acts of commission and even more often acts of omission by the government.”

K          “The problem with my analysis is that the First Amendment is a restriction on government activity not a requirement for government action.”

J          “So the Constitution is unavailing.  We are stuck with Congress, the executive agencies and the courts to protect us.”

K          “They do not speak our language.”

. . .

[See the interview by Terry Gross with the tech columnist Farhad Manjoo with “The New York Times” who cautions that the “Frightful Five” (Amazon, Google/Alphabet, Apple, Microsoft and Facebook) are more powerful than the governments on the “Fresh Air” radio program titled “How 5 Tech Giants Have Become More Like Governments Than Companies” on October 26, 2017.]

Bumper stickers of the week:

Spanish is the language a man uses to talk to his God;

French is the language a man uses to talk to his wife;

Italian is the language a man uses to talk to his mistress;

German is the language a man uses to talk to his mule.

And English is the language a man uses to fly a plane or to surf the web or to engage in international discourse.  You create it, you talk it.

And Price is the language a man and a woman use to value and exchange resources.