We all know what is meant by agreeing to use so called free software or take advantage of free services on the Internet. The promoters of the "free" goods are not doing it out of the goodness of their hearts. It costs them money to develop and host the free goodies. Yet, you say, places like Facebook are performing a great humanitarian service without cost to it's members. Well, it's may not be a paid subscription, but you are giving them the right to record, store, and distribute the information they have about your activities on their web site. Same goes for the free search engine offered by Google. Yes, they know everything you do and keep track of it. The stories about Microsoft's telemetry built into their Windows 10 (and others) operating system is legendary. All of these people are selling what they know about you. Micorsoft's switch to "free" upgrades is just the latest giant corporation to do it.
All these titans of the industry have more or less been battling it out among themselves with lawsuits, lobbying, and funding of pro-privacy advocate groups. The targets of such assaults has been the competition, of course. It now comes to light that Microsoft and Google have come to an agreement to drop a bunch of the suits they have been carrying for the last five years. That means a truce has been declared between the two largest legal phishing organizations in existence. I shudder to think what that means in reality, but I agree in full with the conclusions drawn in the linked article. Say good-bye to the concept of personal privacy forever.
http://qz.com/676184/microsoft-and-goog ... l-privacy/
Nothing Is Free
Re: Nothing Is Free
I thought everyone knew, especially on Farcebook, We are NOT the customer, we ARE the product!
I've always been under the assumption, that if you place something on the public airwaves aka ham radio, or if you post something on a social media site aka Farcebook, it was available to the public anyhow.
As more and more wireless devices began being used by unlicensed individuals unaware they were broadcasting over the public airwaves, some got their underwear in a tightwad over eavesdroppers.
I find enacting laws to stop eavesdroppers about as ridiculous as saying to not listen to thunder rolling across the sky.
If you don't want someone to hear what you are saying, don't BROADCAST IT over the Public Airwaves!
The same holds true for social media. If you want to keep it to yourself, don't POST IT on worldwide public forums.
If someone runs down the center of main street stark naked, it would be stupid to enact a law that says everyone must look the other way. Not only would it be impossible to enforce, it would defeat the purpose of the person running down main street. How would you know to turn your head until AFTER you saw the event?
They made the sale of devices which monitored certain frequencies not available to those not holding a license, but this did not make the call any more secure than it was before. It is still on the public airwaves, and anyone who knew how to unlock the consumer devices, or those licensed to use them, still heard the conversation.
As far as the Internet goes, there will ALWAYS BE HACKERS who find a back door and will have access to your stuff. No amount of encryption will prevent same. EVERY form of encryption ever developed has been broken. About the only thing they have done is make it a little harder to do each time. As computers get faster, the time it takes to do the impossible is getting shorter and shorter.
I've always been under the assumption, that if you place something on the public airwaves aka ham radio, or if you post something on a social media site aka Farcebook, it was available to the public anyhow.
As more and more wireless devices began being used by unlicensed individuals unaware they were broadcasting over the public airwaves, some got their underwear in a tightwad over eavesdroppers.
I find enacting laws to stop eavesdroppers about as ridiculous as saying to not listen to thunder rolling across the sky.
If you don't want someone to hear what you are saying, don't BROADCAST IT over the Public Airwaves!
The same holds true for social media. If you want to keep it to yourself, don't POST IT on worldwide public forums.
If someone runs down the center of main street stark naked, it would be stupid to enact a law that says everyone must look the other way. Not only would it be impossible to enforce, it would defeat the purpose of the person running down main street. How would you know to turn your head until AFTER you saw the event?
They made the sale of devices which monitored certain frequencies not available to those not holding a license, but this did not make the call any more secure than it was before. It is still on the public airwaves, and anyone who knew how to unlock the consumer devices, or those licensed to use them, still heard the conversation.
As far as the Internet goes, there will ALWAYS BE HACKERS who find a back door and will have access to your stuff. No amount of encryption will prevent same. EVERY form of encryption ever developed has been broken. About the only thing they have done is make it a little harder to do each time. As computers get faster, the time it takes to do the impossible is getting shorter and shorter.
Re: Nothing Is Free
I don't know Gary ... Google will be shutting off Flash ads altogether this year and Adobe is helping advertisers to migrate over to HTML5. Of course none of that has anything to do with games, yet. But, I think Flash's days are numbered now.For its part, Adobe acknowledges that the future of online advertising will be powered by HTML5 instead of Flash, although it says there’s still work to be done to help the industry transition.
http://blogs.wsj.com/cmo/2015/08/31/goo ... h-web-ads/
Re: Nothing Is Free
I stop in a game programmers website every once in a while to see what comments are being made.
It's hard to tell exactly what they are talking about since I don't know their jargon, but it sounds like there is no alternative to Flash.
Google relies heavily on the income from games, which is probably why they made PepperFlash.
Slashkey, one of the largest game providers on Farcebook, had some input to the more recent changes made by Google to PepperFlash.
Some are even talking about making a Flash Clone specific to their games, so they can protect their on-line interests.
One thing which always confused me for a long time was the different Flash versions out there.
I used to assume that Adobe Flash Player, and Shockwave Flash were exactly the same program, because I get the same system messages. On PepperFlash I get both Adobe and Shockwave messages, and they are worded differently.
Because of changes to PepperFlash, I use the March 12, 2015 version, which is the last known version with the features we use.
Google Chrome has changed also, removing many features in an attempt to make Chrome not use so much memory, so those with toy computers can still use Chrome, hi hi...
Trouble is, all these changes are making both Flash, and several web browsers close to useless now.
I've looked into several different web browsers, but the problem is, if they have the features I want in the browser itself, they only use Adobe Flash which we cannot run an outdated version, as we can by using PepperFlash on Chrome.
It's hard to tell exactly what they are talking about since I don't know their jargon, but it sounds like there is no alternative to Flash.
Google relies heavily on the income from games, which is probably why they made PepperFlash.
Slashkey, one of the largest game providers on Farcebook, had some input to the more recent changes made by Google to PepperFlash.
Some are even talking about making a Flash Clone specific to their games, so they can protect their on-line interests.
One thing which always confused me for a long time was the different Flash versions out there.
I used to assume that Adobe Flash Player, and Shockwave Flash were exactly the same program, because I get the same system messages. On PepperFlash I get both Adobe and Shockwave messages, and they are worded differently.
Because of changes to PepperFlash, I use the March 12, 2015 version, which is the last known version with the features we use.
Google Chrome has changed also, removing many features in an attempt to make Chrome not use so much memory, so those with toy computers can still use Chrome, hi hi...
Trouble is, all these changes are making both Flash, and several web browsers close to useless now.
I've looked into several different web browsers, but the problem is, if they have the features I want in the browser itself, they only use Adobe Flash which we cannot run an outdated version, as we can by using PepperFlash on Chrome.
Re: Nothing Is Free
Just from your comments alone I'd say the message for Flash's future is clear. Like yourself, I don't know the differences between the various clones, but I'm guessing it's only in profit centers and nothing technical. Google's income from games is insignificant when compared to it's income from advertising and selling big data to interested corporations - exactly what Facebook is doing.
The role of Flash in all this is not so much to provide for games as it is to make advertising cost effective. There are alternatives that can be used to accomplish what Flash does with games. Active-X is one, and it may in fact be better than Adobe's offering because it is fully integrated into all Windows environments. The price you pay for that smoothness, of course, is that Active-X is only available in Windows. My point is that nothing is impossible in terms of programming. It will take investing in the right tools in order to replace Flash, and that is what developers are complaining about. HTML5 isn't going to be the next generation gaming platform, but it will replace Flash in many areas it is used in today. If you have a vested interest in Flash, then be prepared to use obsolete systems to support it. If you are a developer, look for other ways to accomplish the same thing.
The role of Flash in all this is not so much to provide for games as it is to make advertising cost effective. There are alternatives that can be used to accomplish what Flash does with games. Active-X is one, and it may in fact be better than Adobe's offering because it is fully integrated into all Windows environments. The price you pay for that smoothness, of course, is that Active-X is only available in Windows. My point is that nothing is impossible in terms of programming. It will take investing in the right tools in order to replace Flash, and that is what developers are complaining about. HTML5 isn't going to be the next generation gaming platform, but it will replace Flash in many areas it is used in today. If you have a vested interest in Flash, then be prepared to use obsolete systems to support it. If you are a developer, look for other ways to accomplish the same thing.
Re: Nothing Is Free
Most advertising does not need the complexity and levels found in Flash, so they will run on HTML5 just fine.
In fact, advertisers will LOVE HTML5 because their embedded ads will not be able to be blocked by ad blocking programs.
All monies and advertising found on the games, including player activity is all channeled through Farcebook. They technically control what appears on the game screens too, often disrupting game play to get their pop-ops in your face.
I'm not a programmer by any stretch of the imagination so have no idea how Flash works under the hood, other than what I was told about it in comments made by those who write the programs which run on Flash.
Most Display Boxes are just that, a means to display what it is fed, like an image or video feed.
From what I understand, Flash is more like a graphics rendering program, with many layers, like drawing programs.
Since I have no idea how they do that, it's best I not try to outguess what is going on, other than to say, as far as I know, there is no other display program with the Features found in Flash, and which run on almost all browsers on most platforms.
All I can say for certain is Flash is much more than just a Display device.
In fact, advertisers will LOVE HTML5 because their embedded ads will not be able to be blocked by ad blocking programs.
All monies and advertising found on the games, including player activity is all channeled through Farcebook. They technically control what appears on the game screens too, often disrupting game play to get their pop-ops in your face.
I'm not a programmer by any stretch of the imagination so have no idea how Flash works under the hood, other than what I was told about it in comments made by those who write the programs which run on Flash.
Most Display Boxes are just that, a means to display what it is fed, like an image or video feed.
From what I understand, Flash is more like a graphics rendering program, with many layers, like drawing programs.
Since I have no idea how they do that, it's best I not try to outguess what is going on, other than to say, as far as I know, there is no other display program with the Features found in Flash, and which run on almost all browsers on most platforms.
All I can say for certain is Flash is much more than just a Display device.