Except that I'd add that Google+ pushes "Hey, why not make this public?" while still defaulting to private, for instant uploads for instance.

I'll be honest, this discussion is far better than listening people bitch about the privacy implications of instant upload, which is private and will always be private, unless you specifically set an upload to public.

Why do they bitch? ZOMG, It "Asked permission to upload!" FREAK OUT, RUN AWAY! HOW DARE THEY ASK! UNINSTALL!

Yeah. I can only take so much stupid before I bail out of such conversations.

And when it doesn't change? You'll... use Bing? Use Facebook? Use Facebook enabled Bing? Use Siri?

Google really isn't in a position of worrying about "Are they now evil?" pundits. Because, quite bluntly, they're still least evil. And so long as that is true, there is no re-evaluation necessary.

Yes. And I got far more excited than I should admit without ticking "Post Anonymously".

And Dropbox allows public file sharing and backup... so... is anything with any public facing share folder now file sharing, not backup?

It's easy to talk about MegaUpload, but it was by far not unique and its offerings also come from legitimate services.

Except that we wouldn't be offended by that... we purposefully created all of those stereotypes ourselves. We are PR masters.

The most major media to distribute out of Australia remains to be Crocodile this and Crocodile that, whether it's a movie or an Australian guy dangling his kid over a croc's mouth.

Sounds like AU needs a better PR rep. Want to hire one of ours from Hollywood?

I dunno, maybe the fact that the last time they got hacked and raked over the coals has something to do with it. Personally, if I was the CEO when the hack had occurred, I'd be a bit overzealous too. Refund some teenager money, and pull them on even a hint at a problem that results in breaking security.

Not really. Apple didn't have to deal with PowerPC applications. They told the market to deal with it. Could Microsoft do this? Yes. Should they? Yes. Not saying I like Metro, I don't. But at some point, the get-off-my-lawn folks need to get over themselves, it's not 1995 anymore and a weak Microsoft stuck supporting multiple UIs isn't good for business.

I find Google search worth a much larger subscription fee, but I'd still think of them as complete idiots if they erected a pay wall.

You know, Foxconn does some shitty things with their employees. But it's stuff like this that takes all the legitimate complaints and paints it over with, "See, it's all a lie." I hope Mike Daisey gets a horrible rash on his balls for this snow job.

There's only one downside: It uses PayPal.

Yes, wanting to go to Google I/O but don't want to participate in Google's main ID hub... Isn't that a bit like wanting to drive without a license?

Not sure why parent was modded down... that's straight from a MS EULA.

Anything that removes PayPal can be considered "Do No Evil".

Also, I'll summarize all dissenting posts that are about to follow: "OMG, Google is out to make money? Shock! Awe! Bewilderment!"

Well, nice guys that retaliate, if you're going by the Dawkins example, hehe. I.E - I'll play nice, and I'll even forgive the first slight, but if you keep screwing me over, you're getting screwed right back. Technically, it's not "better", but leads to evolutionary equilibrium. Unfortunately, total evil also leads to evolutionary equilibrium as he pointed out.

It's not good versus evil... but "mostly good" versus evil.

So we're more like pot heads than we realize, basically. Looks like a great legalization campaign in here somewhere.