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Comment It's about Profiles, not +; and what a ban does (Score 5, Informative) 417

Statements from Google which are on record and verifiable, versus anecdotal evidence of what happened to some undefined person. I somehow think I'm going to choose to believe Google on this one.

The current side effects of a Google Profile suspension, with confirmations by Google staff in various G+ posts, are:

  • The Profile is removed from public view.
  • Existing Google+, Google Buzz, and Google Reader shared items/posts are removed from view (whether they were originally public or limited).
  • Access to Google+ is blocked (more correctly, limited to only viewing public posts).
  • Access to Google Buzz is blocked.
  • Access to Google Reader (not just its sharing features) is blocked.

...It's hard for me to find the confirmation right now, but there is _some_ effect against Picasa. I cannot remember the exact detail. I think (but cannot yet confirm) that it removes public albums from public view.

Any other side effects reported until now have been labeled bugs and were not experienced by everyone consistently. Of particular note, a Profile suspension currently does NOT (modulo reappearing bugs?):

  • block access to Gmail, Google Voice, or any other top-level service;
  • block or unsubscribe from Google Groups;
  • force the use of Google 2-factor authentication (which would entail providing an identifiable phone number);
  • prevent the use of Google Checkout (or by extension, prevent the purchase of Android apps);
  • prevent the use of Android features unrelated to the three major services mentioned (+, Buzz, Reader).

So that's the state of the world today. Whether it stays that way is up to debate, and I posited that question in my post that clarified the name policies as being an artifact of Profiles (including a reference proving that users can be banned without even having access to Google+ to begin with).

Privacy

ICANN Punts on WHOIS Privacy Proposal 90

An anonymous reader writes "The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) has essentially put off consideration of a proposal that would have dissolved a requirement that domain name registrars collect and display personal information about people who register Web site names. Privacy activists said the WHOIS database has become a data-mining dream for marketers and spammers, to say nothing of stalkers and harassers. Companies representing some of the world's biggest brand names appear to have prevailed, arguing that any change to the current system would interfere with law enforcement investigations and trademark disputes. In the end, ICANN voted 7-17 to table the issue in favor of further studies on the privacy impact of the WHOIS database."

Feed Engadget: MIT developing carbon-free, stackable rental cars (engadget.com)

Filed under: Transportation

Sure, we know you love actually owning a car, but let's be honest -- in large cities with condensed layouts, your H3 doesn't make a lot of sense. A group of researchers at MIT have been hard at work developing a solution that's kind on the planet and your scrawny legs. A team called Smart Cities have designed a small, two-seat, electric vehicle -- which they call the City Car -- that can be "stacked" in convenient locations (say, just outside a subway stop), and then taken on short trips around urban areas. The cars -- which are based around an omnidirectional "robot wheel" that encases an electric motor, suspension, and steering -- can be "folded" and attached to a group of other cars for charging. The lineups of rentable vehicles would be accessible from various points around a city, with six or eight cars occupying just a single "regular" car space. Of course, you'll have to forgo your 24-inch rims... but that's life.

[Via Technology Review]

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!


User Journal

Journal Journal: Mr. itojun died.

A regrettable message came unexpectedly.
It ..10/29.. died to Junichiro Hagino (37) itojun of doing of IPv6 and NetBSD a large
contribution.

IPv6 completed or lit up and lost top-class personnel ..being possible to say.. very and lost the world without him. Engineers in Japan have received a big impact by a sudden thing.

his page. http://www.itojun.org/itojun.html

Details have not been understood yet

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