1984 novel compared to our modern society: Part V

- Big Brother is Watching You
-- Google (search, Google earth, etc.)
-- Experian, Equifax, and TransUnion
-- Public Records Databases
-- Spyware, malware, and whatever thing they'll come up with next
-- ISPs
-- Cameras on street lights
-- Cellphone companies tracking your location

- Anti-Sex League
-- Strict rules on sexual behavior for students at religious schools, hoping to turn that energy into recruiting fervor
-- Gays and lesbians describing heterosexual married couples as "breeders"

- The first time Winston and Julia meet with O'Brien
-- University teacher influencing students to see the "Realities" of the world
-- Religious leader indoctrinating followers
-- Politician changing his message for a different audience
-- The gullible public believing what they are told without thinking
-- John Q. Citizen trusting the father-figure/person with power to take care of them.
-- Believing a single official can influence big government.
-- Sacrifice, death ... as a political movement. Reminiscent of suicide bombing.
-- Mr. Smith Goes to Washington

"Weighing in at 4.65 GB ... Google Desktop!"

The following is a narrative poem, like the classics epics of the past:

Are you kidding me?
I'm out of space
C drive filled
Can't upload photos for wife
Can't listen to MLB
Websites won't load
Microsoft error messages

Welcome to 21st century hell

Is it Silverlight?
Automatically blaming Gates
Read about a weakness
on MLB.com
Have I been sabatoged
by a nameless
faceless
hacker?

Is my computer infected?

I find some way
to free up 50 megs
to finish helping my wife
and moments later...
... it's gone!
Good-bye!
I watched 50 megs
DISappe....
As I hit F5 on Explorer

Damn

I must be infected.
I scan.
I AVG.
I Spybot.
I Ad-Aware.
Nothing.
I delete more crud
Space restored
to 60 megabytes, Captain

Running on Impulse power

I turn it off
Shut DOWN
After staying up
an hour more
than I planned

The next evening
after work
I reboot, hoping
praying
Nah. 60 megs still

I do a search
*.*
Date Modified?
The past week
I pull up the results
And what do I see?

4.65GB

Five files
like rpm.cb1
taking up a
total
of
4
.
6
5
G
B

Here, I've been
cursing Microsoft
Cursing Thorbjorn
for telling me
10GB would be
enough for my
partitioned
C drive

Cursing my Charlie Brown
Misfortune

And it was Google
E tu, Brute?

I LOVE Google
I love Google Desktop
It's made my life easier
but at what cost?

4.65 GB?

Too much
Too much
Es Mucho

I have to
uninstall
walk away
give it up

I had
just uninstalled
Photoshop
I've uninstalled
SO MANY THINGS
OVER THE PAST
TWO YEARS

E tu, Google.

Ceasar's hitting
the delete button
on that knife
to the back

He's going to
Control Panel
He's taking back
What's his

4.65

Uninstall
The prompt
DIRE WARNING
Am I sure?
Google won't be able
to protect me
from malware
from phishing
from evil

F*** YOU, BRUTE

GIVE ME BACK
MY 4.65 GB
YOU DAMN DIRTY DESKTOP!

4.65 GB
I am relieved

A triumph

I won't have to
buy a new computer
reinstall Windows
Install Linux
buy a new hard drive

A triumph

Now
Where's that Photoshop disk?

Suddenly
I feel like that guy
planting the flag
While Heston laughs

Thinking out loud: Yahoo taken over by MSN good news for PPP?

One has to wonder if MSN will look for other properties to take over, like PayPerPost, to increase their advertising revenue. With the combined market share of MSN and Yahoo, they could clearly give blog advertisers a shot in the arm, and reduce their dependency on Google Page Rank.

***

If I were MSN, I would consider using a side-bar format for PPP blog ads -- where PPP ads would not appear in the main search results, but would appear in a sidebar titled "Reviews," or something like that. A web surfer, in my opinion, is more likely to click on a paid review than a paid ad box on Google's search engine.

Just a thought -- free of charge. I'm sure they've considered it. I hope they consider it further.

In such a format, MSN could charge a fee to companies like PPP to appear in the Reviews section; so they wouldn't have to acquire them, per se.

Of course, the folks at Google could pursue a similar strategy, if they were so inclined....