Google Desktop revisited

I guess gushing over a Google product is nothing fashionable these days. Initial reports of Google Desktop's dangers in the wake of Gmail privacy concerns convinced me not to ever go anywhere near it. Besides, I didn't think I really wanted Google to help me search my computer, "I know what's on my computer, thank you very much" - *macho snicker*

Meeting some folks at Linux Bangalore convinced me otherwise, and I now have this amazing tool indexing away the contents of my hard drive. What I find amazing is that it pops up events from my past (email) that I have forgotten - I get way too much information by email anyway. The ability to do this unobtrusively while including it in my regular google searches is pretty cool. The executable is really small, and for all the work it does, it's not a CPU hog.

I had considered setting up this tool earlier for my father, but he only runs Windows 98 :-( (requires WinXP/2000). But now I am convinced this seriously rocks, and I need to find a way to have him run this.

My concerns on privacy have only been partially adressed. First off the Google cookie used for Gmail, Desktop search and Google is not the same (at least for now, and Google promises not to turn evil (??) ). Secondly, Google Desktop now has an exclusion rule where you can specify what not to index. I can also ask it to not index https web pages, but as Schneier points out Google desktop is only making an existing bug in the OS easier to exploit.

Hmm...perhaps being on Windows land isn't so bad after all!

P.S. If you've already read this rant of mine on our favorite list, let me know how I can warn you that I'm cross posting here as well.

Collective Affluenza

Af-flu-en-za n.

1. The bloated, sluggish and unfulfilled feeling that results from efforts to keep up with the Joneses.
2. An epidemic of stress, overwork, waste and indebtedness caused by dogged pursuit of the American Dream.
3. An unsustainable addiction to economic growth.

That should lend a little context to this curious addition to the parlance of our times.

I was reading a review of a book by the same name in Frontline - which IMO is about the best opinion magazine that India has come up with. Read it for the columnists, and the specials - any news reporting is pedestrian. Also, watch out, there seems to be very little editorial control, so you can get the most vacuous of stories slipping in.

Enough digressing, here's the FL book review:
http://flonnet.com/fl2125/stories/20041217000307300.htm

Here's the PBS show the book is based on:
http://www.pbs.org/kcts/affluenza/

If you've been through a case of Affluenza I'm sure you can relate to it. I'd recommend this story on Kuro5hin too if you want to think about this issue.

Affluenza: The All-Consuming Epidemic
By John De Graaf, David Wann, Thomas H. Naylor, David Horsey, Scott Simon
Amazon.com Price: $12.21
Average Amazon rating:
ISBN/ASIN: 1-57675-199-6