Setting aside all of the other absurdities that Google has been throwing out here, the one thing that really gets to me is the concept that "ad fraud" is even a type of punishment for Google. I run an site with Google Ads, and users of my site have, in the past, realized this and purposefully ran autoclickers on my ads in order to get me banned from AdSense.
I don't understand how they can blame the publisher for this type of action. I understand they obviously can't pay out for the fraudulent clicks, but instead of banning the account, simply don't count the fraudulent clicks! What's so difficult about that?
We have a project at UC Berkeley for CS 61B (undergrad data structures) called "Gitlet", where we need to make a git implementation in Java. Was super fun!
I noticed this before but didn't really give it much thought like "worst comes to worst they delete all my repos, so what?" but I realize now that someone could literally rewrite the commit history and inject a virus into a popular repo without anyone noticing. This is terrifying and definitely needs to be addressed.
I bought my first DigitalOcean VPS for $5/month in high school. The same one is still running today, around 4 years later. One of the best investments I've ever made, allowing me to self-host a ton of my side projects, Discord bots, and anything else I might want.
I've barely used half of my storage and my CPU/RAM is consistently sitting at 30-40% usage. Incredibly affordable for students like me. Plus, their interaction with students is fantastic (they throw free credits at us all the time).
I do the same thing as OP - I have multiple separate containers, each has its own set of cookies, and its own Google account that it is logged into. I just change my window when I want to use a different account.
From what I understand, you're asking how you can just "temporarily" log into an account — can't you just add that account as a new user on Chrome?
If not, you can always open an incognito window or a guest window, do your business, and close it. I do that often when I'm logging into an account that I don't want to persist.
High school ruined this book for me. It would've been easier to read if I hadn't been forced to tear apart every single sentence for analysis. Hearing "Great Gatsby" triggers my gag reflex now, along with most other books I analyzed in high school.
If this is truly a shift in ideology at the leadership level, it's long overdue, but a welcome change; Facebook has depended on privacy-breaching practices for far too long. There will have to be some serious innovation and effort from their end in order to come up with a different business model and undo the damage that they've done thus far.
This could just be a big sham that the leadership is trying to make a big deal about, but I'm hopeful that they've finally realized that the path they're going down isn't sustainable.
People often make fun of Google/Alphabet for their graveyard of failed initiatives/products. While some of it might be warranted, projects like this—that strive to solve a large, global issue through somewhat charitable actions—are generous and have only increased my respect for the Google/Alphabet/X team. I hope they don't get flamed for this, and hopefully some of their research and donation funds can live on and solve the issue that Loon originally intended to one day.
I'm excited about everything mentioned in the rumors, except for the "flat edge design similar to the iPhone 12". One of my favorite parts of the MacBook design is how easy it is to pick up off of a flat surface with one hand. The tapers help me slide my fingers underneath the computer to hold on. I feel like if there is a flat edge, it'll be hard to grip on the side unless you're using 2 hands.
I would've thought Google remembers what you search while logged in and sells it off. Maybe they do it in a different way - never really thought about that. I'm logged into Google when I search but my profile fails to load at the top right.
It's super interesting that all Google services that I've tried are down _except_ for Google Search. What would isolate Search from the rest of Google's products such that it wouldn't be affected by a mass outage like this?
Perhaps part of the reason was the ease of access for minors. I'm now over 18, but when PayPal got popular, my friends and I were under 18 so we weren't allowed to purchase stuff (like video games) online since we didn't have our own credit/debit cards. PayPal used to not verify your age so it was perfect for this type of stuff.
If you find yourself playing it daily, please share with your friends! :)