I agree with everything you said. The whole point behind technology should be accessibility for everyone. Geeks (guilty myself) tend to get into a bubble where we forget about the rest of the world. And there's just something about the Hacker mindset (which most people on HN have) where there more complicated it is, the cooler it seems. Instead of having the mindset of "If it ain't broke, don't fix it.", Geeks/Hackers tend to think "If it ain't broke, lets break it!!!"
Linux Mint is based upon Ubuntu/Debian. Give it a try. If you're a Windows power user you'll probably really like it. And all the commands you learned in Boontoo will work in Mint.
I'm not sure how you expect anyone here to answer that question... We know nothing about you or your idea but you want us to tell you how likely it is you'll have the next big thing???
I will say that if you don't know anything about the technology behind your product (providing technology is your main product and not in a supporting role) you're at a HUGE disadvantage.
And? Why would that stop them from getting this information and matching it? Are you saying because this information isn't available all over the world they wouldn't collect it it in the U.S.? The U.S. is the biggest consumer market in the world.
What do you think they could achieve (monetarily) having a personal history attached to a social account? I can tell you the first thing I'd do is determine your influence. I could take your addresses/family addresses and reasonably determine what kind of spending power you have based upon cross referencing your address with tax information. On top of that I don't have to necessarily know about you in another country. I can simply define the influence of an individual here and you may end up in their circle of influence. Imagine a person that's been voted as highly influential in said system and they communicate with you on a regular basis. From that I could infer that you are also potentially influential.
Other countries have similar systems. The information may not be as freely available but it's there. It just needs to be harvested.
For example, one of the biggest sources of relative information is obituaries. Something that is freely printed all over the place.
I suspect the reason Google wants your real name is to match it with credit headers. And before anyone calls me a tin-foiler please read the following and understand that I work in the industry. I'm not making a judgment call one way or the other as to whether this is "right" or not.
For those that don't know a credit header is information in a credit report that gives identifying information about a person. Credit headers contain:
Name, AKA's, Maiden Name, Date of Birth, Social Security Number and Issuing State, Relatives, along with Current and Previous Addresses which can go back 25+ years.
Credit headers have been ruled as to NOT be part of a credit report:
<blockquote>A credit header is identifying information from a credit report. It includes name, mother's maiden name, date of birth, sex, address, prior addresses, telephone number, and the Social Security Number.
Credit headers came into use after the FTC changed its definition of a credit report in the course of settling a case against TRW (now Experian). The FTC allowed the CRAs to treat headers as "above the line" information and to sell it with no legal protections for the individual. The reasoning was that this information did not relate to credit, and thus should not be considered part of the credit report.
Credit headers are used for location of individuals and for target marketing. They are sold in bulk by the CRAs and can be purchased online.</blockquote>
Google can simply take your IP address, trace it back and then run your name against the header database to locate individuals in your area with that name. The more unique your name the easier you are to identify. If you have a common name it would be further cross-referenced with other information like relative names or maiden names. Once identified they have your complete life history.
Maybe I'm not understanding this completely (and that's entirely possible!) but why use 3rd party web servers? I like the idea but it just seems like it'd be easier as a browser addon. With the browser addon:
||Step 1 > Visit Url or open file
||Step 2 > Click the addon button
||Step 3 > Addon opens double pane and clears any current CSS
||Step 4 > Edit CSS and refresh
There's probably already an addon like this. Admittedly I've never looked past Firebug.
Huh? Just because they don't have said resources to kill everyone in the U.S. doesn't mean it's not their ultimate goal... No one can say whether or not they could eventually acquire those resources via rogue states.
UBL specifically stated that jihadist should NOT differentiate between Military/Government and civillians.
<quote> "The real targets of terrorism are the rest of us: the billions of us who are not killed but are terrorized because of the killing. The real point of terrorism is not the act itself, but our reaction to the act.</quote>
I know this is not going to be popular because Schneier is a crypto/security God and all but I call B.S. on the above quote.
If you would have given any of the 9/11 terrorists or UBL a button and told them they could wipe out the U.S. and everyone in it by just pressing the button how quickly do you think they would do it? Or do you think they'd say "Sorry, no-can-do. There won't be anyone left to terrorize."?
Their goal is not to terrorize/scare people. Their goal is the total destruction of anyone or anybody that stands in the way of their total domination.
Linux Mint is based upon Ubuntu/Debian. Give it a try. If you're a Windows power user you'll probably really like it. And all the commands you learned in Boontoo will work in Mint.