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From: David Stone on 9 Jun 2010 10:24
Apparently, Google Earth 5 gets automatically updated without
notification, and without even running at the time! The only
reason I found out about this is because I have NAV running,
and it scanned the disk image for the update when it mounted.
My copy of GE is now version 5.1, updated today, without even
so much as an alert or installer dialog (other than NAV kicking
in).

This seems to be an undescribed 'feature' of Google Earth,
which I find rather disturbing. Anyone else experience this,
or know how to prevent it happening in the future? As I said,
I did NOT have GE running at the time of the update, which
means there must be something else installed on my computer
doing that. I do not, however, remember seeing that described
anywhere during installation or in the user manual for GE.
From: Wes Groleau on 9 Jun 2010 11:33
On 06-09-2010 10:24, David Stone wrote:
> I did NOT have GE running at the time of the update, which
> means there must be something else installed on my computer

I recall when I installed the Chrome browser for my son
on WinXP, ZoneAlarm began asking permission (every thirty
seconds!) to contact update.google.com (or something similar)
on ports 21, 80, and 443.

A brief search and I found and removed an updater program.
Chrome continued to work.

--
Wes Groleau

Linguaphone and the place of grammar 1954
http://Ideas.Lang-Learn.us/barrett?itemid=1586
From: Calum on 9 Jun 2010 12:17
On 09/06/10 15:24, David Stone wrote:

> This seems to be an undescribed 'feature' of Google Earth,
> which I find rather disturbing. Anyone else experience this,
> or know how to prevent it happening in the future?

http://www.google.com/support/installer/bin/answer.py?answer=100386

--- news://freenews.netfront.net/ - complaints: news(a)netfront.net ---
From: David Stone on 9 Jun 2010 13:48
In article <huoeqp$122d$1(a)adenine.netfront.net>,
Calum <com.gmail(a)nospam.scottishwildcat> wrote:

> On 09/06/10 15:24, David Stone wrote:
>
> > This seems to be an undescribed 'feature' of Google Earth,
> > which I find rather disturbing. Anyone else experience this,
> > or know how to prevent it happening in the future?
>
> http://www.google.com/support/installer/bin/answer.py?answer=100386

That's priceless (in the negative sense)!

[quote]
If you'd prefer not to have Google Software Update on your system,
please follow the steps below to uninstall it:

1. Uninstall any Google programs you currently have installed on your
computer.

Failing to uninstall your Google applications may cause these
applications to work improperly and, in many cases, Google Software
Update will be reinstalled after a few hours.
[/quote]

In other words, if you don't want Google Updater on your system,
don't use Google software. Given that:

(a) there was NO mention of this updater when installing other software
(b) there is NO option to turn automatic updates on or off
(c) the updater does NOT notify you when it runs, and does NOT require
an admin password

it becomes rather hard to take Google's company motto seriously.
I am not impressed with their behaviour on this - even Adobe managed
to "get" this one!
From: Davoud on 9 Jun 2010 15:02
David Stone:
> In other words, if you don't want Google Updater on your system,
> don't use Google software.

That makes sense to me. I have an Apple OS and I have Apple's Software
Update. I run MS Office and I have a Microsoft Updater. Ditto Adobe,
and other software that I permit to check for updates upon startup.
It's not a huge leap from these to Google's system, IMO.

I still live by what Scott McNealy said in 1999: "You have zero privacy
anyway. Get over it."

I guess that, with my name and address available at WhitePages.com, and
in the Baltimore phone book, my several e-mail addresses all over the
Internet (including on this reply), my address and the amount I paid
for my house in an official Maryland state government on-line database
(by law, this cannot be kept secret), the Huffington Post reporting my
political contributions on-line (also not permitted to be kept secret),
I just don't worry much about Google knowing that I use a Mac and
knowing how often I launch Google Earth--and knowing when I don't have
the latest version. Oh, and I hand my credit card to merchants all the
time, and I have done so countless times outside the U.S. from
1970-1994, including in some hostile countries. What's left? SSN? No,
because I was in the military when they switched from traditional
serial numbers and began using the SSN as a serial number, and there
were no restrictions on distribution at that time.

Davoud

--
I agree with almost everything that you have said and almost everything that
you will say in your entire life.

usenet *at* davidillig dawt cawm
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