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Maxo
Your tax dollars at work.
Premium Member
join:2002-11-04
Tallahassee, FL

1 recommendation

Maxo

Premium Member

grep doesn't search amazon

said by »bugs.launchpad.net/ubunt ··· /1055766 :

Dear "root owning" overlords,

When using grep recursively I only get local results:

grep -R fish_t /home/noob/fish_game/*

/home/noob/fish_game/fish.h: struct fish_t {
/home/noob/fish_game/fish.c: struct fish_t eric_the_ fish;

or worse:

grep -R shark_t /home/noob/fish_game/*

/home/noob/fish_game/fish.h: struct shark_t {
/home/noob/fish_game/fish.c: struct shark_t_t mark_sw;

I declare this a bug for two reasons:

1. The output is boring.
2. The terminal has more than 2 lines!!! It's an unefficient use of my screenspace.

I believe the reason for this is that the grep command only searches locally for things I am actually looking for, I kind of expect the results I get from my codebase and as such it removes any sense of mystery or something new and exciting to spice up my dull geek existence. That's boring, grep -R should also search amazon, so I get more exciting results such as:

Shark Season 1 Starring Steven Eckholdt, Nora Dunn, Patrick Fabian, et al.
Amazon Instant Video
to buy episodes: $1.99
to buy season: $34.99 ($1.59 per episode)


BannerMeAds
@pnap.net

BannerMeAds

Anon

I don't like the idea of an ad-supported distribution but I don't think snarky bug reports like this really do much of anything other than create the illusion of effective protest.

That being said, of all the ad partners to go with, some of whom consistently malvertise, Amazon is one of the better ones. DSLR itself is laden with ads as well, it's just part of the ecosystem.

GILXA1226
MVM
join:2000-12-29
Dayton, OH

GILXA1226

MVM

said by BannerMeAds :

DSLR itself is laden with ads as well, it's just part of the ecosystem.

You expect that from a free website (if you become a premium member you don't get ads), you do not expect that from an OS.

AVD
Respice, Adspice, Prospice
Premium Member
join:2003-02-06
Onion, NJ

AVD

Premium Member

define "laden"

Maxo
Your tax dollars at work.
Premium Member
join:2002-11-04
Tallahassee, FL

Maxo to BannerMeAds

Premium Member

to BannerMeAds
said by BannerMeAds :

I don't think snarky bug reports like this really do much of anything other than create the illusion of effective protest.

said by akeane :

Why is my bug report a "snark", I have in good faith reported what I consider a bug with Ubuntu, namely the functionality that is being added to the GUI is not also being consistently added to the CLI tools that some many of us rely on.


rolfp
no-shill zone
Premium Member
join:2011-03-27
Oakland, CA

rolfp to Maxo

Premium Member

to Maxo
It's been a struggle to create a viable model for supporting the production and distribution of FOSS. I've always participated in the voluntary monetary contribution model but have yet to see any solution to this challenge that would make Linux a truly formidable competitor on the Desktop. As with websites whose content I consume and absent a better idea, I don't see much value in snarky re-packaging of the obvious, either.

Maxo
Your tax dollars at work.
Premium Member
join:2002-11-04
Tallahassee, FL

Maxo

Premium Member

The point is very clear. Canonical is adding advertising to Ubuntu via Dash search results. Canonical is conveniently redefining the word advertising and saying they are just providing relevant search results.
However, when some searches for 'shark' on the dash they should expect to get back files and programs with the word shark in them, or possibly even a post their friend made yesterday on Facebook about sharks, but a link to purchase Shark Tales from Amazon is not relevant search results, it is advertising.
But, if it is as they say, just relevant search results, then why not finding it while greping?

Pjr
Don't Panic
join:2005-12-11
UK

Pjr to BannerMeAds

Member

to BannerMeAds
said by BannerMeAds :

That being said, of all the ad partners to go with, some of whom consistently malvertise, Amazon is one of the better ones.

I don't expect Amazon to "malvertise*" but I do expect them to keep track of all Ubuntu users who don't disable this piece of rubbish. All the search terms, which adverts were delivered to the user and which adverts the user responded to will be stored and analyzed.

1. See an advert you like.
2. Click on it.
3. Decide to buy the product.
4. Log in to Amazon.
5. Amazon can now link your Ubuntu searches to your browsing at Amazon.
To be fair I can't see what they would gain by doing this but they will because they can.

Here's a good example of Amazon's attitude to their customers.
Privacy experts 'roast' Kindle Fire for 'watching you' online - worse than Google OR Facebook

'All web connections from your tablet will connect directly to Amazon, rather than the destination web page,' wrote Wisniewski, 'Hopefully you can start to see the problem here. All of your web surfing habits will transit Amazon's cloud.'
...
Worse, the terms and conditions of Amazon's Silk browser make it clear that the company is entitled to retain your tablet's unique ID, plus the URLs of pages you have visited, for up to 30 days.

* That's the first and, I hope, the last time I see or hear that word.

Maxo
Your tax dollars at work.
Premium Member
join:2002-11-04
Tallahassee, FL

1 recommendation

Maxo

Premium Member

My understanding is that Canonical will be proxying the requests such that it looks like all the searches come from them, making any sort of data-gather about individuals impossible.
You are also able to opt out, though it seems that this kind of thing should be opt in.
»launchpadlibrarian.net/1 ··· dash.png

Pjr
Don't Panic
join:2005-12-11
UK

Pjr

Member

Phew, panic over. I hope it's true about all the click-throughs being anonymous.

(FWIW I'm a Debian user and would love to see the reaction if they decided to try something like this )

Maxo
Your tax dollars at work.
Premium Member
join:2002-11-04
Tallahassee, FL

Maxo

Premium Member

said by Pjr:

(FWIW I'm a Debian user and would love to see the reaction if they decided to try something like this )

And I think that's why it will never be over. Any time you have a commercial entity overseeing a community-built open source project, you are going to have conflicts like this. The same way there was a big stink over the Amazon music sales in Rhythmbox, and the Ubuntu One server being proprietary.
I'm usually quite critical of those raising concern over Canonical or Ubuntu, but I think this one is pretty legit.

InTheKnow
@pnap.net

InTheKnow to Pjr

Anon

to Pjr
said by Pjr:

said by BannerMeAds :

I don't expect Amazon to "malvertise*"
* That's the first and, I hope, the last time I see or hear that word.

In the Info Sec community it's a real term, it essentially means banner ads being used as a carrier for malicious redirects or payloads. Many of the popular banner partners/hosts have fallen victim to this as a result of poor scrutinty of their ad sources. Specifically, the TDLv4+ variant that was discovered on Sep 12 and Sep 14 dropping hostile JAR which included the exploit and XORed payload can be traced back to high profile sites including but not limited to MSNBC, NBC News, WebMB, and others. The infection was using a SSL C&C with DGA. The hostile initial landing domains were sensetracks[dot]com and connectadz[dot]com.

The point I'm making here is when a large distribution begins including ads there's a very ripe demographic for exploitation. The ad partner chosen, from a security aspect, is very meaningful.

It's a real thing, that's why I said of all the ad partners, Amazon is one of the better as they're not a generic ad supplier/source like some of the others.

Maxo
Your tax dollars at work.
Premium Member
join:2002-11-04
Tallahassee, FL

Maxo

Premium Member

It looks like their proxy still isn't sufficeint »benjaminkerensa.com/2012 ··· ly-works

Pjr
Don't Panic
join:2005-12-11
UK

Pjr

Member

Thanks for the link. That is not good enough. As far as I can see if this isn't fixed everything I said in my first post applies.
Pjr

Pjr to InTheKnow

Member

to InTheKnow
I googled it and I can see you are right about it being in regular use. Thanks for not repeating it in your last post

I agree with what you are saying it's just the privacy aspect that concerns me. If it was any other advertiser both the security and privacy aspects would concern me.

koitsu
MVM
join:2002-07-16
Mountain View, CA
Humax BGW320-500

koitsu to Maxo

MVM

to Maxo
The reason this """snarky""" bug was created was because of an already-retarded-as-hell-and-invasively-stupid feature that was introduced by the Ubuntu folks to begin with.

»yro.slashdot.org/story/1 ··· nstalled
»www.theregister.co.uk/20 ··· on_hold/

The bug is intentionally made to poke fun at Ubuntu about this fact, and quite honestly I got a laugh out of it. The crux of the problem is what Ubuntu introduced out-of-the-box as described in the above two URLs.

So honestly, before getting all "snarky" yourself (see what I did there?), flip the table around and ask Ubuntu why in the f*** they added ad-laden crap to their distribution. That is really the question that needs to be asked.

dennismurphy
Put me on hold? I'll put YOU on hold
Premium Member
join:2002-11-19
Parsippany, NJ

1 recommendation

dennismurphy to AVD

Premium Member

to AVD
said by AVD:

define "laden"

laden="rm /bin/laden"; export laden
 

(Sorry, couldn't help myself.)