Yahoo's Geek Statue 349
Philipp Lenssen writes "Yahoo put up a life-size alpha geek statue in honor of the Yahoo Mail team, which they think beat the Gmail team. The statue's plaque says it's presented "in recognition of tremendous intellectual efforts put forth in order to defeat Gmail", and: "Not since the code breakers in Britain's Bletchley Park deciphered Germany's Enigma code during World War II has so much brainpower been focused on kicking an enemy's ass." Flickr has a photo." It's a nice little article on the difference between two of the net's superpowers.
Here, have a trophy. (Score:5, Insightful)
I'm sure a handshake and a smile would have been more fitting but hey, it is a nice statue.
As a GMail user... (Score:3, Insightful)
This is Wrong (Score:5, Insightful)
Ed Almos
Maybe it's just me... (Score:5, Insightful)
And FWIW, it sure seems to me that Google does have the superior product, too. But of course, I may be biased (heck, I *definitely* am), so if you're not sure yourself, do give both a try. I think you'll come to the same conclusion that I've come to, though.
The word you're looking for is "sophistry" (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:I've got news for them... (Score:5, Insightful)
Not just that, but gmail has indeed changed the way the game is played. When you sign up for gmail, they have a short intro which begins with "GMail is different". They key is that they are not gratuitously different. They are different because they analyzed the email processing process and saw a way to improve it. All the mail clients that I've used before had different ways of arranging things on the screen, but the function that they offered and the paradigm that they supported was the same. It took a little bit for me to get accustomed to the new way of doing things, but now that I'm acclimatized, I'm not going back.
making claims true...after the claim is made... (Score:3, Insightful)
hint: marketing
Re:I've got news for them... (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:This is Wrong (Score:5, Insightful)
It also shows how distorted one's world view can become if you live in an echo chamber. If everytime i went to the bathroom i had a group of lapdogs cheering me for it, i'd end up comparing it to the Manhattan Project too.
Re:I've got news for them... (Score:3, Insightful)
Maybe you should inform Yahoo that you are the judge here.
Re:I've got news for them... (Score:5, Insightful)
Yahoo beats Google (Score:1, Insightful)
I don't get it.
Re:I've got news for them... (Score:4, Insightful)
What amazes me is that they spent money on a statue instead.
Re:I've got news for them... (Score:3, Insightful)
Thanks for that tip, I'll check it out.
However, I really think it would just great if we didn't have to install a hack to do something as basic as deleting an email with one button. I mean if the GMail team *truly* watched people use email I suspect they would find out that "delete" is something people do commonly, even with GMail.
Re:I've got news for them... (Score:3, Insightful)
Wonder if that includes the massive amount of mail that their utterly useless spam filter lets through?
As of writing this, my yahoo mail account (that I haven't used anywhere for 5 years now) contains 4,630 bulk mails, plus another 1,829 messages that didn't get filtered and ended up in my inbox. I don't mind the bulk mailbox - that's where they should go, and it's good for a laugh every once in a while. The amount of crap flowing into the inbox as "real" mail, though, makes the account essentially useless.
they beat google mail ???? (Score:5, Insightful)
yahoo : 1 gig and staying that way
gmail : paid for by text ads which generally don't show up because I'm not in the target group.
yahoo : paid for by pop up flashy irrelevant ads, and a SPAM trailer in the mails I send. Forget about using it for any serious mail.
gmail : k.i.s.s. interface, allowing for rich text
yahoo : no rich text possibilities found
gmail : no spam
yahoo : presents you with a botfilter with unreadable gibberish. Maybe you can't send spam, probably you receive lots
gmail : ssl pop & smtp
yahoo : had the features, removed them
gmail : threads
yahoo : no threads
Yahoo beats google ?????
Note to Yahoo!: Try "don't be evil" (Score:5, Insightful)
Shi Tao took notes at the meeting, wrote up what he had been told to write, and e-mailed a copy to a pro-democracy web site in New York.
Unfortunately, Shi Tao used Yahoo web mail to send his e-mail. When the Chinese government approached Yahoo and asked them to reveal the personal information of the person who had signed up for the account, they gladly did so.
Asked about this at a conference in China, Yahoo's Taiwanese co-founder Jerry Yang said:
"To be doing business in China, or anywhere else in the world, we have to comply with local law."
Since then, people have pointed out that the journalist hadn't been convicted of any crime. A Chinese lawyer--as in, a lawyer who actually practices law in China--has said that Yahoo was under no legal obligation to reveal the journalist's name. It certainly seems that no legal action was taken against Yahoo to force them to rat out the guy.
It's a pity there's no Adolf Eichmann Award for Excellence in Only Following Orders, Jerry Yang would have a good chance of winning.
Re:This is Wrong (Score:1, Insightful)
Re:I've got news for them... (Score:3, Insightful)
Deleting a message is a common task, and that paradigm isn't going to change, regardless of how much space they give me.
And while we're talking about the drop-down list, why is the "Move to trash" right below the "Add star" button - I've added a star accidently many times I wanted to move a message to the trash.
Not one ./er got laid last night huh? (Score:2, Insightful)
Inappropriate (Score:5, Insightful)
And how is this comment appropriate?
I've met and talked with math researchers. I keep up with the things crypto. I've worked in industry as a web developer. I must say, there is no possibility that the yahoo people have more brain power than the code breakers.
I've been seeing this type of ludicrous statement more and more over the past years. I think it's just that these people know that they are losing and need to generate an over inflated sense of self to cover there inferiority.
Likening corp. competition to WWII?!?! Seriously...
Put Churchill into Perspective (Score:1, Insightful)
In the 1930's, he was one of the few politicians speaking openly about the rise of Facism in Germany and Italy. In 1938 he gave a speech saying that the German involment in the spanish Civil War was a rehersal for battles to come. He was openly derided by many on the Left & Right of Britich (& International) Politics. But history has told us he was right to do so.
In WW2, Britian turned to him as being the one leader around at the time that could possible lead Britain and its Empire to vicroty over Facism. Try listening to his radio speached sometime. He was an effective speaker who could motivate and inspire people at a time when we needed it.
At the time of the general election in 1945, the war was effectively over and the people voted him out of office as they began to think of a post war country. Many (if not all) of the senior minister of the Labor Government of 1945 actually served under Churchill in his wartime cabinet especially Atlee & Bevin. They began formatting the ideas that lead to the creation of the NHS in 1942 at the behest of the PM himself.
Yes Churchill and Britian (along with many other countries) have episodes in their history they would rather forget and in hindsight, recognise that they have done wrong. We have put out hands up and in most cases ack'd this fact. There are other nations in existance today who should be vilified for not doing this. For example, the Japanese for their treatment of POW's.
Churchill was an accomplished Artist and Author( remarkable like one Adolf Hitler in that respect). He was after the war awarded the nobel prize for literature. He was an obstinate and often obnoxious bastard at times. He was the right person to lead Britian in her time of need.
If you want to criticise people in History please don't be so biggoted to only mention their bad faults. I suggest you try reading Churchill's "History of the English Speaking People". He does acknoweledge a lot of the bad things that was done on behalf of the Britiah Empire over the years.
Re:I've got news for them... (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Here, have a trophy. (Score:3, Insightful)
I would take that anyday over a few extra bucks, or a statue.
Re:I've got news for them... (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:I've got news for them... (Score:4, Insightful)
What is the big deal about deleting? Gmail is my primary email and I delete a lot of messages, it's never been a problem. Just move to trash and then every few days go to trash, click all, click delete forever and done. Geez, mellow out you 'one delete button' fanatics.
Re:I've got news for them... (Score:3, Insightful)