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Admin
Products I bought a few weeks ago.
Hotels in cities I was last month.
On some sites (like this one): Always the same I've seen hundreds of times and I either want or no do not want the product and I'm not going to change my mind by seeing the same ad once more.
Slightly relevant xkcd.
Lorem ipsum dolor sit akismet ...
Admin
The "In the future," part of the Install-on-demand message caught my eye. The phrasing makes it sound like an accusation "Sigh In the future, I would APPRECIATE if ... ".
Anyhow, I would probably have tried something like "Note: To remove or modify components, [...]"
...or nothing at all. It is nice that components can be removed like that, but probably not that important. Someone who cares could look that up elsewhere, and others are instead probably frightened by the scary bulkiness of the message, suggesting that dangers are afoot.
Oh and "for this operation" should preferably have specified what operation that is. Also a term like "Install-on-Demand Component" seems unhelpful, a subtle case of a programmer-friendly phrase breaching the user interface.
Admin
Hmm... I was assuming it was a "-1" error value, expressed as a date from epoch...
Admin
On the one hand, there's something fundamentally creepy about Google tracking where you've been and using that info to target ads. It's the electronic equivalent of someone following you around all day, seeing what stores you shop at or other places you visit, and then mailing you ads based on that. Like, they see you go to a bowling alley, they send you ads for bowling shoes. You go to a concert, they send you ads for that genre music albums. You go to a strip club, they send you ads for porn. You go to a church, they send you ads for Bible study books. Etc. No different in principle from what Google does.
On the other hand, I guess as long as you're not ashamed of the places you're going, why should you care? It doesn't cost me anything -- presumably it benefits me, as advertisers are paying the cost of websites that I like to visit.
Still, I lean toward creepy. And one can easily see abuse. Like who has access to this information? Could a potential employer decide not to hire you because he discovers that you frequent sites advocating social or religious beliefs that he disagrees with? If the Democrats are in power and government officials discover you visit Republican web sites, or vice versa, could they use that against you when you apply for benefits or come tax audit time or whatever?
Nothing to do with the Internet, but a certain TV commentator once said that in his entire life before being on TV he was audited by the IRS once, and that was a brief phone call that resulted in the issue being quickly cleared up. In the then three years that he had been on TV routinely criticizing the policies of the administration that was in power at the time, the IRS audited him ... three times. Oh, I don't suppose that I'm important enough for the government to want to come after me personally -- I'll have to work much harder before I make it to the president's list of enemies. But I can easily imagine them harassing influential people, and that could hurt me indirectly. And I can easily imagine them providing favoritism to people in general from the right party.
Admin
Forget about MSDN. The subscription for STEAM in that time was even better!
Admin
It doesn't benefit you. Who do you think pays for those ad's? You do through higher cost products. It also costs you your time and attention. Your cost/benefit ratio for unsolicited advertising is very poor - just another form of spam really.