[Reader-list] Re: how to get pop3 access from gmail

[Pankaj Kaushal]

Shekhar Krishnan wrote:
> Dear All:
> I think my message, being a bit of a rant, was misleading. I am not 
> objecting to the many virtues of webmail vs POP3 for different people 
> who are mobile, checking from cafes, and so on. What annoys the hell out 
> of me is commercialised, free mail services like GMail, Yahoo, Hotmail, 
> and Rediffmail, and the way in which many otherwise straight-talking 
> people suddenly have become brand ambassadors for these companies, or 

I resent your uncouth advice on dealing away with Webmail. To the
average intellects rampant here, the "gospel of ignorance" seems to be
the sage advice, but has anyone noticed that it is a rhetorical advice
and never works?

> security of any of these depends on your computing environment. Nor am I 
> objecting to the open or closed, free or proprietary nature of the 
> browser or mail client anyone uses to check mail. Both the browser and 
> client I use, as well as the operating system I prefer, are semi-free, 

What is semi-free? Apple is proprietary. full stop. No one is
scrutinizing anyone for their OS/mailer/browser preference, Its just
that people who talk about free speech and freedom when they themselves
are captives under the clutches of proprietary software 'annoy the hell
out me.'

> mostly proprietary products, and it will be years before I fully switch 
> to a FLOSS desktop and application suite, if ever. I suspect that this 
> is the same for many of us who keep company with the movement, and make 
> money from providing free and open source solutions. I don't like being 
> ideological about FLOSS. My point was a rather narrow one about 
> commercial webmail being turned into a lifestyle emblem, though my point 
> about free beer replacing free speech points to a broader set of issues. 

what really bakes my noodle is that you have no problem (not that you
should) if I were using Outlook Express on windows XP to send mail from
a @timbutoo.univ.edu address, but, it 'annoys the hell out of you' if I
use a freely available, secure and convenient Webmail service.

I don't like being ideological about corporations but, whether you like
it or not free software is an ideology and to be a freeloader is nothing
to be proud of. we are getting way too off topic here so i will leave it
to that.

> What is at stake in the GMail Ideology is the way in which we put trust 
> in distant corporations rather than local service providers, in free 
> beer rather than free speech. Is it because we often have to pay money 
> and give time to support the latter?

I personally, will not recommend using gmail to anyone, not because of
any of the reasons you have cited but because, their privacy policy
sucks and yahoo or hotmail are not any better.

But getting an account from your local vendor is not any better either,
If the cops knock at his door he will also let them into your POP/IMAP
account and actually it will be more easy for them - than the yahoo
account, or for that matter for a script kiddie to crack the servers of
a local provider. I just can't even begin on the subject of how insecure
the local providers you are blaring about really are.

So if it is all about privacy then I dont see how the local vendors are
any better than yahoo, Privacy is a very soft subject, because its based
on trust not skill, unlike security which you can judge or get approved
by an expert. So how is it so easy for you to trust Apple or your local
provider than say, google, yahoo or microsoft.

It is easier for people to trust an abstract corporation than a local 
vendor, for example, people might feel more safe storing pronography on 
their gmail account, then say on a server which is maintained by someone 
that they personally know.

Alas, it is never going to work, because, like corruption or thievery
or mistrust, it takes a single cell to thwart the whole system, where
society necessarily became law-laden, lock-decorated, and mistrustful,
and that is the nature of things as it stands.

Free Software movement is in opposition to all this. It is about time 
that propogators of free speech and freedom took a look at where they 
stand in terms of free software and add it to their artillery to fight 
this crusade.

   I'll find a day to massacre them all,
     And raze their faction and their family...
           William Shakespeare, in Titus Andronicus

Cheers!
Pankaj
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( 2b || !2b)