Something To Get, Something To Avoid

On the subject of getting stuff, Skype 2.0 is out. Skype, for those of you under a rock, is a VoIP network that allows callers to do video and audio chat, including conference calling. Unfortunately, it has had its fair share of criticism from paranoid security experts that do not understand peer-to-peer technology. Chris has a great writeup on the irrational fears that people have toward Skype. Anotherwords, get it. Now what to avoid: Google Desktop. This is perhaps the best piece of Google software ever released (yes, better than Gmail) but the new version has "Search Accross Desktops" feature which apparently mirrors documents on Google's servers:

Google today announced a new "feature" of its Google Desktop software that greatly increases the risk to consumer privacy. If a consumer chooses to use it, the new "Search Across Computers" feature will store copies of the user's Word documents, PDFs, spreadsheets and other text-based documents on Google's own servers, to enable searching from any one of the user's computers. EFF urges consumers not to use this feature, because it will make their personal data more vulnerable to subpoenas from the government and possibly private litigants, while providing a convenient one-stop-shop for hackers who've obtained a user's Google password. – EFF

I don't care about the do no evil, this crushes all boundaries of reasonable privacy compromise to make your personal information more discoverable. As a card-carrying member of EFF I urge you to avoid this one.