Here you go
2 Likes
Yes… Optional facebook log in.
I still feel that I’m missing the point here.
1 Like
When hasn’t not having the complete picture ever kept people from getting up in arms with pitchforks and torches?
1 Like
I like the Macarena commercial better.
Yesterday you could add a friend and play a game on your Oculus without Facebook.
Today you require a Facebook account to do the exact same thing.
Odd eh? Who knows what tomorrow may bring. 
Here’s what I wrote above, that you either missed or there is a ESL going on. Nothing changes for a ‘connected but not connected’ Facebook VR user as of today.
Funny part is, everyone’s bashing FB for the same thing everyone else is doing.
Google.com and Chrome (even MS Edge), Browsing history all are used to generate the Google Ads.
If I goto Victoria’s Secret Site, the next few days, when scrolling thru FB or Even sites w/ the Google Ads all over it (no saying no names). I Have V.S. Ads in those Spots.
If I turn around and goto NewEgg.com, Same Situation.
2 Likes
It’s true and just kind of how the internet worked out as a business model. I don’t mind it so much but it does seem like a slippery slope, with the majority of people either just fine with it or just not knowing.
It’s sort of ironic from thinking how it was 10 years ago but it makes companies like Microsoft one of the good guys, in that you pay for something and then just get it. 
1 Like
The dumb thing about those adbots is that when I search for say “work boots” it takes note and starts spamming me with ads for all kinds of work boots. But google is an awesome search engine. That search yielded results. I have work boots now. All those ads are targetted about as well as a hound dog cruise missile programmed by a four-year-old.
Dumb. I don’t fear our AI overlords at all this far.
Now the moment the bot sees me searching for work boots and then targets me with ads for tool belts, ultradurable raincoats, hard-hats and the like, that’s when my spider sense starts tingling.
2 Likes
I did find the whole “frog boiling” thing, a bit disturbing… I have friends who are frogs. Fearless ones, but still.
The thing is, that the way I read the information from Oculus/Faceb…the Zuckerberg family, is that this doesn’t apply to third party apps.
So, only the Z Family apps will be affected and it opens up for other VR brands coexisting in the VR Facebook. Maybe Priscilla got a HP Reverb, just to spite Mark…I don’t know.
I.e. this only affects those who want in on the Virtual-virtual Facebook.
Everybody else is left alone to continue as before.
I think I still fail to see the problem…
It’s not like we need a facebook account to do DCS VR multiplayer, or VTOL VR, whenever it gets multiplay…
2 Likes
You’re right, but from my perspective the following just happened.
- In 2016 Oculus said you would never need a Facebook id, even for social.
- In 2017 the Rift CV1 would now stop working without an internet connection to Facebook servers to launch, even playing DCS.
- In 2019 the terms of service changed, meaning you now require a Facebook account for anything that used an Oculus account before.
Can you at least see the trend isn’t pointing towards a good thing?
Anyway, we’re talking past each other now. Like I said, people not caring is the key, and it’s not as if anyone here doesn’t know how it all works.
2 Likes
Right, that’s it. Budgetting for a valve index now. That might take a little longer…
I guess that depends on how you visualize the future… 
I mean, marketing data collection isn’t a novel concept.
Oculus also tracks what you’re doing with your headset. Steam tracks all your games, how much time you spend playing them and suggests games you might like, based on this.
You need Oculus and Steam accounts for this.
It’s not that I don’t care. It’s just that I don’t think there’s a way out.
Not if you want to play.
Pandora opened her box a long time ago… I guess only hope remains.
1 Like
I too feel it is pretty much inevitable, but there are choices to make. Perhaps that’s our disconnect?
These companies make money selling hardware and software services to you;
- Sony
- Microsoft
- Valve
These companies exist to make money selling advertisements that rely on deep profiling of users, which they get by subsidizing hardware that gathers it.
It’s not really fair to blame Pandora for all this, when the consumer choices are really that plain and simple. . Now a case could be made that it doesn’t really matter what you buy, as what’s the point after all, but then that way you sort of get the future you deserve.
1 Like
Could be, because I don’t see choices that will make this go away. Not even legislation.
I just can’t do FaceBook. Not after seeing how much misinformation is spread, and how there seems to be a reluctance to tackle issues that affect our very democracy. It would be one thing if it were shoes and games…it is much, much more serious than that…even if it is secondary to making money. After reading things that appear from friends and family on her FB page (my wife), I’m pretty happy to not be connected that way.
I guess if TrackIR got bought by McAfee, we’d all be OK with having McAffee software and an account required as part of using TIR? Isn’t that essentially what is happening to “OG” Oculus users?
2 Likes
That is a cause of concern, regarding all ”fast media”.
It’s not like when we grew up when journalists were educated people with integrity and you could trust the written word in newspapers. But even back then, people learned they could control the public opinion by controlling what people read. In fact, one of my favourite quotes is by Winston Churchill. ”There is no public opinion. There is only published opinion” This is what’s going on today, but in a grand scale. We’re bombarded with other peoples opinions being published as facts and we tend to believe those opinions that coincide with our own opinion. This goes on in social media and news media. They’re getting harder and harder to differentiate.
But, if we want this free flowing information, what can we do about it?
I don’t think we can stop it. But we must teach people to be critical about information and check facts. We must stop telling people what they must know and instead teach people how they can find out what they need to know.
I’m totally flabbergasted, at times. Highly educated and intelligent people share information that is obviously fake. And people making fake news are getting better and better at it. But I still get phonecalls from ”Microsoft” telling me there’s a virus on my computer… So, it’s not just on the web, and most scammers are out to get your money, not your vote. But the threat against democracy is absolutely a clear and present danger. At the same time, the free and uncontrolled flow of information is an important tool in a democracy.
Well, only to those who want it, AFAIK. I have a facebook account and I have an Oculus Rift S. I haven’t linked the two. The VR headset is connected to my SimBox computer, which I don’t use for anything but gaming. It’s also the only Windows OS computer in the house. As long as I’m allowed to keep it separated, I’m fine with it. I haven’t seen any evidence that you need a facebook account, and link this to your Oculus account, if you want to use non-Zuckerberg apps. But, as @fearlessfrog points out, this is a slippery slope. Who knows what’s going on behind the wall and what’s true today may be a lie tomorrow.
5 Likes
(I know off topic but it’s fun, consider it my Xmas bonus for doing the Christmas Hats 
)
I like the analogy that the Internet disrupting society by the almost obscene speed and amount of info there is, is just like the printing press of medieval Europe. At the beginning, the Church used to send out teams of priests to go find the printed pamphlets and write over them corrections. But the machine could print more non-Latin anti Church messages than they could get to. Big problem.
The Reformation was about 30 years of ‘info chaos’ as the old society struggled with the new one, with education, access to info, and even societies and politics reorganized, sometimes not in pleasant and calm ways.
We’ve done all this before, it’s just going to be really messy.
4 Likes
It is!
Think of it as an ongoing process, that never ends.
A revolution, if you will. It keeps coming back, again and again…
And, as you say, it’s nothing new. It’s just the venue and the scale, that changes.
1 Like
Guys, especially @fearlessfrog @troll and @beachav8r, would you pls stop talking democracy, politics in general? Or I will have to call the @staff and they will correct your opinions… lol
6 Likes
We talk about democracy, we don’t practice it…
5 Likes