Okay I thought people might find this one amusing, even if it did set me swaring a lot.
My lady has a Gmail account that I setup for her since she needed a new email address. It's running through microsoft outlook on her windows 7 machine and mostly works fine.
However as I said elsewhere at the moment we're visiting my parents in Nottingham, so my lady starts up aoutlook and bang! no mail, just a box asking for username and password whenever she hits send and recieve.
Having a suspicion, I then go and log in to google on my lady's computer with her email and password.
at first I think I have the wrong password because I get a screen saying "confirm it's you" and various verrification methods.
I tried the text message method, no go, and finally had to go with the verrification email. All of this just to sign in to google.
When i finally! did, I then have a big banner saying "suspicious activity" and I have to verrify that yes, it was indeed my lady's outlook on her laptop at my parents that tried to log in to google.
All of this just! to get email.
Security is one thing, but this level is absolutely insane! especially when it's using a legitimate email proram, hell why google consider any mail client but their own website to be suspicious I don't know.
I was considering getting a gmail address myself for private correspondance, as my previous private address is no longer usable (due to btinternet being stupid), now however I'm revising that idea.
Really, in a world of multiple access from multiple devices is this level of security even logical? Yes I know, protection bla bla, but frankly this seems more monopoly than protection, ie, if your not a user of google's own products we're going to make your lives as hard as possible intigrating with other programs, then again where have I heard that one before, *cough apple *cough.
Our souls with high music ringing; O men! It must ever be
That we dwell in our dreaming and singing, A little apart from ye. (Arthur O'Shaughnessy 1873.)