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Re: Re: Re: Re: Re:

  • To: mathgroup at smc.vnet.net
  • Subject: [mg75713] Re: [mg75676] Re: [mg75641] Re: [mg75611] Re: [mg75554] Re: [mg75515]
  • From: Murray Eisenberg <murray at math.umass.edu>
  • Date: Wed, 9 May 2007 04:27:04 -0400 (EDT)
  • Organization: Mathematics & Statistics, Univ. of Mass./Amherst
  • References: <26848997.1178533480626.JavaMail.root@eastrmwml10> <200705080957.FAA18983@smc.vnet.net>
  • Reply-to: murray at math.umass.edu

I, too, have a general caution about protecting privacy.  However, I am 
quite happy if the transactions with Wolfram Research's paclet server is 
providing them information about what documentation I am requesting. 
After all, it may suggest improvements that need to be made in the 
documentation.

Perhaps if I were doing proprietary work I might feel differently.

The Preferences dialog allows you to uncheck automatic checks for 
documentation updates and automatic checks for data updates, so it looks 
like the option is there to maintain even this sort of privacy.


Chris Chiasson wrote:
>>From a private reply someone said this text is on the same page:
> 
> "When you click a link to a documentation notebook or call a data
> function like CountryData, Mathematica knows whether a newer version
> of the information is available on a Wolfram Research Paclet Server,
> and if so it will download and install the update automatically. In
> the case of smaller paclets like documentation notebooks, this is
> often so fast that you will not even notice it happening."
> 
> This is an oddly phrased piece of documentation. What causes
> Mathematica to know whether a newer version of the information is
> available?
> 
> Instead of beating around the bush, perhaps I should just come right
> out and ask, "What information does Mathematica give to Wolfram
> Research, and under what circumstances? Furthermore, what is the
> privacy policy for this information?"
> 
>>From other text on the same documentation page, which I finally read
> today, it seems that paclet data besides the documentation may be
> updated in bulk with the "Update Local Indices" menu item. Why isn't
> this same option specifically mentioned as being available for the
> documentation? It isn't like WRI will add 500 MiB worth of data to the
> documentation in a week, so Mathematica should be able to painlessly
> update the documentation in bulk *without telling WRI which
> documentation pages a customer is reading by specifically requesting
> each one from the server as the documentation is read*.

-- 
Murray Eisenberg                     murray at math.umass.edu
Mathematics & Statistics Dept.
Lederle Graduate Research Tower      phone 413 549-1020 (H)
University of Massachusetts                413 545-2859 (W)
710 North Pleasant Street            fax   413 545-1801
Amherst, MA 01003-9305


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