We will regret the cloud

[Grunchy]

With iCloud Launch, Apple Demotes The Personal Computer
http://www.forbes.com/sites/briancaulfield/2011/10/12/with-icloud-launch-apple-demotes-the-personal-computer/


Well as a matter of fact, speaking for myself I already regret the cloud. Scanning Kijiji last year I bought an Xbox 360 as well as a PS3, both second hand, and got into video gaming a little bit. Soon afterwards, with the PS3 the online service was knocked out for several months due to hacking; and with the Xbox live system, I finally bought a 1 month access to gold level service on sale for $1; and now have a locked out account until I pay them another $20 to return to free, silver level access. It turns out the service becomes permanently 'locked in' at the gold level and must be paid for monthly at a much higher rate; so much for the 'sale'. I would have been miles ahead if I had simply stayed with the free, silver level access.

That's two online services, out of two, that have both created service outages with no regard to any personal cost to me. That's probably okay for video games because it really means nothing to lose that kind of data. But what happens when corporations get ahold of your important personal data and are in a position to hold it hostage? I'm thinking photographs, financial documents, and software applications to manipulate that data.

If you have your own computer with its own hard drive, in most cases you can still sever the link to the internet and prevent a corporation from sabotaging or disabling your 'experience' until you pay them money. But with new tablet/cloud services, you no longer host the applications or even your data on your own system, it all must be stored online under their control. It's because the tablet is 'too small' to hold much data. For example, my Android 7 HT had a whopping 8GB of storage built-in, plus a micro SDHC expansion slot; but the memory could only hold a couple hundred megabytes of applications before it was overloaded. The memory is there, but it is unusable! I got an email from Android service that they have no way of enabling any of the rest of the mounds of memory to host applications. So one is forced to run browser-based applications, and only when there is internet access.

I know many of you are going to say that my experience is the exception, that you have never experienced internet outages or other delays or problems of unusual data access fees. That may be true for you. But I can assure you, stories of lost data, exorbitant access fees, dropped and disabled network apps are going to explode in our faces. Here's another one from somebody who had ALL his emails deleted by his cloud service one day.

I lost all my inbox emails in my gmail account
http://groups.google.com/group/google-groups-basics/browse_thread/thread/f466237b827027f1/9ef4bc420aa1b6df?lnk=gst&q=

[Tabooger]

Until providers in Canada actually start giving us competitive bandwidth to the rest of the world, I don't think it'll be that useful. When was the last time anyone uploaded/download a movie on their mobile. Pictures taken on 8MB cameras are huge, games, applications. The only feasible option is pdf and word documents, and for that you don't need a cloud. From that article linked above they talk about how everything gets synced from Mac, iphone, ipod touch, ipad, but the amount of bandwidth you would need will be outrageous for anything other than documents.

I would also want to share my documents and pictures with other people, and not only the devices I'm or my family is connected on. What about the legalities of syncing music, and downloaded tv episodes?

Maybe I haven't read it right but to push from a cloud to every device you have, you'll need bandwidth right?

[Cas77]

Can't wait to see the headlines when a couple thousand people get screwed over for not reading the ToS/Privacy Policy.

These companies couldn't care less what happens to you or your data. It'll take a huge class action lawsuit for them to take notice...and even then, making you a prisoner of their eco-system and having control over everything you own for profit through perpetual recurring income will far outweigh any out of court settlement it may cost them. It'll simply be the price of doing business.

Very scary future ahead with these corporations fighting it out to control you.

[MikeMontrealer]

This point of view, while valid, ignores the cold hard fact that the majority of computer users never back up their data (http://blog.backblaze.com/2011/07/12/94-of-computer-users-still-risk-data-loss/) and once their local storage device dies their data is lost forever.

[Evil Baby]

You know you can just create another Xbox live account right?

As for the cloud, I for one welcome it. So much more enjoyable having everything at my finger tips.

[JamesA1]

Now we know the solution to the Fermi paradox (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fermi_paradox). All advanced civilizations eventually invent cloud data storage. Inevitably it collapses, destroying their civilization. :lol:

[ryanmission]

Digital books, documents, applications, photos, and music will all be stored on Apple’s servers, for free. Not to mention email, contacts, and calendaring information.

Noted, no thanks!

Just another ploy to profile and datamine users.

"No more need for a personal computer at all."

LOL...:facepalm:

[Coz4k]

I dont get all the hype around iCloud....

Personally i have absolutely no use for it. And even if i had one i would be concerned by their terms and condition and even more by their top gun security.

[Handyzman]

Now we know the solution to the Fermi paradox (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fermi_paradox). All advanced civilizations eventually invent cloud data storage. Inevitably it collapses, destroying their civilization. :lol:

A couple of bad Solar Flares and yeah it gets ugly.

Beats Skynet I guess

[time space]

I'd avoid this new Internet thing too.

The best computer is one completely disconnected from the outside world - actually a system of 3x5 file cards is even better!

[Mark77]

I've had my own home server for the past 15 years, running some form of Linux. I don't see what the big deal about clouds are, other than, I guess you don't need to be a geek to set up/manage the services from one of them, and there typically is some level of redundancy that takes more technical expertise to achieve in a 'home' sort of setup.

The scary thing about clouds, at least for professionals, is that the government can look at the data without you even knowing -- either with a secret search warrant, or an Anton Pillar sort of order. At least if I have physical custody of the machine, I have a much better chance of knowing who is looking at my data.

[actng]

the only thing i'm going to regret is the fact that people get to define what cloud means. to microsoft it means getting online. to vmware, it means virtualization. to you, it apparently means hosting.

the culprit here isn't cloud, the culprits are teh corporations behind the "cloud" offerings that are screwing you over. and just because something is on the cloud, it doesn't mean you don't need to do your backups (either locally or to another cloud).

i personally am not happy with the way cloud is developing. everything is being called a cloud and i am pretty sure most offering providers as well as customers don't really know what cloud really is. they just want to be able to say they have it or they offer it.

i've been trying to educate my clients and partners and colleagues that the word "cloud" is being thrown around like the word "computer" was being thrown around in the 80s. it's this mysterious thing that will do what you want (except it really doesn't) and all that it consists of was a cpu, memory and disk. hence anything from a washing machine to a fax machine were "computers". now just think how stupid you sound when you refer to your oven or smartphone or car as a "computer".

that's how stupid we all sound right now calling microsoft cloud and gmail cloud...

[ettore]

Ya, the cloud isn't the problem, it's patents and proprietary systems that are the problem. Cloud systems are far more reliable than the average person's machine, and can be great for it's seeming simplicity from a user point of view.

[B0000rt]

the only thing i'm going to regret is the fact that people get to define what cloud means. to microsoft it means getting online. to vmware, it means virtualization. to you, it apparently means hosting.

the culprit here isn't cloud, the culprits are teh corporations behind the "cloud" offerings that are screwing you over. and just because something is on the cloud, it doesn't mean you don't need to do your backups (either locally or to another cloud).

i personally am not happy with the way cloud is developing. everything is being called a cloud and i am pretty sure most offering providers as well as customers don't really know what cloud really is. they just want to be able to say they have it or they offer it.

i've been trying to educate my clients and partners and colleagues that the word "cloud" is being thrown around like the word "computer" was being thrown around in the 80s. it's this mysterious thing that will do what you want (except it really doesn't) and all that it consists of was a cpu, memory and disk. hence anything from a washing machine to a fax machine were "computers". now just think how stupid you sound when you refer to your oven or smartphone or car as a "computer".

that's how stupid we all sound right now calling microsoft cloud and gmail cloud...

Uhhh to Microsoft the cloud means getting online??? WTF is Azure then??

[tep]

Technology changes. The world changes. You can complain about every new technology or shift in computing until the end of time. Fact is: you adapt.

Seriously, there were probably town bulletin board paper posts filled with complainers about how people are relying too much on electricity.

[American]

$300 27" iMac thin client edition for iCloud.

[PA0L0]

People are not affraid to post sensative data to facebook, but they get affraid of a iCloud? wth?

[JAC]

People are not affraid to post sensative data to facebook, but they get affraid of a iCloud? wth?

I don't use either. I loathe social media, and I refuse to leave my data in the hands of corporations.

The day Microsoft tries to turn Windows into a thin client is the day I force myself to learn Linux.

[sexyj]

The north american internet infrastructure is not ready for a full blown cloud solution.

[PA0L0]

The north american internet infrastructure is not ready for a full blown cloud solution.

nope, we might be able to get away with a mini rain cloud but not a full blown cloud. i could handle some drizzle, but not a thunderstorm

[Goober56]

Don't like XBox Live? mod your Xbox and use Xlink...

[Jon Lai]

I don't use either. I loathe social media, and I refuse to leave my data in the hands of corporations.

The day Microsoft tries to turn Windows into a thin client is the day I force myself to learn Linux.

Unfortunately you're in the minority here.