.josh Posted January 26, 2009 Share Posted January 26, 2009 Some may recall a thread a while back in which cloud computing was discussed. Here's a new article related to that: http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2009/jan/25/google-drive-gdrive-internet Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
corbin Posted January 26, 2009 Share Posted January 26, 2009 My internet connection is far too slow for off location 'cloud computing'. MB/s down, but only 25KB/s up. Yeah. Not gonna lie though, I would store tons of random crap on google's servers. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jcombs_31 Posted January 26, 2009 Share Posted January 26, 2009 It sounds cool, but I don't like the idea of my entire OS and data stored in a cloud somewhere with no local access. What if my internet connection goes down? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
.josh Posted January 26, 2009 Author Share Posted January 26, 2009 You could...read a book? Go outside and play? Take a nap? Oh, sorry. Sadly, you were being serious. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jcombs_31 Posted January 26, 2009 Share Posted January 26, 2009 You could...read a book? Go outside and play? Take a nap? Oh, sorry. Sadly, you were being serious. That's pretty funny and all, but not all time spent on the computer is for fun and games. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
.josh Posted January 26, 2009 Author Share Posted January 26, 2009 You could...read a book? Go outside and play? Take a nap? Oh, sorry. Sadly, you were being serious. That's pretty funny and all, but not all time spent on the computer is for fun and games. Indirectly it is. I mean, you go to work to pay for your bills. You can't necessarily say you need to pay those, or need to have the things you do. Lots of people manage to survive without roofs over their heads or cars or more than a few rags to cover their happy no-no spots. I'm not necessarily saying it's wrong to have those things. I'm just saying, it's sad that we have grown so dependent on the internet and computers. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jcombs_31 Posted January 26, 2009 Share Posted January 26, 2009 Sad, maybe, but it is what it is. You ever leave your house and realize you forgot your cellphone? Do you keep going or turn back to get it? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maq Posted January 26, 2009 Share Posted January 26, 2009 You could...read a book? Go outside and play? Take a nap? Oh, sorry. Sadly, you were being serious. That's pretty funny and all, but not all time spent on the computer is for fun and games. Indirectly it is. I mean, you go to work to pay for your bills. You can't necessarily say you need to pay those, or need to have the things you do. Lots of people manage to survive without roofs over their heads or cars or more than a few rags to cover their happy no-no spots. I'm not necessarily saying it's wrong to have those things. I'm just saying, it's sad that we have grown so dependent on the internet and computers. Why is that sad? I think it's a great thing, people can communicate worldwide... sounds like something we SHOULD take advantage of and be dependent on. It's like saying, "It's so sad that people have become so dependent on automobiles now, instead of walking everywhere." Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
.josh Posted January 26, 2009 Author Share Posted January 26, 2009 There's a difference between taking advantage of something and being dependent on it. The difference is that when you take advantage of something, you are happy and things are great because your life is easier, but no big deal if it suddenly goes away or stops working or insert whatever applicable phrase, depending on what you're talking about. But if you are dependent on it, and it stops working etc..., suddenly the shit hits the fan. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maq Posted January 26, 2009 Share Posted January 26, 2009 There's a difference between taking advantage of something and being dependent on it. The difference is that when you take advantage of something, you are happy and things are great because your life is easier, but no big deal if it suddenly goes away or stops working or insert whatever applicable phrase, depending on what you're talking about. But if you are dependent on it, and it stops working etc..., suddenly the shit hits the fan. That's why we try our best to make everything reliable and secure. Being dependent and taking full advantage of something, such as the internet, go hand in hand. You have to trust it (which I don't) to take full-advantage of its power. But if you are dependent on it, and it stops working etc..., suddenly the shit hits the fan. I don't know about you, but the company I work for has had about 99.99% uptime in their internet connection. If it ever did go down, there are always backups and local servers to work off of for the time-being. A single user doing work at home, may be a little different story... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
.josh Posted January 26, 2009 Author Share Posted January 26, 2009 You don't have to depend on something to take advantage of it. You just have to have a system in place to get by without it, so that you won't freak out and not know how to move forward, if you do have to suddenly go without it. You do not depend on it to get the job done, rather, you just depend on it to get the job done better. The key there is that either way, the job gets done. It's the same principle as having all those backups you mentioned...only thing is you are just backing things up with more things that depend on the same stuff, and therein lies the problem and also my sad face. Let me illustrate with a real world example. Remember the y2k bug? Sure, it turned out to not be that big of a deal, but before it was fixed, people freaked the hell out, making out like armageddon was fixing to happen, and we were about to enter a Mad Max world. And that was for one simple little 2 digit "bug." If people are going to assume the worst and panic over that, how do you think people are going to react if that really did happen? What if some super virus was created that totally wtfpwns all networked computers before we can do anything about it? What if someone creates an AI and it turns out to not be as benevolent as (s)he assumed it would be? What if all these self-replicating nanobots people are trying to make end up taking a turn for the worst, being some kind of combination of BOTH of the previous scenarios? What if some occurrence in nature causes the earth's magnetic poles to reverse (something a lot more likely than you think), causing every single piece of electronic equipment on earth to fry? I'm not suggesting we all keep living in caves, afraid of trying or using anything new and shiny. I'm just saying, we're getting to the point where people are failing to do anything at all unless they are using something that's plugs into the wall or runs off batteries or something, and is 'connected' somehow. We aren't retaining backwards compatibility, and it's only a matter of time before we get bitten in the ass. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maq Posted January 26, 2009 Share Posted January 26, 2009 Everything you say makes sense, but you kind of are indirectly implying that we never try anything new and shiny. The internet is still new, and surely has chinks in its armor but what are we supposed to do? You keep coming up with all these negative "what if" electronic epidemics but no solutions... Let me reference back to my car metaphor... "What if I'm driving down the street and a drunk driver hits me?" Does this mean that you're going to stop driving your car? No, the only thing that you can do is be careful and make automobiles safe and secure. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
.josh Posted January 26, 2009 Author Share Posted January 26, 2009 Well if I told you to go buy carrier pigeons and learn how to make smoke signals, you'd just laugh at me. Just because I can't think of an alternative that you (people in general) are willing to consider, doesn't mean there isn't a problem. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maq Posted January 26, 2009 Share Posted January 26, 2009 Well if I told you to go buy carrier pigeons and learn how to make smoke signals, you'd just laugh at me. Of course we would. Do you actual think that's a solution? Just because I can't think of an alternative that you (people in general) are willing to consider, doesn't mean there isn't a problem. There's a problem with most things. That's my whole point, just cause you come up with a problem with something doesn't mean you can't use it. There's no alternative, so you're saying that relying on the internet and computers is sad, just doesn't make sense. There are many problems with driving automobiles, pollution, accidents, gas, etc... Does that mean we shouldn't drive? No, it means we come up with better solutions that are more environmentally friendly and safer for us to drive. Just like how we need to change the internet. When the internet was designed and developed there really wasn't a solid security implemented. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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