Is the Cloud overrated?

[Tenacious]

The could concepts means a number of things:

Loss of control
Loss of privacy
Ownership/rights issues

Convenience
Accessibility
Increased retention of data (for most people)

Most of us have been in front of machines for a good long time. We see the trap being set, but we no longer have much pull in what shapes the future anymore. Most of the people participating these days don't know anything about what's going on in tech and could care less. By sheer numbers, they get to decide what environment we have to live with. When the door closes and they have to pay a monthly fee to use their computer and access their data, they won't even complain about it.

It's already playing out with cell phones.  Ppl will happily transmit intimate photos, their GPS location, text their every waking thought, to get and use the latest feature.

"In an increasingly networked world, privacy and anonymity will be the most precious commodities."

[Tenacious]

My best man at my weeding is a licensed plumber. He uses Intuit's Quickbooks to help keep his accounts straight. Since he has an accountant, he uses the internet version of Quickbooks and no longer has to transfer files to his accountant. They both can log into a central site and the latest information is available to either of them.

Your best man (and maybe his accountant) is a dream-come-true for the harvesters pushing cloud computing.  My paranoid 2 cents.

[Tenacious]

Yeah, you're paranoid (but so are a lot of other people , so that hardly concerns me).
The point you're missing is that there are valid applications that when shared over the internet save time and simply real work. I wouldn't expect many of you to understand, as its not real likely that any of you have finances complicated enough to warrant hiring an accountant.
Have any of you thought that a forum dedicated to a long dead computer system, that supports a community that barely has functional browsers might not be the place to look for the most valid opinions related to new ideas in computing?

Sorry Iggy, I wasn't trying to be personal.

The cloud will have some legitimate uses.   I believe marketing, fashion, hyperbole, and bad intentions will  pervert it into a bad direction for many ppl.

So, in addition to paranoia, I'm a bit jaded, too.

I suppose there could be such a thing as an invalid opinion. Not mine though, grin.