Is the Cloud overrated?

[koaftder]

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."

And soon the iPad. Insert coin. Oh, you don't have the money? Well too bad, we'll give you 3 months to pay or everything you deposited on our server will be dumped into the bit bucket.

Folks pay an extra 5 bucks a month for the privilege to email themselves the grainy, lo rez pictures they snap on their managed devices, pay 4 dollars for a ring tone, etc.

Apple is probably the most evil computer company in existence right now. With the iPad they're trying to change the way folks use computing technology, they've said as much. A completely managed experience with a toll booth at every interface. People don't care about computers in general, they just want the content. I wouldn't be surprised if in 10-15 years OS X machines will be high priced developer machines whose only purpose is to facilitate content generation by companies for consumer consumption. The digital walls are closing in, products made defective by design, it's on all fronts.

[Tension]

I wouldn't be surprised if in 10-15 years OS X machines will be high priced developer machines whose only purpose is to facilitate content generation by companies for consumer consumption.

I would be very highly surprised if Apple still have their own operating system in 10 years, let alone 15.

[thanos]

Hmmm, I'm not a huge fan of putting any personal content into the hands of another.

I find myself reminding my wife that things said in a public forum are available to just about anybody.

I'm amazed at the things that are said on "FaceBook".  I think it is and excellent example of how the cloud works, and what impact it can have on an individual, group, and society as a whole.

I agree with several statements that have already been made.

"Give 'em a shinny new toy and they'll trade away any privacy without a further thought."

No facebook, twitter or any of the like for me.

Yes I do have a gmail account, but its mostly a spam collector, let the expert systems pick through that garbage.

[Iggy]

While I would admit that there is little to attract me to the idea, I already know of one internet based application that friends of mine are finding very useful.

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.

They've been using this setup for about two year now, and it seems to have worked well. I can see where, if there was a need to share information with multiple people or computers/devices, an internet based application might be well suited.

Frankly, I still expect the bulk of my own computing to be based on my own hardware, but when I think of how much time I spend on the internet I have to ask, "aren't we already sort of doing this anyway?".

[paolone]

Google seems convinced the cloud is the future. Do you think Google is just pushing their business model?

The cloud is a basically idiot idea. Pretending to serve you just because "your documents won't be on your PCs anymore, you can access them wherever you are and whenever you need them" is plain stupid, 'cos this wonderful thing just stops working when you loose your connection to the Internet. So the right plan is: make Internet always available, anywhere, anytime, and possibly free, and THEN move all your datas on the Internet. But beware: people is not dumb, they simply won't pay a monthly free just to keep their personal data, feelings and life on a remote server placed somewhere else.

[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.

[KThunder]

these big companies want to control everything. every scrap of data on your machine every program you use, everything. Microsoft with os and apps, valve with steam and game control updates etc. apple with content etc.
i think this is one of the reasons gaming on the pc has lost out to consoles. you cant get a game toss it in and play like a console and you cant install and play like before, you have to install and register, and update and update and update. they strangled the life out of the platform.
some people use computers for online stuff, facebook etc. and for them with a fast connection cloud is fine. even some apps like office and others work ok with a cloud computing setup.
i saw a show about startrek once that said it was unrealistic because noone uses centralized computing anymore but it looks like we might be moving back to that.

[Hell Labs]

I would be very highly surprised if Apple still have their own operating system in 10 years, let alone 15.

You do realise apple have done nothing but gained OS marketshare since 1998, right? Windows is leaking 1.5% a year currently. What do you have to base your rediculous prediction?

these big companies want to control everything.  every scrap of data on your machine every program you use, everything.

Some of them.

Microsoft with os and apps,

Maybe, but not with the "cloud" model. Conflict of interests.

valve with steam and game control updates

You mean steam, the system where you buy a game, and own it for ever? (you lose a game CD it's gone for ever. delete a steam game? click install again) Where you can install on as many machines as you like, on any OS (soon), and just log in to play? Where updates are regulary relased to add content and features? That's not control, it's convenience.

etc. apple with content etc.

You mean like the DRM they fought the record compaines to have removed?

i think this is one of the reasons gaming on the pc has lost out to  consoles. you cant get a game toss it in and play like a console and you  cant install and play like before, you have to install and register,  and update and update and update. they strangled the life out of the  platform.

No, pc gaming hasn't lost. it always has, and always will be a higher priced niche.

"register"? So, a GFWL account (which is bad, GFWL is intrusive and sucks), and a steam account. you register twice, and that covers every single PC game released today. Some use one, some use the other. A few use both. Not hard.

"update and update and update."? Lol. What a weird complaint. Let's look at TF2, the most updated game I own. twice a month or so, a small patch is released that fixes explots and adds minor features, and takes literally 5 seconds to automatically download and install. It even happens while you play, and you exit the game to see a changelog window. Every three months, a "big" patch With new weapons, items, hats, maps, music, etc comes out. Maybe a ten minuite download and can also happen while playing. It's completely transparent to the user.

"they strangled the life out of the  platform." Oh god, that hurt my head. Steam is an infinite improvement over going to a game shop, and using physical media. You can't lose a steam game or damage it. Plus it actually stops hacking shitheads from ruining mp.

some people use computers for online stuff, facebook etc. and for them  with a fast connection cloud is fine. even some apps like office and  others work ok with a cloud computing setup.

Nah. When google's "cloud" equivalent of wordpad runs badly on a 2ghz AMD whatever-it-was, it sucks.  

i saw a show about startrek once that said it was unrealistic because  noone uses centralized computing anymore but it looks like we might be  moving back to that.

No, we won't. most will not buy anything that is "different".

[koaftder]

The cloud is a basically idiot idea. Pretending to serve you just because "your documents won't be on your PCs anymore, you can access them wherever you are and whenever you need them" is plain stupid, 'cos this wonderful thing just stops working when you loose your connection to the Internet. So the right plan is: make Internet always available, anywhere, anytime, and possibly free, and THEN move all your datas on the Internet. But beware: people is not dumb, they simply won't pay a monthly free just to keep their personal data, feelings and life on a remote server placed somewhere else.

OH, they'll pay all right. Just like they do for ring tones, sending pictures, text messages, 2ml ink carts, net flix, itunes, software subscriptions and all kinds of other retarded crap.

[koaftder]

You do realise apple have done nothing but gained OS marketshare since 1998, right? Windows is leaking 1.5% a year currently. What do you have to base your rediculous prediction?

Apple isn't interested in fostering an open and free computing environment. Everything they've done the past 8 years has been in the direction of a managed environment with toll booths all over the place. INSERT COIN

[Hell Labs]

Apple isn't interested in fostering an open and free computing environment. Everything they've done the past 8 years has been in the direction of a managed environment with toll booths all over the place. INSERT COIN

Over half of their operating system is open sourced. The commerical product itself, OSX, doesn't have any kind of licencing scheme or copy protection whatsoever. it's £25 and installs on commodity intel pcs if you use the right boot disc first.

Unless this is some kind of weird nonesensical dig at iTunes, where you PAY for a PRODUCT. Or the iPhone, where you can install anything you want that isn't iilegal or bypasses the OS in some way.

At any rate, your post neither makes a relevent point, or any logical sense at all.

[KThunder]

@hell labs

i would change my mind in a second about steam if i was the only one who complained about it and had problems. they have had network problems, they have been hacked etc.
google steam problems or check out wikopedia etc.
i can definitely see benefits in a good update system, however once again im not the only one seeing problems with it. publishers are using it as a crutch. the marketing guys set this rediculous release date so we will leave some bugs in and require an update right off the bat.
as for owning the game forever i dont think thats much of a deal i have playstation 1 games and xbox games that play flawlessly (and without updates)
afaik you still cant sell games youve bought on steam like this crappy racing game i bought

[scuzzb494]

Sorry.. What is Cloud ?

[tone007]

Over half of their operating system is open sourced. The commerical product itself, OSX, doesn't have any kind of licencing scheme or copy protection whatsoever..

No copy protection, but there most definitely is licensing.

http://store.apple.com/Catalog/US/Images/MacOSX.htm

2. Permitted License Uses and Restrictions.
A. This License allows you to install and use one copy of the Apple Software on a single Apple-labeled computer at a time. This License does not allow the Apple Software to exist on more than one computer at a time,and you may not make the Apple Software available over a network where it could be used by multiple computers at the same time. You may make one copy of the Apple Software (excluding the Boot ROM code) in machine-readable form for backup purposes only; provided that the backup copy must include all copyright or other proprietary notices contained on the original.

Sure, it's easy to install it on ten machines, doesn't mean you're allowed to though.

and...

Microsoft with os and apps,

Maybe, but not with the "cloud" model. Conflict of interests.

Look up Windows Azure, hint, it's cloud computing by Microsoft, and apparently businesses are buying it.

At least check some facts before you post, otherwise you're typing all that garbage for nothing.

As for Cloud computing, it probably makes sense in certain limited capacities at this point, but it's definitely not for everyone (or most, even.)

[koaftder]

Over half of their operating system is open sourced.

No it's not. n\None of their APIs are opensource. All of the NExT underpinnings are closed source. All of their apps are close sourced. The BSD app layer sure as hell isn't half of the system.

[Iggy]

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

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?