ECN Electrical Forum - Discussion Forums for Electricians, Inspectors and Related Professionals
ECN Shout Chat
ShoutChat
Recent Posts
UL 508A SPACING
by ale348 - 03/29/24 01:09 AM
Increasing demand factors in residential
by tortuga - 03/28/24 05:57 PM
Portable generator question
by Steve Miller - 03/19/24 08:50 PM
Do we need grounding?
by NORCAL - 03/19/24 05:11 PM
240V only in a home and NEC?
by dsk - 03/19/24 06:33 AM
New in the Gallery:
This is a new one
This is a new one
by timmp, September 24
Few pics I found
Few pics I found
by timmp, August 15
Who's Online Now
1 members (ale348), 302 guests, and 14 robots.
Key: Admin, Global Mod, Mod
Previous Thread
Next Thread
Print Thread
Rate Thread
Page 1 of 2 1 2
#183962 01/29/09 12:27 AM
Joined: Jul 2002
Posts: 8,443
Likes: 3
Trumpy Offline OP
Member
Hot on the heels of Google Chrome, we now have a new way to have our privacy invaded.

Here is a look at what Google would like to do, as soon as possible.

So effectively what we will have is a whole lot of "dumb" terminals and all our files on Google's servers.

I for one WON'T be going for this idea, as if Google isn't Big Brother enough as it is. mad

Will you be getting this new fangled idea of computing efficiency?

{Thanks to NORCAL, for the link}

Trumpy #183971 01/29/09 04:20 AM
Joined: Jul 2004
Posts: 9,923
Likes: 32
G
Member
Maybe Tom Watson (old IBM CEO) was right when he said we would just have a few dozen massive data centers in the country.
The problem with the thought is you need a fairly big machine, just to get to the internet.
It my be cleverly disguised as something else but it is still a computer.
Using an internet backup for your critical files might make sense if privacy is not an issue but file transfer is really going to be slow, compared to a local drive so you won't be doing much real computing with them. I prefer local backups myself. I am getting ready to bring up a file server with a RAID array for my backups and common files.


Greg Fretwell
Joined: May 2005
Posts: 984
Likes: 1
G
Member
Don't forget that Google may decide to discontinue some of their storage or services at any time and delete your files. Then you're stuck, because they were the storage drive.

AOL does it all the time; whenever they feel like it. Just another reason that AOL lost my business.


Ghost307
ghost307 #183989 01/29/09 06:33 PM
Joined: Jul 2002
Posts: 8,443
Likes: 3
Trumpy Offline OP
Member
Originally Posted by ghost307
Don't forget that Google may decide to discontinue some of their storage or services at any time and delete your files. Then you're stuck, because they were the storage drive.

That's not the only worrying thing about this plan.
Google had better have a bullet-proof security system on this server, it would be the ultimate target for hackers.

Trumpy #183993 01/29/09 08:51 PM
Joined: Jul 2005
Posts: 223
A
Member
How convenient when Big Brother wants to check what sort of files people have...all for "national security" or "child protection" or the like. And we know the likes of Google, Yahoo, etc. become compliant to the wishes of the government when required. Internet users in places like China would be familiar with this.

Joined: Jul 2004
Posts: 9,923
Likes: 32
G
Member
Google doesn't really care if you are a national security risk or if you like animal porn. you would just get porn site spam. If you talked about bombs you would start getting spam about where to get discount ammonium nitrate and diesel oil on Ebay and there would be an ad for the anarchist handbook from Amazon.


Greg Fretwell
Joined: Mar 2007
Posts: 404
Member
If you have a Hotmail/Windows Live account, you've already got this:

http://skydrive.live.com/

Google Docs does pretty much the same thing, though they have to be files supported by the office suite.

I also use Windows Live Sync (http://sync.live.com/) to keep my laptop and desktop files synchronized. It uses a technology similar to BitTorrent; the server identifies which files have been added/changed/deleted, and then the two computers connect directly to transfer. I think you can even set up a sync with your SkyDrive.

Joined: Jul 2004
Posts: 9,923
Likes: 32
G
Member
I just figured out "Fling" a free FTP client will also synchronize files on a home network.


Greg Fretwell
Joined: Mar 2007
Posts: 404
Member
LiveSync works over the Internet, too. Pretty handy.

Joined: Jul 2002
Posts: 8,443
Likes: 3
Trumpy Offline OP
Member
I note that Yahoo Briefcase is being dropped and is asking users to retrieve their files.

Mind you, with 30MB of storage, how do you compete with the likes of G-Mail that gives you storage space in the GB range?

Now, I'm no conspiracy theorist or anything like it but I reckon, once Google has got everyone on this "cloud" storage thing, it will stop being free all of a sudden, I hope it doesn't go like that, but you never really know until it happens, do you?

(I just find it hard to justify a huge push to get people to save all their documents and files and applications* to a server, miles away, you have no control over what happens to "your" stuff once it is in there.


*If we do go with this G-Drive thing (and lots probably will), will we find that once we upload all our files into the "cloud" that you can only open them files with applications that Google has made for the purpose?
Meaning that if you try and re-download your files, to a HDD or the like, they won't work unless you have that proprietry (sp?) "cloud" application?

Sorry this is mere conjecture on my part, but I do feel it does need to be thought about.

What is your opinion?


Last edited by Trumpy; 02/03/09 12:11 AM. Reason: Typo
Page 1 of 2 1 2

Link Copied to Clipboard
Powered by UBB.threads™ PHP Forum Software 7.7.5