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.

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

{Thanks to NORCAL, for the link}

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

I just figured out "Fling" a free FTP client will also synchronize files on a home network.

LiveSync works over the Internet, too. Pretty handy.

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?

They don't want our files. They just want to rent software to us. If we buy software, we only pay once. If we rent, we pay yearly.

I got caught when an accounting program went from purchase to rent. The purchase price was cheap but after a few years they decided rent was better. The yearly rent was almost as much as the purchase price. When I didn't rent, they "quit supporting" the software and it was pretty much useless.

Imagine the money they can make if every program on your computer has to be rented - operating system, firewall, anti-virus, browser, email, photo-shop, movie player, music player, etc.

Now, I'm a believer in open source. If it doesn't run on Ubuntu, I will live without it.

I was under the impression, that the Internet was for FREE dissemination of information, not for big companies to come in and say "this is how it is going to be from now on, like it or get off our Internet"
That was NOT what the Internet was intended to be for.

Trumpy's right on the money.
My experience with big companies and big goverments is that they always end up applying "the golden rule".

It goes like this:
"We have all the gold; therefore we make all the rules".

The internet is "free" like TV is "free". It is free as long as you don't mind looking at a lot of advertising.
The software itself is a huge cash cow.
That is why I stayed on W98 so long. You can find w98 apps, sealed in the, shrink wrap, on Ebay for a couple bucks a disk. These are usually corporate additions or OEM packs that never got used. I just got my first XP pro, bundled with a $100 system that I bought used from gearxs.com (2.8gz P4 Compaq). I paid another $10 for the original setup disks since all it had was the COA sticker. Still a great bargain.
If you don't feel sorry for Bill Gates, there are some warez newsgroups that have MS apps for free.
(alt.binaries.warez.win95-apps)

Have any Google services gone pay yet? We've already stopped purchasing licenses for MS Office at work, and there are two opinions of what we should do next... Those who want to encourage people to use Google Docs, and those in my "camp" would rather use OpenOffice. Either way, you can be sure that Google is doing a ton of data mining with anything you send them. Why else do you think they would offer these services for free?

I would recommend open source software before stopping in at a warez site. Often times the software is better, and you don't have to worry about any copyright infringement.