Here's the short of it... Without a connection to the internet, you computer would be severely handicapped if not rendered nearly useless.
I don't know whether you've heard the latest computer technology buzz word, "In The Cloud". It's all the rage on how you will being using your computer in the future.
Being the cynic I can sometimes be, I dislike the entire concept. Consumers of the future are being given the hard sell about the advantages of working "in the cloud".
What the technology geeks are telling us is to imagine a world where all your software will be online (in the cloud). No longer would you have to worry about installing and constantly updating your software or your operating system (Windows, Mac, Lynx operating systems).
Microsoft is currently trying to push us in this direction with it's "latest product" applications. Some of which I had to succumb to. For example I'm using "Live Mail" (no longer featured). The multiple email accounts I maintain no longer function in the older MS standard email client programs.
In the future manufacturers will downsize your computer to only the bare essentials. Eventually all operating systems and the software you use will be online. No longer will you have to install software, an operating system (other then bare essentials). Neither concern yourself with heavy duty anti-viral software. It would all be done for you.
Ok, here goes Mr. Cynical
Accessibility:
Right now you can buy and own the rights to the software. You can then hard install it on your machine.
Every year (if not less) new versions come out. "In the cloud" would keep up with the latest greatest. Problem is I know some of my older programs in and out and dislike the newer ones. All the latest are using icons and slowly removing the old menu functions. This is in anticipation of the touch screens which will eventually eliminate keyboards. Sorry I like my keyboard and it's shortcut keys. Every time a new version of software comes out you spend the first month or two trying to find the features you accessed prior w/o even thinking about.
Once you purchase software, it's rights to use it and install it become yours. It's yours for as long as you like. If your comfortable with your current version you will not be forced to adjust to a new GUI (Graphical User Interface). You are not required to re-repurchase it every year.
By using software "in the cloud", I tend to think this could be a first step into annual subscriptions fees to rights to access these programs. I might go so far as to wonder if eventually there would be additional fees to fully access all a piece of software's features through add-ons?
Then there's the internet access itself. In large areas of this country dial up modems are the only way rural areas can access the net.
If manufacturers strip down our future PC's to the bare essentials, will the unit price come down for them? I bet not.
Reliability:
I hate to bust anyone's bubble, but what makes the proposed central storage terminals, where these would operate from, immune from hackers? How many credit card numbers, passwords and ID's were stolen in the last year from Giants like Amazon, Playstation and many others. Hell even the Pentagon and Wikileaks got hacked!
Then there's this!
Blogger Status
"Soon" was 1:00 EDT
:-)
What we have here is no finer example of working "in the cloud" when things go South. When I went to view my blog on May 13,2011 7:00 AM, not only was my editor's access down, but every post was missing since May 11th (2 days ago). In addition it re-sent my May 11th post in my email subscriptions as if they were fresh postings. Blogger has been glitchy for the last few days. I suppose that might be what led to this breakdown.
Don't get me wrong, I appreciate the FREE blogger services, but this is a perfect example what can/does happen when you fire up "the cloud" to do some work. Imagine this were a document, a spreadsheet or any other program for that matter that you wanted to work on. In other words, you'd be SOL in being able to do anything.
Even as I type this (in Word 2002 which is installed on my computer) I have no idea when the "cloud" will come back online. Or if my 5 prior posts will have disappeared. The RSS feeds are not coming through either. It's been down for several hours already. By the very fact that I do have "Word 2002" installed on my very own computer I am able to continue to work on this post in anticipation for when the system comes back online.
It's one more reason why I resist too much change. 'Blogger' has been purchased by 'Google' and they are boasting of huge upcoming changes and features. To my way of thinking perhaps blogger programmers were trying to interface with Google and/or add features and someone screwed up. I'm quite happy with the way it is currently. I already lost the ability to use the 'publish' button on the old editing interface several weeks ago. I had to transfer to the new interface. That's "the Cloud" for ya.
Another example-- YouTube made several major changes requiring me to link my personal email accounts to Google's sign in accounts. That resulted in me getting a copywrite violation for a video I never uploaded!
Strike #1 and now that account is in bad standing. Anyone who had this happen will find that there's no way to navigate the appeal process for this specific problem. So I'm stuck with it. In addition YouTube has been tweaking a bunch of changes on it's player nearly every month.
Teams of programmers are paid to "program", whether a piece of software needs it or not. They have all day, everyday. After several months of redesigns, the rest of us have to sort through the mess to untangle the kind of changes the 30 or 40 of them made. I can't even imagine how the dozens of macros in my customized spreadsheet would be affected if someone redesigned my Excel spreadsheet program in "the cloud". Macros are touchy.
Nor could I imagine if every time I went to use 'word' I'd have to spend time re-familiarizing myself.
This would be a nightmare for me. I already have software packages that require steep learning curves. I have 36 multimedia programs, 18 computer utilities and another 18 miscellaneous programs I use frequently. Point is, I'd be spending most of my time trying to get up to speed with updated software (in the cloud) rather then getting anything done.
Working "in the cloud".. it would be more like working "in the fog"!
Changes... bah humbug!
Here's something that's been brought to my attention that's far worse.
What if you where told your ID might violate some sort of "Terms Of Service" and some provider arbitrarily decided that your now forbidden to login?
Imagine for one moment all your files and software programs were arbitrarily shut out by some sort of faulty filtering software on the providers site.
Google has taken over YouTube and the hosting of this blog. I've received updated material that in the future they would be using similar scanning techniques already in use on YouTube to scan my (and others) blog posts for possible copyrighted material which could result in the possible suspension of this (and others) blogs.
I've already taken down dozens of my videos of YouTube in order to avoid forfeiture of those accounts. The also could one day be the likely outcome for these blogs of mine as well. Two or three wrong pictures or cut and pastes from articles could end up shutting this blog down. Granted this may not happen for a while, but it is in the pipeline for the future. I know that for a fact from receiving blogger's IT news feeds.
What happened to this guy is, he had no one to call and resorted to posting on the forums where supposedly Google reps would respond. He posted several times and heard nothing, so he posted on another thread within the forum. After a waste of time over many fruitless inquiries he finally got a response from a Google representative who told him to use the proper forum. The one he posted in the first place. The one where he received no response. When he did, he found that his original post was deleted. So he's left with no recourse. With no possibly of logging in or recovering his files, pictures, documents, etc..
Sometime in the future Google will require some sort of positive ID. While I may not have a problem with that, we all know how Facebook screwed up and released a number of member's telephone numbers and home addresses through it's ever constantly changing updating security settings.
I've been prompted several times on my YouTube accounts to fill in my cell phone number. In return they would send a text message to release my YouTube account. I found ways around that so far, but that may not always be so.
Getting back to this "cloud" garbage, just suppose in he future we have no alternatives and this is the only way we're forced to work on our home computers.
Imagine for moment we find ourselves in the position of this guy. Everything you've ever worked on would be gone with an IT programmer's idiotic screw up that was searching for violations. Violations that never violated the "terms of service" in the first place. There'd be no recourse. These providers never ever let you speak to someone in person
Microsoft itself is pushing into the cloud over the next decade completely. Imagine every file, document and even your finances would be done online and accessible to them on their servers. Most likely the government as well (since these guys are in bed with them).
Imagine further that in order to even access your files you need to be actively hooked up and online (paying a provider) to even begin to use your computer.
I don't care how much inconvenience it causes me. I will stock up on my old fashioned hard drives and computers. Internet can go to hell if that's the way it goes. I'll go back to writing checks and pasting stamps if I have to, but "the cloud" is never going to steal my identity, give it away and allow the corporate/government to watch every move I make.. PERIOD!
Nobody is going to say I violated big brother's "terms of service" unfairly and lock down everything I ever paid for. My pictures, music and videos. They are mine. I paid for them. They are mine and they are going to remain that way.
In short...
Updated Reference Material
(July 28,2011)
(July 28,2011)
This is in regards to what I said about how bloggers may soon me impacted.
"New tools for handling copyright on Blogger"Up until now bloggers have been mostly under the radar with their pictures, cut/paste etc.
DCMA hasn't been much of a consideration even though Google acquired blogger.com back in 2003, Google hadn't focused on the blog operations very much. Perhaps this was because after their purchase of YouTube back in October 2006 they were very busy fending off legal troubles regarding DCMA complaints.
Since that time Google has developed super sophisticated auto filters that can spot and take down DMA violators VERY QUICKLY. Now that the dust has settled down over on YouTube, they can now focus their attention to employing these filters to spot blog violators.
Not saying this is wrong, but over the coming weeks and months, I would suspect we bloggers will start seeing notices. Things could become a little more restrictive.
I've already taken down nearly 100 posts that could be questionable a few weeks ago. Some were videos I uploaded here (to the blog)were ones that YouTube's filters might have found questionable. Videos uploaded to the blog that Google's servers host, no doubt, have these same auto filters scanning for DCMA issues.
Will blogs be held to more restrictive standards and have to be more cautious in their use of pictures, videos or news source (cut/paste) quotes?
Time will tell.
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