On Tue, 29 Jun 2010, Yaron wrote:

> I just don't understand The Cloud mentality.

It's nice to be able to access your data from any machine.  It's nice to 
have someone else do your backups for you.  They don't even charge for 
this.  I think it's easy to see both good and bad in "The Cloud" (a 
strange name for giant metal boxes, by the way).


> I want my data on MY MACHINE, in my DIRECT CONTROL. I want my 
> applications running on my machines, in my direct control, because if 
> the apps are running somewhere else, then somewhere else has my data.

Me too.  I do use Google Contacts, Google Calendar and Gmail, but the 
thing I like is that I *do* store everything on my own computer.  You can 
have it both ways.  I would not use Gmail if I didn't have absolutely 
every message immediately available on my own box.  If Google vanishes 
tomorrow, I still have my data.


> I know I'm at the extreme on this. Ever since the late 90s I've been 
> running my own webservers, my own DNS servers and my own Email servers.

It's hard to run ones own email server.  I used to do it, but there are 
hassles.  That said, I might do it again someday.  Meanwhile, Gmail 
provides my SMTP server.


> I'm keeping my desktop, thank yoy. I'm keeping my 'monolithic' operating 
> system. I'm keeping my incredibly overcomplicated system, my incredibly 
> overcomplicated servers, my incredibly overcomplicated network setup, 
> and all my own data.

You are better off, but I suspect you do this kind of thing for a living. 
It isn't an approach that you can recommend to most people.


> And when there's a network outage, I'll still be able to access my 
> stuff.

If the network outage is at Google and you are at home, sure.  More 
likely, the network outage will be at home and you won't be there.  I'm 
saying that a network outage is more likely to keep you from your data if 
you are storing/managing your own data than if Google is doing it for you.

If Google is knocked off the web, it's probably worth about $10 million 
per hour for them to get back on, so you can bet they will be marshalling 
an awesome amount of technical power, attorneys, and anything else they 
can muster to fix it pronto.  My ISP (Comcast) didn't mind when the cable 
was torn from my house by a garbage truck in the back alley.  It took them 
almost a week to send someone out to fix it.  Meanwhile, I could still 
look at Gmail using my cell phone.

Mike