Item — HN Reader

The following quote burns me everytime I see it or it's ilk on blogs:

"What matters is the data and keeping it safe, but the cloud is already handling that chore for many of us, making the hardware more or less disposable."

No the cloud is not handling that chore for most or many people. What it's handling is the data we always wanted to have, but are willing to lose. IOW, that snapshot that I probably wouldn't have taken the time to DL from my phone, but am more than willing to post with Instagram.

When the cloud allows me to store my 4TB of photos and videos and other creative work for a price that is competitive with a HD, and at an upload and download speed where I can use the data where it is (rather than spend a week uploading and pre-downloading a large file), THEN I will agree the cloud is at a point where I could use it instead of a PC with storage.

2 comments

In many parts of the world (probably not the US due to the broken cable monopoly system) home broadband speeds are increasing at a decent enough rate. I've now got 38 Mbit down and 8 Mbit up, which is fast enough to sync any new photos we take. We use JungleDisk and only pay ~ $14.00 per month for storing a lot of treasured family photos.

If I used a portable disk drive I'd have to make sure it's always offsite.

I'm so jealous.

I pay $50 a month for the privilege of and 8mb down/ .5mb up connection.

I have satellite internet. Not only do I have to worry about the weather, but also 900 ms ping times, mediocre speeds, and a daily bandwidth cap.

It's painful for me, as I came from having 35 down and 1 up not long ago. However, it has opened my eyes to the fact that many people in the US (especially in rural areas) do not have access to decent internet.

Even if, you'll never get a guarantee that it will be safe, secure (no encryption will help you if someone can get a snapshot of RAM) and no storm will put it (or your connection) down in the most unfortunate moment.