I Am So 1995
The digital world has switched to the cloud, yet I still have my feet firmly on the ground.
At home, I use a local email client on a big black desktop computer. I use software that was installed from a CD. I have a puny mobile data plan on my Symbian-based work-phone, and I haven't used a touch screen since I ran over my Palm PDA with my great big silver station-wagon sometime in 2002.
My friends all have G-mail accounts, and I'm still mulling whether or not to use DropBox.
There was a time when I wanted to ditch local computing and entrench myself in the Google-sphere: G-mail, Chrome, Android, Google+. The theory behind Chromebook, despite it's very shaky and unpopular start, sounds brilliant: Doesn't matter if you drop your Chromebook in the loo, simply log in from any Chromebook machine and all your settings and preferences instantly appear before you. (I would have used the word "magically", but I think it is trademarked by Apple...)
But I resisted all that for one reason: control. Living in the cloud seems to push users one step away from controlling their data. Google isn't going to disappear so fast, but what happens if they decide to change the conditions of use and suddenly you are left without an email address? Or what happens if they suddenly decide to drop storage limits to an unworkable number? What if Google decides that they will stop providing Google Docs, upon which you and your family now rely? After all, they blocked Google Video to new uploads shortly after they bought YouTube.
I own my data. My email is mine, my photos are mine, the software is mine. I have two internal hard-drives (one partitioned for the OS and data, the other is a backup drive) and I have an external hard drive that I keep off-site and bring home periodially to backup my data). I might still have a 1995 attitude about data storage, but it's mine, all mine.
Amazon is the latest one calling me to the cloud. The Kindle Fire is a rediculouly priced $199 7" tablet, unabashedly designed to suck users in to the Amazon.com ecosystem by offering 20GB of free cloud storage and limited-time Prime membership on-the-house - as enticing an offer as you are going to get.
I can barely shake the urge to throw myself at Jeff Bezos' mercy. But I will evade the temptation of the fiery Amazonian cloud, just like I continue to resist the beckoning calls emanating from the hallowed Googleplex. For there is nothing more satisfying than knowing that you are in complete control of your data...until the disk drives crash and your precious family photos go up in an plume of digital smoke.
Comments are most welcome!
Follow on Twitter: @ykarp
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At home, I use a local email client on a big black desktop computer. I use software that was installed from a CD. I have a puny mobile data plan on my Symbian-based work-phone, and I haven't used a touch screen since I ran over my Palm PDA with my great big silver station-wagon sometime in 2002.
My friends all have G-mail accounts, and I'm still mulling whether or not to use DropBox.
There was a time when I wanted to ditch local computing and entrench myself in the Google-sphere: G-mail, Chrome, Android, Google+. The theory behind Chromebook, despite it's very shaky and unpopular start, sounds brilliant: Doesn't matter if you drop your Chromebook in the loo, simply log in from any Chromebook machine and all your settings and preferences instantly appear before you. (I would have used the word "magically", but I think it is trademarked by Apple...)
But I resisted all that for one reason: control. Living in the cloud seems to push users one step away from controlling their data. Google isn't going to disappear so fast, but what happens if they decide to change the conditions of use and suddenly you are left without an email address? Or what happens if they suddenly decide to drop storage limits to an unworkable number? What if Google decides that they will stop providing Google Docs, upon which you and your family now rely? After all, they blocked Google Video to new uploads shortly after they bought YouTube.
I own my data. My email is mine, my photos are mine, the software is mine. I have two internal hard-drives (one partitioned for the OS and data, the other is a backup drive) and I have an external hard drive that I keep off-site and bring home periodially to backup my data). I might still have a 1995 attitude about data storage, but it's mine, all mine
Amazon is the latest one calling me to the cloud. The Kindle Fire is a rediculouly priced $199 7" tablet, unabashedly designed to suck users in to the Amazon.com ecosystem by offering 20GB of free cloud storage and limited-time Prime membership on-the-house - as enticing an offer as you are going to get.
I can barely shake the urge to throw myself at Jeff Bezos' mercy. But I will evade the temptation of the fiery Amazonian cloud, just like I continue to resist the beckoning calls emanating from the hallowed Googleplex. For there is nothing more satisfying than knowing that you are in complete control of your data...until the disk drives crash and your precious family photos go up in an plume of digital smoke.
Comments are most welcome!
Follow on Twitter: @ykarp
Subscribe to Y. Karp? Why Not! or follow on Facebook (see the side-bar).
Add this blog to your RSS feed reader
im with you yoss...my mobile phone is about 6 years old, i have never really been near an ipad, im not 100% sure what a kindle is and i have no idea whatsoever 'cloud' is all about. i miss 1995 too !
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