Why I love the cloud...

By binaryzero
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Grand Master

binaryzero

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Posted

Sooooo my 2011 MacBook Pro just died. I suspect it's because of the faulty AMD GPUs that shipped with these machines.Anyway, how I feel about the Mac dying -  . I don't really care, I've got plenty of machines i can use.

 

However what I really cbf'd right now was pulling out the hard drive and getting some files off that i needed. Then I remembered everything I needed was in my dropbox! Great, install dropbox, boom got the documents I was working on.

 

Next was Chrome favourites - Easy, signed into Chrome and boom! Niiice. What I didnt even realise was it syncs usernames\passwords. Cool!

 

Anyways point of the story - the cloud has helped me get pretty much back to work within half an hour on my spare machine, after my main machine died. Damn, if this happened 10 years ago I'd be breaking a lot more of a sweat, didn't even break one tonight.

 

Gotta love having your NAS handling your downloads ;). Queue is still humming away.

 

Cool story, bro.

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Grand Master

compl3x

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 I store and retrieve stuff from it all the time. Chrome auto downloads all of my extensions and settings. I have all of my music, which I have methodically encoded and edited, on the cloud just in case I lose my local stuff. Various documents/receipts/pdfs. Etc.

 

The cloud is great. Just don't store dick pics on it  :rofl:

Grand Master

COKid

Posted
Posted

Backups are great. I have 3 copies of everything I value. One copy is always off-site. 

 

But the cloud? Storing stuff on someone else's server that I have little or no control over? Nah, think I'll pass. The price we pay for the convenience just isn't worth the tradeoff in terms of privacy.

 

My data under my absolute control. Period.

 

Be that as it may, I'm glad things worked out for you.

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Grand Master

+LogicalApex MVC

Posted
  • MVC
Posted

Backups are great. I have 3 copies of everything I value. One copy is always off-site. 

 

But the cloud? Storing stuff on someone else's server that I have little or no control over? Nah, think I'll pass. The price we pay for the convenience just isn't worth the tradeoff in terms of privacy.

 

My data under my control. Period.

 

Exactly.

 

The fools errand of the cloud is wrapped in the eternal nature of digital data. To place your data on a cloud service not only requires you to trust that service today, but to trust everything that could happen to it (including mergers, bankruptcy asset liquidations, security lapses, etc.) into eternity. Even encrypting at rest in a cloud storage scenario (typically done via client side encryption prior to upload) isn't a good solution into perpetuity. As the computers of tomorrow will make today's impossible to crack encryption a walk in the park.

 

There is a reason the most important commodity of the 21st century is information. Your data may appear valueless to you, but it is more valuable than gold to many.

Grand Master

compl3x

Posted
Posted

Backups are great. I have 3 copies of everything I value. One copy is always off-site. 

 

But the cloud? Storing stuff on someone else's server that I have little or no control over? Nah, think I'll pass. The price we pay for the convenience just isn't worth the tradeoff in terms of privacy.

 

My data under my absolute control. Period.

 

Be that as it may, I'm glad things worked out for you.

 

 

I wouldn't put everything there. For example, there is no personally identifiable info. No tax returns, nothing I get from the government, medical records, etc.

 

I don't care if people steal my music from the cloud. It'll probably improve their library. I don't care if someone steal my receipt for headphones I recently bought.

 

 

There is a reason the most important commodity of the 21st century is information. Your data may appear valueless to you, but it is more valuable than gold to many.

 

 

Very good point. I am disturbed at how indifferent or even hostile people are to the idea of privacy. I was having a conversation with a friend about privacy and he ridiculed the idea of protecting himself from ID theft, etc. He seemed to think it won't happen to him. 99% of me hopes it doesn't, 1% hopes it does just to illustrate a point.  :blush:

Grand Master

BajiRav

Posted
Posted

Cloud is great but always keep a local backup. It looks like OP got lucky mostly because how the post is written so now is a great time to do it properly.

 

I have everything in OneDrive with all important system folders mapped to it (Desktop, Documents, Pictures) and I am seriously considering putting all my home videos (loads of HD footage thanks to my Canon Vixia) in there. If I have a new PC or re-image something, I just make sure that local backup is updated and login to the new PC and then everything flows in.

 

Exactly.

 

The fools errand of the cloud is wrapped in the eternal nature of digital data. To place your data on a cloud service not only requires you to trust that service today, but to trust everything that could happen to it (including mergers, bankruptcy asset liquidations, security lapses, etc.) into eternity. Even encrypting at rest in a cloud storage scenario (typically done via client side encryption prior to upload) isn't a good solution into perpetuity. As the computers of tomorrow will make today's impossible to crack encryption a walk in the park.

 

There is a reason the most important commodity of the 21st century is information. Your data may appear valueless to you, but it is more valuable than gold to many.

 

I think those fears are somewhat rational but I bet you can trust Google, Amazon and Microsoft to not go under anytime soon so their clouds are your best options. Security wise all three have been top notch.

I have everything in OneDrive and I don't remember the last time I felt I was not in control of my data.

Grand Master

binaryzero

Posted
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I've got 3 or 4 NAS boxes, backups are taken care of. I'm fully aware of what I need to do to protect myself.

 

This post was written when I was half ###### and pretty stoned, when you're like that care factor for computers is zero. Hell, just like it is when I'm at work, but pfft i make a living off em.

 

The best part of the post has been removed, booo. 

Grand Master

cork1958

Posted
Posted

Backups are great. I have 3 copies of everything I value. One copy is always off-site. 

 

But the cloud? Storing stuff on someone else's server that I have little or no control over? Nah, think I'll pass. The price we pay for the convenience just isn't worth the tradeoff in terms of privacy.

 

My data under my absolute control. Period.

 

Be that as it may, I'm glad things worked out for you.

 

More than exactly even!

 

Wouldn't use the cloud in a million years to store ANYTHING of mine! Although the cloud COULD be an awesome tool, just to many weirdos out there to make me think it's even close to safe.

 

Just ask any of those people that had their private pics hacked from the cloud what they think of it now.

 

Don't keep ANYTHING of any importance on any computer here. Have 3 different external hard drives for that. Have never had a hard drive die on me yet either.

 

What if OP hadn't had a spare machine to get their stuff from the cloud with, then what? I know most of us here on Neowin probably have more than 1 machine, but most regular Joe Blows don't. What would you have done then?

 

Definitely glad OP was able to get their stuff back though.

Grand Master

compl3x

Posted
Posted

 

Wouldn't use the cloud in a million years to store ANYTHING of mine! Although the cloud COULD be an awesome tool, just to many weirdos out there to make me think it's even close to safe.

 

 

I store all my music and playlists on the cloud as a backup, what could anyone do with that? Find out some of the embarrassing pop songs I like? Blackmail me? I have some .pdfs, most of which are manuals for electronics and appliances. I have my wallpaper collection.

 

Not owrried about any of that stuff being compromised.

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