Wozniak: reliance on Cloud could prove "horrendous"

I said this when cloud/remote systems were much less popular and were only beginning to be pushed. I said this when DRM was introduced to games as a positive for them.

Where I work we recently switched to a proprietary off-site system and we experience around 100% more downtime and day-to-day issues (a lot of which will never be fixed because it is provided "as is"!!) than the old in-house system that was also much less complicated. All this hassle and drama because it's an "industry standard". Well, I guess the industry is full of idiots who can't think for themselves and only respond to buzzwords then...

Posted:9 months ago

"The industry is full of idiots who can't think for themselves and only respond to buzzwords"

Couldnt have said it any better.

However regarding the article I just think remote storage and over reliance on the cloud, will sponser, strong and opressive Digital rights managments and End User License agreements.

Now a days, when you buy something digitally, they make you agree to these huge EULA's that its almost as if nothing you buy is never really yours at all.

So I came to the conclusion of, why buy anything at all if there are so many restictions on what you can do with it. And bottom line, any software system, code or program can be hacked. Personal data will also be stolen in huge quantities and these tough EULA and DRM will only sponsor more piracy, which is easier with digital content.

Bottom line, I just thing having so much reliance on the cloud SUCKS. I buy less and less apple products because of it.

Edited 1 times. Last edit by Rick Lopez on 9th August 2012 2:02pm

Posted:9 months ago

In-house Solution : You're to blame
External Solution : You can pass on the blame
Corporate Culture: Being able to pass on the blame reduces chances of being fired
Result: Technologies being externalized for no technological reasons.

It's not just what fuels dumb technologies, it also fuel an entire industry of corporate consultants. Even if it is your idea, make sure a corporate consultant is ultimately the reason for the idea being signed off on and implemented. So when it backfires, it won't hurt you. Make sure the consultant says what you want him to say without ever revealing being your puppet.

Posted:9 months ago

I've been saying this since I heard of the whole cloud as magic be-all, end-all solution. It's the same thing as everyone putting all their money into one bank because they hear and read that it's the safest thing ever, then being shocked (shocked, I say) when that bank gets robbed blind. Of course, your money is insured at a bank to a point, but your data? Ha and ha, says that TOS...

Not to doom-say too much, but once there's another huge data hack (Dropbox, anyone?) or some big cloud service goes off the ether like the Hindenburg and people who aren't bothered to back up files at home before the went to the cloud alone start going nuts (Megaupload, anyone?) and have NO legal recourse thanks to that TOS, maybe we'll see some common sense come back to things.

But maybe not - we're getting too lazy and we're going to pay for it, that's for sure.

Posted:9 months ago

Oh yeah, that photo is HILARIOUS. It looks as if a magic cloud-hand is about to smack Woz in the head for doubting its mighty powers. Duck, Woz, Duck!

Posted:9 months ago

Meanwhile, the other big story this week, account hacked (not because of "cloud") and all data wiped and lost forever including family photos. The cloud is a tool, use it as such, stop blaming the tools, most of us having been using cloud based email for ten or more years. The majority of people don't have the wherewithal to safely look after their data and back it up, Woz is an exception to that.

Posted:9 months ago

Anyone can and SHOULD buy an external hard drive, thumb drives, SD cards or whatever and keep home backups of important stuff. I've lost a few years of work thanks to a non-cloud server issue I had no control over, a nasty site hack happening at the same time as a fatal hard drive crash (all three occurred at once, which is a huge WTF impossibility, but it did happen). So I sort of disagree here.

Most people don't have the wherewithal? Of course they do. With all the TV, radio, online and tech news about all these PC backup services talking about how dangerous it is to NOT back up data, but then claiming the cloud is the ONLY solution (which probably makes external HD makers quite pissy), you can blame the tools when they don't do what they say ALL the time. If you're selling security, it NEEDS to be secure, period.

Posted:9 months ago

At no point did I claim cloud is the only solution, what I said was it's a tool, treat it as such. If all your backups are at home then one day you stand to lose everything, but ask the person in the street, most of who don't read tech news, nor pay attention to TV and radio telling them to backup their data any more than they used to keep their negatives locked up somewhere other than the house, you will find the majority have an at best poor backup strategy. Remote storage (or cloud as we like to call it today) should be a part of that, not the only part of it.

Posted:9 months ago