The Web's Limitations (or The Cloud is Not All That It's Cracked Up to Be)
Our email has been web based for years, we can watch TV on Hulu, stream movies and entertainment through Netflix to our TVs, use Soundcloud, Live.fm, and Pandora for music anywhere, and have satellite radio beamed into our cars or phones. There's even Dropbox which acts as our own personal servers (at 2gb for free, or 50gb for $99/yr) that works with multiple devices. It seems as though we have access to anything at anytime. Although, I am going to say it here, we really don't.
I am actually writing this post, as the internet in my apartment in Brooklyn, NY is for whatever reason - just not working. I've done what we all do - unplug, replug, wait for all the blinking lights - run back to the laptop to check, and start the process over if there's no luck, but maybe giving it a few more minutes of downtime. While I wait for the internet gods to be pleased with me again, I've had time to formulate an opinion I've been working on since I was in India in January - and that is - "The Cloud" is not all it's cracked up to be.
In January I was on vacation in India with my best friend, and admittedly we're both wildly addicted to our iPhones. However we had no data plan, and our hotels for 14 out of 15 days did not even offer wifi - which was nice. The one day we stayed at a Marriott we both thought nothing about paying $16 each to have access to it for 24 hours. But it was amazing how not having instant access to the internet kind of rendered us useless. Without Google maps we relied on a guidebook, without email we had to print hostel reservations/train tickets - or even go to a travel agent, and without app suggestions, we had to ask around for the best food in these little Indian towns. Don't get me wrong, the challenge and fun of it all is 100% the reason I travel outside of the country as often as I can, but I hadn't realized how dependent on instant internet access I had become.
Fast forward to being in America though, the second the internet goes out, I am 100% screwed.
All of my docs are on google docs. Can't see 'em.
All of my entertainment is on Hulu. Can't watch it.
All of my friends are on Facebook. Can't stalk them.
All of my friends are on Twitter. Can't talk to them.
All of my work is in my email in Gmail. Can't do anything.
All of my music is on Pandora. Can't listen to it. (Well, for me personally this one's a lie - everything's in iTunes, but still - if I was having a party, I like the Pandora stations)
For some of these things I'm relying on my iPhone for a connection to the outside world. And let's face it - if we're relying on AT&T's 3G network in New York City - we're screwed.
While you can't say "The dog ate my homework!" any longer, you certainly can say, "Ohhh sorry, my internet connection at home went out!"
Before this forced down time, I was just tonight looking into storage ability on The Cloud to put my terabyte worth of photos, movies, tv, and paperwork on it to have access from any device. By crowdsourcing Twitter, I received a whole bunch of answers, and the best one so far looks to be a company called Sugarsync. Although buying 500gb for $400 a year seems ludicrous when I can buy a Terabyte external harddrive that would fit in my pocket for around $100 one time. The only problem is that it couldn't plug into a iPhone or iPad.
I was THIS close to actually pulling the trigger on it (they offer a 30 day free trial) when this internet embargo happened. And I realized, if I were to go completely to the cloud - if I lost access to the internet, I would have no way to do absolutely anything. Then I thought back to India and all the travel I do, and how much I still rely on accessing a harddrive of some kind.
The United States is just not there yet with its internet capabilities, and currently ranks 18th in countries with the fastest speeds. I have plenty of friends and family still on dialup in rural areas, and there a number of places where I just don't have access to it. Our internet infrastructure is not competitive enough, nor up to the standard of this power user.
And as I'm finishing this post up, I am still - without internet, which happens at least 3-4x per week.
I am actually writing this post, as the internet in my apartment in Brooklyn, NY is for whatever reason - just not working. I've done what we all do - unplug, replug, wait for all the blinking lights - run back to the laptop to check, and start the process over if there's no luck, but maybe giving it a few more minutes of downtime. While I wait for the internet gods to be pleased with me again, I've had time to formulate an opinion I've been working on since I was in India in January - and that is - "The Cloud" is not all it's cracked up to be.
In January I was on vacation in India with my best friend, and admittedly we're both wildly addicted to our iPhones. However we had no data plan, and our hotels for 14 out of 15 days did not even offer wifi - which was nice. The one day we stayed at a Marriott we both thought nothing about paying $16 each to have access to it for 24 hours. But it was amazing how not having instant access to the internet kind of rendered us useless. Without Google maps we relied on a guidebook, without email we had to print hostel reservations/train tickets - or even go to a travel agent, and without app suggestions, we had to ask around for the best food in these little Indian towns. Don't get me wrong, the challenge and fun of it all is 100% the reason I travel outside of the country as often as I can, but I hadn't realized how dependent on instant internet access I had become.
Fast forward to being in America though, the second the internet goes out, I am 100% screwed.
All of my docs are on google docs. Can't see 'em.
All of my entertainment is on Hulu. Can't watch it.
All of my friends are on Facebook. Can't stalk them.
All of my friends are on Twitter. Can't talk to them.
All of my work is in my email in Gmail. Can't do anything.
All of my music is on Pandora. Can't listen to it. (Well, for me personally this one's a lie - everything's in iTunes, but still - if I was having a party, I like the Pandora stations)
For some of these things I'm relying on my iPhone for a connection to the outside world. And let's face it - if we're relying on AT&T's 3G network in New York City - we're screwed.
While you can't say "The dog ate my homework!" any longer, you certainly can say, "Ohhh sorry, my internet connection at home went out!"
Before this forced down time, I was just tonight looking into storage ability on The Cloud to put my terabyte worth of photos, movies, tv, and paperwork on it to have access from any device. By crowdsourcing Twitter, I received a whole bunch of answers, and the best one so far looks to be a company called Sugarsync. Although buying 500gb for $400 a year seems ludicrous when I can buy a Terabyte external harddrive that would fit in my pocket for around $100 one time. The only problem is that it couldn't plug into a iPhone or iPad.
I was THIS close to actually pulling the trigger on it (they offer a 30 day free trial) when this internet embargo happened. And I realized, if I were to go completely to the cloud - if I lost access to the internet, I would have no way to do absolutely anything. Then I thought back to India and all the travel I do, and how much I still rely on accessing a harddrive of some kind.
The United States is just not there yet with its internet capabilities, and currently ranks 18th in countries with the fastest speeds. I have plenty of friends and family still on dialup in rural areas, and there a number of places where I just don't have access to it. Our internet infrastructure is not competitive enough, nor up to the standard of this power user.
And as I'm finishing this post up, I am still - without internet, which happens at least 3-4x per week.