While I’m writing this blog post, I am waiting for my fiancé’ to get done with work. I am on my Inspiron 11z, no cords, grabbing WiFi and using a battery. Next to me, my BB blinks red for new email. It’s amazing how I can be in such a foreign place such as her office and yet be totally comfortable, the Internet there, Twitter and Facebook blinking at me occasionally from TweetDeck. Google Chrome is there as well, along with Outlook. I have a bunch of people I could talk to on Pidgin across 4 or 5 different chat protocols. It’s pretty scary if you think about it.
Years ago I would back up my data to disk. First it was floppies, then 100 Mb Zip Disks and then CDs. I still have so many old backups of documents, applications, conversations on a binder of cds I never look at. I have had the same spindle of CD-Rs and one of DVD+RWs for over 2 years. They are pretty low, but I hardly ever use them. Why is this? Why this change over the last year plus? Is it the Cloud?
Cloud computing has lots of different definitions. To me, it basically means that I can access anywhere. I can read, write, listen to all my favorite things right here, or at work, or on a train, or anywhere. I can make a Twitter post in an airport, while listening to my Pandora account, and be chatting to someone at the same time. I know some people are paranoid about their privacy and all that, which I respect, but I honestly don’t think my stuff is all that special, so privacy isn’t that important in certain aspects to me. At the same time though, I still use Outlook at home. While all my email accounts are IMAP, (gotta be synced everywhere), I just haven’t found a great alternative to having a centralized app for email. I also haven’t converted to Google Docs yet, and still use Word, Excel, and the like. Why is that? Why is it in certain aspects I’m so willing to put everything out there, while email and my documents are not?
I think a lot of it is habit. Documents are supposed to be on your C drive, right there next to Spreadsheets and various other crap. That’s where I’ve always put them, and I just haven’t given enough of a try to put it all on the Cloud. Don’t know if I should or not (the idea of needing a doc and not having b/c of lack of Internet terrifies me), but who knows. I am however beginning to use DropBox, and so far I like it as a nicer way to shovel around files between home, work, etc.
Maybe in a year I’ll be able to have a computer with an OS, a web browser, and nothing else. I don’t think I’m there yet though.
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