There is a disisdent currently in a chinese jail who was sure that Yahoo wouldn't tell the Chinese government who he was. They did. It depends on organizational priorities of the cloud host.
On Mon, 2010-03-01 at 23:22 -0500, Sean O'Connor wrote: > As with anything it all depends on context. In the context of > developers/IT people and platforms, your description is a reasonable > one for the term cloud computing. In the consumer context, the term > has a different meaning in it's most common use. In that context, the > term is used to refer to any service where the majority of the > application's execution and storage happens on centralized servers > which completely abstract any operational concerns from the user. > Examples would include gmail, dropbox, google docs, etherpad, github, > and squarespace. > > > All of these services allow technically competent but not necessarily > sophisticated users to setup, configure, scale, and use systems which > previously they would have had to have hired an IT administrator to > setup and manage. They don't need to worry about dealing with > outages, running out of resources, or keeping track of backups. This > is enormously powerful and valuable for a very large section of users. > > > Finally as a bit of a bonus, there are a number of collaboration type > features which become much easier to implement when users are all > working on a common system. > > > If the privacy concerns are too great of a risk for you and you are > willing to spend the time and money to operate your own systems that's > absolutely your business and your right. Understand however that for > many other people, the ability to fill out a form and not have email > infrastructure be a problem for their company anymore is incredibly > valuable. > > > A side note on the privacy concern/trust issue: think about the > incentives for Google or any other large "cloud computing" company. > They basically make more money in the logn term by increasing the > number of people who use their services. Anything they do to > significantly violate a user's trust decreases the number of people > who will use their service over the long term. At the end of the day, > they may do stupid things (e.g. expose your address book via buzz) but > they have very strong incentives to correct those mistakes quickly and > to learn from them. When evaluating a service you need to look at > more than just what could they do and think about what makes sense for > them to do. Look at the consequences for them if they do something > "evil". > > > ____________________________ > Sean O'Connor > http://seanoc.com > > > On Mon, Mar 1, 2010 at 10:55 PM, Chris Knadle > <[email protected]> wrote: > On Monday 01 March 2010 21:54:51 Matthias Johnson wrote: > > On Mar 1, 2010, at 9:14 PM, Mark Wallace > > > > <[email protected]> wrote: > > > I see. the problem is that I just experienced over 60 > hours with no > > > internet access. Wouldn't that make it impossible to do > much of > > > anything with my computer? > > > > Ok so this is probably the biggest back and forth on lug I > have seen > > to date and it has morphed slightly off the original email > but to me > > this is the most damning thing about cloud computing. If we > were in an > > always connected world it might work but we are not. Also > the fact > > that open wifi is slowly becoming illegal these days the > filtered > > options for public wifi will probably be less than > desirable. Cloud > > computing is definately something not needed IMO. It also > brings up > > the issues of fair use and such. Which laws apply? Where > the server > > resides or the user? > > > > Matthias Johnson > > I'll throw this in, as it might answer some of your questions > concerning > "cloud computing" such as... "Whaaat is it?!?" [Cat from Red > Dwarf...] > > I recently went to an IEEE meeting about cloud computing (Nov > 2009 I think?). > As far as I could tell the term "cloud computing" mostly means > "an automated > method for a user to request and for a system to provision a > virtual machine, > with the specified resources". In other words, you visit a > web page to order > a virtual box, you choose what kind of setup you want from a > list of > predefined configurations (one of which hopefully fits most of > what you need), > you click "go", and in a couple of minutes you've got a remote > box available > to you that you can ssh to, where you can modify the setup > from there. > > Sounded like from there you can automate spawning virtual > machines with > duplicate configurations if you need to scale some network > application. > As far as I could tell, it's mostly geared towards businesses > that can use > that kind of automation in order to handle a network load that > varies. It's > not an end-all be-all solution -- it's essentially a niche > market. > > For an individual, there isn't much need for this kind of > system unless that > person is running a business like Craig's List, Paypal, etc -- > something that > needs to be able to scale. Whether "cloud computing" could > host services like > these more cheaply than doing it "in-house" isn't clear. If > it isn't, then > "cloud computing" is essentially a solution in search of a > problem. > > > -- Chris > > -- > > Chris Knadle > [email protected] > _______________________________________________ > Mid-Hudson Valley Linux Users Group > http://mhvlug.org > http://mhvlug.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mhvlug > > Upcoming Meetings (6pm - 8pm) MHVLS > Auditorium > Mar 3 - Sahana and 7 Years of MHVLUG Celebration > Apr 7 - Nagios > May 5 - Android > > > _______________________________________________ > Mid-Hudson Valley Linux Users Group http://mhvlug.org > http://mhvlug.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mhvlug > > Upcoming Meetings (6pm - 8pm) MHVLS Auditorium > Mar 3 - Sahana and 7 Years of MHVLUG Celebration > Apr 7 - Nagios > May 5 - Android -- Robert Mark Wallace 60 Delaware Road Newburgh, NY 12550-3802 Telephone: (845) 566-0586 Please note my new address and update your records _______________________________________________ Mid-Hudson Valley Linux Users Group http://mhvlug.org http://mhvlug.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mhvlug Upcoming Meetings (6pm - 8pm) MHVLS Auditorium Mar 3 - Sahana and 7 Years of MHVLUG Celebration Apr 7 - Nagios May 5 - Android
