I remember several years ago there was a discussion about 'The Cloud' and whether people would put their faith in it. I seem to remember my arguing that it was like the days of old (late 70's early 80's) and getting people to give up their ledger books.
Today's article below got me to thinking: my 16 years of digital photos are now stored completely on the cloud. When I want to compose a word processing or spreadsheet document, I longer rely on a program on my computer....rather I use google docs to compose and to store all my documents. Like with gmail, I no longer have to type the 'save' button. It's always saved. My emails of 10+ years as well as all my contacts are stored on the cloud.....and available everywhere. My computer no longer has any programs originating from a CD. Even Windows 10 was downloaded....as were several handful of useful apps. My browser, Chrome, has all my history and my bookmarks.....no matter where I am, no matter whether I'm using my phone or my desktop or my tablet or someone else's phone.
If my computer were to suddenly melt into a pile on my desk, I'd buy a new one (with Windows 10 installed) and be back in the swing of things in minutes.
We've come a long way!
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/25/techn ... uting.html

Thanks Parrot
Wish I was a computer geek sometimes to grasp all the info.
I guess I am afraid to down load and try things.
Not retired and when I coe home from work I do not give myself time to play on the laptop a lot.
Perhaps would be a good way or opportunity for expat groups to meet over a coffee to share and learn some tricks from the edumacated.

I save all of the work I want my students to do onto a cloud and share it with them. They all have Ipads and when they complete what they have to do I can correct it and comment on it. When I started we referred to ourselves as, 'chalkies.'
Now when the internet/wireless drops out the young teachers have a meltdown

I agree that the cloud-based services are probably one of the best and most convenient feature of the internet. Furthermore the cloud-storage service has ( or will ) become a must-have utility in our daily lives.Personally i play it safe and do not upload any personal information, and i keep a back-up copy of documents and photos on my pc or on a portable drive. Few weeks ago Microsoft reduced the free cloud space, other companies have shut down, remember MegaUpload. When your cloud service provider goes out of business ( like MegaUpload ) you end up with no docs, no pics... Then we must ask ourselves how secure are these cloud services.. What are we willing to lose in case of major disruptions ?
Caveat emptor...

the-monk wrote:I agree that the cloud-based services are probably one of the best and most convenient feature of the internet. Furthermore the cloud-storage service has ( or will ) become a must-have utility in our daily lives.Personally i play it safe and do not upload any personal information, and i keep a back-up copy of documents and photos on my pc or on a portable drive. Few weeks ago Microsoft reduced the free cloud space, other companies have shut down, remember MegaUpload. When your cloud service provider goes out of business ( like MegaUpload ) you end up with no docs, no pics... Then we must ask ourselves how secure are these cloud services.. What are we willing to lose in case of major disruptions ?
Caveat emptor...

I'd never say Microsoft or google or any of the other big cloud services might find themselves out of business, but......megaupload was involved in some shady business practices when it was shut down. Ultimately, though, you either have faith in the cloud or you may as well continue using your ledger book (backups on your own). U2U.

There are a couple of points (potential problems) with cloud services.

If they are free then you are the product not the client.
If they are free then there is no comeback if your data gets erased
Everything you upload is potentially there forever (especially if you want to delete it)
If your only copy is in the cloud then you have no backup

sometimewoodworker wrote:There are a couple of points (potential problems) with cloud services.

If they are free then you are the product not the client.
If they are free then there is no comeback if your data gets erased
Everything you upload is potentially there forever (especially if you want to delete it)
If your only copy is in the cloud then you have no backup

I've resigned myself to being the product....whether it's having Netflix know what sort of shows I like, google knowing what it is I'm searching for, or my gps knowing where my home is. Up to this point, I haven't found any of that intrusive......rather, it's been helpful.

My brother sent me an email a few days ago and said hotmail had lost 4000 of his emails. I'm not quite sure how that happens......but I have heard of others having problems with hotmail. U2TP, I've not heard of anyone losing google data (but I'd never say never). You can backup anything you save to google....your contacts, photos, emails, etc.....all at one handy location https://takeout.google.com/settings/takeout?pli=1

"If your only copy is in the cloud then you have no backup" That argument....."if your only copy is on the harddrive, then you have no backup" was the excuse to keep those ledger books going........more than 30 years ago.

All that said and done, I understand that someone wanting to create havoc in the world could either take out all the servers serving ATM machines or take out the cloud or shut down gps services (maybe we should continue to keep a spare map in the car......just in case!).
I also understand that having your data on the cloud requires you to have an internet connection to be able to access that data. Years ago, that might have been reason to keep a thumb drive handy....but today, it's hard to go anywhere where you can't access the internet.

I use cloud services (Google and Box) but I also physically back-up everything on my own drives. I travel a lot for work, and there are (1) a surprising number of places where there is no internet, or it is so slow as to be useless, and (2) certain countries where various restrictions are in place (China, some Middle East countries).
I am in and out of China a lot, and of course China fell out with Google in a big way, so Google is mostly not availble (unless you use a VPN, and that can bring its own problems).
Generally all my important stuff is backed up at multiple locations and a 64GB metal encrypted USB stick on my key-ring holds essential documents etc.

With Yahoo on the skids, here's how to get your photos out of Flickr

For those with many precious photos stored on Flickr, Yahoo's purchase may inspire some concern. Here are some tips for backing up your images, including ways to automatically save your images to cloud services and get more reliable backups.

Given that Yahoo has been losing money and Verizon (seriously, Verizon)picked up the company at a low-ball price, something has got to go. It could be Flickr. I doubt Verizon will dump your images, but you never know. None of us expected Google Reader to go away, but it did.

http://www.zdnet.com/article/with-yahoo ... of-flickr/