Musings of Old Man Joe

Irish guy living in Los Angeles

computing

In the Clouds.

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There has been recently a large push to keep our data in the Cloud, to have greater access to all our data and not just what we can carry on our devices. This for the most part is a good thing and is the way to go in the future. It changes the way we look and interact with mobile devices. I have been using cloud computing for a number of years, and I like having a back up of important data.

Having said that I not only back up in the cloud, I have a physical back up at home. I keep this because I although I have a fair amount of confidence in the online systems we have today. My guilt if there was a problem and I didnt’ have a back up would give me great consternation. NASA has back ups in triplicate and so should I.

Recently with the Playstation network outage due to hackers gaining access to data. It became to all who have a PS3 how much we were complacent in regards to the network. How much we assume that Sony would have the up to date safe-guards when it came to personal data. I was not a premium member (although I have considered it), so I only have a username & password to be hacked.
Also I have begun to question the paid services like mobile me. I have had problems with syncing data between computers. The phone works fine and if I log into the web version it’s also ok. I believe this is the direction companies have been moving toward. But the paid services need to be on the ball to warrant payment. There are too many free options to get exactly the same cloud experience.
I like cloud computing and the chance of better options on a mobile device. As with any transition there will be stumbles. It’s not a hardware issue like it was in the 90’s, today it’s software. Lessons have been learned, I hope the application will be painless.

Microsoft, the e-mail Dinosaur! Hacked accounts and living in the Cloud!

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I live in the Clouds, the fact you are reading this is it’s on a server somewhere! And for the usual things I am quite ok with that. My e-mail syncs over the different devices I use. In other words I am a bit of a geek and I like that! I use Mac but I am Windows friendly, I just want it to work; and work well!

Like many people I have had many e-mail accounts in my time, some connected with work and some connected to the provider I was using to access the web. A few weeks ago I was made aware that my brother had received a couple of very weird e-mails from an old windows account. My fault for not thinking about it but it took quite a few attempts to access the account. And although the e-mail account for reset was itself old, my phone number was the same and I was eventually able to access the account and make it my own again.

I did try the first time to contact hotmail/Microsoft and see what help I could get. Turns out that all you can get is resetting the account over the internet. If anything worse was too happen you would be left high and dry. You see all the tech response persons I talked to were in India, and they really didn’t know anything other than fixing my windows machine. It’s like I have gone back ten years and my registry is messed up, or I am missing drivers. I haven’t had to deal with this in years.  I am on a mac now so I really don’t have software issues, (hey it’s a fact)! And the other reason is even on my clunky underpowered windows netbook, I haven’t had those issues; XP is quite a stable OS!

So it was with exasperation I started to think of cloud computing, and how it will be if I trust my all to the cloud. What kind of a response can I expect from the company I trust my all to? Microsoft is clearly still in the 90’s, and is still fixing registry errors.

Apple will be venturing even more with the new data forest that’s being brought online soon. I have been with Mobile Me for a number of years, originally  it wasn’t that great, and the upgrades were painful. But it works well now, and I hear there will be a big change this year. Another reference to the data forest being built.

Google seems to be better equipped with a form you can fill out and give more pertinent information. Then a person can get back to you and fix your issue. Within 24 hours I have been told, and sometimes faster. This may not be perfect if my all is in the cloud and the rain has come; but it is on the right path.

I say to any and all, only put up things on the web that you would like to share, because with all the privacy settings in the world things can go wrong. And when you agreed to the terms of service to use the site I am sure the lawyers were protecting the company, not the user.

I have not checked other sites to see how they handle hacked account issues, it is up to the user to find out if the company you give your data to is looking after your info securely. And if the unthinkable does happen, I hope the company has a system in place to get you back quickly. I mean it is your digital life we are talking about isn’t it!

Safari Youtube not talking?

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Had a issue over the last few days with Safari and Youtube. I would be able to play flash video on other sites but on Youtube nothing. Not even the hint of a player loading. Except when I went to a Channel page!

It turns out the problem is when the browser gets to the Youtube page there is some communication so youtube knows the type of browser and sends the video. Well for some reason it stopped on my macbook, they decided to have a time out and not talk. On my other computers it worked ok. But in looking up the problem in the forums it wasn’t just me. The fix is simple and on my mac I went the the info tab for Safari from the applications folder. Then just clicked the 32bit check mark, youtube works again; I presume it will be fixed on next update!!