4 ms·

So my idea would be to build a private cloud for your house. The idea goes something like this: Sell a "box" (think something that looks like a apple airport e

by calgoo 10y ago

So my idea would be to build a private cloud for your house. The idea goes something like this: Sell a "box" (think something that looks like a apple airport extreme). The device will have a nfc / bluetooth / wireless / rj45 and internal storage. To link your device to the private cloud box, you use the app on your device and sync public encryption keys. Now there would be two ways of syncing photos / data between the cloud box and your device: 1. Local Wifi sync - when the device detects that is on its home network it will sync any changes. 2. Remote Sync - Use a public server, upload encrypted data using the public encryption keys, and the home cloud will download them. For sharing with others, im thinking of of web / circle of trust, where you can share your public keys with your friends / family. There would be privacy levels: 1 - Me & wife / 2 - Close family / 3 - Close friends etc... Anyway, this is just an idea i have been thinking about for some time now. There is still a lot of details to work out but I do believe that we need to try moving away from the public cloud.

tyingq 10y ago
It would be interesting if it were possible to hijack the infrastructure of the existing cloud players to do something similar. Like using encrypted blobs on Google drive, Microsoft OneDrive, etc, as the backing store. In some way that provides redundancy, safe peer-to-peer key exchange, opacity (your account is storing not just your encrypted blobs) etc. Foisting off the infrastructure funding on the opposition has a sort of poetic justice to it.
- nickpsecurity 10y ago
  Google "parasitic storage." That's what CompSci called such schemes when I last saw them. They might even have done "parasitic computing" or something like that by now.
  - tyingq 10y ago
    Interesting. I could see using something like the blockchain as proof of which domains/urls are the current central authority to get the rest of the info from. Such that the base reference isn't easily shut down. It's whack-a-mole to try and kill the head, no need for complex decentralization. Would be kind of fun to watch the giants trying to shut it down. Given some level of popularity, it might become too difficult for them to do. Users donate newly minted Google/Microsoft accounts as old ones get shut down. With some sort of karma reward for doing that.
    - jude- 10y ago
      You might want to take a look at Blockstack (https://blockstack.org/ https://blockstack.org/). It does exactly this on top of the Bitcoin blockchain. You resolve a globally-unique name to a DNS zone file, which has URI resource records to off-chain data on one or more external storage systems. Disclaimer: I'm one of its creators.
      - tyingq 10y ago
        Only on HN. I describe an unusual idea in fairly vague terms, and it turns out it exists. And one of the creators clues me in. Thank you, and I will check it out.
retor 10y ago
Have you tried a Diskstation?
qznc 10y ago
Use an old laptop as box. Install NextCloud, eg via "snap install nextcloud" on Ubuntu. Now you probably want to configure NextCloud a lot via its web interface. You are 90% there. There might be a hurdle to access your box if it is behind your home NAT. Not available to non-techies, but you could sell such pre-configured boxes.
- educar 10y ago
  Why restrict the software to nextcloud? What if I want Git hosting? Or run some cms. Imo, something like yunohost, arkos or cloudron is better suited.
  - qznc 10y ago
    Sure. Still, NextCloud provides the most popular cloud stuff for non-techies: Storage like Dropbox and adressbook like Google/Apple.
    - newsat13 10y ago
      Do you know how well NextCloud works in a home environment? Is it really easy to automate the punching of a hole in the home firewall to allow access from anywhere? If you know of a project that automates this punching, it's a great combo to nextcloud.
      - qznc 10y ago
        I punched the hole manually. Unfortunately, even this is not enough. The tricky part is to have the same hostname inside and outside of your NAT.
  - ocdtrekkie 10y ago
    This, one of the key perks of Sandstorm.io is that you can use apps written in any language that runs on Linux pretty much. Cloudron.io is fairly similar, though makes some different design choices.

by calgoo 10y ago

tyingq 10y ago

It would be interesting if it were possible to hijack the infrastructure of the existing cloud players to do something similar. Like using encrypted blobs on Google drive, Microsoft OneDrive, etc, as the backing store. In some way that provides redundancy, safe peer-to-peer key exchange, opacity (your account is storing not just your encrypted blobs) etc. Foisting off the infrastructure funding on the opposition has a sort of poetic justice to it.

nickpsecurity 10y ago
Google "parasitic storage." That's what CompSci called such schemes when I last saw them. They might even have done "parasitic computing" or something like that by now.
- tyingq 10y ago
  Interesting. I could see using something like the blockchain as proof of which domains/urls are the current central authority to get the rest of the info from. Such that the base reference isn't easily shut down. It's whack-a-mole to try and kill the head, no need for complex decentralization. Would be kind of fun to watch the giants trying to shut it down. Given some level of popularity, it might become too difficult for them to do. Users donate newly minted Google/Microsoft accounts as old ones get shut down. With some sort of karma reward for doing that.
  - jude- 10y ago
    You might want to take a look at Blockstack (https://blockstack.org/ https://blockstack.org/). It does exactly this on top of the Bitcoin blockchain. You resolve a globally-unique name to a DNS zone file, which has URI resource records to off-chain data on one or more external storage systems. Disclaimer: I'm one of its creators.
    - tyingq 10y ago
      Only on HN. I describe an unusual idea in fairly vague terms, and it turns out it exists. And one of the creators clues me in. Thank you, and I will check it out.

retor 10y ago

Have you tried a Diskstation?

qznc 10y ago

Use an old laptop as box. Install NextCloud, eg via "snap install nextcloud" on Ubuntu. Now you probably want to configure NextCloud a lot via its web interface. You are 90% there. There might be a hurdle to access your box if it is behind your home NAT. Not available to non-techies, but you could sell such pre-configured boxes.

educar 10y ago
Why restrict the software to nextcloud? What if I want Git hosting? Or run some cms. Imo, something like yunohost, arkos or cloudron is better suited.
- qznc 10y ago
  Sure. Still, NextCloud provides the most popular cloud stuff for non-techies: Storage like Dropbox and adressbook like Google/Apple.
  - newsat13 10y ago
    Do you know how well NextCloud works in a home environment? Is it really easy to automate the punching of a hole in the home firewall to allow access from anywhere? If you know of a project that automates this punching, it's a great combo to nextcloud.
    - qznc 10y ago
      I punched the hole manually. Unfortunately, even this is not enough. The tricky part is to have the same hostname inside and outside of your NAT.
- ocdtrekkie 10y ago
  This, one of the key perks of Sandstorm.io is that you can use apps written in any language that runs on Linux pretty much. Cloudron.io is fairly similar, though makes some different design choices.