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The whole idea of "cloud computing" is innately terrible on virtually every level. Those willing to entrust their data and the integrity of their data to any t

The whole idea of "cloud computing" is innately terrible on virtually every level. Those willing to entrust their data and the integrity of their data to any third party are either not very informed or not very smart(especially given the virtually daily reports of hacks, data breaches, and corporate malfeasance). This is especially true for word processing, which even the lowest capacity machines have the capability to perform without issue. If you value your data, your intellectual property, and your ability to perform technical tasks without disruption, you will be well-served to write all your own papers and documents on your own computer. Store them on your own hard drive and back them up to a flash drive that you physically control. Entrusting your data and your capacity to work to a third party should be avoided unless you have absolutely no other choice.

mark242 9y ago
The odds of you losing your hard drive and flash drive in a house fire are significantly higher than the odds of you losing data on S3.
- taneq 9y ago
  This response is about privacy, not offsite backups.
- guest 9y ago
  Got any actual numbers on that? In sweden as an example 100 people die of house fires each year (of around 10 mil), while most governmental agencies have been hacked containing the data of all those in the populous... Aka one databreach of a third party can result in alot more people get hurt than if you keep your data regionally (off site data storage is also no uncommon - aka store a backup in the garage or shed) meaning if the data was stored individually people would still be less protected than the gov. but collecting all that data would require something like 5 eyes and it's turn the data is alot more safe.
- StanislavPetrov 9y ago
  The odds of a house fire and my inability to access critical data is significantly lower than that of a cloud malfunction like the one that occurred today. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-switch/wp/2017/10/31/a-mysterious-message-is-locking-google-docs-users-out-of-their-files/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-switch/wp/2017/10/31...
  - mark242 9y ago
    How many users wound up losing data because of that bug? In comparison, how many houses were lost to fire today?
    - StanislavPetrov 9y ago
      How many people had deadlines or papers due and couldn't access their data? Many more than couldn't hand in their papers or make their deadlines because of a house fire.
zachlatta 9y ago
People only do what they perceive to be beneficial to them. People use the cloud because it is actually better. Put your actions where your mouth is. Make the experience of local files better than the cloud and then we can talk.
beisner 9y ago
I’m willing to trade the privacy of documents that, were they made available to a malicious actor, would make no difference to me in the slightest, for the convenience, availability, and shareability that cloud document services provide.
pmoleri 9y ago
The alternative usually is to put your trust in a piece of software that you don't actually know, unless you have the technical knowledge and time to review it yourself. It seems that most times you will be changing the cloud for a illusion of control.
twiss 9y ago
> especially given the virtually daily reports of hacks, data breaches This is exactly the problem we're trying to solve, though: https://www.airbornos.com/docs/security https://www.airbornos.com/docs/security > Entrusting your data and your capacity to work to a third party should be avoided unless you have absolutely no other choice. I sympathize with this concern, although in some cases, being able to read and edit documents from your phone, and collaborate on them, is very useful, and that requires some kind of cloud service. But I would very much like to implement things to alleviate these concerns – bulk export/backup, offline access, etc. If Airborn OS ever goes down, I'll make it easier and provide instructions to self-host.
- StanislavPetrov 9y ago
  >I sympathize with this concern, although in some cases, being able to read and edit documents from your phone, and collaborate on them, is very useful, and that requires some kind of cloud service. Not being able to read and edit documents from your phone when the cloud locks you out of your document is also a concern (above and beyond all the concerns about security, privacy, and not being in control of your own data). >Imagine you're working on a Google Doc when, seemingly out of nowhere, your ability to edit the online file gets revoked. What you see instead is an error message indicating that you've violated Google's terms of service. >For anyone who stores work in the cloud, suddenly being unable to access your data — especially due to a terms of service violation — may sound scary. And it's really happening to some people, according to reports on Twitter. Rachael Bale, a wildlife crime reporter for National Geographic, said Tuesday that a draft of her story was "frozen" by Google. >Others have reported similar errors. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-switch/wp/2017/10/31/a-mysterious-message-is-locking-google-docs-users-out-of-their-files/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-switch/wp/2017/10/31...

mark242 9y ago

The odds of you losing your hard drive and flash drive in a house fire are significantly higher than the odds of you losing data on S3.

taneq 9y ago
This response is about privacy, not offsite backups.
guest 9y ago
Got any actual numbers on that? In sweden as an example 100 people die of house fires each year (of around 10 mil), while most governmental agencies have been hacked containing the data of all those in the populous... Aka one databreach of a third party can result in alot more people get hurt than if you keep your data regionally (off site data storage is also no uncommon - aka store a backup in the garage or shed) meaning if the data was stored individually people would still be less protected than the gov. but collecting all that data would require something like 5 eyes and it's turn the data is alot more safe.
StanislavPetrov 9y ago
The odds of a house fire and my inability to access critical data is significantly lower than that of a cloud malfunction like the one that occurred today. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-switch/wp/2017/10/31/a-mysterious-message-is-locking-google-docs-users-out-of-their-files/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-switch/wp/2017/10/31...
- mark242 9y ago
  How many users wound up losing data because of that bug? In comparison, how many houses were lost to fire today?
  - StanislavPetrov 9y ago
    How many people had deadlines or papers due and couldn't access their data? Many more than couldn't hand in their papers or make their deadlines because of a house fire.

zachlatta 9y ago

People only do what they perceive to be beneficial to them. People use the cloud because it is actually better. Put your actions where your mouth is. Make the experience of local files better than the cloud and then we can talk.

beisner 9y ago

I’m willing to trade the privacy of documents that, were they made available to a malicious actor, would make no difference to me in the slightest, for the convenience, availability, and shareability that cloud document services provide.

pmoleri 9y ago

The alternative usually is to put your trust in a piece of software that you don't actually know, unless you have the technical knowledge and time to review it yourself. It seems that most times you will be changing the cloud for a illusion of control.

twiss 9y ago

> especially given the virtually daily reports of hacks, data breaches This is exactly the problem we're trying to solve, though: https://www.airbornos.com/docs/security https://www.airbornos.com/docs/security > Entrusting your data and your capacity to work to a third party should be avoided unless you have absolutely no other choice. I sympathize with this concern, although in some cases, being able to read and edit documents from your phone, and collaborate on them, is very useful, and that requires some kind of cloud service. But I would very much like to implement things to alleviate these concerns – bulk export/backup, offline access, etc. If Airborn OS ever goes down, I'll make it easier and provide instructions to self-host.

StanislavPetrov 9y ago
>I sympathize with this concern, although in some cases, being able to read and edit documents from your phone, and collaborate on them, is very useful, and that requires some kind of cloud service. Not being able to read and edit documents from your phone when the cloud locks you out of your document is also a concern (above and beyond all the concerns about security, privacy, and not being in control of your own data). >Imagine you're working on a Google Doc when, seemingly out of nowhere, your ability to edit the online file gets revoked. What you see instead is an error message indicating that you've violated Google's terms of service. >For anyone who stores work in the cloud, suddenly being unable to access your data — especially due to a terms of service violation — may sound scary. And it's really happening to some people, according to reports on Twitter. Rachael Bale, a wildlife crime reporter for National Geographic, said Tuesday that a draft of her story was "frozen" by Google. >Others have reported similar errors. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-switch/wp/2017/10/31/a-mysterious-message-is-locking-google-docs-users-out-of-their-files/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-switch/wp/2017/10/31...