4 ms·

I wonder if these services will ever reach mass adoption. I consider myself to be technological advanced, but other than niche photographer, i wonder if 99.99

I wonder if these services will ever reach mass adoption. I consider myself to be technological advanced, but other than niche photographer, i wonder if 99.99 % of population would ever go through the effort of setting such a service ?

post-it 3y ago
I dream of selling a Box that plugs into the wall that backs up all of your photos and videos and maybe acts as an ActivityPub server, and you can add your friends who also have a Box, and your friends' Boxes back up all of your photos and vice versa. The added benefit of integrating federated social media is that if you want to share a file with your friends, there's zero load time because the file is already backed up on their Box, or it's striped across multiple Boxes and downloads quickly. It would have to be dirt cheap though, like a Chromecast.
- grudg3 3y ago
  Gavin Belson had the right vision after all.
- swaroop 3y ago
  Like https://umbrel.com/ https://umbrel.com/ ? (no affiliation)
  - mulmen 3y ago
    Wow, yes. That. Do you have one?
  - rounakdatta 3y ago
    Damn, this is pretty! I was thinking of self-building such a setup with a Mac Mini.
- mulmen 3y ago
  Honestly I think Apple has a good model for this. The value would be in making the box plug-and-play. Apple has proven people will pay a premium for devices that Just Work. It could still be built on open software. Some kind of a cross between Apple’s opinionated approach to defaults and RedHat’s pay-for-support model of developing open source software.
  - post-it 3y ago
    Yeah, the Apple TV should do it.
    - mulmen 3y ago
      They used to have the AirPort which was pretty much iCloud at home. And the early iPod was intended to be a portable personal profile you could plug in to any Mac. We’re not on the best timeline.
    - dangus 3y ago
      Okay, crazy idea. What if you didn't even need a piece of hardware and the service included online storage? It would simplify it even more for the end user so they didn't have to plug in hardware and maintain it. We could call this service something like eOnlineStorage or iBackupPhotos, maybe charge a varying price up to $9.99 a month for it.
      - deleted 3y ago
        [deleted]
      - post-it 3y ago
        Box would be a one-time purchase. There's no maintenance involved - if it breaks, you just buy a new one and log in, and redownload all of your data from your friends.
        dangus 3y ago
        Who is paying for the hard drives?
  - dangus 3y ago
    Y'all are literally unironically pitching The Box from the TV show Silicon Valley. What is the problem being solved here? Apple already offers a solution – iCloud. Why would they want to sell you a box for offline backups?
- anderspitman 3y ago
  Why does it need to be a new separate physical device, instead of just software installed on an old phone or laptop?
  - post-it 3y ago
    Because nobody outside of HN is going to install software on an old phone or laptop. But they'll buy a $30 Box. By all means the software will be open-source (and mostly off-the-shelf if possible) so anyone can install it on whatever device they have, but the killer product will be the Box.
    - dangus 3y ago
      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OSZOf9pyepc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OSZOf9pyepc
    - anderspitman 3y ago
      > Because nobody outside of HN is going to install software on an old phone or laptop. But they'll buy a $30 Box. How do you figure? Also you may be interested in checking out https://kubesail.com/homepage https://kubesail.com/homepage and https://privaterouter.com/ https://privaterouter.com/
- joking 3y ago
  like a synology or qnap nas? I use synology myself, don't have experience with qnap but I think it will be pretty similar. plug the box, activate the service, download the phone app and your photos are automatically synced and browsable from the device. You can add other services but the basic functionality is there.
- rakoo 3y ago
  Something like a freedombox (https://www.freedombox.org/ https://www.freedombox.org/) ? Or the internet cube (https://internetcu.be/ https://internetcu.be/) ?

post-it 3y ago

I dream of selling a Box that plugs into the wall that backs up all of your photos and videos and maybe acts as an ActivityPub server, and you can add your friends who also have a Box, and your friends' Boxes back up all of your photos and vice versa. The added benefit of integrating federated social media is that if you want to share a file with your friends, there's zero load time because the file is already backed up on their Box, or it's striped across multiple Boxes and downloads quickly. It would have to be dirt cheap though, like a Chromecast.

grudg3 3y ago
Gavin Belson had the right vision after all.
swaroop 3y ago
Like https://umbrel.com/ https://umbrel.com/ ? (no affiliation)
- mulmen 3y ago
  Wow, yes. That. Do you have one?
- rounakdatta 3y ago
  Damn, this is pretty! I was thinking of self-building such a setup with a Mac Mini.
mulmen 3y ago
Honestly I think Apple has a good model for this. The value would be in making the box plug-and-play. Apple has proven people will pay a premium for devices that Just Work. It could still be built on open software. Some kind of a cross between Apple’s opinionated approach to defaults and RedHat’s pay-for-support model of developing open source software.
- post-it 3y ago
  Yeah, the Apple TV should do it.
  - mulmen 3y ago
    They used to have the AirPort which was pretty much iCloud at home. And the early iPod was intended to be a portable personal profile you could plug in to any Mac. We’re not on the best timeline.
  - dangus 3y ago
    Okay, crazy idea. What if you didn't even need a piece of hardware and the service included online storage? It would simplify it even more for the end user so they didn't have to plug in hardware and maintain it. We could call this service something like eOnlineStorage or iBackupPhotos, maybe charge a varying price up to $9.99 a month for it.
    - deleted 3y ago
      [deleted]
    - post-it 3y ago
      Box would be a one-time purchase. There's no maintenance involved - if it breaks, you just buy a new one and log in, and redownload all of your data from your friends.
      - dangus 3y ago
        Who is paying for the hard drives?
- dangus 3y ago
  Y'all are literally unironically pitching The Box from the TV show Silicon Valley. What is the problem being solved here? Apple already offers a solution – iCloud. Why would they want to sell you a box for offline backups?
anderspitman 3y ago
Why does it need to be a new separate physical device, instead of just software installed on an old phone or laptop?
- post-it 3y ago
  Because nobody outside of HN is going to install software on an old phone or laptop. But they'll buy a $30 Box. By all means the software will be open-source (and mostly off-the-shelf if possible) so anyone can install it on whatever device they have, but the killer product will be the Box.
  - dangus 3y ago
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OSZOf9pyepc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OSZOf9pyepc
  - anderspitman 3y ago
    > Because nobody outside of HN is going to install software on an old phone or laptop. But they'll buy a $30 Box. How do you figure? Also you may be interested in checking out https://kubesail.com/homepage https://kubesail.com/homepage and https://privaterouter.com/ https://privaterouter.com/
joking 3y ago
like a synology or qnap nas? I use synology myself, don't have experience with qnap but I think it will be pretty similar. plug the box, activate the service, download the phone app and your photos are automatically synced and browsable from the device. You can add other services but the basic functionality is there.
rakoo 3y ago
Something like a freedombox (https://www.freedombox.org/ https://www.freedombox.org/) ? Or the internet cube (https://internetcu.be/ https://internetcu.be/) ?