$1600 would buy 5gigs of Harddrive....and a computer to put it in....

 Hehe, you're a man after me own heart... there's nothing better than a few conspiracy theories and paranoia to get the day started.

And what about them Swiss, eh?  Sitting all neutral for decades saying: "Oh but we don't want to go to war."... while all the time conspiring to take over the world... with force if necessary. 

I mean, what's that whatchcallit collider thingumy they've got going on there?  Don't tell me that's not some kind of take-over-the world super weapon capable of devastating power and destruction. Oh no, I know what they're up to... and you mark my words, it's no good, believe me.

They say you gotta watch the quiet ones, and while we haven't been, the sneaky buggers, they've been gathering the momentum to grab us by the short n' curlies before we know what's hit us.  And do you think I can get the UN to send in weapons inspectors to check it out?  Oh no, they're still too concerned with whether or not Gadaffi had WMDs in his underwear.... and if he can use them from beyond the grave.

They come from above......

Now that you have totally confused me... what the heck are you talking about Paul? It cost me $244US, one time, and I control it, no one else has access unless I give it to them. There are no more costs to it, and in the next post you talk a a 5 "gigs" hard drive?

That's what I was wondering... like where have these costs come from?

That's what I understood, that it is a one-time cost and the primary user controls it.

So unless there's something I'm not seeing here... ?

"The Cloud" is commercial-speak for 'the Internet'.

Last time I checked my ISP charged me to upload and download data from the Internet....at the rate of $79.95 per month per 25gig throttled to dial-up speed if over.

Perhaps that doesn't happen over the pond...but somehow I don't think so.

So...

I put all my shit...say 5 TBs of it on some dickhead's 'Cloud' and it'll cost me $1600 to do it.

I didn't come down the last shower.....not even the one before the last.....

The '5gigs of HD' was a typo.... 5TB of drive ....

But your clothes are still wet, so it couldn't have been all that long ago you... you...you... young whippersnapper you.

I do see what you mean, though.  The drive is connected to the Cloud, and to get your data to the cloud, you need the internet... which your ISP charges an arm and a leg for.  Bastards!  How dare they!

As for some dickhead's 'cloud', well me thinks you're a dickhead if you pay some dickhead to use the feching thing.

Sorry Tom, that was a 'generalised dickhead' and not pointed toward you in any way whatsoever.  Thing is, there's so many dickheads around, so I should be careful how and when I use "dickhead", just in case I offend some dickhead, and he gets some dickhead lawyer on to me who gets me in court before a.... now that's where I draw the line... calling a judge a dickhead.

"So today on TV Court we have a most interesting case of Cloud abuse: where the customer says he didn't come down in the last shower, and the Cloud operator is trying to prove otherwise..... Justice Dickhead presiding."

OK, I understand now, you have an ISP that is really out-of-date and greedy by the sounds of it. My plan has a limits too, but it is so high it doesn't really matter, something like 3TB's a month if I remember correctly.

I don't get charged for downloading or uploading here like you mentioned Paul, so the WD MyCloud drive is perfect for me. Sorry you are being treated that way by your antiquated ISP.

Two things:

1. - I have trouble believing anything connected to the Internet is safe and secure, especially from someone who knows what they're doing and wants to access it. Hmmm, ya know... If they didn't know it was there, it would be a non-issue, wouldn't it? Maybe I'm onto something there! On the other hand, how do you hide anything online? There's encryption, but that doesn't really 'hide' anything. Hmmm....   Anyway, what was I saying? Oh yes! Anything and everything on the Internet should be considered public, which is why you should be careful what you say online. Anything said anywhere online is equivalent to being published in a newspaper, and may even be brought as evidence against you in court. This is a fact that one should always keep in mind. Also, with talk of even high ranking military security being hacked, such as the Pentagon, it becomes evident that there is no such thing as security online, either. The best you could hope to do would be the same thing you do when locking up your bicycle: Buy more time, in hopes the thief will look for an easier target.

2. - I don't know for sure if it's true, but in the days leading up to the activation of the Hadron Supercollider in Switzerland, the rumors I heard were saying that if it were to malfunction and get out of control, it could lead to the destruction of the entire planet. Some of the other things scientists are tinkering with give me the heebie-geebies: Like trying to open a door into other dimensions, or finding out the limits of physicality, taking things past absolute zero, for instance. They've already made things like a liquid that can go through a solid. What next? What happens if they open a door and something comes through that can't be stopped? Yeah, I know it sounds ludicrous, and like something from a bad horror movie, but the point is: Shouldn't we be a lot more cautious when poking around in areas no-one's ever been before, and which we have no way of knowing the results of our prodding?

Just sayin'....

It's all about infrastructure.

Think a country the size of the US [in scale] and a comms network being supported by a population about 280 million smaller.

Now....with or without limits....whatever you pay each month means it will cost you to feed the cloud.

It is NOT a one-off cost...no more to pay.  That is false advertising.....and only true if you actually do not use it.

The electricity required to spin up and access a 5TB harddrive is going to be infinitely less expensive....

And I agree with you 100%. brother, we really should be more cautious about what we're messing with.... that 'thing' from the annuls of science fiction could very well be waiting for that door to open.

Yes, and there's another thing. I can't remember who it was exactly, Azimov I think, who said (to paraphrase) "The important question about alien life is: Is it friendly?"

Now, think about life on good ol' Earth. Where do we get our food from (bop on the head if you said "supermarket")? We eat other creatures, that's where. Everything we eat was once (and sometimes still is) a living, fellow creature, with varying degrees of sentience. A somewhat humbling thought when one really considers it (provided one has a compassionate nature and temperament). This is how most all creatures stay alive; most likely not only here, but across the Universe as well. Therefore, the thing we need to consider most about alien life-forms is (bop on the head again if you said: "Are they tasty?") will they think we're tasty?

This kind-of sheds a whole new light on those New Age types who are gung-ho about Space exploration and contacting alien life in hopes of making new friends, doesn't it?

In the words of H.P. Lovecraft: "Never call forth that which you cannot send back."

haredelune....you think, perchance you're posting to the wrong thread? ....

I agree with haredelune completely. It makes perfect sense.

Hostile and hungry aliens have taken over the cloud. ...And that's why we should be afraid of it.

I may have to start chucking rocks at people ....

Just nobody suggest the cloud may be under threat from global warming......

-Or brought it to attention at least

Waa-ha-haa!!

You're right, of course. Sorry to go so far off-topic.

As to the cloud, what more can be said? It's already in use, is implemented silently and invisibly to casual users, and provides a nexus-point of storage and communications that is open to anyone who can access it, as far as any of us know (I presume).

In all the promotional material I've heard for cloud computing (admittedly little), I've never once seen or heard the topic of security mentioned. It seems, from what I've read elsewhere, however, that IT in general is expanding far more rapidly than the casual user, or general security systems, can keep up with. This means that the canny user, or most technically informed user, will have great advantages over all others.

This is my extrapolation based upon my own judgement. There is a good chance I could be wrong.