I don't know what to make of the US's recent work in Libya.
First of all, please don't get me wrong. From what I can tell Gaddafi is a complete nitwit. He's dangerous and loony, I know. Getting him out of power, should that happen, is likely to be a good thing. And keeping him from killing innocents is definitely good as well.
But, where does it all end?
We're currently involved in three simultaneous wars, which has to be some kind of record.
And the costs of such things are staggering. I hear so many politicians complaining about the budget these days. The single fastest way to reduce the short term deficit would be to get out of Iraq, Afghanistan, and (now) Libya. The cruise missiles we're firing at Libya are awfully expensive things, not to mention planes and pilots.
More interesting to me than costs, though, is our reputation. The US was already seen by far too many as a bully. Some countries want us to continue in our role as "world policeman" while others are terrified of that very same thing. I can't yet find a way that our involvement in Libya does much good for our reputation overall, even if in the end it benefits the Libyan people. Just wait until there are a few confirmed civilian casualties as a result of coalition air strikes, for example, to see how badly things might go, even in Libya itself.
And we pick our battles so carefully. We intervene in Iraq and Libya, but not in North Korea, nor China during the Tiananmen Square uprising? Why or why not? What about the other middle east countries currently seeing varying levels of protest? Should we help the Yemenese people if things take an ugly turn there? How about Bahrain? Or Saudi Arabia, where recent descriptions of the overwhelming response to a possible protest astounded me.
I suspect we gave up the moral high ground a long, long time ago, and now all the decisions are simply pragmatic in nature. We can intervene in Libya because we have cover from the UN, and the Arab League, but can't do anything against North Korea or China because they have nukes. Libya has oil we want, by the way, as does Saudi Arabia. The calculus around whether intervention helps or hinders our oil habit must be very interesting at the highest levels of power.
I'd rather we stepped back and honesty answered the questions: Should we be intervening? Why or why not?
I don't claim to know the answers in any given case. These are complicated issues, and there are arguments on all sides, but it appears to me as if the US is getting involved in far too many conflicts of late, to our own detriment in various ways. It's like the default is to start shooting.
Something about that feels wrong.
Tuesday, March 22, 2011
Sunday, March 20, 2011
Humans in Groups: not good
I went to a concert last night. I do this regularly. My wife plays in a symphony, you see, so I find myself in concert halls with several hundred - perhaps a couple thousand, I dunno - total strangers, trying to listen to music played by humans without amplification. Not fun.
Last night was cough night. The music would get quiet and an entirely different symphony of coughing would appear. Why? Maybe it's flu season. Maybe the audience doesn't care. They're mostly old enough that they might not even be capable of hearing each other cough. Whatever, I found it annoying.
I also hate going to movies in theaters. Even a small audience is distracting. Someone will suddenly have an unimaginably difficult time opening some candy wrapper at exactly the wrong moment, for example. And several times young, white, male individuals between the ages of 15 and 25 have been extremely disruptive - read "stupid" - at movies I have been at, even when the total audience numbered less than 20.
I am fast becoming a hermit where shared experiences are the goal. As if that sentence made any sense. If a bunch of people watch the same DVD separately, have they had a shared experience? Maybe, but they definitely haven't been disturbed by the rest of the people in the theater (or whatever) while trying to enjoy it.
Recently I went to a Roger Waters concert, where he performed The Wall live. It was an amazing show, with video to die for, sound to drown out everything, and so on. It was, in fact, the best concert I have ever been to. But guess what... I didn't get to lose myself in the show. People around us were doing all kinds of distracting (and stupid) things, and the fact that the music was so loud I needed earplugs didn't mean I couldn't hear the idiots around me.
We've lost something, somewhere. The idea that civility meant not bugging your neighbor seems to be gone. And not even the oldest among us (who still get out and about, anyway) understand that.
Of course I probably bug those around me at concerts too. I can't sit that still for that long - my limbs fall asleep - and I wind up having to shift around a bit. I apologize to those who have had to sit near me. At least I try to be quiet, though.
Anyway, there isn't anything to be done about this. It's a shame, though. If you'd only sit down, shut up, and pay attention you might learn something, or at least enjoy the show. But that'll never happen.
Last night was cough night. The music would get quiet and an entirely different symphony of coughing would appear. Why? Maybe it's flu season. Maybe the audience doesn't care. They're mostly old enough that they might not even be capable of hearing each other cough. Whatever, I found it annoying.
I also hate going to movies in theaters. Even a small audience is distracting. Someone will suddenly have an unimaginably difficult time opening some candy wrapper at exactly the wrong moment, for example. And several times young, white, male individuals between the ages of 15 and 25 have been extremely disruptive - read "stupid" - at movies I have been at, even when the total audience numbered less than 20.
I am fast becoming a hermit where shared experiences are the goal. As if that sentence made any sense. If a bunch of people watch the same DVD separately, have they had a shared experience? Maybe, but they definitely haven't been disturbed by the rest of the people in the theater (or whatever) while trying to enjoy it.
Recently I went to a Roger Waters concert, where he performed The Wall live. It was an amazing show, with video to die for, sound to drown out everything, and so on. It was, in fact, the best concert I have ever been to. But guess what... I didn't get to lose myself in the show. People around us were doing all kinds of distracting (and stupid) things, and the fact that the music was so loud I needed earplugs didn't mean I couldn't hear the idiots around me.
We've lost something, somewhere. The idea that civility meant not bugging your neighbor seems to be gone. And not even the oldest among us (who still get out and about, anyway) understand that.
Of course I probably bug those around me at concerts too. I can't sit that still for that long - my limbs fall asleep - and I wind up having to shift around a bit. I apologize to those who have had to sit near me. At least I try to be quiet, though.
Anyway, there isn't anything to be done about this. It's a shame, though. If you'd only sit down, shut up, and pay attention you might learn something, or at least enjoy the show. But that'll never happen.
Monday, February 28, 2011
Podcasts Stink
All kinds of people I know are listening to podcasts these days, and I keep wondering why.
This morning I tripped over a link to a podcast with someone I wanted to hear more from, so I decided to listen to it. This one, at least, I wanted to hear, right?
Wrong.
Yes, there are aspects to recorded speech that don't show up in the written word, which is interesting at some level, but there are all kinds of cruft in there too. Cruft that gets removed in a written presentation. More importantly, though, podcasts fall into a gray area regarding how much attention they require.
If you're actually listening to them, it's hard to do something else, like work, at the same time, but that's one of the supposed benefits of podcasts - the ability to listen whenever you want and when you have the ability to do so. Yet if it's actually interesting it still demands more attention than I can give it if I want to do something else. And this is why I don't want to listen to podcasts or audio books while driving. It's also probably the reason that cell phones are so dangerous when used by drivers. We're not paying full attention to the job at hand. For the record, I have the same issue with radio news and similar format shows. If I am really paying attention to them, nothing else is - or should - be going on.
Then again, podcasts are not as immersive as a video of some sort. There's nothing to watch while I'm listening, so I'm slightly bored, looking for something else to do, even if I am interested in the content. It's only engaging half my brain, or something like that.
The resulting mental confusion drives me nuts. The podcast idea sounds so simple and yet it really doesn't work.
But wait, I hear you cry, what about music? Don't you listen to music the same way? The answer is "yes", but with caveats. As with a podcast, if I am actually paying attention to the music I can't really to much of anything else. But beyond that, I suspect music uses a different part of the brain. Podcasts are using the speech centers extensively, music not so much. Yes, I know, vocal music does to some extent, but once you've heard it once or twice and know the lyrics, they fade a bit and you process them more as music and less as speech. Or at least it seems that way to me. The first time I hear a piece of vocal music, I have to listen closely and parse the lyrics out, thus consuming more attention, and making it more difficult to do other things. Later times it takes less effort and I can ignore it much more easily.
In any case, even if that theory is complete hogwash (which it might well be), music doesn't demand the same kind of (or amount of) attention from me that a podcast does. Even so, when doing something that requires thought - writing, etc. - I typically turn the music off (or way down) so I can focus exclusively on what I am doing.
Another objection to podcasts is their horrible inefficiency. Let's say I really need the information in a 30 minute podcast. I can burn the 30 minutes and listen to it, or, if the alternative is available I could download the text contents and read it. The download would be very quick - there isn't that much speech in 30 minutes of real time - and reading it would be much faster than 30 minutes too. Plus, I can reread and find interesting bits quickly in text, something that a podcast makes difficult at best.
As a vehicle for moving information around, podcasts stink. This morning's attempt was a total flop. I abandoned it after about 15 minutes. It was, sadly, a waste of time. Give me the contents in text form, please. Really.
This morning I tripped over a link to a podcast with someone I wanted to hear more from, so I decided to listen to it. This one, at least, I wanted to hear, right?
Wrong.
Yes, there are aspects to recorded speech that don't show up in the written word, which is interesting at some level, but there are all kinds of cruft in there too. Cruft that gets removed in a written presentation. More importantly, though, podcasts fall into a gray area regarding how much attention they require.
If you're actually listening to them, it's hard to do something else, like work, at the same time, but that's one of the supposed benefits of podcasts - the ability to listen whenever you want and when you have the ability to do so. Yet if it's actually interesting it still demands more attention than I can give it if I want to do something else. And this is why I don't want to listen to podcasts or audio books while driving. It's also probably the reason that cell phones are so dangerous when used by drivers. We're not paying full attention to the job at hand. For the record, I have the same issue with radio news and similar format shows. If I am really paying attention to them, nothing else is - or should - be going on.
Then again, podcasts are not as immersive as a video of some sort. There's nothing to watch while I'm listening, so I'm slightly bored, looking for something else to do, even if I am interested in the content. It's only engaging half my brain, or something like that.
The resulting mental confusion drives me nuts. The podcast idea sounds so simple and yet it really doesn't work.
But wait, I hear you cry, what about music? Don't you listen to music the same way? The answer is "yes", but with caveats. As with a podcast, if I am actually paying attention to the music I can't really to much of anything else. But beyond that, I suspect music uses a different part of the brain. Podcasts are using the speech centers extensively, music not so much. Yes, I know, vocal music does to some extent, but once you've heard it once or twice and know the lyrics, they fade a bit and you process them more as music and less as speech. Or at least it seems that way to me. The first time I hear a piece of vocal music, I have to listen closely and parse the lyrics out, thus consuming more attention, and making it more difficult to do other things. Later times it takes less effort and I can ignore it much more easily.
In any case, even if that theory is complete hogwash (which it might well be), music doesn't demand the same kind of (or amount of) attention from me that a podcast does. Even so, when doing something that requires thought - writing, etc. - I typically turn the music off (or way down) so I can focus exclusively on what I am doing.
Another objection to podcasts is their horrible inefficiency. Let's say I really need the information in a 30 minute podcast. I can burn the 30 minutes and listen to it, or, if the alternative is available I could download the text contents and read it. The download would be very quick - there isn't that much speech in 30 minutes of real time - and reading it would be much faster than 30 minutes too. Plus, I can reread and find interesting bits quickly in text, something that a podcast makes difficult at best.
As a vehicle for moving information around, podcasts stink. This morning's attempt was a total flop. I abandoned it after about 15 minutes. It was, sadly, a waste of time. Give me the contents in text form, please. Really.
Friday, February 25, 2011
Thoughts on Stress
Many things can mess with your head, of course, and we're all different in terms of what affects us, but for me stress is a killer.
The house remodel isn't done yet. In fact, though it is nearing completion, it may be another month before we can do the final sign off with the county. I hope it is faster than that, but it may take that long or longer for reasons that are entirely out of my control.
Oddly, despite the fact that the vast majority of the time remaining is spent waiting for things to get done, not with people actively working at the house, it is still very stressful for me. Very stressful. And that stress just cripples me in other ways.
I'd like to do some serious fiction writing, but just finding the energy is hard. I'd like to carve more stone, but the same issues apply, along with cold weather making things tougher to do. I'd like to go back to the gym twice a week, but the vagaries of scheduling the times when the contractors are here makes me hesitate to do even that.
In all, there are a lot of things that keep me from moving forward with life, and I find it all very frustrating.
One of these days it will be done, and I will move on. I just hope that day comes sooner rather than later. I need this project to end.
The house remodel isn't done yet. In fact, though it is nearing completion, it may be another month before we can do the final sign off with the county. I hope it is faster than that, but it may take that long or longer for reasons that are entirely out of my control.
Oddly, despite the fact that the vast majority of the time remaining is spent waiting for things to get done, not with people actively working at the house, it is still very stressful for me. Very stressful. And that stress just cripples me in other ways.
I'd like to do some serious fiction writing, but just finding the energy is hard. I'd like to carve more stone, but the same issues apply, along with cold weather making things tougher to do. I'd like to go back to the gym twice a week, but the vagaries of scheduling the times when the contractors are here makes me hesitate to do even that.
In all, there are a lot of things that keep me from moving forward with life, and I find it all very frustrating.
One of these days it will be done, and I will move on. I just hope that day comes sooner rather than later. I need this project to end.
Wednesday, January 12, 2011
On Driving Across Country
Yes, I've been gone a long time. Sorry. Many things got in the way: work, life, and so on. I hope that is changing, but back to the topic at hand.
We recently completed yet another drive from California to Illinois for the purposes of seeing family over the holidays and I have a few awards to give out as a result.
But first, "Why drive instead of fly?" I hear you ask. Well, because it's a lot cheaper.
Tickets for two from SJC to ORD would cost, oh, $800 or so. Then add the cost of putting two dogs in a kennel for two weeks. That's a big total. It's a lot cheaper to drive, bring the dogs, and pay for gas and hotels than it is to fly. And we once had a dog lose over 10% of her body weight in a kennel because she wouldn't eat. We didn't like that.
Anyway... on to the awards:
To Iowa, for having the least technically competent drivers anywhere along I80 between California and Chicago. Over the holidays of 2009 we saw a vast number of wrecks in Iowa after an ice storm. I am happy to say that this year, though there was no ice storm, the state of Iowa continues to impress with their total lack of driving ability. Either these folks don't teach driving at all, or they have all collectively forgotten what they were taught. Driving in Iowa is not for the weak of heart.
To Illinois, for having the most self centered drivers on the road. Rest assured that when driving in the Chicago area or on 88 between Iowa and Chicago there isn't a single other driver on the road who cares about you, your goals, or your safety. All they care about is getting to their destination as quickly as possible, regardless of what that may do to anyone else on the road. Turn signals? Fugetaboutit. Following room? No one needs that. Speed limits? Ha! Just get there baby... ASAP. Other places might classify lots of what we saw as reckless driving. Not Illinois. There it's just the usual stuff. Yawn.
To Wyoming, for having the worst stretch of road we have ever driven on. On 12/30/2010, I80 west of Green River was an unbroken sheet of ice, from side to side of the road including both shoulders, and continuing for 20 solid miles. We'd had blowing snow and blizzard conditions - nearing white out fairly often - through all of Wyoming, and the road wasn't great, but they were trying. Plows were out with sand or salt, and the road was OK. We stopped in Green River for gas and decided, since the road had been passable, to continue. What we found just outside of town really made us wonder about the Wyoming department of transportation. I am not exaggerating: 20 uninterrupted miles of ice. Plus the wonder of trucks flying past us at 50 or 60 MPH on that surface. We saw several wrecked big rigs, but all had been traveling in the other direction that morning. Why none of the nitwits that passed us as we limped along didn't die in fiery wrecks we really don't know.
To the I80 drivers just west of Sparks NV, for the best impersonation of a Mad Max movie we have ever seen. On our outbound trip we stopped in Sparks for the night. We got moving the next morning only to find both lanes of the interstate completely stopped for nearly two hours. Lots of emergency equipment drove by on the shoulder, east bound, most of which we never saw again once we finally did get moving. But we did see a lot of wrecks: overturns, collisions, solo spin outs, a jack-knifed big rig, and so on. Most of these had no emergency equipment present and appeared recent, which was a challenge given the road wasn't in particularly bad shape. And this wasn't a chain reaction thing. These were all separate wrecks, scattered over several miles. We never did find the actual cause of the stoppage so we'll never know what was really going on. Some might argue that Nevada should get the award for least competent drivers as a result of this little event, but experience tells us that Iowans are still the ones to beat.
And there you have it. The 2010/2011 holiday driving awards from yours truly. I hope to avoid this next year by staying home.
We recently completed yet another drive from California to Illinois for the purposes of seeing family over the holidays and I have a few awards to give out as a result.
But first, "Why drive instead of fly?" I hear you ask. Well, because it's a lot cheaper.
Tickets for two from SJC to ORD would cost, oh, $800 or so. Then add the cost of putting two dogs in a kennel for two weeks. That's a big total. It's a lot cheaper to drive, bring the dogs, and pay for gas and hotels than it is to fly. And we once had a dog lose over 10% of her body weight in a kennel because she wouldn't eat. We didn't like that.
Anyway... on to the awards:
To Iowa, for having the least technically competent drivers anywhere along I80 between California and Chicago. Over the holidays of 2009 we saw a vast number of wrecks in Iowa after an ice storm. I am happy to say that this year, though there was no ice storm, the state of Iowa continues to impress with their total lack of driving ability. Either these folks don't teach driving at all, or they have all collectively forgotten what they were taught. Driving in Iowa is not for the weak of heart.
To Illinois, for having the most self centered drivers on the road. Rest assured that when driving in the Chicago area or on 88 between Iowa and Chicago there isn't a single other driver on the road who cares about you, your goals, or your safety. All they care about is getting to their destination as quickly as possible, regardless of what that may do to anyone else on the road. Turn signals? Fugetaboutit. Following room? No one needs that. Speed limits? Ha! Just get there baby... ASAP. Other places might classify lots of what we saw as reckless driving. Not Illinois. There it's just the usual stuff. Yawn.
To Wyoming, for having the worst stretch of road we have ever driven on. On 12/30/2010, I80 west of Green River was an unbroken sheet of ice, from side to side of the road including both shoulders, and continuing for 20 solid miles. We'd had blowing snow and blizzard conditions - nearing white out fairly often - through all of Wyoming, and the road wasn't great, but they were trying. Plows were out with sand or salt, and the road was OK. We stopped in Green River for gas and decided, since the road had been passable, to continue. What we found just outside of town really made us wonder about the Wyoming department of transportation. I am not exaggerating: 20 uninterrupted miles of ice. Plus the wonder of trucks flying past us at 50 or 60 MPH on that surface. We saw several wrecked big rigs, but all had been traveling in the other direction that morning. Why none of the nitwits that passed us as we limped along didn't die in fiery wrecks we really don't know.
To the I80 drivers just west of Sparks NV, for the best impersonation of a Mad Max movie we have ever seen. On our outbound trip we stopped in Sparks for the night. We got moving the next morning only to find both lanes of the interstate completely stopped for nearly two hours. Lots of emergency equipment drove by on the shoulder, east bound, most of which we never saw again once we finally did get moving. But we did see a lot of wrecks: overturns, collisions, solo spin outs, a jack-knifed big rig, and so on. Most of these had no emergency equipment present and appeared recent, which was a challenge given the road wasn't in particularly bad shape. And this wasn't a chain reaction thing. These were all separate wrecks, scattered over several miles. We never did find the actual cause of the stoppage so we'll never know what was really going on. Some might argue that Nevada should get the award for least competent drivers as a result of this little event, but experience tells us that Iowans are still the ones to beat.
And there you have it. The 2010/2011 holiday driving awards from yours truly. I hope to avoid this next year by staying home.
Saturday, July 31, 2010
Rumours of my Death are Greatly Exaggerated
It's been a long time since I wrote here. Or at least it feels like I long time. I started work on June 14th, I think, and Mr. Toad's Wild Ride hasn't ended since.
What to tell you?
Well, firstly, work is, well... work. My employer and I are both equally surprised to learn that they wound up hiring me for an operations job, not really (in my mind, anyway) a release engineering position.
Yes, technically it is release engineering, but the reality is that for the foreseeable future I am doing support and debugging of applications and the existing release process. Without intending to slight him, the person who used to do this work, and who has now moved on, had a very high tolerance for pain, errors, unexplicable behavior, and so on. As I figure things out I need to spend time fixing things just to keep sane. Adding simple things like, oh, error handling, would be good in a lot of places.
The house remodel project continues. Slowly. The original estimate was 8 weeks. We're at 16 now and still going strong. There is visible progress and not only has demolition ended, but construction has happened. We have a new kitchen roof, for example, and the main deck is being put into place now, though that is taking plenty of time too, and has not been without surprises.
I hope we actually get things done this year. At this point, though there are still 5 months left, I cannot say with certainty it will happen.
There isn't much else to report right now, and until the house is done and I get to feeling like I have enough of a clue at the office there probably won't be. I appreciate your patience in the meantime.
What to tell you?
Well, firstly, work is, well... work. My employer and I are both equally surprised to learn that they wound up hiring me for an operations job, not really (in my mind, anyway) a release engineering position.
Yes, technically it is release engineering, but the reality is that for the foreseeable future I am doing support and debugging of applications and the existing release process. Without intending to slight him, the person who used to do this work, and who has now moved on, had a very high tolerance for pain, errors, unexplicable behavior, and so on. As I figure things out I need to spend time fixing things just to keep sane. Adding simple things like, oh, error handling, would be good in a lot of places.
The house remodel project continues. Slowly. The original estimate was 8 weeks. We're at 16 now and still going strong. There is visible progress and not only has demolition ended, but construction has happened. We have a new kitchen roof, for example, and the main deck is being put into place now, though that is taking plenty of time too, and has not been without surprises.
I hope we actually get things done this year. At this point, though there are still 5 months left, I cannot say with certainty it will happen.
There isn't much else to report right now, and until the house is done and I get to feeling like I have enough of a clue at the office there probably won't be. I appreciate your patience in the meantime.
Tuesday, May 18, 2010
Gone over a month... *sigh*
Life has gotten really complicated. Too many projects that destroy any ability to think.
This blog is not dead. I will return, but probably not for another couple of months. At least not with any regularity.
Sorry!
This blog is not dead. I will return, but probably not for another couple of months. At least not with any regularity.
Sorry!
Sunday, April 11, 2010
Without a Shred of Remorse...
For very different reasons, I am following in the footsteps, to some degree, of my friend Merikay. She is cleaning out a lot of the stuff in her life over time because she is hoping to RV for a while. I, on the other hand, just feel weighed down by the stuff of life and am gradually trying to reduce it.
Now, however, I find myself confronted with a larger issue. we're going to get some repair work done on the drywall in our den and guest bedroom. Some of you may remember the issues we encountered this winter.
Well, we're going to get that fixed, along with another little water/drywall issue that cropped up when the typhoon remnant came through last year.
But doing that means getting the den and guest bedroom emptied out so contractors can work in there. That isn't as simple as it sounds.
The result is a mutli-hour effort involving relocating, condensing, and (in some large measure) getting rid of things we no longer need or want or use. There is also a whole subplot about wireless routers and repeating bridges that hasn't resolved itself just yet, thanks to problems on the part of Netgear. But I digress.
I have finally pitched a bunch of cassettes that no one will ever listen to again, equipment for cleaning and demagnetizing cassette playback and record heads, an inline dimmer switch of unknown provenance, a bunch of toys I haven't looked at in years, and so on. The net result was some six linear feet of cabinet and drawer space opened up so I could hide the stuff we need to keep and keep it safe from people wielding plaster and drywall. Fun. Not.
In any case, eventually the house was made ready for the great contractor invasion, which should happen tomorrow at 9am, and I have now collapsed in a heap.
I'll write up the bit about wireless networking when I have a resolution. As of now I don't know how that plays out.
Merikay, at least you know you're not the only one getting rid of things.
Now, however, I find myself confronted with a larger issue. we're going to get some repair work done on the drywall in our den and guest bedroom. Some of you may remember the issues we encountered this winter.
Well, we're going to get that fixed, along with another little water/drywall issue that cropped up when the typhoon remnant came through last year.
But doing that means getting the den and guest bedroom emptied out so contractors can work in there. That isn't as simple as it sounds.
The result is a mutli-hour effort involving relocating, condensing, and (in some large measure) getting rid of things we no longer need or want or use. There is also a whole subplot about wireless routers and repeating bridges that hasn't resolved itself just yet, thanks to problems on the part of Netgear. But I digress.
I have finally pitched a bunch of cassettes that no one will ever listen to again, equipment for cleaning and demagnetizing cassette playback and record heads, an inline dimmer switch of unknown provenance, a bunch of toys I haven't looked at in years, and so on. The net result was some six linear feet of cabinet and drawer space opened up so I could hide the stuff we need to keep and keep it safe from people wielding plaster and drywall. Fun. Not.
In any case, eventually the house was made ready for the great contractor invasion, which should happen tomorrow at 9am, and I have now collapsed in a heap.
I'll write up the bit about wireless networking when I have a resolution. As of now I don't know how that plays out.
Merikay, at least you know you're not the only one getting rid of things.
Tuesday, March 30, 2010
Embrace the Cloud
I've got multiple friends who hate the entire idea of cloud computing. They despise storing their data on the servers maintained by someone else, particularly Google.
I am rapidly coming to the opposite conclusion, and that's despite having a less than optimal ISP and a connection that rarely gets any faster than about 850kbps.
As I have used the cloud I keep finding things it makes better or simpler. The first - and most obvious - is backup. If my cloud providers are backing up the data for me, I don't need to worry about disk failures. And as I am one who has suffered traumatic data loss in the past - at work, in an environment where there was no automated backup of desktop systems - I really appreciate letting someone else worry about the safety of my data.
There are a couple of obvious counters to that argument. The first is that my cloud provider might disappear - probably by going bankrupt - taking my data with it, or their backup processes might be less than optimal. For that reason I tend to use major companies as my providers. Yes, bad things could happen, but it isn't likely, and the chances of my laptop being dropped or suffering a disk failure are much higher. And for anything critical I can always download a copy, right?
Another obvious objection is that the cloud provider might decide my data is evil in some way, as when a blogging site shuts down a particular blog for containing spam, even if it really doesn't. Recovery in that case is problematic, but it is possible if your provider has a system in place to review those decisions. My own documents and content are pretty tame, and definitely not spammy or copyrighted by anyone else, so the odds on hitting this issue are slim at worst.
Data security is another objection I hear. "I don't want X to have my data." And I get that to some degree. Some people hate the idea of their cloud provider scanning their data to better target ads, or whatever. At some point, though, it is important to step back and assess the nature of your data usage. An absolute minimum is really private. Financial information needs to be kept safe, of course. Health records might need that kind of protection, but as the nation limps towards electronic storage for that data it might make sense to put what I have online somewhere that my doctor can see it and add to it, right? I suppose the occasional letter or some such should be private too, but in all honesty, who is going to read such things? Who would even want to?
If I had something to hide I can imagine feeling very differently about this, but the vast majority of us are law abiding people who value convenience over that level of security, at least as far as trivial data goes. Yes, I'd love to see something legal that prevents ISPs and cloud service providers from examining your data without your express consent, but until then it's a simple matter of keeping the few things I really care about out of the cloud. The rest can go there, in theory. It's convenient.
And make no mistake about it, convenience is what matters. I like being able to edit documents online and know that they will be there when I change computers, without any complex data migration issues. I like being able to share some of those documents with others too.
Picking the right cloud supplier, though, also requires examining their systems and polices to see what it takes to get your data out if you need to. Here, so far, Google is a star. All the services I use with Google (except Blogger, amusingly) make it easy to get my data out in useful formats. Google docs, in particular, lets me export to my local disk in several ways that can easily be imported into other applications.
I'm sure there will be replies to this post from those who disagree, and I'll be accused of being simple minded about these things. But for me, at least for now, the cloud is looking better and better. Bring on Chrome-OS, too. Something small and fast would be great. Even better than Linux.
I am rapidly coming to the opposite conclusion, and that's despite having a less than optimal ISP and a connection that rarely gets any faster than about 850kbps.
As I have used the cloud I keep finding things it makes better or simpler. The first - and most obvious - is backup. If my cloud providers are backing up the data for me, I don't need to worry about disk failures. And as I am one who has suffered traumatic data loss in the past - at work, in an environment where there was no automated backup of desktop systems - I really appreciate letting someone else worry about the safety of my data.
There are a couple of obvious counters to that argument. The first is that my cloud provider might disappear - probably by going bankrupt - taking my data with it, or their backup processes might be less than optimal. For that reason I tend to use major companies as my providers. Yes, bad things could happen, but it isn't likely, and the chances of my laptop being dropped or suffering a disk failure are much higher. And for anything critical I can always download a copy, right?
Another obvious objection is that the cloud provider might decide my data is evil in some way, as when a blogging site shuts down a particular blog for containing spam, even if it really doesn't. Recovery in that case is problematic, but it is possible if your provider has a system in place to review those decisions. My own documents and content are pretty tame, and definitely not spammy or copyrighted by anyone else, so the odds on hitting this issue are slim at worst.
Data security is another objection I hear. "I don't want X to have my data." And I get that to some degree. Some people hate the idea of their cloud provider scanning their data to better target ads, or whatever. At some point, though, it is important to step back and assess the nature of your data usage. An absolute minimum is really private. Financial information needs to be kept safe, of course. Health records might need that kind of protection, but as the nation limps towards electronic storage for that data it might make sense to put what I have online somewhere that my doctor can see it and add to it, right? I suppose the occasional letter or some such should be private too, but in all honesty, who is going to read such things? Who would even want to?
If I had something to hide I can imagine feeling very differently about this, but the vast majority of us are law abiding people who value convenience over that level of security, at least as far as trivial data goes. Yes, I'd love to see something legal that prevents ISPs and cloud service providers from examining your data without your express consent, but until then it's a simple matter of keeping the few things I really care about out of the cloud. The rest can go there, in theory. It's convenient.
And make no mistake about it, convenience is what matters. I like being able to edit documents online and know that they will be there when I change computers, without any complex data migration issues. I like being able to share some of those documents with others too.
Picking the right cloud supplier, though, also requires examining their systems and polices to see what it takes to get your data out if you need to. Here, so far, Google is a star. All the services I use with Google (except Blogger, amusingly) make it easy to get my data out in useful formats. Google docs, in particular, lets me export to my local disk in several ways that can easily be imported into other applications.
I'm sure there will be replies to this post from those who disagree, and I'll be accused of being simple minded about these things. But for me, at least for now, the cloud is looking better and better. Bring on Chrome-OS, too. Something small and fast would be great. Even better than Linux.
Thursday, March 18, 2010
An Awful Malaise
I seem to be suffering from a serious case of, well, something that makes me incapable of doing much of anything. It's all mental, I know. I have a long list of things to work on but am completely unmotivated.
Two nights in a row I've been up at odd hours, and I suppose that might have something to do with it. Tuesday night it was a dog waking me up. Twice. Last night the dogs were fine, but I still woke up at 2am and was mostly awake until at least 4am. I don't know why.
Maybe part of it is still lingering muck from the time change. Daylight savings time is a bad idea in my opinion, and as I get older the adjustment gets harder.
Maybe some of it is leftover stress from events a couple of weeks ago. There certainly was (and to some extent still is) plenty of stress to go around. The death of a family member is never easy to handle.
Maybe it's waiting for the contractor to get back to us on remodeling issues, and getting our permits with the county straightened out. Add the cost of the (much needed) remodel the the pile as well.
Perhaps some of it is watching quite a few of my friends struggle to find work in the current environment. These are good people - I've worked with and trusted them for many years - who can't yet find jobs, some since November when we were layed off.
In any case, whatever the cause - or causes - the last few days have not been fun, and I feel a bit like a beached whale waiting for the tide to come in and hoping it happens before I bake to death in the sun.
Two nights in a row I've been up at odd hours, and I suppose that might have something to do with it. Tuesday night it was a dog waking me up. Twice. Last night the dogs were fine, but I still woke up at 2am and was mostly awake until at least 4am. I don't know why.
Maybe part of it is still lingering muck from the time change. Daylight savings time is a bad idea in my opinion, and as I get older the adjustment gets harder.
Maybe some of it is leftover stress from events a couple of weeks ago. There certainly was (and to some extent still is) plenty of stress to go around. The death of a family member is never easy to handle.
Maybe it's waiting for the contractor to get back to us on remodeling issues, and getting our permits with the county straightened out. Add the cost of the (much needed) remodel the the pile as well.
Perhaps some of it is watching quite a few of my friends struggle to find work in the current environment. These are good people - I've worked with and trusted them for many years - who can't yet find jobs, some since November when we were layed off.
In any case, whatever the cause - or causes - the last few days have not been fun, and I feel a bit like a beached whale waiting for the tide to come in and hoping it happens before I bake to death in the sun.
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