Clouded Cloudspeak

I wonder who is at the root of putting fear into the cloud? Who's threatened, and who would benefit from promoting fear? Even if this five-computer future was a reality, it would coexist with and does not nullify P2P or any other network options. "Open cloud" is just as much a possibility and more of a reality right now, and open source will always have an answer to any perceived closed system, as long as there is free will in this universe.

Privacy fears, access fears... look through them, as they are of less substance than a cumulonimbus formation. Would you wear your dirty underwear outside your pants and then complain about your privacy being at stake? While I'd bet the security systems in place at cloud central are light years ahead of anything residing on most PC's, the simple rule of omission beats all. Credit card and account numbers, if you're concerned about those, you might as well cut up your debit card because the corner cashier has better access to your money than any hacker could dream of.

An analogy that comes to mind is cleanliness. Americans in particular will go through great lengths to supposedly avoid germs yet overlook the obvious. When is the last time you've wiped the top off a soda can before opening it? I usually get curious looks when I do it, but having worked in enough warehouses and seen enough mice droppings, carcasses and cockroach tracks in the dust across rows of cans and containers - you can think whatever you want of me while you wash your hands three times an hour and then dip your pop-top into your beverage before drinking it down.

So what I am trying to illustrate here is that the perception of security in the first place is more just that - a perception - than it is a reality.

So wash your underwear, wipe off your beverage lid, and get cloudy. What is it you all are seeing at ground level that's so appealing in the first place? It's kind of a nice feeling floating on a cloud when you see how to reap the benefits of it and minimize the drawbacks. The future is mobile, and it's here...

But I'd be careful to not interpret this as meaning the desktop is dead by any means. It's a shame a lot of perfectly great horses were removed from our daily lives because other means of travel were deemed "more mobile" and less problematic. Apples and oranges need to coexist in a harmonious future. We need to take a stand individually and talk some sense into this endless game of techno-hopscotching and mistaking this for actual real-world progress. The future is scentless if you're going so fast you create a vacuum as you live. Star Wars creators knew this, and hence the first dusty spacecraft I remember having seen brought us into a reality where the future was now.

The iPhone kind of reminds me of this same type of Star Wars moment, and then Google's cellular triangulation upped the warp factor. Do a rain dance and you can find where you're at on the map. Clouds can be good.