Picture was taken from here

Mobile computing is becoming my newest fascination. My previous fascinations included network-based storage, network redundancy, and network security. I enjoy making things do things that they were meant or designed to do. This is part of the soul that drives my curiosity to the edge of insanity and teeters over the maw of the great beyond. I think eventually I will completely lose it and tumble into that gaping mouth that will swallow my soul and my body whole.

Mobile computing isn’t what it was even 3 years ago, mobile computing by traditional definition means being able to the computer while having the ability to travel. Mobile computing devices were originally laptops, then PDAs were taking over, and now cell phones and custom Internet devices like my N810. The question you need to ask is whether this is still what mobile computing is, or is it being morphed into the new Internet buzz phrase “Cloud Computing”?

While I’ve been doing my crossposting series I’ve been thinking about what it truly means to be mobile and to work in the Internet cloud. Ironically there is more to my online activities than my blog and how far-reaching I can make the posts go. I have pieces of me that exists in the cloud. Part of this is my blog postings, sometimes this gives you an intimate side of me. There is more than makes up who I am and my goal is to see how I can migrate that online so I can access it any time and anywhere I have a net connection and an interface to the online world.

I have the basic memories in the blog posts. As I go on and dig further into my past more of these will survive through that. What about everything I create? What about my pictures, my videos, my friends, and my documents; will these things always be able to exist in the cloud? While there are methods for storing these data types online, what about when a service goes belly up? If a company goes out of business and you are relying on them with your data, where do you turn? Even the great and powerful Google isn’t immune to canceling service and dropping your data. How do you stop that? How do you save your data? Is there even a reason for home storage anymore?

I can say just typing that out that there will always be a reason for home storage. There will be private documents that you never want to show online. Private thoughts that will always remain yours alone. Until extremely heavy encryption is ubiquitous and tied solely to you, there is no reason to trust this data online. If you don’t want ANYONE ELSE to ever see it, keep it away from the Internet.

I’m going to start a new blog series that investigates working in the cloud. I know that this has been done before, but I think it will work nicely with my crossposting god series. Why? Because I’m going to focus on data redundancy and survivability in the modern Internet age. I’m going to touch upon security and point out the insecurity that exists that most of us seem to ignore.

There are pieces of me scattered in the clouds, I want some semblance and organization before I run into the hurricane.