And When The Cloud Breaks, Your Data Will Fall...

It's all about The Cloud these days - your data, you entertainment, your everything - stored on a service that you can access with any online connection. The benefits are many, but what you don't always hear about are the down-sides of everything being cloud-based. What if you get locked out of your account? I've heard of more than a few people that get locked out of their Gmail account or who can't access their Gmail calendar. It happens to Hotmail and Yahoo users as well. What if the company hosting your information deletes it, either accidentally or not, or goes out of business? That's not an uncommon problem. In terms of uptime most cloud services are fairly robust, when things go wrong, they can really ruin your day.

Case in point: my wife uses an HTC Snap Windows Mobile 6.1 phone, and it's connected to a 4smartphone hosted Exchange account. With our 17 month old running around the house, she uses per phone as the primary device for doing email and calendaring tasks rather than her desktop computer. 99.9% of the time, that works really great. But when you rely on The Cloud and something goes wrong, it can seriously mess things up - for some odd reason back in early November the phone stopped synching with 4smarpthone. That means no new email, no ability to add or edit new calendar items, etc. Texting and contacts still worked just fine, but without access to email, the phone was of little use to my wife. Now, unlike my Web site accounts which reside on the server I rent, when something goes wrong with 4smartphone, there's nothing I can do about it other than ask someone in tech support what's going on. And of course, I have to use a different email address than the primary address, because that's broken.

4smartphone tech support wasn't sure what was going on; I tried everything I could think of, even going to far as to hard reset the phone, which allowed me to re-establish the partnership from scratch. It still didn't work. Frustrated, I gave up at the end of the day. The next morning, amazingly, everything was working again. I didn't change anything, but the phone was once again synchronizing with the Exchange server. Undoubtedly, someone at 4smartphone did something - perhaps fixed something they broke - but the end result was the same without The Cloud, my wife couldn't do what she needed with her phone.

When it comes to email, virtually all of us rely on The Cloud in some fashion - because unless you're running your own mail server on a computer you have physical access to, your email for all intents and purposes is in The Cloud. Some people take it a step further though, storing all their documents, music, photos, videos, etc. purely in The Cloud - there's no local storage of those things. That's the part of The Cloud that I can't get behind; I value my files/data too much to ever trust someone else to take care of it. Sure, I use Mozy [Affiliate] to back up my data, but it's not my sole backup - and I'd never dream of having only one copy of something. Every single one of my nearly 200 videos uploaded to YouTube exist as a backup copy on my Windows Home Server and an external hard drive - and then also on Mozy. And when it comes to getting work done, even if I lose Internet access completely, I have all my offline email, contacts, documents, etc. so I can keep working. When you rely on The Cloud for all of that, you're almost useless when your data connection to The Cloud breaks. The Cloud is good at a lot of different tasks, but being the sole repository for your data isn't one of those things.

Don't get me started on cloud-based programs that require large data uploads before anything useful can be done - are you really any further ahead on editing your photos using a cloud-based service when you have to upload every 4 MB file before you can edit them? Cloud-based video editing solutions are even more ridiculous. Sure, this problem will be solved eventually, but with ISPs the world over putting the choke-hold on upstream bandwidth (either through low upload speeds, data caps, or both) it's not going away any time soon.

Where are you at on 'The Cloud Continuum'? Do you use it for anything, everything, or something in between?

Jason Dunn owns and operates Thoughts Media Inc., a company dedicated to creating the best in online communities. He enjoys photography, mobile devices, blogging, digital media content creation/editing, and pretty much all technology. He lives in Calgary, Alberta, Canada with his lovely wife, his wonderful son Logan, and his sometimes obedient dog. He's going to scream if he has to write The Cloud one more time in this article.

Do you enjoy using new hardware, software and accessories, then sharing your experience with others? Then join us on the Thoughts Media Review Team! We're looking for individuals who find it fun to test new gear and give their honest opinions about the experience. It's a volunteer role with some great perks. Interested? Then click here for more information.

And When The Cloud Breaks, Your Data Will Fall...

It's all about The Cloud these days - your data, you entertainment, your everything - stored on a service that you can access with any online connection. The benefits are many, but what you don't always hear about are the down-sides of everything being cloud-based. What if you get locked out of your account? I've heard of more than a few people that get locked out of their Gmail account or who can't access their Gmail calendar. It happens to Hotmail and Yahoo users as well. What if the company hosting your information deletes it, either accidentally or not, or goes out of business? That's not an uncommon problem. In terms of uptime most cloud services are fairly robust, when things go wrong, they can really ruin your day.

Case in point: my wife uses an HTC Snap Windows Mobile 6.1 phone, and it's connected to a 4smartphone hosted Exchange account. With our 17 month old running around the house, she uses per phone as the primary device for doing email and calendaring tasks rather than her desktop computer. 99.9% of the time, that works really great. But when you rely on The Cloud and something goes wrong, it can seriously mess things up - for some odd reason back in early November the phone stopped synching with 4smarpthone. That means no new email, no ability to add or edit new calendar items, etc. Texting and contacts still worked just fine, but without access to email, the phone was of little use to my wife. Now, unlike my Web site accounts which reside on the server I rent, when something goes wrong with 4smartphone, there's nothing I can do about it other than ask someone in tech support what's going on. And of course, I have to use a different email address than the primary address, because that's broken.

4smartphone tech support wasn't sure what was going on; I tried everything I could think of, even going to far as to hard reset the phone, which allowed me to re-establish the partnership from scratch. It still didn't work. Frustrated, I gave up at the end of the day. The next morning, amazingly, everything was working again. I didn't change anything, but the phone was once again synchronizing with the Exchange server. Undoubtedly, someone at 4smartphone did something - perhaps fixed something they broke - but the end result was the same without The Cloud, my wife couldn't do what she needed with her phone.

When it comes to email, virtually all of us rely on The Cloud in some fashion - because unless you're running your own mail server on a computer you have physical access to, your email for all intents and purposes is in The Cloud. Some people take it a step further though, storing all their documents, music, photos, videos, etc. purely in The Cloud - there's no local storage of those things. That's the part of The Cloud that I can't get behind; I value my files/data too much to ever trust someone else to take care of it. Sure, I use Mozy [Affiliate] to back up my data, but it's not my sole backup - and I'd never dream of having only one copy of something. Every single one of my nearly 200 videos uploaded to YouTube exist as a backup copy on my Windows Home Server and an external hard drive - and then also on Mozy. And when it comes to getting work done, even if I lose Internet access completely, I have all my offline email, contacts, documents, etc. so I can keep working. When you rely on The Cloud for all of that, you're almost useless when your data connection to The Cloud breaks. The Cloud is good at a lot of different tasks, but being the sole repository for your data isn't one of those things.

Don't get me started on cloud-based programs that require large data uploads before anything useful can be done - are you really any further ahead on editing your photos using a cloud-based service when you have to upload every 4 MB file before you can edit them? Cloud-based video editing solutions are even more ridiculous. Sure, this problem will be solved eventually, but with ISPs the world over putting the choke-hold on upstream bandwidth (either through low upload speeds, data caps, or both) it's not going away any time soon.

Where are you at on 'The Cloud Continuum'? Do you use it for anything, everything, or something in between?

Jason Dunn owns and operates Thoughts Media Inc., a company dedicated to creating the best in online communities. He enjoys photography, mobile devices, blogging, digital media content creation/editing, and pretty much all technology. He lives in Calgary, Alberta, Canada with his lovely wife, his wonderful son Logan, and his sometimes obedient dog. He's going to scream if he has to write The Cloud one more time in this article.

Do you enjoy using new hardware, software and accessories, then sharing your experience with others? Then join us on the Thoughts Media Review Team! We're looking for individuals who find it fun to test new gear and give their honest opinions about the experience. It's a volunteer role with some great perks. Interested? Then click here for more information.

CES 2011: Chris Pirillo Interviews Jason Dunn

This is an interview I did with Chris Pirillo from Lockergnome. I'm usually the one doing the interview, but this time around it was Chris asking me questions. Chris was at CES as part of the launch of Reese's Minis - which are, seriously, perhaps the most delicious chocolate candy I've ever eaten. I'm a complete sucker for peanut butter and chocolate together!

And this is also the first time I've published a video here where I'm in front of the camera. Be nice please. :-) It's not HD because the video was streaming live and they had to keep the data rate under 2mbps - CES might be technology heaven, but it's virtually impossible to get a fast, stable Internet connection of any kind from the CES show floor.

The Windows Phone 7 Feature Availability Matrix, A.K.A. The Confusing Mess

The Windows Phone 7 Feature Availability Matrix, A.K.A. The Confusing Mess: "

http://andrewtechhelp.com/andrews-t...lability-matrix

'Windows Phone 7 is available in many different countries across the world, but where you live depends on how much of the experience you are able to get. The 3 major features on the Windows Phone revolve around availability of online services and they are the Zune Marketplace, Xbox Live and Bing Local search. Microsoft has not made each of these 3 services available in every country that they are launching Windows Phone in and therefore have created a mess of what services are available on the phone in each country (with some countries even having partial access to some services).'

Although I'm enjoying using Windows Phone 7 for the most part, I start to get an angry twitch whenever I stop to think about how fractured the product experience is for people outside the USA. This isn't anything new - I've ranted about this on Zune Thoughts for years - but the core problem is still the same. If someone wants to buy a Windows Phone in Canada, they can't buy music from the Zune Marketplace. What kind of sense does that make then for them to use the Zune desktop software to manage their phone and media collection, but not be able to buy new music - and that's not even the Zune Pass, that's any music at all from Zune. I've heard for years how hard it is to negotiate rights in every country, etc., but at the end of the day it has to happen or the product isn't going to succeed. And the consumer doesn't care about what's hard or what's easy; they want a product that works for them. If Microsoft can't provide that, they'll go with someone that will.

Windows Phone 7 devices sending massive "chunks of data" over 3G for no apparent reason

Windows Phone 7 devices sending massive "chunks of data" over 3G for no apparent reason: "Count this one in the strange category and WP7 bug backlog. It appears that there may be a little bug in Windows Phone 7 that is sending out random "chunks of data" over AT&T 3G even when the device was...

Kindle app finally makes its way to Windows Phone 7 devices

Kindle app finally makes its way to Windows Phone 7 devices: "It's almost as if your device isn't real until you get a Kindle application on it. And if you believe that, then it looks like today Windows Phone 7 devices just became real as the MarketPlace now sports the Kindle...

Why 3D doesn't work and never will. Case closed.

I received a letter that ends, as far as I am concerned, the discussion about 3D. It doesn't work with our brains and it never will.

The notion that we are asked to pay a premium to witness an inferior and inherently brain-confusing image is outrageous. The case is closed.

This letter is from Walter Murch, seen at left, the most respected film editor and sound designer in the modern cinema. As a editor, he must be intimately expert with how an image interacts with the audience's eyes. He won an Academy Award in 1979 for his work on 'Apocalypse Now,' whose sound was a crucial aspect of its effect.

Wikipedia writes: 'Murch is widely acknowledged as the person who coined the term Sound Designer, and along with colleagues developed the current standard film sound format, the 5.1 channel array, helping to elevate the art and impact of film sound to a new level. 'Apocalypse Now' was the first multi-channel film to be mixed using a computerized mixing board.' He won two more Oscars for the editing and sound mixing of 'The English Patient.'

'He is perhaps the only film editor in history,' the Wikipedia entry observes, 'to have received Academy nominations for films edited on four different systems:

• 'Julia' (1977) using upright Moviola

• 'Apocalypse Now' (1979), 'Ghost' (1990), and 'The Godfather, Part III' (1990) using KEM flatbed

• 'The English Patient' (1996) using Avid.

• 'Cold Mountain' (2003) using Final Cut Pro on an off-the shelf PowerMac G4.

Now read what Walter Murch says about 3D:

Hello Roger,

I read your review of 'Green Hornet' and though I haven't seen the film, I agree with your comments about 3D.

The 3D image is dark, as you mentioned (about a camera stop darker) and small. Somehow the glasses 'gather in' the image -- even on a huge Imax screen -- and make it seem half the scope of the same image when looked at without the glasses.

I edited one 3D film back in the 1980's -- 'Captain Eo' -- and also noticed that horizontal movement will strobe much sooner in 3D than it does in 2D. This was true then, and it is still true now. It has something to do with the amount of brain power dedicated to studying the edges of things. The more conscious we are of edges, the earlier strobing kicks in.

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The biggest problem with 3D, though, is the 'convergence/focus' issue. A couple of the other issues -- darkness and 'smallness' -- are at least theoretically solvable. But the deeper problem is that the audience must focus their eyes at the plane of the screen -- say it is 80 feet away. This is constant no matter what.

But their eyes must converge at perhaps 10 feet away, then 60 feet, then 120 feet, and so on, depending on what the illusion is. So 3D films require us to focus at one distance and converge at another. And 600 million years of evolution has never presented this problem before. All living things with eyes have always focussed and converged at the same point.

If we look at the salt shaker on the table, close to us, we focus at six feet and our eyeballs converge (tilt in) at six feet. Imagine the base of a triangle between your eyes and the apex of the triangle resting on the thing you are looking at. But then look out the window and you focus at sixty feet and converge also at sixty feet. That imaginary triangle has now 'opened up' so that your lines of sight are almost -- almost -- parallel to each other.

We can do this. 3D films would not work if we couldn't. But it is like tapping your head and rubbing your stomach at the same time, difficult. So the 'CPU' of our perceptual brain has to work extra hard, which is why after 20 minutes or so many people get headaches. They are doing something that 600 million years of evolution never prepared them for. This is a deep problem, which no amount of technical tweaking can fix. Nothing will fix it short of producing true 'holographic' images.

Consequently, the editing of 3D films cannot be as rapid as for 2D films, because of this shifting of convergence: it takes a number of milliseconds for the brain/eye to 'get' what the space of each shot is and adjust.

And lastly, the question of immersion. 3D films remind the audience that they are in a certain 'perspective' relationship to the image. It is almost a Brechtian trick. Whereas if the film story has really gripped an audience they are 'in' the picture in a kind of dreamlike 'spaceless' space. So a good story will give you more dimensionality than you can ever cope with.

So: dark, small, stroby, headache inducing, alienating. And expensive. The question is: how long will it take people to realize and get fed up?

All best wishes,

Walter Murch

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Salt shaker and landscape Photoshops by Marie Haws.

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Amazon.com Widgets

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