[clug] The end of the personal computer age is nigh !

[Brendan Jurd]

George,

I sympathise with your concerns, but in the end the convenience offered by
these cloud services may be overwhelming.

Back in the old days, it was pretty common for a person to have at most one
computing device -- their desktop PC.  Nowadays, folks tend to have a phone
plus some combination of  tablet, desktop, laptop.  In such an environment,
having your stuff located on this or that particular device really isn't
much fun.

Is the amount of data these large companies collect about us disturbing?
Yes.
Can companies be trusted to keep our data safe and to use it ethically?
Obviously not.
Does this create some very attractive targets for identity theft and other
kinds of fraud?  Yep.
Now that the horse has bolted, is there any point fiddling with the barn
door?  Unlikely.

Cheers,
BJ


On 14 February 2015 at 12:09, George at Clug <Clug at goproject.info> wrote:

>     Hi,
>
> Call me slow if you want, but I am trying to come to terms with the
> understanding that we are seeing "the end of the personal computer
> age", and a new age of "Internet computing" is emerging.
>
> I enjoyed the Personal Computer age, with Personal Computers I was
> able to edit my photos and videos, write my files, my own programs,
> etc, and only share that which I wanted to share, and even then only
> with those who I wanted to share with.
>
> I do not want to share my personal identity with large corporations
> who will then on sell my personal identity with many other commercial
> companies.  Nor do I want that which is personal to me, the photos of
> my holidays, my family, my interests, my hobbies to be shared with
> everyone in the Internet, e.g. with my friends, and the friends of my
> friends, and the friends of the friends of my friends, etc.  I do not
> want my tax papers, my plans for my new home, by purchasing habits to
> be general information to anyone or any company that now has access to
> them via the Internet.
>
> I want a Computing device that is Personal. I don't mind connecting to
> the Internet to get email, upload something when I want share it, or
> download information that I want to learn. But I want most of my life
> (90% ?) to be private.
>
> I do not expect that Apple will provide me with a "personal computer"
> for long, they are already into iCloud, and iPads.
>
> Google Chrome books are already, all about online storage and
> computing.
>
> If you have not realised, Microsoft is moving from local data and apps
> to internet based data and apps, at least that is how I see it.
>
> I had hoped that Linux might provide me a Personal Computer OS, but I
> have concerns and doubts.  Ubuntu are trying to introduce a "Cloud
> Store", and when I installed CentOS 7 server it had a Tablet touch
> screen swipe screen before the logon screen.  From what I can see,
> the "Cloud" and "Internet" infection has invaded Linux users and
> developers as well.
>
> The end is definitely neigh.
>
> Anyone want to make comment, or catch up with me and have a good chat
> about where personal computing is heading?  Is everyone happy with
> the idea of moving all your photos, files, likes, behaviours, ideas,
> etc, into the cloud where it is no longer going to be personal?
>
> http://www.technologyreview.com/news/426222/the-personal-computer-is-dead/
>
> When the iPhone came out in 2007, its design was far more restrictive.
> No outside code at all was allowed on the phone; all the software on
> it was Apple’s. What made this unremarkable—and
> unobjectionable—was that it was a phone, not a computer, and most
> competing phones were equally locked down. We counted on computers to
> be open platforms—hard to think of them any other way—and
> understood phones as appliances, more akin to radios, TVs, and coffee
> machines.
>
> http://readwrite.com/2011/09/12/tablets_smartphones_killing_pcs_2015
>
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Predictions_made_by_Ray_Kurzweil
>
>
>
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