I am unashamedly old-fashioned. Partly this is due to the circumstance that broadband only recently became available to me, and I am still playing catch-up. Partly it is due to my age and personality. I am distrustful of fads and I prefer the tried and true over the latest and greatest. One of the fads I distrust is the movement to cloud computing. I like physical possession. I enjoy the security of knowing that my data resides securely on a hard drive that belongs to me. I don't like the idea that I am renting property on someone else's real estate, and that I have to rely on an Internet connection to access what should already be mine. What I dislike and fear is the lack of choice. Every time there is a stampede to the latest wonder of technology, other options for those who do not want to jump on the bandwagon start to disappear. I don't want to be part of the cloud for a very practical reason: Now that ultra-fast fibre is becoming widespread, providers of services I also depend on are rushing to the assumption that everyone has access to unlimited high-speed broadband. Well, I don't and I probably never will. My broadband is and will likely always be RBI wireless with a data cap. So will I get left in the dust again, like I did with dial-up?In recent days a major international corporation has had its private parts exposed to the world by vengeful hackers. Gamers were unable to try out their new Christmas toys for two days because some rogue lizards were able to disable the two major on-line gaming platforms. Major web sites are brought down on a daily basis by ddos attacks carried out by agents of evil and frisky adolescents. Apparently the Internet is so insecure by design that almost anyone with a grudge and some pre-fabricated software can bring the world to its knees.In view of all this recent experience, I have to ask, why would anyone in their right mind want to depend on cloud computing for anything? Are cloud-dwellers idiots?
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