Welcome to RAW Computing
Many people say that the next big thing is cloud computing and that we will all be using it sooner or later, if not already. The term 'cloud computing' means the internet and in some ways it is a return to the old days where large computers held data and software and everyone accessed it through cheap dumb terminals.
It's slightly different now because the internet has made these large computing centres open to the general public and not just selected employees in a company. There are many online storage services that offer to store your files, webmail for email, photo sharing and video sharing, online applications like word processors and spreadsheets, and so on.
We are increasingly being tempted by offers to look after our files and cool online applications, but these are early days in cloud computing and not all services that are around now will be around next year or the year after. The problem is that running these online cloud computing services is expensive and it's hard to make a profit. You can only carry on making a loss for so long.
Xdrive, an online storage company that you can use to store files, has recently announced that it is to close. It is not the first to close and it won't be the last. When you use one of these services to store files, for email, photos, or whatever, and they close, it can be very frustrating. How are you going to get all your files/photos/email off the service? Can you transfer them to another service? What if you didn't see the closure notice and everything was deleted? It's enough to put you off cloud computing.
At the moment it is not recommended to store your files/email/photos or whatever online without an offline backup. If you don't want to do this, at least use two different companies so that if one shuts down you will still have your files/photos/email at the another.
Roland Waddilove
Hints and tips
- Windows XP: Last tip added - Get a better firewall
- Windows Vista: Last tip added - Change file associations
- Apple Mac OS X: Last tip added - Use email read receipts in Mail
This week's top software
- Share Cracker: Monitor the stockmarket - it's essential in these turbulent times.
- iDoc Writer: An old program, so here's a free registration code: 1029H
- Lottery Cracker 1/2/3/4/5: Full programs plus source code. Reg code=F20025F
- More software...
This week's top articles
- Previous Versions: Recover lost or overwritten files in Vista
- VirtualBox: Run Windows or Linux on your Mac.
- Virtual PC: Run Vista in a window on the XP desktop.
- Website statistics: What's the most popular browser? Who is using XP, Vista or OS X?
- Virus info: Lots of information about the latest virus threats for Windows users.
- More articles...
Fun and games
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