stevenpiziks (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
stevenpiziks) wrote2011-12-02 10:18 pm
stevenpiziks) wrote2011-12-02 10:18 pm
Entry tags:
Jumping Into the Clouds
I'm experimenting with cloud storage now.
I don't actually like the term "cloud storage" or "storing in the cloud" or "cloud computing." It makes it sound like the data are stored in some heavenly place where angels watch over them for you. It also sounds . . . well, nebulous. Like the data can't be grabbed at will, when usually it can.
But anyway, I'm trying it. It started off as a way to access my network drive at work. It's possible to access Nameless High School's computer network remotely through the Internet, but the interface is clunky and difficult to handle. A number of times I've needed to access school materials at home, and it took a long time to deal with it. Creating a cloud network storage area, however, would let me access materials quickly and easily, and the school allows the use of the Dropbox system on its computers. So I installed it.
It works very quickly, and I can drag and drop and cut and paste and open and close and save exactly as if I were using my hard drive, but this hard drive I can access from any computer that has Internet access. This is enormously convenient; I can put most of my teaching materials and lesson plans into Dropbox and get to them anywhere. Also, I can designate any folder or file as "shared," meaning I can allow any individual I name to access it. I have a co-teacher in my English 9 class, and I've been emailing her lesson plans and other materials. Now I just give her permission to access the English 9 folder in my Dropbox account and save the materials there. Much easier!
Once I started playing with that, I decided to move my current writing into the cloud.
See, I don't have a good network set up in my house. My computers are all connected to the Internet, but not each other. This means that if I want to write on my laptop, I have to transfer the files from my desktop to a flash drive and bring that to the desk top. The trouble with that is sometimes I lose track of which file is the latest, and more than once I've copied the wrong version over and lost work.
Now I put THE DRAGON MEN into Dropbox. Any computer I want to use automatically has the latest version. So far it's working very nicely.
However . . .
There are a few issues. I'm limited to computers that have Internet access. When Aran's at his piano lesson, for example, I like to write, but I don't have wifi there. No wifi, no Internet. No Internet, no cloud.
Dropbox also isn't totally free. They don't charge for the first two gigabytes. (Apple and Amazon give 5 gig for free--I use Dropbox because the school sanctions it.) Then it's $10 a month (that's $120 a year). Two gig is a LOT if you're only storing word processing files, but it's not very much if you want to store pictures or video or music. And I refuse to pay for yet another utility. It seems to me that my ISP (AT&T) should offer a certain amount of cloud storage space as part of my Internet access, but they don't seem to be interested.
At the moment, my relationship with Dropbox is a good one, and THE DRAGON MEN will be my first novel written entirely on the cloud. Perhaps I'll even be able to submit it to my editor and get rewrites and copyedits through the cloud. But I'm wary. Nothing's free, and I'm waiting to see if Apple, Amazon, and Dropbox are just biding their time to get our society hooked on cloud storage before colluding to raise prices and force everyone to pay another monthly bill.
I don't actually like the term "cloud storage" or "storing in the cloud" or "cloud computing." It makes it sound like the data are stored in some heavenly place where angels watch over them for you. It also sounds . . . well, nebulous. Like the data can't be grabbed at will, when usually it can.
But anyway, I'm trying it. It started off as a way to access my network drive at work. It's possible to access Nameless High School's computer network remotely through the Internet, but the interface is clunky and difficult to handle. A number of times I've needed to access school materials at home, and it took a long time to deal with it. Creating a cloud network storage area, however, would let me access materials quickly and easily, and the school allows the use of the Dropbox system on its computers. So I installed it.
It works very quickly, and I can drag and drop and cut and paste and open and close and save exactly as if I were using my hard drive, but this hard drive I can access from any computer that has Internet access. This is enormously convenient; I can put most of my teaching materials and lesson plans into Dropbox and get to them anywhere. Also, I can designate any folder or file as "shared," meaning I can allow any individual I name to access it. I have a co-teacher in my English 9 class, and I've been emailing her lesson plans and other materials. Now I just give her permission to access the English 9 folder in my Dropbox account and save the materials there. Much easier!
Once I started playing with that, I decided to move my current writing into the cloud.
See, I don't have a good network set up in my house. My computers are all connected to the Internet, but not each other. This means that if I want to write on my laptop, I have to transfer the files from my desktop to a flash drive and bring that to the desk top. The trouble with that is sometimes I lose track of which file is the latest, and more than once I've copied the wrong version over and lost work.
Now I put THE DRAGON MEN into Dropbox. Any computer I want to use automatically has the latest version. So far it's working very nicely.
However . . .
There are a few issues. I'm limited to computers that have Internet access. When Aran's at his piano lesson, for example, I like to write, but I don't have wifi there. No wifi, no Internet. No Internet, no cloud.
Dropbox also isn't totally free. They don't charge for the first two gigabytes. (Apple and Amazon give 5 gig for free--I use Dropbox because the school sanctions it.) Then it's $10 a month (that's $120 a year). Two gig is a LOT if you're only storing word processing files, but it's not very much if you want to store pictures or video or music. And I refuse to pay for yet another utility. It seems to me that my ISP (AT&T) should offer a certain amount of cloud storage space as part of my Internet access, but they don't seem to be interested.
At the moment, my relationship with Dropbox is a good one, and THE DRAGON MEN will be my first novel written entirely on the cloud. Perhaps I'll even be able to submit it to my editor and get rewrites and copyedits through the cloud. But I'm wary. Nothing's free, and I'm waiting to see if Apple, Amazon, and Dropbox are just biding their time to get our society hooked on cloud storage before colluding to raise prices and force everyone to pay another monthly bill.