"Cloud" question for very old newbie.

Lum

Latest buzzword IMO. It originally had some meaning, referring to large heavily distributed systems such as those run by Google or Amazon. If you saved stuff there it would end up scattered all over the world and still be available if part of the network were to disappear.

These days "I put it in the cloud" = "I saved it on some sort of storage service on the internet". Even people hosting crap on a single server in a single datacentre in a single location claim to be offering cloud storage.

paddyrg

I do use cloud storage, it is very convenient for me because I use several devices (my phone, desktop, laptop and tablet) so they are always all up-to-date and synchronised with one another.

For this I personally use Google Drive, SkyDrive and sometimes Dropbox - they all offer very similar functionality, simple to use (you just treat the Google Drive/SkyDrive/DropBox folder it creates when you install the software as another ordinary folder on your computer), and free levels of usage. Even if you don't want to synchronise several devices, they act as good simple backup.

My favourite of the three is Google Drive, but that's because I use an Android phone (Google) and a GMail email account (Google again) so everything integrates nicely. That said, these things do all integrate fairly nicely anyway, so it comes down to taste.

ballyblack

My favourite of the three is Google Drive, but that's because I use an Android phone (Google) and a GMail email account (Google again) so everything integrates nicely. That said, these things do all integrate fairly nicely anyway, so it comes down to taste.

So for photographs its Google Pics, ie. google picasaWeb

paddyrg

ballyblack wrote: »

So for photographs its Google Pics, ie. google picasaWeb

Or Google Drive - Google Drive will just store pictures as files like any other file on your hard disk, Picassa is a bit fancier, but dedicated to photos. It really comes down to taste - I have thousands of photos all on Google Drive, none on Picassa, other people swear by it!

The main thing is both are free for most people, so give them both a try, see what you like :-)

ballyblack

Yes I use Picasaweb, fantastic

As to privacy issues who cares who looks at boring wedding albums?

oldgrumpygit

I had a friend who uploaded loads of stuff onto a cloud then was somewhat disappointed when he visited a relative in the sticks and couldn't access any of it.

She had no broadband and the mobile signal was poor.

He now uploads to a cloud and a memory stick.

oldgrumpygit

ballyblack wrote: »

Yes I use Picasaweb, fantastic

As to privacy issues who cares who looks at boring wedding albums?

That will be the NSA poring over those embarrassing photos

Oblivion

oldgrumpygit wrote: »

I had a friend who uploaded loads of stuff onto a cloud then was somewhat disappointed when he visited a relative in the sticks and couldn't access any of it.

She had no broadband and the mobile signal was poor.

He now uploads to a cloud and a memory stick.

That'll be Cloud Nein then.

Sorry, I'll get my coat.