by Michael Smith (Veshengro)
Are we coming to rely on various web apps to an ever-greater extent in our day-to-day work lives, the impact on both our data and our productivity of these apps failing increases. I think so.
While I love my computers (yes, plural) and could not do my writing work without them I do believe that our lives are becoming too much reliant, in every aspect, on technology that could fail, disastrously, or which is open to attack.
This goes, in my view, especially with the so-called “cloud computing” issue when again and again we are being told how great – and green – it is to use the cloud for all our computing needs, even doing away with most desktops applications and doing everything with virtual desktops and such online.
But it is not just web apps and such that we are becoming to reliant upon. Many other aspects of our reliance on technology too could become a problem.
Again, as I have said before, I do love my computers and the Internet; both necessary for my work on more than one level. However, I have refused and will continue to refuse to carry a hand-held computer. Pen and paper are much more reliable as I have found the hard way.
Cloud computing too, in my view, has that inherent problem in that, like with hand-held computers that crashed on me, they may not always be accessible and in some aspects there is the issue as to who owns the copyright on the stuff that you store in the cloud.
Some services claim that by you storing data with them you, automatically, transfer the right of use of anything that you store to them as well, and they can and will use the material as and how they see fit. As far as I am concerned I do not think so. Thus, I keep my stuff in my own storage media close to hand in terra firma.
Then there is the technology that is in use in our homes and especially our critical national infrastructure. If it fails, or gets hacked, as in the national infrastructure services, we are then well and truly up the creek without a paddle.
I do think that we must take a serious look at how we use technology – and there are some very useful aspects there – and especially its interconnectedness.
© 2011
