# The end of the PC?



## Vladd67 (Jan 27, 2009)

Google plans to make PCs history | Technology | The Observer
OK so who wants all their files to be kept by Google?
Thought not.


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## AE35Unit (Jan 27, 2009)

Oh yea i can see that working,not! Imagine if you're a businessman working from home. You'd have to log on to Google's server to access your files. And imagine if for some reason you couldn't log on. No work,no money. And there's all the security issues! In the words of Ozzie from Auf Wiedersehen  Pet,Load of b######s


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## ktabic (Jan 27, 2009)

Again? That would be the fifteenth year in a row that some company has predicted the end of the PC. What will they use to access the files stored on google? That's right, PCs.


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## mosaix (Jan 27, 2009)

Someone first thought of this in about 1993 I think. They were trying to sell a dumb terminal with no discs and all the files held centrally. And, like KTABIC said someones been suggesting it every year since.

But the one thing Google has forgotten is that, once they started storing info about their users, no one trusts them any more - especially with their data.

And anyway I can _access my files from any internet terminal_ - it's called _remote console_.


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## Ursa major (Jan 27, 2009)

When there are truly redundant access methods to the home/office, and full redundancy all the way to your data, and when you don't care that anyone and everyone can access your data, then it _might_ happen, though not everyone would (want to) use this architecture**.






** - Or, alternatively, when there are enough idiot users....


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## Shadow Trooper (Jan 27, 2009)

No chance


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## ktabic (Jan 27, 2009)

Ursa major said:


> ** - Or, alternatively, when there are enough idiot users....



There already are enough idiot users. Unfortunately for googles plans, they are to stupid to the services provided .


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## Ursa major (Jan 27, 2009)

I knew stupidity would have its uses.


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## Dave (Jan 27, 2009)

Wouldn't this have been a good idea when memory was still expensive? Now that you can store the one hundred greatest books in something the size of a Nintendo DS, and the cheapest calculator has more memory than the first PC I ever used, then there are no advantages.


Ursa major said:


> When there are truly redundant access methods to the home/office, and full redundancy all the way to your data, and when you don't care that anyone and everyone can access your data, then it _might_ happen, though not everyone would (want to) use this architecture.


If you picture that information highway as a street with offices and houses along it, people might come in and use services, or borrow a hedge trimmer or a cup of sugar, but they are still going to close their doors and lock them up at night.


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## chrispenycate (Jan 27, 2009)

Ursa major said:


> I knew stupidity would have its uses.



Of course stupidity can be useful (to society if not the individual; though in present-day civilisation intelligence is rarely a survival characteristic)

Consider the term "military intelligence". Who with the intellect greater than that of a field mouse would voluntarily go into lethal danger for somebody else? You've got it, testosterone soaked human males.

Who could probably be persuaded to use on line computing facilities, if they read how many terrabytes of memory they'll have access to (sorry, computer just told me 'can't render that video file, not got enough disc space". Stupid machine


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## Saeltari (Jan 28, 2009)

I just recently helped a friend set up a 15 terrabyte storage system for his home fairly cheap, he gets the storage and redundancy and security. 

The google thing looks a bit like the online drives that some companies already offer. What if you don't have an internet connection? USB drives are getting smaller and bigger, heck I think I even saw a jacket that didn't look half bad that incorporated storage for your laptop.


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## Dave (Jan 28, 2009)

Saeltari said:


> The google thing looks a bit like the online drives that some companies already offer. What if you don't have an internet connection?


I see a time coming when every home and office PC and gadget is permanently connected, and not too far away either. Mobile phones and games consoles already are. Asking that question then will sound as odd as asking someone if they own a TV or radio today.

So, I don't see a connection as a problem unless you are somewhere really remote; as has already been mentioned - it is the security of that data that is the problem.

As an example, it sounds like there would be great benefits if your larder, fridge and freezers could automatically stock-take and then call the supermarket and have food delivered up to some build-to you have previously set.

However, that means that the supermarket, delivery driver and probably a host of other intermediaries know exactly what you eat and when you eat it. They will know when you are on holiday and could be burgled, when you entertain visitors, when you are sick. I'm certain the government will then start telling you that your shop is unhealthy, and become involved in altering your shopping list too. 

Sorry, that's a little OT, except that that would actually be the end of the PC, because instead of a PC, you will have a network of different gadgets around the house all linked together by a router and hub computer.


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## AE35Unit (Jan 28, 2009)

And the thing they're forgethng,or ignoring is that PC means PERSONAL computer,and thats an important thing cos people like to have their own machine,thats theirs. And some people,me included,enjoy the satisfaction of building their own.


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## rowengaurd (Feb 13, 2009)

Won't happen! Ain't being funny you can't trust one company with that amount of Data it's rediculus!


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## Lenny (Feb 14, 2009)

I've been meaning to reply to this for a couple of weeks, but I've never got round to it. Saturday now, though, and as it's my first day with absolutely no work, I'm going to fulfil my dreams!

---

I'm going to buck the trend and say that the GDrive is one of the most exciting things I've heard of in a long while - the concept and steps taken towards *cloud computing *is something I find really fascinating, and I really can't wait for it to be implemented.

For those of you who aren't particulary techy, cloud computing is the sharing of resources and services over the Internet - things such as applications (*S*oftware *a*s *a* *S*ervice - applications are provided as an on-demand service to end-users. Think Google Docs, or Google Gears in general), *Web 2.0* (interconnectivity and interactivity of web-delivered content - Facebook, YouTube, Wikipedia, Flickr, Blogger), and file storage.

The idea of cloud computing comes from the 1960s and the computer scientist John McCarthy, who opined that "computation may someday be organised as a public utility".

And a last general point - the cloud is literally the Internet, as it most commonly appears in diagrams as a cloud-like bubble.

Just imagine it - no matter where you are in the world, you can log into a workstation, start up an application online, connect to your personal storage space in the cloud, and get on with work. Say you've been sent abroad on business, but have deadlines to meet on work that you'd usually do in your cubicle at the office. Just access your personal storage space, open up a document editor, and go on as normal. Or say you're a student on holiday, with a particularly horrible lecturer who's set a deadline in the middle of your sun, sea and sand break. No problems. Open up the essay on the workstation, check it through, maybe add a bit here and there, wing it their way, and go back out onto the beach. Heck, if wireless internet in public places takes off, then you can do your essay _on_ the beach!

The GDrive one of the first steps towards true cloud computing.

Think of cloud computing like this - home computers have been around for decades... but they've not been completely _personal_. That is, there's always been the sharing of data, or transferring of data from one workstation to another, whether it's been on punch cards, magnetic tape, floppy disks, CDs, DVDs, or USB pens. How many people have a USB pen that they use regularly? Maybe for work, or for school, or just to share pictures and music with friends or family. Think for a moment how much harder things would be if you didn't have that little stick of storage. Then think how much harder things would be if there were no means of taking your data with you so you could use it anywhere. Now think of that as a physical example of one aspect of cloud computing. Think of it as a physical example of the GDrive.

Yes, security of data will be an issue (not from Google itself, but from outside threats), but as the service evolves, the security will get better. In fact, there are already thoughts of USB dongle type things to log into workstations with.

One last point, which I'd like you to really _*think*_ about - if Google didn't do it, then who would? It's easy to say Microsoft, or Apple, but would they do it for free, or without trying to force it into a mould they create?

Just face it, until the internet is seen less as a market, and more as a resource, one of our best bets is Google. They've got the infrastructure in place, they've got the talent and, if push comes to shove, they've got the money and brute power to implement it _for free_.


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## Grimward (Feb 14, 2009)

(Said in jest, as I do get the analogy, and have come to respect your quick mind, sir.  Apologies in advance if you actually managed to do this in a "museum" somewhere!)

Now Lenny, if you ever saw (and worked with!) what actually read and created the punch cards, you'd never mention them in the same breath as "workstation" and "personal"....


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## Lenny (Feb 14, 2009)

Funny you should mention that... 

In seriousness, though, one of my lecturers decided to give us a lecture on the History of computers yesterday. He didn't get very far, as he's one of these folks who really gets into things, but he did talk about his days of punch cards, and how he'd have stacks of them - "You can tell if someone's dropped their cards by the number of elastic bands. Those who drop them a lot wrap the cards up, put two elastic bands lengthways and a lot widthways, put it in a box, put elastic bands round the box, put that in another box, put elastic bands around that box, put it in a third box, and put elastic bands around that box too!".

You get my general point, though - you can argue that the punch cards of old were a method of carrying your data around (granted that it was only because you couldn't store it on the computer).

---

Whilst we're on the subject of old programming, one of the things the lecturer showed us was a panel from a PDP-11/45. The Computer Science department has a number of them, for some reason, and he's decided that over the Summer he's going to hook as many of them up to laptops as possible, and let us use them in a lab next year. I'm actually quite looking forward to it! I mean, who'd really turn down the chance to program in octal?


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## Ursa major (Feb 14, 2009)

Lenny said:


> I mean, who'd really turn down the chance to program in octal?


 
On the other hand, you might find that you 'ate it. 




(Oh, and keep off the 7Up.)


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## Happy Joe (Feb 14, 2009)

Now you are making me feel old (I actually know how to use a punch card machine to punch cards)...

Enjoy!


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## Ursa major (Feb 14, 2009)

I've used both punched cards and paper tape**. Admittedly, these were used during training, but it's still making me feel a bit old. 






** - I've still got three of the tapes somewhere.


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## Happy Joe (Feb 15, 2009)

Mylar tape was a big improvement (very damage resistant) but it was much harder on the punches than paper tape.
Not sure if I can still read ASCII on paper tapes...its been a while...

Enjoy!


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## mosaix (Feb 16, 2009)

Lenny said:


> You get my general point, though - you can argue that the punch cards of old were a method of carrying your data around (granted that it was only because you couldn't store it on the computer).



Lenny, punched cards were not a method of carrying data around. They were a method of speeding up input. Most computers had only one card reader, two if you were really lucky. But you could have masses of punch card machines and operators.

If the computer had tape or disk then the cards were stored short term and then destroyed.

If the computer had no tape or disk and the cards were being used in a grandfather-father-son filing system then they were stored very, very carefully and certainly not 'carried around'.


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