Why Web 2.0 and how I started to move off the server
I have to admit, being a computer hack for 25+ years I really love to meddle with software on my own. I have my own servers plugged to the Internet and I have ways and ways to make them useful to myself. It started way back in the Andresen days with pics my family could peek at and then it went more and more complex with more and more stuff running on them.
But I am fed up now, the tipping point for me was wordpress. Not because it's a bad piece of software, I just grew tired of moderating a whole pile of comments whose content was just a pile of spam. I loved the geeky aspect of being able to grep through log files or setup cron jobs to move files between raid servers. However, at the end of the day. It's not cutting it. I spend too much time worrying over those details where I could be writing about a good book I read and how it changed my perspective (Steve thank you for the comment). I moved to blogger though anything similar will do. No more fuss and more time to do creative things. Let my colleagues who are scaling the infrastructure of the future take charge. It makes my day, and it makes my publishing effortless.
Moreover, its not anymore just blogs, or pictures but documents, presentations, financial modeling, even credit card aggregation through mint.com. I thought of this service while at E.piphany seven years ago, it is finally available. My goal, cleanup all my servers, move everything to willing providers live with just a couple of laptops and phones and have the server without much content, perhaps ready for a quick experiment or two.
This being said, it's not rosy. I hawk around mint and their security and privacy policies. I hawk around the company I work in to make sure the right thing is done for users. If you move things to Web 2.0. you ought to have a way to download YOUR property and archive it from time to time. Beyond that, you need to understand whether your provider has an effective way for you to terminate your commitment, i.e., erase all information you decide to remove. Today it looks a lot like reading the fine print of credit card agreements. I think this seriously ought to change. And this is just scratching the surface.
It does at one point become a question of trust. And how this trust will evolve or devolve, will be part of my posts here.
But I am fed up now, the tipping point for me was wordpress. Not because it's a bad piece of software, I just grew tired of moderating a whole pile of comments whose content was just a pile of spam. I loved the geeky aspect of being able to grep through log files or setup cron jobs to move files between raid servers. However, at the end of the day. It's not cutting it. I spend too much time worrying over those details where I could be writing about a good book I read and how it changed my perspective (Steve thank you for the comment). I moved to blogger though anything similar will do. No more fuss and more time to do creative things. Let my colleagues who are scaling the infrastructure of the future take charge. It makes my day, and it makes my publishing effortless.
Moreover, its not anymore just blogs, or pictures but documents, presentations, financial modeling, even credit card aggregation through mint.com. I thought of this service while at E.piphany seven years ago, it is finally available. My goal, cleanup all my servers, move everything to willing providers live with just a couple of laptops and phones and have the server without much content, perhaps ready for a quick experiment or two.
This being said, it's not rosy. I hawk around mint and their security and privacy policies. I hawk around the company I work in to make sure the right thing is done for users. If you move things to Web 2.0. you ought to have a way to download YOUR property and archive it from time to time. Beyond that, you need to understand whether your provider has an effective way for you to terminate your commitment, i.e., erase all information you decide to remove. Today it looks a lot like reading the fine print of credit card agreements. I think this seriously ought to change. And this is just scratching the surface.
It does at one point become a question of trust. And how this trust will evolve or devolve, will be part of my posts here.
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