We have the internet: now we need the intercloud, says Vint Cerf
With "cloud computing" growing in importance, Google's Vint Cerf thinks it's time to start working on "intercloud" standards and protocols so your data doesn't get trapped in one One of the problems with "cloud computing" is that it can work a bit like the Hotel California: you can check your data in OK, but will you ever get it out? Google is very well aware of the problem and with its Data Liberation commitment, wants to make sure people can retrieve their data. Ideally, of course, users should be able to move stuff from one cloud to another -- from Google to Amazon or Microsoft or any similar service -- but that's not possible at the moment. Vint Cerf, often known as the Father of the Internet, raised this point in an impressively coherent answer to a question at a Churchill Club meeting at SRI (Stanford Research Institute) last month, recorded by Fora.tv . Cerf says it's the same as the problem networks faced when they couldn't talk to one another: "We're at the same point now in 2010 as we were in '73 with internet." Cerf says we now need protocols and standards that will "allow people to manage assets in multiple clouds, and for clouds to interact with each other," and that mobiles could be part of that. It took five years to develop the internet protocols (and another five years to implement them for various operating systems), says Cerf. "So if we could rely on that as an indicator, maybe the intercloud problem could be solved in five years' time." Hat-tip: Fanboy Google Cloud computing Computing Web 2.0 Jack Schofield guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds
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We have the internet: now we need the intercloud, says Vint Cerf
The dark side of the internet
In the 'deep web', Freenet software allows users complete anonymity as they share viruses, criminal contacts and child pornography Fourteen years ago, a pasty Irish teenager with a flair for inventions arrived at Edinburgh University to study artificial intelligence and computer science. For his thesis project, Ian Clarke created "a Distributed, Decentralised Information Storage and Retrieval System", or, as a less precise person might put it, a revolutionary new way for people to use the internet without detection. By downloading Clarke's software, which he intended to distribute for free, anyone could chat online, or read or set up a website, or share files, with almost complete anonymity. "It seemed so obvious that that was what the net was supposed to be about – freedom to communicate," Clarke says now. "But [back then] in the late 90s that simply wasn't the case. The internet could be monitored more quickly, more comprehensively, more cheaply than more old-fashioned communications systems like the mail." His pioneering software was intended to change that. His tutors were not bowled over. "I would say the response was a bit lukewarm. They gave me a B. They thought the project was a bit wacky … they said, 'You didn't cite enough prior work.'" Undaunted, in 2000 Clarke publicly released his software, now more appealingly called Freenet. Nine years on, he has lost count of how many people are using it: "At least 2m copies have been downloaded from the website, primarily in Europe and the US.
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The dark side of the internet
Innovation hints at a free data model to savour
A local government initiative shows how vital information can be made readily available to those who need it If you're in Lichfield and see a fashionably dishevelled young man wandering round municipal buildings taking notes on his iPhone, don't worry. It's probably Stuart Harrison, the council's webmaster, doing his bit to set data free. And to pave the way for a new kind of e-government. Harrison is a driving force behind one of the most refreshing developments in local government I've seen in years – a serious attempt to package Lichfield district council's data about planning applications, food inspections and leisure services in a way that not only makes it accessible but also reusable in third-party applications.
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Innovation hints at a free data model to savour
Letters and blogs | 17 September 2009
iPod, youPod Part of the success of the iPhone and the iPod Touch is attributed to the App Store, which has notched up 1.8bn downloads from 75,000 apps ( Twilight of the iPods, 10 September ). Multi-functionality joins the consumer economy! But the Guardian's report goes on to suppose that the decline of new purchases of iPods will take the music industry with it, and I need convincing of that. The report quotes Mark Mulligan of Forrester who believes that "logically" the slowdown in device sales leads to a slowdown in downloads. But that assumes that the only people who buy downloads are first-time new iPod users. I don't recall that sales of old-fashioned singles were expected to slow down when every teenager in the world owned a record player – or CDs, for that matter. itasitis.wordpress.com iPods and other Dedicated Music Players on their way out, after only 10 short years? Good article from The Guardian. twitter.com/adambermingham Fascinating Guardian article on implications of maturity in the iPod marketplace. twitter.com/YeovilCIM Haha, I knew iPods would fail..eventually! twitter.com/ElStubio So the iPod Touch is taking sales from older iPod models? OMG!! Congratulations – that's the biggest non-story you've ever covered. Chris Rigby Uffculme Meet the Beatles Best Beatles Rock Band comment ever: "Sounds ideal for keeping Mr Gallagher amused now that his Beatles sim is no more" ( Beatles Rock Band review, 10 September ). twitter.com/mchax WordPress hacks Blogging is well and truly mainstream ( Are WordPress blogs more likely to be hacked?, 10 September ). We're well beyond the tech-centric early adopter core, and for everyone else, using a hosted blogging platform is probably the way forward
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Letters and blogs | 17 September 2009
Petabytes on a budget
Backblaze was shocked by the cost of data servers and cloud-based storage systems, so it decided to build its own drive pods. But along the way, it has also raised interesting questions about the long-term costs of cloud computing, and how firms like Amazon can turn a profit Just after I'd bought my first terabyte hard drive, up comes a blog post about assembling cheap petabytes of storage (1 petabyte = 1,048,576 gigabytes). Backblaze says it provides unlimited storage for only $5 per month, so, the post says , "After looking at several overpriced commercial solutions, we decided to build our own custom Backblaze Storage Pods: 67 terabyte 4U servers for $7,867"
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Petabytes on a budget
Technophile: Drobo automatic hard drive backup system reviewed
You need never need lose data again if you shell out for the Drobo automatic hard drive backup If you're like most people, your hard drive space is rapidly running out. When it's full, what are you going to do? You could just replace your internal hard drive if you don't mind cracking open your PC, or start a collection of external drives – which will all need their own power socket and desk or floor space. Wouldn't it be great to have one compact unit that can house several hard drives, and offers terabytes of storage space you can expand at will? Enter Drobo. Now in its second incarnation, Drobo is basically an SATA hard drive enclosure, with some nifty tricks up its sleeve. Many PC owners have used RAID (redundant array of inexpensive disks) setups to offer some kind of protection against data loss, but these systems usually demand identical hard drives with identical capacities. Drobo will happily use any size SATA drive you want. Drobo has four bays for your SATA drives. If your data needs aren't too intensive you could just fill the bays with, say, 250GB drives. But Drobo is hungry for as much space you can afford. Drobo spreads your data over the drives you've installed, keeping track of every byte of data and space storage space
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Technophile: Drobo automatic hard drive backup system reviewed
Naomi Alderman: Don’t delay – back up your data today
It's simple and straightforward to find a backup solution for precious computer files, so why do most of us find it so hard? It's a modern nightmare. Your hard drive starts making a funny noise. Just as you're wondering where you put that helpline number … blue screen of death. You take your computer to an expert who shakes their head slowly and says: "Total hard drive failure. I hope you're backed up." It's Tuesday. Do you know where your backups are? Hard drives typically have a life expectancy of five years or so. But from year two onwards your hard drive has about an 8-10% chance of failing every year. And every hard drive will eventually fail. Given this, I'm astonished by the number of people I know who don't have a comprehensive back-up strategy in place.
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Naomi Alderman: Don't delay – back up your data today
Data protection: Careless disposal of confidential data is on the rise, says study
Hundreds of secondhand hard drives bought online and elsewhere were found to contain sensitive information While the data from US missile programmes may make the biggest headlines, the practice of discarding data on hard drives is widespread. Just how widespread is shown in this year's survey – which could cover your progress from the moment you get up to the moment you get home, with information from personal PCs, a carpet fitting company and interior design giant making it in alongside data from other drives from car companies, councils, schools, health trusts, an embassy universities and a mobile phone company. Among the 1,000 drives obtained from eBay and other online auction sites, car boot fairs and discarded machines, were drives containing recent information from Ford Motor Company, the clothes firm Laura Ashley, the German Embassy in Paris, Nokia, the Edinburgh lawyers Henderson Boyd Jackson (HBJ), Swindon Council, Lanarkshire NHS Trust, Amec Rail and a number of schools and drives from individuals. Three drives containing paedophile information, including graphic violence, were referred to the police and one drive from a machine belonging to an Asian man that showed him posing with a pistol in Pakistan was referred to Special Branch. According to Glamorgan University, the drive from Ford appeared to contain information on the company's new Ka model, and the drive had been obtained before its launch earlier this year. Also on the drive was information marked "confidential – Ford Motor Company – this is unpublished work which is a trade secret … FMC own all rights to this work to preserve its trade secret status." "This could have been very bad for Ford," said Glamorgan's Professor Andrew Blyth
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Data protection: Careless disposal of confidential data is on the rise, says study
Anti-missile defence details found on secondhand computer
Computer containing confidential data about Lockheed Martin staff was bought online Highly sensitive details of a key US missile defence system have been found on the hard drive of a computer that was disposed of in California. The information about defence contractor Lockheed Martin included a document detailing test launch procedures, blueprints of facilities and photos and personal daat about employees – including their social security numbers.
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Anti-missile defence details found on secondhand computer
Ask Jack: March 19 2009
A tale of two PCs I have a desktop PC in one location and a laptop in another and am having problems keeping the two in phase. GoToMyPC sounds useful, but the price is high . Vicki Eves JS: The simplest solution would be to keep "master copies" of your files on a portable hard drive, then copy the contents to your local PCs for backup. There are lots of USB hard drives designed for portable use, including Western Digital's My Passport series, Seagate's FreeAgent Go drives, Freecom's ToughDrives and Iomega's eGo models. You can use Google's Gmail or similar to keep email in sync. Programs such as GoToMyPC and LogMeIn are useful if you need to access files remotely, and the basic level of LogMeIn is free. (If you want File Sync, you have to pay for LogMeIn Pro.) In the longer term, Microsoft Live Mesh could be the answer for automated synchronisation across multiple devices, including PCs, Macs and mobile phones. However, at the moment it is still in beta. Work safe I have all my PhD research on an external hard drive. Is there some kind of password-protection program that I could use to protect it? David B Roberts JS: The most obvious answer is to encrypt the data with True Crypt ), which is free, open-source software. You could encrypt the whole drive or a partition and access it transparently. You could also look at commercial alternatives CD-Lock , which works on most removable storage devices, and Folder Lock . You should also burn your data to CD-R and consider uploading it to an online storage site such as ADrive or Mozy. Floppy rescue I have an archive stored on dozens of floppy disks created on an old Mac circa late 80s/early 90s. I remember that the Mac's floppy drive ran at variable speeds. How would I read these files on to my current PC running Windows XP
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Ask Jack: March 19 2009