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Is Cloud Computing the Hotel California of Tech?

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on from the but-you-can-never-leave dept.

Prolific blogger and open source enthusiast Matt Asay ponders whether cloud computing may be the Hotel California of tech. It seems that data repositories in the form of Googles and Facebooks are very easy to dump data into, but can be quite difficult to move data between. "I say this because even for companies, like Google, that articulate open-data policies, the cloud is still largely a one-way road into Web services, with closed data networks making it difficult to impossible to move data into competing services. Ever tried getting your Facebook data into, say, MySpace? Good luck with that. Social networks aren't very social with one other, as recently noted on the Atonomo.us mailing list. For the freedom-inclined among us, this is cause for concern. For the capitalists, it's just like Software 1.0 all over again, with fat profits waiting to be had. The great irony, of course, is that it's all built with open source."

16 of 250 comments (clear)

  1. Is Yahoo! the Facebook of webmail? by BitHive · · Score: 4, Funny

    I can't transfer my yahoo to my twitter, this cloud computing has gone wild.

  2. Yes by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    If you mean a big hit that everyone knows.

    1. Re:Yes by MickyTheIdiot · · Score: 2, Funny

      No. You have to wait for a long guitar solo to finish before you can look at your address book.

    2. Re:Yes by rockNme2349 · · Score: 2, Funny

      No kidding. Now that I know he was singing about Cloud computing it's a total downer.

      --
      Sewage Treatment Facilities - "Our duty is clear."
  3. Ever tried ... by mujadaddy · · Score: 3, Funny

    Ever tried getting your Facebook data into, say, MySpace?

    No, and I never tried fucking a styrofoam sheep while doing underwater welding either.

    --
    Populus vult decipi, ergo decipiatur...
    "Force shits upon Reason's back." - Poor Richard's Almanac
  4. Re:Facebook/Myspace != cloud computing by Shining+Celebi · · Score: 3, Funny

    Besides, when you say "cloud computing", about the last thing that would become likely would be "the warm smell of coitus".

    It's the warm smell of colitas, a plant, not of coitus. ;)

  5. Perhaps not the best analogy. by greenguy · · Score: 4, Funny

    Some dance to remember, some dance to forget. This is not what I look for in hardware.

    --
    What if I do the same thing, and I do get different results?
  6. Re:Simple by sycodon · · Score: 5, Funny

    So data checks in but doesn't check out?

    That's more like the Roach Motel.

    --
    When Fascism comes to America, it will call itself Anti-Fascism, and tell you to give up your guns.
  7. Re:Simple by Anne+Thwacks · · Score: 4, Funny
    Hotmail address book (with no export functionality)

    Which one is that? the normal one exports all your data to hackers.ru at the click of a mouse!

    --
    Sent from my ASR33 using ASCII
  8. Re:It's really all the same anyway... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    I was able to read your mind there for a second. Your tin-foil hat must have a hole in it.

  9. Re:Simple by gnick · · Score: 5, Funny

    Oh that's the Hotel CA reference.

    I was thinking that I can stab it with my steely knife, but I just can't kill the beast...

    --
    He's getting rather old, but he's a good mouse.
  10. Re:Simple by lavacano201014 · · Score: 3, Funny

    Well, it IS programmed to receive. (I probably butchered that lyric, I'm never sure what it actually is)

    --
    A wise man once said, "Where is my other quotation mark?
  11. Re:Simple by AlXtreme · · Score: 3, Funny

    And I was thinking along the lines of "This could be heaven, or this could be hell".

    Cloud computing is eerily like the music industry, more news at 11!

    --
    This sig is intentionally left blank
  12. Re:Simple by roguetrick · · Score: 3, Funny

    Ya'll down with OPS.

    --
    -The world would be a better place if everyone had a hoverboard
  13. Re:Simple by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    You can check out any time you like...

    But you can NEVER leave.

  14. Re:Facebook/Myspace != cloud computing by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    Well, 'colitas' in the song is referring to cannabis, so it could be at least slightly related to 'cloud computing'...