Clouds, Macs and ecosystems

I am fascinated by the difference between becoming an Apple user and remaining an eclectic user of a range of tools.

I can see the appeal for Apple users, as they get integrated units, an ecosystem of hardware and software that all work together.  And now that iCloud seems like the direction they are going in, then you get all your files stored online, accessible from any Apple unit that forms part of that unified field, and which you can edit without complications with the formatting.

There is the trade-off (for reliability) of living in a walled garden, however.

iCloud: The Future of Apple's ecosystem, on Mac Stories.

Google seems to have chosen to go the web route, the 'open' system which can be accessed from any gadget or device that has access to the web.  Google also have a cloud approach (GoogleDocs, etc) with both files and software stored online, but more universally accessible (if rather less simple and reliable).

How the Apple iCloud compares to Google's Cloud on Computer World.

Perhaps it depends whether you like the lock-in that investing in Mac, apps, etc tends to create, or prefer more promiscuous use of whatever tools come to hand, accessible by more routes.

Apple users remain so loyal because of the reliability of the product (things should ‘just work’). Which is great, of course, and very impressive. Apple as a business can claim to retain customers better than most, in a fickle world of accelerating change. This does not only have to do with reliability and integration, however, but the difficulty of migrating out, once committed to that system.

Not to say that Apple has addictive qualities.

Still, given that they remain a niche product, there remains an argument for variety, the equivalent to being multi-lingual. Using eclectic mixes of tools has its hazards, and sometimes frustrations, when systems do not prove fully compatible, but gives the user access to a wider range of possibilities, not just in future developments, but in moving between platforms.

You pays yer money, as they say, and take your choice.

I don't feel totally sold on Clouds, as it happens.  I still have the experience of going to a training centre with 'thin clients' when the network went down, and all the students had was a monitor, a keyboard and a mouse each.  No computers, no contingency plans for the tutor, etc.  No doubt, when it all becomes stable, it may appear the way to go.  I only recently suffered the Blackberry meltdown, so I know about dependency.  And if all computing activity had to come through a 'utility' pipeline, rather than owning my own freestanding computer, then I can see dependency (and prices) increasing.

Not to mention security issues, and not having local copies of your own data. (shudder).

Cloud Computing topic centre at Computer World.

Apple’s Greatest Advantage: The Apple Ecosystem on GigaOm

Cloud Computing on Wikipedia

Varsitech explains Cloud Computing

Diddling with the ephemeral

One of the main reasons for not getting on with writing books is still the number of words that I throw into the ephemeral, the passing show of Facebook, Twitter, blogs, etc.

At least blogs and emails hang around as some kind of diary or notebook, that can be referred to later, or discovered (all in good time) by others.

The thousands of words that just fade into the void of social networking, however, might just as well be spoken out loud...a famously transient way of communicating...the rest is silence...

Maybe I should think podcasting (the spoken word that stays).

Option: Opt In or Opt Out?

I have played with blogs as diaries and notebooks (i.e. mostly for my own use) that it has never occurred to me that I should try to gather fans or make money from them.  Most internet monetizing seem like variations of spamming forums with unwanted and semi-literate posts - not even trolling, heckling or finding some other motivated glee.

It seems too sad a life to get involved in, like 'addressing envelopes' in the old days (pyramid-selling, multi-level marketing, chain letters, and all that).

Of course, I have never shown any ability to take money seriously, because of my fundamental perception of it as a rigged game, and one whose rules I don't understand, even if I couldn't detect any cheating. The banker wins, so far as I could see, whether playing Pontoon or Monopoly, as a child.

So, I opted out, as far as that was possible.   It turned out impossible (for me) to avoid the money game completely - I'd have settled for Buddhist monk, maybe, but couldn't face Christian monk.

We all make choices.  My choice meant that I basically lived in cash and kind - but avoided credit and debt (two sides of the same coin, of course). Further consequences of living in cash?  No house/mortgage.  Not running a car.  Few holidays.  Clothes from charity shops.

That doesn't make me a complete freak (I meet other people who don't drive, for instance).  After all, some people opt out of wearing watches, and I can't even imagine surviving in a world where I had to depend on other people to know the time!

Car drivers can't imagine depending on public transport, or simply living a more limited and local life.

I don't opt out of everything.  In some areas I feel like an early up-taker, or even ground-breaker.

Which leads me back to blogs, and a website I hardly tweaked in the last decade, and all that.

Should I leave this detritus floating around neglected, or decisively remove it (leaving only a trace, maybe, in the WayBack machine, and a scatter of broken links?   It all remains some kind of archive.  Perhaps it may prove useful to someone, just as we may one day start mining city rubbish heaps for aluminium (say).

Anyway, for the time being - and failing any attempt to centralize all this stuff into some integrated nodal point - I have started this blog to try to at least consider the scale of the problem.

That I have still decided to use Blogger (who apparently only have 3% of the market these days) instead of something cool and new) either demonstrates my tendency to fall off the pace, or some kind of brand loyalty, or...hey, I don't know.

How could I possibly make money out of chatting to myself, when I should (apparently) be trying to create 'product', or saleable 'content'?    My niche seems so small, that it only has room for me!

My old website has an elegant domain name

The clunky old address came for free with my ISP, and they have since changed from ntlworld to Virgin, without changing their URLs, and all that. But http://tobyphilpott.tk/ will find me.

I decided to take a free domain name from Dot.tk - this remains free so long as you have (I think it is) 25 visits per month or something. Anyway, I used it, and eventually decided to upgrade to the paid domain name, because it seems like a good cause to help people whose island just might disappear if the oceans keep rising, for instance. And, anyway, I love that each country got its own little part of the Internet.

TK = Tokelau.

According to that Wiki piece "Tokelau has added more than 10% to its GDP through registrations of domain names under its top-level domain, .tk"

Mind mapping

With some enthusiasm, I adopted the Personal Brain mind mapping software. I had tried it in the past, and quite liked the look and feel of it, but as with any new system, you have to import quite a lot of data (the hard way) before it starts to flourish.

And I actually let it drift, and rarely open it, as it feels like a half-finished project. The even bigger aspect of sharing brains, etc - with Web Brain - has also faltered, just like so many 'sharing' models, like wikis, Shelfari, etc.

Here's one I made for the Maybe study group.

You can find the dynamic version of this at WebBrain, although it doesn't give you a complete idea about the flexibility and power of the software.  You'll be able to see a little bit of how the map can rearrange itself.
I also put a smaller one on the OM website (all experiments).

On my own blog, you can find some posts about Mind Mapping, here in April 2011, and then back in December 2010.  I had started by mapping my online presence on a board, with Post-It notes, but it grew and grew...

I think not...

I love the internet. I work in a library. So much of the internet relates to information gathering, and to story-telling.

In over a decade online, and with a job that involved assessing online tools, I have tried all kinds of optional gizmos and methods.

I invented blogs for sub-personalities. I contributed to Wikis (and started a couple of my own). I used MySpace a bit, Facebook a lot, Twitter rather diffidently.

I have studied online, and have taught online.

So it seems a bit silly, perhaps, to start another blog - but I have several Gmail accounts, and each one offers a blog and website option - so the temptation remains.

I find it hard to let things go. Especially now I am working on writing. Anything I have put online might prove useful raw material. But so many of us have put our lives online that sorting through it all, or retrieving anything, has become difficult.

I suspect I will simply use this as a kind of index of material already published.