A load of Tosh: External hard drives the new 'personal clouds' Calling an external hard drive on a desk at home "a personal cloud" is a bit of a stretch - but that is exactly what Toshiba is doing with its latest 3.5in disk product, the STORE.E CLOUD. After announcing internal-fitting 3.5in drives using technology acquired from Western Digital, Tosh has quickly followed up with 2TB and …
I think the scribe of the article is off his rocker...
With 6 grand for 3x1GB USB sticks, we can safely say that Toshiba's NAS has enough time to absolve a full service life, before those USB sticks come down to challenge it in its price range.
And cloud with "guaranteed up time" is something that's guaranteed only for as long as the current tech bubble lasts.
Is he not watching governments all over the world clamp down on electronic communications, with folks like Anonymous & co giving them the perfect excuse?
The only thing sure in regards to that fantastic distributed cloud is that some criminals, or worse, some government agency is going to end up with your data.
Because nothing has changed in our modern times: Governments are just the most powerful crime syndicate in any given country, well second most powerful now; bankers took the number one spot, since they managed to absorb control of the money supply.
Yes, oops. I did intend to fully qualify the USB stick quip by referring to what we'll be carrying in our pockets in the future. Brain fart in the morning. Apologies for the stupid oversight.
Chris W (not Chris Mellor).
It is a personal cloud because it isn't your main store (it is designed to back up your files) and it is accessible from anywhere. That does kind of match the definition of cloud storage to some. Sure it isn't itself robustly backed up or strung across several servers with guaranteed uptime, but you can put your stuff on it, and then get it from anywhere so that is cloudy enough. It also has the benefits of you knowing exactly where all your stuff actually is. So what if they use the catchy cloud word. Apple have a time machine, but nobody has suggested they are no Doc Brown...
I run a similar set up with my home server and it is handy, but this may be handier still.
@SuperTim; I agree with you but will qualify. One of the key (selling) points of "cloud" is it's off site location and the implied or stated promise of a high level of curation and security. I believe the author's contention is based on that distinction. However, it is at best, an arguable point. Like you I am more comfortable in assuming the role of curation, including security, simply because I have no trust in device reliability, fate, and someone else's surety. That said, your point, imho, is enough to make a product and the thread only quibbles about what to call it. As we all might agree, clouds are a nebulous and ephemeral phenomena , and therefore cloud may in fact be exactly the right term for all of backup. Reaching the goal is still largely dependent on the user.
"The box only holds 3TB - USB sticks will hold more and you can carry them in your pocket"
I'll be generous, let's say, 32GB sticks. A quick comparison (hdd v usb sticks, quantity, price, weight, pocket size). I'll spare you the details, for obvious reasons. So please!
p.s. yes, the name of this box is beyond ridiculous.
"The box only holds 3TB - USB sticks will hold more and you can carry them in your pocket"
I have seen 64MB USB sticks at a reasonable speed for just under £25 each. So you would need about 50 of them costing about £1200.
I have a better idea which is cheaper and takes up less space. Its called an external hard disk...
Dear sir
I represent Apple inc. and that your 'piece of paper' storage idea infringes Apple patent #5639072522094-B
As such , you are liable to costs stated at $5 for each 'piece of paper' produced and therefore you owe Apple inc $2.56322*10^24 in damages.
If you wish to contest this, please apply at
Cupertino City Courthouse
California
United States of America
Thank you for your attention
Since it's internet-accessible I'd have thought that you can put it wherever you can get someone to agree to host it. It's just easier to get permission at home. That deals with location-independent.
Now it just needs the software to be able to manage the storage and retrieval to multiple devices in a way that the user sees them as a single space. Then, as if by magic, a cloud appears!
I'm getting fed up of the phrase "cloud".
I complained a while back about a website not working properly (the preview audio clips were stuttering). The website owner replied saying it couldn't go wrong because it was "in the cloud". He'd been sold his hosting on the fact it didn't use old fashioned servers, but "the cloud".
This post has been deleted by its author
Cloud is one of those weasly umbrella terms, like Web 2.0, Intellectual Property, or "because God." I have a Hotmail account from before the MS buyout. I used it to store my WAV files. When I was a kid, I had mates who stored their bleeping MOD files in each other's houses over phone lines.
I can have a personal home server these days with a messenger-style protocol I can access from anywhere, but that's what it is. A server. Software as a service, is just a program running online, like Prestel. Virtualising the server OS to make it stretchable across hardware is tautologically that.
But if somebody sells me a "Personal Cloud", I expect to ride around on it shooting lightning at people...
Lumping unrelated things together under a single term is the opposite of science!
The Register 
Biting the hand that feeds IT
Copyright. All rights reserved © 1998–2025
