Cloud storage

[Chris GunnParticipant @chrisgunn36534]

How do you access your cloud data if you are somewhere with no Internet?

Chris Gunn

[Richard SimpsonParticipant @richardsimpson88330]

[Richard SimpsonParticipant @richardsimpson88330]

[Chris GunnParticipant @chrisgunn36534]

I got cloud storage with my newish computer and windows 365, but still back up my most important stuff to a USB stick regularly, and also to a remote hard drive. I keep my pictures on another remote hard drive. I feel I am in control of my data, irrespective of any 3rd party. If I were to lose a file I can pick it up from the cloud, but I am not reliant on it.

Another question, how much of the cloud is taken up by all the frivolous pictures we all take, our cats dogs, the plate of fish and chips we had the other night, you know the stuff I mean. We can click away to our hearts content, and many do, without a thought to where the pics end up, and the majority is not worth saving, but it gets saved anyway. Has anyone done any research on this ?

Chris Gunn.

[Nicholas FarrParticipant @nicholasfarr14254]

Hi, well I don’t used the cloud, and I don’t intend too. I have a few external hard drives, and everything is stored on them, and duplicated at least twice, as even external drives can fail. With all the big companies that have been hacked just lately, it makes one wonder how safe the cloud is.

Regards Nick.

[Robert Atkinson 2Participant @robertatkinson2]

UEFI and other “developments” worry me.
How many people realise that the interface chips in most PC’s have a CPU (microcomputer) in them taht is active even when the PC is “off”? and that this CPU can access the network?
Unless you unplug the PC (and remove the battery in a laptop if it’s not fixed) he machine can “phone home”

Robert.

[SillyOldDufferModerator @sillyoldduffer]

[Robert Atkinson 2Participant @robertatkinson2]

The issue is that W11 requires new hardware at least to run to MS standards. All the other versions of windows would run on the same hardware as the previous version, maybe slower or needing more RAM but you didn’t have to buy new hardware when MS dropped support.
And previous versions of windows have not gone entirely there are still thousands of copies of Windows XP running. Mostly in dedicated applications or hardware but still running. To most users W11 is not even a significant improvement over W10. MS says “Windows 11 offers new productivity features and functionality designed to meet the challenges of the hybrid world. It has a refreshed look and feel that helps you get more done with less stress.”. Nothing there that I want. “but it’s free” Not really If you buy new hardware it come with a new licence the the hardware producer has paid MS for. This seem like a bit of conflict to me. MS effectively giving the hardware manufacturers new sales and they get new licence fees in return.

But Im a cynical old bugger who started off before micrcomputers on Intel 4004, 4040 and Motorolla 6800 based equpment…

Robert

[duncan webster 1Participant @duncanwebster1]

Why did they have to move the ‘off’ button. It wasn’t broke, so don’t fix it.

To echo SOD I’m not an IT guru, but I ran a laptop with Linux mint without too much trouble until Mr Dell decided it was too old and it disabled itself

[Richard SimpsonParticipant @richardsimpson88330]

By the by is your 3 year old machine really Windows 11 incompatible? Check to see if UEFI is available.  If disabled in the BIOS, Windows will tell you the machine is incompatible, even though it’s just a setting…

Dave

Dave,  The first part of the process is to run a Windows diagnostic app, which informed me that the CPU is not compatible.  All I could see is that the speed is fine but I suspect it is a single core processor and Windowss 11 apparently requires a dual core processor.  I’m going to have a chat with a local outlet and look into the cost of upgrading the processor or, failing that, rely on Norton to keep things safe until we decide it is time for a new machine.  I’m afraid EUFI is way beyond me.  Is there as step by step anywhere so I can actually check?

As always extremely interesting.

[Nicholas FarrParticipant @nicholasfarr14254]

Hi Richard, I wouldn’t rely on Norton to things safe for too long, it might for a couple of years, but could be sooner.

Regards Nick.

[Richard SimpsonParticipant @richardsimpson88330]

Can you explain a bit further Nick?

[Nicholas FarrParticipant @nicholasfarr14254]

Hi Richard, just to say that I had Norton on my Vista laptop, and when MS stopped support that, though I can’t remember exactly how long it was, but it was probably not much longer than two years, when Norton no long supported Vista, and I think they stopped supporting XP in about the same sort of time period when MS stopped supporting that.

Regards Nick.

[NealebParticipant @nealeb]

It is quite normal that a third-party product will cease support when running on an operating system that is no longer supported – if you can no longer trust the software underneath your own product, any “it doesn’t work” issues quickly become a finger-pointing exercise. Fusion 360 is telling me that it will not be supported on W10 soon although I’m not sure if that will still apply with the European 12-month extension of security support. I suspect that it will very shortly be W11 only.

As for cloud – I’m more paranoid than some but less than others. I use OneDrive for selected data when it suits my way of working but not blindly for all my data. I go to several classes where teaching material is disseminated via Google Drive – horses for courses.

[Colin BishopModerator @colinbishop34627]

About a week ago I had a reminder from Norton about my subscription expiring soon. It could be renewed for £89.99. I promptly cancelled it and as expected have now just had two offers, one for Norton 360 Deluxe (5 devices) and 50GB cloud storage at £29.99 or Norton 360 Advanced (10 devices) some extra features and 200GB cloud storage also for £29.99.

Reviews are very good so I will probably go with the Advanced option as we have 7 devices between us including the smartphones.

Colin

[Chris GunnParticipant @chrisgunn36534]

We have just had an example of when a small fault in the clouds causes mayhem worldwide. Lets hope there is never a big issue with the cloud.

Chris Gunn

[Nigel Graham 2Participant @nigelgraham2]

I do my best not to use MS’ so-called “Cloud” – which name it uses disengenuously to make you think it is a part of the Internet as a whole, not Microsoft’s’ own.

This is why I do not and will not trust Mr. Gate’s company:

 

I bought a DELL factory-rebuild that arrives with W10. Fine (ish – I have yet to see any genuine improvements over XP to do exactly the same things, albeit that third-party publishers like IMSI and Alibre write for the latest version of Windoze).

Then MS up-dated it to WIN-11i. I will not call it “up-graded”.

I spotted Change 1 very rapidly: MS had turned what had been a very good data-filing system since its WIN_3 beginnings into a sloppy, slapdash mess making it difficult to archive your own files as you want them.

Especially photographs, presumably because they are more likely to be useful to MS and its commercial customers than any of a private individual’s documents, spreadsheets and CAD drawings. SO…

 

Change 2: My entire photograph directory of many folders, had been reduced to a single, jumbled folder and worse, a number of images had become damaged or vanished entirely. I recovered some from external stores, but found this was all due to MS trying to move them to its blasted “One Drive” gimmick.

Change 3: A childish screen-corner note about the weather appeared so you didn’t need look out of the real window. Actually, it opened a tiled display of a crudely thrown-together jumble of quotes by Microsoft’s MSN “service” from everyone else’s newspapers, broadcasters and advertising agencies.

Worse, the central image was one of my photographs no-one else could have taken. It was of a tree in my back garden, taken purely to ask advice by e-post from a horticulturist friend. Clicking the photo opened an entire gallery of yet more of my photos, picked randomly by the Seattle Cowboys and mixed with what looked like company trade-marks, but all unknown to me.

MS had raided my photo archives, having wrecked their filing system, without my knowledge, let alone permission I would not have given, for its own, unstated purposes.

Now, MS thinks all images are “Pictures” so I created a new directory under a new name and rebuilt my photo archives in that, while also establishing better external copies. One of these independent stores is my previous, WIN-7 computer which also carries a copy of TurboCAD 2019 Deluxe. (The WIN-11 PC I am using for this, carries TC2024 and Alibre Atom, both written only for MS systems.)

 

I do not like or trust MS at all, its near-worldwide monopoly is partly why the Internet is so unsafe; but unfortunately I am not sufficiently IT-skilled to use Linux, and anyway not all third-party software will run on it.

From time to time I examine the software index, deleting or disabling optional MS “features” I neither need nor want; but it will not let you remove Copilot – does not even list it! Most of the guff I have removed is for games, cameras and wirelessly-linked accessories.

[Chris GunnParticipant @chrisgunn36534]

Another second big cloud outage in a week or so, first Amazons AWS, yesterday Microsoft, I lost BT email for a while both times, just inconvenient, is someone targeting these companies in turn?

Can we rely on the cloud? These outages are taking down the users with them,  a problem for a bank, not so much for us, as we can wait for everything to be sorted out I guess

Chris Gunn

[Author]

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