[W]eb apps can make you truly mobile. It will no longer matter if you forget to bring your flash drive with you.
Understanding this is key to understanding cloud computing and where the mobile web is taking us now. That is to say that with the continued expansion of wireless networking (both 3G cellular networks and wifi everywhere), you really don’t need too much in the way of portable storage. Sure, you might want to carry around some larger files with you on a flash drive or iPod, but storage out on the web is so cheap that there’s no need to carry much around with you. Dreamhost, my web host, offers half a terabyte of online storage to new users. That’s not even counting Files Forever. In fact, I’d say a useful hosting service is just as key as many of the other (highly useful) apps they list, particularly if you are a UNIX head. It’s almost as important as a good wireless phone and unlimited data plan.
Of course, Lifehack misses the biggest of them all: Google. Yes, they list Google Documents (and Google Talk in a very quick and passing mention), but what about Notebook? Also, Checkout looks like it could be useful in some circumstances, though maybe not for web freelancers. The list of Google services I use grows weekly, and the novel uses people find for their services grows far more quickly.
Your host Dreamhost is offering a terabyte of data. Do you know how may bytes or Mega bytes that is? They must be offering you a cluster of servers out of which you are using just a tiny fraction.
Comment by web design — 2008-07-10 @ 17:28
Well, yes, of course it’s clustered. They’re quite open about that, and I would expect them to architect it in that fashion.
I also expect them to oversell their capacity, given how few people will use their full allotment. That’s how the business works.
Comment by Kyle Maxwell — 2008-07-10 @ 23:12