Don't Trust the Servers - Columns by PC Magazine!
Ta da! Triumph of the subjective, yet again. The key here is that these things, like data and processing, be shared, backedup and duplicated, fluidly. There's nothing wrong with using *both* server based backups and dvd burning to backup, especially since, as an enduser, i dont have any control over whether or not google decides to share my data with china, a US spy agency, or a lawyer. Its not either/or, its both.
When friendster/facebook/myspace/etc goes bankrupt, what happens to my buddy list? at least with all of my IM and email programs to date, I have a local copy of everyone I've ever encountered (which tops 100,000 people over the last twenty years).
Lets say, that in Mu, an impromptu conference of like minded folks want to talk about the Ohio State Buckeye game currently happening. Now, Im not at home, nor at the game - Im at my local neighborhood bar watching it on their TVs, but I want to talk with everyone whos using Mu. Well, if I used my txting feature on my phone, Id be flooded with txts, some truncated (people in a chat room dont naturally limit themselves to 140 characters), and Id use up my allotment of text messages for the month before the first quarter is over.
What if a server based webservice translated all of those typed words into voices for me, and I just called their phone number, like one calls a phone conferencing center. Here, its extremely appropriate for a webservice. But if I am at home, my own computer can do it for me (I still want the audio, because I'm watching the game, not the room/monitor. I want to *hear* my friends with whom I watching the game.)
