July 24, 2011

The Cloud

I'm not a proponent of the cloud.

To me, the cloud is the most aptly named new "tech" that we've created: it's insubstantial, it's not always easily accessible and at the same time, as many are finding out to their detriment, like the clouds in the sky, it can be easily seen by many.

I understand the allure. Not being tied to one specific machine is an enticing one. It's hard to know you have something you need at home, but not work. And particularly if you travel a lot, you can't always take your workhorse machine with you, so you have to hope you've transferred everything you'll need to a travel-machine – or that you'll have access to that workhorse in some way and can download what you need, when you need it.

But I'm seeing more and more people beginning to move to the cloud, to trust the cloud. Maybe I'm just a suspicious bastard, but I find this to be a mistake.

1) Not every location has reliable internet service.
2) Not every location has reasonably fast internet service.
3) The more popular the platform/service, the more likely it will be hacked or compromised.
4) Not every service has acceptable Terms of Service - many, in fact, do not protect you, your account or your data.
5) What happens if/when that service you rely upon goes out of business? Or, in some ways, worse, their servers are seized in an unrelated investigation?

I think number 1 and 2 are relatively self-explanatory. Folks with a reliable connection seem to forget that there are huge areas where either the reliability or the speed are simply not up to par. I've seen presenters at conferences burned when the upload/download speed of the hotel internet was simply not up to the task. Areas where storms take out the internet on a regular basis. Areas where throttling is practiced, even when the ISP claims they don't throttle. Even when going to a tech conference in a large city, you simply cannot rely on the reliability and speeds of the local internet support the cloud.

3) The more popular the platform/service, the more likely it will be hacked or compromised. This one is just a given of the computer age. It's not a deal-breaker on its own as of yet, but it's something that every computer user, cloud-based or not, should keep in mind. Most people who know me know that I'm an avid Apple fan ... for now. One benefit has always been that my machine and software have always just worked. Another is there have been almost no worries about virus or hacking issues. That's not so true now that Apple is starting to gain more and more market share. I'm still an Apple person.

But, as Apple's popularity is on the rise, so are Apple-specific attacks. I try not to be complacent any more. And it's the same with any cloud service. Using the cloud to store your data without any other backup, is, in my opinion, a serious mistake. Between connectivity issues and the likelihood that hackers will target a popular service increase, I'm leery of leaving any data in the cloud for very long. The longer information is there, the more popular the service, the more likely my data will become compromised.

And then we come down to numbers four and five, which for me, tend to be deal-breakers.

4) Terms of Service. Here's where there are real issues. Even the ones which attempt to write in "plain English" often don't come across well enough for the average person to really feel comfortable with. The plain and simple fact right now is that the law has not caught up with the speed of the internet. Twitpic, YFrog, Google+ have all been hit by this, as have other services. The problem is that these services need permission to store and to transmit your data and the legal phrasing makes it sound to the average person, as if that service is claiming the rights to your data for their own nefarious purposes. Most services have been quick to jump in on public outcry and insist that's not what they meant.

The problem here is that the law has just not caught up to the realities of the digital age. There's a lot of leeway in how thing are phrased and what they mean. We don't have good, reliable precedents set up yet. There's a lot of security holes here and a lot of uncertainties.

On the other hand, what is on my hard drive or thumb drive is on my control. If I'm paranoid about what's on there, I can create or use a program to hard-erase it in an emergency. I can't be sure that a like program would irrevocably erase all data from any given service. The service and their servers are not under my control - and neither is my data.

In addition to who owns or controls the data, there are also issues with your account in general. Right now, Google + is coming under fire for closing out accounts of people where they think the name is not "real." Leaving the "real" name definition alone for now, think about this for a moment. How many people have gmail, Google Calendar, Google Docs and more all tied into one account? And what happens when that account is closed unexpectedly? What happens when you do not have access to your email or other data?

There have been numerous accounts lately of people discovering their account has been closed WITHOUT ANY NOTICE TO THE USER. In many cases, without evidence as well. In other words, just some troll or angry acquaintance can, in many services, get your account shut down. Meanwhile you lose days of productivity and in the case of email services, perhaps time-sensitive, vital data and work offers. You're left trying to prove a negative to a large entity which really doesn't care about getting your account back to you, much less your data.

It's a scary thought that my email account could be hijacked by a service at any time with little or no warning even if I've done nothing wrong.

And then there's reason 5: what if the service disappears? They go out of business. Close down. How do you get your data now? Yes, you should always back up your data, but we all know there's a time gap between the most conscientious back-up plan and what you've recently worked on. And we all know that most of us are not diligent enough about backing up our data.

In addition, if the service goes out of business, how are they disposing of their servers? Your data is on there. Auctioning off the servers might mean that your data was not sufficiently cleaned off the drives.

For me, there are too many variables for me to trust the cloud. I've too often lived in places where my connection is not great, not reliable. I've seen multiple services either go under or be bought by other companies that I do not trust. I've known many people who've had part if not all of their online identity hacked - often causing "real world" issues.

In all, I don't think that every use of the cloud is a bad thing. I simply feel that a lot of people - both the working joes and the bleeding edge technophiles - are not always thinking this through before committing everything to the cloud. And that concerns me most. Not that the cloud exists or is used ... but that too many people are not necessarily thinking this all the way through.

The cloud, to me, is just a cloud. It's nice to lay on my back in the summer time, looking at the sky and dreaming of all of the thing the cloud could be ... but I'm far too practical to believe that the cloud is anything but a dream or something more than fleeting.

The concept is nice. It's utopian.

But I no longer believe in utopias. They are certainly thing to strive for - otherwise what is the point in life? But they are fraught with issues that we've not yet considered.

I guess I am just an old, suspicious bastard now.

Posted by Red Monkey at 10:24 PM | Comments (1) | Blog | Stumble

July 19, 2011

Argh

So the roof was not correctly re-shingled. We won't mention the fact that they did not re-do the roof, they just laid shingles over the top. With nails that were too short. And they screwed up the starter course. And misaligned them.

The owner, in another state, insists it was done right. We'll see what FHA and the bank say. But it's just dragging things out more.

I hate the hotel.

And I'm so introverted that in times of stress, like this, needing to stay in someone else's home temporarily should be a good idea - but in fact is even more draining for me than the hotel. Times like this it really sucks to ride that edge of introvert, geek and possible aspie. Just not dealing well with the uncertainty and the stress.

Really would like that fast-forward button so I can just jump ahead a little bit.

Posted by Red Monkey at 9:26 PM | Comments (1) | Blog | Stumble

July 17, 2011

Getting Closer

Tomorrow is the slew of house inspections. If nothing needs to be repaired, I should be able to close on Thursday. If there are things that need repair, it'll be longer. Really, really hoping everything is in as good a shape is it appears to be. Hotel life is really wearing on both Tieg and I. Little brat won't hardly let me leave the hotel on the weekend. He knows the routine and there have been no complaints during the week when I'm gone for work, but last weekend I took him for a 45 minute walk around the neighborhood and then left to get my hair cut.

When I got back, there was this kind of quiet, low-pitched alarm going off in the building. Was an odd kind of wooooooo sound. It stopped when I opened my room door. Apparently Tieg must have been not-quite-howling for the whole hour and a half I was gone! He's so out of sorts with it being just the two of us in one room instead of my partner and I, three dogs and four cats in the house. With no Scraps to wrestle with and no Scout to snug, he's been glued to me whenever I'm home.

I'm such an organization nerd, I'm actually mostly looking forward to unpacking, sorting and getting things placed. Not looking forward to the half hour drive down to the storage unit and back up to the house, though.

Posted by Red Monkey at 11:39 AM | Comments (1) | Blog | Stumble

June 25, 2011

NY4M

So a friend's sister lives in NYC and happily attended the celebration in her neighborhood this morning. Her local politician is an out, older, gay man and he gave a heart-warming speech. She thought the whole thing was just wonderful. She also had her small child with her and at one point, she leaned over to explain to the toddler what the whole celebration was about.

"You see, most of the time boys want to marry girls, but some boys like other boys. And so this means that boys can marry boys and girls can marry girls if they want to. So you can grow up and marry anyone you want."

Everyone standing around was cooing and smiling at the scene, when the kid lets off with the somewhat predictable, "But I'm going to marry YOU, mommy!" And of course he sealed it with a kiss. And of course, everyone who'd been listening just laughed and grinned and cooed even harder.

And that, folks, is how you "explain things" to a little guy.

Posted by Red Monkey at 8:03 PM | Comments (1) | Blog | Struggles | Stumble

June 19, 2011

Strange Signs

I have gone west on Southern several times over the last month. And there's this sign that has shocked and puzzled me as I drive past. It's just about a block down on Southern from Highway 528 and it's a lesson in why graphic design - instead of just throwing something up - is an important discipline.

This is what I have time to see as I drive past:

So, let me see if I understand that ... don't drink and drive, but the cops will sell you beer for $1.75 and margaritas for $3.50?? What the hell?

Now, I know there's another line below that and that I can't be reading this right, but I don't have time to read the entire sign before I've driven past it. Creating any kind of outdoor sign is a completely different art than creating a point-of-purchase display, for example, which is why you really need a professional graphic designer involved in the sign-making process even if the sign doesn't involve any illustrative or photo elements.

This is the whole sign ... which I didn't get to read the bottom of - despite traveling through there multiple times - until I actually pulled over to take a picture of it!

OH! Well now, that makes more sense.

Don't just let people throw signs up. Seriously. Find a professional graphic designer and make sure the layout is something that will WORK for the PURPOSE it's supposed to serve. Designers really are practical people and can prevent confusing signage. It's worth the money to invest in something that's actually going to serve your purpose instead of confuse the hell out of people.

Further on down the road, as they say, I went back to look at the house that I liked yesterday. Would it really be big enough? When we were house-hunting in South Bend, we fell in love with the last house we looked at on the first day. Part of what we loved was the rich wood paneling in the dining room and kitchen and the exposed beams. Love the rustic stuff. The wood was darker than I like, but it was gorgeous.

But, the only access to the basement was through the garage. Same for access to the backyard. That cut the effective living space in the house down by half as it was just difficult to go thru the freezing garage in the wintertime to a cold basement to work on hobby stuff. So, the basement became storage and little used. The house felt very small and cramped to me after a while.

So, looking at this house, I'm forcing myself to not make an offer instantly ... but the kitchen with its gorgeous tiled countertops ... the tile floors ... and this:

... this has me drooling. The house is gorgeous. The living space is laid out much better than our house in South Bend, but it is a smaller house without the basement. I think it should be do-able if we convert the 1-car garage into a room. And the backyard is much larger than anything else I've seen so far. Could quite easily build me a studio out back and still have a spacious backyard.

And, Tieg seems to approve. He really liked the backyard a lot.

He refuses to walk in the sand when I try to take him for walks - he plops his butt down in the sand and no amount of coaxing or dragging or Cesar Milan firmness and just keep going will get that little dog to move any further. But he really enjoyed the backyard when I was there with the realtor. And when I went back today just to look at the front yard again, he was quite happy. I wanted to see how much work it would take to make the fence dachshund-proof and as I'm studying the corner of the house and the fence, thinking I'll really have to build up that gap - he sticks his head through and tries to get into the backyard! Pretty good sign from our little coward-dog.

Then, I stepped back a bit and was shooting the garage so I could get an idea what size room that would make.

Wait. What's that on the gas meter?

Oh now surely that is a welcoming sign!

Posted by Red Monkey at 1:54 PM | Comments (1) | Blog | Vacations and Photos | Stumble

June 1, 2011

Beginning Summer

In May of 2002, I was a college teacher of first-year writing. The semester was winding up and I was preparing to go to a different kind of teacher's conference - one that focused on teaching rather than on subject specialty. I felt like I was hitting my stride professionally. The Wakonse Conference on College Teaching is really a lot like summer camp for teachers - it's held at the American Youth Foundation's Camp Miniwanca on the shore of Lake Michigan and it's an absolutely magical place. Having missed out on any kind of overnight summer camp as a kid, I was pretty much in heaven. I needed the back-to-nature time just as much as I wanted the discussion and stimulation of other college instructors/professors dedicated to the craft of teaching. I encouraged a few graduate teaching "assistants" to go the following year and we all had a wonderfully renewing time. The following year my partner protested: I'd spent two Memorial Day weekends gone in a row and she wanted to share the holiday with me. Little did we know that was my last chance to go as my position was eliminated at the end of the school year, 2004.

Fast forward to May of 2007. I was working as a web designer (and sometimes copy writer) at a large-ish dot com. A good friend offered me a chance to jump over to a junior design position at the agency where he worked, but I was afraid my portfolio was still weak (in print work) and I thought if I hung on a few more months where I was, I would have the chance to add quite a bit of print work as well as my web work. Alas, planning something doesn't always make it so.

A mere two months or so later, the company unexpectedly shut down and we were all out of work.

Still and all, it was a good summer to hone my craft - and I still felt that I needed a lot of honing.

Since that time I've held jobs in-house and freelance both. I've read a ton of books, studied a lot of designers, tried to immerse myself in theory and in practice ... and kept striving to better my craft on personal projects when the paying gigs weren't necessarily places I could stretch my wings. I found myself coming back to usability again and again - whether talking about web design, or even how a room is constructed, a shop set up, the design of a car's cabin. Don't get me wrong, I love illustration and print design both and enjoy doing them. But invariably, my brain circles from artistic to practical and back again. Last summer, I attended An Event Apart ... and I knew I'd found my people.

I don't believe that artists are flighty and designers have their heads in the clouds. You get flaky and reliable folks there just as you do with any other profession. I think that stereotype that an artist only thinks of some unattainable aesthetic goal and not the needs of the person requesting the piece is a load of hooey that does artists, designers, illustrators and the like a huge disservice.

But here I was at this conference and I was hearing people espouse my pet theories as fact. Many of them had had the resources to do actual studies or tests to back up these theories. And even whilst I learned from them ... I mostly learned that I needed to trust myself more and I needed to really start acting on my ideas. It was definitely a confidence booster.

Fast forward to this summer:

I got a gig with a company that is absolutely amazing. We are going to do great things with the website. I have some gifted, passionate co-workers who get it. I'm in a state I adore. The only thing that would make it better would be if our house sold and we could get a house here in the next month or two. (A pretty impossible timeline, to be sure.)

All I can think about is when I was a kid and summer marked glorious things to come. Everything is fresh and warm and bursting with possibilities.

Posted by Red Monkey at 8:01 PM | Comments (2) | Blog | Design | Stumble