I bought a laptop from my office recently. It's an old G4 Powerbook, and I love it. But it didn't come loaded with a word processor and I have lost my Microsoft suite for Mac. Not having a word processor was a real problem, I am a writer by profession. So I weighed my options. Buying another Microsoft suite for Mac didn't sit well, and pirating a copy didn't seem like a good idea either. What was I to do?
Reading through Digg one morning I came across an article about updates to Google Docs. I had heard of Google Docs but never looked into it. I read further. Then the thunder bolt hit me. I can use Google Docs' word processor for free, and from anywhere in the world with an Internet connection. It was a big moment for me.
People talk about cloud computing all the time. I hadn't taken the time to really look into the possibilities of the service. Google Docs, Flickr, Vimeo, and even Facebook (to some extent) are all part of my personal cloud. Now I float my information and heavy media in the cloud instead of on my hard drive.
Having maxed out and burned up a hard drive or two in my days, I can appreciate the need for more digital elbow room. Computing from the cloud changes a lot of things for me. I'm not constantly transferring information between USB drives, or storing things on my iPod. My email inbox was a graveyard of old versions and single word subject lines. "Stuff." "Project." "Mine." I'm still sorting through pages of unopened email I sent to myself.
The cloud has set me and my stuff free. Now I don't need to worry so much about the size of my hard drive. I can start focusing on the size of my imagination. Cloud computing is definitely filed under "cool stuff."
No comments:
Post a Comment