Netbooks and cloud computing

The article and specifically this line from the Economist on netbooks had me thinking again about one of my favourite topics - centralised computing (a.k.a "Cloud computing" nowadays): ".. a near permanent connection to the internet permits simpler technology...changing the economics of the PC business." Allow me to elaborate...

My first experience of a "computer" in the non-pedantic sense (a ordinary calculator is a computer too) was my dad's black and white screen Windows 3.1 laptop in the early 1990s. Some megs of RAM and some megs of storage etc. I only ever played Snake on it though, found Wordperfect too complicated and it didn't have BASIC so games.. Anyway, my first real "computational" experience was at college/uni where we used UNIX based central systems with dumb terminals strewn everywhere. All my data, programs, papers, resume everything were stored in this central place along with the data of everyone else. Fast forward 4 and a bit years and I am sitting in front of a Windows NT 4.0 "workstation" with all my data stored on "personal" computers. Fast forward a few more years and now my data is distributed. My work data is now on a shared "storage area network" and my personal data is still stored on my PC, with a few bits "shared" or "hosted" on sites like flickr. (Pardon the overuse of the double quotes - am trying to identify jargon as its emerged). And I haven't backed up my data, so when my PC gets knicked I lose my honeymoon/holiday/travel snaps and major heartache ensues. But it didn't have to be that way....

We now have netbooks with minimal storage, cloud computing and data storage (which admittedly hasn't taken off as much) and ubiquitous internet access. Netbooks are pretty much pared down PCs - not as "powerful" as a laptop or desktop. More or less like the centralised computing dumb terminals of yore that we started off with. Why does humanity always have to move around in circles? I always imagined that one day in the not too distant future, storage and internet access will become utilities like telephony, gas, electricity or water. We are nowhere there! Why do I have to shell out on a so called "depreceating" asset called a personal computer, continually upgrading to greater storage space, latest software and faster processors, when all I want to do is to read/watch/hear my favourite websites, store personal data and access paid for content (music/videos)? I don't have my own power generator, water or gas storage so why can't I have a "pipe" to my local data centre where all my data is and access the internet? Why do I need to care about "bandwidth"? Do you care about your telephone's bandwidth? What's the difference?

Maybe people have issues with storing their data on a system away from their immediate vicinity? Let's see - all of my contacts and my calendar are on the likes of hotmail, gmail, facebook and linkedin. My credit card numbers, phone numbers and address are stored on a million sites. My photographs are on flickr, my CV on job sites, my medical history on some super giant NHS computer, my phone calls and text messages logged by my mobile service provider and so on. Even a blog of my (more civil) thoughts is here! In short, "my" data is already out there. Why did I recently purchase a 1TB drive and a 1TB backup drive then? In my particular case, it was pretty much for my music and movies. But iTunes could have had a different subscription based model, where "my" music meant I could listen to content I had paid for, anywhere and anytime. I didn't have to store my music on my mac AND my iPod, continually upgrading both with greater storage-ability.

Similarly, I am sure we can work out a counter argument to every other objection to centralised data storage. Except one very irksome question - data "ownership". My snaps are on facebook, but do I own them or are facebook free to use those snaps as they choose? After all, fb are providing me storage free of cost, there has to be some payback. And I can't think of a non-radical answer within my limited abilities.