google again coming up with the goods;

bit of cloud computing and no doubt one of the better online storage options

http://www.tgdaily.com/html_tmp/content-view-41094-140.html

Gdrive is basically a cloud-based storage that should have two faces: A desktop client that keeps local and online files and folders in two-directional sync via a web interface for accessing your desktop files anywhere and anytime, using any network-enabled computer. In addition, it will come tightly integrated with other Google services to enable editing of supported document types, like spreadsheets and presentations via Google Docs, email via Gmail, images via Picasa Web Albums, etc.

the only thing holding this product back from being totally awesome, is our puny uploading pipes

i wonder can our isps do much better than the tiny 1000mpbs most of us are on?

ive been running live mesh on work pc, laptop, home pc, wm6 phone, works well. https://www.mesh.com/Welcome/Default.aspx

That's awesome!
It'd probably be free too!
Might start sorting out a backup solution once this is online! :D

Wonder what legal ramifications it could have? Who can access my computer? Government and internet filter? Google? Google's advertising - will it search through my files / music and show me ads based upon my hard drive now?

Ive been playing around with PhotoSynth from Microsoft and annoyingly you have to upload everything to see the Synth.
Cloud Computing to me seems like an attempt to 'charge' ppl to store/use applications every time they use it.

its a scam.

Dropbox is the same thing, and its already out.


Thanks reso for the tip.

i think ill wait for the google version thx

maybe i'm not getting the basic idea of this but it seems to just be a newbification of ftp & online storage but without security. :/

Dropbox +1

Excellent place to put my animal pornography and bomb making tutorials.

Seriously though, people GO TO PRISON just for googling a crime they have committed. It happens all the time. Some lady googled "decomposing body in water" and it got her convicted. Yeah she actually killed a guy too, but the fact that she was looking up how to decompose bodies f***ed up her defense. Same thing happened with a guy who looked up how to break someone's neck, and another guy who googled his own hit'n'run before he denied knowing anything about hitting anyone in court.

This isn't just browser history - this info is in google's logs too and they happily hand it over when they get subpwned (which incidentally has sometimes got them into even more trouble with authorities because certain courts weren't meant to have certain information).

So yeah - I will be keeping very wary before revealing any private data to google.

Dropbox is the same thing, and its already out.

Sounds to me like GDrive doesn't do automatic syncing, and that you have to manually sync files. Which is just crap, and too much effort.

I've been using Dropbox for a few months, and it's great - too mad they made a serious screw-up in the plans they released. 2GB (Free) or 50GB. Nothing in between.

i use drop box on my home pc and my work mac, and i share a folder with my gf that syncs on her work mac and her home mac.

so much auto syncing file sharing madness. its awesome. its like foxmarks for files!

Drop box looks pretty good also.

Might start using this instead for pictures/documents etc for me and the girly. Autosync for the win

Ok, that’s great but given that most ISP's are charging for both upload and download, it wont be overly practical. Given the price of hard drive storage (portable or otherwise) I cant see it being something I could make use of for bulky data.

Also, I can only upload at 128kb/s, it would take all day to save large files.

Depends. If it's a file anyone else has uploaded (ever), you won't need to actually upload it using dropbox - it's smart enough to figure out that they already have that data stored via a hash, and therefore doesn't upload it.

my isp doesnt charge for uploads, i specifically choose a plan that doesnt

It will be good for offloading a bunch of s*** when formatting a computer and you don't have a portable hard drive handy. Although it may be faster to drive to the shop and buy one than to upload your hard drive to the internet.

Ok, that’s great but given that most ISP's are charging for both upload and download, it wont be overly practical. Given the price of hard drive storage (portable or otherwise) I cant see it being something I could make use of for bulky data.

The only two ISPs I can think of that charge for uploads and downloads are Telstra and Optus (apart from Naked plans).

The only two ISPs I can think of that charge for uploads and downloads are Telstra and Optus (apart from Naked plans).

I think you just pointed to at least 60% of the Australian population didnt you?
I dont have current market share stats handy, but its something around there.

Anyway you look at it, I cant see it as a practical thing to make use of compared to portable drives ect. The speed of uploads for the majority of us is just too damn slow.

Besides that, you have no control over the security of your data. If their server room burns to the ground, goodbye data. I cant see even Google having an offsite backup for all that capacity. I'm no expert on the techologies being used here, its just the way I'm seeing it.

im pretty sure google backup their s***

im pretty sure google backup their s***

I'm sure they do as well. What we're talking about here is not their s*** though, its everyone else in the worlds. Just how much data could we be talking about? 200gig x 1,000,000 users?

i guarantee you that they wouldnt roll something like this out without being able to ensure that data was protected and backed up

What sort of tech is available to backup that volume of data?

googletech

et, you really need to watch some documentaries on how google works... they dont backup to tape or anything, they work on a everything is mirrored three times in three random locations motto...

oh this reminds me i was talking to someone who is in R&D for a oem based pc manufacturer and he said that they already have designs for system without hard-drive that offer from the bios/flashcard a bootable mini linux OS large enough to fit the biggest drivers (3d graphics card, bluetooth, sound etc) and can use all these, he recons the cost of these 'cutdown cloud client devices' could be as low as $250au

Yeah, I'd love to know more about how they do it and what some of the stats are. It blows my mind thinking about the logistics of it.

I read here that Google process's 20 Petabytes of a data a day. Thats well over 20 Million gig of data. WTF!

yeah i am using filedropper. got a free 250gb account. sweeeet.

I used to use a site/program combination called x-drive when it first came out, did pretty much the same thing. After a while though they started charging for their services :(

edit:

So yeah - I will be keeping very wary before revealing any private data to google.

Glad to see I'm not the only one who is paranoid about the amount of information google is storing about our browsing habits and computer contents. Google desktop, Google chrome, calendars, search history, youtube video history, etc.

I remember a time when anyone who knew anything about computers was actually worried about companies like microsoft tracking your browsing habits, now everyone is happy to let google track their entire life?

last edited by whoop at 18:56:19 21/Jan/09

I'm currently using mobile me due to some accidental purchase of it. Overall its not bad, a lot better than it was at the start.

I would like to see google web drive compares to s3. I'd much rather pay a small fee and have something to fall back on for compensation when it all turns to s***, rather than putting all my data on storage that will be termed "beta". Someone was saying they put up 40 gig of photos onto s3 and it cost like 30$, and cost only 4$ to leave the data up there. While amazon charge for s3, its stupidly cheap (USD):

Storage
$0.150 per GB – first 50 TB / month of storage used
$0.140 per GB – next 50 TB / month of storage used
$0.130 per GB – next 400 TB /month of storage used
$0.120 per GB – storage used / month over 500 TB

Data Transfer
$0.100 per GB – all data transfer in
$0.170 per GB – first 10 TB / month data transfer out
$0.130 per GB – next 40 TB / month data transfer out
$0.110 per GB – next 100 TB / month data transfer out
$0.100 per GB – data transfer out / month over 150 TB

Requests
$0.01 per 1,000 PUT, COPY, POST, or LIST requests
$0.01 per 10,000 GET and all other requests*
* No charge for delete requests

i have zero issues with google knowing what i say in my emails, or what i will store on my gdrive

As for live mesh, I'm against it cause they advertise features that don't work:

http://img.skitch.com/20090121-dj3i31bj2wsfgbhe6yadqt5rrs.jpg

http://img.skitch.com/20090121-gu896sx1ngqwjjany1e2tty66b.jpg

Lucky the mac and mobile phone are 10000x more reliable than my pc

last edited by simul at 19:08:50 21/Jan/09