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09-06-2015, 04:02 AM
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#21
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Senior Member
Name: Norm and Ginny
Trailer: Scamp 16
Florida
Posts: 7,517
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I use Turbotax, only once a year and it seems to work just fine, though it's on line. Google's direction for Chromebook is off line functionality. I haven't paid much attention to their efforts in off line functionality in Chromebook.
As to being measured and tracked, before the power of the Internet and computers, I would track my customers in many ways, unfortunately the tools were crude and time consuming. In some measure advanced tracking by google and the government is a natural progression though there is certainly an obvious ugly side and a not so obvious uglier side.
There was a good feeling for Google's recovery efforts, dealing with real people quickly.
__________________
Norm and Ginny
2014 Honda Odyssey
1991 Scamp 16
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09-06-2015, 05:42 AM
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#22
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Moderator
Name: RogerDat
Trailer: 2010 Scamp 16
Michigan
Posts: 3,744
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My problem with Chromebook is not having enough space to dump a full drive from my camera and run Photoshop. Yes I can put all my raw files into the cloud BUT that is slower and requires cloud access to get them back to edit. Cloud access again to store the edited files. Photoshop or lightroom are just not netbook compatible.
Ah yes Ubuntu. I was actually going to install that on a few older computers since it is light enough on resources that older hardware can still perform well the 80% of stuff that 80% of people care about the most. Email, web & social media, modest amount of document reading & creation using Open Office, minor photo edits using Gimp. Or of course online cloud based tools.
Which brings me full circle around to netbooks which can also meet the needs that are primary for a lot of people that can tolerate the network dependency for full functionality. Those of us that remember "dumb" terminals that depended on remote server for data storage and applications see this as going full circle. Everything old is new again. Calling it the "cloud" is just branding and marketing.
I'm pretty sure terminal users back then just as cloud users today thought of the functionality as just being "that stuff" that the thing in front of them could do, same as netbook users do today. No one really thought too much about the "where" of file storage, or the "how" of applications. That was for geeks & IT but even back then my 386 could fly circles around the terminals at work. Just as a laptop can a netbook. Which only matters if you need that extra horse power.
The terminals and central server made us consumers of functionality. The PC made us consumers of hardware as a means to controlling our functionality. The cloud is just a way to take us back around to consumers of functionality. Cloud storage is just the RAID disks of my office or basement file server being accessed over the internet. Without having to monitor the array of disks.
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09-06-2015, 06:27 AM
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#23
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Senior Member
Name: Norm and Ginny
Trailer: Scamp 16
Florida
Posts: 7,517
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Choosing tools.
Quote:
Originally Posted by RogerDat
My problem with Chromebook is not having enough space to dump a full drive from my camera and run Photoshop. Yes I can put all my raw files into the cloud BUT that is slower and requires cloud access to get them back to edit. Cloud access again to store the edited files. Photoshop or lightroom are just not netbook compatible.
Ah yes Ubuntu. I was actually going to install that on a few older computers since it is light enough on resources that older hardware can still perform well the 80% of stuff that 80% of people care about the most. Email, web & social media, modest amount of document reading & creation using Open Office, minor photo edits using Gimp. Or of course online cloud based tools.
Which brings me full circle around to netbooks which can also meet the needs that are primary for a lot of people that can tolerate the network dependency for full functionality. Those of us that remember "dumb" terminals that depended on remote server for data storage and applications see this as going full circle. Everything old is new again. Calling it the "cloud" is just branding and marketing.
I'm pretty sure terminal users back then just as cloud users today thought of the functionality as just being "that stuff" that the thing in front of them could do, same as netbook users do today. No one really thought too much about the "where" of file storage, or the "how" of applications. That was for geeks & IT but even back then my 386 could fly circles around the terminals at work. Just as a laptop can a netbook. Which only matters if you need that extra horse power.
The terminals and central server made us consumers of functionality. The PC made us consumers of hardware as a means to controlling our functionality. The cloud is just a way to take us back around to consumers of functionality. Cloud storage is just the RAID disks of my office or basement file server being accessed over the internet. Without having to monitor the array of disks.
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Roger,
I agree you have to choose the correct tool for your job. When I was an engineer I needed a computer that could assemble code rapidly, that had a capable engineering design program.
Now that I'm retired I don't need the horsepower of faster, bigger heavier more expensive computers. The Chromebook is a low cost solution, light weight 2lb solution. True it has a less powerful processor, but it's also low energy processor that meets my needs. The fact that it has no moving parts other than the keyboard, adds to it's reliability... no failing hard drives, no noisy fans.
I really don't go many places with out Internet (the Cloud), we have a Verizon wireless hotspot with unlimited data, we can watch Netflix movies on our Chromebook (or TV) for as long as we want. (I know we're lucky to have unlimited data, a good choice at the time.)
As we travel we need simple, small, reliable solutions. The Chromebook serves us well. We previously has a netbook. The netbook had a hard drive, eventually a failure point. As to local memory I can plug in a $9 16 gig usb drive and get as much local storage space as I want.
It has a number of nice features.. no anti-virus software required, automatically updates are free and virtually invisible, it's instant on, never needs to be booted, simply less mysterious to users.
The Chromebook is definitely not a universal solution but for a retired person with lower level needs, it's turned out to be a solid solution. I recently bought one for Ginny.
__________________
Norm and Ginny
2014 Honda Odyssey
1991 Scamp 16
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09-06-2015, 08:36 AM
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#24
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Senior Member
Trailer: Escape 17 ft Plan B
Posts: 2,388
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While traveling with a Verizon MiFi unit I rarely am out of reach of the internet. Over the last 4 years, the longest I've been without a connection has been 6 days.
That said, I do not use cloud storage. Why? Sometimes the internet connection is so slow I can't upload or download images, one of my primary reasons for using the net. My RAW files are quite large (around 45MB each) so slow connections are a problem, as well as data limits (I average 15MB per month while traveling without using the cloud for storage).
Twice, I've had photos sites where I stored images disappear (the entire site, not just my images), one of which did so with no warning. Lastly, I prefer to keep local copies of my images. I use Apple's Time Machine (with a portable drive) for general back up, and at least two additional hard drives (currently 4T for my Lightroom library (over 90,000 images) as well as a couple of portable hard drives (2T for data back up, one of which stays in the tow vehicle. When drives fill up, I replace them with larger drives & store the replaced drive.
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09-06-2015, 09:37 AM
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#25
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Senior Member
Name: Kathy
Trailer: 2017 Escape 19
Washington
Posts: 600
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I'm learning a lot from this discussion although some (OK, a lot) of the technical geeky stuff is right over my head. For some time now DH and I have been discussing what direction to go for our computer needs and internet access while traveling . Like Jon, the problem for anyone who is a serious photographer and shoots in RAW is that your computing needs and storage needs demand a pretty capable computer and a tablet just isn't going to cut it. At the moment we have an older MacBook Pro (for him) and a new desktop iMac for me. We think we'll get some sort of tablet to take on trips that he can use and also take the MacBook Pro for me to use. So far on our travels I've been backing up my photos to thumb drives and to DVDs. I was shocked to get my new iMac home and discover that it has no DVD drive! Evidently Apple thinks that sort of storage is going the way of the dinosaur and maybe they're right.
I'm very ambivalent about Cloud storage and really haveno trust that my files will be there when and if I need to retrieve them. Plus, I just don't like the idea of being so dependent on some big company taking care of my stuff, not losing it, getting hacked, etc. Also it seems to me that if you have lots of big files and need lots of storage it's going to get costly. For the present I back up to an external HD although I know that in the case of a fire or some other catastrophe everything could be lost. Someone here mentioned storing important files on thumb drives and putting them in your safe deposit box. That sounds like a good idea. The swapping idea sounds good too if you see someone on a regular basis. Kind of like giving a neighbor a spare key to your house.
Of course, at the end of the day it's all just stuff!
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09-06-2015, 10:39 AM
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#26
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Senior Member
Name: Norm and Ginny
Trailer: Scamp 16
Florida
Posts: 7,517
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Jon, Definitely an impressive amount of storage. Well beyond anything like a storage commoner like me requires.
__________________
Norm and Ginny
2014 Honda Odyssey
1991 Scamp 16
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09-06-2015, 03:58 PM
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#27
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Senior Member
Trailer: 1990 Scamp 16 ft
Posts: 654
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Does anyone have issue with Google acting as a free R&D lab for Asian phone manufacturers? They give away Android software to Samsung, HTC, etc. and we get to watch American phone companies fail one after another. Apple is pretty much the only American phone company making money using American software. Some say America has lost its edge in manufacturing, but Google is handing over America's lead in software for free. But we get really cheap toys so its worth it, right? Who cares about our children earning a living?
Sent from my iPhone using Fiberglass RV
__________________
John Michael Linck - Toymaker
Camping since 1960 - Scamp 13' Oak
Subaru Outback 4 cyl cvt
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09-06-2015, 04:01 PM
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#28
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Senior Member
Trailer: Escape 17 ft
Posts: 8,317
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Stop the world, I want to get off??
__________________
What happens to the hole when the cheese is gone?
- Bertolt Brecht
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09-06-2015, 04:05 PM
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#29
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Senior Member
Name: alan
Trailer: looking
Colorado
Posts: 264
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Quote:
Originally Posted by John Linck
Does anyone have issue with Google acting as a free R&D lab for Asian phone manufacturers? They give away Android software to Samsung, HTC, etc. and we get to watch American phone companies fail one after another. Apple is pretty much the only American phone company making money using American software. Some say America has lost its edge in manufacturing, but Google is handing over America's lead in software for free. But we get really cheap toys so its worth it, right? Who cares about our children earning a living?
Sent from my iPhone using Fiberglass RV
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From Google's vantage point if Android goes into the phone they get to sell ads.
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09-06-2015, 04:15 PM
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#30
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Senior Member
Trailer: 1990 Scamp 16 ft
Posts: 654
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Quote:
Originally Posted by minke
From Google's vantage point if Android goes into the phone they get to sell ads.
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Is that America's future-- borrowing, consuming, making nothing?
Sent from my iPhone using Fiberglass RV
__________________
John Michael Linck - Toymaker
Camping since 1960 - Scamp 13' Oak
Subaru Outback 4 cyl cvt
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09-06-2015, 04:28 PM
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#31
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Senior Member
Name: Norm and Ginny
Trailer: Scamp 16
Florida
Posts: 7,517
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Inappropriate
Quote:
Originally Posted by John Linck
Does anyone have issue with Google acting as a free R&D lab for Asian phone manufacturers? They give away Android software to Samsung, HTC, etc. and we get to watch American phone companies fail one after another. Apple is pretty much the only American phone company making money using American software. Some say America has lost its edge in manufacturing, but Google is handing over America's lead in software for free. But we get really cheap toys so its worth it, right? Who cares about our children earning a living?
Sent from my iPhone using Fiberglass RV
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Reasonable question about future jobs.
Virtually every product Apple sells is not made in North America. Most of Apple's profit is shielded from US taxes in foreign countries.
__________________
Norm and Ginny
2014 Honda Odyssey
1991 Scamp 16
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09-06-2015, 04:56 PM
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#32
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Senior Member
Trailer: Escape 17 ft Plan B
Posts: 2,388
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Quote:
Originally Posted by honda03842
Jon, Definitely an impressive amount of storage. Well beyond anything like a storage commoner like me requires.
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The majority of the data files are rehearsal & photo call images from productions back when I shot for theatre & opera productions. I also do quite a bit of volunteer photography for groups that have a bad habit of losing their copies of the images & coming back to me for replacements. I still get calls for the images, so I can't get rid of them. Keeping all of them in a Lightroom image organizer makes it fast & easy to find an individual image, however ends up requiring lots of storage.
My travel & landscape photos make up a small portion of the total, although with the full frame D800, the size of the image database is growing fast.
I'll agree that for most users the cloud has some advantages, however photographers tend to have large data files that they often access, making slow internet connections troublesome. I still feel more comfortable keeping a local copy of ALL my files...
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09-06-2015, 05:30 PM
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#33
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Senior Member
Name: alan
Trailer: looking
Colorado
Posts: 264
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Quote:
Originally Posted by John Linck
Is that America's future-- borrowing, consuming, making nothing?
Sent from my iPhone using Fiberglass RV
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To answer a question with a question, what do you think robotics will do to our workforce?
What are we good at? I'm not sure if we do it good or well, but having money as input and money as output somehow works. Speaking of doing well by doing good....
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