My Unabridged Rant~~
The "Cloud" has been around for like, 30 years, it's not new or anything interesting, in fact in the beginning, most corporations used the "cloud"; at the time, it was called a Workstation. I'm sure all the technarati love this "new" concept. "You mean, I can carry a client like a Macbook Air? I don't have to have a harddrive? All my apps can be run from the 'internet'?" Yeah, in theory that all sounds amazing, people love Gmail and google apps but I'm just not a fan, here's why.
In my computer history class, we looked up the prehistoric days of computing, I got to see old harddrive platters (As big as a car tire!) and we evn had to do some reading and research. According to one of the interesting textbooks and site my Professor offered there was this nugget in 1974 "Researchers at the Xerox Palo Alto Research Center came up with Alto, which was the first workstation with an inbuilt mouse. It had a fair amount of storage capacity and offered menus and icons. It could also connect to a network." Via computer-history... Let me tell you, back then I was like 'Wow, seriously? People had to 'purchase' time to use a mainframe? That's so archaic!' Archaic? Yes. Profitable? Hell Yeah!! Funny thing is, they didnt realize how long term profitable it was. You could sell desktops for more money upfront and be done with the consumer, then flash forward like 30 years and suddenly... Subscriptions are the way to go! As a consumer I hate a subscription, I like a product in my hands, not to mention if you dont control your data, it can be altered, encryption or not. I've been on sites where a news story was 'corrected' or 'pulled' and all trace of the old version was erased, without notice, imagine a world where there are no hard copies, no thanks, I like my quaint, antiquated, slightly cryptic desktop, it's mine, the data's mine, the records are mine, and as long as it's not hacked or formatted the truth/facts/data, whether accurate or my interpretation is mine. Citing security is just whining by lazy people, the same people that would whine if the government were to put in place laws to "make" you be responsible, rather outsource their responsibility, it's pretty sad and kinda pathetic.
But, let's go back to the cost issue. A common misconception is that if everything moves to the web, things will be cheaper, because there wont be exploits or service packs or any other chaff you wanna throw into the air. This is a flawed concept. Regardless of where the actual software is stored, there's going to be R&D and security concerns, there's going to be people paid, the same number of people no doubt, who will troubleshoot, research, and patch flaws, holes, and bad code. These people will still be paid, the only difference... the ONLY difference is the company as a whole will make a hell of a lot more. Now instead of you paying anywhere from $20-$500 for a program they make a continuous stream of revenue from you. Sure they dress it up in s shiny suit and say we're not reaming, but newsflash, if a person gives you a cute card saying they're not reaming you and you feel like your being reamed and they're the only one there.... they're reaming you.
You paying more doesn't even translate to you getting more anyway. An example: I play World of Warcraft, I paid for a retail box, installed the game and I pay a monthly subscription. While paying the subscription and getting minor tweaks of the game, I still have to buy expansions with even more tweaks then before and new zones, places, races, bells and whistles, and it all sounds really awesome. So I buy the next expansion, never mind the fact alot of times it breaks my game and I have to reinstall and alot of the time although I dont get a prorate the system may go offline for "maintenance" for an indeterminate amount of time, I still keep spending my fee to play. Then the new expansion comes out, it promises a ton of new crap to do and see and
Dances
A dance studio is being worked on to allow players to add and change dance animations. This was not featured on release; however, it will most likely be introduced in one of the future content patches for WotLK.
Date published November 13, 2008 and still... no new dances. Sure there were alot of other things added, but I bought it and was excited for new dances. But what incentive is there to provide the feature now? I bought the software, I still pay my subsription and even if I quit I still paid for something I won't get. But see, thats the magic of subscriptions, you can say whatever wacky thing you want, promise it and never have to make good on it. So what if the customer was lied to, they have your money, they even have your subscription from the months you pitifully waited for them to make good and if you give up, well... so?
Conversely, money talks with a retail box. If a reviewer or someone you knows gets a product and it doesnt do what it says, well, noone buys it. There's accountability. You'd better damn well make good on what you say or you wont be around long. That's really what it comes down too, noone likes being accountable anymore, from companies, to politicians, to parents, to children people don't like to have to follow through on what they say. It must be nice to run your business or industry on a quote from a musical.
The sun'll come out
Tomorrow
So ya gotta hang on
'Til tomorrow
Come what may
Tomorrow! Tomorrow!
I love ya Tomorrow!
You're always
A day
A way!
~ Annie
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