Home network 2.0: Synchronized computing

Making the same files accessible from computer to computer at home does not mean you need a centralized server or a big budget.
The New York Times

The story "Home network 2.0: Synchronized computing" published December 4, 2005 at 6:00 AM is no longer available on CNET News.

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.mac can do much more

You didn't really do justice to what can be done in this area with
a .mac account. For instance, synced bookmarks and contacts
are available to you on any computer (Mac or Windows) -- in an
internet café, eg -- without the need to download them or
replace the existing set of bookmarks or contacts.

You also get iDisk as an integral part of the operating system.
This puts an additional drive on your desktop which you use like
any other, but with the added benefit of automatic syncing
across the internet. Your iDisk is also available to any computer
over the internet as it uses webdav technology, and a utility
called iDisk for Windows can be installed on a Windows machine
to give equivalent functionality.

Finally, you get Backup 3.0, a very competent backup and
restore program that can be scheduled to back up any files from
your computer to your .mac account for safekeeping. Of course,
it can't speed up your internet connection, but it can be set to
do the chores in the middle of the night.

.mac isn't cheap, but you get a lot for your money.

.mac easily had...

... for anyone. That is to say, any providers
could give you the equivalent of .mac for
Windows, Linux, Solaris, BSD cheaply and easily.
The fact of the matter is that, doing so for
Windows contravenes a number of business plans of
companies that would like to see alternate
services that provide bits and pieces of that
equation separately at even higher cost.

People are not as stupid as corporations
presuppose. The people that would demand such a
service are wise enough to realize what little
effort it would be to provide and would expect a
pricepoint that leaves little room for greed.

Thus, the need is unfulfilled.

[MrNougat]

Windows already does what you need

Computers today are both clients and servers. Set up your home desktop with a shared folder. Access this folder across the network from your laptop using My Network Places. On the laptop, use "Make Available Offline" for that folder. Now, the files are available to you on the laptop no matter where you are, changes made in either place sync to the other, and the main copy is on the desktop at home - more durable, less likely to be lost or stolen.

No one needs to buy any software to accomplish what Windows is already designed to do.

Offline folders as bad idea...

If you are lucky, it will work. However, I
suspect enough people have been burnt by them
that that's the primary reason offline folders
aren't more popular. Even then, however, they
still rely on the repository-client model
(offline folders with multiple syncing clients
doesn't work).

[jeremysimmons]

Feebleminded Users

Why is the world so cluttered with people who are not capable of
understanding things like "file-sharing". Why is the world so full
of people who are willing to cater to the selfish spoiled nature of
those people who whine when things are difficult. Has the earth
become such a place of practiced decadence that we do not
pursue anything which is "hard" or "difficult". Most things which
appear as such, are only viewed in a negative light by those
without the character to achieve. When those who have the
knowledge to see the same task as simple, do not have the
patience or the heart to train and encourage those who have yet
to achieve, we are busying ourselves with the task of creating a
lazy society. I say that we invest our energy in encouraging
people to excel. Lets stop coddling the adults of the world, and
make the accountable to learn what we already know.

[Simpleton#9]

Time is precious and technology isn't everything

Perhaps some have a better use of their time and aren't concerned with investing so much time when it can be easier.

Do you do you own car repair work, or do you take it to someone?

[BaldSpot]

Feebleminded Users

I would have titled Mr. Simmons' post, "Lazy Users". I work with many bright engineers. They spend their days solving problems related to nuclear propulsion systems on naval ships, but throw their hands up when they can't get the automatic paragraph numbering to work in the word processor. They are fully capable of figuring out their computer problems, but use the cop-out that they "don't understand computers". I'm not the brightest guy around (having failed at college), but I do know how to explore menus, click "Help", and search the internet. All it takes is effort and enough self-respect not to run to mommy the instant trouble arises. On the other hand, you cannot stop the entrepreneurs who make money off lazy people. As long as there are namby-pamby weaklings and scaredy-cats, someone will make the world safer and easier for them, for a price.

Not that easy....

Since nobody has come up with a really good
solution, it goes without sayihng that it's not
an easy problem.

File sharing is pretty straight forward. Syncing
not quite so (there's all sorts of issues in
detecting changes, relying on version indiciators
(time stamps are a bad measure), etc. And if you
are talking pool/multi-syncing (i.e., several
users syncing the same document and possibly
contirubting different changes in an
uncoordinated manner).

No, users should understand simple file sharing,
but a more advanced users is likely to realize
that anything other than the simplest case should
be solved by someone else lest data be lost (such
as frequently happens with offline folders and
other such methods).

[yrrahxob]

I agree 100%

You are so right. I recently installed a wireless internet in my house. I wanted about 30GB of files transfered to the second computer that had a wireless USB adapter. It took all of about 10 minutes to figure out how to set up shared folders and get the transfers running and I didn't have to use any third party software. If I had called a so called "Professional" to do this for me it would have cost me around $200.00. Come on people, get off your lazy butts and learn something for a change. The compiter won't bite you, really.

[jamie.p.walsh]

Elitist attitudes

So the virtues ambition and perseverence are more important than patience and humility? Because that is what you are implying.

The fact that YOU think that people should just do things the hard way supercedes the fact that you can't be bothered to teach someone your method.

[Earl Benser]

No big deal....

... I run multiple Mac's and PC's on the home network and any
computer can get to any file on any other computer as fast as it
can get to it's own files. The Mac comes with this capability. PC's
need to be trained to do it. and if I use multiple copies of any file
on the net, I use iSync to make sure they are matched. Actually,
except for back-up purposes, only one copy of any file is really
needed on the net. That takes care of synchronization
'automatically'.

When it comes with the platform, there's no reason to pay for it
again.

Windows can do all this itself

Even easier than all this - You can tell windows to fetch your user profile from another computer - share that user directory on your 'main' computer and tell all the other computers to use that as your profile and it will sync desktop, email, bookmarks, settings, everything, every time you logon.

[Earl Benser]

Perhaps....

... but Windows doesn't make it obvious or simple, if actually true.
And it apparently is unable to work with any computer other than a
WIndows PC. Perhaps that is adequate for some, but it is seriously
inadequate compared to the nulti-platform options that the Mac
can do. Since I have no interest in syncing the various Mac and PC
desktops, the one possible advantage of the Windows-based
approach is meaningless.

But if all you use are PC's, it also is all you have to work with.

[agent V]

it's so easy

just share a drive on your pc, other pc's can see and use it, so can macs and linux boxes with samba. thats how i sync my bookmarks on all my boxes. plus microsoft has a powertoy called SyncToy which takes the headache out of copying and backing up folders

[Earl Benser]

The trick is....

trying to get a PC to see beyond it's PC environment.

[jmarchese]

Peer Software

The best product in the market for personal PC synchronization or corporate/enterprise workstation/server synchornization and real time backup is Peer Software. www.peersoftware.com

Their Save-N-Sync (for home users) and PeerSync (for power & corp users) has more features and functions than any other product on the market. Used in conjunction with their byte replication feature, you can simply send only the bits of data that have changed, which dramatically reduces transmission times and bandwidth consumption

www.peersoftware.com

[208774626618253979477959487856]

go network!

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