Cloud Seeding Disaster

It has not been a big secret that I do not hold cloud computing in high regard. In principle, the idea that we can centralize our content (you know, files) and processing (you know, the thing that $1000 computers do) is nifty. Everything from any device.

The downside is that the user doesn't have control over what happens in the cloud. You can hang on to a software install CD or a downloaded file forever and keep using it long after the company that made it has gone under (Hypercard and SuperPaint, for example), but once a cloud service stops working, it's gone. I've watched as a long sequence of cloud computing products has bit the dust, leaving people who paid or depended on them holding the bag. Flickr, Google Wave, Google Notebook, Zune Store, and more recently Cisco Routers, Razr Mice,  Simcity, Evernote, and the unending Adobe Creative Cloud debacle. I have ample evidence that engaging in cloud based activities is setting oneself up for a screwjob.

Thus, I've always used cloud stuff sparingly, but it creeps in around the edges. Blogger has a nice interface, games on Steam are fun, not needing a cable to put books on the Kindle is neat.

But then it happened.

They shutdown something I used all the time, really liked, and used to do my job better.

They shutdown Google Reader.

Um. Hey. Yeah. Hi. I was using that.

Unlike a lot of other stuff that's being hawked online these days, that product made me a more effective individual. Reader is/was like the one tool I found that was great for keeping up with scientific literature. Fast, clean, and flexible. I could sit down for a couple of hours one day a week and cram everything that I cared about into my head and/or my print queue. It was the tool it worked perfectly. I would have paid money for the privilege of using it. I told everyone I knew how awesome it was. I used it all the time. If you need to follow a lot of different information sources, it is the best tool around.

Now some pointy haired sand packer in California decided that no one is using it, and so throws the switch with no point of discussion or negotiation.

Put that on the pile of cloud failures, and a facsimile on the pile great-products-discontinued-for-no-reason.

I should have seen that coming.

Now what to do?