What is a NERD like?
What are we looking at? There is facebook and twitter as our broadcast to the world, Amazon and Google as storage for our precious documents, pictures and films. Google and you name it for e-mail. Let us have a look at the later in particular: "We most often interact with e-mail servers through friendly Web-based front-ends or applications, but a tremendous amount of work goes into hiding the complexity that allows the whole system to work. E-mail functions in a poisoned and hostile environment, flooded by viruses and spam. The seemingly simple exchange of text-based messages operates under complex rules with complex tools, all necessary to keep the poison out and the system functioning and useful in spite of the abuse it's constantly under. From a normal person's perspective, e-mail seems like a solved problem: sign up for Internet access and your ISP gives you an e-mail address. Google, Apple, Yahoo, or any number of other free e-mail providers will hook you up with e-mail accounts with gigabytes of space and plenty of cool value-added features. Why do battle with arcane dragons to roll your own e-mail solution? I'll tell you why: because if it's in the cloud, it's not yours.
Because you must rely on others for your security. You have no control over who can read your correspondence—you must allow your data to be mined and your marketing profile extracted. You won't be told if your metadata is collected or if your inbox is vacuumed up by a secret government request. You consent to be not a customer but a product, and a product has no rights. Well, to hell with that. It's your e-mail. And we're going to take it back." This is an article from ars technica and it pretty much sums up the issues the whole cloud industry is bringing upon us
Wouldn't take a free petrol lamp when you have to buy overpriced fuel so why take everything they offer you, when you can run it yourselve. Linux offers software solutions for MAIL, CLOUD and WEBSERVER which let you harvest all the benefits of our glorious information society without giving up your personal information where you might not want to. It is about choices and informed decisions to make and not being mined and skimmed. I saw them all, those 25 year of linux. Moved from SCO-Unix ( of course not total, I still have the license which I bought in 1991 ) to linux in 1995 after 4 years of countless nights and pizzas I had my first own PC runnig linux connected to the outside world through a hayes modem (I think it was 1200 baud where you placed the handset on a receiver/sender). The internet was formed by only a few dwellers and the first porn sites had just apeared; it was free, the chances where enormous and it would change everything to the better. So did it? Mass electronic surveillance by governments revealed over the last several years has spurred a new movement to re-decentralize the web, a movement to empower individuals to be their own service providers again. Here we are. The freedom is still there, but now you have to chose and find it. Centralization vs. Decentralization In Podcast by ChrisMarch "While the 20th century unequivocally belonged to the centralization of resources and capital, both human and monetary, we are now undergoing a shift of seismic proportions in the 21st century. And understanding this is so utterly crucial to your personal wealth. The issue of decentralization is one of the most important discussions of our time. It is being thrust upon individuals, corporates and governments alike as waves of capital shift at increasing speed. And as a side effect, this is also creating an ever increasing gap between those who fail to understand how, why and from where this new inexplicably threat comes from to the few who understand and are taking advantage of it usurping old systems and in the process creating wealth. In some instances this is life changing wealth. Just consider the most valuable companies in the world today and what makes them valuable. (It’s not in fixed assets such as infrastructure, mines, railroads or the like.) Shockingly, decentralization is an issue which gets less attention than a nipple slip from one of the Kardashians or some such celebrity who, as far as I can tell, is famous for being famous. This is how the world has always worked, proving Pareto’s law with the repetition of a Swiss clock. Incidentally this allows for the few who understand the forces in motion to prepare, and prosper well ahead of the masses. Make no mistake: decentralization is changing the playing field as I pen this to you. Think about it for a moment… everything from politics down to personal lifestyle choices is affected. And while possibly not immediately obvious to the casual observer, even the recent Apple versus FBI fight is an issue of centralization vs. decentralization.......Pretty powerful, right? I think we can agree there’s a seismic global trend underway here. As mentioned the 20th century was about centralization, but the 21st century will be all about decentralization. As investors, there are some very compelling ways to ride that wave." Will you take advantage or will you been taken advantage of, that seems to be the question. So what could be the answers?