from the abacus forward

December 8, 2013 7:49 PM

Changes to computer thinking - Stephen Fry explains cloud computing
posted by the man of twists and turns (13 comments total)

It's a six-minute ad for a cloud service... interesting how it emphasizes the new Cloud Computing systems as Uitilities like Electricity, Gas and Water... but not like Telephone or Cable TV. Quite PepsiBlue.
posted by oneswellfoop at 8:01 PM on December 8, 2013

Well, it was a wise choice to employ Stephen Fry to do this.
posted by TwelveTwo at 8:03 PM on December 8, 2013

I hope he had a substantial payday, that was pretty awful (except for his voice).

"dark ages of computing" sheesh
posted by sammyo at 8:09 PM on December 8, 2013

That explained cloud computing about as well as it explained coal-fired steam turbine electricity generation.
posted by Mr. Big Business at 8:10 PM on December 8, 2013

"You know what everybody loves? Utility companies! Let's tell people we're like a utility company!"

...
posted by aubilenon at 8:11 PM on December 8, 2013

I think the point of positioning as a 'utility' is that it implies there is no other option.
posted by TwelveTwo at 8:12 PM on December 8, 2013

"Cloud" is the flavour of the month buzzword that IT executives are momentarily enamoured with. But it doesn't have much concrete meaning. It's a blanket term for a few different technologies that have been in use commercially for over a decade. The only new part is the branding.
posted by dodecapus at 8:16 PM on December 8, 2013

Tim Berners Lee invented networking? And this was the most democratizing event in history? Wait what?

This is painfully bad.
posted by aspo at 8:16 PM on December 8, 2013

Cloud computing means you're storing your data on a server at NSA headquarters.
posted by Sys Rq at 8:17 PM on December 8, 2013 [2 favorites]

Sys Rq: To be fair if you use a reasonable cloud service you are less likely to be storing it on a machine compromised by russian gangsters and bitcoin miners.
posted by aspo at 8:18 PM on December 8, 2013

As others have said, this is overstated hype. Cloud computing is a neat and useful step forward in internet services, but is not on the same level as anything else listed in that video.

Also, Tim Berners Lee didn't invent the Internet or neural networks.
posted by justkevin at 8:18 PM on December 8, 2013

Also, Thomas Edison didn't invent the lightbulb.
posted by Sys Rq at 8:20 PM on December 8, 2013

This really is a bad ad, the only reason I can see that it was posted is Stephen Fry narrates the drivel.
posted by aspo at 8:24 PM on December 8, 2013