Is it time to put your files into the cloud?

In a recent blog post I suggested readers think about moving to applications in the cloud (SaaS). Today, thinking about some of the recent cloud storage announcements, is it time to put your files into the cloud as well?

Here is the background, Google's recent offer let's you store pretty much anything and everything in the cloud. No longer limited to Google Doc's and PDF files, you can store and / or backup your files into Google's cloud using Google's tools or many 3rd party tools.

On top of Google's very nice offer, there are a number of other providers that are also offering cloud bases storage and services as CIO.COM's Jeff Bertolucci points out.

At the end of the day, use the cloud for primary or secondary storage, but use it, as the storage is inexpensive and well managed, and might even be better managed and less expensive then your own local storage.

Please note that this doesn't mean you just throw caution to the wind and move everything to a cloud provider, it just means make it part of your overall storage strategy. You do have a storage strategy, don't you?

From blank paper to "food gun"

I have written many posts reporting about the good and the bad things going on in the technology world allowing the Technology Plumbing readers to take advantage of the good ideas or stay away from the bad ones.

Today, I am going to throw out a an idea on something I would like to see become a reality, but thus far have not seen anyone making any progress towards it.

The are obvious reasons why this concept may not have made it to the market yet, but there are also many reasons why many other things shouldn't have come to market, but did, perhaps because someone asked about them. Asking sparks interest in people who can turn ideas in concepts and potentially products.

As a subject matter expert in synthesizing, morphing and extending (or SME-SME) I enjoy taking other people's ideas to places the idea's creators probably did not think about and making them do things that may not have been contemplated, but in today's posting I need the "blank page" type of folks to help out so the SME-SME's can run with these ideas.

So with out further ado ...

What the world needs is a "nutrition gun", that I will give the working name of "nugun" - There are lots of calorie and nutrition books and websites (Livestrong's Daily Plate is my favorite) out there, but they all rely on identifying and measuring the food you are actually eating. This reliance doesn't work as most people don't want to or can't identify what they eat or how much they eat of it. Ask most people how much a serving of _____ is and watch their jaws drop when they realize that what they thought was 1 serving was more likely 3 or more servings.

What I envision is a device that you can aim at your food plate and it will measure and analyze the various food items on the plate that you plan on eating. Of course it would measure any leftovers you left on your plate so the net nutrition of the food event could be recorded in the manner you required (like on Livestrong's Daily Plate).

Now I know there are all kinds of issues here, from identification, to measuring / weighing, to separating the food from the plate and so on. Of course once you identify and measure the food determining its caloric and nutritional content can be complex since most food does not come with its own bar code :)

So this is a bit of a identification / classification system as well as a measurement challenge. They have laser rulers, so how about a laser scale.

The good news is the inventor of this device would have a huge market to sell to, so get out those blank pieces of papers and start designing or if you can SME it (synthesize, morph, extend) an existing idea, go for it.

I look forward to hearing about your ideas on this challenge as well as other "blank page" ideas you may have been thinking about and want to bounce off the Technology Plumbing readers.