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Plug: the brain of your devices

meetplug.com

71–80 of 118 posts

Re: Plug: the brain of your devices

#71
post #25
post #7

"When Plug is installed on your computer, our application intercepts all the input/output operations performed on your files, using several patent pending technologies. When Mac OS X, Windows or Linux want to store or access data, they ask our application instead of manipulating the hard drive." They've patented FUSE now? Or is that NFS?

Weird ad copy. The product is aimed at techies, but techies abhor patent-encumbered software. I thought the days of using "patent-pending" as marketing puffery were over...

The product is aimed at techies? I got a very different impression, from phrases like “we have a passion for simplifying the life of non-geek people,” as well as the general tone of the pitch.

Re: Plug: the brain of your devices

#73
post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And they're talking about some form of replication on multiple drives plugged in to a hub, and they're also talking about replication if you have two Plugs in different locations.

Using tonido, one can replicate 2 plugs in different locations. Don't take us wrong. We wish them good luck. Just pointing out it is not a technology problem. The problem is to handle complexity when you try to do a lot of things.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but the Tonido solution requires me to spend money to sync more than 2GB, and Plug does not.

Re: Plug: the brain of your devices

#74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sure but then your hard drive fails (as they tend to do) and you lose all the data. Sounds like the right solution is just encryption on the client + 3rd party cloud storage.

Except its easy to build RAID enclosures that are USB mass storage devices. Plus, it replicates data across multiple Plugs in different location, and I think the Plug software also shares data on your computer (which can be RAIDed) through your private Plug network as well.

[deleted]

Re: Plug: the brain of your devices

#75
post #36
post #34

Yes. Store hundreds of movies and hundreds of thousands of pictures on plug and access them anywhere![1] [1]: So long as you have an absurdly fast internet connection at your house, and also have an absurdly fast internet connection wherever you are that you're trying to use this thing...and aren't on an airplane, or in the car, or on a train...which is when you would generally want to watch movies on your tablet.

On the other hand, store things on a 3rd party cloud storage provider that will happily hand everything over to the NSA whenever they ask... If it's in your home they don't have an easy interface to it, they have to physically infiltrate your residence, which costs a lot more and, presumably, will require more than a passing interest in you to happen.

Their backbone interface is not easy?

Re: Plug: the brain of your devices

#76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sure but then your hard drive fails (as they tend to do) and you lose all the data. Sounds like the right solution is just encryption on the client + 3rd party cloud storage.

Except its easy to build RAID enclosures that are USB mass storage devices. Plus, it replicates data across multiple Plugs in different location, and I think the Plug software also shares data on your computer (which can be RAIDed) through your private Plug network as well.

Sure, easy for you and me. But I think for "normal" people this will be a net negative backup-wise. But I agree, possibly a net-positive privacy wise.

Re: Plug: the brain of your devices

#77
post #69

I think this project has great ambition and tone. I like it, it seems good. But — trust users to manage their own physical data? Forget it. It seems to me that people don't just want their data accessible from everywhere, but they want it to be kept in perpetuity. Considering the backup schemes I see among even tech savvy friends: really, forget it. Those fussy WD Passports can't compare to the reliability of Glacier…

When you combine this with Backblaze/Crashplan as they suggest multiple times, you theoretically get the best of both worlds...

Re: Plug: the brain of your devices

#78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sure but then your hard drive fails (as they tend to do) and you lose all the data. Sounds like the right solution is just encryption on the client + 3rd party cloud storage.

Except its easy to build RAID enclosures that are USB mass storage devices. Plus, it replicates data across multiple Plugs in different location, and I think the Plug software also shares data on your computer (which can be RAIDed) through your private Plug network as well.

RAID is not a backup solution. If your filesystem is corrupted in software (or you just mistype and delete something important), it will happily replicate the damage across all of your drives.

Personally I feel recommending RAID to home users is generally a bad idea. It gives a false sense of security.

Re: Plug: the brain of your devices

#79

I'd love to hear more about how this works on iOS. How does the Plug app have access to files in the local filesystem outside of the Plug app's sandbox?

What I imagine for the mobile clients is that it would be a window to the files in your Plug. You can stream whatever you like from your Plug with internet access, and download whatever you have room to store for offline use.
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