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Ubuntu for Android

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Re: Ubuntu for Android

#161

Post by rbarooah »

Lewisham wrote: post #106
rickmb wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you think your data "in the cloud" (which is just a way of saying "on other people's physical systems") is safe from theft, breakage or some foreign government agency pulling the plug, you haven't been paying much attention to reality lately. And by "lately" I mean the past decade. Don't get me wrong, I like the convenience of "the cloud". It's especially helpful in synchronizing all the data that I have on cheap…

Backup device manufaturers are really missing out on big bucks by not making a small NAS that downloads all you cloud data. Give it access to Google/Dropbox/Flickr etc an have it silently back everything up. I hope they've thought of this and I've just missed it. They won't be able to sell USB based backup drives for much longer.

IOMega used to make a NAS with support for foldershare (the dropbox predecessor that was sold to Microsoft). That was 6 years ago - before it's time I'd guess.

Re: Ubuntu for Android

#162

Post by speleding »

rickmb wrote: post #78
bambax wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> This, or something like it, is the future: the computing device is portable, and adapts itself to the forms of input available Maybe it is, but it's not the future I'd like best. I would like to have a desktop in the cloud, and data in the cloud, and nothing in my pocket; nothing to lose or break or have to make sure it still has juice. When I get somewhere to work (a client's, a café, a friend's, etc.), I log in t…

If you think your data "in the cloud" (which is just a way of saying "on other people's physical systems") is safe from theft, breakage or some foreign government agency pulling the plug, you haven't been paying much attention to reality lately. And by "lately" I mean the past decade. Don't get me wrong, I like the convenience of "the cloud". It's especially helpful in synchronizing all the data that I have on cheap…

We are talking about the future. In the future your data might be more safe in the cloud than on your own device, just like your money is more safe in a bank than in your wallet. It's possible.

Re: Ubuntu for Android

#163

Post by Lewisham »

mrb wrote: post #89
morsch wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To me, that seems like a lot of trouble to share a relatively trivial amount of hardware. Hardware which is optimised for different, fairly specific circumstances, incidently.

It's not sharing the device's hardware that matters, but the device's data. All your data is either on the phone (pictures, etc), or available through the phone which is always on and always authenticated to the "cloud" (Android Gmail contacts, emails, etc). The future of computing is either that (using your cellphone as a computer), or putting 100% of your data on the cloud (so you can access it from any device). Bu…

I think it's fair to posit that cheap cloud storage space will meet/outpace smartphone storage space, to the point where simply imaging the entire phone to the cloud is easy enough. Even if you lose your phone, you authenticate a new one and you're ready to go in the time it takes to download the image.

Re: Ubuntu for Android

#164

Post by rplnt »

Symmetry wrote: post #108
rplnt wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you store all your money at home or do you have some in bank? There's no reason why some big entity couldn't guarantee that the data you put in will get back to you whatever happens to company holding your data. If you mean security as in privacy, then there are cryptographically safe methods on preventing that.

I think the crucial difference here is the number of entities I have to trust. People can generally do a bit of research on a bank before they join one, if a bank really sucks you can switch, and if a bank seriously defrauds you then you know whodunit and can pursue legal recourse. By contrast if I'm using a supposedly dumb terminal provided by some random cafe then there's absolutely no way to prevent them from seei…

I'm not talking about tomorrow but rather distant future. The banks evolved somehow. Now it is really hard to "become" a bank. There are very strict regulations in place. If a bank goes bankrupt the personal savings are still guaranteed to be paid off. So this is just a matter of making some regulations and establishing proper hierarchy.

And about security as in privacy. I don't know what future holds. Perhaps you'd be implanted a token that you can use for accessing the data which can't be faked or copied. Who knows. I just wouldn't rule out the possibility of a "cloud world" completely.

Re: Ubuntu for Android

#165

Post by rplnt »

rosser wrote: post #105
rplnt wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you store all your money at home or do you have some in bank? There's no reason why some big entity couldn't guarantee that the data you put in will get back to you whatever happens to company holding your data. If you mean security as in privacy, then there are cryptographically safe methods on preventing that.

Even with strong crypto, if you're typing in your passphrase on a "dumb" machine that someone else owns and controls, you're risking the entirety of your security on how trustworthy (and security-competent) the owner of that machine is. No thanks.

You could have a token that would work exactly as credit card. Only one token would be authorized. You cannot copy it so if you lose it, you know you lost it can be "disabled". You would then need a new one with the same key however. That key could be stored in real bank's deposit box. Hardware of the token would only allow to store the key and not read it. I mean, that's a possibility for the paranoid ones who are not happy with cell phone auth for example.

I know there's no infrastructure in place (yet) but we're talking about some kind of future, not about today. It's certainly possible though. Even secured.

Re: Ubuntu for Android

#166

Post by rplnt »

mikaelgramont wrote: post #104
rplnt wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you store all your money at home or do you have some in bank? There's no reason why some big entity couldn't guarantee that the data you put in will get back to you whatever happens to company holding your data. If you mean security as in privacy, then there are cryptographically safe methods on preventing that.

If somebody steals your money from a bank, the bank can replace it. If somebody steals your data from the cloud, there's no way to make things ok.

It doesn't matter that someone have a copy of your properly encrypted data.

Re: Ubuntu for Android

#167

Post by epscylonb »

alexchamberlain wrote: post #159
epscylonb wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If consumer networks were as reliable as roads and the electricity grid, why would I bother giving my data to someone so they can put it in a datacenter?. The future I would like best is a device on the end of my home internet connection. I could authenticate myself to other online services against it. It could be a node in a social network (much like diaspora) where I can control all my own data. It could have acces…

This is a great hardware startup. Sell rack boxes that can be installed by an electrician next to the power in/telephone in and get rid of those under featured consumer routers. Hmmmmmm.... I'll sell you one for £500 a year, replaced regularly and managed?

I was thinking more of a Raspberry Pi, though obviously combining this device with the router does make sense.

Re: Ubuntu for Android

#168

Post by alexchamberlain »

epscylonb wrote: post #167
alexchamberlain wrote: post #159

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is a great hardware startup. Sell rack boxes that can be installed by an electrician next to the power in/telephone in and get rid of those under featured consumer routers. Hmmmmmm.... I'll sell you one for £500 a year, replaced regularly and managed?

I was thinking more of a Raspberry Pi, though obviously combining this device with the router does make sense.

Seriously? Why not combine into the NAS?

Re: Ubuntu for Android

#169

Post by bergie »

freehunter wrote: post #71
orbitingpluto wrote: post #41

Reminds me of doing the Debian chroot on the Nokia N8x0. That's been around for quite awhile. It's nice to be able to apt-get whatever you need. It's prohibitively slow to use on a device from 2007 though and overclocking is a bit risky and drains the battery quickly. (Maybe I'm a dinosaur, but I still use one of these things rather than the brand new 1.2 GHz dual core Android phone sitting next to it in my bag.) I d…

I use a chroot on my Touchpad to run Ubuntu with LXDE. It's... workable, but no where near "desktop" quality. The lack of a mouse kills it, and LXDE isn't really touch optimized. It's really nice to have around when there are apps you need to use that are run better (or easier) from a GUI, and the dual core 1.5Ghz processor with 1GB of RAM is sufficient to keep it running without hiccup (until I load Eclipse). With s…

I have a Ubuntu chroot on my Transformer Prime. A bit painful on tablet mode, but feels great when you're using the keyboard dock.

Desktop via VNC is quite laggy. Has anybody tried using the Android X11 app?

Re: Ubuntu for Android

#170

Post by epscylonb »

alexchamberlain wrote: post #168
epscylonb wrote: post #167

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was thinking more of a Raspberry Pi, though obviously combining this device with the router does make sense.

Seriously? Why not combine into the NAS?

I could see a NAS needing to be upgraded more often than this device.

If the software and feature set were stable and mature enough then I can't see you needing to upgrade it very often.

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