Living in the Cloud

Just when you thought you had a handle on Web 2.0, along comes the Cloud.  Cloud computing sounds new but it's really old.  Remember way back in the day when you went to the public library and they had those black-and-green computers to look up stuff in the book catalog?  Well, cloud computing is basically just a return to that.  Stuff isn't handled on your computer, it's handled elsewhere, and sent to you over the web.  Do you use Gmail?  Congratulations--that's cloud computing.

There is a difference, of course.  In the olden days you had a single large server in a basement somewhere.  Now you've got thousands of servers in giant data centers linked across the world.  If one server dies, you (the end user) will never notice, because the other servers automatically pick up the slack.  In fact, it may not have even been a real server, but a "virtual machine" running inside a larger computer.  All this computing power is swirled together and hangs suspended in the ether, like a cloud.  Cute metaphor.

"But how does that actually affect me?"  In awesome ways.

Most of you know by now that my new "official" email address is Jordan@Koplowicz.com .  If you're still using my old senatorkoppie@yahoo.com address, I've probably told you to stop by now.  I currently use gmail, but that's just a platform.  I can have Jordan@Koplowicz.com point anywhere I want.  When I graduated UCSD and later UC Hastings, I lost my student accounts.  When I switched from Yahoo to Google, I stopped checking my Yahoo mail every day.  But with Jordan@Koplowicz.com, my email migrates with me.  I'll never have to send out another "I've switched emails" message.  That's a pretty nice thing.

But it gets better.  I've started telling people about my new phone number.  It's based on Google Voice.  Not only is it a very cool custom number, but I can tell it to point to whatever phone lines I want (land-based or mobile).  See where this is going?

Next time I move, or switch phones, jobs, or internet providers, I don't have to tell anyone.  My two most important methods of communication--phone and email--never change.  I'm plugged into the cloud, and it doesn't matter where I am physically.

So why am I still stuck with a physical mailing address?