This isn’t a rant, yet. It is an idea. I find that I have spent a lot of time on the phone talking with people whose job it is to help me use their company’s services and what I have learned is that, quite often, those people need new jobs. Now, I know it is a thankless task to be a customer support. Users expect the world and your bosses see you as replaceable machines. You’re underpaid and under-appreciated, there is no doubt of that. That doesn’t excuse poor service. It never has. I have worked with some fantastic support people in my time. These people worked in the same crappy conditions for the same crappy companies. The only difference: they did it well.
These little sagas are my catalog of customer support incidents that I deal with. Hopefully, some will actually be positive.
Ah yes, cloud computing. We’re almost there. The PC is, as they say, dead.
Now, all my data will be stored – safely and securely – behind the gateways of corporations who sole goal is to make money off of me. The internet as a place dissolves into the ether and what remains are billions of devices all connected to the master server, always sharing, always updating. It’s a world where data, public and private, is available all the time – anywhere – for the right price.
I know. Privacy is a myth. The very idea of privacy on the Internet is anathema to some. For others the cat is simply out of the bag. It’s too late to stop the speeding train and if we don’t get on, we’re liable to get squashed.
I worry sometimes that privacy becomes a red herring for greater concerns. I spend a lot of time talking about the evolution of literature and media. I argue strenuously for the evolution of digital literature and narratives that do more than simply try to replace products that already exist. Even with all my argument and belief in those mediums the truth is that the internet, and the cloud, is limited. It only knows what we feed it and most of us, in some way or another, feed it a steady diet of lies. Some lies are little, others gargantuan, but we all shape what we say about ourselves in some way or another. We are children of advertising. We know what sells.
My name, real or not, is a pseudonym. Who I am here is a creation, a myth generated by me and by those around me. I retain privacy not by refraining from using the products. Rather, I hold certain parts of me, and of my person, sacred. I do not post everything. I keep some data private and off the cloud. I do encrypt and I only trust products and hardware that I own not a service that I rent. I may use such services, but I accept that the data I place there could be gone tomorrow.
That is the key here. The cloud doesn’t have to be as negative as I fear it may end up being. Some things should be shared. Some things should be put out there for the world to play with and engage. In those ways the cloud will enhance and help but only if we as users and consumers understand that there is a strict delineation between what we own and what we share. We are not what we share, that is simply a narrative we write about a character named after ourselves. In that sense, some things can and should be available in the cloud, others are neither important enough nor sensitive enough to warrant strict management. The rest requires another way, a way that we understood not too long ago.
Those sad archaic PCs, relics of a lost yesterday, they already are our clouds and we seem to have forgotten that. I run a system that makes what I ran five years ago seem ancient. It and the other systems I manage inside my own home form my cloud. If you ask me that is what we should be doing. We should be doing what Opera and Tonido have been trying to do by making it easier to set up as our PCs as virtual clouds instead of fleeing our machines for the supposed benevolence of corporations who are rarely as benevolent as we would like. Power comes in being able to create and in owning the tools of creation and management. Owning an iPad or an Android phone only gives you the ability to consume someone else’s product. Even using the creative tools included in those platforms makes you little more than a consumer. That cool video has to be shared on some site and, if the current paradigm holds, it won’t be one you own.
That is the wonderful world of cloud computing as it is today: a world of clients all begging to connect to their master servers. It gives me the shivers just thinking about it.
Turned in the last of my company equipment today. I am now officially out of the corporate world. It looks like it is time for me to get back to chasing that moon. Honestly, it’s been too long!
So, I had an interview today. What did I learn? I learned that I am rusty when it comes to all of this. I used to be good at interviews but five years at the same job tends to dull those instincts. I felt like a complete moron. I arrived early, sweating from the heat and humidity, and then stood around because I didn’t really feel like sitting. In the interview itself, I didn’t do much at all to sell myself. I just spent most of the time nodding along as I was shown the project. A project which, by the way, is the kind of project that you just want to work on.
Luckily, my qualifications spoke better than I did and I think it all came out well. Now, I just need to let my references speak for me and they are all fairly eloquent folks so I should be okay. This is only a part time gig and the pay is what you would expect for a student position. It’s worth it, though. If just to give a little back. Besides, with the combination of this, Courtney’s salary, and my financial aid (if it all comes out right) we just might make it.
To live life the way I want and still be able to make it in the world. That is the challenge I face. So far, so good.
I don’t know about you, but that was one heck of a quick month. On Friday, my transition process is complete and it’s time for me to get focused on the tasks of building the next chapter (or volume) of my life. Some things have gone extremely well. I find myself happier and more focused than I have been in a very a long time. Best of all,I have some real targets established for the future. Unfortunately, it hasn’t been all bright and rosy. I would be lying if I said finances weren’t a concern. A couple of things I had been hoping on didn’t materialize and that just added more stress to the whole situation. Hopefully, everything will be resolved soon and I can try to relax at least a little bit. It’s been a long time since I have not had the comfort of a well paying job to fall back on. Now, I’m working without a net and I’m a litte nervous.
Who knows, maybe that is a positive thing. It was easy to get compacent where I was. I let myself get distracted rather than push forward. Now, I have no excuse except my own cowardice and I know I can beat that. It helps that I have a wife who has been extremely supportive (Happy Birthday Love!) and a family that has rallied to my side. I am thankful for all of that support.
I go in to turn in the last of my corporate persona on Friday. After that, there is only the future. I already have an interview scheduled for tomorrow with a University project that is right up my alley. Hopefully, I can find a place there. If not, I have faith. Some things happen for a reason and I know this did. Life is about action and reaction. It is about facing the obstacles and makin opportunity. I have done that all of my life. I don’t intend to stop now!
