Since getting my Lappy last year (a replacement for once which lasted less than 12 month) I've been running Windows 8. I'm not a huge fan and I have my desk top set to classic view but bit by bit, I've been finding my way around the layouts and programmes. After being given a bit of money for the trouble caused by laptop one, I decided to go all out and by the home office prog so I didn't have to put op with the adds and had more scope with the word processor. So I recently came across something on the left hand side of my save screen called 'one drive' How fab is one drive? !! I've downloaded a free app called OfficeSuite to both my iPad and iPhone and whenever I save my writing files, I copy the main file and dump a new version on my one drive folder. As I'm hooked up to the wifi, this automatically gets transferred to the one drive on my iPad and iPhone. Once there, I can open any of the docs, edit and change and re-save it. When I get back onto the Lappy, all I have to do is copy the one drive file and dump it in my master file and carry on working! Which basically means I can edit and write anywhere I have my ipad or phone, which means, anywhere as I'm never without my phone. Just saying ...
I'm not sure why your moving files in and out of One Drive. I use dropbox, and since dropbox has a folder on my c:\ (actually h:\) I just save directly to that folder. That way everything is synched within a couple of second of turning it on. Does One Drive not do this?
Probably but I like to have everything to a master file (I know it's more copies but I am very capable of accidentally hitting the delete key) I have the main file on my desktop, (divided into subfiles scenes/cutting room/ideas/research notes/research pics etc) and then the scenes files is copied and stored on the Lappy one drive whigh automatically appears on iPad and iPhone. Then I have a USB backup. I just have to remember, if I work on one drive, I update the master, if I work on master, I update the one drive and then every Monday, I backup everything to the USB.
I believe OneDrive is a Microsoft cloud service. I've heard some people imply that using such services (at least the free ones) can create intellectual property issues. Those claims might be complete, 100% FUD, but perhaps it makes sense to look over whatever agreement you've implicitly agreed to before storing anything there that you might want to publish.
I don't understand how there could be any rights issues. Only I can access the data as it's password protected and as such, is not 'published'.
I'm not sure what the issues are, exactly, either. Maybe there are none. However, these services aren't being provided for free out of the goodness of the provider's heart. They are getting something out of it. I seem to recall someone telling me that Google, for example, reserves the right to "data mine" all information on Google Drive. I assume they take steps to anonymize the results so no piece of data can be associated with any particular individual in the end but it seems very believable to me that Google routinely reads everyone's Google Drive contents for their own purposes. I assume it's the same with Microsoft and OneDrive. In theory one could read the agreement documentation and find out exactly what is going on. I've never bothered because I don't use those services but it seems prudent to at least think about it before storing anything of significance on them. To summarize: it's not correct that "only you" have access to the data. The provider of the cloud service can, in theory, see it all. How, when, and why they might look at that information is a matter to take up with them.
One Drive (previously called SkyDrive, I think) is pretty much Microsoft's Dropbox. I've only used it a couple of times myself (mostly when e-mailing larger files) since I'm a Dropbox user. Not sure which service is best though. Most of my writing gets backed up via Dropbox one way or the other. I have around 25 backups of my latest short story there (automatic backups from Scrivener).
People tend to worry that such services will suddenly own their content. There is misinformation spread about this from time to time and it makes people anxious.
By the way, I just encountered this article: http://hexus.net/business/news/internet/80930-microsoft-offers-100gb-free-bonus-onedrive-storage-globally/ It seems Microsoft is running some kind of campaign so you can get 100gb additional One Drive storage space for 2 years (and an additional 100gb space for 1 year if you're a Dropbox user). Just, you know, in case your draft happens to exceed 100gb in size.
I was under the impression that they can only 'mine' for advertising preference purposes, the way that some websites I visit will have pop ups relating to YSL perfume or Horses because at some stage in the past, I have googled/researched those items.
Yes, I did come across something like this when I went to Microsoft's website to get more information on the copyright thing. First of all, they wanted to scam my computer to see if I was eligible for free technical support (I refused the scan) and then they said if I wanted to continue, I needed to have payment information ready, so I refused that too. Then I decided to post my query on the forum as a discussion but I couldn't get through to that either. The thing is, I have not downloaded and asked for dropbox/onedrive. It's always just, been there. When I got this lappy, I paid out for the full version of office so I didn't have to have the ads on my word-processor. One drive was just sat there on the save page along with my files, local files, desktop etc. It's only when I've searched for an ipad/app word processor that I accidentally came across OfficeSuite which lets me share files between ipad, lappy and iphone via the onedrive. So it's nothing that I've added or requested as far as the lappy is concerned. I'm now feeling a bit paranoid about my work floating around in the ether! (as if I wasn't paranoid enough about people getting their mitts on my ideas!)
Assuming they would tell you the truth. It is indeed not correct that only you can view your data. 'The Cloud' is a marketing term, not a technical one, and refers to Internet servers owned and operated by people you don't know and have no reason to trust. I wouldn't touch any sort of remote data storage.
Which is a real shame as it allows me to copy my files to ipad/iphone and then edit and write 'on the move' when I have no access to my laptop as well as giving me another back up option as well as the two USB's I back up to.
I wouldn't worry much about it. These sites have millions of files. The idea that someone is sitting in a darkened room somewhere wading through them, or running some algorithm to find and steal your stories is a bit preposterous. If you're really worried about it, though, you can always encrypt your files locally and then back them up to Dropbox or some other cloud service.
I know - the overactive mind of a writer at work! Although, I suppose I could simply work from my lappy and USB's and when I want to write or edit on the ipad, I can just drop the files into the onedrive and then take them back out when I've finished doing whatever I'm doing with them. I can't be the only paranoid writer here?
I'm confident neither Google nor Microsoft is attempting to steal people's stories stored in their cloud service. However, it wouldn't surprise me at all if they did, in fact, have software wading through the millions of files stored there in order to do something with that information. There are unexplored IP legal issues at play in this arena. The lawsuit between the Author's Guild and Google was about Google making snippets available of out of print, yet still copyrighted works. To do this Google indexed the entire text of these books all without consulting the authors or paying them anything. Regardless of how you feel about the outcome of this suit it illustrates that what constitutes legal manipulation of "big data" still needs to be clarified. I'm not suggesting that putting personal files on One Drive is going to result in Microsoft making excerpts of them available via Bing. But what is Microsoft doing with that data? Putting materials in free cloud storage services isn't really free. There is some kind of "cost" associated with doing so. The problem is that to understand that cost one must read the terms of use policy and the privacy policy associated with the service. Most normal users wouldn't understand the complex legal language in those documents even if they did read them. It's kind of like going into a store and getting a "free" toaster only to discover that every time you use the toaster that fact is being recorded by the manufacturer. "Didn't you read the 20 page terms of use document before you first plugged in the toaster? We only record that data to give you a better toasting experience." People should be able to understand the cost of the products they use without consulting a lawyer.
Google has the ability to use the data for advertisements to you, I'm pretty sure. That's what they do via Gmail, with their data mining. Dropbox is more restrictive, and I've never seen anything like that with them. I think Dropbox relies more on subscriptions to their paid services to make money, whereas while Google has paid services their big game is advertising. Microsoft doesn't do that kind of data mining with either their email service, One Drive or related services (I'm not sure Google actually does it with Google Drive, though their terms of service suggest they can). None of the services allow use of your content outside of the scope of providing the service, so they're not making your material available online unless you designate it as "public" when you upload to the services, in which case people who look in your public folder will see what is there.
And as you suggest, encryption is an extremely easy process; if your ideas are so awesome someone must be trying to steal them.
I hand-write all of my work using a fading ink recipe that only allows the words to be shown when I apply my proprietary formulation to the page. It only works when I brush the formula on using hairs from the tail of a Akhal-Teke horse of between 2 and 2 1/2 years of age. On top of that, I have my own alphabet that only I can interpret. No one is stealing my damned ideas.
pmsl! That's not how I intended my post to sound but yeah, actually it is. There are days when, as a writer, I do feel like Golum! I cannot be the only one, surely ... *backs away into a dark corner holding onto laptop and turning off the wifi ...*
I wasn't referring to your post but to Jack's comment above mine. I don't think your post came across that way I do think the fear of these online services is overblown. You can read their terms and conditions if you want to be sure of what they can and cannot do. Also, these services are trying to grow the business side of their market, and posting content from people's storage online would be a death knell for those attempts. When I first started writing, I was more protective of ideas. And maybe there is the occasional idea someone has that is so amazing in and of itself that it is worth protecting against any kind of disclosure. But by and large, ideas aren't very valuable in and of themselves. You will have a hard time finding a publisher or other content creator that will buy an idea from you. Most people on this site could probably come up with a dozen really neat ideas in fifteen minutes. The important thing is your execution of the idea - the end product and whether it is any good. And that end product is certainly worth protecting if it is good, but I don't think you're putting it at any real risk by backing it up to a cloud storage site.
