Everybody makes a mistake. Give them one more chance.

I wonder how many microsoft employees are now receving unemployement checks because of this.

XBOX RRoD and DVD drive problem,s sidekick data loss, Vista, Win ME, ... just to name the ones on the top of my head. Microsoft has had a million and two chances, and blows about every other one. Good job, M$.

Actually, every company has it's own problems, not just Microsoft.. Apple, IBM and others... exploding phones anyone??

Just to highlight the main issue. The data was housed with a platform that was running Linux and a database using Oracle. A Lot of people just assume that this is a Microsoft problem when Microsoft only purchase this company a year or two ago and left it intact since it was working fine and turning profits.

Everyone here would be crying if Microsoft did the opposite and changed all the servers and services to run only Microsoft based solutions..

I actually commend Microsoft for making the effort to get most of the data back. Now some people will never be happy about what happened, but then it is thinking like this that got our country into the trouble it is in today..

Well Win XP has been great . If it was up to you there would be no actions of change, upgrade etc and things would evolve just as evolved as is your slow brain.
A ) If it wasnt for Vista to use a bit extra x64 CPUs, win 7 would be nothing but.. a barely about to released Vista. Moves have to be made to see some progress.
B ) 360's RRoD has a 3 year waranty. So i take it if you are a Sony fanboy for being so eager to talk shit about a company like MS I hope you enjoy as much as the rest that haver to pay 200$ to repair their PS3 bricked from the firmwares etc without warranty cover just as much as they suck in general in hardware/warranty. If not a fanboy but just a retard the 3years of warranty along with free shipping would be something for you to have in mind since you havent experienced a RRoD to be aware of how things work.
C ) Sidekick data loss was a mistake from another group of working on the servers of MS.
D ) Since there is nothing insider your head and its all those millions form the top of it just to make things more intence next time add both 86x and 64x versions of windows. Will enrich your list.
E ) For starters you should consider changing your nickname cause you are screaming out that you are nothing more than some kiddo/tard that needs to get laid with his PS3 of Macbook. cant be 100% sure what kind of a fanboy you are but you are eitherway as messed up as you shouldnt.

"Would you ever trust cloud computing? Why or why not?"
Call me paranoid, but no, probably not ever. Having personal information on the internet in any way shape or form is not a good idea in my mind, outside of maybe my first name. Too many situations like breach of data, data loss, the google voice thing, etc. I set up a Twitter account a while back with my first and last name. 5 minutes later, I took my last name off. But sites have already cached my Twitter with my full name, so now people can find my Twitter by searching my full name, which wasn't my intention. Technology at it's finest.

If this disaster is "not good", what does mean about Vista when he said it was "less than stellar"? Nothing Ballmer says is useful. Can we get a new front man for MS? Ballmer is terrible for their image.

Not with my data.

The issue isn't what platform it was running, or how long they've owned Danger. The issue is that they didn't have a reasonable backup. That's stupid when it's your own data. That's inexcusable when you're hosting someone else's data and promising 99.5%+ availability.

Systems fail and people make mistakes, backups are for those situations. In fact, about 90% of the time, a backup will be used to recover from a user or adminstrator mistake, and only about 10% from a system failure.

Yes, several people should be fired over this. I'm not on the inside, so I can't say who for certain, but I can identify a few likely candidates. Of course, I'm not giving that info away for free, so if MS wants to consult with me....

The problem with cloud computing is that the more centralized and larger the data repository, the more people will want to hack into it, corrupt it and destroy it for profit or bragging rights. The individual home user is such an insignificant target to someone with real skills that they'll statistically never get attacked. This idea of cloud computing in some sense is another example of, "absolve yourself of responsibility for knowing anything". "I don't need to know how to backup my data, defrag my hard drive, run chkdsk, have anti-virus / security software, I can keep everything in the cloud and never need to worry", never need to worry, B.S. This is just one of many examples to come of serious vast database disasters on the horizon.

who is the fanboy here?

MS better offer a 3 year no charge warranty with it because you will have to be sending it back to MS more than twice for a replacement throughout the lifetime of the console and do not forget that you may have to wait months for the box to get to your door because they are always running out of them because 98% of xbox owners get the old RROD.

no warranty is worth the hassle of having to get something replaced more than twice in its lifetime of ownership.

oh and the firmware thing with the PS3 was a software problem so all people have to do is format the hard drive again without ever having to send it in for repair.

And if by chance one of your photographs got lost, we will gladly replace it with a photograph of happy Stevie B doing the Win7 steps...

About cloud computing?
Advantages:
1) Work anywhere
2) No need for IT to take care of your files
3) Easier for law enforcement to subpoena your data
Disadvantages:
1) If "anywhere" has an internet connection
2) If the host is up and running
3) If the host can keep your data secure, for your eyes only and not,
"Hey, this is the internet. All your data is public domain now!"
4) If you pay regularly and on time, otherwise the host keeps your
data hostage

Feel free to step in front of the SaaS train if you like. You aren't going to slow it down. The fact is SaaS is increasing in market share. The thinner the client, the fatter the cloud, the more accessible your data will become and the more flexibility you'll have in working or playing from anywhere, anytime.

There is no fool proof methodology for protecting data. Some are significantly better than others but they all have vulnerabilities. SaaS will continually become more robust. Technology is not perfect and those who think that locking a backup hardrive/tape/"fill in the blank" in their offsite vault/grandma's cookie jar/"fill in the blank" keeps them safe and invulnerable from hacking and data loss also believe that security screening at the airport is making them safer.

I'm not flaming here. Just pointing out that there isn't one right answer. That's all I have to say about that.

I think cloud computing is a great idea. I just don't think it should replace regular computing. It should be a mix of the two... Cloud computing has it's advantages, but, as you can see, if part of it goes down, it could all go down. They both have advantages and disadvantages so why not have the best of both worlds?

Drawback to Cloud Computing. From Customer prospective.
1. Any Internet down time, whether ISP, Cell phone, Whatever= Cant work
2. Internet Congestion= SLOW performance
3. With Cloud computing you will be using their hardware, WHICH will be shared among others. Wether Virtual, or not, + It cannot be upgraded in a speedy process, Without the normal FEE's
4. YOU WILL NOT HAVE 100% Guarantee of your data being there, and READY SLA=a promise, not a guarantee.. AND even if the SLA is violated= you are still down..
5. Since you are just a customer, YOU are treated as A CUSTOMER, Versus inhouse, OH YAH, you know who to go to, DEMAND answers, and your inhouse guys are up 24/7 till issue is resolved.
6. YOU control your data.. PERIOD. Cloud so far, cannot keep cell phones up.. what happens when i need to keep my data secure.. WE are not even hearing about any security violations (prob wont even).. If ya cant keep my pictures safe, how can i trust you with my documents, that make me MONEY

Well Win XP has been great . If it was up to you there would be no actions of change, upgrade etc and things would evolve just as evolved as is your slow brain.
A ) If it wasnt for Vista to use a bit extra x64 CPUs, win 7 would be nothing but.. a barely about to released Vista. Moves have to be made to see some progress.
B ) 360's RRoD has a 3 year waranty. So i take it if you are a Sony fanboy for being so eager to talk shit about a company like MS I hope you enjoy as much as the rest that haver to pay 200$ to repair their PS3 bricked from the firmwares etc without warranty cover just as much as they suck in general in hardware/warranty. If not a fanboy but just a retard the 3years of warranty along with free shipping would be something for you to have in mind since you havent experienced a RRoD to be aware of how things work.
C ) Sidekick data loss was a mistake from another group of working on the servers of MS.
D ) Since there is nothing insider your head and its all those millions form the top of it just to make things more intence next time add both 86x and 64x versions of windows. Will enrich your list.
E ) For starters you should consider changing your nickname cause you are screaming out that you are nothing more than some kiddo/tard that needs to get laid with his PS3 of Macbook. cant be 100% sure what kind of a fanboy you are but you are eitherway as messed up as you shouldnt.

I love how you completely neglected to mention anything about Win ME... you can't think of an excuse for that one. And about x64... it was around long before Vista, in the flavor of Windows x64 Pro, incase you didn't notice, which is about 10 times as efficient as Vista. M$ just wanted to get a new OS out the door to make them more money, and stopped including new versions of DX in older versions of Windows. Instead of taking the time to make a good operating system, they rushed a shitty one out the door, expect everyone to buy it, then make a less shitty, but still shitty one, and expect everyone to buy that one too. No thanks.

I also like how the "warranty" for the XBOXes doesn't really cover shipping... since they don't send you a box to put it in anymore. I also like how they have documents SHOWING they KNEW about the problems with the DVD drives scratching disks, but decided not to fix it because it cost a couple cents more per system. And the warranty? What happens when my 3 year warranty goes out and the unit breaks for a 7th time one month later? Am I just buying a 3 year subscription to use my games on top of the 1 month XBox live that I'm supposed to pay for?

And if you think M$ is completely innocent when it comes to sidetrack data loss, you need to open up your eyes to the world. They should have been on top of the company, if anything.

Microsoft is probably one of the most corrupt large-scale companies on the market today... they just get away with everything because they have a product that the most of the world has sadly become dependent upon.

Why would I trust ANY of my data online or in "the cloud???" To save money? At the cost of losing control of my data, I don't think I would be saving money that way. What with a simple GOOGLE search exposing voice messages stored in the cloud I'd feel real secure about my stuff up there. NOT!!!!

This is a perfect example why I do a hard backup of all my data to my pc. Others should too if in any doubt.

i would rather you continue humping your x360 rather than you writing some lame-ass reply trying to defend Micro$oft, RROD FTW

by the way, i wrote this comment on my computer that is running Windows 98 ME, my computer crashed 100 times before i could write this

What make you believe that exactly that didn't happen in reality?
At every takeover m$ replaced working systems with their own crap: dogfooding.

Regarding the data loss: who isn't capable to manage and protect his own precious data, and entrusts it exclusively to third parties, deserves to loose it. To store it in "the cloud" without any personal backups is plain stupid, but if it contains sensitive information too, rightly insane.

The latest m$ fiasco is just another incentive to never outsource critical systems, or run them on microsuxx' crap.

i think it is risky with personal information. however a back is indeed in need. hell they should keep the backup stuff, computer ect right next to everything with only needing to plug in a cord to do a backup. lol

Hmmm 10 out of MILLIONS sold? Try that statistic against the RRoD from XBOX 360's.... hmmm 100 of thousands out of millions?

Anyway, personally I wouldn't want to have my stuff stored online. I much prefer hard copies in my own hands, so if it's lost, it's my fault...or at least the fault of my storage devices.

Ballmer is just not a good front man, bring back Kermit! I mean Gates.

Shame on Toms Hardware, everyone now is aware of Apple new products except than Toms Hardware - Funny!
Celebrate your impartiality on October 22 - Win7.exe release. cls

well, if the data come sometimes be recoverable, I'd take that over my data literally being exploded outta my phone...iPhone, anyone?

I could trust cloud computing, but I much prefer a combination of local AND cloud storage. Cloud storage has the benefit of syncing to any pc through the internet, local storage has the benefit of being directly in control of the data, and together they add redundancy. If one gets wiped out, the other will still remain.

You get what you pay for, why do you think their services are so cheap?

They are selling two thousand dollar core i5 systems...

I wouldn't brag about it...

"not good" - lol..... basically, im bored and ill let my minions at software & troubleshooting handle this.... oh wait it was probably outsourced so let ehose guys all the way over at India or another country handle it with our servers and Infosystems...

I need to get back on my new next gen earth shaking gizmo that will make the earth green and connected...

If the world's largest software maker can't organize a seamless backup-to-transition hardware upgrade of a cloud environment, how do you think smaller, less-funded cloud providers are going to do?

I wouldn't trust cloud. It is just another business paradigm waiting to have its budget cut, staff diminished, and overall quality ruined by cheap companies only worried about profits.