Tag: cloud

MediaMaster – Update

I wrote the other day about my experience with MediaMaster.  I said I liked it, and that I was in the process of testing the claim that there are currently no upload limits.  Here’s an update.

I uploaded around 5,000 songs into my account, thereby effectively confirming that there is no current limit.  I can’t tell you exactly how many because the album cover-only library interface doesn’t give you this information.  As I mentioned the other day, the library interface needs a major overhaul.  Badly.

While the songs sound good over the internet, the system doesn’t handle huge libraries very well.  I constantly get a message stating that “a script in this movie is causing Adobe Flash Player 9 to run slowly….”  Slowly as in not at all.  Since I doubt the MediaManager business plan was based around people like me putting thousands of songs in their libraries, I can look past this problem.  But it does limit the service’s usefulness as a backup plan for large libraries.  I have around 27,000 (legal and unshared) songs on my music server.  It would take approximately the rest of my life to upload the rest of them.

I tried out the widget on Newsome.Org for a while, but the interface is (hopefully) a work in progress and it interferes with page navigation and scrolling while it loads.  So it’s gone, at least for now.  On a related note, unless Blonde 2.0 revisits my blog to counter-balance Randy, Mathew and Earl‘s ugly mugs, I may have to lose the MyBlogLog widget too (I get those guys back by plastering my ugly mug on their pages every chance I get).

All of this is not to say that I am disappointed in MediaMaster.  I think it is a neat service that will probably get better over time.  It’s not (yet) a place where audiophiles can store and access their entire library, but it is a great way to store and access portions of your music.  And it would be a great solution for those with more moderate music collections.

I like MediaMaster a lot now.  I hope it gets even better.

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A Terabyte for a Grand?

Om Malik points to PhotoShelter, which is offering one terabyte of storage space for $1000 a year.  I just knew someone was going to start talking about Amazon S3, and Jeffrey McManus did- in a comment.

Om then correctly points out that no ordinary person has the slightest idea how to use S3.

Saying end users should use S3 for archival and backup storage is sort of like saying that Batman is giving away free cookies at the Batcave.

I’d want some assurances on what future PhotoShelter rates would be before I uploaded all that data.  I can also tell you from my MediaMaster experiment that uploading that much data would take approximately forever.

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MediaMaster Rocks (Literally and Figuratively)

I’ve been playing around with MediaMaster the last few days. MediaMaster provides free storage space where you can store music files, which can be accessed from any internet connected computer. You can also create an internet radio station that plays your songs. You can add a library and radio widget to your webpage or blog. I’m not sure if I am going keep one here or not, at the moment it’s in the right column of my blog page (feed readers will have to visit my blog to see it).

Here’s my MediaMaster profile.

You can’t download the songs once you upload them, and the maximum streaming bitrate is 64 kbit/second, which may be considered too low for some folks. Personally, I think my music sounds fine at that rate. I also suspect higher bitrates may come with premium subscriptions that may one day be offered as an avenue to monetization.

They say there is no currrent storage limit. I am in the process of testing that, as I have a ton of (legal) music on my music server and I am uploading gobs of songs a day. So far, so good.

albums-744901I don’t particularly like MediaMaster’s album cover view via which you navigate your music library. I wish there was an option for a more Windows Media Player-like view. Your music library is searchable, which makes it easier to track down specific songs and albums. Still, I want more options for my library view.

I probably wouldn’t pay just to increase my streaming bitrate, but if MediaMaster could somehow legally combine what they’re doing now with a faster bitrate, a more sophisticated library interface and backup (meaning I could download my songs should I lose my music server and backup drive), I would happily pay for that.

Let me know what you think.

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Online Backup: It's the Speed and Security that Kills

TechCrunch has a post about Carbonite, an online storage seller and backup application, that also touches on other online backup solutions such as Mozy, GDrive and the upcoming Microsoft Live Drive.

In theory, online storage is a great idea.  I have used Box.Net and recently X-Drive.  All of these applications have neat features.  But when you start talking about online backup, there are two problems that none of them can solve.  Two problems that, as far as I can see, will always be an inherent limitation to online backup.

The first is speed.  Even over broadband, it takes a long, long time to upload gigabyte upon gigabyte of data.  Carbonite tries to address this problem by doing the uploading over a number of days.  I like the idea, but that only mitigates the problem.  The problem is still a problem.

Personally, I do my backup two ways.  Weekly to a networked server, using FilebackPC.  Periodically to either a removable hard drive, for big files like music, or via a DVD-R, for documents, etc.  That way I have redundant backup, both local and off-site (in a safe at my office). It’s not a perfect solution, but if you configure FilebackPC correctly and remember to backup to removable hard drives and DVDs semi-regularly, it’s pretty comprehensive.

The other problem is security.  There is some data that I am happy to backup online.  Half-written songs, letters, and other stuff that would probably bore any interloper to tears.  But I’m nowhere close to comfortable backing up bank and financial records online.  I’m sure there’s all sorts of security in place in most online storage applications, but if I’m here and it’s there, logic tells me I have added another layer of risk.

This is not to say that there isn’t a place for online storage.  But I think most of us are a long way from relying on online storage for backing up our most personal and important data.

I’m willing to be convinced otherwise, if anyone wants to give it a shot.

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Amazon S3: Not the GDrive Killer Some are Claiming

That whacking sound heard throughout the blogosphere today is the sound of Amazon whacking Google and the rest of the online storage players about the head. Amazon has released a very inexpensive online storage service that some are saying will change the online storage game.

First, the good. The service is very inexpensive. $0.15 per GB-Month of storage used and $.20 per GB-month of data transferred.

So lets say someone wants to host all their data with Amazon and serve it to their web page. Maybe 20 GB of data and 30 GB of bandwidth (transfer). That’s $3.00 per month for the storage plus $6.00 for the bandwidth, for a total of $9.00 a month. That’s an almost unbelievable price.

I signed up early this morning, and will play around with the service this weekend and report my impressions.

But this is not the GDrive and Box.Net killer some are saying it is.

Because this service is in no way, shape or form designed for the consumer to back up his or her data or media files. It is aimed at developers.

To consumers, FTP is hard enough. Soap is for the shower and rest is what you do when you’re tired. So while developers will find Amazon’s service irresistible, consumers will still look to other consumer-oriented services that make the management of online storage easier and more intuitive.

And of course by consumers, I also mean small and medium businesses without a dedicated IT department.

So while I’m excited about Amazon’s new service, let’s not get too carried away about its effect on the consumer online storage industry.

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