Category: Cloud Computing

Surveillance Economy – what can you do?

Good needed discussion here : https://irlpodcast.org/season4/episode5

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Most of us already know but rarely take a moment to think and act. Ever realized how much of personal data we are giving up every moment willingly just because we want to save few cents a day or succumbing to the inertia to act. Imagine the loss of personal data every day  via  personal content on free personal e-mail services, free messenger services etc.  “Free” digital services is akin to digital socialism that is nothing but digital enslavement that will never end in the good for the consumers. Just think there is no free lunch.  So what can you do about it?  Think what you are giving up when you are signing up for “free” services.  Keep in mind, the privacy terms and fine print before you sign up,  is not designed to protect you, but the free service provider.

There are a number of alternatives that may cost a little but goes a long way in weaning yourself away from the “surveillance” economy created by the “free” services..

You can start small by owning your own personal server and own your own personal mail communication, extend it to free messenger services and other communication services.. it is easy and Pexus LLC makes it easy to set one up in your own home or on a virtual private server in the secure cloud,  under your complete control. Personal servers will be the key to future personal computing that will help consumers migrate away from the “Surveillance Economy” that will be good for the consumers.

Free yourself from free e-mail services such as @gmail  and all things “free” today! Start taking control of your personal data and communication.  Start today and check out our personal server products and services. : https://store.pexus.net

Password Manager in the Cloud or Ransomware forever?

Splash ID (https://splashid.com/) is  password manager that I had used for years and have been very satisfied with the software. Now they are also jumping into the cloud in the hopes for continued revenue stream in the form of subscriptions. I don’t have an issue with that, but what really ticked me off was the forced update and forced subscription to continue to access my existing data on my mobile device.

I had been using this software with a desktop version that would sync with my mobile app on iOS. Then one fine day I realized the mobile app got updated without any warning or an option to prevent this automatic update. The updated software now forces the user to buy a subscription and does not let the user access the existing stored data. It was a forced update and changed the initial use policy to which I agreed when I purchased the app in the first place long time ago. Now the update doesn’t let me access my existing critical data. To me it seems like a ransomware where the user is locked out of their data, unless you pay to subscribe. I had written to the CEO of the Splash ID – Morgan Slain who has not responded to my e-mail. I think this is an unethical practice by this software company who does not provide an option to stay with the current usage policy of their software and forcing people to update and demanding a subscription to continue using the existing data stored in their application which was purchased without having to subscribe.

My personal opinion is to stay away from password managers that store data in the cloud in the name of convenience.  Your data  will be much safer on your desktop/laptop with local sync than putting all your password data remotely and avoid paying for the ransomware like subscription forever.

Checkout the free desktop password manager KeePaas http://keepass.info/ which I will be migrating to. It also has  paid companion  mobile apps that would help sync the data between the desktop version and mobile version.

Update – I tried KeepPass Touch as a the iOS mobile companion that can sync locally over Wi Fi with your Free Desktop version of KeePass database file and carry your latest KeePass DB on the go. It is worth 0.99 to remove the ad for usage. Finally got rid of the Splash ID ransomware.

Stop the flight of personal data to the cloud

The cloud is everywhere. While it has its benefits and will be here to stay. It is a boon for small startups as they can get their products and services to market faster without investing and building in  house infrastructure to run their business and services. Internet of Things (IOT) is creating a lot of buzz these days. IOT also seems to following the mad rush to the cloud. While certain kinds of IOT services has it’s place in the cloud and will continue to be a popular destination. But when it comes to personal devices – does it makes sense to host services in the cloud? Do you really want to make a round trip from your home over your ISP to the Internet and to the cloud server and back to just turn on a light bulb? May be not. People are concerned about privacy and the flight of every conceivable personal data beyond their control.

I would rather have my little server in my home to control the things that I care about. My bulb, my security, my sprinkler system can work perfectly fine without making a round trip outside my home. Why do I need to carry tens of apps and log into as many web sites to register and manage my devices? Open standards for discovery and device control will make it easier to manage these devices easily with a single application running on your own little server in your own home.  This is another example where a personal server will go a long way to help manage personal lives and homes better.  I know we will get there soon. Today you can start this journey of taking care of your personal data and get ready for Intranet of Things with Patriot PS Personal Server.

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Order one today at a discounted clearance sale price of $249 

https://store.pexus.net/K-900-4GB-500GB-BLK

Keep your personal data in your home..

The advent of the internet since the 90s have slowly lured you into giving up all your personal data, your personal profile, your personal interactions with your friends and associates that once lived safely on your personal computer in your home  into massive servers farms owned by  giant IT companies  in exchange for free services such as web e-mail, photo sharing, social event sharing etc.  They are telling you all you need is a dumb client devices and we shall manage all your data. You should not expect any privacy now that we are in control of your data — Really ! They are telling you – see we provide full SSL security and your personal data is safe with us — Really!  what happens once the data reaches their servers ? Once on their servers it is all in plain text again.. so that they can use all available analytical engines to dissect every word you say or every picture you take or every post you do — but at the same time assuring you;  your data is safe on their servers except they reserve the right to purge or block anything they feel is not right or comply with government agencies to offer your data without you knowing about it,  don’t worry about your first amendment  or any amendment, just read their privacy policy if you care.

Well now you don’t have to be at the mercy of the these remote servers and and their policies. Why not own your own personal server.. Set it up as an always on service that is there to serve you and your family.. set it up to provide you secure e-mail service, set it up as a personal cloud and use it to share and sync data from your client computers at home or office – your server in the privacy of your home.. give access to data to only whom you want – your data is only your business — use it to monitor and control your smart home – but without sending the data to the remote servers.

Check out the personal server from Pexus – Patriot PS – Personal Cloud & Automation Server – Get your data back in your home.. where it belongs– if somebody needs it give it on your terms ! We know this is a small step.. there is more to come.. more applications that will reside on your server and help you manage your data in your home. Come and be part of a new era in personal computing..

Dedicated banking Virtual Machine!

Do you do internet banking a lot ? I am sure we all worry about internet security and the constant need to protect our computers. There are number of viruses and malware that specifically target your banking web sites. Despite the efforts by the banking industry to protect consumers from these there are number of cases where the security has been breached and will continue to do so in future. If you think about it, how do viruses get in to your computer ? They find their way via e-mail, websites, free software, social networking and other common day to day internet related activities. You can protect your computer by dedicating a computer for use for  banking applications only, so that you use that dedicated computer to visit your bank web sites and refrain from doing any other day to day internet related activities with that. This way you can be assured that you will not provide any means for the viruses to enter your computer. Setting up a separate computer for just banking is not very convinient both from a cost and usage perspective.

This is where virtualzation technology such as VMware, Virtual PC or widely avaiable free Linux virtualization solutions can come in handy. Set up a virtual machines just for banking applications within your laptop or primary PC and ensure you don’t do any other internet related activites using that virtual machine. This way you can be assured, your virtual machine environment will be free of viruses and malware.

Pexus LLC is passionate about vitualization technology. We offer number of solutions to solve a range of IT application management problems. Come and talk to us how virtualization technology can help solve yours.

Visit – http://www.pexus.com

Build your own private Cloud!

Cloud Computing is all the rage these days. Ever wanted to try building your own cloud and check it out. Ubuntu Distribution 9.10 now includes Ubuntu Enterprise Cloud that you can download and build your own cloud that is compatible with Amazon EC2 platform and images. It uses an open source implementation for cloud infrastructure that is available from http://open.eucalyptus.com/.

Ubuntu Enterprise Cloud distribution is available from http://www.ubuntu.com/getubuntu/download-server

To deploy a minimum cloud infrastructure you will need two systems. I am in the process of trying this out using two vmware images. Stay tuned for more information as I report my results.