Once upon a time, a computer user named Yen wanted to know
where his computer data lived, so he could control what
happens. This page and others
try to answer his questions about the spatial location of data.
We also consider what the data looks like and how it
is organized, since this affects Yen's freedom.
These pages are not very technical in nature. Yen and other
readers need only basic familiarity with computer usage
to understand.
Yen uses software to write text documents
and send email, and surfs the web with a browser.
Yen saves most of his documents on a hard disk,
in files within his computer's operating system.
Yen often browses the files in his computer
to find things he saved earlier. Most things
were once on Yen's hard disk.
But now Yen uses the web, and he realizes some content
lives someplace else. This is most of what Yen needs
to know to understand these pages.
Yen started using a web based service, and some of his
data no longer lives on his computer's hard disk. He
would like to have extra copies of this remote data on
his local hard disk for several different reasons.
The data would be safer from loss with more copies, and Yen
would like access to the data even when offline. Also, Yen
can switch to another service provider at will.
Ged tells Yen to begin by reading either the
computer
page or the
map
page. These pages can also be reached by clicking on
buttons showing a computer or a compass. The computer page
immediately follows this page, and explains the technical
context used to situate material in all the other pages.
The map page indexes and organizes all the other shellgame pages,
and explains all the navigation conventions used in this site.
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YEN
|
Where's my data? Is it in my computer, or somewhere else?
I use a free email service. But
I think my email and address book are on some server
and not on my machine. Can I get a local copy? How do I
switch to a new email service and still keep my old mail
and addresses?
|
GED
|
It's a shell game. Your data moves around various
places. I can expand, but it might take a few
pages to go into detail. And I want to enlist the help
of a few friends who will assume character roles for dramatic
purposes. I'll ask Vex to tone down his rudeness.
|
VEX
|
VexCorp is irritating like your current vendor.
I ship lots of Vexware products, including a free
web based email service like yours. I have at best
a casual attitude about giving you freedom. I
suggest you keep a civil tongue in your head, and
keep subscribing to my service.
|
POE
|
PoeCorp's pedigreed PhDs publish progressive Poeware products
pushing pure polytechnic potentials pervading (plus
pacing) previously popular perky paradigms pending
ponderously precise promulgation. I get
goosebumps just listening to myself. You may swoon.
|
ROZ
|
RozCorp's new lyrical Rozware works
just fine without lots of P words. I hobnob
with Ged and aim to coordinate with his
future Gedware products. We like plain and
simple stories about familiar things folks
can understand without a lot of training.
I might oversimplify a bit.
|
VEX
|
Hey, I forgot to say we keep all your data in Venice.
It's the most beautiful city in the world. There's no
better place to keep all your data. It's perfectly
safe with all those canals, and we stow it carefully
in gondolas whenever we move it around. We have a
beautiful storage facility.
|
GED
|
Venice is a relaxing place to imagine, so we might often
dream our data is stored there for sake of beauty. With this
dream in mind, we can now proceed to the
computer page for an introduction to
relevant storage components in a computer.
The map page is a starting point
for many other pages.
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|
