"Avoid the 'cloud’ at all cost!" (Image by Saperaud.)

Professor Steffen Schmidt of Iowa State University provides an historical perspective on cloud computing, even though he fails to mention that the cloud has given us endless storage and much better stability than old mainframes ever did. His take:

“When computers started appearing at the university (Iowa State University in my case) they were large mainframes in a big building. We worked in a small ‘computer room’ down the hall. All there was in that room were a bunch of ‘dumb terminals,’ CRT screens and a keyboard that connected to the VAX mainframe computer (see picture). We used FORTRAN as I recall. Nothing was processed or stored in our ‘computer room’ it was just a connection. When the mainframe went “down” everyone at the university was down.

Also, everything was at turtle speed because someone in the mainframe center had to upload ‘your’ data tape (yup just like old school tape recording reel to reel only bigger) onto the computer which was a pain.

We were so glad when desktop computers appeared and later laptops (and now iPads and other devices). FREE from the tyranny of the mainframe!!! Self reliance and rugged individualism (albeit often crashing locally instead of at the center). Celebrate!

Now these fool idiots are selling us ‘back to the future’ mainframes again and calling them ‘The Cloud.’ Thank God for old timers like me who remember what a disaster that was! Avoid the ‘cloud’ at all cost! The end is near! Flee for the hills and take your laptops and iPads!”