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I've started seeing spam from Microsoft (I've checked and, yes, it's legit) heavily pushing a cloud storage system called "OneDrive." Apparently, because I have a Hotmail account, I have been automagically signed up for this free service. I have also seen a number of other companies, reputable and otherwise, pushing similar cloud storage for little to no cost.
I have to wonder: where is the profit in all this? When I read the advertisements, I keep seeing this image of Edward Snowden, and news articles about the assistance given by Microsoft, Google, Yahoo and others to governments conducting massive, very likely illegal, surveillance. Am I just being overly cynical, maybe even borderline paranoid? Or is this like free email: a massively expensive loss-leader intended to develop brand loyalty and funnel people into buying much more expensive services?
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No profit yet - trying to establish a market presence.
(Then, when monopoly or duopoly, commence with the profit stuff)
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Probably so they can scan your files to spy on you and for targeted advertising
.-.
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Get some usb external TB drives while they're still legal and tell the "rental drives" to go suck a funnel cloud.
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Exactly the external drives, like MyPassport by WD are very inexpensive.
I bought a 1TB for $80 and use it for off site backups.
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I know that, but the average Joe or Jane doesn't: presumably, those are the people actually being targeted by the ad campaigns.
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What do you mean, "still legal"?
Charlie Gilley
<italic>You're going to tell me what I want to know, or I'm going to beat you to death in your own house.
"Where liberty dwells, there is my country." B. Franklin, 1783
“They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.” BF, 1759
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I keep old laptop drives as I upgrade, and buy external enclosures for them. The enclosures are about $25 apiece. I have a couple TB in external drives now.
Software Zen: delete this;
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It's to get an entry into businesses who will pay for the stuff. And advertising. It's also to get you hooked so that when you fill up your "free" quota, you'll pay for more since you've just gotta have all your stuff available all the time!!!! Didnyaknow???!!
If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader.-John Q. Adams
You must accept one of two basic premises: Either we are alone in the universe, or we are not alone in the universe. And either way, the implications are staggering.-Wernher von Braun
Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former.-Albert Einstein
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A year or two of huge/unlimited amounts of storage works really good to lure new customerssuckers in. After they've spend 6 months uploading several terabytes of data a lot of them will end up sticking around when you start charging enough to cover your actual storage costs to support them rather than have their internet snarled for several months again and be backupless during the transition period.
The several GB of free storage that companies like Dropbox offer is provided for similar reasons. A free tier thats cost to the provider is low enough that it remaining free indefinitely works great as a teaser offer; and enough people will decide that switching around everything that's integrated with it at some point in the future is too much of a PITA if they grow beyond the free tier or want to use it for a purpose that the free tier doesn't permit. (And Dropbox's $100/year for $100 GB is a license to print money even with heavy redundancy in the data center; so they can support a lot of free users 2gb accounts for each paying customer they have.)
Did you ever see history portrayed as an old man with a wise brow and pulseless heart, waging all things in the balance of reason?
Is not rather the genius of history like an eternal, imploring maiden, full of fire, with a burning heart and flaming soul, humanly warm and humanly beautiful?
--Zachris Topelius
Training a telescope on one’s own belly button will only reveal lint. You like that? You go right on staring at it. I prefer looking at galaxies.
-- Sarah Hoyt
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Oh, I mean the underpants gnomes:
Step 1 Product
Step 2 ?
Step 3 Profit
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It will always be free to upload, but soon they will charge for downloading.
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It is a requirement by NSA intended to trap folks into giving up their privacy.
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Ant
A busy insect that still finds time to go to picnics.
Adder
Mathematically inclined snake.
Atheism
Non-prophet organization.
Babies
Nature's way of showing people what the world looks like at 2 a.m.
Baby sitter
A teenager who must behave like an adult so that the adults who are out can behave like teenagers.
Buffet
A French word which means "Get up and get it yourself."
Charisma
That mysterious something that bald, dull billionaires have.
Comic books
The opera of the print media.
Drama
What literature does at night.
Ecstasy
Discovering a second layer of chocolates under the first.
Ego trip
Something that never gets you anywhere.
Emergency numbers
Police station, fire department, and places that deliver.
Eternity
The first 60 seconds of a blind date.
Etiquette
Learning to yawn with your mouth closed.
Fancy Restaurant
One that serves cold soup on purpose.
Fear
Excitement in need of an attitude adjustment.
Great economist
Someone who, tomorrow, is perfectly capable of explaining why what he forecast yesterday didn't happen today.
Kissing
A means of getting two people so close together that they can't see anything wrong with each other.
Marriage
A friendship recognized by the police.
Mobile phones
The only subject on which men boast about who's got the smallest.
Net worth
Fisherman's income.
Perfectionist
A person who takes great pains and gives them to others.
Pessimist
Someone who complains of the noise when opportunity knocks.
Poise
The ability to continue speaking fluently while the other fellow is picking up the check.
Quartet
Where all four think the other three can't sing.
Real Patriot
The fellow who gets a parking ticket and rejoices that the system works.
Semiconductors
Part-time band leaders.
Slimming
Living beyond your seams.
Summer vacation
When parents suddenly realize that teachers are grossly underpaid.
Superstition
Dark side of wonder.
Tattoo
Permanent proof of temporary insanity.
Walking
A form of exercise that loses some appeal when it's done behind a lawn mower.
Workaholic
Someone whose favorite entertainment is Monday morning.
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Buffet - Big Ugly Fat F***ers Eating Together
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Settle down down there little feller' there's plenty of food left. 
It was broke, so I fixed it.
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You see this patch of carpet between me and the prime rib?, it's mine. Just don't get in my way and there won't be no trouble. 
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Mike Hankey wrote: there won't be no trouble
So there will be some trouble, then? 
"These people looked deep within my soul and assigned me a number based on the order in which I joined."
- Homer
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Wall of Text
The message I'm replying to.
Did you ever see history portrayed as an old man with a wise brow and pulseless heart, waging all things in the balance of reason?
Is not rather the genius of history like an eternal, imploring maiden, full of fire, with a burning heart and flaming soul, humanly warm and humanly beautiful?
--Zachris Topelius
Training a telescope on one’s own belly button will only reveal lint. You like that? You go right on staring at it. I prefer looking at galaxies.
-- Sarah Hoyt
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It's called spot then thin person. I rarely win. I am by far the lightest person there, usually, and that includes children sadly. (sometimes)
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If you were given the authority to change the name of the village/town/city you live in, what would you name it and why?
I live in York, but I would change it to Tamarack. We had a tamarack tree in our back yard as a child and I've always liked the name.
Tim
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Ah - you live in Atlantis-on-Sea? 
Those who fail to learn history are doomed to repeat it. --- George Santayana (December 16, 1863 – September 26, 1952)
Those who fail to clear history are doomed to explain it. --- OriginalGriff (February 24, 1959 – ∞)
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Luton, I can't put the name I would suggest here though. 
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