In the nightmare scenario of Luddites everywhere, The Computers have been entrusted with mankind's accumulated knowledge. All is well until that fateful day when the machines band together, creating a mammoth, all-powerful, living network that thinks, grows and takes over the Earth.
Think "The Terminator" or "Colossus: The Forbin Project."
These days, the geek buzzword for this is "the Cloud" and the catchphrase is "Cloud computing."
You may also know it as the Internet. And while the whole thing could end up with robotic overlords in the sky, the good news is that the Cloud makes life easier for folks willing to trust it.
The premise of Cloud computing is that your data isn't kept on your desktop computer. Instead, it's stored online behind password-protected encryption. You access it via your Web browser.
The bad news, at least for Luddites: The Cloud is already here.
Source: News Factor, http://www.newsfactor.com