I've never entirely trusted the cloud. When I write, I use offline apps like Scrivener and iA Writer. My photos move around to my computer and smartphones without the help of any online services. The USB cable is the king of my workflow. My backups are kept on a keypad secured USB drive. Only once I know that my files have been secured on local media that I'm in control of do I bother to upload anything to SpiderOak or Dropbox. On the few occasions that I've strayed from this path, I've lost hours or even days of work. My way of doing things is a massive pain in the ass, but it provides me with a lot of piece of mind, especially when I read news about online services like Evernote swirling the drain.
From TechCrunch:
Just two weeks ago, we reported that Evernote had lost several of its most senior executives, including its CTO Anirban Kundu, CFO Vincent Toolan, CPO Erik Wrobel and head of HR Michelle Wagner.
Now, Chris O’Neill — who took over as CEO of Evernote in 2015 after running the business operations at the Google X research unit — is sharing more demoralizing news with employees. To wit, he’s firing dozens of them. At an an all-hands meeting earlier today, he told gathered staffers that Evernote has no choice but to lay off 54 people — roughly 15 percent of the company’s workforce — and to focus its efforts instead around specific functions, including product development and engineering.
This doesn't necessarily mean that Evernote is kaput: many companies shed employees as they restructure in an attempt to become profitable once again. But it really doesn't look good. Letting go of employees is one thing, but when a company's board jumps ship, en masse, along with those terminations, all signs point towards very bad things.
If you're using Evernote, or any other cloud-based storage or note-taking service, consider making local copies of all your important information. You never know when the cloud is going to let you down.
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