

Ask HN: What do you think is broken? - illdave

What do you think is currently broken, or inefficient? As an example, I think that desktop syncing is currently more work than it needs to be and doesn't have a great user experience. I'd like to imagine that I could easily be out and about using a laptop working on a document and downloading files. Then when I get home and switch on my desktop, it boots up to the exact same desktop with the same files I'd just been using. If I take a photo with my iPhone, it'd be good to have that photo automatically on my laptop in the right folder.<p>I know it's possible at the moment, and Dropbox does an incredible job at syncing folders, but it still seems like there's a huge disconnect between all my different devices. This may well be what Apple's trying to change with iCloud.<p>I was just wondering what things other HackerNewsers thought was broken (or at least could be improved on)?
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wavephorm
Dropbox-style file syncing is a transitional technology. They won't be around
in 10 years unless they reinvent themselves. The reason is, personal computers
are being phased out. That means local filesystems are going to move online
where a service like Dropbox becomes redundant.

What's broken is the personal computer. It was wrong form the start. Thin
client computing is already back en vogue, just now we call it
tablets/smartphones and cloud.

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sendos
> What's broken is the personal computer. It was wrong form the start.

It wasn't broken from the start. It was the only thing possible without
ubiquitous broadband access. Now that we are getting close to ubiquitous
broadband access, the cloud (thin clients) are starting to make sense, but
they were impossible back when the only connection to the web was dialup.

