So a small project I’ve been working on involves keeping a list of useful items, i.e. todo lists, grocery lists, etc. I got the idea reading a life hacking post about staying organised by keeping lists. The only difference is that I have chosen to keep tab of my lists in a MySQL database (instead of the funky moleskin notepad) and I will use a simple web interface to view and update my lists.

Since my web hosting company provides MySQL and Perl, along with the DBI module creating this virtual todo list is pretty easy. It’s just a matter of creating the 9 tables in a database and writing some CGI scripts that will allow a user (me) to insert entries into the database. A word of note is that you should always use taint mode for Perl CGI scripts and untaint any data from web forms before running the SQL query. I’ve also limited access to the CGI scripts that manipulate the databases for obvious reasons. However I will allow everybody to view my lists, by creating a new MySQL user and granting the user viewing privileges (select privilege).

The nine lists are (if you haven’t already read the life hacking post):

1. A wish list: if people don’t know what to buy you for special days
2. A gift list: awesome gifts to buy people
3. Minute list: stuff to do if I have a spare minute
4. BHAGs: Big hairy audacious goals, enough said
5. Bucket list: stuff to do before you die
6. Grocery list: a grocery list
7. Recommended list: stuff people have recommended to me, i.e. books, movies, etc.
8. Rememeber list: stuff to remember
9. Ideas list: for when you have that really awesome idea

I also plan to import my bookmarks into a database and use this simple web interface to update my favourite sites. Hopefully this will help me keep a mental tab on things.

So for the uninitiated, here’s my very simple example explaining some concepts of cloud computing. Few years ago I was trying to import my bookmarks from one web browser to another. After some fiddling around I found the folder that held my bookmarks and to my surprise and delight, it was a HTML file. That then gave me the idea of getting some free web space and simply hosting this HTML file online. Since I only knew of one company that had free web hosting, geocities, I signed up for a geocities account and uploaded this HTML file which I creatively called bookmarks.html. Now instead of having to import my bookmarks from one computer to another, or not having access to my bookmarks if I wasn’t using my own computer, I can access my bookmarks from any computer that has Internet access. I can now also add new bookmarks from any computer (that has Internet access) I want if I found an interesting site while surfing on another computer.

What does this have to do with cloud computing? Basically the cloud is a metaphor for the Internet. Cloud computing basically means having computing services provided on the Internet. Using my example you can see the benefits of the cloud (in my case the cloud computing service was provided for free), i.e. I had access to a list of my favourite sites from any computer with an internet connection, I have one centralised bookmarks file and I can now share my favourite sites with everyone with an internet connection. Since more and more people are getting connected to the Internet and we are getting faster Internet connections, this really seems like the future of computing. Businesses will no longer need to buy computing equipment, hire administrators or even web designers; they just need to pay for cloud computing services. Individuals will also prefer the cloud, as it can mean many things such as they don’t have to worry about backing up their data or can have access to their files from anywhere.

Google at the moment is really positioning itself as THE service provider for cloud computing. They provide services (mostly free) for you to store your conversations, your documents, your internet history, your journal, your photos and countless other things. I don’t like the idea of having everything owned by one company which is pretty much the only disadvantage I see in cloud computing, since it will only make Google stronger. But oh well, we’ve been living under Microsoft for so many years now, time for a change I guess.