Windows Live SkyDrive + Gladinet = instant cloud server

In the past few weeks I’ve been exploring the idea of remote hosted media storage (i.e. cloud storage).  Basically, I’m rather tired of manually synchronizing my media collection across multiple computers.  Furthermore, I don’t even want to have any of the media stored locally—I want to be able to stream my music and other media to any Internet-connected computer.  After trying to set up an FTP link with my web host didn’t work out (I could access the folder fine, but media players don’t seem to be able to rectify it as a folder location), I remembered my Windows Live account has SkyDrive, which offers 25 GB of free online storage.  The problem is that it cannot be added as a Network Place in Windows Explorer.

But there exists a solution.  A program called Gladinet Cloud Desktop (currently in beta) creates a virtual drive in Explorer from a variety of online storage spaces, including Gmail and SkyDrive.  This means that native programs can access files and folders in this cloud storage just as they would normal, locally based directories and files.  The result is a miniature file server that one can access anywhere with a working Internet connection.

There are some limitations, though.  Though generous by free standards, 25 GB is not really a lot of space.  For my purposes, I’ll have to create and maintain a compressed version of my music library (I normally encode my files in Apple Lossless).  However, that’s probably a better course of action, anyway, because I’m going to be streaming this stuff.  The Gladinet program is still in beta, so there are some bugs and glitches.  It doesn’t handle network switching well at all, and for networks that constantly require sign-in at Windows logon, you have to stop and restart the service before Gladinet works properly.  It will appear to work, but the files are inaccessible.  It’s difficult to evaluate further because Wayne State’s wireless connectivity is so shoddy that I can’t say if it’s WSU’s or Gladinet’s fault for some random service drop-outs I’ve noticed with the program.

Also, for music files time lengths seem to be inaccurately reported and displayed by my media player of choice (Foobar2000), but that could be the files themselves, as they seemed to do this even when stored locally.  Since I’m not at home right now, my test files are limited to the Mellotron examples I’ve posted in my other blog, The Musical Box—I FTP’ed them onto my computer then cut and pasted them onto my virtual SkyDrive.  Issues like whether Foobar2000 is able to play files gaplessly and the inaccurate timecodes will have to wait until I’ve compressed at least some of my library and uploaded it.  My reference album will probably be The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway (Genesis, of course), as it contains gapless transitions.

Hopefully with time Gladinet will become more stable and better able to handle various network configurations.  It’s times like these that make me wish I hadn’t lost my Samsung netbook; this would have been a real boon to me to have instant access to my music library anywhere.  As it is, the utility of this is tempered by my almost seven pound leviathan notebook, with it’s 12 minute battery life.  But the main benefit still exists: one copy of my media I can access from any location, without the hassle of having to keep multiple local versions current.  When they come up with A) a 3G service plan that doesn’t cost $2,000 a year, and B) netbooks with built-in 3G functionality, this will be a really compelling prospect.  I used to think that cloud computing was just another stupid, over-hyped trend.  Now, I’m not so sure.  It might actually become something.  I wonder if Microsoft is considering tying storage allotments to individual product licenses–say, up to one terabyte of storage per Product Key (exorbitant now, I know, but in three years that will undoubtedly change).  That would seriously rock.  Then, all you would need was high-speed broadband access and you would never have to store anything locally ever again.  Plus, you could tie it to a Live account in such a way that a user’s other computers could access and modify files as well.

Now I’m just musing.  Plus, who knows, this could all break tomorrow.  Certainly it’ll be a non-starter if gapless doesn’t work, or else the service is spotty.  Hopefully Microsoft itself will come up with a way of integrating SkyDrive into the Explorer shell—pretty much what Gladinet does right now.  As it is, this won’t radically change the way I do things (yet), but it will allow me to access all my files platform or machine irrespective.  I’m about tired of having to use an arbiter partition between my Windows and Linux partitions on my laptop—Ubuntu can see all the Windows files, but Windows can’t see the Ubuntu partition.  Ugh!  What a mess.  The drawback to all this, of course, is that without Internet access, it’s pointless.  And, with Internet access, all it does is synthesize the effect of having all this stuff stored locally, except that now you don’t have to keep things current across all your boxes.  The missing link, of course, is a realistic 3G service provider.  And that will come soon enough, as it occurs to providers that they have a real market now among the non-elite who can’t just pitch two grand out the window every year.

Enough!  I’m off to play Mario Kart 64, or something.