This isn't exactly a graceful shutdown. The majority of their files were already deleted in the past on very short notice. I have no idea who still used or trusted their service.

Rapidshare shafted their paid users long ago (announcing the deletion of files on short notice) then they came back with a business model that was not exactly well thought-out.

I wish the US govt. would sponsor something for citizens to store a bit about themselves and their family indefinitely. Even 20MB or 30MB per person, which seems modest and feasible, would allow people to pick a few of their most important photos and write a bit about their life for the next generations to find. I don't trust any private company to handle this well when you're talking about hundreds of years of future storage.

I see there's a few downvotes, no worries. What private company is going to be here in 200 years? in 300? I know the NSA-hate is strong here but it's not like you'd have to add the most personal information. Perhaps someone like the Library of Congress could handle it. I've seen far too many private companies delete data with little notice to trust them.

I'm not suggesting you treat it as a private diary of intimate details, more like a time capsule for future generations to read. How you viewed the world around you, how you viewed world events. Maybe allow people to put time locks on their posted info, so it wouldn't be public for X number of years.

This is laughable. Government has not incentive to properly store this information and not allow it to be misused.

In the context of what just happened to OhLife, isn't that just a little ironic?

Business fail and succeed all the time. Most of them fail and fade into oblivion. The government however continues to exist and rarely admitting that it has failed. Their solutions to their own created problems lead to more problems.

One of my Filipino friends was doing this sort of work. She did it well and got paid well but she finally quit over ethical concerns. I would find it incredibly entertaining if customer records ever leaked ;) although there'd be no way to authenticate them.

Once upon a time when I was first learning to program, I wrote a Python script to download them from bartleby.com and make them into nice CHM files :) some good stuff

I like Cebu City but the internet is not always as stable as what you might find in the US.

I could see this being used in repressive countries to find devices or memory cards full of e-books and learning materials.

Oppressive.

As soon as they have the budget, they'll be watching you ;) For the meantime, dozens of foreign intelligence services are probably picking up the slack.

Agreed, 3-6 months notice is fine. This is not a classy way for them to address the issue.

I understand people need to make business decisions but short notice on something like this isn't exactly a classy move.