umm... yes you can. I got mod points I'm not wasting you either of you. Sorry.

Like most science this brings up more questions. Additionally why didn't Zebras evolve longer hair if the flies can't get through that as well, apparently other animals did evolve long hair and not stripes. Maybe for different reasons, maybe none of the explanations are any good. Isn't science fun!

DropBox expects an internet connection - it simply doesn't work _at all_ without that. Or at least, it did when I looked at it for my WiFi-only tablet. This was not a good user experience.

Ubuntu One does not expect an Internet connection. Instead it caches all the meta-data; you only need an Internet connection to actually get a file or send an update. Much better user experience.

DropBox, by design, expects an internet connection to work. Ubuntu One does not, except to actually transfer an update, because it caches the meta data. This is a _major_ usability improvement on a tablet that is WiFi-only, for instance.

Sorry for the dumb question, but are you certain that FTP and/or SSH is enabled in the WebUI? I don't recall if FTP is enabled by default, but I know for a fact that SSH is disabled unless explicitly enabled.

If so, go to Western Digital's website as I know they've had a few firmware updates for the drives in recent history. Try running those firmware upgrades if you can and see if it solves your problem.

I like FTP as much as the next Slashdotter, but it's not a perfect overlap to the same problem that Dropbox/Gdrive/UbuntuOne solves.

FTP doesn't do delta syncs. While this is okay for a 50KB text file or even a 2MB spreadsheet, transferring a 1GB file in its entirety is undesirable.
FTP requires an "intentional transfer". You save locally, then you upload remotely. U1 et al does this as a single step.
FTP requires an open port on the receiving end, which is not always possible (e.g., public/corporate Wi-Fi). These services handle NAT traversal seamlessly.
FTP is sometimes blocked on residential internet connections. U1 is not.
FTP can only share files with another user if its structure is designed to accommodate it. Dropbox can share files using a simple "share" command (I don't know if U1 supports this).
FTP on mobile devices is a nightmare, either because iOS gets weird with its attempts to hide the "complexity" of a file system, or because Android doesn't. Again, Dropbox makes this seamless, but I don't know if U1 does this any better.

Like I said, I really like FTP, because it's very quick, no storage limits, and is a very minimalist protocol that has withstood the test of time. There are, however, very valid reasons for the success of services like Ubuntu One and Dropbox.

Ask the NSA which one they use.

Not exactly. Think of it this way: Western Digital handles NAT traversal and Dynamic DNS. The bright side is that buyers don't have to mess with their routers to make the drive work and then sign up for DynDNS or somesuch in order to remotely access it. For a LOT of non-Slashdotters, this is a good thing.

Naturally, this also means that once the service that streamlines that process goes down, people's remote access to their data goes down. Think of it like having Filezilla Server installed on your desktop with port 21 forwarded/translated to it from your router. Then, while you're out, someone at home factory resets the router and loses your config. Same principle.

The "Cloud" part is the "always on, available everywhere" part of the equation, complete with a mobile app. the "My" part is that your data still lives at your house, on your hardware, and Western Digital doesn't have access to it. The drive is marketed this way because its ability to do Samba, FTP, and SSH (and the fact that it runs a small Linux stack so you can run rsync and BT Sync with some command line magic) out of the box just fine without ever signing up for Western Digital services doesn't exactly scream "Buy Me!!!!111" to most consumers. Think of it like a pre-assembled, single-drive FreeNAS that doesn't support iSCSI or NFS and uses EXT4 (I think), that also has a "hold my hand mode" for people who are confused about things like "file systems" and "not getting software through an app market of some kind".

I came here to reiterate basically this. The MyCloud devices do use WD services, but essentially what Western Digital does is perform relay services and dynamic DNS, for users who don't know how to do port forwarding and NAT translation (and/or have outbound port 80 blocked on their residential line) but still want a pretty app on their iPhone. Samba/CIFS still works perfectly on a LAN despite the outage. It's also entirely possible to use the MyCloud device if you are willing to use FTP/SSH when out and about, or with a little command line magic, get BitTorrent Sync up and running on those drives - it takes less than ten minutes of cutting and pasting into Putty.

Even if the WD services never come back, the only thing that is gone is the convenience factor. Now to be fair, that's a huge selling point of these drives that makes them more expensive than equal-capacity USB volumes. I understand the frustration of building a workflow around a feature set prominently displayed on the box, and I'm not saying that Western Digital doesn't have a responsibility to get their act together. At the same time, the fact that there are very time tested methods of accessing the data without the service, so it's a very different scenario than, say, Dropbox going down for a week or Google deciding to throw in the towel with Google Drive.

Yea, self driving won't really be on high end autos. That service will likely just replace Taxies and Busses. If I can call a car and have it take me where I want when I want who needs any other public transportation. At that point who really needs a car anyway. $avings!

So about 2 years after this is required most high end autos will be equipped with self driving systems making the rule almost irrelevant. It won't be long before technology will be outpacing this kind of safety law. We really should be putting energy into liability issues around the self driving car.

You haven't seen the movie have you? sigh...

When did cash discounts become illegal? In almost any business you can offer cash over credit and get a discount. There is no law that says you have to actually pay the advertised price or that the merchant must collect the advertised price.

That would fix it.