Uploading or Downloading?

Unless data is being transferred over a network, neither applies in my mind.

If I'm sending data to someone over a network, I'm uploading. If I'm receiving data from someone over a network, I'm downloading. If I'm in the same physical location as the PC I'm interacting with, and I'm transferring data to that PC using some external device, I'm just copying.

TL;DR, this is only confusing because you're using the terminology wrong.

"We need you to get in and upload a tracker to our target's laptop without detection."

You're copying, or moving.

I guess technically you are adding a drive and then streaming information to and from you primary drive and the USB drive.

It may seem unintuitive, but a usb is not at all similar to a network you can download or upload things to. Instead, its essentially a CD that uses flash memory.

TLDR; there should be an option that says "Neither."

@rejizzle: Yes, but no contests are lame. Hollywood uploading/downloading logic points to a victor, one with an asterisk, but a victor none the less.

It is transferring. Unless its is a Sony Vita, in which case ist if transfarring.

I'd consider it copying a file, since it's typically mounted directly on your computer rather than as a network share. Uploading/downloading applies to file transfers over a network.

My god. I've opened up an even worse can of worms. =\

So I used a computer and usb drive in my example because I thought it would be easier to understand, but I can see that has caused more confusion with the ability to just easily drag and drop files.

It is not exactly a USB drive and computer, I work on airplanes but the concept is the same, we have data on a on an external device, we plug that into the plane and are presented with text on a screen to either upload or download. If I want to transfer information from the external device to the airplane, what button should I hit?

@frytup@rejizzle

Also people who are saying that those terms don't apply are just doubly wrong. The definition of downloading and upload is transferring data from one point to the other, it is not exclusive to the internet.

Within video games people who buy physical media go home, put the disc into the system and then the systems downloads all or part of the game to the hard drive (talking specifically from the disc, not the internet)

If there are two choices, one that says upload and one that says download i would assume

uploading = sending data from the plane to the external device

downloading = sending data from the device to the plane.

Unless the text is presented & interacted with on the device itself. In that case you are uploading data from the device to the plane & downloading data from the plane towards the device.

@tophar01: As I said before, think about it in terms of Hollywood logic. Spies upload viruses, tracking software, etc. from thumbdrives, and download secret information from a target's computer/laptop.

@onemanarmyy: Thankyou!

Yes you are pushing button and interacting with a screen on the plane. Which is why I believe you should take the perspective of the plane

I also agree, if there were some sort of interface on the external device and that is what you were using, then it would be swapped.

Sorry, no. Anyone who uses "downloading" to refer to copying data from optical media to an internal drive is just straight up using the word wrong. That's just copying.

It does, in fact, mean transferring data over a network to a local device.

So...the screen is on the plane and not the device? Then that would indeed be downloading. Not a great example as when I think of plane technicians, they have dianognostic devices with screens on them...is this a bet or just an argument because god damn...

I agree with the users who have already stated that neither option is accurate, but if we're forced to pick and answer I'll say you download from an external device, because the computer is the active part in the process - most external devices can not initiate the transfer on their own (even viruses spread on flash drives tend to use an exploit on the computer side rather than the flash storage side in order to spread). In USB terms we're talking a USB Host vs a USB Device. The host initiates processes, the device complies, thus the host downloads data from the device, the device does not upload data to the host. Most external storage devices can't even operate as hosts, unless they're specifically network drives and such, and then we're back to network terminology.

@tophar01: Is the screen in the plane or on the external device?

@cikame:

The airplane

@tophar01: Download :P.

everyone is wrong. you're updogging

The computer is definitely downloading the data from the device.

What's updogg?

Quality comedy here.

Schrödinger's USB

I think it's about perspective and depends on the device you control. Uploading and downloading are quite simply sending and receiving., which one's doing which depends on your point of view.

Its an airplane, right?

So there is a 2,000 page service manual. The service manual will say definitively what you are doing because it will explain in excruciating detail 'what' is doing what to what.