I use an imap protocol for my email and store my bookmarks on gmarks, and sometimes back up files on the the internet (tar.gz'ed to encript the information), but I hardly think of that as cloud computing. I also pay most of my bills online and get the paperless statements online.
I notice that there is a report out that the post office's mail volume has gone from 230 billion pieces to 170 billion pieces in two years and creating a big budget deficit, mostly due to paperless statements and emails. I am buying a condo in Florida completely on the internet and have taken college courses on the internet. Cloud computing will work as fast as your internet connection and no faster. ALL internet providers set their software to automatically ration speed when their demand peaks, so your cloud computing could start running at the speed of a 486 processor. In the Philippines, my nephew has broadband at home but, because the service provider doesn't have enough capacity, it runs slower than dial up. The only thing that it was good for was my daughter exchanging messages with her boyfriend on Yahoo messenger. It wasn't even fast enough for me to pay my bills on line. Is that the promise of cloud computing? Now I am really wondering what all of the fuss is about. And some guy accessing with a dish because he is in a rural area, is really not going to do very much because of the latency. Every word he types has to go to a satellite and back again to be stored. It might be more helpful for a business. Yesterday I paid my Sears bill in the store and she put the check into the register, it printed some things on the back of it, and she handed it back to me saying that it was already processed. That gives Citibank, which handles Sears's credit card business on an outsourced basis, quicker access to the money. On Tue, 2010-03-02 at 09:02 -0500, Burt Hart wrote: > And just because Joseph Staline and Mao Sai Dung came before does not > mean that the problem is getting any less. Just may be we can catch some > of them. > Burt > Mark Wallace wrote: > > >There is a disisdent currently in a chinese jail who was sure that Yahoo > >wouldn't tell the Chinese government who he was. They did. It depends > >on organizational priorities of the cloud host. > > > >On Mon, 2010-03-01 at 23:22 -0500, Sean O'Connor wrote: > > > > > >>As with anything it all depends on context. In the context of > >>developers/IT people and platforms, your description is a reasonable > >>one for the term cloud computing. In the consumer context, the term > >>has a different meaning in it's most common use. In that context, the > >>term is used to refer to any service where the majority of the > >>application's execution and storage happens on centralized servers > >>which completely abstract any operational concerns from the user. > >> Examples would include gmail, dropbox, google docs, etherpad, github, > >>and squarespace. > >> > >> > >>All of these services allow technically competent but not necessarily > >>sophisticated users to setup, configure, scale, and use systems which > >>previously they would have had to have hired an IT administrator to > >>setup and manage. They don't need to worry about dealing with > >>outages, running out of resources, or keeping track of backups. This > >>is enormously powerful and valuable for a very large section of users. > >> > >> > >>Finally as a bit of a bonus, there are a number of collaboration type > >>features which become much easier to implement when users are all > >>working on a common system. > >> > >> > >>If the privacy concerns are too great of a risk for you and you are > >>willing to spend the time and money to operate your own systems that's > >>absolutely your business and your right. Understand however that for > >>many other people, the ability to fill out a form and not have email > >>infrastructure be a problem for their company anymore is incredibly > >>valuable. > >> > >> > >>A side note on the privacy concern/trust issue: think about the > >>incentives for Google or any other large "cloud computing" company. > >> They basically make more money in the logn term by increasing the > >>number of people who use their services. Anything they do to > >>significantly violate a user's trust decreases the number of people > >>who will use their service over the long term. At the end of the day, > >>they may do stupid things (e.g. expose your address book via buzz) but > >>they have very strong incentives to correct those mistakes quickly and > >>to learn from them. When evaluating a service you need to look at > >>more than just what could they do and think about what makes sense for > >>them to do. Look at the consequences for them if they do something > >>"evil". > >> > >> > >>____________________________ > >>Sean O'Connor > >>http://seanoc.com > >> > >> > >>On Mon, Mar 1, 2010 at 10:55 PM, Chris Knadle > >><[email protected]> wrote: > >> On Monday 01 March 2010 21:54:51 Matthias Johnson wrote: > >> > On Mar 1, 2010, at 9:14 PM, Mark Wallace > >> > > >> > <[email protected]> wrote: > >> > > I see. the problem is that I just experienced over 60 > >> hours with no > >> > > internet access. Wouldn't that make it impossible to do > >> much of > >> > > anything with my computer? > >> > > >> > Ok so this is probably the biggest back and forth on lug I > >> have seen > >> > to date and it has morphed slightly off the original email > >> but to me > >> > this is the most damning thing about cloud computing. If we > >> were in an > >> > always connected world it might work but we are not. Also > >> the fact > >> > that open wifi is slowly becoming illegal these days the > >> filtered > >> > options for public wifi will probably be less than > >> desirable. Cloud > >> > computing is definately something not needed IMO. It also > >> brings up > >> > the issues of fair use and such. Which laws apply? Where > >> the server > >> > resides or the user? > >> > > >> > Matthias Johnson > >> > >> I'll throw this in, as it might answer some of your questions > >> concerning > >> "cloud computing" such as... "Whaaat is it?!?" [Cat from Red > >> Dwarf...] > >> > >> I recently went to an IEEE meeting about cloud computing (Nov > >> 2009 I think?). > >> As far as I could tell the term "cloud computing" mostly means > >> "an automated > >> method for a user to request and for a system to provision a > >> virtual machine, > >> with the specified resources". In other words, you visit a > >> web page to order > >> a virtual box, you choose what kind of setup you want from a > >> list of > >> predefined configurations (one of which hopefully fits most of > >> what you need), > >> you click "go", and in a couple of minutes you've got a remote > >> box available > >> to you that you can ssh to, where you can modify the setup > >> from there. > >> > >> Sounded like from there you can automate spawning virtual > >> machines with > >> duplicate configurations if you need to scale some network > >> application. > >> As far as I could tell, it's mostly geared towards businesses > >> that can use > >> that kind of automation in order to handle a network load that > >> varies. It's > >> not an end-all be-all solution -- it's essentially a niche > >> market. > >> > >> For an individual, there isn't much need for this kind of > >> system unless that > >> person is running a business like Craig's List, Paypal, etc -- > >> something that > >> needs to be able to scale. Whether "cloud computing" could > >> host services like > >> these more cheaply than doing it "in-house" isn't clear. If > >> it isn't, then > >> "cloud computing" is essentially a solution in search of a > >> problem. > >> > >> > >> -- Chris > >> > >> -- > >> > >> Chris Knadle > >> [email protected] > >> _______________________________________________ > >> Mid-Hudson Valley Linux Users Group > >> http://mhvlug.org > >> http://mhvlug.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mhvlug > >> > >> Upcoming Meetings (6pm - 8pm) MHVLS > >> Auditorium > >> Mar 3 - Sahana and 7 Years of MHVLUG Celebration > >> Apr 7 - Nagios > >> May 5 - Android > >> > >> > >>_______________________________________________ > >>Mid-Hudson Valley Linux Users Group http://mhvlug.org > >>http://mhvlug.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mhvlug > >> > >>Upcoming Meetings (6pm - 8pm) MHVLS Auditorium > >> Mar 3 - Sahana and 7 Years of MHVLUG Celebration > >> Apr 7 - Nagios > >> May 5 - Android > >> > >> > > > > > > > > > > _______________________________________________ > Mid-Hudson Valley Linux Users Group http://mhvlug.org > http://mhvlug.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mhvlug > > Upcoming Meetings (6pm - 8pm) MHVLS Auditorium > Mar 3 - Sahana and 7 Years of MHVLUG Celebration > Apr 7 - Nagios > May 5 - Android -- Robert Mark Wallace 60 Delaware Road Newburgh, NY 12550-3802 Telephone: (845) 566-0586 Please note my new address and update your records _______________________________________________ Mid-Hudson Valley Linux Users Group http://mhvlug.org http://mhvlug.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mhvlug Upcoming Meetings (6pm - 8pm) MHVLS Auditorium Mar 3 - Sahana and 7 Years of MHVLUG Celebration Apr 7 - Nagios May 5 - Android
