Month: August 2010

The Cloud

On By CantelonIn UncategorizedLeave a comment
 
I am sure you have heard it refered to before…the cloud. More and more reference is being made to "the cloud" across a spectrum of different markets and people. It refers to that nebulous and hard to define space occupied by the internet. Still it is not simply the internet. The net is the backbone or foundation of the cloud. The cloud is really about net computing. It is the inevitable march toward the migration of all applications and storage as we know them/it away from our computers and ‘out there’ into the cloud. It cannot be defined fully, it is not a standard but rather a culture and activity and "way of doing things" technological. Hence the cloud.
 
The cloud is being primarily utilized by the average schmoe (you and I) and not so much by corporations as they tend to be more technologically conservative then you and I (which means in fact since you and I make up these corporations they are slowly being migrated to the cloud one employee at a time). I will give you some examples.
 
Recently (today) I was finally able to migrate all of my e-mail from Microsoft Outlook (computer-based e-mail application and storage) to GMail through IMAP. It took a while but it is done and I have since deleted all traces of Outlook from my PC. My e-mail is essentially in the cloud. I store nothing on my PC and access it through internet browser and iPod.
 
All of my writing is done primarily on the net now via blog and Facebook RSS. It is all stored in the cloud. The next big area the cloud is expanding into is office productivity (you know word processing, presentation, spreadsheet, database etc). I have removed Microsoft Office and installed OpenOffice because it is free and streamlined. It is still based on my PC though.
 
Google has been leading the charge into the cloud with things like Gmail and Google Apps. Google apps are a suite of productivity applications that are web-based. Currently you can access them for free but only their standard edition (which I am experimenting with) which should be fine for the average user. Zoho offers free personal use online productivity apps but they are relatively unknown and when you are moving into the cloud you want a heightened sense of security and a little stability (as much as that sounds like an oxymoron). ThinkFree is another online suite that is very robust and like its title offers free access to a great and functional suite of online productivity apps that work with Microsoft office docs/files. Microsoft has ponderously been moving into the cloud too but not nearly as fast of Google and some of the smaller more agile companies. Knowing Microsoft they will move into the cloud through acquisition rather then ingenuity.
 
One of the things I like about cloud computing is the accessibility it creates. I can access my e-mail and office applications from anywhere on the planet with web access (which is practically everywhere now). I can also access them with almost any wifi/web enabled device like an Android device, cell phone, etc. Security has always frightened people away from doing such things but to be honest the organizations that host most of this data are far more secure then the average person’s laptop or desktop. This is the reality of the cloud, it is in fact not really a cloud at all. You have simply outsourced your application storage and functionality to servers elsewhere on the planet.
 
What does this mean for the PC as we know it (and the Mac for you few Mac addicts)? HUGE change. The desktop is slowly going the way of the dinosaur and the laptop is evolving into more of a web portal and content streaming device (think future iPad without the stupid name). As wifi speeds and access increase we will likely stream everything from the cloud – movies and music. That’s right music too. You thought mp3 and mp4 was the last new format? Well imagine an ipod that has no storage but streams your music from a number of different places in the cloud (kinda like Last FM on steroids).
 
The cloud and cloud computing is definitely the way to go in my opinion for the personal non-corporate user and Google and Apple have a huge headstart over other companies. The reality is that corporations will hate it because they lose massive amounts of control but will have to migrate because history has shown us that where the end-user goes privately so goes the company. There are lots of cost saving advantages to the corporate user however that revolve around storage and application fees. It is likely mini-clouds internal and centrally controlled by corporations are already being tested as a way of giving that sense of freedom to the user without losing all of the control and security (like the old Sun unix distributed workstations accessing applications stored on central servers but far sexier).
 
Anyhow – those are my random thoughts on the cloud…maybe I will see you out there.

WAR

On By CantelonIn UncategorizedLeave a comment
We were driving back to Canada after spending more than three years in Florida when the planes hit on September 11, 2001. We listened to National Public Radio (NPR) with disbelief as we drove north past temporary electronic road signs declaring "ALL ACCESS TO WASHINGTON DC CLOSED" and "ALL ACCESS TO NEW YORK CITY CLOSED". In fact we were just outside Washington DC getting a tire changed and watching on the shop TV as reports started coming in.

In the end nearly 3,000 people were killed, the world trade center was gone and the Pentagon scarred. In response the US and allies that included Canada, Britain etc. launched a massive retaliatory war against Iraq that would eventually enmesh Afghanistan and Pakistan. Now almost 10 years later the US has announced a withdrawal from Iraq to occur over the next 24 days leaving a small 50,000 person force till the end of 2011. So what was the cost of such a war? If Osama Bin Ladan (still alive by all accounts) and Al Qaeda were to be asked the question were the attacks on Sept. 11 worth it all what could they list:

– destruction of World Trade Center, an icon of western economic dominance
– initially 3,000 dead
– Pentagon breached, an icon of western military dominance
– another 200,000 (some estimates are as high as 650,000) Iraqi civilians dead
– a cost in $$$ to the United States of more than $1 trillion
– more than 5,600 American soldiers killed
– more than 500 British soldiers killed
– 151 Canadian soldiers killed
– 429 additional coalition soldiers killed
– for a total of more than 6,700 soldiers killed or almost 10,000 westerners when you include the Sept. 11th casualties.
– Osama Bin Laden: still alive
– Creation of Global fear on a level never before seen (terror)

This is war. Did Al Qaeda/Taliban achieve its goals? I would suspect they believe they did far beyond their wildest dreams. As far as their own casualties…well over 6,000, but like every group of commanders who feel their cause is just they would sacrifice everything including the lives of their people (just not their own).

Some would argue what the options were. What else was to be done? Who can say? These are simply numbers, ultimately God and history will judge the outcome but of those two only one will judge perfectly. In the end one wonders if it is even possible to follow the command "love your enemies" in a world such as ours. I can only assume it is possible because God commands it of us even at the cost of our own lives I suspect.

Starved

On By CantelonIn UncategorizedLeave a comment
 
by the soft sand-kissed breeze
wound past the trappist trees
in through opportune window
do I sit and read of God
while waiting for the 5:30 pm meal bell
…and I know now
amid rich ripe smells
a cooked beef and vegetable atmosphere
of kitchen clucking clatter
that fasting is lost upon me
for I am fat of mind and body
while starved heart beats slow beneath
dying house of a beggared soul
dry as desert bleached bones

Indonesian Hot Sauce

On By CantelonIn Uncategorized1 Comment
 
A good friend brought me a bottle of hot sauce from Indonesia as a gift a while ago and I just tried it. Having an omlette for lunch and I like hot sauce with my omlettes. My current favorite hot sauce is a brown habenero sauce from Mexico called El Yucateca but it is too hot for omlettes (I like it on steak, ribs and hamburgers). Generally for eggs I like a red hot sauce. So I remembered the Indonesian hot sauce and cracked it open. Verdit? Fantastic! Wow just about perfect for eggs and egg dishes. It would also work nicely on fried rices and I think hot dogs too. It is not too hot (I would call it medium) and has loads of flavor (which is a challenge for hot sauces in general). Really fantastic and I am hoping my Indonesian friends remember me and this post because I will use this up fairly quick I think. To be fair this is actually a chili sauce which is a tad different (a little thicker usually and saltier).
 
Since I am not sure which of the various words on the label is the name I have posted a pic.