Friday, January 30, 2009

SANS Institute - CWE/SANS TOP 25 Most Dangerous Programming Errors

SANS Institute - CWE/SANS TOP 25 Most Dangerous Programming Errors: "the consensus list of the 25 most dangerous programming errors that lead to security bugs and that enable cyber espionage and cyber crime."

Techworld.com - The downside of the cloud

Techworld.com - The downside of the cloud: "Saving work and expense is a key reason why cloud services are expected to grow in the next few years. Last year, 4 percent of worldwide IT spending went to cloud services, and by 2012 that figure will be 9 percent, according to research company IDC. Because of its cost and space requirements, data storage is a prime candidate for using cloud technology, and IDC predicts storage will grow from 8 percent to 13 percent of cloud spending in that same period."

Wednesday, January 28, 2009

SLA@SOI

SLA@SOI: "our project is committed to research, engineer and demonstrate technologies that can embed SLA-aware infrastructures into the service economy"

Tuesday, January 27, 2009

Why a 'Google Web Drive' Won't Kill Windows, the PC or Anything Else | Epicenter from Wired.com

Why a 'Google Web Drive' Won't Kill Windows, the PC or Anything Else | Epicenter from Wired.com: "There are two essential problems with the whole cloud computing paradigm that no one has really solved.
The first is trust. It’s one thing to trust your e-mail to Google, it’s another thing to trust the company with the entirety of your digital life. Forget problems of security and privacy, even the basic issue of server downtime leaves many people cold.
The other big issue with online storage is that, for most of us, documents like spreadsheets, word processor files and the other formats that Google Docs understands are not what’s taking up the majority of space on our drives. Is the fabled GDrive going to store and sync my 200 or so gigabytes of mp3 files? For free? Somehow I doubt it. What about movies? If you’re like most of us GDrive will likely affect only your Documents folder — maybe four or five gigs worth of files, but hardly a substitute for your hard drive. Microsoft’s Live Sync service already offers exactly that and it hasn’t changed the way we use Windows, nor has it made us throw out our hard drives."

EETimes.com - Going green with DDR3 memory

EETimes.com - Going green with DDR3 memory: "Industry experts concede that about 82 percent of the $500 million bill for a typical large data center is going toward the facility's mechanical and electrical infrastructure.
For the data center server, one contributor to this higher power density is the memory subsystem. A typical 1U server requires a 600 to 1,000-W supply for its power. These high-end servers used in data centers support between 16 to 18 DRAM slots. On a DDR3 (double data rate 3) system, each single slot draws on average 9 W, using a typical 2-Gb module. The total memory subsystem power is around 144 to 162 W, which is nearly 25% of the available power for the system. Multiplying this by the power draw of 40,000 to 80,000 servers in a typical data center translates to between 5 to 13 MW (megawatts), just for the memory subsystem. Over 13,000 American homes can be powered using that same amount of power"

IBM teams up with universities on cloud project | Business Tech - CNET News

IBM teams up with universities on cloud project | Business Tech - CNET News: "IBM on Monday announced that it has partnered with three universities to develop one of the first cloud-computing platforms in the Middle East.
Big Blue, along with Carnegie Mellon University, Qatar University, and Texas A&M University in Qatar, plans to use the Qatar Cloud Computing Center to handle advanced research for search, data mining, scientific modeling and simulation, computational biology, and financial modeling"

Monday, January 26, 2009

A survey of corporate IT: IT's global “cloud” | Let it rise | The Economist

A survey of corporate IT: IT's global “cloud” | Let it rise | The Economist: "According to a recent study, 69% of Americans connected to the web use some kind of “cloud service”, including web-based e-mail or online data storage"

Google plans to make PCs history | Technology | The Observer

Google plans to make PCs history | Technology | The Observer: "cknowledged the growing demand for cloud computing. Dave Armstrong, head of product and marketing for Google Enterprise, said: 'There's a clear direction ... away from people thinking, 'This is my PC, this is my hard drive,'"

Sunday, January 25, 2009

Citrix resurrects King George as hypervisor • The Register

Citrix resurrects King George as hypervisor • The Register: "Xen 3.3 has features that allow for dynamic reallocation memory between guest VMs and for VMs to migrate between different generations of processors. Xen 3.3 also includes support for power management features on servers, which can gear down or shut down unused components (such as cores and caches) that are not being used by workloads."

Forget Cloud Computing, What About Cloud Apps? - Data Center Networks

Forget Cloud Computing, What About Cloud Apps? - Data Center Networks: "I think these types of apps are another nail in the coffin of the traditional PC form factor. These types of apps continue to reduce the hardware requirements on the client side to the point we can completely dis-intermediate the PC altogether and cloud intelligence can be embedded directly into the everyday devices people use day-in and day-out."

Intel Communities: Emerging Compute Models White Paper - Intel

Intel Communities: Emerging Compute Models White Paper - Intel: "T has a range of centrally-managed
compute models from which to choose. From Terminal Services to VDI, from blade PCs
through application and OS streaming, each model has its advantages and trade-offs.
Rarely is a single compute model adequate to meet the needs of all users and all
applications."

Lotus Unveils Cloud Strategy, Mobile Integrations - CIO.com - Business Technology Leadership

Lotus Unveils Cloud Strategy, Mobile Integrations - CIO.com - Business Technology Leadership: "IBM/Lotus Monday began framing its cloud strategy around Notes/Domino and unveiled deeper support for BlackBerry devices on the 20th anniversary of the platform's introduction.

The company also pegged March as the timeframe to ship Alloy, formerly code-named Atlantic, an integration of Notes and SAP Business Suite that brings SAP data into the Notes collaboration environment."

Thoughts and Fragments: Real Terracotta @ Rome JavaDay 2009

Thoughts and Fragments: Real Terracotta @ Rome JavaDay 2009: "Real Terracotta - Real-world scalability patterns with Terracotta."

Wednesday, January 21, 2009

Intel, Citrix Collaborating on Desktop Virtualization

Intel, Citrix Collaborating on Desktop Virtualization: "Intel and Citrix plan to combine Intel’s vPro management and security technology with Citrix’s Xen hypervisor and other virtualization applications that will allow IT departments to run several secure virtual machines within the same corporate client"

Tuesday, January 20, 2009

Microsoft expansion to take a hit to cut costs

Microsoft expansion to take a hit to cut costs: "Last year, Microsoft increased the size of its work force by 16 percent. The company employs more than 94,000 people worldwide, including 40,000 in the Puget Sound region"

Monday, January 19, 2009

Cisco Plans Big Push Into Server Market - NYTimes.com

Cisco Plans Big Push Into Server Market - NYTimes.com: "companies like Cisco see an opportunity to produce a new, potentially disruptive class of hardware and software management systems that span an entire data center."

Saturday, January 17, 2009

Humour

Humour: "It sounds like English, but I can't understand a word you're saying."

Friday, January 16, 2009

IBM to locate global computer programming center at Michigan State University | MSU News | Michigan State University

IBM to locate global computer programming center at Michigan State University | MSU News | Michigan State University: "EAST LANSING, Mich. — Big Blue has found a fertile spot to grow in the land of green and white, with IBM’s decision to locate an application development center on the campus of Michigan State University.

The first of its kind for the company in the United States, the IBM facility is the product of an agreement to expand MSU’s recruiting, research and educational partnerships with the information technology giant. IBM already is a top employer of MSU graduates.

The IBM Global Delivery Center for Application Services will be housed on the second floor of the former MSU Federal Credit Union headquarters on the south end of campus. A full-service MSUFCU branch on the first floor will continue to operate there."

cloud actions

Cloud Computing 2009 New Year’s Resolutions
Written by Michael Sheehan on Dec 29th, 2008 | Filed under: Cloud Computing, General, GoGrid, Hosting, Industry, ServePath

new_years_hat The start of a New Year is upon us so it is time to get a list together of things that you will do (or do your best to do) in the coming year. Everybody has their own personal Resolution lists, but what about your Business ones? How are you going to remain competitive? What steps are you going to take to cut your budget to remain lean and mean? Are you going to stick with your current methods or adopt some new strategies?

Here are some “Resolutions” that you can think about as you ready your business for 2009.

1. Invest some time in understanding the term “Cloud Computing” – there are several easy-to-understand definitions and movies that have come out that make Cloud Computing a bit more understandable. This one was done at the 2008 Web 2.0 Expo. Then came the GoGrid “Cloud Computing in Plain English”. Recently, there is a new “In Plain English” from the actual Common Craft folks (whom we got our inspiration from). And here is a more technical presentation that came out recently. Regardless, there are lots of sources out there for quick understandings. I have been maintaining a Bookmark RSS feed as well of many of the Cloud Computing blogs and sites. Subscribe to that feed for updated links. Also, read through the popular Cloud Computing Group on Google. Lastly, you can check Wikipedia for their ever evolving definition of Cloud Computing.
2. Do some research on different Cloud Providers – no Cloud Computing provider is the same, and the differentiation is continuing. Last year (2008), I introduced the idea of the Cloud Pyramid which has Cloud Applications (SalesForce) at the top, then Cloud Platforms (Google App Engine or Microsoft Azure) in the middle and finally Cloud Infrastructure (GoGrid and Amazon EC2) as the bottom foundation. Also hooked into it are Cloud Extenders (e.g., Amazon’s SQS) and Cloud Aggregators (RightScale). It’s pretty obvious that there are many choices to be made and that these are very specific to the type of business you are running. In fact, we will be further segmenting the IaaS (Cloud Infrastructure) section more over the next few weeks. Briefly, GoGrid is now being positioned as a “CloudCenter” (which is essentially, a DataCenter equivalent but in the Cloud). More on that later. In the meantime, compile a series of questions for yourself and for your prospective provider. We will get a list together of things you might want to ask (post to come).
3. Review your IT Budget – If you are like most companies out there, you are going through your 2009 budgeting (or have done so already and are probably on your 10th revision now). One way to make your CFO happy is to reduce your Capital Expenditures (CapEx). The easiest way to do that is to really take a hard look at Cloud Computing. If you can slash your CapEx spend by downsizing your physical server footprints, you can easily upsize that same footprint in the Cloud.
4. Empower your Programmers – Cloud Computing offers something new to Programmers: the ability to programmatically control their IT infrastructure. Using an API, Programmers can skin the functionality provided by Clouds as well as develop “intelligent” applications that scale dynamically, for example.
5. Empower your IT Staff – Be sure that you don’t ignore your IT Staff as you look at the Cloud as a physical IT infrastructure alternative. They have some best practices and standards that should be incorporated in what your IT strategies will be. Let them experiment with the Cloud so that they fully grasp what it can do for your organization. They may tell you that it is a great direction to go in, or, they may say that your current infrastructure simply cannot be ported to the Cloud. There may also be some hybrid solutions (like GoGrid’s Cloud Connect) that will give them the best of both worlds.

Thursday, January 15, 2009

Goodreads | quotes by Dorothy Parker (page 1 of 2)

Goodreads | quotes by Dorothy Parker (page 1 of 2): "'I like to have a martini,
Two at the very most.
After three I'm under the table,
after four I'm under my host.'
— Dorothy Parker"

Green Datacenter Trends - Web Hosting Unleashed

Green Datacenter Trends - Web Hosting Unleashed: ". They accounted for 1 percent of all U.S. power consumption in 2000, 2 percent in 2005 and are predicted to hit 3 to 4 percent by 2010,"

Wednesday, January 14, 2009

Energy Matters: The Physics Definitions of Energy and Work

Energy Matters: The Physics Definitions of Energy and Work: "Work and energy share the same unit and it's measured in the SI(International Standard) unit of joule(J) which is the product of Newton(unit for force) and meter"

How to benchmark data center energy costs

How to benchmark data center energy costs: "One such method of measuring energy efficiency, developed recently by the Uptime Institute, a data center research organization, is corporate average data center efficiency (CADE). This calculation multiplies the efficiency of an organization's technology by the efficiency of the physical facility."

8 Predictions for Enterprise Web 2.0 in 2009 | Enterprise Web 2.0 | ZDNet.com

8 Predictions for Enterprise Web 2.0 in 2009 | Enterprise Web 2.0 | ZDNet.com: "3. Cloud computing will remain one of the biggest new Internet developments. The cloud computing story, as compelling as it is today for many situations, will only get larger in 2009. While the some of the bloom may be lost off the rose as some of the complexities and risks surface in early pilot projects, the cloud computing industry as a whole will grow in leaps and bounds as organizations seek to cut costs, manage growth/shrinkage, and shorten time to market. Expect major new products from the big existing players such as Amazon and Force.com as well as new entries from big firms and startups alike."

Tuesday, January 13, 2009

(866) 265-7685 / 8662657685

(866) 265-7685 / 8662657685: "This number is associated with the number 201-210-3618 to call 866-265-7685. It's a message that they are trying to reach me and it's important for me to call this number. I'm thinking if they want to talk to me, they should give me a hint such as what company is calling or what they want before expecting me to call them.
Caller ID: Global Vantage
Caller: Global Vantage
Caller Type: Collection Agency"

Possible Cloud Monitoring Tools | IT Management and Cloud Blog

Possible Cloud Monitoring Tools | IT Management and Cloud Blog: "Nagios
Most prevalent open source monitoring product.
Hyperic
At this point they are leading the pack with the most work done with (Amazon, Rackspace, and Mosso).
Zenoss
Not many cloud stories yet. Very sound monitoring tool.
Zabbix
I have used this product before and it is a solid tool. I am not sure if it’s a good play in the clouds. However it is written in C and might be better suited for performance (ala clouds).
OpenNMS
I need to research.
Ganglia
Very prevalent in the grid space. Might make a great candidate for cloud monitoring.
Collectd
Rightscale uses it as their monitoring tool. They seem to be making all the right moves, who am I to argue.
Ntop
Written in C. Might be a good tool for the cloud.
Monit
Needs research
Gkrellm
Needs research"

Home Page - KITE Keynote Testing Enviroment

Home Page - KITE Keynote Testing Enviroment: "KITE tests your site from a variety of locations worldwide by collecting data about the specific site transactions you want to study"

OpenNebula :: start

OpenNebula :: start: "OpenNebula is an open source virtual infrastructure engine that enables the dynamic deployment and re-placement of virtual machines on a pool of physical resources. ONE (OpenNebula) extends the benefits of virtualization platforms from a single physical resource to a pool of resources, decoupling the server not only from the physical infrastructure but also from the physical location."

The Cloud Computing Ecosystem: The Top 100 Cloud Players | SILVERLIGHT DEVELOPER'S JOURNAL

The Cloud Computing Ecosystem: The Top 100 Cloud Players | SILVERLIGHT DEVELOPER'S JOURNAL: "Cloud computing is an opportunity for business to implement low cost, low power and high efficiency systems to deliver scalable infrastructure. It increases capacity and expands computing capabilities without heavy investment in infrastructure, training or software licensing."

Monday, January 12, 2009

NVIDIA's Ion Small Form-Factor PC Platform, Live From CES - HotHardware

NVIDIA's Ion Small Form-Factor PC Platform, Live From CES - HotHardware: "At the Consumer Electronics Show this past week, NVIDIA was demonstrating a new reference platform for an ultra small form-factor multimedia PC and we should underscore the word 'ultra'."

Study: Half of developers plan to work on SaaS in '09 | InfoWorld | News | 2009-01-12 | By Chris Kanaracus, IDG News Service

Study: Half of developers plan to work on SaaS in '09 | InfoWorld | News | 2009-01-12 | By Chris Kanaracus, IDG News Service: "More than half of all developers worldwide on average are expecting to work on SaaS (software as a service) applications within the next year, according to a new survey by Evans Data Corporation"

Finding distinction in 'infrastructure as a service' | The Wisdom of Clouds - CNET News

Finding distinction in 'infrastructure as a service' | The Wisdom of Clouds - CNET News

To briefly recap the cloud market for context, commercial cloud computing has traditionally been seen as consisting of three distinct offerings:


software as a service (SaaS): Complete application systems delivered over the Internet on some form of "on-demand" billing system. Examples include Salesforce.com, WebEx, and Workday.
platform as a service (PaaS): Development platforms and middleware systems hosted by the vendor, allowing developers to simply code and deploy without directly interacting with underlying infrastructure. Examples include Google AppEngine, Microsoft Azure, and Force.com.
infrastructure as a service (IaaS): Raw infrastructure, such as servers and storage, is provided from the vendor premises directly as an on-demand service. Examples include Amazon Web Services, GoGrid, and Flexiscale.

What Randy is arguing, however, is that there is a clear distinction between the service ecosystem approach of Amazon Web Services (which he calls an infrastructure Web service) and a more utilitarian infrastructure-focused cloud service such as the ones many of the hosting companies-turned-cloud providers have produced, including GoGrid, Flexiscale, and Rackspace CloudServers. He calls those companies providers of "cloud centers."

Saturday, January 10, 2009

ElasticVapor :: Life in the Cloud: The United Federation of Cloud Providers

ElasticVapor :: Life in the Cloud: The United Federation of Cloud Providers: "A fundamental challenge in creating and managing a globally decentralized cloud computing environment is that of maintaining consistent connectivity between various untrusted components that are capable of self-organization while remaining fault tolerant."

Platform virtualization - top 25 providers (software, hardware, combined) | MyTestBox.com - web software reviews, news, tips & tricks

Platform virtualization - top 25 providers (software, hardware, combined) | MyTestBox.com - web software reviews, news, tips & tricks: "n the article about cloud computing/utility computing/grid computing we’ve presented the most important companies which offers cloud computing hosting."

Friday, January 09, 2009

Engineering Windows 7 : Windows 7 Energy Efficiency

Engineering Windows 7 : Windows 7 Energy Efficiency: "The base hardware platform is really dictated by the system manufacturer. The customer gets the ultimate choice when they buy a system—the customer can buy a system with ultra-efficient hardware components or can buy a system with components that favor performance over power consumption. There are desktop and mobile PCs in all kinds of form factors, with varying capabilities and power consumption levels. Some mobile PCs have a normal 3 or 6-cell battery, while others have an extended 9-cell battery or another external battery that can be added to the computer. The challenge for Windows is to be energy efficient across the wide range of hardware in the Windows ecosystem. Looking at a modern laptop, here is where the power goes:

Laptop power consumption."

Thursday, January 08, 2009

Enter The Dragon: AMD Phenom II X4 940 - HotHardware

Enter The Dragon: AMD Phenom II X4 940 - HotHardware: "odel / Processor Frequency: AMD Phenom II Processor Model X4 940 / X4 920 / 3.0GHz, 2.8GHz
L1 Cache Sizes: 64K of L1 instruction and 64K of L1 data cache per core (512KB total L1 per processor)
L2 Cache Sizes: 512KB of L2 data cache per core (2MB total L2 per processor)
L3 Cache Size: 6MB (shared)
Memory Controller Type: Integrated 128-bit wide memory controller, capable of being configured for dual 64-bit channels for simultaneous read/writes
Memory Controller Frequency: Up to 1.8GHz with Dual Dynamic Power Management
Types of Memory: Support for unregistered DIMMs up to PC2 8500 (DDR2-1066MHz)
HyperTransport 3.0: One 16-bit/16-bit link @ up to 3600MHz full duplex
Total Processor Bandwidth: Up to 31.5 GB/s bandwidth
Packaging: Socket AM2+ 940-pin organic micro pin grid array (micro-PGA) (backward compatible with Socket AM2)
Fab location: AMD's Fab 36 wafer fabrication facilities in Dresden, Germany
Process Technology: 45nm (.045-micron) DSL Silicon on Insulator (SOI)
Approximate Transistor count: approx. ~758 million (65nm)
Approximate Die Size: 258 mm2 (45nm)
Nominal Voltage: .0875-1.5 Volts
Max Ambient Case Temp: 62 degress Celsius
Max TDP: 125 Watts
ACP: *to be announced after launch
Future Memory Controller Note: Future 45nm processors ve"

Wednesday, January 07, 2009

Frequently Asked Questions - Mininova

Frequently Asked Questions - Mininova: "Mininova is entirely written by us (the admins) in PHP. It doesn't use any template or other system, because they are all too slow. Mininova is running on 4 webservers, 4 database servers, 2 search servers, one NFS server, and one load balancer (plus 5 additional servers for the forum, blog and the ads).

We use LightTPD as webserver because with a lot of hits it's just faster than Apache (which we used to run). Mininova makes heavy use of XCache to cache compiled PHP scripts. XCache is also used to cache blocks of HTML which are generated using information from the database that doesn't change very often or which are requested very often. As DBMS we use MySQL because it's free and fast."

Facebook | The Facebook Blog

Facebook | The Facebook Blog: "Today, we reached another milestone: 150 million people around the world are now actively using Facebook and almost half of them are using Facebook every day."

IBM Completes ILOG Business Events Planning Acquisition | Business 2.0 Press

IBM Completes ILOG Business Events Planning Acquisition | Business 2.0 Press: "IBM has just completed its $340 million acquisition of ILOG Inc. ILOG is a Pairs based business rules engine maker. The systems provide business intelligence and allow executives to make better decisions based on events analysis. IBM was interested in taking over ILOG as IBM felt the merger would allow businesses to process and monitor more complex events with the ILOG systems. More companies are beginning to enter the events planning space, including Oracle and Streambase."

Multivariate normal distribution - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Multivariate normal distribution - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia: "Multivariate normality tests

Multivariate normality tests check a given set of data for similarity to the multivariate normal distribution. The null hypothesis is that the data set is similar to the normal distribution, therefore a sufficiently small p-value indicates non-normal data. Multivariate normality tests include the Cox-Small test [3] and Smith and Jain's adaptation [4] of the Friedman-Rafsky test."

Tuesday, January 06, 2009

Maddie: A Dog

 
A no-flash shot of one of our three dogs... What an expression..
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