Posts - Research Blogging

Posts - Research Blogging: "Trabi, M. (2002) Circular proteins — no end in sight. Trends in Biochemical Sciences, 27(3), 132-138. DOI: 10.1016/S0968-0004(02)02057-1"

Death Was Punk Before Punk Was Punk - NYTimes.com

Death Was Punk Before Punk Was Punk - NYTimes.com: "reveal a remarkable missing link between the high-energy hard rock of Detroit bands like the Stooges and MC5 from the late 1960s and early ’70s and the high-velocity assault of punk from its breakthrough years of 1976 and ’77. Death’s songs “Politicians in My Eyes,” “Keep On Knocking” and “Freakin Out” are scorching blasts of feral ur-punk, making the brothers unwitting artistic kin to their punk-pioneer contemporaries the Ramones,"

Louisiana Man's Death Highlights Police Bias Questions: Top News Stories at Officer.com

Louisiana Man's Death Highlights Police Bias Questions: Top News Stories at Officer.com: "'If I see three or four young black men walking down the street, I have to stop them and check their names,' said Mills, who is white. 'I want them to be afraid every time they see the police that they might get arrested. We're not out there trying to abuse and harass people -- we're trying to protect the law-abiding citizens locked behind their doors in fear.'"

Chuck Norris sues, says his tears no cancer cure | Industries | Technology, Media & Telecommunications | Reuters

Chuck Norris sues, says his tears no cancer cure | Industries | Technology, Media & Telecommunications | Reuters: "Chuck Norris's tears cure cancer. Too bad he has never cried"

KCDX :: 103.1

KCDX :: 103.1: "Tom Petty - Cabin Down Below"

Rackspace Launches CloudServers, a Cloud for Big Companies - NYTimes.com

Rackspace Launches CloudServers, a Cloud for Big Companies - NYTimes.com: "Rackspace today is expected to announce its own on-demand computing product, CloudServers. The service is built on the company’s acqusition of Slicehost last year and will offer the same services as Amazon Web Services’ Elastic Compute Cloud. It’s also a cornerstone of Rackspace’s attempts to build out a cloud computing environment that will rival those of Amazon.com, GoGrid and other true cloud computing providers."

Price-at-risk: a methodology for pricing utility computing services.

Price-at-risk: a methodology for pricing utility computing services.: "Utility computing services represent a departure from the current ways of doing business. On one hand, they feature attributes that appeal to customers: short lead times in service provisioning, high reliability and survivability, customized service level agreements, a reduced learning curve in the adoption of a new service, and easy access to new technology. On the other hand, utility computing services have direct financial benefits for the customer. These benefits come about in two distinct ways. First, utility computing services reduce the risk faced by the customer because the costs to the customer are proportional to the volume of transactions performed during a certain time interval (say, a quarter). These transactions are usually correlated with the number of financial transactions performed during the same interval, and therefore with the revenue stream of the customer. Therefore, the cost structure is tied to the revenue"

Microsoft: A Few Companies Buy 20% Of Servers - Plug Into The Cloud - InformationWeek

Microsoft: A Few Companies Buy 20% Of Servers - Plug Into The Cloud - InformationWeek: "20% of all servers are being bought by a handful of large Internet companies, including Amazon, Google, Microsoft, and Yahoo"

d.pdf (application/pdf Object)

d.pdf (application/pdf Object)

Bold Type: Excerpt by Jon Krakauer

Bold Type: Excerpt by Jon Krakauer: "I asked one of the doctors, Howard Donner, why they volunteered to spend their summers toiling in such a godforsaken place. 'Well,' he explained as he stood shivering in a blizzard, reeling from nausea and a blinding headache while attempting to repair a broken radio antenna, 'it's sort of like having fun, only different.'"

Kona Shore Diving at Mile Marker 4

Kona Shore Diving at Mile Marker 4: "It's called mile marker 4. Why? Because it's located at the 4 mile marker on Alii Dr."

Posts - Research Blogging

Posts - Research Blogging: "Gordon G. Gallup Jr., Rebecca L. Burch, Steven M. Platek. (2002) Does semen have antidepressant properties?. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 31(3), 289-293. DOI: 10.1023/A:1015257004839"

The Nation’s New Chief Information Officer Speaks - Bits Blog - NYTimes.com

Gov't view on cloud computing:

The Nation’s New Chief Information Officer Speaks - Bits Blog - NYTimes.com: "Mr. Kundra also said that he would push the government to embrace cloud computing—having work done on large servers rather than on desktop PCs. He acknowledged that there are privacy and security issues with some cloud-computing efforts, particularly when the computers are not all operated by the government. But he said that shouldn’t stop the government from taking advantage of the speed and efficiency such systems offer."

NetSuite Tries To Lure Sage Customers To SaaS - Plug Into The Cloud - InformationWeek

NetSuite Tries To Lure Sage Customers To SaaS - Plug Into The Cloud - InformationWeek: "Gartner analyst Ray Wang did some number crunching, and ranks NetSuite as the No. 5 vendor of SaaS in 2008 based on revenue of $152.5 million. It follows Salesforce.com (CRM), Concur (Expenses), Ultimate (HR), and Taleo (HR); RightNow (CRM) comes in as No. 6.
Wang ranks Sage as the No. 7 ERP vendor based on 2008 revenue of about $1.9 billion."

DMTF - DASH

DMTF - DASH: "The DMTF’s Desktop and mobile Architecture for System Hardware (DASH) Initiative is a suite of specifications that takes full advantage of the DMTF’s Web Services for Management (WS-Management) specification – delivering standards-based Web services management for desktop and mobile client systems."

A gogglewhack that points to my linked-in entry..

omnipup & airstech

This is a legal googlewhack, as these aren't two words in the Google dictionary. Also, just adding this entry now adds my blog entry to Google (on a re-index), which will return this result.

InternetNews Realtime IT News - IBM Sows Seeds for a Future Cloud

InternetNews Realtime IT News - IBM Sows Seeds for a Future Cloud: "Through connections with over 200 schools worldwide, IBM is working to change computer science curriculum to offer skills in cloud computing. The courses are part of a larger academic initiative called Services Science Management and Engineering, said Lou Masi, director of global university programs at IBM"

UBS PaineWebber - Quote, Charts and News

UBS PaineWebber - Quote, Charts and News: "announced new collaboration with Intel Corporation to deliver the VMware Client Virtualization Platform (CVP) as a new product that will be part of the VMware View suite of desktop virtualization products."

AnandTech

AnandTech: "Well, it is possible that the Opteron might be able to do some 'damage control' compared to Nehalem when we try out a benchmark with large and fat VMs"

"ith Intel’s latest quad-socket systems—equipped with a 2.66 GHz Dunnington processor in each socket—we can achieve approximately 20 to 35 fps at a resolution of 1280x720. Nonetheless, this represents a significant improvement over the experiments in 2004 that required 20 machines to render a simpler game more slowly and at a lower resolution"

Complications Following Distal Radius Fractures ~ MikeReinold.com

Complications Following Distal Radius Fractures ~ MikeReinold.com: "A Review of Several Complications Following Fracture of the Distal Radius"

Distal Radius Fractures, Broken Wrist

Distal Radius Fractures, Broken Wrist: "Distal radius fractures are some of the most common fractures (the medical term for 'broken bone')."

Northrop Plans To Trim Jobs - New York Times

Northrop Plans To Trim Jobs - New York Times: "As part of the merger, the Northrop Research and Technology Center in Palos Verdes, Calif., is being closed."

Amazon Web Services Blog: IBM Software Available on EC2 With Pay-As-You-Go Licensing Model

Amazon Web Services Blog: IBM Software Available on EC2 With Pay-As-You-Go Licensing Model: "you can bring your existing licenses into the cloud."

Corporate executives overpaid, undertaxed - Columns - Belleville News-Democrat

Corporate executives overpaid, undertaxed - Columns - Belleville News-Democrat: "Average full-time workers made $41,198 in 1973 and $37,606 in 2008, adjusted for inflation.

CEOs made 45 times as much as workers in 1973 and more than 300 times as much as workers now."

Joe Duffy's Weblog

Joe Duffy's Weblog: "Sharing is evil, fundamentally limits scalability, and is best avoided."

Cloud computing with Linux

Cloud computing with Linux: "Cloud computing and storage convert physical resources (like processors and storage) into scalable and shareable resources over the Internet (computing and storage 'as a service'). Although not a new concept, virtualization makes this much more scalable and efficient through the sharing of physical systems through server virtualization"

PC Management with NxTop - No Agents, One to Many Management, PC Lifecycle Management - Virtual Computer, Inc.

PC Management with NxTop - No Agents, One to Many Management, PC Lifecycle Management - Virtual Computer, Inc.: "NxTop Beta


Be a part of the NxTop Beta.

NxTop is a combined client-side virtualization and management server solution that offers numerous advantages over traditional"

IBM's 'Smart' Moves - Forbes.com

IBM's 'Smart' Moves - Forbes.com: "November, IBM (nyse: IBM - news - people ) Chief Executive Sam Palmisano has been making futurist statements about the need for a 'smarter' national infrastructure, using information technology to upgrade the nation's roads, electric grid and health care system in a bid to increase their efficiency; to make America more internationally competitive and to create thousands of jobs.

Animoto’s Facebook scale-up « RightScale Blog

Animoto’s Facebook scale-up « RightScale Blog: "The Animoto guys did hit the jackpot on Facebook this past week. Jeff Barr mentioned a few of the stats on his blog: Animoto ramped from 25,000 users to 250,000 users in three days, signing up 20,000 new users per hour at peak."

Animoto’s Facebook scale-up « RightScale Blog

Animoto’s Facebook scale-up « RightScale Blog: "The Animoto guys did hit the jackpot on Facebook this past week. Jeff Barr mentioned a few of the stats on his blog: Animoto ramped from 25,000 users to 250,000 users in three days, signing up 20,000 new users per hour at peak."

UCI Working Group Signup - Cloud Computing Interoperability Forum (CCIF) | Google Groups

UCI Working Group Signup - Cloud Computing Interoperability Forum (CCIF) | Google Groups: "In this vision for a unified cloud interface the use of the resource description framework (RDF) or something similar would be an ideal method to describe our semantic cloud data model (taxonomy & ontology). The benefit to an RDF based ontology languages is they act as general method for the conceptual description or modeling of information that is implemented by web resources. These web resources could just as easily be 'cloud resources' or API's. This approach may also allow us to easily take an RDF -based cloud data model and use it within other ontology languages or web services making it both platform and vendor agnostic. Using this approach we're not so much defining how, but instead describing what."

OGF DRMAA Working Group

OGF DRMAA Working Group: "Develop an API specification for the submission and control of jobs to one or more Distributed Resource Management (DRM) systems. The scope of this specification is all the high level functionality which is necessary for an application to consign a job to a DRM system including common operations on jobs like termination or suspension. The objective is to facilitate the direct interfacing of applications to today's DRM systems by application's builders, portal builders, and Independent Software Vendors (ISVs)."

Cloud Computing Interoperability Forum (CCIF) | Google Groups

Cloud Computing Interoperability Forum (CCIF) | Google Groups: "The Cloud Computing Interoperability Forum i"

Cloud Computing Interoperability Forum (CCIF) | Google Groups

Cloud Computing Interoperability Forum (CCIF) | Google Groups: "The Cloud Computing Interoperability Forum i"

Creating a Common Cloud Computing Reference API or Standard - Part One | ORACLE DEVELOPER'S JOURNAL

Creating a Common Cloud Computing Reference API or Standard - Part One | ORACLE DEVELOPER'S JOURNAL: "* Monitoring and System Metrics
One of the best aspects of using cloud technology is the ability to scale applications in tandem to the underlying infrastructure and the demands placed on it. Rather then just scaling on system load, users should have the ability to selectively scale on other metrics such as response time, network throughput or other metrics made available. Having a uniform way to interact with system metrics will enable cloud providers and consumers a common way to scale applications"

Joyeur: Cloud Nine: Specification for a Cloud Computer. A Call to Action.

Joyeur: Cloud Nine: Specification for a Cloud Computer. A Call to Action.: "JoyentHome Products Services Developers Partners Support News & Events Weblog Login Joyeur: Joyent's weblog Search


Cloud Nine: Specification for"

Application Automation for Web Hosts, Load-Balancing, SaaS, and Clouds

Application Automation for Web Hosts, Load-Balancing, SaaS, and Clouds: "NGASI AppServer Manager automates
multiple installations and
configurations for Tomcat,Jetty,
Glassfish, Oracle-OC4J,and JBoss on
a single server machine, across multiple
VPS, and across multiple servers."

CDs Say 3-D Fizzled on Game Day

CDs Say 3-D Fizzled on Game Day: "It felt like a gimmick to me"

IBM And Juniper Networks Hoping To Gain Cloud Computing Market Share

IBM And Juniper Networks Hoping To Gain Cloud Computing Market Share: "IBM, through its Blue Cloud Initiative, is rolling out a number of new cloud computing solutions for enterprise users, including joint Juniper Networks and IBM or businesses to install hybrid public-private cloud capabilities across IBM’s 13 “Cloud Labs” spread across the world. The companies have created technology that would allows enterprises to extend their private clouds to remote servers in a secure public cloud at the click of a button. Once the technology is installed in the Cloud Labs, businesses can easily switch clients workloads when resources become constrained."

The cloud-SOA connection | InfoWorld | Analysis | 2009-02-10 | By Paul Krill

The cloud-SOA connection | InfoWorld | Analysis | 2009-02-10 | By Paul Krill: "Cloud computing is a deployment architecture, not an architectural approach for how [to] architect your enterprise IT [as SOA is]"

One Sentence archive - tag: "humor"

One Sentence archive - tag: "humor": "I think I've been making smart enough decisions so far, considering that my future self hasn't traveled back in time and beaten the crap out of me."

One Sentence archive - Most Popular from the Last 30 Days

One Sentence archive - Most Popular from the Last 30 Days: "It took the internet to find out about my uncle's successful career in porn."

Microsoft's Windows Azure Strategy Defined

Microsoft's Windows Azure Strategy Defined: "Microsoft said Azure eliminates the need for deploying a major server infrastructure. This could prove to be especially valuable in today's cash-strapped scenarios where start-ups may not have the money to build out a new datacenter to host new applications."

Eulogy for a benchmark : The Observation Deck

Eulogy for a benchmark : The Observation Deck: "And amazingly, in the update to SPEC SFS -- SPEC SFS 2008 -- the benchmark's flaws have not only gone unaddressed, they have metastasized. The result is such a deformed monstrosity that -- like the index case of some horrific new pathogen -- its only remaining utility lies on the autopsy table: by dissecting SPEC SFS and understanding how it has failed, we can seek to understand deeper truths about benchmarks and their failure modes."

Welcome to IEEE Xplore 2.0: Micropayments: An idea whose time has passed twice?

Welcome to IEEE Xplore 2.0: Micropayments: An idea whose time has passed twice?: "Micropayments: An idea whose time has passed twice?"

Compound Win32 Synchronization Objects

Compound Win32 Synchronization Objects: "Multithreading is a little bit like Zen Buddhism: The more you learn about it, the more it escapes you"

Enomaly: An Open Source Cloud For the Enterprise

Enomaly: An Open Source Cloud For the Enterprise: "Enomaly is trying to sell big business on its open-source cloud management and provisioning software by renaming it and packaging it with enterprise-level support, a model popularized by Red Hat."

Software could save organizations $19,000 each month

Software could save organizations $19,000 each month: "Systems experts have developed new software called PowerDown, which works by automatically shutting computers down if left unused for half an hour."

Cisco Unveils Energy-Savings Technology

Cisco Unveils Energy-Savings Technology: "By having the network as the common platform that integrates with building controllers, you can collect power information and push down power policies to devices,” said William Choe, director of the Cisco business unit that created EnergyWise."

Virtual Distributed Ethernet

Virtual Distributed Ethernet: "VDE is an ethernet compliant virtual network that can be spawned over a set of physical computer over the Internet.
VDE implements a virtual ethernet in all its aspects, virtual switches, virtual cables. A VDE can be used to create a VPN. VDE interconnects real computers running Linux, Free-BSD, MacOSX kernels (through a tap interface), virtual machines (qemu, kvm, user-mode linux, pearpc, gxemul...) as well as the other Virtual Square components like ViewOS implementations (UMview/Kmview) and Lwipv6"

People Over Process » Know Your Cloud Consumer: ISV or Enterprise? - Cloud Conference Week, Part 3

People Over Process » Know Your Cloud Consumer: ISV or Enterprise? - Cloud Conference Week, Part 3: "Benefits for ISVs
If you’re an ISV - someone writing software to sell to others, not use yourself - you’re going to run your software on a cloud, using the SaaS business model. (Throw in re-sellers and The Channel here a la Jamcracker, OpSource, &co. for some angels on a needle-head nuance.)"

Dr. Dobb's | Software Development In the Cloud | January 15, 2009

Dr. Dobb's | Software Development In the Cloud | January 15, 2009: "CUBiT management features include visibility of all system resources within cloud, auditing, capacity monitoring, role-based access, and accounting with charge back"

Microsoft unveils Windows 7 SKU lineup

Microsoft unveils Windows 7 SKU lineup: "These are the key features by SKU:

Windows 7 Starter: up to 3 concurrent applications, ability to join a Home Group, improved taskbar and JumpLists;

Windows 7 Home Basic: unlimited applications, live thumbnail previews & enhanced visual experience, advanced networking support (ad-hoc wireless networks and internet connection sharing), and Mobility Center;

Windows 7 Home Premium: Aero Glass & advanced windows navigation, improved media format support, enhancements to Windows Media Center and media streaming, including Play To, and multi-touch and improved handwriting recognition;

Windows 7 Professional: ability to join a managed network with Domain Join, data protection with advanced network backup and Encrypting File System, and print to the right printer at home or work with Location Aware Printing;

Windows 7 Enterprise and Windows 7 Ultimate: bitLocker data protection on internal and external drives, DirectAccess for seamless connectivity to corporate networks based on Windows Server 2008 R2, BranchCache support when on networks based on Windows Server 2008 R2, and lock unauthorized software from running with AppLocker."

» VMware launches open source virtual desktop software; Assessing the fallout | Between the Lines | ZDNet.com

» VMware launches open source virtual desktop software; Assessing the fallout | Between the Lines | ZDNet.com: "VMware on Tuesday launched an open source client for virtual desktops in a move that mixes a little bit of offense and defense.
In a statement, the company said its VMware View Open Client would allow compnaies to host virtualized desktops in the data center. Users would be able to access their desktops from any device."

Invisible Worlds ``BEEP`` Technology Ratified by IETF; BEEP Becomes a Standard for New Internet Applications. - Free Online Library

Invisible Worlds ``BEEP`` Technology Ratified by IETF; BEEP Becomes a Standard for New Internet Applications. - Free Online Library: "With BEEP, Invisible Worlds has delivered one of the quantum enablers for new applications on the Internet,' said Dr. Marshall Rose, general manager of Invisible Worlds and chief designer of BEEP technology. 'The IETF standardization of BEEP will enable these applications and services to interoperate over the Internet seamlessly. Using BEEP, Internet applications will become smarter, faster, and more effective than before.'"

The Business Case For An Internet Refrigerator - Startup City Blog - InformationWeek

The Business Case For An Internet Refrigerator - Startup City Blog - InformationWeek: "Internet refrigerators were a joke a few years ago"

Science Centric | News | How does a dog walk? Surprisingly, many of us don't really know

Science Centric | News | How does a dog walk? Surprisingly, many of us don't really know: "It turns out that all four-legged animals step with their left hind leg followed by their left foreleg. Then they step with their right hind leg followed by the right foreleg, and so on. Animals differ from one another only in the timing of that stepping"

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."

SLA@SOI

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

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"

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,'"

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."

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"

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"

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."

Humour

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

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.

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,"

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."

(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."

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."

Sublinear-time-Survey-BEATCS.pdf (application/pdf Object)

Sublinear-time-Survey-BEATCS.pdf (application/pdf Object)

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."

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."

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"

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."

Maddie: A Dog

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