Month: October 2008

The relatively recent focus on “cloud computing” has a vaguely familiar feel to those of us who have been involved with technology for a while. Some of my early ed tech research was conducted with a PDP 11/34 mini computer “serving” a dozen “dumb terminals”. The terminals were basically a keyboard and monitor and everyone connected to the same “remote” computer. Remote in this case meant “in another room”.

A recent NY Times article indicates that “thin client” computing may be on the rebound. The “hook” is often financial assuming that many users can share programs (software) and hardware (server) with the result that the work stations can be less powerful and thus less expensive.

Cloud computing is very similar. For example, many users with low end hardware can connect via the Internet and use Google docs rather than invest in many copies of Microsoft Word.

What is the difference? One difference might be the openness/extensiveness of the network. A thin client architecture serving a company is different than an Internet-based service available to everyone. Perhaps a second difference is how completely “clients” must subject themselves to “the system”. One model of the thin client approach assumes users are connecting with the bare minimum of hardware and software and cannot perform actions that allow independence – e.g., storing local copies of work completed. In contrast, Google Apps allows local storage of resources and through the use of Google Gears independence from the Internet.

While some are concerned that cloud computing is a trap, I am concerned only to the extent the options are few and inexpensive opportunities come at the expense of becoming dependent on one or two providers.

Tags: cloud

A warning appeared in my mail box this morning. Writing a scam must be kind of an art – you obviously cannot offer that much information and yet you must convince the recipient you are attempting to address a very specific problem. I am tempted to write back and ask which of my accounts has generated this concern, but it is probably better to just ignore the request.

From emailaccount@antivirus.com

Important notice, harmful virus was detected in your account which can be harmful to our subscriber unit, you are to enter your password here{_______}to set in an anti virus in your user account to clear up this virus so we do need your co-operation in this, because providing us with this personal information we enable us insert in your account information into our anti virus machine for clean up. We are sorry for the inconveniences this might have cost you.

After 48 hours of providing this information you are advise to change up your password.

Failure to do this, we are sorry to let you know that, your account will be deleted immediately to prevent it from arming our subscriber unit.

Fellow fish and “subscriber units”, beware the lures of the phisherperson.

Here is a comment on the present down turn in the economy and the web 2.0 resources we have been promoting for education.

Today, I read comments from several venture capitalists (e.g., Ron Conway) as they offered advise to those they support. The comments expressed concern that while the present financial situation did not originate with online apps and services (like the Internet bubble of a few years ago) tight money would eventually impact tech companies hoping to make their mark with Internet services. The advice was to economize.

Of course, those companies that can find a way to make it through the lean times will likely find they have less competition on the other side. It reminds me of the rise of the Bubba Gump shrimp company – this likely makes no sense unless you are fans of Forest Gump.

My concern is that I invest too much time and perhaps resources I have created in an online (probably free) service that has no way to generate funds. The idea that good services will be bought up by Google, Microsoft, etc. or catch the eye of those with venture capital may not hold in the short term. For example, Yahoo, owner of Flickr, fell below $14 today. Time to back up just in case.

We took yesterday off and drove in the countryside looking for fall foliage. The fall colors in North Dakota are probably not as spectacular as you might see in other parts of the country, but you can find pockets of great scenery if you know where to look. We seem to have fewer trees that produce that intense red color. 

These images were taken a few miles from the Canadian border near Pembina.

The remoteness is one of the interesting features of North Dakota. You do not have to travel very far to be able to explore areas with few people (the hilly terrain shown below is not typical). However, even the most remote areas were busy this weekends. Trucks and tractors were everywhere as the harvest was in full swing. We pulled off to the side here to take this picture and a few moments later a semi came barreling down the gravel road toward us. 

These images were all resized with piknic.