What is the definition of a "Cloud"

Does anyone know what a "Cloud" really represents? I know sales drones and managers love to throw the term around, each believing it to mean whatever is more advantageous to their own interests ( which is a hoot in meetings, let me tell you ), but neither really understands what it means. Sadly, nor do most IT folks. So sit right back and prepare to receive some serious knowledge;

A Cloud is nothing more than a S.E.P., from HHGG, almost literally. When you contract for cloud services, what you are really do is making the infrastructure "Somebody Else's Problem".

Amazon offers SEP services for companies, but it's equally possible to turn IT into a service oriented service, where other divisions of the business buy infrastructure services. Ergo, it is entirely possible to have a "private cloud" service.

( It's possibly worth noting that I have a rational need to do violence to people who use the word "Cloud" seriously. )

The market will correct

Just imagine if "Always on" does become a requirement from here on out. What a great marketing angle for the next bunch of indie developers that want to make a splash with their game concepts.

Dear EA/Microsoft: Please do make an internet connection a requirement for all of your games, single player or otherwise.

Indies have the greatest potential for great games with original ideas. Let's give them all the help we can, shall we?

How much tax is "enough" if what they are currently doing is legal?

Seriously? I get we're supposed to be outraged, but how much in taxes should they be paying if they are currently legal? As it's legal, what additional authority gets to be in charge of "Tax moral obligations"?

This has always astounded me. Just like people, corporations will use whatever legal means necessary to save on taxes. They have every right to do so, and they have every obligation to do so. If the folks making the laws find that behavior distasteful....maybe they might make some laws to fix that behavior they find so reprehensible?

Of course they won't, because those laws are in place for a reason.

Faux outrage. Moving on.

I said it before, I'll say it again

RIM needs to bail on the hardware. They have demonstrated a unique incompetence in this area, and other companies are handing them their lunch. The App store needs to go too. In fact, the only thing they really should be focusing on is managing mobile data devices. They *should* be focusing on a point to point secure mobile solution. Indeed, they should have for a couple years now.

What do I mean by that? A client, available for all major phone platforms, that provides management and security functionality. Business email, stored encrypted on otherwise wide open devices. The ability to remotely wipe business data. To GPS track phones...the list goes on and on. They could very well have maintained their corporate presence had they jumped on board this ship years ago, but they still have a name in corporate data security and could trade on that, although it would be an uphill battle at this point.

Were I a share holder, I'be furious at the opportunities the board has continually wasted.

Unimaginable corruption

If you stop and think about this, in order for HP's claim of fraud to hold weight, the corruption would have encompassed thousands of vendors, customers and partners, or the auditors themselves.

I find it extraordinary unlikely this team could have managed such a feat given all I know about them. It's far more likely HP's management team has a broken decision making process ( shock! horror! ), and are simply trying to save their jobs and, more importantly, their egos, by portioning blame elsewhere for their screw up.

I've said it for years now...

...it's time for RIM to give up the hardware biz. They've had their butts handed to them by both Android and Apple. They lost their dominance, and they don't have what it takes to pull off the miracle of getting it back.

With that said, RIM's name still commands respect when we're talking about manageability and security of mobile threat vectors. If RIM wants to continue trading, they need to shift their focus to their server/client software; write GOOD client security management software for Android, Apple and Windows phones/tablets. Tweak their management server so it's not so...touchy. And, above all else, they need to allow corporations to run their management services without filtering through RIM's servers.

The smart phone wars are done and over, as far as RIM is concerned, and they let themselves lose. Horribly. Time to salvage what they can.

An alternative perspective

The old spy adage, which I'm going to mutilate, applies here: The spy of your enemy is only theirs so long as you aren't aware of them, then they are yours.

Employers want to play this game, that's fine, I'm better at it then they are. Whereas many people have facebook accounts for their own private use, mine was built for the sole purpose of my ( or future employers pursuing it ). Everything I post on there is designed to promote the image of a conscientious employee and caring individual that faces the issues that everyone does, but rises to meet any challenge ( you might call that my facebook page's mission statement ).

Sure, that makes me a manipulative bastard...but then that's a compliment in my book.

Having recently tried to purchase a server

I have a unique perspective, I think. I recently tried to purchase a server. Their dl160g6. What a nightmare. 1 week after the supposed ship date ( overnighted of course ), I called to inquire where my server was. Oh, harddrive shortage. ETA in may sometime. No call, no email. Nothing. So, fine, whatelse have you got on hand? I'll take those. Great, they're in the warehouse, I'll get 4 in there and get the server out to you. Another week goes by, nothing. Called them back, oh, those drives are in stock! The server isn't expected to ship until the end of march though, and no one could tell me why.

Finally, I told them to forget about the drives, just refund the cost and ship me the server. Oh, and could you send me some drive trays so I can get my own drives? Certainly! Couple days later I get the server, in pieces. No drive trays ( drives arrived same day ). The next week, the drive trays finally arrive...but they're the wrong ones.

Ended up finishing the order from server suppliers, but if this is indicative of how the process is going to be going forward, I can completely understand why their server sales are slumping. Myself, I'm researching alternate server vendors because of this experience.

They DO check the suggestion box!

I've been saying he needs to retire for YEARS. It's obvious, from his recent ( and not so recent, frankly ) efforts that he hasn't been on his A game for a while. Or B game. I'm not even willing to grant him a C game at this point.

I can't wait to see what someone competent can do with the start wars series once the torch has been passed.

On proper management and never losing your temper

As a manager, you play to your audience. It's a show, you see, and your audience are the veeps and directors.

You want X, and in order to motivate your crew you have to hit them where it'll do the most good. And let's not discount the reputation factor; you can be guaranteed that news of this tirade was on everyone's lips without hours after it happening. No one wants to be in that situation, and will work their ass off to avoid it.

It know it's not PC, but negative reinforcement works well in many situations.

Less a wake, more a party

Novell had an awesome product 15 years ago, I won't argue that. Best thing out there at the time.

Sadly, not much changed for them in 15 years, where as the rest of the world progessed. Having been forced to work with Novell extensively over the years, I can really only say one thing about this;

Rot in Hell novell. Your tech was crap, and I was tired of being forced to work with it.

Old man, indeed

If your definition of "old man" is "out of touch". Don't get me wrong, I actually like the public image of Bon Jovi ( music, acting and what little I've read about the guy himself ), but he's showing his ignorance here. All Jobs did was find a cash model to the already online music swapping activity. Hell, if anything, he put the music business on life support for a little while longer. The music business should be looking to him to SAVE their sorry asses.

I think the piece of the puzzle our 80's idol is missing is that music was being traded quite a bit online already, sans-Jobs. Still is, in fact. Had no one come along to start making money off of it, the music business would have run themselves in to the ground years ago, denying there was anything they could do to stop it the entire time.

Zenworks

To be fair, most windows admins don't want to touch zenworks either, so I think the problem with zenworks runs a bit deeper than a simple windows vs linux rivalry.

( RHCE/MCITP EA admin here )

This just drives home what I've always said...

People like to carp on the reliability of MS server software, but in fact it's usually vendor software which breaks.

Honestly, I'd say both linux and Windows are equally stable.

Excellent, can we please move on now?

I get it. The industry is running out of things to "innovate", we're hitting a TV platue. That's a good thing, in my opinion. Let's focus on improved LCD production techniques, or dare I say it? OLED sets.

Stop pushing 3D crap on everyone though. You've already lost me as a theater goer after the tron debacle ( movie was great, but forced to see it in 3D even though most of it wasn't ), I'm on the fence about a new TV ( whether to get one, or cancel cable ). Force 3d down my throat, I'm out.

I'm not alone in this.

Where Novell lost out? You all are missing it

Novell started losing the game when MS began making network administration tools more intuitive than novell's offerings. I don't think anyone here would disagree that administrating MS networks is more complex than novell networks; quite the opposite. Novell's management tools never really got better, they'd just change direction midstep, leaving half done toolsets out there. Half done tool sets that were the only tools to use, in many cases.

For instance, I applaud their move to web services for network administration ( although iManager is...touchy. I'm still not quite sure how you screw up a web interface so badly, but then I shouldn't be surprised coming from Novell ), but then you try to manage Groupwise...and find the only tool available for that is in Console one. Which itself is finicky about java and the windows version you are running.

eDirectory is...ok. The problems I always had with it were the sharp edges; if you weren't careful, you could cause seriously confusion problems my simply moving a user to a different container.

And then we have...zenworks. Wow, what a steaming pile of crap. Sure, it does neat things..but nothing Active Directory + WPKG can't accomplish better ( and maybe a vnc for remote desktop capabililties ). Having been forced to use this abomination of an "enterprise desktop management application", I have to honestly wonder about the competency of any tech that recommends it.

Those were the three things that killed Novell, IMHO. Had they tightened up their client and made it less resource intensive, cleaned up the management tools and added a little polish, I'm sure they'd still be a force to deal with for MS. Oh, and had they never never touched zenworks.

I have an idea

How about...and this is the crazy part, YOU STOP GIVING ORACLE MONEY. If your vendor is erratic, you find a different vendor. Sure, it can be painful, so maybe you should remember this when making future decisions.

The government has no business getting involved here; the companies have choices, even if they don't like them.

Not buggy for me

I don't have the latest or greatest system. I got NV off of steam. I have yet to experience a crash, although I did manage to glitch a story line point by shooting someone before they could shoot me ( it was only a matter of time ).

I'm not sure 75% is fair given how much fun the game is. I've already wasted a ton of time on the game this week, and I've barely made it past the first town. I've been all over the map exploring though, so take that for what it's worth.

Instead of smaller plates...

...how about providing employees with paid work out times?

Hear me out, I know this sounds far more expensive than simply shrinking the plates. So to make up the costs, why not get rid of the food idea entirely? I get that it's a "thing" with google, but were I an employee I'd be much happier being able to squeeze a workout in my day where I otherwise couldn't ( single father ). You could save on the nightmare that is food service ( believe me it is ), even though it'd likely be a wash with a gym's liability.

A word about stability

Stability without versatility means little. SLES may be stable ( it's linux after all. Not even Novell/Suse seem to be able to screw that up. Not that I'm sure they didn't try ), but if I have to have the novell client to access it, what's the point?

Sure, I could use samba...so why don't we use that to begin with? What's the point of adding that extra layer? What feature does it provide? Beyond vendor lock in, of course, which is really only a feature of novell's and not the business.

The best file servers are linux + samba. I prefer RHEL/Centos ( for a variety of reasons. SLES can't stand up to it, frankly ), but any linux distro would work.

Scripting capabililties...you're kidding right? With windows, you can use VBScript, JScript, even DOS batch scripting ( which is full featured ). Ultimately however, as long as the scripting language can do what you need it to do ( which all of windows scripts can ), everything else is just syntax.

So why does eDirectory beat the pants off of AD for user/workstation management? Or hell, let's just say "Authentication". I know edirectory has some neat partitioning features that AD doesn't have yet, but that's really only useful in some edge cases. And regardless, there are work arounds even then. So let's here your reasons. Objective please, otherwise we might as well end this argument here.

Shorter title: Netware sucks

I hate to be the one calling a stinker a stinker, but that's the fact. Netware/Groupwise/Zenworks is a horrible "software stack". End users hate it because the software makes even the snappiest workstation feel 5 years old, and admins hate it because it's convoluted to manage and is archaic compared to other...free...solutions out there today.

In fact, it seems the only folks that like it are the managers. You know, the folks that cut their teeth on these products 15 years ago...when they were actually decent in comparison. Unfortunately, the industry has passed these folks, and these products by. But because they are now the decision makers, we get stuck with the crap.

Unless Novell makes some radical changes to their product line ( and frankly, I'm not sure how they could change enough to compete with Active directory ), they're looking at a long, slow ride in to death. Unfortunately, with the way these things work, they'll drag a lot of us with them.

Webmail, google apps

I moved my domain over to google apps a year+ ago and haven't looked back. With thunderbird, even with imap, many settings wouldn't transfer across to my multiple workstations. I'd wind up with minor differences between them all, and a contact list that may or may not be synced.

Like it or not, a web interface solves all of these issues and more. Not to mention having your domain on google apps gives you access to some neat stuff...and pushes administration off to google instead of locally like I was doing.

And I'm a big believer in the fewer the better. The fewer applications I have installed, the happier I am.

So...

He was on a plane to nowhere?

<puts on shades>

Ah yeah...

A few points

There are some steps that any admin can take RIGHT now to protect against most viruses out there. The best part? They're mostly free.

1) Update A/V. You have one installed right? Then this is a no-cost solution

2) WSUS, + GPO + force updates. 'nuff said

3) Windows Firewall.

The above combination will block just about anything that gets loose on an internal network. Now that you've survived a conficker infection, you will need to check to make sure the BITS and Automatic update services are still running. They probably aren't, and most A/Vs won't reenable these services. Meaning no patches from MS.

Use Facebook for what it's for

I have a facebook account, and I use it for exactly what it's for. Free advertising. I know employers are going to look for my facebook under the table, so I have things on there like, "Put in a good 8 hours, feel like I accomplished a ton. Nothing better than feeling productive!" ( something I actually believe, btw ).

Yes, facebook has my "social net". It knows who my friends are...sorta. Big whoops, it's the price of the advertising I get through facebook.

The ETF *is* pro-rated

I don't have the details of the rate, but that 350 is reduced based on the length of remaining contract.

It's better

They even gave more fundage in 2007 for the title.

Me thinks the people at Take Two need to take a long hard second look at their management practices.

Re:Liams

Surely you realize the huge secondary purpose of a mathematical education; the core foundations of logic and rational thought. Give me two people similarly educated, except where one studied math the other did not. I guarantee you the one who studied math will be able to reason out new situations much faster than the other.

Further, math shouldn't be a big scary thing. This study is just more evidence about how our education system is failing the students. Given most teachers I talk to are scared of math too, it's not hard to figure out where the students inherit this fear from.

re: Climate

Focus, we're talking about evolution here, not the climate.

re: Excluding god

Sorry, AC, but there really isn't a place for God at the science table. Unless it can be tested, hence falsifiable, it's not science. And God, by most definitions, can not be falsifiable.

There are holes in evolution ( stop calling it Darwinism you idiots; Darwin was merely the scientist who put all the pieces together, but there has been significant progress with Evolution since then ), true. We will eventually reason or otherwise logically explain those holes. Some explanations may modify the theory of evolution, others may not. But eventually, we'll answer all questions poised.

Greed is new god? I think not

Greed has been the driving motivator since before we even took to the trees. Since we dimly became aware of wanting what someone else has, greed has been there.

And you know what? Greed is good.

It's good for the economy, it's good for humanity. Without greed, civilization wouldn't be anywhere near as advanced as it is, if there were even a civilization to begin with. If there were even any hairless monkeys around to begin with.

It's short sighted greed that hurts. Sure, I can push off this tainted product today to make a buck, but that revenue source dries up pretty quickly. If, instead, I act responsibly, I could have a long lasting revenue source.

It's greed without wisdom, without responsibility, that harms us. By the way, both of those noble traits can be traced back to, you guessed it, greed.

AC and password resets

Cisco has a feature where you can not do password resets. It's often not used because of how painful a lost password can be, but it is there. And it's bad mojo if you do lose a password with this feature turned on.