I’ve been delayed posting the follow up to my previous post Network Virtual Appliances Are Silly, for reasons I’ll go into later. Sorry. But for now, I’ll continue to post other stuff as usual. For instance I came across this video, via Nebraska never looked so appealing: anatomy of a zombie attack. Oops, I mean a recession.
Archive for the ‘Random’ Category
Zombie Apocalypse or Recession?
Wednesday, August 4th, 2010Ignore Everybody
Wednesday, May 12th, 2010Posted by @aneel this morning. Before I even knew the context, it seemed like good advice for many situations.
@aneel was kind enough to point me toward http://gapingvoid.com/books/ where I found out what he was talking about. The book is now in my Amazon shopping cart.
Eagles of Hornby Island
Tuesday, May 11th, 2010My wife just sent me a link to a webcam, watching over an eagle’s nest. Within the nest is at least one baby eagle, which you can hear via audio. It’s beautiful and awesome (while also being a bit boring… or perhaps, peaceful is a better word).
I’ve embedded the webcam here, but I’d encourage you to visit the actual website at http://www.hornbyeagles.com/webcam.htm where you can learn more, find links to discussion, etc.
Where Do You Work?
Friday, May 7th, 2010Recently I’ve seen a few blog posts talking about workspace/office/cubicle creativity, and it has me wondering… Does it matter? Personally, I don’t think people are made to be more creative because of a cool workspace, per se. But I do think that a management attitude that encourages workers to express themselves will be rewarded by increased creativity and innovation.
Here are some examples of creative work environments:
Ogilvy & Mather’s Office (Guangzhou)
via 8 Coolest Office Spaces, Ever on Business Pundit
Google (Mountain View, Zurich)
via Google Office on Fubiz
Facebook (Palo Alto)
via Facebook Office on Fubiz
And here is the office where I work. Well, not my desk, but an example nearby:
Yay. This is actually one of the nicest office spaces I’ve ever worked at. Sadly this is probably typical of many corporate offices.
Marketing Abuse of The “Cloud”
Wednesday, April 28th, 2010I just read a brief article on the Cloud Communications Alliance, which claims to be driving:
development and adoption of the first nationwide high-definition enterprise voice and data network in the IP “cloud.”
Seriously?!? I get what they’re doing, and good for them. But, personally, I think to claim that it has anything to do with “cloud” is an abusive use of the term.
Just because a service is delivered over an IP network doesn’t make it a “cloud” service. I’ll admit that Cloud is more about a service paradigm than any specific technology, being a shared, metered, scalable & elastic, “as a service” offering. But the term is traditionally applied to core IT services such as Infrastructure, Platform, and Software services.
If we accept the term in other fringe contexts then it loses meaning. I.e. SIP phone service, multi-player video games, iTunes. I see how these fit the Cloud service paradigm, and how it could be argued that they fit a SaaS approach, but they’re not IT services per se. They’re services that use IT to deliver a non-IT product. So if you’re a marketing person responsible for these sort of products, please resist the urge to chase the Cloud bandwagon. Be honest with yourself about what you’re selling, and find a clever way to present it instead of cheating with the “cloud” term.
