Circuit Writer Version 6.5 by Jim Scheef Is the future in a fog? At the December general meeting, John Patrick told us all to “embrace the cloud.” Clouds are those nice fluffy things in the sky, except when you get up close. Then clouds are just more fog. So which is right? Is cloud computing something fluffy we should embrace or is it just something more to obscure our data? Maybe ten years ago John started talking about a new kind of wireless networking. He rather awkwardly held up his laptop so we could see the end of a PC card sticking out of the side of his computer and said, “This changes everything.” I couldn’t believe it. The cards cost way more than $200 and who knows how much an access point would have cost back then. Of course, we all know now that the price of the cards dropped to one third and an access point, now combined with a switch and router, can cost as little as $20 and move data at wired LAN speeds. While Wi-Fi may not be ubiquitous, it is just about there for coffee shops. In mid-2000 I found that a three-computer wireless network would cost about $1000 (See “Home Networking and the WAF”, www.dacs.org/archive/0101/feature3.htm) but this was still a lot cheaper than installing LAN outlets in the walls throughout my humble house. The point of all this is that John is probably correct about the cloud, so we’ll spend some time over the next few months peering into the fog to see what we can see. We have already had some “cloud computing” in general meeting programs about “Web 2” (www.dacs.org/archive/0802/review.htm) and several alternatives to Microsoft Office (ThinkFree Office Online, www.dacs.org/archive/0603/review.htm) and Zoho Writer (www.dacs.org/archive/0605/whatsnews.htm). So while the name may be new, the concept goes way back into the 90’s when Sun Micro and Oracle talked about the “Network Computer” (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Network_Computer) where the normal desktop computer is replaced by a “thin” computer that is little more than a terminal. Digging deeper should be fun. A Top Ten List from the Old Year Here are some great stories from the last year that I didn’t get to write about at the time or are just too good to forget. Some, like SCO v. Novell, became so predictable that they fell off the news scope, even within the industry. If seeing SCO eat dirt would give you glee, then I urge you to search for “SCO v. Novell” on Groklaw to see the story progress.
OK, these aren’t really a top anything but they will either make you wonder, smile or, like number 12, give you some small reason to hope. The economy is bleak and CNBC has never been more depressing, but I am optimistic for our country and the world. In the Nineties, Internet technology was the driver that fueled the longest period of sustained growth ever. I believe we are about to start another such decade of growth. This time the driver will be the environment and all the new technology and industry needed to abate climate change. Hopefully, we have leadership who can get our country back on track. Above all else, remember that it’s ski season, so things can’t be all bad!
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