simondelliott

What the heck is cloud computing?

This is my definition of what cloud computing is …

To define the cloud computing … it is
“Any feature that is delivered over the Internet where both the developer and user of the feature is abstracted from the infrastructure that provides it”

The early adopters of the internet almost exclusively used it for chat (mainly for swapping home made starwars scripts)
“The cloud” is the architecture notation of  “a cloud” to represent the Internet.  The use of the name is a nerdy in joke amongst web architects. In technical meetings  over the past 5 years the answer to the question “where does [insert nameless feature] come from” has been “the cloud”.

People who don’t understand computers are in the majority and the cloud takes away all the pain of nerdy computer boffin nonsence such as flexibility, encapsulation, cost reduction, backup, DR, scalability, etc … When you put it on the cloud It becomes someone elses problem.

Remember Steve B’s famous Key note speach “Developers, Developers, Developers”.
This is why kids make facebook apps instead of java or .NET programs. when you develop against the cloud, its alot easier.

Social Networking and RACI

RACI Networks – a way visualize todays problems

When you are kicking off a program a RACI matrix is a great way to work out who is going to do what, and more importantly who is responsible for any … lets say … issues.

It’s also a great tool to put pressure onto suppliers and individuals to either sign up, or sod off.

When you are working on a program its the combination of good relationships, fast communication and a common goal which really helps your team to be productive and enjoy their jobs. The social networking and communication tools set really helps with this.

In the real world things go wrong, they always do.

The RACI is about responsibility, and therefore ownership.
Where as Social networking  speeds up communication and allows greater cohesion with functioning groups.

The result ….

A faster way to blame suppliers

Maybe there is another way?

Each square in a RACI matrix has an owner, each owner or team communicates over the social network. Now imagine overlaying a social networking visualization tool such as we feel fine ontop.
>the squares in the matrix could glow with the positivity emanating from owner
>you could click on the squares and see which other squares are important
>you could apply a filter “only show me conversations about CR69″

now you have a power full tool that shows you what todays problems are, you could quickly identify supplier relationship, or communications issues. But most importantly of all you could identify cultural issues, and culture clashes between suppliers. You could target your efforts to change the culture, and really help individuals and groups to colaborate.

Sam the architect learns about passwords

If strong AI theory is true …..

The theorists that support Strong AI believe that a system is intelligent within its own function, i.e. a thermostat is aware of being a thermostat.

Take the human brain …. Its millions of nodes (neurons) are connected by communication lines (axons), the mind, the knowledge and the ability to reason is created by the storage of patterns across these connections.

A brain that only had a two nodes would have a complexity of 1 as that is the maximum number of patterns that could be stored.
A brain that had 3 nodes would be able to store 4 patterns,
A brain that has 4 nodes could store is … loads

My theory is that the number of computers on the internet is approaching the number of nodes in a single brain, and if the theories about strong AI are true then we could be seeing the birth of a sentient new life form!

cool.

I wonder if it will start to try and defend its main communication lines …

Drawing for the security team

Okay so, im not the best at this in the world but I can kinda draw a little. Any hoo, the honorable security team at my company have decided that they must reinforce their message with some cartoons. I hope you like this.

What the hell is cloud computing ?

The first common use of the Internet was essentially chat (IRC) and sharing homemade starwars scripts. Then came the world wide web and it was the world wide web that was static.

“The cloud” comes from the architecture notation of using a cloud to represent the internet. The use of the name is a nerdy in joke amongst web architects.

In technical discussions over the past 5 years the answer to the question
“where does [nameless feature] come from?” has been “the cloud”

What most people miss when thinking about the cloud is …

The people who don’t understand computers are in the majority and the cloud takes away all the pain of nerdy computer boffin nonsense such as “flexibility”, “cost reduction”, “Disaster Recovery”, “Scalability”, etc … these concepts are inaccessible and alien to the lay man. However many lay men are very creative have some good product ideas some of them are even good programmers.

When you put “it” on “the cloud” all the pain and trouble becomes an SEP (Someone Elses Problem)
This is why kids make facebook apps instead of java programs.

It is just more fun ! big organizations need to face up to this and work out how to commercialize their offering, with this new way of abstracting computer pain.

Essential reading list for the architect

This is the message in it hardcore engineering form.

Lots of small changes on the inside make a positive effect to the public impression
http://www.refactoring.com/

Enjoy doing it and apply it to a team, structure process and control, shared goals
http://www.extremeprogramming.org/

Clean, simple and disciplined.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_C_Programming_Language_(book)

Use technology to work together
http://subversion.tigris.org/

You operate in a political world, it is only victory if everyone wins
http://www.chinapage.com/sunzi-e.html

Use convention over regulation
http://rubyonrails.org/

A good experience comes from both form and function
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helvetica

Why Social Network Analysis needs to look at the signal to noise ratio

As someone who is a borderline sociopath, I feel confident that I can speak about this subject with some authority.

If you attend to a car accident, the victims who are making least noise are in the most trouble.
If you look at an engine its the alternator that makes the least movement but has the most control.
If listen to a choir the loudest voice is not always the best.

Social Network Analysis is being heralded as a tool that can help managers identify key communicators within their operation, If cost saving they can work out where to cut, if looking for growth they can look where to reinforce.

however …
You simply cannot just look at the volume of communication

But the current bread of social sensory software, or SNA tools cannot distinguish between noise and value.

We all know how the team dynamic changes when someone important (to the team) leaves. Could the SNA measure the amount of problems that these people solve, or create, simply by looking at traffic volume?

The SNA computer program could identify the person who internally promotes a new technique and communicates it to others, But could it find the person who innovated it?

Here is a sample conversation,
Tom: Have you seen that idea that Dick has for making the production line go faster.
Harry: Yeah, its really cool. I don’t know how he does it.
Tom: Dick should be in head office we could do with that kind of innovation in the management team.

A stupid SNA would score like this
Tom -> 2
Harry -> 1
Dick -> 0

If the SNA could semantically understand message content then you would have something of real value, for example
Tom -> 2
Harry -> 1
Dick -> 111 (1 for the mention) (10 for the positive response) (100 for the endorsement)