links for 2008-11-03

• How Cloud & Utility Computing Are Different - GigaOM
  "Although it is difficult to come up with a precise and comprehensive definition of cloud computing, at the heart of it is the idea that applications run somewhere on the “cloud” (whether an internal corporate network or the public Internet) – we don’t know or care where."
  (tags: cloud_computing Internet language metaphor)
• What cloud computing really means | InfoWorld | Analysis | 2008-04-07 | By Galen Gruman,Eric Knorr
  "Cloud computing is all the rage. "It's become the phrase du jour," says Gartner senior analyst Ben Pring, echoing many of his peers. The problem is that (as with Web 2.0) everyone seems to have a different definition."
  (tags: cloud_computing Internet language metaphor)
• Google and the Wisdom of Clouds
  "A move towards clouds signals a fundamental shift in how we handle information. At the most basic level, it's the computing equivalent of the evolution in electricity a century ago when farms and businesses shut down their own generators and bought power instead from efficient industrial utilities. Google executives had long envisioned and prepared for this change. Cloud computing, with Google's machinery at the very center, fit neatly into the company's grand vision, established a decade ago by founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page: "to organize the world's information and make it universally accessible.""
  (tags: cloud_computing Google Internet language metaphor)
• Computing Heads for the Clouds - BusinessWeek
  "Researchers seeking smarter ways to tackle the most complicated computing tasks think they've found the answer in a cloud—though not the kind that wafts across the sky as masses of condensed water droplets and frozen crystals. Instead, they're turning to something called cloud computing, which aims to deliver supercomputing power over the Internet."
  (tags: cloud_computing technology Internet computer language metaphor)
• What Cloud Computing Really Means - New York Times
  "Cloud computing comes into focus only when you think about what IT always needs: a way to increase capacity or add capabilities on the fly without investing in new infrastructure, training new personnel, or licensing new software. Cloud computing encompasses any subscription-based or pay-per-use service that, in real time over the Internet, extends IT's existing capabilities."
  (tags: cloud_computing internet language metaphor)
• The California Steampunk Convention - Keynote | The Steampunk Workshop
  Jake Von Slatt's keynote at SteampoweredCon in San Jose. Discusses tinkering and my post (http://askpang.typepad.com/relevant_history/2008/10/reflections-on.html) on it.
  (tags: tinkering steampunk)