Social Networking and advertising - You can make money from this?

I was reading an older article about how "Some Indie Facebook Developers Pulling In Over $700,000 A Month" and it referenced the source as SocialMedia.

Clicking over to their website and reading about how they "turn standard ad units into social experiences that resonate with friends, influencers, and community members" is impressive.

The ability to target a consumer based on their likes, hobbies, associates and multitudes of other miscellaneous facts that they may publish about themselves begs the question "Are we creating our own experiences?"

If what we are surrounded with is created from our own visions of what we like how do we experience life beyond what we know we like?

An interesting conundrum.

-Todd

Did Microsoft Just Kill the Cloud?

I've been reading all the news about the sidekick and it's lost data and how it's somehow "The Clouds Fault" Such nonsense. Reading through the article posted here by the folks at The Motley Fool points to more "Cloud FUD". Or is it the users fault? Blindly trusting their data to a dark and murky "Cloud"? Or is it the fault of the owner of the server that crashed? It depends. But it's NOT "The Clouds" fault. This vague notion that things we don't understand must be "in the cloud" is rampant these days. Yet, at the end of the day, it is really "A Utility" and needs to be thought of as such. The biggest difference between your power or water as a utility is that with "The Cloud" you have many providers to choose from depending on the type of "Power" or "Water" you need and the level of service you require.

Utility providers are fallible. How many times have you lost a power transformer in your neighborhood? Or a water main line burst somewhere in the city?

Cloud Computing/Utility Computing - It is up to the owner of the server to make the service they provide to their customer as Highly Available as possible or at least to the level of the Service Level Agreement (SLA) they present to their customers. It's not some magical "Cloud" floating somewhere beyond physical reach. It is physical servers and storage and switches and routers owned and operated my your third party of choice depending on the application you wish to use.

Don't blindly put your faith in any one provider without fully understanding your risks. It's NOT "The Clouds Fault". It is a persons fault for not designing and implementing a highly available architecture that included data replication and backup services with full recovery scenarios documented and properly tested.

How often do you test YOUR System and Data recovery process?

-Todd

CMS Watch: Drupal vs Joomla vs EE vs WordPress

CMS Watch: Drupal vs Joomla vs EE vs WordPress

Posted using ShareThis

Do you wonder what "The Cloud" is all about?

Then check out this crazy Spoof! Pretty funny...

Click here ==>> Cloud-Cloud-maybe

With RIO winning the bid for the 2016 Olympics

What does this mean to the South American economy? Between now and 2016, many things can happen. Yet, there will also be a new spot light placed on Rio in the coming years...

Alaska Airlines Savings

"Alaska and Beyond Sale: Autumn Adventures from $109 Each Way on Alaska Airlines! > Expires 10/04/09"

The Cloud Computing Tsunami Gartner Predictions

The Cloud Computing Tsunami Gartner Predictions
- Efficiency and Cost Control Will Transform the IT Industry.

It's amazing that it has taken this long for "Utility Computing" to gain the hold that it has. Who builds and operates their own generator so that the lights come on at the flick of a switch? I know of a few folks in the hills of Hawaii who still capture rain water in huge black plastic tubs and use gravity feeds plumbed into their homes for their water, but it's so much easier to pay a small monthly fee to my water district and turn on my tap when I want a glass of water and it is the way computing infrastructure will be made available to us. Turn it on when you need it at the flick of a switch.

Take a look at these key predictions and you may agree:
- Key Gartner predictions for the data center for the next 5 years:

-Todd

Amazon CloudFront High Performance Content Delivery Network

Amazon CloudFront delivers your web content to your audience by routing them to the closest Point of Presence (POP) - for details, click here =>> http://aws.amazon.com/cloudfront/


View Amazon CloudFront in a larger map

Cloud Computing a Perfect Storm?

Cloud Computing Set to Unleash a Perfect Storm in Business

- “We are witnessing a seismic shift in information technology, the kind that comes around every decade or so, and it will have a huge impact on business, especially in today’s dire economy,” says business strategy expert and former CIO, Peter Fingar.

Amazon Web Services Tool - S3Fox (Easily manage data in the Cloud)

Working with the S3Fox Organizer to manage my data in the Amazon Cloud is sweet. It is a very easy tool I use to manage my data between my local premise and cloud storage environments.

The S3Fox Organizer(S3Fox), offers the ability to upload or download files to and from Amazon S3. The interface, which opens in a Firefox browser tab, looks much like that of FTP clients with a dual-pane layout. It displays files on your PC on the left, files on Amazon S3 on the right, and status or information in a panel on the bottom.

Check it out here - "Click"

Which States will recover first? Jobs ready to rebound?

From CNBC - http://www.cnbc.com/id/31086859

If you’re not prepared to go to Australia to ride out the recovery, great news! A new report shows the five U.S. states poised to lead the nation out of recession.

There was only one state that, as of the end of March, still had enough growth that it wasn’t technically in recession. Can you guess what it is? You betcha, it’s Alaska!

To ride this wave, you might want to get out your hiking boots and trail mix because most of the states where growth and jobs will recover fastest are out in the northwest: Colorado, Idaho, Oregon, Texas and Washington.

Its GOOD to live in the Northwest!
-Todd

Cloud Computing Technology Providers and Contributors in 2008-2009

Cloud Computing Technology Providers and Contributors in 2008-2009 - The following companies are among the providers and contributors of Cloud Computing technology:

10Gen, 3Leaf, 3Tera, Absolute Performance, Accenture, Akamai, Amazon.com, Appirio, Appistry, Areti Internet, Boomi, Box.net, Canaan Partners, Cloud9 Analytics, CloudWorks, CNI Systems, CohesiveFT, CSRware, DataDirect, Dell, DNAmail, eBay, Elastra, EMC, EngineYard, Enki Consulting, Enomaly, Excelian, Flexiscale, Fortress ITX, Forum, GigaSpaces, GoGrid, Google, HP, IBM, IBRIX, Joyent, JumpBox, Layered Technologies, Level 3 Communications, Linxter, LongJump, MDV, Microsoft, Moka5 (MokaFive), Mosso, NewServers, Nirvanix, Ocarina Networks, OpSource, Panorama Software, Peer1 Networks, Pervasive Software, Platform Computing, PLX Technology, Qlayer, Rackspace, RampRate, Red Hat, RightScale, rPath, Salesforce.com, Saugatuck Technology, ServePath, Skills Matter, Skytap, SnapLogic, SOASTA, Sun Microsystems, Symphoniq, Symphony Services, Tap In Systems, Teneros, Terremark, Transitive Corporation, Univa UD, Verizon Business, Vertica, VMware, XCalibre, Zabovo.com, ZOHO and Zuora.