That said, if and when Toyota or anybody else figures out how to port their brain-controlled wheelchair tech to the PC, the mouse may indeed become one of those things your future grandkids will see in photos and ask, "Did you really ever use one of those things?! It's so weird looking!!!"
Until then, a laser mouse that can be used on transparent glass surfaces still has a certain wow factor.
At this stage, you the individual don't benefit tremendously from cloud computing. But your company, at *almost* any head count, might be able to leverage what's also known as utility computing today. Depending on what it does or doesn't want to bother hosting internally.
Hosted Microsoft Exchange is a concrete example of a cloud (cloud-like) service that's been gaining ground for a while now.
Wired had a read-worthy piece on Azure's principal architect Ray Ozzie last year, Ray Ozzie Wants to Push Microsoft Back Into Startup Mode. Hyperbole aside, anyone who's directly interfacing with Microsoft sales people and engineers these days will tell you, Azure is a big part of Microsoft's next money grab.
However, it's amusing that the definition of "cloud computing" continues to mean different things to different vendors, as evidenced by Amazon, Google and Microsoft offering fairly distinct and non-overlapping services. Until they come into direct competition with one another, I think this is going to continue to be seen as a novelty by many CTOs and IT decision-makers.
Is cloud computing the future? I don't know, but I think it's safe to say it's *a* future. Even if it isn't yours.:)
This is obviously a fascinating concept, but I wonder how realistic its chances of succeeding are. As well as what "success" would actually mean.
If my math is correct, 0.16% of Earth's surface area (510,072,000 sq. km) is 816,115.2 sq. km. That's larger than the state of Texas, and sounds like a lot of artificial leaves.
As for defining success, today, civilization relies on various methods of generating the power it needs. Yet the mainstream press continue to often "pressure" highly speculative energy science projects to replace all 20 terawatts (did the author of TFA actually mean terawatt hours per year, or..?) the world is going to need in the next 20 years, in order to be relevant for publication. Seems to be setting the bar a little high, wouldn't you agree?
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A robot hand being able to bounce a ping pong ball doesn't make me worry.
However, if and when a robot learns to play Eddie Van Halen's "Eruption", then I'll worry.
Analysts keep suggesting that the mouse is nearing obsolescence, and that in less than five years, it'll look about as natural in your hand as a buggy whip. However, I remain unconvinced.
That said, if and when Toyota or anybody else figures out how to port their brain-controlled wheelchair tech to the PC, the mouse may indeed become one of those things your future grandkids will see in photos and ask, "Did you really ever use one of those things?! It's so weird looking!!!"
Until then, a laser mouse that can be used on transparent glass surfaces still has a certain wow factor.
At this stage, you the individual don't benefit tremendously from cloud computing. But your company, at *almost* any head count, might be able to leverage what's also known as utility computing today. Depending on what it does or doesn't want to bother hosting internally.
:)
Hosted Microsoft Exchange is a concrete example of a cloud (cloud-like) service that's been gaining ground for a while now.
Wired had a read-worthy piece on Azure's principal architect Ray Ozzie last year, Ray Ozzie Wants to Push Microsoft Back Into Startup Mode. Hyperbole aside, anyone who's directly interfacing with Microsoft sales people and engineers these days will tell you, Azure is a big part of Microsoft's next money grab.
However, it's amusing that the definition of "cloud computing" continues to mean different things to different vendors, as evidenced by Amazon, Google and Microsoft offering fairly distinct and non-overlapping services. Until they come into direct competition with one another, I think this is going to continue to be seen as a novelty by many CTOs and IT decision-makers.
Is cloud computing the future? I don't know, but I think it's safe to say it's *a* future. Even if it isn't yours.
Pioneer 10 has been off-course for a while now. Maybe the trick for reaching the Oort Cloud is to aim for 1 million kilometers to the left.
This is obviously a fascinating concept, but I wonder how realistic its chances of succeeding are. As well as what "success" would actually mean. If my math is correct, 0.16% of Earth's surface area (510,072,000 sq. km) is 816,115.2 sq. km. That's larger than the state of Texas, and sounds like a lot of artificial leaves. As for defining success, today, civilization relies on various methods of generating the power it needs. Yet the mainstream press continue to often "pressure" highly speculative energy science projects to replace all 20 terawatts (did the author of TFA actually mean terawatt hours per year, or..?) the world is going to need in the next 20 years, in order to be relevant for publication. Seems to be setting the bar a little high, wouldn't you agree?