Oops, took a knife in a carry-on

I just got back from Iceland and took my camera gear.  After a few days going through my gear in the hotel I saw one of my folding knives was in the camera bag.  I made it through security once, but I wasn't going to try again so checked one bag with the below knife in it.

 Here is a video of the knife.

Why did I have a knife in my camera bag?  When you have $3,000 worth of camera and lens, and another $3,000 Mac Book Retina it's a bit of insurance to have when walking around with the gear.  Plus its handy to have a good knife.

How did I get through security?  With all the camera gear batteries, cables, tablet in the camera backpack it was probably hard to see the knife since it was in a side pocket position like this to the X-ray scanner.

Next time I'll double check the side pockets of my camera bag to make sure I take the knife out. :-)

Time to stop using the word "Cloud"

I was having a dinner conversation discussing a bunch of different topics.  One was about a future SaaS solution that is built in the cloud.  We were discussing the cloud, and then I made the suggestion that it may be best to not use the word "Cloud."

Why?  Everyone wants a Cloud?  No.  Some people want the Cloud.  To some the Cloud means it is not secure, it goes down, and it is not as good as legacy systems.  Thanks to AWS outages, Cloud's are perceived as not as reliable by many.  Microsoft, Google, and Twitter have had outages and the media jumps on it.  Cloud services like LinkedIn have had security breaches.  Perception is reality.

Discussing this idea with another executive who supports the roll out of a SaaS Cloud service, I asked does he spend time in "damage control" mode when a user thinks the Cloud is not secure and unreliable.  Yes, all the time. He has to explain how his Cloud is better than others.  

So, how about just not calling your service a Cloud SaaS.

If users make the leap that your service is like a cloud service and they are positive, then fine say it is a cloud.  Otherwise focus on the business value of your service.  What is the business value of the cloud?  There are plenty of companies, event companies, and companies who have product that many money on the cloud.  Is that what you are, then fine use the word cloud.  If you are not marketing the cloud, then drop the word.

I've convinced myself to stop talking about the cloud in presentations and documents when I can.  It is better to talk about what your service does.  It is highly available, secure, and scales.  The cloud means to many that the service has compromises in security and availability, and leaves a bad aftertaste. 

On site power generation changing the Utilities

WSJ reports on companies adding on site power generation is changing the Utilities behaviors.

Companies Unplug From the Electric Grid, Delivering a Jolt to Utilities

Michal Czerwonka for The Wall Street Journal

At Kroger’s food-distribution center in Compton, Calif., a tank system converts organic waste into biogas to produce electricity used by the facility

On a hill overlooking the Susquehanna River, two big wind turbines crank out electricity for Kroger Co.’s KR +2.19% Turkey Hill Dairy in rural Lancaster County, Pa., allowing it to save 25% on its power bill for the past two years.

Google and Apple are mentioned in the article and their servers in data centers.

Almost overnight, that niche market has gone decidedly mainstream. Six years ago,Google Inc. GOOG -0.19% attracted attention by installing big solar arrays atop its Silicon Valley complex in California. Other tech companies followed suit, worried about ensuring power supplies for energy-hungry server farms and achieving sustainability objectives.

Apple Inc. AAPL +1.14% now gets 16% of its electricity from solar panels and fuel cells that run on biogas. Apple’s data center in Maiden, N.C., makes all the power it consumes, a company spokeswoman said.

Google increases its Renewable Energy 73% which means? more data center capacity?

Google has a blog post on its adding more wind power.  Adding 240MW on top 330MW = 570MW of wind power.  Which means???  possibly Google is adding 73% data center capacity over the next year or so.  Why else would Google who is carbon neutral add another 240MW?  The new wind farm capacity comes on line by end of 2014.  

Another windy day in Texas: a new power purchase agreement

9/17/13 | 9:00:00 AM

(Cross-posted on the Official Google Blog)

As part of our quest to power our operations with 100% renewable energy, we’ve agreed to purchase the entire output of the 240 MW Happy Hereford wind farm outside of Amarillo, Texas. This agreement represents our fifth long-term agreement and our largest commitment yet; we’ve now contracted for more than 570 MW of wind energy, which is enough energy to power approximately 170,000 U.S. households.

The Happy Hereford wind farm, which is expected to start producing energy in late 2014, is being developed by Chermac Energy, a small, Native American-owned company based in Oklahoma. The wind farm will provide energy to the Southwest Power Pool (SPP), the regional grid that serves our Mayes County, Okla. data center.

OMG, data center god is identified, clients include Apple, Yahoo!, Google, Microsoft - Scott Noteboom leaves Apple to start his own company

Digital Journal covers the press release Scott  Noteboom leaving Apple to be CEO of Litbit.  Scott has god-like powers serving Apple, Yahoo!, Google, and Microsoft.

Noteboom will serve as founder and Chief Executive Officer, bringing to LitBit global experience of having led development and/or operations of many of the world's largest and most innovative data centers, which have served companies including: Apple, Yahoo!, Google and Microsoft.

Noteboom can provide a 10x lower environmental impact.

Our goal is to enable the next billion users of digital technology to emerge with a 10x lower environmental impact than the first billion," said Noteboom.

Keep this date in mind.  It is the birth of Christ.  The enlightenment of Buddha.  A data center god has struck out on his own.

Note: the Litbit service looks like it is just for the emerging markets.  So, those of us in USA and Europe will find it difficult to see the data center powers demonstrated.

LitBit was created to bring next generation converged infrastructure technology into emerging markets that require cleaner environment, greater efficiency and lower economics.

Looks like Scott is in China according to his LinkedIn profile.

Scott NoteboomLast day at Apple, last Friday. Already attacking new gig in China by Sunday. No rest for the jet lagged :-)