Open Compute Summit #5 coming Jan 28-29, 2014 San Jose Convention Center

I’ve gone to the four Open Compute Summits - Palo Alto, NYC, San Antonio, and Santa Clara.  #5 is in San Jose on Jan 28-29, 2014.  Registration is not open yet, but should be soon.

OCP Summit V

We are pleased to announce the dates for the next Open Compute Project Summit on Tuesday, January 28 and Wednesday, January 29, 2014 at the newly expanded San Jose Convention Center in San Jose, CA.

The Open Compute Project Foundation aims to accelerate data center and server and storage innovation while increasing computing efficiency through collaboration on relevant best practices and technical specifications.

Initiated in April 2011, the Open Compute Project incorporated as a foundation in October 2011 and has board representation from Facebook, Intel, Rackspace, Arista, and Goldman Sachs. The Open Compute Project Foundation is committed to collaborative dialogue and providing a structure in which individuals and organizations can contribute to Open Compute Project initiatives. Additional information about the Foundation's mission and principles can be found at opencompute.org.

At the last summit, attendees came from the technology sector in addition to finance, government, and consulting. These attendees represented executive-level roles of vice president or higher as well as IT directors and managers.

Venue

San Jose Convention Center - 150 West San Carlos Street, San Jose, CA 95113

Registration

Coming Soon!

If 80% is correct in The Everything Store: Jeff Bezos and the Age of Amazon is it worth reading? Probably

AllthingsD has a post on an ex-employee giving The Everything Store 4 stars vs. Jeff Bezos’s wife Mackenzie Bezos’s 1 star.

Amazon’s First Employee Disses MacKenzie Bezos Review That Disses New Book About Amazon

NOVEMBER 5, 2013 AT 2:23 PM PT

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A day after MacKenzie Bezos, the wife of Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, blasted a new book about her husband and his company in a one-star review on Amazon.com, Amazon’s first employee, Shel Kaphan, has published a four-star review of Brad Stone’s “The Everything Store,” in which he recommends the book and criticizes MacKenzie Bezos’s take. (Kaphan confirmed to me that he is the reviewer.)

One of the things I have learned being closer to media is how much written is not really that accurate.  In one review of the book by an ex-amazon employee.

My biggest concern is that I have first-hand knowledge of many of the episodes in the book (high school, original web site, 9/11, earthquake, A9, Manber/Holden, Kindle, Netflix). Overall, from the parts that I know about, about 80% is correct and 20% isn't (often in details, but incorrect nonetheless). That, of course, taints my view of the book as a whole, because I have to assume that 20% of the stuff I don't have personal knowledge of is also incorrect.

That said, I would still recommend the book (and especially the picture of Jeff in High School!)

It is point well made give the lack of information on amazon.com as a business if 80% if correct is the book still worth reading.  Most likely yes.

I ran into an old friend on the plane on Monday who is an ex-amazon early employee.  We have had a good time discussing logistics methodologies.  I think talking about the everything store book may be a good coffee conversation.  Well, I guess that means I need to buy the book.  Huh, maybe I’ll make The Everything Store the first purchase on my new Kindle HDX 8.9 I’ll get tomorrow.

1st day at GigaOm Roadmap

I had good long day at GigaOm Roadmap getting immersed in designers. I was able to reconnect with John Maeda and catch up on some ideas.  Here is John’s presentation reported by Kevin Tofel.  I have more to add, but I am pretty tired after a 12 hr day of networking.

Why Moore’s Law doesn’t influence design these days: Less is “moore”

by Kevin C. Tofel

11 HOURS AGO

1 Comment

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photo: (c) Pinar Ozger

SUMMARY:

Technology cycles have been on a tear for decades, with each chip iteration bringing more capabilities at lower prices. But less can be more in tech products–and design is the way to balance that factor.

Connecting with my long past work in typefaces I had a nice conversation with Erik Spiekermann.  I want to write about my impression of Erik’s presentation, but I’ll do that later.  Jeff John Roberts reports on Erik’s presentation.

Apple font “beautiful as typeface, totally sucks as an interface” — insights from a famous designer

by Jeff John Roberts

9 HOURS AGO

6 Comments

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photo: (c) Pinar Ozger

SUMMARY:

Noted designer Erik Spiekermann has called Apple’s typeface choice a “youthful folly.” Speaking at Gigaom’s Roadmap, he explained what he meant and offered other insights into how he sees the world of design.

The GigaOm Roadmap day 1 was well worth the time and I’ll go back tomorrow for day 2.

Who would have thought that the Tablet Wars are between Apple, Google, and Amazon

I have an iPad, Samsung Tablet, and a 1st generation Kindle Fire.   In the past month Apple, Google and Amazon have announced their new Tablets and CNET has a post on display quality.

iPad Air topped by Kindle Fire HDX in display quality test

The iPad Air has an "excellent" display -- but not quite as excellent as the Kindle Fire HDX 8.9, DisplayMate says.

On Thursday I am getting a Kindle Fire HDX 8.9.  During the day I find myself spending time in amazon’s, apple’s, and google’s mobile OS.  The true test on the Kindle HDX is what my kids think.  They are always making fun of the number of things I use during the day.  One of these days they may understand what I am doing what all the devices creating a mobile service solution. When I try to tell the story of what I am building I feel like it is bedtime situation.  My family usually gets sleepy, nods their head, “uh huh”, “yea”, and they are ready to go to sleep. I’ve learned this lesson and don’t tell the mobile stories unless I have someone who has the problem set we are trying to solve.  That’s when they are awake. 

What is interesting is Amazon, Apple, and Google are each trying to solve a different mobile problem which is defined by their business model.

Valve's Steam exhausts the heat three ways for CPU, Graphics Card, & Power Supply

Here is is a simple solution to the heat problems in a PC.  Exhaust the CPU, Graphics Card, and Power supply separately and isolate their heat. The Verge got a chance to check out the Valve Steam Machine.

The Steam Box

Valve will ship 300 prototype Steam Machines to beta testers this year, and there's nothing particularly special about their specs. That’s kind of the point, though: the first Steam Machine is a computer that can fit bog standard parts just like a full-size gaming rig, and yet fit into your entertainment center. Valve's steel and aluminum chassis measures just over 12 inches on a side and is 2.9 inches tall, making it a little bigger than an Xbox 360 and smaller than any gaming PC of its ilk. And yet the box manages to fit a giant Nvidia GeForce GTX Titan graphics card and a full desktop CPU — and keep those parts quiet and cool — without cramming them in like a jigsaw puzzle.

The secret is actually quite simple, it turns out: Valve designed the case so the parts can breathe individually. The CPU blows air out the top, the power supply out the side, and the graphics card exhaust out back, and none share any airspace within the case.

That might sound like common sense, but it’s remarkably hard to find a case that does so while still making it easy to drop components in. Here, the key component responsible for dividing those three zones is a simple plastic shroud which unscrews in a jiffy. The box we touched was already surprisingly cool and quiet, but Valve's still tweaking the design: we saw Valve printing a couple of the shrouds as we walked through its rapid prototyping lab.