Friday, November 9, 2012

Cloud Redux

Just in case you missed my earlier post about cloud fragility, we have this from the New York Times on October 22, 2012:...read more

Thursday, November 8, 2012

Subjective, Risk Is

I asked a Nuclear Engineering Professor friend of mine, after the Fukushima power plant disaster of March 2011, whether that incident would have a positive or a negative impact on his industry. His response was that it would have a short-term positive impact as a result of publicity generating a flurry of requests for inspections and re-evaluations of existing establishments. The long-term effect, he related, could be a public who is less receptive to the concept of nuclear power generation. This did not surprise me, given how Germany decided,...read more

Wednesday, October 24, 2012

Do you know where your bytes are tonight?

Goha, an Egyptian male folk character, has been often used to convey wise nuggets in the fashion of Aesop's Fables, with a satirical twist. So Goha was once found, at his wits end, looking for his donkey. A passer-by notices his befuddlement and the following dialogue ensues.
    - "Goha, what's the trouble?"
    - "I lost my donkey!"
    - "Where was it?"
    - "Tied to a tree."
    - "Which tree?"
    - "The one with the cloud above it"
    - "Did some one steal it?"
    - "I don't know. I can't find the cloud."
I have seen a lot of IT folk do worse. I saw them...read more

Thursday, October 11, 2012

What's in your wallet?

Money. The enabler of all economic activity. The root of all evil. Whatever soubriquet you attribute to it, its nature and substance are becoming the topic of a vigorous debate as of late. A topic that was thought to have been fully settled over half a century ago and relegated to the thought experiments of historians and academics has been gaining renewed interest. ...read more