Lines of Sand

Cloud Free Sky

I was reading an article in Scientific American that discussed the economics of running ad-supported cloud services.

It brought about the realization that that the reason why all cloud services don't stick around, even though people love them. Cloud services need to make money to survive. The ones that don't make it either don't supply good data for targeted advertizing, or they don't attract enough eyeballs to get ad revenue, or refuse to charge a fee for some reason.

So, ask yourself: does my favorite cloud service give a company a rich, solid feed of information about myself? Is it useful as a large scale advertizing tool? Where does it get it's money?

If you can't answer that question, pull your data and run.


We can apply that model explain a lot of things: the death of mashups (no revenue is gained by providing content for other companies mashups), and the subsequent lockdown of Facebook and Twitter APIs. It's the writ reason for the shutdown of Tinkercad. Reader, especially in it's neutered social-free form, could only give vague information about favorite sites, and by design obscured the important information from stakeholders. The death of the many subscription/DRM music services also follows the trend.

This theory would also suggest that the personal computing device is not in particular danger of death, as there are many areas of computing that will strongly resist the cloud model of monetization. Shareware developers rejoice.

Cloud Seeding Disaster

It has not been a big secret that I do not hold cloud computing in high regard. In principle, the idea that we can centralize our content (you know, files) and processing (you know, the thing that $1000 computers do) is nifty. Everything from any device.

The downside is that the user doesn't have control over what happens in the cloud. You can hang on to a software install CD or a downloaded file forever and keep using it long after the company that made it has gone under (Hypercard and SuperPaint, for example), but once a cloud service stops working, it's gone. I've watched as a long sequence of cloud computing products has bit the dust, leaving people who paid or depended on them holding the bag. Flickr, Google Wave, Google Notebook, Zune Store, and more recently Cisco Routers, Razr Mice,  Simcity, Evernote, and the unending Adobe Creative Cloud debacle. I have ample evidence that engaging in cloud based activities is setting oneself up for a screwjob.

Thus, I've always used cloud stuff sparingly, but it creeps in around the edges. Blogger has a nice interface, games on Steam are fun, not needing a cable to put books on the Kindle is neat.

But then it happened.

They shutdown something I used all the time, really liked, and used to do my job better.

They shutdown Google Reader.

Um. Hey. Yeah. Hi. I was using that.

Unlike a lot of other stuff that's being hawked online these days, that product made me a more effective individual. Reader is/was like the one tool I found that was great for keeping up with scientific literature. Fast, clean, and flexible. I could sit down for a couple of hours one day a week and cram everything that I cared about into my head and/or my print queue. It was the tool it worked perfectly. I would have paid money for the privilege of using it. I told everyone I knew how awesome it was. I used it all the time. If you need to follow a lot of different information sources, it is the best tool around.

Now some pointy haired sand packer in California decided that no one is using it, and so throws the switch with no point of discussion or negotiation.

Put that on the pile of cloud failures, and a facsimile on the pile great-products-discontinued-for-no-reason.

I should have seen that coming.

Now what to do?

Same River

Do you think I take the same photos all the time, or is that just what I tell myself? Do I love it? No. I want better.

On with this show.

I tried to take a picture like this a while a go. Maybe a year. Maybe two. I keep botching it by moving the camera. I either need to concentrate, get the tripod, or pony up and crank the ISO more. This one is in focus. I could print this one.

A spark plug from the Volvo 740. I didn't pull the plugs when I got the car because I was afraid they were rusted in and wouldn't come out without a big fight. I'm not sure if the previous owner felt the same way or didn't know to worry. The plugs looked mostly fine, except they had been arced way out of gap. Replacing them didn't fix the stumbling idle. Replacing the distributor and cleaning the cap did.

I've taken too many fall pictures. Fall is gorgeous, but my photography canon is chock full of autumn photos. I delete most of the now. But I kept this one. The leaf colors are unique. Somehow the front leaf is still while the one behind it is moving, giving the background a texture. It looks like, -feels- like, a cold autumn day.

Just a bit faster...

TenFourFox 19 Beta turns out a Sunspider score of 1957.4 ms on the G4. That's 13% better that Tenfourfox 10. My 11 year old computer is barely keeping up with your smartphone.

Even better, the rendering performance is a lot better. Google suggestions don't cause the browser to choke up, and scrolling performance is now on par with older browsers.

There's a part of me that thinks it's odd for old computer to become faster over time, but I intellectually recognize that a lot bad/slow code has been written over time, and reworking can yield vast improvements.

I'm so proud.

Hago Fugo

"Bad Things Happen"

That was the brilliant, crystal clear thought that flashed in my mind. As in, a real, actual, obviously very bad thing was happening right there, literally in my hands.

A few moments before I was thinking the opposite: good things were happening. I had discovered that the layer of grease on my Revere Ware kettle turned to liquid when the water boiled. I grabbed a paper towel and started mopping the layer off the kettle, restoring it's beautiful mirror finish. Cleaning it was so much easier than trying to scrub the grease off with a sponge.

I was nearly finished when the paper towel, now coated with hot oil, touched the heating element and burst in to flames.

Oops.

Bad Things weren't quite happening yet (but would soon). I reflexively gave the flaming wad a little shake to put it out. It responded by doubling in size. Amused, I tried to blow it out. That totally didn't work and clearly pushed the fire deeper into the towel. A flame licked my finger and I dropped it on the stove top.

Things weren't going to plan, and thus Bad Things were happening. What to do?

Save the house and the stove top! Keep the fire alarm from going off! Don't make a mess of it!

I pinched the unburning edge of the flaming grease-sprite and dropped it in the sink, and turned on the water. (It wasn't greasy enough to flare...) Contained on 3 sides, with water to keep it from charing the sink pan, it looked contained. I poured two cups of tea while I waited for it to burn out.

A small reminder that disasters can strike when you least expect them... right before tea!

New Life to Old Things

Rusted, then brushed, oiled, and ground back to usefulness.

Rusted, then bolted, oiled, and ground back to usefulness.