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Cloud Computing is the latest in a long history of overhyped computing technologies. I won’t try to define cloud computing, since wikipedia does a good job, but the most prominent example of cloud computing is Amazon’s EC2 Service.

Instead of finding space in a data center, and dealing with all the IT related headaches that come with servers, storage, networking, and hardware, business can simply purchase instances in the cloud. Instead of paying upfront for a ton hardware, companies only pay for what they use.

Its a great model, especially for software startups. Instead of spending a bunch of money upfront on IT infrastructure, startups can spend money on their core-competencies. Need regional servers? EC2 provides multiple datacenter locations around the world. No need to deal with networking, hosting providers, hardware, and all those other IT annoyances.

So whats the problem? Well first off, you are entirely dependent on Amazon for the availability of your IT infrastructure. Amazon had 6 hours of downtime the other day. Secondly, if you actually care about performance, cloud computing will never be the best option, since its really just a slick interface on top of virtualization.

Virtualization is another overhyped technology, that allows you to split up one piece of hardware in to multiple instances all running on the same machine. So what’s the problem? You’re adding additional layers on top of the hardware, so performance is a problem. Multi-core CPU’s certainly help, but the biggest virtualization bottleneck is storage.

So you have 5 VM’s running on one server using local disk storage? Every VM instance is utilizing the same storage controller. Local disk storage is huge no-no when it comes to virtualization. The way to get around the storage problem is to use SAN for storage, but a lot of organizations are SAN-allergic.

My biggest issue with cloud computing and virtualization is reliability. With cloud computing, a software bug is no longer isolated to a single server, it can literally bring your entire infrastructure down. A hardware failure on a VM server will bring down every guest. A failure of 1 box, is really like 10 boxes going down at the same time.

In the financial industry, current cloud computing offerings would never be used due to performance, security, and risk concerns. At financial firms, virtualization is limited to dev/test configurations since financial applications are extremely latency dependent. What works for a Web 2.0 startup, doesn’t necessarily translate to other industries.

Cloud computing is definitely a interesting technology, and virtualization is here to stay, but its not a magic bullet. There are huge downsides to these technologies.

There is an article in today’s USA Today about the TSA targeting general aviation.

It looks like the airline lobbyists are gaining influence by having the TSA target general aviation for no reason.

The threat is real, said aviation-security consultant Glen Winn, former United Airlines security chief. Some small airports reserved for private planes “really don’t have a lot of security,” which would make it easy for someone to steal a small jet, Winn said. “There’s a huge window that’s open, and I do believe they’ve got to close that,” Winn added.

Wow, someone can steal a small jet and do what with it? What can someone do with a small jet that cannot be done with a U-haul or even a small car?

The fact of the matter is, GA has not been used in any recorded terrorist attack because it doesn’t make any sense. This is simply a case of the TSA being pushed by lobbyists to fix a non-existent problem.

Here is a video of my cross country to Andover (12N) today.

The weather cleared up enough today for my first flight to Wilkes-Barre. I managed to fly direct to KWBW, in Forty-fort Pennsylvania, where I picked up my father for a little joyride to his house.

One the way to KWBW there were a few clouds at 4500, so I kept the Skyhawk at 3500ft. A few light rain showers popped up near Hazleton, so we flew between the precipitation. Scattered rain showers are easily identifiable and avoidable from the air during a clear day.

I was planning on using runway 25 at KWBW, but it turned out that runway 7 was the active. I overflew the field at 2500, and made a quick descent for a 45 degree entry towards runway 7.

The layout of KWBW is a little different than the airports I’m familiar with. First off , there is no taxiway parallel to the runway. So pilots have to “backtaxi” on the runway. There also is no AWOS weather reporting station nearby, just a ground level windsock that is absolutely useless.

My touchdown at KWBW was smooth, and we taxied to the parking area. I was planning on taking my father for a little scenic flight, but there were a few scattered showers coming in from the northwest. Using Foreflight on the iphone, I was able to determine that the weather would clear up soon.



We grabbed a bite to eat, and took off for a very short sightseeing trip around Dallas, PA.

After about 30 minutes, I dropped off my father, and Lindsey and I were back in the air headed to KMQS. As we departed west, the Geisinger lifeflight helicopter flew above us off our left wing.

After getting past KHZL, the sky cleared up, and I was able to climb to my designated VFR cruising altitude of 4500 ft. As we approached the familiar 45 degree pattern entry for KMQS, I was greeted by an older Skylane entering from the south. We touched down at KMQS, and finished the day after 2.8 hours total flight time.

This was also the first flight for my new Lightspeed Zulu headset, which is quite an improvement over my old one. I now know what the fuss is about..

Today, marks one year since I decided to take the plunge and get a road bike. Oddly enough, I celebrated by doing one of my first organized bike rides. I managed to tag along with some co-workers for the Princeton Freewheeler’s bike event.

The ride, turned out to be my first over fifty miles, and because I followed a few people on the 100 mile ride, I ended up doing 72 miles. Not bad for 195 pounder.

The Garmin Edge tracked all my stats, including my inevitable cracking after 50 miles.

I celebrated by eating a 4000 calorie dinner at the Cheescake factory.

It didn’t take long for McCain to get completely desperate. I guess when you have no viable platform to campaign on, and you completely outmatched, the only can do is go negative.

In this campaign spot, John McCain compares Barack Obama to Britney spears.

Its amazing how far McCain has fallen. John McCain inspired me so much in 2000, he was the first politician I donated to.. Now, he is a joke. Expand offshore drilling? That will do absolutely nothing for global oil prices. John McCain wants to continue the unsustainable economic, energy, and foreign policies of George Bush.

Just like Bill Clinton in the primary, I’ve lost all respect for John McCain, and its not even fall yet.

The Tour de France is over, and this year’s tour was a great success. It finally looks like professional cycling is starting to clean up.

The US media seems to be covering the tour in a negative light, by focusing on the positive drug tests. For me, and people who follow cycling, the positive tests were a good sign.

Perhaps the most refreshing trend in this year’s tour were teams with independent testing programs. Team Garmin Chipotle is the big innovator in clean cycling, and Team Columbia has signed on for the same program.

Carlos Sastre was the winner of this year’s tour, and it looks like he did it cleanly. Want proof? Look no further than the time he recorded on his breakaway climb up the famous Alp d’Huez. Here are the top 10 times in history.

1 Marco Pantani 37′35 (1997)
2 Lance Armstrong 37′36 (2004)
3 Marco Pantani 38′00 (1994)
4 Lance Armstrong 38′01 (2001)
5 Marco Pantani 38′04 (1995)
6 Jan Ullrich 38′23 (1997)
7 Floyd Landis 38′34 (2006)
8 Andreas Klöden 38′35 (2006)
9 Jan Ullrich 38′37 (2004)
10 Richard Virenque 39′02 (1997)

All of the people in the top 10 are basically confirmed dopers. (I still think Landis was clean) Carlos Sastre won the Tour this year by climbing up the Alp d’Huez faster than anyone else, but he only managed to place 17th on the all time list.

The 2008 Tour De France was clean. A big congratulations to American Christian Vande Velde, who managed to take 5th in the overall standings. The fact that Christian could do so well on the clean Garmin Chipotle team speaks volumes for the future of cycling.