Anybody going to Cloud Expo?

[W1GUH]

Cloud Expo (http://www3.sys-con.com/cloud2012east/registernew.cfm)

Been hyped here on TV for a while. Had serious intentions of going....till I saw those prices! Well, maybe that's a good thing, might tend to keep the crowd to those who are serious about this shit. Might be worth a buck for a one day pass -- good way to see what's current and what's coming.

Anyone know about this? Worthwhile?

[KB3LAZ]

Cloud Expo (http://www3.sys-con.com/cloud2012east/registernew.cfm)

Been hyped here on TV for a while. Had serious intentions of going....till I saw those prices! Well, maybe that's a good thing, might tend to keep the crowd to those who are serious about this shit. Might be worth a buck for a one day pass -- good way to see what's current and what's coming.

Anyone know about this? Worthwhile?

People buy things at an expo? Shit, I went to a lot of expos in OH and the only thing anyone ever bought was wings, ribs, and beer.

[n2ize]

I use to go to the LinuxExpo back when they used to have it in NYC. I forget how it worked but admission was very inexpensive (might have even been free for me). Think I used to get some kind of free or discount pass.

[W1GUH]

Yea, I went to a couple of Unix expos and a Database expo, and your memory is in accord with mine, those weren't this expensive. I'm thinking that the admission has been set high enough to weed out just casual lookers. Sound reasonable?

[n2ize]

Yea, I went to a couple of Unix expos and a Database expo, and your memory is in accord with mine, those weren't this expensive. I'm thinking that the admission has been set high enough to weed out just casual lookers. Sound reasonable?

Probably yes. At the time I was going I was a member of NYLUG (New York City Linux Users Group) and I think they used to get us the discount/free passes. I came home from some of those Expo's with a lot of free sample software, lots of souveniers, gadgets and doo-dads, and even a few free books. It was usually held at Javits. Then they moved up to Boston. I was tempted to go because it would have been a good excuse to hang around in Boston.

[W1GUH]

I don't need any reason to go to Boston. Just hanging out and wandering around is always a great day!

Yea....lots of free loot to pick up at those. Got some nice office toys! In '96 SCO was passing out their free Unix for PC's. Didn't have a PC, so I couldn't use it then, but it was impressive. Full Unix including Netscape and gcc for free! Then, later at their seminar (good!) I won the raffle for the Com package. Pity I never got to use it.

But good things don't last. That was '96 when the Unix and Database expos were separate, well-attended functions. Then the dot com bubble started deflating and they were combined in '97 & it wasn't nearly so much fun or informative.

That Unix group may have been what I belonged to for a while. Went to one meeting downtown all about RAID's, and that may have been one of the last. Don't recall going to another, and I'm pretty sure I would have if there was one.

Probably going to go - the question now is a one day pass for a buck or the four day pass for 2 bucks. Probably the former -- I always leave Javits with no desire to go back for a long time. Something about that building is just wrong...but I can't express what that is.

Thanks for the comments, John, and of course I'll report what I found.

[n2ize]

I don't need any reason to go to Boston. Just hanging out and wandering around is always a great day!


I wish I could do that. Unfortunately I my time is blocked by the established system. They tell me where they want me to be and I just have to be there. But, maybe when I am free I won't need any excuses... :)



Yea....lots of free loot to pick up at those. Got some nice office toys! In '96 SCO was passing out their free Unix for PC's. Didn't have a PC, so I couldn't use it then, but it was impressive. Full Unix including Netscape and gcc for free! Then, later at their seminar (good!) I won the raffle for the Com package. Pity I never got to use it.


Yeah, same deal here. Most of the software they passed on to me I wound up never using. Not that it wasnl;t good software it was usually because I was busy enough with other interesting things.


But good things don't last. That was '96 when the Unix and Database expos were separate, well-attended functions. Then the dot com bubble started deflating and they were combined in '97 & it wasn't nearly so much fun or informative.


Yeah , thats the usual deprecation. Attendance slackens so they combine the events into one but it looses the singular expertise of when they were separate entities. Its like what happened when "Unix review" deprecated into "performance computing/sys admin". It just wasn't as good anymore.



That Unix group may have been what I belonged to for a while. Went to one meeting downtown all about RAID's, and that may have been one of the last. Don't recall going to another, and I'm pretty sure I would have if there was one.


Are you referring to NYLUG ?? To my knowledge they are still in business. I am still on their mailing list and its still quite active. I think they also still have regular meetings. If I can rekindle the motivation I may try going again.


Probably going to go - the question now is a one day pass for a buck or the four day pass for 2 bucks. Probably the former -- I always leave Javits with no desire to go back for a long time. Something about that building is just wrong...but I can't express what that is.


Probably better to go for the four day. You'll probably get more "bang for the buck" as in you will probably be able to attend more seminars, etc.


Thanks for the comments, John, and of course I'll report what I found.

I miss the LinuxExpo in NY. The Linux penguin wasn't to tough but, those FreeBSD "she devils" caught my eye. They were cute with their little pitchforks, horns and tails. ;) I'll look forward to hearing how it went.. Please fill us in. Enjoy.,

[KC2UGV]

Yea, I went to a couple of Unix expos and a Database expo, and your memory is in accord with mine, those weren't this expensive. I'm thinking that the admission has been set high enough to weed out just casual lookers. Sound reasonable?

It's a CIO and CEO party, that's all. A chance to get some buzzwords into a CIO's ear, who then comes back home and says,"We need this!"

---EDIT---

Nevermind, the $2000 passes are "Gold passes". Might be worthwhile. I'm not impressed with all the Cloud-speak. Just sounds like what IBM was doing way back when, with timesharing systems.

[n2ize]

It's a CIO and CEO party, that's all. A chance to get some buzzwords into a CIO's ear, who then comes back home and says,"We need this!"


---EDIT---

Nevermind, the $2000 passes are "Gold passes". Might be worthwhile. I'm not impressed with all the Cloud-speak. Just sounds like what IBM was doing way back when, with timesharing systems.
'
That's about what "the cloud" amounts to. The problem was "timesharing" was passe', a 1970's term. So, the marketing guru's came up with a much cooler sounding term. "The cloud". Man thats really far out, no ?? It's the same ol' rock n roll.

[W4GPL]

Yeah, thousands of redundant sync'd global storage nodes allowing many hundreds of petabytes of data with built in CDN and all sorts of other crazy new technologies is just like IBM's timesharing system. C'mon Corey..

[NQ6U]

Yeah, thousands of redundant sync'd global storage nodes allowing many hundreds of petabytes of data with built in CDN and all sorts of other crazy new technologies is just like IBM's timesharing system. C'mon Corey..

Cloud computing more closely resembles the diskless workstations* that manufacturers were pushing back in the late Eighties and early Nineties. They never caught on because networking was too slow and cumbersome back then for them to be practical. Things are quite a bit different now.

*Of course, I always referred to them as "dickless workstations." As all Islanders know by now, I can never pass up a cheap joke.

[W4GPL]

Yeah, I'm not totally sure I agree with that comparison either... Thin clients aren't catching on again to any large degree. Take Google Apps for example, despite being a remote/cloud solution, most of processing is taking place locally. It's not as if Google Spreadsheet is calculating the formulas server side.. as just one example of many.

[NQ6U]

Yeah, I'm not totally sure I agree with that comparison either... Thin clients aren't catching on again to any large degree. Take Google Apps for example, despite being a remote/cloud solution, most of processing is taking place locally. It's not as if Google Spreadsheet is calculating the formulas server side.. as just one example of many.

As I recall—I could be wrong, wouldn't be the first time—diskless workstations were marketed differently from thin clients. They were pretty much a standard PC but optimized for use over a network and, of course, had no hard drive installed. The computing would be done on the workstation but everything would be stored on a server.

[W4GPL]

Even still, any modern workstation is going to have local solid state storage, at the very least. And "The Cloud" is an obviously too generic term to debate what it is... You have software.. platform.. infrastructure.. "as a service". And other startup cloud kiddie VC concepts. But the main point is, we're a long fucking way from IBM's timeshare computing. ;)

[KB3LAZ]

It's a CIO and CEO party, that's all. A chance to get some buzzwords into a CIO's ear, who then comes back home and says,"We need this!"

---EDIT---

Nevermind, the $2000 passes are "Gold passes". Might be worthwhile. I'm not impressed with all the Cloud-speak. Just sounds like what IBM was doing way back when, with timesharing systems.

$2k? Food, drink, and escort should be included. Im cheap I guess. I spend my money on toys, not that much just to look at things and watch demos.

[W1GUH]

Cloud computing more closely resembles the diskless workstations* that manufacturers were pushing back in the late Eighties and early Nineties. They never caught on because networking was too slow and cumbersome back then for them to be practical. Things are quite a bit different now.

*Of course, I always referred to them as "dickless workstations." As all Islanders know by now, I can never pass up a cheap joke.

I'll say. We got a bunch of Mentor Graphics stations. Wow! All that computing power. Won't be slow like a time shard system. Yep. Network stuff slowed it down just like before!

[n2ize]

Yeah, thousands of redundant sync'd global storage nodes allowing many hundreds of petabytes of data with built in CDN and all sorts of other crazy new technologies is just like IBM's timesharing system. C'mon Corey..

Same basic idea + larger scale.

[W4GPL]

Same basic idea + larger scale.If the Wright Brother's first flight is the same basic idea as orbiting the earth in a rocket ship.. then sure.

[n2ize]

If the Wright Brother's first flight is the same basic idea as orbiting the earth in a rocket ship.. then sure.

Cloud computing is basically rooted in the time sharing model. both topographically, with respect to design, and with respect to its business model (i.e. costs). It also faces some of the potential problems that timesharing systems faced in the 60's, i.e. downtime ,etc. It is essentially an evolution of the old timesharing model with some new enhancements and increased scalability, wider network access, etc. A modern incarnation of an old concept. Much like many of todays modern programming languages evolved and inherited concepts from Lisp, Fortran, and other early generation languages.

[KC2UGV]

If the Wright Brother's first flight is the same basic idea as orbiting the earth in a rocket ship.. then sure.

The difference between todays cloud computing, and timesharing; is more akin to the difference between the Wright Bros plane, and a 777. Both are called planes, one is more advanced and developed.

The Cloud: Store everything in a centrally managed system. Run applications on a centrally managed system, return results to your terminal.

Basically, the same thing. And, again, just not very impressed by it.

[W1GUH]

Still on the fence about going. Best guess is I'll show up there tomorrow & it I like what I see, register at the door (provided the penalty for that isn't too bad. OTOH, it might be to late to register. Dunno). Do want to see how the crowd is dressed. Time was....mostly suits (even this long-haired hippie - incognito, tho' with well-coifed hair - had a good suit on with wing tips & conservative tie!), but now.... I plan on wearing jeans tomorrow.

The exhibitors list looks pretty good (but I didn't see Asus -- maybe I missed it) and since this Cloud stuff is being pushed as "the next big thing", it'll probably be highly educational and informative. Might even see something that blows me away. OTOH...may be a little early to believe the "next big thing" thing. I'll see tomorrow.

Re: Cloud vs time-sharing.....

What if....

Instead of computing going "complete computer on every desk, lap, in every pocket" route, it continued on the time-sharing model and that the progress of computing performance was just as intense. What would time sharing be like today?

Ridiculous question, really. From Day One, all of the pressure from the technology community was to own our own computers. Once we got a whiff of that, timesharing was history.

[W1GUH]

Motivation to go has dropped somewhat - there's a good list of exhibitors, but two names are conspicuous by their absence, Asus and Nvidia.

[KC2UGV]

Motivation to go has dropped somewhat - there's a good list of exhibitors, but two names are conspicuous by their absence, Asus and Nvidia.

Neither are very big cloud players.