Cloud Computing Redux

A year or so ago I railed against the cloud. Or rather, I railed against the paid cloud. Notwithstanding the fact that even then I was already paying for the cloud.

The subject came up during the Freedom To Connect conference. We were sitting around having lunch, several pretty hard-core networking types and somebody was grousing about cloud computing. "It's not secure!" "It's slow!" "What if you're not connected to the Internet?", (this at a conference of which the entire point was being connected all the time at ultra-high speed). But, I'm Cloud-Boy.

web site	hosted at my ISP
eMail	hosted at my ISP
virtual disk	iDisk hosted at MobileMe
project management	BaseCamp
time cards	Harvest
Calendar	Google Calendar
RSS reader	Google Reader
word processing	Google Docs (occasionally)
invoicing	QuickBooks via eMail

Then there are the mandatory online applications when dealing with the federal government:

• Employee withholding and tax payments
  
• Applying for federal grants at Grants.Gov
  
• NIH Commons for managing those grants once you've got them.
  
• Electronic Funds System for drawing down funds.

Unfortunately, our state of Vermont is far behind... they actually require paper for virtually every step of the grant application and management function. Hmm....I wonder if you can file for a gay marriage license online?

I guess the point is that you'd be nuts not to take advantage of some hosted applications, and even if you are dead set against the cloud, you might be using something in the cloud and barely realizing it.

As usual, the MobileMe suite of applications from Apple have a little extra. Theoretically at least, you can sync your Safari links, and dashboard applications. (I still can't get the dashboard apps quite right). The iDisk is effective in that it essentially mirrors one or more folders that are present on a particular machine, my desktop iMac for example, and replicates that disk to one or more other machines. (can work for Windows too...although I haven't tried it. ) The neat thing about the iDisk though is that there is still a local copy of the folders on each machine. This unloads many of the objections to Cloud Computing...the notion that if you aren't connected, you don't have access to your files. True disk transfer happens at "FTP" speeds, so sometimes it takes awhile to sync with the cloud.

Grants.Gov Down April 18-19

I'm currently testing Grants.Gov applications on the Mac, which looks encouraging, as they have done away with the PureEdge forms and now work exclusively with Adobe PDF forms. Last fall, we ended up punting, and we set up a Windows machine purely for the purpose of being able to fill out the PureEdge forms. (and the proposal was rejected anyway...)

Grants.Gov site will be down this weekend, April 18 and 19th for a system upgrade to help cope with the influx of applications related to the stimulus package.

This is terrible timing for anyone trying to meet an April 21st deadline for submitting an application.

Grantsmanship Center: Research Proposal Workshop

The Grantsmanship Center is holding a Research Proposal Workshop geared for grantseekers in the sciences, social sciences and humanities. Excerpt from their notice:

If you conduct research in the sciences, social sciences, or humanities, grant awards are critical to your professional life. The ability to obtain highly competitive research grants can be essential for your career.

The Grantsmanship Center's three-day Research Proposal Workshop is designed to train researchers to compete more effectively for grant funding. You will learn a proposal development process that begins with a well thought-out research plan. The resulting proposal will have a predictable set of components that reflect this plan and that flow logically. A proposal that is clear, logical, and convincing is more appropriate for funding, more competitive, and more likely to be favorably reviewed.

This is an intensive, highly interactive workshop. Attendance is limited to 26 participants.

The workshop will be held May 19-21 (three days) and costs $1195 or $1095 for early birds. This is an incredible deal, considering that you'll be applying for multi-year, multi-thousand dollar support.

TGCI is also offering a five-day workshop Competing for Federal Grants in June.

Grants.Gov - Told You So?

The latest newsletter from Grants.Gov discusses efforts they are using to keep up with the massive influx in applications related to the federal stimulus package, something that we worried about awhile ago.

Freedom to Connect Day 2 SmartGrid and Muni Fiber

=========================
Terry Huval -- Lafayette LA fiber project
Huge benefit to local businesses
Filed lawsuits. Unknown citizens sued he city. 3.5 million dollars cost in litigation etc.
Cable co. raised their rates every 6 months until they finally stopped in Lafayette, and they think that the rate savings ALONE in cable rates saved the citizens of Lafayette $3.5 million. so, they got back the cost of defending themselves in litigation.

20% less than standard pricing is the target for things like triple play services

They offer:

TV and phone and internet service (Triple Play)
SmartGrid

Overlaid the existing electrical infrastructure

Value of the topology, head end has generation and reliable substations also have electronics, mini hub in each substation.

Head end - 3 96 fiber rings 4 fibers 20 gigs per second Alcatel/Lucent product

Installed at each home:
2 fibers for RF video
2 fibers for IPTV Internet, Phone

This provides:
Optical terminal - includes a TV coax 4 POTS telephone lines, battery backup
2 100 megabit fiber connections


Topology

OLT - OLT 72 ports --> Local conversion point - 9

OLT provides 2400 customers.

Passive optical network.

At the home, the electric meter,



Issued bonds in July 2007
First customers served in Feb 2009 Remaining customers to be served by early 2011

VIP bundles video / internet / phone

84.85
10 megabit 2 way symmetrical (LK now foaming at the mouth).

=============
Offerings for home internet service
10 megabit
30 megabit
50 megabit download and upload speeds

Calling rates: 5 cents for international, Europe, Caribbean, S. America and Asia

======
100 mbps peer to peer -- within the system
included with every fiber internet product with a non-static IP
opens doors for citizens and businesses
$5.00 per month for a static IP

They also offer a TV Web Portal
basic internet access w/o a computer

Business
10 meg
100 megabits for $200 per moth

Medical hub
education
movie industry - tax credit made available

80% businesses wanted LUS
Borrowed 100 million 60 used for build system
50% market penetration for the business plan
23% penetration allows for breakeven

So many people are so excited to support the community owned system
Just as important as electricity

More jobs, future of telecommunications, etc.


==========
Tim Denton

Broadcasting in New Media

Question: Should we be taxing ISPs to put money into a fund to go into promoting Canadian content?

Not a single group raised a question of free speech across the internet?

Net neutrality issue, should look at the filings

Lafayette TV --- This is the DRIVER in Lafayette for getting new customers. They must offer equal or better or cheaper service than the competitors.

Todd Marriot - current leader of the UTopia project - similar to the Lafayette project.
Question regarding �Open Access� model. Third-party businesses have infrastructure access.. with multiple service providers.

Answer: They are the only switched telephone provider, or cable TV provider on their muni network (at least until the bonds are paid off....) However, they need the services to pay for the network at this point. They assume that they are oversubscribed.

Terry Duval will play his fiddle. (cajun) (Old version of fiber networking)


===================
John Jorgensen Quintet plays

Introduction: April 2009

Welcome to Tech for Non-Profits, and the nascent Tech for Home Health Care. This site is the unplugged version of Microdesign Consulting. Part lab-notebook, part brain-extension, it is a repository for new and evolving ideas and projects that we stumble across as we pursue our start-up dream of a provider of home healthcare technology and continue supporting nonprofits, NGO's, government, public and private entities with services related to fundraising and technology.

Upcoming: I will be giving presentations at the Freedom to Connect conference March 30 and 31 in Washington D.C. (update: 4/2, copious notes below...) and at the American Telemedicine Association annual meeting in Las Vegas at the end of April. Both presentations will focus around the technical (boxes and wires), aspects, rather than medical aspects of one variation of home tele-health; two-way interactive, multipoint videoconferencing, with examples from our ongoing pilot studies delivering supervised exercise classes with senior patients who have fallen or have a fear of falling.

We are located in the Vermont Center for Emerging Technologies, a technology incubator affiliated with the University of Vermont. Our major extracurricular activity is the Vermont Software Developer's Alliance, a non-profit trade group which promotes economic development in our area, primarily for software development companies. Both organizations, by the way, are looking to encourage high-tech businesses to start up and/or relocate in our state.

DonorPerfect Training: NYC in May

Didn't know that they had this. DonorPerfect will be holding two days of training sessions in May in New York City. $350 per day. Full details here.