We are filling the slots for the sponsor pitches and we are looking for spontaneous contributions on your own endeavor in Cloud Computing. Since the public at the Cloud Camp is a wonderful mixed bag, you can bring a super technical essay as well as a speech about the impact of Cloud Computing on the reproduction of the Australian Jack Jumper Ant !!

The CloudCamp Milan #2 will take place at Bocconi University on May 25th. Click here for more information.

Bootnote: Pitches containing kittens are not allowed.

I promised to myself not to get involved again in organizing events or whatever implies putting more than four people together (at Kaukana we are three guys and a sweet girl).

So, why, why, in God’s name I am doing this? Why I am organizing* a CloudCamp at distance (1.200km)?

Perhaps it has to do with the fact that I actually pretty much love CloudCamps.. It’s just stronger than me!

So, please, do me a favor: come on May 25th at Bocconi University in Milan for what we consider the authoritative event on Cloud Computing in Italy. You will make me happy and there is a strong possibility you might be happy to attend too.

I am working on the list of speeches. By the way: there are two slots available for “spontaneous” speeches, i.e., not sponsoring talks. Contact me here if you have something unique to tell to World + Dog.

* I am not alone: Value Team will lend valuable help to make the event better than ever.

This time I will try to avoid lengthy lists of skills, acronyms, technologies… Yaawn!! ZZZzzzZZ!!!

It’s about time to present myself fit for this millennium’s 2nd decade, so, this is an idea I had on how to present my skills and experience overview:

I am working on the assignment timeline, I am looking for some inspiration here and there but the result will be highly personalized

Update:

I have been mentioned in Randy Krum’s Blog after I shamelessly sent him a “mee too” post on his latest review of Infographics. Randy’s Blog is pure gold for the data-graph’s addicted. Yay!!

I needed to use an Apple Time Capsule (actually backing up our home Macs) to share some files. The issue here is that Time Machine (OSX’s backup program) might use up all the space on the disk: there is no way to tell Time Machine to stop at a certain quota. Workarounds are known like adding a second drive or partitioning Time Capsule’s own HD (which invalidates your warranty).. Too much effort, I wanted a quick, dirty hack.

Caveat lector: I don’t need concurrent file access: I just want to be able to open a Filemaker database from different machines at different times..

What I need is a way to simulate a loopback device and reserve a fixed amount of space for my files. OSX does not support loopback devices but it comes with a nice utility called hdiutil.

Essentially, we are going to create a disk image on Time Capsule’s internal hard-disk, once the image is there it can be mounted and used as any other volume but it cannot be accessed concurrently from Time Capsule.

These are the steps:

1: Configure Time Capsule to share files

Open the Airport Utility and go to the Disks pane, tab: “File Sharing”. setup your Time Capsule’s access at convenience (I prefer to set separate user accounts for that).

Step 2: Mount Time Capsule’s Volume.

Mount the drive using Command-K shortcut and insert the credentials configured in the previous step.

Step 3: Create the Disk Image

Open a shell and locate the mounted volume. Then use hdiutil to create a zero-filled disk-image. The command sequence might resemble the following

Tuja:~ gabriele$ cd /Volumes
Tuja:Volumes gabriele$ ls -l
total 3
drwxr-xr-x  6 gabriele  staff  408 Jan  3 00:51 Backup of Tuja
lrwxr-xr-x  1 root      admin    1 Jan  2 14:12 Macintosh HD -> /
drwx------  9 gabriele  staff  264 Jan  3 01:18 Storage

Tuja:~ gabriele$ hdiutil create -megabytes 32768 /Volumes/Storage/Sharedfiles.dmg -layout NONE
........................................................................................
created: /Volumes/Storage/Sharedfiles.dmg

In this case I created a disk image of 32GB with one internal partition (Layout NONE).

Step 4: Format the disk image

First off, retrieve the device id:

Tuja:~ gabriele$ hdid -nomount /Volumes/Storage/Sharedfiles.dmg
/dev/disk2

Then create a file system and umount it (to flush journals):

Tuja:~ gabriele$ newfs_hfs -v sharedfiles /dev/disk2
Initialized /dev/rdisk2 as a 32 GB HFS Plus volume

Tuja:~ gabriele$ hdiutil eject /dev/disk2
"disk2" unmounted.
"disk2" ejected.

The volume is ready. It can be mounted and modified at will. No internal partitions, no additional disks and no Time Machine risking to fill it up.

Step 5: Automate mount

The following little Applescript will do the job of mounting the Disk Image. Customize the parameters in the beginning of the script at your convenience.

property TimeCapsule_IP : "192.168.22.45"
property UserID : "gabriele"
property Image_Name : "Sharedfiles.dmg"
property Image_Id : "sharedfiles"
property TimeCapsule_Disk_Name : "Storage"

set devname to do shell script "mount | grep Storage | cut -f3-4 -d / | cut -f1-1 -d \"(\""
tell application "Finder"
   with timeout of 20 seconds
   -- 20 seconds are enough for mounting a drive. This saves us
   -- from a hanging OSX waiting for mount timeout
      if not (exists the disk devname) then
         mount volume "afp://" & UserID & "@" & TimeCapsule_IP & "/" & TimeCapsule_Disk_Name
         delay 5
      end if
      if not (exists Image_Id) then
         do shell script "hdiutil attach /Volumes/" & TimeCapsule_Disk_Name & "/" & Image_Name & " -mount required"
      end if
   end timeout
end tell

The script assumes that the Time Capsule has an IP of 192.168.22.45, a disk named Storage (default is Data_1) and a user defined (in step 1) as gabriele. The disk image is called Sharedfiles.dmg and mounts a volume called sharedfiles.

There is space for improvement in this script. An AppleScript guru could make it more reliable by using afp_mount in place of mount, afp_mount has a “-nobrowse” option that is nice to hide those network shares on the desktop and has the advantage of being able to  force volume names as well.

One final note: the volume created here above is not going to be backed up unless is not mounted permanently on the Mac executing a Time Machine backup.

Now.. Don’t get me wrong: JoliCloud is a decent attempt to void the space between desktop computing and online applications and it does it pretty efficiently despite   some quirks (but I will speak later about this).

JoliCloud tries hard to build a sense of belonging by involving each user in the JoliCloud social network. One can link Twitter and Facebook accounts to the JoliCloud profile. I did not find so many friends there but I expect them to come (BTW: Kris is there, wonder if he has something to say about JoliCloud DNS settings).

Does this approach bring any considerable advantage to the user experience? I can’t judge because I did not see much, I just have the impression that Twitter is enough, we don’t need another social meeting place.

The fact is, by all the virtues this OS has, I am still asking myself where the Cloud’s angle is.

Let’s go with order:

1:JoliCloud is nice..

It’s an OS. No matter how they call it: it installs on your machine and is based on Ubuntu Linux.

Applications, however, are installed via JoliCloud’s Dashboard (see picture).

Most titles are just online services presented  in a customized and simplified browsing environment (Mozilla’s Prism). The intent is laudable and the resulting user experience is properly implemented (provided you have decent connectivity). Prism is a neat artifact, as the Mozilla Wiki puts it:”Prism is based on a concept called Site Specific Browsers (SSB). An SSB is an application with an embedded browser designed to work exclusively with a single web application. It doesn’t have the menus, toolbars and accoutrements of a normal web browser.”
If there is one way to Linux to come to everybody’s desktop, this is it.

JoliCloud is aimed at Netbooks; during installation the user is given the option to repartition (Ike!!) her drive and install a dual-boot configuration. This works pretty well for most of the cases (most is not all, unfortunately) and the attention to detail is pushed up to the option to import native Windows “My Documents” folders in the newly JoliCloud environment.
Nevertheless, the original Windows volume is reachable from JoliCloud desktop, importing files seems less relevant…
Call me skeptical: I prefer an install on a removable USB Flash drive.

The user is proposed a neat desktop abstraction (loosely based on Ubuntu Remix), the likes of a smartphone on steroid. (see picture).

I like the concept and I think is the shape of things to come.  If you are used to menu, forget them: in JoliCloud’s desktop menus are almost on the way to extiction, enter tab-based application switching and small icons instead. Developers called for desktop space optimization, in a screen and mouse challenged environment as a Netbook offers I support their decision.
Icons have a further status notification function, with many regards to the iPhone!

Everything works so far. On my Acer Aspire One 250D I have full support of very hardware features, from Bluetooth to graphics et al.

Still, I don’t get where the Cloud has something to do with it. Oohh!! Never mind.

2: JoliCloud is not so nice..

There are some quirks that affect JoliCloud that every non-expert user should be aware of.

1 – First off: as any dual-boot system using GRUB, it modifies your MBR record. When choosing to install JoliCloud on a drive other than the internal hard disk (Flash or external USB drive for example), it writes the boot files on the target disk. Disconnect it and you cannot boot.

2 – Power management is pretty basic; expect not so stellar performances in terms of autonomy. Even choosing XFS to avoid disk commits (they drag battery down even when the computer does nothing), and being limited to 1.33Ghz (see here under) I have around 60-70% of comparable battery life than with Windows.

3 – It’s not fast. But then I discovered why and it’s not JoliCloud’s own fault: on my Acer 250D the processor maxed at 1.33Ghz instead of 1.66Ghz. Why? It seems that the Bios reports a max speed of 1,33Ghz and Ubuntu acts consequently. Down here I show what to look for in your netbook to check if this issue is hitting you as well.

4 – Prism does a good job isolating the browser from the Web content but I’d like to have at least a “Back” and “Forward” buttons. Take LinkedIn for example: there is no navigation aids and I found myself using “ALT+Left Arrow” shortcuts. Not intuitive.

4 – I did not find an option (an easy one) to render the desktop for the visually impaired. My mother (76 years old and avid Internet user) could never read the screen of a netbook. Sure, we can modify the pixel density in the font section of the appearance menu if we choose… See what I mean?

3: Quirks and workarounds to enjoy your JoliCloud.

I refer to my configuration:

• Acer AspireOne 250D 2GB Ram, Atom N280
• Lexar 8GB Flash USB drive
• JoliCloud Pre-beta

Very quck install notes:

JoliCloud can be installed by downloading an exe file from its website. The exe will burn anUSB flash drive that can be used as the target of the installation. Once you booted the USB you can immediately choose to install JoliCloud on your hard-disk (by repartitioning it) or on a separate volume.

File-system and partition choices for an USB flash drive

In the installer choose the manual partitioner: it’s advisable to create working partitions in XFS or JFS and do not create a swap area. A flash drive has a limited life in terms of writes: Ext3 has autocommit operations that keep the drive being constantly written on the same blocks. No good. Same story for a Swap: you won’t need it if you have a decent RAM configuration.

It overwrites the MBR..

Per se it might not be an issue but in the case of the Flash drive installation you have a GRUB-written MBR that needs the Flash Drive for the configuration and menu files. It’s not desirable. Moreover you find yourself exposed when you change back the boot order of the device.
A dirty hack that works with an Acer or any other machine with an MSI BIOS is:

Install JoliCloud.

$ Sudo passwd root (change root password)

su (enter password)

fdisk –l  (and check on which device where the Windows partitions are. Usually on /dev/sda)

Reboot with a Windows XP disk, enter console recovery and write back the MBR by doing:

Fixmbr \Device\HardDisk0 (where 0 corresponds o sda as from previous fdis’s output)

Reboot, Windows boots again, fine. Reboot once again.

At startup press F12 (keep it pressed) to enter the boot device menu (this is specific for the Acer BIOS, I cannot guarantee it’s the same for other machines). You can choose the USB drive and boot JoliCloud again.

Sidenote: Wndows XP versions previous than SP3 wont boot on the ACER 250D unless you don’t disable the AHCI option from the BIOS (set it to IDE). Don’t forget to set it back to the default value once the MBR is repaired otherwise you end up having the same disk performances of a Commodore 64.

Horrible isn’t it?

The speed issue

It’s true. It runs at 1.33Ghz.

The fact is that the  kernel is getting the incorrect CPU speed from the BIOS ACPI tables. Try booting with the kernel boot option

acpi=off

If you get the full 1.66GHz with this option it means that your BIOS is reporting the wrong speed.

Check this bug report on the Ubuntu forums:

https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/cpufreqd/+bug/422858

At the moment there is no BIOS update. Keep in mind that this problem plagues several netbook vendors: Lenovo, for example.

Conclusions

I like it. It’s not yet a consumer product but it’s very near to be a good one. It does need some user-friendly traits but it’s, by far, the most usable desktop on Linux I have ever seen. Perhaps because t’s not a desktop

Building Web applications is less onerous than writing code for the desktop, the iPhone and Android platforms are a good example on how fast a vertical marketplace can be grown up by using the online app approach.

Would I use it? I do, actually, even if I still do not understand where is the Cloud here.

The CEO of Strategic News Service is oracular again (curious how prescience occurs just before quarter’s end) and is here to enlighten us on our near future.

It might be me but I am not impressed: 2010 seems to become a very boring year, all trends he describes are already very, very visible now.

And then he drops the bomb, somehow reaching to impress paying public and non-tech press : “There will be a Cloud Catastrophe in 2010 that limits Cloud growth by raising security issues and restricting enterprise trust.  CIOs will see the cloud as the doorstep for industrial espionage.”

Slow day, indeed… Nothing new to see, move along.

Side-Note: The picture is about a famous Italian Cabalist born around 1600 and said to exercise divination arts with dubious results. A go on Wikipedia will head you to an Italian-only page but Google translates it pretty well.

It’s an unfiltered (presumably) insight of a London’s VC expert that claims European start-ups are not working hard enough as their Silicon Valley’s counterparts. The writer adds that in US is easier o find talented workforce than in the EU and explains this as a consequence of our protectionism against cutthroat internal competition. In short, if we take for granted what the author says, we, Europeans, are much more busy to care preserving our lifestyle than keeping up with the pace the world is spinning*.

It’s a fact: in USA people work harder than us, no wonders why: the system there is pretty sharper when it’s about success or failure; their competitive approach is actually beneficial and generating a staggering amount of new opportunities. It’s sort of Business Darwinism 2.0.

By the time you read this, the article has gathered a lot of comments, many are nailing very hard the cultural divide that distinguishes us from our US friends and there is little left to add for me except some real-life considerations:

• Start-up businesses in Europe bind their views to local markets first. It’s a mixed blessing that help them grow in their own eco-system and becomes a limiting factor later.
• In small and developing companies, people do actually work more than 40 hours a week. I receive a lot of relevant e-mails on week-ends. Even in Europe e-mail cannot be that slow that it takes a whole weekend to arrive.
• Access to funding is harder in Europe while, market reach imposes higher investments. EU start-ups face a situation where they need money to achieve visibility but they don’t get it because they are not visible (something that comes more for granted in US where one language and one culture are shared among 270 millions people) . Call it catch 22.
• We don’t fit the American model. It’s that simple. While it is a personal opinion, it seems to be supported by the many reactions I get when I address the subject in IT circles.

Europeans might be doomed because of their distasteful tendency to sip Martinis in the evening sun in Ibiza or because they still call for the right to ski on the Matterhorn (sorry for the French-speaking: Cervin, sorry again for the Italian-speaking: Cervino).

Whatever our fate would be: what VCs have to offer is not enough to change our “lifestyle” I suppose. Otherwise is in the human nature to take the most opportunistic way.

*Off the records: I think it took us around 2,750 years to come to some sort of balance, I can understand why some of us oppose consistent resiliency towards cultural models others than our old-fashioned European way of life.

I received this e-mail on Friday saying that “@botchagalupe is in town, feel like a beer together?”.

Botchagalupe aka John Willis is one of the best known Cloud evangelists and a legend in System Management; he is actually “involved” with Canonical and spreading the word on agility and life-cycle management on Cloud. You can read his thoughts on his well known blog.

The e-mail came from Kris Buytaert: Mr. “Everything is a freaking DNS problem“. If you don’t get it (the DNS, I mean) you are a candidate for one of his T-Shirts but you actually might not want it
Besides his passion for printed textiles, he is an Open Source specialist that has been giving a strong contribution to the community by maintaining several projects, among them OpenMosix. Kris is an Inuit and is deeply involved in DevOps. Read his blog here.

The mentioned town is Antwerp which happens to be in Belgium: a land that holds the record for the number of beer sorts (around 9.000).

 (Cloud + Vision)/Beer = entropic talking

So, while the Kwak came and went, we had quite an interesting time jumping on diverse topics (for the record: I carefully kept away from technicalities, I don’t want Kris to produce a Cloud T-shirt just for me!).
Of the many views we shared there is one on where I want to risk my neck and tell world+dog what I think:

I believe the majority of the IT community does not fully understand what revolution Cloud Computing is bringing, thus far.

John is pretty sharp in defining Cloud Computing: “It’s an operational model“.

Amen… I agree.

And I would like to add: “Cloud Computing is not relevant, per se!, What is really relevant is the whole new class of problems and solutions that are to be introduced adopting this operational model“.

The scale of Cloud Computing demands much more than what we are used to when we talk about security, efficient resource management, application architectures.

Thanks God, implementing Cloud Computing is a matter either of failing or being successful with the incentive of having results exposed to public (or private) “ludibrium”. The outcome might be a good kind of pressure: stimulus to innovation and consistency.

As I see it: Cloud Computing imposes maturity by visibility. That’s the real revolution.

Oh, and maturity might become the next big viral infection; every CIO of this planet could become a potential target as soon as an efficient and maintainable operational model becomes ubiquitous, measurable and, most of all, commoditized.

At the end Cloud Computing might be as relevant as silicon: everywhere but totally hidden before our eyes while maturity, Oh gosh!! That would keep knocking at the door of every IT shop.

Keep playing with PaaS, SaaS, IaaS or whatever aaS you might think of: it’s an operational model.

And, most of the time, it’s a freaking DNS problem