Quentin Hardy

Google: Let a Billion Supercomputers Bloom

bits.blogs.nytimes.com — Google's strategy to beat Amazon.com and Microsoft in the global business for public clouds is now clear: Swarm 'em. At last week's Google I/O developer's conference, the search giant was at pains to closely tie Google Compute Engine, or G.C.E., its competitor to Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure (and Rackspace, and a host of other public clouds) with Google App Engine, its Web application development service, as well as cloud storage.

Cisco: Big Data Is the Network, Too

bits.blogs.nytimes.com — John Chambers says the profits from Cisco Systems' new strategy are still one to three years away. The strategy, however, is already becoming more clear: Big Data will only work if it's delivered through the network, and that could go hand-in-hand with consolidation among companies that specialize in data analysis and networking or traditional computing.

qhardy: Meantime, in the other America ...

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How to Legalize Pot

nytimes.com — THE first time I talked to Mark Kleiman, a drug policy expert at U.C.L.A., was in 2002, and he explained why legalization of marijuana was a bad idea. Sure, he said, the government should remove penalties for possession, use and cultivation of small amounts.