The Wisdon of the Clouds

aside from the wonderful novel, cloud atlas, we
have to put up with the latest internet fad in
cloud computing

but enough about xen - now
how to compare two competely different network architectures?

think about these:

1. internet & telephone
2. road and rail
3. food chain, family tree
4. social network, circulatory system

what is common and what would be a category error to try to compare?

a) user perception/mental model

1 - computers transfer information around v. humans communicate with each other
2. I can drive my car from a to b v. i get to sit and read a newspaper
going from a to b
3. a eats b eats c v. a begat b begat c
4. I know she thinks he hates her v. blood gets oxygen to let ADP/ATP
changes work so muscles can do things

b) economics
1. anyone can put any information application anywhere and everyone
else can use it - k*n^2 scale in income v.
I can call you or you call me....
2. road infrastructure is there, everyone has own vehicle v.
track and rolling stock are both infrastructures.
3. you need constant supply of food, so there has to be breeding as
well as good chain v. you convert O2 to CO2 so you need plants to do
CO2 -> O2 ,or we are in trouble - i.e. mutual dependency
4. If I know who relates to who and context, I can advertise right
good and services to them

c) technology
1. smart network + dumb edge, v. dumb network + smart edge
2. expensive wasteful car v. efficient rail, + user choose when to go,
but not control journey time, v. operator chooses when to go and
control journey time
3. biosphere v.
4. facebook and internet v. arteries and veins & heart

d) complexity
1. need moores law for end systems to keep going,
v. telephone service becomes marginal profit business
2. if oil and safety cost too high, individual car ownership bad idea
whereas if cheap, rail isnot worth infrastructure costs
3. food chain is exponential complexity, family tree is just
logarithmic
4 social net structures follow power law - so does artierial system

e) application/intended use
1. phones were origianlly thought to be useful for music (less
interference than radio) whereas internet was originally intended for
command and control and distributed community for US army.
2. road were for armiens to invade places - rail for industrial
revolution working class to go on vacation.
3. predators and prey...
4 advertising