“If you’re the right person, contact me. You’re smart enough to figure out how, and what to say when you do. (And tell me whose picture that is up at the top).”

In the comments section, there’s a link from a Ric Steinberger, but I’m pretty sure it’s a virus rather than an application form

Please let me know how you would like to take things from here. Or you can privately email me at everitt [dot] rory [at] gmail [dot] com.

“I think there is a world market for maybe five computers.”

Thomas Watson, IBM, 1943. (misquote)

“Why the four others?”

JFNO, 2006.

It’s like insisting on talking about the numbers of CPU in a computer. After feeling all smug about myself, I thought about a short story where I saw the notion of one computer for everyone. “The Last Question” by Isaac Asimov was written in 1956 and the balance between a multitude of computers and one mega-computer is nicely presented. The throughput and latency of the connections are the factor that make the distinction disappear.

To simplify the debate, it really comes down to whether computing is best done in centralized hubs (which can leverage economies of scale, virtualization of hardware, etc) or at the end nodes (or “terminals” as they were called in Watson’s day). This assumes that traffic between the hub and nodes is smooth, efficient, and cost effective, which has only happened recently for mobile devices.

There will always be some need for computing at the node, at the very least when a user needs to be offline or when extreme security measures are necessary. Imagine trying to tell your boss that you couldn’t complete the spreadsheet analysis because your 4G signal dropped! I think there will also continue to be some edge content creation cases which are best done at the node, such as audio recording (although the editing process may go to the cloud).

Computing at the hub really excels for meeting the needs of a) lots of computational horsepower b) unlimited and always-available content storage and c) real-time data feeds/updates. Amazon’s EC2, Box.net, and Twitter are examples of cloud products that are tackling those specific needs. But I see the general trend of users wanting products that are convenient, collaborative, and heavily networked to be leveraging the most relevant and real-time information. This suggests a continued push to the cloud, and centralized computing, for the majority of consumer and business needs.

Two caveats: there may be a backlash against cloud computing if security breaches of cloud companies continue to be an issue, and not everyone will be willing to give up edge control to a handful of extremely powerful companies (as you alluded to).

John, as a side-note, I just saw your George Harding post. Since the job opening is still up on the Federated Media site, I assume you’re still waiting for your lightning.

I’m currently in career transition and am extremely intrigued by this opportunity. I graduated from Stanford 4 years ago, worked for McKinsey & Company in NYC, and most recently started (and just closed) my own company, http://www.gardenzip.com. I love reading paperbacks, debating interesting topics, and writing for my new blog (www.foodisloving.com).

Let’s talk. You can reach me at everitt [dot] rory [at] gmail [dot] com.

Cloud computing holds a lot of promise, but I don’t think we’ll ever see a complete shift