Stuff that I'm writing and commenting on (and occasionally photographing)
Management infrastructure testing - Tues 22 May, 7.00 - 9.00am
21 May 2012
Please be aware that we will be testing parts of our management infrastructure for vCloud Compute between 7.00 and 9.00am on Tuesday 22 May (tomorrow). We do not expect this to have an impact on customer VMs but, as a precaution, we suggest that you do NOT make any significant ... [read more]
Eduserv Symposium write-up
18 May 2012
From my eFoundations blog... Big Data - size doesn't matter, it's the way you use it that counts ...at least, that's what they tell me! Here's my brief take on this year's Eduserv Symposium, Big Data, big deal?, which took place in London last Thursday and which was, by all the accounts I've seen ... [read more]
Big Data - size doesn't matter, it's the way you use it that counts
18 May 2012
...at least, that's what they tell me! Here's my brief take on this year's Eduserv Symposium, Big Data, big deal?, which took place in London last Thursday and which was, by all the accounts I've seen and heard, a pretty good event. The day included a mix of talks, from an expansive ... [read more]
Facebook vs. Google: Comparing the value of the largest online display advertising networks
18 May 2012
I can no longer work for a system that puts profit over access to research
17 May 2012
Today I resigned from the editorial board of a well respected journal in my field – Genomics. No longer can I work for a system that provides solid profits for the publisher while effectively denying colleagues in developing countries access to research findings.It has ... [read more]
Ukulele market crashes
16 May 2012
Experts had predicted the crash – which follows a year-long ‘speculative uke bubble’ during which legions of middle-aged men took up the inexpensive instrument in the hope it might make them feel alive again – although they have been shocked by its severity. via thedailymash.co.uk ... [read more]
Service desk URL change
4 May 2012
You may have noticed that the URL for this support area has recently changed. We've done this as part of transitioning from a project (the UMF Cloud Pilot) to a service (our Education Cloud). No need to panic - any old URLs that you have got bookmarked will continue to ... [read more]
Ubuntu 12.04 LTS vApp Template
1 May 2012
I've added a new single-VM vApp Template for Ubuntu 12.04 LTS to our public catalog. It's built using the same config options as our other Ubuntu vApp templates, so the root password is auto-generated as part of guest OS customization and the same password is copied across to the 'ubuntu' ... [read more]
WTF
19 Apr 2012
Fair Benchmarking for Cloud Computing Systems
18 Apr 2012
There's a really interesting report (funded by the EPSRC) from Lee Gillam, et al. at the University of Surrey entitled Fair Benchmarking for Cloud Computing Systems. The report looks at various metrics for benchmarking cloud providers, the challenges presented by undertaking this kind of activity across different providers, and the relationship between ... [read more]
Moonshot - experiments with federated access management to the cloud
16 Apr 2012
Moonshot is a project led by JANET(UK) to develop technology to enable federated-access beyond Web-based services. The project, which is currently in the technical pilot phase, is an implementation of the ABFAB architecture. This allows applications written to the GSS-API to support federated authentication using GSS-EAP and RADIUS. This enables a bridge by which a ... [read more]
Darwin Streaming Server vApp template
13 Apr 2012
I've added a Darwin Streaming Server vApp template to our public catalog. This is built from our Ubuntu 10.04 vApp template (and therefore behaves like our other Ubuntu vApps), using the 6.0.3 release of the Darwin Streaming Server (DSS) as per the instructions at http://blog.rachaelbond.com/darwin-media-server/. DSS is an open source version of Apple's QuickTime ... [read more]
China, the world's largest online population
12 Apr 2012
iRODS vApp template
11 Apr 2012
iRODS™, the Integrated Rule-Oriented Data System, is a data grid software system developed by the Data Intensive Cyber Environments research group (developers of the SRB, the Storage Resource Broker), and collaborators. The iRODS system is based on expertise gained through a decade of applying the SRB technology in support of Data Grids, ... [read more]
Big data, big deal?
2 Apr 2012
Some of you may have noticed that Eduserv's annual symposium is happening on May 10. Once again, we're at the Royal College of Physicians in London and this year we are looking at big data, appropriate really... since 2012 has been widely touted as being the year of big data. Here's ... [read more]
Photographing: Jemma and Will's first dance - 31 March 2012
30 Mar 2012
Read more at eFoundations, Blipfoto and Aggregate.
andy@andypowe11.net
+44 (0) 7989 476 710
OpenID: http://andypowe11.net/
I live in Bath (UK) where I am Research Programme Director at Eduserv (a not-for-profit IT service provider for education, health and the public sector), partner to Sara, father to Daisy, Wilf and Stan, a regular cyclist, wannabe photographer, and crap guitar player. That's all you need to know.
I am not the Wishbone Ash guitarist or a Welsh rugby player.