Larry Ellison does near-standup comic rif on cloud computing
I've come out pretty strong against the fad of "cloud computing", which has spent the better part of the last year at the top of my most-hated buzzword list. In private, I've even been known to threaten that the next PR person to send me a release using the word "cloud" was going to get it, right between the Prada frames. So, imagine my glee while watching one of my heroes -- Oracle's chief samurai warrior and jet pilot, Larry Ellison -- drop effortlessly into a riff on cloud computing while talking to a room at the Churchill Club.
Ellison makes a pretty solid argument that cloud computing isn't just the future, it's also the present and the past. This from a man who just bought Sun Microsystems -- a company which sported "The network is the computer" as its slogan, more than a decade before the first marketroid said cloud.
In Soviet Russia, cloud computing makes fun of you.
Take the leap to see Lawrence "Shecky" Ellison in action.
So, just how good at time waster games are you? Think you've got the stuff? Well, The World's Hardest Game 2.0 doesn't think you do.
Yes, amazingly, it's possible to have a sequel to a game called "The World's Hardest Game". It doesn't seem logically possible, since if the first one was actually the world's hardest, how could another one come along and share the moniker? It made me doubt the name in the first place. That is, until I tried the game.
The mechanics of the game are very simple. You are a small red square, ...
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
penguin.balances said 7:38PM on 10-05-2009
quite odd considering a decade ago he was championing the "network computer" which was a simple PC that stored everything elsewhere.
http://news.cnet.com/Ellison-resurrects-network-computer/2100-1001_3-233137.html
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Rob said 8:53PM on 10-05-2009
I think you missed the point - Ellison admits to doing "cloud" computing for the past decade, it's the term "cloud" that he is taking umbrage with, not the concept.
Adam Miner said 10:17PM on 10-05-2009
So why do we have a picture of yakov schminoff from branson, MO ?
A comedian too...
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Grant Robertson said 5:46PM on 10-06-2009
Because it's 2009 and I'm still making "In Soviet Russia ... " jokes.
-- yanks at collar --
Geeze, tough room. Did you people just get out of a wake?
I kid, I kid.
chris said 11:10PM on 10-05-2009
Larry Ellison is a self absorbed jackass.
Sure "cloud" computing is a stupid term. We used to draw clouds in network diagrams to represent the internet. Marketing yahoos need something catchy so they can sell it.
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Grant Robertson said 5:59PM on 10-06-2009
Yes, I'll totally agree, but he's a really really smart jackass. Sometimes it just takes a douchebag.
Jeremy Dixon said 8:27AM on 10-06-2009
I agree, I thought Ellison was all about this whole idea in the past. I suppose he's just upset he missed out on it becoming popular...
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Alex M said 5:44PM on 10-06-2009
Grant, this was awesome! Thanks.
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