Potpourri Great Reads

I have been caught up with work today and am not at my sharpest due to a decent cold.  However, I did get the opportunity to read some great articles and commentary today that I would like to share with you.

GWoT - Fortitude and Caution

Marvin Hutchens at ThreatsWatch writes an exceptional commentary that puts the recent Beltway debate on the war in Iraq in the proper context.

"To those who believe our departure from Iraq on any terms other than the successful establishment of a stable and secure Iraq – capable of defending its people and interests against internal and external enemies – I would offer caution. Caution your words against their unexpected adoption by our enemies, caution your hearts against the forgetfulness of hours passed, and by all means caution your aspirations.

The fortitude required to check that which we are most assured of equals the fortitude to hold such positions at all."

Why Google Is Brilliant

This article is the best analysis I have read of Google's long term strategic planning and why it is closer to a "Wal-Mart" in success than a "Microsoft".

"The same follows for the rumor that Google, as a dark fiber buyer, will turn itself into some kind of super ISP. Won't happen. And WHY it won't happen is because ISPs are lousy businesses and building one as anything more than an experiment (as they are doing in San Francisco with wireless) would only hurt Google's earnings.

So why buy-up all that fiber, then?

The probable answer lies in one of Google's underground parking garages in Mountain View. There, in a secret area off-limits even to regular GoogleFolk, is a shipping container. But it isn't just any shipping container. This shipping container is a prototype data center. Google hired a pair of very bright industrial designers to figure out how to cram the greatest number of CPUs, the most storage, memory and power support into a 20- or 40-foot box. We're talking about 5000 Opteron processors and 3.5 petabytes of disk storage that can be dropped-off overnight by a tractor-trailer rig. The idea is to plant one of these puppies anywhere Google owns access to fiber, basically turning the entire Internet into a giant processing and storage grid."

Logical Thinking

tdaxp with its trademark graphs, charts and flow diagrams writes a well resourced post "Globalization is Water: The Magic Cloud"

China bids on former Howard Air Force Base in Panama

Cheat-Seeking Missiles calls the US State Department (which wasn't following the sale to the Chinese and gets a response).

"The State Department's Panama Desk and its embassy in Panama City are both watching Friday's sale of mothballed Howard Airforce Base with concern ... but not too much concern.

'We don't see an air strip as a possibility, and neither does our embassy. If it were, it would be a concern,' Greg Schiffer of State's Panama Desk told me today.

He acknowledged that redevelopment plans for the property could include its use for air transport purposes, but 'not as a military base.'"

Enjoy!

Comments

[Jeff]

Very interesting article on Google. Thanks for the tip.