cloud computing (and python)?

[PatrickMinnesota]

On Jan 2, 9:33 am, Aaron Watters <aaron.watt... at gmail.com> wrote:
> > I must admit I feel a hint of amusement though at your comment above, when
> > it's sent from precisely the sort of setup you appear bemused by - since
> > you appear to have already bought into it without realising ! :-D
>
> Ok, so if we include yahoo mail and gmail in "cloud computing" then I
> guess
> usenet is also cloud computing.  How about ftp?  ssh? nfs? Oh I get
> it.  It's
> another meaningless marketing buzz phrase.
>
> I mean, really, I've been using web-mail and various varieties of
> remote
> storage for over a decade.  What is *new* about the concept?  (I see
> some
> hints above, but it's mixed in with a lot of other stuff...)
>
>   -- Aaron Watters
>
> ===http://www.xfeedme.com/nucular/pydistro.py/go?FREETEXT=fud

Aaron -

I would say that the biggest difference between what people have been
doing
for decades and what is now being referred to as 'cloud computing' is
the applications.

The idea of the cloud is that the application, like a word processor
for instance, is
not running or installed on your computer.  It's running on Google's
servers, or
Zoho's servers etc.  Your data is also stored on their servers.  So
yeah, it's kind of
like the old diskless X-Terminal setup and is totally contrary to how
companies like
Microsoft would like the world to work.  The other main difference
seems to be that
'cloud computing' runs under a different revenue model than
traditional applications
like Microsoft Office.  Google Apps, in it's most basic form is free
and so are most
of the others.  They are monetizing in a different way than Microsoft
does when it
sells you Office for $500 or whatever.