perspicacitas

Too Many Users of "Big Cloud" Big Suckers

2012-08-12T16:16:00.000-04:00

I'm with Woz -- "Big Cloud" is not getting the wariness it deserves. Too many consumers and businesses are inhaling the boundless volumes of hot, breathless hype and encouragement from providers and developers to skip due diligence. Those users consequently place themselves at significant risk of significant harm without sufficient reason.

All it takes to avoid being a sucker is answering a few simple questions. But Big Cloud is betting on today's users being too lazy, greedy, or easily distractible to answer the right questions sufficiently, much less ask them in the first place. And so far it's been a winning bet.

A clearer day for the Cloud. For a PDF, click this.

Providers of Big Cloud providers love it because it's a ginormous goldmine. Software developers and academia love Big Cloud because it's more fun than a barrel of monkeys (shiny, golden monkeys...). Users are attracted to Big Cloud because it endows them with some magical abilities ("Syncspelliarmus!"™) without having to engage their own technological or intellectual resources. But as always, there's a price. And for many, if they knew what that price was, they'd keep their feet on the ground.

The questions demanding answer are few and simple: how could it cost me, how much could it cost me, how likely is it to cost me, and what cost is acceptable to me. The answers, however, take work, and a non-trivial amount of it. But with apologies to Jeff Foxworthy -- "if you're usin' the cloud without understandin' the cloud...you might be a sucker."

So, heed the warnings. Take the sales pitches with grains of salt. Read the fine print. Do the homework. Who knows...soon enough, users may tire of perpetual subscription fees, unintended consequences, lack of ownership, and lack of control; the inexorable march of progress may enable attractive personal "cloud" server appliances; and the pendulum may swing back, away from mainframe computing and towards personal computing once again.

Google Shopping Quits Web -- Time to Quit Google Shopping

2012-07-28T17:45:00.000-04:00

Google Shopping. Google Products. Froogle. Whatever you call it, it used to be the world's far-and-away most complete online shopping search engine. That was by virtue of being simply another form of the world's far-and-away most complete index of Web pages, Google Web. "Used to be" -- because by the end of fall 2012, Google will have quietly junked its decade-old service of giving shoppers the whole World-Wide Web filtered of only those pages lacking something for sale, and replaced it wholesale with a completely unrelated middleman "service" blocking any visibility between shoppers and sellers who do not pay (and pay, and pay, and keep on paying...). While, of course, continuing to make it appear exactly the same...apparently in the hopes that nobody important will notice. Sneaky-sneaky, sir...ole'.

That's right, Google will have effectively shut down Google Shopping's giant pipeline to the vast Web ocean, and replaced it with a bendy-straw to a bucket of only those sellers who pay expressly to get in that bucket and then continue paying to stay in. Google tried to pass it off as the concept known as "paid-inclusion" -- this excellent article by Danny Sullivan of Search Engine Land discusses the technical details, and this one by Ina Steiner of eCommerce Bytes gives the seller's perspective. But from the shopper's perspective which I think needs attention, the most critical point is that paid-inclusion implies exactly nothing about free-inclusion. I have no problem with paid-inclusion. What Google is actually implementing is "free-exclusion". And free-exclusion, without sufficient moral justification, is...well...certainly not "good".

I struggle to see the ways in which abandoning Google Shopping for "Google Middleman"™ could ultimately make sense...for anyone. On the most fundamental level of course, it's all about the Benjamins, right? I mean, it's business, after all. So, some power-majority within the Google Corporate Colossus must have concluded that the necessarily-not-world's-largest exclusive-country-club model of marketplace is significantly more likely to make them a significant amount of profit which is significantly greater than the necessarily-world's-largest open-air bazaar model of marketplace.

I find not one of those conclusions likely, much less the combination of all three, because it requires significant unreasonable presumptions. It presumes that enough sellers get enough profit from Google Shopping business to make them both willing and able to pay. Highly unlikely, Captain. It also presumes that enough shoppers find a necessarily-not-world's-largest exclusive-country-club marketplace to be of sufficient (and sufficiently greater) utility than all the present "open source" alternatives on which to expend their limited and precious time and energy. I don't think so, Tim.

What it sounds like is exactly what would happen if some critical mass of persuasive Google stakeholders couldn't see past the cartoon dollar-signs on their eyeballs. Perhaps by throwing around shiny (but wholly unrealistic) terms like "The App Store of Cybershopping". Which, by the way, wasn't a possibility even back in 2002 at Froogle's debut thanks to the then already existing multitude of free-inclusion alternatives such as BizRate.

On another level, Google supposedly values (valued?) Not Being Evil. So, some power-majority within the Google Corporate Colossus must have rationalized that the necessarily-not-world's-largest exclusive-country-club marketplace is of sufficiently greater benefit to a sufficiently greater number of shoppers than the necessarily-world's-largest open-air bazaar marketplace. I.e., that having a middleman does more Good for more people than not having a middleman.

Again, neither of those conclusions seems likely, much less both together. For it to be true, a significant portion of shoppers would have to prefer less knowledge, fewer choices, higher prices, supporting bigger & richer sellers at the expense of smaller or poorer ones, and entire shopping failures. That dog won't hunt, Monsignor. If enough shoppers didn't prefer more choice, malls wouldn't be more popular than Main Street. If enough shoppers didn't get more satisfaction from the hunt than from the time and energy spent, there wouldn't be so much driving around looking for and waiting in line at the 1-penny-less gas pump. If so many shoppers didn't want something unavailable from, or priced lower than, the bigger & richer sellers, the thousands upon thousands of smaller or poorer sellers wouldn't have the online business case they obviously do.

If there was a market demand for more middlemen, there would be more middlemen. But middlemen thrive because of market inefficiency. Certainly, middlemen can do a lot of good to make a sufficiently inefficient market more efficient. But the Web is not sufficiently inefficient, so inserting a middleman results in a net market efficiency loss, with the only possible (and arguable) beneficiary being Google. That's "Not Being Evil"?

If Google really concluded that free-exclusion is fundamentally financially and morally superior to free-inclusion, then they would have tested their conclusion by offering both. They would have left the historical Google Shopping alone, put up their new free-exclusion service side-by-side, and let the market vindicate them. They could have called it Google Club™, or Google Concierge™, or Google Platinum™, or Google Elite™, or Google Tower™, or Goobai™. (Google Middleman probably wouldn't do so well...).

Or if Google really wanted just to implement paid-inclusion in Google Shopping, then they would have simply...implemented paid-inclusion in Google Shopping. The way Amazon bubbles "Featured Merchants" up to the top of the "More Buying Choices" pages. I have no problem with that.

Or if Google really wanted just to improve shopping, they would work on shopping's biggest problem: context. The most critical need in cybershopping is for intelligence to differentiate primary object identifiers from attribute object identifiers on a selling page (and for separate entry fields to specify them). For example, when I search for a scarf sorting by price, don't show me a book about a scarf or a toy wearing a scarf. (At least...that's what it did a few days ago, but as of 7/28/12 it's returning nothing at all.) Alternately, if I want to see what kinds of things have a scarf, don't show me just a scarf (unless it's wearing another scarf...product idea!). And don't tell me I have to sacrifice price-sort for some kind of mutually-exclusive "relevance"-sort, because saving money is the second of the raisons d'etre of shopping. And certainly don't tell me that inserting a middleman is going to help fulfill any of those.

The completeness of Google Shopping's source data was the very thing that created the confidence I had found the absolute best example I could of thing for my requirements and then had found the absolute best price-trustworthiness compromise I could for my tastes. But the New Google Shopping, by design, guarantees incompleteness. There is nothing a Web shopping middleman can do for me that I want done, only things a Web shopping middleman can do to me that I don't want done. Google, in one fell swoop, transmogrified Google Shopping from from the most valuable thing to the least valuable thing...from gold, to...well...something not quite as valuable as lead. So I vote the observation by taking my eyeballs elsewhere. I think everybody should.

Now I must "progress" to 2002, re-evaluate multiple shopping engines, and figure out the new smallest set which will yield a satisfying completeness-effort compromise. Before Froogle I had mostly settled on a combination of BizRate, Yahoo! Shopping (for its huge index of little-guy Yahoo! Stores), and individual seller sites. Now I have to see who else, by virtue of free-inclusion, might be trusted to meta-index the limited indices like Amazon Marketplace, eBay, Etsy, and eCrater, and the little guys like those in Hong Kong, Singapore, etc., the way I used to trust Google Shopping to do (as permitted). Google (Web) returns plenty of shopping-engine lists like Search Engine Watch, ListOfSearchEngines.Info, SmartMoney, and CPC Strategy...it's gonna be a slog. Got any ideas? Please share in the comments.

National Cherry Blossom Festival 2011 - Grand Sushi Event, Washington, D.C.

2011-04-01T23:59:00.007-04:00

After trudging around in the cold rain for 3 hours trying to participate in the 2011 National Cherry Blossom Festival, find photogenic views of the sakura, and express solidarity with troubled Japan in some small way, it was a relief at 6 p.m. to finally arrive at the National Geographic Grosvenor Auditorium for the NCBF / Nat Geo Live! Grand Sushi Event, consign my wet coat and hat to coat-check, and begin drying out.

Relief, that is, until I was informed that 7 p.m. was not the time to commence eating but the time to commence seating, and there was to be a 4th hour of standing in a line. Not the conditions a $100 event would lead one to expect, and quite a damper of enthusiasm for future Nat Geo Live! events.

The theme of the dinner (I had to stop referring to it as the event) was sustainability, which much of contemporary fish consumption obviously is not, and it was hosted by chefs / authors / sustainability-advocates Casson Trenor and Barton Seaver and sponsored and supplied by Pennsylvania-based Whole Foods supplier Genji.

The menu, designed by Genji Executive Chef Miki Willis, consisted of 7 courses and a (non-paired) selection of 6 beverages.

Beverages

White wine: Terrazas Reserva Torrontes 2006 (Argentina)
White wine: Terrazas Chardonnay 2009 (Argentina)
Red wine: Santa Julia Reserva Malbec 2008 (Argentina)
Red wine: Norton Malbec 2009 (Argentina)
Sake: Ichishima Genshu (Japan)
Water: unfiltered tap (DC)

The grape wines I did not give much attention, although the selection appeared reasonable for the cuisine.

The sake was low-midrange, slightly sweet, very little fragrance with a single note of honey, and not much complexity. A fair table sake. But here's where the problems begin.

For $100 there should have been a better, drier, more fragrant, more complex sake. To keep costs down I would at least have had a selection of 2: the existing one in a larger quantity, and a better one in a smaller quantity. That way, any who wished could have experienced a better sake, even if it ran out sooner.
All 5 wines reportedly "ran out" without warning before the 6th and most substantial sushi course. That's an error, regardless of price.
Chlorine was noticeable in the tap water (and/or ice). I love tap water, but when it is treated with chlorine (as D.C.'s is), it should be filtered. Especially for $100. Additionally, I would have offered sparkling water.
No tea! That's an even bigger error than prematurely running out of all flavored beverages.

Fortunately, that's where the significant problems ended. I hope Chef Miki was not responsible for beverages, because that was the only notably problematic aspect of the entire dinner.

Courses

1st Course:　冷菜　／　Appetizer

Piri-Kara Katsuo Namerou, Goma Ponzu　／　Skipjack Spicy Miso Tartar on Cucumber Slices surrounded by Rice Crackers, with Sesame Ponzu Dressing

Finally, nearly 8 p.m: itadakimasu! [I take your life!] Anything would have tasted good at this point, but I think this really was oishii [tasty]. Spicy, umami [savory], good flavor, good combination of 3 different textures. Note the homage to the cherry blossom in the 5-petal design. Sustainability: skipjack tuna is by far the most sustainable because it is significantly smaller, faster reproducing, and more prolific than other tuna.

2nd Course:　お造り　／　Sashimi

Wild Salmon Kombu　／　Kelp Salmon Pastrami over Mizuna Leaf and Julienned Daikon Radish Salad with Creamy Yuzu Dressing, Ikura [Salmon Roe], and Ito-Gatsuo [Shaved Bonito]

Salmon is not my favorite fish due to its noticeably fishier flavor relative to other fish, but the dish was good. But if they wanted me to eat that whole pile of daikon, then they should have put dressing on it instead of just on the fish. Note the homage to the cherry blossom in the 5-petal design. Sustainability: despite it spending the longest phase of its natural lifecycle (growth) in salt water, salmon is technically a fresh-water fish. Thus, by virtue of the relative ease of fresh-water fish farming over salt, salmon is more sustainable.

3rd Course:　汁物　／　Soup

Kani Tonyu Jiru　／　Local (Maryland?) Blue Crab in Soy Milk Miso Broth

(Sorry about the blurry photo; this was my first attempt at food-blogging, and I didn't know that I couldn't see the LCD well enough to notice this kind of flaw. Note to self: shoot thrice, ask questions later.) Being a Marylander, I naturally moderated my expectations...but was very happily surprised. Miso broth is already a classic Japanese seafood soup base, and blue crab is no exception. And while I generally avoid soy-nthetic replacements for "real" foods, soy "milk" turned out to be astoundingly good in soup. It has a risotto-like fatless creaminess which works very well, and a natural sweetness which is a perfect accent for seafood. A perfectly oishii combination. And I finally had a use for some of the Western flatware: the soup spoon (obviously), and the butter knife, which made a superb crab picking knife (thanks, Whitey!) with which to enjoy that half a crab. Which I most certainly did. But if you know Marylanders, then you know there was one omission holding this dish back from perfection. That's right: Old Bay. Just a pinch, either cooked in or sprinkled on, would have made it ichiban [number 1]. Sustainability: Seaver beat around the question but never actually answered it. I suspect because blue crab is only middling in sustainability, and efforts to sustain it are already decades old and lumbering along.

4th Course:　旬野菜３品盛合わせ　／　Local Produce Sampler

* Kale & Hotate Himo Kurumi Ae　／　Blanched Kale and Simmered Scallop Adductor with Creamy Walnut Sauce
* Beet & Hotate Umezu Ae　／　Roasted Beet and Fresh Scallop with Japanese Plum Vinegar Dressing
* Negi & Hotate Nuta　／　Sauteed Leek and Seared Scallop with Vinegared Japanese Mustard Miso

I must begin by saying that all three of these were very flavorful and I enjoyed them all, especially the excellent middle one. (And also, that the menu listed them in the opposite order, but I did not read it carefully enough to notice that I had to eat right-to-left. Suddenly my notes make much more sense....) But were I an Iron Chef judge, I would be compelled to add the following, presuming the "secret ingredient" to be scallop. On the first one, the walnut sauce was like a lovely nut-butter but overpowered the delecate flavor of the scallop, while the cooked kale had an interesting, chewy texture which overwhelmed the delecate texture of the scallop. The middle one was perfect; the texture, flavor, and color of the beet excellently and intriguingly complementing the texture, flavor, and color of the scallop. The third had one of the problems of the first: the vinegared mustard miso had a wonderful, interesting flavor, but overwpowered the flavor of the scallop. The leek had a tougher texture than I expected, but not overly so, and it complemented the delecate texture of the scallop. Sustainability: scallops are farmable and thus sustainable molluscs, like oysters and mussels, but possibly unlike clams (I wasn't paying enough attention at that point).

5th Course:　焼き物・揚げ物　／　Grilled and Fried

* Sawara Syouga Miso Yaki, Nama Shichimi　／　Grilled Ginger Miso Marinated Spanish Mackerel, with Fresh-made Japanese Seven-Spice
* Murasaki-Imo Tempura, Yakumi　／　Purple Sweet Potato Tempura with Tempura Sauce, with Grated Radish and Chive
* Shishito Su-Age　／　Oil Blanched Shishito Green Chili Pepper

The fish, battered sweet potato fries and dip, and pepper were all excellent, though not particularly unusual. The radish was fine, but I'm not a huge radish fan; I soaked it in the tempura dip. The fresh seven-spice though I hadn't had before and was spectacular, and made the mackerel stand out. Sustainability: this was an example of hikarimono [sliced fish served with the silver skin on]. The species of fish with silver skin include mackerel, sardines, shad, and herring, which are smaller, faster-reproducing, and more prolific, and thus sustainable.

6th Course:　鮨　／　Sushi

Blooming Sushi:

* Bincho Maguro Nigiri　／　Albacore Tuna topped with grated radish and chive
* Fuki Nigiri　／　Giant Butterbur
* Amaebi Nigiri, Amaebi Kashira Karaage　／　Sweet Shrimp Nigiri topped with Masago [Smelt Roe], Fried Sweet Shrimp Head Centerpiece
* Katakuchi Iwashi Nigiri　／　Anchovy Marinated in Garlic Oil, topped with Sun Dried Tomato
* Aji Fry Hoso-Maki　／　Panko Breaded Horse Mackerel, Shiso Leaf and Edamame Hummus, Beet Colored Pink Sushi Rice Thin Rolls

Everything was oishii. Well, I don't know about the shrimp, since I'm too allergic to try it. But it looked and smelled good. Note the empty sake glass. Reportedly and without warning they "ran out" of all 5 wines during the previous course. I had made the error of expecting the continued enjoyment of a sake accompaniment, so I was somewhat miffed. Trenor explained the dish, but I couldn't hear through my irritation. The pieces were all very different yet equally excellent, but the most interesting to me was the one at the bottom. I assume it is the butterbur, by process of elimination. From what I can discern, it is probably a slice of a root, I assume prepared to have a savory flavor and meaty consistency. Note the homage to the cherry blossom in the 5-petal design and the pink and white colors. Sustainability: ah...you get the point.

7th Course:　冷菓　／　Dessert

Sakura Goma Dofu, Shiso Gelee　／　Salted Cherry Blossom and Sesame Tofu Pudding, topped with Shiso [Beefsteak Plant] Jelly and a Pickled Cherry Blossom

I was at least half a dozen of those ridiculously tiny Japanese (cum Italian) spoonfuls into this when I noticed the cloud of hyposake-irritation finally start to dissipate. Which is exactly what a good dessert should do, right? But I didn't notice that I hadn't taken a photo until long after it was done, so there you go. It really was a remarkable dessert. I'm going to say it one last time: oishii. It had the salty-sweet interplay going on, the nuttiness from the sesame, the quasi-fruitiness of the shiso...almost a peanutbutter-and-jelly kind of thing, in rich pudding form. A perfect National Cherry Blossom Festival day ending. And soy astounded me again, making a more than decent pudding; I'm going to have to learn how to do that. I love pudding, I make it all the time out of cornstarch. Soy would be healthier. And no tea! It didn't occur to me at the time, but it's so obvious. Would have made it even better, as well as more authentic.

Lastly, here are the only remotely decent shots I got of anything besides food. The first was before first course, of Casson Trenor; the last two were after last course, of the kitchen staff and Chef Miki. Not sure why I didn't think to take any of Barton Seaver, the table, or the room. Oh well...next time.

So, taking the good and the less-good together, was it worth a whole Benjamin? Yes...yes it was. Gochisousama. [It's been a feast.] And happy National Cherry Blossom Festival 2011.

National Cherry Blossom Festival 2011 - Day 5 in Pictures, Washington, D.C.

2011-03-31T20:43:00.073-04:00

Sakura!

The National Park Service reported that peak bloom was yesterday, National Cherry Blossom Festival 2011 day 4 (of 15). So here is my value-added photo tour of the Potomac River Tidal Basin on the day after, for whatever it may still be worth.

As I stepped out of the Smithsonian Metro station, the rain that the forecasts had threatened for the past three days finally began...just my luck. But it warmed my heart to see so many others out on the National Mall enjoying Festivaltime on a dark, 40-degree (4.4C) weekday. Maybe this wouldn't be so bad after all.

I walked west down the Mall to 17th St. and then clockwise around the Tidal Basin before heading north up 17th to the Sustainable Sushi Tasting (see following blog entry).

The rain turned out to be fairly light, so there were plenty of decent Tidal Basin photo opportunities to be had. The first on the path was the Thomas Jefferson Memorial.

The northwest edge of the Basin, which you will later see is the most scenic.

Straight on at Mr. Jefferson.

A nice view of the Jefferson, from the "Ohio Drive / Washington Channel bridge". That's not the name of it, but Google doesn't say, and I forgot to look.

The first good shot of the George Washington Monument, also from the aforementioned bridge.

The Right Honorable Mr. Jefferson, from his right. Not particularly Festival, but there I was.

As I've found in previous years, the rear corners of Mr. Jefferson's Memorial grounds provide some of the best blossom photo ops in the whole basin. This is a slightly later-blooming, pinker variety in front of the classic white Yoshino.

Closer up of "Jefferson's pink".

Even closer up of "Jefferson's pink".

Irony, anyone? King George III called...he wants his taxes back.

(I am not saying I don't support national parks...it should just be the people's choice.)

George Mason, reposing in his peaceful Memorial grotto near Mr. Jefferson and the southernmost point of the Tidal Basin. It has a fountain (not shown due to lameness).

Mason's view of Washington's monument. His grotto is secluded by forsythia, tulip trees, and holly (among others). This was the most colorful shot I could find. Imagine if the sun was out....

Mr. Jefferson, from his left.

The Japanese Friendship Pagoda from Yokohama (info PDF), with a possibly Japanese photographer and his umbrella-wielding assistant.

The Pagoda with the Washington.

A walkway up to the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial. Not many paths are covered by cherry blossoms from both sides.

I like the contrast of ight blossoms against dark holly.

The beginning of the northwest edge of the Tidal Basin, with a possibly Japanese mother and daughter. Told you it was the most scenic. The rest of the Basin shots are from this part of the path.

The northwest Basin edge also has some of the best blossoms. The shot at the top of this blog is also from here. Perhaps cherry trees prefer being open to the southeast and protected to the northwest, perhaps having something to do with sun direction or wind pattern.

Continuing along the northwest Basin edge. I suddenly notice everyone seems to have disappeared. Also, the time is just after 5 p.m.

The last good shot of the Jefferson, quite akin to the first.

Only the second good (solo) shot of the Washington Monument, but now they come fast and furious.

To wit.

And wit.

Et cetera.

A brighter stand, with some arguably interesting elements.

The Japanese Stone Lantern (Ishidourou) (info PDF), with the Jefferson Memorial. Unfortunately, the stage from the annual Lantern Lighting Ceremony has not yet been removed.

The Stone Lantern, with the Washington Monument.

The most interesting grove of trunks I saw...was still not terribly interesting. But it was the last Tidal Basin shot.

Heading up 17th St., the Daughters of the American Revolution Constitution Hall has a nice tulip tree.

And next door, the American Red Cross National Headquarters, dedicated to the women (nurses) of the American Civil War, has a nice magnolia.

This is the first photo blog post I've ever attempted and it took me all day, so the sushi-tasting writeup will have to wait until tomorrow. Oyasumi.