If you asked ten random techies to define "cloud computing," you might get twelve or thirteen different answers, but if instead you asked those same ten folks to identify the most overused buzzword of the last year, they'd probably all agree that "cloud computing" was it. So imagine my surprise when, on attending a session at this past summer's AlwaysOn conference, I heard someone on the stage talk intelligently, coherently, and technically about a topic that I had written off as so much noise. That person was HP's Russ Daniels, CTO and VP of Cloud Services Strategy, I had to talk to him in more detail about cloud computing. This interview actually altered the way I thought about the cloud and about software delivery in a networked world.

In September 1966 an American spy satellite flew over a Soviet naval base on the Caspian Sea and took a series of photographs. The results created quite a stir among the American intelligence community. Their first guess was that this was a conventional aeroplane, possibly a sea plane, but one that was incomplete and much bigger than any aircraft the US had. But when the pictures were examined more closely, intelligence analysts calculated that, even if completed, it would actually fly really badly. This, coupled with the position of the engines, located well forward of the wing, made them realise what they were looking at was something entirely different.

• Canonical does not contribute to Linux plumbing.(a catch all phrase for the kernel, tool chain and various systems programs)
• Companies who rely on Linux must contribute, or they are at the whim of others.
• Developers who are not allowed to contribute to Linux should change jobs.

Computer program helped direct search for lost autistic man After days of futile searching and without leads, Burnett County officials were desperate for any new techniques to find the 25-year-old autistic man who disappeared in dense Wisconsin woods. They turned to a computer program to help guide them. Lt. Rick Slatten, a member of the St. Louis County Sheriff's Rescue Squad, developed the computer program, called Search Tracker. It organizes a search area into smaller units, analyzes terrain, vegetation cover, what searchers have done and recommends which units should be searched more thoroughly. The rescue squad has used Search Tracker for about three years.
more about Lt. Rick Slatten who said he may put the program online for free when more comfortable sharing it. Maybe someone needs to tell him (nicely) about open source and how it could help his work get better.

Canonical on Tuesday released its first publicly available developer edition of Ubuntu for mobile Internet devices. Ubuntu MID works on two devices at present, the Samsung Q1U and the Intel Crown Beach development station for building devices using the company's Atom processor. It also can be run on ordinary computers through the KVM virtualization software. Custom options may include licensed codecs and popular third-party applications.

• Full Web 2.0/AJAX fidelity, with custom options of Adobe Flash®, Java, and more
• Outstanding media playback so you can enjoy videos, music and photos with superior quality and easy navigation
• A suite of applications that work seamlessly to meet every need of a digital parent, student or anyone who is on-the-go
• Facebook®, MySpace®, YouTube®, Dailymotion®, 3D games, GPS, maps, in short, the full Web 2.0 experience delivered into your hands as a compact and powerful device that's easy and fun to use