Remember the thrill of your first experience with the “Internet” and surfing “Cyberspace”? A whole new world opened up and presented possibilities in communication and information gathering that only seemed feasible at a Sci-fi conference. Well the thrill ride of the future continues it’s journey forward and it’s name is Cloud.
Why are corporate giants like Google and Amazon developing an interest in Green Technology? How are non-profit groups using it to save lives? Where does this fit for a small business, local college and saving our county budget?
On Tuesday, July 21, from 4 to 8 pm, the Earth Day Alliance and Information Press will offer the latest global forecast with a peek into the clouds... at a free forum “The Future of Computing: Green, Virtual, and Cloudy”. At 5:30 p.m. guest speaker, Winston Bumpus, Director of Standards in the office of the CTO of VmWare and the President of DMTF, will explain the benefits and applications of the Cloud Computing Model. Before and following the presentation vendors and IT professionals will be available to answer questions, disseminate information, and demonstration how Cloud Computing works.

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CANCER (Jun 22-Jul 21)
HAPPY BIRTHDAY, CANCER! The winds of change should continue to bring excitement into your everyday affairs. Maintaining a stable home life and fine tuning a reliable partnership could become an objective that is appealing. The domestic scene takes on more importance than usual during your personal new year. Anything ranging from a simple reorganizing of your environment to the buying and selling of property is probable. Areas in the household that appear to be in need of repair or a makeover may cry out for attention. Work at keeping your finances well structured; unexpected expenses and/or bouts with extravagance from October 2009 until early June 2010 could blow a wide hole in your budget. The eclipsed full moon this month on July 7 accents relationships of all types; traveling with or to visit that “someone special” is a strong possibility. Bringing more fun into your personal affairs during the remainder of July can be enjoyable and rejuvenating. Educational pursuits are also pleasantly featured.

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Currently there is a rare celestial phenomenon occurring in our solar system, a triple conjunction of the planets Jupiter and Neptune, and the planetoid/comet Chiron. A conjunction refers to planets being very close to one another in a particular area of the Zodiac, in this case the latter degrees of the sign Aquarius. As Jupiter and Neptune are respectively the traditional and modern rulers of the idealistic, imaginative, creative, and compassionate, or conversely the confused, unrealistic, escapist sign of Pisces, the blending of these planetary energies is having much influence on how humanity is interpreting and experiencing current events, as well as how we are anticipating the future.

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Q: What is “Cloud Computing” exactly and how does this impact big business as well as small businesses.

A: Cloud Computing is a relatively new term for a set of things that have been going on for a while now. An emerging definition from the National Institute for Standards and Technology (NIST) “Cloud computing is a pay-per-use model for enabling convenient, on-demand network access to a shared pool of configurable and reliable computing resources (e.g., networks, servers, storage, applications, services) that can be rapidly provisioned and released with minimal consumer management effort or service provider interaction.” This means we are moving to a model of Pay-per-use for things like software and this extends to compute resources such as storage and processing resources. For example,  if you need to add new services or increase capacity, you can quickly add them, use them and release them when you are done. This shift in technology usage will allow for rapid deployment of new capabilities at a much reduced start-up cost. It is having impacts on all sizes of business from the small business, which may have a few computers, to very large organizations which need extra capacity or new capabilities in a hurry.

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Sustainable transportation & saving parents money

SLO Regional Rideshare is giving kids the freedom of summer and cutting parents a break on time and money with the Summer Break Pass. The $30 transit pass can be used on any bus all summer long, Memorial Day thru Labor Day, for kids aged K-12. For just $30 kids can travel to the beach, mall, Skate Park, movies, swimming pools and more—no parents necessary. Participating transit operators include: Regional Transit Authority, Paso Express, North County Shuttle, South County Area Transit, SLO Transit, Cayucos Trolley, Avila Beach Trolley and SLO Trolley.

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