The cloud as a computer memory tier

Is it time we stop thinking about the web as an external entity, and instead start thinking of it as a new layer of computer data storage?

What kind of doors does it open if we assume a persistent, reliable connection and treat 'disk' as more of a caching layer for the vast amounts of data available on the web.

Just as RAM and hard disk have their own performance considerations, I think this new layer could be characterized via the following set of properties:

• Read-only (or maybe read-write on servers you own or limited write capability on sites offering some kind of web services)
• Volatile (really depends on which sites are hosting the data, but in general probably don't want to assume that whats there today will also be there tomorrow)
• Virtually unlimited storage (and ever-expanding),
• Extremely cheap (free, subscription, or pay-per-byte)
• Very slow (but getting faster)
• And finally: intermittent failure

There's an emerging set of internet services popping up that are making a more read-right flavor of this cloud-based storage tier which would probably also address the volatility aspect.  Will be interesting to see where this goes...

JMS is not a protocol!

I can't tell you how many times I've heard senior folks (even technical ones) refer to JMS (the Java Messaging Service) as a standard for passing messages between disparate systems.

Don't let comments like this fool you.
JMS is an API, not a protocol.

How Do I Live Without You: Google Notebook Edition

Like so many others using the Google Notebook service, I was totally bummed when they discontinued support a few months ago. I searched and I searched but I could not find a suitable replacement which provided all the various features I've come to know and love in notebook:

1) Grabbing quick excerpts from webpages and letting me add comments.
2) Tracking interesting Quotes (both from webpages and user-entered) and providing it as a feed which I then used at the bottom of this blog.
3) Organizing notes by both hierarchy (notebook/section) and more importantly by tagging.
4) Providing a killer search feature which scours my notebook for all the relevant notes I've left myself which mention that search topic.