Walter Pinson

It was once said back in the early ‘90s that “Client/server computing is a little like teenage sex – everyone talks about it, few actually do it, and even fewer do it right.  Nevertheless, many people believe client/server computing is the next major step in the evolution of corporate information systems.” Can the same be said about cloud computing, today? It is evident that cloud computing is the next major step in computing, in general.  But is it the next major step in the evolution of corporate information systems?  Everyone is certainly talking about it; but who is actually doing it? According to Pew Research, anyone with a Gmail or YouTube account is participating in the cloud computing revolution.  Perhaps I need to change my perspective about cloud computing in order to agree with them.  The Pew report focuses on end-user adoption of cloud-based services, o... (more)

The Importance of Abstraction in Cloud Computing

Windows Azure at Cloud Expo My colleague, Peter Palmieri, just penned a blog post about Microsoft’s recent announcement that the Azure platform will offer extensive and familiar relational database features via SQL Data Services (SDS). In his post, Leveraging Skills, Peter discusses the fact that .NET developers will be able to leverage their existing SQL Server database skills when developing against the Azure platform. In doing so, he has touched upon what I think is Microsoft’s most strategic advantage in the realm of cloud computing. Microsoft has a ready-made ecosystem and d... (more)

Code Contracts in .NET Help Distributed Software Development Teams

Microsoft’s Research in Software Engineering (RiSE) team is on to something.  Luckily, for developers around the world, they have released it to the public.  I’m talking about Code Contracts in Microsoft .NET.  Code Contracts are very useful under any circumstance; however, they are particularly useful in helping distributed software development teams increase team efficiency, improve product quality, and mitigate against risks associated with team dispersion. The notion of design-by-contract programming has been around for quite a while.  In fact, Bertrand Meyer (founder of Eif... (more)

Interest Rates and Payday Loans

This just came to my attention and I find it somewhat amazing.  It is slightly off topic, but it does (indirectly) relate to matters of credit and it most definitely has to do with leverage. A typical payday loan scenario is where someone borrows $100 for 15 days with the promise to repay $120.    Simple interest of 20% seems innocuous enough.  However, the real math behind this transaction is unbelievable. The APR (annual percentage rate) on this loan is 486.67%. The EAR (effective annual rate) on this loan is 8,347.80%. There is no transaction equality here.  Read more. Loan sha... (more)

Interest Rates and Payday Loans

This just came to my attention and I find it somewhat amazing.  It is slightly off topic, but it does (indirectly) relate to matters of credit and it most definitely has to do with leverage. A typical payday loan scenario is where someone borrows $100 for 15 days with the promise to repay $120.    Simple interest of 20% seems innocuous enough.  However, the real math behind this transaction is unbelievable. The APR (annual percentage rate) on this loan is 486.67%. The EAR (effective annual rate) on this loan is 8,347.80%. There is no transaction equality here.  Read more. Loan sha... (more)