Americans Think Cloud Computing Comes From Actual Clouds | Hacker News Reader

Americans Think Cloud Computing Comes From Actual Clouds

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22 pointsadambyrtek24 comments

"To get the embarrassing statistics out of the way first, the survey found that 51 percent of respondents believe that stormy weather can interfere with cloud computing"

Didn't stormy weather take out amazon recently?

absolutely! If someone asked me if cloud computing can be affected by bad weather I would say "yes, my EC2 instance blew up last time!"

You're right haha

>Severe storms cause Amazon Web Services Outage

http://gigaom.com/cloud/some-of-amazon-web-services-are-down...

Sources: http://www.citrix.com/lang/English/lp/lp_2328330.asp

http://www.citrix.com/English/NE/news/news.asp?newsID=232830...

http://www.forbes.com/sites/joemckendrick/2012/08/29/most-am...

> For example, it is reported, when asked what “the cloud” is, a majority responded it’s either an actual cloud (specifically a “fluffy white thing”), the sky or something related to the weather (29%). Only 16% said they think of a computer network to store, access and share data from Internet-connected devices. (That’s the right answer.)

Hrm... sounds like the survey was engineered from the start to elicit a specific response

> The clincher is that 95% actually already use cloud in some form, from online banking for social networks.

wha..?

So the title is grossly misleading, then. There was never a question about how 'cloud computing' worked, there was only a group of people that didn't know the term 'the cloud'.

Honestly, I'm going to flag this article because of that.

> (That's the right answer.)

Every one of those answers is correct because the question is vague. It is a "fluffy white thing"; it is "related to the weather", and it is a "computer network".

Honestly though, maybe they just have a sense of humour... You know, if I received a survey like that I would definitely say that cloud computing has something to do with real clouds... I mean, who could resist?!

But, you see, Americans. Ameri-cunts, if you will. They're dumb. And fat. Mainly dumb.

Also, AmeriKKKa, if you're being traditional.

The weather can effect anything that runs on electricity. I'd like to know what the wording of that question was. I love how this article goes on and on about how important it is for us stupid Americans to know what cloud computing is but doesn't offer a single link or explanation to help out with that. Must've been written by an American.

It may as well be true. Cloud is just an over-gloried term for "hosted on virtual servers" and yeah, it's all supposed be very fluid and squishy and automatically scalable but really most of the stuff hosted in the cloud isn't being built that way.

Well, EC2 and the like aren't, but there's no virtual servers to be seen on e.g. App Engine. It depends on the level of abstraction you work on.

Try this; Turn on Subtitle.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uLdHnMG4Wlk

It is not just Americans http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ApQlMm39xr0 :)

Imagine a world where instead of looking down on people who know less about our field we look upon them as a chance to share our knowledge.

And, I bet, most US citizens think the "god particle" proves the existence of god.

Online banking is cloud computing now?

I assume they're thinking of things like automatic bill payments. From what I can tell these days, if it involves storing your private information on a computer you don't own via the internet, it counts as "cloud computing."

I wouldn't call 1000 people nearly large enough of a sample size to make sweeping statements about an entire nationality.

If the 1000 subjects are chosen well, it's mathematically legitimate -- and the authors give appropriate error bounds based on the ratio of the sample to the population. More detail here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sampling_(statistics)

Furthermore, the author is implying that this is a condition specific to Americans when there is no evidence comparing US citizens to other nationalities in this regard.

"Americans think" doesn't imply "only Americans think." I don't see anything in there saying citizens of other countries are different.

"It doesn't look like _you_ beat your sig. other, this time." (or any other time).

While not saying that this person did ever beat them before, someone might make that connection.

So "Americans think" (and others might think, but we have not queried them). It's at least ambiguous in that it allows for easy misinterpretation.

Most polls you see on TV are around this sample size... it's often that you see 1000 person polls on news networks (look at the small print on the screen).

That's true but its still pretty funny and interesting nonetheless, I'd estimate that on a larger sample it would still be over atleast 30%

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