Part 5: http://www.virtualization.info/2009/06/hidden-challenges-of-virtualization_28.html

Matthias

Part 4: http://www.virtualization.info/2009/06/hidden-challenges-of-virtualization_25.html

Matthias

Today was the continuation of last week's topic: Social Security Systems, mainly retirement pay. Especially the german version of it...

Again, a good start into the new week!

Matthias

Today's topics were social politics and social security systems. He started by explaining the Phillips Curve and did provide us with the numbers and curves for Germany from 1955 to 1990. Then he did explain Okun's Law and from there on dived into social security systems, where there was a couple of discussions around the late changes in law in Germany.

Again, a nice start into the week!

Matthias

Nice writeup: http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9133570

Matthias

Today's topic was the continuation of last week's session, and did cover multiple aspects of the keynesian economics as well as for example the Harrod-Domar model. Main topics were different aspects of who's going to "pay" for the credits a government or state is using to invest in its future. So Development economics was the last topic of today's lecture.

Matthias

Part 3: http://www.virtualization.info/2009/06/hidden-challenges-of-virtualization_10.html

Matthias

OpenHACluster (OHAC) has been out for quite some time now, but with the new release of OpenSolaris a new version was required.

So, here's a Video on OpenSolaris 2009.06 Open HA Cluster. Check it out!

Information on how to get access to it, read Nick Solter's Blog entry about that.

Remember: Sun's Cluster product is NOT a framework, it's a real, ready to use, fully working product. The Open HA Cluster is just the OpenSource version of that to be used in conjunction with OpenSolaris!

Enjoy!

Matthias

Today's topic was: national bankruptcy. It was the first in a row of two lectures, so we'll see, what he'll discuss next week additionally. Today he did cover the basis, all the definitions needed in order to understand the implications. A larger section today was devoted to the upcoming change of article 115 of the german consitution (see here) and the implications of the european stability and growth pact on that article.

Matthias

My colleague Jörg Möllenkamp has written a good review and comment on the latest Linux discussions around Xen: http://www.c0t0d0s0.org/archives/5621-The-never-ending-story-Xen-and-Linux.html

Enjoy!

Matthias

Part 2: http://www.virtualization.info/2009/06/hidden-challenges-of-virtualization.html

Matthias

Virtualization.info did start a series of blog entries about the hidden costs and challenges of virtualization. Worth a reading, start here.

Matthias

Again, I did start this week with a visit to Bert Rürump's lecture. This week he did talk about further factors for influencing growth in an economy: The "amount of money in circulation" and the "key interest rate" (or for our american friends: "prime rate"), and how these do influence the economy. For more details, it is again a good idea to check Wikipedia, I always found their descriptions very useful: Money Supply. Sadly, the ones on the other factor are a bit terse, still, here're the links: Interest Rate and Prime Rate

Matthias

P.S.: An addition to last week's lecture: We do have to differentiate between taxes and insurances, when looking at all the dues we have to pay. Some are dues with no right on payback (for example: income tax, et.al.), some are dues with an entitlement for payback (for example: unimployment insurance). Sadly, many people always do the sum, and never differentiate between these two. When comparing the dues you have to pay in different countries, you have to look at those precisely, because there are countries, where for example the unimployment insurance is NOT done by goverment, but needs to be done privately. Therefore you can NOT compare the dues that are deducted from your income across countries.

My colleague Mike Ramchand did post some thoughts about virtualization, and did ask us to provide feedback. Click here to read his article, and here for our thoughts.

Matthias

This week's lecture was on how to grow the GDP (gross domestic product) by two of the seven possible factors. "Human capital" as well as "growth in population".

He started by discussing the "ideal state" and the need for growth, and with interceptions on the latest OECD studies, and their discussions on the state of Germany, as well as discussions on the influence of longer life expectancy...

Sorry for being a bit brief this week, to much to do...

I again did enjoy it immensly, again a beautiful start of the week!

Matthias

P.S.: Last week, he also did discuss the hysteresis, a phenomenon to be seen in economies. The number of "re-employments" after a downturn never does reach the number of "un-employment"... ;-( So un-employment grows and grows...