summit

PROMONTORY SUMMIT, Utah--On May 10, 1869, the extraordinary happened here.

After crews from the Central Pacific Railroad had started in Sacramento, Calif., and laid 690 miles of track to the east, and teams from the Union Pacific Railroad had put down 1,086 miles of track to the west of Omaha, Neb., they met on that spring day at this spot just north of the Great Salt Lake.

They completed the Transcontinental Railroad.

For the first time, trains could traverse most of the United States. The huge event was celebrated on that day when the Central Pacific's Jupiter and … Read more

Update: Updated link to Hoff's terminology map and related image to his latest version.

I was privileged to be a part of the Enterprise Cloud Summit that took place at the beginning of Interop in Las Vegas a few weeks ago. The program was excellent, with an all-star list of cloud experts and a surprisingly large number of attendees who were new to cloud computing and trying to get a sense of what it was all about.

What was different from prior cloud-related conferences, however, at least for me, were the types of questions this inquisitive audience was asking. … Read more

Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates and Chief Executive Steve Ballmer are optimistic about the power of tech to recover from the current recession and bring business along with it, according to speeches they made at Microsoft's 13th annual CEO Summit earlier this week.

Although the event was private, Microsoft released four clips of the keynote speeches made Tuesday by Gates and Ballmer, which strike a positive tone about the future.

In his keynote speech at the summit, Gates said that overall he was very optimistic about the economy with the opportunities for innovation stronger today than ever. "The drug … Read more

Everybody loves a backyard barbecue get-together. Having fun with friends and family only gets better when a grill is involved, Besides the enjoyment of spending time with the people you care about, a backyard barbecue offers the rare opportunity for everybody to eat exactly what they want. If somebody wants chicken, they simply throw it on the grill. The same goes for those who want burgers, steaks, or veggie burgers. No other form of social food gathering offers quite the individuality that cooking with a grill can provide.

Weber takes things one step further by offering the versatile Summit S-470 Gas Grill. … Read more

Sometimes the kitchen can be really far away. Say you're hanging out in the garage playing poker, working on the car, or some other garage-related activity. Suddenly the need hits for a microwaveable treat and a cold brew. The warmth of the microwave and the chill of the refrigerator may not be too far away, but it sure is convenient to have them closer. No need to journey to the kitchen when you can stock up on the essentials in the comfort of your own garage. (Also applies to attics and basements).

Check out the Summit MRF2L, a 1.… Read more

So much for finding safe refuge from the storm. Even a conference targeted at the quasi-esoteric world of software as a service is finding it tough to fill up the seats these days.

The SaaS Summit 2009 conference, slated to get underway next week in San Francisco, has chopped the price of its "full conference pass" to $495 from $1,195.

In a note, conference sponsor OpSource said it had reduced the cost because it "believes so strongly in the value and industry energy that will be created by bringing together the SaaS, Web, and cloud communities … Read more

As it has in years past, Microsoft is meeting this week with some of its hardcore enthusiasts--the Most Valuable Professionals (MVPs) that serve in many ways as unpaid ambassadors for the company's products.

This year, though, the gathering with tech enthusiasts is completely closed to reporters and is also covered by nondisclosure agreements (NDA). However, that hasn't stopped the chatter, particularly because of the heavy use of Twitter to discuss the event. (For the latest discussion, simply click on this link.)

There are dozens of postings every few minutes, ranging from talk about meals and the weather to … Read more

INDIAN WELLS, Calif.--There's a new cliche in the clean-tech investment community, and we can thank Charles Dickens for it.

As Dickens put it at the start of A Tale of Two Cities: "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times." Who knew pulp fiction about pre-revolutionary France had lessons for 21st-century clean-tech investment?

Here at the Clean-Tech Investor Summit, investors say that signs indicating the energy business is poised for dramatic change have never been stronger, with an Obama administration making energy central to a massive stimulus package.

To understand the "… Read more

SAN FRANCISCO--There wasn't much time for Current Media, the cable news network co-founded by former Vice President Al Gore, to recover from last week's election and its marathon live broadcast, infused with content from Digg, Twitter, and countless video bloggers.

On Friday, Gore was giving the final address of the Web 2.0 Summit, a few blocks to the west of Current's offices, at the Palace Hotel, and plenty of advertising and marketing types were in town for the occasion.

Since it's a media company partially dependent on ad and sponsorship revenues, Current seized the opportunity, … Read more