Dangerous clouds

We’ve been telling you about cloud computing, whereby your work is processed in real time on remote servers. It’s off and running, and most businesses will climb aboard eventually.

But right now, if your biz is moving cloudward, or even thinking about doing so, take notice: Yesterday the cloud grew up a little.

What happened? Gmail went down, that’s all.

Larry Dignan explaines the implications over on ZD Net. Here’s a pull:

Google’s Gmail outage is the latest stumble for nascent cloud computing services, which are becoming the lifeblood for small businesses and startups. If you’re depending on these Web-based apps you need a backup plan.

We liked the term cloud computing. Still do. But as the language angle recedes we’ll have to let it go. Stay on top of the technology with the ZD blogs.

On the serial comma

SL stands with the Chicago Manual of Style on the serial comma, which is also called the Oxford comma.

You can’t go wrong with it, but you can go badly wrong without it:

I’d like to thank my parents, the pope and Mother Theresa.

Well, now. We avoid the serial comma and set off a full-bore scandal.

The serial comma is unpopular, we suspect, because commas are so overused in general. When a teacher or editor decides to take a stand, the serial comma is an easy target.

In professional work, of course, we conform to our client’s style.

But in SL’s own style (which combines the best of Chicago, AP, NYT, Strunk, White, and Huck Finn), a series takes a serial comma.