After a month of using Google’s Chrome OS and CR48 notebook, I’m convinced Microsoft cannot ignore the threat of Google’s Internet OS. So they should respond with ‘Internet Explorer OS’ to counter Google’s move on their turf.

Chrome OS with the CR48 is what I consider a ‘netbook experience’. I’m sure Redmond is busy building Internet Explorer OS. If not, they could have another ‘iPad problem’ on their hands. The ‘browser-as-an-OS’ strategy is a smart one and consumers will flock to it. Again, Microsoft can’t ignore this. They could use their own browser-based OS to up sell consumers to a Windows 7 Upgrade & application bundle. It could work.

In closing, I love the Chrome OS experience. It’s a joy to use each day, even with the occasional hiccups experienced using the development branch and prototype hardware (CR48). Everyday computing tasks are simple & to the point. Computers should be our friends — not our enemies.

Google is making incredible progress on an incredible computing platform.

As an Amazon associate, it’s unfortunate to see this notice, but it’s warranted. Colorado, like most states, is turning to new taxes to solve its budget and revenue challenges. The solution for balancing budgets and attracting more revenue isn’t in taxation, but efficiency. States, like the federal government, are wasteful spenders and incompetent managers of existing revenue streams. Now is the time for governments everywhere to cut, expel and improve its operations like any corporation, family or individual.

Burdening corporations and small business owners with more taxes won’t erase the challenges here in Colorado or elsewhere. Doing so will force other Internet retailers to follow Amazon’s lead. Colorado’s governor and legislators are doing more harm to the state’s economy than they realize.

States cannot use the recession as a scapegoat. It’s time people everywhere stand up and force their political leaders to do what’s right. If the everyday business owner must live within the confinements of his revenue, then so must state governments across America.

Dear Colorado-based Amazon Associate:

We are writing from the Amazon Associates Program to inform you that the Colorado government recently enacted a law to impose sales tax regulations on online retailers. The regulations are burdensome and no other state has similar rules. The new regulations do not require online retailers to collect sales tax. Instead, they are clearly intended to increase the compliance burden to a point where online retailers will be induced to “voluntarily” collect Colorado sales tax — a course we won’t take.

We and many others strongly opposed this legislation, known as HB 10-1193, but it was enacted anyway. Regrettably, as a result of the new law, we have decided to stop advertising through Associates based in Colorado. We plan to continue to sell to Colorado residents, however, and will advertise through other channels, including through Associates based in other states.

There is a right way for Colorado to pursue its revenue goals, but this new law is a wrong way. As we repeatedly communicated to Colorado legislators, including those who sponsored and supported the new law, we are not opposed to collecting sales tax within a constitutionally-permissible system applied even-handedly. The US Supreme Court has defined what would be constitutional, and if Colorado would repeal the current law or follow the constitutional approach to collection, we would welcome the opportunity to reinstate Colorado-based Associates.

You may express your views of Colorado’s new law to members of the General Assembly and to Governor Ritter, who signed the bill.

Your Associates account has been closed as of March 8, 2010, and we will no longer pay advertising fees for customers you refer to Amazon.com after that date. Please be assured that all qualifying advertising fees earned prior to March 8, 2010, will be processed and paid in accordance with our regular payment schedule. Based on your account closure date of March 8, any final payments will be paid by May 31, 2010.

We have enjoyed working with you and other Colorado-based participants in the Amazon Associates Program, and wish you all the best in your future.

Best Regards,

The Amazon Associates Team

Great news! I am pleased to announce that my first book, “Stick it to The Man“, will be available on Amazon Kindle, the world’s most popular e-Book reader. My publisher, Skyhorse, is doing a wonderful job to expand the availability of my book.

See the Kindle listing.

I am pleased to announce that this June will be the official release date for my new book, “Stick It To The Man”. Published by Skyhorse New York, it will be available at all fine bookstores and online at Amazon and other e-retailers. The book is 208 pages and will feature entertaining stories and how-tos about government, corporations, managers, and more. It is also highly relevant to the current global economic crisis, because it exposes the Federal Reserve, retailers and others for their part in the collapse of America’s economy.

Pre-Order “Stick It To The Man”: Amazon| Barnes and Noble

I am incredibly excited about the release of this book. It’s important because of the priceless content it contains — Content which will help people of all socio-economic backgrounds to deal with a variety of scenarios, situations, and challenges.

Here’s an early preview of the book’s front and back covers.

On October 31, 2007, I embarked on a new journey in technology: I embraced the cloud computing movement. I did so with the clarity of knowing that I was joining a movement that would transform how we access, interact with and utilize computers. It was a risk I did not hesitate to make, even when my financial position wasn’t at its healthiest for most of 2007.

So, why did I risk increasing my monthly expenditures on web services by 73% ($20 to $75 per month) when I didn’t have much money for such increases? It’s pretty simple: Freedom of restriction. In the world of web services, there are contracts, limitations and obstacles. These all get in the way of truly accomplishing a task or realizing a dream (without losing your shirt in the process). In the world of cloud computing, there are no boundaries. No constraints. No limits. The world is truly yours to discover.

Cloud computing is a wonderful shift in technology as we know it today. Now, with a few keystrokes and clicks, one can power any dream online without concern of outrageous fees or unrealistic commitments. You are free to explore your creativity and wild imagination to your heart’s content. There isn’t a phone number to call to add an additional server, module or hard drive. You can now do all of this yourself within minutes for how ever many units you desire.

Looking back on a year of using the Amazon Web Services platform, I can say with full conviction that I made the right choice. I’ve sent all of my telecommunication and web hosting needs to the cloud. 90% of my digital life now resides in the cloud and I am quickly aiming for 100% in 2009. Thanks to Amazon’s extraordinary work in this space, they’ve torn down the digital barriers which previously prevented many from accessing raw computing power as necessary. Their effort has enabled a new generation of developers, entrepreneurs and small businesses with unparalleled access to modern technology that we haven’t seen in the last 25 years.

I am overjoyed about cloud computing. It is the most critical development in technology that we’ve ever witnessed. It’s more important than the Internet and desktop software. It is the foundation which will empower dreamers with the tools to transform societies and the way they use technology on a daily basis. This is bigger than the personal computer or mainframe. This is about enabling humanity to develop new ideas, possibilities and endless realities without fear of financial burden.

It is my desire to share my enthusiasm for cloud computing with the world. It is my mission to engage as many people as possible in this defining moment in technology. This is an exciting time to witness the evolution of modern technology. We are only at the beginning stages of this incredible movement. Imagine what the next five years will bring the world thanks to cloud computing:

• Open source, enterprise-grade telecommunications for individuals and businesses
• Virtual workstations
• Free, global long distance calling
• Data backups for life
• And a lot more

I look forward to helping developers, entrepreneurs, corporations and the entire world realize the cloud computing dream. Let’s make it happen, together.

I just received word that I was featured during a presentation by Amazon at Sylantro’s recent Global Summit. Because this summit is telephony related, Amazon most likely mentioned my ongoing VoIP work ‘in the cloud’ on their EC2 platform.

This was surprise news to me. It’s always a thrill to learn about the places and events where my projects and work are mentioned.

Special thanks to the Amazon AWS team for including me in their presentation before a global audience.

For months, I’ve been sitting on a few interesting domains that I purchased on a whim in the event I might do something with them. Today, I am pleased to announce the upcoming unveiling of CloudCrunch. You may have seen the name around the Internet or here on my blog, but today, I want to officially raise awareness of it and let folks know that it’s happening.

Cloud computing is an exciting development in technology. It harkens back to the day of ‘time sharing’ with mainframes, but the difference here is that one has complete and full control over their virtual server. I’ve been a strong proponent of Amazon’s EC2 platform, which I believe is the ‘best-of-the-best’ for this emerging space.

It is my intent to build CloudCrunch to become one of the Top 10 cloud computing resources on the Internet. The centerpiece of the site will be a blog, followed by resources including forums, howto guides and more. The first howto guide to launch with the site will center around the installation of Digium’s Asterisk PBX on Amazon EC2. There’s been a lot of interest in this guide and I believe it will become a hit once CloudCrunch launches.

When I’m satisfied with the initial build of CloudCrunch, I’ll announce a soft launch to get the wheels turning. Special thanks to the many people who’ve expressed interest in my cloud computing projects here on ronaldlewis.com.

Update: Please follow this post for the latest regarding the release of the Asterisk / Amazon EC2 How-to guide

I am excited to announce the upcoming availability of my new How-To guide on Asterisk and Cloud Computing. Created for Amazon’s EC2 platform (part of Amazon Web Services), it will teach anyone with an AWS account and server to setup their very own PBX “in the cloud” in one hour or less!

With this guide, open source telephony aficionados will be able to tinker with, deploy and manage a world-class telecom solution for their home or business. Setup extensions, voicemail, phone numbers and more! With Asterisk and Amazon EC2, there’s no limit to what you can achieve with a world-class computing and telephony platform.

This guide is based on months of evaluation and testing of Asterisk on Amazon EC2. All the kinks and showstoppers have all been addressed in this simple, easy-to-use guide. Don’t waste hours trying to figure all of this stuff out on your own! Get the guide as soon as its available!

Keep checking back for updates to learn of the guide’s availability.

To help accelerate my Amazon EC2 consulting goals (at least 10 clients per month to start), I am considering a referral program which will pay $50-$100 per paying referral. This is a great and easy way for someone to make extra money referring potential clients to my services.

If you’re not aware of Amazon EC2, there’s a lot of information available here. In a nutshell, it’s a phenomenal, mass utility computing platform which utilizes Amazon’s multi-billion dollar IT infrastructure to power web applications and more.

For a few months now, I’ve evaluated, tested and deployed various images (virtual servers) and applications on Amazon’s robust EC2 (Elastic Compute Cloud) platform. I not only host various websites on the service, but also databases, files and even Digium’s Asterisk PBX!

Two months ago, I installed the Asterisk PBX (I like to compile the code, rather than using packages) to one of my EC2 servers for testing. Everything worked flawlessly, except an annoying SIP over NAT issue which prevented the passing of audio between clients and the server. Now that I’ve corrected it, I recently transitioned my Asterisk configuration away form home to Amazon EC2.

The result? Success! I couldn’t be happier with the performance of my PBX on Amazon EC2 when compared to my Dell PowerEdge 2400 server at home. Now, I can add even more phone lines and features thanks to the increase in processing power and bandwidth.

This is telephony on steroids!

Learn more about the Amazon EC2 service and be sure to come back here to take advantage of my 10% discount on EC2 consulting services.