Yanks in the Clouds

How about those New York Yankees???!

OK, that's all I'll say about that, lest I infuriate fans of the Phillies, the Twins, and the Angels. But hey, thanks for playin'!

I really enjoyed post-season baseball this year... Allowed me to reminisce about my time living in NYC, and playing baseball as a kid growing up in north Texas, which was kind of like breathing oxygen in the springtime. You just did it.

Hats off to MVP Hideki Matsui... 6 RBIs, a two-run homer to get things going in the sixth and final game... wow. Fans back in Japan are going wild with enthusiasm... I just can't believe the Bronx Bombers aren't going to ask him back.

This was the first ever World Series I got to trade barbs with fans from other teams online as ubiquitously as was the case this year. Facebook, Twitter, Email... I took it from all sides, and I gave it right back.

I've concluded there are three certainties in life, not two. Death, Taxes, and you either LOVE or HATE the Yankees. There's just not much in between.

I'm one of those who LOVES the Yankees... so bring on your love and your hate... all comers welcome.

When you finish beating up on the 27-time Major League Baseball World Champion New York Yankees, who have now won 40 American League Pennants... more championships than any other franchise in any North American professional sports history... well, it may be time to enter the IBM Cloud Academy to do a little studying.

Launched recently, the IBM Cloud Academy is a global forum for educators, researchers, and IT pros from the education industry to pursue cloud computing initiatives, develop skills, and share best practices for reducing operating costs while improving quality and access to education.

The IBM Cloud Academy will enable a number of higher learning institutions and other participants to collaborate using an IBM-managed cloud, available via the Internet, lowering barriers to entry for the development and contribution of subject matter expertise.

Through the Academy, members can create working groups on areas of interest to the education industry, "jam" on new innovations for clouds in education-related areas with IBM developers, work jointly on technical projects across institutions, share research findings, and exchange new ideas for research.

Participants are also encouraged to innovate to further advance cloud computing by preparing education-focused open-source software for clouds, integrating cloud provisioning and de-provisioning services, validating content for compliance with accessibility standards, and leveraging IBM cloud offerings for teaching, learning, research, and administration.

For more information on IBM's cloud computing university initiatives, please visit www.ibm.com/university/cloud.