Real Time View

It was late summer 1977 when I found myself in Boston working with a banking customer, installing the data base management system, Datacom/DB, and migrating their applications from IBM’s DL/1. I became involved with the installation as I was familiar with the programming language, PL/1. I cannot recall the specifics of what transpired, but I can recall that I made sure the work continued past the weekend and into the following week! For sailing “history” fans, they may recall that in the early weeks of September, 1977 the America’s Cup was under way and I spent the weekend at Newport, Rhode Island. Australia was the challenger and its latest 12 meter yacht, Australia, faced a formable foe in Robert Edward Turner, better known as Ted Turner, as well as “The Mouth from the South” and even “Captain Outrageous,” aboard the heavily modified Courageous. The picture at the top of the page was taken in my Boulder office where behind me on the wall hung silk-screen prints promoting the Americ...

It’s been a month since I posted a story to this blog that opened with a car example, so perhaps it’s fitting to revisit this theme as I return to the subject of Tandem’s 35th anniversary, as all previous postings on this subject started with a car example. This weekend saw the just-created Pyalla Technologies’ car roll out onto the circuit at Willow Springs International Raceway (Big Willow) for the first track sessions of 2010, the start of the third year of our participation in the National Auto Sport Association (NASA) program, High Performance Driver Education (HPDE). For those who may have missed the point of the graphics in the Pyalla Technologies, LLC company logo, there’s a distinct red square representing the red-center of Australia, together with a stylized set of black-and-white squares overlaying one corner – a combination of the love of Australia that I still harbor, together with the most recognized icon from car events worldwide, the checkered flag! As part of the...

After a couple of days of snow the skies cleared over Boulder and I was anticipating clear views of the mountain peaks to the west. As I pulled out of the driveway and headed to The Eye Opener, my local coffee shop, a thick fog had arisen from the shallow valleys and I could barely make out the mountains at all. Only one or two peaks managed to rise above the thick fog cloud and driving through the fog, even though I knew the way, was an eerie experience nonetheless. The picture above shows clearly how some peaks could be seen but as for the rest, they were buried beneath the mists that covered everything. I have been active in social networks of all types for many years now, ever since my first blog posting which I wrote in August 2007. I have written more than 150 posts to this blog as well as almost as many to online forums of the NonStop community, as well as to those maintained by third-party ISVs active in the NonStop marketplace. I have also developed an active presence on a...