Real Time View

Do we really need to see the big guy wielding a mighty hammer, or are areas of focus for many in IT already being covered by smaller blows leveraging what we already have? Boulder has been hit with some amazing thunderstorms of late, with another one passing overhead early this afternoon. Rather fortuitous in some respects as I took time to have a look – boiling clouds with amazing displays of nature’s powers as lightning flashes lit the sky. It was a big display of nature’s awesomeness. Lightning, disrupting the normality of an afternoon; clouds, the source of tremendous energy; no matter where you stood, the display was on a grand scale – big, by anyone’s measure. At the macro level, prairie thunderstorms are majestic to watch whether you are out in the open or tucked up alongside a mountain. However, stepping away from nature there are still amazing sights to take in that are man-made. To me, the unrelenting drive to miniaturization blows my mind – there’s just no real way ...

With the sun beating down on my face and with a gentle ocean breeze stirring my remaining hair, I kept returning to thoughts of an independent NonStop company – free to pursue whatever it liked. But with the news that just broke … I’m not so sure this would be in the best interests of the NonStop community! There’s something about the good-old-days that strikes a chord with many of us. For me, nostalgia is an emotion hiding just beneath the surface and perhaps it’s just a reflection of the many experiences I have had through the years. It takes very little to trigger a rush of memories bursting up from the depths, but a glimpse of the sun, a rolling surf and a sunny day usually does the trick! In the posts to this blog I have shared many of my memories and nearly always, glimpses of these memories were a result of something I had just read. After two plus decades being involved with the NonStop community I have to admit that many of these memories are intimately tied to events...

I remain puzzled if not shocked to find so many members of the NonStop community simply ducking the issue. Raise your hands, crash meetings and do whatever it takes to be part of your company’s plans – Data from anywhere / everywhere is critical for the future of providing meaningful results to transaction processing! Ever since the first book was published, I have been an ardent follower of the series of books, Dune, written by Frank Herbert. If ever there was a tale worthy of the talents of famed New Zealand director, Peter Jackson, then this is it – once he wraps up the latest Hobbit trilogy, perhaps he will turn his hand to Dune! Travelling across the galaxies? No problem, let’s just fold space! Lost a valued colleague? Not a problem either, just order up a clone! Central to the story line is spice – a very special spice that’s required to sustain the Mentat, “human computers”, as well as the Spacing Guild “navigators”. For those not familiar with the story line of Dune,...