Real Time View

Contemplating a move to the other side of the country as we look to living by the coast, has given us an opportunity to catch up with what is happening across the home building landscape. In so doing, it’s so easy to gravitate to what’s trending and to ignore the practicality side of things. There is always the question too as to whether this or that trend has legs sufficient enough to overcome future reactions about how dated such a trend has become. Touring the many model homes that builders provide is always an exercise in maximizing temptations. This home can be built at this price point but if you would like it to look more like the model, then the upgrades will run you 20 to 25 percent more than the described base price. Models have their purpose but then again, they tend to not only tempt potential buyers but oftentimes overachieve. Do we really need floor to ceiling sheets of marble as wall coverings? What about that massive chandelier above the entrance? The references to ...

When it comes to getting jobs, is my generation any different to Millennials and Gen Y – and will NonStop remain important even to this younger generation? T his year, I have enjoyed a little more time off than usual and the downtime has been much needed. That’s not to say I have been working less, but where I have been working from has been on the move – the RV, now the company command center, is fully operational. Road-trip! With replicated networking services, portable printers, and an array of laptops, tablets and smartphones, the company has been firing on all cylinders even as we have covered a lot of miles. While not strictly a vacation, it did allow Margo and me to enjoy the July 4 th holiday alongside a lake in Minnesota (the picture above is of the company command center as close to the edge of the lake as I was prepared to drive the RV). Being lakeside afforded me ample time to read many of the discussions active on LinkedIn and it was hard to miss the many laments fr...

I have to admit, I am a sucker for dogs. Whenever I’d walk through a mall and see a pet shop, I take time to walk past the rows of puppy cages. My eldest daughter “rescued” a greyhound from a shelter and even in the heart of winter, when she was out of town, with snow piled high along the sidewalk, I still found time to take him for his constitutional walk. As the puppies stare at me through the glass of their cubicles, I find it difficult to just walk away. But these days, with the time I spend on the road, it wouldn’t be fair for any dog. I had a dog when I was a child. It was a brindle-colored Boxer that we simply called “Loco.” He wasn’t completely normal – he would follow the bread delivery van and retrieve every loaf dropped off. My father quickly tired of compensating the neighbors after each visit from the baker. And when I went to Rugby practice after school, Loco would somehow manage to fix his teeth into the laces of the ball and run away with it. No matter how we all tried,...

And now, having posted to the NonStop community blog, Real Time View for two years, I have started my third year of blogging ... Friday evening is approaching, and in the final hours of the day I’m multitasking, as usual. On Skype to my good friend Mark Hutchens in Sydney while scanning emails and checking financial markets. Out of nowhere, an SMS message arrives from another good friend, Brian Kenny – “stand by for sonic booms,” it says. Space shuttle Discovery is going to break orbit and land nearby at Edwards Air Force Base. Sure enough, in mid sentence with Mark, the dual booms rattle the windows. The base is not far from where I work, and only a few days ago, I had stopped by the rocket museum alongside the Naval Air Weapons Station, at Point Mugu, California, and the picture above is of me alongside some of the rockets on display. But these were all ancient relics of a bygone era and minuscule when compared to the Shuttle! It's now the second time I have heard the signa...

It’s been hard to escape the news of the fires as they rage, wind-driven, down through the canyons surrounding greater Los Angeles. While is the fires are now subsiding, the past week or so has seen so much destruction and tragedy that it’s hard to imagine the city soon forgetting this year’s fires. Again, it has been the Santa Ana winds that have contributed to the fires’ spread and there has been little let-up in the ferocity over the past month. In October, it was the Porter Ranch fire that had brought similar tragedy right to our doorstep and the picture I have included here is from my condo looking east towards California Highway 118 as it climbs out of Simi Valley. Television networks gave us continuous coverage of the efforts being made by the fire brigade, police, and service providers like telephone and power companies. With mandatory evacuations, the empty streets could be seen, grid like, alive with activity as crews rushed to hot spots with a freedom of movement rarely se...

I am back from Vienna but it’s hard to put thoughts of this city too far away. I first went to Vienna when I was with Nixdorf Computers, back in the early ‘80s, so I have been visiting Vienna for 25 years! The picture I have included here is just a quick snapshot looking down a lane as I watched construction workers restore an old four-story building and what caught my attention was how the scaffolding was being erected. Stationed one above the other and separated by about eight feet, the scaffold riggers were man-handling the scaffold tubing up a human chain as they extended its height up the side of the building. From the sidewalk, they were lifting these tubes and simply passing them up to the next level of the scaffold – there were five or six riggers in the chain, one per level - before the tubes were clamped to the framework in support of the next level. Balanced precariously, the riggers showed no fear of heights as they confidently pushed their framework higher. I am certain th...

I was sitting in the San Francisco airport Red Carpet lounge, late last week, looking forward to getting back to Simi Valley. I was unwinding after spending a few days in London followed by a bit of fun at GoldenGate’s annual sales kick-off event. The photo I’m including here is of me overlooking planes moving around the gates and whether it was the cold temperature, or watching an Air Canada flight taxi to the runway, I was reminded of the years I spent living in Edmonton, Alberta. As Gordon Lightfoot used to sing: "Oh the prairie lights are burnin bright. The chinook wind is a-movin in Tomorrow night Ill be Alberta bound!" I had left Sydney in the mid '70s and moved to London but after a little less than a year, I took the plunge and migrated to Alberta, Canada. I had accepted a job as a data base administrator with the local Caterpillar distributor – R. Angus (Alberta) Limited (RAAL) – running CICS/VSAM on dual IBM 370/145s but with plans to roll-in a new data base man...

I have now returned from Chicago, but before leaving I walked around the city and I was admiring its spectacular architecture. The picture I selected here shows the old Tribune Tower, just across the street from the Wrigley complex. Originally called the “Cathedral of Commerce”, it’s truly one of the best Gothic creations around. As you now look back up the river from the South side, toward Lake Michigan, you can see a wonderful line-up of buildings, each representing a completely different style. Starting with the over-the-top, flamboyant, wedding-cake layers of the Marina City apartment and office complex that has been featured in many movies, there follows the austere IBM Plaza that, even in the early 1970s, represented a very minimalist style. Next to them we now have the Trump Tower pushing skywards from the riverside – all concrete and glass. Lastly, there is the very ornate Wrigley Building. Once called “the Jewel of the Mile”, it was an American adaptation of the French Renaiss...

This past weekend at Brighton was one of the best in a long time, weather wise, according to the locals, and a lot nicer than I had been expecting. The last time I had visited Brighton was very late in December 1975, and it was pretty dreadful. On Sunday there was a charity motorcycle gathering and a couple of us took a little downtime from the preparations for the ITUG event to walk through the bikes and exhibits. I have no idea how many bikes finished up participating, but there had to be more than 1,000, by my estimates. What caught my eye was the mix and variety of the community. There were the customary groups of mechanics and engine technicians. There were the craftsmen working on leather saddlebags, cases, and clothing, and there were the artists who treated metal, wires, and paint as just different components with which to sculpture. The art works on display were amazing! No question, some of today’s reality shows on TV have contributed enormously to the general public’s intere...