Real Time View

This is the time of year when the upcoming NonStop Technical Boot Camp (TBC) dominates many discussions – but what is coming next and are there further surprises install for the NonStop community? We are happily settling into our new and very temporary working life here in Australia. It’s been such a long time “between drinks” as they like to say down under, but there is no doubting the lifestyle that the average Sydneysider enjoys.  With beaches stretching north and south and a harbor that penetrates the distant western suburbs, not forgetting too that the Blue Mountains frame the far west of Sydney, it is a city unlike any other on earth. Comparisons have been made of San Francisco with Sydney but clearly they were made by folks who really hadn’t spent time in Sydney. San Francisco is more like other bay cities, including Melbourne, but Sydney is a deep water harbor framed by rocky sandstone outcrops creating changes in elevation everywhere you turn. Every time I retu...

If it’s Sydney, it’s meetings, ethics, and infrastructure and if we want to move the needle a bit further along, then I suspect even more meetings will be held … The weather has distinctly turned warmer in Sydney. The formal meetings of last week are now behind me and it’s been a week of heads down typing as I catch up with numerous commitments, but the many meetings with which I was involved took me back in time when almost every hour included one meeting or another. Perhaps it had to do with the positive nature of communication – when gathered together, ideas seemed to take on form more quickly and what started out as just a couple of threads developed into a full-blown tapestry in no time at all! On the other hand, perhaps it was just the enjoyment I derived from the free flow of ideas that would happen and how, from nothing at all the gem of a really good idea appeared. As I was walking the floor of the exhibition halls at SIBOS Sydney 2018 last week and yes, exhibitors ...

It may just be the lyrics from a popular song but so much about Australia that warrants further attention even if it is only a matter of sibling rivalry! I have just landed in Sydney, Australia. Looking out the airplane window in the hours before we landed and as first light began to illuminate the night sky, the window perfectly framed the Southern Cross stars along with the two pointers that combined have helped navigators through the ages determine where the south celestial pole lay. Taking up temporary residence to the north west of Sydney, the bush setting of these Sydney suburbs is just so different from anything you can experience in the US or Europe. It’s definitely a far cry from what I have become used to living in Colorado. However, sighting the Southern Cross is a reminder that Australia is part of the Southern Hemisphere. Even though Australia may be better known as the land down under, it surprises many of our friends in America that Australia is really much clos...

Sounds like a prison sentence? Not quite; Pyalla is celebrating the start of its tenth year, but talking of prisons, has security become the sole focus of IT these days? With last minute packing about to begin for our extended stay in Sydney and Auckland, I just noticed I was receiving more messages than usual on LinkedIn. When I checked the site, turns out folks are congratulating Margo and me for the nine years Pyalla Technologies, LLC has been in business. Just like that, nine years have passed by and we are into our tenth year. Who would have guessed? While down under, Margo and I will be taking a quick side trip down to Hobart, Tasmania, and not just for the food. It’s one of those places where the food is outstanding and few people know much about Tasmania, other than the Warner Brothers’ cartoon character, Taz – the Tasmanian Devil and yet, just outside Hobart lies Port Arthur. For anyone who has managed to read Marcus Clarke tome, For the term of his natural life ,...

Sydney Harbor provides a wonderful backdrop to any gathering held around its shores and in a couple of weeks’ time, SIBOS Sydney 2018 will kick-off. Will you be there?  There is no escaping the inherent beauty that is Sydney or hiding the fact that the best way to approach Sydney’s Circular Quay is on a traditional Manly Ferry. As you make that final turn into the ferry terminal, the city opens up to provide a panoramic view that sweeps from the Opera House to the International Terminal and then, should you pivot to your right as it’s just behind you, Sydney’s famous Harbor Bridge. Or, the coat hanger, as it was referred to for much of the bridge’s life. This photo was taken the last time I was on Sydney Harbor back in 2013 and I have to believe much has changed. Looks like there was a Princess cruise ship tied up at the terminal and much of Sydney’s popularity as a tour destination has a lot to do with the first impression made on all visitors arriving by sea. And yes,...