Real Time View

Over coffee with neighbors the other morning the discussion turned to innovation and to how ideas moved from just being sketches on napkins to becoming viable products. Our neighbor, Kevin, has seen several of his ideas turned into products and when he invited some of us to come and take a look at what he was currently developing, I jumped at the opportunity. Sure enough, inside his garage, there was a laboratory with prototypes and testing equipment of all types spread out along a number of benches. The picture above is of us gathered in his garage, sections of the roll-up garage door clearly visible. In case this looks unimpressive, what he was developing, and had already taken to a prototype stage, proved to be pretty sophisticated. Kevin was working on a way to measure potential impurities that could find their way into the fuel onboard satellites, and where after reaching orbit, there’s very little opportunity to perform any maintenance. By using light, and measuring disruptio...

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...

Over the holiday season I didn’t spend as much time pulling bottles of wine from the cellar as in previous years, yet sadly, I have to admit, the inventory is beginning to thin out. On the other hand, what has been growing has been my collection of model cars and motorcycles and now, spread across the tasting table, they capture quite a bit of history – the picture above includes most of what is on display. Obviously, there are several model Corvettes in the collection. Among the models are F1 cars – the Ferrari of Schumacher and the Jaguar of Weber – as well as a Yamaha R1 sports bike that’s a constant reminder of the fickleness of youth! Missing from the display is the one car I thought would always find a place in my collection – the mighty Porsche Turbo! When I returned to Australia in 1977 I took up an assignment with a small software distributor that represented The Computer Software Company (TCSC) of Richmond, Virginia. However, in those early days I was in desperate need of ...

Just finished skimming through the October issue of NonStop Connect Now and read the item promoting an upcoming webinar (December 2, ’09) on the subject of 35 years of NonStop evolution. According to the promotion: “Throughout these decades, NonStop has evolved continuously and has now become a standards-based, modern infrastructure that continues to meet the needs of the most demanding customers and applications … take a look at the evolution of NonStop and hear about its past, present and future.” It occurred to me that we take so much of what NonStop has achieved over the past 35 years for granted, and often forget just how hard those 35 years have been. Today when we read of how, after 35 years, “NonStop has delivered on the promise of continuous application availability, unparalleled data integrity and industry leading scalability,” as the promotion piece above led with, how often do we simply forget all the hard work and long hours that a tightly-knit group of p...

Anniversaries have been on my mind of late – last week I wrote the 125th posting to this blog. A total I didn’t think I would ever reach, and each time I go to the blog and see it displayed, I am surprised. And the readership has continued to climb with every posting. In a few weeks time we will be participating in HPTF&E and I am sure I will run into many of you – I am planning to drive up to Las Vegas from Simi Valley and that shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone. Lately, I have been drawing material from the car magazine Motor Trend as often as I have done in the past from Road and Track, as I find the editorial content addressing issues other than just cars. And with what is happening in the car industry, the heads of these car companies are certainly doing their best to generate material for them. But in this latest issue of Motor Trend, writer Arthur St. Antoine talks about the loss Formula One (F1) suffered with the passing of Graham Hill, on November 30th, ‘75. And it...