Real Time View

With the HP Discover event imminent, and with headlines about outages showing no signs of ebbing, it’s solely up to those of us within the NonStop community to convey the real story on NonStop’s place in business … I don’t have explanations and I can’t fathom it at all! The rain continues to come down here in Boulder and in all the years I have lived here I can’t recall a cooler, wetter, spring! If this rain keeps up then the countryside will be more reminiscent of England than it is of California, or Tuscany, or even parts of Australia, where the predominant color for much of the year lies somewhere between gold and brown. All summer we usually have to deal with humidity levels around ten percent, but this rain certainly alters that metric. The picture above is of irises in full bloom outside my back door. I haven’t paid all that much attention to them in the past; perhaps I was out of town when they last blossomed. In fact, only a few weeks earlier the landscaper had suggested we...

In this follow-up to what was last posted, where I expressed some surprise that after 35+ years, there still wasn’t a platform that challenged NonStop, I now chastise those CIOs who believe they can spend their way to success! The other weekend while enjoying the opportunity to take the Corvette to Spring Mountain Motorsports Ranch, outside of Pahrump, west of Las Vegas, and lapping the large 3.1 mile circuit with other enthusiasts, I had the misfortune of blowing a major seal in the car’s supercharger. The effect was terminal and the ‘Vette will now spend several weeks in the shop either undergoing costly repairs or, hopefully, being fixed under warranty. While I sat by the car, a little shaken by the experience and not immediately coming to terms with the impact it would have on my plans for the coming week, one of participants tried to comfort me with the sage advice it’s only money ! The picture at the top of the page is of Margo alongside the ‘Vette as we completed the transfe...

Can a 35+ year technology be considered modern especially as it continues to have few peers in the availability stakes? Let’s ask plainly, what needs to change to attract a wider user audience? Being in Chicago in spring is not a typical occurrence for me. Usually, Chicago is either covered with snow and miserably cold as wicked winds come in from the lake, or it’s hot and humid. There’s no denying the architecture, however, and no matter the time of year, I always like to take a short stroll and check out what has changed. The photo above is me alongside the river, directly opposite the latest addition to the stable of skyscrapers erected by Donald Trump. In fact, while I was snapping this photo, I wasn’t too far from the location of a photo taken several years ago that I included in the October 30th, 2007 post “Our need for architects ...” and where the skyline back then only showed the rough skeleton of the Trump building as the only evidence construction was under way. The Trum...

These days it seems I'm always connected - iPad, Blackberry and the ever reliable laptop! I may fuss over the complexities of keeping calendars in synch, but I wouldn't have it any other way! There's simply no going back ... oh boy! I spend way too much time walking the floors of car service bays where there’s always the possibility of spotting something new or different. To me, these cars are works of art where I will pause and absorb the craftsmanship involved. The picture above is of the work bays in the specialty shop, Dragon Pro Street Engineering, where high-end Corvettes, Vipers and Ford GTs are routinely worked on and where, in the background and a little out of focus, can be seen the famous “Yellow Skull Vette” that recently graced the cover of Vette magazine. There was a time when you would simply park your car at any car dealers’ service center, tell them what was required, and hand over the keys. It wasn’t all that long ago either that the service staff woul...

Would it come as a surprise to anyone following the HP NonStop Server that it’s making it into the Cloud Computing strategy? And would it be a surprise to any that it’s doing so on the strength of the data base? Spring is finally making it to Boulder, and finally our snowberry trees are in bloom. For the past couple of weeks we have looked at the trees alongside our driveway through the glass doors of our kitchen nook every morning just to see if they had blossomed. The picture alongside this post shows that yes, they finally gave us the display of white flowers we had been hoping for as the weather had begun to warm. It has been five years since we saw this display, as business had necessitated us being away from home for extended periods and no matter how hard we tried to schedule being home for this time of year, we had never managed to successfully sidestep commitments to be elsewhere. So the experience of this week has gone a long way to compensate for the distractions that ca...

Paraphrasing local bedding shop in the west, “You’re killing me, Larry!” But it’s not so much his posturing as it is Larry’s presumption that he enjoys special relationships with every vendor up and down Silicon Valley! It’s as if I can never escape infrastructure projects, or escape being embroiled in technology obsolescence discussions. Setting up offices for Margo and me in our Boulder home has been quite an ordeal and this morning we had a longtime audio / video specialist, Brian, return to oversee the pulling of Ethernet cables, some coax and other related components needed to support dual working environments. The picture  above is of Margo who bravely soldiered on while everything was in chaos for several hours. Watching new networking infrastructure being installed and watching older equipment being carted away, I was reminded of how when I worked for Tandem Computers I used to enjoy providing the product management perspective on communications and networking to ...

It was a cold and stormy night! This is not a parody of some dreadful work of fiction – it was true and I was no longer in control and I had few choices. For the NonStop community, this may hit too close to home … It’s taken some time, but I have finally settled back into my Boulder home and the daily routines are being re-established. However, I made a quick dash back to Northern California and to the Bay area to participate in track event, but was caught out badly on the return trip when an unexpected weather change brought with it a fierce snow storm. As the full fury was unleashed on the Sierras I became trapped for many hours on the border with Nevada, along with every other driver on the interstate at that time. I did get the opportunity to drive my all-wheel-drive Skyline, but it proved only partially effective as the summer tires struggled for control – a most uncomfortable situation. So much so, that the only real option I had was to return to Truckee, California, and ride...