Real Time View

So this is the first post of my fifth year and what better topic to pick to celebrate such a start than what we take with us from user events - regional as well as global. Times are changing and the web is playing a bigger role, but I sure do look forward to any opportunity that comes my way to join with users ... “Talkin’ to myself again Wonderin’ if this traveling is good Is there something else a doin’ We’d be doin’ if we could …” Today, August 30th, has been celebrated in my family since I was born. Both my parents were born in the same day, different years. In 2009, my father passed away but he is survived by my mother. In the neighborhood where I grew up, my father was the first anyone knew who had spent time living in America. Following in the footsteps of my grandfather, my father was a printer. I was reminded of this when I walked into my library and came across a framed original of my grandfather’s indentures signed in July, 1902, that bonded him, as an apprentice, f...

For many, four years may not represent a lengthy time span. Many have worked on projects that spanned many more years! On the other hand, when it comes to my own handicraft, who knew! And yes, who could have guessed … and now I’m kicking off my fifth year of blogging! There have been many postings to this blog where I have included pictures of cars. On more than one occasion it’s been of the blue Corvette coupe in which I have tried my hand at driving on different circuits in Western United States. Pictures that I have included have clearly shown the number 116 affixed to the car. More astute observers may even recall a picture of my SUV with the same number affixed high in the rear window. The choice of number for the Corvette, required by clubs before the coupe can turn a wheel on any circuit, took very little time to determine. After all, January 16th is my wedding anniversary and having forgotten (just once, in 2009, mind you) every time I walk through the garage now, I canno...

Perhaps the biggest surprise for many at HP Discover, was the demonstration of GuardianAngel – NonStop, capitalizing on cloud resources – and for Enterprise users, a whole new way to view cloud computing! Business took me into Omaha last week, and then I headed off to Minneapolis. Rather than driving an American car, I drove an import on this trip and though this has little to do with the immediate story, when the return trip took us through Sturgis, South Dakota, during the annual motorcycle festival, there were moments when I had second thoughts about the wisdom of what I had done. The picture above shows me standing in the center of the street surrounded by motorcycles stretched out as far as the eye could see. And the overwhelming choice of the rally participants was American-made bikes and the older the better. Surprising, there was even an exhibit by the motorcycle vendor, Indian, who I thought had long since left the scene following a brief resurrection a few years back. ...

It took me longer than I had initially anticipated but the help users gave me, as did a couple of vendors as well as HP itself made the effort worthwhile. Want to know my opinions about NS SQL then read on … I’ve spent so many years travelling that there’s part of me convinced I am a Nomad! Perhaps not, but having moved internationally seven times, and with opportunities to take up residence in England (London) and Canada (Edmonton), as well as in the US on four separate occasions (Dallas in 1977, Raleigh in 1987, then Cupertino in 1989, and Boulder, Colorado in 1996, If you add Omaha and Simi Valley into the mix the number grows to six!), I am still enjoying the journey and consider the destinations of lesser importance. The picture above? It’s of my apartment building that I took on a return trip to Edmonton, two years after I had left. These days I am reconnecting with so many old friends and the memories keep flooding back; of standing on empty beer cans to catch a glimpse of...

An email exchange last week with a client provided the storyline I was looking for to introduce subjects covered in a recent interview with HP NED’s Martin Fink. Take a look to see what’s peculating to the top of his agenda … A couple of years ago I vacationed in the south of France. It was May so I was able to pull into Cannes and watch the fun that surrounded the Cannes Film Festival, and draped over one of the waterfront hotels were banners promoting Brad Pitt and the film, Troy. I was fortunate to be on a commercial sailing boat, operated by one of the more popular cruise lines, and one of the benefits was that we shared the same dock with many of famous patrons. It was a little further west along the coast, at St Tropez, however, where I came across a yacht that was truly a delight and the picture above captures what caught my eye. In today’s world of composites and carbon fiber sandwiches, this stunningly maintained timber yacht was a thing of remarkable beauty! I have spent mu...

It never ceases to amaze me just how well the NonStop platform performs and yet, as we talk more freely of how modern it has become, why aren’t we working just as hard to get the message up to our bosses? I’m sitting in an airline lounge waiting for a flight to Frankfurt. I’ve been able to mix in a little downtime while pursuing business opportunities in Paris, and of all European cities there’s probably none better than Paris when it comes to just filling in time. The picture above is of Margo, enjoying the ambience of the street outside Les Deux Magots, the famous former hang-out of such literary luminaries as Hemingway and Sartre! On arrival in Paris, early Monday evening of last week, I headed down the Champs Elysees towards the Louvre and I stopped briefly at a stall to pick up a hot dog and a bottle of Orangina. While it may not surprise my readers, all the same it was Parisians who invented the hot dog and there’s nothing better than snacking on a frank covered in spicy hot mu...

The HP Discover event is now history but the arrival by chance of a photo from an earlier ITUG event together with a posting in HP’s web site has me rethinking where NonStop is headed … Mark Faithful forwarded me a photo this week that was taken at the ITUG event in San Jose, late October, 2002. It is of a luncheon held in honor of that year’s guest speaker, Gene Kranz whose book “Failure is not an Option” included a detailed account of the 1970 effort that went into rescuing the Apollo 13 crew. The photo above captures Kranz and his wife with the ITUG Summit 2002 committee. Shortly after this photo was taken, Kranz addressed a full house of community members and he reflected on the events that led to the successful recovery of the crew. I have always enjoyed attending user events and have found participation highly rewarding. No matter where they may be held or how big or small an audience they attract, they have proven to be the best way to pick up on the latest trends concerning ...