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It’s hard to miss the media attention being given to Apple these days. Their latest quarterly results are mind blowing, to say the least, with some financial analysts even speculating whether Apple’s valuation will be the first to break through the trillion dollar market-capitalization barrier. Who could have guessed all those years ago when Tandem was partnering with Apple? There’s an air of excitement surrounding Apple that I haven’t seen around technology since Sony introduced the Walkman in the late-1970s and Motorola introduced the original Razr in the mid-2000s. And the picture above is of the wonderful display from flowering snowberry trees that surround the walkway to our house and yes, provide a fitting background to another technology marvel – the legendary Nissan GT-R, or Godzilla – that is now Margo’s daily drive. The iPod shook up Sony, but with the iPhone and then iPad Apple is shaking up the whole industry – redefining the PC and refocusing the world’s attentio...

The NonStop community may not be aware of changes within the Telco industry other than they consume a lot of NonStop servers. But it would appear that the appetite for NonStop at these Telco’s is only going to get bigger! It’s only been a short few years that Margo and I have been working for ourselves, but right from the outset I was pleased with much earlier provisions I had made for such an eventuality. While the house was being framed and we talked of adding wiring for a whole-house music system that pulled tracks from a massive 200 CD carrousel, it was pointed out how beneficial it would be to wire the house in support of multiple phone lines. The picture above is of me alongside the cabinets that were eventually installed to support the distribution of video as well as audio, as well as to house a digital PABX in support of four lines and twelve handsets. That all occurred more than ten years ago, and when we returned to take up fulltime residence once more in our home, it wa...

Perhaps it doesn’t immediately spring to mind, but our data centers are running many different types of servers and yet, how often is it that IT elects to acknowledge the presence of NonStop as the other system! Springtime came early to the Colorado Rockies and some could argue that we did a quick jump to summer. The weekend saw temperatures climb into the 80s and our flowering tress all came to life putting on a pretty amazing show as the neighborhood came to life. And of course, with such weather, it was off to the store to pick up supplies as the task of cleaning up after winter pulled me outdoors, and the picture above is as I walked away from a local warehouse store with my arms wrapped around buckets and mops. Of course, on returning home it was all hard work as first I brewed some coffee, gathered together armfuls of magazines that had collected on the table, and headed for the garage. The bucket and the mops that I had purchased were still standing there but with coffee in h...

The last trip to Cupertino gave me a chance to check in with NonStop development for an update on SQL/MX and the exchange didn’t disappoint! Last week I had the opportunity to spend time in Cupertino and to catch up with colleagues past and present. While much of my time was spent with those still working with NonStop there was also an opportunity to catch up with partners as well. And each colleague’s perspective add a lot to why I continue to be attracted to the platform and those still so very much committed to the NonStop platform always provide an interesting   view on whatever else is happening within HP. Of course I drove to Cupertino over the previous weekend, but this time I had to add an extra night. The rain that had been a familiar presence in the Bay area the previous week had become a snow storm up in the higher altitudes of the Sierras and dumped several feet of snow onto the major interstate – I80. Cautiously navigating deteriorating roads, I soon came across two...

There continues to be new products coming to market and for the NonStop community, when it includes the NonStop server, this is good to hear – investments being made in NonStop by parties apart from HP is definitely a topic that’s always well received! I love to grill! I love to cook in general, but I really like to grill. While I am the junior partner in our household when it comes to cooking, as soon as there’s any talk of barbecues I am the first one to head to the butchers to pick up the meat. It shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone, as being an Australian it is all part of our heritage. When it came time to landscape my house in Sydney and to hollow out a couple of terraces it was only natural to erect a brick retaining wall, and yes, within a bend of the wall a multi-grill barbecue was installed. And there were many opportunities to entertain the NonStop community – during the very first training session involving Tandem personnel from all over the world working on NonStop ...

With so many references being made to mission-critical applications, has its usage become too general? And is the impact being watered down from over exposure? Or is the pie getting bigger with each slice of the pie becoming more valuable? The situation came about during my last trip to Las Vegas where I had to stop by the local airport. Friends were arriving from Burbank, California, and I had promised to pick them up. We had arranged to meet alongside a baggage carrousel, and after grabbing a coffee I headed for the one I believed was where they would first appear. Imagine my surprise then, as I approached the carrousel to find a limousine chauffer holding up an iPad (pictured above) with a Mr. Davis brightly illuminated on the tablet’s screen. Of course I would be interested to hear from the NonStop community about other unusual uses they may have seen of the iPad, but this pretty much best sums up the appeal of these new devices – no, there isn’t any limit to what you can do w...

My earlier forecasts of a hybrid world, based on the flexibility inherent within HP’s BladeSystem are closer to realization and that user acceptance may be driven by our needs to more easily and cost-effectively pursue data integration. In a recent posting to another blog I opened with a storyline about my affinity for the open road. I have developed a preference for driving and am now very familiar with the more popular motels along the way, and given a Friday afternoon departure, come Sunday evening I could be anywhere including San Diego, San Francisco, Seattle, Minneapolis, even Atlanta and Washington, D.C. Flying is no longer fun and the sense of adventure long gone – we all lost something following September 11th, 2001, and I get the sense we will never again enjoy the freedoms once so readily accepted as just part of everyday life. So now, meet the new mobile command center of Pyalla Technologies, as we opt for something a little more to our liking than we typically find at...