Real Time View

With another week to chew on all I saw at HP Discover, the more things change the more they stay the same. And that’s encouraging news for all Pathway fans I suspect … but there’s even more that’s positive for NonStop! Even HP! If my immediate consideration following 2014 HP Discover was to let my mind shuffle around all that I had seen and heard, today I can honestly admit that I have developed strong opinions about what looks to have staying power. If your interests include mobility, security, clouds and big data, then there was plenty of material on hand and the Discover Zone (a.k.a. the exhibition hall) had it all; from kiosks, to demonstration booths, to specialty mini-theaters! Beneath overhead banners supporting the big messages from HP you could find out all you ever wanted to know about a particular theme or focus area with someone knowledgeable always at hand. On more than one occasion I was rewarded with insight and perspective in an unambiguous manner, so much so th...

Will the sun finally set on NonStop? Is the journey about to end? Or, will NonStop morph into something new and yet, still recognizable? It may take five or more years but there are signs that HP is taking bold steps to change everything! The official program for 2014 HP Discover has ended and in a few hours’ time I will be heading back to Boulder. But for now, I am still in Las Vegas, sweltering under the heat of an early arrival of summer, and catching up on posts and other correspondence all the while letting my thoughts run free as I shuffle through all I heard at this year’s big tent event. The doors to the conference have closed, and another event is probably in the early throws of being set up. 2014 HP Discover is now just another footnote in the 75 years of HP’s history with expectations for the next 25 years running high. When I posted to this blog around this same time last year, I titled the post, At long last, disruptive innovation from HP! Of course, this was a r...

Time spent in Hope, B.C. held surprises for me and Sylvester Stallone however, time spent in Las Vegas, every bit as explosive (I’m almost sure) will create a renewed sense of hope … In the 1970s, after spending a short time in London, England, I immigrated to Canada. When the opportunity came to put London behind me and to work in Canada, I jumped at the chance. As my final destination was to be Edmonton, Alberta, the Canadian authorities fast tracked my application for landed immigrant status and I was on the plane, out of London, in only a couple of weeks. That should have been a clue. Seriously! All the same, I felt exhilarated to be going to a new country and I was hoping for the best. After landing at the airport, early March 1976, and with snow everywhere (yes, my first encounter with the fluffy stuff), I wasn’t sure how it would all turn out, but a few weeks later I was hard at work for the local Caterpillar distributor and had a great condo down town with a new BMW 53...

“How I wish that there were more than the twenty-four hours in the day 'Cause even if there were forty more I wouldn't sleep a minute away … Viva Las Vegas!” So go the lines in a verse from Viva Las Vegas and it pretty much sums up the frenetic pace of networking that takes place each year during the three-day mega-event, HP Discover. It was only a few days ago that the registration was finalized and I can assure everyone that I will be there – and yes, bright and early each morning. I will be providing commentary on a routine basis to the LinkedIn group, Real Time View, as I have done on all previous occasions, so look for the new posts each day. The all too familiar signs of too little sleep and too many cocktail receptions are hard to miss, but each year there’s a couple of places where the NonStop community heads – the inside The Venetian hotel always the most popular. Not forgetting the Morels Steakhouse & Bistro or TAOs, both proving to be popular. Walk thro...

Big wheels! Big shows! Big events – it’s all happening in Vegas and it’s only going to get hotter in the coming weeks and with that, it’s getting even harder to ignore Big Data! Leaving Las Vegas! Yes, after spending a couple of days there – well, on the outskirts actually and far from the strip – there’s only one word that best sums up everything about Las Vegas and that is Big! It’s oversize, loud, and even a little outlandish and yet it continues to draw a crowd no matter the time of year. If only Disney could drop the proverbial dome over the whole thing, it could be air-conditioned 24 x 7 and sold as the adult equivalent of Disney World complete with every imaginable theme park! Yes, and when it comes to big, there’s nothing bigger than the recently opened Ferris wheel. At 541 feet high it’s about 10 feet taller than the Singapore Flyer that in turn is bigger than the London Eye that measure a puny 443 feet. Together with some lads from the offices of ACI, Margo and I rod...

Just looking at how much progress has been made to ensure NonStop has a future leaves little doubt NonStop will be around for many more years – but c’mon, let’s get going! There’s more to the story … It’s not like me to ignore popular consensus when it comes to technology. Drones? Sure, they’re flying overhead and if I believe the story line of one popular television series, they have already been shrunk down to the size of insects. Camera networks capable of retracing our every movement? In an interview of Jay Leno by popular BBC TV journalist, Jeremy Clarkson, the subject of speed camera deployments in the UK came up to which Leno responded, as any good citizen from Los Angeles would, “why don’t you just shoot them out?” Then again, watching television on our phones or watching the big game on our tablet all seemed pretty far-fetched only a decade ago. Glasses with video displays? Preposterous! Flying saucers? Not likely, and this is where I draw the line. Bigfoot?  Th...

I am all about choice and having options but sometimes, I balk at having to throw anything away. When it comes to NonStop, there’s a rich choice of solutions and almost all of them are providing simple methods that help to ease-in to production …   Imagine my surprise when the email arrived promoting a fun day in a Las Vegas sand box. Literally; it was a real sand box, full of sand and not a reference to some exotic new middleware. A sandbox, too, liberally populated with tractors and scrapers – as the promotion for such an experience proudly advertised. “You know you've always wanted to play on the huge equipment you see on construction sites,” said the lead in on the web site, Dig this Vegas . “Meet at a giant sandbox in Las Vegas and receive a brief safety instruction and equipment orientation,” was how another promotional brochure started. “You'll be given a hard hat, vest, and 2-way radio before climbing aboard a real-life excavator or bulldozer for a unique and...