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A flashback to 1993 and an ITUG event in Orlando gave me the introduction I was looking for with this post about who's talking at the upcoming NonStop Technical Boot Camp 2014 ... It was a little over 20 years ago – October, 1993, as I recall – that I attended the annual ITUG event in Orlando. I was with a group from development that included Margo Holen and we were showcasing a project we all called Chameleon – featuring “twin tails” connections between PCs, and Tandem computers. Cut one “tail” and the other took over – it was all based on Ethernet and took advantage of custom NICs from Ungermann-Bass (UB). Joining Tandem developers was Michael Ladam from UB. Michael, Brad Poole (now with comForte), Margo and I took a drive to Cape Canaveral and we stopped for gas alongside a tourist shop selling practically everything. To this day we all will not readily forget Michael’s exclamation while perusing western belts, each one featuring a flashy belt buckle, when he found a be...

As the price of gas at the pump continues to drop in the US, it’s hard to miss the flow-on effect to the community. Could we be getting value for our money at last? When the topic is increasing the sales reach of NonStop value too is important. Could we see the return of VARs? Have you all seen what’s been happening with the price of gas at the pumps here in America? Is the same thing happening everywhere? In the US we have seen the price of gas drop to $2.89 per US gallon (3.8 liters) as depicted above where I just filled up the Jeep. Remarkable! Considering our family has nothing but vehicles with large displacement engines, this is proving to be a blessing for us and it feels like getting an unexpected tax break. With the US now awash in sea of oil, thanks to the wonders of fracking, and the market laws of supply and demand kicking in, the price at the pump is likely to go down even further – the days of $2.00 per gallon gas may just be coming back. For now, $2.89 for gas? Re...

While driving into unfamiliar surroundings, a GPS is handy – perhaps, two of them, to make navigation easier. For HP, in entering new waters, splitting in two should allow the company to better navigate in two completely different marketplaces! This weekend it was a case of a quick drive along the Hudson River, the “river that defined America”.  As it is still fall and the leaves continue to change color, it was one of the drives we had always wanted to do and the color show didn’t disappoint. Final destination Sunday night was Montréal where we will be spending a little time on business before enjoying more of what Montréal has to offer. As you can see above, the old Montréal Port and grain processing plant look great in the autumn sunshine! While the route up the Hudson was straight forward, finding our hotel in the center of town proved challenging. Given that we were later to find out that there were several streets with the same name, our first attempt to locate ...

I’m posting this on the road as I drive to MATUG in Philadelphia, PA. However, before we packed the bags and began the drive, we had an opportunity to celebrate with friends and when it comes to NonStop, I was reminded of earlier posts and yes, I do get it! Had a good friends, Brian and Jan, over for the weekend; a mix of business and good meals with fine wine. In this case the friend, Brian, is someone with whom I can share my business plans as well as my interests in cars – yes, when asked where he was by a former neighbor, Brian simply responded “I’m with the Buckles, driving Corvettes and drinking good red wine”. As it turned out, he was here for his birthday as well, and on a special occasion like this, it called for something equally as special from the wine cellar. As I pulled the cork from a 1993 Silver Oak – a great California Cabernet Sauvignon – I have to admit, I was apprehensive. I was real careful removing the cork as it had dried, and once I had it out of the bo...

Moving files comprised of punched cards or indeed, magnetic tape, was so 20 th century and yet, when it comes to even the most advanced transaction processing systems, files still need to be moved and often this is the specialty of a select few boutique businesses.   Out on America’s interstate highways you see transportation evolving on an almost continuous basis. With the regular trips we make to the west coast, whether it is to HP in Palo Alto or my other clients in the greater Los Angeles area, we have seen extended sleeper compartments behind the cabs of big rigs simply getting bigger and we have seen much greater use of aerodynamics on nearly every truck we pass. However, on these trips we have also seen the venerable dump, or tip, truck lose ground to massive side dump trucks – often hauled in tandem behind a single tractor or prime mover. With highway maintenance resulting in huge tracts of roadway being torn up, it’s no surprise to see these monsters at work.  ...

I am still at it and the posts keep on coming. No surprises here but the readership continues to grow and fair enough, the message on NonStop is attracting an even bigger audience. Yes, it’s all happening and shortly, user events will dominate NonStop community agendas worldwide! I had to remind myself not to forget writing this post; after all, remembering anniversaries remains an important consideration in all we do. Shortly, I will be returning to the race track for one more time before summer ends and there’s no escaping that, with the coming of autumn, winter is only a few weeks away. Already fall colors are in evidence everywhere; the neighborhood pools are being closed, gardens are undergoing their annual clean-up and trim, and inside garages battery tenders are being readied for use.  This year I will skip a lengthy introduction and just come out with it – seven years of posting to this NonStop community blog are now behind me as of last month and now it’s time t...

Do we really need to see the big guy wielding a mighty hammer, or are areas of focus for many in IT already being covered by smaller blows leveraging what we already have? Boulder has been hit with some amazing thunderstorms of late, with another one passing overhead early this afternoon. Rather fortuitous in some respects as I took time to have a look – boiling clouds with amazing displays of nature’s powers as lightning flashes lit the sky. It was a big display of nature’s awesomeness. Lightning, disrupting the normality of an afternoon; clouds, the source of tremendous energy; no matter where you stood, the display was on a grand scale – big, by anyone’s measure. At the macro level, prairie thunderstorms are majestic to watch whether you are out in the open or tucked up alongside a mountain. However, stepping away from nature there are still amazing sights to take in that are man-made. To me, the unrelenting drive to miniaturization blows my mind – there’s just no real way ...