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When it comes to promoting NonStop fundamentals, are we still making our voices heard at the table where it counts? Here we go again. It is Monday morning and there is a very strong opening on Wall Street with stock prices going up by ten percent and more. Anxious investors are looking to check their positions, possibly with the intent to sell or at least place stops under some of the positions they hold. But wait; there’s nothing; nadda! Nobody can login, phone calls are not being answered. One of the major trading platforms goes silent. Can you imagine the conference room table of one of such a large firm where everyone seated exchanged furtive glances: Was it you?   In this instance it was Schwab that took this Monday morning outage with the only indication that something is wrong being a message that your login was incorrect. To be more accurate, it was an indication that your login credentials never made it to the Schwab server. Problem? It took a while but ninety-four perce...

As the countdown to 2020 NonStop Technical Boot Camp continues – this year, an all-digital experience – have you registered? It was only two years ago that Margo and I arrived in Sydney, Australia, for what would be the start of a three months sojourn that took us to Tasmania and then to New Zealand. We were in Sydney for my daughter Lisa’s birthday and the grave site visit to where my mother had been laid to rest. It marked the fiftieth anniversary of my graduating high school class – all boys’ school, mind you – and we managed to hang around long enough to welcome the New Year from the deck of a boat anchored close by the Sydney Harbor Bridge and the Opera House. Catching up with family, former business colleagues, and a number of friends even as Sydney was lashed by fierce thunderstorms that lasted for most of November and well into December.  Perhaps the only real downside to the time spent in the antipodes was that Margo and I missed the 2018 NonStop Technical Boot Camp. Datin...

Attending virtual events with more to come, the signs suggest that this is now normal; have you composed yourself ahead of what’s to come? I have to admit, when this image came to me in a tweet, it brought a smile to my face. Who else but the local authorities in San Jose would have come up with this, based on the expectation that travelers in their city would understand the reference. Given all that is happening around us in these times, it’s pleasing to see that at least one authority retains a sense of humor. On the other hand, I am sure it had the desired effect. Silicon Valley will always have its detractors but it is with signs like this that the human side of technology comes through, resonating with us all. We didn’t make it up to Silicon Valley on our last trip to California; Monterey was as far north as our time allowed. It’s unusual for us to skip an opportunity to catch up with friends and colleagues but I wanted to make sure I was back in time to wrap up assignments before...

Driving through a scorched landscape with little left to remind us of its former beauty, it begged the question: Are we torching (our plans) to retain on-prem IT and do we have a path back? In the last post to this NonStop community blog I wrote of how we had few plans to drive the Sierras any time soon. A reference in passing to the times we have driven to Burlingame, California, for the annual NonStop Technical Boot Camp (TBC) event. The reference was followed by remarks about taking away any opportunity to drive somewhere as being a real downer for Margo and me. Well, that all changed over the course of just a week although we really didn’t cross the Sierra divide to head into the Bay but rather, we drove a southern route that took us into the greater Los Angeles area. Call it being optimistic about our chances of escaping the global pandemic but the opportunity presented itself as almost a last minute development. We had been on the phone with a number of clients of late after wh...

Ready for the season to change? Ready for the nature of events to change? The weather may be turning chilly but there will be a warm reception for the NonStop All Digital Experience … The posts and updates this week have been about making the transition to winter. Living alongside the Rockies means we have to anticipate change happening almost every day. It was just a few weeks ago when it snowed and at the time, I posted of how the telltale signs of summer coming to an end couldn’t be more evident when you have several inches of snow on the ground. That was before fall arrived – who would have predicted we would be living under almost perpetual haze from forest fires to the west as snowflakes drifted earthwards. Among the posts have been queries as to which winter tires to buy and what exactly does the state of Colorado mean as it declares active traction laws are in place October through May. Turns out you have to fit tires that are either snow tires, tires with the mud/snow...

It may not always be smooth sailing ahead but for NonStop, our journey continues; better hands than mine are on the tiller and nobody is getting wet … Almost forgotten this day, given the world’s current plight of fighting the global pandemic, was how this blog passed yet another milestone. As we started the month of September it was the beginning of our fourteenth year of blogging. Yes, thirteen years have passed since the first post appeared, August 29, 2007.  When it comes to the subject matter of NonStop, there has been no end to the stories that we can tell and even after all these years, I have no thoughts about easing up on the posts. There’s just too much excitement about NonStop still to come! When I first started blogging I did so from a corner desk tucked away on the landing of our Simi Valley rental townhouse. Commuting between Boulder and Simi Valley, even as I was working out of San Francisco, meant time on the road to kick around ideas with Margo that mostly wound up...

In previous years, with the coming of fall, participation in NonStop user events has dominated our calendars. For 2020, it’s changed and we have gone virtual: Will you be logging into upcoming virtual events? Sports events kicked off a short time ago. It’s all now very serious. Here in the US the National Football League (NFL) has already started its fall classic even as colleges get back onto the gridiron. Crowds may be nothing more than cut out silhouettes even as some sporting events have opened the gates to a tightly monitored small group of fans. At this weekend’s Indy races, where the Governor’s consent only arrived a week before cars went on track, it was a case of there being only 8,000 fans on hand around a three mile circuit. In F1 it was similar, only that there were no spectators whatsoever. As governments hold the reigns tightly in the hope that this global pandemic can be managed and biotech labs hustle to bring to market lifesaving vaccines, it is clear to all and sund...