Real Time View

For those who have hit the high seas with the intension of sailing to a faraway land, there are many elements that can contribute to missing arriving at your harbor. Sail one degree off course then for every 60 miles you sail you will miss your target by one mile. Not much, or so it seems and yet, sail around the world following the equator and you will be off course by 500 miles. While flying between Sydney and San Francisco during the year I commuted between the Tandem office in North Sydney and the Cupertino campus, there was a time when I received an invite to enter the flight deck. Those were different times when security wasn’t an issue and on the Queen of the Sky, that venerable Boeing 747. Imagine my surprise to see the first officer pulling out his sextant, sighting a planet as it rose from the horizon and then checking with the aircraft’s inertial navigation system remarking as he did so that he was right on course. It shouldn’t come as a surprise then to know that the NonSto...

                 “I’ve got a feeling and I just can’t let it go!” This is a line from a haunting song by Los Angeles indie electro-soul band, Caught a Ghost. Not to be confused with the song from Frozen, it became the theme song of Amazon Prime series “Bosch” that was based on numerous novels by Michael Connelly. For those familiar with the novels or those who have viewed the Prime series, you will know that the main character Bosch enjoys jazz and the choice of this song for the series title may have been a surprise and yet, it absolutely captures the indomitable spirit of Detective Bosch. This is the same feeling I get whenever I hear news about the latest cloud offering or about the enterprise that has elected to migrate everything to the cloud. And this feeling is amplified whenever I read of news about yet another outage affecting millions of users. It is almost as if IT professionals have forgotten the first law of IT: Change. Call it...

As I look back at the past year perhaps the best way to describe it was how there were many times where things were broken. I am not talking about the occasional drinking glass or dinner plate but objects that mattered to us. When things are broken their performance is hindered to where in some cases they no longer serve any useful purpose. Replacement appears to be the order of the day. Mind you, I am not talking about the weather here in Colorado as I have lost track of how many days have passed without a meaningful snow fall. This morning may have been the exception as a little rain together with what might pass as a little sleet did fall but not for long enough to stick to anything. Enjoying December days that have climbed into the 70sF (20sC) would surely pass as unusual even if we didn’t talk about weather patterns that look to be broken. However, before developing this story line further, please be happy for us as remedies for almost everything have been found. But what was brok...

Walking into my office the only thought I had on my mind was how the year was coming to an end. I distinctly recall getting an early night New Year’s Eve 2020 and yet, here we are and 2021 is drawing to an end. It is also pretty easy to remark over how different 2021 had been to what was predicted two, three years ago. Remember the pundits writing about the coming doom that will overwhelm us and it had nothing to do with the global pandemic? Leave it to the predictions of the French philosopher Michel de Nostradamus (who some think has been “freakishly accurate”) when he wrote of “World-ending asteroids, zombies and ruinous famine are on deck for 2021.” In response I can only repeat the most famous words of the American tennis ace John McEnroe, “you cannot be serious?” Renowned for his on-court theatrical outbursts, we all learnt to love the guy in time. However, it is another image that perhaps sums up the year better than others and it is of the British actor Peter Sellers when he ...

I have just added another post to our social blog, Buckle-Up, that was the last of ten posts retelling stories that first appeared in Speed News, a digital publication of the track club to which for the better part of a decade Margo and I belonged. The title of the post was Retiring from HPDE and for those not familiar with the HPDE programs they were all about H igh P erformance D river E ducation and catered for those car enthusiasts who prefer to experience speed on tracks rather than on streets. When it comes to the subject of retirement nothing tugs at the heartstrings more firmly than thoughts of lazy days spent on a tropical beach, beneath a palm trees, sipping on a fruity cocktail. However, for most of us, those tugs on the heartstrings are only part of the story as there is a lot more that influences us than the quiet life. When it comes to the IT industry and, particularly when it comes to all those dedicated to support of the HPE NonStop ecosystem, is a quiet nap even in ...

With as many virtual events as there continue to be, it’s not always easy to get a message across to a target audience. I was reminded of this just a few days ago when I was enjoying an exchange with another vendor about an upcoming purchase. To say it was car related purchase would be something that you would expect to hear from me and so it was.  GM announced the arrival of a new car and it did so in a virtual event that it broadcasts to the globe. Calling it an event, free to all interested parties and recorded for posterity, maybe a stretch at a time when much is being conveyed in webinars and podcasts, but then again, the launch of a new Corvette certainly warranted the creation of an event all by itself. It was only a short time ago that this year’s NonStop Technical Boot Camp (NonStop TBC21) came to a close and in the intervening time, we have all had time to review sessions of interest to each of us. I certainly have been no slouch in this regard and have found that taking ...

Driving into Ft Collins, Colorado, Margo and I came across this big billboard. It brought a smile to both our faces even as we were later to comment that in fact, it was a poor reflection on our times. The creative process leading to innovative expressions seems to have lessened during the lockdowns driven by the global pandemic as not being able to congregate around the water cooler, throwing out ideas, and challenging each other just doesn’t seem as productive in the virtual world as it did when we could hassle over the choice of words in person. I wasn’t familiar with Creative Agency of Ft Collins, Colorado, but when I looked them up on the web, turned out that they were “a full stack digital marketing & creative agency.” Naturally enough, the reference to a full stack caught my attention, but then again, as they state on their web site, “ Your time is precious. Leave the strategizing up to us.” Well, there you go again, leave the strategizing up to you marketing partner. Ouch!...