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Mission accomplished? Not quite; giving a voice to independent NonStop vendors.

A long time ago, walking around the campus of Tandem Computers we would watch Lockheed P-3 Orion aircrafts returning from their mission of surveillance over the Pacific. One of our colleagues with a military background would explain all this and tested us with a question from time to time as another Orion flew past “and what is its mission?” Around that time, I was attending a Meta (now Gartner) conference in Phoenix along with other participants from Tandem and the night sky was putting on quite a display. Picking out the constellation, Orion, one of our group participants turned and playfully asked our military coworker, “and what is its mission?” And it continues to resonate with me to this day. I am constantly being challenged on what is my mission and, in many instances, the context is unclear. Am I looking at the night sky or am I focused on items much closer to home. When it comes to missions, they can be given to us or self-imposed. To execute we need to accept them, of cou...

Looking out for the NonStop community’s well-being.

As winter days became shorter, Margo and I found our way deeper into Florida. We drove up and down the Florida peninsula stopping by Orlando and then Ft Lauderdale. The temperatures climbed the further south we drove; this was expected. Overnighting in Orlando gave me an opportunity to capture the mood of central Florida in a series of happy-snaps on my mobile phone. The view from our hotel room highlighted a bridge that provided passageway between both banks of the lake. This week I was reminded of this as we watched the Superbowl. There were surprises just as there were a number of outstanding performances – outstanding, yes, just as they were unexpected. However, having driven the length of Florida it took little imagination to think back to 2007 when the Superbowl was played in Miami and to the halftime spectacular centered on the entertainment provided by Prince. Just minutes before Prince was scheduled start his performance, the rains descended in earnest. When asked whether ...

HPE NonStop: Is the wait over? Will the legend live on?

No sun on the Rockies, not even the light of day I feel that old cabin fever coming on It won't be long before my ship comes in Gonna sail right out of Colorado Songwriters: Clint Patrick Black / James Hayden Nicholas I am a storyteller. As a storyteller, I am also an observer and as an observer I am yet to say that I have seen it all. Quite to the contrary, I am convinced that there is still much more to see and when it comes to IT, each and every time I speculate that a new dawn has come it seems that such an observation is only ever short term as with one dawn appearing over the horizon there is always another, and another, about to appear. Such is technology that nothing lasts forever to quote a popular song. I chose the photo above for its symbolism. Hard to escape? It’s a lighthouse. It may be decorative but they illuminate the location just as effectively. Dropping our gaze to the dock we see that there’s a warning: Snakes and Alligators. Who remembers that popular ...

Clear sailing; all it takes is teamwork.

Off the wind on this heading lie the Marquesas. We got eighty feet of the waterline nicely making wake. A lot of attention is being given to sailing events. There is the solo race around the globe that sees participants now battling each other in the Pacific Ocean. However, for a Sydney boy such as I remain at heart, it is not just about sailing around the world but rather, taking on some serious and oftentimes totally unpredictable waters of the Tasman Sea as the annual Sydney to Hobart blue-water classic takes place. I have loved sailing for almost all of my adult life. I spent four years racing sloops on Sydney Harbor where our crew managed successive wining seasons with me deftly balanced on the foredeck, raising and dropping headsails with hoisting spinnakers, all part of the job at hand. Being on the foredeck meant little time to understand the finer points of actual sailing, when it did come time for me to take the helm in the annual Flinders Island race, I proved ineff...

Frame works? Sometimes they do; sometimes they don’t!

It’s common knowledge within the NonStop community that Margo and I are building a new home. This time, it will not be in Colorado but rather, in Florida. Nothing political to report here as the catalyst for such a change of location has more to do with our health than anything else – heading to sea level is likewise almost as common knowledge as is the move itself. The home we are building in Florida will be the third home Margo and I have built. This time it will be a far cry from the first home we built but similar in that we are starting with an empty lot. Our second home was already a work in progress when we chose it but even so we watched as our chosen floorplan took shape between the frames. So yes, we know frameworks. For the NonStop community, frameworks often surface in discussions. When you enter the world of open source there are a myriad variety of options, all with the benefits and weaknesses. Many of the better software implementations we rely on today have been built a...

A major reality check: All the latest from NonStop TBC 2024

Sometimes, timing is everything. At other times, you just cannot rule out luck. Over the past couple of weeks Margo and I have really run up the miles. We drove from the Florida panhandle back to Colorado and then on to Monterey. After which, we drove the reverse route. All up, I seem to recall, we did more than five thousand miles over the course of four weeks or thereabouts. Regular readers will understand that this isn’t a one-time road trip, as we normally drive to wherever conferences and events might be held. One regular trip we have done many times has been the Colorado to Mississauga, Ontario, loop just so we can spend a day with the Canadian Tandem User Group. For many, sitting in a car for this amount of time is inconceivable and yet, for Margo and me it’s the time when we get to talk about what we can expect to hear at a conference followed by a further discussion on what we did hear. This time, however, external events played a larger-than-life part – it was the height ...