It was October 20, 1999 that this blog/journal began its life. I had been using the Internet (and bulletin boards before that) for several years and had come upon Dr. Jerry Pournelle's site through my readings of the former dead tree periodical Byte. Once I found his site, it wasn't long before I found the Daynotes Gang. I started conversing with a couple of them and appreciated their openness and willingness to help its members.
I soon began my own journal and was gratified to hear from Tom Syroid that I had been inducted into their august group! It is a bit ironic that Tom has since taken a sabbatical (along with several other members, of various lengths of time: Shawn Wallbridge, Chris Ward-Johnson, Matt Beland, Jim Crider, Steve Tucker, Greg Lincoln, Mat Lemings, JHR, and Jon Hassell. It's nice to see Al Hedstrom back on the run, as it were, with at least weekly postings (or is it weakly? [G] - Ed.))
As I've gotten to know them, through their journals and e-mails, I realized they are a group of terrific individuals. Yes, there have been spats that have caused long-term rifts, but the group continues on (even if I don't seem to get any of the Back Channel e-mails anymore).
As I trod into my fifth year of doing this, I wonder where I'll be in five years? Will I still be typing in this journal or will I have lost interest and regained the time it takes to write these things? I honestly don't know. What I do know it has been an honor to be associated with these gents and I would like to thank each and every one of them. I have learned much and hope, in my own small way, to have given back in at least equal measure.
But for now, it is into the breach once more...
InfoWorld's Bob Lewis has an insightful post (see it here) on one person's run-in with office politics. The specific situation is one in which an employee is layed off, but then magically returns when a "special" position is created for the person. This situation is fraught with all kinds of traps that can lead to your own ouster.
Lewis has some good advice - be professional and look past the obvious to the underlying motivations. Of course, this is easier said then done but the successful employee must be able to do this.
PBS columnist Robert X. Cringely talks about the differences between Microsoft and Open Source and why MS doesn't seem to understand what the strengths and weaknesses of each are:
At the core of Ballmer's remarks is a fundamental misunderstanding not only of Open Source, but of software development as an art rather than as a business. Cutting to the bone of his remarks, he is saying that Microsoft developers, since they are employees, are more skilled and dedicated than Open Source developers. They are better, Ballmer suggests, because Microsoft developers have their rears (presumably their jobs) on the line. All those lines and all those rears are part of a road map, he says, and because of that road map the $30 billion plus Microsoft gets each year isn't too much for us to pay, so the model works pretty well.
This is nonsense. It is nonsense because Steve Ballmer, like Bill Gates before him, confuses market success with technical merit. Microsoft's product roadmap is a manifestation of a business plan, and what matters in Redmond is the plan, not the map, which is in constant flux. How many technical initiatives has Microsoft announced with fanfare and industry partners, yet never delivered? Dozens. That is no roadmap.
See the full column here.
There be a Red Storm coming. Cray Inc. announced they will be sell a commercial version of their Red Storm supercomputer that it is building for Sandia National Labs (see the story here). As is the case with more and more supercomputers, this one will use massively parallel clusters of AMD's 64-bit Operterons.
Last Thursday and Friday I was indeed layed flat on my back. Just getting out of bed was an adventure in pain. But things got better by Saturday. Sunday found me doing work around the house. I am back at work today and hope my back holds up.
Aloha!
