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I’ve had a series of thoughts rolling around in my brain for a while, and a comment made by Robert Farago made them all gell and roll out all at once. I offered it to him as a sort of “rebuttal” to his statement and he published it today. You can read it here:
I normally “preview” things I write here on my blog, but this one came out so fast it never had a chance to show up here first, sorry.
Life’s been keeping me very busy.
At home Chris & I have been rebuilding the deck. I know… it seems like this is a never ending project! When we bought the house a decade ago the inspector told me “You’ll be replacing the roof, and rebuilding the deck at some point.” The deck has been a piecemeal project that I’ve been doing for years now. The roof we wisely hired out. With the exception of the break when we took the road trip in July Chris & I have been replacing the rotten wood on the deck every spare moment we’ve had this summer. Before July we finished up the southwest side of the house, and after the return from the road trip we started on the southeast side. At first it was just a “replace the railing and a few rotten boards” scope, but once we started on the southeast side I changed it to include replacing ALL the old original wood, both the remaining old joists, and the deck surface. We took the time to pre-paint all the wood (except for the deck surface, which was only primer.) This added at least 3 weeks to the task, and we should have been finished about a week ago except the weather turned right as we hit the home stretch. It is still raining and we can’t add any coats of the “Deck-Kote” stuff until we have a 3-day stretch of sun.
Once this is done we’ll rebuild the railing. It will all be done just in time for winter rains! (sigh)
I’ve missed two JCNA slalom events because of this project. 🙁
At work I’ve been REAL busy on something of a skunk-works project. We’re developing software for managing our power resources. I built a prototype over the past year and this summer I’ve grabbed one of our coding geeks to take my prototype and make it real. To free up his time I’ve been covering his shift as best as I can, which means working nights in our Network Operations Center. My sleep schedule is all messed up. Then to top it off Seattle City Light made our week interesting.
I’m trying to write up the Monte Shelton rally story as fast as I can, so stay tuned.
A few weeks less than a decade ago my father and I drove the 65E in what was the looniest adventure we’ve ever done, the 1999 Cannonball Classic. We missed the 2000 run, and vowed to do it again in 2001, and even found a car specifically for the event, but as we were the sole entry, it was cancelled(!) Oh well, it was too crazy an idea to survive.
I found out this morning that the two of us are going to be moving that very car coast to coast almost 10 years to the day after that amazing week in 1999. The start and finish points are different, and we’re going alone instead of in a group, but we’re still driving the entire breadth of the USA in a matter of days.
Stay tuned for more!
Defending The Data Center – Forbes.com.
This “datacenter as terrorism target” meme has to die. Seriously. It clouds (pardon the pun) the real issues of physical and network security in our industry. If you have to seize a hot button topic like “terrorism” to communicate something important (yet completely unrelated) then you are not communicating properly.
I’ve written about this previously but it bears repeating: Datacenters are genuine parts of the first world’s infrastructure, but infrastructure is never the target of terrorism. The minds of people are the target, and in the case of 9/11 infrastructure was the weapon and symbols of capitalism and government were the targets.
It is far too expensive and time-consuming to attack infrastructure. Infrastructure only becomes a target in times of war between nations. If we’ve reached that point, then we have much larger worries. Meanwhile the realistic focus should be on criminals, infiltrations & DoS attacks (which the recent attacks on Twitter & facebook mentioned in the article actually were!) and perhaps competitors (aka industrial espionage) long before we start throwing terrorists into the mix of threats to datacenters and their contents.
Continuing part of yesterday’s thought process…
I am in full agreement with Mr. Clarkson here. I have often thought that it is not possible today to build a car that is as beautiful as say, an E-type Jaguar. The rules and regulations have strangled the life from so many designs. But here, with the 8C Alfa Romeo proves me wrong.
Like the E-type the 8C has its quirks and imperfections, but damn is this thing gorgeous. Bellisimo Alfa Romeo!
While it was hard to catch in the never ending stream of supposed “news” coverage of some dead singing weirdo, one of the 20th century’s most important figures died this week: Robert S. McNamara. Best known as Kennedy & LBJ’s Secretary of Defense, essentially the man responsible for the US’ involvement in the Vietnam war, McNamara was also an executive at the Ford Motor Company. At Ford he is credited with the Falcon, and therefore virtually all of Ford’s subsequent small cars. McNamara also served in the USAAF in WW2, as well as a stint at the World Bank, seemingly the traditional home of disgraced members of the Executive branch.
To me he was always portrayed as a villian in history, both in the White House and at Ford. My eyes were opened to a new perspective when I viewed the Oscar-winning documentary “The Fog of War” a few years ago. It is literally a conversation with the man himself, and in it he reveals and reviews his errors, and draws lessons from them. It is truly wisdom passed on from an elder, and digestion of it should be required for anyone who find themselves in a position of leadership. McNamara breaks down his experience into eleven life lessons:
R.S. McNamara’s eleven life lessons
1. Empathize with your enemy
2. Rationality will not save us
3. There’s something beyond one’s self
4. Maximize efficiency
5. Proportionality should be a guideline in war
6. Get the data
7. Belief and seeing are often both wrong
8. Be prepared to reexamine your reasoning
9. In order to do good, you may have to engage in evil
10. Never say never
11. You can’t change human nature
These lessons were foremost in his mind as not long before the documentary was made, McNamara wrote a book which applied many of these lessons unlearned had failed us in Vietnam:
Eleven lessons from the Vietnam War
1. We misjudged then — and we have since — the geopolitical intentions of our adversaries … and we exaggerated the dangers to the United States of their actions.
2. We viewed the people and leaders of South Vietnam in terms of our own experience … We totally misjudged the political forces within the country.
3. We underestimated the power of nationalism to motivate a people to fight and die for their beliefs and values.
4. Our judgments of friend and foe, alike, reflected our profound ignorance of the history, culture, and politics of the people in the area, and the personalities and habits of their leaders.
5. We failed then — and have since — to recognize the limitations of modern, high-technology military equipment, forces, and doctrine.
6. We failed, as well, to adapt our military tactics to the task of winning the hearts and minds of people from a totally different culture.
7. We failed to draw Congress and the American people into a full and frank discussion and debate of the pros and cons of a large-scale military involvement … before we initiated the action.
8. After the action got under way, and unanticipated events forced us off our planned course … we did not fully explain what was happening, and why we were doing what we did.
9. We did not recognize that neither our people nor our leaders are omniscient. Our judgement of what is in another people’s or country’s best interest should be put to the test of open discussion in international forums. We do not have the God-given right to shape every nation in our image or as we choose.
10. We did not hold to the principle that U.S. military action … should be carried out only in conjunction with multinational forces supported fully (and not merely cosmetically) by the international community.
11. We failed to recognize that in international affairs, as in other aspects of life, there may be problems for which there are no immediate solutions … At times, we may have to live with an imperfect, untidy world.
Underlying many of these errors lay our failure to organize the top echelons of the executive branch to deal effectively with the extraordinarily complex range of political and military issues.
In reality these lessons do not really limit themselves to the conflict in southeast Asia in the 1960s ad 1970s, in fact they apply to virtually any conflict between nation-states. Substitute the word ‘Iraq’ into any of these lessons and you will find that they apply. It is a shame that this level of review was not considered in 2002/2003. The human and monetary capital saved would have been astounding.
Isn’t the life and lessons of this man far more important to our country than a dead drug-addled, gender/race-confused, singing-dancing, whack-job? Why is the media so obsessed with the latter, and ignoring the former? Do any of you wonder why I don’t watch television anymore? If so your answer is found in this situation.
Instead of watching the 24hr news cycle’s circle jerk over “MJ”, pull up a chair and watch The Fog of War right here. (Or go rent the DVD if image quality and sync issues drive you crazy.) There are many, many moments within it that are profoundly thought-provoking – such as at the 42 minute mark. The depth and impact of these words about and on humanity truly put the meaninglessness of the gloved one in perspective.
Your brain will thank you for it.
This is my son Nicholas, on his birthday or Christmas, probably about nine years ago. I know the car was a gift from his grandmother Bishop. It is post 1999, as I can tell it was taken in the kitchen of the home we moved into the Spring of that year, but pre 2003 which I can surmise from vague age and his teeth. I bet his mother can tell you exactly when it was shot as that is how mothers work: mentally cataloguing the mundane minutiae of their childs’ lives… but being a dad, I can only narrow it down to within a rough two- or three-year time-frame. I do know that this was taken prior to our father/son road trip in the summer of 2003, as his appearance over those four days are deeply imprinted on my mind. I can honestly say that those four days were among the happiest days of my life. I’d never felt as close to him as then, and have not since. We were alone, and together. We talked, and we didn’t. We genuinely enjoyed each others’ company and let our whims decide what we were going to do.
In about a week I’ll be doing the same, but this time with both boys. We’re taking a road trip. Actually two road trips. One with Chris, the other with Nick. I have so much work to get done before we can start “playing” with our big-boy toy, so excuse me if I’ve been remiss in posting as often as I usually do. The CPotD will likely cease once we’re under way, unless we see something cool that we’ll share. Instead I hope to post updates from the road. I’ll certainly track progress via twitter, as that is simple to do from my cell phone. My username on twitter is chuckgoolsbee (the name I use everywhere, even in real life!)
Can’t wait to be on the road again.