Sunday, and I’m not back on the road to Dublin, I am now configured to work half time for my employer in Dublin rather than a full redundancy. The concession is, I get to work from home, and while this is not the ideal, it should keep us in beer money through this recession. Besides I could use the rest. The job never did require my presence in the office, it’s was only a vast empire of personnel from the perspective of management. I never touched any of the hardware, nothing I did in the office couldn’t be accomplished from anywhere on the planet. I was just another gopher popping out of the cubicle to reinforce the illusion of power. Long live VPN and the internet 😉
lifestyle
Haiku of Fleeting Passions
In a culture where Metaphor and Allegory are lost in Rugby Passions, even while spoken bluntly, and perhaps crudely. When attentions spans are only extended through to the next match, change becomes the least motive action. Passions that flared misguided are now quelled in the pub, and the call for mob violence by others, regretted, the guilty remain unbridled. Nothing worthy of speech and action surmounts the desire for drink and play, and life, such that it has decayed, continues. This is Ireland!
Oil price fantasies
Listening to RTE this morning I was struck by a fantasy spoken about Aer Lingus. It’s a fantasy repeated often with all the economic crisis issues going on, the fantasy;
…when Oil prices go back down!
Oil prices going down is a fantasy! There is no motovation, nor reason for oil prices to drop a significant amount to make a difference. Oil is a supply and demand issue, and will stay high, with MAYBE a minor drop in price in the near term. At least until the next price rise some where in the area of 150$ a barrel by next summer.
The one thing that seems to be forgotten is that oil is a finite resource that has been subsidized to remain low, like heroin, we have become addicted and completely dependent. And when we seek to ween ourselves off it to renewables, the price is reduced to make the switch too expensive.
Oil is running out, and will continue to rise, and no fantasy will dilute that reality.
The Village Green Preservation Society
My new favorite song….
I just thought I’d share 😉
Dell to Close Limerick Plant
Dell has discovered a clever way to close it’s Limerick as Dell plans to sell plants worldwide. The limerick Plant has been known for some time to be less profitable than those in the far east and eastern Europe. When it comes to purchasing the Limerick plant there will be no takers and it will have to close. Dell wins, as it will not have to give up it’s corporate tax breaks, and doesn’t look like the villain.
Ireland in Isolation
This article highlights a danger for Ireland Shipping Costs Start to Crimp Globalization. Ireland is an Island! Almost everyone I’ve met in Ireland never think of Ireland as an Island (the center of the universe maybe, just not an Island). We have become so complacent about the availability of foreign goods and produce, we have forgotten that without cheap oil, we will have to live within our own agricultural means. Something the Lisbon “Yes” folks don’t seem to get yet. They believe that the mobile economy will balance the trade products and that putting fishermen and farmers out of business will not harm Ireland as a whole. Cheap oil has made this possible, and is no more. No more cheap fruit, and beef, no more massive highways and individual car ownership.
John Lennon sang Imagine, just Imagine no Oil.
Twitter learning curve
I think I’m beginning to understand Twitter, and I managed to deplete my 250 Twits SMS’s. You really need the desktop client when on the internet. And only use the Mobile SMS when, Mobile. Doh!
What I have found are interesting conversations with people I know, what I don’t understand is people who are following me, who do not know me, and I have never meet. What value following me? The first thing that comes to mind are squirrels gathering nuts, (me being the nut in this scenario) but I’m sure I will find out my role here.
One other thing, picking a desktop Twitter client has been interesting as I use a PC in the office and a Mac at home, and a Palm T/X and Nokia 6300 as mobile. Choices…
Twitter and Jaiku performance issues
One thing I’ve noticed about Twitter and Jaiku, is a common thread in IT, Scaleability! It’s an issue that I worked on in my days with AT&T Wireless. Mobile phone vendors have been dealing with SMS and voice connection transactions for many years and the volume of such transactions have only grown over the years since I had to deal with 25+ million transactions per day. If the current growing pains of these Web 2.0 social networking systems are projected, they are both headed for failure in the form of catastrophic system overload. While I admire innovative Ideas, like these services, their infrastructure does not appear well thought out. A bit more foundation in the infrastructure, and less optimism of the performance, should have been the first design requirement.
Being a database kind of guy, I can’t help but believe that a fundamental disconnect in the understanding of transactions utilized in these systems is the root cause here. I have yet to see a significant teaching or understanding of database issues in the current crop of programmers. There seems to be belief that data analysis is not a worth while task in current programming efforts. I see this in the form of articles detailing new ‘database’ products and methods, and new ‘lightweight’ database processes, etc. Mostly the requirements for ‘new’ DBMS and ‘Lightweight’ processes, is the underestimations of the data tasks of most modern IT functions. If you don’t know your own data, you don’t know anything. Any system that is not fundamentally tied in with a database system is merely a calculator.
Branedy Jaiku Haiku
Twitter Branedy
More exploring has brought me to Twitter . I am mostly interested in seeing what it’s like. Having no friends to speak of means very few social connections, but if Web 2 is a social internet, then you have to be out there to functionally operate in the Web 2 world. I will see what will happen, it can’t create more spam than I already get 😉
Death and taxes
If you have been reading this blog you will know I had a loss, as in life, the only thing you can’t avoid is Death and Taxes. Life is a terminal sentence, But let me add some other certainties in this cycle, family strife. Any simple (or complex) issue becomes Enormous . Trauma ensues and squabbles erupt. Loss takes many tolls, family unity often is the first.
A Poem by Clarence J. Ballou
At the memorial for my Father, a Poem from his Grandfather.
I am now at the end of the road to the west
Where quiet reigns and all is at rest;
Away from the dust and the noise of the town,
To the end of the road where the sun goes down.So, along life’s road as we journey on
Let us meet all our trials with a laugh and a song;
Greet all with a smile and not a frown
As we come to the end when the Sun goes down.
High Risk Jobs
The job of Javelin ‘Catch’ has always been a high risk job.
Blogging life
It’s amazing that when family matters start to stress you, everyday activities like blogging loose their appeal. Facing aging and dying parents and the unpredictability of their loss makes everything else pale to insignificance. But I’m more or less prepared, in part, ready to hop any flight, when my brothers tell me the end is near. I have managed to put in place as many mobile communication and messaging technologies as I could manage so as not to be burdened with packing a laptop and various other bits and bobs that might make flying more of a burden that it will be otherwise. I could probably makes the States with only carry on luggage, dispensing with check in issues and customs. These new toys consist of a new Tri-band Phone in the form of the Nokia 6300 and a Palm T/X for more of the heavy lifting email, and web communications issues. With the U.S. now searching all laptops and sucking off suspicious data from disk drives these devices should prove useful for quick passage.
Deteriorata in the New World
While this is a bit dated, it is still funny, if sad. I have been thinking of additions or modifications that would fit the current world conditions. Things like Global Warming, Corrupt government, the Iraq war etc. What would you add to this classic?
Go placidly amid the noise and waste,
And remember what comfort there may be in owning a piece thereof.
Avoid quiet and passive persons unless you are in need of sleep.
Rotate your tires.
Speak glowingly of those greater than yourself,
And heed well their advice, even though they be turkeys.
Know what to kiss and when.
Consider that two wrongs never make a right,
But that three lefts do.
Wherever possible put people on “HOLD”.
Be comforted that in the face of all aridity and disillusionment,
And despite the changing fortunes of time,
There is always a big future in computer maintenance.
Remember the Pueblo.
Strive at all times to bend, fold, spindle and mutilate.
Know yourself. If you need help, call the FBI.
Exercise caution in your daily affairs,
Especially with those persons closest to you;
That lemon on your left for instance.
Be assured that a walk through the ocean of most souls,
Would scarcely get your feet wet.
Fall not in love therefore; it will stick to your face.
Carefully surrender the things of youth: birds, clean air, tuna, Taiwan,
And let not the sands of time get in your lunch.
For a good time, call 606-4311.
Take heart amid the deepening gloom that your dog
Is finally getting enough cheese;
And reflect that whatever fortunes may be your lot,
It could only be worse in Sioux City.
You are a fluke of the Universe.
You have no right to be here, and whether you can hear it or not,
The Universe is laughing behind your back.
Therefore make peace with your God whatever you conceive him to be,
Hairy Thunderer or Cosmic Muffin.
With all its hopes, dreams, promises, and urban renewal,
The world continues to deteriorate.
Give up.
–From the National Lampoon Radio Dinner album.