Life is sometimes truly unfair... Chris Hipp, passed away yesterday, and the world is a poorer place for it.
There's a character on a TV beer ad called "The most interesting man in the world". Hipp was the real life incarnation of that invented person.
He was one of those extraordinary people whose actual life was far more interesting than anything one could make up: He started out as a semi-pro cyclist in Texas, competing against the likes of Lance Armstrong, and started an SGI reseller in Dallas just when 3D graphics and DCC started to make a real impact in the market. He then founded RocketLogic (later RLX systems) and, in the process, invented Blade Servers and created an entire market, for which he never got anything close to real credit.
Later, he moved west to California, and co-founded Orion Multisystems (where we worked together), a company that built deskside supercomputers, and helped usher in the age of low power supercomputing, and green computing in general. At the time of his passing he was working for DWave who build quantum computers, and along the way, he championed, nurtured and helped a number of companies to get funding, and develop partnerships. He was a visionary who was always happiest at the bleeding edge, and made it his mission to ensure that technology, big or small, had a fighting chance to make an impact, and to change the way people think.
His incessant fascination with other people, and the things they were doing, compelled him to go out of his way to make friends with interesting and creative people, in many fields. Whenever I was with him, at a trade show or an event, it seemed like he knew almost everybody of importance in both the High Performance Computing and the Cycling world, and they knew him too (there are *many* cool and off-color stories). At a show like SC, it would take him 2 days to walk the floor, just because of bumping into people he knew. I think I only ever managed to introduce him to a handful of people he didn't already know, or hadn't already met.
Through it all, one had the sense that even though he had achieved so much, he wasn't close to being finished helping to change the world.
He was infinitely curious, and technologically was attracted to the innovative, the meaningful and the cool. He deeply loved his companera, Lorraine, his cats, cycling, technology and the Chipotle burritos at Maria Elenas in Alviso. He was also one of the few people I called a friend.
I'm having a hard time dealing with the fact that a voice that was so full of life is now silent. Damn.
Wednesday, July 15, 2009
Sunday, June 14, 2009
God hates me, yes she does....
The f***ing Lakers are about to win the championship.
I can't say just how overrated I think Kobe is. Not that he isn't good, because he is, and borderline great, even. His absolute best is right up there with Jordan, Magic, Wilt and the rest, but he doesn't bring that game very often. To me, the number of shots taken, notwithstanding, he's been the 3rd best player on his team during the finals, behind Gasol and Odom, and it's not even close. He'll probably win finals MVP, and Gasol and Odom will be denied the praise they deserve.
Let's be clear... the Magic lost this series, and the Lakers are mature enough to take advantage. For that reason they deserve the win, and the title. But let's not kid ourselves as to the quality of this Lakers team, who would have been long gone from the playoffs had it not been for some iffy refereeing, particularly during the Denver series.
I can't say just how overrated I think Kobe is. Not that he isn't good, because he is, and borderline great, even. His absolute best is right up there with Jordan, Magic, Wilt and the rest, but he doesn't bring that game very often. To me, the number of shots taken, notwithstanding, he's been the 3rd best player on his team during the finals, behind Gasol and Odom, and it's not even close. He'll probably win finals MVP, and Gasol and Odom will be denied the praise they deserve.
Let's be clear... the Magic lost this series, and the Lakers are mature enough to take advantage. For that reason they deserve the win, and the title. But let's not kid ourselves as to the quality of this Lakers team, who would have been long gone from the playoffs had it not been for some iffy refereeing, particularly during the Denver series.
The Governator and his legacy..
As the state faces the prospect of going broke, it's clear that the Governor has challenges ahead of him. His real problem, like that of Gray Davis, is that much of the problem is out of his hands, mandated by ballot initiatives, and that his options are severely limited. Still it hasn't helped that Arnold's tenure as Governor has been marked by the same bullshit conservative philosophy that has brought the rest of the country into depression.
My hope for him, when elected, was that he'd behave like a true adult, in the sense of bringing a far more mature perspective to state politics, given that he was elected as a Republican, without the real support of the party's state organization. He could be a Republican, philosophically, but wouldn't have to pander to the kooks and crazies in his party.
But he hasn't done that. He pushed for tax cuts at a time when we should have been saving for the future, knowing full well that we could smell the rain of a recession on the horizon. He has wasted his unique opportunity of being a true populist, and failed to introduce and support the kind of reforms that would have allowed California to escape the brunt of the depression.
It's not too late, only because the state faces chaos. What is needed is a change to the state constitution that takes general spending away from the ballot box, and puts it back into the hands of legislators, but leaves the decision to levy taxes in the hands of the populace. In addition, the state should remove the cap on property taxes, and replace it with a means test. There are too many people not paying their fair share of property taxes, despite being full capable of doing so.
In exchange for that power, the constitution should mandate a balanced budget, with a small amount of leeway to deal with reductions in revenue.
If the Governor takes those bold steps, which he should have no trouble doing, because both Democrats and Republicans will benefit from it, and changes the political dialog in this state, he will have done a good thing.
My hope for him, when elected, was that he'd behave like a true adult, in the sense of bringing a far more mature perspective to state politics, given that he was elected as a Republican, without the real support of the party's state organization. He could be a Republican, philosophically, but wouldn't have to pander to the kooks and crazies in his party.
But he hasn't done that. He pushed for tax cuts at a time when we should have been saving for the future, knowing full well that we could smell the rain of a recession on the horizon. He has wasted his unique opportunity of being a true populist, and failed to introduce and support the kind of reforms that would have allowed California to escape the brunt of the depression.
It's not too late, only because the state faces chaos. What is needed is a change to the state constitution that takes general spending away from the ballot box, and puts it back into the hands of legislators, but leaves the decision to levy taxes in the hands of the populace. In addition, the state should remove the cap on property taxes, and replace it with a means test. There are too many people not paying their fair share of property taxes, despite being full capable of doing so.
In exchange for that power, the constitution should mandate a balanced budget, with a small amount of leeway to deal with reductions in revenue.
If the Governor takes those bold steps, which he should have no trouble doing, because both Democrats and Republicans will benefit from it, and changes the political dialog in this state, he will have done a good thing.
Saturday, May 16, 2009
Bolden to be new NASA Chief.
According to the Wall St Journal, Charles Bolden is likely to be the new head of NASA. Bolden is an ex-Marine, who flew shuttle missions in the 80s.
This is a good move, in that it puts an ex astronaut at the helm, and will do much to bolster morale after the mess with Griffin. In theory, it reinforces a commitment to manned exploration, which is the glamor activity within NASA and is something that drives the people within the agency.
As defense expenditures decrease in the face of a diminishing desire to police the world, NASA will be there to pick up the slack wrt high value jobs and projects. Our aerospace industry needs NASA in order to evolve. So Bolden will certainly have his hands full. But, it's not entirely clear to me that he has the capacity to cultivate a "grand strategy" for moving the agency forward, and Ares I & II will certainly give him much grief.
This is a good move, in that it puts an ex astronaut at the helm, and will do much to bolster morale after the mess with Griffin. In theory, it reinforces a commitment to manned exploration, which is the glamor activity within NASA and is something that drives the people within the agency.
As defense expenditures decrease in the face of a diminishing desire to police the world, NASA will be there to pick up the slack wrt high value jobs and projects. Our aerospace industry needs NASA in order to evolve. So Bolden will certainly have his hands full. But, it's not entirely clear to me that he has the capacity to cultivate a "grand strategy" for moving the agency forward, and Ares I & II will certainly give him much grief.
Saturday, May 9, 2009
New Guitar Magazine...
Future US, has just published a new guitar magazine, called Guitar Aficionado, that's targeted at the 35-54 year old male reader with significant disposable income. While I'm a little skeptical of the timing of publishing such a rag, given the economy and the fact that I thought such an audience was dead, that's not what bothers me. What bothers me is it's perspective.
Don't get me wrong.. the magazine is elegant, with beautiful photographs, and somewhat interesting people as interviewees, and is as fine a piece of guitar porn as you'll find anywhere, without actually touching a guitar. But it's focus is on guitars as objects, things whose worth is measured solely by their financial value, or their rarity as collectible objects. And given it's predisposition towards the solid-body era, and Rock music, it misses the point entirely.
There's an interview with Joe Perry, in the magazine, that talks about his horses, his houses, his cars and his guitar collection, without once referencing the fact that he was the man who wrote the riff to "Walk this way". There's no mention of the music or the makers, or the players as musicians rather than as squires of country estates.
And that's ultimately a jejune perspective. Rock and Roll isn't a lifestyle.. it's a way of life. It's Iggy Pop and Lemmy, not Richard Gere or Johnny Depp. Jimmy Page and Robert Plant didn't get all that tail by showing off how big their cars were. They did it by playing "A whole lotta love" on stage, and meaning it. John Lee Hooker was still getting young pussy at the age of 80 because he could still play the blues with true soul.
I'm loathe to criticize a magazine's first issue, and I get the idea that this is a publication designed to ease affluent men through their midlife crises, and that through the possession of symbols of rebellion, some youth may be recaptured. You know, the guitar magazine Playboy would publish. But I'm a little angry about it, because of the cynicism. This is the same mentality that turned the Rock fan into a demographic, took Rock and Roll away from it's real audience, sanitized it, and caused the Eagles to charge $250 for concert tickets. By embracing the arrogance of wealth, the idea that being rich in of itself makes you a better person than someone who's poor, it encourages the delusion that if you buy an expensive enough guitar, you'll magically be good.
What this magazine lacks is soul. The publishers and editors seem to know the cost of everything, but the value of nothing. The Bible says it is easier to thread a camel through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. And the same is true of rock and roll, which is about rebellion, anger and hope, and desperate animal sex with a skanky chick up against a side-alley wall. Rock and Roll isn't the sanitized airbrushed Playboy, it's the down and dirty Hustler.
Still, I'll probably end up buying more issues of this thing. You know, for the bathroom.
Don't get me wrong.. the magazine is elegant, with beautiful photographs, and somewhat interesting people as interviewees, and is as fine a piece of guitar porn as you'll find anywhere, without actually touching a guitar. But it's focus is on guitars as objects, things whose worth is measured solely by their financial value, or their rarity as collectible objects. And given it's predisposition towards the solid-body era, and Rock music, it misses the point entirely.
There's an interview with Joe Perry, in the magazine, that talks about his horses, his houses, his cars and his guitar collection, without once referencing the fact that he was the man who wrote the riff to "Walk this way". There's no mention of the music or the makers, or the players as musicians rather than as squires of country estates.
And that's ultimately a jejune perspective. Rock and Roll isn't a lifestyle.. it's a way of life. It's Iggy Pop and Lemmy, not Richard Gere or Johnny Depp. Jimmy Page and Robert Plant didn't get all that tail by showing off how big their cars were. They did it by playing "A whole lotta love" on stage, and meaning it. John Lee Hooker was still getting young pussy at the age of 80 because he could still play the blues with true soul.
I'm loathe to criticize a magazine's first issue, and I get the idea that this is a publication designed to ease affluent men through their midlife crises, and that through the possession of symbols of rebellion, some youth may be recaptured. You know, the guitar magazine Playboy would publish. But I'm a little angry about it, because of the cynicism. This is the same mentality that turned the Rock fan into a demographic, took Rock and Roll away from it's real audience, sanitized it, and caused the Eagles to charge $250 for concert tickets. By embracing the arrogance of wealth, the idea that being rich in of itself makes you a better person than someone who's poor, it encourages the delusion that if you buy an expensive enough guitar, you'll magically be good.
What this magazine lacks is soul. The publishers and editors seem to know the cost of everything, but the value of nothing. The Bible says it is easier to thread a camel through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. And the same is true of rock and roll, which is about rebellion, anger and hope, and desperate animal sex with a skanky chick up against a side-alley wall. Rock and Roll isn't the sanitized airbrushed Playboy, it's the down and dirty Hustler.
Still, I'll probably end up buying more issues of this thing. You know, for the bathroom.
Wednesday, April 22, 2009
Dikembe Mutombo Mpolondo Mukamba Jean-Jacques Wamutombo.
Thanks for *everything*.
You will be missed.
You will be missed.
The Lawyers and Youtube
I noticed, going back to old posts, that many youtube links of music videos I had posted are no longer valid, due to copyright restrictions.
Now, I don't dispute the right of the respective record companies to ask for those videos to be removed from youtube, but I do find it puzzling. Why? Because almost all of those videos were created as promotional material designed to help sell records, and because the record companies allowed (and still allows) MTV to use them free of charge (i.e MTV doesn't have to pay residuals, etc...). The cost of making the videos has been amortized a long time ago.
You'd think that keeping a 20 year old video alive (eg B52's Deadbeat Club, for instance) would continue to keep the songs in peoples minds, resulting in record sales. They don't seem to get that this is free money and advertising for the record companies, because the records are essentially out of print, to use a publishing industry term.
Now, I don't dispute the right of the respective record companies to ask for those videos to be removed from youtube, but I do find it puzzling. Why? Because almost all of those videos were created as promotional material designed to help sell records, and because the record companies allowed (and still allows) MTV to use them free of charge (i.e MTV doesn't have to pay residuals, etc...). The cost of making the videos has been amortized a long time ago.
You'd think that keeping a 20 year old video alive (eg B52's Deadbeat Club, for instance) would continue to keep the songs in peoples minds, resulting in record sales. They don't seem to get that this is free money and advertising for the record companies, because the records are essentially out of print, to use a publishing industry term.
Monday, April 20, 2009
Oracle buys Sun...
I used to work at Sun, and while it has many of the qualities of a large company, a soft spot for that company remains in my heart. When I was growing up, Sun, DEC & Cray were the 3 companies I wanted to work for, since they all built products that put technology into the hands of the people who could use them, rather than the approach taken by IBM. And of the 3, Sun is the last to go.
The Oracle/Sun merger is probably the best fit available, although Oracle is a lot more like IBM, culturally, than people would like to admit. Still, over the last 10 years, Oracle has managed to survive the onslaught of open source and Microsoft with it's profits and pricing model intact, which is an amazing feat.
What the merger means is this: Oracle, like IBM, has over the last few years been moving more and more towards a model of selling turnkey Database systems, that includes the hardware and software, specifically using Linux clusters.
What the Sun acquisition does for them is give them a much broader and stronger systems base upon which to build that strategy. People forget that Sun used to be Oracle's main business partner before and during the dot-com boom, and Sun made billions of dollars selling large Sunfire boxes running Solaris/Oracle as back-ends to websites like Amazon. Moreover, having direct control of Solaris, ZFS and Java can only benefit Oracle.
For the Sun people, knowing that you're building systems primarily for Oracle will help bring a focus and purpose to systems design that I think has been lacking. If Sun innovates, and implements new features on their systems specifically designed to make Oracle installations easier to build, that in turn could spur external demand for their products.
There are a few questions that remain:
The Oracle/Sun merger is probably the best fit available, although Oracle is a lot more like IBM, culturally, than people would like to admit. Still, over the last 10 years, Oracle has managed to survive the onslaught of open source and Microsoft with it's profits and pricing model intact, which is an amazing feat.
What the merger means is this: Oracle, like IBM, has over the last few years been moving more and more towards a model of selling turnkey Database systems, that includes the hardware and software, specifically using Linux clusters.
What the Sun acquisition does for them is give them a much broader and stronger systems base upon which to build that strategy. People forget that Sun used to be Oracle's main business partner before and during the dot-com boom, and Sun made billions of dollars selling large Sunfire boxes running Solaris/Oracle as back-ends to websites like Amazon. Moreover, having direct control of Solaris, ZFS and Java can only benefit Oracle.
For the Sun people, knowing that you're building systems primarily for Oracle will help bring a focus and purpose to systems design that I think has been lacking. If Sun innovates, and implements new features on their systems specifically designed to make Oracle installations easier to build, that in turn could spur external demand for their products.
There are a few questions that remain:
- Will Sun operate as a semi autonomous entity outside of databases ?
- Will Oracle/Sun continue to service the general IT market
- Will Oracle/Sun continue their presence in HPC ?
- How much of the staff, specifically engineering, will Oracle retain ?
- Will the engineering direction at Sun change dramatically ?
Friday, April 10, 2009
Good Friday....whaaaa??
Since moving to the US, I've noticed that Americans really don't celebrate holidays, as such, but use them, instead, to punctuate shopping seasons. I mention this, because I woke up this morning and wondered to myself: "Isn't it Easter soon?", not noticing that today is in fact Good Friday, the start of the most important religious holiday in the Christian calendar.
In the UK and the rest of Europe, this is a long weekend, with both today and Monday as holidays, and there's usually a huge buildup. But, here, in the US, the stock market (and the banks, post office and other federal offices too) is closed, but other than that, unless you were paying attention, you could easily miss, as I did, all the signs of Easter.
And this comes to the fundamental bone I have to pick with the Rollers, who claim that this is a Christian country, and that Christmas needs to be saved, but yet do nothing wrt Easter. Now you might think, as an atheist, that I have no skin in this particular game. But you'd be mistaken, because culturally I am a Christian (1/2 Church of England, 1/2 Catholic), and even though I don't believe, I do take great comfort in the social constructs and traditions imposed on our western society over the years by the Church.
In the UK and the rest of Europe, this is a long weekend, with both today and Monday as holidays, and there's usually a huge buildup. But, here, in the US, the stock market (and the banks, post office and other federal offices too) is closed, but other than that, unless you were paying attention, you could easily miss, as I did, all the signs of Easter.
And this comes to the fundamental bone I have to pick with the Rollers, who claim that this is a Christian country, and that Christmas needs to be saved, but yet do nothing wrt Easter. Now you might think, as an atheist, that I have no skin in this particular game. But you'd be mistaken, because culturally I am a Christian (1/2 Church of England, 1/2 Catholic), and even though I don't believe, I do take great comfort in the social constructs and traditions imposed on our western society over the years by the Church.
Wednesday, April 1, 2009
Tuesday, February 3, 2009
Sequoia's 20 PFlops
IBM just won the contract for LLNL's next gen flagship machine. The system is basically an upgraded BlueGene/P, with faster CPUs and more cores/socket.
But it's an astonishing level of performance, given that the 100 TFlop barrier was only crossed a few years ago, and the fact they've been able to do it in such a small footprint is pretty amazing too. Of course, it would be fairly straightforward to achieve the same peak performance (not the same sustained), with a bunch of GPUs, and in a smaller footprint (both physical & power), but that machine probably wouldn't have the same level of flexibility, although the per cpu memory bandwidth is probably higher for the GPU system.
For the rest of the industry, this a big deal. It seems that LLNL is now exclusively an IBM house, at least when it comes to Big Iron, and it's hard to see how any other vendor could have any reasonable expectation to win such a contract, despite the open bidding process.
But it's an astonishing level of performance, given that the 100 TFlop barrier was only crossed a few years ago, and the fact they've been able to do it in such a small footprint is pretty amazing too. Of course, it would be fairly straightforward to achieve the same peak performance (not the same sustained), with a bunch of GPUs, and in a smaller footprint (both physical & power), but that machine probably wouldn't have the same level of flexibility, although the per cpu memory bandwidth is probably higher for the GPU system.
For the rest of the industry, this a big deal. It seems that LLNL is now exclusively an IBM house, at least when it comes to Big Iron, and it's hard to see how any other vendor could have any reasonable expectation to win such a contract, despite the open bidding process.
Monday, February 2, 2009
Stand Up Confession
I guess this is some form of closure for David Letterman.. It's clear that his misjudgment in removing Bill's routine from his show has haunted him since.
It was the religious content, particularly the segment railing against the pro-lifers, that got Bill banned. And a week later, when he saw a pro-life ad being played in the commercial breaks during Dave's show, Bill had his moment of epiphany.
Still, the reason people feel guilt is that they know right from wrong, and Dave did a profoundly decent thing by inviting Bill's mom on the show, to apologize to her personally in public, and to try and make amends.
Now there are people who don't get Bill Hicks, and don't understand what the fuss is all about.
He was a man, who despite the evidence to the contrary, and his own occasional lapses in faith, believed profoundly that the human race deserved to be saved, especially from itself.
And his comedy was all about the contrast between wrong and right, between freedom and sanctimony, about defying political correctness but still being compassionate about people, and most importantly about truth, intelligence, heart and integrity.
Most tellingly, he showed no fear by performing his comedy at a time when Reagan and George Bush were President, the PMRC was trying to put labels on CDs, and when the most controversial comedians out there were shlock merchants like Andrew Dice Clay, Sam Kinison and Howard Stern. Then, his outrage actually meant something, as opposed to today, where it's just another demographic.
It was the religious content, particularly the segment railing against the pro-lifers, that got Bill banned. And a week later, when he saw a pro-life ad being played in the commercial breaks during Dave's show, Bill had his moment of epiphany.
Still, the reason people feel guilt is that they know right from wrong, and Dave did a profoundly decent thing by inviting Bill's mom on the show, to apologize to her personally in public, and to try and make amends.
Now there are people who don't get Bill Hicks, and don't understand what the fuss is all about.
He was a man, who despite the evidence to the contrary, and his own occasional lapses in faith, believed profoundly that the human race deserved to be saved, especially from itself.
And his comedy was all about the contrast between wrong and right, between freedom and sanctimony, about defying political correctness but still being compassionate about people, and most importantly about truth, intelligence, heart and integrity.
Most tellingly, he showed no fear by performing his comedy at a time when Reagan and George Bush were President, the PMRC was trying to put labels on CDs, and when the most controversial comedians out there were shlock merchants like Andrew Dice Clay, Sam Kinison and Howard Stern. Then, his outrage actually meant something, as opposed to today, where it's just another demographic.
Wednesday, January 21, 2009
The day after.
Will we have the collective attention span to follow through on the promise of yesterday's events ?
Or will we all get bored, and/or fall back onto the familiar mindset of greed and self-centeredness that has taken this country from greatness to lowliness in such a short time. I'm a cynic on such things.. imho, there is no tragedy, or event, that someone will not try to use to their advantage. From the guy selling T-shirts on the site of the WTC, *two* days after the event, to Katrina scams, and so on.
We'll see.
Or will we all get bored, and/or fall back onto the familiar mindset of greed and self-centeredness that has taken this country from greatness to lowliness in such a short time. I'm a cynic on such things.. imho, there is no tragedy, or event, that someone will not try to use to their advantage. From the guy selling T-shirts on the site of the WTC, *two* days after the event, to Katrina scams, and so on.
We'll see.
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
President Obama..
Has a nice ring to it, doesn't it??
While I wasn't alive when President Kennedy was sworn in, I did grow up in one of those 60's Catholic households that idolized Pope John XXIII, JFK, RFK, MLK and Gandhi. For the African-American community, this is just as big a moment in time, a nexus where everything changes.
Like Kennedy, Obama hasn't just brought along his core cultural groups, but has seized the imagination of the young and the hip. The inaugural speech was good: a call to arms, in the sense of trying to mobilize the national imagination and promulgate a common vision, direction and purpose for the country, tempered by realism, and the extending of an olive branch to those who might be our adversaries. I wouldn't underestimate the goodwill Obama will have from the rest of the world, just from not being George Bush or a neocon oriented Republican, and he won't squander it.
For the first time, in a long time, since the 1st George Bush, in fact, there are true adults in the White House. It goes without saying that these guys are smart, too. It bodes well. I feel some measure of hope, and think this country is back on the road to greatness. Truly.
While I wasn't alive when President Kennedy was sworn in, I did grow up in one of those 60's Catholic households that idolized Pope John XXIII, JFK, RFK, MLK and Gandhi. For the African-American community, this is just as big a moment in time, a nexus where everything changes.
Like Kennedy, Obama hasn't just brought along his core cultural groups, but has seized the imagination of the young and the hip. The inaugural speech was good: a call to arms, in the sense of trying to mobilize the national imagination and promulgate a common vision, direction and purpose for the country, tempered by realism, and the extending of an olive branch to those who might be our adversaries. I wouldn't underestimate the goodwill Obama will have from the rest of the world, just from not being George Bush or a neocon oriented Republican, and he won't squander it.
For the first time, in a long time, since the 1st George Bush, in fact, there are true adults in the White House. It goes without saying that these guys are smart, too. It bodes well. I feel some measure of hope, and think this country is back on the road to greatness. Truly.
Monday, January 19, 2009
Tuesday, January 6, 2009
Ron Asheton, RIP
As the original guitarist for the Stooges, he changed the sound of Rock & Roll and created the template for what became Punk, especially West Coast/LA Punk.
He will sorely missed.
He will sorely missed.
Sunday, January 4, 2009
Dimestore Philosophy
Those that can, do.
Those that can't, teach.
Those that can't teach, administrate.
Those that can't administrate, blog.
Those that can't, teach.
Those that can't teach, administrate.
Those that can't administrate, blog.
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