It's too bad Whoopi Goldberg did have a dad like this

Today on The View, Whoopi Goldberg showed an incredible ignorance of the United States Constitution. It made me think of this scene from the movie The Jerk:



When it comes to the Constitution, Whoopi does not know the difference between ... well, you know.

The best political speech in history

So today is September 11th. I remember back on that fateful day, September 11th 2001, what I did once I returned home. As I watched the events of the day unfold, I recalled Ronald Reagan's most famous speech, given in 1964 in support of the candidacy of Barry Goldwater.

Specifically, I recalled the phrase "You and I have a rendezvous with destiny", and a few other choice lines, such as "We are at war with the most dangerous enemy that has ever faced mankind in his long climb from the swamp to the stars", "You and I have the courage to say to our enemies, "There is a price we will not pay." There is a point beyond which they must not advance." and of course, "You and I have a rendezvous with destiny. We will preserve for our children this, the last best hope of man on Earth, or we will sentence them to take the last step into a thousand years of darkness."

When I got home, I searched "rendezvous with destiny" on the Internet, and found the speech on the web site for the Reagan Presidential Library. While parts of the speech may be specific to the Goldwater-Johnson Presidential election, the speech itself is truly timeless. It is a speech about the freedom of man, the threats to that freedom, and what free men must do to preserve that freedom.

So without further adoo, here is Ronald Reagan's speech, "A Time for Choosing" (a.k.a., "Rendezvous with Destiny"):



And a link to the site of the text of that speech: A Time for Choosing

Experience

I am hearing a lot of comments in the media about the experience (or lack thereof) of the Republican VP candidate, Governor Sarah Palin.

Here are some interesting facts:

Barack Obama was a Community Organizer for 3 years, and later spent six months running a voter registration drive.
Sarah Palin was a City Council Member for 4 years.

Barack Obama was an Illinois State Senator for 7 years.
Sarah Palin was a mayor for 6 years.

If elected President, upon inauguration, Barack Obama will have been a U.S. Senator for 4 years.
If elected Vice President, upon inauguration, Sarah Palin will have been Alaska's Governor for 2 years.

In addition to being a Mayor and a Governor, Palin was Chair of the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission for a year (basically a sub- cabinet position, under Alaska's Department of Administration).

This latter position is the most interesting, and Palin's experience there reads like a Grisham novel.

So let's assume for a moment, serving on a City Council provides similar experience to being a community organizer (low-level public service experience). And let's assume being a Mayor provides similar experiences to being a State Legislator (mid-level public service experience). Finally, let's assume running a 25 member state commission, and later being a Governor provide similar experiences as that of a U.S. Senator (high-level public service experience).

I believe many will say being a Mayor is far more challenging, and therefore far more valuable experience than being a state legislator. Likewise, I believe many will say being a Governor is far more challenging, and therefore far more valuable experience than being a U.S. Senator. But for now, let's call these experiences equal.

If so, that basically gives Obama one year of advantage at both the middle and high levels of public service.

So I find the argument that Palin is too inexperienced to be a heartbeat away from the Presidency weak compared to Obama being in the Presidency.

And like I said, her experience on the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission read like a Grisham novel. Check out the link below.

Link:

Palin explains her actions in Ruedrich case

Who else can stand up for liberty in the world?

A rhetorical question, no doubt, but one which had to be asked.

Who else can stand up for liberty in the world?

Well, who?

The Empire Strikes Back

Playing the part of Darth Vader is Dmitri Medvedev:

And of course, Vladimir Putin is Emperor Palpatine:

Random House commits an "Honor Killing"

In a world where all to often people love to establish moral equivalence between western and third-world cultures, permit me to add one.

Random House's decision to kill Sherry Jones' new novel "The Jewel of Medina", about Muhammad's wife A'isha is the literary moral equivalent of an Honor Killing.

University of Texas' history professor Denise Spellberg, according to Random House's Jane Garrett, advised strongly against publishing. I cannot help but wonder what Dr. Spellberg teaches about Islam in her classes. Does she teach it is includes a significant element of unstable, easy to anger, medieval, barbaric, and terroristic sects, which are so influential, as to preclude the entirety of Islam from being subject to popular fiction, avant-garde art, political cartoons, or comic routine, unlike every other other major religion and culture, which often are the subject of critical or tasteless speech or expression.

I think Dr. Spellberg, based on her comments, strongly believes Islam, due to its extremist component, is not compatible with the secular, post-Enlightenment, western world. I just wonder if she teaches this in her classes.

More:

You Still Can't Write About Muhammad

Free Speech Jilted by Muhammad Romance Novel 'Warpath'

And some worthy background reading:

Victor Davis Hanson: Traitors to the Enlightenment

The Ideal Margarita (A Basic Recipe)

Memorial day is almost here, which means Margarita season is upon us.

There are as many Margarita recipes as there are opinions, it seems. However, I think the following works pretty well. It is a variation of the original Jimmy Buffet Perfect Margarita from the liner notes of his "Boats, Beaches, Bars & Ballads" box set.

2-1/2 oz. Sauza Hornitos Reposado Tequila
1-1/2 oz. Rose's Lime Juice
3/4 oz. Cointreau

Mix and pour over the rocks, or blend with ice.

I came up with this by making some substitutions to the original recipe. First, I only keep one type of tequila, so I just added an additional half-ounce of my regular tequila instead of the white tequila. I did not have any fresh lime at the time, so I added an additional half-ounce of Rose's. And I did not have any orange Curacao liqueur, so I increased the Cointreau by a quarter-ounce.

I found the solution worked, and could be used any time. Fresh lime is nice, but its not always around, and can be especially limiting if friends drop by. However, this recipe scales easily, and works well both on the rocks and in the blender.

Also, just as Jimmy was very brand-specific in his original recipe, so am I. However, my brand preferences differ. Hornitos Reposado is the best gold tequila, not over distilled like Patron (this is tequila, not vodka), and not destined to give you a headache like Jose Cuervo Especial, and personally, its better tasting than 1800 Reposado.

As for triple-sec, I prefer Cointreau. Most stuff liquor sold in stores today claiming to be triple-sec is not, so now we have real "orange liqueur", and rock-gut "triple-sec". And Cointreau is just better than Grand Marnier, the flavor of which reminds me of St. Joseph baby aspirin.

Now, assuming I have the time to get all of the ingredients, I will add that splash of orange Curacao liqueur. But like I said, I have my brand preferences. Bols liqueurs in the U.S. are cheap, mass-produced stuff just like the typical triple-secs. One high-quality orange Curacao liqueur I have found is Marie Brizard Orange Curacao which is made with French cognac as the alcohol base.

This recipe is sweeter than one using only fresh lime juice, so it is good to balance the sweet and sour by trading off fresh lime juice and Rose's. However, the sweetness and strength of this recipe make it perfect as a sipping drink, as it still has plenty of flavor as the ice melts.

One last trick. If you like Margaritas on the rocks, try using a blender with a few ice cubes added to mix a pitcher of these. The result is a super-chilled drink which will will not melt the ice cubes so quickly when poured into a glass. The effect is similar to using a cocktail shaker for a single drink.

Youth and Innocence Beat Age and Guile

Urban Meyers "Lucy Moment"



One was born in July of 1964. The other in March of 1989. There can be little doubt the elder had more guile, demonstrated with three seconds left in the game.

In a scene reminiscent of Lucy holding the football for Charlie Brown to kick, Urban Meyers, like Lucy Van Pelt, proved he is a bitch.

But the younger man showed innocence. The kind of childlike innocence that is oblivious to the malicious meddling of the grown-ups.

Urban, in the game of college football brinkmanship, you were beaten by a man less than half your age.

I Told You So

Eight months ago I postulated a crazy idea. It is one of those things I predicted would happen within the next three to five years. The idea was to embed a Xen hypervisor into the BIOS of an x86 server.

Today I read Dell (yes Dell) is planning to embed a hypervisor into an x86 computer. The hypervisor is likely to be VMware ESX based. This makes sense, because Dell already has a relationship with EMC, the owner of VMware. It also makes sense because Dell knows it must differentiate its products rather than simply being a low-cost provider.

More at:

The Register: Dell to stuff hypervisors in flash memory

The Inquirer: Dell plans to embrace virtualisation

ZDNet Blogs: Speculation about embedded hypervisors

SearchServerVirtualization.com: VMware prepping embedded 'ESX Lite' hypervisor

Special hat tip to Timothy Prickett Morgan:

The UNIX Guardian: The X Factor: Virtualization Belongs in the System, Not in the Software

Related Post:

Is this a crazy idea?

That was leadership

It was 20 years ago today:

"There is one sign the Soviets can make that would be unmistakable, that would advance dramatically the cause of freedom and peace.

"General Secretary Gorbachev, if you seek peace, if you seek prosperity for the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, if you seek liberalization: Come here to this gate! Mr. Gorbachev, open this gate! Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!"

Are there any pragmatic libertarians?

The emergence of the Fair Tax as a viable, well-researched consumption based alternative to the income tax should have libertarians (both small "l" and large "L") ecstatic. It is the first proposal in years to try to return power to individuals, and away from the Federal government and Washington lobbyists. However, many self-described libertarians seem opposed to the Fair Tax because of their unrealistic vision of a taxless American society. Or perhaps it is the natural conflict between well-researched pragmatism and political purism. I mean if you research something, you might actually be asked to do it.

Which brings us to the crux of the problem. Every journey begins with a single step. If you live in New York, but want fly to to California, you probably have to take some other form of transportation (train or car) to get to the airport. Libertarians seem like somebody who believes traveling by land from their New York residence to JFK somehow violates their vision of "flying" to California.

Because of this, many libertarians seem to be more comfortable as political outsiders, who would rather criticize from a position of political purity rather than roll up their sleeves and start the hard work of solving problems. They are like the proverbial dog chasing the car. What will the dog do with the car if he actually catches it?

This can also be seen in the Libertarian Party's intolerance with those who do not toe the LP line 100%. This was eerily similar what the Democrats did to Bob Casey Sr. Do we really need such political muttawas in American political parties? And how on earth can such a puritan party ever lead a multi-political party government?

While widely varying views on many issues are the norm in the Republican party, and even to some extent in the Democrat party, the LP would rather be small, pure, insignificant, and whiny, rather than actually lead. It's tiring, unproductive, and immature.

And I would add, I firmly believe the Libertarian Party (and many self-described small "l" libertarians) are simply jealous of the success Americans for Fair Taxation has had rallying tens of thousands of people to its Fair Tax rallies. I would not be surprised if more people have attended Fair Tax rallies in the last year than have attended LP national conventions over the last 10 years.

So if you are smug, you like to think you are better than everyone else, you like complain, you like to champion the impossible, you like to bitch, and you really, really do not have any desire whatsoever to actually lead, the Libertarian Party needs you.

The Return of In-Flight Broadband

I stumbled onto this purely by accident.

Like the mythical bird, Phoenix, in-flight broadband Internet access may soon rise from the ashes of Connexion by Boeing. Panasonic Avionics Corporation has improved upon Connexion's original concept in its eXconnect offering.

eXconnect improves on Connexion by leasing satellite Internet connectivity, reducing the breakeven point for the service. It also improves speed using newer technology. The airplane antenna is more compact and lighter, saving fuel costs. And Panasonic is looking to partner with existing airport WiFi vendors, so you can pay for your in-flight connection, and use the airport departure lounge WiFi prior to boarding under a single package. Finally, the goal is to start the service at a price similar to Connexion by Boeing, and get the price down to about $20 for the duration of long-distance international flight within a year of launching.

It makes total sense the in-flight entertainment companies are bringing back in-flight broadband, and as any second attempt, it should be faster, smaller, and cheaper.

Now if they would just bring back Concorde.

Links:

Panasonic May Relaunch Connexion

Aircraft Interiors: Panasonic plans broadband launch in fourth quarter

Rhetorically Brilliant

So Sun Microsystems is bringing back a dedicated microelectronics division.

Why? Or more specifically, why now?

Here are my thoughts as to why.

First, the obvious. Sun in the past had an solid OEM SPARC business, primarily in the low-end embedded and SPARC clone workstation market, as well as low-end servers, and specialized systems such as telco market products and hardened systems for the military. These systems included workstations and servers where customers built their own systems based on UltraSPARC processors OEMed from Sun, as well as systems where the entire motherboard was OEMed from Sun.

Back when the techical desktop was ruled by UNIX/RISC, and Sun UltraSPARC II processors were solid desktop performers, this made a lot of sense. It also made sense with the initial UltraSPARC IIIi systems. However, the MHz race between Intel and AMD, along with the rise of Linux caused this specialized OEM business to shift towards x86, and Sun's OEM business shrank accordingly.

However, it never entirely went away, as Tadpole still sells UltraSPARC IIi and UltraSPARC IIIi based laptop computers, and the mil spec SPARC systems business still exists.

So why bring a dedicated microelectronics OEM business back? One reason is Sun has a very good OEM server chip with the UltraSPARC T1 "Niagara" processor. This processor has a system on a chip architecture which makes it easy for companies to build compute solutions around. And there are companies focused on markets where US-T1 fits well, such as telco, security, networking, etc. The other is Sun has Niagara 2 in the works, which could allow Sun to reposition the original Niagara as more of an embedded play, but also offer Niagara 2 to OEM customers where it may fit. Also, Sun now has a 10Gb Ethernet ASIC they wish to offer to the OEM market. And as you know if you follow Sun, volume matters. Sun knows it cannot drive its network ASIC into the larger market by itself.

But I think that is only part of the story. It explains the "Why". It does not explain the "When", or more precisely, the "Why Now".

As you may know, Sun will soon announce the servers which are part of the Sun-Fujitsu "Advanced Product Line" (APL) project. These systems will use Fujitsu's SPARC64-VI processors. Sun has had to face a lot of FUD around the future of its SPARC processors due to its decision to partner on these midrange and high-end systems.

What better preemptive action to take against he obvious FUD and annoying reporter questions than to create an Executive Vice President of SPARC? Who is the obvious leader of the SPARC processor business? People in the industry know who David Yen is. Does anyone know who run's Fujitsu's SPARC64 business?

Sun has grabbed the leadership of the SPARC industry in a very visible way just before the announcement of a product line which uses third-part SPARC processors.

All I can say is, this is rhetorically brilliant.

It has Jonathan Schwartz's fingerprints all over it.

Was Margaret Thatcher the last real man in Britain?

A disgusted Ralph Peters asks the question:

Where's Winston?
It's Iran 15, Brits 0 In The Gulf

If you are not familiar with Ralph Peters, he is a retired Army Intelligence officer, novelist, columnist, and television commentator.

10 Gigabit Ethernet "Crossover"

I just saw this article comparing Fibre Channel, 10Gb Ethernet, and InfiniBand, and I thought it was interesting.

It points out information from the Dell'Oro consulting firm showing Gigabit Ethernet ports first outshipped Fast Ethernet ports in 2004, some seven years after GigE was introduced, and five years after the 1000BASE-T spec was introduced in 1999. (There is a good article here on the 1000BASE-T PHY.)

So if it took five years from the 1000Base-T release until 1000BASE-T ports exceeded 100BASE-T ports, despite backwards compatibility.

"Crossover", as this point is known, is very important in for a new replacement technology. Once a new standard or product reaches crossover, the second half of market penetration typically occurs quickly. Backwards compatibility helps, but realize a compatible 100/1000BASE-T port does not mean a switch blade with 48 of those ports will be compatible with an older blade chassis. Also, the increased cost of the new technology causes some resistance.

Today, there is a much bigger challenge for 10GBASE-T: Power consumption. From the article on the 1000BASE-T PHY I linked to earlier:

"Because of the complexity of the signal-processing task, a 10/100/1000Base-T copper PHY is the dominant consumer of power in essentially all gigabit switch designs supporting copper media. First-generation 1000Base-T copper PHYs introduced in 1999 in 0.35-micron CMOS consumed well over 5 watts of power-too high for widespread use in high-density Gigabit Ethernet switch form factors."

With 10GBASE-T, the power required is much higher. Chelsio's new 10GBASE-T NIC requires 24 watts of power, and can only drive a signal over 50 meters of the 100 meter distance of the 10GBASE-T spec. Now some of the NICs power is the supporting TCP Offload Engine (TOE) and other circuitry. But it is probably safe to say 15 watts for each 10GBASE-T switch or NIC port is currently required.

So while some say the promise of consolidated I/O will drive the transition from Gigabit Ethernet to 10 Gigabit Ethernet faster than the transition from Fast Ethernet to Gigabit Ethernet, power consumption will likely slow this transition significantly.

So indeed the transition from Gigabit Ethernet to 10 Gigabit Ethernet may follow the transition from Fast Ethernet to Gigabit Ethernet. In that case, if 1000BASE-T is a gauge, and the 10GBASE-T spec was just approved in 2006, it could take until 2011 before 10GBASE-T ports outnumber 1000BASE-T ports.

What is good about this is the software (iWARP, iSER, NFSoRDMA, pNFSoRDMA, etc.) and supporting networking protocols for this new generation of Ethernet will have plenty of time to catch up. This means once crossover does happen, it should have a very strong impact on the market.

Meanwhile, it appears there continues to be plenty of opportunity for Fibre Channel for storage and InfiniBand for low-latency IPC.

Related posts:
Predictions for the future of low-latency computing, it's not where you think it is
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3

Big Sky Theory

If you are over the Pacific Ocean halfway between Chile and New Zealand, and you get killed by a falling satellite, guess what? It's not your day.

But for these people, as the falling satellite missed them, the "Big Sky" theory continues to hold:

Space junk falls around airliner: report

I wonder why Microsoft has not bought Adobe

Adobe, with its new Creative Suite 3, is all the buzz now. But PhotoShop is not what makes Adobe interesting. It is Adobe's ability to establish two of its formats (PDF and Flash) as defacto standards.

Microsoft loves defacto standards. And Microsoft hates the fact that Adobe owns THE web animation standard (which is becoming the streaming media standard), and Adobe owns THE print-formatted document standard.

Microsoft tried to create an alternative to PDF, but has had zero success, despite the fact most PDF's original documents are created in Microsoft Office applications.

Which begs the question. Microsoft has a market cap of about $275 billion, compared to Adobe's $25 billion. Why Microsoft has not attempted a takeover, hostile or otherwise, of Adobe, is beyond me.

Perhaps it is all the bad blood between Microsoft and Adobe in the past. Maybe it is Microsoft's failed acquisition of SoftImage in the 1990s. But we are in a new decade, make that a new millennium.

The Economy is Booming

Don't pay attention to the Dow's recent correction. Just check vacancy rates of hotels, airline load factors, and rental car availability.

Every flight I have booked recently has been nearly full, forcing my employer to have to pay higher fares. I have also had serious problems finding vacancy in hotels, and have been forced to stay in hotels on the outskirts of town. And for my next trip, not only are those first two points a factor, but there are no rental cars available.

Granted the airlines have reduced flights. And perhaps rental car companies have reduced their fleets. But other than the Stardust Hotel in Vegas last night, I don't recall hotels being imploded to reduce capacity.

I don't remember air, rental car, and hotels being this tight since 1999 and 2000, in the peak of the dot-com era.

The airplane that refuses to die

The Boeing 767, that is.

This is an interesting article:

Boeing considering new 767 freighter to counter A330-200F

And an excellent complement at Randy's Blog here:

Year of the 767

Sidebar: Besides Sun CEO Jonathan Schwartz, Randy Baseler, Vice President of Marketing for Boeing Commercial Airplanes, is probably corporate America's highest ranking and best known blogger.

Boeing is considering enhancements to its 767-300 freighter to make it more competitive with the Airbus A330 freighter. Now the 767 is over a decade older than the A330, and the freighter variant of the A330 is a brand-new model of the A330, designed to replace the A300 freighter, itself almost a decade older than the 767.

But it is amazing the 767 is even able to challenge the A330. The A330 is larger, and can carry both more volume and weight. The A330's lower deck is wider, and can carry more and larger containers. That the 767 is still competitive against the larger A330 points to much deeper problems with Airbus. But it also points to a company, Boeing, which is a model of aggressive competitiveness.

The way I describe it is Boeing is able to play chess while simultaneously being involved in a street fight. Playing chess is Boeing accomplishing its strategic plans. The street fight is the daily tactical selling of what Boeing has "on the truck". The chess part is the future: The 787 and the deft move to offer the derivative 747-8. The street fight is today: The numerous 737 variants, the phenomenal 777, and now the possibility of an enhanced 767F. What is interesting is an enhanced 767F could eat into production capacity for the 787, which will be produced in the same Everett Washington facility.

I think Boeing will cross that bridge when they reach it. Today it is about winning.

There are many companies who could learn a thing or two from Boeing's commercial airplane division.

Anarchists Flock to Join Rioters

Shouldn't somebody have predicted this?

European anarchists flock to join rioters in Copenhagen

I originally saw this story in a local paper with a similar headline.

Of course, I personally don't believe anarchists "flock". A flock is far too organized for anarchists.

And do European anarchists live in Europe? It seems too organized for them. If anarchists like anarchy, it seems they would be more comfortable in a place in anarchy, maybe Lebanon, Somalia, or Iraq.