The Digital Road

United Breaks Guitars, but makes good Mai Tai's

2009-07-11T11:31:00.000-07:00

So United has driven me insane too many times to count. So you can imagine how nervous I was recently when I finally booked a real vacation and trusted them to get me from Denver to Maui without a major hassle.

United did an awesome job of getting us to Hawaii without any hassle. More shocking, it was pleasant. The flight staff were friendly, they decorated the cabin with Flower Leis and were friendly. They even served Mai Tai's (with little pineapple things).

So there, I said something nice about them. I was happy, they did good and I patted the puppy (I mean airline) on the head.

On the way home our flight was late, they forgot meals for half the cabin and somehow parked a screaming child on all 4 sides of me. Getting it right half the time is a good start. At least they picked the right half to screw up.

United Breaks Guitar's -- This is a must watch

iPhone 3.0 - My two favorite (new) features

2009-06-17T15:16:00.000-07:00

I like to think I am an early adopter, a technical type who likes to play with the latest gadget and make it do funny and quirky things.

I decided to not be an early adopter when it came to my iPhone. I simply don't like the idea of my main communication device becoming something I had to think about. That's been my main issue with the iPhone all along - it requires thinking. Granted it's great for "engaging" users but seriously it's a phone...it should just do stuff like email and phone without a great deal of brain capacity.

So the two features I like ---

(1) Tethering: This is a must have cool feature. I travel a ton and there is nothing more annoying than trying to do email on my iPhone. I'll do it but I like it on my laptop.

I was at the Tier 1 Hosting Summit in London a few weeks ago and they managed to not have any Internet (Wi-Fi or Wired). Tethering would have saved me from the 2 hours of boredom I endured in the afternoon sessions.

(2) Find-my-iPhone: Last year during a trip to Europe (I won't name cities) I ended up in a cab with a taxi driver who was very interested in my iphone. When we pulled up to the destination I put my iphone on the seat while I stepped out and grabbed my wallet to pay. Before I knew it - the driver took off (without taking the cab fare) and with my iPhone.

I tried sending text messages offering a reward (I would have paid the retail price as a reward to get it back) but I then realized that the security features would prevent him from ever seeing my messages and thus it was wasted effort.

....I'm not so into the voice memo thing... I have an app that I use for my dictation. I am also not that impressed by alot of other stuff. I really just want my phone to be snappy and to do proper email and calendar stuff without me having to think.

wow - I sound so old mannish writing this blog

The Monetization Scheme for Sun VirtualBox SUCKS

2009-05-23T09:07:00.000-07:00

I left Windows almost a year and a half ago when I moved to Sun. I had been a Mac user for my last year at AMD but I kept it in the closet. There were dark days when I would "work from home" simply because doing a presentation or email was just easier on my Mac.

I got good - I installed VMWare Fusion and ran a version of Windows XP on my Mac setup with all the VPN and Exchange settings I needed to get into the network and do the stuff I needed. VMWare Fusion ran great, I loved it (for what it was) and all was good during the closet life. When I joined Sun I moved to Mac full time - thus making VMWare fusion an app I kept installed "just-in-case" I ever needed an archived file from my windows volume.

--------------------

Today I went to go download Windows RC 1 with the goal of testing it out on my Mac. Contrary to popular belief - I am not a diehard. I use whatever feels best and gets the job done. Currently that's a Mac but I am open minded.

I don't have VMWare Fusion on my new Mac. I figured I would download Sun's VirtualBox to try it out. I did work there for over a year - maybe I should give it a chance beyond OpenSolaris.

When I got to the registration screen it asked me to register for some nonsense optimization marketing brochure. Now I know marketing when I see it and signing up for anything silly like a "Optimizing your desktop using VirtualBox"technical guide is basically asking for Sun to spam me and perhaps for a sales person to call me.

It's an interesting tactic because it offers that it's Optional and there is a button to "Continue to Download" - what isn't clear is whether it's actually downloading or not and frankly it felt sleazy to me. If they have an Open Source product - they shouldn't be trying to scam my info with a silly marketing guide that's basically an invitation for a sales group to call me. They should be offering me real value - like paying them a small fee and getting an auto-update/security fix notification. Or maybe offering me drivers and tools for making Windows 7 better work.

One of Sun's biggest strategic bets was the idea that OpenSource software would lead to revenue for either the support packages around software or would drive hardware sales (where they make real margins).

I suggested, when I worked there, the idea that they should charge $1.99 or heck .25 cents -- something trivial (and I mean trivial) to download the software from a CDN and get some kind of easy auto-update feature. If they were really creative they would call Apple and get it setup on iTunes.

For now - I went back to VMWare Fusion (and signed up for the beta). They are upfront about charging me money for software and I feel like it's a good deal. They make it, I buy it and we all go home happy. Open Source is great but starts to loose its appeal when you know the company behind is just blatantly using it to monetize an offering that I probably don't want or need anyway.

Yay for the Giants!

2008-02-03T19:48:00.000-08:00

I am so glad to see the Giants win the game (mostly because they were underdogs) but also because it lets me exact just a little bit of personal revenge for the way the Red Sox racked up my Rockies ;-)

there ya go Boston... you can't win everything!

now - i think we can all agree that the SuperBowl ads were really the best part. Let's hope that this movement toward online advertising doesn't totally ruin that creativity ;-)

Here is the YouTube Link: SuperBowl 2008 Ad's

Heineken DRAUGHTKEG

2008-01-27T15:14:00.000-08:00

Heineken DRAUGHTKEG

Ok so this might be the coolest invention I have seen all year. Screw the iPhone and all the other cool technogadgets.

Let's all remember our inner college kid & our inner engineer....what gets cooler than this ;-)

SlingBox Rocks (day 1)

2007-12-26T21:46:00.000-08:00

wow I am a total nerd. No, correct that - Gadget Geek.

I got the absolute coolest Christmas present ever - a Slingbox. If you haven't been paying attention to Sling Media, you should. This is a cool product.

Slingbox lets you 'shift' your home TV to wherever you are. Within 5 minutes of plugging in the Slingbox we were watching TV and it had detected and fixed all of its network settings on its own. While the backend technology enabling this is not new, it is now made elegant.

So from within my loft I can now watch TV anywhere... lets see how it does this weekend on vacation ;-)

3 things to never discuss with those you love

2007-12-16T00:15:00.000-08:00

Politics, religion and money!

United you won my business (DEN-LHR)

2007-12-10T20:40:00.000-08:00

For the last 3 years I have been harassing United to add a real international flight from Denver. I realize that Mexico and Canada are "international" but let's be realistic.

I fly internationally a great deal. It's part of working in an international company and in our new international economy. This tends to conflict with living in Denver ;-)

United's addition of a non-stop flight from Denver to London means they understand the benefits of the international economy. Denver is an international destination - Lufthansa (daily nonstops to Munich/Frankfurt) and British Airways (daily nonstop to London) have validated this point.

United has now won my international business (at least to Europe). I hope the DIA folks start working on Asia now ;-)

United's Send a child's spirit soaring

2007-12-10T20:25:00.000-08:00

United's Give a Teddy Bear

This is an awesome program. I gave both my miles and my money, I hope you will too.

It is amazing how much a kid can appreciate a teddy bear.

Foreign Transaction Fee's are BOGUS

2007-12-07T14:50:00.000-08:00

http://www.ccfsettlement.com/

So I must admit that I rarely read my snail mail. I check my mailbox to collect my weekly copy of the economist and then trash pretty much everything else. I get lots of useless junk mail, credit card offers and who knows what else is in there. Thanks to the wonders of e-statements and e-billing I pay everything automatically and just watch for important looking stuff.

Before my mother objects - YES - I do read the random cards sent to me ;-)

Today, I was surprised when I found an envelope labeled "US District Court Approved Refund Notice". I never object to refunds and I try to read everything that comes from a court.

It turns out that someone finally setup a class action suit against the banks and credit card companies that have been gouging us business travelers over the last couple of years. Every time I paid for anything on my credit card/debit card I would find a matching charge (above the comission) that usually was screwing me for an extra 3-6%.

Over the last couple of years I have done some pretty insane international travel. This has created some pretty insane international credit card bills and thus some very screw-worthy international transaction fee's.

I am really glad someone finally took the banks to task for their dumb fee practices. Clearly the 6 figure bonuses they were paying their bankers have to come from somewhere, hopefully not from me ;-)

Go check your mail and make sure you collect on the settlement

Exploring the Potential of Drupal, Second Life and Complex Event Processing | Toomre Capital Markets LLC

2007-11-07T01:23:00.000-08:00

Exploring the Potential of Drupal, Second Life and Complex Event Processing | Toomre Capital Markets LLC

2007-10-20T19:01:00.001-07:00

ComCast: Hire a Network Engineer

2007-07-07T15:14:00.000-07:00

Monopolies never work out best for the customer. Some argue that monopolies enable useful services that couldn't be achieved without scale, I find that argument to be nonsense.

This weekend my internet became incredibly slow and I started to look around to figure out why. This was important to me as I have a ton of work to do from home this weekend on our online travel/expenses system and waiting for the little hourglass was driving me insane.

I have run networks before (Flare was a sizable network) and understand how challenging they can be. I also know how easy it is to fix small problems and how often the choice of fixing a small problem is less a question of innovative technology being put to work and more a question of how to increase profit margins.

When I started looking around this weekend and discovered that Comcast was itself running slow (see their 13 hop roundtrip from Level 3's Denver facility to my home in LoDo) I was appalled.

I became even more concerned when I realized that Comcast was my only practical cable choice in downtown Denver.

A monopoly should be forced to act in the best interests of customers if they are going to be allowed a de facto monopoly. Given how much monopolies suck at servicing their customers (i.e. Comcast) and how anti-competitive practices end up creating less innovative products.

I would hope that someone at Comcast reads this and makes the phone call to setup that simple peering relationship required with Level 3.

Keep in mind that monopolies almost always break down. Customers, governments and markets generally break down monopolies either as a slow and gradual movement or with the fury of a court.

While I am praying a network engineer at Comcast reads this post (yes, I am mailing to them) I more hope that a business manager at Comcast reads this and realizes they are embarking on a slippery slope with at least one customer.

While my choices are limited the frontier is wide open for their competitors in non-traditional spaces to come in and take my almighty dollar. For this we have to look no farther than the current batch of wireless operators (ATT, Verizon, Sprint-Nextel) who all bring solutions to the table.

While the pricing for these alternatives may not make them a viable alternative now, prices shall drop and technology shall mature. Whose to say that we even need cable with a good combination of cell-phone/wireless for connectivity and iTunes as a content delivery source.

Update on the Apple Battery Scandle of 2007

2007-06-19T13:28:00.000-07:00

So if you haven't been keeping up with my blog (I am not sure why you would) it appears as though my Apple MacBook Pro battery had some serious issues.

The battery was either unable to charge or not keeping a charge. This was on a MacBook Pro from November 2006, so a fairly recent MacBook.

I went to the Apple Store in the Cherry Creek Mall this weekend and had their "Genius" take a look at it. He was very cool, tried a few things, replaced the battery and voila it worked.

I really fault Apple for not doing a proper job on their manufacturing and product development. The battery is not a product that Apple makes themselves (at least I certainly hope not) so this is really a case of mismanagement and just bad process.

It's been clear to everyone that Apple did a very quick turnaround when moving to Intel. I questioned whether or not it was possible or prudent to move so quickly. I think all of the manufacturing bugs and firmware issues are probably likely consequences of making that move so quickly.

Quality Problems and Grand Thinking (without execution) were hallmarks of the era prior to Steve Jobs and were the main reasons that Apple brought Steve back to Apple and forced John Scully out. Let's hope that this recent set of issues isn't a sign of things to come for Apple.

Windows (on the Mac) - a review

2007-06-13T08:36:00.000-07:00

I have been running Windows on my Mac since I first got my Macbook back in May 2006.

AMD IT requires me to use Windows and Internet Explorer for a number of critical functions (expense reporting/Ariba purchasing manager) and access to our internal IT helpdesk. I rarely need IT help, but I do love having my expenses paid.

Apple Bootcamp
Apple released this as Beta software last year in time for the Macbook launch. With Bootcamp you create a partition on your HD and boot into _either_ Mac OSX _or_ Windows.

I find this to be the less optimal solution only because I am using a Mac to enjoy Mac OSX. This also means that I have to move between OS environments in a pretty painful way should I need something that's Mac-bound.

VMWare Fusion for the Mac
This is my preferred environment for running Windows on my Mac. I actually have it installed on my Macbook Pro and it runs awesome. I must admit that I have "worked from home" a couple days simply because I enjoy using my Macbook Pro so much and having it able to run an AMD version of Windows makes it the best of both worlds.

After VMWare announced pricing on Monday I went ahead and "pre-ordered" a copy. After working in software as long as I have, I usually know better than to pre-order. For VMWare Fusion I want to make an exception! $39.99 is a steal for technology as good as VMWare pumps out.

I am not sure if VMWare is yet using the Intel VT virtualization technology thats enabled in hardware. If it is indeed using hardware enabled virtualization then the performance hit from running a simultaneous copy of Windows/Mac OSX should be very minor.

Parallels
I have not yet run Parallels product for the Mac but from what I hear its pretty competitive to VMWare. That being said I don't know anyone at Parallels currently and the VMWare guys are on a pretty good roll with Fusion.

The one thing I can say in support of Parallels is that they are indeed using the hardware enabled virtualization at the processor level. As processor level enhancements for virtualization improve the world may come down to how well you take advantage of the hardware enhancements provided to you.

Steve Jobs: please consider letting us users CHOOSE to use AMD processors for our solutions.
That is a totally selfish request because I would like to use my Mac all the time! You set Safari free to exist among multiple platforms, let your OS do the same!

Entitlement: remember your place in the world

2007-06-13T01:00:00.000-07:00

I am convinced there is a natural tendency to feel entitled. This sense of entitlement is silly and we should avoid/mitigate it while we can.

I was out at a bar this evening with one of my friends. During the day we had been chatting and he mentioned how excited he was that he was finally getting a work laptop from his high tech company. Apparently this took some kind of action from a VP.

Naturally when I first heard this excitement I blew it off. I had "assumed" that most companies offer employee's laptops as part of the hiring process for any type of "knowledge worker" position.

After driving home from the office today (my laptop safely tucked into its carseat) I realized how much computing power was going to waste on me and various other "knowledge workers". Here I have a nice new Fujitsu Lifebook (complete with a nice AMD Turion mobile processor) but I also have a Blackberry and then at home I have my Apple Macbook Pro.

With all of this power I am going to do a grand total of 5 tasks this evening:

Email / Calendaring (Microsoft Outlook)

I check my mail daily in the evening and clean up loose ends
Checking / Printing my Calendar for when I travel

Powerpoint (Microsoft PowerPoint)

Reviewing a preso being used for a meeting with strategic customers
Writing my 2H2007 goals and plan

Uploading pictures from a flight excursion I took a couple weeks ago with friends
Blog something
Do my expense reports and organize the receipts

Do I really need such powerful technology from my laptops with the complete functionality they provide? I say no, what I really need is a properly developed ecosystem of "thin" edge devices that provide me with gateways into resources of very powerful technology stacks that are managed by someone else.

The wave of thin and managed client solutions is coming fast. Citrix and the Windows Terminal Server world have ruled the software side of the thin client for sometime with a great deal of innovation happening at the server layers. When you mentioned "Thin Client Hardware" to me last year all I could tell you about was the Wyse boxes I had seen.

In 2007/2008 we will be seeing the actual "client" innovation start to show up from the likes of Teradici, Microsoft and VMWare. AMD has been in the "thin client" game for quite some time with our Geode processor line. I can promise you that we are working hard to make sure we provide solutions to empower this market.

With a software infrastructure enhancing the client side to work with new layers of hardware form factor there should come a day where user's don't feel an entitlement to have the latest and greatest processors sitting on their desk and instead can trust those computing resources to be distributed appropriately to data centers and left in the hands of IT Professionals.

Let's face it, for most of us the most complicated technology we really need is our Blackberry and our TiVo.

Kyle's Raspberry Infused Vodka

2007-06-11T14:30:00.000-07:00

Seems people actually liked this batch so here was the very simple recipe

(1) Use Effen Vodka
-> get a good sized bottle, find some friends and drink up

(2) Once you are finished drinking the real vodka (bottle_1) go buy another bottle (bottle_2)

(3) Use bottle_1 from step 1 and fill it with raspberries you washed

(4) Stick the "new" Bottle of Effen (bottle_2) in the Freezer

(5) Stick bottle_1 filled with raspberries into freezer
--> throw a party and use the remains of bottle_2 ;-)
--> save this bottle, its important

(5) Wait a day then take the vodka in bottle_2 and pour it over the raspberries in bottle_1

(6) Leave this out for a day and let the raspberries melt into the Vodka

(7) Alternate moving the bottle from freezer to room temp every other day for a week

(8) When ready to drink use a coffee filter or strainer and a funnel to remove anything like seeds from the vodka

(9) Throw a party and make good cosmo's and teach your friends that YES they can drink Vodka straight up over ice

MacBook Pro Battery Problems

2007-05-28T10:56:00.000-07:00

I must admit that I love my Macbook Pro. This is actually the third Mac that I own (I oringally bought the black macbook a year ago when it first came out, and I had a 12" powerbook before).

I bought my Macbook Pro back in November of last year. It has been a wonderful machine except for one sneaky problem - the battery.

As I write, my Macbook Pro has been wall plugged for almost a week. I would hope that this gave it ample time to charge. After this week of charging I unplugged it and am trying to run it on battery. With a full charge I have 28 minutes of battery life.

I have installed all of the patches and done the procedures suggested by apple to "fix" the battery's memory problem. Nothing works so far.

The net of this post means that I will be taking my Mac into an Apple store to get someone to tell me what I already suspect, there is a problem with my battery.

WorldNetDaily: Soy is making kids 'gay'

2007-03-30T12:22:00.000-07:00

WorldNetDaily: Soy is making kids 'gay'

really, what more can you add to this comment

Printers & Airport Express

2007-03-11T21:52:00.000-07:00

With my new "hotspot nirvana" in place I had to find a way to work with my printer from my PC. Nobody believes me when I say I am "working from home" so hopefully this builds me evidence ;-)

At home I use my AMD issued Fujitsu S2110 Lifebook running Windows XP. This machine is a freaking rock star and I love it (I do love my Mac OS X way better as an OS).

So now that I have a hotspot nirvana that works with my PC/Apple lifestyle..I needed a way to allow my PC to access the printer I have since connected to my Airport Express (see my earlier post).

It actually works. I can now print (via wireless) from my PC to my printer connected to an Airport Express.

Check out this documentation to do it yourself...it actually works!

Hotspot Nirvana

2007-03-10T18:41:00.000-08:00

I must admit that while I spend my days thumping high-tech I rarely get all nerdy at home. There have been a few exceptions to this rule (my evil home theater system being the only real deviation).

I use a an Apple MacBook Pro at home. I wish it would have an AMD processor inside of it but clearly Apple has chosen to bend at the will of Intel's dollar power so alas I am stuck having to juggle a mixed PC/Apple lifestyle.

Recently I got the coolest valentines day present ever - the new Apple Airport Extreme. Yes, you know you are a nerd when the coolest present you can get is a wireless base station.

This was a prep gift for the expected Apple TV (which has since been delayed again). So with this gift came the decision that it was time to get my wireless at home fixed properly.

I have an oddly shaped loft. It goes in an "L" formation which makes for horrible 802.11 signaling. Keep in mind that the 802.11 signal is a parabolic signal.

Furthermore my mixed PC/Apple usage means that I can't really achieve the 802.11n that the Airport Extreme buys me. So this gave me the excuse to start figuring out ways to extend the reach of my base station using 802.11/g.

I acquired an Airport Express quite some time ago with the high hopes of bringing it with me as a tool when I traveled. This worked well until I managed to loose it in Poland (seriously, Warsaw Marriott I am not calling you idiots again). The Airport Express is cool because it allows you to extend the range of your existing Apple wireless signal using their nifty little Airport WDS (Wireless Distribution System).

With my airport express in hand I now have my base station and an extension that will allow me to get signal into my bedroom. On top of that I have finally created a strong enough signal to make it downstairs to my coffee store of choice.

Yes, I took the nerdy way of making my loft into a "hotspot".

Taking the next step

2007-03-05T11:41:00.000-08:00

It's that season again. That time of the year where everyone I know seems to be trying to find the next new job, the next career or even a first job as they graduate from college.

For whatever reason folks seem to think that I am the guy to ask for job advice. Rather than repeat myself constantly, here are my complete thoughts.

(1) Stop Settling
I am sick of seeing people settle on a job because it's easy, low-stress, provides a paycheck or happens to align with their personal lives well. Companies exist for the benefits of shareholders. Shareholders are mostly, though not always, made up primarily by teachers, government employees and average folks who have invested retirement accounts (through any number of financial instruments) into the company. This means your work is primarily for their benefit.

This is an abstract way of thinking about work but I truly believe you should work hard for the folks who have entrusted you (through the company you work for) with their retirement money. Settling does nothing but abuse that trust and sell a company short.

(2) Your resume is irrelevant
Stop sending me fancy resume's with good formatting and nice cover letters. Nobody cares if you ran student council, worked at Chili's or had a 4.0 GPA (ok some people care a little about the GPA).

Most companies now scan resume's to collect the text from them. That text is then searched to find the best candidate based on the keywords that best match the job.

If your resume doesn't match the keywords then you had better read my third point.

(3) Know more......
Companies grow because of their people. Good people move up in the business world not by getting fancy degree's and/or learning how to suck-up. They move up because they do what's right for the business and CONTINUE doing what's right for the business.

In order for you to do what's right for your business you must be willing to actually get dirty and understand what your doing. You must be willing to research your competitors, your suppliers and your customers. It may not have anything to do with "your job" but the more you know the better you will be. It doesn't matter what your title, level of responsibility or even function is - knowledge is a responsibility.

When I joined AMD I knew nothing of the semiconductor business. I mean NOTHING. I made it my goal to find as many different parts of the company and get to know them as best I could. While I may never be an expert on semiconductor manufacturing, I at least know the right folks to ask. I also gained a diverse set of background that I can draw on throughout my future career.

The more you are willing to sacrifice to learning, growing and building a base of knowledge - the faster you will grow in your job.

(4) It's all about people
I am shocked at how many of my friends continue to spend their time online looking up job postings and sending in a resume hoping for a response.

I am sure that people do get hired that way. Obviously the massive amounts of recruiters that AMD hires is proof that resume mining is a way to build a good base of candidates. Trust me, as someone who has done this before, resume mining is not the way to get hired.

I have never been hired based on my resume. In fact for most of my career I haven't had a resume. I always get hired based on the recommendation of a friend.

Get to know people. Be a good person and focus on building good solid relationships with smart people. Don't be shallow, get to know people who are GOOD & SMART not because they work for some company. The more good and smart people you can meet and learn from, the better rounded you will become. This will always translate into the skills you need to be successful.

Here are some ways you can do this without much effort:

- Ask your friends about their jobs and learn how they approach problems.

- Anytime you get a chance, meet new people and understand their business. Build the model of a business in your head as you chat and try to get a perspective from their business. People who can build a model of a business in their head during a conversation with me, ALWAYS impress me. They become golden when they understand how to ask questions.

- Ask for help. Keep asking. There is nothing wrong with asking for help. I constantly call up my friends and colleagues and ask them to come to lunch with me just so that I can bounce ideas off them.

If you know someone who is growing in their career, get to know them and figure out how they are doing it. Very few career growing ideas are unique.

You would be surprised what other people can teach you.

(5) There is no such thing as a bad job or a bad company
I truly believe that there is no such thing as a bad job or a bad company. If you work hard at your job and truly keep in mind that you are working for the benefits of your shareholders, you will be rewarded.

I have been in many dysfunctional companies and jobs. Those experiences are what shaped me and continue to shape me. I learned some great lessons and practiced important skills in companies that were failing or growing. Spend your time finding a way to love your job rather than complaining about how hard it is.

Vyatta, can they really challenge Cisco/Juniper

2007-01-15T12:42:00.000-08:00

Vyatta - Welcome to the Dawn of Open Source Networking

If you have ever used a Cisco router, you know its not exactly like baking cookies.

When I bought my first Cisco routers to run Flare's network connections I was absolutely lost. We had 4-5 network tech's who ran complex app environments and networking, but for the life of us...we couldn't figure out that Cisco box.

Setting up this box required almost $10k in consulting and even then we didn't dare touch it for fear we might bring the internet down (seriously, we thought this).

A couple years later during our expansion we went to go find alternative solutions and came across Juniper. Juniper had a smarter router design that used an ASIC for their packet movement with a standard processor for creating rules and applying logic. The design was cost effective and was scalable but those were just the icing. The real treat came when they invited us to Denver and actually trained us in how to use their equipment. This also included tickets to see the Av's in the playoffs.

Somewhere in this process I realized that the reason we had such a bad experience with Cisco was simply because they didn't have to work for customers any more. There were such limited options, you bought without a choice.

I hope Vyatta turns this industry upside down. I only wish they could have done it 5 years earlier and before I spent 100K on routing equipment that now sits unused in a warehouse

How to win the America's Cup

2007-01-06T18:56:00.000-08:00

"If you were going to run a marathon, you'd go out and pound the streets every day," he said. " If you were going to go to the America's Cup, every day you'd do a reasonable amount of drinking."- New York Times

Genuine or Fake - Amazon/Motorolla

2007-01-01T16:32:00.000-08:00

I went to amazon.com with the hope of buying another bluetooth wireless headset. I tend to loose them quite quickly with my travel and driving habits.

I was surprised to find that they now have a guide to determining counterfeit goods on their website. It's nice to know that

You can find the guide here

Traditions and Change (Explain this to me Hollywood)

2006-12-31T19:50:00.000-08:00

New Years Eve is always a great time for traditions and reflection. In my family we had a quirky tradition of a buffet including french bread/banans and chedder cheese (slice and go), shrimp cocktail, canned herring and various cooked meats (think salami, ham, roast beef). This traditional dinner was followed by a screening of Swiss Family Robinson, you know the Disney movie from the 1960's.

Well this year I am hanging with the friends and remembering those traditions and discovering that you cannot find the movie Swiss Family Robinson in any of the traditional [brick and mortar] stores. Thus my plans of a wicked NYE party complete with traditional food and movies was cancelled. I did eventually find the movie on Amazon.com which annoys me even more.

If this content is available, why isn't it available when "I" want. The real answer, I am convinced, is that Hollywood has not yet gotten the message that DRM and their silly rules actually get in the way of people purchasing. Tonight I would happily have spent $10-$20.00 (perhaps even more) to have this movie available.

Disney/Hollywood and all you silly DRM loving people... get the message. IF you had made AVAILABLE to me the CONTENT then I would have PAID you $20.00 (or more).

The technology involved in making this content available to me is trivial. At one end of the spectrum they could simply create an ISO image and stick it up on the web and give me a one time key to access and download it and create my own DVD. If you wanted to get really fancy youd use some codec's and encoding.

I hope that the studios and their fun loving MPAA get the message quickly that they need to ENABLE this market and technology. I don't care how you do it...just get it done. The sooner you find a way for me to watch Swiss Family Robinson on MY TERMS, the sooner you get MY MONEY!

Identity - Again

2006-12-28T00:31:00.000-08:00

It is shocking to me that Identity Management is not more of a mainstream issue.

My friend Steve was returning from London a week ago and lost his cell phone "somewhere in the AA terminal in Chicago". After he spent a number of hours on the phone with various Chicago O'Hare airport folks he discovered his phone was with AA in their lost and found.

On Christmas day I got a Merry Christmas email on my blackberry. It turns out that he lost all of his phone numbers when he lost his phone.

This story ends on a happy note, Steve's phone is being fedexed back and his numbers will be saved.

I don't understand why cell phone companies haven't latched onto this problem yet. It seems like SIM cards and phones should be easily able to "backup" to the mobile xSP. I would happily pay $5.00USD/month to have my numbers and contact information backed up.

So here is another reason Identity Management should be important to everyone. Here is a situation where a good identity management system could be used to centralize our information. If your phone is lost do you want someone turning it on and finding all your numbers and text messages OR would you rather an authentication check at the boot of your phone that then downloads the trivial stored data you need (phone numbers) onto ANY device you use.

I use a blackberry so this problem doesn't exist for me, so consider this rant as my good deed for the day!

del.icio.us --> are you on it yet

2006-12-26T20:23:00.000-08:00

I just signed up for del.icio.us ---

Find me here:
http://del.icio.us/kyle.macdonald

Come on United - Read the writing on the wall

2006-12-26T14:01:00.000-08:00

Living in Denver I am constantly having to fly somewhere to get my job done. That means a weekly commute to the bay area and countless international trips. United has wonderful and expensive service that covers plenty of the domestic US. There isn't really anywhere I need to go that I can't fly direct from Denver with one notable exception - anything International.

As a new resident of the City and County of Denver I suddenly care a lot more about the airport as my tax revenues support it (in additions to my revenue dollars as a passenger). After hearing United gripe about how complicated/expensive and difficult international service would be in Denver, I was shocked to hear that Lufthansa (an airline I don't particularly love) was now offering an ADDITIONAL service to Germany (Munich to be specific).

Lufthansa adds Denver-Munich route

This means that Denver is now served by 2 international airlines (Lufthansa and BA) with 3 non-stop Europe flights. This begs an obvious question - Where is United?

I would argue that United's lack of an international presence in Denver is holding back the Denver economy. I am glad to see that Lufthansa and BA both get it.

So I question Denver's city government, when will you start to penalize United for not supporting Denver the way they should? We gave them generous packages when DIA first opened, suffered during their bankruptcy and endured their crappy service during all of the labor strikes. Shouldn't they be giving something back in the form of enhanced and expanded service to the citizens of Denver?

If we can't handle the political fallout from penalizing United, let's do something better and convince Frontier to expand to international service to Europe or Asia. Surely the more international business we can get into Denver the better.

Get the message United, either find an International route to Denver from Asia or Europe or figure out that "It's time to Fly"!

Kyle's going to the TED Holiday Salon, are you?

2006-12-06T12:25:00.000-08:00

I am heading to the first annual TED Holiday Salon in New York City on December 14th.

Let me know if you will be joining. Anyone want to plan on coming to TED Global 2007 with me?

TEDGLOBAL "Africa: the next chapter"

Lunch: Done Properly

2006-10-24T05:27:00.000-07:00

On occassion, you may find me and certain of my coworkers disappearing for an extended lunch. Don't think or assume this is slacking, as it is most certainly is not, I know that my travel schedule this year calls for alot more than 40 hours a week of work ;-)

This was a picture I took as we were flying back from Watsonville to San Jose. A view like that makes any day at work easier ;-)

The Search for the Killer App: Silicon Valley, India Style

2006-07-13T12:51:00.000-07:00

I must admit that I was unsure what to expect when first visiting software companies in India.

My visit to Adobe in Noida (an outlying city of Delhi) was amazing because it highlighted the untapped potential of India and provided the contrast needed to understand this country.

My journey started from downtown Delhi around 8am. The distance between Noida and Delhi is approximately 30km, however don't let that time fool you. If you go during any kind of peak travel hours you can easily expect a 3 hour journey.

I arrived at Noida around 10/10:15AM after traveling along what were mostly dirt roads. It is important to remember that Noida and Delhi are technically in different "states" within India. This means that you must stop upon reaching Noida and pay a tax to cross the border. I stayed in the car during this process but it seems like it took my driver quite some time to pay the tax and come back out. If the beuaracracy for this was anything like the immigration lines at the airport, there was probably serious paperwork involved.

Upon arrival in Noida I was shocked to see an incredibly modern building. I guess I assumed such buildings might exist in Bangalore but to see an entire city of them was kind of odd. I have posted pictures of the building here ().

I had a wonderful meeting with Dr. Naresh Gupta, SVP of Adobe's Print and Classical Publishing Business Unit & Managing Director, India. It was somewhere in this meeting that it dawned on me just how important India was to Adobe and how serious an investment Adobe had made in India. Adobe India is an example of how the technology industry in India is expanding beyond simply QA and support. Adobe India now manages a number of products from cradle to grave, including some of Adobe's bread and butter product in the creative and print/publishing space.

During a wonderful lunch Naresh poised a question that has stuck with me for this entire day. He asked me what the next "Killer App" was. I have to confess that at lunch I brushed off this question but after thinking about it later I realized he was asking a far more profound question.

In the software world we are constantly searching for the next killer app. A killer app is different than some new technology advance in your Oracle database. A killer app is something like Microsoft Windows or Netscape/Mosaic (the browser). It is an application or technology that the masses use and rely on. The software industry continuously searches for the next killer app and when it can't be found we fall back on enhancing performance of existing applications as our "innovation".

The technology industry has been a western focused industry since its creation. Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard (whom I regard as the founders of today's modern tech industry) didn't intend to create such a western focused industry, you can see this simply by looking at the international expansion HP did during a period of intense American isolationism, but they did. No matter how hard you look, the "power" base for the technology industry starts and ends in Silicon Valley. If not at the innovation level, then at least at the funding level.

India (and the respective BRIC countries of Brazil, Russia, India and China) represent a new marketplace for ideas, not just consumers. The sooner technology companies (including my own) recognize that emerging countries such as India represent the next frontier in the search for the "Killer App" the sooner we can really make a difference. In a country with 1,095,351,995 people...surely they have to be able to help us come up with a few new ideas.

Perhaps we really should be considering Africa in our search for the great "Killer App"?

Waking up to Afghanistan, trip to India

2006-07-12T12:36:00.000-07:00

I have spent the last 2 years criscrossing the globe for AMD but there is nowhere I love more than India. I complain a bunch about coming to India because frankly its a nuisance to get here. I must confess that American Airlines has finally impressed me with their India flights non-stop from Chicago to Delhi.

I thought this picture was important to post because it proves that I have now visited 2 warzones (albeit 39,000 feet above) in one year.

How do you define a raincoat (mature people only)

2006-07-11T19:01:00.000-07:00

So I am headed to India this week where it appears to be raining cats and dogs. During a conversation with my friend Zach I thought I would share my frustration at having to buy a raincoat (and how **#*@ expensive they were).

Enjoy the following conversation:

amdkyle: rain jackets are expensive
amdkyle: 149 bucks
{ZACH}: whats a rain jacket?
amdkyle: ya know like a jacket thats sorta like plastic
amdkyle: so its not warm
{ZACH}: IOHHH like a condom you put of your shoulders

If you can't be amused by your friends, who can you be amused by?

Snail Mail is still relevant

2006-05-19T19:09:00.000-07:00

I am in Shanghai this week to speak at the BEA Dev2Dev Days conference. This has been a long trip that included prior stops in Amsterdam, Frankfurt, Beijing and is continued on in Hong Kong and Los Angeles.

We are braving the Typhoon Chanchu to visit the Oriental Pearl Tower which lead me to take the following picture. I think its important to prove that the prevalence of snail mail, even in one of the highest points on earth.

I am now curious just how much junk mail they send from this magic post office ;-)

35,000 feet above Mosul Iraq ---

2006-04-16T06:19:00.000-07:00

I am posting this blog from 35,000 feet (according to the in-flight monitor). We are currently about 30km away from Mosul.

I am on my way to speak at the BEA Dev2Dev show in Bangalore, India. I have been long delaying a visit to India on the grounds that everyone who visits comes back ill. A very convincing alliance manager has convinced me that this experience will be good for me

While the flight over has been brutal (San Francisco - Frankfurt and then Frankfurt - Bangalore), I was comforted to find that the flight to Bangalore had internet access (and quite yummy Indian food).

While I am getting caught up on my email (sorry AMD folks), I am very concerned that my one place of escape is now being comprimised. Let me explain, for years I have counted on my travel time being my "kyle time". This alone time was supported by a lack of in-flight power (thus I could only work for a limited period of time) and a lack of connectivity (cell phones, BlackBerry, internet).

Its proof that the world is getting smaller. Now while it may be getting smaller, it is not getting any shorter.

Google Toolbar Beta -> almost cool

2006-02-01T20:52:00.000-08:00

Google Toolbar Beta
So Google's has been doing a great job at making sure that they have enough features incrementally added to their core product that it becomes cool. Unfortunately, incremental features don't do much in the software business. This is a problem that gets worse when you compete against a company like Microsoft that specializes in adding incremental and sometimes less than useful features (can we say MS Office 97-2000-xp-10).

I seriously hope the rumors about Google having some game changing technology in development. Simply taking existing stuff and putting the Google "spin" on it isn't really the heart of a good business model.

Don't get me wrong, I want Google to do well. Its time we demand more of software companies, Google might be one of the first to actually deliver.

../km

Making Exchange work with Entourage on my Mac

2006-01-21T16:37:00.000-08:00

So I got a Mac Powerbok about a month ago. Since then I have been mostly using it for my personal computing (translate that to... never using it).

My main stumbling block was making Microsoft Entourage connect to our companies exchange server. This is a configuration that is not supported by AMD's corporate IT department.

So here is how I did it (in case you ever care):

Go to Entourage and pick MANUAL configuration
Pick the Exchange Option
Setup the account manually

Your username and password are the same as your Windows Login
Your exchange server can be found in your Windows Exchange by looking in the Account settings area

During the manual setup you will be asked for your "LDAP" server

To find your LDAP server on your Mac open the Utilities Folder and pick Terminal
Type nslookup
Type set type=srv
Type _ldap._tcp.amd.com
This will bring back a list of "LDAP" Active Directory servers for your domain

After this you should be able to verify your connection to the server and get access to Exchange

-->
My real hangup originally was figuring out where MS Exchange would have an LDAP server. I remember it having directory server options but I couldn't remember them being diff than the standard exchange implementation. Once I realized that the LDAP server and the Directory server were combined, it all became clear except nobody actually knows the Active Directory server they log into.

The neslookup command lets you query the DNS (which is the basis of active directory) and get the actual names of the controller you log into.

Good luck other Mac users at AMD :-)

Web 2.0 - Finally a definition

2006-01-20T22:36:00.000-08:00

Definition of Web 2.0 (according to The Register)

I was surfing around on The Register tonight checking out the headlines when I found this.

Now if only I could wake up in the morning with deep thoughts like that. I typically stumble around looking for the blackberry.... (i mean crackberry) ;-)
../km

Center Stage: AMD at IBM's Software University

2006-01-17T13:36:00.000-08:00

Someone told me the other day that life was about constantly looking into the future. You have probably heard other phrases that ring with a similar tone, my other favorite is "Don't live in the past".

I happen to think that some of that is bogus advice, especially when it comes to technology & marketing (on the Technical front this is true too, but thats another blog). It is impossible to understand how much our industry has grown and matured without being able to look at the past and use that as a measure of progress. So in this sense I talk about the past as a benchmark however it is really more than that.

AMD now has performance and development projects underway across IBM Software including work with their Java teams, Websphere, DB2, Lotus and Tivoli. While many of these projects have been going on for some time, our recent investment in the IBM SW alliance has further advanced these projects. Its good to remember that the "past" was not so long ago. Prior to 2002 when we launched Opteron to the world there were very few places for us to interact with enterprise software vendors at all, much less IBM.

After comparing this to the past, I can confidently say that the future looks very bright for customers thanks to the current and future work of the AMD/IBM Software alliance.

Today AMD and IBM are on center stage at IBM's Software University. IBM's Software University is the GIANT of trade shows I have ever been to. From what I am told, IBM dominates Las Vegas for this show and their logistics are amazing. IBM SWU brings in all of the IBM Sales/Marketing/Sales Engineering folks to a central place and trains them. I am talking Hard Core training here. This is a place where breakfast starts at 6AM and sessions start at 7:30AM (translate that into - No Partying, Gambling or other tomfoolery).

We have done a lot of work to get here especially considering our relationship is primarily based on AMD's tangible performance and innovation, and not on our checkbook. IBM has been an amazing partner to work with and I happen to think that comes from our shared interest in the end-user and defining strategy that benefits end-users.

I included this picture below to show you a little about what IBM SWU looks and feels like. You need to imagine a little since my pictures don't do it justice. This room is FILLED with IBM and IBM Business Partners and at some points the enthusiasm is just overwhelming. Joe Menard (our SW chieftain) were at one point confused about whether we were in a rock concert or a SW conference. Clearly this event and the relationship IBM has with its partners (like AMD) is something to be very excited about ;-)

Check out the new AMD Homepage

2006-01-01T13:14:00.000-08:00

Advanced Micro Devices, AMD HomePage

So I have to say that I am very impressed with the new AMD homepage. It has a clean layout and links to the pages which customers find the most useful.

It also highlights a great deal of the work done by AMD's Marketing and Alliances organization focused around solutions development (SQL Server, 50x15) and our focus on customer benefit come out very clearly.

Nice job AMD Web Team ;-)

Kicking the habit

2005-12-27T01:19:00.000-08:00

Shocking as it is, I have decided to kick two "habits" in the last month.

--The Habits
I am a Starbucks fan. For the last 8 years of my life, since I started in the working world, I have depended on a Quad-Grande Non-Fat Cappucino to start my day AND jump start it mid-afternoon. This habit cost me roughly $3,488.80 a year.

I am also a RIM Blackberry fan. For the last 3 years of my life, since I started using exchange, I have depended on my trusty Blackberry to help me find my way through days of meetings and mountains of email. I am not your wimpy Blackberry user either, I have spent entire weeks abroad without ever using my laptop for email or calendering. I have no clue how much my Blackberry habit cost me (or more importantly my company) but I am sure it wasn't cheap.

--The Quitting
During a recent trip to Miami in early November, I picked up some kind of Flu bug that pretty much knocked me out cold. During that trip (and the resulting weeks) my system was out of whack. By the time Thanksgiving rolled around, I decided that I should rest and relax for a week. I also decided to quit drinking Coffee and instead move to decaf green tea. For anyone around me, I apologize for that week ;-)

On my flight home on Friday night I sat next to a wonderful columnist from the SF Chronicle who was flying to Denver to cover the Broncos-Raiders game (a game that should have been called to save the Raiders embarassment). During this flight we exchanged emails and I heard myself muttering the words, "sure, email me tomorrow... I keep my Blackberry with me 24x7".

--The realization
I can be awake in the morning without coffee. I can simply invest the $3,800.00 a year spent on my cappucino fix in a way that better benefits me, such as a nice vacation ;-)

I can live without my email, my schedule, my task list and my address book while I am home on vacation for two weeks. There is nothing that will hit my inbox that desperately needs my response. If it did, they would definitely call me on any one of the 4 numbers available to reach me.

--The perks
So, I hadn't really planned on taking the entire week off. This week was supposed to be a week where, while relaxing at home, I could work on focus for the year ahead. I had promised this week would allow me to get ahead and start thinking about the plan and how to work toward the plan.

Not having a blackberry makes this 100x easier because I don't need to spend my day reacting to the diversions. I also suddenly found myself having to watch movies all the way through, engaging in conversations with my family and that ever so important significant other (not that I wasn't already fully paying attention ;-)). I also discovered that I tend to drive better when I am not trying to pound out a reply.

Now you wonder how caffeine and blackberrys are linked? I used to wake up in the middle of the night just to check my blackberry and make sure that Europe and Asia both got equal response time. No wonder I needed coffee in the morning. Without the blackberry I suddenly find myself sleeping entire nights, driving better, paying attention to people that matter and being able to think clearly.

Now lets see how long I can last ;-)

All I Really Need To Know I Learned In Kindergarten

2005-12-11T20:00:00.000-08:00

All I Really Need To Know I Learned In Kindergarten

I am currently working on a plan to work with and support our ISV and IHV partners in a couple of new strategy directions we are working on.

This actually started as a very boring project because I didn't see where the real challenges actually were. Developing strategy is already a complicated process when you can own the strategy development and implement. It becomes close to impossible when you have to develop a strategy that relies almost entirely on implementation by partnes and complementary technologies.

It was at this point that I realized our strongest talents come from some lessons learned in kindergarten.

From a poster in my thrid grade teachers class (go Ms. Chase):

Share everything
Play fair
Don't hit people
Clean up your own mess

Sharing, Playing Fair, Not hitting people (or other companies) and cleaning up our own mess are the values that make AMD great (and create a ton of work for me).

So here is why this strategy is causing me so much trouble. I have to figure out how to engage a number of critical partners as part of a cohesive long term strategy. Ever get 10 companies to "share, play fair, not hit each other and clean up the mess"....

So as I work on what could possibly be impossible... I am comforted by the fact that I work in a company full of people that were paying attention in kindergarten. Weren't you?

EMEA Trip Pictures

2005-11-29T18:10:00.000-08:00

I just got back from a "long" trip to EMEA. Included were stops in London (BDE Team, IBM Hursley Lab), Milan (AMD Europe), Rome (IBM Labs, Tivoli), Frankfurt/Walldorf Germany (SAP).

Click here for pictures (including incriminating evidence)

Web 2.0

2005-11-09T11:25:00.000-08:00

So I spent this week at the Goldman Sachs Software Retreat.
There was a ton of talk about AJAX and Web 2.0.

So I ask this, are these just buzzwords or is there more to this that I don't know about?

--------------------------
Sent from my BlackBerry Wireless Handheld

Fetch

2005-08-16T15:38:00.000-07:00

If you know the real symbolic nature of this word, you understand just how out of it I am.

;-)

Top 10 Places to NOT be an Intel Attorney

2005-08-08T17:30:00.000-07:00

Japan, US, Europe and now Korea

CNet Article on Korea's Investigation into Intel

I make no comment on the actual allegations against Intel in any specific action. What I point to is the growing number of people, countries and companies looking into Intel's practices.
Where there is smoke, there is bound to be fire.

Back the Bid, did you?

2005-07-06T09:31:00.000-07:00

So today, if you haven't already heard, Britain won the bid for the 2012 Summer Olympics.

As a British citizen I think this is awesome news, it's about time London got to have recognition for something other than a good royal sex scandel.

So I think Britain did this right. Their campaign didn't focus on perks and lavish gifts for the IOC but instead focused on very public support that was proof the citizens and corporate infrastructure of London / Britain were behind the bid. This was the well publicized "Back the Bid" campaign.

When visiting the UK (something I have done too much this year) there is nowhere you could go without seeing the "Back the Bid" slogan. When a country gets together and collectively works for one goal, the results are amazing. There wasn't a place in London you couldn't go where you didn't hear, see, or ESP sense the "Back the Bid" slogan.

I give advertisers and mass marketers a lot of grief, but the folks running the Back the Bid campaign should feel proud of their accomplishment. You know you are moving the masses when you get both Virgin Atlantic (the first backer) and British Airways (the second backer) to publically back the bid and then paint it on their planes.

It would be like Steve Jobs and Bill Gates spending a week together fishing and hunting in Wyoming, sure it could happen but you need to smoke alot of &*#&@ before you could actually believe it.

Good job London, see you in 2012!

The real money is in the printer cartridges

2005-07-04T12:13:00.000-07:00

So next week I am heading to NYC for some meetings with my favorite group of customers (the people with real $$). As these meetings were all scheduled for a Monday morning, I saw this as a good excuse to enjoy a weekend in NYC. It ends up being cheaper for the company (someday airlines need to get rid of Saturday night stay requirements) and I get to burn some hotel points and hang out with friends.

For my spring break I purchased a Canon Powershot SD-300 camera to record all the "memories", unfortunately I forgot to bring it with me on most of the adventures I took. Keep in mind that this is the 3rd digital camera I have owned, so my goal of using it is now mostly about satisfying my economic sensibility.

So I have an awesome camera, an awesome memory card (1GB) and all the cool toys except the crucial accessory (the one they included and I lost) ... a battery charger.

So today I hit the friendly Amazon.com and spent through $56.97 picking up the battery charger. So doing a little math, this represents almost 15% of the total purchase price. Wow, I love being shafted on Independence day!

So being the CKO I am, I thought about ways to solve this problem and I think I figured it out...but I want all of you smart EE types to break my logic.

Why can't we all be like RIM and have USB be the power for accessories? Imagine if you didn't have an adapter for everything? When you pack for a trip you shouldn't have to find 30 different power adapters for your Blackberry, cell phone, electric shaver, portable ECT device (just kiddin), iPod..etc..

I have a feeling that the reason companies are doing this is simply profit protection. There seems to be good margin in the "accessory" devices and it serves as a way for them to lock in users. The more differentiated the product and its tangled accessories, the more a customer buys into that specific value proposition.

The question really isn't why they do it, but how long it will take them to realize that customers want easier solutions and don't want to be locked in.

You can bet that the next time I sink $349.99 into a camera, I am going to be looking for one with USB power, or even batteries.

Monopolies are Bad

2005-06-28T04:16:00.000-07:00

This morning we announced (to the media and soon to our internal employee's) our lawsuit against Intel focusing on their anti-competitive behavior, coercision and market monopolization.

I have battled a monopoly in a previous life, and I promise it is nowhere near the fun the movie "Antitrust" played it out to be.

In this case Intel has gone out of their way to create a market where their technology can dominate. Their buildout of this market has used coercision, restricting information, "paperwork failures" and direct intimidation.

In our software group, I look at the simple example of the Intel compiler (sold as an "independendant development tool"). The intel compiler actually "breaks" code written for AMD or in other cases it degrades the performance noticably. This has forced software vendors into using alternate compilers for various platforms, thus increasing Intel's dominance in not only the processor market but also the supporting solutions.

When I first heard about this decision and the evidence involved, I was shocked and outraged. As I read the press releases now, my blood boils.

AMD has great technology and great partners (SUN, HP, IBM, Fujitsu). We also have great customers ;-)

I belive in an open market and I believe in free trade. I believe we should strive for a perfect world without corruption. Intel's unfair manipulation and monopolistic practices not only reduce customers access to innovative technologies, these practices also reduce the ability of their customers and ecosystem partners (such as the OEM's, chipset vendors, tool suppliers) to fairly benefit from their contributions to the solutions end users purchase.

I believe in AMD and will stand up for what I believe. Customers deserve choices, access and the best possible products and technologies. I believe that AMD is serving our customers best by providing the leadership needed in this industry.

I call on the market to join AMD and speak out against Intel. This is not about an "us vs. them" (referrring to AMD vs. Intel), this is about an "us for them" (AMD & Intel for our customers and partners) which will help build and establish the market.

At 4AM in the morning, I think people should be proud I wrote this much ;-)

TELL ME WHAT YOU THINK!

Kyle

Missing Wallets Suck

2005-06-24T09:48:00.000-07:00

I returned from my UK/Germany trip last night through Dallas with a stop over on my way back to San Jose.

After being awake for the entire trip (thats the way to beat jet lag, lemme tell ya) I was a slight bit exhausted so I didn't really notice when some guy bumped into me outside the admirals club as I was leaving to head to my gate. Turns out, I probably should have noticed.

Upon arriving in San Jose I went to go find my wallet and replace my euros and pounds with dollars. No matter how much you try, Starbucks wont take Euros...go figure. When I discovered my wallet was missing I retraced my steps and figured out that I last had it in Dallas at the admirals club because I bought a bottle of water for my trip. I had to wait until this morning to call because it was too late to reach the Dallas club last night.

This morning, after I called, they suggested that I may have been pickpocketed. I dismissed this idea at first as just typical AA laziness, but then the lady described in creepy detail the look of one of the known pickpocketers. Turns out I wasn't the only victim yesterday.

It dawned on me (it shouldnt take this much I know) that identity and the whole process of managing a persons identiy is really the next big "problem".

Imagine the steps you need to take if you loose your wallet (and this is just mine):
(1) Stop and replace credit cards
(2) Get a replacement drivers license
(3) Get replacement social security cards/health insurance
(4) Get replacement corporate phone card
(5) Get replacement frequent travel cards (air, hotel, car, name it)

etc.......

So imagine the solutions to these problems:
(I know people will bitch about civil liberties but I am sure the system can fix those problems)

(1) Smart Card technology that "carries" your multiple identies in "one" card
(2) Merge your identites into one place (your smart card) then ATM/POS systems ASK which one to use.... do you buy groceries on your visa, m/c, amex etc...

(3) Let your smart card be an "access" token for information about you. There is no need to carry information, smart encryption (public/private key) should allow your smart card to present your identity (via PKI) to a system (such as the Colorado DMV) to allow THEM to search for YOU. If you loose your license, simply get a new smart card. This method would fix SO many problems.

If you loose your ID, you get a new smart card and new encryption pairing. You replace one card instead of many, your identity isn't tied to a collection of plastic, its tied to a real "identity" that can easily be voided if lost.

I point this out mainly because as of right now, I have no credit cards and none of the identity pieces needed to run my life. Lucky for me, I kept my UK passport seperately so that will be my identity for now!

The real question is how do YOU define identity?

The coolest song ever

2005-06-22T22:08:00.000-07:00

Chipz: Cowboy

If you find me this album or can find me a place to get the MP3, I will be your best friend. It wasn't on iTunes but who knows..... the challenge is ON!

../boo ya!
KYLE

Real Work

2005-06-22T21:57:00.000-07:00

ALERT --> (never put this word in an email subject, it only causes managers to be alert)

I am on my last day here in Europe which surprisingly has seemed like my longest trip EVER!

I had a joint meeting with a partner and our EMEA sales folks this morning that went amazingly well. Typically I am not on my game at 8am, but with some kind of "miracle" I was able to fake it. I firmly believe there should be a law against doing business before 10AM, unfortunatly that law would probably be circumvented by some obscure German regulation.

I walked around the ISC expo and was quite surprised at how small the world was. My vote for most "random" appearance was Sean Copp a sales monkey from Tailspin/Cisco. I have worked with Sean quite a bit over the last couple of years...but never would I have imagined either the US government letting him out, or the German government letting him in ;-) (smile Sean, you know I like you).

I had a great dinner with our UK BDE folks where they informed me that us Americans treat them like a "51st state". They suggested I mention to AMD folks (thus the blog entry) that at one point they did settle our great nation, provide us the provocation to kick them out, and taught us how to properly fight a war. Oh, and they let us have a wonderful tea party in Boston which was one of their many contributions, therefore they think we Americans should consider them a seperate and equally significant country.

I am cheap I know, but seriously....this AA flight I found is cool.

ISC Day 1

2005-06-22T00:07:00.000-07:00

Don't you remember the days when you had partners, customers and business friends that you actually liked? Ok, so I admit....I really, really like some of the partners I work with here at AMD.

Trains in Germany are interesting. The schedules are pretty easy if you speak german, complicated if you speak english. I ended up in Stuttgart and then went backwards to Heidelberg.

I met with the folks from the OpenIB group at an event they were hosting this evening. I forgot that in the HPC world, the IB folks and techies can get away with their jeans and polo's.....I was a good boy and wore my "business atire" (unfortunatly that means I was slightly cooler than a steamed lobster by the end of the night).

The OpenIB folks pitched the idea that AMD should join their group because we are "ecosystem" partners to the IB industry. What they really want is a "small" sum of money and the use of our labs for testing. This is something I think we can accomplish quite easily but hey....this is quirky territory so who knows.

Whats funny is that the OpenIB guys finally "got it". Instead of everyone using their own "IB" stack...they should combine it all into one good stack and offer it to customers. That makes it interchangeable and much easier to deal with. I only wonder how you combine 5 products into one, and then keep the value each of those companies added.....but maybe someone will tell me.

I had a great meetings with my other favorite partner folks (Voltaire, Infinicon, Panasas and now Pathscale). I also got to spend a few minutes with the HPC product manager for Microsoft.

Tonight is a short night, I have early meetings and a full day of "stuff" including my flight back to London. Funny story but every time I come over here, I end up having to promise to come back.....hmm...

Headaches in Frankfurt

2005-06-20T22:55:00.000-07:00

I am on the road this week in Europe. With a brief stop in Scotland this weekend (the real Scotland) to see my granny and aunt/uncle/cousins I am now on my way to the International Supercomputer Conference in Heidelberg, well sort of.

I had originally planned to fly from Glasgow to London and then continue on to Stuttgart where I could meet up with some of my counterparts from Europe to make the drive to Heidelberg, a plan that was simple before you allowed British Airways to get involved. After 2 cancelled flights, they ended up getting me into Birmingham and then into Frankfurt. As you would expect, they managed to loose my luggage en route (corporate folks have been nice enough to help me round up replacements until they find my luggage).

I realize that airlines generally work and that their problems are occassional. With almost 150,000 miles flown last year alone.... stuff like this just happens. My only complaint is that a number of airlines seem to think that the last person to be "involved" should be the customer/passenger. For example, the BA counter folks in Glasgow thought that I should go take a seat rather than help them come up with additional options, and when I arrived in Frankfurt they provided me a telex from Birmingham noting that my luggage was still stuck in Glasgow. Once the counter folks allowed me to assist them, I was able to come up with an option that at least got me to Germany (rather than Paris as they suggested) and I could have procured additional clothing BEFORE I left the UK had they notified me as soon as they had the information (ever try shopping in Frankfurt after 10pm?).

This experience convinced me that I would rather fly on an airline that remembers I exist and wants my business. I have since switched my flights from BA to BMI, happily giving up the BA first class for an airline that wants my business. Coach is just fine for me if it helps an airline that wants me!

There is an interesting business lesson you can abstract from this. One way relationships between companies and customers just don't work for the long term. Communicating and collaborating with customers is the only way to win. Following your corporate procedure and "plans" will only work as long as you satisfy the needs of your customer. When companies move to follow procedures and policies without regard to the needs of the customer, they begin to loose touch with the very reason they exist as a company.

I will happily pay my money to any airline that wants to value and respect me. I don't care if they screw up, just make sure you keep your focus on ME. I am the one stuck in Frankfurt without any clothes (or excedrine -- remind me to blog on this tomorrow).

Why venture capitalists should be scared

2005-06-16T00:32:00.000-07:00

Tonight I convinced a couple of my colleagues to attend a Silicon Valley Bank event focused around letting a number of startups "pitching" their ideas to current CIO's. Nobody believes me now, but I really meant to show these guys that startups are cool.

Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) did a great job of running the event. Good food, lots of wine, and everyone was properly dressed (except me of course.... nothing but the good ole jeans and a polo shirt). They designed a simple process by where the "start-up" had 5 minutes to pitch their idea, the CIO's had 2 minutes of questions followed by a vote using paddles - red for NO, green for GO ;-)

So I didn't keep official numbers on every company but lets just say it was pretty pathetic.

There were 2 companies I was "really" impressed with, Azul and ShoreTel. Azul Systems simply because I know them and I wasn't sure that the Azul guy could actually inspire me and ShoreTel because I have used their gear before, I buy their story and product and I honestly like the fact that they are a little guy in a big market.

This being said, everyone else sucked and without naming names....let me tell you why.

There was a definite lack of "purpose" exuding from all of these startups. Not a single one (with the exception of Azul) could tell us "why" they were the leader or going to be the leader in their particular product area. They also with rare exception (including Azul and ShoreTel) delivered any kind of compelling pitch regarding the "value" of their product to the customer.

I have been around Silicon Valley for a while (granted I used to commute here but that counts right...) and I remember why the dot-com days actually were interesting. The companies "then" were looking to solve real problems. Their focus was on solving real problems and in order to figure out the solutions, they thought big. Unfortunatly the VC community and business/corp dev folks got greedy and well we blew and burst that bubble pretty badly.

Startups need to answer relatively few questions to impress me. I am looking to hear "what" you are doing, why you are doing it, what problem you are solving and what makes you better than the other guys (either the existing market leaders/segments, or the up and coming startup competition). I don't care about valuations, research reports, lame market directions or even where your company is located. I do care about you telling me what you are going to do and then having real customers validate your idea.

The closest we came to hearing that tonight was a customer who told us that he had met with 8 of 10 CIO's and they told him what they viewed as their current security problems. What he forgot to tell us was why we should let him solve those problems and what his solution was.

My vote... all RED paddles. Lets get some of the smart people out of Google, Apple and all the other cool kid companies and get it right this time ;-)

Sun & StorageTek

2005-06-13T10:57:00.000-07:00

So a lot of people have been asking me lately, what do "you" think of the Sun & StorageTek merger (see the disclaimer below).

Contrary to what people might think, I believe Sun is a great company at its heart. I think Sun has somewhat lost its way over the last couple years but that was only a function of a number of shifting forces colliding in one place (dot-com bust, migration to ISS x86 as a platform, adoption of Linux, Windows/Microsoft stability etc..).

While Sun has been restructuring, they claim to have finally seen the light. The jury is out still as to this being a lasting phenomenon.

So lets talk about StorageTek and Sun and the Kyle prediction ;-)

Sun needs a sales team, and a really tough one. They used to have this back in the glory days (remember Masood Jabbar) and they need one again. StorageTek brings this to them in full force. You could argue this point one of two ways; The StorageTek sales force is great at "selling" a dying product and thus extending its life, or Sun can benefit from the great Enterprise Sales experience these folks would bring to them.

Verdict: StorageTek brings a tough sales force to Sun

Sun needs a way to be competitive in the Enterprise space. If you look at history, you realize that Sun is a relative newcomer to the top 3 (lets exclude Dell because...well...being an Intel reseller doesn't count). HP and IBM have spent years becoming de facto choices for enterprise customers. With both of these vendors there were lines like "you can't get fired for buying HP or IBM". With Sparc dying a sudden death and a "new" strategy focused around x86, Sun really was missing that long reach technology that provides them the image of stability (the thing Enterprises really care about). StorageTek brings this to them. Tape may be a very old technology, but its still there.

Finally, Sun really needs new blood that is not based in California. I personally believe 3/4 of Sun's problems come from being based in California. They are trying to play the same game as everyone else with less mindshare, more skepticism and less morale. Sun can now (with StorageTek) focus their operations in areas such as Colorado, Boston, Austin etc.. where there is still plenty of "tech" investment, but without the crutches of the silicon valley grind. Scott and Jonathan might be great leaders, but they certainly aren't innovating and changing the game the way they used to. I would argue that one of Sun's smartest moves was their SmallWorks project based in Aspen (run by Bill Joy). A group of western cowboys figuring out how to build an innovative solution might be just what Sun needs.

Yes I think its a good merger, even considering their history screwing things up (Cobalt). Let's see if they can pull this one off ;-)

The views expressed here are mine alone and do not express the view of AMD or its partners & affiliates

The blogs collide

2005-06-10T10:54:00.000-07:00

I discovered today that all of my blogging (that I have been doing recently) was actually only for the benefit of our internal (inside AMD) folks.

This seemed rather lame to me, so I have re-set the blog so it links here ;-)

Update - Re-blogging

2005-05-18T06:31:00.000-07:00

So I have been a bad blogger, so restart the watch!
../kyle

Some things you cant do online

2005-03-13T18:20:00.000-08:00

So obviously I have not blogged in quite some time. Rest assured it was not because I didn't have anything to say.

Today I set out to purchase my new bar-b-que grill. The relocation folks included everything possible with my apt. in Sunnyvale except that one item every guy needs - a grill.

I have tried to cook using the conventional cooking aparatus but have found that the place smells like whatever I cook (so no garlic allowed) and I end up burning things frequently enough that my neighbors are no longer concerned at the sound of my smoke detector/alarm thingy.

So today I set off to my local Wal-Mart and HomeDepot to purchase the grill. Being the eternally lazy monkey I am, I decided that the girlls were too large to fit in my car and that the assembly could be dangerous without parental supervision.

Upon returning home I discovered a website (from a large un-named company) from which to order my new grill. Wish me luck as it is delivered this week and as I recruit friends to help me assemble it.

Linux / Cell Phones / Open Frameworks

2005-02-14T14:36:00.000-08:00

Mobilinux Open Framework

So my good friend Peder Ulander (once known as the best dressed guy in Linux) sent me a link today for his companies new "program" to foster the adoption of Linux (specifically the MontaVista distribution) for mobile phone handsets.

Now I had heard of this program some time ago when I was in the market for my next gig. Peder had even asked me to look into it, I being a fool had declined ;-)

I think its interesting to note that Linux as an operating system has now reached the point where it is being considered suitable for a role where "reliability" is not a luxury but a requirement.

I once argued that the cell phone was one of the last great security devices. Think about it, you carry the phone with you almost all the time, you can require 2-phase authentication to get into it (actually having the phone + a code or password) and ultimately anything the phone does is traceable and can be logged by an outside party.

I currently own two mobile devices which travel everywhere with me. I have a company issued mobile phone (which I use for talking) and a Blackberry (from an alternate provider that I know works well). I carry both devices and have found that for 98.0% of my work, I can just use those two devices (blogging/hard core emailing should be done only from the PC).

How long will it be before we give up on PC's and laptops to move to completely mobile devices that fit in our hands.......

Professional Development

2005-02-10T23:14:00.000-08:00

Today I took the day off (sort of) and spent it figuring out my strategy and plan for our 1H05.

I realized that more often than not, I spend my entire day firefighting the latest problem or crisis that gets brought up within the company.

So today I hatched the plan to help us get from Point B to Point C and starting Monday....watch and see :-)

Carly Fiorina Fired

2005-02-09T19:42:00.000-08:00

Its old news by now....but in case you live in a cave, today Carly was fired.

I honestly don't know what HP's board was thinking when they hired her. When she first joined many of us longtime HP Friends/Family/Employee's wondered how an outsider (she was the first CEO to be "brought in") could do in a company that is very much family. I would hope HP learns its lesson this time. Bill & Dave inspired a great culture and built a company that was the rock of stability. They did this by hiring great people, by teaching great people all about a business and then by letting them run it.

Let's hope that HP's board looks inside as they choose a replacement CEO. HP sits at a very difficult point right now as they now have an arsenal & traction to compete with IBM/DELL/SUN.

Welcome to the Kyle Blog

2005-02-09T19:31:00.000-08:00

So today I decided to officially start blogging. I figure that all the other cool industry pundits are doing it...maybe if I start, they will think I am cool.

Don't expect too much......