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20061108 Wednesday November 08, 2006

Recent Reads

Another Dostoevsky masterwork informed by man's tremendous struggle between belief and doubt and by the power of redemptive suffering and salvation. [Referring to his own travail from atheism to belief, Dostoevsky reflected: "My hosanna has come forth from the crucible of doubt."] A primary theme - perhaps the central theme - of this deeply religious book is God's relationship to morality ("if there is no God, everything is permitted"). It is gratifying to see Dostoevsky actively take the side of faith in the novel - as exhibited by Alyosha and Father Zosima - against the side of doubt - as exhibited by Ivan. The plot of The Brothers Karamazov - the patricide of Fyodor Karamazov and the resulting trial of one of his sons - is interesting in its own right. The true genius of this novel, however, is embodied in its profound thematic content.

Other Worth a Look:

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  • 1776 - David McCullough (2005) - **** 1/2 (out of 5)

Every once in a while, I feel a compulsion to read a book based on title alone. 1776 was such a book - the fact that it was written by David McCullough was icing on the proverbial cake. This terrific book provides a detailed account of the first full year of the American Revolution - from the British abandonment of Boston, through the disastrous New York campaign, to the pivotal American victories at Trenton and Princeton - and its principal players. 1776 is a first-rate historical account of a critically important and difficult year in the history of the greatest nation on earth.

Other Worth a Look:

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  • The March - E.L. Doctorow (2005) - **** (out of 5)

The March is Doctorow's historic novel about General Sherman's march to the sea during the American Civil War. The novel is structured a bit like a Civil War version of the Canterbury Tales, with an interesting array of characters introduced along the march and allowed to tell their stories. This is a solidly written book about a fascinating - although regrettable and criminal - part of the Civil War and consequently well worth a look. After this book, the first I have read by Doctorow, I am looking forward to eventually reading some of his other works (esp. Ragtime).

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A smooth, enjoyable retelling of the the life and work of Jesus Christ based on the scriptural accounts of the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. This "plain language" book, written by a retired Catholic priest, provides an easily accessible account of the Greatest Story Ever Told.

Other Worth a Look:

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  • Hawaii - James Michener (1959) - **** (out of 5)

Hawaii follows the formula Michener has used on so many of his other multi-generational historical epics. Readers are treated to a novel of amazing scope and span. Hawaii begins with the volcanic birth of the island chain and ends with impending statehood (the novel was published in 1959). Not surprisingly, given its breadth, the novel lacks some depth. In my opinion, this weakness (along with others like the weak final section) is offset by its broad reach and by the compelling, ultimately intertwined, stories of the Polynesians, American missionaries, Chinese, and Japanese and their heroic struggles in the formation of Hawaiian society.

Other Worth a Look:

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15 years after the publication of his superb 7 Habits book, Covey has published a new book detailing a new habit intended to help move an adherent "from effectiveness to greatness". The eighth habit, in summary, is to "find your voice and inspire others to find theirs". As in his other works, Covey eschews quick fixes and instead focuses on approaches intended to affect real long-term change. I continue to be impressed by Covey's emphasis on principle-centered leadership, an emphasis no doubt stemming from his devout faith.

Other Worth a Look:

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The premise of this book is terrific - understanding applied computer science by building a basic computer starting from digital logic gates and ending with a basic hardware platform, operating system, OO programming language, and compiler. Rich treatment of issues is not a strong suit of this book - the level of detail is kept intentionally "survey-like". The value of this book is in its pedagogic approach and its inevitable inspiration to further explore topics. This book should be of particular interest to undergraduate computer science students and to more experienced readers with gaps in their understanding of how computers do the wonderful things they do.

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Many fans of Robert Jordan have hailed him as the heir apparent to the J.R.R. Tolkien, with the unfinished Wheel of Time series serving, to date, as his magnum opus. While better than the vast majority of contemporary fantasy I have read, I have so far found the series - with its classic quest format and its set of improbable and reluctant heroes - to be overly formulaic and derivative of works like The Lord of the Rings. The improvement of the second book (The Great Hunt) over the first (Eye of the World) does, however, give me hope that the series will strengthen as it nears the final (and as of yet unwritten) 12th book.

Other Worth a Look:

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The Tipping Point is Gladwell's attempt at improving our understanding of innovative diffusion. He expounds on the notion that small changes ("Little Things") made by a small number of people - Connectors, Mavens, and/or Salesmen - can precipitate a tipping point resulting in sudden significant changes from one state to another ("Big Differences"). I was disappointed in this book, particularly given the tremendous hype surrounding it. I found it to be mildly interesting, but ultimately drawn out, lacking in substantive original insight, and overly reliant on anecdotal evidence and questionable correlation-causation leaps. ( Nov 08 2006, 12:55:15 PM PST ) Permalink

20061106 Monday November 06, 2006

Principle-Centered Voting

Voting is a tremendous responsibility - indeed, I believe it is a moral obligation. It is important, then, to inform our votes based on conscience and principle. Archbishop Charles Chaput, current Archbishop of the Roman Catholic Archidiocese of Denver, recently published an excellent article on "Seven principles to use in the public square". Among those principles is the following:

Catholic teaching has two basic principles we should use in judging every public issue: First, does this issue advance the dignity of the individual human person; and second, does this issue promote the common good? We can never choose one of these principles to the exclusion of the other. We need to follow both. A public policy can’t truly serve the common good if it violates, or allows to be violated, the sanctity of someone’s fundamental human rights, from conception to natural death.

This is wonderful advice for voters of all religious and political persuasions. ( Nov 06 2006, 10:50:05 AM PST ) Permalink

20061105 Sunday November 05, 2006

Words To Live By

"Let each citizen remember at the moment he is offering his vote that he is not making a present or a compliment to please an individual - or at least that he ought not so to do; but that he is executing one of the most solemn trusts in human society for which he is accountable to God and his country." - Samuel Adams ( Nov 05 2006, 05:15:34 PM PST ) Permalink
20061102 Thursday November 02, 2006

Republicans Retain Control?

It appears widely accepted now that the Democrats will take back control of the House and possibly the Senate. Listening to pollsters and the media "talking heads", you would think that this is a fait accompli.

It is difficult to argue against the notion that the Republicans are heavy underdogs at present. Do not be surprised, however, if November 8 sees the Republicans still in charge, whether they deserve to be or not, of both the House and the Senate. The GOP machine has an impressive ground game, relentlessly campaigning and turning out voters. Moreover, I suspect that the "Republican Base" will become more and more energized as the horrifying thought starts to sink in of Nancy Pelosi as Speaker of the House.

In either case - the Republicans retain OR lose control of one or both houses - I hope that they take this election to heart. The record of this Congress has been dismal and the stream of ethics violations and scandals is deplorable. While I do not believe that a shift in power from Rep to Dem is warranted, I do believe that substantive change is required and the American voters have the right, and indeed the responsibility, to demand it. ( Nov 02 2006, 11:35:10 AM PST ) Permalink

20061030 Monday October 30, 2006

Congratulations, Cardinals!

I would like to express my belated congratulations to the St Louis Cardinals. While I am a Royals fan myself - yes, I am not ashamed to admit it - I am pleased with their victory.

While the poor play of Detroit obviously contributed to the Cardinals' victory, St Louis earned the title. Their pitching was impressive and, most importantly, players lower in the lineup stepped up and played well, obviating the need for their superstars to carry the team. This championship was truly a team effort.

Congrats, Cards! ( Oct 30 2006, 11:04:37 AM PST ) Permalink

20061018 Wednesday October 18, 2006

Datacenter in a Can?

Or rather datacenter in a shipping container. Yesterday, Sun announced Project Blackbox - a prototype datacenter packed neatly into a standard 20-foot shipping container. This form factor facilitates the rapid deployment of an impressive amount of compute power, taking advantage of existing transportation infrastructure to do so. Ship it in; hook it up to power, water, and network sources; and you're ready to rock!

I am dying to take a peek inside one of these containers. Since I am based in Broomfield, I will just have to settle for pictures for now.

Now that we have shown the world ours, maybe Google will trot theirs out as well. :-) ( Oct 18 2006, 12:35:26 AM PDT ) Permalink

20061015 Sunday October 15, 2006

Words To Live By

John 13:34, NAB

I give you a new commandment: love one another. As I have loved you, so you also should love one another. ( Oct 15 2006, 11:45:15 PM PDT ) Permalink Comments [1]
20061002 Monday October 02, 2006

New Public SMASH Specifications

The DMTF has recently published Preliminary Release versions of several more profiles, continuing to solidify the material related to the SMASH initiative.

In a related note, the DMTF made the 2.13 version of the CIM schema available last month. This version includes a number of interesting changes, including changes to model multi-core processors and to improve the modeling of network ports, boot configurations, and firmware. ( Oct 02 2006, 12:46:25 PM PDT ) Permalink

20061001 Sunday October 01, 2006

Words To Live By

1 Peter 3:15, NAB

Always be ready to give an explanation to anyone who asks you for a reason for your hope. ( Oct 01 2006, 12:32:00 AM PDT ) Permalink
20060930 Saturday September 30, 2006

Another Big HPC Win

Another great HPC win!

From http://www.tacc.utexas.edu/general/press/announcements/20060928_01.php:

The National Science Foundation (NSF) has made a five-year, $59 million award to the Texas Advanced Computing Center (TACC) at The University of Texas at Austin to acquire, operate and support a high-performance computing system that will provide unprecedented computational power to the nation’s research scientists and engineers.

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TACC is partnering with Sun Microsystems to deploy a supercomputer system specifically developed to support very large science and engineering computing requirements. In its final configuration in 2007, the supercomputer will have a peak performance in excess of 400 trillion floating point operations per second (teraflops), making it one of the most powerful supercomputer systems in the world. It will also provide over 100 trillion bytes (terabytes) of memory and 1.7 quadrillion bytes (petabytes) of disk storage. The system is based on Sun Fire™ x64 (x86, 64-bit) servers and Sun StorageTek™ disk and tape storage technologies, and will use over 13,000 of AMD’s forthcoming quad-core processors.

As with the big TiTech win, N1 System Manager will be used to provide management for the compute nodes and N1 Grid Engine will be used for job scheduling and reporting.

You can download System Manager for free here and Grid Engine for free here. Don't forget to sign up for an Sun Developer Network account and check out the BigAdmin portal while you're at it. ( Sep 30 2006, 11:24:00 PM PDT ) Permalink

20060916 Saturday September 16, 2006

Don Williams Farewell Tour

Tiffany and I went to see Don Williams on his Farewell Tour at the Grizzly Rose - recognized by the Country Music Association as one of the best live country music clubs in the nation - in Denver last night. He certainly did not disappoint, playing for about an hour and a half. He started with Good Ole Boys Like Me and finished with You're My Best Friend, playing Louisiana Saturday Night as an encore.

There is something about Don William's straightforward music and lyrics, particularly the songs written by Bob McDill, that really resonates with me. His well known penchant for singing about the simple things in life and the importance of our relationships with one another is endearing. ( Sep 16 2006, 04:00:00 PM PDT ) Permalink

20060909 Saturday September 09, 2006

Random Shuffle

What a riff and what a solo! There are two things the Motor City Madman does very well - play guitar and hunt. Ted's clean living and his policy to only eat meat that he harvests himself (e.g. through hunting and fishing) probably has something to do with the fact the he is still rockin' hard at the age of almost 58. Wonderfully touching musical parable about the power of faith and redemption. Listen to this one twice to get the full effect (the end might be surprising to some when they first hear the song). "I guess it's not what you take when you leave this world behind you, It's what you leave behind you when you go."
  • "Orange Blossom Special" - Ralph Stanley
One of the all-time classic banjo songs played by one of the all-time classic bluegrass banjo pickers. What more need I say? I fondly remember blowing my first set of car stereo speakers with this song. The song still makes we want to stand up and scream with Jon Oliva when he belts out (after a dramatic pause): "In the Hall of the Mountain King!!!" btw...you can hear an arrangement of Grieg's "In the Hall of the Mountain King" in the previous track: "Prelude to Madness". A sobering - pun intended - and touching song about the awesome responsibility of being a parent and the effect our actions have on our children. Our children look to us as role models and stumbling around with a beer constantly in hand sets a poor example. ( Sep 09 2006, 10:52:00 PM PDT ) Permalink
20060908 Friday September 08, 2006

Potty Trained by 2?

Two weeks ago, Caleb had his first successful self-initiated experience - a very satisfying #1 - with his potty chair. Today, he almost pulled off a "bifecta" with a self-initiated #1 AND #2 (I will spare you the details related to being almost successful). At 19 months, he seems to be making a lot of good progress. I suspect, however, that it would be remarkably over-ambitious to expect him to be fully potty trained by 2. A man can always hope, though. :-) ( Sep 08 2006, 01:15:00 PM PDT ) Permalink Comments [1]

Steelers Start the Season with a Win

The Steelers start the season well, defeating the Miami Dophins 28-17, without their starting quarterback. It was by no means a perfect performance, but the Steelers were true to form, outrushing the Dolphins 143-38 and coming up with 2 key interceptions late in the game. It was also nice to see Heath Miller with over 100 yards receiving (even though some of those yards were the result of a blown call by the official). ( Sep 08 2006, 12:08:56 AM PDT ) Permalink
20060820 Sunday August 20, 2006

Words To Live By

Hebrews 13:5, NAB

Let your life be free from love of money but be content with what you have, for He has said, "I will never forsake you or abandon you." ( Aug 20 2006, 10:38:49 PM PDT ) Permalink