Earlier this week, BBC News published a short article about the bi-annual “Top 500 supercomputer list.” An interactive “tree map” created using Prefuse Flare software, developed by the University of California Berkeley, allows a user to easily see different views of the list, according to attributes such as  speed, operating system, manufacturer and country (shown below).

The number one supercomputer:  Cray XT with a maximum speed of 1.759 peta FLOPS with a total of 224,162 cores (AMD processors running Linux).  Crazy!

First, the disclaimer:  I grew up in the Magic Valley area of southern Idaho on a small dairy farm.  Because of that, my worldview is often skewed in terms of Idaho milk cows.

This morning, IT World Canada reported,

“Researchers at Hewlett Packard Co.’s HP Labs presented a paper on using cow manure from dairy farms and cattle feedlots and other "digested farm waste" to generate electricity to an American Society of Mechanical Engineers conference held this week.

“In the paper, the research team calculates that "a hypothetical farm of 10,000 dairy cows" could power a 1 MW data center — or on the order of 1,000 servers.”

So, it takes waste from 10 cows to fuel 1 server!  I immediately thought of my Dad, a retired farmer who still lives in the Magic Valley area of Idaho.  He once told me that the only thing growing faster than the number of cell phone towers in Magic Valley were the stacks of cow manure.  That is probably due to the 382,214 dairy cows that lived in Magic Valley as of the latest report of the United Dairymen of Idaho. 

With the ever-increasing overabundance of cow manure in Idaho, I was encouraged by the HP study.  In all of Idaho, there are 532,353 milk cows – a ratio of roughly one cow for every three human residents (see Census Bureau)!  This is enough cows to fuel 53,000 servers. 

This could lead to Idaho being home to huge data centers, all powered by bovine effluent.  If HP’s estimates are accurate, the current Idaho dairy cow population could fuel 53,000 power-hungry servers, all while increasing dairy farmers’ profit rate eliminating smelly piles of cow manure.  A win-win-win for Magic Valley, I’m sure!

Plus, I know some Oracle reps who would love to sell that many servers (with all due respect to the HP study).

When he learned I would be re-joining Oracle after my time at Sun Microsystems, my son suggested that I take a drive down Oracle Street in Mesa, Arizona, to celebrate.  It is a small street with a big name, located about a mile from my house.  Here is evidence that I took the trip.

Boomerang:

• noun, “a bent or curved piece of tough wood used by the Australian Aborigines as a throwing club, one form of which can be thrown so as to return to the thrower.”
• verb, “to come back or return, as a boomerang”

I first joined Oracle in 1997, as a pre-sales consultant on the Oracle Telecommunications sales team, and then spent an intense three years literally travelling around the world in support of Oracle sales activities to many telecommunications companies.  I learned much, worked with outstanding people, had great experiences, and then was lured away to a Silicon Valley startup just before the .com bubble burst. A series of interesting experiences with small companies led me to Sun.  It turns out that the executive who initially hired me at Oracle was the same one who referred me into Sun.

So now, after nearly a decade,  I will be leaping back into the Oracle fold with my Sun colleagues, eager with anticipation, looking forward to many more exciting years.

As Sun transitions into Oracle, the bright expectations of new opportunities have been accompanied with the gut-wrenching impact of learning which friends were not invited to make the leap.  Thursday and Friday were difficult for me, as I heard from outstanding people I have learned to admire and trust that they were opening new doors in their lives.

As a tribute to them and all other friends I have come to know and respect during my sojourn at Sun, I offer a few lines I penned several years ago …

A Tapestry Of Miracles

Like brilliant golden strands
Woven delicately yet boldly
Among more dreary threads
To create a magnificent tapestry,
Our lives converge
In brief but sparkling brightness,
And then intertwine into
Radiant relationships
Borne of common hopes and dreams.

Countless encounters
Of human souls,
Guided by an unseen hand,
Link our lives together,
Creating cascading
Miracles of light,
Illuminating our hearts and minds
Amidst the harshness and the gloom
Of mortal life,
Ever weaving and preparing
The glorious, eternal tapestry
Of humankind.

Mark G. Dixon
November 15, 1996

Photo credit: A quilt entitled “The Woodpeckers” by Kathy Swartz, based on a tapestry of the same name by William Morris.

I recently replaced the wheels on my roll-aboard suitcase with inline skate wheels.  So much for a run-of-the-mill black-on-black look for my luggage!  I hope the fact that I chose orange rather than red doesn’t get in the way of success with Oracle.

In August, 2007, the Sun National Sales Conference featured Oracle/Sun luggage tags for all attendees, which was terribly ironic for those of us in the software business, which competed head to head with Oracle.  Little did we realize at that time how prophetic those luggage tags would be!

Thanks to my colleague Patie McCracken for sharing this nostalgic song … to the tune of the old favorite “American Pie” by Don McLean. Patie isn’t the author, but she received it from colleagues in Europe.

A long, long time ago….
I can still remember when
Unix used to make them smile.
And we knew that if we had a chance
Sun could make those networks dance
And, maybe, they’d be happy for a while.

But DEC and Apollo make us shiver
With every workstation they’d deliver.
Competition camped out on doorsteps
We had to fight for each step.

I remember how hard we tried
To win each system that they buy
Yes, something touched me deep inside
The day Sun Microsystems died.

So bye-bye, dear ‘ole S–M–I
We drove those networks to the limit
And made applications fly!!
Them corporate boys have kissed Sun good-bye,
Singing, “Time to give Oracle a try.
Time to give Oracle a try!!”

Have you heard of Solaris OS?
And do you believe in Open Source?
If the European Union tells you so…..
Do you have faith in MySQL?
Can Java save your mortal soul?
And, can you keep data from moving slow….

Well, I know that Larry’s in the groove
`cause I saw his keynote on You-Tube.
Oracle and Sun have hit the news!!
Man, I dig them targeting Big Blue.

I was a great Sun Sales Rep kicking butt
With a SPARC based server and tons of spunk
But I knew I was out of luck
The day the Sun Microsystems died.

So bye-bye, dear ‘ole S–M–I
We drove those networks to the limit
And made applications fly!!
Them corporate boys have kissed Sun good-bye,
Singing,  “Time to give Oracle a try.
Time to give Oracle a try!!”

For nearly 27 years we’ve been on our own
Now our revenue’s gone down and confidence is blown.
But, that’s not how it used to be.
When Scott ruled with Ed and Joe,
And installed systems around the globe
With a OS that came from BSD….

Oh, and while Scott was flying around,
The jester grabbed his SMI crown.
The stock-holders were concerned;
The SUNW brand was over turned.

While Johnathan played his agenda in the dark,
IBIS ran in stops and starts,
We just kept selling Solaris and Sparc
The day Sun Microystems died.

We were singing,
Bye-bye, dear ‘ole S–M–I
We drove those networks to the limit
And made applications fly
Them corporate boys have kissed Sun good-bye.
Singing, “Time to give Oracle a try.
Time to give Oracle a try!!”

Re-orgs and RIFs in a March disaster.
The IBM bid fell upon us in a news flash after
Analysts screamed high and then fell fast……
IBM’s bid landed foul on the grass.
The players tried for an Oracle pass,
With the European Union looking on aghast.

This acquisition news was sweet perfume.
The industry spun up many tunes.
The Stock holders all lined up to dance,
But…they never got the chance!
`cause when Oracle tried to take the field;
The European Union refused to yield.
Do you recall what was revealed
The day the day Sun Microsystems died?

They started singing,
Bye-bye, dear ‘ole S–M–I
You drove those networks to the limit
And made applications fly!!
Them corporate boys have kissed Sun good-bye.
Singing,  “Time to give Oracle a try.
Time to give Oracle a try!!”

So, now we are all here in one place,
An acquisition stuck in space
With no time left to start again.
So, Larry be nimble, Larry be quick!
Use your brains and might and wit,
‘Cause profit is the market’s only friend.

As this plays out on the world stage
My hands are clenched in fists of rage.
Can this angel born in hell
Break those devils’ spell?
Our company falls deeper every night
And crumbles under this burdensome rite,
I saw the competition laughing with delight
The day Sun Microsystems died.

They were singing,
Bye-bye, dear ‘ole S–M–I
You drove those networks to the limit
And made applications fly!!
Them corporate boys have kissed Sun good-bye,
Singing, “Time to give Oracle a try.
Time to give Oracle a try.”

I met a guy who wrote some code
And I asked him what the future bodes,
But he just smiled and typed away.
So, I went on to the Inter Net
Where I’d played with Sun years before,
But the sites there said that Sun had gone away.

And in the streets: the customers screamed,
The partners cried, and the programmers dreamed.
But not a word was spoken;
The systems all were broken.
And those groups I admire most:
The Engineers, Sales Reps and Service folks,
They caught the last train for the coast
The day Sun Microsytems died.

They were singing,
Bye-bye, dear ‘ole S–M–I
We drove those networks to the limit
And made applications fly!!
Them corporate boys have kissed Sun good-bye,
Singing, “Time to give Oracle a try.
Time to give Oracle a try.”

So…….
Bye-bye, dear ‘ole S–M–I
We drove those networks to the limit
And made applications fly!!
Them corporate boys have kissed Sun good-bye,
Singing, “Time to give Oracle a try.
Time to give Oracle a try.”

I bought a new iPhone case this week, which includes a closeup lens for the iPhone camera. This is my first experiment to see how this works with the iPhone WordPress client.

Happy New Year to everyone in the blogosphere! Now is a great time to count our blessings and look forward with eager anticipation to the year ahead.

I am most grateful for my wife and family, my God and faith, my employment and professional opportunity, and the freedoms we enjoy in this great country. And also – being able to post this little article from my iPhone while sitting in an airport.

I look forward to completion of the Oracle/Sun merger, the upcoming marriage of one of my sons, the return of another son from two years in Croatia, teaching my daughter how to drive, and other exciting professional and family opportunities.

It is going to be a great year!