Maddow Oil Spill Video

I found this to be an interesting video highlighting the “deja vu” aspects of the oil spill.

BP Live Video

BP is offering live video feeds from it’s remotely operated vehicles (ROVs) on their website. You can watch the disaster unfold. Hopefully you can watch the disaster ended in the next few days.

Update: The direct link to the video page is here.

This Is Why I’m Scared Of Facebook

This image, from People Magazine, is why I am scared of Facebook.

On one hand, I am really excited that they found a way for me to post my thoughts without having to log into their site. On the other hand, they have my picture, my name, and know that I’m interested Lindsay Lohan’s accidental nudity. On top of that, it allows Facebook to better target their ads based on my browsing preferences.

Also, I thought I had turned this functionality off?

Andy Hampsten’s 1988 Huffy Giro d’Italia

I love this look at Andy Hampsten’s bicycle from 1988. That’s it.

How Big Is The Spill?

There seems to be a lot of debate on how big the oil spill is. The original estimate, which was used by the news organizations, suggested that the spill was about 5,000 barrels (210,000 gallons) a day. The NY Times is now reporting that the BP maximum estimate is up to 60,000 barrels (2,520,000 gallons) a day. Slashdot has a story from the Examiner that estimates it up to 350,000 barrels (14,700,000 gallons) per day.

“BP officials have repeatedly said there is no way to measure the rate of flow from the broken pipe. – link“

Given the fact that NOAA underreported the numbers in the first place and BP has no incentive to report actual numbers, I am inclined to believe the numbers carried on the Examiner. This is really scary:

If this thing blew, it could be like the Yellowstone Caldera, except from below a mile of sea, with a 1/4-mile opening, with up to 150,000 psi of oil and natural gas behind it.

That would be an extinction event.

It is not likely to happen, but it is within the realm of possibilities.

How do you estimate this?

Although the real number will never be known, scientists and others will create more specific estimates over time. I am pretty certain that the chain of events that lead to this catastrophe will also be dissected. However, I am not so certain that the punishment and/or deterrents needed to prevent a future accident similar to this one will be implemented.

Larry Ellison and Sun

There is a special report available via ABC which is really an in-depth post-mortem of the Sun deal.

In recent years, Sun outsourced much of its sales, counting on resellers to promote its products. That’s anathema at Oracle, which employs 22,000 salespeople and 11,000 software consultants who work directly with its largest customers. … “Astonishingly they laid off all the sales people and they laid off all the field service people. They just got rid of them all,” he said. “Guess what? Sales dropped. It’s breathtaking!”

I am not going to mention what company this reminds me of. I will mention that the quote is from Larry Ellison. I think this article is required reading for anyone in the enterprise IT market.

Novell Map (pre-2004)

While in the Novell Bracknell (UK) office this week, I noticed that they had a map of the world in the entryway.

1. The prominent status given to Svalbard, a small archipelego of islands (smaller than Iceland) that is owned by Norway. You can see it in the map floating to the east of Greenland and north of Norway.
2. The lines indicate the Novell network (I believe). If you follow the lines, it makes Provo Utah seem like the center of the Novell networking universe.

I think that this map was installed before year 2000, and I am certain that it is pre-2004, since that is when Novell moved its headquarters to Waltham, MA.

Cancel All Orders!

Found this hilarious clip from a stock market webinar on 5/6/2010.

MWRA Fail

Everyone knows that there is a boil water order for the Greater Boston area. That doesn’t stop the the MWRA from celebrating National Drinking Water week. Of course they cannot reschedule that, but this is possibly the best comedic and worst PR timing for the MWRA.