tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-81449455519442451702012-01-23T10:35:33.544-08:00Dave Dargohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09100903241709221805noreply@blogger.comBlogger661100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8144945551944245170.post-48702203246345429422009-12-25T21:53:00.000-08:002009-12-25T22:11:05.423-08:00

The original War of the Worlds is on T.V. tonight. It's one of my favorite movies for a lot of reasons. It's good Sci-Fi, was well made and is considered a classic. I've been watching it at home with my wife, Wendy, and she keeps talking about how scary a movie it is.She asked me when I first saw it and it reminded me of the primary reason it's one of my favorite movies.It was 42 years ago

Dave Dargohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09100903241709221805noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8144945551944245170.post-84159586885138970272009-12-07T12:38:00.000-08:002009-12-07T13:20:36.023-08:00

Despite my own contributions to global warming, I do, actually, care about the environment. I also care about the scientific method.I was raised to question everyone and everything. I've always felt that having a robust, open discussion where all facts are available to all participants contributes to growing the overall knowledge of each of us. For some reason, though, there appears to be a

Dave Dargohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09100903241709221805noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8144945551944245170.post-11935659426588305622009-11-24T12:40:00.000-08:002009-11-24T15:33:53.490-08:00

I get the flu shot every year and have done so for about the last decade. This year was no different and I got the seasonal flu shot a couple of months ago. But, then came H1N1 - the dreaded swine flu.The U.S. government promised plenty of vaccines for everyone who needs one and everyone who wants one. Apparently, everything hasn't gone according to plan and rationing needs to occur so we have

Dave Dargohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09100903241709221805noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8144945551944245170.post-54025127301384756422009-10-04T13:04:00.000-07:002009-10-04T13:27:27.831-07:00

My wife, Wendy, goes on a lot of hikes with our dogs. Counting our daughter Lindsey's dog, Mummers, it becomes a pack of three dogs. Our dogs range in size from 8 pounds on up to almost 70. I've written about Sammy before. Sammy being a Pekingese, is the smallest of the group and is also the oldest, approaching 14 years of age. Sammy can't keep up with the rest and certainly can't go the

Dave Dargohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09100903241709221805noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8144945551944245170.post-2085321539353685462009-09-29T09:27:00.000-07:002009-09-29T09:47:50.620-07:00

The last blog entry reminded me of my own misspent childhood and the ways that I would while away the time waiting for the school bus.After the seventh grade my parents move to Arnold, Maryland. Because of the rapid growth in the area I had to go to a split-shift school for the eighth grade. The school split the day into two parts, a morning and an afternoon shift. I felt very fortunate to be

Dave Dargohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09100903241709221805noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8144945551944245170.post-9612025250346001102009-09-29T09:09:00.000-07:002009-09-29T09:27:01.935-07:00

Here's an article describing the latest in government insanity.Here's the scenario: There's a school bus stop in front of Lisa Snyder's home. Some of Lisa's friends drop their children off at Lisa's house to wait for the school bus with Lisa's daughter. Lisa has received a letter from the state of Michigan telling her that she's breaking the law by running an un-licensed day-care facility.Just

Dave Dargohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09100903241709221805noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8144945551944245170.post-48004683735286772952009-09-29T08:27:00.000-07:002009-09-29T09:05:03.343-07:00

The last time I was in Louisiana, as I often do in Louisiana, I went out to dinner with Wendy's parents. I've had the pleasure of eating at some of the finest dining establishments in the state and highly recommend the food and, in my particular case, the company.On occasion, though, we have some interesting interactions that make me wonder if I see things just a little differently. We were in

Dave Dargohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09100903241709221805noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8144945551944245170.post-85678947562483297872009-09-11T21:36:00.001-07:002009-09-11T22:13:59.497-07:00

All relationships need time to mature and become entities unto themselves. The long-term nature of many marriages allows the participants the needed time to understand one another.Many people who have been married a long time finish one another's sentences.Other long-time married couples just seem to know what the other is thinking.Early in my marriage, not long after we had moved into our new

Dave Dargohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09100903241709221805noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8144945551944245170.post-19865406645367096502009-09-11T16:42:00.000-07:002009-09-11T16:50:17.147-07:00

This is something I wrote on September 13, 2001. It wasn't meant for anyone other than my wife, Wendy. My parents were visiting us in California on 9/11 and, like many others, we were stunned by what had happened just two days prior. I struggled to find a way of telling Wendy what I thought so I sat down and started writing.I hadn't re-read the piece since I originally wrote it. Having

Dave Dargohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09100903241709221805noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8144945551944245170.post-49424955103886587752009-08-24T19:09:00.000-07:002009-08-24T19:21:31.810-07:00

I'm a big do-it-yourselfer at my house. I've done pretty much everything related to building or maintaining a house with the exclusion of laying bricks. I've built my own wiring closet with an independent cooling system. I've installed whole-house audio, video and networking systems. I find a lot of pleasure and relaxation in doing this work. It starts with not being afraid to screw it

Dave Dargohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09100903241709221805noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8144945551944245170.post-2895895697667078012009-08-22T08:50:00.000-07:002009-08-22T09:08:06.314-07:00

There's a never-ending supply of disturbing tactics being uncovered every day in the health-care process. Remember, the original plan was to get a health-care bill passed by congress and signed by the president in only a few short weeks. There was considerable concern within the administration and the democratic party that if congress went into recess that they wouldn't be able to pass a

Dave Dargohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09100903241709221805noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8144945551944245170.post-78238126659335679322009-08-21T16:25:00.000-07:002009-08-21T18:15:29.523-07:00

One of the most important steps towards success in any endeavor is to identify the goal. What is it that you want to achieve?This is harder than it sounds and appears to be nearly impossible with regards to the current health-care debate. Both sides of the debate use this difficulty to distort the other side and to sell their side harder. "Pulling the plug on grandma" is a theme that is

Dave Dargohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09100903241709221805noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8144945551944245170.post-27709699821437459582009-08-18T22:02:00.001-07:002009-08-18T22:15:21.050-07:00

Years ago in a former life I was in a meeting that seemed to drag on forever. We were debating 'round and 'round without any end in sight. I finally had enough and spoke up, laying out in what I thought was a very logical argument on how to proceed.There was one fellow in the group who disagreed with me quite strongly and pushed back rather vociferously.We went back and forth for far too long

Dave Dargohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09100903241709221805noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8144945551944245170.post-67343753058154340212009-08-17T14:51:00.000-07:002009-08-17T20:05:13.511-07:00

I don't know why the 80/20 rule is specified for so many things. I'm not sure if it's just convenient or if it has some instinctive feel that rings true for us.I used to have an 80/20 rule when I was working and used it extensively when working with the people who reported to me and was especially fervent in communicating the rule to the managers who worked for me. It was based on something

Dave Dargohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09100903241709221805noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8144945551944245170.post-70741109017190603902009-08-02T07:50:00.001-07:002009-08-02T08:18:27.378-07:00

I'm a bit hard-headed and that probably explains, more than anything else, why I didn't finish college. I used to get in arguments with professors and students alike about the role of the university and what I expected for my money.College, to me, was all about getting an education and then using that education, along with all of my other resources, to make something of myself and contribute

Dave Dargohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09100903241709221805noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8144945551944245170.post-4485316340796536812009-07-16T10:57:00.000-07:002009-07-16T11:18:26.253-07:00

There's a lot of debate going on right now concerning government provided health-care in the United States. I haven't been paying much attention because health care, apparently, is now the number one cause of bankruptcy in the United States and is a complete, unmitigated disaster - at least, according to the proponents of government provided doctoring.This subject is one of the hot topics

Dave Dargohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09100903241709221805noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8144945551944245170.post-88124368512481684592009-07-14T13:20:00.000-07:002009-07-14T14:04:58.308-07:00

If you don't want to read about me tooting my own horn then move on, this isn't for you.I started playing golf about 9 1/2 years ago. Those of you who know me know that I'm obsessed with the game and I'm blessed to be able to play almost every day.There are many challenges in golf and many achievements for which all players strive and each goal achieved simply creates another. When we finally

Dave Dargohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09100903241709221805noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8144945551944245170.post-79688076706832488232009-06-30T08:03:00.000-07:002009-06-30T08:57:35.779-07:00

I just came back from another trip to Lake Powell. It was another week of boating, fishing, camping, drinking, eating and sleeping - fun for all.The biggest change in Lake Powell is its level. Before we shoved off we were told that the lake was rising 5 inches a day. Given the size of the lake this is a massive increase.The photos above show one of our favorite campsites near Oak Canyon. The

Dave Dargohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09100903241709221805noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8144945551944245170.post-16625328238642064812009-06-15T20:25:00.000-07:002009-06-15T20:35:18.344-07:00

This is Buddy, the newest member of our family. Buddy is a rescued foundling.Wendy's brother, Jim, owns a tree farm near the Louisiana-Mississippi border which he visits every week or so. On one visit back in December he heard barking as he got out of his truck.When he investigated he found this dog, about 1/2 its current size, living under the house in a hole he dug and had filled with leaves.

Dave Dargohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09100903241709221805noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8144945551944245170.post-72200419218320354102008-12-31T08:53:00.000-08:002008-12-31T09:03:50.228-08:00

I'm always moved by those who overcome whatever obstacles are thrown their way to achieve their goals. I never understand the people I see on the golf course who are unhappy. I understand that some people just want to be miserable but the golf course, to me, is a place of peace and tranquility - even when I'm playing my worst. As frustrating as it is I always remember that my worst day on the

Dave Dargohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09100903241709221805noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8144945551944245170.post-32756180134740467432008-03-12T07:07:00.000-07:002008-03-12T07:26:36.054-07:00

I just returned from Baton Rouge, Louisiana, where I payed my final respects to my wife's grandmother, B.B. B.B. was born 103 years ago on October 3, 1904 in Erwinville, Louisiana. March 2, 2008 was her last day on earth.The photo at right was taken when my wife presented a landscape quilt to B.B. for her 100th birthday. The quilt depicts B.B. childhood home. You can see more about the quilt at

Dave Dargohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09100903241709221805noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8144945551944245170.post-85276620410048657312008-02-25T19:17:00.000-08:002008-02-25T19:28:08.503-08:00

I don't get it. I just don't get it. I play a lot of golf. About 15% of the people with whom I play smoke cigars. Many of my friends smoke cigars when on the golf course and I-just-don't-get-it.Many of the people I know took up cigar smoking later in life. To me, it seems that they took it up as a means of being "cool". I always thought that if you survived into your twenties after all the

Dave Dargohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09100903241709221805noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8144945551944245170.post-72352943245411277992008-02-25T18:48:00.000-08:002008-02-25T19:10:46.849-08:00

After Microsoft's latest Vista failings around SP1 (it was supposed to release in 2007), I started thinking a little more about their interest in acquiring Yahoo.Microsoft has a history of being late to new ideas, usually having to ridicule them a good bit before having a go at it themselves. The internet was one of those things and ad-based revenue with searches was another. Microsoft, rather

Dave Dargohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09100903241709221805noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8144945551944245170.post-51793202121547636042008-02-20T07:24:00.001-08:002008-02-20T07:46:33.977-08:00

Imagine for a moment that you produce a product. Your product is not only popular, some would even consider it necessary. There is no practical regulation on what you charge for your product. Now, imagine that the popularity/necessity of your product convinces politicians that they should make it easier for people to buy your product through subsidies. Yet, there are still no regulations on

Dave Dargohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09100903241709221805noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8144945551944245170.post-49937532659876769602008-02-19T16:54:00.000-08:002008-02-19T17:28:56.513-08:00

I've been bored lately. There's really not a lot going on in the software world at the moment. We see the occasional acquisition but we seem to be in more of a stage of fine evolution rather than gross level revolution. So I've had a chance to play with some stuff and I thought I'd share my findings.I have a fairly new computer (well, new for me, it's about a year old) that came with Vista

Dave Dargohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09100903241709221805noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8144945551944245170.post-53058245383348445522008-02-02T18:30:00.000-08:002008-02-02T18:51:48.816-08:00

There's a bunch of news about how the National Football League is prohibiting churches from allowing people to gather to watch the super bowl if the display for the set is greater than 55" diagonally. I first heard about it in a Washington Post article that was picked up on Slashdot.The law in question is the U.S. Copyright law and it does state that an establishment may not display copyrighted

Dave Dargohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09100903241709221805noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8144945551944245170.post-64327240485000283152008-02-02T15:58:00.001-08:002008-02-02T16:01:37.372-08:00

This is one of the christmas presents my daughter gave me this past year. Now, is this a family that understands me, or what? That thing in the background is, of course, Sammy.

Dave Dargohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09100903241709221805noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8144945551944245170.post-52069855661681951572008-01-16T12:51:00.000-08:002008-01-16T13:07:02.337-08:00

I've been doing nothing of late, or so it seems. I've certainly not been productive in the usual sense of the word. Oh, I've been working on my golf swing, getting my handicap back down (currently at 7.9), visiting with some of my friends and hanging out, mostly in Arizona.My parents are visiting right now and that leads to the usual level of angst. Of course, no visit from my parents would be

Dave Dargohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09100903241709221805noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8144945551944245170.post-5430629974391341962007-09-20T12:55:00.000-07:002007-09-20T14:05:02.454-07:00

From Wikipedia, Schadenfreude is a German word meaning "pleasure taken from someone else's misfortune."I'm experiencing immense amounts of Schadenfreude. Normally, I feel a lot of sympathy and a bit of empathy for those who have misfortune visited upon them. But, not today, not earlier this week and certainly not tomorrow for SCO. I am gleeful about SCO's misfortunes of late.For those of you who

Dave Dargohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09100903241709221805noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8144945551944245170.post-89767272039165275552007-08-14T16:16:00.000-07:002007-08-14T22:57:25.711-07:00

I'm back from another glorious week at Bandon Dunes. I participate every year in Brian Henninger's Fireside Chat pro-am at Bandon Dunes and it's one of the best golf experiences I know of.I was invited four years ago as a guest of a friend and I've been going back every year. It's a simple formula. Brian gets 32 amateurs and 8 PGA pros and we break into teams to play a "fun" tournament/contest

Dave Dargohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09100903241709221805noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8144945551944245170.post-34315196255779155292007-06-26T14:08:00.001-07:002007-06-26T14:37:11.733-07:00

Someone wrote a comment asking what kind of dog that was in my wife's lap in the photo that so frightened me. That dog is a Pekingese named Sammy or, as I like to call him, eight pounds of bark. Before I started dating Wendy she told me she was looking at getting a dog. I brought her a book that discussed dog breeds and their intelligence. The next Monday she told me she had bought a dog. I asked

Dave Dargohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09100903241709221805noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8144945551944245170.post-66269590437441873242007-06-22T21:29:00.000-07:002007-06-22T21:32:03.022-07:00

In my last blog on rogue coalitions I wrote about second generation leadership within companies. I’ve seen this at many of the companies for which I’ve worked and it’s always been sad to witness.Generally, most successful companies are formed on doing something different and often revolutionary. It’s a very difficult and arduous task to form a new company. It’s even more difficult to found a

Dave Dargohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09100903241709221805noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8144945551944245170.post-53495074908492436262007-06-21T22:32:00.001-07:002007-06-21T22:39:27.347-07:00

My parents visited us recently and my mother couldn't resist taking a photo of my father with my wife, our dog and me in our backyard. I didn't think much of the photo at the time and had completely forgotten it. Then the package arrived in the mail with a note about the nice pictures.My wife, Wendy, saw my face and asked what was wrong and I told her the transformation was complete. Without

Dave Dargohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09100903241709221805noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8144945551944245170.post-91147779878288303342007-06-20T21:38:00.000-07:002007-06-20T21:39:37.387-07:00

Throughout history, across virtually all disciplines, rogue coalitions have come into power and attempted to retain that power. Fortunately, these rogue coalitions have failed and allowed civilization and progress to proceed on their natural paths. Often, the source of failure for these rogue coalitions is found deep within their own structures.A rogue coalition is one that has come to power

Dave Dargohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09100903241709221805noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8144945551944245170.post-11066796602008959172007-06-17T18:59:00.000-07:002007-06-17T19:38:30.039-07:00

I'm back, well almost. I've been in Arizona the past few weeks and in Utah the past week or so at Lake Powell. Lake Powell is a fantastic place and one of the best things about it is the complete lack of phone, radio, internet and any other form of communication. We, meaning 12 family members, spent the week on a houseboat in close quarters enjoying a lot of nothing-time. The scenic, peaceful

Dave Dargohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09100903241709221805noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8144945551944245170.post-2628192918040733582007-05-25T17:22:00.000-07:002007-05-25T18:05:42.239-07:00

Where, oh, where is the time needed to write about Microsoft's multiple asinine positions regarding their patent portfolio? We are witness to an ugly issue within Microsoft because of their lack of a sound strategic direction. I'm sure I'll have fun pointing out many of the issues they have in leadership, strategy, good business stewardship and their complete lack of common sense. But the most

Dave Dargohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09100903241709221805noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8144945551944245170.post-77190861405472298252007-05-17T20:32:00.000-07:002007-05-17T21:35:05.185-07:00

If you can think it you can own it, I guess. I've always had a fascination with the phrase. Intellectual property seems to me an attempt to make tangible that which is intangible. To me, though, the problem with intellectual property is that it's very concept and value to society is being destroyed by those who seem to "own" the most of it.I have the deepest respect for inventors. My father has a

Dave Dargohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09100903241709221805noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8144945551944245170.post-67238446819364866132007-05-16T07:09:00.000-07:002007-05-16T08:25:34.165-07:00

Anonymous commented on my Chief Of Licensing post pointing out that there's an entire organization devoted to open-source licensing and (s)he itemizes nine of the licenses managed by the FSF.I had thought about the number of open-source licenses out there and I've written about it before, there are more than the nine highlighted by the anonymous post. You can read about Microsoft's attempts to

Dave Dargohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09100903241709221805noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8144945551944245170.post-88143647015716562812007-05-14T18:21:00.000-07:002007-05-16T07:02:56.107-07:00

There's someone at Microsoft with that title: Chief Of Licensing. Chief Of Licensing!!!Chief of what? Chief of Licensing. What? Licensing! Huh? LICENSING!O.K., how about finishing this one, how many chiefs does it take to write a bad license?Let's imagine the conversation:Customer: I want to use my super-powerful computer to help me be more efficient.Microsoft: Great, first you need to speak with

Dave Dargohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09100903241709221805noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8144945551944245170.post-77315714948429938132007-05-14T17:51:00.000-07:002007-05-14T18:10:09.472-07:00

I talk a lot about transparency in business. I believe in it to my very core. I've always told people what I intended to do, what I hoped to do and what I promised to do. When I was running the Linux Program Office at Oracle I was very open with the strategy and eager to tell people how it would evolve over time.I remember having many conversations with others about the "sanity" of being so

Dave Dargohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09100903241709221805noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8144945551944245170.post-32136240985915300402007-05-14T15:38:00.000-07:002007-05-14T16:21:12.577-07:00

One of my favorite books is A Confederacy Of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole. Sadly, it has also become one of my favorite phrases lately as I go through life. First with customer support and now with the sheer pomposity and idiocy contained in comments regarding open-source.Jonathan Swift wrote the quote that serves as the epigraph for A Confederacy, "When a true genius appears in the world, you

Dave Dargohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09100903241709221805noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8144945551944245170.post-58590078590853553482007-05-07T12:51:00.000-07:002007-05-07T13:00:00.034-07:00

I hate phone trees when I know that I need to speak with a service rep. I've seen some publications on the magic keys to press when you want to speak to a live person but I thought my own experience with MCI was classic. I had already heard the list of options available and none of them fit my situation so I began the automated voice prompting:Me: AgentMCI computer: Sorry that is not a valid

Dave Dargohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09100903241709221805noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8144945551944245170.post-59181448626277816962007-05-02T15:03:00.000-07:002007-05-02T15:25:05.397-07:00

My last post hit on issues with voting systems and my belief that the software for these systems must be open-source. I'll continue the same topic in this post and argue that there appears, to me anyway, an insidious movement towards secrecy in processes that can carry grave consequences for the innocent. I liken what we're seeing as no different than the witchcraft trials in Salem centuries

Dave Dargohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09100903241709221805noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8144945551944245170.post-10416780850287923012007-04-29T19:29:00.000-07:002007-04-27T19:47:12.450-07:00

There's an interesting article in Wired regarding voting issues with electronic voting machines in Ohio. It's been very interesting to me to watch over the past few years the number of people who have spoken of rigged votes, stolen elections and conspiracies with our elections system. What started in Florida with hanging chads was supposed to culminate in mistake-free elections with the

Dave Dargohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09100903241709221805noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8144945551944245170.post-87820391473198160182007-04-28T18:28:00.000-07:002007-04-26T18:37:25.460-07:00

This time with a bank. I have a document from my bank in front of me with an incorrect address for me.Being the helpful soul that I try to be, I call the bank's service number and try to help them with their data accuracy. Their response was interesting, after answering many questions to prove who I am, they tell me that they will need the request in writing because the account is less than a

Dave Dargohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09100903241709221805noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8144945551944245170.post-35943448589417032742007-04-27T18:11:00.000-07:002007-04-26T18:27:57.468-07:00

I'm in Scottsdale right now. My server is still back in California. In the middle of copying files this morning I lost my VPN link back to my home server. What an immense drag. I'm 750 miles away. The last time this happened I had to wait until I could get home to solve the issue.The first step I performed in troubleshooting was to connect to my router at home. Un-surprisingly, it wasn't

Dave Dargohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09100903241709221805noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8144945551944245170.post-79617393203548384482007-04-26T17:52:00.000-07:002007-04-26T18:11:27.827-07:00

Wow - it's been a long time since my last entry on April 2nd, time is just flying by. I do have a couple of things built up that I need to get out.I received a comment recently asking about analysts and their lack of bullishness on open-source projects. I think that we need to really understand the role of the typical analyst vs. the role of the futurist. I wrote a blog entry just over a year

Dave Dargohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09100903241709221805noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8144945551944245170.post-9393092318353852752007-04-02T18:24:00.000-07:002007-04-02T18:54:07.469-07:00

I was reading Groklaw earlier today and came across an entry that brought back a lot of memories. This particular entry itemizes the relationships that SCO had and that they accuse IBM of interfering with and damaging.At the time that SCO launched their lawsuit against IBM I was in the midst of managing Oracle's Linux Program Office and I had responsibility for Oracle's relationships with all

Dave Dargohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09100903241709221805noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8144945551944245170.post-58020360390663879182007-04-02T12:31:00.000-07:002007-04-02T13:11:32.733-07:00

I've been a bit busy lately. Wendy and I have a new place in Scottsdale that we've been enjoying. Actually, I've been enjoying it a little more than Wendy as there are six golf courses. I've only been able to play four of them so far but it has been an enjoyable few weeks. Now that I have internet set up and a computer here I can spend a few minutes getting back to some reality.Oracle has,

Dave Dargohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09100903241709221805noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8144945551944245170.post-82729396039436034162007-03-15T22:14:00.000-07:002007-03-15T22:25:09.729-07:00

My wife, Wendy, and I have been negotiating lately. Not with each other but with some real-estate brokers and house developers. As a result of these negotiations I've been reminded of all the times that I negotiated over the years; to buy houses, to buy cars, to get a new job, etc.It all reminded me of an incident that happened to me many years ago when I was working at Oracle. At the time I

Dave Dargohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09100903241709221805noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8144945551944245170.post-64305473910307811352007-03-14T07:46:00.000-07:002007-03-14T07:57:22.705-07:00

It's been pretty quiet lately on Oracle's Linux. There was a lot of noise when Oracle first announced that they were going to undercut Red Hat's price for support of Red Hat's distribution of Linux. I wrote a blog about it called Bullshit where I challenged Oracle's stated reasons for doing such a move.Pretty soon, on March 20th, Oracle will be making their quarterly revenue announcement. I

Dave Dargohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09100903241709221805noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8144945551944245170.post-56736121893865973442007-03-12T23:06:00.000-07:002007-03-12T23:17:37.966-07:00

At last week's Open Source Think Tank event in Napa, one of the interesting issues that came up, and always comes up at these events, was licensing. There was the usual contentious presentation on GPL v3, some of the changes it's bringing, or proposing and, of course, the usual presentation on the way-too-many licenses out there.This is one of the points with which I strongly disagree. I don't

Dave Dargohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09100903241709221805noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8144945551944245170.post-51971700030485197472007-03-12T08:00:00.000-07:002007-03-12T08:25:50.162-07:00

I ordered a new server a couple of weeks ago to replace one that I built about 5 years ago. I decided to buy a pre-built machine because I felt I just didn't have the time to go through the process of assembly. To keep it simple, I ordered an empty machine. It has one disk drive, no operating system and should have taken no time to build. Because I'm heading on the road again I paid for

Dave Dargohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09100903241709221805noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8144945551944245170.post-4150512531998530592007-03-09T12:24:00.000-08:002007-03-09T12:33:46.376-08:00

I'm at the Open Source Think Tank conference in Napa, California at the moment and we've had a few interesting conversations. One of the topics we discussed was disruption. Disruption is a word we love to use in the open-source world and we often describe ourselves as great disruptors and innovators.On the other hand, consumers often fear disruption. Consumers seek smooth operation of their IT

Dave Dargohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09100903241709221805noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8144945551944245170.post-14342167018427432372007-03-01T10:14:00.000-08:002007-03-01T10:43:44.081-08:00

I've been fascinated by the number of articles on EnterpriseDB and whether or not they're an open-source company (Dana Blankehorn, Matt Asay, Allison Randal) all, apparently, given birth from this article by Nat Torkington.EnterpriseDB is not an open-source product. In my opinion, they're not an open-source company either. I happen to favor the GPL for a number of reasons but there are a number

Dave Dargohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09100903241709221805noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8144945551944245170.post-57314370889271874022007-02-27T05:40:00.000-08:002007-02-27T06:01:42.354-08:00

A friend of mine wanted some help with a spreadsheet which, most unfortunately, was written in Excel. The help he needed was in creating a formula that would allow him to rank winners of a golf tournament that involved teams of three to five players. Depending on the number of players in each team, he wanted to rank only the best balls from each team.As an example, if there were five players on

Dave Dargohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09100903241709221805noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8144945551944245170.post-81868789556185365672007-02-26T16:07:00.000-08:002007-02-26T16:21:17.049-08:00

I hold these truths to be self-evident:MySQL is not a real databaseMySQL is one of the most successful database systems out thereMatt Asay has an interesting blog on his site regarding the claim that MySQL is not a real database. I've been arguing for a while that MySQL is the proof that most systems are not database-centric in nature. In my blog entry, Centricity, I define the difference

Dave Dargohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09100903241709221805noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8144945551944245170.post-91774338763426989162007-02-22T07:46:00.000-08:002007-02-22T08:12:15.889-08:00

I've had a lot of golf here in Scottsdale. Mostly I played the TPC Stadium course, I got out to the Troon North Monument course once and I had the tremendous pleasure of playing the Chiricahua course at Desert Mountain.I was disappointed with the Troon North course only because of its steep price compared to the TPC course, but the experiences at all of them were great. I've had 10 days of golf

Dave Dargohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09100903241709221805noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8144945551944245170.post-69350021983237219412007-02-22T07:30:00.000-08:002007-02-22T07:45:12.802-08:00

In a recent blog entry, I asked what would happen if the establishment began to agree with the anti-establishmentarians. Here's another article that explores the same theme. Commercial entities, both suppliers and consumers, have started to recognize the value that open-source brings them. As these interests begin to apply commercial standards to support and services of open-source software

Dave Dargohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09100903241709221805noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8144945551944245170.post-66236378385561152762007-02-19T20:02:00.000-08:002007-02-19T20:27:38.627-08:00

Back in May, when I was still at Ingres, I wrote a blog entry on the measurement of market share in the software industry. One of the comments I made welcomed Gartner's new way of looking at market share that gave a little more credit to the open-source companies who don't charge license fees.Another article has come out recently about how IDC is predicting that the Linux ecosystem will reach

Dave Dargohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09100903241709221805noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8144945551944245170.post-48943131352368360472007-02-19T19:27:00.000-08:002007-02-19T20:01:51.676-08:00

O.K., the new TaylorMade's showed up at my hotel in Scottsdale and I love them. Bright and shiny, never before played, ready to go out and get me a new course record...just need to fix that swing.I've been in Scottsdale since February 11th and have played golf every day. My old game is starting to come back, I'm feeling more confident and making some great shots. A few birdies here and there

Dave Dargohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09100903241709221805noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8144945551944245170.post-1295591319657430922007-02-14T20:08:00.000-08:002007-02-14T20:11:11.190-08:00

When I was a kid I often heard the phrase, “the man is keeping me down.” Now, for a little kid growing up in the 1960s, this painted an interesting picture for me, I could either be kept down or I could be “the man.” It seemed to me an easy choice, be “the man” or be “kept down.” The 1960s were a very confusing time for everyone, not the least of which was a five-year old struggling with

Dave Dargohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09100903241709221805noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8144945551944245170.post-2197817447155566862007-02-10T17:24:00.000-08:002007-01-26T17:29:18.166-08:00

I'm in Carlsbad, California at the moment getting ready to drive to Scottsdale, Arizona. Yesterday, I had the joy of going to TaylorMade's headquarters to get fitted for golf clubs. I've spent the last 20 years working for software vendors and I've hosted many customer visits for the companies for which I worked. Yesterday, it was my turn to go to a customer visit center. Visiting TaylorMade's

Dave Dargohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09100903241709221805noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8144945551944245170.post-37652327470780387272007-01-26T15:50:00.000-08:002007-01-26T17:29:18.201-08:00

I received the following comment on my previous post:Can you talk a little about why you left Ingres? Specifically, there's been rumors in the press that Ingres may be an Oracle acquisition target (e.g. the Bruce Richardson anaylst comment). Obviously, that freaks out any open source developer considering Ingres. Any comments?January 22, 2007 2:40:00 PM PSTOne of the articles that references the

Dave Dargohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09100903241709221805noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8144945551944245170.post-75694768861983178612007-01-16T08:43:00.000-08:002007-01-16T09:16:13.688-08:00

I'm scheduled to speak at the Open Source Meets Business conference next week in Nurenberg, Germany. This has been on the books for some time and I'm looking forward to having a chance to speak there. I had many trips to Germany last year and I always enjoyed my visits. My speaker bio still lists me as the CTO of Ingres and I'll still be representing them but I'll also have a chance to speak

Dave Dargohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09100903241709221805noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8144945551944245170.post-68107342259636626582007-01-09T16:47:00.000-08:002007-01-12T16:29:29.537-08:00

This is me on the 3rd hole of Mauna Kea on the Big Island of Hawaii. I'm recharging right now and will be posting some things a little later. All that open-source stuff is still rattling around in my head and I'll be thinking about it but not until after I enjoy a little bit more of planet Earth.

Dave Dargohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09100903241709221805noreply@blogger.com1