Gene Amdahl

Passion at its finest.

I was reviewing Informatica code pages when I found about this Amdahl guy, one of the implementors of IBM's System 360 mainframe computer models - considered one of the most successful computer designs in history. And as I looked over his resume of different ventures, accomplishments and failures - it struck me that at an age of 74, he was still engaged in VLSI/mainframe computer system designs. Apparently, we have the same birthday.

a brief summary of his resume (sourced from wikipedia)
- born on 16 November 1922
- Amdahl finished his doctorate degree in Theoretical Physics on 1952
- He went on to work with IBM and was Chief Architect of S/360 computers
- Awarded IBM Fellow in 1965
- 1970, left IBM and founded his own Amdahl Corporation - concentrated on "plug-compatible" mainframes w/c battled the more expensive IBM S/360 machines
- Amdahl Corporation sold over US$1 billion
- 1979, left and founded Trilogy systems with funds of almost US$200 million - concentrated on designing ICs for even cheaper mainframes which eventually failed. Then concentrated on VLSI technology which also failed.
- 1985, merged with Elxsi and failed in 1989
- 1987, founded Andor International which became bankrupt on 1995 due to production problems and business competition - concentrated on making smaller and more efficient machines
- 1996, founded CDS (Commercial Data Servers) which has been renamed to Xbridge systems - concentrated on designing new super-cooled processor designs
- Xbridge systems - creates connectivity software for mainframes and open systems
- November 2004, named to the board of advisers for Massively Parallel Technologies

Now that is how you put yourself in Computer History. This is passion at its finest peeps. Age 74 and still greatly involved in mainframe stuff? W-o-w. This just made me realize that I'm not yet really that passionate in Data Warehousing. Before this, I have not seen myself doing DW stuff past 40. All I thought of was to relax, have some good time, do other interests.

How does Billy Gates think? James Gosling? How about Linus Torvalds? Ralph Kimball? Bill Inmon?

Dang - with my attitude, mindset and lifestyle right now, I feel like I'm not really part of this computer evolution era - Data Warehouse evolution more specifically. Grr...

Surface computing

Have you seen Minority Report? Remember how crazy Tom Cruise looked doing all of that hand movements with his computer? Well, future has arrived.

Two key entities - Jeff Han and Microsoft had conducted press conferences and demos of their surface computing products. Based on some readings I had, Jeff Han made it known to the public last 2006. Also came across some stuff that he was one of the designers of I-Phone? Anyways, what was mind-blowing with the apps he presented was that of NASA's global navigation/map (dunno). It was really cool! I just came to think what if it's getting a satellite feed real-time? Like that in the movies.. Tsk, imagine - on someone's hands he can just take a look, zoom-in/out, navigate and see anything everywhere seamlessly. Now that is some real high-tech mind-blowing stuff, and the good thing about it is it's possible.

Project Milan is Microsoft's surface computing. They'd be releasing their product to some of their commercial partners T-Mobile, casinos, etc. by end 2007.

A lot of discussions has been going on in the web about how Microsoft stole the idea from Dr. Jeff Han, but as per Microsoft their top-secret project had been going for 5 years.

Anyways, I don't really want to put in too much details about this subject, just some of the facts I remember while going through the different videos. Just search in YouTube and you'll get informed in no time.

Here are some of the best videos about this subject.

Link: Microsoft Surface Computing - PopularMechanics (nice intro)

Jeff Han on last year's press-con


Micrsoft's Surface Computer - explained in full

Revamp

Seems like I don't have to decide for myself whether to start from scratch or not.

Mid-Monday morning, at some conference room, just after telling about what could have happened why such records existed (and seeing the project manager's email), team lead gathered us and informed us of a system revamp.

"Start from scratch, start as if nothing exists, but use them as reference." - Those were the clear instructions.

I just sat there smiling.

:happy:

1 3 5 7 8?

My theory of what could the previous developers have done why such records existed was confirmed by my team lead. However, the resolution for the problem came out differently from what I had expected. I'm still assessing the solution he had suggested and honestly, I'm still kind of lost.

Guess, I don't have a reaction quick enough to adapt to what he suggested. I mean, I do think in advance on possible next steps but, things are really different when they are not the ones you thought they would be.

Lesson: React and adapt quickly

surprises every now and then

Funny how a month-long concentration can easily be shattered by just half an hour,
by just someone who asked for directions,..
..you walked her home,
had a mini get-to-know conversation,
held her while crossing the street,
looked for the house, she said 'thank you'
I said 'bye'

then gone.

God has his own ways of keeping you excited.
He has his own ways of telling you "you're doing just fine".

certification exams - something to fear?

I've been putting forth the effort for sometime now especially last week in reviewing for the certification exam this August 18. It is kind of hard because there are also a lot of things to finish at work. Right now, I'm only 40% confident in taking the exam so I still have to exert more effort and concentration on studying.

My goal is to have 100% rating on all certification exams. For that, I'll need to have more than a 100% confidence in taking it. There's no better way to put it like this:

"I was as prepared as I could possibly have been for that moment. I couldn't go back and practice a little harder. I knew I had done the right things to prepare myself for that situation. One way or another, I knew I was prepared to be successful. Now, if you know you haven't prepared correctly, or you know you haven't worked hard enough, that's when other thoughts and emotions creep into your mind. That's stress. That's fear.
.. you are the sum total of all the work you have put in, nothing more and nothing less. If you are confident you have done everything possible to prepare yourself, then there is nothing to fear."
Driven From Within, Michael Jordan

costly massage?

I went for a massage in China Town last Tuesday. I needed it since I've played a lot of basketball and also had some tough stretches at work. I don't know if the price was cheap or expensive, but what I do know is it would have been better if I was back home.

Still, it took away some stress and made my body feel good.

ETL to the core

Close to what I've experienced during my first three weeks at work, I was just as excited last week. And you know it's because I learned some special things.

Core ETL - Different from what I was checking out before, a new file was put into priority. It is a major component on one of the systems I'm handling. As a DW CSI, my investigations on this led me to learn the core details of the history maintenance process and it was damn e-x-c-i-t-i-n-g. I'll try to develop a new implementation for that logic and test it on one of my systems - just for fun.