Willem's Planet

I thought I was free and clear with an open seat next to me on the plane this morning, but at the last minute at 5.10 am, a middle-aged couple stepped on board filling the last two middle seats, one next to mine.  One could tell they were flying for maybe the first time. After getting up one time, the guy made himself at home on the jump seat in the exit row, even putting the seat belt on (that’s where the flight attendants sit).  Sure enough, only a minute or two, and he got chased back to his seat.

Later – arriving at the office in Denver, and seeing the other people, I immediately realized : where’s your green? Should have worn something green!  Groan.  (But not too big a deal). It’s officially St Patrick’s Day (even though there were parades and celebrations over the weekend already).

It is almost spring, and I was looking for cherry blossom pictures from the Seattle Japanese Garden when I stumbled upon origami artist Sipho Mabona’s life-sized paper elephant project.  He must be African, I thought, but he was born in Switzerland and lives there in Luzern.  The artist took a single 50 ft by 50 ft piece of paper, and folded an elephant out of it.  (He did have assistants help him lift the paper and fold it with his instructions).

Check out some of his other work on his Flickr page, at this link.

‘True Start’ is what Toyota calls its car battery that I had installed in my 1996 Reliable Driving Machine (Toyota Camry) on Saturday.   The old car battery had some dead cells.  The car had trouble starting up several weekends, every time after sitting in the garage for only 5 days.  Yes, lead-acid batteries is ancient technology (compared to those found in electrical and hybrid-electrical cars), but the recycling of lead-acid batteries is extremely efficient.  Some facilities recycle 95% of the battery, its electrolyte and its housing.  Lead is extremely durable.  I love my collection of pictures for the elements, scanned from pages from an old TIME-LIFE book – and I posted the one for lead on the right.

The day started out nicely here in Denver, but a blustery wind storm moved in around lunch time, bringing with it a smattering of snow.  The snow flakes stuck to the car tops and sign posts for a little while, but most of it was gone by the time the day was done.

It was heads down for me in the office.  I am preparing information in our software testing called HP Quality Center to track the results for the first round of testing. (The first of four rounds).

I made it out to Denver with my usual early Monday morning flight.   There was a pooch for a passenger across the isle from me, a service dog (black Labrador) on the way to Colorado Springs for training, I overheard her handler say.

Here in the city of Denver we had spring-like weather today. It reached all of 70°F (21 °C). But hold on!  .. there’s snow and a low of  18°F (-7 °C).in the forecast for Tuesday night in the forecast.

And still no word on the fate of the Air Malaysia flight MH370.  What a mystery to know so little on the 3rd day after its disappearance.

We watched Dallas Buyers Club tonight, the 2013 film that boasts Oscar-winning performances from Matthew McConaughey (best actor) and Jared Leto (supporting actor).   [From Wikipedia] The film is based on the life of real-life AIDS patient Ron Woodroof, who smuggled unapproved pharmaceutical drugs into Texas when he found them effective at improving his symptoms, and distributing them to fellow sufferers by establishing the ‘Dallas Buyers Club’ while facing opposition from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

My take? I had a lot of trouble sympathizing with McConaughey’s Ron Woodroof character (portrayed as a macho, womanizing, homophobic, rodeo-loving cowboy*).   But hey – it’s Hollywood’s first major AIDS film since ‘Philadelphia’ (1985).  It illustrates the challenges when people are dying in an epidemic, and there are no good treatment options available.  The drug AZT is vilified in the movie, but actually became a key part of HIV combination medicines later on (in a much lower dosage, though).   The FDA also gets a rough treatment in the movie, but some activists today contend that the FDA caved to almost all of their demands, and basically became their partner going forward in the 1990s.

*Some of Woodroof’s close friends and associates have said he was never homophobic, and had no problems being around gay men.

I came home shortly before 6 pm on Friday night, in from the barber shop. Man!  Sean my barber was even chattier than usual, sometimes completely stopping with my hair, and looking at me while he talks.  Uh-huh. Yes, I agree, I would say, trying not to encourage him too much to keep on talking : ).

As soon as I turned the TV on at home, I learned of the missing airplane from Air Malaysia. The latest reports say that ships have been dispatched to look for signs of the aircraft in the South China Sea.

Whoah!  Go to this link – courtesy of TIME magazine – and check out the 3D interactive picture that offers stunning views from the top of the new World Trade Center 1 in New York City.   (Scroll down to the picture under the heading ‘A View Reborn’, do a right-click and select ‘Full Screen’. Use the mouse to ‘look around’.)   There is also a fish-eye view that bends the horizon.  It makes me want to run out and go and buy a new camera, or at least a fish-eye lens!

I can use my ‘Remote Desktop Connection’ to pull up my screen on the office computer in Denver, and access all the files and systems just as if I were there.   Yes, I have to ‘VPN’ in to do that – slang that we use for establishing and logging into a virtual private network first.   Confession : I don’t know how all this stuff works at the protocol level, I just use it.

So while I was logged in to Denver remotely yesterday, I saw that the morning had flown by and that it was 12.30 pm already.  Oh!  I’m hungry, I need to run downstairs and fix myself some lunch, I thought .. which I did.   Then as I was eating my toast and soup, I glanced up at the kitchen clock.  The real time was only 11.45 am.  The virtual world I was working in, showed Mountain time (Denver time) on the computer screen, which is an hour later than Seattle.

TIME magazine’s latest issue features a cover story called ‘Code Red’ that describes how the Obamacare website was saved.  I read it with interest – after all, I have been on the inside of oh, a dozen or so large SAP implemenation project go-lives.  To be sure, with SAP as the core solution, one works with tried-and-tested and packaged software,  and not with program code that’s written from scratch.  Still, other things can go wrong : the hardware could be inadequate and not handle the onslaught of new users, or massive errors in the data migration could be discovered late, after go-live.

In the case of the healthcare.gov website though, after $300 million had been spent on the project through its Oct 1 go-live, the rescue team contemplated on Oct 17 if they should kill everything that had been done, and just start over.  There was no dashboard for the website, so it was impossible to track its performance, the number of concurrent users, and other critical parameters.  Frequently used parts of the enormous database had not been cached (copied and stored off-line), a fundamental design flaw that hit the performance of the server with every new user logging on.   They decided they could salvage most of it. Facing extreme time pressures, they had to do hot fixes (releasing new code while the web-site was up and running), and make software and hardware changes at the same time. (Under normal conditions a bad practice, since one then doesn’t know what the root cause of a new problem or error is).

Anyway, even though some challenges remain, the article says that the website now works. It ends with the fundamental long-term question, though ‘Will Obamacare work?’ (Will enough people sign up?  Will the healthcare industry players be able to adjust to the new law?)

So ’12 Years a Slave’ took best picture at the Oscars.  ‘Gravity’ won a slew of awards, a first for a science fiction genre type movie.  Here’s the selfie¹ of Oscars host Ellen Degeneres (in front, in white) and a cluster of stars that easily broke the previous record of 778k² for the most-retweeted³ picture.  At last count the picture had been re-tweeted more than 2.2m times.  The picture was taken by Bradley Cooper (in front) which is why Ellen notes in her tweet ‘If only Bradley’s arm was longer’.  Always a challenge when trying to take a selfie with a group of people around you!

Ellen also handed out pizza to the audience – with Brad Pitt’s help no less – and then borrowed singer Pharrell Williams’s hat to ‘collect money’ from the audience to ‘pay the pizza guy’.  Film studio executive Harvey Weinstein pitched in some money, as did Kevin Spacey.  (All for laughs, of course.  No doubt the pizza company jumped at the opportunity to serve pizza to an Oscar audience).

¹Self-picture.

²This was of a picture of Pres. Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle with the caption ‘Four more years’ after his 2012 re-election.

³Retweeting is the taking of a Twitter message (or picture) that someone else has posted, and rebroadcasting that same message to one’s Twitter followers.

So .. looks to me that President Putin waited (of course) until the public relations campaign of the Sochi Olympics was over, before turning his full attention to the unrest in the Ukraine.  I did not know the peninsula at the south of the Ukraine is called Crimea .. but I vaguely remember the Crimean War from school history.  The 1853-56 Crimean War had Russia lost to an alliance of France, Britain, the Ottoman Empire, and Sardinia. During the war, the British troops established their own base there, and then made their infamous (and suicidal) Charge of the Light Brigade against Russian forces.  Anyway, check out these maps from the NY Times and an article (written on Feb 23) from the Wall Street Journal that explains some of the recent events and geopolitics in the Ukraine.

 

A Quick Guide: What’s Happening in Ukraine (from the Wall Street Journal, Feb 23)

The dramatic collapse of Ukraine’s government in recent days comes after months of political turmoil and social unrest. Demonstrators have been rallying against the government of President Viktor Yanukovych. Here’s a look at what’s happening in Ukraine and why:
What initially set off the protests?
Antigovernment demonstrations kicked off late last year after President Yanukovych, under pressure from the Kremlin, turned away from a European trade and political deal and sealed a $15 billion bailout from Russia. Hundreds of thousands of people took to the streets. In the weeks that followed, the protests transformed into a broader outcry against official corruption and police violence.
What’s going on now?
After months of protests, Mr. Yanukovych left the capital Saturday, and protesters took control of the city center. Ukraine’s parliament voted to remove Mr. Yanukovych and set new presidential elections for May 25. Ukraine opposition leader and former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko was released from prison. Mr. Yanukovych has vowed to remain in power.
Who is Yulia Tymoshenko?
Ms. Tymoshenko, known for her sharp tongue and peasant-style braid, was a leader of the 2004 Orange Revolution that thwarted Mr. Yanukovych’s first run at the presidency. He staged a stunning comeback in 2010 to defeat her after a bitter campaign. She was then jailed in October 2011 for abuse of office for allegedly ordering a subordinate to sign a natural gas deal with Russia in 2009, which prosecutors said led to huge losses for Ukraine. She has denied any wrongdoing, calling the case part of a political witch-hunt.
What is at stake for the EU and Russia?
Ukraine, a country of 46 million, straddles Western and Eastern Europe and has become a battleground for political and economic influence from the European Union and Russia. Having Ukraine as a clear political ally is critical for Russian President Vladimir Putin’s quest to integrate and regain influence over ex-Soviet states. Ukraine has been an important target for an EU program aimed at encouraging democratic change in the region in return for free-trade agreements.
Why is what’s happening important?
Ukraine hosts a number of key pipelines that funnel Russian natural gas to Europe. Russian state-owned gas company OAO Gazprom meets a quarter of the EU’s gas needs, the bulk of which flows via Ukraine. Ukraine itself receives the bulk of its natural-gas supplies from Russia, and Ukrainian officials have accused Moscow of using its control over gas pipelines that lead into Ukraine as a political bargaining chip. Payment disputes led Gazprom to cut flows to Ukraine in 2006 and 2009, which also interrupted the flows of gas to other European countries.
How is Ukraine’s economy faring during this turmoil?
Ukraine is currently in recession, and it suffers from a wide current-account deficit, which means it buys more goods from abroad than it sells. The Ukrainian government said one reason it turned down the EU deal was that it needed to fix relations with its former Soviet master to avoid significant economic hardship. The political turmoil has put markets in Ukraine under pressure.
Is Ukraine divided?
Mr. Yanukovych fled to Ukraine’s Russian-speaking east Saturday, where heavy industry fueled by Russian gas dominates the economy. In the west, where some regions were once part of Poland and Austria’s empire, most people speak Ukrainian and feel closer to Europe, where many have jobs. Despite these differences, there are few signs the country is in danger of a split.

My Friday was no fun. At first I thought I could get away with not going to the doctor.  My doctor was out for the day, anyway.  Not so. By late Friday I had a fever of 102 °F, and I thought ‘That’s it. Off you go, right now, go find some help.

The doc at the after-hours clinic prescribed Tylenol for the fever and an antibiotic for what looked like a sinus or middle-ear infection.

As I read up on the antibiotic on line, I also read that so far, the only diseases completely eradicated by humankind are smallpox [in 1979], and rinderpest [in 2010].   Polio is one of only two diseases currently the subject of a global eradication program, the other being Guinea worm disease. Pakistan is one of just three nations where polio remains endemic and along with Afghanistan and Nigeria, huge efforts are being made to tackle the disease. India, which once suffered the most from polio, recently celebrated being three years without a confirmed case.

An article in the Wall Street Journal of Tuesday about hydrogen fuel cell cars caught my eye.   The article notes that interest in this technology seem to wax and wane with government and state regulations that are issued, and with the fortunes of car companies.

Currently Toyota, Honda and Hyundai are pursuing the technology the hardest, due to their interest in meeting the California regulators’ requirements for zero emission vehicles. They depend on the California market for 10% of their total car sales.  Toyota chairman has expressed doubt that electric cars (not to be confused with hybrid vehicles, of which the Prius is one; even the Volt is a plug-in hybrid) will make it due to their limited range, high cost and long recharging times.  Of new cars on the road, these currently make up 0.5% of vehicles.

Fuel cell skeptics point out that the USA has already invested $5 billion in infrastructure for electric cars and that hydrogen fuel cell cars with require another big investment. (My note : $5 billion is a in a drop in a $15 trillion GDP economy bucket).   And what does Tesla CEO Elon Musk think of hydrogen fuel cell cars?  He says they are bulls— !