Some stats on the cost of shipping to get the juices flowing. These are from the book “Let My People Go Surfing” by Yvon Chouinard, founder of Patagonia and a personal hero. “From raw materials it costs 110,000 BTUs to make a Patgonia shirt. Shipping it airfreight from Ventura, CA to a store in Boston costs 50,000 BTUs." And generically, cost to ship per ton: _Rail or boat: 400 BTUs per ton per mile Truck: 3,300 BTUs per ton per mile Air cargo: 21,760 BTUs per ton per mile _ So, whenever you can, take advantage of cheaper shipping methods.
Since returning two weeks ago, I’ve gotten the “Why did you decide to go back to Sun?” question many times.
I’ll be the first to admit that corporate profits and resulting stock performance have not been exactly stellar (I still have a bunch of stock from when I was at Sun before, so I’ve been paying attention, too). But when I looked at it, there were 3 things that made it compelling:
It’d be more funny if the truth wasn’t so sad:
“Bruins Sign Future Flyers All-Star To Three-Year Deal”
I’m excited to start talking about my new job, Vice President of Eco Responsibility at Sun Microsystems. I know this job sounds vague - more details in a minute.
Over the last 4 or 5 years I’ve been getting deeper and deeper in energy and the environment. Part of my challenge has been to figure out how to get involved, beyond local activities and reading lots of books. When you start to take on “a cause” you’d like, if possible, to make use of the skills you’ve built up over the years.
Well, I left BEA and my role of Chief Architect of WebLogic last week. I’m excited to write about my new endeavor, but will save that for tomorrow so I can share a few thoughts about BEA.
BEA purchased our RFID middleware company, ConnecTerra, last October. It was a great fit and the team has integrated quite well, in a testament to both the ConnecTerra team and the folks at BEA.
Every time the Red Sox and Yankees play, it seems like there’s some new twist to add to the storied rivalry.
We’ve known for a long time that catchers had trouble with Tim Wakefield, our veteran knucklballer. Even All-Star Jason Varitek had 3 passed balls in one playoff inning the year before last. So when the Sox traded the one guy who’s been able to catch him consistently, Doug Maribelli, was traded to San Diego, everyone expected the worst.
If yum (or curl, wget, etc) don’t work when you upgrade to Fedora Core 5, take a look at this thread. I followed these instructions and it fixed my problem as well.
“BusinessWeek Online: ‘One of the hardest things about being a working parent is that, quite often, it feels as if there’s just no margin for error.’
Amen to that.”
(Via Werblog.)
I’m just catching up on some old links and found this travel post by James Gosling. These boats are very cool. A friend and I rented one for 1/2 day and it took us all over the place. You can’t believe how people can live on top of one another and then on top of the river and canals.
As James says, the boats are works of fundamental ingenuity, making use of readily available parts in ways we’d never think of in the US.
Last night we went to the International Men’s Curling Championships at the (awesome) Tsongas Arena in Lowell, MA. The event involves teams from all over the world, including the American team which won the bronze in Torino. The kids were huge fans of curling during the Olympics, so we despite the fact that we none of us have ever tried and we were a little sketchy on the rules, we went to see our Olympic heroes.