…since the elections. I’m not encouraged with what we’ve seen thus far from the new majority. I don’t see a coordinated effort to focus on core issues: Iraq and energy in particular. What should we expect to see through this 2 year period Congress? The Bush Administration has dumped Rumsfeld and Bolton (still plenty of room to jettison empty suits there if you ask me…) Admittedly, Congress is not yet in session, but, we’ve seen wrangling over leadership positions and statements that “we’re not going for big change.” From the way back machine of advertising: “Where’s the beef?”

I’m worried we’re about to see more of the same stuff we’ve seen in the past 6 years. Prove me wrong, please!


32 days until OSU plays for the national championship
Ohio State’s 2006 record: 12-0 Next up: Florida 1/8/2007
Tune: Take the Money and Run by Steve Miller Band
Technorati Tags: Congress | Politics | Regime Change | Mike Harding Blog

Garden variety data center photo


Yesterday I had a conversation with a colleague who is now working in a large, and I mean large, server environment. There are many challenges he faces, but chief among them is power consumption and cost. They are now having to place their data centers according to power supply capabilities and cost rather than other business factors like proximity to trained work force and real estate cost.

My colleague mentioned that they’re spending, fully loaded with lighting, cooling, etc., some $428 per server instance per year in power costs. I agreed to not disclose the name of the company (you’d recognize it) or his name (you wouldn’t recognize it) – but the scale of this is huge. Tens of thousands of servers and tens of millions of dollars spent on power annually.

One other thing worth noting is an unwanted and unused by product of all that activity – millions and millions of excess BTUs at about 25C in temperature.

There is certainly room for improvement in this situation, even with the work that AMD and Sun have done on the power consumption side for servers.


33 days until OSU plays for the national championship
Ohio State’s 2006 record: 12-0 Next up: Florida 1/8/2007
Tune: Phone Booth by Robert Cray
Technorati Tags: Energy | Heat | Data Center | Mike Harding Blog

You know fuel prices are going up and carbon emissions standards are tightening when we return to a prior age to harvest technology. Now admittedly, the picture above isn’t your garden variety xebec (great scrabble word btw,) but it is interesting that the hybrid technology of the 19th century is making a comeback.

This kind of reminds me of kite surfing technology wed to a cargo ship. Pretty different than the prior implementations that combined coal burning steam engines with traditional sailing ship technology. I’m looking forward to seeing one of these things pass by my window.


34 days until OSU plays for the national championship
Ohio State’s 2006 record: 12-0 Next up: Florida 1/8/2007
Tune: First Cut is the Deepest by Norma Frazer
Technorati Tags: Sailing | Ship | Hybrid | Mike Harding Blog

This was the scene around 6am PDT this morning from my deck looking due west. I’ve never seen the moon set like this before, it didn’t quite look real, but was very beautiful. It’s a shame the camera isn’t more capable of capturing the entire landscape…


35 days until OSU plays for the national championship
Ohio State’s 2006 record: 12-0 Next up: Florida 1/8/2007
Tune: Sister Moon by Sting
Technorati Tags: Moon | Pacific | Photo | Mike Harding Blog

I guess it’s up to the pollsters now, those enigmatic coaches and college football luminaries on the Coaches and Harris polls respectively. Until UCLA whacked USC yesterday, it was pretty simple. USC wins and plays in the championship game against Ohio State. Now, not so simple. The contenders? Michigan (11-1,) Florida (12-1,) Louisville (11-1,) and Boise State (12-0.)

The formula is now figured this way, 1/3 Coaches poll, 1/3 Harris poll, and 1/3 computer rankings (6 averaged rankings, high and low ranking dropped.) That means that humans have 2/3 of the vote and computers 1/3. The computers can no longer take margin of victory into account which has harmed their accuracy (though many of the computer polls have a BCS rating and a MoV rating – MoV rating has a higher percentage accuracy of prediction than non MoV ratings.)

If the human polls work as they have in the past keeping order after loss (i.e., USC #2, Michigan #3, Florida #4 – USC loses and drops, Michigan becomes #2 and Florida becomes #3) then it’s pretty simple, Michigan will get a rematch with Ohio State January 8th regardless of what the computers say because both human polls would agree and would constitute the majority of the rating. The same is true if both human polls vote Florida #2, they’re in.

If the human polls don’t work that way, and one votes Florida #2 and the other votes Michigan #2, then the computers will decide it. On the basis of playing more games and what is considered a tougher in conference schedule, Florida would likely grab the overall #2 spot to play Ohio State on the basis of computer rankings.

Here’s what I think will happen, the humans don’t want to see a rematch between Ohio State/Michigan. A strong contingent of people who vote in the polls believe one shouldn’t play in the championship if one doesn’t win one’s conference, and on top of that, Michigan hasn’t won in 3 weeks. On the basis of these data points, it wouldn’t surprise me in the least if we see one or both of the human polls move Florida to #2. The computers will have Florida at a weak #2 I think.

I expect Florida will be the other half of the championship game when the results are announced this evening. And I think that’s a fine answer as Michigan has had their shot. Louisville as another 1 loss team could have some claim, but not a terribly strong one. Boise St at 12-0 can really make a case they should play as an undefeated D-IA team, (after all they pummeled Oregon State earlier this year, the same Oregon State that beat USC)…..But I don’t think either of those teams will have the human poll support required to leap Michigan/Florida.

An OSU/Florida championship game would be a good one. Florida’s got a decent defense and an offense that seems to improve week by week. Let’s hope that’s what we get rather than a rematch….


36 days until OSU plays for the national championship
Ohio State’s 2006 record: 12-0 Next up: ??? 1/8/2007
Tune: 36-24-36 by The Violent Femmes
Technorati Tags: Ohio State | Football | Championship | Mike Harding Blog