Bacon's Rebellion

Democracy Thrives in Sunlight

Carly Fiorina… Native Virginian?

—

by

James A. Bacon
in

fiorina
Photo credit: Washington Times

Last time I paid attention to Carly Fiorina, she was running for the U.S. Senate in California. She didn’t win that race, although, as a Republican candidate, she acquitted herself well in a deep blue state. So, it was with some surprise that I read in an article about her run for the presidency that she now hails from Mason Neck, Va.

Mason what?

According to Wikipedia, Mason Neck is a peninsula jutting into the Potomac River just east of Woodbridge. Located in Fairfax County, it is a census-designated place of about 2,000 residents. According to local real estate listings, there are currently eight houses on the market valued at more than $1 million. So, it seems to be the kind of place where a former CEO of HP might settle down should she move to the East Coast.

So, it looks like Virginia has a favorite son, er, make that a favorite daughter, running for president. None of us knew that Fiorina lived in Virginia, but what the heck. None of our home-grown politicians seem up to the challenge. We might as well root for the newcomer.

— JAB

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  1. larryg Avatar
    larryg

    well – she’s a whale of a lot more credible candidate that the GOP women that preceded her!

    but, like some others, she does not (from my point of view) have an optimistic view of a future with we’re heading..

    instead – she has a hard and nasty edge towards others.. a trait I suspect did not win her friends and supporters in her corporate life either.

    you cannot beat something with nothing

    you can criticize all you want – but if that is all you do – and you don’t put something on the table that is your proposal for better -then what’s your purpose?

    Most of the candidates so far are running against the current POTUS and basically saying the Dem candidate is son of Obama…

    well fine.. that that’s not a view of the future.

    there are about 2 or 3 that are doing that – but the others – including Carly are your basic naysayers…

    I want to know what the better path for Global Warming, health care, immigration, marriage, taxes, entitlements – etc is – we already know what these yahoos don’t like..

    GRUMP!

    .. read my lips – L E A D, F O L L O W, or get the HE double LL out of the way. go blather your complaints to your therapist..

  2. Scott Surovell Avatar
    Scott Surovell

    I’ve known she’s been in Virginia ever since Governor McDonnell appointed her to the James Madison University Board of Visitors.

    http://www.oldsouthhigh.com/2012/09/20/the-jmu-board-of-visitors-good-friends-to-have-if-youre-running-office/

    Mason Neck is named after George Mason whose home dominates the neck. It sets two peninsulas downriver from Mt. Vernon. It’s a lovely place. You ought to check it out.

    I tried to knock her door about a week ago, but she lives in a gated community.

  3. Les Schreiber Avatar
    Les Schreiber

    Look at her record as CEO. If she gets elected I’ll figure out a way to short the USA.

    1. larryg Avatar
      larryg

      the big show is about to begin – how many of the moderate GOP are going to be able to maintain their positions and how many are going to fold up and pander to the nut jobs?

    2. DonR Avatar
      DonR

      I met Ms. Fiorina when she was CEO of HP. I think her tenure as CEO was something of a mixed bag. She ran the company from 1999 through 2005 – during the dot com meltdown that didn’t help any technology companies.

      I recall two events that shaped her time as CEO:

      1. She bought Compaq. In retrospect, neither brilliant nor horrible.
      2. She wanted to buy PWC Consulting for $14B. The move was panned by Wall Street and the offer was retracted. IBM bought the same company for $3.5B after the dot com crash.

      Eight years after Fiorina left HP the company bought computer services iant EDS.

      So, she has the right idea about buying a computer services company but tried to do so at the top of the market.

      If you want to look at HP’s challenges I think you need to start with their board. They brought in Fiorina to the top position even though she had never been a CEO before. HP is an awfully big company to run in your first CEO stint. The board members spied on each other. They elevated their CFO to interim CEO when they fired Fiorina. Aparently, they had no effective succession plan – a big “no, no” for a board. They hired Mark Hurd who they subsequently fired for failing to comply with HP’s code of business conduct. Then the board had to appoint another interim CEO while the looked for the right person. The right person turned out to be former SAP executive Leo Apotheker. He lasted less than one year.

      Talk about drama.

      Of course, Fiorina lacks the fabulous background and experience the current resident of the Oval Office had when he decided to run for president.

      1. NoVaShenandoah Avatar
        NoVaShenandoah

        “Of course, Fiorina lacks the fabulous background and experience the current resident of the Oval Office had when he decided to run for president.”

        I voted for the current POTUS, twice (3 times if primaries count). The reasons were:

        (1) As a community organizer he had the necessary experience to herd cats, which is what the federal government requires. Face it, federal employees don;t get ordered around by the latest arrival who’ll be gone long before they are;

        (2) He actually had, and has followed through on, many ideas I like: Health Care; Iraq; Climate regulations; even Guantanamo which is being closed though slower than I would like.

        As for Fiorina:

        (1) Business expertise is no qualification for POTUS. A successful businessman got us into the Great Depression; and a businessman got us into the Great recession;

        (2) Her positions are vanilla Republican, which frankly give us unfunded wars and recessions.

        1. DonR Avatar
          DonR

          This link describes the Obama presidency in a single graph –

          http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Employment-to-population_ratio#/media/File:Unemployment_and_employment_statistics_for_the_US_since_2000.png

          The phony unemployment calculation does not tell the story. People of working age who have given up on finding a job are still unemployed whether that fits the progressive narrative or not.

          As for Republicans giving us recessions I am not sure what you think about the Republicans giving us recessions …

          The National Bureau of Economic Research lists 5 recessions since 1980.

          Recession of 1980 (caused primarily by Carter)
          Early 1980s recession (caused primarily by Carter)
          Early 1990s recession (George HW Bush)
          Early 2000s recession (Clinton)
          So-called “Great Recession” (George W Bush)

          During those 35 years Republicans held the White House for 20 years and Democrats for 15 years.

          Facts are stubborn things.

          Beyond that, George H Bush prosecuted the miscreants who broke the law and helped to cause the dot com meltdown and early 2000s recession. The bankers who broke the law and helped cause the so-called Great Recession have never been prosecuted. In fact, when a whistleblower inside JP Morgan started detailing the misdeeds at that bank the Obama Administration looked the other way. Obama’s new super-secret trade deal is another capitulation to big business. Obama is deeper into the pockets of big business than any president of my lifetime.

          As for Iraq – I assume you mean the Iraqi state of the Islamic Caliphate. It will be interesting to see if the recent shooting in Garland, TX was really the work of two “soldiers of the caliphate” as claimed by ISIS.

          As for Obama “success” as a community organizer – you mean organizing with organizations like Acorn?

          Here is what Obama said while he was a US Senator …

          Sen. Obama said, “I come out of a grass roots organizing background. That’s what I did for three and half years before I went to law school. That’s the reason I moved to Chicago was to organize. So this is something that I know personally, the work you do, the importance of it. I’ve been fighting alongside ACORN on issues you care about my entire career. Even before I was an elected official, when I ran the Project Vote voter registration drive in Illinois, ACORN was smack dab in the middle of it, and we appreciate your work.”

          After several Acorn workers were caught on videotape advising people to commit crimes the group went bankrupt and is now in Chapter 7 reorganization.

          1. larryg Avatar
            larryg

            WTF Don?

            what exactly can any POTUS do about the things you are talking about if Congress is not on board with changes?

            George Bush sanctioned torture and told the SCOTUS that habeas corpus was out of their jurisdiction at GITMO.

            THe man was saying “deficits don’t matter” as he spend billions on neocon wet dreams .. and killing our own kids… in the process.. what have we got?

            more deficits and more debt for “overseas contingency”

            tell me pray tell what led to the recession?

            was it not unregulated banking that Bush and other GOP championed?

            you sound like a FAUX News “contributor” , man.

            we need a jobs program for the unemployed and much like what we did with the WPA.

            we have bridges and highways and other infrastructure across the country that needs to be fixed.

            next we need serious education opportunity and admit the craven inequity in so called ‘neighborhood schools” where those in poverty get the shaft.

            tell me what exactly the GOP is offering to fix the current economy?

            cut taxes, cut regulation.. trickle down nonsense, kill Medicaid , continue to put penny ante street dealers in jail – and militarized policing of urban neighborhoods that act up.

            are you DAFT – Don?

            it’s okay to be opposed on principle – but not if you have no real alternatives.

            we’ve had quite enough of cowardly hypocrites who have no real plan for fixing the problems other than to herd in a bunch of mutant candidates for POTUS.

            get with it man. the nut jobs are running amok .. they have no answers – they ‘re the political equivalent of the adolescents spray painting buildings in the ‘hood.

            wise up Don.. lay out your better plan. lets see how it matches up with the GOP clown car folks.

  4. Rule 5 Tuesday: Carly Fiorina, Reagan National Airport, Mason Social, Guacamole, and more! | Red Brick Town

    […] Carly Fiorina – Native Virginian? Apparently, she now hails from Mason Neck, Virginia. (Bacon’s Rebellion) […]

  5. Steve Haner Avatar
    Steve Haner

    Gee Larry, the person working the hardest to erase a legacy of political moderation seems to be H.R.C, going out of her way to take positions opposite to the record of W.J.C. Is she folding up and pandering (your phrase), or was she just playing The Good Wife 20 years ago…Both parties put their candidates through gyrations during the nomination process. The True Believers on both sides don’t want to hear any talk of compromise or moderation.

    1. larryg Avatar
      larryg

      Steve – based on Florina’s career I don’t see her as a person of moderation and compromise.

      she reminds me of someone who will do anything to get her way .. burning bridges, making enemies..

      she does not play well with others. and she’s a failure as a result.

      there are plenty of successful CEOs that have dealt with challenges including dysfunctional boards – that sustain and transition and continue …

      she gave up and has been playing the victim blame game for a decade now.

      when ever she is asked a tough question – her face darkens and she proceeds to blame others for the problems.. good leaders don’t dwell on failures – they get past them – and they make their record about what they did accomplish…

      she’s not fit to be a leader… she’s proven she’s not.

      comparing her to Trump and Herman Cain? geeze….

      1. NoVaShenandoah Avatar
        NoVaShenandoah

        Don;t worry larryg, she’ll just fire 5-10 million of us, and outsource 50-100 million to China. After all, she plans to do to us what she did to HP.

        1. DonR Avatar
          DonR

          After Obama is done there won’t be 5 – 10 million job holders left to fire let alone 50 – 100 million jobs left to outsource.

          1. larryg Avatar
            larryg

            Obama can’t do much about it himself. He’s tried to get Congress to make K-12, K-14 (2yrs of community college).. and has warned everyone that a failure to get sufficient education is a significant threat to anyone’s economic security.

            the GOP response – ” go fish” and “oh by the way – we’re killing NCLB and Common Core”

            the GOP is ignorati on steroids these days. If you’re poor – GFY.

    2. larryg Avatar
      larryg

      okay – let me address the “compromise, moderation” – appeal to your base idea.

      I have voted both sides – and do not rule out doing it again.

      I will not beat by breast for HRC – it’s not in me.

      but I’ll be danged if I’m going to vote for folks unprincipled enough to not stand forthrightly for what they believe and more than that – not beat around the bush as to what you’d do.

      I’m looking for people that acknowledge the challenges – and the need for solutions – not point-by-point opposition to the current POTUS.

      I want to see folks address health care, immigration, common core, community policing, trade policies… and more and I don’t want to waste my time listening to GOP candidates trying to “out right wing” the others for the benefit of their base.

      Any GOP candidate that wins the nomination on that basis is pretty much out of the running for me unless they make a shocking overnight change – and then I’m concerned about who they lied to.

      I want to see someone who is honest and steady and won’t be bullied into saying anything to gain support of their base – left and right – no favorites..

      so – health care – they have to have a principled, real-world perspective.. they cannot be playing ideological jujitsu games blathering about “patient-centered” “market-based” sound bites. there’s got to be a substantial thought.

      same deal with immigration, tax reform, entitlements, etc.

      I’m not going to be tolerant of fan dancing the issues.

  6. Peter Galuszka Avatar
    Peter Galuszka

    SHe made hash out of HP and Compaq, taking 30,000 jobs with her.

    1. larryg Avatar
      larryg

      the detractors say she bought a failing company at the time the computer market was undergoing fundamental changes – like IBM getting out of the business.

      but hey – I have a challenge for Steve and others. The next time you visit a doctor or a hospital or virtually any kind of business – check out the brand of the computer they are using – and …report back.

    2. DonR Avatar
      DonR

      Every traditional tech company has fewer jobs today than it used to have.

      For example …

      “On August 14, 2013, Cisco Systems announced it is going to cut 4,000 jobs, which is roughly 6% of the company, starting in 2014”

      “On August 13, 2014, the company announced it was laying off another 6,000 workers or 8% of its global workforce, as part of a second restructuring.”

      From Microsoft (in 2014) “The cuts of approximately 3,000 employees today are believed to be largely support staff in human resources, finance, sales and marketing and IT. They are part of the 18,000 employees Microsoft officials said back in July that they’d be laying off over the course of a year.”

      From IBM (Jan. 2015) “The much-talked-about layoffs at IBM have begun, some employees say.”

      From Dell (July 2014) “Dell Inc. continues to lay off workers amid a global restructuring since the Round Rock company was taken private last year, though the exact numbers of employees affected in Central Texas is unclear.”

      1. larryg Avatar
        larryg

        all true – but tell me which ones no longer have CEOs.

        in CF’s case, she claims she is an excellent turn-around specialist.

        is she?

        1. DonR Avatar
          DonR

          From an interview with Katie Couric yesterday …

          “Here’s what we did in six years, in the middle of the biggest technology recession in 25 years, we doubled the company to almost $90 billion, we took the growth rate from 2 percent to 9 percent, we tripled the rate of innovation to 11 patents a day, we quadrupled the cash flow. We went from lagging behind in every product category to leading in every product category.”

          HP’s stock crashed again in 2011 – 2012. Fiorina had been long gone by then. Its stock lost 75% of its value from 2010 to 2012.

          HP has been a fundamentally broken company for years. Carly managed it through a major technology meltdown and, some would say, got it started on the way to eventual recovery in 2010. However, that recovery was apparently illusory. Over the 10 years since Carly left the company’s stock has been as high as $52 and as low as $15.

          Here is the graph ….

          http://finance.yahoo.com/echarts?s=HPQ+Interactive#{“range”:”10y”}

          Now it’s another Republican woman’s chance to rebuild that iconic company – Meg Whitman. So far, so good … the share price is up to $33.

          Reset the graphic to “max” and look at the time when Carly took over. It was in the middle of the dramatic run up of the cloud bubble. Now do the same thing for Cisco and tell me how their graph look (Hint: It looks the same as HP’s). Now look at the chart for EMC. Are you beginning to get the idea?

          Carly was fired by an incompetent board of directors whereas John Chambers (Cisco) and Joe Tucci (EMC) were kept in place by competent boards of directors. The HP board would go on to spy on each other, choose a CEO who lasted less than a year and another CEO who was dismissed for failure to comply with the company’s ethics policies.

          1. larryg Avatar
            larryg

            CF left HP more than 10 years ago. What did she do after that?

            did you get involved in other companies especially ones that needed a tough CEO to guide them through market changes?

            did she get involved in elective office at the local or state level?

            what exactly did she do ?

          2. NoVaShenandoah Avatar
            NoVaShenandoah

            “Carly was fired by an incompetent board of directors whereas John Chambers (Cisco) and Joe Tucci (EMC) were kept in place by competent boards of directors. ”

            Hmmm … is this the EFFICIENCY of the free market?

          3. larryg Avatar
            larryg

            I’d just reiterate – a good leader is one who demonstrates the can have failures and grow from them – learn from mistakes and emerge stronger.

            Walker from Wisconsin – is one – for whom I do not care for and may have “other shoe drops” but we’ll see.

            Chris Christie and Jeb Bush are two more- they’re battle-hardened if nothing else.

            you can probably attribute that to anyone who has been CEO at more than one company and is still at it or a politico who has won more than one office.

            People who know how to lead – and have enough support to sustain that position – know how to do politics.

            No matter how you feel about other values – if you can’t politic – no matter how good your ideas – you’re toast.

  7. Steve Haner Avatar
    Steve Haner

    This is being typed on an HP laptop, which is sitting next to an HP printer. Neither terribly new, I admit. The more you guys attack Fiorina, the more curious I become. She must worry you.

    1. larryg Avatar
      larryg

      not home or home-office computers…. business computers… go look

      Florina does not worry me… but it’s an indication of the Caliber of some of the candidates – Cain and TRump were clowns.

      there are real CEOs in this country that I have a lot of respect for -that are Republicans.. why the party has to attract these mutant types is beyond me.

      it makes the GOP look like they’re infested with wack jobs and not serious people.

      1. DonR Avatar
        DonR

        Mutant? Wack job?

        Can you even name one position that Carly Fiorina has taken?

        Is it her position on tax code simplification that causes you to call her a mutant?

        Was her opposition to a federal personhood amendment that caused you to declare her a wack job?

        As Jim correctly observed – she pulled a lot of votes running as a Republican against a long time incumbent in a heavily Democratic state. She didn’t get those votes by being a mutant or a wack job.

        1. larryg Avatar
          larryg

          no excuses from me – she did not sustain herself in her career.. she crashed and burned and never got up after it.

          she’s admitted she’s almost never voted in an election.

          her campaign attacked the opponent with a “demon sheep” attack ad, wtf?

      2. virginiagal2 Avatar
        virginiagal2

        .

      3. virginiagal2 Avatar
        virginiagal2

        Lots of people are still using HP laptops, including me. I’m typing on one now.

        1. larryg Avatar
          larryg

          HP is still a popular PC – no question about it but I was asking what do businesses use…..these days.. not nail salons and the like – but places like hospitals and corporate offices.

          re: ” vi, grep,and sed,’

          good lord – I would have hoped by now that decent interfaces would have been built on top of these crude tools..

          the big problem with Unix and all it’s variants is that it was never intended to be a secure environment. Once you got root – you had the system.

          and the overflow buffer problem and other flaws make it easy to break in.

          I used a product called TRIPWIRE on the unix systems to monitor what system files were changed each day- and it became apparent even back then – and even behind a firewall that people were getting in.

          and today – all these break-ins… to corporate , banking and credit cards ?

          it’s the same issue.. still.. most run of mill programmers have no clue how to really secure a machine… their initial response often is “why”.. “that’s going to make things harder and require a lot more work to code”.

          😉

          so a lot of Corporate is still being held hostage by the geeks who maintain their system… so when you give your social security to them – it’s basically toast … because of the programmer mentality on security.

          LINUX (most UNIX, including OSX) are essentially kernels – never designed as a secure system – the secure variants are “forked” .. which separates them from the kernel .. essentially forever unless the secure variant is moded in a specific way to allow kernel updates without breaking everything added on.

          1. virginiagal2 Avatar
            virginiagal2

            Both of my work laptops are also HP’s. I don’t work for a nail salon.

            IMHO, if you are good at regular expressions (and that’s a big if), in a lot of situations, you can get more done faster with vi, grep, and sed than with gui-based tools. It does depend on what you’re trying to do, and how good you are with the tools.

            I get Tripwire reports every day from multiple systems. I have never (knock on wood) seen a file changed that wasn’t changed by an authorized person for an actual purpose that I could identify.

            That said, it is not the job of a programmer to secure the OS. That’s the job of the sysadmins, along with the network admins, along with the security staff.

            Programmers should be trained on how to code securely. That’s totally separate from securing your infrastructure.

            If you’re hanging your servers directly off the Internet, no DMZ for application servers between you and the Internet, leaving ports open, not patching regularly, not using iptables, not doing pen testing …. yes, you’ll probably get hacked. If you tape your front door key to the door, you’ll probably get robbed, too.

            I would not describe Linux as essentially a kernel. Do you consider iptables a kernel function? What about pam?

            Most people I know running Linux patch regularly, including kernel patches, and the kernel patches don’t break everything. You have to restart and make sure it starts with the new kernel. No biggie – worst case, fs check kicks off, in which case you wait til it’s done, and that’s still no biggie.

          2. larryg Avatar
            larryg

            are your laptops secured? certified? so that all are standardized hardware-wise and support same version software?

            the trouble with regular expressions et al is do the folks downstream know what you did and can fix it?? Eve top notch folks can’t figure out non-standard and obscure techniques..

            do you have a V&V and test function?

            if you change a requirement – can you identify all the pieces that will be affected without searching code manually?

            if you are working remote are you a sys admin running tripwire?

            normally sysadmins and netowrk folks are on site

            and yes it is the job of the sysadmins to secure the system – how they do this
            affects how the software development environment is deployed on that system. If what you are coding needs root – what do you do?

            you can “train” programmers – how do you assure they do as told?

            you can put all the needed security on the servers as long as management pays to do it . You’re using TRipwire – so they must support you. Tripwire is but one tool.. Secure systems deal with the buffer overflow issue.

            Linux is a kernel with layers.. if you create software and layers based on the kernel – and changes made – how do you know what got broke ? when it happens? Do you know what things will get broke before you do the update and have replacement code or a roll-back capability?

            good, secure software programming requires a lot of hard work and discipline which more than a few code, software developers, sys admins and management find expensive and troublesome.. until something happens – then you’re supposed to fix it right away.

          3. larryg Avatar
            larryg

            Oh – did I tell you that my computers are DELL and TOSHIBA ?

            the Dell is 5+ years old and has run 24/7 since the beginning.

          4. virginiagal2 Avatar
            virginiagal2

            Most companies have laptops configured and secured to a standard.

            I’m not following your concern re regular expressions. Regular expressions are a standard technique used for complex pattern matching with editors. It has its own “animal” book or books over at O’Reilly Media. It’s not an obscure technique by any stretch of the imagination.

            Further, once I’ve edited something, folks downstream don’t need to know and don’t care how I edited it. Using better techniques for my task makes me more efficient. I don’t care what other people use for editors – NMP – heck, use MS Word if you want.

            Most companies have a change control system and a QA function, which varies according to their needs, which are different for mobile apps versus weapons systems versus ERPs. I’m not sure what that has to do with regular expressions or Linux.

            FYI, many sysadmins work remote at least part of the time, using ILO and a VPN. Otherwise they’d have to drive or fly out each time they did work on remote DR sites.

            I am not a sysadmin but I can do a fair number of Linux sysadmin tasks, because I’m familiar with the OS.

            Companies verify what programmers do and if they follow standards with code review.

            Probably 90% of hardening a system has no effect whatsoever on software development. It’s transparent.

            Quite a lot of hardening doesn’t cost anything, and another big chunk costs very little, assuming you have someone who knows the OS and knows what to do. You do need to have good people and that is a cost.

            Normally you do not connect a development environment directly to the Internet.

            Linux is an OS and probably the most widely used OS in the world, not just a kernel.

            Take a look at commercial application code and see how they create software that doesn’t break with each kernel update. Because it doesn’t.

            How do you know what gets broken when something does? Because you test it first in development, fix it, then test the fix in test, and only then it rolls out to production.

            Remember that ad about, “Well, I’ll take a whack at it?” Opposite of how to do software development.

          5. larryg Avatar
            larryg

            certified hardware is to more exacting standards – does not allow any kind of processor, memory, etc,… it usually adds considerably to the price but it assures that software developed on it will run correctly on other certified machines.

            this is one reason why corporate IT doing software that lives depend on – requires standard configurations to start with.

            think of it as using a sub-standard part for your car even though it “fits”

            when you use regular expressions are they done in such a way that your successor 3 years downstream knows what you did? can you write such expressions in such a way that they are not easily understood and have pitfalls in their use?

            who will maintain and fix your software later on?

            it’s MORE than change control. It’s verification and validation – QA and do you know when a requirement change is needed – where it is embedded in your different software modules?

            servers that go belly up need onsite – if you don’t have on-site – then you’re down until someone gets there.. bad policy.

            code review is claimed but not often practiced in many shops.. in my experience – do you know the difference between validation and verification?

            re: 90% – hahahahahah .. take root away and see what happens..

            re: “forking” OS for security – and the next OS update – then what?

            connect to internet – you say work remote – right?

            unix OS are iniquitous – I agree but it takes a seriously competent person to deal with them in deploying and maintaining them… especially if in doing so – something DOES break.

            how system patches are done – is critical

            when it breaks – system level tests once module tests are done…

            do you know what verification and validation is? does your company do it to developed software?

          6. virginiagal2 Avatar
            virginiagal2

            If you are writing software to run on multiple environments, you don’t want it to run only on certified machines.

            That’s why you have levels of abstraction between the machine and the software and that’s why it doesn’t break when you update the kernel.

            What is this deal with regular expressions? My successor 3 years from now does not need to know if I edited a program with vi using regular expressions, or with vi by hand, or with an IDE, or with MS Word (not that I would). Nor would they care. The resulting code is absolutely identical in any of these cases.

            If I’m writing code that uses regular expressions in the actual code, and that wasn’t what I was talking about, assuming my successor wasn’t repeatedly dropped on their head as a small child, they should know what the code means. Regular expressions are just very powerful, and very standard, ways to do pattern matching simply. It’s not some odd obscure thing and it’s older than dirt.

            Servers that go belly up are still accessible by ILO and VPN. DR sites have operators on site in those rare cases that the ILO doesn’t get you there, such as if the redundant power supply dies or is destroyed. In 99% of cases, you don’t need the sysadmin physically there. You have the operator to do physical tasks or to let the hardware repairman in. That’s why you have SLAs and written agreements with your DR site. That’s also why onsite sysadmins aren’t usually in the server room either.

            Code review is the norm for most shops I’ve seen.

            No one is talking about forking the OS. I’m talking about applying patches, and defense in depth. That has nothing to do with forking the OS, which is not the norm.

            I know what V and V is.

          7. larryg Avatar
            larryg

            not going to get in a back and forth Vagal2 on this.

            I know my field. been there, done that..

        2. virginiagal2 Avatar
          virginiagal2

          But Larry, on the other hand, I know my field, and this is what I do for a living, and have done for decades.

          You may know your field, but a lot of what you’re talking about here is obviously outside of your particular experience set, because you’re trying to tell me people can’t do things that we do every day, and you’re trying to tell me that things we do routinely won’t work.

          You need to give me the same courtesy, and realize I know my own profession.

          1. larryg Avatar
            larryg

            I do and I apologize. I worked in an area where software development was highly controlled because of the potential for serious damage.

            and we worked with highly sensitive info that required far more monitoring and protection than typical data.

            but the starting premise here was that I did not know much about the field and I think I certainly do.

            when I talked about how software is maintained, forking systems with security mods not in the core kernel, etc.. I was coming at it from a different perspective than folks who don’t operate with such strict process.

            we could not change one line of code without – not a meeting – a series of meetings.. and an ability to determine it’s impacts.. and an ability to unroll it if it barfed.

            our machines were moded which made updates – and even patches problematic at times – one patch could have unexpected consequences because the patch was made to their certified OS – they did not have knowledge of our mods – which were necessary but resulted in very expensive processes and procedures to keep things right.

            “certified” hardware is hardware that has specific specs for component – you cannot use whatever is available on the market even if it fits and claims to work the same – you have to have the part that meets the specs.

            you see this is systems that involve lives… and potential significant property and infrastructure damage.

            you won’t see it in the many typical Apps created these days basically to serve user info purposes.

            you WILL see it in things like car computers.. airline computers, military aircraft, weapon systems, etc.

            You’re right I’m out of the game a few years.. but I think some of the standards we were under – still apply for software that involves lives.

            so my apologies again if I got your nose out of joint – as is something I
            do – and admit it.

    2. DonR Avatar
      DonR

      I don’t touch PCs unless I am wearing rubber gloves. Live life a little … go buy a Mac.

      1. larryg Avatar
        larryg

        macs… for a guy that writes software?

        hahahahah.. gee don… do you write it for macs?

        1. DonR Avatar
          DonR

          Yes, I write software under the Linux operating system which is what Macs (but not PCs) run. Even Microsoft runs Linux in their cloud. do you know why? Because Windows sucks.

          1. larryg Avatar
            larryg

            Don, my man – do you know that Linux goes o PCs?

            I’ll bet your software guys have PCs that are Linux software development PCs…

            software development kits on Mac – suck.. unless they are for Macs.

          2. virginiagal2 Avatar
            virginiagal2

            And because there is no substitute for vi, grep,and sed, if you want to be productive and if you know what you’re doing.

            Also agree re Windows.

  8. DonR Avatar
    DonR

    As far as “native” Virginian … she was born in Texas, grew up in a variety of different places, went to college at Stanford and worked for AT&T in New Jersey before moving to California to run HP.

  9. larryg Avatar
    larryg

    there are two kinds of capital in business – monetary and human.

    Floriana doesn’t know about the second one.

    worse – she doesn’t know ..that she doesn’t know.

    she does not value and respect peers nor subordinates.

    HP was a disaster – not sure if it’s par for many companies but not surprised it was a shark tank – did CF not see that on the front?

    but I can give her a pass on HP -… if she went on to other successes.

    that’s how great leaders are grown. they learn from failure and they get better.

    this woman … ..well.. I’ll shut up – but I have zero problems with Women in positions of leadership .. private corporate or government. You have a woman running Germany right now.

    there are serious women in Congress – unfortunately not Bachman who is ..well .. never mind… and not Marsha Blackman either , ugh…

    I’d take Feinstein any day for POTUS, not Boxer… Collins not Ayotte…

    I’m not even sure ANY successful CEO is fit as POTUS . we cry about professional politicians then Don completely savages the idea of a part time legislature.. damned if you do…..etc…

    1. NoVaShenandoah Avatar
      NoVaShenandoah

      “I’m not even sure ANY successful CEO is fit as POTUS”

      The skill set for business is incompatible for POTUS: the country does not exist to turn a profit. It actually exists, in the long term, to benefit ‘We The People’, who after all formed the more perfect union (it was not the states, BTW). It was not the corporations either, though that may be news to the current majority of our illegitimate ‘Supreme’ Court.

      1. DonR Avatar
        DonR

        Yes, the best skill set is “community organizer” because government workers are feckless losers who can’t be asked to work together – even by the President of the United States. As you say – it’s like herding cats. As you also say – they don’t care about who the elected leader might be because he or she will be gone in eight years.

        Wonderful.

        And you wonder why conservatives want smaller government.

        1. virginiagal2 Avatar
          virginiagal2

          .

      2. virginiagal2 Avatar
        virginiagal2

        I don’t agree with this. I do think that you need to understand how business works, and it helps if you understand it from experience.

        Even running a teeny little business gives you valuable insights on the intersection between public policy and business viability.

        1. larryg Avatar
          larryg

          it’s a question. HOw many POTUS, Senators, Congressmen, GOv are ex CEOs?

          1. virginiagal2 Avatar
            virginiagal2

            Quite a lot of Senators and Congressmen, goodly number of governors.

            Warner, for example, is a pretty successful businessman.

            Presidents, a lot historically, not as many recently. Offhand, the recent businessman presidents would be Carter and Bush.

            In general, I think a business background is helpful. Doesn’t have to be a huge business success, and I personally prefer backgrounds in smaller businesses rather than mega corporations.

          2. larryg Avatar
            larryg

            Warner is a good example. Bush was not reputed to be all that good and Carter .not sure what he did after the Navy but if CEO was his skill set – it did not work out well as POTUS.

            I’m looking at Va’s Congressmen and General Assembly and past Govs besides Warner

            who stands out their prior CEO .. business managing?

            locally, we have an insurance agent, some lawyers, some govt workers, but can’t find no one who has sat as CEO for companies with more than one or two employees.

            this is probably a mostly esoteric exercise anyhow…

            TJ – one of our most revered POTUS – cheated on his wife , owned slaves, fornicated with his slaves producing children – and died totally broke.

            how’s that for a POTUS model?

          3. virginiagal2 Avatar
            virginiagal2

            Larry, I don’t particularly care if someone was a huge success at business. A 1 or 2 person business is fine.

            I do think there is significant value in the experience of having to manage cash flow, having to work your way through a complex maze of regulations, and seeing how the “good ideas” actually work out in real life. Some do, some don’t, and it actually doesn’t depend on your politics as to how they work out.

            Many of the harshest conversations I see are when a business person is trying to describe a real problem with implementation of what sounds good, and a person with no business experience takes it as being hard hearted.

            The reality is that we need a good business environment to be a strong country, and far too many politicos have absolutely no personal experience with what that actually means.

          4. larryg Avatar
            larryg

            I mostly agree with you except to note you can’t have a good business environment if our education levels rank 25th in the world.

            we’re doomed if we don’t deal with it in a serious way.

            we’re going to end up with fewer and fewer qualified workers and more and more on entitlements.

  10. NoVaShenandoah Avatar
    NoVaShenandoah

    Native Virginian or no, she was still fired by HP for incompetence. She drove the stock price down 50% and the day after she was fired the stock went up 5.9%.

    Now she plans to do to America what she did to HP.

    Why do Republicans hate America so much?

  11. larryg Avatar
    larryg

    I think CF might have drawn a bad bull for her first CEO rodeo.

    but she has proven to be a one-trick-pony herself.

    Why anyone who has run one company one time – got kicked out – and never picked herself up and shook off kept on getting up… but spent the next 10
    years ripping the victim scab off over and over – every ..

    Sorry- I don’t even think she’s fit for elective office at any level – at all.

    If she lived in Nova – she had lots of opportunity to:

    1. – grab hold of a tech company and make it a recognized name

    2. run for elective office -BOS, House of Delegates, Congress, etc.

    what the dooda has this women done ..since she was “done wrong”?

    seriously – what has she been doing for 10 years? She doesn’t even vote in elections.

    1. virginiagal2 Avatar
      virginiagal2

      Fiorina probably isn’t a candidate I would vote for, because of some of her positions. So I’m not defending her as a supporter, because I don’t want her to be either the Republican nominee or president.

      That said, if you don’t know what she did after HP, you could look it up. She ran for Senate, served as an adviser to the McCain campaign, spoke at the Republican National convention, founded a charity, wrote an autobiography, served on the Boards of MIT and recently JMU, and served on the board of a number of corporations. Plus a bunch more, but those are the high notes.

      1. larryg Avatar
        larryg

        She does not claim any of those things when she speaks of her qualifications for POTUS – she continues to claim that she was a competent CEO that got kicked out for being a woman.

        Why not focus on your accomplishments AFTER HP that demonstrate you can take a beating and keep on succeeding?

        she comes across as a “get-her-way” or go after you type person – who is now crying because she others got the best of the slug-fest.

        1. virginiagal2 Avatar
          virginiagal2

          Not trying to pull the woman card, but would being tough and demanding bother you if she was a guy?

          CEOs tend to be kind of driven and focused.

          1. larryg Avatar
            larryg

            well I like Merkel a lot.. I thought Mier and Thatcher were pretty tough cookies and Diane Feinstein and Kelly Ayot .. ditto

            i have no problem with women what-so-ever…

            but I do have a problem with whiners..and cry-babies who played in the shark tank and lost.. and never got back on the horse to learn from failure and end up being better and stronger and more capable as a result of it.

            CF is a stunted … person in my view. She got tested for leadership – got the dickens knocked out of her – and ….retired… so now she’s a deja-vu record .. replaying her past experiences…

            She’s not 100% written off.. I want to hear her ideas about health care, immigration, taxes, etc..

            is FC as good as she thinks she is?

            ouch

  12. Darrell Avatar
    Darrell

    Survey says, Take this lady to a biker bar, excuse yourself to the men’s room and skip out the back door.

    You don’t want to be around when she wipes everyone out .

  13. DonR Avatar
    DonR

    Larry:

    You’ve been out of the game for a while I guess. Here is a good discussion of the topic …

    http://www.quora.com/Why-do-most-professional-programmers-prefer-Macs

    Beyond that, more and more often these days the IDE is in the cloud. While it’s true that either Macs or PCs can access the cloud-based IDE via a browser most developers I know prefer the look, feel, quality and battery life of a Mac. Until this year my company gave out PCs to all employees. Most of the PCs given to developers were still in their packing boxes while the developers used Macs they purchased themselves.

    1. DonR Avatar
      DonR

      FWIW – Al Gore may have invented the Internet but I invented the cloud (along with Mike Condon and Jim Porter).

      Note: We filed this patent in 2001. The term “cloud” had not been used to describe today’s distributed compute and storage environment when we first filed the claim. Amazon Web Services would be launched 5 years after we first filed the patent application.

      Distributed development environment for building internet applications by developers at remote locations
      US 20040117759 A1

      http://www.google.com/patents/US20040117759

      Today, I run the cloud product design team for a huge global technology company.

      Please continue the typically progressive style of argument … telling me how things REALLY work in the technology industry today. It’s soooo entertaining.

      There is a reason that Apple’s market cap is $741B – nearly three quarters of a trillion dollars! I’ll give you a hint – it’s not because they make inferior products.

      1. larryg Avatar
        larryg

        we were doing “cloud” before “cloud” was cool – a long time ago.

        “cloud” is a buzzword for accessing a remote server… basically

        client-server they called it… it was a BGD even then – because of the implications for wider use.

        but congrats on your world and your patents..

    2. larryg Avatar
      larryg

      we used Suns and Linux server boxes with PCs and x-terminals accessing via X-windows.

      the only folks with macs was management.

      that was long before OS X. we were using compilers with two back-ends – one output went on the general purpose development machine/emulator and the other on embedded computers on the weapon system itself.

      programming Mac software is a very disciplined endeavor because of their enforced standards. programming for other platforms and especially so Linux is the wild wild west if you don’t use an enforceable style guide.

      when you’re programming software that is capable of killng people – both military and civilian – and on purpose or accidental most newbie programmers and coders were blown away by the required rigor. I suspect it’s still that way – judging by the quality of the phone apps I see.

      self-driving cars and drones and a lot of medical imaging technology would be examples of the need for much higher certification standards for both the emulator and the target computer.

  14. Rule 5 Tuesday: Carly Fiorina, Reagan National Airport, Mason Social, Guacamole, and more! | NoVA Scanner

    […] Carly Fiorina – Native Virginian? Apparently, she now hails from Mason Neck, Virginia. (Bacon’s Rebellion) […]

  15. NoVaShenandoah Avatar
    NoVaShenandoah

    DonR, you like long posts. They are not as meaningful as you believe. Let me illustrate:”

    “The phony unemployment calculation does not tell the story.” – Such a statement simply reveals that you are too biased to pay attention to. The unemployment rate has been defined as it has for sound reasons. Why people are NOT looking for work is very subjective. It does not take into account lazy good-for-nothings who inherited wealth and don;t have to look for work. But it does count those who only need(ED) a job for the health insurance. To be sure, it is a backward looking measure, since it goes DOWN at the start of recessions and UP at the end of recessions. It is a technical term with a specific definition.

    BTW, as Clinton pointed out in 2012, the number of jobs created during Republicant administrations is 24million; the number during Democratic administrations (excluding Obama) is 44 million. An interesting but very biased contrast I am sure 😉

    1. LifeOnTheFallLine Avatar
      LifeOnTheFallLine

      “They are not as meaningful as you believe.”

      To misquote Fields: If you can’t dazzle them with brilliance, bury them with bullshit.

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