I hope everyone had a productive week, and find yourselves enjoying your local mask off condition. It looks like California, Michigan and New York are still the holdouts but they too will be removing mask restrictions soon. In earlier shoot the shits I identified CA, MI and NY as states with the highest per capita psychologist population, which may account for the hesitancy in lifting mask restrictions. Readers also know that I describe psychologists as jackasses who majored in psychology so they could understand themselves. You may think that my comment is anal extraction but I assure you it’s not, it was a tidbit of information shared with me by the Director of the Science Department at a college. His exact comment was that 60% of psychology majors elected the discipline so they could understand themselves. Along the way, I did embellished that saying they couldn’t make it through 3 semesters of Calculus, Organic Chemistry and Physics; consequently, they could not pass the MCAT Medical College Admission Test. So, if you’re stressed out, schedule a good shoot the shit with friends, coworkers or family.
A shoot the shit is a social interaction during which any topic can be discussed; participants don’t need to know anything about the subject, are free to make any unsupported comment, use uncensured profanity, insult anyone they wish or change the subject altogether. A good shit the shit will save you $150 per hour and are far more effective than sitting in front of someone who thinks you have a penis size issue. So, let’s shoot the shit
This week, I attended the National Defense Industrial Association (NDIA) Virtual Special Operations Forces Industry Conference. It was an outstanding event all the way around, but I did miss the pressing of the flesh. Presenters and panelists were top notch and the amount of information presented was voluminous. If you want to be a player in the Defense Sector a membership in NDIA is essential and worthwhile. Don’t think they’re just for major global corporations, the large majority of its members are small businesses.
Anyway, today I sat through a fireside chat with Satya Nadella, CEO of Microsoft Corp and Gen Clark, Commanding Officer USSOCOM. DOD as a whole is transitioning to Cloud services and Microsoft is pitching its cloud computing service marketed as Azure. Now, before going further I did not just fall out of the IT banana tree. I’m intimately familiar with TCP/IP, x.25, 3270 bisync, SNA SDLC, routers, gateways, switches, software development cycle, etc., etc. I walked away from that presentation thinking that Satya Nadella sounded more like Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh, also know as Osho. Mr. Nadella’s presentation contained every in vouge buzz word imaginable; the only thing missing was the sitar music of Ravi Shankar. I’ll guarantee that Gen Clark was standing there thinking WTF over. By the way,, Osho had a hippie commune in Oregon and India and was the promoter of the free love movement. Continuing…
I want to go on record as being a supporter of CLOUD technologies, they make business sense, but they are equally liked by China’s MSS, Russia’s GRU, North Korea’s Reconnaissance General Bureau and Ministry of Intelligence of the Islamic Republic of Iran. I’ve often described DOD use of CLOUD technologies as equivalent to putting a fillet mignon in front of a dog that hasn’t eaten in two weeks. Adding to my apprehension is the the fact that India’s Space Research Organization lost track of the Chandrayaan-1, India’s first lunar probe, in August 2009 never to be heard from again. So, I sincerely hope the DOD critically evaluates potential risks and insists that all development work and testing be conducted in the United States; if Microsoft is hosting your data in their data centers, make sure they’re located in the U.S.A.
The last thing I want to see is one of our SOF Operators, enabled by edge computing, seeing this on their display.
Have a great weekend and be sure to schedule a good shoot the shit of your own. Give your iPhone, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram a rest.
FOG HORN 