Near the turn on the millennium I was the lead on a project called JBits. It was a full end to end software development environment for Xilinx FPGAs. It was very unusual at the time and supported high level language design as well as run time reconfiguration, things still difficult to do today.

The project was never commercialized, mostly due to the bad economic environment after Y2K and then 9/11. But over the years I have run into people, mostly at technical conferences, who were fans. Odd to see a 20 year old software project getting recognition, but this week at FCCM JBits received an award for contributions to the field. Nice to be remembered especially in a field that changes so fast and where so much gets forgotten.

Drove the Tesla from Austin to Phoenix to attend the ASU graduation. Used superchargers along the way, mostly on I-10. Spent the night in El Paso. Pretty much 1,000 miles in two days.

Somehow this wasnt in my news feed. From the BBC. Maybe include this in discussions about inflation?

ExxonMobil reports record first-quarter profits of $11.4bn

Texans can expect more expensive and less reliable power in the future. From Mother Jones.

Texas Is “Fixing” Its Power Grid in the Most Texas Way Possible

A good read from Narratively.

My High-Flying Life as a Corporate Spy Who Lied His Way to the Top

Got a call a couple of days ago. Seems I passed the one million mile mark with American Airlines. Took me over 30 years. Funny thing is I had no idea I was even close. Don’t ever recall seeing a total. If you had asked me I would have guessed 250k or so. My wife still thinks it could be a mistake.

As a kid I was fascinated by Leonardo da Vinci. Still am, I suppose. I knew that despite his vast output there was little known about his personal life. This is a small, but interesting piece of the puzzle.

Leonardo da Vinci Was Jewish

We used to get storms moving through, mostly in the spring. Seems like we haven’t had many lately. Lots more humidity with really bad storms all going to the north and east. Last night it came down as hard as I’ve ever seen it for maybe an hour. Weatherman said 5″ in North Austin. My rain gauge says at least that. Might have to get a bigger rain gauge.

Wow. California now has so much solar it has to turn it of at times during the day. They have also changed the payback for individual consumers who sell electricity back to the grid. While this makes solar payback time longer, it also encourages batteries. This lets individuals store electricity locally and sell it back when it is more profitable (usually in the evenings after sundown).

Driven by solar, California’s net demand hit zero on Sunday

Had some recent experience with a “rescinded” job offer. Lots to be said about this, but let’s look forward to what this sort of thing means to the future of hiring.

When job seekers realize their offer letter is basically worthless, they will do the smart thing: they will keep interviewing and accept “backup” offers right up until their start date. And if one of those “backup” offers is better, well, of course you take it. And what happens to the other 2, 3 or more “backup” offers the candidate has also accepted? Well, you can only show up for one job. Most likely the others will just be “ghosted” with no expected new hire showing up for work on Day 1.

If this becomes widespread practice, and it should, businesses can expect half, two out of three, or more no-shows on start dates. This will not be a happy scenario for H.R. departments and businesses. But they have made the rules and nobody is going to feel sorry for them.

And what about the placement agencies who collect fees for matching all of these these no-show new hires? Will businesses want their fees back? I bet they will.

The short sightedness of American business always amazes me.