Core Values

Allow me a few moments to go green. Green is everywhere these days, from political parties to E85-compatible cars to new start up companies looking for the next big thing. As Al Gore put to us in “Inconvenient Truth" the planet Earth is an incredible machine composed of a vast number of systems that work together. Working properly, it is a miracle to behold. Perturbed, it can get a little cranky. It is also a system that has a huge capacity to adapt to stress, and the current worry on many people’s minds are whether industrialization is stressing the planet’s ecosystems beyond its natural capacity. Good question, but not one for discussion here.

Look at any company’s web site and it’s likely you’ll see a “Partner” section. It seems that everybody has partners, and the more the better. Thinking about this today, for some reason an old Barry Manilow jingle for Dr. Pepper got stuck in my head.

I’m a partner
You’re a partner
He’s a partner
She’s a partner
Wouldn’t you like to be a partner too?

The Virtual Socket Industry Alliance (VSIA) announced on July 10 that it was closing operations. In the article Electronics standards group VSIA to close, many of the initiatives incubated by the VSIA are now looking for homes in other standards organizations like IEEE and The Spirit Consortium. It’s a sad, closing chapter to a well-intentioned concept that never found a constituency.