SiCortex closing

I now have time to work on the chicken coop.
SiCortex wasn’t able to find financing in the current climate, and is shut down pending an asset sale.  See, for example, http://www.nytimes.com/external/gigaom/2009/05/28/28gigaom-on-the-block-sicortexs-delorean-style-green-super-23152.html
I haven’t written much here about the company or the technology, but I will do some more of that, because in the five years I spent working at SiCortex I learned a lot, and some of those things will be valuable to others somewhere down the line.
I follow the news of web 2.0 incubators, and the ease and low overhead of software startups, and you know, I am not impressed. SiCortex didn’t fail for lack of technology, or vision, or customers, but from the poor timing of having to raise money during a recession. I loved what we were doing. It wasn’t easy but we did it. We started with a pile of sand, and some ones and zeros, and built the most energy efficient high performance computers ever.
I know it is trite, but JFK pretty well nailed the concept of working on things that are worth doing.

We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win, and the others, too. 

Best wishes to all my colleagues.

More bad design of hotel wifi

Today I am at the Marriott Courtyard near BWI. They have free wifi.  Actually it isn’t bad. Go Marriott. Unfortunately it is still screwed up in three ways:

  • iPhone access is entirely broken. When you try to use the web browser you get an infinite series of “click here to continue”
  • https access doesn’t work.  I have configured google so that it always connects with TLS.  No intercept screen or advice, just fail.
  • When you finally think to try http, you get the incredibly busy ibahn login screens, with the free option, but then you get this acceptance screen:

ibahn
May I rant?  Showing customers the stack trace of your broken application is Not Good.  And Microsoft! Thank you for advertising that your “.net” is so helpful.  I’ll be sure to not select .net for my next web project.