Wednesday, March 29, 2006

Casper Wienberger, We Will Miss You

This is an article about Casper Wienberger as told by Rich Karlgaard of Forbes. Lost in the headlines yesterday was the fact that "Cap the Knife" died at the age of 88. Casper Wienberger was a great man, a great legacy to the Reagan years and to the idea that a stong defense is the best offense.

I've always felt a great deal of respect for this man, and although I may not have always agreed with him, he was a man of principle. That is so hard to find any more. Most leaders and politicians sway with the wind, and change their mind constantly. Not Cap. He reminded me a great deal of Ronald Reagan. He was solid as a rock, and even wrote a great print column in Forbes magazine for the past several years on a multitude of issues, all written with conviction. I read his column in every issue. He never wavered in his love for our country and his long term view of what is best for our people. He will be missed, and below is most of the text of the article by Karlgaard about the last time he saw Mr. Wienberger.

Last saw Cap Weinberger in August 2005, at the American Club in Kohler, Wisconsin. Cap was there to give a speech to a group of chief information officers at an event sponsored by Forbes and SAS Institute. We had done many of these events over the years, and it was always a pleasure to see Cap at the podium or interview him on stage.

Cap had used a walker for several years, but this time he had to be wheeled in. We all knew his kidneys were failing, that he required dialysis a few days a week. But I wasn’t prepared for his frailty. I feared for Cap, feared that at long last he would fail to give his usual riveting and learned speech about global politics and economics; I feared for the great man's pride.

No worries. Not so by a mile. Cap spoke for 45-minutes, in perfect paragraphs. He fielded questions more deftly than our current commander-in-chief. How Cap suddenly recovered his ability to hear, I’ll never know. He pulled it from somewhere. I do know that Cap was a man of great physical courage. Infirmity and great pain did not set him back.

After the speech, Cap winked at me and said, “See you next time.”

I wish it were so.

Long Live the Mac

Today is the 5th Anniversary of OS X and if I was the father of this child, it would be equally as hard to believe that my little tike had grown up this much, as if it were my own.

Okay, maybe that sentence did not make sense, much less, I know it was not gramatically correct. I'm getting deeper into trouble with syntax as I go. The bottom line is that why is it that Mac users feel this kindred connection to the dad gum computer that they use? Most people "on the other side" just don't understand it, and lo, I'm not sure I do either. The Mac Os, or, for short, just "my Mac" is so--so much more than "my Dell". If they only knew.....So,
happy 5th birthday to our great operating system, the OS X. The article referenced and linked above gives a great history of what makes us love our machines.