Last email from Scott McNealy

A maverick himself. So proud to serve under him for almost 6 years. Great leader and motivator. Honor to able to meet him and shake him hand. So much happen when I was with Sun. Meeting great friends, learning fantastic skills, and going places. I will miss Sun.

Subject: Thanks for a great 28 years
Date: Tue, 26 Jan 2010 12:46:16 -0800
From: Scott McNealy <Scott.McNealy@Sun.COM>
To: allsun@sun.com

Gang,

When I interviewed many of you for employment at Sun over the years, one commitment often made was that things will change above, below, and around you faster than any place you have ever been. Looks like this was one area we exceeded plan for 28 years. While it was never the primary vision to be acquired by Oracle, it was always an interesting option. And this huge event is upon us now. Let's all embrace it with all of the enthusiasm and class and talent that we have to offer.

This combination has the potential to put Sun, its people, and its technology at the center of yet another industry and game changing inflection point. The opportunity is well documented and articulated by Larry and the Oracle folks. Not much I can add on this score. This is a very powerful merger. And way better than some of the alternatives we were facing.

So what do I say to all of you now this is happening?

It turns out that one simple message to the large and diverse Sun community is actually quite hard to craft. Even for a big mouth who is always ready with a clever quip. The community includes our resellers and customers, our current and former employees, their friends and families who supported our employees on their mission to change the industry, our investors, our supply and service partners, students and educators, and even our competitors with whom we often collaborated.

But let me try. Though nothing I could write comes close to matching the unbelievably strong and positive emotions I have for you all. See, I never was able to master dispassion. I truly loved starting, running, and living Sun. And the last four years have not been without serious withdrawal. And the EU approval rocked me more than it should have.

So, to be honest, this is not a note this founder wants to write. Sun in my mind should have been the great and surviving consolidator. But I love the market economy and capitalism more than I love my company. And I sure "hope" America regains its love affair with capitalism. And except for the auto industry, financial industry, health care, and some other places (I digress), the invisible hand is doing its thing quite efficiently. So I am more than willing to accept this outcome. And my hat is off to one of the greatest capitalists I have ever met, Larry Ellison. He will do well with the assets that Sun brings to Oracle.

What we did right and wrong at Sun over the years might make for interesting reading. However, I am not a book writer. I am a husband, father of four, and a builder and leader of people who want to make a difference.

But spare me a bit of nostalgia. Not of the mistakes we made, and lord knows I made a ton. But of the things we did right and well.

First and foremost, Sun innovated like crazy. We took it to the limit (see Eagles). And though we did not monetize our inventions as well as we could have, few companies have the track record in R&D that we had over the last 28 years. This made working at Sun really cool. Thanks to all of you inventors and risk takers who changed how we live.

Sun cared about its customers. Even more than we cared about our own company at times. We looked at our customer's mission as more important than ours. Maybe we should have asked for more revenue in return, but our employees were always ready to help first. I love this about Sun which I guess makes me a good capitalist if not a great capitalist.

Sun did not cheat, lie, or break the rule of law or decency. While we enjoyed breaking the rules of conventional wisdom and archaic business practice and for sure loved to win in the market, we did so with a solid reputation for integrity. Nearly three decades of competing without a notable incident of our folks going off course morally or legally. Not all executives and big companies are bad. Really. There are good companies out there. Special thanks to all of my employees for this. I never had to hide the newspaper in shame from my children.

Sun was a financial success. We paid billions in taxes, salaries, purchases, leases, training, and even lawyers and accountants for devastatingly cumbersome SOX and legal compliance (oops, more classic digression). Long term and smart investors made billions in SUNW. And our customers generated revenue and savings using our equipment in countless ways. Many employees started families, bought homes and put them through school while working at Sun. Our revenues over 28 years exceeded $200B. Few companies make it to the F200. We did. Nice.

Sun employees had way more fun than any other company. By far. From our dress code ("You must!") to beer busts to our April Fools pranks to SunRise to our quiet enjoyment at night of a long hard well done day of work, no company enjoyed "work" more than Sun. Thanks to all of our employees past and present for making Sun such a blast.

I could go on for a long time reminiscing about the good and great stuff we did at Sun, but just allow me one last one. We shared. Not the greatest attribute for a capitalist. But one I could not change and was not willing to change about Sun while I was in charge. We shared in the success of Sun with our resellers. With our employees through stock options, SunShare, beer busts, and the like (for as long as Congress would allow) and through our efforts to keep as many of them on board for as long as possible during the inevitable down cycles. With our partners through the Java Community Process, through our open source collaborations, and licensing strategies. With our customers through our commitments to low barriers to exit. Sun was never just about us. It was about we. And that may be a bit of the reason we are where we are today.

But I have few regrets (see Sinatra's "My Way") and will always look back at Sun and its gang with only pride. Enormous pride. You are the best this industry ever had though few outside of Sun recognized it. And what we are about will live on in Sparc, Solaris, Java, our products, and our spirit. Well past everyone's recollections of what we did together. I will never forget though.

Oracle is getting a crown jewel of the technology industry. They will do great things with Sun. Do your best to support them and keep the Sun spirit alive and well in the industry. Our children will be better for it.

Thanks for the off the charts support to everyone who ever carried a Sun badge, used our products, or helped our company through the years.

And thanks to my wonderful wife, Susan, who gave this desperado (see Eagles) a chance to choose the Queen of Hearts before it was too late. Someday, hopefully, you will all get to see or meet her and my other life's works named Maverick, Dakota, Colt and Scout. If you do, perhaps you will understand why I stepped back from the CEO role four years ago. And why I feel like the luckiest guy in the whole world.

My best to all of you, and remember:

Kick butt and have fun!

Scott

Thoughts of the day

My car got scratched on purpose by someone. there is a suspect, but no proof.

Anyway, i had about 5 seconds of anger and then I just think, it is done. Nothing I can do.

Today I read about this in a website. I am glad I didn't stay angry and worst, seek revenge.

Let other people off the hook. They didn't mean harm, and even if they did, it hurt them more than it hurt you. Pick yourself up, dust yourself off, and rise even taller. Don't use anyone as your excuse to shirk your responsibility to live a bigger life. Victimhood is not a badge of honor. Overcoming adversity is. Use success and joy as your barometer. And march on.

Om.

Not so poverty Aglio e Olio

Thought of making seafood marinara. Found out that we ran out of tomato sauce. So, I improvised and make a seafood aglio olio. 

clean the prawn and squid. Fry the chopped garlic in olive oil in slow heat, to infuse the oil. after couple of minutes, turn up the fire and thrown in the seafood. Season. when the seafood are cooked, add in the pasta and add some mixed herb.

It was pretty good. Nice if I have parsley and Parmesan cheese. 

Stupid parent

Amazing to think that there are parent/adult still think that the earth is only 6000 years old. From FailLog

"Note: Just to let you it is not that we don't believe in things like that, it is just misleading when you talk about it being billions of years old, when we all know that the world is only about 6,000 years old. So why would I pay so that you can misslead my children, your world is just a revolving(?), ours has a start and an end. God created the world. He created animals and man all in the same week. It was also Adam who named all the animals, they will do the essay 'Rock and Minerals' but it might not be 5 pages long, and about billions of years, it will be according to the Bible."

Tips for making cookies

I have been searching for so long about this. Finally, thanks to BakingBites. I found it.

If you want chewy cookies, add melted butter. Butter is 20 percent water. Melting helps water in butter mix with flour to form gluten.
More gluten will make for a chewier cookie, just as it will make for a chewier bread. Keep in mind that you're introducing extra liquid with a substitution like this one, and the cookies may be thinner than you'd like unless you add more dry ingredients or less liquid.

If you want thin, candy-like cookies, add more sugar. Sugar becomes fluid in the oven and helps cookies spread.
A little extra sugar will also help you get a crisp edge on a cookie. Caramelized sugar does not always survive well in the open air. Too much sugar and your cookies will be thin and chewy, not crisp, although they should still taste great. An airtight container will help preserve their fresh-from-the oven texture.

If you want cakey cookies, add more eggs. Yolks make cookies rich, and whites cause cookies to puff and dry out.
The same warning about too much liquid can apply to this. Too much egg and you'll have cookies that have an eggy flavor to them and a spongy texture. It's best to start with small additions, maybe one yolk or white at a time

If you want an open, coarse crumb and craggy top, add baking soda. Baking soda reacts quickly with acidic ingredients (such as brown sugar) to create lots of gas bubbles. If you want a fine, tight crumb and smooth top, add baking powder. Baking powder works slowly and allows for an even rise.
Leavenings interact heavily with the other ingredients in a cookie, so a small amount of baking powder or baking soda added may not make much of a difference. A cookie that is already tending towards cakiness, for instance, will be more likely to have a smooth top than a craggy one. You may want to try two batches at once when experimenting with leavenings so you can easily track your progress.

Fantastic lecture on how bad sugar is

Everyone should watch this and get informed. Educate your family member.

My riding plan for this year

Ok. Here is the plan. I will want to cover the first 6 stage of Tour de Langkawi. Large map here.

Stage 1 - Kota Bharu - Kuala Berang (174.5km)
Stage 2 - Kuala Terengganu - Chukai (182.9km)
Stage 3 - Pekan, Pahang - Mersing, Johor (144km)
Stage 4 - Mersing, Johor - Parit Sulong, Johor (163.5km)
Stage 5 - Muar, Johor - Port Dickson, Negeri Sembilan (140.3km)
Stage 6 - Putrajaya, WP - Genting Highlands (103.9km)
Stage 7 - Kuala Kubu Baru - Dataran Merdeka (loop x6) (92.8km)

Stage 1, 2 & 3 can be done in one extended weekend.

Stage 4 & 5 can be done in one extended weekend.

Stage 6 will be challenging.

Not sure how interesting is stage 7.

Any taker? Who want to join me? Need logistic, support car and etc.

Probably after May.

Lemon baked pasta

Found out I have a tub of sour cream in the fridge while planning for lunch yesterday. And some lemon as well. 

Decided to use all these ingredient and make PioneerWoman's baked lemon pasta. Since I have a craving of something lemon for a while, even though I should not be eating pasta (am in a low low carb diet). Here is the recipe.

I don't have parsley and parmesan cheese at home. So, not exactly the same as PW's cooking. And I may need to reduce on the lemon since the wife think is a bit too sour. Megan's also think so, but she did finished her portion.

I think I need to plant parsley at the herb project.