Tag Archives: Austin

05/23/19

Hot Tech Times in Austin By God Texas

Austin. When you hear that word, you want to be here. You want Barton Springs, the music scene, the Texas Longhorns, the food scene, the local beers, breakfast tacos, and you want the high tech scene.

Here it is. Barton Springs, at 68F, is natural air conditioning on the hottest day in Austin.

Main Barton Spring (“Parthhena, the “mother spring”) — the 4th largest spring in Texas — and its sisters generate more than 32MM cubic feet per day of Edwards Aquifer water. Highest flow rate ever recorded was 85MM CFS during the infamous 1991 floods. In times of drought, the flow rate may be lower. All water from the Edwards is rain water.

Image result for images barton springs austin

While Barton Springs is cold and refreshing, while the Austin tech scene is hot and exciting. The following chart is the work of crunchbase news and its Austin author, Mary Ann Azevedo. She writes about Austin and lives in Austin.

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09/20/18

Austin By God Texas for the Win

When you live in Austin, Texas it is impossible to be humble. I will not pretend.

Austin was named as the #1 city where Americans are flocking because of plentiful jobs, rising salaries, and booming business.

If you have been out and about, this is no surprise. [They are all driving with reckless abandon on MoPac starting every afternoon at 2:30 PM.] If not, read about it here.

Austin By God Texas CNBC

There is another lesson to the story.

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02/12/18

Austin + Walmart = Magic

Walmart opens an engineering subsite in Austin? Walmart? Huh?

Big Red Car here on a nippy 33F morning headed to 55F, but 75F on Thursday say the weather fairies.

So, Austin continues to prosper as a home of high tech, in general, and software development, in particular.

A recent addition to the tech scene is a Walmart software engineering hub which will focus on AI, ML, blockchain, and IOT to serve the company’s operations (Global Business Services Division) around the world specifically including finance, governance, human relations, employee training, and manufacturing.

New Walmart engineering hub in Austin By God Texas. That’s Sam Walton’s famous pickup truck getting ready to drive into Austin’s iconic Barton Springs. What would Sam say about Walmart today? [Pic credit: Austin American Statesman]

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03/22/17

Reckless Endangerment — Travis County Sheriff’s Office v ICE

Bit early in the ATX, but the Big Red Car has to tell you about the reckless behavior of our Travis County Sheriff, Sally Hernandez as it relates to ICE and not honoring detainers. Travis County is the home county of the city of Austin By God Texas. Austin is sometimes referred to as The People’s Republic of Austin.

On 1 February 2017, Sheriff Hernandez announced her new policy of not cooperating with ICE (US Immigration and Customs Enforcement) as it relates to honoring certain (almost all) detainer requests.

This is on the forward edge of the battle area between the Federal government’s objective of deporting criminal aliens, thereby Making American Safe Again (couldn’t resist, sorry), and the sanctuary city movement.

Already, the State of Texas (in the person of Governor Greg Abbott) has taken action against Travis County and canceled state grants for veterans (amongst other worthy endeavors) to the tune of $1,500,000. Seems a small amount, but it is meaningful if you are one of those veterans impacted. [Full Disclosure: The Boss is a veteran and this really pisses him off.]

Bottom line: Our Sheriff is releasing criminals into Travis County. These criminals (charged with and/0r convicted of serious crimes)  would, otherwise, be deported to their country of origin.  Sheriff Hernandez’s actions, in failing to cooperate with ICE, are recklessly endangering the safety of Travis County citizens and Texans, in general.

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06/19/15

In Praise of Skepticism

Big Red Car here. It rained yesterday in the tropical rain forest formerly known at Austin, Texas.

We are starting to like the daily rains. Everything is green. It is like the Amazon valley.

I am skeptical as to whether it will continue, which brings me to my thought for today — skepticism. Continue reading →