Drupal doesn’t “get” enterprise

If http://www.databasepublish.com/blog/presentation-scaling-drupal-enterprise represents Drupal’s enterprise thinking, Drupal doesn’t “get” enterprise.

Drupal apparently thinks enterprise is just performance. That misses other important factors where Drupal falls on its face. For example:

  • It’s security model is stuck in a departmental model. At my work, we looked into an enterprise Drupal calendar, but we passed because it requires fantastic workarounds just to roughly approximate enterprise security.
  • Manageability is improving with the Aegir hosting system, but this just simplifies base management tasks. Enterprise Drupal is still a collection of discrete, departmental-class web systems, each of which has substantially independent configuration.

Drupal has its place in the enterprise for certain departmental solutions. But it’s a huge stretch to intimate that Drupal is “enterprise software.”

WFAA scapegoats Atmos Energy and tries to raise Dallas’s gas bills

The Texas Railroad Commission and WFAA channel 8 may be scapegoating Atmos Energy, Dallas’s natural gas provider, for house explosions it probably didn’t not cause.

The state blamed Atmos for a May 2009 Irving home explosion. Tonight, Brett Shipp, a WFAA reporter, all but blamed Atmos for a November 2009 Mesquite home explosion.

The theory is that deteriorating “Normac couplings” in buried gas distribution lines are leaking the fuel, causing these explosions.

I don’t buy it.

In the Irving case, the state blamed a leaking fitting “under the street.” Yes, as in more than 20 feet away from the house.

Natural gas is lighter than air. It goes up as quickly as it can. That means it’s not going to travel sideways through dirt into someone’s house. Also, it dissipates rapidly like any other gas, like a poofy cloud. So any gas that could reach the outside of a house from a buried line would be faint.

The state’s theory probably breaks several laws of physics. That wisping gas would have to travel laterally from this coupling, in a focused vector, through a yard and through a concrete foundation, and accumulate in a house.

The Mesquite situation is similar. The WFAA cameras clearly showed a gas meter all the way by a fence. And Google Maps Street View shows that the gas lines are in the alley, separated from the house by many feet and a wood fence. (Picture of the next door neighbor’s gas meter in the alley–the exploded house is at 2505 Catalina.) These allegedly faulty couplings would be in lines buried under the alley, at least 20 feet from the house!

I don’t buy that Atmos exploded this house. I think something was wrong inside the house; that’s the homeowner’s responsibility. It’s irresponsible for WFAA to tar Atmos Energy for this.

Why does this matter? WFAA is campaigning for Atmos to replace tens of thousands of these Normac couplings. Maybe they leak more than ideal, but I have yet to see a convincing case that these couplings routinely cause imminent danger.

Furthermore, the cost of replacement is tens of millions of dollars. Guess who pays that? You and me, gas customers! So basically WFAA is campaigning to jack up our rates to fix something that may not be a problem.

If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it!

Why TARP salary caps are good conservative policy

Money falling out of bag and into open handsIt’s good conservative policy to oppose pay restrictions, including maximum or minimum wage laws.

But some conservatives also object to TARP salary caps. They are clinging to positions without considering context.

TARP is welfare for terribly-run firms. (I still maintain that chapter 7-style liquidations would have been better in the long run.) These firms got to the precipice of disaster because of incompetent leadership.

What will bad leaders do with cheap taxpayer cash? Line their pockets! What should bad leaders really get? Drastic pay cuts.

So what’s wrong with this salary cap? Nothing. If you got TARP funds, you have to live by reasonable restrictions. If you don’t like these restrictions, then raise capital and pay back the funds.

I am a conservative. I don’t like TARP, but I support its salary caps.