Oracle's Ellison outlines plans for Hawaiian Electriclarryland

Re: With volcano?

In an interview Ellison told he would employ Linus any time, perhaps like Jobs who wanted him to then leave Linux behind him. On the other hand Oracle has supported Linux since 98 I think, and is a big Linux user internally, if that has not changed with Solaris.

Re: The whole island

He bought 90% ish of it. It dates back to the mahele (and the ahupua'a system) and how land was divided. Lana'i was pretty much bought up and used for pineapple. Larry just bought that large share. Some folks will own the land their home is on, some will lease but it's fairly sparsely populated.

Lana'i city is ironically named, I can whack a cricket ball from one end of it to the other. Nice place though, awesome kanaka.

The wind farm is a huge mistake, not the principal, but it's location. Potable water has been an issue there, isolation not so much although it is isolated. Gas prices are due as much to the scale / lack of competition than anything else. Hana has similar gas prices, only one station, Lahaina harbour is even more expensive but there isn't much choice if you want to fuel a decent sized boat. The electric car idea sounds funny, I can just imagine all the braddahs trading their raised f350's for a volt. Just isn't happening, might make sense for the touristas and their rentals. Solar could be interesting, but so could geothermal, especially an open geothermal system as that would give you power and potable water.

Lana'i (and to be fair most places here) are stuck between wanting to expand and modernise but not wanting to lose their identity and charm. It's a tough choice, it's always tempting to build another hotel or timeshare, but you go from looking like Lana'i or Moloka'i to looking like Oahu. Folks need work, lets see if Larry manages to do this tastefully without killing the charm of the island.