Vacation and Nomad

Going to Dublin to see the inlaws and all I can say is thank Lotus, and God for helping them, create Nomad for my USB stick. Sure I can use webmail, but my contacts are not in synch with it since it is not Lotus based like my desktop is at home.
And with business opps, the lotus user group and side projects takign shape I can't be without my contacts or details should they be needed.
Thanks again guys!

Lotusphere came to me, well Miami

Yes, I went to Orlando and Lotusphere came to me, well the Hard Rock casino in Hollywood.
Well a mini version actually.
Run by Perficient, a BP with a new office in Hollywood. They did an excellent job, Vishal, the local Perficient rep, was very nice and helpful. Wish him the best of luck in growing business down here.

About 20 or so people were there.
Encouraging since I am working on restarting the South Florida Lotus Users Group.
Some big companies were there, 1 brought 4 or 5 of their staff.

Details:
4 sessions.
1 general overall pitch by Craig Pessman which could have had more power to it.
1 portal express overview from Perficient's Portal expert(he really knows his stuff, unfortunately I forgot his name and did not get a card.
1 connections/quickr/green house like presentation by Maria Manchessi( ithin is how it is spelled).
1 Lotus forms by Jamie Hughes. Not sure where Lotus hid this product, but she made it sound really cool, and as a BP I saw it as really key for business. The problem is, I am told, it has been around for 2 years or so, since IBM bought the original company.
It runs on Websphere but not the Portal server, although it looks to have multiple server requirements based on needs.
Still a very cool product.
Sometimes too much info is bad, you know?

Anyway I met some nice people who hopefully will come tot he event in May.
Motorola/Good wants to sponsor and hold the meeting which looks promising.
Also the IBM people in attendance were very supportive of my efforts to start the LUG.

All in all a good day.

Lotus Notes8 and a Phoenix rises from the Ashes

Well it came out, finally, and no complaints.
Sure it crashes, what beta doesn't?

But the UI is fluid, cool(really) and highly productive.

I haven't been able to sit in one spot to do almost everything since the days of QEMM and Direct Access Menus.(If you remember those, you like me have been doing this for a LONG time).

Anyway, the sidebar is now for the first time since R5 able to much more than email pieces.
It handles Sametime and the Phoenix rising, "reborn/renewed" Lotus Smartsuite or e-suite which has a word processor, spreadsheet and presenter.
And of course your calendar, and will do much more.

But it's the Rss feeds/reader which is most impressive IMHO of the sidebar functionality.
Why?
Because I was using "my yahoo's page" as a reader(bad) or MS clients which I am beta testing(not bad but yet another piece of sofware).
Now it's not only in one spot, but provides listings, opens in the Lotus client or my browser, pops up when something new is posted from one of my followed sites and well, just makes the day to day of the executive who is a little techy, much more useful.

The downside might be many more calls to the helpdesk until the exec gets it right and setup.

But hey, office 2007's ribbon is no less confusing so I guess the new UI is the old time UI of "guess where/what the function you need is hiding".
And I thought software should make your life easier.

Again it's BETA people, get over it, these things will be worked out before it goes live.
Well, not in Office 2007's case :-P