Job Hunting and the Pregnant wife

Evidently it is not easy to take a job outside of your local area if your wife is pregnant.
I have lost quite a few jobs because the company(some small, some behemoths) could not figure out relocation for us because the family can not come until after the baby and I would have to be back and forth to home.
I have no problem with travel, working remotely or managing remotely or traveling 75% of my time. Evidently some companies do.
So even though I am willing to be based in Atlanta, Spain, Benelux, Seattle and others, I just get turned down because my family holds me back.
This is not right.
So if you have open headcount and don't mind me being based in Boca Raton, Florida for the next 6 months or so, please let me know so I can afford my new baby. Or alolow me to work in country for a week or 2 then home for a week.

Lotus and SPR/QMR and Templates

So what happens in this fast moving world when you encounter a problem, a bug or an issue with your favorite software?
Well you file a complaint with the online feedback location.
NOw, do you expect an immediate answer? Nope.
Do you eventually expect some answer? Yes.
Do you want to wait for a quarterly or semi-annual distribution? I don't think so.

My question is why can't Lotus provide template updates online to registered customers or even in general. Sure not much changes these days to templates but if they did or needed to, why should one have to wait? Sure you could argue there are special templates which require fees, but without the updated server side code, most template changes are useless.

If it was a security thing it would be out immediately. But fixing a sorting tab or button which does not perform as designed surely could be handled differently.

While on this topic, why don't we get a list of openntf.org templates or the ones in the Lotus sandbox when the file-new application dialogue box? MS Office does this very well by sending you to the online template site when you are searching for something.

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

CIO Magazine quotes me in article about SPAM

The senior online editor, Esther Schindler, from CIO magazines website had posted in the Lotus forums, and probably in many other sites as well looking for insights about SPAM and LOB(Lines of Business) and CXO's.
You can read the article here.
There were many thoughts pushed, but the one which I htink was missed, although an obvious one, is the following:
SPAM falls under SECURITY not messaging infrastructure or some other "admin" task area.
SPAM can and will be used against your organization at some point in time and who has the budget, if not the resources, to handle it? Not the IT staff. The security staff.
OK, so Postini is a great option, I met them at Lotusphere 2007 and previously. But maybe you are not big enough to pay for them. Maybe you should rethink it.
Look into the expenses you have now to fight spam, from hardware, software, time effort of the IT staff, telecoms/data traffic, and you start to see big numbers.
Read the article if you think SPAM is just a monty python skit!

Lotusphere 2007, to infinity and beyond!

Well at least to R8 and beyond. I should have used it in my session.
Anyway, a great show, very much a Lotus focused event, with very little IBM referencing. Nice in light of the last few years where anything not IBM branded was tossed out.
Where to begin.

UX Lab (User Acceptance)
1st of all if you never did a user experience, they are great but take time, so plan ahead and sign up for a time that works for you.
I did 2, one on R8 collaboration and one on the Dogear product.
What can I say about R8 that many haven't? It's cool, it's advanced, it's a portal/dashboard, it can detach "pieces" like calendar or activities or sametime.
Downside, well, good luck getting some older employees used to a million things blinking and popping up around their screen.
Dogear is interesting, to a point. It is about sharing bookmarks and tags to better search or compare information. Maybe you think I know what I am talking about and like my bookmarks to update yours. Maybe not.
While I enjoy the online sharing of information, sometimes my internal interests should not be shared. Also I found it odd why I would want to include someone else's bookmarks into mine(making a few dozen to a few hundred) when I could just as easily search the system or web for the information as well. I was confused and still am on this point, but as the product was still being UI completed, even though it has been running in IBM for 2 years I was told, it is far from unintuitive and I consider myself technically adept.

I did not make it to too many sessions, but then there are really only a few I ever want to go to since the majority is either about the future (R8 which I still can not touch) or application developement. Damn if I missed the worst practices session, probably the most enjoyable one.

GURUPALOOZA
Yep, fun, but seriously lacking in admin people, HELLO! not everyone cares about appdev. Wait Nathan just threw something at me, it's a flyer from openntf.org.
Seriously, it was great to see so many up there, and put names to faces. The combined experience on the dais was amazing, although a brief name or intro on each person would have been helpful to those of us that just know people by their blog or reputation.
But the email problem questions could and should have been answered in a better way. Well maybe next year I can obtain Guru status or at least I can have it as a goal for this blog and my self over 2007.

Sadly I missed Ed Brill's BoF for bloggers on thursday, overslept, big bummer. And then missed the dinner with them all Thursday because of family things. Well there is always next year.

I was impressed to see all my EMEA friends there, were there any US Lotii down at the show?
Edited names to protect everyone.

And thank you to the IBM partner pedestals that gave out network travel packets (with phone charger connection ends too for USB) and usb hubs, they came in VERY handy in a pinch.

I think in another post I will update my list of required items for Lotusphere.

And as always if you have a Domino emergency, do not hesitate to call. We are open for business.
Edited to protect the innocent!

Lotusphere 2008

I can say, for perhaps the first time in a decade, I want to sign up as an early attendee for next year. I am sure many people would agree the future is bright and yellow and at an early fee of about $1500 it is well worth it.
Now how do i get more hours in my day and days in my week to do everything here.
And oh yeah, everyone is walking around on tuesday saying its been a long week!

ed brills session on selling notes

had a whole blog done, hit send, no go. Evidently pocketpc and my blog do not work well together.
I had done it all on my phone.
Bummer.
Ed and Julian's sessions was great, SRO.
Superman looks the same as in his R5 days but Julian substituted.
10 steps to selling clients and some anecdotals upfront go along way.
And for everyone's benefit, ROI means "Rely on IBM".
Everyone is ecstatic about R8 and the future although for me it will be rough, i am not a developer and eclipse will make my life slightly miserable while I learn some of it.
I also did some user testing on the R8 client, more about that in a different post because, well, it's cool, great, but some issues arose which when i look at it from a corp perspective nothing show stopping of course, just a hint to Iris to create some good help files.

Lotusphere 2007 is here

Not leaving until sunday night, but preparing everything to go.
Full agenda, up very early all week, BP work to do, client work to finish.
Business is good, but business should pick up at the sphere.
See you in Orlando!

Lotusphere Fun

Lot's of fun out there to be had over the next week. Rocky's got his 12 Lotusphere Attenders as reported by Ed Brill.

My entry for the Haiku was:
Microsoft is bad,
Borat makes them look okay,
Lotus is Brilliant!

I have something just for the Ed Brill lovers out there, Ed Brill Bingo!

Was gong ot have a t-shirt made up but you know how it is sometimes, getting waivers signed, etc.. Names are listed just in case....

No I don't have too much time on my hands, this was done a few weeks back over holiday vacation.

Never turn down clients

Sure my main project disappeared last week.
Bummer, "I love this place", well i do and did, but you know how it is.
So I had lined up a small Domino setup for a law firm, Sametime, Domino, Document Manager, the fun and simple stuff.
Now one of my recycling clients has called, last minute, to get 100 pieces of equipment. Good money but I am short on time, with Lotusphere coming up and being out of town.
We should all have such problems. :-)
I am busy editing my corp. website for the Sphere and it is taking WAY too long.
But business is business and business must grow!
See you in Orlando, I'm the simple man with a yellow "Boca Beanie" you can't miss it.

Nomad NO GO on PocketPC

Bummer of a birthmark. What looks like Windows, talks like windows, acts like windows but isn't windows?
drum roll please.....
PocketPC or Windows mobile 5

I copied the nomad over to my minisd on my phone click to run and error says this is not a pocketpc app.
DUH!
So now my friends in the development world, help me to help all lotus fans everywhere. How can I get Nomad to run on pocketpc?
On the bright side, all 3 notes clients work fine.

NOMAD ROCKS!

This is cool, sorry i did not get around to doing it sooner.
Forget the laptop, just plug it into your phone and go.
Will move my mail dbs and stuff tonight.
Sadly it did take an hour to install and a few minutes for setup/config info to get sorted.
Mine installed admin and designer too so I am slowly dropping pieces I don't need.
So far got notes down to about 350MB.
Pretty cool. And if my theory holds on connecting it to my phone, then no laptop for me.
Damn, I should make tshirts for orlando, go Nomad and leave the laptop at home, clothes optional.
:-)
As Chris W. pointed out, who knows if IBM will lock out USBs on the kiosks, but I don't care :-)

NOMAD and Lotusphere

No idea what is in store for us in orlando as it relates to NOMAD, but I got my 1GB usb drive installing as I write.
As the docs state, it may take a while to install, and it sure does. Mine will take about an hour.
Should be worth it though.
I am not taking a laptop to Orlando, no need to carry excess baggage.
My Cingular 8125 handles any emergency browsing, note taking or emails I need to reply and the NOMAD should handle more email at a kiosk, pedestal or friends laptop.
Still hunting for sponsors and promotions for my BoF so let me know.

Domain Monitoring and Domino R7

Yes, if you don't use it, you are missing out. But if you do use it, well, you may never have a minute of free time!
My client thankfully after my brief 4 months here is humming along perfectly happy.
Before I came in to remotely handle the admin and management:
1- Servers would fail especially the HUB and stay down until someone took care of it
2- dozens of dead mail sat in the mail.box's on every server
3- mail routing was enabled from any server to the SMTP gateway(good but highly unsecure)
4- servers runnning R5, R6 and R7 and in some cases using R4 templates for mail
5- 4 different NAB/Directories from 4 different previous owners populated the servers, still, some 10 years after the fact
6- Servers were not under warranty and of course one primary failed
7- termination lists had not been kept up to date so 100's of "dead' users were stil live
8- No stats or events or monitoring running
9- Servers did not notify admins when they failed or had issues connecting
10- Some server IP and DNS names did not match the server docs! No wonder some people never got their email here :-)

Well you get the idea.

Having fixed all of this, I used the Domain monitoring to check on everything. And it really likes to tell me all about the attempts to connect to the HUB by everyone, if i toss all of those, I probably have it down to 1 incident of consequence every day or 2 and that is usually warnings that the network is slow (I love when I get heckled by computers don't you?)

Looking forward to new tools at the Sphere so if you are a vendor with some admin tools I should know about, please let me know.

Direction Changes

While I wanted this to be about Domino administration, I find that I am not really drawn to write about the trials and tribulations found among us firemen.
Instead I want to devote my time to remote admin and outsourcing of it for Domino infrastrcutures.
Why?
Because while many of you out there outsource your admin already, few of you have some one who really understands what is going on and managing the future of your network.
Call it high consulting, top tier admin, expert on call, whatever the description, ask yourself this about your environment:
Is our environment healthy?
How would we know?
Do we need more or less servers?
Why do we still run R5 or R6 templates when we have an R7 server?
Do we have alternative routing setup in case of SMTP or gateway failures?
Unified messaging, it has been around for Domino since 1999 or earlier, when will you implement it?
Legal audit? When was the last time you pulled a backup tape from 5+ years ago and verfified the data was intact and usable?

If any or all of these are in question let me know and we can discuss it, or meet me at Lotusphere at my BoF session for more information.
Happy New Year!

IBM Marketing and I, er You?

If you have been reading Ed brills blog you will have seen the recent discussion about IBM marketing and the perennial "Lotus is Dead" rumor out of Redmond.

While I will not sit and argue that IBM does or doesn't get marketing and advertising, I will post an example of something so basic, yet profound that I received from IBM after downloading a white paper or reading a tech article on Sametime.

On the plus side, it shows an active IBM trying to engage its potential customers. Something many of us think does not exist. It also highlights what you were looking at and how to get help. By the way he did include all of his contact information, phone, email, address, etc.

The down side is the text and bad form letter formatting. This does not make me want to interact with you, it just makes me feel like you have been spying on me(I know it was IBM's website and they should be tracking all visitor's, I am just saying how I would feel as a non-techy).
Specific examples of why Sametime or IM would benefit someone, around the clock availability of someone someplace to fix something. Costs saved or a local BP to talk to would be helpful or even a local reference or even just a link to a reference?

Nope just bad adcopy. Shame, it really is.


"Hello Mr. Brooks:

I recently noticed that you expressed interest in our IBM Lotus Sametime 7.5 instant messaging solution. Our main objective is to get your questions answered and meet your business needs. We have actually been doing some innovative and creative things here at IBM to increase efficiency, grow revenue and reduce costs for businesses in your sector. In order to serve your needs and find what you are looking for, please call me and I will provide you with the resources for any IBM solutions. Look forward to hearing from you. Thank you Brooks.

Please feel free to contact me at the number and extension below.

Regards,

Lead Generation Representative - Software"

Job Wanted, Contract ending

An excellent way to start your day, high off my fantasy football win to find out my contract is done, Jan 15. Couldn't even get me to Lotusphere could they.
Well anyway I am available for remote work or if you can afford it onsite consulting.
Let me know your need and we can work something out.
Otherwise I will be sitting at the Swan with a Lotus Notes empty cardboard box collecting change.

Finals in Fantasy Football

Not my usual thing, but I somehow managed to pull a win in my playoffs and made it to the final round in fantasy football.
I want to thank Marvin Harrison, ex-UM and current Colt for his great showing last night.
Just go to beat the guy with Ladanian.