Big A** Mutant Blog

With IBM's announcement, Alan Lepofsky suggested that we should make August 11th "Yellow Day". With this proclamation YellowBleeders are encouraged to show their spirit in any way possible.

Some possible ideas that have been suggested are:
1. Wear something yellow to work.
2. Use the graphic in this post on your website/blog/email/whatever else. Or download a larger version!
3. Give your users a useful tip for the day.
4. If it's your thing, podcast.
5. Write a cool piece of software using Lotus technology and show it off.

Alan has also thrown down the gauntlet for Lotus 911 to do something to commemorate this, and we will. So stay tuned!

I was listening to the the last installment of the TWIT (This Week In Tech) podcast and heard something that just floored me.

The moderator, Leo Laporte, was speaking with a guest named Jason Calacanis who was speaking about what Microsoft does with their applications. What really got me is the statement he made around the 19:52 mark in the podcast:

"Look at what they (Microsoft) did with Lotus 1-2-3. Look at what they (Microsoft) did to Lotus Notes"

Does he really think that Lotus Notes is owned by Microsoft? We should all pray to the binary gods that never becomes reality.

If you want to check it out for yourself, you can download it from iTunes or directly from their website.

OK, since everyone else is doing it, I might as well log my version of:

"How I Learned to Bleed Yellow"

OK, let's start at the beginning... First the earth cooled and then the dinasours came.... oops, sorry too far back,

I was woking as a Systems Administrator for a consulting firm called Origin Technology in Business (later called Atos Origin) and I was on a long term (stress on the LONG) at Procter & Gamble at their data center in Cincinnati, OH. I was mainly in charge of the 2nd level support of their HP3000 midrange systems but I also rotated through 2nd level support for their network as well as mainframe systems.

One day they came by and left these cd's on our desks to learn about something called "Lotus Notes" (this was back in the 4.x days). So I played the CD and watched a bunch of stick figures move around on the screen and after it was through I thought to myself that had to be the dumbest thing I ever saw. So, about 2 weeks went by and they started installing all of the Notes servers so I started reading up on it and found that it was better than the CD led it to be. I was getting real bored with second level support and with the company I was with I needed to prove I could do other things before they would let me move to other things, kind of like proving you don't need a loan before they will give you a loan, So I decided to try and teach myself Notes programming.

Up until now whenever we did our disaster recovery drills it consisted of grabbing 25+ (heavy) binders filled with mostly outdated processes and throwing then onto a cart and hauling them 30 mile away to our secondary site -- PIA. So for my first attempt at making a notes database, I wrote an application to store all of these documents, which were then regularly updated and backed up to a CD. Then all we had to do was take the CD to the secondary site, my (P&G) boss loved it...until her visited our European site. <ominous music>duhn duhn duhn</ominous music>

He was going over to Europe anyway so he decided to show them the new database I had written. What he found out was that 2 months earlier our European counterparts had contracted an outside company to do the same thing and they were not happy that we had already created one. So, even though our's was complete (their's was not) and didn't cost anything the higher-ups decided to scrap ours (but we still used it). When their version was finally completed (a month later) they showed it to us and we instantly began to find holes in it like in the US there were government regulations that needed to be followed that they had no idea of and approvals that were not included. When we presented this I was instantly put on the review committee to ensure their database added all of the US standards that were required.

From that point on I began hemorrhaging (yellow). I was moved to the Lotus Notes team within Origin were I continued to learn until a couple of years later when P&G decided not to place them on the "Preferred Vendors" list (their prices were too high). Slowly the worked dropped off, people began getting layed off and even though I was not officially layed off, they told me they would call when they had work for me, so I began job hunting. I found a job with a trash hauling company in Cincinnati for a few years, where I was both Administrator and Developer. I developed new working relationships with other developers (right Mr. Toohey?) and I then grew the need for Notes there that I was able to hire on one of my previous co-workers from Origin that was layed off before me. A few years later my wife finished her PhD and received a fellowship at the CDC here in Atlanta where I applied for a position and now find myself with Lotus 911 (YEAH!).

I hope my tale was not too long on boring for you. I now return you to the rest of your day.

Hailing frequencies closed.