Big Mutant Blog

OK, now that my break is over . . . ;-)

It has been a long time since my last entry and a lot has happened. A move to Pennsylvania, setting up a new house, etc. But I felt now was the time to re-enter the blogging field on the eve of Lotusphere 2009!

Now, unfortuanetly, I will not be attending this year but Lotus 911 will be there stronger, better, and a bigger presence than before! We are kicking things off right with a new design to our website and even a YouTube video. Go and stop by the Lotus 911 area (#424 - 427) at Lotusphere 2009 and check out all the new stuff.

When to Catch Lotus 911 at Lotusphere:

Lotus 911 is pleased to be participating in the following sessions this year. Be sure to add these to your schedule now:

Sun 1/18	1:30 PM	BDD201: Changing the Game: Brand New Revenue Opportunities in Small and Medium Business	Scott Hooks
Tue 1/20	7:00 AM	BOF308: Deploying the IBM Lotus Notes ID Vault: Come Share Your Experiences and Questions!	Nathan T Freeman
Tue 1/20	8:30 AM	AD212: 10 Web 2.0 User Interface Patterns for IBM Lotus Notes and XPages	Nathan T Freeman
Tue 1/20	6:00 PM	Speedgeeking	Tim Tripcony Devin Olson
Wed 1/21	7:00 AM	BOF403: BleedYellow.com Future Directions	Chris Whisonant
Wed 1/21	10:00 AM	AD210: Built to Last: IBM Lotus Domino Development Strategies	Nathan T Freeman
Wed 1/21	12:30 PM	SHOW302: Getting Your Feet Wet with IBM Lotus Connections	Chris Whisonant
Wed 1/21	5:45 PM	BOF406: DXL in the Wild	Nathan T Freeman Tim Tripcony
Thu 1/22	10:00 AM	BP203: Go Green! Reducing Your Collaboration Carbon Footprint	Chris Whisonant
Thu 1/22	11:30 AM	GURUpalooza!	Nathan T Freeman Chris Whisonant

I would also like to take this time to welcome back Nathan back to his blog after being dark for so long ('Go towards the light Nathan, go towards the light') ;-). "Welcome back Boss Man"

Everyone have fun at The 'Sphere and sing some karaoke for me!

Be seeing you in the funny papers.....

OK, Lotusphere just ended last week and one of the sessions I attended was Bruce Elgort and Chris Blatnick's session "YIKES!... It Looks Like That?"  In this session they discussed items not only of the UI design but also of helpful and helpful error messages.

Well, I just ran into this in real life.  I was trying to set up an LEI activity to import data from an external file. When I tried to save the activity document I was presented the error message below:

"Required?... but it is optional.....but if it's optional, it can't be required!  ERROR! ERROR!" (brain shuts down)

Just wanted to share this for some levity for the day.

It's over!  The ending session has completed and the walkway between the Swan and Dolphin hotels are all but empty, another Lotusphere is in the can (that's movie talk people).  We are now back on the bus and heading for home. The knowledge transfer that has happened this week is astounding!  It was good to see friends from afar and to make new ones.  People that you have conversed with over email, IM etc. you can now place a face with the voice text.  Time to go home and digest all of the information gleamed over the past week and put it to good use, that's right kiddies, use the knowledge for good and not evil. So as we cruise back up I-75 on the way to Atlanta, some sleeping, some talking and me, I'm blogging (geek!).  But we will all return to the job better for what we have just experienced. That's a wrap people... and cut ! (more movie talk) :-) P.S. - To my wife, Diane, I'm sorry I couldn't find you a monkey.

Well it's the final day and everything is wrapping up.  Went to the session "The Great Code Away" from Rob Novak and  Viktor  Krantz, a session that every year is packed so I made sure I got there early.  The room filled up fast and Rob abd Viktor show some fantastic stuff to do with the Dojo code.

Right now I am at Gurupalooza.  A panal of top-notch developers are answering questions to any one that has questions on anything on Lotus Notes, Domino, Connections, etc.  And we have two of our own on the panel, Nathan Freeman and Chris Whisonant.

*Note* - Buzzword of the day is still "BleedYellow"

I just attended Chris Blatnick and Bruce Elgort's session "YIKES!... It looks like that?" and it was so good.  This was a session about good UI practices and it showed some examples of very bad UI examples.  I saw things that I had done in the past (but hate to admit) and I got really good tips for stuff that I will be designing in the future. I have been reading both of their blogs for a long time (as well as listening to the Taking Notes Podacast since the beginning) but this is the first time I have been able to meet either of them.  They are a couple of good guys and really good speakers, making their sessions fun to listen to and not just droning you to death.

And, hey, look at this guy.  How can you not want to listen to him.
He's just too cool for school.

It is now day 2 of the 'Sphere and I am already exhausted.  Day 1 started off with a bang and the booth got flooded but we made some good contacts and everyone is very excited over the new BleedYellow website.  Come on by and see us, sign up for an account and get a t-shirt (yes we have 2XL).

Today, more sessions and more booth time.  Also, the Lotusphere Idol compititions are on, with our buddy Chris Toohey, but that is for the next entry

.

The session started out like always.  We  entered the room that the house lights were down and the "Rock Star" element was in place.  The band was playing and the canned lights were flaring all over the room.  When the session started we were entertained by the Orlando Symphony Orchestra and then Mike Rhodin took the stage to speak about this years theme for Lotusphere, "Emergence".  Mike then introduce this years speaker, Bob Costas, who was greated by a smattering of applause.  Mike Rhodin then took the stage again to announce the newest business ventures. Among those were upcoming projects with RIM and project "Atlantic" with SAP.
Next, future plans were announced and demoed for Notes/Domino 8.5, Symphony, Sametime, Portal and Quickr. Then Mike Rhodin announced the launching of Lotus Mashups and Lotus Foundations which will be combined with a new project "bluehose" that will be directed toward the small businesses using Lotus Notes and Domino.
For an in-depth briefing of the goings on, take a look at the entry written by Scott Hooks on his blog, Off The Hook, were he blogged as these items were discussed in the OGS.

For more images from the OGS, take a look at my Lotusphere 2008 Opening General Session.

After a long bus ride, the group from Lotus 911 went to dinner at Shula's Restaurant and had a wonderful dinner.  Then we decided to relax with a little karaoke at Kimono's in the Swan Hotel.

To see more of this fine evening, click here . .

On the bus ride to Orlando Tim Tripcony was helping me finish coding the new Lotus 911 website when Jimmy caught him like this.

This was a great shot and I couldn't pass it up because Tim can code things in his sleep that most of wouldn't dream (get it... dream) of.

And we're off!  Lotus 911 officially started on on the trip to Lotusphere 2008 in Orlando , FL.

From left to right: Mike Smelser, Mike Frank, Chris Whisonant, Nathan Freeman, Lisa Freeman, Scott Hooks, Jennifer Bracco, Jimmy Bracco, Luz Londono, Tim Tripcony, Sheri Weakley

We started off a little bumpy, the generator in the bus went bad and had to get it replaced but that only set us back one hour.  The brain trust in this are is scary... but were are getting a lot of things accomplished and we've only been on the road for an hour.

*NOTE* - This was posted on the bus while traveling down I-75!!

More later....