B's Blog

  So how important is the ability to do work from a mobile device these days? It appears that more an more people are attempting to do more and more work from a mobile device. With the release of the new 3G iPhone, it appears that many more people are going to look at taking advantage of being able to do work on a 3.5" screen vs. lugging around a 17" screen to do work on. Also, with Blackberry ever evolving, there new phone titled "Bold", appears to be nearly as flexible as the iPhone (although the iPhone interface is still lightyears ahead of the hardware interface on most other mobile devices). Also, given the ability to IM, email and even office work (Windows Mobile 6 allows for work with Word/Excel and Powerpoint documents), many people are looking for an excuse not to have to haul around their 17" liability. I personally don't mind hauling around a laptop, and with laptops getting smaller and smaller all the time, it won't be long before a hi-res 13" option becomes available (especially with the way Apple keeps going). Check out the new "enterprise ready" iPhone here. I personally think that Apple already has something up there sleeves to make the ultimate mobile device (something between a laptop and iPhone) but I guess we will see what the future holds.

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B

Your results:
You are Iron Man

Iron Man 70% Supergirl 60% Superman 55% Spider-Man 50% Hulk 45% Green Lantern 45% Wonder Woman 40% The Flash 40% Robin 37% Batman 35% Catwoman 35%

Inventor. Businessman. Genius.

Click here to take the "Which Superhero are you?" quiz...

Hey there, did anyone attend the Lotus Mashups online webinar today? I'm not sure what to really think about the new Lotus Mashups, it seems like a cool idea but still a little to complicated for the average business user. Also, I think there may be a concern around opening up backend information for users to access. It seems to me that everything would have to be locked down and read-only for Mashups to be truly accepted by IT organizations, yet part of the reason that Mashups could be very powerful would be the ability to interface and change the data that is stored in systems such as SAP. It's a toss up to me as to how useful Mashups will actually be without changing backend data, but in the same respect how many IT organizations will actually trust their business users to access and change this data? I guess we'll see how it all plays out in the next year or so.

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B

Hey everyone, sorry it's been so long but between my 1st and 2nd jobs as well as the passing of my first anniversary, it's been awhile since I've really even had time to think about blogging. But anyway, there are a lot of exciting things happening with the proof of value we've been doing at work, our Product Development crew is really taking to these tools, so it will be exciting to see what develops from that. Our team has had a chance to just sit back and watch this develop, but we've also been looking for tools to add to the suite of tools, which includes RSS and other such tools. So we will see how this all plays out, and for those who are currently using Connections 2.0, I'm jealous.....

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B

 I don't understand why it is so difficult for a vendor to make their software interact with other software they create! Why can't they integrate their software so that it is easier for people to install and configure? We are trying to install the Sametime plug-in to interact with our Connections install so that people can just go straight to Connections from Sametime. But for some reason, either the Connection server isn't setup or properly or an LDAP config isn't in place because all that gets returned to sametime is "CN - A profile does not exist for this person." All I know, is that when I go to Connections a profile definitely exists for the person, so I'm not sure why this is so difficult. Anyone else use this plug-in and see similar issues, or better yet, has anyone seen the issue and resolved it?

 

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B

 So here is an overview of the new service pack for Windows XP. Service Pack 3 contains all previously released XP updates, which includes security patches, hotfixes, and select out-of-band releases. There isn't going to be any significant functionality additions, particularly regarding features found in Vista, that will be added to Windows XP or SP3. The user experience of Windows XP will not change and should not change user interaction. SP3 does not include Windows Internet Explorer 7, but it will contain hotfixes and security fixes for both IE 7 and 6. The installation will detect which version of the browser is installed and install the security fixes based on the version installed.

 

Windows XP SP3 is a cumulative update, which means that it can be installed on top of Windows XP SP1 and SP2. Also, tools and guidance for administrators has not changed from SP2 to SP3. The goals for this release are to provide a new baseline for customers still deploying Windows XP, to help them avoid the inconvenience of applying individual updates as well as provide them with a way to fill the gaps in the updates that users may have missed by declining individual updates and to deliver updates not available through Windows Update. 

 

Seems to me like a very nice way to let update the out-of-date clients that are traveling all the time without too much inconvenience. At least for now....

 

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B

So I've read a couple things recently regarding the virtual workforce and I am very interested to see how this develops throughout the next 5 years. With the rising gas prices and "Go Green" movement that seems to be sweeping the nation, there is going to be a big push to cut down on the driving that occurs on a daily basis in the US. I believe that these are the reasons that businesses will be pushing towards virtualizing their workforces. Also, I believe that the business professionals themselves will push to be able to work from home. There are many benefits to working from home, both for users and for businesses. The first and most obvious benefit (in my opinion) is the reduced travel costs. The amount saved in gas costs alone will help boost the economy and give people a better sense of financial security. Another obvious benefit is time spent traveling. They say that in any city, you can get to anywhere in 20 minutes. Well, having lived in a city for the last 5 years, that's not exactly true. The average professional spends anywhere from 20 minutes to 2 hours everyday traveling to and from work. That is 40 minutes to 4 hours every single day that is wasted in the car! Boy, I can just imagine what I could do with an extra hour every day......the point is, virtualizing the workforce could be very beneficial to businesses, people and the environment. I'll definitely be the first in line to volunteer for that!

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B

So I have some candid feedback on what I think Connections does great, and what I think is lacking. First I'll start with the things that it does great.

This software offers 5 different services all from the same sight. It's a combination of MySpace, Del.icio.us, and Blogger with a few extra features. Now granted it doesn't offer everything that the combination of those services has, but it does offer them the possibility of interacting together, which is really cool. The profiles may not be as customizable as a MySpace profile, but you can tag yourself and create your own content, which is more difficult to find in a profiling system than one might think. Dogear is pretty much the coolest thing since sliced bread, given that you can not only have your own personal dogears but you can also have dogears that are relevant to a specific group of people (aka a Community).

As far as the features that are not available in the Connections product (1.0.2, after having gone to Lotusphere '08 I know they are adding some of the features I'm about to list). One of the biggest drawbacks (for us personally), is the lack of an integrated wiki. We would like to have a Wiki that can be searched through Connections, not through the wiki's own search function. Also, the lack of a forum complete with the ability to poll is also a missing feature. Polling is a great way to get feedback, and unfortunately is not a feature of this release. It also seems that Communities in general is lacking much depth, the only thing you can really do as of right now is share bookmarks and feeds.

All in all, Lotus Connections offers up a great many services in one easy to use interface, I think that a few more versions of this will offer the features mentioned above and will definitely make IBM and Lotus the leader in the social software market.

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B

So I'm doing a little a poll, and I'm looking to see what other companies are using in respect to app deployment. The major players out there right now seem to be Microsoft's SMS/Softgrid system as well as IBM's Tivoli Provisioning Manager software. Novell is also a key player is this realm. So, if any of you read this, please respond via comment or shoot me an email as I am curious to the different app deployment environments people are using. Please include:

• App Deployment Software
• Company Industry
• Company Size

Thanks for taking the time everyone!

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B

So yesterday was the first time that I did I live blog from an event, and I have to admit that it was quite exciting to do. IBM was putting on a workshop for Connections to key advocates in our business units, and I had a running blog going on the different business initiatives that could benefit from social software. It was really very interesting to see the different business units declare their use cases, and actually there was a lot of overlap between many of the business units, including Marketing and IS as well as Product Development and IS.

It will be very exciting to see the social software develop over the POV, and into the Pilot program.

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B

So in an interesting discovery today, I noticed a strangely coincidental correlation between clicks in Connections and massive spikes in CPU usage, ranging from a 10% to an 80% spike. It was rather strange to see my clicks correlate 90% of the time with the spikes that showed on the CPU meter. Now granted we're running Connections on a single core at 3.33 Ghz and 3.75 mb of ram on a VM, but nonetheless, I would have expected a little bit better performance out of the beast. The thing that concerns me the most, is that I was the only one clicking anything on the entire site! We haven't even started the POV yet, so I'm a little concerned that the load may be too much for this little VM. We will see I suppose......

On a related note, don't try to start all the Connections services via a script at once, it looks painful to see the CPU spiked at 100% for so long and to see the page file sit at 3.80 GB.......kind of crazy. Anyway, time to go workout, I'm done with Connections for now......

Signing off,
B 

Hey everyone, it's been awhile since I last blogged, but a lot has been happening. We have been researching a lot of different things, including Enterprise Search with IBM's OmniFind tool, blogging front ends to link to multiple blogs, and finishing the branding of Connections. Given that we aren't a Notes shop (I know, I know....) we were going to try and use Microsoft Word to post blogs. Unfortunately, even though it's setup using the MetaWeblog API, it still for some reason does not want to connect via that API......has anyone else run into this issue?

After visiting Lotusphere, I've come to the conclusion that if this were a perfect world, then everything would be able to integrate with one another and people would be able choose whether they like the Notes interface or the Outlook interface. The office interface or the symphony interface. Why is it so dang hard to get things to work with another? Is it for the same reason that it's difficult to get certain people to work with one another? Hmmm.......a never-ending battle for teamwork.....BTW, has anyone successfully gotten the integration between Outlook and Sametime to work??? It really likes to crash on the two systems we've been testing with...Oh well......maybe Sametime 8.0 will resolve the issue...

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B

This is a great story and has a very good morale. I really enjoyed this story, so I thought I would share it with everyone else.

"Watch out! You nearly broad sided that car!" My father yelled at me.

"Can't you do anything right?"

Those words hurt worse than blows. I turned my head toward the elderly man in the seat beside me, daring me to challenge him. A lump rose in my throat as I averted my eyes. I wasn't prepared for another battle.

"I saw the car, Dad. Please don't yell at me when I'm driving." My voice was measured and steady, sounding far calmer than I really felt.

Dad glared at me, then turned away and settled back. At home I left Dad in front of the television and went outside to collect my thoughts. Dark, heavy clouds hung in the air with a promise of rain. The rumble of distant thunder seemed to echo my inner turmoil.

What could I do about him?

Dad had been a lumberjack in Washington and Oregon. He had enjoyed being outdoors and had reveled in pitting his strength against the forces of nature. He had entered grueling lumberjack competitions, and had placed often. The shelves in his house were filled with trophies that attested to his prowess.

The years marched on relentlessly. The first time he couldn't lift a heavy log, he joked about it; but later that same day I saw him outside alone, straining to lift it. He became irritable whenever anyone teased him about his advancing age, or when he couldn't do something he had done as a younger man.

Four days after his sixty-seventh birthday, he had a heart attack. An ambulance sped him to the hospital while a paramedic administered CPR to keep blood and oxygen flowing. At the hospital, Dad was rushed into an operating room. He was lucky; he survived.

But something inside Dad died. His zest for life was gone. He obstinately refused to follow doctor's orders. Suggestions and offers of help were turned aside with sarcasm and insults. The number of visitors thinned, then finally stopped altogether. Dad was left alone.

My husband, Dick, and I asked Dad to come live with us on our small farm. We hoped the fresh air and rustic atmosphere would help him adjust. Within a week after he moved in, I regretted the invitation. It seemed nothing was satisfactory. He criticized everything I did. I became frustrated and moody. Soon I was taking my pent-up anger out on Dick. We began to bicker and argue. Alarmed, Dick sought out our pastor and explained the situation. The clergyman set up weekly counseling appointments for us. At the close of each session he prayed, asking God to soothe Dad's troubled mind. But the months wore on and God was silent.. Something had to be done and it was up to me to do it.

The next day I sat down with the phone book and methodically called each of the mental health clinics listed in the Yellow Pages. I explained my problem to each of the sympathetic voices that answered. In vain. Just when I was giving up hope, one of the voices suddenly exclaimed, "I just read something that might help you! Let me go get the article." I listened as she read. The article described a remarkable study done at a nursing home. All of the patients were under treatment for chronic depression. Yet their attitudes had improved dramatically when they were given responsibility for a dog.

I drove to the animal shelter that afternoon. After I filled out a questionnaire, a uniformed officer led me to the kennels. The odor of disinfectant stung my nostrils as I moved down the row of pens. Each contained five to seven dogs. Long-haired dogs, curly-haired dogs, black dogs, spotted dogs all jumped up, trying to reach me. I studied each one but rejected one after the other for various reasons too big, too small, too much hair. As I neared the last pen a dog in the shadows of the far corner struggled to his feet, walked to the front of the run and sat down. It was a pointer, one of the dog world's aristocrats. But this was a caricature of the breed. Years had etched his face and muzzle with shades of gray. His hipbones jutted out in lopsided triangles. But it was his eyes that caught and held my attention. Calm and clear, they beheld me unwaveringly.

I pointed to the dog. "Can you tell me about him?" The officer looked, then shook his head in puzzlement.

"He's a funny one. Appeared out of nowhere and sat in front of the gate. We brought him in, figuring someone would be right down to claim him. That was two weeks ago and we've heard nothing. His time is up tomorrow." He gestured helplessly.

As the words sank in I turned to the man in horror. "You mean you're going to kill him?"

"Ma'am," he said gently, "that's our policy. We don't have room for every unclaimed dog."

I looked at the pointer again. The calm brown eyes awaited my decision. "I'll take him," I said.

I drove home with the dog on the front seat beside me. When I reached the house I honked the horn twice. I was helping my prize out of the car when Dad shuffled onto the front porch.

"Ta-da! Look what I got for you, Dad!" I said excitedly.

Dad looked, then wrinkled his face in disgust. "If I had wanted a dog I would have gotten one. And I would have picked out a better specimen than that bag of bones. Keep it! I don't want it" Dad waved his arm scornfully and turned back toward the house.

Anger rose inside me. It squeezed together my throat muscles and pounded into my temples.

"You'd better get used to him, Dad. He's staying!" Dad ignored me. "Did you hear me, Dad?" I screamed. At those words Dad whirled angrily, his hands clenched at his sides, his eyes narrowed and blazing with hate.

We stood glaring at each other like duelists, when suddenly the pointer pulled free from my grasp. He wobbled toward my dad and sat down in front of him. Then slowly, carefully, he raised his paw.

Dad's lower jaw trembled as he stared at the uplifted paw. Confusion replaced the anger in his eyes. The pointer waited patiently. Then Dad was on his knees hugging the animal.

It was the beginning of a warm and intimate friendship. Dad named the pointer Cheyenne. Together he and Cheyenne explored the community. They spent long hours walking down dusty lanes. They spent reflective moments on the banks of streams, angling for tasty trout. They even started to attend Sunday services together, Dad sitting in a pew and Cheyenne lying quietly at his feet.

Dad and Cheyenne were inseparable throughout the next three years. Dad's bitterness faded, and he and Cheyenne made many friends. Then late one night I was startled to feel Cheyenne's cold nose burrowing through our bed covers. He had never before come into our bedroom at night. I woke Dick, put on my robe and ran into my father's room. Dad lay in his bed, his face serene. But his spirit had left quietly sometime during the night.

Two days later my shock and grief deepened when I discovered Cheyenne lying dead beside Dad's bed. I wrapped his still form in the rag rug he had slept on. As Dick and I buried him near a favorite fishing hole, I silently thanked the dog for the help he had given me in restoring Dad's peace of mind.

The morning of Dad's funeral dawned overcast and dreary. This day looks like the way I feel, I thought, as I walked down the aisle to the pews reserved for family. I was surprised to see the many friends Dad and Cheyenne had made filling the church. The pastor began his eulogy. It was a tribute to both Dad and the dog who had changed his life. And then the pastor turned to Hebrews 13:2. "Be not forgetful to entertain strangers."

"I've often thanked God for sending that angel," he said.

For me, the past dropped into place, completing a puzzle that I had not seen before: the sympathetic voice that had just read the right article...

Cheyenne's unexpected appearance at the animal shelter. .. .his calm acceptance and complete devotion to my father. . .and the proximity of their deaths. And suddenly I understood. I knew that God had answered my prayers after all.

Morale of the story:
Life is too short for drama & petty things, so laugh hard,
love truly and forgive quickly.

Live While You Are Alive.
Tell the people you love that you love them, at every
opportunity.
Forgive now those who made you cry. You might not get a
second time.

Lost time can never be found. 

Hey everyone, been a little while since I have had the chance to actually blog. So finally, after much fuss, we figured out that we had to manually add the Sametime server to a config file within Connections in order for the Sametime presence awareness to actually work. At least I believe that was what needed to be done, so much stuff happened over a short period of time that it is difficult to remember all the changes that needed to be made to make it happen. But beyond that, after the Sametime presence stuff was taken care of, I got around to beginning the branding, which is a very fun aspect to setting up Connections. Lucky for me, Chris from Lotus911 made this site look so fantastic that I was able to get in contact with him for some advice with the branding (thanks Chris!). Anyway, the branding is going in nicely, a few quirks here and there but overall starting to look good. I like that everything is just CSS, it makes things much easier.

In other (personal) news, my band is playing at the Rave in Milwaukee on March 7th, so if any of you Milwaukee Bleeders want to come see a bunch of rock/metal bands play in the Supernova battle of the bands, hit me up and I can get you tix! Other than that, just the same old same old, looking forward to getting the show done and getting the chance to actually finish up season 3 of Lost with my wife. That's about it for now.

Signing off,
B

So something I'm starting to realize, tagging should be included in everything that can be tagged. It's such an important part of not only searching for relevant anything, it's a part of self expression. It doesn't distinguish between documentation and people, and I think that is often an important (and overlooked) detail about searching for information. Not only do you want to search for relevant documentation on the subject that you are looking for, but it does ya one better! It finds the people who are related to that information, whether it be the person who wrote the documentation or someone else who is an expert in the area!

How many of you struggle with Expertise location in your business? Do you have a central repository where all your documentation is located, or is it scattered all over your virtual environment? I know we struggle with that on a daily basis. Thank God that someone is doing something to at least start in the direction of expertise/knowledge location. Enter Lotus Connections (*clap*clap*clap*). Now for tight integration with a wiki (hopefully soon), so we can search tags across both Connections and Wikis.

Signing off,
B