After just over two weeks with Windows 7, I can daw a few conclusions. While it steals some ideas from OS X (particulary in the dock task bar), it's definately Windows. This is the best Windows ever. No, really. It's better than XP. The stability, ease of use, and performance are all better. I've installed both upgrades (via the Family Pack) and fresh installs. The upgrades don't tell you this, but they will check for a legitimate existing XP or Vista installation ahead of time. When doing a "custom install" as an upgrade (necessary when you change bit sizes in a Vista upgrade, or in any XP upgrade), you have to boot from the DVD. If you insert the Windows 7 DVD and try to run the upgrade from Windows, it will appear to work, but you'll run into an error and have to start over. Microsoft and partners did a very good job on driver prep. I'm running both 64-bit and 32-bit and have not had a driver issue so far (see exception below).
My main experience has been in upgrading my media center PC. Charlie has always been an experiment for me, as I'd like to move my family to a media center, butfelt the technology was not there. And I prefer Apple, but Apple TV was too weak, and the open-source media center products were too complicated. So Windows has had an extended trial. At first I was running XP MCE on it, then Vista. I was never happy with the performance, despite the fact that Charlie has 3 GB of RAM and an AMD Athlon 64 3000+ processor. The cuplrit, of course, was the video card. While I had a decent 64Mb video card in the system, it was restricted to a VGA connection. As my eventual goal is to create an HDTV-capable media center, this just would not do. DVI or HDMI would be required. Over the years I had twice tried to add an NVidia video card to improve the picture and boost performance, and had twice failed. These were high-end, high-performance, well-rated video cards, but adding them always killed my system performance. Various troubleshooting and diagnostic efforts resulted in no answers, so I always just removed the cards and went back to the old VGA standby. After upgrading Charlie to 64-bit Windows 7, I tried again. And again I had issues. But this time I called in the cavalry. After support discussions with Microsoft and NVidia, I learned that the NVidia video drivers required for the card are fundamentally incompatible with the drivers for the ATI motherboard. This is documented pretty much nowhere, so let this blog be a warning to others. When running a Windows Media Center (XP, Vista, or Windows 7) on an ATI motherboard, you cannot use an NVidia video card. You'll get slow performance, system freezes, and other flaky behavior. The System Interrupts process wil spike your CPU to 100%. So I returned the NVidia card and picked up an ATI Radeon card. Success! I now had a full DVI connection and perfromance was much improved. For about two hours everything was fine. Then all of a sudden the system bogged down again. A web search revealed that a service called "High Definition Audio" was the culrpit. I deactivated the service and rebooted, and performance was restored. If you know Media Center, you know that it can support two tuners, one for watching and one for recording. My main tuner is a Hauppauge internal PC tuner card, and that one has worked well. But to get a second tuner in the box, I pulled out and installed an old MSI TV Anywhere card. Big mistake. Once the system tried to use this card to record video, everything screeched to a halt. It turns out that the MPEG-2 decoder used by this card is a piece of garbage that spiked my CPU. This seems to be an endemic problem with this ancient and not-so-noble card, so I yanked it. A new, modern tuner card should go in this week, and Charlie will be up and running like never before. Next up - media sharing between Windows 7 Media Centers. And oh, yeah, eventually I'll need to replace my Windows Server 2003 installation with a brand new Windows 7 installation. I ran a two-week trial on my Mac via a VM and it went well, so now I am using a Boot Camp install for further evaluation. I'll keep you posted!
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I spent this weekend with Windows 7. I've not completed all of my installations yet, but I can report on one upgrade and one clean install. First I upgraded my Vista media center server. This was my first priority as I have always wanted better performance out of this box. It's also not mission-critical so it was a great test platform for me. I was installing from the Windows 7 Family Pack, but this was not a straight upgrade: I went from 32-bit Vista to 64-bit Win7, which essentially makes this a clean install. All of my media files are on an external hard drive, however, so I figured I would not lose anything. I wanted to try the 64-bit version. The install went pretty cleanly and took about 40 minutes, booting directly from the DVD. Win7 Home Premium have me the choice of a 32-bit or 64-bin install based on my hardware, and then installed without a hitch. It didn't ask me for an XP or Vista disk, so I assume it looked at my hard drive and realized the upgrade was legit based on my existing Vista install. Win7 detected and loaded drivers for my NIC, external DVD drive, and my two media tuners. I had some issues with the VGA connection to the monitor/flat panel I use with this system, but I determined this was a problem with the monitor, not Windows 7. Then I poked around Windows 7 some. Performance was peppy, better than Vista on the same hardware. I have to say I like the interface a lot. The changes to the task bat take a little getting used to, but I didnot have any real problems getting around. The re-design of UAC is much less intrusive. I'm not crazy about the changes to home networking, but then as a geek I am an atypical user. Then I started Media Center. It ran through a setup routine very similar to that of Vista and XP Media Center, but it's been dumbed down a bit. One thing I don't like is that if it detects a signal, it assumes that is a broadcast signal. I had to go through custom setup to tell it that I use a direct cable signal. Once I did that, though, it correctly deduced my cable provider from my ZIP code and downloaded the appropriate settings and guide info. My next step was to add my media libraries. This worked very well. After taking some time to index the content, Media Center correctly listed all of my recorded and downloaded media. This is what I would expect a good piece of software to do, and Media Center did the job well. I then tried watching some recorded and live TV. This is not an outstanding box for a media center, so any improvement is noticable. I had no problems with both types of TV. Performance was noticably better than with Vista Media Center. My next task on this PC was to upgrade the video card. I'd wanted to move from VGA to DVI for a while so I decided to give it a try. I added a brand-new PNY PCI Express 16x 1GB card and changed connections form VGA to DVI. Windows 7 detected it at boot and installed the drivers from the disk. The DVI link worked great and the picture was much improved. At next boot, however, Windows 7 seemed to forget that I had an advanced graphics card, and picture quality dropped despite the DVI link. When I tried to play media, I got a message that "required files are missing. This is Media Center code for "your video card does not have enough RAM." Since my new video card has plenty of RAM, something is funky here. I downloaded new drivers from NVidia and the picture quality improved, but it still won't play videos. This is something I'll have to research. My second install was a clean install of Windows 7 Ultimate on a Parallels VM on my Macbook Pro. This installation went very smoothly, When I booted the VM into the Windows 7 Ultimate disk, the setup asked me what edition of Win7 I wanted to install, from Starter to Ultimate. I chose Ultimate and watched the computer work. Installation again went smoothly. Once installed I rebooted and downloaded and installed AVG Free anti-virus. No problems there. Then I installed all Notes 8.5.1 clients and Domino 8.5.1. The purpose of this machine is to evaluate Windows 7 as a Domino server platform. To date I see no issues, but I also haven't left it running for any time yet. In short, my first weekend with Windows 7 was both more productive and less trouble than I might have expected. I have one more XP machine to upgrade, and after I finishe evaluating Win7 as a Domino server I have a migration from Windows Server 2003 to Windows 7 Ultimate, so watch this space for more information.
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OK, geek like me. You must be aware that today is Windows 7 launch day. If you don't keep an eye on the Windows space (and I think we all have to, it's the 800-lb gorilla even if you don't like it), you may not be aware that Microsoft has finally gotten smart with pricing. If you have multiple Windows machines at home, you should look at the Windows 7 Family Pack. It lets you upgrade three PCs in the same household from Vista or XP to Windows 7 Home Premium for $150. Finding the Family Pack can be a challenge. Use the Microsoft part number, GFC-00236. You'll see some weird prices, but expect to pay $150 or a bit less from a legitimate reseller. The trick with this is that Microsoft has allotted only a limited number of family packs for North America, and once they're gone, they're gone. Don't worry about me, I got mine this morning. I am no Windows fanboy, but as a Notes developer I need it. Plus we have an XP machine and a Vista machine at home, and they are going to Windows 7 as soon as I get the chance.
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I have a long and satisfactory history with Brother products. I had an MFC-6800 for years and only sold it because I needed the space in my office and wanted color capability. I replaced it with an MFC-665CW. The CW performed adequately for about two years once I got the networking figured out. It's got good Windows and Mac support and did an adequate job on both photos and regular printing. But I had a couple of problems with it. One, Windows 2003 does not support it as a scanner or PC-Fax, only as a printer. Not a big deal - I can scan from my Mac via the Brother TWAIN driver -- but it is an inconvenience. When I switch to Windows 7 for a server this should go away. Two, it stopped printing black. So I took it in to the local Brother service center, and it needs a new print head for $150. The unit itself cost $165 new and I was sure I could get a replacement for around that cost. I really crave a laser color MFC, but that's going to have to wait for another day. This morning I went to OfficeMax and picked up a new MFC-495CW for $90 (on special). It's got all the features of the 665CW, plus a bigger screen and built-in Ethernet. No phone or answering machine but I never used those anyway. Plus at $90, total replacement cost is $130 (diagnostics on the 665CW were $40). Not bad. Now I just have to get it home and installed. Yippee, more wrestling! BTW, I find it ironic that the easiest typo for Brother is "bother." Winne-The-Pooh comes to mind.
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For my wife's birthday, I bought her a Kodak EasyShare M1033. We've had only Olympus cameras up to this point, so this is a change for us, driven by the fact that the Olympus has gotten slower and slower over time. Plus I wanted something for her that was easy to use and that fit in my budget. The M1033 got very good reviews, so I went for it. When she opened the package last night, she was delighted - except for the missing component. For some reason Kodak designed the camera so that it requires a dongle to connect via a standard USB cable, and the dongle was missing. Without the dongle you can neither charge the camera nor download pictures. That makes this a part, not an accessory, in my definition. So this morning I called Kodak. My expectation was that I would call them, spend 10 minutes or so explaining the situation to a rep, and they would send us a new dongle. WROOOONG! Call #1: Call the general customer service number. Nice lady, good attitude. Explain situation, get transferred to tech support (after a hold). Talk to Customer Service rep ("Kelly" who suspiciously speaks English with an Indian accent, and I don't mean Navajo). She's friendly but can't quite seem to understand the part I mean. I have trouble explaining because the part has neither name nor number in the camera manual. There are lots of holds while she looks up the product, the web store, the weather in Rio, whatever. In the midst of the call, while she's taking my personal information but before she gives me a case ID, while on hold, I am magically transferred back to general customer service. That's disconnect #1. This second general CR is again nice, and agrees to transfer me to tech support again. I know I'll have to start all over because "Kelly" never bothered to give me a case ID number. But I don't even get that far. The transfer is apparently successful, but as soon as the new rep says "Hell-" I'm disconnected. Flat dead. That's disconnect #2. Call #2: I call Tech Support directly and speak with "Katrina" who sounds like she's from central Bangalore. This call is a lot like the first one except I don't get disconected. First she can't get my e-mail address right, then my name. I finally explain to her the situation. Lots of holds, some as long as 5 minutes (yes I timed them). She looks up the camera via serial number and asks if it's a refurbished product, and I say yes. Now keep in mind this is a Kodak factory refurbished camera, in a Kodak box with a Kodak part and serial number. "Did you buy it from an authorized reseller?" Well, how the snot should I know that? So she looks up the reseller, Buy.com. and says that since Buy.com is not an authorized reseller, Kodak is not responsible for the missing part. She also says this is a recurring problem with non-authorized resellers. Cue customer explosion. "Wait a minute. I bough a Kodak product in a Kodak box, refurbished by Kodak, and a missing part is my problem? Kodak doesn't put the part in the box and has a reseller problem. How is this my problem? This is Kodak's problem, and I need you to fix it." "I'm sorry, sir, you will have to buy the part from the on-line store. Let me check and see if it's available.." "No. I need to talk to your supervisor." "Please hold." After another LOOOONG hold, "Kathy" (with an accent from Bombay) comes on the line; she's the on-call supervisor. She relates the situation to me (remarkably, getting it basically correct) and tells me that Kodak has recurring complaints about cameras sold by non-authorized resellers, so they are not responsible for the missing part. She also tries to classify this part as an "accessory" and tells me it costs $25 from the Kodak web store. This sets off alarms... This little doohicky should be under $10, even with ridiculous mark-ups. She does not know what I need. It's not an accessory; you need it, so it's a part. By classifying it as an accessory she wants me to buy it rather than have them fix the problem. No way.
So I re-state my arguments. This is Kodak's mistake and they need to fix it. The reseller issue is not my issue. It's not my job to be familiar with Kodak's reseller network. It's a Kodak problem with Kodak refurbishment and resellers, not my problem. And "Kathy" relents. She agrees to ship me the part she thinks I need, "as a one-time goodwill gesture from Kodak." So the part is on its way and should arrive next week. As the call concluded she asked me "Is there anything else I can do for you?" I told her I'd been on the phone for an hour and a half trying to get a simple $2 part, I had been disconnected twice, and that I was really turned off by the whole experience. She said they "are known for their excellent support" and they would look into it and she promised me that "it would not happen again." As she said good-by, I laughed out loud at the phone. Ridiculous. That's not the end of the story. Once I got back to my desk I looked up the Buy.com order and found out that this was actually a "marketplace" purchase. So I contacted the actual seller, Click and Go Buy. The guy who answered the phone was obviously either an owner or a long-time employee. Turns out Click and Go Buy as been a Kodak authorized reseller for years -- and it probably would have helped my case if I could have told Kodak the name of the actual seller. He commisserated with my problems with Kodak and undestood exacltly what part I need,. So he said he'd get me the part either from Kodak or from their warehouse and have it to me in a few days. What a relief! And what a contrast. I can cetainly recommend doing business with Click and Go Buy, but I can't recommend Kodak's customer service. I haven't been given the runaround like that in years. If they had not made some kind of remediation I had my mind made up to return the camera. The fact that I had to escalate to a supervisor to get a fix, and that it took 90 minutes, tells me what Kodak thinks of their customers. I hope my wife likes the camera. Its cost in aggravation and time has at least matched its fiscal cost.
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After hunting for a good cross-platform (Windows/Nokia/Mac) sync solution that encompassed Lotus Notes & Domino, I finally found one that was always available to me - Lotus Traveler. I'd never considered Traveler before, and I'm not sure why. But after a quick look at the specs and requirements, I decided to give it a try. It fits my environment perfectly and solves all my needs, so why not? After a week with Traveler I could not be more pleased. It runs like a charm on my Windows 2k3 server and the Nokia installation went just as promised. After initial setup Traveler had some difficulty finding my NAB entry on the server, but after I worked that out, it's been running like a dream. Getting real-time notification of e-mail on my phone made me realize a couple of things: I get too much junk that I just manually delete. Time to unsubscribe! I have to keep an eye on my phone plan. I have a minimal data plan and I think Traveler may blow it out of the water if I'm not careful!
Now that I've had it for a week or so I have turned off auto-update. I don't need it that urgently and can stand to save the bandwidth, so daily updates will do. Great job on Traveler, Lotus team!
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Over a year ago I asked about what server you use to run Domino. I was still running Windows 2000 and was quite happy with it. If you want to know my reasons, read that entry, I detailed them there. I have since replaced both the hardware and the OS. I'm now running Windows Server 2003. The change went pretty well, with a couple of hitches. The main cause is that I use my server as a personal workstation as well as a server. I have to do things like manage PDFs and so forth. Remember that I'm a one-man shop when it comes to IT, so less complexity is a key driver. WIndows 2000 was ideal for this, as it ran consumer-grade software and still was a decent server. But the lack of support and updated software was starting to be a pain, so I rolled over to Windows Server 2003 when I upgraded my hardware. The upgrade was smooth and Domino runs like a charm. My main frustration with 2k3 is that so much consumer-level software won't run on it. I can no longer use my Brother MFC-665CW as a scanner and PC fax - the Windows 2003 driver won't allow it. Bluetooth doesn't work at all. I also can't use the Nokia PC Suite software to manage my phone. I used to sync my Nokia E62 with Notes on my Windows 2000 server/workstation via Bluetooth, and I've had to find a completely different solution. I understand why this is - 2k3 is designed for serious servers in corporate environments. But in this way it's not a good fit for me. The benefits are that Windows Server 2003 is a lot more up-to-date than Windows 2000. For example, I can now do remote management via Remote Desktop Connection. The performance is a lot better, and 2k3 takes better advantage of the hardware I have. I refuse to rely on Vista for my server, so I am considering doing a fresh install of Windows 7 when it comes out and giving that a shot as my new server. Any thoughts are appreciated. Oh, and if you're going to recommend Linux, don't bother. I have no interest in learning it.
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Yeah, it's been a while. I've been busy with, among other things, a career change. I'm no longer a full-time Lotus guy, or even a developer. I'm now a business analyst and management consultant. This change has been coming for some time and I'm really excited about it. That said, I still keep my eye on Lotus stuff and am still an IBM partner through my (mostly dormant) company, Knowledge Productions. About twice a year the partnership comes in handy, so I maintain it. Plus I run my enterprise (such as it is) on Lotus tech. So I have been waiting eagerly for the release of 8.5.1, and I have to say it was worth the wait. I installed Domino 8.5.1 three days after it was available and I have to say I'm really happy with it. The install and upgrade was very clean. Performance is better, and the other apps I use on my Domino server seem to behave better. I use Notes in two environments, Windows and Mac. My Windows machine, provided by my employer, is no powerhouse. It's a Dell Latitude D610 with 1.5 Gb of RAM and a 2 Ghz Pentium M, running XP SP3. Even in this restricted environment, using Notes is satisfactory. Response times are quite good and much improved over 8.5. Plus Notes consistently takes less memory than and outperforms Outlook 2007 (the corporate e-mail standard). Designer is not as snappy as I would like, but it's usable, and I don't have to close every other app in order to start Designer. As for the Mac client, I can now happily report that Notes on Snow Leopard is now usable. Startup time is respectable and, once launched, performance is good. I have some kind of funcky problem where all of my icons have disappeared, but this happened before I upgraded so it's not an 8.5.1 problem. I think, in fact, it is related to Snow Leopard, but it doesn't keep me from working so I'll need to investigate is when I have a chance. All in all, nice job, Lotus!
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I''ve been using Lotus Notes on the Mac for some time now, starting wtih Release 7 and moving on to the 8.5 beta. With the release of 8.5 gold, I've been using a full version on my 2Gb Macbook for some time now. All in all, things are good. Performance is acceptable, and just about all of the features I need are there. It looks great, and once it's open (which takes a bit), I tend to leave it open all day. Also, the preferences file is now a text file editable with TextEdit rather than a .plist file, which makes my life a lot easier. Plus the OS recognizes it as my default e-mail client. Replication is smooth and seamless as expected. There are some hiccups that I would like to see addressed, however. - Not all mail-enabled apps can take advantage of Notes as the default mail client.
- When I use some apps or the OS to "send a document" via E-mail, the file is often not attached. Sometimes a draft e-mail does not even appear.
- Performance is only adequate. My CPU is an Intel Core Duo, not a Duo 2, and I have just 2GB of RAM. Still, that's a pretty good machine, and Notes is my slowest app by far.
- The keyboard shortcuts, which I live by, are inconsistently applied. Alt-Enter opens up the properties box, but no combination of keys with F9 refreshes a view.
I am pretty far along in making the Mac my "home" platform, and Notes 8.5 was a critical step. Now all I need is a Designer and Admin client in 8.5, and we'll be asll set.
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I recently re-configured my home/SMB network. A big part of the upgrade was replacing my main server, which had been in production for about seven years. The hardware was just outdated and could not keep up. I was considering a new OS for my new server, but I decided to stick with the old reliable -- Windows 2000.So when installed my new (well, newer) box I loaded an eight-year-old operating system onto it. After various service packs and driver updates, it is humming along just fine. On 2Gb RAM and a 1.5 Ghz processor it serves as our e-mail, file, print, iTunes, and web server, running Domino 8.01. And it does so very nicely.
Why Windows 2000? Well, frankly, it has a lot of things going for it, esepcially for me.
- It's proven stable and reliable. It pretty much never crashes.
- It's got very high compatibility. I have found no piece of Windows software (apart from games) that won't run on it. Apple even makes a current specilized version of iTunes for it.
- It's pretty simple to administer. This has something to do with my background -- most of my brief OS admin career was spent with Windows 2000 -- but that's a valid consideration for choosing an OS.
- Excellent support is available from a number of sources.
- I own it. No fees, upgrade path, etc.
- It does everything I need, simply, cheaply, and reliably.
I have, over time, looked at other server OS options and have rejected them for a number of reasons.
- Windows Server 2003 -- I don't own it. Why spend money when I don't have to? Plus I'd have some learning curve.
- Various Linux implementations -- too hard. I don't have any Unix background so Linux is Greek to me. I don't want to mess with all the downloading, re-compiling, partitioning, file editing privilge manipulation, and package management that seems to be necessary. Servers aren't a hobby for me, they are a necessity, and it's no longer fun to spend 50 hours getting something working when I can accomplish the same goal in a tenth of the time.
- Current WIndows server -- see #1. No signifcant advantages to me over WIndows 2000.
So I am curious about two things.
First, is there anyone else out there still running Windows 2000, and if so, why have you not supplanted it?
Second, if you run something esle, why do you run it?
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As of last week, my most recent article for The View is available on-line and in the print edition. It's called "Notes client application makeover for the Web, Part 2: Improving the user experience with AJAX" and is the second of three articles. I am pretty proud of this series of articles, as they describe the most complex Domino web app I have ever created for my own purposes. The series describes how to take an R7 Notes client app and move it on to the web. The database (which you can download even if you are not a subscriber) shows how I used AJAX, JavaScript, LotusScript, Java, and CSS to create a single-window application.
I have been writing for The View for eight years now, and have published 10 articles with an 11th currently in edit. I have really enjoyed it, and am already planning my next article. My articles have gotten longer and longer, and each one has been more work than the last. Considering this last three-part series was originally conceived as a single artcile I think you can see the trend. I hope this next one will be a little shorter and less complex.
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Yesterday was Memorial Day here in the U.S. The holiday was first established to honor Union soldiers who perished in the Civil War, and has since been expanded to commemorate all who have perished while in military service to the United States.
I have always been a patriot, a lover of my country. I believe that the United States is unlike any other country, never having has a king, and having been founded as a place where government serves the people, not vice-versa. Is it perfect? No, but it is mine, and I will serve it as best I can.
Freedom is not free, and it is both precious and fragile. Many, many men and women have died to preserve, protect, and defend my right to live how I see fit. I can work at any job I can attain. I can travel without papers, anywhere in the country. I can spend my money as I like. I can vote how I like, or run for office myself. I and my wife can raise our daughter however we like. We can send her to any school our means allow and teach her anything we like.
In most of the world, for most of history, this has simply not been the case. A hudred years ago, in this country, women could not vote. Fifty years ago, practically speaking, blacks could not vote in large parts of the country. If you fail to pay a fine in Switzerland today, the police show up on your doorstep in force. If you're female and don't wear a hdead scarf in much of the world, you risk stoning. And we've seen how China views dissent, as a threat to be crushed.
This Memorial Day was particularly poignant for me because we visted my father. He has been struggling with Parkinson's for three years now. Last month he fell ill and went into the hospital. He's now out, but is in a nursing home, and his return home will probably never happen - he can no longer care for himself and needs more care than my mother can provide.
Anyhow, Dad is a vet. He served five years in the Navy, inlcuding Operation Deep Freeze. He was one of the first men to winter over in Antarctica. Now he is frail. His speech is slurred, his vision is failing, and he needs help just to get up out of bed and into his wheelchair. When I think of him, one of the things I am reminded of is how each generation stands on the shoulders of their predecessors, and what our predecessors have handed down to us. We hacve freedom, and prosperity, and peace at home. These are things I want to pass on to my daughter and her generation, and her children as well. While I never served, I will do my best to impart those values to her and work through the political processes to make sure the America she inherits will be one where freedom is still a reality.
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I realize that Bleedyellow.com is a tech site, but I'm gonna discuss some politics anyway. To give you some context, I am a Republican and consider myself a conservative. I also am really unhappy with the current administration and believe that civil liberties must be preserved.
So here are some random thoughts on the candidates.
Hillary Clinton
First off, how can she say she's experienced? Yes, she has spent 30+ years in public life, but her presence in the public sector was a result of her marriage to Bill Clinton, not a result of her winning elections. Rosalynn Carter did that too.
Her key achievement as First Lady was the failed health-care plan. She also managed to embarrass herself and her husband several times by saying the wrong thing at the wrong time. Then she got a lot of sympathy for the Lewinsky affair.
Once she and her husband were forced to move from Pennsyvania Avenue, she really did accomplish something, winning the open New York Senate seat. And by all reports she's ben an effective senator.
But I don't consider her career one that qualifies her to be President. She's never been chief executive of anything. Six years in the Senate does not a good chief executive make. She has a good understanding of capitalism and the law, having worked as a lawyer and made good money through her work and investments. But she still seems to think it is the government's job to create jobs. Lousy idea. I think she might, perhaps, make a good cabinet-level staffer, as policy and politics are her strong points.
But I can't see her as qualified to represent the US to, say, China, or to make the best decisions for us in energy policy. I'd like to see some Senate chairmanships, some sponsoring of significant legislation, and perhaps a better understanding of how taxes really effect the economy.
Barak Obama
OK, I understand he's popular and different. And he speaks well. But the guy's a paper tiger, and one with bad judgment to boot.
He has less time in the Senate than Clinton, and fewer accomplishments.
While an Illinois representative, he basically did nothing.
His three most prominent acquanitances are Rev. Jeremiah Wright (a flatly ant-American, divisive preacher who promulgates a polically motivated distortion of Christianity), Tony Rezko (a Chicago political manipulator/real estate developer currently on trial), and Bill Ayers (a terrorist who made bombs in Greenwich Village).
He has no grasp of the realities of international politics. He has never been chief executive of anything. He does not understand most of America, as he has never spent any time living, working, or governing anywhere except in wealthy enclaves. He thinks he can change things with words alone. Ideas and actions are needed, and much better decision-making than this young man has shown.
I doubt he has any significant grasp of economics. His policies, to date, are not significantly different from those the Democrats have offered over the years. The last time we had Democratic economic policies in the White House (the Carter administration - Clinton was an economic moderate who mostly ride the doc-com boom to prosperity), we had double-digit inflation and a withering economy. Those ideas don't work.
Frankly, I'd like to see much better judgment and a hell of a lot more experience in a candidate for mayor, much less for President.
John McCain
McCain can knock the experience ball out of the park, as a long-term Senator with a record of military service.
He also has significant Senate accomplishments, some of which I really admire. McCain-Feingold was an OK attempt to tackle a thorny issue. His key role in the Gang of 14 broke a terrible Senate logjam.
His vocal (and, to date, correct) positions on the Iraq and Afghanistan wars show that he has both the judgment and experience to be an effective commander-in-chief, a key requirement at this point in history.
I'd like to see a better grasp of economics, and I suspect he is working on it. I like his center-right positions, and I think a McCain administration would, for the first time in years, result in a truly smaller, more effective government. I disagree with his tax plans, and I suspect, if he is elected, he'll have to contend with a very Democratic legislature.
Summary
Truth be known, I voted for Rodolph Giuliani in the Florida primary. I am not truly excited about McCain, but I think he is the only qualified candidate left in the field. Neither a former first lady nor a one-term junior senator have the experience, the clout, or the judgment to be President, so McCain is my choice.
Happy Memorial Day!
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Are you one of those "bitter" people that Barak Obama seems to so deeply mis-understand?
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Last night I attended my local IIBA chapter's May meeting. This meeting was formatted as a 'lightning round' information exchange workshop. The room had five tables, each with three discussion questions on a topic relevant to BA work. We each rotated around the room in 10-minute sessions and, during each session, discussed the questions at each table. Ground rules similar to a brainstorming session (safe environment, respect privacy, everyone is allowed to speak, etc.) created an environment encouraging honesty and openness.
Topics included scope management, requirements elicitation, managing stakeholders, tools, and career management. Some questions were obvious ("what is your favorite tool for BA work? " ), while some evidenced a good understanding of the challenges of BA work ("how do you manage a stakeholder who dominates a brainstorming session? " ).
I learned a few things about myself and my area.
- There are a surprising number of BA's in my area. Disney, Wyndham, Marriott, credit unions, banks, they're all employing significant numbers of BAs.
- With 15 years of consulting experience I am one of the more experienced analysts at the table. I'm not used to that, as most of the team I work with has tons of experience.
I also learned some things about the software marketplace.
- Just about everyone uses Word, but most users aren't happy with it. The chief complaints seem to be the complexity and, over time, the messed-up file format. There's a real opportunity for Lotus Symphony, this tells me.
- Just about everyone struggles with document and information management. There's a real need for a lightweight, cost-effective document management system for departments and the SMB space. I can see a stripped-down version of Lotus Domino Document Manager filling this space quite nicely.
- SharePoint is starting to get to the place that Lotus Notes has been in for years -- if you don't assign plan and resource your deployment adequately, you get a lousy implementation and the product does not perform as advertised. My employer is a big SharePoint shop, so I think I see an opportunity to sell our SharePoint expertise.
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