L.A.B. Unleashed

It took a full 24 hours, but I can say that I have finally recovered from Lotusphere 2008!  It was an exciting, but exhausting week!  Our session on Dynamic Group Policies was very well attended at 8:30 on Thursday morning, this was still about 10 minutes prior to show time, and you can see there is a pretty full house already:

About 60 seconds before we were ready to start, I advanced 1 slide on my 1/2 of presentation, and the display was completely off!  I and the audience could only see the top left portion of the screen, and everything else was cut off …. PANIC!!!  The in-house tech guys couldn’t fix it, and while Laurie gave the first 1/2 of the presentation I tried everything I could think of to fix it, but to no avail!  Ironic because just the night before we were being made fun of for going to our "tech check" to make sure we were all ready to present in the room the next morning.  The "tech check" went fine, everything looked good.  It just goes to show you, it doesn’t really matter if you are a "good doobie" or not … anything can happen!  I quickly pulled myself together, and remembered that the last portion of my presentation was a live demo, and much of what I was going to show on the slides, was part of the demo as well.  So I explained to the audience, that we’d chug through the "buggered" slides, and spend more time on the demo portion.  It actually worked out really well.  The demo went on without a hitch, and people really enjoyed it.  I even got the compliment that it was the best demo they had seen at Lotusphere this year!  We got some great questions at the end of the session as well … lots of good stuff to bring back and think about as we continue with the 8.5 release.

I updated my two other posts from the week with a few images as well … enjoy!

The lab has been quiet so far late yesterday and early today.  I expect that to change later this afternoon and tomorrow.  Art Thomas and Chip Carter gave a great presentation yesterday on Domino Administration, ID202.  There is a repeat of this talk on Wednesday at 4:15pm, for anyone that missed it. 

People really enjoyed it 1) because it gave a really nice high level view of many Domino Administration features and 2) there was some excellent dramatic effects, about 1/2 through that really jolted the audience.  I can’t give away anymore.  Policies, ID Management, Inbox Management, Database redirects, where just a few of the topics covered, and there were many points that were rewarded with applause! 

Tonight is the Policy Management Bof, and judging from the applause at ID202, surrounding Dynamic Policy Management, this is an exciting topic for customers.  I am looking forward to interacting and getting more feedback on this at the Bof, and then again at our session on Thursday morning.

Waiting for the second Opening General Session to really get started.  Last night was the big welcome reception outside on the beach at the Swan.  Food was great … mini burgers, mini briskets, mini fried dough … I literally ATE UP the mini food theme!  Drinks were readily available as well, but man was it COLD!  FREEZING in fact!!  I thought I had escaped the arctic New England air … apparently not!  We all quickly switched from cold beers, sangria and mojito shooters, to hot chocolate and hot tea to keep our hands warm! 

The OGS is just getting started now.  A band has been rocking it out for about 10 minutes, Sting’s Message in a Bottle was cool.  But now the Orlando Symphony Orchestra has emerged on stage.  It is a GIGANTIC room … holds thousands … maybe 10 thousand … not sure.  The orchestra is fantastic.  They remind me of the Trans Siberian Orchestra with their heavy metal Christmas Eve album.  They are definitely keeping the energy high in the room, and with dramatic imagery playing on the 15 large drop down screens all over the room, it is a great and dramatic start to Lotusphere 2008!  Cheers, hollers, and a standing ovation, as the orchestra finishes their big opening.  Speakers are emerging on stage … going to pay attention now …. more to come later.

Here is the Notes vs. Domino portion of the OGS … which one has made the most improvements???  It turned out to be a tie (go figure), and there will be a re-match next year:

In just a few hours, I will be on my way to Lotusphere 2008 in Orlando, Florida!  Just in time to escape the unforgiving arctic blast New England is about to see.  The weather should make the Patriot’s game interesting today.  Luckily, I am flying Jet Blue, so I’ll have my own front row seat to all the action.  Too bad those mini tv’s are not HD! 

In the next few days, I’ll try to find some time for blogging from Lotusphere.  If you are heading down there yourself, you can catch me in the Meet the Developers Lab in Asia 1.  I’ll also be doing a BoF (Birds of a feather) on Tuesday evening discussing Best Practices for Policy Based Management.  Then on Thursday morning I’ll be co-presenting a session on Policy Based Management, where I will be showing off some new policy features for the next release of Domino.  It’s going to be a packed week!

Thanks to Kathy for taking some shots from my session!  In typical fashion, I was super nervous at first.  I didn’t eat much the night before, which was unfortunate because we had a lovely team dinner at the Flying Fish.  The scallops I ordered where $10 a piece when you did the math, and I only made it through 1 and a 1/2 out of the 4.  I woke up bright and early the next day for a 7:00am BOF before I went over to Hemisphere IV for my 8:30am talk.  Even though my stomach was empty, the nerves were getting to me, and I still wanted to throw up right before the talk started.  I think this picture sums up that feeling.  After I got going though, things went well.  My only qualm was with the podium.  Is that thing unnecessarily large, or what?!  I could barely see over it, so I opted to stand by its side.  I think I got my point across in any case … even if the podium looked like it was going to have me for lunch.

Lotusphere 2007 wrapped up on Thursday afternoon, and it was a really great week.  The lab was pretty busy and my talk on Domino, Websphere, & Portal Administration integration went really well.  Highlights were definitely talking to customers in the lab and I appreciated all the feedback they gave.  I spent a good portion of my day today putting in enhancement requests … we had some excellent ones.  Not to mention a few pesky bugs I’d like to see fixed.  Also, in the lab, we were trying to get customers to take our Administration Survey, as the responses from it is really going to influence what we do for Domino next.  Our first completed survey was returned by one of my favorite customers I met all week.  He was native to Mexico, but worked in Georgia.  After answering his questions about DDM and how to change event severities, I mentioned that I have been learning Spanish.  We really hit it off, and the next day he returned our very first completely filled out *long* version of the Admin Survey!  We were all very appreciative!  For more information on Domino 8 Administration and if you would like to get a copy of the survery, please post a comment here with your email address.

I knew I wasn’t going to have time to blog all week.  It was a whirlwind, as I expected, and any free time I had, I tried to catch up on some sleep and rest my brain.  Kevin came down on Thursday afternoon and we spent the weekend at the Dolphin.  Jelly Rolls was a blast, and we also enjoyed a couple of nice meals at Shula’s [awesome filet] and Kimono’s [yummmmy sushi].  After raining all week, the weather warmed up on Friday and Saturday making for a great round of golf and time to relax and enjoy the outdoors.

I have to admit, today was a little rough returning to the 25 degree weather, with windchills in the single digits.  I was happy to get home to the meat head though, and he was happy to see that I brought him a couple gifts.  I ended up getting an extra one of the highly coveted yellow "cult" shirts.  Good thing it was Kobe’s size!

 

I am really looking forward to getting on the road and heading to Orlando for my second Lotusphere experience!  I am leaving just in time too, because this is the current state of my kitchen …..

I’m not sure I’ll get much blogging in while I am down there, it is always a whirlwind, but I will try.  I better head out now, because my talk is on Tuesday morning at 8:30am.  Even though it’s a straight shot down I-95, it could take some time on the scooter ….

On the way to work this morning I was listening to NPR and there was a segment about flying domestically without a government issued photo ID.  Did you know that showing an ID is not officially mandatory, after this court decision (pdf)?!  I actually knew this, because by accident last year, on my way to Lotusphere in Orlando, I was dropped off at the airport without my ID.  I didn’t even know it until I was up at the counter, checking baggage, and the ticketing agent asked to see my ID.  I opened my purse, looked in the usual spot in my wallet, and it was just gone.  I was frantic.  The temperature of my blood immediately rose to an unbearable level, and I felt my face turn bright red.  I thought, there’s a huge line behind me, and I’m the idiot that doesn’t have her ID, and is going to hold up the line.  The friendly agent didn’t miss a beat and assured me that it was fine, that I would just have to go through some extra screening.  He marked my boarding pass with a big black X, and sent me frazzled and scurrying off to the horrendously long security line.  When I approached the security agent, they immediately saw my big black X, but didn’t seem bothered by it.  They waved me through to the special screening area, which had no line, and no wait.  I was thinking … hmph, this is going to be a lot easier than standing in that huge security line!  That thought quickly flew out of my mind when I saw the screening agent snap on his latex gloves and approach me with a big smile on his face.  Just kidding!  Jeeze … did I get you?!  Actually, the "thorough screening" process was pretty NON-invasive.  They had a female guard pat me down and wave the wand over my arms and legs.  They did a special test on my carry on luggage and I was out of there in a couple of minutes.  I beat,  with flying colors, all of the people still waiting at the back of the regular security line. 

So, on NPR this morning, I learned that apparently, there are groups of people refusing to show their IDs at the airport on purpose.  They are in favor of more privacy, and actually made the point that they get through the security line a lot faster than everyone else.  I don’t think this is always the case, here is an example of someone that did not make it through at all.  Of course, in my case, I had innocently misplaced my ID, and I think it makes a huge difference if you are blatantly trying to fly with out one.  One of the interviewees on the radio said something along the lines of, suicide bombers don’t strike twice, so why would you require an ID?  That agents should be paying more attention to what’s inside the luggage, and what could be hidden on each person, rather than what their name is.  An interesting prospective, but I feel like there is probably a no fly list for a reason, right?  People have been determined to be of higher security risk for a reason, I would think anyway.  I understand a person’s need for privacy, that they don’t want the government to track all the places they have been domestically, but that seems like a luxury to me in this day and age.  Also, passports are required during international flights, they are closely watched and tracked, so it seems counter intuitive to have different security rules for domestic flights. 

Anyway, an interesting story on NPR, and I didn’t know I was such a rebel flying with out an ID!  Especially a whole year ago … so ahead of the times!

I am looking forward to Lotusphere once again this year.  My hotel reservations are made, my flights are booked, and now I just need to get that presentation in tip top shape!  You can find a full posting of all the Lotus Domino presentations on the Domino Blog, including mine entitled, IBM Lotus Domino and IBM WebSphere Portal Administration Integration. 

Maybe I should bribe people to come to my presentation with some pistachio thumb print cookies….

Too bad these won’t last until late January, although I don’t think bribing with food is necessary anyway … the turnout last year was unbelievable!  Kevin and I will be bringing them into our upcoming office parties, so maybe some of you will enjoy them soon!

Thanks to a wonderful professor, my favorite class in college was Algorithm Analysis. The day we talked about P vs. NP and computational complexity theory, I was hooked!

While at Lotusphere, I was reminded of one of these NP Complete problems. Kevin and I went to visit Epcot on Friday afternoon. We found ourselves disorganized, running around the park from end to end, and not making the most efficient use of our time. Four hours later, we were exhausted and had only seen about 1/2 of what the park had to offer. We ended up calling it an early day. If we had only planned ahead, we could have maximized our time and got to see many more attractions! Read more…