I finally got it!

I've been trying to think of something REALLY good, (at least in my opinion), to put on my C.U.L.T shirt. This year the shirt was a "fill in the blank" picking up from the I AM ad campaign of years earlier. One I get some time, my shirt will now read:

I AM:
White and Nerdy!

Outside of that I am still decompressing from Lotusphere. Walked in yesterday morning to a couple of fires and the DST fun that I still need to address. But the good news is that all the media buzz from Lotusphere is paying off! The right people back at the office picked up on it, and are asking questions. Awesome!

Lotusphere2007 - Friday Report - Get me home!

I should have known that this was going to be a "fun" flight home. Things were going too well the entire time. Well, almost the entire time.
It started off as a beautiful day in Orlando. Watched the sun come up over the airport as I enjoyed an early morning cigar. Got on the plane, took off and the flight was smooth as silk. So smooth that I actually fell asleep which is something I am never able to do, especially in the small seat of the commuter jet. Around noon, they came on the overhead saying that we were 100 miles out from Akron-Canton and we should be on the ground in 20 minutes. A few moments later we were starting our series of turns to prepare for landing. Clouds everywhere, and I couldn't get a bearing on where we were. No big deal though, I was almost home and I knew my wife was waiting for me at the airport. A few more minutes, and we started our descent into the clouds. That's when things got weird. After bobbing up and down in the clouds a couple of times, we went down again, but then the pilot jerked the plane hard to the right and straight up. That was followed immediately by a sharp left turn. We were back above the clouds and as I followed the sunlight coming in through windows, I could tell that we were in orbit around the airport. After several more minutes, the flight attendent got on the phone with the flight deck. They were on for a couple of minutes and as she talked to them she kept looking back to us, down to the ground, back at us, and repeated that a couple of times. She got out of her seat, switched the phone over to intercom, and told us the news. "Folks, I'm sorry to inform you, but there is a problem with our de-icer on the wings, and we have to go to Dayton, Ohio for them to look at it." Okay, did she say a problem with the de-icer? With that, I could tell by the sun coming through the left side of the plane that we were heading south west toward Dayton. Great. Denise is at the airport probably wondering where the hell I am at. More importantly, I don't want her to worry. Several minutes later, the pilot came on the intercom to tell us what we already know, but to tell us the reason we are going to Dayton is because there is no cloud cover there. We picked up ice going through the clouds going into Akron-Canton. So about 1:00 we were on the ground at Dayton. I called Denise, and she had no idea what was going on. I let her know that everything was fine, but at this time I was starting to get a little concerned that the landing might have been the type I didn't want. But we were safe in Dayton. Needless to say, I was a little freaked. The mechanics came on board to have a talk with the pilots. I heard some of the talk. I'm not sure if it was that they couldn't land the plane in Akron-Canton, or that if they landed the plane, they couldn't get it back in the sky again. They told us that they were going to deplane us because they couldn't fix the problem at Dayton, and the gate agents were going to tell us what was going on. They were going to take the plane back to Orlando for repair. As we stood inside the gate, the gate agent told us to go down to the baggage claim for more information. We all went down there to hear what they had to tell us.
They were going to get several vans to cart us back up to Akron-Canton, 200 miles away. It was at that point that I called my manager and got approval to rent a car. There was no way I was going to spend a multi-hour drive with a bunch of elder folks that are ticked off and wanting to stop every few minutes. I called Denise to tell her the plan and she informed me that she had a flat tire. So I'm stranded in Dayton, she's stranded in Canton. What a wonderful day this is turning out to be. Okay, so I didn't crash. That is a plus. She was able to get roadside assistance to get her fixed up and on her way and I hit the gas and headed home. Funny thing is, the entire ride home, the sky had magically cleared up. Funny how things work. Finally at 5:25, literally 5 hours after my flight was suppose to have landed, we were all reunited at the airport and on our way home.
I think I'm done with flying for a while. This is a Lotusphere that I will not soon forget.

Lotusphere2007 - ThursdayReport, Part2

Wow. I couldn't believe it when I walked through the door of the Closing General Session today. One the screen...was me!

One of my blog posts about Lotusphere was highlighted on the big screen! Awesome! I made it to the big league! Then again, Bruce could be right that they were scrapping the bottom of the barrel ;-) Only one thing though. My name is Andy Donaldson. Not Andy Macian. No big deal, it's all good.
The flow of the CGS was different this year. In years past that I had attended, it was usually a comedian. This year, Dr.Neil de Grasse Tyson gave a presentation. Really good stuff. After the presentation by Dr. Tyson, we were all able to pose for a picture together on stage.

We few, we happy few, we band of bloggers

This was an awesome Lotusphere! Hope to see you all again next year for Lotusphere2008!

Lotusphere2007 - ThursdayReport, Part1

It's Thursday, and that can only mean one thing at Lotusphere. It means, it's over.
Here's my thoughts, feelings and general review of Lotusphere2007:

• The energy level is a lot higher then in years past. Even years where there have been new product information like 6 and 7. I think Mike Rhodin's opening talk was a lot more affective this year. More comfortable in his role with Lotus, more comfortable talking with us and a true excitement about the products that he represents. The entire keynote is available on IBM's site. Check it out here.
  
• Lotus is listening to us. They are listening to the Admins, the Devs, the end users. They are hearing what we want. Prime example, Mary Beth Raven's blog. Haven't seen it yet, check it out!
  
• I have met more people this year that know me for this blog. Sweet! People are reading this which means I will keep updating it with more and more admin stuff. If you see something you like, please let me know. If I get something wrong, please let me know. This blog is not only a repository for things I come across in life as a Domino Admin, by looking at the Mapstats results, people are looking for a lot of those same gotchas. Join in, let me know.
  
• I got to be a part of the Taking Notes podcast episode 50. Way cool!
• Again, a person comment. Everyone I have met at Lotusphere this year have been fantastic. The Lotus user community for the most part is a very open and honest community. Open about how they feel about the product, and genuinely open about themselves with others. It's a great group of people.
• While I am excited about the new changes coming to the product line with ND8, I'm concerned that I may not be able to implement them in my environment.
• The sessions were real good this year. My only beef for some of them is that the presenters need to be a little less tight in their delivery. I don't think I could do any better, but if you approach it with a sense of humor on some level, people will pay more attention and stick with what your saying.
• I have to agree with The Turtle on his comment that they take away the coffee breaks too quickly in the afternoon. If nothing else, leave the water out.
• Talk about a community that embraces openness and sharing, check out all the Flickr items tagged with Lotusphere2007.
• Whoever had the idea last night to hand out rain ponchos at Disney, great idea! Thank you!

Well, that's about all I got for right now. I have a few things I want to do before the Closing General Session. Like look up all I can about the DST changes. After what I heard at GURUpalooza, I'm getting a little freaked out about it. I will of course share what I have about it here. After the CGS, it's off to dinner, shopping at Downtown Disney and then packing. My ride to the airport is at 6:40 in the morning. Can't wait to get home and see the family. Lotusphere is cool and all, but they are still cooler to me.
If I don't see you, safe trip home.

Lotusphere2007 - Wednesday Report, Part1

Wowsers! It's Wednesday at the 'Sphere which means we are in the home stretch to wrapping things up for another year. Already. Again, I can't believe how quickly the times goes while we are down here. At least it does for me. I finally got a good chance to take a look at the new client at both the lab and during sessions. I like it. However, there is a lot of new stuff to it that may hold people back from wanting to roll out the Eclipse version, and stick with the standard client. At least in my organization. Only time will tell. I'm going to keep my ear to the ground on how that is going to evolve. Of course, I'm probably not going to look at migrating to R8 anytime soon. I'll probably get the Beta when it comes out, but won't really look at making the jump until 8.0.1 comes out. I still have plenty to do with 7 as well.
Tonight is the party at Animal Kingdom. And it's raining. I want a refund, its suppose to be warm and sunny, what's up with that? Could be worse though. My beautiful wife back in Ohio is telling me that it has been snowing most of today and the ground it covered. That will be a shock when I get off of the plane Friday.
I'm going to make every effort to make it to the blogger BOF in the morning. It's going to be interesting to see how many show up after a late night with the Mouse.
Well, that's it for now. Off to get ready for the party.

Lotusphere2007 - Tuesday Report, Part2

Jagshemash! Here is my Lotusphere report for the second half of Tuesday, and it's a fun one.

After spending the afternoon in some great sessions, I was heading back to my room when opportunity knocked. And being the good boy I am, I answered ;-)
You see, there had been a rumor circulating around the Lotus blogsphere for the past day about Mike Rhodin, (General Manager, Lotus Software, IBM...you know, the HOST of this gathering we know and love called Lotusphere), had some problems getting into lunch at the Dolphin yesterday. He didn't have his badge with him, and the people at the door wouldn't let him in.
So back to where we left off. I was heading to my room, and Mr. Rhodin was standing in the hallway watching one of the videos that was playing. I politely introduced myself and asked him if the rumor was true or just a Lotusphere urban legend. He confirmed that it did happen and he seemed rather light-hearted about it. He had said that he left his badge with someone for the OGS, and forgot about on the way down to lunch. Nice guy! The story kind of reminds me of the scene in "Indiana Jones and The Last Crusade" when Indy throws the guy out of the blimp, turns around to the astonished crowd and says, "No ticket."

So after my brush with "the boss", it was off to prepare for a night at vendor parties. Which for the most part was a good time. My co-worker and I went to the BlackBerry event, and then another nice get together by another vendor of ours. Which was nice because I was able to network with some other Domino people close to where I work. After that, we went to another vendor party, who will remain nameless for now. At this gathering, the flyer I was given at the booth said that they were giving away devices. My co-worker and I both won one! However, there was a catch. They will be delivered to us within two weeks. Delivered with a sales pitch...even after we made it known that we have no immediate plans to implement their solution in our environment. Bait and switch? We'll know in a couple of weeks.

So know it's off to bed. Another long day awaits with the dawn, and I need some sleep.
Goodnight, world.

***Update:3/27/07 - After a couple of months of waiting, the devices arrived in the mail today. Since I have no plans on using it, it's already up for sale on eBay. If interested, email me and I'll send you the link***

Lotusphere2007 - Tuesday Report, Part1

Quick drive-by blog as I wait for my 3 o'clock session to start:

• Jamfest was a lot of fun last night!
  
• Thanks for the shirt Rocky!
• Go to the user experience lab and participate in the new clients. It really is a lot of fun!
• ID103 - WOW! The mail template and experience really has changed! I like it, but buy in from the user community is something that concerns me a little bit.
• According to my pedometer, I have walked 5 miles today. Then again, this thing is very sensitive and when I walk, there is more to it then just a step being registered ;-)
• I am really noticing that the energy level of the crowd this year is far beyond what it was last year. People are really excited

That's it for now. Hopefully post more of my thoughts later!

Lotusphere2007 - Monday Report, Part1

Hey, I'm on the Taking Notes Podcast episode 50, check it out!

Instead of rewriting what has already been written by most all of the other Notes bloggers that are in attendence at Lotusphere with regards to the Opening General Session, I just have to add it was freakin' cool! Here's a quick rundown of my day:

• We got boned waiting to get into the OGS. We were up at the front of the line, then they opened one of the back doors which forced all of us that I was with to have to sit in the back.
• The hall was completely full! First time I had ever seen that!
  
• The band, The Ultrasonic Rock Orchestra, sounded great! An awesome addition.
• Neil Armstrong as the guest speaker. As soon as the "One small step.." played over the loudspeakers, I actually heard jaws (including my own), hit the ground. "There is little satisfaction in achieving easy goals". Awesome quote!
• New product offers from Lotus look WAY cool!
• Social software, the wave of the future!
• The integration of the Notes client into the new Lotus product line looks fantastic!
• They need to fix the air in the Hemisphere rooms. Way too hot this afternoon.

Okay, that's it for now. I am sure I will have more to post after Jamfest.

Lotusphere2007 - Sunday Report, Part3

I was right. There are a LOT more people here then any of the past years I have attended. Oy! The Welcome Reception was insane with the amount of people. I have always heard tales of the Lotuspheres where they had two opening general sessions because of the amount of people, but this year really is looking like it. Even Ed Brill posted on his blog:

"So there's lots of people here -- in fact, we had another huge chunk of registrants at the last minute, so that there are now a LOT more people here than any of the last five.
Presumably you'll hear a number at some point, but it's enough that I advise you to get
there early for sessions you want to attend. That includes the opening general session -- it WILL overflow to the Swan Ballroom, and that's even with sending all IBMers and
product showcase vendors over there in advance."

Wow! Stay tuned true believers! I think tomorrow is going to be a BIG day.

As for the welcome reception, it was a great time! Got a chance to talk to a lot of folks and helped Bill celebrate his 40th birthday! I even got to participate in a "golden" event. Stay tuned for that one!

Lotusphere2007 - Sunday Report, Part2

Okay, plans changed and I decided about a half hour into the DDM session, that I would hike it over to the Dolphin and sit in on the rest of the Ready, Steady, Blog! session. I'm glad I did. The IBM template and the Blogsphere template are both very cool. Now I just have to figure out how we could incorporate that into some business processes.

Putting this under the "A funny thing happened to me on the way too..." catergory. As I was walking to the room for the blog session, I heard what sounded like a band and singers going to town. I couldn't make out what song they were singing, but I almost want to say it was Gospel. Okay, I don't think that there is going to be a Tent Revival going on in the morning, but it sounded good. I got a quick peek into the room when one of the guards was looking in, couldn't tell what was going on, just saw some people standing and it looked like the smoke machines had been going. When I asked the security guard what was up, he just shook his head giving me one of those "don't ask" looks.

After that I headed back to the room to enjoy a lovely cigar in this warm weather and then wondered around taking some pics. Which of course will appear on Flickr. The rest of the night will likely be spent over at the Welcome Reception. WooHoo! Free beer! (That must be said in "Homer" voice to achieve full effect.)
I'm looking forward to hearing what they have to say tomorrow morning. I have a feeling that there is going to be some major stuff coming out about the Lotus future. Only time will tell.

See you at the Shindig!

Lotusphere2007 - Sunday Report, Part1

Once again the alarm came too early for this cowboy. The day started like most other days at Lotusphere. Alarm goes off, hit snooze, goes off again, his snooze, and then lay in bed until I get the "it's 7:15, I better get a move on" mojo.
Started off this morning in JMP104 - IBM Lotus Domino Security Features. Good session! In between sessions, I had a chance to talk with Bob Baehr while out enjoying a cigar on a 70 degree day. Then it was off to JMP101-IBM Lotus Domino Administration. Another fantastic session. Of course by then its lunchtime and I ate far too much. So, after my next session JMP102-IBM Lotus Domino Domain Manager session, I think I am going to skip the last session and do a few laps around the hotel to walk some of this off.

That's it for now, better go get a seat!

One other thing. Is it just me, or does is seem like there are a LOT more folks here this year then there has been in the past couple?

All my bags are packed......

I'm ready to go! See you Saturday evening somewhere around the Boardwalk. Wheels up from Akron-Canton at 1:05. Let's hope for a smooth flight!

I'm sooo ready to head to Orlando

Okay, so I thought that today was going to be a nice smooth one. Leaving for Lotusphere on Saturday, so I'm taking tomorrow off to run errands and spend time with my beautiful bride. I was wrong. About the easy day that is.

I was in a training class all morning, that went fine, but it was after lunch is when things started to go downhill. The Help Desk reported that someone couldn't reserve a room in the resource database. As soon as I opened the server console, I saw errors like this:
01/18/2007 01:37:56 PM SchedMgr: Error adding busytime entry to schedule database for user xxx/xxx/xxx: Database is corrupt -- Cannot allocate space

Okay, I start seeing A LOT of "Database is corrupt" errors. I'm thinking every mail database on the server has gone south. So I shut down the Domino server, set the service to manual so it won't start up after reboot and wait. While rebooting, I recall seeing something about clubusy.nsf being corrupt. Put 2 and 2 together and start with that database first. Ran a compact -C, did an updall -R on the clusbusy.nsf and restarted Domino. All of my problems have gone away. Never seen that one before. I probably should have rebuilt the clubusy, but I'll watch it from the hotel.
So after that mess, I head home to play with my NEW Canon Rebel XT. 8 mega pixels of fun! I decided to get the body only since I had a "regular"Rebel and was going to use that lens. All excited, I get home, toss the battery and memory card in and start snapping! First round of pictures look good, but then I start getting an "Err 99" on the back of the camera. After doing some Google-ing, I come to find out that older Sigma lens don't work with the new Canon digital SLR's. Grumble grumble grumble. So, back in the box it goes and I've already requested a return from where I bought it from. Guess I'm going to get the credit, then turn around and buy the one that comes with the Canon lens. Sure, it's $80 more but with what I was able to play with the camera, it's worth it.
With all of todays fun behind me, I have a new episode of Smallville to watch, (the one with Flash, Green Arrow, Cyborg and Aquaman, I'm such a geek), and then packing for Lotusphere. Okay, I'll do the packing tomorrow. Tonight, I'm taking it easy.

Get your room?

About this time last year I realized something. I had screwed up my reservation at the Dolphin by putting down arrival for Sunday instead of Saturday. Luckily I was able to get things squared away, get my room on Saturday and all was well. So this year I decided to double check things, especially since the hotels got the information today. I placed a call down to Orlando to verify that I arrive on the 20th and leave on the 26th. All is well. So while I was bored enough to double check my reservations, I jumped on the hotels web site to see if there are any rooms available at either at the Swan or Dolphin. As far as I can tell, there is no room at the inn between the 20th to the 26th. Looks like it may be a busy Lotusphere!