Monday, December 27, 2010

2010 a Year of Milestones for ME

It is funny that Gregg Eldred is now getting solicitations from AARP since I have been getting them for the past two years. I was first offended, but unfortunately I have reach the age where I should expect this. This year has been full of milestones and I would say turning points in my life.

First, I recently turned the big 5 0. Since most of my family live to the mid 90s to 100s, I guess my life on this earth is half over.

Second, about every ten years since graduating college, I have shifted directions in what I do professionally. I was an electrical engineer for about 10 years, I did training sales for 10 years, and have done Lotus and business consulting services for about 10 years now. From what I see happening in the Lotus world compared to the rest of the industry, I see myself slowly making a new shift. What that is, I do not know? I still see Lotus in the picture, but the environment is so fluid. So this coming Lotusphere 2011 will be interesting for me. I am hoping that Domino is successful in turning the corner. I love the Domino product. However, at the same time, my family always comes first and if customers wants solutions based on other platforms I will move towards that direction. Many years ago, I believed in the pure Yellow approach, but over the past year I have conclude that is no longer possible. Sales have been fine, but our world is changing and we need to adapt.

Third, nothing is more important than my family and health. Without these two you really do not have much. Recently, a couple of friends and family members became ill. Without your health, all the money in the world would not matter. When we are young and healthy we never think about it. So during the past few months, I have shifted towards a vegetarian diet with minimal process foods and no more coffee and soda. The soda kick was the hardest since I use to drink a lot of soda each day.

Fourth, I have been starting to spend more time helping others in need. There are so many in need and you do not think about it until you are in that situation. I was very glad that we were able to raise $500 for charity during MWLUG 2010. We plan to do it again at MWLUG 2011 for another charity. The $500 we raised thanks to everyone who participated allows the Cleveland Foodbank to serve 2,000 meals to their community. One of the projects that I tried starting this year is "The Human Community Project." But, I could not get a certain donation from a certain company so it did not get off the ground. However, I will be restarting this project in 2011 mostly likely with a new technology. Hopefully, everyone will be hearing more about this project.

Fifth, oh I thought I had a fifth, but maybe it just the old age.

Reading: The Ten Faces of Innovation

I just started to read "The Ten Faces of Innovation." An interesting book by Tom Kelley of IDEO.

Thursday, December 23, 2010

End of Year Cleaning: Workplace CDs Place Where it Belongs

It is the end of the year and I was cleaning my desk and I found Lotus Domino's worst nightmare, CDs for Lotus Workplace. I thought I got ridden of all my Workplace CDs but they seem to keep showing up. Kind of like how Workplace is showing up in Domino. I made sure I got ridden of ALL of them this time. Crushed them into little pieces. Hopefully never to be seen again, but some how I have a feeling that is not going to happen given the direction of Domino.

Friday, December 17, 2010

New GRANITE LUG Leadership

After 3 years as President and 2 years as Vice President of GRANITE, I am happy to announce that we have elected a new president and vice president for GRANITE. Bernie Leung from Mesa Technologies will be the new President and Mike McGarel from Czarnowski will be the new Vice President. Congratulations to both of them. They will definitely provide new ideas and direction for GRANITE. I will still be an active participant at GRANITE, but this will give me more time to focus on the Midwest Lotus User Group Conference in which the next one will be in Milwaukee, WI in late August 2011.

Friday, December 10, 2010

Reminder: GRANITE Lotus User Group Meeting on Monday

Reminder that the December 2010 GRANITE Lotus User Group meeting will be held next Monday on December 13, 2010. Meridian IT/Plantronics and Kroll Track will be presenting. In addition, Bernie Leung will talk about Lotus Security. So come join us for this meeting which includes our December Holiday lunch

Wednesday, December 1, 2010

Why Business Partners CAN NOT sign up for three day pass at Lotusphere 2011

I was in the process of signing up for Lotusphere 2011. Since I didn't plan to go to the Wednesday party nor Thursday I thought I would sign up for the three day conference badge which is $200 cheaper. I was surprise to find out that as an IBM Business Partner we are not allowed to sign up for the three day pass. It sounds like IBM squeezing money out of the partners again.

CollabSphere 2022 Presentation: COL103 Advanced Automation and Cloud Service Integration for your Notes/Nomad Applications

Our presentation for CollabSphere 2022. Learn how to quickly add workflow automation into Notes/Nomad applications using No-code tools that ...