In the mad rush of the past few months
since Lotusphere, I have missed many things.  I didn’t even realise
that this site is now running three years.  Do I get some sort of
badge now???

It all started with this
post.

After a year, this
post

After two years,
this post.

So in a review of a year, so much has
happened.  So, in short, both good and bad, the list is below:

• Coming back from Lotusphere 2006 and
  thinking that it could never be beaten.  Speaking at the geekfest
  for the first time was amazing.

• Going to Lotusphere 2007, and getting
  to do it again.

• ILUG2006 and getting incredible people
  to help out and come over.  Posts are here,
  here
  and
  here.  As ever, my personal
  thanks goes to so many people for that event.  It was great (almost
  killed me but sure…)

• Getting to hang around and drink with
  Bill
  a lot more as Worst Practices
  put us on the road, speaking at events in Europe and the States

• Worst
  Practices becoming a site after
  vowe
  gave us a little nudge

• Losing the two dogs I had
• Getting involved in some tool called
  the Microsoft
  Application Analyser

• Getting to the point where I consider
  my tv to be a very large paperweight in my sitting room

• Getting to make new friends at Lotusphere
  and on-line, and getting to know older friends very well

• Getting to have time to write articles
  for on-line publications, and Blackberry, and help a lot of people with
  Websphere Portal / Domino configuration!

• Getting to learn and talk to people
  that are just geniuses in their trade

So, as ever, comments on the past year
welcome – anything you want to see or want to see less of?  

"Lotusphere Comes to You",
came to Dublin today and by all accounts went down very very well.  Lots
of talk about ND8 and Quick/Connections.  I couldn’t stay for much
as I was needed on a client site, but its good to see the numbers grow
every year, and this year more then most, I didn’t recognise many of the
faces!

Well, simply put, there has been zero
free time.  Organising ILUG,
and the "day job" have really put a stretch on free time, to
a point where the weeks and weekends are a blur, and before I knew it,
its almost April.  I have no idea where the last few weeks have gone,
and we have a lot to do yet.   Lets just say we have some excellent
plans laid for the event, and have a new found respect for people that
arrange Lotusphere.  

The Notes 8 beta testing is going very
well.  In so far as that my servers and clients are all Notes 8 now,
and working in the product is just like working normally.  For a beta,
I am very impressed.  The improvements in the client are amazing,
but unfortunately I just have not had the time to partake in the beta discussions
up to now.  So I have a few posts to put up, and a few SNTT posts
to make.  Also, you will see me speaking at Admin
2007, where I am giving six sessions.
 This is a week after ILUG.  Christ….

Many thanks to Florian Geiger for designing this excellent high res image for me. Of course… I *could* of done this myself (yea right).

This could have been a very dumb move.
 Time will tell….

Upgrade went fine – running design and
compact now…

Update: So far… flawless.  Stable,
tolerant and downright dull.  The server has been up 4 hours and has
not even coughed.  So I disobeyed pretty much every rule of common
IT sense (I did do a backup) and went for it.  Considering the presentation
that Bill and I are most well known for… I was lining myself up for some
pretty good jeering at the ILUG
in May.  So, phew!

Jury is out for about a week, but it
really does impress me that is was THAT easy to put beta code into production
(well the websites) domain.  Now, for the Worst
Practice fans.  DO try this
at home.  Just DON’T try this in the office!

Well, the download started yesterday,
then slowed down.. then stopped altogether.  And for once, I said
to my self … Fantastic!!

Don’t worry about it IBM.  It’s
great to see that even when you try to release the most eagerly awaited
IBM beta since… em.. ever on a Friday night, just to try to stream the
flow, you still get hammered with download requests!  Its great to
see that level of interest and I sincerely hope we bring down the download
servers more and more over the next few months!

Just downloading the software now, and
2 things spring to mind immediately.  

1.  The server download for windows
is Windows 2003 Server.  I did not see Windows 2000 server.  Maybe
I missed the announcement but is Win2k server dropped from support?

2.  The beta file names.  Can
SOMEBODY in IBM take some notes here.   Descriptive filenames (like
what is being used on the beta site) for download are a GOOD thing… not
useless part number names used for file names (like what is being used
everywhere else on IBM sites).

Its out guys… Get over there, register, download and play!

Just received the latest and greatest from Blackberry. First thoughts.. Bluetooth works a lot better then the pearl,. The unit’s full querty keyboard makes emails easier, but it is not as “phone like” now as the pearl. GPS in the phone is excellent, and battery life so far is fantastic. Will review fully after a while of usage.

People registering this week will have
received "waitlist" confirmation.  Well, its full now, so
if anyone cancels, I will try to hand out the free seats.  Also, from
what I can see, I have room for one more sponsor with a stand.  If
you are interested, contact me.