Deja Vu

Interesting. I was reading a post on David Fletcher's Government and Technology Weblog and there was a picture from the place that he was staying for the NASCIO Conference that looked so similar to one that I knew I had taken years ago. Take a look at his post and see if you agree.

I was staying at the Hyatt Regency (26th floor) in Chicago and attending a Teach the Teacher type seminar being put on by Elliot Masie.

Here are a couple of additional pics from my room.

Domino/Notes Release 5.0.13a

We won't be going to it as I am still trying hard to get everything lined out for 6.5.1 (currently on 5.08 on Server, 5.0.12 client), but I had failed to notice that 5.0.13a was available for download on 4/19/04.

Software Metrics

Management is touching the issue of software metrics a bit. I found a couple of articles by Karl E. Wiegers that I thought were good. The first is "A Software Metrics Primer". The second article, "Software Metrics: Ten Traps to Avoid", was of more interest to me as it expresses some of the concerns that I have mentioned if they move forward.

A good day

It is a good day for our group. Hey, it's Friday isn't it. Well, it even gets better. I just received the following (slightly edited to protect the innocent/guilty) unsolicited e-mail from one of our customers today.

The note was addressed to the Customer's Administrator, My Administrator, and the Team Members.

We recently met with the Application Programming Group to review a demo of our new program.

One word...........Fabulous!!

The program is more than we ever envisioned or could have hoped for. APG has spent a tremendous amount of time converting the old data files, and developing the network application. The new program is 210% user friendly and will be easy to roll out to the bureaus. Their dedication to developing this application, and wanting to do it right, can be seen throughout the program. I'm sure they have learned more about our operations than they ever cared to know!!

We couldn't be more pleased with the final product and wanted to pass along our sincere appreciation for their efforts!!

This was followed by a note from my administrator and the administrator of the customer, a copy of the notes going to the Division Director as well:

My Administrator

WOW - what rave reviews!!! Your efforts have resulted in some pretty happy customers. Way to go!

Customer's Administrator

This is WONDERFUL!!! Thank you, thank you, thank you!!!!!!!!!!! :-)

Note: The application is in MS Access with a web front-end, running on our Intranet.

After trying to clean up some issues with another system that was brought about by some network connection issues earlier in the week it is nice to end on a good note.

NAI

Seems like everything that Network Associates brought together is being taken apart. Recently sold the Magic Help Desk solution to Remedy, a BMC Software company, now selling Sniffer, which will be known as Network General again. And renaming the company from Network Associates to McAfee, Inc. See the press release.

Excerpts from e-mail and press release:

E-mail

Special Announcement April 22, 2004
Dear Bonj,

Today, Network Associates announced that the Sniffer Technologies division will be acquired by Silver Lake Partners and Texas Pacific Group to create a new independent company called Network General Corporation. This is a very exciting day for Network Associates, our customers and our partners.

Press Release

Network Associates to Change Name to McAfee, Inc.
Reinforcing its image as a leader in security and intrusion prevention, Network Associates will change its name to McAfee, Inc, reflecting a brand that carries awareness and confidence among corporate and consumer customers around the world. The McAfee name and McAfee products have long been associated with best-in-class security solutions. The McAfee Protection-In-Depth strategy allows organizations to optimize business availability with pro-active security solutions that protect against known and unknown threats.

gmail

As an active Blogger user I was invited to try gmail (BETA). The product has had a lot of press about privacy issues, but I took the bait. Just what I need another free e-mail account (although this one has 1,000 megabytes of storage, which makes you wonder if you'll be able to go a week before it is totally filled with SPAM). Actually it makes you wonder how long it will be free with such space. I have not used it much, but as Blogger is a part of Google, as is gmail, I figured I would go ahead and set it up as my e-mail for my blog, You may notice the e-mail link has been updated. You can find out more about gmail here.

Blogger Updated

Blogger has changed it's posting interface a bit. It seems a bit cleaner, but like everything, when there is a change it takes a bit to get use to.

2004 Missouri Digital Media Conference

Not much time left. The 2004 Missouri Digital Media Conference is on Accessibility and Usability is quickly approaching.

Pic from Ch. 9

Unfortunately the statement at the bottom of the sign often holds true. It doesn't always boil down to quality.

Free Conference

There is a free conference, Enterprise Messaging Decisions, May 4-6, 2004 in Chicago. Here is the conference at-a-glance. You also have a chance to win a Mercedes-Benz SLK.

Jeep Unlimited

Jeep Unlimited

Jeep Unlimited

I want one. With the top on it kind of reminds me of a Land Rover Defender 90. It also reminds me of how fun my 1978 International Harvester Scout was with the top off.

Land Rover Defender

Eyes of the World

Here is where my Dad works. Kind of interesting. They make intraocular lenses. This is really his second career. He retired from the Federal Government after working there for 30+ years. He would probably still be there today if they had not closed the facility at which he worked. He started out as a Research Chemist and worked his way up through management to the level of Assistant Director and would have probably made Director if the place was still around. At the end he was acting Director and left in charge of shutting the place down.

Almost to fast

We are still trying to get 6.5.1 tested and an environment that we can run it in and Ed mentions Lotus already has Domino 7 for Public Beta. Guess we better hurry up if we want to get any use out of 6.5.1. :-)

Electronic Plastics

Check out the article, New Molecule Heralds Breakthrough in Electronic Plastics New material could mean easier manufacture of paper-thin TVs and "smart" cloth, on the National Science Foundations website.

Ed's Post - Reasons for continuing to use Notes/Domino

There is a flaw in Ed's post (Ed-work, Ed-play/kinda work), Reasons for continuing to use Notes/Domino. He states, "any fair assessment of Lotus against the competition is going to put us on top." Unfortunatley, as I often have to point out to my kids, life is not always fair.

Manifesto

A Manifesto for Collaborative Tools. Does anyone else visualize someone in a hooded sweatshirt? Okay, just wanted to make sure it wasn't just me. This also appears in Dr. Dobbs Journal and you can purchase it. Hmm.

Photoblog

I really enjoy photography and some people tell me that I am pretty good, but looking at some of the top 100 photoblogs on photoblogs.org lets me see how far I have to go. If you enjoy some really good photography take a moment and look through some of those on the top 100 listing.

Airline

As Robert Schoble points out in his post regarding Channel 9;

"You'll notice, by the way, that we're pointing to many of the negative things people say about us. Why? Well, for one, that lets you know we are hearing the feedback and participating in the conversation. Two, we're fixing bugs (yes, we shipped with bugs, imagine that!). For instance, we're a bit buggy with Firefox and Mozilla browsers (report bugs at channel9@microsoft.com and we'll fix them). Three, it shows there's movement and that we're human."

Sounds a bit like the show on A&E Television called Airline - We all have our baggage.

AIRLINE showcases the ups and downs of passengers who board Southwest flights at the bustling Los Angeles International (LAX) and Chicago Midway airports, as well as the staff and crew -- from the pilots to the hard-working check-in staff and supervisors who are often on the receiving end of angry customers' wrath. America's fourth largest carrier.

It shows a good number of disgruntled people slamming SouthWest Airlines, but as you watch it you can see that it may play as a good commercial in Southwest's favor, as they are showing their vulnerabilities in some respects, and yet in other ways some can see how ridiculous and irrational some of the passengers are.

Channel 9 - MSDN

Okay, so I was kidding around. Here is the Channel 9 that the buzz has been about.

Channel 9

Channel 9 seems to be a big hit on the Internet, especially in the Microsoft camps. Maybe shamelessy making a reference to it here will increase my traffic as people look for it. ;-)

YourWare Solutions

Cat Schwartz mentioned a freeware program on TechTV's "Call for Help", called FreeRAM XP Pro. You can find out more about it on the YourWare Solutions site or read Cat's article here.

dotProject.net

Something I saw on David Fletcher's blog that I want to look at more when I have some time is an open source project management system called dotProject.net.

Airport Security?!?

You hear stories of people getting their finger nail clippers taken away, sewing kits, etc.. Well on my trip to Puerto Vallarta I took a knife with me. Not a tiny little discreet knife, but a nice big multi-blade knife.

I did not do it intentionally. I simply had it in my camera bag and hadn't used my film camera in some time, but did not have enough memory for my digital to store pictures for a whole week, so I took the old film camera. It was not until being in Mexico for a couple of days that I went looking through my camera bag for something and came across my knife. I guess it lets you know that things get through. I also had a couple of screwdrivers right next to it. Needless to say those items made the trip back in my suitcase and not my camera bag which I had carried all the way down and intended to carry all the way back.

Everything I know

There are lots of lists out there that have taken their lead from Robert Fulghum’s "Everything I know I learned in Kindergarten", many that are more in jest. I found one and adapted it a bit at one point in time and unfortunately I think some of them are becoming more and more true and less of a joke.

Everything I know I learned in State Government

1. Indecision is the key to flexibility.
2. You can't tell which way the train went by looking at the tracks.
3. There is absolutely no substitute for a genuine lack of preparation.
4. Happiness is merely the remission of pain.
5. Nostalgia isn't what it use to be.
6. Sometimes too much to drink is not enough.
7. The facts, although interesting, are irrelevant.
8. The careful application of terror is also a form of communication.
9. Someone who thinks logically is a nice contrast to the real world.
10. Things are more like they are today than they ever were before.
11. Anything worth fighting for is worth fighting dirty for.
12. Everything should be made as simple as possible, but no simpler.
13. Friends may come and go, but enemies accumulate.
14. I have seen the truth and it makes no sense.
15. If you think there is good in everybody, you haven't met everybody.
16. If you can smile when things go wrong, you have someone in mind to blame.
17. One seventh of your life is spent on Monday.
18. Every time you make ends meet, they move the ends
19. Not one shred of evidence supports the notion that life is serious.
20. There is always one more imbecile than you counted on.
21. This is as bad as it can get, but don't count on it.
22. Never wrestle a pig. You both get dirty and the pig likes it.
23. The trouble with life is, you’re halfway through it before you realize it's a do-it-yourself thing.

Instant Messaging

Another topic being addressed by the CIO group is Instant Messaging. Well, so much for their direction with Exchange, because I downloaded the 3/29/04 IM code from Lotus today had it installed. It is up and running on our test 6.5.1 server. Of course, it is limited, but looks as though it could meet the needs for some corporate instant messaging. Even though we don't use Domino for mail I may try to get it incorporated into our environment when we get our production server upgraded to 6.5.1.

Sad Meeting!

We had a first of its kind IT staff meeting. In three separate sessions the State CIO addressed approximately 1,500 IT staff in total. We are talking about a staff meeting to relay the strategic plan, etc.. Some of the agency CIOs also participated in the presentation. I hope it is the last of its kind as well. I do enjoy my job for the most part and take pride in my work, but if I were independently wealthy, I would have simply walked out after the meeting and never looked back. It was truly that disheartening. I am just glad the business process owners did not attend.

You are holding meetings that have never been held before, wouldn't you practice and polish your presentation. It appears they did not find that to be important. They must realize that when they are giving presentations to the IT Staff that they are not going to instill confidence in their message when they cannot figure out how to work the mouse, cannot find the back button on the browser, cannot find the location on the CIO's site where they have documents they want to share with you, cannot figure out how to scroll, cannot figure out how to get out of design mode to display the Powerpoint presentation, and some lacking presentation skills. At one point one presenter had the audience read slides, slowly advancing through three to four slides accompanied by three to four minutes of complete silence. Ugh!

I have said it before, my shop uses Domio for some applications, but Exchange is our e-mail platform. Needless to say, I don't have any say in that. If all you are doing is e-mail Exchange will do, but if you utilize the programming environments in Domino then it only makes sense to utilize it for e-mail. The CIO announced that all agencies will be moving to the new standard for e-mail: Microsoft Exchange. The transition is to have Groupwise users moved over in 1-2 years with Domino shops moved over in years 3,4, and 5. There are multiple agencies utilizing Domino for internal applications, Internet applications, as well as e-mail. I am not sure how it was decided that it is better for those utilizing the environment that does more than just e-mail to move to the e-mail only platform than to move those only doing e-mail to a platform that can do more.

The CIO basically said the decision has been made and you may as well get on board because it is going to happen, no use fighting it.

I have shared my opinions on this subject, but being so far down the ladder I am not sure my thoughts are given much credence.