Domino|Geek|Blog

Category Random
This week is my last week as a contract Lotus Notes & Domino Administrator. Next week, w/c 04 Feb 2008, I start back as a permanent Lotus Notes & Domino Administrator.

Whilst I'll miss the freedom of contract work, i.e. -- not being tied to the same employer for any length of time, and the decent paycheck that comes with contract work -- I certainly won't miss my current 700 mile weekly commute. If anything, I'm really looking forward to just being at home with my wife and daughter, and being part of a family again. I know it sounds corny, but I have missed just hanging out at home with Lynne, and being my daughter's personal Taxi service. I guess my views will change after being back home for a while, but for now, next week can't come quick enough for me.

Once I get settled into my new job, I'll have the time again to compose and post some technical articles on all things admin. Stay tuned!

Posted by Frank Docherty 14:51 | Permalink | Comments (8) |      

Category Lotus Symphony



I know I'm way behind on this, but I've now ditched my Microsoft Office installation in favour of the excellent (and free) Lotus Symphony.

Posted by Frank Docherty 00:15 | Permalink | Comments (2) |      

Category Random

Fair fa' your honest, sonsie face,
Great chieftain o' the puddin-race!
Aboon them a' ye tak your place,
Painch, tripe, or thairm:
Weel are ye wordy o' a grace
As lang's my arm.

--"Address to a Haggis" by Robert Burns

Enjoy your Haggis, Neeps & Tatties everyone!

Posted by Frank Docherty 00:00 | Permalink | Comments (0) |      

Category YouTube


The shennanigans that go on at Lotusphere ...

Posted by Frank Docherty 22:03 | Permalink | Comments (4) |      

Category Lotusphere 2008 YouTube


Too good not to post.

Posted by Frank Docherty 21:58 | Permalink | Comments (4) |      

Category None
If your a fan of either the Alien or Predator movie franchises, like I am, then you may well be disappointed with the latest offering "AvP:Requiem".

I think I just expected that wee bit more from this installment, as I really enjoyed the last offering "Aliens vs Predator". I felt that this movie didn't really deliver on what I'd come to expect from the franchise. Still, it was entertaining enough to sit through all 94mins of it.

I guess if your a fan, you'll probably go see the movie for yourself and make your own mind up. However, if your undecided, I think you might want to wait for the DVD release instead.

Posted by Frank 21:17 default | Permalink | Comments (4) |      

Category Notes Stuff
Just waiting on the Lotusphere OGS to get underway, and I'll be able to "tune in" thanks to www.lotuspherelive.com. Kudos to Carl Tyler & Chris Miller for relaying the Lotusphere goodness, as it happens.

Posted by Frank 12:51 default | Permalink | Comments (1) |      

Category Random

Bill "Two Fish, The Billderbeast, Wild Bill" Buchan is a sprightly 41yr old Today.

Happy Birthday Bill!

Posted by Frank Docherty 00:00 | Permalink | Comments (1) |      

Category Lotus 911 Bleed Yellow

... do you bleed yellow?

Posted by Frank Docherty 23:58 | Permalink | Comments (3) |      

Category Blogsphere CSS Page Skin

Thanks to this very helpful article by Rob "Captain Oblivious" McDonagh, I was able to mess around and successfully import some new page skins into my blog. I'm not too sure how long this new look will stay, but for now I really like the uncluttered and clean look of things around here.

Posted by Frank Docherty 23:47 | Permalink | Comments (3) |      

Category Lotusphere 2008

Since I won't be attending Lotusphere (again!) this year, I thought I would put together a brief "survival guide" on how to cope with things being stuck back at home, whilst everyone else is in Orlando. While this isn't what I would consider to be a completed or comprehensive survival guide, it does offer some useful suggestions as to how to deal the information overload that bombards us from Lotusphere each year:-

• If you can, try to work your day job around the conference hours. It sounds silly I know, but if you can then you'll be able to catch up on a lot of things as they happen. Orlando is GMT-5. So, if your UK based, most of the information from the conference starts to flow from about 1300GMT onwards. That's lunchtime for most of us, so grab a sarnie and move on

• It's always nice (IMO) to get a feel for the conference from those on the ground. There are lots of great Notes & Domino bloggers who will be reporting from various sessions throughout the duration of the conference. Keep an eye out for these guys, especially the ones who have offered to live blog a number of the key sessions, including the opening general session

• Like every other year, there's bound to be a ton of news coming out of Lotusphere this year. Some of it will come from official sources (i.e. - Lotus/IBM official press releases, product vendors, etc), but the bulk of it will come from the Domino Blogging community, on the ground in Orlando. Whatever the source, and whatever the news, you can guarantee that there will be a slew of blog postings covering it from every angle! If you haven't already done so, get yourself a decent RSS reader, and start hooking in to the Gigaquads of content available from the Blog-O-Sphere

• If all else fails, and you can't be bothered with the hassle of setting up and filtering individual RSS feeds, then save yourself some time and trouble and head on over to Planetlotus.org. Yancy Lent has done a fabulous job of creating the "Mother of all Domino feed aggregators", which sucks in, filters, and centralises content from the entire Domino Blogging community

And remember:-

• Your getting all of this cool information, (albeit second hand), but at least your not having to walk miles and miles to obtain it, which is what all the poor conference attendees will be doing
  
• OK, so your not actually in Orlando soaking up the atmosphere of the conference, but at least you'll know what cool things to expect from Lotus/IBM over the next year
  

So what happens if you still crave more Lotusphere goodness? Then don't worry! Lotus/IBM are bound to be running their "Lotusphere comes to you" events during Feb/Mar 2008, in a city close to you. That way you can get a small taste of what it would be like to be at Lotusphere for yourself.
 
Anyone want to sponsor an Admin to go to Lotusphere 2009?

Posted by Frank Docherty 22:42 | Permalink | Comments (2) |      

Category Notes Stuff

In conjunction with my recent upgrade to BBMetaBlog 1.2.2 for the BlackBerry, I have also upgraded the design of my Blog to the latest release of the BlogSphere template, as available over at OpenNTF. Some more testing to follow ..!

Posted by Frank Docherty 20:37 BBMetaBlog, BlogSphere | Permalink | Comments (3) |      

Category Random
Just testing out Jason Hook's latest release of BBMetaBlog for the BlackBerry. Next stage is to upgrade to the latest release of the Blogsphere blogging template.

Posted by Frank Docherty 17:45 | Permalink | Comments (2) |      

Category Podcasts
The only cool thing about the 6hr drive I do every Sunday and Thursday, is that I get to catch up on my Podcast subscriptions, via my iPod and Griffin iTrip Auto FM transmitter combo. Last night I reached episode 72 of the Taking Notes podcast.

Bruce and Julian were talking to Yancy Lent, about all things Planetlotus.org. It's a very cool podcast, and if you haven't listened to it yet, I would thoroughly recommend that you do. Yancy is quite an interesting guy, given all that he manages to squeeze into/out of his daily life!

Likewise, if you haven't looked at Planetlotus.org yet go check it out. It's got TONS of Lotus and non-Lotus related content, plus handy links to pretty much every Domino Blogger out there in the Blog-O-Sphere. Great work Yancy!

Posted by Frank Docherty 11:14 | Permalink | Comments (4) |      

Category Random

I dunno what made me look, but I decided to check my Top 25 Most Played songs on iTunes. The results made interesting reading:-



Does anyone else have similar, eclectic musical tastes?

Posted by Frank Docherty 01:01 | Permalink | Comments (11) |      

Category Notes Stuff

Some linkage to a publication on upgrading to Notes & Domino 8.0. Thanks go out to Mac Guidera for the heads up. Hopefully this will come in handy when I start my new job

Posted by Frank Docherty 00:17 | Permalink | Comments (0) |      

Category Notes Stuff
Like Bill, I've been bitten by Jason Hook's excellent BBMetablog app for the Blackberry.

Essentially, BBMetablog allows me to add new content to my blog via my BlackBerry 8820 handset. It is *very* cool ..! ** Edit : OK. I managed to post the story from my BB8820, but it did some funny stuff to my blog. So, in order to get things back to as normal as possible, Im using one of Jason's suggested workarounds, and I'm manually editing this Blog entry.

Posted by Frank Docherty 00:27 | Permalink | Comments (5) |      

Category Random

My apologies if the RSS feed from this Blog goes a bit "nuts" in the short term. When I upgraded my Blog template from BlogSphere 2.5.X to BlogSphere 3.X, I somehow managed to leave a pile of previously-written-in-BlogSphere-2.5.X™ content behind. That's now been fixed, and all the cr@p that I have written previously is back here, where it belongs!

So, apologies (again) if your RSS reader of choice is currently being spammed by me.

Posted by Frank Docherty 23:11 | Permalink | Comments (3) |      

Category Notes Stuff

Posted by Frank Docherty 20:05 | Permalink | Comments (14) |      

Category Random

Posted by Frank Docherty 14:02 | Permalink | Comments (10) |      

Category Random

Posted by Frank Docherty 11:28 | Permalink | Comments (1) |      

Category Email Discussion

If you manage an email system, then you'll want to have a read at this, as this looks to be the first in a planned series of articles by Jack Dausman, discussing the evolution of messaging and collaboration technologies, and why they are here to stay. It's good stuff!

Posted by Frank Docherty 00:54 | Permalink | Comments (4) |      

Category Random

Happy 2008 everyone! Have a safe and prosperous New Year.

Posted by Frank Docherty 00:00 | Permalink | Comments (0) |