I placed more Lotusphere 2007 pictures up on Flickr. I think that is all of them. Most of the one I placed up there today came from my BlackBerry Pearl (8100). Enjoy!

It’s amazing how cool Blogsphere V3 is, and it’s not even gold yet! For those of you not reading this via an RSS feed, you can see that I’ve been playing with the skin of my blog. It’s so cool to have the ability to take a Movable Type skin and with some my changes, use it on your blog!

To Declan Lynch and the rest of the Blogsphere contributors, congratulations and THANK YOU! I can’t wait to see what it looks like when it’s finished…

I was driving home with my BlackBerry Pearl and an application called VoiceRecorder+ by Shape Services, and decided to record my feelings now that construction on the Lodge Freeway (M-10) makes my ride home and to work take forever. Enjoy the podcast by getting it here: http://m.podshow.com/media/1390/episodes/49497/thepridelands-49497-02-09-2007.mp3

You can also subscribe to my podcasts by going to http://feeds.feedburner.com/thepridelandspodcast.

A blog entry by Andrew Pollack about his experience in finding a Dell computers without Microsoft Windows Vista reminded me of something that happened to me recently.

My nephew needed a new PC, but didn’t want Vista on it, and so we went to our local MicroCenter. I thought that any business that sold computers with Linspire on them would surely be able to still give me a Windows XP machine. The salesperson comes by and we find just the machine he wanted. I asked if I can get a machine without Vista, but with something else, and he said, “No, just about all our machines are sold with Vista only.” He then proceeded to recite lines from the Vista sales meeting they must have had a few days prior. I first scolded him on one argument he made that it was a slippery slope and that with 5 minutes of work, I could prove his argument wrong. I then responded, “Well, I see that half of your demo machines don’t have Vista, so I want one of those… and at a discount… and if I don’t get that, I’ll go somewhere that will listen to the customer rather than thinking they know more than me when they obviously don’t!” One minute later, and we had his new machine (boxed) with Windows XP Media Center.

So much for “…all our machines are sold with Vista only.”

Thanks to an email from Lisa Sarkady from IBM, I have reference information to share regarding the upcoming DST (Daylight Savings Time) issue with Lotus Notes/Domino and BES/BlackBerry. THANK YOU LISA! Please… read on!

Regarding Lotus Notes/Domino:
To Everyone Who Uses Notes and Domino ,
The DST Agents are now gold and the DST documentation has been updated and published.  

Here is the link to the updated Agents.
Agents for updating Calendaring and Scheduling entries and Resource Reservation entries for Daylight Saving Time (DST) 2007
http://www.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?rs=463&uid=swg21254639
Contains the released agents, instructions for applying the agents, and a detailed description of how the agents work.  
Note: the version number of the agent, and the revisions made to the agent, appear in the .lss file, near the top.  You can view them with the file viewer in notes.  I have excerpted the current list of revisions in the collasped section below.

Links to our additional documentation on DST:

Executive Summary and End User Guide: Daylight Saving Time (DST) 2007
http://www.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?rs=463&uid=swg21254625
Contains information to help IT System Administrators and Help Desk personnel communicate the changes for DST within you organization.

Deployment Guide: Daylight Saving Time (DST) 2007
http://www.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?rs=463&uid=swg21254624
Contains step-by-step instructions to implement the changes needed to prepare your Lotus Notes and Domino systems for the DST 2007 changes, along with Frequently Asked Questions.

Detailed information about changes to DST and their impact on Notes and Domino
Complete information about addressing Changes to Daylight Saving Time (DST) in 2007 for Lotus Notes and Domino can be found on  http://www.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?rs=463&uid=swg21247972.

Regarding how it will affect your BlackBerry and your BES:
Check out what they have to say about it here: http://www.blackberry.com/select/dst2007/

Maybe IBM should get in on this act… More Lotusphere items for sale, including the very popular 2006 backpack. Log into your eBay accounts and check these out:

Lotusphere 2006 computer backpack from the conference
Lotusphere 2007 computer backpack from the conference
NWT IBM’s Lotusphere 2001 Open Black Polo Shirt XL/2XL

This year, my home circle, Fr Daniel A Lord Circle 801, is hosting the Michigan Columbian Squires State Bowling Tournament and Bowl-a-thon. The proceeds of this fundraiser will go to Special Days Cancer Camp and St Mary’s Children Family Center. We usually get 80 to 100 boys and adults to come to this event. So far, we’re looking at about 40 bowlers and only about $500.00 in pledges. (We usually get over $1000.00 in pledges.) One of the reasons for the lack of participation is a storm on the east side of the state. (Devin Olson is getting a couple of inches right now.) I’m hoping that some extra pledges come in, because these are some really worthy charities.

We got here around 11AM today, and the Bruce Hopkins and the boys got to work setting up tables for lunch, while JimE and I went to pick up milk, orange juice, and hamburger buns. We came back and had lunch with the rest of the circles that showed up. We heard a talk from the Executive Director of Special Days Camps and a representative of the Catholic Men’s Conference, who this year is having a breakout session for youth (along with a price discount courtesy of the Michigan Knights of Columbus). We then had a state meeting, where we prayed for the safety of Phil Thelen on MySpace. Next, everyone had some free time, so some played basketball while others sat around.

Later, we went to Mass, then had dinner and a talk with Father Jeffrey Day. The boys really got into it, and hopefully something fruitful comes from it. Fr. Day did an outstanding job, and I hope to meet him again.

After that, the boys held an investiture, prayed the rosary, and then more free time and a snack of nachos and cheese with all the fixin’s. It was lights out at 11:30PM and everybody got to sleep… or so I hoped.

Some of the boys from our circle decided to play a trick on one of their own, but were not very quiet about it, so I was up most of the night listening to them walk around the bleachers. GRRRR! In the morning, I was cranky and tired. We had an outstanding breakfast (all the food for the weekend was prepared by my brother-in-law, Jim Vote, of Vote Catering), then we cleaned up the gym for a basketball tournament being held later that morning, and we drove off to Ford Lanes for the tournament.

It was a shooters duel, with Matt Sobkowski of Richmond besting me once again. (I’ll get you next time, Hit Man!) The Squires of Circle 801 bowled strikes to earn Tel-Way burgers, and Chief Counselor Jim Vote bought some snacks for everyone. There was even a 300 game bowled (in 9 pin no tap). Once we finished, we said our goodbyes and departed. And a good time was had by all!

It’s been over a week since Lotusphere ended and just about everyone else has placed their Lotusphere thoughts out there, so I guess it was time to find some time and come up with my thoughts.

From the General Opening Session to the General Closing Session, Lotusphere has provided a solid direction for anyone continuing in the Lotus arena. IBM Lotus Notes/Domino 8 is a solid application with not just a ton of new features to keep administrators and application developers happy, but I predict it will change the way people work. IBM Lotus Sametime 7.5 takes instant messaging to the next level. Anyone who has not started using this product should start. Not only is it ready for prime time, but it’s ready for business. IBM Lotus WebSphere Portal 6 (and Portal Express 6)

This didn’t take long (courtesy of eBay):

Lotusphere 2007 backpack for sale

My offer is simple… Does anyone out there have (or knows someone who has) a Lotusphere 2007 STAFF polo shirt (in XXL preferably) that they would like to sell or give away? I’ve been collecting them since 2000, and would hate to have a break in the series. If you know anyone or if it’s you, contact me.


UPDATE: The bag went for $26.00 plus $8.00 shipping. I’m still waiting for someone who wants to sell their Lotusphere 2007 STAFF polo shirt… XXL… Anyone?