Author Archives: raybilyk

Tomorrow in Grand Rapids with Ed Brill

I’m going to be at the COMBINED West Michigan Lotus User Group Meeting and ‘Notes Domino 7 and Beyond’ launch event in Grand Rapids, MI. Speaking at this event is none other than Ed Brill, Business Unit Executive, Worldwide Lotus Messaging Sales, IBM Software Group. In other words, he’s ‘our voice’…the voice of all of us who uses and advocates Lotus Domino/Notes. I can’t wait! Hope to see you there…

Another reason I admire Mike Wendland…

Mike Wendland is a tech guru here in Detroit. He has a syndicated report he does for NBC, he writes articles for the Detroit Free Press, and he talks at area user group meetings. He also rode his bike back to fitness, and has a pretty cool ‘spiritual’ side. He’s one man that I admire A LOT!

Well, he and some other volunteers are heading down to the Gulf Coast to help with the relief effort. He’s blogging about it at:

http://freep.typepad.com/katrina/

Check it out when you get a chance….

E-mails from the Red Cross asking for donations…DON’T BITE!

The American Red Cross
Last night on the news, I heard that a lot of scammers are sending emails claiming to be from the Red Cross regarding donations for disaster relief. A spokesman from the Red Cross said that they do not send email solicitations.

Please do NOT consider donating to anyone that emails you asking you to go to a site to make a donation. Just go to the Red Cross site yourself. Many of the scammers are actually making their sites look like the Red Cross one…complete with the ‘Verisign Secure Site’ logo on it.

Once we clean up New Orleans, let’s grab all these scammers and put them on a deserted island where they can rot!!!

Be careful when donating, but PLEASE CONTINUE TO DONATE!!!

Thank You Jennifer!

I just got off of the phone with my wife. She seemed to be in a bad mood.
She worked her buttocks off yesterday placing out for bulk collection (which Detroit collects once a month) A TON of junk that we had in our basement. It didn’t help that I promised to help my brother-in-law and sister with their DSL/wireless setup when I promised to help Jennifer when I got home from work. What started out as a quick 1/2 hour setup turned into a 4 1/2 hour battle… which I won. By the time I got home, Jennifer had most of it done, and she still had a smile on her face (sort of). We threw out some of the bigger stuff, and in the two hours we worked on that, I realized how much work Jennifer got done before I came home… WOW! She did an awesome job, but despite the fact that I mentioned what a great job she did, I don’t think she realizes how much I really DID appreciate what she did.
I know that this isn’t much, but maybe she’ll believe it now that it’s out there for the whole world (ok… three of you) to see.
JENNIFER… THANK YOU & I LOVE YOU!!!

A Call to Action…

Following Ed Brill’s “Call to Action”, I’m asking anyone who is still reading this blog to help…

Now, I have to admit, I can’t contribute to the Red Cross right now (we’re broke here in the Pridelands), but I’m doing the next best thing…contributing of myself. I made an appointment to donate blood (Saturday at 1PM EST). If you’re like me and can’t give your money (because you don’t have any), give of your time. Head to http://www.givelife.org and find out how you can donate blood. It doesn’t take that much time, and they give you juice and cookies…

Let’s also keep ’em in our thoughts…