As far as I can figure out, this is not a technical nor financial decision. Well, not true. The decision was based on FUD provider by an outside source that was wrapped up in technical and financial blarney. What I mean is that this was all started for political reasons. Someone got a bee in their bonnet (wow, is that an old saying!) about Notes in general and after being wooed by a larger software company, decided to drive Notes from our company. Ok, let’s face it. IBM doesn’t care too much about keeping customers, just trying to win new ones. So no one came to call or help until the decision was about to be put in front of the board. I’m predicting that we’ll be in a mess for about 5 years, maybe more. And after that, the email system will STILL not be as stable as what we have now.

And to top this all off, the only solution that I’ve heard for replacing Lotus Notes applications is SharePoint. SHAREPOINT? Umm, did anyone really look at the capabilities? Or did they just take MS and the outside source’s word for it? Oh well.

So what does that mean for me? I’m not going to go back out there as an independent contractor. That was great, but I had to finally call it quits when the jobs became scarcer. I don’t like marketing, and you REALLY have to get out there and market yourself to keep the jobs rolling in. Looking at job postings now, Lotus Notes is dying off quickly. There’s still a core group of Notes developers that show up at all the LUG meets, but the circle has shrunk quite a bit and seems to be imploding.

I’ve recently started working with WebSphere Portal and Lotus Web Content Management along with Java in general, so that’s where I’m headed. I want to stay here because of the security, but I don’t think I’ll ever get to the level of expertise in WebSphere technologies as I had in Lotus Notes. I am however having a lot of fun learning. So maybe bidding farewell to Notes won’t be so hard after all. Although, I really did want to learn XPages – it holds so much promise.

Seems that Lotus Notes is taking a hammering again. Happens every 3 – 5 years as analysts get bored with a technology that just keeps working. XPages brought a whole new development ability to the table, but corporations always look for ‘new technology’ to swap in for old stuff. So Micro$oft has been wining and dining the decision makers while we just keep on developing. Sooner or later the decision makers start believing what Redmond says, even though quite a bit of it is complete balderdash. Doesn’t matter though, as long as MS gets it money. Who cares of the corporation has to spend millions upon millions to just get back to where they were before the tech swap.

Oh well. Such is life.

Still, at home, it’s nice to finally have organization to all those pieces of information that come flying my way. I started with a mailbox of about 100 emails that went back several years. I updated my mail file and installed just one reference db. An hour later I had my inbox to zero, I had projects created for those major things going on, like the vacation/cruise we’ll be taking soon. There’s nothing more to say, eProductivity made this SO MUCH EASIER!

All those jokes that I didn’t want to lose? In the reference db under “Humor”.  Links to software sites, filed under “Software” & “Links” (I always end up losing my ‘favorites’ in browsers for some reason).  Software keys for the iPod/BlackBerry/PC programs – safely stored away.  I now can find anything in a matter of seconds.

I love being able to look at what needs to be worked on next.  Even if I REALLY don’t need to put it down in the system (just got done with action one and headed out to do the next action), I put ALL actions in the system because it helps me to envision what is coming up after THAT.  The great part of doing this in Lotus Notes is that, well, I’m a little different than most since I have a Domino server running at home, but I have all my ‘stuff’ backed up and accessible from anywhere.

If you’re interested in eProductivity, next week, on April 28th, Eric Mack and the fine folks at eProductivity will be presenting a webinar with none other than the creator of GTD, David Allen, entitled “Getting Things Done with IBM Lotus Notes”. This is a DON’T MISS opportunity to learn about eProductivity. The webinar is from 10:00AM to 11:30AM PST (1 – 2:30pm EST).

You can sign up for the webinar here.

So I bought a Belkin surge protector, the same one that Rockey Oliver reviewed in his blog .  Allows me to forego the charger for my phone and iPod, as well as providing 3 protected outlets for laptops and battery charger.  I also bought two 6-outlet powerstrips to share the all too scarce outlets in the session rooms.  It’s always a hunt for the floor outlets and they now police the sessions to yank anyone’s charger out of the wall outlets.

My session planning is done (well, as much as it can be ahead of time).  I can access my schedule from a mobile device, or without connectivity, I’ve downloaded and imported the .ics calendar file into my work Notes calendar.  I’ll have both my personal BlackBerry and my bank BlackBerry with me.  I only have data on my bank BB.  And my personal BB has all my personal email access.  In addition, I loaded my schedule on my iPod Touch.  Of course, since it’s a personal device, there could be no synching with bank system.  And since iTunes will only sync with Outlook, I had to *gasp* use Outlook to import the .ics file and then synch to the Touch.  The Touch DOES present the schedule the nicest of all the devices.  The only problem is I can’t change the schedule now unless I go through the whole process again, and my personal laptop has Notes 8.5.1 running on Ubuntu.  So I’ll really have to use the browser in one of the devices to access the Lotusphere Online schedule if I want to have the current schedule and make changes to it real time.

So . . . power access – CHECK.  Confusing scheduling options – CHECK.  ScottEVest jacket  to carry all this stuff – CHECK. Owner’s Locker scheduled for delivery – CHECK.  Too many receptions and such to attend – YEP.  I’m gonna need a vacation from this conference for sure.

This will be the first time that I’ve stayed at the Dolphin. Usually, Pam accompanies me and we use our DVC points to stay in a 1-bedroom or studio villa at Boardwalk Villas. This year, Pam decided to stay home since I’ll be attending more evening events and we won’t be able to spend much time together. Just as well, since she usually spent a lot of time at the pool reading and it’s been COLD down in Orlando lately. Hope it warms up soon!

I would have bought a full copy of eProductivity, but the price was a little too much for me to justify it for my personal email.  Unfortunately, work hasn’t embraced GTD and eProductivity though eProductivity IS being used by some of those that can make the decision to accept it and offer it.  A month or so ago, the price for eProductivity was altered by offering 4 software levels, each with varying integration and capabilities.  GREAT, I can now afford to buy a copy for home.  But I didn’t want the LOWEST version.  Hmm, what to do?  Procrastinate!  ICA just offered a Thanksgiving deal.  For $139 (just $10 over the lowest level) I could get the Professional level of eProductivity.  SOLD!

So I just downloaded the template, and . . . hmm, where’s Refresh Design on the Linux client?  Guess since there’s no Designer, certain options aren’t there.  DAMN.

No real problem though, just copy the template over to the Windows desktop machine and refresh there.  Works like a charm, replicates up and down and now we’re all on the same page.

Watch here for more on my journey to learn eProductivity and how to Get Things Done.

I had received Ubuntu 6.X, I think, on CD a few years ago.  I was going to convert my Domino server to Linux and was taking a look at the Ubuntu flavor.  The CDs are still sitting in my office, but since Ubuntu had just released 9.10 Karmic Koala, I decided to start from scratch.

After backing up the few vacation pictures and documents from the laptop, I was ready to give Linux a shot.  Thankfully, I use Lotus Notes, so all my applications were already backed up on the server, and were also replicated on my desktop machine.  I burned the Ubuntu 9.10 32-bit ISO image on a CD and popped it my laptop.  Fired it up and saw I could ‘Test it out’ by running from the CD.  I had fun poking around, but when I tried to connect wirelessly, I found that my wireless card wouldn’t work.  Since it was working fine with Windows, I deduced that the drivers weren’t loading correctly, or weren’t the right ones.  I thought maybe that the driver couldn’t be loaded since I was running from the CD.  I decided that the next night I would take the leap, wipe the drive clean and install Ubuntu.

Ubuntu installed without a hitch.  I was impressed.  I played around again some, and then tried to connect wirelessly.  Nope, no go.  And I had seen the driver loaded.  OK, what now?  AH, I remembered that I had bought a Zonet Wireless card as a replacement when I had problems several years earlier.  A couple minutes of looking in my office and I found the card.  Popped it in, the driver loaded automatically, and CONNECTED!  Now we’re talking!

So it’s been a couple of weeks.  I’ve installed Tweetdeck for managing my Twitter feed, and a couple of other apps.  Today I took a deep breath and attempted to load the Lotus Notes 8.5.1 client.  Lotus doesn’t have the Designer yet for Linux, but I’m hoping that it will be available soon.  The bonus with loading LN8.5.1 is the addition of the Lotus Symphony suite of office products.

I had investigated the installation of 8.5.1 on Ubuntu and saw that Ubuntu 9.10 had broken some things.  I was contemplating reinstalling Ubuntu 8.04 (the last long term support version) but figured I’d just try and follow the directions on installing LN8.5.1 from several sites such as this one by J. Klocke.

It didn’t go as smoothly as I had wanted, since I don’t have those mad Linux skills (have to copy files into the Notes directory and set the file permissions). But I figured it out and in the end have a working Notes client on Linux.

Lotus Knows – we want to work on any OS!

We just can’t win, can we?

More later.