Lotus Connections

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Whew, Lotusphere is pretty big, bigger than I expected. Seeing 6000+ people in one room makes you realize that 6000 is a lot of people. I’m having a great time here so far and we are getting pretty good feedback from customers.

… wait, let me step back a second. I have been working on Activities for Lotus the past year and a half. That started with Activities Explorer, then moved on to having an Activities web interface, and now we’re in Lotus Connections (formerly Ventura). It has been very exciting to work on Social Software, I can finally tell my friends that I’m hip and work on cool social networking software (instead of just some longer description about enterprise collaboration).

After a few small snafus on our part, it seems like Lotusphere attendees are starting to log in and try out our free test of Lotus Connections. Hopefully the word will spread and will get more exposure — we’re really hoping to get feedback that we can work into our product!

Some related links:

Blogging from Lotusphere

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I guess its time to get back into blogging, and being down in Orlando for Lotusphere is a great time to do so. I arrived in Sunday and did the typical staff busy work. I had a pretty normal day except for the 48oz steak at dinner last night :). Time to listen to the Opening General Session speech – I think there are going to be some pretty cool announcements!

Who knew that Neil Armstrong was a funny guy?

He’s back…

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It’s good to feel (mostly) normal again. That was one heck of an ordeal… but 2 ER visits, 3 doctor’s visits, 3 prescriptions, and 2 weeks later I’m back on my feet. Unfortunately, I still don’t have all my energy back and can’t play any contact sports for another month and a half (for me any sport involving other people… or the ground, is a contact sport).

I’ve actually been working at home the past week, but I went into the office for the first time in nearly 3 weeks today. It’s funny how quickly things change… last week when I just started working again I found out that my technical lead (Sami Shalabi) was leaving IBM. Bummer. Major bummer. Sami is a great guy, amazing programmer, and was a blast to work with and learn from. I certainly wish the best for Sami and I can’t thank him enough for all the experience I gained working side by side with him for the past nine months.

Thanks to everyone that talked, called, IMed, sent me a card, or visited. I definitely appreciate it.

Here’s a picture of what I missed at the baseball game I was supposed to go to on my birthday. Thanks Cindy, sorry I had to miss it.

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Opening day with the Reds…

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This past weekend I flew on over to Cincinnati (with a long layover in Detroit) to see the Red’s opening day with Cindy. Here’s the short version of the trip. (A few pictures are below, more are on flickr).
Cindy the (ultimate) Reds fan

Friday: flight, crazy thunderstorm and delay, flight, picked up by Kelly and Paul, Skyline at 2:00am, dog #1 (Bailey).

Me as a Reds fan

Saturday: Dog #2 (Cody), met Heather, Keith, Jonathan and dog #3 (Lucy), pizza (9 pieces or so) and met lots more of Cindy’s family, hanging with Kevin, Melissa, and dog #4 (Emma), out to a bar for the final 4 games (boring games!), 2nd place in Texas hold’em, lost in foosball, lost in air hockey (just barely).

Kevin with a to-go cup

Sunday:over to Cindy’s Mom’s place, met more family and dogs #5 and #6 (no idea with spelling), guitar hero, avoiding getting in any of the Banzhaf photoshoot (successful), played my first game of Cornhole (think bean-bag horseshoes), food, making a good impression/fool of myself with DDR in front of Cindy’s family (I did beat her brother though), off to the city, picked up a Red’s hat (last pic below), picked up some Graeter’s ice cream (good stuff!), visited Cindy’s grandma, visited Devou park, errands in and around Cincinnati, leftover pizza.

Cindy and Tim at the Greak American Ball Park
Monday: preperation for the game, picked up Sammy at UC, touring the Cincinnati ghetto, Skyline and beer at 10:30 (yea, 10:30am), beer poured into to-go cups for the parade (modeled by Kevin with the green finger above), off to the ballpark, peanuts outside the park (a necessity), standing room only tickets (start to get cold), president throws out the first pitch, gave up 5 runs in the first, still cold, hotdog,standing tickets turn into real seats (a little less cold), tied it back up, give up 7 runs in the 6th (and most people start to leave), check out another view of the stadium (from standing room, to 10th row seats, to first row seats), Reds lose. Out to dinner, back to Cindy’s sister’s place, catch a bit of the NCAA final (still not exciting), early bed.
Tuesday: Up quite early and off to the airport.. and the rest is boring

Not dead yet…

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This weekend I took Cindy to see Spam-a-lot (for her birthday). I was a bit worried that it would be a bit too crude-and-corny-and-not-really-a-musical, but I was wrong :). The show was incredibly funny and actually more muscial-ish than I expected (though the singing couldn’t come close to those other “real” shows). I guess it didn’t win the 2005 Tony Award for nothing.

Going into the show I was looking forward to seeing my favorite parts of the movie* – scenes with the Knights of Ni, “Bring out yer dead”, and the Black Knight. All were in the show with some sort of modification. I wasn’t quite ready for the bring out yer dead shtick to become an upbeat dance tune (though I have to admit it was catchy). The Black night was still as gruesome as ever (I’ve still got me teeth!). Though the best by far was the Knights of Ni who became “the Knights who say Icci, Icci, bootang, Zoip … Its hard out here to be a pimp.. (rhythm and rapping for a few minutes) … for shizzle”. We were rolling in our seats :). Fun times.

I’ll be flying over to Cincinatti this weekend to see the Reds opening day with my baseball-fanatic-girlfriend (her hometown). Oh, and the president will be there (he must have heard I was going) :)

* There are too many other good parts to try and limit myself to just a few good ones. The show still had the self-affacing monks, the rabbit with big claws (like this), the holy hand-grenade (five is right out!), and many others. I did miss the “What is your favorite color?” though.