Important secret detail about upcoming IamLUG conference in St. Louis next month
Sun, Apr 14th 2013 12:15p David Hablewitz Lotus IBM professionals, have you made plans to attend IamLUG? Perhaps you never get to attend Lotusphere / IBM Connect because it’s so expensive for the travel and the conference fee? This is your chance to get all of the meat of the Big conference without all of the fluff. You won’t get an evening trip to one of the theme parks. You won’t have all the hoopla and grandeur of the Opening General Session or the intellectual entertainment of the Closing Session. But you&# [read] Keywords: domino
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A web resource by the Federal government to educate managers and employees about effective telecommuting
Mon, Mar 4th 2013 5:16a David Hablewitz In light of all the recent controversy Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer has stirred up over telecommuting, you may be interested in checking out this online resource by the U.S. Government. It has training materials if you are a telecommuter or if you manage telecommuters or if you are a telecommuter coordinator.
http://www.telework.gov
One trend I have noticed in the computer industry is that, when it comes to working remotely, companies tend to be much more tolerant of it for software developers than [read] Keywords: office
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Breaking News: The Passport Advantage website has been updated!
Thu, Feb 28th 2013 10:11p David Hablewitz In case you hadn’t noticed, the Passport Advantage website has a new look. I have not yet had a chance to explore it in detail. It looks like some (but not all) of the old issues have been cleaned up and it sports the new IBM website skin. I will post a more detailed review later. Meanwhile, take a moment to have a look. For comparison, see my article reviewing it almost 2 years ago. I’m anxious to see what was done that took 2 years of business justification and web development to [read] Keywords: ibm
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IBM announces MobileFirst and partnership with AT&T
Tue, Feb 26th 2013 11:14a David Hablewitz News sources are reporting the new announcement of IBM MobileFirst solutions portfolio. This is big because, unlike other players in this market, IBM is the leader in remaining device agnostic in the BYOD (bring your own device) business world. Mobile technology is blurring the lines between consumer and business tools. There is no doubt in my mind as I watch my 13-year-old daughter do 90% of her computer-related activities on her smartphone that this is the destiny of technology. It is [read] Keywords: ibm
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Putting Social Media to the test: Face-to-face vs. Online
Thu, Feb 14th 2013 3:11p David Hablewitz Which delivery method do you think has the greatest impact: Face-to-face, telephone, or online? Certainly face-to-face allows you to deliver the most personal message, but the web allows for a much broader reach. Phone calls are somewhere in between. So here is the challenge…
I am a firm believer in charity. I feel it is important to give back to the community. Over the years I have been helping with the YMCA Partners With Youth (PWY) campaign. This fund provides scholarships to families [read] Keywords: connections
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Doing well or not, it’s all about attitude.
Tue, Feb 12th 2013 7:11p David Hablewitz I first posted this in my status on Facebook. But the comments that followed my post made me realize this is relevant to a broader audience, so I will share it again here.
These people on the Carnival cruise adrift in the Gulf of Mexico are complaining because they have no air conditioning, no lights, no flushing toilets, limited hot and cold food, stuck in close quarters with a bunch of people they don’t know. Some are sleeping in tents outside because it’s so hot. Funny. We h [read] Keywords: facebook
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How IBM is raising the stakes with Social Business right in Microsoft’s back yard.
Mon, Feb 11th 2013 12:10p David Hablewitz IBM is coming to Seattle to talk about Social Business!
See the event schedule. The event is March 5.
Did I have anything to do with this? Not that I’m aware of. But I am glad to see IBM finally recognize the Seattle area market is tired of having no options besides Microsoft to choose from. Like everywhere else, businesses here like innovation and they like competition.
So from the makers of Watson, the computer that beat the champions on Jeopardy! and the perennial leader in new p [read] Keywords: collaboration
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Passport Advantage Revisited 2 years later…
Thu, Jan 31st 2013 6:12a David Hablewitz In August 2011 I posted an article giving a detailed analysis of the design of the IBM Passport Advantage website. That article received a great deal of attention, not only from the Lotus user community, but also from executives at IBM. I was even contacted by the person who oversaw the team responsible for the site. Finally, I thought, we would see some relief in our pain dealing with this website.
It’s nearly 2 years later. There have been some changes to the IBM websites, but Pas [read] Keywords: ibm
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Preparing for IBM Connect 2013 (Lotusphere) and another “Outlook can’t do that” moment
Tue, Jan 22nd 2013 9:17p David Hablewitz As I review my flight itinerary, I’m looking forward to the Alaska Air non-stop from Seattle to Orlando, fondly known as…The Disney Flight. No lie. See the photo.
This time there will be no missing B.A.L.D. due to missed connections, flight cancellations or delays because of a storm blanketing the center of the country. Wuhoo!
As I added my IBM Connect (Lotusphere) Conference travel plans to my IBM Lotus Notes calendar, Alaska Airlines graciously pointed out on their website y [read] Keywords: connections
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The Single biggest cause of Lotus Notes client crashes and how to avoid them
Sun, Jan 20th 2013 2:15p David Hablewitz While reviewing an environment with about 3000 users, I discovered an extremely high number of fault reports occurring. On a daily basis there were from 100 to 200 faults reported. Some users were crashing every single day. Clearly this points to a systemic problem, probably due to some software conflict or other configuration issue widely used within this organization. Yet for all these crashes, the users were not reporting any problems. While they weren’t reporting problems, th [read] Keywords: ibm
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Bothell, WA Mayor Mark Lamb in Sex Scandal Mirrors General Petraeus in Washington DC
Thu, Nov 15th 2012 5:13a David Hablewitz What does Bothell, Washington and Washington DC have in common? How about a sex scandal involving leaders that finally revealed their true lack of integrity and demonstrated why they can’t be trusted that they will serve the best interests of the people. Within a week of General Petraeus resigning after his extramarital affair was exposed, the improprieties of our mayor Mark Lamb here in Bothell, WA have been similarly revealed.
In the past, there have been questions about Lamb’s [read] Keywords: community
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Overview of Windows 8 Unleashed Event held in Seattle
Fri, Sep 28th 2012 6:09p David Hablewitz If you do development in Visual Studio or even JavaScript, you should check out what is coming for developing in Windows 8. I was impressed with what I saw at the Windows 8 Unleashed event held at Microsoft in Seattle. They highlighted a few key new features available for developing apps to run in Windows 8. The things that jumped out were the ubiquitous nature of apps now. Content and states of applications can follow you as you go from machine to machine. So if you play a game on you [read] Keywords: applications
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Save Our Farms and Wine Country in King County, WA
Mon, Sep 10th 2012 2:38p David Hablewitz This is an open letter to King County Council and the City of Woodinville with regard to their plan to open up the Sammamish River corridor to urban development:
Dear King County Council:
I live a mile from downtown Woodinville, WA. Before living here, I lived on 3 acres in a semi-rural part of South Carolina. When I first moved to Puget Sound 12 years ago, I was immediately drawn to this spot because of the country feeling it has, yet is so close to everything in the city. My commute to work [read] Keywords: development
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Chef Innovator Salad
Thu, Aug 23rd 2012 2:12p David Hablewitz This may be more appropriate on Pinterest than a technology blog, but indulge me for a moment.
Ariel is a counselor at summer camp. Yesterday they were going around the group asking everyone what their favorite food is. Many of them she had never even heard of. So when I picked her up from camp she wanted to go to the grocery store. She led me to the fresh fruits and veggies section where in the past I couldn’t get her through that section fast enough. Her goal was to make a salad from in [read] Keywords: apple
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Slideshare: 5 Tips for presenting to Executives
Thu, Aug 23rd 2012 1:11p David Hablewitz Everyone is a salesperson. Understanding this one fact could have the biggest impact on your career advancement.
Check out this article and short slideshare presentation on presenting to executives.
5 Tips for Presenting to Executives from speakingppt
Whether you know it or not, whether you want to be one or not, you are a salesperson. Don’t think so? Ever had a job interview? You were selling yourself. You might find yourself in a meeting discussing a new project. You had to [read] Keywords: google
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Khan Academy Launches The Future of Computer Science Education
Fri, Aug 17th 2012 12:14p David Hablewitz Reblogged from TechCrunch:
As educators struggle to motivate more students to take up technology-related majors, breakout online education startup, Khan Academy, has a novel approach. ”Computer Science is an intensely creative field,” says Shantanu Sinha, President of Khan Academy, which gave TechCrunch an exclusive look at their brand new education portal that teaches Computer Science fundamentals through interactive drawing. “We really wanted to focus on creating something [read] Keywords:
A critical lesson in customer service, connections and social media
Sat, Jul 21st 2012 8:12p David Hablewitz First, if you need help with a printer and you live in the Seattle area, I highly recommend the services of Infinity Communications. Ask for Mark.
But this story isn’t about printers, that’s just where it all starts. I have an old HP Laserjet 4000 printer. The manufactured date is April 15, 1998. A classic. It’s 44 pounds of metal and only 1 pound of plastic. Definitely Old School. I in inherited it along with an extra toner cartridge refill several years ago when [read] Keywords: connections
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Of Dogs and Whitewater Rafting
Wed, Jul 11th 2012 12:15a David Hablewitz Recently I have noticed people bringing their dogs with them on the river when they go whitewater rafting. As a dog lover and a whitewater boater, I want to stir a discussion on the merits and risks of taking dogs whitewater rafting. I once had a great river dog that made many trips with me to the river. Jenny was a black lab who LOVED the water. We did many flat water trips where she would swim beside me for awhile and then climb onto the back of my kayak or sit in my lap and ride for a [read] Keywords: facebook
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Lotus Notes Quick Tip: Hold the Ctrl key while opening a different view to jump to the same document in that view
Tue, Jul 10th 2012 5:12p David Hablewitz Mat Newman’s tip about a clever use of categories reminds me of another useful but little-known feature. First, put the focus on a document in a view (click once on it.) Now hold down the control key and click on another view or folder where that document also exists. The view will be opened with the focus on that same document rather than where it was the last time the view was opened. One example of how this is useful is if you want to see other documents that are related and appea [read] Keywords: lotus
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Geoffrey Castle: Proof the Violin is not Just for Orchestra Music
Wed, Jul 4th 2012 5:15p David Hablewitz The Notes Guy in Seattle isn’t just about software. There are some musical roots to the name too. I would like to tell you about my friend and the inspiration that got me to pick up the violin as an adult. He plays this crazy 6 string electric violin. Yes Six strings. As if a violin isn’t challenging enough. He is an amazing musician and has a great stage presence. One of those musicians that sounds great on the radio as well as on the stage. Rock, Celtic, Blues, Coun [read] Keywords: notes
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5 Reasons why it’s a GOOD THING when your cloud service goes down.
Sat, Jun 30th 2012 1:17p David Hablewitz In light of the recent outage for AWS, people are questioning the reliability of cloud services. The more appropriate question should be “is it better or worse than on-premise services?” Here are some perspectives to consider:
1. CFO’s perspective: Not My Money.
SLA’s are backed by monetary compensation. If you were smart, you put it into the contract that if you are down, they pay you for the lost revenue. You can’t get that kind of insurance for self- [read] Keywords: facebook
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Microsoft Office annual certification test competition draws 300,000 students?
Mon, Jun 4th 2012 6:11a David Hablewitz Impressive marketing: Not only can Microsoft get 750 million people around the world to pay for Microsoft Office, but they can get 300,000 students to proudly compete to show off their word processing skills at a worldwide certification test competition.
Meanwhile, it’s considered a big deal that 1 million people have downloaded Symphony, a free alternative. That is only 0.1% of the Windows PC market (I can’t speak for the other operating systems). P.T. Barnum clearly underes [read] Keywords: lotus
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Apple Dominates Even In Seattle With 81% Market Share
Wed, May 16th 2012 6:10a David Hablewitz I have been extremely busy lately, spending much of my time working on preparing for the Project Management Professional (PMP) certification exam (which I passed on Friday!), taking a class on entrepreneurship and small business management, and working on applying this knowledge in a practical way, at the sacrifice of my blog and sleep. But I thought I would take a quick break from my break to drop a few links for my MacFriends and to illustrate just how much this region is just like everywhere [read] Keywords: apple
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Viruses Happen
Mon, Feb 13th 2012 2:12p David Hablewitz The good news: I still have never had a computer get infected with an email virus while using Lotus Notes. That 18-year run is still going.
The bad news: My laptop got a virus through a random act of browsing. It happened thanks to a touch pad strategically located between the palms of the hands where it can occasionally cause the mouse to move or misread a mouse click. It has happened many times in the past. I’m typing away when suddenly the cursor jumps to somewhere else on t [read] Keywords: lotus
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Added a page with all Grand Canyon Story Links
Sun, Jan 22nd 2012 10:13p David Hablewitz If you have been following the story of our Grand Canyon expedition, I have created a page with all the links to each day’s journal entry. Click Grand Canyon Journal Links in the banner at the top. Now you can be sure you haven’t missed a day!
Thanks for all the questions and comments. It adds life to the story to have the dialog. [read] Keywords: facebook
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Grand Canyon Expedition Day 7: What it means to be living on Canyon Time
Sun, Jan 22nd 2012 8:12p David Hablewitz Previous Post: Day 6 – Little Colorado R and a birthday
First Post: The Story Begins…
Morning of Day 7. This is the earliest I have gotten up so far. It’s 5:30 AM and still dark, a good time to do some writing by headlamp and watch the sunrise.
TRIP TIP: If you go camping, get a headlamp with a red light. It uses much less battery power and it doesn’t affect your night vision or disturb others.
Quiet time in the morning
I had a lot of vivid dreams again last night a [read] Keywords: facebook
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Lotusphere 2012 live broadcast
Mon, Jan 16th 2012 7:12a David Hablewitz Here is the schedule of live streams from Lotusphere 2012
http://cdn.livestream.com/embed/ibmsoftware?layout=4&color=0xe7e7e7&autoPlay=true&mute=false&iconColorOver=0×888888&iconColor=0×777777&allowchat=true&height=193&width=300
Watch live streaming video from ibmsoftware at livestream.com [read] Keywords: connections
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Grand Canyon Expedition Day 6: Little Colorado River and a birthday
Thu, Jan 12th 2012 5:12a David Hablewitz Previous Post: Day 5+ Hidden Danger
First Post: The Story Begins…
A beautiful morning, the best so far! It started out maybe in the low 50′s and warmed quickly today since our camp got good morning sunlight. You could watch the shadow of the east rim move down the west wall until the sunlight suddenly hit the camp. Pancakes with syrup for breakfast. Or in Ariel’s case, syrup with pancakes. [Note in the photo the cleanup crew is using a 4 bucket system for washing: pre- [read] Keywords: facebook
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Grand Canyon Expedition Day 5+ Commodore’s Log supplimental: Hidden Danger
Thu, Jan 5th 2012 10:11p David Hablewitz Previous Post: Day 5: A Father-Daughter experience
First Post: The Story Begins…
(Three people named David on 1 trip is too confusing, so they’re call me Commodore.)
Some noteworthy trip leader observations I have made: I am pleased to report that everyone is respecting my request that they behave appropriately for my 12-year-old daughter. A few off-color jokes aside, no foul language, public nudity nor drunk and disorderly conduct, yet everyone is having a great time. Funny [read] Keywords: facebook
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Grand Canyon Expedition Day 5: As good as it gets! A Father-Daughter experience
Wed, Jan 4th 2012 11:13p David Hablewitz Today is a layover day. That means we’re staying here for another night to relax and catch up on things.
First the injury report: Elizabeth cut her elbow 3 days ago. She thinks she cut it on the oar when they ran the hole (hydraulic) in Badger Rapid. Now it is swollen and is probably infected. If it is and we don’t have anti-biotics, we may be looking at an airlift. I plan to at least use the satellite phone and make a call for medical advice.
This morning many of us went [read] Keywords: facebook
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Grand Canyon Expedition Day 4: Nautiloid to Nankoweap
Mon, Jan 2nd 2012 5:11a David Hablewitz Next Post: Coming soon – Day 5: layover day, injuries, hike to the graineries
Previous Post: Day 3 Nautiloid Camp
We did much better at getting going today. Cereal for breakfast was fast and easy. It is warmer and sunny. About 60 degrees warming up to over 70. Gotta love this Canyon weather. I changed our plan from going 15 miles to Dinosaur Camp to going 18 miles to Nankoweap, which is a better camp and has a great hike. Before we left camp we hiked up to see the fossils em [read] Keywords: facebook
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Social Media 101: Social Media Disasters (be careful with that keyboard, it’s loaded)
Thu, Dec 22nd 2011 4:12p David Hablewitz Taking a brief break from my break from discussing Social Media to post about this good slide deck from IBM about Social Media and how NOT to use it. The presentation sites more than a dozen examples of how companies have blundered on the web, but my favorite is definitely Ryanair’s press release stating “Ryanair can confirm that a Ryanair staff member did engage in a blog discussion. It is Ryanair policy not to waste time and energy in corresponding with idiot bloggers and Ryana [read] Keywords: ibm
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Grand Canyon Day 3: Redwall Cavern, Nautiloid Canyon and the Roaring Twenties
Wed, Dec 21st 2011 5:11a David Hablewitz I woke up at 5:15 today. Slept mostly through the night. Everyone was a bit anxious in the morning about rowing the Roaring Twenties, but no one more than me with Ariel onboard after nearly flipping the raft yesterday, But I am much more confident again after a clean run through Twentyfour Mile Rapid, the first class 6 rapid of the day. (The Roaring Twenties are the 5 miles of river starting at river mile 21,so named for the series of rapids that, by Grand Canyon measurements, are packed [read] Keywords: facebook
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Grand Canyon Day 2: Jackass Creek to North Canyon
Thu, Dec 15th 2011 5:11a David Hablewitz (If you’re just checking in for the first time, I am posting my daily journal entries from my month-long rafting trip leading 16 friends down the Grand Canyon. You may want to go back and start at the first post of the series and work your way forward.)
An exciting day! I got up around 5:30 AM, just before sunrise. Around 6:30 AM the wind suddenly picked up, gusting over 20 mph. Then the rain came and it poured. Ariel put on her drysuit before she even got out of the tent. Best [read] Keywords: facebook
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Grand Canyon 2011 – Day 1: What’s Special About Today?
Mon, Dec 12th 2011 5:16a David Hablewitz Commodore’s Log, River Day 1. There are 3 Davids in the group. To make things easy, they’re calling me Commodore, leader of the fleet.
On the river at last! Quite a special day. Last night it actually started to rain around 2:30 AM. I woke up and put the rain fly on the tent and then it stopped raining. I couldn’t get to sleep after that. Excited about the morning. I still got up by 6:00 AM without an alarm clock. Bryant from PRO Outfitters, showed up at 7:00 [read] Keywords: facebook
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Grand Canyon 2011 – Oct 24: Day 0, Finally at the River
Fri, Dec 9th 2011 5:12a David Hablewitz I woke up at 5:30 AM without an alarm clock. After going out for breakfast we all piled our gear in the parking lot to wait for the outfitter to arrive and shuttle us to the river. Some people made a last-minute visit to the drug store across the street to buy sunscreen, hand lotion, sunglasses, postcards. Our ride showed up at 11:00 AM, right on schedule. We loaded gear into the truck, piled into the van and headed up Highway 89 to Lee’s Ferry.
Waiting for the shuttle.
Ariel and [read] Keywords: facebook
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Sunday, Oct 23: Bryce Canyon, Lees Ferry, Flagstaff – 3 days and 1350 miles later
Wed, Dec 7th 2011 5:12a David Hablewitz Today was a sunny, warm day. We made a short detour to visit Bryce Canyon National Park. Mildly interesting from the rim. Did you know it isn’t really a canyon? It’s an escarpment. Then we drove on, crossing the Colorado River by Lee’s Ferry. We will be back here tomorrow! Lots of cool places to check out in Southern Utah and Arizona, but we didn’t have time. Gotta get to Flagstaff. Got to the hotel by 4:00 and carried all of our gear to the room. In a [read] Keywords: facebook
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Saturday, October 22: Idaho, Utah & Malad Gorge State Park
Sun, Dec 4th 2011 5:12p David Hablewitz Sunday at 5:30 AM. Writing this journal entry in the morning while I lay in bed waiting for sunrise. Yesterday we covered a lot of miles. The best part of the day was when we passed a really cool place in Idaho where a river cut a gorge into the flat land: Malad Gorge State Park, a segment of Thousand Springs State Park. We pulled off the Interstate to check it out more closely. I’ll bet a lot of people drive right over this and never even notice. (See the aerial photo of the p [read] Keywords: facebook
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October 21, 2011: On the Road
Sun, Dec 4th 2011 2:10p David Hablewitz October 21, 2011
It’s been a great day. It was a typical rainy day as we left Seattle this afternoon. Fortunately, it’s a “warm” rain and Snoqualmie Pass was just rain too, not snowing.
Leaving rainy Seattle
And as usual, get far enough over the mountains and the rain gives way to sunshine. The forests give way to windmill-laced plains. We made it as far as Deadman’s Pass, Oregon. Camping in the back of the truck tonight after moving some stuff up front [read] Keywords: facebook
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Grand Canyon: Final Preparations are complete!
Mon, Nov 28th 2011 11:12p David Hablewitz Thursday evening, October 20.
All the gear is laid out and ready to be packed into the truck. We’re finally ready to start the adventure.
Gathering the gear
Actually this story began October 10, 2008. I was leaving to go on my first Grand Canyon adventure when my 9-year-old daughter begged to go with me. “No honey” I said, “not this time. I need to check it out before I bring you. But I promise I will take you the next time I go.” I had been on the wai [read] Keywords: symphony
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Just returned from an amazing place where Social Media is totally irrelevant. The story begins…
Sun, Nov 27th 2011 11:10p David Hablewitz I just returned from my adventure as trip leader, taking 16 people on a rafting expedition down the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon; 21 days, 226 miles. It was an amazing journey that explored the geologic depths of the Earth exposed by The Canyon like a biology student examines the internal organs of a frog through a scalpel cut. Yet this expedition was as much about delving into personal introspection and group dynamics as it was about examining the physiology of the Earth. They [read] Keywords: facebook
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Ditch the technology and experience the real thing
Mon, Oct 24th 2011 12:11a David Hablewitz Reporting from Flagstaff, this is my last post before heading into the Grand Canyon tomorrow where I will be leading a trip down the river and I will be rowing a 2000 pound, 18′ raft for the next 21 days and traveling 220 miles down the Colorado River. There is no connectivity there, so don’t expect any blog posts for awhile. If you follow me on Facebook or Twitter (@davehabz) then you have already been following me on my journey.
Cheers,
-Commodore Dave [read] Keywords: facebook
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Information leak about RIM and Lessons learned
Thu, Oct 13th 2011 1:11p David Hablewitz As a BlackBerry Deployment Engineer for Microsoft’s Office 365 cloud service, I am sometimes privy to confidential information. In this case, I will leak to you that RIM had a huge BlackBerry service outage this week. While the root cause analysis (RCA) will take time to complete all the details, they did report that it came down to a network switch failed and the backup did not take over as expected. The result caused a cascade of system failures. Right now it sucks to be RIM. And it is e [read] Keywords: blackberry
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Going unplugged: Beyond the iPhone 5 and beyond your imagination
Wed, Oct 5th 2011 6:10a David Hablewitz iPhone 5 is about to become irrelevant.
Imagine a world without email or text messages. No spam or viruses or pop-up ads. No steady stream of status updates from Facebook or Twitter. No television with presidential debates and reality TV. No “who-shot-who” on the six o’clock news. Imagine a world without rush hour traffic or smog alerts. No sirens screaming in the night and no alarm clocks screaming in the morning. Imagine if you can, a world without cell phones o [read] Keywords: connections
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IBM and ESPN 3: Using social media to tell the world what they mean by “Let’s build a smarter planet.”
Sun, Sep 11th 2011 6:13a David Hablewitz You’ve heard me ask “What does IBM sell?” Sure, *I* know what they sell. But my point is: what do they do to make sure the average consumer knows?
Well, on this idle Saturday afternoon, while watching my Gators on ESPN 3 crush UAB, *BAM*, there it was – A smarter planet ad on ESPN 3 with a twist: it ended with a URL: http://www.youtube.com/ibm
What’s the big deal? First, IBM is talking to consumers. That’s right, beer-drinking, college football-watch [read] Keywords: ibm
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Of Earthquakes and Hurricanes: Stay safe
Sun, Aug 28th 2011 6:10a David Hablewitz I grew up in Florida, so I know what you’re all going through with this hurricane.
I live on the west coast, so I know what you went through with the earthquake last week.
At least 15% of my Linkedin connections live in the path of this hurricane. I hope all of you stay safe and sound. [read] Keywords: connections
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Website Design Case Study: IBM Passport Advantage Website
Wed, Aug 10th 2011 6:10a David Hablewitz Every year at Lotusphere in the Ask the Developers session someone will ask IBM “When are you going to make the Passport Advantage website user-friendly?!” And every year the response from IBM is “What are you talking about? It’s fine!” Apparently usability studies are unnecessary. After all, this is IBM. How could the world’s second or third largest software company NOT know how to build a website? Who are we to give them advice, right? We’ [read] Keywords: ibm
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Brand as Mythology: Could the Lotus brand elevate to Mythology?
Sun, Jul 31st 2011 3:11p David Hablewitz Here is an interesting perspective on branding, marketing, and the idea of a brand elevating to mythology.
http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2011/07/just-a-myth.html
How true is his statement: “People use a Dell. They are an Apple.”
I think Seth is touching on something that could be applied to the marketing of Lotus IBM software: “Isn’t that the dream of any marketer? To create a myth?”
As Lotus completes the long and painful process of being absorbe [read] Keywords: ibm
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A split perspective on Quality. Does Quality really matter?
Wed, Jul 27th 2011 12:11a David Hablewitz I came across this great article “Defining Quality” by Seth Godin discussing just what quality is and how it influences the success of a product. Seth describes the two types of quality: Quality in Design and Quality in Manufacturing. These two are as different as a brand new Bentley and a one-year-old Honda Civic. He also applies these concepts to the software industry.
What I find particularly interesting is his comment regarding these measures of quality:
“The bala [read] Keywords: facebook
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Recap of PACLUG 2011
Thu, Jun 23rd 2011 9:14a David Hablewitz The first edition of the PACLUG user group conference was held this week at the Planet Hollywood Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas. The two-day event was scheduled to piggy-back the View’s AdminDev2011 conference. They actually overlapped schedules a bit on Wednesday and PACLUG was invited to the keynote presentation of AdminDev2011. The Tuesday sessions of PACLUG were focused mostly on Domino-related topics while the second day was mostly related to Websphere Portal. Had I known thi [read] Keywords: connections
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A sneak peek into the upcoming announcement about the Lotus brand and IBM’s 100-year philosophy
Fri, Jun 17th 2011 12:14p David Hablewitz Is Lotus Notes the next Selectric Typewriter? This USAToday article about IBM turning 100 reveals some clues into the motivations that drive IBM which might tell us about their plans for the future.
“Don’t make the mistake of thinking IBM is a corporate old-timer that just watched technology evolve. It has remained at the forefront through the decades and tops several of its whippersnapper rivals in some regards. “
Of course we’re talking about the same company that [read] Keywords: ibm
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Taking Social Media to the next level: “Message on a bottle”
Fri, Jun 17th 2011 6:13a David Hablewitz When it comes to helping meet people, Twitter doesn’t compare to this: a vodka bottle with a programmable LED text banner that you can enter your own message. It gives new meaning to the phrase “social drinker”.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/43430391
Check out Medea Vodka’s website. [read] Keywords: facebook
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IBM’s Watson makes person of the year
Tue, Jun 14th 2011 11:10p David Hablewitz This should be a great boost to the IBM brand recognition:
(excerpt from Webby Awards )
The Webby Awards would like to honor Watson as the Webby Person of the Year in celebration of his groundbreaking scientific and technological achievements as the most comprehensive question-answering computer system. As the first computing system with an unparalleled handle and understanding of the natural language, Watson captivated millions as he competed on the game show, Jeopardy!, ultimately becoming the [read] Keywords: ibm
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WOW! An IBM Sametime ad via Google Ad seen while viewing a youtube.com video!
Sat, May 28th 2011 12:11a David Hablewitz Sametime ad in youtube.com video
Check out the banner ad in this screenshot of a youtube video. It was served up to me by Google while I was watching a whitewater video on youtube.com.
Could this be part of a REAL advertising campaign showing a REAL product?! It isn’t exactly obvious what in the ad what the product is or does, but it’s getting the Lotus brand in front of people. Hopefully the ad selector doesn’t just show it to people who already know Lotus.
Don’t get to [read] Keywords: ibm
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140ConfNW Speech Transcript: Using Your Social Media Network to Make You a Genius
Sun, May 22nd 2011 10:11p David Hablewitz On May 19, the 140 Characters Conference was hosted in Vancouver, WA. The focus of this conference was on social media and how it fits into business. The format is unique and in my opinion, brilliant. Rather than having a bunch of breakout sessions and hour-long speeches saturated with hundreds of Powerpoint slides, the audience was kept in one venue and blasted with short 10-minute presentations in rapid-fire succession. Time was managed with great precision. Due to the short time permitted for [read] Keywords: connections
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IBM could learn a lot about marketing from Harold Camping
Sat, May 21st 2011 6:11p David Hablewitz Whether his prediction comes true is irrelevant. Harold Camping has done a phenomenal job of marketing the Rapture. For the price of a few minutes worth of Superbowl commercials, he has created a very successful marketing campaign that has drawn the attention of much of the 1st world. What’s more, when it doesn’t happen, HE WILL GAIN EVEN MORE FOLLOWERS!!! Mark my words, this will happen.
So if one man could sell his idea so successfully to the world, why can’t IBM, own [read] Keywords: ibm
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The dirty little secret hiding in your Domino Directory
Fri, May 20th 2011 1:10p David Hablewitz Your Domino directory may be filled with the Lotus Notes equivalent of bedbugs and you would never know it. They appear in the form of documents that don’t belong, but don’t appear in any views.
Occasionally, someone with rights to create documents in your directory will accidentally click paste or Ctrl-V when they shouldn’t have. Perhaps they were in the wrong database when they did it or maybe they meant to cut or copy instead of paste and the clipboard happened to have a Not [read] Keywords: admin
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Lotus Forgot Series: How not to have a roadshow event.
Tue, May 17th 2011 5:11p David Hablewitz Here is a work of brilliance. I just received an email announcing an IBM roadshow event in Seattle. While it isn’t specifically about Lotus software, it covers Websphere and cloud computing.
Here it is: http://www-01.ibm.com/software/websphere/events/impact/icty_events.html
The brilliance is that it’s only a week away. Too bad, I already have plans and now it’s too late to change them.
It’s particularly humorous that the website says “Check back often to find an ev [read] Keywords: ibm
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Visions of the Future
Tue, May 17th 2011 10:13a David Hablewitz Here are links to presentations from some major players on their vision of the future. What do you think?
IBM
Microsoft
Apple
Dr. James Canton
To find out about how Social Media plays into this, be sure to watch the live stream of the 140 Characters Conference Northwest in Vancouver, WA at http://nw2011.140conf.com/ on Thursday starting at 8:00 AM PST. Check out the schedule for the list of speakers and topics. Bruce Elgort and Chris Martin will be speaking around 10:15. I will be pre [read] Keywords: ibm
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Turning Your Weakness into a Strength
Sat, May 7th 2011 9:10p David Hablewitz This article is based on a speech I gave at Toastmasters.
A few years ago, I entered a multi-sport race that involved a 25-mile mountain biking leg, a 12-mile kayaking leg, and a 6-mile run. In preparation for the race I biked to work 40 miles round trip, 3 to 5 days/week. I paddled 2 to 3 times/week. I didn’t do any running because I didn’t like to run and I was already cycling which also trains the legs, or so I thought.
For the mountain bike leg of the race, I was the 4th fa [read] Keywords: administration
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MTBF for Windows 64 bit OS
Thu, Apr 28th 2011 6:10a David Hablewitz Thanks to John again. I have now posted the Windows 64-bit version of MTBF here on my website. The original post includes the database template and the 32-bit version of nmtbf.exe. The new post includes the 64-bit version of nmtbf.exe and the database template. The template is the same in both cases. Hopefully there will soon be a version for other OS. Perhaps it will even be added to the standard server install kit.
Here are a few screen shots of the type of information captured in [read] Keywords: database
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IdeaJam Post: Pull system templates from another server when configuring a new server in the domain.
Tue, Mar 22nd 2011 12:14a David Hablewitz As Lotus professionals, we have a unique venue to give IBM our ideas to improve the products and to participate in discussions and even vote on others’ ideas that we would like to see. Visit http://www.IdeaJam.net I just posted an idea there about providing the option to pull system templates from another server when configuring a new server in the domain. This would work similar to how it pulls the Domino Directory from another server. The advantage is that you probably already have your [read] Keywords: domino
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Japan Disaster strikes home for me. (This has nothing to do with Lotus Notes..or does it?)
Thu, Mar 17th 2011 6:13a David Hablewitz I want to share with you a Facebook post from my friend’s wife. I have known his family for 20 years. We were neighbors when I lived in Greenville, South Carolina. Growing up, he and his brother spent many hours exercising my black lab. They are now grown and married and have children of their own. Jessie lives in East Lansing, MI. Gabe lives in a small coastal village with his wife and daughter. The village is Ofunato, Japan. A Detroit TV station picked up this story. [read] Keywords: ibm
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Quick Tips: displaying filenames on Workspace icons
Thu, Mar 10th 2011 12:11p David Hablewitz Perhaps long-forgotten, this is an age-old tip that I have used forever without thinking about it until someone saw me do it and asked.
First, go to the Workspace. That’s the page everyone uses for their homepage, that looks like an iPhone screen and that IBM doesn’t want us to use because it’s “the old look” of Notes.
Now click on the View menu. If Show Server Names is selected, deselect it and click on the View menu again.
Now that it is unselected, hold down the [read] Keywords: ibm
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Yellow by Cold Play: a musical interlude for those who bleed yellow
Mon, Mar 7th 2011 11:15a David Hablewitz For those who bleed yellow…
Click to play Yellow by ColdPlay
Wonder why we never get Cold Play for the one-song act at Lotusphere OGS…
Lyrics:
Look at the stars
Look how they shine for you
And everything you do
Yeah, they were all yellow
I came along
I wrote a song for you
And all the things you do
And it was called “Yellow”
So then I took my turn
Oh what a thing to have done
And it was all “Yellow”
Your skin
Oh yeah, your skin and bones
Turn into so [read] Keywords: lotusphere
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Social Learning: a Critical element of Social Business
Sat, Mar 5th 2011 5:17a David Hablewitz There is no doubt that Social Media is quickly moving to the workplace. This movement is happening so fast that many businesses that would use it as well as those that would provide the technology for it are being caught off guard and unprepared.
I just attended a webinar on Social Learning hosted by Chief Learning Officer magazine and featuring a presentation by Jeanne C. Meister, Founding Partner of Future Workplace. The information she revealed was very relevant to Social Business.
Three [read] Keywords: ibm
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Shuttle Discovery Launches on Mission STS-133
Thu, Feb 24th 2011 11:13p David Hablewitz We missed the opportunity to watch a live shuttle launch while visiting Florida for Lotusphere 2011. The mission was delayed, but today Discovery launched. If you have never had the thrill of watching it in person, I can tell you it’s an amazing thing. Growing up in Tampa, I had the privilege of watching the launches from my back yard. Yes, from Tampa, 100 miles away! I can remember watching Columbia, the very first mission, launch in 1981. I can also remember watching Challenger. While I [read] Keywords: lotusphere
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In case you thought the student thing was limited to Lotusphere…
Fri, Feb 18th 2011 2:11p David Hablewitz Kudos to GBS’ CEO Joerg Ott for keeping the momentum going on professional development for college students after Lotusphere. The following quote comes from an email sent by the Employer Relations Coordinator at University of South Florida to the student body:
“GBS CEO and Sponsor for College Day at Lotusphere2011 Joerg Ott will be visiting the USF campus and hosting a motivational presentation named “What would you do if you knew you could not fail?” For those of you who attende [read] Keywords: lotusphere
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Public speaking tip for presenters at Lotusphere and elsewhere
Wed, Feb 16th 2011 3:09p David Hablewitz Eight months ago I joined Toastmasters. I will never be able to watch a Lotusphere session (or any other presentation) the same way again. Did you ever wonder what it’s like to present at Lotusphere? On the positive side must be rewarding just to be selected. You’ve been chosen by IBM as one who stands out among your peers. On the other hand, giving a presentation is challenging and even more so when presenting somewhere like Lotusphere in front of your peers where you [read] Keywords: ibm
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Lotusphere suggestion: Going virtual lightens the load, now about those Lotusphere backpacks…
Sun, Feb 6th 2011 9:15a David Hablewitz How many Lotusphere attendees will be visiting their chiropractors or massage therapists this week? Wouldn’t it be great if those backpacks had a hip belt to take the load off the back and shoulders? Please put that in your evals. Every year my back and neck suffer from lugging around the laptop and other junk. It was nice to see more information was provided in electronic format, but not everything can be done that way. So please, IBM, get backpacks with a hip belt.
This reminds m [read] Keywords: ibm
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Making your own luck: My trip to Lotusphere this year so far.
Tue, Feb 1st 2011 8:14a David Hablewitz I am a firm believer that you make your own luck, that one can make opportunity materialize before them if they persevere and don’t let fear stop them from trying.
“Life is not about what happens to you. It’s about what you do when things happen to you.” — from an article in this month’s Toastmasters Magazine
I don’t have time to blog it all right now, but my trip to LS11 has been much like Leonardo DeCaprio’s adventure to secure passage on the [read] Keywords: lotusphere
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Social Media Challenge: Why are you at Lotusphere? (audience participation requested)
Sun, Jan 30th 2011 11:18p David Hablewitz In a quick post before bedtime (I’m still on PST, so I can’t sleep yet), It was quite an adventure to get here, but I finally made it to Lotusphere 2011. In less than 5 hours I’ve managed to meet up with many dozens of friends and associates, some for the first time face-to-face. For all the fantastic knowledge to be gained from the sessions at this event, I always find it’s really the social aspects of the conference that make the difference. To me, if you distille [read] Keywords: connections
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Is your Inbox management a Mickey Mouse affair? It’s been a month. Is the scroll bar back?
Thu, Jan 27th 2011 10:20a David Hablewitz As I prepare to head to Orlando, I saw a clip from Disney’s “Fantasia”. All those brooms bringing bucket after bucket of water and nearly drowning Mickey Mouse. Much like your inbox, yes?
Well a month ago I gave a suggestion on keeping your inbox empty enough so you don’t have to scroll to see all the messages. You might have faithfully followed those steps in the beginning. How long did it last? A few days? Maybe a week? Here it is a month later and that sc [read] Keywords: domino
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The Notes Guy In Seattle will be in Orlando! Meet me at Lotusphere 2011.
Tue, Jan 18th 2011 5:14a David Hablewitz Yes, like a bad Michael Jackson song, I’ll Be There. Watch my blog for details on how to find me. I hope to meet up with y’all. You can also follow me on twitter (davehabz) for more immediate info on my whereabouts while at the conference. Or send me an email and we can make a plan. When in doubt, look for me by the piano or basking in the sun by the water (I’m a Gator. It’s what we do.). No, I won’t be singing.
Now let me spin an oldie for you. Just close the blind [read] Keywords: lotusphere
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