Beginning the process

This week I began the process of moving from notes to exchange.  Its not th most fun part nor the most glamorous but the planning stage is upon me.  I spent most of this week gathering the team and trying to give direction and expectations.  I know from my experience here that folks tend to be real late on projects, I insisted to the team that this will not happen here.  So I am almost done with all the political jockeying and maybe next week things can actually get done.

I have not been really keeping up to date on all the tech happenings, bad me.  Seems those moments are for slow times lol

I have a few tennis matches coming up yet do not expect any real challenges this weekend.  I still am in the middle of thinking technique rather than thinking about the match.  Hopefully I can get past this soon.

well I will have time Sat to ramble more but that is it for today

Exchange migration begins

Looks like today begins the first day of planning our migration off of Lotus onto exchange.  I dont see this as nearly as big a deal as some here do, heck we only have 850 employees, but I am sure it will end up somewhere in the middle.  Now comes the tricky part of the whole thing, the massaging of egos etc to get and keep everyone playing together nicely.  At times I miss the govt or private enterprise where this stuff didnt matter.  The whole get on board or get out of the way mentality, just not there anymore. 

I swa that Roddick lost in the first round of the French again.  Whjen will this guy get his head out of his butt and develop more of his game.  It is becoming clearer and clearer that the serve forehand game is not going to get him to the next level.  You would think Connors could talk some sense into him but it does not seem to be taking.  I guess Gilbert wasnt all bad since his results have not been nearly as good without him.  Wonder if Andy regrets that decision?

I am not happy with my conditioning nor my play since my return from fla…I need to get back on this more especially with such nice weather, no excuses

anyhow just wanted to drop a quick ramble

A crushing defeat

Wow I lost my tennis match last night, my first loss in a long time and I am not happy about it.  I was a bit to tentative and not as sharp as I wanted to be, but take nothing away from my opponents they played well and deserved the W.

I recieved a comment on yesterdays blog from Ed Brill.  I have all the respect in the world for Ed and have read his blog for about a year off and on.  So I will try to be more exacting as to why I dislike notes.  First, its tough to staff Notes Administrators at an SMB.  The cost is about 30% greater than an Exchange Adminstrator and most are not well versed enough to tackle other system administrator duties especially in a window environment.  Second, users just dont like the GUI its not intuitive and has alot of real quirky things (ever try to print from a preview screen?).  I agree with Ed in that Lotus 8 is much much better, but the milk is already sour, no one wants to hear about what is on the way anymore.  Third, the Lotus DBs corrupt all the time, easy to fix but an administrative nightmare.  Fourth, the use of Lotus as a development platform is not a favorite of the development community when  compared to a LAMP, .NET etc.  Fifth, the local clients are real heavy thus making them real slow over busy wan connections.

This is just a short list of what turns most of us off to Lotus, and I do hope and even see continued improvement but its still, as a mail system, playing catchup to exchange

Goodbye Lotus Notes

Well it was a long time coming but I can now say that we will be another company throwing Lotus Notes on the scrapheap.  Personally i do not know why anyone would want to deal with Lotus Notes, cause frankly it just sucks.  I figure it will be a six month project or a four year project depending on the amount of “project management” forms we will be required to fill out.  But yes we are finally moving in the right direction.

Tonight is another tennis match and this is against probably the third best team in our league.  This just means I have to play well and should really be my first challenge since returning from tennis camp. 

Dell is making big news with the release of Ubuntu and its foray into Wal-mart.  Seems they have been a bit stagnate at best and losing ground to HP at worse.  Both I see as being good news, lets see how this plays out.

I was checking out the real estate site Trulia..not as nice as Zillowbut its not bad.  Seems pretty good not sure really why though I would use it over Zillow?

Well I know today is short but I just needed to get in a quick ramble

More Rambling

The day of reckoning is upon us.   Yes today we see if we will get the ok to move off of Lotus Notes and onto exhange.  From the tech side we are all for leaving Notes in the dust and moving to a better platform, now its just whether the CFO will open up the pocketbook enough to make this happen.  I have been administrating or overseeing the administration of email platforms for over 18 years now and this is my first foray into Notes.  I cannot run away fast enough.  If I hear one more consultant or IBM employee tell me how close to Outlook it is getting I will scream.  I still cant get over this approach, why tell me its closer to outlook, cant I just go out and get outlook?  Well that is what we are hoping will happen today.  As always on Wednesday, its meeting day.  I do not suspect much will happen, hey it rarely does, but it does break up the week.  I sense that although meeting and discussing things is important there is a culture of meet rather than do that prevails alot of corporations, this one not excluded from this.  There are execs here, and pseudotechs, who have constant meetings, its how they stay busy and see if you can see the trend at the end of every meeting they schedule more meetings than actual work getting done.  Its almost laughable.

I am addicted to a bunch of vapid female blogs.  Two that I read almost everyday are Julia Allison’s and Alyssa’s.  Both have me riveted, I think its the ole car crash thing.  I mean I have to believe that so much of this is just hype, these women cannot possibly be this dense.  Or just maybe??  You see why I am addicted, I just am praying for the slightest inkling of hope.

Economic outlook is the same as yesterday.  Three above knee hems, two below and one mid thigh.  Gotta love NY in spring.

Tennis went well last night and although the team we played was not great one guy was pretty good so it made the evening worth it.  My team this year is looking real strong and another trip to US Nationals is not out of the question…but enough rambling for today.

Through the first week back

Friday is here yeah, not that I have anything really interesting going on over the weekend, but its not work  lol.  Been a real quite week at work and that was a good thing since I was not exactly pumped and enthusiastic to hit the ground running.  I preferred the stroll that was this week.  A few days closer to getting rid of Lotus Notes, thank goodness as a pure email program it sucks.  Microsoft made some news by aquiring aQuantive, but 6 billion?  Hmm I got into the wrong side of this business.  Its good to see MS reaching out as the Google MS battles are good for business, and stock prices.

I am addicted to the blog from Alyssa , I voted for the Hat and shades a much more natural look.  I have been reading it for a while and I know alot is just PR sensationalism, but wow cant believe so many young women are so messed up.  Priorities I wonder where they go sometimes.

Love the Mets comeback yesterday now lets put the Yanks 12 behind the Sox and life will be good.

Had another tennis match, my second after returning from camp.  Played on a pillow they liked to pass off as a court.  Plus played some guys who just loved to lob and were ok at it.   Not our best win but a win none the less.  Have to work on overheads dropped 4 or so in the net, yuck.  Practice this Sunday so that will be good to get to hit alot more balls.  I also am playing a tourny 4th of July weekend, so that should help my game too.

Well work calls so enough rambling for me today

Who sent the email?

I guess the only question now is will we ever find out who sent the famous email, stating the delays of Iphone and Leopard?  I am curious if it was malicious or just someones idea of a prank?  Apple was quick to come out and say it was not real but the stock still took a $5 hit.  Ok so it rebounded no harm no foul right? 

As I suspected I was definitely too techy for the presentation yesterday.  I guess my idea of common knowledge and what others may think is common differ oh so slightly.  Well it nothing else it was a good exercise in knowing ones audience, something I obviously need improvement on.  Well I have til wens afternoon to perfect or at least try to perfect this skill.

My Mets and the Sox still doing real well. Its about time some of the Yankee fans eat crow, but its a long season and the Rocket is coming so I am sure they will toot their horns before long.

Another Tennis match tonight hopefully a bit more challenging then the last.  Its on Har-tru so there should be longer points if nothing else

Ok enough rambling

Meeting day Yeah!

Ah its meeting day again and I have to present on new closet switches.  It will be interesting since the group will have few that know the difference between PoE and QoS, but hey I can do this.  I see Yahoo has hired a CFO that is big on M&A.  Guess those talks with MS are picking up.  It may be a good thing a Yahoo MS merger as long as the two cultures can get along.  This I see as truely the most substantial hurdle in this.

Not much else really going on newsworthy unless Meebo doing ads is a big deal

On the Tennis front I had my first match yesterday after tennis camp.  Tough to gage improvements since the team we played was real bad.  I felt good though a few minor errors and I could feel “wrong” when it happened so I feel like I am on the right path

Ok enough rambling for today

Back into the Grind

So vacation is over and its back to the grind.  Yesterday was my first day back and I must say things were relatively smooth.  Its funny that I really didn’t do much but get caught up on all the emails and projects that are going on, I felt so out of touch.  This is from just two weeks I can only imagine someone coming back from a month or so must feel.  I had an email exchange with Howard Moore from Saddlebrook, a classy guy.  Can’t wait til September when I will go back, albeit not for two weeks but I am hoping a solid five days.  Not seeing much new news, well other than the hype about the Iphone coming out on June 14th.  Still I think it will be just a fad, but hey I have been wrong before.

I have my first tennis match since my two weeks at camp and I am both excited and nervous.  You see when you return from camp things are still not really grooved.  Even though you know what you need to do, sometime old habits die hard.  So I am excited to see if I or my doubles partner can see improvement or if I still will be a bit out of sorts.  Tonight is not all about winning or losing its more about how well I can incorporate what I learned, and then win lol…I ahve a meeting with the CEO next week, this should be interesting as I have never been one with a curbed tongue, I am sure that I will say something stupid, hopefully not that bad.

Well off to write another presentation, this one on switch fabric HP vs Cisco…yes real exciting stuff.

Saddlebrook Tennis Hopman Academy Review

So I thought after spending ten days at the Tennis camp I would write a summary, or a review of what I liked and did not like about the Saddlebrook Tennis Hopman Academy.

Things they do right

1) The instruction is top notch, I mean absolutely great you will find no better

2)  You will get into better shape they put alot of emphasis on fitness

3)  The resort and the restaurants are very good, pricey but good

4) They are extremely accommodating and grant most requests

5)  Instructors go the extra mile for you and you can get alot of private one on one time if you need to

6) The courts are well maintained

7) Your game will improve

Things they could do better

1) They should send out a letter letting you know it is physically challenging offering suggestions on how to stretch and get in shape to come.  Some of us researched the camp and knew what to expect others who did not were not ready for the physical aspect.

2) They have no Tennis attire with the Saddlebrook logo

3) They do not push match play for after hours, they could be more forward about setting this up.  I mean if you asked they set something up but never went around asking who would be interested in night play

4)  If you travel alone after tennis ends nothing organized is going on so you have to fend for yourself

All in all this is a great place to go and if you have any questions leave some comments and I will answer them