None

well i have rented a car. i had planned to go all out and get a porsche or
mercedes but although they were available (and actually pretty good value) i
found out that you have to provide your own insurance. not so easy for a
non-american. anyway, they could offer me a lexus (or as alan partridge would
say a “lekshush”) four wheel drive which is still pretty good fun and has loads
of gadgets for me to play with. i’ve just been down to the beach at the end of
wilshire boulevard (where i am staying). it’s 80 degrees outside so i am just
sunning myself on my balcony with a beer, some music and a book. the true
holiday has started.

on the advice of someone i met at lotusphere i am heading to trader vic’s
tonight. it’s the bar attached to my hotel and is apparently quite good fun.
apart from that i am planning a relaxing couple of days just driving around and
exploring la.

well the travel went surprisingly well. it’s 9am here. i rolled into the hotel
in beverly hills at about midnight, so it took ten hours to get from orlando to
california. the luggage was waiting on the carousel for me.

i am off to get some breakfast and then rent a car to have a look around.

i am sat waiting for my first flight of the day at orlando airport. the plan is
that i fly up to jfk in new york and then from there across and down to los
angeles. the flights won’t be a problem, there is plenty of time for the
connection. the bags on the other hand may be more challenging. when i checked
in just now i discovered that the luggage is going straight through, if i had
know this i may have planned things differently. you see i am flying to jfk
with american airlines (which lands at terminal 7) and then i am changing
airlines and terminals to go onto los angeles (rather bizarrely to qantas from
terminal 9). it will be a test of the baggage handling profession.

the closing sessions yesterday were great. “harass the developers” (also known
as ask the developers) was as confrontational as ever. it is basically an hour
of people like me asking really difficult questions to the 25 people up on
stage while the rest of the audience clap and cheer to give support. the
closing session had an irish singer/comedian perform some songs and tell a few
stories. it was actually a great way to wrap up another lotusphere.

i haven’t really got any plans for la other than to have a look around, so
hopefully a few pictures and impressions to follow.

as it is so quiet today i thought i would have a go at the r6 clp upgrade exam.
this is a certification scheme run by lotus that is meant to prove competence.
first of all i passed. but only just. i had forgotten how much the questions
revolve around your knowledge of the menu systems rather than actually knowing
how to use the product efficiently. as i have barely used the latest version of
notes i was really just guessing at the answers. so this sums up the value of
the qualification. i do need to have it though as when i go for interviews it
would be very hard to explain why i didn’t. certainly i would never interview a
developer without the magic letters.

so that’s that sorted for the next year or two. (for the record, the pass mark
is 70% and i got 75%)

the party at the magic kingdom turned into a bit of a classic last night. we
got to see the disney parade, mickey, minnie and a huge fireworks display.
although incredibly cheesy it was great fun, all of the restaurants were open
(and free), there were beer carts all round the park so we never went thirsty
and everyone was just in a great party mood. i didn’t get to go on the small
world ride but we did go on pirates of the caribbean which i think is pretty
much the same. unforutnately the battery ran out on my camera so no proof.

we got turfed out pretty early (about 11pm) so we headed back to one of the
main hotels and found the bar where a guy was playing the piano and leading
everyone through two and a half hours of songs. of course we might have supped
a few more beers. suffice to say i woke up quite late this morning.

it’s the last day of the ‘sphere today and everything is already beginning to
wrap up. it’s always a bit depressing, saying goodbye to people you won’t see
for quite a while. i am lucky… tomorrow i fly up to new york and then across
to los angeles. so onwards…

the openntf bof was excellent last night. this is a plug for them, if you are a
domino developer then get over to openntf.org and get involved… they need
developers, testers, even documentors.

it’ll be another full day of sessions. we have just seen the pre-alpha demo of
websphere studio application developer which is looking pretty good. they have
basically taken a lot of the domino design concepts so that there is a lot more
drag ‘n’ drop development (if you want it) to allow for true rad. a real
competitor for .net studio. the rest of my sessions today are going to be based
around xml and xsl which i think is going to be of increasing importance over
the next year or two.

then this evening is the main lotusphere party at the magic kingdom. it’ll be
3,000 geeks with beer enjoying “it’s a small world”! should be fun.

today has just been one session after another. largely the have been pretty
interesting. the highlight being the turtle
‘s session which ended up with everyone singing along to vera lynn, i am in
the picture somewhere but i can’t quite work out where!

i am just waiting to go into the openntf bof (i have to be careful of acronyms
here don’t i!). it is basically just a round-table chat about the open source
domino effort where, for example, alternative e-mail templates are developed.
it would be quite nice to get involved in one of the projects but it largely
depends on what skills are required at the moment.

i haven’t got anything organised for this evening so i’ll head off to one of
the bars in the dolphin to see what’s going on, but i really must try and get
up for the early session tomorrow.

a few of us went to dinner in my hotel last night. the food, wine and company
were excellent. so much so, in fact, that i didn’t get to bed until 01:30 this
morning. now i was meant to be up and at my first session by 06:30, but to be
brutally honest, i didn’t make it. a pity as it would have been good.. but i am
on holiday after all!

the reason i can easily upload messages and pictures so easily is that lotus
have provided us with a wireless network so i can type pretty much wherever i
sit down. more later today.

the opening general session of lotusphere was not hugely impressive. i have
come along in the hope that i will be surprised and find that domino has been
given a new lease of life. but when a large portion of a lotus conference is
devoted to the other three ibm streams (tivoli, websphere and db2) you know
things are bad.

to be honest i knew this already but domino has been a major part of my life
for the last 5 years and i would rather it continues to be. instead we were
shown the “next-gen” mail client. jeannette “no charisma” horan was expecting a
round of applause for being able to send an e-mail using websphere and db2…
hardly ground-breaking stuff.

on the other hand, rudy giuliani was indeed the keynote speaker and he got two
standing ovations! i will be concentrating the rest of my efforts on websphere.
the end of an era really.

it was the superbowl party at lotusphere last night. plenty of free beer, pizza
and ice cream. unfortunately i had to drive afterwards so i couldn’t drink too
much. but having had to get up at 06:00 this morning that’s probably not a bad
thing. in fact i am going to have to get up earlier for the rest of the week.
they always seem to put the best sessions on at the worst times.

i am off to the general session in a few minutes which is usually quite good.