So today is the last official day working for the IBM Innovation Centre (IIC) in Hursley, UK. It’s been a great three years here and I’m looking forward to moving into my new role. So whilst my job will change tomorrow, I’ll still be around the IIC training my successor for a month or so.

So my new role will be working for the Lotus Business Partner Technical Enablement team in EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa). That’s quite a big area and it’s quite a big team that I’m joining. Both of us will be taking part in loads of conference calls as we don’t know about travel budgets for this year yet.
The main focus of the role is to help partners get up to speed with “NEW” Lotus technologies and getting them onto the beta programmes and out the door with skills when the product becomes GA.

If you are an IBM Business Partner and want to get involved in beta programmes with Lotus products then please let me know and I’ll be able to help you find out what is available and what you can get involved in.

Please drop an email to tim_clark at uk dot ibm dot com

I was recently alerted to that fact that Rockstar Games are soon to be releasing to the world Grand Theft Auto IV. This massive game genre has generated good and bad press probably in equal numbers. I love it for the game technology alone. The ability to go through the environment and roam around and do nothing but drive, ride or fly about without any limits is amazing.
To my delight I have found that Rockstar in their infinite wisdom have deemed it suitable to give away three classic games from their website.
GTA, GTA2 and Wild Metal. All for the PC and all for free. I know these games are now classics, based on modern technology and gaming stuff, but download and play GTA if you do nothing else before you die. It’s the single game that turned the gaming world on it’s head. Even before “id” and all that had a clue what they doing in Wolfenstein and Doom and the 3D world. These guys stayed 2D and went free form and blew the gaming world apart.

http://www.rockstargames.com/classics

Well I went to the doctor around the beginning of Feb and he said I had to loose weight. I was 17st 7ibs or 245ibs or 111.13Kgs
So 1 month on I’ve managed to get down to 16st 11lbs or 235lbs or 106.59Kgs. I’m quite proud of that, as I’ve been struggling in the past.

I’ve been using a bunch of things to try and get the weight off.
Exercise. Going to the gym, running at lunchtime training for and playing rugby
Diet. Cutting out all the rubbish I eat between meals (this has been the hardest). Having proper meals
Maximuscle. I’ve been using Thermobol and ProMax Diet to help me get to a weight loss metabolism. (www.maximuscle.com)
Water. Drinking the right amount of water each day is helping too. If you don’t drink enough water each day, your body stores what water you do drink in your joints. When you drink enough your body lets that water go and you loose weight. As water is quite a heavy substance, any less of it my body has to carry around is good with me.

So I’m also quite proud today as I’ve managed to do my run (2 miles) without stopping today. This is the first time I’ve managed it. I’m no runner and thanks to my chum Chris Moore he’s got me running round the IBM Hursley site during a lunch time. So the next goal is to get a bit quicker and then try 2 laps (e.g. 4 miles). This is helping my stamina so helping my rugby. This is a big benefit to me.

So this is why I’m feeling good. The weight is coming down and I’m getting fitter and getting my stamina levels back to where I want them. Roll on the summer and the six pack I’m planning to try and get. ;o)

Still no confectionary and/or junk between meals. Yipeee. Still the same weight though. Boooooo!
Drinking lots of water instead of snacking. I’m sure it’s going to help soon, but at the moment is just makes me wee like a race horse. ;o)

New car arrived yesterday. Pics on webshots. http://community.webshots.com/user/tcsoft
Also went to the gym to sweat a few pounds off before dinner.

Rugby tomorrow is in Wandsworth against BEC Old Boys so that should be a laugh. I don’t know what possition they might want me to play, but I hope it’s blind side flanker.

Working from home today on writing up a project. Very dull but needs to be done.

I’m still waiting to see if the job I have been waiting for gets approved, but I heard something good on this today so it seems to be moving along at last. I’m so ready for a new challenge at the moment. The current job seems to be dull and dragging a bit. Still it pays the mortgage. “I wonder if we’ll see the interest rate cut that was announced yesterday by the Bank of England? I bet not.”

Not in a speeding sort of way, but in a “nil by mouth” mode.
I went to the doctors today as I’ve been getting headaches for a about 3 months. Got asked a bunch of questions and he took my blood pressure (which is a little too high) and my weight (which is way too high).
The prognosis is good, so long as I can loose some weight. Well some weight = 1st (14lb or 8kg) in a month and or more in the second month. So he has banned me from drinking alcohol and asked me to try and keep my daily intake to about 1000 - 1500 calories a day.

This is going to hurt, a lot. So if anyone has any great diet plans that do not involve fish, seafood or tomatoes. I would be glad of the help.

My tummy is rumbling already and it’s only 11 o’clock. I would normally walk upstairs now and grab a bag of crisps but I must resist. I think water is the key. I’ll try drinking water whenever I feel hungry and see if that helps. I should be drinking 2 litres a day anyway and I drink none, so it can’t hurt. Can it?

At least I have an excuse for 40 days starting on Tuesday. I can at least use lent as a reason for doing it. Maybe it’s happened now for a reason.

What am I giving up for lent? Confectionery and apathy. I am going to blog every day of lent and not eat junk.

So will I fasting during lent? Yes I guess I will, but not in a total sort of way. I have to change my lifestyle to be more of a calorie deficit diet than a calorie overload diet.

Any offers of support greatly appreciated.

Well I’m not any more. I’ve lost my voice. I must have caught something at Lotusphere or on the plane home. But my throat is sore and my voice is almost non existant.

I think I will ask my US colleagues to bring some “Airborn” with them next year.

So at least I can still talk in CyberSpace, and you have to love instant messaging clients at a time like this. At least I can still communicate with my work chums in the office and aronud the world.

It’s all over for another year and I can go home and get some proper sleep. I’m sitting in the Orlando airport terminal and beginning to regret the Burger King I just ate. There were a bunch of announcements at Lotusphere this year and I’m sure you have all checked out the http://www.lotus.com/ website for all the updates. So I managed to get to one session this year. I really must try harder next year. Working in the Solution Developers Lab is quite hard work and not having a scheduled time slot to work made it really difficult to get away to a session. The one I did attend “Social Computing Keynote” was very good, slightly humorous and full of good customer presentations. The only trouble with Lotusphere is that it remains very North American focused. I have no problem with this normally, but a few customers have mentioned it to me and I think they are right this year to raise the issue. I know it’s hard for a US based company to take note of the rest of the world, but they really should try and take more notice as the rest of the world provides huge amounts of revenue.
Now having said all that the one session I got to, DID, have a German partner presenting. So there is light at the end of the tunnel.
See you all next year. I promise to blog a bit more in between this year.

This is the lab I am involved in, so come and check us out in the Atlantic Hall (where the partner showcase is). We are located in the left hand corner as you come down the escalator. (where the Lotus Stuff store was last year)

The Lotus Solutions Development Lab provides a venue for solution developers from our customer and partner communities to learn more about leveraging and extending Lotus products to bring additional value to their solutions and to their end users. This lab combines self-paced hands-on activities and interactive demos with real-time access to our team of Solution Development experts for brainstorming and guidance on solution architecture leveraging the wide range of Lotus software and the IBM WebSphere family of products.

This lab will position our joint teams as the Universal System Integrators consulting organization. The goal of our “company” is to highlight the solutions we have developed to run our business while also leveraging integration with the Lotus platforms. These include Notes Domino 8, Lotus Sametime, Lotus Connections, Lotus Quickr, Lotus Expeditor and WebSphere Portal. The goal of this lab will be to show participants how to develop, assemble, and integrate these solutions into a functional whole.

ND8 Web Services and CA Component Creation
When Universal System Integrators sold Zeta Bank on the project of moving their Sales Lead database to the Lead Manager Composite Application, part of the benefit they were to receive was the ability to customize their application to meet the tailored needs of individual departments. This lab will walk you through creating an additional component based on the Lead Manager and adding it to another desktop application

ND8 CA Lead Manager Tour and Application Assembly
Come with us on a guided tour of the Lead Manager application. In twenty minutes you will be able to see all of the features we brought together from their different sources, and how Composite Applications was able to bring Zeta Bank’s tools in line with their business process. Some of the technicians who built the application will be available for you should you have questions about the process or wish to deep dive into the code to see how some of the magic was done.

The Lotus Connections API
Using the Lotus Connections Profiles API, you will build an organization chart viewer that will also include a link to store a bookmark of a person’s profile page. You’ll then build a portlet which accepts unique IDs and wire that up to an employee service portlet from the WebSphere Portlet Factory lab and wire them together.

Accessing Domino 8 data from a mobile device using web services
Following the successful deployment of the Lead Manager application for our important Zeta Bank customer, they came to Universal System Integrators to invite us to submit a proposal for extending this to cover their mobile device driven sales force. Fortunately, USI’s choice of IBM Lotus Notes 8 as a base platform and the composite application feature for the client construction, set the base for easy extension using IBM Expeditor Client for Devices and Web Services for Domino. This translated into needing fewer resources to complete the project and so USI was able to submit a winning bid to Zeta Bank that undercut our competitors using other technologies and still left plenty of margin for USI. Come to our lab and let our mobile division explain how we were able to quickly create and roll out this extension to their system and close the contract.

Add a “Team Chat” Menu Choice that Leverages Connection Profiles API
Learn how to customize Sametime Connect with your own “team chat” feature. This lab will show you how to extend Sametime so your users can more easily reach out to other department members for help. The solution leverages the department hierarchy available in the Profiles component of Lotus Connections. The same solution could be easily extended to help “connect” your employees to others using relationships unique to your business.

Customize Sametime to Your Users’ Needs
Learn how to customize the Sametime Connect client so that it parses incoming instant messages for keywords and takes an appropriate action. This lab will show you how to create your own extension point to allow for easy extensibility in adding additional keywords

Knowledge Management by Customizing Quickr 8.0 for J2EE
You will use the HR resume solution as the scenario. This lab will demonstrate the capability and feasibility to meet your business requirement. There are two labs: the first one is for business users which will show how to customize Quickr for collection and sharing of the knowledge. The second one is for developers which will show how to access Quickr data or documents and how to customize the Quickr browser UI to meet the customer’s requirement.

Leveraging Domino Data in WebSphere Portlet Factory Projects
Using Domino Data and WebSphere Portlet Factory, you will leverage the Domino data from the Lead Manager application that will display lead data in the portlet. The portlet will be deployed to the server and added to an existing Composite Application.

Sametime and Connections Mashup
Learn to integrate Sametime and Lotus Connections into a business mashup. This lab will show you how to use Sametime Awareness and Lotus Connections Activities with external business data.

Lotus Forms & Web Services Integration
Learn to develop an electronic forms solution with the new Lotus Forms V3.0. This lab will show you how to leverage web services with your form to allow data from existing IT systems to be quickly integrated. Also learn how the form can be submitted for processing to a backend process.

Leveraging DB2 and Dojo in WebSphere Portlet Factory Projects
Using DB2 Data and WebSphere Portlet factory, you will learn to create a portlet factory project that displays employee data from the DB2 sample database and that will how you how to develop model driven portlets. There will also be an introduction into Dojo Portlets.

Creating Portlets with Rational Application Developer
Learn how to use JSF / RAD to create a simple, yet powerful portlet. The portlet will show you how to leverage shipping data.

Using the Sametime Links toolkit to Add Live Names to a Web Application
This demo shows you how to use the Sametime Links Toolkit (STLinks) to easily add live names to your web application.

Composite Application for Off-line Rich Internet Application and Lotus Forms Viewer
Learn how to develop a composite application that integrates an off-line Dojo-based Rich Internet Application and Lotus Forms Viewer on Notes 8 platform. This lab will also teach you how to develop a Rich Internet Application on Notes 8 and how to integrate a native application to Notes 8 platform.

Workplace Forms & Domino Web Services Integration
IBM Workplace Forms is an electronics form solution that uses XForms standard. When integrated with Domino using Web Services, one can pre-populate a form based on information from the end-user. Learn how to integrate Web Services and Workplace Forms.

Demo Stations
Come see demonstrations of Notes 8, Notes 8 on Linux, Notes 8 on Mac, Sametime Awareness, Lotus Connections, Lotus Sametime Connect Client, Lotus Quickr, WebSphere Portal 6.0 and WebSphere Portal 6.1 Beta. It’s the opportunity to touch the latest and greatest software and ask questions of technical experts.

Validation Station for Business Partners
The IBM Lotus Catalogs are a single point for Customers, IBM Sales Teams, IBM Services and IBM Business Partners to find solutions targeted for IBM Lotus Notes Domino, IBM WebSphere Portal, IBM WebSphere Portal Express, IBM Sametime, Lotus Quickr, Lotus Connections, and Workplace Forms. The Catalogs are a set of external facing websites, accessible to everyone.
Each solution in the IBM Lotus Catalogs passes a technical validation. By nominating and passing the Lotus validations, IBM Business Partners can take advantage of the Catalogs. With easy faceted search, Business Partners can enter a solution on the IBM Lotus Catalogs and refer customers directly to the Business Partners’ website. For IBM Business Partners, there is No Charge for this offering.

Don’t be afraid. Be very afraid. Your poor brain is about to explode.

If you treat your brain a bit like a sponge, as the IT industry demands of most of us. You will keep adding knowledge in the top of your poor information soaked grey matter. Whilst out the bottom trickles a small amount of the stuff you no longer need to remember. Like all the basic programming you did as a kid on the ZX-81, Sectrum or Commodore 64. Typing in the programs from the magazines with your best mate reading out the line by line torture.

That’s all fine if you just add the odd bit of something each day. But the full on assault on your poor sponge might well make you forget to walk. So here’s a tip before you get there. Right foot in front of left foot, oppose and repeat.

The week long barrage of “all information Lotus” will know doubt tempt some of you to stay up late and listen to the podcasts, whilst the rest of us will add the greatest known lubricant to our poor heavy sponges. You’ll find us in the bars, networking. We are not just drinking, we are cementing the relationships we have formed during the day/week/year/lifetime. We’ll be adding alcohol to our sponges, it seems to make mine forget what’s not important and remember what is. That’s very useful at a conference such as Lotusphere.

So this post/rant is not about beer in Orlando, there’s precious little of that worth drinking down there anyway. It’s about the lab a team in Lotus will be presenting at Lotusphere this year. We’ve done it before and we hope we are doing it right again this year.

There will be 15 hands-on labs for you ALL to come and try. You can come and help us fix problems that “Universal Systems Integrators” are facing today. Everything from building a composite applications to extending Quickr.
Location: We are on the product showcase floor this year. Where the Lotus Stuff Store was last year. (Down the escalator and turn left).

Come find us and say hello.

See you there.

p.s. Happy New Year to you all.

Marissa and I have just got back from a road trip across the USA, Chicago - New York. Great trip, found some really nice plaes and people along the way.
We got back on Sunday and called the cat breeder that we had been speaking to before we went away.
The kittens were ready to pick up whenever we wanted. So we headed straight to the breeder and got the new kittens. They are two Bengals and very very funny. They are just doing normal kitten things right now, apart from almost sitting in the water bowl to drink from it. They love water. Complete looney tunes, the pair of them but they will be good entertainment and great company for Nala when she has got used to the idea of sharing the house with them. At the moment it’s all a bit of a slanging match and hiss fest. But I’m assured it will calm down eventually.
So Bella and Fizz are here and making it very difficult to work from home. I’ve never seen two more distracting objects in my life.