Sarah forwarded this to me ... not mine, but still very cool .. but makes me feel old! In honor of the Chicago Bears going to Super Bowl 41. Here are 41 things that have changed from the last time the Chicago Bears played in the Super Bowl (which was Super Bowl 20 in 1986): 1.. Brian Urlacher was in 2nd grade. Rex Grossman was in kindergarten. 2.. Peyton Manning was 10 years old. Eli Manning was 5 years old. Their dad, Archie, had just retired from the NFL two years earlier. 3.. Lovie Smith was in his first college coaching job at University of Tulsa . 4.. Ronald Reagan was the President, and Harold Washington was the Mayor. James R. Thompson was the Governor running for re-election and his office was in the new State of Illinois Center, which is now called the James R. Thompson Center . 5.. George W. Bush was 39 years old and still drinking. His father would run for President two years later. 6.. Rod Blagojevich was just out of law school and was a low-level prosecutor working fo

One of my TV guilty pleasures is Top Chef on Bravo. We both watch it and enjoy the food, the drama, and the fun. Tonight, two chef's that really dislike each other go head to head. Ilan or Marcel. I think Ilan makes great food, but his attitude is usually a turn off. Marcel is the cocky youngster who likes to play with things like Xantham Gum and other wacky stuff. Who will pack their knives? We find out tonight.

Here is what's coming out today ... Movies Big Valley, The: Season #2 Volume 1 Catch A Fire (Widescreen) Comedians Of Comedy, The Do Not Disturb (1965) Fly (Collector's Edition) Flyboys (Widescreen) Flyboys: Collector's Edition Hannibal Lector Collection Giftset Hunt for Zarqawi I Dream Of Jeannie: Season #3 Incubus (2005) Janice Dickinson Modeling Agency: Season #1 Journalist In The Jihadi: The Murder Of Daniel Pearl Law & Order: Special Victims Unit: Season #3 Lucky Louie: Season #1 Marine, The Murder She Wrote: Season #5 Open Season (2006) (Widescreen) (#24 in the DVDPS Top 40) Rx (2005) Silence of the Lambs: Collector's Edition Three's Company: Capturing the Laughter: Jack's Episodes Triple Cross: Bin Laden's Spy In America Unhitched (2005) Viva Pedro: The Almodovar Collection Yu-Gi-Oh: Season #5 Music Not Too Late ~ Norah Jones Not Too Late (W/Dvd) (Dlx) (Dig) ~ Norah Jones The Confessions Tour - Live from London (CD+DVD) ~ Madonna A New Journey ~ Celtic Woman Oh,

How cool is this? Thanks to Ed for getting this for me.

I see these all over mypsace pages, figured I would share mine here ... Interesting ... when I was younger (and a few pounds lighter), people said I looked like Michael J. Fox ... back in his "Back to the Future" days

So we heard a lot about Second Life last week at Lotusphere, and even some about World of Warcraft. I thought it would be interesting to compare my avatars in each. So here is Starfish Hennah ... and here is Starfish of Garona, Knight Commander, Elite of Lunaris ... Hmmmm ... which one would win in a fight :-)

Jess, of Matt & Jess Straton fame, interviewed Nathan and I for her series of interviews (over 20!) ... Nathan Freeman (Lotus 911) and John Head (PSC Group) I was fortunate enough to grab Nathan and John for an interview right outside the OpenNTF.org BOF. Both of them have been beta testing and providing design feedback to Lotus for Notes and Domino 8. Listen as they tell us what is their favorite new feature about the software release, and whether or not you'll have to learn new technology to use it! Listen to it here

Not much to say except once your presentations are done, the partying began. I did not go to the Animal Kingdom party due to rain. A nice dinner with co-workers turned into drinking at Kimonos which turned a party in Paul Mooney's hotel room ... I have never seen 2 mini-bars in one room before. I went to bed around 4 am ... to get up at 6:30 for a 7 am Bloggers discussion. I know many people in the room that never went to bed last night. Ouch. Only thing left to say is ... where and when does the party start tonight!

I really enjoyed this session ... I hope all of you did as well. I covered integration with Notes and Microsoft Word, Mail Merge, Microsoft Excel, Microsoft PowerPoint, Microsoft Project, XML, Web Services, Microsoft InfoPath, and Microsoft Visual Studio Tools for Office. You can find the slides and demo files below: Presentation Demo Databases

This session I co-presented with Alan Bell and I think we rocked. Special thanks to IBM and Ma Yue for letting us show an exciting look into the future of the IBM Productivity Editors. Presenation Demo Files

Here is what's coming out today ... Movies Angel Face Brokeback Mountain: Collector's Edition Crooks (2002) Don't Knock The Rock / Rock Around The Clock Don't Knock The Twist / Twist Around The Clock Fat Friends: Season #1 Fiddler On The Roof: Collectors Edition Gridiron Gang (Widescreen) Guardian, The (2006) Hopeless Pictures: Season #1 Marvel Animated Features Gift Set Monsters and Madmen: Criterion Collection Princess Natasha: Season #2 Sanjuro (Reissue): Criterion Collection Saw III (Unrated/Widescreen) Steve Martin: The Wild and Crazy Comedy Collection Street Justice: Season #1 Undisputed 2: Last Man Standing Walker Texas Ranger: Season #2 Waltons: Season #4 Yakuza, The Yojimbo (Reissue): Criterion Collection Music Wincing the Night Away ~ The Shins Freedom's Road ~ John Mellencamp The Good, the Bad & the Queen ~ The Good the Bad & The Queen 2007 Grammy Nominees ~ Various Artists Live at the Cow Palace: New Years Eve 1976 ~ The Grateful Dead 10 Days Out (Blues

(this will be updated over the day) I started my day working on some of my demos for my sessions tomorrow. Alan and I met at 10 am and went thru our OpenOffice.org session. We found an amazing addition to our session ... I can not wait to show it off! More on that tomorrow. I then spent some time on the Product Showcase floor. How cool is it that Google has a booth at Lotusphere! I checked out solutions at the booths of Integra, OpenNTF, RIM/Blackberry, the IBM Rebooks, and much more. Is it me or is the product showcase the busiest (and best looking) in many many years? I am in the IBM Research session now. I try to make this session each year.

Today started out with a nice breakfast uniting the faces of the PSC bloggers and some of our staff at Lotusphere. Ed Brill , Alan of Alan Lepofsky's Notes Tips , Adam Gartenberg - Sametime, Jeff Eisen , Rob Ingram ( Domino Server Team ), and Chris Pepin were very gracious to take some time out to say thank you for the web hosting we provide. We chatted about the Sunday night Party, the info that Ed had already posted, Second Life, and some general stuff like how cool the big video board for the OGS is. Oh, and some chatter about our new blogger. :) As 7:45 drew near, we all rushed to the OGS. The Opening General Session was a good one. Neil Armstrong was amazing. The band was a nice fun addition. We heard a lot about Notes 8, Sametime 7.5 (and 7.5.1), Lotus Connections ("Ventura"), Lotus Quickr ("Geneva") and Websphere Portal. You will be able to watch the OGS in Second Life tomorrow, so I will not go into details. My reactions are a bit skewed. I have been using Notes and Domi

I have been quoted in the official IBM Lotus press release for Notes 8 John Head, Framework Manager for PSC Group, an award winning Lotus Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) builder said: "Using Lotus Notes 8, I can quickly tie different systems together without writing a lot of code. Because I'm in Lotus Notes 8, I also get unparalleled rich client functionality. There's nothing else on the market that provides that. I'm particularly excited about the new activities features, which represent a completely new approach to collaborative computing." Read the full press release here. Because of this press release, I have been contacted by a couple of publications. More mentions in the press might be in my future!

How cool is it for the Chicago Bears to be going to the Super Bowl !!!! And what a game it was. The Saints put up a good fight in the first half, but the Bears just turned it on the second. I, being at Lotusphere, missed the entire second half! I was in a meeting with the Design Partners for Notes 8. And I was refreshing my Blackberry as fast as I could get the screen to redraw. The first half I was at the Dolphin bar and the loudest Bears fan there! :) Now, can Sarah and I get to Miami to see the game in person .. hmmmmm

Lotusphere2007 has begun! From the lunch and beer on the Boardwalk with all of the other bloggers, to the ESPN event, to meeting Nathan face to face for the first time, to the official beginning of the week at Business Developer Day (BPDay), you can feel the energy. It is good to see people in person again, and I think everyone is excited to see Notes & Domino 8. The rest of today is a rough day ... I have sessions at BP Day and Jumpstarts I want to attend, a 5 PM meeting with the Design Partners, the evening Welcoming Party, and the Chicago Bears game at 2 PM Central. UGH! More blogging as the week progresses. John

Orlando here I come! Oh, folks, watch the handshakes this year ... I am recovering from a broken elbow :( See ya in DisneyWorld!

Sarah and I went to our favorite restaurant last night, Osteria Via Stado. We have been there many times, enjoying the Italian Tasting Dinner. You get 4 or 5 selections of Antipasti (all you can eat), 2 pastas (again all you can eat) and then a main course. You can also select wine pairs for each course (from 15 to 50 dollars). Thursday was special though. It must have been Sarah's VIP status with Lettuce Entertain You restaurants, or OpenTable VIP (take that Ed), but we got amazing service. At the end of the dinner, Executive Chef/Partner David DiGregorio came over and thanked us for coming. He asked if we had time for something sweet. We enjoyed a candied orange and a Chocolate Hazelnut Gellato. It was amazing. If you ever are in Chicago and need a place to go, go to Osteria. We have taken Kat and many other people. We are talking about taking Ed and his foodie girlfriend there in Feb for the Chef's table :)

Not mine, but very funny! What would The Lord Of The Rings be like if somebody else had adapted it? George Lucas: -Hobbit's language strange grammar has. -ALL swords glow -The story is divided into nine parts, the middle ones are filmed first. John Woo: -Gandalf is saved from the tower not by an eagle but by 66 white doves. -Legolas shoots with two bows at the same time (don't ask me how to do that!) -All fighting scenes are in slow motion and have no sound except for the score Woody Allen: -black/white und mono sound -Problems with Orcs get merely discussed. James Cameron: -Each of the films costs 400Mion. $ -Schwarzenegger is Sauron who (after the battle in the beginning) claims that 'he'll be back' M. Night Shyamalan: -In the end it turns out that the ringwraiths are the only living, everyone else is already dead. Michael Bay: - Gimli's axe has a giant label saying 'Wilkinson'. Aragorn's clothes are by Jack Wolfskin and there are American flags EVERYWHERE. - While a woman is puttin

The Taking Notes podcast interviewed PSC's two Jim's (Vaselopulos and Waters) about our recent Lotus Award win, discussed SOA, and talked about PSC's presence at Lotusphere2007. You can even hear a mention about yours truly :) Nice work Bruce and Julian ... and thanks :)

As Mary Beth Raven revealed, PSC has been participating in the Notes 8 Design Partner program. What this means is that we have been working closing with IBM on all things Notes & Domino 8, including focused testing of the product and suggestions, discussion, and sometimes harsh words on ideas and direction for the product. Yes, even for the "IBM Yes-man" as a couple call me, my particapation in this process has not been about rubber stamping the ideas the team has come up with. I can tell you there have been many a discussion about why I thought IBM was making a mistake. But that is for chatter after the product comes out. You see, this blog/site is for my personal use. Yes, I reference work stuff here. And a lot of info about my job relating to IBM. I am not always 100% behind everything IBM does, and a couple of posts will show that. This site is not the only place to deliver that message to IBM. I have many ways of communicating with IBM ... email, IM, Partner conference calls

Here is what's coming out today ... Movies 24: Season #6 (Premiere) Allo Allo: The Complete Series #6 Animation Show Box Set Beyond Reality: Season #1 Border Radio: Criterion Collection Bounty Hunters: Season #1 Doctor Who: Series #2 Employee Of The Month (2006) (Widescreen) Grim Reaper (2006) King Of Queens, The: Season #7 Legend of Prince Valliant: The Complete Series: Volume 2 Mouchette: Criterion Collection Noein: Volume Two PROOF: Season #1 Pup Named Scooby-Doo #5 Royle Family, The: Season #1 Run's House: Seasons #1 & #2 Space Academy: The Complete Series Street, The: Season #1 Texas Chainsaw Massacre, The: The Beginning (Unrated) That's So Suite Life Of Hannah Montana Music Here & Now ~ America Romance: Songs From the Heart ~ Frank Sinatra Farewell to the World ~ Crowded House Meet the Smithereens: Tribute to the Beatles ~ Smithereens I Love You ~ Diana Ross There Is A Season ~ The Byrds Dirty Deal ~ Coco Montoya A Collection of Roxette Hits: Their 20 Greates

As I write this, people all over the US are getting ready for the release of World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade expansion. This release is huge ... with over 8 million ACTIVE subscribers to the game, this might be the biggest game release (in terms of release day shipments) ever. But many on the outside do no not realize what this means to the community. The character limit was 60 in the original game release. I have been level 60 since 2 years ago ... which means I have been playing end game content all this time. Most of this content is in the form of Raiding, either in 20 or 40 man groups. The BC expansion will bump the level cap to 70, increase all of the skills to another level, and present 6 zones of new content. But it also is the end of the 40 man raids. Blizzard decided to drop the max raid size to 25. They did this for many reasons, but I think the biggest reason is the level of effort it takes to organize 40 people. Lunaris, my guild, will continue into the expansio

How cool is this !!! Blackberry has an entire page on what they are doing at Lotusphere .. been a while since I have seen a vendor do something like this! www.blackberry.com/go/lotusphere Can you feel the buzz?

Wow ... what a weekend of football! We celebrated the Bears winning pretty hard yesterday .. so hard I am just recovering :) For all who want a non-network TV version of the kick heard around Chicago, check out the video below!

Here, the (Un)Official lore on the opening of the Dark Portal. (Scene: Kazzak's Patrol Path) Kazzak: This sucks. All I do is get grinded by level 60s. Generic Demon: You could go to Outland! I hear that area is controlled by the Legion! ::Kazzak crushes Generic Demon:: Kazzak: Ill do it! Ill go to Outland! (Cue: Kazzak Theme Song) Here he comes! That Demon Man! Crushing his foes! With his bare hands! Hes havin' troubles! So hes movin'! To where he can live free! From Players like you or me! (Kazzak! Kazzak!) Lord of the Demons! King of Evil! Bringer of Death! Destroyer of All Things Civil! (Kazzak! Kazzak!) Hes got the plan! Hes got the power! Hes getting stronger! By the hour! (Kazzak: RAWRRR!) Kazzak! (End song) (Scene: Random Swamp) Other Demon: Are you sure it is here master? Kazzak: Of course I am! It should be just over THERE! (A large Temple comes into view) Other Demon: Wow. Kazzak: Behold my minions! The Temple of Wal Mar't! ::Kazz

Here is what's coming out today ... Movies Bandidas Broken Bridges (2006) Color Of The Cross Crank (Widescreen) Danielle Steel 2 DVD Collection Extras: Season #1 Idiocracy Illusionist, The (Widescreen) It's A Love Thang Boxset Lightspeed Men Of Action Boxset Mr. Billion Murder Set Pieces Night Listener, The Quinceanera (2006) Rebelde: Season #1 Sergeant Preston Of The Yukon: Season #2 Shunned, The Snow Queen, The (2005) Sparkle Stan Lee Presents: Mosaic Van Gogh Veteran (2006) Wedding, A Music Russian Album ~ Anna Netrebko, Orchestra of the Mariinsky Theatre, et al. The Holiday ~ Hans Zimmer Live from Austin, Texas ~ Neko Case Appassionato ~ Yo-Yo Ma Live from Austin, TX ~ Johnny Cash Plays Well With Others ~ Wayne Bergeron Jump In! ~ Original Soundtrack Lang Lang: Dragon Songs (Plus DVD) ~ Lang Lang Notes on a Scandal ~ Original Soundtrack, Phillip Glass, et al. Lithium Pt. 2 ~ Evanescence my pic(s) of the week: Not alot coming out this week For those interested, I

Today, as part of Microsoft's CES keynote, Peter Moore sent an email to members of the press in which he shared his excitement about what they have accomplished so far. The following are stats and figures provided by Mr. Moore: Over 10.4 million Xbox 360 consoles sold in more than 37 countries. On track for 13-15 million units shipped by the end of FY07. Record-breaking attach rate of 5.3 games sold per console. Gears of War sold more than 2.7 million copies after only 8 weeks on the market. Xbox Live community has eclipsed 5 million members, with over half of all consoles connected. Goal: 6 million Xbox Live members by June 2007. The average Xbox Live Gold subscriber has more than 21 friends. Every day there are 2 million messages (text/voice/picture) sent across the Xbox Live network. Over 100 million pieces of standard and high definition content have been downloaded from Xbox Live Marketplace. Over 70% of Xbox Live members are downloading content from Xbox Live Marketpl

I saw that Yahoo and RIM announced that they are bringing Yahoo! to Go to the Blackberry (as they hinted to last year). I had never checked this out ... but the on-line demo shows a very well designed application. It might be better than Yahoo! on the web. Things I found neat: A web search tool that might be the best I have seen ... including on the web! Integrated with your phone contacts directly Simple way to change your location Upload pictures taken on the phone to Flickr with a couple clicks Check out the demo here. I even got Nathan to admit he was impressed :D Only bad news is that the beta seems full .. I had to sign up. Hope I get in soon!