As we near the end of March, we are having snow again in Chicago. I am not sure we will ever see the end of this weather! April is going to be a very busy month for me. I will be attending both the Detroit and Cincinnati Lotusphere Comes to You. I will also be at the View conference in Boston at the end of the month working at the Integra booth. Add in customer trips to Annapolis/Washington D.C. next week and other times, a wedding in Iowa in the middle of the month, and a wedding in Dallas this weekend. Busy month! So I continue to focus more on the sales side of things these days, but doing a bunch of delivery with projects focused on Microsoft Word, Notes, Integra, and a new client that is SQL/.Net/Powerpoint. Love the variety that keeps me on my toes. Just as I am getting ready to travel for a month, AT&T cable in the building I am in upgraded their Dish Network service. Yes, I know ... its really screwed up. We have cable thru a shared Dish satellite on the building. But t

Here is what's coming out today ... Movies Alain Delon Collection April Fool's Day (2008) Arthur: Arthur Season #10 Baki the Grappler: Season #2 Baldwin Hills: Sesason #1 Bonnie And Clyde: SE Bonnie And Clyde: Ultimate Collector's Edition Catherine Tate Show: Season #2 Frisky Dingo: Season #1 Invisible Man, The: Season #1 (#6 in the DVDPS Top 40) Jimmy Carter: Man From Plains John From Cincinnati: Season #1 Kite Runner, The Lost Highway (#9 in the DVDPS Top 40) PU-239 Painkiller Jane (#5 in the DVDPS Top 40) Party Of Five: Season #3 Slayers: Season #3 Sliders: Seasons #4 That '70s Show: Season #8 Tripping The Rift: The Movie Vice, The: Season #1 Walk The Line: Extended Cut Warner Gangsters Collection: Volume 1 Warner Gangsters Collection: Volume 2 Warner Gangsters Collection: Volume 3 Wings: Season #6 Computer Games Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII ( Sony PSP) Command & Conquer Kane's Wrath ( Windows XP / 2000 / 98) Naruto: Ultimate Ninja 3 ( PlayStation2) Dark Sector (

One of the things that I notice impresses people about Integra is that provides a tool for all Notes and Domino users, including the typical user. Integra Quick Reports provides an ad-hoc reporting tool for any Notes user on any Notes application. The user gets a 4 step Wizard which walks them thru building the report. The wizard allows them to select fields from a view or any form and add them to the report. They can even do a look-up to another view or database without having to understand what a @DBLookup is! but your a web user ... Integra Quick Reports has you covered there as well! Coming this year, users will get masked field names instead of the original field names to make their experience better. I love showing Quick Reports off to folks. They love how a complete report can be built by any user. When you show them the Sorting and Grouping - Step 2 of the Quick Report Wizard. They get very excited! Yes, that is a single check box to create a Pivot Table and a Chart!

For those people awaiting the forth and final season of Battlestar Galactica on Sci-fi to start, here is something to hold you over ... 10 members of the cast went on David Letterman last night to do the Top 10 list. So say we all!

This is for the metal music fans out there, as well as the Dream Theater fans. Fuse TV's Talking Metal show gets together musicians to jam on classic metal songs. This jam, by the band "Turtlehead", is of the song "Overkill" by Motorhead. The members of the band? Bobby Blitz from Overkill singing, Frank Bello from Anthrax on bass, Mike Portnoy from Dream Theater on drums, and the two hosts playing guitar. In a world where "mashup" is something we hear used daily, this is a great one :-)

You can listen to a bunch of the songs from the upcoming Greatest Hit (and 21 other pretty cool songs) cd from Dream Theater today! Check out the remix of Pull Me Under. The drums sound a lot thicker and the overall sound is just very cleaned up. How I would love to hear DT record that song with JP's current guitar sounds :-)

Yes, I know this is a story about a rock band, but watch the video. You will see that even rock stars think about what is best for business. I think this is a great case of an entertainment industry realizing that good business practices are things to worry about, not just how loud the guitar is

Here is what's coming out today ... Movies Adventures of Robin Hood: Season #1 After Dark Horrorfest: 8 Films To Die For Giftset Antonio Gaudi: The Criterion Collection Atonement (2007) (Widescreen) (#23 in the DVDPS Top 40) Battlestar Galactica: Season #3 (#1 in the DVDPS Top 40) Bionic Woman: Volume 1 Black Cat: The Complete Series Borderland (2007): Unrated Director's Cut Bull Durham: 20th Anniversary Edition Corneil & Bernie: The Complete Series Eight Men Out: 20th Anniversary Edition Enchanted (Blu-Ray) (#9 in the DVDPS Top 40) Enchanted (Widescreen) (#5 in the DVDPS Top 40) Greek: Season #1 Chapter 1 I Am Legend (Widescreen) (#10 in the DVDPS Top 40) I Am Legend: SE (Blu-Ray) (#2 in the DVDPS Top 40) I Am Legend: SE (#15 in the DVDPS Top 40) Ice Storm, The: The Criterion Collection Johnny And The Sprites: Meet The Sprites Mafioso: The Criterion Collection Married With Children: Season #8 Moon Phase: The Complete Series Pebbles And Bamm-Bamm Show, The: The Complete Series

Thoughts about Lotusphere Comes to You here in Chicago at the Intercontinental Hotel - Great location. IBM has the Collaborative Summit at the Field Museum last fall, and today at the Intercontinental Hotel right on Michigan Ave. This after years of being in the basement of a no name hotel - If it was not raining, foggy, or if I did not have a box of materials, I would have walked! 3 blocks from where I live ... love the location - IBM had over 300 people register for the event. I would say over half of that attended. In a world where 50% of the registered folks attend, if is better than average. That being said, the Microsoft Heroes Happen Here event in Chicago had over 2,000 people. I guess free copies of Windows Server 2008, Visual Studio.NET 2008, and Microsoft Vista with SP1 on the DVD was the draw. Would having DVD(s) of IBM software lift attendance? - There is only one track and it is focused at product news and strategy. This year, LCTY is designed for decision makers. We

One of the features of Integra for Notes that seems to really impress people (including one of the major bloggers in the Lotus community last week) is the fact that Integra has no impact on your applications. What does this mean? First, Integra is a single Notes application/database that gets installed on your server. You create that application/database from the supplied template. You setup the ACL and you are good to go. One the desktop, if desired, you can push out an icon that gets added to the toolbar. This is not a necessary feature, but many use it. No client install, but a process that sends a link to the users that they click. Next time the start Notes, the Integra Icon is added to their toolbar. Administrator function within Integra for Notes to send an email to users to install the Toolbar icon What the user sees when they click the URL link ... Integra Icon added to Notes 8.0.X toolbar The other aspect of this is the entire Integra report, called a Profile, is se

This weekend I had a chance to catch up on my reading disconnected from the computer. I had a stack of Business Week magazines since Lotusphere and needed to get thru them. I like reading Business Week because it gives you a good overview of business, financial, and other stories without getting too political or into the details I will never understand. So I got to the January 28th, 2008 edition. I came across an article called International Isn't Just IBM's First Name and realized it was something about IBM. The article goes on to talk about how IBM is dealing with global customers and research and development teams across the globe. It was a great article. And then I came upon this: To understand how IBM choreographs this dance, consider Lotus Symphony, a package of PC software applications. Work on a new version of Symphony started last July. Teams in Beijing; Austin, Tex.; Raleigh, N.C.; and Boeblingen, Germany, are all contributing. Remarkably, it's the first time ever that the

This is how Chicago celebrates St. Patrick's Day ... About 2 blocks from where I live, that is the Tribune building right on Michigan Ave. What I find funny is that while the river is only that neon 1 day a year, it is always green :-)

So what travel sites are people out there using? I always am curious to learn how people are making their travel more accommodating. On the travel company side, I typically fly American, stay at Marriott hotels, and drive Hertz cars. Now, I do not do most of my work travel arrangements (we have an internal process for that) but those are my preferences. So I use those sites, especially AA.com, to manage my points and perks. When traveling for personal reasons, I tend to use Orbitz and Expedia to look for prices. Interestingly enough, I have found that I do half of my airline purchase, even for personal flying, on AA.com. The prices aren't that different. I have found myself using two new sites that are travel related quite a bit these days. The first is WorldMateLive. I have always been a fan of WorldMate software since the days when I carried a Palm device. What I like about WorldMateLive is two fold: 1. I can send my travel documents to the site, and it creates trips for me autom

As great as this school year's college football season was for the Fighting Illini, it has been a rough year for college basketball fans. The Illini Basketball team is what usually carries the school into post season. This year, not so much. The only way the Illini can get into the NCAA College Basketball Tournament is to win the Big Ten Tournament. Well, low and behold ... they are 2 games away! Thursday, they beat Penn State. Yesterday, they beat #3 seed Purdue. And with the miraculous win of Minnesota over #1 seed Indiana, The Illini have a great chance of playing the winner of Michigan State vs. Wisconsin. Now, I know that the Illini will have a tough time with either of those teams, but this week proves anything can happen. 2 more wins for the Illini and they play in the big tournament. Go Illini!

I wish you could hear my reaction to this ... but screaming for joy just does not come across on a blog. Here are the details: LIQUID TENSION EXPERIMENT — the instrumental progressive rock/metal project featuring DREAM THEATER members Mike Portnoy (drums), John Petrucci (guitar) and Jordan Rudess (keyboards) alongside progressive rock icon Tony Levin (bass) of KING CRIMSON and PETER GABRIEL fame — will embark on a short "10th Anniversary Reunion Tour" in June. Confirmed dates are as follows: June 21 - Bethlehem, PA - NEARfest June 23 - New York City - BB King's June 25 - Chicago, IL - Vic Theater June 27 - Downey, CA - Downey Theater June 28 - San Francisco, CA - Bay Area Rock Fest In 1998 and 1999, LIQUID TENSION EXPERIMENT released two instrumental albums that set the prog world on fire. After the success of the two albums and the project's undeniable chemistry, Rudess was asked to join DREAM THEATER full-time and the project was put on the shelf for an indefinite hiatis.... unt

I am so excited that Top Chef Chicago (otherwise known as Top Chef 4) starts tonight! I fully admit my addiction to cooking television. I love much of the Food Network shows ... Iron Chef America, Good Eats, Throwdown, Ace of Cakes, Dinner:Impossible ... but Top Chef is probably my favorite. Out of all the reality tv out there ... Top Chef is my favorite. The skills of the competitors really rises above the drama. Add to it my hometown of Chicago. People who do not live here really do not give enough credibility to the level of chefs and restaurants we have in Chicago. It is not all about pizza and Chicago-style hot dogs. I will enjoy saying "I have been there" or "I love that restaurant" or better yet "I need to go to that restaurant!" while watching this season.

Here is what's coming out today ... Movies And Justice For All: Deluxe Edition Appleseed: Ex Machina: SE August Rush Bachelor Party 2: The Last Temptation: Unrated Bats: Human Harvest Bee Movie: Jerry's 2 Disc SE Dan In Real Life Day Break: The Complete Series Exalted: Season #1 Gattaca: SE Hitman: Unrated: SE Love, American Style: Season #1: Volume 2 Mod Squad, The: Season #1: Volume 2 Most Extreme: Season #1 Nancy Drew (2007) No Country For Old Men (#1 in the DVDPS Top 40) No Country For Old Men (Blu-Ray) (#5 in the DVDPS Top 40) One Foot In The Grave: Season #3 One Foot In The Grave: Season #4 Outpost (2008) Sergeant Preston Of The Yukon: Season #3 South Park: The Imaginationland Trilogy Speed Grapher: The Complete Series Stargate: The Ark Of Truth (#2 in the DVDPS Top 40) Zombie Strippers: Unrated Computer Games Nintendo Wii FrontMan Wireless Guitar ( Nintendo Wii) House of the Dead 2 & 3 Return ( Nintendo Wii) Pro Evolution Soccer 2008 ( PLAYSTATION 3) Final Fanta

Wow, this is a pleasant shock! Coming soon to a Wii and DS, Iron Chef America: Supreme Cuisine! Check out the site here .. and watch the priceless trailer!

Since Lotusphere and the announcements between Integra and PSC came out, I have gotten quite a few questions that boil down to "John, why do you like Integra for Notes?" So I figured this was perfect blog fodder. It gives me something to write about on a regular basis and its a topic (integration of Notes with Office and Symphony/OpenOffice.org) that I can really provide value. So the goal going forward will be to have a new post every Monday. Let's see how well I can do on this. So to kick this off, one of the man reasons I like Integra for Notes, and why you should be using it as your integration framework, is that it provides reporting and integration almost everywhere. Not only does it integrate with Microsoft Word and Microsoft Excel (or Lotus Symphony Spreadsheets for the Integra for Notes Symphony Edition), it also provides Export and Import support for CSV and text files, as well as Export for XML. These Export and Import report profiles run on the Notes client, scheduled

In the world of the 2008, with tools such as the Internet, one should always be accurate and exact in making claims. In a world where someone can not have a college degree until just a few years ago and still create a place for himself in an industry as a leader (I am speaking of myself here), I do not understand why people lie on their resumes. It seems that Chef Robert Irvine felt the need to embellish (lie) on his to gain credibility with the Food Network. Chef Irvine hosted (past tense) Dinner:Impossible. The show put Robert into very difficult cooking situations ... like cooking for the Governor's Ball and Formal Event for the Inauguration of the Governor of Pennsylvania, with only his two sou chefs and limited resources ... in 12 hours. I loved the show and found Robert to be one of the most 'real' characters on Food Network. He never hid his frustration or anger, but always seemed to get thru the situations. The St Petersburg Times reported on Feb 17th, 2008 about his claims and

Thanks to Alan Bell for pointing this out. I so want this feature now in Lotus Symphony .. and Microsoft should steal this and put it into PowerPoint NOW! This is from the OpenOffice.org wiki and is a feature that should be in the OpenOffice.org 3.0 release. Introduction The presenter screen for Impress is a feature (currently in development) that aids a presenter during a slide show. It provides information on a second screen, that typically is not visible to the audience. This includes a view to the currently displayed slide (for when the presenter faces the audience and can not see the primary screen) a preview of the next slide or next effect the notes of the current slide the current time and/or the elapsed time navigation buttons for going to the previous/next slide Here is how it looks at the moment (left the full screen presentation, right the Presenter Screen): The presenter screen is planned to be an extension. However, some core libraries will have to be modifi

The word is out and yes I will speaking at ILUG2008 (let's hope for real this year). The info: SESSION 9 Speaker 1: John Head Type: Dev Title: Lotus Symphony and You ... How to stop giving Microsoft your money! For years, you have given Microsoft money for Office Licenses. Would you be interested if we could show you how you could save the money and still produce great documents, spreadsheets and presentations? This session is for you. The first half of the session will be a real-world comparison of Lotus Symphony to Microsoft Office and OpenOffice.org. We will help you decide what type of workers and situations should use which product. We will transition the session to cover the Application Development story. What can you do to integrate Lotus Symphony with your applications? We will cover Composite Applications, Expeditor and Eclipse.org Plug-ins, and LotusScript support. Come to this session with an open mind! Yes, the session is not your typical conference session. It is

Here is what's coming out today ... Movies 101 Dalmatians: Platinum Edition (#5 in the DVDPS Top 40) 12 Angry Men: 50th Anniversary Edition All Star BBQ Showdown: Season #2 Archie's Funhouse: The Complete Series Ben 10: Season #3 Best Of Kent Hrbek Outdoors Season 1: Volume 5 Billy Wilder Giftset Blue Gender: The Complete Series Country Style: Season #1 Dr. Dolittle: Tail To The Chief Flight 29 Down: Season #2 Forbidden Hollywood Collection: Volume 2 Horton Hears A Who: Deluxe Edition Human Giant: Season #1 Into The Wild: SE (#15 in the DVDPS Top 40) Left For Dead (2007) Love Boat, The: Season #1: Volume 1 Magnum P.I.: Season #8 Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium (Widescreen) Mrs. Doubtfire: Behind The Seams Edition Other Boleyn Girl, The (2003) Peach Girl: Super Pop Love Hurricane: The Complete Series Saturday Night Live Lost & Found: SNL In The 80's Saturday Night Live: Best Of 2006-2007 Savage Planet (2008) Second Chance Shepherd, The (2008) World Combat League: Season #1 Comput

Today is a sad day for anyone who enjoyed fantasy gaming. Gary Gygax, the co-creator of Dungeons & Dragons, passed away. CNN and ShackNews are reporting the story. Anyone who enjoys paper-based gaming, computer games with any touch of fantasy, role-playing games of any kind, and MMO's ... it all started with Gary and the team he worked with. A sad day.