John D. Head

New Media Tuesday - 8/31/2010

John Head — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 09:00:00 -0500

Here is what's coming out today ...

Movies

Beatdown
Best Of Soul Train
Brainjacked
Brothers & Sisters: Season #4
Ca$h
Cemetery Junction
Final Girl
FlashForward: The Complete Series
Forbidden Dreams
Harry Brown
House: Season #6
Lonesome Dove: The Series: Season #1
Marmaduke
Middle, The: Season #1
NCIS: Los Angeles: Season #1
Naked Cities
One Tree Hill: Season #7
Parenthood: Season #1
Persons Unknown: Season #1
Sexy Radio
Sons Of Anarchy: Season #2
Thriller: The Complete Series (#18 in the DVDPS Top 40)
Vampire Diaries, The: Season #1
Why Did I Get Married Too (Widescreen)

Computer Games

Xbox 360 Game Talk Wireless Headset ( Xbox 360)
Battlefield: Bad Company 2 Ultimate Edition ( Xbox 360)
Xbox 360 Chatpad English/French/Spanish Hardware ( Xbox 360)
PS3 Slim Intercooler ( PlayStation 3)
Raven Motion Sensing Wireless Controller for PS3 (Alternate Layout) ( PlayStation 3)
Pro Elite Wireless Controller for PS3 ( PlayStation 3)
Battlefield: Bad Company 2 Ultimate Edition ( PlayStation 3)
Metroid: Other M ( Nintendo Wii)
Guilty Party ( Nintendo Wii)
Brunswick Zone Cosmic Bowling ( Nintendo Wii)
Wii Wand+ ( Nintendo Wii)
Ghost Pirate of Vooju Island ( Windows Vista / 7 / XP)
Serious Sam HD: The First Encounter ( Windows Vista / XP)
Mysteries & Treasures: Adventures of the Mary Celeste ( Windows Vista / XP)
Women's Murder Club: Twice in a Blue Moon ( Windows Vista / 7 / XP)
Camp Rock Final Jam ( Nintendo DS)
Zenses: Zen Garden ( Nintendo DS)
Cosmos Chaos ( Nintendo DS)
Gummy Bears Mini Golf ( Nintendo DS)

Music

Red Velvet Car ~ Heart
Asylum ~ Disturbed
Something For The Rest Of Us ~ The Goo Goo Dolls
Sondheim on Sondheim ~ Barbara Cook, Vanessa Williams, et al.
Dream Attic ~ Richard Thompson
Junky Star ~ Ryan Bingham
More...

my pic(s) of the week:

Lots of TV shows on DVD as the new TV season approaches - and lots of ho hum games and hardware for the consoles as the Holiday Gaming season approaches as well.

For those interested, I use DVD Price Search for upcoming movie tracking and Amazon's New Releases Page for music and computer games

Happy 20th Birthday to PSC!

John D Head — Fri, 27 Aug 2010 09:00:00 -0500

Tomorrow, August 28th, marks the 20th birthday of PSC Group.

The founders, Andrew Lauter and Bruce Bellak started the company out of a desire to do provide superior service and great technology consulting to their customers. I have personally been with PSC for 10 years and am proud to be part of this great company. And at 10 years, I am in the middle of the pack in terms of seniority ... we have one member of the team that has been here for 19 years and another for 18! Pretty incredible in these times.

As a company we celebrated at our annual company picnic earlier in the month, but here is a toast to everyone at PSC. Here is to a great 20 years and many more to come.

New Media Tuesday - 8/24/2010

John Head — Tue, 24 Aug 2010 09:00:00 -0500

Here is what's coming out today ...

Movies

90210: Season #2
Ax Men: Season #3
Black Orpheus: 2 Disc Edition: The Criterion Collection
Days That Shook The World: The Complete Series
Dexter: Season #4 (Blu-Ray) (#15 in the DVDPS Top 40)
Dexter: Season #4 (#6 in the DVDPS Top 40)
First Four Films Of Akira Kurosawa, The: Eclipse From The Criterion Collection
Flight Of The Conchords: The Complete Collection
Gangland: Season #5
Gossip Girl: Season #3
Jim Henson's Dinosaur Train: Dinosaurs Under The Sea
L'Enfance Nue: The Criterion Collection
Lost: The Complete Collection (Blu-Ray) (#8 in the DVDPS Top 40)
Lost: The Complete Collection
Lost: The Complete Sixth and Final Season (Blu-Ray) (#10 in the DVDPS Top 40)
Lost: The Complete Sixth and Final Season (#14 in the DVDPS Top 40)
Louie Bluie: The Criterion Collection
My Three Sons: Season #2: Volumes 1-2
NCIS: Season #7
Patty Duke Show: Season #3
Pawn Stars: Season #2
Red Vs. Blue: Season #7
Silent Classics By Josef Von Sternberg: The Criterion Collection (#24 in the DVDPS Top 40)
Simpsons, The: Season #13
Top Chef: Season 6: Las Vegas

Computer Games

Mafia II ( Xbox 360)
Mafia II ( PlayStation 3)
Mafia II Collector's Edition ( PlayStation 3)
Compile Heart Agarest Senki ZERO (Best Price) for PS3 [Japan Import] ( PlayStation 3)
Grease ( Nintendo Wii)
NHL 2K11 ( Nintendo Wii)
Gunblade NY: Special Air Assault Force and L.A Machineguns: Rage of the Machines - Arcade Hits Pack ( Nintendo Wii)
Ivy the Kiwi? ( Nintendo Wii)
Elemental Standard Edition MBX ( Windows Vista / 7 / XP)
Mafia II ( Windows Vista / XP)
Elemental Limited Edition MBX ( Windows Vista / 7 / XP)
Mafia II Collector's Edition ( Windows Vista / XP)
Harvest Moon: Grand Bazaar ( Nintendo DS)
Grease ( Nintendo DS)
Ivy the Kiwi? ( Nintendo DS)
Dreamworks 2-in-1 Party Pack ( Nintendo DS)

Music

Teenage Dream ~ Katy Perry
The Reason Why ~ Little Big Town
Back To Me ~ Fantasia
At The Edge Of Time (Dlx Ed./2 CD Set) ~ Blind Guardian
7th Symphony (Deluxe) ~ Apocalyptica
My Country - Smash Hits (To Benefit Fisher House) ~ Various, Blake Shelton, et al.
More...

my pic(s) of the week:

I have heard great things about Mafia II but just no way I can fit it into my schedule ... so many games I want to play that I won't get to :(

For those interested, I use DVD Price Search for upcoming movie tracking and Amazon's New Releases Page for music and computer games

MWLUG 2010 - Thoughts

John D Head — Mon, 23 Aug 2010 15:02:28 -0500

Last week, in Cleveland, Ohio, the second MWLUG took place. MWLUG 2010 was bigger and better than the first last year. Here are some thoughts on the conference:

1. The conference really came into it's own this year. As much as I liked being in Chicago last year - and being at the IBM Innovation Center - being a hotel in another city took MWLUG to it's user group roots. It felt like a user group conference - not something IBM ran. This was a good thing.
2. The attitude of the user group mentality really set in - and set MWLUG apart from IamLUG. I was really frustrated with two user group conferences, within 300 miles of each other, in the same month in 2009. This year - it didn't matter. Only 12 people, including IBM and the sponsors, were duplicated between IamLUG and MWLUG. And I think this was great.
3. Sessions were far more relaxed and in the same vein as a user group meeting. Lots of new speakers who have never spoken before. More low key sessions with a lot more Q&A. The vibe of IamLUG which is very 'Lotusphere midpoint' was not present. This was mostly users of the technology reporting on their experiences. As much as I love the IamLUG style - which is very much my style - MWLUG was awesome. I learned quite a bit from people I would have never seen in any other venue.
4. I saw so much networking. At breakfast and lunch - one one or two tables of 'community' people. Lots of people who knew no one sat at lunch tables, made connections, and hung out for two days.
5. The IBMers at the show - how do I say this - were far closer to the customer than many that come to other events. I think this was apparent in their sessions and in their direct interactions.
6. Many of the same sponsors, a few that were specific to each event. Interestingly, PSC was the only pure, 100% service provider.
7. The openness of the event translated into an open dialog. I saw people with laptops sitting in the main dining/sponsor room talking about ideas and solutions. It was great to see.

Things that MWLUG 2011 can learn from this year:

1. Be more consistent in the food between day 1 and day 2. Amazing buffet line Friday, strange box lunch Thursday.
2. Every session room needs tables and power at each table. People want to have their laptops in front of them. Especially when the sessions are so interactive.
3. Stop trying to make a grand event in the evening. What should you do instead - well, I have an idea. That idea will be shared in a couple weeks. :-)
4. Each user group that participates should get a chance to directly interact with their user group attendees. Maybe a time slot that is nothing but a room/spot for each user group. Have the officers introduce themselves. Talk about the next year's program and such. But use this opportunity of people together to help grow the user groups.

So thanks to Richard, Gregg, and all the rest of the MWLUG team. It was a great event. See you again next year, August 25th & 26th, 2011 in Milwaukee.

MWLUG 2010 - “Kum Bah Yah” meets “Lets Kick Butt” : The Integration of IBM Lotus Notes and Domino with Microsoft Office, .NET, and IBM Lotus Symphony

John D Head — Fri, 20 Aug 2010 13:02:06 -0500

MWLUG 2010 - “Kum Bah Yah” meets “Lets Kick Butt” : The Integration of IBM Lotus Notes and Domino with Microsoft Office, .NET, and IBM Lotus Symphony

View more presentations from John Head.

Download the PSC Integration Samples database here. The OpenNTF.org Contacts Experience project is located here.

New Media Tuesday - 8/17/2010

John Head — Tue, 17 Aug 2010 09:00:00 -0500

Here is what's coming out today ...

Movies

Black Orpheus: 2 Disc Edition: The Criterion Collection
Ca$h
Cemetery Junction
Cougar Town: Season #1d
Dark Oracle: The Complete Series
Dexter: Season #4 (#8 in the DVDPS Top 40)
Friday Night Lights: Season #4
Keeping Up With The Kardashians: Season #3
L'Enfance Nue: The Criterion Collection
Last Song, The
Max Headroom: The Complete Series (#3 in the DVDPS Top 40)
One Tree Hill: Season #7
Orlando: SE
Red Shoes, The: 2-Disc Edition: Criterion Collection
Rocky & Bullwinkle & Friends: Season #4
Ugly Betty: Season #4
Wolverine And The X-Men: Final Crisis Trilogy

Computer Games

Kane and Lynch 2: Dog Days ( Xbox 360)
Halo Reach Wireless Xbox 360 Controller ( Xbox 360)
Halo Reach Wireless Xbox 360 Headset ( Xbox 360)
Kane and Lynch 2: Dog Days ( PlayStation 3)
Bandai Namco Another Centurys Episode:R ( PlayStation 3)
Top Gun - Theme [Online Game Code] ( PlayStation 3)
Gold's Gym Dance Workout ( Nintendo Wii)
Challenge Me Brain Puzzles 2 ( Nintendo Wii)
Brunswick Zone Cosmic Bowling ( Nintendo Wii)
Game Box Locker for Wii,Xbox 360 and PS3 Game Boxes ( Nintendo Wii)
Victoria II ( Windows Vista / 7 / XP)
City of Heroes Going Rogue Complete Collection ( Windows Vista / XP, Mac OS X Intel, Mac OS X)
Hoyle Card Games 2011 SB ( Windows Vista / 7 / XP, Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard, Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger, Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard)
Kane and Lynch 2: Dog Days ( Windows Vista / XP)
Princess Isabella - A Witch's Curse ( Nintendo DS)
Challenge Me Brain Puzzles 2 ( Nintendo DS)
Montessori Music ( Nintendo DS)

Music

The Final Frontier (Mission Edition) ~ Iron Maiden
God Willin' & The Creek Don't Rise ~ Ray Lamontagne & The Pariah Dogs
Intimacy ~ Kem
Brian Wilson Reimagines Gershwin ~ Brian Wilson
No Better Than This ~ John Mellencamp
Foundling ~ David Gray
More...

my pic(s) of the week:

Up the Irons!

For those interested, I use DVD Price Search for upcoming movie tracking and Amazon's New Releases Page for music and computer games

LotusLive Notes - Why this is just the tip of the iceberg

John D Head — Mon, 16 Aug 2010 11:00:00 -0500

Last week, IBM announced LotusLive Notes, the cloud (hosted) version of IBM Notes & Domino. I didn't have time to blog about it last week, so here is a reply of what took place.

First, Ed announced LotusLive Notes. You can also read the IBM press release for IBM LotusLive Notes and IBM Lotus Notes & Domino 8.5.2. Both are coming August 24th, 2010. Then, reporting from a blogger conference call, Tom, Peter, John Roling, and Nathan wrote their thoughts and impressions - and some questions - about the announcements. Nathan wrote about how this really is just the Lotus Domino we all know and love - and why tha tis a good thing.

So I can share now, I have been participating in the LotusLive Notes beta. But to highlight how 'real Domino' this really is - I just added a new location to 8.5.2 CD5 and created a connection document to the LotusLive Notes servers. Everything else worked just like Notes. I added the LotusLive community to Sametime - and that was up and running immediately. Not the ideal beta test for the IBMers running the beta for LotusLive Notes - they want people who are starting fresh to test the on boarding process as much as possible - but it worked well for me.

But what LotusLive Notes is to me is the idea of what can come far more than what we are getting on August 24th - and in the one or two releases we get before Lotusphere 2011. There are a lot of things that we can not do with LotusLive Notes today. My immediate want list includes:

1. Lotus Connectors support that allows me to use LotusLive Engage Files just like I use Quickr today.
2. Company and Cross Company (clients, partners, IBM) groups on LotusLive Sametime that auto-populate
3. Lotus Symphony with IBM Project Concorde and LotusLive Engage Files integration
4. More robust integration with LotusLive Engage and the Notes client in terms of contact and calendar sync - I have about 3400 contacts in my address book. The LotusLive Engage Contact plug-in breaks for me routinely
5. Custom mail templates
6. Support for Lotus Connection functionality in LotusLive Engage - communities, blogs, bookmarks, etc

And the final item on my wish list is support for applications. I want to take my custom applications, create replicas on the LotusLive Domino server, and point the user to them. But that is what everyone wants. The entire industry is trying to get custom business applications into the cloud. Microsoft has BPOS for email and things like Azure and Sharepoint and Live for apps. Google has great cloud email and the Google App Engine for cloud based apps. In all cases, email is far more successful than anything else. Google adds calendar, maps, and the rest of their web app empire to the offering. But no one has gotten cloud apps right at this point. While I think the offerings that hosting companies like Connectria and Prominic offer, and excited about the idea of what Group Live + Nathan's Genesis project could bring us. But no one has a complete cloud based application model that can replace the on premises version. The promise of business applications in the cloud is just not here yet. I know there is a bunch of start-ups doing horizontal and vertical solutions. Google, Microsoft, and IBM (and even Oracle) are building platforms to make this happen. Salesforce.com is the most successful but I still don't hear of folks completely replacing big business process applications. Sure, stuff like NetSuite allows you to do timeslips and expense reports - but not operations department level stuff. New Business Processes and large system project management. No one is doing that in the cloud successfully that I know of.

So as excited about LotusLive Notes as I am, the future of the cloud is where my attention is focused. A good first step by IBM. Now we just need the next step. Hopefully we will learn more at Lotusphere 2011.

PSC built BarillaUS.com featured on topsharepoint.com

John D Head — Mon, 16 Aug 2010 09:00:00 -0500

PSC's Microsoft practice has gotten a great accolade: the Barilla website (www.barillaus.com) has been featured on topsharepoint.com

Congratulations to the team at PSC for developing such a great site and being selected for topsharepoint.com!

Yellow Day Release: Updated OpenNTF.org Contacts Experience

John D Head — Wed, 11 Aug 2010 05:29:10 -0500

In honor of Yellow Day, I am going to post a new version of the OpenNTF.org Contacts Experience. Here is what is new:

- Support for Microsoft Office 2010
- Updates to Microsoft Office Label and Envelope Functionality
- Started work on adding Label functionality
- The beginnings of custom field functionality: The goal is to have custom templates that the user can select, but first we need custom fields. The first release just defines the basic fields and a way to customize them. More to come.

I have also been working on the first release to support Symphony 3.X when it is embedded in Notes 8.5.2. While not coming on August 24th when Notes 8.5.2 ships, Symphony 3 will have an update toolkit for Notes. This will give us a bunch more functionality, including presentations and labels and envelopes.

Enjoy Yellow Day!

New Media Tuesday - 8/10/2010

John Head — Tue, 10 Aug 2010 09:00:00 -0500

Here is what's coming out today ...

Movies

187: One Eight Seven
Adam-12: Season #5
Casper's Scare School: Season #1
Crumb: The Criterion Collection
Date Night
Joneses
Louie Bluie: The Criterion Collection
Max Headroom: The Complete Series (#2 in the DVDPS Top 40)
Mercy: Season #1
Minder: Season 3
Numb3rs: Season #6
Titan Maximum: Season #1
Trauma: Season #1
UFC 114: Rampage Vs. Evans: Ultimate 2 Disc Edition

Computer Games

Madden NFL 11 ( Xbox 360)
Tritton AX Pro Dolby Digital Precision Gaming Headset ( Windows Vista / 7 / XP, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360)
Tritton AX720 Digital Gaming Headset ( Windows Vista / 7 / XP, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360)
Tritton AX180 Universal Gaming Headset ( Windows Vista / 7 / XP, Nintendo Wii, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360)
Madden NFL 11 ( PlayStation 3)
Madden NFL 11 ( Nintendo Wii)
Princess Isabella: A Witch's Curse ( Nintendo Wii)
Wii Adjustable Weight Dumbbell ( Nintendo Wii)
Plants vs Zombies Game of the Year Limited Edition ( Windows Vista / 2000 / XP)
Bejeweled Blitz ( Windows Vista / 7 / XP)
Plants vs Zombies Game of the Year Limited Edition ( Windows Vista / 2000 / XP)
Bejeweled Blitz ( Windows Vista / 7 / XP)

Music

Order of the Black ~ Black Label Society
Camp Rock 2: The Final Jam ~ Various Artists
All About Tonight ~ Blake Shelton
Come And Get It ~ Eli (Paperboy) Reed
31 Minutes to Takeoff ~ Mike Posner
Greatly Blessed ~ Gaither Vocal Band
More...

my pic(s) of the week:

Well the big release is Madden NFL 11, but I have never been a sports game player. But more Plants vs Zombies OMG yes please

For those interested, I use DVD Price Search for upcoming movie tracking and Amazon's New Releases Page for music and computer games