Murphy must have heard me :(

Well, we were the second most livable country in the world until 2pm this afternoon when our Reserve Bank raised official interest rates to 3.25%. It's supposed to be a good sign that indicates Australia is coming out of recession but all I can see is the extra money I'll need to pay my mortgage each week.

It's interesting how Banks always take weeks and weeks to pass on a reduction in official interest rates but it'll probably only take them a day or two to pass on this increase in official rates.
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OT: Australia - even at second best is still a great place

News like this makes me sit back and think how lucky I am:

AUSTRALIA has the second best quality of life in the world and could pip Norway for top spot next year, the author of a UN report on migration and development says.

Australia was ranked second among 182 countries on a scale measuring life expectancy, school enrolments and income in the United Nations Development Program's Human Development Report 2009, published yesterday.

The US slipped a spot to 13 and Britain was steady at 21, based on the latest internationally comparable data from 2007. Niger ranked lowest, followed by Afghanistan and Sierra Leone.
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Fancy a spot of industrial espionage?

The British Government is recruiting some new secret agents. Seriously. Try their aptitude test and see if you have what it takes. The skills might come in useful if you want to bluff your way into the next Microsoft Developers Conference.

I scored eight out of ten.
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OT: Melanie Rose arrives seven weeks early

I took Belinda to Norwest Private Hospital at 10am this morning because of some minor medical issues this morning and Melanie Rose popped out at 1:24pm this afternoon. Since she was only at 33 weeks we figured we still had some time to finish the spare bedroom but we were wrong.

• 1,940 grammes
• normal delivery
• less than half an hour in labour (Belinda's secret is available on request)

Doctors are quite happy with Melanie's health although she will be in neo-natal intensive for monitoring for the next four weeks. I'm told that is standard procedure for 33 week babies.

Belinda is in Norwest Private Hospital, 11 Norbrick Drive, Bella Vista in room 216 (ph: 8882-8616) and can have visitors between 3pm to 4.30pm and 6.30pm to 8.00pm.

Melanie Rose is in neo-natal care and only immediate family can visit her (sorry - hospital rules).
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If its good enough for Sherlock Holmes...

"Still learning at the same old university" was the response given by Sherlock Holmes when Inspector Lestrade asked him why he was investigating a minor crime, and I think the same credo holds true for all of us who spent the time to promote, demote and otherwise comment on the ideas found at the recently concluded Lotus IdeaJam.

In the end I only added one idea (since my other ideas had been already added by other people) but I had a great time promoting and demoting other peoples ideas. The best part was that along the way I got a close look at what other consultants/customers/Loti were thinking. I did waste some time reading misplaced feature requests (wrong Jam guys... this one was for strategy) but even those posts helped me become more aware of what is happening in the Yellowverse.

Of course there were the inevitable wankers (can I say that here? I guess I'll find out) who only wanted to tell the world about their own Notes application and why it should be bundled with every Domino server licence sold by Lotus, but even after automatically demoting each of those posts I still found myself incredibly... well... better educated I guess.

Thanks Lotus, for asking our opinion and a warm fuzzy hug to everyone who voted.


PS: I think Eric Mack's GTD is getting close to being a candidate for auto-bundling with Notes/Domino licences but not until he fixes the problems with Domino Web Access.

PPS: A Knighthood for Ed Brill... sheesh... what'll they think of next?
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Why does IBM allow Lotus to behave like this?

Everyone who works with Lotus software has the right to expect strict corporate control from IBM but it looks like the blue-suited executives are just turning a blind eye to this problem. Speaking personally, I am really worried at some of the suggestions that are getting airtime over at IdeaJam. Hey, don't get me wrong... there's lots of good stuff too, but some of the ideas are just plain dumb and its just possible that Lotus management might take those ideas seriously.

Thankfully Ideajam also gives visitors the ability to vote against an idea. Even if you have no ideas of your own to throw into the pot, get your butt over there and vote against some of the stupid stuff that people are suggesting:

• A knighthood for Ed Brill....
• Change the Lotus logo to a picture of Bhudda...
• Move Lotus Corporation to the Isle of Man as a tax shelter...
• Don't sell Lotus software south of the Mason-Dixon line...
• Revoke the US Declaration of Independence (that one came from somewhere in England)...
  
• Re-release Lotus 1-2-3 as a commemorative edition...

... the list goes on and on. Unfortunately it seems that IBM is standing back and letting this event run for the full 72 hours so it looks like its up to us to fix the problem. If you want to protect Lotus Management from stupid ideas then you know what to do. Click here then Vote early and Vote often.

I know I have!
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OT: IBM's plan to silence Business Partners

I've figured out IBM's nefarious plan. By golly, they're a sneaky bunch and they even got Ed Brill to leave the country while they did it. Now Ed can claim 'plausible deniability' of the whole scheme on the grounds that he was on the other side of the planet at the time.

It's obvious when you think about it. They put up this IdeaJam web site and then invite all IBM/Lotus Business Partners to add their two cents worth during a 72 hour blitz. Now imagine what happens next week when you call up your Lotus rep to have your regular Weekly Whinge about All Things Yellow. Your rep will just read off the following prepared statement currently being distributed to all Loti:

"Your call is important to us. Unfortunately the Lotus feedback line has closed for 2009 and no further correspondence will be entered into. Please hold on to your thought until August 2010 when the lines will be reopened for another 72 hours. Have a nice day."

Don't let IBM get away with it! Get over to IdeaJam right now and add your years worth of marketing thoughts and helpful suggestions before they close the phones.

BTW: I've heard that Ed Brill is buying a beer for everyone who registers at Idea Jam. I'll check out that theory at the Sydney Lotus User Group meeting on Monday night.
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OT: Lotus IdeaJam on the Australian Plan

"On August 19 at 8:00 am EDT US" is fairly meaningless to the rest of the world. For those of us living in eastern Australia (and that includes Ed Brill for the next few days):

The IdeaJam will open: Wednesday, August 19th at 10:00PM AEST
The IdeaJam will close: Saturday, August 22nd at 10:00PM AEST

Register now at http://lotusknows.ideajam.net/register
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OT: Passwords passwords everywhere...

For a while I used the same password everywhere except for access to financial records but even that got too difficult to co-ordinate when I accessed sites that made you change your password on a regular basis. Now I need to keep my passwords in a file and as of two minutes ago I have 63 current passwords stored in that file. This is getting ridiculous!

So how many passwords do you have and how do you keep track of them?

BTW: I'm not going to tell you what my password file is called or where it's located or what piece of obsolete software I need to use to read that file but I will tell you that it doesn't have a .doc extension and it doesn't show up in 'Recent Documents'.
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OT: When is an IBM Business Partner not a real Partner?

What is your definition of a Business Partner? There are some IT shops who have 'Business Partner' relationships with both IBM and Microsoft... and maybe Google and a couple of other technology providers who also play in the Notes/Domino space.

There's nothing illegal in doing that but I suggest that IT shops who sell both Notes/Domino and MS Exchange/Sharepoint are not worthy of being called 'IBM/Lotus Business Partners'. Call them resellers if you like but I don't see how someone can be your Business Partner and yet still sell your competitor's product.

These schizophrenic resellers may say they are providing a choice for their customers and that they run two independent consulting practices just like accounting firms run separate auditing, tax and compliance divisions but IMHO that's just a crock. Accounting firms can certainly cross-sell services but winning a client for your Audit division doesn't mean that you automatically lose that client for your Compliance division. On the other hand, winning a sale for Exchange is a direct hit to your Notes license revenue and a slap in the face for IBM.

For my part, I'm an IBM/Lotus Business Partner and I won't ever wave a Microsoft Exchange/Sharepoint or Google GAPE flag. I tell my customers that fact up front so they know where I stand. Maybe I'm missing an additional revenue stream by not hedging my bets but I probably sleep better at nights.

And IBM knows that whenever they introduce me to a client they don't risk that I'll be upgrading that client to a competitor's products simply because I can make some short-term money selling additional licenses and even more long-term money supporting a consulting-intensive product.

So where do you stand? Are you an IBM/Lotus Partner or just a reseller?
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OT: The Unfinished Symphony...

Hey IBM,

I went to your web page and clicked on the link to download Symphony 1.3 but only received an error message. Having dutifully filled in the form to report a broken link I figure I'm now entitled to complain in public.

Please fix the link.
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OT: damninteresting.com is d@mn interesting...

... at least I think so. Check it out here.
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OT: Where have all the computer stores gone?

I need to get a new battery for an old laptop. Half an hour of surfing the web identified a dozen or so sources which boiled down to two pricing models. I could buy a battery locally from an Australian company for c.$65 (+$12 shipping) or source it from China for $50 (+$25 shipping). I accept that all of the batteries are probably made in the same factory in China and I don't have a problem with that and neither am I disturbed by paying c.$75 for the battery.

What does peeve me is that I don't have the option to to walk into a computer store anywhere and pay cash for the battery. I need to send money to Paypal or do a Direct Deposit into the bank account of the webtailer and send them the details and they will then FedEx me the battery.

I appreciate that bricks and mortar is on the way out and that if I bought the product through a store outlet I'd probably pay an extra $10 for the privilege, but there is something frustrating in losing the option of walking into a computer store and browsing the shelves for a while and then maybe buying a couple of extra network cables while I'm there. Don't any of these webtailers have a factory door?

Maybe the store-sold batteries are out there somewhere but the store owners just don't advertise on the web.

Maybe Toshiba Satellite laptops are a niche market. Damn... I have two of them!

Maybe I'm just getting old...

grumble grumble
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