What is the deal with IBM and this Lotus Notes fetish?! I’ve now been administering (user level only) Lotus Notes for almost two years now and I still don’t get it. Lotus Notes is a real piece of work. It was apparently designed by programmers to support programmers needs. It was originally developed for IBM’s dead OS/2 platform. It makes no attempt whatsoever to work like the operating systems it runs on. Its basically a database viewer.

Its a nightmare of operation and integration. I will take a stab at a metaphorical description: Its like adding each version of Windows from 1.0 to 3.0 together without removing redundant elements, mixing in some UNIX but changing it so its no longer familiar, slapping an SQL database in the trunk, letting Animal from the Muppets modify the code, and then requiring that it call Richard Nixon on the phone to get the latest data.

Mad, I tell you. Mad!

I can’t help but think that the estimated 118 million users were all forced into using Lotus Notes, as we were at my office. We were shoved into it by an excruciating need of the US Federal Government to regulate enterprise via the Sarbannes-Oxley mandate in an effort to prevent another Enron. If you ask me, all of the SOX crap will just mask any such efforts and make it easier for the scum to get away with it again!

We have over 6,500 users in North America. Every single one I have spoken to (nearly 600) says something like this to me,”Have I mentioned I hate Lotus Notes?” Yes, I say. You have. Several times. I could have sworn to you that I would never string the following words together over my dead body, but here goes: I’d take Microsoft Exchange Server and Outlook over Lotus Notes any day!

Oh! Yes. I know Richard Nixon is dead.

written by Tyler Regas \\ tags: Maddening, Watchdog

I’m clearly not good at my job. I’m a professional Apple Fanatic and yet I’m not earning any stripes by sitting on me arse and writing nothing at all about the Lords of Cupertino. I could be talking about the offer Jobs has extended to the other record labels regarding the removal of DRM. Of course, nobody is interested in that. We already like our music the way it is.

I could talk about how Jobs has announced that Apple will move all displays to LED backlighting by the end of 2008. I can’t think of anyone who wants a thin, light, bright, low power, evenly lit backlight for their display. So, I could just chatter about how Apple sales are slowly increasing. How about Jobs giving the keynote at WWDC next month? What about the battery patch Apple just released?

Nothing all that interesting until the iPhone comes out (or if Jobs lied and he sneaks out 10.5 in that keynote of his!).

written by Tyler Regas \\ tags: Mac Musings