Feeling Nostalgic Today

That time of the year, dear reader, is once again upon us.  That time spanning anywhere from mid-January to early February where for 13 years I would kiss my wife and kids goodbye, board a plane heading south to Orlando and spend a week drinking from a firehose of knowledge about a product that helped keep a roof over my head for many a year.  

Yes, I'm talking about Lotusphere.   

It's been a while, 7 years to be exact, since I last made a pilgrimage south to join the other faithful for a week of leaning, fun, networking, more fun, long days walking many steps between sessions, more fun and fun.  It's really hard to put into words what that conference meant for not only me but I think for a wider audience of those that attended frequently.  You see, we were admins and developers of a product then known as IBM Lotus Notes/Domino.  Now many in the IT world have a silent chuckle to themselves when they hear that product name and that's okay.  IBM did a terrible job marketing a product that was truly powerful yet they could never get that message across to big business.  Sure, there were some marketing the product, like a well-loved Tasmanian madman widely known through the Domino world, but at the ground level IBM as a whole was just garbage at marketing.  They kept trying to reinvent the product for what it wasn't and weren't able to sell what it was.  Microsoft on the other hand spent a lot of time and money telling big business that Domino was crap and their products were the correct way to go.  In the end for a lot of us who are now former admins and developers, that anti-marketing strategy worked.  But we, the ones that worked with the product day in and day out knew what we had.  For me, it was always a hard-sell internally to get them to latch on to furthering the products footprint in the environment and in the end I was with the first group of many that followed that were "downsized strategically".   But I will never regret the time I spent with that product or going to events like Lotusphere or the other regional conferences that were held.  I grew a lot during that time.  Not only coming out of my shell but actually successfully submitting a session abstract and getting to present that for a full 90 minutes in front of a room of about 70 people.  Full 90 minute show-and-tell with live demo. Walking that tightrope of will the VM's running on my laptop crap out on me in the middle of the presentation or not going step by step using a "cookbook" of instructions I created over the years and posted here on this now dormant blog.  Having the IBM product manager walk up to the front afterwards, shake my hand and tell me I did a bang up job and hit all the marks.  Yes, it was a good feeling.  A reminder that if you don't try something new and push yourself to do something different you'll never know what you can accomplish.  So that's just my story, but I know from the friend base that I made over the years going to that conference there are many similar.  It was truly a rewarding a special experience in my professional career that frankly I don't think will ever occur again.  Especially these days with where my career is now.   

So, I decided to break out a post one more time on this blog.  This was a place where before Twitter, Facebook and other social platforms we would share and contribute to the group-think.  Those were good times.  And I will always be grateful that I lived them.

Thank you to all of those who I met through this times that helped me out, not only professionally but personally, in my journey.

Tap tap tap....is this thing still on?

On this day back in 2003, 15 years ago, I decided to open this blog with this simple post.

Amazing how things have come along since then.  At the time, Twitter seemed to be the major source of chatter, then Facebook took off and that was followed by the numerous different social platforms.  But this, for me, was my own little chunk of internet real estate that I had total control over.  

For me, blogging was my way of joining in on the chorus of collaboration that was going on in the Lotus Notes world at the time.  Before the mainstream socials took hold, professionals involved in the Lotus world really took to blogs as a way to share information because, well, the IBM documentation......sucked.  So when I found out a neat trick or tip, I like many went to the blog and wrote up an article.  Looking through this blog is like looking through the diary of my career up until 2016.  I was a member of the Lotus Notes community and it was cool. But, the blog also did other things for me as well.

Because of the blog, I made a lot of friends along the way.  People from around the planet read what I had to say and got to know me.

Because of the blog, I attacked, (can't really say conquered), my fear of public speaking and presented at Lotusphere.  

Because of the blog, I was able to find my voice.   

Because of this blog and finding my voice, I had started another blog that shared the story of my wife's battle with cancer in hopes that possibly that blog would help someone else with their struggle.

Becuase of the blog, I started sharing my photography and that led to the greater exposure of my passion to others.

Because of this blog, I will be remembered hopefully in the future.  I don't know how long Google will keep this up and running. But it's pretty cool to think that maybe, 100...possibly 200 years from now, someone may be searching the internet for something and find this.

So while blogging may not be the "in" thing any longer, for me it still holds a special place.  I was told recently that I should start writing stuff down, to get things out and stop bottling things up.  Perhaps I will and do it in blog form.  I won't likely publish it widely and do it anonymously so I can keep my anonymity, but who knows.  

For now, It's just wild to think that 15 years ago I started something that had not only an impact on my life but my family as well.

So thanks for spending some time walking down memory lane with me.  I'll just put this thing back and cruise control and allow it to continue down the internet superhighway toward infinity.   

Our story continues.....

In The Next Chapter.......
(the new blog)

#employed

It happened.  Finally.  I landed another position.  This time, it really has nothing to do with IBM Notes/Domino being a prominent part of the position.  More details later on what it is I'm doing, but I do get to stay within the IT field and utilize ALL of the skills I've gained over the past 20+ years I've been in it. 

I've learned a lot over these past few months.  Hell, this past year.  It was right around this time last year, October 29th, 2015 to be exact, that my wife Denise had the mass discovered inside her that lead to her surgery the day before Thanksgiving 2015.  Then finding out a few weeks later before Christmas that it was cancer and the battle that was her treatment that started in January.  I chronicled that whole story on a different blog and it was a journey. Then in April, I was told that I was no longer needed in the office that had been my second home for 17 years and I was "on call" until the end of May.  When I awoke May 28th, it was official.  I was unemployed. Thus began the search for employment.  After being in a career for 17 years that you defined and it defined you it was hard to step outside of that.  And it was scarier than hell.  Yes, we had been through a lot leading up to April with the chemo and its side effects, but this was a new war to wage.  The FUD war.  Fear, uncertainty and doubt.  Fear that I would lose everything I have worked for.  Uncertainty that I had skills for the job hunt.  Doubt that I would find anything.  When you've gotten to my point in life it's easy to think that if you lose a job like I had, you're done.
So, I took a week or two off to myself.  Needed to regroup and decide what the next step was.  Once I was officially separated, it was time to start the hunt.  Right away I found a job I thought I was perfect for.  I interviewed and later found I was turned down.  So I kept hunting.  In the middle of it all, my Mom passed after her own battle with Alzheimer/Dementia.  That of course took the wind out of my sails for a bit.  Then I found another job opportunity in Pittsburgh, but got turned down for that.  Found another job up near Cleveland.  That panned out too.  But during all this, the first job kept popping up as available.  So, I hounded them about it.  Kept it polite and professional, but the persistence paid off.  I landed a second set of interviews.  Well, the rest is history.  So, yes, there were a lot of lows, and I sure hit them, but having faith in something greater than me and being persistent about going after what I wanted payed off.  I got the job.
But also, there were a lot of HUGE highlights from these last 5 months that have added to the strange trip.  Like a great group of people sending us on an adventure of a lifetime to Ireland.  Like my son marrying the love of his life.  Like my Grandson, Gideon, coming into the world and filling my days with love and snuggles.  Like watching my daughter start her senior year of high school and continue to blossom into the women she is becoming.
So I guess my point is and it's something I've reminded myself often, there truly are no guarantees on this rock.  You only get so many sunrises and so many sunsets.  People get sick.  People are born.  People die.  People are generous and gracious to you.  People lose their jobs.  People offer advice, even when you don't want it.  People care.  The best advice I can offer someone is, don't give up hope and have faith.  Faith in something greater than you, faith in yourself, faith in those around you.  It sucks, sure.  But if you give up then you're done.  I came close a few times but didn't like the view of the abyss.
So, where does that leave us, here?  Well, I've been thinking it's about time I pull the plug on the old Andy's House O' Blog.  The blog was started to share my ups and downs as a Domino Admin and it served its purpose well.  But in looking at it, I haven't done a whole lot with it in a while.  It will stay here, active.  People are still looking up things Notes/Domino related, at least according to my stat counter.  But, I will likely not publish anything new beyond this.  It's time to move on and start a new chapter, but I thank you for following along with this one.
Geronimo!

An iOS10 gotcha for the 16GB'ers

16Gb iPhones suck.

There, I've said it.  They do.  There is no other way around it but to state the obvious.  The OS takes up around 4GB of real estate and then if you're like me, you take a whole lot of pictures and have your apps on there.  You can forget about any music existing on your device because there just isn't any space for it. Yes, this has all been stated by others 1000 times over, but when you employer, former in my case, purchases the device for you saving you hundreds of dollars, you just live with it.  One of the tricks I learned though through the years was to recover some space, (sometime up to 1.5 GB of space), was to try and rent a movie on iTunes.  iTunes would then try to complete the transaction but then tell you that there wasn't enough space on the device.  iOS would then kick off some sort of clean-up script and would start dumping saved searches, caches, temp file, etc and give you some more breathing room for a while.  A pretty handy little feature.  So after I updated to iOS10 the other day, I noticed that things were getting a little tight on the iPhone again so I went ahead and tried the trick again.  (Editors note: I was also taking a bunch of pictures too because my grandson was born and had my phone in hand at all times. Even with iCloud storage purchased it was still filling up quick). What I found, however, was that when I went to "try" and rent a film, it actually did.  It appears Apple closed that little loophole in functionality and you actually end up renting the film.  Sigh.  I did notice that it had the little cloud with the down-arrow icon on the screen and I attempted to download it.  THAT kicked off the cleanup scripts and I got what I was looking for, but I had to pay for it.

So I ask Apple, make life easier for your 16GB customers.  Make an app available that your customers can download that will do what iTunes tries to do and clean up the devices to give it some space.  I'm sure it's a simple little script that can be packaged into an app, just make it happen!  For now, I'll just start saving my pennies for the 7 plus with a ton of storage.  I'm most wanting to play with the RAW functionality of the new camera it has ;-)

Missed the blog-o-versery

Yesterday was the blog's 13th birthday.  It's now officially a teenager.  Boy has a lot gone on in my life since I started this.  Really, it was almost like an official log of my career as a Lotus Notes administrator.  I learned an awful lot over the years and tried to share what happened with me with others here.  Even the stoopid mistakes, because those are the ones you learn the most from.  I don't blog like I used to.  Heck, a lot of the Yellow-verse doesn't seem to either.  Most of what is shared these days is either on Twitter or Facebook.  But I am happy about the outcome of this simple blog. What started out as a project on here landed me on the stage at Lotusphere and I faced one of my greatest fears (public speaking), so I got that goin for me.  Met a lot of great people through this as well and forged strong friendships with them.  

So, who knows how often I will update this thing in the future.  But, just knowing it's around thanks to Google keeping it free, I'll pop back every now and again to look in on it and maybe post something.  

Thanks for reading.  Who knows what my next adventures will take me.

My updated birthday edicts! - OBEY!

UPDATED 6/2018

So today I celebrate the 49th anniversary of my birth.  Still am amazed I made it this far.  But with the love of a good women at your side, two wonderful kids, a daughter-in-law, a grandson and two ornery Beagles, it's not all that hard.  

But this morning after I awoke, I had a revelation.  One day, the birthdays for me will end.  Okay, I'm not saying that to be morbid, so stick with me here.  But yes, one day I will slip loose from this mortal coil and no longer be "here".  Okay, a little heavy, yes.  So that has led me to come up with my "Birthday Edicts" for you all to obey here-forth.  So here we go.

1.  From here on out, it is expected of you and deemed necessary that you spend at least some part of your day, every day, doing something creative.  Something.  Anything.  Be creative with your creativeness.

• Take a picture with your cell phone
• Take a picture with your camera
• Draw a picture
• Color a picture
• Mold something out of clay
• Play in the sand
• Learn to play an instrument
• Pretend you know how to play an instrument and play anyway
• Write a poem
• Write a book
• Sing with your kids
• Tell jokes
• Make up a recipe and cook something

I'm convinced that the world is lacking creative thinking.  Creative thinking sparks ideas.  Many a time when I'm either taking or working on my photography, I spend that time thinking, praying, opening my mind to possibilities.  It's easy.  I think if more people spent time doing that the world would be a much better place. 

2.  My second edict is simple.  Love.  Love those in your life.  Don't be afraid to show it either.  If there is anything that has shown me this, it has been this past year.  With all that has gone on, the love I have for my wife has grown stronger.  But also, the love that has been shown to us from our family and friends is what has gotten us through some very dark days. Love can conquer all  "And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love."  That is so damn true.
3.  Dream big. Always.  Dreaming big never hurts anyone.  It's free.  It's what led me back to doing photography.  It's what's driving the notion of the business called Andy Donaldson Photography.  Share that with your kids, too.  And if you are having problems with dreaming big, ask a kid for help.  They are good at it.

4.  GO WATCH A SUNSET OVER OPEN WATER, like a Great Lake or an ocean.  And if you're lucky, you'll do it when the moon is hanging over the water and casting it's light across it.  A true bonus is if there is another bright object hanging low in the sky like a planet and you can see the light from that shimmering across the water.  This past week I saw that and it was breathtaking.  You really should experience it.
5.  If you have grand-kids - PLAY WITH THEM AND LOVE THEM!!!

6.  In case you didn't get it with #2, I will repeat it here.  Love those in your life.

We are only on this rock for some many revolutions. Some are here longer, some are here shorter. We just don't know and have no guarantees whatsoever.  In the grand scheme of things it is just a flash. Stop screwing it up fellow humans.  Make it worth something for yourself and for those around you. Stop getting caught up in the latest arguments on social media.  Just live and make the lives or those around you better!

So there.  If you follow at least one of my edicts, then consider that your birthday gift to me and I will be appreciative.  

With my boots on

Today wasn't the best of days.  After 17 years at the company I had been working for, my position was eliminated.  The writing had been on the wall for some time that changes and cuts were coming to all departments and with the migration away from the Notes/Domino stack, I knew it was a matter of time.  

Well, times up.  

I truly hold no ill will to my former employers, they really are good people and a good company.  It's just surprising and sad when you get the news.  It's purely business. So now the question is, what next?  Anyone who reads this blog knows that the IBM social stack at least in my part of North America is an endangered species.  More and more companies are going  to or already have migrated to one of the other vendors in the collaboration and message space.  When I dedicated my career to IT, I jumped head first into it.  But, I didn't learn nor had the chance to get into other technologies.   I tried but there was always another project to be done or another issue that needed resolved.  I wonder if I'll even stay in IT as a career choice.  I have a lot of experience with messaging and mobile platforms and that's where my strengths are, so we will see.  I'll figure it out.  This isn't the end of the road, it's just the start of a new future for me.  I have a lot to offer and plan on offering it.  For the immediate future I will take a little bit of time and explore my photography business some more.  

So for now I can say that I am no longer a Domino Administrator.  It's been a hell of a fun run.  I've always loved the product and it's quirks.  But let's face it, it's time has past and it's time to move on.   I'll always be grateful for the people I've met because of Lotus Notes/Domino.  Let's face it, Lotusphere's were as much of a family reunion as they were a technology conference.

I can at least say that when I left today, I had my chin high and I walked away with my boots on.

(Editors note - Any negative comments towards my former place of employment will not be tolerated and will be deleted.  Like I stated I truly hold no ill will towards them.  They are a great company with a great future ahead of them and I truly wish them well!)

The Curious Case Of The Configuration Document

Wow, had to blow the dust off of the old blog here so that I could share something I learned over the weekend.  And it was a bitter lesson, indeed.

Here's the scenario:

Had to stand up a new Domino server in my domain that would allow for SMTP traffic between us and our cloud based anti-spam/malware service.  A requirement of this mail flow topology is that the connectivity between my on-prem and cloud solution must have TLS connectivity.  Okay, not a big deal, right?  Well, it didn't work out that smooth.

First, I followed Gab's steps on how to create a secure SSL certificate with Domino.  Yes, Gab is awesome for writing these steps up.  Then, I went through and followed the standards that IBM has had set for years on setting your configuration document up to allow for TLS to work.  Okay, no worries, right?  Well just like in life, things don't always work the way you want them to.  When we started testing of the mail flow, we were getting repeated messages from the vendor in the cloud that they Domino server was not allowing for a STARTTLS session.  So I opened a ticket with IBM, I opened a ticket with the vendor, I had people at work much more knowledgeable then me try to hack into the servers connection and they were able to get a STARTTLS, but nothing I did with anyone , vendor, consultant worked.  

And that's when it hit me.

I deleted the configuration document for that particular Domino server, replicated that delete around, then went back in and recreated it from scratch.  Brand new document.  Made sure all my settings were set correctly, (based on the IBM doc and a server that is already doing this in my enviroment), and then walked away from it for a while.  After a bit, I started seeing STARTTLS, (we had logging on), start flashing across my server console.  Yes Virgina, there is a STARTTLS Santa Claus!  

So, why did that work?  The simple answer is, I don't know.  It's Domino.  Domino, while it's a powerful server platform, does fall prey at times to corruption in documents.  My thought was creating a brand new server config document from the ground up may help.  In this case it did.

My word to the wise, when all else fails, go back to the basics and start over.  In this case, it paid off and we are securely communicating.

A friendly reminder about iOS9, Traveler and self-signed certificates on Domino

Hey gang! It's your old pal Andy here with a friendly reminder on the 12th anniversary of the old House O' Blog.  If you have a IBM Traveler server running and you are using a self-signed certificate on the Domino portion of the server, you better make sure you fix that before iOS9 launches!  

One of the features that iOS9 offers is that if you make an HTTPS call to a server, any server, and the certificate of that server is not signed by a trusted authority the connection will fail.  I verified that today when I upgraded one of my test devices to beta iOS9 and validated my assumption.  

But if you're like me and have had issues with getting certs to work in Domino in the past, you might be a little gun-shy about getting a signed cert, especially one that really protects you with SHA-2 protection, fear not!  The lovely and awesome Gab Davis has put together an awesome step-by-step how to on creating that very protective cert and you can find the instructions right here!  So don't wait around too long.  It's likely iOS9 will be officially announced at Apple's September 9th love fest.  Now go, get to cert-ing!

My Birthday Edicts - Obey!!! (Updated!)

(Two years ago, I wrote this blog post as I was feeling reflective on my life. I have updated it with a few new things)
So today I celebrate the 46th anniversary of my birth.  Still am amazed I made it this far.  But with the love of a good women at your side, two wonderful kids and two ornery Beagles, it's not all that hard.  

But this morning after I awoke, I had a revelation.  One day, the birthdays for me will end.  Okay, I'm not saying that to be morbid, so stick with me here.  But yes, one day I will slip loose from this mortal coil and no longer be "here".  Okay, a little heavy, yes.  So that has led me to come up with my "Birthday Edicts" for you all to obey here-forth.  So here we go.

1.  From here on out, it is expected of you and deemed necessary that you spend at least some part of your day, every day, doing something creative.  Something.  Anything.  Be creative with your creativeness.

• Take a picture with your cell phone
• Take a picture with your camera
• Draw a picture
• Color a picture
• Mold something out of clay
• Play in the sand
• Learn to play an instrument
• Pretend you know how to play an instrument and play anyway
• Write a poem
• Write a book
• Sing with your kids
• Tell jokes

I'm convinced that the world is lacking creative thinking.  Creative thinking sparks ideas.  Many a time when I'm either taking or working on my photography, I spend that time thinking, praying, opening my mind to possibilities.  It's easy.  I think if more people spent time doing that the world would be a much better place. 

2.  My second edict is simple.  Love.  Love those in your life.  Don't be afraid to show it either.

and

3.  Dream big. Always.  Dreaming big never hurts anyone.  It's free.  It's what led me back to doing photography.  It's what's driving the notion of the business called Andy Donaldson Photography.  Share that with your kids, too.  And if you are having problems with dreaming big, ask a kid for help.  They are good at it.
4.  GO WATCH A SUNSET OVER OPEN WATER, like a Great Lake or an ocean.  And if you're lucky, you'll do it when the moon is hanging over the water and casting it's light across it.  A true bonus is if there is another bright object hanging low in the sky like a planet and you can see the light from that shimmering across the water.  This past week I saw that and it was breathtaking.  You really should experience it.

5.  In case you didn't get it with #2, I will repeat it here.  Love those in your life.

We are only on this rock for some many revolutions. Some are here longer, some are here shorter.  In the grand scheme of things it is just a flash.  Stop screwing it up fellow humans.  Make it worth something for yourself and for those around you.  Stop getting caught up in the latest arguments on social media.  Just life and make the lives or those around you better!

So there.  If you follow at least one of my edicts, then consider that your birthday gift to me and I will be appreciative.  

Issues with IBM Verse (Traveler) App

Feels a little weird being in here. Haven't blogged in a while.  Smells kind of musty. Better open a window.

There. That's better.

Hey kids, Andy here with a brand new blog update.  Seems that last week our pals over at IBM decided that the Traveler app for Android devices needed a new coat of paint and a shiny new name.  Yup, they went ahead and called the latest update to the app Verse (insert heavenly angelic chorus here).  That's all fine and good, but, soon after the update hit Google Play, people started hitting our Help Desk with issues that when they go to set up Verse, (insert heavenly angelic chorus here), and follow through the steps to put in their server information and credentials, they are given a white screen and nothing happens.  No mail synce, no Verse, (insert heavenly angelic chorus here), home screen....nothing.

We did find that if they remove the Verse, (insert heavenly angelic chorus here), app, install an older version of the Traveler app for the Android and configure that, they are able to connect.  We also saw that if the user had already had Traveler on their Android and updated to Verse, (insert heavenly angelic chorus here), then that worked just fine to. It was only fresh new installs that were having the problem of the white screen of death!  I reached out to IBM today and opened an ESR about it.  I heard back rather quickly that they are aware of the issue and sent me a link to a beta download of Verse, (it's old, not doing that anymore), and the new beta version was able to install on a fresh Android without any problems.  

Not sure if anyone else has seen this or not, but wanted to share because along with the Verse issues, we've also seen numerous issues with Samsung Verizon devices getting all boned up after a software upgrade from Verizon and we thought that the two issues were related.  For now our work around includes having the user completely remove the Verse app, emailing the old Traveler apk to their GMail account and having them set that up, then do the upgrade to Verse if they want.  The version of the troubled Verse client that we are seeing this on is

IBM Verse version 9.0.1.4

201506041639

I am waiting to hear back from IBM on when they are going to release the updated Verse app to the Google Play store and have not yet heard back.

Well, that's it for now. Back to other things.

The horrors of migrating to Domino when Single Item Recovery is in use on Exchange

Here's a new one for ya, true believers.

The past couple of weeks I have been involved with migrating email users from a recent acquisition my company made to Domino from Exchange.  This is a process I have done many times in the past and when using CMT from Binary Tree, it's a very straight forward but drawn out task. However, this time posed a bigger challenge. One that I have never encountered before.  And it was a pain.

Like migrations in the past, I've relied on someone who understands the dark arts of Exchange to supply me with a .PST copy of the mail files for each of the users.  This migration was no different and I had a support person on site do that for me.  But after migration was done, I was getting a lot of reports that peoples calendars were all buggered up.  Upon investigation, I looked at a users Notes calendar and saw something similar to this:

Ya.  That doesn't look right, does it?

But when I opened their .PST file in Outlook, those repeating calendar items were only in there once.  I also noticed that in the .PST files, there were also folders called "Recoverable Items".  Have never seen that before in my migrations, it was off to the interwebs!  After consulting Google, I found the answer.  The Exchange server was set up to use Single Item Recovery, (you can read more about it here. The more you know!).  In Exchange, Single Item Recovery is a function that allows users to delete and edit things in their mail file while keeping a copy of everything they do tucked away in a "dumpster".  As what normally happens with calendar entries, there were a lot of edits to those repeating meetings, so when the onsite tech person did a standard migration to a .PST it included all of the "dumpster" data with it.  When CMT opened the .PST and started the migration tasks, it saw the information in those Recoverable Items folders and acted upon it like any other data, hence all of the deleted emails and calendar entries were merged into the Domino mail file and caused a mess.  Harrumph.

Luckily, CMT has a great function that keeps track of all the migrated items and will remove them from Domino if needed.  I had to go through and do that for all those users.  I then posed the question to Binary Tree if there was some way to do the migration without migrating anything in the Recoverable Items folders but was told that it can't.  CMT will do anything in the .PST.

So after some more Googling, the team found the the magic key.  The .PST's needed to be generated with the following Powershell command.

New-MailboxExportRequest -Mailbox UserName -ExcludeDumpster:$True -FilePath \\filelocation\UserName.pst

Once my onsite person migrated the Exchange data to new .PST files, they now didn't contain that "dumpster" data and were then migrated into Domino just fine.  Whew.  

So if there is ever an instance in my future where I have to migrate a .PST to Domino, the first question I'm going to ask is is Single Item Recovery is in use.  And if there is ever an instance where you have to do a migration, never overlook this either.

Don't cry because it's over. Smile because it happened.

(And now it's time for some rambling thoughts)
Prior to this year, every January for 12 years I have spent a week of my life away from work and the family and traveled to this place.  And in that time spent there, I learned a great many things. I also met a great many people.  Many of which I consider good friends.  These are people from all over the world that normally I would never have met otherwise.  We all come from different backgrounds and and have differences that possibly may have never led us to meet one another.  But here, we all came together, learned, laughed, argued, sang and stayed up too late only to get up early the next morning and do it all over again.  All for a specific brand of software and its related products.  Yes, a piece of computer software brought us together under a common banner, but there was much more to it.  A community sprung up that has always amazed me.  We were social before social was cool. We constantly share information with each other, are always there to have each others back when needed.  It's truly an incredibly unique thing in the software industry.  I often talk to others at work about it and they just don't seem to get it.  That's fine.  I think people just have a hard time thinking that something like this just exist.  But it does.
This year, it was pretty much written in stone that I wasn't going to be able to attend.  But that didn't stop Mat Newman from coming up with a plan to get me there. At least to visit. He executed the plan, members of the community backed that plan and I went.  I'm still amazed at the generosity and awesomeness of everyone involved.  So with little warning I was off for my 13th January trip to Orlando.  But this time, I didn't attend the conference as an attendee, I was there to visit and to take pictures.  I was there for my business, not the "day job".   It was an odd experience to just be there while everything was going on.  I still found my way into a few things however. It was odd being there, being part of it, but still not a part of it.  Walking around following the same paths that I've followed in the years before, but not being able to get into things.  It was liberating in a sense.  While I was there to work for my own business, I didn't have to worry about "the day job" business.  So, I got to sit, talk and fully enjoy the time I had with these people.  Sure, "day job" related topics came up and were discussed, but it was relaxed and not "I have to do this for my overlords!"
I will always cherish this trip over all the others before for these reasons.

• Having a message on my phone when I got off the plane from Devin making sure I had a place to stay.
• Rooming with a handsy Australian.
• Taking pictures of many people.
• Sitting and just talking with people, (Carl, Andrew, Alan, John, Kathy, many others)
• Being "stuck" and extra day thanks to the blizzard.
• Singing with Ray.
• Meeting Steve McDonagh
• Many, many other moments.

The future of a conference held in January in Orlando is uncertain.  My future still holds many changes as well with my role at work.  But again, I'm okay with it.  Change is good, needed and unavoidable.
So if this was my last trip along the yellow fantastic, I won't cry because it's over.  I'm going to smile because for 13 years straight, it happened.
Thank you, again, to all those involved, (pictured or not), that had a hand in getting me to Orlando.

Andy's Guide To......

At 2 PM today, this appeared on my Facebook messenger

I won't go into the details here about what the next couple of hours had in store for me, but suffice it to say, a lot of incredible happened.  Yes Virginia, I will be in Orlando this year.  At least for a couple of days.  I won't be attending ConnectED as an attendee, however.  I will be down there to fulfill client request for headshot photos.  Aside from being a Domino Admin at a local Fortune 500 company, I do after all have a photography business.  So now that I'm going to be onsite during the launch of what many, (including myself), feel is the last premier event for individuals of the IBM/Lotus stack, I have a few tips to pass along to make this years event everything that it could be for you.

1. First, review last years "Andy's Guide to Connect-o-sphere 2014".  Not much has changed on my advice. Lotusphere 2015 has a lot to offer you as an technical professional in the ICS world.  Go, drink from the firehose of knowledge and collaboration!
2. Second, meet people and make friends.  Connect, (see what I did there), with others in this field.  There are people here that we only see IRL once a year.  Cherish that.  Enjoy that.  Make those connections that can last a lifetime.
3. Lastly, if this is the last late January event held at the Swan/Dolphin, let's not make this a wake where we beat our chests and wail to the heavens.  Lets go out with a bang!  Let's let the heavens know that we were there.  That something great happened there.  And let's have fun.  Last year I ended my wrap-up blog post with the idea of "See ya'all down the road".  Well, that road lead me back to there.  You NEVER know in this world where the road will take you and sometimes you will just be amazed when it leads someplace great.

So there you have it.  I look forward to seeing as many of you down there that I can.  I'l be around.  Just look for the big guy with the camera around his neck.