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Andy's Blog

Always bring home a gift for the kiddies

Andy Pedisich  May 5 2008 05:53:30 PM
My last post was about Admin 2008, and Julian Robichaux made a comment about something that I tell everyone with kids.  
And that is...

When you travel and you're away from your family, always bring home a gift for the wife and kids.  No matter how small it may seem, they know you've been thinking about them and they appreciate it dearly.

It was a concept that came from my mom, whom I will honor this Mother's Day week by passing it along to everyone else.

I believe I recounted a story to Julian and others whilst we were having beverages about a time when I was on the road and plumb out of luck finding something to take home.  In desperation, I resorted to whatever I could find in the hotel room.  In this case, back in April of 1994, it was shower caps.



Image:Always bring home a gift for the kiddies



They were very well received.

- Andy

Location: Home - after a day in the trenches

Admin 2008 is history

Andy Pedisich  May 4 2008 02:45:00 PM
Admin 2008 was a blur of speaking, seeing old friends and acquaintances, and meeting many fellow engineers for the first time.  That's always fun.
Here are some notable end points from my geekish point of view:
  • DDM is still very much misunderstood, just as I thought.  That's what causes it to languish. Give a geek the proper message about DDM and curiosity will abound.  I think it should be a centerpoint of any pro-active Notes team's efforts to keep the customer satisfied.
  • No need to buy bottled water in Boston.  Water in the hotel seemed fine on its own.
  • It's amazing that people will stand in line overnight for a shot at buying Mario Brothers Wii game at the mall.
  • I remain convinced that the parameter Server_Session_timeout should be set to 30 on most Domino servers.  Most attendees were not aware of its positive effect on server resources.
  • I need to add more links to this blog.  There are so many people whose opinion I respect that aren't linked here and should be.
  • I actually got a body rush doing a presentation about upgrading servers.  How bad is that!?!?  I think I need therapy.
  • Chris Miller is still the fastest talker I have ever worked with.  Just imagine what it's like to be in his brain trying to filter all of those ideas. And imagine what it must be like to listen to Chris if English is your second language. Heck, imagine trying to keep up with Chris if English is your first language. I always get the feeling that he is slowing down a bit to accommodate everyone else.
  • The most appealing parts about turning on Activity Logging on servers are to analyze disk space shrinkage and to track inactive databases so you can remove them from servers. Many attendees were not aware of how to set up and use Activity Logging.
  • I found this little tidbit about how to keep the log size smaller when Activity Logging.  Plus this one on setting up Activity Logging.  Don't forget to set up Activity Trending as well.  Take the defaults.
  • Paul Mooney could be a much more entertaining speaker if only he was more sarcastic.
  • Pizza at the food court in Boston is actually pretty good when purchased by the slice.  It has a nice crispy crust and is not overdone.
  • As much as I know, I learned more just from the questions asked.  When I didn't know an answer, it always seemed like other Admins in the room had a solution.
  • Social Networking for businesses will only work if two things happen.  First, SN must either cut costs or produce profit.  Second, participation in a business SN must be mandated and procedurized (if such a word actually exists).  
  • I spotted Andy Donaldson in one of my many ND8 Upgrade sessions and sadly did not get to say hi to him.  Next time!
  • The view from the 29th floor of the hotel of the brick Boston neighborhoods and the River Charles was positively breathtaking.  The sun lit the scene like a masterpiece painting.  What a glorious morning!
  • Julian Robichaux continues to be a very funny guy.  I ran way late in a session where he followed mine.  His deadpan comment, "Perhaps when you do a few more of these you'll get the timing down."
  • I really hate Logan airport.  In all the years going to the Admin conferences my exit flight has never left on time.
  • The folks who run those View conferences are some of the nicest people I have ever met.  Thanks to Alan, Susan, Alison, Molly, Debbie, Scott and the dozens of others. They really make it look easy.

Well, this clears the decks for the week.  Thanks again to everyone I got to meet and regrets to those I didn't.

- Andy

Location: Home - recovering from Admin2008

What a spectacular Admin2008 kind of day

Andy Pedisich  April 30 2008 07:32:26 PM
Buzzz buzzz buzzzz.   Up early.  Breakfast with champions.  Hit the first presentation on the Notes R8 client to a pretty packed room.  Followed by another roomful to hear about the server changes and the new ODS.

If you don't know what ODS is, please follow this link.

Finally a session on doing wild things with Domino stats and how the STATREP.NTF doesn't really provide an administrator with anything useful, unfortunately.  Should I expound on that?  Probably.  But not tonight.

Oh, not finally, really.  Then there was "Ask the Experts", or as we sometimes call it, "Beat the Geeks", during which attendees get to interact face-to-face with presenters.  There is nothing quite like hearing about real-world issues, some that you can deal with and some that seemed quite impossible.  Chris Miller and I fielded questions at the same table.  It was more like lateral heaves than fielding.

At this point all I wanted was to eat and go fetal.

Desire #1 was accomplished at a hole in the wall joint that closed right after we walked into it. Men Tei Japanese Noodle Cafe. 66 Hereford St Boston, MA. Cheap, fast, and delicious.  Then, back to the room, skipping all other parties and goings-on.

I mentioned to the attendees in the jumpstart yesterday that their minds will be broken by the time this is over on Friday.   Probably be just as true for me.

Wow!  I just realized that today's experience was just like social networking, but without the wire, electricity, LCD screens, and passwords and stuff.

- Andy

Location: