LotusBeer 2008 Roundup
Category Lotusphere MANGA Stella Bock Quickr Feckin' huge autonomous power buoy
Bookmark :
Courtesy of our esteemed secretary, John, here is a roundup of everything you missed 'cos you were poncing around in Disneyland. Bet you wish you'd been at LotusBeer, right?
Attendees:
John Lindsay
Pete Zebedee
Keith Smillie
Sheila Buchan (no relation but apparently also from the NE AND shared a flat with BB - god help her......)
Gordon Cuthbertson (part)
Apologies:
Bill Buchan (alternative engagement - pretty useless excuse I would say)
John was saved from having to make the "Why my Lotus Quickr doesn't work" speech by heroically making it work about 30 minutes before the meeting was due to convene. Apparently upgrading from 6.5 Server and Team Workplace just didn't cut the mustard. Removed all reference to the old Quickplace and the old 6.5 Server and then completely reinstalled the whole kit and caboodle following the instructions instead of his usual cavalier "E:\Setup.exe - Return" approach. Another thing that MAY have been a factor was accepting the default locations specified by the various programs.
Pete's Calendaring and Scheduling is working well as evidenced by the fact that he turned up on the right day and (pretty well) the right time.
Keith completely failed to steal any of Bill's Whisky partly because Bill wasn't there but mostly because he got toasted on Artois Bock and followed it up with most of 2 bottles of Merlot and some Turkish (I think) Red before arbitrarily electing himself as President of the MANGA (my latest offer as an acronym which stands for Maximo And Notes Group Aberdeen. I quote from Wikipaedia as to the reason I think it is appropriate:
In Japan, manga are widely read by people of all ages, so that a broad range of subjects and topics occur in manga, including action-adventure, romance, sports and games, historical drama, comedy, science fiction and fantasy, mystery, horror, sexuality, and business and commerce, among others. Since the 1950s, manga have steadily become a major part of the Japanese publishing industry, representing a 481 billion yen market in Japan in 2006[9] (approximately $4.4 billion dollars). Manga have also become increasingly popular worldwide. In 2006, the United States manga market was $175–200 million.
The stuff in bold is mine and I think details pretty much what we discuss on our Thursday nights i.e. anything and everything. As an example last night we discussed the Coen Brothers new film "No Country for Old Men". The Jury is still out on this one - I saw it on Tuesday. I also recently saw Charlie Wilson's War which is best film released in January 08 so far..... Keith regaled us with a synopsis of some animated film of fairy tales from some european country or other [Editor: Fimfárum 2]. The state of farming in UK today. Lewis Grassic Gibbon, Stonehaven, the smuggling of the Scottish Crown jewels (historical drama, action and adventure), the footy (sports and games), how farmers do business by their word, Lotus Notes / Quickr, Intellisync, (business and commerce). We didn't cover Science Fiction / fantasy but as can be seen from previous MoMs Doctor Who and Heroes have been extensively discussed.
So how about it - MANGA?? (█████.███ is available as a domain name) [Editor: actual domiain name censored so nobody tries to squat on it]
Anyway carrying on - Gordon at least turned up and managed to sink a cider before going off to play some sport or other (and people say that there aren't any real athletes these days.....)
High spot of the evening though was the unexpected attendance of the aforementioned Sheila Buchan who was cajoled into being our Keynote Speaker. She then proceeded to wow us with real technology (an I-Paq I think) when we blogged Bouncy Billy Buchan using the free (I think) Wireless Hot Spot in the Globe which was the lately nominated location of choice.
You will note from this point that things become a bit vague.....
John had a mini rant about Lotus. The gist of it was that it is all very well highly technical people getting a moderate stiffy about the latest greatest Eclipse this or Java that. However this misses the entire point of what has to be delivered - An easy to use application that allows the end user to do what he needs to do. Lotus Notes / Domino / Quickr and all the rest is "facilitating software" it is not an end of and by itself. It has to be easier to use so that people can use it to develop applications "on the fly".
Zeb came up with a stoating idea which can't be discussed here as he is obviously looking into it as a commercial possibility. He was on a bit of a roll as he also suggested the Nargile [Editor: Turkish restaurant] to have something to eat. It was brill. John has volunteered (I think I was volunteered actually) to fund the next one as Zeb paid this time. That being the case I thought I would give you all a choice - what is it to be - Burger King, MacDonalds or KFC?
A trip to the Power Buoy will be arranged when work resumes on it to allow the group to see the thing. Meantime it is for sale - offers on a Postcard please to Ernst and Young (Administrators).
[Editor: Here is a picture of part of the buoy. So, if you're in the market for 650 tonnes and 3.6 MW of fully autonomous buoy, get down to Honest John's soon. Buyer collects. On a personal note, I have one of these in my back garden and they are a great 'focal point' as well as being practical.]
Zeb floated the notion of actually formalising things a bit more within the group. It was at this point that KS went off on one electing himself President AND insisting John turned up in a skirt next time as the Secretary. I'm pretty sure we got Zeb elected as something but like I say it was a bit vague at this point [Editor: Apparently Zeb has been elected as the head of the Provisional Wing of the Revolutionary LotusBeer Brigade (Belfast Chapter)]. John can make the Wallace Hall available for meetings if we ever actually want to show stuff properly on a screen. We can get beer in as well so we are not missing out on the Piss Up part of the evening.
That's it for now - I think I covered most of the stuff discussed but I bet I'm wrong.
Bookmark :
Courtesy of our esteemed secretary, John, here is a roundup of everything you missed 'cos you were poncing around in Disneyland. Bet you wish you'd been at LotusBeer, right?
Attendees:
John Lindsay
Pete Zebedee
Keith Smillie
Sheila Buchan (no relation but apparently also from the NE AND shared a flat with BB - god help her......)
Gordon Cuthbertson (part)
Apologies:
Bill Buchan (alternative engagement - pretty useless excuse I would say)
John was saved from having to make the "Why my Lotus Quickr doesn't work" speech by heroically making it work about 30 minutes before the meeting was due to convene. Apparently upgrading from 6.5 Server and Team Workplace just didn't cut the mustard. Removed all reference to the old Quickplace and the old 6.5 Server and then completely reinstalled the whole kit and caboodle following the instructions instead of his usual cavalier "E:\Setup.exe - Return" approach. Another thing that MAY have been a factor was accepting the default locations specified by the various programs.
Pete's Calendaring and Scheduling is working well as evidenced by the fact that he turned up on the right day and (pretty well) the right time.
Keith completely failed to steal any of Bill's Whisky partly because Bill wasn't there but mostly because he got toasted on Artois Bock and followed it up with most of 2 bottles of Merlot and some Turkish (I think) Red before arbitrarily electing himself as President of the MANGA (my latest offer as an acronym which stands for Maximo And Notes Group Aberdeen. I quote from Wikipaedia as to the reason I think it is appropriate:
In Japan, manga are widely read by people of all ages, so that a broad range of subjects and topics occur in manga, including action-adventure, romance, sports and games, historical drama, comedy, science fiction and fantasy, mystery, horror, sexuality, and business and commerce, among others. Since the 1950s, manga have steadily become a major part of the Japanese publishing industry, representing a 481 billion yen market in Japan in 2006[9] (approximately $4.4 billion dollars). Manga have also become increasingly popular worldwide. In 2006, the United States manga market was $175–200 million.
The stuff in bold is mine and I think details pretty much what we discuss on our Thursday nights i.e. anything and everything. As an example last night we discussed the Coen Brothers new film "No Country for Old Men". The Jury is still out on this one - I saw it on Tuesday. I also recently saw Charlie Wilson's War which is best film released in January 08 so far..... Keith regaled us with a synopsis of some animated film of fairy tales from some european country or other [Editor: Fimfárum 2]. The state of farming in UK today. Lewis Grassic Gibbon, Stonehaven, the smuggling of the Scottish Crown jewels (historical drama, action and adventure), the footy (sports and games), how farmers do business by their word, Lotus Notes / Quickr, Intellisync, (business and commerce). We didn't cover Science Fiction / fantasy but as can be seen from previous MoMs Doctor Who and Heroes have been extensively discussed.
So how about it - MANGA?? (█████.███ is available as a domain name) [Editor: actual domiain name censored so nobody tries to squat on it]
Anyway carrying on - Gordon at least turned up and managed to sink a cider before going off to play some sport or other (and people say that there aren't any real athletes these days.....)
High spot of the evening though was the unexpected attendance of the aforementioned Sheila Buchan who was cajoled into being our Keynote Speaker. She then proceeded to wow us with real technology (an I-Paq I think) when we blogged Bouncy Billy Buchan using the free (I think) Wireless Hot Spot in the Globe which was the lately nominated location of choice.
You will note from this point that things become a bit vague.....
John had a mini rant about Lotus. The gist of it was that it is all very well highly technical people getting a moderate stiffy about the latest greatest Eclipse this or Java that. However this misses the entire point of what has to be delivered - An easy to use application that allows the end user to do what he needs to do. Lotus Notes / Domino / Quickr and all the rest is "facilitating software" it is not an end of and by itself. It has to be easier to use so that people can use it to develop applications "on the fly".
Zeb came up with a stoating idea which can't be discussed here as he is obviously looking into it as a commercial possibility. He was on a bit of a roll as he also suggested the Nargile [Editor: Turkish restaurant] to have something to eat. It was brill. John has volunteered (I think I was volunteered actually) to fund the next one as Zeb paid this time. That being the case I thought I would give you all a choice - what is it to be - Burger King, MacDonalds or KFC?
A trip to the Power Buoy will be arranged when work resumes on it to allow the group to see the thing. Meantime it is for sale - offers on a Postcard please to Ernst and Young (Administrators).
[Editor: Here is a picture of part of the buoy. So, if you're in the market for 650 tonnes and 3.6 MW of fully autonomous buoy, get down to Honest John's soon. Buyer collects. On a personal note, I have one of these in my back garden and they are a great 'focal point' as well as being practical.]
Zeb floated the notion of actually formalising things a bit more within the group. It was at this point that KS went off on one electing himself President AND insisting John turned up in a skirt next time as the Secretary. I'm pretty sure we got Zeb elected as something but like I say it was a bit vague at this point [Editor: Apparently Zeb has been elected as the head of the Provisional Wing of the Revolutionary LotusBeer Brigade (Belfast Chapter)]. John can make the Wallace Hall available for meetings if we ever actually want to show stuff properly on a screen. We can get beer in as well so we are not missing out on the Piss Up part of the evening.
That's it for now - I think I covered most of the stuff discussed but I bet I'm wrong.
