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As always, I had my usual flutter - the office sweeps, and a couple of bets at the TAB. I did ok this year (but only if I can claim my family's win as my own!). Collectively, we came out in front, but the best I could do was 2nd place.

My bets this year (and where they finished) were:

$5 Each way:
Maybe Better (scratched)
Blue Monday (7th)
Zipping (4th)
Master O'Reilly (the favourite) (8th)
Purple Moon (2nd) - my only winner.

Tim had the winner Efficient in a $10 bet, so that was our big family win, and Emily managed to pick up Purple Moon, and so got second place in the office sweeps.

Once again, Tim was 1 horse off the box trifecta... If only Zipping had come third we would have been celebrating big time!

For those who care - the results.
]]> Sports http://www.lauretterynne.com/index.php?itemid=128 Tue, 6 Nov 2007 18:51:00 +1100 http://www.lauretterynne.com/index.php?itemid=127 Personal laurette rynne Emily sleeps to catch up on some emails and I thought I should write a quick blog, just so any remaining readers know I'm still around.

The last few months have gone by very quickly. Em is now 7 1/2 months old, and is almost crawling. She's getting so big, and so full of energy she saps most of mine! Anyone interested can check out Em's very own blog for updates & photos.

Aside from motherhood, I have been working part time for the last 3 or 4 months. I do 2 days in the office, and a few hours from home. I'm finding it a nice balance, helps me use my brain for things other than nursery rhymes, but I'm not away from Em too much. Luckily, my Mum is able to look after her, so I haven't had to find child care yet. And of course, Nan & Pop love having their "Emily days". I still haven't decided which is more of a break - work or baby... although there is something nice about spending Wednesday afternoons in the park or pub with other Mums.

From a work perspective, I'm still doing Notes/Domino development, and still enjoying it, although it's very hard to be smack in the middle of debugging code, and then realise that you have to go to get home for your daughter.

Although you wouldn't know it from the site, things are moving too with Openslice, we have a new version (almost ready to call it 1.0!) in use now at our client site, but haven't yet updated the website. Keep an eye out, as hopefully things will start happening soon.]]> Personal http://www.lauretterynne.com/index.php?itemid=127 Thu, 23 Aug 2007 17:43:14 +1200 http://www.lauretterynne.com/index.php?itemid=126 Personal laurette rynne
The reason for this post is that today, Emily - at the grand old age of 5 1/2 months - has had her first Northies experience - and it looks to become a regular outing!

For the last 3 - 4 months, every Wednesday afternoon has been spent at one of the many parks or beaches at Cronulla with the other Mums & bubs I have met through the local Early Childhood Clinic. However, now that winter is finally on us, it has become a bit too cold to have all the little ones outside. As pubs are now all smoke-free, it has been possible for us to move our group to Northies. The pub has a nice area at one end with lounges and lots of floor space to fit in 10 - 12 prams, and blankets for the babies to lie (roll, sit, not-yet-crawl) on. Of course, it also means that it's easy for the mums to have a coffee, or a coke, or even a wine while we "watch" the babies.

Yep - motherhood is pretty tough sometimes!

]]> Personal http://www.lauretterynne.com/index.php?itemid=126 Wed, 13 Jun 2007 23:46:03 +1200 http://www.lauretterynne.com/index.php?itemid=125 Personal laurette rynne Anzac Day in Australia, a day of rememberance of those who have served and sacrificed as part of the Australian Defence Forces. It is a special day for all Australians, but for my family it will now be even more special as I have become an Aunty today. My brother & his wife have had their first baby - a little girl, Sascha Frances. As you can imagine, this is quite something for my parents, who became grandparents for the first time in January when our Emily was born.

Congratulations to Bill & Suze - good luck on this grand adventure!]]> Personal http://www.lauretterynne.com/index.php?itemid=125 Thu, 26 Apr 2007 00:47:47 +1200 http://www.lauretterynne.com/index.php?itemid=124 Lotusphere laurette rynne
The first thing I can say is no different to what I said last year - it seems a bit strange to be calling this "Lotusphere", as it's clearly nothing compared to the real thing. Really, LCTY is just market update and product launch combined. While this is good, and it as great to see a big turn-out again, it's not the full technical and business conference which this region desperately needs.

Even knowing what LCTY is, I was a little disappointed in the 4 breakout sessions on offer this year. First there was a choice between mobile technology or "The Lotus Software Strategy for Team Collaboration and Document Management" which turned out to be a detailed session on Quickr (the new Quickplace). Second there was a choice between Websphere Portal & e-Forms, or Sametime. While there was a great demo of Notes 8 during the opening session, there was no session covering anything more on this - which is really the major reason most people would have been there.

So, that's the disappointments. Now for the good.

The keynote presentation, and demos were excellent. Great strong messages coming from Lotus that shows, again, that Lotus is
starting to make a grand comeback. The messages about product growth, both globally and locally, were extremely positive, and there was a real sense that Lotus isn't playing defense anymore - Microsoft was hardly even mentioned, which made for a nice change.

The Lotus Product Strategy was clear - 5 product lines - Domino, Sametime, Quickr (Quickplace), Connections (social computing - blogs, wikis etc) and Websphere Portal. Interestingly there was no mention of Workplace - did I miss something, is it gone altogether? I think this is a really strong product grouping, covering all the areas that Lotus has traditionally dominated, and the strategy places Lotus in a great position to cover the growth areas - especially in some of the new "trendy" areas - IM, blogs, wikis etc.

The other important message, which is clearly represented in the new products coming out of Lotus, is that there is a new focus on the end-user experience. Some people would say this is too little too late, but I think it's a sign that Lotus has finally got their direction clear, and the engines underneath are sound and there is now time to get the pretty stuff right. Don't get me wrong - I am a big user interface person, and I think Lotus has been lacking in this, but I also think much of the criticism of Notes UI should have been directed at developers, not Lotus itself.

The demo of Notes 8 showed some pretty cool stuff I hadn't seen before, and hinted at some things that I really wanted to get more technical detail on (for instance does the export to PDF work in apps or only from the composite editors? If it's only from the editors, when will this change??) I am looking forward to March when the public beta is available - can't wait to play around with it, even more - can't wait to be able to develop with it...

The two sessions I went to covered Quickr and Sametime. The Sametime presentation was a little disappointing as it mostly covered Sametime 7.5, which, while fantastic looking, didn't cover anything really new for me, so I don't have much to say about that. Quickr however, looks fantastic. It looks like it is finally reaching the goals that Quickplace was designed to meet. I was never a big fan of Quickplace, and detested TeamRoom. I found them clunky and hard to use, and hated the isolated nature of Quickplace. Quickr looks like it resolves many of these issues, and could be a much easier "sell" - providing it has the right technical features (information we didn't get in this high level session). I still have some concerns about the integration with existing apps, and also what sort of client install is required for the connectors, but the end result looks good enough to overcome many issues, and I also can't wait for it's launch later this year.

All in all, it was a great morning, and has set Lotus up for a great year. The future, apparently, is yellow!]]> Lotusphere http://www.lauretterynne.com/index.php?itemid=124 Wed, 28 Feb 2007 23:20:46 +1100 http://www.lauretterynne.com/index.php?itemid=123 Personal laurette rynne Tim and I are celebrating two weeks since the birth of our little girl, Emily. In typical IT consultant style, Emily arrived on her due date (4th January) after pulling an all-nighter! I won't go into all the gory details, but we survived, and are now learning to adjust to parenthood.

The last two weeks have been quite an experience - Emily is certainly the most difficult client either of us has ever worked for! Needless to say that my head has been far away from work for quite a while now, so I don't see all that much blogging in my immediate future, until she settles down a little.

Typically, for two IT geeks, before we picked a name, we had to ensure we could secure her internet future, so for anyone interested in seeing some photos - you can see them via her website - www.emilyrynne.com]]> Personal http://www.lauretterynne.com/index.php?itemid=123 Thu, 18 Jan 2007 12:19:12 +1100 http://www.lauretterynne.com/index.php?itemid=122 General laurette rynne
Anyway, we have finally finished preparing our nursery and got through Christmas, so now we are just in waiting mode. Technically we still have about 8 or 9 days to go, but apparently babies are notoriously bad about not showing up on time, so we are trying to be prepared for anything.

Hopefully I will still find some time to keep my head somewhat familiar with work - that seems far less scary than the great unknown which is having a baby!]]> General http://www.lauretterynne.com/index.php?itemid=122 Wed, 27 Dec 2006 14:04:14 +1100 http://www.lauretterynne.com/index.php?itemid=121 General laurette rynne
It's been quite some time since I went to a concert, and honestly, the last big, outdoor concert I went to was probably last time U2 were here for their Zooropa tour back in the early 90s. I mean, I've been to indoor concerts, and concert festivals, but there really just aren't that many bands anymore which can pull off an outdoor stadium concert on their own. U2 still know how to "bring it". The concert was great - described by a friend as "high tech - low tech". It didn't have as many of the bells & whistles as Zooropa, but the use of screens & lighting was fabulous, especially for those of us at the back.

We bought these tickets last year, for the concert which was originally scheduled for March this year - long before I was pregnant. Luckily, I anticipated that I was old at least, and we opted for seats, rather than the general admission tickets. Although I was watching the mosh-pit jealously at several points during the show, I have to admit that at 32wks pregnant, I was certainly grateful for the seat!

Best of all - it was almost a "best of" tour, with songs from just about every U2 album making it into the line-up. Given Bono's political fervour, it was also pleasantly mostly about the music, with only a couple of interruptions for political messages. Obviously the "Make Poverty History" was pushed, along with a new "CoExist" message - an attempt to encourage religious coexistance (Muslim, Jew & Christian only - I guess all the other religions are considered to already coexist?), but both messages were tied neatly into songs, so it was handled pretty well.

One fun thing to note - although the tickets clearly said "no cameras or recording devices", as soon as the band came on, you could clearly see the tell-tale white lights of mobile phone screens/cameras lighting up the stadium. This was welcomed, and acknowledged, by the band during the "Make Poverty History" portion by turing all the lights off and getting everyone to hold their phones up to create a "Milky Way". It was pretty amazing actually - I guess holding up the cigarette lighter at concerts has been replaced with technology!]]> General http://www.lauretterynne.com/index.php?itemid=121 Mon, 13 Nov 2006 07:40:00 +1100 http://www.lauretterynne.com/index.php?itemid=120 Sports laurette rynne Melbourne Cup Day.

Once again, I have spent more money than gives me any hope of "winning", but the traditional rule for "the race that stops the nation" is that any horse can win, so you might as well back them all!

My bets:

1. Maybe Better (23) each way
2. On a Jeune (11) each way
3. Yeats (1) each way
4. Box Quinella: Pop Rock (12), Ice Chariot (15)
5. Box Trifecta: Tawqeet (4), Pop Rock (12), Maybe Better (23)
6. Box First 4: Yeats (1), Delta Blues (2), Mahtoum (10), Maybe Better (23)
7. Mystery Pick Trifecta: Yeats (1), Delta Blues (2), Zipping (13)
Plus 4 mystery horses in the work sweeps (as yet unknown) - 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 13th & Last place pay.

UPDATE: Well, the classic lesson applies for me - when you say "I was thinking about putting a bet on...." you should follow up with the bet. As it stands, I couldn't manage better than 3rd (in both a each way bet, and the office sweeps). I haven't collected all my winnings yet, but it will end up somewhere less than a third of what I spent. Oh well, fun all round anyway - and a good way to break up the work afternoon!

Results:
1st - Delta Blues (2)
2nd - Pop Rock (12)
3rd - Maybe Better (23)
Last - Zabeat (17)
Full List]]> Sports http://www.lauretterynne.com/index.php?itemid=120 Tue, 7 Nov 2006 13:39:07 +1100 http://www.lauretterynne.com/index.php?itemid=119 Notes/Domino laurette rynne Lotus Energizers group, and while it didn't quite reach the lofty "standing room only" heights of the first meeting (with Ed Brill), it was a decent turnout. Around 50 - 60 people came along to hear Alistair Rennie (VP, Software Services) and Doug Wilson (CTO, Lotus) give a presentation on some of the future directions for Lotus.

Jonathan Stern, from IBM Australia, first gave us another quick rundown about the current state of play for Lotus in the Australia/New Zealand markets, including the positive message that in a market only growing by 3%, Domino had grown by 21% locally. He also re-iterated the promises of increased regular events, PR, and increased advertising within this market. This included the announcement of the dates for "Lotusphere comes to Australia", starting Feb 19. While this is great, it does indicate that it will be at least 2008 before there is any chance of a Lotus Fusion style conference. Ah well, I guess we just need to keep asking.

The Alistair/Doug tag team presentation was interesting, and covered some of the key drivers in the directions taken by Lotus over the next couple of years. Although there was nothing altogether new for those following the stories out of IBM, the message is important enough to require frequent repeating so the message is clear.

A couple of points which stood out to me:

- Companies are now starting to say that cost savings are no longer enough to justify expenditure on IT - innovation is the key way in which they can differentiate themselves in the market, and products that assist innovation will win.

- In the move towards a Dynamic Workplace, many of the goals are aspirational rather than ready-right-now. The key driver in enabling the delivery of a dynamic workplace will be through the creation of software built with openness and standards.

- The move from document & process centric applications (email, workflow, forms) to people centric applications (Sametime) to community centric applications (blogs, wikis, social networking) is not a replacement proposition, but rather an additive proposition. The need to provide the newer applications will not eliminate the need for traditional apps, but rather will enhance them.

- Websphere Portal will become the web version of what Hannover will deliver. Both Hannover & Portal can deliver composite applications, but the client is the differentiator. This is not to say if you have one, you won't need the other, but the gap between them will shrink as Hannover (Notes 8) begins to provide the ability to provide enhanced development capabilities to the rich client platform.

After the presentation, most people stayed around after for a few drinks - right up until we got a "lights out, time to move", which shows that the positive buzz in the community is still there, and if we can manage to keep the momentum going, next year should be a great year.]]> Notes/Domino http://www.lauretterynne.com/index.php?itemid=119 Fri, 27 Oct 2006 07:24:00 +1200