JamieMagee

Tags: DominoPoint Travel

Italian Lotus user group DominoPoint's second annual Domino Day conference ("DDay2") was a huge success by all measures.  The one-day on October 10 event included two tracks, fourteen speakers, approximately 400 participants, and a dozen vendors.  Like Paul Mooney's ILUG and Warren Elsmore's UKLUG, this free event to attendees was entirely sponsored by vendors.  Free admission drives up attendance, and then everyone wins.  


Event planning
The organizers (Giuseppe Grasso, Daniele Grillo, Claudio Meregalli) worked the budget magically to cover everything, including hired help for most of the onsite labor.   Thanks to Davide Pannuto and his IBM team for covering speaker hotel rooms.  Even Lotusphere doesn't offer that perk.  DominoPoint also covered a very impressive lunch, even by Italian standards.  Easily the best food in the Lotus conference community.  By the way, I learned that when talking about food Italians qualify each type of food with the specific region of Italy from which it originated.  And at the speaker dinner I learned -- and should have already known from my past travels -- that some restaurants serve upwards of 8 or 9 courses!  I was warned of this when, at about course five, it became apparent to others that I was not pacing myself very well!  But that was one of the best dinners I've had in Italy, and I've had quite a few.

Language challenges
The fact that it was entirely in Italian (except for my session and one vendor session) made it one of the most unique Lotus events I've attended.  This was truly the quintessence of a country-level users group conference.  The all-Italian participant roster represented every region of Italy.  And it's the only major Lotus event in Italian.  By the way, in light of that factor, I am particularly thankful to my fellow speakers who, whenever we were hanging out, were quick to translate to me or switch to English!

The peninsular country of Italy doesn't get a lot of "thru traffic", so Italians tend to understand less English than do people from central and north western Europe.  However, the good news for an English speaking presenter such as myself is that Italian Lotus developers and administrators all understand at least some English.  This is because, despite the Italian Notes Client, the Designer and Admin Clients and their help doc are available in English only.  Here are my tips for presenting in English as a foreigner.

Personal note
Some of the DominoPoint bloggers have since referred to me in their post-conference write-ups as their "guest star" at DominoDay, but I'm no different than them.  I have my specialty, and like to present on it.  The difference is that they were willing to let me speak in some foreign language : ).  So for that reason, it was a real honor and privilege to be the only non-Italian at the event.  The speakers and attendees were all very friendly, and I have a bunch of new friends in one of my favorite countries.  Special thanks to Giuseppe Grasso for scouting me at ILUG, asking me to speak, and making it happen.  I had a great time, and next year I'll definitely be interested in speaking again.

Below are my DominoDay slides on Fixing Domino Application Performance.  Key points are in Italian (thanks to translation help from Daniele Vistalli and Cristian D'Aloisio), but most of the details are in English.  Also, here is an all-English version that includes these same slides and more.

Magee Dday2 Fixing App Performance Italiano

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own.

Posted by Jamie Magee At 12:00 AM Location Washington DC | Permalink | Comments (1)

Tags: Travel DominoPoint Public speaking

I recently presented a version of a popular session, in English, but to an Italian audience.  Here are some tips for presenting in English as a foreigner...

- Plan to speak more slowly, so reduce content a little bit from what you would present to an English speaking audience.  Practice the timing.

- Remove all slang and strive for simple, short, sterilized sentence structures.

- Include illustrations wherever possible.

- Even though you'll be speaking English, try to have your slides translated into the local language.  Google and Altavista translator sites don't really work for technical content, so sit down with a translator who has knowledge of your topic.  Make sure to keep enough of your language in fine print or in the speaker notes to remind yourself what each slide is about!

- If you don't have time to translate all the slides, translating only the slide titles and key points is much easier and will still go a long way.  For English phrases, choose words that share the same origin as those of the local language.

- Speaking the local language at the very beginning (e.g., for your introduction) shows some respect.  Think about how the reverse situation would feel to you.  But unless you're a fluent speaker, most audiences who can understand English reasonably well will prefer you to speak in English.

Posted by Jamie Magee At 10:38 PM Location Washington DC | Permalink | Comments (4)

Tags:

AK state government (which uses Exchange/Outlook) has found a new way to make money.  Most of you reading this (except you Admins) could write a LotusScript agent to do this in a day.  And, are there no email compliance solutions all the way up in Alaska???

"...the governor's office said it would take up to six hours of a programmer's time to assemble the e-mail of just a single state employee, then another two hours for "security" checks, and finally five hours to search the e-mail for whatever word or topic the requestor is seeking. At $73.87 an hour, that's $960.31 for a single e-mail account. And there are 16,000 full-time state employees. The cost quoted to the AP: $15,364,960"

...and ...

"...That process of deleting information is likely to be so lengthy that most requestors won't be able to see the records until well after the next president and vice president are chosen, the governor's office said."

...and...

"...the governor's office says it can provide copies only on paper."

Posted by Jamie Magee At 10:37 PM Location Washington DC | Permalink | Comments (1)

Tags: Travel DominoPoint

I'm honored to be presenting this Friday, 10 October, in Milano at the annual conference of the Italian Lotus users group, DominoPoint.  The free "DominoPoint Day 2" (the second annual event) has about 500 attendees signed up, which makes this event as large as any other conference in Europe this year.  In fact, perhaps second only to Lotusphere I think.  The dedicated DominoPoint organizers (Daniele Grillo, Claudio Meregalli, and Giuseppe Grasso) are following the ILUG model, whereby the sponsors pay most of the costs (IBM helps, too), and the delegates pay no fee to attend.  This approach has proven big attendance numbers at ILUG, UKLUG, and other events.


This will be exciting for me personally, because Italy is my favorite country to visit.  Where else can you find the convergence of music, art, religion, architecture, archeology, geography, cuisine, and more, all in such a small area?

I've been to Italy a bunch of times, totaling probably 5 months of my life.  I speak enough tourist Italian to get around, but certainly not in a business context.  I think I'll be the only native English speaker at the conference, and the only presentation in English.  In fact, I'll be the only person at the event who does not understand Italian very well.  But that's part of the fun!


My topic is Fixing Application Performance Problems...

Does your database become very slow in production with more documents and more users? You will learn to prevent, identify, and fix the most common performance problems right in the design of your applications! Over 40 Notes and Web performance tips cover formulas, LotusScript, agents, views, forms, images, DB properties, security, CSS, JavaScript, GZip, and even a few server settings every developer should know.  Learn how to trace slow performance in existing applications, including an open source tool to reveal what Notes is waiting for when you see the yellow lightning symbol.  Emphasis is placed on balancing performance, maintainability and functionality.

Posted by Jamie Magee At 4:00 AM Location Washington DC | Permalink | Comments (2)

Tags: Travel

I was in London for UKLUG a couple of weeks ago, and wanted to visit a place new to me for the weekend before returning to the US.  About the only country in mainland western europe I've never visited is Portugal, so I booked an impromptu trip to Lisbon for three nights.

What I have learned in Lisboa (Lisbon) Portugal in 72 hours...

1) Football (soccer) on your first night is a great way to get into the spirit of a European city.


2) Lisboa is a very walkable -- but hilly -- city, with lots to see every minute.


3) Being a solo tourist for the first time EVER was unexpectedly nice, as you can do whatever you want, stay as long as you want, and change your mind whenever you want.


4) Gradeschool studies of 16th and 17th century Portugal ruling the seas hit you in the face when you tour magnificent castles and waterside fortresses of Lisboa.


5) Central Lisboa was mostly destroyed by an earthquake and tsunami that killed 15,000 people in 1755, then mostly rebuilt.


6) The people are Lisboa are incredibly friendly, beautiful, and full of spirit.


7) Portuguese is the most beautiful, and one of the most unusual and difficult, languages I've tried to speak.

8) Particularly in a small peninsular country like Portugal, the internet is the great equalizer of artistic opportunity.  A pub booked local singer-songwriter Ana Free, but couldn't handle the 400+ fans who showed up as a result of her recent YouTube fame.  This week she's the fastest rising artist on the Portuguese Singles chart with a song at #3.



9) 'Tho not too popular in Portugal yet, Facebook is a great resource for recruiting a friend you've yet to meet in person.  Thanks, Vitor Pereira!!



Definitely going to visit Libsoa again!

Posted by Jamie Magee At 2:55 PM Location Washington DC | Permalink | Comments (3)

Tags: Work life

Paul Mooney showed me his if I showed him mine.

When I'm not at the HQ office in DC (I almost never am), I work here...


1 - 93% of the furniture budget went into the one chair I can sit in for more than 4 hours

2 - Thinkpad in a full dock, hidden under pile of unrecorded 2008 expense receipts as an anti-theft measure.  Never been stolen.  Due for a Mac replacement in Fall 2008.

3 - Dual monitors... Chat windows stay to the right.   Everything else to the left on a 20" 1600x1200 DVI (rotated with Portrait.com driver).  Webcam sits on top.

4 - "No wires allowed" desk with Bluetooth everything.  Love the Logitech DiNovo kit... has the Thinkpad feel.

5 - Pile of 2007 expenses not yet entered.

6 - view of students walking between classes at the U. of Delaware one block away, mostly women.

7 - awards from Lotus industry, 2003 & 2005 WAKA championship signed game balls.

8 - Required for breaking the monotony of software work, YouTube playalongs, or whenever Notes is performing a consistency check on my 3GB mailfile.

Posted by Jamie Magee At 4:26 PM Location Washington DC | Permalink | Comments (0)

Tags: Lotusphere Performance Administration Development Public speaking

For three of the past four Lotuspheres, Kevin Marshall and I have done a popular session on Application Performance Tuning. It did well, and even earned top ranked feedback a couple of times. I still update and present various versions of this topic for developers around the US and Europe, including at five major events this year, as it has tremendous value to developers. But increasingly, the content has slowly evolved toward a blend of both developer and system administration knowledge.  This is because, in reality, performance tuning is a collaboration between the two.  This session provides a different angle on these popular topics, focusing on the synergy between a developer and an administrator in live performance tuning of common issues.

Please comment and vote on this new session concept from myself and Francie Tanner-Whitlock.

Posted by Jamie Magee At 10:38 AM Location Washington DC | Permalink | Comments (0)

Tags: ILUG

If you didn't catch the subliminal title text, that big thing is the Irish Lotus Users Group 2008 conference, from which I just returned last night.  Yes, lots has been written on ILUG in the Lotus online community in the past few days.  But I gotta write my 0.02 Euros, too, because it was just that amazing.

Ingredients included: a perfect venue, excellent speakers and topics, right-sized exhibitor exposure, perfect weather, a scary Dutch balloon sculpting security guard, and the tireless and careful work of an amazing panel of volunteer organizers lead by conference visionary Paul Mooney and onsite logistics queen Eileen Fitzgerald.  The venue really was perfect.  A full bar (with live broadcast French Open tennis) in the conference center kept everyone mingling throughout the week, day and night.  The size of the attendance and venue itself were just right and very key in my opinion.  Unlimited networking opportunities, yet you could find anyone in no time.  Knowledge gained, relationships made.  Truly a right-sized conference.  This was summer camp for Lotus professionals.  

Because of Paul's insistence on keeping it a free conference like last year, the attendance this year had surged upward of 400 delegates representing dozens of countries.  These kind of numbers attract big sponsorship dollars, which paid for virtually everything.  And to make it really worthwhile for these critically important sponsors, Paul conceived "Speed Sponsoring".  As a frequent exhibitor myself (and now really wishing I had exhibited our stuff at ILUG), let me tell you that giving one's pitch to nearly everyone, and in small groups, is an exhibitor's dream.  As they say in proper English, "brilliant!".  Paul's innovative and selfless conference model combines the intimacy of a typical local user group meeting with the critical mass of a bigger show, all of which benefits both attendees and sponsors.  In fact, other Lotus user groups adopting ILUG's "right-sized" conference model from last year have already found similar success in the UK, Italy, and elsewhere.  Look for more.

One challenge ILUG will have next year is to do it again without the organizers themselves burning out (not that they necessarily did this year).  I was happy to volunteer a day to help setup, and I'd do it again.  But I don't think it's possible to do what the organizers did, for many days, weeks, and months prior without some of them possibly dying.  If the early exhibitor sell-out date this year was any indication of vendor demand, perhaps ILUG can increase the sponsorship revenue enough to outsource a little more hired help next year.

Pictures can be found on Flickr.  Mine own are here.

Posted by Jamie Magee At 3:16 PM Location Washington DC | Permalink | Comments (3)

Tags: Shortcuts

So you want to email someone a photo from a web page.  From your browser, you can copy the photo to your clipboard, but when you paste it into Lotus Notes it loses color depth and you get poor image grading such as the picture on the right...

Original picture looks good with all colors	Pasting into Notes results in poor color grading in the sky and water

One solution you probably know is that if you right click on the original web image and save to a file, then choose File \ Import in Notes, you can import the image with full fidelity.  However, this litters temporary files on your drive.  Simply pasting into PhotoShop, then copying from there will sometimes work, but not always.  And both these approaches are more steps than necessary.

A quick way to get good pasted image quality...
1) right click on the web image and choose "Copy Image Location"
2) in Notes, do File \ Import and choose Files of type = JPEG Image.  Keyboard shortcut: ALT f i CTRL+v TAB j ENTER
3) For the image file path, paste in the entire URL for the image including the http://.

Then you get a full color image, in few steps, with no files on your drive.

Posted by Jamie Magee At 1:30 PM Location Washington DC | Permalink | Comments (8)

Tags: Work life Entrepreneurship

(have just recovered from a week of post-conference Flu)

I met my wonderful wife Calyce (Ka LIKE ee -- Greek mythological name for an American girl) in 1996 at Lotus where she was a Notes developer and I was a contractor.  A couple of years later, after we got married, she had taken a leave from Lotus.  My new company couldn't find enough developers, so I recruited her for an app dev project.  Worked great for about a year, but then while arguing in the kitchen one day about a project related matter, the words "You're fired!" came out of my mouth at what seemed to be the exact same moment she said "I quit!".  Quantum physics says no two things happen at the exact same time; one must've happened before the other.  But the instant replay is not available, so we'll never know her true alumni status here at the company.  But we get along great otherwise.

The upside of having married someone so close to my work is that she gets what I do -- and that makes working from home a lot easier.  But if you want my advice, don't hire your spouse.

Posted by Jamie Magee At 12:00 PM Location Washington DC | Permalink | Comments (7)