Author: Garry

TechFest Logo Originally uploaded by Big Dadoo.

My first TechFest at SWU! Just me and 1,200+ friends all hooking up our laptops on a network to a zSeries mainframe for some hands on enablement. [Picture] We explored Websphere Portal, HATS, MQ, RSA and other software on a single 18 CPU zSeries running multiple LPARS. [Picture of specs] One LPAR is zOS and the other three are Redhat Linux. as you use the same software on each of the partitions you can’t tell the difference between the middleware running on zOS and Linux, which is very impressive. The mainframe is truly impressive, gone are the days of manditory raised floor and huge space requirements. This thing is sitting on a carpeted floor in the conference room. No special environment is required, just a big power cable going in. As the TechFest progresses with all the participants using the single mainframe server, they are monitoring performance of each of the LPARS to see what kind of load is hitting the system. Each if the partitiions are using under 3% of the CPU resources available, quite impressive.

Opening session was very good. The usual exec presentations from Mike & Steve, a dance presentation from Alume (sp), a song on the “Power to Win” theme with the SWU house band (the MGM has a kickin’ sound system),a musical performance by Mobius 8 , and a motivational presentation from Jamie Clarke, a mountaineer from Calgary, Alberta Canada (a nice touch for a Canadian in the heart of the US). Jamie’s presentation was very good, taking shots at the execs, repeatedly commenting on the $50K(!) awards given to four of the top performers in 2005, while excusing everything on being doped up on pain killers for a broken leg. In between all the fun and jokes to told us about his involvement in three attempts on Everest. He explained what he learned from what some would call the two failed attempts and how the third successful summit attempt effected his life. The story of the second attempt was quite poignant when his team mate, only 160 yards, 40 minutes from the summit had to make the decision that he could not safely continue on and then, on the way down, almost gave up and came close to perishing on the side of the mountain. Only the love of his family via a mutli-hour $32K satellite phone call, kept him going and moving down until the rescue team could reach him.

Lunch was great even though is was a crowded long hike to the dining tents. Salad, salmon, vegetable salads, pasta, and lots of dessert (I had the chocolate pecan pie). Maybe all the walking is a good idea! Next is the Americas Geography session followed by the Americas Architects meeting and dinner back at the Venetian. The day is already feeling long and the $3 Starbucks coffle is going to have to help me along. Sitting still for a long time in a dimly lit room can be dangerous, especially after that lunch.

Up at 5:50 and out of the Mirage by 6:20 for the hike to the MGM for the Opening General Session. Man, it’s always farther that I think, it’s a 30 minute walk, but good to be outside for a while and get some fresh air while the city is still pretty quiet. This year breakfast for Monday is also at the MGM. But getting to the MGM is only the beginning. It must be another 2 miles to the conference center where the food is and then back a long way to the MGM Grand Arena for the session. This year they have coffee & juice outside the arena and are not making you jam up and enter thru one set of doors. This really was really bad last year.

There is a motivational speaker that they have not yet identified yet, but they’ve mentioned the phrase “power to win” a couple of times and I’m thinking I’ve heard this somewhere before. They are drawing for some door prizes, but so far, no luck. Winning an iPod would be nice.

My section, which is close to the entrance, is filling up, but a lot of the arena is still vacant. It will be interesting to see how much the 30% attendance cutback effects the conference.

One hundered and forty four of the elect will get to experience the SOA (Services Oriented Architecture) Battle Day as a pre-SWU event. I’ve arrived a little early and it’s looking pretty impressive. 144 laptops with multiple Vmware images so it won’t just be theoretical lectures, but a mix of information and hands-on learning. Should be lots of fun comparing our tooling and strategy againnst the Microsoft evil empire.

Well the day was every I expected. The session was great and they covered a lot of ground. In fact, there eas more lab that you could do in a day. But, I can download the vmWare images to do the labs later. well worth coming down a couple of days early.

Today we drove from Las Vegas at 7am to Zion National Park. we arrived at about 10:30am, and checked out the visitor center to get aquainted with the area and pick up some books and maps. We spent the rest of the day hiking several trails and driving the scenic route and taking 113 pictures. Oh the freedom of digital photography. The best hike was the last at Zion Canyon Overlook. You drive up a zig-zag road and through a 1.1 mile tunnel to the trail head. The trail runs around the top edge of the canyon with spectacular views way down into the canyon and at the trail end, a spectacular view into the Zion canyon area. Drove back to Las Vegas and arrived at about 9pm.

I had some free time this afternoon to look around the Vegas strip, so I took the camera out to shoot some of the sights around the Mirage. I ended up walking way farther that I planned and was wishing I had one of these! Tomorrow is an all day session on SOA and my “roomie” will arrive later in the evening. On Sunday, we’ll be off to Zion National Park for a day of hiking. I hope to get some great shots on the hike and I’ll post those pictures Sunday night.

Line ups.

Some times they are OK, sometimes they are pain and sometimes they are frustrating when you’re running behind schedule. I had lots of time to check in at the airport and clear customs this morning. The two gate agents were working a long line 90 minutes before departure. After about 20 minutes they were joined by a coworker, and things moved along nicely. Note to self – the gate only opens 90 minutes before departure, so don’t bother showing up any earlier. The interesting thing was the

sailboat Originally uploaded by Big Dadoo.

line at Tim Hortons was almost as long as the check-in line.

The flight to Denver was uneventful and locating the connecting flight was no problem. The terminal seemed familiar from last years trip. However, they have just changed the departure gate for the third time, so I’m of to A42 and Las Vegas is the next stop.

Have you experienced the “in between” state when you wake up? You know, the fleeting moments when you’re sort of conscious but not fully awake. Warm and comfy in bed, all relaxed and your mind seems totally empty, you don’t have a care in the world. It seems like there are a few seconds when you wake up that your brain is not fully engaged, or your memory is switched off. The things from yesterday have not registered yet, the concerns for today and the future just are not there. It’s so peaceful. I enjoyed a few moments of this today. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if we could just turn that experience on and off?

Last night I was getting ready, packing my bags, for my mutlti-conference road trip to Las Vegas for SWU and Orlando for Lotusphere when the phone rings. It’s late and I wonder who’s calling. While the phone is rarely for me, this call is, and it’s Scott. He’s reporting that he and Mandi have been in a car accident. Everybody is OK, but our car is not looking so good . In fact, it’s most likely a write-off. Eric and Dez are on the scene as “first-responders” and are helping out and keeping everybody warm while the details are exchanged. It seems like another vehicle slid through the stop light and showed up in front of Scott going south through a green light. We’ll this creates a little excitement and some tension around the house. But the good news is there were no major injuries, just some scrapes, brusies and soreness.

I’d tend to agree with Gartner on this one, wiki’s are on the move in the corporate world. Within IBM, anyone can create and manage a wiki but, I think the tooling will need to advance significantly (and 4 years is plenty of time for that) and the older generation who are not avid technology adopters will need to die off. The current generation just expects this stuff to be there, so there is no adoption issue for them.

E-Mail Is So Five Minutes Ago: “Gartner Group predicts that wikis will become mainstream collaboration tools in at least 50% of companies by 2009”