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Usability - Productivity - Business - The web - Singapore & Twins

By Date: May 2007

A little IBM advertisement


IBM developerWorks Live! - Briefings

IBM developerWorks Live! continues to deliver new complimentary briefings in 2007. Limited seats reserve yours now !

Attending one of the jam-packed IBM developerWorks Live! briefings will shorten your learning curve, and improve the quality and results of your most difficult software projects. Keep up-to-speed on the latest trends in the industry. See how IBM tools can help you get the most value from your IT investments. Sign up now for some of the most powerful briefings delivered by IBM.

Lotus - Dynamic Workspaces

Companies need workers to quickly embrace and adapt to change if they are to be successful in an on demand world. It's difficult for people to change, however, when their work environment has remained the same for over twenty years: one-size-fits-all PC's running Microsoft Windows and Office. Despite access to more resources (e.g. people, applications, data, and tools) than ever before, productivity gains have been minimal as workers struggle to figure out how to best make use of all of them during the course of their everyday job. Providing workers with newer PCs running the latest versions of Windows (Vista) and Office (2007) will only compound, not fix the problem. What's needed instead is a transformation of the work environment, one that is role-based and dynamically weaves together all of the resources necessary to empower people to be more effective, responsive, and innovative in the context of the work they perform every day.

Dynamic workspaces: Next generation desktops for today’s enterprise businesses

Learn about the new Lotus Domino R8 platform and how to do collaboration "faster, better, and cheaper" than the competition. Make your users more productive with less effort and at lower cost. Learn about the advantages of an integrated collaboration platform from IBM and how it compares to the competition.

Date: Tuesday, June 5 2007
Time: 9:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m.
Venue: Marina Mandarin Hotel,
            6 Raffles Boulevard,
            Marina Square
Location: Taurus & Leo Rooms, Level 1



Agenda
Time Topic
9:00 - 9:30 Introduction
9:30 - 10:30 Putting a New Face on Messaging and Collaboration (Lotus Notes/Domino)
10:30 - 10:45 Unifying Communications and Collaboration (Lotus Sametime)
10:45 - 11:35 Re-inventing Team Collaboration (Lotus Quickr)
11:35 - 12:20 Reaping the Benefits of Social Software in the Enterprise (Lotus Connections)
12:20 - 13:15 Lunch
13:15 - 13:45 Portals: The Front-End of SOA (WebSphere Portal)
13:45 - 15:00 License Vs Software
15:00 - 16:00 Summary / Next Steps

Reserve your seat today by registering here.


Posted by on 27 May 2007 | Comments (1) | categories: IBM - Lotus

Did you Scratch today?


Teaching kids (especially mine) programming is on my mind for quite a while. The discussion on Slashdot about my query was very inspiring. However it didn't seem to show the right tool. Now, again inspired by a slashdot article, I found Scratch. Looks very much like fun to me:

Scratch Programming Language

Now they only need to add interfaces to Lego Mindstorms and the Picocricket and I'm a happy camper.

Posted by on 21 May 2007 | Comments (3) | categories: Software

A Cost Analysis of Windows Vista Content Protection


Peter Gutman at the University of Auckland has written an analysis of Windows Vista's content protection titled A Cost Analysis of Windows Vista Content Protection. The Executive Executive Summary says it all: " The Vista Content Protection specification could very well constitute the longest suicide note in history".
It makes an very interesting read when you consider adopting Windows Vista be it at home or in your corporate context. The document seems to be very alive with footnotes and remarks being added. Since pages on University sites have a shelf live usually limited by graduation or employment I mirror the article in its status of today 21st May 2007.

Posted by on 21 May 2007 | Comments (0) | categories: Software

Software Universe in Brunei


A good crowd turned up to listen to IBM sessions on all our brands. I was presenting on eGovernment in the 21st century and how it ties back to our offerings. I used a graphic I developed for a Bruneian customer a few years back to let them evaluate how far they got with their eGovernment initiatives:


Posted by on 16 May 2007 | Comments (0) | categories: IBM - Lotus

Town hall with Sam (life blogging)


Sam Palmisano today visited Singapore for the first time since he became IBM's chairman. So IBM Singapore organized a town hall session with him. The session went as expected. Sam exhibited a humor in his address, that was nearly British (to my delight). He marveled about past supermen who actually managed to sell hardware and software together.
In the Q & A session he was asked what is the most important thing a people manager can do for his people he answered: " Lead, don't manage".
Leading means to enable people, managing is optimizing around the measurements.
He reminded us, that IBM is unique in its breath and depth of knowledge and can win any competitive battle once we deliver these (where he was very clear that there is room for improvement). While IBM is a great engineering company he stated, that IBM's ability to generate cash each quarter is what makes IBM tick. He predicted software being a bigger part of IBM in future, not because he likes software more than the other parts, but because most of the IT industry is software driven and software companies command a higher P/E ratio. He predicted that in the near future IBM will table more integrated offerings to drive IBM cash flow and profitability.
He made it very clear: "It is our ability to generate cash, that allows us to invest in you, therefore you should care for profits and margins". All the businesses (storage, PC etc.) IBM exited were for the reason, that they didn't make that margins and cash that drives IBM to be able to invest into innovation.
He urged and promised, that he will drive to simplify IBM for the benefit for IBM and their clients. His final word: "If you hire the smartest people in the world, let them do more than one thing".

Posted by on 09 May 2007 | Comments (3) | categories: IBM - Lotus

XML / XForms / J2EE Job in Munich


My old colleagues in Munich are looking for a senior developer who will help them to develop UMsys the integrated environmental management system to its next level. You should have a sound idea about web standards, XML and Java. If W3C is your middle name, you can bet on a place on the short list. UMsys is running on a J2EE server and uses an XForms implementation "Orbeon Forms" provided by Orbeon as its main web interface.
Contact information can be found on the IN+ website.

Posted by on 07 May 2007 | Comments (0) | categories: Software