DominoKeys.com

As I type this entry, I’m sitting in a coffee shop doing the following:

• Using my MacBookPro 15″ running MacOS X
• Using Boingo to connect to the WiFi offered by the coffee shop, which is normally pay-by-the-hour, but with Boingo, included in my monthly fee.
• Logged on to Lotus Notes (6.5.4 – Mac) which is actually running under Rosetta because IBM hasn’t quite realized that the HUGE applause at Lotusphere last year when they stated they’ll have better Mac support meant “there are many Mac users who want to use full Notes functionality on the Mac!!!”
• Replicating via my internet connection back to the office which is connecting me to databases located on servers in 3 US States plus France and Singapore.
• Blogging using BMachine running in Camino
• Sync’ing news from 40+ RSS sources using NewsFire
• Running Parallels to run WinXP Pro
• Using Domino Designer to help someone with a development question (which really means bridging the network in WinXP through Parallels to the Mac and leveraging Boingo to hit the internet … all with no wires! )
• Launching a clientless SSL VPN connection using CheckPoint’s VPN client so I can access data in our ERP system (BPCS) using a 5250 emulation (be sure to check out that last link to see what IBM says about it! ) within Windows (same network bridging applies as the above point … this time, add VPN to the mix)
• On a conference call using my unlocked Razr from Europe that’s connecting to a call hosted on our Cisco IP phone system where participants from China and Singapore are calling in for FREE using Cisco IP SoftPhones on their laptops.

Now that’s some amazing technology. It hit me today that I’m doing this all flawlessly and easily … two words that make most IT people cringe when they launch these types of technology. None of it was hard to get started, nothing required extensive configuration (on my part) to get it running. And it all works!

It is simply amazing to me that this can all be done. Now, if they would just get my coffee order right…