I can’t tell you how excited I am at the promise of a conduit that will finally allow me to connect my iPhone with Lotus Notes (even if it uses the built-in Mac stuff to get it done - that’s a more valid option than DWA uber-light, in my opinion).

However, I’ve had the software installed since Wednesday of last week and I still don’t have it fully working. I’ve got a few tech articles open and their support is friendly, but very slow to get back to you. There are also NO documents in the knowledgebase about anything related to the Notes connector.

So … when I get this working, I’ll finally be able to post a blog entry about it (and it’ll be detailed, to help others avoid the headaches I’ve had).

Watch this space for more information.

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I’m starting this week off-topic, so why not keep going. If I had a fourth blog (one, two, three), it would be about cars. I love cars. I’ve even blogged here about cars in the past. And right now, I’m looking for a new car.

Which has me in dealerships. Which made me realize that I should finally write down my list of the top 10 reasons you should instantly leave a car dealership:

1. “What can I do to get you in this car today?”
2. “I want you to meet my sales manager…” (bonus points if they do this but DON’T let you go back to see him when you’re negotiating)
3. A dealer who insists that they go on the test drive with you.
4. Showing you an offer that only has a monthly payment (and conveniently omits your down payment, tax, title, license, trade value, etc.)
5. Dealers greet you before you can close the door on the car you arrived in.
6. “What are you currently paying per month?” – They may need to find out what you want to pay per month later, if you’re negotiations are centered around a monthly number as the primary element, but the only reason they care what you are paying now is so they can make an offer that’s not far off from that … to make it seem like less of a jump for you. It says nothing about the “deal” you’re getting on your car.
7. Offers made on any of the following:
   - Post it notes
   - Sheets of paper divided into 4 quadrants (the 4 square box is actually a sales technique - and not an effective one)
   - Paper that was ripped in half
   - Paper that originally had something else on it … like the menu of a local restaurant
8. Dealers who use any of the following statements:
   - “That’s priced right.”
   - “You won’t find a better deal than that!”
   - “If you want to go all the way up to [some town more than 15 minutes away], go ahead. But this car’s right here now and it won’t be when you come back.”
   - When asked why another dealer has a comparable car for less, they answer: “There’s something wrong with that car.”
   - Any comment that bashes another brand
   - “I suggest you get our protection package.”
   - Calls a sales manager to “ask if the car is still available”
9. A dealer who says: “What’s your phone number? I won’t call you.” — If you’re not going to call me, you don’t need my number.
10. Anyone wearing a green suit OR more jewelry than you and your spouse combined.

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While shopping this weekend, I stumbled on a huge rack of stuffed animals that are wearing headphones. The idea is that you can plug in your iPod to the animal and play your music through the headphones the animal is wearing.

I’ll ignore the fact that there’s a subconscious statement inherent in the product that suggests it might be OK to have your headphones at a volume level others can easily hear. Instead, I’ll just focus on the product’s name:

iFlops.

If I were trying to sell a product like this, I don’t know that I’d use the word “flop” anywhere in the name. Seeing racks of them for 75% off certainly doesn’t help justify the choice of the name either.

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A funny thing happens when you get back from Lotusphere: you go in search of blogs. Not just any blogs … blogs of people that put on a great session; or people you met briefly; or people you think you met and had at least 2 drinks with during a vendor sponsored event. You find these people, catch up on their blog and quite possibly add them to your favorite RSS reader.

Many, many new blogs appeared in my reader after this past Lotusphere. One of which (from someone who falls under the “put on a great session” category) posted a link about how addicted they were to blogging. I couldn’t help but take the test myself. (And you can too!)

The results:
82%How Addicted to Blogging Are You?

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In my career as an IT professional, I’ve heard the following comments (all true, by the way):

• “The internet is slow.” - Wow, the whole thing? Not just our connection to it?
• “I need a big hard drive, ’cause I want to download the internet.” - Yes. You do. Its nice to know someone is backing it up though.
• “Maybe I need more memory if I’m going to get on the internet.” - You won’t have to remember everything you see on the internet. Besides, the majority of it is junk anyway.
• “Can you check and see if the internet is up?” - I can, but it’ll take some time.
• “Does my computer have internet?” - Technically, that’s not even a question.
• “I downloaded it from the internets.” - Woah! There are more than one? You mean Internet2 really did take off?

At my office, we got so sick of answering questions about the internet. At the same time, I can understand why some people would have a problem with this. Its not like you can “see” the internet itself. Its a virtual concept that’s really hard to wrap your head around. And, there are so many pieces of “the internet” that its hard for people to understand how it works. So, we decided to help them out.

We went into our Research and Design Lab and pulled out a very old piece of equipment, dusted it off and repurposed it as a visual description of the internet:

And yes, from the looks of things, the internet is slow.

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I’ve now been using the Notes beta 8.5 client for the Mac for one week at the office (I took a week after Lotusphere to stay in Disney for vacation … after all, one of my other websites is Disney related). After one week of normal use, I have some thoughts (again, I’m keeping in mind that this IS a beta product and I have tried to participate in the forum to be helpful with my comments):

• The program icon for Notes doesn’t bounce in the dock when loading, which is only annoying because there have been some times when I can’t get it to start at all.
• When loaded, Notes has a 2nd icon that shows the number of unread messages: AWESOME!
• When loaded, Notes has an icon at the top of your menu bar (by the Mac clock) when new messages arrive: AWESOME.
• There’s also an icon for your Sametime status up there: very cool!
• The side-bar shelf calendar thing ROCKS! I didn’t realize how handy this was … and now I want MANY more side shelf options - which I hear are coming at some point.
• I crave Symphony - especially since I’m seriously considering uninstalling my brand new Microsoft Office 2008 … blagh!
• If you try to have a VoIP call with someone in your sametime list, nothing will happen. Until you close your IM window and they decide to open one with you again … you’ll then hear the most annoying sound ever come from your Mac. Try it, its fun. (You’ll have to reboot to get it to stop … or ask the person to never IM you again. Your choice.)
• Trying to chat with someone from in your Notes Sametime list doesn’t always work. I’m not sure why.
• The Java/Eclipse/Notes combo doesn’t seem to take up as many resources as I once thought. However, it seems to be just as flaky-feeling as I thought. I realize that’s hard to quantify, but its my perception.

All that being said, I’m still on a high from the ID105 session at Lotusphere about all the new Mac stuff coming soon. I just need to work on being patient. Which I don’t do well at all.

Meanwhile, in the week since I’ve been back, two people at my company have requested Mac’s. One in IT and our CEO. That’s awesome and I really think both are going to enjoy using a Mac and feel like they get more done (and more easily). However, for both of those people (and the existing Mac users) I really think that they’re best off with Notes 7.0.3 even though the rest of the company will be on Notes 8 before too long.

Again … its beta, I get it.

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Each year when I return from Lotusphere, I go through my notepad and copy down all of my session notes into a file or database on my computer. I find this to be helpful since I can search for a phrase or idea later and find it. It helps when, inevitably, a few months later I say “I think at Lotusphere, I heard someone say…” — I simply do a search and find the comment!

This year, I found myself writing down quotes from session presenters that I found interesting… or odd. Examples of odd/funny/strange/clever/etc. ones from this year:

“Everything I’m going to show you isn’t in that.”
- John “Starfish” Head at BP215 - talking about … I honestly don’t remember. It was the kind of double negative, or perhaps reverse negative that made me forget what he really meant to say the moment he finished saying it. (The comment had something to do with showing features in Symphony vs. ones in Open Office.)

“What’s the cost of not doing anything?”
- Kathleen Cooke at ID301 - talking about why its important to look at Sametime and Telephony integration.

“The most intuitive interface is the one the user doesn’t have to do anything with.”
- Kathleen again at the same session — I’m honestly not sure what she was talking about or what she meant.

“Since its on the internet, it may or may not be… real.”
- Julian Robichaux at BP210 talking about data they got from the web about beer sales (to do demos on some really cool graphs).

“DASHBOARD is Latin for ‘a whole bunch of crap on your screen.’”
- Julian Robichaux at BP210 - and yes, I’ve already re-used that several times!

If I find more on my list, I’ll add them.

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This blog tends to be the place where I talk about the things that I get really excited about (Apple stuff, cell phones, Lotus software, Disney, etc.). But there’s one topic I’ve never been able to work into this blog: cars.

That changes today.

Yesterday, I got an email from Nissan asking me to participate in a survey. I agreed, hoping that the survey would be about my current car (a Murano) since the lease is almost up and they’ve done NOTHING to try to encourage me to buy another Nissan product (which I think is insane, but whatever). Instead, the survey was about how I strongly I felt about some features they might put in upcoming cars. It was really an interesting peek into what the auto industry is looking to put into cars in the future.

I thought others might be interested as well, so here’s a list of some of the features mentioned on the survey that I thought were most interesting (my interpretation of the feature is in brackets “[ ]” - all features were listed with a graphic or picture as well):

• One Action Clean Air [detects clean air and opens vents, then shuts them when smoke or smog is present]
• Forest A/C Package
• Forest A/C Package with Breezing Air
• Aromatherapy [not a bad idea if you ask me]
• Anti-Stain/ Anti-Wear Interior Materials
• Heated and Cooled Cup holders
• Around View Monitor (AVM) [uses cameras to display a whole view of what's around the car on a screen]
• Rear View Monitor with Preview
• Alcohol Level Detecting System
• Security Heartbeat Monitor [a sensor on the seat belt reconizes a heart beat - don't ask me how]
• Visual Audio Package (Visual Audio+ USB + iPod Connection)
• 5.1 Surround Sound
• Music Server
• Wireless Audio
• Wireless Media Transfer
• e-PKB [like the Lexus that parallel parks itself]
• Selectable Driving Mode
• Pedestrian Warning [detects if a person is infront of you and shows a graphic of that]
• Parking Fit [determines how well you're able to park in an area]
• Speed Limiter (with traffic signal recognition) [upcoming signs (stop, yield, etc.) appear on your dash]
• Auto Hazard Lamp
• Adaptive Rear-lighting System (ARS) [lights get brighter the harder the person brakes]
• Night Vision
• PreCrash Seat Belt [seat belt gets tighter when a crash is expected]
• Side Collision Prevention (SCP)
• Intelligent Cruise Control (ICC) [anyone see the Mercedes demo of this where they crashed two cars because they forgot to turn it on during the demo? hilarious!]
• Low Speed Following (LSF)
• Intelligent Brake Assist (IBA) [brake reaction changes depending on driving conditions]
• Distance Control Assist (DCA)
• Lane Departure Prevention (LDP)
• Side Obstacle Warning (SOW)
• Remote Vehicle Communication via Mobile Phone [I want that feature now! It'll tell you if your car's doors are locked, lights are on, etc.]
• Friendly Driving Partner [instead of a low tire pressure warning, a voice will give you a friendly greeting reminding you of that]
• Intelligent Advisor [perhaps the most impressive item - this learns your driving habits, the places you go and advises you on the status of your car, locations of restaurants you like, etc. -- I love this idea for the sole purpose of finding a coffee shop wherever I am.]

The survey also asked if you would pay certain prices for each option. In each case, I thought the price was very close to what I would be OK paying to get it in my car. It’ll be exciting to see some of these features go into future cars.

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