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Everyone else seems to be posting things that reflect on the last year – so I decided to do the same. Below are the top 10 moments/posts/thoughts that I feel are more noteworthy from this blog. Enjoy.

10. Lotus announces Sametime 8.5 before the end of 2009 (despite me being SURE they’d wait to Lotusphere)

9. Disk savings from DAOS was easy to implement and quite beneficial on disk space usage!

8. Began using Google Voice a utility that’s not all “there” yet but potentially a game-changer for managing phone calls & voicemails.

7. Notes turns 20

6. Realized the using an iPhone is more like integrating something into your life than getting a new phone.

5. Realized that people don’t “search” any more, they “Google.”

4. My alter-ego starred in a video all about “conferences at Disney World” which featured Lotusphere 2009.

3. After much debate (and frustration caused largely by SnowLeopard) I abandoned a Mac in favor of a PC.

2. Notes (Traveler) support for the iPhone was released (and it rocks!)

1. I got fed up with hearing things like “notes is a tarnished brand” and one simple thing to try to make my voice heard for a moment by being featured on theInfoBoom.com along with a companion piece on my blog.

Tags: 2009, daos, google, iphone, lotusphere, mac, pc, sametime, traveler

It is with a most humble attitude that I need to make this announcement: I just ordered a new laptop – and its not a Mac.

(Dominokeys.com would like to take this moment to remind you that for all medical emergencies we recommend using 911 or your cities local emergency services phone number.)

Yes. I’ve been a Mac fan for years. I’ve harped on the lack of Lotus support for the Mac. I’ve praised Lotus for a solid Mac Notes client. And now, I’ve gone back to a PC.

Simply put: there are too many business applications I need to run that require me to “live” in Parallels (virtualized Windows environment). If that’s where I’m spending my time, then why not just RUN Windows?! Our VPN, Cisco IP soft-phone, Quickr Connectors, System i emulation – and a list of other tools all require Windows. Yes, I could go around and hunt down Mac counterparts to those tools but it almost always results in more work for my Admins or the purchase of another software package (the System i emulator alone was over $100!).

At the end of the day – I need to get BUSINESS done. I’m not abandoning Mac altogether – I still have an iMac and MacBook at home. And I may even keep my MacBookPro around for presentations, videos and such. But as the primary machine, I’m kind of looking forward to the simplicity of Windows.

How smart of a decision will that be? I’m sure you’ll read about it here over the next few months.

Tags: Apple / Mac, bizness, lotus, mac, pc, windows

Hi. I’m a Mac.

And yet, when it comes to a few select game titles (two in particular) that are graphics intensive, the Mac (using Windows within a virtual machine) doesn’t quite cut it. Years of fighting that made me realize one simple thing: I could just spend some money on a true PC and have that problem go away completely. So I did.

Its been a long time since I bought a PC for my home. I went to Dell’s website, found the best deal I could. I was impressed at how easy it is to configure the PC (and how easy it is to slowly add a lot of $ to the total! — “for $40 you can have… GREAT, thanks… now for $60 you can have…”).

While I expected that they’d try to sell me some USB memory sticks, a monitor and printer, I didn’t expect to see either of these:

…or these…

I imagine there are people out there financing their new computer and a $9 DVD over the course of a few years. Not my idea of smart money, but hey, whatever.

The process was quite easy although I was surprised how long it would take to arrive. I didn’t get anything fancy and was told it would take nearly a month “or later.” It’ll be interesting to see exactly how long it takes to arrive.

Tags: pc, shopping, website

Wednesday afternoon my Mac went to sleep, as it normally does when I’m not around. I disconnected it (with no drives pluggedin) and went to my local coffee shop to finish out several emails I needed to respond to. When I got there, my Mac refused to wake up. I did the usual fixes but nothing work – which resulted in my visit to the Apple store.

Since then (and since my Mac is @ the Apple store for the next several days), I’ve been using a Sony Vaio we had laying around the office. Its a nice, lightweight machine with a Centrino Duo processor and XP. But within minutes, I started to make a list of the things I miss from my Mac and things I forgot I liked about PCs.

Missing about my Mac…

• Placement and funciton of control/command type keys
• Not having to deal with a static “start” bar that consumes a lot of space (and I think “auto hide” makes it worse)
• Spaces – I never realized how much I used that until now
• Auto-scrolling speeds on the mouse (the Mac adapts to the speed at which you move the mouse – the PC is one-speed-for-all based on what you set it to be)
• CMD+SHIFT+F4 (brings up a screen capture utility)
• Quicktime being “there” already
• Smooth fonts
• Spacebar preview (in Finder)

I forgot PCs are nice because…

• Applications are easier to find (when you need to install them)
• “Windows” key functionality like “WIN+R” to bring up the “run” command. Quicksilver does that on a Mac but I don’t think it does it as well.
• Network drives are MUCH easier to deal with on a PC (why do I have to MOUNT a network drive on a Mac each time I want to use it!?)
• Full Lotus product support (Quickr connectors, Notes 8, etc. – they’re all here on Windows and work great)

Despite realizing that there are things I miss from the Windows/PC world, I’m still anxious to get my Mac back!

Tags: lotus, mac, pc, windows