Weblog
27/5: Just back from Dublin ...
Julie and I have just returned from a few days in Dublin timed to coincide with the third ILUG event. I didn't go to the first one but was at the second last year. This time, the event was held over two full days with three full streams of seminars. Organisation was first class. This was a first rate event thanks to the professional planning, project management and fulfilment skills of Paul, Eileen, Kitty, Warren, Bill and Tom. All sessions started on time. That's very impressive.The event was free to attend thanks to the sponsors. The main sponsors were IBM and RIM. IBM's sponsorship included a free bar on Thursday evening throughout the speed geeking and beyond. That's my kind of event! And if that wasn't all, Rob Novak of Collaboration University fame bought everyone a Guinness in his Free Code session. This was my first experience of the gui.nne.ss AJAX framework but I have to say I'm impressed.
One session I was particularly impressed with was Chris Blatnick's Interface Matters. I think that the Notes client doesn't get enough attention (at least up until release 8) and Chris is doing a lot to counter that.
The various Blackberry sessions got me excited again about building a Blackberry solution for one of my clients. I think that there's a space in the market for a generic Domino workflow solution for the Blackberry. Does one already exist?
I also attended a few of the Admin sessions which helped me to get an idea of Clustering, Domino Domain Monitoring and SPAM prevention. I now know enough to be dangerous!
On Saturday we joined the Geek Trip that went out of Dublin into the country. I saw enough to decide that next time we come, we'll drive over.
So there are big hints that this event will happen again in some form next year. It has become a great success. Many many of the 250 people attending weren't at Lotusphere in January so this event is reaching and educating a new audience.
10/5: my football club
The BBC just ran a story about a new venture where a web site is trying to get 50,000 members to pledge £35 each to raise £1.75m which will be used to buy a controlling interest in a football club. Apparently they've already had 13,000 members register in two weeks - although registration is free so doesn't necessarily imply that they'll all pay up. But why stop at 50,000? Why not 500,000? That would enable them to spend £14m for new players every season.
This is a great idea. Move over Mr. Glazer, "here we go, here we go, here we go".
The members can vote for the club they'd most like to buy when they register and - once 50,000 members sign up - the process of choosing the right club will take place. Price will obviously be a major consideration because they'll only be £1.375m in the buying fund which has to buy at least 51% of a club. The club must be debt-free or have manageable debt and the club must have the potential to reach the Premiership.
Top of the list of clubs to buy so far is Leeds United which has the potential but also massive debt. The second and third choices are Cambridge and Accrington respectively.
So if you think you can do better than your team's manager, why not own a club and help pick the team? Real life fantasy football. Click on the graphic above to go to the MyFootballClub.co.uk site.
