I tried to upgrade my IBM Notes client to 901FP10IF1 from FP8.
And as luck would have it, you just.can't.do.it.
It breaks Sametime Embedded, it breaks the Connections plugins, it causes Milli Vanilli to win a Grammy. Okay, not everything can be blamed on the QA teams.
If you will be going down this path you will need the following, and Mac People there are updates for you as well.
These are on IBM.com Support/FixCentral which you now need your subscriptions up to date to download. Links will connect to IBM but you will need to login to download the files.
Version 18.2 (February 2018) update: The latest release of theIBM Connections for Mac introduces the following:
Miscellaneous defect and PMR fixes
PS - I am unable to reconnect my plugins to the IBM Cloud, stay tuned for further updates or let me know if you know how to fix it. To be fair it did not login before I upgraded either.
I think last time I pretty much laid out everything I wanted to say on being a Champion and what one can do to become one. Turns out it was a very popular post. Thank you to my customers from other partners and projects, my clients, my friends (inside and outside IBM) and family for nominating me or voting for me. Especially like to thank everyone in the various forums, chat groups, bloggers that help me succeed in my day to day world as much as I hope I have helped them in theirs with my support and posts and archival code :-). More details on the 2018 champions from Libby here.
The IBM Champions program recognizes innovative thought leaders in the technical community and rewards these contributors by amplifying their voice and increasing their sphere of influence.
An IBM Champion is an IT professional, business leader, developer, and educator who influences and mentors others to help them innovate and transform digitally with IBM software, solutions, and services.
1400 nominations
650 Champions Elected
62% renewing
38% new Champions
38 countries represented
6 business areas, including Analytics (34%), Cloud (25%), Collaboration and Talent Solutions (24%), Power Systems (9%), Storage (1%), IBM Z (7%)
If you go to any IBM events this year and see someone in IBM Champion logos or jackets or backpacks or whatever it might be, stop and say hi and meet some awesome people from the sales, technical, marketing and business world.
Learning about failure from the infamous Elon Musk and SpaceX.
SpaceX did not land all 3 rockets cleanly the other day and have numerous tests that failed along the way. They have even been compiled in one video. Even the great ones fail, that is how they get better.
Once in a while it is nice to write myself, and my readers, the finer point of failures and what we learned from them.
Keep in mind:
we are all professionals
we all reviewed the contract
we all reviewed the specifications
we thought we knew the people involved
we had more than enough time to complete this by 12/31...2017
So in the interest of open, honest reporting, let's drop into hell, shall we?
Never get into a mail migration(ok, any serious project) that involves a 3rd party.
If you can't handle it all on your own, get a friend, a resource, someone on your side to handle whatever part you do not know. This alone may save you 1-2 hours A DAY on average during the project.
Date, or No Date, there is no wait and see
If you propose some dates for the cut over and the client is not comfortable with them, you better find out why upfront. And not just the easy reasons but the hard ones, like the training person isn't available for 6 months or the boss is on sabbatical for 2 months or no one explained that they would be giving out new hardware at the same time to people (phones and PCs) or well you get the idea.
Vacations Happen
Mine, yours, theirs and of course once the dates are in motion you look bad for taking vacation at the time they finally want to move everything. Which leads to...
Backups
Not data, that is easy. People. Techs. How many of us out there really have a good backup person in our organizations or that we can work with on minimal notice with enough knowledge of the solution and process at hand? I may be a better troubleshooter and am not talking about that aspect, but I am referring to the ability to holistically look at a solution in motion and keep it going while I/you are unavailable. This is one reason is document everything along the way and store it in Connections or a Notes db or Dropbox so if I can't be there to do it, someone can easily pick it up and run with it.
Caveat Emptor
Migrations of anything come with caveats. Data should be ok, folders, encrypt ions, repeating meetings, large attachments(like over 1GB) and numerous other items should be addressed and explained upfront to the customer.No, it will not prevent that horrible meeting where they claim you never told them, explained them or sent it to them, but you can try. Most clients really do not understand many aspects of the projects and even when explained in non technical terms they just say yes, yes and we all know the end will come back and we will explain it all over again.You are shaking your head at this one or laughing because it happens nearly every time.
Leap Frog
Planned it all out, everyone agreed to the order in which the data will migrate and which date. Along comes someone and demands to get moved or needs it done before their vacation or just can't wait to be the first guinea pig on the new thing they did not get trained on yet because they hate the old thing.
It happens, in 30 years or so of projects this happens maybe once a year or 2. Acceptable, but frustrating too.
Karma however wins every time.
Next project was quick and easy, unexpectedly.
So here's to all of you far under water on a contract and know when it is done you will at least have good stories to tell your (IT) friends.
Today I presented on getting the most out of your PC.
The Israel Translation Association works on behalf of the many translators in Israel. They cover all languages and people come from all over for this annual event.
This is my 3rd time speaking at the ITA.
IT people know a new machine is usually the answer when the old one is slow or perceived to be slow. But for some people the price point is not practical and this session was an overview of what one can do to speed up their system.
