Do, or Do Not, There is No Try

Yoda always had a way with words.

It seems my activities in the last year or so on this blog have been slacking, a sure sign I was busier at work and home. Twitter was down too, I know hard for you to believe. But for those keeping score, my Klout score is still hanging around 62-64, so maybe I was more active than I thought.

And yet I did get to do all of this:

• guest blogged over here a bit
• live tweeted, not one, not 2 but 3 Palm Beach Operas (La Cerentola, La Traviata and Salome) and doing it again for Macbeth right before heading to Orlando
• was rewarded with another year as an IBM Champion
• home schooled my kids (and still do) and it's been great
• spoke at SugarCon for the 2nd time in a row
• got to listen to and spend 1 on 1 time with the great Paul Greenberg
• attended and spoke a few times at my first ever IBM Impact 
• shot a few videos for/with IBM and fellow Champions
• spoke at MWLUG and had a great time with everyone in Indianapolis
• finally went on a trip with just my wife and no kids for the first time since the oldest was born, we went back to Israel for the first time since 2001
• paused my other blog

But I did not write any articles this year that were published, first time in a while. No books written either, although I have some in mind, both technical and fun. I will at least look into having these books published and if there is interest will start writing them.

I want to write more articles this year, well even 1 would be more than last year, so will work on this as well.

The muse just wasn't very active and I apologize, but as it appears, I have been blogging for 7 years so maybe this was a little sabbatical and now I will ramp back up.

Of course, Lotusphere Connect 2014 is coming up and I will post more on this in time.

See you in Orlando I hope and since my session is on Sunday at 10:30am no reason not to pop in, that is unless you are on the hog ride that morning.

Losing My Certification and Unlimited Free Exams at Connect 2014

That was just a dream

Just a dream

Just a dream, dream - REM, Losing My Religion

I was notified that 2 of my certifications are ending in the next 90 days. 

For those that had them you will be losing:

Sametime 8.0 Admin

Quickr 8.1 Admin

Bad news

Before you start looking into what else you can get certified for Quickr, note that the Quickr 8.5 exam found on this page http://www-03.ibm.com/certify/tests/ovrL914.shtml states quite clearly:

Note: This test will be withdrawn on Nov 30 2013.

Quickr has reached the end of life period sadly, see this page: http://www-01.ibm.com/software/support/lifecycleapp/PLCDetail.wss?psynkey=J489493Q50480I91&synkey=I741570Q02880I82&synkey=O917987F42949E19&synkey=U661911Z58490I09&from=spf

Good news:

Sametime lives on and you will be offered the new Sametime 9.0 Admin exams, hopefully by Connect 2014.

And according to Deborah Cole and this Connect 2014 webpage we will once again get the benefit of taking free exam tests at Connect 2014. Now unlimited!

One of the biggest draws at this event has always been the certification testing and prep labs. IBM is pleased to announce, for the very first time, that unlimited complimentary IBM Collaboration Solutions exams will be available for all registered attendees for the duration of the conference. All other Software Group exams will be available for 50% off the regular price.
As in previous years, testing will take place in the Lark room of the Swan Hotel. Since IBM is switching testing vendors in the New Year from Prometric to Pearson Vue, the certification team is asking candidates to create a profile in advance of testing using your existing candidate ID. This can be done at www.pearsonvue.com/ibmThough the physical prep lab will be located in the Peacock room of the Swan Hotel, the Virtual Prep Lab sponsored by Avnet will be available 24/7 for the duration of the conference.

If you want to see what tests still exist for ICS/Lotus go here: http://www-03.ibm.com/certify/tests/test_index_bd_sw.shtml#IBM Collaboration Solutions

My Sametime JumpStart Session at Connect 2014

I am happy to announce we will be doing a JumpStart session about how to enable the IBM Sametime Voice in Sametime 9. 

 

For those that are unaware, SUTLite is now known as IBM Sametime Voice and is no longer an added license expense. You can load this up on your own and off you go! It is FREE!

But wait, you say you do not know any telephony? You are not the PBX person? You have no idea what a PBX is or does? 

 

Well, come on down to Orlando this winter, the week of Jan 26-Feb 1 and get hands on walk through session on how to start leveraging the best part of IBM Sametime 9.

I will be presenting with Jeremy Sanders, our ThinkRite CTO, who will be coming from the UK and we look forward to seeing you at IBM Connect 2014.

Official information for our session:

1633 : Calling Home: Enabling the IBM Sametime Voice (Phone) in ST9

Program Stream 2: For IT Practitioners

Track: 9: JumpStarts and Master Classes

ABSTRACT:

IBM Sametime has so much to offer, but most customers still are using it only for instant messaging. Do you want to help your company enable everyone to work remotely and provide them with phones and video conferencing options from your IBM Sametime client? If the answer is YES! Come learn directly from the team that manages IBM Sametime Unified Telephony worldwide for over 150,000 people. Step by step, we'll walk through how to set your employees free. No extra infrastructure costs are involved as the IBM Sametime Softphone (SUTLite) is already part of your license and adds additional productivity to existing IBM Sametime Infrastructure and software suite.