My view of the world and anything that might interest me.
IBM has released its result for 2008 and you can read all about it here. For the first time IBM has passed the magical mark of $100 billion in revenue. Other than that it was a very good year for IBM taking into account the financial situation in the world.
Now as an IBMer, I am looking with baited breath in what our bonuses will look like when March comes around.
I am looking for a solution to Sync Lotus Notes 8.5 on Ubuntu with Google Calendar. It only needs to be an one way sync from Notes to Google Calendar.
I have searched the Interwebs but have not found a suitable solution. Have found some stuff for Windows but not for Ubuntu or even Linux in general.
Advice will be much appreciated.
Technorati Tags: notes, ubuntu, google calendar, sync, ibm
Over the past 2 weekends, I have been helping friends, Melanie & Hendrik, renovating their flat which they going to rent out. Above picture shows the view from one of their windows. How goes the saying, Location, Location, Location – how true is it about this. Cannot think of a better view anywhere in South Africa, in fact the world. Well except maybe the view from my new IBM Office.
Wednesday evening I attended the 27Dinner and it was great to see some old faces and meet some new people Face to Face. All in all it was a great evening of just socializing with old and new friends. And oh the talks was great too 🙂
One of the questions I was asked over and over again when people hear I work for IBM, is what is a big corporate like IBM doing at a social event like 27Dinner. Few people know that IBM with 400000 permanent employees is dependent in its daily work on social software, networks and communities. Each of the social tools like Twitter, Blogging, Wikis, Forums etc has an IBM equivalent inside. Also we have social tools inside that I have not seen outside yet, but cannot say much about that.
One of my colleagues, Luis Suarez, has recorded a video on The Future of Work and the use of social networks and tools. To give you an idea how he works – he works for IBM Netherlands, stay in the Canary Islands and report to 2 bosses in the United States.
The Future of Work by Luis Suarez from Luis Suarez on Vimeo.
The video is fairly long but gives a good idea what he thinks. In the video he also discusses the use of email – here is a blog posting from him on that subject.
A colleague, IBMer Luis Suarez, wrote an article in the NYtimes on how he is using Social Networking tools to reduce the use of e-mail. And I quote
E-mail can become extinct, if not repurposed altogether, even at big companies like I.B.M. An e-mail in-box no longer needs to be like Pandora’s box.
I am not sure whether I totally agree with this … there is still a place for e-mail. As another IBMer Ed Brill say and I quote
Even if you move all of your collaboration to other tools, there still needs to be a prompt, a push, a tickle, an alert … something that draws you into the collaboration.
And this push or tickle as Ed calls it is usually via email. If somebody comments on a blog post of mine I get prompted about it via email. If somebody follow me on Twitter I get informed via email. If somebody send me a message via Facebook then I get informed via e-mail.
So to answer my own question, no I do not think so. Yes it can reduce the volume of email (an I do not talk about all the spam) in your inbox but totally replace, no I do not think so. I would love to hear your comments about it.
What were they thinking, and here I am talking about that 15 Stormers that were on the field yesterday. What a bunch of wallies … I have not seen a bunch of guys that for 80 minutes had no idea what they were doing. On yesterday’s performance they do not deserve to be in the semi’s.
Well done to the Sharks that showed how it should be done. Good luck to them and let us all go out and support them next weekend against the Waratahs.
Over the past week, I have spend 3 glorious days in Sun City courtesy of IBM for great work delivered during 2007. I was one of the lucky one’s that stayed in the Cascades hotel and what a joy. I was not like Tertia and spend basically all my allowance provided by IBM.
Went on a game drive early on the first morning and almost froze to death but what a great drive. Got to know a elephant … the driver had to quickly start the vehicle and move away so close the elephant got. Also was treated to a baby white rino, “rooikat”, zebra, giraffe, impala and various other wildlife. Unfortunately we did not get to see lions or cheetahs.
Went on a walk through the Sun City forest over hang bridges and through waterfalls. The photo above is from behind the waterfall. Bet you did not know you can walk behind waterfalls in Sun City.
For those that know me, no I did not play golf. We could not play the Gary Player course since there was a Pro Tournament on at the time and I do not like the Lost City course so decided to give golf a skip. Above is picture of the 9th hole on the Gary Player course and below the Lost City course taken from the tower on top of the Palace of the Lost City hotel.
On the first evening we went to watch the show, Let There be Rock, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. One pity is that they played no Queen music which was a bit weird since I cannot see how you can have a Rock music show without Queen.
Both evenings we had gala dinners and on the second evening people partied till in the wee hours of the morning. I was not that brave 🙂
Lounged around the pool, sipping cocktails and beers. Spending time with friends. Just had a great 3 days away from the office and did not had to worry about work and all the other things that is going on in my life. Thanks IBM, I really enjoyed it and appreciate the gesture.
A friend of mine will be spending the next week there on a conference. M, if you read this, take some time out from the hectic conference life and just enjoy some of what Sun City has to offer.
You can see all the Sun City photos on my Flickr stream.
This amazing sunrise was taken one morning about 2 weeks ago. It looks like the whole sky was burning and had all these shades of orange and red.
Pity about the Stormers that only managed a draw last night but taking the weather into account I think we should take what we got and move onto the next game against the Lions.
The Stormers is 4th on the log and still in the running for the semi’s. They would probably battle to get a home semi. It would be good if the Sharks can also move up to the semi’s.
So back to the title of this post. About a month ago I started working on a big new assignment with a company based in Johannesburg. I am still with IBM and are working on the outsourcing deal between MTN and IBM. This basically mean that I stay in Cape Town and work in Johannesburg. I travel up beginning of week and then back to Cape Town towards the end of week. I use to stay in hotels but that just got to me. Now I use a guesthouse and go back to the same one each time and try to stay in the same room. Now at least it feels like home away from home.
The travelling in airports and airplanes is really tiring. We have estimated that a round trip can take anything up to 10 hours if you take into account time from home to airport, picking up car and then trip from airport to destination. On my next trip which starts 20 May I will stay longer which mean a weekend in Gauteng. This will be a new experience since I have not really spend leisure time in Gauteng yet, so will need to find things to do. Anyone in the area that knows me and want to meet for coffee or drinks, just let me know and we can make a plan.
Last week Thursday evening we had the Welcome event for all new IBMers that joined us from MTN. Welcome to all the new IBMers, trust that you will enjoy your stay and work with us here at IBM. Now some of my colleagues really let their hair down.
Next week I am off to Sun City with over 200 of my colleagues for a well deserved break and to have some fun in the sun. Thanks to IBM GTS which had a great year last year.
Change is the essence of life. Be willing to surrender what you are, for what you could become.
They say that change is as good as a holiday. Things are changing in my life and with it will come new challenges.
At work I have moved on to a new role (still within IBM South Africa) which will mean that for the next couple of weeks and months, I will be staying in Cape Town and working in Johannesburg. I will be commuting between Cape Town and Johannesburg on a weekly basis and depending on the needs of the work, I will be in Johannesburg anything between 2 and 5 days a week. I cannot say much about the work I will be doing but when things are more finalized then I will post it here.
I will get to know the inside of airports, airplanes and hotels. Made sure that my Voyager and BA Executive Club cards are up to date and make sure I stay in the same hotel group to benefit from Frequent Guest privileges.
This should give me a chance to pop in at 27dinner in Johannesburg. Do they have Geekdinners in Johannesburg?
This will also give me the opportunity to see my Johannesburg and Pretoria friends more often. Hey, one cannot live on hotel food alone. So if any of my readers from up there want to meet, then contact me and we can make a plan.
I am sure I will build up a wealth of experience of how to commute across the country for one’s job. From time to time I will share that here – what to look out for and what to avoid. What the quickest way through an airport is? Experience with hotels, rental companies and airlines. I will also appreciate any comments which any of you might have on things to avoid or look out for.
To my Cape Town friends, I will not leave this beautiful place anytime soon so you will still see me around.
