Next week’s e-Office event in Maarssen

October 23 2006

Next week, I'll be in Europe for a couple of days, including a pretty cool event being organized by e-office in Maarssen, Netherlands.  I'm just starting to work on the first half of my presentation -- a 45-minute historical review of the history of Lotus Notes.  Clearly, I'll be drawing on the "History of Lotus Notes/Domino", but I'll also be drawing on my own 14 years of working with and on the Notes/Domino product family.  I know I'd love to go back to the R5 easter egg and find my name for one of the screen shots to be included :-)  At any rate, this should be an interesting presentation, and I'll be sure to post it after the event.  If you have any ideas to contribute, please feel free to post or e-mail.

My logistics to get to the Maarssen event are a little bit unusual.  I'm passing through Rome on the way to the event (anyone in Rome want to meet for a glass of vino bianco?).  The morning flights between Rome and Amsterdam are really limited -- a 5:50 AM departure or a 9:45 AM departure.  Understandably, I'm not much for the 5:50 AM flight.  So I'm doing the logical thing -- flying to Brussels on a 7:05 AM flight and driving from there.  The reality is Maarssen is not that bad a drive from Brussels, and it will allow me to finally remove the asterisk from Belgium on my "countries visited" list.

Ed Brill | Highland Park, IL USA Category:  IBM  Add/View Comments [16]

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  1. 1  Ed Brill http://www.edbrill.com | 10/23/2006 4:14:20 PM

    For those who pinged - The asterisk on Belgium is because five years ago, on a visit to Dusseldorf, I decided to drive west into Belgium just to tick the box that I had been there. But the reality is that I drove about 3 KM into the country and turned around (almost getting lost in the process). I never actually set foot in Belgium, so according to the rules, I haven't been there. Now it won't be in dispute :-)

  1. 2  Ben Rose http://www.jaffacake.net | 10/23/2006 4:36:17 PM

    If you're covering R5, surely a Super Human costume is essential? :)

  1. 3  Ed Brill http://www.edbrill.com | 10/23/2006 4:41:56 PM

    There was some discussion of a costume, actually. No thank you :-)

  1. 4  Keith Brooks http://kbmsg.blogspot.com | 10/23/2006 6:48:15 PM

    Ed, I believe you were in Brussels, well La Hulpe, the IBm facility we used to do the summer training sessions, among others. But I may be wrong as there was quite a bit of drinking going whenever I was there, which seemed to be monthly if not quarterly.

    1 idea for you, How about a special "morphing" video of the Notes client from 1 to 7, including stops for ccmail, organizer and some other pieces that fell out over time, Esuite (popular in EMEA) and the "Notes as Outlook" template from R5 days.

  1. 5  Vaughan Rivett http://st1.rivettassociates.com/Web/Vaughans.nsf/ | 10/23/2006 7:08:30 PM

    I think you should take your presentation and email it to yourself. Or put it into a Notes Database. Then using Notes on a USB Drive, run it from there!

  1. 6  Ed Brill http://www.edbrill.com | 10/23/2006 7:22:31 PM

    @4 I was never in La Hulpe. Thankfully. ;)

  1. 7  Denis Wittebrood http://www.integra4notes.com | 10/24/2006 1:25:42 AM

    Start your speech with "koud he?!" or about the lovely traffic jams you enjoyed on your way over to Maarssen. It always seems to be the topic to start with in Holland.

  1. 8  Henny Breijer  | 10/24/2006 2:51:14 AM

    The bar in La Hulpe wasn't that bad at all. Not to mention the Lotus Replication Jungle :D

    Stop by at IBM HDK if you get the chance Ed.

  1. 9  Henny Breijer  | 10/24/2006 3:12:53 AM

    @4 - It is not such a good idea to mention eSuite over here as it might still be a touchy subject for some Lotus "dinasaurs" out here...

  1. 10  Roberto Boccadoro  | 10/24/2006 8:54:58 AM

    @6 - You lucky one :-) Been there more than enough.....

  1. 11  Ben Rose http://None | 10/24/2006 9:12:50 AM

    I quite liked La Hulpe - many a good memory...none of them Belgian though, lol.

  1. 12  Michael Dudding  | 10/24/2006 11:56:42 AM

    Next time I see you remind me to tell you about an excursion that Tony Ollivier and I had one night in Brussels.

  1. 13  Keith Brooks http://www.kbmsg.blogspot.com/ | 10/24/2006 12:22:57 PM

    Ed, La Hulpe was a Palace next to Novedrate in Northern Italy.

    Chris Liguori and I used to call it Darth Vaders House.

    Although the executive residences we hear were nice.

    @10 Yes Roberto we were there many times. I miss the life size chess board.

    @8 I remember the lotus replication jungle, that was a great thing, with the lotus Museum there too. I kow esuite hurts people, IBM pulled it too soon just when the market wanted it. Ok so it had some issues, but how is it diffrent from what is in Eclipse and Hannover (in theory I know code wise it is different).

  1. 14  Ed Brill http://www.edbrill.com | 10/24/2006 2:25:47 PM

    @10 Roberto, when I saw you comment on this thread, I wondered if my use of your language was correct ... since the last time I attempted to write about anything Italian here I offended someone :-) Sorry not to see you this trip.

  1. 15  John Calwell  | 10/26/2006 2:23:18 AM

    Ed, We met when were downunder at the itX event in Melbourne. If you are driving and have time, visit Bruges in Belgium - great old town and the chocolates from any of the shops in the middle of town around the town square and absolutely superb.

    LUG in Melb earlier in the week had a great turnout for Alistair Rennie. Different venue so it wasn't standing room only!

  1. 16  Ed Brill http://www.edbrill.com | 10/26/2006 7:15:52 AM

    @15 thanks John...unfortunately I will only be in Belgium for about 90 minutes. Rome calls this trip... I have heard great things about Brugges though...another time.

    Glad to hear Alistair ably filled Mr. Rhodin's shoes and that the excitement is back...