A load of crap from an idle brain

1911 marked the beginning of 2 brands that no one would have believed to still be around 100 years later.  Two world wars, countless recessions and booms later, they still exist. And not exist at the fringes of the industry or in nostalgia of someone’s minds.  But active leaders in their respective markets.

My dad introduced me to the blue box of Nivea when i was in school.  3 decades later, i still use it.  Not only do i use their moisturizer, but body cream, chap stick and not to mention Nivea face wash. I love their soap too and wish that they come out with a shower soap soon so that i can use that.  Iam a complete Nivea person.

The other company IBM is considered the grandfather of computing.  Go here to see the wonderful site of IBM chronicling the 100 years of its history.  Some of the best innovations that have come out from the company, the website is a must read.

Laptops, PCs, Mainframes, Supercomputers, Messaging software, Webservers, Artificial Intelligence, Routing, Switching, Backend…you name it, IBM does it.

For many people believe that IBM is a pure IT company.  Not true. go to this website to read about the super work it does in the field of Biotechnology, Medicine, Space, Sports, Chemistry, Mathematics etc.

I started off my career working on IBM software, Lotus etc.  After having worked on competing products, you have to admit that there is something about the things that IBM makes that make them tick.  Afterall, to clock $100 billion revenues per year is no small feat.  At a time when companies with barely any revenue are quoted at 100 odd P/E on the stock markets, IBM’s stock is at a rock solid US$ 170 with a P/E ratio of about 14.

Here’s wishing many more decades of success for both companies.

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Happy 21st birthday Lotus Notes.  The best ever email, collaboration, IM, workflow application (all bundled in one) has completed 2 decades. No matter what Microsoft tries to rubbish the product, the truth is that Lotus Notes rules.

Its the only product that doesnt need a rip and replace every time a new version hits the market and is an application that supports true backward compatibility.

I run a Lotus Domino 8.5 test server on my 5 years old Windows XP PC with 1.5 GB RAM along with the rest of the applications.  And still my system doesn’t complain.  If it was Microsoft Exchange 2010, heck i cant even install it as my hardware / Operating System is not 64 bit.  I rest my case.

Lotus Notes @ 20

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It was 1997 when i first worked on this product.  It was the version 4.5 and called Lotus Notes. A few months later, it became 4.6 and the server was formally christened as Domino and the client was lotus notes.

On December 7, 2009, Lotus Notes completed 20 years.  At a time when a software or a service hardly goes beyond a few years Lotus with around 150 million licenses sold and with thousands of professionals and a big slice of Fortune 500 companies using the software, its not dead as expected by its rivals.

For years, Microsoft tried every trick in its book to not only diss the product, but also spread mis-information that Lotus Notes is dying, its clumsy, its not user friendly and lots of other accusations.  Some accusations stuck.  The lotus notes client was not user friendly till about version 7.  Thereafter, IBM has really spruced up the client part of the software.

The server as always has been robutst. Its a dream software for the administrators to administer.  To administer a complex and massive Lotus Domino setup you hardly need a few administrators, but to manage the competing Microsoft Exchange, you need an army.  For a product which has hardly has had any virus that has managed to infect the system, it itself is a testament to the robustness of Lotus Notes.  As for Exhchange, Outlook we know how many times its been affected not only by viruses but also the amount of security compromises that have happened with the software.

I downloaded the Lotus Domino 8.5 trial copy and managed to run both the server and client on my PC at home effortlessly.  My PC is a 1.5 GB RAM Opteron processor Compaq machine.  Almost 4 years old.  In spite of that, the software was hardly hogging any memory.  With the Domino server and the lotus client working in the background, i was able to browse the net on my firefox browser (20 tabs open at the same time).  That’s when i realised reading a previous article that Lotus 8.5 was much much faster than Lotus 8.  Surprising isnt it?

When it comes to Micorosoft, every new upgrade means a rip and replace.  You can never run Windows XP on a machine running Windows 98 or a Vista on a XP machine and so on.  Heck, the new version of Microsoft Exchange 2010 is an exclusive 64 bit application and you need a 64 bit hardware to even test it out.  Now beat that.

Today, we look back 20 years and see nearly 150 million licenses sold, tens of millions of applications created, and hundreds of thousands of IT professionals whose careers have involved, or continue to be involved with, the industry that has grown up around Lotus Notes and Domino.

Over these 20 years, people have come and gone.  Technologies have changed.  The market for collaboration software has, in some ways, just hit its stride.  At times criticized as difficult, ugly, or unusable, while at other times running businesses and providing solutions where nothing else could, in its first 20 years, Lotus Notes has been more than just a software product.  It has, through its use in a diverse set of organizations around the world, helped usher in the modern era of information sharing, and continues to set pace in that capacity today.  Despite bad press that has occurred frequently and regularly in that 20 years, Notes/Domino is a huge business today for IBM and 10,000 business partners worldwide — many of whom are continuing to grow their business, and others are just starting up.

Full article here

Here’s wishing another 20 more years for this wonderful software.  More about IBM Lotus here

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I want to finish the following exams, if possible, in the next 2 years

IBM Lotus 8 Systems Administration Certifcation – 4 papers

IBM Lotus Notes Domino 8 System Administration Operating Fundamentals
IBM Lotus Notes Domino 8 Building the Infrastructure
IBM Lotus Notes Domino 8 Managing Servers and Users
IBM Lotus Notes Domino 8 Configuring Domino Web Servers

Microsoft Windows 2008 Server Certification – 4 papers

Windows 2008 Active Directory Configuration
Windows 2008 Network Infrastructure Configuration
Windows 2008 Configuring Applications Infrastructure
Windows 2008 Windows Server Administration
Windows 2008 Enterprise Administrator

NCFM exams – 4 papers

Capital Markets
Mutual Funds
Commodities Market
Derivatives Market

Certified Financial Planner (CFP)

Wonder where will i find the motivation, money and time to finish all the exams ?

Above picture courtesy: Gailsussmanmiller

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IT major IBM on Saturday said it expects revenue from Indian operations to touch USD 1 billion by the end of December, growing at a rate of 39 per cent currently.

“We expect our revenues to reach USD one billion by the end of this calendar year up from 700 million in 2006 driven by strong factors. In the first three quarters of the current financial, the company’s revenue has grown by over 39 per cent,” IBM Vice President (Financial Management) Jesse Green said here.

He said factors like competitive offerings, effective sales force, strong brand name, technology base along with the ability to offer hardware and software combination would contribute to the expected figure.

The USD 1 billion would include revenues from services and solutions provided by the IBM to domestic clients and other global corporates operating in India along with total revenues of IBM Daksh, its business process outsourcing unit.

Last year the company’s India revenue grew by 37 per cent as against 2005, while the CAGR from 2002 to 2006 was over 49 per cent.

“The company, which caters to around 17 industry sectors, experienced broad-base growth during 2002-2006 period in telecom, financial services and Small and Medium Businesses growing at 58 per cent, 34 per cent and 35 per cent respectively,” Green said.

News source: The Indian Express

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