tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38659946316306453922024-11-01T06:25:37.509-06:00These thoughts and opinions are mine, not my employers, or anyone else who I am affiliated with, please don't take it out on them if you disagree.Travis Retzlaffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01417031731166188054noreply@blogger.comBlogger26125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3865994631630645392.post-38045836168913949252020-06-07T10:16:00.001-06:002020-06-07T10:29:23.944-06:00

I've never considered myself racist, but then again, I don't think anyone does. I never thought black people were anything less than equal. At the same time, I know I've had racist thoughts born of the culture I inherited that has propagated racist ideology throughout the history of our nation. I knew I had the advantage of white male privilege. I assumed that since I wasn't taking direct racist

Travis Retzlaffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01417031731166188054noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3865994631630645392.post-13945624496814356432011-07-19T23:59:00.007-06:002011-08-03T07:40:13.674-06:00

One of the neat features of Google Plus that users need to try out and understand is the ability to go public with a post. At the bottom of this entry there is a fun one I took part in with Google employees as an experiment or game if you will. (This is a journey into social) I strongly encourage everyone to get a flavor for Google+ by reading the post. If you like it share as you see fit.The

Travis Retzlaffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01417031731166188054noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3865994631630645392.post-20503585861719950992011-07-17T19:23:00.007-06:002011-08-03T11:52:12.203-06:00

Following is a question that popped up in my stream on Google Plus that I decided to answer. Thanks to Daniel Travolto at gpeep.com for letting me into his circle and asking the question.what do you think will happen with G+ from a macro perspective? the world will be more connected? More ideas will be put into reality and faster? More talented people will find a way to make money of their art?

Travis Retzlaffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01417031731166188054noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3865994631630645392.post-28410449763147022942011-07-14T08:40:00.005-06:002011-08-03T11:44:23.701-06:00

Here are some of the notes I compiled for the This Week in Lotus Podcast. Please note there was a lot of discussion on this and other topics on the podcast and the purpose of putting some of these notes out there is to cover content I wanted to share but didn't come up as a natural part of the discussion we had this morning. I know there are great counter arguments to some of my opinions and

Travis Retzlaffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01417031731166188054noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3865994631630645392.post-48304355515267651022009-09-30T09:03:00.002-06:002009-09-30T09:15:13.619-06:00

A very hearty happy birthday to IBM's developerWorks site. I've been reading articles from the site since shortly after it's inception, and can't give enough credit to the entire team of writers and staff that has enlightened me and broadened my horizons over the years. To anyone who hasn't spent some time seeing what the site has to offer, do yourself a favor and check it out. If you are working

Travis Retzlaffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01417031731166188054noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3865994631630645392.post-52698835884134113292009-09-22T12:36:00.003-06:002009-09-22T12:50:22.844-06:00

I saw this today when evaluating SUSE Studio and it brought a smile to my face...Your browser is not supported. We have detected that the browser you are using, Microsoft Internet Explorer, is not supported. Currently we only support Firefox, Safari, Chrome (and other WebKit browsers) and Opera. Right now Internet Explorer simply does not work. The part of the message I've left out is regarding

Travis Retzlaffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01417031731166188054noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3865994631630645392.post-75954723415775643002009-03-25T08:44:00.001-06:002009-03-25T08:45:55.452-06:00

Eclipse based tooling for working with Amazon Web Services... that's hot.http://aws.typepad.com/aws/2009/03/new-aws-toolkit-for-eclipse.html

Travis Retzlaffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01417031731166188054noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3865994631630645392.post-85417087648454097082008-05-20T10:19:00.003-06:002008-05-21T10:02:21.322-06:00

Trolling IBM Developerworks yesterday my attention was grabbed by an ad for the WebSphere 7 Open Beta Program.I downloaded the binaries and went over some of the documentation and was pleasantly suprised at all the new bells and whistles the WebSphere team has added to the product. In addition to the new specification support in WebSphere there are new options and features for administrators as

Travis Retzlaffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01417031731166188054noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3865994631630645392.post-42290291200082205822008-04-27T01:19:00.003-06:002008-04-27T01:37:55.427-06:00

Eeek, another pundit pontificating on Microsoft Mesh. I read some things that struck a chord and had to chime in. Some of the comments are insightful and John does make some good points even if they are surrounded by a lot of hot air...I probably would have granted him more respect for this opinions had he not knocked Lotus Notes. (maybe I'm being a bit defensive here...)If you don't care to read

Travis Retzlaffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01417031731166188054noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3865994631630645392.post-86401476632775487392008-04-16T08:38:00.001-06:002008-04-16T08:39:46.063-06:00

Don't get me started about why I am forced to use Outlook. Being a long time Notes user it's especially painful to be torn away from the product at a time when it's future was never brighter.Alas I am required to use Outlook and find it desparately lacking in some tools that allowed me to do my job the way I am accustomed to. Long story short that is why I am looking to get a beta invite to test

Travis Retzlaffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01417031731166188054noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3865994631630645392.post-65607602759960640772008-04-08T17:36:00.003-06:002008-04-08T18:12:06.487-06:00

Common 2008 was part of the coming out party for IBM's "new" Power Systems platform that formerly was two distinct systems packages - iSeries and pSeries. Am I the only one who thought the rebranded product would be named System π (or System pi)?The roadmap for this convergance of IBM's mid-range POWER based systems has been public for sometime. It makes sense for IBM from a product perspective,

Travis Retzlaffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01417031731166188054noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3865994631630645392.post-1446390301494241542007-07-20T16:32:00.001-06:002007-07-27T17:16:38.353-06:00

Offering a new on-ramp to comic artist fame is DC Comics who is promoting it's new brand - Zuda Comics. Zuda Comics is a web based serialized comics platform with a targeted launch date of October. Some of the work will be available in print as well.It will be interesting to see how this plays out for DC who is appealing to artists by offering contracts for those whose work they feel is worthy,

Travis Retzlaffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01417031731166188054noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3865994631630645392.post-90727167284282130382007-07-19T21:00:00.000-06:002007-07-19T21:32:32.309-06:00

Google is expanding it's enterprise offerings by open sourcing a tool that will allow administrators to sync corporate directories with Google Apps. While interesting I know I personally feel sharing corporate directory information with a third party in this manner would still be a very large security concern.There is still a lot of benefit to getting the code open sourced and improved and

Travis Retzlaffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01417031731166188054noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3865994631630645392.post-24553380819905407382007-07-12T11:01:00.000-06:002007-07-12T11:17:48.085-06:00

I am playing around with the blog layout somewhat to take advantage of the new polls feature (one up already) in Blogger, as well as integrating my shared rss entries from Google Reader.The Google Reader feed is the one that I really enjoy. There are a lot of times I'd like to bring attention to something I've read, but don't want to color the readers opinion with my own, and therefore don't want

Travis Retzlaffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01417031731166188054noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3865994631630645392.post-60877624329633283282007-07-05T15:46:00.000-06:002007-07-05T18:38:36.387-06:00

Thanks to Mac Guidera's for pointing out Project Zero, an IBM incubator project that raises some interesting questions, and hopefully will help simplify the lives of web developers.First it's goals, from the about pageProject Zero has two, somewhat conflicting, goals of providing a powerful development and execution platform for modern web applications while at the same time having the overall

Travis Retzlaffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01417031731166188054noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3865994631630645392.post-30921727500755678862007-07-02T04:06:00.000-06:002007-07-02T04:41:32.704-06:00

A new Manager Tools podcast is out today. In typical Manager Tools fashion there is an easy to implement plan to get wayward note takers back on track.I'll defer to the podcast itself and not list the 6 steps. If you feel you could benefit from a fresh perspective on the practice of taking notes you are best served listening to the entire podcast.My crib notes- Less writing, more action.Link :

Travis Retzlaffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01417031731166188054noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3865994631630645392.post-10047466882970307232007-06-30T00:11:00.000-06:002007-06-30T02:09:33.786-06:00

I am a long time fan of jazz, from classics like Miles Davis, John Coltrane and Charlie Mingus to more modern artists like Stefon Harris and Martin Medeski and Wood.A new breed of Jazz that could be worth a spin is the joint venture between IBM Research and IBM Rational divisions. From the project site...Link : The Jazz Project Home PageWhat is Jazz? Simplicity through consistency. Collaboration

Travis Retzlaffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01417031731166188054noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3865994631630645392.post-23203437198858889842007-06-29T21:01:00.000-06:002008-11-13T03:48:47.352-06:00

Just playing around with Picassa's Upload to Blogger option. This was one of those moments you'd never get a picture of if you tried, we just got lucky. Thankfully in the last three years my daughter has dropped most of the attitude she is displaying in this photo and is turning out to be a very sweet little girl.

Travis Retzlaffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01417031731166188054noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3865994631630645392.post-32764617162243529452007-06-26T23:39:00.000-06:002007-06-27T00:44:10.815-06:00

In addition to the eye candy upgrade, many users will find comfort in Google changing terminology from labels to folders for organization. Search is also vastly improved with auto-complete functionality that will suggest documents whose names contain the text you have typed so far, acting as quick links to those documents or folders, or allow you to launch a search against document contents as

Travis Retzlaffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01417031731166188054noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3865994631630645392.post-17567952837261354002007-03-01T09:00:00.000-06:002007-03-01T10:39:21.456-06:00

This April IBM will be posting a free portlet in the Portal Solutions Catalog that will allow people to add Google Gadgets to their WebSphere Portal site.Over 4000 of these gadgets exists, though many of them are strictly for fun and have no business value, even if only a 10% of them can provide productivity benefits that is still at least 400 new bits of functionality that can added to your

Travis Retzlaffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01417031731166188054noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3865994631630645392.post-2860121467864675682007-02-26T22:19:00.000-06:002007-02-26T22:53:24.052-06:00

Being a consultant working with IBM software (Lotus and WebSphere) a lot of the blogs I read are written by people who work for IBM. In this environment it is nearly impossible to have avoided any references to Second Life.Link eightbar Second Life CategoryLink Roo Reynolds Second Life CategoryLink Alan Lepofsky Second Life CategoryI have spent more than my fair share of time playing some of the

Travis Retzlaffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01417031731166188054noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3865994631630645392.post-35359645299364261402007-02-21T09:55:00.000-06:002007-02-21T15:29:30.522-06:00

IBM announced a new resource available for Sametime users dubbed the Lotus Sametime Exchange*.Link Lotus Sametime Exchange *This resource is intended to be a less formal repository for unsupported free code and programming examples for Sametime Connect plug-ins. This is in contrast to the Sametime Plugin Catalog which is a more formal repository for plug-ins provided by IBM or partners that have

Travis Retzlaffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01417031731166188054noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3865994631630645392.post-47703147038633977242007-02-19T16:47:00.000-06:002007-02-21T10:22:34.812-06:00

Those who make a living selling software need to take a step back and reaquaint themselves with the competition. Vanilla Ice has joined the scene schilling TurboTax through YouTube.Link The Tax RapStep to the mic and record your own rap about taxes and you too could live the rock star life like Vanilla Ice, or at least get a chance to be gifted cash and or free tax software for your willingness

Travis Retzlaffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01417031731166188054noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3865994631630645392.post-33644338527343783172007-02-19T01:46:00.000-06:002007-02-19T01:46:29.602-06:00

While not exactly breaking news I thought it worth mentioning that there are a few WebSphere Feature Packs and other packages in early availability.Link - WAS 6.1 Feature Pack for Web Services betaLink - WAS 6.1 Feature Pack for SOA betaLink - WAS 6.1 Feature Pack for EJB 3 alphaLink - AJAX Starter PackI applaud the direction that IBM is taking here with the release of the feature packs. The

Travis Retzlaffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01417031731166188054noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3865994631630645392.post-50243901816377793762007-02-16T15:53:00.000-06:002007-02-16T16:10:27.461-06:00

For those who don't do updates often this is the week to do them. Microsoft released it's DST update for Windows XP on Tuesday. Many applications rely on the OS for their time so the OS is a critical place to patch.There are tons of great resources across all of the vendor specific sites on how to deal with the changes. While it won't be the end of the world there will be some side effects of not

Travis Retzlaffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01417031731166188054noreply@blogger.com0