Back from vacation

Just got back from my vacation, and there’s a lot going on…

Actually I landed yesterday, and I’m still on Eastern Standard Time (GMT-5) – go to sleep at 3-4 a.m and wake up after 1 p.m, but I’m working on it..

This vacation was long planned, and the timing was great – just as the 3Q closed and after the high holidays in Israel. Our vacation had 3 parts: 6 days in NYC, 3-4 days in New England (Yale University and Boston) and the rest back in NYC. You can see (some) pictures of my vacation at Flickr.

The flight

Our flight had its highs and lows. The high was definitely the individual, touch-screen-operated, entertainment/communication system, with games, music channels, flight info, tv shows, full-feature movies and air-phone. Also, you’re not confined to El-Al’s timing anymore – everything is on demand, courtesy of HOT Cable Company. We decided to start the evening (it was a midnight flight – landing in NYC at 7am) with Die Hard 4.0 – an OK movie, knew there was a reason I waited for the DVD.. Owen Almighty was much better, only because of Steve Carrell – so talented, and The Office [NBC] is a living testament.

The low point has to be the leg-room. Just not enough.
El-Al are still the national airline, but sometimes I wish I picked another airline. I don’t know who did the math and seating arrangements, but seating for 11 hours in a 32.24 cm cubicle isn’t a pleasant experience. Especially when you know it’s possible to make it wider.

My childhood friend who’s traveling a lot on business always tells me he’s upgrading to business (with Miles) on transatlantic flights – now I understand why.

Staying in-touch

I had my laptop with me, so was able to track my Inbox, and reply to some emails, but I kind of neglected my feeds. So I’ll paste some important links I read these past 14 days, just in case you haven’t seen them yet.

There’s a new demo video on YouTube for Lotus Notes and Domino 8.0.1. It’s an excellent video, showcasing some of the new features, such as Lotus Notes Traveler (push e-mail/calendar/contacts for mobile devices), Domino Web Access and Lotus Notes for Blackberry.

Ed Brill wrote a post earlier this week, titled “Nobody wants to be first“. There’s a lot of interest going around ND 8.0, and also requests from customers, wanting to talk to a ND 8 reference. So, just to strengthen Ed’s point – 60 days into the product not many businesses have finished a roll-out of ND 8, especially in large enterprises (>5k employees). And some languages (including Hebrew) will only be available during January 2008. Still, if you are in the process of a ND 8 roll-out, and are willing to be a reference, please contact us.

There’s another interesting video recently posted on ZDnet.co.uk, with Lotus’s Darren Adams. Darren talks about the benefits of integrating VoIP, video, presence, telephony, unified messaging and other technologies. You’re welcome to watch that as well.




Mobile & Media Consultant. I help startup companies launch products to the consumer market. Reach out: dvir.reznik [at] gmail.com
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This is my personal blog. The postings here do not represent the thoughts, intentions, plans or strategies of my past employers or of my clients. It is solely my opinion.