BenAbler.com

Construction

2012-02-06T23:19:00.006-05:00

It's been a while since I've taken on a good construction project. I've finished off a basement before (with some help) and closely supervised 3 new constructions of building a home... but not much in the last 6 years.

This project is much smaller in size: new kitchen countertops, backsplash, crown molding, carpet, drapes, and fresh coat of paint. We haven't done much to our house since we built it, and it's time for some sprucing up.

I've never done crown molding before, and considered hiring this out. But I enjoy the challenge and I have the tools, so why not? I'm learning that it is not so simple to get those angles right. For those just starting out with this, the dual sided crown molding really helps to just make it easy to flip it over and not worry as much about cutting the correct side of the molding -- but it's still challenging to say the least.

2011: A Life Changing Year

2011-12-31T11:03:00.003-05:00

It's been a while since I've blogged. I spend more time these days on linkedin and twitter. However, I would like to take a few moments to reflect on what has been an excellent year all around. A few highlights:

1. We had great news from Alexander's cardiologist that he most likely won't need any more heart surgery.
2. Andrew is doing very well in school and sports.
3. Emma constantly reminds us of her presence in wonderful ways.
4. I hit my goal of losing ~70 pounds and kept it off.
5. I knocked another year of classes off on my MBA degree at Wayne State University (which was named among the top part-time MBA programs in the country by US News and World Report), and started a new certificate program at Carnegie Mellon University.

2012 will be hard to top this, but I'm looking forward to trying. :)

Wayne State University part-time MBA program named among top in nation

2011-08-28T15:53:00.004-04:00

For complete article, visit here.

SBA part-time MBA program named among top in nation
WSU, UM only Michigan universities ranked by U.S. News & World Report

By MARCENA GORGAES | The South End
Updated: 08/19/11 11:17pm

The Wayne State School of Business Administration has earned its way to many notable awards recently. Appearing in the 2012 edition of the U.S. News & World Report’s “Best Graduate Schools,” WSU’s undergraduate business program was recognized as one of the top schools in the nation for its part-time master of business administration program.

According to the U.S. News & World Report guidebook, “part-time M.B.A. rankings are based solely on a fall 2010 peer assessment survey that asked business school deans and M.B.A. program directors at each of the nation’s 295 part-time M.B.A. programs to rate the other part-time programs on a 5-point scale, from marginal (1) to outstanding (5).”

Only 165 colleges in the U.S. were acknowledged for their master of business administration programs. There were only two universities recognized from the state of Michigan, exemplifying WSU’s high level of achievement.

The other university that was acknowledged for its undergraduate business program was the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, which ranked as the top university in Michigan with part-time M.B.A programs.

The SBA has also been acknowledged in 2011 for other achievements.

The school was featured in the 2011 editions of the U.S. News & World Report’s “Best Colleges” list and Princeton Review’s “The Best 300 Business Schools” list. Furthermore, the school’s online master of business administration option was named among the top “Best Buys” by GetEducated.com.

The SBA has an Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business International-accredited degree program with a wide range of undergraduate majors from which business students can choose. Some of the majors students can choose from include accounting, finance, management, marketing and global supply chain management.

Currently, there are 2,600 undergraduate students enrolled in the SBA. More than half of these undergraduate students focus on earning their degrees while also maintaining part-time work. The part-time master of business administration program allows students to earn their degree even if they also have to work or raise a family.

Golf Update

2011-04-22T08:48:00.002-04:00

After almost a year of trying out clubs, I've decided to keep my Ping IsoForce Anser putter and replace everything else. I'm going all Callaway and purchased from Callaway Golf Preowned. It's a great site that sells like-new clubs and significant discounts! I picked up an FT-iz driver, FT 3 wood and 2 hybrid, Diablo Forged 3-9, PW and Jaws Chrome wedges. I haven't hit any of them except the driver because the weather has been so bad lately. Hopefully soon I'll get on the course!

In other Golf news, Golf Digest recently came out with their top 100 public courses list, and there were several shakeups compared to last year.

Of the courses I've played, Whistling Straits and Arcadia Bluffs stayed at their #3 and #10 spots respectively. I generally agree with this ranking. While I enjoyed playing Arcadia Bluffs significantly more than Whistling Straits, it did feel like Whistling Straits was a more championship level of difficulty in comparison. Forest Dunes dropped a couple spots to #20, and Eagle Eye tied for #53. New on the list was a course I played in Wisconsin known as the Bull at #86. I found this course in great shape, very challenging, and a bargain!

New Michigan Courses on the list this year include True North at #33, Elk Ridge at #69, the Bear at #81 and Lakewood Shores at #88. Tullymore dropped significantly from #15 to #36, and Black Lake and Bay Harbor held onto their middle of the pack rankings of #46 at #62 (slight changes).

I was disappointed to see Shepherd's Hollow fall off the list, but with so many new additions something has to get bumped I suppose.

Golf Clubs

2011-03-07T22:38:00.002-05:00

I'm back in the market for new golf clubs. Navigating through the sea of choices of golf equipment and what is marketing vs reality is a very difficult task. So far, I bought a new Callaway FTiz driver but really I'm looking at replacing the entire set (except my putter). I still need a fairway wood, iron set, wedges, and possibly a hybrid. Irons are the toughest choice out of these...

Mizuno has some nice offerings this year with the JPX800 Pro and MP53, both which are on my short list. I still can't get away from that buttery feel of the Callaway Diablo Forged as well. For a low to mid 80s golfer, there are too many choices out there and it's hard to make a decision.

More demo days coming up over the next few weekends will hopefully lead to making a decision about this before the snow melts.

Reflecting on 2010

2010-12-31T16:53:00.004-05:00

As I reflect on the past year on this New Year's Eve 2010, I realize that this was really a year of great accomplishments.

1. My family is doing wonderfully. The kids are growing up so fast, and are doing well in school. Alex had great news from the cardiologist at his heart checkup and Andrew continues to do well in everything (especially baseball).
2. I lost 50+ pounds and am in the best health since high school. Plain and simple exercise, sticking to a schedule, and eating healthier did the trick. A little direction and accountability by these folks have helped out more than I ever imagined.
3. I finally started my MBA at Wayne State University - in my opinion one of Michigan's best MBA programs - and knocked out 5 courses. I have 9 more courses to go and am learning a great deal as I pursue a dual concentration in MIS and Management.
4. After an exhaustive job search, I expanded my professional network which resulted in my choice of great opportunities in a down economy, and I feel I made the right choice. I get to work with great people, innovative technology, and cool cars.
5. Last but certainly not least, I posted my best ever round of golf on 18 holes!

I'm looking forward to 2011 and what the new year will bring. Happy New Year everyone!

liveOn* - "Safely connecting you in ways you never thought possible"

2010-09-15T20:44:00.009-04:00

Today was a big day at the office, and you'll be hearing a lot more about what OnStar has in the works in the coming weeks and months.

Here are a few articles released today that are worth a good read:
- OnStar Relaunches Its Brand with Focus on “Responsible Connectivity” - GM.com
- GM's OnStar service to become Facebook friendly - USAToday.com
- OnStar Looks to Connect Drivers With More Than Their Stolen Cars - adAge.com

In particular, I want to quote Sam Mancuso on a few topics regarding Sync and OnStar:

"Ad Age: Is OnStar's rollout of new services a response to Ford Sync? And what are you doing to differentiate what GM vehicles offer from what Ford does?

Mr. Mancuso: Absolutely not. Ford Sync is a response to OnStar. Our system is embedded and theirs is not, it is dependent on someone bringing their phone in, and having it paired up with Bluetooth. If you brought your phone into the vehicle and neglected to pair it to the vehicle and you got into an accident, the system does not help you. If you drive a car with OnStar, sensors in a vehicle automatically [know you've been in a crash]; it doesn't depend on a cell dialing out to a 911. In the 15 years we've been in business, we've responded to 150,000 automatic crash signals calling for help. I challenge anyone at Ford or anyone else to say how many they've responded to. We have a differentiated system of being always on, with an automated system plus an adviser who is well equipped to deal with emergencies. We have delivered 60 million routes to give people directions in our history. We have delivered 150 million emails giving a complete diagnostic report to our customers, letting them know whether their vehicle needs an oil change. Everyone else is following, we've been doing it for years. What we're about to do with the new campaign is address how people's needs are changing."

Considering New Golf Clubs - Callaway and Taylor Made

2010-08-15T23:05:00.003-04:00

Watching the PGA Championship on TV at Whistling Straits (where I played last year) got me motivated to go check out some new clubs for some reason. I went to Carl's Golfland to check out some new irons this weekend since the Callaway Tour Fit Bus was in town. I was thinking the Callaway X-22's are on sale for $379 so I'd probably pick up a set for cheap and this would be a good replacement irons set.

Well, it didn't turn out as I expected.

They had me try the Callaway Diablo Forged +1 irons. I have to admit that I have never hit a 6 iron like this before. I was consistently bombing a 6 iron 220+ yards...straight. It was just like butter. I do have a club speed of about 110 mph, which also means I need "Project X 6.0" shafts according to the rep.

Then "just for fun" they had me try the new Callaway FT Iz 9 driver with a Diamana Whiteboard 83X shaft. Again, 300+ yard drives...straight.

I was so excited about this potential to improve my game and get some sweet clubs!

Until I found out the irons are $1000, and the driver alone was $700. The shaft I was hitting just happens to be the same shaft that Tiger plays.

So I walked away with nothing. I plan to stick with my Callaway Hyper X 460 for now, but for irons I think I'm going to look into the Taylor Made Burners with the stiff shafts ... I hear you can pick up a set for about $550 which is more in my range and they are similar to the Diablo Forged.

Back from NYC

2010-08-05T22:37:00.003-04:00

We recently took a weekend trip to Manhattan. I could bore you with the details, but the important thing to note is that we learned there are 171 Starbucks in Manhattan.

With a land area of only 22.96 miles this means there are roughly 7.5 Starbucks every square mile. We literally saw Starbucks across the street from each other, and you never walk more than 3 blocks before finding one.

We hit up 3 or 4 of them. I wish I would have thought of charging $6 for a cup of coffee.

New position, opportunity, and direction

2010-05-13T13:24:00.003-04:00

After searching for a couple months for my next opportunity, I was fortunate enough to have a few opportunities to choose from.

I have decided to work for OnStar at General Motors in a Senior Architect role. I'll be working on ground-breaking technology that saves lives every day, and that is something that is difficult to pass up. I get started in this new chapter tomorrow.

Who opened the floodgates

2010-05-01T17:08:00.004-04:00

I have been very fortunate recently to have several incredible opportunities to choose from for my next career move. I am excited to be going back to work soon and working on ground breaking technology.

The economy is certainly looking up already!

Head First OOA&D!

2010-04-07T15:47:00.007-04:00

I'm spending some time during my job search brushing up on my technical skills. I have to commend the authors of the Head First books. I'm currently re-reading Head First OOA&D (Object Oriented Analysis and Design) and this is a fantastic book. Anyone looking to learn/relearn or brush up on UML, Java, inheritance, polymorphism, encapsulation and OOA&D should go pick this book up and read it.... then read it again.

Typically the definitions of anything OOP/OOAD are detailed and complicated. I will try to summarize some of the major considerations in many software architecture scenarios. I have always been big on "REUSE" and keys to making this a reality are having a deep understanding of the following:

Inheritance: Inheritance let's you build classes based on other classes and avoid duplicating code

By carefully designing your application using inheritance you can simplify designs and eliminate wasteful code by reusing classes throughout the application. When you need a new class, your options are to write a new one from scratch, copy an existing class, or reuse an existing class with inheritance. Reusing an existing class with inheritance requires more knowledge, but really is a fundamental concept that needs to be utilized more often to reduce code.

Polymorphism: Polymorphism allows for apps to be more flexible and less resistant to change by allowing subclasses to "stand in" for superclasses

While this may sound related to inheritance (and it is), one key exception is that polymorphism typically happens at run time. This is also more specific to a variable or argument of instances of various classes. When properly used this allows you to call a method that will work differently according to the type of class the object belongs to. This also goes deep to the point of reuse of code in that many times methods can be overridden instead of duplicated.

Encapsulation: Encapsulation is when you protect information in code from being used incorrectly by separating data from application behavior

Typically, objects should reveal the interfaces needed for interacting with the object. Encapsulation allows the details which are not relevant to the use of the object to be hidden, which aides in readability and maintenance of coding.

Java vs .NET

2010-04-06T10:59:00.007-04:00

I've recently been to a few interviews at various companies, and the topic of Java vs .NET seems to be a popular topic to discuss... so it seemed like a good blog post!

There are plenty of comparisons of Java vs .NET on the net. Those with personal preferences can argue the merits of each and back them up with good solid reasons.

As an architect and technology leader, I'm more interested in the practical side of comparing the two. I do have a broad and deep background in IBM and Microsoft technologies and have worked with .NET / Visual Studio IDE, and Java / Eclipse IDE as well.

My career has lead me down the direction of working with .NET more than Java. It's not necessarily that I "decided" or had a preference to do so, but that was the path my career took. I have worked with many talented developers over the years (many with deep experience with both Java and .NET). My observations and feedback on the two languages are that it seems that teams can accomplish more in less time with .NET compared to Java. It also seems that there are greater resources and support for .NET as compared to Java, as well as availability of talent. Perhaps this is because Microsoft is a large company with vast resources (and $) which evangelizes .NET and all of the Microsoft portfolio of products. I realize this is simply based on my personal career experiences and everyone has unique perspectives on this.

However, many systems are built on Java for a variety of good reasons. J2EE is a large scale enterprise programming platform that can handle the most robust projects and situations. It really comes down to looking at the particular goals and requirements of the system(s), organization(s), and evaluating staffing and costs for each.

I remain technology agnostic and open minded on the Java vs .NET debate, and believe every situation is unique and should be evaluated for the best programming platform.

Sharepoint Saturday in Michigan

2010-03-13T19:40:00.003-05:00

Thanks to the many fine individuals and sponsors who hosted Sharepoint Saturday in Ann Arbor today. It was an excellent free event with several informative sessions. Sharepoint 2010 looks like another winner, so I'm going to spend some time getting up to speed on this new technology.

I am still bummed I didn't win the XBOX 360!

Online Jobs & Your Network

2010-02-23T20:31:00.006-05:00

In this economy, the number of applicants clearly exceeds the number of open positions by a wide margin. Over the last month I have applied to dozens of positions that I believe to be strong match for my abilities. I have had several interviews, but most of these interviews have been through my professional network and very few from an online job application at monster.com, careerbuilder.com, indeed.com, theladders.com, etc.

I am not used to this lack of response. Throughout my career I have always been the person who gets the quick call back, gets the interview, and gets the job. I have heard from several recruiters that organizations are absolutely flooded with resumes for every open position. I met a recruiter at a large company in the area, and she explained that 30,000 people have applied for 180 open positions at their company. Wow! 30,000! Simple math shows there is a very slim margin of having your resume pulled out of the stack and in most cases -- you need to know someone.

Anyone who is not on networking sites such as linkedin, needs to get there and build your network out now. A job seeker has a very slim chance of landing a position without a strong network. This is the only angle that is working for me so far in this job search, and is at least resulting in some good leads. I have confidence in my ability, leadership, and knowledge, and it's just a matter of time before I land somewhere again.

Hopefully that landing will be sooner rather than later.

Back on the Hunt

2010-02-16T17:52:00.008-05:00

Due to some unfortunate circumstances, I am back on the hunt for a job. I'm not usually the person "laid off" so this is a little new for me. It's happened to me before, but the circumstances behind that typically involved bankruptcy or something like that.

I read something the other day about how 80% of candidates selected for interviews these days are from networking. I am living this in the real world and finding this to be very true. I've applied for several dozen positions which I appear to be a strong fit, and I'm sure my resume is stacked on a heap of other resumes as the days go by one after the next.

Thankfully by using my network and linkedin, I have a few good leads I'm hunting down and hopefully should land on my feet again soon. Look for an update when that happens.

The golf fever is coming back around....

2010-02-02T22:18:00.003-05:00

A golf post? In February? Yes of course! It's around this time of year where I start to think... why do I live in a place where I can't play golf year round? I suppose there are more important things in life than golf (like family I suppose :-). Looking back at the last year, I had my best year that I can remember that will be hard to top in 2010.

A few highlights of 2009:
1. My first hole in one! I called it on the way up on hole #6 at Yarrow (with two witnesses)!
2. Playing the twin "Pebble Beach" courses of Lake Michigan: Whistling Straits in Wisconsin and Arcadia Bluffs up north. I enjoyed Arcadia Bluffs more, but Whistling Straits was more difficult (and more expensive).
3. Recorded a couple rounds of 80, which is my lowest round on 18 holes that I can remember.
4. Finally made it up to Boyne Highlands in the late fall, and played 72 holes in rain, sleet, and at times SNOW.
5. Finally straightened out my slice... well not really but once in a while I do hit one straight.

I hope 2010 will bring more great golf!

And the choice is...

2009-11-10T14:52:00.004-05:00

I have decided to start MBA at Wayne State University, starting in January 2010.

The program is considered by many to be the third best in the state of Michigan -- next to Michigan and Michigan State. However, they offer by far the most flexibility of any graduate program. On nearly all WSU MBA courses, you can choose between the Detroit Campus, Farmington Hills Campus, Online, or Saturday offerings. I'm sure this is one of the reasons it is one of the largest AACSB MBA programs in the country. The tuition and fees is reasonable and the advising and students I've met with in the program have been very helpful.

I'm looking forward to getting started.

MBA choice in Michigan

2009-10-25T09:56:00.007-04:00

I have applied to 3 universities in Michigan to start an MBA in January 2010.

1. Wayne State University
2. Central Michigan University
3. Oakland University

In the end, UM-AA and MSU were too expensive and I would never see an ROI. UM-Dearborn was also too expensive and they would not consider any foundational waivers for my BBA degree (AACSB accredited) because of a 7 year limit. I don't need to repeat my BBA degree in addition to an MBA and it was very easy to rule out these options as a result. Among the three I have applied, it's going to be a tough decision for me as each program is uniquely different in the approach.

Wayne State University offers the most flexibility with courses online, downtown, or at the Farmington Hills campus. WSU also has a strong reputation in the metro Detroit area, where I plan to stay since we have family ties. CMU is a cohort program which is accellerated and completed in under 2 years. All courses seem predetermined and must be followed in order. This is nice on one hand, but also might introduce problems if the program did not go exactly according to plan. OU is also a strong reputation in metro Detroit, but does not have as much flexibility as WSU. There is not an online option, and courses are taught in Rochester Hills with some courses at the Birmingham campus. This means I would need to drive from Novi to Detroit to Rochester Hills to Novi every day of class, which might simply be just too much time in the car.

I expect the decision to come down to WSU or CMU and I will make the decision within the next month.

Goodbye Mt. Pleasant

2009-10-14T18:27:00.004-04:00

My parents sold their old house in Mt. Pleasant a couple weeks ago. Mt. Pleasant was my childhood stomping grounds - the place I grew up. I went up there one last time to stay and say my goodbyes which just happened to be near the same time of my high school reunion. It was nice to close this chapter out.

I still do plan to get up there one more time to play Buck's Run, which somehow has avoided me all these years.

Golf 2009

2009-04-18T21:58:00.004-04:00

New courses on my list for this year:

- Arcadia Bluffs
- Eldorado
- Shepherd's Hollow
- Whistling Straits (if we make it to Wisconsin)

Bought a new Chevy Malibu

2009-04-04T21:54:00.003-04:00

I recently puchased a new 2009 Chevrolet Malibu LTZ. I this is my first GM car and I'm very impressed. It seemed to be a good value with price for features in its class.

Work Update

2009-01-14T23:07:00.005-05:00

It's been a few months since I left my previous position where I was at almost 7 years. I'm taking a step into more of a leadership role by staffing teams that develop state of the art web apps based on software as a service, software + services, and reuseable platforms. Most of these are being built on the Microsoft stack but we are exploring open source technologies on LAMP such as Joomla as well. We're establishing a fantastic team that I'm confident will make major waves in 2009.

Wii Fit Review

2009-01-04T12:53:00.003-05:00

I've done a few workouts on the Wii Fit. It is a fantastic and fascinating workout instrument. However, there are some significant limitations you should be aware of.

1. The BMI ratings and Wii Age are completely off for children. It told Andrew that he was actually 13 years old and overweight (he's a perfectly healthy little boy). Do not put any stock whatsoever into what it tells your children.
2. You can not easily workout with any partner. The game starts with you choosing your Mii and everything you do is recorded under that Mii. This also means that player 1 must completely finish their workout before player 2 can begin. You cannot do multiplayer except for one 2 player running aerobics exercise (and the second players stats are not recorded).
3. For each 1 to 3 minute exercise you do, you need to keep the Wiimote handy because you have to hit A several times for each exercise. After each exercise, you have to go back to the main screen and select a new exercise. It is extremely annoying to not be able to program your workout so that they go from one to the next automatically (or at least with hitting the "A" button once).
4. Number 3 above also leads to spending an excessive amount of time just navigating the console in Wii Fit. You will not be able to complete a 30 minute exercise in 30 minutes, it will be more like twice that time due to all of the starting and stopping in between each exercise.

It's a fascinating first attempt at interactive workouts on gaming consoles, but it definitely has plenty of room for growth.

WiiFest with Guitar Hero

2008-12-29T09:18:00.004-05:00

Santa brought a Nintendo Wii with Guitar Hero World Tour complete band kit this year. I have to say that this console and specifically this game (which I'm aware is available on all consoles) is probably the most addictive game I've ever seen. They have figured out a way to make playing your favorite songs fun, easy and exciting. My 3 year old Andrew can play drums on Eye of the Tiger... who knew?

The outcome of this game is you develop fantastic motor skills and dexterity to play rock songs. Being a former bass player in a band, I would say the next step is for someone to figure out how to teach real guitar/bass lessons on the Wii. The drums are pretty accurate, if you can play them on GHWT you can probably play in real life. The bass is also very similar to real life although you'd have to learn the strings and notes on a real bass, but the concept of single notes / single buttons is the same. The guitar would be the most challenging to convert to real life.

My neighbor said that after he bought Rockband he decided to start to learn how to play guitar for real, and that's exactly what he's doing. I wonder how many others are doing the same.

Alexander Update

2008-12-20T12:33:00.002-05:00

A number of friends have asked what's happening lately with Alex, so I thought I would post an update.

We had another baby boy on November 9 at 7:43am. He was 9 lbs 1 oz and 21 inches and we named him Alexander Peter Abler (we call him Alex). He seemed like a perfectly healthly baby boy and we went home a day early from the hospital. After a week of being at home, we took him to the doctor for an eye infection, and the pediatrician noticed him breathing fast (we did too) and he had trouble finding a pulse in his legs. We immediately went to a pediatric cardiologist who at first couldn't find the problem. After doing an echocardiogram, they found some serious heart problems. His left ventricle was not performing optimally, he had a bicuspid aortic valve, an small ASD or PFO, and he had a coarctation of the aorta which basically means the aorta severely narrowed where it exited the heart to supply blood to the body. He needed surgery within 24-48 hours or could have had severe problems with organ failure and cardiac arrest.

Apparently it is normal for this condition to not show itself until a few days after birth, because there is this extra artery that connects from the heart to the aorta that naturally closes a few days after birth (it's only used in utero). In Alex's case, it likely stayed open a few days longer because it was using it as a "bypass" until it naturally closed. This is when problems started occuring on that morning Jen just happened to take him to the doctor. It's just a miracle of the timing of this happening while we were at the doctor, and also we had a sharp pediatrician who picked up on the problem right away.

Surgery for a week old infant's heart is only done at two hositals in the state. We asked our cardologist who he would have operate on his own children, and he recommended Dr. Henry Walters III, who is the chief of cardiovascular surgery at Children's Hospital of the Detroit Medical Center. He has performed more than 50 heart transplants on babies and children which really made Alex's operation seem "routine". The operation entailed entering from the side underneath his arm, collapsing a lung, clamping the atora to stop the blood and cutting out the narrowed portion and sewing it back together. Surgery went extremely well, he was off the breathing matching the next day, and we were discharged from the NICU just 5 days after surgery. He gave his first smile we've seen a few days after surgery. We stayed at the Ronald McDonald House which is a fantastic charity that takes care of the parents whose children are in critical care at hostpitals.

Alex has been at home and doing well ever since. Since the surgery, his left ventrical function is back to normal, the aorta is now normal, and we just need to keep an eye on his bicuspid valve which is a very common condition and has no effect on lifespan. He'll require an annual cardiologist checkup, but he should be able to live a normal life. We'll have to wait and see if he can play professional football, but professional baseball or golf are still in play! :-)

Thank you all for the thoughts and prayers throughout the way. I believe it helped. Again, I'm on facebook almost every day so sign up so we can keep in better touch.

Alexander is home

2008-11-24T19:00:00.002-05:00

Alex showed significant progress and recovery so they discharged us early. We are very closely monitoring him over the next several days, but the doctors saw no reason for us to stay in the NICU any longer at this time.

Now we need to be careful with germs, so we're getting the hand sanitizers ready.

Alex is doing well

2008-11-20T15:55:00.002-05:00

Alex's breathing machine is removed and he's been doing fine on his own. He has moved all arms and legs, opened his eyes, and we've even heard a cry or two. He is making good progress. Keep it up Alex!

Alexander Update

2008-11-19T19:09:00.002-05:00

Surgery to repair Alexander's aorta today was successful. The operation took approximately 4 hours, and was performed by Dr. Henry (Hal) Walters III at the Children's Hospital of Michigan at the DMC. Dr. Walters is considered one of the best if not the best pediatric heart surgeons in Michigan according to our sources. Alex remains on a feeding tube, breathing machine, and under anesthesia in the PICU. We hope he makes progress tomorrow and can open his eyes.

Prayers needed

2008-11-18T15:07:00.003-05:00

Yesterday, my wife took our newborn son Alex in for a checkup since he had some minor crusty-like buildup around his eye. We were thinking it was something very minor like some type of eye infection. The pediatrician noticed something strange in his breathing pattern and monitored his heart, and referred us to Beaumont.

Beaumont did a number of tests and at first they thought it was nothing or maybe a virus, then further EKGs and Echocardiograms found he has a severe "coarctation of the aorta" which basically means the blood from the heart is not able to get to his body since the aorta is much smaller than it should be in a section, and also causing his left ventricle of his heart to work very hard.

Apparently this condition usually does not show itself until 3 to 7 days after birth and then the baby's vital signs rapidly deteriorates. This is because a ductus arteriosus closes (by design), and in Alex's case this extra artery was allowing sufficient blood flow. When it closed, the complications started.

We are now at the NICU in Children's Hospital at the DMC (Detroit). I have never been in an NICU before and it is scary when you have a child admitted there. It's rows and rows of little babies fighting to survive, with every kind of monitor and medical device you can imagine.

The doctors say this is a "common" condition (as heart defects go) and very fixable with a very high success rate. Surgery is scheduled for 9am Wednesday. We're sleeping in the NICU the next few nights.

What's amazing about this is had Jen not taken him in because of some puss build-up on his eye (which strangely enough hasn't been a problem today), this could have rapidly lead to heart failure out of the blue in the next few days.

Narrowing down the list....

2008-11-16T09:53:00.004-05:00

About a month ago I posted my first post on MBA options in Southeast Michigan.

I have eliminated Ross School of Business in Ann Arbor and Eli Broad at Michigan State as options, simply because of the cost involved. It's just not something that I would ever see an ROI at this point in my career.

I have applied to Wayne State University, and will be applying to University of Michigan-Dearborn, and am also considering other programs that offer unique but top notch programs.

http://www.geteducated.com/rankings/best_mbaaacsb.asp

A beautiful baby boy....

2008-11-09T17:30:00.003-05:00

Today, we welcome Alexander Peter Abler to the world with much love. Born at 7:43am this morning, at 9 lbs 1 oz and 21 ounces. Mommy and Baby Alex are doing wonderful, and Andrew is excited to be a big brother.

Looking into MBA Options in Southeast Michigan

2008-10-19T22:04:00.004-04:00

Over a decade ago, I earned my Bachelor of Business Administration in Computer Information Systems at Western Michigan University. I stand by what I've said over the years, which is I felt the Haworth College of Business at WMU equipped me well to face the challenges of the business world. I also think the BBA program at HCOB is as good as any other BBA program in the state of Michigan (University of Michigan and Michigan State included). I have been very successful in my career since I graduated, but what I learned while at WMU was that higher education is what you make of it. I learned how to work hard, collaborate, lead teams, perform advanced problem solving, deal with difficult situations, just to name a few. These skills are the foundation of being successful in business. People have always said, it's not as important where you receive your undergrad degree from, as long as you have it. For the most part, I agree with that statement as long as you make an effort to get as much out of it as you can.

Which brings me to my next point...

On the contrary to above, in business people typically say it is more important to go to a top notch school for an MBA. I have always desired to earn a Master of Business Administration degree. Over the last 10+ years, I focused more on the specific technology I was using at the time (and earning certifications along the way), rather than advancing my career with higher education. In addition, my employer would not contribute at all to an MBA degree, so I never went back to school as a result. Now that I've switched companies and career focus to slightly less technical and more leadership, I am planning on applying to graduate schools and studying for the GMAT.

In evaluating the options, according to all of the "rankings" (which you may or may not hold stock in), there are only two programs in Michigan that are considered top tier MBA programs:

1. University of Michigan - Ann Arbor - http://www.bus.umich.edu/
2. Michigan State University - Eli Broad, http://www.bus.msu.edu/

Followed by several AACSB certified programs in my local area:

- Wayne State University - http://www.busadm.wayne.edu/
- University of Detroit Mercy - http://business.udmercy.edu
- University of Michigan Dearborn - http://umd.umich.edu/
- Oakland University - http://www.sba.oakland.edu/
Note: I have ruled out WMU, CMU, and EMU for various reasons, but these schools are also AACSB certified.

University of Michigan's Ross School of Business is a 60 credit (most MBA programs are 36 to 45), extremely expensive program which will probably cost around $90,000 or more to go part time, and take 5 to 8 years to complete. I cannot justify that cost or effort required at this point in my career, and I would never realize a positive ROI.

Michigan State University's program is a weekend lockstep accelerated program, which you complete on alternating fridays and weekends over an 18 month period. It is very intense and challenging program, and also expensive at the cost of $50,000. However the bright side is you are done in just 18 months. I will definitely look into this program more. Also offered is an EMBA program at an additional $27,000 expense.

Wayne State University surprised me, as it has the following rankings to make note of:
- Listed in Princeton Review's as one of the top 290 MBA programs
- #93 in the United States according to the Academic Ranking of World Universities (only two higher are Michigan and MSU)
- National Science Foundation has WSU at #63
- Listed as one of America's Best Colleges in the 4th tier according to US News.
Who knows if any of this means anything, but one thing I do like is they offer the most flexibility. A student can choose to take individual classes on campus, at the satellite campus in Farmington Hills, or online. In fact, the online MBA is ranked #21 in the country according to GetEducated.com, higher than University of Wisconsin, Auburn, and University of Massachusetts to name a few. I will definitely consider this program and research more about it.

University of Detroit Mercy's MBA program is also intriging. The university's website states, "For the eighth consecutive year, University of Detroit Mercy is listed in the top tier of Midwestern Master's Universities in the 2009 edition of the U.S.News and World Report's "America's Best Colleges." The University was ranked one of the top 25 schools in its category, the highest-ranking school in Michigan. In the yearly guide, hitting newsstands this week, University of Detroit Mercy was also rated fifth in the "Great Schools, Great Prices" category. According to U.S. News, this ranking highlights the best financial value as it relates to a school's academic quality." Tuition seems reasonable, and scholarships are availabile for anyone scoring higher than 600 on the GMAT. I will also be considering UDM for an MBA.

University of Michigan-Dearborn also has a competitive MBA program structured similarly to the program down the road in Ann Arbor. One key difference is they offer evening and online courses as well, which makes it more convienient. Students can apply for waivers to bring the credits down from 60 credits if they have prior business school experience, but there are some significant restrictions. The "Michigan" reputation typically carries over somewhat to Dearborn's campus, but not entirely. I will likely apply here as well. However, I am not interested in a 60 credit MBA program, so I would need to see how this shakes out.

Oakland University has an strong reputation in the local southeast Michigan area, and is probably an underrated program. There is not as much information about this program available compared to the others, probably due to the smaller size. I will be looking into this program as well.

I will be blogging on my reasoning as I narrow down this decision further on which schools I am considering.

Baby Update!

2008-10-19T19:59:00.002-04:00

For those that don't know, we are expecting another baby with a due date one month from today (November 19). Chances are likely though, baby's coming sooner than that!

Everything is going well so far and Andrew is excited to be a big brother!

Golf and more golf

2008-09-23T21:48:00.005-04:00

Realizing the golf season is almost over, I've taken a few days in between jobs to play much of it!

On Sunday I played Brae Burn in Plymouth (http://www.braeburngc.com/). It's a decent course and I shot an 84 on 18. The course layout is the best part and presents many challenges and skill. None the least of which was the "Monster" hole, a 666 yard par 5 on the back 9 which first dogs left, then dogs right so even if you could hit the ball 350 and 300, you still couldn't reach the green in two. There is also a lot of water on the course to watch for. I walked all 18 holes which was a beast because it was quite hilly, but I enjoyed it and would play it again.

Monday I played Lake Erie Metropark Golf course (http://www.metroparks.com/parks/pk_lake_erie.php) with my dad, and was quite impressed. I thought this course was in fantastic shape and found it extremely challenging - especially for a metropark course. The greens were very challenging and difficult to read. I shot a 94 on 18 which is definitely a bad round for me. The course has a LOT of water which seemed to just attract my ball right to it all too often.

Tomorrow is something I'm really looking forward to, as I'm headed up to Bath, MI to play Eagle Eye (http://www.hawkhollow.com/golf/eagle.php). This course is a 4.5 star/5 star highly recommended by Golfweek and Golf Digest, the top course in mid-Michigan, and one of the best in the state. The 17th hole is nothing but an island green in the middle of a lake pictured above. The best part, some college buddies are heading up from Kalamazoo for the round.

Sports, Technology and Cars!

2008-09-10T11:17:00.005-04:00

The journey we are all on could be referred to as a yellow brick road, and along that road are many choices and paths to take.

For me, I have decided to choose one path and take my career in a slightly different direction by switching careers. My current employer has been a fantastic place to work, however I have been offered an opportunity that is the right move for me at this time.

I'll be joining a full service event, sports marketing, promotions and sponsorship company dedicated to General Motors and other clients. I'm am very excited to have this opportunity and it is something I'll have no problem being passionate about -- cars, technology, and sports!! :)

New Apple Ad is extremely effective... on the WEB!

2008-09-09T21:49:00.004-04:00

Today when I ventured over to www.cnn.com for my daily news update, I saw one of the coolest (and most effective) online ads I've ever seen.

It's an ad with two banners, one on top and one along the side where the famous "mac and PC guys" seem to talk to each other in different windows on the page. What a cool idea... of course they are both two totally independent banner ads that are setup to load at the same time, but the effect they create is just like a TV ads. Definitely the best online ad I've seen yet!

I'm not sure how long it will run, so make sure you get over to cnn.com and check it out.

My wife wants a mac just because the commercials are funny. Now that's good advertising!

Google Chrome: Reading the fine print

2008-09-03T14:31:00.003-04:00

After my initial excitement of Google releasing a browser, I thought I'd read the fine print of the license agreement. It was worth the read...

"11. Content license from you

11.1 You retain copyright and any other rights you already hold in Content which you submit, post or display on or through, the Services. By submitting, posting or displaying the content you give Google a perpetual, irrevocable, worldwide, royalty-free, and non-exclusive license to reproduce, adapt, modify, translate, publish, publicly perform, publicly display and distribute any Content which you submit, post or display on or through, the Services. This license is for the sole purpose of enabling Google to display, distribute and promote the Services and may be revoked for certain Services as defined in the Additional Terms of those Services.

11.2 You agree that this license includes a right for Google to make such Content available to other companies, organizations or individuals with whom Google has relationships for the provision of syndicated services, and to use such Content in connection with the provision of those services.

11.3 You understand that Google, in performing the required technical steps to provide the Services to our users, may (a) transmit or distribute your Content over various public networks and in various media; and (b) make such changes to your Content as are necessary to conform and adapt that Content to the technical requirements of connecting networks, devices, services or media. You agree that this license shall permit Google to take these actions.

11.4 You confirm and warrant to Google that you have all the rights, power and authority necessary to grant the above license."

Now, read that again and think about what that means.... :)

History is going to be made....

2008-08-29T17:18:00.003-04:00

It dawned on me today that either way history is going to be made next year in America. We are either going to have the first African American -or- the first female as one of the two people running the country. It should be exciting to see it unfold over the next few months....

Andrew's 3rd B-Day Party

2008-08-20T22:43:00.000-04:00

On Friday, Andrew turns 3 years old. I can't believe how fast he's growing up. We threw a party for him last week ... which of course involved lots of baseball. Here are a few pictures from the big birthday baseball game.

G. Thanks

2008-08-18T16:31:00.001-04:00

Encountered this error today while working with Exchange. I found it interesting.

MOSS Site Collection Restore vs Content Database Restore

2008-08-06T11:07:00.004-04:00

Here's a MOSS tip that should apply whether you're doing MOSS development work or disaster recovery.

Traditionally, we had been taking the approach of doing a site collection backup and restore for each site collection. We would do this in two scenarios: 1) whenever we need to recover or for at test DR run, or 2) when completing a build and moving to a new environment.

What we've found is that it's much faster and more reliable to just take the content database and restore than instead of the individual site collections (this assumes, that your site collections are using the same content database, but you could do the same with multiple content databases).

Our results from this test proved out the following:
1. Content database restores are significantly faster. We were up and running again within the hour.
2. A lot more "stuff" comes along with the content database vs the individual SC backups. This includes obviously the content, but also more configuration especially around the web parts. That is the key -- we would spend hours and hours reconfiguring web parts with a SC restore, which we did not have to do with the content database restore. Basically the only things we had to configure after we did the content database restore was contained in the SSP such as search.
3. We had some very strange results with using individual site collection backups. Things like the "Home" tab would be duplicated and we could not "repair" it without a hack job. With the content database, everything came across perfectly.

So I would recommend using content database restores instead of site collections restore (depending on what you're trying to do of course), but we've found it's a much faster and cleaner approach.

Faceted Search!#;(300) :-)

2008-07-31T17:49:00.004-04:00

I've been through a very deep dive of faceted search inside Sharepoint lately with some very bright resources. We are using the faceted search 2.0 solution from Codeplex and had to modify some of the code to implement this without special characters showing in the results (see title of this blog). :-)

Just know this: core search results in Sharepoint is an estimate, and depending on the circumstances (tagging, keywords, metadata, etc) it could be a rough estimate. You have to page through every page (or trick the URL parameter) to see the actual correct return number. When you build a faceted search solution on top of this estimate, the facets may have inaccurate numbers as well -- and each time you click the facet, it runs a new query which changes the facet results set again (which is again, an estimate).

In a nutshell, the numbers may never add up .... and this may be hard for some to understand (i.e. accountants). But we did manage to get it close by increasing the Results Display property to 10,000 inside the faceted search web part and changing our metadata properties to display only a single value for each property.

Our first foul ball....

2008-07-15T08:22:00.006-04:00

Watching the Home Run Derby last night and all of the fans catching the dozens and dozens of balls flying into the stands brought back some memories of something that happened to me recently.

A few weeks ago we went to a Tiger game vs the Twins. We got there early, and as soon as I sat down - something happened that had never happened before in the hundreds of games I've been to over the years.

I caught a foul ball!

I had my son Andrew on one knee with my arm around him, a beer in the other hand, when a check-swing off Justin Morneau's bat resulted in a lazy foul ball that I could tell was coming right at my head. I told Andrew to hold on as I put my beer in the cupholder, reached up to grab it just when the person in front of us stepped in front and tried to catch it with one hand. It bounced off her hand and onto the seat next to me, then rolled under the seat to the back. I reached over and grabbed it and put it in Andrew's glove.

It took him a few moments to realize what happened, then he said in his 2.9 year old voice "Daddy did you catch a foul ball?" with a big smile.

Now wherever we go, whatever we do, he tells everyone just how daddy caught a foul ball (but his version might be a little different). :-)

Back from DC

2008-07-14T00:26:00.002-04:00

Had a quick vacation to Pittsburgh, Fairfax VA, and Washington DC. It was a nice trip and I'm back now and ready to rock and roll.

Happy Birthday to our angel, Emma Grace

2008-07-09T00:10:00.005-04:00

It was one year ago today, July 9, 2007, when my wife gave birth to our daughter Emma Grace. Although she was stillborn, we appreciated every opportunity we could to celebrate her life. It is times like this where it's important to reflect and remember her life.

Happy Birthday to our Angel, we love you.

Previous Posts about Emma

News Article about Emma and Angela Hospice

MOSS Development SDLC tips and tricks

2008-07-02T20:46:00.005-04:00

Having lived through the development experience in MOSS with multiple teams and developers, I thought it might be helpful to post a few tips and tricks to making your MOSS development lifecycle a little smoother.

So, without further adieu....

1. Think of your development as releasing final builds rather than small solutions

What you will quickly find out when creating a customized MOSS solution is that there are a significant number of moving parts that all must work cohesively, and each component must be configured properly to be successful. You might find a master page change completely changed the functionality of some web parts on another page. Or you might find that a profile property mapped to the wrong field through the BDC can cause your entire homepage to fail to load if using custom web parts that use that property. So, to save yourself headaches, work together in a dev/staging environment to get everything working as well as it can, then backup and restore the entire solution or "build" to in one swipe.

2. Package everything up that you possibly can in an WSP, and if not in a WSP, use an MSI or EXE.

It is easy to create, deploy, upgrade and retract WSPs, so use them. Without it, you will quickly find yourself managing a complex matrix of dlls, xml files, aspx files, etc and it can quickly get out of hand. For those things that can't be easily deployed in a WSP, try using an MSI or an EXE. Try to package up as many things as you can.

3. Create and maintain a bug list and change log

Even with doing option 1, you will have bugs discovered that need to go back through the cycle. Log these and document them. Include the exact steps to recreate the bug and the location of the source files. Make the list detailed enough so that anyone can open the bug and find out everything they need to know about it. Otherwise, you may spend a lot of time going back and forth just figuring out what the problem actually is and trying to figure out where the source files are located.

4. Don't promote environments until you're really ready!

In highly customized environments, it is important to get all of the pieces working together very well before deploying them to the new environment. Do not assume that a master page change won't affect the functionality of your web parts, etc. It's those little things that you "never thought would break something" that cause problems, and then you spend significant time troubleshooting. So get your environment stable and overall solution working together and tested before jumping to the next environment.

I hope this helps others out there doing MOSS implementations, I welcome your comments anytime!

-B

Wall-E

2008-06-29T23:24:00.003-04:00

Took Andrew to see Wall-E this weekend. It was the best movie I've ever seen that hardly had any words! This movie gets my recommendation.

MOSS Development != Other Development

2008-06-14T16:33:00.005-04:00

We are in the middle of a highly customized MOSS Implementation. One thing I'm learning as a Solution Architect is that portal technologies like MOSS are so much more complex than anything I've worked with before.

By complex, I mean specifically around the development life cycle. Sure there is a lot more "out of the box" you can do with it, but to get every piece of code working perfectly together takes significantly longer than other development work we've done in the past.

At last count we had 113 software bugs to resolve. Most of these are due to just the additional complexity of how to make all the components work together in the MOSS environment. It is for this reason I highly recommend if you're doing any kind of significant development or customization on MOSS, have a dedicated development farm in addition to your staging farm. Even though developers have VMs to build on, it's just a whole different animal when you put all the bits together on one box and do a complete solution test.

TechEd Developers

2008-06-07T11:36:00.004-04:00

This year's TechEd conference was the usual blend of good solid technical information, however, it was not as good as last year's conference.

Microsoft's decision to split the conference into two successive weeks causes a problem for people in the following roles in my opinion:

- Architects and Technical Leads
- Technical Project Managers
- "Jack of multiple trades" Resources

Unfortunately, I fit one or more of those categories. While I wanted information about development, .NET, and MOSS development, there was a whole long more that I wanted from the admin side that was not there that could have been very helpful for people in these roles.

Tech Ed here I come

2008-05-30T19:10:00.003-04:00

Next week is Tech Ed while I work on a MOSS implementation remotely. I'm very excited to go this year and will be ramping up more on MOSS, CRM, ASP.Net, and SQL server.

MOSS Profile Properties

2008-05-30T19:08:00.002-04:00

We encountered an issue recently on a MOSS server that was throwing errors in event viewer consistently on a regular schedule (error 5000 and 5553). We learned the hard way that MOSS internal profile names cannot be more than 32 characters long. The issue is not well documented, the error does not tell you this, and worse yet the edit profile screen allows you to type in as many characters as you want without limiting or warning you about 32 character limit.

Hopefully this helps others out there doing MOSS implementations -- don't have internal profile property names longer than 32 characters.

We have news....

2008-05-24T11:51:00.001-04:00

My wife and I are expecting another baby. Our due date is November 19. We are very excited and so far everything is going well.

Oh we love the BDC

2008-05-23T21:45:00.002-04:00

We have spent a considerable amount of time getting the BDC properly configured to pull in data to MOSS user profiles from a SQL table. Hopefully this post will save others some time!

1. Make sure your app definition xml file is correct. Test it and confirm it the minute it is uploaded. Do not make frequent changes to this file and govern the changes to it carefully.

2. Search service accounts need proper permissions in addition to other service accounts

3. The SSP service account also needs permissions to the backend SQL table you are accessing

4. And finally make sure your field types are consistent across the board from the SQL table to the BDC definition to your MOSS profiles.

MOSS Development Environments

2008-05-20T10:23:00.003-04:00

Steve Caravajal has a good post on MOSS development environments, and there isn't too much info online about this.

In addition to Steve's post I recommend for any MOSS implementation with a medium to high amount of custom dev work, do yourself a favor and get all your developers a VM of a dev environment. Don't skip on the dev farm environment either. My experience is that it is much smoother to have developers build on separate VMs, then deploy to a common dev farm and get all pieces working across other development efforts. After it's all good to go - wrap it in some WSPs and deploy to a staging environment that is tightly controlled.

We have tried going straight from the dev VM to the staging environment and it has not been as smooth of an experience with a lot of rework and bug fixing invovled.

NBA Eastern Conference Finals: Pistons vs Celtics

2008-05-19T08:58:00.004-04:00

The Pistons are once again in the Eastern Conference finals, this time vs the Boston Celtics.

My only hope is that these games are called fairly and equally, and they let the best team truly win. I am convinced that at least one of last years losses to the Cavs was from unequal officiating and the NBA is becoming more like the WWE than ever before. I hope that doesn't happen again.

Just "Callaway Me"

2008-05-14T22:23:00.009-04:00

A project manager I work with has a pretty good joke going. I'll give him an update and say something like, "I'm going to be in meetings all day tomorrow, so just PING ME if you need me". What I mean is, send me an instant message.

He is quick to respond, "you mean just CALLAWAY ME?" :-) Not bad, Rick. Not bad at all. He knows I play Callaway clubs (woods at least - I play Mizuno irons). Although lately, I'm in the market for a new driver and possibly some new fairway woods or a hybrid.

So anyway after work today I went to my first ever Golf demo day. A local course had all the major manufacturers in with all the clubs you could think of.

After hittings about 150 balls and over 15 combinations of clubs/heads/shafts, in order of my personal preference, here is how I hit them from worst to best. In the interest of keeping the list short I am picking the best from each manufacturer and combinations (shafts/heads, etc).

6. King Cobra LV4
5. Nike Sasquatch
4. Taylor Made Burner Tour X-Stiff
3. Cleveland Hibore XLS Red Stiff
2. Ping G10 TFC129 X-Stiff
1. Callaway Hyper X Tour Fit-On 360 Stiff (8.5)

I wasn't even going to try the Callaway (see post below this one). But I did, and I tried the tour model. It was ridiculously better than anything else I hit. I had 8 out of 10 straight and over 280 yards. I took a break, went back and hit some other brands and the fade/slice was back and just didn't feel as good. Back to the Callaway and straight and long.

I'm going to give Callaway one more shot despite getting two defective drivers in a row. Hopefully third time is a charm...

MCTS: Windows Sharepoint Services 3.0 - Configuration

2008-05-06T10:17:00.003-04:00

I just passed another MCTS cert for WSS 3.0 configuration with flying colors. I did not find the exam very challenging, probably because I studied so hard for the MCTS MOSS cert and since WSS is the underlying framework - it was easy for me to navigate through.

Now the question is should I continue along the Sharepoint path and get 70-541 and 70-542 or go the MCPD path in .NET.

Back from Arizona

2008-05-04T23:47:00.002-04:00

Two dozen golf balls, all lost: $60
New Callaway Driver, sliced: $200
Green fees for 72 holes: $375

Playing some of the most beautiful desert golf in the world with your friends: priceless

Golf, golf and more golf

2008-04-29T10:25:00.004-04:00

I've committed to playing more golf this year. To do this, I'm playing in a golf league at Rackham. I'll also be playing in a few golf outings at various courses.

I'm excited more than ever for golf this year. I regripped my clubs and purchased a new Driver - the Callaway X460. I compared it to the Callaway HyperX, Ping G10, Nike Sasquatch, Cleveland Hibore and the Taylor Made R7, Burner, and R7 Superquad. I seemed to hit the Callaway X460 the best on the range, and when hooked up to the golf simulator I was getting no extra distance from the HyperX compared to the X. I was crushing the ball though and had one or two register at 318-319 yards. The Taylor Made Burner and SuperQuad were both fantastic also, the Burner would have been my first choice had it not been $400. For the $160 I was able to get the X for, I couldn't justify the price difference with the small difference between them. I can't wait to get this out on the course.

Tomorrow night I will be heading to Scottsdale on a much long overdue Golf trip with some old college buddies. We are playing some fantastic courses and 72 holes:

Thursday
- Golf Club At Eagle Mountain
- SunRidge Canyon
Friday
- Gold Canyon Dinosaur Mountain
Saturday
- Troon North Monument

Andrew's Baseball Team

2008-04-24T21:14:00.003-04:00

Tonight before bed, Andrew started talking about who he wanted playing on his baseball team. I grabbed a pen so I could tell the team you have been drafted!

Andrew - Pitcher
Grandpa - First Base
Baba - Second Base
Mommy - Third Base
Grandma - Shortstop
Uncle Paul - Left Field
Aunt Claudette - Center Field
Aunt Amy - Right Field
Miss Heidi - Catcher
Designated Hitter/Batter - Daddy

...and umpiring, Opa.

:-)

Microsoft .NET Certification Confusion

2008-04-23T13:24:00.009-04:00

What's it all mean?

MCAD
MCSD
MCTS .NET 2.0
MCPD 2.0
MCPD 2.0 Enterprise
MCTS 3.5
MCPD 3.5

Just about the same thing - you know enough about Microsoft technologies to pass some exams. Sure the topics being measured are different on each certification, but I have to ask, is there anyone else out there confused by the direction of the Microsoft certification program, specifically along the .NET development tracks?

For example, if you're a MCSD you have to pass two exams to get to an MCPD status. But guess what, MCPD is only .NET 2.0 and meanwhile .NET 3.5 is out now and even new certification programs are coming out for that. MCPD is not that old of a certification program and already it's being bypassed. What if you want to upgrade from MCSD to .NET 3.5? Or, since MCPD is still relatively new I sure would feel ripped off if I had just achieved MCPD and already it was outdated! Also, if you're an MCSD, why bother with the upgrade to MCPD 2.0 when 3.5 is coming out now?

I know technically they all build on each other (.NET 3.0/3.5 are extensions of 2.0), but it seems like there is a significant gap in timing / synchronization of the .NET certifications and the .NET framework releases. It all leads to confusion about what path to take and something should be done to simplify the direction.

On another related but separate topic, why is it that you can only achieve MCTS is the fastest selling and arguably most successful Microsoft product ever (MOSS)? It seems like they should add one additional exam on both the admin and dev side and allow people to achieve either an MCITP (admin) or MCPD (dev) in Sharepoint.

MCTS MOSS Configuration

2008-04-21T13:40:00.009-04:00

I studied pretty hard for the MCTS 70-630 exam (MOSS - Configuration) and scored a 964 / 1000.

My approach:
- Received an advanced copy of the book from the publisher for "MCTS: Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 Configuration Study Guide". It's a good book that covers more than you need to know for the exam. I'll be posting a review at amazon soon.
- Purchased Self Test Software's 70-630 practice exam. For those that don't know, STS is owned by the same company that does the famous Transcender exams, and essentially they are the same questions except the Transcender one has a few more questions (at a much higher price).
- Spent a good two months studying on and off for it.
- Went to the local Caribou Coffee on the Sunday before and took the STS exams, if I missed a question, I would pull up my VPC with MOSS on it and learn how to do what I got wrong right then.

In retrospect, I way overstudied for this - but I didn't know what to expect. I'm not saying it's easy, but if you work with MOSS frequently just take a practice test to see how you do. If you're getting above 80% on it without memorizing the answer, you're ready.

I think I know what two questions I missed, and I still think I answered them correctly and there is a problem with the exam!

It feels good to get this one out of the way. I'm on to 70-631 next and then either 70-542 or the MCTS .NET cert (70-528 and 70-536).

TIGERS WIN TIGERS WIN!!!!!

2008-04-09T23:33:00.000-04:00

For some strange reason I feel like the Tigers just won the World Series....

Then I was reminded it was our first victory instead.

Go Tigers! 155-7 is still possible! ;)

Back from Florida

2008-04-02T08:23:00.000-04:00

We're back from Florida. Here's a shot I took on the way out of Magic Kingdom.

Anatomy of a Notes Application migrating to Microsoft

2008-02-09T12:58:00.000-05:00

I'm starting to dig into the architecture of migrating/architecting workflow apps from Lotus to Microsoft. What used to be considered a major benefit of a notes app is now a hinderence in my opinion. When you think of a notes app, typically it contains all of the following in one single platform, and sometimes even within a single notes database (or a few of them):
- Forms
- Views (Reports)
- Data
- Workflow
- Email
- Workflow "Inbox"
- Framesets or "Dashboards"

Now having this all self-contained makes it really easy when building apps and workflows on the notes platform, but it does not make it condusive to easily build composite applications and realize long term benefits from it. After a while, having these isolated silos becomes a burden to maintain and upgrade.

Transferring over to the Microsoft stack, if you look at now taking all of these functional areas, they can be split up into seperate components:
- Forms (Infopath / Forms Services / ASPX / Web Forms)
- Reports (SQL Server Reporting Services (SSRS) surfaced inside Sharepoint)
- Data (SQL Server and/or Sharepoint Lists/Doc Libraries)
- Workflow (Workflow Foundation, Sharepoint Designer, or third party BPM)
- Email (Outlook/Exchange)
- Workflow "Inbox" (Sharepoint Web Parts)
- Dashboards (Sharepoint Sites and/or Pages)

The benefit of this approach is that each one of those components easily becomes reuseable as your business expands and it becomes easy to maintain, while putting the "power" of many capabilities in the hands of your user base. Granted, there is definitely more time and cost involved in getting all of these components first set up. However, you realize the longer term benefits after you do.

Good Christmas Novels

2007-12-23T10:21:00.001-05:00

Christmas is here, and I'm sick as a dog along with my 2 year old. We have some nasty head colds going on. Last night I think the 3 of us together had just a few hours of sleep up all night coughing.

At least all my Christmas shopping is done!

I'm taking the time over the holidays to get caught up on some things around the house, spend some quality time with my family, and finish a few books I've been reading:

Pro Infopath 2007

Developer's Guide to WSS 3.0

Inside Microsoft Office Sharepoint Server 2007

The Gingerbread Man-- ok so this one I read with my 2 year old :-)

And a book I recently finished:

Workflow in the 2007 Microsoft Office System

Lots of reading over the holidays...

Joy within the tears

2007-12-14T15:34:00.000-05:00

We were interviewed about our experience this summer with our daughter, Emma, a few weeks ago and this was just published today. It is a very well written article and we thank Joe for his interest and time.

Joy within the tears article

To infopath or not to infopath, that is the question

2007-12-09T21:30:00.001-05:00

I'm reading the book "Pro Infopath 2007" by Philo Janus. It's a great book and an easy read. It and has spurred some of my thoughts on the topic of infopath.... specifically when does it really makes sense for an organization to build Infopath based solutions?

After some experimentation with infopath lately, specifically forms services - I like what it can do. There is no question it's a great form tool for quickly building and deploying forms. For example, in 20 minutes and having very limited experience with it I put together a somewhat complex form with several controls and had it up and working in production for a change control procedure.

What I'm in process of determining is where does it cross the line in terms of where it is a better decision to build in ASP.NET vs. Infopath. There is a point where the complexity of the form reaches a level where you start working around the limitations of Infopath and doing a lot of code-behind, but I think up until you reach that point Infopath is a wonderful tool. Just like with anything in technology, if you try and 'push' something into a space it was not intended to be you will introduce a number of problems later on.

So I will post my findings when I complete my thoughts on this, but so far I think Infopath 2007 can fill a void in many organziations (just not ALL of those voids).

Nachos > Steak

2007-11-29T23:39:00.000-05:00

My wife and I absolutely love this local place called the Library Pub & Grill in Novi, MI. We went there tonight and had one of our regular courses ...... Nachos! These are by far, hands down, the best Nachos I've had in Michigan - and consistently excellent every time. I recommend ordering without the beans and just getting regular real-beef Nachos. As I was eating them for dinner tonight, it dawned on me that they could be better than steak.

They have finally arrived...

2007-11-18T22:09:00.000-05:00

I woke up this morning and looked out the window, and noticed a large brown box sitting in the driveway. I immediately knew what this was...

My authentic Detroit Tiger Stadium seats have arrvied straight from the stadium. The auctioneer said they would be dirty, and he sure wasn't lying. These things are coated in dirt, rust, and have splatterings of that green paint from when the moving 61* was filmed at Tiger Stadium. I received seats #1 and #2.

I opened up the box and hosed them down. I'm probably going to clean them up and do a little work on them including spraying with some kind of rust prevention coating before they move into their home in the basement. I will be posting pics!

BPM Suite

2007-11-09T09:48:00.001-05:00

Contrary to my previous most on this, after much discussion and research the final list of vendors I'm evaluating is Bluespring BPM Suite, Ascentn Agilepoint, and K2.NET Blackpearl. These vendors seem to take a true SOA based approach to workflows, and each seems to have strengths and weaknesses. Email me if you'd like to discuss these more.

Deeeeetroit Bas-ket-ball!

2007-10-28T10:09:00.000-04:00

I came across this article this morning from the Detroit News:

http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071027/SPORTS0102/710270323/1004/SPORTS

... the thing I want to discuss from this article is the following quote:

"I still don't think they (Cavaliers) beat us, we beat ourselves," Wallace said. "And I think we also fell victim to that personal NBA thing where they are trying to make it a world game and get (television) ratings. They wanted to put their darling in there (the NBA Finals) and they did, and look what ended up happening."

The league's darling, according to Wallace, was LeBron James, and what ended up happening were the worst ratings in the modern history of the NBA Finals.

"This game ain't basketball anymore, it's entertainment," Wallace said. "It's starting to get like the WWF. There ain't no real wrestling anymore either. It's all fake."

This is where I wonder if Rasheed has been reading my blog. At the end of last year, I posted almost these exact same words. I am not here to defend Rasheed, it's so annoying when he can't control his temper and gets tossed. But anyone who watched the Pistons - Cavaliers playoff series last year could see his point plain as day. Combine that with the discovery that many NBA officials have been rigging and gambling on games as discovered this offseason, and I'm more convinced than ever that the NBA is so full of corruption that it has almost reached a stage where much of it is predetermined, and in that respect it is very similar to the WWE.

Narrowing down the list

2007-10-24T22:08:00.000-04:00

It's taken a little longer than expected but I've narrowed the selection down to Ascentn Agilepoint and K2.NET Blackpearl. Both are great products with each having their own strengths and weaknesses. If you're interested in learning of the product we selected, send me an email and we can chat more.

BPM / Workflow Tools for Microsoft

2007-10-12T10:51:00.001-04:00

I'm currently evaluating workflow products on the Microsoft platform as part of a Notes Migration to Sharepoint effort.

Products I am looking at include:
K2.NET Blackpearl
Ascentn Agilepoint
Skelta BPM
Nintex Workflow 2007
WorkflowGen
Bluespring BPM Suite (edited to include)

It is interesting to see how every vendor approaches solving workflow in a different manner.

Seeking opinions on Infopath client vs Forms Services in MOSS

2007-09-20T19:42:00.000-04:00

We will soon be facing a decision of implementing InfoPath 2007 based solutions by utilizing either the rich client or the web client of forms services. I'm aware of many of the limitations of forms services compared to the InfoPath client. What I'm not aware of is the "real world experience" others have had in these types of decisions and implementation.

I see it as the following:

Advantages to Forms Services Implementation
- Does not require InfoPath client and everything is web based with no dependency from a client perspective
- Provides better accessability via the extranet or web enablement from your "non standard firm PC"
- May have some performance and integration benefits (not 100% on this)

Advantages to Infopath 2007 Client Implementation
- Not constantly "working around" the limitations of forms services, and those features that are not supported in the browser
- More functionality at your disposal to build solutions
- Potentially reduces development time by eliminating exceptions and discovering less work arounds and limitations.

Which decision is best? Let's assume licencing is not a factor. What would you decide and why?

If others can share their experiences with these decisions on a MOSS 2007 implementation I would love to hear your thoughts.

Wine Country Trip - Winery Reviews

2007-09-14T19:58:00.000-04:00

We're back from the wine country trip. Here are some reviews of the wineries we visited.

Hess Collection - Wine 7 / Experience 9
We ventured over to Hess Collection for our first winery experience. It's a beautiful location with a art gallery and access to the oak barrel room. The art gallery was definitely the most interesting of all the wineries we visited, but the wine was just average. It is also quite out of the way - more than you think from looking at the map. The experience was very good to start out our trip.

Diamond Oaks - Wine 8 / Experience 9
After a LONG drive up the side of a mountain and thinking we were going to fall off the edge of this ridiculously small winding road, we realized we were heading the wrong way and made our way back down the mountain and found this place. It has a nice overlook and a great picnic area (although you must buy a bottle to use it). We enjoyed the conversation with the knowledgeable people and the wine was good.

Goosecross Cellars - Wine 9 / Experience 10
This was one of the wineries recommended by multiple friends. It's a small winery seemingly in the middle of a field. You literally drive between two rows of grape vines about a foot wider than the road to get there. Inside, the staff was by far the nicest, knowledgeable, and outgoing we had met for the entire trip. We felt like we could have stayed forever (and probably did wear out our welcome). This was the first place we bought a bottle of wine to take with us and was one of the best experiences of the trip.

Hall Vineyards - Wine 7 / Experience 7
Heading up the highway for more wineries, we skipped some of the more popular wineries such as Robert Mondavi (probably shouldn't have though) and went to Hall. It was definitely a change compared to Goosecross, as if felt a little more "coporate" and "business-like". There was cool blown glass artwork hanging from the ceiling and a nice outdoor sitting area where the breeze was nice. There was construction going on and I hear the new place is going to be spectacular. The wine was just average to us, though.

Merryvale Winery - Wine 10 / Experience 10
Perhaps this rating has a little bias, because going into this trip Merryvale was one of our favorites. However, knowing we had high expectations going in, the visit did not disappoint so it has to be a 10 out of 10. The wines were all spectacular, and even though we did the less expensive tasting the staff offered us some more private reserved wines only available at the winery. The oak barrel dining room is a sight to see and we have several great photographs and the staff offered to take pictures of us. They were very knowledgeable and friendly and this was one of the only 10 / 10 experiences of the trip. We purchased a bottle here, and should have bought another.

V. Sattui Estate Winery - Wine 10 / Experience 9
Next door to Merryvale is this winery which is well known in the area. They do not distribute their wines and they are only available via direct order or locally. They are also one of the only wineries that is allowed to serve food (although we did not have any food). The wines here ranged to our likings, some of them we dumped out but others such as the Morisoli Vineyard Cabernet was spectacular. We bought two bottles at this place since we could not get it at home. The staff was very helpful and generous, and you can see why they are the winery of the year with their generosity, free tastings with the available coupons, and food to boot!

Beringer Estate - Wine 9 / Experience 10 (tour)
One of the best known wineries in the area is Beringer. It is on a beautiful grounds in St. Helena. We had talked about doing some tours and were told this was one of the best. When we entered the separate "ticket area", I was quite taken aback by the pricing of one of the tours I believe it was $35 a person. We did it anyway, and the tour guide (Tim) was very knowledgeable. It started with a walk along the grounds then we stopped to drink some Chardonnay, then continued into a vineyard and ate grapes right from the vine. The highlight of the trip came next, which is when we were escorted to the caves into a private dining room inside a cave. Here we sampled some of the best wines Beringer had to offer by candlelight inside a cave. Tim then offered to let us drink from an oak barrel, and it was quite educational to note the differences of an aged wine from a bottle vs. a barrel. We learned a lot now that I think about it for example did you know white zinfandel was created by huge mistake when the skins were removed too soon? They discounted the wine to sell it all and it caught on like wildfire, and is now the most popular wine according to some. The experience was great (although pricey) and the wine was great as well -- but only because we had the ultra-good stuff. I imagine their everyday wines do not compare to the wine they serve on this tour.

St. Clement Vineyards - Wine 8 / Experience 6
We stopped at this winery right next to Sutter Home. You had to walk up a steep hill to get there, which should normally be easy but after a day of drinking wine it was quite challenging. The wine was good, better than average, but just a so-so experience as there wasn't anything uniquely special, other than the nice view from the front porch.

Trinchero Estate Winery - Wine 6 / Experience 6
Across the street is Trinchero, which was heavily under construction. The wines were average, perhaps a little below average, but the staff was helpful in answering questions. Apparently Trinchiro owns Sutter Home and a number of other wineries as well. I imagine this place will be much better when construction is complete.

Freemark Abbey - Wine 10 / Experience 9
This was one of the best wineries we visted. The staff was very helpful, and the wine was outstanding. The merlot was the best merlot I had ever tasted and it wasn't even close. At $22 a bottle I picked up one, should have bought a case of it (it was that good). Highly recommend this place and the lounge is comfortable which provided nice couch and chair seating (very rare in these wineries) to sit down and enjoy your glass!

V. Sattui (again) - Wine 10 / Experience 8
We ventured back to this place a second time for two reasons: 1. It was 5:30 and the only winery still open in the area was this place (probably another reason they are "winery of the year" since everyone goes here for last call), and 2. That Morisoli Vineyard cab was so excellent earlier in the day I just had to go back to verify it. Yep, it was just as good the second time. Picked up our 3rd bottle this one was $55 bucks. Ouch.

Sterling Vineyards - Wine 7 / Experience 8 (tour)
This is another one of the wineries best known for their tour. It starts with a cable car ride up a mountain to the top of the winery. From there a self-guided tour takes you around the property as wine is available at certain locations. The view from the terrace is one of the best. The experience and tour was one of the best, the wine was just average. The lines were super-long as this is the big "tourist trap" of the area. They do have a nice sit down area after your self guided tour, and actually have people serve you the wine at your table which is different than every other winery we visted. However, the service wasn't that great -- so maybe that's why nobody does it. I'd say it's worth going once but we wouldn't go back.

Twomey Cellars - Wine 7 / Experience 8
We stopped in here mostly because it was right next to Sterling, but also because Stonegate used to be here which was one of my favorite wineries of the past. Google Maps still has this address for Stonegate, but it's Twomey Cellars now. I'm not sure what happened to Stonegate as it looks like they only sell over their website now, and they don't ship to Michigan even though other wineries do (gee thanks Stonegate). Someone told me they've changed owners several times over the years and when we asked the staff at Twomey they seemed quick to want to change the subject. Anyway, back to Twomey... they seem to advertise themselves as "upper class" merlots and reds but not Cabs. Honestly I did not think it was that great, I'd probably give it a 6 if they didn't give us free wine glasses. It was decent wine, but for the prices they charge per bottle (around $50 and up) it was significantly overpriced.

Graeser - Wine 9 / Experience 10
Imagine this... you are driving along a road called "petrified forest road", and you see a sign for a winery. You follow the sign and drive up a single lane winding road amoung tall Redwoods up a mountain. At the top is a beautiful old country farmhouse with vineyards that go right up the side of the mountain. This is Graeser winery and the experience only became better when we stepped inside. We could tell it was different when we were greeted by two huge (but very friendly dogs), then the parakeets and other animals inside the tasting room made it unique. We were surprised by their wine as well, which for the most part was excellent. After doing several tastings some old guy started to joke about not interrupting him because he was doing inventory and would lose track if we said anything. After a while we started to realize this was Richard Graeser himself, the owner and winemaker. He was quite funny, and as he served us one wine he said "this one I call the panty dropper". The room bust into laughter. It seemed like the place the locals went as some stopped in to have some wine and discuss selling their grapes. It was a great experience, and we picked up two bottles.

Clos Du Bois - Wine 10 / Experience 9
We drove quite a way to get here, as it was one of Jen's favorites as well. Of all the wineries this was the only one where both Jen and I loved every wine we had from top to bottom.... from the whites to the unique styles to the typical reds - everything was great. The staff was very knowledgeable and helpful, we talked with some locals for a while that had moved there a few years earlier, and hey two free wine glasses. We are considering joining this wine club since it seemed to be one of the better deals amoung the wine clubs.

Rodney Strong - Wine 7 / Experience 7
I wanted to go here even though my wife didn't, because I think Rodney Strong wines are a decent value. I still think that today. The tasting room was packed and most of the wines we tasted were decent. Nothing spectacular, just in the ok to good range. Prices at the winery seemed inflated to me. Someone at the tasting room reeked of body odor which might have dampened the experience.

Blackstone Winery - Wine 6 / Experience 6
This is another larger producer of wine. It was just ok. They have a nice patio area and the wines were decent. Glad we had a free tasting here with a coupon because it really probably wasn't worth it so much. Their wines are usually bargain priced wine, and it's probably worth what you pay for it.

Chateau St. Jean - Wine 8 / Experience 8
The minute you pull up to this place it seems like you're in for an "expensive" place. The architecture and gardens are flawless and spectacular. There are beautiful fountains and landscaping. There are also two tasting rooms with two pricing options - we choose the "cheaper" option. The wines on the standard option were good - a couple were great enough for me to come home and seek out a couple bottles. It geemed like all of the bartenders at the tasting room had some kind of accent, and the tasting room was very nicely decorated and beautiful.

Benziger - Wine 7 / Experience 10
If there's a 'big 3' of wine country from a tourism standpoint, it's probably Sterling, Beringer, and Benziger. This winery was much different than the other two. The difference to me was this one didn't feel so "corporate". Beinzinger also seems to be the most environmentally concious winery in the entire area. They use the mountains to collect the rainwater which then gets pumped back onto the grape vines. They haven't used a pesticide in something like 30 years. They even had their own natural garden in the middle of their vines which is specifically there just to attract inserts to ward off the bad insects. The tour was probably the best we've had, you drive around on a tractor up a hill through the vineyards, talk about how the area was formed by the volcano the land sits on, and it ends off with a cave tour and had the best description of how the wine is made as they gave tours of the manufacturing area. The wine was just average to good, but somehow now that I know how helpful they are to our environment the wine starts tasting a little better.

Imagery Estate - Wine 8 / Experience 8
Imagery is also owned by Benzinger. I believe they are trying to market it as the "higher end" of the Benzinger line. I'd say it is higher end wine, but not significantly and definitely not worth the price difference... if I recall the cheapest bottle of a red bottle here was upwards of $40-50. Again, decent wine, not worth the price though. This place did have a neat location complete with horseshoe pits and Bocce ball, and wasn't as uptight as I expected.

Arrowood - Wine 9 / Experience 8
This winery is located literally on the same driveway as Imagery. I have to admit it was very good wine - very very good. I probably should have bought a bottle but it was a little expensive, I believe $50 a bottle which is the only reason I did not buy one. There is a wonderful view from the tasting room as you overlook a big hill with rolling vineyards down the hill.

Nicholson Ranch - Wine 7 / Experience 8
I don't remember too much from this place other than damn they had good crackers (which are meant to clear your palate, but I was hungry! :-). They did have decent wine but by this time we were kind of on our way (and lost as we made a wrong turn) so I don't really know how good it was. I think it was good, but I'm not for sure. However, the location of this seemed pretty cool. It's a beautiful ranch on top of a hill with a pond area built into the grounds. Seemed like there was some history here with things to explore, but we just wanted to have our glasses of wine and move on to the next place since it was getting late.

Larson Family - Wine 10 / Experience 10
One of the best experiences and wine of the whole trip - A+, 5 stars. The tasting room was inside a barn, with some good old down home country hospitality and good conversation. The wines were great. I could not decide if I wanted the $40 bottle of cab (Sadler Wells) or the $50 bottle of the Larson Family Cab which won "best cabernet in California" at the California state fair. I went with the $40 bottle mostly because they would not allow tasting of the Larson Cab due to short supply. I had a hard time spending $50 on a bottle of something I didn't taste. But you know what... the curiousity has been bugging me ever since, and I should have bought the good one. Gee, I wonder what the best cab in california tastes like? I may never know becase you can't buy this wine anywhere -- mostly they're a small family winery. The painted on driftwood signs on the way in and out were classic. We also learned how to "roll your glass on its side" to let the flavors out. Maybe cool, maybe stupid but it seemed cool at the time. ;)

Cline Cellars - Wine -1 / Experience 1
Bottom line is that it was awful and I'm not joking. Going from Larson Family to this was like going from a BMW to a rusted out Yugo. Jen wanted to visit here, and we could not believe how awful the wine was. We had to wait because the crowd was huge because they were open late, and it seemed like a younger college drunk crowd. The wine basically tasted like spit (and might have actually been someone else's spit), but they all tasted like spit so I don't know how it could have been someone else's glass that had not been washed. We had at least one "corked" bottle that they served (which other wineries threw out after smelling it first -- not at Cline, they serve their bad wines). Seriously I was like spitting for the next 15 minutes after tasting this crap. Later in the day we were talking with some other locals who confirmed they have heard of these kind of experiences from this place, so it's not like we were just picky at the time or something. We'll never buy another bottle of Cline it was that bad. The only reason I give the experience a "1" (on the positive side) is because they did have some nice grounds and a pond/fountain area to sit down and hang out. Why you would want to stay here and drink awful wine though, is beyond me.

Jacuzzi - Wine 8 / Experience 8
This is a new winery just across the street from Cline, just recently opened in a beautiful castle-like setting. It was suprisingly excellent. In fact I would give it a 9 except that we just came from Cline - so a glass of anything would have tasted great so I'm skeptical if it was really that good. We did buy a bottle of it, as I recall their merlot was great. The lady here was extremely helpful and outgoing even though we were there at closing time. I wish their bottles were a standard wine bottle format, they have some kind of shorter wider bottle which doesn't fit most wine racks, which is annoying. And yes, if you're wondering, this winery is owned by the same company that created the Jacuzzi tub.

Mayo Family Winery - Wine 8 / Experience 10
Ok I have to admit, we made it back to this place which was within walking distance to our hotel, and we had pretty much tied one on by now. So of course the wine was great right! ;) This winery was open later and was recommended by my cousin who lives in Glen Elen. The wine was good, but the service and experience was great. We basically had our own private tasting of MANY of the wines on the menu - and this winery makes a lot of varieties. We bought a bottle and a port because it was based on Cognac (Jen talked me into this one). I'm looking forward to trying it.

Labels: California Wine, Napa Valley, Sonoma Valley, Vacation, Wine, Winery, Wine Tasting

Excited for Wine Country

2007-08-09T21:55:00.001-04:00

My wife and I are headed to the Napa & Sonoma Valley in a few days for a week for some much-needed rest and relaxation. It's the first vacation where I haven't "planned everything out", which is hard for me to do I must admit. My cousin Mike is in the wine business out there, and gave me some advice, he said: "Ben, I have some news for you. All these husbands that come out here want to plan out every vacation. That works for Europe, but not wine country. This trip is really for your wife, so just plan where you're going to sleep at night so you have a decent place and leave the rest up to whatever happens and she wants to do."

I suppose that is good advice to listen to.

So we'll be taking in a little San Francisco as well but mostly just wine country, including stays in Napa, St. Helena, Calistoga, and Glen Ellen. I'm almost as excited for this trip as I was for our Scotland honeymoon!

Playing in the rain!

2007-08-02T11:06:00.000-04:00

I took this shot with my 70-300IS zoom lens from about 30 feet away. I must say this camera is pretty awesome, I didn't even know shots like this existed before!

I'm still trying to learn how to balance the photographic triangle with the right lighting. It's a puzzle really... figuring out the right ISO, shutter speed and f-stops. There is so much more to this world than I ever knew - I used to just shoot on automatic most of the time!

That is definitely done with.

Keep your eye on the ball!

2007-07-21T13:39:00.000-04:00

So I'm starting to learn more and more about digital photography. First of all, there is absolutely no comparison to a Point and Shoot (P&S) compact camera to a digital SLR. Not even in the same league and the advantages are too many to list. The disadvantages to a digital SLR are pretty much two things:

1. Size: the camera is not small and with all the lenses you need to lug a bag around of all your equipment

2. Cost: There is no limit to how much you want to spend on digital SLR photography. Before I knew it I had spent $1700 on a setup, but I think this should really help me explore a new hobby that I've always enjoyed

Take this picture above for example. There is absolutely no way I would get this shot with a P&S. I was purposely trying to get his face in focus, with the background blurry and I wanted to show motion when he hit the ball. I took this photo with my Canon Digital Rebel XTi with a 50mm f1.8 lens, I think I had the aperture set to f2.2 and focused on his face. The camera is so fast it can take 3 pictures a second, so it captures these moments better than any P&S can. I'm totally sold on the idea of if you really enjoy photography, skip the P&S and go straight for an SLR if you have a little money to spend on it.

By the way, the lenses I bought are a Canon 17-85 IS USM for an everyday lens, Canon 70-300 IS USM for zoom, and a 50mm f1.8 which is great for portraits.

Emma at Peace

2007-07-21T13:19:00.001-04:00

We have a little angel in heaven now, and we laid her to rest on July 12 at Holy Sepulchre Cemetary in Southfield, Michigan. They have a nice "babyland" area with rows and rows of little babies that did not survive long in this world. It's a beautiful place, nicer than most public parks. It has very mature trees in a peaceful setting, with a nice lake and wildlife. Perhaps most appropriate, in their babyland area there is a statue of Jesus playing with children with the quote: "Let the little children to come to me, and do not hinder them, for of such is the kingdom of God. Mark 10:14". It really helps to ease some of our grief.

Jen and I are putting together a list of all the little amazing things that happened over the last 9 months, and when we get all that written down I'll post them out here. This whole experience with Emma has made us deeper individuals. While we still don't understand all of it, we are comforted to know that we did everything we could for Emma, she did not suffer at all and peacefully went from one perfect world (mom's womb) to another (heaven), and all she ever knew was love during her stay here.

A Note from Jen

2007-07-11T11:54:00.000-04:00

(a note from my wife)

Hello Friends,

I'm sorry to send you all an email - I so wish I had the energy to call each of you.

Emma Grace Abler was born to heaven yesterday, July 9, at 10:03 am. She was 4 lbs, 3 oz and 18 inches long. Although we did not have a chance to meet her alive, every other wish, hope and prayer we had for her was answered. We know she did not suffer -- most you know that was my greatest concern during this whole time. As one friend told me, she went from one perfect world to another, and knowing this brings me a tremendous amount of comfort.We were able to spend a lot of time with her and our family yesterday and couldn't have received better care and understanding from our doctors and nurses. As sad as this whole experience has been, there has also been a tremendous amount of laughter and joy. Yesterday was like that, too.

There have been several miracles that her life has brought to ours. We are so blessed to have had so many wonderful months with her.We are having a small ceremony at the cemetery on Thursday:
A graveside committal service will take place at 11 AM on Thursday, July 12, 2007 at Holy Sepulchre Cemetery (10 Mile Road and Beech Daly) inSouthfield. For more information please call Lynch & Sons Funeral Home Walled Lake(248) 624-2251 or visit http://www.lynchfuneraldirectors.com/obituaries-wl.html)

Thanks so much for your support through such a difficult time. Please keep us in your thoughts and prayers. Much love,Jen

Emma Grace Abler: July 9, 2007

2007-07-09T20:12:00.001-04:00

Emma Grace Abler was born to heaven at 10:03am on July 9. She was 4 lbs, 3 oz and 18 inches long. She did not suffer and peacefully went from one perfect world ( mom's womb ) to another ( heaven ).

A graveside committal service will take place at 11 AM on Thursday, July 12, 2007 at Holy Sepulchre Cemetery (10 Mile Road and Beech Daly) in Southfield.

For more information please call Lynch & Sons Funeral Home Walled Lake (248) 624-2251 or visit http://www.lynchfuneraldirectors.com/obituaries-wl.html

In lieu of flowers donations strongly encourged and appreciated to:

My Nest Is Best - Angela Hospice
14100 Newburgh Road
Livonia, MI 48154

Please keep us in your thoughts and prayers.

It's going to be soon...

2007-07-04T08:44:00.000-04:00

The doctors have told us not to venture too far away from the hospital until Emma is born. Our due date is July 22, but they believe she will be prior to that. The anticipation is unlike anything else. We hope she makes it so that we can meet her, but if that is not the outcome then we will be comforted to know that we did everything possible for our little angel while she was here.

Leaping from Point & Shoot to Digital SLR

2007-06-22T11:54:00.000-04:00

Well my wife is big into scrapbooking, so all of her scrapbook buddies convinced her we needed a digital SLR type of camera. I'd been thinking I needed one anyway, my old Canon Powershot G2 is getting pretty old and although it's a good camera, it just wasn't fitting the need anymore. I figured I'd pick one up at Costco to check it out since you have 90 days to return it.

We bought a Canon Digital Rebel XTi. I think it was $800 with a kit lens, way more than I wanted to spend on a camera and this is just the start -- to really do what you want you need more lenses, lenses, lenses and don't forget high speed compact flash and hotshoe flash, carrying case, the list goes on and on. Do non-professional photographers really spend thousands on this stuff? I guess so. I'm trying to keep the cost down but still get the benefits.

First impressions of the camera are is it ridiculously fast compared to a point and shoot. I can take 3 photos a second of my son throwing a baseball up to 27 shots before it needs a break. Wow. That's cool. The photos are also huge, 10.1 MP to be exact. I could put a poster the size of my house up with that. It also sounds awesome. You know, like a real camera does. There's a strange feeling about this every time you hear that noise on a SLR... it's like every time you hear that click it makes you think to yourself "oh yeah, that's a great shot". I wonder if there's some psychological thing behind that SLR click noise.

I suppose I should mention the photos are vivid and turn out great also. I'll keep experimenting with it and start looking for a decent zoom lens with image stabilization that won't break the bank.

The Software Factory Approach

2007-06-22T11:17:00.000-04:00

My how times are changing in my role. What used to be individual custom built solutions to enhance our business will be rapidly changing into a more open, collaborative, flexible software factory approach. I'm excited about it nad look forward to working with experts in this space to quickly accomplish our goals.

Emma Grace Update

2007-06-19T21:48:00.000-04:00

Back in February when we learned that our baby Emma had Trisomy 18, we were devastated. We learned more about all of the specifics of the significant life threatening problems she had, and heard doctor after doctor not give her much of a chance to even make it past 30 weeks.

Here we are today, approximately one month away from full term and she's still alive and kicking and punching inside Momma. When we have our ultrasounds it's almost like we are communicating with each other - she even gave me a thumbs up last time. She's a fighter and she'll always be daddy's little girl.

Justin Verlander throws a No-No!

2007-06-12T22:21:00.001-04:00

I started watching this game in the 3rd inning, immediately I saw how wicked JV's stuff was tonight. Are you kidding me.... 100mph heat on the corner, curve balls that start in Royal Oak and land in the Detroit River, and change ups placed over a dime? I've never seen a Detroit Tiger Pitcher throw as good as JV did tonight for 9 full innings. I'm very happy for him and Pudge who called a great game. I was doing the math and this only happens once or twice a year in Major League Baseball, which is about once or twice out of every 5,000 games. Not too Shabby JV!

Ironic Fact: Pudge has caught a no hitter with one other pitcher in his career, none other than Kenny Rogers also with the Tigers now. ;)

TechEd 2007 vs Lotusphere 2007

2007-06-11T09:29:00.000-04:00

I've had the great opportunity to attend what many consider to be the two "big" conferences in the collaboration space in the same year: Lotusphere and TechEd. Lotusphere had approximately 8,000 attendees this year, and it was rumored that TechEd had approximately 12,000. Without further adieu, here is my comparison of the conferences

Location and Timing
Both conferences are held in Orlando. Lotusphere is at the Walt Disney World Boardwalk Area (Swan and Dolphin convention center) in late January, while TechEd is at the Orange County Convention Center in early June for 2007. There are advantages/disadvantages to each location. For TechEd it is nice to have all of the conference sessions at one building (although it is one MASSIVE building, probably the largest building I've ever been inside). At the same time there is not much wrong with walking a little back and forth at Lotusphere between buildings, which is typically held at 2 or 3 of the Walt Disney Boardwalk area convention centers. I am not sure if the Boardwalk area could accommodate a conference as large as TechEd, but I seem to remember in the pre 9-11 days Lotusphere having over 10,000 attendees. So I'd call this equal except one thing comes to mind -- there is nothing better than escaping the frigid cold of winter by escaping to Florida in late January, and you just can't beat being on site at the Disney Boardwark for a conference.

Winner: Lotusphere

Keynote and Closing
Lotusphere wins this without much comparison whatsoever. Lotusphere's opening session is packed with electricity; there are rock bands playing, have amazing laser light shows, this year's guest was Neil Armstrong (!), and the content and demos generate a buzz that makes you want to go implement what they just showed tomorrow. TechEd on the other hand was very much just some Back to the Future stunt, simple product demos, it was too long, boring, and half the crowd left early. I've never seen so many people walking out of an opening session. Further Lotusphere does a closing session as well and a Meet the Developers session, both of which are not offered at TechEd. This one isn't even close.

Winner: Lotusphere

Online
Both companies set up a online collaboration site for conference attendees to use. While both are useful, Microsoft extends it much further and seemed to have less problems. CommNet and TechEd Connect are two excellent and useful sites they provide for collaborating, learning, and sharing information. I had several problems with Lotusphere Online while at the conference and the content is not as updated and useful.

Winner: TechEd

Hands-On-Labs
TechEd wins this without much comparison. To me, this was the most impressive single thing of the conference. The instructor led labs are always booked at either conference and fill up fast, but TechEd actually set up two large areas to take hands-on labs anytime you want. Not only that, but there are HUNDREDS to choose from on every topic and software you can think of. I contemplated spending the entire week in just the hands on labs area. The staff in the lab area was extremely helpful and encouraging, and I learned more by spending time in this area than any other conference.

Winner: TechEd

Sessions
This one is a little hard to compare because TechEd is definitely more on the technical side of a conference, by design. Tech-Ed tends to have a lot more "looking at code on a projector" than Lotusphere. While it's neat they demo writing the code, at the same time how useful is that to watch someone write code? Maybe it is? I haven't decided. Lotusphere tends to have more best practices and marketing type of stuff at the sessions, so I guess this depends on the audience.

Winner: Equal

Birds of a Feather
Tech-Ed's BOFs are very large compared to small intimate discussions at Lotusphere. As a result I think it's hard to get your questions answered. At the same time, Tech-Ed organizes BOFs into lunch sessions and one "BOF night" where there are just BOF's from 6-10pm with food and drinks -- this is a much better way to do this rather than the 7am sessions at Lotusphere. All in all, I'm calling it a wash.

Winner: Equal

Speakers
I have to say that Tech-Ed has a slight edge here. It just seemed like too many sessions at Lotusphere I was walking out of because the session wasn't very exciting. Maybe it's because I'm more experienced at Lotus than Microsoft as of today, but I think the speakers had something to do with it too.

Winner: TechEd

Pre-Conference
I really like the idea of being able to attend many pre-conference "Jumpstarts" rather than one whole day on one topic... especially when that one topic is looking at code for most of the day.

Winner: Lotusphere

Partner Showcase and Swag
You get more T-Shirts and giveaways at Lotusphere, but there's more "big" prizes at Tech-Ed. Vendors are also more prepared to do demos. We're talking $10,000, $15,000, and motorcycles. The only price I can think of at Lotusphere that was that big was an AS/400 giveaway one year.

Winner: TechEd

Food

Neither was outstanding, but I have to say Lotusphere has better and more available food (not that I need to eat it). My colleagues have told me the food was pretty much terrible at TechEd this year, worse than previous years.

Winner: Lotusphere

Certification & Learning Area

It's great that both conferences have major discounts on exams and offer study-hall type of environments. I find them both lacking though and here's why... they never have any information on the newer released exams. I was looking to take the WSS 3.0 Development and/or MOSS 2007 Development exams, but there were no materials on it anywhere. In the Exam Cram area there wasn't even anyone there who had taken it or knew anything about it. These are going to be two very popular exams and there was no information about it. I ran into a similar situation at Lotusphere where I was looking to take the first Websphere Portal Dev Exam, and there wasn't much available for it. TechEd still wins this one because they did not have as much overcrowding and offered the ExamCram area, but I wish both conferences would have *some* information about every new certification exam offered.

Winner: TechEd (but not thrilled with either)

Parties

This year's Lotusphere conference party was at Animal Kingdom, which was neat with the new coaster there Expedition Everest. TechEd was at Universal Islands of Adventure. Typically these parties rotate from park to park each year. Ironically it rained for both parties this year and I returned soaked for both. So as far as the main party, TechEd gives you an extra hour while Lotusphere's party is not as crowded. But I'll have to say that TechEd winds this category because there seemed to be sponsored parties every night at this conference (doubletake, jamfest two nights, others) . It's a sure sign that I'm older now when I just skipped most of them to get some sleep.

Winner: TechEd

Overall

In summary, both are great conferences which have ample learning opportunities. I can't say one is better than the other overall because it really depends what you individually need to get out of a particular conference.

TechEd: Heading Home

2007-06-08T14:26:00.000-04:00

I'm here in the blue area next to the hand on labs north. I spent a good portion of the week in these two areas, watching them take down the tables in the food area.

This was my first TechEd, and I must say this is an absolute must-go conference for anyone looking to stay on top of trends and technical learning with Microsoft. I was very impressed with the technical learning opportunities and variety of solutions here.

It's time for me to say goodbye to TechEd and catch my flight home. I miss my family badly, it's been nearly 7 days away from them and I'm sure my son is speaking in sentences and throwing fastballs at 80mph by now. ;)

Look for my Lotusphere vs TechEd comparison post later this week, as I had an opportunity to attend both this year.

TechEd: Workflow with Microsoft

2007-06-05T17:23:00.002-04:00

It seems to me that there is widespread confusion about when to use WF custom apps, SPD workflow, Biztalk or when to look at third party products such as Captiva, K2.NET, Agilepoint, or Skelta BPM.

TechEd initial observations

2007-06-04T22:20:00.001-04:00

1. There is a plethora of technical content here
2. Creating workflows from scratch in Workflow Foundation is not "easy"
3. The possibilities are endless with endless resources :)

The NBA = Pro Wrestling

2007-06-02T23:21:00.001-04:00

After watching the third straight unevenly officiated game with the Detroit Pistons vs Cleveland Cavaliers, it is clear to me that the NBA is more like the WWE (world wrestling entertainment) than ever before. It is really unfortunate that the NBA officials are allowed so much control over any given game or series. Some rules are enforced, others are not. Some fouls are called, others are not. Be consistent! It reminds me why I never really have been a very strong fan of pro basketball over every other major college and pro sport.

I'm not saying the Pistons would have won if it was called equally as they weren't exactly playing well or coached well, but they still played well enough to compete and the officials did not even give them that chance to win it.

Tech Ed here I come!

2007-06-01T23:45:00.001-04:00

I am very excited to be attending my first Tech Ed Conference in Orlando, FL. As a regular Lotusphere attendee, I'll have my eyes and ears peeled seeing how the conferences compare.

Hopefully I can get answers to some of my questions on workflow and Notes application migrations!

Helpful People

2007-05-29T00:15:00.001-04:00

As we are in our 32nd week now, and I wanted to take a quick moment and point out some of the wonderful people and organizations that have gone out of their way to help us to this point.

The many members of the Trisomy 18 Foundation: www.trisomy18.org
Dr. Jacalyn McCloskey & Dr. John Sanborn , and Stephanie of Generations OBGYN: www.generationsobgyncenter.com
Ann Patrice Foley of Angela Hospice: www.angelahospice.org
Tim Lynch Jr of Lynch & Sons Funeral Directors - Walled Lake: www.lynchfuneraldirectors.com/walledlake.html
Holy Sepulchre Catholic Cemetery: www.aodonline.org/AODOnline/Offices+and+Ministries+12009/Finance+and+Administration+12153/Cemeteries+6125/Cemeteries+-+Hours+and+Locations.htm
Father George Charmley of St. James Catholic Church: www.stjamesofnovi.4lpi.com

Their honesty, kindness, and helpfulness has not gone unnoticed by us.

150 pink flowers

2007-05-27T09:47:00.000-04:00

Every year about this time, we plant flowers. We have some fairly large annual beds in the front and we also plant them around the outside of our patio. We have one of those patios that has the pavers elevated and then a hedge of dense yews around the outside of it, so we put the flowers in front of the hedge.

In the last few years we usually go with a mixed group of impatiens, but this year we went with impatiens in the back of the house and begonias in the front. One other minor detail..... everything is pink in honor of the expected arrival of Emma. Given our situation we thought it was an easy thing to do to celebrate her life.

Introducing Emma Grace Abler

2007-05-23T22:54:00.000-04:00

I've thought for a while whether or not to go public with this information, but after thinking about it only good things can come from this, so why not?

As some of you may or may not know, we are pregnant with our second child. About 3 months ago, we went in for our second regular ultrasound and what we were expecting to be a happy day turned into a complete nightmare in a matter of minutes. Two level II ultrasounds, an echocardiogram, many doctors, and genetic chromosome tests have confirmed with 100% accuracy that our little girl has very rare and fatal choromosome disorder known as full Trisomy 18 (Edward's Syndrome). It occurs randomly in about 1 in 6000 pregnancies where the 18th chromosome has one extra on every cell of her body. There is no known cause of it and it's nothing we did that resulted in this and nothing we could have prevented.

The bad news is that 18th chromosome has a major impact on many of the features that are needed to sustain life. In our Emma's case it has severely impaired many features and organs of the baby including multiple heart defects (large VSD, pulmonary stenosis, overriding aorta, likely 'Tetralogy of Fallot'), diaphragmatic hernia (stomach and intestines are in the upper chest compressing the heart and lungs), clenched/overlapped fingers, cleft lip/palate ... and the list goes on. Her case appears worse than the normal T18 case. Multiple doctors and experts are not expecting her to make it full term, and if born alive they do not expect her to live more than a few minutes, but they do not expect her to suffer during pregnancy or birth.

Obviously when given a diagnosis like this you have a lot of questions and decisions. Despite the fact that approximately 90% of these cases are terminated, we decided to continue on as normal as we possibly could and celebrate her life. Maybe we will get a chance to meet her during her brief stay with us, maybe not, but all she will know is love in this world.

We've named her Emma Grace Abler. The name has significance:

We had brainstormed a few names, but one day I was on the computer surfing and thinking about baby names in the back of my mind. Our son Andrew (18 months at the time) came into the room and picked a random book off the shelf out of hundreds to pick from and brought it to me. The book was "Baby Names and their Meanings". I was amazed that he picked out that book out of everything on the bookshelf, so I picked him up and put him on my lap. He then opened the book to the page that had "Emma" at the top. The book read "Emma: is of German origin, and its meaning is "whole, complete". Andrew then pointed at the name and said "Emma". I then flipped the page there was the name Grace. The book read "Grace: is of Latin origin, and its meaning is "favor; blessing". A virtue name referring to God's grace."

I was a little stunned at this point, I thought to myself what had just happened. I also thought that given the situation, I don't think there could be a better name for her. The meaning fits perfectly; it is beautiful, and it basically means that despite her diagnosis - she is a whole and complete blessing to us from God. It was perfect. Now, I generally don't get all caught up in the angel or spirit stuff, but I have to wonder if there was some kind of angel teaming up with Andrew to make this happen at that moment? It was just an amazing experience that's really hard to describe that feeling.

We are now at 30 weeks, and she is still alive and kicking. We feel her roll and kick and punch, and she has a strong heartbeat at every doctor appointment. She seems comfortable and content. Despite the difficult emotional times, we have met amazing people that seem to come out of the woodwork from many walks of life. Friends, friends of friends, hospice, photographers, counselors, co-workers, Trisomy 18 Foundation and SOFT Organization ... it's amazing. I will share these stories about the incredible people we've met in future posts.

For now, just know that we are doing the best we can and just taking everything day by day. We are blessed to have wonderful support of our families, friends and others. Please feel welcome to approach me and discuss anything about this situation, I am comfortable with it and it is a part of the journey we are on. There is no reason we shouldn't celebrate her life as much as any other life.

I will close this post out with this quote I found recently:
"Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away."

Moving Sharepoint Designer workflows to Visual Studio with WF

2007-05-08T20:58:00.000-04:00

This will be an issue to those in the Microsoft "workflow" world until this is resolved.

The problem: Workflows that are created/implemented with Sharepoint Designer 2007 are "one time only" solutions that cannot be easily upgraded or reused for other applications.

The solution: Some folks at Microsoft are telling me you can upgrade it by moving it to Visual Studio with WF (although of course this is unsupported - but possible). They say you can do this by saving the XOML in Sharepoint Designer locally, then creating a new workflow project and adding the XOML to the project. From there you can also add a CS and Rules file to the XOML.

However, I'm hearing from some of my contacts (some are MVPs) that nobody has actually made this work. Has anyone actually tried this and made it work?

For us, it is a critical consideration as we convert workflow applications - because although SPD provides a nice fast way to create workflows. In reality that is not very useful for us because we will need to make modifications to them and upgrade them later without "throwing away" what we have.

Thoughts?

Amazing

2007-04-25T23:46:00.002-04:00

I felt like I actually had a conversation with my 20 month old son today on the phone. He repeated words, said new thing I hadn't heard from him before, and even said "bye bye" when it was time to go. I am constantly amazed by him.

A new appreciation for notes

2007-04-25T23:36:00.002-04:00

As I learn more about workflow with Microsoft tools, I develop a new appreciation for Notes. Lotus has figured out a way to make robust workflows easy to build and deploy and maintain. While the workflow foundation with .Net 3.0 seems more enterprise and composite based, you simple will not be able to build moderate to complex workflows as fast as you can on Notes today. Microsoft has some catching up to do in the RAD arena in terms of workflow.