FW: The FP Room: Meeting with Ken and Laura Brody

[John Esak]

> 	When John first introduced the ivocalize thing last year, around
> Christmas time, I thought it was going to be the greatest thing
> since sliced
> filePro files (IE qualifiers... <grin>).  I mean, what could be
> better for a
> filePro developer than having some of the best minds in the business "on
> tap" 24 x 7 ?
>
> 	Unfortunately, it hasn't worked out that way for me.  At home, I
> don't have a private office, where I can close the doors and
> isolate myself
> from the rest of the family.  As a matter of fact, my office is in the
> dining room, which is right between the kitchen and the family room.  So
> there is constant traffic through my office.

George, no offense, but this is a pretty silly "working" arrangement,
period. It would be bad for many, many things... not just The FilePro Room.
If you were just playing Tutorials or music you liked, it would bother
everyone else... it is your arrangement, not the Room at fault here. :-)


> 	Since I am a consultant, I am frequently working at customer sites.
> This means I am running into similar problems at those sites.  I
> am usually
> not in a private area, where I can tune into the iVocalize, except for a
> couple of cases where I have to work from the back room or wiring closet.
> (In one case I have to use a desk in the spare storage room/bathroom, so I
> have to vacate whenever somebody wants to use the toilet...)
>
> 	So, my question is:
>
> 	What methods and equipment have the rest of you come up with to
> overcome these problems?

There are new wireless headsets from Plantronics... very pricey, but very
cool. You'll at least look like you are in a two-way talking situation and
not "just listening to music" should you ever use these at a client site....
However, I can only imagine using them at home... in your case, a probably
very good "fix".

>
> 	Have you found comfortable wireless headsets (with microphones) that
> allow you to move around the office and still stay connected to Ivocalize?
> (I hate to wear a full padded headset over both ears when I'm working in a
> client's office.  It makes it looks like I'm listening to music
> or watching

There are many single hear headsets which allow more flexibility...

As for all this, you sort of make the Room sound like something you must do
ALL day long... noen of us do that... (well some of us _are_ pretty
addicted...) on the whole, we just tune in when we have a question that
needs answered or when we have some time for some pleasant chat. Jeez, Mike,
if your wife and family don't allow you that kind of thing, well, again, I
think your working arrangement in the middle of your family's living space
is the problem.

> 	By the way, our local Novell/Linux users group will be ending its
> meeting at about 9:00PM eastern on Tuesday evening, so I will try
> to log in
> from our meeting place, Fox Valley Lutheran High School, so that the other
> 25 or so Novell system administrators will be able to see how ivocalize
> works.  Several of them are former filePro users, or know about
> filePro.  I
> thought this would be a GREAT way to show a few more people that
> filePro is
> still alive and well!

The more the merrier, you are not going to bang our server license...


> I should note that at a couple of these places, filePro is
> considered a "dead horse"; just kept in place as a "legacy system", so I
> hope that a couple of you might mention vital business apps and new things
> that you are doing with filePro!

I am not so sure, this is the right venue for that sort of thing... it will
not be any kind of "salesy" or "look how great filePro fills this need"
thing... but more of a technical "how-to" thing I think (hope).  Maybe we
can set up some "look-what-filePro-can-do" sessions for this kind of
audience. What I _specifically_ do NOT want... (and it is not just me, but
the desire of EVERYBODY who frequents the Room) is for anyone to log in
talking about other solutions and how they do what filePro can't do... We
are all quite tired of the people who define filePro by what it _can't_ do
rather than by what it _can_ do. It is very easy to understand filePro's
limitations and still depend on it strongly to do all sorts of enterprise
wide functions. I know you know that, and are shooting toward showing these
people that aspect of FP, but don't count too much on this as a talking
point for this or any of the other Tech Sessions... It falls into a
different more "marketing/sales" type category.  Who knows, though, you may
be right. If they listen and hear something that sparks renewed interest...
the better for you, and filePro.

I'll be glad you stop by however you do it, by yourself, with others... at
home or at a meeting... we've missed you. It seems like it has been months
and months since you were around.

Take care,

John