COMMON: It's off to the races...

[Don <dr2@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Well, folks, we're off to the races in Nashville.

On site registration lines were long yesterday with a bunch of onsite
reg's....people just don't plan ahead....:)

Expo was full...there are about 104 vendors at expo this conference versus
the 86 or so in Minneapolis...  There's alot of empty floor space at the
IBM booth....maybe they're bringing in more stuff this week, but it would
appear that they've got alot of real estate and alot of standing room....

Opening session got off this morning with a few hints on v5r2 stuff...

Then came soundoff.  WILL SOMEONE PLEASE watch COMMON reg next conference
and PLEASE give this guy a f'ing hat!?  Those of you common regulars will
recall the gent from New Orleans and his baseball caps...usually pink...
But, his point of lack in IBM marketing led the kickoff of soundoff
tone...and he's right about the cluelessness at/in IBM marketing...

Then came Al...yes, Al was 2nd...(standup first next time Al....:)....and
Al didn't waste any time asking where marketing was....  I liked Al's
analogy of OS/400 to the OS/2 glide path slope...good idea Al! :)

And, what Al missed, I didn't...  IBM replied with showing what I think
are the same ad prototypes they presented at NEIBMCONF...for
iSeries....with iSeries in VERY SMALL PRINT.....

Anne Lucas got some well deserved thanks....for iSeries Nation...

and there was the usual smattering of supportline, dead batteries,
and other "IBM was gonna fix this" or "IBM needs to fix that...."
issues...HIPA, CERT, etc....

Soundoff lines were smaller...

The wireless experiment (yes, Matilda, you can use your own lapper with
wireless in Nashville!) is REALLY nice....I hope this continues in future
conferences....

The local user group showing appears to be stronger here and the Nashville
LUG is having thier meeting at conference facilities this evening...

...time for lab...:)

Don in DC, somewhere up many flights of stairs in a lab room at the
Opry....