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Civility in critiquing the ideas of others is no vice. Rudeness in defending your own ideas is no virtue.


Mon 8 Nov 2004, 10:40 PM
Popular wisdom is that very old European maps bore the following inscription on uncharted waters or lands "hic sunt dracones" which translates to the more commonly known "here be dragons".  Alas, it appears that popular wisdom may be more popular than wisdom.  As this site describes, while there may have been variations, only one old European map seems to bear this inscription.

Nonetheless, it is not to be doubted that dragons were just some of the many scary beasts which prowled the imaginations of the ancient world.  Likewise today, we face many scary beasts, not the least of which for us inveterate Notes/Domino tree huggers is Lotus Workplace and the "Universal Rich Client".   Nor are we too eager to explore these uncharted waters.  The Search Domino poll below (go to Search Domino and scroll way down and look on the right, if it is still there) shows that 78% (of this admittedly unscientific sample, but we are talking dragons here, so if you want science, go elsewhere)... yes 78%, want 80-100% of the content at Lotusphere to be Notes/Domino.  Hic sunt Workplace indeed.

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Well, I can't tell you there aren't dragons, or other scary beasts, but I will say that noted firefighter and dragon slayer Andrew Pollack has done some preliminary charting of the Rich Client waters, and his preliminary results look closer to "Come on in, the water's fine" than "Here be dragons".  Andrew is enough of a skeptic (ask him what he thinks of XML one day when you have some time to kill) that when he says he thinks there is something there, I don't immediately sniff his cup to smell the telltale Kool Aid.  So, as much as I hope for a certain amount of Lotus Notes/Domino content at Lotusphere, I hope Ed Brill picks through his pile of abstracts, or Rocky through his, and finds a few choice morsels on the Rich Client, and maybe even some of the rest of Lotus Workplace.  Maybe the dragons are the pleasant kind who let you roast marshmallows on their breath.  I'm not sure yet, but I'm willing to test the waters... just a bit.

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