Live Blogging the Ride Home from Dallas


&nbsp_place_holder;img278 Well, I am heading home from the IBM SOA Connectivity and Integration briefing in Dallas, Texas.&nbsp_place_holder; Upon taking seat 31F on the American Airlines MD-80, Jim Bean noticed that the plane is WiFi enabled with GoGo service.&nbsp_place_holder; The service is pretty good.&nbsp_place_holder; Broadband reports scores it:

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Regarding the trip, I think that it was fruitful.&nbsp_place_holder; The content started off a bit bland and more along a focused marketing route, but it quickly turned into a very nice overview of IBM’s SOA connectivity and governance offerings that support its SOA pillars.&nbsp_place_holder; Some great contacts were made, and I really appreciated hearing directly from senior architects and product managers ( most notably Adolfo Rodriguez, Scott Karabin, John Cosgrove) about WebSphere DataPower, WebSphere ESB and Process Server, as well as WebSphere Registry and Repository. There was a lot of additional content in the Message Broker and MQ space as well.&nbsp_place_holder; The J2EE or Web Services stack was my primary focus.&nbsp_place_holder;&nbsp_place_holder; I am leaving the briefing tonight with a sense of confidence in the IBM product line, its direction, and its people.&nbsp_place_holder;

Time to get some rest.&nbsp_place_holder;&nbsp_place_holder; Looks like Phoenix will arrive around midnight, and that leaves me about a 45 minute drive once I liberate my checked bag.&nbsp_place_holder; Byimg279 the way, American Airlines is charging $20 for your first checked piece of luggage.&nbsp_place_holder; They have to be making a killing on that deal.

Oh, and FYI, the use of a wireless mouse is not permitted onboard any domestic US flights.&nbsp_place_holder; My wrongly accused, inactive, pointer received a lecture.