Word of the day: Orthogonal
or·thog·o·nal:Adj.[from mathematics] Mutually independent; well separated; sometimes, irrelevantto. Used in a generalization of its mathematical meaning to describe setsof primitives or capabilities that, like a vector basis in geometry, spanthe entire `capability space' of the system and are in some sense non-overlappingor mutually independent. For example, in architectures such as the PDP-11or VAX where all or nearly all registers can be used interchangeably inany role with respect to any instruction, the register set is said to beorthogonal.Ah, the PDP-11 or VAX, such memories of room-sizedcomputers with monstorous gigabyte hard drives. Anyway.I used the word "orthogonal" today to describe the "innovationpack" planned for Lotus Notes and Domino in mid-2006. This isthe set of capabilites including a blog template, RSS feeds, and Noteson a USB key that were announced at Lotusphere. They're "orthogonal"because they are not a 7.1 or 7.5 release...in fact, no core code is disturbedat all. This is critical to those organizations who have testingrequirements in order to deploy a "new" piece of software. The"innovation pack" is separate from the core Notes/Domino codestream. Apparently, the "orthogonal"nature of this deliverable taught several people in the room a new SATword.Other notes from today's Lotusphere Comes to You in Chicago:- About 120 customers and partners attended. Speakers included KevinCavanaugh, Rob Ingram, David Marshak (demonstrating Sametime 7.5 live!),and Joe Linehan. - In my session on Notes/Domino directions, all of the attendees were onND6.x or 7. A number of Linux and iSeries customers represented,as well as some pSeries and Solaris. Oh yeah, there were Windowsusers, too. - Today was my first visit to the IBM offices at 71 S. Wacker, Chicago. This is the address that has been on my business card since August,but until today, I had never been there. Nice place, very sleek. The A/V equipment is first rate (except the wireless microphone setup). But now I can no longer point out that as a telecommuter, I've neverbeen to my own office. Though I still didn't go looking for wheremy snail mail is stored.