DominoKeys.com

I stumbled across the article “You’ll Pry Lotus Notes Out of Their Cold, Dead Hands” and found it to be interesting and quite true. It reviews what the rest of us has known for some time:

• Notes isn’t legacy, infact, its getting better every year
• Hannover will be a BIG UI improvement and if they can get it to do all of the “Office” stuff that they say it’ll do, it will be HUGE
• Notes rocks for rapid application development and can scale to be 3M or IBM size.
• Notes is much much more than just email

But the most interesting part of this article was a comment about how IBM has put substantial effort behind converting Notes geeks to WebSphere and their progress is slow-going, at best.

As I entertain the idea of WebSphere in my organization, I’ve yet to see it as anything close to a replacement for Notes/Domino. Infact, I look at WebSphere as a way to extend the life of our ERP system by delivering a better UI, better graphical metrics and role-based dashboards. The fact that I can have any level of integration with Domino is icing on the cake.

Of course, then you look at a specific application and start to wonder why you can’t just do the same thing with Domino, LEI and a bit of HTML/CSS/XML magic? — Which brings us right back to how powerful Domino really is.

Remember 1996?The Dallas Cowboys became the first team to win 3 Super Bowls across 4 seasons. The Telecom Reform Act was signed marking the begining of a large deregulation in the telecommunication industry. ValuJet Flight 592 crashed into the Florida Everglades. Nintendo 64 was all the hype. Dolly the sheep was the first successfully cloned animal from an adult cell. Tupac was shot in Vegas…. or was he? Oh, and WrestleMania 12 featued a one-hour match between Shawn Michaels and Bret Hart. — OK, maybe you don’t remember that last one, but I do.

But do you remember what the internet looked like back then? Correction: do you remember how BAD the internet looked back then?! If not, check out this link to see real pages on the internet from 1996.

And if you want to create your own 1996-esque website, here are the instructions.

I seem to be spending more time lately checking out a variety of free office software. The idea is very promising and the concept of having a open document format standard is very cool (where was that in 1994?!? ).

Recently, I commented to one of our Engineering Managers that he should switch out all of their uber-expensive CAD software (ProE, Igis, SolidWorks, etc.) and just start using Google’s new SketchUp which is part of the long list of offerings from Google.

I thought it’d just be a nice silly comment that would go away and not get treated seriously. Four hours later, he sent me renderings for a new cabin:

The PDF file he sent me had views from every angle, views with walls removed, etc. Wow! Its a great example of the power of some of these tools. And while it won’t be replacing any of our other tools any time soon (its not very good with round extrusions) it may be used for some limited applications around the company and probably will be what is used to do most of his cabin designing from now on.

I opened my inbox today to see an email from IBM about “top FAQs regarding Lotus Notes” (not sure why they felt the need to say “top FAQs” that rediculously redundant). After scrolling and scrolling and scrolling I noticed a link to “information about Lotus Notes 7.0.2″ so I clicked it.

Much to my surprise, I learned that this is much more than a maintenance release (as its version number denotes). Included in this release is:

• USB/WANDA functionality
• A Blog template
• RSS capabilities
• Additional Mac support (finally! )
• 64-bit support across a variety of chips, hardware and platforms
• An improved admin-based upgrade option

This is BIG news! The ability to take my entire Notes experience with me to any computer and have access to my Lotus Notes system, desktop, etc. … WITHOUT having to install Notes on that system is HUGE!

A blog template is a very cool new tool/template to throw in there!

RSS! Awesome. I’ve been wanting to integrate that into some of my apps and could have using articles/agents/hacks out there from others, but now its built-in.

Additional Mac support. First, I hope its Universal. Even if its not, there’s a LOT of things the Mac version of Notes needs … I’ll take whatever I can get.

An answer to the 64-bit question … phew! We’re sitting on several server upgrades waiting to see what they’ll support, when and where.

Eh… the admin upgrade thing. I’ve heard that before. I won’t hold my breath, but I’m glad they’re working on it.

So in summary, this is an AWESOME list of upgrades. I have NO CLUE why they don’t promote this more and make it a 7.5 release instead of a small maintenance release. Regardless, I’m excited.

Check out the article for yourself.

You see boys and girls, the reason you keep all things Windows away from your Mac is because of things like this.

Pictured below is an error that appeared on my MacBook Pro while running Windows XP inside Parallels. It happened suddenly and for no apparent reason (and the DAY AFTER a friend of mine told me it happened to him)!

Now, Apple tries to make this as plesant of an eXPerience as possible. When it happens, you first see a gray gradient transition on your screen from top to bottom, darkening your screen with every pass (kinda like an interlaced image would). Then, the error appears with only one option: reboot.

If I didn’t need Windows for Domino apps, I’d consider this to be an act of war and would promptly delete it from my system.

For my money, Weber grills (specifically the Genesis Silver B ) are some of the best grills on the market. I’m amazed at how they keep getting better and better.

So now that I have a new (well, year old anyway) grill, I find that I want to spend more and more time grilling on it … which means I want to SPEND more and more money on it/and or accessories. If you’re in the same boat, be sure to check out the book “Weber’s Real Grilling” — it’s awesome! Seems like most of my friends found it about the same time as me and like it because of the variety of recipies and the fact that each one has a picture!

So why am I talking about my grill on a tech website? I’m getting to that…

I also just bought the official Weber grill light. This thing snaps right onto the handle of the grill and uses LEDs to produce the light. What’s more, its got a sensor in it so that it keeps the light dim when the cover is closed and brightens it when it is open (and has a button for off). Its rediculously handy!

Dear Lotus, c/o IBM:

I am writing you to explain why Microsoft Exchange/Outlook are still on the market and have not been completely blown out of the water by Lotus Notes/Domino.

We all know that Lotus Notes/Domino is an amazing product! There is no other enterprise collaborative (once called “groupware”) system that combines all of the elements that Notes has AND includes email, calendar and IM AND is a dynamic web server AND has such powerful administration tools AND has a solid security structure AND exposes many of the core elements directly to developers AND integrates with other applications easily AND AND AND…

It pains me to hear/read/listen to people compare Exchange and Notes. Its kind of like comparing a record player to Microsoft Windows: sure they both play music but Windows does much, much more (and yet stops short of being as cool as a Mac … more on that later).

This week I met with 8 people from a well known company based in Minnesota. The company has been using Lotus Notes for nearly a decade and have kept current with upgrades (they are on version 7.0.1). However, the purpose of meeting with them was to show them very basic applications my company developed in Notes over the course of the last few years, so as to give them an IDEA of things they could consider building.

They left excited and made comments about finally understanding the value of Notes beyond just email. They were blown away with the tools we had developed over time and are anxious to get started. They had one question: how?!

And there lies the problem.

Here’s a company that has already invested in Notes and kept current with versions yet haven’t had anyone (until that meeting) evangelize the power of Notes and get them excited about the things it can do for them … and then outline a plan for how they can get started. — Don’t worry, I think I got this particular company pointed in the right direction, but I’m sure there are many more like them out there.

So here’s an action plan YOU (Lotus/IBM) can implement to start to turn this around:

1. Execute a new marketing campaign that speaks to all current users of Notes, reminding them why they should keep using Notes and showcasing new & future tools to keep them interested.
2. Focus a larger portion of IBM (perhaps the growing Global Services Group) to be focused on Lotus technologies. No, not Lotus and WebSphere, just Lotus. Charge them with the responsibility of showcasing its power and building on business partner relationships for small and med-businesses.
3. Revamp Lotusphere (and local/mini-Lotusphere-type events) to offer “starter” and “basic” Notes sessions to make it easy for companies to jump-start into building Notes applications or purchasing basic (read: “not the kinda thing that wins Beacon awards”) Notes apps to get them started.
4. Call Apple. — The Notes UI was (apparently) once based on an Apple-esque interface but needs some help. Apple can do that. PLUS, they could benefit from a corporate email system like Notes … that partnership could be GREAT for both companies. Call me, I’ll explain how.
5. Once that new partnership is established and a sweet new UI has been developed, let’s go back to #1 and repeat the steps. Marketing works… but it has to remind people that are deep into Notes that they’ve made the right choice AND convince “email only” shops to dive in deeper AND intrigue Exchange users to at least check out the other side.

It’ll work, trust me.

I know, I know. I wrote a 900 part series on why Lotus Notes DOESN’T suck and now I’m posting this. Its because Notes sucks when you have to run it on a Mac. If you’re stuck using Notes on a Mac, let me help make it easier for you…First, make sure you have OS X (whatever version). Second, be sure to run Notes 6.5x. It’ll make your life MUCH easier.

Once you have it installed, you’ll notice that you can’t see anything. That’s because Lotus and Apple seem to disagree on some core font issues. But its easy to fix. Here’s how:

1. Shut down the Notes client
2. Go here and download the Notes preference editor
3. Install/Open/Run the preference editor
4. Open the preference file located in : Users : : Library : Preference (you’ll know the file when you see it, its the only one you can click on and it has “Notes” in the name)
5. From the Preference Editor menu, select “Item” then “Add”
6. In the NAME box type: Display_font_adjustment
7. In the VALUE box type: 2
   You can put any number 0-25 in here. “2″ might be a good starting point.
8. Click OK then select FILE, then QUIT. Save the file when prompted

Restart Notes and you’ll instantly notice a big difference.

I’ve called IBM to log many issues (below) and they have them all on file and several will be addressed in the 7 codestream. But I’d still recommend calling them if you have a moment. Squeeky wheel, ya know.

• Notes doesn’t scroll. Ever.
• Fonts suck
• No right-click
• Local db’s are … inconsistant
• File\Open dialog box sorts by name and doesn’t leave folders at the bottom, like in Windows
• Fonts really suck

References related to this article:
IBM TechNote #1100042 – Fonts appear small in Notes Client on Mac
IBM TechNote #4005829 – Notes Preference Editor for Notes 6.x and Mac OSX

I came across this site and really like it. Its like digg.com in that you can say you “use” a piece of software, but its also a great way to find new software that you might not have heard of.

… and now I need to go back to downloading all sorts of new (Mac OS X) apps.

Check it out for yourself: IuseThis.com

I love this app! There are a ton of feed readers out there and I’ve tried a lot of them. But this one … there’s something about it. Its so easy, so handy, so perfect. Everything is where it should be. Everything works the way I’d expect it to. Its like I programmed it. — Wait, did I? — No, I don’t think so.

Anyway… I highly recommend it if you try to keep up on sites w/ RSS feeds available. I think you’ll find it handy too. — The most anoying thing about it is the “please buy me” messages which get worse and worse as you use it … but it’s nothing that $17.99 can’t fix.

NewsFire