DominoKeys.com

As I’m trying to complete a bunch of updates for the next version of “Help Center” I thought I’d list out some of the improvements that are in the upcoming version:

• Auto-Close agent. Gives you the ability to automatically close out issues that the ticket creator hasn’t confirmed are closed. (Easy to enable/disable. Based on # of days since it was closed by the Tech).
• New UI Elements. The whole thing has a similar look, but is much more “Web 2.0″ looking.
• Navigation icons (and titles) take you to the default view. I really should have put it in the last version … since the “portal” screen had that functionality.
• New “Tech Stats” Views. A few new handy views that let you see performance of the Techs.
• Better view descriptions. You may have noticed that the last version had an optional page hidden in it to choose a different style of navigation. Clearly, navigation style and view titles are something I struggled with. The next version still supports the “hidden” style of navigation, but also has more clear (easier to understand) view titles.
• CC People on Issues. You can now enter the names of other people you want to be notified about communications (questions, updates, etc.) with the issue so they get CC’d on any messages.
• Expand/Collapse Buttons on Views A funny thing happens in Notes when you use frames … unless you click IN the view, the smarticons for expand/collapse don’t show. This seems to confuse many users. To compensate, I’ve added buttons in the view’s button bar to do this. Redundant, yes, but I’ve seen people pleased that they can suddenly expand/collapse.
• Web Redirect Page. Allows you to point the database to a page that redirects users to another site or URL if they open the database. (A web enabled version is coming!)
• Hidden Web Features. Yes, a web-enabled version is on the “to do” list, but its won’t be ready by the end of the month. I am, however, going to include some of the web elements in the database that may help you expose at least some of the database to your own intranet.

… and I’m still on-track for posting it in March, 2007.

Last week, a co-worker (a VP, to be exact) made a comment to me that I instantly disagreed with. He said “I don’t think IM has any place as a business communication tool and email should never be used unless its a C.Y.A. (cover your “rear”) situation.”

Since then, I’ve gotten no less than 8 emails from him. None about “CYA” topics; all about typical business subjects. Clearly, he’s had a change of heart on the topic of email.

But the IM comment still haunts me. I use IM a lot and have for a long time in business. Its a great way to keep in touch with people who are on-line at the same time as you and not located nearby. Its also a great way to get short answers to questions when you’re busy (most commonly for me, when I’m on the phone with someone else or in a meeting … a short IM can save a lot of email time and give you a quick answer to keep the meeting moving).

There are some people who use it as a sort of “while you were out” feature to leave messages to others about phone calls, visitors who were looking for them, etc. Its a great way to quickly ask a question that doesn’t require an urgent response and to do so in a very unobtrusive way.

Now, unless you have the new Sametime 7.5 client (or another IM client) there are no emoticons … so base “Sametime IM” can be kind of cold since its just plain, boring, non-rich text. So you have to be careful with that, depending on your message.

So that made me realize: IM does have a very solid place in business communications and it is a valid medium. And then I stumbled on a quote from one of my favorite people about communication mediums that gave an even better reason for why we should at least try to use IM in business. (Keep in mind that he said it when IM, email, cell phones, texting, SMS and the internet weren’t even around.)

“All of us who use the implements of mass communications have tremendous responsibility to utilize them more fully in the interest of common humanity in the light of present world conditions.”

- Walt Disney

Fridays at my office are always interesting. They usually involve more meetings than you’d expect (and usually some that START at 4:30pm) and always involve people stopping by my office to chat about very random things. In short, Friday’s are an odd blend of hyper-productivity followed by immediate unproductive times.

Yesterday (which was a Friday, incase you missed it), I had 4 people stop by my office and ask to be part of a beta test we are doing. In each case, I found myself explaining that “beta” means something different than what they thought.

First, some background. Meriam Webster defines beta as “a nearly complete prototype of a product.” As you might expect, WikiPedia gives a bit more in depth description of the word which can be paraphrased as “meets the initial requirement analysis; is locked and won’t be changed unless it is to fix codes or major components that are lacking; (and most importantly) there ARE bugs in it – the testing group’s job is to find them and live with them until they are fixed by the developer(s).”

So let’s recap some of the “is” and “is not’s” of beta software:

• IS: Close to what the finished product will look and operate like.
• IS NOT: The finished product, nor is it ready to be used and relied upon like a “production” application would be.
• IS: Similar in Look & Feel and User Interface to the final release.
• IS NOT: Set in stone (it may change completely).
• IS: Full of bugs.
• IS: Your job to find them, report them and wait for them to be fixed.
• IS NOT: Free. Many people think “beta” means “free” — it may mean “free during beta” but it doesn’t mean you won’t have to own up some $ once its released.

Sure, I’m venting a bit. But I think its important for people to be clear about what they are getting themselves into when they offer to beta test. Its possible that whatever you are beta testing could work perfectly, its also possible it’ll ruin your entire computer and leave you helpless AND that your IT group won’t really feel compelled to help get to it ASAP since it was “beta.” (And believe me, IT professionals understand what this word means – they see it and get excited and scared.)

Perhaps the best way to approach a beta is to avoid it altogether. Example: the NetNewsWire “preview” (not a beta). I like their approach and I may just institute a ban on beta altogether and replace it with this instead:

NetNewsWire

I have been contacted by a bunch of reporters in the last month or so about using Notes on a Mac. I realized that some of the articles could be published by now so I went to one of the sites to search for my name and see.

The article isn’t published yet. But I did find that apparently I’m for sale at Amazon.com. If you buy one, I hope you get free shipping.

I’m going to give out two free pieces of press on this post. One for the website/podcast where I found the other.

While watching the GeekBrief.tv podcast, I discovered a new must-see site for Mac-aholics. The site is called Mactactic and its a sort of buyers guide rating system for all things Apple. Its brilliant because as a Mac-fan, my biggest fear is buying a new Mac product the day before an even newer one comes out.

Seriously … we stay up worring about that kinda thing on the eve of a purchase.

As you can clearly see in the first section of the site, they “estimate” when to buy stuff. I haven’t found anything about their estimation method, but it looks about where I’d rate things if I were to do it.

I started off this year wanting to limit the number of cell phones I used throughout the year. I simply used far too many last year (I did a lot of testing of cell phones and have since delegated that task). This year, it looked like “2″ could have been the magic number. I have been very happy with my Nokia E61 and the announcement of the iPhone meant that I knew which one I wanted next.

Then I broke my E61. I tried to load the Cisco SCCP client on it, which in theory, would allow me to use one device as both my cell phone AND office extension (when in range of WiFi). However, I didn’t pay enough attention to the firmware version and the E61 is now a very confused device. (I am hopeful it will still recover, when I have time to get back to it).

Sitting on the corner of my desk happened to be a Blackjack that was headed back to Cingular (the original person who ordered it changed their mind and decided to stick with a Razr). I decided to set it up for myself.

Here’s where my head is at with it:

Pros:

• Surprisingly good battery (especially with Bluetooth off). 2-3 days of normal usage is easy to do.
• Its nice that they throw in an extra battery AND a charging kit.
• Decent screen. Good buttons.
• The microphone faces your mouth. I know this isn’t really needed with today’s mic technology, but its still nice to have.
• I’m running GOOD on it to connect back to my Lotus Notes data … I like that GOOD will push email totals and calendar entries to the front screen.
• Phone quality is very good.
• The size! WOW! Small, light, you forget its in your pocket until it rings!

Cons:

• Unlocking it requires hitting three buttons, one of which is on the top and recessed.
• The speakerphone isn’t great.
• The ringer is too quiet regardless of the ringtone (yet the “welcome” screen from Cingular is LOUD!
• It needs to be rebooted about every 5 days, for no apparent reason.
• SLOW interface. The worst is opening up a contact from the GOOD address book list. Oddly enough, it’ll parse through 600+ contacts quickly to find a match to what you typed, but opening up that specific record takes forever! Even if the details are cached (or downloaded from GOOD).
• Windows Mobile doesn’t allow you to easily customize anything. I’d love to move icons around to make it easier to get to what I need to use, Windows doesn’t want me to.
• No Bluetooth support (on the phone) to my Mac. — I should have expected that WinMobile wasn’t going to like my Mac.
• Internet Explorer seems to be hit or miss and I can’t find any reason why. Also, there is an RSS reader (buried in the menu) but its not very user-friendly.
• Windows Mobile thinks it knows best which windows you need to use. Occasionally, it will return you to a window that doesn’t make sense given where you have been. Most often, it takes you back to the call log screen instead of back to the contact record (in GOOD) of the call you just placed.

Most of my issue with this device really does seem to be how Windows limits you, slows you down or takes over in a very strange way. I LOVE the size of the device, but I’m still excited to go back to my E61 any day now.

The product that started this whole site (Help Center) has apparently still been available for “purchase” at the site I was using for managing the transactions (I say “apparently” because I thought I processed a request to delete it as an available product, and recently learned it was still out there).

I intend to post a downloadable (free) version of the next iteration of the software later this month on my site. I have updated the interface to take advantage of new UI elements in the Notes 7 codestream, but haven’t had time to work through the exhaustive QA process that’s needed to sell it as a next release product. In addition, I now have it deployed in a live production mode “close to home” and find myself adding features all the time. This new development pattern (and lack of exhaustive QA time) means that it’ll lend itself much better as an open-source type product where you can access the latest stable version along with new beta versions and minor releases.

Stop by later this month for the download.

Today is turning out to be a most extreme day for a lot of reasons. Near the top of the list of reasons why is the fact that my Apple AirPort Extreme finally arrived.

This little device supports the new (pre-) 802.11n standard that allows for much faster WiFi speed (approximately 5x faster than 802.11g, with an update from Apple on my current Mac hardware systems) and has a really cool Mac-Mini-esque form factor that will make my WiFi hub something that goes from being burried in a storage space out of sight to proudly taking a decorative place in my office as an uber-cool piece of tech.

The thing I’m most exctied about, however, is the ability to have network storage (built-in 40GB hard drive, with USB connections to add more). I’ll blog more about it once its installed.

I have told many MANY IBM people that Domino needs to run on an Xserve, Designer/Admin need to run on Mac OSX and Notes needs to run the latest version on Mac OSX. One of those came true.

It seems that someone wants something close enough to another one of my wishes. They are calling for IBM/Lotus to merge Eclipse and Domino Designer. Doing this would (presumably) allow Domino Designer (and probably Admin) to run on Mac OSX!

The last set of programs I use Windows for is Domino Designer and Admin. So you can imagine how quickly I ran to the website and signed my name to the petition under the hopes that Domino Designer in Eclipse would run on a Mac … someday.

Sign it for yourself!

The Finder window on a Mac has all sorts of cool icons for my desktop, documents, music, etc. I have created some aliases (“shortcuts” for you PC people) in my Finder window to get to frequently used folders more quickly but didn’t know how to give them their own unique personality (icon) until a friend of mine (blog link would go there, if he had one – don’t worry, he knew I was going to say that) bailed me out. Here’s how:

1. Find the image you want to use as the icon and copy it to your clipboard
2. Find the folder where you want to change the image (below)

3. Press “APPLE + I” to access the information about the folder. The “info” window will appear.
4. Click once on the folder icon in the upper left corner. It will glow (see below) if you’ve done it right.

5. Press “APPLE + V” to paste the image over the existing one. (see below)

You can also press “delete” when you have clicked on the glowing icon to remove what you just pasted, if you don’t like it.

How handy … now to go find some good Mac icons!