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I said I’d make this application available in March and by my clock I’m meeting that deadline with 31 hours to spare!

The latest version of Help Center (v2.0) is now available for FREE as a download. It contains many new features over the previous version.

My decision to make this software (which had previously been sold for approx. $500/server) free is based largely on my lack of time to make sure I can be available for real-time support, like I could when I launched the first few versions in the last couple of years. While version 2 has been in use at some locations for many months, there might be a few bugs in it that I will work to fix over time. — I just wouldn’t feel right charging people for this version knowing that I haven’t been able to do the exhaustive testing that the previous version had.

That’s why its “free.” — I also feel like its my turn to give back to the software development community. I’ve downloaded hundreds of applications, templates, blogs, etc. that people have built and posted for free over the years. I think that whenever you take advantage of that type of thing, you need to contribute something in return, or donate to some of the causes.

So here’s my contribution. Please do visit the Help Center link for more information, screenshots and the download.

All I ask is that you take a moment to register with the site prior to downloading. It’ll help me get an idea of how many people have downloaded it and give me an idea of who’s using it. — Don’t worry, I sell your information or pass it on to a business partner and cause you tons of sales calls. That would defeat the whole “giving something back” concept.

There are now a few more links under the “Help Center” tab on the site including a new forum that’s integrated into WordPress. I’m not sure if this will be needed or not, but I thought it’d be a nice way to capture some discussions, questions and comments about the system once it launches.

I said that I’d make Help Center available as a free download in March, and I will.

I’ve been finishing off a few last minute items and updating portions of the website to support the launch of the download and I’m almost finished. While I hate getting my assignment turned in at midnight … that’s about what its going to be. Technically, I have until 11:59pm on March 31, 2007 to launch it. Sadly, that might be the exact time it happens.

The good news is that I recently discovered why I was having problems finishing off the download area AND why I get so many comments about postings via email instead of as postings on the site: apparently, the registration feature on my WordPress install was deactivated (most likely during a recent restore caused by a bad mod I installed).

So… that’s working now. Woohoo!

Until the download for Help Center goes live, feel free to check out the product tour & screenshots.

As I type this, I’m sitting in a Caribou Coffee (using up my free hour of WiFi) after meeting with a friend of mine who just told me about his new job. The company he works at uses Lotus Notes, but from what I can tell, not very effectively. More on that, in a moment …

My FTP client is also working hard in the background sending files up to my new ISP that hosts my Netcot.com website. This is the second time in 3 months that I’ve had to move ISPs with that site (due mostly to bandwidth issues) and each time I do it, I am quickly reminded about how much of a pain it is to use plain old HTML files and mySQL databases like this. — If I hosted the site on a Domino-based server (read: “if there was a Domino hosting service out there with decent prices and bandwidth”), I could just upload a few new database replicas and be done with it.
Its those two events (my friend’s comments about Notes and my website move) that made me realize that there are still plently of people out there who don’t get the basics of Lotus Notes.

At its core, Notes is a brilliant system. It has a built in security structure that’s very strong (and compatible with other systems). It allows you to replicate databases (making them easily portable and accessible off-line without having to worry about how its all working). And it has a messaging core which allows your applications to instantly have mail functionality on a variety of levels.

Listing the rest of the reasons why people should use Notes would take a very, very long blog entry. — The problem is that its worth SOMEONE taking more time to do that. Lotusphere is a great event, but every person I’ve ever known who has gone to it reports that they assume you were there last year and build on what’s new … there’s very little to review the basics. And there’s not much happening from a marketing perspective to teach people why Notes is a great system.

Here’s the good news: with Notes 8 on the way, NOW is a great time to start doing this. Notes 8 finally looks like a great email client and has some very clever features that should make companies want to upgrade or migrate to it. Once they’re there, it would be a good idea to refocus on the basics and the power of Notes to keep people on that platform.

Let me give you a couple of ideas of what I’m talking about. My friend and I talked about the following common/basic questions about Lotus Notes:

• Is it expensive to upgrade to a newer version?  (No, its free, if you are current on your maitenance of course.)
• Can I access my mail on the road? (Sure, via replication, Domino Web Access, Notes on a USB stick, mobile devices ….)
• Can I access databases on the road? (Sure, just see above.)
• Can I move information in a database to Excel? (Sure. File > Export.)
• Can I create an database that’s like what we have in Access? (Sure! And it’ll be better b/c it’ll have mail integration, replication and better security. You can even import the data so you don’t loose anything!)

Its these types of basic features that I think are worth Lotus/IBM spending some serious time and money focusing on. And I think now is a great time to start doing that!

I sincerely hope that is the marketing game plan behind Notes 8. I can’t wait to see.

I’ve started using the suspend feature in Parallels for Windows. The feature allows you to put Windows into a stopped state (kinda like hybernated but without keeping anything open) until you need it again. Its great because it takes FAR less time to open up Windows.

However, that (I think) led to the lovely blue screen. I have to admit, I haven’t seen anything like that for so long it was kinda neat to see it again. Like saying “hi” to an old friend. OK, not quite.

I am very close to posting the files for the free version of Help Center. Before I do, I wanted to make a few changes to this site to support a forum and a gallery of screen shots.

I’ve been playing around with a few options that integrate into WordPress to try to make it easier for everyone (for ease of use, login, etc.). The first attempt was from Yellow Swordfish that looked promising. It adds a forum feature into WordPress. The problem (shown below) is that I don’t have time to update the theme of my site to make it more easily accessible through my site’s design.

So instead, I’m working on a true forum install and connecting it to WordPress. More on that later.

… In the mean time, I’ve been testing the new design quite a bit and working out some bugs that would have been really anoying if I launched it on the first of March. I’ll get this thing out by the end of the month one way or another!

I’ve been an avid Mac user for almost two years now and I still find myself finding cool things about the O/S that impress me. Sometimes, its just cool applications that have been there the whole time waiting for you to discover them; however there are also a TON of great looking applications out there for. A great place to get started finding them is at iUseThis.com. (You can see what I’m using in my iUseThis profile.)

Since I haven’t blogged for a while, I thought I’d share two particularly helpful tips for other Mac users:

1. Put Album Art in your Dock. – This cool application replaces your iTunes dock icon with the album art (if available) for the song that’s currently playing. (See below)

2. Screen Captures, without extra software. -

Capture your full screen
Press shift open-apple 3 to create a full screen print image on your desktop. (If you have dual screens, two images will be created, one for each screen.)

Capture a portion of your screen
Press shift open-apple 4 to get a cross-hair selection icon to capture a portion of your screen.

Capture a single window
Press control shift 4 space and you’ll get a camera icon that selects a window for you to capture.

And if that’s not enough … you can also access an application called “Grab” in your “Applications\Utilities” folder that will give you some nice menus to do all this and more!

[ratings]

I finally have an answer to my post about no beta code being available for Notes 8: “this was already addressed in teh database.”

Not quite the answer I was expecting, but I followed the link all the same.

That led me to this post which states:

Sorry, the initial 8.0 release will only include Windows and Linux clients. MAC is slated for 8.0.1. That was announced at Lotusphere.

After that, we intend going forward to keep Windows, Linux, and MAC in sync.

Bummer! However, for as many years as I can remember, Lotus has gone back and forth about the release of new versions of their software on different platforms. One year they will keep them in sync, the next they won’t. Its tough to keep track of which one they’re attempting at any give time.

Regardless, this is really a shame. I left Lotusphere with the feeling that Lotus had recognized the value in launching software across all platforms at once. I thought their adoption of Eclipse would help facilitate that. I also thought someone at Lotus/IBM understood that by doing all of this AND integrating editiors for spreadsheets, word processing and presentation; they would be able to make it easier for companies to break away from the hold of Microsoft and move to a more IBM/Lotus-centric software world.

That mights still be the case, but I bet it won’t happen until a X.0.1 release of something.

Even though I’m bummed that IBM didn’t release a beta client for the Mac, I did download a copy for Windows and loaded it. So far, it looks nice:

A few things I’ve noticed so far that I didn’t expect:

• “Databases” are now called “Applications” in menus and such.
• All SmartIcons seem to have been changed/updated.
• The Replicator has a few new buttons that should help clear up things in that area.
• The only change in the Workspace appears to be the replica selection button is now a circle instead of a rectange. (I was hoping for some bigger UI improvements here.)
• Your Mail, Calendar and Contacts open by default. Handy!
• “Bookmarks” look the same. Blagh.

I’ll post more as I play around with it. I find that I’m excited to test it out, but really bummed to have to open Windows more often.

This weekend, I took a trip to my local Caribou Coffee store to get some work done, grab a mocha and meet up with a friend. It ended up being about a 4 hour adventure. During that time, I plugged in (the AC adapter for) my MacBook Pro and laid it on the chair next to me (thinking it’d help keep it from getting too dirty. Not thinking, I threw my coat on top of the adapter.

Four hours later, I started to pack up and grabbed the power unit. That thing got HOT! Apparently, hiding it under a wool coat with no room to breathe isn’t a good idea.

Now, if this seems like an obvious thing to NOT do, GOOD! For some reason, I had a lapse in judgement. I figured I’d go public with the news incase other people are tempted to do the same thing I did.