I Notes Gregory Engels - Blog http://inotes.de/blog.nsf/ en-us Thu, 4 Mar 2010 14:38:20 +0200 Meeting with Cuba Bloggers Thu, 4 Mar 2010 14:38:20 +0200 http://inotes.de/blog.nsf/dx/meeting-with-cuba-bloggers.htm non-tech Gregory Engels http://inotes.de/blog.nsf/dx/meeting-with-cuba-bloggers.htm?opendocument&comments http://inotes.de/blog.nsf/dx/meeting-with-cuba-bloggers.htm
I will explain it in a later post, why.

So here I am, sitting in a chair in a chair in the European Parliament in Brussels, in the Conference on Cuba Bloggers. Cuba Bloggers are on the phone, the organizers from the Green/EPA and Piratpartiet (also in the Green/EPA fraction).

DSC04816

Cuban bloggers Yoani Sánches, Claudia Cadelo, Orlando Luis Lazo, Reinaldo Escobar, Miriam Ceyla, Iván García, Laritza Diversent, Eugenio Leal, Dimas Castellanos.
- all togheter 25 Bloggers sitting all in one room at Yoanis place.

In the European Paliament: Franziska Brantner MEP, Christian Engström MEP, Manuel Desdin, Benoît Hervieu, Susan Dennisson and many others. (Form Amnesty International, Reporters without boundaries)

Also in the room 12 other people (including me) and 27 empty translators boxes for every language that is official in the European union. The people in the room are journalists, European parliament employees and other bloggers.

The Cuban bloggers are, what used to be called "dissidents" - they face oppression in Cuba, their blogs are not really accessible, they often need someone who would post the text for them on the internet. And this is why we are sitting here in this room - because of Internet. Because even that the internet in Cuba is controlled and filtered, they still can access the websites that are hosted outside of Cuba. And even if the American embargo means that the internet bandwidth is limited and very expansive, it is still there. And that allows for the ones who have the urge to speak to be heard.

Since many of my readers are bloggers themselves - try for a second and just imagine living in a world were in order to publish something on your blog you would either need to be someone from the nomenclatures, or know someone, or know some foreigners that would smuggle it out for you. And anytime you can face consequences. (last week Orlando Zapata died in prison after 80 days hunger strike) Yet there is an exponential growth of blogging community in Cuba with over one hundred blogs now. And those who are using twitter are escaping the control of the government even further - given the fact that twitter is so open that there are brazillion ways to get a tweet out - even by sending out a sms.

you can check the Wikipedia article on Yoani Sánchez for reference. But keep in mind that the Cuban bloggosphere is, like everywhere else very diverse. Unfortunately, I can't read Spanish freely, so I am limited to reading translated versions - and the blog of Yoani Sánchez - Generation Y is available in 17 languages  

So what can you do?
- Read Cuban blogs. And write about it, cause getting known will physically protect some bloggers from oppression.
- There is practically no access to internet in Cuba now (only 2% of Cuban citizen have access to it - as compared to 12% in Haiti for example) - and f they go to a hotel to use it and are about to pay for it, there will be questions asked, were did they got the money from. But what You can do, is to bring your old 33.6k modem with you on the next vacation and leave it there (this is obviously not an option for Americans, but I know a lot of Europeans, who went to Cuba for a normal vacations). Do you still remember how it was as the whole internet was that fast? After you upgraded finally from that 2.4k modem?
- get a TOR server up an running, to allow people to circumvent filtering and censorship

From a political point of view - I think that the American embargo should be opened up to allow cheaper internet in Cuba, since limiting it hurts not the government, but limits their human rights even further, than the Cuban regime do. I also would like to see more European evolvement, to especially address the situation with human rights and oppression of freedom.

DSC04820 ]]> http://inotes.de/blog.nsf/dxcomments/meeting-with-cuba-bloggers.htm http://inotes.de/blog.nsf/dx/meeting-with-cuba-bloggers.htm?opendocument&comments Live-Blogging Lotusphere 2010 Opening General Session (restored) Mon, 18 Jan 2010 20:56:24 +0200 http://inotes.de/blog.nsf/dx/live-blogging-lotusphere-2010-opening-general-session-restored.htm Conference Gregory Engels http://inotes.de/blog.nsf/dx/live-blogging-lotusphere-2010-opening-general-session-restored.htm?opendocument&comments http://inotes.de/blog.nsf/dx/live-blogging-lotusphere-2010-opening-general-session-restored.htm I did my first attempt on Live Blogging, and found out that ever now and then if I try to save the document it would warn me, that another version of the same document has been saved, while I was editing it, and a conflict version is being created. I ended up with 4 or 5 replication conflicts, and then in the end i invoked the "update site index" agent, wich somehow mus t have corrupted this documents, because they were all gone :-(

Thanks to Steven Cannon and Vítor Pereira who responded to my call and have send me the last parts i was missing.
The last 10 minutes (with a lot of text actually) is still missing, so i try and recreate it from memory again.  

Good Morning!

This year I am going to live cover the OGS of the Lotussphere 2010 in Orlando.
I'll try to not to blog in the manner of "Someone just said XY. Then he said 25%", but rather try to deliver my observations.

Oh, one more thing: this is Speed-Blogging, not Speed-Proof-Reading ;-)

Enjoy!

[5:55am] The day start was way to early, since I was the only one here who misread the 6:15pm as 6:15am - and headed for the BOF only to find the floor in the Swan being only inhabited by Disney Bots.

[8:00am] The Band begins to Play - Interesting combo of two fiddler and three percusions - since I am sitting at the Bloggers couches right in front of the sub woofer - my whole body shakes

[8:06am] The special Guest is SHATTNER!

DSC04090

[8:14am] William Shattner is a good actor! He is delivering the text from the tele-prompter true to a world, but does not sound at all like it.

[8:20am] Bob Picciano: You should jump the collaborative cloud. ( I am smiling by vividly imaging doing that)

[8:23am] Yepp. Volker is right. 18.378 new customers (and they had like 50k customers before - so are we now at what? a 75k customers?)
DSC04107

[8:27am] Bob Picciano explains, Lotus will focus on industry specific solutions, namely starting with insurance, banking, and health care. This is called the "Collaboration Agenda" and partners are invited to join. (of whom by the way he announced are now 20% more since 2009). I think it is good that some people inside the software group turn heir focus toward products and specific solutions, but also somewhat skeptical that this will play out somehow positive and not just the big opportunity to get very confused. (and than, out of my customers I only have two insurance and one bank, and none in health care)

DSC04117

[8:38am] RIM is deploying Lotus Conection enterprise-wide and is speaking as a customer, not a partner. Besides, that IBM is now allowed to resell RIM through its channel. (So IBM is now a partner for RIM. I sense, there is an m&a on the horizon)

[8:46am] Sylvia Steinmann from Zurich: "Why is it still being called 'Out of the Box'? when was it the last time you have had enterprise software shipped to you in a box? It is just one of that examples where legacy sticks" (Oh, and they cancelled Exchange/Sharepoint migration because Lotus Notes had more value)

[9:00am] Demo time. Ron Sebastian is on the phone with the lawyers. of cause.
[9:00am] Quickr can now store emails as .eml files and can drag and drop them from the sidebar. That's cool. It also can handle iCalendar feeds now and integrate team and personal calendars within quickr places.

[9:10am] Quickr introduce a layer called CMIS = Content Management Integration System. It allows to speak to whatever backends - Filenet, IBM Content Manager, Documentum, Sharepoint and the open source Alfresco CMS. (This last one would become very interesting to a lot of my customers)

[9:15am] New partnership with GIST - As it seems it let you aggregate contacts and other information from multiple sources. I just signed up, but there is no Lotus Plugin yet. But it is immediately seems very useful even now. (Update: you need to sign up for the Lotus Plugin Beta as well: http://www.gist.com/lotus )
 
[9:32am] Rons demos Sametime 8.5 connected with the Radvision Server and showing a web-conference with multiple HD-Video streams. Looks neat, but how many truck-loads of Hardware and server do I need for that? I'll investigate and keep you posted.

[9:35am] now for LotusLive.
Announcing Connections for LotusLive being delivered in Q2. Cool thing. Also a new "ACME" company in the screenshots - "ZETA Hospital" (I guess it is a spin-off from Zeta-Bank, or perhaps they just switched industries :-)

[9:40am] Anouncing Lotus Live Labs available to partners in Q2. It allows slide library, event maps, and recorded meetings.  

[9:40am] Allistair invite a panel of Business Partners on stage - Interesting is, that Xerox provides a sollution that integrates neatly with Lotus Foundation (called OfficeNow! Solution). I am asking myself - if it is for Foundation, it is for the normal Domino as well, right?
Group is seeing a lot of deployment opportunities for the cloud.
iEnterprise: Lotus knows we need to work where we are.
Xerox: Lotus knows how to do integration.

[10:03am] Now for something new: What is the vision for the future? Innovation taken to the next level. Announcing "Project Vulcan" What is it about? we soon will know, as Ron is again on the stage.
So -it is looking stikingly similar to Google Wave ;-) So it is about a real-time editing and collaboration. It also looks a lot like Portal. Espetially since a browser version of it exist.

DSC04187

Project Vulcan is targeted on Google not Microsoft. I think Microsoft is not having anything even remotely similar in the oven to compete with it. Allistair said - "it is for people who does not use tools for their business that were made for advertisemnt". It is also looked pretty much like the next version of Notes, even if IBM has not announced it as such. It looked like it will be delivered sometimes pretty soon - later on Ed Brill admited, that it is targeted to release a beta to partners in 2H 2010 - so I would expect a product release of it just before Lotusphere 2012. ]]> http://inotes.de/blog.nsf/dxcomments/live-blogging-lotusphere-2010-opening-general-session-restored.htm http://inotes.de/blog.nsf/dx/live-blogging-lotusphere-2010-opening-general-session-restored.htm?opendocument&comments Please help: I somehow deleted my previous blog post Mon, 18 Jan 2010 20:42:31 +0200 http://inotes.de/blog.nsf/dx/please-help-i-somehow-deleted-my-previous-blog-post.htm Conference Gregory Engels http://inotes.de/blog.nsf/dx/please-help-i-somehow-deleted-my-previous-blog-post.htm?opendocument&comments http://inotes.de/blog.nsf/dx/please-help-i-somehow-deleted-my-previous-blog-post.htm
I had some conflict documents, than executed the "refresh site indexes" agent, and all those documents got deleted. :-( ]]> http://inotes.de/blog.nsf/dxcomments/please-help-i-somehow-deleted-my-previous-blog-post.htm http://inotes.de/blog.nsf/dx/please-help-i-somehow-deleted-my-previous-blog-post.htm?opendocument&comments Lotusphere Day ˝ Sun, 17 Jan 2010 18:01:59 +0200 http://inotes.de/blog.nsf/dx/lotusphere-day-0.5.htm Conference Gregory Engels http://inotes.de/blog.nsf/dx/lotusphere-day-0.5.htm?opendocument&comments http://inotes.de/blog.nsf/dx/lotusphere-day-0.5.htm Some random observations from until now:
Positive:
  • No RFID scanners (on the down side no more RFID-Tags swapping anymore)
  • The Badge is printed on a paper instead of an plastic card (more environmental friendly)
  • No BDD-Stickers anymore (instead easier to spot 3 cm wide colored bar on top of name tag)
  • Nice "Lotus Knows" plastic bottles for BDD-Keynote attendees (it is pretty solid material and is not oversized, also the lid closes nicely)
  • Less logos on the Backpack

Negative:
  • The backpack is even worse than last year's (while pretty much similar, it feels cheap, and the laptop compartment is to shallow for 15"-wide laptop like my Macbook Pro)
  • No luggage tag for the backpack (there thousands of look-alike backpacks to be confused with no identification marks)
  • Stupid lengthy announcements over the loud-speakers before session starts. This make Americans look really stupid. As for the rest of us it is entertaining opportunity to thank that we still have some common sense in our European countries left. But only one time. Then it gets annoying as hell.
]]> http://inotes.de/blog.nsf/dxcomments/lotusphere-day-0.5.htm http://inotes.de/blog.nsf/dx/lotusphere-day-0.5.htm?opendocument&comments How much would you pay for a service that only exists out of your fault? Mon, 2 Nov 2009 17:22:00 +0200 http://inotes.de/blog.nsf/dx/how-much-would-you-pay-for-a-service-that-only-exists-out-of-your-fault.htm travel Gregory Engels http://inotes.de/blog.nsf/dx/how-much-would-you-pay-for-a-service-that-only-exists-out-of-your-fault.htm?opendocument&comments http://inotes.de/blog.nsf/dx/how-much-would-you-pay-for-a-service-that-only-exists-out-of-your-fault.htm
Unfortunately I have forgot my glasses that I put on in the evening when i get out of the contact lenses, in the bathroom. They are in a hard-shelled case, so it should be no problem for a hotel to send it after me, I thought.
Today my wife has called up the hotel, and they told her, that they would charge 60 Euro for sending my glasses after me. (= 88USD)

I need my glasses, and buying a new one would be more expensive, since i need a very expensive glass (-9 diopters)

Now the question - what would you do? pay the lesson and pay the charge? Complain? (to whom?)  stop whining and be happy that they do not want to charge me 1000 euro? Have you been in such situation, that you had to ask a hotel to send something after you, and how much where you charged? I am kinda confused. ]]> http://inotes.de/blog.nsf/dxcomments/how-much-would-you-pay-for-a-service-that-only-exists-out-of-your-fault.htm http://inotes.de/blog.nsf/dx/how-much-would-you-pay-for-a-service-that-only-exists-out-of-your-fault.htm?opendocument&comments IBM Announce Price Rise for Domino Server and Clients up to 32% Wed, 7 Oct 2009 10:00:32 +0200 http://inotes.de/blog.nsf/dx/price-rise-for-domino-server-and-clients-up-to-32.htm Gregory Engels http://inotes.de/blog.nsf/dx/price-rise-for-domino-server-and-clients-up-to-32.htm?opendocument&comments http://inotes.de/blog.nsf/dx/price-rise-for-domino-server-and-clients-up-to-32.htm
Yesterday news regarding the new straitened out IBM Lotus Licenses looked really great at the first sight, I mean, free Designer, how cool is this?! (We'll speak in a minute, what free is really mean in a context)
No more all this dazzling license options: inotes or notes client, for or with collaboration, limited or full use, no one really understood them anyway. Thanks for straitening this out. Really!

But now for the sad part: this new easiness comes with its price. Or better, with a price rise.
See for yourself:
Price in EUR
Price from 01.01.2010
change
Designer
816
154
-81,13%
Notes Client
150
154
2,67%
Inotes
117
154
31,62%
Notes Messaging
105
95,63
-8,92%
Inotes Messaging
73,66
95,63
29,83%
Enterprise Server Value Unit
38,88
44,68
14,92%
Messaging Server
Value Unit
14,97
17,24
15,16%





As you see, free Designer is not really free, but just 81% cheaper, but fair enough. But nearly everything else will get more expensive. Sure, you will be able to do more with it. But if you are just a web browser user, than you are facing a 32% rise for a questionable advantage that now you are allowed to use the Notes Client.

The price adjustments are effective as of 01.01.2010, so there is still time to act, if you are up to stock up on Domino Servers. Call your local Lotus Business Parter (yep, even me), to get a quote. ]]> http://inotes.de/blog.nsf/dxcomments/price-rise-for-domino-server-and-clients-up-to-32.htm http://inotes.de/blog.nsf/dx/price-rise-for-domino-server-and-clients-up-to-32.htm?opendocument&comments WDW Swan for Lotusphere for 171USD per Night Tue, 1 Sep 2009 00:25:07 +0200 http://inotes.de/blog.nsf/dx/wdw-swan-for-lotusphere-for-just-171usd-per-night.htm Conference Gregory Engels http://inotes.de/blog.nsf/dx/wdw-swan-for-lotusphere-for-just-171usd-per-night.htm?opendocument&comments http://inotes.de/blog.nsf/dx/wdw-swan-for-lotusphere-for-just-171usd-per-night.htm
I blogged this last year, but it's time to repeat it for this year:
You can save money on your hotel stay during Lotusphere by booking an AAA rate. (one night deposit, fully refundable)
I just have booked 8 nights Swan for a mere 171USD (203,22 after taxes) - http://tinyurl.com/lejdtr
The AAA rate for Dolphin is 183USD (216,10 after taxes) - http://tinyurl.com/klvuvm
(you can fill in different dates if you like)

If you think now that this not for you, because you don't have the AAA membership (or your local equivalent, that is accepted by Starwoods), its still plenty of time to get yourself a membership,it will cost you much less than the saving will be. ]]> http://inotes.de/blog.nsf/dxcomments/wdw-swan-for-lotusphere-for-just-171usd-per-night.htm http://inotes.de/blog.nsf/dx/wdw-swan-for-lotusphere-for-just-171usd-per-night.htm?opendocument&comments Quiz: What is special in this picture? Fri, 7 Aug 2009 14:27:00 +0200 http://inotes.de/blog.nsf/dx/quiz-what-is-special-in-this-picture.htm misc Gregory Engels http://inotes.de/blog.nsf/dx/quiz-what-is-special-in-this-picture.htm?opendocument&comments http://inotes.de/blog.nsf/dx/quiz-what-is-special-in-this-picture.htm Screenshot from my Mac Book Pro (early 2008 model)
This is a today's screen shot from my MacBookPro (Early 2008) ]]> http://inotes.de/blog.nsf/dxcomments/quiz-what-is-special-in-this-picture.htm http://inotes.de/blog.nsf/dx/quiz-what-is-special-in-this-picture.htm?opendocument&comments Once in a lifetime the time is 123456789 Fri, 7 Aug 2009 12:34:00 +0200 http://inotes.de/blog.nsf/dx/123456789.htm misc Gregory Engels http://inotes.de/blog.nsf/dx/123456789.htm?opendocument&comments http://inotes.de/blog.nsf/dx/123456789.htm Hi today is the day when the clock strikes 12:34:56 07-08-09, that is if you are writing the date the right way, as compared to our friends over the pond, who had the clock stroke this numerologically significant date 32 days ago on 8th of July.

At first, I was about to set an agent to publish this entry on extact 12:34:56 7-8-9, but then I realized, that i still had to decide on what time zone! so, I just go and publish it now, since a lot of time zones had already had this event passed.

And in case you missed it, and also the 1234567890 seconds since Unix-Epoch (that was earlier this year on 13.February.2009 23:31:30 UTC), you still can look forward to celebration of the coming 09:09:09 09-09-09 in just a month time, or if you are up for a big carnival party 11:11:11 11-11-11 next year (I would suggest to travel to Cologne if you have no plans yet, the hell will be loose) ]]> http://inotes.de/blog.nsf/dxcomments/123456789.htm http://inotes.de/blog.nsf/dx/123456789.htm?opendocument&comments Security Exploit for Domino - Disable Word Perfect Attchments Tue, 17 Mar 2009 15:29:19 +0200 http://inotes.de/blog.nsf/dx/security---disable-word-perfect-attchments-.htm Lotus Notes Gregory Engels http://inotes.de/blog.nsf/dx/security---disable-word-perfect-attchments-.htm?opendocument&comments http://inotes.de/blog.nsf/dx/security---disable-word-perfect-attchments-.htm http://www-01.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?rs=463&uid=swg21377573

In a short - there is a possible exploite to execute code using a crafted .wpd attachmend (WordPerfect).
You should block .wpd attachments on the gateway, or with a server mail rule, or with a keyviw.ini setting on the client. Or you go and delete the wp6sr.dll file. ]]> http://inotes.de/blog.nsf/dxcomments/security---disable-word-perfect-attchments-.htm http://inotes.de/blog.nsf/dx/security---disable-word-perfect-attchments-.htm?opendocument&comments Helpdesk Call of the Day Fri, 27 Feb 2009 16:12:29 +0200 http://inotes.de/blog.nsf/dx/helpdesk-call.htm Lotus Notes Gregory Engels http://inotes.de/blog.nsf/dx/helpdesk-call.htm?opendocument&comments http://inotes.de/blog.nsf/dx/helpdesk-call.htm
can you imagine, what the call was from reading the idea? Hint: it involves a lot of people, some of them are EA's. :-) ]]> http://inotes.de/blog.nsf/dxcomments/helpdesk-call.htm http://inotes.de/blog.nsf/dx/helpdesk-call.htm?opendocument&comments Please Remove IMAP Support from the Notes Client Wed, 18 Feb 2009 17:58:25 +0200 http://inotes.de/blog.nsf/dx/please-remove-imap-support-from-the-notes-client.htm Lotus Notes Gregory Engels http://inotes.de/blog.nsf/dx/please-remove-imap-support-from-the-notes-client.htm?opendocument&comments http://inotes.de/blog.nsf/dx/please-remove-imap-support-from-the-notes-client.htm bad Notes is.  Well, don't let kids running with scissors will help to prevent such problems. I have posted this Idea on IdeaJam, plese vote!

IMAP Setup in Lotus Notes R5, v6, v6.5, v7, v8, v8.5 ]]> http://inotes.de/blog.nsf/dxcomments/please-remove-imap-support-from-the-notes-client.htm http://inotes.de/blog.nsf/dx/please-remove-imap-support-from-the-notes-client.htm?opendocument&comments Fun with Google Maps Latitude Wed, 11 Feb 2009 00:25:04 +0200 http://inotes.de/blog.nsf/dx/fun-with-google-maps-latitude.htm misc Gregory Engels http://inotes.de/blog.nsf/dx/fun-with-google-maps-latitude.htm?opendocument&comments http://inotes.de/blog.nsf/dx/fun-with-google-maps-latitude.htm Now I know where Hell is!

Chris Miller pointed out that you can have a lot of fun by manually updating your location via the iGoogle widget rather than automatically with the Phone. The Results are stunning and entertaining - that is where Latitudes has placed me:
  • Mars - same as for Chris - I am in New Mexico at the Edge of the Lincoln national forest, on a small street named "mars" - well, not too bad.
  • Earth - hmm... Washington state near Chumstick - looks like I am hiking in the mountains or something
  • Moon - as expected Sugar Valley, as for Chris, but my is in West Virginia, not New Mexico
  • Outer Space - Cocoa, Florida, just a few miles of the Kennedy Space Center and Cape Canaveral - not bad
  • Europe - row row row your boat... - I am on a cruise in the Baltic Sea!
  • Planet Earth - wow, Central India, I knew it, but i guess from far away India is okay to represent the whole planet
  • Far Away - North Carolina - well i can imagine places that are even more far away, but not that many
  • Here - Warsaw, Poland - seems like some western outskirts
  • There - Vernoux-sur-Boutonne, France - looks like a nice vacation region, perhaps i consider it for a trip in summer :--)

Well, it is fun, go try were it will place you .-) And if you do not have a blog, feel free to comment right here (er... on the comments, not in Warsaw, Dude!) ]]> http://inotes.de/blog.nsf/dxcomments/fun-with-google-maps-latitude.htm http://inotes.de/blog.nsf/dx/fun-with-google-maps-latitude.htm?opendocument&comments RedBooks are back! Tue, 27 Jan 2009 10:30:36 +0200 http://inotes.de/blog.nsf/dx/redbooks-are-back.htm Lotus Notes Gregory Engels http://inotes.de/blog.nsf/dx/redbooks-are-back.htm?opendocument&comments http://inotes.de/blog.nsf/dx/redbooks-are-back.htm redbooks_are_back Redbooks are back.  
 There is a residency open for writing the "Self Assessment and Strategy Guide for Migrating from Domino Document Manager, LO-DD09-R01", it is scheduled to run three weeks onsite in Cambridge, MA and three weeks remote with some time in-between to catch up on the work. It is lead by John Bergland who is an excellent project leader and has co-authored countless lotus redbooks including the one that we were writing two years ago.

Once Redwikis were introduced, I didn't liked the idea of trying to find a good information in a wiki. During the Lotusphere I met with Jen Heins and the conversation with her completely changed my mind about them. RedWikis are a good thing. They are structured like books, with preface and appendix and all the chapters in-between. You can even download a pdf of it. Something to improve still:
  • They are published as Technotes in the redbooks portal. This is a problem, because that way they don't get the attention they deserve. They really should be called the way what they are - RedBooks or RedPapers
  • They also do not get an ISBN number assigned which an author could include in his resume, even if they are available as pdf. Why not assign an ISBN number to the pdfs and put them on some print on demand service?

Now, it seems that Lotus has remembered that there might be some value in having people spending some very intense time together in a real environment rather than in a 3-weeks sametime room client. ]]> http://inotes.de/blog.nsf/dxcomments/redbooks-are-back.htm http://inotes.de/blog.nsf/dx/redbooks-are-back.htm?opendocument&comments Free Beer! Tue, 20 Jan 2009 23:49:04 +0200 http://inotes.de/blog.nsf/dx/free-beer.htm Conference Gregory Engels http://inotes.de/blog.nsf/dx/free-beer.htm?opendocument&comments http://inotes.de/blog.nsf/dx/free-beer.htm Hope to see you all there. ]]> http://inotes.de/blog.nsf/dxcomments/free-beer.htm http://inotes.de/blog.nsf/dx/free-beer.htm?opendocument&comments A Karaoke Symphony Tue, 2 Dec 2008 09:17:26 +0200 http://inotes.de/blog.nsf/dx/karaoke-symphony.htm Lotusphere2009 Gregory Engels http://inotes.de/blog.nsf/dx/karaoke-symphony.htm?opendocument&comments http://inotes.de/blog.nsf/dx/karaoke-symphony.htm Bob and Paul already blogged there will be a new fun oriented session held at Lotusphere in Kimono's 7.30pm on Tuesday 20, January 20th. I should have blogged this earlier, but I was on the customer site the whole day.

So - let me clarify some things. It is NOT about bad singing. And nobody has to wear a kimono. (I not gona stop you, if you must).
How will it work? Victims Volunteers will be presenting from a deck of slides they never have seen before on a topic they probably know not more about that the audience. They will be given 5 minutes or till they run out of slides, which ever comes first.

6 weeks ago, at the Admincamp'08 conference I was hosting a Powerpoint Karaoke at the evening session. (most technically it was a Keynote Karaoke) - and we had people presenting on such different topics as "Cocaine Training", "History of French-Canadian Literature" and Paul had to speak about "3D-QSAR Study of Ring-Substituted Quinoline Class of Anti-Tuberculosis Agents" (he did fantastic, by the way) - all in all some of the weirdest presentation that were ever written (and some were plain horrible - that had only maximized the laughs) See more pictures here.

For Lotusphere we have planned some small changes that will maximize the fun. More details will slip eventually as time will be closer to the show.
If you want compete, comment here, or at paul's blog, or drop me or Paul a note. Places are picked at a very complicated procedure.
One last thing - There also might be a sponsor opportunity for prizes or free beer - speak to us. ]]> http://inotes.de/blog.nsf/dxcomments/karaoke-symphony.htm http://inotes.de/blog.nsf/dx/karaoke-symphony.htm?opendocument&comments Save money on your stay at the Dolphin/Swan during LS Tue, 2 Dec 2008 10:19:03 +0200 http://inotes.de/blog.nsf/dx/save-money-on-your-stay-at-the-dolphin-during-ls.htm travel Gregory Engels http://inotes.de/blog.nsf/dx/save-money-on-your-stay-at-the-dolphin-during-ls.htm?opendocument&comments http://inotes.de/blog.nsf/dx/save-money-on-your-stay-at-the-dolphin-during-ls.htm
If you are member of an automobile club you could save some money on your Lotusphere accommodation by booking an "AAA" rate directly at the World Disney World Dolphin's website. The AAA rate is 201,75 USD compared to 222 USD Lotusphere rate. It sums up to 237 USD after taxes and resort fee. (there is also an AAA rate for Swan of 216) The rate require a deposit of one night due at the time of booking, but you get it a full refund if you cancel up to 7 days prior to arrival. Here is the link for booking http://tinyurl.com/63ychk.

Oh, and you could make me a favor by putting the number 23262665 in the "Travel Agent" field, but I am not insisting. You could support your local trave agent an type in his IATA number instead. (It has no consequences on the rate)

Sheraton accepts this rate for the members of  AA (Ireland, South Africa, United Kingdom), AAA (United States), ACA (France), ACL (Luxembourg), ADAC (Germany), ANWB (Netherlands), ARC Europe, CAA (Canada), NAF (Norway), ÖAMTC (Austria), Touring (Belgium), JAF (Japan)

And in case you have already booked at the Lotusphere trave page - you still can cancel the reservation there for free till 5 days prior to arrival. ]]> http://inotes.de/blog.nsf/dxcomments/save-money-on-your-stay-at-the-dolphin-during-ls.htm http://inotes.de/blog.nsf/dx/save-money-on-your-stay-at-the-dolphin-during-ls.htm?opendocument&comments The Times They Are A Changin Tue, 25 Nov 2008 13:00:00 +0200 http://inotes.de/blog.nsf/dx/the-times-they-are-a-changin.htm Lotus Notes Gregory Engels http://inotes.de/blog.nsf/dx/the-times-they-are-a-changin.htm?opendocument&comments http://inotes.de/blog.nsf/dx/the-times-they-are-a-changin.htm his blog, if hard-coding ever okay?

I've never known Value Added Tax (VAT) here in the UK to be anything other than 17.5%. I always thought it was set in stone, never to change. Having just Googled it I see it changed from 15% to 17.5% in 1991, but has remained the same for the last 17 years.


We have been trough this over here in Germany recently. And I remember also at least three VAT changes over here over the past 17 years (from 14% in 1992 to 15% in 1993 to 16% in 1998 to the 19% in 2007), a y2k problem (dates from 31.12.99 to 01.01.00 and not 01.01.100), and a change in the postal codes from 4 to 5 digits (I used to live in 6050 and moved automatically to much more uglier 63067). And a change in the currency denomination (DEM -> EUR) with a transition period of nearly 5 years were you could encounter both currencies mixed side by side in certain contexts. And don't forget all the software that was written by the people who were not aware that there is more than one language on the planet and that sometimes in other languages other characters are being used, that are not present in English.

To sum it up - my answer to Jacks question is a simple "nope". :)

I always use global profile documents for such stuff - they are fast and quick and are perfect for holding non volatile data like VAT rates and such.
You can use then @GetProfileField(profile; field) to get the values for use in default value lists, drop down lists, computed text, etc.... The profile forms are cached in memory and are not read every time from disk - that's why they are quick, and that's why you can't write and read from them all the time. Oh, and they are working on the web too. ]]> http://inotes.de/blog.nsf/dxcomments/the-times-they-are-a-changin.htm http://inotes.de/blog.nsf/dx/the-times-they-are-a-changin.htm?opendocument&comments SnTT: How to use CCH1 Hotfix for Notes Client 8.0.2 in a Smart Upgrade Kit Fri, 14 Nov 2008 16:26:00 +0200 http://inotes.de/blog.nsf/dx/howto-use-cch1.htm Lotus Notes Gregory Engels http://inotes.de/blog.nsf/dx/howto-use-cch1.htm?opendocument&comments http://inotes.de/blog.nsf/dx/howto-use-cch1.htm show_and_tell Today I created the Smart Upgrade Kit for the CCH1 Hotfix. But guess what? after it is installed, the client release is not 8.0.2 CCH1 as you would have guessed, but Release 8.0.2 HF88, so it returned an "failure" after installing correctly, because the final client build string has not matched "Release 8.0.2 CCH1". doh!

So, if you would use it with Smartupgrade you should point your policy document to deploy the Release 8.0.2 HF88 version, and also put this in the "Destination Version" field on the Kit document. See the screenshot below for details on how your kit document should look like.

Release 8.0.2 HF88

oh, and if you want an administrative install, so the user is not bothered with the EULA agreement and such, use the following "optional arguments for attached kit:"  -s -a /s /v"/qb+"
the quotes around /qb+ and especially the blank space after the /s are mandatory ]]> http://inotes.de/blog.nsf/dxcomments/howto-use-cch1.htm http://inotes.de/blog.nsf/dx/howto-use-cch1.htm?opendocument&comments Notes Client 8.0.2 CCH1 (Cumulative Client Hotfix 1) Fri, 14 Nov 2008 09:56:51 +0200 http://inotes.de/blog.nsf/dx/8.0.2-cch1.htm Lotus Notes Gregory Engels http://inotes.de/blog.nsf/dx/8.0.2-cch1.htm?opendocument&comments http://inotes.de/blog.nsf/dx/8.0.2-cch1.htm fix central two days ago. Here are the release notes: http://www-01.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?rs=475&uid=swg27014028 with the list of SPR addressed by this fix. The one that is most important to the users might be the one that fixes the occasionally client hang after login. ]]> http://inotes.de/blog.nsf/dxcomments/8.0.2-cch1.htm http://inotes.de/blog.nsf/dx/8.0.2-cch1.htm?opendocument&comments