Tag: lotus

Signing of from 2009 – looking back at a great year

2009 is drawing to a close and in less than 10 hours I’ll be in my tuxedo and drinking champagne. What a year from a personal and a professional perspective.

On the personal front the highlight of 2009, by far, was on 22 August where I got married to my lovely wife. 4 months into our marriage we’re having a blast. Not much have changed in our relationship which I take as a good thing. I’m looking forward to January and once again bringing her along for Lotusphere. I think she’s growing used to staying in the Swan and the fact that return guests get some good deals at the spa… 🙂 Apparently some sun and warm weather (crossing my fingers) in January doesn’t hurt either.

On the professional front it’s been a year of both many changes and new challenges. As previously the year really got kicked of at Lotusphere and it was very nice seeing all of my “collegues” again and hooking up. I’ll remember BALD, being part of the blogger program in those yellow bean bags, frost in Florida in January and the associated state-wide “panic”, giving a session with good reviews though having a high fever and missing 1,5 days due to sickness as the highlights of my Lotusphere 2009. Of couse being in the US for the inauguration also made it special. Being “on location” in Florida bar for Superbowl was also a very nice experience.

The rest of the year has been filled with a lot of consulting on Notes and Domino, Lotus Connections and other related Lotus products. It’s been very nice being able to share experience and consult on a wide variety of subjects. 2009 was also the year where I started doing a lot of teaching and we started doing Notes 8.5 Application Development workshops. I’ve been giving the workshop a number of times across Denmark during 2009 and it has always been a good experience. Of course some workshops has been better than others but I have always felt that I’ve given the attendees what they signed up for and all attendees have gone home amazed at the potential of the new Notes releases. If only more would take the time to learn Java – that’s still the Achilles Heel of IBM Lotus…

Towards the end of 2009 I have also assumed the day to day management of some of the developers in the company. It’s been a big change from billing out 40-50 hours a week to mostly managing and planning. It’s also meant spending far more hours in the office which has been weird. I set a personal record this winter by having lunch in the office 12 days in a row. That’s a first in my 2+ years at IntraVision. The change of role has been fun but also a big change and challenge and something that I’m finding myself enjoying very much. I’m looking forward to the new year and getting more into that role.

In 2009 I have also enjoyed still being part of the Design Partner programme with IBM. It’s fun, educational and inspiring to be part of these conference calls and getting the inside story. The calls are something I look forward to attending and the debate is good and lively. Of course it’s also frustrating sometimes when IBM Lotus do something that we design partners just don’t get but that’s part of the deal. All in all I still find it very positive that IBM Lotus listens and lotusknows it makes a difference! 🙂

On the whole lotusknows thing I find it very positive that IBM Lotus finally got the message and starting being offensive. We still haven’t seen much, if any, of it here in Denmark but hopefully it’s coming at some point. There’s still a big need for air cover.

In November this blog turned 5 years and it was a milestone that were reached. As I wrote on that day, this blog is something I cannot imagine not having today. The blog and way it connects me with the community is amazing. Of course more and more communication moves from blogs to Twitter these days but it’s all good.

2009 was also the year where I finally got to finish LotusScript.doc version 2. It’s been a long time coming and it was very nice finally to get the new version out there. Expect interesting stuff to be coming your way in 2009 when I start leveraging the LotusScript.doc Java API in other contexts.

In three months TwitNotes turns 2 years – wow! Has it already been that long? Besides, of course, being my Twitter client of choice it has also served as a very good example in all of my speaking gigs as one of those new applications that are possible in the “new” Notes client. TwitNotes is an application that builds on the Notes foundation but reads and writes data in the cloud. Showing it as an example always raises some eyebrows until people “get it”. I used it as an example for the big IBM Software Day event here in Denmark this fall.

As 2009 draws to a close I’m doing another sidebar application that I hope will be useful for many of you out there although I’m mainly doing it for myself to increase my productivity. I hope to be able to reveal it by Lotusphere. It’s again a cloud-based application that integrates into the Notes experience to showcase just what’s possible with the “new” platform. Stay tuned…

Before I write too much I’ll wrap it up by wishing you all a very happy new year – see you on the other side. For those of you going to Lotusphere – see you there!

Bye, bye 2009…

Open Office / Lotus Symphony will be in trouble


Oh no! Microsoft have realized that free is a very good price and when Office 2010 is released in June of 2010 Office 2010 Starter Edition will be free. Zero cost. Finally every computer sold will be able be have a valid, licensed, version of Microsoft Office. The Starter Edition will be add supported. Just how many adds and how these will be displayed I don’t know.

Office 2010 Starter Edition will be released simultaneously with the rest of the Office 2010 suite, Sharepoint 2010 Server, Office 2010 Web Edition and Office 2010 for Windows Mobile.

I see this as a very wise ploy by Microsoft and Starter Edition will be a treat to the free productivity suites that are currently free. The release looks like a very interesting release and will pose a great and real threat to Google Apps on the web and Open Office and Lotus Symphony as the productivity suite. Of course one could put the opposite spin on the story and see it like Microsoft is reacting to the success of the open source and free counterparts.

For more information on Office 2010 Starter Edition listen to Windows Weekly 133: A Fish Called Windows.

So Lotus – how about that CSI view connector for Outlook?

Microsoft is opening the PST file format and making documentation available for developers to read/write and recreate PST files on other platforms. You can read more about it on winsupersite.com (Outlook PST: Open for Business where Paul Thurrott writes:

“So Microsoft will provide documentation so that any third party vendor can recreate the PST format on other platforms, for free and without fear of recourse, and interoperate with PST files more seamlessly. The potential results of this transformation are far-reaching. One imagines Google email servers that interoperate directly with PST file stores on Windows PCs, Macs, or Linux boxes. Or perhaps third party email solutions that can take an existing PST file and make the migration to a new solution easier than ever before.”

Reading this I’m left think: “hmmmm – so Lotus – what about that CSI view connector for Outlook?”. Admitting that I do not know which API’s are available now, wouldn’t this mean that Lotus could write a CSI view connector for Notes that would allow using Notes as the frontend to PST data files? I remember hearing about the new view technology in Notes 8 (that is Java views == CSI views) and it being mentioned that Notes 8 could just as well read data from Outlook. Well here’s your chance. It’s an intriguing thought… 🙂

Lotus Knows how much geography matters

I was very excited when I read the announcements by IBM Lotus at the IamLUG event last week about the Lotus Knows marketing initiative being kicked off soon (late summer). I have been outright about the lack of initiatives from IBM previously (Lotus: We’ll give you the air cover you need! Humbug, I say! Humbug!) so I’m going to hold my breath and see what actually comes out of the campaign and what the message is going to be. The announcement mentioned it was going to be a global campaign which us here in non-USA would love to see. Besides living in non-USA I’m unfortunately also in a small market if you take Denmark alone. The Nordics is probably easier to spot on a map but hopefully by addressing Europe some of it will affect us here. I’m for sure going to do what I can to make sure the campaigns stops by Northern Europe as well.

Will IBM and Lotus ever turn into stealth bombers flying in perfect formation? I’m not sure and I’m not even sure that’s the desired goal. I would however love to see more awareness brought to the Lotus brand and maybe make sure the analogy is a Hercules transport plane rather than the Hindenburg. It may not be lean and advanced and maybe we don’t have an full fighter wing but we know we can trust it and it’s there to help us with air cover and at least call in some guys that can help us win the battle.

If you do not get the reference check this post out: LMAO – Air cover as provided by leading software companies

From IBM Lotus Support: Security Certificate expiration in Lotus Domino on May 18th 2009

This note contains links (URLs) to technical support documents (technotes) related to an issue affecting IBM Lotus Domino customers. You are receiving this notification because you are a customer who has called us for technical support in the past. If you do not wish to receive notifications like this one on other topics in the future, please reply to this email and change the Subject field to: unsubscribe , e.g. unsubscribe user@company.domain. This is a special mailing separate from regular Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) mailings to urgently provide information about this expiration situation.

What is happening

The certificate for some Java applets in Lotus Domino 6.5.x, Domino 7.0.x, Domino 8.0.x, and Domino 8.5 have an expiration date of May 18, 2009. Starting May 19th, Web users will see a dialog with a message similar to one of the following when loading a Web page that contains a Java applet from the Domino server:

“The digital signature was generated with a trusted certificate but has expired or is not yet valid.”

“The security certificate has expired or is not yet valid.”

This issue can occur even if IBM is set up as a trusted publisher in the browser.

What does this mean

Please be assured that this message does not mean security has been compromised. It simply reflects the expiration of the signature originally provided in the security certificate used with certain Domino applets. You can find an explanation in the following technote:

Title: “Security certificate expiration messages generated from Domino applets (May 18, 2009)”

URL: http://www.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?rs=899&uid=swg21381298

Action needed to resolve

To resolve the situation, you have three options: (1) Instruct users to “Always Trust” content from IBM, (2) if using Domino 7.x, upgrade to Domino 7.0.4, or (3) download and apply fixes. IBM recommends that you replace the affected Jar files (option 3) as described in the following download document for any supported release of Domino:

Title: “Download re-signed Java applets for Lotus Domino (May 18, 2009)”

URL: http://www.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?rs=899&uid=swg24022981

Alternatively, an interim fix will be posted to Fix Central for the latest Modification and Fix Pack levels by May 8th. These include Domino 6.5.6 FP3, 7.0.3 FP1, 7.0.4, 8.0.2 FP1, and 8.5.0. If you’re not running one of these releases, access the download document above, which provides fixes for all supported release levels.

General Self-Help Resources

Here are links to other ways that you can access IBM Lotus Notes & Domino self-help support information on the Web:

  1. My Support (http://www.ibm.com/software/support/einfo.html)
  2. Lotus Support is just a click away (http://www.ibm.com/software/lotus/support/clickaway/); learn more about Lotus Software Self-Assist Options.
  3. IBM Software Support Site design update (http://www.ibm.com/software/support/gcnews.html)
  4. New Lotus Notes Domino Wiki (http://www.lotus.com/ldd/dominowiki.nsf)
  5. Fix Central (http://www.ibm.com/support/fixcentral/)

Sincerely,

The IBM Lotus Notes & Domino Team