January 2009
Excellent PR on the part of Google
by Volker Weber
If you did a Google search between 6:30 a.m. PST and 7:25 a.m. PST this morning, you likely saw that the message "This site may harm your computer" accompanied each and every search result. This was clearly an error, and we are very sorry for the inconvenience caused to our users.
What happened? Very simply, human error.
What follows is an explanation of what happened, when it started, when it ended. No spin. Just the plain story.
Lieber Google-Spamfilter,
by Volker Weber
.. manchmal bist Du etwas schwer von Begriff. Wie oft sollte ich Dir noch diese Mails als Spam melden?
Unknown face
by Volker Weber
This could be an interesting Flickr tag.
Rotation!
by Volker Weber
Pretty funny, don't miss the opening notes: "We do love our son".
Sync your smartphone with Google or Plaxo
by Volker Weber
What is NuevaSync?
NuevaSync allows direct, over-the-air, native synchronization of certain smart phones and PDA devices with public PIM, and calendaring services including Google Calendar. NuevaSync does not need any software installed on your device because it uses synchronization protocols that are already built in.
NuevaSync uses Exchange ActiveSync to connect your mobile to public services.
Mobile World Congress Barcelona
by Volker Weber
I am currently putting my schedule together for Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. Press conferences, 1-on-1 meetings, sessions. I will also be visiting the exhibition. If you have any exciting news coming up, please contact me.
iMovie '09: what Apple does not tell you about image stabilization
by Volker Weber
This is my iMac (2.4 GHz Core 2 Duo, 4 GB) analyzing a 10 minute clip shot today. It's a VGA resolution MPEG4 and it is taking quite some time to complete. 30 minutes for a 10 minutes clip.
New poll: which is your preferred Office software?
by Volker Weber
"My name is Volker, and I am a Word user." - "Hi, Volker."
No seriously, what is your preferred Office software? Myself, I am not a good sample, since I can get one copy of each for free. So price is not an issue, and I just happen to prefer Word over any competing product. Same goes for Excel, and for Keynote. Once in a while I use Pages, if I need to layout. If I had to use only one, it would probably be Microsoft Office. I never liked OpenOffice, then StarOffice, and I never really liked the smaller niche players, if only for document fidelity.
What is your choice, if you can only have one:
- Apple iWork
- Lotus Symphony
- Microsoft Office
- OpenOffice.org
- None of those
Results:
Downloading Lotus Symphony - you could not make this up
by Volker Weber
Broadcasting your keynote the Apple way and the IBM way
by Volker Weber
BlackBerry Bold and Remote Stereo Gateway
by Volker Weber
This took three months. Today, the promised BlackBerry Bold showed up in a FedEx box, along with a Bluetooth gateway, which is already connected to the Sonos line-in. Now I can finally return the other Bold I have been holding at ransom to RIM. :-)
Is this the kind of person IBM would lay off?
by Volker Weber
Checking LinkedIn profiles of IBM employees who bag lots of recommendations in the last couple of days. Those are the one IBM does not seem to need anymore. This person for instance:
- Worked in conjunction with sales specialists to close over $150M of net new software sales, exceeding 100% of plan for 5 of 7 years. Achieved 283% of plan in highest year.
- Successfully defended over $500M by preventing over 650 accounts from shifting to a competitor.
- Conducted enablement training for field sales force, inside sales reps and business partner channel.
- Recognized with over 25 awards, including a Vice President Award.
- Achieved Sales Mastery Level III within IBM Software Group.
- Evangelized IBM’s collaborative product offerings as part of the Cambridge Executive Briefing Center.
- Engaged by Lotus War Room to defend and attack key business opportunities that were escalated to that level.
This is either a b/s artist, or a star. And he would not get so many recommendations if he were only a b/s artist. So he must be a star.
And here I was thinking that IBM would hire stars like him, if they could only find any.
Relative links in Notes documents
by Volker Weber
Hubertus wants to author documents in Notes that have relative links to anchors within the same document. In HTML this is very easy.
- You create an anchor <a name="mytarget">.
- You link to that anchor with <a href="#mytarget">
How do you do that in Notes? A hotspot with a Notes reference always links to THIS document in THIS database. Can you do relative links as well?
This is to be used in a newsletter sent to Notes users in the same domain. The newsletter contains a graphical table of contents, that should link to parts of the document. If you do a "Edit - Copy as Link - Anchor Link" you get the replica ID and the document ID as part of the link. That is not a relative but an absolute link.
Suggestions?
Corporate productivity and the π constant
by Volker Weber
Tried to send a voice recording to someone at IBM yesterday. The BlackBerry (and other mobile phones) use the AMR (Adaptive Multi-Rate) speech encoding format used in GSM telephony for that. Recipient could not read the file (hint: iTunes plays that through Quicktime). Recoded as MP3, which was then removed by the corporate babysitter.
Which leads me to my rule of thumb when estimating the effort to complete a task:
- Estimate how long it takes to complete the task and multiply by π.
- Multiply by π again if it involves a group of up to 10 people.
- Multiply by π again if it involves an organization with more than 100 employees.
- Multiply by π again for an "enterprise".
- Multiply by π again for an organization which collaborates through telephone conferences.
Good and bad at Lotusphere 2009
by Volker Weber
Just a short list of things on my mind. YMMV:
- Good: seeing all those familiar faces in a great mood. I once was at the Dolphin outside of Lotusphere. It looks dead.
- Bad: too cold this year. I even skipped the party.
- Good: Lotus seems to have an excellent General Manager who appears to be approachable and listens.
- Bad: General Manager needs to learn when he has answered a question. :-)
- Good: free Wi-Fi at the conference.
- Bad: Wi-Fi does not work. Network constantly overloaded.
- Good: IBM invites Ye Olde Faithful bloggers. Silly segmentation though between blogger and press/analyst*.
- Bad: worst press track in years. Spokespeople don't show up, or can't answer questions. Last minute agenda changes distributed by leaving an envelope at the concierge.
- Good: providing bloggers with special seating.
- Bad: leaving them without a network cable on a faulty Wi-Fi network.
- Good: free Wi-Fi at Orlando International Airport.
- Bad: few power outlets at Orlando International Airport.
- Good: bringing a wireless router to share in-room internet access across rooms.
- Bad: being charged $7.50 on top of room charge.
- Good: providing photos of Lotusphere spokespeople.
- Bad: not providing decent screenshots without lossy compression.
Small piece of advice for owners of small consumer cameras: turn off the flash when taking pictures of screens and displays. Don't assume you can illuminate a large room. Don't post pictures of people stuffing their face, holding alcoholic beverages, drunks, or those making a fool of themselves. Capture the moment with your heart, but not with your camera. If you need to use the camera, keep the pictures for yourself.
Aside from the Wi-Fi issues, Lotusphere - just - works. It's a great conference. I don't think you can make it much better.
*) Bonus points if you can spot login credentials for Lotusphere Online. Harrummph. Wink, wink.
Not only Microsoft is cutting thousands of jobs
by Volker Weber
Apparently IBM is following suit. Last week a couple of people at Lotusphere got their notice. A new round is expected for Tuesday. Watch out for activity on LinkedIn:
Yesterday, I learned that I was part of a widespread resource action within IBM. I am reaching out to my network to learn of new employment opportunities, and to request that you kindly provide a recommendation on my work. I am currently seeking ..., if you care to tailor your recommendation to my ... ability. If you are a fellow IBMer, caught up in this resource action, please let me know, and I will do the same, unconditionally.
Jeff Kiger of Post-Bulletin tries to collect more information.
For only two dollars turn your iPhone or iPod touch into a cheap alam clock
by Volker Weber
Night Stand is pretty. Either an LED clock in blue, green or red, or a flip clock, it shows the time bedside on your display. Best used with a charging dock. Double tap lowers brightness, single tap raises it. It also has an alarm clock with snooze that won't let you go back to sleep.
Quote of the day
by Volker Weber
Picciano is as adept at politics as he is at software development issues -- and the funny thing is, he's straight up about it. There is no spin to figure out. He says what he says and you don't need to spin it.
—Andrew Pollack
I can agree to that. Getting a bit fed up with spin that tries to sell bad news as good news.
Downloading all Lotusphere slide decks in one go
by Volker Weber
Karsten Lehmann has compiled instructions on how to download all slide decks in one go. You need to install a Firefox extension and then go here >
Tagged by The Blue Man
by Volker Weber
Nein danke, Adobe
by Volker Weber
Ich glaube, wir brauchen langsam mal eine Robinson-Liste für diesen Marketing-Quatsch. Ich trete keinem Club bei. Deshalb weiß ich, dass das gelogen ist.
MCO to FRA in 7:50
by Volker Weber
Photo Lufthansa
This was a record flight. I have never seen 727 mph or 1170 km/h (over ground). The A340-600 took a southerly route across the Atlantic. We came in over Paris instead of Dublin and London.
On the way to Orlando we sat more than two hours on the tarmac in FRA due to radar problems that kept 39 planes from leaving towards the west.
Malware found in iWork copy distributed over BitTorrent
by Volker Weber
This should serve as a reminder to be a little bit careful with what you install on your computer.
Lotusphere is over
by Volker Weber
My 16th Lotusphere has come to an end, and I am still digesting what I have learned. Currently sitting in the departure area for LH 465, service to Frankfurt. This isn't going to be pleasant, overnight in a small seat that hardly reclines.
There have been few major announces, LotusLive.com for instance, but Lotus has not told us much about how they are going to incorporate the Outblaze technology. The most important news to me came in kind of slowly on Wednesday:
Lotus is going to support ActiveSync on the Domino Server, delivered through Traveler as a server task.
This is going to take off a lot of pressure. Customers have been asking Lotus to support the iPhone, and they will do the same when Palm releases the Pre. For Symbian S60 and Windows Mobile there are going to be two competing solutions: "native" Traveler and ActiveSync. Traveler needs a client, ActiveSync has native clients on the devices, with Windows Mobile having the best implementation. S60 has to be fixed to an APN which means you cannot easily make use of Wi-Fi, and the iPhone implementation is lacking since you cannot delete or move messages when offline.
The bitter pill for IBM is that there were no other cards to play. ActiveSync was their only chance to connect the iPhone. And that means you have to select "Exchange" when connecting to Domino. It is going to be completely transparent to the users. The good news, actually the excellent news is, that many devices will be able to connect to your Notes mailbox, not just the iPhone. Nokia has standardized on ActiveSync, so have many other device manufacturers and server vendors.
Other news I liked: Connections 2.5 will finally be complete when it ships. This is the version you want, if you can afford it. Sametime 8.5 has shown some great new features, like a Meeting client that does not require Java, telephony looks very impressive. Since I have not been a Notes 8.5 beta tester, I have been impressed with the new calendar features. You can now add other Notes calendars as well as syndicated iCal calendars. I know that this has been available on the Mac or in Google Calendar for quite some time, but it's good to see Notes catching up.
I think a lot of people have been impressed and somewhat surprised by the potential of XPages. You can finally write decent web applications on Domino without all those web agents. Caveat: Designer 8.5 is not really done. It has some very rough edges, and according to many people I spoke with, seems to be buggy and unstable.
Today's closing session was a real treat. Best motivational speaker I have seen so far. Special bonus for sitting in the front row, right where he performed. Take-away: remember rule #6. :-) You can hear part of his speech on TED .
More when I am back in Darmstadt. Boarding now ...
Lotus bloggers after closing session
by Volker Weber
Froy-der, sher-ner getter-foon-ken
by Volker Weber
Faces @ Lotusphere
by Volker Weber
Didn't he just say this has an off switch?
by Volker Weber
RIM Co-CEO Jim Balsillie with Bob Picciano (GM Lotus) and Michael Reh (SVP SAP) at the Lotusphere Press Conference
Bloggers hanging out at Lotusphere
by Volker Weber
IBM provided yellow bean bags in the General Opening Session for the "credentialed bloggers". Everybody else got a regular seat.
Blue Man Group getting dirty
by Volker Weber
Blue Man Group at Lotusphere
by Volker Weber
Bleeding yellow
by Volker Weber
Notes 8.5 trials available for download
by Volker Weber
Don't run them in production as they are time bombed.
[via Ed ]
New toy: TomTom 940 Live
by Volker Weber
Early this morning, the UPS delivery truck pulled up in front of the house with a small box containing the latest and greatest TomTom navigator. Just in time for Lotusphere.
I know my way around the Orlando area from numerous previous Lotuspheres, but still, it's nice to have a co-pilot. As with previous 9x0 devices from TomTom it comes with maps of North America as well as Western Europe.
I did not have much time to play with the new device. Its very similar in size and shape to the 930, just a tad slimmer and wider. Screen resolution is unchanged, the device software has a new and cleaner look. The biggest physical difference is the screen mount. The power cable no longer connects to the device but to the screen mount instead. This means it is a lot quicker to release and take out of the car then the previous models. Having said that, I would not leave the screen mount on the windshield. This would just invite burglars who (rightfully) assume that the device is inside the car.
Since HD traffic is reported via the TomTom service, you need to pay 10€ a month for the service, after the first three months. This contains the built-in SIM card and the mobile charges. The device will not roam, so HD traffic only works in your home country. I will let you know in about a month how well this works.
Next week I will also let Alex test it in Florida. He is staying a few extra days.
Quote of the day
by Volker Weber
Three may keep a secret, if two of them are dead.
— Ben Franklin
developerWorks: OK, we get it -- you like the iPhone!
by Volker Weber
We've been looking over our data from 2008 (not quite ready to say goodbye to the old year yet), and we've compiled a list of the most popular developerWorks articles and tutorials that appeared in this newsletter. iPhone-related articles secured the #1 and #9 slots -- very impressive.
More > (imagine IBM were able to provide a permalink to a newsletter)
This is an iPhone user experience
by Volker Weber
[Thanks, Bruce]
Current weather in Darmstadt
by Volker Weber
Off to Florida for a change.
Halluzinationen statt Alzheimer?
by Volker Weber
[Danke, Sascha]
Numbers
by Volker Weber
Ed posted about a "momentum" press release (linked below as last in the list). It's about the fact that Lotus has sold 145 million notes licenses to date, not to be confused with the number of active Notes users.* If those numbers in the press releases can be trusted, it pays to look at older releases and chart out the numbers:
- 118 million cumulative licenses sold by May 2005
- 125 million cumulative licenses sold by May 2006
- 130 million cumulative licenses sold by Feb 2007
- 140 million cumulative licenses sold by Jan 2008
- 135 million cumulative licenses sold by Jan 2008
- 140 million cumulative licenses sold by Jul 2008
- 140 million cumulative licenses sold by Oct 2008
- 145 million cumulative licenses sold by Jan 2009
I have put them into a spreadsheet, created an x/y Chart and added a linear trend line:
If we disregard the two anomalies, it is a pretty steady line, selling about seven million licenses per year over the last four years. If you go further left, this trend line would hit zero twenty years ago, when Notes was first released. Sales of course were different from that trend line. There was exponential growth below the trend line until it flattened out.
The number that makes me curious is this:
Over the past 15 months ending in the third quarter of 2008, more than 12,000 new organizations bought their first Notes/Domino licenses
The last number of Notes customers I can remember was "42,000" customers. Easy to remember, eh? :-) And now one quarter more? So is it now 54,000? IBM does not say that. They do not report former customers who are no longer customers. Of course IBM could suddenly sell to much smaller customers, but that is also not likely.
*) That is a carefully crafted myth to confuse people who don't question the numbers they are being served. Example:
More than 145 million corporate employees are using IBM's Lotus Notes e-mail software
Another one fell for it. You will find the next trap in the next sentence. Can you spot it?
One room at the WDW Dolphin available
by Volker Weber
I just heard of one room opening up at the Dolphin, Friday to next Thursday, at $222/day. Interested? Leave a comment or send mail .
Can you do the math?
by Volker Weber
IBM claims that Domino 8.5 lowers operational cost by 40% and more. How does the math work? Does anybody know the math behind this number?
Das geht nicht
by Volker Weber
Wie soll man denn ohne Wasser den dringend benötigten Großen Schwimmbadschein machen? Das ist 'ne Pflichtveranstaltung im Darmstädter Studium und ich habe sie bestimmt zweimal wiederholt.
How do you like DDE?
by Volker Weber
DDE you ask? Domino Designer on Eclipse. The new Domino Designer 8.5, part Eclipse, part classic. How are you liking it? I hear very conflicting comments.
Roots of the Middle East conflict
by Volker Weber
German audio with english sub-titles
Quote of the day
by Volker Weber
Ich suche mit Live Search, und finde mit Google
— Ein Microserf
Rettet dem Dativ
by Volker Weber
This is not an iPhone user experience
by Volker Weber
On an island
by Volker Weber
[With apologies to Commander David]
As you probably know, I get to test a lot of mobile devices. The first task is always to get my data on the phone. This is much easier than you might think since I can sync data between my Mac, a Google account and a hosted Exchange account. So I can either use Mobile Me, Google Sync, Exchange ActiveSync or the native sync services, that support a lot of devices. Nokia has jumped in and provides plugins for everything that ever touched down here at vowe's magic flying circus.
Now I am playing with the recently released Notes 8.5 on the Mac and I am back in the last millenium. There appear to be no sync capabilities whatsoever. Is that true? If you have your addresses and your calendar in Notes, you still cannot sync them to your mobile phone, your Google account, nothing unless you license additional software?
How does fourteen thousand megapixel sound?
by Volker Weber
They would not let me take pictures, but then again, I am not Google.
[Thanks, Pieterjan]
Your ticket to SocialScope
by Volker Weber
If you have a BlackBerry and you are a user of Twitter and Facebook, you want SocialScope. You have to trust me on that, since I cannot show you any screenshots or talk about the features.
The naked truth about web conferencing
by Volker Weber
heise Autos mit neuem Design
by Volker Weber
Wenn sie sich jetzt entschließen würden, wenigstens einen Teaser in den RSS-Feed aufzunehmen ...
Vorlesungen auf iTunes
by Volker Weber
Nach US und UK startet Apple nun auch in Deutschland ein Podcast-Angebot mit kostenlosen Vorlesungen. Bisher machen diese Unis mit: (alles iTunes-Links)
- Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München
- RWTH Aachen University
- Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg
- Hasso Plattner Institut (HPI)
Mein Nachbar ist auch dabei:
MacBook battery #3 delivered
by Volker Weber
Only one day later, the new battery arrives at vowe's magic flying circus. This is great news. I was afraid I had to take the Samsung Netbook to Lotusphere. But now it's the trusted MacBook. Thank you, Apple.
Before and after:
Still holding on to that Redbook feed ...
by Volker Weber
Operating systems and support for Notes, Expeditor, Sametime, Symphony, Connections, Quickr
by Volker Weber
[via Stuart ]
heise online: Fritz!Box bremst Mac
by Volker Weber
Seit dem Update auf Mac OS X 10.5.6 klagen einige Mac-Nutzer, deren Internet-Zugang über eine Fritz!Box hergestellt wird, über verzögerten Seitenaufbau im Zusammenspiel mit dem Browser Safari.
Wie man der Kommunikation zwischen Mac und Fritz!Box entnehmen kann, liegt die Ursache in einer fehlerhaften Behandlung von DNS-Anfragen der Fritz!Box. Anhand einer detaillierten Problembeschreibung, die heise online AVM zur Verfügung stellte, konnte der Router-Hersteller den Fehler reproduzieren und inzwischen auch beseitigen. ... Die bereinigte Firmware-Version will AVM in den nächsten Tagen nach Abschluss weiterer Prüfungen veröffentlichen.
Nice
by Volker Weber
Brian Mastenbrook: Disclosure of information vulnerability in Safari
by Volker Weber
Alper sent this in today, and I was so tied up that I couldn't post it.
I have discovered that Apple's Safari browser is vulnerable to an attack that allows a malicious web site to read files on a user's hard drive without user intervention. This can be used to gain access to sensitive information stored on the user's computer, such as emails, passwords, or cookies that could be used to gain access to the user's accounts on some web sites. The vulnerability has been acknowledged by Apple.
Workaround: don't let Safari handle RSS feeds. Or don't use Safari.
Einkaufszettel
by Volker Weber
Jogurtz
Aufbak Brötzchen
Budder Grämüze
Mel
Minuten Schtäks
Laut vorlesen, dann geht das.
It's "Make your own caption" time
by Volker Weber
Hände für Kinder e.V. Hamburg
by Volker Weber
Diese Woche bekam ich eine Mail von meinem Freund Frank, auf die ich nach einem Telefongespräch vor drei Monaten schon einige Zeit gewartet habe. Frank hat ein schwerstbehindertes Kind. Viele Eltern sind mit so einer Entwicklung überfordert. Frank aber will nicht nur seine eigene Situation meistern, sondern obendrauf auch noch anderen Eltern in ähnlicher Lage helfen. Und er tut es nicht zum ersten Mal.
Um seinem Anliegen zu etwas größerer Öffentlichkeit zu verhelfen, möchte ich seine Mail — mit seiner Einwilligung — hier vollständig wiedergeben:
German blogger sells his blog
by Volker Weber
This is probably not on the radar of readers outside of Germany, but Robert is selling his blog. If all goes according to plan, the deal closes on Thursday. Just in time for his travel to Lotusphere.
Disappointing battery performance
by Volker Weber
My MacBook is in its third year, and it already has burned through two batteries. Now I am going to need a new one. :-( If anybody has black MacBook batteries, I am all ears. :-) If this is true, I may be eligible for a replacement by Apple:
- MacBook ... purchased between Feb 2006 and April 2007. Check.
- Battery exhibits low charge capacity/runtime when using a fully charged battery with a battery cycle count (as shown in System Profiler) of less than 300. Check.
221 cycles and down to 16% capacity sounds really bad. The first one needed replacement after 265 cycles, and was still much better than this one.
Apple has started building a 17" MacBook Pro, which does not let you swap in a new battery. As with the MacBook Air you will need to bring it into a repair center to have the battery replaced. I have a bad feeling about this.
Update: Just received a call from Apple. They are replacing the battery. It indeed seems to be a really bad one. Excellent service, thank you!
iPod Touch Becoming a Bigger Story Than iPhone
by Volker Weber
The iPod Touch is quickly becoming a bigger story than it’s older sibling, the iPhone. A report just released by AdMob provides details on how use of iPod Touch (as measured by requests coming from mobile devices in to their ad network) "exploded on December 25th."
Mobile devices and your data
by Volker Weber
This week Palm has demoed a game changing device to be released within the first half of the year. For the US it will be launched on Sprint, but there will be a 3G version for the rest of the world, and according to Palm CEO Ed Colligan, also within the first half of 2009.
Pictures don't really show the beauty and power of the device and the platform. You have to see a movie (Quicktime required). Sit through the first minutes where Jon Rubinstein and Ed Colligan set the stage. The device is unveiled by Jon at 12:49 and he explains the hardware. The user interface is demoed by Matías Duarte, starting at 18:15. It's actually a lot better than anything I have seen from Steve Jobs.
After having seen the movie, I am pretty much convinced, that this phone will be more fun than the iPhone. And it comes with a keyboard. The most interesting aspect however is how the webOS merges all your data sources into a single view - Outlook data gets connected to Facebook data. How you can find information through a clever search, that not only looks through data (and applications) on your device, but also your Exchange Global Address List, or Google, Maps, and Wikipedia.
Since a lot of my readers don't work with Outlook, I'd like to also mention Notes for a minute. This is a déjà vu, isn't it? It's only been last year that Apple captured the imagination of lots of customers with their Exchange support on the iPhone 2.x platform. IBM is still trying to catch up to that. Now Palm comes on stage with probably the most important announcement ever, and again, IBM is missing.
Craig Wiseman immediately suggested that IBM should support the device from launch. The interesting pattern is that Palm only had to go out and use EAS (Exchange Active Sync). You just can't do that with Notes. Ed comments:
Any mobile device vendor that wants to work with Domino can work with SyncML and the Traveler team to fill in any Domino-specific gaps. It doesn't need to be "openly documented" in terms of our implementation...
I. Beg. To. Differ.
If IBM does not clean up this area, Notes will be left behind at more than those two occasions. Vendors will continue to announce new mobile devices, and they will be providing EAS support from the start. And then IBM can "work with them" to catch up. And time and again, the message will be: "We have Outlook support and that's all that matters".
Vorleser.net - kostenlos mp3-Hörbücher downloaden
by Volker Weber
Rund 500 kostenlose mp3-Hörbücher zum legalen Download in CD-Qualität
Und das in gar nicht mal schlechter Qualität ...
History of the Internet - a Motiongraphics documentary
by Volker Weber
This documentary is part of the diploma work by Melih Bilgil, who recently graduated from university in Mainz, Germany. Very impressive in its own right, it also tells you about the early days of the Internet.
Watch in Quicktime here or as Flash on Vimeo.
[via Alper]
Web-Centric Platform and New Palm Pre Phone to Debut Exclusively on Sprint
by Volker Weber
LAS VEGAS, Consumer Electronics Show (CES), Jan. 8, 2009 - Palm, Inc. today unveiled its groundbreaking Palm webOS mobile platform, built from the ground up to be constantly connected to the web, and the new Palm Pre, the first phone based on the new platform. Pre is scheduled to be available exclusively from Sprint in the first half of 2009.
Take a look at the screenshots and the description. This phone could be desirable. Sprint uses EvDO, not GSM or UMTS/HSDPA. Will need more information about worldwide availability.
View your Lotusphere Schedule on your Apple iPhone and iPod touch
by Volker Weber
Yes, it is true. Lotus iNotes now supports the iPhone and the iPod touch (using WiFi). Since WiFi hotspots will be available throughout the hotels at Lotusphere, you can stay updated with your iPod touch too! This is the new ultralite feature. All you need to do is point your device to the following URL while you're attending Lotusphere (please replace 'XXXXXX.nsf' with your mail file number):
www.ls09.info/mail/XXXXXX.nsf/iNotes/Mail/?OpenDocument&Form=m_HomeView
Just login and navigate to the first date of Lotusphere: January 18, 2009. Then just bookmark that on your device for easy viewing later.
Hmmh. What if I could just download the schedule as an iCal file? I would not need to login every time I want to look at my schedule.
One of the enhancements we have made to the Lotusphere Agenda Session Scheduler application this year is the ability to add your Lotusphere Schedule to your own default calendar so you can synchronize it with your smartphone and carry it with you while you are attending Lotusphere. We do this by giving you the ability to create an iCalendar file that can be imported into your own iCalendar compliant calendar application.
See, you only have to ask. :-) There is a small problem however. I won't be able to see the general events. Lotusphere has them, and you can view them online:
Check out your Lotusphere Mail iNotes calendar in Full mode. On the bottom left under My Calendars you will see that we have added a Google public calendar overlay. This calendar is a list of Lotusphere general events that are pulled from our Google pubic calendar. These include most of the events that are happening around the sessions you will be attending. This way you can easily check out when the Jamfest is, for example, or what time lunch is.
Does anybody know the Google Calendar URL for this file? I would love to just put this into my real calendar and not the one on Lotusphere Online that I won't check anyway.
You can also add your own Google calendars to your iNotes calendar by simply clicking Add next to My Calendars so you can add your own private appointments to your calendar to make the calendar more useful.
This is completely backwards. I don't want to make the iNotes calendar more useful. I want to make my calendar more useful. I know this is hard to do from an "enterprise view" where the iNotes calendar is the center of the universe. Lotusphere attendants don't work for Lotusphere. They work for thousands of other companies. We don't need to subscribe our calendars into the Lotusphere Online system but we need to be able to subscribe the Lotusphere Online calendards into ours.
Travelling vowe
by Volker Weber
Back after a week on the road. We had a wonderful time in Berlin. Now we are happy to be back at home. I think there will be a lot of postings over the next few days.
There is more travel ahead: Lotusphere, edcom Nachlese and finally GSMA Mobile World Congress.
No surprises at the PhilNote
by Volker Weber
No wonder that Steve passed the buck to Phil.
- New 17" MacBook was overdue. Surprise: you can buy non-glare screen.
- iWork 09. Check. I want it.
- iLife 09. Check. I want it.
- DRM-free iTunes store. Overdue as well. Hello Amazon. And the majors finally get their price differentiation. "Nice price". Yawn.
Notes and Domino 8.5 available
by Volker Weber
IBM closes second half of 2008. Notes & Domino 8.5 are now available from Partnerworld.
Winter in Potsdam
by Volker Weber
Ute and Sabine, Photo Alex
Peter O'Kelly: I am now a Microsoft employee
by Volker Weber
I’m psyched to announce that I have joined a new Microsoft team focused on enterprise collaboration optimization (i.e., communication, collaboration, and information architecture, for large organizations).
Ente Chop Sui
by Volker Weber
[Thanks, Hanno]
Zu verkaufen
by Volker Weber
Smart Passion, 40 kW/55 PS, bay gray met., Tridion silber, Glasdach, Klima, Softtouch (Schaltautomatik), Radio, CD-Wechsler, Soundpaket, Sitzheizung, Winter- und Sommerräder, EZ 8/2002, rund 65 tkm, Standort Darmstadt
Erstbesitz, Nichtraucher, unfallfrei, keine bekannten Mängel. Verbrauch 5,5 l/100 km (Ute) oder 6,0 l/100km (vowe). Interesse? So ein Smart ist größer als man denkt . :-)
Events of the last few days
by Volker Weber
A couple of things happened, that were not important enough to get me to post here. Too lazy. :-)
- On December, 31 all Zune 30 around the world froze. All five of them. Turns out it is a calendar bug. Leapyear, hint hint. Can you spot the error in the code?
- I got a Sanctuary for Xmas. Ute may use it as well. :-)
- Saw a great movie on Youtube with a cat and dog. Can't find it anymore ...
- Watched George Carlin again. Soft language indeed.
- Updated the firmware on five BlackBerrys yesterday: 8100, 8120, 8820 (all .124), 9000 (.217), 9500 (.85). Nothing else shows the speed difference between 8xxx and 9xxx as well as the update process.
- The Apple TV served us well over the holidays. Ever since I downgraded to 2.1 and installed Sapphire, it slowly grew on us. Also tried Boxee yesterday once again, but remain unconvinced. Big benefit of the Apple TV over the EVA: slideshows with "Ken Burns Effect".
- Windows on the Samsung NC10 went kaputt. Would no longer recognize the WiFi card. I was eventually able to repair it. Troubling.
- You really should not yell at your hard disk.
- Genii follows Notebook.de as this month's sponsor. Thank you!
Happy New Year everybody. Don't forget to change your copyright notice.
Lotusphere Online and Offline
by Volker Weber
January, start of the Lotus season. If you are attending Lotusphere, you should have received an email inviting you to https://www.ls09.info.
Your User Name is the email address you provided when you registered for the conference. The password is your Lotusphere confirmation number, which can be found in the upper left hand corner of your confirmation letter.
If you have some patience, you can fill out your profile on Lotusphere Online. I guess there are a lot of people doing just that right now, bogging down the system. :-)
A better way to access session information is, same procedure as every year, Genii Software's session database for Lotus Notes:
Back by popular demand, we have built a Journal database containing all the sessions listed on the official Lotusphere site. This database is based on the personal ND6 Journal with a few added views, so it should synch with the Palm Pilot and other smart phones, but it also contains a wealth of useful information for planning out your schedule.
As in previous years, the Turtle Partnership is providing a BlackBerry version of that same database:
To download simply browse on your BlackBerry to http://lotusphere.turtleweb.com/bb
For those who just want to get a brief look at Lotusphere Online, here is a three minutes video:
I love to compare load times of URLs containing "nsf" (Domino) to those with "do" (Connections). Too hard to see in this highly compressed video. I am putting the source on me.com.
