Ceci n'est pas un blog

November 2006

mb4bp - just because it will be Christmas

by Volker Weber

Ben Poole has written DominoWiki and released it as open source. At more than 5000 downloads it is one of the most successful open source Domino applications. I think the community owes him. He is not asking anything in return, but I am.

I know that Ben has a very big wish. He would love to have a Macbook, but he has to feed three kids and has a wife to please. There is never enough spare cash to get past the Missus to buy one. For years he has used old affordable Macs, but I want him to have a spanking new one.

So I am starting a campaign "mb4bp: Macbook for Ben Poole". I am looking to raise £1000. You can buy a banner on vowe.net for £50, starting tomorrow. I can guarantee you thousands of impressions of your banner on all of the pages on vowe.net. Your banner will run for one day only, but after that day, you will be listed on this page as a person or company who has donated his share to the mb4bp campaign. Your entry will be linked to your site and this link will stay up for as long as vowe.net exists. I will start this list as soon as contributions come in, and you will be linked right away. There are only 20 slots available, so act now! Update: Banners are sold out. Read to the end.

Here is what you do: Send a £50 (less than $100) donation on Paypal to macbook@benpoole.com, and a banner plus a link to my mail address. This campaign starts now, and you can be the first to run your banner tomorrow on December, 1st.

Here is a list of who already chipped in:

1. Asensys - Ihr Partner für Lotus Notes Domino Solutions (05 DEC)
2. be systems - Excellence in Lotus Software (06 DEC)
3. ILUG - Irish Lotus User Group (07 DEC)
4. High-Music (20 DEC)
5. Bruce Elgort (04 DEC)
6. Bruce Elgort (08 DEC)
7. ebf - Creating your benefit (09 DEC)
8. Revolution CRM - Join the Revolution (19 DEC)
9. at once - Ihre Spezialisten für IT Consulting (10 DEC)
10. InVisible - Lotus Notes, Ruby on Rails, Java (15 DEC)
11. anonymous
12. anonymous
13. anonymous
14. anonymous
15. anonymous - 11 through 15 are one and the same person
16. anonymous
17. Puakma - Clever software for clever people (01 DEC)
18. Puakma - Clever software for clever people (02 DEC)
19. Puakma - Clever software for clever people (03 DEC)
20. Puakma - Clever software for clever people (11 DEC)
21. Inter-Weavers (12 DEC)
22. Benjamin Stein (16 DEC)
23. Vince Schuurman (17 DEC)
24. Ben Langhinrichs (13 DEC)
25. Steve Castledine (14 DEC)
26. Workflow Studios (18 DEC)

Funds raised so far: $850 plus £900 = £1337

Update 30 NOV 06, 22:00 CET: Since I have only "sold" 14 of the original 20 banners and 6 anonymous slots, I accepted another 6 slots.

Update 1 DEC 06, 0:20 CET: Game over. Thank you very much, sponsors! There are no more banners available, but of course you can continue to donate to Ben, any amount you like. I will continue to list you below:

1. Thomas "Duffbert" Duff
2. Matthew White
3. Ed Brill
4. John D. Head

Update 4 DEC 06, 16:15 CET: One and a half Pooles with a new BlackBook.

On Heavy Rotation

by Volker Weber

Just received this CD in the mail today. It was so spanking new that I had to enter the titles into CDDB. Thanks, Heiko.

Microsoft to launch Vista, Office 2007 and Exchange 2007 today

by Volker Weber

Meeting timer

by Volker Weber

Does anybody have a meeting timer for the BlackBerry? Here is one for Palm OS. 250 Euro looks a bit too stiff for this.

Since I was asked: What is a meeting timer anyway? You enter the number of attendees and their hourly rate. Once you start the meeting, it shows you the time and how much money you just spent for having the meeting. It's designed to cut overly long meetings short. Which does not work for telephone conferences, since they only seem to end when everybody needs to dial into the next telephone meeting.

Does this look like an interesting idea for a Sametime plugin?

[Thanks, Thomas]

Lotusphere Agenda Database for PDA Synching and Session Planning

by Volker Weber

It never ceases to amaze me how Ben outpaces Lotus by providing a useful session reference:

Genii Software's 7th Annual Lotusphere Agenda Database for PDA Synching and Session Planning

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 R5/ND6 Journal with a few added views, so it should synch with the Palm Pilot, but it also contains a wealth of useful information for planning out your schedule.

More >

Life is full of surprises

by Volker Weber

Domino Admin in Köln

by Volker Weber

Felix sucht für seine Firma einen Domino Administrator. Er sagt: "Schönes Büro, schöner Arbeitsplatz, nette Kollegen, interessante Aufgaben..." und das glaube ich ihm gerne. Also, wer was drauf hat und in Köln einen neuen Job sucht, sollte sich da vielleicht bewerben.

Search terms of the day

by Volker Weber

• britney exposed — leading all other search terms
• iris sanbox — in search of a "d"
• rätsel spion stadt mönch — selbst denken, nicht googlen
• Was ist jetzt Modde — da hat sich das "d" versteckt
• blonde pole dancer — always a classic
• lotus expeditor — nothing funny but the fact, that the search was originating from Microsoft and they seem to be the only people who once in a while use the Microsoft search engine

Usability or why less is more

by Volker Weber

Joel Spolsky posted a blog entry about how offering choices to end users is not always a good thing and illustrated his point with the redesigned Start menu in Vista. Moishe Lettvin, who worked on that feature while at Microsoft (he now works at Google) gives some insights into the process that led to this result. Arno explains how this feature was designed in Mac OS X.

And since we recently discussed about "Reply without nonsense", here is a comparison between usability labs at Apple, Microsoft and Lotus.

BlackBerry Maps now with European maps

by Volker Weber

BlackBerry Maps is now available with European maps (minus UK). I installed the Maps application with the latest Pearl update, but you should also be able to get it from blackberry.com/maps. Now all you need is a decent GPS receiver like the Navman B10, which not only works well, but shares the charger with the BlackBerry.

edcom Nachlese 2007

by Volker Weber

Weil ich heute schon wieder gefragt wurde, ob ich denn bei der edcom Lotusphere Nachlese dabei bin: Ja, das hat mir in den letzten beiden Jahren soviel Spaß gemacht, dass ich mich schon am letzten Tag der diesjährigen Veranstaltung habe überreden lassen. :-) Auch dieses Jahr gibt es wieder tolle Speaker und sicher auch viele gute Unterhaltungen. Noch habe ich allerdings keine Ahnung, was ich selbst erzählen werde. Bis Februar fällt mir sicher noch was gescheites ein.

So, und jetzt verdien' ich mir auch noch mein Honorar: Wer bis morgen Mitternacht bucht, der spart einen Fuffi. :-)

New OpenNTF Mail templates

by Bruce Elgort

There are two new versions of the OpenNTF Mail Experience template available for download. The first is version 7.0.2a or the "Classic" OpenNTF Mail template and the second is the 7.0.2a "Anniversary" edition. For those of you who don't know, the OpenNTF Mail Experience template extends the functionality of the Lotus Notes mail template by adding several features including vCard support, several new views, Quick Stuff, allowing users to view their iNotes contacts and synch them with their address book, adding senders and recipients to the address book and much more. The first release of the OpenNTF Mail Template was in October of 2002 and was developed by a dozen Notes developers from around the globe.

The Classic version adds one new feature to the template which allows Administrators to control the default "reply" options by a setting Notes.ini parameter which can be controlled via policies. When a policy isn't used by an organization the user can modify these preferences themselves.

The Anniversary edition celebrates OpenNTF's upcoming five year anniversary and adds a new less "Notes" like user interface for the Lotus Notes client. The Anniversary edition also includes the new default "reply" feature. Both of these versions use the standard Domino Web Access for web access.

A German version of the template is also available as a beta here.

More >

Catchphrases

by Volker Weber

Here is a list of catchphrases. Do you recognize any?

1. And that's the way it is
2. Ask not what your country can do for you ...
3. D'oh!
4. Don't make me angry ...
5. Good grief
6. Good night, John Boy
7. Here it is, your moment of Zen
8. I love it when a plan comes together
9. I'm not a crook ...
10. I'm not a doctor, but I play one on TV
11. It takes a licking ...
12. Just one more thing ...
13. Live long and prosper
14. One small step for man ...
15. Resistance is futile
16. Space, the final frontier ...
17. The truth is out there
18. Where's the beef?
19. Who loves you, baby?
20. Yabba dabba do!

[Thanks, Cem]

LinkedIn will es wissen

by Volker Weber

Vom 21.11.06 bis zum 31.03.07 bieten wir für existierende und neue LinkedIn Mitglieder in Deutschland und Österreich zwei besondere Angebote:

Angebot Nr. 1:
Wer in diesem Zeitraum ein neues österreichisches oder deutsches LinkedIn Mitglied wirbt, erhält von uns als Dankeschön ein ganzjähriges Personal Plus Premiumkonto und eine Gratis-Stellenanzeige. Dieses Bündel von Premiumdiensten kostet sonst $205 (ca. €160). Die Premiumdienste werden dem Mitglied automatisch innerhalb von drei Geschäftstagen nach Anmeldung des neuen Mitglieds gutgeschrieben. Das neu gewonnene Mitglied erhält ebenfalls ein ganzjähriges Personal Plus Premiumkonto und eine Gratis-Stellenanzeige.

Wer gerne ein Premiumkonto haben möchte, schicke mir eine Mail.

Skype-Phone kostenlos mit hotspot-zone nutzen

by Volker Weber

München, 28. November 2006 – Netzwerkspezialist Netgear und hotspot-zone, Anbieter von WLAN Lösungen für Hotellerie und Gastronomie, gaben heute eine Kooperation bekannt. Ab Dezember 2006 können Besitzer des Netgear Skype WiFi Phones kostenfrei über sämtliche ‚hotspot-zones’ ins Internet gehen. Die öffentlichen HotSpots erkennen die Netgear-Geräte dabei automatisch. Nutzer des WiFi Phones können also in sämtlichen öffentlichen Umgebungen, die von dem Münchener Unternehmen mit WLAN ausgestattet worden sind, kostenfreie Skype-Telefonate tätigen oder über ihre Skype Kontaktdaten angerufen werden.

hotspot-zone hat alleine im Münchner Raum knapp 100 gastronomische Einrichtungen und Hotels mit drahtlosen Internetzugängen ausgestattet. Dazu zählen z.B. 14 San Francisco Coffee Companies, die Uni Mensa oder auch Cafes wie das Tambosi oder das Roma. Eine Auflistung der Hotspots kann unter hot-spot-zone.de gefunden werden.

Das ist eine gute Sache. Bisher ist das Skype-Phone unterwegs nicht besonders nützlich, weil man auf freie oder bekannte WLANs angewiesen ist. Eine Anmeldung bei kommerziellen Netzen ist mangels Browser nicht möglich.

Bei mir beschränkt sich die Nutzung derzeit auf Telefonate von zu Hause, bei denen ich selbst weiß, dass ich sie demnächst führen will. Das Gerät hat eine sehr lange Bootzeit, weil es jedesmal erst wieder alle Kontakte herunterladen will. Und ein Dauerbetrieb verbietet sich durch die schlechte Akkuleistung und die pampigen Antworten, die ein Chatversuch auslöst.

Camouflage

by Volker Weber

Let it sink in a few seconds.

Autoverkehr rund um Frankfurt

by Volker Weber

Die ganze Verkehrslage auf einen Blick.

[Danke, Hajo]

From my inbox

by Volker Weber

Das Treo 680 Smartphone ist ab sofort im Einzel- und Fachhandel sowie im Palm Online-Store verfügbar. Das Treo 680 Smartphone ist für 429 Euro inklusive Mehrwertsteuer erhältlich.

Damit ist dieser Preis auch schon wieder überholt. Und bei Cyberport geht das noch mal deutlich billiger:

Get a laptop? Get a Mac!

by Volker Weber

Ed finally made it to Darmstadt

by Volker Weber

Let your Mac tell you

by Volker Weber

I often get asked how one says "vowe dot net". I just found out that your Mac can help you. Open a terminal and type this:

say fo vay dot net


And here is how my name is properly spoken:

say Folker Veber


Breathtaking photos

by Volker Weber

So you think you are a good photographer? Then go check out e-ality. I came across Andreas' site a while ago, but forgot to link to it. In a follow-up to our discussion I was reminded of this magnificent collection.

Reply without nonsense

by Volker Weber

Chris Linfoot has a gripe with the way Reply works in Notes.

Some people like to use the "Reply with History" feature when responding to an email. This is not usually particularly valuable as it is reasonable to assume that the party to whom you are replying is aware of the content of the email s/he sent you in the first place. ...In my experience, the overwhelming majority of users wanting to use "Reply with History" not unnaturally pick "Reply with History" when presented with this choice and this includes any and all attachments that were sent with the original message.

He proposes a change. Replace the left menu with the right one:

I beg to differ. What is needed is a complete overhaul. Throw out all of these options and replace them with a nice simple "Reply" option, and the ever popular "Reply to All" option which lets people create a discussion thread that nobody understands after a while.

Reply with History, and then later Reply without Attachment(s) has been broken ever since it was introduced. The rest of the world had long decided to use what Lotus later called Reply with Internet-Style History.

This is what you get when a Notes user replies to your mail:

And this is what the rest of the world uses:

Just make it so and throw all the other stuff away. The "cute" headers, the attachments. And here is an idea you can steal: Just quote the selected text in the original message.

You only have to turn things upside down

by Volker Weber

When was the last time you misplaced your battery door?

by Volker Weber

Some Pearl owners are complaining that the battery door on their device comes off too easily. I don't have this problem, but it is very interesting to see how RIM deals with this issue. Somehow it is the customers fault that they "misplaced" the cover for the battery. "Haben Sie die Abdeckung für den Akku schon mal verlegt?" is the german version.

According to RIM, you probably misplaced the bonnet of your car, if it comes off at full speed.

[Thanks, Jan]

Cheap labor in India

by Volker Weber

Now the Indians get into the manual spam business. Posts one spam comment, gets deleted, tries another one, same thing, repeat two more times. Have the ISP blocked on vowe.net. Bye bye, Bharti Tele-Ventures Limited.

Crazy for passion

by Volker Weber

Ten dancers from the Crazy Horse Saloon in Paris, a photographer, make-up artists, a studio. And then you produce some head turners to be put on billboards all over town just in time for Christmas.

Video: Play/Download Wallpapers: 800x600 1024x768 1280x1024

In schlechtem Zustand

by Volker Weber

Kurz nach Mitternacht, beim Spiegel arbeitet die Notbesatzung:

Der vergiftete Ex-Spion Alexander Litwinenko ist nach tagelangem Todeskampf gestorben. ... Eine weitere Befragung Litwinenkos ist derzeit wegen seines schlechten Zustands allerdings nicht möglich.

More >

Two years of openBC/XING

by Volker Weber

It has been two years minus one day since I finally accepted an invitation to openBC, now XING. Could have waited another day to write about it, but I thought 777 contacts would be a nice number, and I am adding about one contact every two days, so I could not have both.

There has been lots of talk about social networks, but XING is not a social network to me — it is an address book. Let me explain: I have stopped collecting business cards. I enter a name into XING and then connect to the person I just met. If they are not in, I invite them. If they don't want to play, that's OK, but I will probably lose them. Actually, it hardly ever happens that a person is not in there. I have a few good friends, who never adopt anything unless everybody else has, but those I am not losing track of anyway.

For everybody else I now have a good address book, which they keep up to date. And this is so much better than if I had to do it myself. I have subscribed to a few RSS feeds which show me, when somebody gets promoted or changes the company. This was never easy to track and now it just pops up. In the past I have lost some contacts because they moved twice. Just recently I could not track somebody down because his mobile phone number has changed again.

When this whole thing started I could not imagine to ever have 483 contacts like Mitch, then one year later we both passed 600. Today we are both beyond 750:

XING has added some interesting features in the last two years, including the aforementioned RSS feeds. But they desperately need to add APIs or services which let their users interface with their data. It's absolutely ridiculous that I cannot export all of my contacts into one vCard file. There is no RSS feed for my inbox, nor for my events. I cannot subscribe to them via iCal. There is so much more one could do to turn this into a useful service. All of these features could be premium offerings which require a paid subscription.

So far I have not had any bad experiences with the site. I am not using it's full potential, since I did not fill out a profile, nor have I used its discussion groups. But I have rediscovered quite a few people that I had lost, and I was rediscovered by many others. It has been an interesting ride, and I am going to stay in.

If you are not in and want to play, then here is your invitation.

Firefox search plugin for XING

by Ragnar Schierholz

Those of you who have a profile in the social networking platform XING (TAFKA OpenBC) might be interested in the Firefox search plugin which the platform offers for download/install. Now you can search for member profiles on XING just as you would use Google, lookup a dictionary entry or any other search plugin for the browser of yourmy choice.

Upgrading the Pearl

by Volker Weber

Just yesterday I downgraded my Pearl from 4.2.0.64 to .51 because .64 had a regression bug which causes a two seconds lag when answering a phone call. Now Telefonica has released 4.2.0.67. Shall I upgrade or not? :-)

If you want to try it, you need to remove the vendor.xml file before connecting the Pearl.

Update: Version .67 looks good. No lag when answering the phone.

How to prank a telemarketer

by Volker Weber

Make sure you put down that coffee cup before listening. Consider yourself warned.

A trip down memory lane

by Volker Weber

Yesterday I threw another three CDs at the Sonos. Now I am listening to tracks which are almost 30 years old:

And I said: "God Dammit Daddy!
You know I love you,
But you got a hell of a lot to learn about Rock 'n Roll"

I guess that is good prepation for our revival party next week. Anybody remember those lyrics?

Firefox password store insecure

by Volker Weber

Firefox, if allowed, can store usernames and passwords. If you visit a login page again, the password is then entered automatically. Due to a lack of checking, a second, evil page on the same server could steal those saved passwords.

heise Security - Browsercheck >

Speedbandits

by Ragnar Schierholz

Denmark seems to follow a new idea how to fight speeding among motorists: Speedbandits. I have the gut feeling, that this might fire back when motorists distracted from traffic start to cause more accidents than speeding motorists.

A few things I learned today about BlackBerry Internet Service 2.0

by Volker Weber

Most of my knowledge about BIS was from the old version 1.8. Here are a few things I learned today:

• You no longer have to create a mailbox on the service. Bye bye @mobileemail.vodafone.de.
• BIS will poll your IMAP or POP3 server every 15 minutes for new mail. That is quite a long time, however if it finds mail, it returns every 3 minutes. If it did not find new mails three times in a row, it goes back to the 15 minutes schedule.
• Some providers do not let you check mails every 3 minutes. RIM has adjusted for that and only polls those servers every 5 minutes as needed, for instance.
• Using an IMAP server is very beneficial, since BIS will exchange unread/read marks with the server. If your read your message on the BlackBerry it will be marked read on your PC, much like with BES.
• If you use a GMail or a Yahoo Mail account, you will get your mail almost immediately, since Google and Yahoo ping RIM when new mail arrives. I have at most a 2 second lag.*
• RIM will work with other leading mail providers to enable them to ping when new mail arrives. It is a much better deal for the mail providers if they can ping RIM instead of being polled by them.

Sounds nice, doesn't it? Unfortunately RIM does not seem to have a plan to enable you to build the same thing. So, if you are running your own IMAP server, you will not be able to ping RIM. I think it would be awfully nice, if RIM would talk to people from Scalix, OpenExchange, Collax and the like to enable this service. It would open new markets beyond Domino, Exchange and Groupwise. Next stop: SyncML. ;-)

*) I have now changed my setup to send a copy of my inbound mail at the ISP to gmail.com without going through my server. It will be interesting so see how GMail will handle the spam I am receiving.

Fun with anagrams

by Esther Schindler

Ah, the joys of time-wasting web sites! Just in case you were wondering, my favorite anagram for "Esther Schindler" is "clients shred her."

And then there's this one:
Microsoft, Novell ink deal = Damn-fool evils interlock

More >

It never really work(plac)ed

by Volker Weber

When I had to remove a nonsense comment from an old post, I was reminded that IBM does not seem to have much luck with the Workplace brand. Remember Workplace OS, Workplace Shell or (gasp) Workplace Messaging?

Don't shoot the messenger

by Volker Weber

Jake Howlett builds great Domino web sites. In fact, he was the first one I have ever seen who had built Domino web sites, which did not smell of Notes views. Codestore.net has been one of my favorites in the Notes world.

Jake has always been very clear about the problems he is facing when building good Domino sites and how to work around them. Yesterday he said:

Sometimes I feel like I'm the only one within our "community" who ever speaks out.

Shortly thereafter all hell breaks loose in the comments.

Has anybody ever?

by Volker Weber

While I was trying to understand how one addresses buddies in other IM networks through the Sametime Gateway, I said "I now added you as xxx@us.ibm.com. Will be interesting to see if that works", to which the other guy answered "Well, we haven't deployed the gateway here at IBM yet, so it won't for a little while".

This must have been a helluva beta test.

Neue Sitten

by Volker Weber

War heute abend auf einem Dinner anlässlich des Blackberry-Seminars "Connect With The Experts". Da wird viel mit allerlei Geräten hantiert. Ich stelle fest, meins blinkt. Ich habe eine Mail:

Hallo Volker,

Kann es sein, das du heute auf der CWTE von BlackBerry in Frankfurt bist? Bin mir nämlich nicht sicher, ob ich dich wirklich erkannt habe :-)

Viele Grüße

Die Mail kam vom Nebentisch.

Crosswinds

by Volker Weber

A blog of her own

by Esther Schindler

...of sorts. As some of you know, I have a new job: I'm senior online editor for communities at CIO.com and CSO Online. For one of my first acts, I started a CIO blog called You're the Boss, asking managers how they handle sticky situations. And I'm also contributing to the overall Information Collective. Which isn't too bad for two weeks on the job; feel free to stop by and comment pithily to make me look good to the new boss. Next, I get to write an article and assign another one to a freelancer...

Treo 680 goes on sale for 499 Euro

by Volker Weber

Palm has finally released pricing for the Treo 680. While Ed Colligan had hinted at prices as low as $199, he could obviously only have meant subsidizes carrier pricing. Without a contract the device goes on sale in Germany for 499 Euro. Street prices expected to be lower of course.

The 680 is indeed 150 Euro cheaper than the 750v, but it is going to be a hard sell for a device without WLAN and UMTS. Smartphones have evolved during the last two years, and the 680 is not a long shot from the 650.

Update: The US Store lists the device at $399 (310 Euro). This is an outrageous spread.

EFI update for MacBook

by Volker Weber

This EFI Firmware Update fixes known start up and wake-from-sleep issues on MacBook computers. If the firmware update doesn't run automatically, open it manually in the /Applications/Utilities folder.

You will need to read the instructions.

RIP ILRTCG, long live ILSG

by Volker Weber

I haven't worked for Lotus long enough to know for certain, but I think Lotus Real-Time Collaboration (RTC) Gateway may be the shortest-lived product name in Lotus history. As of today, it's no longer Lotus RTC Gateway, but Lotus Sametime Gateway. Most product names last at least one version, sometimes two or even 2.6 versions before being changed, but not Lotus RTC Gateway. It lasted less than a week since the time that the gateway shipped.

I find it quite funny when a company changes a product name a week after it was launched. It appears that change could have done right before the launch. Which is bad enough. Now how about fixing Expeditor? Does not seem to be a trademark yet. And if it is, then IBM has not noticed.

More >

Ist das jetzt in Mode?

by Volker Weber

Es gibt Sachen, die kapier ich in diesem Leben nicht mehr. Da kommt man an einem Auto vorbei und dort hängt der rechte linke Außenspiegel herunter. Könnte ein Unfall sein. Ein paar Meter weiter steht aber gleich das nächste Exemplar. Und das nächste. Offensichtlich die ganze Straße runter. Einer nach dem anderen mutwillig abgebrochen. Was soll das? Das sind keine blitzblanken Nobelschlitten, sondern alte Gebrauchtwagen mit 10 Jahren und mehr auf der verbeulten Karosserie. Da geht noch nicht mal Neid durch, denn das trifft durch die Bank arme Schlucker, die sich ein Auto gerade mal so leisten können. Wer macht sowas?

IBM Web Design

by Volker Weber

Ed reports that IBM has published the Lotusphere 2007 main conference sessions and breakouts. Let's take a look:

Yes, the speaker is missing. Do you see more room for improvement?

If somebody cares enough to fix this, maybe they can also make the site standards compliant.

Podcast with Ben Poole on DominoWiki 1.1

by Bruce Elgort

Ben Poole Master Project Chef of the OpenNTF DominoWiki project talks about the recent additions included with the V1.1 template. Some of the new features include multilingual support, a new page difference engine, additional markup support, updated Notes client UI, optional OpenLog integration and much more.

More >

openBC is now XING

by Volker Weber

I like the redesign. Not sure the name will stick, and it will be interesting how well they will do when going public. Which is necessary if they want to expand internationally. Basic membership continues to be free. Here is your invitation.

Not your class

by Volker Weber

A week ago I pulled Ed's leg. We were chatting and while doing so he did the equivalent of "I dare you". Who was I to not fetch that stick?

Quite a few people were involved in the construction of that prank. Before I posted, I needed to make sure I got the vital data to fool Ed: a filename and a size. The date wasn't really important, but I needed to get the other two right. The dummy was created in a minute, a quick screenshot and I was ready to go. Right after posting the prank I sent email to a trusted IBMer high enough in the food chain to prevent a witch hunt. Little did I know that the fan boys might be pissed.

My original plan was to leave the first screenshot on for a day and then post the second one. However, within 30 minutes there were three people who wanted to help me. So I needed to post the second picture with the directory earlier than planned.

I was going to be surprised again. This time by people who desperately wanted to have the beta. I could have made my installer available for download. It would have been just another nice lesson, but I did not want to waste the bandwidth. So I updated my post again, explaining that I "no longer" had the file.

The next day I received an answer from IBM asking me to post an explanation of the prank. This was the third update to the post. Since then it has not been changed again. Comments had been disabled from the beginning.

It turns out this post got a few knickers in a twist. About a dozen people went ballistic. The usual suspects handed out pitch forks to go after me. Folks, pull the stick out of your behind. You've been had.

Schreck lass nach

by Volker Weber

Kleiner Schreck am Morgen. Dabei sollte es der richtigen Tante Käthe eigentlich noch ganz gut gehen:

In seiner aktiven Zeit erhielt Völler wegen seiner Frisur den Spitznamen Tante Käthe. Legendär waren auch die langgezogenen Ruuuuuuuuudi-Rufe in deutschen Fußballstadien sowie (während und nach der Weltmeisterschaft 2002) das Lied "Es gibt nur ein' Rudi Völler" zur Melodie von Guantanamera.

Expeditor Reloaded

by Volker Weber

So we thought we finally figured out what Expeditor is. IBM sent a big bad VP to explain it. Then Charles cast some doubt on this explanation. Today I am getting this from an ISSL architect (ISSL = IBM Software Services for Lotus):

Welcome to Lotus Expeditor 6.1
IBM Lotus Expeditor 6.1 provides a runtime environment and integrated middleware components for extending many enterprise applications to server-managed laptop and desktop systems, and mobile devices running supported operating systems. The IBM Lotus Expeditor solution consists of the following components:

Lotus Expeditor Client for Desktops and Client for Devices
Lotus Expeditor Client for Desktops and Client for Devices are software programs that provides a runtime environment and integrated middleware components for extending many enterprise applications to server-managed laptop and desktop systems and mobile devices running supported operating systems. On Windows and Linux desktops it includes the Workbench client-side, services-oriented framework that can enable application to run locally while the system is disconnected from the network. For more information on this program, refer to the Assembling and Deploying Lotus Expeditor Applications section of this Information Center and Using Lotus Expeditor.

Lotus Expeditor Server
IBM Lotus Expeditor Server is a server-delivery platform that is used to manage IBM Lotus Expeditor Client for Desktops and Mobile Devices and WebSphere Portal-managed clients. By leveraging the WebSphere MQ Everyplace, Device Manager, and the DB2 Everyplace components, it provides connectors from client applications to enterprise data. An integrated installation and configuration is provided to deliver these services. To gain more insight about the Lotus Expeditor Server, refer to the Using Lotus Expeditor Server section of this Information Center.
For information on configuring Device Manager 2.1, refer to the Device Manager 2.1 section of this information center. The Websphere MQ Everyplace 2.0.2 section of this information center provides detailed information on how to plan for, install, and use this component of the Lotus Expeditor solution. For information about the DB2 Everyplace Sync Server, see the DB2 Everyplace for Expeditor Server section of this information center.

Lotus Expeditor Client Toolkit
The IBM Lotus Expeditor Toolkit is your tool for developing powerful smart client applications that run on desktops, laptops, tablets, and mobile devices. If you are experienced in developing J2EE applications, portlet applications, Web Services, or Eclipse applications, then you are ready to develop applications for Lotus Expeditor. The Developing Applications for Lotus Expeditor section provides detailed instructions.

Are you confused yet?

Wild Bill gets a Pearl

by Volker Weber

Wild Bill got himself a Pearl. And he is loving it:

Okay. So it absolutely rocks as a phone, a camera, an alarm clock, a bluetooth device, a modem. And its georgous. Every woman I've shown it to wants it NOW. Even my luddite wife...

Looks like his wife is not reading him. :-)

No more hunger

by Volker Weber

The SF Chronicle reports

The U.S. government has promised that Americans will never be hungry again. But they may experience "very low food security."

Next on the list: bankruptcy?

[via Nico]

New toy: Navman N40i

by Volker Weber

I am beginning to like the UPS delivery guy. Not only did he bring a new Navman, he also said: "I have seen you on TV". And he could even remember what the topic was. ;-)

Anyway, what's with the new Navman? It supersedes my former favorite: The 530. Very similar in size and features, but with the graphical user interface of the 720/750. Without the bulk these devices added.

I found the new lineup quite confusing, so let me describe the four new devices with my own words. Notice the "N" in the device name. It stands for Navpix, a feature which lets you navigate by pictures. The device reads the geo coordinates from the picture and lets you navigate there. Not that much useful right now, but as more people start to use it, it might pick up. The "i" stands for "device has a camera" (i=image?). The prices are the lowest quote I could get. List should be considerably more:

• F20 (189 Eur): Entry level device, your country on an SD card. For Germany that would be D-A-CH)
• N20 (279 Eur): Smallest Navpix device. Your country installed on the device. For Europe: Add any available EU map as shown in green and yellow below to the device or your own SD card. This is the bargain I would recommend.
• N40i (329 Eur): Same as above, but has a camera. Body is black instead of grey. Has all the capabilities of the N60i, but is smaller and you have to add an SD card to store additional maps.
• N60i (419 Eur): Wide screen model with camera and all of Europe pre-installed. If money does not matter get this one.

I cannot really give you any performance data, but the interface is snappier than on both the 530 and the 720. One of the nice touches that have been added is that the software no longer warns you with a prompt if it loses GPS coverage. Instead it automatically switches to instructions for the next turns, and then goes back to the map when it gets a fix.

You manage your maps and POIs from SmartST, which only runs on Windows. Since the software sits on a WinCE core, you need to install ActiveSync to connect:

The navigation has been flawless so far. I have four issues:

1. Make A-B planning more accessible. Currently you have to select a start point on the map and then set a destination in the usual way. I would like to use the destination selection also for the start point.
2. Put TMC traffic data into the device instead of making it an option. I understand the licensing issue, but I want it in the device and not as an optional apendage.
3. I want a QWERTY on-screen keyboard. The new ABC-DEF mobile-style keyboard comes in handy if you want to type and the device shakes and wobbles in the screen mount. The ABCDEFGHI keyboard is awful for anybody who knows a standard keyboard. So instead of providing only two options, let me have a third one.
4. The screen mount sucks. Too many sharp edges, and I have already destroyed three joints.

These are minor issues. I know how to do A-B planning, I can use the available keyboard options and I can sit the device on my dashboard just fine. But I want TMC in the device instead of sticking out towards the back:

Expedite your Notes Mac beta

by Volker Weber

Ed has posted a link to the Notes 7.0.2 for Mac beta 2. I have heard reports, that people have been able to download without being a part of the managed beta program. You just need to login with your IBM id. In case this should not be intended, I would act reasonably quickly.

I think this isn't going as Microsoft expected

by Volker Weber

[Thanks, Florian]

Update: Wayne sent me another one.

IBM going back to Fax?

by Volker Weber

This has been my first fax in years. Got email?

From Frankfort to Kassel

by Volker Weber

DNUG/25 is over. I was in "business development" mood. Cannot really tell you anything since ideas need to evolve first. Completely unrelated, Newbs (you should really redirect that URL from the Van Winkle site) brought with him a bottle of fine Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey and although we helped him, he was unable to finish the bottle. I got to keep the remainder though. Thank you, Newbs. Ute approved. ;-)

Expeditor unstable

by Volker Weber

Expeditor seems to have stability issues.

Just forget about Notes 8 Classic

by Volker Weber

This is an opinion piece. And I am changing my mind. So, listen up. ;-)

The more I see of Notes 8, the more I am convinced you only want the full thing. Just stop thinking about Notes Classic. If you want to run this, just stay on Notes 6.5.

What's changing my mind is all the stuff that I see. Things that won't work without Eclipse. Kevin Cavanaugh just sat down with me, and we discussed this whole naming issue. I am more and more convinced that Lotus should play the Microsoft game. Minimum requirements 512 MB RAM, recommended 1 Gig and then install the whole shebang.

The current client looks reasonably nice, much better than the last demos I saw. I think there is still a lot of stuff that could be thrown out, like the icon left of the mail header, and that some new designs don't work for me at all. It just isn't done yet. If the design team would get a bit more radical throwing decoration out, especially on the calendar display, then things would improve even more.

Some of the improvements will not be available to you as a template developer. IBM is using Java components to render stuff in the mail template which you cannot use yet. The plan is to make them available post-Hannover, but for now you won't get them.

I also saw a very interesting demo of composite applications and how you wire them together. You wire a data source to a target action, and both are described as WSDL. Lotus will make PIM components so you can build composite applications which use your inbox for instance. Interesting stuff I will write more about.

Even if I repeat myself: You want the full Notes 8 client, built on Eclipse. If you don't — just forget about Notes 8.

What is Lotus Expeditor?

by Volker Weber

Here is Kevin Cavanaugh's explanation:

• Lotus Expeditor is a tool kit for building and supporting client runtimes.
• Expeditor built runtimes are based on Eclipse
• Expeditor built runtimes can add many additional services to Eclipse
• Sametime 7.5 and Notes 8 utilize runtimes created by Expeditor
• Applications built on Eclipse run on Expeditor built runtimes
• Applications built on Eclipse, Expeditor built runtimes or Sametime 7.5 run in Notes 8

So it is a tool kit, that developers use to build applications. Not at the business level that template developers work at, but at the same layer as people who write a Sametime Client. You won't install Expeditor, but you build applications with it, which other people will install.

It adds stuff to the Eclipse Rich Client Platform, both above and below the Eclipse layer. It does Java profiling for instance, so that you can tailor your application to work on devices like mobile phones. It does not start with Java Enterprise Edition, not with Standard Edition, but with Micro Edition.

One down, two to go

by Volker Weber

Pre-conference day is over, today is the first day of the show. At first I did not plan to come, now I am very happy I did. The reason is, that I finally understand what Lotus Expeditor really is, and what happens to all the Workplace piece parts. And now that I did not hear it after it went through the IBM Department of Marketing Encryption, it all makes perfect sense.

If have one iron-clad rule though: I never quote anything that was being said by a person who is holding a glas of wine. This way I avoid that people need to brace themselves while I am sitting with them at dinner or at a bar. It all goes to the back of my head and helps me understand things and how they are interconnected. I also learn how difficult it is to pull things together, to adequately describe them and get them out into the market.

This is why events like these are so important to me. Yesterday I probably learned more than I will in ten briefings at Lotusphere, where I only get to see people with slideshows and controlled messages. It is more valuable than any product launch, let alone a press conference.

I am an engineer by education. And I need to talk to one. Unencrypted, candid, clear and concise. After I had that, you can give me your marketing messages. And then I can decode them. And explain what they mean.

You have been fleeced

by Volker Weber

This picture show how ridiculous mobile data tariffs are. It only took me four minutes to blow the monthly volume of an entry level tariff out the door. What did I do? Check two hours worth of email (no attachments) and one reload of my feed aggregator. It only takes less than one hour of casual use to eat up the volume of the common 30 MB tariff. And this is only regular UMTS, not HSDPA.

The hotel also offers a T-Mobile hotspot. See the ridiculous rates:

If you are at the conference, try to stay in the same room I am, because I will be plugging in my WLAN access point into the wired network. The hotel cannot do it, since they are bound by an agreement with T-Mobile. I am not.

For Germany I can only say: Don't worry that E-Plus does not have HSDPA. Get their unlimited data plan at 25 Eur (on top of their 25 Eur voice tariff). This is the only offer which lets you use your computer without worrying about this nonsense.

Bigger than you think

by Volker Weber

Get it right, then ship it

by Volker Weber

IBM has shipped a blog template with 7.0.2. It's not as powerful as DominoBlog on which it was built, but it is certainly capable. Unfortunately the template comes with a "last century" stylesheet, which just does not do it justice.

Fixing it has been on John's todo list for more than five weeks. But there is always more important things to do than fixing a stylesheet. And thus, we will continue to see other people publish their blogs "as is".

Declan has learned a lesson here. BlogSphere looked just plain awful. Some great developers with poor design skills have tried to improve it, making things even worse. Only Bruce got it right. But with BlogSphere V3, Declan is coming out with great designs.

Yellow

by Volker Weber

If you think that Lotus marketing is sleeping at the wheel, then don't count Germany in. They are finally moving. Unless somebody from Global stops them.

If you attend DNUG next week, make sure you talk about this. Speaking of which, also talk to me. I like to hear what is happening at your organisation.

If you can see the enemy, the enemy can see you

by Volker Weber

I had an interesting conversation this week, a part of which I can publish:

"How long does it take one of your partners to send you [insert competitor here]'s latest pricing or brochure from their marketing program?"

An hour, at most!

"Do you suppose that's only happening one way?"

[Shocked silence]

So yes, if you let the cat out of the bag, it is out of the bag.

Not on the "A Good Year" soundtrack

by Volker Weber

After I came out of the movies, I could not really spot the theme that was playing when Max Skinner arrived in France. It is not in the original soundtrack, but I was sure I knew it. Today I stumbled upon it:

Motorola buys Good Technology

by Volker Weber

Motorola, Inc. (NYSE: MOT) and Good Technology, Inc. today announced that the companies have signed a definitive agreement under which Motorola will acquire privately held Good Technology, a leader in enterprise mobile computing software and service. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

More >

Smart introduces 2nd generation

by Volker Weber

Smart has introduced their second generation car which hits the market next April. It is a wee bit larger, promises better handling and more boot space. I enjoy driving our current Smart car, and the new one might very well be a future purchase.

From my inbox

by Volker Weber

In the Mac store in New York. Saw a person reading your site there... Had to mail you and tell you! Just wished I brought the camera!

Is Gregg in the Big Apple? ;-)

Podcast with Lotus General Manager Mike Rhodin

by Bruce Elgort

In this episode of the Taking Notes podcast Julian Robichaux and I interview Mike Rhodin, IBM General Manager of Workplace, Portal and Collaboration Software. We asked him a wide range of questions, touching on topics including Notes 8, XForms, Ajax, Activity Explorer, DB2NSF, Nomad, and other interesting topics. There was also a lot of discussion around SOA and Lotus Expeditor too, and a whole lot more. Overall, a fantastic interview.

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Who wants to help me impress Ed?

by Volker Weber

I was chatting with Ed about the first Notes 8 beta:

So, who wants to help me impress Ed? :-)

Update: That was quick. Thanks.

Update: Instructions on how to get your own copy after the fold.

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Photosynth beta launches

by Volker Weber

It's been just a few short months since we announced Photosynth at SIGGRAPH 2006 in Boston and boy have we been busy! Today we're very happy to announce the first public release of our Photosynth Technology Preview.

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Sonos: Joel (on Software) is impressed

by Volker Weber

I like to watch when others "get" the Sonos music system. Today, Joel posted a review.

... I finally got a Sonos system, which is probably the coolest piece of technology I've ever bought. Ever.

He is particularly impressed by his Rhapsody subscription:

And, in the ultimate coolness, if you get a subscription to Rhapsody Unlimited, you can browse and play any of Rhapsody's 2,500,000 songs anywhere in your house.

So now if one of my guests is complaining about the music, I hand them the controller, and they browse around for something they like and play that instead.

Rhapsody is only available in the US. I had to register as a US customer to get the free 30 days subscription. They won't let me subscribe though. Maybe I need to find out how somebody can successfully sponsor a Rhapsody account and earn a permanent link. :-)

Magic

by Volker Weber

[Thanks, Alper]

Le calendrier 2007 d'Aubade est arrivé

by Volker Weber

Apple has upgraded the MacBook with Core 2 Duo

by Volker Weber

The good: The 1279 € MacBook now has 1 GB RAM and the 80 GB disk. Finally a machine that does not need an upgrade. The bad: 1479 € is still a rip-off for the black MacBook. You get a 120 GB disk and black color. The ugly: 1479 € is $1879.

Skip the entry level machine. No DVD burner, not enough memory, too small a harddisk.

Sacrificing a pawn

by Ragnar Schierholz

News reports are spreading that Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld is resigning in reaction of the loss of yesterday’s election. Despite the fact that Rumsfeld is the member of the Bush administration responsible for the military issues, I don’t think that he’s the primary responsible for the disaster in Iraq nor do I think that his resignation opens the path for a renewal of the Iraq policy or even the entire policy for foreign affairs. I actually think, this is just sacrificing a pawn, especially when considering the short timespan between the results’ announcement and the announcement of the resignation.

Schweif wedelt mit Hund

by Volker Weber

SpOn schreibt:

Im Moment gibt es laut Polizei keine andere Möglichkeit, als zu versuchen, M. über Gespräche zum Einlenken zu bewegen. Alle anderen Strategien würden unweigerlich die Gesundheit des 36-Jährigen gefährden, der sich zurzeit unter anderem wegen dutzendfacher Vergewaltigung und Entführung der Dresdner Schülerin Stephanie verantworten muss.

Versteh ich nicht. Ein SEK kann jeden verhaften. Drei Mann auf's Dach absetzen, fertig.

Notes 8 it is

by Volker Weber

Ed Brill just started calling "Hannover" Notes 8. It's good to see that IBM stops dancing around this name. Beta 1 just left development for the first 500 users. Since I had one confusing situation where Ed was referring to a version he was using, and I was assuming he was working with the Eclipse client, and he wasn't, I asked which version he is talking about, the Eclipse client or the classic client. I received this answer:

There is only one Notes 8. It can be installed in various configurations, with the primary configuration being the Eclipse RCP, productivity editors, activities, etc. Another install option, intended primarily for low-end hardware, is to install Notes 8 without Eclipse, which results in an incremental update to the existing Notes client.

There is only one Notes 8, but there are two configurations: New Coke and Classic Coke. New Coke is Lotus Expeditor (TAFKAWMC) with the Notes plug-in* and yada yada, Classic Coke is what you know as Notes today. Domino Designer and Domino Administrator will also be Classic Coke, if I am not mistaken.

As development has now shipped the first beta to internal users, let me make a wild guess, when IBM will ship this release. I'd say: No less than 10 months. Mark you calendars.

*) In Mary Beth Raven's words:

As most of you know, the Hannover release of Lotus Notes takes Lotus Notes and makes it into a big plug-in to Lotus Expeditor (the IBM version of the Eclipse rich client platform).

Do not miss the comments on Mary Beth's posting. It looks like she has threatened to remove the "security blanket" from Linus Van Pelt.

Top news on election day

by Volker Weber

[via Greyhawk]

Was Die Welt so alles wissen will

by Volker Weber

Quelle

[Danke, Alexander]

Tarif-Wirrwarr

by Volker Weber

Ein Freund würde sich gerne einen BlackBerry Pearl kaufen. Er möchte nicht den BlackBerry Internet Service nutzen, sondern auf seinem vorhandenen Domino-Server einen (kostenlosen) BlackBerry Enterprise Server installieren und sein neues Gerät einbuchen. Spannende Frage: Was muss er bei welchem Carrier buchen? Ich denke, 5MB Inklusiv-Volumen sind ausreichend.

Es gibt da eine ganze Menge an Einschränkungen. T-Mobile zum Beispiel unterscheidet Geräte für BIS und BES. Hat man das falsche gekauft, so hat man gelitten. Bei O2 ist auch nach drei Arbeitstagen kein Rückruf erfolgt; die wissen offensichtlich selbst nicht, was man buchen muss.

Kann jemand was raten?

Quote of the day

by Volker Weber

Das ist Eunuchen-Politik: Viel Gefummel und null Penetration
— Michael Mittermeier in seinem Programm "Paranoid" über die große Koalition

[Danke, Thomas]

Pearl not rolling

by Volker Weber

Axel mentioned it first, now I am reading reports and I also have incoming Google links from folks searching for "blackberry pearl ball not working". The trackball may be the Achilles' heel of this device. My own trackball got stuck twice within the seven weeks I had the Pearl. It would roll up, left and right, but not down. With a lot of rolling, it would eventually become unstuck, but I could still feel that there was some dirt on the roller inside. The problem went away completely all by itself, but I am worried. There does not seem to be a way to remove the ball and clean it.

If this turns out to be a serious problem, RIM will be in a lot of trouble from folks who turn in their phones for repair.

O2 upgrades existing Blackberry Internet Service accounts

by Volker Weber

I am still unable to log into BIS from my Mac so I have to use Windows. But here is the great news: O2 is late to the game updating to BIS 2.0, but they are upgrading existing accounts. Unlike T-Mobile and Vodafone, where you have to call the hotline to have your old account removed, and then hope nobody registers it in the meantime.

IE7: Feeds with DTDs are not supported

by Volker Weber

Screenshot: Stefan Rubner

Congratulations, Wolfgang

by Volker Weber

Senior Vice President, Netweaver Business Process & Event Management

Sounds good to me. :-)

Mom, Dad, I'm German!

by Ragnar Schierholz

[via e-mail from Lutz]

OpenNTF at Lotusphere

by Volker Weber

Bruce is disappointed that he does not get a session at Lotusphere 2007. He wanted to do a repeat session of his very popular "How OpenNTF open source solutions can save you time, money and your hair" from 2006. I understand there were a lot of good proposals for 2007 and there will be a lot more people disappointed that they did not get accepted. Not an easy task for a track manager, because you will be making a lot less people happy than frustrated.

Look at the bright side: If you get turned down, there must be a lot of even better sessions to attend.

Besides: With more than 35,000 registered users, more than 150 projects and almost 10,000 downloads a month OpenNTF hardly needs a session for more than an ego boost of the presenters. ;-) You are out there, and we know where to find you. And OpenNTF has a pedestal 324 in the Product Showcase. Plenty of opportunity to meet the chefs.

If you want to give Bruce a well deserved pat on the back, you can find him all over the place. Just look for this drummer:

Which reminds me: Can we please have a rerun of the wonderful JamFest? It only needs to be one night. We had so much fun!

Ein guter Abend

by Volker Weber

Diese Woche waren wir im Kino. Eingeladen von Palm zu einer Vorabaufführung von Ein gutes Jahr, einer Verfilmung von Peter Mayles gleichnamigem Roman unter der Regie von Ridley Scott. Die Geschichte ist schnell erzählt: Londoner Börsenhai entdeckt das Leben in Südfrankreich, und letztendlich auch sich selbst wieder. Alles ist vorhersehbar, die Erzählung hat keine überraschenden Wandlungen. Sehenswert ist der Film eher durch die wunderschönen Bilder der Provence als durch die Erzählung.

Warum lädt Palm zu diesem Film ein? Weil alle Protagonisten ständig mit Treos herumhantieren. Der typische Klingelton ist immer wieder zu hören. Und die Geräte werden ständig in Szene gesetzt. Sicherlich unbeabsichtigt steht der Treo für die kalte Business-Welt. Am Ende nämlich hat die Hauptperson ein Motorola Razr. :-)

Die Aufführung war jedenfalls ein kompletter Reinfall. Palm hatte in mehreren Städten Kinos reserviert. In Frankfurt saßen wir zu Beginn alleine im Saal. Dann kamen noch ein Pärchen und ein Freund von uns. Ein ganzes Kino für fünf Leute — das habe ich schon lange nicht mehr erlebt.

So richtig gewundert hat mich das nicht unbedingt. Im Frankfurter Metropol wusste an der Kasse niemand bescheid. Unser Kassierer war wenigstens so klever, uns zur Infokasse zu schicken. Dort sagte die Dame dann "endlich mal einer von Palm". Wir hatten die erste Reservierung, die sie aus drei Spalten heraus strich. Der dritte Besucher hätte sich beinahe erfolgreich abweisen lassen. Ich will gar nicht wissen, wie viele Leute einfach wieder nach Hause gegangen sind.

Who wants to install spyware?

by Volker Weber

Maybe this is holding up adoption of Internet Explorer 7.

metamac magazin

by Volker Weber

Ben Schwan veröffentlicht metamac magazin, ein wöchentliches Magazin über Macs und iPods. Das kostet ab 99ct pro Ausgabe, je nach "Vertragsbindung" auch deutlich weniger. Meine Lieblingsrubrik ist "Freeware, die sich lohnt". Interessanterweise finde ich jedes Mal zwei bis drei Programme, die ich noch nicht kannte. Dabei schaue ich mir schon relativ Zeugs an. Einfach mal ein Probeheft bestellen.

Hunting season is open

by Volker Weber

As Iraq slips further into chaos, the war's neoconservative boosters have turned sharply on the Bush administration, charging that their grand designs have been undermined by White House incompetence. In a series of exclusive interviews, Richard Perle, Kenneth Adelman, David Frum, and others play the blame game with shocking frankness. Target No. 1: the president himself.

More >

Will it blend?

by Esther Schindler

Are you hungry for a Big Mac, but you don't have any teeth? No problem.

Zune Theme

by Volker Weber

Only days after the Royale Noir theme was discovered, Microsoft has published a Zune theme, which is a more polished version of Royale Noir. There are no more blue selection areas, the scroll bars have been cleaned up and the Start button has a new color.

Download here >

Quote of the day

by Volker Weber

Singapur gehört jetzt auch zu Europa

Diet Coke & Mentos - The Domino Effect

by Volker Weber

Warmongers

by Volker Weber

America is now seen as a threat to world peace by its closest neighbours and allies, according to an international survey of public opinion published today that reveals just how far the country's reputation has fallen among former supporters since the invasion of Iraq.

Carried out as US voters prepare to go to the polls next week in an election dominated by the war, the research also shows that British voters see George Bush as a greater danger to world peace than either the North Korean leader, Kim Jong-il, or the Iranian president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

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Je(rsey Pa)rking Authority

by Volker Weber

Browser stats

by Volker Weber

Firefox users visiting vowe.net have quickly upgraded to the new version. Besides 1.5.0.7 and 2.0 there is however a large zoo of versions which should have been patched to the latest release.

Completely different view for Internet Explorer. 6.0 rules, a select few have upgraded to 7.0. These stats do not show how many of those are unpatched versions.

Microsoft and Novell collaborate

by Volker Weber

Microsoft and Novell Announce Broad Collaboration on Windows and Linux Interoperability and Support. Companies also announce a patent agreement covering proprietary and open source products.

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Roped exit

by Volker Weber

Expeditor is such a strange name. I have already met a few people who have used variations like Expedor. Time to come up with some anagrams:

die export
exit pedro
dot expire
expired to
tried expo
ride pet ox
edit ex pro
roped exit

As you add Lotus to the anagram, things get really funny:

ed tries pool tux
ed exits pool rut
ed stole pix tour

What do you like? :-)

Gooood morning

by Volker Weber

TAFKAWMC

by Volker Weber

IBM announces Lotus Expeditor:

"An open alternative to Microsoft® .NET client software, Lotus Expeditor provides the flexibility that comes from service oriented architecture (SOA) and open standards-based software, giving all users a universal client experience and allowing WebSphere Portal, Lotus Forms and Lotus Sametime users to extend their current applications world beyond the desktop," said Ken Bisconti, IBM Vice President of Workplace, Portal and Collaboration Products.

Hmmh. Workplace Forms is now Lotus Forms. And Workplace Managed Client is now Lotus Expeditor?

On how jokes work

by Cem Basman

They all laughed when I said I wanted to be a comedian. They're not laughing now.

Bob Monkhouse

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Old vowe.net archive pages

I explain difficult concepts in simple ways. For free, and for money. Clue procurement and bullshit detection.

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