Ceci n'est pas un blog

February 2010

How to win Chatroulette

by Volker Weber

Three new games from EA for webOS 1.4

by Volker Weber

Still only 261 apps in the German store.

My love/hate relationship with the Palm Pre continues

by Volker Weber

Two hours ago I kicked off the download/unpack/verify/install cycle for webOS 1.4 and it took about 70 minutes to complete. Then I played with the phone for about 30 minutes. Now the battery is depleted by 50%.

webOS 1.4 is available

by Volker Weber

CeBIT2go.de - bookmark this on your mobile if you attend CeBIT next week

by Volker Weber

Things are not looking well for Palm

by Volker Weber

From an internal memo:

As we mentioned in our press release, our softer than expected performance is due to slower than expected customer adoption of our products, which in turn has prompted our U.S. carrier partners to put additional orders on hold for the time being.

Read: carriers have unsold inventory. It does not really matter how many carriers you sign up if customers are not buying.

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Skype for Windows Mobile and Skype Lite for Java phones are gone

by Volker Weber

Unfortunately, Skype Lite - a version of Skype for your mobile phone - and Skype for Windows Mobile are no longer available for download from our site.

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Facebook Just Patented The Feed – What Does That Mean For Everyone That Uses Them?

by Volker Weber

On The Next Web:

There are times when you file a patent that you might never use and forget about it. Then there are times you file a patent and later have granted at the best possible time. Facebook is at just such a moment it seems with the granting of US patent number 7,669,123.

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This looks ... interesting

by Volker Weber

[Thank you, Ed]

Blubbar Blogbar

by Volker Weber

Jedes Jahr zerreibe ich mich in aufwändigen Artikelserien zur Unwichtigkeit der Bloggermesse Republica und dennoch gibt es sie noch. Warum? Weil ihr alles Pfeifen seid, darum.

Blubbar. Ähnlichkeiten mit der Blogbar sind nicht rein zufällig.

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heise online - Rechtsanwalt von Gravenreuth ist tot

by Volker Weber

Der als Abmahnanwalt bekannt gewordene Rechtsanwalt Günter Werner Freiherr von Gravenreuth hat sich vergangene Nacht das Leben genommen. Das bestätigte die Polizei in München gegenüber heise online.

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Eric Schmidt's keynote at MWC in Barcelona

by Volker Weber

This is a very refreshing insightful keynote. Do you notice why it is so good? No teleprompter, no slides. Imagine that. A keynote without PowerPoint.

Damien Katz: Migrating Notes/Domino to CouchDB

by Volker Weber

I've been talking to some IT shops who are migrating away from Lotus Notes and Domino. ... The problem these IT shops face is they don't have many good options to migrate to. Sharepoint works for very generic collaborative activities, but not so much for custom business apps that are so pervasive in large Notes installs. That doesn't mean people don't try.

So these IT shops are interested in migrating to Apache CouchDB for obvious reasons. CouchDB is largely inspired by the Lotus Notes backend. CouchDB has a document database, peer based replication, views, full text indexing add-ons, security, and HTTP client access. It also has a very active and growing open source community.

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Nokia is sooo f&cked

by Volker Weber

Andrew has some dirt about Symbian^3 and if only half of that is true, then Symbian is in big do-do. They have just been so busy handing out free 2GB USB sticks in Barcelona. They are probably counting all these new "developers" who quickly formatted the drive to make room for music and boobies.

And then there was MeeGo, or MeToo, where Nokia and Intel announced a bright future for Moblin and Maemo, by tying them together into yet another new platform that runs on everything from TV sets to mobile phones. Meanwhile a lot of proud N900 users are looking at their investments and scratching their heads. Will it run MeeGo? Lots of weasel words from Nokia, but will it really run? "Too early to tell." Looking at Nokia's track record with Maemo, that should read "no".

If you listen to Nokia keynotes, everything is nice and dandy. Ovi Store is a huge success, for instance. Only problem is that when I look in there, it only recommends crap. Nobody is talking about it. Yes, there are apps for iPhone, and some people have heard about "Google Phone". But Ovi Store?

HTC, Huawei, ZTE are getting big into the Android business. Sony Ericsson, Motorola, the old players are testing the waters as well.

Meanwhile in Finland, they are trying to compile.

Man Indicted for Breaking Into Prison

by Volker Weber

Prison walls were no obstacle for a man in western Germany who was being separated from his love. But breaking into her cell every night turned out to be a very bad decision.

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Skype & Verizon’s Fear of the iPhone

by Volker Weber

After complaining, cursing and trying to destroy Skype for the past few years, today the big daddy of the U.S. telecom industry, Verizon, decided to embrace the upstart. And it did so in good style — by hosting a heavily attended press event announcing their partnership at mobile industry’s biggest boondoggle, the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. If you just simply scanned the headlines, you’d see an old-school telco finally getting the religion. But then you’d also miss the full story: The degree to which fear of the iPhone was behind this Verizon decision.

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A brand new, never seen before phenomenon

by Volker Weber

How IBM counts

by Volker Weber

Two months ago I asked How does IBM count? Now we have the answers.

Ed explains:

The number represents the number of discrete entities in IBM's Passport Advantage buying their first Notes or Domino license since the release of Notes/Domino 8 in August, 2007.

I made the mistake of assuming those would be new Passpport Advantage accounts, but that is not what he said. At Lotusphere 2009 IBM announced 12,236 new customers, this year 18,378. That makes it 6,142 since last year.

I also asked several people how IBM counts LotusLive licenses, but could not get to the bottom of it. I was wondering how many of those were LotusLive iNotes, the asset formerly known as Outblaze, and how many of the other offerings, but nobody would say. I have been told however that existing Outblaze accounts count towards the LotusLive tally.

Since Outblaze messaging is a white label, carrier grade service, that is also the basis for Ovi Mail, it should dwarf all other counts easily.

Updated Europe map on two TomToms today

by Volker Weber

Since I have had great difficulties updating the maps on my TomToms in the past, I just want to report that it worked just nicely today. I believe the trick is to disable Time Machine while updating.

The only thing I am still fighting with is how to squeeze the updated US map into the device. The updated Western Europe and North America maps are larger than the device memory.

The map is still not accurate where I live. ;-)

Buzz has its own settings page in GMail now

by Volker Weber

You can disable Google Buzz from this page, if you don't want to use it. Since I quite like it, I am going to keep it.

Too late for this year

by Volker Weber

PleaseRobMe Is the Logical Extension of Our Worst Fears about Location-Based Services

by Volker Weber

The rise of location-based social media holds a lot of promise and benefit for participants. But a legitimate concern about them is that they make it too easy to track where you are. For some people, that’s more information than they want out there.

Well, three guys - Barry Borsboom, Frank Groeneveld, Boy van Amstel - have taken this fear to its logical extension, with their site Please Rob Me. It tracks all the location-based updates people put out there via Foursquare, Gowalla, Brightkite and other applications. And “helpfully” posts them to its site, and to its Twitter account.

Montag, Dienstag schon was vor?

by Volker Weber

Am Aschermittwoch ist alles vorbei. Jetzt geht die Arbeit wieder los. Und ich muss auch ein paar Präsentationen vorbereiten. Nächste Woche geht's nämlich nach München zur Lotusphere Nachlese bei edcom.

Was das ist? Habe ich doch alles schon erklärt. Vielleicht will ja noch einer kommen - täte mich freuen. Ich bring auch ein Handy mit. :-)

Interesse? Am besten anrufen.

Two new Android devices: HTC Legend and Desire

by Volker Weber

RIM announces free BlackBerry Enterprise Server

by Volker Weber

BES Express is unlimited, comes with fewer IT Policies (35 instead of 450), and supports Exchange 2003, 2007, 2010 and Small Business Server 2003 and 2008. It does not support clients for Instant Messaging, Mobile Voice or the Lotus portfolio.

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Skype on Symbian is finally available

by Volker Weber

If you have a supported device, point your mobile browser to skype.com/m.

Yes, it does support the E71 (above) and the N97 (below):

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Slingplayer on iPhone now with 3G support

by Volker Weber

Sling is finally allowed to deliver a SlingPlayer Mobile for the iPhone that works over 3G.

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Windows Mobile as you know it is dead

by Volker Weber

Microsoft finally agrees with the rest of the world. Windows Mobile sucks. So they start all over. Never seen anything from Microsoft that looks so good. But will it matter?

Gizmodo has a great story:

Windows Phone 7 is also something completely new for Microsoft: A total break from the past. Windows Mobile isn't just dead, the body's been dumped, buried and paved over by a rainbow brick road.

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IBM Project Vulcan - an inflection point

by Volker Weber

I have been struggling to write this for a while, but I think Vulcan could be a major inflection point, where Lotus can leave behind the past and build for the future. Lets look at the challenges Lotus is facing and how Vulcan can solve them.

There have been two such inflection points in the first decade:

1. In 2002 Al Zollar went on the stage at Lotusphere declaring the future of Lotus is J2EE. If you look at the current portfolio and how services on top of Websphere are evolving, Al was right. He just was unable to communicate how to get there, probably because there was no plan yet. Domino is still not there, and with Vulcan it does not have to.
2. In 2005 Ambuj Goyal announced Hannover, a major redesign of the Notes client. This was very well received and gave IBM almost three years to fix Notes. Unfortunately IBM did not fix the classic client, but built a new one on top of a huge Java framework, that does not work well with desktop virtualization, a major trend that got started between 2005 and the time Notes 8 was done.

So what are the challenges today? You are probably going to disagree on most of them, but that's the world I see out there.

1. Migrations to Exchange. I don't know why people would want to spend a lot of money to go from one proprietary closed environment to another, but they do. Money is often not an issue. I often hear "we don't want to be the last to leave Notes". The only way to fight this is to put out all the fires, and that proves to be a stretch on resources.
2. Notes 8 (Java version) is fat. It's been put on a diet to make it work better in Citrix environments, but that does change the game. There is just a lot of files on your desktop. vowe will never run a Marathon, no matter what you do.
3. Notes 8 (classic version) is not as fat. But it does not solve challenge #1. Notes 8 (Java version) would, but there is challenge #2, and frankly not very many people use the capabilities added through the framework. Composite applications are all but non-existant, uptake on widgets is slow and most admins are busy disabling them.
4. Silos. Lotus has a broad portfolio and it does not integrate well. Stuff runs on different platforms in different clients. Users have to go from here to there a lot.
5. IBM has woken up very very late on mobile stuff. They are now struggling to get back on the train. The good news is that they know they are behind and that they need to get this act together.

But something wonderful happened: you can finally write powerful web applications that users like to use. Look at Facebook, as a Notes customer look at the latest version of iNotes. And iNotes does not even use the latest technologies. Internet Explorer 6 is dying off, and with new browsers come new opportunities. Mobile gravitates around webkit. Even BlackBerry will get an update this year.

With Vulcan IBM paints a very bold vision. Keep the existing products. Add new APIs that let developers consume their capabilities. Demonstrate a web app that works just as nicely as Facebook does. Make it run on mobile, in a web browser, in Notes. Everything can run in Notes, because the least Notes can do is embed a browser.

In this new environment you can integrate everything. Notes Mail, Calendar (and that is the hardest part of all), Quickr, Connections, Sametime, everything Lotus has to offer. The user does not have to go from here to there. And all you need is a browser. You will continue to need a Notes client for your legacy apps. But that does not include the most used ones: mail, calendar, contacts.

If Lotus can pull this off, it's going to be the difference between running and flying. A new dimension.

The 20-minute rule

by Volker Weber

I've never written this rule up, now I have. Please, if you make an appointment with me, try to be on time. And if you're more than 20 minutes late, you'll find I'm not here.

Neither have I. It's also why I am not waiting for your call. I call you.

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[via Konstantin]

We Are The World 25

by Volker Weber

RIM is testing a new Twitter app

by Volker Weber

Yesterday I installed a beta of the upcoming Twitter app from RIM. While it is pretty, there are still a few things to work out, so don't feel bad if you don't have it. Currently I am looking very often at this screen:

It's a very basic client. You can't edit your retweets and there is no support for lists yet. For now, my client of choice remains SocialScope. It supports more than Twitter, and it is very effective. One has to wonder though, if this program ever comes out of beta.

Guinness delivery

by Volker Weber

[via Alex]

What could this be? A Windows phone?

by Volker Weber

Hi,

I'm currently doing web promotion for my client. I was wondering if you're willing to do a blog post for them on vowe.net. My client is willing to offer $50 for this blog post. We can also provide the blog post content according to your guidelines.

If you're interested, payments are sent via paypal. Or if you have a different proposal, let me know and let's see how we could work things out.

I'm afraid I have to decline.

OpenOffice.org 3.2 is First Out of the Blocks in the 2010 Office Software Race

by Volker Weber

Munich, Germany (PRWEB) February 11, 2010 -- At the start of its tenth anniversary year, and with over three hundred million downloads recorded in total, the OpenOffice.org Community today announced the release of the latest version of its personal productivity suite. OpenOffice.org 3.2 gets to work faster, offers new and improved features and functionality, gives better compatibility with other office software, and fixes bugs and potential security vulnerabilities.

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Google Buzz, one day later

by Volker Weber

After having used Google Buzz for more than a day, I would summarize:

• Twitter: listen to me
• Facebook: play with me
• Buzz: talk to me

Twitter is simple. Facebook is a marketeer's dream. Buzz is well connected with other Google services. And when used mobile, location-based. Looks like a keeper to me. Revisit in a month or so.

Enjoy while it lasts

by Volker Weber

Record label Warner Music has said it will stop licensing its songs to free music streaming services. Companies like Spotify, We7 and Last.fm give free, legal and instant access to millions of songs, funded by adverts. Warner, one of the four major labels, whose artists include REM and Michael Buble, said such services were "clearly not positive for the industry".

I never understood how Last.fm "works". But I am enjoying it while it lasts.

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BlackBerry Application Suite Leaked for Windows Mobile Users

by Volker Weber

The guys at XDA-Dev have leaked the BlackBerry Application Suite for Windows Mobile users. The leaked suite is said to have been installed on TAEL ROM Standard WM 6.5.1 and runs fine. There is a caveat that you must be on a BES for this install to work.

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UARRR.org: Illegal ist das Mittel meiner Wahl.

by Volker Weber

Ich DARF mir die von mir gekauften Serienfolgen nicht auf meinem, von mir gekauften, Bildschirm angucken, weil er wegen irgendeiner dämlichen Kackkacke nicht autorisiert wurde.

Was. Für. Eine. Dämliche. Scheiße.

Das wird sich rumsprechen, und dann Gute Nacht Marie.

Repeat after me: DRM is bad for the customer.

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Mirror Scare

by Volker Weber

Nokia failed to sell Maps licenses. And they won't do better with Messaging.

by Volker Weber

From my inbox:

From: Nokia Messaging Team
Date: Tue, Feb 9, 2010 at 11:41 PM
Subject: Expiration notice
To: xxxxxx.xxxxx@xxxxx.com

We hope you have enjoyed your trial of Nokia Messaging on the OPERATOR network. Your trial has come to an end. This is the final email you will receive using the service.

If you would like to continue receiving automatic delivery of emails to your Nokia phone, you may purchase a full subscription to the service by signing up for the OPERATOR XYZ plan. Visit OPERATOR's web site for details, or contact OPERATOR by phone. Signup is easy, fast, and cost-effective. When you sign up, your Nokia Messaging account will continue automatically.

If you are not interested in purchasing a subscription, you do not need to take any action.

Sincerely, Nokia Messaging team

*** This email was generated automatically. Please do not reply to it. ***

I still have no idea how to reactivate my deactivated account. There is no shortage in devices that would be eligible. But I have stopped caring. I simply advise people to stay away from this solution.

Beer gloss

by Volker Weber

International OpenOffice market shares

by Volker Weber

Due to the strong international interest in our study on OpenOffice's market share in Germany, we've compiled some numbers on international OpenOffice installations.

The numbers were collected using a novel methodology: Over two hundred thousand international visitors where analysed by the web statistics service FlashCounter. By checking (using Javascript) which fonts where installed on the system, we could identify the installed Office suites.

It is interesting to see that the adoption of OpenOffice shows huge differences in the analysed countries.

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Do you see it?

by Volker Weber

We are going to see a lot more Android phones. Well, if you can see it. ;-)

Clothing drive

by Volker Weber

FT.com - A fight over freedom at Apple's core

by Volker Weber

This is the significance of the iPad. It could have been built either like a small Apple Macintosh - open to any outside software - or as a big iPhone, controlled by Apple. Apple went with the latter. Attach a keyboard to it and it could replace a PC entirely - boasting plenty of new apps, but only as Apple deems them worthy.

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Download and install Symphony 3 Beta 2 in 20 easy to follow steps

by Volker Weber

Be careful at the actual download step and select HTTP instead of IBM Download Director. The choice is not obvious. Hey, we only do this so you don't have to. :-)

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Embrace Life

by Volker Weber

One important thing missing from Nexus One multitouch

by Volker Weber

Google does not claim multi touch capabilities in the Nexus One software update. They say "pinch-to-zoom mechanism in the phone's Browser, Gallery and Maps applications". What's really missing is key rollover on the soft keyboard.

You can test this on an iPhone and a Nexus:

• Hold down one key, like "W" for instance
• Now press a second key, like "L"

Different results: the Nexus will give you another W, while the iPhone recognizes the L. This is the reason why the iPhone keyboard is faster than the Nexus. You can type the next letter without having raised the finger from the last one you typed.

Boots

by Volker Weber

Leiterin Kommunikation und Presse, ahnungslos

by Volker Weber

iPhone OS 3.1.3 brings back Internet Tethering to unlocked iPhones

by Volker Weber

Installing 3.1.3 is safe, if (a) you have an iPhone contract SIM installed and not jailbroken your phone, or (b) if you have an unlocked phone sold in a country that does not allow Apple to hold your iPhone hostage. If you have jailbroken your phone and unlocked it yourself, stay away for now.

If you have one of those originally unlocked phones, you gain Internet Tethering. If it's not in Settings/General/Network, you may need to add your APN settings first, which you can do from your iPhone at help.benm.at.

Btw: the iPhone feels pretty quaint after having used a Nexus One for two weeks.

Nokia N97 gets a minor software update

by Volker Weber

It is supposed to be fixing the kinetic scrolling introduced with 2.0. Apparently it is not yet available over the air, and I am not going to be bothered with the PC software.

VDSL 50 to the max

by Volker Weber

Just moved 5 gig of data in a matter of minutes. And I know now that VDSL 50 is not holding back the Entertain VLAN that I have not booked.

Nexus One gets a software update, enables multitouch

by Volker Weber

Can't wait for the OTA push? Instructions for manual update are here.

More>

Incredible, Beautiful, Amazing! Thank you.

by Volker Weber

Lotusphere keynote available online

by Volker Weber

Now you can watch the Lotusphere Opening General Session.

Step 1: Login with your IBM ID.

Step 2: Review and edit your personal information as necessary.

Step 3: Install either Real Player or Windows Media Player.

Some IBM Webcast functions require browser support for ActiveX when using Windows Media. Your browser configuration does not appear to support ActiveX, so these features will be disabled if you choose this option. Consider using either Real Player or Internet Explorer as an alternative. Please review the WMP Troubleshooting Tips for further assistance

Step 4: Watch a movie in 125 kbps, a little bit less than a standard 128 kbps MP3.

Step 5: Go to Apple.com and watch their keynote instead. No login, no personal information to review. Just watch it. In low, medium or high resolution. Or in HD.

The difference in technology looks more like the 10 years it probably is.

Suche alte Platten

by Volker Weber

Wenn man Server aus- und wieder einschaltet, dann sterben oft die alten SCSI-Platten. Deshalb suche ich Ersatz. Kaufen kann man die Dinger praktisch kaum noch. Würde mich freuen, wenn jemand sowas noch im Schrank rumliegen hat und mir überlässt. 18.2 spielt keine Rolle mehr, aber 36,4 oder 72,8 täte ich gerne nehmen.

Ebenfalls auf meiner Wunschliste: zwei Platten-Einschübe für Proliant RAIDs.

Am besten per Mail. Meine Adresse steht hier.

Update: Ich bin überwältigt von Eurer Hilfsbereitschaft. Abdelkader, Andreas, Flemming, Markus, Oliver, Stevan, Thomas und Werner haben Platten oder Hotswap-Einschübe angeboten. Das erste Paket ist schon unterwegs:

Nicht alle Platten werden das überleben, aber am Ende werde ich ein volles RAID und ein paar Spares haben. Vielen, vielen Dank für Eure Hilfe.

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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