Between blog postings, Tweets on Twitter and postings in the general Notes 8 forum on Notes.net, there seems to be some inconsistencies.  I personally have not seen all these yet, but it raises an eyebrow

From Notes.net:

	Date		Topic	Author
Link		3	8.0.2 - Sending new email	Leonard W Gray
Link		5	8.0.2 LN Client hangs	Lucia LE FLEM
Link		3	Sys Tray icon in 8.0.2, pops up then disappears really fast	Mark T Hughes
Link		11	Notes 8.0.2 - Instant Messaging Login Issues	Roland Reddekop
Link		6	Lotus Notes 8.0.2 Client - Issues/Feedback	joe wichowski

Summize search on Twitter can be found here where you get a mix of praise and problems.  Some say integration, some say startup issues, some say upgrade issues.

So as I dig in more and more I have been finding more and more stuff.  There are some more server commands that give a bunch more information for administrators"

New and enhanced server commands include:

• Show Stat Mail - View new messaging statistics in the server console window when you enter this command.
• DAOS Prune - Forces objects in the Domino Attachment and Object Service (DAOS) repository that are currently awaiting deletion to be deleted immediately, overriding any specified setting for deferred deletion.
• Show Tasks - The Show Tasks server command now includes task status from additional mail router threads, and generates detail regarding router activity.
• Show Server and Show Directory - These commands now report whether the Domino Attachment and Object Service (DAOS) is enabled, and provide a list of which databases are included in DAOS, with details for each.

Show Stat Mail is a great tool that is expanded to show you 154 stats (sample):

Continue Reading here" Domino 8.5 new server commands, let's peek" »

Woo hoo, yet another awesome change for 8.5 to make administrative overhead even less.

• The auto-populated groups feature uses pre-defined criteria to automatically determine and update group membership.  Use the auto-populated groups feature to apply policies to users and groups based on their home servers

I know admins get tired of maintaining groups over and over.  Having them self populate based on my own criteria will save loads of time and frustration as groups can change constantly. Oh did I mention that this affects policies in a great way:

Dynamic policy assignment is a new option for assigning explicit policies that allows administrators to assign policy settings to individual users and groups simply by specifying the appropriate user or group name in a policy document.  As the organization changes, only the Group document needs to be updated.  For example, if a user changes jobs or organizations, you do not need to determine which policies need updating; the updated group information is applied the next time the effective policy is calculated for any users in that group.

I thought about typing but making a grid is so much easier.  Some are carryovers meaning they were not fixed in 8.0.2

Number	Document Title	Status	Updated	Product
1316646	Upgrade Central: Planning your upgrade to Lotus Notes / Domino 8.0.2	Published	08/25/2008	Lotus Domino Server 8.0.2 ; Lotus Notes 8.0.2 ; Lotus Domino Web Access 8.0.2
7012642	Domino 8.0.2 - Detailed system requirements	Published	08/22/2008	Lotus Domino Server 8.0.2
7013242	Detailed system requirements - Domino Web Access 8.0.2	Published	08/14/2008	Lotus Domino Web Access 8.0.2
7012644	Lotus Notes 8.0.2 - Detailed system requirements	Published	08/14/2008	Lotus Notes 8.0.2
1315578	Server hang during MIME to CD conversion of a message that has a BinHex encoded file attachment	Published	08/08/2008	Lotus Domino Server 8.0.2, 8.0.1, 8.0
1313800	Duplicate icons appear when upgrading from Notes 8.0.x to Notes 8.0.2	Published	07/23/2008	Lotus Notes 8.0.2
1313805	Icons are lost after recreating the admin workspace on Microsoft Windows Vista	Published	07/23/2008	Lotus Notes 8.5, 8.0.2
1308097	Silent Notes multi-user install or upgrade command line statement	Published	07/09/2008	Lotus Notes 8.0.2
1306547	Cannot create documents in Lotus Symphony in Lotus Notes Client from desktop shortcut	Published	07/05/2008	Lotus Notes 8.0.2, 8.0.1, 8.0
1306536	Single Logon in Domino Access for Microsoft Outlook 8.0.2	Published	06/06/2008	Lotus Domino Access for Microsoft Outlook 8.0.2
1303396	Changes to Domino LDAP attributes officeStreetAddress and homeStreetAddress	Published	06/05/2008	Lotus Domino Server 8.5, 8.0.2

I was rummaging around some more doing the slidedeck I said I would create on Friday and uncovered this.  While maybe not a secret, there are many that are unaware this is coming:

The Notes basic configuration Allclient install kit is no longer available, however the Notes-only basic configuration install kit remains available.  Customers looking to install or upgrade to the Domino Designer 8.5 or Domino Administrator 8.5 clients must use the Notes standard configuration Allclient install kit. This is applicable to the Windows client platform as there is no Notes basic configuration install kit for the Mac OS or Linux platforms.

I got a ping from the wonderful folks at RIM to let you all know about this as it was being announced.  There are savings for registering this week.  The conference is from October 21-22, 2008  in Santa Clara, CA.  If you develop now or want to develop on the platform, this is the place for you to be.

On PlanetLotus I saw the posting by Scott Cochrane on the business case for the Domino 8.5 upgrade.  I have been pointing a few out this week but let's do a general rundown in random order (each business will need to prioritize):

• DAOS - disk savings, for free.  Change ODS (no issue there), transaction logs (plan), enable and go. Instant savings, reduced backups.  Not just for email files
• ID Vault - better archiving and storage, highly secure, for your id files.  we wanted easier and better id recovery mechanisms and they are delivering.
• Compressing images pasted into documents, across all database types.  More disk savings
• Roaming users for the Standard client
• Widgets and live text for your Mac and Linux users is finally here
• Nomad support is back
• iCal feed support
• Send contact as Vcard
• Better failover support (still wondering what here)
• Drag and drop into Sametime, even personal groups
• Auto populating groups - wow what an admin timesaver
• True dynamic policies
• Notes shared logon instead of the old Notes Single Login.  No password sync,

So I have a better idea, I am building a slide deck around this and will push it via SlideShare for everyone.

Apparently, turned on by default, is the automatic compression of images pasted into documents, as shown in this screenshot:



I went digging around and found this in the New Features area:

Automatically compress images pasted into documents.  Note that bitmap (.bmp) images that are imported into a Notes document are compressed; bitmap images that are pasted into a Notes document are converted to .gif or .jpg format.  Choose "File -> Preferences -> Basic Notes Client Configuration", and then choose the appropriate setting under 'Additional options' (the setting is selected by default).

We had been doing it in testing mode but went a little larger scale with the new DAOS (Domino Attachment Object Service).  It works, right out of the box folks.

• Set up transaction logging
• make the ODS in 8.5 format (50)
• click a few flags
• start firing off the attachments

The benefits of usage and savings were staggering in the on disk sizes.  Savings were in the 40-50% range right now.  Here is the good news many people are missing.  It is not shared mail in any way.  it uses new NLO (Notes Large Object) file types and the darn thing works across ANY freaking database that shares the attachment and is enabled for DAOS.

DId I say any database?  Yes, discussions, and soon I would think Quickr.

This has been seen and reported through the version, and was listed to be fixed in 8.0.2.  However, in my 8.5 Standard client I am getting constant mouse freezes and loss of it even showing.  Clean machine, clean install of 8.5 with the latest mouse drivers.  But I am not alone per some emails I have gotten.

When I run in Basic mode, I never see the issue, only in Standard.  Anyone else have the issue?  I have to restart my machine to get the mouse back.

Sametime has had this since 7.5, but Lotus was always missing it.  Well here it comes in 8.5



Pushing down plug-ins that the user must restart and take advantage of is a welcome item.  The user never sees the option to ignore the update.

I went to add my signature to an email (which I don't do for every message) and received a pop-up that I needed to update and resave my preferences due to some changes.  Hot damn when I saw these changes appear:

I happily found this on the setup splash screen. Forget just email, Notes wants email, calendaring and contacts.

I have now received a handful of emails saying I need to go to IBMr since I am well connected, but I can't get in.  Ugh, a bummer a new site like this opens and I can't play !!

Unlike other social networking sites, IBMr is business oriented
  - First, it allows you to easily find experts, as identified by other IBMers
  - Second, it allows you to highlight your skills and confidently receive feedback from your peers
  - Third, it allows you to anonymously recognize your colleagues and their specific skills and attributes

Together these capabilities actually put all this web 2.0 buzz to work

Well hold crud, I thought Lotus Connections was that.  Profiles, find experts.  I wonder if this will make its way in soon.

 IBMr is a WebAhead development project looking to understand peer feedback and reputation systems.

I ran across a posting from Luis Benitez on how the Redwiki residents are showing the integration of Connections with some public social networking systems such as Facebook, LinkedIn and Skype.  I thought to myself, they finally got it!  Umm, no.

I said this at the Busines Partner Summit as well as at Lotusphere, in person and on here.  Lotus should be making built in (read that as it comes with the product out of the box) hooks to draw in already built profile information or provide a widget to show that data.  What appears in the wiki is the ability to provide links to their profiles to show in business cards.  I don't want my users going out to the other places when building an enterprise social networking solution.  I want the data coming to them.  I want profiles that my users have built for years on such things as LinkedIn to possibly be brought in.  It should match their resume they have internally already anyway right?  I want that business skill and knowledge to show when I search.  A link does me no good.

There was also a huge stretch in the example:

For the sample actions that integrates with LinkedIn, Facebook, and Skype, we are assuming that the UID in Lotus Connections matches those in the target applications

Since many of these users joined well before Lotus Connections rolled out, the odds of the UID matching are very slim.  Allowing the users to enter and securely store their credentials to bring the data over makes sense.  Not many companies will modify their LDAP infrastructure to allow it to match seemingly endless possibilities in the way other systems store an attribute like UID.

So how about it? Can we get built in abilities, widgets and scripts to hook to these public sites?

It seems that Lotus Connections has taken hold in the Lotus world and sites are popping up everywhere.  Now where do you go?  All of them?  Here is the breakdown as I see it:

• Lotus Greenhouse - this is where anyone and everyone in the world was welcome to come and play with the newest tools Lotus has to offer, build communities and even chat.  A large scale mess of information, tags and communities.  But a great way to test new things like DWA, Sametime Advanced and more beta code,  You find the universe on here in a tangle.
• BleedYellow - an awesome move by the folks at Lotus911 to make a community out of Connections.  What you find is the die hard that follow blogs and such are there, but when talking to average users, they have no clue.  But the site runs great and has Sametime, Sametime Advanced and popular blogs.  This is the place to find the bloggers and many Loti hanging out.
• Paxos - the Lotus Connections community for business partners.  You can only find partners on there that seem too busy to really update it.
• IBM Connections - a hidden site that Stuart McIntyre reminded us of today.  Using your IBM id you log in and start, well connecting.  It offers the full suite of offerings at this point.  This is so new the movement hasn't taken off.  Watch this one.

While there is a couple smaller ones popping up, what the heck is a person to do?  Where do you go?  Which do you frequent?  Where do you put your bookmarks?  What if I want to blog?  What about chat?  Are there communities?  Can then sync my profile?

There is no answer to any of this but to sit back, make a pick and hope people find you.  Or maybe someone can figure out how to push Greenhouse, Paxos and the new IBM Connections into one and solve that immediate issue.  Talk about splitting hairs.

"Wellesley Information Services (WIS), the publisher of THE VIEW and The
  Sphere Journal, is seeking authors and advisors for a new online
  knowledgebase dedicated to IBM's UC² -related technologies, including
  Lotus Sametime, Quickr, and Connections. This new publication's mission
  is to help every reader maximize his or her investment in -- and mastery
  of -- IBM UC² technology through the experiences and wisdom of reigning
  experts and practicing professionals. If you have recently completed a
  project or have an interesting application, WIS would love to hear from
  you! Please contact Erin Durkin at erin.durkin@wispubs.com if you would
  like to get involved in this exciting initiative."

They are actually introducing two versions.  A Standard and a Collector's Edition. I know the kids are already asking since this is apparently commented on by "Professor Dumbledore" and is some sort of companion book to the Harry Potter series, which most of us have read.