Blog

HCL Now: Cloud Native-as-a-Service launches!


HCL has announced and launched HCL Now: Cloud Native-as-a-Service for your HCL Software products in a cloud-first architecture.  Easily move your HCL Software products to the HCL managed cloud, start using new updates as they become available and ease administration work of on-premises deployments.  HCL Now also helps you avoid cloud lock-in by retaining ownership of your data and deploying in the cloud of your choosing.
HCL Now cloud native

Some early highlights and takeaways from the launch video and materials are:  Continue Reading here" HCL Now: Cloud Native-as-a-Service launches!" »
    for this posting

    On Tuesday, July 20th, 2021   by Chris Miller        

Where Did I Land?

I promised a follow-up posting of where I decided to land after searching for months in the Covid technology landscape ( and we have to admit some wasteland of companies that fell). I am happy to say I am now at HCL in a unique role. It all started thinking about the Domino community, the changes and advancement in the technology and the growth to the platform HCL has eagerly provided.

Airplane landing


After learning more about wide range of areas in HCL opportunities, we found that an even better fit for my background existed than just the collaboration space. As of Feb 1, 2021 I started as Continue Reading here" Where Did I Land?" »
    for this posting

    On Wednesday, February 10th, 2021   by Chris Miller        

Where have I been? (and where am I going)

I took a much longer break in blogging, podcasting and videocasting than I originally anticipated.  Of course, the world pandemic extended it a bit further when Covid-19 changed how we work.  Let me back up toward the end of 2018.

Blog is warming Back Up

After 20 years at Connectria, it was time to take a sabbatical and relax the mind.  I took six months to travel, rest, reflect and look ahead. Continue Reading here" Where have I been? (and where am I going)" »
    for this posting

    On Tuesday, January 26th, 2021   by Chris Miller        

Statiistics 101 using IBM SPSS achieved

In my earlier blog post I stated more variance in content would be coming. Well variance fits right in with statistics and analyzing data. So I used SPSS and the OpenBadge course from IBM to further my learning.
    for this posting

    On Friday, September 28th, 2018   by Chris Miller        

Reboot.Rinse.Repeat

It was time to evaluate direction with plotting and planning of paths, postings, podcasts, webcasts, conferences and more for IdoNotes and the Spiked Studio brand.
Reboot style=

I had to consider quite a few things:
After I typed that I realized it isn't important at all as a number.  What started as a random idea to blog became a hobby, passion and then hobby again. It expanded into my crazy idea of multiple blogs.  Some of those were merged back together (TheSocialNetworker and Social Stalking for example).

Spiked Studios LLC launched a few years ago as an umbrella to bring together all of the video work I was starting to do and I decided to fold all of the blogs under that banner. That video path became a passion moving even the IdoNotes podcast to video shows only and then expand in directions I could never imagine.   Amazon Top 1000 reviewer, live on air at CES twice, on stage at SxSW twice and then product ambassador opportunities.

So what does this blog post mean? Look for expansion in content here at IdoNotes.  I announced I am an IBM Cloud Champion for 2018, my first time not being a IBM Collaboration Solutions Champion since the program inception.  I will be full force covering Domino 10 and adding more cloud related content.

Plus my job expanded and you should expect to see a lot on data taxonomy, analytics and dashboards.  It is simply a reboot that took some planning and thought.
    for this posting

    On Wednesday, August 8th, 2018   by Chris Miller        

IBM Champion for 2018 - for Cloud

In a change of pace I am once again an IBM Champion for 2018, but this time in Cloud.  Since 2011 I have been an IBM Champion in Collaboration Solutions. Due to my expended role I am working more in Collaboration and Cloud technologies.
IBM Champion

The stats for 2018 IBM Champions were impressive:
From the 1400 nominations, 650 IBM Champions were selected. You can review the full list below. Among those are:
  • 62% renewing; 38% new Champions
  • 38 countries represented
  • 6 business areas, including Analytics (34%), Cloud (25%), Collaboration & Talent Solutions (24%), Power Systems (9%), Storage (1%), IBM Z (7%)
The role as an IBM Champion stays the same, even across the areas. All of the IBM Champions have shared their knowledge freely, participated in community events and expend their own time and resources to do so.

I am happy to be recognized in another category but that will not change the amount of Collaboration Solutions information I push out on my blog and even thinking of firing up some new podcast episodes.  There is definitely webcasts and videos already in the works.
    for this posting

    On Tuesday, May 1st, 2018   by Chris Miller        

IBM Collaboration Solutions Catalog closing date announced

The IBM Collaboration Solutions Catalog has an official end date of December 15, 2017. This means you need to plan now to move your offerings to the Global Solutions Directory.
We want to thank you for allowing us to showcase your business solutions related to the IBM Collaboration Services portfolio!!  It has been our honor to have hosted your entries in our IBM Collaboration Solutions Catalog for the past 7 years. We wanted to make you aware that all IBM Business Partner entries in the IBM Collaboration Solutions Catalog will be archived on December 15, 2017 and to communicate the strategic direction for continuing to showcase your solutions.

To ensure that your solutions continue to be highlighted in the best possible way, our strategic direction forward is to host all entries in the IBM PartnerWorld Global Services Directory (GSD).  This will provide one stop shopping for all of IBM's customers and partners when looking for a solution.  The Global Solutions Directory is the IBM repository of IBM Business Partner offering information.  Business Partners use the directory to manage their solution offering information.  The information that is submitted in the GSD feeds to a host of other ibm.com web sites

You can see the Global Solutions Catalog right here.  Keep in mind it is massive and includes more than just things like the plug-ins I had inside the Collaboration Solutions Catalog.

There is an alternate place as well to list some solutons, which does drive me a bit crazy. I think one place with well defined filters is the best option so everyone can find you. Instead of us trying to keep up with multiple entries
Alternatively, you can apply to have your solutions highlighted in the IBM PartnerWorld Business Partner Application Showcase and apply for the "Ready for IBM Social Business" designation to differentiate your solution from others.

IBM Business Partner Application Showcase --> http://www-304.ibm.com/partnerworld/gsd/showcase.do?cd=SOCBUS

    for this posting

    On Friday, November 10th, 2017   by Chris Miller        

Announcements on IBM Domino and Notes 10 and Beyond for numerous products


IBM has partnered with HCL Technologies to invest in a long-term roadmap for the IBM Domino product line and family. This means updates for Domino, Notes, Sametime, Verse, and more
.To show IBM’s level of commitment to stakeholders, the company is entering into a strategic partnership with HCL Technologies to begin delivering on the roadmap with the intent to release version 10 of the Domino portfolio next year. The goal of the partnership is to drive future development of the Domino product family, energize the offering, and protect clients’ investments.

This means to customers that the original  fixpack featurepack and support only announcements are totally gone. IBM had previously promised small enhancements and bug fixes through more consistent featurepacks. They were staying away from delivering an entirely new version number for many reasons. One was speed of delivery, legal naming and all that stuff we geeks just say give us a 10.  With this move and the below #domino2025 jam announcement, IBM has fully committed to enhancing the entire product family.
Continue Reading here" Announcements on IBM Domino and Notes 10 and Beyond for numerous products" »
    for this posting

    On Thursday, October 26th, 2017   by Chris Miller        

Announcing IBM Bluefizz - goodbye IBM Docs and IBM Connections on Greenhouse

IBM has announced IBM Bluefizz and the sunsetting of IBM Greenhouse entirely.
The Greenhouse team thanks you and all of our loyal users, customers and business partners for making Greenhouse the place for learning about and trying out IBM collaboration products and solutions. On October 15, 2017 we will sunset both IBM Docs and IBM Connections on Greenhouse. We have officially launched the next evolution of Greenhouse, Bluefizz.  We welcome you to start using Bluefizz now to discover the latest social and email products available in the IBM Cloud by visiting  https://626.bluefizz.net/.

The Greenhouse Team

There is no word on how the catalog will be migrated or even if it will be migrated to a new marketplace.

It was two years ago (almost to the day they are doing the sunset now) that I wrote a blog posting about Greenhouse was being retired. This caused a but of an uproar in the community about needing such a test platform for customers and business partners that had over 140k members of Greenhouse.
    for this posting

    On Monday, September 11th, 2017   by Chris Miller        

IBM and Salesforce shake hands and offer integrations

IBM and Salesforce have dropped the gloves, shook hands and both offered data and app integrations to further their partnership.
IBM and Salesfoce partnership
In the recent announcements (previously it was just selling their Watson and Einstein products) they are doing deeper app and data intergration offerings.

I think Salesforce got the raw end of the deal only offering IBM Weather data in Lightning apps. Weather data is pretty abundant, but IBM does own the rights to allThe Weather Company since buying them a couple years ago.  I read the press release from Salesforce trying to get a feel for what is different than May (from this blog posting on Salesforce).

IBM on the other hand is expanding Salesforce data in IBM Cloud apps. The IBM Cloud Integration for Salesforce offers a ton of potential.  You can use IBM App Connect Lite for free (and even half off a one year subscription).
IBM App Connect for Salesforce
Sign up for IBM App Connect Lite and you can create up to 10 active flows and 1,000 flow runs per month. Upgrade to IBM App Connect Professional and get up to 20,000 actions per month with a total processing duration of 100 hours per month for half the regular price, using promo code APPC17.

I am going to dig deeper into seeing what we can do with this for our use of Salesforce and how IBM App Connect Lite works with moving some data around.
    for this posting

    On Thursday, August 31st, 2017   by Chris Miller        

DB2 on Cloud is renaming and something else is now Db2 on Cloud??

IBM sent a very confusing email about DB2 on Cloud and renaming. I will just leave this here
On June 22 a number of products will be renamed in our Db2 family of products
That's right, Db2
"DB2 on Cloud" will be renamed "Db2 Hosted" and "dashDB for transactions" will be renamed "Db2 on Cloud.

Now notice the DB becomes Db in the new name. I am not sure if that was a typo or on purpose to differentiate the products. Either way taking a product name and swapping a new product into it already confused me.
    for this posting

    On Wednesday, June 21st, 2017   by Chris Miller        

Goodbye to IBM Open Mic Webcasts - hello JUMP sessions

IBM Open Mic Webcasts have been a place for you to ask anything you wanted on a specific topic with IBM engineers and support. They quietly, and not sure what the name means, now call them JUMP sessions.

I noticed this name  change only due to a small notation made in a recent email announcing a webcast (JUMP??).  However, the emails still look and read just like IBM Open Mic Webcasts.
As a valued IBM client who has contacted technical support, you are invited to participate in an IBM Support Technical Exchange session

So check your emails for this new name JUMP Sessions and make sure to join the webcasts still.  Anyone know why they changed the name? Will I still be able to find recordings under Open Mic or now Jump?
    for this posting

    On Thursday, May 11th, 2017   by Chris Miller        

IBM Champion 2017 nominations are open

The IBM Champion Program is a community rewards program giving those that showcase IBM acknowledgement. Often, it is the business partners and customers that have larger voices than IBM themselves. You have until Nov 14 2016 to nominate for all IBM Champion areas.
The IBM Champion program recognizes innovative thought leaders in the technical community -- and rewards these contributors by amplifying their voice and increasing their sphere of influence. An IBM Champion is an IT professional, business leader, developer, or educator who influences and mentors others to help them make best use of IBM software, solutions, and services.
IBM Champions are not employees of IBM.

Gabriella Davis and Theo Heselmans were honored with Lifetime Champion awards in January of this year showing you the value that IBM sees in those that work so hard and donate so much of their time.  The webcast they both participated in is online now and it a great resource for anyone wanting to become a champion, nominate a champion or see what the program is all about.
IBM Champion 2017 nominations
Do you know someone that is always sharing information, on Twitter or other social media answering questions (I include forums in this), presenting at user group events or just there via email when you need help? That is someone to nominate in any of the IBM Champion areas.

What is the IBM Champion program meant to me? I have been so so lucky to be part of the Social Business Champions since 2011 when it started.  Personally, it is about organizing free events like ICON US, sharing information via the blog you are reading now, my Facebook network page where I share articles, LinkedIn, monthly newsletters (sign up at the right) and YouTube videos.  Sometimes I use them as my own personal resource when I want to remember something important for even myself but know it likely has value to others as well.

I try hard to nominate many of my peers because that is a gentle bow to them thanking them for all the free hard work they have done sharing, getting on late phone calls, sending free code and more. Being an IBM Champion is about the sharing and the community more than the title.

There are a bunch of fields to fill out so do not be afraid to reach out to that person. Just asking them let;s them know they reached someone who thinks they are a Champion.  Visit the IBM Champion site here including the nomination form.
    for this posting

    On Tuesday, October 18th, 2016   by Chris Miller        

IBM Collaboration Solutions 2016 Developer Competition winner and finalists announced

Launched at ICON US back in May was the IBM Collaboration Solutions 2016 Developer Competition. The winner and runner-ups were announced September 16th 2016 by Inhi Cho Suh, IBM Collaboration Solutions General Manager.
 IBM Collaboration Solutions 2016 Developer Competition
The Winner - HR Assistant
Frédéric Dehédin from Swiss Business Partner Belsoft and Frank van der Linden from Elstar IT, put together a solution which every HR department in every company in the world will want. HR Assistant leverages IBM Watson Services

Read more on the submissions and app capabilities over at LinkedIn by Alan Hamilton who launched the competition. Here is the original announcement from May 2016 for the IBM Collaboration Solutions 2016 Developer Competition
    for this posting

    On Wednesday, September 21st, 2016   by Chris Miller        

Tivoli Storage Manager becomes IBM Spectrum Protect

IBM has done a rebranding and renaming of Tivoli Storage Manager to the new IBM Spectrum Protect for data backup and recovery.
IBM Spectrum Protect logo
IBM Spectrum Protect features a scalable architecture and modular design that helps organizations of all sizes meet their data protection requirements with more efficiency and confidence.
Flexible deployment options include cloud services, integrated appliances and capacity-based solution bundles.
Application-aware and Virtual Machine optimized options enable customized data protection for critical workloads.
Premium IBM components and patented IBM technology allow Spectrum Protect to deliver more client value.

This is part of the larger IBM Spectrum Storage family
    for this posting

    On Thursday, September 8th, 2016   by Chris Miller        

IBM announces an enhanced IBM Value Package

IBM has added benefits to the IBM Value Package that it offers. For 2500 USD a year (they also raised Software Access Option prices) you get the following additional benefits:
  • You Pass, We Pay is now expanded for some IBM System and IBM Global Technology Services certs and optional prep education
  • Additonal software is added to the Software Access Catalog including security, analytics, cloud, commerce, Watson, IoT and more
  • Remote tech support expanded to include development and pre-sales IBM server operating support for all Locations in your enterprise
There is also a nice grid of tiered benefits by your member level. Everything is the same across levels but the number of test vouchers and amount of YouPass, We Pay reimbursement.

See more on the new IBM Value Package right here
    for this posting

    On Friday, September 2nd, 2016   by Chris Miller        

Be a Leading Authority Through Live Video - webcast Aug 17

NOTE: due to an emergency this was moved a week later to Aug 17th

I am happy to be part of Instantly turn your business into a leading authority in your niche through live video - 5 simple steps, This webcast is Aug 17, 2016 at 10am CST. Registration is still open
Image:Be a Leading Authority Through Live Video - webcast Aug 17
  • How to get started with LIVE video even if you are scared to death to get on video.
  • How you can establish yourself as an expert so that you can attract engaged audience who love working with you and in turn provide DWOM (Digital Word of Mouth).
  • How to feel super confident in dealing with all of thetechie geeky stuff that had you feeling freaked out and kept you playing small.
  • The fastest way to get leads in 1 Hour with Live Video (seriously?)
  • The 5 steps to growing your business with live streaming.
  • Plus a LIVE Q&A Session so you can get all of your questions answered (ask us anything!)
Even if you have zero experience and are scared to get on video this can help you get started.  Register below!

http://bothsidesofthecamera.com/chris-miller-monique-johnson-webinar/
    for this posting

    On Friday, August 5th, 2016   by Chris Miller        

Announcing IBM Bluemix Local System

IBM has announced IBM Bluemix Local System that allows a company to run an appliance on their premises to cloud enable enterprise apps
Hybrid Cloud with IBM Bluemix
We created a new appliance that allows customers to run cloud-enabled enterprise apps alongside cloud-native apps, all in a single, fully-integrated, on-premises environment that provides the business agility, control and security they need to stay ahead of their competition.

The Bluemix Local System comes fully integrated with IBM PureApplication Software and IBM Bluemix Local, delivering a local private cloud that simplifies, automates and optimizes deployment of application environments, allowing developers to simply focus on building exciting new apps.

This is a piece of a much larger puzzle of making more apps and environments of brining IBM's cloud platform into your own data center.  Of course there are some costs here around PureApplication systems to consider. You can see more in an IBM video here and an upcoming August 10th  webcast. (registration)
    for this posting

    On Thursday, July 28th, 2016   by Chris Miller        

IBM announces the IBM Collaboration Solutions 2016 Developer Competition at ICON US



IBM has announced their 2016 ICS Developer Competition at ICON US with solutions leveraging Bluemix. Registration for the competition open may 13th with the competition running from Jun 9-Sep 9,2016. Did we mention prizes?
We're looking for you to work together with colleagues in your company, or even better, in other companies to take an IBM Domino or IBM Connections system and leverage IBM Bluemix and the many services like IBM Watson, Box, Internet of Things, to deliver an engaging experience for mobile, web or Notes 9 client.

Make sure you head over to http://ibm.biz/ics-dev-comp after May 13, 2016 with your team members to sign up.

Prizes will include:
  • IBM developerWorks Premium subscriptions for all members of the winning and runner-up teams
  • A cash bonus to have a party
  • A trophy for the team members
  • Recognition at IBM Connect 2017 in San Francisco

Solutions will be added to OpenNTF for the community to access the source code.

Seats are still open for day 2 in registration for ICON US !!! Hurry though before it fills and closes
    for this posting

    On Monday, May 9th, 2016   by Chris Miller        

ICON US 2016 lanches with a virtual event

I am happy to finally announce ICON US 2016 is officially launched with a twist.  This will be a one time virtual event on May 9-10, 2016. Registration is already open as well as call for abstracts and sponsor opportunities.
ICON US header Twitter
More information will be coming on the website, but space is still limited.  Even with a virtual event.  Head over to http://IamICONUS.org and get registered before it fills.

Also make sure to submit abstracts and get in touch to sponsor either here or via the site.

P.S. Had you been signed up on the IdoNotes newsletter you would have got early notice :-)
    for this posting

    On Tuesday, March 8th, 2016   by Chris Miller        

SocialBizUG closes but the Sys Admin Tips newsletter goes on!

Sign Up Now
Recently, SocialBizUG.org announced the closing of the site that was the hub of the IBM Social Business User Group and community for the last few years. My monthly Sys Admin Tips  newsletter became part of that site. Now it is coming home to IdoNotes.

I have been writing the monthly newsletter with extended commentary for over a twelve years now.  That means every month for 144 editions you have seen 4-5 articles (that is well over 600 that are now available right here on IdoNotes).  Well I definitely am not stopping that part of IdoNotes and will continue it as part of my own site and newsletters.

So here is what you need to do to make sure you get the newsletters is subscribe via this web form or the button above!!

Sponsors
: I will be looking for sponsors to cover the cost of the services needed to manage such a large listing.  Get in touch right away as I am thinking of early bird models versus those that want in later.
    for this posting

    On Monday, February 22nd, 2016   by Chris Miller        

IBM announces the acquisition of Ustream

IBM officially announced the acquisition of Ustream today. Here is some of the press release
IBM buys Ustream
The Ustream acquisition will extend the IBM Cloud platform to help enterprise clients unlock the value of video, a rapidly-evolving digital media and data asset. Ustream provides cloud-based video streaming to enterprises and broadcasters for everything from corporate keynotes to live music concerts.

IBM Cloud is assembling transformational capabilities into the new Cloud Video Services unit to help clients across a wide range of industries integrate video into a strategic source of data. This includes media & entertainment, retail, education and government services

At the heart of the Ustream portfolio is the open Ustream Development Platform which enables clients to create custom video apps to run video on any device and embed video into any application, securely and reliably. Clients can use the company's real-time social sentiment analytics to gauge audience reactions to the live streaming content. IBM will integrate Ustream's development platform into Bluemix to allow clients to provide distinct video services to developers

I have to wonder what will happen to all the archived videos and free services they offered?

You see read more right here
    for this posting

    On Thursday, January 28th, 2016   by Chris Miller        

IBM officially launches IBM developerWorks Premium

IBM officially launches IBM developerWorks Premium for an annual price of $399 USD per year. Here is what you get with the annual subscription available to over 60 countries.
IBM developerWorks Premium
developerWorks Premium members enjoy:
  • 12-month Bluemix subscription
  • 240 USD credits on Bluemix to develop apps with services including Watson, IoT, mobile, and many others
  • Credits of 45 USD per month to create your development sandbox in SoftLayer (up to 540 USD annually)
  • 500+ online technical books from Safari covering the hottest developer topics
  • Complete video replays of recent O'Reilly conferences
  • Complimentary certification test for IBM Certified Application Developer Certification
  • Up to 50% off developer events from IBM and our partners--including 50% off IBM Interconnect (standard rate)
  • GitHub Micro personal plan with 5 private repositories for one month
  • Always-on community support
Here are some additional bits and pieces from all the pages on the IBM developerWorks Premium package,   Continue Reading here" IBM officially launches IBM developerWorks Premium" »
    for this posting

    On Friday, November 13th, 2015   by Chris Miller        

New Initiative for IBM Certification Test Security - Update

I previously updated everyone on the IBM initiative for IBM Certification Test Security and the changes.  IBM has provided an update you should all be aware of.
What is NITT at IBM
In September, we advised Business Partners that IBM is launching a new initiative, designed to detect Non-Independent Test Taking (NITT) in IBM certification tests. A small number of candidates have since been informed that non-independent test taking was found in their case.

This means that IBM has identified certain people that have been tagged by the Initiative for IBM Certification Test Security and had certificates revoked. IBM realized that this could affect business partner status (as certs are required for certain levels of partner status)
Unless there is a successful appeal the affected certification is invalidated and the candidate is not allowed to take further IBM tests for a period of time. In some cases the candidates are IBM Business Partner employees and the certifications count towards authorization or program status

IBM has now made made a further clarification
Continue Reading here" New Initiative for IBM Certification Test Security - Update" »
    for this posting

    On Thursday, October 29th, 2015   by Chris Miller        

IBM Partnerworld is closing Connections communities?

Call me crazy here but why would IBM PartnerWorld move communication from it's own platform into channels it does not own when they have a platform?
PartnerWorld Community Members,

By year end, the Connections based PartnerWorld Communities experience will cease. Therefore, please join us on our IBM PartnerWorld official social media channels to collaborate and converse.  You will find the topics that have been included in the IBM PartnerWorld Communities and more!  

IBM PartnerWorld Social Media Accounts:

Twitter
Facebook
LinkedIn  
PartnerWorld Website

We moderate all of the platforms and look forward to our continued conversations.

Join us!

IBM PartnerWorld Social Team

This announcement came straight from this IBM Connections community for PartnerWorld with over 3200 people.  I sent an email asking some basic questions and also where all the files that are in the community will go.  I will update with an answer.
Continue Reading here" IBM Partnerworld is closing Connections communities?" »

    for this posting

    On Tuesday, October 27th, 2015   by Chris Miller        

IBM Champion nominations for 2016 closing soon!

Each year everyone gets a voice in nominating IBM Champions for Social Business (IBM Collaboration Solutions aka ICS) and that final date for 2016 nominations is approaching at the end of October.
Image:IBM Champion nominations for 2016 closing soon!
The IBM Champion program recognizes innovative thought leaders in the technical community -- and rewards these contributors by amplifying their voice and increasing their sphere of influence. An IBM Champion is an IT professional, business leader, developer, or educator who influences and mentors others to help them make best use of IBM software, solutions, and services.

A good tip is that you can enter everything you know about a person or even reach out to them to get more information.  It takes a few minutes of time but is a great recognition for everyone that donates so much time and information freely to the community.

Head over to the IBM Champion nomination form right here on Lotus Greenhouse (before they close the nominations and even Greenhouse).
    for this posting

    On Friday, October 23rd, 2015   by Chris Miller        

Important New Initiative for IBM Certification Test Security

IBM has sent correspondence announcing a new Initiative for IBM Certification Test Security that they will be sending violation notices and revoking exams where they feel you used outside assistance to prepare for the exam.
What is NITT at IBM
IBM's Professional Certification Program has launched a new initiative designed to detect non-independent test taking (NITT)

Continue Reading here" Important New Initiative for IBM Certification Test Security" »
    for this posting

    On Wednesday, September 23rd, 2015   by Chris Miller        

Memorial Day 2015 in St Louis, MO events


Each year there is so much to do in St Louis, MO for Memorial Day you often lose track. Here is a growing list of 2015 Memorial Day events with a live Google Map showing the events and links. A summary of events on the growing map is as follows: Each site on the map has links, times and URL links where possible.

Note:
I do not organize any of these events but wanted to share a growing list of places you should visit this weekend. This list is nowhere near inclusive of everything and I am adding to it all the time.
    for this posting

    On Wednesday, May 20th, 2015   by Chris Miller        

IBM Champion 2015 nominations are open

IBM has opened nominations for IBM Champion 2015 program. Anyone can be nominated and yes you can nominate yourself. I have been astounded to be part of the program since inception four year ago now.
IBM Champion logo

So what is an IBM Champion? I wrote a blog posting back in 2013 trying to give you a snapshot into what other Champions think it means to hold the designation.  To sum everyone up it recognizes those people that give back to the community. From user group founders to OpenNTF contributors to someone that just shares their knowledge.
The IBM Champion program recognizes innovative thought leaders in the technical community -- and rewards these contributors by amplifying their voice and increasing their sphere of influence. An IBM Champion is an IT professional, business leader, developer, or educator who influences and mentors others to help them make best use of IBM software, solutions, and services.


You can fill out the nomination form on Lotus Greenhouse right here.  You will need some information about the person (or yourself) but not every field is required.  Just think about who you look to that promotes and shares knowledge freely in the IBM Collaboration Solutions space and nominations are just a click away. Remember that Champions are the community, not IBM employees.

Feel free to follow me on any of my social accounts including Twitter, IdoNotes Network Facebook page, Instagram or YouTube channels, I am trying to grow those too :-)
    for this posting

    On Wednesday, September 3rd, 2014   by Chris Miller        

FREE Windows 8 Guide – expires 8/8/14

A quick offer for FREE Windows 8 Guide - Getting Started with Windows 8 Volume 1 until August 8th, This 41 page book is from Windows Secrets with tips, shortcuts and more..
The Windows 8 Guide - Volume 1

The first section in Volume 1 – An introduction to Windows 8 – covers the confusing differences between Windows 8 and Window RT – since they look and work very similar but have some extraordinarily important differences.

We then take you through the basics of navigating Windows 8’s dual (some say, dueling) interfaces and some important initial setup steps. In the second section – Customizing your new Win8 installation – we delve into the Windows 8 tiles, how to get the most out of File Explorer (formerly Windows Explorer), and how to use standard keyboard controls to navigate Win8’s touch-centric interface. We think you’ll find this concise reference useful as you start to learn your way around Windows 8. Don’t forget to check out the full series at WindowsSecrets.com.

Request your copy of this guide (retail value of $9.95 USD) by Friday right here.

    for this posting

    On Wednesday, August 6th, 2014   by Chris Miller        

IBM MobileFirst says we sell and support Apple and iOS

Most of you read the IBM and Apple partnership announcement. I wanted to highlight a couple areas that shows IBM will be pushing iOS and Apple devices into every enterprise.
IBM and Apple (from SiliconANGLE)

Besides building applications specifically (and probably mainly) for iOS and not Android, IBM is showing it's commitment to the platform. With Apple publicly stating it wants more penetration into the enterprise market, teaming with IBM makes sense.

Here is the key part of the press release I wanted to mention.    Continue Reading here" IBM MobileFirst says we sell and support Apple and iOS" »
    for this posting

    On Wednesday, July 16th, 2014   by Chris Miller        

IBM Survey on Mobile Device Usage

IBM has asked for help with a mobile device usage survey.
The following survey asks about your experiences using a mobile device. If you own more than one mobile device, please choose the device you use most frequently to answer the questions. The results from this survey will be used in aggregate form to drive future mobile app design decisions

IBM Mobile device survey
I would like to say I do not agree that "In the car" should be a choice or even considered due to safety reasons.  That could have said "on mass transit (We promote safe driving)".

Question 8 should also have a half and half variable answer for is your device usage personal or business.  I think mine is split.
Question 14 makes no sense to me at all..
Question 16 asks more about hardware and ease of use of your device.  Is IBM considering making a device?

You can fill out the new survey here to help drive some mobile direction in IBM
    for this posting

    On Thursday, April 17th, 2014   by Chris Miller        

Connectria - I am hiring an admin for my team

Connectria is hiring an ICS engineer to join my team. Yes this is heavy administration only, not developers.  Below is the information. If you are interested make sure you get in touch with me directly. This doesn't happen often as we usually hire within but we are growing quick in this group.
Connectria has been listed 3 times as one of the Best Places To Work in St. Louis, and listed among the Inc. 500/5000 Fastest Growing Companies for 5 years in a row. Connectria was also ranked as the Top U.S. Cloud Provider for 2012, ahead of Microsoft, Google and Amazon.

The ideal candidate for the IBM Collaboration Services engineer position will be a technical leader with solid administration skills in the IBM Collaboration software stack and the ability to maintain a positive attitude while working in a dynamic, fast paced environment. The focus will be on IBM software technologies such as IBM Domino, IBM Lotus Traveler, IBM Sametime, IBM Connections, IBM Cognos and other related software to that software group as required.

You can read the requirements on our website, LinkedIn and a billion other places it seems.

See more on the requirements at Connectria and email me.  IdoNotes at that IdoNotes dot com address
    for this posting

    On Wednesday, April 2nd, 2014   by Chris Miller        

Connectria wins 2014 IBM Beacon Award in PureSystems

I am happy to announce Connectria has won a 2014 IBM Beacon Award for Outstanding Expert Integrated Systems Solutions in the PureSystem category
IBM Beacon Award 2014


Connectria Hosting, a global managed and cloud hosting provider, was named a winner of a 2014 IBM Beacon Award for Outstanding Expert Integrated Systems Solution, PureSystems Category.

Connectria’s winning solution involved the delivery of a HIPAA Compliant Private Cloud based upon the IBM PureSystems Platform. The hybrid private cloud solution also included an additional PureSystems environment at the customer’s location, managed remotely by Connectria, for disaster recovery purposes.

Connectria already had three IBM Beacon Awards in the IBM Collaboration Solutions group, as well as being a finalist 5 times.  This is another great achievement in our expanding portfolio of capabilities.
    for this posting

    On Thursday, February 13th, 2014   by Chris Miller        

Connectria and Tripwire join forces to enhance compliance hosting solutions

Connectria, a global managed and cloud hosting provider, has announced an expanded partnership with Tripwire, a leading global provider of risk-based security and compliance management solutions.
Connectria hosting logo

To enhance its Health Information Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) and Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) compliant hosting solutions, Connectria has added Tripwire Enterprise Compliance Monitoring and Tripwire Log Center to its services portfolio. Tripwire Enterprise provides real time compliance monitoring for a wide variety of regulations, including HIPAA and PCI, and automatically detects critical changes that may affect compliance status or indicate security risks saving significant time and resources.

Read more from the press release on the Connectria website
    for this posting

    On Thursday, February 6th, 2014   by Chris Miller        

What Is an IBM Champion?

First of all thanks to anyone who nominated me as an IBM Champion for 2014.  I am honored to have that designation once again.  However, I reached out to other Champions for my SocialBizUg (yo) article to see what it meant to them.
IBM Champion logo


Here is a Champion quote that arrived just after the article published and you can read the entire article on SocialBizUG with quotes from six more champions.  Special thanks to them for sending the quotes over.
Tim Clark
Being an IBM Champion add kudos and credibility to me and my consultancy as we are quite new in the marketplace. It's also very reasuring that your peers value your contribution to the community enough to say so too .


Go join my IdoNotes Network Facebook page, Instagram or YouTube channels, I am trying to grow those too :-)
    for this posting

    On Monday, December 16th, 2013   by Chris Miller        

IBM announces the 2014 IBM Champions for ICS

IBM announced today the new IBM Champions for ICS for 2014. I am thankful to everyone (or anyone) that nominated me to return as a Champion.
IBM CHampion logo

These individuals are non-IBMers who evangelize IBM solutions, share their knowledge and help grow the community of professionals who are focused on social business and IBM Collaboration Solutions. IBM Champions spend a considerable amount of their own time, energy and resources on community efforts — organizing and leading user group events, answering questions in forums, contributing wiki articles and applications, publishing podcasts, sharing instructional videos and more! 

Continue reading the announcements, and who was selected for 2014, on the IBM Social Insights blog.
    for this posting

    On Thursday, December 5th, 2013   by Chris Miller        

Connectria and Brightlight Consulting team to offer big data Netezza Cloud offering

Connectria and Brightlight Consulting have teamed to provide customers a scalable IBM Netezza® solution in the cloud using a monthly pay-as-you-go model with IBM PureData System for Analytics.
Connectria Hosting logo

The solution leverages IBM Netezza, also known as PureData System for Analytics, which is part of the PureSystems family. Connectria will host the solution in the Cloud and Brightlight, an expert in Big Data, will provide the services surrounding the Big Data application, database and analytics.

The Connectria and Brightlight Netezza Cloud solution will allow customers to realize the benefits of an IBM Netezza solution without significant upfront capital investment. An expert in Big Data Analytics solutions and IBM’s premier Netezza consulting partner, Brightlight will provide the strategic guidance, best practices, and management services to assist customers in implementing a complete Business Intelligence solution, while Connectria will provide the hosting of the IBM PureData System, powered by Netezza

Read more on our Connectria press release or visit us for all your hosting needs.
    for this posting

    On Wednesday, November 13th, 2013   by Chris Miller        

Connectria launches managed Amazon Web Services (AWS) support

Connectria is continually expanding and growing and announces the launch of managed Amazon Web Services (AWS) support.
Connectria hosting

 
As an AWS Consulting and Channel Reseller Partner, Connectria has begun implementing 100% secure, highly available, managed AWS solutions all backed by Connectria’s superior 24/7 support. Connectria provides and supports a full complement of AWS products, including AWS Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) and AWS Simple Storage Service (S3), among others.

By using Connectria’s Managed AWS solutions, Connectria’s customers will enjoy the on-demand, “pay-as-you-go” services of AWS, along with Connectria’s comprehensive managed services and support. Connectria’s experienced, AWS certified engineers will provide a host of AWS services including AWS architecture support, 24/7 AWS monitoring and tech support, AWS data backups, AWS security management, and AWS cost and performance optimization, among many other services.

Read more...
    for this posting

    On Friday, October 18th, 2013   by Chris Miller        

IBM embraces training partners by outsourcing it to partners

IBM Corporation sent en email titled Mark Register Breaking News: IBM selects 4 Global Training Providers to deliver client & Business Partner training. So in essence IBM training is now done by partners and not IBM.
IBM selects 4 glboal training partners

IBM is committed to helping clients realize the full value of technology through its proper implementation. Our new training model provides a strong foundation for our clients' success. We've carefully hand-selected four IBM Global Training Providers (GTPs) that will couple quality education content developed by the IBM brand teams with their expansive network and expertise of our IBM Business Partner community

The partners listed are:
  • Arrow Education
  • Global Knowledge
  • Avnet
  • LearnQuest
You will have to head to them to find their offered courses or another sub level partner of theirs that offers it. This looks like a pyramid diagram with the top level training four people, the next four training more partners and then the end consumer.  They even started a YouTube channel trying to explain why this is better and how it helps you, the end person getting certified.

So why do I care? As a Certified IBM Instructor in numerous areas, this means that I teach classes anywhere needed but now there is two layers taking a cut. You must align yourself with either a global training provider or a sub tier.  The four global providers don't seem to like the independent level as we do not bring enough business so I was pushed lower in the tree.  This means the sub takes a cut, the global partner they fall under takes a cut and then IBM for the materials.

This makes it hard for companies to receive fairly priced training from authorized materials.  We could write and create our own, but many want the authorized materials.

Does anyone have thoughts on this model?
    for this posting

    On Friday, July 26th, 2013   by Chris Miller        

IBMSocBiz aggregator launches for all IBM Social Business News and Videos

IBM Social Business aggregator

Just launched is IBMSocBiz.com as a free resource to keep up on tweets, articles, videos and even photos around IBM Social Business.

IBM Social Business (or ibmsocbiz as we see it in hashtags) is generating a lot of interest. Unfortunately there was not a single place for me to capture it all so I built one for personal use. Then I decided it should be for everyone and set up the aggregation.

You are able to increase/decrease the font, change the background to white or black depending on your preference and please share away with anyone you think may be interested across you business networks.

IBMSocialBiz is brought to you by Spiked Studio.
    for this posting

    On Tuesday, November 27th, 2012   by Chris Miller        

Connectria announces the opening of our fourth data center

I am happy to finally announce that Connectria is opening our fourth data center, this time in Dallas, TX to meet our expanding cloud services.
Connectria Hosting, a global managed hosting provider, today announced that it secured a new location in a Tier 4 CyrusOne data center in Lewisville, Texas.

The CyrusOne facility, a Tier 4 designated facility according to the Telecommunications Infrastructure Standards for Data Centers (TIA 942), is now the fourth data center location for Connectria, with existing data centers in St Louis and Philadelphia.

A Tier 4 designation is the highest level a data center can achieve, designed to host mission critical computer systems, telecommunications facilities and storage environments with fully redundant subsystems (cooling, power, network links, etc) and compartmentalized security zones, controlled by biometric access control methods.

As we expand our reach into cloud hosting with the IBM i launch cloud launch this is an excellent time to talk to us about your needs.

Related posts:

Visit the Connectria website today and find out why we offer the best in Lotus Software hosting and management.



Eat.Sleep.Host    It is what we do.


    for this posting

    On Wednesday, May 9th, 2012   by Chris Miller        

LotusAppStore launches to sell Lotus apps - my initial review

I received notice about this new app store for Lotus Notes from PDQ Information Systems that launched and went to take a look called LotusAppStore.  As some of you know we investigated and launched into this some time ago, and well it does not float.  Vendors did not have the capability to sell this way were not willing to do so.  So this came as a surprise.  Here is a screenshot of how LotusAppStore looks today with the first listings their own products (of course)

Image:LotusAppStore launches to sell Lotus apps - my initial review

Continue Reading here" LotusAppStore launches to sell Lotus apps - my initial review" »
    for this posting

    On Tuesday, April 3rd, 2012   by Chris Miller        

The Express Version and Pimpin Pinner


If you do not follow along all the shows in the Spiked Studio portfolio, now is the time get involved.  This week had three shows hit the intertubes for streaming and downloading.
You can find the videos on the SpikedStudio YouTube Channel and in iTunes for each show.

The content is amazing and the shows growing fast.  Look for some more places to watch and interact with us shortly!

Image:The Express Version and Pimpin Pinner
    for this posting

    On Thursday, February 9th, 2012   by Chris Miller        

IdoNotes gets a massive facelift

With the new year I had a ton of things I wanted to start streamlining and combining.  One is the look and feel of my main landing pages and then the blogs.   I spent a bunch of time reworking some new themes into Domino to make what you see today.   Take a look around starting at the main homepage and back into the IdoNotes blog.  I checked everything and I am, having one small issue I hope to have fixed by the time you read this!

Continue Reading here" IdoNotes gets a massive facelift" »
    for this posting

    On Thursday, January 12th, 2012   by Chris Miller        

Well that makes over 2000 blog posts for IdoNotes blog



There is always the ability to do the year in review type posts, but I wandered a bit when making it as my attention was drawn to how often I write across my blogs. I saw the dip in 2008-2009 and that is when I was writing the book instead, so it all made sense.  With the 118 podcasts here it has been a learning experience.  There have been about 3 blog redesigns with another to come.
  • 192 blog posts in 2011
  • 214 blog posts in 2010
  • 155 blog posts in 2009
  • 180 blog posts in 2008
  • 316 blog posts in 2007
  • 277 blog posts in 2006
  • 227 blog posts in 2005
  • 264 blog posts in 2004
  • 188 blog posts in 2003

Top postings groupings are always around Lotusphere, as people dig for news.  However my top postings dealt with Saying Goodbye to the Notes client with Project Vulcan and Enterprise Twitter clients (two part)

I also took a peek to see what posts I abandoned and left in draft mode for one reason or another and I am happy to see I have only 34 that never published and a handful will go live after the new year.  I don't like leaving incomplete ones.

Over at TheSocialNetworker I have just under 500 total posts between the Wordpress and older Domino version before it moved.  Expect to see much more there in 2012.
    for this posting

    On Friday, December 30th, 2011   by Chris Miller        

IdoSphere Announcements : site launch, videos online and access granted




Thanks to everyone that either spoke, attended or just signed up to get recording access.  I am happy to say that the new IdoSphere site launched with more enhancements:
  • Over 17 hours of videos are now online
  • The main site was redone using the user group template format
  • The recordings are secured for members
  • The recordings are formatted additionally and available with mobile devices (if you can log into the site with the mobile device)
  • Slides are being attached to session entries as they are sent in
  • Speaker profiles are built with contact information
  • Videos speakers sent were slipped right into the recordings, no need to additionally launch or watch.  Editing took care of it

If you missed out on the chance to register or attend, I would still sign up now before new content is added and pricing increases.  It is currently only $45 USD for unlimited access.  Above is a sample of what you missed

Image:IdoSphere Announcements : site launch, videos online and access granted

    for this posting

    On Monday, February 21st, 2011   by Chris Miller        

Happy eight years of blogging here at IdoNotes blog

  • Over 2,000 posts
  • Over 100 podcasts
  • Over 3,000 comments
  • First posting had 22 hits
  • RSS was not even an option it seemed, starting around 12 and totaling in the millions now. (we broke DominoBlog RSS stats back in 2008 and Steve Castledine had me disable it so now Feedburner handles it all).

Um, wow.  Let's leave it at that and I thank anyone and everyone who had, does and will visit.

Image:Happy eight years of blogging here at IdoNotes blog
    for this posting

    On Friday, February 18th, 2011   by Chris Miller        

IdoNotes (and all of Spiked Studio Productions) launches on Media Fly


If you have ever been looking for ways to consume screencasts, webcasts, podcasts and more outside of iTunes, Media Fly is a great choice with support across all of the possible platforms (even mobile) you might have.  I have been working with them for a while now and have all the current Spiked Studio Productions building as a channel.

Image:IdoNotes (and all of Spiked Studio Productions) launches on Media Fly


There will be two new additions shortly to the network.  Listenership has expanded and others we had waiting to launch are now ready.

So head over to MediaFly for Zune, Roku, Winamp, iTunes and more support.  Thanks to the team there for helping bring this together.
    for this posting

    On Monday, December 20th, 2010   by Chris Miller        

See "The Social Network" for free - from IBM and St Louis Lotus User Group


IBM and the St Louis Domino User Group (STLDominotes) have joined forces.  IBM will be showing information on their Social Enterprise Initiative followed by a free private screening of The Social Network.

Please register at the following link and I hope to see you there!


Image:See "The Social Network" for free - from IBM and St Louis Lotus User Group
    for this posting

    On Tuesday, October 12th, 2010   by Chris Miller        

Free webcasts! Sametime - A User’s Perspective (Aug 25) and Lotus Protector (Sep 1) & "Bag O’ Schwag"

Consultant In Your Pocket webcasts are back in full swing with two awesome upcoming webcasts.  They are both free and include a chance to win the most talked about "Bag O' Schwag".  You can register for both today and one is this coming Wednesday!

***************************************************************************************************************************
Tom Duff and Marie Scott are back for the launch of their upcoming book of the same topic from Packt Publishing:
This session shows you exactly how you can effectively collaborate with your colleagues and teammates both in your organization and outside your organization by using the features of Sametime. It's practical, down-to-earth, and most of all, fun!


You will be able to attend this session on August 25, 2010 at 10am CDT.  Registration is now open!!

Visit our sponsor Plantronics.  Explore how they can help your Unified Communication direction.

Image:Free webcasts!  Sametime - A User’s Perspective (Aug 25) and Lotus Protector (Sep 1) & "Bag O’ Schwag"

****************************************************************************************************************************


Consultant In Your Pocket welcomes Victor Toal for a webcast on Lotus Protector for Mail Security on Sep 1 2010 at 10am CDT. He will cover the following on this awesome product:

Lotus Protector for Mail Security - a comprehensive webinar about this do-it-all appliance

Some of the topics we will cover:
  • What is Lotus Protector for Mail security: capabilities and functionality
  • Architectural options - where can it fit in my environment?
  • Installation and configuration - how to make it work for you
  • Lotus Protector and the Domino integration - the part your users will love


You can register for this event starting now right here.
    for this posting

    On Monday, August 23rd, 2010   by Chris Miller        

Connectria relaunches a unified hosting brand including Lotus products

I am pleased to announce that we (Connectria) have brought in our subsidiary Managed Hosting division, RedPlaid, to create a unified hosting solution.
Launched in 2006, REDPLAID Managed Hosting (“REDPLAID”) targeted small to mid-sized organizations that wanted secure and reliable Windows & Linux hosting solutions with a wide range of managed services. REDPLAID leveraged Connectria’s experience in delivering highly reliable and secure solutions that it had built for companies like Deutsche Bank and IBM. These solutions were packaged into standardized offerings that could meet the needs of a wide audience at very attractive prices. Since its inception, REDPLAID’s business grew exponentially, providing a complementary offer to its parent, Connectria, whose focus has been providing complex hosting solutions for large enterprises.

With the blending of all the services, we now offer under a single umbrella:
  • self managed
  • managed
  • complex
  • cloud


Visit our new Connectria website today and find out why we offer the best in Lotus Software hosting and management.

Eat.Sleep.Host    It is what we do.

Image:Connectria relaunches a unified hosting brand including Lotus products

    for this posting

    On Monday, August 23rd, 2010   by Chris Miller        

The next IdoNotes Newsletter in 4 hours, subscribe quick

You can subscribe in the upper right corner of any of the blogs.  Make sure to select the IdoNotes newsletter list as one of your options.
    for this posting

    On Tuesday, August 17th, 2010   by Chris Miller        

Follow along with us while at the World Cup 2010 in South Africa the next month at the blog and more

We are now all in South Africa for World Cup 2010, which includes Carl Tyler, Andy Higgins and myself.  In honor of this event, we have a blog with constant updates, a Twitter account and Flickr, YouTube and more.  We have already produced enough content to flood the wifi here at the wonderful studio we had the luck and pleasure of being able to rent for the month.

Arrival was today in order to grab the tickets from the FIFA offices, watch some games on the TV and recover from 18 hours of flights to get here.  We start our game series in person tomorrow by seeing USA against Slovenia in the afternoon in Johannesburg.  Most of our games are at Soccer City (Johannesburg), with others in Rustenburg and Durban.

Image:Follow along with us while at the World Cup 2010 in South Africa the next month at the blog
    for this posting

    On Thursday, June 17th, 2010   by Chris Miller        

SNAPPS and IdoNotes launch free search plug-in for Lotus Notes

I am happy to announce that Julian Robichaux, of SNAPPS, has taken his LDD Search (Lotus Developer Domain or Notes Net as many of us know it) and added my Lotus Blogger Search to create a one stop plug-in shop for searching for all the technical information you need.

This awesome free plug-in adds a search option to the upper right of your Lotus Notes 8 Standard client as shown below.  It then opens a multi tabbed window so you can see your results for each part of LDD and the custom blogger engine.

Image:SNAPPS and IdoNotes launch free search plug-in for Lotus Notes

As long as you have rights in your Lotus Notes client, you simply drag and drop this into your widgets and it does the rest.  Incredible work from Julian and I am happy to have the blogger search included as well to help you find the information you need.
    for this posting

    On Thursday, June 17th, 2010   by Chris Miller        

Who wants free? SecurTrac free till Dec 31 2010 if..

I am happy to announce that everyone that attends the webinar tomorrow at 10am CST will be able to receive the rest of 2010 free with a full license key from SecurTrac.
In an attempt to bring our info back to the top of your web page and drive some additional traffic for tomorrow’s session, I was thinking of giving away a “SecurTrac Test Drive Key”.  In essence, everyone who attends the event can request a key for the full suite of SecurTrac to run on a single server until the end of the year including the associated support.  Come Dec 31st, they simply decide if they wish to renew the maintenance or remove the product. 


In order to get this offer you must register and attend tomorrow's webcast with Bill Malchisky on the eDiscovery Primer for Lotus Admins.
    for this posting

    On Monday, June 7th, 2010   by Chris Miller        

Wondered about deploying plug-ins and widgets?

Join a webcast next week,  Jun 2nd at 10am CST, that will walk through the components that make up a plug-in and the administrative knowledge you need to deploy them.  Learn about widget catalogs, user rights needed, administrative controls and automatic site updates.  Both Lotus Notes and Sametime will be covered.

You can learn more and register for the Consultant In Your Pocket even right here.

The event is sponsored by Plantronics with a special offer during your registration process.

Image:Wondered about deploying plug-ins and widgets?
    for this posting

    On Thursday, May 27th, 2010   by Chris Miller        

The eDiscovery Primer for Lotus Domino Admins

Another webcast from Consultant In Your Pocket was just announced, and it is happening May 26th!  Head over and register for this free webcast

I am attending this one, being presented by William Malchisky and sponsored by SecureTrac.
    for this posting

    On Thursday, May 20th, 2010   by Chris Miller        

Announcing the Lotus Custom Blogger Search Engine

Loading


I had this in the works for some time, but the list was not fully up to date.  It is now updated with all the Lotus blogs I could find.  I built a Google Custom Search Engine to weed out sites that try to use keywords to draw some of the search focus away.  This way we can quickly sort through all of the blogger and technical Lotus content with a narrow focus of a half a thousand sites.

You will always find this engine in the search section on the right side of my IdoNotes blog homepage. I went ahead an embedded it in this posting as well for you to start using and sharing.  If you or any site is missing, the index is building still.  If by Monday you do not show, ping or email me and I can quickly verify with some filtering.
    for this posting

    On Friday, April 23rd, 2010   by Chris Miller        

Lotus Developer Tips Every Dev Should Know - webcast tomorrow

Just a reminder that there is a very few seats left for the webcast with Tom Duff and Kathy Brown tomorrow at 10am CST.  I think it is a great topic for any level or developer:
Ever wish you had a list of all the top mistakes to avoid when developing for Domino?  What about all the tips you need to know to create successful applications?  Join Tom and Kathy as they show what EVERY Domino developer needs to know.  They’ll explain what you need to know and why you need to know it.  They’ll also share how they learned some of these tips the hard way, so you don’t have to!


Registration is still open for this incredible addition to the series.
    for this posting

    On Monday, April 19th, 2010   by Chris Miller        

Julian Robichaux webcast - iPhone Development First Steps on April 1 2010

The ConsultantInYourPocket Series 3 launched today for all developers.  First up in the series is Julian with an awesome iPhone First Steps webinar.  Head on over and register before it fills up.  Yes, it is free and sponsored by SNAPPS and Collaboration University
    for this posting

    On Friday, March 26th, 2010   by Chris Miller        

FREE Webcast - Understanding LDAP in Domino

Why pay for all that expensive travel cost?  Join us for another quality webinar online in just a couple week..  We are happy to bring you the next webcast (another free one) in the series.  Soon, the subscription webcast series will open with deep technical content, so pay close attention for discounts and early registration as full series subscribers will be limited.

The next date is set for the ConsultantInYourPocket webcasts!  Series 1 launched with a hour of Troubleshooting SMTP in Domino occurring on March 24.  Below is the second event.

You can now register immediately for Understanding LDAP in Domino for March 31 2010. Registration is open and here is what to expect:
Many enterprises overlook Domino as the key LDAP directory source.  Lotus Domino is a scalable LDAP directory source supporting clustering, aggregated and federated directory services.  Explore network and topology design tips that help to guide your decisions in architecture, management, and security. Take away  best practices on building an aggregated directory infrastructure with Directory Assistance or as a federated source. Walk away with an understanding of how to service all of the Lotus collaboration software securely and easily.


Make sure you get on over and register right away before the rest of the series 1 and new Series 2 opens up.  If you want pre-registration news, join the IdoNotes newsletter in the upper right of the blog!
    for this posting

    On Wednesday, March 17th, 2010   by Chris Miller        

FREE webcast: Troubleshooting SMTP in Domino

The first date is set for the ConsultantInYourPocket webcasts!  Series 1 launches with a hour of troubleshooting SMTP in your Domino environment on March 24 2010.  Registration is open and is filling fast already.
How often do you get stuck trying to find the best way to uncover ways to troubleshoot SMTP mail in your Lotus Domino Environment?  Dive into real-world examples and optimal settings for internal, external, and multi-domain SMTP configurations, anti-relay settings, extended SMTP settings, and more.  Explore the numerous notes.ini variables and see which ones to utilize for your current SMTP issues. Then explore effective solutions for many errors, such as refusal/error by receiving server, route not found, and RFC error codes.

Make sure you get on over and register right away before the rest of the series 1 and new Series 2 opens up.  If you want pre-registration news, join the IdoNotes newsletter in the upper right of the blog!
    for this posting

    On Tuesday, March 9th, 2010   by Chris Miller        

Announcement: the spring 2010 webcast and training series

Spiked Studio Productions is happy to announce the launch of a massive spring 2010 webcast series covering all the topics you need to get up to date and in depth technical training, without ever leaving your desk!  Some of the webcasts will be free and others will be through a very minimal subscription and "a la carte" service.  Read the launch news now and get ready to block your calendars for this training event.

Look for speakers such as Gabriella Davis, Carl Tyler, Victor Toal, myself and even more.

This is an extension of the Consultant In Your Pocket book series.
    for this posting

    On Tuesday, March 2nd, 2010   by Chris Miller        

IdoNotes blog/podcast 7 year anniversary and new decisions & major changes

I am happy to have survived seven years, as of today, in the Yellow world of blogging and podcasting.  It all started somewhere in version 6, right after Lotusphere 2003.  I originally based it on a template by an individual developer in the UK named Steve Castledine.  Everyone with a Domino server now knows his work since that template became the DominoBlog template we know today.  Steve has moved along in the IBM world to be a driving force with OpenNTF. I thank Steve for everything he has done over the years to not only get all of this launched, but the unique challenges, my and other blogs have offered up.  I continue to run a highly customized old version of the template with no plans to do anything but enhance the design.

So what will be changing?

First of all, the way content is delivered to everyone.  The IdoNotes podcast became part of Spiked Studio Productions in 2009, and will grow more this year with increased exclusives, interviews and commentary.  New is the expansion of the IdoNotes and Spiked Studio family into the Zune Marketplace and even more syndication by other networks.  If you do not subscribe to the podcast and only stream ones you like, thank you.  If you subscribe, thank you.  If you have never listened to any of the 70+ episodes, I thank you just the same for even reading along.  

Blog content is the next big change.  The massive amount of postings coming through PlanetLotus and the feeds in general are becoming hard to consume for many of the people I informally surveyed at conferences and more this past year.  The IdoNotes blog will continue putting out some of what I hope is a standard for content and commentary, but with an added twist.  The in depth portions, high technical postings and raw commentary will move to a new newsletter format, by subscription.  You can subscribe on the top right of the blog

This will allow you to get content straight to your inbox on a weekly or so basis.  It will all be handled by your Google login so there is ease of joining and unjoining, a community built around it, and more.  I chose Google FriendConnect since Facebook does not have a true newsletter platform yet.  The IdoNotes Network will still be alive and well on Facebook, and I urge you to join in to see all the changes that go on across all the sites in my blog and podcast family.

Finally, the commenting system inside the database will be moving to Disqus.  This allows me a single point of control, viewing and management for all comment across all my blogs.  Whether they are based on Domino or Wordpress, it is all one global comment system.  You can log in with Facebook, Twitter and more.  It pulls real-time reactions and allows you to use text and other forms of media in response.  I have used it for some time outside of Domino and I have been looking forward to this change.

I wanted to keep this short and simple and hope you continue on the journey with me as I always try to bring you the freshest information with honest thoughts wrapped in. Don't forget the social media path I have been bringing you along the past few years, some of you kicking and screaming. TheSocialNetworker already has it's own newsletter as well, if you are interested in the social media side.
    for this posting

    On Thursday, February 18th, 2010   by Chris Miller        

FewClix launches an awesome email productivity app. I have seen and I am impressed. See them at #ls10

FewClix opened their website today for you to get in and start viewing and testing this email productivity application.  You have a time limited, fully-functional beta available to grab in a solo installer, nsf or enterprise nsf version.
Image:FewClix launches an awesome email productivity app.  I have seen and I am impressed.  See them at #ls10
I had the pleasure of talking to Madan Kumar, CEO of FewClix, the other day and he answered many of the nagging technical questions.  Look for the podcast coming out shortly.  With the sleekness of their website, the time they put into building the demos and actually offering a downloadable test right away, they score some major points in understanding how to do business.

You will find them at Lotusphere on the vendor floor at pedestal #629 as well.
    for this posting

    On Thursday, January 14th, 2010   by Chris Miller        

the IdoNotes network Fanpage is live on Facebook (thanks to C Toohey)

 I tidied up the IdoNotes network page and have a lot listed with the hep and special thanks to Chris Toohey (DominoGuru) using his design for other pages.  Feel free to drop in, become a fan if you desire, and learn more about the entire network of sites I actually operate outside of the Lotus world including SpikedStudio, TheSocialNetworker, SocialStalking, EverythingTwitter and more.

Image:the IdoNotes network Fanpage is live on Facebook (thnaks to C Toohey)
    for this posting

    On Monday, December 21st, 2009   by Chris Miller        

A Lotus Software group is now on Slideshare




It is amazing the number of presentations that are available for customers on Slideshare and other sources.  I established a group to collect these presentations and make a central point to send customers to "open source" slides sets and information from conferences, user groups and anything else.

The slides are still owned and controlled under the uploader of the set, it is just a central point of entry for tons of information.  To share a slide, simply log into SlideShare, join the group from above, go to the slides you want to include and at the top, click More, Send to a group or event.  Choose the event itself and you are done!

Image:A Lotus Software group is now on Slideshare
Spread the word.
    for this posting

    On Tuesday, December 8th, 2009   by Chris Miller        

Announcement: IdoNotes, NotesIn9, TheSocialGeeks and more join Spiked Studio Productions

Image:Announcement: IdoNotes, NotesIn9, TheSocialGeeks and more join Spiked Studio Productions

NotesIn9, by David Leedy,  made the early announcement last week, and the official announcement hits today.  Spiked Studio Productions officially launches as a niche podcast network to include a host of shows with more on the way.  While there is two cornerstones of the Lotus podcast community, there is also podcasts around social media and networking.  The upcoming announcements will grow the range of shows even more.
  • What does this mean to the listeners?  It means you have a single portal interface to all the best shows and content.  You can subscribe to each show individually or to the entire network all at once.  I would say sample each show and find the right ones for you.  Each show has it's own page with links to recent podcasts.
  • What does this mean to advertisers?  It means you now have reach across numerous podcasts in one package, finding more customers from trusted podcast hosts.  Please get in contact if you want to participate early before Lotusphere hits.

    for this posting

    On Tuesday, November 17th, 2009   by Chris Miller        

AppCentrist - the IBM/Lotus AppStore pre-launches

There has been much talk over centralization in finding and locating any product, template, widget, book, application, etc for all of the Lotus products.  Apparently, the unveiling is near over at AppCentrist.  The catalog is being populated.  All from free to paid.  The site isn't showing is all yet.  But, it is being asked that anyone that wants inclusion gets in touch.

I do know they will allow reviews and ratings on each entry in the catalog as well.
    for this posting

    On Wednesday, October 21st, 2009   by Chris Miller        

IBM Software testing days - FREE for partners

IBM is pushing it's partners to get more certifications.  So for a few weeks, you can take mastery exams for free,
Everything you need to prepare for Growth Through Skills
From October 1 - November 15, IBM is offering free IBM software certification exams and technical sales mastery tests at select locations in the U.S. and Canada. This event is for IBM Business Partners to help meet the certification requirements for Growth Through Skills.

Apparently it is limited to two software exams per person and hardware exams are not included.  There is also some slew of other requirements that go along with it.  I suggest you review the whole thing and take some exams.
    for this posting

    On Wednesday, October 14th, 2009   by Chris Miller        

The 2009 Podcast Awards are open, voters welcome :-)



All of the podcasts I produce sit under the TechPodcastNetwork and they run an annual award for numerous categories.  I got an email that some of you like the shows and I wanted to say thanks and feel free to keep on voting.  You don't have to do every category, just for ones that you listen to.
    for this posting

    On Wednesday, October 14th, 2009   by Chris Miller        

Quickr on the iPhone? With this, yes

Some of you somehow missed the Quickr on iPhone announcement (Project Jonathan is the current name) from SNAPPS.  Amazing I say that you missed the whole thing.  Listen to Rob Novak talk all about it right here

Don't forget the special for this podcast is all of our discounts with GoDaddy.

GoDaddy coupon code for $7.49 .com domains
GoDaddy coupon code for 10% off any order
GoDaddy coupon code for $5 off $30 or more

You can keep up with all of the GoDaddy offers from TheSocialGeeks at the following URL: TheSocialGeeks official GoDaddy coupon codes
    for this posting

    On Tuesday, September 29th, 2009   by Chris Miller        

LotusKnows - the news aggregator(updated and live)

I built the LotusKnows aggregator when the big IdeaJam was launched.  Now, I expanded the searches and added some new data feeds so you can have one portal interface into seeing and keeping up with all the LotusKnows announcements and news.  The aggregator includes:
  • Twitter
  • Google term searches
  • FriendFeed - this is realtime and updates dynamically
  • Blog search
  • Delicious

I will be adding more sources as you suggest them or they become available.  I wish the video submissions had a feed (hint Lotus) where we could pull and see those, but it seems thye have blocked us from seeing submissions or voting.
    for this posting

    On Tuesday, September 22nd, 2009   by Chris Miller        

July 2009 Sys Admin Tips is out

In this July 2009 issue, I cover the following topics:

* From the Editor: Chris's 0.0358000 AWG
* From the IdoNotes Mailbox: Sametime and Managing Geographic Location in Clients
* The Lotus Notes 6.5.6 to 8.5 Upgrade Show Stopper
* Quick Tip: Notes 8.x Clients Having Issues Sorting Contacts
* From the IdoNotes Mailbox: IP Load Balancing and Sametime Meetings
    for this posting

    On Friday, July 24th, 2009   by Chris Miller        

June Sys Admin Tips is out

Just in case you missed it last week on the 19th, my June 2009 Sys Admin edition came out.  Thank you all for the current 4 star rating on this issue.  Let me know what you would like to see by sending me an email!

Topics included:
* From the Editor: Chris's 0.0748141 ARS (Google Wave and the Yellow Bubble)
* From the IdoNotes Mailbox: Reverse Proxy and iNotes (DWA) 8.5 Issue
* Editing Attachments Received in 8.5 via SMTP
* Quick Tip: Unable to Open Replica of Personal NAB on Server in Notes 8.5 Standard
* From the IdoNotes Mailbox: Lotus Traveler and Battery Issues in 8.5.0.1

    for this posting

    On Monday, June 29th, 2009   by Chris Miller        

GSX announces a US event

Normally GSX would have their GSX Day in Nice, France sometime in the fall.  But this year they have launched a US city GSX Day for everyone to attend.  Make special not of their timing and location!
Mark your calendars as the GSX Day finally comes to America !!!

Over the past few years, GSX has only held its GSX Days in Nice, France. This year, we will host our first American one-day GSX Seminar in St Louis, MO, on August 5th 2009.

Our free one-day event will be held in partnership with and immediately following the first North American Lotus User Group Meeting (http://www.iamlug.org). To get the most out of your trip to St Louis, we encourage you to register to both events.

    for this posting

    On Wednesday, June 3rd, 2009   by Chris Miller        

May Sys Admin Tips is out

Just in case you missed it last week on the 19th, my May 2009 Sys Admin edition came out.  Thank you all for the current 4 star rating on this issue.  Let me know what you would like to see by sending me an email!

Topics included:
* From the Editor: Chris's 0.0536000 XCD
* From the IdoNotes Mailbox: Designating My Instant Meeting Servers
* Keeping Your Sametime Meeting Center Clean and Healthy
* Quick Tip: Sametime Advanced Update 8.0.1 and Sametime Connect 8.0.2
* From the IdoNotes Mailbox: Architecture Decisions for the EMS
    for this posting

    On Tuesday, May 26th, 2009   by Chris Miller        

Lotus News and Reources RSS feed for Business Partners and well anyone else too

Subscribe in a reader

If you have been trying to keep more up to date with news from IBM on Lotus, then I have the feed for you to use  right here.

I would suggest that we all really start sharing feeds on Google Reader (if you use it).  Add me as IdoNotes at gmail and we can start filtering and sharing more feed content.  I do this now with about 40 people and it saves me a lot of time reading material.  Why would you do this?  Go back and visit my previous posting on TheSocialNetworker
    for this posting

    On Wednesday, May 13th, 2009   by Chris Miller        

Collaboration University 2009 registration opens with HUGE discounts today only

Welcome to year #4 for Collaboration University.  We have many returning for their senior year as well as new freshman entering the program.  For those of you returning, you get a special alumni discount for each year you have attended.  Then we have an early bird discount to entice some of you even more.

Visit Chicago from September 14-16
Visit London form September 21-23

But for today only, add all of the above discounts together and then toss on yet another $100 USD off the total registration for an amazing one day offer.  We will be covering Quickr 8.2, Sametime 8+ and Lotus Connections 2.5 with your normal professors and some new special guests.
    for this posting

    On Tuesday, May 12th, 2009   by Chris Miller        

April 2009 Sys Admin Tips is out

Just in case you missed it last week on the 16th, my April 2009 Sys Admin edition came out in the mix of IamLUG launching.

Topics included:
* From the Editor: Chris's 1.97129 ALL
* From the IdoNotes Mailbox: Sametime and VMware Problems
* The Remote Server Is Not Responding When Sending Internet Mail
* Quick Tip: Collapsing the Notes Client Sidebar Up or Down
* From the IdoNotes Mailbox: BlackBerry Client for Lotus Connections
    for this posting

    On Friday, April 24th, 2009   by Chris Miller        

**Announcement** - IamLUG launch (Americas User Group conference)

We are excited to announce IamLUG, a user group conference for the Americas.  Here are the specifics first and some commentary below.
When:  It will be held August 3-4, 2009
Where: St  Louis, MO
Hotel and location: We are finalizing the deal on the hotel/venue for Wednesday this week.  But we are putting you in the middle of everything
Attendee Registration: We will be opening registration later this week
Sponsorship: Send an email here for info.  We have levels of sponsorship available with benefits to each
Extras: We put this against the weekend to offer the ability for families to take a last summer vacation with tons to do here.  More on that below.
What will be different Not only will you find some of the top speakers, but we want to make sure that speakers from user groups get the chance to stand up and speak









With the growth of UKLUG, ILUG and more, We noticed we have never had the same type of event here.  So last year (October 2008 to be exact), the site was registered and the planning begun.  With the whirlwind around Lotusphere, we patiently waited to get it off the ground.

Why did we choose St Louis?
  • Centralized location to the US, Canada and well, everything lower is on their own :-)
  • Local community support for the organizers
  • Family friendly beyond belief.  We have a top Zoo here (free for most all of); a top Science Center near the Zoo (for free); home baseball games the weekend before the event; Six Flags Over Mid America; Grant's Farm; brewery tours (yes the home of AB for you beer drinkers); Botanical Gardens and so much more.  IBM Partnerworld was a success here a short time ago.
  • The location for the event will have restaurants, hotels, bars and even casinos (for a huge hint) all within walking distance.  The ballpark is within walking too.
  • The list goes on, the site will have all the info shortly on what can be found for that weekend...

Ok, I can't say much more right now.  Look for tons of info the coming weeks about IamLUG.org from me and other organizers as we make this the best event possible
    for this posting

    On Tuesday, April 7th, 2009   by Chris Miller        

Sys Admin Tips for March 2009

Hot off the presses the March 2009 edition is right here.  In this issue:

IN THIS ISSUE
* From the Editor: Chris's 0.714760 DOP
* From the IdoNotes Mailbox: Error with DAOS and Writing to a File
* My Domino Service Disappeared When Upgrading
* Quick Tip: Talk to Russ
* From the IdoNotes Mailbox: Connect Your Sametime Gateway to IBM
    for this posting

    On Wednesday, April 1st, 2009   by Chris Miller        

IBM Lotus Domino 8.5 Certified Instructo ?

I think Quickr got here and stole the "R" from my new certificate..  (image)

Image:IBM Lotus Domino 8.5 Certified Instructo  ?
    for this posting

    On Monday, March 9th, 2009   by Chris Miller        

Announcement: CertFX sale and coupon for practice tests

CertFx has announced their 8.5 exams at a discounted rate.  But with a special arrangement this week, I can give you a bigger discount.  Follow the banner and use the coupon code "IdoNotes" when checking out for up to 20% more !

    for this posting

    On Tuesday, February 24th, 2009   by Chris Miller        

Sys Admin Tips for February 2009

Hot off the presses the February edition is right here.  In this issue:

* From the Editor: CHRIS' 0.136943 NOK
* From the IdoNotes Mailbox: Where is the IM Usage Template?
* Sametime Gateway Sizing
* Quick Tip: Startup Folder in the Notes Client
* From the IdoNotes Mailbox: What Do I Get With Each Sametime Version?
    for this posting

    On Tuesday, February 17th, 2009   by Chris Miller        

IdoNotes landing page renovation

Many of you go to the full URL for the blog, but for anyone coming in to http://www.IdoNotes.com are in for a new surprise.  I have taken to task to bring together all the content into more of a lifestream (that I hinted at before).  So give me some feedback and look for this same change to TheSocialNetworker shortly..
    for this posting

    On Wednesday, February 4th, 2009   by Chris Miller        

Bloomberg reports the announcement of LotusLive

While reading feeds in Google Reader, this popped up a bit early I think.  I cut the highlights to here..
Jan. 19 (Bloomberg) -- International Business Machines Corp., the world's third-biggest software maker, will release an online version of its Lotus programs, a bid to attract new customers by tapping into so-called cloud computing.

The company said last week it would buy e-mail software assets from Hong Kong-based Outblaze Ltd.  That will let LotusLive users access their e-mail from any computer via the Web, similar to the way Google Inc.'s Gmail works.

LotusLive ties into software from Salesforce.com Inc., the maker of customer-management program, and LinkedIn Corp., a social-networking site for professionals.  It also works with Research In Motions Ltd.'s Blackberry phones and software from SAP AG, the world's largest maker of business-management programs.

The test version of LotusLive, called Bluehouse...

    for this posting

    On Monday, January 19th, 2009   by Chris Miller        

LotusphereLive is alive for year #3 with iPhone and BB integration

Carl and I have put LotusphereLive together again with his amazing design work against a Domino 8 server with Sametime 8 loaded.  He made a great video and posting about it right here.  If you want content from the OGS, this is the only place to get it in real-time.  Even on your iPhone and Blackberry
    for this posting

    On Saturday, January 17th, 2009   by Chris Miller        

Sys Admin Tips November 2008

The November issue of Sys Admin Tips is out.  Here is the topics for you non-subscribers left:
* From the Editor: Chris' 0.0358000 ANG
* From the IdoNotes Mailbox: HTTPS (SSL) and Sametime Meetings?
* SuperNTF - get your code on
* Quick Tip: Can You Apply Password History to HTTP Password?
* From the IdoNotes Mailbox: We Lost Our User's OU: Changing Sametime Scares Us

    for this posting

    On Monday, November 17th, 2008   by Chris Miller        

Sys Admin Tips Newsletter Sep 2008

The newsletter is out, get on over and read it or sign up already.  This month I cover:
  • Editorial on Websphere and the Lotus products
  • Google Talk and multiple SMTP domains in Domino
  • Choosing Domino as your LDAP Solution
  • Internet Password Management Recommendations

    for this posting

    On Monday, September 29th, 2008   by Chris Miller        

IBM says Do them, or yourself, whatever worls

While over at Collaboration University in London, we watched as new signs were being placed prominently on the wall.  It was not clear what it was for.  Then we started seeing some interesting videos pop up on all the display screens they had.  Soon it all became clear.

Image:IBM says Do them, or yourself, whatever worls

Stop talking and start doing.  Got that?  No, neither did I.  So go see the online demos here and figure it out
    for this posting

    On Monday, September 22nd, 2008   by Chris Miller        

Like J.K Rowling? her new book is up for pre-order

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.
    for this posting

    On Friday, August 1st, 2008   by Chris Miller        

June Sys Admin Tips Newsletter is published

I know it was a week late, but my vacation had me in a delay in finalizing the content.  So here is June 2008 with the following topics:
IN THIS ISSUE
* From the Editor
* From the IdoNotes Mailbox: Where Did My Template Go when I Upgraded?
* Why Do I Have so Many .DTF and .TMP Files on My Server?
* Quick Tip: Starting the Notes 8 Basic Client After Installing the Standard Version
* From the IdoNotes Mailbox: Restricting the Number of SMTP Connections

    for this posting

    On Wednesday, July 2nd, 2008   by Chris Miller        

NetworkWorld: IBM reaches out to colleges (but leaves out Lotus Notes?)

In a recent NetworkWorld article titled "IBM's answer to IT skills crunch", it discusses all the new ways IBM is reaching out to universities to get them new tools and resources.  Included were such items as:
  • database technology - DB2 Express C in particular
  • Web 2.0 development - WebSphere sMash
  • web server development - WAS community edition and Apache

But wait, I found another one and got all excited:
  • team based development - Team Concept portal based on Jazz

The article goes on and on leaving off everything around the name Lotus.  No Domino, no Connections, no Mashup, No Sametime, no nothing.  For all the touting of how they are winning in instant messaging and social networking as well as enterprise collaboration, what did IBM use to select the models?

Stuart sent me his blog entry thoughts and link to the press release
    for this posting

    On Friday, June 20th, 2008   by Chris Miller        

Sys Admin Tips April 2008 is out

Hot from the printing presses, get your copy here for free!

IN THIS ISSUE
* From the Editor: Chris' 26.1942 UZS
* Sponsored by BCC
* From the IdoNotes Mailbox: Is There Really a Pubnames.ntf Fix for Domino 8.0.1?
* Sponsored by EMC
* From LotusUserGroup.org
- Lotusphere Comes To You ONLINE
- Take Jess and Tom's Lotusphere Challenge
- Moderated Topic Forum - Policies in Your Notes & Domino Environment
* Part 3 of 3: Domino Monitoring and Reporting
* Quick Tip: Removing Unwanted Fields From Outbound Domino SMTP Messages
* From the IdoNotes Mailbox: Is Lotus Notes 8.0.1 Standard Supported on Citrix?
* LotusUserGroup.org Virtual User Group Meeting

    for this posting

    On Friday, April 25th, 2008   by Chris Miller        

News all over Europe TV - Google bids to buy Microsoft

While here at the Notes and Domino 8 Upgrade Seminar, it was the main topic at all the tables over breakfast and then as people came into the room.  What would it mean?  What happens to the desktop?  etc etc.  Google certainly has the buying power for it.

With the Google Android for mobile, what would happen with Windows Mobile?  With the office application space what would happen?  Some funny names were coming up as people were blending them together to make new product names.

Gexcel, Gord, Gowerpoint, Gaccess.  The funniest was Gotmail.  So we will see what it all brings.  They didn't say anything about the relationship MS has with NBC for the cable and such.  But I bet that would be a free cable channel as always.

Ok, back to the feed readers to see what is going on.
    for this posting

    On Tuesday, April 1st, 2008   by Chris Miller        

March Sys Admin newsletter is out.

Get yours today hot off the presses!

IN THIS ISSUE
* From the Editor: Chris' .4630821 VGS
* From the IDoNotes Mailbox: Bringing Together Multiple Sametime Services
* Part 2 of 3: Domino Monitoring and Reporting
* Quick Tip: Can Both Lotus Sametime and QuickPlace/Quickr Be Installed on the Same Server?
* From the IDoNotes Mailbox: Websphere Books For the Sametime Gateway and Sametime Advanced

    for this posting

    On Thursday, March 20th, 2008   by Chris Miller        

Bluehouse podcast, thanks all, wow

I know I slipped this out at 1am, but I wans't expecting that much demand on knowing about Bluehouse.  So thanks to everyone that already grabbed the episode and just wait until the next one that is recorded.  Probably out Monday.
    for this posting

    On Thursday, March 6th, 2008   by Chris Miller        

Going to ILUG2008? Lets gang up and get a hotel block deal

Talking to Sean today, we found that hotel rates are always silly, mainly if a bunch of people are going.  So drop us a comment here or email if you are interested  in ganging up on a hotel for a better group block rate
    for this posting

    On Tuesday, March 4th, 2008   by Chris Miller        

ANNOUNCEMENT: Lotus Foundations partnership status acquired

For all of you looking for a provider for Lotus Foundations, I have the person for you that is one of the first IBM Lotus Foundations partners.  So yes you can buy and wrap your own services/installation or simply point them over for purchases.  Drop me a comment here or email if you need immediate info until their press release goes out today. (I just got the ok to say it first!).  I am happy to be working with them in this new SMB opportunity

Here is the IBM quote of the acquisition IBM completed for Foundations:

IBM has completed the acquisition of Net Integration Technologies Inc., a Toronto, Canada-based, privately held company that offers a complete business server software solution for small businesses that is simple and easy to maintain. IBM will launch a new line of products and solutions for small to medium-businesses called IBM Lotus Foundations that incorporates both Net Integration and IBM technology. Added to the IBM Lotus Software family, IBM Lotus Foundations will provide an all-in-one collaboration platform including e-mail, file management, directory services, firewall, backup and recovery and office productivity tools. Through IBM Lotus Foundations, businesses can also access "Bluehouse," a new software-as-a-service offering from IBM that links companies together in a virtual enterprise to help them gain the scale and strength of larger organizations.

    for this posting

    On Tuesday, February 26th, 2008   by Chris Miller        

LinkedIn goes mobile - wap and iPhone (does anyone use it?)

You can catch the posting from their own site here, but the following image shows what they offer


Image:LinkedIn goes mobile - wap and iPhone (does anyone use it?)
    for this posting

    On Monday, February 25th, 2008   by Chris Miller        

Public Widget catalog is live - plus more news on it !!!

Well this turned out to be a posting that generated a slew of pings, Skype hits, a phone call and then some more Skype calls.  We should all thank Gabriella as she upgraded a server and got the catalog alive even with a firewall failure.

So navigate a connection document to the following: (note some of you have this already due to the Lotusphere Sessions database)
Tranquility/TurtlePublic
lotusphere.turtleweb.com   or download.turtleweb.com

You will find the database on the root.  We started playing around by adding a couple, even with about 20 I have now.  But let's get to building and please fill out as much info as you can.

NEWS: I don't know how much I am supposed to say now but the widget catalog is about to grow in other ways.  Picture not just widgets, but plug-ins also.  Take all that and wrap it with some things you saw announced at Lotusphere, replicate it to numerous mirrors, shake well and give a slamming UI to it for web as well as Notes access.  Bam!  You have a super-duper public catalog.  All without the headache of IBM legal seeing over everything in their current on-line catalogs.  Which isn't bad, it just means we can grow this fast!
    for this posting

    On Thursday, February 21st, 2008   by Chris Miller        

Public Widget Catalog - Announcement

Working with the wonderful Gabriella at Turtle Partnership, we decided to publish the widget catalog since everyone seems excited.  It is public access so everyone can go crazy to get widgets.  We will work on a way to add them in there shortly.  Just email them over for now.

The connection record you need is for download.turtleweb.com which contains the Widget Catalog shortly.  This will be a great way to start sharing all the great widgets we find and create.

Chris & Gab
    for this posting

    On Thursday, February 21st, 2008   by Chris Miller        

WebMessenger open free consolidated IM client for Balckberry and Smartphone

A good business move in my eyes and thought.  The announcement first:
WebMessenger, Inc., an enterprise mobile messaging software and services company, today announced they have opened up free downloads of their market proven WebMessenger Mobile IM clients as well as free business-class IM service for mobile professionals who use BlackBerry, MS Windows Mobile, Symbian, and Palm PDAs and smartphones. The free IM service provides single client access to AIM, Google, MSN, Skype, and Yahoo.

So why is this good?  There is only a couple consolidated IM clients for the Blackberry and none were free that worked well.  Sure, each IM provider made their own, but having an all in one makes perfect sense.  Then they get you to move up and pay for the Alerts program and other parts for Sametime and Jabber.  Business move at it's finest.
    for this posting

    On Monday, February 11th, 2008   by Chris Miller        

Calling all developers !!

Take a hop over to IdoDevelopment.com and show off your stuff.  I found something missing in our community, a video podcast series from all the Domino, Web, Portal, Quickr and Connections developers showing off your stuff.  We are taking SNTT to the next level.

Image:Calling all developers !!
    for this posting

    On Thursday, January 31st, 2008   by Chris Miller        

Thanks to all of you for making me a finalist in the blogger awards

Image:Thanks to all of you for maing me a finalist in the blogger awards

Please head over and select who you wish, everyone on that list does an amazing job.   I would say close your eyes and click a name.  The winner gets announced at Lotusphere
    for this posting

    On Monday, January 14th, 2008   by Chris Miller        

SNAPPS opts for free Anyplace Administrator (and others)

Talk about the Great Code Giveaway that Rob, Viktor and the team do each year at Lotusphere, well this year they went a tad overboard:
In a surprise announcement, SNAPPS (Strategic Net Applications, Inc.) today outlined plans to convert its entire Anyplace line of products for IBM Lotus Quickr and its predecessor, IBM Lotus Quickplace, to free licenses


Now as a user of some of this under the paid agreement, you are crazy not to get your butts over there to start utilizing it.
    for this posting

    On Monday, January 14th, 2008   by Chris Miller        

I had a good conversation with Yancy (PlanetLotus) last night - ideas abound

So as people are slowly learning, Lotusphere on Twitter is out there and could be huge if we get a strong push from everyone. Yancy already has it feeding the main feed page for PlanetLotus and then pulls all Tweets to another page. Let us know your thoughts on how you want to best utilize Twitter down there? Open season tweets everywhere or following a main Lotusphere tweet? Or a mixture. Let us know. We also talked about grabbing the RSS feed from the Lotusphere pictures so we need to set a tagging standard.



Also, the normal string of IdoNotes podcasts will be running but the added benefit of IdoNotes.TV will be present. You will be able to reach it at any time at
http://www.IdoNotes.com/live
or you can find it on the PlanetLotus page. I will be grabbing any and all video I can from Lotusphere into a long loop plus live broadcasts from down there. Anyone that wants to assist in the live ones let me know. I see us being able to reach a large audience of people not there to give them the feel of what is going on. Even broadcasting JamFest or the scene of Speedgeeking could be cool.



Give me some thoughts here people and pass this posting out so we can get all the ideas finalized



go to the IdoNotes TV page to watch it now!

    for this posting

    On Wednesday, January 9th, 2008   by Chris Miller        

IdoNotes joins the DataPortability Workgroup

I am pleased to announce that I (IdoNotes and TheSocialNetworker) will be joining in with the DataPortability Workgroup.  I have been working with Chris Saad for a while utilizing Particls and was happy to see they started this movement to take ownership of your own data.  The philosophy of the workgroup sums up the reasoning to simplify and open the standards on how our social networking information is controlled:
Philosophy  As users, our identity, photos, videos and other forms of personal data should be discoverable by, and shared between our chosen tools or vendors. We need a DHCP for Identity. A distributed File System for data. The technologies already exist, we simply need a complete reference design to put the pieces together.


Image:IdoNotes joins the DataPortability Workgroup
    for this posting

    On Tuesday, January 8th, 2008   by Chris Miller        

Live pre-Lotusphere2008 podcast open call with me and Carl Tyler hosting on January 10th



Join Carl Tyler and myself for a pre-Lotusphere call-in.  We'll be using modern technical marvels like the telephone and websites, to host an interactive call-in where you can ask us questions, Sametime questions, relationship questions it makes no difference to us we're happy to try and answer them.

Unable to attend Lotusphere but have questions you want to try and get answered? no worries, share them with us and we'll try and get them answered in followup Lotusphere podcasts.

So put it in your diary, 10am EST Jan 10th, http://www.talkshoe.com/tc/31241

Episode: The Pre-Lotusphere call
Not going to Lotusphere? Ask us to get answers for you. Having issues with your relationship? I am sure Carl can help!
Talkcast ID: 31241

Scheduled Time:

Date: Thu, January 10, 2008
Time: 10:00 AM EST

How to participate:

Call in:
1.        Dial: (724) 444-7444
2.        Enter: 31241 # (Talkcast ID)
3.        Enter: 1 # or your PIN

Join from your computer:
1.        Become a TalkShoe member
2.        Download and install TalkShoe Live client
3.        Click here to join the Talkcast
    for this posting

    On Thursday, January 3rd, 2008   by Chris Miller        

For all my travelers - a new TSA ban on checked spare Lithium batteries

Everyone heading out to CES has been posting around this, they are limiting the amount of checked, spare ones you can have.  Carry-on and ones in the original packing seem to be ok.  If they are inside the camera, cellphone or whatever they are ok.  It is just the loose ones. Check the following links to clarify:

They all address the issue.  The weirdest statement is that in the cargo hold the flight staff can not monitor the possibility of a fire until it is too late.  However, in the cabin they can.
    for this posting

    On Saturday, December 29th, 2007   by Chris Miller        

IBM shows off Metaverse

I just came across an article on Publish.com discussing IBM Metaverse project.
IBM's Metaverse virtual reality software ... Though still a bit rough around the edges-it won't be mistaken for Second Life-some 2,200 IBM staffers are testing ways to collaborate with colleagues in the Metaverse, according to Mike Ackerbauer, innovation manager for collaboration development at IBM.

Ackerbauer said IBM staffers leverage IBM's internal virtual conferencing application through Web services to have online meetings in 3D.  This approach is a boon for IBM employes, who are spread out all over the world.

The meeting room Ackerbauer showed eWeek was sparsely furnished, but serviceable, with a screen on the wall to simulate the typical conference room.


What interested me was the statement in the article that they are looking for VOIP solutions inside of it, including hooking it to Lotus Sametime.  Forget making profiles in Lotus Connections, get ready to make avatars.
    for this posting

    On Friday, December 21st, 2007   by Chris Miller        

Microsoft nabs Reed Sturtevant (ex-Lotus) and opens office right in Cambridge

Redmond Developer News reports that, interestingly enough, as Lotus closes down Cambridge, MA offices Microsoft opens one a few doors down with Reed reporting into Ray Ozzie's group at Microsoft.  Reed apparently (according to the article) worked on Freelance and helped launch InterNotes and stayed through the beginning of the IBM acquisition.

He was previously the CTO for Eons, a social networking site for people over 50.  I just happened to talk about this site a while ago.
    for this posting

    On Monday, December 17th, 2007   by Chris Miller        

CRN Article - IBM Takes On Microsoft With WebSphere, Rational, Tivoli Products

From the article which I was lucky enough to be in..
IBM  is stepping up its bid to derail Microsoft  unified communications onslaught by unveiling new or enhanced versions Tuesday of its WebSphere, Rational and Tivoli products.

This is going to significantly reduce the startup and management costs for implementing unified communications with the IBM infrastructure.

    for this posting

    On Wednesday, November 21st, 2007   by Chris Miller        

Lotusphere on Twitter (pass this out everywhere, lets get all 8000 in here)

In order to foster faster communication with everyone at Lotusphere, or even if you just wish to sit back and watch, there will be a Lotusphere channel you can follow and post to.  Twitter is setting it up so if you set yourself to follow all the tweets, you can also post to it so everyone gets them.  Talk about instant communication when not everyone can be on Sametime and there is breaking news, a vendor giving away cool stuff, when you want to find people or when a vendor has an open party.  The possibilities are endless.  I talked to some Loti in and around the social networking area to see if they had anything built for this, the immediate answer was they didn't think so.

I would suggest you follow me also as I have some other surprises as we take Lotusphere into a social networking exploration.

So here are the basics for all of you that are new to Twitter.

you can find me at http://twitter.com/IdoNotes


http://twitter.com/lotusphere

everyone should set Twitter to FOLLOW. You can follow any profile on Twitter by sending follow+username.  For example, people would send:

follow Lotusphere

to Twitter from IM or phone.  People can also go right to the profile page, where you can click the  "follow" button located under the profile name.


Image:Lotusphere on Twitter  (pass this out everywhere, lets get all 8000 in here)

 

People who follow the profile will be added to the list of followers; if they decide to Twitter back about the event, their updates will show in the "Lotusphere" timeline.

Via phone or chat, instruct people to send FOLLOW Lotusphere to Twitter at:

  • 40404 for US followers
  • 21212 for Canadian followers
  • +44 762 4801423 for all other international followers
You can even add Twitter to your instant messenger buddylists while there.


    for this posting

    On Tuesday, November 20th, 2007   by Chris Miller        

Yes, I have Lotusphere2008 sessions this year

The final session numbers have been assigned and I waited to get those to make life easy for you to say you will be attending them!

HND302 - Setup and Administration for the IBM Lotus Sametime Gateway.   (yes this is hands-on folks)
BP105 - Installing and Administrating the IBM Lotus Sametime Gateway        (myself and Kyungae Lim of IBM)

So there you have it..  fun filled sessions all about the Sametime Gateway.
    for this posting

    On Monday, November 19th, 2007   by Chris Miller        

I am hosting a LotusUSerGroup topic this week

This week I am hosting the Administrating Sametime 7.5 and Deploying Plug-ins.  Post the questions fast as the holidays are fast approaching.
    for this posting

    On Monday, November 19th, 2007   by Chris Miller        

IBM releases the system requirements for Lotus Connections 1.0.2

You can find the technote right here
Content Hardware requirements
The following hardware is required for the systems that host IBM® Lotus® Connections services.
At least two Intel® 64 or IA-32 based server machines
Two CPUs per server, 2.6 GHz CPU speed or higher
Minimum 4 GB of memory per machine


Plus a special note for using Lotus Domino as the directory source:
Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) server
IBM Lotus Domino 7.0.2 and later.
Note: Before you can use this LDAP server, you must apply fix PK52839 to WebSphere Application Server.

    for this posting

    On Thursday, November 15th, 2007   by Chris Miller        

22 Ready to Use Components for Lotus Notes 8 composite apps, say it isn’t so!

I received an enlightening email from Susan Bulloch with a link to the LDD Sandbox posting showing not only 22 ready to use components, but also some hints at what partners have up their sleeve. Check out GrapeCity for their WebCharts3d dashboard component.
Webcharts
    for this posting

    On Tuesday, November 13th, 2007   by Chris Miller        

The new Sametime 8 logo finally surfaces

Looking back to July of this year, Alan put the icon on his page showing the well known blue Sametime icon now all grown up and Web 2.0 - ified and morphed into the bland icons we see all over 8.  I say bland because they are all so similar in shape and color it is hard to tell them apart sometimes in your start or dektop menu.

Well it finally reared it's changing head in some recent code (I got permission to say so relax).  So when the recent stream got installed, it now becomes hard to find mixed in with the other Lotus icons.  See the image insert here.

Image:The new Sametime 8 logo finally surfaces

So what do you think?  Will users miss the long time blue balloon or embrace the new icon?  I say it is a trademark of the product itself and should continue for some time to come.
    for this posting

    On Friday, October 26th, 2007   by Chris Miller        

Facebook is released for the Blackberry, Lotus Connections is still in testing I hear.. here is a screenshot of mine all loaded up

Image:Facebook is released for the Blackberry, Lotus Connections is still in testing I hear..  here is a screenshot of mine all loaded up

You can grab it at http://www.blackberry.com/facebook.mobiledownload  by the way
    for this posting

    On Thursday, October 25th, 2007   by Chris Miller        

the LATimes reports that Comcasts admits to ’software glitch" blocking Lotus Notes

You can read the article from yesterday right here, but the main quote:
Comcast officials say the Lotus Notes problems were caused by a software glitch, adding that the company does not block customers from using file-sharing applications. It does, however, manage its network so that a few subscribers using bandwidth-hogging programs don't slow everyone else's Web surfing.

    for this posting

    On Wednesday, October 24th, 2007   by Chris Miller        

RFI&F (request for information & feedback) - How many of you used or enjoyed the Lotusphere Live site last year?

Since Lotusphere seems to be coming at light speed, (the Dolphin, Swan and Yacht are all sold out already),  Carl and I are planning on Lotusphere Live once again.  For those that don't know and are new readers, there was a persistent chat site where certain bloggers and IBM'ers got into the rooms and sent you live feeds, images and anything else about what was going on in the Opening and closing General Sessions.

We are also pondering adding something new to the mix, so give us your feedback!
    for this posting

    On Monday, October 22nd, 2007   by Chris Miller        

IBM executive interview in the Philippines, someone may want to talk to him

I saw the link pop in my newsreader and jumped over.  Humorously there is a lot reporting wrong in the article that interviews Michael Karasick, director Lotus Software Development for China Development Laboratory in Beijing, China.  Some of my favorite quotes:
IBM still believes that enterprise customers use e-mail as its main application for collaboration.

I am not quite sure about this
Push e-mail service will become available soon, the executive said.

Asked how it works, Karasick said IBM was working with partners but declined to give details. The new version also revives a web access client.

"We haven't quite figured out how to make Notes available on a mobile device. We have no timeline," he said, when asked to provide more details about the push mail feature in Lotus Notes.

"But we will support mobile devices natively and through collaboration with vendors," he said.

He apparently has not seen Traveler or the anticipated timeline.

One application called Lotus SameTime version 8 is also offered on the Mac, PC and Linux platforms.

I know for sure this one is not available yet.  He is a little ahead of the timeline here.

    for this posting

    On Wednesday, October 17th, 2007   by Chris Miller        

Lotus attempts "Lotus Notes" on demand again

We have seen the failed attempts for BumbleBee and even a follow-up Sametime meeting option.  Well today I read the press release from the Collaboration Summit and enjoyed the part on the Productivity Tools Symphony.  Even with the nice icons and the word free

Then came the part that really caught my eye:
Applications on Demand for Lotus Notes - making Lotus Notes 8 as a service enterprise level application hosting.

Available now, IBM's Application on Demand service provides customers with the benefits of the Lotus suite without having to invest in computing assets or skills.  This new offering provides Lotus collaboration customers with a hosted and managed environment for their mail and collaborative applications, helping improve the performance of their messaging environments while enhancing efficiencies and productivity.....  (yada yada here).  Applications on Demand for Lotus Notes currently support Lotus Sametime and Lotus Quickr, and will be extended to other Lotus collaboration products over time.


There is a slew of issues with this:
  • One of which is the direct competition with the few business partners that offer this service on the Lotus arena
  • Secondly is the whole architecture on how they intend to do this by license costs.  Where partners would pass license costs along in this type of model, Lotus seems to be undercutting that also since they of course have no license costs in essence.
  • Third, how do you fit into the giant certification tree and also with the need for multiple client access.  The previous attempt in R5 for the ASP model, was not successful.  Where has the back-end Domino code changed to allow the proper provisioning and billing controls?  Does everyone get their own root level certifier?
  • How are they going to offer multi-tenant Sametime services?
  • Wow, this might just be a web access type offering with the new DWA faster (DWA-r) coming in that same press release

I need to read more on how this will be bundled but I did not see that information released yet.
    for this posting

    On Tuesday, September 18th, 2007   by Chris Miller        

Radicati new survey release - good news for us at Connectria it seems

Palo Alto, CA - September 12, 2007 - The Radicati Group, Inc.'s latest study, "Corporate IT Survey - Messaging and Collaboration, 2007-2008," finds that Security, Reducing downtime and Compliance are the top priorities for businesses in 2007.

Reducing downtime was another strong priority, indicating that products still have a way to go to meet mission-critical business requirements.

While most organizations still deploy insourced email solutions, the study shows that hosted e-mail made up one-third of messaging system deployments surveyed, as 29% of survey respondents outsourced at least part of their messaging system in 2007.

We hope this hosted and outsourced management keeps rolling.  We take care of both the downtime concerns, management, backup, network, administration, well the whole thing.

    for this posting

    On Wednesday, September 12th, 2007   by Chris Miller        

Back from tech-free vacation week

I see some of the guest bloggers were scared or forgot.  No matter, plenty to cover.
    for this posting

    On Monday, September 10th, 2007   by Chris Miller        

There will be guest bloggers while I am on the annual tech-free vacation this week..

So be warned that the postings made this week are not necessarily those of the blog owner... I hold no responsibility for what they might say or topic they might raise...  and if you wish to engage them in friendly banter, please do so.
    for this posting

    On Sunday, September 2nd, 2007   by Chris Miller        

Lotus Connections 1.0.1 Pilot install hits the web and Connectria is offering hosting of it!

We are happy to announce that we already have our first server live with today's Lotus release of the pilot install option, which is basically up to 100 users in a single server installation.  There are some caveats with it, but Connectria is offering a hosting package around it for all of your enterprises wishing to test deployment without the headaches.

IM me (upper right corner of blog), email me or carrier pigeon.
    for this posting

    On Thursday, August 30th, 2007   by Chris Miller        

Computerworld - IBM and Siemens teaming to take on Microsoft (and my quote)

This article just talks more about the deal with IBM to closely tie OpenScape into Sametime.
Chris Miller, director of messaging and collaboration at Connectria Corp., a managed IT services company in St. Louis, said the added support for VoIP technology could cut costs significantly for corporate users. Connectria sells and supports Sametime and is also a Sametime user.


The rest of the article is basically another user comment and some base info that everyone read last week.
    for this posting

    On Tuesday, August 28th, 2007   by Chris Miller        

Welcome to new hardware and Domino 8 on the blog server all!

Yes I did it during the day.  Yes I did it in a hurry.  No I did not want to worry about the old server and disk space anymore so the opportunity was there with some freetime maneuvering of other items to make it all happen.  I tried to reach as many as I could at the last minute but figured they knew what was coming since I had the machine sitting in a rack ready for weeks now.

Full text indexes will take a few to rebuild as I did not move those to save time.  So let's see how it settles in tonight after everything gets caught up.

Chris
    for this posting

    On Monday, August 27th, 2007   by Chris Miller        

Carl posts a comparison between Unyte and Sametime

Jump over and watch the video and see for yourself..

he has a higher quality version here too
    for this posting

    On Friday, August 24th, 2007   by Chris Miller        

ANNOUNCEMENT: IdoNotes TV goes live

I came across this and decided to go full force with the idea.  It has embedded video streams from a collection of public videos as well as embedded ones.  it also gives the ability to go live onthe channel and have technical talks and such.    The currently featured set is all Lotus Connections

You can find the page right here

.............. for now until the full URL goes live in DNS shortly
    for this posting

    On Friday, August 24th, 2007   by Chris Miller        

IBM purchases Webdialogs and introduces Sametime Unyte

Today, IBM announced it has acquired WebDialogs, a privately held, leading provider of Web conferencing services and a partner of choice for the Conferencing Service Provider market with over 70 relationships and 200 brands in the market today


Unyte already has plug-ins for Skype and Yahoo, the Lite version is free.
So besides some new plug-ins for the Lotus suite, here is the interesting piece, Lotus basically says that Sametime is not made for extranet meeting in this section of the press release... not the second sentence in the overlap question....
You get the added value that IBM plans to bring by developing plug-ins for WebDialogs to seamlessly integrate with products in the IBM portfolio such as:
  • IBM Lotus Sametime
  • IBM Lotus Notes
  • IBM Lotus Quickr
  • IBM Websphere Portal

Q: Are there overlaps between the IBM and WebDialogs product portfolios?
The IBM and WebDialogs portfolios are complimentary.  While both companies offer products in the real-time collaboration space, the Lotus Sametime offerings are primarily used on premise and by all company sizes.  WebDialogs' Web conferencing service has seen wide adoption with small and meduim-sized businesses as well as 3rd party service providers.


So I hit their webpage to see what the company full offers and see an image on the homepage..
Image:IBM purchases Webdialogs and introduces Sametime Unyte

So I go and read and it looks like IBM/Lotus will offer a choice and support online meeting services to go after that WebEx marketspace with the Sametime name.
    for this posting

    On Thursday, August 23rd, 2007   by Chris Miller        

Another Lotus blogger that started a new blog to check out

Many of you know Andy Pedisich of Technotics from speaking at Admin and all the Upgrade Seminars and Admin Bootcamps.  well he finally decided to get the arthritis medicine and start a real blog.  Jump on over and say hi, well you can say hi when he gets his comments working right with the standard blog template from Domino 8
    for this posting

    On Thursday, August 23rd, 2007   by Chris Miller        

UPDATED: Happy Birthday to Carl Tyler and Sean Burgess (PhigSaidWhat)

I didn't say it was for today, I was planning ahead for October in case I didn't remember Carl.
    for this posting

    On Thursday, August 16th, 2007   by Chris Miller        

The Lotus Technical and Education Team started a blog

I received an email wannouncing it but I see some people already found it.  They have been soliciting comments on help menus and other items.  You can view and participate right here.  They do have a RSS content and comment feed for your RSS readers.  I will add it to the Particls package too.
    for this posting

    On Thursday, August 16th, 2007   by Chris Miller        

Podtrac quick survey on the IdoNotes podcast

I am trying to gather some more podcast traffic data on demographics.  So if anyone one of you had like 2 minutes to click a few buttons (I walked through it myself so it is just like that) please do so right here on this link.  This is the short version of the two they had.

It covers more demographic data and don't answer anything you do not wish to.  It is all anonymous anyway, but I keep getting requests for more stats data on the podcast itself so I am trying this out.

No pressure people and no biggie if no one does it
    for this posting

    On Wednesday, August 15th, 2007   by Chris Miller        

LotusUserGroup has an online meeting Sep 5th on "Justifying the ND8 Upgrade"

The next Virtual User Group Meeting features an online presentation on Justifying ND8 Within the Organization on Sep 5 from 12-1pm EST (GMT -5).  The presentation is free to LotusUserGroup.org members, but pre-registration is required.  Register at http://www.LotusUserGroup.org/vug

As usual, there will be a moderated forum that week where you can ask questions, suggest topics for the online event and get any other info.    Then on that Wednesday join the virtual meeting.

Click to see more on the content!


Continue Reading here" LotusUserGroup has an online meeting Sep 5th on "Justifying the ND8 Upgrade"" »

    for this posting

    On Tuesday, August 14th, 2007   by Chris Miller        

Want to influence how Sametime documentation is put together right now?

Then head over to the new blog from the Lotus Technical Information and Education Team Blog.  They are asking for input on documentation on a few products including Sametime !
    for this posting

    On Friday, July 27th, 2007   by Chris Miller        

Today is national Sys Admin Appreciation Day, did you know that?

I got the big email today and I had no idea!! The last Friday of every July is Sys Admin Appreciation Day.  It has a site and everything!  So go thank you sys admin for all the hard work they do and let them go home early
    for this posting

    On Friday, July 27th, 2007   by Chris Miller        

Sametime 7.5.1 CF1 hitting the streets and a note in the fine print

Well interestingly enough there is more fixes in the CF1 for Sametime 7.5.1 (there is 84) than there was in CF1 for 7.5 (there was 69).  What you need to look out for is that if your fix happens to be in this maintenance release, some of the SPR's require a full installation instead of the site update version.

Keep that in mind when deploying the update.  Some of the features will not be updated properly without downloading and installing the full package just as you would for a fresh install.
    for this posting

    On Thursday, July 19th, 2007   by Chris Miller        

Don’t forget, Ken Bisconti live keynote from Collaboration University in a few hours. 8:15am GMT

While that is extremely early for most of you in the US, why not stay up another 6 hours (from CST) and watch?
    for this posting

    On Tuesday, July 17th, 2007   by Chris Miller        

Live keynote this Wednesday at 8:15am GMT (2:15am CST) with Ken Bisconti of Lotus

I will embed the viewer again here and Rob will have it on the Collaboration University 2007 page.  You can also go right to the channel:
http://www.ustream.tv/channel/collaboration-university

So do not miss out on seeing Ken and Satwik in the opening session
    for this posting

    On Monday, July 16th, 2007   by Chris Miller        

Dash looks to update my driving experience

It isn't often I blog about other geek toys but this one I waited patiently for.

While the beta is now closed until product launch, this looks to change the way you drive.  Combine a GPS with the ability to get driving stats from other dash drivers in the area.  Don't forget you can send addresses to your Dash so it will have directions ready and even grab the local movie times (or other Yahoo searches) right from the device.  Then head straight there.

I love my GPS and I love my Google searching from the Blackberry for stuff as you drive around.  But they were never combined into one dash sitting, summer sun grabbing, traffic avoiding, Internet connected, traffic speed sharing device.  Plus 3 possible routes to the destination instead of the dreaded GPS crowded road or even closed for construction got my attention right away with all the Highway 40 reconstruction taking place the next 8 years or so here in St Louis.
    for this posting

    On Friday, July 13th, 2007   by Chris Miller        

This is the raw video/audio replay file of Mike Rhodin’s keynote at Collaboration University


    for this posting

    On Tuesday, July 10th, 2007   by Chris Miller        

The live broadcast with Mike Rhodin was a success and was recorded. We will have it ready for payback shortly...

Carl is busy encoding the copy we will hopefully merge with the slides, but the raw broadcast I will link in a bit.  We might sneak in one more session live, like the Top 10 or the overview session from Collaboration University
    for this posting

    On Monday, July 9th, 2007   by Chris Miller        

Mike Rhodin live this morning at 8:15-10am CST at Collaboration University

We are all set up to go live in the morning for Mike's keynote of Collaboration University.  Listen in and watch live.

http://live.collaborationuniversity.com
    for this posting

    On Monday, July 9th, 2007   by Chris Miller        

Watch (and hear) Mike Rhodin’s keynote from Collaboration University live online. Yes I said live

Need I even say more than 8:30am-10AM CST on Monday July 9th 2007.  We will turn on the live feed a few minutes early and run it till the opening is over.  Look for some new things from Mike to be covered.

http://live.collaborationuniversity.com
    for this posting

    On Friday, July 6th, 2007   by Chris Miller        

An email about the Lotus Collaboration Summit Online lists Sametime 8 in it

Image:An email about the Lotus Collaboration Summit Online lists Sametime 8 in it
Technical Sessions

1. Notes & Domino 8.0: Technical Architecture Deep Dive

2. Lotus Sametime 8.0: Technical Architecture Deep Dive

3. Lotus Quickr: Technical Architecture Deep Dive

4. Lotus Connections: Technical Architecture Deep Dive


    for this posting

    On Friday, June 29th, 2007   by Chris Miller        

Screenshot of IBM’s "Effective Meeting Client" found online.. gasp! could this be the future of Sametime?


I presume this is a way early demo shot of what is to come, but it looks like a long leap if it revolves around Sametime. My gut reaction is this is some sort of new item, since there is nothing to be had online anywhere in searching. I am betting on the side that says this is some other type of meeting service and not Sametime.


However, this would be quite a cool tool to have for meetings and change the way you look at the meeting windows for Sametime. Mainly with the P2P video and audio abilities. A nice corporate directory with everyone's pictures would be a good start for most of you so you do not have a circle of gray-man group members looking at you in a circle

    for this posting

    On Friday, June 22nd, 2007   by Chris Miller        

Don’t forget, the live podcast with the CU professors tomorrow!! Some tips..

All the call details and even web login information (for live chat) can be found here.
  • If you participate in the web side, click on a conversation thread you want to respond to in the chat area and it will highlight the color of your chat for easy viewing.
  • Raise your hand if you want to go live
  • By default your microphone (or phone) is not live until we unmute you, be patient!
  • If you are on the phone only, we will unmute you also to ask questions
  • Everything is being recorded to podcast for those that couldn't get on the call, be aware!

    for this posting

    On Thursday, June 21st, 2007   by Chris Miller        

Announcement #2 - Join the Collaboration University crew for a live podcast with Q&A on Quickr and Sametime this week

You are officially invited to join Rob, Carl, Gabriella and myself while we live podcast about all the sessions coming to Collaboration University #1.  Think Quickr, Sametime 7.5.1 and what we have all new for this year in sessions.

Then stick around for live Q&A with any of us on Quickr and Sametime.  The podcast will be recorded for later playing and on iTunes.

Friday Jun 22 2007 at 10am EST/9am CST/7am PST

Phone Number: (724) 444-7444
Talkcast ID: 31241

And join via the web at http://www.talkshoe.com/talkshoe/web/tscmd/tc/31241  to join the live chat portion also.

    for this posting

    On Tuesday, June 19th, 2007   by Chris Miller        

Announcement #1 - Quickr hits the streets and early registration for Collaboration University #1 London ends !

No need to spread the message to thin, so let's take a different approach.  Quickr comes out June 29th and then you get hit with all the information you need on implementing and deploying it at Collaboration University.   Rob has announced all the sessions on his blog, quite an impressive lineup of knowledge sharing

I have played with the Quickr betas and this is a stronger move than Lotus Connections at this time.  Hopefully Lotus will offer a 90-day trial like they just did for Sametime 7.5.1
    for this posting

    On Tuesday, June 19th, 2007   by Chris Miller        

The guys at Paticls found the bug in the package I had for you to download

One of you out there had a quirky RSS feed which was affecting the install.  If anyone has any issues grabbing and completing the new install please let me know so we can get it fixed right away.

So grab it right here or go back and read the previous blog posting.  I will post more tech tips around tweaking it shortly.
    for this posting

    On Thursday, June 14th, 2007   by Chris Miller        

Want to watch Paul Mooney live at Admin2007?? right now (audio should work also now)

http://www.idonotes.com/idonotes/idonotes.nsf/dx/live.htm
    for this posting

    On Wednesday, June 6th, 2007   by Chris Miller        

Announcement #1 - you can watch some of my events live

Take a look at my schedule posting for Admin2007.  I will try (depending on bandwidth) to get as much as I can on my live page that you can find right here
    for this posting

    On Monday, June 4th, 2007   by Chris Miller        

Plazes got their facelift

So while I was in their beta and had the ok to talk about and show screenshots of the new Plazes site, I waited until they went GA.  And they went GA in a big way.  Their main offices are located in Berlin (I was sorry I missed them in March while there) and yesterday the servers went down for the upgrade.

So today when logging in, they not only updated the server side of the service, but also the client side.  They now have cellphone integration, better contact views and mapping management and a slew of other interface changes including asking what you are doing at a Plaze.  So instead of just saying I am at Connectria's Data Center, I can add that I am working, sleeping or prepping for Admin2007 (as I really am).  It also tells you have the person Plazed in, web, Plazer of cellphone.

If you want an invite let me know, I will have it send you one.  It seems there is a new Plazes group also for Lotus Notes and Domino which can show you a map of everyone in the group online.
    for this posting

    On Wednesday, May 30th, 2007   by Chris Miller        

Another RSS reader plug-in for Sametime 7.5.x

So I talked about and did a podcast with newsgator a bit ago about their plug-in for Sametime to pull RSS feeds.  It works quite well from what I saw but lacked the ability to be a standalone plug-in.  It had to connect to their news server to get data.

Now come an announcement from Attensa that they have a RSS plug-in for Sametime (and a slew of other products).  So I happily went to the site to get even an evaluation or screenshots to be disappointed that they also offer this plug-in only if you hit their servers.  While it will run standalone in Outlook (ugh), not Sametime on the recent beta.  I sent an email off to get them on a podcast and see what info we can get on it for you.  Here is a screenshot of supported OS and software versions from their site

Image:Another RSS reader plug-in for Sametime 7.5.x
    for this posting

    On Tuesday, May 29th, 2007   by Chris Miller        

As I mentioned Fri, new Connectria hosted bloggers to announce

I went ahead and started the process of adding memory and shortly some new processors and diskspace to the blogger server.  We are growing at a nice clip, not too much at once.
  • Stuart McIntyre will be moving over the QuickrBlog, LotusConnectionsBlog and CollaborationMatters
  • Richard Thomsen started up the midwestik.com blog (I need to get him not to forward and to point it to the server I see). He talks about kayaks and Domino.  Interesting combo.
  • BucktheBug.net is also live from Michael.  While I can't read a thing in it, Babelfish might be a good idea here
  • Carl TYler moved over iminstant.com a while ago

    for this posting

    On Tuesday, May 22nd, 2007   by Chris Miller        

Adding hardware and new bloggers to the blog server, so it is up and down for a few


    for this posting

    On Friday, May 18th, 2007   by Chris Miller        

Boston Globe article - "How Lotus changed the business world"

From the article:
For the Loti, the old days were a time when Lotus was one of the hottest software companies around -- and an exceptionally pleasant place to earn a living. Benefits and perks that were unusually generous for the 1980s and 1990s, and management had a style that helped turn workers into leaders.

The success of Notes ultimately led in 1995 to an extraordinary hostile takeover attempt by IBM Corp., a company not usually given to such aggressive moves. In the end, Lotus and IBM came to terms, and what was once the Boston-area's biggest independent software firm is now part of IBM.


Part of this article talks about the founding of Lotus and Iris Associates and the upcoming gathering the ex-Loti are scheduled to have.  Did the purchase of Lotus by IBM move Lotus away from the forefront, free moving company it was back in the 90's?  Or did it give corporate support for an emerging competitive market?

I think IBM has woken up in the past couple years to the idea that the largest (internal to IBM) software group could not survive without an influx of creativity and movement ahead in new areas of the market space.  The stagnant UI in both Notes and Sametime was not winning new accounts.  The next generation needed to be developed.  So here we come to Notes 8 and Sametime 7.5.  If the path of development continues, I dare say the market might open their eyes to the father product coming back to kick some arse.
    for this posting

    On Monday, May 14th, 2007   by Chris Miller        

Announcement: IdoNotes Episode 33 will be podcasted live for you to ask questions - interview with Lotus on DDM in Domino 8 on May 15th 2pm EST

Join me and Harry Peebles of Lotus, as we talk live about Domino Domain Monitoring inside of Domino 8.  Learn about the new enhancements, changes and features.  Then save your questions for a live Q&A at the end that will be part of the recorded podcast.

You have been invited by Chris Miller to join in a live TalkShoe phone conversation and chat. Recorded audio is also available for listening.
Listen to or Join the Talkcast: IdoNotes Live
http://www.talkshoe.com/talkshoe/web/tscmd/tc/31241

(join within 15 minutes of start time or anytime after)


Talkcast information:
  • Talkcast Name: IdoNotes Live
  • Host: IdoNotes - IdoNotes@netscape.net
  • Next episode: IdoNotes Episode 33, Tue, May 15, 2007 02:00 PM EDT
    We talk with Harry Peebles of Lotus about Domino Domain Monitoring (DDM) in Domino 8. Learn about the new features and enhancements of this integral administrative tool. As a bonus, you get to ask questions at the end!
  • Phone number: (724) 444-7444
  • Talkcast ID: 31241
  • PIN: The phone number or 10-digit PIN you signed up with
  • Other future episodes: Future episodes not scheduled

    for this posting

    On Thursday, May 10th, 2007   by Chris Miller        

Partnerworld announcement: Lotusphere Collaboration Summit

Details are sketchy at this moment and time is running out to organize it if you ask me (from someone that has been doing a bunch of conferences).  But here is what we were told

Marjorie Tenzer stated that Lotus has not had a fall event in a long time, so outside of Lotusphere Comes To You events that are going on now, there will be a roadshow starting in the 3rd quarter titled
Lotusphere Collaboration Summit


No cities nor firm dates were mentioned yet, but it is an interesting twist..  no hints online yet that I could find in some quick searches.
    for this posting

    On Wednesday, May 2nd, 2007   by Chris Miller        

Second announcement from PartnerWorld 2007 - Lotus Connections for Business Partners

Here is the second announcement.  Ed already hinted at it early this morning for you. That along with my podcast with Tim Kounadis, Director of Worldwide Channels and SMB Marketing for Lotus live here at PartnerWorld.  The link to the new Lotus Connections site can be found at the bottom of the announcement.  This also has a second surprise announcement behind it I found out from a little birdie.

Image:Second announcement from PartnerWorld 2007 - Lotus Connections for Business Partners

IBM Lotus Connections for Partners
Lotus Connections for Partners features a full set of social software
capabilities including profiles, blogs, activities and communities. These
integrated components create a collaborative environment where partners can
connect and build relationships regardless of location, business size or
area of expertise.

For example, a small game development company in the US wants to expand
into Brazil. A keyword search in Lotus Connections for Partners returns a
list of others within the community with expertise in the Brazilian market.
Within seconds, the partner also has access to blogs, communities,
activities and bookmarks related to the topic. By engaging with experts
from around the world, the partner is able to collaborate, share ideas and
learn best practices without leaving the office.

Initial communities of interests have been created in Lotus Connections for
Partners to kick-start the collaborative process. IBM executives,
researchers and subject matter experts will be invited to participate in
the online environment as well.

The social networking phenomenon having an unprecedented impact on the
enterprise. The Web continues to evolve from a vehicle for companies to
disseminate content, to a tool for bringing together the contributions of
millions of people.

According to industry analyst firm Forrester Research, social software
tools will become so much a part of the fabric of an enterprise's
collaborative environment that it will be like air -- enterprises won't be
able to imagine life without it. Further, according to Forrester, the
demand for social software tools is growing with usage rates of social
software services almost doubling between 2005 and 2006. Source: Social
Computing: Tapping Into The Power Of Connected Customers, Forrester
Research, Inc., October 2006.

"IBM continues to play a significant role in driving the adoption of new
business models, said Ken Wasch, president, Software Information Industry
Association (SIIA). "These new communities create a unique network for
developers, business partners and IT professionals to come together and
share group intelligence. IBM and SIIA are working together to enable
innovation and drive market changes around key industry trends."

Availability

Lotus Connections for Partners is available immediately free of charge to
all IBM Business Partners. IBM PartnerWorld members can request access to
Lotus Connections for Partners at:
https://www.ibm.com/lotus/connections/partners. For more information on
Lotus Connections: www.lotus.com/connections

    for this posting

    On Monday, April 30th, 2007   by Chris Miller        

First announcement from Partnerworld 2007 - IBM developerWorks community spaces

Look for a podcast with Kathy Mandelstein of IBM, Director, Worldwide Developer Programs  this afternoon on this announcement.  The link to the new spaces is at the bottom of the announcement.

IBM developerWorks community spaces

developerWorks community spaces initiative is a unique business channel
that will provide an open platform for developers to build communities
around a broad range of technology topics and business trends.  Effective
immediately, twelve community topics are available.  Members will also be
able to sign up for the opportunity to create and lead their own
communities, based on their areas of interest.

Users can now tap into a global network of developer brainpower and gain
access to customized resources, participate in online forums, business
discussions and virtually collaborate to develop applications and explore
joint business opportunities.  There is no charge for participating in
developerWorks community spaces.

As part of the announcement, one of the first technology communities will
be Software as a Service. IBM is building on a community approach to
develop a common platform for companies looking for direction on new
technologies such as SaaS. The SaaS Community within developerWorks will
allow companies to set up a dynamic profile page describing their business
and solutions. The intent is that other companies and customers will use
the profiles to locate prospective business partners and software vendors.
The website will also offer information on what is happening in the SaaS
industry including events and new entrants into the market.

Additionally, the new collaborative venue will serve as a business network
that will allow companies be able to set up profile pages describing their
business with the intention of allowing other companies and customers to
view that profile to locate prospective business partners and generate new
business opportunities.

Availability

Effective immediately, IBM is launching twelve new communities through
developerWorks community spaces including: Software as a Service,
service-oriented architecture (SOA), game development and virtualization.
To learn more about developerWorks community spaces visit:
http://www-128.ibm.com/developerworks/spaces.

    for this posting

    On Monday, April 30th, 2007   by Chris Miller        

IBM published a Lotus Connections flash file for promotional material

You can view the demo flash file right here
    for this posting

    On Friday, April 27th, 2007   by Chris Miller        

Partnerworld 2007 Information

I am getting together a list of things you should know, including the embedded map here for food, lodging and fun since we are getting requests.

Transportation
You can ride the Metrolink straight from the airport.  It takes about 30 minutes total to get downtown but is cost effective if you are on the router.  You can take a cab also.  It is a straight shot down Highway 70 to downtown.  If they head down I-170 and try to go to Highway 40/US 64 don't let them.  it is all under construction and they know it will take forever (which equals large fare).  I don't know if it is fixed rate to downtown.  If you are in Clayton at a hotel you will need a taxi or car.

    for this posting

    On Tuesday, April 24th, 2007   by Chris Miller        

Sametime 7.5.1 launched

Apparently IBM launched it today.  I will have comments for you shortly.

On second thought, here is some now.  Yes there is the new point-to-point video, UI changes to the client and slew of new features in the link I gave above.  However, the memory consumption is quite large, so be prepared.

Tabbed chat is awesome, both vertical and horizontal.  There are some issues with strange UI behavior with horizontal I need to test more.

Policies have been enhanced greatly.  I will give them that.  They listened and added quite a few.  There is a ways to go for full management,but most of you will be pleased.

more shortly.
    for this posting

    On Tuesday, April 24th, 2007   by Chris Miller        

Google buys Marratech, an established Swedish competitor to Sametime and WebEx

Strike up one more for Google in buying things with the billions in cash they have to make them stronger:
As a company, we thrive on casual interactions and spontaneous collaboration. So we're excited about acquiring Marratech's video conferencing software, which will enable from-the-desktop participation for Googlers in videoconference meetings wherever there's an Internet connection.

    for this posting

    On Friday, April 20th, 2007   by Chris Miller        

Finally I can say it, Lotus Connections for Business Partners was released by Lotus to test drive

Most everyone should be getting or have gotten a login for Lotus Connections if you are a Business Partner.  This lets the partners get in and bang around on the product and also give feedback.  I will give more input shortly.

Update 1: If you do not get an invite and wish to be nominated then visit http://www.lotus.com/connections/partners and you can nominate yourself as a Business Partner

Well so far it even works with the Notes 8 integrated browser feature.  Good start.

Update 2
: I was able to get my Notes 8 client to connect to Activities on the Business Partner server.  That should be interesting.  See image below :

Image:Finally I can say it, Lotus Connections for Business Partners was released by Lotus to test drive
    for this posting

    On Thursday, April 19th, 2007   by Chris Miller        

The new blog design is alive, huge thanks to Sean Burgess.

I had been maintaining it myself and for an admin, not too terribly bad.  But. I needed a facelift and to reduce clutter.  So someone volunteered and I took hm up on the opportunity.  After many weeks of coding to a style I picked to make navigation easier (don't tell me if you hate tabs, go get the RSS ha) we got it down.  Then tweaks here and there on the copy and finally!

So play around with the stuff and let us know if you see anything too terribly broken.  Otherwise keep your trap shut unless it is compliments :-)   Everything is done via CSS which makes changes easier.  A lot of it was before but I still played with certain parts.
    for this posting

    On Monday, April 16th, 2007   by Chris Miller        

IdoNotes is getting a UI overhaul this weekend.. hang on.


    for this posting

    On Saturday, April 14th, 2007   by Chris Miller        

In case you missed the March 2007 Sys Admin Tips newsletter

You can find it right here.
    for this posting

    On Saturday, April 7th, 2007   by Chris Miller        

Being a Lotus Instructor doesn’t count for Partner status anymore, nice

I don't need to say anymore than this:
8.  Lotus: Clarification on Lotus Instructor Certification e-mail




Many of you recently received an e-mail notification from PartnerWorld indicating that your Lotus Instructor Certification would be expiring. Please be assured that Instructor Certification for a given product never expires once it has been attained. The PartnerWorld notice was intended to communicate that your Lotus Instructor Certification would no longer be used in determining a Business Partner's eligibility in obtaining Advanced or Premier membership levels in PartnerWorld. This does not affect your Lotus Instructor Certification or your company's status as an Authorized Independent Training Provider (AITP).

    for this posting

    On Tuesday, April 3rd, 2007   by Chris Miller        

Newsgator announces RSS plug-in for Sametime 7.5

Direct from their newsline:
March 28, 2007 - NewsGator Technolgies Inc., the leading RSS company, today announced two new RSS readers for IBM's Lotus messaging and collaboration environments.  The NewsGator Plug-in for Lotus Notes delivers RSS feed-reading capabilities within Lotus Notes 6.5 and higher, while the NewsGator Plug-In for Lotus Sametime adds this capability to version 7.5 of the enterprise instant messaging client.


It seems this plug-in connects to their enterprise server only.  I hope they make this for purchase or free download for those not running their enterprise server (personal type usage)
    for this posting

    On Monday, April 2nd, 2007   by Chris Miller        

Connectria selected as partner in Maine’s HealthInfoNet

From a BusinessWire press release:

HealthInfoNet, Maine's health information exchange (HEI), has selected 3M Health Information Systems Division as vendor of choice to provide the interoperability solution needed to build one of the nation's first statewide health information-sharing networks.  Following an extensive national search, 3M and its partners, Orion Health and Connectria, were chosen to create an integrated health information system designed to improve the quality and efficiency of health care delivery in Main and, over time, make personal health information more available to patients.


Connectria will provide the hosting and management resources for the system.
    for this posting

    On Wednesday, March 28th, 2007   by Chris Miller        

New Connectria hosted bloggers

I have gotten quite a few requests for hosting of blogs.  The first two coming on-line will use the IBM or DominoBlog template and will be:

    for this posting

    On Wednesday, March 21st, 2007   by Chris Miller        

Server crashes in Notes 7.0.2 FP1 don’t make proper NSD’s without fix from Lotus

Seems we had crashes on 7.0.2 FP1 servers after this weekend and we discovered that proper crash information was not being collected.  Seems we all need a replacement for NSD from IBM to make it collect properly.  I would expect a technote and/or fix shortly...
    for this posting

    On Wednesday, March 14th, 2007   by Chris Miller        

WPLC TechTalk - Domino 8 PUBLIC beta next week and news

Look for new demos and whitepapers, and get your beta.


Image:WPLC TechTalk - Domino 8 PUBLIC beta next week and news
  •  The mail templates are being merged, so no separate Forms8.nsf for DWA users.  However, the template will grow to over 25MB in my calculations.
  • There is some entitlement to the Tivoli Directory Integrator.
  • DB2 will be publicly available
  • Activities are not part of Domino 8, they are Connections.  They will not be part of the public beta
  • They did a large show and tell on features and functions

    for this posting

    On Thursday, March 8th, 2007   by Chris Miller        

Lotus steps up and offers ’Open Mic" conference calls and demos for DST changes

If you were unaware of these I would get on them now.  The calls let everyone ask any question about the DST and you get to hear all the oddities people have.  One person today actually was removing the local cache.dsk for a few users that had a couple people that still couldn't see all times right and then and all was well.  Lotus hadn't heard of that one yet.  So bring your questions and get on the calls.  I am not sure how they generated the list to notify people either.  They have Scott Vrusho on the call as well as many others.  Humorously my last blog entry popped up on the call.
IBM is holding daily "Open Mic DST Calls".  These calls are intended to
provide a forum for our customers to bring their questions, concerns etc..
around DST to us!  Our goal is to provide them with the information they
need and to answer the questions that they have in order to ready their
systems and WPLC products for the DST changeover.

IBM has planned calls for Tuesday - Friday  (March 6th - 9th) and March
12th from 12:00pm - 1:00pm Eastern.


Tuesday 3/6 -
Conference Access:
Toll free:   1-888-732-6202
Toll:        1-719-457-1017
Participant Passcode:  893498

Wednesday 3/7
Conference Access:
Toll free:   800 214 0745
Toll:        +1 719 457 0700
Tie:         650-3309
Participant Passcode:  158121

Thursday 3/8
Conference Access:
Toll free:   1-888-373-5705
Toll:        1-719-457-3840
Tie:         650-3310
Participant Passcode:  547292

Friday 3/9
Conference Access:
Toll free:   1-866-237-3252
Toll:        1-719-457-1018
Tie:         650-2636
Participant Passcode:  163964


Also, the demo videos can be found here:
New Videos show sample scenario of applying DST change to Notes and Domino

New video instructions (screen capture with audio narration) have been provided. These videos demonstrate how a Notes calendar is impacted by the DST change and show one scenario of applying the necessary updates to allow for the new Daylight Saving Time definitions. The download link to the videos is embedded within the "C&S Agents" technote below.

Title: Agents for updating Calendaring and Scheduling entries and Resource Reservation entries for Daylight Saving Time (DST) 2007
URL:
http://www.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?rs=463&uid=swg21254639#Demo%20Videos

In addition, a video has been created to demonstrate how to use the Java Time Zone Update (JTZU) tool for updating DST information in your Java Runtime Environment(s). The JTZU video can be accessed via the following updated technote:

Title: Using the IBM Time Zone Update Utility for Java (JTZU) with Lotus software products
URL:
http://www.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?rs=463&uid=swg21249964

    for this posting

    On Tuesday, March 6th, 2007   by Chris Miller        

I went to research the ’new’ Lotus ActiveInsight and came across this

Someone might want to talk to them about updating the naming and versions in there.  I know they aren't running this against 6.5.1 and the names have been changed back.

LotusActiveInSight.gif

Yes I know , it is just some old marketing info slapped in there.  Just funny to see in a new product set announcement.
    for this posting

    On Sunday, March 4th, 2007   by Chris Miller        

I think we have firmer dates around the public Domino 8 beta

This came in today's upcoming TechTalk email
WPLC SpecialTalk: Lotus Notes/Domino Public Beta -- Are you READY?, March 8, 10 AM ET (90 minutes)
Attend this call to learn first-hand what thousands of customers are about to experience -- the most exciting release of Lotus Notes and Domino ever!  Be ready to discuss the beta 2 release with your customers, and learn about new features and capabilities for hot demonstrations.  We'll cover an updated Notes client demonstration, answer your "so what about the Domino 8 server" questions, and examine composite applications.  The call will also discuss the sales tools, marketing collateral, beta access, and the countdown to release.


So there is a date to look forward to for everyone.
    for this posting

    On Friday, March 2nd, 2007   by Chris Miller        

The Sametime Plugin Exchange from IBM goes live

You can jump over to it right here.  It will be interesting to watch how many go up since you are allowed to upload your own plug-ins and even report copyright issues.  How many of you have plug-ins that you can share already?  This is not a marketplace site at all it seems, but a freeware type area where people can pop up quick code they have created.

The IBM sample ones are already there and ready for download it seems.
    for this posting

    On Tuesday, February 20th, 2007   by Chris Miller        

Another updated DST agent has been issued by Lotus

If you follow my blog comments you will notice that Scott Vrusho stated that an updated agent has been posted once again for DST changes.  Results from a few people are coming back with a few issues to confirm but I will let you know how all our testing goes this week.  Read Scott's comments and announcement with link to the new agent in this posting.
    for this posting

    On Monday, February 19th, 2007   by Chris Miller        

The IdoNotes blog RSS feed is now available as a Google Gadget


    for this posting

    On Thursday, February 15th, 2007   by Chris Miller        

Social networking company Five Across bought by Cisco

When I read the release about Five Across I had to laugh some because it sounded about 70% like Lotus Connections written for Linux, FreeBSD or MacOS X.  Data can even be stored independently so you can move around between operation systems.  It had blogs, profiles, RSS syndication, podcasting, quoting and file uploading.  But then it fell a little flat with the 5-star rating of people instead of pages they link or Dogear.  Cisco is claiming it is not entering the space to compete with the public providers, but to have an enterprise solution that can bridge companies and customers.

So here is where I am headed. I wrote a small piece for my monthly newsletter that I am thinking about breaking into daily parts and talking about Lotus Connections in general.  I am disappointed that Lotus took it down so soon after Lotusphere, one can make many assumptions why.  It would have been nice to play with the technology some more.  Also, I talked about BloggingConnections.com while at Lotusphere.  I have still not gotten any word from the right people at Lotus to start that up but stay tuned.
    for this posting

    On Wednesday, February 14th, 2007   by Chris Miller        

NetworkWorld: Microsoft adding more users than IBM in e-mail battle

While there is a glaring line that states that the number of seats accounted for just applications in Notes/Domino are not being counted in here, it is interesting they way they break the sizing down for who has Domino and who has Exchange. Looking at their statements and figures, Domino leads in larger enterprises and the two go head to head in swapping customers in migrations.

Take a read of the article here:
The survey's release comes amid the shipment of Microsoft's Exchange 2007 late last year and IBM's annual Lotusphere conference, which was held last week and focused on Notes/Domino 8, slated to ship mid-year, and new social networking collaboration tools.


The report Gartner put out costs a lovely $995 to read some collection of data I never understand where they actually derive it from.  But if you have a log in, it is over here.
    for this posting

    On Wednesday, February 7th, 2007   by Chris Miller        

Announcement: A search site for Lotus related blogs only through Google Custom Search

A customized Blogger search ability

I find it hard to see all the blogger sites at one time looking for content when we all do not tag the same way.  So I have 83 sites already listed (from my own links) and will take more and even volunteers for the Custom Search Engine on Google.  Alan L started one quite a few months ago but I think this has broader appeal.  Since we all do not use Technorati the same way, but wish to see who said what on a topic, this will search only the blog sites and not hear the noise from everywhere else

    for this posting

    On Friday, February 2nd, 2007   by Chris Miller        

Lotusphere2007 - One comment from the blogging BOF this am

One topic came up around "what if there was a Lotus Connectons" for bloggers to trim the gathering of info and implement Dogear.

So I went ahead and registered BloggerConnections.com and will put up the site as soon as we can with the Lotus Connections software and get everyone in there as needed.  Sounds like a better way to track and see what everone reads without trying to get everyone into Del.ico.us
    for this posting

    On Thursday, January 25th, 2007   by Chris Miller        

Lotusphere2007 news: Microsoft’s new migration tool from Notes and new McAfee update disables Lotus Notes

Microsoft Transporter Suite for Lotus Notes -
This new suite exploits a simple, unified interface, allowing customers to plan, prepare and transition their messaging and directory services as well analyze their Notes application infrastructure, determine the best course of action for applications, and move data from template-based applications to Windows SharePoint Services 3.0


McAfee updates disables Lotus Notes -
...the recent update McAfee Virus Scan Enterprise to version 8.5i will disable the inboxes of Lotus Notes and lock users out of email.

Once the update for McAfee is installed, users will see a displayed message "ERROR: You are not authorized to perform  that operation and are denied access to their mailbox.  This can lead to serious issues for a large company using the IBM business suite.


This issue is known to McAfee and they are working to provide a fix.

    for this posting

    On Wednesday, January 24th, 2007   by Chris Miller        

Lotusphere2007 News: Trilog Group chooses Connectria as managed hosting partner

Here is the full news story link:
Trilog Group, Inc., a pioneer in real-time collaborative project management solutions for the multi-enterprise, announced that they have selected Connectria as a partner in providing the infrastructure solution for hosting the new online version of ProjExec. By offering ProjExec as a hosted solution, Trilog will be able to provide project managers with an integrated role-based team space designed specifically to manage and control collaboration throughout the entire project life cycle, while eliminating the need for deploying the solution within the corporate IT environment. Connectria, an award-winning provider of secure managed hosted services, and premier level member of IBM PartnerWorld, will provide ProjExec customers with a world class data center, proven reliability and security, as well as critical 24/7 support and application monitoring functions.

    for this posting

    On Wednesday, January 24th, 2007   by Chris Miller        

Ventura, Geneva and Dogear hits the press and web a bit early for Lotusphere2007

I was reading a bunch of the web about these new product names and such, and much of the links seem to be gone or removed (suddenly, hmm) but CRN went ahead and left a nice page talking about all these product/names/announcements

You can read the CRN article
right here and a quick clip for you:
Ventura is the umbrella name overlaying a set of Web 2.0 applications that IBM will make available for enterprise use. The project will make BluePages, IBM's end-user directory for people's profiles, available beyond Big Blue's walls. Ventura also will include a version of Roller, the open-source blog server that drives Sun Microsystems' employee blogging site and IBM's DeveloperWorks blogs.

Also on the road map is a project code-named Geneva, which would converge, repackage and clean up IBM's QuickPlace shared workspace software and Domino Document Management.


Dogear, according to this IBM Research Web site, is a "social bookmarking" system that lets users "centrally store, categorize and share a set of personal Web bookmarks with others."


Here are a few more links from IBM'ers and the like it seems:

Elias Torres
Andy Piper
Elesar1
RollerWebLogger
Arseneault
    for this posting

    On Friday, January 19th, 2007   by Chris Miller        

LotusphereLive blogging. Built by Instant Technologies, hosted by Connectria

Carl Tyler went and built a whole live blogging site for a few us to give you immediate feedback as the Opening General Session goes on.  He built it in a matter of days and I stepped up and we are hosting the server to run it.

We will be running the latest and greatest of Domino/Sametime with Carl's custom code.

Ed Brill already announced it and will be participating..

So here is the site, it will be live shortly....


LotusphereLive
    for this posting

    On Friday, January 19th, 2007   by Chris Miller        

I noticed I had a couple links for the past two episodes cached wrong. They are fixed and RSS updated.

Note that I am doubling up Ed Brill and Akiba Saeedi in the same podcast in a few minutes
    for this posting

    On Thursday, January 18th, 2007   by Chris Miller        

A couple of Lotusphere2007 items

I had already gone back and adjusted some past postings to include the Lotusphere2007 tag for Technorati and also Flickr stuff.  But today Ed sent out a reminder that not only can we use this tag for ourselves to search for Lotusphere2007 info across the blogs, but the press will be using the same Lotusphere2007 tag to look for quotes, stories and other info.  So make sure you put the Lotusphere2007 tag everywhere you can :-)

Also, if you have not visited the LDD Lotusphere2007 page, you need to do so.  It highlights the blogs, podcasts and other events.  A great page.

Notice how I snuck that Lotusphere2007 tag in far too many times for one posting?

    for this posting

    On Tuesday, January 16th, 2007   by Chris Miller        

My Lotusphere 2007 activities I know so far



Information on the podcasts, interviews and sponsors are listed by clicking the image above.  As well as where you can find me at certain times of the week.

You can follow the link to this static page I will be updating regularly.  I will also put a link on the navigation somewhere.

    for this posting

    On Wednesday, January 10th, 2007   by Chris Miller        

Announcement: I will be SpeedGeeking at Lotusphere 2007

Ed talked about the recent announcement of the SpeedGeeking un-conference session this year.  You can see all the details here for the time being.  The full list of topics and speakers has not been announced but you are getting a good idea.  I am scared to see Wild Bill, Paul Mooney and myself (with others) in a room talking at the same time, but we will see how it goes.

My topic you ask?  I am coming up with a catchy title if I can

    for this posting

    On Tuesday, January 9th, 2007   by Chris Miller        

Announcement: Installing and Administrating the Sametime Gateway Guide book release

Installing and Administrating the Sametime Gateway

Industry expert Chris Miller delves deep into the installation and configuration of the Lotus Sametime Gateway. Follow along as he walks you step by step in how to get your Lotus Sametime environment connected directly to the public instant messaging providers with ease. He also covers management and network topology placement in this first book in the series, "Consultant in your Pocket Guides".

Special pricing through Lotusphere 2007!!

    for this posting

    On Monday, January 8th, 2007   by Chris Miller        

Availabot... standing at attention when your buddies come online

Apparently Carl talked about this months ago, I just read about it, :-)

A company in the UK has taken presence notification to a new level through
Availabot.  Instead of getting a pop-up, sound or notice that your AOL/iChat buddy has come online, you have a puppet that stands up from a connected USB port.  You need as many ports as buddies you want to stand at attention.
Availabot plugs into your computer USB, stands to attention when your chat buddy comes online, and falls down when they go away.  It's a presence-aware, peripheral-vision USB toy


Apparently you can preload them with your data and even have them customized to look like yourself.  Interesting concept for handing out at conferences
Availabot stores the IM details of the friend it represents in the puppet itself.  That means that you can buy a few, load them with your own IM screen name and service, and give them out like business cards to your closest contacts.


It seems to be ready for Mac with Windows on the way.  Could you see the overzealous CIO with a room of 1000 of these to see how many employees are online in Sametime working with a Sametime Gateweay hooked up?  I found they even have a
youTube video of it working.  Now that theory I just had really gets some humor.
    for this posting

    On Tuesday, January 2nd, 2007   by Chris Miller        

Bruce sent me a Mac widget for the recent podcast, now I need a Mac

Thanks to Bruce for taking the time to drag and drop or whatever it is this thing does to make widgets.

IdoNotes Podcast Widget

    for this posting

    On Tuesday, December 26th, 2006   by Chris Miller        

Finalists announced for Lotus Awards this morning.. congrats to Instant Technologies, PSC and Ascendant

Here are the categories and winners

Best Messaging and Collaborative Solution
  • Intravision (denmark) - winner
  • cypoint systems innovation AB (sweden)
  • Gaia Informaitca (brazil)

Bext Contextual Collaboration Solution
  • Adrenalin eSystem Limited (India)
  • Brookstone Technoloiiges pty limited (Australia)
  • relavis Corporation (US) - winner
 
Best Portal Solution
  • Flowring Technology Corp (Taiwan)
  • Kryos Systems (Canada) - winner
  • Gemini Systems (USA)

Best Industry Solution
  • Bat-groupware GmbH (Austria) - winner
  • Engram Gmbh (Germany)
  • Siemens Communications (USA)

Best Midmarket Solution
  • GEDYS Intraware Gmbh (Germany)
  • DLI.tools Inc (Canda)
  • VDoc Software (France) - winner

Best Tool and Utility Solution
  • Idokiorro Mobile, Inc (Canada)
  • Instant Technologies (USA) - winner
  • Smartdot Technolgoiies Co, LTD (China)

Best IBM Lotus Sametime Collaboration Extension
  • Radvision, Inc (USA)
  • iscood AG (Switzerland)
  • Imixs Software Solutions Gmbh (Germany) - winner

Best IBM Workplace Forms Solution
  • ITM Associates Inc (USA)
  • Spheronic (Austrialia) - winner
  • Enterprise Information Management, inc (USA)

Best People-centric SOA Solution
  • PSC Group, LLC (USA) - winner
  • Ascentant Technology (USA)
  • Peace System Integration (Taiwan)

Distinguished Achievement Awards NA
  • TamGroup (USA)
  • Ascendant Technology (USA) - winner
  • E2 Consulting (USA)

    for this posting

    On Thursday, December 21st, 2006   by Chris Miller        

December LotusUserGroup.org Sys Admin newsletter is released

You can now receive it in HTML or straight text, it is all up to your profile on the LotusUserGroup site.  So head on over and get your recent copy right here

This month I had a nice array of things I wrote (I like to think) from Hannover to Sametime hardware sizing.
    for this posting

    On Tuesday, December 19th, 2006   by Chris Miller        

Listen Up!

Listen Up !

Find me, Bruce or Julian for one of our super cool t-shirts for Lotusphere 2007. But you have to be a subscriber or new subscriber to our podcasts to get your hands on one of these!

Front of Shirt

Back of shirt

    for this posting

    On Tuesday, December 12th, 2006   by Chris Miller        

IdoNotes podcasting announcement: Taking limited advertisers for Lotusphere 2007

I have already filled some slots before it went public in this announcement, but I plan on taking advantage of technology and doing an onslaught of podcasts from Lotusphere.  Here is the advertising announcement that went out in email

IdoNotes Podcast Advertising Lotusphere 2007.pdf  <---- launch the pdf from here

Please forward all responses to IdoNotes at netscape.net

Note: Filled are two of the opening session slots and a few random others throughout the week already

    for this posting

    On Monday, December 11th, 2006   by Chris Miller        

CertFX is looking for some exam content developers

We are looking for test developers for the following exams:
 
 
* 190-756 Using Web Services in IBM Lotus Domino 7 Applications
* 190-738 Developing Applications with IBM Lotus Sametime 7.5
* 070-262 TS: Microsoft Office Live Communications Server 2005 - Implementing, Managing, and Troubleshooting
* 000-252 WebSphere Application Server V6.0 Network Deployment, Basic Administration
* 190-824 Building Portlets with IBM Websphere Portlet Factory 6
* 190-822 Creating Application Components with IBM Workplace 6 Forms
* 190-826 Creating Application Components with IBM Workplace Designer 6

* 000-255 Developing with IBM Rational Application Developer for WebSphere Software V6.0
* 000-825 IBM WebSphere Portal V6.0, Deployment and Administration
* 000-829 IBM WebSphere Portal V6.0, Application Development

 
 
 
If you are interested, or know anyone who may be interested, please have them contact us ....   if you happened to work on the real exam for any of these, we unfortunately, can not use you as a resource.
 
We can either pay on a per-question basis or a fixed price.
 
Thank you,
 
 
Jason Collier
support@certfx.com

    for this posting

    On Friday, December 8th, 2006   by Chris Miller        

Analysts say Exchange 2007 coupled with Sharepoint 2007 is threat to Lotus

First, from ZDNet Asia comes this little quip:
According to Peter O'Kelly, research director at analyst company Burton Group, the cocktail of Microsoft's Exchange 2007 and SharePoint Server 2007 will present "unprecedented competition" to IBM in messaging and collaboration software. He was speaking to ZDNet Asia on the sidelines of a press briefing, held Wednesday--a day before Microsoft launches Windows Vista, Office 2007 and Exchange 2007 for business customers on Nov. 30.

O'Kelly said: "Microsoft has never had the combination of very strong enterprise messaging and collaboration software before. So, I think Microsoft is going to be a new competitive threat to IBM."

He noted that Microsoft has historically been strong in enterprise messaging, but not in collaboration. "[Exchange] hasn't really approached what you could do with Lotus Notes, which is a combination of enterprise messaging and document-oriented workflow."


I am not sure how he derives this from announcements only and no testing, but I am curious to see how it falls into place.  Now the licensing for Unified Communications, which covers antispam, antivirus and other items makes sense when Microsoft has been out buying such companies.  So rolling it into one package does make a nice offering.  However, most companies are already embedded into appliances and other installed applications for filtering and service.  But, when those comes up for maintenance or renewal, some will jump ship to a reduced, single cost point that offers all if it works right.
    for this posting

    On Tuesday, December 5th, 2006   by Chris Miller        

Announcing the Sametime Gateway ( yes they changed the name for RTC Gateway)

You should start to see the website updated on Lotus and I got the ok to change my slides for Admin2006 and the Real-Time Collaboration and Mobility Seminar.  They wanted to make the name more synonymous and part of the Sametime family.  Makes sense.  I hear rumblings of a fixpack for both Sametime and the gateway coming too.
    for this posting

    On Monday, November 20th, 2006   by Chris Miller        

Stop the presses, the RTC Gateway is official! I have tons of comments

Adam talks about it here

developerWorks talk about it right here
    for this posting

    On Tuesday, November 14th, 2006   by Chris Miller        

The podcasts are now on Podzinger for keyword searching

I talked about this was back in March 22-23 of this year.  Basically they take your podcast feed and through a speech recognition technology, pull the transcript of your podcast and make it available for searching.  You can search all the podcasts they have listed for a keyword and automatically have those downloaded for you at any time, or search all episodes of a particular podcast for keywords.

Now the cool part... you can jump right to that exact spot in the podcast by clicking on the words.

I learned two things:
  1. I have to speak a little clearer to get the recognition of more words
  2. Technology is not the best thing.  Items like site.xml's built turn into mills built

So take a run on over and let your fingers do the searching for your ears.
    for this posting

    On Saturday, November 4th, 2006   by Chris Miller        

When Lotus business partners step up to the plate

This is when working as a team helps the customer.  We have had an issue the past week with a customer's hosted environment and bizarre amounts of increased spam getting past the filters.  Well we found a couple issues, like a company group being exposed to the Internet for mail routing that a spammer found.  But other deal with the new variations in how spammers are creating emails.  So working with the other partner, we were able to grab some additional rules and formulas they had created and implement those immediately.

Some of you are saying, hey that is what they do for a business.  But I am looking at it as they jumped onto a screen sharing meeting to make sure everything was fine (which it not been modified in months so we knew this was abnormal) and implemented some new features and things that are coming soon in a future release at the spur of the moment to keep their and our customer happy and functioning.

That is when you like telling people that you have multiple customers using their product with good success.  Bravo to the team at Granite Software today.
    for this posting

    On Friday, November 3rd, 2006   by Chris Miller        

Lotus Expeditor announcements in the press

Today made the official announcement of the move by IBM to take some of the .NET market with an open source alternative.
From Marketwire:
"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, vice president Lotus Software, IBM.


From Zdnet comes a little piece I liked on offline Sametime models:
Lotus Mobile Connect is software that gives people secure mobile access to Expeditor-based applications. It is designed to let people resume work they were doing with applications while offline, once they reconnect to a network. People who use IBM Lotus Sametime instant messaging, for example, can pick up where they left off without having to log back in.


It is set to be released this year according to the press releases, with no pricing announcement yet.  Pricing for something based on open source.  However taking away other market shares is always a bonus:
While companies that run Microsoft's database and client software will likely remain "Microsoft shops," Lotus Expeditor product manager Angus McIntyre said others may want to adopt IBM's software. He said it lets developers migrate from Visual Basic programming to Java, as well as tie into the upcoming Lotus Mobile Connect software.

    for this posting

    On Wednesday, November 1st, 2006   by Chris Miller        

Lotus announces EOS for 6.0.x versions

It looks like the last day of software maintenance (without extensions bought) will be April 30 2007 for versions
  • 6.0
  • 6.0.1
  • 6.0.2
  • 6.0.3
  • 6.0.4
  • 6.0.5

This mean no phone support, electronic support and software program fixes.  Spooky isn't it?

LEI is in there too for certain versions.  You can find the announcement here
    for this posting

    On Friday, October 20th, 2006   by Chris Miller        

The image has been created for iTunes, let’s vote

Update: Image 2 won and is in place...

Many thanks to Eric for the image choice for my iTunes podcast feed.  While he doesn't have his personal website up, you can reach him over here for some design expertise (yes it will cost).  So let us vote on image 1 or 2.  I like image 2 better since it has a slant to it.



IDoNotes_2.jpg
    for this posting

    On Monday, October 16th, 2006   by Chris Miller        

UPDATE: podcast.rss feed it fixed, I found the code error and fixed it myself

If you are still having issues or getting an error on iTunes, then delete and add the subscription again.  It comes down just fine now!
    for this posting

    On Tuesday, October 3rd, 2006   by Chris Miller        

The IBM Support Toolbar

While those of us in Firefox land apparently have to wait (it is under development), IBM now has the Support Toolbar for the brands to integrate into your browser.  Amazingly, Firefox extensions come out in the world like running water, so hopefully you don't have to wait long.

It might have come out a while ago, but I just ran across it.  You can even look down into specific brands, like Lotus to search only those site areas.  That is the key thing.

Image:The IBM Support Toolbar
    for this posting

    On Tuesday, October 3rd, 2006   by Chris Miller        

IdoNotes hits iTunes as a podcast subscription now

I finally got my RSS woes worked out thanks to some help form the boys at Taking Notes podcast. Yes that means Bruce.  It seems we use the same template but I had some category info and other tweaks to make to get it just right to meet their standards.

You will find the link on the left to subscribe, so off we go full run at it..
    for this posting

    On Monday, October 2nd, 2006   by Chris Miller        

Collaboration University Day 2 and announcement

Today was a jam packed day, just like KC with the most technical sessions taking place.  I saw too many happy faces and a lot of people looking like their brains had been overflowed.  Just like a university should do.

Now on for the news. Yesterday Ken Bisconti, Vice President Workplace, Portal and Collaboration Products had his opening session.  Now he made a comment we debated posting at first, but since it was said in front of people from 12 countries in a general forum, here is the snapshot that I am paraphrasing (yes that means not direct word for word but the whole thing in a very clear nutshell):
You will see the name Workplace being pulled from products and being shown as a strategy and direction.


Yes, the Workplace being removed from products, but very much the focus and strategy.  While I can see some industry analysts and other vendors taking a poke at this maneuver, I can also see the strategy position and stance in the marketplace.  Instead of seeing more and more Workplace products, you can then fold the Notes Domino name, Portal and other pieces under this strategy.  With the J2EE footprint in Sametime 7.5 and Hannover, it already existed in other product areas of Workplace.  So cross naming didn't work unless you take a step back and widen the umbrella.
    for this posting

    On Thursday, September 28th, 2006   by Chris Miller        

Check out the new ’podcastlet’ on TakingNotes. All about Collaboration University

Head on over, Bruce and I had a Skype chat in the evening last night.  We will try another tomorrow for more announcements.
    for this posting

    On Wednesday, September 13th, 2006   by Chris Miller        

I love seeing new schools pick up Lotus Notes

After the years of work with academic sites (and we still do), I enjoy seeing new public schools and universities pick up Lotus Notes as not just workflow and email, but as a major asset as this school has done with the LA Unified.  They have started new high tech schools.  One of which chose Notes as the collaborative back end. Smart instructors using the right software to teach kids to work smarter.
The district is involved in an ongoing process to transform its 55 high schools into small learning communities.

The 180 new tech students at Jordan High will work on project-based curriculum using computers and the Lotus Notes software.


Read more from CBS reporting...
    for this posting

    On Friday, September 8th, 2006   by Chris Miller        

Collaboration University is only 1 week away

Ok,  I am on vacation this week but had this set to publish today to remind you there is still some seats left (as of Fri Sep 1 when I wrote this) for Collaboration University in Kansas City, MO next week.  There is plenty of time to register for both there and London (for the end of September).

I think most of the discounts are over now, but that never stops you from going anywhere, now does it?

Get on over and register by clicking here or the image on the left.
    for this posting

    On Wednesday, September 6th, 2006   by Chris Miller        

Performance issue fixed for the blogs last Friday (before vacation)

Some tweaks here and there on the server side configuration for HTTP, a couple cleanup issues from blogs and changes over time and we are all better.
    for this posting

    On Tuesday, September 5th, 2006   by Chris Miller        

Sorry about the blog access for the past couple days, think we have it.. maybe, maybe not

It seems that blog comment spammers are getting smarter.  We were seeing comment spam even starting in e stats databases that some of us run for DominoBlog.  That you will soon find in 7.0.2 of course.  However, while upgrading our main blogs to 3.x in version that had spam blocking for comments, many forgot to upgrade the stats database also.  So we were getting an influx.

There were some other smaller side issues we were cleaning up, but the lesson here is preventative maintenance for all!
    for this posting

    On Wednesday, August 30th, 2006   by Chris Miller        

Tandenberg announces video integration for Sametime 7.5

A BusinessWire news article showing the growing partners seeing the value in Sametime 7.5 integration into their products:
Lotus Sametime users with a PC webcam will be able to instantly connect to other video users, checking user presence and availability through the Lotus Sametime 7.5 Connect client, as well as escalate an IM or web-conferencing session into a real-time, face-to-face meeting. In addition, video calls can be launched from a PC to any standards-based, business-quality endpoint, further leveraging existing investment in video.


Pretty soon you will be able to have any kind of VOIP or video conference it seems with all the integration going on.  Avaya and the others already included in that mix.
    for this posting

    On Tuesday, August 29th, 2006   by Chris Miller        

Call to all Sametime 7.5 Plug-in Developers for Collaboration University

As you know, Collaboration University is right around the corner.  Some of our sessions will include talks of plug-in capability. We thought, what better than to demonstrate the Business Partner and customer power?  Your plug-ins would not be disseminated to people in any way, but full credit would be given during the session.

A nice free marketing move for you and a live demo tool for us.  While the samples are out there and a few that are being put together, I know there is a wider array people are working on.  I know some are not finished, but even a skeleton would be a great start.

Email myself "IdoNotes at Netscape.net " and let me know!  If you have not registered hit the image link on the left, and bring some friends.
    for this posting

    On Friday, August 25th, 2006   by Chris Miller        

LotusUserGroup Sys Admin newsletter for August 2006 is out (with a special new item)

You can go over here to get the newsletter for you slacker non-subscribers.  But, there is a special little tidbit at the top.  This issue is available as an mp3 podcast Podcast  and will be hooked to iTunes shortly.  You have to log in for now to grab the podcast.  This was a first attempt and I don't think it was half bad.  Which makes it better than half good.
    for this posting

    On Tuesday, August 22nd, 2006   by Chris Miller        

*cough* Sametime 7.5 released? *cough*

'Nuff said
    for this posting

    On Friday, August 18th, 2006   by Chris Miller        

Lotus announces new Domino Security certification. Is it for you?

I saw the formal announcement hit the newswires.  Lotus talked about this coming on a webcast a month or so ago and it has finally seen the light.  It seems this has some more qualifications to even pass the test compared to previous ones.
New IBM Security Certification
IBM has just released a new designation for Notes and Domino 7 professionals. The new certification is named IBM Certified Advanced Security Professional - Notes and Domino 7. The single exam for this designation is Exam 755: IBM Lotus Notes Domino 7 Implementing and Administering Security. You must first be an IBM Certified Administrator for Lotus Notes and Domino 7 before you can earn this title.


So the Lotus site goes on to state that you must be a CLP in Domino 7 and then take this exam.  Here is the part i found interesting:
You must receive a passing score for each of these areas plus you must receive an overall passing score


So there are 3 sections listed and you have to pass each one to get the certification unlike previous exams.  Nice touch!

Do you see the value in this exam?
    for this posting

    On Wednesday, August 16th, 2006   by Chris Miller        

Sametime on Linux server, delivered to your doorstep

Adam G has all the info and press releases being updated on his blog.  What does this announcement mean to us?  Not quite sure yet.  We don't get as many requests for Linux and Domino as one would think.  Yes, we have some, just not as many as people would lead you to believe.  Then again, you still pay about the same rate for a supported and licensed Linux server.  The desktops are a whole other story.  With Sametime Connect 7.5 plus Notes on the desktop, you are now holding the power of change and negotiation in your hand.
    for this posting

    On Monday, August 14th, 2006   by Chris Miller        

Carl pointed out my comment entries were in reverse date order

Therefore making it hard to reference someone in responses when a new person posted.  So I reversed the order from the DominoBlog default and when you comment it goes in the proper order
    for this posting

    On Friday, August 11th, 2006   by Chris Miller        

Ed hooked me onto the new Plazes badge

Geek toy alert: The new Plazes badge runs on Flash with color options and built in history.  Check it out on the right while on my homepage here

I had to update since Ed took you right to one of my postings where I had not changed the frame yet
    for this posting

    On Wednesday, August 9th, 2006   by Chris Miller        

IBM Partnerworld 2007 moves from Vegas to St Louis

Well certainly no travel excuses for me for next years event...
Dear Valued Business Partner:

Mark your calendars! PartnerWorld 2007 will be held April 29 - May 2, 2007 in St. Louis, Missouri. Yes, based on your feedback, we've changed the date and venue for IBM's premier channel event. Attend PartnerWorld 2007 and explore this culturally diverse city on the banks of the Mississippi River. Known as the Gateway City, St. Louis is easily accessible with a wide range of flights offered from across the United States and abroad.


    for this posting

    On Monday, August 7th, 2006   by Chris Miller        

Sys Admin newsletter for July 2006 is out

You can find it right here if you don't subscribe yet
    for this posting

    On Wednesday, July 26th, 2006   by Chris Miller        

Customer looking for Domino developer with right to hire (in New Jersey)

Send me an email if you are interested and I will pass it along to them.  This is for someone in/around New Jersey though.
    for this posting

    On Sunday, July 23rd, 2006   by Chris Miller        

Announcement: Collaboration University

Have you ever wanted to drop the sales hype and see a strictly technical conference on Sametime and Quickplace? This now exists at Collaboration University brought to you by a collaboration between some Lotus Business Partners and IBM.  I am one of those partners participating and presenting at this conference of awesome speakers and knowledge (no I am not talking about myself)

Block your calendars of now to attend in either the United States (Kansas City means cheap domestic flights) or London.  Both dates are in September.

Here are some of the highlights of the conference:
  • Deep-dive into Sametime 7.5 and preview Quickplace 8.0
  • Programming code examples
  • More challenging as the conference progresses.  Meaning apply what you just learned and grow your knowledge, not jump in too far at first
  • All the sessions are from Business Partners that specialize in these products or the IBM persons responsible for bringing them to you


Now here are the bonuses:
  • Dinner with the speakers for some of the first that select that option. (See the site for details)
  • Phone follow-up consultation with the expert of your choice from the conference (See the site for details)


Check out the site to gather all the information, including early-bird discounts.



Image:Announcement:  Collaboration University

    for this posting

    On Monday, July 10th, 2006   by Chris Miller        

Here is something new in 7.0.2 I read about..

I thought this deserved some attention from us that run environments where users cannot stop copying people from the main NAB into their person address book and then complain when routing stops working after we do a name change
Mail, Calendar, and Scheduling improvements
Performance improvements made to the Mail, Calendar, and Scheduling functions include:
  • The "typeahead" feature now looks into the server address book first, instead of the user's personal address book

    for this posting

    On Thursday, July 6th, 2006   by Chris Miller        

Sorry for the unannounced quiet... I took a vacation (a real one)

Usually I announce it or sneak in a posting, but unfortunately there was no Internet where I was.  I look back and realize I needed the break to only use the laptop to watch a couple movies and then never start it up again.

The trip took me across to the Caribbean, assorted islands and such.  No, not a cruise.  Just island life, snorkeling, scuba diving, dining, dancing and a slew of other things like Tree-topping.  If you don't know that one I can explain later.

So back to business and updates on Sametime 7.5 (since the beta is public) and a few other topics.
    for this posting

    On Wednesday, July 5th, 2006   by Chris Miller        

Yes the US lost in World Cup today, we are out!

Oh the pain of watching us hit the goalpost.  I figured I would post before Carl made fun anyway.  Here is a couple screenshots of the field and shots on goal.

Image:Yes the US lost in World Cup today, we are out!

Image:Yes the US lost in World Cup today, we are out!
    for this posting

    On Thursday, June 22nd, 2006   by Chris Miller        

Well since the cat is out of the bag.. for Sametime 7.5 testing

Interestingly enough they sent the link for the web conference and left the Sametime Connect 7.5 download there in advance for the upcoming conference .  I am not quite sure (on a personal note) if that was the right choice since there is no formal reporting mechanism for these users yet.  That link should have been disabled and the package removed until the announcement was made.

All this is my opinion, but dealing with that many test users on a test server with test code is going to get loud.

You can catch all the announcements on Vowe, Ed, Bruce and Chris W at this point.
    for this posting

    On Tuesday, June 20th, 2006   by Chris Miller        

I recevied this question about Microsoft Exchange 12 (2007 or whatever number you wish to call it)

It was brought to my attention from an email that Microsoft is offering beta 2 of Exchange 12 as 32-bit and 64-bit.  The question posed was does this mean that they will now offer it as 32-bit also when they ever release it?  Umm not apparently.  That is for the testing purposes only.  According to their own pages, and we link and quote..
Q.        Why isn't Microsoft also delivering a 32-bit version of Exchange Server 2007?
A.        Exchange Server 2007 is designed to be a stable, reliable enterprise messaging platform that delivers the fundamentals of e-mail and calendaring while providing innovative new capabilities. These new capabilities make the messaging system more cost effective and scalable for your organization and at the same time more productive for users accessing the system. Simply put, given the new capabilities of Exchange Server 2007, Microsoft could not guarantee a high-quality 32-bit version.


Q.        Will I need Microsoft Windows Server 2003 x64 to run Exchange Server 2007?

A        Yes, to deploy Exchange Server 2007, you will need an x64 edition of Windows Server 2003 or Windows Server 2003 R2. Volume-licensing customers are free to exchange their 32-bit version of Windows for the 64-bit version at any time, using their media kits.


So let us not forget that Exchange is 64-bit, but the operating system itself, and the hardware to support it is not 64-bit people.  Count em, add em up, spend that cash and welcome to "stable, fundamental and reliable enterprise messaging".

Wait, does that mean they are saying their past products are not even fundamental or reliable?

    for this posting

    On Monday, June 19th, 2006   by Chris Miller        

Off to the last US city for the ND7 Upgrade Seminar

We are on hold for more cities at this time, but if you are one of the large bunch singed up for this stop, see you shortly in Chicago!

I will blog as usual from there.

    for this posting

    On Wednesday, June 7th, 2006   by Chris Miller        

No surprise in this email I received today..

What growth?

You recently signed up for the Radicati Group's "Microsoft Exchange Installed Base & Forecast Growth" Teleconference whihc was scheduled for Thursday, June 22nd.  This teleconference has been cancelled and will be rescheduled to take place later in the year.  You will receive an email about it when a date is set.  We apologize for any incovenience.


Is there too many conversions to Domino from Exchange going on?  People running scared of the 64-bit requirement of the future?  No one really has it installed as true Exchange licenses and they are counting every freaking Office license sold?

Whew, you can tell I am about to hit the road for a few days for another conference.
    for this posting

    On Tuesday, June 6th, 2006   by Chris Miller        

Some press announcements consolidated down

  • IBM and RIM announce a stronger partnership to improve performance and extend more application access thorough Web Services in Domino 7
  • IBM announces an upcoming free 20 hour installation and configuration support for Websphere Everyplace.  It includes designing, architecting and installing.  Nice touch to get more usage from the product.  They will be using partners for this free 20 hours as well.
  • If you happen to use Whale Communications for your reverse-proxy or as an air-gap device in front of Domino for SSL support, they were snapped up by Microsoft a couple weeks ago.  I picture their Domino support dwindling like previous anti-virus providers that got bought too.
  • MySpace annouced their own IM client.  Just what we need, more reason for people in the free world to live on that site.  It is reported to be the fatest growing place on the Internet.

    for this posting

    On Monday, June 5th, 2006   by Chris Miller        

Sametime 7.5 slated for 2007? Network World says so..

I received the recent edition of NetworkWorld and an article there shows not only the waging word war between Lotus and Microsoft over backwards compatibility and such, but a nice grid of release dates for Hannover and Domino Next.

 Unfortunately the grid in not open online in the article itself, but I thought that they were trying to sneak the 7.5 of Sametime out this year.
    for this posting

    On Friday, May 26th, 2006   by Chris Miller        

For all my hosted bloggers on DX, 3.02 is now on the server and runing on a few of our blogs


    for this posting

    On Thursday, May 25th, 2006   by Chris Miller        

LotusUserGroup.org announcements (one of which you will hear first tomorrow)

The May Sys Admin Newsletter is out for some time if you had subscribed for email delivery.  Here is the good news!! The profile ability has been enhanced so you can subscribe to only certain newsletters.  So go sign up for admin, dev or all the others. No excuses now in not getting only what you want.  But, if you missed May you can find it here. (for those that asked)

Second announcement has to do with the webcast tomorrow on certification.  I am told there will be a brand new announcement made first on that webcast.  So go and get signed up right here.  Ask all your certification questions from the program managers and see what is coming in the future.
    for this posting

    On Tuesday, May 23rd, 2006   by Chris Miller        

Interesting twist, Trillian dropped from Google Pack

I never found a need for the Google Pack (but some family members did), so I was a bit surprised to see Trillian pulled from it.  No explanation exists currently.  But I use the Sametime plug-in with Trillian sometimes when I am running plenty of other apps and don't need the Sametime Connect client sucking up some memory.
    for this posting

    On Monday, May 22nd, 2006   by Chris Miller        

Found the cause of the crash/hang the other night..

When I first reported this, it was too late at night to worry about reasons.  Last night the issue started creeping up again right after 10pm.  Low and behold, my eye caught some console jargon.  There was some maintenance attempting to run starting at 10pm.  So couple that with the traffic the server gets (thanks to all for that), it was causing it to run slower than a turtle chewing salt water taffy.

So issue resolved on that end for good, the 7.0.1 code is smoking along great and the world of the blog-o-sphere is at peace once again.
    for this posting

    On Thursday, May 18th, 2006   by Chris Miller        

Sorry for the brief overnight outage... reasons

First the server hung and then went into crash mode.  Not sure why, I wasn't taking the time to figure that out right away.  Unfortunately the bloggers on the server are popular so the stats databases needed some consistency checking, a lot of it.

So I took the server offline and performed it from the command prompt to speed it up.  I also took this opportunity to make the move to 7.0.1 on the server code.  So all is well, the server is smoking again and running the latest GA.
    for this posting

    On Wednesday, May 17th, 2006   by Chris Miller        

The May 2006 Sys Admin Newsletter from LotusUserGroup.org is out

Live link to be placed here as soon as it shows on the site too.
    for this posting

    On Tuesday, May 16th, 2006   by Chris Miller        

Cerulean Studios announces the upcoming Trillian "Astra" release

I am curious to know what new features and look the updated client will have.  Interesting they are not going with a point release (4.0) number and instead moved to a name.

Read more on the Trillian blog site itself.  I found out too late to be a beta tester.
    for this posting

    On Wednesday, May 10th, 2006   by Chris Miller        

My Upcoming schedule for two weeks..

This week it is off to London for the ND7 Upgrade Seminar.  If you have no caught this seminar yet, it is getting top reviews from each city we have done.  So far, there is two left including London before we see where the needs are past that.

Then May 8-12th I will be in Boston for Admin2006.  I have a few sessions in the order as follows over the days:
  • Domino Domain Monitoring (DDM) half day jumpstart
  • Shaping Your Environment's LDAP Design
  • Demystifying Domino Domain Monitoring (normal session)
  • SMTP Security and Configuration Troubleshooting in Domino Lab (1 of 2)
  • SMTP Security and Configuration Troubleshooting in Domino Lab (2 of 2)
  • Leveraging DUCS for Unified Messaging
  • Ask the Experts
  • Manipulating the Notes.ini
  • Managing Citrix on Domino

So track me down and say hello and introduce yourself
    for this posting

    On Monday, May 1st, 2006   by Chris Miller        

Stop the blog (hold the presses): Ray Ozzie states that Lotus Notes was designed for an earlier era..and more

GCN: Microsoft sounds like it is doing everything it can to lure all remaining Lotus Notes users to Exchange.  How does that make you feel?

Ozzie: Although I've got very warm feelings for the product, the team that built it, the partners who built business around it, and the customers invested in it, Notes was designed at its core for an earlier era.  Today there is a far greater set of choices, and in some cases, a far more appropriate set of choices.

Notes was designed for the world of the early '90's - a "re-engineering the corporation" era where the mandate was to utilize technology to share information across departments within an enterprise or government organization.


This comes from an article you can find right here that came out on Apr 24 2006.  He was asked later in the article about choosing between Lotus and Exchange and was honest enough to say that it would not be easy or sometimes feasible to migrate applications to Exchange.  So why the change, well the article was to be on Groove in more ways than not.  But the interviewer took the Lotus approach right out of the starting blocks to stir some controversy.  There you go, consider it stirred.

There is always choices in everything you do.  I honestly don't find that Lotus is the right answer, but I haven't found Microsoft to be the one either in those.  How could Groove benefit from integration with Sharepoint?  Not sure, but he states it.  Synchronizing seamlessly?  I think Lotus does that, quite well with compression, encryption and grabbing smaller documents first so you can start acting and working right away.  Need to get a doc to everyone?  Upload it once and send a doclink, don't pass the whole do around everywhere.  Sounds like a terrible waste of bandwidth and time.  Need the data via the web, no need for alternate server.  Need secure email, no need for alternate server, HTTP, IMAP or native NRPC.  Need a swift kick in the ass for having to deploy 64-bit architecture on Windows only?

Oops that is tomorrows posting I have queued up.
    for this posting

    On Wednesday, April 26th, 2006   by Chris Miller        

Workplace Services Express 2.6 hits the streets May 19th

  • More users means more capacity means happier people
  • DB2 Express included
  • Workplace Designer included
  • Domino 7 support
  • Exchange 2003 support  who cares  hahaha
  • Upgrade tools for 2.5 versions
  • Pricing and licensing looks the same

    for this posting

    On Wednesday, April 26th, 2006   by Chris Miller        

’Live Clipboard’ - a Ray Ozzie special

I was reading an article on a new project (yes announced a month ago) that Ray and Microsoft threw together.  This comes with the announcements of all the Live! product announcements.
Live Clipboard uses a simple metaphor, the Windows Clipboard, to let users copy and paste live information - for example, another user's calendar - from one site to another without losing the link to its data source.  The clipboard uses Real Simple Syndication (RSS) and the Simple Sharing Extensions (SSE) to handle data feeds.

I love the idea of moving and copying web data objects without losing where it came from.  But does this allow content to be shown as someone else's with no proper credit?  Can you simply use these to glue things together? They state they have enough interest that a draft specification has been tossed together too.  So this moves beyond taking web text like I do for the posting here and referencing it, it moves into meshing that data with my own and making it part of my entry.  While maintaining the link and integrity of the original posting.
 
Myself not being a developer, I read this with a different twist.  Some read it as a way to move data easier and bring systems together, I see it as a way for someone to grab your stuff, mark it up some and make it their own while still pointing to you and your resources serving it up.  I might have to reword that.  Here is Ray's comments from his own blog entry:
Where's the user model that would enable a user to copy and paste structured information from one website to another?

Where's the user model that would enable a user to copy and paste structured information from a website to an application running on a PC or another kind of device, or vice-versa?

And finally, where's the user model that would enable a user to 'wire the web', by enabling publish-and-subscribe scenarios web-to-web, or web-to-PC?


On Ray's blog he states there is good threads and feedback, but you still can't comment back on his directly, bummer.
    for this posting

    On Wednesday, April 19th, 2006   by Chris Miller        

The April 2006 Sys Admin Newsletter from LotusUserGroup.org is out

You can find, read, digest and comment on it over here.
    for this posting

    On Tuesday, April 18th, 2006   by Chris Miller        

IBM announced the Domino 7 Certification elective exams

If you have not seen them yet, you can also get grandfathered in if you took any of them from the Domino 6 series.
According to the company, electives for the IBM Certified Advanced Application Developer track will be:
  • LotusScript exam
  • JavaScript exam
  • Web Services exam
Those in the IBM Certified Advanced System Administrator track will have the following options:
  • Managing Domino Web Servers exam
  • Sametime 7.5
I would look for some changes on the Sametime 7.5 exam since it has not been updated since version 3 days though.
    for this posting

    On Tuesday, April 18th, 2006   by Chris Miller        

I hate being sick

enough said...ugh
    for this posting

    On Tuesday, April 11th, 2006   by Chris Miller        

Shhh, I am running DominoBlog 3.0.1

P.S.  I also have inline comments in place now
    for this posting

    On Thursday, April 6th, 2006   by Chris Miller        

Stunning silence, that should have happened long ago

As Ed pointed out, and Steve Castledine let loose himself, the creator of my blog template (DominoBlog) has been assimilated by IBM.  That means the blog template that they promised to put into Domino natively will be something I have years of experience with.  From a tiny template that did awesome things, to a full blown enterprise blogging interface in the recent 3.0 release.

So send congrats to Steve on his announcement posting.
    for this posting

    On Tuesday, April 4th, 2006   by Chris Miller        

People actually read this? A PodZinger follow-up

Talk about surprises, I found this in the IdoNotes mailbox from the PodZinger article I did:
Hey there, Chris.

Just wanted to let you know that Taking Notes is now available through PodZinger.  We wanted to make sure this was made available, as you noted you couldn't on your post.  We're constantly scouring the Web to find the even expanding world of video and audio podcasts.

http://podzinger.com/results.jsp?q=%22Taking+Notes%22&col=allpods

Cheers,
Nathaniel


So if you like Taking Notes but want a certain point, there you go.  Searchable.  Thanks for PodZinger for such a quick reponse.
    for this posting

    On Thursday, March 23rd, 2006   by Chris Miller        

I noticed my archive list was getting too big

So I modified it into a link and a template instead over on the left.  I also added inside the same template the ability to view posts by category.  Not the prettiest UI yet, but serves exactly what it should if you really need to view my material by month instead of searching in the upper right corner.
    for this posting

    On Wednesday, March 22nd, 2006   by Chris Miller        

Podzinger, cool way to search podcasts by keywords

I read about Podzinger in Network World and took a peek.  I tested it looking for Taking Notes from OpenNTF to see if they had done this yet.  Even though they didn't pop up, I was quite impressed the way you could click on any word after doing a search and the podcast you found would start from that exact point.  You could even watch it scroll through the podcast timeline looking for that point.  Stop and start was available, even links to the download the entire podcast or grab their RSS feeds.

Then I realized they are just starting out.  It uses a speech recognition software to "read" the podcast and then make searchable text on the site.  Quite amazing and hits on Lotus Notes yielded quite a few accurate results of people talking about Notes in their shop or elsewhere.

So if you podcast or think you might, get listed.  A great way to find content.
    for this posting

    On Wednesday, March 22nd, 2006   by Chris Miller        

The March 2006 Sys Admin Newsletter from LotusUserGroup.org is out

You can find, read, digest and comment on it over here.
    for this posting

    On Tuesday, March 21st, 2006   by Chris Miller        

More on CCH1 code people want for the Sametime fix

I had this on hold since 3/3/06 and forgot to publish it.  Shame, shame on me.  Plus I had to check the publication rights to the entry below

"CCH1 is not yet available.  We have been told that it should be out sometime next week.  It was pushed back because xxxxx  xxx xxxx xxxxxxxx xxxxx xxxxx with the Notes Client and the development team wanted to include them in the CCH rather than having a CCH2 come out soon after CCH1."


It also followed with this (keep in mind these are never hard dates and should not be taken as such)
A server side hotfix is available for all platforms for effected customers via standard support channels; so if you have a support contract - and you are actually affected by this bug - call support and get it
  • A client side fix will be included in Notes 7.0.1 Cumulative Client Hotfix (CCH) 1 due out by end of March 2006 (possibly sooner), available for effected customers via standard support channels - so once again if you have Notes clients affected by this bug, and if you have a support contract, call support and get it
  • This fix will be included in Domino 7.0.1 Fix Pack (FP) 1 due out in 2Q06; I have heard that this is probably around late April, but don't hold me to it
  • This client and server fix will also be in the next Maintenance Release, 7.0.2 due out 3Q06

    for this posting

    On Wednesday, March 8th, 2006   by Chris Miller        

Announcing a new blog

The launch is official of  IdoWorkplace.com and the postings have begun.  It will be a shared event of a couple instructors (including me) that are certified to teach the WCS 2.5 classes and are certified in both areas of the product already. (Messaging and Team Collaboration for WCS)

I also decided to move my postings and info for the Workplace Managed Client to that site for those focusing in that areas as well.  I have been playing with it and have some impressions.

It makes my mind easier knowing people get exactly what they expect at each blog site.  There might be some cross posting or linking as needed
    for this posting

    On Thursday, February 23rd, 2006   by Chris Miller        

Feb 2006 Sys Admin Newsletter is out..

Happy reading..
    for this posting

    On Wednesday, February 22nd, 2006   by Chris Miller        

Sorry for the brief outage, had to do a quick MS update, called reboot

Plus we are banging away at the memory like the server is offering free expresso.

  Memory upgrades scheduled Thursday in the rotation
    for this posting

    On Tuesday, February 21st, 2006   by Chris Miller        

Blog template is updated..

You won't see too much of  a change just yet, as most was on the back end.  But I will be incorporating the trackbacks shortly along with in-line comments.  Technorati pings and comment validation are already in place though.  As well as notification.

 Continue Reading here" Blog template is updated.." »
    for this posting

    On Monday, February 6th, 2006   by Chris Miller        

Getting ready to make the move to DominoBlog 3 template..

It has been out from Steve Castledine but I was swamped for a while.  So I am taking IdoNotes to V3 and anyone else that I host that wants to go let me know...

Info on the template can be found here
    for this posting

    On Monday, February 6th, 2006   by Chris Miller        

Important information about your Lotusphere badge (email that was stuck in the spam filter)

I think I will leave it broken :-)  Means less spam mail and phone calls.  Wait, I use a mail-in database and voice mailbox on my registration, no matter


*************
Dear Chris Miller,

If you experience difficulty having your conference badge scanned in the
Product Showcase,  please go to the registration area outside the Product
Showcase or to the registration area in the WDW Dolphin Convention Foyer to
have the bar code on your badge corrected.

Thank you,
Lotusphere Registration

    for this posting

    On Sunday, January 22nd, 2006   by Chris Miller        

Sys Admin Newsletter Jan 2006 is out

You can find it right here.  If you get it, read it again, if you don't , then subscribe
    for this posting

    On Tuesday, January 17th, 2006   by Chris Miller        

Surprise for me, both my Lotusphere 2006 sessions are in the Bootcamp track

I was reviewing the site following along Ed, Bruce's and Vowe's postings about redirects and such and how IBM is handling the lotusphere.com redirect.  I just happened to wonder what else was in the Bootcamp track.  Well to my surprise and with a follow-up call to McGivney, it is true.  So once again here are my sessions and a brief outline of what I am covering.

HND104 Locking Down, Testing and Fully Understanding Your IBM Lotus Domino SMTP Environment
Jan 23 2:30-4:15pm   and then again   Jan 24  8:30-10:15am  both in Swan Mockingbird 1-2
This session will be interesting.  IBM had the test laptop shipped here to be configured.  I was happy to see a 2GB RAM machine with wireless and wired connections.  So it is configured, then shipped back and I am awaiting it to come back for one final peek of the image.  Each classroom is then to have 25 computers with 50 seats for the hands-on.  I am only doing this session twice so far, so sign up early!!  I am hoping this is worse than overflow and has to repeat some more.  I will try and cram as much information into this time as I can.  I am still finalizing a couple key areas and seeing how they work on the local laptops that have no connectivity.

BP402  Advanced Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) Infrastructure Design (Updated Again!)
Jan 23 1-2pm in Swan 3-4
This session has taken an evolution that past couple years.  The first time out is was decently received and worked more on Domino.  Then last year I took it a whole new direction at the request of some certain people and it moved into the top 20 sessions in rankings and it was a hell of a lot of fun.  So I am adding more technical content to meet the Bootcamp and adding more fun to make learning the LDAP side easier.  That was the best comments I had from all of the reviews, how making it fun and simple, made all the difficult areas finally understood. (Thanks to those that wrote that on their evals in one way or another)
    for this posting

    On Thursday, January 5th, 2006   by Chris Miller        

The IdoNotes blog year in review

I had not done one of these before, but as with everything else, there are always changes and new ideas to be completed.  I wanted to hit some highlights of the IdoNotes blog for 2005 and what I am thinking of for 2006.

Searches:
 I run both tracking for Google hits and blog searches.  I can easily say the top 2 for blog searches was
  1. Replication Topology (this was generated from the article series I did)
  2. ndyncfg or Dynamic Client Configuration (this was generated from the article series I did)
Now the rest I didn't bother to count since these were so far ahead, but coming close was Sametime and IM and then the notes.ini settings

Google hits were a bit tougher to gauge.  Long ago I used an image of gremlins for some posting, and that hit the Google image cache and I still get hits today for that.  So narrowing down the list was hard.  I was in the middle of making a new view and ran out of time getting the laptop ready for the new hands-on lab for Lotusphere.  So I will either guess in a bit or finish the view.

Changes:
  1. I had added the feed from DeveloperWorks onto the left frame, but they recently had some performance issues which was killing my load times.  I left the section but disabled the feed until they fix their issue or I want something else.
  2. I have started importing as much of my old E-Pro content I can find to make it available for searching.  It will be up shortly with the link on the left finding the keywords I embedded into each for a good listing of stored entries.  I am trying to get them in the publication date order also
  3. I added Skype contact links to the blog and I am enjoying goofing around on the video beta.
  4. I do not see the design changing soon, even though I have been tinkering with a rather cool design change, I like standing out with the blue and silver and the framework finally works the way I desire
  5. In-line comments are coming, for demand only.  I prefer the pop-up personally for that piece.
  6. Spam comment filtering will be on shortly.  I am starting to get a few scattered around
  7. Plazes was a cool thing and I added the gvisit link and Trazes link to the page.  I enjoy seeing the map of travels and where my visitors come from more than you do
  8. My links section needs to be cleaned up and maybe moved to it's own page.  I can then shrink down the number of postings shown also to make the page smaller, with less scrolling available.
  9. The Sametime integration never caught my attention, but yes, I need to get that done

Suggestions:
I get a few every now and then but more than welcome any that you have.  I really do think about them, but as an admin, design changes are slow for me to deploy and test unless I get in the mood.  I can develop myself out of a paper bag, but plastic would be an issue (if you get that joke)

So there you have it, a quick overview of the IdoNotes blog.  Everyone have a safe New Year's evening, as I plan on seeing everyone in a few weeks in Orlando.  Ok, or at some other city I will be in shortly.

Hmmm, maybe a travel schedule like Rob Novak does might help....
    for this posting

    On Friday, December 30th, 2005   by Chris Miller        

Google meet AOL; AOL meet Google; by the way here is 5% ownership

From this release:
Google and AOL plan to let their respective instant messaging features communicate. This way, someone using Google Talk could chat with an AIM user, and vice versa.

The integration pact was announced Tuesday as part of a larger deal.

As previously reported, Google now owns a 5 percent stake of AOL, and has also extended an important advertising relationship with AOL for another five years.

The new IM partnership takes on significance because of who AOL did not partner with, namely Yahoo Inc. or Microsoft's MSN, the two other top IM makers.


    for this posting

    On Wednesday, December 21st, 2005   by Chris Miller        

Connectria a Lotus Award finalist

We have 3 Lotus Awards now and 4 finalists.  Congrats to the whole team!!

Image:Connectria a Lotus Award finalist
    for this posting

    On Thursday, December 15th, 2005   by Chris Miller        

The Lotus announcement from Admin2005 Europe

Uffe Sorensen (see last entry for his title and summary of the whole presentation) was able to announce the following:
"IBM is announcing that the upcoming version of the Workplace Managed Client will support the newly-ratified Open Document Format for Office Applications (ODF) standard."

What this means? no one company can control how you view your data and with what software.  Hence the word open!  ODF ensures preservation and access with no software restrictions to your data.
    for this posting

    On Monday, December 5th, 2005   by Chris Miller        

Don’t forget, Admin2005 Europe for me next week

I will leave tomorrow for Amsterdam but will be blogging and posting pictures as usual while there.  I have one more topic to get ready to post tomorrow and then I am hitting the air until Saturday afternoon.

No need to run through the entire list of times, as you can find me easy enough if you are attending that event !!  There are 7 sessions, the Beat the Geek and a BOF for sure.
    for this posting

    On Thursday, December 1st, 2005   by Chris Miller        

My Lotusphere presentations time are now available (excluding repeats)

I had a previous posting with the abstracts, but I received the actual times today
 so here you go! Look for some repeats if I get lucky
Session Topic
Date
Time
Location
BP402: Advanced LDAP Infrastructure Design (Updated Again!) 1/23/2006 1:00pm-2:00pm SW 3-4
HND104: Locking Down, Testing and Fully Understanding Your IBM Lotus Domino SMTP Environment 1/23/2006 2:30pm-4:15pm SW Mockingbird 1-2
HND104: Locking Down, Testing and Fully Understanding Your IBM Lotus Domino SMTP Environment 1/24/2006 8:30am-10:15am SW Mockingbird 1-2





    for this posting

    On Tuesday, November 29th, 2005   by Chris Miller        

AOL Triton

I finally got around to upgrading to the new AIM (like Ed did a short time ago) for comparison purposes to Trillian and Yahoo Messenger.  Like Ed, I was not impressed, even with the flashy screens telling me what it could do while installing AIM Bite-On.

First we have the wonderful license which included this tidbit

(ii) FEATURE USAGE INFORMATION.  The Software may also provide AOL with anonymous information about use of AOL features and buttons on the Software. AOL uses this information in the aggregate to determine which Software features and buttons are most popular and useful to its users.

(iii) SOFTWARE ID. The Software may contain a specific identification number for the purpose of tracking the number of unique instances of the Software in use.


Now, the damned browser software proceeded to install even though I am positive I deselected it on the first screen.  Of course, it always uses the integrated browser for launching what you click and even sucks over your bookmarks automatically from IE.  Now the tabbed browsing is a nice touch that is coming out soon enough in IE.

I also noticed that they integrated streaming music to compete with Yahoo.  Nice touch, along with the drag and drop file transfers.  It seems there is not a limit but I recall back in the day there was no limit and we used ti all the time to move huge files around.  I wonder when that changed.

I didn't even go far enough to play with the emoticons or chat windows.  Once I saw the initial look, I made sure it was not set to launch when Windows starts (as most things do it seems now by default) and closed it up.  One more application to sit in the unused program directory.

    for this posting

    On Monday, November 28th, 2005   by Chris Miller        

I enjoyed this IVR cheat sheet and wanted to share

How many of you, as companies that is, have some automated response system at your enterprise that is painstakingly long to get to someone live on the actual phone?  Our support center here gets answered live 24 hours a day, no voice prompts or overseas outsourcing.

But when you call your credit cards, bank, ISP or whatever, they have rings and rings of "punch this number" commands that seem to get you back in full circle.

But to make life easy, I don't punch a single digit at all, as they have to still support the old rotary phones on most all systems.  People are just too click happy trying to find a way to the operator.  Patience young grasshopper.

So here is an ever growing cheat sheet.  I bet he will take contributors too.  This story ran in the Boston Globe and a brief mention in Network World
    for this posting

    On Friday, November 18th, 2005   by Chris Miller        

Announcing my Lotusphere 2006 sessions (finally)

I will have two session this year for 06
  • HND104  Locking Down, Testing and Fully Understanding Your IBM Lotus Domino SMTP Environment  -  this one should be fun and after reading I found out it is first come, first server for seating.  I am looking for a full room since I have done variants of this before.  Let's let the new admins in the room shall we?
  • BP402  Advanced LDAP Infrastructure Design (Updated Again!)  - I love this session and try to make it better each year.  Unfortunately Lotus keeps growing the portfolio so making a session that covers everything doesn't happen.  I have to trim certain parts and expand others.  Last year the session took off in the appreciation people had for the content, so I am expanding the creative ideas again.  For those that were there they know how far off the deep end I went in breaking things down to basics.  This session also got picked up for the new Bootcamp Track !!!!  Thanks to McGivney for that one.
  • I will be in a couple BOF's again as usual also

Connectria will have a pedestal again this year at #628 on the giant grid of swarming vendors.
    for this posting

    On Thursday, November 17th, 2005   by Chris Miller        

Lotus announcement in response to Microsoft 64 bit hits the presses

Just announced on the tech newswire:

Lotus will only run on Windows 3.1 or 95 for Hannover.  Everyone downgrade!!!  Lotus pushes ploy to overtake Microsoft for good in the collaboration space by absorbing all old Windows installations since no one upgrades fast for desktops.


Sametime to be called One-at-a-time for single threaded processing and Quickplace reverts to Take-your-time place as none of the old operating systems can hold that much memory to begin with


Workplace won't exist as who can work in those conditions?


(yes this is a joke)
    for this posting

    On Tuesday, November 15th, 2005   by Chris Miller        

The LotusUserGroup.org Sys Admin Tips newsletter is out for Nov

You can find it right here.  As always let me know of any comments, suggestions or my PayPal account information for deposits.
    for this posting

    On Tuesday, November 15th, 2005   by Chris Miller        

I missed this IM announcement last week from a 3rd party vendor

Sametime holds the lead in enterprise IM, hands down.  We all know that.  But, I always get curious at the growth of the smaller proprietary systems. This was an interesting twist, but not surprising when you sit back and think about it.  A lot of people know MessageLabs as a relay site for spam filtering and virus control already.  So who would turn over their IM to them also?

MessageLabs, which claims a customer base of over 12,000 businesses, today announced that it has plans to acquire Omnipod, a proprietary, closed-network IM vendor.

Omnipod's Professional Online Desktop (POD) is designed for enterprise use and offers integrated collaboration features such as persistent chat, global SMS, WebEx online conferencing and file sharing and transfer capabilities


I can see this as a quick and easy to deploy solution with gateways, but not proven as scalable yet.
    for this posting

    On Wednesday, November 9th, 2005   by Chris Miller        

New content section added

If you look down the left side under the archive listings, I took the script for developerWorks to add the feeds for new Lotus and Workplace articles to my blog.  Hopefully another place to get you interested in what is new.
    for this posting

    On Tuesday, November 8th, 2005   by Chris Miller        

Update on my earlier today IMLU posting

I did some digging and found that IMLU actually came out as a theory, not a product in 6.5.1 with the Limited Use Agreement for integrated Sametime chat.  In Domino 7 there is actual code install if you read the guides correctly.  This code can be updated to the full product..

Now something else interesting, is that the Domino 7 version uses the Java Connect as the primary client.  The integrated is included, of course.  But the Sametime Connect is still not for free.

    for this posting

    On Monday, October 24th, 2005   by Chris Miller        

Lotus snuck a new Sametime package in 7, not announced well

I know many enterprises have been looking for ways to control licensing when using the free integrated client.  If the user installed Sametime Connect or tried a web meeting, that was a license usage technically, and not covered in the free ones through integration.

The only way was to strip down the meeting services.  Some technotes even provided insight.   Well Lotus has another product that I could not find referenced anywhere except the
Release Notes for Domino 7 and Designer Help for 7 until I stopped searching for IMLU and went for the whole string.  So read for yourself, IBM Lotus Instant Messaging Limited Use is even found in the Sametime Install Guide for 7:

Limitations using Sametime Server with IMLU

If your Sametime Server is running the IBM Lotus Instant Messaging Limited Use (IMLU) configuration, you are restricted to Instant Messaging capabilities only.  The Instant Messaging  Web Conferencing options are invalid.  You will experience these limitations:

1.  If you attempt to create any of the Instant Meetings options (audio, video, shared and or collaboration) within Notes, the following error message displays :

(picture removed since it was huge, but it said and I quote)

"Error: The meeting can not be created due to the following error: An attempt to establish a connection with the meeting server has failed

Please contact your system administrator."



2.  Since Web Conferencing is not enabled on your Sametime server, when an invitation to a Sametime meeting is sent to you*, you will not be able to join.  Instead, you should choose the Respond button from the dialog box and notify the Initiator that you don't have the Web Conferencing capabilities.
* A person connected to a fully enabled Web Conferencing Sametime Server has the ability to include you on their Sametime meeting invitation.


Image:Lotus snuck a new Sametime package in 7, not announced well
    for this posting

    On Monday, October 24th, 2005   by Chris Miller        

Been busy with the new seminar

I had to catch up on slides to get ready for the Notes/Domino Release 7 Upgrade Seminar that starts in early December and with the already booked cities it runs into March.  It is sponsored by the same people that put on the yearly Admin conference, so you know it is a good show.

So far we have Philadelphia, Las Vegas, Toronto and Copenhagen on tap.  See you there or tell them you want another city area somewhere around Australia, LOL
    for this posting

    On Sunday, October 23rd, 2005   by Chris Miller        

I get asked how to do the presence awareness icons on my blog

I do mine for all the IM services on the left through a specific server/host.  It makes life easy to have a standard icon set for look and feel.  But AOL went a recent step further with the new AIM Presence service.  It actually covers the icon for online/offline/1 way mobile/idle/away quite nicely and very tiny.  They dump the small code out for you to toss into you blog or website after you register (basically providing your online name so it can dump the code to you for cut and paste).  Now the other part is that there is a key that gets generated that expires after a certain amount of time.

After registering there is an Advanced Developers area for an XML interface with more metadata.  I was thinking about this and it would be cool to have the online status next to people in my blog listing too.  Hmmmm.

But be aware of this last part if you restrict who sees you to your Buddy List

Why can't visitors to my Web site see my online availability?
If you have chosen to utilize the Allow List feature in AIM, other users will not be able to see you online unless they're on that list. Check your privacy settings to make sure you aren't blocking anyone unintentionally.
 
If you are online but invisible, other users will see you as offline

    for this posting

    On Thursday, October 20th, 2005   by Chris Miller        

Found this neat little MSNBC flash file for following the past and recent hurricane paths

With all of us having friends and family all over the world, this was an interesting flash file that shows where a hurricane went and the projected path for the current one.  You can even see some past paths into last year in the navigation.

Here is the site
    for this posting

    On Wednesday, October 19th, 2005   by Chris Miller        

Get ’em while they’re hot

The new Sys Admin newsletter from LotusUserGroup.org is published.  You can get to the archives here, or even better, subscribe to have it delivered once monthly by simple registering as a LotusUserGroup.org member.
    for this posting

    On Tuesday, October 18th, 2005   by Chris Miller        

They are reporting most everyone got out of Houston, this pic shows that

Image:They are reporting most everyone got out of Houston, this pic shows that
    for this posting

    On Friday, September 23rd, 2005   by Chris Miller        

I learned about this long ago while in talks with Sybari...

BLOGGER'S NOTE: Feel free to jump straight to the rant at the bottom if you are familiar with this into.....

Unfortunately we were under some goofy NDA stuff, but we met with Sybari while looking as ASP modes for anti-virus/spam software for Domino. Besides the fact that they couldn't answer about 20 questions or so at the meeting in terms of functionality (even with a tech person there at the meeting from Sybari), the statement about dropping OS support got them eliminated.  From this site comes the following text which prompted me to finally write on this:

This morning my MS rep emailed a snippet of the press release: Microsoft Completes Acquisition of Enterprise Security Provider Sybari Software. I used to be fairly pleased with Sybari Antigen for Lotus Domino/Notes, so I started worrying when MS bought them back in February. Well, fear no more: they've already announced that their dropping the Linux and UNIX versions of Sybari products. Expect the remaining Windows-platform products for Lotus' email server (that is, Microsoft's biggest competitor to Exchange/Outlook) to "fall like dominoes" soon enough...


If you are unsure why they would drop certain OS support, then reminding you they were bought by Microsoft back in February or so would answer it right out.  Microsoft buys Sybari, drops any platform but Windows and renames the Domino version.  Now they will continue to support those under maintenance, but do not look to renew it again with them.

So soon we saw Microsoft buying Frontbridge for some more further frontline coverage to Exchange.

< rant >Basically what I am seeing is a very insecure platform (Exchange) that needs a lot of protection that Microsoft could not integrate on their own.  Ideas of ECL's and authorized controls to access local files, java and javascript eluded them.  Lotus went from simple local controls with goofy buttons to push out to elaborate policies allowing you to change admin ECL's on the fly.

Now let's look at the flipside of this.  Lotus has been slowing building anti-spam features in as any good email should.  But one would think buying someone like KSpam or SpamJam would make perfect sense to toss them in as templates and say,
"Hey Microsoft!  Not only do we secure the desktops already and don't have that pesky virus trouble inside of our mail program, we now built in spam technologies that runs on any platform you install Domino.  You want frontline SMTP Domino servers on AS/400?  Partitions on ZSeries?  We got ya.  Want to run some Windows for Sametime and then all mail on the AS/400?  We got ya.  Mix and match, toss a Mac client in there. But anyway you look at it, we have DNS whitelisting, blacklisting, spam controls, reverse lookups, allowed domains..too many to type for this little text block."
 So get at it IBM/Lotus, buy a little someone and integrate it.  Or develop your own, it is does all the time to mirror what partners make.  It has been that way for a long time, no shock value there.  Just a need to have an all-in-one package that kicks even more ass on the mail front.  And yes, keep those little silly circles in the Domino 7 template, I personally don't get them even after a year, but you made my VP smile and that is all that matters.< /rant >
    for this posting

    On Friday, September 16th, 2005   by Chris Miller        

Post 3 of 3 today - Connectria offering free Disaster Recovery mail and chat on Domino/Sametime 7 for Hurricane Katrina

We sat back at Connectria and thought on what we could do to help outside of sending donations in.  Well being in technology we decided to offer technology.  Here is the actual press release on what we are offering and here is a blurb:
Connectria To Immediately Provide Disaster Recovery Hosting Service for Businesses Impacted by Hurricane Katrina

Connectria Corporation today announced the availability of a Domino disaster recovery hosting service.  Any Organization whose Lotus Notes e-mail systems were disrupted by the natural disaster may receive immediate assistance to bring them online again.  Connectria will offer a Domino 7 server with Domino Web Access (DWA) 7 and Sametime 7 integration for chat services for businesses affected by Hurricane Katrina.  Businesses will be able to point existing mail records to Connectria's disaster recovery servers to send and receive email until their own enterprises are available again.  Companies needing to restore their Lotus Notes email should email Katrina@connectria.com or visit the homepage of http://Katrina.connectria.com


So please let the partners and customers on Domino know where to go if you know anyone in the Domino community affected.

    for this posting

    On Friday, September 2nd, 2005   by Chris Miller        

Post 2 of 3 today - Vacation time for me

I will be heading to my annual "No Technology" vacation this upcoming week.  No cell phone, no computer, limited TV (ok yes Playstation 2 does not count in that) and basically Internet free.  It gives a good refreshing look on life and brings me back to reality sometimes.  Like Ed pointed out, he rarely sees TV much anymore.  I might take some pictures though.

So in my absence, there will be some guest bloggers hopefully keeping the campfire lit, and for gosh sakes, water my plants at my office.
    for this posting

    On Friday, September 2nd, 2005   by Chris Miller        

New feature added to the blog

As soon as I figure out how to get even fancier I will do it full blown like my Plazes map.   For now, I went ahead and registered for gVisit.  I am actually really liking this as it gives me a better idea of who I reach with this blog.  The link is under Plazes on the right navigator.  Or you can click here and give it a moment to plot the map.
    for this posting

    On Wednesday, August 31st, 2005   by Chris Miller        

One more Domino 7 piece, Tivoli Analyzer and Domino

Target Audience: All users of Tivoli Analyzer for Lotus Domino

With the release of Lotus Notes and Domino 7, we are announcing the withdrawal of IBM Tivoli Analyzer for Lotus Domino from the marketplace. The Tivoli functionality has been built into the new administrative features of the Domino 7 product.


If you have questions about this transition please ask.

    for this posting

    On Tuesday, August 30th, 2005   by Chris Miller        

Yes, yes we all know it is out, but to answer that old DB2 question on Domino 7

DB2 feature in Domino 7 released with Limited Availability
Domino 7 with DB2 - Limited Availability
Domino 7 with DB2 is released with Limited Availability; as such, it is not available for general usage, but is provided
for evaluation purposes only. For more information about the Limited Availability program and other important
information on this topic, see the URL http://www.ibm.com/lotus/nsfdb2.
To enable Domino 7 with DB2, you'll need the DB2 key for Domino, and DB2 Access for Domino.


So that only means, no you cannot use it unless you call. (Enough people had asked me in email and IM)
    for this posting

    On Tuesday, August 30th, 2005   by Chris Miller        

I hinted on Aug 10th, Google and it’s own IM client

I think I might have to charge for this forecast.  Well the rumor mill moved into full blown announcements. (each word is a different link with the last being most official)  Google will unveil a 'communication' tool.  Users have found that talk.google.com is now opened for XMPP (Jabber open source) communications, but it will not authenticate yet.  You can go to the website for http://talk.google.com which then redirects you to www.google.com/talk with a not found error.

They are infiltrating the desktop with the desktop search, personalized homepages, online maps that relate to satellite and the new sidebar.  The sidebar to me is like a RSS reader on steroids doing everything from news to weather to photos.

    for this posting

    On Tuesday, August 23rd, 2005   by Chris Miller        

I haven’t mapped HTTP and RSS hits in some time

Looking back it has been since almost end of 2003 the last time I pulled and posted them.  All I will say (removing the exact numbers) is that RSS has gone up 400%. Now I am no Ed, but damn proud.

Image:I haven´t mapped HTTP and RSS hits in some time
    for this posting

    On Thursday, August 18th, 2005   by Chris Miller        

Microsoft LCS grabs at the Mac users Sametime doesn’t touch

Reading (as usual) some info on IM.  It seems Microsoft has enhanced the Microsoft Messenger 5.0 for Macs running OS X with some new interface looks and the ability to have a 'Personal' and 'Corporate' tab.  You log into Passport with the personal one and to your corporate LCS with the other.

We all know that everyone has personal and corporate accounts.  We all wish that one interface would solve them.  (Did I just hear Trillian with the Sametime plugin?)  I know, Sametime was made as an enterprise application that used to have one public component.  Comparing that to what was a public IM system embedding the new enterprise package from the same company with Microsoft.

But isn't the mere possibility of tapping the untapped market the whole point. Not if the package does both personal and business, but if it touches somewhere that the competitor doesn't ?
    for this posting

    On Friday, August 12th, 2005   by Chris Miller        

Does Google need an IM client?

This has been tossed around some blogs and has apparently hit the more than rumor status.  The first run had people asking Google to buy Trillian.  That would be quite the way to jump right in.  Instead it looks like Google will take on Meetro from a Chicago-based company called Meetroduction.

Of course, the reasoning is more than apparent why they would waste the time if Google has been so wildly profitable as a search engine.  To make people sticky to their site.  Yahoo! jumped into the realm of new search engines and the Yahoo! Messenger service keeps people clicking away through links, mail, music and calendaring (yes that even syncs to Palm).  So Google had to make a play and take a small chance.  What could it hurt?  Even financially this is a drop in the bucket and gives an open door to integration all over the Google and even Gmail sites.  The product they chose to possibly pick up is not totally what I expected, but then again Google never is.
    for this posting

    On Wednesday, August 10th, 2005   by Chris Miller        

New hosted blogger announcement

Everyone welcome Chris Doig to the ranks of hosted DominoBlog bloggers.  His first technical posting was quite good, images and all.  Definitely take a peek.  He covers version numbers to manage database design and how to implement it to be shown in the database properties.

Welcome Chris!!
    for this posting

    On Wednesday, August 10th, 2005   by Chris Miller        

Lotus Technote #1212699 for DCC

Problem

The Dynamic Client Configuration (DCC) process is vital to several features of Lotus Notes and Lotus Domino 6.  This document will help Notes/Domino administrators find the information needed to better understand and troubleshoot this process.



Content


What is Dynamic Client Configuration (DCC)?  
DCC is a Notes client process that synchronizes certain information between Notes clients and Domino servers.  The DCC executable, ndyncfg.exe, is located in the Notes client program directory.  


What does DCC do for me and my users?
It does a lot!  To begin with, DCC populates the Client Information section on the Administration tab of Person documents.  DCC is also required for the proper operation of certain AdminP processes such as "Move Mailfile" as well as new Notes/Domino 6.x features including Policies and Roaming Users.  So, if you encounter issues with any of these processes/features, remember to troubleshoot the DCC.


What triggers DCC to run?
Dynamic Client Configuration runs when the user authenticates with their home server, and either their Person document has been modified, or their assigned Desktop Policy has been modified since the last authentication.  DCC is designed as a push mechanism only from the server to the client.  The DCC updates settings on the user's workstation based on the current settings in the user's Person document and any Desktop Policies that are in place.  For example, if changes are made to a user's Person document, DCC will detect the changes when the user connects to the server, and then push the appropriate changes down to the client.  


How can you confirm that DCC is actually running?
By default, the DCC is installed with every client and runs daily at the first user authentication with the server.  When DCC executes it adds the following lines to an entry in the Miscellaneous Events view of the local LOG.NSF:







How would you know that DCC is not working?
An easy way is to look in the Domino Directory (NAMES.NSF).  There should be Client Information on the Administration tab of each Person document.  If that information is missing, or the information is there but not up to date, you may have some DCC failures.  Also, if your policies, especially your desktop policies seem to skip certain people, that could possibly indicate a DCC failure.  This also applies to roaming users and mailfile moves via AdminP.  For additional information, refer to the technote titled "Known Policy Issues with Dynamic Client Configuration" (#1137728).  If you have intermittent failures, you may need to troubleshoot DCC.


What could prevent DCC from working properly?
One common cause for DCC not working as expected is that it has been disabled.    Although DCC was available in Notes/Domino 5, it was not required for many features.  Therefore, users and/or administrators may have disabled it.  If you find that DCC is not running, here is what you should do:

  • Check the NOTES.INI on the user's workstation.  If the "DisableDynConfigClient=1" entry is present, remove that entry.  
  • Access the properties of the user's current Location document (e.g., select "Edit Current" on the Status bar, and then select File -> Document Properties).  On the Fields tab, look for the "AcceptUpdates" field.  If this value of this field is set to "0" (zero/zed), then you must enable DCC by performing the following steps:
1.  Open the current Location document.  
2.  Select Actions -> Advanced -> Set Update Flag
3.  When the prompt "Allow administrators to keep this location's settings up to date  with those settings on your mail server" appears, click "Yes".
4.  Save and Close.
  • If DCC still does not work after performing the steps mentioned above, you can remove the address book preferences in the user's personal address book (i.e., the client copy of the names.nsf),as follows:
1.  Open the user's personal address book.
2.  Select Actions -> Remove Address Book Preferences.


What do Address Book Preferences have to do with DCC?  
Good question.  When you select the option to "Remove Address Book Preferences", you are actually removing the directory profile document (directoryprofile), which contains something called $DynInfoCache.  With this document deleted, the cache will be completely rebuilt when the user re-authenticates with their home server .  Note that, the user will need to re-set certain items if they have customized the preferences of their personal address book (e.g., the group sort order, the format of contacts, and the address format).


Are there any known issues related to DCC?  
There can be, but as of Notes 6.5.4, most known issues have been fixed.  However, since you may be running earlier versions of Notes 6.x, here are some issues you may encounter:
  • The IBM Lotus Sametime server field (Location document -> Server tab) does not populate properly.  For the details on this known issue as well as the workaround, refer to the technote "Dynamic Client Config Does not Update Sametime Server in Location Doc" (#1156427).  Note: This issue is fixed in Notes version 6.5.4 and in the Cumulative Client Hotfixes for Notes 6.0.4/6.5.2 and 6.5.3.  
  • Two specific issues about DCC not updating Location documents, one that involves Notes clients running on a Macintosh, are discussed in technote "Dynamic Client Configuration Does not Update Location Documents" (#1137646).
  • For descriptions of other common issues with the DCC in previous versions, refer to technote titled "Known Policy Issues with Dynamic Client Configuration" (#1137728).


    for this posting

    On Sunday, August 7th, 2005   by Chris Miller        

IE7 breaks Trillian it seems

Thought this was interesting for all my co-Trillian users
The first beta of Microsoft's new Internet Explorer breaks some instant messengers, including the popular  Trillian. The only fix: remove IE 7 or purge an offending .dll file.

Reports circulated that other IM clients, including the open-source Gaim, also crash for some users when IE 7 is installed.

"If you remove the MSN.dll plugin it will work fine. So obviously the problem lies somewhere in the MSN plugin," said a user identified only as "LaRz."

    for this posting

    On Thursday, August 4th, 2005   by Chris Miller        

Pardon the no posting today while I move to my new house


    for this posting

    On Friday, July 29th, 2005   by Chris Miller        

I got Plazes working on the blog

I love this little tool, makes tracking and location updates so much easier.  Let's see if it messes up the alignment on the table sections too much though.  Ed got me looking at it and I liked the idea.
    for this posting

    On Wednesday, July 27th, 2005   by Chris Miller        

Since I have a lot of cell phone junkies that read my blog, a study on radiation per phone

Just a quick link.  This hit home when I realized that I live my life on my cell while on the road.  But, I wear a headset about 90% of the time which greatly reduces these numbers.

Cell Phone Radiation Chart
    for this posting

    On Monday, July 18th, 2005   by Chris Miller        

Did I mention I am at AdvisorLive this week?

I went back a looked in the last few days and almost forgot to post that you can find me this week at AdvisorLive in Las Vegas.  Needless to say the heat was stifling, only a mere 109 degrees when I got off the plane and it rose some in the afternoon.

As luck would have it,
John Head and myself went and got Penn & Teller tickets for tonight at the last minute.  Definitely worth it!!  Funny, quick, mind-boggling and downright amazing sometimes.  I will get some pictures up as the week rolls along, no fear!
    for this posting

    On Monday, July 18th, 2005   by Chris Miller        

Connectria in the press

It is a simple press release with a big bang.
Connectria Lands Two Contracts for Remote iSeries Management, Server Outsourcing

Two iSeries shops recently entered deals to move iSeries administration to Connectria, a provider of managed hosting services for iSeries and other platforms. Louis Vuitton, a French manufacturer of luxury consumer goods, will be utilizing Connectria's remote monitoring and management service for batch job processing, alerting of job suspensions or interruptions, PTF and upgrade management, maintenance scheduling, and back ups. Meanwhile, a consumer goods company of another sort, Ecko Unlimited, has also enlisted Connectria for some iSeries assistance. The New York City-based designer of "lifestyle brands" targeted at the hip-hop scene previously relied upon Connectria for basic iSeries administration functions, such as job scheduling, PTF applies, and back-ups, which were performed remotely. Now, Ecko has elected to put its iSeries equipment in Connectria's hands. In addition, Connectria will be hosting Ecko's Lotus Notes and Domino applications in its data centers. Connectria is an IBM business partner based in St. Louis. It charges customers about $2,000 to $3,000 per month for iSeries remote monitoring and administration, following one-time setup charges ranging from $3,500 to $8,500.


We don't seem to make these press releases very often as a lot of companies like to keep it under wraps.  But this one made it through all the proper channels

    for this posting

    On Wednesday, July 13th, 2005   by Chris Miller        

Sorry for the delay, I took a mini-vacation (well deserved)

There is a bunch to catch up on for the Workplace Collaboration Services 2.5 install I have been doing since last Wed, so that will be a theme for a few posts this week
    for this posting

    On Monday, July 11th, 2005   by Chris Miller        

I am proud to announce a new IBM blogger (hosted by us)

Everyone welcome the wonderful Susan Bulloch , she is part of some long named group of IBM, to the blogging world.  She is a master of Calendaring & Scheduling, cooking and it seems, and the ability to always have a monkey on her back.

Her blog is here!!!
    for this posting

    On Friday, June 24th, 2005   by Chris Miller        

Using another 3rd party tool instead of a native Sametime connection?

Apparently some big companies do not want their users utilizing such things as the IBM produced hook for Trillian, GAIM or even some business partner products to access Sametime (what are you doing over there Carl?).  A new technote shows how to block these outside clients (even Stlinks) from your Sametime server.
Problem


The Sametime Toolkits allow a variety of ways to connect to a Sametime server.  Is there a way to see which users are connecting with a custom built client, and can I prevent those users from connecting?


Content


The Sametime server can be configured to allow only certain clients to login based upon their unique Client ID.  Today, clients who login to Sametime declare their login type upon login.

C++ Connect clients use login type of value 0x1000

Java Connect clients use login type of value 0x1001

C++ toolkits, by default use login type of value 0x1002 (can be configured in the toolkit API)

C++ toolkits, by default use login type of value 0x1003 (can be configured in the toolkit API)

Sametime links clients, use login type of value 0x100A


It is possible to configure the server to allow only specific client types to login to Sametime.  In the [Config] section of the sametime.ini, under[Config] use the flag VPS_ALLOWED_LOGIN_TYPES to specify the allowed login types. The flags affects all logins where this Sametime server is the home server.  By default (if this flag is not specified) all login types are allowed.


Example:

[Config]
VPS_ALLOWED_LOGIN_TYPES=1001,1002


Note: The client filter is only available on:
Sametime 3.0 IF3

Sametime 3.1 with a hotfix.  Please contact Lotus Technical Support for a copy of the fix.

Sametime 6.5.1

    for this posting

    On Thursday, June 23rd, 2005   by Chris Miller        

Blog outage for Domino upgrade at 5:30pm CST today

We will be upgrading the Domino server to 6.5.4 tonight so there will be a small server outage
    for this posting

    On Tuesday, June 21st, 2005   by Chris Miller        

Hannover comments and an external FAQ document for you to grab

I received a document outlining a Q&A from Ambuj about the announcement of "Hannover".  Since Ed continues to offer an amazing job of grabbing the news highlights, screenshots and others, this is one thing I could offer up.  I love the new UI and see great benefit from it.  Of course, like anyone peeking at it I wonder where some things went or how they will work.  But a lot of those questions are getting asked in the comment section on Ed's blog.  I will just post there like everyone else and get some more answers so everyone can see them.

 This gives you an example of what is in the document.
Q. When will Hannover be available?
A. We are planning to preview this technology sometime next year in order to obtain feedback in our design process.

Q. Will Hannover provide VoIP integration?
A. Yes. Hannoveris based on re-used components across the Workplace family, including real-time collaboration components that have VoIP integration.


HannoverExternalFAQ.doc
Grab that document!

    for this posting

    On Tuesday, June 14th, 2005   by Chris Miller        

I am posting the PDF of the slides from my webcast yesterday

You can get the PDF file attached to this document or from LotusUserGroup.org shortly.  Thanks to everyone that attended and sent follow-up emails and questions!!  WE will be posting and emailing some more of the quesitons I was not able to answer live on the webcast.

TroubleshootingSMTPRoutingWebcast.pdf

    for this posting

    On Friday, June 10th, 2005   by Chris Miller        

I forgot to mention my webcast today

For the LotusUserGroup.org I have a webcast today on Troubleshooting SMTP in Domino.  Take a listen live if you can!  If not, then go ahead and get the replay when it gets posted in about a day.
    for this posting

    On Thursday, June 9th, 2005   by Chris Miller        

The final tally of the survey last week

Last week I posted a mini blog survey based on an Internet one I came across.  Thanks for all the input and answers via comments and email.  Here are the stats from the results.  This was not a huge sampling as Radicati would normally have you believe.  This was small and from many geeks.
1.        So as for our survey, how many accounts do you maintain?

The lowest was 2 with the highest 10.  The mean was 5 different accounts.
2.        How much time do you think you spend reading?

The lowest was one hour amazingly. The highest was 3 hours.  The mean was 1.8 hours per day.
3.        Do you check when getting out of bed?

I laughed at this one since some said in bed, out of bed, and one jokingly said even while sleeping.  I did like the Blackberry answer since that person has it set to come on at 7am.  Amazingly every single person said yes but me.  I try to wait until I get to the office unless I am on the road.
4.        How many times a day do you check ALL the mailfiles?  Not just automated checks of some like we can in Domino

This one was tough to give a mean since more than 4 people put that they check it non-stop during the day.  So let's go with knowing one person did say they checked one of their 5 average accounts only once per day.
5.        Can you go an entire vacation without checking?

Need I say more than 94% of you do check during vacation?  I was one of the few that refuse to do so.

Additional questions
1.        Does RSS save you any time on checking email now?

A full 100% say that RSS saves no time in email and actually adds more things to check, even though it gets a little more streamlined by the answers below.
2.        How many times a day do you check the blogs?

Blogs get checked an almost perfect 5 times per day average.
3.        Do you read the blogs while you are on vacation?

This was almost a 50/50 spit.  It was nice to see that although most everyone checks email, you can at least give the blog checking a break.
4.        How many blogs do you maintain (yes some of you have work and personal ones) ?

The mean on this was 1.3.  This says a couple of you split your personal and business life.  But by reading the above stats it all makes sense as you claim there is no vacation or personal life since you check email all day and read blogs half the time.

I am going to go out on a limb and say this was slightly skewed since everyone that reads my blog is a geek in the first place and being connected is just our way.  I would suggest doing what I do once a year for the past 9 years or so now.  I have one week per year.  One week, where I do not check email, voicemail, carrier pigeon or anything else.  I actually pay all my bills online in advance and don't touch the computer that week.  Hard to do?  It was at first.  But now I crave that week by the time it gets within one month of it coming.  Try it, you can do it.
    for this posting

    On Monday, June 6th, 2005   by Chris Miller        

Northwest with another announcement

Just a couple days ago I said how they are getting rid of pretzels (and had some comments) well now they have moved on to another leg.  This one I actually buy into since a lot of people do not grab these as they filter onto the plane from that tiny little area that you get whisked past by the onslaught of people boarding behind you.
MINNEAPOLIS -- In another effort to cut costs, Northwest Airlines is no longer stocking Newsweek, Glamour and other magazines on its planes and in its passenger club lounges.

Cutting magazine subscriptions will save the airline $565,000 this year.

World Traveler, Northwest's monthly in-house magazine, will still be available.

Northwest is the nation's fourth-largest airline.

It lost $458 million in the last quarter alone and has been struggling with high fuel costs and tough labor negotiations.

Last week, Northwest said it will also drop complimentary pretzel snacks on all domestic flights, beginning on June 9.

Northwest is also proposing a $2-per-bag fee for skycap service.

That fee is being used experimentally in Seattle.

Now the Skycap fee is interesting because I did not know that they controlled them.  I though the airports themselves did.
    for this posting

    On Thursday, June 2nd, 2005   by Chris Miller        

Sametime 6.5.1 FP1 pulled from downloads

I just got off another support call for a customer issue and we were thinking about FP1 to see if it would assist in fixing a problem we had.  Due diligence before just upgrading. Thankfully we did not as it has been temporarily pulled from download due to some sort of issue caused in one of the services.  It would have left us worse off from listening.
    for this posting

    On Tuesday, May 31st, 2005   by Chris Miller        

Survey on consumer mail addiction out, let’s do our own..

A survey was sponsored by AOL it seems on email usage.  Here is the excerpt and link.  Let's do our own survey that I will publish.  Plus I have a few additional questions that I want to know.
The average e-mail user in the U.S. has two or three e-mail accounts and spends about an hour every day reading, sending and replying to messages, according to the survey, conducted by Opinion Research Corp.

E-mail dependency is so strong for 41% of survey respondents that they check their e-mail in-boxes right after getting out of bed in the morning. The average user checks his in-box five times a day, according to the survey, which polled 4,012 respondents at least 18 years old in the 20 largest U.S. cities.

About a fourth of respondents acknowledged being so addicted to e-mail that they can't go more than two or three days without checking for messages. That includes vacations, during which 60% of respondents admitted logging into their in-boxes


1.        So as for our survey, how many accounts do you maintain?
2.        How much time do you think you spend reading?
3.        Do you check when getting out of bed?
4.        How many times a day do you check ALL the mailfiles?  Not just automated checks of some like we can in Domino
5.        Can you go an entire vacation without checking?

Additional questions

1.        Does RSS save you any time on checking email now?
2.        How many times a day do you check the blogs?
3.        Do you read the blogs while you are on vacation?
4.        How many blogs do you maintain (yes some of you have work and personal ones) ?
    for this posting

    On Tuesday, May 31st, 2005   by Chris Miller        

Admin2005 and where to find me

Here is the link from our press release.  Please note I will also be sitting in with Carl Tyler in his session since we are doing a tandem one on Sametime split between IM and web conferencing over 3 hours.

http://connectria.com/press_releases/051205.html
    for this posting

    On Thursday, May 12th, 2005   by Chris Miller        

Gmail bumps the limit again?

You are currently using 0 MB (0%) of your 2180 MB.

    for this posting

    On Tuesday, May 10th, 2005   by Chris Miller        

BlowSearch Secure Messenger (like Trillian with encryption)

I came across a small article on BlowSearch, which is a metasearch engine, that mentioned it multiple IM service client.  As we know I take great interest in that.  So I read up on it and thought you might find it interesting.  I am thinking about testing it some.
  • Strong industry leading security. Up to an unmatched 4,096 bit encryption technology.
  • Extensive privacy settings and block list abilities.
  • Create private conference rooms.
  • Integrated web search technology from BlowSearch.
  • Customizable sounds and notifications.
  • Full message logging capabilities including export of conversations.
  • File transfer capabilities between users.
  • User profiles, public or private. You control your information.
  • Chat rooms galore. All categories with admin capabilities.
  • Tabbed interface allows for easy access to launching desktop applications.
  • Updated scrolling news and information.
That was a general list with the most important being the encryption.  If both sides are using their BSM client, then each message is secured in the following manner
Blowsearch Secured Messenger utilizes the OpenSSL library to provide encryption routines for your Instant Messages. We use a combination of randomly selected schemes and bit lengths, ranging up to 4096 bits, with additional algorithms added in to make your messages even more secure. We start with an RSA foundation and move out from there.

So I am downloading and playing with it some.  Anyone want to test?
    for this posting

    On Friday, April 22nd, 2005   by Chris Miller        

Job posting for Admin position here at Connectria

POSTING FILLED !!!!

I figured why not post it here also.  We are looking for a new Domino Administrator for our St Louis Data Center staff.  Yes that means St Louis.  You can read about Connectria all over our website, including our 3  Lotus Beacon Awards (yes I like the old name still).

You can email resumes to
HR or into one of our Lotus mail-in databases.  Make sure you put the work RESUME in the subject line please!

If you want info on the position, I am trying to get the link that has all that posted.

    for this posting

    On Thursday, April 21st, 2005   by Chris Miller        

More bloggers to launch, hosted by Connectria

I am pleased to announce that three more Domino (Lotus) bloggers will be launching in our hosted services.  As Ed and Rocky so graciously pointed out at the Lotusphere BOF, Connectria is offering some free blog hosting for Domino blogs.  The list is growing and getting impressive.

I will have the official welcome posting soon for the new bloggers, but you know some of the names and faces.  They are busy loading templates, designs and learning the interfaces.  Plus one can't seem to decide on a domain name, hahahahhaa.
    for this posting

    On Wednesday, April 20th, 2005   by Chris Miller        

AOL added 4 new IM partners

Basically this change will allow all those platforms to communicate with each other as extensions to their IM network.  However, I do hear time and time again at conferences how the AOL integration vanished from the Sametime Connect interface (due to licensing issues).  I wonder if Lotus can get the licensing back?  The new program launched by AOL attempts to bring some federation to the IM communities (yes federation as in what you do with multiple directory entities in LDAP).

The latest arrangement coincides with the launch of AOL's Enterprise Federation Partner (EFP) program intended to help communities of at-work instant messaging users connect and communicate in real time.

The EFP program, which added partners Antepo, Jabber, Omnipod, and Parlano, will allow each company's customers to communicate in real time with co-workers, vendors, partners and customers who use the AOL messaging network


Now personally, I did not like or use the integrated AOL in Sametime Connect since it lacked so much functionality.  I do like the rich text and emoticons.  So moving to Trillian and the integrated IM in the Notes client made life quite simple.  Notice that the ones they partner with up front are not that large.  Of all those listed I have only played with the Omnipod client.
    for this posting

    On Tuesday, April 19th, 2005   by Chris Miller        

Saying good-bye to E-Pro Magazine on a personal level

Ed posted a nice, brief comment on the demise of E-Pro magazine.  This takes personal meaning to me after working with and for them for a number of years.
To Our e-Pro Readers:
Effective April 7, 2005, Penton Media has ceased publication of the
e-Pro Web site, including the Lotus Informer Blog and related e-mail
newsletters. Clippings, our joint project with IBM/Lotus, is currently
not affected by this decision. From Domino Pro to Group Computing to e-Pro Magazine, we have been a part of the Lotus/Domino community for more than six years and have shared your passion for the technology. We wish you much success! We will keep this site up and the archives open for your use through April 30, 2005.

I had the pleasure of writing my original article way back in early 2002 (publish date was later in Jun 2002).  I still recall my nerves for that first article.  How I wanted it to be as good as the others I had read.  Well, that one ended up winning me the Gary Guthrie Award for Technical Writing for the 2002 year and was the start to my writing, then editor, then technical editor and newsletter author as time moved on.

Libby takes so much of the credit for keeping it growing and running for all these years.  From print to digital format to newsletter status.  I still love and believe in the digital format and as more magazines go that route, the readers are getting faster and better.  As we moved into the newsletter era, Tom Duff was brought on to handle the development, Michael Fromin for Websphere and Ask Ben is always around!

So a big thanks to all of you that subscribed and read my newsletters, articles and even the ones I edited over the years through the E-Pro distributions. (But don't think you are rid of me yet, bwa hahahahahaha)
    for this posting

    On Wednesday, April 13th, 2005   by Chris Miller        

Security hole in Trillian 2 reported (carried into 3 in Yahoo component)

A security hole was found by a research group in Trillian.  Here are the specs
LogicLibrary Uncovers Security Gap in Trillian

The vulnerability originally appeared in Trillian 2.0. It was compounded because the same vulnerable code was included in several different components and locations. Although many instances of the bug were addressed in Trillian 3.0, at least two vulnerabilities persisted in the Yahoo IM component.

According to LogicLibrary, these exploitable unbounded buffer-iteration problems remain in the current product version, Trillian 3.1. There are at least two exploitable yahoo.dll buffer iteration bugs -- one is at 0x520296c6 and the other is at 0x5201a05f.

No patch noted yet but I would definitely be on the lookout for one shortly from Trillian.
    for this posting

    On Friday, March 25th, 2005   by Chris Miller        

Yahoo mail steps to Gmail, 1GB free to users and a rant

Here is the announcement in the press stating that by the end of April you should see the change. Now on to the reason we are all here
The 1GB storage upgrade represents an increase of more than four times from the 250 Megabytes (MB) of space that Yahoo! Mail users currently enjoy for free.

Yahoo! also offers consumers 20MB attachment limits, along with Spam Guard, AddressGuard and numerous additional features.



I went down this path before sparking some conversation about why companies do not offer more space to their own users.  Most enterprises complain that the users are attempting to use the 'free' services.  Viruses are the most common cited reasons for not allowing access to Hotmail, Yahoo, Gmail or whatever.  So let's talk about that.

Most of these services have or are trying to get some advanced virus scanning in place.  Most viruses seem to be home users with nothing running on the ISP side or locally integrated into their mailfile.  I see more companies not running any types of email scanning for internal use, yet they don't trust the free services that do run it. I know you read what I typed up above.  Yes they run Spam Guard, a virus scanning and other features.

Now before anyone in charge of controls and retention gets all excited, I know all about those types.  Yet, with 1GB of free space (actually unlimited if you are smart enough to move mail around accounts by date on the net), why would a user want to be restricted to 100MB in their own company?  Where is the ability to start using the mailfile as a true sorting and file cabinet feature?  We teach our users to sort, use folders, have good management and then turn right around to this conversation

IT Group: "WHOA!, why do you have so much mail?"
User: "Because we are a paperless office and everything I get is digital"
IT Group: "Well you need to dump some of that or get better organized"
User: "You never provided me a central point for common shared documents so I have to keep them all in my mail because my network share is full"
IT Group: "Yes, we are aware that you have too much there also, print some out and keep hard copies"
User: :"But I thought we were paperless? Why would I print them all out?  Isn't that defeating the purpose"
IT Group: "Sorry, not our problem.  Find a way to reduce the size of your mailfile and network storage, or we will email you reminders everyday until you hit your quota again"

Ugh.  Do I even need to continue?  For gosh sakes they will have 20MB attachments!  How many of you only allow under that?

    for this posting

    On Thursday, March 24th, 2005   by Chris Miller        

Good to see Lotusphere 2005 (be it mini) made it to Australia

I was actually looking for other reviews of WSE, since we are a launch partner, and came across this referrer to me for my review I just did.  It was interesting to see that Lotus is allowing anyone that purchases the Domino Utility Server, free unlimited licenses to Domino.Doc and Workflow.  I couldn't find anything about it on the Lotus website, but I am sure it is out there somewhere.

So if they are offering that in a bundle, will anyone deploy it because it is free?  This sounds just like Sametime and what happened with 6.5.x for the integration.  I don't have that many customers that purchased the Utility Server license.  Here is what it offers to solve any confusion or questions:
Q. What does an IBM Lotus Domino Utility Server license include?
A. Domino Utility Server includes the following capabilities, designed for collaborative applications where the number of users is high or difficult to track (for example, a Web application for customer self-service).
  • Access to non-mail collaborative applications
  • Use of individual mail files is not allowed.
  • Client access licenses are not required for Web browser access to non-mail applications, even when user authentication is involved.
  • Access from a Lotus Notes client is allowed, but the Notes software and client access license must be acquired separately.
  • Domino partitioning (the capability to run more than one instance of Domino on the same machine using one copy of the Domino code)
  • Domino clustering for failover and load balancing
  • Limited use entitlement to WebSphere Application Server

So basically it is web only which means that Domino.Doc access is web only?  The Notes client side would require a license?  This seems odd to me.
    for this posting

    On Wednesday, March 16th, 2005   by Chris Miller        

How did I get 50 more Gmail invites?

Anyone want them?  Email me
  IdoNotes at gmail  dot com
  , of course
    for this posting

    On Wednesday, March 16th, 2005   by Chris Miller        

I talked about IM Usage Policies in my E-Pro newsletters, but...

This article at Geek.com was more tuned to a blog entry than the previous articles I wrote here, here and here (ok the E-Pro site for the newsletters is down and I can't grab those links right this second).  But to boldly go forth
In the past few days AOL has updated the Terms of Service for AOL Instant Messenger (AIM) users. The changes have been met with raised eyebrows and anger, as AOL has included clauses that remove all privacy from the user. As part of the new terms AOL reserves the right to record all content posted through the AIM service and use it as it sees fit in the future without any communication with users.

If you read through this article, plus a handful of comments, you will see that AOL has decided that if you use it's products, including chat, they may at any time use portions of your chats as they see fit.  Now, one would presume they could not go through everything line by line.  But what about keyword type searches of the IM chatter on their network?  This is easily done and also can be found in at least one of the Sametime monitoring packages that are available for your enterprise.

This all jumps back to the IM Usage Policy.  AOL is stating it in a well defined policy, no matter how much we agree or disagree.
To agree says yes, this is a free public usage system, that I cannot even expect any privacy.  It goes across networks I do not know or own, into servers that are owned by AOL and then into other sites of systems I do not know or own.  This traffic could be captured in numerous places along the way.

To disagree says I expect some form of privacy.  AOL offers encrypted traffic ability in the recent versions, right?  Well yes they do, but does that still change the rights they have to the actual chat traffic across their servers?  No, not since they are announcing it to you in a EULA type arrangement.  I would expect some of your own companies have not issues that type of agreement with the users.  But I bet you have an Internet usage and e-mail usage policy don't you?

Reading around shows that Microsoft has only stated it does nothing and does with your chat data at all.  I didn't have time to check Yahoo, but ICQ I can imagine will the same as AOL since they are one in the same.
    for this posting

    On Monday, March 14th, 2005   by Chris Miller        

Sorry for the blog service interruption

Image:Sorry for the blog service interruption
I needed to delete a rather large database, over 5GB that was impeding a whole bunch of stuff.  
So I took the liberty of taking down mine, Tom's, Libby's, McGivney's, Jason's, Susan's (her new one which isn't published just yet) and a slew of other blogs.  So this is my public apology, and no they won't get any refund!
    for this posting

    On Friday, March 11th, 2005   by Chris Miller        

So since Microsoft is now buying Groove, do we see more collaboration coming from their side?

If Ray Ozzie is now the CTO under Bill, I am curious to see where it heads from here.  More thoughts shortly, I have a conference call.
Microsoft is acquiring Groove Networks and the Groove team will join the Information Worker line of business under the leadership of Jeff Raikes.
·
   Ray Ozzie, Groove Founder and creator of IBM Lotus Notes will take on the role of Chief Technical Officer, reporting to Bill Gates, where he will be working on a broad range of technologies and projects.
·
   The acquisition is expected to be complete in the second quarter of 2005 subject to regulatory approval.
·
   Groove will continue to operate from its Beverly, Mass., headquarters.
·
   There will also be an accompanying press release issued shortly and can be found at http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2005/mar05/03-10GroovePR.asp

    for this posting

    On Thursday, March 10th, 2005   by Chris Miller        

How come no one said happy 2 year blogging anniversary? :p

I missed it, it was Feb 18th.  I didn't even remember
    for this posting

    On Thursday, March 3rd, 2005   by Chris Miller        

We talked about SPIM before, how about the first arrest..

First arrest for spim
A U.S teenager has become
the first person to be arrested on suspicion of sending unsolicited instant messages--or spim. Anthony Greco, 18, was lured from New York to Los Angeles under the pretense of a business meeting. He was arrested upon arrival at Los Angeles International Airport last Wednesday. Greco allegedly sent 1.5 million messages advertising pornography and mortgages. According to reports, the recipients of the messages were all members of the MySpace.com online networking service.
    for this posting

    On Tuesday, March 1st, 2005   by Chris Miller        

AOL turns face and integrates with Oulook through plug-in

This is an interesting twist as we saw Microsoft try to pry their way with LCS almost a year ago (where the heck is that bulldozer of a product right now in deployment anyway?).  But with the lack of interest still blossoming into a dead product, Intellisync creates and launches an integration point for Microsoft Outlook and AIM.  Plus the loss of Sametime and AOL connectivity in 6.5.1 release.

Basically you will get awareness in the address fields (sounds like Notes/Sametime to me) and in vcards with the little AIM 'running man' icon.  Almost like what you see for my awareness on the left of this posting.
In addition to gathering and providing presence information, the plug-in also serves a marketing function: Once it has completed a scan of the user's Outlook contact list and offered to import matches into the user's AIM buddy list, it provides a second list of users that are unregistered with the AIM service and offers to send invitations to them to join.

I see value in scanning my mailfile and building a list off of that for a possible buddy section.  Emailing everyone is not necessary in my eyes, and what if they cannot relate certain IM names with the sender of an email.  How many of us have AOL IM names that have nothing to do with email addresses?  Many of us I can imagine will never match, or worse yet, have multiple IM accounts.

I don't even need to say where this goofy quote comes from,  ok I will. Radicati Group.  Where else!
"It's functionality they should be offering natively if they can," he said, noting that Microsoft has largely dominated in terms of basic integration between IM and other applications, and presents a challenge to AOL's ability to penetrate the enterprise market.

I am beginning to think they have never seen or heard of Notes and Sametime.

The biggest benefit I do see ifs with Outlook running in lots of desktops, and this being a plug-in, there could be some good and easy penetration without AOL having to join the fight for enterprise IM space.

    for this posting

    On Monday, February 28th, 2005   by Chris Miller        

Things like this are worthy of newsflashes

One more change for HP that had to build up after last year's performance by HP
HP's Chairman and CEO Carly Fiorina has resigned, effective immediately, citing differences over HP's future. CFO Robert Wayman steps in as interim CEO.

    for this posting

    On Wednesday, February 9th, 2005   by Chris Miller        

Press opinion from the Butler Group

This company prides themselves as
Europe's Leading IT Analyst Company providing Analysis without compromise

however with this opinion they came out with without compromise, they attended Lotusphere and came out with this beauty (that is a pickup of the original here that requires free login to view) of a thought from author Richard Edwards (who is the Research Analyst - IT Infrastructure, Intelligence, Collaboration for the group it seems):
Butler Group Opinion

With most organisations only now upgrading to Release 6.0, I cannot see IBM converting these loyal customers to Notes/Domino Release 7 any time soon, and as a result this can only weaken the impact of IBM Workplace on the general market - something of a pity given the platform's huge potential and significant technological advancements.

I agree that a lot of enterprises are still heading toward Domino 6, even after 2 years.  But why not jump straight to some release of 7?  I know a bunch waited for 6.5.x releases for the integrated IM and client enhancements.  With 7 they can get the client and new server enhancements all at once.

Does anyone else see this as true or as an issue?  They are using the leverage of companies just moving to 6, and not moving towards 7 as an issue with IBM Workplace family of products?  As I scratch my head at that confusing statement he made, maybe someone else can make sense of it.
    for this posting

    On Tuesday, February 8th, 2005   by Chris Miller        

Here is my Lotusphere presentation BP116

I have attached the Advanced LDAP Infrastructure Design (Updated!) slides in PDF to this document, hope this new feature works as I have not used it yet in DominoBlog.  Please comment on the slides, the session or whatever else you desire about my presentation.  Was my shirt too bright?  Did I pace too much?  You get the idea.

BP116 - Lotusphere 2005.pdf
    for this posting

    On Saturday, January 29th, 2005   by Chris Miller        

Well this sounds just like Notes to me (MS new product)

An announcement that just hit the wires.  Microsoft has expanded their Hotmail offering (and MSN Plus) with a downloadable Outlook client with some interesting things.
Microsoft (Quote, Chart) went live with a new subscription version of its enterprise-grade Outlook offering that also connects with its premium Web mail services MSN Premium or Hotmail Plus.

The downloadable software lets users manage all MSN e-mail accounts, contacts and calendars from a single interface. They can send e-mails from multiple accounts, search for messages across accounts and manage different calendars and sets of contacts.

So with this you get 2GB of storage and 20MB size attachments.  Here is the real reason I am posting this, sounds like (taken from an IM conversation I just had) "wow, they've figured out replication"
Changes made on the client machine are automatically synched with online Hotmail accounts; if the changes are made while offline, the accounts are updated the next time the user goes online.

So let me get this right, you get 250MB free with Hotmail but if you demand this full Outlook feel you can subscribe and download this version.  You do not require Office to run it and they will offer updates and patches.  But it has some crude form of replication built in.
    for this posting

    On Thursday, January 20th, 2005   by Chris Miller        

Lotusphere 2005 newsreel #1

First, I am required by long-standing Lotus blogging law (bylaw 7, subsection 4, paragraph 2) to post information on where I will be at Lotusphere and how to run into me otherwise.
  • BP116 Advanced LDAP Infrastructure Design (Updated!) on Wed at 3pm in Swan 10.
  • BOF508 Lotus User Groups Leadership - Connectria is the hosting provider for this new website and collaboration portal to be announced at Lotusphere.  Make sure to visit the pedestal or attend if you are interested in, an officer of or attendee of a Lotus User Group anywhere in the world.
  • BOF513 Lotus Blogging Community - I will definitely be stopping there.  Of course Bruce is the moderator so who knows what to expect.  Wed at 11:15am in Dolphin Oceanic 1
  • GURUpalooza on Thur at 11:15am in Swan 6-10.  This is a don't miss session where most of the speakers from the Best Practices track get together as a panel to answer all the questions you can throw out.  A new event that should be awesome.
    Join us at GURUpalooza!
    You've spent four wonderful geek filled days at the lovefest known as Lotusphere. You've attended countless sessions by industry experts from the field, who didn't bogart their knowledge, and instead passed it along for all to share. But as you're coming down from this geeky high, you realize you had a ton more questions for those gurus. Well, you get one more chance! Come join us in this geekfest where the best and brightest of the Best Practices track are together on one stage to answer your questions. Show up, get informed, get pumped  but please, no crowd surfing!
  • Connectria will have a pedestal this year again at Booth 628.  Count on some giveaways and maybe a big special one (hint hint).  You can always get a message to me there.
  • I know I missed some so check back to this post.

Second, there is a change that I just liked so much I want to post.  Recall how you used to wait till the last day at the very end to get the full conference evaluation gift?  Well not this year!!

In exchange for your completed evaluation, you'll receive a special 2005 Lotusphere gift!  Stop by one of the counters in Australia 3 at the Walt Disney World Dolphin beginning at noon on Wednesday, January 26 to pick up your gift.


Third, just grab me if you see me.  If I don't answer to you yelling from behind, don't be offended.  I am more than likely listening to my iPod or on the darn phone via headset.

    for this posting

    On Wednesday, January 19th, 2005   by Chris Miller        

Microsoft moves into hosted IM

Reading a new article, Microsoft wants to push LCS out through Microsoft's service provider and hosting partners.  They quote all sorts of prices and other items, of course.  But this one part really stood out.

Service providers can keep their fees low for SMBs, according to Microsoft, because the new scalable, multi-service platform allows them to get the most from their existing servers. By consolidating their existing e-mail systems onto a single platform, they reduce their cost of deployment, operation and support. Of course, that shared-tenant approach does mean that your e-mail is stored on the same server as that of other businesses. However, Cole assures SMBs that Microsoft "has resolved security concerns."

Now we are all sure that Microsoft has taken care of security right?  Yeah right.  While we host Exchange already, this one doesn't read like it is easily partionable in the technical documents I peeked at.
    for this posting

    On Friday, January 14th, 2005   by Chris Miller        

AOL is trying to enter the free webmail market

Reading along on the web, AOL has a beta in progress for subscribers only (which kind of negates the idea of free webmail if you are paying for service already) to have a rich text type free email service for anyone on the Internet.  I can of course seeing AOL IM integrated tightly into this, but then again to use the Netscape mail you already have an AOL account.   AOL will come out of the gates with 100MB of space, which is below the Netscape account and way below Gmail of course.

So where is the benefit in AOL doing this?  Even though they have lost over 4 million subscribers in the last two years.  Does this get them more subscribers by offering enhanced services over the free one once you try it out?
Comments Disabled

You know how I love Trillian, some 3.0 release news

Trillian is making a bold move here from being a single source client, to it's own type client for behind the firewall.
Cerulean Studios has added support for Apple's Rendezvous protocol to its popular Trillian instant messaging application.

With Rendezvous support, Trillian now will offer serverless IM capabilities for users on the same LAN.

While all this is only available in the Pro version, they added another feature or two to entice you.
In the new Trillian 3.0, the Rendezvous plug-in allows employees on the same LAN to automatically discover each other for messaging, file transfers and videoconferencing.

Paid users also get access to plug-ins for connection to Jabber and Novell GroupWise Messenger, and video-chat support with enhanced logging capabilities.

Trillian 3.0 also adds several bells and whistles, including an "Instant Lookup" tool that integrates with the Wikipedia online encyclopedia to offer real-time information based on text conversations

With the Sametime plug-in that IBM Alphaworks currently has out, let's just figure out the licensing issues.
    for this posting

    On Tuesday, December 21st, 2004   by Chris Miller        

Connectria wins Best Philanthropic Solution in Lotus Beacons!

Ok, so we are a little giddy over here for winning our third Beacon Award.  Tech info shortly, I really do have some today.
    for this posting

    On Thursday, December 16th, 2004   by Chris Miller        

Connectria is finalist in Beacon Awards

I have to let everyone know that we are a finalist for a Beacon Award this year.  Hopefully we will win this category as we put a lot of effort into this venture on our own time around an already busy work schedule. It is not uncommon for some of the staff to be on conference calls with them late at night or in the am as they traverse the tundra somewhere.

Here is the link to the project (Polarhusky) we host, manage, maintain and provide all the support for.  The opening page is yes, a .ASP, but everything behind the scenes is Domino, Quickplace, Sametime and Websphere technologies.  An awesome collection that has morphed over the years since we started working with these wonderful people.
    for this posting

    On Tuesday, December 14th, 2004   by Chris Miller        

Do you think you have enough bandwidth at home?

A recent announcement from SBC (that I use for DSL services) has me thinking everyone will need more pipe.  They are rolling out Project Lightspeed while they announce an agreement with Microsoft for $400 million.
SBC Communications Inc., the second-largest local phone company in the United States, said Wednesday it signed a 10-year, $400 million agreement with Microsoft Corp. to provide next-generation television services using Microsoft's TV Internet protocol television edition software platform.

SBC and Redmond, Wash.-based Microsoft will begin field trials in mid-2005 and plan commercial availability of the IP-based television platform in late 2005.

In the first quarter of 2005, construction is expected to begin on the SBC Project Lightspeed, the company's effort to deploy fiber closer to customer locations to provide new IP-based services, including IP television, voice over IP and faster Internet access. Project Lightspeed is expected to reach 18 million households by year-end 2007.

The companies said the IP-based TV service will include instant channel changing, customizable channel lineups, video on demand, digital video recording, multimedia interactive program guides, event notifications and content protection features.

So I am thinking the fridge that likes to order groceries will have to wait for the kids to send instant messages and the channel to change.
    for this posting

    On Friday, November 19th, 2004   by Chris Miller        

All the gmail invites are gone!


    for this posting

    On Friday, November 5th, 2004   by Chris Miller        

Lotus announces Introduction to Administering IBM Lotus Domino 6/6.5: Operating Fundamentals self-paced

From technote #7005591:

If you are new to Domino administration, here is a self-paced, e-learning tutorial to help you get started. "Introduction to Administering IBM Lotus Domino 6/6.5: Operating Fundamentals" introduces you to basic concepts that provide the foundation for Lotus Domino and Lotus Notes.

This tutorial includes a subset of the topics from the Lotus Education offering Administering IBM Lotus Domino 6/6.5: Operating Fundamentals, E-learning Edition: Self Paced (ND755) edition and  Instructor Led, Classroom (ND750) edition. The full offering is available for a fee from various Education Centers for IBM Software.

So to get this new content, this is all you have to do apparently:

Two Ways to Learn
  • View this material online at the following Web address:
http://www-12.lotus.com/ldd/doc/ndq755/start_ndq755.htm

OR

  • Download the tutorial (file size = 24,047,698 bytes) from the following FTP address and view at your leisure:
ftp://ftp.software.ibm.com/software/lotus/demos/education/ndq755.zip

    for this posting

    On Tuesday, November 2nd, 2004   by Chris Miller        

It seems I have 6 gmail invites, anyone want one?

For those that do not know (somehow you have been under an email rock), here is the link.
    for this posting

    On Monday, November 1st, 2004   by Chris Miller        

IBM unveils the new Shark for storage

Finding your mail users over quota and using all the disk space?  Here you go.
The TotalStorage DS8000 is IBM's next generation of its high-end Enterprise Storage Server, also known as Shark, but with up to six times the performance and more than three times the capacity at 192Tbytes. The refrigerator-size array also comes with 256Gbytes of cache memory and 128 Fibre Channel or Ficon ports.

Gosh, that makes the VP's mail file size not look too bad.
    for this posting

    On Thursday, October 14th, 2004   by Chris Miller        

Admin2004 Europe for me next week

I head out Friday for the first of two cities for Admin2004 over in Europe.  This should be a great show packed into 3 days in each city.  There are 5 tracks and over 40 sessions this time also covering most every part of administration. There is "Ask the Expert' roundtables one night to pretty much ask whatever you can from all the speakers.  That part is always a highlight with tons of information and networking.  Plus the vendor showcase area overlaps with the sessions to give you a necessary break.

If you are over in Europe, make plans to get to the event in Paris in early December.  If you are coming to Copenhagen, make sure to stop by sometime and say hello to me.  We will be heading out to dinners and other evening events.  Feel free to ask to come along!


We will be staying with most of the attendees here
    for this posting

    On Thursday, October 14th, 2004   by Chris Miller        

Alan L popped me an IM the other day..

He was asking if I was participating in PartnerJam at all yet.  I hadn't had time to jump in and see what everyone was posting yet, but I took a few moments today to try and catch up on the discussions.  There is a huge list of vice presidents (I think IBM has more than anyone after reading the partial list).  Take a peek if you haven't.  It does require an IBM id to log on.
    for this posting

    On Wednesday, October 13th, 2004   by Chris Miller        

I am booked for the Inbox 2004 conference

After some talks with Libby and the people hosting the Inbox 2004 Conference, I will be one of the presenters on the Lotus sessions for them. Here is the full agenda.

I am hoping this conference keeps growing as it has some good sessions on IM and email management.  Plus a grouping of sessions for Lotus and Microsoft should bring the forces out to learn not only about their own product, but to ask about the other one freely.  I hope to answer most of any question asked in my session and panel discussion.

    for this posting

    On Tuesday, October 5th, 2004   by Chris Miller        

Want to know when Lotus support ends on a product?

Then this is the site for you.  The IBM Software Product Support Lifecycle.  No more guessing or trying to find your rep to tell you.  The have a nice alphabetical chooser at the top, but no search in case you don't know if it is considered IBM or Lotus or just under the product name.
    for this posting

    On Wednesday, September 29th, 2004   by Chris Miller        

To text or not to text, or maybe both

AT&T Wireless apparently finds that simply adding unlimited text capability to your cell phone for like $5/month is not appealing to everyone.  So instead they are trying to reach the younger crowd with a new text only device.  It is called the 'Ogo'.  But here is the kicker.
The gadget, branded "Ogo," does not transmit phone calls. It lets customers send instant messages and e-mails to computers and advanced phones, as well as short text messages that can be sent and received on most mobile phones.

The Ogo costs $17.99 monthly and includes an unlimited number of messages. The device itself, designed by No. 3 U.S. mobile provider AT&T Wireless, will sell for $129, before a $30 mail-in rebate.

Call me silly, but even two way pagers can be less expensive in today's market.  Then there is prepaid cellular service.  I just don't see this becoming a huge hit.  Most teenagers I see roaming around now have cell phones to their ear.  What happens if you have unlimited text and the receiver doesn't?  Most of these plans start charging you for inbound messages.  So unless all your friends have this device, I don't get the price or excitement.  It doesn't even have hooks into the IM services from what I have read on it.
    for this posting

    On Tuesday, September 28th, 2004   by Chris Miller        

Ed mentioned the Inbox conference

He happened to mention it in a posting here.  I am talking to them about handling the session for spam in Domino for sure.  It looks like an interesting conference.  I might even hang around for the IM portion.
    for this posting

    On Monday, September 27th, 2004   by Chris Miller        

Forget downloading IM at random, plug and play for SMB

Jabber has announced an appliance to ship next year that is an IM ready plug and play device.
Jabber, which is working on an XMPP-to-SIP Gateway to achieve interoperability with IBM's Lotus IM product, said the release of an SMB instant messaging appliance will coincide with a new version of the Jabber XCP Platform and an upgraded Jabber Messenger desktop client.

Now what I like in the announcement is the piece I highlighted above.  Imagine a Jabber XCP device on the network to control IM and hook to enterprise Sametime environment?
It will also support Web Services (define) to embed presence and messaging into other applications using SOAP-based APIs and a Presence Mirror to allow access to users' availability information via a database connection.

Jabber said the product suite will also include wireless instant messaging clients for RIM (BlackBerry), PocketPC, SmartPhone, J2ME, Symbian, SMS and WAP.

    for this posting

    On Wednesday, September 22nd, 2004   by Chris Miller        

More content ideas for the iPod

RSS feeds that give you music content.  I actually heard about this idea while I was in LA earlier this year from the guy that made scour.net years ago, but it seems someone beat him to it.
TiVo for iPod

Remember Adam Curry? He was one of the original MTV V-Jays,
before leaving the cable net for the inter net.  The latest
of his feline nine lives is a nifty way to transmogrify RSS
for the iPod. We've got all the details on "ipodder," which
will help you increase your music collection, and maybe even
TiVo-fy your iPod.

RSS Comes to iPod:
http://eletters.wnn.ziffdavis.com/zd1/cts?d=75-300-1-1-273888-12812-1

    for this posting

    On Wednesday, September 15th, 2004   by Chris Miller        

For you free (non pro version) Trillian users, a security wanring

I use Pro but wanted to pass this before I talked more on Monday's blog topic.

Security researchers have issued a warning of a flaw in the Trillian cross-platform instant messaging (IM) client that puts users at risk of malicious hacker attacks.

The vulnerability has been reported in Trillian 0.74i, which is a free version of the product distributed by Cerulean Studios.

An advisory from Secunia attached a "moderately critical" rating to the flaw, saying it exists in the MSN Module, which allows the client to connect to Microsoft's chat network.

Secunia said the vulnerability is caused by a boundary error within the MSN module and can be exploited to cause a buffer overflow by passing an overly long string (about 4096 bytes) from an MSN Messenger server.

    for this posting

    On Wednesday, September 15th, 2004   by Chris Miller        

The new Admin E-Pro Wire is out

Go take a peek right here to see my new monthly issue and to even subscribe.  I wonder if we can get them to make it RSS available too.

http://www.e-promag.com/f3/index.cfm?fuseaction=newsarchive.displaypage&newsID=25
    for this posting

    On Thursday, September 9th, 2004   by Chris Miller        

Well someone has to do it...Happy birthday, Chris! (and Alan)

It being September 3rd and all, it seems only appropriate that someone acknowledge that Mr. Miller is celebrating a birthday today.  Of course, since he's disconnected this week, he won't see this greeting until Monday.... by which time it will be filled with "me too" comments, right? :)
Oh, it's Alan Lepofsky's birthday, too.  I'd link to his blog but I don't think it's "official" yet ;)
    for this posting

    On Friday, September 3rd, 2004   by Ed Brill        

I installed the XP SP2 patch and what won’t work?

I took interest over the past week in seeing how the deployment of the SP2 patch for XP went with numerous people and partners through the forum.  I saw the whole array of answers from: this works, to this seems to be fine to the final Uh Oh!.  Microsoft themselves have now come out with a document on their site listing about 40 programs that are having issues.  Go take a peek for yourself to see if something you need is listed before you load SP2.

Even some games seemed to stop functioning.  John Head should have issues with Unreal Tournament versions not working, LOL
    for this posting

    On Monday, August 16th, 2004   by Chris Miller        

Birthdays abound

I was going to heist both blogs since I host them, but I am kind and will just send birthday wishes.
    for this posting

    On Tuesday, August 10th, 2004   by Chris Miller        

Wireless management of Domino?

I am getting ready to test a new release from a Business Partner letting you remotely manage the Domino server wirelessly.  I am curious about security, SSL access and what commands can be run and limited.  This could be a help internally in the Data Center, while doing this from anywhere else concerns me greatly.  Here is the announcement on it, but you can get a beta of it now.
SolutionPlanet expects to release later this year its Admin-on-Air system, which lets Lotus Notes administrators manage and configure their Notes servers over cell phone or 802.11 links.

With wireless Terminal Services on the PocketPC, that lets me start and stop services already.  I would love to see the Java Controller over wireless though.  The best of both worlds, operating system and Domino all in one interface.
    for this posting

    On Friday, August 6th, 2004   by Chris Miller        

Right on the heels of the SIP announcements, here comes one for Sametime

Not to be left out, like IBM was last time when the vendors discussed opening connections with SIP, here comes an announcement everyone would want to see.
Instant messaging software firm Jabber has outlined plans for an XMPP-to-SIP Gateway that opens the door for interoperability with IBM's Lotus IM product.

Jabber said the XMPP-to-SIP server-to-server Gateway would connect its Jabber XCP communications platform with IBM's Lotus IM offering, which uses the SIMPLE protocol

What does this mean to me I hear you asking?  Well in the fourth quarter this year, it looks like the product will ship and Lotus will be able to connect via SIMPLE to Jabber networks.   Now why is that good news?  Jabber works across XMPP and can connect to numerous IM packages.  Sounds like a winner to me.


Apparently Ed talked about this (as he so kindly reminded me) but heck, with his traffic and blogging quantity I forgot.  Sorry.  Here is his link
    for this posting

    On Monday, August 2nd, 2004   by Chris Miller        

Almost forgot to promote my webcast tomorrow

I have a webcast for E-Pro tomorrow at 12pm Eastern time on Spam Prevention in Domino 7 plus some information on third party products.  Register for this free event if you can!
anti-relay abilities in Domino 7, blacklists, whitelists, rules and filters, DNS reverse lookups, and add-on products to help reduce spam. Chris will also look at some of the initiatives by vendors, such as certificate authentication for sending, to prevent spam and address whether Domino supports these initiatives or not. Sponsored by Angel Infinity's GateKeeper for Notes.

    for this posting

    On Monday, July 26th, 2004   by Chris Miller        

From the desk of Bas, and a neat piece of info to me

ICAAN announces that the very first IPv6 nameserver address was added to a root server.  With everyone getting an IP address for any device imaginable, there has to be a plan to start migrating to this new addressing scheme to provide, they say, trillions more addresses.

Japan (.jp) and Korea (.kr) were the first with France soon to follow.
Recognizing the importance of IPv6 to the Internet community, ICANN has coordinated with its Root Server System Advisory Committee, Top Level Domain managers, Security and Stability Advisory Committee, and other interested parties in careful analysis of this issue. After a period of thorough examination, the decision was made to move forward with deployment of the IPv6 address records in the manner prescribed by the community.

This means that your larger organizations should start looking at this, I know we have discussed it.
    for this posting

    On Friday, July 23rd, 2004   by Chris Miller        

Gmail adds function to get people to migrate

Well the ability to move your contacts to a new message service (ie migrate to Domino) is always welcomed.  I had never personally seen a public free email service offer a migration feature form the competitors, well here comes one now.  In a release of new features for Gmail, they added the following:
  • Import contacts: Gmail now allows users to import their e-mail name lists from Yahoo Mail, Outlook, Hotmail and other competing e-mail services to Gmail "in just a few clicks."
  • Signature options: Gmail allows users to automatically add a customized signature to the end of all outgoing messages.
  • "Safari" browser support: Gmail is providing compatibility for Mac OS X "Safari" users running versions 1.2.1 and higher

Well that is one way to reduce spam, move to a new email provider.
    for this posting

    On Wednesday, July 21st, 2004   by Chris Miller        

I didn’t know this was offered over IM, cool stuff

Once again while out reading the wild world of the web, I came across that AOL IM offers TRS (Telecommunications Relay Services).  TRS is part of the American with Disabilities Act.  Basically there is a name you can add to your buddy list that will get you through the steps of a relay person sending your chats when required.  Sign language is supported over webcam and audio to text for those that cannot type.  No, not those of you that type bad, those that cannot type due to physical limitation.  The service is open to AOL, IM, iChat and even the embedded AIM version on mobile devices on a few networks.  I think that qualified as a cool service to talk about.
    for this posting

    On Monday, July 19th, 2004   by Chris Miller        

This news story came right at the correct moment

As I composed some replies and topic from the awesome responses I received to yesterday's posting, this popped into the mailbox.

Yahoo! seems to have bought a small provider for the mail interface customizations.  Here is an outtake:
In a message to subscribers posted late Friday, Oddpost Inc. said it had been bought by Yahoo and that its development team was focusing it energy on building new additions to Yahoo Mail.

"Oddpost.com will continue to operate with no interruption in service," the San Francisco company announced. "However, from this day forward, we'll be working on a new, advanced Yahoo Mail product."


Oddpost's $30-a-year e-mail service focuses on an e-mail interface with functionality that is similar to that of desktop applications such as Microsoft Outlook, such as the ability to drop and drag messages. It also has a built-in news reader for aggregating Weblogs and RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feeds.


I don't think they ever stop with the enticements.  But back to the topic of enterprise messaging, I have
tons on the brain about it.
    for this posting

    On Tuesday, July 13th, 2004   by Chris Miller        

RSS magic and Trillian releases patch

Trillian has releases 2.013 Pro yesterday to fix the Yahoo! login issue I discussed yesterday.  Now that is some darn fast turnaround for patching an issue isn't it?

On other fronts, magically my RSS started working.  Now sure how, when or why, but darn it there it is this morning.

Ok a new topic shortly.
    for this posting

    On Friday, June 25th, 2004   by Chris Miller        

Seems my RSS broke on the template upgrade tonight

Sorry, be patient please.  It is quite early after working all night on an upgrade project and if I mess with it this second it might get worse.  So I will look at the RSS feed shortly.
    for this posting

    On Thursday, June 24th, 2004   by Chris Miller        

After 19 Google hits today and what happened to me, I think Yahoo! blocked Trillian again

No news from the Trillian site itself yet, but I couldn't log in except with the native Yahoo! client.  Interesting.  They did this once before (ok a few times for those counting) and the studios came out quick with a patch.

I understand why Yahoo! does it, I really do get it.  With Trillian they lose the ability to deliver content based on profiles, advertisements or the very very cool integrated Launchcast streaming audio.  They hook you there and then try to get you to purchase the upgraded service for more channels and better quality.  Does this mean no client should offer some other choice for integration?  Jabber seems to do just fine tying in to the others but I think they actually made some agreements.  Grandma Yahoo! does like the friends of the kids talking on grandma's phone lines it seems.
    for this posting

    On Thursday, June 24th, 2004   by Chris Miller        

Eating some crow and throwing some back

I am back from the E-Pro Editorial Conference and find that I have to eat a little bit of crow from Ed.  AOL has announced it will stop the Enterprise IM product it produces.  But not only is it moving all those customers to IMlogic (what a nice treat for them since they built some of the code behind the scenes) but it will continue to focus on what I mentioned last week about putting more business services into the free consumer grade product.  They even had this quote in the article:
"We are not pulling out of the enterprise space, we see a lot of growth in the workplace," said Brian Curry, senior director for AIM network services. "The enterprise IM market is probably one of the fastest growing segments of IM usage."

So I think they have something in mind more than the meeting services they are offering.  But here is my favorite part just for Ed.
"IT buyers won't make IM decisions in a vacuum, If they're already getting software from a company like Microsoft or IBM, they'll go with them for an instant-messaging solution," said Michael Osterman, president of Osterman Research. "What AOL is doing is refocusing, instead of going head-to-head with Microsoft and Lotus."

"This was a smart decision for AOL," said Nate Root, an analyst with Forrester Research. "They'll have more success selling directly to individuals."

    for this posting

    On Monday, June 21st, 2004   by Chris Miller        

Searching my blog now functioning

After an email conversation with Steve for some better documentation, I have search capabilities working on the upper right.  I tested it a few times and it works great, searching through the whole blog with it's own results page.  I personally disliked getting Google links to blogs where you can't find the content and it frustrated me that mine didn't do it either.  So all is well, search away !!
    for this posting

    On Thursday, June 10th, 2004   by Chris Miller        

For those of you with spam filtering software

The FTC passed the law about sexual content in spam email.  It is s shame you have to write a law against spam instead of fighting it, but I guess the US Postal Service makes money with spam mail everyday now don't they?  Helps keep them afloat.
FTC Rules Internet Spam Must Carry Label
By Associated Press
May 19, 2004  

WASHINGTON  - Sexually explicit Internet spam must now carry a warning label.

A Federal Trade Commission rule went into effect Wednesday requiring that unsolicited commercial e-mail that contains sexually oriented material include the words "SEXUALLY EXPLICIT" in the subject line.

 
The rule also bars graphic images from appearing in the opening body of the message. Instead, the recipient must take some action in order to see the objectionable material, either by scrolling down in the e-mail or by clicking on a provided link.

So I am going to enable this in my spam filters and see how much it starts stopping.  Anyone want to make a bet on statistics and tracking down the sender to fine them?
    for this posting

    On Thursday, May 20th, 2004   by Chris Miller        

Two items to start the day today

  • Blogger has made a bunch of enhancements to their blogging interface (recall they were bought by Google February 2003) to make life a bit easier.  Now why do I care? Because they added the ability to blog by email.  You have to supply a secret word that becomes part of an email address.  While there is still some security concerns there, it is a great feature I hope we can work into the Domino blog templates.
  • Also, Cisco has decided to hire 1000 or so workers to the employee count.  With the recent stream of good business they have had, they are growing again.  Now is this the right thing to do?  I am uncertain everything is recovered and on the way back.  Yes there is more spending in IT overall, but patience is a good thing. Does anyone think that all is well and back on such a strong path you could hire the same total percentage of employees that Cisco just did?

    for this posting

    On Wednesday, May 19th, 2004   by Chris Miller        

all will be quiet here today..

I am busy getting all the last minute tests done and things prepared for Admin2004 next week.  SO I am terribly sorry for the non-posting day today with wonderful amounts of generous tips and news, but darn it, I have to cram some more MP3's onto my player for the trip first!

See my previous post here for my schedule of sessions.
    for this posting

    On Friday, May 7th, 2004   by Chris Miller        

Microsoft LCS 2005 on the boards

Microsoft announced it is trying to get Live Communication Server 2005 out by Christmas with more features built in.  I am appreciative of one area they are saying should make the cut for this first release, which means wait a bit as usual.  For those of you that have seen my sessions from Lotusphere or Admin2003 on LDAP topics, I believe in spending a few minutes explaining federating and aggregating directories when doing those sessions.  (I will be glad to do so if anyone asks from this post).  It is a basic foundation that far too many enterprises don't quite grasp when building enterprise level LDAP deployments.  But I digress.....here is what Microsoft has said is in LCS 2005
Officials predict two new functions (though they will publicize other features down the road) will keep LCS 2005 ahead of the software curve: federated ID and outside access.

Federated ID is an umbrella authentication scheme that allows not just company employees but customers, suppliers and partners to IM each other. Logged in and authenticated through the company's database, which also archives the chat session, LCS 2005 supports encrypted messaging. The feature is broken down into two areas: direct federation (between two or more companies) and clearinghouse federation (a more general, domain-specified authentication schema).

We will skip the outside access piece because to me that is a bunch of hooey.  Sametime and other packages offers outside access.  The issue for LCS previously was the lack of encrypted messaging.  So of course you don't want to open a firewall for the darn product.
    for this posting

    On Wednesday, May 5th, 2004   by Chris Miller        

Time for Admin2004 self-promotion

Image:Time for Admin2004 self-promotion

I am once again lucky enough to get the opportunity to speak at The View's Admin2004 show May 12-14th (unless you count the jumpstart on the 11th) in Boston.  Here is my agenda (I was waiting till it got finalized) and where you will be able to find me when I am apparently not sleeping.

  • Tue May 11th 9am-12pm  "Getting Your Lotus Instant Messaging and Web Conferencing Server Up and Running"
  • Wed May 12th 9:45am-11:15am  "Benefits of Notes/Domino 6 Domino Web Access (iNotes) Performance Architecture"   which will now include some 7.0 material
  • Wed May 12th  11:30am-1pm  "Workshop - SMTP Configuration"
  • Wed May 12th 1pm-2:15pm  Apex Awards
  • Wed May 12th 2:15pm-3:45pm  "Instant Messaging - Tips & Tricks"
  • Wed May 12th 5:30pm-7:30pm    "Ask the Experts" and welcome reception
  • Thur May 13th 8:30am-10am  "Workshop - SMTP Configuration"
  • Thur May 13th  3:15pm-4:45pm "Workshop - SMTP Configuration"
  • Fri May 14th 10:15am-11:45am  "Workshop - SMTP Configuration"
  • Fri May 14th 1pm-2:30pm  repeat of  "Benefits of Notes/Domino 6 Domino Web Access (iNotes) Performance Architecture"   which will now include some 7.0 material


So come on by and say hi and let me know you read my blog, ask a question, or just allow me to hide behind you and snooze a while.

    for this posting

    On Monday, April 26th, 2004   by Chris Miller        

Carl Tyler have coined a new tech word we can’t find even in Google

While talking to Carl today on IM, he managed to receive a piece of spam on his cell phone.  Now we all know I blogged about spam to your IM clients a few weeks ago here.  So we now have the new name for this abuse of technology.
Introducing.....

Spone   =the inherent ability to unknowingly receive spam on a cell phone that is received via IM or email advertising something.

We have seen articles on it beginning, but we needed an official word.  Now we have it.  Tell your friends.  Or better yet, spone all of them and tell them we sent you.
    for this posting

    On Friday, April 16th, 2004   by Chris Miller        

TSA Announces Screening Avoidance Program

If you travel as much as Ed, and even myself, a plan from the TSA is what you should be aware of.  In Jun of this year you can start volunteering for this.  I got this Wall Street Journal article passed along from Bas.
The Registered Traveler program involves a background check and fingerprinting for those participating to determine if they are "low risk."

This does not stop you from getting screened if you set an alarm off.  They are going to open bids to some companies to perform these background checks.  Now they say it is free at first, but will more than likely have to implement a fee to fund it for the frequent travelers.
    for this posting

    On Thursday, April 8th, 2004   by Chris Miller        

R5 Exams to Be Retired on November 30, 2004

For those that don't know
On November 30, 2004, all Notes and Domino Release 5 exams will be
retired. This means that Notes and Domino R5 exams will not be available
after this date.

Now is the time to upgrade all those certifications that you have been waiting on!!!  I know Admin2004 is offering some great discounts for taking the exams too.
    for this posting

    On Wednesday, April 7th, 2004   by Chris Miller        

Vulnerability Database Made Available

I just thought this might be of interest to a bunch of people
A group of volunteer security professionals has compiled what is likely one of the larger freely accessible vulnerability databases on the Internet. The OSVDB (Open Source Vulnerability Database) is meant to serve as a central collection point for information on any and all security vulnerabilities

They only seem to currently offer information on a few products but it is a neat idea that will grow.  More on the story can be found here.
    for this posting

    On Tuesday, April 6th, 2004   by Chris Miller        

A new Dominoblog’er arrives

Send a nice welcome to Kathleen McGivney who finally got off her duff to start her Domino based blog.  You can find the link here or on the right.
    for this posting

    On Thursday, April 1st, 2004   by Chris Miller        

IBM to buy Candle Corp, announced

See the full story here or even here but to make it simple, IBM has entered into an agreement to buy Candle Corp.  Pending approval of course.
    for this posting

    On Thursday, April 1st, 2004   by Chris Miller        

New Site Design

I decided to change the site design again.  I have a long term goal here, which I am not letting on to yet.  Now can anyone see the hidden image? (Thanks to Susan at my office for helping me make it) .  The mouseovers and everything should work.  Let me know what you think.
    for this posting

    On Wednesday, March 31st, 2004   by Chris Miller        

Let there be 6.5.1 Sametime Released

I went poking out there again today at a customers prompting and there it was on the partner site, ready to go.  I guess  I know what I am upgrading for people tomorrow.
Image:Let there be 6.5.1 Sametime Released
    for this posting

    On Monday, March 29th, 2004   by Chris Miller        

The FBI and it’s recent, well, thingy

There was an interesting read in the weekend paper that can be found right here for now (before they move it to archives).  It isn't a long article but follows on the heels of one they did  a very short time ago on the same topic.
This month, the FBI unveiled a plan to require all U.S. broadband providers, including cable and DSL companies, to rewire their Internet networks to make it easier for police agencies to intercept messages.

Within hours of receiving the proposal on March 12, the Federal Communications Commission announced that the public had 30 days to send in comments before the commission takes up the plan. A vote is expected this summer and final action is possible by next year.

In St. Louis, the largest broadband companies are SBC and Charter Communications. They say they are still trying to figure out what the FBI's plan would cost them.

The FBI recommends on the askcalea.com site that everyone read the 71 page document to fully understand what the heck they are talking about.  They are targeting packet mode transmissions in the likes of servers and routers, but instead of giving illustrations of what types that covers, they did not list any so people wouldn't think that was the only list of transmissions that were being targeted.  I honestly tried reading the document but found that it went in numerous circles, saying the same thing forty ways in different paragraphs with little subsections that threw you off that were not placed in the appendix, but in the RFP itself.

NOTE:  I wanted to provide this simply as informational! I am not saying any of it is good, bad or should be hornswaggled out back with wet noodle.
    for this posting

    On Monday, March 29th, 2004   by Chris Miller        

Novell, SUSE Linux and what?

Let me lead with this quote..
"With Novell's recent acquisition of SUSE Linux, we're now the only vendor who sells and supports a world-class Linux-based collaboration solution along with the underlying Linux operating system," said Novell vice chairman Chris Stone, in a statement.

So they are saying that because they bought SUSE Linux they magically offer a better system? Or just that they happen to offer an OS, another OS and then a collaboration suite?  Do they really believe that they will woo the customers with this opportunity after being so far behind?  Or is this a move for the SMB market to capture Linux deployments with a total solution? (or I was rambling what was going through my head here)

Here is the full info on this article with a bit more cut out for your reading pleasure.
Novell has unveiled its GroupWise 6.5 for Linux collaborative computing package.

The toolset, which debuted Friday, handles e-mail, calendaring, instant messaging, contact management, document management, and workflow services across networks. The new release adds Linux alongside existing ports of the groupware package for Netware and Windows NT and Windows 2000.

Novell also disclosed that its Ximian Evolution e-mail and workgroup client for Linux will incorporate native support for GroupWise for Linux by late this year.

Finally, Novell said that plug-in support for the Gaim open-source instant messaging client will be available for Groupware within 30 days.

    for this posting

    On Saturday, March 27th, 2004   by Chris Miller        

Some new Extended Products are not updates, only renumbering

I found this interesting as I know they were trying to get some fixes and new features into the products themselves but this document says that some were simply renumbered.  Of course it doesn't quite say which one.  We know Sametime had some updates made and Quickplace had some also.  I might check into the other changes.

What Product Names and Numbering Schemes Are Changing?
Note that for some of the products, only the numbering scheme is changing, and for others both the name and numbering is changing.
Products as they Existed on January 1, 2004
 --->
New Releases in Q1 2004
IBM Lotus Instant Messaging & Web Conferencing (Sametime) 3.0  ---> IBM Lotus Instant Messaging & Web Conferencing (Sametime) 6.5.1
IBM Lotus QuickPlace 3.0  ---> IBM Lotus Team Workplace (QuickPlace) 6.5.1
IBM Lotus Domino.Doc 3.5  ---> IBM Lotus Domino Document Manager (Domino.Doc) 6.5.1
IBM Lotus Domino Workflow 3.0.1  ---> IBM Lotus Workflow 6.5.1

    for this posting

    On Friday, March 26th, 2004   by Chris Miller        

Webcasts at E-Pro Magazine self-promotion

Well I forgot to self-promote this week.  Ed Brill did it for me on his Lotus.com weblog.
There's another interesting webcast -- actually a series of webcasts -- going on over at e-Pro Magazine's site this week. e-Pro is hosting a Web Conference on Lotus Technologies. Paid registration (it's cheap!) gets you access to a dozen quality technical presentations from some of the industry's best known experts -- Chris Miller, Tom Duff, Jamie Magee, Kathleen McGivney, and more. IBM Lotus's own Larry Bowden kicked it off with today's keynote, which e-Pro is generously making available free of charge (details, including userID and password here). My colleague Alan Lepofsky pinged me during Larry's session and said "every customer should see this". The presentation covers the overall Lotus Strategy -- Notes and Domino, Workplace, and Portal,the new Workplace Client Technology. and Lotus's release schedule/roadmap for 2004/early05. Surf on over to e-Pro to check out the goings-on. If you missed something, don't worry -- all the sessions are recorded for playback.

So come check us out, these are some good speakers and sessions, all from the comfort of your own desk or home.  Don't forget about the playbacks.
    for this posting

    On Tuesday, March 23rd, 2004   by Chris Miller        

Well this little 6.5.1 IM technote was interesting

I had heard rumors that this was true but was not sure.  But as I read this document I was a tad shocked to see it written down.  So many people love this feature, but maybe I am just misreading it.
Sametime 6.5.1 no longer supports the following features:
  • TeamRoom and Discussion databases
  • Scheduling teleconferences on a Latitude MeetingPlace server
  • AOL instant messaging connectivity in the Sametime Connect client
  • Access by Microsoft NetMeeting clients
  • Access by Netscape Web browsers
  • Enterprise Meeting Server (EMS) compatibility (you cannot add a Sametime 6.5.1 server to the EMS to create a server cluster)

Does this bother anyone that uses it or will you switch over to AIM?
    for this posting

    On Tuesday, March 23rd, 2004   by Chris Miller        

6.5.1 Lotus Instant Messaging, Team Workplace and Dom.Doc available

Since everyone has been waiting so patiently
Making Their Debut! The 6.5.1's.
Lotus Instant Messaging and Web Conferencing (Sametime) 6.5.1. Lotus Team Workplace (QuickPlace) 6.5.1, and Lotus Domino Document Manager 6.5.1. Electronic General Availability (eGA) slated for March 22, 2004


As announced and committed to at Lotusphere 2004, a common major release schedule for the Lotus Domino-based product portfolio is being established. Delivering on that commitment, Lotus Instant Messaging and Web Conferencing 6.5.1, Lotus Team Workplace 6.5.1, and Lotus Domino Document Manager 6.5.1 are being made available on March 22nd, on the heels of the release of Lotus Notes and Domino 6.5.1. Release alignment will help customers to simplify the complexity of administration and improve quality of service. Customers will be able to standardize on common languages, platforms and Web browsers*. Ultimately, this will contribute to an increase in business efficiencies and a decrease in cost of ownership.

Electronic General Availability means that customers will be able to download software via the Passport Customer web site for products they are current in Passport for. The software should also be available to business partners who own the Value Package on PartnerWorld for Software downloads. Occasionally that site will take a day or two to get things posted after eGA but I anticipate they have been posted.


Are those downloads flying yet?
    for this posting

    On Monday, March 22nd, 2004   by Chris Miller        

Small blog agent issues

I am attempting to resolve a tiny blog agent issue, so tonight at some point I am taking the server down.  If you happen to be here at that time well you won't be reading this now will you
    for this posting

    On Wednesday, March 17th, 2004   by Chris Miller        

Ed Brill and the User Group last week

As many know, we were happy to sponsor Ed Brill being here last week for the St Louis Domino User Group meeting.  He did a great hybrid presentation on the competitive landscape. More importantly he was able to catch everyone up on what Workplace is and what it means to the market, for those that were still lost in the message.  Even with all the marketing.  So many thanks to Ed for making the trip.  It was well attended and great comments and feedback.

Plus I was able to drag Ed to Sen Thai for dinner.  The proof below shows that yes, Ed does actually sneak in fast lunches before presenting (picture 2).


Image:Ed Brill and the User Group last week   Image:Ed Brill and the User Group last week
    for this posting

    On Tuesday, March 16th, 2004   by Chris Miller        

Yahoo! and BT to offer VoIP

Using freeware messenger services as a primary phone device?  I don't see the savings since according to the below, they will still bill your home phone number as a toll call.  What is the benefit then?
Yahoo and British Telecommunications Thursday announced they are extending their partnership to offer consumers in the U.K. the option of making telephone calls over Yahoo's messaging product.

The integrated call management product, called Yahoo Messenger with BT Communicator, will include VoIP services like PC-to-phone calling, Internet call waiting and directory lookup, bundled with instant messaging features, according to Yahoo U.K. spokeswoman Sue Jackson. The service will allow users to easily switch from instant message conversations to a telephone conversation, she said.

Telephone calls made through the Yahoo/BT product will be billed directly to the customer's home phone bill at normal toll-call rates. BT Communicator will be integrated into all Yahoo Messenger clients distributed in the U.K. and additional features will be added to the product in the future, BT and Yahoo said.

If you moved to all VoIP I see the benefit here of a joint IM and phone service bundled with broadband.  I am not sure of the ability of Yahoo! to grow and emerge as a great source for a phone directory.
    for this posting

    On Thursday, March 11th, 2004   by Chris Miller        

patch it I say, patch it (Microsoft and a new security breach)

Here you go fresh off the newswires this afternoon
Microsoft has revealed three new vulnerabilities in its software, including the first to affect MSN Messenger 6.0, and is urging customers to patch their systems now.

Two of the vulnerabilities are considered medium-level risks while the third presents a medium- to low-level risk, according to security software specialist Symantec and others. Three separate patches to repair the flaws have been released and are available for download. The identification of the vulnerabilities are part of Microsoft's regular security bulletin process.

Later, Microsoft will also send notices about the Messenger patch through MSN Messenger, Toulouse said.

The three flaws affect different pieces of software. The first vulnerability affects MSN Messenger 6.0 and MSN Messenger 6.1 and will allow attackers to view contents of a victim's hard drive during a chat session with the victim.

Woo hoo, lets have some chats!
    for this posting

    On Tuesday, March 9th, 2004   by Chris Miller        

I am the driver, Ed is the passenger

As my referrer list shows, Ed Brill has told everyone he is here in St Louis today for the St Louis Domino User Group meeting to talk about, well, everything.  I grabbed him at the airport to make life easy and make sure he actually made it to the IBM building out in West County in St Louis.  A quick stop at Starbucks and we are off.  I will grab some digital pictures and post them later on today of the meeting.
    for this posting

    On Tuesday, March 9th, 2004   by Chris Miller        

Oracle to Offer IM and Web Conferencing ... what am I missing?

Another move into the enterprise IM market that makes no sense to me.  I could see them partnering with someone to integrate a solution, but not attempting to play catch-up and develop their own.  While they did choose the right path of XMPP and Simple (in my opinion), they could have made a phone call to Jabber and said, "Hey man, let's have a lunch and talk about a little product called Jab-acle"
BOSTON -- Oracle (Quote, Chart), best known for its database and business applications products and a certain rival software company that it wants to buy, is planning to roll out new instant messaging tools this year.

Oracle vice president Ramu Sunkara said the products, which will be sold as part of the Oracle Collaboration Suite, are in beta-testing mode right now and would follow the release of its Web Conferencing product. Introduced last fall, the conferencing software competes with similar collaboration tools and products from Microsoft (Quote, Chart) and WebEx (Quote, Chart).

Anyone have any thoughts on if they think Oracle stands a chance in this one being late to the game?

    for this posting

    On Sunday, March 7th, 2004   by Chris Miller        

Cool blogging idea, warblogging

I read an article on new RSS tools and blogging ideas that were being released, just as a curiosity (since we all love our Domino templates and replication).  This one by Waveblog caught my eye as an interesting idea, not sure of the true value yet, but another great merging of technology.
WaveMarket introduced its upcoming WaveBlog service, which takes the concept of "warchalking" to the blog and cell-phone market. Warchalking is the practice of marking sidewalks and walls near free wireless access points, similar to the hobo signs of a past generation.

Users who subscribe to the WaveBlog service can create location-aware blog entries, which can then be viewed and read using a map-interface.

In addition to creating location-aware blog entries, the WaveBlog service also includes an alerting feature. Customers will be able to subscribe to popular location bloggers, and then receive updates when new content is posted.

Company officials demonstrated how its service could be used by party-goers in San Francisco, following in the footsteps of a party hipster. The service was also demonstrated being used to avoid traffic tie-ups and to locate speed traps.

Although it's difficult to precisely determine location using the current cellular infrastructure in the United States, WaveMarket's service is currently being used by SK Telecom in Korea.

By 2005, though, cellular companies will be able to determine location within 50 meters using cell-tower triangulation, or via handset-based GPS. WaveMarket officials said the company is currently working with cellular providers, who will deliver the service. The company expects at least one U.S. cell provider to roll it out in the next quarter. A monthly fee yet to be determined.

Although blogging is supposed to be a global idea, as we read blogs form all over the world all the time, a more localized version could take off in finding people of similar interest locally.  I am not sure I would want a map grid showing up of where everyone is all the time.
    for this posting

    On Friday, March 5th, 2004   by Chris Miller        

For Trillian users - security release

Trillian released version 2.011 Pro and  0.74 Patch G (free version) to cover the following security issues:
A patch is available for all versions of Trillian and Trillian Pro to address recently discovered security vulnerabilities. Specifically, potential overflow conditions existed in the Yahoo! packet parsing routines and AIM direct connection routines. We encourage all users to download the patch.

So grab that patch through either the upgrade or full update of the version.

I do wish Trillian had some sort of optional alert in preferences to let us know when updates were available, mainly for security reasons.  I know AIM and Yahoo! have them, even though they can get annoying for feature releases, maybe categorized alerts would be available.
    for this posting

    On Wednesday, March 3rd, 2004   by Chris Miller        

Lotusphere slides are up and available

Yes yes, sorry about the delay but my slides are ready for download by following the link at the top if the site or on the right under downloads.  I converted them both to PDF format from the Powerpoint.  Let me know of any issues.  Sorry but I was swamped recently and kept letting it slide.  But I made myself get that done today!!
    for this posting

    On Monday, March 1st, 2004   by Chris Miller        

Everyone vote for us for the Apex Awards?

Just go to this link and get your registration link mailed to you!!!  (HINT: We are under Services category)
    for this posting

    On Wednesday, February 25th, 2004   by Chris Miller        

It has been one year of blogging, wow

Image:It has been one year of blogging, wow
    for this posting

    On Wednesday, February 18th, 2004   by Chris Miller        

AIM rolls out video in it’s chat, with an unanticipated twist

The new release (5.5) of AOL Instant Messenger hit the web and they tossed in something unexpected when they did.
America Online has officially taken the wraps off the new version of its AOL Instant Messenger application, with its much -anticipated video IM feature -- and the surprise addition of compatibility with Apple Computer's iChat AV.

AIM version 5.5's chief new feature, dubbed Live Video IM, made its way into the software only after the Federal Communications Commission cleared AOL to deploy advanced, broadband-based IM services -- including videoconferencing.

Months after regulatory approval, AOL first began enabling two AIM users to initiate videoconferencing sessions in a beta released in connection with its new Love.com dating site. When users click on a video icon during a chat, a small video window appears alongside the text IM conversation. Users can view the output of their camera in one tab, view their Buddy in another, and view them both simultaneously using a picture-in-picture feature.

Well that makes for some cool interaction for those already hooked on iChat.  You can read the full article on
InstantMessagingPlanet.
    for this posting

    On Friday, February 6th, 2004   by Chris Miller        

who wants a pic of the guest speaker?

Image:who wants a pic of the guest speaker?

He did a fantastic job of speaking, not sure why he spoke since most try to relay some message and integrate it with the yearly theme, but none the less.

Yesterday's picture was an entry point into the Sunday night party at the Dolphin hotel side.

I actually have a lot to say about my sessions and presentations but as you see it is late once again that I am doing this posting.  So my handful of readers must wait.  Here is one of me on stage taken by Karen that works with me

Image:who wants a pic of the guest speaker?
    for this posting

    On Tuesday, January 27th, 2004   by Chris Miller        

I have a new webcast I am doing next week

Right before Lotusphere I am sneaking in another webcast for E-Pro Magazine. Here are the details, let the right people know.
The spam chain is killing e-mail as a useful form of interaction. You need to know everything from avoiding being used as a spam relay to blocking incoming spam reliably and effectively. Chris Miller, Connectria's Director of Messaging and Collaboration, will get you up to speed on anti-relay abilities in Domino, blacklists, rules and filters, and add-on products to help reduce spam. Sponsored by Eagle Technology Consultants.

I was so busy with Lotusphere and some new clients that I almost forgot to tell everyone about this one.
    for this posting

    On Friday, January 16th, 2004   by Chris Miller        

For all you cd burning junkies (thanks to Bas for this one)

I do my fair share of cd burning and always have the black marker ready to label them since I don't have the effort, time or really the desire to make nice pretty fancy labels.  But HP went out and said but why not?
HP LightScribe technology

HP announced an innovative new technology to address the problem of labeling CDs and DVDs. HP LightScribe technology allows consumers to create silk-screen quality labels on their CDs or DVDs by burning text and graphics directly onto a disc, eliminating the need for adhesive labels. HP will begin making this new capability available to consumers in HP PCs in the second half of 2004.

Just flip that disc over and let the laser burn the image, track list or cover right onto the cd!!!  Consider me sold already.
    for this posting

    On Wednesday, January 14th, 2004   by Chris Miller        

Where to find me presenting at Lotusphere

I imagined it was time to list the sessions and BOF's I will be presenting and participating in this year.  I hope to put more faces to those I haven't met that read and comment on my blog.  Of course I hope everyone else I know is still coming back this year. Image:Where to find me presenting at Lotusphere


Rumor has it that we will also be mentioned in
STR116 - How Software as a Service Pays Off; What every Customer Should Consider When Evaluating Outsourced or Hosted Collaborative Technologies

Of course
Connectria will also have a booth again on the vendor floor at pedestal 214, I will be passing through there every so often as time allows.  So if you need me find me in the Dolphin or leave a message at the booth.
    for this posting

    On Monday, January 12th, 2004   by Chris Miller        

Ouch, patents are so broad in what they cover

Even though this is a drop in the big $$ bucket we know as Microsoft, being accused and then judged against that you stole someone else's software always hurts
Microsoft (Quote, Chart) has agreed to pay $60 million to Imagexpo LLC to settle charges that the software colossus wrongfully infringed on the firm's patent.

A federal court jury last month awarded $62.3 million in damages to Imagexpo's parent, printing software and industrial technology giant SPX Corporation (Quote, Chart), in a decision that found Microsoft had intentionally incorporated Imagexpo's whiteboarding technology into Windows NetMeeting. The technology is protected under ten-year old U.S. Patent No. 5,206,934, "Method and apparatus for interactive computer conferencing."

Microsoft could have been liable for even greater damages -- up to $186.9 million -- due to the court's finding that it intentionally misused the patented technology. Under the terms of the settlement, however, Microsoft will pay SPX $60 million this week, minus legal and other unspecified expenses, SPX said.

SPX did not disclose why it agreed to the settlement when it could have received between $2.3 million and about $125 million more. However, it's likely that Microsoft had aimed to appeal the court's finding by presenting evidence that could have challenged Imagexpo's patent, rendering it invalid.

Then of course this begs a whole other argument that are patents becoming so broad that everything falls under everything?

    for this posting

    On Wednesday, January 7th, 2004   by Chris Miller        

Symantec is getting ready for Mail Security 4.0 for Domino

I heard a little birdie tell me this.......(don't ask me where the = signs are coming from in this converted MIME document).

New to Symantec Mail Security 4.0 For Domino:


Domino 6.5 Server Support!


Antispam:


1)        Heuristic Spam Detection –

o        Neural networks based analysis engine is capable of accurately distinguishing between spam and regular corporate email.
2)        Antispam Whitelist

o        To ensure message delivery for known and trusted customer domains, a whitelist is available to bypass the heuristic antispam check.
3)        Prepending of Subject Line

o        For visual notification of spam identification, a custom string such as SPAM: can be added to the subject lines of messages that are identified by the heuristic engine.
4)        X-header addition

o        For non-visual handling of spam messages, where customers to not wish to prepend text to the subject line, a header tag can be added for later spam handling by content filtering or other processes.

Mass-Mailer Clean Up:


o        This option will allow administrators to eliminate known mass-mailer worm infected messages while in transit or stored in Domino databases. This will eliminate stored copies of infected messages as well as those being transferred internally and externally.

    for this posting

    On Monday, December 29th, 2003   by Chris Miller        

Some 6.5.1 release info

The more I read on Lotus Workplace, the more bits of information I gather on cool little pieces of things that will be coming.
The road map for the traditional Notes Domino and other collaboration products such as Lotus Instant Messaging (formerly Sametime) and Lotus Team Workplace (formerly QuickPlace) will focus on deepening the integration with Workspace through portal access.

In the first quarter of 2004, Notes Domino 6.5.1 will deliver a Dynamic Reverse Proxy Portal capability that will provide a better way to access Domino functions and apps through portlets, Bisconti said.

"In the past we haven't been able to provide dynamic [application] access. Direct application access to domino apps via portlets can surface not just the data but the run time and all of the application," Bisconti said.

Now I have no idea of what the term Dynamic Reverse Proxy Portal really means though.
 There will be plenty more about Eclipse coming and how it will be a new alternative acting as the Notes client without changing the GUI too much.  A Notes type client for Linux will be well received in my office, even if it has to grow some with it being a new release.

    for this posting

    On Tuesday, December 16th, 2003   by Chris Miller        

Dell chooses Microsoft IM over competitors

I wonder how heated the fight for this one was?
Dell Picks Microsoft Real-Time Communications Solutions

Dell (Quote, Chart) has implemented two of Microsoft's (Quote, Chart) recent real-time communications solutions, Office Live Meeting and MSN Messenger Connect for Enterprises.

MSN Messenger Connect for Enterprises enables Dell employees to communicate externally with users of MSN Messenger, and own and manage their own corporate IM identities.

Ultimately, Dell plans to deploy Microsoft Office Live Communications Server 2003, which adds internal enterprise IM. In addition to providing enterprise IM and the ability to tie into corporate applications, the server also integrate with MSN Messenger Connect for Enterprises -- linking the its users to the MSN Messenger public network.

According to the companies, Dell's decision was based in part on the ability to integrate managed instant messaging and Web conferencing capabilities into the new versions of Microsoft Office and Microsoft Office SharePoint Portal Server 2003.

I am digging around for other info on this decision.

    for this posting

    On Friday, December 12th, 2003   by Chris Miller        

Got a strainer? the fat client returneth

I was reading a November issue of CRN that had an interview with Ambuj Goyal that talks about the return of the full-function fat client.  Here  is the product roadmap he laid out which turned some heads.
LOTUS PRODUCT ROAD MAP

>>Q1 2004: Notes/Domino 6.5.1 (includes fixes, integrated IM, Team Workplace, Domino Document Management)
>>
Q2 2004: Workplace 2.0 (rich client, collaborative document management, Workplace Builder tools)
>>
Q3 2004: WebSphere Portal 5.1
>>
Q4 2004: Workplace 2.5 (better support for disconnected clients, better mobile device support); Domino 7.0 (DB2 support, enhanced portlets, Workplace integration, better e-mail support for disconnected users)
>>
BEYOND 2004: Domino 8.0 (better rich-client applications support for disconnected users)

More nice full client experience.  Of course I bet this will revolve around Eclipse as we all are hearing, but I want to know what versions of Java will be required and what will be supported?  We run into this now with Domino Web Access and the wrong Java version biting us in the arse.  Hurts to tell the customer that sorry, you cannot run that Sun JVM and try and use that IM package for web meetings currently.

    for this posting

    On Wednesday, December 10th, 2003   by Chris Miller        

Yahoo! issues IM security patch (Microsoft blogging pt 2 Monday)

If you use the Yahoo! IM client (not Trillian) then there is a patch from this week you should get, details below.  Part 2 of the Microsoft blogging I was writing will be Monday as I am busy building Lotus Workplace Messaging servers today...ugh
Yahoo Inc. this week issued a security update for Yahoo Messenger after the report earlier this week of a buffer overflow vulnerability in the instant messaging client.

Yahoo said it learned of the security issue late Tuesday and issued the patch by Wednesday afternoon. Security researcher Tri Huynh discovered a vulnerability that, if exploited, could allow a malicious Web site to run code on a user's computer, according to an advisory issued Wednesday by Danish security company Secunia.


The vulnerability stems from an error in the "yauto.dll" file, an ActiveX component of Messenger. The security hole affects Yahoo Messenger versions 5.6.0.1347 and earlier, the advisory said.


    for this posting

    On Friday, December 5th, 2003   by Chris Miller        

Microsoft and the blogging world Part 1

It seems that while Microsoft currently does not make any tools directly for blogging, we all know many of their employees do have blogs that exist.  Well now there is talks from inside the research camp that they might be pursuing this.

Microsoft Research is developing social-networking software code-named "Wallop," the first fruits of which could show up in 2006 when the "Longhorn" version of Windows goes live. Wallop is designed to use blogs, wikkis, instant-messaging and e-mail to connect individuals in peer groups. Microsoft officials have said to expect an RSS aggregator to be part of the Longhorn user interface.

And the ASP.Net team at Microsoft has been dabbling with blogging, as well, via the Community Starter Kit distributed to individuals interested in building their own community sites.


Who think that Lotus should make some RSS feed tools available in Domino just like they recently did for IM?  Simple point and click type operations?  Or maybe some template that is included on the server that allows for easy customization and quickly running blogs?  I see Quickplace as too much for this for some reason.
    for this posting

    On Thursday, December 4th, 2003   by Chris Miller        

Who says IM is just for business and friends anymore?

This one will add a new spark to the monitoring and metering of IM usage in the enterprise.  Or on the other hand it might have people from different departments unknowingly matchmaking with someone else at the company. LOL

In the latest move to monetize its popular AOL Instant Messenger (AIM) network, America Online is poised to launch an online dating site that will leverage IM.

During coming weeks, AOL plans an advertising campaign announcing Love.com, an online personals service in the vein of InterActive Corp's (Quote, Chart) Match.com. The ads will encourage users to sign up for a free preview of the site and will highlight its reliance on AOL's AIM.

"Love.com will marry the benefits of real-time communications together with AIM's active user base to deliver a casual, fun and comfortable place to meet and get to know new people online," said AOL spokesman Derick Mains.

And so you say to me, well they have to find out about it, sign up for it and etc etc etc etc.  AOL has taken care of that simple idea in the free AIM client so many of you use too.

At the very least, AOL can take advantage of a whopping 50-million-strong monthly userbase for the AIM service, most of whom are using AIM clients that support advertising, and who could be ripe for receiving ads promoting Love.com.

    for this posting

    On Wednesday, December 3rd, 2003   by Chris Miller        

Have a snappy flash website? Toss some IM integration from AOL in there

An announcement by Macromedia tells that there is a new SDK to let developers of Flash applications integrate AOL and ICQ into the app.
According to terms of an agreement months in the making and announced today at Macromedia's MAX conference in Salt Lake City, developers creating Flash-based applications for distribution in Central will now have access to messaging and presence-detection capabilities from the AOL Instant Messenger and ICQ networks. Ideally, those developers will leverage AIM and ICQ APIs in adding IM and presence to the business and consumer applications they develop and sell via Central.

AOL in turn will promote Macromedia Central on the AIM client.  Hmmm, selling ad space on the Sametime client, what a concept LOL   Image:Have a snappy flash website? Toss some IM integration from AOL in there
    for this posting

    On Wednesday, November 19th, 2003   by Chris Miller        

More confusion in the enterprise IM market

I guess Cisco decided that it wasn't enough to own most of the networking equipment in the world, let's go get some software that they will use on all this equipment is their new slogan.

Network equipment giant Cisco (Quote, Chart) will acquire conferencing specialist Latitude Communications (Quote, Chart) for $80 million in cash, bolstering its Internet protocol offerings for large corporations and applying new pressure on Microsoft and WebEx in a growing sector.

Latitude's MeetingPlace software combines voice, video and Web content. And since it's standards-based, it integrates with scheduling applications such as IBM/Lotus Notes and Microsoft Outlook, as well as data collaboration and instant messaging tools.

It also can be used with Cisco's CallManager, enabling users to schedule, attend and manage meetings via Cisco's IP phones, a Cisco executive said. The company has sold more than 2 million IP mobile phones and this acquisition could help differentiate the offering further.

This interest me since I can see them offering a nice backbone service of connectivity for great meeting quality.

    for this posting

    On Friday, November 14th, 2003   by Chris Miller        

Connectria joins DCML Organization (yes that is where I work)

Data Center Standard Initiative Gains Industry Momentum; Ten Additional Technology Companies Join DCML Organization, Bringing Total to Thirty-five

SUNNYVALE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nov. 11, 2003--The Data Center Markup Language (DCML) Organization today announced continued momentum, as ten new companies recently joined the industry-wide DCML standards effort. Joining the original group of twenty-five companies are F5 Networks, Aperture Technologies, Collation Inc., Amphus Inc., OSA Technologies, Connectria, Vieo, Invio, Rendition Networks and Evident Software.

Initiated by Opsware (Nasdaq:OPSW) and EDS (NYSE:EDS), the DCML effort continues to gain the support of leading technology companies seeking to simplify data center management and deliver a foundation for utility computing. In addition to the companies announced today, DCML members include Opsware, EDS, Computer Associates, BEA Systems, Mercury Interactive, Tibco, Micromuse, Marimba, Akamai Technologies, NetIQ, Tripwire, Inkra Networks, Egenera, ITM Software, AlterPoint, BladeLogic, Blue Titan, Centrata, Configuresoft, Consera, Ejasent, Euclid, Inflow, Racemi and Relicore

Full story can be found right here

    for this posting

    On Wednesday, November 12th, 2003   by Chris Miller        

Yahoo changes it’s enterprise IM strategy

Yahoo has closed the enterprise software group and laid off some workers.  The most important move affected by this is the push that Yahoo was trying to make into the enterprise IM space that Sametime owns.  While they will still sell the Yahoo Business Messenger service, it will be covered under the group that runs the free consumer product in terms of sales, support and marketing.

According to Yahoo, they are not abandoning the product of effort at all.  Just providing different management.
"Enterprise solutions as a division is being parceled out to be with complimentary elements on the consumer side," Yahoo spokesman Chris Homan said.


So does this mean to everyone that Sametime has won so far and Microsoft is now making it's drive at the market?  Who has things to say?
    for this posting

    On Monday, November 3rd, 2003   by Chris Miller        

ANNOUNCEMENT: Sneak Peek of Domino Admin 7

Everyone wants to know what is coming in Domino 7.  Well as luck would have it I got my hands on the administrator piece and got a camera shot of it.  Now I hope you are ready to learn a ton of new commands, and it is possible to do everything from the mouse.  Heck, the mouse is the major component.  You wanted simplicity in user, group and server management across all the server components (ie: Sametime, QuickPlace, Domino.Doc and Workplace)?  I will be darned if they didn't deliver!!!

Image:ANNOUNCEMENT: Sneak Peek of Domino Admin 7

Ok, I made the opening long enough for RSS Readers to grab the beginning and not see this part until they came here :-).  This is a mouse that I found in Monaco for gamers.  John Head will love this one. It is called the Thrustmaster.  Really, look close at the image and you will see the name on it in the color white.  (I have this image much larger if anyone wants it)
    for this posting

    On Thursday, October 23rd, 2003   by Chris Miller        

The countdown is one day!!!

As some of you know I am off to Amsterdam as of Fri for the View Technical Conference to present about 5 sessions this time around.  I will be humbled by the presence of Rob Novak, Libby, Debbie Lynd (can't seem to find a blog link for her now can we?) and many others.

Go see who is presenting

So if you are one of my loyal 3 or so readers, feel free to say hi if you are going to this event over there by any chance.  I will have some guest bloggers for a couple random days when I know I won't be able to type much.  But I promise to bring pictures and other goodies back.  As well as a post tomorrow still.
    for this posting

    On Wednesday, October 8th, 2003   by Chris Miller        

And they said IM can’t waste employee time

The recent betas are coming out for MSN and AOL for the chat clients.  Can anyone say "How About a nice game of chess?"  (yes, from the movie War Games)

Microsoft Beta Tests MSN Messenger 6.1

Microsoft has begun testing an upcoming version of public MSN Messenger IM client, adding a handful of new features.

The client offers a slew of new presence enabled games , which has recently become a hot area of exploration for the major IM networks. Microsoft rolled out the first friends list-based games with the launch of 6.0; America Online is preparing to launch similar functionality in the next version of its AOL Instant Messenger.



I am thinking backgammon might be a good way to talk about project ideas.  We both roll dice, make moves and hope the other player doesn't knock us off the board for a few turns.
    for this posting

    On Monday, October 6th, 2003   by Chris Miller        

Trillian and AOL IM news for the day

For those of us that utilize Trillian, it seems the little ploy I spoke about from Yahoo! in blocking their messenger users that aren't updated has bitten us also.  When you try to log into Trillian you get a lovely warning that your password is invalid.  Now if you go into their client (newer versions) or the web interface, you can log in fine.  Trillian has issued a statement and temporary solution on their website here.  I warn you it isn't pretty.  Basically don't use us for Yahoo! until we get it fixed.

We are looking into an issue that may cause a crash or Invalid Password when trying to autoconnect to Yahoo. For now, you can turn off Autoconnect by going into the preferences for your Yahoo connections.

If you cannot get into Trillian to shut off Yahoo autoconnect, you can edit your Yahoo.ini file. Here is how:

Click Start -> Run, then type:

notepad c:\program files\ trillian\users\default\yahoo.ini (take the space out of the \ trillian\ part)

If the file does not load, open Windows Explorer and find your Documents and Settings directory, then your name, then the Trillian directory. There should be a Yahoo.ini file in there.

Change the line that says auto connect=1 so that it reads auto connect=0. If you are using more than one Yahoo connection, change the line for each connection.

Now save the file and reload Trillian. We are working on a fix for this problem.


Now for all you AOL IM users that actually use the AOL IM client and not the above or Sametime or some other variation.  Here is a bit of a time waster coming out in version 5.5 of the product.  Online gaming!!  Now don't get your undergarments in an uproar over how your employees will now waste even more time.  Most of the games will cost and only have a few freebies that are sponsored like 7up is doing to promote their new product  dnL

AIM Games will debut in AIM version 5.5, which is currently in public beta. Some of the titles will be available for free to users, as they're being sponsored by advertisers -- Dr. Pepper/Seven Up Inc., for instance, is offering two games to promote its dnL drink.

Other games, however, will require users to pay before downloading. For time being, AOL offers two free invites per Buddy and a handful of trial plays, which helps to promote the service.


    for this posting

    On Friday, September 26th, 2003   by Chris Miller        

recent Lotus 6.5 homepage news (ok mainly one article)

 For beta partners, Lotus Domino/Notes 6.5 opens doors, delivers on Workplace vision
    for this posting

    On Monday, September 22nd, 2003   by Chris Miller        

This past trip to NJ/NYC; Next week; and guest bloggers

The Trip
I landed yesterday from my 3 day trip up east.  Amazingly the flights both ways had no delays and arrived early each direction.  Now if someone can tell me how to make that happen consistently.  While there I did manage to talk to
Ed while he was having mail routing issues.  That or the food coma I was in contributed to me not seeing any solution.  I was so stuffed I could hardly stay awake.

I spent time at a school district outside of Philadelphia upgrading them from Domino 5.x to ND 6.02.  Also a swap to bigger hardware and building two new ones for students.  The whole staff was moved to iNotes also while I was there.  Removing quotas to add the template was the most irritating part.  So many users were over the quota that the design would not apply.  But thanks to the lovely Admin client, I quickly removed the quota, did the convert and reaplied quotas.  Not a big thing overall.  The hardest part was getting Symantec Anti-virus for Domino installed and functioning.  After three support calls to the vendor, we got the new definitions loaded and the software scanning.

Plus the lovely registry bug that is
technoted.  When you install on Win 2k, apparently a registry setting isn't put into place and mail will not route.  We have now encountered this three times.  Each time that technote solved the problem.  The install itself was a fresh one and then I moved some data files across.  So this had to happen on the new install of the software of ND6.

Next week and guest bloggers

Ok, next week I am on vacation for my annual disconnected week.  (queue the music here) I don't touch a computer or cell phone at all that week and I have done this for eight years.  Really leaves me refreshed and looking forward to getting back at it when I return.  But don't fear!!! I won't leave you unattended.  I have talked to some people we all know and love about guest blogging for me on some days.  This should get interesting after the
damage I have done a few times.

P.S. oops, had to come back in and change the font sizing.
    for this posting

    On Friday, August 29th, 2003   by Chris Miller        

Domino 6.5 Milestone 3

The email came yesterday while I was out of the office.  Those on the managed beta now have access to Milestone 3 of Notes and Domino 6.5

There is a Router patch that has been issued but the feature/fix list is still on the table to be read today.  I will, of course, post an entry about how the upgrade of the server and clients went that were on Milestone 2 as well as a 6.02 client.
    for this posting

    On Tuesday, August 19th, 2003   by Chris Miller        

Microsoft releases Greenwich pricing

It appears the pricing has hit the airwaves for the Microsoft attempt at enterprise instant messaging.  Reading up on this full article, here was a couple highlights.


Microsoft Reveals Greenwich Pricing


As a solution for internal communications, the product's price

point alone stands to make it a significant challenge to

enterprise IM offerings from Yahoo! and AOL, as well as many

of the third-party IM gateways like FaceTime, IMlogic and

Akonix -- which log and manage public IM, making them safe

for use within the enterprise. Typically, those solutions begin

at about $30 per user per year. The Live Communications

Server's starting price also is competitive with Lotus Instant

Messaging (formerly
Sametime), currently the market leader in
enterprise IM deployments.


The Redmond, Wash.-based software titan said the server will

have an estimated price of $929, with Client Access Licenses

(CALs) coming in at $34.95. Microsoft said final pricing will be

based on the volume of the purchase.


While Microsoft said it is not ready to disclose when the

product will be released to manufacturing, it did say it is on

track to ship in the third quarter.

There is some more to the article about protocols and dreams (did I say that?)of how it will interact with the public MSN system.
 Of course Ed Brill and I posted similar topics about 5 minutes apart.  Great minds, I tell ya.
    for this posting

    On Monday, August 11th, 2003   by Chris Miller        

There was a glitch in the Matrix

  Last night at 2:30am, my cell phone starts beeping with a system alert at the same time that the phone started ringing.  Our beloved blog hosting server decided that it did not need it's array controller any longer and could function greatly without it.  It soon learned however, that it was a required piece of the puzzle.

bad bad array controller!!!


So we lost last nights postings for myself, Tom Duff and Libby as the tape was in progress and didn't complete.  So we decided to take the outage and rebuild the OS as well.
    for this posting

    On Friday, August 8th, 2003   by Chris Miller        

I will be presenting via Webcast today

        Today around 1:30 EST you will find me presenting a webcast on Domino 6 Compression.  So I know you all signed up already, this was the warning for those of you that didn't :-)
        Ok, the webcast is done.  Great job from the E-Pro team for putting it together and thanks to those of you that attended.  The questions were great and the topic flowed.  I have one more in Aug to do.  Details on that soon!.
    for this posting

    On Tuesday, July 29th, 2003   by Chris Miller        

cross you fingers, new design template again

        Ok, here is a new template I put together.  Let me know about this one.  I might have to get a poll running to make this easier.  This one is called Winter Breeze.

        Otherwise I was pondering something that Chris Harvey had over at his blog on replication and the trash folder in Domino 6.  I need to test that those don't actually replicate.  I thought mine worked fine between servers, but let's see what the investigation reveals.  We have some users on the 6.5 test server replicating back to the 6.02 CF1 server so this should be easy to get some counts.  I am also curious if it depends on what server is set to your home server if the user is not utilizing both replicas.  Or better yet what is they use Notes client for the 6.5 and then iNotes on the other server through the portal.  Hmmmmmm.
    for this posting

    On Tuesday, July 22nd, 2003   by Chris Miller        

I am BACK !!

        Well to start out I hope everyone had a fine few days.  I am back from the E-Pro (Penton Media) Editor Conference.  I am happy as can be after winning the Gary Guthrie Award for Excellence in Technical Writing for my E-Pro article on "Troubleshooting Internet Messaging in Domino" !!!  I have tons of pics to resize and put up shortly.
       
Libby did an awesome job of guiding us through the editorial calendar process.  I was amazed at the amount of work that went into that.  I knew they had planning to do, but a year in advance trying to decide hot topics and new technologies was a twist.
        I will be doing a Webcast for E-Pro in July, more info on that to follow.

               I also managed to almost finish book 2 of Deathgate Cycle - Elven Star.  I am loving this series so far.  This book is not only entertaining but the story flows far better than the first (Dragon Wing).  It might be due to the necessary character development done in the first one also.

        I am also introducing you to Mel Beckman and his blog.  He does a fantastic job for Penton Media and wrote a great tip book on networking linked form his site.  A small compact network tip book that just gets to the point.  It is around 100 pages with about 50 tips I think.  I made sure to get one myself.  His blog apparently will start talking about all those fantastic things.

       I will be loading
Milestone 2 of 6.5 now that I am back, let's see how that goes. Ok, the upgrade from Milestone 1 was not as pretty as planned.  Once again there is a weird error 115 or something.  Which means, yes, some DLL files won't get upgraded.  A reboot and still no go.  I realized that the sync software is running.  I shut that down, rebooted and no go still.  So I renamed the DLL's, got about halfway done and said, whoa!!!  Lets make sure this is clean and see if they changed the install screens again.  So I uninstalled 6.5 M1 and redid the install.  It went smooth and there was a couple new boxes.
        One thing I don't like is the new group name they force you to use if you want to add it to all templates.  That just leaves the door open for other things if you cannot specify your own group naming standards.  Sure you can rename it later, but what happened to the good old days of making it what I wanted on install???
    for this posting

    On Monday, June 23rd, 2003   by Chris Miller        

It has arrived!!! carried over to May 30

        OK, the official document for Domino blog hosting is here.  Sorry for the delay, but I wanted to make sure I covered everything.  So I did a pseudo focus group and here we go!!!!  The document explains it well I think.


If you have any questions, well my contact info is up on the right, don't hesitate.  And tell all your friends.  Heck, blog about it :-)


Also, due to questions I am adding this.  All blog templates will be supported and I will leave it to the user to refresh the design for now.  That allows low cost and maintenance on the hosting side, as well as the ability for a person to stay at or customize a certain version of the template and not worry about refreshed occurring.  Thoughts there outside of what is commented already?
    for this posting

    On Thursday, May 29th, 2003   by Chris Miller        

packing for Vegas

        Please excuse the mess while I pack and fly out to Las Vegas for Admin2003 today :-)
    for this posting

    On Monday, April 28th, 2003   by Chris Miller        

Monday and all is, well it is just there

        Welcome to Monday everyone, please come in and have a seat.  Watch a movie while I finish this nap if you desire.  May I suggest the new Flash files by Lotus for Domino 6.  Actually they are pretty cool.  After watching two of them I found myself in some dazed pro-Domino mode wanting to upgrade what few customers we have left on R5.  :-)

     
Libby is back so no more guest blogging for her, at least as far as she knows at this time.  I might have to sneak in and make some more entries.
      Everyone make sure you drop by
Jess' page as she is all alone with no Matt for a bit and even posted she needs some virtual company.  I dropped the IM welcome basket on her door and ran today.

      As for myself, I finished the final edits on my
Admin2003 presentations (we hope I did Debbie) and that show is creeping up on the calendar fast.  But after seeing some of the other presentations that are done and knowing a few of the speakers, look for a great show.  Not too late to talk management into spending that training budget that is left over.
      Look for another article from me in
E-Pro Magazine at the same time to coincide with the conference.
    for this posting

    On Monday, April 14th, 2003   by Chris Miller        

just wow, that is all I am saying, two times

First we have a wonderful Groove story

Then quite the exciting little comment section generated from
Michael Braly and moved over to Ed Brill's page that I started today about User Groups!!!!   Visit Ed's page and make your own comments so we can follow this in one place.  Until Steve (hint hint) gets comments working on this template I am dedicated to :-)
    for this posting

    On Tuesday, March 11th, 2003   by Chris Miller