Month: October 2010

BLUG – 26.10.2010

Attended yesterdays BLUG event at the IBM Forum, Bourgetlaan 42, Zaventem (Brussels). As always, the event was well attended. According to Theo Heselmans 80 of 100 registered persons showed up.

This is a real good result. Don’t forget it was an event with 2 sessions on a working day.

There was a half hour session run by RIM ( sorry, forgot the name of the speaker ). Blackberry Express for Domino was announced to be available on 02-Nov-2010.

Also RIM presented the brand new BLACKBERRY PLAYBOOK. This is another example where product names do not translate well into other languages. When I heard “playbook”, I immediately thought: “An enterprise-ready gamepad??” .

It’s s not a gamepad in the first place although I guess that it will not take long until the first games will be available for this nice tablet pc.

Next on the agenda was Nathan T Freeman. After he was introduced by Theo, someone in the audience asked what the T stands for. Nathan’s first (logical) answer was “THE”.

Nathan had 2 full hours to talk about the XPages Extension Library published on OpenNTF. I must admit that I already had downloaded the extension and also clicked thru the samples application that is available for download on the OpenNTF website, too.

Despite this, I was stunned when Nathan talked about all this cool stuff. Maybe this was the reason, why I completely forgot to spend some serious applause during the session. Everyone was very quiet indeed.

The (social) networking started right after the session. Not sure how long the bar was opened. I had to leave at about 6:30PM and drove the 250km home all the way thinking of which part of the extension I could usei in the intranet application I’m working on at the moment.


Book review: IBM Lotus Sametime 8 Essentials

IBM Lotus Sametime 8 Essentials was written by Marie Scott and Thomas Duff and first published in September 2010. Both authors are well known speakers at conferences including Lotusphere.
The book is only available in English, but this is not a showstopper for readers from other countries with an average knowledge of english language.

The writing style is clear and understandable. You can feel that the authors know what they are writing about and that they have great skills in presenting technical content to non-technical audience/readers.

IBM Lotus Sametime 8 Essentials was written for end-users. No matter if you are a Sametime “newbee” or you want to become a Sametime “power user”. On 270 pages it covers almost every aspect of IBM Lotus Sametime 8.x. Even as an administrator or a supporter in a servicedesk you should consider to order a copy of this book.

While reading, you will always find some things you didn’t know about IBM Lotus Sametime. For example, I didn’t know that you can add a user to the contacts list by simply right click the user in the Domino Directory and choose the “Add to Sametime contacts list” action. I have completely missed this feature in the past.

Chapter 8 shows how to install and use the Sametime mobile client on Blackberry, Windows Mobile, Nokia and Sony Ericsson. The iPhone is not covered in this chapter.

You will find the relevant information on page 241 in Appendix A. Could have been more verbose. I guess that this information has been added very close to  the deadline. I’m sure that we will read more in a 2nd edition.

Appendix C lists many valuable Sametime ressources including a link to the “Official” Sametime song.

In other reviews I always complained about the quality of screenshots. The images in IBM Lotus Sametime 8 Essentials are well choosen and show only the relevant information. Again this is an indicator for the author’s skill in presenting. Well done, Marie and Tom!

Fazit:
If you are using IBM Lotus Samtime in your organization and you want to learn in detail how to use each feature from start to finish, this book is for you.

If you not yet use IBM Lotus Samtime in your organization, buy a copy of this book for one of the decision makers. A great overview of all the things that can be done using Sametime to increase productivity. Way better than all the glossy broshures from IBM marketing.

You can order your copy here.

Add “IBM Lotus Sametime 8 Essentials” to the shopping cart at www.PacktPub.com and enter LN15BL in the “Promotional Code” box. When you hit the “Add Promotional Code” button, a 15% discount will be applied.


UNIX timestamp to Date function

For migration project I needed a function to convert a UNIX timestamp to Notes Date /Time. Here is the function I used

Function Timestamp2Date(timestamp As Double) As String

Dim dt As New NotesDateTime("01/01/1970 00:00:00")
Dim dd As Integer, hh As Integer, ss As Double

dd = Fix(timestamp / 86400)
ss = (timestamp Mod 86400) Mod 3600
hh = Fix(ss / 3600)
hh = hh + 1

Call dt.AdjustDay(dd)
Call dt.AdjustHour(hh)
Call dt.AdjustSecond(ss)

Timestamp2Date = Format(dt.LSLocalTime, "dd/mm/yyyy hh:mm:ss")
End Function
Sub Click(Source As Button)
Msgbox Timestamp2Date(1115986380)
End Sub

will convert the UNIX timestamp 1115986380 to “13.05.2005 02:13:00”


IBM Lotus Notes 8.5 User Guide in review

The “IBM Lotus Notes 8.5 User Guide” is a practical, hands-on user guide with time-saving tips and comprehensive instructions for using Lotus Notes effectively and effiently.

The author, Karen Hooper, has over 13 years of experience in Lotus Notes and Domino. She has a good writing style and you can feel that she knows how to teach.

The foreword is written by Ed Brill and going to the list of reviewers, youl’ll find well known names like Susan Bulloch, Mary Beth Raven, Karen Hobert and Kathy Staples.

As the title implies, the “IBM Lotus Notes 8.5 User Guide” is written for end-users and from their perspective, the contents covers all aspects of Lotus Notes in an detailed and comprehensive way without being too technical.

I even recommend this book to servicedesk staff. Reading the book will take you to the same level in communication your users are on. This can make communication with your servicedesk more effectively. As an example, take a look at the screenshot on page 7 which names all the relevant parts of the user interface. Knowing you vocabulary is very important in communication.

Another valuable information I found on page 12; shortcuts! Users love shortcuts. They can make their daily work easier. What I am missing here is a printed version of all the shortcuts that could be detached from the printed copy of the book.

The book contains tons of screenshots. IMHO some of the screenshots are a bit overloaded with information. The publisher should also think about the print quality. It is sometimes not easy to see the details. And very important; keep in mind that the screenshots are taken in color mode, but the book shows the pictures in grayscale mode.

Despite this, I recommend the book as a valuable resource for all users of Lotus Notes. If you are looking for a resource for teaching your users how to use Lotus Notes effectively and effiently, “IBM Lotus Notes 8.5 User Guide” is for you.

I hope that this book will also be available in other languages soon.