Domino Unplugged

Thoughts of Boston - but not there ...

Rob Wunderlich — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 11:40:29 -0400

Just a quick note to all those either already in or heading to Boston for the ADMIN/Lotus Developer shows this week ...

First time in ages but I won't be presenting there this year ...

Makes me sad, not only because it's a great conference (conferences?) and so many friends will be there, but because Boston is such a great city and I've always looked forward to my yearly visit.

So, those of you there - enjoy!

Meanwhile, next schedule appearance will be at the Rational Software Developers Conference in about a month - perhaps I'll see you there!

- Rob

Everyone’s Twittering

Rob Wunderlich — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 23:34:43 -0400

Okay, maybe not EVERYONE, but it sure is interesting to see the Lotus community alive on Twitter. If you're not aware, Twitter is sort of a micro-blog site. You get 140 characters to answer the question "what are you doing right now." Many of you may have been aware of the extensive Twitter netwokr during Lotusphere - all sorts of "tweets" about great sessions, booths that were 'don't miss', where the parties were.

This is, I'm sure at least in part, to the plug in for the Notes 8 client that brings Twitter right into the client:

Everything you need to know about TwitNotes can be found HERE.

Alan Lepofsky added an entire page devoted to Twitter utilities on his blog a week ago.

And, as of today, I added a twitter badge to my site:

If you're interested, incidentally, this is 'Twitter Balloon' and you can get it HERE. Whether it will stay is anyone's guess ... but we'll try it out for a while.

If nothing else, do check out Twitter. You can find me at http://twitter.com/rwunder

- Rob

PlanetLotus highlights broken RSS feed

Rob Wunderlich — Fri, 4 Apr 2008 10:10:59 -0400

First off, hats off in general to PlanetLotus.org. I assume you've been there and seen the 'blog aggregator' site. If not, please go check it out. I'll wait.

Okay, you're back?? We'll continue ...

I know that Ed Brill had a post recently talking about how much traffic PlanetLotus is driving to his site. If I understood correctly, Ed said that 12% of his traffic comes from PlanetLotus.

Well, 12% ain't nothing!

A recent snapshot of "Traffic Sources" for DominoUnplugged shows that PlanetLotus is the #1 referring site, and it is responsible for 44.75% of the traffic that isn't 'direct' (people coming directly to the site via bookmarks or typing in the address). (Just for the record, PlanetLotus is the #1 referrer, lotus.com is #2, and Ed Brill is #3, with ibm.com and google rounding out the top five ... )

That is, needless to say, a substantial portion of the traffic generated around here. So, thanks PlanetLotus and, specially, thanks to Yancy Lent, the mastermind behind PlanetLotus.

Which brings me to the point - I noticed that user visits here had dropped, and in particular PlanetLotus referrals had dropped significantly. Was curious why. So, I checked with PlanetLotus, and they reported that I hadn't updated the site since March 19th. Obviously, I had, so something was amiss ...

Turns out that there was an "illegal character" in my RSS feed for one entry (the one about the Peeps), so Yancy's site was unable to parse the RSS feed which is what feeds PlanetLotus.

Not entirely clear what was wrong, but I went back to that entry, did some reformatting and some other diddling around, and - poof - suddenly an additional two weeks worth of entries have shown up over at PL.

So, thanks, Yancy, double now.

And, if anyone else was having RSS feed issues ... sorry 'bout that!

- Rob

News Notes XM on your BlackBerry, WinMobile 6.1, MS Surface for Devices

Rob Wunderlich — Thu, 3 Apr 2008 23:38:17 -0400

Things in deviceland keep getting more interesting with each passing day.

For example, Windows Mobile 6.1 has officially seen the light of day. It is just a 'point' release, so there's not a tremendously long list of new features, but true, threaded SMS messaging might be worth the upgrade. Engadget has a list of affected devices and supporting carriers ...

But, maybe that's not exciting enough.

Well then, Bunky, maybe XM Radio on your BlackBerry will fit the bill. Gear Diary sums it up nicely:

XM Satellite radio is bringing 20 of their popular music channels to your Blackberry. The service was previously available via AT&T subscription ($8.99/mo). This newest release adds general availability for supported models no matter who your carrier is. For $ 7.99 month ...

The entire press release from XM can be read HERE.

But, maybe you're still thinking this is a slow news week.

Well, remember all the hoopla about Microsoft Surface back a couple months ago? What if I told you it was coming soon to an AT&T device near you? Read THIS and THIS (both from the oddballs at Engadget).

Yeah, I knew you'd be excited about that!

- Rob

RIM adds BlackBerry support forum

Rob Wunderlich — Tue, 1 Apr 2008 23:00:00 -0400

Just to make official note ...

Yesterday, RIM announced a new Blackberry online forum: The Blackberry Support Community Forum. Will be interesting to watch as the forum evolves - one of the interesting elements is that forum entries can be 'tagged' - and you can do a typical search or click on the tag cloud.

This 'official' forum (which is apparently going to be a peer-to-peer support forum, although RIM employees will "participate from time to time") will join several long-eastablished BlackBerry online forums:

and our personal favorite: NotesBerry.

And this is NOT an April Fools joke ...

- Rob

April Fools Redux: Top 10 Harmless Geek Pranks

Rob Wunderlich — Tue, 1 Apr 2008 22:44:02 -0400

A final note for April 1, 2008 ...

Lifehacker has published the Top 10 Harmless Geek Pranks.

Personal favorite (above): customizing your printer's console message so it says "insert coins."

- Rob

April Fools Spoofs: HandSolo and more

Rob Wunderlich — Tue, 1 Apr 2008 22:12:43 -0400

There were a number of pretty good April Fools pranks today - among them the "Custom Time" feature that GMail was offering (where you could 'turn back' the timestamp on mail you'd sent so you could still be in time for something you were already late for [e.g., submit by midnight when it's already the next day]).

I think my personal favorite was the HandSolo mobile phone: there's no device, no nothing. Just your hand. This spoof was very elaborate - Qualcomm (we think) even created a special domain and web site for the 'new device'.

Another major technology spoof that circulated today - Sprint introduced wireless electricity: WiJuice.

Ahhhh, springtime ....

- Rob

Wow - THIS is a BlackBerry

Rob Wunderlich — Sun, 30 Mar 2008 00:27:34 -0400

The gadget blogosphere has been buzzing the past two days with 'spy shots' of the BlackBerry 9000.

You can see details at a variety of places like Engadget or Gear Diary, but take a look at this:

Looks like some really interesting stuff coming down from Waterloo ....

- Rob

Off Topic: Worst Foods of the Year

Rob Wunderlich — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 15:45:00 -0400

Having nothing to do with Notes or anything else (even Peeps) -

Stumbled across this today:

10 Worst Foods of the Year

Just for the record, several of these are old friends here in Unplugged Manor, but kinda scary to know that the KFC "Chicken & Biscuit Bowl" has 870 calories - and it only made #5 on the list. Number one? The Carls Jr Western Bacon Six Dollar Burger. A whopping 1,130 calories ...

Yikes!

Holy carrots and celery sticks, Batman!

- Rob

Brill does Motown

Rob Wunderlich — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 15:09:55 -0400

Ed Brill hit the Motor City Wednesday, paying a visit to the Detroit Notes Professionals.

The meeting, even aside from Ed's visit, was great.

The one and (thank God) the only Brian O'Curran, back with Lotus sales after "a tour of duty" with the Rational brand, brought his unique presentation style to the whole matter of the Notes 8.0.1 client ("can I get an Amen!?!"). He was hilarious - yet managed to convey a ton of information about the changes in the new client release.

Quote of the hour - at one point, making a statement about how you could now do practically everything you might need to do within the notes client itself (presentations, Sametime, email, activities, etc.), Brian declared himself "deliciously Microsoft Free." Brought down the house ...

Obviously having grabbed the short straw in following Brian was Intier's Margaret Callaghan, who borrowed a few pages from the Alan Lepofsky playbook and did a number of Alan's favorite tips and tricks. (My personal favorite was the "map address" trick for the address book which Alan had mentioned quite some time ago on his site and which I 'borrowed' more than once ...)

Well done, Margaret - Brian was a tough act to follow.

Then right after lunch, Ed came and did a great presentation that dovetailed nicely with Brian's - Ed talked philosophy and roadmap - where the products have been and where they're going, and closed with a number of competitive examples that will probably come in handy to a number of those in attendance. It was interesting to hear him talk about the $81 Million USD that IBM hopes to save by not renewing Microsoft Office licenses for everyone in the corporation ...

You may have noticed that Ed gave only a passing note of having been at the user group meeting in his blog. He deferred to "Twitterings" that Ray Bilyk and I were doing as Ed (and Brian and Margaret, for that matter) were presenting. If you're not familiar with Twitter, it's sort of a 'mini blog' tool ... and Ray and I were sort of doing a play by play. You can check Ray's Twitters out HERE, and mine out HERE. In both cases, looks for the "Tweets" from Wednesday, March 26th, 2008.

Thanks for coming to town, Ed - look forward to your next visit!

OMG - What have I started? Peeps mania reigns ....

Rob Wunderlich — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 11:30:38 -0400

There is no conceivable way to tie this back to Lotus Notes, Mobile devices or anything remotely on-topic to this site, but I created a maelstrom here with the mere mention of Peeps yesterday.

Not only did Libby chime in (hi Libby!) via comment about the newest entry in the Peeps product lineup, the Peep-chick-in-the-chocolate-egg treat, but I've received several "but you missed the best link" type messages.

So, with some amount of fear and trepidation (and with the fervent hope that I can put this topic to bed and NOT have to retitle this site "PeepsUnplugged"), here are a couple additional links to bring to your attention:

Enough on the peeps.

We now return to normally scheduled programming ...

- Rob

Let’s Celebrate: It’s the official Day of the Peep

Rob Wunderlich — Sun, 23 Mar 2008 13:45:57 -0400

Yes, yes, I know that for many today is the day to celebrate Easter (although, I also know that around Detroit there will be another Easter celebration among the Greek orthodox congregations on April 27th).

But, here at 'Unplugged Manor, it's International "Day of the Peep." Maybe day of the "Peeps" is more appropriate.

Yes, Peeps, those hard-to-describe little marshmallow confections - at this time of year typically coming as yellow chicks (but also available in pink, lavender, blue and now green) or bunnies (yellow, link, lavender and blue).

Good news - only 32 calories and NO fat grams ...

Turns out that in addition to delighting kids (of all ages) not only at Easter but throughout the year, Peeps have also generated something of a cult following, including a slew of unofficial web sites.

The official Peeps website is HERE.

A couple examples of the unofficial ones:

You get the idea ...

Happy Easter - and Happy Intergallactic Peep Day!

- Rob

Simplicity: Ain’t it the painful truth ....

Rob Wunderlich — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 10:17:09 -0400

Saw this mentioned on O'Reilly Radar blog and had to pass along: Simplicity.

As they said: So true, so painfully painfully true.

- Rob

Giving up on email

Rob Wunderlich — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 20:52:36 -0400

Luis Suarez, a fellow IBMer, has embarked on an interesting mission: essentially eliminating email from his daily life. His discussion starts here.

What I find compelling is that Luis has been remarkably successful in transitioning communications from email to other 'social computing tools' like blogs and twitters and wikis and whatnot. Obviously, we've got lots of those kinds of tools inside the firewall, but there are lots of tools out there in webland, too, and where we might use Dogear for social bookmarking inside the firewall, you can use del.icio.us or Technorati or something.

Anyway, Luis' most recent update on results - Week Five - is phenomenal: his 35-40 emails a day has dropped to an average of 7. So, it's taking a week to pile up as many emails as he was getting in a day before starting this project.

Now, a quick reality check ... Luis is pretty visible, and this 'project' has garnered a lot of notoriety, so he might find his 'senders' are a lot more understandable than you might find in the outside world.

But, the important thing: it's working. Check his blog for the various elements he's using to replace email ... and be sure to send Luis an email .....

Just kidding.

- Rob

Just what we needed: Factory Installed Viruses

Rob Wunderlich — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 08:22:30 -0400

Just the thing to cheer up a Friday morning ...

Associated Press is reporting that there's a new wave of consumer concern about products manufactured in China - and this time it's electronic devices because they come with pre-installed viruses:

From iPods to navigation systems, some of today's hottest gadgets are landing on store shelves with some unwanted extras from the factory - pre-installed viruses that steal passwords, open doors for hackers and make computers spew spam.

Recent cases reviewed by The Associated Press include some of the most widely used tech devices: Apple iPods, digital picture frames sold by Target and Best Buy stores and TomTom navigation gear.

I can see it now: "Norton Antivirus for GPS." I know, I know. Not funny ...

Just make sure the PC you're connecting these gizmos to is well protected!

- Rob

Astounding Microsoft Student Discount

Rob Wunderlich — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 23:38:53 -0400

If you're the parent of a student, you need to know ...
that there's a nice student discount available from Microsoft.

Seems like only yesterday that the folks at Gear Diary (a daily read of yours truly) had uncovered the 40% discount on MS Technet. It was actually Tuesday they blogged about the 40% discount which drops the TechNet subscription to $209 USD.

Well, campers, that's nothing. Then yesterday, they unearthed something even more amazing for any of us who have kids in school: a TechNet Student Discount. All the gory details are here, but the short story is that legitimate students (which probably means taking a Notes 8 Upgrade class doesn't count) can subscribe to TechNet for a mere $99. Put this in perspective - a student copy of Office is $149.00 ....

I trust the folks at Gear Diary ... but this almost sounds too good to be true. If you're interested (and how could you NOT be?), I'd jump on this before MS changes their mind .....

- Rob

No surprise, but BlackBerry dominates corporate smartphones

Rob Wunderlich — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 23:45:38 -0400

Catching up on some old entries in my blog reader, noticed this entry from MOBILEDIA: "BlackBerry Dominates Corporate Smartphones, Palm Suffers."

This probably only confirms what you already had a gut feeling about, but turns out that three out of four people in a recent survey names BlackBerry as their corporate smartphone device:

73% cited Research In Motion (RIM), the manufacturer of the popular BlackBerry devices, as their company's smartphone .... (its) market dominance over arch rival Palm has continued to expand. The Treo maker came in at 18% - a 1-pt decline that represents just the latest hit in a gruesome year-long slide.

Apple still has a relatively small share of the corporate smartphone market (5%), however the iPhone continues to grab sky-high satisfaction ratings.

Interestingly, the 5% share mentioned above is a cumulative market share and doesn't reflect the iPhone current sales percentage - which has been reported as 19%. iPhone is coming on strong!

The links above will take you to Mobiledia; the actual research from Changewave can be found HERE.

- Rob

Off Topic - Improv Everywhere

Rob Wunderlich — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 22:01:13 -0400

Nothing to do with Notes, Lotus or anything else we typically cover in these pages ...

There's this group, Improv Everywhere where, that does some amazing things.

You might have seen their "Frozen Grand Central" stunt:

But their latest is cool, too - "Food Court Musical:"

Enjoy!

- Rob

So wonder whether Notes Traveler will support THIS device ??

Rob Wunderlich — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 22:38:42 -0400

News about this device had the Twitterers busy today ...

The Internet Connected Rabbit: the first generation Nabaztag. He, blinks, sings your MP3 songs, speaks and of course, move his ears. Everything on the Internet spoken, sang, played, and danced by the most adorable and obliging of Rabbits.

Yeah, we ALL want one ...

Check it out HERE.

Now, if we could only get it to sync with Notes ...

- Rob

Link: DST Update for BlackBerry

Rob Wunderlich — Sun, 9 Mar 2008 21:14:40 -0400

For the record, there's an update for BlackBerry devices that experience the DST problem HERE.

In my case, applying the patch and resetting the device brought it into sync with Network Time. Would have been interesting to see whether merely resetting would have had the same result. Oh well, next spring ...

- Rob