Share your experiences at UKLUG

06/26/2008 02:47:29 PM



Warren Elsmore has put up a great post about the forthcoming UK Lotus User Group conference 2008.  This two day event is all about meeting fellow Lotus users, sharing your "war stories" and talking about your technical issues.  

And so the bit of Warren's blog that really jumps out for me is that  "the most  (and most appreciated) part of the event are stories from people who have been there before - telling it how it is. If you'd be interested in being one of those people this year - we'd love to hear from you. If you would like to speak, drop us an email to info@uklug.info."

Warren says that there are already some great customer speakers lined up so if you "want to hear how one company use Sametime, Quickr, iNotes and custom Domino applications to drive their business forward?" or "about the organisation that migrated 30,000 users from a rival product to Lotus Domino?" then UKLUG is the place to be.

Mike Smith | London | TrackBacks (0) | Comments (0)

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UK Lotus User Group conference is coming to London in September

06/12/2008 12:05:34 PM



Well the news came out at ILUG that the second UK Lotus User Group conference is coming. The big idea behind UKLUG is to foster networking between IBM Lotus customers and the conference is a great way to do just that.

Last year was the first ever UKLUG conference so it was conservatively sized for about 100 attendees. Well all those seats were taken with a further 100+ people waitlisted. Kevin Cavanaugh, IBM Lotus VP Messaging & Software, kindly provided the keynote and there were some great speakers from companies using IBM Lotus software - including Prudential, S&N, Standard Life and the Salvation Army - talking about their experiences.

Following last year's success (and after listening to feedback from people who came along) the conference has moved to a Central London venue - the Church House Conference Centre next to Westminster Abbey - and has increased its capacity. There will be the same focus on IBM Lotus users, that's what a user group is all about, but its also now been lengthened to two days to allow more content. So UKLUG will be on both Thursday 18th and Friday 19th September.

To find out more and and register for your seat at UKLUG just go to http://www.uklug.info

Its been said that the true strength of a user group is our shared participation so if you want to be involved, or speak, or sponsor at the conference then please get in touch with Warren Elsmore - warren.elsmore(at)besystems.eu - who is coordinating that side of things.

Mike Smith | London | TrackBacks (0) | Comments (0)

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Collaboration University for Lotus Quickr and Sametime 2008 opens for registration

05/29/2008 10:48:08 AM

QuickImage

The big day has arrived and Collaboration University 2008 for Lotus Quickr and Sametime is open for registration! That's CU in Chicago from September 8 - 10th and CU in London from September 15 - 17th.

We are very pleased to be helping SNAPPS produce CU in London and Chicago for the third year running. Collaboration University 2008 will again be a deep-dive technical educational event, focusing right in on Lotus Sametime and Quickr, plus we are adding Lotus Connections too. So there will be a lot to cover as Rob Novak explains:

"...since last July's conference we've seen two releases of Quickr, two releases of Sametime, an entire new product with Sametime Advanced, the Webdialogs acquisition which became Sametime Unyte, two point releases of Lotus Connections (with a massive 2.0 release coming any week now)...there's a lot to talk about, isn't there? While we will cover the "basics" to some degree, you can count on the content being fresh, new versions and old covered, and we'll be delving into Connections for several sessions  - enough to satisfy everyone's need for new technical information."

And as past alumni of CU know you will get unprecedented access to well-known industry experts in a friendly and informal atmosphere.

There will be a great venue for CU London at IBM South Bank, that's on the Thames and right in the middle of town. To turn on tour guide mode you get a panoramic view North across the river from the venue, and directly opposite is Somerset House where the 18th Century Admiralty briefed their officers before they sailed - officers such as Admiral Nelson, Captain Cook and Captain Bligh of the Bounty. And in my opinion the neighbouring Waterloo Bridge gives the best view you can get of central London without riding the London Eye.

If you are coming along to ILUG and want to hear more about CU then Rob Novak and myself will be in Dublin next week. So if you see us then please say hello.

Mike Smith | London | TrackBacks (0) | Comments (0)

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Lotus techJam technical event gets off to a good start

05/28/2008 04:00:51 PM



Enjoyed the first Lotus techJam event at Lotus Park Staines today. techJam is run by the Lotus Support team and its a "technical event for technical people" using hands-on demos to show what the latest products can do.

I thought it worked well as a relaxed and informal tech tour which brings you up-to-date on the latest developments across the whole Lotus family. We could also pitch technical questions, give some feedback from our experiences, and get a chance to chat with the Lotus Support team and our fellow techJammers too.

There was a good turnout which confirms my view that with the new developments coming out of Lotus we need this sort of technically-led event. So it was great to hear that the Lotus team are working on having more techJam events in London and across the UK.

If you are interested in hearing more about techJam then get in touch with Nick Davis of IBM at nick_davis(-AT-)uk.ibm.com (please de-mung address).

Mike Smith | London | TrackBacks (0) | Comments (0)

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A verb embeds itself into the English language?

05/16/2008 04:49:50 PM



One of the well-known things about English is how hard it is to learn because we have so many irregular verbs.

What is less well-known is why irregular verbs are irregular, and why the others follow the regular pattern (e.g. adding 'ed' for past tense).

Its all about how much they are in common usage. So verbs that are used all the time tend to become irregular. We like to sex them up a bit to make our language more interesting to speak. Words that aren't used much have to follow the regular pattern so we can easily figure out what they mean.

As words come into common usage, they can change from regular to irregular and develop unusual past tenses and other forms. Conversely, as words go out of usage, they drift back into regularity. This does take a long time, there are loads of examples from Shakespeare, for example.

Well, today I heard a verb used for the first time with a newly irregular past tense. The verb was: 'sync'. The new past tense was: 'sank'. Someone sank their iPod.

Does this mean that synching is now so commonplace that it has become irregular in our language?

...or just that we already have the verb 'to sink' with 'sank' as its past tense, and 'sinked' sounds stupid?

Tim Davis | | TrackBacks (0) | Comments (2)

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You and your Mac are never parted

05/13/2008 02:07:43 PM



I love this article - I'd looked into .Mac but couldn't see using it enough but then I had never thought of this use (and I'm sure Apple hadn't either).  Further evidence of  how often laptops are stolen by morons as opposed to industrial espionage spys trying to get at your data!


Gabriella Davis | London | TrackBacks (0) | Comments (0)

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"Security Nip/Tuck" - Our Domino Security session at ILUG

04/29/2008 10:42:58 AM



As you may know the Agenda for ILUG in Dublin has now been published so hope you can make it. Looking down the agenda there are great sessions from an impressive list of excellent speakers, such as Bill Buchan, Chris Miller, Paul Mooney, Rob Novak, Bob Balaban, Rocky Oliver to name but a few.

A couple of sessions stand out for me (OK, I am biased) .....

Our own Gabriella Davis will be presenting "The Security Nip/Tuck - Tightening up your environment with Domino R8" on the first day.

In this comprehensive session Gabriella will take you through the new security enhancements introduced in Domino and highlight the most common security loopholes you may not be looking out for. Its aimed at organisations who may have originally installed Domino on versions 5 or earlier but have not reviewed their security. So they may still be running the original keys, using physical certifiers, not utilising SSL or TLS for data transport, keeping copies of User IDs for backup and may not be aware of what can now be controlled and managed with policies. So these aging environments may unnecessarily be ever more exposed to security threats.

Gabriella hopes to not only show that Domino and Notes security has kept up with the growing security risks but also explain how important it is to review and revisit security decisions made that were based on earlier versions.

I am also pleased to see that Valerie Wang, RIM Product Manager for IBM Technologies, will be presenting "Taking Lotus Collaboration beyond the office on your BlackBerry smartphone". I saw Valerie at Lotusphere and she was great speaker. In this session Valerie will outline a key theme from RIM - how you can effectively mobilise your infrastructure and applications using the BlackBerry Enterprise Server.

Once again  the ILUG team have put together an impressive free Europe-based Lotus technical event. They deserve a big round of applause for their achievement, particularly when there is so much great new stuff coming out of IBM Lotus to learn more about.

Mike Smith | London | TrackBacks (0) | Comments (0)

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Fight ! Fight ! Fight !

04/22/2008 08:27:03 PM



There's a whole world of Google out there - my favourite one right now allows you to generate a Google search 'fight' between 2 words or phrases.  I already did Lotus Domino vs Microsoft Exchange and I'm not sure the huge win for Exchange is good or bad but then I moved onto the serious work of Chocolate vs Strawberry (Chocolate by 4:1) , Bagpuss vs Clangers (Bagpuss) and Stones vs Beatles (Beatles 2:1). Give it a go here Google Fight -
Read More

Gabriella Davis | London | TrackBacks (0) | Comments (0)

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Back from Italy - A Completely Biased Summary

04/20/2008 10:08:27 PM



After 3 attempts over 8 years to make it to Rome, Tim and I finally organised ourselves and had 5 days in Rome and 2 day in Sorrento (with a day trip to Capri).  A quick whistle stop, unfair and biased summary below that may be of interest to anyone else going.

The Good
  1. Colosseum - we opted not to be drawn in by the touts trying to catch tourists for a 'personal tour' and instead skipped the line by walking down the left hand side and spending 4.5 Euros on an audio tour which you wore round you neck and played.  It had to be returned within 2 hrs so we did the audio tour, returned the devices then spent another 3 hours just wandering around.  .
  2. Open top bus tour - cheesy but amazingly good value and handy for orientating yourself.  We paid 23 Euros for 48 hours hopping on and off the buses all around Rome and twice caught the last bus of the day sitting upstairs in the open air as the sun set we got to look at the architecture of Rome for 90 minutes. Bliss.
  3. St Peter's Basilica - a fast moving queue, free entry, an amazing and fascinating building and Michaelangelo's Pieta.
  4. Pantheon an architectural marvel, beautifully preserved (and right opposite a McDonalds!)
  5. La Minervetta B&B hotel in Sorrento overlooking Vesuvius with floor to ceiling windows in each room.  Just be careful when ordering an omelette for breakfast that you don't just specify 'no meat' or you'll end up with a Sauerkraut filling (it looks like harmless onion before you put it in your mouth.)
  6. Hotel La Scalinatella, Capri .  They made an exception and let us sit and have the world's most welcome glass of Prosecco on their terrace even though we weren't guests they treated us beautifully. Thanks to them we got to see the Capri we hoped to find (the one belonging to Noel Coward not the one belonging to hoards of tourists looking for cheap D&G sandals)
  7. Our apartment on Via Panisperna 3 mins walk from the Colosseum.  Rented through www.haldis.com who do corporate rentals, it was beautifully equipped, central and with high speed internet.  Plus they couldn't have been more helpful.  

The Truly Awful
  1. The food.  I can't even tell you about the food.  Truly terrible food. Even at one meal a day we only managed 2 decent meals in 7 days.  One at the bar underneath our apartment and one at a cafe on via Serpenti .  I understand that going to touristy places means being inundated by tourist restaurants and I expect them to overcharge but why they also have to have lousy food is beyond me.  Two of the worst were actualy recommended in travel guides
  2. The swarms of tourists.  I know we were two of them but honestly if all you want to do is experience a place and absorb the atmosphere you're completely out of luck.  Places like Piazza Navona and the Trevi Fountain are best avoided.  Sorrento and Capri were especially heinous with English tourists and pubs selling Stella - summed up by one waiter in Sorrento who, when taking our order said, "hey English! you want Wine ? Beer? yes? you English party party !".  Oh god.
  3. Fiumicino airport - hasn't been cleaned at a guess since 1951
  4. The Vatican Museums.  We wanted to see the Raphael rooms and obviously the Sistine chapel but were in no hurry - what I wasn't expecting was the equivalent of a busy Sunday afternoon in Ikea.  I'm quite claustrophobic and after the following the crowd into the entrance we were then all forced on a 90 minute route march, no stopping, no turning back until reaching the Sistine chapel by which time I was a gibbering wreck.  Tim felt it was overrated and he should have stuck with sculpture(!) but that may have been the stress of the afternoon (take plenty of water with you and prepare to be crushed) On the upside we were both amazed and intimidated by The Last Judgment fresco on the adjoining wall and glad we made it through.  
  5. The drivers - especially the guy who took off the front of our car on the last day.  I'm very glad when Hertz offered us the 'super insurance' on top of the insurance we already had at 20 Euros per day we went ahead and took it.  It was the mention of the 1000 Euro excess for damage and 1500 Euro excess for theft under their standard cover that convinced us the super cover was a good idea.  As the guy at Hertz was keen to point out to us when we dropped off what was left of the brand new car we picked up - if we hadn't spent the extra 60 Euros we'd be 1000 Euros in the hole.


Gabriella Davis | London | TrackBacks (0) | Comments (1)

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Terminal and I mean TERMINAL 5 plus Camera Obscura

04/12/2008 10:24:42 PM



I have survived my first day and a half in Rome despite London Heathrow's shiny new Terminal 5 nearly sapping my will to live along with my will to travel.  I came perilously close to going home once I'd fought my way through.  I'm not sure what was worse

-:the security system which is so automated you have to put EVERYTHING in its own little tray which then auto slides along and through the scanner ready for you to empty at the other end and then circles back to the beginning again. Imagine the security checkin done by Yo Sushi and you have the general idea.  Except it doesn't work.  It got stuck and of course there are fewer staff because it's more automated so no-one to push it through.  Not to mention the huge backlog of people decanting their every belonging in trays (I travel with 1 bag and I racked up 6 separate trays)

-: the preponderance of shops everywhere with gates shyly nestled amongst them making them impossible to find and miles to walk between

:- the bizarre decision to make no announcements at all.  Boarding happened when everyone, as though with a hive mind, got up and made their way towards a woman at a counter (we followed) and then somehow knew to turn left and follow one of 2 tunnels down to the plane.  It was so bizarre Tim had to ask the flight attendant if we were on the flight for Rome or not as we'd seen and heard nothing to confirm it.

:- oh and BA's new 'Galleries' business lounge.  Which is at the far end of the Terminal.  Up 3 escalators (2 if you're First Class - lucky bleeders) and then carrying everything back down again because the down escalators were broken (already??).  Oh and inside - remember that time they overhauled your school lunch room to make it more 'modern' - well that's what we have.  White Formica and stools as far as the eye can see.


Still we made it and the Colosseum, Trevi Fountain, Spanish Steps and a very nice apartment on via Panispera (above a noisy bar but I like it) later we found this great camera obscura image of the street outside reflected through the shutters onto our kitchen wall this morning.

A picture named M2

Gabriella Davis | Rome | TrackBacks (0) | Comments (1)

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