Weblog by month (January 2007)
Vista: wow!
Just look at the excitement on their little faces! Yup, Vista is here… Wow! indeed.
Update: Jon Stewart interviews Bill Gates on the Daily Show. I love the question, “What does the F12 button do… is it a joke button?”. Gates comes over well.
And then there’s this footage on YouTube. The inevitable question about OS X!
Bill Gates lists Vista ‘innovations’ Apple’s had for years.
UK get a Mac ads
Opinion is divided about the new UK “Get a Mac” adverts, but I like them, so there. Mitchell and Webb, the comedy duo playing Mac and PC, are very funny in their own right, and they make a good choice for the ads.
Some of the spots are UK versions of the original American adverts, whilst a couple are brand new (I especially like “Tentacle”). Are they effective? No idea. I just think they’re funny.
Via The Unofficial Apple Weblog.
Show ’n’ tell XIV: attaching from the file system
It’s nowhere near Thursday.
That’s just how crazy I am.
I mentioned some code the other day. With this post it is now alive. A wee database that does two things, both of which are easily incorporated into whatever application you have in mind:
- Remove attachments from selected documents. This code is old-hat. We’re talking about some of my earliest Lotusscript ever. So go easy. Basically, for selected documents, any attachments are removed to a specified location (set in a nice custom dialog box). Job done. Useful for archiving ’n’ stuff
- The meat of the original request: parse all directories and sub-directories, starting from a specified location, attaching each file found to a separate Notes document
Now, this database does not entirely work on Mac clients. I know, I know. I am one of the biggest gobshites for shouting about Mac compatibility. But hey, gimme a break, I wanted to get the code out there fast, and I wrote this before I had a viable Mac / Notes installation to play with. All that said, I think I know how to make this work on a Mac so if there is any demand for adapting the code presented here to do just that, let me know—happy to oblige!
The relevant code is focussed in two agents, which call on basic script lbraries as required (including the optional OpenLog, of course). One of the agents uses a custom dialog box, as intimated earlier, so watch out for that when using the design. Any real issues, drop me a line, but the way the code hangs together should be pretty straightforward.
Download the database (78Kb).
Have fun. All feedback, as ever, appreciated (including any lucrative offers of work, natch ).
P.S. the agent code is in “debug mode”; you might want to remove some of the verbose log statements in it. As for why I use OpenLog everywhere but in the Initialize event, I have no idea…!
Lotusphere and the press
It’s heartening to see how much take-up there’s been by the mainstream IT press when it comes to the news from Orlando this past week. I was especially delighted to see that ComputerWorld in Oz not only presented the facts from Lotusphere, Todd Weiss also gave a big wink to OpenNTF:
At least one offering at the show was not a product at all. Rather, OpenNTF.org is an open-source community Web site where Lotus Notes and Domino administrators and developers can get help, find useful open-source applications and leverage the expertise of fellow IT workers to improve their Notes/Domino systems.
This is really very cool. I still remember the announcement about NotesOSS (as it was then known) all those years ago. Bruce, Vince, Anil and Nathan did a splendid thing when they brought this to us. Thanks also to PSC (even if they do think Notes & Domino == Exchange… ) and Prominic for helping with the hosting!
Read more (when the link works) ComputerWorld: LOTUSPHERE - Plenty of apps to make life easier for admins.
Hat tip to Bruce.
Basement Apple collection
This is the most amazing collection of Apple computers I’ve ever seen. All the fruity iMacs, the original 128k Macintosh, Apple II machines, collector’s pieces like the Color Classic and 20th Anniversary Mac… amazing stuff. What’s more, the machines are in pristine condition, functioning, and beautifully presented in a white basement that could have come straight out of Space: 1999. I defy you not to be impressed:
Flickr: soyburger’s Mac collection.
Code! Yes, CODE on benpoole.com!
Yup, you heard me right. There is going to be some new code posted to this very site. Soon anyway.
OK, I should explain. At the beginning of the month, Warren posted a plea for help. He needed a “clever developer” to help him out with some code in Notes to run through a directory (and sub-directories) on a file system, attaching each file found in a new document in a Notes database. “Pretty straightforward” thought I, so in the absence of any clever developers, I decided to knock something up and duly sent it over.
Now, Warren promised he would share it, but what do you know, he didn’t. So slack! You’d think he was busy or something (cough, Lotusphere, cough, BE Systems, cough, the missus cough, boat races). Tsk. Well, assuming Warren has no objections, I shall stick the code up here shortly. And I will update this post when I have done so
UPDATE: code now posted.
Jobs: the wilderness years
Regular readers of this site will know that I am a sucker for geeky stories—folklore.org, Damien’s stories and so forth—so I was happy to come across this link from The Unofficial Apple Weblog:
Months after the debut at Davies Symphony Hall, NeXT released the final version of the NeXTcube, which retailed for US$10,000. Jobs and the senior executives made another grand tour looking for customers and developers. Most of the companies (like Disney and AT&T) remained solidly Macintosh, but Jobs charmed a couple big customers. NSA became a loyal NeXTstep user; so did Lotus (which agreed to develop an “object oriented spreadsheet”, Lotus for NeXTstep) and GM. Stanford and Carnegie Mellon both made small orders of NeXTcubes as well.
Read more: The NeXT Years: Steve Jobs before His Triumphant Return to Apple. (Oh, and related reading re the “object oriented spreadsheet”: Bob Congdon: Lotus Improv).
Mayflower == spammers
Are M@yflower Software complete idiots? What on earth is the story with them? Over the years we’ve had plenty of rags on ’em (and their alter ego InsideL0tusD0mino) from the likes of Bruce Elgort, and Tom Duff. But still, still they keep coming. Check out the latest, this time purporting to be from some kind of business partner in Chile, “Info2000 Consultores”, in a comment by a chap called Frederic on Ed’s site:
A native spanm (sic) solution for Domino worth trying: Sp@msentinel. Free trial for 30 days. Works great.
Tsk, astroturfing, in this day and age. The mind boggles. What’s particularly ironic of course is that this comment is in response to a post about spam. So. M@yflower (and partners): how about trying some ethical business practices for once? That would make a nice late new year’s resolution for “Frederic” and company eh.
Notes 8, Java, Mac...
In amongst all the excitement coming out of Lotusphere:
Just to be sure, after the presentation I went right up to the desk to talk to co-presenter Kevin Cavanaugh. He said that he knew he’d be called on it when Penny said that (that with 7.0.2 we have complete parity on the Mac - BP), and he said that he saw my grimace when I heard her say it. I asked him about progress with Java support on the Mac, and he told me that he can’t even promise a solution in 8.0.1, which will be the first Mac release for Hannover.
That’s right. You heard me right. Kevin Cavanaugh could not promise delivery of complete parity for Notes on the Mac platform, even in Notes 8.0.1.
Noooooo!
Yeah yeah...
OK, OK, so the opening general session was amazing, and yes, that is pretty awesome having Neil Armstrong there! (I went to his alma mater don’t you know. Ah, Purdue how I loved thee…)
But enough of your Lotus Connections, Quickr, and all that! What I’m really delighted to learn is that the lovely Theresa is still at Raglan’s in downtown Disney! Oh sweet sweet joy. She mesmerised me last year. LOL.
Elfworld on Flickr: A Man is in Love.
… and my attempt last year: benpoole on Flickr: Theresa.
And so it has begun
It looks like everyone is having fun over the other side of the pond. I’m enjoying the photos, but am also mighty sad. Well, whilst you guys and gals have fun at the ’sphere, I shall be attending a RUP course and finishing off the next release of DominoWiki.
Oh well, one these activities will be enjoyable at least. Hah!
Lotusphere 2007 pictures, Flickr.
Prototype news
Prototype 1.5.0 has gone gold! And what is more, the venerable Javascript framework now has its own website, complete with something we’ve been crying out for: API documentation. Hurrah!
Well done to all involved.
Fairplay is fair game?
With all the talk of the appletv device, and uh, that other thing, you could be forgiven for missing the latest announced device from Netgear. The EVA8000 media player streams YouTube content, music, photos and high definition video from your PC to your telly over wireless (including 802.11n). But what’s really interesting about this device is that it can also stream DRM-enabled content from iTunes (on a PC at least).
This means one of two things: either Apple are loosening up and licensing their Fairplay technology, or Netgear have pulled a fast one, and are going to get a slap. Interesting.
Are you Taking Notes?
Messrs Elgort and Robichaux are on fire at the moment! Have you seen how many podcasts they’ve fired out of late?? Go check them out. They’re setting some high standards for events next week eh! I’m having a hard time keeping up—a good thing!
Don Ferguson leaves IBM for MS
Don Ferguson, until very recently an IBM Fellow and Chief Architect for the IBM Software Group, has moved to Microsoft. Don is now a “Microsoft Technical Fellow in Platforms and Strategy”. This is a pretty big deal is it not? Yet I’ve not heard a dickie bird about this out on the usual sites. Peculiar.
