Duffbert and Jim Casale bothblogged about the cryptic names on downloaded files from the IBM Passport Advantage site. Jim’s Excel macro inspired me to write something in Lotusscript (I don’t even have Excel on my home computers anymore, I am only using Symphony now).

Belowis my Lotusscript code. Note that I have not been able to test the actual renaming part, since I am atthe officeand I have all the files downloaded at home. But the parsing part works. You may want to either modify the location of dlmgr.pro, or even write some code to let the user select the file to process. But Ijust made a quick-and-dirty hack for now.

Update: Something went wrong earlier when I tried to post this, I got two borked entries. It seems like if I paste certain formatted text (like the code section below) into the entry, and save it while in preview/WYSIWYG mode, it breaks the entry. If I am in HTML code view, it works…
Update 2: Thanks to the guys at Lotus911, they removed the two bad entries. Also, I wanted to clarify, the code is actually copying the files and giving the copy a new name, the original files are still there. If you want to perform a move, un-comment the the line Kill fromfile.

Dim dlmgrfile As StringDim dirname As StringDim filename As StringDim filecode As StringDim filedescription As StringDim temp As StringDim newitem As IntegerDim fromfile As StringDim tofile As Stringdlmgrfile = "c:dlmgr.pro"	Open dlmgrfile For Input As #1Do While Not Eof(1) Line Input #1, temp If Left$(temp,6)=".file=" Then filecode = Right$(temp,Len(temp)-6) newitem = True Elseif Left$(temp,2) = ".." Then newitem = False End If If Left$(temp,7) = "..path=" Then dirname = Right$(temp,Len(temp)-7) End If If Left$(temp,8)="..title=" Then filedescription = Right$(temp,Len(temp)-8) End If If Left$(temp,7)="..name=" Then filename = Right$(temp,Len(temp)-7) End If If newitem = False Then If filename<>"" Then If dirname<>"" Then If filedescription<>"" Then fromfile = dirname & "" & filename tofile = dirname & "" & filedescription & Right$(filename,4) Print "Copying " & fromfile & " to " & tofile Filecopy fromfile, tofile ' Kill fromfile dirname = "" filename = "" filedescription = "" filecode = "" End If End If End If End IfLoopClose #1

The concept ofNotes@Home ({link} and {link}),or "Notes Home Edition" as I like to call it,is very interesting, and I think it would be a great way to increase the visibility of Notes. The people who initially would install it would probably be the more technical kind of users, some of them probably the same kind of users we see bashing Notes on /. and similar sites, basically because they haven’t seen the current version, or the product at all.

The second group I believe would install Notes Home Edition would be members of the Notes community. But not on their own systems, most of us probably already use Notes at work and at home. No, I think it would be family members and friends who would get it installed.
Last weekend I formatted my ex-father-in-law’s laptop and re-installed Windows on it for him. I also downloaded and installed Symphony. Would it not have been nice if I would been able to download a limited Notes client as well, so he would use "Notes 8 Home Edition" for his mail? I could have setup a mailbox on my server and given him access to Sametime (if I had a Sametime server).

I understand the issues Ed have with cost (there have to be some development/testing associated with creating a new client, even if it is built on an existing one). But initially make just an english language version, perhaps a spanish, french and german version as well. That should cover a large part of the western world. Start there first, before spending any more money.

The client need to be able to do the following:

• access mail on a Domino server
• download/syncronize with POP/IMAP mail

If there could be syncronisation with Gmail and perhaps Yahoo mail, that would be even better. I am sure the Gmail API is published somewhere….
There are many things that can be dropped from "Notes Home Edition", like activities, composite applications, etc. Make it a stripped down version with the most important features, and a few ones that "regular" users actually might use, like the RSS reader.

Also, in order to show the power of Notes, there should be some way to run either local applications, or even applications on a server. Here we have the tricky question, and it is related to licensing… How do IBM avoid a company from getting the free "Notes Home Edition" clients and using in the business? On the other hand, the Domino Express offering works on a honor system already.

I would love to setup a small server at home (or actually open up the one I have) and let my sister, her boyfriend, and some other friends use it for mail and some applications. I can also see consultants setting up a server for their clients, offering not only mail but also discussions, IM and some shared applications. Perhaps the blog template?

What about this:

• Domino Enthusiast Edition – up to 25 (50?) clients/IDs allowed, all must be using Notes Home Edition, except the administrator who can use a full client. Also allow web access. This one should be free. Charge for support.
• Domino Consultant Edition [1] – up to 25 (50?) clients/IDs allowed, can be a mix of full client and Home Edition. Webaccess is also allowed. This one could cost a little bit, say $200 or something, with support extra. Must be able to purchase it directly from IBM online, since business partners probably won’t bother about selling it for that price.

The Consultant Edition would however be a great tool for small consultants to get Domino in the door at some clients. They can use the Notes client for free for a while, access mail and a few simple applications, perhaps even a custom built application by the consultant. When they are ready to jump to hosting their own server, they are already used to Notes, and "locked in" to the Notes application they use. Another win for Lotus.

[1] Someone in marketing can surely come up with a better name. "IBM Lotus Domino Restricted Commercial Version with Collaboration and Instant Messaging for Small Businesses"? ;-)

As I wrote back in June, I managed to do a submersion test of my (then fairly new) Blackberry Bold. It worked perfectly fine after that. Then a little bit later in the summer I dropped it on concrete and got a small crack in the screen. I checked with insurance, it would cost me $125 to get the phone replaced, and it was not bad enough to spend that money on a new phone, which probably would be a refurbished anyway.
The phone started acting up about a month ago, dropping calls, etc. Sure, could be the network (I have AT&T) but I walked into the local AT&T store and talked to the sales guy. He said it sounded like a problem with the phone, and it should be covered by warranty. He then opened the battery compartment and looked, then said "OK, no water damage. Tell that when you call AT&T about warranty replacement."
So a few days later I called, and was told to open the battery compartment and tell her color of the sticker on there. I told her it was red, and she said that it indicated water had come into contact with the sticker. Oh well, just wonder why the sales guy could not tell. The label is supposed to be white when no liquid has touched it.
I decided to hold off a bit longer. Then the camera stopped working (even if it later started working again, after about a week) and the battery started to drain quickly and teh phone got really warm while charging. Something was obviously wrong.
I called the insurance company on Monday. While on hold, the automated voice mentioned that I might be eligible for an upgrade. So I checked online, and I could get the Blackberry Bold 9700 for just $99 after mail-in rebate. When the 9700 came out, I decided I would stick with my 9000, that it was not worth to spend the money on an upgrade. But now, with the phone acting up and Lotusphere coming up, I had to bite the bullet.
I received the phone Thursday (no shipping charge when placing order online!) and have now been playing with it for 2 days. Here are my thoughts.

• The phone is smaller. I am still getting used to the smaller keyboard, at least initially I did more typos when texting.
• The screen has a higher resolution, 480×360 instead of 480×320. This cases my favourite theme not to work anymore. I can download it, but it does not show up in the list of available themes.
• The trackpad is very nice, but will probably take another day or two to get used to. The nice thing is that dirt won’t get in there to cause problems, like with the ball on the older Blackberries.
• OS 5.0 installed from factory. Very nice. There are some small details I don’t like, hopefully I can change that using Blackberry Theme Studio. For example, in the inbox the name of th sender is black and bold while the subject is gray and normal, making it much harder to read.
• The reports say that the battery life is better than on the old Bold. This is of course hard to tell after just 2 days, especially when loading software, transferring files from the old phone through USB, etc.
• Mini-USB connector replaced by micro-USB. My car charger and spare wall charger won’t work, unless I get some adapters. At just over a dollar each, I will probably get a couple. The shipping is the expensive part, though. My Motorola P790 portable charger that I got for Lotusphere last year is also using mini-USB. Oh, if you don’t have one of those chargers, pick one up! They are down to $15 or less now…
• My charging cradle won’t work anymore either, since the phone is smaller.

But generally I am happy with the new phone. Just some small quirks, and I am sure I will get used to them or figure out how to address them.
Below is a picture of the two phones side-by-side. Bold 9700 to the left, Bold 9000 to the right.

About two weeks ago I decide to switch my main operating system at home to Ubuntu. By using VMware I was going to be able to run the handful of Windows applications I needed, and at the same time get better security, etc. I had a couple of small problems, that were eventually solved, and now I have been running this setup for a few days.
For the most part I like it. I am still having to look around a bit long for where different things are, I miss being able to right-click on the desktop to change all settings related to it, and instead have to select several different items under System Preferences.
I tried to get Epihpany Empathy working as my IM client, but it did not take/store my different accounts. I then installed Pidgin instead, which works fine. Only problem there is that many nice functions I am used to in Yahoo and MSN Messenger, like webcam support, is not available. I also can’t just drag-and-drop a file to the chat window to send it, I have to click my way through the directories. And Pidgin does not let me browse network drive, just local drives for some reason.
Some websites I visit are clearly more designed for Internet Explorer, but I have not had any real issues with Firefox.
I still have not installed Notes or Domino Designer/Admin. Waiting for my network admin to download 8.5.1 for me. Hope to get that installed soon too.
I have been sick most of the last week, so not been doing that much. But this far I like my new setup.
 

As I mentioned the other day,I am planning to start using Ubuntu as my main operating system at home, and use VMware to run Windows applications when needed.