Spending the holidays in Singapore

I decided I wanted to do something different this christmas/new years. Ever since I went to Korea in 2007, I've wanted to travel to Asia again. Most of my (single) friends travel to some place in Europe when they go on vacation, so I seldom have the opportunity to travel to Asia, unless I travel alone.

A couple of friends recently moved to Singapore. I contacted them and asked if they wanted company in the holidays. Luckily they did, so this holiday season I'll be halfway around the world in a very different climate than I'm used to this time of year :)

New blog design

I've decided to ditch the standard green template, and go for a cleaner look.
I modified the template I chose slightly to fit my requirements. I was expecting several hours to find/create a suitable look, but the process took about an hour total.

Hopefully it will make the content more readable.

Small cleanup of the blog layout

I removed some of the less used tags from the tag list/changed it into a tag cloud.

I also removed the blogroll, as it's very outdated. I try to follow most of the technical Domino blogs. I think I have between 70 and 90 Notes/Domino blogs that I subscribe to.

Comments are now open

I've got a few comments over the time of my blog that people can't comment because they don't have a google account.

I've now opened for anonymous comments, so if you want to ask me about something in regards to any of my blogposts, now's your chance.

The reason I restricted comments back in the day was because I was afraid of dealing with spam all day. Let's see how it turns out.

Palm Pre - Yes please!

I currently have a Nokia N95 which feels really old after watching the demo of the Palm. :\

If it wasn't for Douglas Adams, I might not be here - Wrapping up LS09

So I learned a couple of new things during these last days. Apart from the class browser in the new LS designer, you will also get type-ahead from your own code, which I think is kind of neat. This is something you get in most of the IDEs based on Eclipse, but since I've worked in the clunky "old" designer for over three years, I'm surprised/excited by news like this.

I also heard a rumour from a former IBM employee that NSFDB2 is more or less dead. Having played around with it a little, I may understand the (not confirmed) decision. NSFDB2 doesn't seem to bring much functionality to the table. There is still the 64GB limit on Notes databases, the structure isn't easy to work with and with XPages, as Nathan proved, you are now able to do speedy semi-relational lookups with the new View Control.

On to Douglas Adams.

I was at a great dinner on tuesday, hosted by Symfoni Software. Met a lot of nice people. Amongst them, there was a guy from the Linde Group. He was from Gilford in the UK. As Gilford is the place Arthur Dent believed Ford Prefect to come from, this reminded me of Hitchhiker's guide to the Galaxy, which reminded me of my blog, which is more or less the reason I got to go to Lotusphere 2009, and also the reason I got invited to the Symfoni dinner (thanks, Trond Are). If it wasn't for Douglas Adams and his Hitchhiker's "trilogy", my blog would at least have a different name, or even worse, I might not have had a blog at all, resulting in not being at Lotusphere 2009..

On to wrapping up..

LS has been a nice experience. I learned what XPages is all about, got insight into what is planned for future versions of Domino Designer/XPages will bring, got to experience the warm weather in Florida, got a cold for walking around Epcot in too few layers of clothing, got to meet a lot of great people, got to taste the american cuisine (not to fond of the bagel), and a lot more.

This last day, I think I'll mostly stay at my room to keep the cold at bay. I'm leaving the sunny state tomorrow (just when it's starting to warm up), and I don't want to be a sneezing feverish monster. :)

LS09 Day two - Wrapping up

On the technology side, I learned a couple new things. XPages lets you show RichText in a view and it lets you communicate with several data sources on one page. In XPages.Next, you will be able to use XPages with SOAP and relational sources.

On the social side, I went out with IBM Norway to the Epcot centre. It was a really beautiful place. I literally know no other people going to Lotusphere, so I was a bit intimidated at first, just walking around getting boozed up. When it came to dinner, it was a bit easier. Just popped down on a random table, and started talking. As several speakers as Lotusphere have said, I didn't get bitten :)

I met a couple of new people, heard some impressions. Most of the people I've met so far on Lotusphere seems to be excited about the same technology as I (Admins partially included). The two most exciting technologies I've seen so far is XPages and Sametime Unified Telephony.

XPages for the obvious reasons(?). Sametime Telephony because it seems to make it A LOT simpler to make conference calls/etc. It's kind of a Skype for the enterprise. Usability wise, it seems even simpler to use than Skype.

More sessions to attend..

LS09 OGS - As reported by a bald guy in sandals

The OGS started great, with the Blue Man Group.

Then a small introduction from Bob Picciano, followed by Dan Aykroyd coming on stage as an alien. It might have been a reference to one of his films, but I didn't recognize his performance.

While a great speaker, I felt his jokes/etc. fit more with the american crowd than the rest of us.

On announcements.

IBM is joining forces with OpenNTF. They mentioned that they would provide code and templates, and I guess they also will provide server space/hosting.

Bluehouse changes name to Lotus Live (Engage). Sounds a bit to close to Windows Live in my ears..

Sametime Unified Telephony. This seems to bring IP Telephony to Sametime. They showed some great demos of conference calls/etc. You should be able to call to regular phones as well. Not sure how this is set up. Maybe through a third party.

Sametime Meeting - No more Java Applets. Lotus seems to have done a great deal of work on Lotus Sametime. Among the new features is being able to share documents in a meeting without the need for any (Java) plugin. All demos were showed in Firefox, so no ActiveX trickery. Videos are stored in quicktime format. Not sure why, but could be to make it more Mac friendly.

After the OGS, I went to a session about the future of Lotus Domino. Not a lot of exciting news, but there were a couple interesting things mentioned.

Improved NSF quality and recovery, the ability to save script libraries with errors, class browser, improved performance of XPages, improved usability in DDE, new components in DDE; outline, menu bar, tool bar and tag cloud.

They didn't specify a date on these improvements. Some of them should be included in the 8.5.1 release.

More sessions to attend.. Busy busy.. :)

New LS/Java Editor coming in Notes/Domino 8.5.1

Writing my previous post, I missed the session I had planned on going to, "Getting to know XPages and the new Domino designer" (it was full by the time I arrived), I instead went to a session named "Introducing IBM Lotus Domino Designer 8.5 Now with Eclipse!".

There, they showcased the new editors for Java and LS. The LS editor looks promising, but the Java editor looked a little bit clunky usability-wise. The reason the new Java editor didn't appear in the current Notes release, 8.5 apparently has something to do with how Java code is stored in the NSF. IBM seems to have found a way around this, and in N/D 8.5.1, we will have the Eclipse Java editor for Domino Java code.. Good news! :)

They also skimmed the surface on what you can do with XPages. It seems like a quantum leap in flexibility above what you can do with the "old" Domino applications. Hopefully I'll make it in time for the next XPages sessions.

I didn't get the planned release date for 8.5.1. Not sure if they mentioned it/know when it will be ready.

Now I'm going to the a session about Cloud Computing with Bob Balaban. Could be interesting.

Day 0 of Lotusphere - Getting there

So the day started of well. I reached Sola airport in Norway an hour before the flight. I had plenty of time, so I read a little.

The first part of the trip went well. Sola - Copenhagen, no problems.

At Copenhagen, there were a few difficulties.

When I was boarding the plane, the jet engine was runnin at full speed, or so it seemed. When I got settled in, the captain let us know that there was a leakage from one of the engines, so the flight engineer had to repair this. Should only take fifteen minutes or so (he thought).

Fifteen minutes later, another message. The engineer wasn't able to fix the problem, so he had to get a new part. It should take about 45 minutes to fix. 45 minutes later, the engine was ok, but the driver of the car that was going to move the plane had gone home (resulted in an ironic laugh from all the passengers).

About 75 minutes over time, we finally got off the ground.

Around an hour late, the plane arrived at Washington. This was the part I feared the most. I'd heard a lot about US customs, and how strict they were. Maybe I was lucky, I don't know, I had no problems getting into the US. There were a lot of people waiting to get in, so that maybe resulted in the customs agents spending less time per person.

Then it was off to Orlando. Everyting went well. At this part of the journey, I felt totally lost, but somehow I found the places I needed to be. The last part of the journey was enjoying kids arguing with their parents for half an hour, while waiting for the bus to the hotel. All in all, I felt the trip went quite well.

Off to the first XPages session!

(this was written in a hurry, so please excuse me for any spelling mistakes)

Shipping off to Orlando

Tomorrow (Saturday) morning, Norwegian time, my plane leaves for Orlando and my first Lotusphere. Hopefully I've remembered to pack everything.

Just in case I need to be formal, I've packed a suit. Unfortunately, the tie was undone, and I don't know how to tie a tie. A few years ago, I'd have to ask a relative to tie the tie for me, but in this information age, all I needed to do was to go to youtube and do a search.

In case you also don't know how to tie a tie, here's how:


I'd hoped to arrive in time for B.A.L.D., but looking over my plane reservation, I see that I won't arrive at Orlando before 8pm.

But still.. Lotusphere! :)

2008 - My blogging year in review

Statistics

23,629 visits (85% increase from 2007)
37,498 pageviews (70% increase from 2007)

44.81% come to my site from a search engine
33.83% are referred traffic (Thanks Planetlotus and Codestore)
21.36% are direct traffic

Top five visiting countries: USA, United Kingdom, Germany, Australia and my home country, Norway.

Top five browser profiles: 53.58% Firefox, 40.38% Internet Exploder, 2.84% Opera, 1.39% Safari, and 1.34% Chrome (impressive, considering it's time on the market).

Top 5 content of 2008

1. Cross client (Web/Notes) validation using JavaScript


2. Slick integration between FCKeditor and Lotus Domino


3. Using embedded view in $$ViewTemplate to control count


4. Embed multiple standalone forms on a domino form using DHTML


5. String to char-array in Java

Comment on Content

I would think the most useful thing I blogged about in 2008 would be the "slick" integration between FCKEditor and Lotus Domino. Although FCKEditor is a bloated beast compared to some of the other Rich Text editors out there, it is still a great editor.

I was probably most excited about my speedy templating engine. I still haven't released a demoapp due to laziness, and a couple more reasons.

1. I have a feeling that the templating engine is a solution to a niche problem. I use it as a way to go beyond some of the restrictions of Views in Domino (being aware of the index of the document you're rendering, what level it is on, etc, and rendering different output based on that information).


2. Templating engines are becoming less important/need to be rewritten when Domino 8.5 is released, and we have XPages.


3. There really hasn't been much response to my templating blogposts. It could be because I haven't been able to communicate what benefits there are in templating, or that the problems I've had with Domino/Views aren't common problems.

Missing content

I've still to publish a demoapp of the improved templating engine due to above mentioned reasons. If I get really motivated/someone motivates me, I may release a demoapp in 2009.

The beautiful URLs experiment got dropped once I found out that the technique generates a lot of errors in the domlog. Maybe XPages will make the URLs more flexible (it would be great to be able to map URLs per application/in the NSF).

2009

If everything goes as planned, I'll be at Lotusphere 2009. The hotel is booked, and flight/conference tickets are paid for. I'll depart from Norway January 17. and return January 23. Hopefully I'll arrive in time for BALD!

Blogging-wise, I'm becoming less and less motivated to do experiments. This is mostly because I can't come up with new, exciting (to me) problems to solve. With XPages and Lotusphere 2009, this will hopefully change.

Manga Me

Joining in on the fun..

Make your own

How I got started with Lotus Notes

Quite a coincidence actually. After I graduated as a Bachelor of Information Technology in 2004, it was quite hard to get a programming-job in my part of Norway.

I applied for every interesting/uninteresting job I found (including project manager/etc :D), and got some interviews, but never got called back.

While still applying for programmer positions, I had a small job, setting up ADSL in private homes. The hourly pay was ok, but I only got one or two jobs per month.

Got tired of that, and started working at NorDan in Egersund, January 2005, putting together balcony doors/etc. While the job itself sucked, it was an overall fun time I had there, because of great colleagues (I'm more blue-collar than white-collar).

I had an interview with Compendia, my current employer. During the interview I got asked about Lotus Notes, which I'd never heard about. A month later, I got a call from my current boss.. I think my first words was something along the lines of "Ehhrmm... Who?". Having had several interviews that seemed to go ok before/not getting called back, I'd almost forgotten that I'd applied for a job. July 2005, I first put my hands on Lotus Notes (6.5).

If I hadn't gotten the job, I'd probably have gone back to school again..

Notes 8 Classic - working undercover?

I just started using Notes 8.0.1 this week. Some things I love, and some things annoy me.

Like this one:


I was working on a calendar-entry, when suddenly the classic client popped up. I can't close it by itself. When I close the standard client, this closes as well.

Don't know if this means that the classic client is used as a go-between for Domino Designer/old Notes apps and Notes 8 Standard Client?

I'm somewhat addicted

60%How Addicted to Blogging Are You?

2007 - A(lmost a) year in review

The blog started off with a small post, January 17. 2007.

When I started the blog, I thought I'd mostly post about Web/Domino-stuff. As the year progressed, I believe I ended up with more Notes content than Web content.

My idea-well isn't as full as it was half a year ago, but hopefully I will be able to find/create something useful to share with you in 2008.

Instead of posting my favourite posts of the year, I'll leave you with the most visited content.

Top 5 visited content of 2007

1. Rant about Notes 8, Lotus/IBM


2. (mis?)Using $$ReturnGeneralError as a shortcut for search


3. Simplifying Evaluate


4. Ajax-like live-search in the client


5. Cross client (Web/Notes) validation using JavaScript

On a more personal level, the highlight of 2007 was definitely my trip to South Korea.

What if....IBM collected all the best tips of the N/D "blogosphere" into a Redbook?

(Sorry for stealing your subject "pattern", Bob)

I watched a japanese TV-show some weeks ago, where they interviewed a couple of japanese bloggers that converted their blogs into book-format.

It would be great, if someone like IBM could extract all the best tips/techniques/patterns/etc. from the N/D "blogosphere" into a Redbook (along with accompanying demo-dbs) yearly.

Maybe this would help motivating even more people to spread their knowledge through blogs.

I love Ray Ozzie

Well, actually I don't love Ray Ozzie, but someone does.

Just spotted this t-shirt on Amazon.com:

Rant about the apparent lack of "serious" Notes/Domino programmers

Started of as a comment on "The reason the Domino Development Platform Isn't Taken Seriously", where Craig asks if it's time for the DominoDevs to grow up. My rant is also influenced by the comments posted on Nathan's "Sanity Check" that OO is the way to go/most N/D developers are lazy.

Start rant:
This is just a wild guess, but don't think that the majority of N/D developers are willing/able to make the effort to write "serious" code.

Then again, how many applications need the complexity that is Java/OO/Inheritance/MVC/etc?

The recent discussions on the future of N/D remind me a lot about discussions about JavaScript, which also has had the toy stigma for most of it's life.

It's not until the Ajax-term is coined by a well respected person in the community, Jesse James Garrett, that suddenly JavaScript is THE language to learn. Then Douglas Crockford steps in and show the "serious programmers" all the amazing stuff you can do in JS, and all of a sudden, all platforms must have JavaScript.

Now the "serious programmers" want to tighten JS (with EcmaScript 4), and make it more serious (or more precisely, make it fit their world..?).

JavaScript is a forgiving language, just as LS. There is a lot of awful code being written in JS, making sites/applications brittle/insecure. If you force strong typing/classical inheritance/etc. on all JavaScript-developers (as some feel that EcmaScript 4 will), how many are you going to have left? Will the tightening of the language be worth the loss? Is the proposed tightening of the N/D-platform going to be worth the loss of less advanced programmers?

I believe that what we as a community (and Notes/Domino as a platform) need, are people who love and understand what is great about the platform, and also are able to sell the concept to developers -and- IBM. Until I see the next designer, I'm firmly convinced that the decision makers of Lotus/IBM doesn't understand what is great about the platform. From looking the latest releases (6/7/8), they see it as a collaboration/mailing platform. N/D isn't great because IBM has made a great mail/calendar application with it, but maybe the mail application is so great because of the (mysterious/genious) concept that is Notes/Domino..?

Regarding lazy/untrained developers:
Great code != Great application from the users perspective, just as Horrible code != Horrible application. Great code will probably lead to a more stable/secure/maintainable/expensive application.

If you want N/D developers to write serious code, and you believe you know how to teach them, why not go together with other great minds and write a book to enlighten them? There must be publishers willing to still publish N/D books..?

With all the Agile development books coming out recently, where is "Agile application development with Notes/Domino" (horrible title, I know).

Other titles I'd like to see:
"Web 2.0 with Domino" (although I hate the term web 2.0, it sells)
"Rich Internet Applications with Domino"
"Enterprise applications with Domino 8"
"Object Orientated programming in LS for dummies"
"Taking advantage of DB2 with Domino 8"
etc. etc.

/rant