Theo's Blog

Just last month, I asked for speakers for our BLUG meeting on October 26th.
On Yellowday, Nathan T. Freeman announced some cool Extensions to Xpages he and his team are developing together with IBM.
These will be freely available via OpenNTF.org (in the coming months).

Nathan graciously accepted our invitation and is coming to Belgium, to demonstrate this stuff. He will also talk about @Transmogrifier, and Medusa (he doesn't know this yet).
So, if you're a developer, and skipped Xpages because you lack some familiar features,
or if you are already using Xpages, and need some extras,
or if you're a project manager, and want to see additional Xpages power:
come and join us.
Visit the site: www.blug.be, registration is already open.
I'm sure we'll sell out (so to speak, as it IS free) soon.

Category:  Lotus  Notes  Domino  BLUG  | Technorati: Lotus, Notes, Domino, BLUG

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I know it's early, as our next BLUG meeting is only for October 26th ! But I'ld like you to get a head start, and have time to prepare. It might end up being a contender for a Lotusphere session !
Here's what I had in mind:
2 sessions about Widgets:

• What's out there? Where to find, install and use them, and which ones are the best ?
• How to create and or customize them ? From the easy 'view' types to more elaborate ones.

Each sessions is an hour. Just visit the site: www.blug.be, and you'll see a link to the abstract form.
Or send me an email: blug@blug.be.
Looking forward to your submission !

Category:  Lotus  Notes  Domino  BLUG  | Technorati: Lotus, Notes, Domino, BLUG

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Thanks to a couple of good friends, I managed to get my hands on an iPad a couple of weeks before it was available in Europe.
I expected it to be great, but it really 'grabbed' me.
I know there are plenty of list of must-have iPad apps floating around, but I've been asked so many times lately, that I just needed to put them down for posterity (and from saving me multiple long emails).
I tried to categorize them a bit, so if you're e.g. not into games, skip that section.
I marked all 'to be included in demo's' with an *.
Productivity

• *iWorks suite: Numbers, Keynote, Pages (spreadsheet, presentation and word processor)
• NewsRack: easy, flawless RSS reader that syncs excellent with Google Reader
• Things: To-do list, also possible to group by project
• *iThoughtsHD: mind-mapping done right
• Bento: easy to use database for creating your own. Syncs with Bento on the Mac (I use it for my wine inventory and tasting notes)
• *Mail: just great. I use it with IMAP to notes, but syncs using Notes Traveler too
• Contacts: syncs using Traveler
• *Calendar: id., and has nice week and month views (finally)
• *Jumbo: just a great/big calculator
• Perfect Browser: an alternative to Safari, but with tabs. Browsing using an iPad is so 'natural' and fast

Reference material

• AppAdvice: daily iPad/iPhone news, great tips, temporarily free apps,...
• *SwissQuote: stock updates (Bloomberg is OK too)
• *Videos: movies, TV-shows, podcast,... coming to live on a big screen like this
• *iBooks: read books (and within a couple of months PDFs too) (books are rather expensive though)
• *Photos: slideshows, using 'Origami' is just stunning
• Skygrid: cool 'portal' to lots of news, nicely categorized
• *Zinio: a magazine reader. Some magazine editions are free. (for my Belgian readers: Knack and Trends is now also available !)
• *Accuweather: nice weather overview
• Google Earth: just like the one on a PC/Mac
• *Comics: the iPad is made for comic reading. You can download some free samples. Too bad it's only US comics
• Dictionary: free and good
• IMDb: great way to find Movie/Actor info. Too bad everything is on line
• Wikipanion: my favorite Wikipedia browser
• *WebMD: medical info, a lot of it on-line only, but the first aid stuff is available off line, and very thorough
• Epicurious: cooking recipes
• Da Vinci HD: the complete works of Leonardo Da Vinci. Pictures are OK. Liked to have more info
• Airports: very detailed info about any airport in the world (you need to be on-line though)

Games

• *Pinball HD: 3 very nice pinball's
• Compression: a cool Tetris alternative
• Shanghai Lite: en simple, but nice (and free) Mah-jong, my wife's favorite game
• *Scrabble: great fun, and one of the few games that is not rushing you. Too bad there's not Dutch language support. My English vocabulary has improved though
• Prince of Persia Retro: the original from way back. Didn't knew it was such a tough game
• Solitair Forever: at least a hundred different Patience card games. My favorite is Yukon
• *Asphalt 5: there are about 5 different racing games, but this one was cheap, well rated, and arcade style
• Dominion HD: if you like Risk, give this one a try. Excellent, and well designed
• Multipong: the original pong game, but in a very modern jacket. You can play 4 at the same time
• Ice Age Delux: a very cool platform/puzzle game. Lots of levels
• Galcon Fusion: strategy game, addictive, but great fun
• Blokus HD: puzzle with a lot of options

Utilities

• *Dropbox: exchange files with your Mac/PC/iPhone, and send them to supporting apps
• GoodReader: exchange files from different sources and send them to apps
• *DocsToGo: edit Excel and Word files (the premium version also supports Powerpoint). Sync them with your PC/Mac
• QuickOffice HD: edit all kinds of documents (including MS Office)
• Shazam: recognize music/songs
• *RDP lite: Windows Remote Desktop connection. Connect to your Windows Server/PC and take control of the screen/keyboard/mouse
• VNC Viewer: take over your PC/Mac using VNC
• EyeTV: watch TV (live or recordings) if you have EyeTV on your Mac
• Adobe Ideas: simple but nicely done sketching app
• PhotoPad: edit your photo's. Lots of different adjustments, filters,...
• Maps: Google Maps. Very nice on the big iPad screen
• GPS HD: free alternative for Google Maps. check it out as it has some nice options

Music

• *Virtuoso: two row piano, good sound
• *Shiny Drum: great sounding drumpads, many different sounds/pads
• Beatwave: weird way to make music, still trying to get a grasp on it

Other stuff you need to demo

• *Pocket Pond: your own very well rendered pond, with koi, moving water, sounds and multi-touch support
• *Gravitarium or Gravilux: play with thousands of stars. your finger is a gravity well
• *Molecules: 3D rotating representations of molecules (e.g. DNA)

Of course I know there's lot more, but so far, these are the apps I use (and demo) most.
Other stuff I absolutely need to have ?

Category:  Apple  Macintosh  | Technorati: Apple, Macintosh

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I needed to loop over all profile documents to update some stuff. LotusScript has a nice method for this, called GetProfileDocCollection.
This is how you use it:

I skip the obvious initial Dim's and Set's, as we all know them.
This works fine most of the time. However, if there are too many profile documents, you get the following 'self-explaining :-)' error message:
"Profile document enumeration pool is full".
Some Googling reveals this Technote. With the following remark: "This problem was reported to Quality Engineering and determined to be a software limitation." Duh ?
They offer a workaround too, but this is complete BS.

Olga Babushkina offered me a great solution, by using CreateNoteCollection. I've never had any use for this function, but I can see it's power.
Here's how to use it:

Using this allowed me to have access to over 7000 profile documents.
Thanks Olga, a lifesaver !

Category:  Domino  Notes  Show-n-Tell Thursday  SnTT  | Technorati: Domino, Notes, Show-n-Tell Thursday, SnTT

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For almost 10 years now, I've bought my own servers (with Domino on it), and hosted them at my home office. What do I use it for:

• running my own business (some notes apps, website, blog, traveler, imap)
• development and test server (I know, I should use a different server, but that's expensive)
• running apps and websites for a couple of small customers, who can't or won't afford their own server, but pay me a small hosting fee
• running BLUG (website, apps)
• running websites for e.g. some wine-clubs

Overall, nothing heavy.
I bought a Windows server (every 3 years), a UPS, a backup device; invested in a fixed IP internet connection for which I pay 75 EUR a month, with average bandwidth.
When I was on holiday in Egypt my server was down for over 6 days (partly due to my extended stay because of the volcanic ashes). No wonder my customers (and other users) where a bit upset, and I was feeling miserable too. There was nothing I could do remotely. What happened was that the UPS software decided it was time for a complete check: it ran empty and the server just shut down :-( !

Time for another approach !
I'm not a networking guy; I'm a basic Domino administrator. I just want a stable, highly available, good speed solution for my needs, that allows me to run my own Domino server.
So what are my options (note that I'm not familiar with 'hosting' terminology):

• Keep doing what I do now, maybe invest in a secondary clustered/failover server
• Invest in a Foundation server (I just fear I don't have enough control), and keep hosting it myself
• 'Rent' a physical server in a data center (this is what someone proposed, about 100 EUR per month)
• Rent a Virtual server (where?)
• Go for Amazon EC2 (I have no idea if this allows me enough freedom)

The list above is just my limited idea of what I can do. I'm sure there are other solutions, I'm not aware of.
What would you suggest ? I need to make a decision soon.

Category:  Lotus  Notes  Domino  | Technorati: Lotus, Notes, Domino

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After returning from Egypt for a relaxing holiday, which was extended by 4 days thanks to an angry volcano on Iceland, I was invited for a weekend in the Provence (south of France). The TGV (high speed train) took us south 900 km, in 4 hours. Very smooth trip.
The Provence itself has beautiful nature, cozy villages, friendly people, but above all great food and wine. We visited 2 domains, one in Gigondas (Du Pesquier) and one in Beaume-de-Venise/Vacqueyras (Bouletin).
The highlight of the weekend however was a diner at a 2 Michelin star restaurant in Les Baux-de Provence, called 'Oustau de Baumanière'. Great interior, incredible food, friendly staff, wonderful company, but for a wine buff like me: wine-Valhalla.
Here's some pictures of the food we got:

 
 
The wines we had during dinner (I can guarantee you that choosing wines from a huge (about 100 pages) wine list, having to pair well with the food, is daunting and exhilarating at the same time):

Champagne Belle Epoque, Perrier-Jouët, 2002

Meursault Genevrières, Louis Jadot, 1999

Châteauneuf-du-Pape, Vieux Télégraphe, 1995

When asked to visit their 'cave' (wine cellar), they graciously accepted. Boy, were we in for a surprise!
They stock around 50.000 bottles, and claim to have one of the top 10 wine cellars of the world ! I took some pictures of bottles the eager sommelier showed us. We sure were drooling, as he showed us some 'big' wines too.

Château Petrus (at least 100), here the 1975s
Château d'Yquem (racks full) (1934 on the wine-list: 5000 EUR !)	Château Latour (many too)
Château d'Arche, Sauternes, 1893	Gevery-Chambertin Premier Cru, Joseph Drouhin, (old)	Château Cheval Blanc, 1995
Ermitage, Jean Louis Chave, 1990	Château Lafite-Rothschild, 1870	Château Le Pin, 1992
Château Margaux, 1934	Château Haut-Brion, 1928 & 1929	Château Suduiraut, Sauternes, 1900

Now do you understand why we could not keep our saliva under control ;-)

Category:  Wine  | Technorati: Wine

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Last Tuesday, March 30th was our BLUG event in Brussels. It seems that for the past months that's all I have been occupied with (after hours). I got the impression it paid off, as most of the 220 attendees seemed to be happy with how it all went.
It started off on Monday afternoon, when we were prepping the venue: putting up banners, signs and posters, filling the goodie-bags for all attendees (thanks Martin, Mike, Erwin, Steve), organizing the badges (thanks Kristof, Valérie), ...

Stijn -as ever- was omnipresent and organized. Couldn't have done this without his invaluable help. Thanks mate. He and Erwin also made sure that our eye-catcher, a yellow Lotus Elise was highly visible. We're all envious, Erwin !
Around 19h we all went to the hotel, were most speakers stayed. We had a great buffet dinner, and most of us tasted (too) many Belgian beers. Around 1.30 am, we had our last Orval or Delirium Tremens ! It sure was a short night.
Tuesday itself went pretty smooth. As I had to do the intro, I was a but nervous (and craving for water!). Alistair Rennie had a nice presentation about Lotus in the marketplace today, and Laurent Boes a short but to-the-point overview of Lotusphere announcements. The rest of the day was dedicated to plenty of (simultaneous) sessions. Take a look at the list of sessions, most of them including their slides. I can't praise all speakers enough here. Each of them did a great job, whether the room was packed (as most were) or not. Julien, and many other followers did liveblogging during the whole day. You can rehash it here. Over 100 people were following it. Thanks guys.
The whole event wasn't possible (nor free) thanks to IBM (thanks Laurent, Phillippe, Annekatrien, ...) and the rest of the sponsors. We're very grateful !
Later that night the remaining speakers went downtown Brussels, for a couple of drinks and some Belgian fries. We all had a great time.

Matt	Stijn	Me	Martin
Laurent	Tim	Tim (again)	Joel

I'm taking a few weeks off now. Need some rest. Need some sleep.

Category:  Lotus  Notes  Domino  BLUG  | Technorati: Lotus, Notes, Domino, BLUG

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10 days from now we're having our BLUG event (March 30th).
Ever since Lotusphere, we've been busy organizing. This is the first time I'm involved heavily myself. Luckily I'm not doing this alone.
Thanks Stijn, thanks Laurent.
I never expected this to be so intense. My 'free' time is almost nonexistent. I'm sure it's going to be rewarding, but at the moment I only see my to-do list shrinking and growing again.

I've been to several Lotus User Group events in the past years: ILUG, UKLUG, NLLUG, and I really start to appreciate the amount of time people like Warren, Kitty, Paul, Eileen, Bill, Steve, Matt, Marnix, Martin, and many others I forgot (or not even aware of) are putting into these events. We, mere mortals, just take it for granted.
I'm not looking for personal praise here;

I just want to thank all of you, worldwide, who are doing this tremendous, vital work for the Lotus community.

As for our event, we're almost filled to capacity, so if you liked to be present: Hurry.
It's free, but Registration for the Event is required.

Hope to see you there too!

Category:  Lotus  Notes  Domino  BLUG  | Technorati: Lotus, Notes, Domino, BLUG

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A month from now, our full day BLUG event is coming on March 30th. Today we announce the complete agenda and all approved sessions. It was tough to decide which abstracts would be accepted. And as usual those that made it are happy, and others are disappointed.
The only winners are the attendees, and boy, do we have something for you !

Our keynote speaker will be Alistair Rennie,
the new GM of IBM Lotus Software !

We got some more great and famous speakers lined up !
Warren Elsmore, Gabriella Davis, Stuart McIntyre, Matt White, Thomas Bahn, Ulrich Krause, Tim Clark and many others, will be there for you.
Here's the full list of approved sessions,
and the days agenda.

Your sponsorship is still very welcome.
Our current sponsors so far: Thank you !

Registration for the Event is required. Hurry, seats are limited.

Hope to see a lot of you there !

Category:  Lotus  Notes  Domino  BLUG  | Technorati: Lotus, Notes, Domino, BLUG

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No, I haven't been to the pearly gates, but I've been close to heaven and met Saint Peter (Petrus).
Let me explain.
Last Thursday evening I organized a party for my 50th birthday. Over 80 customers, friends and family showed up at the Cordoba'r, a Moorish tapas bar in Antwerp, Belgium. I had a great time, and I had the impression most of my guests enjoyed themselves too.

I received some cool gifts of the fluid type:
excellent wines, champagnes, whisky's, beers (how come people know I like this stuff;-).
But also a helicopter flight, flown by Peter himself (just learning to fly!). Some beautiful books, DVDs, gift cards... I even got my first vine !
The bottle I was most thrilled about was a Chateau Petrus 1960. This chateau in Pomerol (Bordeaux, France) is a legend by itself. Receiving a bottle like this from your year of birth is nothing short of a miracle! 1960 was a lousy year in Bordeaux for reds (weird, as both 1959 and 1961 were just excellent). I do not intent to drink it though, but you can touch it if you happen to pass by ;-)
So, to all people who wished me a happy birthday, via my blog, skype, phone, LinkedIn, sms (text) or in the flesh:
THANK YOU ! I'm truly blessed.

Here are some pictures of the party,
and here are some Photo Booth 'warped' photo's too.

Category:  Personal  | Technorati: Personal

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