Kategorie: Lotus Notes

For all of you who did not like my captcha (and some marketing thoughts)

… would you please test the new one? Actually it isn’t a captcha and let’s see if that works.
I do wonder though, after how many installed and deinstalled plugins wordpress will finally be broken.

To make you life easier, I give you something to comment on. Last week, the power supply of my MBP started to make funny noises as if a firework display was imminent. It still loaded, but not very good. This morning I went shopping for a new one and realized, how – and don’t tell me you knew that already – silly I am. I was standing in this stupid Media Markt and was all exited to buy a new Apple Power Supply for my Mac Book Pro. I need professional help. I am exited because I bought a new POWER SUPPLY.
Listen up IBM.
Watch and learn from Apple.

The thing is, Apple cares about every single detail.

We can compare the technical features of Apple products endlessly, but one has to admit, they have an extremely good marketing. Every single product comes in a nice box, not some cheap carton. The corporate identity goes from A to Z. The shop displays are easy to recognise in every shop with Apple products. If I had bought a power supply for any other notebook, I would have searched all over the place and some sales person would probably have to go through drawers to find one. Not with Apple, you go there, you find the stuff and you have time watch other products (I looked at the new MBP … boy it’s fast and the display is amazing). Got it? The shopping experience is great, you want to come back. Compare that with IBMs software catalogue … if you ever find it again after the x-ieme change of the link.
It’s the attention to details, that makes Apple successful. Its software may not have all the bells and whistles of other products, but it works for 99% of the tasks, it is user friendly and it looks good.
I never had a lot of problems with Notes, but there are some annoying bugs (or features) that make the user experience on a Mac not always a pleasure. I would say, it is a lack of attention to details from IBM, to make Notes on Mac an even better experience, than on Windows and we don’t have to talk about the marketing part.
Dear IBM, if you want to be as successful with Notes as Apple, copy them. Apple just knows the human mind better. Think less about the features, think about ease of use, think less about technology, think about what the normal user actually needs. The social client could be a step in the right direction (don’t know exactly, I am still ignored by Jan Kennedy), but can IBM pull it off, that in the end we have an extremely stable and easy to use product, with more performance and less bugs, with the buttons in the right place?
Again, attention to details!
Call me a dreamer, but at least I do realise, that I am as susceptible to good marketing as anybody else out there and something silly as buying a new power supply makes my life better. Anybody knows a good AA (Apple Addicted) self help community?

18 month to wait … What the heck is IBM working on?

In a recent post Ed said, that the next major release of Notes will come in about 18 month. That is a long time … a very long time, probably too long for many companies where „I-want-Outlook“ type of CIOs are on the helm. I do have faith in the hardcore Notes guys, but the decline in installations will continue, even though Notes is hot in some countries, even in Europe.
Just lately I had an example of the power of Notes. I had a stupid thing to do, a mailing. Which means checking addresses of old contacts, who is where, who is new, doing a serial letter (snail mail) and so on. A lot of manual work. I thought a Notes application (or is it database again?) would help me. Took me just a few hours (I am out of training) and I had a tool ready that is ugly, but does the trick. Others have asked to use it, too. It’s just a form (you never see), a view and some code. That reduces the time from a few minutes of work per address, to a few seconds. If that does not show the power of Notes, I don’t know what does (and no, before my political correct readers go into overdrive and need their blood pressure medication, it’s not a spam database, all nice and legal).
BUUUUUUUT. Who is allowed to write his/her own Notes application in a company today? Admins get dermatological problems (die kriegen Pickel) only thinking about it. Eyes twitch on the thought of massif overload on servers, because users actually use the stuff. CIOs fear the decline of their departments relevance if anybody could build tools that do not require a complete project and the evaluation of 10 different tools over several month.
And do not forget the security implications. Malicious code could come inside the precious corporate network and infest the ERP. Governments could be overthrown, volcanoes erupt, revolutions and anarchy everywhere. That must not happen. Therefore the only sensible solution to prevent such suspicious behavior, is doing what everybody does. Use ready to use tools that everybody else uses. Be as good as your competitor. Go mainstream (no joke, I have heard this from CIOs). Don’t allow any creative solutions of your employees which probably could make their life and work better, that’s not what we want, do we? We want them to suffer on earth, otherwise they end up in hell, as any christian fundamentalist will tell you. We do them a favor, actually. Looking at the app isn’t an option, because it would not reach any standard set by independent boards.
If you are seriously thinking about building tools that fits your way of work and makes you more productive, look for professional help. You are close to the loony bin and your teacher, who always said, that you will end up in the gutters, will be right. You may be allowed to write some formulas in Excel or even do a little macro, but not a inherently evil tool like Notes. It is a database after all. The summit of the IT universe. The pride of any administrator (just for those with a irony recognition disorder, that was irony, if not sarcasm).
But back to IBMs Ed. The new client could have a name with X in it. Oh my, not another one. That marketing departement should get more time outside the cubicle.
Citation X, X-Files, XServer, X Work Server, X Series, Generation X, Xtra, Xing, X Tools, Sikorsky X2, Eurocopter X3 and any adult site out there. Does it have to be X again? I would think about it. You have 18 month. But desbite of the name, I eXpect something great … and a public beta like „Hannover“. 18 month should be plenty of time for something that brings tears to my eyes and lets me dribble over my keyboard.
Yes, I know, I said about 6 month ago, that if there isn’t something new at LotuSphere, I think about moving on. I did actually. I looked at other products but could not find anything that gives me the flexibility and the ease of changing it to my needs other than Notes. I even dug out an old Notes CRM (sort of) I wrote not so long time ago for an architect and a medical company and use it for me again (I am thinking about giving it to OpenNTF), replacing a much too big tool from another vendor. That’s what it is all about. Using tools, changing it to my needs without a lot of hassle, using Mac, Windows or Linux. Another reason is certainly that I know Notes better than anything else, but still, the flexibility argument stays valid. Looks like I stay with Notes for the time being. So much for intentions (and idle threats).

I have been attacked – PART 2

Actually Google was right. There was a serious problem. Somebody managed to install a .php file on my blog.

It is called sys_engine9682.php or in a later version sys_engine4823.php. It contained an eval() statement that apparently pointed to a Czech website.
No fun at all, because I do not know, how they got into it and how I can prevent them to do it again. Could happen, that I have to do everything again.

No fun at all. Bastards. Should have used a Domino blog template.

After LotuSphere – what is does the future hold?

After quite a while I finally found the OGS video and I was a bit disappointed. I had hopes, that IBM comes out with an exciting new Notes client, what we got is a new homepage in the old client and a few enhancements for 8.5.4. No Notes Next, just the remark, that jumping to a all new client, would be too much for partners and clients alike (preserving the investment and all that stuff). That settles it for 2012. More customers and partners will turn their back on Notes/Domino.

… on the other hand …

Let’s face it. After over 20 years of continuous development, the code in Notes/Domino has probably been rewritten twice by now. NSF isn’t the most modern way of storing data. A few years ago we all hoped DB2 would be the solution, but that did not work out. Compared to Exchange, Domino is still way better in architecture and performance. Unfortunately Microsoft does a good job in selling their stuff and companies are jumping wagon almost at any price. I is amazing how much money goes down the tube by replacing a working system by another one. ROI just isn’t a factor in most decisions to migrate. I think, that IBM knows all that and the future is called Connections.
I want it, too. Notes/Domino can not deliver that functionality. Without Connections, Notes Social Edition is useless (See Ed’s comment). The activity stream would be the thing that sets Notes apart, but that does not work without Connections. From where I sit, the other enhancements don’t have enough WOW-factor to make me grin.

Much to my chagrin, Connections is just out of reach for me and many small companies. Having more servers than users, does not make sense. The administration is not really user friendly, either. Yes, I could go for Smart Cloud, but somehow, I like to have my own stuff … and in the cloud IBM must make my data available to the US government without telling me. Not that my data is of any interest to them, but one never knows, what may be of interest all of a sudden.

If I was in IBM shoes, I would do the same thing. Domino can not win against Exchange and that has nothing to do with technical advantage. Exchange is almost as old as Domino and the jet engine was worse than .nsf from the start, but FUD and other creative ways of selling, make it hard for IBM to compete.
IBM is focused on big companies. The marketing approach is pretty easy here. Everybody knows everybody. You sell trough personal contact. That settles it for the smaller companies. 1000 users just isn’t big enough for that extra effort to keep customers. That may sound sarcastic, but it looks like IBM thinks that’s the way to go.

What I found interesting is Ed’s remark, that they were never as many Domino servers in the free wild than today. Unfortunately, that’s servers, not customers. I would prefer the other way round, but I don’t know, what that should tell us.

Does anybody wonder, why there wasn’t a real road map for Notes/Domino. There wasn’t a sort of preview for the future. It’s pretty dark on that road in front of Notes/Domino.

For the traditional Lotus partner that does mean, you either learn Connections pretty quick and start talking to your customers about it, or bring them to the cloud. In that case, they are lost to you, except for the occasional PC or network problem (hopefully they have a few windows servers that need update).

Though, now I am standing on a cross road and ask myself, where do I go from here and I think, many other Notes geeks have the same mixed feelings. LotuSphere did not give anybody the security about an exciting future. Rather a the same old battle to keep existing customers and hope for the best … but I do like Connections.

 

LotuSphere 2012 – My one and a half Cents

Oh, bugger, I missed the OGS … at least the most important parts, the demos. I saw Michael J. Fox and the end, because I had to bring my wife to the doctor … she has a flu. Damn, but my wife’s health is more important … I told myself every 5 minutes … and the kids sports and music lesson, too. Now I am waiting for the recorded OGS … not there yet. Grrrr. Right now I have to live with second hand reports and I still don’t have all the information’s I need, because I have to do an article for the Swiss Small Business Association. Can somebody please point me to good information’s about the new Notes and Connections stuff? I don’t see the whole picture yet.

Now, what did I got until now. I watched Ed Brills presentation and I think IBM is going in the right direction. Unfortunately, we will not get the completely new client i hoped for, for at least another year, but Social Notes and Domino is one hell of good step towards what I would like Notes to be.
Do away with different types of documents. An email, a letter, an invoice, a complaint a spread sheet, a chat protocol, an SMS or anything else with information in it isn’t something that should appear each in a different application. The means of transportation may be different, but for the user, it is just something that get’s read on the screen (or printed out). I want all that stuff in the same place, but linked to persons, companies, activities, hamsters or what ever. I don’t care, if it is sent by mail or tied to a pigeons leg. But it is important, that I know, where the heck it belongs to and who is involved … and how all this is linked to other things.
What I have seen until now, Notes and even more Connections, are on the right way. I like that … a lot. And the Client looks better.
I have yet to see, how the inbox will be less cluttered with the intelligent sorting gadgets behind it, but it is a start and I see this as a game changer.
What I really would like to have as soon as possible, is Connections with Connections Mail. That does mean, I would have to learn Connections … or I get the stuff of those guys here: Connections Administration Toolkit Now isn’t that cool or what? I just imagine a Collax V Cube with all the Connections and Domino Servers on it. At the same time I would do reusable templates of the virtual machines and we have a plug and play installation with the whole administration through the browser. Have to think about … a lot … makes me dream of a better future.
Me too, I thought about Workplace. I liked it. I thought it wasn’t a bad idea. Was probably ahead of it’s time.

There is one thing, that troubles me. Ed said in his presentation, that they have the highest number of servers out there ever (if I got that right). That does not correspond to our feelings, that IBM is actually loosing customers, or does it? He said too, that they are adding more and more seats in companies above 100’000 users and at the lower end, too. How is that possible? What did he say? The number of servers. NOT the number of customers. If he says though, it is true, but I am (and yours truly probably, too) waiting for: „We have the highest number of CUSTOMERS ever!“

Now, how do I feel with everything I know by now. Mixed. I like the approach, but I don’t like the time frame. I hoped for the big thing, but it did not come. But haste makes waste, but this is another year where partners will move to other pastures and customers will go for the main stream stuff (MS) at any price (they really do, at ANY price. Expensive way of thinking).

I hope I get some more good information in the next few days.

PS: What I really liked would be the functionality of Connections and the ease of use and installation of Domino. But that is too much to ask, I suppose.

 

Notes 8.5.3 on Mac … let’s hope for the best.

OK, yesterday I ranted about my Notes 8.5.3 on my Mac Book Pro.
It’s not the newest machine (2 years), but still new enough for Lion.
I tried what you guys suggested but it did not change anything for the better.

1. I tried to delete cache.ndk and bookmark.nsf. Did not help.

2. I tried to go for the basic client. Boy that’s ugly and not a solution anyway, because I want the eclipse client and I need XPages support.

3. I looked at my locale settings. Looks normal to me but I am not sure, that I need two keyboard layouts, Swiss German and Swiss French, but since I did not change anything ever, it seems to be right.

I finally gave in and installed all the plugins Notes asked at every start up if I want to install them (with the warning, that this may cause security problems … no wonder)

Since it is only a matter of time until LS2012 and the hopefully huge step forward with Vulcan, I can live with it for a while. I just have to be careful, not to use alt & „some keys“.
But in the near future I probably will have to take a hard decision. That Lotus Foundations box still running in the basement, has to go. If it’s not Domino in the future, it will be Collax and Zarafa. But if my predictions for Vulcan are more or less correct, I will jump on the first beta code I can get my hands on and go forward with it. It worked with Hannover and with a bit luck, it will work with Vulcan. After the OGS I will know more.

Notes 8.5.3 on Mac … oh my goodness

I really hoped, that with 8.5.3 things would get better. What a disappointment.
First, you can’t just update. Deinstall – reinstall, otherwise Notes would stop after the progress bar.
After that, I had to restart the client and the mac at least 3 times until it started working more or less normally.
There are still issues. If I try to write special characters with alt & „some key“ Notes crashes.
It still wants to install some plugins I don’t need anymore (told it 3 times) and somehow I can’t get rid of a Sametime server connections, but I don’t even have Sametime anymore.
Oh, and the „new mail“ icon in the menu bar isn’t click-able and it looks like it now has nothing to do with new mail. It appears more or less randomly.
I can not leave the icon in the doc, yet. Every time I have to kill the b… (I have to kill it right now, because it is blocked AGAIN), it is replaced with an Eclipse icon and that one just does not work.
It is still slow. Opening a document in the CRM Application takes still about 10 seconds.

I don’t know, I thought IBM would work a bit harder to make the Notes Client on Mac something they could be proud of, right now it isn’t even stable enough for basic work. If it does not get better in a few days, which sometime it does miraculously, I move back.

Update: to see a new mail, I have to close and reopen the mail db. Great.

The Cloud – Risk or Chance for Business Partners?

During the last year, I attended many entrepreneur meetings all over Switzerland and I met many, many new cloud fans. Cloud solutions are spreading. What does that mean for the traditional business partner? Bad news actually.
Cloud solutions with the most impact on our business, are normally provided by the biggies. Microsoft, IBM, Oracle, SAP, Google you name it, they have it.
SAP one design is eating into the SAP Business One business, Microsoft 356 into every business partners revenue stream, IBMs LotusLive, too. Suddenly, the Big Ones can provide services to everybody fast and easy and all we can do, is migrating our customers and then they are gone for good.
Customers love cloud solutions. No more hassle with servers and all the updates. Access it everywhere. It is cool. They may loose a bit of individualism, but today’s software has so many features, that at least 90% of the needs are covered by one provider or the other. The need of the average business for individual software is diminishing. Some of this is just happening in the heads of CIOs and CEOs who want main stream solutions. They see it as less risky to buy of the shelf. That this may lead to additional manual work, instead of automatizing, is just not a factor. ROI isn’t an overwhelming argument (Silly, if you ask me). Many customers see recurring manual work as more productive, then taking the time to create a template and reusing it. Really! I heard this story so many times, my blood pressure doesn’t even raise anymore. A gain of productivity and a pay back within 6 month just isn’t always an argument in IT. BTW, that’s one reason, why Lotus Foundations failed in the market (apart from that nobody knew it). Gaining time in setting it up and having a incredible good backup and recovery system, isn’t enough. Because during normal operation it works like anything else and you can’t complain at the country club, like your chums who went main stream, or in other words, it had no want-to-have-feature for the user.
Now back to the cloud. It’s the new black. It was Apple and Google that broke the Microsoft monopole for good to make room for everybody else to start cloud solutions. Today it’s cool to have an iPhone, iPad, Mac Book, iPod, at least at home. Android is kinda cool, too and Microsoft is just for the rest. You need it in your company, it is taken for granted, but it is not the ultimate thing to have. Today customers only want to know, if the new CRM works in the web browser and on the smart phone. The technology isn’t important at all anymore. Or would you care, if SAP uses Oracle or DB2 for SAP by design?
As a Business Partner of any of the biggies, we should be alarmed. Don’t get me wrong. If I was Sam or Steve or Gini or Larry, I would do exactly the same thing. Eliminate the middle man (the BP!) and bind the customer directly to me. Hey, but what about the BP, who has been a loyal follower for years? Who cares. Frankly, we are all attached to Notes, not so much to IBM. Probably to Ed, but not to IBM. BPs who are playing on both sides, Exchange and Domino, are from my point of view as the boss of IBM, not my loyal followers. Yes, yes, we always told customers that Domino is so much better, but they still want Exchange. Got it? We are rather loyal to the customer. If there was a completely new product with all the nice things of Notes and more, more speed, better design and so on, we would all jump wagon before you can say SUPERCALIFRAGILISTIC – EXPIALIDOCIOUS. Now why should IBM care about us? They don’t have to (we would better call ourselves resellers or something neutral, than partners).

It’s all about keeping the customer. There are a quite a few arguments, that do not work.

If you tell customers that by US law for US companies or companies that just do business in the US, his data must be made available on request to the US authorities, without the need to inform him!
He does not care. I do, but I have yet to find somebody who does care.

„If you have no internet, you don’t work.“
Internet is extremely reliable today, therefore not an argument.

„You still have to do backup, because you can’t trust your cloud provider.“
Customers just expect, that the clouds backup works.

„You will have problems to get your data back, when you want to migrate.“
Why should I think about migration now?

„You will have problems to get support.“
No, not really, it may be less comfortable than just calling you, but it works.

„You will have outages at the worst possible time.“
But they do guarantee 99% accessibility!

… and so on. The answers of the customer may not be always entirely correct, but he believes it, because the cloud sales told it.

What should we do now, to keep our customers? I know, on premises isn’t dead, but if the stuff in the server room is more complicated and less performant, than the cloud, more customers will move to the cloud. Incidentally, there are solutions which are less complicated, than the traditional stuff (LF was one, Collax is another) and they could provide customers with something that feels like the cloud.
IT companies can set up on those tools their own clouds. Collax cluster solution is pretty cool … and has a license scheme, which is clear and easy. Even I can handle the installation and the administration and it is the chance for any IT company to go forward and keep customers.
Another idea would be fractional ownership in the cloud. Buy part of a cluster and share the hard- and software with other IT companies. Makes it easier to start.

What is the advantage, if you go cloud? Keep the customer! Create a continuous revenue stream. Easier path to the customer to offer new services. Become a customer to the big ones, instead of a reseller. They will like you much more. You can take whatever technology suits YOU.
Disadvantage? Initial investment, but that isn’t so big, if you start with KVM solutions. The change of the business modell is quite a step, but managable with good planing.

If you have a customer, that wants to go cloud, why not going with him? It’s a chance or a lost customer. Rather take the chance.
And now think about XPages and XWork Server. We just got the easiest path for extremely cool cloud solutions presented on a silver tray.
Grab it. See! IBM is still caring a little bit about it’s BPs. But IBM is changing and the BP has to change, too.

IBM Marketing for Notes/Domino – move on, that’s a boring post.

If you are expecting ranting about IBM’s marketing here, move on, nothing to see here. Marketing shouldn’t be a never ending story.

A lot of things were written about Sam Palmisanos time at IBM, since he announced to step down. Interestingly, the head of marketing, Gini Rometty is taking his place (do we have an Italian clan thing here?). Therefore, she is responsible for the marketing of Notes/Domino – or the lack of, as many would say – for the last few years. Was it really that bad? Depends on your point of view. There is one thing, which explains a lot.

IBMs focus has always been on business software, hardware and services.

No consumer products. Not even the PC’s were widely available at mediamarkt or whatever retail chain is out there. That limits the possibilities quite a bit.

Would Notes be a good consumer product? I doubt it. The current Notes client lacks quite a few things for being suitable to consumers: MAPI, good IMAP support, ease of use for several mail accounts and so on. A private customer can’t even buy it. Therefore the whole theory of getting consumer products into business fails for IBM products. That works for Microsoft and Apple. They have cool (at least Apple) products, people want to use professionally. IBM would have to go the other way, cool business products for consumers. Does that make sense? No way (look a RIM)! It could happen, that IBM comes out with something really cool that everybody wants. Yes, Vulcan could be the thing, but would IBM would have a huge uphill battle until they had a consumer channel. I don’t think it is going to happen (but I like surprises).

If IBM cares about businesses, why are they loosing one account after another? They add a few, but that does not make up the loss. Part of it are certainly the consumer products, that move into corporate IT. I believe, that is not even half of the story. What I don’t believe, is that Ed and his team are not fighting for every customer – who must have a certain size, certainly – that wants to move away from N/D. In the case of Ernst & Young it could be that IBM his happy about it, because that would give PWC a financial advantage.
Microsofts FUD and other really aggressive moves towards IBM are certainly a big part, but IBM lacks a few products, to make customers completely happy. As long as Windows is the corporate user interface, Microsoft will always have a foot in the door. Even Apple is in a better position here.
CIO’s are often not really geeks and everybody prefer what they know. Unfortunately there are much more MCSE’s and so on out there, who are much happier installing Windows servers, than Linux (you are lazy) and since M$ promises that everything works perfectly together, they just do it. That you get lots more trouble with M$ products, then with anything else, isn’t a factor. The problems people have with M$ products are taken as normal.
ROI just isn’t a strong argument. Many of the geek CIOs don’t even know what it is and those who know, aren’t geeks and believe M$.
IBM has two strong psychological factors against it. First, people don’t like change and people tend to do what others do, or in other words: „You will not get fired for buying Exchange“. The first factor makes it hard for IBM to move people to N/D, the second factor makes it hard for IBM to keep customers, who want to upgrade/update their infrastructure.

After being nice, now a bit of rant. The mistakes about N/D marketing have been done years ago (Workplace!) and Ed can’t turn back the clock easily.
In the moment I don’t see a product portfolio, that would attract customers below enterprise size. Having the possibility to add Connections files and profiles is great, but four different applications on three different servers? Lots easier to deploy Sharepoint (I believe, but I could be on thin ice, here. BTW, Connections screams for a high availability solution from Collax, sorry, had to do it).
AFIAK, the bonus system for IBMers does not motivate them to go after renewals. If it is true, that’s a shame, really (again, thin ice here).
Notes is getting old. Too big, too clumsy, not intuitive enough, not-so-nice UI (I would not call it ugly, though, but the workspace should have had a makeover years ago).
Said all this, I don’t believe that Ed or Gini are stupid. I rather think, that they know everything I have said, already, but it isn’t easy to turn that train around. At least they could fight the M$ FUD, after all, IBM invented it.

Do I have a solution? Not if the next major release Notes Foo, isn’t something I would like to use as my one and only application to solve all my business and private needs. In other words, either Notes Foo is a huge step forward in integration of all those bit’s and pieces I have currently to deal with, or it is over. Yes, that’s easy to say, because if Notes Foo is the huge step forward, it will sell like hot cakes anyway, but in IBM’s situation, a me-too product will not get them anywhere. Therefore the solution lies in the product, not in the marketing.

Now lets wait till LS2012 and see what happens. A bit like a second Christmas. You hope it is what you wished for and that it isn’t another pair of socks.

Ps: Told you it’s boring.

Learning XPages … D8L55 is done … Puh

OK, I made it through the IBM XPages course D8L55. Not without a few hiccups, but they are minor.
First I had problems getting the db’s on the server. The darn thing – a Foundations Box with 8.5.1 FP4 – just refused to let me put copies or replicas of the databases in notesdata. The silly box always had the impression I had no right to do it. I used local replicas, which worked pretty well (I tried to create replicas today again and … sure, it worked – Argh).

The next issue. I should have used an English client. Sometimes it was pretty hard to find the German labels and the German help confused me more, than it helped.

The radio button exercise was the major hiccup. There must have been a huge change between 8.5 to 8.5.2. In the course I had to put for every choice a separate radio button, but there are only radio button groups as controls. As instructed I tried it with 3 different radio button groups, which all had the same name. That couldn’t work.

The last trouble shooting exercise should have shown a minor problem with a view header, instead it showed a complete runtime error for the whole page. But the fix was the same. I just did not learn anything from it.

All in all, it is a good course. You see quite a lot of important things and many concepts I struggled with before, are much clearer now. I can only recommend it. IBM really tried to get a course together, that gets you started. I am not an expert now, but at least I can continue on my own. Oh, and get an iPad or something for reading the stuff, that made my life a lot easier. I could even read about XPages in bed. Boy, it took only seconds till was fast asleep.

Now where I go from here. First to the fridge….

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(got it from my local Coop. Amazing, that they have a sense of humor)

I think I am going to watch a few videos from David on xpages.tv … have to get chips.

Oh, Sonia thanks again for the course. If you are ever in the region, drop me something lite, like a note. I owe you at least a few beers or glasses of wine.
If somebody is also in the same position as me, no courses in your country, start whining. You will not get my course. I promised. I am a good boy.

PS: Is there already a Vulcan and a iPad CSS available?