Domino Interface

I just ran cross another free tool that Web developers should have besides: - Firebug - HttpWatch I found a tool from Yahoo which is available on all major browsers. YSlow. The nice thing about YSlow is that it helps you optimize your Web page performance. I was looking for is a way to determine the amount of memory that a web page is using and YSlow does just that. Take a look. It is another nice tool from Yahoo. http://developer.yahoo.com/yslow/

Two of the longest running LUGs are having their December Meetings this coming week. NEOLUG will have a December meeting on December 8, 2011. Andy Donaldson who is speaking at Lotusphere 2012 will be speaking at NEOLUG. If you are interested in attending contact Gregg Eldred, gregg.eldred@ns-tech.com. Also GRANITE will have their December Meeting next Monday, December 12, 2011. We will have topics on XPages and the IBM Cloud. In addition, our December Meeting is our Holiday meeting with a special lunch rather than the normal pizza. So join us. Contact Bernie Leung at bernie@mesatech.com if you are interested in attending. Hope to see everyone at these meetings.

Well if looks like the season for biking is coming to an end. Thanks to mother nature I am squeezing a few more days of good biking weather. Today was one of those days. I go a chance this morning to spent some time taking some great pictures since I brought my camera with me. Here in Chicago, it starts turning really bad around Halloween. We have been very fortunate this year with good weather overall. There was a few times of incredible weeks of rain and cold. But I am closer and closer to my distance goal this year. Unfortunately, they are predicting colder than normal temperatures and snow for winter.

MWLUG 2011 was the second year of our MWLUG Community Outreach Program.  Each year we raise money for a food bank in the area where we have our MWLUG conference.  This year the conference was in Milwaukee and the receipt of donation was the Feeding America Eastern Wisconsin.  We raised $1000 for the food bank which translates to 5000 meals for the hungry.  The raffle prize was donated by the Sheraton Milwaukee-Brookfield hotel and was a weekend stay with breakfast.  We recently received a nice thank you letter from the President of Feeding America Eastern Wisconsin. I would like to thanks everyone who participated in the raffle or donated their registration fee to the outreach program.  I would like to give a special thanks to one of our MWLUG 2011 sponsor, Meridian IT.  Beside being a one of our Gold Sponsors, Meridian IT was also kind enough to donate $100 to MWLUG Community Outreach Program and help our community.  Remember, our community extends beyond our Yellow Bubble and it is

Interested in attending and listening to the GRANITE Lotus User Group Meeting.  Sign up and login. http://bit.ly/GraniteUG2011

We will be have two great presentations at GRANITE next week at the IBM Center on Monday, October 17, 2011.  If you are in the Chicagoland area, please join us.  If you can not make it in person, we will be doing a Live Webcast of the sessions.  If you would like to register for the Webcast go to: http://bit.ly/GraniteUG2011 GRANITE Meeting - October 17th, 2011 Agenda and Webcast Registration The October 17th GRANITE meeting will be an historic first for GRANITE. For the first time, the GRANITE meeting will be webcast live to other Lotus User Group throughout the United States. For this meeting, we will be presenting extended versions of two sessions were presented at MWLUG 2011 in Milwaukee, WI. in addition to other presentations and discussions. If attendees cannot attend in person, please register for the live webcast. 8:30 - 9:00 AM Registration, Breakfast, Refreshments & Networking at IBM Center for on-site attendees 9:00 AM - 9:10 AM Presentation: "What's New With Lo

It was announced that Steve Jobs just passed away. He was a true innovator.

Based on the survey that we took, the date for the Midwest Lotus User Group Conference 2012 will be August 15-17, 2012 in Pittsburgh, PA. Thanks everyone for participating in the survey. And hope to see everyone in Pittsburgh. Our team in Pittsburgh is already working on the planning process.

MWLUG 2011 Videos are all online now on MWLUG Youtube Channel including: - Opening Session - Closing Session - Social Business Panel Discussion Session with Lisa Duke - This Week in Lotus 66 Live from MWLUG 2011 http://youtube.com/user/MWLUG

Videos of the MWLUG 2011 Opening and Closing Sessions are now on the MWLUG Youtube Channel. We are still in the process of uploading all the other videos including the Social Business Panel Session with Lisa Duke and the TWIL 66 Live at MWLUG 2011 video. So stay tune. http://youtube.com/user/mwlug

Organizing and running a conference like MWLUG is all about having the right team of volunteers. I put an enormous amount of time this year into MWLUG, but without the MWLUG 2011 volunteers it would not be possible. A number of other volunteers were not able to make it do to conflicts in their schedule. Where was Mike McGarel, you missed the picture taking. Having collaboration tools like Skype, Dropbox, and LotusLive help a lot. Special thanks to Bernie Leung for organizing the new Social Business track and getting LinkedIn to present at the opening session, Prominic.net for hosting MWLUG and the XPages Design Contest, and the Dukes for bringing "This Week in Lotus" to MWLUG. Thanks everyone.

Thank you everyone for participating in the MWLUG 2011 XPages Design Competition. We were hoping to have more entries, but we know it takes a lot of effort for submitters to create an entire application for a competition. We received a total of two entries. The winner of the MWLUG 2011 XPages Design Competition is Ferry Kranenburg who happens to also be a winner for the OpenNTF Custom Control competition. In addition to the Galaxy Tab 10.1 tablet, Ferry will receive from Teamstudio, one development license and 10 user license of their Unplugged solution. In addition, Teamstudio will help convert Ferry's app if possible to a mobile app using their tools. Baiju Thomas will receive a Amazon $100 gift card as runner up. Special thanks to all our judges and Mike McGarel for running this competition.

The TWIL team, Lisa and Darren Duke, will be podcasting live at MWLUG 2011 during lunch on Thursday, August 25, 2011. They will be interviewing a number of attendees and speakers. So stay tune.

MWLUG Conference 2011 begins tomorrow starting with a trip to the Miller-Coors Brewery and some free samples of beer. Following the tour will be our Evening Reception at the MWLUG 2011 Exhibitor Showcase with food and drinks. There is still time to register if you are interested in coming.

If you are not scared, you should be. http://www.infoworld.com/d/security/the-10-scariest-hacks-black-hat-and-defcon-170259

If you are attending MWLUG 2011 and you think you are great at Lotus trivial, please contact me to be potential candidate for our trivial contest. We are looking for three knowledgeable contestants for our fun and amusing "MWLUG Lotus Jeoparde" event on Friday towards at the end of lunch. We are looking for one IBMer, one administrator, and one developer. Lisa Duke will be our host for this fun event.

It is one week until the start MWLUG Conference 2011 so make sure you register. Here are the top ten reasons why your should be attending MWLUG 2011. For your $35 donation you get: - 40 Technical and Social Business Sessions - Miller-Coors Brewery Tour and Beer and Beer - Wednesday Evening Reception with Food and Drinks - Thursday Evening MWLUG Private Party at Comedy Sportz Club with Dinner, Drinks, and Show - 50% off one IBM Certification Test - Open Session with David Cohen from LinkedIn - Breakfast and Lunch (buffet lunches not box lunches) for two days - Free XPages Workshop - Meeting Ed Brill - And see me make a fool of myself on stage

The IBM Watson-Jeopardy project was a big event for IBM this year and it demonstrated some of the amazing capabilities that IBM technology has to offer. David Via, MWLUG 2011 opening session IBM speaker, will be talking about IBM's vision in Social Business and Collaboration. As part of his presentation, he will discuss how social media played a role in the development of IBM Watson, what tools were used and how. So join us for MWLUG 2011 in Milwaukee, WI next week and learn more about this amazing feat. http://mwlug.com

I am pleased to announce that MWLUG 2011 Gold Sponsor Teamstudio will mobilize the winning XPages application of the MWLUG 2011 XPages Design Competition using their Teamstudio Unplugged at no cost to the winner and provide the one development license and 10 user license of their Unplugged license for their own use. This is in addition to the Galaxy Tab 10.1 tablet that we are giving away to the winner. Please note that this applies if the winning app can be converted using their Unplugged tools. Judges will start reviewing the entries starting next week. So if you did not make a submission you should kick yourself. http://unplugged.teamstudio.com/

MWLUG 2011 XPages Design Competition submission is closing at 5:00 PM CST today.

The MWLUG 2011 XPages Design Competition deadline has been extend to tomorrow, August 9, 2011 at 5:00 PM CST. We are having bandwidth issues and submitters are having problem uploading their submission. Hopefully the problem will be fix soon.

MWLUG 2011 XPages Design Competition ends today at 5:00 PM CST. So make sure you submit your entry before the deadline.

We are please to announce the MWLUG 2011 Opening Keynote Presentation. David Cohen from LinkedIn will be presenting the open keynote presentation. David who is a very dynamic speaker will cover LinkedIn and the future of Social Media and Collaboration. Joining David later is IBM's very own, David Via who will cover the IBM direction and vision of Social Business. He will then be followed by TJ Witte from Group Business Software. We would like to thank, Bernie Leung from Mesa Technology for all his hard work in managing the Social Business track and getting LinkedIn to present. So make sure that you register for MWLUG 2011, http://mwlug.com it is coming up in three weeks.

The agenda for the MWLUG Conference 2011 is now online. The agenda is of course subject to change as we move closer to the conference. This year I decided to add a bit of interaction to the agenda, so using Dojo I created a much more interactive agenda the way I would like it. Give me your feedback and tell me what you think. We still have not decided which way to go for the Thursday Event. See everyone there. MWLUG Conference 2011 Agenda

Top Five Reasons For David Letterman to Come to MWLUG 2011

We have just added a new session to MWLUG 2011, titled: "Using Digital Certificates to Identify Social Network Users" With many of us using Social Media solution, security and identity has become an important issue. A couple of more sessions are still coming. We will also be announcing the MWLUG 2011 Opening Session Speakers soon. So hang on to you seat and be ready for an intense three days in Milwaukee that is far different to any LUG conference including last year's MWLUG 2010. http://www.mwlug.com/mwlug/mwlug2011.nsf/uxpages/agenda.uxp?openDocument&tab=tab2

The presentation sessions for MWLUG 2011 is now online on the MWLUG 2011 Web site. Again we have an incredible line up of speakers and sessions. If you want to learn to convert an Notes applications to XPages or learn about advanced XPages techniques, MWLUG 2011 is the conference you need to come. No additional cost. If you are interested in Mobility, this is the conference for you. This year in addition to many Administration and Application Development sessions, we have a special focus on real business cases and the use of Social Media to drive your business. We will be presenting sessions on the use of Social Media and Marketing from the Retail and Healthcare industry. These sessions will be from customer case studies. So bring along your business counterpart within your company. See everyone at MWLUG 2011. http://www.mwlug.com/mwlug/mwlug2011.nsf/uxpages/agenda.uxp?openDocument&tab=tab4

The sessions for MWLUG 2011 will be announced next Monday. At this time we will have over 35 sessions and labs for MWLUG 2011 packed into two days. Acceptance and rejection emails are being sent out at this time. If you attended last year's conference, you know what we did. What we have planned this year way out does last year's conference. The question is what do we do next year and where will it be? You will find out at the MWLUG 2011 Closing Session. This year the support from the Business Partner community has been incredible and so has the number of volunteers and support from IBM team. If you have not registered, please note that we are limiting this conference to 200 attendees only. A good chunk of the attendance has already been taken. Register for MWLUG 2011

MWLUG 2011 abstract submission is now closed. Thanks for all the speakers who submitted their abstracts. We will be announcing the sessions for MWLUG 2011 at the end of the week. Again we had an incredible out pour of support from the IBM community for the abstract submissions. We expect to have another year of great sessions and a few surprises that is yet to be announced.

We have now reached the maximum number of sponsors for MWLUG 2011 and then some. The Business Partner community has been incredible in supporting us this year as always. Thanks to all our sponsors. If you like to speak make sure you submit your abstract by the end of the week. http://www.mwlug.com/mwlug/mwlug2011.nsf/uxpages/abstract.uxp If you are planning interested in the MWLUG 2011 XPrize Design Competition, the Nifty Fifty databases that are part of the contest are now online on the MWLUG site. http://www.mwlug.com/mwlug/mwlug2011.nsf/uxpages/mwlugxprize.uxp?openDocument&tab=tab3 We have a limited number of hotel rooms available for this event so start registering to get the discounted rate. Hope to see everyone there. We have a few surprises coming up. http://www.mwlug.com/mwlug/mwlug2011.nsf/uxpages/conference.uxp?openDocument&tab=tab1

The last time I tried getting a picture of the Tower Rd power plant, my phone camera went bad. I tried again a few days ago and it was the same problem. But after a few engineering techniques ( hit the phone a few times ) my camera was working again. The Tower Road power plant is interesting in that is on the shores of Lake Michigan in a very expense neighborhood in the North Shore of Illinois. The electricity is cheaper than ComEd, since the city controls the power plant.

MWLUG 2011 Abstract Submissions has been extend to June 30th upon the request of a number of potential speakers. So if your are interested in presenting at MWLUG, make sure you get your submissions in soon.

I would like to give special thanks to Sheraton Milwaukee Brookfield Hotel for their generously in donating the weekend getaway package that includes breakfast for our MWLUG 2011 Community Outreach Program. It is an over $300 value. This year the beneficiary is Feeding America Eastern Wisconsin. The raffle tickets are $10 each. So if you are attending MWLUG 2011 or not, purchase a raffle ticket and get a chance to win the weekend package. You can register for MWLUG 2011 or purchase a raffle ticket at: http://www.mwlug.com/mwlug/mwlug2011.nsf/uxpages/conference.uxp?openDocument&tab=tab1

Damn IE. I have been working for months on an application that uses a lot of Dojo. It is a fairly complex application with the user interface sitting all on one page with 5 dialog box, data grids, lots of xhrPosts and xhrGets, and many other visual affects. Of course everything works on Chrome and Firefox, but it crashes on IE during testing yesterday. Now I have to spend an enormous amount of time debugging why it crashes in IE. I suspect it is the datagrid which is very sensitive.

20 years ago, Rob Burton, Dan Eitel, and I founded ReCor. It is hard to believe that it has been 20 years. For 20 years we have been provide training in the form of self-paced training to thousands of companies training millions of users through out that time. Lotus Notes training has always been our best training product out there. With the next version of Notes come, it will continue to be our best training product. Like everything else, we have also diversified in what we are doing these days and training represents a small portion of our revenue. The funny thing is that we did not start out as a training company, but as a small development shop to do application development. Training for Lotus Notes kind of fell into place while we were working on a custom application for a client. Those days, the big thing was a IBM 486 PC. Man do I feel old. Like all businesses we have had our ups and downs, but the experience of being on my own and not working for a large firm has been gr

Today is commencement day for Northwestern University. Alumni, Steven Colbert is giving the commencement speech. Every year Northwestern puts up these tent for graduation parties.

The theme of MWLUG 2011 is "Expand Your Community Through Social Collaboration". As part of that we now have the MWLUG Youtube Channel. http://www.youtube.com/user/mwlug So you if you have attended MWLUG in the past or are planning to attend this year, let us know what you liked about MWLUG and what you would like to see us do in August in Milwaukee.

As part of the Midwest community, it is important that we help our community that includes others that are outside of our Lotus community. Last year at MWLUG 2010 we raised $500 for the Cleveland Foodbank. This year we are proud to announce that the MWLUG 2011 Community Outreach Beneficiary will be Feeding America Eastern Wisconsin who tirelessly help feed individuals in the eastern part of Wisconsin. Like last year we are raffling off $10 tickets for a weekend stay at the Sheraton Milwaukee Brookfield Hotel. So come join us in helping out Feeding America Eastern Wisconsin. For more information go to: http://www.mwlug.com/mwlug/mwlug2011.nsf/uxpages/home.uxp?openDocument&tab=tab2

If you submitted an abstract for the MWLUG 2011 and have not received a confirmation email, please resubmit your abstract. I thought I had this problem fixed last year, but it seems to be happening again. I keep getting sometimes blanket submissions. I have added more test and I am recording everything that is happening in order to isolate this problem. If you are submitting an abstract, please do not use an special characters. Not sure if that is the issue. Thanks everyone and make sure you submit your abstract by the end of the month.

If IBM is dropping the Lotus name and the brand, what happens to all the LUGs and LUG conferences and also Lotusphere. Does the MWLUG become MWISC for Midwest IBM Social Collaboration and iamLUG becomes IAMISC? Does not sound too appealing.

The next GRANITE meeting is on June 13, 2011 with presentations on using social networking tools with Lotus Notes and Domino on Amazon EC2. Come join us for another great GRANITE meeting. We will also be updating everyone on all the things that are happening at the up and coming MWLUG 2011. Click here to see the agenda and register for this event.

Went for a bike ride this morning at 6:00 AM. This is Tower Beach in Winnetka, IL. Next to it is the Winnetka power plant that serves the town. No ComEd for them. I had a nice picture showing the plant along with the North Shore beaches, but the Blackberry camera screwed up. The beach is down about 100 feet from the street level. The road is about 30% grade so it was a tough climb back up with no running start. Each year it is getting harder and harder to climb it, must be a hardware problem.

Today is a beautiful day in Evanston. Here is a picture from my morning ride to work. Northwestern University Lagoon

It seem like it was almost yesterday that my son Brian was born. Now 22 year later he has graduated from college as an Industrial Designer and will start being a contributor for many years to our great tax system starting next week. Probably the last time I can give him a spanking.

Abstract submission for MWLUG Conference 2011 is now opened. If you have not had the opportunity to speak at any IBM or Lotus event, here is your chance. Our goal is to give all Lotus professionals an opportunity to present their knowledge and help participate in the Lotus community. As with each year, we have reserved a significant number of speaking slots for new speakers. We look forward in receiving your submission. http://www.mwlug.com/mwlug/mwlug2011.nsf/uxpages/abstract.uxp

Midwest Lotus User Group Conference 2011 Registration is now open. If you are interested in speaking at MWLUG 2011. Session abstract submission will start on Wednesday. Registation: http://www.mwlug.com/mwlug/mwlug2011.nsf/uxpages/conference.uxp?openDocument&tab=tab1

Finally after hours of debugging issues with Internet Explorer, the Midwest Lotus User Group Conference 2011 web site is now online. Registration and speaker submission will start next week. MWLUG 2011

The Midwest Lotus User Group Conference 2011 web site will be coming online tomorrow. What that means is that registration for MWLUG 2011 will be opening very soon.

Wer auf der DNUG-Frühjahrskonferenz vom 18.-20.Mai in Bonn ist, sollte in jedem Fall unseren LearningDocs-Stand (#14) mit Reinhold Gaugler und seinem Team besuchen. Wir werden dort die neuesten deutschen Versionen des LearningDocs-Trainings zu Lotus Notes 8.5.2 vorstellen. Der Kurs zu Notes 8.5.2 enthält Audio-unterstützte interaktive Simulationen, druckbare Schritt-für-Schritt-Anleitungen, integrierte Quick-Reference-Cards, ein integriertes Learning Management System sowie Möglichkeiten zur Erstellung individueller Inhalte und Kurrikula. Das Kongressprogramm und die Referenten sind absolut hochkarätig, ich kann aber wegen dringender Projektarbeiten leider nicht selbst kommen. Unser Schwerpunkt in den USA liegt momentan u.a. auf der Vorbereitung der Midwest Lotus User Group Conference 2011 in Milwaukee, WI. Wir zeigen dort vom 25.-26- August die englischen Versionen des LearningDocs-Trainings auf unserem Phora Group-Stand.

If you are attending DNUG in Bonn for the Spring Conference - May 18-20, 2011, come and visit us at stand #14 and say hi to Reinhold Gaugler and his team. We will be demonstrating the latest versions of LearningDocs for Lotus Notes 8.52 training in German which now includes interactive sound in addition to the interactive simulation, built-in quick reference cards, built-in learning management system, ability to create custom curriculums, and integration capabilities to the Notes 8.5x standard client. It sounds like a great conference, but unfortunately I am on too busy with many projects. Also, I need to get things moving for the Midwest Lotus User Group Conference 2011 that will be held in Mikwaukee, WI. We will be demonstrating the English versions of the LearningDocs training solutions at our Phora Group booth at MWLUG 2011 in August 25-26.

Today was the opening session at that fifth CMS Expo 2011 here in Evanston, IL. OVer 200 attendees from all over the world. Sessions on Joomla, Drupal, and other open sources CMS solutions and platforms. Microsoft is here presented as a supporter of open source CMS. In fact they are a main sponsor. It sounds like Microsoft is embracing the open source community with the open source .NET solutions from the community. Even Oracle is talked about, but there is no mentioned of IBM even when it comes to infrastructure. These open source solutions are becoming platforms rather than just a CMS solution. With all the thousands of extensions to these solutions, where does Domino stand. It brings up again the question that I raise a couple of weeks ago. What is the compelling story about Domino? How do you sell Domino in this environment? What distinguishes Domino?

HP is now focused on the WebOS that they purchased from Palm for their phones and tablets. Maybe it is time for Lotus Traveler on WebOS http://informationweek.com/news/windows/microsoft_news/229402283

The MWLUG 2011 Steering Committee is please to announce that the Midwest Lotus User Group Conference 2011 will be held from August 24-26, 2011 at the Sheraton Milwaukee Brookfield Hotel . It has been a struggle this year to get a hotel in the Milwaukee area since most hotels that we were trying to get was already taken by other conferences. We have planned a number of events and activities along with over 35 technical sessions. Registration for MWLUG 2011 will start sometime next week. We will keep everyone informed.

The ReCor team here in the Chicago area and in Germany have been working hard over the past few months to redesign our Java-based Enrave engine to include interactive audio with our Domino-based LearningDocs training technology. I am glad to announce that the ReCor Lotus Notes training is now available in both English and German with interactive audio. This brings the ReCor Lotus Notes training to the next level. The audio is a great addition to the already packed LearningDocs solution that includes interactive simulation, built-in learning management system, quick reference cards, customizable content, and integration with the Notes client.

It is back for the third year and better than ever. Starting tomorrow, we will be making announcements about MWLUG 2011.

This is a blog that I have been wanting to write for a long time and it is very important to me as an developer and Evangelist of Lotus products. Many companies that I know have moved off Notes and Domino. Also I have heard many have come on board also. How the numbers stack up only IBM knows. But that does not matter if I am doing well in providing consulting services and training. The thing that I have been struggling with and have not heard from IBM is a compelling story on why a company would what to use Domino as their Web application server versus Microsoft and Google solutions and more importantly open source solutions. First, if your company is a Lotus shop that makes sense. However, majority of the world is not when it comes to Web application servers. If Domino is going to turn the corner and grow as a Web application server which is the direction that IBM is pushing, we need to easily provide this compelling story. I see open source-based frameworks like Drupal and

Infoworld just interview Steve Mills on IBM thoughts and direction in regards to Cloud Computing. http://www.infoworld.com/t/cloud-computing/what-ibm-really-thinks-about-the-cloud-309?page=0,0

Today marks one of the most important anniversary for us as a nation. 150 years ago, the first shot on Fort Sumter was fired and the American Civil War officially began. That shot from a cannon commanded Brig. Gen. Beauregard's division began at 4:30 am and went on for 34 hours. Fort Sumter was commanded by Major General Robert Anderson, whom was the former commanding officer of Brig. Gen. Beauregard, his opponent. No one was killed during the actual battle. However, that bloodless event started the most bloody war ever fought by United States with more Americans killed than all the other wars fought by the United States combined. Thought it was a horrible war, it define who we are as a "Nation". If you have not seen Ken Burns Civil War series, you should. PBS has been playing it for the past week. Today also marks another important anniversary for us as a nation. On this day, 50 years ago old, Soviet Union launched the first man in space, Yuri Gagarin. This defini

I have procured a vintage ceramic Moy-Bier stein from Germany to add to my Moy-Bier collection. I just hope that it survives the shipping process from Germany to Chicago.

They are finally here. After a number of attempts on ebay, my Moy-Bier coasters have finally arrived. I can now add them to my collection of Moy-Bier paraphernalias. It is cool to have a beer and brewery name after you. Unfortunately, there is no relationship between the Moys from China versus the Moys from Germany or is there? Either way, you no longer can get Moy-Bier. It was discontinued as few years ago after over 900 years of brewing. It was available a few years ago at an Arlington Heights, IL liquor store but sadly no more. Never had a chance to taste it. However, I have been collecting Moy-Beir items including mugs, glasses, match sticks, and now coasters. My first two attempts to get the coasters end up lost in the mail. Finally this week, I received my coasters. Now for more Moy-Bier stuff including a large ceramics bier stein. My sure if they can survive the trip from Germany.

We are fortunate enough to have Ed Brill speak at our April 11th GRANITE meeting coming up next Monday. If you are in the area and would like to have a chance to meet Ed Brill and talk more about the direction of Domino please join us at the April 11th meeting. In addition to Ed Brill, Mike McGarel from Czarnowski Exhibits will be presenting on UI design which has a direct impact on the success of social business software and Jose Blanco from Mercury Consulting who will talk about real examples of how Social Business is being used in corporation to help their organization grow. For more information about GRANITE and the April 11th Agenda, go to: GRANITE Web Site . You can now find GRANITE on facebook in addition to our Linkedin site. So if you are a Chicagoland area user, developer, administration, or IBM professional join us and build the GRANITE community.

Time for a break and watch this great video

Yesterday, was an example of an issue that I am seeing with cloud services. After finding out that my blog feed was hacked, the notified Google of the issue many times. I fixed the problem myself. Now, it has been over 24 hours and I have not received any response from Google not even an automatic email from them though I have sent them a number of notices. I see this more and more with cloud service providers. In order to keep the cost down there is next to none or no customer services people available. There is a major issue when there is a problem. If the customer is not tech savvy then what are they going to do? People have complained about the same issue with Google Apps. My enterprise customers would never tolerate this kind of inaction or lack of communication regardless on how small they are. If cloud providers do not fix this issue, then you will be seeing more and more private clouds and solutions going back to internal operations. The importance of customer service

Someone in India has hijacked my site feed. I am in the process of trying to reset it. I am rethinking the use of Feedburner and Google Blogger. After resetting it, it is still point to this advertisement garbage.

The great guys at Sitepen have created a series of new Dojo tutorials. They are available at . As a Domino developer starting or already developing in XPages it is important that you understand Dojo. You will need it to create things that you will not get with XPages. Also by knowing Dojo you are not tied to the Domino platform and gives you additional skills that you can use on other platforms.

Implementations of Lotus Traveler works great on Android phones with the exception of one issue that we have discovered. Attachments! If you want to forward an email with an attachment, you must download the attachment first and then reattach the attachment to the message that you are forwarding. If not, the attachment will not be included. This has become an issue with a CEO of one of our clients who moved off his Blackberry and discovered that his attachments are not forwarding. Lotus Traveler seems to work like Notes in that it need to download the attachment before it forwards the message. This is not a good idea since handheld devices have limited bandwidth and memory. It is not even a good idea for Notes. IBM need to change this. Blackberry devices only include a pointer to the attachment and not the attachment itself so that when you forward a message with an attachment the server takes care of rest. This is critical when you have large attachments. As a result, the CEO

I was walking around in Evanston near my office yesterday and guess what was parking near our offices. It was the TIV from the Discovery Channel's Storm Chasers series. It is even uglier than I thought. A bit smaller than expected.

Has anyone encounter the following issue with their server connection document in Notes 8.52. The issue is that when every you open or edit a server connection document the TCPIP settings is gone and there is no setting in the connection document to reset TCPIP as your protocol. This has happen twice on Notes 8.52 installations that were upgraded from Notes 8.51.

Just a reminder, the GRANITE Lotus User Group February 2011 Meeting will be this coming Monday, February 14, 2011. Below is the agenda. We will be raffling off an Official Lotusphere 2011 T-Shirt. So if you did not have the opportunity to get a Lotusphere 2011 T-Shirt, here is your chance. For more information go to our web site, http://granite-ug.org. February 14, 2011 Meeting Agenda Don't forget to pay your 2011 dues - either online on our Web site or in person at the meeting! Come to this meeting and get a chance to win a Lotusphere 2011 T-Shirt 8:30 - 9:00 AM - Registration, Breakfast, Refreshments & Networking 9:00 AM - 9:15 AM Presentation: "What's New With Lotus/IBM" Update Presenter: Marcie Kane, IBM 9:15 AM - 10:15 AM Presentation: Lotusphere 2011: Wrap up and discussion Presenters: GRANITE members If you missed Lotusphere, you'll want to hear what your colleagues learned while attending this annual event. 10:15 AM - 10:30 AM - Break 10:30 AM - 11: