I'd like to say that the past five weeks have been a social experiment. Or perhaps that I'd been on vacation. But both are far from the truth. In real life, I've been heads down working on new projects, flying around the country for client visits (DC, Chicago, Milwaukee), writing a stack of proposals, introducing a new team to Quickr and Sametime, and dealing with several support issues for two major clients. In other words, swamped.

So while I won't apologize (I never really understood why people feel guilt for not blogging) I will just say "I'm back", and will have a lot to say the rest of the year, starting today. I'll also say thank you to the few folks who emailed me ("Are you OK?" emails started coming two weeks ago) and my CEO coach Barbara, who phoned me up yesterday to make sure I wasn't sick, depressed or gone missing.

So many of you are expecting some commentary about Quickr 8.1 which shipped a few days before my last blog posting, and having experienced it for a hundred hours or so I'll have a lot to say in the coming weeks - good, bad and technical.  ILUG is coming up (just booked my hotel...late!), CU registration is around the corner, and I foresee a major release coming from Lotus in the next couple months. A lot of material for the blog...

Thanks and I'll be back later today. News!

Technorati: Blogging Collaboration University ILUG Lotus Quickr Quickr Sametime Travel
(2)

UPDATE: As Steve points out in comments, this works with iPods made prior to July 2007, with the 35mm jack at the top.

I recently read a blog entry (nobody you know) that lamented the fact that you had to buy a fancy shmancy Apple device to watch your iPod videos on TV. Well two things were wrong with this.

One is, there are plenty of third party docks that let you do this. I own the Apple branded one, and also the DLO Home Dock Deluxe. Both stink. Neither one works well, and both have unstable and quirky remotes.

The second thing wrong with this is the little-known fact (I assume little-known, as there's not much published on it) that you can in fact use plain old RGB cables like those pictured here to play your iPod video on any TV with inputs. I travel with these cables, and many TVs in both the US and Europe have RGB inputs. I've even found them in about 75% of hotel TVs. Sometimes they are blocked (you can't get the input to switch to it), sometimes the remote lets you switch, sometimes you just have to tune to a particular station.

So how to? First, acquire the cable. It will look like this photo on the output end, and have a single jack on the end that plugs into your iPod. You can get this at any electronics store, department store with an electronics section, or in the US at the hardware, pharmacy, grocery, or massage parlor. Seriously, they're easy to find. Next, here's the trick, NONE of the cables goes into the same color on the TV set. For some inexplicable reason (not really, the reason is that Apple wants you to buy their docks!) Apple sends the video signal over the Red cable. Following is the correct pairing when you plug into the TV:

Plug RED to input YELLOW
Plug YELLOW to input WHITE
Plug WHITE to input RED

Next, in video setup on the iPod, select the correct settings for your location. PAL and NTSC are the TV options...in the US, use NTSC, in Europe use PAL. I always tell the iPod to ask me if the TV is connected.

Voila, a low-cost, very portable solution to watching your iPod videos on TV while you travel. I even use this at home when I get mad at the stupid remotes. Enjoy...


Technorati: Big Ideas Travel
(3)

As I alluded to yesterday, last week I was in Washington, DC. Three days of work and a weekend of sightseeing with Liz and her family was the plan. I've been working with my client there for 16 months, having made four trips to Washington and one to Key West as part of our initial scope.

But this trip ended with an invitation somewhere special. As a complete surprise to me, my client had arranged for a private tour for us on Sunday, March 30.

This took us places we never thought we'd visit in our lifetimes. And it wasn't led by a tour guide, but rather a member of "management". We were able to take a few photos along the way...

Needless to say, this completely reinforces my ideas about working with the kind of clients I do. Yes - I did set foot in "the office". What a day.

Technorati: Consulting Travel Work
(4)

As much as I love my MacBook Pro, losing a drive to physical crash is maddening. It happened to me in the beginning of December - on the road, the night before three days of client meetings. Then the replacement drive (ordered by my Apple store in KC) arrived a few days later, they replaced it, could not convert data, so I had a clean new machine. I reinstalled my Time Machine backup in an hour and was back in business. Stuff happens.

Stuff keeps happening. Last week in DC, the same exact thing happened on the night I arrived for a 6-day trip. Different hotel, different city, same client (so I've conveniently blamed them). Physical hard disk crash, total loss. This time I was able to visit an Apple store in DC. They verified it was toast, which allowed me to call the KC store and get a disk on order for when I returned. They also set up an appointment for me over the phone, which their answering system says they cannot do, but given my inability to visit the website to schedule it, they took pity on me. So the third drive arrived yesterday, I hooked up to Time Machine, restored...but this time something was missing. My entire VM of Windows XP. Everything I'd done since December in Windows was gone. I have an idea why - I had just converted to using TM over wireless - but need to test the theory. And keep one in reserve at the office just in case.

Fortunately, I kept my Sony up to date. So at the moment, while the Mac is doing a disk surface scan as a precaution, I'm producing a new VM from the Sony to transfer over. Should take about 3 hours for 60 GB. I'll be missing some files, but for the most part I had been saving anything critical over to the Mac's folders anyway, working in Windows only when absolutely necessary. That is less and less, but Domino Designer, Administrator, a few utilities and two customer VPNs still require me to load it up.

The shine has worn off my Mac experience a bit, but let me tell you - if this had happened to the Sony a year ago, I'd still be toast.

And even though losing a laptop even for a couple days is pretty much hell, what happened Sunday made up for it all. Another post, later today. As soon as my Mac is whole again.


Technorati: Consulting Mac
(6)

Feeling like giving today. So I posted AnyPlace Designer 7 to the QuickrTemplates.com site just now. AnyPlace Designer 7 is a Dreamweaver Extension for custom QuickPlace theme creation and previewing that takes away the labor-intensive process of placing QuickPlace Skin Components in your HTML code. It lets you render the page preview outside QuickPlace, so no more uploading themes 30 times to get it right.

AnyPlace Designer 7 works with QuickPlace 3, 6.5.1, and 7, and works with Quickr 8 with limitations. Quickr 8 introduced several new skin components and broke out actions into priority actions and other actions, and 8 and 8.1 have vastly different themes and classes. So it will work to an extent with Quickr 8 but then you'll need to tweak by hand to achieve a complete theme. We will develop a version for Quickr 8.1 when time allows and post it to the site. Anyone who downloads version 7 will receive a notification when this is the case.

AnyPlace Designer 7 was a $400 commercial product, and is now free software with a $99 support option. Enjoy!


Technorati: Free Software QuickPlace
(2)

Back in January, I announced that we intended to take our commercial products for QuickPlace/Quickr, update them, remove license code, and make them free. What I didn't know at the time was how much work that really is, and that we'd be hit with new projects in early February with no end in sight. So while my intent was well-meaning, execution on this has taken a back burner to our clients' priorities and projects.

That said, last night we (which as you know is the executive's way of saying 90% Viktor, 10% me) completed the recoding and repackaging of SNAPPS AnyPlace SiteMap as a free license. In case you haven't been introduced to AnyPlace SiteMap, it is a completely intuitive, security-aware remote control for your QuickPlace and Quickr sites. With a Windows Explorer-like navigation, it reduces the number of clicks and screen redraws significantly (by about 90%), making your users more productive and lowering bandwidth requirements for QuickPlace/Quickr. It's a big hit as it benefits every user in the organization. And it works with QuickPlace 2.08 through Quickr 8.1.

As a commercial product, AnyPlace SiteMap sold for $2,000 plus $400 maintenance per year. Now it's free, no keys to unlock, and you can optionally buy support for $299. We can also customize it for you as a project, just contact me. I should note - this is free software, not open source. The distinction is important as they both have the same effect on your budget, but there is a license and intellectual property (very well) protected in our free AnyPlace software.

I delivered the first copy to a colleague in Miami last night. Here's what he said:

"For background, I received a request from one of our place managers a few days ago asking if I could provide her with a site map utility.  I started researching what was available and discovered your tool, that fact that you are now releasing it as a free utility is guaranteed to generate some business for Snapps!  This could not have happened at a more opportune time!

Best of all it required ZERO IT resources to implement, which is consistent with the concept of Quickplace/Quickr's Self Service model.  It also demonstrates the awesome power of QP forms!

[...] You are the MAN! Please give my BEST regards to "Developer Extraordinaire" Viktor as well! I can't thank you guys enough!!!!! "

We have decided to use the QuickrTemplates.com website to manage delivery of the AnyPlace products. The storage mechanism is already in place, and we can easily track downloads. This is also where we'll offer support. And before I forget, big thanks to Martin Vereecken for the new banner design!

More good stuff coming soon, folks. Enjoy the SiteMap.


Technorati: Free Software QuickPlace Quickr
(11)

As Ed writes, the IBM channel announcement for Quickr 8.1 has been posted. A "refreshed" UI, a few extra dabs of Web 1.99 in places where it really needed it (member management - you're gonna love it), and a whole slew of new class names for theme developers to learn. Here's the official line:

IBM Lotus Quickr 8.1 is team software that helps you access and share information and project materials that you need to get the job done, and to make better, more informed decisions. Lotus Quickr Standard provides many new features to enhance the user experience and simplify administration, including:

    * Streamlined browser interface leveraging Web 2.0 technology
    * New Lotus Quickr connector for Lotus Notes 8.0.1 using the side-shelf capability
    * New Lotus Quickr connector for Lotus Symphony
    * New Lotus Quickr connector for Microsoft Outlook
    * Personal file sharing (also available separately as Lotus Quickr Entry)
    * Enhanced administrative tools and user interface
    * Integration with Lotus Connections profiles

SNAPPS has been hard at work on the limited releases ("betas" of a different name) and provided a lot of feedback to development in the past two months. Some has been folded in, some not, some is a matter of opinion...so we'll see on the 28th if opinion makes any difference


Technorati: IBM Quickr
(10)

But today, I had the pleasure of presenting to the Pacific User Group (PUG!) with about 40 participants in a Sametime Unyte meeting and 5-10 in a conference room in San Francisco. Thanks to Holli Konig from IBM for setting it up.

I chose to present four of the SNAPPS templates for Quickr to illustrate different concepts:
> Dojo for UI and data management (QSurvey),
> Domino application integration (QContacts),
> UI excellence and Connections integration (QActivities), and
> Application combinations (QSite)

Then I moved on to demonstrate AnyPlace SiteMap for Quickr, about to be released as a free license. I'll probably put together a flash demo of that one this week.

Anyway - in case you love pugs too, you're really going to enjoy this!


Technorati: Quickr User Groups
(2)