Simon Scullion

• hello from Geneva, wrapping up after a great client project workshop, travelling back home tomorrow morning #
• @chuckstar76 Hi Charlie, yes, good time, busy, productive, oh and expensive!! #
• Retweeting @bbcnews: British Gas owner Centrica says it is to raise gas prices by 35% and electricity prices by 9% with immediate effect. #
• link for beeb story http://tinyurl.com/64×7nz OMG! Thats a major hike…. #
• any recommendations for somewhere not too pricey to eat out in Geneva? If that is even possible here!! #
• @sogrady I disagree, capitaliSation can really help emphasiSe! ;-p #
• off to find food somewhere in Geneva #

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• morning all, packing and preparing for a trip to Geneva this week, off to the airport later #

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• @tomraftery good luck with the NIE! Not sure how you managed to open a bank account and buy a car without one though!! #
• @TomRaftery aah! so you also know all about that latin spirit!! mine is from San Sebastián #
• @TomRaftery ROFL!! my <3yr old daughter is more than capable of demonstrating what she got from her Mum too!! :-/ #
• @martinpacker @pjnet #twhirl won’t update to 0.8.4 for me on #ubuntu. Not looked into it yet, no idea whether its #AIR or #twhirl itself #

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Bruce has posted a quote which got me thinking….

“No IdeaJam is not the issue, just people afraid of Domino applications as they have only been exposed to lousy ones in the past”

Putting it mildly I’d say!

I’m a strong believer that the “bad reputation” suffered by Notes is far too often due to shocking Notes app development. That can include every aspect from programming to UI. All too often this is extended to Domino apps, aided by the mess that Domino makes of web development if we leave it to its own devices.

So a question for you. How many times have you seen an experienced web developer brought in to help on a Domino project? Exactly! Time and again its the original Notes developer asked to “put that app on the intranet”.

And I’m not trying to say that a PHP developer or the like could come in and work magic with Domino. Just that good results depend on the Notes developer adding new tools to the toolbox. At the same time, employers need to recognise the breadth of knowledge required to be a competent Notes Domino developer with the latest releases.

Xpages can save the world!

Bruce goes on to ask whether Xpages are the answer. In one word, No. The introduction of XPages, like composite apps, and even web services before it, just add to the problem IMHO.

If Notes developers aren’t already up on their CSS, Javascript, etc, then they’re not up to building respectable Domino apps, let alone taking advantage of XPages.

I’m not so sure it can be solved simply providing CSS themes or samples either. There are plenty of examples out there. Notes Domino developers need to be prepared to explore new areas, outside of Domino Designer, and then come back and work in what they have learnt. Those doing this are ready for XPages, like any of the new features that have come before.

I’ll sum it up in one word. Attitude.

A penny for your thoughts!

So what can we do about it? The Lotus blogsphere is only the tip of the iceberg. We all recognise that there are far more developers out there that don’t even read the blogs or forums, and aren’t privy to all our ranting and raving! We need to reach them to solve this problem.

Sample apps with a few “Wow, how can Notes do that!? Can I have it in my XYZ app?” features, to help push these developers into pastures new can only be a good thing.

But if Lotus were to show users and management what all this new “stuff” is really capable of, with some must-have, must-use, out-of-the-box templates, that really demonstrate the capabilities bringing a benefit to the business, then that would certainly help.

As Bruce’s quote attests, in today’s economic climate, business will not invest in new product, let alone new features, if they don’t see a clear benefit. Something only compounded if they have been scarred in the past.

Notes and Domino developers need to be forced out of their comfort zone, pushed by business drivers demanding functionality delivered through the new features. Lotus for their part, need to regain the confidence of the developers with a polished product, avoiding some of the disappointments and frustrations in prior versions.

My money is on it taking some time.

PS: One more thought, do other technologies suffer the same problems?

• Buenos dias!! Its going to be a scorcher today apparently #
• @mastermark congrats on the wedding anniversary! #
• @mastermark latest avatar is typical of summer here in Asturias, natural “sidra” (cider) being enjoyed with friends #
• @mastermark thx for the beachball explanation! from windows hell #
• @mastermark re the dual boot, who says I haven’t! #

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• catching up on email and the like….. #
• FF3 has just crashed for the second time in the space of minutes….. #
• @zuffle IE/!? no chance! Think it was Win XP, usual reboot fix applied! Now updated to FF 3.0.1 #
• just signed up to identi.ca #
• @vitorpereira really? doesn’t sound right. #
• @vitorpereira LOL! Thx for the reminder, leftover from previous @chinposin #
• working on project documentation for multiple projects…………fun! #
• back from lunch with a full belly #
• now to stay motivated for the afternoon, planned sailing cancelled, wind gusting 27kts in Gijon today, nice for the bigger boats! #
• @andypiper ahem, What the heck have IBM done all I want to do is install Symphony what’s this weird download manager getting in the way? #
• @dansilva Fspot check for photos, but thats not a regular thing, surely? I would love to see Fspot with the option of mySQL like Amarok tho #

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• morning all! need to get some admin out of the way this morning, off to enjoy a long weekend, so today is a friday for me! #
• Retweeting @vlongani: “A Father is a man with pictures in his wallet, where he used to keep his money when he was single.” LOL! #

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• morning tweeps! back at the coal face and plenty to chip away at this morning! #
• My Notes 8 toolbars really annoy me, they move, overlap, and generally don’t behave very well… #
• @GrahamChastney LOL! I tend to let the tabs get out of hand in Firefox too! #
• @chessasilva I don’t restart Notes often, but my toolbars seem to slop around, why can’t they just stick!!? #
• @ssheppard maybe its a programmed title, if it were mine, would be corporate speak for my inbox being a mess, no other suitable word! LOL! #
• @stuartmcintyre steady on, sounds like your stepping into propeller-head territory! #
• thats me done for today, off to congratulate some friends on their new-born daughter who arrived into the world last night. #

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Last night I managed to find the 5 minutes I needed to upgrade four WordPress blogs to the newly released version 2.6.

Possible thanks to the excellent “one-click” install setup provided by Dreamhost.

Very quick and entirely painless, just how upgrades should be!

So unfortunately I can’t go into details on how I upgraded, there really is nothing more to tell!

For anyone who hasn’t already seen the video demo’ing the new version, here it is.

Now to learn about all the new features!

• morning all! No network this am, so camped in someone elses office while mail etc replicates #
• network is back, though now got a blank white screen, only @twhirl is responsive!! #
• hard reboot coming up #
• @dahowlett I’m wishing the siesta was a reality! Rarely get one even at the weekends these days! #
• a big “hola” to my latest followers @Phigment and @VicPodcaster #
• @dahowlett I’m further north in Asturias, and yes, I know what you mean, will be heading south late August to be baked alive for a while!! #
• @dahowlett We can all moan about the weather!! jan/feb this year were actually quite pleasant, while summer has only just arrived it seems! #
• aarrrggghhh!! On a project call, and “white screen of death” hits again! #
• Retweeting @bbctech: Regulators announce a crackdown on the cost of sending text messages on mobile phones within the EU. http://tinyurl … #
• @lekkim you trying to tempt fate re DDE!!? #
• @stuartmcintyre would be interesting to know whether the AIR platform is capable of delivering something like a Sametime client #
• @TomRaftery ooohh! the joys of everyday spanish life! Don’t know about Ireland, but banks here are at least 10yrs behind the UK…. #
• Installing Windoze updates, will have to reboot, so not much point doing much meanwhile… #
• here comes the reboot…. #
• @yojibee Hola! Yep, human I’m afraid! #
• @martinpacker for all the good things re Sametime, lightness isn’t currently one of them! No gripes, though, more curiosity #
• @TomRaftery the spanish system is still so dependent on having a personal relationship with a branch mgr, to avoid ripoff charges etc #
• @stuartmcintyre agreed, I’d say currently the Sametime client scores 2 out of 4. #
• @lbenitez LOL! he’s not eating his feet yet then!? #
• Retweeting @gialyons: What do you think? Jeremy Thomas posts: Confluence vs. Clearspace: http://is.gd/TPb Interesting thoughts re E2.0 #
• @aqualung yes, very. In my experience, the best wiki content is where people have had conversations… #
• @alanlepo http://del.icio.us/sscullion #
• @lekkim enjoy Ubuntu! #
• @grumpy_old_man yes, sorry, messed up posting to my blog, thankfully nothing exciting! http://tinyurl.com/69bq8m #
• @stuartmcintyre such cheek!! hey, I made no promises! ;-P #
• @pedrorq @edbrill LOL! subtle difference between the spanish and portugese meanings! #
• @cholsing you’ve reminded me I need to get back to that, initially hit issues with the 64bit version of Ubuntu 8.04 #
• @pedrorq nooo!! I just read it the same way he did, familiarity I guess!! #
• @stuartmcintyre congrats on the wiki residency! Will be looking forward to that! #
• Retweeting @twitter: Announcing search!: http://search.twitter.com. Why? http://tinyurl.com/56j2zx #
• thought I’d forgotten my gmail password, was worried for a minute! #
• upgrading wordpress blogs to 2.6 #
• all done! 4 blogs, 4mins, and about 16 clicks total, all thanks to Dreamhosts one-click installs, great stuff! #
• @ferdy not much to say re the upgrades, my hosts Dreamhost make it too easy! It really is one-click to start, then a wp db upgrade, easy! #

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