Rob's Blog

21/1: BT ISP kicked into touch for poor service

Last week our broadband went down over the weekend.

OK I thought.  Deep breath.  I'll call Bombay, Bangalore, Pune or wherever their call centres are.

I ended up calling them maybe ten times.  Each time they are extremely polite but constrained by a script that doesn't have too much leeway for diagnosing the problem.  What's more they told me my mobile/cell phone number and asked me on each of those occasions to confirm that it was correct.  That's OK the first time but it gets a tad annoying after a while.

They confirmed that they thought the line was faulty but then asked me to call again in an hour so that they could escalate it to "Engineering".  Frustrating to say the least but, hey, I could live with that.

They finally decided that a visit was necessary so we decided on a morning visit (between 8am and 1pm) on the Tuesday.  I was working at a client's so Julie waited in.  At lunchtime on Tuesday, Julie started losing it.

BT's line faults are now outsourced to Open Reach.  However, you can't speak to them directly.  You have to get Bangalore to relay messages to them or to relay messages back to you.  This is an Indian version of Chinese wispers.  Unfortunately, some of the messages coming back seemed to conflict somewhat with reality.  Someone somewhere was telling porkies like that the Engineer was on the way.  We had that message a few times.  Julie waited in all day and didn't get a visit!

The next day just before Julie was about to go out, a van arrived.  No apologies.  Julie has to cancel her visit.

It turns out that the BT modem/router was faulty.  Now you might ask why I didn't try and swap it out in case.  I wish I had.  However, the Help Desk just said the line was faulty.  The faulty modem meant that they couldn't hand shake from their end but they didn't ask whether I had a spare modem.

It turned out that the Engineer didn't have a spare modem either.  Not his job.  BT would have to post one and I'd have to pay for it because my BT modem was out of warranty.

Turns out I was sick to the back teeth of BT and wasn't going to pay them a penny more.

I had been researching ISPs anyway because I needed a static IP because I wanted to host my website and mail internally.  So I am now switching to plus.net at http://www.plus.net who have a UK based Help Desk.  I'll be paying £20 a month for a 20GB up to 8MB broadband service.  I get free static IP address(es) and a free Wireless/Router/Modem.  It should be sorted this week.

The other ISP I was considering that also have a good support reputation and also provide free static IP addresses are Zen at http://www.zen.co.uk.

Oh and while I was at it we switched our land line phone service to plus.net as well.  We kept the same number and we get free evening and weekend calls for a line rental of £10 per month.

So when I said we wouldn't be paying BT a penny more, I meant it!

21/1: Not made Lotusphere (again)

I spent the afternoon trying to combine an honest day's work with catching up on the Opening General Session at Lotusphere.  There was plenty of live blogging going on and I was able to get a flavour although being there would have been better!  It seemed to me that this year is one of consolidating on last year's announcements and strategies.

I guess my highlight was the Designer client in Eclipse with a new class browser etc.  However, doing this was a no brainer once the strategy for using Eclipse was decided on way back before the Hannover announcement.  Making the Notes client available on Apple's Leopard and also Ubuntu has got to be a good thing and is only possible because of the Eclipse strategy.

There was quite a lot for small businesses.  This is a huge market and one that IBM Lotus Notes/Domino is under-represented in.  Hopefully that's going to change.

I am booked on a Notes/Domino three day course on Composite Applications in March.  I think that being able to tie Notes in with other desktop applications and systems will differentiate developers more and more in the future.  It can also be a huge differentiator between Notes/Domino and the competition.

The improvements coming in Quickr and Connections are going to strengthen the overall Lotus Software branding and they will start to make inroads into companies also considering Sharepoint.  I only wish that there had been some sort of announcement that Lotus Document Management (Domino.Doc) functionality could have been incorporated into Quickr.

One project I have on the drawing board is a Lotus Notes Composite Application front-end to Oracle eBusiness Suite ERP.  It was interesting that IBM are going to develop a customisable product with SAP code named "Atlantic" that will be sold by both IBM and SAP.  This seems to be much bigger than the SAP templates giveaway that didn't seem to get the same support from SAP.

So in conclusion, I am happy with the consolidation of a successful strategy and glad that IBM haven't tried to bring out a whole bunch of brand new products.  Looking forward to the Eclipse Designer release!!

3/12: BE Systems acquired by Blue Wave

As announced in Barcelona today, BE Systems is now owned by Blue Wave. The press release can be found here:

http://www.elsmore.net/warren/blog.nsf/Downloads/WELE-79HKRN/$File/Bluewave%20press%20release%20FINAL.doc

In Domino blogging circles, this means that Warren Elsmore now works for Paul Mooney.  These talented conference speakers, LUG organisers and Domino Administrators join forces.  The combined company is also better able to serve its customers - which is what it's all about.

So congratulations to both companies!

30/11: Today’s tip : Don’t put your mobile in the wash

Well I have been without a mobile phone for a little while since Julie washed my last one.  Anyway, today I decided to try my luck on eBay.  I got a Pearl 8100 for just over £100 which seems like a good deal.  Now I just have to wait for it to arrive.  Fingers crossed.

Update: My Blackberry Pearl arrived earlier this week.  I'm very happy with it.  I have plenty to learn though and it will take a little while for me to get up to speed.  I am currently just using it for calls and haven't investigated getting e-mail working.  A while ago, I downloaded a ten user enterprise licence from RIM so I'll probably try and get that working.  I guess I'll need a data contract as well from one of the mobile network providers.  Anyone know what the going rate is for that?  I currently am on pay as you go with Orange.

14/11: What next for eTimesheets?

A week or so ago, I released eTimesheets onto openNTF as an open source project.

eTimesheets is a web based Timesheets system that I had developed a few years ago when I was based in India at a subsidiary of Inter Weavers that was called Tiger Infotech.  We learnt a lot when we developed eTimesheets and it was successful for us because one of our clients took it and we integrated in into their existing systems.

Here's the link to the eTimesheets project on openNTF:
http://www.openntf.org/Projects/pmt.nsf/ProjectLookup/eTimesheets

I decided to open source it because we weren't doing anything with it.  I decided that letting companies use it for free may provide some opportunities in the future if one of those companies want to interface it with their HR system, their ERP system or their Leave Request system.

So now the product has been downloaded about 150 times but I could sure use some feedback.  Was it easy to install?  If not what do I need to add into the installation guide?  Do you like it?  If not, what enhancement would you like me to consider adding?  Please comment away.

4/11: eTimesheets finally released!

I have finally released eTimesheets to the http://www.openNTF.org site as project eTimesheets.  Please download it and check it out.

UPDATE: I originally uploaded the NSF databases with local encryption!  This has now been fixed which also reduced the filesize from 9MB to 2MB.  Apologies to anyone who has downloaded the 9MB version.  Please download the 2MB version instead.  I simply edited the original release document rather than creating another.

UPDATE 2: This is getting embarrassing.  I released eTimesheets without giving Manager access to the Default ACL group despite writing the installation instructions on how to change the ACL after download.  It is now rectified.  Apologies to anyone who downloaded version 0.9 which has now been replaced by 0.901.

23/10: Coming soon to openNTF : eTimesheets

This post is my way of forcing myself to get my act in gear by committing to release a web based Timesheets System to openNTF within a week.  It is something I've been meaning to do for over a year now!  I had the system developed in India during my spell there and it has been in production at one of my clients for a few years.  I also use it to record my time and mileage and then use it to create invoices.



You can see some screen shots already that I have added to the openNTF project.  I just need to decide upon a licence and finish setting up some installation documentation and I'll then upload the NSF applications.

Please let me know if you think this might be useful to you.  There are enhancements that I have in mind too but I want to wait and see what the feedback is like first.

Here's the link to the project on openNTF: http://www.openntf.org/Projects/pmt.nsf/ProjectLookup/eTimesheets

16/10: Swing Low Sweet Chariots!!

Just a quick post about the rugby.  Fabulous entertainment for two Saturdays on the trot.  Things have got a lot better since the first two games of the tournament when England struggled to put away the USA and then were crushed 36-0 by the Boks.  Beating the Aussies and France in repeats of four years ago brings back memories of living and working in India where I celebrated last time.  But this time there is a big hurdle still to cross.  The fairy tale wouldn't be complete without having to beat South Africa like we did four years ago.  Can we overcome the recent form book?  Can we stop Habana?



God I hope so.  And if Lewis Hamilton can stay out of trouble on Sunday and win the F1 World Championship then my weekend will be complete.

27/9: UKLUG was a great success

Spent the day at Hatfield just north of London yesterday for a UK Lotus User Group day which was a great success.  Thanks to Warren and Kitty and a big band of helpers - Matt, Julian, Bill, Paul and Frank for making it so.  Also thanks to all the sponsors for making it possible.

Despite leaving home before 6:30am, I didn't make the 9:00am start but by all accounts the keynote speech by Kevin Cavanaugh went down well and was packed out.  I also had to miss the drinks reception since I had 150 miles to drive and an early start the next day.  Next time I'll have to plan it better!

In the labs, I took a quick look at a Composite App that Matt and Julian had cooked up.  The environment is going to improve fast and once Notes 8.01 starts going into the Enterprises, this technology is going to get very important.  As Volker says, Lotus Expeditor plugins for Notes and Composite Apps generally could well be a sought after skill in six months time.

I also took a look for the first time at Lotus Quickr.  I need to install this and have a better look because I have clients crying out for this type of technology.

I enjoyed getting an insight into customer experiences of Lotus Notes/Domino and related third party products.  In general very large companies like HSBC and The Salvation Army are doing things with Lotus Notes/Domino that can't be done for the same budget using anyone else's products.

10/8: Won the lottery (again). Yay!!

Letter to Wills_Robin
 
Lamborghini Promotions
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London, United Kingdom
Tel:+44 7031891172  

Fax1 (UNITED KINGDOM):  +44 203 031 1314
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FAX: (NETHERLANDS): 31 167 72 5203
FAX: (SWIZZ): 41-91-260-68-57
FAX: (JAPAN): 81-3-4496-6227

Good day

Re: Award from Lamborghini Promotions
 
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Your email ID identified with Coupon No.PBL242-6914-20 and was selected by our E-games Random Selection System (ERSS) with entries from the 1000,000 different email addresses enrolled for the E-game. Your email ID was included among the 1000,000 different email addresses submitted by our partner international email provider companies.

Lamborghini company has approved a payout of your consult ation cash prize which will be remunerated directly to you by the official Payment Agency.
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(PLEASE FILL IN BLOCK LETTER)
FULL NAME...............................................................
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DATE OF BIRTH.................................
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ANY PHYSICAL DIABILITY........................
TYPE OF BUSINESS..............................
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HOW DO YOU INTEND TO RECEIVE YOUR CASH PAYMENT
(CERTIFIED BANKERS CHECK, BANK DRAFT, WIRE TRANSFER, OTHERS-STATE CLEARLY)
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Congratulations again on your winning.
Alan Jones
Lamborghini promotions
 
 I am so happy.  This keeps happening.  I can't wait for them all to start paying up.  In the meantime, I think I'll keep working.