Rob's Blog

6/7: Lotus Bug?

Just emptied my digital camera and found these taken in Thailand at Christmas.  Obviously we're not using the camera enough.

1/1: Thailand

Julie and I just got back from Koh Samui where we escaped for Christmas.  Fabulous!  I feel a bit of a fraud adding Thailand to my list of countries visited (see below) because we only went to the island of Samui and never stayed over in Bangkok.  I am sure that Samui is hardly representative.  Still, that's a nice excuse to go back.



I may post more on Thailand later but just wanted to wish everyone a Happy New Year before it was too late.  I need to shrug off the seven hours time difference and get right back to work because I'm finishing off a Lotus Notes Leave Request System that is needed ASAP for the new holiday year.

21/11: Berlin

Just got back from a great break in Berlin.  It was my first time to Berlin and, in fact, my first trip to Germany in more than ten years.  Julie and I had a great time and learned a lot about the history.  The city has certainly had more than its fair share.



We flew over on Ryanair from (Nottingham) East Midlands Airport.  We had been recommended a hotel in Charlottenburg by some good friends of ours and I mentally switched off once it was booked.  Normally, I read up in the Lonely Planet Guide and figure out what we'll try and see.

We landed on our feet though.  We saw an advert for a Free Tour.  We were a bit skeptical but thought that we'd give it a go on our first day.  Anyhow, we were glad we did.

The page on their site that descibes their free Berlin tour is here.

Our guide Dave O'Kelly was excellent.  He had a group of about 40 mostly young Inter Railers from all over the world.  He was funny but at the same time sensitive, thought provoking and inspiring.  The tour took almost four hours but it felt like two.  The tour guides do not get paid for these free tours but rely on tips.  Dave seemed to do fine and he deserved it all.  He wrapped up his tour with the story of how the wall came down in 1989.  He could have been on stage at the Edinburgh Festival and I wouldn't be at all surprised if the next time I see him it's on TV.

I thoroughly recommend this company if you fancy a tour of Berlin and I'd expect their other city tours (London, Munich and Amsterdam) to be worth going on too.  I may even do the London tour myself when I'm next there despite having lived in London.

3/7: Pune Tourist Board

Julie took this photo last August when we visited Pune on holiday and it has been sitting in our digital camera ever since. We had lived and worked in Pune, India for over five years running a Lotus Notes Software Company but returned home to England in January 2005.



I'd hate to have seen it before they started making progress ....

15/6: Off to Dublin ILUG tonight

After the football tonight, I'm off to Dublin by Ryanair from East Midlands Airport.  Very cheap ticket, doing my bit to warm up the world.  On Paul's advice, I also booked the Aircoach from Dublin Airport to the City Centre.  Again good value and a cool booking system that SMSs a graphic to your mobile that can be scanned by the ticket machine.

The last time I went to Dublin it was in the middle of the Rugby Union World Cup in 2003.  In fact I watched England's match against South Africa on the Ferry over.  Now of course England won that match and the World Cup.

This time I'm also leaving on the same day as England play Trinidad and Tobago in the Football World Cup.  Spooky.

The ILUG session tomorrow looks very good.  I guess I'll sit through the whole of the development stream.  I always think that it's a shame you can't attend both streams!  Hopefully I'll be able to meet some people afterwards and at the Geek Dinner.  One of the reasons I'm going to this is because I read all sorts of Domino blogs but actually haven't met any of you guys.

Unfortunately I leave real' early on Saturday morning so I don't get to enjoy the weekend in Dublin.  If England win the World Cup though I'll be back all the time!

3/4: Mexico

Just come back from Monterrey, Mexico.  It was my first time and I liked it a lot.  I was there compiling a budget for a bid we're doing.  If we're successful, it will mean a global project with a real need for collaboration.  It will have people in Mexico needing to work with people in India and with people in the Middle East.  We're talking 11.5 hours time difference and language issues too!

Anyway, I've just updated my World66 map showing the 26 countries I've visited.



The next ones on the list are Thailand and Peru (and Qatar if the bid is successful) ...

20/4: I now have an excuse to try out Traveler

I was out shopping yesterday at Makro and the particular store was closing down so there were a few bargains.

I ended up buying a Motorola MPx220 mobile phone since it was going cheap.  I know nothing about the phone whatsoever but it seemed like a good excuse to try out Traveler since the phone uses a Windows Mobile OS.

So I will try and install Traveler from Paul and Warren's The World is going Mobile presentation at Lotusphere and see whether the presentation is "developer friendly".

Now if only Traveler worked natively on Foundations, that would be cool.  Until then it will have to be installed in a Windows VMware image since Lotus Foundations now provides this functionality with the Lotus Foundations Run add-on.