We're in Washington at the moment, and Laurette and I just ran downstairs and a couple of blocks up the road to watch the presidential motorcade go by on the way for George W Bush to deliver the State of the Union. This was a kind of cool, unplanned event which we've just managed to luck onto whilst we're over here on holidays - whether you believe in the person in the back seat or not, I reckon a motorcade is always pretty cool - especially when it's down the main street of Washington on the way up to Capitol Hill and it's about 40-ish degrees (around 5 or 6 if you're used to Celcius).

Actually, being a West Wing buff, it was only cool because we could imagine it was Jed.

(it was even better today as it was the day we read on the original parchment - "He shall from time to time give to the Congress information of the state of the union".... we saw the Bill of Rights and the Constitution and the Declaration of Independance, and then a presidential motorcade... not bad for a couple of non-Americans)

So... first day in Washington and we get out and about to check out the new surroundings. Our hotel isn't the greatest place around but it's right in the centre of the city (as far as I can tell). We've managed to get out and go for a walk around town, seeing the White House and a few of the monuments lit up - it's kind of weird seeing these places that you've heard so much about/seen in movies. It's a little weirder seeing them and realising that the security that surrounds you is packing sub-machine guns... not the place to crack a little joke about scaling fences, throwing stones, or anything like that.

Washington has a couple of airports - one of which (Reagan) apparently sees a plane arrive every 90 seconds - after September 11 it's a little freaky to see low flying planes around when you're in town with so many buildings, monuments and people of importance to American Culture so accessible.

Just thought I'd share this one. When we checked into this hotel there was a notice in the "Guest Services" book which discouraged anyone from ordering a pizza from a flyer found under your hotel door. Fair enough I thought, the hotel probably has a deal with a few pizza delivery places and they need to get the customers to go there instead of calling anyone else - either way it wasn't going to affect us. But, interestingly, all is apparently not quite as it seems - the report that I saw suggested that the delivery brochures that get slid under the doors of hotel rooms may not be for a legitimate place at all but some dodgy backyard moneymaker on the prowl - the intent is that you will ring up, order your dinner, leave your credit card details, and then whilst you're waiting for it to be delivered some trickster is out there ordering porn and various pharmaceuticals over the internet with your credit card details. Either that, or they deliver a dodgy pizza that got cooked up in the microwave and pocket the difference.... which is kind of just free enterprise I guess but in the same way that dodgy t-shirts and souvenirs are free enterprise too.

Now, it's entirely possible that the scam is the one being carried out by the tourist channel, as the ad seemed to be sponsored by... you guessed it.. a local pizza delivery company.

I guess the scam could be for anything that you're likely to order when you're visiting somewhere (food, drycleaning, travel services etc) so the safest bet might be just to be a little careful - in this day and age of "500 flyers for $50" it doesn't take much to at least look legitimate.

For our last few days in Orlando we've said goodbye to the fabulous Walt Disney Dolphin Hotel which was perfect for the duration of the conference and checked into our more meagre surroundings closer to the other attractions in town. In the process we boxed up some of the things we've collected over the week of the conference - we won a couple of books in Tom & Julian's java jumpstart - and some souvenirs to take home, walked it down to the shipping department and then, a swift credit card payment of 300 bucks later, it's on the way home to Australia. I know it sounds expensive, and we could probably have bought the stuff for less than it cost to send, but you can't replace experiences so it was either send it or carry it around for the next 3 weeks... after carrying it downstairs there was no way that I wanted to drag it around for the next 3 weeks. It's bad enough that we've managed to book a trip requiring clothes ranging from the 80s to the 40s (that's temperature, not era - around mid-20s to sub-10s for the Celcius brigade).

Anyway, we're now in the part of town were outlet malls and waterslides seem to be the order of the day. We've hired a car, and even though we're both a bit crook with the flu, Laurette has managed to navigate whilst I drove on the correct side of the road (for most of the way anyway - getting out of car parks seems to be my weak area!)

I don't know if I've highlighted this before, but this is my first Lotusphere - I've been working with Lotus for a number of years, but this is really the first chance I've had to get to Lotusphere. I guess this is also the first year that the desire to get to the event has been strong enough to commit to the travel/expenses involved in getting there from the other side of the world.

I'm sure you can see the specific details of the closing session on other blogs - most seem to have covered the event itself and what was said, so I'll cover the impressions of *how* things were said from my position.

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so.. Laurette and I have added openslice to the register of applications on OpenNTF

We were going to do it beforehand, but I guess we just wanted to meet with Bruce Elgort et al and make sure that it was the sort of thing they were looking for - it's kind of weird to put something out there as we're not proposing that it's the great "be all and end all" but just something that we find useful. We've used it at a few company sites now and one of the major benefits we've found is that when we find a new way of doing something, we just fix the underlying code and replace the template - it's kind of like having all your modularised, generic code in a template so you can update it quickly (as well as the keyword management etc)

It's only been something like 24 hours since we put it up and we've already seen an increase in activity so I hope some of you have had a look and find it useful.

We're in the USA for the next few weeks on holiday, so (as geeky as this sounds) if anyone wants a session on it to help explain what it is, then we're happy to oblige - as long as you're either in Washington, New York, San Fransisco or Las Vegas - other than that and you may have to wait until next year if we find the funds to come back to Lotusphere 2007 - or you can visit Sydney if you like!

(another Jerry Seinfeld reference for the week for those who don't get it...)

Just a quick observation on the demo databases that we've been shown in a number of sessions this week. Is there a reason why 90% have been the most basic Notes database that you can get? I assume there's an element of ensuring the audience that you're not "pulling a swifty" and that the code you're running is actually what you say it is.

It seems that most of the "sample databases", or those used in a demo to show code have been pretty ugly (especially when you throw them up on a 30 foot screen). The only exception that I can think of is the one shown by the guys from SNAPPS in BP303 The Great Code Giveaway - just my opinion, but it added an element of polish that was lacking from a few others.

Fair enough that you may not think it necessary, but as much as it's a developer conference, this is an official, IBM sanctioned, professional conference - some of the presentations should reflect that in their samples and presentaions they way they have with their slides.

The opening few minutes of this session didn't start well for me - it outlined that the content had been changed from the description in the guide and was going to be less detailed than expected. As the rating in the guide was "Advanced" I expected that a reduced session would still be "Intermediate" in the least, but unfortunately, the majority of the session was quite basic.

Again, another example of the session not quite matching the expectations given in the guide - instead of details such as coding examples, using Agent Profiler, Domino Domain Management and DB2 considerations, we ended up with a far more basic outline of the steps and procedures used to investigate and address application performance issues. (something which I hope most of the room would have know already - especially if they were expecting an "Advanced" session on optimisation).

This isn't a problem with Luc and Fred as I think they were informed quite late in the piece that the changes needed to be made, but it would have been good to have had the changes communicated to the rest of us so alternative sessions could have been attended.

Scott Wenzel (aka the "Turtle") presented this session on utilising Ajax to move away from the pitfalls of current web-based designs and into a more richer client experience for web applications. There were a number of examples showing how the current process is server-refresh heavy, and how a new implementation creates a more responsive, interactive experience for the user.

To be honest, I didn't take too many notes in this session, but certainly walked out thinking that it was time well spent - I guess that's a good indication that the content was spot on the money - maybe I was hypnotised by the "That was easy" button.

ok.. as much as this wasn't what I expected, it was pretty good. I was a bit disappointed that the "Facelift" part of the description was actually a code library that you can use to impact your databases rather than a session on how to employ the changes yourself.

Lance Spellman and Dwight Wilbanks took us through the examples and how the DFL tool quickly and easily employs the changes to your code via DXL allowing you to leverage Ajax almost instantly within your applications. This technology is pretty cool and the implementation looks sound, it was just not what I was expecting based on the title or the description.

From the session description I was expecting/hoping to spend some time looking at how to implement Ajax and DXL and get into some details - instead it was a demo session on how to use "DFL" to perform some of the changes possible. The guys were knowledgeable in their presentation, however a little casual with respect to the details, and perhaps a little underprepared resulting in a slightly buggy presentation but with good content.

so....

umm....


this is supposed to be a freaky hybrid cookie right?

either that or someone dropped mine on the floor and thought they could get away with it... I've seen a couple of others the same so I guess it's supposed to be that way... is this some local delicacy?

A couple of quotes to open with:
"The best way to predict the future is to create it"
"Welcome to the smaller world"

(a little note - this is my first Lotusphere so I may have been blinded by the shiny lights and marketing... also, I've tried to get the quotes right but they may not be completely correct - I believe I have the correct context though)

The opening session was pretty cool - despite having the crowd packed in so we pretty much knew each other as well as our relatives - the message was certainly one of optimism and opportunity in the world of IBM software. There were live demos, as Mike Rhodin suggested - "code talks" (especially when showcasing technology to developers/administrators) - and all (bar one small mishap) went well. Overall I was pretty impressed with the whole experience...

here's the theme questions for the session:
- "What's the big idea?"
- "How can I use it?"
- "When can I get my hands on it?"

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I'm not sure if my expectations were unrealistic, but this wasn't quite what I was expecting... Laurette has mentioned that she felt it covered too much on the lines of technical marketing rather than developer information and I tend to agree. I was looking for some real life examples as to what the differences/similarities are and why I would want/need to know them other than "it's the future - get used to it".

On a side note, it was quite an enjoyable session at times and Bob Balaban has a certain, distinct way with words, he's high on my list of Nominees for the Lotusphere "Analogy King" - here are a couple of samples that I can remember:

- "they paved paradise and put up a parking lot" - acknowledgement to Joni Mitchell
(wrt moving from Domino to WebSphere - as an expected reaction by Domino die-hards)

- "It's like peddling up Mt Everest on a children's bicycle"
(wrt using a web browser as a collaboration client)

- "overthrowing the tyranny of the inbox"
(not an analogy as such I suppse, but in the same category for me)

- "it's a floor wax, and a dessert topping"
(this was actually from Karen but it sealed the deal for me... I had to do research to realise it was from an SNL skit - something not overly televised in Australia)

Well... we're certainly off to a flyer - if this is any indication, Lotusphere 2006 is bound to be worth the effort.

Thomas Duff and Julian Robichaux presented a fun session which covered some java fundamentals, along with a side-by-side comparison between some standard java programming and LotusScript. They pointed out some pitfalls that may catch some Domino developers such as case sensitivity, similar-yet different syntax, code stylings and recycling memory usage within java.

The guys had a casual, yet knowledgeable and well rehearsed presentation with a bunch of props - and as we all know, big props are the sign of a successful presentation! - let's see... there was silly string, a watergun, a "laser pointer" (complete with light saber sound effects that were easily heard halfway back in the room) and on top of all that, around 60-odd books to be given away to randomly selected participants.

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we're here, we're checked in, we've registered...

we've taken the goody bags back to the room and dismantled them, and.. well... we're pleasantly surprised...

I quite like the bag - don't get me wrong, I won't be using it this week, but that's because I just wouldn't want to have the same thing as everyone else.. but I can see us using it on the rest of the trip.. although we won't be using both - we try to steer clear of "team guido" activity (tv reference for anyone who watches amazing race).


I was also impressed with the notebook - I don't know if it's a new thing, but the evaluation forms in the book are a great idea

I kind of expected a highlighter or something though, but apart from that... pretty impressed so far - let's hope the week goes well...

we've spent a little time out and about and also a little time in the room recovering from the flight...

one thing so far.. gotta love the television here... the shows might be rubbish, but at least the people on them are worth watching (even if they're amateurs). With a much smaller population to work with, anyone on Australian televsion is kind of average but the amateurs are rubbish... so it's a nice change of pace to see someone who's job isn't to be on television but they're still entertaining and don't appear to expect to have celebrity status just for appearing in a show where they rebuild a house or something!

oh... and 4 or 5 different sport channels isn't hurting the cause either! live basketball.. what a luxury!

I've been to the US before, so some things are quite familiar, and the US currency is one of those things. I quite like the feel of the currency here, and of course having it all green is why all the tv shows and cartoons I grew up on just had to print green paper and it would suddenly be the same thing to us. A couple of things though:

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Well... we made it. After something like 36 hours in transit, we finally arrived at our hotel at around 11pm last night. Our travel required us to take 3 flights to get there from Sydney, so we got quite used to taking everything out of our pockets, removing the laptop from it's case and getting screened for everything from explosives to drugs to illegally imported fruit and vegetables! After arriving in LA and going through customs - which is now a case of getting fingerprinted and having a mugshot taken as well as getting the passport stamped - I guess the only reason I didn't get asked to stand in a lineup is that they couldn't find any other poor saps that looked anything like me - although, after 13 hours on a flight who could tell anymore!

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With openslice we've included a function which will allow you to have a global variable without actually having a global variable. Let's assume that you've read about and agree with the readability issues relating to global variables and continue to the process (if you haven't read about it go to the top of my "don't" list for Lotus Notes/Domino development, if you have read about it but don't agree - read on and see what you think anyway).

Instead of creating a global variable, openslice utilises a function called "ltStatic" which allows the programmer to effectively load a value as a static variable and retrieve it at a later time in the program. It seems that many people aren't quite sure how static variables work so we've created the function in an attempt to try and make it a little more usable.

The function works by storing the variable in a static List, where it will sit waiting for you to retrieve it with a similar call.

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Here's one that seems to slip through the nets here and there and people tend to forget about it - using the alias on the design element so you can name the same design element in a number of different ways.

an example - I might have a view which shows all the user profile documents in my app. If that same view is used to show the documents in the application outline, used in a lookup function, and used to display a picklist to the user so they can select a user document, I would give it four different names - well.. probably only 3 but for argument's sake, let's go with the following 4...

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ok... obviously for every "don't" list there's a "do" list

Again, it's just an opinion, but I feel that there are a number of things that Lotus let you do that are underutilised by a lot of people - I'm not sure why, perhaps it's because once you're on a strategy that works for you then most people don't change, but it's worth lifting yourself up from the swampy landscape that surrounds your cubicle to see how you can change your ways in case it makes things a little funkier than normal.

same thing applies as the don't list... feel free to agree/disagree, but it's just my opinion

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In the spirit of the new year, I've decided to put pen to paper (so to speak) and write down a few things which, in my opinion, are things that Lotus lets you do, but you really shouldn't. I expect to add to the list throughout the year, so here's a starting point in no particular order

now... before I get started, it's just an opinion and I acknowledge that there are hundreds/thousands of others out there who have their own preferences but these are just a few of the things that I try to steer clear of...

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so, this slightly adjusted quote from Jurassic Park is what I whispered to Laurette about halfway through our recent outing to the latest Peter Jackson effort - King Kong. Frankly, by this stage, I was starting to get quite bored with this self-indulgent expedition into Peter Jackson's childhood dream - especially as the title character was yet to make his appearance.

It's not a total loss though, the movie is quite good in parts, it would just be a lot better if you let the editor do his job without letting Jackson's ego and childhood dreams get in the way. Cut some of the action scenes by about 50%, and drop some others which were completely unrealistic - I can suspend belief as good as the next guy, but seriously, this pushed the limits for me.

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well... it's been a bit of a long haul over the last couple of months as project work and a few personal things have taken precedence over the finalisation of the openslice beta, but as of the 1st of the 1st 2006, we're out there.

What is openslice? well... there's a bit of doco on the site itself, but essentially, Laurette and myself have been doing Notes development for a while now, and when we started our own consulting company liquidtoast we decided it was time to combine some of our efforts and create a consistent application basis for all our future work. It's basically the first application slice we employ before building the actual application containing all the standard things we seem to be building over and over again - keywords, database links, counter documents, error messages and a form configuration document to help setup some fundamental things on forms (action buttons, validation, auditing and some general UI configuration).

Since then, we've built a number of application on an ever evolving application "slice", and we decided that instead of keeping it to ourself, others might find it useful - we hope you do.

Oh and one more thing... it's free... so download it and see what you think - if nothing else there's about 300+ functions that might be handy.

"Get ready for a minute with 61 seconds. Scientists are delaying the start of 2006 by the first "leap second" in seven years, a timing tweak meant to make up for changes in the Earth's rotation."
CNN.com - Wait a sec for leap into 2006 - Dec 25, 2005

I hope everyone waiting for one second before launching into the merriment last night.. have a happy new year and here's hoping 2006 is a good one for all...