Simon O'Doherty

 It probably got missed with Lotusphere going on, but there is now a new feature in EMEA support called Tech Chat . when you open a PMR you can sametime chat to the engineer assigned. It also allows you to log into the community and have an engineer ping you if they need you.

Wondering if anyone has used it yet, or plans to?

 I installed the new Parallels 5 and I am really liking it. The new feature is "Crystal" mode. This allows you to run windows applications like as if they are OSX apps. If you stop using the windows app for a period of time, it will also suspend the VM to let other apps run better. Coming out of suspension is very fast (not like a full VM suspend).

Here is an example of the notes client in OSX, Windows and Designer running. Apart from the menu being visible there is not much difference.


Installing the Parallels5 was a bit messy. Once I had installed all my VMs failed to start. I had to set the CPU back to 1, delete and recreate my CD drive. After that startup, install the tools then restart the VM with 2 CPUs.

I am pretty sure this was so obvious, that I am the last person to realise this. I fully switched over to the IBM productivity tools (internal Symphony in Notes).

One annoyance for me is finding the documents I am working on. Normally I would have a directory set up for related tasks. But occasionally I will forget to place one in the right place. The "recent files" option in the file menu was great. But that doesn't exist in Notes.

So what I have found now is to right click on the tab and selecting "Create bookmark...". I can then search and find it very quickly using the Open button search option.

This one goes out to all the Tweeters out there who tend to restart their machine to start up notes after a crash.  These steps should work as far back as Notes 6.

!! IMPORTANT !!  
Some IT departments get annoyed if users do things without checking with them first. So if in doubt you should check with your IT guys that is OK to do. Especially if anything below doesn't make any sense to you.

Option 1.

1. Open a command prompt (Start menu -> Run -> cmd.exe).
   
2. Go to the folder where notes is installed. for example type in: cd "\program files\ibm\lotus\notes"  (that is default install location)
   
3. type in: nsd -kill

What this will do is clean up all the related notes processes and do an NSD memory dump of Notes into the IBM_TECHNICAL_SUPPORT folder. You don't need what is in that folder unless you plan to open a PMR or have your IT guys analyse why your client keeps crashing.

Option 2.
This one forces the quitting of the tasks. It does not generate an NSD and does not clean up when it stops them. To avoid corruption you should try option 1 first. This is also written for Notes 8.x, so may or may not work on earlier versions of the client.

1. Create a text file called: killnotes.cmd
2. Open the text file and paste in the following lines
   @echo off
   taskkill /F /FI "IMAGENAME eq nsd.exe"
   taskkill /F /FI "IMAGENAME eq notes2.exe"
   taskkill /F /FI "IMAGENAME eq nlnotes.exe"
   taskkill /F /FI "IMAGENAME eq notes.exe"
   taskkill /F /FI "IMAGENAME eq ntaskldr.EXE"
   taskkill /F /FI "IMAGENAME eq soffice.exe"
   taskkill /F /FI "IMAGENAME eq nnotesmm.exe"
3. Save the file.
   

To use the file just double click it to run it.

I have a number of plugins I wrote for 7.5.1 which after a couple of weeks with 8.5.1 installed I find I can't live without. So I am currently in the process of upgrading them to 8.5.1. 

The installation of XPD 6.2.1 and setup went totally without a hitch, thanks to the XPD Wiki.

Just starting on the first plugin (which is very simple) converts certain text into a URL. Already bumped into my first annoyance. No code change, yet when I get the text, it converts to the URL fine but then Sametime appears to strip it out.

I am converting the text string in the method "handleMessage(ImTextReceivedMessage message)" in DefaultMessageHandler/MessageHandlerCallback. When I debug it, the string converts perfectly. But once it is written to the chat window the Anchor link changes to <A>. At a loss to see why. :-/ 

Will check and get back on it, but if anyone has seen this before let me know.

 So I am stuck at home at the moment with some kind of virus. The wife has locked out the games on my machine (Her argument is if I am well enough to play games then I well enough to get out of the house). So bored to tears watching TV. :-/

Ed Brill twittered (tweeted?) yesterday looking for a faith based ICS file for a customer. The BBC Website has a nice list of everything. But no ICS format.

However you can format the page using greasemonkey to generate the ICS. So I created a script to do just that. I should stress there are bugs with the script but works for the most part. Good 30 minute distraction at least for myself. Your free to change the script however you want.

I have uploaded the greasemonkey script and ICS file as a zip file on Bleedyellow. Hope it helps.

BBCFaithCalendarstoICSformat.zip

In before the next wave of announcements appear. :)

It is funny how the annoyance becomes the habit after a while. I've had to stop myself a few times with this. When I am writing up my table I am so used to doing the following when resizing it.

1. Press CTRL-K
2. Select "Table" from drop down menu
3. Modify cell/table settings.

Now through habit I am almost into Point 3 when I realise I can just now resize the table with my mouse.  There are probably other feature improvements that I am going to have to try switch off autopilot to start using them.

In response to: Notes 8.5.1 On The Launch Pad

For those who haven't played with 8.5.1 yet and want to see the XPages features, I recommend the demo on the LDD Wiki.

Add to that. If you don't have Lotus Notes designer, you will be able to get it for free.

I got my son Adam (4 1/2) a watch recently to help teach him the time. It was a Swatch Flik-Flak. In the package you also get a cardboard watch picture with moving hands you can attach. He really loves it.  However travesty occurred when the cardboard got ripped. He got pretty emotional about it. We went looking on the Swatch website together to try and find the watch poster again to print out. No luck at all. So I fired off an email to their customer support in the hope they would have a PDF.

I got a response back the same day with the PDF and a request for my address so they could send the card version again. So I was pretty happy with the customer support and my son got to help create his new watch picture again.

I had actually forgotten about the cardboard one being sent until a few days later we got kind of a bulky package (for what the card size was). I opened it up and inside they had two cardboard watches, a couple of stickers and a small pencil set (small notepad, ruler, pencil, eraser) and a product book. When I mentioned to Adam it was for him it was like it was his birthday had arrived! I think he got more excited over that simple present then the actual watch. He also ended up sleeping, clutching the little pencil set and with stickers all over him. :)

But this is a good example of a WOW moment*. Going out of the way to make the customer feel special no matter how small the action. That surprise did more goodwill and marketing then any other Swatch marketing attempt at my family.
* What prompted me to write this wasn't to have Swatch customer service flooded with requests. I saw on Twitter that Gitomer is giving away some free books. I actually have the two books he is holding. So if I win then the people I dealt with in Swatch can have the books. :)

 Saw a comment on Twitter from a random notes user (nishantmodak). The question was "Can I embed a Google map location in an email from Lotus Notes?". The answer is Yes! :)

Some important points first.
1. There is some security implications in doing this, so if your admins have locked down your ECL then you might not be able to do this. However if your a designer and want to do this in your application then these steps should work fine.

2. Your embedding a web browser control. So sending the mail to non-notes users may not work.

3. When I first tested this I was getting a javascript error. This was related to the google API. Although I am working on Dev builds of 8.5.1 and since last Monday that error went away (not sure if it is Google API issue or Notes).

4. I did have a couple of issues regarding editing the applet and I've logged them as SPR SODY7W6JXJ. So if you experience issues editing the applet and need to open a support call you can cite that SPR.

So on with doing this...
1. First we need to pick a location that you want to display. For my example we will be using my location. :) On the google maps page there is a "Link" option. Copy the text from the "Paste HTML to embed in websites".

2. Paste that text into anything that will allow you to edit it (eg. Notepad, notes document). The only part we are interested in is the <iframe ...> You can ignore the rest. So we get the following snippet.

<iframe width="425" height="350" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" src="http://maps.google.co.uk/?ie=UTF8&amp;ll=53.421669,-6.419148&amp;spn=0.004661,0.008519&amp;t=h&amp;z=17&amp;output=embed">

3. Do a search and replace on the snippet. Look for "&amp;" and replace with "&" (remove quotes). You should end up with:

<iframe width="425" height="350" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" src="http://maps.google.co.uk/?ie=UTF8&ll=53.421669,-6.419148&spn=0.004661,0.008519&t=h&z=17&output=embed">

The URL we want is the value of SRC. In this case. Copy and keep that safe.

http://maps.google.co.uk/?ie=UTF8&ll=53.421669,-6.419148&spn=0.004661,0.008519&t=h&z=17&output=embed

You can also make a note of the width (425) and height (350). Although not that important.

4. First create your memo/document and make sure you have selected the rich text field. For the memo this is the main body of the mail.

5. Select the Create->Object... menu option.

6. A dialog box will appear. Select "Control" option then scroll down through the list and select "Microsoft Web Browser" and click OK.

7. An applet menu should be visible now. Press CTRL-K (opens the infobox). Select the applet infobox options by clicking on the top drop down list in the title. On the applet "i" tab select the option "Run object when reading document".

8. Select the applet menu and "edit events and properties". Here you can set the height and width if you want.

9. On the left side will be a list of methods. Select the Initialize method and then paste in the following code between the "sub" and "end sub" lines.

Dim w As New notesuiworkspace
Dim uidoc As notesuidocument
Dim doc As notesdocument
Dim browserobject As Variant
Set uidoc=w.currentdocument
Set browserobject=uidoc.GetObject("Microsoft Web Browser")
Dim URL As String
URL = "http://maps.google.co.uk/?ie=UTF8&ll=53.421669,-6.419148&spn=0.004661,0.008519&t=h&z=17&output=embed"
   
browserobject.Navigate(URL)

10. As you can see the URL is set to the URL we got earlier. Once you click back on the document (off the applet) it should automatically display the google maps location for you. An ECL message may appear asking permission to display it. Normally at this point I hit CTRL-S, in case I accidentally delete it and have to start again.

The end! :)

Note: While this code went into the initialize section of the applet, there is no reason why it can't go into a button you create.

Thought I'd make a QRCode for my twitter logo. Links back to here. Very easy to do. You can get your QRCODE generated at Kaywa . After that the image itself has around 30% redundancy in it. This means you can modify it to some extent. Places to avoid are the 4 marker squares (3 big ones and 1 small in bottom right). Also avoid the data area at the top.

After that you can edit it away to put you logo into it. I used Gimp. I would create a new layer, add my logo then scan the QR code to make sure it is still readable. Initially had a signature in the middle, then a smiley before settling on the BY text. For scanning I am using Beetagg on the iPhone.

I am slowly starting to grow on twitter. It does help in finding people who need help and pointing them in the right direction. Takes a little practise to determine who needs help and who just needs to vent. :)

But the spam is insidious. Not going to post the link although you can find them easy enough with the subject title. But very annoying to see what looks like a glorified Lotus Notes advert spammed by WOMM bots. I really hope we didn't pay for that. :-/

Well forced is a bit harsh. I have been using 8.5.1 for a few months now, but just got a note that everyone is to start using it to help on reporting any issues. So far quite a few switched over and looking good! No complaints yet, more in awe of the speed of the client now.

Sitting in front of a screen reading can get tiring, and I never really liked printing stuff out to have to bind it and read. The iTouch screen is too small and my laptops too big. :)

So I got a Sony ereader. The PRS-505. For a lot cheaper then that website. It has been giving me heartache for the last few days but eventually figured out some stuff.

The good.
The screen is very easy to read and uses almost no battery power when active. PDFs render reasonably ok. It is comfy in the hand. Using a combination of PDF Creator allows me to print out websites and read later.

For the Mac I had to download and install Calibre to easily transfer books over. Also allows you to render news sites onto the device to read. Without this you could manually copy over the files but PDFs would not display even with no protection on them.

Safari books online I need to download as PDF. That costs tokens and rendering can be an issue on some pages.

The Bad.
Setting up for the Mac! :( For starters they just recently released the eLibrary reader which I could not coax in any way to work. Would continually crash. Support auto-responded with Tech note for windows. :-/ After I pointed out it was for Mac they told me to ring support (which I haven't gotten around to yet). I got the device to accept the DRM ebooks by plugging it into a PC which is authorised and got the device authorised that way. After that Calibre would transfer the books on the mac.

The Ugly.
Actually getting ebooks! Amazon don't sell any as they are pimping the Kindle, which you can only buy in the USA. Sony Ebook store requires the elibrary software installed before anything would work. ebooks.com I can't order on as my Bank doesn't like Worldpay. Overdrive which looks good I could not figure out how you actually join a library/book store after you find a book. For Ireland I could only find waterstones ebooks store would allow me to purchase books. The site is a pain to navigate and has a very limited selection compared to the other sites.

Conclusion.
I think if I hadn't of found Calibre the device would of went back to the store the next day. The lack of ebooks is a pain, I think if I didn't use it for redbooks/pdf creator then it wouldn't be worth the money to purchase. The screen is easy to read, but it is like reading a book so need to invest in a reading light. :)

What separates a call center from a support center is that the former is more focused on just resolving the technical issue. With the support center you need to be more focused on "fixing the customer". Although I hate that term as it kind of implies the customer is broken when this isn't true at all.

The best way to explain it is from start to finish of a support call you are offering a service to your customer. You could solve the customers issue to exactly how they want it but they can still walk away dissatisfied. Giving peace of mind, keeping customer updated and understanding the customers history are all factors. This service can have a huge impact on future business (especially in a recession).

With that I do read up on this stuff along with the technical aspects of my role. I'm a big fan of Gitomer but a book I am currently reading* is "What'S The Secret?: To Providing a World-Class Customer Experience" by John R. DiJulius. What Gitomer calls "Wow factor" DiJulius calls "The secret service".

When reading it, I know a lot of people will take it to be obvious. But it tends to be obvious after the fact. :) Trying to remember to offer the WOW takes continual practice. Not to have this one sided. I would like to know if anyone else can recommend similar material if this is something your interested in.

* Another thing I've found recently is the joy of Safari Books online. :) Works out cheaper then what I normally pay for books in a year. Plus it was a WOW moment from their service people that pushed me over the edge to get the account.