Avnet to host UK XPages worshop 16th & 17th April

My friend and colleague, Tim Clark, has mentioned that Avnet are running an XPages workshop on April 16/17 for IBM Business Partners.

Remember that XPages is pertinent in the Notes/Domino web application world and, as announced at Lotusphere, will also be relevant to Quickr in the future.

Having seen one of my team, Chris M, demo XPages at the TechJam in Warwick yesterday, I can definitely recommend taking a look....

If interested, please check Tim's blog here.

Webinar: EditLive! - the New Rich Text Editor in IBM Lotus WCM

Those nice people at Ephox are running a session on EditLive! tomorrow - Wednesday 25 February at 1500 UK.

For further information, and registration details, please visit here.

Lotus TechJam III - Less Than 48 Hours Away

Well, it's been a busy busy time for the team, as we prepare to host a series of Lotus TechJam events at various locations within the UK.

If you're interested in attending: -

IBM Warwick - 24th February
IBM Edinburgh - 26th February
IBM Hursley - 3rd March

please check out the invitation and agenda, and then let me know.

Otherwise, please keep your eye on this page, and elsewhere, to find details of the Q2 events as they are planned.

In addition, you may also be interested in the upcoming Lotusphere Comes To You (LCTY) events: -

Manchester - 28th April
London - 30th April

and can find out more here.

Regardless of where, the team look forward to seeing you ...

Apple broke my internet ...

Lotus TechJam - Agenda etc.

Folks

Here are the agendas in PDF format etc.

24th February @IBM Warwick

26th February @ IBM Edinburgh

3rd March @ IBM Hursley Park

Solved - Compacting Lotus Notes databases on Ubuntu Linux

In order to further diagnose a problem, I needed to upgrade my Lotus Notes mail file to the most recent ODS ( On-Disk Structure ), which is now 51 with the latest Notes/Domino 8.5 products.

Given that I'm using an Ubuntu Linux desktop ( alongside my Macbook Pro ), I needed to be able to run the necessary compact command from a command line ( shell ).

Before I started, I shut down Notes to avoid any conflicts.

Given that I wanted to update to ODS 51, I added the line: -

Create_R85_Databases=1

to my notes.ini file ( /home/hayd/lotus/notes/data/notes.ini ).

Then. following this post, I opened a command prompt ( using the xterm command to open a bash shell ), and changed to the Lotus Notes program directory ( /opt/ibm/lotus/notes ).

From there, I ran the command ./compact -C /home/hayd/lotus/notes/data/mail09/DAVEHAY.NSF. Sadly, this failed with the message: -

11/02/2009 14:26:10 Database compactor error: Wrong Password. (Passwords are case sensitive - be sure to use correct upper and lower case.)

This indicated that I needed to have previously entered the Notes password before I tried to access the mail file, which seems like a pretty good idea.

Therefore, I restarted Notes and entered my password - this automatically opened a tab to my mail file, which I ignored - Doh !

I repeated the command again, which again failed with the message: -

11/02/2009 14:37:48 Informational, database design compression is enabled in database /lotus/notes/data/mail09/DAVEHAY.NSF.
11/02/2009 14:37:48 Informational, LZ1 is enabled in database /lotus/notes/data/mail09/DAVEHAY.NSF.
11/02/2009 14:37:48 Compacting /lotus/notes/data/mail09/DAVEHAY.NSF (Dave Hay)
11/02/2009 14:37:48 Error compacting /lotus/notes/data/mail09/DAVEHAY.NSF: Database is currently in use by you or another user
11/02/2009 14:37:48 Database compactor process shutdown

The third time around, I closed down all the tabs in the Notes client, and tried again; this time, it succeeded with: -

11/02/2009 14:41:16 Informational, database design compression is enabled in database /lotus/notes/data/mail09/.NSF.
11/02/2009 14:41:16 Informational, LZ1 is enabled in database /lotus/notes/data/mail09/.NSF.
11/02/2009 14:41:16 Compacting /lotus/notes/data/mail09/.NSF (Dave Hay)
11/02/2009 14:41:26 Compacted /lotus/notes/data/mail09/.NSF, 0K bytes recovered (0%)
11/02/2009 14:41:28 Database compactor process shutdown

It's worth noting that the -C switch on the compact command means "Copy-style compaction"

If it helps, the ODS version of a database can be seen on the DB properties ( File -> Application -> Properties ) as per the screenshot.

From one *nix to another

Well, today I took the plunge after months of deliberation, internal justification ( needs vs. wants ), Apple site teasing ( don't ask ) and scrimping.

I visited the most-excellent Apple Store and picked up a lovely new Macbook Pro 15". The spec. is identical to that recently acquired by my frolleague, Scoot, and I'm already completely hooked.

This is my first ever Mac, and ( like most others ) I can't ever see me going back to a PC.

The MBP will become a home/play machine ( OK, I *might* do some work-stuff on it ) alongside my "real" work machine, currently a Thinkpad T60p running Ubuntu 8.10.

I will continue to explore, experiment and blog on my experiences and travails with Ubuntu, as I'm still convinced that there is a really positive future for desktop Linux ( as well as desktop Unix ).

For me, as a geek, it's just nice to have choices - with Linux, it's a real feast of choices ( kinda like an all-you-can-eat buffet in The Mall Of America ) whereas OSX is more just ready-to-go.

I haven't yet installed iLife 09 etc. but have played with the installed applications - so far, I can't find anything that (a) doesn't work or (b) that I don't like.

I will install Notes 8.5 tomorrow, along with iLife 09, and will continue to play/post.

Printing to my Samba printer ( actually an HP PSC 500 that's 10+ years old ) worked without problems, and I used Skype for a tele/videoconference with a friend in New Zealand, again with no issues whatsoever.

All in all, 10/10 for Apple, and for their staff,  both in the store and on the phone