Genii Weblog


Civility in critiquing the ideas of others is no vice. Rudeness in defending your own ideas is no virtue.


Thu 29 Nov 2007, 08:53 AM
You can read it yourself here if you think I made this up.  Of course, the idea that "It's a Small, Small World" is classical music is a bit disturbing.  And I can't figure out whether the fact that it was posted four days before April 1 means it was an April Fools joke that jumped the gun or whether they rushed it in to be sure it wasn't seen as one.

Microsoft technote about classical music

Copyright © 2007 Genii Software Ltd.

Mon 26 Nov 2007, 10:34 PM
For example:



and prior to that 



Man, what a shame nobody is working on those ideas!

(Actually, John obviously knows what it is called, as he showed an early demo of OpenSesame in Kansas City a couple of months back.)

Copyright © 2007 Genii Software Ltd.

Mon 26 Nov 2007, 07:59 AM
Beta testers have entered over 450 ideas, cast 8,000+ votes and made 1,400+ comments during the two month beta testing period.  The development team used the ideas entered by beta testers to improve Idea Jam’s features and functionality. We used the system  to build the system.
- Bruce Elgort, President of Elguji Software.
And especially exciting to me, IdeaJam uses our CoexEdit software, so if you have ever wondered how CoexEdit would hold up on a public site, here is your chance to see.  

Read the full press release for more information on who, what, where, when and how.

Copyright © 2007 Genii Software Ltd.

Fri 23 Nov 2007, 01:41 PM
I am really impressed with the work Bruce Elgort and team are doing on IdeaJam, and its underlying Elguji Ideas software.  The lastest addition is a real beaut (OK, I suggested it, but it turns out somebody else did before I did, so perhaps I'm not tooting my own horn after all)...



Yup, now if you like an idea, you can blog about it, and it looks all slick and IdeaJam-like.  Nice job, Elguji!

Update:  As Kerr correctly points out, this was the earlier Idea that I mentioned parenthetically above.  Click (read on) to see Kerr's idea...


Copyright © 2007 Genii Software Ltd.

Fri 23 Nov 2007, 09:36 AM

Blog long enough, and sooner or later your old posts will seem fresh and new again.  What a shame the same is not true of turkey.
- Ben Langhinrichs

This is a modified version of a post I made December 1, 2003.  Sadly, it is as relevant now with Notes/Domino 8 as it was when I was discussing Notes/Domino 6.

A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson

Ahh, but when is a foolish inconsistency the hobgoblin of disgruntled minds?  That is the question.  

At issue is the long standing, but to my mind foolish, tradition of using different icons for doclinks, viewlinks, dblink and anchor links in the Notes client than on the Domino server.  They have also changed between Notes versions, although the web icons, sadly, have stayed the same for several versions.  It appears that IBM had enough energy to spiff up the Notes doclink for Notes 8, but didn't bother to spiff up the other link symbols.

Anyway, here are the different sets of symbols:


Notes 8 symbols 
Doclink:
Inline GIF image
View link:

DB link:

Anchor link:



Notes 6 symbols 
Doclink:

View link:

DB link:

Anchor link:



ND6-ND8 web icons 
Doclink:

View link:

DB link:

Anchor link:



R5  web icons 
Doclink:

View link:

DB link:

Anchor link:


So, why are these different?  Do the symbols for the web look so much better?  Certainly not the doclink, and what the heck is that ND6-8 db link?  I like the other ND6-8 choices, but if they were chosen, why not change the Notes symbols?  You can't say that it was important not to change, as that would certainly apply to the web as well.  I highly doubt that it would change the code much to replace these, yet the Notes symbols have stayed the same.

I guess we won't know the answer, but for the moment, I am going to have Midas, CoexEdit and OpenSesame  use the Notes standards.  It will make the customer happy, and it will make me feel a bit (foolishly?) consistent.

Coexistence Tip
As for the tip, simply copy the four GIF files in the first table into the /domino/icons directory under your data directory and magically your web documents that use links will look a bit more like your Notes documents.  Seems like a small thing, but real coexistence is partly a matter of lots of little things adding up.

Note: Thanks to Mark Ramos of Granite Software (the spamJam and ZMerge people) who created these GIF files for me.

Copyright © 2007 Genii Software Ltd.

Fri 16 Nov 2007, 08:46 AM
FAQ has been released for the Open XML Ballot Resolution Meeting, and it makes for interesting reading.  Three points which seem notable, and about which I have seen contradictory speculation elsewhere recently are:
2.5  Is it possible the meeting will extend beyond the 5 allotted days?
No.
It is reiterated in multiple ways, five days is it, with no recourse.  I don't have any idea how they are supposed to get through all those comments in that big a spec in that time, but that is the task at hand, with no extensions possible.
6.2  In what ways may an NB change its vote?
NBs that voted in the 2 September ballot may change their vote from any of “approve”, “disapprove” or “abstain” to any of “approve”, “disapprove” or “abstain”.
So anybody can change their vote from "Yes" to "No".  Their have been rumors that the only change possible was from "No" to "Yes", but that isn't true.  Anybody can change any direction, including to "Abstain".
4.5  What if there is not time in the meeting to satisfy NBs’ concerns?
If NBs find the outcome of the BRM inadequate then their recourse is to disapprove the DIS.
In some ways, this is the most telling of all.  No matter what anybody says or promises or implies, the appropriate response to not having enough time to address all comments to your satisfaction is to vote "No".  They do emphasize that you can do anything you like and have any justification you want for changing your vote in any way, but the bottom line purpose of the BRM is to either resolve all the issues to your satisfaction, or vote "No".

Copyright © 2007 Genii Software Ltd.

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