Genii Weblog


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


Mon 31 Jan 2005, 08:52 PM
It is hard to come back from Lotusphere brimming with new ideas, new techniques, new inspiration, and have to settle down to finish the stuff I left behind undone, or the stuff that has cropped up since I left.  Sigh!

Copyright © 2005 Genii Software Ltd.

Sun 30 Jan 2005, 11:46 PM
Crystal CoexYou may have already met our newest guest blogger, Crystal, in Size Matters, but I didn't dare leave Crystal feeling slighted, so here is a more formal introduction.  Crystal helps customers, especially big customers with our coexistence products, although she doesn't favor much coexistence with anybody (well, nobody she has met yet).  

I've asked Crystal to write on occasion, but since her posts are a bit... unpredictable, she probably won't post often.  Crystal doesn't like interruptions, so I would avoid sending her fan mail or love sick poetry, but if you do want to communicate, post a response to her case files, and that will give me a chance to duck.  (If you want to read about Crystal's most recent cases,  you can always click on her picture from the blog)


Crystal's Cases So Far
Size Matters - Jan. 25, 2005

If you find Crystal a bit too hot to handle, I'm sorry.  You might be better suited to the posts by Mike Midas, but don't tell Crystal.  She doesn't think that much of Mike (or of me for that matter).  Oh, and any resemblance in her first story to a Duffbert you may know and love is, of course, completely coincidental.

Copyright © 2005 Genii Software Ltd.

Sun 30 Jan 2005, 09:48 PM
This worked so well for Lotusphere 2005, I decided to do it again.  This message is addressed to those customers, and to those who make and sell applications and solutions, who will be attending Das EntwicklerCamp 2005 in Dortmund, Germany in February.  (If you are not attending, and you live or work anywhere near Dortmund, I suggest you seriously consider this excellent conference.  It promises to provide a lot of value for the cost.)

Dear Customers, Notes/Domino Product Vendors, ISVs and Application Designers,

I am not comfortable spamming people with e-mail messages about our products, but I wanted to invite those who come here of their own accord to consider ways in which our products could enhance your solutions.  To paraphrase BASF's famous marketing slogan:


We don't make many of the Notes/Domino applications you buy.
  We make many of the Notes/Domino applications you buy better.
That's right, it isn't just developers adding cool whiz bang dynamic tables who buy our products.  It is also customers and vendors like you, including those in over ten countries around the world, who design, build, enhance, resell and support:

  • content management systems which utilize our ability to generate high quality HTML/XHTML;
  • solutions for the legal industry which require our rich text comparison and red-lining;
  • knowledge management engines which use our products for data mining;
  • CRM applications with approvals which use our ability to make doclinks accessible to non-Notes mail users;
  • e-learning courses that need to be converted from Notes based databases to HTML based tutorials on demand;
  • mail merge subsystems for all sorts of applications that use our ability to create and send HTML and MIME e-mails;
  • migration tools to help customers moving away from Notes/Domino;
  • other migration tools to help customers moving into Notes/Domino and away from other e-mail systems; and
  • applications of every type and description who just want to be better than the competition.
Some of you may recognize yourselves in these bullet points, because some of you already take advantage of our products.  If you don't, maybe your competition does.  If they don't, maybe you could gain an edge over them.

If you want to find out how you might be able to take advantage of our products to make your solutions, applications and systems better, and if you just happen to be going to Das EntwicklerCamp 2005, why not set up a meeting and have us show you how we can help you gain that edge?  I am available part of the weekend before the conference, and have some availability during the conference to meet.  I already have a couple of meetings set up, so don't wait too long.  Besides our versatile Midas Rich Text family of products, we could talk about using our CoexLinks product for mixed IBM/Microsoft application support, or we could discuss our newest  Notes/web coexistence plug-in, CoexEdit?

If you would like to set up a meeting, give me a call or drop me a line.  No hard sell, as we just don't do that, and the "meetings" can be anything from high level strategic discussions to quick and dirty hands on demonstrations, depending on what you need.  I know there isn't a lot of time available, but I think this just may be time worth spending.  It is entirely up to you.

   Regards,

      Ben Langhinrichs
      Genii Software
      
      +1 216-991-5220

Copyright © 2005 Genii Software Ltd.

Sat 29 Jan 2005, 11:38 AM
In all, 2477 direct downloads, and many more were handed around (many people reported "getting it from a friend") or viewed through Proposion's SmartPhone or WAP phone interface, and more through Kisswork's iPod interface.  All in all, it seemed well received, and people liked the layers pseudo-view, which was an experiment this year.  Also, many people at Lotusphere made a point of telling me how useful the views were in planning which sessions to attend, and how much they liked having people listed, such as the bloggers.

There are some things I want to change for next year, but it helps that each year we can build on the success and design of the year before.  Thanks to all who contributed ideas, or who simply downloaded and enjoyed it.  It feels good to do something that is useful to the community that has done so much for me.

Copyright © 2005 Genii Software Ltd.

Wed 26 Jan 2005, 02:49 PM
I went to Gabriella Davis' session on "What are your servers trying to tell you?"  Gabriella is brilliant, but I would usually rather chew my arm off than go to an admin session, but Gabriella is a friend, so I went (and Andrew Pollack's gentle urgings were not so gentle).  I must admit I was surprised.  No, I did not become an administrator, and I still cannot believe you can pay anyone enough to do this stuff, but she was funny and engaging and really made the topic clear and easy to understand.  It was the best session I have attended this Lotusphere (and no, it is not my first), and that is quite a surprise>  Way to go, Gab!

Copyright © 2005 Genii Software Ltd.

Wed 26 Jan 2005, 08:52 AM
You know who you are.  One of your (many, many) goals at Lotusphere was to find me, and it is Wednesday and we haven't met yet.  Well, unless I've already scheduled a meeting with you, time is running out.  You can come to Pedestal #605 during the day, and, yes, it closes at 5pm, which people forget every year, and I might be there or relatively near by.  You can send me e-mail, but don't ask about a time, just tell me a time you will be somewhere, and I'll either respond back or be there.  I'd love to talk with you about Midas or CoexLinks or CoexEdit (see, there's even something new to talk about), but don't even ask me about Groove.

Copyright © 2005 Genii Software Ltd.