Danze – Great customer service
Mon, Feb 11th 2013 8:10a Alex Kassabov One of the things I always like to write about is great customer service, those unexpected moments of absolute excellence that surprise you and tend to make you a customer for life. This time, the award for amazing customer service goes to Danze, a popular faucet maker.
Several years ago we remodeled the kitchen and bought a new Danze faucet, D455158. (A quick disclaimer: I did not pay the MSRP. You can get one for a lot less elsewhere.) It was new then and now, 5 years later, one little [read] Keywords:
92
What do you call a blog that’s updated once a year?
Thu, Feb 7th 2013 7:08a Alex Kassabov Answer…… AlexKassabov.com
A few days ago I was talking blogging with a coworker and a friend. We both lamented the difficulties of blogging, how hard it is to write good content, and how hard it is to make time to keep one’s blog regularly updated. And we both have let our blogs to stagnate lately. So then and there I vowed to resurrect my blog, to dust off my old friend, to start blogging again.
A few days went by. Then a whole weekend. And I still didn’t fin [read] Keywords: blogging
email
xml
91
The MoSCoW principle
Thu, May 3rd 2012 9:12a Alex Kassabov I’ve always wanted to write a spy novel: a handsome spy hero, a gorgeous girl, a foreign location in the heart of an evil empire, enemies outwitted and defeated. But most of all — an attention grabbing, instantly captivating title. Unfortunately, this is not one of those posts. Maybe, when I cross into the myth-filled middle age, suffering a mid-life crisis, I’ll throw all caution to the wind, retreat to a secluded location and pen my critically acclaimed literary debut. [read] Keywords: facebook
twitter
xml
85
Working on features with no value – frustrating
Fri, Apr 27th 2012 9:12a Alex Kassabov Few things on a project are as frustrating as being forced to work on a feature that adds no value to the immediate goal of releasing a product. When project managers who are new to product development confuse product ship date with the project deadline, you end up being forced to deliver features that will not be used for weeks or even months to come. Perhaps, not ever. That’s when you sit staring, with a twitch in your eye, at the most basic story. Those “I’d rather be ” [read] Keywords: development
facebook
office
twitter
86
Mr. Potato Head of Agile or How to fill a box
Wed, Apr 25th 2012 9:12a Alex Kassabov In the Downtown Disney Marketplace there’s a store called Once Upon a Toy. One of the areas inside of the store sells various loose Mr. Potato Head parts: Disney themed parts, Star War themed parts, Halloween parts — almost anything you can imagine. Some parts, like the eyeballs, are small. Other parts, like the arms, are larger. And yet others, like the hats and the shoes, are large. They sell parts by a box: pick up an empty cardboard box, fill it with whatever parts strike your fa [read] Keywords: facebook
twitter
94
eBooks are our faceless friends
Fri, Apr 20th 2012 9:12a Alex Kassabov I love my Kindle. I’ve read probably a hundred books on it and will definitely read many hundreds more. I love everything about it: the convenience factor, the screen, the storage space, the form factor — everything.
I’ve read about a hundred books, but, if it wasn’t for Shelfari, I probably wouldn’t remember reading half of them. Not what the book is about, but the very fact that I’ve read this book. If I were browsing library shelves and happened to pick up [read] Keywords: notes
facebook
twitter
97
Agile does not mean fast
Mon, Apr 16th 2012 9:11a Alex Kassabov When people think of Agile, what drives customers’ interest in Agile is thinking that Agile will enable them to get projects don’t faster and cheaper than the classic project management. But that is not always the case.
Agile is not synonymous with fast. The dictionary defines “agile” as “able to move quickly and easily”. An Agile team is one that can quickly and easily react to changes in project’s requirements and new ideas as the project takes shap [read] Keywords: facebook
twitter
42
I’m baaaack! On the road again
Mon, Mar 12th 2012 9:13a Alex Kassabov I’m baaack! On the road again.
I know it’s the wrong song, but it my head I sound like Aerosmith singing “Back in the Saddle”.
60 degrees in early March in Chicago, weekend — I’m riding! Get that bike out of the basement; dust off my helmet and the riding glasses; and let’s see whether all this riding on rollers is going to pay off.
First of all, no amount of indoor training can truly prepare you for the road. No matter how fit and strong you think you [read] Keywords: facebook
twitter
52
The cost of Agile
Wed, Mar 7th 2012 8:12a Alex Kassabov A lot of customers want to run their projects Agile. Agile is hot, sexy and all the cool kids are doing it.
But when your customer asks you to run their project Agile, do they really know what they are getting into?
Everybody likes the advantages of Agile: the daily stand-ups, the working product at the end of every iteration, the team working on features that add value. But there is a cost and a time commitment that is not always expected or understood.
An Agile project runs on user stories. &# [read] Keywords: admin
development
facebook
twitter
41
Agile or waterfall
Thu, Mar 1st 2012 8:13a Alex Kassabov Coke or Pepsi? Miller or Bud? Mac or PC? Agile or Waterfall?
When a consulting company embarks on a project, what is a better methodology to use: Agile or the traditional Waterfall? What projects lend themselves better to one or the other?
Waterfall methodology seems to work better when a project presents a known problem with a known solution. Upgrading a server, creating a time-off system, or building a submarine — all are projects that are better executed by the waterfall approach. You k [read] Keywords: policies
consulting
facebook
mac
server
twitter
39
What are rollers. Exercise takes over
Tue, Feb 28th 2012 7:10a Alex Kassabov Is it too late to talk about Christmas presents?
My Christmas present, the one I got myself, has kept me so busy, I’ve hardly had time for anything else in the evenings. No, I’m not talking about the new Call of Duty game (even the Black Ops have more or less fallen by the way side) or the American Idol DVD box set (as if I would watch it). What I got for myself was a set of Travel Trac Inertial Rollers.
If you’ve never seen or heard of rollers, they are like a treadmill for yo [read] Keywords: facebook
twitter
39
New year – new goals
Sun, Jan 1st 2012 12:08p Alex Kassabov And on the first day of the year, it’s Shelfari that sets my first goal of the year for me.
And in the mean time, WordPress reminds me that I’ve been away from my own blog too long. Long enough to have forgotten how to use it.
So here’s to two immediate goals for this year: read more and blog again.
Happy New Year, everyone!!! [read] Keywords: facebook
twitter
47
Lion Mac OS – Apple’s Vista
Thu, Aug 4th 2011 9:10a Alex Kassabov I did it. I couldn’t wait. t joined the ranks of Apple Fan Boys. I installed Lion OS X the day it came out. I had 30 bucks in iTunes gift cards sitting around. It was dumb. I learned from my mistake. Enough said.
If I were to write a product review of Lion, as a user, I would give it a thumbs-down. It feels like a very raw attempt at bridging the gap between the mobile and the desktop computing paradigms. Apple promised to bring all the best of iOS to my laptop and it didn’t work. I [read] Keywords: apple
desktop
facebook
iphone
laptop
mac
mobile
twitter
vista
55
MWLUG 2011 – PSC will be there
Mon, Jul 18th 2011 10:11a Alex Kassabov The Midwest Lotus User Group Conference 2011 is back again for the third year. This year it is in Milwaukee, Wisconsin at the Sheraton Milwaukee Brookfield Hotel. And once again PSC will be there. We’re one of the sponsors and our team – John Head and Luis Guirigay – is speaking. John has a couple of sessions on why developing modern apps in Notes/Domino makes sense. Luis, together with Kim Greene, will deliver their ever-popular session on Domino Health Checks.
Overall [read] Keywords: administration
domino
ibm
lotus
notes
xpages application
development
facebook
networking
twitter
35
Hero next door (Chicago – Frankfurt flight diverted to Cleveland)
Mon, Jul 11th 2011 9:14a Alex Kassabov You might have caught the story about a Chicago – Frankfurt flight being diverted to Cleveland because of an unruly passenger. A man was acting suspiciously prior to the take off and during the flight. He ended up having to be restrained by a flight attendant and the passengers. Well, imagine my surprise when I found out that the flight attendant in the story was my next door neighbor and my friend.
Saturday night, he, I and one other neighbor sat outside into the wee hours hearing [read] Keywords: facebook
twitter
43
Calibre – Best e-books software
Fri, Jul 1st 2011 8:20p Alex Kassabov If you read e-books, you need Calibre. Simple as that.
Well, let me rephrase that. If you’re a Kindle user like me and only ever get books that are available on Amazon, you probably don’t have much for Calibre. Same goes for the dedicated Nook users.
But if you get your books from a variety of sources, then Calibre is an awesome piece of software.
First of all, it gives you a nice visual tool to manage all of your e-books: the ones saved on your computer and the ones already on [read] Keywords: facebook
twitter
53
Productivity in 33.33 minutes
Mon, Jun 27th 2011 8:21a Alex Kassabov There’s so much to do every day: email to be checked, blogs to be read, IMs to be sent and answered, news to be read, tweets to be read, and tweets to be posted. But you also have some very specific tasks that need to be accomplished. Unless you’re a social media maven, you probably don’t get paid to tweet. You get paid to work, to meet deadlines, and to accomplish those specific tasks, tasks that include writing: code, documentation, copy, presentations, and proposals &# [read] Keywords: email
facebook
mac
twitter
70
SafeCopy Backup – Great Customer Support
Fri, Jun 24th 2011 9:17a Alex Kassabov When your boss repeatedly points out that you haven’t blogged in a while, perhaps you should listen and pick it up again. Besides, this is good… In a world of negative blog posts and customer-to-number conversions, when I come across exceptional customer service, I like to point it out.
Earlier this year, when Mozy decided to raise its prices, I switched to Safecopy backup. In addition to lower price, Safecopy runs much better on my laptop not draining the battery with constant [read] Keywords: facebook
laptop
twitter
R.I.P., my dear 4Runner
Mon, May 2nd 2011 9:10a Alex Kassabov I am saddened to say that my dear beloved 2000 Toyota 4Runner is no more. After exactly 11 years and a few days of faithful service, I had to put it down, trade it in, get rid of it. I’ve always said that I will drive it into the ground and I almost literally did.
I came home on Wednesday to find a trail of liquid leading down the street and into my driveway, culminating in a big puddle of pink, Pepto-Bismolish looking liquid under the truck. The coolant reservoir was completely empt [read] Keywords: facebook
twitter
Axure updates its Beta 6
Fri, Apr 22nd 2011 8:12a Alex Kassabov Axure released what may be its last update to its beta release of version 6. The update can be downloaded from the Axure website. The update contains some cross-platform fixes, making this one of my favorite pieces of software. The 100% fidelity between the Mac platform and Windows is amazing. I don’t think I’ve seen any other software that is able to reproduce its UI so flawlessly between different operating systems.
The update also extends the beta version from end of April [read] Keywords: facebook
mac
twitter
39
Thrashing
Thu, Apr 21st 2011 8:11a Alex Kassabov As I get older I realize that I hate thrashing, jumping between multiple tasks. Thrashing is not the same as multi-tasking. I can still walk and chew gum; listen to a meeting, take notes and balance my chair on 2 legs at the same time.
Thrashing is working on a document, jumping into your email because you just remembered that you forgot to send that email, getting stuck in your email because you just got an email from a client asking for your help, remembering that there was something you n [read] Keywords: lotusphere
notes
desktop
email
facebook
laptop
twitter
35
You get what you pay for
Wed, Apr 20th 2011 7:18a Alex Kassabov Store brand cough medicine vs. Robitussin. Store brand cereal vs. Cheerios. Emerson vs. Sony. You don’t have to pay a lot to get a lot. Pay less and get a product that’s just as good as its higher priced competitor. In a lot of cases that works. $3 for 8 bars of Irish Spring soap or $11 for a bar of L’Occitane? I’m going for Irish Spring.
But when it comes to cycling, the old adage of “you get what you pay for” holds a lot of truth.
When I got m [read] Keywords: facebook
twitter
43
The Lazy Project Manager – Ridiculously Simplified Synopsis
Tue, Apr 19th 2011 6:18a Alex Kassabov The Lazy Project Manager is arguably one of the better project management books I read in a while. It does not propose to teach your hard project management skills, the ones that being a PMP is all about: WBS, costs, schedules, etc. Instead, it focuses on some of the softer skills, the ones that we often forget about, thinking that a good Gantt chart is all a project needs. You probably have heard it all before at some point, but the book is a short, it reads well and serves as a great rem [read] Keywords: facebook
office
twitter
73
Ability to work disconnected – does it matter so much?
Fri, Apr 8th 2011 9:10a Alex Kassabov One of the strengths of Lotus Notes that always gets brought up in any technology discussion is the Notes’ off-line abilities. To date, nothing else truly matches the replication engine that’s been a core part of Notes for the past 20 years and the ability of Notes to provide full fidelity of applications in disconnected mode. Many Notes proponents, when discussing pros and cons of Notes vs. other technologies, will beat their chests, “But, replication! A couple clicks [read] Keywords: lotus
notes
application
applications
blackberry
facebook
iphone
laptop
mobile
twitter
wireless
46
Axure – Wireframes, prototypes and specs
Wed, Mar 30th 2011 11:10p Alex Kassabov I just can’t stop talking about this tool since I discovered it a month or so ago.
Axure allows you to design your user interface by dragging objects onto a page and manipulate them. At first it feels like Visio: drag boxes onto a page, type up some text — and your screen/form is created. But it is a lot more.
Using buttons, dynamic panels and object events you can create a pretty well functioning user interface of your project.
Once you have it all setup, click one button and Ax [read] Keywords: css
facebook
interface
mac
twitter
36
Mac Mail Plugin makes Mail useable
Wed, Mar 23rd 2011 2:14p Alex Kassabov Finally! There’s a Mail plugin that makes the Mail application useable. Well, to tell the truth, it’s been around for a while but I have just found it. It is new to me.
Enter WideMail, Widescreen Apple Mail Plugin. The 3 huge improvements, for me, that it delivers are:
Control over the message preview window and ability to have it on the right.
Alternating row colors or row separators. Row colors don’t quite work for me, but separators are great.
Last but not least i [read] Keywords: apple
application
facebook
mac
outlook
twitter
26
SafeCopy 10% off Discount Code
Tue, Mar 22nd 2011 7:10a Alex Kassabov In February of this year, when Mozy announced its price increase, SafeCopy was running a 10% off promotion. You just had to use the ‘switch’ discount code at checkout time.
The promotion was supposed to be over at the end of the February, but the discount code is still active. I was able to use it this past weekend when signing up for SafeCopy. So if you’re thinking of signing up with SafeCopy, use the ‘switch’ discount code. [read] Keywords: facebook
twitter
32
Bye-bye Mozy, hello SafeCopy
Sun, Mar 20th 2011 2:09p Alex Kassabov Earlier this year Mozy announced a price increase effectively doubling my monthly subscription cost. The new price was going to hit me on March 28th, so this was the weekend to stop procrastinating and select a different backup provider.
After some, not too terribly extensive, research I ended up going with SafeCopy. While not unlimited, the price was right — 50 bucks a year for 200GB of data. According to my Mozy statistics, I backup only about 60-some GB. The decisive factor for [read] Keywords: desktop
facebook
interface
laptop
mac
twitter
33
What are you reading?
Wed, Mar 9th 2011 8:10a Alex Kassabov LinkedIn now has a “Reading List by Amazon” application. If you add it to your profile, you can let people see what books you are reading, have read or are planning to read.
Look through the recent updates of your network or of the entire LinkedIn for that matter. Look through their reading lists. People read nothing but business, management, technical, self-help and an occasional biography books — in short, non-fiction”smart” books. Nobody, almost not a sin [read] Keywords: application
development
facebook
linkedin
network
profile
twitter
33
The Lazy Project Manager or Where Do I Fit In
Thu, Mar 3rd 2011 11:14p Alex Kassabov I picked up this book by accident, looking through the top free Kindle books. Of course, a project management book that has “lazy” in its title is bound to catch one’s attention.
If you’re looking for an advice on how to screw the pooch and be an effective project manager at the same time, this book is not going to teach you anything. What it will teach you though is how to stop being one of those project managers who are always busy and yet accomplish little. Inste [read] Keywords: facebook
twitter
How to do a demo
Tue, Mar 1st 2011 8:17a Alex Kassabov Recently I sat in a couple of project demos, where I just wanted to say, “Stop! Time out! Let’s start over.”
A demo of your project or product is a proud moment. This is when you get to show off the fruits of your labors, of all the hard work of the past few weeks or months.
And for the same reason this could be a very scary and nerve wracking moment: what if something goes WRONG? You know all the weaknesses of your product, you know where the skeletons are buried and you [read] Keywords: facebook
twitter
50
It’s not the software, it’s how you use it
Thu, Feb 24th 2011 11:17a Alex Kassabov What drives collaboration? It is not the latest collaboration software, offering eye-popping features and kick-ass integration. It is the desire of teams to collaborate. Like the proverbial horse, you can lead a team to collaboration, but you can’t make them collaborate.
On of my projects now I’m working with an amazing team of great software developers. The team is small, there are 6 of us. The velocity of the project is great with 2-week sprints delivering minimally viabl [read] Keywords: collaboration
connections
quickr
facebook
integration
sharepoint
twitter
36
Introducing newest Lotus blogger – Wil How
Tue, Feb 22nd 2011 8:13a Alex Kassabov I am excited to welcome another Loti blogger to the community. And having him as a member of the Lotus team at PSC makes it so much more special.
Wil How (yes, it is Wil with one L; I had to add him to my custom dictionaries) joined PSC about half way through 2010. And since then he’s been almost exclusively working on a large XPages project, converting existing Domino application(s). It’s been a great journey of learning for Wil and I’m glad that he finally decided to [read] Keywords: domino
lotus
notes
xpages application
blogger
community
development
facebook
twitter
37
Lotusphere 2011 recap
Sat, Feb 12th 2011 10:14a Alex Kassabov It was last week this time that I was saying goodbye to the sunny and warm Orlando and dreading facing the 6-foot piles of snow on my driveway back home in Chicago. A week later, I keep looking back at Lotusphere 2011 and wondering what it was that I walked away with.
Last night, someone asked me how the Lotusphere went and what was new. I summed it up in two words: “Get. Social”. ”Oh yeah,” I added, “and Xpages”.
I could’ve mentioned all the vari [read] Keywords: lotusphere
xpages facebook
twitter
Mozy unlimited subscription is gone
Tue, Feb 1st 2011 4:15p Alex Kassabov I need a bit of help possibly selecting a new backup provider.
“For the first time since 2006, we’re adjusting the price of our MozyHome service and wanted to give you a heads up. As part of this change, we’re replacing our MozyHome Unlimited backup plan and introducing the following tiered storage plans:
50 GB for $5.99 per month (includes backup for 1 computer)
125 GB for $9.99 per month (includes backup for up to 3 computers)
You may add additional computers (up to 5 in total) or [read] Keywords: facebook
twitter
My new job
Mon, Jan 31st 2011 3:14p Alex Kassabov I started to write this as I sat in a little courtyard at the Disney Swan hotel an hour before our session (JMP208) on how to integrate your Lotus Notes with other desktop applications. As I looked around and enjoy the weather, I feel a little sadness realizing that this might very well be my last Lotusphere.
Once upon the time, John Head called me “The general of PSC’s Lotus/Collaboration practice”. Well, I am that general no more.
At some point last year, I realized that [read] Keywords: collaboration
ibm
lotus
lotusphere
notes
applications
community
consulting
desktop
facebook
twitter
Evernote automatic backup feature
Sun, Jan 23rd 2011 6:16p Alex Kassabov This is one of those unexpected features that I didn’t know about until I needed it. Of course, it was mentioned on the Evernote’s blog back in April, but who reads documentation, right?
One day I was editing a document attached to one of my Evernote’s entries. I got confused in my open Word windows, modified the wrong version of the document, saved it back to Evernote and closed Word. So there was no going back and undoing it in Word.
In my desperate and panicked attempt [read] Keywords: notes
facebook
twitter
29
The scourge of email
Wed, Jan 12th 2011 8:14a Alex Kassabov Somewhere I read or heard about a guy who would check his email twice a day: at 8 AM and 4 PM. He had an auto responder set to reply to all emails that he will check email and respond in one of those time slots. I want to be that guy.
At some point along the way, during the evolution of electronic communication, email ceased to be a collaboration tool and became a distraction tool. Like a Pavlov’s dog, at that ding, buzz, popup, vibration, the ever famous “You’ve got mail [read] Keywords: collaboration
blackberry
email
facebook
instant messaging
laptop
mobile
profile
twitter
34
Kindle, Shelfari and reading books in new year
Sat, Jan 8th 2011 11:18p Alex Kassabov According to Shelfari, I read 42 books in 2010. That’s 3.5 books on average per month. Today, on January 8th of the new year, I already read 3 books and am working through 2 more. So I’m ahead of pace.
I credit my increased book consumption speed to my new Kindle and audiobooks.
I started the year with reading on a Kindle. For a long time I foolishly resisted getting a book reading device. I just didn’t want to give up that feeling of having an actual book in my hands [read] Keywords: facebook
integration
ipod
laptop
twitter
wifi
wireless
41
Looking for Lotus developer-consultant at PSC
Thu, Jan 6th 2011 8:17a Alex Kassabov It’s a new year and we need to start it off right. How? By hiring another Lotus consultant developer to our team.
We’re looking for the usual skill set:
strong development skills
strong web development skills
knowledge of web development outside of the standard Lotus package: JS, CSS, extJS
hopefully some XPages or at least the aptitude to learn it quickly.
In addition to the technical skills, we would love to hire someone who can manage him or her self, their clients, their pr [read] Keywords: lotus
notes
xpages css
development
facebook
twitter
128
How to send doclinks outside of Notes
Wed, Dec 29th 2010 10:17a Alex Kassabov A client of mine was in the process of migrating from Notes to Exchange (don’t ask, they really had no choice). The migration was supposed to be pretty quick, so we didn’t bother with coexistence: just use SMTP to forward emails between systems.
They have a couple of applications, mainly a CRM system, in Lotus Notes, which send out email notifications with doclinks to documents in question. When the email would show up in Outlook, instead of a doclink they saw plain text listing [read] Keywords: lotus
notes
applications
database
email
exchange
exchange
facebook
outlook
smtp
twitter
28
Advantages best practices of local mail replicas
Thu, Dec 23rd 2010 4:19p Alex Kassabov Many congratulations to Luis Guirigay for having his article on Advantages and Best Practices of Local Mail Replicas published in the Domino Wiki. After many review cycles the article was finally added to the wiki.
If there’s anything you wanted to know about local mail replicas but were afraid to ask, Luis is the ultimate authority on the subject. It’s great to see another article published by the PSC team. [read] Keywords: domino
ibm
ldd
lotus
notes
facebook
twitter
wiki
30
Moving on up to the Exchange side
Thu, Dec 23rd 2010 9:17a Alex Kassabov I took the plunge. I finally did it. I moved.
As some folks read and reacted with disbelief on Twitter, I switched my email platform from Notes to Exchange.
We, at PSC, have been running both systems in parallel for quite some while: Exchange for the Microsoft team, Notes for the IBM/Lotus team. And as a Mac user, I just wanted to use Mac Mail and iCal.
Sadly, Lotus continues to take the high road when it comes to allowing people to use clients other than Notes with its Domino servers. [read] Keywords: domino
ibm
lotus
notes
apple
blackberry
email
exchange
exchange
facebook
mac
microsoft
outlook
twitter
26
LastPass Acquires Xmarks
Wed, Dec 15th 2010 4:14p Alex Kassabov Back in September I blogged about Xmarks ending its service in January of 2011. It was rather disheartening, there’s nothing else out there that does such good job of synching bookmarks across browsers and devices. In vain I looked for alternative solutions, almost ready to give up.
Now, the welcome news is that LastPass, the password synchronization company, recently acquired Xmarks. It looks like Xmarks is going to be around beyond January of next year. Thank you, LastPass. I&# [read] Keywords: facebook
laptop
password
twitter
29
PSC is a salesforce.com partner
Wed, Dec 15th 2010 10:14a Alex Kassabov As we’re expanding our offerings, PSC is now officially a salesforce.com partner.
The folks on our team has done a number of projects involving the salesforce.com platform from building custom Lotus Notes connectors, to assisting with implementation and integrating it with VoIP telephony platforms. So it is time to become an official partner.
Looking forward to doing more projects on this exciting platform. [read] Keywords: lotus
notes
facebook
twitter
PSC speaks at Lotusphere 2011
Fri, Dec 3rd 2010 11:12a Alex Kassabov I’m excited to say that PSC will be well represented at Lotusphere next January.
John Head and I will once again present a Jumpstart session titled “The Never Ending Integration Story: How to Integrate Your Lotus Notes, Domino, and LotusLive applications with Microsoft Office, .NET, and Lotus Symphony”. We promise all updated content and new demos updated for new versions of all software pieces involved.
John has another session he will be doing, too. But I will let him tal [read] Keywords: domino
lotus
lotusphere
notes
symphony
applications
facebook
integration
microsoft
office
twitter
36
Can IBM Vulcanize Lotus’ tires?
Tue, Oct 19th 2010 11:31a Alex Kassabov In Russia, vulcanization (вулканизация) is a popular method of repairing damaged tires and, often, a profitable roadside business. So when listening to presentations on Project Vulcan, I can’t get an image of an Eastern European road tire shop out of my head.
Vulcanization may be a good idea for a new tire on a commuter car. How well it will work for a 20-year-old Lotus and a set of tires that are at least 10 years old remains to be see. Will IBM be a happy vulcanizer, [read] Keywords: collaboration
ibm
lotus
exchange
exchange
facebook
twitter
wiki
43
PSC speaking at Chicago Information Technology Architects Group
Mon, Oct 18th 2010 3:30a Alex Kassabov Tim Murphy and Mike Vogt, both of PSC, will be speaking this Tuesday, October 19th, at the Chicago Information Technology Architects meeting. The topic of their presentation is Design Patterns.
Design patterns are core to creating understandable, maintainable systems. Tim and Mike will discuss various design patterns and their application to business solutions. Examples will be given from both .NET and Java perspectives.
If you would like to attend, follow this link to register for the mee [read] Keywords: application
facebook
java
twitter
35
XPages? Why?
Tue, Oct 5th 2010 4:28p Alex Kassabov Somebody asked today, “If you are using a Discussion database in your environment, have you converted it to the new XPages template?”. My answer, “Why?”.
In all of the excitement around XPages, amongst numerous blog posts one message seems to be missing. Why XPages? Why should I care? The I in this question is not the geeky technologist I who gets excited by the new technology and the tags. The technology is very cool and it lets me do things I was never used to be able [read] Keywords: lotus
notes
notes client
xpages application
applications
community
database
development
facebook
mobile
security
twitter
web 2.0
41
IBM releases LotusLive Notes
Tue, Oct 5th 2010 9:28a Alex Kassabov The cost of email is $5 per user per month.
Today, IBM unveiled LotusLive Notes, a service that delivers your email in the cloud on a server sitting in one of the IBM’s data centers. What differentiates this from other cloud email offerings is the choice IBM allows users to make: use a browser or use a Lotus Notes client to access your email. Effectively, a company could move (outsource) its email infrastructure to the IBM cloud and not impact how people use their email.
I got to try L [read] Keywords: domino
dwa
ibm
inotes
lotus
notes
notes client
email
facebook
interface
mac
password
server
twitter
virus
34
New LotusLive first impressions — me like!
Mon, Oct 4th 2010 3:32p Alex Kassabov OK, sarcasm aside. I’ve spent the last hour playing with the new features on LotusLive. Without going into too much details, I like it.
The default interface, which you can customize, looks better. The color scheme doesn’t look like iNotes that you know and love. It just feels better overall, more polished, more professional.
I’ll reserve the final judgement call until after I get to play with other integrated apps. But the first impressions are really good. [read] Keywords: inotes
facebook
interface
twitter
Bye Bye Xmarks (part 2)
Wed, Sep 29th 2010 11:31a Alex Kassabov In response to my yesterday’s post about the upcoming demise of Xmarks, Jim Casale suggested that I could use my own WedDAV server to do the synching.
What a great idea, I thought. I never previously noticed the Advanced settings option to use your own server. So reading a little bit on what’s required, I set off to configure my Windows 7 desktop as an IIS server supporting WebDAV. After doing some reading on setting up IIS with WebDAV here and Xmarks with one’s own serv [read] Keywords: desktop
facebook
firefox
server
twitter
wiki
28
Bye bye Xmarks
Tue, Sep 28th 2010 4:31p Alex Kassabov Xmarks service ends January 10, 2011. If you’re one of the existing users, earlier today you should’ve received an email like this..
Details of their decision to cease operations is outlined on the Xmarks blog. The primary reason being luck of available funds.
I’ve been using Xmarks for a few years now. It’s a service that I will miss. I don’t think that their alternatives, synch tools built into Firefox or Chrome, will cut it for me. I liked being able to [read] Keywords: email
facebook
firefox
twitter
33
Twitter is NOT a social network – I agree
Tue, Sep 28th 2010 10:34a Alex Kassabov Earlier this month, at Nokia World 2010, Kevin Thau finally openly confirmed that Twitter is no longer a social network. While this seems to have come as a shock to a lot of people, I couldn’t agree with Kevin more.
When I first joined Twitter, it promised to allow me to communicate with my friends in quick short messages. It offered itself as a micro blogging site.
Today, it no longer mentions my friends. Instead, it promises to deliver short, timely messages from so-and-so. It is [read] Keywords: blogging
facebook
network
twitter
Making Money in a Down Market
Tue, Sep 21st 2010 8:28p Alex Kassabov How long, how many years will it take for us to stop sending and receiving ads like this? What needs to happen to the economy for it to stop being a “down market”? [read] Keywords: facebook
twitter
If your heart not in it, you not working hard enough
Wed, Sep 15th 2010 4:31p Alex Kassabov The other day I was talking with a coworker about riding and he said that he likes to push himself and go as fast as he can. To which I replied, but how do you know that that is all you can do?
Recently I started riding with a heart monitor and it was an eye opener. Your speed alone doesn’t tell you anything about how hard you’re working. If you’re going 20+ miles per hour but your heart rate is in 130s and you are not channeling Lance and you don’t have a contract with a [read] Keywords: facebook
twitter
PSC kicks off another XPages discovery project
Tue, Sep 14th 2010 11:32a Alex Kassabov As organizations are upgrading to Lotus Domino 8.5.x, the XPages technology is attracting interest and gaining acceptance in the corporate world. Last week, the PSC Collaboration team kicked off another XPages discovery project to assess the effort involved in converting an existing Lotus Notes application to XPages.
Our client’s project management application was built and web enabled over the course of many years using the traditional Lotus Notes approach: build the client UI, then web [read] Keywords: collaboration
domino
lotus
notes
xpages application
facebook
interface
twitter
web 2.0
34
Welcome to AlexKassabov.com
Fri, Sep 10th 2010 6:29p Alex Kassabov So I took the plunge and registered AlexKassabov.com.
Thank you, GoDaddy, for up-selling me left and right. I now own .NET and .ME of the same. They are not going anywhere yet.
And for all those who cannot spell or too lazy to type the 2 “S” in my last name, the AlexKasabov variations, too. Sorry, my Bulgarian namesake, you weren’t using it anyway. Wonder how much the Press Officer of PFC Levski, Alexander Kasabov, would offer for the domain. [read] Keywords: facebook
twitter
34
It is time for a domain of my own
Fri, Sep 10th 2010 11:27a Alex Kassabov I think it is about time I had a domain of my own. All these kassabov.wordpress.com, akassabov.posterous.com just aren’t cutting it anymore.
The question is what domain to select. Decisions, decisions, decisions:
kassabov.com — taken
alexkassabov.com .org .net?
akassabov.com .org .net?
something-completely-off-the-wall.com?
Any suggestions? [read] Keywords: facebook
twitter
28
Once you go bib you’ll never go back
Tue, Sep 7th 2010 10:27a Alex Kassabov If you’re like me, when you were in the clothing section of your local bike shop, you might have glanced at bib shorts hanging off a rack. To me, bib shorts always seemed like a gimmick designed to make you pay more for the same functionality delivered by an ordinary pair of bike shorts. After all, why would you want to go biking dressed up for a greco roman wrestling match?
But no more. One day, prompted by a good sale, I succumbed to picking up a pair and I never looked back. Bi [read] Keywords: facebook
twitter
40
Fiasco of my first Posterous post via email
Thu, Sep 2nd 2010 11:28p Alex Kassabov I thought I would be cool, all social media connected and witty at that. I thought that Posterous was going to enable me to be all that.
I took a picture of something with my phone. I composed a very clever caption for it and a couple of very witty sentence to go with it. I put all that into an email on my BlackBerry and sent it off to Posterous right then and there.
What I didn’t remember was that my BlackBerry adds my corporate signature to every email. Oops! I mean, OOPS!. [read] Keywords: blackberry
email
facebook
twitter
51
My fan is driving me crazy
Wed, Sep 1st 2010 1:28p Alex Kassabov This is slightly dissapointing… The right fan in my brand spanking new MacBook Pro is making noise. It’s very low but very noticeable. More so late at night when all is quiet and not even a mouse is stirring. So I’m off the Apple store tonight. Luckily there’s one right across the street of where I’ll be this afternoon. Hopefuly they can do something about it and quick.
And in the mean time, hurry up, Time Machine. Back this puppy up. [read] Keywords: apple
facebook
macbook
twitter
31
Watching Gangster No.1
Wed, Sep 1st 2010 3:27a Alex Kassabov There’s something about these gritty English and French gangster movies. Oh yeah, and testing this whole posterous thing at the same time.
I’ve been looking for something that would post easily to multiple places. This [Posterous] seems to be able to do the magic. Feel like I’ll be taking a lot more pictures… [read] Keywords: facebook
twitter
30
PSC Collaboration Team is Growing
Wed, Sep 1st 2010 3:27a Alex Kassabov I want to welcome Andrew Barickman to the PSC’s Collaboration team. Andrew has uncountable years of experience working and consulting in the IBM Lotus arena. In one of his previous lives he even worked for Lotus and, as I learned today, before R5, his was the 3rd name to appear in the “Elvis is Alive” Easter Egg. (Remember that one?)
Andrew is an outstanding professional: a consultant and a technologist. I’m excited to have Andrew join the PSC team. [read] Keywords: collaboration
ibm
lotus
R5
consulting
facebook
linkedin
twitter
Panic moment
Tue, Aug 10th 2010 11:28p Alex Kassabov Sitting in a kick-off meeting for a new project with a new client. First time I’m meeting these folks. I glance over and see that one of the client’s team members is on my blog. What followed was 30 seconds of intense soul and memory searching, trying to determine if I had posted anything in recent history that may be deemed not 100% kosher. This was followed by a much longer period of regretting not having posted anything that may be related to this current project. A litt [read] Keywords: twitter
