Rise and shine: the daily routines of history’s most creative minds
Wed, Oct 9th 2013 11:15p Ethann Castell Benjamin Franklin spent his mornings naked.
Practise strategic substance abuse, especially with coffee!
Read more on Creativity Unleashed
The post Rise and shine: the daily routines of history’s most creative minds appeared first on Ethann Castell. [read] Keywords:
89
Verizon Expands San Fran Innovation Center
Tue, Oct 8th 2013 5:17p Ethann Castell See on Scoop.it – Innovation Unlimited – Ethann Castell
The carrier cuts the ribbon for its newly expanded Verizon Innovation Center, showcasing its networking technology and collaborative efforts with its partner ecosystem.
See on www.pcmag.com
The post Verizon Expands San Fran Innovation Center appeared first on Ethann Castell. [read] Keywords: networking
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The CMO Guide to Repeatable Business Innovation
Tue, Oct 8th 2013 5:17p Ethann Castell See on Scoop.it – Innovation Unlimited – Ethann Castell
Most business leaders know that innovation is important in the same way that an umpire understands why a player can’t run straight to second base. It’s an accepted parameter that if ignored, would fundamentally change the game.
See on blogs.salesforce.com
The post The CMO Guide to Repeatable Business Innovation appeared first on Ethann Castell. [read] Keywords:
102
Innovation Cubed: The Robot That Builds Itself
Tue, Oct 8th 2013 6:10a Ethann Castell MIT research scientist John Romanishin was told his project design for a modular robot could never be done. Twice….
See on Innovation Unlimited
The post Innovation Cubed: The Robot That Builds Itself appeared first on Ethann Castell. [read] Keywords:
119
Free one-way ticket to Mars
Fri, Aug 16th 2013 3:14p Ethann Castell Fly to Mars, for free!
Whether it’s wishful thinking on a large-scale, or a serious effort to colonise the red planet, the Mars One project is certainly a case of dreaming big and then trying to turn that dream into a reality. The catch is that there’s no return flight!
Show me the money
There are many innovative and novel aspects to this project. One obvious question is where will the $6.7 billion funding come from? Some will come from crowdsourcing. Crowdsourcing has been around [read] Keywords: development
enterprise
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Key communication lessons from the best start-up pitches
Fri, Aug 16th 2013 6:14a Ethann Castell Pitching is no longer just important for start-ups
While pitching In today’s time-poor and information-overloaded world, getting attention, and getting your point across in a succinct manner, are valuable skills for every business person.
Critique of the best start-up pitches
Business Insider Australia has a great critique on some of the best start-up pitches from a variety of different sources. Most of the featured pitches have been quite successful, such as zocodc which has been valued [read] Keywords: email
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Free online Enterprise Architecture course
Sun, Aug 4th 2013 6:21a Ethann Castell Enterprise Architecture is still something of a mystical term for many people. Yes, we all know it’s important but perhaps without full understanding exactly what it is. Generally one of the best ways to learn about Enterprise Architecture has been to take training in a methodology such as TOGAF. But there haven’t been many other options for those without the time or money to undertake this type training, or for those who only want to dip their toe in the water and sample Enterprise [read] Keywords: enterprise
google
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Do we still need system administrators in the cloud?
Sat, Aug 3rd 2013 8:20p Ethann Castell The short answer is maybe. The longer answer is a bit more complicated. Learn more in my latest blog post for Thoughts On Cloud
The post Do we still need system administrators in the cloud? appeared first on Ethann Castell. [read] Keywords:
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How to stay on top of the cloud
Mon, Jul 22nd 2013 6:15a Ethann Castell Information overload
I sometimes struggle to keep up with the latest on cloud computing. The technology industry tends to move and change quite quickly and it is important to keep abreast of news and trends. But there is just so much information available today that I could easily spend my whole week just reading the latest news, leaving no time to work or earn an income. And that’s not an option.
You could just bury your head in the sand
One solution is to not try to keep up at all. To [read] Keywords: ibm
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The cloud landscape in Australia
Thu, Jul 11th 2013 6:18a Ethann Castell Recently I gave a presentation to the IBM ThoughtsOnCloud team about the state of cloud computing in Australia. Here are the slides for anyone who is interested.
The post The cloud landscape in Australia appeared first on Ethann Castell. [read] Keywords: ibm
application
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Three ways to avoid cloud bill shock
Tue, Jul 2nd 2013 8:20a Ethann Castell You might be familiar with mobile phone bill shock. This is when you travel overseas, turn on your mobile phone data service for a few minutes, and then return to find a bill for hundreds, or even thousands of dollars.
But bill shock is not just limited to mobile phones. Cloud computing is rife with opportunities to run up large and unexpected bills.
Learn more about ways to avoid cloud bill shock.
The post Three ways to avoid cloud bill shock appeared first on Ethann Castell. [read] Keywords: mobile
46
Kill cloud zombies before it’s too late
Fri, May 31st 2013 8:16p Ethann Castell Cloud zombies are real and wreaking havoc on unsuspecting victims.
Cloud Zombies are terrifying
Not for the faint-hearted. Read the terrifying truth, if you dare!
The post Kill cloud zombies before it’s too late appeared first on Ethann Castell. [read] Keywords: ibm
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Migrating mail from Gmail to Office365
Tue, Apr 30th 2013 7:19a Ethann Castell If you’re moving just one individual mail account from Gmail to Outlook online (part of Microsoft Office365) then using connected accounts should work but personally I could not get Outlook online to connect to my Gmail account.
It has been suggested that this was because I didn’t have two-factor authentication turned on at Gmail and therefore wasn’t using an application-specific password for the connection from Outlook. Not sure if this is correct or not.
After a number [read] Keywords: application
microsoft
office
outlook
password
Sharepoint and Notes/Domino
Sat, Mar 2nd 2013 8:11p Ethann Castell A few days ago I posted three reasons why SharePoint is better than Notes/Domino. Unfortunately there was a technical glitch on my blog which prevented comments from being posted. However there was some good discussion on this over at Erik Brook’s blog.
My original idea had been to follow up with a post the next day detailing three advantages that Notes/Domino had over SharePoint, with the punchline being that the three features in each blog post would be the same. However workload and [read] Keywords: domino
ibm
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xpages application
applications
bleedyellow
bleedyellow.com
development
microsoft
office
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44
CAPTHCA issue with my blog – should be resolved now
Wed, Feb 27th 2013 7:11p Ethann Castell I’ve been informed that there is a CAPTCHA issue with posting comments. This obviously slipped through the net when I resurrected this blog. It should be resolved now.
It appears that the problem was caused by an incompatibility between the WordPress SI Captcha plug-in and JetPack 2.04.
The post CAPTHCA issue with my blog – should be resolved now appeared first on Ethann Castell. [read] Keywords:
47
Yahoo! forbids staff from working from home. Countertrend or just plain stupid?
Tue, Feb 26th 2013 9:12p Ethann Castell I was quite amazed to read that Yahoo! forbids staff from working from home. At first glance this appears to be a kick in the teeth to the teleworking movement. Then again you realise that we are talking about Yahoo which was once the darling of the Internet is now just a shelf of its former self, at least outside of the USA. So maybe what seems like a drastic measure is an attempt to restore the company to former glories or at least to a level that triggers executive bonuses.
It’s int [read] Keywords: ibm
email
mobile
Salesforce.com continues to innovate as it launches Service Cloud Mobile
Tue, Feb 26th 2013 5:14a Ethann Castell Salesforce.com continues to impress as it raises the bar again.
Salesforce.com is launching Service Cloud Mobile, a package of four new features, including mobile co-browsing, in-line community support for game apps and a mobile chat capability.
Read the full story at TechCrunch.com
The post Salesforce.com continues to innovate as it launches Service Cloud Mobile appeared first on Ethann Castell. [read] Keywords: community
mobile
46
How to stop this 75 year old woman from destroying your business!
Thu, Feb 21st 2013 4:11p Ethann Castell Granny might be out to destroy your business and you had better act fast if you want to stop her and her kind.
Could this woman really destroy your business?
If you think that this sweet old lady can’t bring your business to its knees then you’re in for a rude awakening. Learn how to protect your business.
The post How to stop this 75 year old woman from destroying your business! appeared first on Ethann Castell. [read] Keywords:
46
Would MOOCs have allowed Einstein to teach the whole world?
Tue, Feb 19th 2013 10:11p Ethann Castell Sometimes it’s useful to take an idea to its extremes and see where you arrive at. With MOOC’s you arrive at a truly wonderful place, filled with exciting possibilities for humankind.
What are MOOC’s
MOOC’s are free courses, taught online to a large number of students at the same time. This is the bleeding edge of education. Think tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of students all taking the same course at the same time. MOOC’s have been predicted for quit [read] Keywords: wiki
47
Has the Facebook countertrend started? Fresh Stats On Social Networks.
Sun, Feb 17th 2013 5:11p Ethann Castell Has to popularity of Facebook created a countertrend to move away from it? Maybe so, based on recent research on Social Media usage from New York University.
Many Facebook refusers actually revel in their difference from the mainstream, seeing it as a mark of distinction, superior taste, and identification with an elite social stratum
This again is a great example of the popularity of one thing (Facebook in this case) creating a countertrend of people who don’t want to follow the crowd. [read] Keywords: facebook
google
network
networking
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43
Regressive marital advice – a great example of trend creating countertrend
Wed, Feb 13th 2013 5:37p Ethann Castell Rather than telling her to kick the loser to the curb, or suggest that she give her husband an ultimatum, they told her she needed to put out more. And do more housekeeping, cook tastier meals, maybe lose a couple of kilos, and shower her husband with praise.
There’s an interesting phenomena in life where trends tend to create countertrends. The article titled Regressive marital advice is a great example of this. It describes how the feminist movement has created a countertrend, or a n [read] Keywords: apple
45
How to innovate faster than ever before.
Tue, Feb 12th 2013 3:15p Ethann Castell Innovation is a hot topic and most organisations realise that they need to innovate just to remain competitive. But most people still don’t know how cloud computing can dramatically increase their speed of their innovation and their ability to innovate.
For the full scoop, check out my latest post about innovation and cloud computing at the ThoughtsOnCloud blog.
The post How to innovate faster than ever before. appeared first on Ethann Castell. [read] Keywords:
41
Love is in the App.
Mon, Feb 11th 2013 4:24p Ethann Castell Still searching for that perfect Valentines day gift for your beloved? One enterprising young man has developed an App in order to win his ex-girlfriend back.
I’ve been wondering how long before we’ll start seeing extremely personalised apps, targeted to very small number of users. It appears that this may a big step in that direction. And I guess it’s true what they say, there’s an app for that!
The post Love is in the App. appeared first on Ethann Castell. [read] Keywords:
46
10 Great Ideas Someone Should Invent
Sun, Feb 10th 2013 2:57a Ethann Castell Some innovative and unusual ideas from TechCrunch.
I especially like the idea of turning Klout into real $ – the conversion of online activities into real currency is a curious concept and bound to feature more in the near future.
The post 10 Great Ideas Someone Should Invent appeared first on Ethann Castell. [read] Keywords:
43
Why the cloud means you have to stop making excuses for lousy software
Thu, Jan 24th 2013 5:11p Ethann Castell Why the cloud means you have to stop making excuses for lousy software.A very important topic covered in immense depth by one of the worlds leading cloud experts.Did i mention that this was my first blog post for IBM’s ThoughtsOnCloud blog :)The post Why the cloud means you have to stop making excuses for lousy software appeared first on Ethann Castell. [read] Keywords: ibm
45
72,000 Dreamforce attendees shows that Salesforce has got real mojo.
Wed, Sep 19th 2012 6:10p Ethann Castell Forbes reported that Dreamforce (Salesforce.com‘s annual love-in) has 72,000 attendees. eWeek says there are 90,000.My mind boggles at these numbers. This is the equivalent of a packed-out Sydney Olympic stadium. The largest IT event I’ve attended was IBM’s Lotussphere in Orlando, which had around 10,000 attendees, and I thought that was a big event.If anyone doubts that Salesforce is a serious player in the Cloud and SAAS spaces then these numbers should convince you othe [read] Keywords: ibm
35
Domino/SugarCRM Synchronizer – any interest from customers or BP’s?
Mon, Sep 10th 2012 10:11p Ethann Castell A few years ago I partnered with Infobridge to develop a Domino Synchronizer for SuperOffice CRM to replace a solution based on Nokia’s Intellisync.The Domino Synchronizer for SuperOffice CRM is a pretty cool product, if I do say so myself. It works in both real-time and batch modes (or synchronous and asynchronous modes if you prefer), doesn’t require any modification to Lotus Notes mail templates, nor the installation of any third-party software (such as MQ series). Plus it [read] Keywords: domino
dwa
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47
The Chicken and the Pig – which one are you?
Fri, Sep 7th 2012 11:09p Ethann Castell Recently I was having a meeting and a number of the participants really had little to do with the project or its outcomes. I was reminded of the classic Chicken and Pig joke. If you’re familiar with Ken Schwaber‘s Scrum training then you’ve probably heard or, or seen this, before. If not then I hope that you get a laugh from it.From ImplmentingScrum.com.Of course like many good jokes, there’s a useful message contained within. The joke is making a distinction be [read] Keywords: wiki
26
Free Book: The Past, Present, and Future of JavaScript
Mon, Aug 20th 2012 2:30p Ethann Castell Anyone doing web development these days knows the importance of JavaScript. Those that know me, also know that JavaScript is one of my least-liked languages, and my opinion is well summed-up by my favourite Javascript quote:
Develop by Netscape over a weekend. And it shows!
Nevertheless Javascript marches on and is now also becoming used more and more for server-based development. Node.js and IBM’s XPages are two such examples. Therefore this free book available from Amazon.com is a must [read] Keywords: ibm
xpages application
development
javascript
server
Xpages: Beware the print statement!
Thu, Dec 1st 2011 7:08p Ethann Castell Xpages certainly does some weird stuff. Like if you put a print statement in the wrong place then things can go seriously haywire.
Beware of putting seemingly harmless print statements before running an agent on the server. Doing so may do your head in.
The following Javascript code looks harmless enough.
print("Before agent");
var agent=database.getAgent("MyAgent");
var docId = document1.getNoteID();
agent.run( document1.getNoteID() );
print("After agent");
But it produces some nas [read] Keywords: agent
domino
ibm
lotus
notes
xpages database
javascript
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29
Lotus Beer Night – Wednesday June 1st (+ AusLUG 2011)
Mon, May 9th 2011 7:08a Ethann Castell The next Lotus Beer Night in Sydney is taking place on Wednesday June 1st. You can see full details, and optionally RSVP, here: http://lotusbeernight.com/events/5/lotus-beer-night-sydney-june-2011. The inaugural LotusBeerNight was a great success but I have a feeling that this next one will be even better.
Remember that you don’t have to RSVP, most people just turn up on the night. But it looks good if at least some people RSVP because otherwise it just looks like me alone in the pub! [read] Keywords: domino
lotus
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24
Renai LeMay: I’ve shown you the money now shut the hell up!
Fri, Mar 11th 2011 8:16p Ethann Castell You may have read the article Lotus fans: Show me the money or shut the hell up.
I can’t be 100% sure that this is the ravings of a complete lunatic, because it could be that he just forgot to take his medicine that day, but like many of you I do consider this to be one of the poorest articles I have read in a long time – amazing what passes for journalism these days!
Long story short, I posted a response to his article on the IT Wire website. However I thought that I would repea [read] Keywords: domino
lotus
notes
email
exchange
exchange
sharepoint
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LotusSphere Psychic Spam from Intravision
Mon, Feb 28th 2011 3:20p Ethann Castell I received an email from an unknown company called Intravision this morning. It began with the following text. (Mishmash of fonts have been removed)
Dear participant in our competition,
Thank you for your interest in OnTime Group Calendar at LotusPhere 2011.
I would like to give you a brief presentation of our OnTimesuite.
…
There are two weird things about this. Firstly I don’t recall entering any competition. Secondly I didn’t attend LotusSphere 2011. Such a double-fail rig [read] Keywords: domino
lotus
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34
Who are the Lotus thought leaders?
Sun, Feb 20th 2011 7:16p Ethann Castell I’m always looking for ways to save time and as much as I enjoy reading PlanetLotus, I find that sometimes I just want to get a quick snapshot of what’s happening in the Lotus world – a view of what the movers and shakers are saying and doing without all the other noise.
I’m in the process of putting together a short list of the “thought leaders” and trying to limit my list to 5 people. There are a great many bloggers who make valuable contributions to the Lot [read] Keywords: admin
domino
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community
development
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Sydney Lotus Beer Night – Survey results
Thu, Feb 10th 2011 6:13p Ethann Castell You can please some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you can not please all of the people all of the time.
The results are in from the Lotus Beer Night survey…
and the verdict is… Wednesday night in the Sydney CBD starting at 6pm.
They’re weren’t very many locations suggested but the Barvarian Beer Cafe in O’Connell St was mentioned by three people so we’ll try that venue for the first meeting.
I’ll have a new w [read] Keywords: domino
lotus
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Lotus Beer Nights in Sydney
Wed, Jan 26th 2011 6:15a Ethann Castell Lotus Beer Nights have been running in the UK for some time and it’s Australia’s turn. I’m going to start a quarterly Sydney meetup for people who work with Lotus technology. No agenda, no sales pitch, just a social get-together where we’ll obviously talk some shop.
Filling out this quick survey will help me to organise the events.
Also, please forward this to any other Australian Lotus-ites you know. [read] Keywords: domino
lotus
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Domino 8.5.2 Server: error during service control startup
Sun, Nov 7th 2010 4:20p Ethann Castell I got the error error during service control startup on when trying to start a Domino 8.5.2 server as a service on a Windows 2003 server via Remote Desktop.
I was using a remote session to a clients test server and decided as a last resort to restart the server. When I attempted to restart the server, Windows informed me that others users were also logged in to the server. Since it was a test server I said Yes to go ahead and kill any other user sessions.
The server restart worked and afterw [read] Keywords: admin
administration
domino
lotus
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archive
desktop
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Looping through a Lotus Notes view with the Lotus C++ API
Wed, Nov 3rd 2010 7:49p Ethann Castell Although this might seem like a pretty simple thing to do, you can end up going down quite a few dead end streets before you get this working properly.
The Lotus C++ API documentation show lots of examples of getting the first entry in a Lotus Notes view but does not have any example of looping through all the entries in a view. A bit slack on the documenters part but hey the C++ API really is the poor cousin of the C API, so maybe we shouldn’t expect too much.
Here’s the code you ne [read] Keywords: domino
lotus
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Missing from the Yellowverse – A simple guide to Lotus Notes and Domino
Tue, Nov 2nd 2010 11:20p Ethann Castell In the last few weeks we’ve seen some really good initiatives which promote the benefits of Lotus Notes and Domino but there’s still a missing piece to the jigsaw.
Two sites have been launched recently which show that there is life in the Yellowverse.
The first is ilovelotusnotes where anyone can post about their positive experiences with Lotus Notes and Domino. If you love Lotus Notes and Domino, or even if you just like it, then head on over and make a comment.
The second site wh [read] Keywords: domino
lotus
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The old @IsAvailable fieldname trick
Mon, Nov 1st 2010 10:21p Ethann Castell With homage to Maxwell Smart, I’ve fallen for this trick again. It hasn’t made the all-time list of Max’s favourite Trick lines, and although it surely can’t be far off making the list, it’s unlikely to unseat one of my favourites, the old Professor-Peter-Peckinpah-all-purpose-anti-personnel-Peckinpah- pocket-pistol-under-the-toupee trick.
The @IsAvailable trick works like this.
Create a view selection formula that tests for the existence of a field on a document [read] Keywords: domino
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LTAP Conference under-whelming
Thu, Oct 28th 2010 12:02a Ethann Castell Early this morning (Australian time) I attended the LTAP online conference. Overall my impression was one of being under-whelmed.
The conference software was a bit clunky and other attendees reported not being able to use IE 8. My key disappointment was that at 12:30am (Sydney time) I logged in to hear Ed Brill’s keynote address. I was disappointed to find that it only consisted of a 4 minute pre-recorded presentation. That was it. Maybe this is what an online conference is all ab [read] Keywords: domino
lotus
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Server.Load crashes under 8.51
Sun, Oct 10th 2010 8:05a Ethann Castell Server.load is the load-testing tool which comes with Domino. I’ve previously written articles (#1 #2 )for The View on how to use this tool for stress-testing Lotus Notes and Domino applications, but it’s been a while since I’ve used it on a client project.
Today I tried to use the 8.51 version and unfortunately it would’t load at all (under Windows 7). It crashes immediately on start-up with the NSD dialog box. I was running Notes 8.51 so I upgraded to Fixpack 5. [read] Keywords: domino
lotus
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nsd
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Documenting Notes and Domino apps with ScreenHunter Free
Sun, Sep 26th 2010 9:13p Ethann Castell Documenting Notes and Domino applications is not always the most fun job but ScreenHunter Free from Widsom Soft can make the job a lot easier.
ScreenHunter is a screen capture tool and as the name implies, there is a free version which is more than adequate for most purposes. I’ve been using it for years to document applications and capture screens when writing articles, and I’m very happy with it. It’s not quite as full-featured as a paid version of SnagIt but it’s muc [read] Keywords: domino
lotus
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applications
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Type mismatch on LotusScript doc.Send
Fri, Sep 3rd 2010 4:28a Ethann Castell I go this annoying error today when doing an update to the Caliton web site.
All bugs are annoying but this one was especially annoying because I hadn’t changed any of the code, or at least couldn’t remember changing any of the code. The line of code that produced the error contained some pretty basic LotusScript:
doc.Send(false)
I did the usual and checked the IBM Developerworks forums. I found many solutions for this error but none that solved my problem. After some investiga [read] Keywords: domino
ibm
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lotusscript
notes
network
server
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