My Collabsphere Session on More Efficiently Working From Home with HCL Products

 

While my session had a small group of attendees given the great sessions I was up against, the beauty of an online conference is everyone can catch other sessions afterward.

It was great to be a part of MWLUG again now known as Collabpshere.

To Home, To Work, To Home, To Collabsphere! from Keith Brooks

Who Announces New Products in Tokyo? HCL That's Who

A little bit historical symbolism inside, a little bit new, and 100% of the future!

HCL sent an email out to Business Partners and HCL Masters (I am both) yesterday announcing that they are good on their word and releasing announce HCL’s first major releases for:
Domino V11
Notes V11
Sametime V11
Connections 6.5
plus some other items perhaps on December 4th at 9AM Eastern Time from Tokyo.

Details:

9–­9:15 a.m.: Live from Tokyo Keynote: A Major HCL Milestone.
Presenter: Richard Jefts, General Manger, HCL Digital Solutions

9:15–9:30 a.m.: Domino V11: Why Modernizing Beats Migrating. Presenter: Andrew Manby, Vice President of Product Management, HCL Domino

9:30–9:45 a.m.: Domino V11 Demo: One Vendor, One Solution, One Stack. The Only Stack You Need.

Presenter: Andrew Manby, Vice President of Product Management, HCL Domino  

9:45–10 a.m.: We Hear You: HCL Connections 6.5 = More Value from Your Investment.
Danielle Baptiste, Vice President of Product Management, HCL Connections

10–10:15 a.m.: Boost Engagement with HCL Connections 6.5: We'll Show You How. Danielle Baptiste, Vice President of Product Management, HCL Connections

10:15–10:30 a.m.: Get Started with Domino V11 and Connections 6.5 Today.Presenter: Presenter: François Nasser, Global Sales Leader, HCL Digital Solutions

Many of you just got V10, or have yet to take that leap, but HCL has got you covered and wants you to move to V11.

So what do you think? Are you spry enough to update this time? If not, let me know, I am happy to handle it for you.

If you want to watch or listen to the announcement, it will be on this website over here.(https://www.gotostage.com/channel/livefromtokyo) Register here.

If you thought HCL was just milking the support money and not expanding the products, you lost that bet, and will continue to lose that bet for a few years out, but you have to tune in to find out why and how.

If you thought Notes and Domino were old and not caught up with the times, you may be pleasantly surprised to see changes that will stretch life longer because 30 year old(software) know a lot more than an under 5 year old(startup) about how you run your company, and integrate your business to the world as a whole, not just to one vendor, or one country.

In software terms, not many other software has survived this long and still produced money and ROI for companies using it, DOS still runs Windows, so that may be the only thing everyone still uses.

If you say email doesn't make you money, tell that to online stores and entities that rely on automated orders and ticketing systems.

Down time hurts, big time!

If you require on premises servers, you have come to the right place!
If your fear is the Cloud apps will get stuck, yes, on premises has down time too, YOU can control the situation and get your self back up, something not available to you when you are 100% Cloud indebted.

I hear the young people saying no one uses email, everything is in Slack and their integrations into products we use.

Maybe

But did you ever meet a person on the street that uses slack?

Neither have I.

But they ALL use email. They also use instant messengers but the bridge from the IM to email is still not there, yet...

So tune in December 4th 9am Eastern time, if you want to be part of the next generation of collaborative software.

יבם דומינו נוסע ליעד שאף תוכנה עוד לא הגיעה אליו

האם ישנה תוכנה שאינה מערכת הפעלה, ועדיין פועלת בכל פלטפורמה, יותר מ-30 שנה לאחר שהיא יצאה?

אם ידועה לך, אנא הודיע לי.

יבמ (חיים קודמים לוטוס Lotus) נוטס ודומינו(Notes and Domino) מתמשכים הרבה יותר מאשר ריי אוזי אי פעם חזה. ריי, אל תהסס למסור לי אם אני טועה. 

יבמ הודיע היום כי הפיתוח של הערות דומינו ימשיך ללא הגבלת זמן.

מובן שמי שקורא מאמר זה, אף פעם לא דמיין שזהיפסיק לפעול,  אם כי יש בהחלט מנהלים שונים ומתחרים שירצו שכך יקרה.  ובכל זאת, התוכנה חיה וקיימת , ובכיוון החדש היא תמשיך להפיץ שיתוף פעולה וזרימת עבודה בדרכים שאף מוצר אחר בשוק לא יכול לעשות היום.

בואו ילדים, צאו וכתבו מערכת טובה יותר לכל מטרה, יבמ מעיז אותכם, ולמרות זאת, עד עכשיו, אף אחד לא הצליח.

ועתה, כנראה שאף אחד לעולם לא יצטרך כי זה יכול פשוט לשרוד את כולנו.

"HCL also expanded its relationship with IBM to collaboration solutions, including Notes, Domino, Smart Cloud Notes, Verse and Sametime." - http://www.livemint.com/Companies/BpxtRX3Lvs7hJs1eKRdGlL/HCL-Technologies-Q2-net-profit-rises-86-to-Rs2188-crore.html

אפילו (Sametime) סאמטים מקבל חיים חדשים. אני תוהה אם הם יכולים עכשיו להחיות מחדש את Quickr. מותר לגבר לחלום, נכון?

אה ו- IBM מוציא את נוטס ודומינו גרסה עשר (10) במחצית השנייה של 2018.

במקרה ואתה באמת רוצה שהיישומים האלו לפעול בצורה שלא כדרכם, או לאלה ששונאים לתקן משהו שלא נמצא חן אצלך, יבמ מתכוון לארח אירוע אידיא ג'אם  בשם #Domino2525 שבו אתה תוכלו למסור רעיונות  משלך עבור המוצר, ומפת העתיד שלו. אפשר להירשם לאירוע כאן.

עסקת HCL אינו פתרון בלתי צפוי לחידה שהעליתי לפני יותר מ -9 שנים בפוסט הזה, גם אם זה בא מזווית אחרת.

אנחנו צועדים באומץ לאן שאף אחד עוד לא הגיע, למעט באז שנות-אור ( Buzz Lightyear) כי הוא הלך אל האינסוף... ומעבר לו.

Niche SEO Worked for Us

We ended up here, didn't we because of SEO?

This is the revelation that occurred to me recently when looking at how we ended up in a city in Israel that is not on most people's vacation itinerary. Rehovot was the home of Ubique, a little company IBM bought to include inside their Sametime offering. They still retain offices here for Sametime development.

Many people spend tons of money to increase their exposure and search ranks which boils down to SEO methods that are a mix of data analytics, black arts, html coding, content writing, luck, algorithms and Google's daily whims.

People ask why we moved here and it is because when we searched for qualities of life that were important to us and our family, Rehovot kept coming up in our searches. Neither my wife, nor I, had been to Rehovot in the 9+ years we had previously lived in Israel. Now with kids, we wanted good schools, welcoming community, arts, sciences, location, transportation and other not unusual items.

About a year or two ago, an influential website, Nefesh B'Nefesh, literally translated as a soul for a soul, helps people making Aliyah to Israel. They added and updated some cities and areas for people to move to in Israel and one was Rehovot.

Naturally we did not just rely on this one site, but what we did not realize then was the bigger puzzle. People in Rehovot had started to make some websites, in English, for other people looking to move here. It was grass roots, but sometimes your niche is a niche within a niche and in this case it works.

What were we searching for, and found? Here is a partial list:

• Industrial Park filled with startups and established companies 
• a synagogue that is mixed with Israeli, US, European, South African and Australian members
• some of the top elementary and high schools in the country
• reasonable living conditions and costs
• local train station accessible
• weather similar to Boca Raton

Bonus: A highly technical/scientific community because of the Weizmann Institute

Most people know of Tel Aviv, Haifa and of course Jerusalem which all have benefits to living there (and IBM offices). When you did deeper and find out eBay, Google, Facebook and many others are in the Netanya/Ra'anana/Herziliya areas but I livedin Manhattan and London, and Jerusalem twice, to know I wanted to live in a more relaxed part of the country that my kids can grow up and enjoy the fields and parks, not just the nightlife.

If I was looking for a place to build solar powered hovercrafts this may not be the best location, compared to say gene splicing to help people become more collaborative instead of selfishly silo like which friends of ours work on at Weizmann.

What we all want is out there and your product or idea has a place on the internet and it is up to you to decide if the market is large enough for you.

The synagogue we belong to is the only one on the area that is growing and while 15 new families over the last year have moved here. The number may sound small to some of you, but historically 1-3 families moved to Rehovot a year. That is some serious growth!

The ripple effect of this growth, coupled by exterior influences, like growing anti-semitism across Europe and the US, has led to an increase in housing costs as more people look to purchase property. Various city events and services are being expanded as well to accommodate the foreign immigration.

SEO doesn't solve or provide all of your leads or growth, but sometimes a little bit here and there is all you need.
 

JMP206 : Calling Home: Enabling the IBM Sametime Softphone in ST9 the Slides

For those that showed up this morning, thank you all. We hope you gained some insights from us.
There was a question about the characters one can or can not use in a password field when installing and configuring Sametime and Cognos.
Please keep in mind I do not have the direct quotes from IBM for this but here is what was posted recently in a Skype chat we had.

Invalid characters: % ^ & /
Valid characters: ! @ # $ * ( ) \ . ~

http://www.slideshare.net/kbmsg/jmp206

Embed is not working right now, will edit later.

Losing My Certification and Unlimited Free Exams at Connect 2014

That was just a dream

Just a dream

Just a dream, dream - REM, Losing My Religion

I was notified that 2 of my certifications are ending in the next 90 days. 

For those that had them you will be losing:

Sametime 8.0 Admin

Quickr 8.1 Admin

Bad news

Before you start looking into what else you can get certified for Quickr, note that the Quickr 8.5 exam found on this page http://www-03.ibm.com/certify/tests/ovrL914.shtml states quite clearly:

Note: This test will be withdrawn on Nov 30 2013.

Quickr has reached the end of life period sadly, see this page: http://www-01.ibm.com/software/support/lifecycleapp/PLCDetail.wss?psynkey=J489493Q50480I91&synkey=I741570Q02880I82&synkey=O917987F42949E19&synkey=U661911Z58490I09&from=spf

Good news:

Sametime lives on and you will be offered the new Sametime 9.0 Admin exams, hopefully by Connect 2014.

And according to Deborah Cole and this Connect 2014 webpage we will once again get the benefit of taking free exam tests at Connect 2014. Now unlimited!

One of the biggest draws at this event has always been the certification testing and prep labs. IBM is pleased to announce, for the very first time, that unlimited complimentary IBM Collaboration Solutions exams will be available for all registered attendees for the duration of the conference. All other Software Group exams will be available for 50% off the regular price.
As in previous years, testing will take place in the Lark room of the Swan Hotel. Since IBM is switching testing vendors in the New Year from Prometric to Pearson Vue, the certification team is asking candidates to create a profile in advance of testing using your existing candidate ID. This can be done at www.pearsonvue.com/ibmThough the physical prep lab will be located in the Peacock room of the Swan Hotel, the Virtual Prep Lab sponsored by Avnet will be available 24/7 for the duration of the conference.

If you want to see what tests still exist for ICS/Lotus go here: http://www-03.ibm.com/certify/tests/test_index_bd_sw.shtml#IBM Collaboration Solutions

My Sametime JumpStart Session at Connect 2014

I am happy to announce we will be doing a JumpStart session about how to enable the IBM Sametime Voice in Sametime 9. 

 

For those that are unaware, SUTLite is now known as IBM Sametime Voice and is no longer an added license expense. You can load this up on your own and off you go! It is FREE!

But wait, you say you do not know any telephony? You are not the PBX person? You have no idea what a PBX is or does? 

 

Well, come on down to Orlando this winter, the week of Jan 26-Feb 1 and get hands on walk through session on how to start leveraging the best part of IBM Sametime 9.

I will be presenting with Jeremy Sanders, our ThinkRite CTO, who will be coming from the UK and we look forward to seeing you at IBM Connect 2014.

Official information for our session:

1633 : Calling Home: Enabling the IBM Sametime Voice (Phone) in ST9

Program Stream 2: For IT Practitioners

Track: 9: JumpStarts and Master Classes

ABSTRACT:

IBM Sametime has so much to offer, but most customers still are using it only for instant messaging. Do you want to help your company enable everyone to work remotely and provide them with phones and video conferencing options from your IBM Sametime client? If the answer is YES! Come learn directly from the team that manages IBM Sametime Unified Telephony worldwide for over 150,000 people. Step by step, we'll walk through how to set your employees free. No extra infrastructure costs are involved as the IBM Sametime Softphone (SUTLite) is already part of your license and adds additional productivity to existing IBM Sametime Infrastructure and software suite.

IBM Sametime 9 Installation Spreadsheet

Better late than never, I have posted here a spreadsheet for installation of Sametime 9, similar to my IBM Connections 4.5 installation spreadsheet.

I took this IBM Sametime Wiki page provided and broke it down by topics (WAS, DB2, MUX, Media Manager, etc).

For those that need, that is, should be, documenting your installation details, hopefully this helps make your life easier.

You can download my spreadsheet from the link below:
Sametime 9 Installation Spreadsheet for Documentation

Oct 2016 Edit: Some DNS issues on my server, so if the original link does not work, use this one:

Hope it makes your lives easier.

IBM Sametime 9 Announcements Posted

4 flavors but you need to wait 10 days for electronic code availability.

John Del Pizzo posted this blog about the IBM Sametime 9 Availability

Some excerpts:

Sametime Communicate is all about individual communications needs. It starts by unifying all of Sametime's instant messaging capabilities into one offering – including Offline Messaging, Skill Tap, Instant Polls, Persistent Group Chat and more. We build on that with 1:1 voice and video capabilities, including Bandwidth Management Tools for Sametime calls. We even added the ability to link Sametime to your telephony or telepresence system over a SIP trunk. Yes, your Sametime Connect client can be your phone or video endpoint without any additional licensing. We include mobile, browser and rich clients along with all the API's and 3^rd party plugins to integrate your existing services into Sametime or put Sametime services where your users work every day.

Sametime Conference is for multi-party collaboration. This offering blends our award winning zero-download, browser-based meeting capabilities with our new video MCU for continuous presence, high definition video. Use Sametime meetings for multi-party audio calls, dial out to your favorite audio conferencing bridge or use partner plugins or adapters to integrate Sametime Meetings with your favorite video conferencing system.

Sametime Complete bundles both offerings together and delivers additional value all its own. With Complete, we extend continuous presence video to video calls outside of meetings. We also let you share your screen or an application right from a chat window. In addition, use the Sametime Connect client to invite colleagues to your meetings by just dragging their name from a contact list and dropping it on the meeting room or clicking the meeting icon at the top of a chat window.

Link for Sametime Complete 9.0 Announcement

Link for SameTime Communicate 9.0 Announcement

Link for SameTime Conference 9.0 Announcement

Link for SUT 9 Announcement

Backing Up IBM Sametime Buddy and SUT Phone Lists

Did you ever start to work on something only to be deeply involved when someone comes over and asks what you are doing?

You respond and they look quizzically at you and ask why did you not just do X?

X of course is right under your nose and would be obvious to anyone else, except you because you were so involved in your project.

So I found myself when someone screamed about losing their Sametime buddy list. Sure there is a menu item to import/export your lists but you know, how many people remember to do that? Or if they ever do it?

Wrote a batch file to copy the lists to my network server. I included in it both stand alone and embedded options. Why? Because along the way I also realized, as an SUT user, that the SUT phone list was not copied in this, in fact it is stored in a different directory.

Thought it might be easier for people to just have a batch file to back it up than a rather serpentine directory structure to remember.

If you would like the batch files, you can find them here in a zip file with both backup and restore files and an instruction guide.

Suggest adding them to your desktop, that way you will notice them and click on backup randomly which would still be used more often than the default menu option I would bet.

Built using a Windows7 laptop and running Notes9 Embedded Sametime and SUT and also a stand alone 853 Sametime client.

Will update this blog post and the files as necessary over time with tracking details below:
Version 1.1 Added SUT Phone Lists to be backed up as well
Version 1.0 Backup Buddy Lists to Network Drive

Connect2013 Tip #2 Sametime Goodies

Everyone who uses Sametime loves it. It just works and does some great things too, when properly configured.

There are some things few people ever know about so I want to highlight some and end with a few links to nice ST tools.

1) Why does every Community use the same icon?

Because you never changed it. Really. You go into the Manage Sametime Community from File-Preferences-Sametime-Server Communities-CommunityName and the Icon tab and you have a prebuilt set of 5 choices or you could add a 16x16 icon same size as a favicon.

While this normally would not occur or be needed by the average user, if you also logged into

A) IBM Greenhouse for instance, or

B) LotusLive IBM SmartCloud for Social Business
you see where this could be helpful. I made those icons for you for each Community, enjoy.

2) Did you know you can check someone's calendar availability for a meeting from their sametime icon?
Right click on the person and select Check Availability. How awesome is that!

2a) While there, right click and look at all the options you have, Instant meeting! Collaboration History! Wait, you never tried these? Go do it now. I'll wait. Remember to thank the Sametime team and Product managers when you see them at Connect.

2b) If you used SUT or SUTLite you would have even more options and benefits like calling the person directly.

3) Did you know Sametime has a screen capture tool built-in as well?
Where you see the More drop down menu, you have a screen capture tool. It says Capture Part of Your Screen

4) If you use IBM Connections and Sametime you must get the IBM Connections Plugin for Sametime
No administrator needed to make it work, but your mileage may vary based on the installed version of Connections. You get a nice quick integration to hop to your Connections applications.

5) Got Skype? Pentos says they have a plugin for Skype usage with Sametime. Looks interesting and they provide a 10 day trial, just enough for those coming to Connect.

6) Many clients exist for android, iPhone, Macs, Linux in addition to the IBM provided client so ask around check it out. when I am doing testing I use QuipIM on my Android phone in addition to the IBM client.

Lots of Sametime sessions at Connect 2013, see you there!

Sametime Classic Installation for iPads

This post is about how to enable iPad, iPhone and Android users to CHAT within your classic Sametime environment. This means for those that held off to go to WAS(more on Websphere in a minute) and stayed on Domino and have kept up to date with Sametime, they now face the "why can't my iPad connect to Sametime" discussion.

There are some excellent posts and slidedecks about installing ST from Zero to Hero from Frank start here and Gotcha's from Gab and of course various LUG and Lotusphere presentations. But little on  this topic.

You need to be running the Sametime Proxy Server for these devices to connect. No problem, download the file, run it and done....right? Not exactly in our case.

As it turns out, the requirements are a little more detailed. You need the following:
an instance of DB2 running (a limited use version for Sametime is available for Download)
The Sametime System Console to be installed as well
Sametime Proxy server
And check your Firewall ports to the Proxy Server (IBM Technote f# 1097949 for ST Ports is here)
And make sure you enabled all the clients to connect to Sametime, see this IBM Technote #1114318.

So here is a quick and simple guide:
 PRESTEPS: Download the 8.5.2 ST files you need, then download the 8.5.2IF1 files because these are what enable the iPad/iPhone etc. to work with Sametime.
1) Install DB2 first, make sure when prompted for the db2admin password you keep it to NO MORE THAN 8 CHARACTERS!
2) Now you need to create the STSC database. You do this by opening a command prompt with the runas db2admin login and password. (Note if you get an error message that says "the directory name is invalid" change the properties for your command prompt icon to %windir% instead of what is shown more details from MS on this here.) Change directories to the location of the extracted files for the System Console ZIP file. Under this directory \SametimeSystemConsole\DatabaseScripts\SystemConsole you will find the batch file you need to run by typing this command:

createSCDb.bat STSC db2admin

And wait for the completed successfully messages before moving on.

3) Next install the System Console make sure when prompted for the wasadmin password you keep it to NO MORE THAN 8 CHARACTERS! By the way, THIS is where WAS gets installed. So now you have an in to the customer for the rest of ST hopefully.
4) Install the Proxy Server. Note at the Install Packages Features screen which asks if you want to install the Proxy Server, UNCHECK the use Lotus Sametime System Console to install.
5) Use Sametime installed WAS on the next screen.
6) The next screen asks for your WASADMIN login.
7) The following screen asks for your Sametime server, your Domino Sametime server FQDN.
8) It is now installing the proxy server
9) While this is going on, go to your Domino configuration file, stconfig.nsf on the Sametime Domino server and make sure to add the IP address of the Proxy Server to the Trusted IP Addresses list under the section marked Community Connectivity per this IBM Technote #1287327 which also discusses opening it up to any servers. Reboot the Domino Sametime server after making this change.
10) Check the services on Windows if you want the IBM Websphere ones to start automatically. Otherwise you will have to start them manually every time.
11) Once done, reboot it all.

Download the Sametime mobile apps to your Android, iPhone or iPad.

Configuration is server name of the proxy server
Port by default is 9080 but in my case it was 9081. If you reinstall and don't clean up enough registry entries I guess it just adds a number. You may also want to try 9082,9083,9084, etc.
 Normal login and password.
If the client does not connect, send yourself the log file from the device in email, or read it on your device and check for error messages.

Done....enjoy chatting. Meetings are only if you do the full WAS stack.

The funny thing is we could load it all on one box now so most likely they will want meetings on their iPad and we will create a new installation.

Welcome to Troubleshooting Sametime Week

This week is Sametime Troubleshooting week for us.

Tuesday we are on site all day to resolve ST 8.5.1 issues where business cards are not working and there is a delay by a few seconds between sound in online meetings.

This holiday weekend I was moving a client's ST 801 server off of VM to a new nonVM server. Ran into a problem afterward where we lost HTTP access for ST. While I am not sure exactly what was different, the server is known by various names for historical reasons and possibly we have a DNS issue to narrow down.

This IBM technote, #1176728, resolved it very simply. Note it is useful for ALL versions from 7.0 up to 8.5.1.

Along with this is an upgrade to Traveler 8.5.2.2 which we had an issue yet to be cleared. While unpacking the file we got an error message about "Please select another location" and we await a new download to try again.

The Fun of it all. And then there was my accidental blocking of our internet password for accessing a client site. Easily cleared but amusing nonetheless.

SnTT - Sametime Meetings 8.0.2 Drop after a Minute

While at LoLA this week I got stuck with a Sametime Meeting problem, R8.0.2 server.

The issue was one would login to a Sametime Meeting, but after about a minute, the screen would automatically refresh. And keep doing it every 75 seconds or so.

We had just moved the physical server so my first guess was an incorrect IP address someplace was causing it. Indeed I found one reference which had not been changed to the new IP(Q/A teams at IBM I feel your pain).

Didn't change it.

Looked at the Firewall, added some ports (different firewall was in use at the other location)and got closer but something was still wrong.

Checking the java console showed the connection trying to connect to the correct name, but incorrect IP, used the internal one while an external person would try to connect. DNS is fine, but there it was.

Open the stconfig.nsf database and went through the options and found an IP address instead of the FQHN (Fully Qualified Host Name).
Under Meeting Services, find:
HTTP Tunneling Host Name: server.company.com

Under CommunityConnectivity:
Community Trusted IPS: internal#,external#

Changed those references and restarted the server and now it stays up and connected.

Goes to show that even when you test something works, you need to test it under different circumstances to make sure it works as designed.

Sametime 8.5, Console Message

This came in from our internal server.

12/22/2009 01:00:05 PM HTTP JVM: WARNING: '[ERR 0635] Some generated functions
exceeded the JVM method size limit and were automatically split into smaller fu
nctions. You may get better performance by manually splitting very large templa
tes into smaller templates, by using the 'splitli
12/22/2009 01:00:05 PM HTTP JVM: it' option to the Process or Compile command,
or by setting the 'http://www.ibm.com/xmlns/prod/xltxe-j/split-limit' transforme
r factory attribute.'

Note for IBM, this website does not work. I believe it is looking to go here instead:
http://publib.boulder.ibm.com/infocenter/javasdk/v6r0/index.jsp?topic=/com.ibm.java.doc.user.zos.60/user/xml/xslt_migrate.html

Some methods generated by the compiler might exceed the JVM method size limit, in which case the compiler attempts to split these methods into smaller methods.

* If the compiler splits the method successfully, you receive the following warning: as shown above

Where it basically says ignore this message it is working as designed.

Great so now the server is telling us it is being more efficient, but it's explanation is incorrect. Either way, don't worry about it for now, but what can we do to change this on our end?

Lotus Connections Activities Catching On but...

Used to be I had to answer clients about activities that it's a Lotus Connections piece added into the Notes client R8.x by default. I then explain what Connections could do for them and we would ignore it.

Now I set people up with the Lotus Greenhouse Activities site if possible.

It is configurable for your domain but usually clients don't have Connections yet.

So far so good. And Connections, especially under 2.5 is proliferating.

Now, what do you do if you use BleedYellow's Activities or Greenhouse or IBM's or the IBM Business Partner area or a customers?

You will be kind of stuck. There is only one configuration spot for it.

Would be nice if IBM allowed the connections section of your PNAB to handle these connections but for now we are stuck.

So what do you do?

You can use your locations documents to swap around if that works for you and each location does retain it's preference and details, unlike Sametime for some reason, but if not, well you are out of luck, right now.

Have asked PM's about this and posted an Ideajam.net as well so if this bothers you go raise the awareness on this issue.

When I'm Mobile....Beep,Beep

Continuing on recent discussions from WES, RIM has a bunch of clients for you and your Blackberry friends. Not all available yet, but Sametime has been for a while(I am updating my install doc for it, look for the post this week).

Go to this page for all the details and then get in on the notification or beta for each of the mobile clients.

1) Sametime - You always remember your first..and still advancing.

See this IBM PRESS Room Announcement:

The new BlackBerry Client for Lotus Sametime extends real-time collaboration from the desktop computer to the BlackBerry smartphone, including instant messaging (IM), presence awareness, contacts, broadcasts, file transfer, click-to-call and other features. Traditional landline phones become obsolete through the combination of voice-over-IP with presence awareness via IBM Lotus Sametime and corporate network and wireless routing with the BlackBerry® Bold® smartphone. In addition to IM, presence is seen throughout the smartphone applications. For example, a customer can use instant messaging within their calendar or an email to get an urgent answer in the moment without breaking the work flow. If instant messages aren't fast enough, the click-to-call feature is one button away.

2) Connections - The next generation BlackBerry Client for Lotus Connections, developed by RIM and available May 8!

3) Quickr - Coming soon? But not fast enough for me and my clients

4) Symphony - Coming soon?

Of course you need to move to BES 5.0 for some of these to work with all the benefits. We can help you if you need it.

By the way if you were looking to mobilize your applications and work force to leverage your investment in Lotus and RIM technology, let me know as I will be doing a LCTY event on this topic soon, look for slides.

ST 8.0.2.1

The mystery is solved.

When I had posted about this no one replied with any ideas what it was talking about.

While downloading a copy of the ST gateway to test for a project I found this:

IBM Lotus Sametime Gateway Server 8.0.2.1 Windows, IBM i Multilingual (CZ0KPML)
Size 333mb
Date posted 20-Feb-2009

So another mystery solved, but now to start the process of downloading all the parts and pieces to get the Gateway up and running.

ST-SNTT Embedded Awareness of 8.5 clients

Late update before I split to go grilling tonight.

Received a call from my partner that he can not get awareness to work in his inbox since going to the 8.5 Lotus notes client and Sametime 8.0.2 which he is using on the embedded side.

I use the connect client so hadn't tested this recently.
Sure enough it didn't work.

Updated the Sametime.ini with any version of client code(list is here) not listed yet that I know we use, just in case.

Logged in again, still no change.

Now go find the option above in the picture under the community you are trying to log in from the preferences.

In our case we run an LDAP canonical login so swap the two and all worked again.

Now can someone please tell me why I can login to ibmext from my Vista laptop using 801 ST connect but can not from my XP using the same version(or 802 as I just updated it).

Enjoy, time to go home and grill.

Fud Buster Friday #22 - iNotes, Who Cares?

A part 2 from last week?
Well 8.5 came out and I can honestly say that if you have not been using webmail or iNotes before you got to go look at it now.

Beautiful, functional, 3 choices of clients full, lite or Ultralight (iPhone users) and all from 1 template, Sametime panel on the right, 5 easy buttons which open into their own tabs for calendar, to do, notes, tasks...see the picture!

Wait it gets better, it even tells you what is wrong if some parts aren't working properly, say your Lotus Sametime awareness and functionality. And it provides multiple options for you to choose from to try to resolve it(for admins only, users can't fix this stuff).

What can I say, the people who have used it will use it more and those who have stayed away will run back to it.

Dead technology? Not from where I sit and not form your users either. So if you are still running R5,6,7 get with it and move forward, we can help, just ask me how.

Remember 9 days to go to Lotusphere!