Finally, a new book on Lotus Notes and
Domino specifically for Domino Administrators. However, it is already a
little dated, as it focuses on Notes and Domino 8 and the most recent version
of the software is 8.5. But do not think that there is no value in this
book. After reading this book, you will have an excellent understanding
of the Notes client, how to troubleshoot some of the most common error
messages and issues in the environment, how to upgrade your Notes clients,
a very good understanding of Policies, and more. It is amazing the amount
of information packed into this 280 page book.
Contents:
Acknowledgements
About the Author
Introduction
Chapter 1: Lotus Notes
Chapter 2: User Support and Problem
Management
Chapter 3: Finding Additional Help
Chapter 4: Lotus Notes Tools and Plug-ins
Chapter 5: Managing Upgrades
Chapter 6: Using Domino Administrator
to Manage Client Settings
Appendix A: Domino Development
Index
Mark Elliott, the author of Survival
Guide for Lotus Notes and Domino Administrators,
has written an excellent introduction to Domino Administration. While geared
for new Administrators, old hands will find value in this book, too. Elliott
begins the book with a chapter on the Notes Client, which is more than
a cursory overview. He provides general enhancements to the Release 8 client,
specific mail and calendar enhancements, and then shows you how to get
more out of Notes. Incredibly, he shows one feature, Copy as Table, which
is underutilized but extremely useful. The Domino Administrator will probably
find the most value in Chapter 2, User Support and Problem Management.
From database maintenance to specific errors, including some of the more
"unusual" error messages, Elliott provides excellent guidance.
Many of the items covered in this chapter would take someone hours, if
not days, to research and correct. Whether you read the chapter or refer
to the comprehensive Index, this is one of the best chapters in the book
and one that will provide immediate value to the Domino Administrator.
The last two chapters, Managing Upgrades and Using Domino Administrator
to Manage Client Settings, take two topics and make them accessible to
the new Administrator; Upgrading the Notes Client and Policies. Both topics
can be daunting to any Domino Administrator, mainly because of the wealth
of information, but Elliott makes the topics extremely accessible and easy
to understand.
While a book on a technical topic can
be difficult to read, Elliott does not fall into that trap. Survival Guide
for Lotus Notes and Domino Administrators is written as if he was talking
to a friend, new to Domino Administration; plenty of annotated screen shots,
links to additional information on the internet, and supplementary Notes
and Tips. When describing error messages, he not only gives you the resolution,
he provides the symptoms and a little analysis, which allows the reader
to improve their troubleshooting skills and understanding of Notes and
Domino. When an error points to a specific application, he is not shy about
telling the reader to contact the developer for resolution. However, there
was one which made me smile. Elliott was describing how to resolve an issue
with a Mail Folder and tells the reader to "contact the application
developer to resolve this issue." If that were taken literally, Lotus
Support would have to be engaged. While this book is highly recommended
for those that provide end-user and infrastructure support, I was surprised
that Domino Domain Monitoring (DDM) was not included. A new feature in
Release 7 of Lotus Domino, this would be very beneficial to new Domino
8 Administrators. The only other area that could have been improved was
the references to Lotus TechNotes. Elliott provides the full IBM Support
Site URL's, and they are rather long. However, if he provided the reader
with the simple URL of http://support.lotus.com
and then gave the Tech Note reference number, the chances for improperly
entering the IBM URL would have been minimized. Whether new to Notes and
Domino Administration or experienced, this is an excellent, well written
reference book.
IBM Adds 200 Partners to LotusLive Cloud Services
Fri, Mar 19th 2010 6:10p Gregg Eldred It appears that IBM Lotus may be striking at Microsoft and its end-of-life for Essential Business Server with a recent press release announcing 200 partners who "plan to sell LotusLive."
IBM today announced more than 200 partners are planning to sell to their customers LotusLive cloud services. The news comes in just two months since the introduction of the LotusLive partner program as evidence of increasing migration to the cloud for collaboration capabilities.
. . . As part of today's ne [read] Keywords: collaboration
foundations
ibm
lotus
database
db2
microsoft
server
A Dumb Thing That Gets Me Emotional - Marine Corps Advertising
Mon, Mar 15th 2010 4:00p Gregg Eldred For the most part, a lot of advertising just flows over me without eliciting a response. However, when I see an ad for the Marine Corps, there is a response, usually a very emotional one. Sitting in a semi-darkened movie theatre this weekend with family, Number One Son sitting next to me, this ad appeared on the screen:
Green Zone isn't supposed to be a tear jerker, but it started out that way. *sigh* [read] Keywords: application
98
Selecting the Right Smartphone - Flowchart
Mon, Mar 15th 2010 11:50a Gregg Eldred After reading Guy Wakely's post concerning the selection of a new smartphone, I found this flowchart that may provide some assistance. Funny, but Palm is not represented. [read] Keywords:
150
ITWire: Big Lego Blackberry built
Sun, Mar 14th 2010 11:50a Gregg Eldred Lego artist/sculpter/genius Nathan Sawaya has created the ultimate in geek toys, a giant Lego RIM Blackberry Tour 9360 complete with working LCD screen. The 'artwork' stands at about 1.5 metres high and follows one of his previous projects, a similarly giant Lego iPhone. Clearly Sawaya has no particular loyalty to either.
More > The photo accompanying the article: [read] Keywords: blackberry
iphone
rim
IBM Whitepaper: Administering IBM Lotus Domino 8.5 servers for beginners
Thu, Mar 11th 2010 10:40p Gregg Eldred IBM Lotus has published a whitepaper on administering Domino 8.5. From the abstract:
This white paper provides a comprehensive overview of how to administer IBM Lotus® Domino®, explaining the fundamental components and terminology so that new administrators can feel familiar with the product. Specifically, we explain key features and functionalities such as the Notes.ini file, the Data Directory, IDs, server commands and documents, and server activities. Also included are discussions of [read] Keywords: admin
administration
domino
ibm
lotus
notes
server
Redbook: Best Practices for Building Web Applications for Domino 8.5.1
Tue, Mar 9th 2010 11:00p Gregg Eldred This IBM Redbooks wiki has the following objectives:
Provide guidance on Best Practices for Domino Web Development, with emphasis on the new XPages design element. This wiki introduces the key new features of XPages and discusses how and why these features are meaningful within the context of Domino Web Development.
Provide hands-on tutorials and sample code, which give you the opportunity to work with XPages and to understand the improvements in Domino 8.5 Web application development. As a fou [read] Keywords: domino
ibm
ldd
lotus
notes
xpages application
applications
development
wiki
137
The Husband Store
Tue, Mar 9th 2010 10:10p Gregg Eldred A store that sells new husbands has opened in New York City , where a woman may go to choose a husband. Among the instructions at the entrance is a description of how the store operates:
You may visit this store ONLY ONCE! There are six floors and the value of the products increase as the shopper ascends the flights. The shopper may choose any item from a particular floor, or may choose to go up to the next floor, but you cannot go back down except to exit the building!
So, a woman goes to t [read] Keywords:
