For the longest time now my blackberry has not been synching my contacts correctly, for a while I thought it was the 4.5 beta OS running on my 8830 that was the cause of the problems, at other times I thought it was various versions of Notes 8 or Notes 8.5 Betas that might be the issue. I never really invested the time to fix it, and was hoping that if it was the 4.5 OS on the 8830 that the Storm would make the problem go away. No such luck. Today I was determined that I would get my Contacts back in working order on my Blackberry, so I took at look at my PIM Sync settings on my server, which I thought pointed to a Server based replica of my Contacts, much to my surprise it was pointing to my iNotes contacts (which have not been synched in a while). So I turned off Wireless Contact Synchronization on the device, and wiped out my contacts on the Blackberry, fixed my PIM settings on the server, and turned Wireless Contract Synchronization back on. Much to my surprise the same problem contacts appeared again, when I checked the server it had reverted back to my iNotes contacts. After the second time this happened I pinged a colleague of mine who pointed me to Blackberry KB15595. In BES 4.1 SP5 (4.1.5) a new feature was introduced to allow pre-populaton of PIM settings for iNotes users (contacts, journal). The catch is it is enabled by default, and apparently even overrides manual settings.
Overview The PrepopulatePIMForiNotesUsers registry key allows an administrator to control whether or not organizer data synchronization settings are automatically applied to new BlackBerry smartphone users who are using the IBM iNotes or IBM Lotus Domino Web Access template. Key PrepopulatePIMForiNotesUsers Location HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESoftwareResearch In MotionBlackBerry Enterprise ServerAgents Type DWORD Value(s) 0 – Disables pre-population of relative path to the BlackBerry smartphone user’s mail file for address book and journal 1 – Allows pre-population of relative path to the BlackBerry smartphone user’s mail file for address book and journal Not present – Allows pre-population of relative path to the BlackBerry smartphone user’s mail file for address book and journal
Now before you ask, I know that my iNotes contacts are problematic, that is a leftover issue I have from an old beta, which again I just have not put the time in to fixing. For now I am happy to have my contacts appearing correctly on my Blackberry again, will deal with my iNotes contacts another day.
Earlier today my new Blackberry Storm arrived at my front door, so I thought I would share some of my first impressions of the device. Before I even get in to the device itself let me cover two things which will you understand my expectations of the device. Why did I upgrade now? I have had a Verizon 8830 World Edition since November of 2007, at that time the motivation to upgrade was for an upcoming trip out of the country, and the 8830 was the first model in which Verizon finally added global support. I had held off making the move earlier as I thought the switch to the trackball instead of the thumbwheel would be a tough one (in the end it wasn’t). I have lost count but the 8830 was either my 9th or 10th model Blackberry, and by far the least rugged blackberry I ever owned, it simply did not hold up well at all to the daily wear and tear (you can see here the condition in which it returned from Lotusphere). So my decision to upgrade was one of necessity. The second factor is that I have been using an iPhone for almost a year now (something I am not sure is a good thing for making the move to a Storm), and I am very interested to compare the iPhone and the Storm. So with the history behind us, my first impressions of the Storm, which I had not touched or seen until mine arrived today, and while I read up a little on the device my main impressions were from Chris Millers posts Day 1 and 2 with the Blackberry Storm, and Day 3 with the Blackberry Storm (and Chris has promised more). Getting started was simple thanks to Enterprise Activation, while this is not specific to the Storm, it is impressive how fast and easy it is to change devices effortlessly with out losing any data. My very first impression of the touch screen was that it was terrible, however after peeling off the screen protector (not the shipping plastic, but one of those thin films they put on the screen) it got a little better. It is a bit confusing especially if you are used to an iPhone since you do have to Click to make selections, I did not realize the whole screen would actually move to allow the click, definitely takes some getting used to. I have not found it very intuitive when to touch and when to click. My second issue the the Phone and Menu buttons on the bottom, I don’t know why but I seem to want the Menu button where the phone is, and vice versa. The typing in Landscape mode is not bad as you have the full QWERTY keyboard, in landscape mode with the auto word complete will take some getting used to. I have not used the browser much, but one thing I am finding is that in Blackberry screens and on Websites drop down boxes are very difficult to navigate and select. Application wise I have only looked at three applications so far, Facebook which is identical in functionality to my previous blackberry and very unimpressive, I would hope they develop a rich application like the one on the iPhone, Flickr, nice that they have a Flickr upload application (something severely lacking on the iPhone) I will have to play with the camera and Flickr later (this is my first Blackberry with a camera). Finally Sametime 8.0.1 installed with out any issue and connected with out any issue. I have to drag out the manual and look up a few things, and play with the sound profiles and see if I can get my settings back the way I like them, and in general get used to the device. More on the Storm as I play with it and get more familiar with it. Finally, you have my point of view, let me share my daughter Molly’s first impression of the Storm, she came home from Kindergarten and was excited to see my new Blackberry, she took one look at it and said “Daddy, your new Blackberry looks just like your iPhone”.
In the SystemOut.log file, you will see the following entry when Home page search is indexing Profiles: IIndexingProc E com.ibm.lotus.connections.dashboard.search.index.impl.IIndexingProcessImpl indexProcess CLFRQ0214E: Error Indexing component Profiles for Home page search. com.ibm.search.connections.UnifiedIndexerException: java.lang.NullPointerException: value cannot be null
TheTechnote contains a Jar file to download and replace on the server to correct this issue.
Resolving the problem To fix this issue, the file lc.search.seedlist.plugin.profiles.jar located in the following directory should be backed up: WebSphere\AppServer\profiles\AppSrv01\installedApps\\Profiles.ear\seedlist.plugin.profiles.war\WEB-INF\lib
Back in October I blogged about “Help is on the way for duplicate calendar entries” which I ran across during the Beta. Today Technote 1326680 The Repair Calendar feature in Notes 8.5 was published with details on the feature. The technote covers -What is the Repair Calendar Feature? -How do duplicates occur? -How does the Repair Calendar feature work? To use the Calendar Repair feature you need to be running a Notes 8.5 Client, and your mail file needs to be based off of the mail85.ntf. While it would be better if we didn’t need this feature, it is a welcome addition for anyone who has ever had a calendar problem especially with a repeating meeting.
On the left sidebar of my blog I have added a new “Resources Pages” section. The first page to be added is the Lotus Connections Resources page. I plan on maintaining this page as a one stop shop for useful information on Lotus Connections. I hope to finish and add similar pages for other products as well, if you see something that should be added to the resource page let me know. Lotus Connections Resource Page
There has been a tradition for a few years now that the blogging community takes the stage after the CGS for a photo, this is the first year I was able to participate in this photo taken by Volker. Have you ever tried to take a large group photo? Have you ever actually been able to get everyone to smile at the same time? Quite a bit has been and is still being written about how great this years Lotusphere was, but just take a look at the faces in the photo, every one of them with a huge smile…. as they say a picture is worth a thousand words
You plan and you plan and well….. the matter how much you plan things go wrong. Once could say I had a technically challenging Lotusphere, so here is a list of things that went wrong for me. My Eye-Fi card which I only bought about two weeks before Lotusphere and worked perfectly before I left for Orlando, refused to see a wirless network, in fact when I tried to configure it, I was warned that the card was possibly damaged and should be replaced. The replacement is now on the way, but it would have been nice to have during Lotusphere. Had I been able to upload my pictures to Flickr automatically as planned it would have made Live Blogging with Photos that much easier. The spare battery for my laptop refused to charge. I have a Lenovo T61, and the battery that ships with it gives me between 2 and 3 hours depending on how I use it, however when I remove the DVD Burner and replace it with the ThinkPad Advance Ultrabay Battery II, my battery life jumps in to the 6-7 hour range. My battery was working fine last week, but after the first time it drained it refused to charge again. The positive side of this was that I carried my laptop a whole lot less then I would have had the batteries been working properly. Finally my Blackberry a Verizon 8830 which has not held up as well compared to previous models I have owned, well at some point the battery cover which is prone to coming loose disappeared leaving me with this to carry around and try not to knock the battery out or lose it. The one device that really kept me going all week was my iPhone, the only issue with the iPhone is battery power with heavy usage I could not get through a day without recharging it, fortunately this battery did not let me down, and allowed me to keep the iPhone charged on the go during the day.
I think it is safe to say we can now call it the first annual Blogger Open. Following the CGS about 65 people headed over to the Disney Fantasia Minature Golf Course for the Blogger Open. Apparently sleep deprivation, alcohol and miniature golf is a combination that really works as everyone had a great time. We even had a special guest appearance at the Blogger Open from Curious George Here is my team at the Open Special thanks to our sponsor Conxsys’s nsfRewind for Lotus Notes for helping make this a terrific event. Congratulations to our winners: Individual Lowest Score: Gregg Eldred who shot a 40 Individual Highest Score: Lisa Duke with a 67 Best team average score:John Head, Sarah Frey, Bill Machinsky, The Turtle, Carol Deovlet, Ted Hardenburgh (I think this was the team someone correct me if I am wrong) Thanks to Gregg Eldred for doing all the math, and to Declan who came to heckle and took lots of pictures with my camera for me. You can see all my photos from the Open in this Flickr Set (I hope to have more to add later this week)
It really was an honor and privilege to be asked to participate in the Lotusphere Blogger program. Thanks to Erica and Ed for putting this program together, and giving me yet another hat to wear at Lotusphere which enhanced my experience last week. The blogger program really highlighted to me that Lotus recognizes the contributions of the blogger community throughout the year, and that blogs are a primary source people use for announcements and information during the conference. One of my personal highlights of the program (well besides the OGS Seats) was the Monday evening Q&A session with the Lotus Exec team One could think that this group took a chance holding an open Q&A for a group of bloggers (most of whom were live blogging or recording the session for a podcast), but really in what was a theme all week, they were very forthcoming with open honest answers to sometimes tough questions, while maintaining a sense of humor about it. (one other note, don’t anyone even think about messing with Erica, anyone who can stand up in front of twenty five bloggers and get them quiet, should not be started with!) Another event for the bloggers was being on the show floor Sunday watching the judging for the CTO and Best in Showcase awards, I never really thought about the awards much before, beyond hearing them announced, and seeing them listed at the lunch tables. Watching the judging and speaking to some of the finalists I learnt two things. First the finalists put a tremendous number of hours and great effort to being there, and preparing to present to the judges. Second the judges took the presentations very seriously asking lots of questions of each presenter. The winners clearly earned it, both with their products, and their presentations to the judges. The group of bloggers participating was a diverse group including customers, business partners, and some bloggers from outside of the community which provided a unique outsiders perspective. This is an addition to Lotusphere I hope to see back again next year.
