Ports Thoughts

A really insightful video celebrating the exponential progress of Information Technology researched by Karl Fisch, Scott McLeod, and Jeff Bronman. It also contains some interesting metrics comparing the United States with some large emerging nations such as China and India. I don't know if all the statistics are accurate but it all seems very credible. Did You Know? from Amybeth on Vimeo .

There have been a few people talking about the new Lotus iNotes Ultralite and specifically how well it works on the Apple iPhone and iPod Touch . Less comment has been made about the fact that iNotes Ultralite works very well in a browser on a PC. What I haven't seen mentioned so far was if iNotes Ultralite works on a Nintendo Wii. So I thought I would give it a go. First I type in the URL and see if the Wii version of Opera will be able to handle it. Not surprisingly iNotes brings up a dialog saying that it is not certified to use this browser. But offers a link to use Ultralite mode. And it works perfectly. It looks pretty stunning on my 40 inch Sony LCD TV. As you see, here is my Inbox. Even complicated emails (this is a calender invite) all render perfectly, Obviously IBM will most likely not be certifying iNotes for the Wii any time soon, but so far I have yet to find any functionality that works on the iPhone that doesn't work on the Wii. So if you want to check your em...

Receiving attachments via email is a bit of a two edged sword. On the one hand it is quite an easy way to get stuff, but on the other hand you don't necessarily know if the attachment contains wondrous information which will transform your life or viruses and other malware which will destroy your computer. In order to help users, when they double clicked on an attachment Lotus Notes would bring up a dialog box warning the user of the possible perils and offering some alternatives including "viewing" the attachment to check that it was safe before launching it. But these days most computers and particularly those ones that are used for business have Anti Virus software installed to watch your back. In which case if you add AttachmentActionDefault=1 to your notes.ini file then double clicking an attachment will launch it in the native application with no dialog box. More details are here: http://www-01.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?uid=swg21292126

There are some debates about IT products which are far more like religious arguments rather than technical discussions because there really are no right or wrong answers, just opinions. Obvious examples are the two button "PC Mouse" vs. the single button "Mac Mouse" , coding using "Multi Threading" vs "Multi Process" techniques, using images in GIF , JPG or PNG format or perhaps the ultimate in cosmetic comparisons, the Black Thinkpad vs the White Macbook One such debate has revolved around what key should be used to refresh a view or page or in the case of a mail client, check for new mail. As with most things in the PC Software world, there has never been a standard for such things. Each developer does what they think best. However, over time " De facto " standards sometimes emerge. In the case of the refresh key, it became the key F9 since this was what was used by Lotus 123 , the dominant application at the beginning of the...

I had the pleasure of visiting a Lotus Notes customer today and briefing them on what is coming up in the forthcoming Notes/Domino 8.5 as well as Quickr , Sametime and Connections . That isn't particularly unusual, I spend a lot of my time ensuring that our customers are aware of upcoming features in new versions of our software and indeed our new collaborative and social offerings. But what I really enjoy is finding out about our customers. They are all unique and vary from International Airlines to 5 people Internet start ups, film makers to police forces, Universities to chocolate makers. Today I was at a manufacturing plant of a well known worldwide car maker based in Swindon. The main thing that struck me was that all the employees were wearing identical white uniforms. This would not normally be worthy of comment. Many manufacturing sites mandate that their staff wear protective uniforms. What was unusual here was that everyone from engineers, secretary's to Senior Mana...

A few days ago my friend Ed Brill was writing about the suitability of services such as Gmail in the Enterprise . Despite the vogue for services such as Google Apps and other "Software as a Service" and "Cloud" computing, he points out that they simply aren't as reliable as on premises solutions (or hosted ones for that matter). However, one of the biggest challenges with these solutions is "who you gonna call" when there is a problem. If you can't access Gmail you won't get very far phoning Google. However, these free services are normally deemed to be fine for consumer use. Well I have just had a personal experience that even makes me question that. Since around 2000 I have been maintaining a web site for the band that I'm in. Being a cheap skate I just grabbed a free site at Tripod . It was a bit spoiled by the adverts but it worked fine. Tripod was subsequently purchased by Lycos but it didn't seem to change anything. It only got ...

OK - so it is kinda like shooting fish in a barrel poking fun at MS Windows for crashing. I'm sure that we have all seen the famous Blue Screen of Death (BSOD) on airport monitors and ATM machines, not to mention our home and work PCs. But it is rare to see one as high profile as this - during the climax of the opening ceremony for the Beijing Olympics. More ironic because PC suppler Lenovo ditched Windows Vista for the supposedly more stable Windows XP. Full story Here

Matt and Alexis looking ravishing seconds after tying the knot. Matt and Alexis on Kew green The bride and groom with the bridesmaids and page boy. Matt with some of his family Alexis and some of her family Matt and Alexis on the back of a vintage Routemaster bus which was used to transport all the guest from Kew to the reception in Soho. Matt's Mum and Dad with Akira and Junji Traditional cheesy self service shot of Mr and Mrs Ports Alexis and her daughter Tracy The fantastic wedding cake made up of loads of tiny cakes Matt and Alexis have their first dance as a married couple Ali cuts a rug on the dance floor Alexis opens the card from Lucy Alexis and Ali Matt and his Best Man.

Tom poses with his Best Men, brothers Olly and Ben, before the ceremony. The ceremony itself was beautiful being held in the back garden of Laura's Parents house overlooking the glorious Gloustershire countryside. After the ceremony the normal festivities kicked off. Ian was looking particularly racy in his white suit. The core of legendary band Sideburner. Al, Tom and Ports pose together. Ports and Ali take a traditional self service picture. The happy couple at the reception He might be married but Tom is still a ladies man. The traditional cheesy wedding band Ali and Lynne compare shoes Ali and Laura Ali with the Happy couple

As my best friend Matt's Best Man I had to organize his stag night. The first thing we did was go for a superb champagne flight on the London Eye. Not only did a couple of glasses of bubbly make the flight more decadent but the other advantage of a champagne flight is that you get to jump the long queue. Even better the long queue of people get to see you jumping the queue. Next up it was a trip to the excellent Benihana Japanese restaurant in Piccadilly. This is great place to dine as they mix excellent surf and turf style cuisine with with what can only be described as a performance chef who practically juggles the food in front of you as he cooks it on your tables personal hot plate. The over to the The Comedy Store for some fine stand up comedy. Finally we all piled back to my place. I take my Best Man duties very seriously so this is how I had prepared the fridge. Full of Lager, Guinness and Wine with just enough room left for sausages, bacon and eggs for a fry up in the mor...

Completing any degree is hard work, but it is especially challenging when you are doing it in your spare time whilst also having a full time job. So I was very proud when my buddy Matt invited me to attend his graduation ceremony after gaining a distinction in his Masters degree in Information Security from Royal Holloway. Interestingly the degree is part of the school of mathematics rather than the school of computing. Here are Matt with his Mum, Dad and Fiance looking appropriately chuffed. Time for the group photo. Matt is in the middle. What could be more traditional that the Mortar Board (hat) throwing ceremony. After spending 4 years earning his Masters, Matt decides to continue wearing his mortar board to the amusement of many passers by.

For Tom's stag night his brothers Olly and Ben first arranged for us to got to the famous Ice Bar where you are provided with a very fetching smock, locked in a sub zero room and plied with vodka cocktails. An interesting experience. Stag Tom sits on his ice throne. Obviously being a stag night we had to have a couple of ales. Olly and Ben had also provided fine Cuban cigars and champagne outside. Al is no expert on smoking cigars. Ports has got the idea. Back at the pub Neil and Ian plot strippers (not really) Olly and Ben congratulate themselves on being excellent Best Men who laid on a cracking stag night for their brother.