Ramble On

I’ve still got document locking in test. New ‘features’ keep cropping up so I’ve held off running the design update!

The latest issue is that databases with locking enabled are generating email messages warning users when their messages have generated a conflict. So far I’ve been unable to stop these emails.

There are a few comments reporting the same issue on the support forums and there’s an IBM reply stating that it’s been recorded as a bug – but this feature has been around since V6 and it’s still in 7.03 and I’m not sure it is a bug, more a helpful feature without a facility to disable it.

I’d prefer to find a solution to this before I roll this out to our module websites – there are 4000 of them (per year) and they’re heavily used an save conflicts do happen. I suspect cryptic messages to our students about ‘Databases….’ might be confusing.

Domino

I’ve just bought a new 17” Macbook Pro. My 2006 15” MacBook Pro had started to show it’s age.

First impressions? Well it’s a Mac, and we all know they are good at first impressions and this one is no different.

The unibody design gives is the laptop a solid feeling. The HD screen is bright and although this isn’t the first laptop that I’ve owned with a glossy screen, they are an acquired taste, so it’s worth checking out in store if you’re uncertain whether to pay extra for the matt screen.

The new touch pad takes a little bit of adjusting. I’m finding the extra multi-touch gestures a little bit annoying (I keep zooming instead of scrolling).

This laptop is much quieter and quicker than my 15” model. I hadn’t been sure about switching to the larger laptop. Previous 17” models were ‘big’ but this one though doesn’t feel much larger than my 15” and the extra screen real-estate is most welcome. I suspect it’s the rounded edges helps hide the ‘bulk’

My main reason for switching to the 17” was the larger battery. Apple claim it has an 8 hour battery life. Today, I’ve spent about 5 hours on various trains travelling to see Middlesbrough unexpectedly beat Liverpool. After five hours of using the battery is still reporting 35% charge and nearly 3 hours of life left. I haven’t been pushing it too hard and the screen’s brightness is switched down, but I’ve done a little bit of Domino development running in Fusion, replicating to the servers and testing via the trains’ (ropy) wireless. I’ve done some light word processing, answered some emails, general web browsing and downloaded and listened to a podcast, and written these blog entries.

I know Apple aren’t renowned for accurately quoting real-world battery life but it looks like I might get around 6-7 hours out of mine so I’m really pleased with this result. I usually use a EEE PC 901 on the trip but find I’m limited to very light work. This now gives me another option.

MacBook unboxing

Apple’s packaging keeps getting smaller and smaller. This isn’t much bigger than the laptop

There really isn’t much to this new ‘green’ packaging

New keyboard is based on the MacBook. If you’ve used a Macbook or one of Apple’s aluminium Mac Pro keyboards, then it’s basically the same. It’s nice to use, but the last gen’s silver keys are better. (Still the best keyboard on any laptop I’ve used)

The glossy screen – test drive one instore. Apple offer a matte version of the 17″ for an extra £30

The unibody design. No visible joins. Very nice

Apple, Review

I spent a pleasant Friday morning at a Google UK education event. Like many Universities we’re investigating how to provide services to our alumni and a common request from graduates is to keep their email address.

There are a number of options. Scale up our present Unix-based email. Implement a new email system. We use Exchange for staff. But implementing a Exchange for students and alumni would be too expensive. Alternative their is the hosted route.

Both Microsoft and Google offer hosted services free to Universities. I’m not sure if IBM is offering anything, if they are, they’ve never contacted us. Although email isn’t my area – I went along to look at the hosted apps service to consider how we might integrate some of these products into our current services.

Google make a very tempting offer, basically Google Apps, Talk, Video, Sites and Email for free. Ok nothing in life is free, but when they offer several GBs of email storage per student, it doesn’t take a great mathematician to work out that most (UK) University’s can’t offer this level of support. It just isn’t finically viable. So their offer is extremely tempting.

I suspect you’ve all played with Google Apps. They’re not as mature as any of the Office suites available but as an online collaborative tool they pretty decent.

Several Universities have already switched their services and the transition to Google was remarkably quick – usually taking less than six months from the point of deciding to investigate hosted services to roll-out.

I’m not sure if it’s worth the license for commercial organisations but for ‘free’ it’s a very good offering. If IBM don’t watch out, the entire education market will have moved to Microsoft or Google before they’ve even started.

Cloud Computing, Hosted Services