The Lotus App Store

There is an Idea on the IdeaJam site today to create a Lotus App Store ala the Apple IPhone/IPod App Store. I thought that this was mentioned somewhere in the 2009 Lotusphere Keynote address, but haven't heard about it since. I think that an App Store would be an incredible way to advance Lotus Notes. It could also be the catalyst to the elusive home user of Notes. It would encourage new developers to take a look at Notes as well as provide revenue opportunities for existing Notes folks. Sounds like a win-win-win to me.
Now I'm sure those in the know are already sighing and saying 'yeah, but we'd have to do it in 15 languages and it will never get past the IBM legal department'. Well, Apple has somehow found a way to do it. If IBM perceives the risks to be too great then they can use a venture capital model to fund a startup company for the App Store. They could also use this model to encourage development of the long sought after templates and Nifty Fifty.
Did Lotus know that?

55% experience Sharepoint Infrastructure Pain

There's an article on CMSWire today about Sharepoint challenges .

' But implementing SharePoint properly in an organization is not easy — 55% reported that SharePoint challenges are impacting their business. According to Ed Durst, portfolio manager of the Microsoft Solutions Group at Open Text, there are a number of challenges related to SharePoint implementations.'

The article goes on to list the same common governance issues which caused Lotus Notes to fall from grace in many organizations.

Twitter taken down by DOS attack

No, not MS DOS. Wired reports that Twitter has been taken down by a denial of service attack - employees everywhere in danger of getting some work done. Details to follow when we are able to tweet.

MojoPac now available as a free download

MojoPac is a handy utility that lets you run a Windows XP computer from a USB drive. I use it for testing new versions of software (like Notes...) without having to worry about hosing my production PC. While I don't like their cheesy new Flash web site, I do use and recommend MojoPac.

Free Web Icon Sets

The fastest way to update your stale looking (but still wonderfully functional) Notes applications is to replace the stock icons. Here's a link I found on Digg today with 40 sets of modern web icons, free for downloading. I would make sure you have anti-virus/spyware software installed before actually clicking on any of the links. Some are better than others and some only offer one image size, but they are still worth a look. I purchased two icon libraries last year and the end-users immediately started commenting on how much they liked the design updates in my applications.

Microsoft stores to mimic Apple's with "Guru Bars"

The masters of innovation are at it again, this time inventing a retail store with 'genius bar'. There is a story on AppleInsider today about the new Microsoft retail stores, which will be located near existing Apple stores. What next? Perhaps they can replace the Windows logo with something more like.... oh, I don't know, maybe an apple.

Can you imagine the poor 'genius' working at the answer bar? 'Uh... let's reboot one more time. If that doesn't work we'll need to do another format and install'. If that doesn't work they can always hand out coupons for a discounted version of Windows 8 (code named Snow Weasel). It will be interesting to see if Microsoft emerges from the global recession as their former profitable self. To me it looks like they have lost their mojo for good.

Microsoft customers face licensing hurdle to online apps

I don't know how IBM is going to handle the same situation, so perhaps I shouldn't be poking fun at MS just yet. There's an article in Infoworld today about Microsoft's mixed feelings about moving Office customers to the cloud. 'If a customer purchases a BPOS subscription for employees who will access only those services, the customer must still purchase CALs for those users, DeGroot said, even though they are not accessing the on-premise software as well. '

Ah yes, the old buy once, pay twice licensing scheme. You would think that this could present an opportunity for competitors to distinguish their offerings in an increasingly commoditized market.