December 2004 Archives

My earlier post on the Workplace purchase experience garnered some interesting feedback, not the least of which was Ed's post. My response:

1. Why didn't I join PartnerWorld? I wanted to buy the software because that's typically what customers do, and I think that doing so gives a clearer picture of what the purchase and support process-- both of which have a significant impact on customers' satisfaction with a product-- looks like for a real customer.
2. Yes, there's a live showcase available, but that's cheating in a way. It's like watching Norm Abram build a dresser in 30 minutes; you see the end result, but many of the most significant, painful, and/or expensive milestones are glossed over.
3. Pricing: well, what can I say? Every major vendor I've ever worked at or with (including Microsoft, Apple, IBM, Intergraph, Oracle, and VERITAS) have a hard time figuring out what their direct-to-customer pricing is for various products. This is a nit more than anything. However, I'm still unhappy that I was first quoted $24/seat for the Workplace rich client, only to have that price zoom up to $129/seat when I actually attempted to close the deal. So, a question for Ed: if I want one license of Workplace Messaging, Team Collaboration, and Documents, with the rich client, what's the correct price?

Julie and Paul kindly gave me an iPod dock for Christmas. I was all excited about hooking it up, until I noticed the sticker on the box that said "only for iPods with the Click Wheel". Mine's a third-generation unit (it has the row of 4 buttons under the screen), so I went hunting for a dock that would work with a 3G and struck out-- except for eBay. I couldn't find anyone else who actually sold the correct Apple part number for the third-generation dock. After a little more experimentation, I found that the 3G iPod fits just fine in the "Click Wheel" dock, provided you use the little plastic cover marked "20GB". This may not work for every 3G unit, but I'm happily charging mine as I write this. Thanks, Julie and Paul!

I've decided that it would be a good idea for me to learn more about Workplace, if only so I have a better understanding of what it is and does. When customers ask me whether a solution is appropriate, I can't give a good answer if I don't have that knowledge. Accordingly, I decided to set up a sandbox and play; the new "Workplace" category here on the blog will contain sporadic reports of what I find and learn along the way. My experience so far has been pretty poor.

Problem #1: IBM doesn't offer evaluation versions. Microsoft, of course, freely distributes 120-day trials of Windows, Exchange, SQL Server, and so on; heck, even Oracle (motto: Worst Messaging Software Ever!) has trial versions of OCS. So, that meant I had to buy the licenses.

Problem #2: to buy IBM, you must call IBM. Well, not quite, but close. If I wanted a retail copy of Exchange, I could just go order it from any number of online resellers, or I could contact a local partner, or I could buy it right from MS. Workplace isn't like that. I started by calling four IBM business partners listed in this directory. I called all of them the day before Thanksgiving, leaving a detailed message explaining what I wanted. I got two return calls within two weeks, both of which wanted to know how many licenses of Domino I wanted. After I explained, both promised to get back to me within a day or two; neither did. So, I used the "call me" button on IBM's site and got a call the next day from a gentleman who wanted to explain why Workplace was the best thing since toothpaste in a tube. Once he understood that all I wanted was to buy it, he promised to connect me with a sales rep. Two weeks later, and after an email to a rep who had previously sent me a price quote for other software, I got a call.

Problem #3: get it in writing. The rep quoted me a per-CAL price for Workplace Messaging ($14.50, 50% off the normal price), Workplace Documents, and Workplace Team Collaboration (I don't remember their license costs offhand). She also quoted me a price of $24/seat for Workplace Rich Client. This was a substantial discount off the $129/seat list price, so I was excited... right up until my rep emailed me, after I'd already bought the server licenses, to say that her pricer had "denied" that special price and that I'd have to pay list. Oh well. The rep made an honest mistake, and these things happen in all kinds of sales environments (well, except for airlines, where intentionally deceptive pricing is a way of life.. but I digress).

Problem #4: your Passport is no good here. When you buy Workplace, you automatically get (or pay for, depending on how you look at it) 12 months of support. You access this support, and download the bits you've paid for, via the IBM Passport Advantage web site. This is a nice touch; MS only offers downloads for volume license customers. Unfortunately, when I logged in to the site, it showed that I had purchased a total of 0 licenses, so I couldn't actually download anything. "No problem," I thought. "I'll just call the handy 24-7 Passport support line". After 20 minutes on the phone (9am Saturday morning, mind you), the phone rep was unable to locate my licenses. He promised to call me back in "15 or 20 minutes." Apparently time is measured differently in his local region, 'cause I'm still waiting.

So, I can't talk about any other aspects of Workplace because I can't install it yet. On the other hand, IBM offered to accept a net-30 purchase order, so at least they don't actually have my money yet. Stay tuned for further developments.

Update: after a lengthy call on Monday to Passport support, we discovered that there were no licenses actually attached to my account yet because the order hadn't been generated. Apparently there is some double-secret approval process that has to take place before I get the bits but after I get the message saying "you've got bits".

Update: two interesting things happened today. First, this post made Network World; second, the Passport support folks called me back to tell me that my account was fixed. I am now downloading the first of the 31 components that the site seems to think I need to install Workplace Messaging. No connection is implied, since the support tech I spoke with yesterday was very helpful and courteous, and would have undoubtedly have solved the problem anyway.

I've been using the Google toolbar for a long time, but no more. Now I'm using the MSN toolbar instead. Why? Six simple reasons, five of which are security-related:

1. The MSN toolbar doesn't index the browser cache or history file. That means that it won't find cached information like credit card or online banking statements.
2. Every user on a multi-user machine has a separate set of index processes and files.
3. The MSN toolbar never sends any data back to Microsoft. Google's toolbar, of course, sends tons of data back to Google, although they're up-front about it.
4. Index files are obfuscated, raising the bar for casual snoopers (of course, snooping requires admin privileges in the first place :)
5. MSN never automatically downloads updates. You can ask it to do so, but you don't have to.
6. It searches Outlook.

After seeing SantaSpeaking.com mentioned in the WSJ, I decided that Thomas might need a call from the Big Guy to help focus his attention on his behavior a little bit. I booked him for a call between 4-5pm on Saturday, which meant he had to miss part of a friend's birthday party. He wasn't very happy, especially when we wouldn't tell him why he had to stay home. About 4:58pm, the call finally came. Earlier in the day, I'd dropped by Radio Shack and got the cable necessary to hook up my phone to the computer (courtesy of my Griffin iMic). While Arlene answered the phone, I ran downstairs and fired up Audio Hijack; I was a few seconds late, but I caught most of the call (including the part where Santa says Thomas needs to "exercise more.. exercise more self-control"). Enjoy!

Bob was talking about how broadcasting is doomed, and then I found this: A Broadcaster's Christmas Carol.

Bottom line: the Treo 650 is a superb device for Palm OS users, period. However, since it's currently only available on Sprint, I'm holding off.

PalmOne has been working on the Treo line for a while. Their Treo 600 is arguably the most popular PalmOS-based smartphone, and the Treo 650 is evidently an attempt to improve on its strengths by adding features.

First, the gross physical attributes. The Treo 650 is about the same height as the SMT5600, but it's much wider and somewhat heavier (although lighter than the 7135). The screen is large, very bright, and very sharp-- the only better screen I've seen on a handheld is on the iPaq 6315. It's physically smaller than, but as bright and clear as, the excellent screen on the Tungsten series; the screen is clearly visible outdoors and in sunlight. Below the screen are the familiar four Palm application buttons and a five-way nav device, plus "home" and "menu" buttons; below the buttons is the Treo's QWERTY keyboard (more on that in a minute).

Phone: the Treo 650 worked flawlessly as a cellphone. I was easily able to make and receive calls, and the integration between the built-in address book and the Phone applet is excellent. I had a little trouble using the keyboard to dial, just because the number keys are much smaller than the ones on the SMT5600 or 7135. For the first time, I actually found myself waiting to make phone calls in the car until I could pull over or stop and actually see what I was dialing! Speaker and speakerphone volume were both quite good. There have been reports on Slashdot, and elsewhere, of poor audio and voice quality on the Treo 650 but I didn't have that problem at any time during my tests.

Messaging: PalmOne includes two messaging apps: one for SMS messages and VersaMail for email. I was most interested in Exchange ActiveSync, so I spent a good bit of time with VersaMail. Overall, I found it inferior to Pocket Outlook in both ease of use and stability, although VersaMail does a better job of handling multiple email accounts and letting you quickly switch between them. When you configure a mail account with EAS (you can only have one at a time), the device warns you that it's going to erase all of your stored messages and calendar data, then resync. I lost my calendar data by accepting this warning, then forgetting to configure my desktop conduit to skip calendar sync-- be careful! (To be fair, this was entirely my fault, not the Treo's.) Once set up, Exchange ActiveSync worked fine, although there are no sync logs kept on the device. This would be a helpful troubleshooting feature, and I hope Palm will add it in th next release (along with sync for contacts and additional mailbox folders).

Synchronization: I had a few minor problems with ActiveSync on the desktop, but those were easy to resolve. Over-the-air sync with EAS worked well, and I like the ability to choose what gets synced over the air and what gets synced over the wire-- the Treo 650 forces you to sync mail and calendar data or nothing at all. I also tried using PocketMac Phone Edition to sync the 5600 to my Mac OS X desktop running Entourage. BIG mistake. PocketMac is unstable and buggy; their technical support is slow (when they respond at all), and the software doesn't do what it claims. Avoid.

Bluetooth: I tried to use a Jabra FreeSpeak 250 headset with this phone. The headset is listed as compatible with the Treo 650 as a headset device. This is odd, since it worked fine with the SMT5600 as a handsfree device. One annoyance that the manual didn't mention is that with a headset-only device, you have to push the headset button to transfer a call from the handset to the headset-- this contradicts the manual's assurance that when you have an active headset, calls are automatically routed to it. Fortunately, PalmOne has a KB article that explains how this really works.

Other: the Treo 650 has an integrated camera that is reputed to be quite good. My device was a preproduction test unit and didn't have a camera, so I can't say whether it's any good or not (but these side-by-side comparisons make the Treo 650 look pretty good). Battery life has been excellent, and the addition of a replaceable battery is quite welcome. The internal speaker sounds great when you play MP3s through it, which surprised me a little bit. The addition of a sliding "mute" switch on top of the phone was a very useful touch; it's trivial to make sure the phone is muted before you walk into an important meeting, or church, or wherever.

Bugs and annoyances: most of the annoyances I had with the Treo 650 centered around Sprint's service in my area; I had trouble making and receiving calls in and around my house, and for a whole day I couldn't get my voicemail. This is not to say that Verizon or T-Mobile has great coverage in my neighborhood either. I had a little trouble getting used to the keyboard, which is awfully small. I already mentioned its effect on dialing; another minor niggle was that I never did figure out how to use keyboard shortcuts for menu commands. However, with a keyboard-aware app like DateBk5, it's possible to work without using the stylus at all-- an impressive accomplishment.

In all, this is a terrific device, although at $369 for new subscribers it's fairly expensive (although, interestingly, cheaper than the Kyocera 7135 from Verizon!) I'm waiting for either a GSM or Verizon version before I take the plunge, but the screen quality, speed, and utility of the 650 make this a very strong contender as my next device.

Courtesy of my friend (and fellow MVP) Martin Tuip, this video of water going over Snoqualmie Falls, which are more impressive than usual thanks to a large mass of unexpected snowmelt.

All you have to do is play a simple board-game trivia contest. See http://www.delta.com/dashtothegate. It takes about 5 minutes. Now Arlene, David, Thomas, and I all have more miles than we did before! Yay! Let's go to Hawaii!

I gave careful thought to whether the SMT5600 should have a permanent place on my belt, but in the end it wasn't quite the right device for me. I posted a more detailed review at e2ksecurity.

Bottom line: the SMT5600 is a great device, but it's not exactly a replacement for a full-function PDA, so I'm sending it back.

There are already lots of reviews of what the phone looks like and how it works, so this won't necessarily be a complete review of every aspect of the SMT5600. Instead, it'll hit what I think are the high and low points. Microsoft has been positioning Windows Mobile smartphones as "phone-plus" devices that combine solid phone functionality with mobile messaging and the ability to run various applications (both productivity apps like Outlook and line-of-business applications).

First, the gross physical attributes. The case feels solid, with no flex. The phone is relatively small and light (I'll post a picture of it next to the Treo 650 and my trusty Kyocera 7135), and it fits comfortably in a shirt or trousers pocket. One of the first things people say when they see the 5600 for the first time is "wow, what a great screen!" The screen is large, clear, and very sharp. The keypad has a nice crisp feel. I never really got used to the 5-way rocker pad; I found it too easy to accidentally press it to the left when I was trying to click it down.

Phone: the SMT5600 worked very well as a phone. Audio was clear and crisp, and the speakerphone had adequate volume for use around my (noisy, child-filled) house. Address book/phone integration is good; the 5600 includes a Photo Contacts app that lets you take or import pictures and add them to the contact so they'll be displayed for incoming calls. This was a nice touch. One useful feature: as you dial, the phone app will display contacts whose phone numbers match what you're typing-- if you type "800 325" it'll jump to the first contact with those numbers (in my case, Delta Airlines). While you're in a call, you can easily switch to other apps, and there are dedicated buttons for viewing your calendar or the contact data for the person you're talking to.

Windows Mobile: this was my first real experience with a Windows Mobile device. I was very impressed; it was stable and easy to use (not to mention being very familiar-looking). The bundled applications all worked well, and I found Windows Media 10 Mobile Edition to be a very nice addition. If I didn't already use an iPod, this would be a neat way to listen to music, and with WMP10 on the desktop you can transcode video to watch on the phone. This is a great app for commuters and others who have disposable time to watch mobile video.

Messaging: what can I say? I had no trouble using OMA or Exchange ActiveSync with this phone, and this was one of its best features. When Always-Up-To-Date is properly configured, you have essentially always-on email in what looks like an ordinary cell phone. The included MSN Messenger client was also very useful, although pecking in a complex Passport password on the keypad gets old pretty fast. In fact, I quickly found that the utility of always having my mail was diminished by having to use a 0-9 keypad to answer it. The SMT5600 includes the Tegic T9 text input system, which worked pretty well, but it's no substitute for either a QWERTY keyboard or pen text input.

Synchronization: I had a few minor problems with ActiveSync on the desktop, but those were easy to resolve. Over-the-air sync with EAS worked well, and I like the ability to choose what gets synced over the air and what gets synced over the wire-- the Treo 650 forces you to sync mail and calendar data or nothing at all. I also tried using PocketMac Phone Edition to sync the 5600 to my Mac OS X desktop running Entourage. BIG mistake. PocketMac is unstable and buggy; their technical support is slow (when they respond at all), and the software doesn't do what it claims. Avoid.

Bluetooth: I used a Jabra FreeSpeak 250 headset, which I quickly grew to love. The SMT5600 paired with it immediately, and I could initiate and answer calls with it (although I never got voice tag recording to work properly). I didn't test using the phone as a laptop modem via Bluetooth, nor did I test other Bluetooth devices like the Pharos GPS module that i use with Streets and Trips. (I did put Pocket Streets and Trips on it-- pretty darn cool!)

Other: the included camera is nothing to write home about; it does a serviceable job, and the included camcorder app works well enough for casual use. Battery life has been excellent, although I haven't spent that much time talking on it.

Bugs and annoyances: sure, there were a few, but nothing major. Frequently, the SMT5600 would decide that an appointment was an all-day event, so it would start alarming me at 0830. If you use the keylock function (which you really need, since this isn't a clamshell phone), you can't answer or make calls with a Bluetooth headset. For some reason, the phone wouldn't auto-set the time from the AT&T network. The phone app doesn't like dialing numbers with slashes (425/818-0484 would only dial "425"), so I had to go through and reformat most of my phone numbers. These are all minor problems, though; overall, the device was as stable and reliable as other phone-only devices I've used.

One odd note: several other people I know who have the SMT5600 complained about radio interference. My old Motorola GSM phone would buzz my desktop speakers whenever it communicated with the cell, and its successor did the same thing in the car. However, the SMT5600 sits right between my desktop speakers and hasn't generated a grain of noise since I got it, and it's been silent in the car, too. Maybe I got a newer rev or something. (The 650, OTOH, buzzes the baby monitor all the time-- I can always predict incoming calls!)

In all, this is a very impressive device that delivers on its promises of high functionality in a small package. You can only get it for AT&T's network in the US, although if you unlock it it will work fine on T-Mobile. Cingular doesn't sell the phone in its retail stores, but Amazon still has it for a net price of $-25 for new subscribers.

Update: added some notes on the SMT5600's phone functionality that I forgot in the first draft.

Update: Cingular is selling the phone; in fact, you can get it for free from Buy.com until 31 December (if, that is, you activate a new Cingular number with it).

So, on the Treo 650, when you enable a mail account for Exchange ActiveSync, it warns you that creating the account will empty your calendar-- if you use EAS, you have to use it to sync your calendar. I knew that, and had been manually forcing my desktop to overwrite the handheld calendar. This worked fine until (drum roll) I forgot to set the "desktop overwrites handheld" flag as a default. This morning, I synced the device and-- oops-- almost all of my calendar data is now gone. This is not the end of the world, since we're coming up to a slow time of year. I still have all of my contact and task data, but it'll be a hassle to re-enter the events I do have (including kids' holiday parties at school and my regular weekly team concalls).

This is a pretty good deal: 50% off new licenses of Trend's ScanMail suite if you're migrating from Exchange 5.5 to Exchange 2003. You have to have more than 1,000 seats, and you have to have proof of migration (evidenced by a current SA license or Exchange 2003 CALs purchased after 6/15/04), and the offer is only good until 12/31/04.

Microsoft today released a hotfix for the Windows 2003 SMTP stack that provides tarpitting for SMTP. (If you don't already know what tarpitting is, check this explanation). The idea is that you install software that intentionally slows down SMTP throughput for bogus requests. This helps make it uneconomical for spammers to ply their trade. The hotfix requires you to install a package and set a registry key, then you're done. Highly recommended.

FedEx is up to no good. I got my corporate Amex bill and noticed that there were two shipments listed-- one for $25 and one for $55. I'd used FedEx to ship my SPOT watch (< 1lb) back for repair and to seen a book to a friend in Long Beach. Sure enough, the shipment dates and tracking numbers matched. When I called FedEx to ask them WTF, the explanation was simple:

FedEx: We've been encouraging our customers to use our shipping materials. When you ship a package with nonstandard packaging, we automatically dim weight it.

Me: What does that mean?

FedEx: We take the package dimensions and calculate a standardized weight, then bill you for that.

Me: (incoherent spluttering) Why didn't anyone tell me this?

FedEx: You should have noticed the change in your latest Service Guide.

Me:

(more spluttering) I didn't GET a service guide this year!

They were kind enough to remove the overcharge for those two packages, but there are two more enroute right now that'll have to be re-rated once I get the bill. In the meantime, FedEx's perverse website has decided that two addresses which look the same to humans aren't really the same, so it won't let me log in to order some more of the Holy FedEx Boxes that I have to use in order to not be grossly overcharged. Grrrrr.

FedEx is up to no good. I got my corporate Amex bill and noticed that there were two shipments listed-- one for $25 and one for $55. I'd used FedEx to ship my SPOT watch (< 1lb) back for repair and to seen a book to a friend in Long Beach. Sure enough, the shipment dates and tracking numbers matched. When I called FedEx to ask them WTF, the explanation was simple:

FedEx: We've been encouraging our customers to use our shipping materials. When you ship a package with nonstandard packaging, we automatically dim weight it.

Me: What does that mean?

FedEx: We take the package dimensions and calculate a standardized weight, then bill you for that.

Me: (incoherent spluttering) Why didn't anyone tell me this?

FedEx: You should have noticed the change in your latest Service Guide.

Me:

(more spluttering) I didn't GET a service guide this year!

They were kind enough to remove the overcharge for those two packages, but there are two more enroute right now that'll have to be re-rated once I get the bill. In the meantime, FedEx's perverse website has decided that two addresses which look the same to humans aren't really the same, so it won't let me log in to order some more of the Holy FedEx Boxes that I have to use in order to not be grossly overcharged. Grrrrr.

Excerpted from a long discussion of kids' behavior in church, and why we believe it's important to keep kids in sacrament meeting instead of corraling them in a separate nursery. I couldn't have said it better myself:

I think it is helpful to share methods that have helped with children in church, but it is also helpful for parents to know that it's normal for kids to struggle with spending more than an hour sitting quietly in a meeting that they don't understand and even adults can find boring at times and also normal for their parents to struggle with what that does to their ability to enjoy a peaceful and spiritual sacrament meeting. You notice that when Jesus was having all the children come unto him, he was not in sacrament meeting, or even in chapel, and he still had to use the word suffer.

What do you call a hotfix that doesn't actually fix the problem it's supposed to cure?

I vote for notfix, but I welcome your suggestions. The best suggestion posted as a comment here by December 15th wins... uh... something cool. Yeah, that's it-- your choice of a signed copy of one of my books or a $25 donation to the charity of your choice. Get those creative juices flowing.

So, here's a question for Ed and any other Lotus-Knowledgeable readers out there. What's the best way to start learning about Workplace Messaging? So far I've learned some peripheral facts, like that it has outrageous system requirements (quad 2GHz procs + 2 GB of RAM), that it's licensed per-processor (so you need 4 server licenses for that 4-proc machine), and that every initial license includes 12 months of maintenance. However, I haven't found a clear, comprehensive source of getting-started information, apart from this tutorial. That's probably just because I don't know where on IBM's gargantuan web site to look, hence this post. If you do know, please share.

Update: I just spoke to a friendly IBM sales rep who made it very clear that Workplace products are not licensed per-server or per-CPU, but per-user. My earlier post was based on something I saw at vowe.net. Caveat lector.

I went to go see the doctor last month, and he ordered an impressive panel of lab tests. The results came back, and they were mixed. Good news: my LDL cholesterol is low (119). Bad news: my HDL is 18, with a minimum recommended level of 40. So, that means I need to eat lots of oatmeal and get off my butt for some regular aerobic exercise. This morning, being that it's the start of a new month, I hit the treadmill and then lifted some weights. My goal is to do this 3-4 times a week, consistently, so I don't have to face Dr Schwartz' scorn at Rotary meetings. Go me!