So I’ve been hearing a lot of talk around the place about Google’s Chrome web browser so I thought I should check it out.

It downloaded easily enough and is quite small to install. There is no menu to speak of and the options that are there are fairly simple. There’s no big list of stuff to confuse people. Just the stuff you need to play with and get set.

In all honesty, it seems like a typical Google application. Simple to use and a slick installation.
We’ll see how it performs out of the road.

Drove up to Orrell tonight. Writing this from our friends iPod touch. Nice bit of kit and not too bad to type on. Trying to get used to this so I when/if I get an iPhone.

Don’t you just hate it that when you have loads to do your body’s immune system gives up on you and let’s some nasty little bug or virus in.
I’ve been in bed for the past 24 hours with a terrible headache, stomach cramps, aching muscles, hot and cold sweats and a really bad sensitivity to light. Probably a flu of some sort and probably from some part of my trip to Dublin.
Back in the land of the living now, just. And it’s back to work for the afternoon/evening.

Today I’m going back to the future for a small project I have undertaken. I’m working with an IBM Business Partner in Fleet, Hampshire to help their developers get a broader understanding of the technologies on offer from Lotus Software. I’m writing and presenting a series of topics to them in small 50 minute chunks. One a month for the next six months.
The first topic was “The IBM Software Group & how it all fits together” and that was actually quite a fun topic to try and cover off with a bunch of Domino/Notes developers. I should have called it, “The world is not always #FFCC00″
So why is this “Back to the future” for me today? Well the topic for today is all about how to build a theme for Lotus Quickr and make it look like someone elses website. I used to be quite good at Lotus QuickPlace and that product has evolved into Lotus Quickr. I have not had chance to look at Lotus Quickr since it was renamed and it’s going to be something I have to get to grips with more in the future.
So for now I’m back off to the land of quickplaceSkinComponents and HTML tables and CSS style sheets.

I’m not going to explain any of these.

That’s all folks…..

Maybe some more over the weekend. ;o)

Well I’m back from my holiday/vacation and I have a stack load of work to do, but to add to the grief I have to go to Dublin on Wednesday night for a 2 day training course on Domino XPages. I wholly intend to run this in IBM Hursley for Business Partners soon. So keep watching for more info on that.

Here is a description of what Domino XPages are from the IBM developerWorks Wiki on IBM Lotus Domino web Application Development.

An XPage is a new design element based on JavaServer Faces (JSF) technology that lets developers create Web 2.0 enabled pages for use in Web browser applications running on Domino 8.5. XPages remove the barrier of Web programming in Domino by providing advanced page design capabilities and complete control of the generated markup. They also allow access to any kind of data and provide an easy method for localizing applications. XPages includes the following features:

* AJAX enabled (for example, partial page refresh, type ahead capability, and so on)
* Advanced Web control library (tabbed panel, and so on)
* Full support for styling by using CSS
* Fully extensible by using custom controls (composite controls or Java-based controls) or JSF extensions
* Support for multiple clients (Web, rich client, and so on)
* JavaScript scripting language support for client-side and server-side action
* Pre-built simple actions provided for most common cases
* Direct access to Java libraries on the server


I had to go to the fracture clinic today to find out why my wrist still hurts 4 months after breaking it in a rugby match.
I happened to be in the right place at the right time on a rugby pitch for once, and caught the ball after the first kick-off of the game. Catching the ball I managed to break a bone in my hand/writst and I did the only thing that was sensible to do at the time, I played on for the rest of the match.
Well I wasn’t about to leave my team down to 14 men after only 30 seconds of an 80 minute game. Where’s the glory in that? I iced it at half time and it took me ages to change and shower after the game. I got some food and then drove some of the team mates back to the club house, drove home and explained to the long suffering Mrs C.
A discussion then ensued about going to the hospital that night or waiting till the morning. Needless to say that Mrs C. quite rightly won and off we went to the hospital. 1 1/2 hours later I was walking home with my arm in plaster. 3 weeks until the rugby tour to Barcelona. To say I was down, was a bit mild.
It’s been hurting again since I started playing pre-season rugby again. So I booked myself into the fracture clinic at Frimley Park Hospital as I want to know why it’s still painful and I’ve lost a bunch of range in all movement axis.
The reason this article is titled “Well it’s we on holiday” is that it is. Wet that is. I’m camping with a bunch of buddies and I didn’t sleep well last night. Too hot (Mrs C has bought the thick duvet with us), too much rain and too much on my mind to be able to sleep. And to top it all I woke up at 5am with a bitching hangover. Self inflicted injury, but none the less, definitely not feeling at my best. So I’m awake at 5am and the rain drumming on the tent roof is nagging at that little part of your brain that controls your bladder. I’m going to have to get up and got to the toilet, in the rain, across a field and at 5am.
When I get to hospital at 9:40am they tell me it’s not still broken, (why did I think that?) and it’s probably tendons that have not healed properly, so they are sending me for emergency physiotherapy sessions. They will see me again in 8 weeks time to make sure the physiotherapists have not totally destroyed my wrist and that they don’t need to operate.
Argh.
So I have to wait for a physio appointment now. I know this is going to hurt. A lot. So I’ll keep you all posted so that you can all laugh along as I take it in good humor. Yeah right.

Anyway, back out into the sunshine rain. AGAIN

My blog about our lab space at Lotusphere 2009

Check this out. We are asking YOU, yes you with the green shirt and blue tie in the back row, to tell us what you want to see in our lab at Lotusphere 2009.
So pop on over to the mini blog and let us know if you want to see lots of Portal 6.1, xPages, Widgets or anything else.

It’s not taken me long, only about 18 months, to get this blog fixed but I think I have managed it now.

I had to get the site admin from my webhosting company to disable some security setting to make WordPress work properly. It’s done now so there is no use crying about how long it took me to ask the right question of the support folks.

So you can expect the amount of posts to gently slide up in the coming weeks.

ttfn

I have a corruption in the WordPress db that I still have not had time to properly bugfix, so I am going to reinstall the whole thing and take a backup of the old stuff.
So the blog is going to look a buch empty until I can work out how to import the old entries into the new blog.

Stick with me while I do this and I’ll keep you up to date as to how I get on. Then maybe I’ll start to blog more when my WordPress works properly again.