tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6966388Tue, 30 Sep 2008 23:43:54 +0000Cratchit.org maintains the VIC CRM and TimeTool open source projects.http://www.cratchit.org/blog/noreply@blogger.com (Dave Leigh)Blogger110125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6966388.post-5623881800379232875Wed, 24 Sep 2008 13:41:00 +00002008-09-24T09:24:19.304-07:00"Out of the box" VIC CRM is geared toward the worker who spends most of his time in front of the computer and on the phone. When you create a new JournalEntry the default JournalEntry type is always "Phone Call". The rationale here is simple: when you receive a phone call you need to be able to start documenting it as soon as possible, with no delays at all. Other systems require you to gather http://www.cratchit.org/blog/2008/09/using-vic-managing-calls.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Dave Leigh)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6966388.post-3185052647771859122Mon, 15 Sep 2008 19:26:00 +00002008-09-15T13:13:37.231-07:00In my last Using VIC post, I described how to use Projects to manage complicated groups of tasks. These can be generic projects of the sort you'd use Microsoft Project for; or Sales oriented methodologies to help you manage a sale from working the lead to closing the contract. I also promised I'd show you how to turn the Project into a Sales Order and an Invoice. Remember that a Sales Project http://www.cratchit.org/blog/2008/09/using-vic-from-project-to-sale.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Dave Leigh)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6966388.post-3417076982276740063Fri, 12 Sep 2008 04:53:00 +00002008-09-11T22:05:27.744-07:00For several years I've been distributing VIC CRM without any setup program. As a result, only hardcore bleed-yellow Lotus geeks have been able to get it to work without assistance. Well, I'm just about finished with the VIC Installer. If you're running Notes and want to be the first kid on the block to try this out -- pre-release -- email me with "Guinea Pig" in the subject. You shouldn't have http://www.cratchit.org/blog/2008/09/guinea-pig-wanted.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Dave Leigh)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6966388.post-6347065951242617308Sun, 07 Sep 2008 13:23:00 +00002008-09-07T06:57:21.540-07:00Last time I described how to use the basic features of VIC to facilitate the GTD (Getting Things Done) method of time management. This time I'll be describing how to manage a larger group of tasks as a VIC Project. If you're using GTD principles you would use Projects to schedule and manage complicated work that can't be done in a few sittings or by one person. Projects is a new feature of VIC. http://www.cratchit.org/blog/2008/09/using-vic-projects-and-tasks.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Dave Leigh)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6966388.post-8749325876297898042Sat, 06 Sep 2008 12:23:00 +00002008-09-06T11:59:00.605-07:00On a typical day I'll get dozens of emails ranging from newsletters and ads to requests for service (of various priorities). How do we turn these into actions? And how does VIC expedite the process? Does it work with GTD (Getting Things Done)? If you're familiar with VIC CRM you already know that it automatically organizes your mail as it's imported into the VIC Journal. This means it's easily http://www.cratchit.org/blog/2008/09/using-vic-getting-things-done.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Dave Leigh)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6966388.post-6102816708663512694Wed, 03 Sep 2008 13:19:00 +00002008-09-03T07:15:07.399-07:00Google's released it's own browser, Chrome. Other people are doing in-depth reviews, so I won't. (Here are a couple: ComputerWorld. ZDNet.) However, I'd like to pass on a few first impressions. In doing so, I can't help but make comparisons to my favorite browser, Firefox. I doing the review I found a MAJOR show-stopper for the adoption of Chrome, Docs, or any SaaS from Google. I'm saving the http://www.cratchit.org/blog/2008/09/chrome-google-does-evil.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Dave Leigh)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6966388.post-8515110584280182230Wed, 27 Aug 2008 16:28:00 +00002008-08-27T12:04:25.091-07:00In my last post I talked a bit about how it's our fault as programmers if users are confused by the user interface metaphors we use. We do use a lot of metaphors in programming, and mangle and mix most of them. Last post it was using "print screen" as a metaphor for copying the screen rather than as a literal command to print the screen. Users are understandably dumbfounded by the nonsensical http://www.cratchit.org/blog/2008/08/more-on-broken-metaphors.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Dave Leigh)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6966388.post-2937067610714689485Wed, 27 Aug 2008 08:50:00 +00002008-08-27T10:54:05.084-07:00In the "Shark Bait" forum of ComputerWorld I found this interesting item: Topic(s): Floundering Users Submitted by: jeitzen – Mon, 08/25/2008 – 08:45 Got in this morning and found a message waiting for me in the support inbox. When I push the print screen button on my keyboard to get a screen print to attach to a document, the print screen never prints. Please advise Thank you Like Ihttp://www.cratchit.org/blog/2008/08/metaphors-and-clueless-users-it-support.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Dave Leigh)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6966388.post-718072376294975514Sat, 16 Aug 2008 00:11:00 +00002008-08-15T17:55:14.640-07:00I've been EXTREMELY busy. Unfortunately, I haven't been busy with VIC CRM... I've had some bills to pay. As for details, you're not getting any. But I expect to be able to have a nice update for VIC CRM by Halloween. For now, I've done a bit of a bug fix for some annoying errors with VIC's email. WARNING: This is for Lotus geeks. For everyone else, I'm putting together some new templates. http://www.cratchit.org/blog/2008/08/so-whats-been-going-on.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Dave Leigh)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6966388.post-8416507798983865619Thu, 10 Jul 2008 15:42:00 +00002008-07-10T12:44:22.990-07:00To my post, How to Configure Lotus Notes for GMail, I received the following comment from "Stephanie". The answer is a little long for a comment, so I'm posting it here. Who knew you'd still have comments about a 2 year old posting :) My team is testing the Google Apps, gmail service. So, essentially, I can send e-mails through the web-based gmail client from my work domain name. Google Apps http://www.cratchit.org/blog/2008/07/to-my-post-how-to-configure-lotus-notes.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Dave Leigh)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6966388.post-8061951045903921148Tue, 01 Jul 2008 21:40:00 +00002008-07-01T15:05:04.375-07:00On the last day of June Microsoft quietly announced that they would be releasing the technical specifications of the binary formats for Microsoft Office. This includes Word, Excel, Powerpoint, and the Drawing specifications for Office 97-2007. It is licensed under the "Microsoft Open Specification Promise" (OSP) which may (or may not) be compatible with software licensed under the GPL. Opinions http://www.cratchit.org/blog/2008/07/goodbye-monopoly-hello-competition.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Dave Leigh)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6966388.post-2724791980754250394Sat, 24 May 2008 14:51:00 +00002008-05-24T09:34:57.785-07:00As reported by David Worthington in the SDTimes, Office 2007 won't support ISO's OOXML. That's the XML format that Microsoft spent so much time and lobbying effort to "fasttrack" through the standards process, and which is based upon the XML formats of Microsoft Office (MS Office's XML formats are similar to, but not compliant with, OOXML). Citing lack of demand, Microsoft will forego support http://www.cratchit.org/blog/2008/05/microsoft-adopts-odf-do-thou-likewise.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Dave Leigh)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6966388.post-6666289495292924751Sat, 17 May 2008 20:15:00 +00002008-05-17T13:31:51.754-07:00I participate quite a bit on ZDNet (time permitting, and assuming the current crop of bloggers there have anything worth commenting on). However, posting on the Talkback forums stinks, mainly because of the lack of a Preview option. Firefox and Greasemonkey to the rescue! Download and install them from the two links if you don't already have them. Then, if you have Greasemonkey installed, http://www.cratchit.org/blog/2008/05/adding-preview-to-zdnet.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Dave Leigh)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6966388.post-7590894509767127636Thu, 24 Apr 2008 04:20:00 +00002008-04-24T06:38:21.908-07:00On his blog, Michael Robertson reports, "A New York Judge has denied a request by EMI to force MP3tunes to turn over all music files for its 125,000 users. For now, this means the contents of personal music Lockers will remain private. " This is is great news. MP3tunes rightly argues that the contents of the online Lockers are private, much like a safety deposit box at the bank. They also cite http://www.cratchit.org/blog/2008/04/court-ruling-denies-emi-access-to.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Dave Leigh)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6966388.post-2536035807617373273Wed, 09 Apr 2008 00:32:00 +00002008-04-08T18:04:15.239-07:00As reported by Mary Jo Foley today, Microsoft is adding the "Genuine Advantage" nags to Microsoft Office. In case you've been living under a rock, "Genuine Advantage" is the anti-piracy measure that debuted in Windows XP. The one that mistakenly tagged large numbers of users as pirates and cut off access to their machines. Now it's a kinder and gentler "Advantage" that just sits there and nags http://www.cratchit.org/blog/2008/04/microsoft-nags-you-to-dump-office.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Dave Leigh)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6966388.post-5601263496759074756Sat, 29 Mar 2008 17:38:00 +00002008-03-31T05:19:41.236-07:00As reported on SlashDot and elsewhere, Creative Labs has issued a C&D (cease and desist) order against a user, "Daniel_K", who modified the Creative drivers to work under Vista. (I kind of like Reddit's take on it: "Creative launches "Don't Buy Our Sound Cards" campaign; puts legal screws to 3rd party Vista driver modder") Just so you get it in context, here is the post on Creative's website. http://www.cratchit.org/blog/2008/03/this-is-why-you-should-prefer-open.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Dave Leigh)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6966388.post-7954887489123510629Mon, 11 Feb 2008 23:53:00 +00002008-02-11T16:49:39.636-08:00I've been up to my eyeballs in work, but I wanted to take a few minutes off to mention this before the news was completely stale. Too late. I'm going to comment anyway. As of about five hours ago, the Associated Press (AP) is reporting that repairs are complete on the two undersea Internet cables that were cut last week. Earlier they reported that the cause was an abandoned anchor. They http://www.cratchit.org/blog/2008/02/who-cut-line.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Dave Leigh)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6966388.post-3519007411531142605Mon, 04 Feb 2008 16:53:00 +00002008-02-04T09:20:28.088-08:00Running through my SpamTrap, I noticed a couple of messages from the "Internal Revenue Service". It seems they owe me money and want me to update my information. Here's the text of the shorter of the two: After the last annual calculations of your fiscal activity we have determined that you are eligible to receive a tax refund of $188.40. Please submit the tax refund request and allow us 6-9 http://www.cratchit.org/blog/2008/02/irs-phishing-scam.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Dave Leigh)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6966388.post-8156180772927358120Sat, 02 Feb 2008 04:35:00 +00002008-02-01T20:37:41.620-08:00It's all over the news. Microsoft is offering over 44 Billion USD for Yahoo! ...and I couldn't care less.http://www.cratchit.org/blog/2008/02/microsoft-makes-yahoo-offer.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Dave Leigh)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6966388.post-2889993699631197493Fri, 11 Jan 2008 13:05:00 +00002008-01-11T19:33:31.346-08:00Last night my kids wound up getting me involved in a "last minute" assignment... a historical report about the Romans and the Greeks. Rather than do this as a traditional report, they decided to produce a video using a technique called "machinima" (using video game characters as their actors). The game they chose was Runescape, and they used CamStudio (open source) to capture bits of the game. (http://www.cratchit.org/blog/2008/01/video-editing-made-easy-really-really.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Dave Leigh)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6966388.post-8015124639106573835Thu, 03 Jan 2008 17:37:00 +00002008-01-03T09:51:42.777-08:00I've recently moved my Wiki to a new server, so the links that were previously broken on my navigator pane should now be working. I'm in desperate need of some assistance in putting together documentation for VIC CRM, and the Wiki si the best way to share this work. So please, if you're using VIC and you've got a moment, give this a go. Also, I'd like to take a moment to send a heartfelt thankshttp://www.cratchit.org/blog/2008/01/second-go-at-wiki-and-thanks-anlx.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Dave Leigh)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6966388.post-4169090634533204156Thu, 27 Dec 2007 21:09:00 +00002007-12-27T13:28:06.328-08:00I don't make a whole lot of predictions. It's always tough to go on the record with a hard prediction. Some of those that I have made in the past are: I totally missed the boat on paperless medical software... actually it was more like the boat wasn't built yet. I designed and pushed a paperless medical office a full fifteen years before the market was ready for it. I couldn't give the stuff awayhttp://www.cratchit.org/blog/2007/12/my-crystal-ball-says_27.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Dave Leigh)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6966388.post-8814205027714913052Fri, 21 Dec 2007 21:34:00 +00002007-12-21T13:56:39.740-08:00I've been working on a "stealth" project for a while now. While TicketDemon is a GPL project, I have pretty much developed it behind closed doors up to now. TicketDemon is simple management software for the trucking industry, particularly in the delivery of bulk materials by weight. This would be the bulk hauling of earth, ash, bricks, concrete, scrap, feed... anything that's weighed. It gathershttp://www.cratchit.org/blog/2007/12/introducing-ticketdemon.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Dave Leigh)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6966388.post-6505537631586073368Fri, 21 Dec 2007 16:59:00 +00002007-12-21T09:10:36.106-08:00By way of SearchDomino.com here's a great tip for globally adjusting your font sizes in Lotus Notes. As it turns out, Notes can do that, and has been able to for a long while... I tried it in R6.5 and it works great. As screen resolutions get huge it's nice to know that we can adjust accordingly to keep things readable without having to re-design every design element in a database. I like the http://www.cratchit.org/blog/2007/12/great-tip-from-searchdomino.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Dave Leigh)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6966388.post-3553745080736351664Sat, 15 Dec 2007 01:48:00 +00002007-12-15T08:35:46.639-08:00By way of Ed Brill's blog, I stumbled upon this from David Gurteen, entitled "Don't let the IT Departments stifle Social Computing as they did Lotus Notes!"Gurteen's premise is that "it was the IT dempartments that effectively stifled Lotus Notes," and warns of the same fate overtaking social networking (wikis and blogs). Just click through and read it... otherwise the following commentary won'thttp://www.cratchit.org/blog/2007/12/tis-season-to-be-sharing-knowledge-that.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Dave Leigh)