One post that covers multiple subjects.  Too busy in my head right now to write multiple posts  : )

I am currently having fun with HTML5, particularly UIs for mobile devices like the iPad and Android phones.  HTML5 has very nice features and the syntax will be a bit simpler, which is always a good thing.  There are more and more HTML5 tool kits available and it is a bit hard to follow everyone of them.  I found that it isn’t too hard to take a Notes application and make it iPad ready.  It is a bit hard to test the application using emulators (I mainly use Safari’s capability to send different browser types), but not impossible.  I also feel that the biggest challenge while developing for mobile devices will be a nice and functional UI.  On that matter, I noticed that one of my favorite sites for UI ideas, http://designingwebinterfaces.com/, added cool things for mobile devices.  A nice read for every developer.

Next up in the list of topics today is how XAML, Microsoft’s XML-like code that is turned into a UI with WPF and/or Expression Design, and XSP code are similar.  They are both tag based and although it isn’t necessary to know the syntax that is created for you by the tools (Designer and WPF), it is quite useful when things go wrong.  We all know that XPages don’t have a native radio button control and if we want one we need to edit the “code”.  The same goes for XAML: it has the radio button control but i noted that when you have complex forms or UI, the VS2010 XAML interpreter is often unable to put the XAML back into a graphic format and you need to edit the XAML in plain text.  Are XAML and XPages evil twins???

And to complete this blog entry, an update on my sleep issues.  I will forget the tracheotomy for now.  It has to do with the fact that both my ENT and lung doctor freaked out when I talked about this, and also that even though I found a few people on the Internet that have a trach and are happy with it (10-12 years without major issues), I have read a lot on the subject and there are so many things that can go wrong that I am now willing to try a few alternate solutions, the first one being trying a brand new auto-CPAP.  According to my last sleep study, I have been prescribed an auto-CPAP since the pressure I needed to get a good night of sleep varied from 8 to 14 cm/h20 (those of you who don’t have a clue to what that is, just think of this as a machine that would adjust your tire pressure according to your speed, with high speed needing less pressure from the machine as hot air will create higher pressure on its own, and lower speed will require the machine to push harder as the tire is not generating enough pressure on its own).  Another cool thing too is that the data is saved on a SD card, and I managed to find a copy of the software that reads that data and displays nice graphs.  So I know if had a bad night because I had a lot of events, or just because I had too much chocolate ice cream before going to bed : )

Oh and one last thing, my wife is getting better, to a point where she can now go to the bathroom alone, make her own coffee and eats more “normal” food.  That is a blessing as  it leaves me a lot more time to “play” with the computer and do other stuff.  The CPAP seems to have a good effect too as I am almost done with finishing the wheelchair access ramp and all other modifications required on the balcony where that ramp is located.  Next week, the kids are back to school so things will definitely be better…  Not that I don’t like the kids, but things will be a lot easier to plan!

So that’s the update for today!

Please be honest about this.

I am seriously considering a tracheotomy to fix my sleep apnea issues.  For now, my doctorS (lung and ENT) are totally against it for now, as they say there are other less intrusive methods to control the apnea, but since I’ve been down that “less intrusive” road before, I just don’t feel like repeating all the steps again.

Five years ago, I couldn’t tolerate the CPAP, mainly because I need a facial mask and since I sleep on the sire and have very light sleep, it was just horrible.  Now, they wan me to try the CPAP again?  C’mon guys, I’m getting older, my wife needs a lot of care and I need to get back to work ASAP so please don’t make me go through this again!!!

“Yes, but masks have changed, and you’ll get a APAP machine”.  Wouhou!!!  I already tried about 6 different “new masks” and I kept the one I had 5 years ago.  I also have a nasal one, for the days I’m not too congested.  And the auto pressure thing, it’s nice but without a comfortable maks, what is it really worht?

I found 2 stories on the Net about people who had trachs and they both say the same thing: they would do the same thing today.  One guy has his trach for 10 years+ now and no major issues!  And since this is my second battle against sleep apnea, I’d like to skip all that’s been already tried (for crying out loud, I underwent the super dupper very painful UPPP procedure because I couldn’t stand the CPAP) and skip to the next step.  But nooooooooo, the doctors don’t want to go with the tracheotomy for now, not before we restart trying the CPAP.  So I guess I’ll waste another 6 months of my life with the CPAP and then we’ll talk about next steps and tracheotomy…

The reason I’m asking is that I’ve been told that even though we are an advanced civilization, there are a lot of people who get chills with out of norm humans, and having a trach would certainly put me in that minority.

So, be honest here: would you hire a Lotus Notes consultant who has a tracheotomy?  And if this guy will not only code but meet users and be involved in meetings (after all, I’m quite senior and I would like to come back to the working force as such), would that tracheotomy be a factor in hiring that person over another?

My decision is not final yet, as I have to fool around with the CPAP for a while, but I’m very sick of being sick and in my current situation, I am willing to take whatever action necessary to get back to a normal life the fast way.  I know it won’t be easy every day with a trach, but hey, it’s been pretty darn hard not having it for a while now.

Thanks for being honest about this.  Look deep inside your soul and tell me what you would do, not what you WOULD like you to do   ; )

As an old Maiden fan and a somewhat new Dream Theater fan, there was no way I was going to miss a concert where both bands were performing on the same show.  Although I felt it was a bit weird as Dream Theater could most probably fill the Bell Center on their own, this is one combo I didn’t want to miss.

It was also cool as my youngest daughter came along.  It reminded me of my youth, as I had the same age (14) as her when I saw my first Maiden concert back in 1983, the World Piece Tour.  Some old buddies were also there, and it was great to see them.

As expected, Dream Theater only had half a stage to do their performance, like every opening act.  Not a big deal because from what I have seen from previous DT shows, they are not a highly visual band (I saw the Live in Budokan show on DVD).  Who cares, as the show is called Portnoy and Petrucci.  And we were not disappointed.

Right on the second minute of the first song, the sound cut off due to a technical issue.  While searching who’s the idiot that walked on a wire was, Portnoy started entertaining us with is drums.  Amazing that an “unmiced” drum can be heard all over the arena!  As the delay was longer and longer, Mike then started playing Run to the Hills, having us sing and cheer.  Very well done mister Portnoy, and what an amazing idea to keep us busy.  And then, the bass drum came back to life.  Wow…  People screamed like crazy and the show started again.

The set list was basically tracks taken from their greatest hits (As I am, pull me under) and a very few songs from the last 2 albums.  I would have liked more new songs, as I am more familiar with the last 2 CDs, but then again, I would have liked a full 3 hours of Dream Theater.  Still, they played “A Rite of Passage” and my daughter really enjoyed this one (it’s one of the very few DT songs she has on her iPod!).  The guys were amazing, right on, and in great shape although it was a very hot day in Montreal.  We had an impressive moment where Petrucci and Rudess were both together playing a very complex musical part, and seeing them side by side like this was just amazing.  That sequence was the highlight of the DT show for me.

They had a great ovation once the show was over.  I think that people really enjoyed and by talking to some of my “neighbors”, some knew DT and some didn’t, but all appreciated the music.  But now, with the song “Doctor Doctor” playing fairly loud, we knew the Maiden show was about to begin.

First funny feeling is that this was a show for an album that isn’t out yet.  The final Frontier comes out August 17th in Canada, and yet the tour was already under way.  If you are a Maiden fan, then you are most probably on the mailing list and you were able to download the first single, “El Dorado”.  I sure did, and I was glad to as the song was in the set list.

Bruce made clear early in the show that this show was about the latest albums, up to Brave New World, and a few old songs.  This is somewhat interesting, as it seems Maiden are looking forward, not too much in the past.  Yes, there are classics, but I mean they have been around for so long, and they have done shows about the early years and mid career that it was OK to focus on newer material.  They could play for 4 hours and fans wouldn’t still have enough!

Bruce also asked who was at their first Maiden show.  Surprisingly, a lot of people yelled, my daughter included.  Bruce then welcomed them to the Iron Maiden family.  And all of this was done in a very good French, getting more respect from the “newbies”.  I’m sure newer fans know the newer albums, just like me and Dream Theater, so it kind of put more light on the set list they had for that tour.  I guess they are planning to outlast Kiss!!!

I almost forgot, but Bruce payed a tribute to Ronnie James Dio.  It was a very intense moment, as all the crowd raised their hands doing the devil’s horns, classic Dio gesture, paying respect to the man and his career.  I’m pretty sure that at least half the crowd knew Dio’s music, as his career was so long, and he was the opening act on the last Maiden tour.  One more addition to the “why I love Mainden so much” column: so much respect.

Small disappointment though with special effects.  Or the lack of, that is.  I am used to some flames, fireworks and drums being lifted on an hydraulic platform to show a big Eddie underneath Nicko.  I accidentally saw pictures of the set on the Internet showing a futuristic scenery, and Nicko up in the aire, with Eddie’s face under the drums, and hands showing at the ends of each sidewalks, just like the “Somewhere on Tour show” (see Stranger in a strange land video). But we’ve seen none of that in Montreal.  Was it the heat, a missing truck, I don’t know.  The fact remains that I was expecting a bit more.

But we did get the giant walking Eddie on the stage.  Now looking more like a Terminator, he was pretty cool as his fingers were very “mobile” and he can be equipped with a real guitar, jamming with the rest of the boys in the song where he always appear, Iron Maiden.  He also had a camera on his head, making us see his POV on the big  screens.  Nice to see how he’s looking down on Jannick Gers when fighting him off!!!

So, as always, a very entertaining night with Iron Maiden.  A bite more cool than usual, as the opening act was really great (mind you, they had Dio as opener on the last tour and they also had Rob Halford on the Brave New World tour) and my daughter being there.  My buddy Vinnie, who initially bought the tickets a while back, when I was still working, was really kind and gave me an almost indefinite period to pay him back.  That is very nice from him.  I love you, Vinnie!

Some of you may have notice that my blog changed a bit: it went from the Blogsphere template to Worpress.  Why you may ask.  Here is the answer: I don’t have a server anymore.

You see, my wife is not in great shape, having a yet to be diagnosed properly sickness, close to multiple sclerosis or what they call the yuppi syndrome.  Whatever it is, it is physically showing up as weakness in legs and arms, fatigue and other muscles having a hard time (hard time swallowing and talking these days).

On top of that, my sleep apnea problems surfaces again.  I had a somewhat major surgery about 5 years ago (UPPP) and it was suppose to fix the problem.  After almost a year of investigation, it turns out the apnea is back.  We didn’t search in that direction first because we thought it was fixed and buried deep.  And to make matters worst, my apnea is almost twice as bad as the first time I was diagnosed with this shitty problem.  Looking back, I now know why I hard such a hard time remembering my to dos and learning new things.

So because of that, I haven’t been working full time since July 2009.  Of course, it came a bit hard on the wallet, and we had to fall back on what is called social solidarity here in Quebec.  Basically, it’s the government giving you money as you went through all you had and you have some disease preventing you from working.  It is stated as being a last resort resource, and believe me, it is.  Still better than nothing though.  As a freelancer for a while now, I don’t have such a thing as an invalidity insurance: can’t get one anymore since the first sleep apnea diagnosis

Besides emptying our bank accounts and all we had, we also needed to get rid of our company in order to get the social solidarity money.  That was a bit hard, as we had a few clients hosted on a Domino server we owned and hosting revenues are easy money (well, not-too-complicated-to-get money).  And of course, my blog was on that server as well, so I had to think about what I would do with my blog when the server was going to be turned off.

So here I am, on WordPress.  I didn’t take time to compare a lot of products (blogspot, and so on) and WordPress had all these cool themes.  So why not.  It’s not as flexible as a Domino based blog, but I,ll do for now, until I get my apnea under control and get back to a more normal life.

I’m still learning WordPress, so things might improve a bit over time, and I will continue to blog about my professional life, as I still want to do Domino stuff, and I have been approached for pretty cool Notes/Domino HTML 5 development in September.  It’s still far away, as I am not planning further than the next few days, but it is very cool stuff and I like toying around with new things.  So cool content should be coming in September, hopefully.

Now back to taming that third CPAP mask I’m trying…

Well, I’ve been silent for a while, but I still follow what’s happening in the Yellow world, and like many of you, I followed the weird story that happened between Yancy and Jake.  My comment could be summarized by this one sentence: this should not have come public, period.

Jake has been a very valuable Lotus resource for many years and you can’t deny all the work he has done for us, yellow dudes.  He had off topic posts before and we never really complained, as they were fun, interesting or valuable in some way.  Now with his current SharePoint project, why would this be different?  After all, he is a Domino developer doing, or trying to do SP development, and I’m sure many Lotus Notes developers are already faced with some SP installation in some department at the office.  So yes, I feel Jake’s content is relevant and should stay on Planet Lotus.

Looking at it from Yancy’s point of view, I can understand that he wants to keep both sites clean, with content that apply to each respective site.  I totally agree with that, and it is indeed a good thing because we know which planet to visit depending on the info we want.  If it would be all mixed up, we would have to visit both planets and since that would be time consuming, I can see some people just moving to another site for relevant information on their topic of choice.

So, both guys are good dudes, just trying to share information in a structured way.  For now, Jake’s articles, even though they relate to SharePoint, have their place on Planet Lotus.  If Jake becomes a SP expert, and his articles begin to be fairly technical then they should be moved to Planet SharePoint.

Hey, I did a bunch of articles where I was covering the conversion of a Notes application to .Net and to me, it made sense to put this on Planet Lotus.  Mind you, it would probably make a good reading for a .Net site somewhere as well.

Bottom line is that this thing should have been kept between the two guys and never go public.  Yancy is right to have some concerns and Jake is also right on the fact that his posts are relevant to us, PL readers.  Why make such a deal with all this?

That’s my 2 Canadian cents

This is where my blog will be located starting in June.  It might be more personal, more French, or just a place holder for when I’ll get back on tracks and start feeling like writing again.