Old Blog Post

 In a blog entry from 06/23/2010, Charles Carreon (the lawyer who is suing The Oatmeal), posts about the outcome of the case Viacom vs. Google. Youtube, owned by Google, allowed their users to upload copyrighted material, and they then benefited financially from this through the sale of ads on the site. Exactly the same activity that his client FunnyJunk engages in.

As that blog entry in retrospect is somewhat embarrassing for Mr Carreon, he took that down. But since the internet never forgets, Google still got the page cached. Some interesting quotes:

If Google can generate ad revenue by taking in every kind of content without distinction, and make money on the infringing attractions, then Google can “work the float,” and always have enough infringing content to keep its blood pressure up at the expense of copyright holders. The only way that content owners can act proactively is by implementing digital “fingerinting technology” through the “Claim Your Content” system that Google uses as its only screening mechanism. Fingerprinting your content is not, however, cheap.
…
Please don’t take me for a copyright hawk, but this seems like a ruling that benefits a company that has made a habit of turning other people’s work into their payday, and is being encouraged to keep on doing it.

Here is an image of the page as well, as retrieved from Google this morning:

Click image for larger/high resolution version. Source: Google cache

Disclaimer: The blog entry is reproduced under “fair use”.

This last week we have seen two high profile examples of how you can screw up and make a total idiot of yourself on the internet. With social networks like twitter and Facebook, news spread quickly, and if it is perceived that there is something unfair going on, expect furious people to share it. When you or I, with perhaps a couple of hundred Facebook friends and twitter followers, post about it, it will still spread, but slowly. But when people like Jamie Oliver (2.5 million followers) or Neil Gaiman (1.7 million followers) tweet about it, things start spreading like wild fire.

The first example is The Case of The Thief Suing His Victim. Most of you are probably familiar with the online cartoon The Oatmeal. Matthew Inman, the guy behind all the funny cartoons, complained a year ago that a website called FunnyJunk was full of his drawings. FunnyJunk allow their users to post material (from a quick glance it looks like a large part of the contents is copyrighted material), and then when complaints are sent to them just blame the users, while cashing the checks for all the advertising on the site. Matthew blogged about FunnyJunk doing this about a year ago, and described their business model:

Here’s how FunnyJunk.com’s business operates:
1.Gather funny pictures from around the internet
2.Host them on FunnyJunk.com
3.Slather them in advertising
4.If someone claims copyright infringement, throw your hands up in the air and exclaim "It was our users who uploaded your photos! We had nothing to do with it! We’re innocent!"
5.Cash six figure advertising checks from other artist’s stolen material

 

Last week, Matthew was served with papers, demanding him to pay FunnyJunk $20,000 or be sued. FunnyJunk had hired Charles Carreon as their lawyer, who wrote that letter.
Matthew responded publicly here: http://theoatmeal.com/blog/funnyjunk_letter
I highly suggest reading the whole thing. It is extremely amusing.

So Matthew sets up a fundraiser. Not to raise money to pay off FunnyJunk, but to split even between the National Wildlife Federation and the American Cancer Society. He raised the $20,000. In 64 minutes! The amount collected by "Operation BearLove Good. Cancer Bad." is currently at $169,000. However, the lawyer, Charles Carreon, is trying to shut down the fund raiser, according to MSNBC. He is also complaining that he was not expecting an outpour of hate and people being upset at him, or having his mom accused trying to seduce a Kodiak bear (the drawing is supposed to be of the mom of the FunnyJunk admin/owner, not the lawyer, by the way). Very strange that someone who market himself as a cyber attorney is so clueless to how the internet works. He should lookup the Streisand effect, as well.

Even other lawyers chime in. The law-blog PopeHat.com uses some strong words:

So, The Oatmeal tried to turn this into something good ?something that would benefit wildlife protection and cancer research ?and Charles Carreon had a snit and tried to shut it down because it was embarrassing to him and his client?

Fuck him. He’s vermin. He’s not forgivable. Let any good he has ever done be wiped out. Let the name "Charles Carreon" be synonymous with petulant, amoral censorious douchebaggery.

 

Another lawyer, who supposedly knows Charles Carreon, is also quoted on the same page:

Despite my earlier charitable comments, I can not find any words to defend trying to shut the fundraiser down. I can’t even gin up a minor benefit of the doubt on that one. I can see an ill-considered demand as a mistake in judgment while hoping to gain an advantage for your client. But taking a shot at the fundraiser would not do that ?it would just be lashing out to hurt bears and cancer patients? Holy fucking shitballs inside a burning biplane careening toward the Statue of Liberty, Captain! I hope that the reporter merely got the story wrong, because if not, that’s more fucked up than a rhino raping a chinchilla while dressed up in unicorns’ undergarments.

 

It will be interesting to see the outcome of this. The twitterverse seems to have the consensus that Charles Carreon just committed career suicide.

The second example is The Case of NeverSeconds. A nine year old girl, Martha Payne (who blog under the name VEG), started a blog called NeverSeconds, where she posted pictures of her school lunches, as well as described them (contents, taste, etc). This is a great blog!

Picture by Martha Payne, from this blog entry. 

The blog went viral recently, and children in other countries are sending her pictures of their lunches. Martha is also raising money for Mary´s Meals, a charity trying to feed poor children. UK newspapers started writing stories about the blog and how the schools should serve healthier (and bigger) meals for the kids.

However, on Thursday Martha posted a message titled "Goodbye.":

This morning in maths I got taken out of class by my head teacher and taken to her office. I was told that I could not take any more photos of my school dinners because of a headline in a newspaper today.

I only write my blog not newspapers and I am sad I am no longer allowed to take photos. I will miss sharing and rating my school dinners and I´ll miss seeing the dinners you send me too. I don´t think I will be able to finish raising enough money for a kitchen for Mary´s Meals either.

Goodbye,
VEG

 

The school board decided to stop Martha from taking pictures. Supposedly one of the newspapers who picked up the story about her blog had called for the lunch ladies to be fired. So it was not even something Martha did.

This story was picked up by UK and international news outlets, and celebrities like Jamie Oliver and Neil Gaiman posted on twitter in support of Martha. Her charity went from ,000 to (currently) 7,000strike> 8.000 (and it keeps going up) in a few days! Donate you too.

After a media- and twitter frenzy, and after the members of the
school board of Argyll and Bute were contacted by the education secretary of Scotland, the ban was lifted today. The school board first posted this statement, still trying to shift blame to Martha. They then retracted that and posted another statement. I suspect that the first statement is how the council really felt, that government officials should not be allowed to be criticized. They were probably forced by higher-ups and more outrage to withdraw the first statement and replace it with another one.

This is a great example on how NOT to act when criticized. Basically a hug PR fiasco.

So there you have it, two great examples of a website/lawyer and a group of politicians who dug themselves a hole, and then kept digging. I have a feeling that that school board will be gone at the next election. And that the FunnyJunk lawsuit will be thrown out of court quickly, if it even get there. By the way, Matthew Inman have retained Venkat Balasubramani to handle the case:

I have discovered that The Oatmeal is represented by none other than Venkat Balasubramani, who will lay a motherfucking smackdown if you make him. While The Oatmeal´s response is funnier, Venkat brings his A-Game here.

 

Let´s bring out the popcorn! But first, go and send some money to the bears/to stop cancer and to feed the children.

Update: Martha is back! Monday she will take a new picture and post. Also, her fund raiser is now up to 2,300″…”

May 25, 1977. Imagine it has been 35 years”…”

When the first movie (then called just "Star Wars", later renamed "Episode IV ?A New Hope") was released in Sweden, the age restriction was set to 11 years. With a parent you were allowed to see it even if you were younger. I was 8 years old, but my parents did not want to go see it.
It was not until "Episode VI ?The Return of The Jedi" was released in 1983 that I actually got to see the two first movies. They were shown back-to-back with a short break in-between, and a few days later the last movie premiered.

I had of course read the book that was released around the time the original Star Wars came out, so I was familiar with the story even before watching the movie. As a young boy, I really enjoyed the movies, and I still do. I recently watched "Episode I ?The Phantom Menace" in 3D.
I am however slightly irritated at George Lucas and how he keep changing the movies”…”

From Wikipedia:

Star Wars debuted on Wednesday, May 25, 1977, in 32 theaters, and eight more on Thursday and Friday. It immediately broke box-office records, effectively becoming one of the first blockbuster films, and Fox accelerated plans to broaden its release.
 
Star Wars remains one of the most financially successful films of all time. The film earned $1,554,475 through its opening weekend, eventually earning over $220 million during its initial theatrical run. Star Wars entered international release towards the end of the year, earning $410 million in total. Reissues in 1978, 1979, 1981 and 1982 brought its cumulative gross in Canada and the U.S. to $323 million, and extended its global earnings to $530 million.
 
Following the release of the Special Edition in 1997, Star Wars briefly reclaimed the North American record before losing it again the following year to Titanic. In total, the film has earned $775,398,007 worldwide (including $460,998,007 in North America alone). Adjusted for inflation, it has earned $2.5 billion worldwide at 2011 prices, making it the most successful franchise film of all-time; at the North American box-office it ranks second behind Gone with the Wind on the inflation-adjusted list.

I saw a question in the DeveloperWorks forum about retrieving a web page (in this particular case in order to get some data out of it), and realized that I never posted my HTML retrieval class…

So without further ado, here it is. It should be fairly self-documenting… Create a new object, then call the GetHTTP method with a URL to get a string representing the HTML code of that URL.  This is Windows only, by the way.

Class RemoteHTML
  Private httpObject As Variant
  Public httpStatus As Integer
 
  Public Sub New()
    Set httpObject = CreateObject("MSXML2.ServerXMLHTTP")
  End Sub

  Public Function GetHTTP(httpURL As String) As String
    Dim retries As Integer
    retries = 0 
    Do
      If retries>1 Then
        Sleep 1   ' After the two first calls, introduce a 1 second delay betwen each call
      End If
      retries = retries + 1
      Call httpObject.open("GET", httpURL, False)
      Call httpObject.send()
      httpStatus = httpObject.Status
      If retries >= 10 Then
        httpStatus = 0     ' Timeout
      End If
    Loop Until httpStatus = 200 Or httpStatus > 500 Or httpStatus = 404 Or httpStatus = 0
    If httpStatus = 200 Then
      GetHTTP = Left$(httpObject.responseText,16000)
    Else
      GetHTTP = ""
    End If
  End Function

End Class

Dear IBM,

I like that I now can use database icons with more than 16 fixed colors. I have updated pretty much all our applications (or is it called databases again?) with new and modern looking icons. The users likes it too.

However, with the old icon editor,it was easy to use the flood-fill tool to add a (in my case red) background to all templates. This made it very easy to differentiate between applications and templates. There is no option like that when I use the new database icons, I have to make a second icon in Photoshop and manually re-color it.

Why not add some kind of indicator to the application icon, to show that it is a template?  Below is my attempt to design something.  You see the red indicator that it is a template, you see the version number of the template and the server at the bottom is alwasy visible, as it is in a section of it's own.

As you see above, I use version numbers on my templates. Would it be too much to ask for a version number property and have the version number displayed on at least the template icon, like I have in my image above?
The version number should be transferred over to the application at design refresh time. The build number could be automatically updated when a "Recompile All Lotusscript" is performed, or automatically when any design element is modified and the build number has not been updated the same day already. A fully manual option shold also be available. How the build number gets updated should be an option in the settings for Domino Designer.

Of course, you need to create a way to access the version number programatically. Something like this:

 Dim version as NotesVersionNumberSet version = db.VersionNumberPrint version.Major ' Returns 1 Print version.Minor ' Returns 3 Print version.Revision ' Returns 0 Print version.Build ' Returns 1234 Print version.FullVersion ' Returns "1.3.0.1234" 

A formula function like @AppVersionNumber would be nice as well.

Thank you,

Your friend Karl-Henry

The other day, Ed Brill invited comments on what IBM should focus on in regard to improvements for upcoming versions of Notes and Domino.
Today he posted a chart showing the result: 

I used that chart as a base for a simple survey using SurveyMonkey.
Feel free to fill it out. Let's see what that survey will show…

Back in 2003 or so, I wrote some code to take a form letter (stored in a Notes document) and merge that with data stored in another Notes document in order to create a personalized letter that could be printed or emailed. Back then we were still on Notes 5, so very limited rich text functionality and no budget to purchase Ben’s excellent Midas LSX. The end result worked, but any formatting in the form letter template was lost.

Eventually we upgraded to Notes 7 and later to Notes 8.5. Now I had much more rich text functionality to play with, so I rewrote the code as a class. I added some additional functionality, like formatting values using a mask, and some lookup functionality. The class support all kind of formatting in the form letter template, including fonts, colors, tables, graphics, etc.

This is what a typical form letter look like:

As you can see, the placeholders are using curly brackets to hold either a field name or a command. The commands are indicated by the percent sign (%). There can also be different arguments, for formatting, lookup into the NAB/Domino Directory, etc. I even have functionality to present a nice dialog box where the user can pick recipient from a list of everyone associated with the claim (as this is from a claim system used by an insurance company).

Here is a description of the syntax for the placeholders:

And now the code, from a script library called Class.MailMerge.
Right now I don’t have the time to move the code out of my application and build a working sample database (the form letters are actually stored in a separate database), but I hope that this code can still help someone.

Option Public
Option Declare

'*** Script Library for MailMerge, preserving formatting in Rich Text field
'*** Requires Notes 6.5 or higher (tested in 7.0, 8.0 and 8.5)
'*** Copyright (c) Karl-Henry Martinsson 2003-2012
'*** Email: texasswede@gmail.com
'*** Websites: www.texasswede.com & blog.texasswede.com
'*** This code can be user in any application, as long as this notice
'*** is left intact. Also, the copyright information must be published in
'*** any documentation and on the About page, or similar location visible
'*** to the users, if they can not easily view/access the source code.
'*** If this code saves you time and helps you, consider a donation.

Const TYPE_FIELD = 1
Const TYPE_CMD = 2
Dim picklist List As NotesDocument 
Dim variable List As String

Class PlaceHolderData
    Public placeholderstring As String
    Public placeholdertype As Integer
    Public fieldname As String
    Public fieldtype As Long
    Public command As String
    Public argument List As String
    Public text As String 

    Public Sub New(Byval placeholder As String)
        ' Store the original placeholder
        placeholderstring = placeholder        
        ' Strip out curly brackets before and after
        placeholder = Mid$(placeholder,2,Len(placeholder)-2)
        If Left$(placeholder,1) = "%" Then    ' Check if it is a command
            Me.placeholdertype = TYPE_CMD
            ' Remove the % in front of the command
            placeholder = Right$(placeholder,Len(placeholder)-1)    
        Else
            Me.placeholdertype = TYPE_FIELD
        End If
        Call ParsePlaceHolder(placeholder)
    End Sub

    Private Sub ParsePlaceHolder(Byval placeholder As String)
        Dim startpos As Integer 
        Dim midpos As Integer 
        Dim endpos As Integer 
        Dim args As Integer                            ' Boolean to indicate argements present or not
        Dim argstring As String
        Dim qt As Integer 
        Dim eq As Integer
        Dim char As String
        Dim argname As String
        Dim argvalue As String
        Dim i As Integer

        ' First we need to find the end of the command or field.
        ' It is either at the end of the placeholder or when we encounter a space
        endpos = Instr(placeholder," ")            ' Search for space
        If endpos = 0 Then                                ' No space, e.g. no arguments
            endpos = Len(placeholder)                
            args = False
        Else                                                    ' We have some arguments
            endpos = endpos -1                        ' Reduce by one to get rid of trailing space
            args = True
        End If
        If Me.placeholdertype = TYPE_CMD Then
            Me.command = Ucase(Left$(placeholder,endpos))
        Else
            Me.fieldname = Left$(placeholder,endpos)            
        End If
        If args = True Then 
        ' Add code here to get arguments
            argstring = Fulltrim(Right$(placeholder,Len(placeholder)-endpos)    )    ' Get arguments only
            qt = False
            eq = False
            For i = 1 To Len(argstring)
                char = Mid$(argstring,i,1)    ' Get character
                If eq = True Then
                    argvalue=argvalue & char
                Else
                    argname=argname & char
                End If

                If char = |"| Then                    ' We found a quote
                    If qt = False Then
                        qt = True                        
                    Else
                        qt = False
                    End If
                Elseif char="=" Then             ' Found a equal, e.g. now we are getting to a value
                    If eq = False Then
                        eq = True                        
                    Else
                        eq = False
                    End If
                End If
                If i = Len(argstring) Then        ' We are at the end
                    char = " "                        ' Fake a space
                End If
                If char = " " Then                    ' Found a space
                    If qt = False Then            ' Make sure it is not within quotes
                        eq = False                    ' Now we are back at argument name again
                        If Right$(argname,1) = "=" Then                    
                            argname = Left$(argname,Len(argname)-1)    ' Remove trainling equal sign
                        End If
                        Me.argument(Ucase(argname)) = Fulltrim(Replace(argvalue,|"|,""))    ' Create list item, remove quotes
                        argname = ""
                        argvalue = ""
                    End If
                End If
            Next
        End If
    End Sub

    Public Sub ProcessPlaceHolder(sourcedoc As NotesDocument, lossnotice As NotesDocument)
        Dim session As New NotesSession                
        Dim thisdb As NotesDatabase
        Dim ws As New NotesUIWorkspace
        Dim pickcollection As NotesDocumentCollection
        Dim pickdoc As NotesDocument
        Dim servername As String
        Dim dbname As String
        Dim viewname As String        
        Dim fieldvalue As String
        Dim formatstring As String
        Dim inputstr As String
        Dim prompt As String
        Dim title As String
        Dim default As String
        Dim filterfield As String
        Dim filtervalue As String
        Dim nabdoc As NotesDocument

        ' Read any formatting specified in arguments
        If Iselement(Me.argument("FORMAT")) Then
            formatstring = Me.argument("FORMAT")
        Elseif Iselement(Me.argument("FMT")) Then
            formatstring = Me.argument("FMT")
        Else 
            formatstring = ""
        End If

        If placeholdertype = TYPE_FIELD Then
            If sourcedoc Is Nothing Then
                Msgbox "Error: sourcedoc not defined, unable to retrieve data from field '" & Me.fieldname & "'.",,"MailMerge::PlaceHolder.ProcessPlaceHolder()"
                fieldvalue = "*** ERROR ***"                
                Exit Sub
            Else
                If Iselement(Me.Argument("LOSSNOTICE")) Then
                    fieldvalue = lossnotice.GetItemValue(Me.fieldname)(0)
                    Me.FieldType = lossnotice.GetFirstItem(Me.fieldname).Type
                Elseif Iselement(Me.Argument("SOURCE")) Then
                    If Ucase(Me.Argument("SOURCE")) = "LOSSNOTICE" Then
                        fieldvalue = lossnotice.GetItemValue(Me.fieldname)(0)
                        Me.FieldType = lossnotice.GetFirstItem(Me.fieldname).Type
                    End If
                Else
                    fieldvalue = sourcedoc.GetItemValue(Me.fieldname)(0)
                    Me.FieldType = sourcedoc.GetFirstItem(Me.fieldname).Type
                End If
                If formatstring <> "" Then
                    If Isdate(fieldvalue) Then                    ' Check if it might be a date/time value
                        fieldvalue = Format$(Cdat(fieldvalue),formatstring)
                    Elseif Isnumeric(fieldvalue) Then    ' Check if it might be a numeric value
                        fieldvalue = Format$(Cdbl(fieldvalue),formatstring)
                    End If
                End If
            End If
            Me.text = fieldvalue
        Else
            ' *** Fix legacy commands
            If Ucase(Me.Command) = "USR" Then    
                Me.Command = "USER"
            End If
            ' *** Process placeholder commands
            Select Case Ucase(Me.Command)
            Case "USER" :
                If Iselement(Me.Argument("NABFIELD")) Then
                    Me.Text = GetNABField(session.CommonUserName, Me.Argument("NABFIELD")) 
                Else
                    Me.Text = session.CommonUserName 
                End If
            Case "INPUT"        :        ' *** Ask the user to enter information
                prompt = Me.Argument("PROMPT")
                If Iselement(Me.Argument("TITLE")) Then
                    title = Me.Argument("TITLE")
                Else
                    title = "FormLetter Mail Merge"
                End If
                If Iselement(Me.Argument("DEFAULT")) Then
                    default = Me.Argument("DEFAULT")
                Else
                    default = ""
                End If
                If Iselement(Me.Argument("REQUIRED")) Then
                    ' Repeat until user enter a value
                    Do                
                        inputstr = Inputbox$(prompt, title, default)                        
                    Loop While Fulltrim(inputstr)=""
                Else
                    inputstr = Inputbox$(prompt, title, default)                        
                End If
                If formatstring <> "" Then
                    If Isdate(inputstr) Then                    ' Check if it might be a date/time value
                        inputstr = Format$(Cdat(inputstr),formatstring)
                    Elseif Isnumeric(inputstr) Then    ' Check if it might be a numeric value
                        inputstr = Format$(Cdbl(inputstr),formatstring)
                    End If
                End If
                Me.Text = inputstr
                ' *** Check for SETVAR argument
                If Iselement(Me.argument("SETVAR")) Then
                    variable(Ucase(Me.argument("SETVAR")))=Me.Text
                End If

            Case "PICKLIST"    :        ' Present the user with a list of documents to choose from
                Set thisdb = session.CurrentDatabase
                Set pickdoc = Nothing        ' Clear pickdoc
                ' *** We need to get the view argument to perform a lookup into the list...
                If Iselement(Me.Argument("VIEW")) Then
                    viewname = Ucase(Me.Argument("VIEW"))
                End If
                ' *** If CLAIMANT argument is specified, set arguments to predefined values
                If Iselement(Me.Argument("CLAIMANT")) Then
                    Me.Argument("VIEW") = "(SysLookupClaimantsCatByParentUNID)"
                    Me.Argument("FILTER") = "ParentUNID"
                    Me.Argument("PROMPT") = "Select Claimant:"
                End If
                ' *** Check if user requested to clear cached data
                If Iselement(Me.Argument("CLEARCACHE")) Then
                    If Iselement(picklist(viewname)) Then
                        Erase picklist(viewname)    ' Delete this cached item (document)
                    End If
                End If
                ' *** If user want to use cached data, load pickdoc with cached data
                If Iselement(Me.Argument("CACHED")) Then
                    If Iselement(picklist(viewname)) Then
                        Set pickdoc = picklist(viewname)
                    End If
                End If
                If pickdoc Is Nothing Then    ' No cached document for this view 
                    If Iselement(Me.Argument("SERVER")) Then
                        servername = Me.Argument("SERVER")
                    Else
                        servername = thisdb.Server
                    End If
                    If Iselement(Me.Argument("DB")) Then
                        dbname = Me.Argument("DB")
                    Else
                        dbname = thisdb.FilePath 
                    End If
                    If Iselement(Me.Argument("VIEW")) Then
                        viewname = Me.Argument("VIEW")    
                    Else
                        Msgbox "Missing Required Argument - VIEW" & Chr$(13) & Me.PlaceHolderString,,"Missing Argument"
                        Exit Sub
                    End If
                    If Iselement(Me.Argument("PROMPT")) Then
                        prompt = Me.Argument("PROMPT")
                    Else
                        Msgbox "Missing Required Argument - PROMPT" & Chr$(13) & Me.PlaceHolderString,,"Missing Argument"
                        Exit Sub
                    End If
                    If Iselement(Me.Argument("TITLE")) Then
                        title = Me.Argument("TITLE")
                    Else
                        title = "FormLetter Mail Merge"
                    End If
onemoretime:                
                    If Iselement(Me.Argument("FILTER")) Then
                        filterfield = Me.Argument("FILTER")                            ' Get field to filter on
                        filtervalue = sourcedoc.GetItemValue(filterfield)(0)        ' Get value of field on source document
                        Set pickcollection = ws.PicklistCollection(3, False, servername, dbname, viewname, title, prompt, filtervalue)
                    Else
                        Set pickcollection = ws.PicklistCollection(3, False, servername, dbname, viewname, title, prompt)
                    End If
                    If Isempty(pickcollection) Then
                        If Iselement(Me.Argument("REQUIRED")) Then
                            If Ucase(Me.Argument("REQUIRED")) <> "NO" Then
                                Msgbox "You need to select one item/document in the list.", , title
                                Goto onemoretime
                            End If
                        End If
                    Else
                        Set pickdoc = pickcollection.GetFirstDocument        
                    End If
                    If pickdoc Is Nothing Then
                        Msgbox "Error: No document returned.",,"MailMerge::PlaceHolder.ProcessPlaceHolder()"
                        Exit Sub
                    End If
                    Set picklist(Ucase(viewname)) = pickdoc
                End If
                If Iselement(Me.Argument("FIELD")) Then
                    fieldname = Me.Argument("FIELD")
                Else
                    Msgbox "Missing Required Argument - FIELD" & Chr$(13) & Me.PlaceHolderString,,"Missing Argument"                        
                    Exit Sub
                End If
                inputstr = pickdoc.GetItemValue(fieldname)(0)
                If formatstring <> "" Then
                    If Isdate(inputstr) Then                    ' Check if it might be a date/time value
                        inputstr = Format$(Cdat(inputstr),formatstring)
                    Elseif Isnumeric(inputstr) Then    ' Check if it might be a numeric value
                        inputstr = Format$(Cdbl(inputstr),formatstring)
                    End If
                End If
                Me.Text = inputstr
                ' *** Check for SETVAR argument
                If Iselement(Me.argument("SETVAR")) Then
                    variable(Ucase(Me.argument("SETVAR")))=Me.Text
                End If

            Case "DATE"            :         ' *** Current Date
                If formatstring = "" Then 
                    Me.Text = Format$(Now(),"mm/dd/yyyy")
                Else
                    Me.Text = Format$(Now(),formatstring)
                End If

            Case "TIME"            :         ' *** Current Time
                If formatstring = "" Then 
                    Me.Text = Format$(Now(),"hh:nn:ss")
                Else
                    Me.Text = Format$(Now(),formatstring)
                End If

            Case "GETVAR"    :    ' *** Get variable previously stored
                If Iselement(variable(Ucase(Me.argument("NAME")))) Then
                    Me.Text = variable(Ucase(Me.argument("NAME")))
                End If

            Case Else                :
                Me.Text = "**** undefined command ***"

            End Select
        End If

    End Sub

    ' *** Private supporting functions/subs

    Private Function GetNABField(user As String, fieldname As String) As String
        Dim session As New NotesSession
        Dim curdb As NotesDatabase    
        Dim nabdb As NotesDatabase
        Dim view As NotesView
        Dim col As NotesDocumentCollection
        Dim userdoc As NotesDocument

        Set curdb = session.CurrentDatabase
        Set nabdb = New Notesdatabase(curdb.Server, "names.nsf")
        Set view = nabdb.GetView("PeopleByFirstname")
        Set col = view.GetAllDocumentsByKey(user)
        If col Is Nothing Then
            GetNABField = ""
            Exit Function
        End If
        Set userdoc = col.GetFirstDocument
        If userdoc Is Nothing Then
            GetNABField = ""
            Exit Function
        End If
        GetNABField = userdoc.GetItemValue(fieldname)(0)
    End Function

End Class

Class MailMergeObject
    Public templatedoc As NotesDocument    ' Where to get layout from
    Public sourcefield As NotesRichTextItem    
    Public targetfield As NotesRichTextItem    ' Where to put the merged text
    Public placeholder List As PlaceHolderData
    Private sourcedoc As NotesDocument     ' The document containing data to be merged
    Private maindoc As NotesDocument        ' The main document for the processed document
    Private tempbody As NotesRichTextItem        ' Temporary copy of body field for this class/instance

    Public Sub New()

    End Sub

    Public Sub SetSourceDoc(doc As NotesDocument)
        Set sourcedoc = doc                
    End Sub

    Public Sub SetMainDoc(doc As NotesDocument)
        Set maindoc = doc
    End Sub

    Public Function LoadTemplate() As Integer
        Dim body As NotesRichTextItem
        Dim temp As String            
        Dim bodytext As String
        Dim startpos As Long
        Dim endpos As Long
        Set sourcefield = templatedoc.GetFirstItem("Body")    ' Put template body field (rich text) into global object
        Set body = sourcefield                                ' Put rich text into temporary body object
        bodytext = body.GetUnformattedText()
        startpos = Instr(bodytext,"{")
        Do While startpos > 0
            endpos = Instr(startpos,bodytext,"}")
            If endpos>0 Then
                temp = Mid$(bodytext,startpos,endpos-startpos+1)
                Set placeholder(temp & "~" & startpos) = New PlaceHolderData(temp)    ' Add to list of placeholder objects        
            End If
            startpos = Instr(endpos,bodytext,"{")
        Loop
    End Function

    Public Function MergedRichText() As NotesRichTextItem
        Dim range As NotesRichTextRange         
        Dim cnt As Integer
        Set tempbody = sourcefield
        Set range = tempbody.CreateRange 
        Forall p In placeholder
            Call p.ProcessPlaceHolder(sourcedoc, maindoc)
            If p.text = "" Then
                p.text = " -- "
            End If
            cnt =  range.FindAndReplace(p.placeholderstring, p.text, 1+4+8+16)            
        End Forall
        Call tempbody.Compact 
        Call tempbody.Update 
        Set targetfield = tempbody
        Set MergedRichText = tempbody
    End Function    

    Public Function Content() As NotesRichTextItem
        Set Content = targetfield
    End Function

End Class

I will try to post some sample code later, using this script library.

Yesterday Samsung presented the new Samsung Galaxy S3 smartphone in London. Samsung had been very secretive about the new phone, and speculations on the internet were wild. Some of the rumors were true, while some were not. So will this be an iPhone contestor? I think so, for anyone who look at functionality, technology, etc. For anyone content with the iOS experience and being locked into the Apple eco-system, I am sure the next iPhone will be the given choice.

The predecessor, Galaxy S2, have been a big success for the company who recently took the title of biggest phone manufacturer in the world. Early reviews of the S3 have been mainly positive. The main complain is the plastic case, which makes the phone seem cheaper. There were rumors about aluminum or ceramic cases, but that did not end up being the case (pun intended).

The phone got impressive specifications, with a huge 4.8" screen (720×1280 pixel), quad-code Exynos 4 processor (at least for the European/international 3G model, the US 4G LTE model is rumored to get a dual code Snapdragon S4 instead), 1GB RAM, up to 64GB internal storage and expandable up to 64GB more though SD card. The camera is alos a little bit of a disappointment, instead of the rumored 12MP it ended up being 8MP, but with some nice functionality like burst mode and automatic selection of the best picture. The battery has a 2100mAh capacity, better than the S2 but with the faster and more power hungry processor, it will be interesting to see real numbers on how long the phone actually lasts.

NFC (near field communication) and proximity sensors are other interesting features. The proximity sensor allows the phone to detect that it is lifted to the user's ear, and if a text message is curently being viewed, the phone understand that the user want to dial the person and dial automatically. There is also voice control, similar to Apple's Siri, and the front camera use eye tracking to detect when a user is looking at the screen. That means that if you are reading a long text, you don't have to touch teh screen every 20 seconds to keep it from dimming/turning off, the phone know you are looking at it and keep it on until you look away.

The phone supports a number of formats for audio and video, including MP3, AAC, Flac, OGG, Divx, WMV, etc. It also supports full 1080p recording and playback thorugh an external HDMI-adapter. Another interesting option is a wireless charging station.

Availability: In Europe on May 27 and in the US "this summer", with a end-of-June date hinted at. Price has not been released, but it is expected to be $299 on a 2-year contract with US carriers, and $700 without contract.

It will be interesting to see how it compare to an upcoming iPhone 5, rumored to be released after the summer. Currently the Galaxy S3 looks like the phone to get, especially if you want an Android based phone.

The next version of the Linux distribution Ubuntu is scheduled to be available for download tomorrow, April 26. Ubuntu 12.04 will be a so called LTS (Long Term Support) version, which means that it will be supported longer than the regular versions. For 12.04 the support will last for five years, both for the server and the desktop version. Previous LTS-releases were supported for five years for the server version, but only three years for desktop. Non-LTS-releases are supported for 18 months after release.

Ubuntu 12.04 is using version 3.2 of the Linux kernel. Below is a list of other changes, taken from the Ubuntu website:

New Applications and Defaults

• The default music player has been switched to Rhythmbox, which again includes the UbuntuOne music store.

• LibreOffice has been updated to 3.5.1.

 

Interface updates

• The System Setting's "Appearance" panel now allows users to easily configure some properties of Unity.

• Nautilus quicklist support has been added to Unity launcher.

• There is a new way to quickly search and access any desktop application's and indicator's menu, called the "HUD". Tap the Alt key and enter some letters and words, and it will show the corresponding entries, including some fuzzy matching. Press enter to execute the action. This one is executed on the current focused application as well as all indicator facilities (like managing emails, sound list, quit…). Also it learns from your previous choices to make the search more and more accurate for you.

 

ClickPad support

ClickPad devices are trackpads where the physical button is integrated into the trackpad surface. Ubuntu Precise now has enhanced support for these devices. When the button is pressed on a ClickPad device, a second finger may be used to drag the cursor.

• ClickPad support requires extra handling that conflicts with "Click Action" support. Click Actions allow for separate actions when multiple fingers are active on a trackpad. The default Ubuntu settings enable right button behavior when two fingers are in contact with the trackpad surface and the physical trackpad button is pressed. Because of conflicting behavior, ClickPad devices do not support Click Actions in this release.

• Most Synaptics brand ClickPads are recognized out of the box. Apple MacBook trackpads are recognized as well. Support for Apple Magic Trackpads and more Synaptics brand ClickPads will follow in the next release.

 

Ubuntu One

• All new Control Panel provides an installer, setup wizard, ability to add/remove folders to sync, and more

• Proxy support is now fully functional

• Ubuntu One music store in Rhythmbox

• Ubuntu One contacts sync has been removed

• Nautilus ribbon with enable sync check box has been removed

 

Other

• Until Ubuntu 11.10, the Unix group for administrators with root privileges through sudo had been admin. Starting with Ubuntu 12.04 LTS, it is now sudo, for compatibility with Debian and sudo itself. However, for backwards compatibility, admin group members are still recognized as administrators.

• Automatic Apport crash reporting now checks for duplicates on the client side, which will avoid uploading debug data and creating Launchpad bug reports unnecessarily in many cases now.

• When installing new software through software-center, corresponding language support packages (translations, spell check modules particular to that software, help files, etc.) are now installed along automatically. This removes the need to open "Language Support" after installing new software.

• pm-utils now has two new scripts to power down USB and various PCI devices in battery mode. A number of desktop packages were fixed to wake up less often. Both of these reduces power consumption and thus battery lifetime.

• resolvconf is now used to manage /etc/resolv.conf on all Ubuntu systems. For systems using Network Manager DNS resolution is now done through dnsmasq, which should help split-DNS VPNs and faster DNS resolution. You can learn more here

•  Output from Upstart jobs is now logged to per-job files in /var/log/upstart/, unless the job specifies otherwise by setting console to something other than the default of log (see init(5)).

You can download it (starting some time tomorrow) here. But be prepared thatthe servers might be busy for the first few days.