Now Donating Google Wave Invitation

I have 5 google wave invitations to give out.. I will give out more as and when I get more.. If you want one, comment on this blog post. Don't forget to add your gmail address in a no-spam format(abc at gmail dot com). Fair warning, it takes about 4 hrs for you to get the invitation after I send them out. I will reply your comment and let you know if I sent you one. Its first-come-first-served basis.

UPDATE(12/4/2008): I have 8 more invitations to give out..
May you get waved!

Playing youtube videos in iPhone safari

One of the features of iPhone OS 3.0 release is that you can play YouTube videos from iPhone safari. However you for a few weeks since I upgraded to OS 3.0, I was unable to play videos directly from Safari. I found the reason why. If you disable YouTube through the "Restrictions" option in the General settings, YouTube video's wont play from iPhone safari either. With the YouTube restriction on, you will only see a crossed out Play icon in iPhone safari. Hope this helps people facing the same problem.

Google Calendar on Iphone

With the release of Iphone OS 3.0, syncing the main google calendar has become a breeze. Here is how to do it..
1. Go to Mail, Contacts and Calendar in "Settings"
2. Select "Add Account"3. Choose Other
4. Choose "Add CalDav Account"

5. Enter your google account details
Thats it!

This will not work for subcalendars in google. As far as I know, the only decent way to get both your main calendar and subcalendars is to use Nuevasync (you can find information on this from earlier post)

One little bug - Outlook 2007 With Lotus Domino

Its been weeks since I have been using Outlook 2007 with Lotus Domino. I love it. By far all the major functionalities are working without any problem. I did notice (so did my co-workers) that when somebody sends you a recurring meeting, you get the request multiple times. The easiest solution for this is to open Lotus Notes ( I know, I know.. lot of us hate to open it even once) and accept the meeting.

Have a great day!

Lotus Domino to Outlook 2007 - The Answer

Ok, I think I got enough interest to warrant a post.
In order for this solution to work, you HAVE to know the server name of your Lotus Domino and the your name exactly as it is in your Domino address book.

1. Visit this forum and search for rapidshare. The second hit will lead you to DAMO 7.0.2 exe file. Download this. Note: This version of DAMO partially works with Outlook 2007 but it has the "meeting and replication" related problems. Do not install it yet.
2. Google for "C1K37EN.exe". You should find a link that will allow you to download this file. This is DAMO 8.0.2.
Both these files are uploaded and hosted by somebody else. I just found them after a little (re)search.

Now you have two versions of DAMO downloaded.
Here is the trick that lot of people don't know.
3. Install DAMO 7.0.2 first. It is pretty intuitive. Do not open Outlook yet.
4. Install DAMO 8.0.2 next. This should ask for an upgrade of the existing DAMO. If it does, you are on the right track.

You don't have to change any environment variable or adjust your registry. DAMO 8.0.2 handles this for you.
5. Now open outlook 2007. When you open for the first time, outlook should automatically replicate with your Domino and all your mails and calendar entries gets downloaded.

Thats it you are done! Now you can not only send and recieve mails, you can accept meeting requests. Read and deleted emails are appropriately reflected in your DOMINO server. You may want to open Lotus notes once in a while to make sure that this is happening.

This solution worked for me. I use a Windows XP laptop with Domino 7.x version and outlook 2007 SP1. THIS MAY NOT WORK IF YOU HAVE Outlook 2007 SP2.

If this solution does not work and you want to try the install again. You have to uninstall DAMO and then re-install 7.0.2 and 8.0.2 in that order. It won't work otherwise.

Hope this helps! Do comment and let me know if this worked!

Update 04/09/2013: Please refer to my latest post on Lotus Notes to Outlook 2010..

Lotus Domino to Outlook 2007

I have been able to succesfully configure Outlook 2007 to work with Lotus Domino. If you are interested in knowing how to do this, click on the "interested" reaction below this post. It took me a while to figure out. But my outlook 2007 works without any of the issues (meeting, replication etc.,) that people are facing.

Lotus notes to Iphone (EMail and Calendar) - Answer

My company uses Lotus Notes 7.x version. I own an iPhone and was upto my wits end to figure out a way to synchronize LN email and calendar to my iphone. While there are many solutions out there, none of them seemed to work for me. Here are some solutions:
1. NotesPro - A native Lotus notes app, expensive at $15 in the app store. Not too many satisfactory reviews. I was not about to spend 15$ on something that may not be reliable.
2. iAnywhere - Free app, but requires some server side work. Ruled out for me.
3. iClink - Very expensive. Period

So here is the answer that works for me.. It is free and it is reliable.. Until I find a native iphone app that works, I am going to live with this solution..

For Email:

1. Forward your email to a gmail account using a LN rule.
2. Add your company email address as one of the "accounts" in gmail. Google will send an email out to your company email address to verify.
3. Verify your company email address.
4. Create a new POP email account in iphone. Here is the trick to make your company email address appear in your replies: When you create a pop email account on iphone, use your company email address, but the smtp and pop servers should be smtp.gmail.com and pop.gmail.com respectively.
5. Now your emails starts appearing in your iphone and you can reply without a problem.

For Calendar:

1. Download lntogooglecalsync from http://lngooglecalsync.sourceforge.net. Its in beta 0.2 as of now. I have watched this opensource program develop from release one to what it is now and I like what I see. As far as I know, future releases are coming too..
2. Extract the files from the downloaded file, to a folder in your computer.
3. In your computer go to command prompt and navigate to the folder that has the extracted file. Navigate to the folder called "dist".
4. Type java -jar icalbridge.jar and enter
5. A window opens that will ask the url to your mail file. Easiest way to find the url for your mail file is to open your inotes. Copy the link and paste it.
6. Enter your gmail address and password.
7. Hit the Synchronize button.

Now your calendar has been sync'd with your google calendar. Use Nuevasync (http://www.nuevasync.com/)to sync your google calendar to your iphone calendar over the air. Thats it! You will have your calendar synch'd with your iphone calendar.

The whole process should not take more than 20 mins, for anybody who is used to google mail, calendar and iphone.

Emails comes to you automatically. Anybody who has written command scripts can automate the calendar sync part. I have done it. My calendar sync's first thing in the morning.

This solution is not an elegant solution, but it is free and it works. If you are worried about forwarding your emails to google account, I am sorry you have to live with the current apps in the appstore or wait for cheaper one to come!

Hope this helps!