Those of you that are Revelation VARs and who deploy applications to end-users who have competitors with SQL Server based solution, might find the following link informative and useful – http://www.channelregister.co.uk/2012/03/13/sql_server_prices/
Category: Ramblings
O4W is fast becoming the tool of choice for OpenInsight developers who need to extend their applications to the web. These solutions consist of full desktop browser based solutions, through to solutions for small handheld devices like smart phones.
Megamation Systems have used O4w to create a solution for such devices and Revelation have recently published some images of the handheld solution. This is a great example of how O4w can be used to address a modern business need. You can view the example screens by clicking here.
- Outlook PST Compact Now routine window.
The developers amongst you will probably laugh at my stupidity and realise how small I felt over the weekend with my Outlook system, but other users like me that are used to working with OpenInsight’s self optimising database and other simply ‘set and forget’ technologies, this might be a useful posting.
I have been experiencing a number of issues with my laptop over the last few weeks. The fan was running a lot more than usual, Outlook, Office and a number of other applications (including IE for some reason) were constantly reporting as ‘not responding’. Then I found that Office wanted to regularly recover and check files and then I began to receive a number of blue screens of death, system memory dumps, etc.
I considered blowing my machine away (I’ve not done this for a few years now), but I asked my support colleagues for some advice first. Their reply was the usual – check for malware, run another AV check, remove any unwanted files, compress my outlook file, etc.
Now the last of those items got me thinking. My Outlook .PST file was 6.4Gb and I was having trouble backing it up to removable media sources. In addition, my Outlook calendar was no longer working. Furthermore, I deleted over half of my email and still the .PST file remained at 6.4Gb.
I therefore ran the SCNPST application that resides in the Outlook 2007 program folder and after sometime it reported an issue which I opted to have the routine fix for me. Checking the .PST file, I found that it was still 6.4Gb and reviewing the Outlook menus I found the ‘Data File Management’ option under the ‘File’ menu. I have no clue why, but I decided to double click on the entry for my main .PST file and a window popped up with a Compact Now button – Oooo Interesting.
With nothing to lose I hit the button and the machine went into a 13 hour long compression. Not something that you want to begin at 09.00 on a work day and fortunately I was playing around with this on a Saturday morning. Anyway, 13 hours later my .PST was reduced from 6.4Gb to just 675Mb.
I rebooted the machine and launched Outlook to see if it would still run. It did, I breathed a sigh of relief and called it a day.
I have used my machine off and on during Sunday and all of Monday in the way that I usually work. During today I have not heard the fan kick in once, I have had not one ‘not responding message’ and whilst I have not yet run my resource heavy video programs, the machine is running very nicely indeed.
So the lesson for today, is to have your users check their Outlook .PST files on a regular basis (I’m yet to know how 2010 will behave) and compact them. My experience that was space was being allocated for every received email and that space did not ‘appear’ to be freed up when email was deleted and the file was just needlessly getting more and more bloated.
I should point out, that further research online indicates that I was not alone in running a huge Outlook.pst file and there are plenty of references to both the SCANPST (and SCANOST) utility for fixing issues and the compact utility. I am not sure how systems behave on Windows XP and the forthcoming Windows 2008, nor with Office 2010 and later because my experiences were on a laptop running Windows 7 Ultimate and Office 2007. However, this posting outlines the issue and resolution that worked for me. I am not saying that this will be true for everyone, but it is certainly something worth thinking about if you are an Outlook user with a huge Outlook.pst or Outlook.ost file or where you are having issues like mine above.
I hope that some of you find this useful.
You can also watch my YouTube video related to this posting – Click here.
2012 is planned to be a big year for Revelation Software;
On the development side, we have two scheduled releases planned. The 9.3.1 patch and upgrade release (due in the first quarter) will mostly consist of features that did not make the code-cut off date for the recent 9.3 release. These include Banded Report Writer (BRW) enhancements, a new connector for LadyBridge Systems Limited OpenQM (a very nice MultiValue database), and some other items from the suggestion box. Revelation also expects to release a 9.4 version of OpenInsight later in the year, with even more web and mobile enhancements. During this time the team will also be working on the 64-bit version of OpenInsight and it is hoped that this ground breaking release will be commercially available around Q1 of 2013.
On the travel side, Revelation Software staff will be all over the world, showing OpenInsight to current Revelation customers, as well as potential new clients and developers. The company are already scheduled to give demonstrations and presentations at the Colorado MultiValue Users Group (CMUG) in March, at International Spectrum in early April, down in Australia and New Zealand after that, as well as MultiValue groups in Texas, Georgia, Seattle, and others. Mike was over in Europe towards the end of 2011 and I hope to welcome him back here at least once over the next 11 months for our usual RUG and road trip.
We are also starting off the 2012 with a sprint here in the UK. From tomorrow, we will have our competitive advantage banner displaying 20,000 times randomly over the next few weeks on the Guardian’s website and this campaign will be widened based on its success. This theme of MultiValue tools (OpenInsight specifically) helping organisations of all sizes (and individual developers) to realise their modern business requirements through their software, faster and more economically, is a message that I personally plan to hammer home throughout 2012.
With more businesses looking for software solutions that work with their businesses, that can run quickly over the web and mobile devices and that can dynamically adapt and change with the ever rapidly changing business needs, I am more certain then ever that MultiValue databases are well placed to fill that requirement. As numerous conversations during the later part of 2011 taught me, this thought is backed by the increased use of NoSQL databases for the business applications, with RDBMS (SQL databases) being used by the BI team for data crunching. MultiValue tools (like OpenInsight) are therefore well placed to meet the needs of the users, whilst also delivering data into the corporate BI data stores – thereby enabling highly flexible, powerful and joined up solutions.
Roll on the next 12 months and even more people finding their competitive advantage through OpenInsight !!!!
Hi Everyone,
Hopefully I provide alot of useful information through my blog and YouTube channels. However, on this occasion I’m looking for some insight from you and I will be very grateful if you could take a couple of moments to click on the link below and give me your thoughts on my use of annimated video for the RevSoft News Bulletin and also for wider marketing messages within the Revelation community, the MultiValue comminuty and the wider world.
Thank you for your time in helping me with my decision to continue my use of this media and to widen it’s use.
Martyn.
What do you think about the use of my annimated videos for news and wider promotional messages?
The New Year is upon us, resolutions for the coming months have been made and many will come to fruition but many are likely to be broken. However, I hope to work harder and smarter during 2012, to continue to evangelise the benefits of the MultiValue technology and to ride on the opportunities that the New Year will no doubt bring.
I’ll be watching the path that the No/SQL movement takes and continue to keep OpenInsight on that agenda. I’ll also be watching how business further utilises the cloud and help our OpenInsight and O4W users to benefit from those benefits. I’ll also be watching how social media will continue to erode into our business processes and we’ll ride that wave as well. I already have a growing list of updates that I need to make on my Facebook and LinedIn pages. I have videos planned and goodness knows where Google+ and Twitter will take me this year. In addition, there will be the ‘as yet’ unknown new opportunities that 2012 and will bring.
With plenty of unresolved issues from the last year (not least the Euro and more austerity measures to come) 2012 looks to be an interesting year. That said, things are improving in the USA and Revelation US saw new opportunities presenting themselves and a marked improvement within their VARs performance towards the end of the year. Let that continue and hopefully Europe and the rest of the EMEA region will follow in a few months time.
Anyway, I wish you, your colleagues and your business well for 2012. Let the New Year bring you health and prosperity that lasts the whole year through.
I have had a change of heart.
Since announcing the RUG and O4W sessions in London, several things have happened which have caused me to rethink my plans for the O4W training session. It has become clear that there is significant interest in the new web technology, but with the economy the way that it is, people are finding it hard to get a second day off work, to secure the fee and also the associated travel expenses.
We are confident that you will love O4W and want to base your future web and mobile development on the technology. In fact, we are so confident; we have decided to waive the fee. However, that comes with a few conditions.
Firstly, we will no longer be holding the O4W day at the Hilton Metropole. Instead we will be holding the day at our Ealing offices. This does therefore mean that we will need to restrict the number of attendees to just the first eight registrants and also limit the number of attendees to just one person from any one company.
For this reason I would urge you to contact me as soon as possible. I’ll be creating a waiting list for those people that miss out on the available places.
Please note – I will be happy to bring O4W to you and run through the technology at your offices or online through WebEx, but remember that I am NOT a programmer and I will not be able to cover the O4W APIs in the same way that Mike will be covering them at this FREE O4W session.
http://sebastiantechnologies.com/Vx7%20Presentation%20Manager.htm
This is a Revelation-based application out in the ‘real’ world, being used in board rooms and meeting centers all over the world.
Do you have a Revelation or OpenInsight app out there? Let us know!
Revelation Software has released the office Revelation Software Conference 2011 write up and a short slide show of some of the images from the show. Click here for more.
I am pleased to confirm that the venue for the RUG on the 8th November and the O4W training the day after has finally been confirmed. Both days will be held at the Hilton Metropole in Edgware Road, London and I have included an outline agenda below. Please note that numbers will be limited for the O4W training day.
I hope that you will be able to attend the RUG as Mike’s presentation is set to be very informative and it will have something for both develoeprs and end-users. The O4W day is an absolute MUST ATTEND if you are involved with (or planning) any web development for desktop browsers
and/or mobile devices.
During the RUG, Mike will be concentrating on some of the new features in OpenInsight 9.3. Many of these will enhance your time developing with OpenInsight and there are some useful additions to help end-users gt more from their OpenInsight based applications, such as the brand new Banded Report Writer. This is set to be the reporting tool of choice in OpenInsight going forward and reports written in the BRW can be run from both OpenInsight desktop applications and also O4W based applications. In addition, we have Data Encryption at Rest featuring as part of the 9.3 major enhancements. Written to address the legislative requirement in the USA from Jan 1st 2012, this is a technology that we should all be looking at and I can see European governments following suit and forcing compliance on us here in the EMEA region in the not too distant future.
If you are an OpenInsight developer, End-User or someone working with or thinking of using a MultiValue toolset, then this really is a must attend event. With data connectors for Rocket’s Universe and Unidata (U2), TigerLogic’s D3 and SQL, and with connectors for mvBase and QM coming very soon, Revelation are opening up the toolset to make MultiValue application development and reporting over the desktop and web even easier, faster and therefore cheaper.
Please contact me without delay if you have not already registered your place and you would like to now. Please also drop me a line if you would prefer to discuss the value in attending either of these two events.
RUG Agenda (10:00 till 17:00)
- 09:30 to 10:00 Coffee and light refreshments
- 10:00 to 12:30 Mike Ruane – State of the company, futures and 9.3 new features
- 12:30 to 13:00 Lunch
- 13:00 to 14:00 Andrew McAuley – GUI Special FX in an OpenInsight application
- 14:00 to 16:00 Mike Ruane – continued review of OpenInsight 9.3 new features
- 16:00 to 17:00 Close and General Networking
O4W Training Agenda (09:00 till 17:00)
- 09:00 to 12:00 O4W Introduction to the wizards
- 12:00 to 13:00 Lunch
- 13:00 to 16:00 O4W Introduction to the O4W APIs
- 16:00 to 17:00 Questions and Answers
I look forward to seeing you in London on the November 8th for a great day.
