Since DreamArts' business model revolves around replacing Lotus Notes installations, it makes sense for us to keep up-to-date with what is happening in Lotusland. Or in my case, to find out what Lotus Notes actually is. After a day at their show I am beginning to get an idea.

The main attraction today was the opening keynote speech by IBM's Lotus General Manager Michael Rodin, who announced the ship date of Lotus Notes/Domino 8 next month. The main focus for this release is on making the client more user-friendly, and they aim to achieve that by basing the new client on the Eclipse platform, which should make it much easier to develop plugins, especially the so-called Composite Applications, which combine data from Notes with other systems (they showed a Google Maps/Yahoo Finance mashup). The client also includes a small office suite (word processor, spreadsheets, presentations) based on the Open Document Format, so that you can maybe ditch Microsoft Office if you are so inclined. Despite this major architectural change, older Notes applications can still run unchanged (upgrading Notes seems to be a major challenge for companies). And if the new Java-client is too heavy for your machine (they warned about the need for a recent PC), you can still use the old client, albeit without support for the new features.

The keynote also mentioned new Web-2.0-inspired products in the Lotus portfolio, such as the terribly/trendily named Quickr (seems to be shared folders with frontends for Windows Explorer, MS Office and the browser) and the enterprise social networking software Connections.

I joined the Tipness sports club this month, and between Tipness and the company running circle have been exercising every single day (except for the 4th, when Tipness was unexpectedly closed). Usually 30 minutes of mild running and a tour of the machinery, then sauna. Sometimes swimming, until I get bored of it (takes about 5 minutes, I need a waterproof iPod) or too embarrassed of / annoyed by constantly bumping into other people in the rather crowded pool (takes about 10 minutes). Usually before work from 7:30 to 9, but it gets increasingly hard to keep getting up so early, so I started shifting towards after work from 9 to 11. In fact, it gets increasingly hard to keep doing this at all, this blog entry is hopefully effective in pressuring me to go on, as are membership payments in advance.

Results are in:

	June 30	July 29	Ideal
Weight	69.7	70.7	77.1
Muscle	56.7	59.2	62.1
Fat	9.8	8.1	11.6
BMI	20.6	20.9	18.5 to 24.8
Body Fat Pct	14	11.5	10 to 20
Tipness Score	76	80

I have seen all previous Harry Potter movies, but this is the first one of which I read the book, so that I knew how things would turn out and the most interesting part of the movie became waiting for certain scenes to see how they compare with my expectations, the two biggest of which were Hagrid's giant half-brother and Dolores Umbridge. Nicely done (but one has to wonder why cat owners in movies are always villains).

7 points

Part Five: Japanese steel and German design combine to form the Porsche Knife.

• 6 Nimmt
• Vikings
• If Wishes Were Fishes
• Wizard
• Guatemala Café
• Heckmeck

Things are not going well in and out of Hogwarts: Lord Voldemort has managed to gain control of the Ministry of Magic, turning it from the already unpleasantly Orwellian organisation of the previous two books into a downright fascist regime. Harry Potter has been named Undesirable Number One and has to live in hiding. Not that he would want to return to Hogwarts, now that his least favourite teacher Snape has been named Headmaster there. The quest to find and destroy the remaining Horcruxes, upon which Voldemort's power depends, is not going too well. Maybe the mysterious three Deathly Hallows could be of help?

And this is how I spent the weekend. Quite necessary, really, in order to defuse the danger of someone spilling the beans about the ending.

D'oh!

The second half of the Hyperion duology directly picks up where the first book (rather abruptly) ended. But in addition to finishing the story of the pilgrimage, the story expands to include dramatic events beyond the planet of Hyperion, mostly narrated through the eyes of a cybrid recreation of early 19th century poet John Keats (who has been very inspirational for Simmons, right up to the naming of his books). It is a little sad that the focus shifts away from the pilgrims, and both the more metaphysical and the more artistically involved parts are a little less readily accessible than the first part was, but Simmons again posits interesting topics, mainly about the relationship between Creator, his Creatures, and the rest of Creation: What happens if the Creatures try to depose the Creator? How trustworthy are Artificial Intelligences once they become sentient? Should mankind in its expansion across the universe be allowed to reconstruct the natural environment according to its needs, thereby destroying other forms of life? Or should man adapt to new environments, evolving itself into something that may no longer be considered entirely human?

New route this week: Instead of running around the Imperial Palace, we instead went from the Imperial Palace to Tokyo Tower and back. According to Ishida-san's fancy strap-on GPS device that was 7.9 km, and it took us 65 mins (we had to stop for traffic lights a few times).

Sparkling water is rare in Japan, but Lawson started selling Gerolsteiner now (if you buy enough bottles you can win other German goodies, such as Lamy ball pens, Goldpfeil stationary, Meissen plates, or a Rimowa trolley case). This brings me back to my amazement about the fact that there are apparently millions of litres of Evian, Vittel, Perrier and the like shipped across a number of oceans from Europe. Seems perverse from an ecology standpoint, and how can this be cheap enough for the water to retail at not much more than domestic brands? Maybe bottled water is totally over-priced in general. It also reminds me that someone told me about a water-only bar in Ikebukuro that I wanted to check out.

Part Four: The Penny Counter keeps track of a life's savings.

Nineteen years after Die Hard, twelve years after Die Hard: With a Vengeance, Bruce Willis at 52, a PG-13 rating, a rookie director, many are the signs of a Sequel-Too-Many. But Yippie-kay-yay! Just like John McClane, this movie keeps coming back for more. Ignore the parts of the plot that do not make any sense, this is not what you came for. You came to see McClane take a beating, take out the bad guys, and be taken to the hospital in the end. You came to see him throw cars at helicopters, trucks at ninja chicks, stupid hamsters into crushing wheels, one-liners at villains and sidekicks. He'll do all that, and more.

7 points