Me and Lotusphere 2007

Just to clarify it (since I've had a few people ask) - I will not be making it to Lotusphere 2007... :( We're cutting back some and since I've been to 4 in a row since we installed Lotus at our company, I guess that would have to go. I'm not really sure why I wasn't given the go-ahead to submit an abstract again (I didn't really press it), but hopefully I will be able to make it to one of the DevCons this summer and maybe to Lotusphere 2008. You know, one of the ones in Vegas! I went to Advisor in 2004 and I do need some more development-centered training, right? :)

Anyway, I can't complain too much because we did just order two shiny new System i 570+ boxes. I may be moving our Domino environment over to those boxes when Lotusphere comes around since they should ship this week!

The 12 Days of Christmas

The 1st Day of Christmas - Christmas Day

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. He came as a witness, to bear witness about the light, that all might believe through him. He was not the light, but came to bear witness about the light. The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world. He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God. And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. (John bore witness about him, and cried out, "This was he of whom I said, 'He who comes after me ranks before me, because he was before me.'") And from his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father's side, he has made him known. (John 1:1-18 ESV)

This first half of the first chapter of John's Gospel is, to me, the real Christmas story. Jesus was the one true God made flesh. The Christmas story isn't just one of a baby born to a virgin in a manger. It is the story of God become man in the form of Jesus Christ. This Jesus is the light of the world from the very beginning. He came not to abolish, but to fulfill the Law that was given through Moses. Consider also Philippians 2:5-11 as translated by JB Phillips:

Let Christ himself be your example as to what your attitude should be. For he, who had always been God by nature, did not cling to his prerogatives as God's equal, but stripped himself of all privilege by consenting to be a slave by nature and being born as mortal man. And, having become man, he humbled himself by living a life of utter obedience, even to the extent of dying, and the death he died was the death of a common criminal. That is why God has now lifted him so high, and has given him the name beyond all names, so that at the name of Jesus "every knee shall bow", whether in Heaven or earth or under the earth. And that is why, in the end, "every tongue shall confess" that Jesus Christ" is the Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

This is the true story and reason for Christmas. I pray that you have a Merry Christmas this year. If you have any questions or if you would like more information about Christianity, please see my contact information at the top of my site. God bless you all!

The 2nd Day Before Christmas – Christmas Eve

Today we will mention two items of significance for the number 2.

And when the time came for their purification according to the Law of Moses, they brought him up to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord (as it is written in the Law of the Lord, "Every male who first opens the womb shall be called holy to the Lord") and to offer a sacrifice according to what is said in the Law of the Lord, "a pair of turtledoves, or two young pigeons." (Luke 2:22-24 ESV)

Forty days after the birth of Jesus, his parents took him to Jerusalem for their own purification. According to Levitical law, Mary would have been unclean for 7 days after giving birth and another 33 days after that she will continue with her purifying. After that a woman was to give two offerings. The standard was for the offering of a lamb.

And if she cannot afford a lamb, then she shall take two turtledoves or two pigeons, one for a burnt offering and the other for a sin offering. And the priest shall make atonement for her, and she shall be clean. (Leviticus 12:8 ESV)

This 2nd day before Christmas, consider the family that raised Jesus. They were not a priestly family. And, though they were both of the lineage of David (see 11th Day), they were not royalty. They were a poor, young couple that could not even afford the standard offering of a lamb. They would later flee to Egypt to return to Nazareth. “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” (John 1:46) Jesus lived a truly humble and uneventful life until we have another mention of the 2nd occurrence of something.

This is the 2nd coming of Elijah who the Jews expected would herald in the coming of the Messiah. This person was Jesus' relative John. His baptism ministry was so significant that Josephus (Ant. 18.5.2) even states that

“some of the Jews thought that the destruction of Herod's army came from God, and that very justly, as a punishment of what he did against John, that was called the Baptist: for Herod slew him, who was a good man, and commanded the Jews to exercise virtue, both as to righteousness towards one another, and piety towards God, and so to come to baptism...”

It was this John who also baptized Jesus in AD 30 when Jesus was probably about 36. At this point Jesus began his public ministry that we have recorded in the four Gospels.

This Christmas Eve, consider the humble beginnings of the One who would have the greatest impact on the history of mankind!

The 3rd Day Before Christmas

There are possibly too many instances of “3” to discuss. The Trinity may be something too expansive to discuss in this setting, and it's easy to think of the three gifts Jesus received at his birth by the three (maybe) magi. Something else to ponder is that Peter denied Jesus three times on the eve of the crucifixion. How many times we do that! Related to the crucifixion, we can also consider that Jesus took the place of one of three “robbers” who were to be crucified. Instead, I would like to focus on the “Three Rusty Nails”. In that song about a desperate gambler, Dale Thompson writes the following:

“He found love on three rusty nails
Surrendered all on three rusty nails
Used to sharpen his fist on a smooth wet stone
Scars stitched like a railroad track up and down his arms
Then he saw life cursed upon a tree
Like a lone flower at cave hill cemetery”

This Christmas, let us not forget that Jesus came to give his life on a cross for us. After being hung on the cross with three nails, Jesus died. The earth shook, the Temple veil was ripped from top to bottom, there was an eclipse to darken the earth. But it was not over because just three days later he rose again. Not only do we have to consider Jesus' death this Christmas, but also (possibly more importantly) we have to consider his resurrection!

What have you found on the “three rusty nails?”

The 4th Day Before Christmas

And when he returned to Capernaum after some days, it was reported that he was at home. And many were gathered together, so that there was no more room, not even at the door. And he was preaching the word to them. And they came, bringing to him a paralytic carried by four men. And when they could not get near him because of the crowd, they removed the roof above him, and when they had made an opening, they let down the bed on which the paralytic lay. And when Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, "My son, your sins are forgiven." Now some of the scribes were sitting there, questioning in their hearts, "Why does this man speak like that? He is blaspheming! Who can forgive sins but God alone?" And immediately Jesus, perceiving in his spirit that they thus questioned within themselves, said to them, "Why do you question these things in your hearts? Which is easier, to say to the paralytic, 'Your sins are forgiven,' or to say, 'Rise, take up your bed and walk'? But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins"--he said to the paralytic-- "I say to you, rise, pick up your bed, and go home." And he rose and immediately picked up his bed and went out before them all, so that they were all amazed and glorified God, saying, "We never saw anything like this!" (Mar 2:1-12 ESV)

Yesterday I asked you who your “five brothers” are and what you would tell them if you died. Today, consider that you have the opportunity, along with 3 others, to help someone be healed. To what length would you go to in order to accomplish this? We have the story here of four men who had a paralyzed friend. They knew that Jesus could heal the man so they took it upon themselves to get him to Jesus. They even went as far as opening a hole in the roof to lower the man to Jesus. Not only did Jesus heal the man physically, but he also forgave his sins! This is something that he can do for you as well.

On this 4th day before Christmas, consider what you and others can do to bring health to your friends. What can you do to draw them closer to Jesus? How will you make a difference in someone's life today?

The 5th Day Before Christmas

"There was a rich man who was clothed in purple and fine linen and who feasted sumptuously every day. And at his gate was laid a poor man named Lazarus, covered with sores, who desired to be fed with what fell from the rich man's table. Moreover, even the dogs came and licked his sores. The poor man died and was carried by the angels to Abraham's side. The rich man also died and was buried, and in Hades, being in torment, he lifted up his eyes and saw Abraham far off and Lazarus at his side. And he called out, 'Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus to dip the end of his finger in water and cool my tongue, for I am in anguish in this flame.' But Abraham said, 'Child, remember that you in your lifetime received your good things, and Lazarus in like manner bad things; but now he is comforted here, and you are in anguish. And besides all this, between us and you a great chasm has been fixed, in order that those who would pass from here to you may not be able, and none may cross from there to us.' And he said, 'Then I beg you, father, to send him to my father's house-- for I have five brothers--so that he may warn them, lest they also come into this place of torment.' But Abraham said, 'They have Moses and the Prophets; let them hear them.' And he said, 'No, father Abraham, but if someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent.' He said to him, 'If they do not hear Moses and the Prophets, neither will they be convinced if someone should rise from the dead.'" (Luke 16:19-31 ESV)

In this story, Jesus relates the tale of a rich man who was not a Believer and a poor man who was. The rich man had 5 brothers that he would like to have told about the eternal life that he would not receive. Abraham reminded the rich man that they could have come to faith through the Law and Prophets. But this man insisted that they might believe if someone came back to warn them. Foreshadowing His own resurrection, we read that even one rising from the dead wouldn't be enough to convince those who are already hard to the basic teachings of the Bible.

On this 5th day before Christmas, what would you want to tell your “five brothers” after you die? You can figure out who your 5 are...

The 6th Day Before Christmas

Thomas said to him, “Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?” Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you had known me, you would have known my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him.” (John 14:5-7 ESV)

Thomas à Kempis may have put this best when he wrote the following in the 15th Century:

"Follow thou me. I am the way and the truth and the life. Without the way there is no going; without the truth there is no knowing; without the life there is no living. I am the way which thou must follow; the truth which thou must believe; the life for which thou must hope. I am the inviolable way; the infallible truth; the never-ending life. I am the straightest way; the sovereign truth; life true, life blessed, life uncreated. If thou remain in my way thou shalt know the truth, and the truth shall make thee free, and thou shalt lay hold on eternal life."

Commenting on the "offensively exclusive" claim here, F.F. Bruce stated that "the one who makes this claim is the incarnate Word, the revealer of the Father. If God has no avenue of communication with mankind apart from his Word (incarnate or otherwise), mankind has no avenue of approach to God apart from that same Word, who became flesh and dwelt among us in order to supply such an avenue of approach."

Where do you stand on this 6th day before Christmas. The One who came at Christmas to be your way of truth and life has been revealed to you this day. What will you do with John 14:6?

"Here I stand!"

Where do you stand?

The 7th Day Before Christmas

Then Peter came up and said to him, "Lord, how often will my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? As many as seven times?" Jesus said to him, "I do not say to you seven times, but seventy times seven. (Matthew 18:21-22 ESV)

Reflecting on Christmas, what was Christ's mission? It wasn't to come in judgment – we have all been condemned already. His mission was to bring forgiveness for our sins. But this forgiveness wasn't just some abstract principle. It was a forgiveness that we should extend to all in our lives as well. As Peter asked Jesus here – “how often should I forgive someone?” The answer wasn't just seven but as John Calvin said “he who shall be prepared to forgive seven times will be willing to be reconciled as far as to the seventieth offense.”

We should forgive others as we have been forgiven. It's the only logical thing we should do. With 7 days left until Christmas, what will you do with the forgiveness offered? Have you forgiven someone who needs forgiveness but who you haven't forgiven for one reason or another?

The 8th Day Before Christmas

Now as Peter went here and there among them all, he came down also to the saints who lived at Lydda. There he found a man named Aeneas, bedridden for eight years, who was paralyzed. And Peter said to him, "Aeneas, Jesus Christ heals you; rise and make your bed." And immediately he rose. And all the residents of Lydda and Sharon saw him, and they turned to the Lord. (Acts 9:32-35 ESV)

Here we have the story of a man paralyzed. One of the sick that Jesus came to heal through his Apostles. He had been bedridden for 8 years – but may have been paralyzed for a longer period of time. At Christmas time we think about Jesus coming as a baby. But that should not be our focus. Jesus also came as a doctor for those who are sick both physically and spiritually. The wonderful thing about this story is that Aeneas was healed by Peter in the name of Jesus Christ. I'm not into the TV healers. But this story does have some powerful application in our lives. Back in 1977, Petra had a song titled “Holy Ghost Power” that speaks of this:

Holy Ghost power gonna fill you today
Holy Ghost power gonna take you away
Holy Ghost power gonna fill you within
Holy Ghost power gonna save you from sin
Don't give me no jive, you ain't even alive
'Till you get your heart right with God
Better ask Him in and forget your sin
Let Him fill your soul with power

Where are you on this 8th day before Christmas? Are you living in the power of the Holy Spirit? If you're a Christian, are you in need of more filling? I know I am. Or do you still need to receive an initial filling of the Holy Spirit?

The 9th Day Before Christmas

And as he entered a village, he was met by ten lepers, who stood at a distance and lifted up their voices, saying, "Jesus, Master, have mercy on us." When he saw them he said to them, "Go and show yourselves to the priests." And as they went they were cleansed. Then one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, praising God with a loud voice; and he fell on his face at Jesus' feet, giving him thanks. Now he was a Samaritan. Then Jesus answered, "Were not ten cleansed? Where are the nine? Was no one found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?" And he said to him, "Rise and go your way; your faith has made you well." (Luk 17:12-19 ESV)

I've spoken of the major differences between Samaritans and Jews here in the past. Looking back at that post, the differences were stark! Of the 10 lepers Jesus healed, the only one to return thanks was not only a foreigner, but one who many would say (in that time) was of a different faith altogether!

So, what does this have to do with Christmas? Even though Jesus may extend some common grace and mercy to the ten lepers, only one of them was credited with having the faith to make him well. Of course Jesus healed the other nine, but the one with faith received not only physical healing but spiritual restoration.

On this 9h day before Christmas, reflect on what you have to be thankful for. Reflect not only on the common grace, but the saving grace that Jesus has extended to you by humbling Himself to be born as a baby at Christmas. Are you one of the nine who would walk away from Jesus when you get what you asked for? Or will you be the grateful one?

The 10th Day Before Christmas

"For it will be like a man going on a journey, who called his servants and entrusted to them his property. To one he gave five talents, to another two, to another one, to each according to his ability. Then he went away. He who had received the five talents went at once and traded with them, and he made five talents more. So also he who had the two talents made two talents more. But he who had received the one talent went and dug in the ground and hid his master's money. Now after a long time the master of those servants came and settled accounts with them. And he who had received the five talents came forward, bringing five talents more, saying, 'Master, you delivered to me five talents; here I have made five talents more.' His master said to him, 'Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master.' And he also who had the two talents came forward, saying, 'Master, you delivered to me two talents; here I have made two talents more.' His master said to him, 'Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master.' He also who had received the one talent came forward, saying, 'Master, I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you did not sow, and gathering where you scattered no seed, so I was afraid, and I went and hid your talent in the ground. Here you have what is yours.' But his master answered him, 'You wicked and slothful servant! You knew that I reap where I have not sowed and gather where I scattered no seed? Then you ought to have invested my money with the bankers, and at my coming I should have received what was my own with interest. So take the talent from him and give it to him who has the ten talents. For to everyone who has will more be given, and he will have an abundance. But from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away. And cast the worthless servant into the outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.'" (Mat 25:14-30 ESV)

What will you do with what has been given to you? Will you be a faithful steward of the gifts you have been given by God? Or will you just store them away? If the answer is the former, then we see what the blessing will be: “You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much.” The promise is not one of worldly health or wealth – nor is the object of the faithfulness something tangible (in this parable it's money).

What will you do with your business? What will you do in your positions of leadership? What will you do with your family? On this 10th day before Christmas, think about these questions and whether you will be one of the faithful ones (who will walk away with 10 talents) or one who will squander away your opportunities and gifts.

The 11th Day Before Christmas

Eleven centuries before Christ, King David ruled over Israel. David was a prototype and ancestor of Jesus. There were some 92 prophecies from the Psalms that could be interpreted to speak of Jesus. Many of these were seen directly in the life of King David with ultimate fulfillment to come with Jesus. Speaking of the giants of the faith, the writer of the letter to the Hebrews had this to say:

“And what more shall I say? For time would fail me to tell of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, of David and Samuel and the prophets-- who through faith conquered kingdoms, enforced justice, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the power of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, were made strong out of weakness, became mighty in war, put foreign armies to flight.” (Heb 11:32-34 ESV)

Even though these things were accomplished by those of faith, Jesus came to accomplish even more.

Matthew and Luke each recorded genealogies of Jesus in chapters 1 and 3, respectively. There are some differences that are easily resolved. Matt Slick does an excellent job here. “There is no discrepancy because one genealogy is for Mary and the other is for Joseph. It was customary to mention the genealogy through the father even though it was clearly known that it was through Mary.” This is not a far-fetched response either. Perhaps John Calvin (16th Century) has given this one of the best treatments in his commentary.

The point is that both point to Jesus as being from the lineage of King David. On this 11th day before Christmas, reflect on the preparation for Jesus going back well over 11 centuries.

The 12th Day Before Christmas

The following lyrics are from the song 12 off of Neal Morse's album "?".

Twelve groups of stars [Rev 12:1]
Surrounding God's heaven
Same as the tribes
The twelve tribes of Israel [Gen 49:28]

Each hold a sign [Num 2:2]
Surrounding God's presence
Blurring the lines [Heb 9:24]
'tween here and his residence

Twelve makes a day
Twelve tones in music
Twelve months a year
Do you think it's an accident?

Christ as the Sun [Heb 1:3]
Pictures the Father
Surrounded by twelve [Mat 23:8]
That he calls his brothers

Twelve precious stones [Ex 39:7]
Upon the Priests Ephod
Twelve were the sons [Gen 35:22]
The twelve sons of Jacob

Twelve oxen held [2 Chr 4:4-5]
In Solomon's temple
Three thousand baths
To cleanse all the Levites

Christ built his church [Eph 2:20]
Upon twelve apostles
And three thousand souls [Acts 2:41]
Were added at Pentecost

Technorati: Christmas

My Grandmother Passed Away

After several years of declining health, breathing problems, and several months in a nursing home, my "Nanny" passed away this morning at 7:00 at the age of 86. She was a wonderful Christian mother and grandmother. She has possibly received the best gift this Christmas by being able to go to heaven see her husband (who passed away in 1982), her daughter (who passed away at the end of October), and her Saviour. You will be greatly missed Nanny! We love you!

Here is a picture of her at her 80th Birthday in June, 2000. This is a picture of her and all of her children (except Cassie, for some reason):

Santa Moody 2006

We had a special visit from Santa again this year! This time we even had (soon-to-be) Mrs. Claus... :) It's wonderful to have such a great friend to offer to do this! Thanks Chris!!



And for those who would like to watch, here's a video:

Switched to Blogger Beta

I wanted to take advantage of some of the new features such as post labels (categories) and the collapsible archive. So I switched to a new template - "Stretch Denim". I like the look - let me know what you think. It's just really clean.

Also, I have categorized most of my posts. There are still a lot in "Uncategorized", but I will wade through them sometime! And get ready for my series starting in two days...

Who Read Those E-mails? (SnTT)

Wow, this is my first SnTT post in about 2 months. Lately I've replied to a couple of threads at devWorks where people have asked how to find out which emails someone with ACL access has read in Lotus Notes. This is not something that is available by default and I have asked the most obvious question at the forum: "First, I guess you should question why the person is in the ACL of the database if he/she shouldn't be looking at the documents. By granting people a specific ACL level, you are granting them permission to do whatever that ACL level will allow." The answer is that the person may have authority but is accessing it with no specific reason. I decided to run with my "Who Deleted That Document?" post and port it to log the opening of emails. Upon some further reflection, this may still not be 100% accurate in some scenarios. First of all, the reader would have to have a connection the server where the log database resides. Of course, you could port the code to log the offenses to a document in the current database. Secondly, this is not taking into account that the reader could copy/paste the emails into their own mail file. After brief investigation, all you have to do is modify the ACL for the offender to disable "Replicate or copy documents" in the Attributes section. Also, you could probably go a step further and add code in the "Post Open" option for the ($Inbox) folder to log if someone was looking in the folders but not actually opening the emails. Thirdly, this will not work if the offender is going through the web to open the emails. I can't think of an easy solution for Domino Web Access use. However, you could temporarily change the mail file to not be based on the DWA template and you could modify the Standard Mail template to do some type of logging via WebQueryOpen on the form (the code below should work that way with minor modifications) or port it to javascript in onLoad.

Here are the steps you may wish to perform:

1. Create a log database. This can just be based off the log.ntf template.
2. Set the log database's ACL for -Default- to be Depositor with nothing checked but "Create documents". This will prevent the person from seeing the log documents if he somehow figured out something was happening.
3. Disable copying for the user. On the mail database, modify the ACL for the offender to disable "Replicate or copy documents" in the Attributes section.
4. Add the following code to the PostOpen event for the Memo, Reply, and Reply with history forms if you are concerned with Calendar or To-Do documents. You could also add it to other forms.

'Generate log event for opening of emails by someone other than the DB owner
 If Not source.IsNewDoc Then 
  'If the user is not the database owner then log the document open  
  Dim session As New NotesSession
  Dim db As NotesDatabase
  Dim dbowner As Variant
  Dim prodoc As NotesDocument
  Set db = session.CurrentDatabase
  Set prodoc = db.GetProfileDocument("calendarprofile")
  dbowner = prodoc.GetItemValue("Owner") 
  If session.UserName <> dbowner(0) Then
   Dim delivereditem As NotesItem
   Dim delivered As notesdatetime
   Set delivereditem = source.document.GetFirstItem("PostedDate")
   Set delivered = delivereditem.DateTimeValue   
   Dim OpenLog As New NotesLog(db.FilePath)
   Call OpenLog.OpenNotesLog("HQAPP01/COMPORIUM", "ChrisDesigns\loggingdb.nsf")
   Call OpenLog.LogAction("Email Opened: " + source.FieldGetText("Subject") + " From: " _
   + source.FieldGetText("From") + " Received On: " + delivered.LocalTime)
   Call OpenLog.Close
  End If
 End If
 'END logging of email opens

This LotusScript was converted to HTML using the ls2html routine,
provided by Julian Robichaux at nsftools.com.

Technorati: Show-n-tell thursday

A Brief History of Storage

By the way, I took this picture with the Blackjack. Not too bad...



As you can see, the size of storage media has reduced significantly. We have an IBM 8" floppy that was apparently used here as a "System back up 10/11/88". I honestly didn't know how much this stored. But I just found a document regarding the diskette from 1979. It appears to hold 1,212,416 bytes. We also have the next gen 3.5" floppy (1.44 MB). Then I found a huge 250MB Iomega zip disk. This was a big step for floppies, though since it was proprietary it wasn't adopted too much. And for comparison's sake I put my SanDisk cruzer micro 512MB USB stick in the picture. It's the famous NOMAD! ;) Finally, there is a 512MB MicroSD card that I just picked up for my Blackjack. It will hold, what, close to 500 of the 8" floppies?

Samsung Blackjack

Last week I received a Samsung Blackjack (i607) to test. It's the new Windows Smartphone from Samsung that is only available through Cingular. I've been using a BlackBerry 8700c since January. But, I really like the Samsung. The display appears to be a lot smaller than the 8700, but it's actually the same height and just slightly narrower. Here's my unofficial review:

Pros:
- Nice display
- I like the feel of the keyboard
- Nice fit in the hand
- EDGE, but is 3G UMTS/HSDPA capable when that's available in my area
- 1.3 MP camera
- Windows Mobile 5 is pretty straightforward
- Media player
- Extra battery and standalone charger
- Able to set up POP accounts for mail
- I'm going to get a MicroSD card and should be able to load Lotus Notes Nomad and carry my mail client with me everywhere

Cons:
- Speaking of that, I don't like that the USB port on the Blackjack is proprietary. It also functions as a headphone port. Come on, just give me an 1/8" port!
- Anyone know of a free GoogleTalk IM client for WM5? I have AOL and Sametime 7.5 clients loaded.
- And speaking of the extra battery - it's needed! Battery life isn't so hot. Maybe 1.5 days with general usage. And it's not just me.
- The number keys are separated by other keys instead of all being together. This isn't too bad, but it is somewhat of a nuisance.
- No BBConnect client. And I'm still trying to work with Cingular on getting their XPressMail working with "Lotus Domino". It's an option in their client, but the client fails for each computer I use with it. It is supposed to sync contacts and calendar entries with Lotus.
- I will be OK to keep using POP mail with my Domino server as long as I can find something to sync with Lotus. We use XTNDConnectPC internally, but they don't "support" Blackjack yet.
- No carrying case
- I may just load Domino Access for MS Outlook so that everything will just sync! I can see the case for the ease of synchronization between ActiveSync and WM devices.

Technorati: Blackjack

A New (To Me) Lotus Blogger

I stumbled on this blog when looking through some referrals. It's DominoKeys by Kevin Hansen. Recently he's been discussing the Notes 7.0.2 client for Mac, Nomad (this was the post he linked back to me from), and Microsoft's "It's A Small World". Looking at his personal information it appears that he is (or was) an iSeries guy as well.

If I'm late to the game, allow me to welcome you - it seems you've been bloggin a while!

Now Playing: "Fantasy or Reality" by Arwen

I'm still here...

No worries! I guess it's just a busy time of the year. We're all doing pretty well and I hope to post more frequently. I'm actually working on a series of posts to start on December 14 (I think). We're working on i5/OS upgrades on 3 servers at work. It's only from v5.3 to v5.4 and it's supposed to be easy peasy. Two guys are going to upgrade one of them today.

Not much going on with Domino except for working on some Domino applications. As with most larger SMBs, our users just need functional access to corporate data from the web. We don't need no stinkin' 2.0!! I've come up with a fairly cool template (IMHO) that's integrating Julian's "Google Suggest" for customer lookups (well, we do have some 2.0, eh?) and straight HTML views. I'm incorporating document locking as well.

OK, back to my work on the December series...

Now Playing: "Song of the Redeemed" by Charlie Hall

Got My Hands On The Latest Version Of Lotus Notes!

Now that I have your attention... I decided to crack open an OS/2 box that was in my cubicle. I thought I would share with you what I found:


Beautifully shrinkwrapped copy of Lotus Notes "Express" Release 3.30 for OS/2!


Here you can see the reasons to use Lotus Notes. The copyright date at the bottom is 1995!


I had to open the disc - here it is...


And here is the listing of the 6 templates that ship with the software. They are stunning!

Now Playing: "Christmas In The Air" by Trans-Siberian Orchestra

Technorati: Lotus Notes

Domino 7.0.2 HTTP Hotfixed

As of Friday we have been running with no problems on Domino 7.0.2 for our production mail server. Lotus worked on a hotfix and delivered it Friday for my company and "other customers clamoring for the fix." I discussed the issue here. We were getting an "HTTP crash on Locking handle when creating NMemBlock". I did test a hotfix that didn't work.

After further investigation, it was discovered that the issue was with the HTTP UserCache and how it was working with LTPA tokens in an SSO environment. Since we use LTPA we were receiving the error. It's been almost a week now and it's working well. Whew...

I don't really want to start a rant here, but the last major Domino server issues we had were when we went to 7.0 this time last year and revolved around the HTTP task. Thankfully this time the fix took a week instead of 2.5 months!!

OpenNTF Mail Experience 7.0.2a Beta is out

Cool stuff! Love the Web 2.0 UI. Check it out here. Thanks Bruce and Vince!

HTTP 1.0 and Domino 7.0.2 (New notes.ini Setting)

Lotus has re-worked the caching for HTTP 1.0 in Domino 7.0.2. So, if you have DWA users who have HTTP 1.0 enabled, keep an eye out for issues. To determine if this updated cache mechanism is the issue, you can enable a new setting in your Domino 7.0.2 server's notes.ini:

iNotes_WA_PreferWebEngineCacheControl=1 - This will revert the HTTP 1.0 cache behavior back to that of Domino 7.0.1.

Now Playing: "Some Things Never Change" by Bride

Technorati: Lotus Domino

It's Been A Long Week

Well, not counting the 7.0.2 issues this week, it hasn't been a good week. On Sunday, my Aunt Cassie passed away. I have mentioned her situation previously back in July. She bravely fought cancer for 7 years - perhaps one of the strongest, gentlest women anyone could know. My dad is from a family of 8 children and his sister's family was probably the closest to our family. Aunt Cassie was a lot like a grandmother to my brother since she kept him during the days until he was 4. It was a tough loss, but Aunt Cassie isn't suffering any more and is much better off. She was a wonderful Christian woman. The funeral was today, on her birthday. It was especially tough. I was privileged to be one of the pallbearers. Parts of the funeral service got to me, but when we had to stand up at the end to get ready to take the casket it was really tough to choke back the tears. To those of you who I have spoken with about this, thank you so much for your kind thoughts and prayers. They are cherished! As I also mentioned in July, my grandmother is not well either - we did get her into an assisted-living facility. She has been in the hospital this week as well, so that has also been trying for our family.

Domino http Question

Does anyone know if cache lookups would be disabled if I set the user cache to zero in the server document?

Hotfix Coming for Domino 7.0.2 HTTP Issue

Cliff's Notes: I'm going to load a Domino 7.0.2 hotfix, an STLINKS hotfix, and Sametime 7.5 CF1! Talk about a patched system...

I will (hopefully) be receiving a hotfix tonight for the http issue with Domino 7.0.2. IBM was able to package a fix for the System i today and I'm awaiting an e-mail with information on how to get it.

Meanwhile, after going to 7.0.2 on my cluster and production mail servers IM from Domino Web Access "broke". A couple of weeks ago I received "Hotfix #16" for STLINKS. After upgrading Domino to 7.0.2 I have to reload those files. Basically you have to reload stlinks.jar and stlinks.js and all language files in the '/[Domino Data]/domino/html/sametime/stlinks' directory as well as the STLinksSA.jar file in the location of the executables. On the System i, it is in '/QIBM/ProdData/Lotus/Sametime' directory. The symptoms are that when you send or receive an IM the chat window is blank. I've just loaded this and it's fine.

Also, I will be loading Sametime 7.5 CF1 onto my production IM server. It was fine on my test server (but so was Domino 7.0.2...). At least I can back out of CF1 more easily than 7.0.2! I'm applying it as I post this.

Now Playing: "Shout To The Lord" by Ruben Studdard (Hey, it was in LAUNCHCast's station)

What Have You Done For Me Lately (Spratt)?

OK, I understand that something needs to be done with Social Security if I want to get anything. Not that I am going to rely on the government, but I have to face the fact that it will be dried up by the time I retire. That will be a long time from now, but I would like to know what John Spratt would like to do for the Social Security of his grandchildren. Under his watch they won't have any and an increasingly larger number of voters won't have any either. Personally, I would like the government to step out of the retirement business and let me decide if I want to contribute to the welfare plan for retired persons. Social Security has become a means for the big gov-co officials to buy votes by means of scare tactics. We all know those evil Republicans just want to make the elderly suffer in poverty. Gimme a break.

Back to my question - what have you done for me lately as a young voter, Representative Spratt?

Another reason to support HR 25/S 25!

Now Playing: "Cryin'" by Vixen

Technorati: John Spratt, Ralph Norman,Election 2008

Domino 7.0.2 HTTP Issue

I was having some issues yesterday and upgraded to 7.0.2. It cleared up those issues, but now we have run into an issue with an "HTTP crash on Locking handle when creating NMemBlock" (from an SPR). In a nutshell, our production mail server has crashed 8 times today before 12pm. I have disabled my HTTP task and forced all Notes users to our cluster box. I understand that a hotfix does currently exist for platforms other than the System i (just our luck...) and an escalation request has been made to get it expedited for System i.

On a side note, I have been messing with Domino log/console filters today and have cleaned out some of the unnecessary messages coming into our console.

Will let you know how it goes, as always!

Now Playing: "Why Does Love Got to be So Sad?" by Derek And The Dominos

Rock Hill VFW Supports...Ralph Norman

On the way home from work I just passed the VFW on Main Street and there were over a dozen Ralph Norman signs along the sidewalk!! Lookin good...

Domino 7.0.2 on iSeries and Time Changes

As I briefly mentioned in the past, there was supposed to be a fix for the Domino software to allow for OS time changes without hanging the Domino server(s). This fix is in SPR# RWAH6HPQ8B for Domino 7.0.2- This iSeries specific fix allows daylight savings time and standard time changes without recycling the Domino server.

I just want to say a huge thank you to IBM for this. I have upgraded 3 of my cluster iSeries Domino partitions to 7.0.2 and they didn't have any problems with the time change this weekend. Now to get to my production partitions...

Now Playing: "Solid As The Sun" by Neal Morse

Technorati: Lotus Domino, iSeries

sKerry's non-Apology

Well, after saying Tuesday that no apology was necessary, John Kerry backpedaled and apologized yesterday. As VP Dick Cheney put it, "I guess we didn't get the nuance. He was for the joke before he was against it."

Information on the apology can be found here. John Kerry said: "I sincerely regret that my words were misinterpreted to wrongly imply anything negative about those in uniform, and I personally apologize to any service member, family member, or American who was offended,"

OK, that is not an apology. An apology is saying "I'm sorry for what I said." Jon Carry did not apologize for saying something bad. He was only sorry that his words were "misinterpreted" (they weren't) and that people were offended.

The spoken words Kerry gave in the speech leave no room for misinterpretation. He said: "You know education if you make the most of it, you study hard and you do your homework and you make an effort to be smart, you can do well, if you don't, you can get stuck in Iraq," You simply cannot misinterpret that at all (unless you don't know what the definition of misinterpretation is...) He simply said that if you study you will do well and if you don't study you get stuck in Iraq. He said that!! Honestly... But, his office said that it should have been "You end up getting us stuck in a war in Iraq. Just ask President Bush." If it was really that simple of a slip-up then why did it take you two days to come up with what you should have said?

Yeah, we "get" the joke. But even if that is what he meant to say it was a stupid joke. Think about it. If Kerry was saying that the President is dumb and that's the reason we're stuck in Iraq, then how bad off would we be if Kerry were in the Office? Remember, Kerry did worse in college than President Bush!

Now Playing: "Secret Weapon" by Petra

Technorati: John Kerry

I'm Glad....

that this guy will never be president.

I especially like the comments here:
John:

Kerry's over-the-top defense of his faux pas makes no sense, of course: whatever he may think of President Bush's policies, he clearly identified those who are "stuck in Iraq" as people who didn't "study hard...and make an effort to be smart." Further, a reader points out the vapidity of Kerry's opening sentence, "If anyone thinks a veteran would criticize the more than 140,000 heroes serving in Iraq ... they're crazy":

This is the same guy who came home from Vietnam and accused our troops of being war criminals, using Ghengis Khan tactics, and cutting off ears.

You bet your *** we think you'd slur the military because you've done it before.

One of the many problems with the "chickenhawk" argument is that it only takes one veteran to reveal how stupid it is. John McCain said today:

Senator Kerry owes an apology to the many thousands of Americans serving in Iraq, who answered their country's call because they are patriots and not because of any deficiencies in their education. Americans from all backgrounds, well off and less fortunate, with high school diplomas and graduate degrees, take seriously their duty to our country, and risk their lives today to defend the rest of us in Iraq, Afghanistan, and elsewhere. They all deserve our respect and deepest gratitude for their service. The suggestion that only the least educated Americans would agree to serve in the military and fight in Iraq, is an insult to every soldier serving in combat, and should deeply offend any American with an ounce of appreciation for what they suffer and risk so that the rest of us can sleep more comfortably at night. Without them, we wouldn't live in a country where people securely possess all their God-given rights, including the right to express insensitive, ill-considered and uninformed remarks.

Paul:

Kerry hasn't just slandered Vietnam vets. Here's what he said on "Face The Nation" about our forces in Iraq, the ones he says you'd have to "be crazy" to think he'd ever disparage: "there is no reason, Bob, that young American soldiers need to be going into the homes of Iraqis in the dead of night, terrorizing kids and children, you know, women, breaking sort of the customs of the--of--the historical customs, religious customs."

Passed My 7.0 Domino Administration Update Exam

I thought I would give it a try this morning. I passed it! :) It was pretty thorough with a lot of questions about DDM. I hadn't taken exam 623 yet, so I guess I'll have to take that to get my "Advanced" certification....

Now Playing: "Hope Fails" by Return of the King Soundtrack

Sametime 7.5 CF1

I was going to test out the Sametime 7.5 Mobile client that IBM just released and in looking at the documentation I found that there is a Cumulative Fixpack #1 for Sametime 7.5. See the fixlist here. Actually, Adam Gartenberg just posted about its availability as well - it was just released today. That explains why I had not seen anything about it.

I just loaded it on my test server. As I was reading the documentation and fixes, I noticed a lot of fixes for the Connect Client. But, there was not a separate download. I asked myself: "Self, do you think they are dropping the requirement to manually copy the connect client(s) to be able to download from the Sametime server?" Turns out that they have! On the Client splash screen we now see "AIM Certified Partner" and "Y! Messenger" logos!

Now Playing: "The Black Gate" by Return of the King Soundtrack

Technorati: Lotus Sametime 7.5

It's A Boy!!!

We went to the doctor this morning for our 19-week ultrasound and it's a boy!! A name is still pending... :)



Now Playing: "So Near So Far" by Angra

Two Funny Comments This Week

I'm not sure what's going on here, but there have been two funny comments at my site this past week.

First was Ben who posted the following in the NSFBufferPool thread:
Now there is a sentence that will likely never cross my lips (or keyboard) except as a quote: "The other week I decided to check into my NSF Buffer Pool settings" Ahh, there are days I'm really glad I'm not an administrator. I'm glad that you all exist, but I eat my veggies, I brush my teeth, I exercise, so I can feel virtuous and never, ever have to check my NSF Buffer Pool settings.

Second was Kevin who posted in the "Dark Side" thread:
"Don't be too proud of this technological terror you've constructed. The ability to provide word processing is insignificant next to the power of the @Function!" :-)

What comedians we have out there!!

Now Playing: "The Shadow Hunter" by Angra

Flash Drive for Nomad

OK everyone, time to go pick up this flash drive for your Nomad installations. I think it will have enough space for even the largest mail file replica!

Kanguru 32GB Flash Max Drive - Only $1499!! - and no, I didn't miss a decimal place. $1,499.99 to be exact!

Treo 650 with BlackBerry Connect and DAMO

Since Cingular finally released BBConnect for the Treo 650, I have someone testing it out. It works alright. I posted about this in April and it's pretty much the same. The thing that we really don't dig is that the account has to have the BlackBerry plan (~$40) as well as a MediaNET plan (~$40). The MediaNet plan is necessary if you want to use the Internet Browser on the phone. It will definitely be a niche product for people who just have to keep their Treo. But that may all change when they try out a BlackBerry Pearl!

Also, we have a workgroup that needs to use Outlook to demo a product they sell for VoIP integration. So, I'm working on loading DAMO 6.5.5 on their Outlook 2003 clients. I cringe every time I VNC to one of their computers to set it up... At least it's just 6 users!

Now Playing: "Make Believe Jesus" by Shane & Shane

The dark side of the Lotus

I'm working on a project for a workgroup at my company and they're really digging the Domino web application that I have for them. One of the guys sent me an email with the title of this post as the subject with the following image...



Now Playing: "He Is Exalted" by Shane & Shane

David's Blog of common sense

I just stumbled on this blog today: David's Blog of common sense. It's a mostly political blog and lately David Taylor has been mostly focusing on the Spratt/Norman race in SC's 5th District. But, he talks about national items as well. You should go check him out - it's great to see another Rock Hill blogger! He was even referenced on The O'Reilly Factor.

How is your NSF Buffer Pool? (SnTT)

The other week I decided to check into my NSF Buffer Pool settings - specifically the percent of database reads in the buffer pool. The buffer pool is a shared memory space that you can control on your Domino server. The "trick" is to have the "PercentReadsInBuffer" greater than 95%. If it is less than 95%, you may want to tweak the NSF_Buffer_Pool_Size_MB notes.ini value. This can take some time to achieve a good ratio. If your Buffer Pool is too high, then you're wasting system memory that can be better used for other tasks. If it's too low, then you might be able to increase it to find a good value so that a higher percentage of the reads are in the buffer pool.

IBM only recommends changing this on partitioned servers since you are sharing the memory. Most of the buffer pool information revolves around R5. Part of the reason for having this setting was that (ahem) "certain platforms" had low numbers for the maximum server memory. The buffer pool would let you allocate a specific amount for this Domino process. I think I set all of my servers buffer pools late last year and haven't touched them or really looked at the performance, so I was happy when I saw my PercentReads numbers! The old defaults were 300MB if you didn't change the buffer pool size. After having tweaked some of my servers, it turned out that 300 was a pretty good number for me. And Sametime servers can actually have a really low buffer pool setting since they normally aren't opening a lot of NSFs. Here are mine - how are yours?

Issue the following command from your server console: show stat database.database.b*

Production Mail Server: 450MB Buffer - 99.81% reads in buffer!
Production App Server: 300MB Buffer - 96.33% reads in buffer
Production IM Server: 50MB Buffer - 96.34% reads in buffer
Cluster Mail Server: 360MB Buffer - 98.44% reads in buffer
Cluster App Server: 300MB Buffer - 97.6% reads in buffer

Now Playing: "See No Evil" by Holy Soldier

Technorati: Show-n-tell thursday

Question Regarding Lotus Notes and Broadsoft Integration

I haven't been able to find much regarding integration between Lotus Notes and Broadsoft (a VoIP system). Currently, Broadsoft offers a toolbar for MS Outlook called BroadWorks Assistant - Enterprise. We use the Broadsoft platform and I have been asked about getting the same toolbar into Lotus Notes. Of course, if Broadsoft isn't planning on doing this, then this would mean custom development. I don't see why Broadsoft would just shrug off ~42% of all corporate mail customers, but that's beside the point. My gut instinct is that it will be much easier to achieve this with a plugin to Hannover (if one wanted to go the route of a toolbar). I've Googled and searched devWorks with no results.

Do any of my readers know anyone who has worked on this? I'm not familiar with Broadsoft at all. I'm thinking that it would probably be easier to integrate any of the integration directly into a mail and/or nab template rather than try to code a custom toolbar.

Nice Hit Piece on Ralph Norman by The Herald in Rock Hill

When The Herald's search feature is working for the archives, I'll get the link to their story from a couple of weeks ago. But I did see one person write in an editorial about it in yesterday's paper titled "Herald crucifies Ralph Norman". It was a top fold, front page article.

Basically, The Herald sent out reporters looking for illegal workers on Warren Norman Co. building projects. They found 3 people who claimed to be "illegal alien invaders" (as Jeff Katz puts it) on 2 separate job sites. These people did not work for Ralph Norman's company (as the article did state), but rather they worked for sub-contractors that the company uses. Since the article did point those things out, I will give it some fairness. However, it was clearly intended to point out some hypocrisy by Ralph Norman since he is running on changing laws to better protect our borders. This is something that John "I have a seat at the table" Spratt hasn't been able to do in a quarter of a century in Washington and it's the Spratt laws that allow the Norman sub-contractors to hire those who are in our country illegally.

Speaking of hypocrisy, I have two further points. First, there was another editoral sent to The Herald and printed yesterday titled Herald hypocritical on immigration. It has some good points about The Herald on one hand stating that they believe the government should have to stop it and stating on the other that it should be up to small businesses. Each point was made independent of the other.

Secondly, let's address the hypocrisy of pointing out that it's bad for a company to hire illegals but not doing anything about it. I have a question for The Herald: When you found out that these people were violating the laws of our country, what did you do to stop it? Since you were specifically looking for people to admit to being here illegally, why did you not have INS waiting around the corner to have them deported? It seems you don't really care about their immigration status - rather you would just like to make a political candidate look bad!

Technorati: Ralph Norman, John Spratt, South Carolina

Some Personal Downtime This Weekend

Monday is my firstborn's 3rd Birthday! Where did the time go? We're going to head down to Surfside Beach, SC tonight for a long weekend. The last time we went, we found a really good Italian place just 5 minutes away in Garden City. It's Nico's of NY. We really enjoyed it, but from looking at the reviews I don't believe we'll try for the "early bird special" unless I'm there way before 5! I'll have ye old crackBerry, so I may try to keep up with some blogs here and there.

Confess Your AOL IM "Prank Gone Awry"

OK, time for you to confess your AOL Instant Messenger (or other IM program) "prank gone awry" (i.e. Foley). Here's mine.

My freshman year of college was great to have AOL free for almost a whole year. Though it was dial-up, we had a few guys who would just get the free trials and have them extended several months. My roomie and I had an account on his blazing Acer laptop. It was an Intel 95MHz I think. Super fast! Anyway, I digress...

Some of us decided to "play the player" (my roomie). We knew that his singing group was going on a trip the next weekend. So, we used a new screenname and posed as a girl that was in a chatroom with him. It just so happened that he was singing in the same town she lived in! This was probably Monday or Tuesday. He was pretty pumped up to meet this girl. We even found a tasteful picture of an attractive girl and sent him. Man, I don't know how I kept my composure. About Thursday that week, we finally broke the news to him that he was being played - poor guy. It was sooo hilarious!!!

Now Playing: "Water Under The Bridge" by Jars of Clay

See The Morning

Here is some pretty awesome news about Chris Tomlin's new CD See The Morning. This is from the 268 Blog:

It was pretty amazing today as the charts from week one were released. STM landed at the top of the Christian charts AND at #15 on the Billboard Top 200. That's #15 out of every CD out there last week, a bold statement and a lot of songs of hope and light floating around the nation. We're humbled and excited... and we know this is only the beginning.

Thanks for your prayers and support!
Louie

This CD is awesome. It's not only amazing that a CD by a Christian artist debuts in top 20 of Billboard, but this is a worship album. Like Louie said, it's "a lot of songs of hope and light".

Here are some lyrics from the song Rejoice:

See the morning, see it rising
Over the mountains high
See the mercy in the mighty
Hand of God

Lving water come and fill us
Only You can satisfy
Turn our sorrow into singing
The song of life

Rejoice, rejoice
Sing with the angel voices
Rejoice, rejoice
All heaven and earth rejoice

Lord, Your strength is a tower
The righteous run into
Lord, Your love is a banner over us

And we hold onto the promise
That Your hold on us is true
There's no other like You, Jesus
No one like You

Now Playing: "Amazing Grace (My Chains Are Gone)"" by Chris Tomlin

Technorati: Chris Tomlin

Upgraded to Sametime 7.5 on iSeries (SnTT)

Last Friday night I upgraded our internal Sametime server to 7.5. As part of that process, I had to upgrade the the 6.5.4FP1 Domino server to Domino 7.0.1 and then upgrade ST 6.5.1FP1 to 7.5. This worked like a champ and we haven't had any issues with the server this week. It was a very smooth upgrade.

One thing that we have been waiting on to be "fixed" was the poor screen sharing capabilities of ST 7.0 and earlier. It's one reason I didn't worry about taking the server to 7.0. After testing the screen sharing of ST 7.5 on my test server, I was very pleased with what I saw. So, this was a good reason for us to upgrade. We may be able to get rid of a WebEx account. Speaking of screen sharing, we did have one ST server crash this week while holding a test meeting. I've worked with Lotus a bit on that and it may be related to the Meeting Room preference to optimize screen sharing for performance. This basically drops the color depth to 8 bit and looks pretty bad. The NSD showed a crash due to some type of conversion. I'm thinking it may be the 8 bit conversion, but neither Lotus or I could reproduce this.

Another "gotcha" that we ran into is with the DWA integration with chat. There were actually 2 gotchas. First of all, if you are upgrading the Sametime server and you have chosen to have your DWA server set to load STLinks from the DWA server, you will need to delete the domino/html/sametime/stlinks directory on the DWA server and copy over the stlinks directory from the IM server. Then restart the DWA server's HTTP task and it works! Since I could see the java console error in IE about a StartIM{} function call, I figured it was something with the stlinks jar file. I think this may be the case if you have a 7.0 or earlier stlinks folder on your DWA server.

The second gotcha is also with DWA and I haven't actually "confirmed" it. We are almost complete with an MS XP migration from Windows 2000 in our company. Since going to ST 7.5, I have actually seen that a Win2K user without the Sun JVM worked for a day with the MS VM but then their DWA chat failed and I had to load the Sun JVM. That's really odd that it would work and then fail. It appears that only Sun JVM is supported, though.

Now Playing: "Taking Notes Podcast #34" by Bruce & Julian

Technorati: Show-n-tell thursday

Domino 7.0.2 for System i - New WRKDOMSVR Options

For you System i folks out there, there are 3 new options under F23 for the WRKDOMSVR command. I have only loaded the release - I have not upgraded any servers to 7.0.2 yet. The new options are:

14 - Work with support files - This opens the IBM_TECHNICAL_SUPPORT directory.
15 - Work with NSDs - This opens the IBM_TECHNICAL_SUPPORT directory and only displays nsd* files.
16 - Dump server call stacks - This will create spooled files for each job running in the particular Domino partition.

It's great to have these options right from the server management screen! I just have to remember the numbers now...

As a side note, before you load the QNOTESRL savf, make sure that nobody is using the WRKDOMSVR command. The panel group objects may not get updated correctly. I had to redo my install of the Domino release files because I was receiving an error when doing WRKDOMSVR. This is not something specific to Domino 7.0.2, though, as others have had it happen on previous versions.

Now Playing: "Be The Quiet" by Disciple

Technorati: Lotus Domino

Lotus Notes 7.0.2 - NOMAD Review

Updated installation procedure on 10/04/2006.

Since Notes/Domino 7.0.2 is now available at Passport, I would like to write up a review of NOMAD. Formerly project "Wanda", NOMAD is Notes on a USB stick (or any device that can be addressable as a drive letter in Windows). I think NOMAD should stand for Notes On My Agile Drive!

I've had the privilege of testing NOMAD since September 12 (I'm writing the first draft of this on 9/16). I understand that it's a final build of the client, but since I have had no issues with the client, it's irrelevant if it is slightly "beta". I picked up a 512 MB memory stick for only $9.99 after rebates. But, sometimes you can get them even cheaper than that. If you want to have a local replica of your mail file, that may not be enough space.

First things, first. You may wish to have a roaming user profile for Domino in order for this to best work with your desktop. This was really simple, and I have all my bookmarks, addresses, and journal entries replicated. The base installation of NOMAD was ~375 MB for me. That seems quite hefty! Then after the first launch I replicated over my roaming files which account for 58.5 MB. Then you have desktop6.ndk and cache.ndk that are created along with perweb.nsf. This is 22.5 MB for me. That put me up to 456 of my 489 usable MB!

Installation:
Here's the how to install NOMAD. See some of the "gotchas" at Susan Bulloch's site.

Complete these steps to install IBM Lotus Notes client on a USB drive:
1. Insert the USB drive into the USB port on your computer.
2. Make note of the drive letter that is assigned to the USB drive because this drive letter assignment is dynamic and will change when you use that USB port in the future.
3. Extract the C94QIEN.exe file. This is the filename of the self-extracting executable downloaded from IBM. This is just the Notes Client. (The C94QAEN.exe is the Full Client package with Admin and Designer - do not attempt to install nomad from this as it was not meant to work this way.)
4. In a command prompt window, navigate to the folder where you extracted the C94QIEN file (there should now be a setup.exe), and then enter this command to install Lotus Notes on the USB drive:
setup /a /v"NOMAD=1 TARGETDIR=F:\ /qb+"
Where F is the USB drive letter.
The parameters /qb+ allow for the display of the basic user interface and a message box at the end of the upgrade. Don't forget the last quotation mark!
5. When the install process completes, run the command AUTORUN.EXE from the root of the USB drive by double-clicking on the filename or by typing the command on the command line.
6. Lotus Notes client is installed and will automatically launch. Complete the Notes setup process as usual.

Post Installation Cleanup (optional):
So, here's what you can remove to regain some drive space:
- Mail templates - you can leave the one you use if you would like
- Document library, discussion templates, phonebook template, or other templates you may not require
- modems folder - do you really need the modem files?
- Help folder - do you need help if you know what you're doing? :)
- Dictionary files - I don't need canadien.dic or uk.dic
- Java Documentation - go to \lotus\notes\jvm\ and there is a javadocs.zip file that is 33 MB. Get rid of this!

After removing all that, my NOMAD install was down to 336 MB from the 456 MB (and that includes the 52 MB that's from the Admin and Designer Clients! - see below). If you have a clean enough mail file or choose selective replication, you should be able to fit that on a 512 MB stick. I decided to throw Portable Firefox on the stick instead. I have about 85 MB still free. And don't forget to defrag. You may want to move the bookmark, desktop6, and cache files off the drive temporarily to get enough free space to have a really good defrag. Then move the files back over and they won't be fragmented (to start with). I still see that those files get fragmented quickly (just like with the Windows Notes Client).

Loading Administrator and Designer:
After installing the client, the first thing I did was follow Declan's advice to load Domino Administrator and Designer. To do that, just copy admin.exe, designer.exe, events4.ntf, and domadmin.ntf from your PC's Notes installation into the respective directories on the portable drive. It takes a little bit to create the domadmin.nsf the first time, but after that, Administrator and Designer Clients work well. This will create an evens4.nsf and domadmin.nsf. With the template and nsf files, this is 52 MB.

You can also see more information at Chris Miller's site.

Now that all of that is out of the way, just remember that it's the Notes client on a stick and it has Sametime support as well. It's another way that IBM is making Notes available for different scenarios (Linux, Mac, Windows, and NOMAD). It works great and performs well on USB 2.0 (don't hope for much success on earlier USB versions - it's slow!!). I used it last week a lot and didn't have any problems (except when my drive space got down to 2 MB free...), but that's my own fault! If you travel a lot, this could come in extremely handy. I just had to reformat an old laptop at home that we keep in the kitchen. This comes in handy for me not to have to load Notes on that. After you close the client and remove the drive, a cleanup process will remove any traces of the client. Enjoy!

Technorati: Lotus Notes

We Tried And Failed

Well, the Gamecocks came so close to beating Auburn last night! Wow... It came down, literally, to the last play of the game. I wish I had been able to see it. So, now for a question - are the Gamecocks better than I think or is Auburn overrated?

Now Playing: "How Can I Keep From Singing?" by Chris Tomlin

Technorati: Gamecocks

Cross-Posting

Well, Bruce isn't the only one posting on multiple blogs! ;) I just posted up some thoughts at my joint-venture site with Greg. We may be recruiting - from both sides of the debate hopefully. It's actually been a really dead site - the last post was in March and my last post was in October 2005! In my third post there, someone actually accused me of being paid to start the site!

Senator Clinton - The History Revisionist

Now Playing: "We Need Jesus" by Petra

Technorati: Hillary Clinton

Package Tracking With Bloglines

This is so cool - you can track UPS, FedEx, USPS, and DHL shipments via Bloglines. I just saw an update that they added DHL tracking - I didn't even know you could already track the others.

Now Playing: "Chewbacca" by Liquid Tension Experiment

Technorati: Bloglines

It's Official - He Finally Inhaled

Wow - what a tirade we got to see from former President Clinton!! I don't really have much time to discuss it, but Greg Simmons has posted some great information from some quick Googling. Looks as if President Clinton's inhalation some 40 years post-toke caused some latent lapses in his memory! Greg linked to the YouTube video. However, you can also see the clips at HotAir by Michelle Malkin with an audio sample of President Clinton discussing how he intentionally let Bin Laden go in 1996 because he "had not done anything against the US". See also this Power Line blog item about the tirade.

Still the "senior class president" - living and getting by on popularity!

Technorati: Bill Clinton, Fox News

Need to Search for System i Information?

Just come to my blog! I have added the iSociety/System iPortal search box to my blog. So, if you can't remember www.systemiportal.com, then just come here and search.

Now Playing: "Little Wing" by Derek and the Dominos

Technorati: System i, iSeries

Disabling Domino Platform Statistics

By default, each Domino server/partition (DPAR) will collect platform statistics. Since we have 3 DPARs on each iSeries, I have disabled platform statistic collection on our application and IM servers. This will just free them up to do other things and not duplicate the statistic collections from multiple DPARs on one platform. I'm sure there's not much overhead to the platform stats collection, but why have 3 (or more) DPARs duplicating that effort? So if you're using Domino partitioning, you may want to disable platform stats for all but one of the DPARs. It's something I've always overlooked, but every CPU cycle counts for something, right?

The line to add to the notes.ini is: Platform_Statistics_Disabled=1

Now Playing: "Anyday" by Derek and the Dominos

Technorati: Lotus Domino

Earthquake In SC

Sitting in the airport, someone sent me this link about a 3.5 mag quake that hit SC about 7:20 this morning:

http://earthquake.usgs.gov/eqcenter/recenteqsww/Quakes/ussyas.php#details

It was about 110 miles away from where I live and was right beside Blenheim, SC (think Ginger Ale!).

Introducing The Downtime Monkies

Let's see what Susan Bulloch has on these monkey twins!! I picked the monkies up from a HA vendor for System i and the mug and stress ball are compliments of Sametime 7.5. I'm sure these will never see as much road time though.


I did catch Chris Moody napping with one of the monkies. Poor fella!

Certifiable Domino for iSeries Admin

This morning I passed exam number 855 - "iSeries Domino Technical Solutions V5R3." So, I guess I'm "officially" a Domino for iSeries geek... :) I was also the first person to take an exam at COMMON this Fall.

iSOCIETY, System iPortal, and Truth

Attention System i users!

Several new marketing tools were announced today at the Fall 2006 COMMON conference Town Hall Meeting earlier today. The first is a user portal called iSOCIETY.org. "It's like facebook for adults" was one of the comments. You should go signup from the website. Temporarily, the site is isociety.common.org, but iSOCIETY.org is coming soon.

Second is the System iPortal. It's a single point of reference for System i information. You can search the web, code, blogs, etc... for all things System i related. No more Googling for: dns configuration and AS400 or iSeries or i5 or System i. Since I post a lot of Domino information related to System i, I've requested my blog to be added to the blog search. Some of you should do the same. Soon, I will also have a System iPortal search section on this site.

Perhaps the most anticipated announcement is a new marketing initiative by IBM focused on the System i. There will be some cool "viral marketing" television commercials. We were shown a preview of one of the two. Basically, it's IT guys that get fed up with all of the server sprawl associated with Wintel servers. It's something we Domino folks like to point to as well - being able to consolidate MS implementations onto a single Domino system. The i want control/truth features the ability to add your own comment about System i. See if you can find mine. It's a really slick site that can really help generate some buzz for the public to see how much the Systm i is loved. My only concern is related to the url that was on the preview commercial we saw. It's ibm.com/iwantcontrol/truth - it could be a little much for potential customers to remember.

iSOCIETY and System iPortal are excellent examples of what a dedicated customer base can do to spread the word about the best computer system on the market. The Truth marketing campaign should (hopefully) allow IBM to better position the System i as the amazing "integrated" system that it is. Keep up the great work to all who are involved - especially "Angus!"

Technorati: System i, iSeries, COMMON

Bad Memory From Childhood Revived?

Can anyone guess what it is about this that would bring back bad memories from the early 1990s? This is the road sign directly outside the Loew's Hotel in Miami Beach where I'm staying.



Hint... "Beachfront Avenue!!"

Welcome To Miami!

Well, Chris Moody and I arrived in Miami Beach this afternoon for the COMMON iSeries Conference. What do you think of the weather? This is a shot from the balcony of the hotel room.



There were some cool lightning bolts that I couldn't get, though. This storm came fast and left just as quickly. It is humid here - even worse than in South Carolina. I'm pretty pumped about the trip. My presentation with Kim Greene on Domino Domain Monitoring is on Tuesday.

Chris and I have been just hanging out this afternoon. We're watching some football now. After he and I ate, I hung out with 4 iSeries people. One of them has her own consulting firm and the other three work for IBM in Rochester, MN.

PC/104

Is anyone out there familiar with coding embedded applications for the PC/104? Or do you know someone who is?

http://www.pc104.org/

I have a friend working on a way cool medical app that needs to xmit data received via IR to a PC/104 and then have the PC/104 call a web service to transmit the data. He's now trying to find someone to work on the PC/104 web service application.

Now Playing: "I Wish You Were Here" by Balance of Power

Interesting News Story

Iraqi Official Testifies to Links Between Saddam and Al Qaeda

Barham Salih (A deputy prime minister of Iraq) said, "The alliance between the Baathists and jihadists which sustains Al Qaeda in Iraq is not new, contrary to what you may have been told." He went on to say, "I know this at first hand. Some of my friends were murdered by jihadists, by Al Qaeda-affiliated operatives who had been sheltered and assisted by Saddam's regime."

A Kurdish politician who took his high school exams from inside a Baathist prison, Mr. Salih said he was the target of the alliance between jihadists, Baathists, and Al Qaeda in 2001, when a group known as Ansar al-Islam tried to assassinate him. In 2002, envoys of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, one of the two Kurdish parties sharing sovereignty over northern Iraq between the two Iraq wars, presented the CIA with evidence that the organization that tried to kill Mr. Salih had been in part funded and directed by Saddam Hussein's Republican Guard.

Those words directly contradict a recent report from the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence that declassified a 2005 CIA assessment of Iraq's pre-war ties to Al Qaeda and found that none existed. In an interview after the speech yesterday, Mr. Salih said he was unaware of the CIA assessment. But he added, "There were links between Ansar al-Islam and Al Qaeda. The information at time [in 2002] was quite different. Now, we could not prove this in a court of law, but this is intelligence."

There are some things we should take home from this. First, we must always keep this in mind. Secondly, to think that the government of Iraq under Saddam Hussein didn't know Al-Qaeda was there is just nonsense. Let's get real here! It appears that this may be some much-needed evidence. I guess those who would rather put politics ahead of national security will just say that this is a very timely release of this information less than 2 months before the elections. It's the same playbook everytime!

Now Playing: "Open Skies" by David Crowder Band

Technorati: Iraq

The Path To 9/11: ABC

As we all know, there was some controversy surrounding the airing of this documentary based off of the 9/11 Commission Report, the book Dereliction of Duty, other books/reports, and eyewitness interviews. Most of the hubaloo was generated by the Clinton spin machine - undoubtedly not wanting to tarnish the legacy of the magnanimous Bill Clinton. There appeared to be a coordinated effort for all of them to start griping about the docudrama at the same time.

But, I digress. Since the first commercial I saw for this documentary a couple of weeks ago, I wanted to watch it. I'm glad I watched both nights. There were a lot of things that I had forgotten about during the Clinton Administration, so that was good to see. I didn't really have any expectations going in other than seeing the failures of the Clinton Administration that were already well-known and documented.

So, what did I get out of it? First of all - WOW! It was great to watch. It was in no way made in a manner to lay all the blame on a single person. One of the main problems regarding the Clinton Administration was that it considered the war on terror nothing more than "a law & order problem." Personally, I think the documentary painted Richard Clarke as almost a hero. He really was unrelenting in wanting to do something about Bin Laden, et. al. My wife came out thinking that Clarke came across as just acting like he wanted to do something but knowing all the while that he couldn't. That's possible, but regardless this documentary painted him as one who had a passion to stop terror but had his hands tied by the CIA, FBI, and Executive Branch. John O'Neill was the FBI agent who was also passionate to stop terrorism. But both Clarke and O'Neill ran into the brick walls that were George Tenet (CIA) and The Administration. One group saw legal grounds for killing Bin Laden while the CIA wasn't convinced. So, Tenet never gave a go-ahead. And Bill Clinton just wanted to play nice with "area interests" so he warned Pakistan of a missile launch to get Bin Laden. Pakistan then told Bin Laden to clear out...

All in all, this was a great documentary/docudrama. It's estimated that about 96% is true, so it's not like they were setting out to scandalize anyone without facts. And I don't know where the idea came from that suddenly ABC is an arm of the vast right wing conspiracy out to defame Bill Clinton. That's just too funny!

Now Playing: "Sacrificed Sons" by Dream Theater

Technorati: Path To 9/11