I have created another poll over on my left menu. The poll options are for Notes 5.x, 6.0.x, 6.5.x, 7.0, or 7.0.1. This would be for you to select what you feel are the majority of your Notes Clients. I'm at a 96% penetration of 7.0.1 clients, by the way. I have a feeling that the majority of the votes will be 6.5.x and above.
Now Playing: "No More Tears" by Arwen
Saturday, April 29, 2006
Tuesday, April 25, 2006
Economics Lesson for Today
Corporations Do NOT Pay Taxes
No, I haven't lost my mind. Remember, that any expenses a corporation incurs are passed on to the consumer in the form of a price. This includes taxes as well. It's what is referred to as an embedded tax. If the government imposed some type of windfall tax on gas companies, this would not cause the prices to go down due to the companies reducing their profits to, in turn, reduce their tax liability. I brought this up in November regarding Exxon's profits.
No, I haven't lost my mind. Remember, that any expenses a corporation incurs are passed on to the consumer in the form of a price. This includes taxes as well. It's what is referred to as an embedded tax. If the government imposed some type of windfall tax on gas companies, this would not cause the prices to go down due to the companies reducing their profits to, in turn, reduce their tax liability. I brought this up in November regarding Exxon's profits.
The government took in nearly three times more money ($25 Billion) than Exxon's net profits ($9.9 Billion) and (some) are wanting more.Now Playing: "Where The Streets Have No Name" by Neal Morse
Monday, April 24, 2006
Michelle Malkin's Hot Air
Michelle Malkin has started a video blog at www.hotair.com. Today's was about the businesses that are "kowtowing" to China. For instance Google has started censoring searches from within China. If you search Google Images for Tienanmen you won't find anything about the Tienanmen Square showdown. Instead you'll just get some images of happy tourists. Bill Gates wines and dines with Chinese leaders but doesn't criticize them for their human rights problems.
Blackberry Connect For Treo, Take Two
As I posted Friday, I had BB Connect for Treo working. However, as I posted over at Tony Kelleran's site, it was not without issues:
Also, they are setting up a Nokia 9300 on BB Connect today too. As Tony posted, the device has some great features, but I found it very clumsy and bulky when I handled it Friday.
Now Playing: "In The Name of God" by Dream Theater
The messaging and calendar sync were cool, but I didn't see a native option for synchronizing the address book (would one have to buy a 3rd-party application to do this?). Again, I know that BBC for Treo is far from official for Cingular, so I can't really complain too much.So, a Treo 650 with BB Connect is a great idea (even though the only thing I like about the device over my 8700 is the camera), not having Internet access is not cool. I know this will be working when it's an official release. I guess you could call what I loaded an alpha release that works with the Singapore carrier. However, it was great to get my hands on the software and try it out. I work for a Cingular reseller, and have known the guy over our wireless sales division for about 14 years. He's a die-hard Treonaut and I would love to get him off of the VersaMail POP access to our mail server onto something more stable and useful. Someday we'll get it working with the official release and I'll be sure to blog about it.
Also, I could NOT get the Internet browser to connect. From reading at blackberryforums, some users stated that you would have to disconnect the BB service and then connect the Media Net service. I was unable to do this, and it would be highly cumbersome.
Also, they are setting up a Nokia 9300 on BB Connect today too. As Tony posted, the device has some great features, but I found it very clumsy and bulky when I handled it Friday.
Now Playing: "In The Name of God" by Dream Theater
Saturday, April 22, 2006
"The Gospel of Judas" - Part III
This will, hopefully, be my final post on this. You can view Part I here and Part II here. In the second installment, I related my thoughts after reading through the Gospel of Judas. In this post I would like to share my thoughts of the two hour TV special that the National Geographic Channel (NGC) aired on April 9, 2006.
The first thing that strikes me is how much positive support there was shown for this Gnostic gospel in the TV special. We hear right off the bat that it was "hidden" nearly 2,000 years and that it could "challenge our deepest beliefs". I use the term "hidden" simply because that was the quote from the special. To be quite honest, this gospel wasn't hidden but actually abandoned! There was no group that thought it vital enough to perpetuate it or even its contents, so one must keep that in mind when analyzing its importance to the original audience. I took two pages of notes from the special, but I will keep this brief incorporating only key points.
First of all, I have never mentioned in a main post that Bishop Irenaeus wrote about a "Gospel of Judas." According to the NGC special, we should believe that he was writing about this specific gospel. If you are a casual passer-by watching the special, you will hear the following two phrases describing Irenaeus' mention of the gospel: it was "a scathing attack" and he "railed" against it. This is what we hear about 15 minutes into the special and about 45 minutes in we hear of Irenaeus again. This time we are told that he was "targeting" the authors of the Gospel of Judas and he rejected the gospel mainly on the premise that it was "titled" the Evangelion Judas or Gospel of Judas. Further, Irenaeus only "chose" 4 out of about 30 possible gospels. In prior research, I saw a quote of Irenaeus, but it was not anything major (as we would be led to believe here). I should also note that the NGC special did not take the time to quote Irenaeus at all! Please allow me to relate to you the only thing Irenaeus had to say about the Gospel of Judas when discussing the Cainites:
The first thing that strikes me is how much positive support there was shown for this Gnostic gospel in the TV special. We hear right off the bat that it was "hidden" nearly 2,000 years and that it could "challenge our deepest beliefs". I use the term "hidden" simply because that was the quote from the special. To be quite honest, this gospel wasn't hidden but actually abandoned! There was no group that thought it vital enough to perpetuate it or even its contents, so one must keep that in mind when analyzing its importance to the original audience. I took two pages of notes from the special, but I will keep this brief incorporating only key points.
First of all, I have never mentioned in a main post that Bishop Irenaeus wrote about a "Gospel of Judas." According to the NGC special, we should believe that he was writing about this specific gospel. If you are a casual passer-by watching the special, you will hear the following two phrases describing Irenaeus' mention of the gospel: it was "a scathing attack" and he "railed" against it. This is what we hear about 15 minutes into the special and about 45 minutes in we hear of Irenaeus again. This time we are told that he was "targeting" the authors of the Gospel of Judas and he rejected the gospel mainly on the premise that it was "titled" the Evangelion Judas or Gospel of Judas. Further, Irenaeus only "chose" 4 out of about 30 possible gospels. In prior research, I saw a quote of Irenaeus, but it was not anything major (as we would be led to believe here). I should also note that the NGC special did not take the time to quote Irenaeus at all! Please allow me to relate to you the only thing Irenaeus had to say about the Gospel of Judas when discussing the Cainites:
Others again declare that Cain derived his being from the Power above, and acknowledge that Esau, Korah, the Sodomites, and all such persons, are related to themselves. On this account, they add, they have been assailed by the Creator, yet no one of them has suffered injury. For Sophia was in the habit of carrying off that which belonged to her from them to herself. They declare that Judas the traitor was thoroughly acquainted with these things, and that he alone, knowing the truth as no others did, accomplished the mystery of the betrayal; by him all things, both earthly and heavenly, were thus thrown into confusion. They produce a fictitious history of this kind, which they style the Gospel of Judas. (Irenaeus, Against Heresies, Volume I, Chapter XXXI, Section 1)Judge for yourselves, but this is not a "scathing attack" or a "railing" against the authors of the Gospel of Judas. It should make one wonder what the producers of the NGC special had in mind when they couldn't quote the only verifiable mention of this gospel that has ever been recorded before the Gospel was abandoned not to be read again until the past few years. Instead they take the stance of those who think the formation of the Canon was done by men who were keeping truth from the Church. This example of Irenaeus is just one of many I could relate in depth. But I said I would stay brief, so below are some other things I noted.
- It was stated that Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John died before their gospels were written and that many theologians support this. I have never read or heard this before in any questions from people about the validity of the Synoptic Gospels.
- There were "many early Christianities" and the Gnostics bothered the church leaders because "they had special insights and didn't need bishops" or any other type of leadership.
- Judas "grows more evil from the 1st Gospel of Mark to the last Gospel of John" and is "not a villain in Mark's Gospel." The NGC Special basically promoted this and dedicated about 25 minutes to expound upon this. Personally, the special really got ugly here. They noted that since Judas is a Greek form of the word for Judah that Judas was symbolic of the Jews. The villainy of Judas represents that of the Jews. "Judas becomes the poster boy for anti-Semitic thinking." Of course there was one somewhat conservative scholar who they would bring into the special every so often to discredit some of these claims, but when the narrator of the special said the following, it was pretty clear where NGC stands: "The Portrait of Judas in the New Testament did not directly, but may have indirectly fed into the poisonous stream that brought about the holocaust." Wow!...
- They stated that about 15% of the Gospel of Judas has been lost forever due to decay. This echoes what I noted in my second installment that of 7 pages, about 67 lines were missing.
- In a dramatic presentation of the key points of the Gospel, no mention was made of the Angel Saklas or that Judas' sacrifice of Jesus would be to this angel. In fact, much of the Gospel text was about the secret teachings of Jesus to Judas on Heaven and the Creation. None of the insanity I mentioned in my second installment regarding the Creation account (an Angel Saklas created Adam and Eve in a cloud!) is related to the viewers of the NGC special. It was rather disheartening to see this left out because it is one of the main factors that church fathers like Irenaeus would have used to show that the Gospel of Judas was not a true gospel.
Friday, April 21, 2006
BlackBerry Connect on Treo 650 Available...Sort Of
Just wanted to brag and make some people mad, but I have BlackBerry Connect on a Treo 650 and it's working! How, you ask? Go about halfway down this page...
Now Playing: "Stream of Consciousness" by Dream Theater
Now Playing: "Stream of Consciousness" by Dream Theater
Thursday, April 20, 2006
Who Deleted That Document? (SnTT)
Ever have a problem with someone deleting data that should not have been deleted? Of course you should lock down the ACL, but what if you just want to track deletions in a database? Or possibly you want to prompt someone for a reason they deleted the document? While there is no native Domino log to display this, you can utilize the Database Script to get a handle on deletions.
This is how I have accomplished this task for various reasons. After looking through the Designer Help database and creating a log database, use the following code in the Querydocumentdelete sub of the Database Script. Also, you can grab as much data from as many fields as you would like. Further, you could implement a prompt for each document (inside the loop) or all documents (outside the loop) to have input for why the document was deleted.This LotusScript was converted to HTML using the ls2html routine,
provided by Julian Robichaux at nsftools.com.
And here is a sample of what the logging database can look like as a single repository for tracking multiple databases:
Show-n-tell thursday
This is how I have accomplished this task for various reasons. After looking through the Designer Help database and creating a log database, use the following code in the Querydocumentdelete sub of the Database Script. Also, you can grab as much data from as many fields as you would like. Further, you could implement a prompt for each document (inside the loop) or all documents (outside the loop) to have input for why the document was deleted.
Sub Querydocumentdelete(Source As Notesuidatabase, Continue As Variant)
Dim docsDelete As NotesDocumentCollection
Dim doc As NotesDocument
Dim session As New NotesSession
Dim db As NotesDatabase
Set db = session.CurrentDatabase
Set docsDelete = Source.Documents ' Docs chosen for deletion
Dim delLog As New NotesLog(db.FilePath)
For x = 1 To docsDelete.Count
Set doc = docsDelete.GetNthDocument( x )
Call delLog.OpenNotesLog("SERVERNAME", "pathname\loggingdb.nsf")
Call delLog.LogAction("The following user was deleted by " + session.CommonUserName + ": " + Cstr(doc.FirstName(0)) + " " + doc.LastName(0))
Call delLog.Close
'The following section emails a notification of the deletion
Dim maildb As NotesDatabase
Dim maildoc As NotesDocument
Dim rtitem As NotesRichTextItem
Set maildb = session.CurrentDatabase
Set maildoc = New NotesDocument( maildb )
Set rtitem = New NotesRichTextItem( maildoc, "Body" )
Call rtitem.AppendText ("The following user was deleted by " + session.CommonUserName + ": " + Cstr(doc.FirstName(0)) + " " + doc.LastName(0))
maildoc.Form = "Memo"
maildoc.SendTo = "Recipient"
maildoc.Subject = "Intranet Directory Document Deleted"
Call maildoc.Send( True )
Next
Continue = True
End Sub
provided by Julian Robichaux at nsftools.com.
And here is a sample of what the logging database can look like as a single repository for tracking multiple databases:
Show-n-tell thursday
Wednesday, April 19, 2006
Dream Theater Performance With An Orchestra
According to Mike Portnoy, Dream Theater performed with an orchestra at Radio City Music Hall on April 1st, 2006. They did a two set show with an encore. The first set is without the orchestra and the second set and encores feature the orchestra (no mention of which orchestra it was, but conducted and arranged by Jamshied Sharifi). The show will be made available on DVD and CD and is sure to please!
Looking at the orchestrated set-list, we see:
All I can say is this should be amazing. From Mike Portnoy's site, it was shot with 11 High-Def cameras...
Some DT Trivia: They performed a show in New York and were set to release an album titled "Live Scenes from New York". The release date of the disc was 09/11/2001 and below is what the original cover looked like. It was pulled from the shelves ASAP, but what a horrible coincidence...
Now Playing: "The Glass Prison" by Dream Theater
Looking at the orchestrated set-list, we see:
Set #2: (Band & Orchestra)
SIX DEGREES OF INNER TURBULENCE - This was a 2-disc release with over 90 minutes of music! There was no song with this title - does this mean the entire album is done?
VACANT
THE ANSWER LIES WITHIN
SACRIFICED SONS - This was a 10 minute song about 9/11.
OCTAVARIUM - This is a 24 minute song!
Encore: (Band & Orchestra)
METROPOLIS - Another 10 minute song...
All I can say is this should be amazing. From Mike Portnoy's site, it was shot with 11 High-Def cameras...
Some DT Trivia: They performed a show in New York and were set to release an album titled "Live Scenes from New York". The release date of the disc was 09/11/2001 and below is what the original cover looked like. It was pulled from the shelves ASAP, but what a horrible coincidence...
Now Playing: "The Glass Prison" by Dream Theater
Monday, April 17, 2006
"The Gospel of Judas" - Part II
On April 7, I initially posted something about "The Gospel of Judas" which had just been released as a translation, included in a book, and promoted for a television documentary all by the National Geographic Society. It will also be featured on the cover of their magazine. I have since read the gospel and would like to relay some further thoughts.
The translation I read was a PDF at the New York Times website. The first thing I would like to note is not what is in the text but what's not in the text. The PDF is only 7 pages long, so it would be a quick read for anyone. But there are all total about 67 lines missing from the text. This is a fair amount of material. There are also other sections in which the text is very confusing due to missing words.
The main section that you won't hear reported is when Jesus is relating to Judas the secret mysteries of the creation account. According to this gospel, there are two "angels", Nebro and Saklas. Each of these angels created 6 other angels each. We then read the following about the angel Saklas:
From my prior post, a commentor asked what Christianity would look like if these gospels had been known before the 20th Century. Besides the fact that most of these were known by the early Church, I doubt that it would have been much different. Just looking at the skewed Creation account above, one can see how quickly this document would have been deemed heretical because of the sheer insanity of the hidden knowledge (gnosis) that it supports! At my website, I have some of my own textual notes on the Acts of Peter, Paul, and Gospel of Thomas.
The main issue with the conversations between Jesus and Judas stems around this quote: “But you will exceed all of them. For you will sacrifice the man that clothes me." But what has not been related is the context of that conversation. Just 4 lines above that line Jesus is talking to Judas about offering sacrifices to Saklas (the angel mentioned earlier). So, in the context, Jesus is saying that Judas would sacrifice His body to Saklas.
As I have done in the past with some of the other apocryphal books at my website, I plan to go through this text a little more in-depth and provide some more excerpts and analysis.
The translation I read was a PDF at the New York Times website. The first thing I would like to note is not what is in the text but what's not in the text. The PDF is only 7 pages long, so it would be a quick read for anyone. But there are all total about 67 lines missing from the text. This is a fair amount of material. There are also other sections in which the text is very confusing due to missing words.
The main section that you won't hear reported is when Jesus is relating to Judas the secret mysteries of the creation account. According to this gospel, there are two "angels", Nebro and Saklas. Each of these angels created 6 other angels each. We then read the following about the angel Saklas:
“Then Saklas said to his angels, ‘Let us create a human being after the likeness and after the image.’ They fashioned Adam and his wife Eve, who is called, in the cloud, Zoe. For by this name all the generations seek the man, and each of them calls the woman by these names."
From my prior post, a commentor asked what Christianity would look like if these gospels had been known before the 20th Century. Besides the fact that most of these were known by the early Church, I doubt that it would have been much different. Just looking at the skewed Creation account above, one can see how quickly this document would have been deemed heretical because of the sheer insanity of the hidden knowledge (gnosis) that it supports! At my website, I have some of my own textual notes on the Acts of Peter, Paul, and Gospel of Thomas.
The main issue with the conversations between Jesus and Judas stems around this quote: “But you will exceed all of them. For you will sacrifice the man that clothes me." But what has not been related is the context of that conversation. Just 4 lines above that line Jesus is talking to Judas about offering sacrifices to Saklas (the angel mentioned earlier). So, in the context, Jesus is saying that Judas would sacrifice His body to Saklas.
As I have done in the past with some of the other apocryphal books at my website, I plan to go through this text a little more in-depth and provide some more excerpts and analysis.
Friday, April 14, 2006
Domino Web Access Warning
I first posted this as a help file from my internal FAQ. The most recent update is for a specific DWA 7 error. This post generally ranks high on my search engine hits, so I like to keep it updated from time to time. Hopefully it's helping people get these issues resolved. If you know of a resolution that's not listed, please let me know! This first entry is one that happens pretty frequently. An alternate title could be "iNotes Warning" from previous versions. This document contains two sections. One is a general information section and the other is a section on steps to correct the error(hopefully). Please see the bottom for a change log.
General Information:
The full error message is:
"Microsoft Internet Explorer Domino Web Access Warning. Sorry, we were unable to process your request at this time. If you are unable to continue working in your mail file, please dismiss this warning and then select View, Refresh from your browser's menu."
In Domino Web Access (DWA) 7.0 and higher, I have been seeing a new error message that reads "The installation of Domino Web Access 7 Control has been blocked or declined by the user. Do you want to use this on subsequent Domino Web Access pages?" A specific correction for this can be to ensure that the user has at least Power-User authority. Another possible correction is to simply add the DWA server to Internet Explorer's Trusted sites zone.
IBM has recently updated two technotes regarding this:
Prompt: 'Installation of Domino Web Access 7 Control has been blocked by the user. Do you want to use Subsequent Domino Web Access Pages?'. This alludes to the DWA7w.cab file being moved or corrupted on the DWA server or even that the default HTML directory has been changed from domino\html. I have notified them that in my experience, this may come up when the DWA server isn't in the trusted sites zone for IE.
Can the Domino Web Access ActiveX Upload Control (iNotes Class) be manually placed on a workstation? While not directly related to the error message, this contains a table of the behaviour of DWA with and without the ActiveX control installed.
Corrective Actions:
Recently, the top two on the following list have been what we have seen internally to cause more issues. If the computers are external (employees' home PC), then I would definitely bank on them having spyware.
- Disable Pop-Up blocker
- Clean up spyware (use application such as Spybot and/or AdAware)
- Add DWA server to Internet Explorer's Trusted Sites zone (this may be a good idea for any other intranet servers or via an Active Directory policy)
- Clear out Java Cache by running C:\Program Files\Java\jre1.5.0_0X\bin\javacpl.exe
---Click “Delete Files” then click “OK”.
---*if there are different versions, do this for each version or uninstall older versions and leave only the newest copy.
- Clear out Windows temp folders.
--- C:\Temp--- C:\Documents and Settings\USER PROFILE\Local Settings\Temp
--- C:\Documents and Settings\USER PROFILE\Local Settings\Temporary Internet Files
--- C:\Winnt\Temp
--- *Clear out the Temp/Temp. Internet Files for each user listed in the Documents and Settings folder.
- Reset IE to default settings.
--- Right Click on the Internet Explorer icon on the desktop or go to Control Panel and open Internet Options.
--- Click on the Programs Tab. Then click the Reset Web Settings button. Uncheck
“Also reset my home page” then click “OK”.
- Tools > Internet Options > Advanced > Disable "Use HTTP 1.1" (you may need to enable it because sometimes IE just doesn't like the setting. I have actually seen it start working by enabling this option.)
- Tools > Internet Options > Advanced > Disable "Do not save encrypted pages to disk"
- Download the MSXML 4.0 SP2. This link will get you to the download. I selected the msxml.msi.
- Clear Browser Cache
- Delete iNotes or Domino Web Access class file
- If one is currently installed, upgrade to the latest Sun JVM
- Windows Update (also verify that a recent Windows Update has not broken this!)
- Load Convert, Fixup, Updall, and Compact against the mailfile
- Reboot
- Defrag
- Run a tool such as Symantec/Norton WinDoctor
Change Log:
08/14/2006: Added information regarding Java Cache, Temp Folders, and Resetting IE defaults.
04/14/2006: Added information regarding technotes 1228480 and 1161877.
Added comment to Windows Update line to state that a recent update may be causing the problem. I have personally seen this in 2004 and the link in the text above is from April 2006.
General Information:
The full error message is:
"Microsoft Internet Explorer Domino Web Access Warning. Sorry, we were unable to process your request at this time. If you are unable to continue working in your mail file, please dismiss this warning and then select View, Refresh from your browser's menu."
In Domino Web Access (DWA) 7.0 and higher, I have been seeing a new error message that reads "The installation of Domino Web Access 7 Control has been blocked or declined by the user. Do you want to use this on subsequent Domino Web Access pages?" A specific correction for this can be to ensure that the user has at least Power-User authority. Another possible correction is to simply add the DWA server to Internet Explorer's Trusted sites zone.
IBM has recently updated two technotes regarding this:
Prompt: 'Installation of Domino Web Access 7 Control has been blocked by the user. Do you want to use Subsequent Domino Web Access Pages?'. This alludes to the DWA7w.cab file being moved or corrupted on the DWA server or even that the default HTML directory has been changed from domino\html. I have notified them that in my experience, this may come up when the DWA server isn't in the trusted sites zone for IE.
Can the Domino Web Access ActiveX Upload Control (iNotes Class) be manually placed on a workstation? While not directly related to the error message, this contains a table of the behaviour of DWA with and without the ActiveX control installed.
Corrective Actions:
Recently, the top two on the following list have been what we have seen internally to cause more issues. If the computers are external (employees' home PC), then I would definitely bank on them having spyware.
- Disable Pop-Up blocker
- Clean up spyware (use application such as Spybot and/or AdAware)
- Add DWA server to Internet Explorer's Trusted Sites zone (this may be a good idea for any other intranet servers or via an Active Directory policy)
- Clear out Java Cache by running C:\Program Files\Java\jre1.5.0_0X\bin\javacpl.exe
---Click “Delete Files” then click “OK”.
---*if there are different versions, do this for each version or uninstall older versions and leave only the newest copy.
- Clear out Windows temp folders.
--- C:\Temp--- C:\Documents and Settings\USER PROFILE\Local Settings\Temp
--- C:\Documents and Settings\USER PROFILE\Local Settings\Temporary Internet Files
--- C:\Winnt\Temp
--- *Clear out the Temp/Temp. Internet Files for each user listed in the Documents and Settings folder.
- Reset IE to default settings.
--- Right Click on the Internet Explorer icon on the desktop or go to Control Panel and open Internet Options.
--- Click on the Programs Tab. Then click the Reset Web Settings button. Uncheck
“Also reset my home page” then click “OK”.
- Tools > Internet Options > Advanced > Disable "Use HTTP 1.1" (you may need to enable it because sometimes IE just doesn't like the setting. I have actually seen it start working by enabling this option.)
- Tools > Internet Options > Advanced > Disable "Do not save encrypted pages to disk"
- Download the MSXML 4.0 SP2. This link will get you to the download. I selected the msxml.msi.
- Clear Browser Cache
- Delete iNotes or Domino Web Access class file
- If one is currently installed, upgrade to the latest Sun JVM
- Windows Update (also verify that a recent Windows Update has not broken this!)
- Load Convert, Fixup, Updall, and Compact against the mailfile
- Reboot
- Defrag
- Run a tool such as Symantec/Norton WinDoctor
Change Log:
08/14/2006: Added information regarding Java Cache, Temp Folders, and Resetting IE defaults.
04/14/2006: Added information regarding technotes 1228480 and 1161877.
Added comment to Windows Update line to state that a recent update may be causing the problem. I have personally seen this in 2004 and the link in the text above is from April 2006.
"IBM" Laptops Will Be No More
Interesting article at RealClear Politics titled "No More IBM Laptops". It seems that Lenovo will be removing the letters IBM from their laptops:
Well, I do take exception to the 20-somethings not thinking IBM is cool, but that's beside the point. And this is something really cool:
But the real reason is simply branding:
Whatever, it's just a laptop anyway, right? They will have to pry the System i (formerly AS/400, iSeries, i5) from my cold dead hands with the letters IBM still in place!
"What sells laptops these days is a trendy rep, cute names and colors like purple. Let's face it: To Americans in their 20s, IBM is not particularly cool."
Well, I do take exception to the 20-somethings not thinking IBM is cool, but that's beside the point. And this is something really cool:
"So Americans raised to salute the IBM logo still find it jarring to see those letters erased. IBM is so much a part of the culture. The famous talking computer in the futuristic 1968 movie "2001: A Space Odyssey" was named HAL, which, if you move the letters up one step in the alphabet, spells IBM."
But the real reason is simply branding:
"For the record, Lenovo executives say that their motive is to build their own brand recognition in the United States. It now appears that the name they were most interested in exploiting was "ThinkPad," IBM's Apple-like trademark for its laptops."
Whatever, it's just a laptop anyway, right? They will have to pry the System i (formerly AS/400, iSeries, i5) from my cold dead hands with the letters IBM still in place!
Thursday, April 13, 2006
Lotus Notes 7.0.1 Rollout Update
Just a quick update: 92% of all our Notes users are now at Lotus Notes 7.0.1! After "fixing" our Smart Upgrade issue, we did not start the upgrade until March 1, so this has been a somewhat agressive rollout for us with just a handful of minor issues.
As a side note to this, our Sametime 6.5.1.1 server has not crashed with the STMUX issue since loading the Sametime server defensive hotfix and simultaneously rolling out the Notes 7.0.1 clients (which provides a fix for the same issue from a client side).
Oh, and where are all the SnTT posts this week? Or are we all taking the week off?
Now Playing: "Egypt" by Symphony X
As a side note to this, our Sametime 6.5.1.1 server has not crashed with the STMUX issue since loading the Sametime server defensive hotfix and simultaneously rolling out the Notes 7.0.1 clients (which provides a fix for the same issue from a client side).
Oh, and where are all the SnTT posts this week? Or are we all taking the week off?
Now Playing: "Egypt" by Symphony X
Tuesday, April 11, 2006
What If Microsoft Designed the iPod Packaging?
If you haven't seen the video parody of this, you should check it out here. I think it's a lovely package design!
Now Playing: "Center" by Charlie Hall
Now Playing: "Center" by Charlie Hall
Sunday, April 9, 2006
BES 4.1 Upgrade (and Downgrade)
Judging by the title, you can probably tell that my upgrade was unsuccessful. Let me do a recap (as much for me when I call RIM tomorrow as for the readers).
First of all, I thought I would just upgrade Domino from 6.5.4 to 7.0.1. No problems with the Domino upgrade (as usual). So then I got out my BES upgrade checklist. I should have stopped when the configuration database could not be backed up using the BlackBerryDBBackup.exe command. I was getting a C++ error. I pressed on since we are using a SQL backend and it is backed up regularly. So I proceeded with the BES setup.exe.
I chose to install the full package of BES plus MDS. None of the documentation stated that TWO additional SQL databases would be created (MDSS and MDSS_DIR). This is in addition to having to update the current BESMgmt database. I was able to successfully update the BESMgmt database and then it was to the point of rebooting. After coming back up, the setup program continues.
It was at this point that the two new MDS databases would be created. My SQL user account already had the required SA (Server Administrator) and DB Creator authority as noted in the upgrade manual. After successfully creating the MDSS database, I received an error stating that the database could not be updated. In the BES logs folder, there is an Install sub-folder with installation logs. Looking at this I could see that the problem was that the SQL DB_VERSION table in the MDSS database could not be updated with an INSERT of the new version data. So I paged our Network/SQL admin group and got someone to look at the database. Come to find out, the DB_VERSION table didn't even exist! I'm glad the install program created it properly... Back to the story, I had the SQL admin manually create the table AND give me owner access to all of the other tables. It seems that the install program didn't grant that authority either! Then I was able to INSERT the records for the version and proceed with the setup.
After this, I get to the next to final option. Two more clicks and I'm home free and should be able to get Sametime working (since we have a need for that, hence the upgrade). So I'm at the point where the install program is going to need the location of the Microsoft SQL Server 2000 (or 2005) Driver. I didn't have the driver installed, but the installer gives you the location for download. After downloading and installing the driver, the installer cannot find the DLL. I think that possibly a restart would be in order, so I do that and come back to the installer. It still cannot find the file. I uninstall the SQL driver and reinstall it to the D: drive where my BES is installed. It's a no-go! The installer apparently cannot find a file that exists on the system!!
So after this, I was basically dead in the water. I would have to downgrade to get it working because for some reason I don't have weekend support (the things done to save a buck...). So I uninstalled BES 4.1 and was going to load BES 4.0. Can anyone guess what happened? I didn't have (nor could I find) a full installer for BES 4.0 SP3 that supports Domino 7. So after loading BES 4.0 I got an error stating that the notes.ini could not be located. So I just installed Domino 6.5.4 over 7.0.1 and then ran the BES installer again. During this install, it found that the BESMgmt database was at a "Pre-4.0 level" and could not proceed. So I call my SQL guy again and he sees that in the BESMgmt database there is a ServerDBVersion table that has a record for 4.0 and 4.1. So he just removes the 4.1 record and the installer was happy. Things came up fine and I loaded SP3 for BES to be fairly up-to-date. Now my BES is active but still at 4.0...
To do this week:
- Find a full installer for BES 4.0 SP3 so I can load Domino 7.0.1 and not have to downgrade Domino later.
- Find out why in the world the BES 4.1 installer couldn't find the SQL driver!! Not happy about that!
- Find out where my SQL guy wants to go to lunch because I owe him!
First of all, I thought I would just upgrade Domino from 6.5.4 to 7.0.1. No problems with the Domino upgrade (as usual). So then I got out my BES upgrade checklist. I should have stopped when the configuration database could not be backed up using the BlackBerryDBBackup.exe command. I was getting a C++ error. I pressed on since we are using a SQL backend and it is backed up regularly. So I proceeded with the BES setup.exe.
I chose to install the full package of BES plus MDS. None of the documentation stated that TWO additional SQL databases would be created (MDSS and MDSS_DIR). This is in addition to having to update the current BESMgmt database. I was able to successfully update the BESMgmt database and then it was to the point of rebooting. After coming back up, the setup program continues.
It was at this point that the two new MDS databases would be created. My SQL user account already had the required SA (Server Administrator) and DB Creator authority as noted in the upgrade manual. After successfully creating the MDSS database, I received an error stating that the database could not be updated. In the BES logs folder, there is an Install sub-folder with installation logs. Looking at this I could see that the problem was that the SQL DB_VERSION table in the MDSS database could not be updated with an INSERT of the new version data. So I paged our Network/SQL admin group and got someone to look at the database. Come to find out, the DB_VERSION table didn't even exist! I'm glad the install program created it properly... Back to the story, I had the SQL admin manually create the table AND give me owner access to all of the other tables. It seems that the install program didn't grant that authority either! Then I was able to INSERT the records for the version and proceed with the setup.
After this, I get to the next to final option. Two more clicks and I'm home free and should be able to get Sametime working (since we have a need for that, hence the upgrade). So I'm at the point where the install program is going to need the location of the Microsoft SQL Server 2000 (or 2005) Driver. I didn't have the driver installed, but the installer gives you the location for download. After downloading and installing the driver, the installer cannot find the DLL. I think that possibly a restart would be in order, so I do that and come back to the installer. It still cannot find the file. I uninstall the SQL driver and reinstall it to the D: drive where my BES is installed. It's a no-go! The installer apparently cannot find a file that exists on the system!!
So after this, I was basically dead in the water. I would have to downgrade to get it working because for some reason I don't have weekend support (the things done to save a buck...). So I uninstalled BES 4.1 and was going to load BES 4.0. Can anyone guess what happened? I didn't have (nor could I find) a full installer for BES 4.0 SP3 that supports Domino 7. So after loading BES 4.0 I got an error stating that the notes.ini could not be located. So I just installed Domino 6.5.4 over 7.0.1 and then ran the BES installer again. During this install, it found that the BESMgmt database was at a "Pre-4.0 level" and could not proceed. So I call my SQL guy again and he sees that in the BESMgmt database there is a ServerDBVersion table that has a record for 4.0 and 4.1. So he just removes the 4.1 record and the installer was happy. Things came up fine and I loaded SP3 for BES to be fairly up-to-date. Now my BES is active but still at 4.0...
To do this week:
- Find a full installer for BES 4.0 SP3 so I can load Domino 7.0.1 and not have to downgrade Domino later.
- Find out why in the world the BES 4.1 installer couldn't find the SQL driver!! Not happy about that!
- Find out where my SQL guy wants to go to lunch because I owe him!
Friday, April 7, 2006
"The Gospel of Judas"
If you've missed it, there is supposedly another "lost" gospel of the Bible that's been supressed for over 1700 years. I've posted about this in the past here. Much like the Gospel of Thomas, the Gospel of Judas is a creation of a Gnostic group in the 2nd Century AD that was penned with the name of an apostle in order to gain a foothold. Otherwise known as pseudepigrapha.
I would urge you to listen to or read through Albert Mohler's assessments of this:
The Gospel Of Judas: What Should Christians Think? - Podcast with guest Darrel Bock
From Traitor to Hero? Responding to The Gospel of Judas? - Here is an excerpt from his blog entry from today:
Accordingly, the most revealing statement in the entire text of The Gospel of Judas records Jesus saying to Judas, "But you will exceed all of them. For you will sacrifice the man that clothes me."
In other words, Judas would perform a service to Jesus by betraying Him to those who would then crucify Him, liberating Jesus from the physical body and freeing Him as spirit. As the editors of The Gospel of Judas indicate in a footnote, "The death of Jesus, with the assistance of Judas, is taken to be the liberation of the spiritual person within."
Needless to say, this is in direct conflict with the Christian gospel and the New Testament. The consistent witness of the New Testament is that Jesus came in order to die for sinners--willingly accepting the cross and dying as the substitutionary sacrifice for sin.
Now Playing: "Jaws of Life" by John Petrucci
I would urge you to listen to or read through Albert Mohler's assessments of this:
The Gospel Of Judas: What Should Christians Think? - Podcast with guest Darrel Bock
From Traitor to Hero? Responding to The Gospel of Judas? - Here is an excerpt from his blog entry from today:
Accordingly, the most revealing statement in the entire text of The Gospel of Judas records Jesus saying to Judas, "But you will exceed all of them. For you will sacrifice the man that clothes me."
In other words, Judas would perform a service to Jesus by betraying Him to those who would then crucify Him, liberating Jesus from the physical body and freeing Him as spirit. As the editors of The Gospel of Judas indicate in a footnote, "The death of Jesus, with the assistance of Judas, is taken to be the liberation of the spiritual person within."
Needless to say, this is in direct conflict with the Christian gospel and the New Testament. The consistent witness of the New Testament is that Jesus came in order to die for sinners--willingly accepting the cross and dying as the substitutionary sacrifice for sin.
Now Playing: "Jaws of Life" by John Petrucci
West Wing Has New "BlackBerry"
So I'm watching West Wing (hard to believe I like that show, huh?) and Josh said that at least he didn't take his BlackBerry to bed with him. They have all been using BlackBerrys for this whole season... Anyway, what he just called his "BlackBerry" rings and he answers it. But, it's not a BlackBerry but a Treo!! Take from that what you will.
Now Playing: "Insectsamongus" by Jordan Rudess
Now Playing: "Insectsamongus" by Jordan Rudess
Thursday, April 6, 2006
81, 76, 50, 49, 43, 25
What are those numbers? They are the number of US Military deaths in Iraq for the past 6 months. Note: the numbers start 6 months ago, so 25 represents the number from last month.
More numbers:
215, 176, 193, 189, 158, 193 - Number of Iraqi military and police casualties
70, 70, 70, 68, 30, 30 - Number of car bombings
I agree with the point John Hawkins made on this: "My only point is that, at the very least, people who complain that good news coming out of Iraq gets shuttered by the press aren’t crazy."
Trackback also to: Numbers
Now Playing: "Come Awake" by David Crowder Band
More numbers:
215, 176, 193, 189, 158, 193 - Number of Iraqi military and police casualties
70, 70, 70, 68, 30, 30 - Number of car bombings
I agree with the point John Hawkins made on this: "My only point is that, at the very least, people who complain that good news coming out of Iraq gets shuttered by the press aren’t crazy."
Trackback also to: Numbers
Now Playing: "Come Awake" by David Crowder Band
Wednesday, April 5, 2006
Linux Mail Archive Server Installed (SnTT)
Back in February, Jack Dausman posed the question of "How Much Free Space to Recommend on a Mail Server?" at his blog. The consensus was about 30% and it also depends on the drive activity. But I posted at the time that "We're at about 26% free and we are looking at either setting up a Linux Domino server for archiving mail to Network Attached Storage or just buying more physical disks. I prefer the archiving for performance reasons."
Jack responded with "Archiving onto a NAS is interesting, because NAS's are not normally recognized as robust enough to host databases. You'll have to post how well that works for you."
So here is a Show-N-Tell post about my experience setting this up. Since that time of being 26% free just 2 months ago, we're now about 21% free! When I got back to the office monday from the worship conference I had the xSeries in my cubicle. We ordered an xSeries 306m with Pentium 4 Processor 640 with EM64T (3.2 GHz 2M L2). I ordered RedHat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 4 to run on it. According to Technote 1231920, Domino 7.0.1 is supported on Update 3 of RHEL 4 or Update 2 with the GDB from Update 3 installed. No biggie, right?
After configuring the RAID1, I loaded the OS that shipped with the server. This was, unfortunately, the base release. Off to RedHat's site, I snagged the Update 3 only to later find out that IBM does not have a RAID Controller driver for Update 3 to run on the xSeries 306m. There was one for Update 2, so I finally got that loaded and found the latest GDB and installed it.
The Domino server install took about 2 minutes! This machine really flies (as it should). I can't wait until IBM releases a 64-bit version of Domino. Since we had been testing this on an older system (PIII 650...), I didn't have to configure anything with Domino.
Now to the cool part - archiving the mail to our NetApp NAS appliance! Basically, I just edited the /etc/fstab file in Linux to include a line to mount the filesystem on boot. I came back and opened my archive and it was really fast. I mean really fast! I know that I was the only one on the system, but since this will be an archive-only server there will likely not be more than a couple of people with their databases open at once. Navigating through folders is rather quick as well. So last night I archived our IT Staff's databases. We currently have about 2.5 GB in archives now. I can't wait until I get to the 3-5+ GB mail files. I'm hoping to reclaim at least 35% of my entire mail store (conservatively). At that rate I should regain over 17% putting my iSeries storage back down to around 60% utilization. Oh, and I'll let Bruce know if I have any problems!
Now Playing: "Marvelous Light" by Charlie Hall
Show-n-tell thursday
Jack responded with "Archiving onto a NAS is interesting, because NAS's are not normally recognized as robust enough to host databases. You'll have to post how well that works for you."
So here is a Show-N-Tell post about my experience setting this up. Since that time of being 26% free just 2 months ago, we're now about 21% free! When I got back to the office monday from the worship conference I had the xSeries in my cubicle. We ordered an xSeries 306m with Pentium 4 Processor 640 with EM64T (3.2 GHz 2M L2). I ordered RedHat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 4 to run on it. According to Technote 1231920, Domino 7.0.1 is supported on Update 3 of RHEL 4 or Update 2 with the GDB from Update 3 installed. No biggie, right?
After configuring the RAID1, I loaded the OS that shipped with the server. This was, unfortunately, the base release. Off to RedHat's site, I snagged the Update 3 only to later find out that IBM does not have a RAID Controller driver for Update 3 to run on the xSeries 306m. There was one for Update 2, so I finally got that loaded and found the latest GDB and installed it.
The Domino server install took about 2 minutes! This machine really flies (as it should). I can't wait until IBM releases a 64-bit version of Domino. Since we had been testing this on an older system (PIII 650...), I didn't have to configure anything with Domino.
Now to the cool part - archiving the mail to our NetApp NAS appliance! Basically, I just edited the /etc/fstab file in Linux to include a line to mount the filesystem on boot. I came back and opened my archive and it was really fast. I mean really fast! I know that I was the only one on the system, but since this will be an archive-only server there will likely not be more than a couple of people with their databases open at once. Navigating through folders is rather quick as well. So last night I archived our IT Staff's databases. We currently have about 2.5 GB in archives now. I can't wait until I get to the 3-5+ GB mail files. I'm hoping to reclaim at least 35% of my entire mail store (conservatively). At that rate I should regain over 17% putting my iSeries storage back down to around 60% utilization. Oh, and I'll let Bruce know if I have any problems!
Now Playing: "Marvelous Light" by Charlie Hall
Show-n-tell thursday
Tuesday, April 4, 2006
Blogroll Additions
I try to keep a short blogroll, but I just wanted to inform you of 3 recent additions.
Derek Punaro - Keyboardist extraordinaire! I was able to hang out with Derek some at JamFest 2006 and he rocked out on a few songs. From his site: "Our primary audience is our family and friends, and while we realize other people may stroll through our space from time to time, we make no apologies if there is more information on here than you care to read." He has some good Domino info there too - including his uneventful Quickplace install...
Don McNally - Don was a guest blogger at Matt and Jess Stratton's site on some Show-N-Tell posts. He now has his own space on the Internet! Judging from his SNTT posts, it looks like Don will have some good Domino tips and code.
Ted Hardenburgh - I actually met Ted at Lotusphere. I believe he was one of the brave 100 souls to attend the session Kim and I gave! I stumbled on his blog just a couple of weeks ago when I was looking through Technorati for something. As his domain states, he has Domino Thoughts for all of us. He has some good posts and updates on his family as well. Also, he may post on his son "Andrew has Cystic Fibrosis, and while he's doing very well, you'll read about what's going on in his life regarding his treatments and our efforts to help find a cure."
Now Playing: "Everything Glorious" by David Crowder Band - "You made everything glorious and I am Yours. What does that make me?"
Derek Punaro - Keyboardist extraordinaire! I was able to hang out with Derek some at JamFest 2006 and he rocked out on a few songs. From his site: "Our primary audience is our family and friends, and while we realize other people may stroll through our space from time to time, we make no apologies if there is more information on here than you care to read." He has some good Domino info there too - including his uneventful Quickplace install...
Don McNally - Don was a guest blogger at Matt and Jess Stratton's site on some Show-N-Tell posts. He now has his own space on the Internet! Judging from his SNTT posts, it looks like Don will have some good Domino tips and code.
Ted Hardenburgh - I actually met Ted at Lotusphere. I believe he was one of the brave 100 souls to attend the session Kim and I gave! I stumbled on his blog just a couple of weeks ago when I was looking through Technorati for something. As his domain states, he has Domino Thoughts for all of us. He has some good posts and updates on his family as well. Also, he may post on his son "Andrew has Cystic Fibrosis, and while he's doing very well, you'll read about what's going on in his life regarding his treatments and our efforts to help find a cure."
Now Playing: "Everything Glorious" by David Crowder Band - "You made everything glorious and I am Yours. What does that make me?"
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