Saturday, January 28, 2006

Commitment (LS06)

I'm still trying to recap the Lotusphere 2006 week in my mind. On Thursday morning, I was thinking to myself that if there is one thing that we should take away, it is IBM/Lotus' commitment to the Lotus software products. This word was re-iterated in the closing session. If it hasn't been the case in the past when we have said we're on the offensive, we should know without a doubt that IBM is in this for the longhaul!

Session Evaluations (LS06)

I was able to review the evaluations from our session. It was great to see all of the positive things that were said. It makes all of the preparation worthwhile to see that people find the information helpful and implementable.

Here are basically all of the written comments:

- More before and after
- links to Redbooks or tech center (There were some links at the end of the slides.)
- "excellent for even experienced iseries shop" (This was great to hear! We were hoping that newbies and experienced admins would be able to get something from this.)
- wanted more time for material (We wanted more time as well - that's why there was less before/after and no mention of disk.)
- "best session I have been to in years" and this was from one "considering iseries" (WOW - thanks!)
- should mention disk next time (We will definitely try to update this and hopefully present again together!)
- "can be taken back and put in place" (Great to hear that you can start using this!)

Apology to Gab and All

This needs to be something public for all eyes, so I would like to offer my apologies to Gab for my post the other day. While I did not mean for it to be taken personally, it was. I'm sorry.

To those who have read the now defunct posts (mine and hers), I am also sorry for any stain on the community caused only by me. As we had mentioned at the Bloggers BOF, we are a family. And I was being the black sheep (a role I never take).

I would like to thank Gab for her graciousness in offering to strike-through this and start over. She and I had a great AIM session and this was easily worked through. I offered to delete the post which was something she agreed to let me do. I hope that we can all put this behind us and move forward with what we've learned at Lotusphere. Honestly, everytime I think about it now I feel physically sick! Gab is an amazing administrator and a wonderful speaker - that Cluster Jumpstart was awesome!! We all have a lot to learn from her!

Sadly, there was some confusion on the GURU stage and I was hearing something that was not intended to be heard that way. I followed through completely in the wrong way. I have blogged about this particular Sametime problem here starting in June, 2005 (and, ironically, I even had a crash in the closing session...). So it was something personal for me I have been dealing with for nearly 8 months and I felt my comments were being slighted (which they were not). This was no excuse. I have corresponded with 2 others who have contacted me about this. I probably deserved to be raked over the coals by them, but they both were overly kind and fatherly to me in their correction of my wrong - so thank you!

Thursday, January 26, 2006

SeaWorld Was Great! (LS06)

I had a great time last night. I rode over with Christopher Byrne and Deborah Latter. They are the compliance and change control gurus! We had a blast hanging out. Other than Christopher running from the impending soak from Shamu, it was awesome. We actually didn't get soaked.

Well, I'm in an Activity Centric Collaboration session that's just starting. This is something revolutionary that IBM is working on for users to "organize the work around activities." Think of being able to have an activity in Notes and easily organize and share (via RSS) the activity and dropping files, emails, IMs, etc... Awesome stuff!

Wednesday, January 25, 2006

Exam 610 Passed!!

Just passed the Notes/Domino 6/6.5 Application Development Foundation Skills exam!

I got an 82% (needed 75 to pass). On three sections I scored 100% and got 70% and 80% on the other two.

Tuesday, January 24, 2006

Bloggers' BOF (LS06)

I believe I may be the first post about it - sorry I didn't make the JamFest tonight. I don't want to get sweaty before dinner tonight! I was going to email my Blogspot account to post directly from the BOF, but decided not to. There was no wi-fi there, so the rest of the bloggers couldn't post. It was a really good BOF - especially being able to meet some new people. Ed Brill was the moderator and there were some great comments and questions.

The main thing that I would echo is that if you're not currently blogging, go ahead and start. You should also not hesitate to comment at other blogs. This at least gets your name out there and helps to make friends (or enemies...). I can really attest to something that Ed said.

He mentioned that blogging is a very good way to not only get your name out in the community, but also that it can help you get noticed by those who approve sessions (he pointed out that many of the people in the room were also speakers) and provides a means for them to see how well you communicate. While I generally will post techy items, you don't need to have a tech blog to "get noticed." Like Jess said at the BOF, you just have to post about things that others will find interesting. Even if it's just that you saw some strange shape made by your Cheerios. I would definitely say that being active in this community aided in the approval of the session I co-presented.

I look forward to staying active and hopefully being able to add feeds for some new bloggers who may have been inspired at the BOF!

Who's going to JamFest Tuesday Night? (LS06)

Just wondering who's planning on coming? I'm up in the air on it... Comment if so.

Day One (LS06)

Okay, so this is a little late as I'm waiting for the 2nd class on Day 2 to start. It's on DDM - which as you know is something I'm really liking about Domino 7.

Anyway, Day 1 went great. As I've previously posted, Kim Greene and my session went very well. I also checked out Lance and Dwight's session on AJAX and DXL. I'm looking forward to getting their application. I spent some time on the showcase floor too. Got my LotusUserGroup.org shirt (can't remember her name, but the LUG lady knew me as "The iSeries Guy"). I also got my "I'm a L.U.G. NUT!" pin. It's fitting because my nickname is Nut (short for Whisonant) and I didn't want the "Sametime Stud" or "Domino Diva" pins!

I also went to a session on Web Services but it wasn't what I was hoping for.

Last night was the JamFest also. It was cool but I didn't even get up to play. There were many more "eager" players... But it was great to meet and hang out with people. After the JamFest was karaoke at Kimono's. It was the first time I had been. I didn't sing, but many did and some were good. I left way earlier than the ones who stayed to close it down...

Our iSeries Session At Lotusphere 2006 (LS06)

The IBM Lotus Domino for IBM iSeries Administration and Performance Best Practices session that Kim Greene and I did went really well. Kim was great to work with, and maybe we can try this again next year with some updated information. If you attended the session, THANK YOU. If you didn't attend (B.E.) just remember that I can now heckle you at your sessions. We were in a fairly small room, but we probably filled around 85% of the seats. Kim and I also enjoyed hanging out with a few of the attendees afterwards answering some questions. This was a really great experience and I would like to thank IBM (especially Rocky's Best Practices team) and Kim for the opportunity to present.

Here is a link to the Color PDF of the presentation. I will also be placing a link on the menu over on the left.

Monday, January 23, 2006

Prepped for Session and Sametime News Story (LS06)

I just finished reviewing my part of the BP406 session. I'm really pumped about it!

Also, I've already had one power user from back home send me a Yahoo! news story about IBM integrating AOL, Y!, and Google IM platforms into Sametime 7.5. The word is getting around!

On that note, IBM really was pressing the point that they are the innovators in this arena during the Opening General Session.

Opening General Session (LS06)

This thing is packed!! Word is that the entire front section is just for the press. Some major announcements - just see these highlights:

* Jason Alexander speaks! He's hilarious...
* DWA and Notes with Sametime for Mac - live demo!
* Over 1500 Notes wins over Exchange!
* GoodLink for Lotus
* Wanda - Portable Notes on USB stick
* Notes/SAP integration next quarter - prior to MS/SAP integration
* This was the feature Rocky was talking about
* IM on BlackBerry - in Message window not separate chat app
* Web Services on BB
* Connectivity with AIM, Y!, and Google Talk!! WOW! With no additional purchase.
* Sametime 7.5 - emoticons too! Voice Chat, built on Eclipse! Screen capture to put in chat
* Better UI for Web Conferencing too
* 15 Million users of Sametime
* IBM Workplace Forms - very nice!
* Domino builder for Eclipse?
* Shipping WCS and WMC today!
* IBM Productivity Tools
* Activity Explorer for WMC 2.6
* Domino "Next" - Websphere Portal integrated to Domino (Lotus Domino 8?)
* Hannover - The richest Implementation of activity centric computing, improved mail threads, ctrl-click to select multiples
* Hannover Demo was awesome! Way to go Lotus!!
* Oh yeah - NO CRASHES from these major demos (remember the infamous MS BSoD with major announcements?)

Sunday, January 22, 2006

The Shirts! (LS06)

While you're at Lotusphere, don't forget to get these shirts from the showcase floor!!


Get this from Workflow Studios (see Lance Spellman)



Get this from OpenNTF.org

Jumpstart Day (LS06)

Today has gone well. As others have said, the numbers have increased this year about 15% (almost along the lines of Lotus' growth too!) I went to two sessions today and met with Kim Greene to go over our presentation. I also saw on Chris Miller's blog that iCollaborate for iSeries was announced. I'm anxious to see what this is. Hopefully it will be among the announcements tomorrow. It was also really great to start putting faces with people!!

The first session I went to was the Java Jumpstart for the Domino Developer from Tom Duff and Julian Robichaux. This was a great session!! As Julian posted last week, he had a demo of a Pie Chart and Bar Graph all from within Notes. It was a great session, but I didn't win a prize. This session was packed out in a fairly large room. The highlights were Julian squirting Tom with a watergun (as part of a coding example) and also Julian's laser pionter (a.k.a. Red Light Saber!!)

Speaking of prizes, though, I did get two t-shirts. Bruce Elgort gave me an OpenNTF.org shirt and Lance Spellman gave me the coveted "Take Your Exchange Server and SHOVE It!" shirt. Also, John Roling gave me an "I'm A Sicko!" button. Awesome - thanks guys...

The second session I went to was An Introduction to All Things IBM Lotus Domino Clustering by Gabriella Davis. To be a strictly admin session, there was a packed room here too. It was a good session and I have some notes on some clustering things I would like to implement. However, I disagree with her statement that clustered unread marks are fixed as of 6.5. I know I've seen these still get out of sync. It is true that there is now a setting to control this, but with server and/or client crashes this number can be skewed across replicas.

Saturday, January 21, 2006

IBM Announcements Monday (LS06)

I was reading Ed Brill's blog on the ride down to Orlando, and he mentioned that "IBM is indeed making a number of important, wide-ranging announcements on Monday."

Looking forward to what they may be - I'm guessing they will be made during the Opening General Session.

Happy Birthday Honey!!

Sadly I'm leaving on my wife's birthday. Happy Birthday...

Finally On The Road (LS06)

Decided to meet my manager closer to the interstate. When my wife dropped me off we realized I didn't have my hang-up shirts and pants. Well we're now on the road after picking them up!

Thursday, January 19, 2006

New Domino 7 for iSeries NotesBench Results

250,500 users!! on a 16-way i5 Model 595.

Here is the report.

My question to an IBMer was:

Were there any gains by using V5R4 as opposed to V5R3?

Since I just posted this, I also got an email back from IBM on the results. Basically, you should just note that the processor speed being used in the NotesBench is 1.9GHz (the current i595 processor is 1.65GHz...) You figure out what that means! Should be a new hardware announcement with V5R4.

Also, from previous performance reports we know that the R6 workload performs better than R7.

It's also interesting that it was completed by October 19, 2005 on what must have been "beta" versions of the Operating System that isn't even out yet.

I'll have to look through the full reports that are attached to the NotesBench report.

Now Playing: "Undecided" by James LaBrie

Testing from BlackBerry

Just testing. I enabled my blogspot email address - just send an email to the address and it publishes the post. I figure I can use this to post more frequently next week!

Wednesday, January 18, 2006

Random Thoughts for Today...

The Dilbert for today just seems to be on the money with the whole "Red Bull" thing...



I've been using the BlackBerry 8700c for a couple of days now and it's great. Perhaps the best feature by far is the EDGE Internet service. It's FAST!!

On the ride down to Sphere, I'm planning on cramming for the Lotus 610 exam to get my first Dev certification. I took it once about 1.5 years ago and missed it by two questions (literally...). I should get it this time. If I pass it I may also attempt exam 623 to finish up my Advanced Admin certification. And if that goes well, I may try for the Domino 7 admin update, but there may not be time for all of that! Although when I went to an iSeries COMMON conference in 2003 I passed 4 advanced admin exams.

Tuesday, January 17, 2006

28

Yep, today is my Birthday... inching closer to that big Three-Oh!

I will be blogging later (possibly after Sphere) about a new toy I got yesterday - a BlackBerry 8700c. This thing is awesome!

Monday, January 16, 2006

New iSeries Group PTF!

Let me be the first to say - "Thank you IBM!"

The group PTF number is SF99314 for 5.3 and SF99313 for 5.2. This has been a long time coming... it is a group PTF for TCP/IP and Ethernet!

IBM Creates New TCP/IP and Ethernet PTF Group

"If you have been suffering each time you tried to figure out how to patch the TCP/IP software on your AS/400, iSeries, or i5 server, IBM has listened to your complaints and has created a new TCP/IP and Ethernet PTF Group."

Now Playing: "Superstitious" by Stevie Ray Vaughan

Sunday, January 15, 2006

Tips for Lotusphere Attendees

Check out Rocky's Annual Lotusphere post: tips for the Lotusphere n00bs - some great pointers!

About to run through something: =)
iSeries Architecture
Database Maintenance
BRMS
Performance Tuning
Sametime for iSeries
Troubleshooting
Upgrading to Domino 7

Saturday, January 14, 2006

egoSurf - Why Not?

Well, I thought I would post my egoSurf results since it seems to be the big thing. For some reason they aren't displaying the meter now.

Google - 9,805
Yahoo - 3,771

Oh, I decided to look at the Biggest Egos link. This is hilarious - I'm not sure how accrurate this is now because I've seen other Domino bloggers with far bigger egos than myself...



Now Playing: "Pull Me Under" by Dream Theater

Thursday, January 12, 2006

i5/OS V5R4 and Storage Changes

Several weeks ago I posted links to an expected February 2006 release for V5R4 of i5/OS. My Business Partner is now telling me to expect an announcement in February as well, so that seems pretty much confirmed.

On that note, I have some more technical observations about some things in this article from The Four Hundred (that I mentioned in the previous post).

According to Herring, starting with the Power5+ generation, IBM is going to do away with the idea of requiring IOPs for storage....The AS/400 architecture was always unique in that it supported what is really asymmetric multiprocessing, with relatively modestly powered central processors hooked to legions of intelligent I/O processors that were equipped with microcode that allowed them to run what would otherwise be thought of as jobs suited for a central operating system. Going forward, IBM is doing away with this architecture, said Herring, as much to get the i5 and p5 lines in synch as to improve the availability of the i5 servers.

We also read that the old IOP architecture can remain. This is good to hear. Initially, I read into this that the entire IOP architecture would be removed. But after review, it's just the storage IOPs that will be removed. Another interesting observation about this is that IBM is working on having the i5 and p5 lines more closely related. We know that at IBM Rochester they build and ship i5 and p5 systems. As I have read from an IBMer, "It takes an iSeries to deliver a pSeries..." - meaning that the Rochester manufacturing lines use an iSeries with Domino to aid in the manufacturing of i5 and p5 systems!

Also in the article, we read that The difficulty of moving to a SAN architecture for storage with the iSeries has to do with the much-praised single-level storage in the platform. First, OS/400 needs to boot locally as it is currently written, Moreover, OS/400 needs to have both main memory and disk to create its single-level memory, and OS/400 doesn't share well. But the techies in Rochester are working on a way to boot OS/400 across a SAN fabric. Moreover, IBM is also working on a way to allow HA software to failover one server attached to a SAN to another server attached to the same SAN. To use Herring's words, this is like using a SAN as a logical independent auxiliary storage pool (iASP).

To quote Darth Vader - "Impressive. Most Impressive!" I have spoken with our IBM Customer Engineers on this and they have mentioned testing this with a customer in our area. So this is definitely not just an abstract IBM is considering.

Now Playing: "Carolina Blue" by Tony MacAlpine

Which one is me?

In the image below, can you figure out which one is me and which one is my daughter?


Me and Mini-Me...


Now Playing: "Circus du Soleil" by Tony MacAlpine

Wednesday, January 11, 2006

Domino 7.0 Upgrade - Part Four

After 2 weeks there have been no crashes on my iSeries! Lotus Support left me a voice mail that none of the other customers have had a crash since loading the fix either.

Now, let me throw out some performance numbers for you...

Mail Server CPU Utilization is down between 5% and 13.5%
App Server CPU Utilization is down 13.2%

Mail Server Memory Utilization is up 36% +
App Server Memory Utilization is down 2.4% (basically even...)


Now Playing: "The Separated Man" by Neal Morse

Guru? News to me...

Apparently I get to be part of the GURUpalooza event by default since I am a speaker in the "Best Practices" track at Lotusphere:

We're BAAAACK! Last year Gurupalooza! was an instant hit - and due to overwhelming demand, we're bringing it back again this year. After spending four days drinking deep that collaboration kool-aid, you're ready to top it off with a second helping of knowledge from your Best Practices track speakers. They spent the week sharing their knowledge, tricks, and lessons learned with you and now you have one final opportunity to fill in any gaps left from the week by asking them your questions. So, top off your Lotusphere experience with another helping of collaborative knowledge - there's enough for everyone to share!

So, when you go to Gurupalooza - please don't ask me any questions... See you there!

Now Playing: "Octavarium" by Dream Theater

Monday, January 9, 2006

Assistance Needed - Domino Development

We have a database in which we are getting poor view response times. Here are the general DB stats:

747 MB
179 MB View Index (24% of total db size!)
22,000 Documents
16,000 of the Docs in one of the views in question
About 200 documents edited per day on average

Here are some of the "basics" that I have checked:

Program Document running UPDALL -V on this specific DB every 30 minutes

Advanced Database Properties:


For the users, the view is embedded on a page showing them their own documents. Regardless of whether we open the view directly or via the page it takes several minutes to open, so this leads me to the view being the issue and not the Show Single Category criteria. That criteria is:

@If(@IsMember("[Admin]";@UserRoles);"*";@IsMember("[Post Proof]";@UserRoles); "Post-Proofing";@IsMember("[Pre Proof]";@UserRoles);"Pre-Proofing"; @IsMember("[Graphics]";@UserRoles);"Graphics";@Name([CN]; @UserName))

The view selection criteria is:

"Simple Search" - "uses 'Contract Tracking' form"

All columns refer to fields on the documents (i.e. no date/time functions in the view...):
ResponsiblePerson, Year, Directory, AccountNumber, ApplicancName, Status, CompletedBySales, DateCompleted

The first 3 columns are Categorized. The 4th column is sorted Ascending. None of the columns allow the user to sort.

Any further insights?

By the way, the newest Taking Notes podcast was really good about large-scale Domino deployments. Right up the alley of us iSeries guys...

Now Playing: "Learning to Live" by Dream Theater

Judge Alito Confirmation Hearings Start Today

As the proceedings take place, keep up with The Washington Post's Campaign For The Court blog. It will keep you informed of the major events taking place with the hearings.

Here is an excerpt from one of the posts over the weekend:

"Senate Democrats on Sunday promised a drawn-out confirmation and perhaps a filibuster for Samuel Alito if the Supreme Court nominee evades or refuses to answer their questions on abortion, presidential war powers and other issues..."

Also, I was reading from On Governmental Authority by Martin Luther from 1523. I find his advice fairly sufficient for our current discussions on the judiciary and the upcoming hearings:

"Besides, we cannot conceive how an authority could or should act in a situation except where it can see, know, judge, condemn, change, and modify. What would I think of a judge who should blindly decide cases which he neither hears nor sees?"

This is exactly what South Carolina's own Senator Lindsay Graham addresses in The Post's blog:

No, not at all. But let’s talk about the abortion question for a moment. When President Clinton chose twice -- he had two picks on his watch -- he chose Ginsberg and Breyer, people left of center. Justice Ginsberg openly embraced the idea that there was a constitutional right to an abortion.

I don’t agree with that, but Republicans who were pro-life and, I guess, a few Democrats who were pro-life, did not hold that position against her. They believed that she would decide the cases based on the facts and the law.

So we’re not going to sit back and watch a double standard to be imposed here. People who have come from Democratic nominees have openly embraced the idea that they believe there’s a constitutional right to abortion. They were not disqualified.

If Judge Alito advocated that Roe v. Wade was wrongly decided, that is no -- that’s not a disqualifying event. An extraordinary circumstance could never be having a different philosophy. You expect Republicans to pick people differently than Democrats.

What I think an extraordinary circumstance would be -- someone’s character, integrity problems, or clearly they’re an ideologue, they don’t care what the law is, they’ve got their own agenda. There is no evidence of that in this case.

And the fact that he may disagree with somebody on a particular issue like abortion -- well, that happens all the time. That happens when Clinton picked Ginsberg and Breyer. She was the ACLU executive general counsel. I disagree with her about everything she basically advocated. But I can understand why she was given 96 votes.

Saturday, January 7, 2006

Remember the April Fool's Joke?

It was this post on 04/01/2005.

Well, Greg Simmons told me that someone was asking him if our Company was switching to Exchange. They said they saw that someone said at a website or blog that we were doing that. Well, I guess they were talking about this April Fool's post of mine. But who knows?

Now Playing: "Dance of Souls" by Arwen

Thursday, January 5, 2006

Some Brief Updates

Domino 7.0 for iSeries - We loaded the fix for our HTTP crashes last Tuesday. We have not had any issues since then!

Lotusphere Presentation - It's all wrapped up. We uploaded it to IBM's server on Friday. Now to practice... We both think it's going to be awesome!!

Woman who sought and is living her Porpoise Driven Life

Jamfest 2006 - The wiki is doing pretty good. There are a lot of cool songs there. Now to learn a lot of them... I think I will be taking my cheaper guitar, though. It's an OLP MM4. Mine is red and I have replaced the neck and bridge pickups with some great sounding DiMarzios. It's a great little guitar!

Monday, January 2, 2006

Who's Going to Lotusphere?

So, with 20 days until Lotusphere, which of you reading my blog are going?

I believe that a good many people are meeting at ESPN Zone on Saturday evening. I think my boss and I are going to go. We're driving down on Saturday, so we'll be there Saturday evening.

Maybe Next Year

Way to go Gamecocks (or is it Shamecocks?!?)!!

Oh well, as is the usual slogan from the fans - "Maybe Next Year!"

Now Playing: "What Would You Say" by Dave Matthews Band