Lotusphere JAMFest 2006 Wiki

I just set up a PBWiki for posting of songs wanted for JAMFest 2006. If you have requests please post them.

If you wish to add songs or "sign up" to play on a song, login with your name and e-mail address. The password is: sphere

JamFest Wiki

Also, RSS2 and Atom are available.

Now Playing: "The Shaman" by Angra

Viktor

This falls under the "Where are they now?" category. Viktor is a new Christian Pop-Rock band. Some of you may remember their drummer - a guy named Louie Weaver that used to play with an old band that is sadly gone now! I'm glad to see Louie doing something.

Now Playing: "Freedom of Speech" by Liquid Tension Experiment

That's Customer Service!

Last night I placed an order at BestBuy.com for a few items - so I could use the gift card I received for Christmas. I chose to pay online with the gift card and pick up in the store. Since we have a Best Buy about 4 minutes from my office I decided to just pick it up at lunch today. When the cashier handed me the items and said thank you, my BlackBerry notified me of a new email. I looked at it and it said "Thanks for picking up your order" from Best Buy. That was cool.

I know some people would think that's really cool technically. And while it is, it's still something that I do for a living. My wife asks our 2 year old what Daddy does and she says "Makes the e-mail". Pretty good answer! I think it's cool that shops are now doing those things, though.

Well, here's what I picked up, in case you're wondering:

David Crowder Band: A Collision

Star Wars - Clone Wars: Volume 1

Star Wars - Clone Wars: Volume 2

Now Playing: "Just A Closer Walk With Thee" by Bart Millard

Don't Miss These!

Over on the menu, I have a new section at the top with some of what I feel is some "Don't Miss" information here at my site. I'll keep it updated as we go along.

Now Playing: "A Beautiful Collision" by David Crowder Band

Large Domino Server Implementations

Ed Brill has a thread today where he has asked for feedback on large Domino implementations. The winner gets a front row seat at the Opening General Session. With only 1,000 users, I'm nowhere near being considered!

However, it's interesting to note that the majority of the implementations are on iSeries! There are many in the 20-30,000 user range. That's fairly interesting. What type of implementations do you manage?

Now Playing: "I'll Die Tryin'" by Lonestar

Domino 7.0 Hotfix for HTTP

Lotus believes that the PTF I just loaded will fix our issues with HTTP crashing our mail server. It appears that there is an issue with Domino Web Access trying to get multiple handles on the same database from cache. As always, I will keep you all updated.

Also, I ran database maintenance on all the /DATA/*.nsf files that are locked when the server is active. This is something that I should do more often, but... It's also for a PMR I have open with Rooms and Resources failing. I'm hoping there's just some rogue corruption causing it. More on that later too!

Now Playing: "The Old Man's Back In Town" by Garth Brooks

Some Christmas Photos

Chris Moody has posted some Christmas photos at his blog. Chris, his parents, and his sister came to my parents' house Christmas Eve. Here are a couple of shots he took:


Me on guitar with my wife and daughter in the photo!


(L->R)Moody's Parents, My Mom, My In-Laws, Moody's Sister, My Dad

Thanks Moody!! We had a great time and were glad to have you and your family over!! We especially enjoyed Santa Moody!

Thanks Santa Moody!!

The CBS Special--- "The Mystery of Christmas"

The other day I wrote about a TV Special I watched about Christmas with Ben Witherington. Well, yesterday Ben Witherington put some notes on his blog about the special.

Now Playing: "All Creatures of Our God and King" by David Crowder Band

A Christmas Gift From Lotus?

I'm anxiously awaiting an actual fix for our HTTP crash issue. I received an email late yesterday that they hope to have a fix out to me today. Here's hoping!

iSeries Down!

Well, it's back up now. But yesterday at 4:53 (right when we're about to leave for Christmas holidays at work), our cluser Domino iSeries 270 was unreachable. So we drove across town (funny how Domino can have a remote cluster!). My first thought was that the system was completely hosed. We still have those drives in our cluster system.

We arrived and found the system on a Main Storage Dump screen with the failing code being SRC B6000103. The system came back up great and that was the only error in the Product and Service Activity Logs. We called iSeries support and were sent a list of PTFs that should prevent this. We proceeded to load them and then IPL to apply them.

The thing that scares me is that this seems to be pretty random and it's possible that we could see this on another system.

Now Playing: "The Calling" by Aztec Jade

Power Line Blog

This is a really good politically-oriented blog.

http://powerlineblog.com/

XML Feed

Now Playing: "Deep Blue" by Angra

The Christmas Story

The other night I watched a special (on NBC I believe) on the birth of Jesus. The first half included some non-orthodox scholars. The second half was with Ben Witherington, Professor of New Testament Interpretation at Asbury Theological Seminary in Wilmore, Kentucky (is also in my Bloglines feeds). I will have to get into that TV special at a later date. But for now I would just like to present to you a generally chronological synopsis of the Christmas Story from the Gospels of Matthew and Luke. Those passages from Matthew are in italics. All scripture taken from the English Standard Version.

In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. And the virgin's name was Mary. And he came to her and said, "Greetings, O favored one, the Lord is with you!" But she was greatly troubled at the saying, and tried to discern what sort of greeting this might be. And the angel said to her, "Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end." And Mary said to the angel, "How will this be, since I am a virgin?" And the angel answered her, "The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy--the Son of God. And behold, your relative Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son, and this is the sixth month with her who was called barren. For nothing will be impossible with God." And Mary said, "Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word." And the angel departed from her. In those days Mary arose and went with haste into the hill country, to a town in Judah, and she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth. And when Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary, the baby leaped in her womb. And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit, and she exclaimed with a loud cry, "Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb! And why is this granted to me that the mother of my Lord should come to me? For behold, when the sound of your greeting came to my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy. And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her from the Lord." And Mary said, "My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for he has looked on the humble estate of his servant. For behold, from now on all generations will call me blessed; for he who is mighty has done great things for me, and holy is his name. And his mercy is for those who fear him from generation to generation. He has shown strength with his arm; he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts; he has brought down the mighty from their thrones and exalted those of humble estate; he has filled the hungry with good things, and the rich he has sent empty away. He has helped his servant Israel, in remembrance of his mercy, as he spoke to our fathers, to Abraham and to his offspring forever." And Mary remained with her about three months and returned to her home.

Now the birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit. And her husband Joseph, being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to divorce her quietly. But as he considered these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, "Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins." All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet: "Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel" (which means, God with us). When Joseph woke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him: he took his wife, but knew her not until she had given birth to a son. And he called his name Jesus.

In those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered. This was the first registration when Quirinius was governor of Syria. And all went to be registered, each to his own town. And Joseph also went up from Galilee, from the town of Nazareth, to Judea, to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and lineage of David, to be registered with Mary, his betrothed, who was with child. And while they were there, the time came for her to give birth. And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in swaddling cloths and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn. And in the same region there were shepherds out in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. And an angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were filled with fear. And the angel said to them, "Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of a great joy that will be for all the people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. And this will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger." And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying, "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!" When the angels went away from them into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, "Let us go over to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has made known to us." And they went with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby lying in a manger. And when they saw it, they made known the saying that had been told them concerning this child. And all who heard it wondered at what the shepherds told them. But Mary treasured up all these things, pondering them in her heart. And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, as it had been told them. And at the end of eight days, when he was circumcised, he was called Jesus, the name given by the angel before he was conceived in the womb. 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." Now there was a man in Jerusalem, whose name was Simeon, and this man was righteous and devout, waiting for the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was upon him. And it had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death before he had seen the Lord's Christ. And he came in the Spirit into the temple, and when the parents brought in the child Jesus, to do for him according to the custom of the Law, he took him up in his arms and blessed God and said, "Lord, now you are letting your servant depart in peace, according to your word; for my eyes have seen your salvation that you have prepared in the presence of all peoples, a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and for glory to your people Israel." And his father and his mother marveled at what was said about him. And Simeon blessed them and said to Mary his mother, "Behold, this child is appointed for the fall and rising of many in Israel, and for a sign that is opposed (and a sword will pierce through your own soul also), so that thoughts from many hearts may be revealed." And there was a prophetess, Anna, the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Asher. She was advanced in years, having lived with her husband seven years from when she was a virgin, and then as a widow until she was eighty-four. She did not depart from the temple, worshiping with fasting and prayer night and day. And coming up at that very hour she began to give thanks to God and to speak of him to all who were waiting for the redemption of Jerusalem.

Now after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold, wise men from the east came to Jerusalem, saying, "Where is he who has been born king of the Jews? For we saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him." When Herod the king heard this, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him; and assembling all the chief priests and scribes of the people, he inquired of them where the Christ was to be born. They told him, "In Bethlehem of Judea, for so it is written by the prophet: "'And you, O Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah; for from you shall come a ruler who will shepherd my people Israel.'" Then Herod summoned the wise men secretly and ascertained from them what time the star had appeared. And he sent them to Bethlehem, saying, "Go and search diligently for the child, and when you have found him, bring me word, that I too may come and worship him." After listening to the king, they went on their way. And behold, the star that they had seen when it rose went before them until it came to rest over the place where the child was. When they saw the star, they rejoiced exceedingly with great joy. And going into the house they saw the child with Mary his mother, and they fell down and worshiped him. Then, opening their treasures, they offered him gifts, gold and frankincense and myrrh. And being warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they departed to their own country by another way. Now when they had departed, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, "Rise, take the child and his mother, and flee to Egypt, and remain there until I tell you, for Herod is about to search for the child, to destroy him." And he rose and took the child and his mother by night and departed to Egypt and remained there until the death of Herod. This was to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet, "Out of Egypt I called my son." Then Herod, when he saw that he had been tricked by the wise men, became furious, and he sent and killed all the male children in Bethlehem and in all that region who were two years old or under, according to the time that he had ascertained from the wise men. Then was fulfilled what was spoken by the prophet Jeremiah: "A voice was heard in Ramah, weeping and loud lamentation, Rachel weeping for her children; she refused to be comforted, because they are no more." But when Herod died, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt, saying, "Rise, take the child and his mother and go to the land of Israel, for those who sought the child's life are dead." And he rose and took the child and his mother and went to the land of Israel. But when he heard that Archelaus was reigning over Judea in place of his father Herod, he was afraid to go there, and being warned in a dream he withdrew to the district of Galilee.

And he went and lived in a city called Nazareth, that what was spoken by the prophets might be fulfilled: "He shall be called a Nazarene."

And when they had performed everything according to the Law of the Lord, they returned into Galilee, to their own town of Nazareth.

i5/OS V5R4 Release Date?

Speculation is that it will be released before February 2006. To be quite honest, I am on Domino so much that I don't keep up as much with the OS releases. But, from some further research, it will "include user interface, clustering, and database enhancements." It also appears to be a huge release - it's compared to the V4R5 to V5R1 conversion!!

Also, this is pretty interesting:

Herring said OS/400 admins have to wrestle with five different interfaces--including several green-screen interfaces, iSeries Navigator and OpsNav, and now the Hardware Management Console--to manage an iSeries box. "This seems a bit much for your average SMB customer." To that end, IBM will be redesigning the task-oriented OS/400 screens using AUIML and give it all a consistent look and feel. He also hinted that the Rochester team liked WebSphere Portal Express and that OS/400 functions would also start exploiting this technology to make OS/400 a little more user friendly.

Now Playing: "Mountain Song" by Joe Satriani

How do you do Lotus upgrades?

What is your process for upgrading Servers, Templates, and Clients to the latest release?

Last week I finished upgrading all of our mail files to the DWA 7.0 template. On clients that are below the 7.0 version, the Tools > Preferences is not available from the mail folders. Lotus Support said that you should have the clients upgraded to the latest release before migrating the mail files. Of course, this makes sense. However, they did make it difficult with 7.0 because the client Smart Upgrade process was broken. (That is supposedly corrected in 7.0.1 as SPR# HXXE68T7Y5).

So, the correct procedure is as follows:

1) Upgrade server to latest release
2) Upgrade clients to match the server release
3) Upgrade mail file templates to match the client release

Now Playing: "Baby It's Cold Outside" by Brian Setzer and Ann Margaret

New JibJab

Check out the new JibJab! It's hilarious... Thanks Simon



Now Playing: "Rush Limbaugh"

Domino 7.0 Updates

Well, this week we've averaged 2-3 HTTP crashes per day! Not what I was hoping for. From speaking with Lotus Support, it appears that we should be receiving the 3rd debugging PTF for our iSeries. They have pinpointed the problem to the database cache and this next debugging hotfix should allow them to get into the part of the code dealing with the cache to get a fix out soon (I hope!).

Also, we've been having some issues with the new 7.0 Rooms and Resources database. As part of my upgrade process, I did upgrade the databases to the 7.0 template. But after a month we are not able to book directly from the databases. We have several RnR databases for different locations or workgroups who had to be separate from the others... Anyway, this is happening for separate databases on the production and cluster replicas. The good news is that we are able to book via the C&S process by creating a meeting.

Merry Xmas!

It seems that about this time every year I will see someone write a letter to the editor of the local newspaper talking about the phrase "Merry Xmas." A few years ago I wrote this response.

The idea behind the statement was that Christ is removed from Christmas by using "Xmas." This is a common misconception. I am no Greek scholar, but according to Strong’s Greek Dictionary the Greek word for Christ is “Χριστός.” In English we would transliterate that as Christos (Xristos). As you can see in the Greek, the first letter of Christ is “X.”

Christmas simply means “the Christ mass.” It is a fact that 16th Century Europeans referred to the Christ mass as Xmas (and there are also uses of the words "Xian" and "Xianity"). It is possible that Xmas was used before this time, as it would be simple shorthand for Christmas, but my limited research has not proven this. Knowing these facts, it should be up to each individual as to how they will refer to Christmas. Originally, no disrespect was intended in substituting the first letter of Christ.

We must remember that Christmas is a long-standing tradition of the church and not a Biblical sacrament or ordinance. Perhaps we should concern ourselves more with what Christianity (and Christmas as well) should be all about: "Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world." (Jam 1:27 ESV) I believe this is something on which we all need to work.

On another note, don't miss Kevin Presseault's outline from a sermon he gave on December 4. He makes some great points about the true peace that Jesus brought to us. And don't miss his Christmas CSS!

"I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world." (Joh 16:33 ESV) Note that while we are in the world that things will go wrong (or be unpeaceful) but we should take care in the fact that the world has been overcome and that we can have inner peace that will flow from us into all of our relationships.

Beta testers for OpenNTF Mail Experience (dwa7 template)

Check out Bruce and Vince's sites for their call for testers. If you haven't used the OpenNTF mail template, it's really nice with some good "candy" features!! See my comments at Vince's site as well.

Now Playing: "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree" by NewSong

My Lotusphere 2006 Session Schedule

Here is the full list of sessions.

Here is the list of sessions in the new BootCamp category.

Also, for the eServer folks, there is usually a room in the Dolphin on Tuesday or Wednesday evening where IBM will host an informal gathering (with refreshments and food) of IBMers and eServer customers. Stop by one of the IBM eServer booths and ask an IBMer about it. Tell them you're a customer and you would like to stop by. We could hang out for a bit there - I would probably be there shortly after it opens.

This list is definitely subject to change, but here is where I will be...

Sunday
10:30-12:30-->JMP201 - Java Jumpstart for the IBM Lotus Domino Developer
1:30-3:30 --> JMP102 - An Introduction To All Things IBM Lotus Domino Clustering
4:00-6:00 --> JMP202 - LEI, DECS, LSXLC: Understanding the "How and Why" of IBM Lotus Domino Integration with other Systems

Monday
11:00-12:00 --> ID407 - Single Sign-On Strategies
1:00-2:00 --> BP308 - IBM Lotus Domino Web Facelift Using Ajax and DXL
2:15-3:15 --> AD202 - Web Services and IBM Lotus Notes and Domino 7
3:45-4:45 - Speaking with Kim Greene --> BP406 - IBM Lotus Domino for IBM iSeries Administration and Performance Best Practices
4:45-? --> Meet The Speakers - Swan Hotel - Toucan 2

Tuesday
8:30-9:30 --> AD207 - IBM Lotus Domino Web Access Customization
10:00-11:00 --> ID112 - Using IBM Lotus Domino Domain Monitoring in the Real World
11:15-12:15 --> INV101 - IBM Lotus Notes and Domino: "Hannover" and Beyond
1:00-2:00 --> BOF307 - Upgrading IBM Lotus Notes and Domino
3:00-4:00 --> AD206 - IBM Lotus Domino 7.x (and 6.x) Application Performance Optimization
4:15-5:15 --> BP304 - Code for Speed, or Code for Easier Reading: You Make the Call!
5:45-6:45 --> BOF105 - The IBM Lotus Blogging Community

Wednesday
7:00-8:00 --> MTG603 - IBM Lotus Domino Web Access
8:30-9:30 --> ID122 - An Early Look at IBM Lotus Sametime 7.5
10:00-11:00 --> ID401 - The Boss Loves Microsoft: Where Does That Leave Lotus?
11:15-12:15 --> ID110 - Getting the Most Out of IBM Lotus Domino Domain Monitoring Probes
1:30-2:30 --> ID120 - How to "Sell" IBM Lotus Notes and Domino Inside Your Organization
3:00-4:00 --> BP312 - Object Orientated LotusScript Techniques and Tricks
4:15-5:15 --> BP303 - Big-Time Tips and Tricks for Your IBM Lotus Domino Web Applications: The Great Code Giveaway!

Thursday
8:30-9:30 --> INV302 - Activity-Centric Collaboration: A New Approach to Productivity
10:00-11:00 --> BP105 - OpenNTF: Learn How OpenNTF Open Source Solutions Can Save You Time, Money and Your Hair
11:15-12:15 --> ID119 - IBM Lotus Notes and Domino @ IBM


Now Playing: "The Glass Prison" by Dream Theater