For most of this week I was at a client outside of NYC. This being my first time there, I had to go to the city. On Monday night I drove to Lower Manhattan. The drive down FDR was an experience in itself - not to mention the time I got turned around... I took some pictures that you can see here. I basically walked around the Seaport and then walked up Fulton St. to see Ground Zero. That was really crazy. You'll see one of my photos was a plane flying above two flags where the towers used to be. I can't believe it's been nearly 6 years and can't imagine the chaos...
I purchased a stubhub ticket to the Yankees/Red Sox game on Tuesday night. But Curt Stone really came through in the clutch and was able to get 4 tickets for free!! So I sold my ticket and got 1/2 of my ticket cost back and was able to hang out with Curt, his bro-in-law, and my client. Definitely some points there. Curt has a recap of the night too with a picture of him and me at the stadium and here are some pictures I took. Enjoyed it pal - thanks!! Everyone told me that getting out would be a nightmare (yes, I drove to the game too - the client thought I was either crazy or brave for driving to the city, twice!), but it only took me about 50 minutes from the time I got in the car to get to the hotel (which would normally be about a 35 minute drive).
And on Wednesday night I met up with Mitch Cohen in Teaneck, NJ. He's that Lotus Connections guru... :) We met for dinner and talked forever. He's a great guy and it was good to put a face with the name - thanks for hanging out Mitch!
Things went great and I ended up staying pretty busy in the evenings too. It was so cool to hang out with a couple of bloggers while I was there!
Friday, August 31, 2007
Tuesday, August 28, 2007
Monday, August 27, 2007
Exchange Server Has Viruses - Claims Microsoft
One of the things "we" like to point out is that Lotus is more secure when it comes to viruses. Well, according to Microsoft's Exchange site, they have "Viruses" built-in to their Exchange product. Check out the scrolling banner... :)
Tuesday, August 21, 2007
Happy Birthday Mom!!
My parents came to town this weekend and we celebrated mom's birthday. Happy Birthday Mom - we love you!!!
Monday, August 20, 2007
The Shiny New Notes Client - Back To The Future!!!
The opening paragraph from the upgrade Redbook (Page 21) states it all:
Notes and Domino 8 are so far beyond R5, but both releases were significant in their own right. Hopefully I got a laugh out of some of you! Congrats to IBM on ND8!
The Notes ... client interface has been completely redesigned. This interface looks and acts more like a browser, and integrates the regular Notes client function with access to the Web better than it did before. Many of the things you used to do in the Release ... client are now only one mouse-click away.Oh I'm sorry, I was reading from the wrong Redbook. That was the Notes/Domino R4 To R5 Upgrade book from March 2000. Let's see what the ND8 team came up with at the Interface page (as I've also seen written elsewhere):
It’s here! IBM® Lotus Notes® and IBM Lotus® Domino® 8 software showcases a modern, Web-like look-and-feel in a familiar Lotus Notes client format. Updated to help you work smarter, the new user interface presents the tools you need, when and where you need them. It’s visually appealing, highly consistent and feature rich. That means you get your job done faster, and easier. And, you enjoy it along the way. Who says work can’t be fun, too?Sorry...I had to.
Notes and Domino 8 are so far beyond R5, but both releases were significant in their own right. Hopefully I got a laugh out of some of you! Congrats to IBM on ND8!
Consider Shopping At Circuit City
As you can see from this demo kiosk at Circuit City this past Saturday, they may need some more revenue to upgrade some systems... ;)
Saturday, August 18, 2007
A Response To Volker's Latest Issue With Notes
I have posted this as a comment at Volker's post * on IBM Technote 1267071: Changes in Lotus Spreadsheets document do not save
Regarding the issue Volker raises here, I believe I have found the problem and there is a VERY simple workaround and this issue is probably unlikely to be seen in most real world uses.
If you create a new spreadsheet or open an existing one, go to a cell and type something. If you click into another cell or hit tab or enter and then click the "x" to close the spreadsheet, then you will always receive the prompt to save the spreadsheet. If you just type something in a single cell but don't navigate to another cell, then you will not receive the prompt to save the modification. A bug indeed, but the IBM Technote should be updated. I will also be notifying Lotus via a response to the technote with how to reproduce this and also to hopefully modify the technote with a note to tab out of the field to receive the prompt for saving the modifications.
* It's ironic that I'm responding to someone who is "neither a business partner, a design partner nor a customer" of the Lotus products, but this is how Volker describes his involvement with Lotus products. I felt that since so many people will see the issue he raised that I would also let you know how to easily avoid the issue that was pointed out by someone who claims to not be a user of the product.
Regarding the issue Volker raises here, I believe I have found the problem and there is a VERY simple workaround and this issue is probably unlikely to be seen in most real world uses.
If you create a new spreadsheet or open an existing one, go to a cell and type something. If you click into another cell or hit tab or enter and then click the "x" to close the spreadsheet, then you will always receive the prompt to save the spreadsheet. If you just type something in a single cell but don't navigate to another cell, then you will not receive the prompt to save the modification. A bug indeed, but the IBM Technote should be updated. I will also be notifying Lotus via a response to the technote with how to reproduce this and also to hopefully modify the technote with a note to tab out of the field to receive the prompt for saving the modifications.
* It's ironic that I'm responding to someone who is "neither a business partner, a design partner nor a customer" of the Lotus products, but this is how Volker describes his involvement with Lotus products. I felt that since so many people will see the issue he raised that I would also let you know how to easily avoid the issue that was pointed out by someone who claims to not be a user of the product.
Friday, August 17, 2007
Getting Lotus Connections 1.0.0 To Work With Domino LDAP
If you haven't seen already, Mitch Cohen has documented an infrastructure with Lotus Connections talking to Domino LDAP for authentication. Check it out!
Wednesday, August 15, 2007
Notes 8.0 NOMAD
According to IBM Technote 1265230, "Notes on a Stick" will be supported for the Basic configuration in 8.0. They hope to allow the Standard version to run from a stick in a later release (threads in the Public Beta forum mention 8.0.1). I can't imagine that Standard would run too well from a USB drive, though.
But, I guess we'll find out in a couple of days if Basic runs well on a stick.
But, I guess we'll find out in a couple of days if Basic runs well on a stick.
Wednesday, August 8, 2007
Quickr and Sametime Presence Awareness Issue Resolved
Nathan and I wracked our brains over this issue! We could get presence awareness going for about 30 seconds and then it would go away. Well today we got past that in the strangest fashion...
The basic setup was a Windows Server 2003 box running MS Virtual Server with a Quickr VM and a Sametime (7.5.1 CF1) VM. Nothing earth shattering. We decided to re-allocate that server for an installation of Lotus Connections, so I shutdown the VMs and moved them to another server (same OS). It was actually the same hardware specs but with less RAM (Connections needs the RAM!)
After bringing up the Quickr and Sametime VMs on the other server, presence awareness was working like a champ! Never saw that one coming!
The basic setup was a Windows Server 2003 box running MS Virtual Server with a Quickr VM and a Sametime (7.5.1 CF1) VM. Nothing earth shattering. We decided to re-allocate that server for an installation of Lotus Connections, so I shutdown the VMs and moved them to another server (same OS). It was actually the same hardware specs but with less RAM (Connections needs the RAM!)
After bringing up the Quickr and Sametime VMs on the other server, presence awareness was working like a champ! Never saw that one coming!
Tuesday, August 7, 2007
No NSFDB2 for System i
Ever since NSFDB2 was announced, the System i faithful have been waiting for support on the i. We were told to wait for 7.0.1 or 7.0.2 to then be told to wait for 8.0.x. It's official that there are no plans for it, so we can all stop waiting. Details in the comments from Rob Ingram at the Domino Blog:
There are no current plans to provide this feature on iSeries. We have other very important database work we have committed to reduce NSF data storage and other database optimizations. These improvements should help all of our customers, including those on iSeries.and
we made our plans in conjunction with many groups, including the iSeries team. This resulted in us facing a tradeoff with other very important storage cost reduction efforts which are being planned for the core NSF database. We always do try to prioritize delivery of new capability to as many Domino customers as possible and we expect that all customers, including those on iSeries, will benefit from these future capablities.We've known all along that the DB2 UDB implementation on the System i was very different from that on other platforms. Perhaps future releases of i5/OS will remedy this.
Sunday, August 5, 2007
Happy Anniversary!!
Just want to wish a Happy Seventh Anniversary to my wife Jen! The traditional gift for 7 years is wool or copper and the modern gift is a desk set. Wonder if the desk she got along with our new bedroom suite counts towards this? ;) We've been together nearly 10 years now!! It's been a great road so far with two wonderful kids and many life changes. It's sure to be an exciting future too!
Love You Honey!!!
Love You Honey!!!
Thursday, July 26, 2007
Curiosity Killed The Cat
But not Curious Mitch. In my thread asking for new bloggers, Mitch Cohen pointed me to his blog (mostly related to Quickr and Sametime). It's been a good read and he's fairly active. And since I've been working with Quickr lately, it's very timely.
Also, don't miss Bob Baehr's blog. He already has a countdown to Lotusphere 2008 - 177 days from now if you're wondering. We're now closer to LS08 than to LS07!
Also, don't miss Bob Baehr's blog. He already has a countdown to Lotusphere 2008 - 177 days from now if you're wondering. We're now closer to LS08 than to LS07!
Can't Delete Person from NAB? (SnTT)
So, after upgrading a server from 5.0.2b to 7.0.2FP2 this week (the clients were 4.6.7!), I did a lot of cleanup and added the LocalDomainAdmins group. I know for a fact that at one point I renamed in ACLs the old admin groups as well. I was also able yesterday to delete a good many old accounts.
Well today we were unable to delete accounts. So I did the usual ACL checks on the NAB and even explicitly added my account. Everything was cool, but I got an error that I wasn't authorized to perform the operation (clicking the "Delete Person" button).
No errors in log. Nothing on the console. Nothing in DDM. Nothing but an error. So I go into Full Access Administration. Nothing. So then I decided to check Admin4.nsf ACL. Sure enough, LocalDomainAdmins was NOT in there! I know it was because I was looking through catalog.nsf verifying things yesterday.
But, I was then able to delete an account. And I also added LocalDomainAdmins to every db....
Now Playing: "Insanity" by Firewind
Technorati: Show-n-tell thursday
Well today we were unable to delete accounts. So I did the usual ACL checks on the NAB and even explicitly added my account. Everything was cool, but I got an error that I wasn't authorized to perform the operation (clicking the "Delete Person" button).
No errors in log. Nothing on the console. Nothing in DDM. Nothing but an error. So I go into Full Access Administration. Nothing. So then I decided to check Admin4.nsf ACL. Sure enough, LocalDomainAdmins was NOT in there! I know it was because I was looking through catalog.nsf verifying things yesterday.
But, I was then able to delete an account. And I also added LocalDomainAdmins to every db....
Now Playing: "Insanity" by Firewind
Technorati: Show-n-tell thursday
Tuesday, July 24, 2007
More Than Meets The Eye!
Just got back from catching Transformers!!! Excellent movie... You have to see it in the theater, though, unless you have a big screen tv - but that may not do it justice either. The AV sequencing was amazing. It was a great unwinding for today...
If you want a ringtone, check out this page with some transformers mp3 tones. The "transforming sound.mp3" is a cool one for a message alert... :)
If you want a ringtone, check out this page with some transformers mp3 tones. The "transforming sound.mp3" is a cool one for a message alert... :)
Friday, July 20, 2007
Linux NSD Tip
Generally with the Linux NSD files you will find the "Input arguments" line with the -crashpid and -crashtid. For example:
Input arguments : -batch -crashpid 4459 -crashtid 134 -wrapper
Of course you can find out which process is running by searching for just the pid number compared to the processes listed in the Notes Process Summary section:
notes R .. 3347 3337 -bash -c /Domino/lotus/bin/server
notes R ... 3568 3347 /Domino/lotus/notes/latest/linux/server
...
notes R .... 4459 3568 /Domino/lotus/notes/latest/linux/http
So we've already determined that the http task was the crashing process. But here's another handy search:
crashpid:crashtid
Just put in the crashpid# then a colon followed by the crashtid# (Note that if the tid# is 3 digits that there should be 1 space between the colon and the tid. If the tid is 2 digits there would be two spaces - basically it's expecting up to 4 digits for the tid# with the leading digits being spaces instead of zeroes). This should help out in finding a db that may have caused it.
In this instance we would search the NSD for: 4459: 134
When that string is found, then you know that you're looking at the actual crash thread for the crashing process. For instance, you may see the following section:
/Domino/notesdata/Path/DB.nsf
Version = 43.0
SizeLimit = 0, WarningThreshold = 0
ReplicaID = 0x85256e42:0x034ece60
bContQueue = NSFPool [ 0006dc45]
Offline = No
DeleteInProgress = No
FDGHandle = 0xf024057a, RefCnt = 9, Dirty = Y
SemContQueue ( RWSEM:#0:0x029d) rdcnt=-1, refcnt=0 Writer=[ : 0], n=0, wcnt=-1, Users=-1, Owner=[ : 0]
By: [ http:4459: 90] DBH= 311, User=Imperial
...
By: [ http:4459: 134] DBH= 371, User=CN=User Name/O=Org
So, with this tip, you are able to determine that something in the Path/DB.nsf application was the cause of the server crash.
Technorati: Show-n-tell thursday
Input arguments : -batch -crashpid 4459 -crashtid 134 -wrapper
Of course you can find out which process is running by searching for just the pid number compared to the processes listed in the Notes Process Summary section:
notes R .. 3347 3337 -bash -c /Domino/lotus/bin/server
notes R ... 3568 3347 /Domino/lotus/notes/latest/linux/server
...
notes R .... 4459 3568 /Domino/lotus/notes/latest/linux/http
So we've already determined that the http task was the crashing process. But here's another handy search:
crashpid:crashtid
Just put in the crashpid# then a colon followed by the crashtid# (Note that if the tid# is 3 digits that there should be 1 space between the colon and the tid. If the tid is 2 digits there would be two spaces - basically it's expecting up to 4 digits for the tid# with the leading digits being spaces instead of zeroes). This should help out in finding a db that may have caused it.
In this instance we would search the NSD for: 4459: 134
When that string is found, then you know that you're looking at the actual crash thread for the crashing process. For instance, you may see the following section:
/Domino/notesdata/Path/DB.nsf
Version = 43.0
SizeLimit = 0, WarningThreshold = 0
ReplicaID = 0x85256e42:0x034ece60
bContQueue = NSFPool [ 0006dc45]
Offline = No
DeleteInProgress = No
FDGHandle = 0xf024057a, RefCnt = 9, Dirty = Y
SemContQueue ( RWSEM:#0:0x029d) rdcnt=-1, refcnt=0 Writer=[ : 0], n=0, wcnt=-1, Users=-1, Owner=[ : 0]
By: [ http:4459: 90] DBH= 311, User=Imperial
...
By: [ http:4459: 134] DBH= 371, User=CN=User Name/O=Org
So, with this tip, you are able to determine that something in the Path/DB.nsf application was the cause of the server crash.
Technorati: Show-n-tell thursday
Wednesday, July 18, 2007
Where Are The New Bloggers?
I've been thinking and it's been a while since I've seen some new faces in the Lotus Blogging community...
With that being said, I would like to welcome two new bloggers.
The first is Michael Smelser. He's a colleague of mine here at Lotus 911 and makes the 5th Blogger here!! It looks like Mike may be focusing on dev - looking forward to it.
Also, let me introduce you to Bryan Kuhn. He's a former colleague of mine and he's been updating his blog a little more lately. Bryan focuses on BES and Dev (though not at the same time) at his blog.
Also, Ed Brill (and others) linked to two new sites in the past week - LotusViralMarketing.com and FastNSF.com, so check em out if you haven't already.
Anyone else out there have a new blog and just starting up? Would love to hear from you!
With that being said, I would like to welcome two new bloggers.
The first is Michael Smelser. He's a colleague of mine here at Lotus 911 and makes the 5th Blogger here!! It looks like Mike may be focusing on dev - looking forward to it.
Also, let me introduce you to Bryan Kuhn. He's a former colleague of mine and he's been updating his blog a little more lately. Bryan focuses on BES and Dev (though not at the same time) at his blog.
Also, Ed Brill (and others) linked to two new sites in the past week - LotusViralMarketing.com and FastNSF.com, so check em out if you haven't already.
Anyone else out there have a new blog and just starting up? Would love to hear from you!
Tuesday, July 17, 2007
Top 5 Side 1 Track 1 - My list
OK, so I've been tagged to list my favorite 5 album openers. Hmmmmm....
Virtue and Vice - Holy Soldier's Last Train - 1992 - Awesome opener for H5 dealing with the inner struggle of good and bad in us all. This is probably one of my all-time favorite albums too!
Paradigm Shift - Liquid Tension Experiment's self-titled album - 1998 - LTE was actually my first taste of Dream Theater. Crazy, right?
Where Moth and Rust Destroy - Tourniquet's Where Moth and Rust Destroy - 2003 - I really dig their older speed/thrash stuff, but I'm more into their newer sound and this song really defines that for me.
Surfing With The Alien - Joe Satriani's Surfing With The Alien - 1987 - Amazing song followed by stellar album that still defines Satch!
Welcome To The Jungle! - Guns 'N Roses Appetite For Destruction - 1987 - Not only was this the Side 1 Track 1, but it was Disc 1 for them too. Truly definitive song followed by other songs that are GnR!
OK, so I need to tag 5 others. Not sure who's been tagged (I've only seen Nathan and John's posts on this), so here we go. I'll even go outside the Notes community some to start this up for others... :)
Phil Randolph
Bryan Kuhn (no, you can't pick Every Rose by GnR!! ;) )
Jen Whisonant
Jen Wade
Greg Simmons
Technorati: Top5Side1Track1List
Virtue and Vice - Holy Soldier's Last Train - 1992 - Awesome opener for H5 dealing with the inner struggle of good and bad in us all. This is probably one of my all-time favorite albums too!
Paradigm Shift - Liquid Tension Experiment's self-titled album - 1998 - LTE was actually my first taste of Dream Theater. Crazy, right?
Where Moth and Rust Destroy - Tourniquet's Where Moth and Rust Destroy - 2003 - I really dig their older speed/thrash stuff, but I'm more into their newer sound and this song really defines that for me.
Surfing With The Alien - Joe Satriani's Surfing With The Alien - 1987 - Amazing song followed by stellar album that still defines Satch!
Welcome To The Jungle! - Guns 'N Roses Appetite For Destruction - 1987 - Not only was this the Side 1 Track 1, but it was Disc 1 for them too. Truly definitive song followed by other songs that are GnR!
OK, so I need to tag 5 others. Not sure who's been tagged (I've only seen Nathan and John's posts on this), so here we go. I'll even go outside the Notes community some to start this up for others... :)
Phil Randolph
Bryan Kuhn (no, you can't pick Every Rose by GnR!! ;) )
Jen Whisonant
Jen Wade
Greg Simmons
Technorati: Top5Side1Track1List
Friday, July 13, 2007
Start 'Em Young!
Just thought I'd share this pic of little OT wearing his IBM bib! Never too young to start, eh? :)
Thursday, July 12, 2007
Notes Client Debugging Parameters
I like to dump this section of parameters into my Notes Client notes.ini file. It's all commented out and you can just remove the semi-colons as needed to enable more or additional logging. If you can think of any other options let me know, but this is a good base.
;-------------------------------------------
;-------------------------------------------
;-----Notes Client Debugging Parameters-----
;Console_LogLevel=2
;LOG_SESSIONS=1
;LOG_CONNECTIONS=1
;DEBUG_TCP_ALL=1
;CLIENT_CLOCK=1
;CONSOLE_LOG_ENABLED=1
;DEBUG_CONSOLE=1
;-------------------------------------------
;-------------------------------------------
p.s. - I'm doing this as much for my record in case I need to debug a remote client I can just hit my blog for this reference... :)
;-------------------------------------------
;-------------------------------------------
;-----Notes Client Debugging Parameters-----
;Console_LogLevel=2
;LOG_SESSIONS=1
;LOG_CONNECTIONS=1
;DEBUG_TCP_ALL=1
;CLIENT_CLOCK=1
;CONSOLE_LOG_ENABLED=1
;DEBUG_CONSOLE=1
;-------------------------------------------
;-------------------------------------------
p.s. - I'm doing this as much for my record in case I need to debug a remote client I can just hit my blog for this reference... :)
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