Andrew Pollack's Blog

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  1. 07/27/2004Actual useful things that drive my brand loyalty - Great things smart companies are doingI was doing some catching up, going through my bills today and I came across a receipt from BJ's for a couple of air conditions that had rebates on them totalling forty bucks. Now if you have ADHD, you have to really think twice about taking something ......
  2. 07/24/2004An example of why hyperthreading rocksSitting and surfing the net, researching smtp proxies (I'm working on a heuristic anti-spam solution), and I get this alert on my PC indicating my processor temperature is exceeding the recommendation of its manufacturer. In this machine it shouldn't ever ......
  3. 07/22/2004My vedict on "Rescue Me" (FX Channel, Wed 10pm)I haven't done a firefighting blog entry in a while, so here's a good excuse. FX Network rolled out its new show "Rescue Me" last night. Here its cable channel 62, and I almost didn't hear about it. Like any firefighter show right now, the first episode ......
  4. 07/21/2004Workstation Wars: For the Next Generation its back to the original fightThe battle over how you’ll work at your personal computer is heating up again and the big players are aligning into sides on two distinct battles. We're already pretty familiar with the first battle. Should software be "Open" and "Standard" or "Closed" ......
  5. 07/20/2004Domino Server Capacity Planning – An Alternative GuidelineI was chatting with Richard about server capacity tonight (yeah, we do know how to live it up) and these thoughts came to mind as a result... It’s been a long time since I had to put real thought into how many traditional Lotus Notes mail client users I ......
  6. 07/16/2004Bobby Fisher Caught? He should have castled!Man, he must be getting old. Any really good chess player in that situation would have castled! Suddenly, he "Rooks" the Philipinos and is himself in Thailand! "One town, is very like another when your head's down over your pieces, brother." ......
  7. 07/16/2004The notes/domino 7 beta two new features list is out -- the list as a whole ROCKSThere are a huge number of new features listed. Hope to take some time to examine the implications of many of these shortly. Some favorites (personally) include: WebAdmin client supports Mozilla! Use Eclipse (or other 3rd party tools) as your Debugger ......
  8. 07/15/2004IBM to Acquire Alphablox, an outstanding toolkit for data miningAdvisor Magazine is reporting that IBM now plans to acquire "Alphablox" for data mining. Some of you know I took a year out from consulting to work for Rich Schwartz at a company doing some interesting transactional work around legal invoicing. My job ......
  9. 07/14/2004One of the biggest winners in this year's election cycle is already knownEven though he lost out in the primaries a few years back, Republican Sen. John McCain of Arizona has absolutely not fallen back into the relative obscurity of that southwestern state. By staying his ground in the relative middle ground and refusing to ......
  10. 07/12/2004Would the current administration be dumb enough to try postponing elections?All over the press today (try cnn.com or usatoday.com or one of the others) is the question Tom Ridge was fool enough to ask. What would need to be in place -- what laws, rules, situations, etc. -- to postpone the November elections in the event of a ......
  11. 07/12/2004The end of the e-mail centered workdayFor some, that first e-mail account came with going off to college or business school, and that first dial-up session to some big machine you envisioned being tended by white coated lab technicians in a clean, well lit, secure facility somewhere. For ......
  12. 07/11/2004Blogging from Coastal Maine todayMy wife's parents have this stunning property out on Davis Point in Friendship, Maine. Its right on the water looking into the rocky coastal waters here, on a protected inlet off the bay. The view is of rocky shores, small islands, rare birds, lobster ......
  13. 07/11/2004Security notices for Domino / NotesWell, a few security notices to be aware of: Andrew's Note: In this first one, I guess its not surprise that using an outdated embedded JVM that can't be managed outside the client install and thus can't be updated my be vulnerable. I suggest dissabling ......
  14. 07/10/2004Social networks driven by false ego gratificationHas anyone actually derived real value from the various commercial experiments in “social networks”? As part of my personal field of interest – the ways people and technology combine to produce a result that is greater than either – I’m always grateful ......
  15. 07/10/2004Network connection timeout issue on Domino?Are your Domino sessions between servers or from client to server going away? Over the last months I’ve seen this many times and had a hard time tracing it down. In a private forum for Business Partners, we’ve had some success at drawing the attention of ......
  16. 07/01/2004Saturn's Rings - Amazing PhotoCasini did it! Click here for ABC's ......
  17. 06/30/2004Wow, linux has come a long way. Here's an easy way to see for yourself.Linux at the desktop is here, and nearly accessible for even the least experienced end users. Looking at it now in terms of ease of use and software availability, most users will find it does pretty much everything they need. Most distributions come ......
  18. 06/29/2004The new blogsite is here! The new blogsite is here!Hi all. Just a note of welcome as I kick off the new blogware. Once again, I've written this from scratch myself as an exercise in web development skills. Comments and requests are welcome. There are about 20 features that aren't "live" yet, but I've ......
  19. 06/26/2004Off to go burn a house downWell, some folks on Main street want a house torn down and instead of a bulldozer, they've decided to donate it to the fire department for a training burn. Stories later, I'm sure. I've been slow on the blogging lately because i'm 99.5% done with a new ......
  20. 06/22/2004Guess I get to be one of the cool kids too -- sort of...A friend got me hooked up with GMAIL and I've played with it a bit, but today its not looking so hot. More thoughts on this really well thought out paradigm later. I like it though, I'll say that ......
  21. 06/04/2004Follow-up to the Heathcare topic - Why the Free Market is being abused in this caseI've seen comments suggesting nationalizing the healthcare in this country, and of course there's the continued arguments as there are on nationalization in general that can run on both sides endlessly. I don't think anyone would disagree that the 'free ......
  22. 06/01/2004Healthcare costs are killing this economy, and drug cards and discounts are not going to help. Living in a small town in New England, we still have small scale democracy at a very granular level. Our town of well under 10,000 people and the small town adjacent share a school district -- MSAD51. For both the town budget and the school district, a ......
  23. 05/20/2004L.L. Bean goes after spyware advertisers where it hurtsL.L. Bean filed suits in a U.S. District Court in Portland, Maine which named two department store chains (Nordstrom and JC Penney) as well as two other mail order companies specializing in supplements and coffee. These firms have advertised with "Gator" ......
  24. 05/18/2004An arm and a legFrom USA Today (always good at pictures and graphs) http://www.usatoday.com/news/politicselections/nation/president/2004-05-18-dems-gas-prices_x.htm A gas station owner in Menlo Park, Calif., expresses his opinion on the recent surge in gasoline prices. ......
  25. 05/18/2004The Pepsi Syndrome -- or coffee, or coke, or whateverSitting in a Border's books using T-Mobile and keep dropping the signal. About the 4th time, I realize its because I'm putting the nice tall cup of iced cola next to the wireless card. 802.11 wireless uses the same frequency as your microwave oven, ......
  26. 05/14/2004Evidence of giant meteor that destroyed nearly all life on earth is found - Bush blames Al QuadaScientists have discovered evidence that a giant asteroid crashed to Earth about 250 million years ago, creating a 200-kilometre-wide crater off the coast of Australia and possibly killing most of the species that lived on Earth at the time. ......
  27. 05/06/2004True Brotherhood & LoyaltySome of you know that I took a class last weekend at the CCFAS (Cumberland County Fire Attack School). I have to say that one of the coolest things about the weekend was the overwhelming sense of brotherhood when you're around other firefighters. The guys ......
  28. 05/04/2004Keeping things in perspective - from a hazmat drill, me in a class B suit[] Hi all! I thought you might enjoy some pictures of your favorite computer geek / firefighter doing a haz-mat refresher drill. This took place a few days ago on a Thursday night. The idea is to simulate a decontamination procedure at a hazardous ......
  29. 05/03/2004A "Caitlinism"Those of you who know me have heard me rattle on about Caitlin's unusually logical approach to everything she does, and how it can be a little frustrating when combined with a 4 year old's typically short attention span. Caitlin is a four year old girl ......
  30. 05/01/2004Amazing thermal imaging camera footage, showing how to avert a deadly flashover situationThis weekend, I'm taking an unbelievably amazing class at the Cumberland County Fire Attack School (an annual event). So far, aside from the techniques shown in this footage, I've learned to tie off to an axe handle, wedge it across the corner of a window ......
  31. 04/29/2004Has HBO 'disappeared' an original movie after one showing because it was controversial or was it just bad?The other night I taped a show to watch later. It was to be a "...cautionary scenarios in which two graduate students - one a female American in China, the other a male Arab in New York - are detained without hard evidence and interrogated about ......
  32. 04/15/2004Via an NPR story -- do you know what an "American Camera" is?In some parts of the world, the term "American Camera" is a reference to something that is all flash but fails to produce a picture of any value. It sounds a lot like what they say down in Texas about a person who talks a big game but can't deliver -- ......
  33. 04/11/2004Spring is finally here!Spring is finally here! A sure sign is annual host testing on Engine 1. We spent the morning yesterday pulling all the lines off the truck, filling them and holding pressure (ranging from 100 pounds on the 5" feeder lines to 250 on the inch and three ......
  34. 04/11/2004Yet another noun is 'veribized' into an I.T. termMany of you know that my wife Barbara is also in the I.T. industry. She's the Manager of Information Security at L.L. Bean and in most homes would be 'geek' of residence. I'll let you folks guess as to just how much that holds true in our place. Anyway, ......
  35. 04/11/2004Medical diagnostics suffering from the same thing as I.T. Consulting?An article in the Houston Chronical on April 10th talks about how with medicine becoming so reliant on diagnostic tests and risk factors that doctors and specialists have become very interchangeable and much of the time diagnosis is made not based on a ......
  36. 04/09/2004Working harder and harder on anti-spam I've got really great results with Mark's SPAMJAM product but as is my nature I'm always trying to improve. I've been analyzing the spam that does get through to try to figure out how best to eliminate it. Richard really believes in the idea of bayesian ......
  37. 04/06/2004Here's why you don't store gas cylinders in your carAcetylene gas has a lower flamable limit of 2.5% and an upper flamable limit of 100% (it will burn underwater). If that doesn't convince you not to store it carefully, consider this case from Newcastle, Maine. An "E" size cylinder was left in the cab of a ......
  38. 04/05/2004Two new lotusScript functions replaced some old stanby utility code todayOf course, they're not really that new -- they've been around a bit but I've never really had a reason to use them. I had my old "ParseToArray" function that did just the same thing as one, and the other -- well, its a simple enough loop. They are cool ......
  39. 04/05/2004Lotus Domino wins Network Computing's Editor's Choice!Since there is no way I can state this better than Ed, I'm going to "encapsulate" him here -- or perhaps that should be 'I-capsulate' --- heh heh heh..... ......
  40. 04/05/2004Is life better with a faster 'puter?If you followed last weeks adventure into the building a high performance PC, by now you've got to be desperate to find out..."Was it worth it?" It sure was. Here's a chart: Before (1.7ghz Celeron, 1GB RAM, StandardVideo & Sound, EIDE drive) After (2.8ghz ......
  41. 04/05/2004Excellent shopping charma today! Some neat stuff out there for geeks and geek wanna-be's.Lest you all think my life is nothing but writing amazing code by day (and night) and running into burning buildings or ripping people out of damaged cars by night (and day) I thought I'd share some more mundane fun for a change.... All I really needed ......
  42. 04/02/2004Ballmer and McNealy -- best buds again? Where does that leave big blue?So now Bill gives Scott some two billion bucks, and Scott's all smiles again. What does it mean? Windows gets the JVM, sure. What else? Will we see visual studio sprout new direct integration to the Java run time? Can you imagine a class library add in ......
  43. 04/02/2004Silence is copperThe addition of a Zalman CPU cooler (A replacement for the stock Intel heatsink and fan that came with this cpu) changed my new hotrod PC from a noisy server room candidate to a silent and well behaved desktop denizen. Silence is golden, or in this case ......
  44. 03/29/2004Well, the new PC is all built and happy -- here's a review on the hardware and buildOverall, the whole thing went fairly well. I'll give you a run down on each of the bits of hardware so you can decide if they have value to you. Assembly took about two hours, but in part that was me taking my time and getting every cable and screw just ......
  45. 03/24/2004Pay homage to our slack-jawed friends, for we have them to thank...An article in the Washington Post today essentially attributes a minor mutation in a single gene for the ultimate evolution of Humans as a species. That specific mutation weakened the jaw's "Bite" muscles, which apparently wrap the entire skull. The ......
  46. 03/24/2004Time to upgrade the workstation -- prepare to drool (if you know what this stuff means)Took the plunge today and bought the hardware for my new desktop/development machine. The parts should be in by Friday. The goal was maximum performance without going over the top on cost. Compromise just a bit off the very latest, but stay out on the ......
  47. 03/23/2004Time for another classic Notes client performance tip!Its been a while since I wrote a good performance tip. This one is a favorite since it affects the most important performance of all -- what the user actually feels. We have a busy database that resides on a server. It isn't locally replicated. It uses ......
  48. 03/17/2004Loving my Win 2003 Server and its shared use modemHaving installed Windows 2003 on a machine -- not really a high end one -- to do some streaming audio, I came across a feature that allows a single fax modem to do the job of both modem and fax for inbound and outbound use. That means with the single ......
  49. 03/16/2004Choosing a credit card company for how they do businessI'm switching credit cards too -- dropping my American Express card and going to use exclusively a card from MBNA. Why? MBNA employs thousands of people within a hundred miles of me, and many more in places around the U.S. for their massive call centers, ......
  50. 03/16/2004Parting ways with my old airlineBreakups are hard. You've been together for years. You know the schedules, the trade-offs, the rules -- you've learned to make things go smoothly even problems arise. The time comes when you have to realize that things just aren't working. You have to ......
  51. 03/08/2004The plan for Martha Steward Living is obvious --Its pick on stupid press day today, if you can't tell. Obviously a company like Martha's will continue without its founder. They'll rename themselves -- probably to just "Living" or "American Living" or maybe "Glorious Patriotic and Entirely Above Board ......
  52. 03/08/2004Hyperbole around water on MarsOk, I've learned recently that mars was "Drenched", "Soaked", "Completely Soaked" and now "Wet on both sides" --- Why can we not be satisfied with "Mars had abundant flowing water in more than one place on its surface." Drenched and Soaked both imply an ......
  53. 03/06/2004cross post: Biometics as a Technology - in my opinion is moribundAuthor's Note: I originally posted this in another venue as a response to a push for biometics. I've updated it a bit to remove references to other things in that venue that are not mine to share. Biometrics is one of those technologies that springs out ......
  54. 03/02/2004Our hearts go out to the Shiite Muslims who were attacked today.Having grown up in a Jewish household, and being American and therefore subject to the constant negative imagery associated with the Muslim and particularly some of the Shiite branches of Muslim over the years, I would like to call on everyone who bothers ......
  55. 02/26/2004NCT Search 3.0 goes Beta 1! Come give me feedbackAt long last and with great relief, NCT Search 3.0 is in Beta 1 -- the First Look version. Obviously I haven't crafted a terribly complex search form onto it yet, but give it a try and tell me what you think thus far. Note: The servlet responds with an ......
  56. 02/26/2004its the little bugs that get you....As I'm sitting here getting NCT Search 3.0 beta 1 ready to send over to Jim at Brightline, I realized that the cache is a little too good --- if you make a change to a configuration form, you have to redeploy the servlet to get it to pick up (or drop the ......
  57. 02/23/2004Followup - more test data with really interesting resultsI modified the test (described here: http://www.thenorth.com/apblog2.nsf/0/816E292DD0A455E385256E3F0079C823 ) to try to make it resist things like random server performance changes due to whatever else the machine is doing. I've also tried to eliminate a ......
  58. 02/19/2004It is REALLY better for each Thread to have its own Notes Session objectWhat's really interesting here are two distinct findings: 1. There is no question that two threads hitting different databases pretty hard at the same time, run more than twice as fast as both threads using the same session. In fact, there is a 125% ......
  59. 02/18/2004Doing it all wrong!Breakthroughs are funny. You'd think it would be frustrating to find out that what you've been doing isn't the best way to do it, but its the revelation itself that is exciting and leads to amazing success. I've you've been following my blogs as I bang my ......
  60. 02/16/2004Defragging can be helpful, but not critical and not as important as it used to beg=C800:5 anyone?) in an RLL format (30% more sectors per track) and was fast enough to handle a 1:1 interleave. I remember seeing speeds of 800k/second with that controller and an expensive 80meg full height drive from Micropolis in my 80286. ** all this ......
  61. 02/15/2004NCT Search 3.0 -- First MAJOR test in progress and it looks greatIts an exciting day for me, because at long last NCT Search 3.0 is in a real serious QA mode. Right now, I'm hammering on it with 20 concurrant sessions, each posting search after search after search (10,000 times) without pause. What I'm looking for, is ......
  62. 02/14/2004Cheap and easy wireless boost from Radio ShackHere's a simple product that does just what it says. For your Linksys 802.11b or 802.11g wireless router, Radio Shack sells part number 278-844. It is simply a pair of antennae to replace the ones that come with the router. These are longer. That's the ......
  63. 02/13/2004Cool product pick!I know this isn't new, but I really really like it... http://www.thinkgeek.com/gadgets/electronic/5da2/ The Ambient Orb is a device that slowly transitions between thousands of colors to show changes in the weather, the health of your stock portfolio, or ......
  64. 02/12/2004Just configured SSL on my serverGeez, in all this time the template design for SSL certificate management in notes has not gotten better. Its a horrible process. I signed up as a reseller for an ssl certificate firm and I think I'm going to create an online service just for Domino ......
  65. 02/11/2004Who really cares if Atkins was overweight?Friends, Romans, Countryman -- fellow geeks all; does it matter if the man who brought us the T-Bone Steak as a diet aid was himself overweight when he died? Now understand, I'm not on a low carb diet -- you can have my carbs when you pry them from my ......
  66. 02/09/2004This blog should now support SafariHi all; I've been busier than a one legged man at an ass-kicking contest lately, but one big item off my list was to make this blog work right in Safari. Turns out it was missing just a single closing "" tag at the end of a monster list -- the archived ......
  67. 01/30/2004IBM is too worried about PortalHi all. Some thoughts from LotusSphere. I got to talk to Pooter yesterday and he did more to give me a feeling for Portal than anyone in the entire marketing avalanche that was IBM plan for LotusSphere. Others I've talked to feel the same. Richard and ......
  68. 01/28/2004Day 2 - Thank you all very muchWhat a day. For those of you I got to meet today -- thanks. I gave my talk today, and expected to be talking to about 5 people. I couldn't imagine why they put me in the Osprey room which holds 400+. The room was full, but I found out later that the ......
  69. 01/26/2004Notes from Day 1 at LotusSphere!Well friends, its been quite a day for me. I spent a good part of it working in my room on NCT Search, and thanks to a little help from the guys at Brightline in finding where Tomcat had referenced my servlet, I am incredibly pleased to report that I've ......
  70. 01/24/2004I got to speak at length with Ambuj Goyal tonight...Hey -- welcome to the first of my LotusSphere 2004 blog entries. I've been away from blogging for a few weeks. Here's what I've been up to: Adopted Eclipse as my java ide of choice. Re-wrote nctSerach as a multi-threaded java object set -- more details on ......
  71. 01/16/2004well, -15 degrees (f) makes for a hard time firefightingHi all; Sorry for not posting often right now -- I've been as busy as a one legged man at a butt kicking contest. With the conference getting close I'm working to get the first Java based enterprise version of NCTSearch out the door. Tonight at 2:30am my ......
  72. 01/06/2004What didn't make the story...Well, I got quoted today in CRN about Websphere & Brightline: http://www.crn.com/sections/BreakingNews/breakingnews.asp?ArticleID=47007 A few things didn't quite make the article though, that I figured it might be a good idea to post here. (a) Maybe most ......
  73. 01/02/2004This is all I have to say on this subject..... ......
  74. 12/22/2003A foray into Mac land, from the perspective of a Wintel guruIf you're wondering where I've been for a the last several days, it has been total immersion in this the eMac. I thought I'd share some thoughts on this, since usually we only hear about these machines from their faithful -- nearly cultlike -- followers. ......
  75. 12/16/2003The efficiency of this amazes meTracking my new eMac as it is finally shipped -- a long story involving bad weather and poor communication -- the ball is definitely not being dropped by Fed-Ex. At midnight they pick up a trailer loaded by a customer in Harrisburg. By 2:22am the trailer ......
  76. 12/15/2003Does your application platform scale........down?For years I’ve been reading reports of application scalability problems at the top end. In that time, the networks have gotten more robust, hard disks bigger and faster, raid more sophisticated, operating systems handle threading better, and we’re dealing ......
  77. 12/11/2003Basement fire yesterday -- I got to play!Hi guys. I swear, tonight or tomorrow another Domino blog -- either technical or strategic. I promise. This morning I want to tell you about a basement fire. Basement fires can be really bad. Basically, the stairway down into the basement is pretty much ......
  78. 12/09/2003Disastrous customer service* Note added: Wow guys -- I'm seeing a TON of hits on this. About 5 times normal. Similar issues? I now have to write a check for more than $1500 that I should not have. Admittedly, my contract with Genuity (now owned by Level 3) gave them up to 60 days ......
  79. 12/08/2003Hey all you MAC fans out there....Yea, I know you're out there. I'm considering buying a mac -- quite possibly a used one. My only goal in using it is for testing & debugging. I'd love to get your opinions on the right one. Here are my needs: 1. Must run the current latest operating ......
  80. 12/07/2003Big storm here - lots of fun firefighter stuff...So do you guys know what happens in big storm from the perspective of the "public safety" people in your town? I'd bet you would be surprised at just how much planning and care goes into making sure someone will be there when you call for help. In our ......
  81. 12/02/2003Debunking the "Santa Doesn't Exist" nonsense!Once and for all, people, of COURSE Santa exists! Do you, like me, keep getting mean spirited pseudoscientific explanations of how "Santa cannot exist" for one reason or another? I got another one of those today. How like all those pointy headed ......
  82. 12/01/2003Subscription News SitesHave you noticed more and more that the on-line newspaper sites are requiring 'free registration' before you can view their articles? In some cases, they get quite intrusive. Forbes (a site I will not link to) even attempts to load software settings into ......
  83. 11/29/2003A hurt back, a cool fire run, and a good geek projectHello sports fans! Well yours truly managed to throw his back out (no, not on a fire call) just as the week was getting started so no cool fire calls after that. Well, not for me anyway. I missed a chimney fire and an oven fire. Damn. We did have one cool ......
  84. 11/17/2003Found a really hard problem in Domino 6 install, and a solutionWell, I lost a day that I'll never get back. No, not through a drinking binge. I had to set up two identical IBM Wintel servers this weekend. Each is a quad-processor 3.8ghz machine with 4gb of ram running Win2k. They had IBM Director, CA Unicenter, and ......
  85. 11/13/2003Finally, somone has integrated J2EE into Domino in a way that works -- but it wasn't IBMI've been waiting to blog this for a long time now, and finally got the all - clear from the folks at Brightline. What these guys have done is wrap industry standard J2EE in an easy to run install program, and a deployment mechanism for WAR and EAR files ......
  86. 11/13/2003Google builds in direct, internal support for IBM Lotus Domino!I'm not sure how I missed this when it came out, but if you did too, here's a great story about how Google, the ultimate in hip new search technology, has chosen Domino sites as the first it will be searching in a "structured" manner. ......
  87. 11/12/2003Upgraded from xp/home to xp/pro on my Dell Laptop - Ugly processWell I did it. I have the license via the Ms. "Action Pack" and I decided to upgrade my laptop to XP/PRO from home. I wanted a few features around offline files and domain login. I've waited until I had a break and didn't need the thing for a week or so ......
  88. 11/11/2003A great tool that solves a lot of problems for me, at very low costHi all. I wanted to tell you about a tool I've been testing for a while now. Its called "Absolute Eraser Pro". The product is designed to erase your tracks when you use your computer. I'm sure its meant as a privacy tool for the most part, but that's not ......
  89. 11/09/2003My take on the new Lotus direction whitepaperAlright. If you haven't yet read the latest whitepaper from Lotus that talks about strategy, you need to. Right now. Go ahead, I'll wait. Back? Ok. Notice anything? Here's some key points: Notes is not described as "80's technology" to be backburnered in ......
  90. 11/06/2003More interesting than CBS pulling the mini-series, is watching the reporting on it.Alright, so if you've been living under a stone and don't know this already, CBS decided to pull a planned mini-series about Ronald Reagan's in his years in the Presidency. If you're not living in the U.S., you may not know just how much an icon Reagan is ......
  91. 11/02/2003A treat for the kidsWell, the Cumberland main street Olympic Training Center (aka Greely High School) fielded 3 state championship teams so far this weekend. Girls Field Hockey, Boys Cross Country Track, and then Girls Volleyball. There are two more teams (boys and girls ......
  92. 10/31/2003A long day getting home, and a busy next day on the fire trucks!Well devoted readers, time for some more fun fire stuff. Plenty of time for that Technical stuff later. My trip home was long, but otherwise fine. I was up at 7am in London and walked to High street in Kensington for shopping. That was a mistake, since ......
  93. 10/29/2003A stunning city, but so coldly sterileSome thoughts about London... First, its an amazing city. It works well. You can get anywhere, things are where you need them, and it sure does reward taking a long walk. No matter where you go there is art, there are parks, the buildings are amazing, the ......
  94. 10/29/2003McDonalds is now an internet cafeOne interesting thing to note while I've been in London, is the prevalence of Internet Cafe's. They're everywhere. I'd heard that McDonalds was planning to team with T-Mobile in the states, but was surprised to see it working here (don't know who the ......
  95. 10/29/2003Well, IMNSHO, Hilton still stinks as hotel choice, while Marriott continues to be exactly what I expectWell all my dear friends out there, I'm ending another week of travel and I thought I'd review this Hilton Olympia in Kinsington, London, UK. Frankly, It stinks. Aside from bad food and expensive mini-bar prices that you'd expect everywhere this ......
  96. 10/25/2003If you care - here are a few neat pics from London, including the Thames Barrier, Big Ben, and The EyeAt the Penumbra meeting, we all went out tonight on a cruise on the Thames. Here are some pictures from that, and last night's outing on the Eye. Oh, we met a lot the last couple of days, some people came and talked to us, and we talked about a lot of ......
  97. 10/23/2003Book Review - Head First Java (O Reilly)Book Review - Head First Java (O Reilly) Among all the unlikely things that could happen, from world peace to IBM realizing suddenly that with Domino they already have the world by the short hairs, the one really unlikely thing that could have happened ......
  98. 10/21/2003The new phone book is here!Well, even if you're not a big fan of Steve Martin you probably recognize that line. If not, well I'm sorry for you. at long last, the new blog software is done enough to make live. Some of the features of this new version are related to just making it a ......
  99. 10/08/2003'Avenue A' spybot tracking cookie gets more agressiveHas anyone else noticed recently, that blocking "Avenue A" tracking cookies with a program like "Spybot" prevents web pages from loading? Ick. Message from me to site owers -- if you block me, I will not read your site. End of discussion. I'm not going to ......
  100. 10/07/2003To servlet, or to Java agent...let....(updated)So I'm sure a servlet would be "better strong faster" but do think its worth it in terms of deployment? What I have is a page of html & javascript. As part of that page, I want to insert the body of a notes document. What I've done is to insert on the ......
  101. 10/05/2003Is Java a `better` language than LotusScriptA really great comment someone made recently, was to point out through my thick skull that Java != j2ee. Of course I knew this, but at the same time it wasn't really part of my working thought. I've been lumping them together. Meanwhile, I'm finding that ......
  102. 10/04/2003Case Sensitive languages -- I just hate that.Why on earth would you write a compiler to be case sensitive? Does it really speed up the code today? Does it really speed up the compile time? Does anyone write code that uses differently cased variable names, objects, functions, or statements to ......
  103. 10/03/2003How is Sun's monopoly different from Microsoft's?Still harping on this. Sorry, if you're sick of it you can skip this one. In order to run a windows application, you must load windows. well, there are things like WINE and the emulators for the Macintosh, but mostly you need Windows to run a Windows app. ......
  104. 10/03/2003New blog template....It's almost here, I swear it. All the parts are working now and I think you'll like it a lot more. Question -- does anyone object to ......
  105. 10/02/2003Time for an open source marketing programWebsphere Studio to find tune --> Deploy to Websphere --> Portlet Tool --> user desktop via Browser, Notes Client, Workplace Client). 2. Predicted Functional Roles for People (remember the people?) (e.g. End User -> Developer Analyst (what most Notes dev ......
  106. 10/01/2003Bisconti and others talk about long term value in Domino based developmentA great story in e-Pro Magazine by Jim O'Donnell entitled "Some Say Don’t Make That Domino to Java Move Just Yet" - this one is a must read for anyone who believes as I do, that the J2EE dreams at IBM are way ahead of the curve. I believe I heard it ......
  107. 09/30/2003Thanks to Alan Lepofsky, here's a mini-compendium of Domino/Notes 6.5 pressLotus Uniting Collaboration AppsBy Dennis CallaghanSeptember 29, 2003http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,4149,1304188,00.asp Enterprises Face Barriers In E-mail UpgradesSeptember 25, 2003By Gregg Keizer , TechWeb ......
  108. 09/28/2003In marketing, if the medicine tastes good, is it less effective?Reading the pre-LotusSphere discussions in various places, I continue to be stunned by IBM total unwillingness to celebrate the success of this fantastic platform. There are so many positive things to say, with D6 being fantastically stable -- and Notes ......
  109. 09/27/2003This was forwarded to me by one heck of a server tech.Not that it it matters where it came from. Its a bit of fun. If anyone knows the original source, I'd be happy to link to it. Now that Uday & Qusay have left us, a lot of the lesser-known family membersare coming to the attention of American authorities. ......
  110. 09/25/2003Did you know your bookmarks were programable?So here I am whining at Alan Lepofsky (I'd link to him, but he doesn't blog yet that I know of) about lack of programmability in the bookmarks and desktop, when he says "hunh? Bookmarks are just documents!" -- or something like that. Well, I guess I ......
  111. 09/24/2003How to restore messages to Outlook Express's Inbox - and live a happier, more righteous lifeHaving recovered data from a hard disk for a family member recently, I sent a CDROM along that contained all the data from her directory in the "Documents and Settings" location on that drive. I just got an email asking if I could also find the messages ......
  112. 09/22/2003Extending a wireless networkHi all. Too tired to write up the Domino tech stuff I promised. I'll have to do it tomorrow. Meantime, I found a great little firm that sells all the stuff you need to extend your wireless network. I've got excess bandwidth here, so I'm going to give my ......
  113. 09/16/2003Microsoft "Onenote" -- don't discount this thing.I just checked out the on-line demo of Microsoft's "Onenote" and ordered the beta. It looks very, very interesting to me. It works without a fancy tablet pc, but it may be worth buying one for. If it does what it seems to do in the demo, this is going to ......
  114. 09/16/2003What is your 'availability' worth?Hi all. I've been posed this question a number of times in my career -- the cost of having someone on a short leash. A support contract with a minimum time service level agreement. What is this worth? I've got a few right now, and there is an expectation ......
  115. 09/15/2003Back to bloggin...Well friends, sorry for the absence. I'm just now getting over a cold from hell. Colds suck. My wife is right, by the way -- men are babies when it comes to being sick. Well, so what. Women are babies when it comes to lifting couches & refrigerators. ......
  116. 09/12/2003Anti-Spam vendor for Notes uses Spam and bogus awardNo secret here, that good friend and fabulous anti-spam software writer Mark Ramos is my own preferred hands down winner of any anti-spam software award for Notes. Its also no secret that I think good competition is a good thing. I must say though, I was ......
  117. 09/11/2003This 9/11, Remember more than just the attackAs a firefighter I have some very conflicted thoughts on this anniversary of the September 11th attacks. At the time of the attacks I had just started the process of becoming a volunteer firefighter here in Cumberland. My background check had not been ......
  118. 09/10/2003Are lower prices for consumer products always a good thing?I heard a story on NPR today, and I didn't catch much other than a quote that really grabbed my attention. The gist was that some additional free trade talks may hurt some local economies briefly, but ultimately would result in lower prices on consumer ......
  119. 09/09/2003Today's hot news....We got a new officer on Engine 1 today. A great guy, I'm looking forward to working with him more. I know you all care. Meantime, today was mostly boring from the perspective of you, reading about me. Soccer practice went well. These girls are playing ......
  120. 09/07/2003Back from trainingHi all. I spent a good part of today at a mobile home fire. A planned one. A nice person who needed it removed, donated it and the local fire departments got to come and play (er, train). I'm still new enough at all this that I learn a great deal when ......
  121. 09/06/2003Big day for youth soccer, lots of firefighter stuff tomorrow...Well friends, not much to tell here that would be of interest. I spent a large part of the day coaching soccer for my middle daughter, teaching soccer to my youngest, and waiting for soccer to finish for my oldest. FWIW, all played exceptionally well. I ......
  122. 09/05/2003More idiotic statements from a top entertainer. No surprise, her initials are B.S.So following "the most corporate and over-planned" spontaneous kiss since Al Gore tried to choke his wife on stage at the Democratic Convention, B.S. gets an interview with Tucker Carlson. Carlson, who carefully dresses so as to appear not to care what ......
  123. 09/04/2003Must read: Domino Directory FAQ -- Great stuffHi all. From the LDD discussion forums, Ken Lin posted this awesome FAQ that covers directory issues including LDAP. ND6 Directory FAQ, ver 1Posted by Ken Lin on 3.Sep.03 at 05:07 PM using Lotus NotesCategory: Domino ServerRelease: All ReleasesPlatform: ......
  124. 09/04/2003Free Market forces CD prices down - Adam Smith silently rejoices from the great beyond.Universal Music Group lowered its prices on CD's by $3 to retailers, and suggests retailers take another $3 off as well. By putting a suggested price on the cover of the CD's, Universal is putting pressure on retail chains to make a little less per unit ......
  125. 09/04/2003One less perfect little nose out there....Well friends, I'm sad to say there is one less perfect little Hollywood button nose out there today. Teams of surgeons are being flown in from the farthest reaches though, spiritual gurus are no doubt in route as well. It seems that Ms. Cameron Diaz has ......
  126. 09/03/2003Cool car crash on main street today!img { float:left; border:solid thin blue;}I know, I know. Not all of you think car crashes are cool, but this one was pretty cool. Best of all, nobody was hurt. Some of you who know me only in my "mild mannered consultant by day" persona have asked for ......
  127. 09/03/2003Happy Birthday Richard!Today is my good friend Richard's annual 39th birthday. I'm not sure how many 39th birthdays he's had so far, but its been working for him so far. Go to his blog (link is in my blog role to the left) and wish him happy ......
  128. 09/02/2003Would anyone use a NOTES CLIENT blog interface?As I'm working on the new interface for my blog -- designed to be more like looking at a stack of papers, then a cheezy iframes interface like I have now -- I'm wondering if anyone would use if Notes client if I allowed anonymous Notes connections? ......
  129. 09/01/2003Arcade Games, and the Atari 2600 - for $20Well friends. I was wandering Wal-Mart today, having promised the kids a treat for working their tails off all day while I finished painting the bathroom and re-installing all of the things you would normally expect to find in a one. What I found was ......
  130. 08/31/2003What's wrong with Java - taken from an earlier postNo secret to anyone, that I hate coding in Java. I think there's more than just personal dislike here though. I wrote this originally as part of an earlier post but its length made it insufferable, so here you go again. To quote Dennis Miller, "I don't ......
  131. 08/31/2003RIAA Uses hash keys tooIn one of my first blog entries, I talked about how the use of a hash algorithm let me drastically reduce the time it took to compare data. Well, the RIAA lawyers are using it to prove that MP3's on someone's hard disk come from on-line exchange and not ......
  132. 08/30/2003A new milkshake is upon the land.#storybody img { float:left; border:solid #001701;}Friends, there is a new milkshake upon the land, and it is good. Now some of you may know that I have a weakness for the classic vanilla milkshake. I'm not sure whenMcDonaldsreleased this new and improved ......
  133. 08/29/200340 years ago, Dr. King told us of his dreamimg { float:left; border:solid ......
  134. 08/28/2003On the subject of ConfidenceDennis Miller did a great RANT about Confidence. Check it out here: http://www.hbo.com/dml/past_rants/20020830.html Those of you who know me, may see insights into my personality ......
  135. 08/28/2003A legacy of bad standardsHere's a long rant. I KNOW I'm going to get flamed for some of this -- particularly the anti-Java stuff. Oh well. I've been told I'm an idiot before, and I didn't melt then. I guess I'll live through it again. In the weeks leading up to the opening of ......
  136. 08/27/2003Mouse Pointers?Good morning dear friends! This morning I'm soliciting advice. In the search for a comfortable and smooth mouse experience, I've purchased optical mice from both Microsoft and Logitech. Of the latter, Have both wired and wireless rechargeable. Still, the ......
  137. 08/26/2003OpenNTF - Grass Roots Notes DevelopmentHi all! So I'm writing this to respond to two questions that have been brought to me of late. First, is "Why didn't you use the OpenNTF blog template?", to which I normally give two answers. The first is that I wanted to write my own as a learning ......
  138. 08/26/2003Will blogging be the end of the shared Notes forum?For years, I've been an active participant in the Lotus Business Partner Forum. More recently, I've been very active in the forum we Penumbra members maintain. I'm seeing that a majority of the most active members of these venues are blogging. I'm also ......
  139. 08/26/2003Which, exactly, are the 10 commandments that cannot be displayed?The phrase "THE Ten Commandments" is misleading to say the least, as you'll note from this great - if somewhat provocative - article. ......
  140. 08/26/2003Change in Policy - No validation is required on replies.For the time being, I've decided to remove the requirement to include your email address and validate your reply by a linked back ......
  141. 08/25/2003Home Depot, Bad Service, and The Self Service Register LieWell friends, Home Depot lost out on my big expenditure tonight. After spending the day clearing wallpaper from the downstairs bathroom, removing the medicine cabinet with its hideous side mounted fluorescent lights - encased in bug encrusted plastic, of ......
  142. 08/24/2003Cool Tech: Live- from "Chuck -E- Cheese's"Its Sunday afternoon, and I've got all the kids to watch. My youngest (4) has a birthday party to attend, being held in Portland at the "Chuck E Cheese's" pizza & playground place. This is a brightly colored, very loud, warehouse of a building filled with ......
  143. 08/23/2003Great Microsoft Site - Blogged by Bruce Elgort Click on this picture to see the whole site. Thanks, Bruce for pointing this out to us on your blog! ......
  144. 08/23/2003Couple of fire calls this week...Couple of calls this week. The first was cool even though it was a false alarm. Cool only because I got to drive the big Ladder truck (which I'm finally signed off to drive & operate) code-3 (flashy & noisy) to the scene. Fun, but unnerving to drive ......
  145. 08/23/2003Helping friends with their PC's - Why is this necessary?As you can imagine, my somewhat double career leaves me with one circle of friends among the technologically elite, but another almost entirely devoid of basic computer troubleshooting skills. That means I get to help clean up from viruses and things from ......
  146. 08/22/2003Electronic Voting for Public OfficeNobody, dear readers, knows the vulnerabilities of computer systems as well as you, the techno-illuminati of the age. The masses are screaming for these electronic voting machines but nothing could be more dangerous to our fragile democracy than wrong ......
  147. 08/22/2003New feature on this siteOk all, I've added a new feature on this site for rating the topics. If you click this, its anonymous, its fast, and it gives me feedback as to what kind of stuff you like and what kind of stuff you don't. That does not, of course, mean I'll necessary do ......
  148. 08/22/2003So, is it cool to have a sidebar ad?So tell me, dear readers, is it considered too uncool to put a sidebar box up with an advertisement for your own work or product on your blog? You tell me, what do you think? If you don't want to reply publically, send me ......
  149. 08/22/2003A faster way to update data!Notes comparisons as well. In this case, we get a dump of 2.6 million records to compare with the 60,000 or so notes documents, and have to check for changes and updates as necessary. The server is a 2 processor 300mhz machine with an old RAID system. No race car. The data we get is extremely denormalized SQL Result set data. For example, the user "X" had 360 rows of data in the Oracle view that we have to read, and he's just one person. Why so many? It has to do with the way that view is created for us. ......
  150. 08/22/2003Blogo Ergo SumSince the invention of the written word, people have kept journals and diaries. They've been personal places for troubled spirits to pour out their hearts or they've been strictly business. Consider the journal of an intrepid explorer, writing by candle ......
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