03/17/2009Images not showing up from your Web Applications? I spent hours tracking this down...I've been working on an application for a client, and needed to store file resources both on documents and as design elements (file resources). For some reason, they simply weren't showing up on the web browser when viewed as part of any page. * The images showed up when you would put the URL directly into the browser to view the image itself. * The images showed up when you put the same code and image -- the same document -- in any other databases. * The "Firebug" debugger for Firefox showed the image ......
03/14/2009New Facebook setup means if you're posting your Twitter feed to it, you're being obnoxious.Here's something to think about. If I want to follow you on Twitter, I will follow you on twitter. That way, when I bring up my twitter client because I'm in the mood to look at that kind of low-level banality (which is fairly frequent) I'll see your tweets where they belong. Within the twitterverse. If you insist on posting your tweets directly as a feed to your Facebook home page, the new interface means that not only am I forced to sift through them when I go onto Facebook -- which is NOT why I'm on ......
03/09/2009A quick tip that may speed up your laptop or workstationIf you've had your laptop or workstation a while -- especially if you've installed things like vmware -- you may not be getting the network performance you once did. Here's a little thing to check. ......
03/07/2009I'm looking to try outsourcing some HTML/CSS coding - However.....For outsourcing html/css, I don't dare do a web search on it and just pick -- and I sure as hell don't want to pick from the ones that spam me. Who are you using? I get pages in Illustrator that were put together from a "designer" (who just can't seem to understand that this is NOT a good design tool for the web). This happens at least once a month. I need to turn them into html/css. Once that's done, I rip sections of code out and replace it with dynamic content using Notes fields. I'm considering running ......
03/03/2009The ZOOM! -- The Gelsenkirchen ZooWhat a fantastic surprise! Coryn and I along with Ben's wife and son went a few miles to the Gelsenkirchen Zoo -- called the "Zoom!" We expected a couple of animals and a ten minute tour. We were wrong. We spent a few terrific hours there and saw more animals than we could possibly have expected. They were all well cared for and appeared happy and active in the nice spring weather. Here's some photos. ......
03/03/2009Coryn & Dad at the Koln (Cologne) Cathedral - Some very cool picturesI had some challenges in taking these pictures -- you can't use a flash inside the dimly lit Cathedral, for example. These were all taken with my little Casio EXILIM pocket camera without flash or tripod. Where possible, I held the camera against something stationary and gave the shutter as much time as possible. ......
03/02/2009AP Phone Home - Cheaper. -- Calling anywhere from my cell in Germany, using my home VOIP ratesMy cost to call home to the US from my German cell phone is now essentially the same as it is for anyone in Germany calling to anyone else in Germany from a cell phone. Call costs in Europe are very different from the pricing structure in the US. Calls TO cell phones cost more than calls to land lines. Call from cell phones have various rates depending on your carrier, plan, and who you're calling. I'm using an O2 Loop account with an unlocked Nokia phone I bought for 40 Euro last time I was here. With ......
03/01/2009Coryn & Dad in London - Some pictures via Flick'r streamOn our way to the software developer's conference in Gelsenkirchen, Germany, Coryn and I overnighted in London. Gab & Tim were kind enough to meet us at the airport and after a nice dinner we strolled around central London a bit. And yes, its a Sprite she's holding, not a beer.Attention GMS StudentsThis site is to be used within the appropriate context for family, friends, and coworkers. All workstation addresses are logged.You're at school right now, pay attention! -- Coryn's ......
02/26/2009Some new tools I'm tryingI'm trying out a couple of tools for the Domino product line. In particularly I'm finally getting around to testing DEFRAG.NSF -- I'll let you know how that goes, I'm hopeful but skeptical. I'm also going to be installing and working with Ytria's development tools. In the interest of full disclosure, both vendors have made those available to me to try out, and if I like them I'll say so here on the blog site. If I don't like them, I probably won't say anything about them unless they're truly terrible ......
02/24/2009Cutting through the B.S. -- Should you deploy DAOS right now or not?As posted on Ed's blog, there's a lot of talk going on right now about DAOS. I thought I'd try to clarify some of the benefits and potential pitfalls as clearly as possible to help some of you make the decision. First the Potential Benefits Most sites are reporting between 40 and 60 percent reduction in disk storage requirements without making any policy changes or requiring users to change behavior. I personally believe you will be hard pressed to find any site with more than 50 mail users that isn't ......
02/23/2009Web Design Influences on Classic Notes Client ApplicationsI spent the day working on a classic Notes Client application. It wasn't anything overly complex -- just a few views and forms, some action buttons and agents. Fortunately for me, UI design wasn't a priority on this. Its a single use case tool for one site-admin person to use as a time saver for an otherwise onerous task. One thing I did notice, however, was that the expectation we have of the way things look and work has changed pretty drastically. We've learned to ignore the "frame" and focus on the ......
02/15/2009PCI Compliance - Is it important to you that Notes & Domino play nice in this space?If your company takes or stores credit card data, you may be required to meet PCI Compliance standards. Not all credit card processing requires this -- it has to do with the volume of transactions and other things. If you have to comply, you know what a challenge it can be. I spent a good part of last week working on an issue which was related to PCI Compliance and data being stored in NSF databases. While I can't go into details right now due to NDA, there are a couple of things I'd like to press for in ......
02/09/2009Yes - its time for an actual Notes and Domino Technical Tip Blog Entry!I don't do these that often because I don't usually have that much to add. When I do, its because I think something may really help. I've been driven crazy recently by a couple of type-ahead names in my 8.5 client. You see, someone I communicate for business with all the time sent me an email from an alternate account. Like a Gmail account only even more of a problem -- its an address at one of her clients. Ever since, whenever I type her name the wrong one comes up and if I'm not careful I send the ......
01/29/2009Pictures from the Snow-PocalypseOk, it didn't turn out to be that big a deal. We got about a foot of snow, with a crust on top of ice. It looks good though, on top of the 8 inches or so we already had. ......
01/29/2009A couple of photos I took this evening of the fire trucks on scene -- came out really interestingI'm not much of a photographer. The nice thing about a cheap little digital camera for someone like me is that its size means its almost always there. I snap a bunch of pictures and every once in a while I get something really interesting. Take a look at a couple of lucky shots that came out cool -- at least I think so. As always, click to see the full size. ......
01/29/2009Returning to the Village – Are you ready?Our nature is to live in small communities. For all of history up until the last hundred or so years, we knew the people around us fairly well. We knew what they did at work and what they did at home. We did business with friends, relatives, and other people in the village. Then we stopped. Instead of living near the people we grew up with, we live in different communities entirely. We commute to yet another community for work. In the process, we’ve built home lives and work lives. We re-invent ourselves ......
01/25/2009Hey! Everyone welcome Richard Schwartz to the twitterverse....Richard Schwartz -- truly one of the pioneers of using Lotus Notes going all the way back to the L-Notes-L mailing list -- is now a twit. er.. I mean a twitterer. That is to say, he's tweeting. Follow him here: ......
01/24/2009How far can you take Guerrilla Marketing in a community setting?Guerrilla Marketing - using crowd tactics, community influence, and other techniques to get attention at low cost through other peoples media is no longer revolutionary. Its common as dirt. We all do it to some extent. The C.U.L.T. shirt is a bit of it. The idea is to get yourself of your product known on someone else's dime. But what happens when you over-apply these tactics in a community? When a group of people who are essentially competitors come together in a tight community like a conference setting ......
01/24/2009Careful timing for a 2 hour jumpstart session - A picture is worth a thousand wordsGab & I did our Jumpstart session on security again this year. We did it twice last Sunday. The jumpstart is 2 hours long and covers so much material that we really need at least 4 hours to cover it all. It took Gab and I several hours just to refine the topics and timing when we go together in early December to finalize it. There's a technique I use when I'm presenting and I know other presenters use a similar tool to manage their delivery. We write down the time (not the number of minutes, but the actual ......
01/24/2009For FSCK sake, Barak Obama is not going to be using a Blackberry. The press has been jabbering on for days about how President Barak Obama will keep his beloved Blackberry. It's not true. He will not be keeping the device he loves, he'll be allowed to use a PDA created by General Dynamics -- or should I say bastardized by General Dynamics -- which is based on Windows CE. It's a competitor to Blackberry, not a Blackberry at all. I suppose RIM is allowing the news people to proliferate this mistake because it's good press for them when people hear how much he likes their ......
01/23/2009Special Thank you to all 6 of my readers -- and a happy birthday shout out to one....In 12 years of Lotusphere I have never once been in Kimonos until tonight. Anyone who has suffered through my singing can tell you why this is the case. After an insane round of miniature golf in the "Blogger's Open" and then an amazing dinner with five great friends (Gab, Tim, Carl, Mike, and Sue) I was headed back to the hotel for bed when I decided to drop in at Kimonos. Those of you who know me also know that I don't drink much if at all. All of these facts together make it even more astonishing to me ......
01/21/2009Watching the inauguration with a few thousand of my closest friendsWhat an amazing day. I watched the inauguration from Lotusphere. At first I was in Rocky & Bob's session on busting myths around the software. They finished with one last myth. The slide showed as a myth that there would never be a black president -- then they cut directly to the CNN coverage just as Obama was about to be sworn in. As that session was ending, I went out side to watch the coverage on the information screens the conference uses. There were dozens around each screen silently watching. After a ......
01/19/2009Best. Lotusphere. Ever. So far, this is the best Lotusphere I have ever attended. I don't say that lightly. I'll detail the key things in the OGS at the end because there's a lot of content and I don't want a few things I have to say first to get lost in it..... ......
01/19/2009My "Live Blog" stream is on Twitter -- I'll do a real blog post summing it up laterMy LS09 OGS comments can be found here: http://twitter.com/FirefighterGeek The stream so far (from most recent to least) beanbag chairs are great -- but after an hour I can say that at 41, maybe not a good long term solution + mine will need tougher 'beans' :-) 4 minutes ago from twhirl reduction of disk, i/o, and cpu use (40-60%) over Exchange servers. Important to sites who deploy on VMs, rather than boxes. #ls09 9 minutes ago from twhirl slide about reduction of disk, i/o, and cpu use (40-60%) over ......
01/18/2009Lot's of highlights from Day -1, and Day 0 at Lotusphere 2009 The shirts are done (for me). The Fulton's dinner is done. The Jumpstart Security sessions are done (4 hours of talking) are done. Now I can have some fun! If you're one of the six people who read my blog, come up and tell me so during the week. Don't be shy, I love to meet the people who read my rants. Bob Picciano - the new man running the show for Lotus - is poised to do some fantastic work. I'll blog more later because some of it should wait until after the OGS. For now, let me say that he's a Notes ......
01/18/2009Debora Cole awarded the Penumbra Prism Award for 2009As a member of the board of directors of the Penumbra Group, I had the distinct honor of presenting Debora Cole with the Penumbra Prism Award for 2009. The Prism Award is given by Penumbra to someone at IBM who we believe goes above and beyond the expectations of their position to work with Lotus Business Partners in a way that helps us keep customers running smoothly with Lotus Software. Debora has been active in the various partner forums and events for a long time, but on top of that she is frequently ......
01/09/2009National Car Rental called this morningAfter yesterday's post about the Emerald Club problem, I heard back by voicemail this morning. They're sending the agreement over by email and I can then fax it back. Apparently my whining caught the attention of someone with a sense of customer service. (Yesterday's post: http://www.thenorth.com/apblog4.nsf/0/4D1B7DC2F8F514C0852575380075A2DA) I'll follow up and tell you how it ......
01/08/2009National Car Rental - Emerald Club Signup - Epic FailSo in making my car reservations for Orlando, I decided to try National's Emerald Club. The idea being that you walk to the cars in the row you want (or an upgrade row if they're in there) and get in, they check your license at the gate and you leave. Done. If you want a more expensive car, just get in it and they'll fix it at the gate. In concept, I like the idea. I have Gold service with Hertz and "wizard" service with Avis. Both offer bypass services, but not with that kind of flexibility. I'm not a ......
01/04/20092009 starting off HOT! CFD run #2 for 2009 is a huge structure fire! Photos, Video, & Audio here...I'd already mentioned in this previous postthat our first run of 2009 was a structure fire on a really cold night. Well, shockingly, our SECOND run of the new year was also a structure fire. The weather wasn't as cold -- this time it was just below freezing -- but the fire was much, much larger. I rolled up in our Ladder 7, and just our luck we were 20 seconds behind Falmouth's Tower truck. They ended up putting their stick in the air and running their master stream for hours, while we ended up "staging" ......
01/02/2009Starting the year off HOT and COLD with a Structure Fire on a sub-zero nightWe don't get that many structure fires here in Cumberland. I've been to more fires out of town than in. That makes it all the more strange to have Run #1 for 2009 come in as a structure fire -- but that's exactly what happened. With temperatures hovering at around 0 degrees Fahrenheit ( -17 C for you Europeans reading this) and winds gusting from 5-20 miles an hour it was extremely cold. To make matters worse, the part of town where this home is has no hydrants or town water system. All the water to fight ......
12/30/2008Quick product review: Eye-Fi - a wireless card for your digital cameraForgive me, FSM. It has been 9 days since my last blogfession. The Flying Spaghetti Monstera religionmade up as aprotest to the Kansas School Board. protest to the Kansas School Board. I consider myself a member of that religion (a Pastafarian) in as much as I consider myself a member of any religion.Sorry to be away so long. First we had the ice storm, then a few quick days to catch up before our big snow storm, then the holidays. Wow, time does fly when you're running behind. A few neat gifts this year ......
12/21/2008Stormcam is up if anyone is interestedWe're expected 18 inches of snow and blowing wind this evening. I've hooked up a web cam out my office window, and cobbled software together to snap the pics and send the up to the web site every 2 minutes. A live, auto-refreshing page is available here: EDITED: 12-22-2008 -- Took down the storm cam, but here's some pics of the aftermath: ......
12/16/2008There are HOW MANY prizes this year for wearing your C.U.L.T. Shirt?Count 'em baby -- FOUR prizes this year! Oh, and the prizes don't suck at all. Each is worth at least $100 US. We've given away a prize each year at the Wednesday night party to some random, unsuspecting person who happens to be wearing a C.U.L.T. shirt. This year we're not just going to top that, we're going to blow it out of the water. The four prize giveaways are as follows: Prize Number 1 - To be given out as usual at the Wednesday night party. At a secretly chosen time, our super under-cover spotter ......
12/14/2008The 2009 C.U.L.T. Shirt Top Ten List - Submit Your Ideas Now!This year's theme is "Three Delicious Flavors" I'm really late in getting this done -- and Rocky and I talked several times about what to make for a top ten list. We had a breakthrough that seemed brilliant to both of us, but then we didn't write it down so its gone complete. You're stuck with what we can remember. Even worse, you're stuck with what I can recall of what we remember. Here's the list: "Top Ten Slogans or Statements Not Chosen for Notes 8.5 Data Sheets" Some Examples: * Designer Sold ......
12/14/2008Is the "Users want Outlook because they use it at home" argument valid?Without digging into Notes much, Ed points out on his blog, that he's done a survey that makes this idea that Outlook Express at home is how people are used to working less valid. A few things come to my mind as I read what he wrote. Usually, I'd respond on his blog site but to be honest I didn't want what I had to say to be lost in the noise over there this time around. Regardless of his survey method being decidedly self referential -- There's validity in its results if you look at them in the right ......
12/14/2008Maine Ice Storm Update -- 3rd Day w/o Power, 15 Degrees ( -9 degrees C)Think it's no big deal? Into the 3rd day here in Maine, and nearly 100,000 residences remain without power. Here's what happens if you can't heat your house. That means no heat. No heat for the house also means no way to keep the pipes in the house from freezing and bursting. We're not just talking about the water pipes in the kitchen and bathroom here -- houses here are usually heated by pumping heated water through pipes that run through all the rooms to baseboard registers. Those pipes also freeze and ......
12/12/2008Ice Storm 2008 - Deady Beauty - Pictures finally uploadedIts been 10 years since we've had an ice storm of this severity here. We've been without power since 7:30am today (about 8 hours as I write this) and without cable TV and cable broadband internet for about as long. We knew it was coming and had planed an EOC (Emergency Operations Center), but it has still been a lot of work. Starting at around 5am the down power lines calls started coming in, and for several hours we didn't get a break. This afternoon as been quiet, with temperatures warming a bit, but ......
12/10/2008How can we help IBM make better core level decisions about the Notes client and Designer?Note: I originally wrote this commentary in another venue, and have edited it to be more appropriate to the blog audience. When it comes to the vision for Notes and Domino Designer, I strongly believe there is a huge hurdle to consider that stems from the very nature of IBM as an organization. Directions get taken based on talking with large IT shop management, but also very much on trends and goals within IBM which is itself one of the biggest customers of the products in the world. It is not, however, a ......
12/05/2008Gab and I aren considering putting a security class togetherGab is here and we're working on our Security Jumpstart. If you've been to this before, you know that we cram an insane amount of information -- an attempt at virtually everything security related in Notes & Domino -- into a 2 hour overview. This year, in the same time, we have to add information about the new file server based roaming, ID Vaults, and the new workstation Single Sign-on features. We've come to the realization that if we took this and really gave a full level attention to each piece instead ......
11/27/2008VLC -- The open source media player -- continues to amaze me with its flexibilityTo catch up on some videos that I'd missed, I pulled them down to my PC. Little by little I've been watching them, using VLC because it seems to have enough codecs to play just about anything. The only real complaint I could make is that the PC isn't the best place to watch video. The video card on my PC is good enough that it can output to the HDTV with a pretty good picture. It works great, and lets me sit in my comfy chair with my laptop while I work and have the video on at the same time. The only ......
11/25/2008Rocky and I need your help. We're a bit stuck finalizing the topic for the CULT shirt top 10 list.Since I took over the production side of the C.U.L.T. shirt in 2004, I don't recall ever having so much trouble picking out a top ten list. We'd really like to get it posted out there but need some help. Here are some ideas that Rocky and I came up with. We think some are close, but none ring the bell. The goal for these is: 1. Must be fun, and lead to some good funny entries. 2. Must be in good spirit, though a little bit of a poke isn't out of the question. 3. Must not be too "insider" 4. Must be fun. ......
11/23/2008I tried out the new Blackberry Storm yesterday. Here's my review of it, and Verizon's pricingShort answer: Looks good, going to it would means some sacrifice for me. The Storm is Blackberry's current best swing at the rapid market share gain of the iPhone. Its a touch screen of a little different nature, but with all the blackberry goodness that you addicts love so much. Its also a dual mode phone, which includes a GSM SIM card in addition to its CDMA primary network. Unfortunately, according to Verizon it cannot be used in Europe on the GSM network as anything other than a phone. It looses its ......
11/21/2008New MEME Friday (NMF): Create Your New Persona Candidate -- Here's Mine: Sally StoneheadI thought for some fun on Friday, I'd come up with a new Persona (look how Agile I am). Ok, its a little bit tongue in cheek -- but I suspect there are a lot of people making decisions out there in the same way, even if they don't quite have Sally's unique experience. Then I thought I'd see if anyone else wanted to give it shot. So, introducing "New MEME Friday". ......
11/20/2008Ever wonder about just how much Oil prices impact Gasoline Prices at the Pump?Well, not really a Domino related post, but I've wondered for a while now why it seems that gas prices go up faster than they come down. It took a few minutes to search out some real statistical data, and I put this chart together. It shows the percent change in price for a barrel of US Oil and the average consumer price of a gallon of unleaded gasoline for the US. The dates are close, and both are weekly, but they're not on the same day. Still, the trend analysis works fairly well. The charge tells the ......
11/20/2008Fairly large project put on hold -- looking for something interesting to work onIn the course of the last month, I've had two fairly good sized projects either scale way back or get put on indefinite hold. Sign of the times? In one case it is related to the economy so I guess you can say that. In the other case its a fairly typical thing where the people who want the work done got stopped by the I.T. department who wants to do it themselves with different (though as yet undefined) technology. That one will come back to me in the spring once they fail. In any case, I'd love to find ......
11/19/2008The first unofficial Lotusphere 2009 Track Breakdown by Product AreaI've been making some aggressive statements about track planning, and I've been tossing some warning statements about trying over-play the hand on pushing products that don't have following. I can now much more more clear about what's good and what's not. I imported the preliminary session list from the web site into a spreadsheet, and just marked off which sessions fell into which categories. Keep in mind not all sessions fit in a category as I didn't make a million categories. I'm likely wrong about a ......
11/18/2008Cloud Computing Concepts - Part 4 - Cloud Computing in the Long RunWhat does Cloud Computing look like in the long run? The best thing about predictions is that you very rarely get called to account. In this case, I’m going to make some pretty broad predictions. Some will come true, some won’t – but here’s how I see the market in ten years: The Internet is the Cloud. Just as there is no “The” internet, but rather a lot of interconnected networks owned by a huge variety of people, nations, and companies; there will ultimately be no “The” cloud. Instead there will be a few ......
11/18/2008Cloud Computing Concepts - Part 3 - Picking a Cloud Computing StrategyHow to pick a cloud computing strategy That’s the billion dollar question. Some vendors are starting to offer real solutions in the cloud computing arena. Before you decide to turn over your company jewels to a cloud based solution, consider these things: 1. Data Security – Is what you’re putting out there going to stay private to your company and never every get into someone else’s hands? Will it be more easily obtained by government with or without subpoena? 2. Data Availability – Is the data being ......
11/18/2008Cloud Computing Concepts - Part 2 - Why Businesses Like it, and Why They Don'tWhy Business Likes It, and Why Not? I.T. Shops bring it on themselves A move to Cloud Computing is a huge commitment for a business to take. When your applications and sometimes even your data isn’t stored, managed, and controlled by your own business you’re talking a huge risk that the provider of those things could disappear or have some major catastrophe. Why would any business take such a risk? For those of us in the I.T. industry – those who consider themselves technology savvy, there would seem to be ......
11/18/2008Cloud Computing Concepts - Part 1 - What is Cloud Computing?What is “Cloud Computing” – and why is it so attractive as a concept to business? Microsoft, Yahoo!, Google, and IBM are all talking about their “Cloud Computing” models and Sun has been saying for years that “The Network is the Computer”. What does this really mean, and what will it take to make it work? Part 1 - What is it? Like any other new buzzword, no exact definition is possible. You have to strip out the marketing spin associate with how each vendor wants to use it. When you get down to it though, ......
11/18/2008Lotusphere Plans: Open Live Photo BloggingI'm going to take something I built for Second Signal and apply it to Lotusphere 2009. The application works like this: The Basics 1. Take a picture with your camera phone. 2. Send that camera phone picture and a short text caption to a mail in address that I'll publish3. The site will receive the photo, create a snapshot, and add it to a live index page The Details Who can use it? Anyone - but you could get banned if you try hard enough. Photo Limits? There will be a maximum size per photo -- its meant to ......
11/17/2008Presentations posted from AdminCamp 2008In the fall of 2008 I had the privilege of participating in the AdminCamp show in Gelsenkirchen, Germany. The whole show was fantastic. If you ever get the chance, you should attend. The focus of the event is deeply technical, but no small amount of effort is paid to making sure that every attendee and every speaker is well fed and has a good time. I've never seen a show done better. Confessions of a Penetration TesterAndrew Pollack, 60 Minutes, Closing SessionPutting the best lock on a rusty chain isn't ......
11/16/2008Lotusphere is January 18-22. President Elect Barak Obama's Inauguration is January 20th. Will it matter to you?I have to admit that I'm swept up in the hysterical wave of idealistic hope around this newly elected President. I'm not foolish enough to think that's going to last. He'll make mistakes -- he may already be making a big one -- and his administration will do things I don't like. They may even do things I detest, though I hope not. For now though, I'm hopeful that we've made the choice to put a man who is capable and well meaning into a position with the power to do great things. On Tuesday, January 20th ......
11/14/2008VPN Hell -- I hate when I have to work through people who can't get things rightI've spent all day working on an agent to correlate some data and produce a report for one of my clients. By itself, that's not hard. Unfortunately, the VPN connection supplied by their I.T. department cannot stay connected this week at all. I've got the connection set to auto-redial, but it literally couldn't hold up for 5 minutes at a time. The system log shows 64 reconnects over the course of my working on this thing. Ever tried agent code debugging when your session drops out every 5 ......
11/11/2008Dear Apple, why do you insist on telling me about music I won't buy?Dear Apple - While it is true that I have in the past purchased iPods, and in one case a desktop computer from you, I have never been even the least bit interested in purchasing music, videos, or other content from your on-line store. Quite aside from the fact that I don't like the way you sell these things, the DRM and the proprietary nature of your gear and software; I simply have no need of your store. I have even less need of your weekly "New Music Tuesday" electronic mail. Why? Because I don't like ......
11/11/2008Speaking at Lotusphere 2009So yes, it looks like I'm speaking at Lotusphere this year. I'm not sure which or how many sessions, however, as I submitted several and the number of accepted/rejected doesn't equal the number of submissions. I'm guessing that Postini snagged some as spam due to the repeated subject and sender. I'll dig through tonight and figure it out, then ......
11/11/2008Thank you for flying the desperate skysI used to travel a lot. No, really, like every week. I glad I don't any more. Travel gets more difficult and annoying every week. Its been an unusual month and I'm finally back from a long series of trips that have had me away from home for something like 15 of the last 20 days and logging something close to 20,000 air miles. To top it off, I've been flying on old-school airlines that are desperately seeking to exploit every possible method to extract the last dollar from every traveller. This means adding ......
11/10/2008Reading "Halting State" by Charles Stross -- He's really nailed consulting, high tech startups, and contract employmentCharles Stross has written "Halting State" -- a near future high tech mystery novel. It reads like it was written by a cross between William Gibson and Kurt Vonegut Jr. Its that good -- at least what I've read so far. I'm not Tom Duff and I don't digest these things in a single sitting. Each of the main characters has their part of the story told in the second person. That's a little hard to get used to. "You" -- the reader -- switch perspectives with each chapter. It puts you right there in the middle ......
11/09/2008US Airways - Once again, the most difficult airline to put up withOn business, particularly flying to Lotusphere or other conferences I always to try book airlines that I've got confidence in and with as few stops as possible. Each connection you have to make reduces the likelihood of getting to your destination on time. US Airways has a track record with me that's just abysmal. I knew I was asking for trouble when booked this flight, but with the prices it really was the only way to go. Flying to Phoenix with my oldest daughter for a wedding, we were scheduled to fly ......
11/09/2008Why isn't it possible to have a political conversation with someone, that doesn't involve the repeated talking points of a celebrity media person?I've had some really interesting conversations lately, but they quickly seem to devolve into a repetitive litany of talking points and off the wall statistics that clearly come from some media personalities research time. Its a shame, because from that point forward I'm not having a conversation with the person in front of me -- or on the discussion site -- I'm playing a game called "combat the out of context research guy talking points." That bores me. Anyone who wants to come and talk politics with me ......
11/07/2008Travelling again, and there's an important reason why I'm blogging this morning...Well, there are two reasons I guess. The first is to put a bit of warning out there for those of you who haven't yet gotten back to me about the spots you want on the CULT shirts for Lotusphere 2009. We are probably going to do less shirts overall this year, but they're going to be good fun. We're overdue posting the Top 10 list, but that will happen within days. If you haven't contacted me yet, but plan to sponsor -- your time is running out. I'm headed to Phoenix now with my oldest daughter. She's 15 ......
11/06/2008Creating new kinds of content for the full Notes 8.x client -- what I struggle withNotes 8.x gives us this rich platform to work with as developers. There's this ability to do stuff at the GUI layer, to hook into the framework itself and do ....stuff. So why aren't we seeing more stuff being done beyond the "example" level of complexity? To me, as I try to get my head around building for this environment there are four challenges. Three are technical. I'm not going to attempt to answer these here. I just want to start by identifying what I see as the challenges that need to be address by ......
11/05/2008John McCain -- You came back to us last night, but where have you been?John McCain's gracious concession speech last night -- delivered in earnest and without reservation -- was dead on the mark. For the first time in over a year, the John McCain that has been honorably serving our country and keeping his own conscience for decades reappeared on national television. It was as if an exorcism had been performed. What a shame that for all his years of service, most of the world will only know him by the show he put on in the last few months. I said during the nomination process ......
11/05/2008Sometimes we get it right. As a nation, we've shown something important to the world - The best night in my memory of politicsLast night the strong center of American political thinking stepped out and said "Enough". It isn't every day that any idea or candidate can capture the support of such a wide cross section of our country. In nearly every measurable demographic other than the most hard core neo-conservative right wing base, Americans united to say that no matter what differences on individual parts of the Democratic message they can no longer stomach the abuses of power that have defined the last eight years. That's what ......
11/04/2008I'm holding Ben personally responsible....Ben, with all his business success surely has plenty of power and influence in Ohio. I'm counting on you, Ben, to "deliver a result" (as they say in Futball) in Ohio. I mean it, Ben. Get with the program ......
11/04/2008The disgusting dirty tricks are out in full forcePersonally, I think any new or changed advertisement of a political nature less than 72 hours prior to an election is highly suspect. Today is the first time I've seen the negative "Rev. Write" ads in months -- but they sure are prominent and as misleading and slanderous as ever. Its the same crap as every year. Save the stuff that's most ugly until the last minute when there's no time for it to be refuted or for the candidate to respond. There are robot phone dialers in key places making calls to mislead ......
11/04/2008Planning to stay up late and watch the returns come in? Join our chatI've set up a Skype based public chat for anyone in the greater Domino community that plans to stay up and watch the results come in. We've done this on other topics and it works fairly well. Get a skype account if you don't have one already, then join in: The Lotus Domino Election Eve Skype Chat Be warned, topics will range and may not always be ......
11/03/2008Structure Fire - Saturday; links to coverageSo Saturday wasn't spent on Lotus Domino much at all. After getting in at 2am from London and sleeping till 8, we had a minor call around 11am and then while I was raking leaves at around 2:30pm we had a call come in for a structure fire. The fire, on the part of town we call the "Foreside" was a really fast mover. We pulled in and the second floor was already heavily involved. By the time I had the truck set up and a pack on to go in we heard on the radio that the roof had self-vented (burned through so ......
11/03/2008Election Day - From a public safety perspectiveI won't get a chance to do much Domino work tomorrow. Voting tomorrow is expected to be at record turnout. I thought I'd take a minute to give you some insight into what that means from a public safety perspective even in a small town like Cumberland, Maine. First, with polls opening at 7am and a heavy turnout expected in the morning, we're going to have to staff the Town Hall with a fire watch crew. That happens because we expect the building to be over-capacity during that time. Next, since the town hall ......
11/01/2008Battery Killing Utilities -- Find them and shut them off.My flight back from London on a relatively old 767 that seemed (to me) to be configured for domestic travel rather than international wasn't too bad -- but only because there were enough open seats. The power supplied by the aircraft to some of the seats was barely workable. My Dell wants about 95 watts inbound to the block adapter and that's close to the advertised limit of the seat power. Add a little loss on the inverter and it gets iffy. Viewing a movie from the hard disk, the on again/off again ......
10/31/2008For those of you Europeans who don't care for how Americans do wireless services -- your system has fully pissed me off.Instead of paying $125 for a week of renting a pre-setup "Orange" subscribed cell phone as I have done in the past when I left the US, I decided to try doing the local thing this time. Once arriving in Germany, it took me a few hours but I was able to find an unlocked Nokia phone (a very very cheapo one without bluetooth or anything else) for 40 Euros -- I think it may have been used as a demo, but its hard to know with the language barrier and to be honest I didn't care a bit. Then I puchased a SIM -- ......
10/30/2008Why I have such a hard line on the risk of Portal being over-pushed at LotusphereEarlier today I posted a list of things I think should be closely considered in the planning for Lotusphere 2009.... In among that list, I was pretty strong in my caution against over-pushing WAS and Portal in the way it was done for 2004. Ed came in to the defense of the Portal team, reminding me of the current date and of how there are several hundred people who came to Portal conventions earlier in the year. A couple of others have decried the value of that platform, which I still contend is a niche ......
10/30/2008The Lotusphere Thread -- What should IBM pay attention to this year in the planning?Every year there are good things and bad things at the Lotusphere conference. If you've got anything in mind for what they should really be aware of, lets post it here. I'll start... Food & Food Tent -- Having just the one was really great last year in that you could meet anyone you wanted to have lunch with. The downside was that it was very far away from the Swan, where all the "Best Practices" sessions take place. That's where I spend most of my conference time. Late Busses -- Many people have mentioned ......
10/29/2008A few pictures from AdminCamp 2008 in Gelsenkirchen, GermanyThis is the view from the balcony here at my hotel room.The lead organizer of this conference is Rudi Knegt. His has been a well known name in the IBM Lotus Business Partner community for about as long as I have, but I've never spoken at one of his conferences until now. I have to say I'm very impressed. As a speaker I can tell you that Rudi, his beautiful wife, and his conference team have gone to remarkable lengths to make sure I've had everything I could possibly need ---- and beyond that, also had a ......
10/27/2008AdminCamp - Another succesful Domino conferenceThis is the first time I've spoken at one of the AdminCamp conferences, and I'm quite impressed. The turnout seems to be excellent, as is the facility. Our hosts have been quite gracious in providing everything we could possibly need to provide a solid presentation and also to be comfortable and have a good time. Its good to see such a thriving community in Europe dedicated to the Domino ......
10/26/2008A long week of travel - finally settling in for Adminkamp in GermanyThis has been a really long week, but at least for a few days I should be able to catch my breath. Take a gander and you'll see what I mean. Tuesday: Leave home 10:30am Leave car at Bus in Portland 11:30am Arrive at Airport in Boston 1:45pm Leave "big" suitcase at Airport Hilton Catch Flight to Phoenix via Chicago 3:30pmWednesday Arrive Phoenix and get rental car 11:30pm (local time -- 2:30am for me) Arrive at my Mom's house 12:30am (3:30am for me) Spend the dayThursday Leave Phoenix by car for Flagstaff ......
10/25/2008Never forget the first rule of holesWhile I've been traveling a lot this week and had a very hard time keeping up with the blogging community, a certain train wreck just continues. I'd say I was speechless but we all know that's unlikely to ever happen. Lets say I'm a bit surprised to some that there are people still out in the blogging world without the slightest understanding of when they're doing themselves more damage on a daily basis. I suggest to anyone who reads this that in many things - blogging included - you should remember this ......
10/20/2008I'm leaving the country.I'm getting on a plane tomorrow for Arizona, where I'm presenting about Second Signal to a regional Chiefs meeting up near Kingman, then flying to Boston where I'll pick up my other suitcase and catch a flight the next morning to London. From there its on to Germany and Rudi-Con. I can't say I'm going to miss the political ads for the week I'm gone. They, along with some of the conversations I've had, have been increasingly shrill and irritating. When I travel overseas, I feel distinctly American. ......
10/20/2008More annoying McCain campaign speeches. What a shame he's abandoned so many principles.[] Here's a test: Watch any McCain speech from the last few weeks, and count how much time is spent talking about McCain's plans, McCain's ideas, and McCain's beliefs while also counting how much time is spent talking about Obama. I'm starting to forget why I ever liked this guy. He seems to have pretty much abandoned any attempt to manage his campaign toward a discussion of ideas at this point. I'm seeing his stump speeches devolve into little more than name calling and character bashing. The thing is, ......
10/19/2008I see dumb people! -- And not just the ones with with the wrong political signs in their yards...I do a lot of security review work, I write a lot of software in a lot of different languages. I sit in meetings with I.T. executives arguing about security issues. Do you know how many people make the same mistakes? Nearly all of them. When I do penetration testing for a major company, about 90% of the time I end up with a whole category of findings that comes down to "big new lock on a rusty old chain." Essentially, it comes down to the idea that you should never ever halfway lock something. You're ......
10/19/2008An amusing and productive -- if slightly irritating -- weekendAs I get ready for a long bout of travel I always get a bit rushed with things not done. It is exactly at this point that extra work pops up. First it was Ari's laptop that sucked a day of my time from me in a way I'll never get back. Just when I thought that was it, we had a power outage yesterday and the generator failed. All this while for some reason, I wasted too much time trying to be nice to someone who didn't even realize it. I don't do "nice" very often, so maybe I'm just not that good at it. lol. ......
10/18/2008Obama in a landslide -- while most media claim its a close race, in the actual EC votes that count, it isn't at all.One of the most unbiased, reliable, and clearly presented sites is FiveThirtyEight.com. That site combines all the polls and produces actual data you can read and interpret for yourself. They don't make predictions with it. They show you where things stand, and what the trend has been. As you can see from this image, the way the Electoral College plays out, this election is in all likelihood going to go Obama in a landslide of epic proportions. [] Why does the media want to show you stats that make it seem ......
10/17/2008If you make a bad blog post and don't like the result, what's the best way to deal with it?First of all, those of you who know what inspired me to write this, please keep it to yourselves. I do not mean this entry to be a dig at anyone or to re-open an argument. There is a valid topic for discussion here though. Here's my take: 1. It is perfectly valid, as a blogger, to remove an entire entry -- the original post as well as all the comments. Its your blog, and if you've made a mistake by posting a topic or responding to comments in a way that doesn't look like what you want on your blog, it is ......
10/15/2008Press Cancel to Continue -- A full day wasted on Windows VistaLast night, Ari's new laptop was issued a bunch of patches from Microsoft. This morning, the startup process ended with a blue screen. Every time. I started working with it at about 7am. I'll spare you the longest and most boring part of the story and just say that I was finally able to get a normal boot out of it by about 4pm. Here's a few things I learned: 1. If you start Vista in safe mode, you cannot use the Windows Installer to remove software. Brilliant. 2. Vista does have a better interface for ......
10/14/2008The C.U.L.T. Shirt preliminary design plan has been chosen!In a secret meeting held deep beneath the surface of the earth, protected from the sophisticated eavesdropping gear used against us, Lotus Geek and I met to discuss the shirts for Lotusphere 2009. We held a planning session with the aid of some good friends -- one of whom is a former candidate for the Nobel prize for fashion and design, another of whom is a graduate from the Sorbonne with a degree in humor, a masters degree in wit, and a PhD in repartee, and a third -- who's presence was unknown even to ......
10/11/2008Fair is Fair (thanks D.)I've had my share of problems with Dell Support, but today a representative did a good job for me and I figured I should point that out here, since I'd pointed out the problems in the past. My Dell D820 laptop -- now just over 2 years old -- has been getting some attention from me lately. The new drive is in, and I'm planning to keep this machine for at least another year. The keyboard is tired, though. One of the keys is loose, one sticks, etc. I decided I'd buy a replacement part and put it in. They're ......
10/10/2008Encrypting the new laptop drive - Truecrypt is free, incredibly secure, incredibly flexible softwareIf you have customer data, medical data, or anything confidential on your drive and you travel -- you owe it to everyone who counts on your security to encrypt your local data. Sure, your Notes databases can be easily encrypted but what about the rest of the stuff on your drive? Truecrypt - http://www.truecrypt.org/ -- is free, open source, and very powerful. Spend a few minutes on their site reading through the documentation and you can start to see just how paranoid some people are about their data. ......
10/08/2008Screen redraw problems with Firefox & Notes 8 -- or other big GUI apps? Here's a possible bandage...This is something that's getting increasingly reported in several forums. Among them are the Firefox Q&A forum, and some of the deeper tech Domino ones. Switching between applications -- particularly Firefox along with either Notes 8, DDE, Photoshop, Visual Studio, or other highly graphical applications -- seems to produce screen redraw problems after a while. The screen only partly re-draws, leaving the application that was last up "ghosted" on the screen. I've been searching and reading and testing, and ......
10/08/2008Ordered a birthday present for myself -- well, for my laptop anywayI've purchased almost no new computer hardware this year. The truth is, I've been focused this year on getting to zero debt (other than a reasonable mortgage which is about half way finished). To get there means not buying a new car and resisting the temptation to by a massive new desktop or really big server. It also means sticking with the Dell D820, now just over 2 years old. I like the D820 a lot though, so no real hardship there. Its a dual core 32 bit machine with plenty of battery life and RAM. What ......
10/08/2008Now, I'm really in my PRIME.[] No, not Optimus Prime. About a half hour from when I write this, my birthday comes around again. This year is a big one. No, not because it ends with a zero of a five. That's just silly. Those have nothing remotely interesting about them mathematically. No, this is a big one because its a Prime Number. The nice thing about making a big deal out of only PRIME number birthdays, is that the older you get, the less frequent they become. ......
10/07/2008What makes Vista so painful -- and why IBM had better learn from it.Microsoft Windows Vista hasn't been quite the glowing success they'd hoped. Despite years of effort, massive pre-rollout testing, and a marketing budget that would make MTV proud, it was met with a negative reaction by even those users who really don't understand what it is. Chris Linfoot's blog about Vista's problems happened to catch me with a similar subject in mind. Between that and a conversation with Volker yesterday, I decided to write about some of the things that IBM had best learn from the fall ......
10/07/2008Things I wish the client side rich text editor did in the Notes client.The more I write, the more I wish the classic editor in the Notes client would handle just a few more things in a reasonably intelligent way. Lately, these small annoyances have really compounded for me. Let me list a few here. If you agree, maybe someone at IBM who finds themselves in a role with some influence {*cough*edbrill*cough*} can pick up these and do something about it. #1. Let me use the control key with the mouse to select more than one thing at a time, even if they're not connected. For ......
10/05/2008What stops Linux from being a mainstream workstation operating system choice?Brad Linder over at Downloadsquad wrote an interesting little rant about trying to un-install something he didn't like on his Linux workstation. He's touching at the edges of the really important part of the problem. It takes a lot more than a stable kernel and some good packages of software to make a good end user desktop operating system. If you want to really understand how much work it really takes to turn Linux into a solid desktop OS, take a look at how much work Apple had to do on top of BSD to make ......
10/04/2008In light of Ed's promotion at IBM, I have some questions about how things work there. Maybe you have some too.As most of you in the Domino blogging community already know, Ed Brill -- long one of the strongest and staunchest supporters of the platform -- has been promoted to Director, End-User Messaging and Collaboration at IBM. That's a big deal. Its a big deal for Ed, of course, and its a big deal for all of us, as I believe Ed to have been very empathetic to the "right" side of many of the product battles you've seen referenced here and other places. I chose that word carefully, because I don't claim for a ......
10/04/2008Fantastic scenery today in Maine -- Twin Brooks Recreation Area and the Maine Pumpkin Festival - 30,000 pumpkins?Today was really beautiful in Maine. Caitlin had a soccer game this morning at Twin Brooks, so I took the camera along. Thanks to Photoshop, I made this 360 degree panoramic view from where I was standing. Click the link to see it much, much larger (500k). The rest of these pictures come from the Maine Pumpkinfest. This was held here at the Cumberland Fairgrounds today. Their goal was to break the world record for the number of lit pumpkins at something on the order of 30,000. I won't know until later ......
10/04/2008New Acronym: AYFKM -- Are You (Freakin) Kidding Me?I'm just back from a fire call not long ago. A fairly typical call. An alarm sounding at a home. No source of smoke. Homeowner has no idea why the alarm is going off. The 911 dispatcher instructs him to evacuate the residence while we're on the way. We get there, and he's out front. Though he's told dispatch that he's evacuated the house, as we're checking things out we come to find out that his wife and his young daughter are ASLEEP IN BED. AYFKM? True, this turned out to be a faulty detector. It happens. ......
10/03/2008Its time for C.U.L.T. Shirt Sponsorship Again! Don't ignore this then call me in November pleading for an open slot....Last year we gave away 1800 shirts. For those who don’t know, the C.U.L.T. shirt (Certified, Unofficial, Lotusphere, T-shirt) is a tradition that was originally started by Rocky Oliver (Lotus Geek) and Henry Newberry. In 2003, Henry decided to focus on other things, so for Lotusphere 2004 and ever since I’ve been doing that part of things. Generally speaking, Rocky and I – with help from our friends – come up with a theme for the shirts. The idea is to be somewhat topical, but mostly fun. Sometimes we make ......
10/03/2008Making Notes 8.x (including 8.5 beta) in Eclipse feel much faster.I've been reminded of this gem, given to me by skilled person I trust, which really speeds up the way Notes 8.x in Eclipse feels. I can't say if its actually faster, but it does feel much faster. I've heard some interesting stories about why this isn't set to a higher default, but since they're only stories I'm going to hold off repeating them. Use your file explorer to find this directory: UPDATED 10/12/2009 for Notes version 8.5.1 The file "jvm.properties" is now located in a new place. ......
10/02/2008SNTT: A very fast, very helpful reporting method from the Domino serverI don't do SNTT very often. When I do, its because I think there's some trick or other that you may actually find really useful. This week, a client needed a report out of a Domino application. There were a lot of ways I could have done this, but the one I chose ended up being very fast and made the client particularly happy. I thought I'd describe it here. The application is one in which files are posted for users of the site to download. Once made active, the system emails the users a special link. The ......
10/02/2008Speaking of office environments....here's mineI guess Paul started this -- or maybe someone else. I've seen other people's little work areas. All well and good if you don't need to ever put something down I guess. Here's my office from a few different angles. You can see that I've blocked or shaded the windows, made a ton of space around me to put stuff while I'm working, and generally created a cave environment. The office was built as part of the addition several years ago just specifically for use as my office. Its built so that it could be used as ......
10/01/2008The claim that these "Mortgage Backed Securities" (aka Mortgage Soup Cans) can't be properly valued is crap.How many times, when oil goes up over $150 a barrel, when home prices skyrocket to ridiculous levels, or for that matter when Disney charges you five bucks for a bottle of water, have you heard that "The Market Sets The Price"? Oil was worth $150 a barrel because that's what the marketplace said it was worth. A few weeks later it was only worth $90 a barrel. What changed? The opinion of the market on its value is what changed. The latest gem of a deregulatory ruling by the SEC (Securities and Exchange ......
09/26/2008Limited time: A usually private torrent tracker of which I am a member is accepting open referrals.If you are at all into torrents as a means of gaining access to content, you'll want to use this link: [ FYI: As this site has now announced its going to be private again, you'll need to ask me for a link ] This torrent site is quite good (stunningly so, actually). Membership is ranked and there are some rules to follow. Please make sure to read the rules and the faq. They're short, but you'll get the point. The most important thing to remember is that if you download a torrent, don't immediately shut off ......
09/24/2008My submissions for 2009 Lotusphere Best Practices - Come tell me which you would go to or suggest to others -- please...These are the sessions I've submitted for Lotusphere 2009 in the Best Practices track. If you are a player on the IdeaJam game, click on these and promote them please. ...please wait while they load from IdeaJam.... inwidth = 500;inheight = 320;id = "78C187F92050B897862574BF0004C15F";//-->inwidth = 500;inheight = 320;id = "E5AACB4D686CAE4F862574CE0067CBB1";//-->inwidth = 500;inheight = 320;id = "1AB8F22D926817F4862574CE006805C1";//-->inwidth = 500;inheight = 320;id = ......
09/24/2008Are you a fan of the original Star Trek series? Did you know there is another season?The original Star Trek series only ran for 3 seasons, from 1966 to 1969 and produced less than 80 episodes. After 42 years from its original air date, it can still be found playing on re-runs and can still be ordered in collections on DVD. The series is an icon for generations of idealistic science geeks, but its also so saturated through pop culture that references to it are still made in nearly every other genre. There are hundreds of Star Trek references in popular shows like Heroes, The Office, ER, The ......
09/24/2008Adobe Acrobat Reader has been DROPPED from all my systems, in favor of FoxitNot just good enough, its better. Foxit Software has a free replacement for Adobe Acrobat Reader for download. They offer a "Pro" pack of additional tools and utilities which are quite good as well, but the free reader is not only good replacement, it is better in many respects. How is it better? To begin with, its much faster to load. The difference is immediately noticeable. Adding to that, it doesn't bug me with updates every time I load it, then fail to properly install those updates. It doesn't load a ......
09/23/2008I have received a copy of the letter from Mr. Paulson to a state Senator, asking for funds. I post it here for your interest.DEAR ESTEEMED SENATOR; REQUEST FOR URGENT BUSINESS RELATIONSHIP FIRST, I MUST SOLICIT YOUR STRICTEST CONFIDENCE IN THIS TRANSACTION. THIS IS BY VIRTUE OF ITS NATURE AS BEING UTTERLY CONFIDENTIAL AND 'TOP SECRET'. I AM SURE AND HAVE CONFIDENCE OF YOUR ABILITY AND RELIABILITY TO PROSECUTE A TRANSACTION OF THIS GREAT MAGNITUDE INVOLVING A PENDING TRANSACTION REQUIRING MAXIMUM CONFIDENCE. WE ARE TOP OFFICIAL OF THE UNITED STATES TREASURY WHO ARE INTERESTED IN EXPORTING OF LOANS OUT OF OUR COUNTRY WITH FUNDS ......
09/19/2008Thinking about the current real estate crisis -- what's being done, what's not, and maybe what should beAs a result of the most recent abuse of good sense and lack of feduciary responsibilty, a lot of banks and a investment houses are stuck with a lot of houses that aren't worth the money they've loaned out on them. The problem then, is that the houses aren't good investments for the short term. We also have a need for housing for many people -- good people. It seems to me that what's missing is two things, not one. The first one is being tackled by the Fed -- spreading enough money into the credit system ......
09/16/2008The Completed Snowthrower Rebuilding ProjectI find it much easier to work on and repair a snow thrower on warm September evenings and weekends than on cold February mornings when I'm trying to get the car out. This year will be the 13th year of service for this MTD 8hp snow thrower. MTD products fill the lower cost market niche in equipment but my experience with their products has always been extremely positive. There are more expensive machines that are built to supposedly last longer -- and maybe they would. Would they last twice as long? They ......
09/15/2008The big "Mass Casualty Drill" on Saturday. I got to apply some cool tech proof of concepts.On Saturday, Cumberland Fire Department held a big "Mass Casualty" drill at the fairgrounds. More than 8 months in the planning, we invited dozens of agencies to take part including hazardous materials teams, the Red Cross, rescue departments from several towns, and of course victims volunteers. [] The scenario was fairly straightforward. An accident during the fair involving a school bus and a tanker full of gasoline in which the tanker began leaking product all over the place. It could happen. If you'll ......
09/09/2008Intel's new ATOM chip + Asus EEE PC 901XP - FTW!Before deciding on the new ASUS EEE PC 901 XP, I read as many performance reviews as I could find. I was trying to compare it with the VIA thin client chipset or even the Intel Celeron but none of the tests really gave me what I was looking for. See, the clock speed (the mhz or ghz of a chip) doesn't tell the whole story. [] If a chip has fewer base instructions, it needs a higher clock speed to do the same things. At the same time, chips with more complex instruction sets can run fewer cycles and get the ......
09/08/2008Hundred Pushups Challenge: Day 0 - The initial testI saw a couple of other people giving this a shot and I thought it might be a good, simple way to improve my strength so I've started their simple (free) program. Take a look at the [Hundred Pushups Challenge] for more information. The initial test is just as simple as doing a series of good, honest pushups and counting them up. Compare this on a chart for your age, and you get the initial ranking. For my age, I come out in "Rank 3" to start with -- so that's got me starting about a third of the way ......
09/08/2008Do you care about Domino performance in a way you can do something with? Say so on ideaJamMac has asked that if we're planning to submit a session in the BP track that we post the idea up in IdeaJam to see what kind of support its got. I want to do a Performance session in the BP track this year. I usually do security, admin, mail routing, and linux -- and I'll probably post those as well -- but this year I want to do "Performance" in a way that makes sense in the real world. You see, real world Domino performance issues aren't all about the simple stuff like memory and number of disks. There's ......
09/08/2008Could we finally be seeing a good E-Ink product hitting the streets?Imagine if the newspaper organizations could get back to spending their money on reporters and research in depth instead of the materials, infrastructure, fuel, and overhead associated with distribution? []Plastic Logic] seems to be one of the first to actually near market with a reasonable E-Ink alternative. Their product is about the size, shape, and width of a magazine – and is at least somewhat flexible. It also has a long battery life, and can display several standard formats – including PDF. Best of ......
09/07/2008Saw a pretty cool bit of tech on Discovery Discover Channel (http://www.Discovery.com) has a new series called ["Project Earth"]. The series seems to feature each week a new experiment aimed at solving some aspect of the energy or climate challenges we're told we all face. It looks like some of the shows in the series are pretty oddball -- I saw one that involved giant rotating balloons that were supposed to float all the way up at altitudes where the wind is fast and constant. It looked kind of crazy. I watched one tonight though, via the DVR, ......
09/04/2008If you could pick the topic you wanted from me at LS09, what would it be?Fall is here. Lotusphere 2009registration is open now, as is the call for abstracts. If you could pick my topic, what would you want me to cover? In the past, the Security Jumpstart I do with Gab has been very well attended with a repeat and both sessions really full, so we'll update that with all the new 8.5 stuff and submit that one for sure. Other than that, there's a ton of stuff I'm thinking about. Is there one you've seen me do that you think is worth repeating? Is there a new topic you think I ......
09/03/2008Trendspotting: What Google is really starting with ChromeAside from being a fairly cool -- if a bit undercooked -- new browser, Chome has another lesson for us. Google has very specifically NOT created an incremental bloatware version of existing code. They've built something new from nearly the ground up, embedding the proven technologies they needed -- javascript by V8, and rendering by Webkit. Only by starting from scratch were they able to get some of the size, memory management, and security enhancements that form the core of their promising new ......
09/03/2008Using the management of their campaigns to learn about the candidatesSome things about these two political campaigns have struck me recently as glimpses of what to expect from an administration led by either candidate. It isn't a perfect picture, but it is telling in a way. It also matches what I think about these two men so clearly my own viewpoint is mixed in richly in the interpretation. To be clear about that bias, I should state here that I am currently planning to vote for Obama, though will not vote an entirely Democratic party ticket. We have some very good ......
09/02/2008Chrome - Google's new Web Browser. Super tool, still needs a few things.Google's new browser, called "Chrome" made a rocking debut today. Its got a lot going for it, and a few things to catch up with. First, what's great: 1. Fast. Damn fast. Really really fast. The more AJAX on a site, the faster it will seem. 2. Tabs turn into windows - just tear them off. You can do it with an add on for Firefox, but there you go. 3. Much better "sandboxing" for security. 4. Each tab is its own operating system process. That makes for way better memory management. 5. One tab that's hung or ......
08/28/2008Have you used the Asus EEE PC? I've got a couple of unusual questionsI'm considering the Asus EEE PC as an option for Second Signal base station units. The 900 looks fast enough by specs, and in all other regards is more than sufficient. I do have a few questions about the units though, that can be answered by people who have owned one. 1. Is there a fan? Is this unit passively cooled or is there a cooling fan that comes on? 2. Can the unit run in an "Always On" state reliably? 3. Can the unit run with the laptop screen closed without overheating? Did you have problems with ......
08/28/2008Blogging Respite - A long couple of weeksJust a heads up. Its been a long week or so between the unexpected kitchen remodeling, and some other things that took too much of my time. On top of all that, This week the kids are home from all summer programs but school hasn't yet restarted. That's been true for two weeks but this week is my turn to "stay home" from work to watch them. Ari made her Junior Varsity soccer team and has been having either two practices a day or a practice and a game every day for two weeks -- and she needs a ride to and ......
08/23/2008The disturbing case of the Fridge, and cabinets built by Dr. Seuess. * Updated with picturesAfter 20 years of wanting one, I've finally got a fridge that has an ice maker. Unfortunately, that's the beginning of the story not the end. You see, our kitchen cabinets where built by Dr. Seuess. When I measured for the width of the fridge, I checked the measurement at the floor, at counter height, and then again with the upper cabinet. All were fine. Tight, but fine. Then the fridge came. Although all the widths were fine, they were unfortunately offset from one another by as much as half an inch. I ......
08/17/2008From Caitlin: "Dad, are the Olympic medals solid gold?" The answer is interesting...Gold is not a practical material to make solid objects from. They won't tarnish, but they will not last either. The first and second place medals are solid silver, while the first place medal is plated with at least six grams of gold. This year's medals also use Jade in their construction and are quite special. The host nation has some flexibility in how the Olympic medals are made and their materials, without strict standards of the IOC (International Olympic Committee). Here's a brief article that talks ......
08/12/2008The mis-use of Twitter as a chat room - and what to do about itTwitter has ripped through our community like a wave, capturing the time wasting cycles and a few more than that from quite a few people. The problem is, its totally the wrong tool for us. Twitter is meant to be a tool to tell your friends and followers "what you're doing" so they can meet up with you. It isn't meant as a chat room at all. Most messages should be one line saying "I'm here, doing this." Twitter has become -- for many in the Domino Blogger community -- a kind of limited chat room. Why? ......
08/12/2008Olympics Coverage Chat Room - Will continue for the duration -- and a side question: Did the Mongolian Team have to breach the Great Wall to come play?The skype based Olympics coverage chat room was reasonably cool last night. I'm going to leave it "Open" for the duration. Just follow the link here: http://bit.ly/3A23oV And you can join or leave at will. You do need skype, but that's free and quick. You do not have to exchange details with others in the chat. Its public. It seems to be most active during the East Coast Prime Time coverage on NBC, but since there are like fifty different channels and online streams feel free to us it whenever and however ......
08/11/2008The Smarmy Comments Public Olympic Chat RoomI've set up a Public Chat on Skype. Its new functionality so you need a recent copy of Skype -- just follow this link, download Skype if you need to, and join the sarcasm fest. ......
08/11/2008Cumberland Explorer Fire Academy 2008Cumberland Fire Department Explorer Academy 2008Explorers and Junior Firefighters from several towns were invited to participate in this year's Academy. The students lived at the station for five days, training in all aspects of firefighting. They ran calls with the fire department and were able to do nearly everything firefighters do.These pictures were taken at the Yarmouth, Maine training site. This structure has three floors and a basement and has been made safe for training. It has shutters for the ......
08/09/2008Running OSX in a Virtual Machine under Windows XP - Blasphemy?Behind me as I sit at my desk, there currently sits an Apple eMac G4. It has only one purpose - testing web pages with a real copy of Safari running on OSX. I realize there's a Safari for Windows now, but I don't trust it to always give me the same results. What I really hate most about it is the size of the thing. I never should have gotten one with a built in screen, but all I can say is that it seemed like a good idea at the time. That was a few years ago. I've wanted to run OSX in a VMWARE session for ......
07/29/2008Major software switch - Dropping Grisoft's AVG and trying out Avast!I used to love AVG, the free anti-virus software. Each version has gotten worse however, not better. The latest changes have it so intrusive that I've decided to drop it. On recommendation, I'm trying Avast! and from what I can tell, it is much more powerful, much less obtrusive, and seems to use less system resources. I was able to quickly configure it to watch my P2P connections, instant message session, smtp & pop mail sessions, and of course in memory viruses -- but also to leave my Notes data alone. I ......
07/25/2008What image to project in a professional photo?I've been asked again for a suitable photo to use in publication. This happens from time to time if you speak and write and isn't that big a deal. The problem is that the last one I had done by a pro is now something close to seven years old. That's it on the left. It was taken by friend who is a professional photographer. You can see that he did a hell of a job making me look better than I should. In fact, my favorite comment ever about this photo was from someone who said "He did a great job. It really ......
07/25/2008The most fundamental things missing from web browser standardsDeveloping content for the web is frustratingly limited. That's no secret. What are the top must fundamental missing features that should long ago have been fully and completely solved? Here's my quick hit list: #1. Fonts. Any font should be able to be easily referenced on a web page universally. I know you can embed fonts for some browsers but there are no good ways to really embed a custom font that everyone will see. As a result, we spend all day looking at boring (though readable) fonts. Now, I know ......
07/21/2008Favorite Tools #4: MagicDiscIts all about the Magic. MagicDisc (aka MagicISO) is another of those tools you won't be able to live without once you get to know it. Remember when software used to come on CDROM and later DVDROM disks? Back in the days before you downloaded everything? Well, it still does. Many of the downloaded software you get will be in "ISO" format or one of a dozen or so other "virtual drive" formats. These files are meant to be burned to CD or DVD and then used as a disk in the drive. MagicISO sits in your system ......
07/21/2008Extended Validation Certificates -- Or "How can top level registrars screw you even more?" (already hacked, btw)It isn't enough for Verisign and their ilk to suck a hundred bucks a year from every mom and pop internet shop on the market. Now they've created a new standard with the purpose of turning that $100 cost into $500 a year. By paying for this "Extended Validation Certificate" you get a new special certificate that turns the address bar "GREEN". The browser makers have been talked into supporting this apparently. Next comes the big advertising campaign that tells all the shoppers out there that if it doesn't ......
07/20/2008Lots of Fire stuff this weekend. Fireworks detail, and a bunch of people who just don't think.So this weekend, between working on Domino and Asterisk, I had a lot of firefighting stuff to do. First, on Saturday afternoon a down power line call came in literally 500 yards from my house, just over on the next street. I went direct and had someone toss my gear on the first due Engine. It turned out the line was a high voltage service line that feeds the transformers which then feed the houses a few at a time. This line had come off the pole and was laying across the grass and driveway of someone's ......
07/19/2008Data Dashboard challenge in Notes - Better sometimes, than using an RDBThis challenge is about dealing with a significant volume of raw data, and reporting on in a useful way. The fundamental difference in working with data in Notes versus working with it in a relational database, is that while typically an RDB can handle more raw data, viewing that raw data through reports only gives you exactly what you ask for. Notes on the other hand presents data in "Views" which are much more organic -- particularly if you've designed them well. You don't just see what you're asking ......
07/17/2008The hunt for a laptop for Ari - What is the perspective of a 14 year old on this purchase?The middle school here has a laptop program so for the last couple of years, Ari has had the use of a little Mac laptop. She also has a PC in her room that she's had for some time. Its not a great one, but its sufficient. As we're getting ready for High School this year, we've been looking to get her a laptop. We're willing to pay for what she needs -- enough that it will be a good machine -- but we're not paying for extras. She'd have to make up the difference. I think manufacturers could learn a thing or ......
07/17/2008Favorite Tools #3: Desk PinsContinuing my recent theme of talking about the little tools that I use on constant basis to make my work more efficient, this one is called "Desk Pins", ......
07/16/2008One form to rule them all....I've just completed a major piece of automation work for Second Signal. When I add a new department, there are quite a few things that have to get set up. Asterisk has to be configured with connection information for the remote software. Access groups have to be created. Time zone information looked up and entered in. Scripts for managing audio files need to be updated. Directories on the Linux file system have to be created, telephone numbers have to be linked to the right audio data locations. Pager ......
07/15/2008Favorite Tools #2: MWSnap! Fantastic tool for taking partial screenshotsWhen I'm speaking at conferences, I try to put plenty of screen shots in the presentation. I do this so you can take my presentations and print them out to work with as guides. The tool I use for taking screen shots is "MWSnap". ......
07/14/2008Great free file degragmentation tool -- from the same people who make CCLEANERI was updating my copy of CCLEANER this evening when I saw they same people have a new tool out. Defraggler seems to work very well, its very fast, and its free. I've used other tools by these guys with good success. One of the things I like most about Defraggler is that you can see what files are fragmented, sort them by pathname, and select which ones you want to bother defragmenting. I couldn't care less if a bunch of temp files are fragged. CCLEANER is going to delete them anyway. Instead, I degragged ......
07/14/2008Critical Security Patch - Did you miss this? Update your DNS servers immediately.Several days ago a major announcement was made about a fundamental flaw in the DNS protocol -- one of the most important underlying bits of infrastructure that makes the internet possible. This is not a flaw in the implementation by any specific vendor. This is a fundamental flaw in the protocol itself so: Nearly every single operating system and appliance that provides name service caching is susceptible This Network World article has details, as does this CNET "D3F3NS3 1N D3PTH" feature. You'll find a ......
07/14/2008Project Atlantic is the Killer App if you're an SAP shop - Updated IBM Website has examplesIBM's project "Atlantic" is a joint work between IBM and SAP that is going to blow the doors off any previous integration with SAP by IBM, Lotus, or Microsoft. To make it even better, No Portal Server Required. This is a Notes solution at its very core, and the work is done very well. I think this is going to stop a lot of migrations away from Notes in their tracks, and drive many customers who may have been on the fence about a client side upgrade toward the 8.5 client very soon after it is ......
07/14/2008What is the best data plan for roaming laptop access when I'm in the E.U for a week this fall?The only real down side I have with the Verizon Wireless laptop card I use is that because it is CDMA based it won't work when I go to Europe. In the past I've always just rented a cheap phone and that's been good enough. This year, I want to do better. I've gotten very very used to the idea of my laptop being able to get a decent speed connection to the internet pretty much everywhere whenever I want. I'd like to be able to do the same thing in Europe. I've found data connectivity in hotels there isn't ......
07/12/2008IndyMac bank failure - Does this mean my mortgage payments are over?I realize the news reports all seem to make it look as though these failing financial institutions were all spending their time defrauding each other and their investors, bilking innocent unwed mothers out of their savings, and stealing houses. Clearly that doesn't tell the whole story, because our experience with IndyMac has been positive. ......
07/11/2008Updated Blog Template - Finally on-lineThis is a new template applied to the existing data, so all your comments and feedback should still be here. I plan to extend this template to the main NCT site very soon, and then the links across the top will make more sense as the whole of the "NCT" site and the "BLOG" site will finally be a single integrated user interface. Let me know if you see anything that isn't working. Try using the site search, that is the biggest change I've ......