Andrew Pollack's Blog

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  1. 12/17/2007Another Storm, Another Fire, & Driving a Bus in the SnowSome of you who've worked with me have commented that I tend to be very quick to change direction if things aren't going the way I'd planned. I don't marry an idea. I try hard to know when its time to go in another direction. Last night's events are a case in point as to why that's not a bad way to work. This has been a heck of a December for snowfall. I don't think we've seen the front yard uncovered since the beginning. We got another 8 inches of very cold, very dry snow yesterday which was then covered ......
  2. 12/15/2007O.K. I've relented and got rid of the ugly CSS. At least I hope so. You'll have to tell me if this is better. What this has really been all about is an update to the site. Aside from generally cleaning it up, standardizing the fonts, and other such junk, I've built in a bit of a color scheme management feature. I can now create and save color schemes using a form (as in the picture below). Then, in a configuration record for this blog site, I can switch between them using a simple radio button to pick between the defined color schemes. The CSS for this ......
  3. 12/13/2007Ho Ho Ho --- Holiday CSS colors on this site now.[Updated 12/14/2007 at 23:55] - I couldn't take it any more. I've decided to roll out some new design a little early. I recommend squinting a bit, and maybe shielding your eyes. Nathan in particular may be off his lunch for a while after viewing. The whole point of CSS was that you could over lay different looks without rebuilding the site. I thought I'd give it a try tonight. Maybe I'll give up on it and go back really ......
  4. 12/12/2007Ok, time for a new cell phone, so I'm going to solicit some e-pinions here...I know there are a ton of you people using crack-berries. I also know some prefer the Windows CE devices. The CE has an advantage to me in that writing apps for it will be a trivial change for me given that I'm already pretty comfortable in vs.NET. Still, crackberries are all the rage. Let me tell you what I currently have and what my goals are -- then you tell me what to look at. Right now, I have a Motorola e815. Its your basic clamshell phone, but a good one. It has the "Get it Now" from Verizon and ......
  5. 12/08/2007WWRD?WWRD? What Would Raj Do? Mary Beth Raven is talking about the latest "persona" they've created as part of their user-experience work. Raj is a Notes Developer. He's not real. He's what's called a "straw man" -- a stand in for the Domino Developers and Notes Developers out there. He's how the user-experience folks will be thinking about the day to day work process from the standpoint of someone doing that kind of work. When I'm writing code, I frequently have a real person in mind for the user. I try to ......
  6. 12/08/2007Existential Server AdministrationI've arranged for a new server, and while getting it set up have noticed something interesting. You start out by getting a login name and password, which you can then use to open a secure command shell session on your new server. We're talking about remotely hosted machines here, where access is primarily through a command line shell, or maybe a browser utility you like. Even though the operating system is what you asked for, the configuration is somewhat different than what you're used to. Your favorite ......
  7. 12/04/2007Some snow pictures after the stormIt wasn't exactly the "Storm of the Century" as the various T.V. panic people were talking about, but we did get a fair amount of snow. About 9 inches total over the course of around 20 hours. Take a look. a.picture { border:none ; margin:5px }Click any of these to see the picture ......
  8. 12/03/2007Headed for Philly tomorrow. Anyone feel like getting together?I'm flying in for a client site visit Wednesday and Thursday, and staying up in the Malvern / Valley Forge area. Anyone feels like getting together drop me a ......
  9. 12/03/2007Snow Day!Its a Snow Day here at Northern Collaborative and at Second Signal, our wholly owned subsidiary (yeah, they're both just me). We're expecting between 10 and 16 inches of fresh snow by tomorrow morning. So far we have around 4 or 5. Yesterday, I took the spouse-mobile (a 2004 Honda mini van) down to the fire station, pulled Engine 1 out on the ramp, backed the spouse-mobile in, closed the bay door, and swapped the regular wheels and tires for snows (on the van, not the fire engine). It was nice to be able ......
  10. 11/23/2007Posted some ideas to IdeaJamIf you haven't checked out IdeaJam yet, you should. I've posted three Ideas to get started. Bruce has done a great idea with the concept and it looks very workable. Use RSS feeds to keep up with new ideas, then vote them up or down. inwidth = 500;inheight = 150;id = "3C0AB5C09EADFDA08625739C007FF0C2";//-->inwidth = 500;inheight = 150;id = "935851559D016E708625739C00807A4B";//-->inwidth = 500;inheight = 150;id = ......
  11. 11/22/2007It looks like the session schedules are already starting to get filled in for LS 2008If you haven't already gone to the Lotusphere Sessions site and picked your preferences, you should really do so soon. The schedule is built based in large part on which ones you say you're planning to attend. Gab and I are doing our Jumpstart on Domino Security again this year, and that one is already scheduled with a big room and a repeat. I'm sure the Jumpstarts are easier to schedule as they have specific slots to deal with, so that why its in there so soon. The preliminary schedule looks like Gab and ......
  12. 11/20/2007Domino 8 on Linux - CentOS 5Well, my test platform ( allSpark ) had to undergo a reinstall. The Domino version 8 install won't run properly on CENTOS 4, which is what I had on there. CENTOS 5 works fine though. I'm sure with enough digging I could have found what was missing and added the right packages. I think it was java related. In any case, neither is a "supported" platform so it may be a bit of a moot point. For those who follow such things, I can confirm that CENTOS 5 does provide all the goodies the Domino 8 server needs. ......
  13. 11/20/2007My Lotusphere Sessions with their official links & descriptionsFor those of you looking forward to Lotusphere 2008, here's the official summary of my sessions. For those of you not looking forward to this event, or not planning to go -- if you're doing work with Notes and Domino, you're very foolish not to be there this year.Understanding Security in IBM Lotus Notes and Domino- Gabriella Davis & Andrew PollackSecure your environment. The Lotus Notes and Domino product suite offers an extensive array of features which work together to provide a strong, flexible, and ......
  14. 11/19/2007Interesting Day - I finally got around to starting my testing with a new version of Asterisk Domino administrators are spoiled. A new version comes out, we upgrade and it works. Its gotten so you barely have to test even a major revision. Backward compatibility is part of the QA process. The rest of the world is not that friendly to upgrades. A few months back I put a new linux based test server together. Its been sitting and waiting for me to start testing ever since. You may recall that I named my new server "AllSpark" after the device of the same name from the Transformers movie. Its a 64bit ......
  15. 11/18/2007Question for any Prius or other Hybrid car owners.I want to know. How many of you have driven with the headlights off a bit longer than you would otherwise do? How many have turned off the radio - or just turned it down? What else have you done while driving, secretly hoping to extend the time on the batteries and make it just a little further without that engine starting ......
  16. 11/18/2007Found a new RSS feed reader I really like. Its called AlestiI used to use Sharpreader, but that doesn't share well. Foxmarks is good in theory, but it seems to loose track of updates. The RSS reader in Notes 8 doesn't make me happy, and paying for a better one isn't my style. I'd sooner write one myself. In looking around, I came across "Alesti" http://www.alesti.org/ , and I'm back to keeping up with RSS feeds again. Its web based, but doesn't feel like a web application. It uses a three pane interface, with bookmarks on the left, titles in the upper right, and ......
  17. 11/15/2007Reviewing the Charleston, South Caroline fireA tough evening last night. As part of our monthly officers meeting at the fire department, we listened to a good portion of the radio traffic from the tragic fire in Charleston, South Carolina last August. We also had some photographs and location markers to see where things happened. In that fire, nine good men died. Before I talk much about what seems to have gone so terribly wrong, I want to point out a few things. 1. It is much easier to criticize the incident after the fact, than to manage it as it ......
  18. 11/13/2007The template for presentations at Lotusphere 2008 isn't ready yet. So I took a guess today.Ok, this is fake. I made it as a joke, based on templates from the past. This one hits all my "Favorite" things about Lotusphere slide templates. Anyone else want to take stab at ......
  19. 11/13/2007Product Recommendation - Philips SHE9500 Ultra Sound In Ear Headphones ......
  20. 11/08/2007A shout out to Tom DuffTom Duff sent me a book he wrote abouton his blog. The content is right up my alley.Its a solid technical look at how hardware interfaces are used. It is a strange thing, because there are some topics in there that are really old hat -- the software side of the interfaces and communication protocols in particular. Some of the hardware I'm fairly comfortable with as well. I'm not exactly new to the use of a soldering iron. Then there are places where the content is totally new. I've never built a digital ......
  21. 11/03/2007We are a soccer household... ......
  22. 11/03/2007Come see me at Lotusphere 2008 - Here are the 3 sessions I'm doingI'm going to be giving three sessions this year, and I'm really excited by all of them. I really hope you'll come see them.Linux for the IBM Lotus Domino Administrator-- Zombies & daemons aren't just for killing! This session is updated from last year and its my new favorite. So many people are using Domino on Windows servers more because they aren't comfortable with Linux than because they've made a choice that they like Windows better.This session is designed to give the Linux newbie everything they need ......
  23. 11/02/2007The most insanely sick picture of lightening I've ever seen.This pic is copyrighted and being shown on a site that probably paid for it, so I'm linking to it by not displaying it in line. Link to Lightening PicWe're expecting some heavy weather here in the next 24 hours. It should be a fun day on the fire ......
  24. 10/31/2007Finally figured out an oddness in Notes 8 that I've had for a good whileI've used the keyboard shortcuts for "Create Mail Message" and "Create Mail Reply" for years, but since upgrading to the Notes 8.0 BETA I didn't have them. They simply were gone from the menus.I knew these were a function of a check box on the property settings of the forms in the mail file, so I assumed when I checked that design that they'd been accidentally left off by development during the beta. When I upgraded to the Notes 8.0 client, however, they didn't come back.I checked the properties box on the ......
  25. 10/30/2007Designing your web site for YOUR target browsers - Not just "global" standardsSecond Signal's web site has been the focus of a great deal of my time recently. I'd love to use all that screen real estate on the right side that my laptop's wide screen shows, but before even attempting that I needed to understand what other people would see. There are lots of sites out there declaring that most people are using 1280x1024 screens now that LCD panels have been standardizing on that at 17" for so long. Other sites say the majority are 1024x768 still. Pretty much nobody is running at ......
  26. 10/27/2007Laptop Performance Quest - An affordable way to use SSD (Solid State Disks) in my current laptop.Solid State Disk -- essentially big flash drives in the shape of and with interface level compatibility with internal laptop drives -- is here. They don't compete for size with traditional spinning drives, and won't soon for anything close to the same cost. But they can be used effectively. What got me started this time was realizing that I had this modular drive bay in my Dell D820 that is currently filled with a CD/DVD that almost never is needed. I found a $50 unit that goes in the same bay, and is ......
  27. 10/25/2007Domino 7.0.3 in ProductionJust a quick heads up on the newly released Domino 7.0.3. I've had it up in production for several days. All is well. Performance may be improved. Of most value to me is the ability to reduce the time a users credentials are kept in cache. Since new users to Second Signal get added to groups as they join departments, updating the cache sooner has a distinct impact on their experience. This should also help with password changes and password refreshes (user forgets password so a new one is sent) being ......
  28. 10/22/2007Web access and logs are, in the end, about people.After the press release last week, and today's announcement of a referral program, I've been keeping a pretty close eye on the log files for Second Signal's public web pages. To do that, I've built a view that really limits what is shown. It only shows specific documents that are on the web site. It shows no image requests, and filters out nearly all web crawler robots. It also filters out my own addresses. What I'm left with is a very clear view of what pages people are actually reading, how long they're ......
  29. 10/22/2007iRobot Roomba 560 vs. 3 Kids, 2 working parents, 1 cat, lots of mess.The short verdict - its a keeper. For a nice change, the product actually does pretty much what it says it does. It isn't perfect, but the carpets and floors are cleaner with it than without it. It isn't entirely effortless, but the combination of cool factor and function do result in the job getting done better and more often than before. I've been very skeptical of these things. They're small - more akin to a little rechargeable dust buster than a full sized vacuum. They're self-roaming -- I had little ......
  30. 10/19/2007What old favorites live on your hard disk? How old is your oldest? Can you still remember what they do?Some of these may be older than some of you reading this blog. I was going through the file system on my laptop as part of generally cleaning it up. I do that once in a while -- removing old junk, uninstalling software I tried once and didn't like, generally putting things to rights. Anyway, as I was looking at the file system, I came across a directory I've copied from machine to machine for quite a while now. In fact, I've copied this little directory full of utilities through more upgrades than I can ......
  31. 10/18/2007Second Signal - Today's press release starts up the big pushThis press release went out today. It marks an end to the tinkering and the first real push to get this thing out in as many places as I can. I don't usually do "sales stuff" on this blog, but it seems pointless not to put up my own press releases. Second Signal Helps Small Town Firefighters Save Lives and PropertyUsing cutting edge technology, Second Signal is helping fire departments across the country better respond to daytime emergencies.Thursday October 18, 8:43 am ETCUMBERLAND, Maine, Oct. 18 2007-- ......
  32. 10/17/2007Attention IBM Partners - Domino 7.03 is now out for distribution -- or so I'm told -- but don't wait. Partnerworld is going down AGAIN at Noon Eastern US time on Friday the 19th.Apparently, it is our responsibility to "Please Plan Accordingly" IBM Partners who want access to IBM software, must pay IBM $795 a year. For this, they get access to the worst download interface I have ever come across and a web site that just shuts down for a few days at a time whenever they decide to perform "Maintenance" on it. IBM Partners have been screaming about this kind of garbage for years, but mostly in forums with limited access. There has been little response from the Partnerworld program ......
  33. 10/16/2007My Mother-In-Law the ComputerPeople have histories that you never really consider deeply enough. I had a really interesting conversation with my wife's mother over the weekend. She had asked about the route I'd planned to take, as I needed to go from her place on the coast up to Bangor where Coryn had a soccer game. I answered that I didn't know; I'd just plugged in the field's address on the GPS, and it told me I'd need about two hours to get there. I would do what it said and get there within a few minutes of that estimate. Instead ......
  34. 10/08/2007The results of the Falmouth Fall Classic (Soccer)Cumberland's U14G division 2 team (Coryn's team) beat Saco again, dominating most of the game and winning the finals! Cumberland's U14G division 1 team (Ari's team) beat the other Saco team then faced Gorham in the finals. Gorham beat PAYSA 6-2 in their semifinal and was considered by all to be the heavy favorite for the win -- and the overall win at the State Cup level when all is said and done. The final went 1-1 through over time and into sudden death where at the last minute Gorham scored, ending the ......
  35. 10/07/2007Tommorrow is Andrew Day. It is a national holiday. Banks will be closed. Schools will be closed. The Government will be closed (but who can tell). Many people will be home from work. Why? Columbus day you say? Nope. Tomorrow is Andrew's Birthday. Here's a hint, it's a big one, and the least significant digit is a zero. ......
  36. 10/07/2007Soccer Update -- Coryn's U14G Division 2 team won their game today, leaving them #2 in their grouping.Oddly, finishing second in their group puts them in the finals against the the very team they beat today. The game was close and it could be anyone's game tomorrow. That's what happens when they're only one group in your division I guess. Ari's team plays in the Semi-Finals at 8:30am tomorrow. If they win that game -- and they should, as they've beaten that team twice before -- they play in the finals against their arch rivals from Gorham who have an extremely strong team and beat them 2-0 last time they ......
  37. 10/07/2007Another holiday weekend, another soccer tournament - Ari plays with an injurySoccer, soccer, and more soccer. Caitlin has been playing at the AYSO level. AYSO -- the "American Youth Soccer Organization" is an "everyone plays" recreation level league. I've actually done coaching in this league. They teach parent-coaches the basics and it really isn't hard to do since you're really just teaching the basics of the game and keeping the kids happy, safe, and excited. AYSO's principals are great for getting kids into the game. The league tracks kids and coaches carefully. No favorites, ......
  38. 10/04/2007Is Transparent Aluminium Here?"New Material is extremely strong — and TransparentThe stuff is really strong, really stiff, and lasts a long time. It isn't porn though, it is a polymer. From TFA: "Science Daily — By mimicking a brick-and-mortar molecular structure found in seashells, University of Michigan researchers created a composite plastic that's as strong as steel but lighter and transparent."TFA: ......
  39. 09/30/2007Congratulations to the German Women's World Cup Team!My daughters and I have been watching the Women's World Cup by tape delay over the last couple of weeks. Although we were disappointed by the loss of the USA team to Brazil last week in the semi-finals, it was still great fun to watch the games. Brazil plays with all the passion and heat you'd expect from Brazilians. They have some amazing talent, including a 21 year old who is possibly the best woman playing the game at present. Marta as so amazing to watch that you can't help but appreciate the way she ......
  40. 09/28/2007If your union runs your benefits, who do you strike against?Health Care costs in the U.S. are driving the costs and decisions of nearly everything else now. Companies like GM which have obligations negotiated over past decades in this area are finding these costs strangling as they have to compete with newer manufacturers that build plants in non-union states or have contracts negotiated more recently that manage health care differently. GM cites a $10 per hour per employee cost difference as a result. Enter the most recent negotiations with the UAW. GM has managed ......
  41. 09/25/2007Common cold, or geek let down?Since getting back from IBM in Westford on Friday night, I've been pretty under the weather with a low grade fever and stuffed up head. It could be just a common cold (when will they finally cure this?) but it could be geek let down after two days of some really good future tech. I don't do fever well at all, so I'm mostly sleeping it off. I'll write more on the weekend once this thing is ......
  42. 09/23/2007The Domino Server and Lotus Notes client have an exciting futureI (and some others) had a recent opportunity to participate in some long term future discussions with the IBM development teams. I can't talk directly about anything specific that I've been shown, but I cannot help but report that the future has more cool stuff in it than I'd thought possible in a much shorter time frame. The IBM teams are focused on making the product more robust, much easier (and less expensive) to support, and much more easily integrated with -- well, pretty much everything. The ......
  43. 09/15/2007Government is not formed from the top down.Nation Building is a 20th Century idea and it’s time to move on. I’m speaking of course about what we’re trying to do in Iraq, but the discussion is much larger than that. The whole of the 20th century with all its fantastic advances in health, wealth, and happiness for the world’s wealthier nations has been a disaster defined by nothing so much as the – sometimes unintended -- consequences of our misguided attempts to bring our brand of success and values to the less successful and less powerful. The more ......
  44. 09/12/2007Certified Unofficial Lotusphere Tee-shirt -- Sponsors Requested!Certified Unofficial Lotusphere Tee-shirt Once again it is time to sign up sponsors for the annual C.U.L.T. As always, we’re running late. Rocky will be posting this year’s top-10 poll soon, meanwhile I need to start setting aside sponsorships and planning for the number of shirts. One of this year’s goals is to create a fun shirt that people will want to wear – The design will be something a little bit less gaudy but still fun. This year’s theme isn’t a secret (though of course the final top ten list will ......
  45. 09/02/2007All I want for Lotusphere 2008 is a.....Its months away, but the planning is in gear so I thought I'd jump in here with the top item on my wish list. I've given feedback like this privately to a few people; but its time to ask for in a more public way. ( EDIT NOTE: I am specifically referring to using the Eclipse Based Lotus Notes client to access data stored on a Domino Server) I want to go at least one, maybe as many as three serious sessions about creating new style applications for Domino in the Eclipse Framework. Here's the rub though -- I ......
  46. 08/31/2007Some countries can no longer access my servers.I've been going through my logs. Not just web server logs, but also SMTP logs, firewall logs, etc. I did some quick analysis of IP addresses by country, and created a simple ratio of friendly hits to unfriendly ones. By unfriendly I mean password hack attempts, spam attack attempts, exploit attempts, probes, and all the other ugly shit. Based on that, I've blocked all IP addresses in some countries. All of them. Entire countries. In most of them, there was not a single "Friendly" hit compared to thousands ......
  47. 08/30/2007School Has Started!7:30 and already there is peace and quiet. Having a home office is great. You can be there for your kids when needed, work after hours, take care of home stuff during working hours, and general make whatever use of time you need. Its also terrible. It mixes home and work time in the worst possible ways. The balance can be hard to manage. If you ask Barb, I don't manage it terribly well. Today is the first day of school here in Cumberland so for the next two days I have several hours of peace and quiet. Of ......
  48. 08/29/2007Things I didn't know about most current laptop batteriesBattery technology changes fast right now. Most current laptop models use Lithium Ion batteries. These are really odd things. They store an insane amount of energy for their mass. Any time you have that kind of energy density its dangerous. These batteries have complex electronics inside their packaging that's designed with a number of fail safe circuits so they don't just burst into flame. As we've seen recently, they haven't always been successful. I'd forgotten how long this laptop could run without a ......
  49. 08/28/2007On a lighter, and more important note -- Help me pick some SF classic films to show a friend.I have a dear friend who's in many respects as geeky as the rest of us, but who has a horrible sad lacking when it comes to classic science fiction films. We're doing some work at the same client and its within driving range of me, so I thought I'd bring some films, a projector screen, the lcd projector, some descent speakers, and a dvd player and play catch up in evening. With some help from a couple of others, I've put some top picks in a list here, but as long as I've gone to that much trouble now is ......
  50. 08/27/2007If someone made these statements to you, in the order shown, would you find them deceptive?Yes, I'm still going on about this. These people deliberately told me something would ship overnight, but only when pressed would admit that they couldn't commit to when it would actually ship. Sure, they'd ship it overnight once they shipped it, but it could be 8 days before that actually happened. Keep in mind, I'd already been promised the item overnight 3 times and been shipped a package without it. "The replacement order will be sent to you overnight." -- but then when pressed to find out WHEN it ......
  51. 08/25/2007Dell no longer wishes to do business. They're a mail order company that has forgotten how to mail things. Now off my recommend list for good.It’s a good thing Dell is starting to sell via Wal-Mart. That’s where they are headed anyway. They’ve just lost my business, and I can no longer recommend them to anyone. It is now finally completely clear to me that Dell simply doesn’t want to do business. I have posted here about my issues dealing with Dell’s extremely bad customer service before. I’ve had shipping problems, I have had sales people refuse to give me part numbers so I could order them directly, and I’ve had their corporate sales people ......
  52. 08/24/2007Software Complexity Peaking AgainLotus Notes 8 is a huge step forward in what developers will be able to do. I’m already seeing the first posts in partner forums and on blogs showing simple side bar applications that make use of some of the extensibility. These remind me of the first wiz-bang buttons and actions in Notes 4 that used Lotuscript. In those days, that kind of work was considered very high end development for Notes. Today of course, most Notes developers think in LS and forget how easy formula language is to work with. In a ......
  53. 08/21/2007RIM should be embarrassed by their failure to support customers. RIM may be the darling of the wireless communications world, but from where I sit they’re not treating customers very well at all. They’ve created a situation where customers can easily find themselves locked out of the system for hours or even days though what would otherwise be acceptable business practices. I’m involved in a project right now that includes a goal of building a redundant Blackberry configuration for disaster recovery. People rely on these things now for doing important work, and an ......
  54. 08/16/2007Facebook -- the fastest I've ever dropped a social contact website.Someone please tell me what possible value is to be gained from this other than a nightmare of constant message pings telling me this one has added me to a "friend list" or that one has left his bedroom and moved to the kitchen or no longer likes the color blue. Who cares? Are they trying to re-create the seventh ......
  55. 08/15/2007Its new stupid meme time! Which Transformer are you?According to this site, I'm 73% Optimus Prime I AM 73% OPTIMUS PRIMETake the Transformers QuizOptimus Prime is the heroic leader of the Autobots. He is the personification of courage, strength, and integrity. His personal motto is that “Freedom is the right of all sentient beings.” Like Optimus Prime, you are good by nature. But beware because mischievous thoughts sometimes tempt you. You are inspiring, confident, and a natural leader. The Autobots have chosen well. In addition, you use technology when you ......
  56. 08/15/2007What's the most boring show on cable you get sucked into for reasons you'll never understand?Cable TV brings us new heights of insanely boring TV we can't stop watching I'm sitting here completely fascinated by one of the most insanely boring programs I've ever watched. I realize that doesn't make sense, but that's the way it is. Its worse than watching golf and yet somehow I can't turn it off. If you're really, really board, check out Ice Road Truckerson the history channel. What's the most boring show on cable you get sucked into for reasons you'll never ......
  57. 08/15/2007So which campaign is Karl Rove going to?Karl Rove is leaving the White House. If you hadn't heard that by now you aren't someone who cares. I can think of three reasons why he'd do that other than the ubiquitous "to spend time with my family" answer they all give. Some say its because some new scandal or a resurgence of ugliness related to an existing one could put him in in the same place as his buddy Scooter. I don't buy that. If that was going to happen it would have already. The Libby pardon was held back as long as it could be to allow the ......
  58. 08/13/2007Ear Bud Pads -- by the bagfullEar buds, those little headphone things that come with iPods and similar products have these cheap foam pads on them. They come off. Now the ear bud isn't useful or isn't comfortable. You can buy more expensive ear buds, cheap replacement ones, or a Belkin 5 pack of pads for $10 (ouch). I win. I found a place that had a bag of 100 of them for under 20 bucks. HA. Now I can use all the old ear buds again whenever I ......
  59. 08/10/2007More really bad travel thanks to US Airways and their horrible serviceThe flight to Philly was terrible, but at least there was a flight. On that one, though having booked in advance and having selected a seat in the isle near the front, I found when I checked in at Boston that my seat had been taken away and I was forced to take a last minute back row non-reclining one. Then, this airline actually took the time -- mid flight -- to get on the PA System and give a minute long scripted pitch for their credit card, including walking down the isle with the brochures. This is ......
  60. 08/09/2007CNN -- Back off Bob Murray a bit Bob Murray is the part owner of a mine where rescue operations are underway right now. The men trapped 1500 feet below the earth may be alive, may be injured, or may be dead. These kinds of stories are always a huge draw for news programs like CNN, and in my memory the owners of the mine are usually faceless companies represented by expensive PR machines. CNN is operating in full "gotcha" journalism style when they interview this guy. We, out here in opinion land, can't possibly know what caused the ......
  61. 08/08/2007Late to the JSON bus - In a nutshell, its a simplified hack that is easy to work with even in its ugliness[] Many people in the blogging community around Lotus Domino have been pushing JSON for a while now. These are mostly user interface oriented people who do a lot more front end web site development than I do. I'm late to the table with this technology, but on investigation it looks like the best workaround to a bad situation I've seen yet. I want to talk more about JSON in the context of some suggestions for the Domino server rendering useful data. I'll do that in another post, but for now, here's a very ......
  62. 08/06/2007I promised pictures yesterday -- well, here they are. All taken on Saturday late afternoon.These were all taken in or off the coast of Friendship, Maine. Friendship is a very small fishing village far enough off the tourist track of Route 1 as to be largely filled with people who either live there year round or returning summer after summer in established communities. Barb's parents have a really nice place up there on Davis Point looking onto the bay. They're terrific people, and her brothers as well are great to be with. This summer Barb has been taking the kids up there most weekends while I ......
  63. 08/05/2007Where, exactly, is Cumberland Maine anyway?I get asked all the time from people, "Where is Cumberland?" so I decided to post a couple of pictures from Google Earth. Its pretty far Northeast -- about as far as you can go and still be in the US (though people here call it "Southern Maine". I've marked on the map both Cumberland, and further up the coast Friendship, Maine. The next posting has a bunch of pictures taken in Friendship from my In-Laws' place there. This post should add some perspective. ......
  64. 08/01/2007Is a 'System Engineer' really an Engineer?Do you call yourself a "Software Engineer" or maybe a "System Engineer"? What happens when the stuff you "Design" doesn't work? A network goes down? Maybe a few users don't get their email? Today we see a reminder of what happens when an ACTUAL engineer gets things wrong. Maybe you really want to rethink using that word unless you're up to doing the math that would have prevented this. ......
  65. 08/01/2007Have you ever wished you could replicate non database files on your servers?I've been using a tool called "unison" to keep the files on a pair of linux servers in synchronization. Its available for Windows as well though. This is a command line utility that works very much like Domino replication. A hash database is used and compared rather than a simple look at file dates and names, so renames, deletes, changes, and new files are all replicated effectively. I'm using it at the file system level to keep not just the files in the domino/html directory in sync, but also several ......
  66. 07/31/2007Geek of the week at ServerBeach Look who got to be the marketing chimp for last week's "Geek of the Week" at SeverBeach! ......
  67. 07/26/2007What Are Chrysler's engineers thinking?From the "WHAT THE HELL ARE THEY THINKING?" category.... In a classic ADD moment, I left my car keys at the hotel in Tampa this morning, and didn't discover the loss until I was at my car in Boston. Given that the spare key is at home home in Maine about two hours away, I thought that I'd try out that AAA membership that I've had for years and have used for nothing other than a discount on hotel bills. The call to AAA was quick, and they called a locksmith who assured them and me that it would be no ......
  68. 07/25/2007Second Signal welcomes its first out of state department on-lineYou know how much time I've spent bringing the Second Signal venture to life. Today is a big milestone, because they're a department with no affiliation to me other than this, and thousands of miles away. They received their equipment today, and once plugged in it immediately started relaying audio and tone notifications as it should. The remote support tools also worked right away and the periodic "ping" updates to my servers happen like clockwork so I can see if there is any problem. So....Welcome to the ......
  69. 07/24/2007What should you be doing now, to get ready for that big upgrade later this year or next?Notes 8 is due out soon. Some of you will perform your own "Zero Day Upgrade®" while others will wait six months or more. This isn't an upgrade like any in recent history. This one is big on user-focused change. That means the upgrade planning is more important no matter how smoothly the "Wizards of Westford®" make the technical process. There are things you should be doing right now, to make sure you have the tools in place to do the job right when it comes around for you. You're going to want to manage ......
  70. 07/24/2007Hello from Florida! I'm at a client site for a change, and having a great time there.Some clients are a pleasure to work with. Today was one of those days you get to enjoy working with people to get something done. As a matter of policy I don't disclose most client names here, but since I know that at least one person there reads my blog, let me say in a most public way "Thank You". The client purchased NCT Simple Sign On, and asked me to come down to help them quickly get it integrated with their project. Though they'd already gotten the demo version up and running quickly, time pressures ......
  71. 07/22/2007The best detail all year longEach year, Engine 1 gets assigned to help out neighboring Yarmouth on the Saturday evening of the annual "Clam Festival" for the fireworks. We stand by in case things get out of hand or the fallout lands on something dry. Not much chance of that tonight with all the rain we've had unless they're using napalm. Chief Fairbanks over there always takes good care of us and this year was no exception. He tends to give us a spot right up close but just slightly ......
  72. 07/20/2007"Is it fear or courage that compels you, fleshling?" - Megatron Ok, I admit it. I liked the movie. Yes, from an artistic, intellectual, scientific, and aesthetic perspective it did truly suck. At least it wasn't a chick flick though. It was an hour too long, but it was fun anyway. Oh, and aside from the best line in the movie, courtesy of Megatron, I also got the name for my new linux server. It will be called ......
  73. 07/15/2007Valuation of productivity measurments as cumulative minutes saved by employees -- do you buy this?Someone I know was recently talking about a paper that could potentially explain a pretty huge annual savings by saving each of thousands of employees a moment or two each day. I personally don't put much credence in these kinds of savings unless we're talking about people who are essentially a fully utilized resource pool like a call center or production line worker and then only if the time savings happens during their core productive time and not on breaks or as they're getting started. In that case, ......
  74. 07/14/2007Andrew J SimpsonCreate your own at ......
  75. 07/13/2007What is your Minimum TTL for productive work?When I'm programming -- not tossing off a quick bit of script but really working hard on something new -- there is a minimum amount of time that I have to be able to devote to the process or it isn't worth bothering to sit down at all. For me, it is probably something around two hours minimum but three is really better. If I can't put at least that much time without being interrupted into the work than its as if I am starting over after each break. How about you? Do you build a model in your mind of the ......
  76. 07/08/2007Techo-Karma, and I'm on the payback side for a change!A few months back I had a week go by where everything I touched broke. That's unusual for me. Nonetheless, it happened. Software didn't work, I went to clean up a PC and killed the motherboard, it was endless. It cost me a few hundred dollars to put things right, and then a few weeks later I picked up a new system board -- and went to a lot of trouble to find one that would support the same P4 and ram from the one I broke. Of course, this strange negative karma was still with me. When I put the old ......
  77. 07/04/2007Great product if you support remote machinesPart of the magic of Second Signal involves remote data collecting workstations. I'm using low power "thin client" machines with no moving parts, but they still need support once in a while for software upgrades and settings changes. Since these machines will be sitting behind almost any kind of consumer grade firewall and NAT router you can think of, I needed a way to remotely manage them that would -- most of the time -- not require me to spend time with clients reconfiguring their network settings. ......
  78. 07/03/2007Upgrading from Visual Studio.NET 2003 to 2005 ......
  79. 07/02/2007Web Services - Great everywhere but the web. At what point will we finally put an end the entire load of cap that spun out of the late 1990's and into the software we're stuck using every day. If ever there was an over-engineered, under usable specification, it was SOAP -- the stuff that makes what we call "Web Services" happen. SOAP is an XML based specification that allows the exchange of complex data types between systems connected only in the most loose manner over the internet. A great testament to the senior programmers at IBM, Microsoft, ......
  80. 06/29/2007What about the children?Of course, it's not just me that's been busy the last two months. Caitlin has finished 2nd grade has both parents to herself for three weeks while Ari and Coryn are at an overnight camp. Its one of those classic New England summer camps that I thought only existed in movies. Barb and Caitlin are going up on Saturday to see them and to wish Coryn a happy birthday -- she's 12. I can't go as it is my turn to be the "weekend duty officer" for Cumberland and there is a good chance it will be active around here. ......
  81. 06/29/20072007 New England Regional Fire/EMS Show -- The big Second Signal DebutSecond Signal made its trade show debut in Springfield, MA last weekend. It was a lot of work, but a great time. I drove down on Wednesday with my car fully loaded with all the stuff I needed. Thursday was move in day, and by getting there by 8am I was able to drive right up to the location of my booth and save a lot of hauling. I spent Thursday setting up and getting ready, only to discover I'd left one of my signs at home. I called and had Ari fill out a fed-ex slip and the sign was to my booth by 8am ......
  82. 06/29/20072 months overdue for a bunch of blogging. Man I have been out straight...Figure this for a 'heads-up' blog. I've had a lot on my plate and it's time to catch up. Over the next few hours and days I hope to make up for that with a ton of ......
  83. 05/10/2007Andrew vs. The Mosquito Magnet Part 1 -- An attempt to solve a problem with actual scienceI live in Maine. Mosquitos also live in Maine. Many, many of them. Mosquitos also really like me. I must use up plenty of oxygen and exhale a great deal of carbon dioxide because that's what attracts mosquitos. Strangely, their bites don't irritate my skin much -- rather, the buzzing around my ears and eyes drives me insane. The device to combat these tiny terrorists is the "Mosquito Magnet", The device uses a bare trickle of LP (Liquified Petroleum) gas from a 20 pound cylinder -- your basic grill propane ......
  84. 05/06/2007Wow, what a weekend. Second Signal made it's trade-show debutI spent this weekend with Second Signal at a very small vendor show that was part of "Cumberland County Fire Attack School" (CCFAS). CCFAS is an annual event where something like 400+ firefighters take hands on classes in everything from advanced vehicle extrication to fire command. My personal favorite ever was "Get Out Alive" where I got to dive out second story windows in all my gear. A table at this show is incredibly inexpensive. There were like 15 vendors total -- most selling gloves, tools, safety ......
  85. 05/03/2007A very strange cache difference between LotusScript running in a WQO and Formula Language on a form.I have this form, and on the form is a field. The field is populated by doing an @DbColumn() call to a view in another database. The documents in that view are protected with reader-names fields, which are themselves group names. By adding a user to one of the groups, they see more documents. Makes sense, yes? Now, suppose a user is on page with this kind of field on it, and does a submit or something which cases his name to be added to a group that should let him see more documents from that view. How ......
  86. 05/03/2007Where's Andrew? Why is this blog so slow lately? Ok, I admit it, I've been really slow with new stuff up here lately. Let me give you a run down of the last few months, then we can agree that I'm caught up and move on. First, Soccer season is in full swing here now. Ari's team is out on the grass (well, what will soon be grass) and playing hard. Last weekend, for example, the team was in Glastonbury, CT for their spring warm-up tournament. Ari's team is considered top notch here in Maine, but going south to the soccer capitol of the US they had a rough ......
  87. 05/03/2007I think we've finally crossed the threshold in the attention span of most Americans regarding our policies in Iraq and anti-terror legislationI'm a serious time waster when it comes to television. In the evenings, after my brain turns to mush, I like to sit down and become a vegetable in front of the boob tube (yes, my TV still has a tube). I've noticed in the course of the last couple of weeks that virtually every show you watch now has an underlying message built into it about our policies in Iraq and our acceptance of such overreaching legislature as the so called "Patriot" act (the one that frees the U.S. Government from having to follow ......
  88. 05/03/2007A shout out to Baskin-Robbins, with their 31 cent scoop night to benefit the National Fallen Firefighters Foundation Thanks to LotusGeek for sending this my way...... The National Fallen Firefighters Foundation works to help the families and departments of firefighters injured or killed as a result of their work, and also works to prevent future incidents through training, research, and education. Take a look at their ......
  89. 04/27/2007Notes 8 Beta Reception in Second Life!This comes from an IBM person I met in my early explorations of Second Life. Anyway, I'm passing this along. ......
  90. 04/26/2007Have you considered what the basis for your decision process really is?Since being promoted to Lieutenant in my local fire department, I've had the added joy of being part of a monthly officer's meeting in which policies, procedures, ideas, and plans are discussed. We don't so much make policy -- that ultimately sits at the Chief's desk -- as we have a good deal of input to it and a healthy debate of the issues involved. As a result of this, some very clear ideas come forward as the basis for decisions. Three of these tenets have really come home to me lately, and I wanted to ......
  91. 04/24/2007Firebug -- the best browser add-in ever? If you're a web page developer, it could be.Cmdr Taco, famous of Slashdot (/. -- news for nerds) wrote of this tool in an article I read recently in either CPU or Wired magazine. It's a terrific all in one debugging and page analysis tool that sits in Firefox. It has features I've come to completely rely on. http://www.getfirebug.com/ The most important thing it does, is nothing. That is to say, it sits quietly unless called upon to act. A very small icon in the lower right corner of my browser allows me to open the working tool on any page, or ......
  92. 04/17/2007Storm Stories -- and better formatted pictures from the flooding and rain of power lines...This particular line is the one preventing power getting to my place. Believe it or not, this is a "minor" issue in terms of the priority list right now. Some of you may know that I've spent the better part of the last two days on the fire truck due to the severe storm. If you hadn't heard that Maine was hit badly, it's not a shock. Even though at one point three quarters of the residents statewide had no power, we don't make the news much. Part of the issue seems to be that the weather maps used by CNN ......
  93. 04/16/2007Cumberland flood 2007 - Heavy rains and 50 mile per hour winds mixed with occasional snow does a number on us.Here's some pretty raw snapshots taken from the front seat of my car as I ran around dealing with fire department stuff this morning. Featured are flooded out roads, down power lines, and general ugliness. More rain and wind is expected for the next two days. We're taking shifts manning the station and trucks, with Engine 1 positioned at a construction company garage on the east end of town while flood waters make response to that area from central very slow. [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] ......
  94. 04/13/2007A Rocky Oliver health report!After a brief chat with Kelsey, I am happy to pass along the good news that the Dawg is up and around, home, and walking some with the assistance of a walker. I'm sure within a few weeks he'll be in better shape than we've seen him in a long time. I know many have been ......
  95. 04/10/2007It is unethical and unacceptable to use your security update process to play games against your competitors.For the 99 millionth time, I went through the Microsoft Windows update process, did their required reboot (Linux never seems to need to do that) and when I launch Notes what do I get but the old prompt "Lotus Notes is not your default email program...." dialog box. Yes, Microsoft has apparently decided it is acceptable to set Outlook as your default mail program frequently as part of their "Security" update process. As far as I am concerned, this is unethical behavior. The repeated abuse of this important ......
  96. 04/05/200717 calls in 24 hours as we get 15" of April Snow -- and I go to the city of Portland on Cumberland's Ladder 7Well, we got 15 inches of snow yesterday into this morning. Surprise! The forecast was for 5-9 inches and that was itself unusual for this time of year. This was heavy, wet, "heart-attack" snow that brought down power lines and left cars off the road. There were 17 call outs in the last 24 hours in Cumberland due to the storm, then this afternoon another very unusual event. About three times a year when the nearby city of Portland has a 3rd Alarm fire (which is an escalation from "Still Box", "Desk Box", ......
  97. 04/04/2007READ THIS -- It may save you a big headache with MS Update patch KB925902 !I'm still super busy, but wanted to post this heads up-- I started having major problems after installing patch KB925902 this morning. It is listed as a critical patch -- and for good reason. Unfortunately, it may have escaped early. I've other reports of issues but none as severe as mine as of yet. This may be a specific issue with some add-in I'm running, but since this is a new machine (built 1 month ago) and I'm not running too many weird things, I thought I'd warn you. My advice is wait until you have ......
  98. 03/25/2007Catching up -- Notes 8 and beyond, A trip to Microsoft, AJAX & Domino, Second Signal, Great People, fire trucks & paint ball guns, and hating how I workI have a lot to talk about. So much to talk about that I decided to title this blog entry the way I've seen chapters in old books titled with a list of all the things that happen without enough to ruin the story. I'm not as good at it though, so stick with me. First up, Notes 8 and Beyond. I've completely switched over from Notes 7.x to the beta of Notes 8 on both laptop and workstation. My mail template has been updated and I'm living the beta. I installed and tried the full version in the Eclipse ......
  99. 03/06/2007What ever happened to the concept of “Mine”?To me, it started getting bad with software licensing. You used to buy a software package and you owned it. If you wanted another one, you bought another one. Sometimes vendors would offer discounts for users who had bought their previous ones. If you moved to another computer, you had to re-install your software but you had the right to do so. That’s not all true any more. You’re often not buying software, you’re buying a limited term license to use software on one machine and not transfer it. In some ......
  100. 02/22/2007What a week!Aside from having both my wife's trip and my own mangled by Jet Blue, a fire to help with last week, the big storm, and a bunch of work -- I destroyed my desktop PC the other day. I've been living off the laptop until tonight. It will take most of the day tomorrow to get all my software reinstalled, but no data has been lost. This new machine is sweet enough to be fair consolation though. It's a Core 2 Duo with 2GB of matched dual channel 800mhz ram. The two processors are running at 2.2ghz (on Core 2 Duo ......
  101. 02/12/2007Great way to determine if a user has editor access to a document using AJAXWarning, this post is extremely buzzword and acronym heavy! I'm writing an application for the web right now that is entirely AJAX based, and uses back end Lotus Domino documents for data storage. Each back end document uses "READER" and "AUTHOR" names, but the code itself is all handled through agent calls made from the browser using AJAX. In some cases, I want to display edit controls if the user has editor access to the document where the data is stored, but otherwise not. I tried doing this in the ......
  102. 02/09/2007Well, so much for Dell. I had to tell someone today not to buy a new Dell PC.Like most of the geeks who read this, I'm someone people ask advice on what PC to buy. Often. I'd recommended a Dell machine to someone this week but got an email back saying they could only get the machine with Vista. Incredulous, I checked this out and it is true. Dell will not sell their new PC's to consumers without Vista. When I asked if they seriously would rather me go away than buy my fourth Dell machine, all I got back was "Why do you feel you do not want Vista?" Hey, Dell, how about because I'm ......
  103. 02/02/2007Product Review - HP C6180 All-in-One Printer, Fax, Scanner, CopierAfter finding my Epson printers to be complete garbage and essentially throw away items due to their very poor ink management (leaving clogged heads, wasted cartridges, and a bunch of money by the wayside) I decided to try an HP model this time around. After all, a good friend works there now. http://h20195.www2.hp.com/V2/pdf/4AA0-4465EEE.pdf The C6180 uses HP's newest ink technology with six individual color units which cost about $10 each at staples. They're not really large, but seem big enough to be ......
  104. 02/02/2007Addressing Changes to Daylight Saving Time (DST) in 2007 for Lotus Notes and Domino* Special thanks to Robert Ingraham at IBM for posting this information for distribution: New and Updated Information for Addressing Changes to Daylight Saving Time (DST) in 2007 for Lotus Notes and Domino is Available! Changes to Daylight Saving Time (DST) in 2007 in the US, Canada and Bermuda will affect the display and calculation of dates and times for Lotus Notes and Domino. To assist you with implementing changes to your systems, communicating the changes throughout your organization, and ......
  105. 01/29/2007VONGO SPAM! I tried the VONGO service as noted here.... and didn't care for it a bit. Since then, I'm still getting 1-2 email spams per week from them. I call them spam because I've clicked their option to unsubscribe on several occasions and still get the mailings. Their mail even disguises the "unsubscribe" with words designed to fool spam filters. Both characteristics tell me that this is unwelcome spam email. VONGO -- you've lost me for good now. There is no chance I'll do business with you for the foreseeable ......
  106. 01/28/2007So you've seen Second Life now. Do you still really want C.U.L.T. shirts there?About a dozen people have asked me for CULT shirts in Second Life. I actually stopped someone doing it themselves as it would have been a copyright violation for them to do it without permission. It is important that I protect that IP and make sure it isn't done unless it is done right. As part of exploring Second Life, I've learned to create a t-shirt for myself that is fairly convincing. It looks just like one I wear all the time around here. That was the point. It is, in fact, more like the actual shirt ......
  107. 01/26/2007The worst thing about Notes 8The question was asked in a panel q&a at Lotusphere ... "What are your favorite and what are the worst things about Notes 8". I've already blogged about my favorites. I'll tell you my least favorite right now. That I don't have it work with right now. That's it. Oh, I'm no fan of the Portal stuff sure, and I'm sure there will be some issues, but mostly I just want it as soon as possible. I didn't realize when I was watching the sessions showing the new user interface features and the new capabilities that ......
  108. 01/26/2007Corporate Presence in Virtual WorldsIf I were to arrive for a meeting at IBM’s Palisades headquarters, it seems unlikely that I’d be accosted and harassed by a pale skinned woman in a black leather bikini with wings and carrying a bull whip. IBM’s security presence would not tolerate behavior like that for long on their campus. Nonetheless, when I connected to Second Life to see IBM’s growing investment in that space I found exactly that going on at their “Theater B” – a gathering spot patterned after an amphitheater. The character in ......
  109. 01/24/2007Some favorite new things in Notes 8I'm in a repeat session of "What's new in Notes 8" and seeing things that are great. Some are long over due, some are new and brilliant ideas, and many are important incremental improvements. Here's some favorites: In views, the ability to select multiple documents using shift-click and ctrl-click on ranges and documents respectively. In rich text (like mail) inline spell check, multiple level undo, and better sections. Recent Collaborations -- I really like this. Just right click on anyone's name and see ......
  110. 01/24/2007Lotusphere 2007 so far -- followup to the first post, plus up to date with how it's gone. Updated (1)First a few more notes from the opening general session: The Band -- They rocked. They so completely rocked that I just had a great time. Lotus, IBM, stop looking. Make these guys a tradition. Make them part of the Lotusphere family. Bring them in for the opening session, as the band for the Wednesday night parties, and maybe even for the closing session. Let us get to know them, and them us. They're so much fun that they could very quickly become just one more thing to look forward to each year. I can't ......
  111. 01/22/2007Lotusphere 2007 - First Take, Opening Session, Overall Impressions so far -- IN BRIEFI have almost no time right now, and will post my usual "The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly" article at length later. The good news is, there really is no ugly. There's plenty of very good stuff, a few things I still put in the bad category -- but not that bad. Just not interesting and not yet dead. The new stuff is fantastic -- Quickr is going to be interesting, and clearly they have confidence in it. More details on it when I write the longer post. General First Impressions: More People -- there are a LOT ......
  112. 01/16/2007My sessions at Lotusphere listed here.RefreshSunday, 1-21-200708:00AM10:00AMJMP104 IBM Lotus Domino Security Features - A to ZSW 1004:00PM06:00PMJMP104R IBM Lotus Domino Security Features - A to ZSW 3-4Monday, ......
  113. 01/13/2007It's not David Beckham's move to LA that's shockingAny of you who read this site from anywhere other than the U.S. already know that David Becham has signed a 250 million dollar deal to play for a team based in LA. That's not shocking, really. They clearly hope he can fill seats, bring excitement, upclass the sport in the U.S. and maybe improve the players around him. That sounds like a great idea, really. At 31 the man is not, as some would say, hopelessly over the hill. No, what's shocking is this quote from the story in the BBS news.. ......
  114. 01/09/2007Ok, I've been tagged a bunch of times, so here's the 5 things you wish didn't know about meThis is one of those pyramidal memes that runs around blogs now and then. You're supposed to tell everyone in this twisted little community five things they don't know about you already and then pick five people who also should be telling their five things. I don't like to play by the rules (but you already knew that) so I'm tagging first. I'm tagging Vowe, Mother Vowe, Volker Weber, vowe, and vowe. I realize that's cheating but so what? He's avoided taking part so far so we already know he prefers to hold ......
  115. 01/05/2007Code Tidbit -- JavaScript to make all your button and text input elements easily CSS accessible.Ever want to do something in CSS that impacts only the buttons on your page? I came across a nifty bit of JavaScript that solves the problem of CSS applied to buttons rather than all input tags. A button is an input tag, and there is no CSS (current supported versions) selector for buttons specifically. This code, called in the onload() event of the document, will add a class name of "button" to all the button elements on the form, and a class name of "text" to all the text input device. Dustin Diaz had ......
  116. 01/02/2007Some technology is so cool you wish you could make other people use it.Remember that "Jawbone" I blogged about? It really works! YOU NEED one of these for Lotusphere. [] [] Some technology is so cool you wish you could make other people use it. After playing with the new Jawbone bluetooth headset, I really wish I could make anyone calling me at Lotusphere use one. After looking at [this demo] I went and bought one and put it through my own test. In a quick and dirty trial, I called myself and left voicemail using the headset. I was driving on the highway and the stereo was ......
  117. 12/22/2006Here's a helpful little addition to your Domino Development kit....Have you ever been frustrated going to look for which icon from the vast Domino 'icons' directory has which file name so you can use them in your own applications? Printing them on many sheets of paper works, but it's hard to find what you want. I've created this PDF which prints as a single page and lists all the icons in that directory with their file names. To get it to fit, I've excluded the ".gif" extension from the file names. ......
  118. 12/22/2006More great press - Second Signal in the local paperDecember 21st 2006 -- Falmouth Forecaster Software signals shift for firefighters; Volunteer develops automated notification system By Peter Smith (published: December 21, 2006) CUMBERLAND – Fire Chief Dan Small was at the Maine Mall with his wife doing Christmas shopping when he got a fire call – or rather, a fire text message. He rounded up his kids, went out to his truck and called the station. Then he listened to the previous 10 minutes of radio traffic compressed into less than a minute. In short, ......
  119. 12/21/2006This is a must have for Lotusphere. I will find one today if I can. I've never seen a consumer device higher on my "gotta get me one of these" list. [] [] The new "Jawbone" earpiece bluetooth headset for cellular phones is amazing. Take a look at [this ......
  120. 12/18/2006Yes, Christmas trees really do catch fire -- and you will not believe how fast they destroy a homeAnother firefighter send me this 60 second video showing a typical Christmas tree in a living room setting. It is worth watching, because within 60 seconds you would not be able to survive in this room. * At Ben's request, here is a link to information on making your tree more safe. ......
  121. 12/14/2006Dell Brilliance! Not!Part of the solution with Second Signal is a PC running at the local department. Rather than having departments go out and find their own, I thought it would be a nice idea to have an OEM machine built. I've had good luck with my Dell equipment in the past, and I know that Dell has a great deal of experience putting custom part numbers together like this. Thinking it would be a no brainier, I went to Dell's website and found an OEM page. I filled out the form to request contact and hit submit. It failed. ......
  122. 12/12/2006What a week! Another good fire, lots of attention for Second Signal, ..man, I'm tired already.This is a picture from the fire on Tuesday (last). This is the earliest I can find, and even here it shows the structure already collapsed. It was a 3 story wood frame structure with a wood shop, a garage, and an apartment in it. Although we lost the building itself (obviously it was fully involved before we got there) we did protect the house it was a few feet away from. The family never lost a night in their own home. On Monday (yesterday) Falmouth had a garage fire that went up in a similar way -- ......
  123. 12/09/2006Second Signal gets local TV coverage!Today I was interviewed for the 6:00 news on a local station. They showed film of the fire on Tuesday night, and introduced "Second Signal" to our little part of the world. The interview includes a great endorsement by Chief Daniel Small -- a shame they got his name wrong in the broadcast. You can see the video at this ......
  124. 12/08/2006A structure fire, a rolled over tractor trailer, and Second Signal begins to take offSorry for the silence - it has been really busy with the fire stuff this week. On Tuesday evening, just as I was getting ready to take Ari and Coryn to their soccer practice a call came in for a reported structure fire here in Cumberland. The call was on the west side which means Engine 1 (my crew) isn't on the initial response, but when they come in as a structure fire they usually escalate pretty quickly. I looked at Barb who decided that she could miss the Girl Scout meeting she'd planned to go to and ......
  125. 12/02/2006Can Windows Vista finally give me real screen size virtualization so we can stop using "large fonts" as a setting that doesn't really work?There are some things Vista could have that would really draw me in. Sadly, I can’t seem to find out if any of these are part of the product or not. In posting this, I’m hoping someone can either answer or point me to an answer for some of the questions. Number one on my Windows Vista wish list is that they virtualize the screen more. What I want is actually very simple. I want to tell Windows – in one place – that my screen resolution is not 72dpi, but is in fact 125dpi. Once that is accomplished, all ......
  126. 11/27/2006I AM.......excited to be telling you more about this year's C.U.L.T. shirt!As Rocky has announced on his blog, for this year's shirt we're bringing back the "I AM" theme from the R5 launch. We all had fun with that theme back in that day, and it really just radiated the excitement around the new product. Unfortunately, the campaign was short lived and many people just didn't see enough of it for the message get through. Still, it's one of those themes you can have a great time with. We're now collecting ideas for the Top Ten Alternate Responses to the "I AM ......" statement over ......
  127. 11/25/2006Black Friday? WTF? Are you that damn stupid?Every year I am stunned to see the idiocy of this whole nation. "Black Friday" -- so everyone has to line up at ridiculous hours to get into these stores to do what, spend money? With the rare exception caused by some idiot failing to meet project goals, just about anything you could buy today will still be available for most of the next three weeks. It won't be more expensive and they won't run out. If you let yourself get manipulated into this idiotic shopping rapture just so you'll get caught up and ......
  128. 11/24/2006New car toy has been orderedI'm not a huge music collector, and don't have a big portable music player. I do listen to audio books on long drives though. I've been using a Belkin FM transmitter to hook my cheap little MP3 player to the car stereo. The problem is, the airwaves are crowded as hell. You find a blank spot, dial the FM transmitter in and listen but less than half an hour later you're having to go through the process again -- and that's in rural Maine. I can't imagine how it's acceptable in a city. Of course, for me any ......
  129. 11/22/2006When is it too much security information?Between working on our Lotusphere Security Jump-Start with Gabriella Davis and doing a recent "Penetration Test" at a client site, I have been reminded of some really important steps that all Notes users should be taking to ensure their private stuff remains private. The thing is, if I start blogging the steps I take to poke into things I shouldn't, I risk providing the mental munitions that could fuel our own form of "script-kiddies" in the Notes world. I have no desire to do that. Nothing I'm talking ......
  130. 11/22/2006Car maintenance has changed a bit In the last week or so, a couple of things have really hit home how much different maintaining a car is from what it used to be. We still change the oil, but there are changes in virtually every other aspect of the car. While driving the other day, my car informed me through the dashboard console that one of the four tires on my car was low. Yes, it actually said "1 of 4 tires is low." I suppose simply indicating 1 tire would have left the total number in some doubt. It politely but insistently requested ......
  131. 11/17/2006Flakes on a Plane -- The next time I buy tickets on a US Air flight, someone slap meI hate this airline. I hate it more every single time I have the miserable misfortune of flying on it. Sure, all airlines have trouble from weather. The way you handle it, however, makes you a good or bad airline. As always, US Air handled it badly. I should have driven. All I wanted to do was fly home from Philadelphia yesterday. I was earlier than I'd planned, so the night before I'd forked over their $100 extortion fee for changing tickets -- itself more than a ticket on some airlines would have cost -- ......
  132. 11/17/2006Do people routinely send you mail prefaced with "Urgent:" or "Important:" on the subject? Here's something to try....Do people routinely send you mail prefaced with "Urgent:" or "Important:" on the subject? Do you know how often? Does it work? I have to tell you it makes very little difference to me on how soon I read the mail unless it isn't something I've ever seen that particular sender do. My immediate reaction -- one I've learned to control most of the time -- is to purposely ignore it and make an effort not to respond any faster. There must still be something left of my teen years deep in there somewhere. I did a ......
  133. 11/14/2006HOLY NOT LOOKING, BATMAN! Readers - you have an assignment, QUICK!* Updated: I was shown to be completely wrong here -- but in the interest of honesty in blogging I'm going to leave the post as it was. If you care to see, just view the comments. I'm staying at the Marriott West Philadelphia tonight and tomorrow night. I just was down at the front desk paying for some Doritos (I hadn't met all the parts of my food pyramid yet). The staff were all looking at the clock hanging behind the main lobby counter. Though it had been hanging there for years, it took a 5 year old to ......
  134. 11/14/2006And now, a new entry into the top 10 things you do not want to get for Christmas...This may not be the shower radio / shaving mirror you want to get for a present. There's a message in getting a gift like this, but I'm not sure I want to know what it is. Click here to find out ......
  135. 11/14/2006Dodge Charger for a Rental -- and the verdict is......So I rented this Dodge Charger from Avis in Philadelphia today. I'm here to do some security work for a big Notes shop (yes, I said Notes, not Domino). The verdict? It's a Charger -- in both the good and the bad sense of that. My rental is an under powered version, but frankly so were most of the Chargers ever sold -- and almost every one I ever drove. Like the three Chrysler products I've owned (which I mostly like) this is very hard to see out of when backing up. Charger improves on that, and is hard to ......
  136. 11/13/2006Web Site Design - softer topics are important tooAs someone who reads this site you know how much help I need when it comes to designing attractive, usable web sites. Technically I can make a site do whatever I want. The problem is making it do all the wrong things. I picked up Steve Krug's book "Don't Make Me Think" to get some perspective on this issue. It's pretty good, and about 90% of what I wanted it to be. The only thing really missing from my perspective is any discussion of color schemes and font choices. I've got that information from other ......
  137. 11/12/2006So wait a minute. Who is this 'Batman' guy, and just exactly who is copying who here?In the past few posts I've been working on Second Signal's new logo, and with your help I'm pretty happy with what I have now. The final straw as was that I now have a name for the logo itself. I'm calling it the "Hat Signal". A bit tongue in cheek maybe, and it isn't something I'll make formally part of anything, but it does bring to mind a question that has been bugging me. Who is copying who? In may of 1939 some guys named Bob Kane and Bill Finger started writing and drawing this "Batman" guy. So, as I ......
  138. 11/12/2006Internet Explorer v7 - First ImpressionsAfter allowing Microsoft to install this "Priority Update" which moved me from IE6 to IE7, I've played a little bit on both my laptop and my workstation. Overall, it's a step up but feels very unfinished. It's also extremely annoying in a few regards. Some problems I have with it.... 1. I f#cking hate "cleartype" which on my nice NEC 19" monitor makes text look vague and fuzzy even after using their free "tuning" tool. My Dell Laptop as well, looks like shit if cleartype is enabled. It may work better for ......
  139. 11/12/2006Still working on this -- you guys are great. Here's another stab at it.Update: A final logo was chosen. Click here to see it. Going back a step or two here. I'm trying to resist the temptation to add more and more complexity to the image. It's easy to fall into the trap of trying too hard to make it say too many things. ......
  140. 11/11/2006Yet another logo evolution, and yes, I'm still begging for feedback.Update: A final logo was chosen. Click here to see it. Great feedback so far. Since I love to push my luck, here's the next evolution in the logo design. The changes aren't based as much on specific suggestions as on what parts of the previous attempts were clear to everyone and what parts had people really confused (meaning my imagery didn't work). ......
  141. 11/10/2006Looking for opinions on this logoUpdate: A final logo was chosen. Click here to see it. Tell me what you guys think of this possible logo for "Second Signal". I'm too close to it. I've spent way too much time working on this to have an objective ......
  142. 11/10/2006C.U.L.T. 2007 Sponsorship is now briefly open -- more than 50% of sponsorships are now spoken forIt's once again that time of year to sign up sponsors for the Certified Unofficial Lotusphere T shirt! Last year's sponsors got first short at this year, and we already have several of the slots filled. This year we're going to have even more fun with the shirt and that gives us a few more options. If you're interested in sponsoring, you should read this and get back to me ASAP. I will update this page with the number of available sponsor slots periodically. Currently, there are 7 sponsorship slots left ......
  143. 11/09/2006Microsoft is sending out presents. Should you open them?I'm not sure if I dare, but ......
  144. 11/09/2006I've been accepted to speak once again this year at Lotusphere 2007, and on all new topicsThis year, I'm doing a session with Gab callled "IBM Lotus Domino Security Features - A to Z" as a jumpstart. It should be a good session, and Gab is brilliant to work with. I'm also doing one called "Moving IBM Lotus Domino to Linux" which is designed to give you the things you need to know in order to migrate a server successfully and then manage it remotely under Linux. I'm also doing something new for me. A hands on lab. Check this out and tell me what you think. Would you go? Mail Routing Mastery - A ......
  145. 11/09/2006Is the Iraq war really so different from the Vietnam war? In an argument on Volker's site, someone made the claim that they're nothing alike, and I should "look at the differences in our losses!". Well, I looked. Take a look what I found. In terms of non-mortal casualties per year, there are more in Iraq than in Vietnam. True, there are less deaths. We've gotten much better at patching up kids before they die. I'm all for that, but let's not kid ourselves that Iraq is mostly going well and it's just the media overstating the violence. The only thing I've seen ......
  146. 11/08/2006IMO, here's the real reason for Rumsfeld's resignation announcement todayWhat I don't hear much comment on is something I've seen this administration do over and over and over. They've succeeded in changing the conversation from their huge loss yesterday. They haven't been completely successful, but they have drastically reduced the volume of that loss and replaced it with something they have the control and focus on. It's a brilliant move, really. It steps on the press the Democrats are getting really really hard. If he was going anyway, what a great way to handle it for the ......
  147. 11/07/2006Notes 8 -- aka Hannover -- Install options. This is a GOOD thing.Over on Volker’s site, the discussion of Notes 8 installed as a standalone client versus the full installation with the Eclipse package and its features is leading to the same old trap of suspicion and critique before the product has even launched. Is it any wonder that these decisions are kept so quiet for so long? I like Volker and generally respect his opinion so please don’t assume I’m slamming him here. In this case though, I think pointing criticism at something that doesn’t exist yet and isn’t ......
  148. 11/07/2006New blog feature....I've made the "reply" box draggable. You can move it around if you like, so that you can see what is underneath. Try it, you may like ......
  149. 11/07/2006Mary Beth Raven thinks it's time to get rid of double-right click to close a Notes client window!I almost never link to someone's blog site and ask you to post there -- but in this case, friends of mine, I must beg for your help. Mary Beth Raven thinks it's time to get rid of double-right click to close a Notes client window! Please, for me, go to her site and pile on with the others of us all pleading for the feature to remain. It has been there for as long as I've been using Notes, and would be greatly missed. http://www-03.ibm.com/developerworks/blogs/page/marybeth?entry=right_double_click_to_close ......
  150. 11/06/2006If you're reading this and a citizen of the USA If you don't vote, don't bitch. The image below represents the approach taken by those who don't vote, preferring to simply hope things get better on their own.... ......
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