Andrew Pollack's Blog

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  1. 06/26/2006Got stuck in DC last night in the longest thunderstorm I've ever seen12 hours straight of lightening storm. Anyway, I did get these AMAZING pictures at the Udvar-Hazy museum. I got to stand next to the Space Shuttle "Enterprise", an SR-71, Migs, a Concorde, a Corsair, missiles, and even a Kamakaze. Look closely at the Kamakaze -- its actually a bomb. Just a torpedo shape with a detonator visible on the front, a jet engine on the back, and a tiny cockpit. No eject, no landing gear, and very little steering control. Just fast and deadly. I heard there was a stealth bomber ......
  2. 06/14/2006Quit trying to turn your Notes Client apps into imitations of MDI or Dialog Box based applications. That's not where the value is.This is adapted from a response I wrote to someone in a private forum about the Notes client UI and its value. I realized when I re-read it that it would make a good blog topic, so here goes.... Notes 7 gives you power to do UI things in the Notes client. You will not, however, turn it into a Visual Studio dialog box driven MDI application. The further you go toward trying to do that, the bigger hole you're digging yourself from a scale, support, and stability perspective. Notes is Notes. It is not VS.net ......
  3. 06/11/2006Busy weekend for your favorite Lieutenant About once each quarter, every officer in our department has a turn at "Weekend Duty Officer". Basically, this means you're the go-to person for dispatch when there is a question about anything from burning permits to parade details (parade details are done for school teams that win state championships and other celebratory events). This weekend was my turn. This is also graduation weekend. Oh, and one other wrinkle -- Engine 1 has the graduation details each year which include doing the fire watch rounds ......
  4. 06/06/2006Time to repeat some of the best advice on programming I've ever read.A couple of years ago I read something Richard Schwartz wrote about "Second System Syndrome". I can't seem to find the original now, but here's a link to the topic on wikipedia. Since reading it, an understanding of this topic has been directly responsible for saving my backside about a dozen times. The general idea, is that you build something that by chance, luck, and a little skill turns out really useful. As a reward, you get the chance to do it again. You resolve that this time you're really going to ......
  5. 06/01/2006STTN - Store more than 32k of non-rich text on a document, and let it still be visible -- even in Notes 6.5.4 and 7.0.1I don't do "Show and Tell Thursday" all that often. I'm just too heads down right now. Today though, I thought I'd share a tip after having to resolve some customer issues related to a problem that can crop up in newer versions of the Notes client. Background - What is "Summary" data? When you save a Notes document, it cannot have more than 32k of "Summary" data on it. Summary data is all the values stored from all the fields on your forms that aren't rich text. It also includes any noteitems written to ......
  6. 05/27/2006When you REALLY love the game....Ari earns her team's "Man of the Match" award at her first out of state soccer tournament!You know you love the game when you love the game so much that after two of the toughest games you've ever played, playing hurt on the hottest, muggiest day so far this year, you come back to the hotel for a quick swim and then more soccer out in the parking lot with your team. Ari is playing center forward on a "Premier" level soccer team now, a position she'd never attempted prior to last fall. Her Maine Metro Football Club team entered a tournament this weekend. Tournaments break down into divisions. ......
  7. 05/25/2006New microsoft patch is here to [...help me option a licensed copy of windows..]How is this Microsoft "Update" designed to help me, to fix broken software, or to make my system more secure? Doesn't anyone else think its wrong for Microsoft to stick the newest and greatest license validation tool on my system in the form of an automatic system update? Have you checked your system? I'll be you got one of these ......
  8. 05/23/2006Advisor Conference in Scottsdale, August 2006 -- Discount of $100 Available via Bloggers and User GroupsIn what can only be described as the smartest marketing idea anyone in the history of the world has ever had, Advisor Magazine is offering a $100 discount to anyone who registers for the conference and mentions the name of certain speakers. I'm one of then, so when you register, just type in "Andrew Pollack discount" in the comment field and they'll "Take it from there." While it is true there are other people who can give you the same discount, and so far as I know there is no kickback to any of us -- it ......
  9. 05/22/2006Say what you may want to about Ray Nagin, as long as you call him the winner.The guy may have sounded pretty bad on the news. He may have said some things most of us find pretty ridiculous, but clearly he's a hell of a politician. It doesn't even matter if any of it was his fault. How else could the man right up front in charge of his city when it literally became uninhabitable, the man with the plan ....that left hundreds stranded on rooftops and thousands in a worn out stadium with inadequate food, water, power, and sanitation, the man who left hundreds at what was supposed to ......
  10. 05/22/2006Going bedouinReading in Wired Magazine for June 2006, the "Jargon Watch" column has an item titled "Going bedouin" (choice of capitalization is there's, not mine). This is essentially the idea of businesses made entirely of employees and their virtual connections via cell phone, email, VoIP, and so forth. There is no real estate asset. I suppose this differentiates from the solo consultant in that there is more than one person in the ......
  11. 05/18/2006If you live long enough, I guess you get to do just about everythingBruce and Julian interviewed me tonight for their "Taking Notes" podcast. It was fun to do, and yes it is true that this is the first podcast I've listened to as well as the first one I've participated in. I snuck in earlier this evening and previewed a couple of past episodes to get a feel for how it was done. If you're like me in that you don't do "Podcasts" don't sweat it. The audio is just an MP3 link you can click on to hear. It's telling that for a communication tool we didn't use the phone. We used ......
  12. 05/18/2006Podcasting -- how many of you listen them?I've been invited to take part in (or be interviewed on, or something somewhere in between) a podcast this week. I'm curious as to how many of you listen to them. Drop me and email or respond here and let me know. Its an odd medium that I have to admit doesn't hold a lot of interest (as a blogger) for me in its current format. I've never actualy listened to one until today when I reviewed a few of the site that I'll be talking ......
  13. 05/18/2006I always wondered what it would be like to have IBM's full support behind Lotus Notes and Domino. Now we're finding out.Support at IBM for Lotus Notes and Domino is as high now as I've ever seen it, and its fantastic. IBM's renewed commitment to Lotus Notes and Domino first became noticeable with the now famous whitepaper in 2003. For the first time in a few years, you could start talking about Domino inside IBM seriously again. Revisionists will tell you it wasn't that bad, but I'm not about to let them forget. Before Dr. Goyal was able to sift through the competing strategies and oversee the development of a plan to ......
  14. 05/18/2006I love living in MaineYou've no doubt seen the news about flooding in New England as a result of the rain over the last 10 days -- or as I like to call it, point-two-five on the Noah scale. I live about 45 minutes North of where the flooding is, and though we've had rain that's about it. An hour further North its been fairly dry. Well, its true, the National Guard did have to get called out. Not for looting or security, you understand. This is Maine. We don't do that. No, in fact the Guard had to be standing by for safety as ......
  15. 05/15/2006Infoworld Rates Domino 8.7 out of 10!The results are in, and Infoworld rates IBM Notes and Domino with amazing scores. Take a look at these numbers. What more can I say? Link: http://www.infoworld.com/article/06/05/11/78099_20TCnotes_1.html Overall Score: Excellent 8.7 Criteria FeaturesManagementPerformanceEase-of-useIntegrationValue Score 899899 Weight 20%20%20%15%15%10%   IBM Lotus Notes and Domino 7 Cost: Domino Server starts at $1,145 per CPU; Notes starts at $101 per client; Domino Web Access 7 starts at $70 per client Platforms: ......
  16. 05/15/2006Installation of Domino 7.0.1 on Linux - missing a few JVM libraries?When I started up my new Domino 7.0.1 linux server on Saturday, the HTTP task reported the following error: 05/13/2006 06:37:36 PM HTTP JVM: Exception 05/13/2006 06:37:36 PM HTTP JVM: in thread 05/13/2006 06:37:36 PM HTTP JVM: "main" 05/13/2006 06:37:36 PM HTTP JVM: 05/13/2006 06:37:36 PM HTTP JVM: java.lang.UnsatisfiedLinkError: /opt/ibm/lotus/notes/70010/linux/jvm/bin/libawt.so: libXp.so.6: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory 05/13/2006 06:37:36 PM HTTP JVM: at ......
  17. 05/15/2006I ran into an upgrade issue when I moved from Domino 7.0 to 7.01 this weekend.This lost me several hours over the weekend. It seems that 7.0.1 along with 6.5.4 there are some changes in the backend classes or in the LotusScript interface to those cases when storing data into fields. When moving from Domino 7.0 to 7.01 I ran into a problem which was oddly similar to the one I described last week. In this case, a web application just stopped working correctly. It took me several hours to track down, because it happened that I wasn't upgrading a server, I was installing a new one and ......
  18. 05/15/2006Talk about your ups and downs at work! The BBC follows an amazing day with a really bad one....Late last week, the BBC World News announced their listenership in English around the world was up by some massive number -- 47 million people if I can recall. No surprise, they've become one of the most trusted sources of information out there. Then today a friend referred me to this article: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2-2178097,00.html I especially liked the last ......
  19. 05/12/2006Finally, a great IBM ad on TV -- sponsoring Dr. Who no less!Imagine my surprise at finding IBM commercial on television that (a) was very good, (b) was very well placed, and (c) mentioned collaboration! Of all places, I was watching Dr. Who -- the new series just over from the UK -- on SF channel and a great deep voiced announcer tag came along and said, in 70's style "Dr. Who is brought to you by...IBM. What makes you special?". We then cut over to a pretty good abstract commercial centered around a water cooler in the desert. The quote "Lets tap into a million ......
  20. 05/11/2006Great pictures of my 12 year old kicking butt on the soccer field this weekendFor those who don't already know, my 12 year old daughter Ari has transformed herself over the last year from your basic pre-teen couch potato into a fairly serious athlete. She did this on her own. I never asked her take on more than a general two or three day a week active sport in a noncompetitive way. She opted for soccer and was asked last fall to join our town's "Travel" team. That was more competitive than she'd ever played before in the AYSO or "Rec league" games and it took real effort (and no ......
  21. 05/08/2006Busy, busy busy. Resolution to my earlier field size issue, fire calls, press release work, and half a dozen computer languages over the course of the last four days.Sorry I've been slow to post. Today's debacle was resolved when I stopped using a Lotus Notes text list field to hold a bunch of data and instead write it to a Rich Text field. To do that, I took the array and used "Join()" on it to turn it into one long string of comma delimited entries (there are no commas in the data of this so I was ok). I save the big string to that rich text field which is hidden. When the Java agent runs, it gets the string as one long value and parses it with a String.split() call ......
  22. 05/08/2006Ugly regression bug in Lotusscript - updated** UPDATE -- Thanks to Daniel Nashed... Looks like the regression bug is preventing code from running which may not have run properly before. I'm not sure that's really what happened, as it did seem to run properly before, but thank you Daniel. Meantime, I have updated the product that this "bug" crashed and am using a rich text field and saving the data out then re-importing it later. Ugly, but quick enough. I did some checks. For text items the limit is 64K from API point of view. If you read or write a ......
  23. 05/06/2006Stunningly perfect weather today in Cumberland, MaineToday was one of those days Mainers wait for all through February and March - often standing by the door of their trailers holding lawn chairs and staring out at the snow in anticipation. About 70 degrees, partly cloudy, low humidity and a nice breeze made for a perfect day to work on the yard and get ready for summer. I finished Barb's raised garden and brought in a cubic yard of compost to fill it. Of course, since I can't back the trailer (of course I have a trailer, I live in Maine) back there where ......
  24. 05/03/2006Oh joy, we've got a new I.T. crises to worry about. Lets just go ahead and call this one "BirdFlu2k", as that's how its evolving. The idea is that there's this looming deadline (sound familiar?) only this time its even better because we don't know when it actually is. Its probably at least a year or two away but nobody can be sure. When this deadline hits, it will hit suddenly, and we're all going to have to be prepared to work from home -- possibly without food or power. Yes, its up to our I.T. departments to get their plans in place now and roll out those ......
  25. 05/01/2006A lot of thought and planning, then 9 months waitingA lot of thought and planning, then 9 months waiting and finally I can show you these pictures!           Our oldest is already 22 years old. Its taken years to decide, and months waiting for it to get this far along. Delivery should be within 45 days, but I suspect it will go a bit ......
  26. 05/01/2006Its May Day! A day celebrated by state control freaks and by anachists alike -- who knows why?It is time for all the dyslexic workers of the world to untie, the misspellers of the word brake the bounds of oppression, and for the masses to seize control of industry in the name of mediocrity for all! That's right people, from those who can to those who need. As to the anarchists -- I have no idea at all why they would pick May Day as a day to celebrate. I find it incredibly funny that there is a "They" to even talk about with anarchists. How, exactly, can true anarchists organize? How did they end up ......
  27. 04/28/2006Cumberland Fire Department member Kevin Foster wins WCSH "Teens Who Care" award and scholarship!Take a minute to view this video. Most people will go their entire lives without learning how to be half as good a man as Kevin. I've known him for four or five years now and he just never ceases to amaze me. His work for the community is so tireless that this minutes long TV profile can't begin to cover more than just a few of the things he does. I've never met anyone who has raised more money for more projects, done more physical work on those projects, and been more ready to respond to absolutely any ......
  28. 04/26/2006Release name candidates for the product codenamed Windows VistaI saw this today on SlashDot, it was posted anonymously so the best I can do for attribution is a link. I like your comment on Vista becoming "XP warmed over". But there is a problem. "Vista" is non-compliant with traditional Microsoft OS names. Here are my suggested product names based on compatibility with MS standard naming convention: Windows 2007 Dull but it worked in 1995, 1998, 2000, and 2003Windows XP 2007 XP, new and improved for 2007Windows X[Q...Z] If XP is "extra pain", then XQ is ... Windows ......
  29. 04/25/2006Scott McNealy steps down from Sun Microsystems.Well, Scott McNealy has stepped down as CEO of Sun Microsystems. That's big news. I don't know much about his replacement yet, though I hear he's very P.R. focused and likes to troll the Linux world for attention. The more things change, the more they stay the same I guess. Jonathan Schwartzis the new President and Chief Executive Officer at Sun. Its no secret that I'm not a big fan of what Scott McNealy has done with Sun in the past 10 years. I hope Jonathan Schwartz has an agenda that makes more sense ......
  30. 04/24/2006In other stunning news, the Vatican may soon relax its rules about the use of condoms. According to BBC News, the Vatican is about to announce something as forward thinking as allowing the use of condoms by married people to prevent the spread of disease in cases where one has a terrible disease like AIDS. In this stunning step forward, it seems there may for the first time be recognition that sex may be considered for purposes other than procreation. Massive amounts of thought and prayer -- though of course no practical research -- must have gone into this decision. Overall, this is great ......
  31. 04/23/2006One last warm, dry day to build a new garden -- and now finally some rain to put an end to these woods fires.Yesterday was the last of a long series of warm, dry, early spring days here in Maine. Yes, I realize that you southern types are well on toward summer. Here in Maine we're still waiting for the trees and shrubs to come out of hibernation. I took advantage of the nice weather and finally got around to building Barb that new raised garden bed I'd promised last fall. The hard part is digging out the base and laying in the first layer of 4" by 6" pressure treated lumber so that it is square and level. Once in ......
  32. 04/20/2006Details about yesterdays big woods fires - it was a nice day for a walk in the woodsNearly every fire crew in the state was busy yesterday and today looks to be the same. With the onset of spring we've got warm, dry weather and brisk winds but the ground cover hasn't yet gone through the "green up" process so things are tinder box dry. At 16:45 yesterday I heard the call go out on the radio for two nearly simultaneous fires. One of our crews was requested to help Portland and Falmouth deal with a brush fire off the "Falmouth Spur" of the Maine Turnpike that sounded like quite an event, ......
  33. 04/19/200630 mile an hour winds and very dry conditions made for some good sized brush and woods fires today. I'm too tired to talk much about it tonight, suffice it to say when towns from as far as 15 and 20 miles away are all sending trucks, its a big woods fire. I ended up in charge of what started as a small group of four firefighters sent in around the back ......
  34. 04/15/2006Old stars gone, but new stars emerge - I'm impressed with what I'm seeing from IBM-LotusTalk about full cycle! In Kevin Cavinaugh's keynote he mentioned that the Notes Client is so strong in the combined Workplace Rich Client/Lotus Notes product that makes up Hannover that there is some serious discussion about not even using the "Workplace" ......
  35. 04/14/2006Back in Maine -- its good to be home.To misquote some really great music...-- you know the tune, sing along.... "I flew in from (Las Vegas) via (Southwest Air), didn't get to bed last night. All the way the paper bag was on my knee. Man, I had a dreadful flight....." Well, its only partly ......
  36. 04/14/2006My new favorite Linux Distribution -- yes, Domino runs well on it.Last week I came across CENTOS, which is a Linux distribution extremely similar to Red Hat Enterprise Linux in all respects other than a subscription cost. CENTOS is supported entirely by its community. It took me about 1/2 hour to download the DVD via ......
  37. 04/14/2006Notes on VMWARE Server (free) Beta - It ROCKS. You need this. -- and a free performance tip for the betaTIP: During the beta, turn off the debugging which slows things down by using debug = ......
  38. 04/09/2006Las Vegas - Perfect weather, a good flight, a car "upgrade".Yesterday I got up at 3am and drove to Portsmouth, New Hampshire for my 5 1/2 hour flight to Las Vegas on Southwest Airlines. I like southwest for short flights, but longer flights I really prefer the traditional carriers. Unfortunately, I don't prefer ......
  39. 04/07/2006Well friends, I'm leaving at 3am to make a flight to Vegas. If you're also going to the conference and end up being tricked into attending one of my sessions, please introduce ......
  40. 04/06/2006Serverbeach promotional event has a great deal on dedicated servers starting next week.As many of you know, I've moved from having my own datacenter to having my customer facing servers at ServerBeach. I've been generally very impressed, though the machine I'm using right now is not quite good enough for what I need to be doing. As part of ......
  41. 04/04/2006New architectures sometimes mean old planning toolsSince I've decided that the right way to build the new production website for SecondSignal is "SOA" (Service Oriented Architecture) which is the web equivalent of object oriented programming, I've been thinking about the best way to do the underlying ......
  42. 04/04/2006Its time for a party!From a reader: On Wednesday of this week, at two minutes and three seconds after 1:00 in the morning, the time and date will be 01:02:03 04/05/06 At least here in the U.S. which uses Month/Day/Year formatting. That won't happen again in your lifetime. You ......
  43. 04/02/2006Iraq issues spring directly out of our Iran & Korea policies -- We made this problem.Why is Iran so bent on having the ability to delivery fission weapons? Easy. They just look around and ask one question: "What is the difference between Iraq and North Korea?" The answer to that question is very simple. North Korea, despite not having the ......
  44. 04/01/2006Looking forward to Advisor in Las Vegas -- Just a week awayI plan to have a great, relaxing time out there. For me, its great that Advisors uses the Marriot way out on the edge of town away from the strip. Just regular stores, restaurants, and hotel rooms. The place is comfortable, quiet, and has a great pool. ......
  45. 04/01/2006Big news for meYou'll be finding the details out soon enough, but it may come as a bit of a surprise to you that I'll be doing a press release with Microsoft related to SecondSignal. I'm working with the same people who are behind the just finishing "Your Potential, Our ......
  46. 03/30/2006Safety recall on Nite-Lite products -- Please read this one.An electrical short circuit in the nite lite can cause it to overheat and smolder or melt which can burn consumers or result in a fire. U.S. Consumer Product Safety ......
  47. 03/30/2006About to get some really good press for my public safety notification tool -- need help now picking a namePretty much all of you know that I've been working toward commercializing the paging/phone system. Now that all the technical hurdles are met, its just a question of fine tuning and finish carpentry. Part of that though, is picking a name. You'd be amazed ......
  48. 03/29/2006What buttons does your phone need, but not have?I mentioned a minute ago that my Mute button didn't do what I want. I want to have one that mutes THE OTHER PERSON in the conference. I'd also like an "Assassinate" button. It would need to be specific to a single person on a conference call. What other ......
  49. 03/29/2006The mute button on my phone seems to be broken.I'm in a conference call and I keep pressing my mute button, but it isn't working. this idiot just keeps talking and talking. I need an assassinate ......
  50. 03/28/2006The first signs of spring are here in Maine...The first signs of spring have reached us here at TheNorth.... The dry, dead grass without rain had lead to a number of small brush fires, and tonight I've taken the snow tires and cheapo wheels off Barb's minivan and put the shiney alloy rims on along ......
  51. 03/27/2006Fire Department 2005 Year in Review - Town Council Meeting presentationFor anyone interested, this 15 minute video -- about 9 megs to download -- starts off with Chief Small commenting on the awards given out a week or so ago (of which mine is included) then goes into a short slideshow of pictures from training and incidents ......
  52. 03/27/2006Pork. The other white FISH.Speaking of transgenic food, some scientists are playing at intelligent design. They've spliced a gene for making oils of the kind fish make -- so called "Omega 3 fatty acids" -- into pigs. Two of the three pigs in the picture below have it. That could be ......
  53. 03/26/2006Microsoft employees at the front line are mad as hell about Vista, Ballmer, and MS quality control.If you have time, take a look at the rant going on by way of this anonymous Microsoft employee's blog. With comments like "Client appcompat % hovering at Fewer testers, less experienced, with little training, a much (ahem) 'slower' approach to testing. ......
  54. 03/24/2006A very revealing internal memo from Microsoft enumerates the changes in the division responsible for the Windows Platform.The memo from Kevin Johnson (presumably not the one who used to play for the Phoenix Suns) contains the list of new position holders along with this kind of standard issus execuspeak: "I know change is never easy but I truly appreciate the focus that ......
  55. 03/24/2006Do you now routinely ignore the top few search results?Search Engine farmers is a name I've decided to give these sociopaths who create automated tools that suck in content from as many places as they can, generate link farms, and work every other trick possible so as to be the top pick in as many searches on ......
  56. 03/24/2006Large Area Search training last night - details and picturesLast night we had a really great training event put on by some of the guys from nearby Portland, on a new technique for searching large open areas. Now you would not use this at a time when there's a rocking fire going on -- this would be used in the case ......
  57. 03/22/2006Its great when you can be reminded why you like Domino and Notes so muchHello everybody. I'm a bit south of my usual haunts. I'm doing a two day client visit as a subject matter expert on a site review project. I'm finding myself at what by all observations looks like a really successful classic Lotus Notes environment. More ......
  58. 03/19/2006The new Dr. Who on SciFi completely rocks.Watched the new Dr. Who on Sci Fi -- just now available here in the U.S. All I can say is "perfect!" -- its just captured the spirit of the old series in its essentials, added some special effects without making them so good as to lose the low-budget ......
  59. 03/19/2006An award, and some new uniform bling!You know something about all the work I've been doing on an emergency services paging & communication system,right? Tonight was Cumberland's annual banquet. Its one night a year when - out of uniform - we rent a local meeting place, put on nice clothes ......
  60. 03/15/2006I want my six hours back!I wasted about six hours today trying to figure out why despite everything appearing to work correctly, I could not make my phone client software make any noise. It would call out to the pbx, the pbx would play the congratulations demo messages, but no ......
  61. 03/14/2006Marshaling data in and out of managed vs.net code -- may have some value for Domino API work as wellPart of the work I've been doing requires that I make use of an external library in the form of a DLL. This article describes about 2/3 of the techniques needed for the process. If you like it, I'll write another one that deals with the other side of the ......
  62. 03/14/2006Got shell scripts? Get this book.Its not often I really endorse a computer technology book. In the past I can think of only two textbooks I've ever really felt were so good they exceeded my expectations. This one, "Linux Shell Scripting with Bash" by Ken O. Burtch is the third. Like ......
  63. 03/07/2006Amazing - a live capture of what was previously thought to be only a myth. I've been able to acquire a picture.A species of collateral knows as "Dominus Marketus Directum" has been captured live in the hands of a real world business decision maker. Its difficult to imagine, but true. While I waited in the safety of the Jeep, my assistant was able to capture this ......
  64. 03/02/2006Go the next step with VoIP - don't miss out. My S&TT Post for this weekForget Skype and Vonage for a minute. You may be just touching the surface if you’re using Vonage or one of its competitors, Skype, or any of a myriad other VoIP tools. There is so much more out there. My contribution to SNTT is to show you how to get ......
  65. 02/28/2006Proof that "Sender Pays" will not stop spam even one little bitFor those who don't know, the idea of "Sender Pays" is to make the cost of sending an email slightly higher than zero for bulk emails -- some say for everyone. Say a penny a message or less. AOL and YAHOO are talking about using this method for public ......
  66. 02/28/2006Where have I been?Well, aside from living in Linux, Asterisk, VoIP, Visual Studio.NET, Java, Eclipse, and fire trucks -- I was also on vacation in Florida with my family. ......
  67. 02/12/2006A shame President Bush doesn't get out more.Everyone gets tired sometimes, and clearly W needs a vacation. I'd like to suggest that he take some time and go bird hunting with his buddy Dick more ......
  68. 02/07/2006Domino & Notes version 7.0.1 now available -- contains what looks like a couple of REALLY key fixes...There are at least two fairly big deal updates in this release. If I read correctly, the very long standing issue some people have had where servers would seem to become unavailable unless you time-out and reconnect may have been resolved in this release. ......
  69. 02/03/2006Lotusphere 2006 Survey Results are in......Read 'em and weep, my friends! (Updated)I wasn't going to go to the trouble of adding these up from the website, but since all of you seem to being doing it on your blogs it only seemed fitting. Of course, now it's going to be hard to fit my head through the door after reading these. I don't ......
  70. 02/03/2006Creating a Rules Engine class in Lotusscript while cutting process time by more than 1000%Its time for a technical deep dive. I haven't done one of these in a long time and I know some of you couldn't care less about firefighting, shirts, or my daughter's soccer team (which is kicking butt). As anyone who reads this site regularly knows, I've ......
  71. 02/02/2006MS Tech Support?This is unconfirmed of course, but was forwaded to me and its good enough that I felt it could be passed along as ......
  72. 02/02/2006How often are you overwhelmed by things to do to the point of shutting down?Its 9am and I've been up and going in the office for more than an hour already. The list of tech and business items to address on my list is so consumingly huge that at present I'm unable to start any of them. I've learned that at this point there is no ......
  73. 01/31/2006Well, IBM really has set DB2 free. As Domino admins and developers, we are very well positioned to take advantage of this. So, how do we get started?First, I have to say that setting DB2 free was a fantastic move. PC based servers have never been the large part of the revenue stream for DB2 anyway, though it is for Microsoft's MSSQL. DB2 is very well regarded in the I.T. industry and compares very ......
  74. 01/26/2006Lotusphere 2006 Goes out on a high noteLotusphere 2006 came to a close with a flawless performance by Surjit Chana, IBM VP of Marketing and Partners. His fun, unscripted, and very energetic approach went over quite well. I’d heard from others they’d enjoyed his talk on Sunday. Core Lotus ......
  75. 01/25/2006C.U.L.T. 2006 Prize Awarded!Congratulations to C.U.L.T. member Christine Broome who was selected as the winner of this years prize. Christine, shown in pictures below along with our secret spotter Amy Blumenfield -- yes, we're sneaky enough to use our friend from Microsoft as the ......
  76. 01/24/2006More info on Craig Hayman -- he has quite a loyal fan baseI'm just back from the "Meet the Geeks" party (formerly known as the Iris Party) at that Atlantic, and what an earful of great news came from that! I'll sum up without breaking confidentiality by saying a few things in a general sense. Craig Hayman -- ......
  77. 01/24/2006A correction from yesterday's rant ---I should point out -- yesterday I said "almost no mention of Lotus Notes for 2 hours" -- in fact, it was mentioned right at the beginning, and there was talk about the present state of the product. I believe it was so poorly presented that it didn't have ......
  78. 01/23/2006Lotusphere 2006 Opening Session -- The Substance that Style KilledThere were good things in the opening general session at Lotusphere 2006 this year. The Sametime 7.5 announcement and features for example were well handled and well demonstrated. Jason Alexander, the guest speaker, was excellent as you would expect, and ......
  79. 01/21/2006Greetings from Lotusphere 2006! The shirts are here. I am here. Where are you? Here's more SHIRT info, including the Theme and Prize!Hi all --I've been really busy so haven't written much. On Thursday I drove two hours to the airport, waited two hours for the flight, then flew three hours to Orlando. That was the easy part. Once I got my baggage, I took a cab a few miles to the heavy ......
  80. 01/14/2006I LOVE this response on SlashDot to news of Sun and Oracle getting together for yet another potshot at MicrosoftFirst, here's the quote from "bcrowell" on /. "Y'know, I was just saying to myself, "Self," I said to myself, "you really need an enterprise datacenter architecture that leverages middleware based on robust frameworks." Wow, they must have been reading my ......
  81. 01/12/2006Only PARTIALLY hydrogenated. Damn. These people never do something all the way, do they?The image below is what happens if you leave a Cheese Puff on a piece of notebook paper overnight. This is because the cheap bastards are only PARTIALLY hydrogenating their vegetable oil. For those who never bothered to look this up, the big chemical ......
  82. 01/11/2006The economics of MMORPG's is fascinating stuffA friend forwarded a link to an article written on the impact of "Farming" in the "World of Warcraft" online game. "Farming" in this case refers to companies set up in low-wage countries where players are hired to run characters which generate in game ......
  83. 01/10/2006According to scientists, the Milkey Way galaxy is "Warped, and vibrating like a drum"....Those crazy Berkeley guys..... http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2006/01/060110094853.htm -- Isn't that funny......they say the same thing about me. Who else but those wacky guys at Berkeley could come up with THIS as a picture of the galaxy. I thought ......
  84. 01/10/2006Its funny the way yesterday's high end hardware is today's outdated toy.I'm refurbing a computer to put in my 10 year old's room this weekend. This one will replace the old Blueberry iMac that's in there now. That one will move to the six year old, now that she can read. Looking through the hardware closet to figure out what ......
  85. 01/09/2006Time for a new expression. Roommate Annoying.Ok, we all have heard of "Coyote Ugly" -- someone so ugly that if you were to wake up with them after going clubbing you'd gnaw off your own arm to avoid waking them as you got out of there. Its now time for a new expression. "Roommate Annoying" will now ......
  86. 01/08/2006Observation: High performance sportswear is really all about dressing up like a superhero.I've spent some money on a product called "Under Armor" for my daughter so she can wear these warm materials under her soccer uniform in the same way you might wear long johns or silk underwear skiing. The two big differences are that this is "High ......
  87. 01/07/2006Stop the presses! I actually took a day off today. As in, OFF. Like, REALLY.A Barb's suggestion, and with admitted reluctance (due to the huge volume of work I have to get done before Lotusphere) I took the day off and we took the three kids to Sunday Riverfor a day of skiing. The weather was perfect -- just below freezing at the ......
  88. 01/03/2006Unofficial patch for the big Windows security flaw (which does affect Notes clients) If you have a Windows 2000, XP, XP/Pro, or 2003 computer I encourage you to install this hot fix. It doesn't do anything you can see --just installs then says its done. According to SANS, it will protect you from this major exploit. I am already aware of ......
  89. 01/02/2006Its not like you weren't warned about it years before you first had to make the choiceConsider it, you were warned. Ok, the idea for this did come from /. -- I did make the graphic ......
  90. 12/30/2005My new favorite anti-spam & anti-website ads tool -- HostsManAds. I hate them. They've taken over every inch of available screen real estate on websites, roadsides, tv, radio, and even people. I went looking for a tool to help block them at their source. I found exactly what I wanted. There are others out there, ......
  91. 12/30/2005IMPORTANT - Easily Protect your PC and your Client's against this ZERO DAY exploitA flaw in a special kind of image viewer for viewing WMF files represents an unpatched security risk -- and that risk has been exploited in the wild already. All someone has to do is send you an email with an image of this kind containing the exploit to ......
  92. 12/29/2005Supersized iPod remote control for the visually impairedThe Supersized, Super-Easy iPod Remote Control The goal was to create an MP3 playing device which could be easily used by my father-in-law who is 87 on Sunday and is rapidly loosing his vision. He can now see almost no detail. Unfortunately, he has never been a technically oriented person and has had a very hard time using the adaptive technologies. Were I to give him a typical MP3 player, it would be lost in moments, and even while in his hand would be unusable. An iPod is ideal for him in other ways, ......
  93. 12/29/2005Spent all day fixing registry problems, and couldn't get iTunes to run without crashing. Finally got it.....If you ever run into a similar problem, or if you come across this blog entry through a google search on something like 'iTunes 6 keeps crashing in XP' then maybe this little note will help. Despite fixing the registry, removing old dead entries, clearing ......
  94. 12/26/2005Christmas purchase limits -- and a common misconceptionMost people take it for a given that if you and your wife agree on a limit for spending on each other, that you mean it to be the top end of the scale. I, on the other hand, choose to view it as a bottom end limit, and shop accordingly. As such, each year ......
  95. 12/23/2005Apple's On-Line store wins my appreciation -- big timeI've been trying to MONTHS to figure out how to make a solution for my 86 year old father-in-law that would allow me to give him audiobooks on tape. The problem is, he's lost most of his vision, and has never been good with technology. MP3 players and CD ......
  96. 12/22/2005A black eye for ChristmasI went to the eye doctor today and had the growth removed from my lower left eyelid before it could finish growing into my evil twin. When I planned the appointment for the 22nd of December, I hadn't considered that it would mean I shall probably have a ......
  97. 12/22/2005I MUST be special. I got "Mod Points" on SlashdotI've been fascinated by the way Cmdr Taco and his crowd have built a huge discussion site that seems to be able to keep a good conversation going even though it has a transient population of tens of thousands of people. The site is (almost) entirely self ......
  98. 12/21/2005Do you do Torrents?I'm looking for a jump start from someone who reads this blog. I've tried a few BT client side packages and like most newbies am left with a bit of an aftertaste. Aside from the fact that half the clients come with spyware (which I trap and kill instead ......
  99. 12/20/2005Professional Driver - Closed CourseEver seen those warnings? "Professional driver, closed course" or "Do not try this at home" --- It applies to I.T. work as well. This is for all of you who think you can just give your users Quickplace and leave them unsupervised. Folks, end users are the ......
  100. 12/20/2005The Life Aquatic - SuckedI just sat through "The Life Aquatic" for no reason I can determine. It started out sucking, and it sucked straight through. It wanted to be some kind of cross between "Buckaroo Banzai" and "Zoolander" and failed on all counts. What a shame, it was a good ......
  101. 12/19/2005The C.U.L.T. shirts are off to the production facility.....finally.....What a relief! This year's C.U.L.T. shirt has been quite a...treat....to work on. For the first time ever, we have 16 sponsors -- not counting Rocky & I. That means sixteen separate company logos which have be just right even though we are trying to keep ......
  102. 12/15/2005I don't know if this has made the rounds before, but its the first time I've seen it. "Who's on first?" -- applied to PC purchasesYou have to be old enough to remember Abbott and Costello and oldenough to not really understand computers to fully appreciate this. For those who sometimes get flustered by our computers, please readon. It is a reworking of the sketch Bud Abbott and Lou ......
  103. 12/14/2005Why is everyone so stunned about the narwhal's horn being a sensory organ?I would think that anything obviously long and hard sticking out of a mammal would be highly sensitive to something, now wouldn't you? ......
  104. 12/13/2005Can we execute a mass-joke at Lotusphere?This isn't something any one person could do effectively by themselves, and I'm not even sure it would be advisable at all. I also don't know exactly how the legal ramifications would play out. Maybe some of you could suggest answers. The general idea ......
  105. 12/13/2005The Law of Unintended Consequences, as a moral stance.The Law of Unintended Consequences is simply the idea that you cannot accurately predict all the ramifications of your actions. If you're someone who believes the end result can justify the means used to achieve that result, it is this law which is ......
  106. 12/09/2005Snow Day! Here's some pics of the day off here at NCT. We got DUMPED on today. The snow started about about 7am and by 4:30pm was all over. That's pretty quick for a snowstorm, but we got around 8 inches of powder in that time. Enjoy these pictures. ......
  107. 12/08/2005Andrew's FALL TV new shows reports. All opinion, no fact. Ha!With all the extra time I have, it should be no surprise that I like to end my day by using the television as a way to try shutting down my brain. It usually works. I can’t really stop analyzing and criticizing though, however, just because I’m exhausted ......
  108. 12/08/2005Surprise! For a few minutes on November 29th, I was a millionaire.It didn't last, but my Fidelity statement for November showed a bank wire transfer to my SEP IRA (Self Employed Tax Deferred Retirement fund for those of you outside the US) for exactly $1,000,000 US. I called of course, and asked the rep to whom I should ......
  109. 12/07/2005A hard fought loss -- ah well... -- and how ADD meds impact my Scrabble playing.Given the other news this morning, I thought I'd post some lighter stuff as well. I got beat last night in Scrabble by my wife. Again. We've had a long running series of games and over the years she's ahead by about 5% of games. Last night was painful. ......
  110. 12/07/2005I learned a new phrase this morning on CNNThe term "Extraordinary Rendition" -- a phrase created to describe the sort of amoral arrogant abuse of power that our government is involved in. I am sickened and disgusted (though sadly not really surprised any more) that we as a nation are doing things ......
  111. 12/05/2005Take back control of your PC -- A document I wrote to help end users deal with basic PC security issues.I wrote this document because so many of the people I know are absolutely frustrated with trying to keep their PC's running in the face of viruses, worms, scams, spyware, and other garbage. If this helps anyone, please feel free to distribute it or link ......
  112. 12/03/2005Santa is not happy. This was forwarded to me today, and may explain...A Christmas Story 'Twas the night before Christmas--Old Santa was pissed. He cussed out the elves and threw down his list. Miserable little brats, ungrateful little jerks. I have a good mind to scrap the whole works! I've busted my ass for damn near a ......
  113. 12/03/2005For the first time in years, I've got my mobile phone in sych with Notes Calendar & Contacts -- and its NOT a PDA phone.A couple of weeks ago I got a new Motorola e815 to replace my LG6100 cell phone. I hated the LG. The sound quality was terrible, the shape was odd, and the features were locked down so that anything useful cost more money to use. The Motorola e815, on the ......
  114. 12/01/2005C.U.L.T. primary sponsorships are now on "IF" list (if there's room). Secondary sponsorships still available -- here's a clarification on SIZE issues for those...Ok, so my previous post wasn't clear enough. When I said you couldn't pick your sizes, some people thought that meant a random set of shirts which could leave them will all smalls or something. Not so. There's a ratio of shirt sizes we've refined over the ......
  115. 11/30/2005Update! ** 13 ** of the 10 primary C.U.L.T. sponsorships are already committed!special update: 13 of the 10 primary C.U.L.T. sponsorships are already committed. Get them while they're hot ......
  116. 11/29/2005Insanely cool way to discover music you like -- its almost magic. Stunning.Its very rare that I repeat what someone else is already blogging. In this case, Volker Weber blogged this and its so incredible I wanted to re-blog it for both of you who read my site by not his. The site is Pandora and its just getting started. In less ......
  117. 11/29/2005Sponsors sought for the 2006 C.U.L.T. shirt! Info here --Yes, its that time again. Its past that time actually. Way, way, way past that time. Rocky and I have been banging our heads together trying to come up with a theme and an image worthy of burning in to the minds of all the attendees at Lotusphere this ......
  118. 11/26/2005Great video -- Ever wonder what firefighters do on a roof? Check this out...I'll warn you though, there's a soundtrack to this video and at the end there's a bit of harsh language. So...unless this kids are up .... turn the volume up on those fancy speakers and watch these truckies (ladder truck firefighters -- also known to some ......
  119. 11/20/2005Initial Results: Verizon Wireless "Broadband" rocks!I'm at the airport in Manchester, New Hampshire. Verizon's broadband map doesn't even show this area as launched yet. I'm connected with all the bars lit, and getting fantastic transfer speeds. Here's the result from DSL Reports... Keep in mind we're ......
  120. 11/18/2005Headed for Phoenix for the weekWell, I'll be blogging from the home of the heat next week. A thanksgiving with my side of the family should be.....interesting. Keep in mind, I am not the loudest member of my family. Not by a long shot. So, its pack Barb and the kids up then see if ......
  121. 11/18/2005King of the typos....Its not shock to anyone that I have fat fingers and frequently type a different version of what I'm saying than what is in my head. Today was a close call however, as I very nearly sent a note to a new NCT Search customer thanking him for his 'odor'. ......
  122. 11/17/2005Of COURSE MS Exchange .next will require 64 bit servers. That's the whole point of the upgrade!Its not about just selling Exchange upgrades -- its about selling Operating System upgrades. If you've been paying attention at all, you know that the real fear at Microsoft is that they're not selling as many licenses for newer and bigger Windows servers ......
  123. 11/16/2005The scoop on cellular broadbandI don't like being off the net. Its no shock to anyone who knows me. It means I can't just follow whatever crazy idea I have at the moment to create, adjust, fix, or check on something that's been simmering in the back of my mind. As such, I've been using ......
  124. 11/16/2005People -- wake up! Quit driving into trucks. They are much bigger than you!Its 01:41 on Wednesday and I'm just about to get back to sleep from yet another sleepyhead who decided to run into a tractor trailer on the interstate. He'll live, his car won't. The US Postal Service will have to do without the trailer load of delivery ......
  125. 11/10/2005Howto: Setup ASSP for anti-virus and anti-spam with IBM Lotus DominoThere's a PDF file at the end of the page if you'd rather use that. HOW-TO – Setup ASSP with IBM Lotus DominoThis HOW-TO is provided free (as in speech) and without warrantee. If you follow these directions, you are solely responsible for the results. I ......
  126. 11/09/2005Need anti-spam for Domino? Here's a good open source alternative -- and they even discuss Domino on the site!Take a look at ASSP. For geeks, its all you need. For the rest of the Domino world, put SpamJam in front of it and you've got a dynamite solution. Though nothing will replace SpamJam when it comes to end users interacting with their anti-spam tool in ......
  127. 11/08/2005Remember all those original Star Trek scenes where the earspliting noise attack would cripple the crew?Crippling high pitched noises forcing crew members to their knees on the bridge of the Enterprise as some kind of non-lethal submit-or-die noise came from the foe-du-jour was part for the course on the 60's TV series. Well, apparently the crew of that ......
  128. 11/07/2005Some thoughts on the violence in FranceAside from being a terrible thing, there is something that fascinates me about what's going on in France. By most accounts, France is a country with a decidedly strong socialist policy and economy compared with the US. The social safety net, healthcare, ......
  129. 11/07/2005Special of the day - Peking DuckBad taste? Of course. Just make sure you cook it well. Take a look at this article from CBS News.... ......
  130. 11/07/2005I don't want to do anything at all today.Do you have a long list of things you simply cannot be bothered to bring yourself to start? Mine's longer. My list, I mean. Its longer than yours. Its got lots of really cool projects on it. I don't feel at all like doing any of them today. This must be ......
  131. 11/07/2005AYSO Soccer in Maine -- late fall. Plus, a short clip for family.If you have kids over the age of 8 and live in the U.S., you probably know about AYSO. The American Youth Soccer Organization is one of the greatest things ever to happen for kids. The organization exists in regional chapters purely for the purpose of ......
  132. 11/06/2005The Soccer Finals!Well, sometimes you're the winner, sometimes you're not. Ari's team did well against a tough Kennebunk team but lost 1-Nill to end the season. They played really well, but you don't get to the state meet without being the best in your region, and none of ......
  133. 11/04/2005Yeah, I'm also speaking at LotusFear this year.I'll be doing an updated version of last year's "Admin Zero to Hero in 60 Minutes" -- I'm going to try to stuff more into it. You may want to bring a time lapse camera to get it ......
  134. 11/01/2005Just two and half turns to the left. Why can't all technology be that simple?Its pretty quickly moving toward the first real snowfall here in Maine. Sometimes that happens before Thanksgiving and other times not for many more weeks. Its time, however, while its still reasonable out to get things ready. As I do every year, I dragged out the old snowblower to give it the once over. Its nine years old now, and for small engines that means a little extra maintenance from time to time. I must have failed to properly drain the carb this spring because it was full of old fuel that had ......
  135. 10/31/2005Ari's soccer team advances to the state finals!My daughter Ari is on a competitive soccer team. She's worked hard to get up to the level of play with these kids. They play thirty minute periods with eleven girls on a side using a full high school varsity field -- and they play rough. Saturday morning ......
  136. 10/24/2005How to 'un-brick' a WRT-54G wireless router (and why) -- and other WRT-54G upgrade informationAfter some background, this post includes pictures and instructions for the de-bricking process. IMPORTANT NOTE: This blog entry was from 2005! While I'm glad people still find it useful and come across it in searches, keep in mind that most of the hardware discussed is out of date at this point and has been replaced with new versions. It's unlikely you'll still be buying this gear in the same revisions. Also, nobody is likely to answer a question you post, because it only gets read by occasional ......
  137. 10/23/2005Soccer Playoffs -- Ari the enforcer -- So far #1 and undefeatedAri (my 11 year old) plays on a competitive "travel" soccer team. The playoffs were this weekend Saturday and Sunday about 1.5 hours north of here. Sunday is rained out so only Saturday's games were played. Sunday's games are moved to next Saturday, with ......
  138. 10/21/2005If you could connect VoIP to Lotus Notes, what would you have it do?I'm playing a LOT these days with VoIP. I've got my own Asterisk PBX, and today's Penumbra meeting included a fairly large virtual attendee base (not giving away any state secrets here). It was successful for many, less so for others due to firewalling ......
  139. 10/16/2005Off to Westford for a two day meetingI'm off to visit my friends in Westford for a couple of days. Anyone have an special requests to pass along? Drop me an email or reply ......
  140. 10/16/2005Chimney fire season has started.Last night around 8:30 we got called out to assist the next town over with a chimney fire. Their ladder is our service so they called ours. Explorers can't go on out of town boxes, and the ladder 7 crew is pretty short right now so I went. A young ......
  141. 10/14/2005A remarkable personality charting toolI got turned on to this from a friend and tried it. It took about 10 minutes and was dead spot on accurate (in my opinion). I doubt any of the results are unflattering so no matter how you come out you'll find the answer is probably appealing. Still, I'm ......
  142. 10/12/2005My poor, troubled, laptop was once again put through hell -- this time by a software 'upgrade'One after another my favorite software vendors fall by the wayside as buy-outs and market pressure to feature enhance products result in bloat-ware, quality problems, extortionate licensing, and in the end my utter disgust and frustration. Merrily working ......
  143. 10/10/2005Microsoft is attempting to rationalize licensing in a world of multi-core, multi-processor, and virtual machine technologySuppose you have a product that sells for $1000 per machine on which it is run. Your revenue is based on the model of a single license handling about 1,000 users, so its a $1/user revenue stream. Now along comes Intel and AMD offering faster processing, ......
  144. 10/07/2005In other news, look what I got tonight...I got the promotion last week, but tonight at the meeting was the presentation of this new piece of hardware. By the way, proud as I am -- this is a really really hard thing to take a picture ......
  145. 10/06/2005Domino bug reported in 5.0.10 -- 2 years ago, still active in version 7I just lost the opportunity to give someone a trial version of my new software -- hopefully they'll try again tomorrow. Why? Because a two year (and three major revision) long bug hasn't been addressed in the Domino code. I can't print the technote from ......
  146. 10/05/2005Google's first big goofle.Google and Sun together. What exactly do they have in common? Nothing but a general dislike for Microsoft. Sun seems to go out of its way to back any play it can come up with that tosses mud toward Redmond, and Google's recent run-ins with the 'softies ......
  147. 10/03/2005The new server is in place, do you like it? Does it work? Is it faster?Well, it took most of the day to get all things carefully cut over, but the dns now points to the new server, and I've dropped http and smtp from the old one. That means if you're seeing this, you're using the new server. Please let me know if you see ......
  148. 09/30/2005I just got Domino 7 running properly on Fedora Core 3 with some minor tweakingIt took a little effort to get this done because Fedora Core 3 is not a supported version of Linux for Domino according to IBM. I suspect others may see similar problems in other Linux distributions so let me document what I did other than the normal ......
  149. 09/28/2005What is it that makes people think "Excel Format" is a standard for transferring data?What follows is the text of an actual response I sent to an associate of mine after reviewing a response to questions we had on an RFP. I had asked what kind of format we could expect to see for the regular updates of data to be sent to us. Only comment ......
  150. 09/28/2005I want one button publishing from the editor of my choice, to the web server of my choice.I want one button publishing from the editor of my choice, to the web server of my choice. All the talk of standards, of service based sites, and content driven applications hasn’t gotten me there at all. I’m not talking here, of using my Notes client to ......
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