Jim's Tech Notes

IBM Lotus Domino and Notes Information Center

2010-01-29T20:57:00.000-05:00

IBM Lotus Domino and Notes Information Center

Needed to cleanly uninstall Lotus Notes in Ubunutu after a I messed up original install..

a Dell Inspiron 1100 resurrected with Ubuntu

2009-08-06T23:00:00.001-04:00

This link was a key to the success so far.

Ubuntu, a Dell Inspiron 1100 and a blank screen after install | rikertothebridge

The laptop had problems with a flaky CD ROM, a failing hard drive warning, an old BIOS (A06 instead of current A32).

More to follow on some of the issues faced and solved so far...

BIOS update for A32 needed a windows disk, which I had already started to wipe with an Ubuntu install. I tried a bunch of CD bootable techniques, but with the flaky CDROM, I couldn't decide if it was bad burned disks, or laptop not able to read fully. I found a way to make a bootable USB, which is way nicer since the USB can be rewritten.

http://www.bay-wolf.com/usbmemstick.htm

I got to reuse an old 16MB flash card and a usb card reader, way cool that that worked.

Ubuntu 7.10: How to Uninstall KDE | Linux | Tech-Recipes

2009-07-09T22:59:00.000-04:00

Ubuntu 7.10: How to Uninstall KDE | Linux | Tech-Recipes

From the above post...

Execute the following command in a terminal window:sudo aptitude remove kubuntu-desktop

But if you installed KDE by using apt-get or Synaptic, there will be a little more to copy to the terminal window:

Execute the following command in a terminal window:sudo apt-get remove adept adept-batch adept-common adept-installer adept-manager adept-notifier adept-updater akregator amarok amarok-xine apport-qt ark arts debtags digikam dolphin enscript fftw3 foomatic-db-gutenprint gdebi-kde gnupg-agent gpgsm gtk-qt-engine gwenview hplip-gui hwdb-client-kde ijsgutenprint k3b kaddressbook kaffeine kaffeine-xine kamera karm katapult kate kbstate kcontrol kcron kde-guidance kde-guidance-powermanager kde-icons-mono kde-style-polyester kde-systemsettings kdeadmin-kfile-plugins kdebase-bin kdebase-data kdebase-kio-plugins kdebluetooth kdegraphics-kfile-plugins kdelibs-data kdelibs4c2a kdemultimedia-kfile-plugins kdemultimedia-kio-plugins kdenetwork-filesharing kdenetwork-kfile-plugins kdepasswd kdepim-kio-plugins kdepim-kresources kdepim-wizards kdeprint kdesktop kdesudo kdm kdnssd keep kfind kghostview khelpcenter kicker kio-apt kio-locate kio-umountwrapper kipi-plugins klipper kmag kmail kmailcvt kmenuedit kmilo kmix kmousetool kmplayer-base kmplayer-konq-plugins knetworkconf knotes konq-plugins konqueror konqueror-nsplugins konsole kontact konversation kooka kopete korganizer kpdf kpf kppp krdc krfb kscreensaver ksmserver ksnapshot ksplash ksplash-engine-moodin ksvg ksysguard ksysguardd ksystemlog ktorrent kubuntu-artwork-usplash kubuntu-default-settings kubuntu-desktop kubuntu-docs kubuntu-konqueror-shortcuts kvkbd kwalletmanager kwin kwin-style-crystal language-selector-qt libakode2 libarts1-akode libarts1c2a libartsc0 libaudio2 libavahi-qt3-1 libclucene0 libcluceneindex0 libdbus-qt-1-1c2 libept0 libexiv2-0 libflac++6 libgmp3c2 libgpgme11 libid3tag0 libifp4 libijs-0.35 libimlib2 libjpeg-progs libk3b2 libkbluetooth0 libkcal2b libkcddb1 libkdcraw1 libkdepim1a libkexiv2-1 libkipi0 libkleopatra1 libkmime2 libkonq4 libkpimexchange1 libkpimidentities1 libksba8 libkscan1 libksieve0 libktnef1 liblua50 liblualib50 libmimelib1c2a libmodplug0c2 libmpcdec3 libmysqlclient15off libnjb5 libofa0 libopenexr2c2a libopenobex1 libpoppler-qt2 libpq5 libpth20 libpulse0 libpythonize0 libqt-perl libqt3-mt libqt4-core libqt4-gui librsync1 libruby1.8 libsamplerate0 libsearchclient0 libskim0 libsmokeqt1 libstreamanalyzer0 libstreams0 libstrigihtmlgui0 libtunepimp5 libungif4g libxapian15 libxcb-shape0 libxcb-shm0 libxcb-xv0 libxcb1 libxine1 libxvmc1 mysql-common network-manager-kde networkstatus openoffice.org-kde openoffice.org-style-crystal perl-suid pinentry-qt poster psutils pykdeextensions python-kde3 python-qt3 python-qt4 python-qt4-dbus python-sip4 python2.5-dev qca-tls rdiff-backup restricted-manager-kde ruby ruby1.8 scim-qtimm skim software-properties-kde speedcrunch strigi-applet strigi-daemon && sudo apt-get install ubuntu-desktop

I'm having problems downloading mail in Notes 8.5 - Gmail Help

2009-07-01T10:46:00.000-04:00

To get IMAP for gmail working Notes I needed to run a telnet check. Not sure if this will be needed everytime or not.

I'm having problems downloading mail - Gmail Help: "To run the telnet test on a Windows computer:

1. Open the Start menu, and select Run.
2. Enter command in the Open: field, and click OK.
3. Enter 'telnet imap.gmail.com 993,' and hit Enter. (Does the information in the prompt window clear? If not, please note the message that appears.)
4. Close the prompt window."

Google Unit converter

2009-07-01T09:18:00.000-04:00

I just found this out...so cool!!!

You can use Google to convert between many different units of measurement of height, weight, and volume among many others. Just enter your desired conversion into the search box and we’ll do the rest.

I tried 1528 ft in miles....got it!!!

Ubuntu issue unable to show contents of the folder - Ubuntu Forums

2009-07-01T07:02:00.002-04:00

Had a strange issue that just started with my Archos.
When attaching the USB connection to update my podcast subscriptions, it would give an error "Failed to get file list: -8: Fixed limit exceeded". A few searches on the Ubunutu forums I found the below thread which found a workaround to start Rhtymbox before connecting the media player. Hope this bug gets fixed soon, but need a note here to check back if I get this issue again.

[all variants] unable to show contents of the folder - Ubuntu Forums: "I am able to open it in Rhythmbox now. It only works if I open Rhythmbox first, and then attach the mp3 player. Between the gphoto thing and Rhythmbox all folders are usable now."

How to end an unresponsive app in Ubuntu

2009-06-30T18:51:00.003-04:00

Here's a link to the different ways on how to kill an unresponsive program UBUNTU.

1. GUI way: Right-click on an open portion of either panel and click on "add to panel", double click on the "Force quit" app.

2. System--->Administration--->System Monitor

3. Full screen lock out ctrl + alt + f2
ps -e

then find the process' ID I needed to kill, then type in

kill [pid]

Origianally from here:
http://tinyurl.com/lxbbw3

Bug #153322 in compiz (Ubuntu): “Confusion between virtual desktops and viewports”

2009-06-14T22:10:00.000-04:00

I've been struggling with this bug the last few days.... Need to read the results, workarounds, but this intro explains exactly what I found...

Bug #153322 in compiz (Ubuntu): “Confusion between virtual desktops and viewports”: "There is confusion between 'Virtual desktops' and 'Viewports' in Compiz. Both use the workspace switcher applet, which behaves differently depending on the settings."

continuing the bug report states:

Binary package hint: compiz

There is confusion between "Virtual desktops" and "Viewports" in Compiz. Both use the workspace switcher applet, which behaves differently depending on the settings.

Virtual desktop and viewports can be set in the Compiz settings menu under General options, Desktop size. When "Number of desktops" is set to 1, the workspace switcher applet shows the number of viewports. Using the keys crtl+alt+[left|right] I can switch between workspaces, and the applet show that.
If I set the number of desktop to any number higher than 1, the applet suddenly shows desktops, and no longer viewports, without any indication of that change. Using the hotkeys I can still switch between viewports, however, the applet does not change because it shows desktops. Clicking on the applet to switch to another desktop is possible, and there I have a whole new set of viewports. There are no hotkeys to switch to a new desktop.
From this new desktop, I can only see the application on the viewports associated with this desktop. E.g. the window selector applet only shows windows from the new desktop, and not windows from the first desktop. These windows are 'somehow lost'.

The unclear distinction between desktops and viewports leads also to other bugs, such as #145704. It is also not possible to drag windows between viewports, but it is possible to drag them between desktops.

Solution for Ubuntu 8.10 and RTL8187B WiFi problem (Short Range WiFi) | Linux4All.Net

2009-06-13T10:25:00.000-04:00

I am not sure if this is the exact issue that I am looking for a solution to, but wanted to post a quick link here to check back later.Solution for Ubuntu 8.10 and RTL8187B WiFi problem (Short Range WiFi) | Linux4All.Net

IBM - For Notes 8.5, which clients are available in each install package?

2009-04-29T22:07:00.000-04:00

IBM - For Notes 8.5, which clients are available in each install package?: "**If you want to launch Notes 8.5 in the Basic Configuration rather than Standard Configuration, create a shortcut on your desktop to point to nlnotes.exe in the Notes program directory. Or, simply launch nlnotes.exe . In addition, you can create a shortcut which executes notes.exe within the Notes program directory and add one of two command line switches, -sa or -basic. For example: C:\Program Files\Lotus\Notes\notes.exe -sa"

SKipping SOund in Linux my attempts to correct.

2009-04-28T22:53:00.001-04:00

Linux Online - What Else?

This is the key stuff that I am trying.... Just want to make note in case I forget what I changed...

3.3. Fix for sound skips and other problems

Thank you to Michael Hamilton for submitting me the idea how it works.

The working of this Fix was confirmed by two People, so it looks like it works, but it may not work for everyone. Please feel free to submit further experiences!

Lets go: It looks like at least the sound skips are curable by maximizing the pci latency timer of the device.

First you have to find the "pci-address" of your Soundcard. This could be done with lspci. You have to look for something like "Multimedia audio controller" or "AudioPCI". Take the "pci-address" of the device (looks like something like that: 01:06.0 -> it stands for: bus:slot.function) and maximize the latency timer for it. This is done by setpci:

setpci -v -s "pci-address" latency_timer=ff

For additional Information on the Latency Timer you could look here.

Maybe this works also for other problems like USB-Problems and Harddisk-Transfer-Slowdowns, but this hasn't been tested for now. Feel free to test it (but don't blame me, if it doesn't work or makes everything worse) and report whether it works. The problem is, that i have none of this problems and so can't test this by myself.

If it works, you have to perform this setpci command at every startup/reboot of the Computer. So it would be wise to put it in one of the init-scripts (after the driver module is loaded!).

gOS Help & Support • View topic - Missing Wbar

2009-04-28T19:35:00.001-04:00

So I ran into a problem with WBar and found this posting that solved it immediately. It really helped to explain what had happened.

gOS Help & Support • View topic - Missing Wbar: "Re: Missing Wbar

Postby trdofMSoft on Sat Feb 14, 2009 12:48 am
You should have two .wbar files (not folders). The first should be in your home folder. the second will be found in /etc/skel.
(In order to see these files you will have to select [view hidden files] in both folders)

The one in /etc/skel is a copy of the original configuration. . You can copy and paste from /etc/skel to your home folder, which will restore all the original icons

Here are some common reasons why wbar disappears:

1. It is not enabled as a startup option in system preferences -> sessions
(If you need to build a launcher, the command is wbar_delay.sh)

2. The link to the background is broken, try picking another background in WbarConf
(look in /usr/share/wbarconf/wbarbacks)

3. I can't explain this one, but it happened to me....One of the links to an icon pointed nowhere. for some reason this one broken link to the icon caused the whole bar to vanish! When I picked a new icon for the application in WbarConf and hit [save] and [refresh] it all came back again....odd

4. I have a 'friend' who did this: :oops: tried to be clever and decided to delete the background so that the icons just floated on the desktop...What I, er I mean he, got was a perfectly unhindered view of the desktop!"

Missing Bookmark toolbar in Firefox 3

2009-04-25T20:21:00.003-04:00

I encountered the issue described below recently and found that the instructions there immediately helped.

original post here:
http://www.ghacks.net/2007/08/30/firefox-bookmarks-toolbar-is-not-showing-bookmarks/

Firefox Bookmarks Toolbar is not showing bookmarks

I encountered a problem in Firefox after installing the Piclens extension. My Bookmarks toolbar was not showing my bookmarks anymore, just a blank toolbar. It was also not possible to add new bookmarks to it. A quick check of my bookmarks revealed that the Bookmarks Toolbar Folder was still there so it had to be a different problem.

I tried disabling and enabling the toolbar again which did not have a effect either. I knew that it was important that the so called Bookmark Toolbars icon was added to that toolbar. To check this you have to right-click the top toolbar and select customize from the list.

If there is no icon visible in the Bookmarks Toolbar you have to move it back in. The icon is called Bookmarks in the icons list there. Just drag and drop it into the Bookmarks Toolbar and the bookmarks should be visible again after finishing the customization. My bookmarks were there again which was exactly what I wanted to happen.

You should also make sure that the Bookmarks Toolbar is enabled in Firefox. You can check it by clicking on View > Toolbars > Bookmarks Toolbar.

Vista no longer recognizing my "Card" reader after using Safely Remove Harware

2009-01-12T23:46:00.003-05:00

So tonight I ran into a problem I had a few months back and I could not recall immediately what the solution was, so in the middle of 2 hours of searching various microsoft and HP forums for support, I thought that I definitely need to post the answer here once I find it....

The problem: inserting my memory card into the card readers on the front of my HP Pavilion did not bring up the Auto-Play option. Furthermore, after opening Windows Explorer the drives were no longer listed. Several of the posts I had found mentioned restarting the machine, some mentioned "uninstalling" all the USB devices in the Device Manager, but the one key item that I still could not find the original source was the "hold down the power switch for 4 seconds after shutdown". I have no idea what that does, but it seems to me to act like "cache" flush and Presto!! My drives magically appeared again.

Well, if when I get this again I should be able to remember to check here.

HP forum note that I thought I had found the answer earlier on.

My new computer set up

2008-12-02T23:07:00.003-05:00

I recently purchased a new desktop machine and was well into getting it all customized to the way I liked, when the lousy thing crapped out on me and I lost the apps and settings I painstaking setup. So following an example from another blogger, I thought I'd track the updates and configurations here to help me recall them.

A favorite text editor with a good regular expression tool: notepad++
A decent listing of good freeware: Gizmo
PC Tune Up: Advanced Window Care
Finance Software: GnuCash http://www.gnucash.org/
PDF Editor: Jarnal (may want to try looking at:PDF-XChange_) I've used PDF-XChange a couple of days nows and runs pretty quick and it works well under wine in Kubuntu. This looks like my new favorite (although merging files is a PRO addin that I may switch back to JARNAL for)
OCR PDF (just found haven't tried it): http://www.softi.co.uk/freeocr.htm
Office Suite- OpenOffice and now IBM supported Symphony
Gimp for photo editing
Sticky Notes
Wink for screen session recording
I can't recall which Virtual Desktop Manager I started to use previously, but will Dexpot.
Will be tempted to set up AutoHotKey for macro enabling various programs, perhaps for passwords or other navigation items.
Comodo Firewall
Avast Antivirus
AntiSpyware- http://www.superantispyware.com/index.html
Adaware - http://lavasoft.com/products/ad_aware_free.php
Disk Defargger - http://www.kessels.com/JkDefrag/
Disk Cleaner - http://www.ccleaner.com/
Registry Cleaner - http://www.wisecleaner.com/index.html
Should take a look at the all in one cleaner - http://www.glaryutilities.com/
Video Format converter: http://www.any-video-converter.com/products/for_video_free/ ...

Super (Simplified Universal Player Encoder & Renderer)
Website: http://www.erightsoft.net
I need to get a better backup regimen going so will be looking at: WinBackup
Website: http://www.liutilities.com/
Download link: http://www.winsite.com/bin/Info?27000000036770
Alternative Download link: http://www.filefactory.com/file/d6ff2f/
Email Client - Thunderbird
IM Client - I used to like Pidgin (mainly from Linux install), but will look at Digsby
Website: http://www.digsby.com/ based on the recommendation from the Gizmo site
Skype
Juice podcast catcher

Thats the start of the items I need to get working on.

Firefox addins follow up

2008-12-02T22:39:00.002-05:00

Some additional addons that I like are:

SuperDrag & Go: Now called QuickDrag

Web Developer Tool Bar:

Colorful Tabs

Status Bar Download

Create your own album cover

2008-02-15T21:07:00.002-05:00

From eKrantz.com | Family, Comments and Tutorials:

Here's a fun exercise to kill 10 minutes. Create your own personal album cover...

"# Go to Wikipedia’s random article page. The first article you get is the name of your band.
# Go to the Random Quotations page. The last four words of the last quote is the album title.
# Go to Flickr’s Interesting photo page. Third picture, no matter what it is, is your album cover.
# Put it all together to make your album. Either crop it to CD cover size, or just use the raw image itself … the only rule is you’re only allowed to add the album title and artist title."

Ok, I modified the rules for myself, my random article hit on an actual band name, so I hit it again.

Thinking of moving these tech notes over to www.BleedYellow.com

2008-01-25T23:48:00.000-05:00

Lotus911 is now making available to the Lotus community a fully functional version of the Lotus Collaboration software, Lotus Connections, at the site BleedYellow.com I am considering moving either this content, or at least the important items over to this site to take advantage of the platform that I enjoy.

I have a lot to catch on from Lotusphere2008 wrap up on my company blog and sleep is calling...

FreeMind move example

2007-11-05T05:59:00.000-05:00

This is the first FreeMind mind map with aout upcoming move. Testing it out here to see how it looks.

Vista versus The Gutsy Gibbon - Ubuntu 7.10 >> Mixed Signals >> Rupert Goodwins's Blog at ZDNet UK Community

2007-10-30T00:15:00.000-04:00

Vista versus The Gutsy Gibbon - Ubuntu 7.10 >> Mixed Signals >> Rupert Goodwins's Blog at ZDNet UK Community: "Monday 22 October 2007, 1:43 AM Vista versus The Gutsy Gibbon - Ubuntu 7.10 Posted by Rupert Goodwins "

I nice discussion on the differences in experiences with Ubuntu & Vista.

How to Use Lotus Notes on Linux with Wine

2007-10-06T01:18:00.000-04:00

How to Use Lotus Notes on Linux with Wine:

Julian's Notes are from 2005 and were a great starting point. A few updates:

The regression bug mentioned has been corrected, fixed, and rolled into the latest version of wine. So using the latest version of wine was all that was needed (also current version of wine consists of just one file "wine" no longer need to get the 3 packages separately).

I did not follow the steps for the wine configuration part (step 8) as I think the wine configuration is different in the latest version.

I just loaded it and will have a later update once I use it for a while.

Howto Set Up and sync a Palm PDA [Archive] - Ubuntu Forums

2007-09-20T23:04:00.000-04:00

Howto Set Up and sync a Palm PDA [Archive] - Ubuntu Forums

From the above linked article:

1 - Plug the usb cable into the usb port on your computer.

2 - Put your Palm in the cradle or plug in the cable.

3 - Go to System->Preferences->Palm OS Devices

4 - In the Pilot Settings pop-up select the Devices tab and click Add.

5 - In the Device Settings pop-up enter info as follows:

Name: Cradle
Port: /dev/ttyUSB0 <--*see bottom Speed: 57600 Timeout: 2 Type: USB Click OK and then click Add again and enter: Name: Cradle1 Port: /dev/ttyUSB1 <--*see bottom Speed: 57600 Timeout: 2 Type: USB 6 - Now, back in the Pilot Settings window select Pilots and click Add 7 - Once the new pop-up appears, press Synchronize on your PalmPDA While it is searching, select "Get from pilot" in the pop-up window just mentioned. Your computer should synchronize and get a Name, ID and username from your PDA. Now your device officially exists in the gpilot database on your computer. 8 - Close the most recent pop-up. You should still have the main Pilot Settings window open. Click the Conduits tab to decide what you want to synchronize and so on...this is essentially the same as what you may have used on other OS's. Finally: Every time you want to sync, make sure gpilot is running and then hit the sync button on your PDA.

This started to work on my Palm TX but is currently stopping the middle. I had this working a few months back, but don't regularly sync up. Just a quick note here so I would know where I found the original information

Annotating PDFs

2007-09-09T23:11:00.000-04:00

Annotating PDFs: Linux

Some good options... I got Jarnal Working and going to test out pdf edit..

Annotating PDFs
Dru (SysAdmin, Technical Writer, Technical Trainer) Posted 7/7/2007
Comments (6) | Trackbacks (0)

A new Ubuntu user asked me the other day how to annotate PDFs on her system. She does a lot of collaboration and hadn't yet found a non-Windows way to annotate PDFs.

I tried a few tools this morning and by far the easiest one to use is Jarnal. This one is Java based so you'll need java installed on your system. (FreeBSD users can download Java packages from the Foundation and PC-BSD users can install the Java PBIs.) Ubuntu instructions appear to be here though I have not tried them myself.

Once Java is installed, create a directory for the Jarnal files; I created a subdirectory of my home directory:

mkdir ~/jarnal && cd jarnal

I then downloaded the zip file to that subdirectory , unzipped it and set the bash script as executable:

unzip jarnal-install.zip
chmod +x jarnalannotate.sh

BSD users: bash isn't installed by default but can be installed with pkg_add -r bash. The path to bash will be incorrect in the script. Edit that file to change the first line to read #! /usr/local/bin/bash. If you're not sure where bash is installed on your Linux system, which bash will give you the path.

Now, run the script with:
./jarnalannotate.sh

While annotating itself is very easy, figuring out how to open and save the PDF wasn't as intuitive. To open an existing PDF, use File->Open Background. Select the Text tool (black T icon on far right), click where you want to type with your mouse, and start typing your annotation. When you are finished and want to save your file, use File->Export->Export to PDF.

TomKa writes:
8/9/2007 #

Take a look at this.
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/PDFedit
I found it vesy usefull.

gnome-session - Linux Command - Unix Command

2007-08-13T23:13:00.000-04:00

gnome-session - Linux Command - Unix Command

My Ubuntu sessions were freezing up when I logged in and it took a while to figure out what was up, but the only consistent item was that certain files would attempt to start. However, if I started in safe mode all would work fine, or if iI started in Kubuntu that would work as well. So I searched for info on the Fail-safe mode and found the above linked article.

The useful piece for me was:

gnome-session uses the contents of the ~/.gnome/session file for starting up as specified by the "Current Sesssion" key in the ~/.gnome/session-options file. Various default values are provided in case the file entry does not exist.
If the session file does not exist, gnome-session will use the contents of the
/usr/share/gnome/default.session file.

With this information I found the session file and edited it removing the ids of the files that I believed were causing the problem, logged off safe-mode and then back on in regular Gnome and it was fixed. :o)

More Ubuntu Notes and Thunderbird

2007-08-05T23:34:00.001-04:00

I've had a bug in Ubuntu the last few days with Gnome-Panel. The panels would freeze up after selecting an item. It seems to be related to the more customized versions instead of working with the existing items, so I reverted back to the originals and moved all my launchers ( After getting them prettied up and moved just to how I liked them...oh well not a major loss all is working again and I can move on to bigger and better stuff).

As mentioned in an earlier post, I tried out several blogging tools to make posting easier, so that perhaps I would get more entries up. After trying the 3 and only getting 1 to really work, I figured I would go back to this method of posting via email. This is a much nicer and easier way to post.

Although I've been a long time fan of Firefox, I hadn't given Thunderbird its fair chance to prove itself. What I have seen so far these last few days, I've been very happy with the add-ons are great to work work with I just haven't figured out a way to get the tool bars to share icons between the editing of an email and the inbox, more to play around with later. Using Freepops as well has really been a great addition. Although I am mixing it with YPops at the same time and seems to work alright.

Finally got Juice working and I like the music player Exaile, but I am being tempted to try out Songbird... I looked at it briefly the other day and looks as clean as iTunes or perhaps RealPlayer with the home page info.

How about a picture attachment

2007-08-05T23:12:00.001-04:00

If I recall correctly attachments won't work.

Test a post with a smiley

2007-08-05T22:58:00.001-04:00

Putting in a smiley here to test this:

Testing blogging from Thunderbird

2007-08-05T22:57:00.001-04:00

I know that I can email into my blog, but I would like to test the formatting. My default settings for emails are blue comic sans.

2007-07-31T21:10:00.000-04:00

Finally got Palm TX to synch in Ubuntu

Well after several attempts, a couple of hours in the forums and several different apps, I finally got my Palm TX to synch in Ubuntu. The trick was the settings need to /dev/pilot even though this is only a link that gets created once the palm is connected. (Some rule makes it change the serial ttyUSB0/1 change over.) So you have to click the hotsynch on Palm TX then the hotsynch action in jpilot. The Gnome-Pilot applet however seemed to work without this particular order issue.

Test using Gnome's blogger applet

2007-07-30T20:10:00.000-04:00

Just a quick test.

I am trying out several of the Linux bloggi ng tools. The first I looked at B! GTK looked nice and functional but was unable to login correctly. The same was true with the Drivel Journal editor as it gave error messages of unable to connect. The third, Gnome-blog, resulted in this post. While it functioned as designed, I do not like the interface for switching blogging accounts and further more it was limited in the posting ability and only gave text options, no image or html (at least no immediate editing tools to support it).

IBM Lotus Quickr: Enhance team productivity with social computing

2007-07-17T20:56:00.000-04:00

A review of Quikr's features.... Still need to find the info on installing personal...

IBM Lotus Quickr: Enhance team productivity with social computing

Another blogger on Ubuntu

2007-06-14T07:28:00.000-04:00

Was searching an issue regarding user switching and found this blog... Looks like a good post to test out...

http://ubuntu1501.blogspot.com/2007/04/fix-logout-problem.html

Setting up Dial-up connection in Ubuntu -- Debian Admin

2007-06-13T19:09:00.000-04:00

Some notes for dial up....

Setting up Dial-up connection in Ubuntu -- Debian Admin

Response to a Vista comment � Techno Lemming

2007-06-09T11:02:00.000-04:00

Here is a discussion of Windows vs. Linux distros that I really enjoyed reading. If you don't know some of the finer details of the arguments for or against Open Source vs. Windows have a look:

Response to a Vista comment � Techno Lemming

Tab Effect :: Firefox Add-ons

2007-06-07T21:44:00.000-04:00

A nice eye-candy effect for firefox to give it that 3D look, although I found that it didn't work well on either version 1.5 of firefox or on linux (needs windows only Direct X).

Tab Effect :: Firefox Add-ons

While I tried locating some info on running a Direct X equivalent in Linux (ie Cedega) I haven't ventured into this realm yet...

Update on my Ubuntu experience

2007-05-02T12:15:00.000-04:00

So, I've just read an interesting article that Dell is now going to be offering Ubuntu as an option to some of their newest PCs. I don't follow these trends that closely, but did not think that Dell would be the first to attempt this (although they've tried previously according to the article).

Well, I've been playing around in Ubuntu for a few weeks now and why I find the interface pleasing and have gotten used to navigating around the platform a little better, I am still having a little difficulty getting a few items working. I have yet to successfully get Beryl working, fortunately the crash recovery works well. The instructions found (will need to edit this in Ubuntu as I have the link there) here were pretty good.

Mac On Stuff: How to run Windows XP under Ubuntu Dapper

2007-04-07T09:30:00.000-04:00

So far I am linking the Linux setup of Ubuntu discussed in my previous entry, but haven't figured out if the GMail chat or some variation will work. So I thought I'd try to run WinXP within Linux (got the dual boot working, but wanted to see other alternatives).

I am going to try using wine, but if that fails I will be attempting to follow the steps below...

Mac On Stuff: How to run Windows XP under Ubuntu Dapper

Linux Ubuntu Dual Boot with XP

2007-04-06T20:32:00.000-04:00

I decided to finally take the plunge into installing a Linux OS on my home PC. After reading a very good review from Ferdy Christant, on his success and how it seemed to be a pretty painless process, I decided to give it go. After a minor issue during the install ( batteries died on wireless mouse and I thought my system was completely unresponsive for 15 minutes and then decided to leave it for morning and left for work...), all went well and I been playing around with getting a few customizations done.

Don't quite have the room to do the same dual boot on my lap top, but depending on how much I use it here, I may be persuaded to continue.

Audio encoder freeware

2007-03-28T23:44:00.000-04:00

I was searching around for a basic audio encoder that would easily reduce the file size of my mp3 to better fit on my player.

The software below is a very simple one to use to get the job done.

dBpowerAmp, "dBpowerAmp"

I found it original from this site:
topfreeware.net

Tango Desktop Project - Tango Desktop Project

2007-03-20T23:37:00.000-04:00

Being somewhat artistically challenged when designing certain portions of my development work I thought that this looked like another good resource for content guidelines.

Tango Desktop Project - Tango Desktop Project

nsftools - Lotus Notes and Domino Tips

2007-03-17T22:57:00.000-04:00

One of the techniques I've been using to pass around location documents was to have the document created beforehand and feed the content from a store in form document that is emailed. In Julian's article below, this may be a much more simple process (or at least one that will allow quicker customizations in the future without having to store so many new copies) . I'll have to post a more detailed review of this if/when I use it....

nsftools - Lotus Notes and Domino Tips: "Append a Button to a Rich Text Field"

Downloads

2007-03-13T21:58:00.000-04:00

Downloads

A site for some interesting Notes Applications source code.

Windows XP - Troubleshoot/fix shutdown, restart and startup problems

2007-02-26T22:48:00.000-05:00

Being just a little bit of a computer geek, I am sometimes called upon to help diagnose (and fix) some pc problems. While surfing around for some answers I found the following site that looks promising to give some quick and concise description on how to correct certain items.

Windows XP - Troubleshoot/fix shutdown, restart and startup problems: "Windows XP : How to Troubleshoot and Fix Shutdown, Restart (Reboot), and Startup Problems"

ZeroLogik: Debunking the Debunking of Mac's Self-Created Hype

2007-02-24T23:52:00.000-05:00

So, I was just chatting/ emailing Joan about her new MacBook and happened across the following discussion about the PC vs. Mac commercials. (OK, the closest thing I've ever owned even remotely related to a Mac was my first pc Apple IIc, and aside from some very occasional testing for work, I haven't used a Mac since the square boxes I had back in college....long ago when they were still only called Macintosh).

I am by far no expert to lend an opinion on the hardware, but I do like the style of the commercials, which makes this article linked below interesting to read.

ZeroLogik: Debunking the Debunking of Mac's Self-Created Hype

Why I like Firefox...

2007-02-24T13:32:00.000-05:00

I was having a conversation last week about several websites and the topic came up about browsers. I started to explain why I enjoyed Firefox and listed off a few add-ons I liked and then came to realize that there were many I missed. So I thought I'd write a post to list out those add-ons I use regularly and some that I thought would be cool to use if I ever got more into it. But that is part of the Firefox experience there are those add-ons that are so natural that they are just there.

So here's list of add-ons in no particular order (whatever I happen to notice or recall first):
(update 04/06/07 adding links...)

Forecast Fox - turn on the looping radar , large size very cool (by default its static and small)
Adblock (Plus) - turn off all those annoying banners
Fasterfox - to me its just just a cool icon in the tray, I haven't really noticed much with the broadband hook up, but still would recommend trying it
Session Manager - the native version of Firefox has supposedly its gotten better in the recently release, but I still use the add on - I like the restore an accidentally closed tab.
Unplug - get the attachment, embedded object, picture, PDF, ...off the page
All in One Sidebar - with all those add-ons it helps to keep them organized
Cool-Iris - preview a page in hover call out...latest update to use graphic to hover over very helpful
Smiley Xtra ( ok I like adding smiley every now and then...there are some really fun ones out there )
Mapthis - highlight any text address ( haven't tried places like albany airport, disney world, eiffle tower, grand canyon, but think that they might...on any website, right click and chose map this and in another window appears a google map of the area
Dictionary Tool tip - double click word for meaning
Temporary Inbox - get rid of spam by using temporary addresses

For a few that I tried but don't use that often here are my honorable mentions:

Speak it - read any text in the browser
View Source Chart - tech gadget for developers
Measure it - another developer tool to get the pixel size
Tab Mix plus
Image Zoom & Mouse Zoom - one of these worked well on desktop but not with touch pad of laptop so I don't use it as often

Things that I think are Firefox alone that are nice:

Tabbed browsing (Yes, IE7 has it now, but it was in Lotus first then Firefox...Opera somewhere in there...and then IE). I like the way you add new tabs by clicking around (almost anywhere depending on how you set it up in your preferences...this does not appear to have same flexibility in IE)
the search bar add ons to use different sites: google, wikipedia, webster, even shopping, many others to add in
skins, skins, skins....fusion alternative is my current favorite

Good Tips & Advice from the Sys Admin Newsletter February 2007 - LotusUserGroup.org

2007-02-22T00:03:00.000-05:00

From the SYS ADMIN TIPS NEWSLETTER PRESENTED BY LOTUSUSERGROUP.ORG...

Podcast about the problems with DST:
http://www.idonotes.com/IdoNotes/IdoNotes.nsf/dx/02122007124126PMCMIPTG.htm
(I need to listen to this one yet...) While I don't expect to have to directly handle any issues from it, I'll need to be informed as to how other's are dealing with it.

Past Articles here.

CANDID TALK ABOUT LOTUS CONNECTIONS

As IBM has been running this software internally for some time, IBM
has brought all the hype about Web 2.0 capabilities and the future of
combining enterprise employee information, together in this new
software release. Lotus Connections, according to marketing
statements, is social software that creates a dynamic network of
employees, partners and customers to help execute decisions quicker.
Not to be confused with Lotus Quickr, of course.

Here is what I take away from my podcast with Alan Lepofsky while at
Lotusphere 2007
() and all the information I have read. The idea is not
revolutionary for the consumer market space, but hard to implement for
the enterprise space. Forgetting hardware or installation needs, read
as I type about the implementation and acceptance of each of the
areas.

Profiles: A keen area where people can actually enter information, not
only professionally, but personally. It becomes an online living
resume of sorts, allowing people to reach the right person that has
skills in certain areas. While some of this can be drawn from HR
systems, most of the information will be missing or in paper form,
like certifications. It will be up to the individual, unmonitored, to
enter information about themselves into the profiles. Getting the
people to fill it out correctly will be the effort. While people
spill life stories onto MySpace and other personal networking sites,
work smarts seem to fall under Knowledge Capital.

Communities: Now this caught my eye. Bringing together people based
on area of interest from within the enterprise. Interaction is based
on email, Sametime, Dogears and even Activities. This is the move
that companies have been trying to make for years with such things as
Portal and discussion databases. Implement awareness with Activities
and the social bookmarking (that I talk about in a moment) and you
have an amazing opportunity. Having said some glowing comment, I
found only one negative at this point. I know people are overwhelmed
with information at this time and are over subscribed with RSS feeds
and websites to visit. The tendency here is to join every community
that you have interest in. Information overload in the extreme.

Blogs: There is not much here to say. Blogs are everywhere and it
pushed those that don't blog yet to start. I think that getting good
information and a schedule for posting is just as important as saying
you have a blog. A good side is that this can be an internal only
blog that is not publicly visible, a huge selling point for
executives.

Dogear: Ever wanted others to see your links and have to mail them?
This lets you start sharing important links with others that can then
learn from the items you read. Dogears are folded into Communities to
have sharing based strictly on a defined topic. This also allows you
to share only what you think others will wish to see and not every
bookmark you may have. I would like to see this as a Google Marker
type popup for ease of entering.

Activities: A dashboard to track a project or task that needs to be
completed. Wrapped inside are chats, emails, webpage links and loose
documents. Templates can be made for specific types of activity
areas. I haven't played with this as much as I would like so I am
hesitant to make any overall comments. Outside of the tests I did, it
shows great promise for collaboration.

So, there is the small overview. Look for expanded coverage of my
thoughts in my blog at http://www.IdoNotes.com.

VIRTUAL USER GROUP MEETING PRESENTATION AVAILABLE FOR DOWNLOAD

If you missed our Virtual User Group Meeting on January 10th, don't
fret. You can still download Rob Wunderlich's presentation on
mobilizing your Notes. The download is free for members

Here's the outline of the presentation. You can download it here.

Introduction
* Demo: Get your Notes mail to your handheld
* How do you enable the mobile workforce?
Mail / calendar / contacts
Browser access from mobile devices for key applications, not
as easy as it sounds
Syncing 'custom' applications
* The Market
* Demos
* Keeping the CIO happy
* Rolling out the project
* How do you 'future-proof' your organization's mobile initiatives
* Where to go from here
* Resources for you check out
* LUG moderated topic forum

Domino Interface: Launching a Window from a View

2007-02-22T00:00:00.000-05:00

Here's a link to an interesting technique on avoiding too many tabs in the Notes Client. A very good description on how to implement it..,great post Richard!!

Domino Interface: Launching a Window from a View

famfamfam.com: Silk Icons

2007-02-21T23:23:00.000-05:00

This site was recommended by Nathan T. Freeman in his session presentation at Lotusphere 2007. There are some great icons to download for applications here...famfamfam.com: Silk Icons

LotusUserGroup.org -- User Group Forum

2007-02-21T19:09:00.000-05:00

From the LotusUserGroup.org site a very good article regarding sites for reference to UI: LotusUserGroup.org -- User Group Forum.

Here it site descriptions:

If you are interested in the subject of user interface design and usability, there are many great resources available to you. I´ve created a list of some of my favorites below. One of the great things about UI design is that it is really technology agnostic. The same rules apply (mostly) whether you are building a Notes application, a VB app, a website with Ruby on Rails, etc. Of course, these ideas and techniques can often be modified or enhanced for a particular platform, which is why I started writing about this subject on my blog, Interface | Matters (http://interfacematters.com).

Remember that interface design is as much art as it is science. In my opinion, there are really no hard and fast rules...you just have to use what is right for the particular job at hand. As Steve Krug says, this is all really just "advanced common sense"! With that in mind, here we go...in no particular order of importance:

Websites

useit.com - Jakob Nielsen´s website (http://www.useit.com): Love him or hate him, Jakob Nielsen is one of the leading UI guys...really considered the grandfather of "discount usability engineering". His website has a lot of great information for free, but full-blown technical reports from his company will cost you. And yes, his site is pretty ugly, but he says it´s on purpose! happy

OK/Cancel (http://www.ok-cancel.com/): A more humorous and sometimes tongue-in-cheek look into usability design can be found on OK/Cancel. This site is a collaboration between Kevin Cheng and Tom Chi. They often use a comic strip to get their ideas across and write some interesting (although often opinionated) pieces on usability, user interfaces and the computer industry.

Advanced Common Sense (http://www.sensible.com/): The website for usability consultant Steve Krug (author of "Don´t Make Me Think"): Although there is not a lot of original new content on his site, it serves as a good supplement to his book. You can also find links to interviews Steve has done and updates on what he is currently working on, workshop information, etc.

Usability Professional´s Association (http://www.upassoc.org/): From their website: "The Usability Professionals’ Association supports usability specialists, people from all aspects of human-centered design, and the broad family of disciplines that create the user experience in promoting the design and development of usable products." Here you will find resources such as articles, case studies, guidelines and methods and all kind of goodies related to usability.

Bad Designs (http://www.baddesigns.com/): A website with examples of many designs of everyday things that have poor usability. Sometimes it is just as important to learn what NOT to do as it is to learn what to do. happy

Interface Hall of Shame (http://homepage.mac.com/bradster/iarchitect/shame.htm): Another collection of poor UI design in action. Lots of great examples to learn from.

and finally, how could I leave out

Lotus Notes Sucks (http://lotusnotessucks.4t.com/index.html): While I certainly don´t agree with the title and although much of this site refers to old versions of Notes, there is still material of value here. Much of it comes from the user not understanding how to use Notes, but that´s exactly one of the problems isn´t it? Some of the content here may give you ideas on how to improve your application interfaces to work around some of Notes´ shortcomings.

IBM ShortCuts Podcast � Blog Archive � Cut #22: How to get your blog noticed

2007-02-19T21:08:00.000-05:00

OK so this blog won't be a great hit...I only got about 1 out of 6. Once I get a bit more experience with this I may try for some of the others.

IBM ShortCuts Podcast � Blog Archive � Cut #22: How to get your blog noticed: "This week, ShortCuts blogging expert Todd 'Turbo' Watson gives his tips on how to get noticed in the blogosphere. Todd's six rules of successful blogging:

1. Be controversial

2. Get a scoop

3. Write about topical issues, and tag your posts intelligently

4. Ping Technorati and other popular blog search engines when you have fresh content

5. Become an expert, and outreach to fellow bloggers in your chosen expertise

6. Blog and link to other bloggers often"

IBM ShortCuts Podcast

2007-02-19T21:03:00.000-05:00

Here's some good rule of thumb for Wiki's. See the link for more interesting topics...(I'll probably find more to include here...
IBM ShortCuts Podcast: "How much structure should you build into your wiki? Is there an optimal level of structure that encourages the most collaboration from your team? ShortCuts knowledge management expert Luis Suarez offers five tips on how best to structure wikis.

Here they are:
1. Have a welcome page
2. Make a shared calendar
3. Put together a who's who page of team members
4. Choose three topics for discussion/collaboration
5. Don't forget to add a section for resources and helpful links
Run time: 4:51, file size: 4.56 MB."

Beta Blogger Label Cloud

2007-02-19T06:09:00.000-05:00

This is one of the easiest tutorials on how to modify the TagCloud in Blogger. (I've used it my misc blog and will be updating this one shortly...Then I need to figure out how to implement it on the NSF version, shouldn't be to hard)

Beta Blogger Label Cloud

Technorati Help: Blogging 101

2007-02-19T05:34:00.000-05:00

Having been asked to describe a blog recently, I happened across this excellent description at Technorati...I've had limited exposure to Technorati, but may need to investigate it more....
Technorati Help: Blogging 101

Geek Humor - Funny Vista Acronyms

2007-02-18T15:05:00.000-05:00

Originally from the site: Geek Humor - Funny Vista Acronyms

Very Inconsistent Software - Try Again
Virus Instability Spyware Trojans Adware (or Viruses Intrusions Spyware Trojans Adware)
Very Irritating System Try Another
Vista Is Stupid To Attempt
Volatility Isn't Something To Admire
Virtually Impossible Source To Avoid
Vastly Inferior Software To Apple's
Vaguely Innovative - Sucks The Ass
Venereal Infectious Sexually Transmitted Ailment
Vista Is Shittier Than Anything
Vastly Improved Solitaire Tiling Algorithms

IBM team collaboration software - Lotus Quickr

2007-02-18T14:53:00.000-05:00

One of big hits from Lotusphere2007 was Quickr. I just wanted to throw a quick link here as a reminder as we will be looking at using this in the near future.

IBM team collaboration software - Lotus Quickr

BBspot - How White and Nerdy Are You?

2007-02-18T14:02:00.000-05:00

Just another online personality test.

How White and Nerdy Are You?

BBspot - How White and Nerdy Are You?

I, Cringely . The Pulpit . Oh Brother Where Art Thou? | PBS

2007-02-18T13:15:00.000-05:00

I, Cringely is one of my favorite tech news columns that isn't specifically Lotus Notes related. The articles are very intelligent and thorough. Gotta find that link to the airplane wifi...

I, Cringely . The Pulpit . Oh Brother Where Art Thou? | PBS

ESCAPE VELOCITY :: Save the client...

2007-02-18T12:43:00.000-05:00

I missed getting one of these T-Shirts at Lotusphere this year. Being a fan of Heroes wish I could've gotten one...Gotta remember to read some of Blogosphere's posts a little ahead of time for next year's Lotusphere.

ESCAPE VELOCITY :: Save the client...

How to Kill Your Blogroll with Google Reader’s Clips - from The Zero Boss by Jay Andrew Allen

2007-02-17T23:52:00.000-05:00

Ok I don't quite have a blog roll yet, but I do have a series of blogs that I have followed in the past that I am hoping to eventually create links to, but the suggestion below seems to be a bit more up to date...

How to Kill Your Blogroll with Google Reader’s Clips - from The Zero Boss by Jay Andrew Allen

Lotus Geek | Lotusphere 2007: SpeedGeek Info

2007-02-14T22:15:00.000-05:00

All the links to the cool stuff from SpeedGeeking.
Thanks Rocky!!
Lotus Geek | Lotusphere 2007: SpeedGeek Info

How to Add a Pollhost Poll to a Blogger Blog - eHow.com

2007-02-13T20:18:00.000-05:00

Some interesting notes on how to set up a poll....

Follow this link to see the original post copied below.

How to Add a Pollhost Poll to a Blogger Blog - eHow.com:

Instructions

* STEP 1: Sign up for a free Pollhost account and log in––if you already have an account, log in to create your poll. Enter your question and possible answers.
* STEP 2: Choose the style of the voting box, then customize colors and fonts to match your blog settings. Once your poll is set, click Generate HTML code. Copy the code.
* STEP 3: Log into Blogger; go to your dashboard.
* STEP 4: Click Write Post to create a new post. Add any text that you want, then click “Edit HTML.” Paste in the Pollhost code.
* STEP 5: Click publish to save and publish your post.

Overall Tips & Warnings

* Pollhost allows you to have 15 polls active at a time.
* Each question you have can have up to 20 answers."

Julian Robichaux excellent code tip for Keystrokes in Client

2007-02-08T22:21:00.000-05:00

I was reviewing Julian's blog @ nsftools.com and found one of recent posts that I found pretty cool to address the issue of not having a keypress event available in the Notes Client. Check it out at:

SnTT: Keystroke Counting in the Notes Client (Thursday, Dec 28)

IBM developerWorks website links to Lotusphere

2007-02-08T19:08:00.001-05:00

As much as I love the content and the value of resources provided, I find navigating the IBM developerWorks website a bit confusing at times. (I briefly mentioned this to the booth attendee for developerWorks in the Product Showcase while at Lotusphere). The searching is only marginally better if you happen to be in the right ballpark because there is so much information there you often hit too many links to information that is only partially relevant. Now granted I have only looked at attending Lotusphere possible 4 or 5 times in the past and now have only attended 2. It seems each year that as Lotusphere gets closer to registration time it becomes difficult to find the appropriate links beforehand. The following page : Lotusphere 2007 on developerWorks had just about everything I wanted to know, but by the time I found it I was already at Lotusphere and did not have the necessary time to read through the relevant information. Here's hoping that the navigation, at least to the Lotusphere info, is more readily available next year.

Domino Power's Recap of Lotusphere 2007

2007-02-08T19:05:00.000-05:00

In my efforts to recap my great experiences with Lotusphere 2007, I have come across other blogger's notes and impressions from the sessions. While there is a lot of the blogs that can be found via the social bookmarking such as technorati at:

http://technorati.com/tag/lotusphere2007

Update: Here is my opening session review.
Here is closing session review.
Below I have included a link (more to add later...) to an interesting article.

To start off there is one of many great recaps of Lotusphere from Domino Power. Thanks go out to Charlie, who forwarded the following link:

Domino Power Magazine Recap of Lotusphere 2007

LotusUserGroup.org Booth @ Lotusphere

2007-02-06T10:44:00.000-05:00

Location:

Rensselaer

One of the many booths that I stopped at in Lotusphere was the LotusUserGroup.org booth. They had a brief demonstration of the site that they host that provides free membership to view webcast sessions on various Lotus products. While visiting there booth, they gave away pedometers (shown below).

On their website they have a contest running where participants can enterr the amount that they walked while at Lotusphere. You can see my results(only the 3 highest out of 4 entered inthe miles section) at:

LotusUserGroup Step Contest

Visit their site for free membership and to view all of their past webcasts at :LotusUserGroup.org.

GMail Pop service hook into Notes

2007-02-06T00:42:00.001-05:00

This was some good info on how to have the Notes Client setup to work GMail pop service. It describes the appropriate settings to use GMail in Lotus.

http://www.rhs.com/web/blog/poweroftheschwartz.nsf/d6plinks/RSCZ-683MXN

Test email to blog

2007-02-03T23:38:00.000-05:00

Ok, so I had to test the ability to create an email and send it to the Blog. It worked and was really easy (except for typing in the long email address). This will be a great way to get posts into the blog.

In the blogger settings area you can set the blog up to receive emails (and if you have multiple blogs you are able to define separate addresses for each). That is so cool.

This is my tech posts

2007-02-03T16:36:00.000-05:00

On this blog I will be capturing any technical notes of interest that I want to follow up on. I will mainly be following the areas of Lotus Notes & Domino development as well as interests in web development techniques.

Lotusphere 2007 Closing Session

2007-01-25T21:08:00.000-05:00

Last year I was unable to attend the closing of Lotusphere and missed part of the "Meet the Developers" session due to travel arrangements and had this lingering feeling that I had missed something. Well this year I had made to effort to avoid that oversight and was pretty happy with the choice. The "Meet the Developers" session had a lot of tidbits of information as to the technical future of upcoming planned (or unplanned) changes coming from Lotus. The Closing session had an appearance by the Astro-Physicist Neil DeGrasseTyson. The inside joke was we moved from Comic to Cosmic (a reference to last year's closing performance). In the read more section, I will go into some of the interesting pieces of information from the Closing session. To read more about the (See Meet the Developers) session please see that blog entry.

Neil DeGrasse Tyson was one of the astro-physicists that attended the meeting that captured the nations attention last year when Pluto was demoted to a "minor planet". His topic of discussion was a "Top 10" list of numbers to put certain ideas into perspective.

From the distance covered when placing the amount of hamburgers consumed end to end. To the dates of impending doom from a giant asteroid. The topics were a break from the central theme of "it revolves around you" to the more grounded reality that we are but a small part of incredibly larger universe (possibly multi-verses).

Some of the items mentioned to get to the matter of perspective:

The number of hamburgers would make trip around the earth 300 times and the remaining would make a round trip to the moon 4 times
There are more molecules of water in a cup of water than there are cups of water in all the oceans of the world
There are more molecules of air in a breath of air than there are breathes of air in the atmosphere
On your 31st birthday, you will have celebrated your billionth second
Various orders of magnitude were displayed to hint at their size: number of people in a stadium, number of people on earth, the number of grains of sand in all the worlds beachs, the numbers of stars in the galaxy
Brief coverage of past extinction events that at least one was determined to be from meteor impact which led to the final item
On Friday the 13th in April of 2029, if the asteroid "Apophis" passes through the "keyhole" (a specific point in the earth's orbit) in 2036 it will be collide with the Earth

The one hidden item in all this smallness, apparent from the anecdotal topic of the psychiatrist that attended one of his previous sessions that accused his presentation of making people feeling much less important and insecure than before. Neil's counterpoint to the argument of smallness was that while we are, but a very small piece, we are all made of the same stuff. From no matter where one is in our universe, we are comprised of the same stuff. "We are all Stardust."

Meet the Developers

2007-01-25T20:07:00.000-05:00

As noted in the Closing session blog (See Lotusphere 2007 Closing Session), this year I was able to attend the complete "Meet the Developers" session where other Admins and Developers from around world are able to directly question and get feedback on future enhancements. The availability of being able to "Connect" with the lead developers within IBM is a just a great experience. While not having a specific item in mind to have addressed, I thoroughly enjoyed hearing others experiences and getting the insight into what is currently going on in the industry and what is going to happen. In the read more session, I have included just a few snippets of ideas that I was able to get from the session.

In Notes 7, Nomad was introduced. The ability to completely run Lotus Notes from a USB key was highly touted feature that has found a great appreciation in a lot of consultants, developers, and admins. Currently planned release R8 does not have this, however...
Version 8.01 "should" have Nomad ready
Embedded Views ability to become dynamic will be put on the list for future development
An enhancement to the Search Results view (searching?) is on the DWA list to be looked at making available. It was mentioned that it currently used within IBM, but was not yet at "commercial" grade/ quality
Daylight Saving Time issue still remains to be a problem. On the 31st of this month an agent will be made available to address this issue for those users needing to address. A tech note number was given(not noted here) as to what to reference if needed to request it.
In the Room & Resources reservation on before and after update....Not enough notes taken on this one. If I get the chance, I will see if there are any posting on this from Lotusphere Online
When pasting graphics directly in Notes, Notes by default uses a format that stores the graphics in a large format. To override this functionality an ini variable was given to change the default behavior. I believe the mentioned variable was IMAGEPASTESIZE= 1 will use a GIF size for pasting.
A requested default change on Paste action to "Paste Special" to address the issue of copying HTML instead of simple text
Request to have MySQL available as a direct version, as it is only available through ODBC which is apparently too slow
Version 8 will correct the issue of multi-monitors having the properties box get stuck to one monitor
IBM is looking at integrating more SAP scenarios. Currently only have HR, time sheets available, will look at others. A suggestion from developer to address having the finance module available.
A question regarding the relationship of Domino.doc to QuickR. There would be no migration necessary as both would be supported.
A 7.03 release addresses a bug when searching the log file. The search was taking too long and should be addressed in this release.
Todo's will be better integrated with R8, not as part of current design update, but soon after. The designers of R8 concentrated heavily on mail, contacts, & calendar

More questions and topics covered in the Gurupalooza section.

Interface Matters

2007-01-25T00:46:00.000-05:00

One of the great Developer sessions at Lotusphere this year was

BP101 Designing the User Experience: Why your Interface Matters

Presented by Chris Blatnick & Nathan Freeman. Rather than try to explain their expert work, go check out their blogs at: Chris's InterfaceMatters Site and Nathans Notes911 Site.

They also had a very excellent podcast with Bruce and Julian over at the Taking Notes Podcast (Episode 49).

(Haven't listened to the one's at LotusUserGroup.org ... more on that later.

Lotusphere 2007 Opening Session

2007-01-22T19:09:00.000-05:00

The opening session of Lotusphere occurs on the second full day of events so people attending have already been exposed to the ideas and concepts that will be threaded through out the conference. The opening session is usually a celebration of the years past successes and a look forward to the future opportunities. The session gets rockin' with an opening band singing out some songs that will hint at the underlying themes of the week. In this blog I have capture some of what was happening during the event as I was experiencing it. Sort of a live blog, but will be editing the actual content well after the event was over to clean up the content and hopefully fill in some of the gaps that may have been overlooked while jotting down the info.

The opening session's band first appeared to be 12 piece cover band with 6 singers. They started with "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" (leading into "With a little help from friends") during this song the familiar kaleidoscope shown in the handouts and some bright red fractal images appeared on the huge wall to wall screens).
The images morphed into a different kaleidoscope in circle of the around the Lotusphere logo. Mid-way through the song the stage lasers burst into a wide array of psychedelic flare and the wall screens then changed into a large swirling galaxy of stars.

Somewhere between the first in second song the number of performers on stage increased to 20 or more.

The second act was a series of David Bowie songs. The first being "Changes". This song displayed a large image of the moon as seen by one of the hovering Apollo spacecraft. This image changed back to the galaxy image with a slight difference of what may have been a supernova or star chamber cloud. The following song was "under pressure" which had a water effect image.

The third act consisted of songs from the who: "Pinball Wizard", "I'm Free", and the theme from Lotusphere that is revolves around you. The who's "You?" (Think about you...I see the millions of you...) song.

After these series of songs on stage appeared a number of IBM Lotus executives such as: Michael Rhodin, Ken Bisconti and Ron Sebastion. Appearances by the executives of Sametime also gave brief keynote speeches (notably Bruce Morse).

Mr. Rhodin began the keynote address by mentioning that 2006 was the year of "You", most notably from Time magazine's person of the year (cover shown on screen). Some of the announcements he made were:

midyear delivery Hannover
there was a 30% increase in Notes users forth quarter and that this was second year sustained increase of double digit growth
7000 people were in attendance
1869 certified Lotus Professional attending which was a large increase over last year( was it 400% quoted?)
He even mentioned that Lotusphere had made its appearance in "Second Life" - although it was shown on screen, I have not had a chance to go see it yet.

Mike finished the main opening keynote by presenting this year's guest speaker Neil Armstrong. Neil gave an interesting talk about his experience in the Apollo missions. Some of the interesting items quotes and facts from his topic were

Orlando airport's designation of MCO was a hold over of the old McCoy Airforce base which is where the test flights of the X1 for the preparation of the Apollo missions were held
Russians had sputnik first, the engineers in the early days of NASA had "kaputnik"
The navigation of the early astronauts were by eye "Hey, that must be Australia down there..." dead pan delivery was very funny
The navigation was pretty bad that although they had naval ships ready for his landing he was so far off he actually landed just outside Okinawa
Even with the low powered computers they had (only 4KB memory, 8 digit -no alpha read out display), he still had to get accurate distances (within 11 inches) for the "3 day trip" to account for the mileage on his expense report (another great delivery)

Mike Rhodin cam e back on stage for the next session and started talking about the future products coming out Lotus. The strategy of their focus was that more and more individuals were working away from there office: business travel, telecommuting, and every day computing for entertainment. The signs were leading to what might become one day of making the "office" obsolete (slight pun intended).

By way of example, an anecdotal comment was made that on a recent interviewee at IBM, the applicant said that "email is for their grandfather". Current and future generations are embracing technologies of social networking more quick and more readily. They are sharing more, more frequently and more quickly. The tools to perform these tasks must make sense for user, they must be cool to the user and they need to solve the problems for real people.

Tools like Sametime that give immediate presence and awareness. Two major companies / government that have embraced this technology are the Dept of Defense and GE. A product related to(third party?) intellicare gave a Sametime testimonial from several nurses having the immediate access to medical opinions from Doctor's throughout the hospital.

An announcement was made that video chat was coming as a supported framework on the Mac & Linux.
There will be multi devices chat (chatting not only individuals but other hardware and software). An example was demonstrated on this, that was a bit complex to explain.
Chat windows will be merged. No longer have many separate windows open, there will be a "toolbar" showing the individual chat sessions open (displayed using the individuals picture captured from their account)
There was a live demonstration of a soft-phone (software integrated possibly through VOIP?) with voicemail in the chat window

A new product line was introduced to push through Lotus' brand into the social networking for business with Lotus Connections.

A public beta will be available next month
There was a demo of how "mashups" were created. "Mashups" is a relatively new term for composite applications: pieces of different applicants pulled together in a new way to perform a new and important business task.
In the demo, the "Mashup" creation reminded me of the simple way that you would create joins in Access: a table here, a table there, you click and drag and the information was connected. Now take that concept to a Notes application: a database here and a database there that you define the wiring/linking and viola the information is joined: you select one piece of data in one frame/window/portlet you have its related data automatically updated from a completely different application shown in its window.

Another new product was announced for the social networking crowd: "QuickR" (taking the recently fashionable naming conventions from other products in the community).

A (cue the angelic AWWW music) FREE personal version (for those with maintenance packages) of QuickR is to be made available (in February).

Provides for project management
social networking
templates, templates, templates

Other news:

Lotus recently acquired filenet (this was an item to look into for imaging products... to be discussed later in the Product Showcase area)
Available through QuickR will be a check in and check out of the document/attachment/ files that are shared
There will be an enhancement/add-in? to Lotus that when you send an email with an attachment, Lotus will automatically prompt you to say "Would you rather send a link (to this massively huge attachment that will clog up your email traffic if you try) instead of an attachment?" (Commentary added as this was a huge ovation from the admins in the room that have to detail with overloaded email traffic (such as video clips)

To close out the opening session, the fanfare increased with more great light show affects.
All around the room "Connections" were made with yellow lasers as Mike described how you will share the content with the person in the next cubicle, to the person across the office, to your immediate business associates, and then around the world. A very cool laser affect crawled along the wall about 10 feet up reminiscent of some recent scifi films showing even more connections. The opening band closes the session with the light show with a repeat of the Who's Song "You" song earlier. A nice ending of the opening session.

BP104 Worst Practices in IBM Lotus Domino Environments - Learning From the Mistakes of Others

2007-01-22T19:06:00.000-05:00

(Monday, January 22) - This was one of the more memorable session from last year, that I looked forward to seeing again. Bill is back with Paul to go over some of the harrowing experiences that have occurred in their world of administering and developing in Lotus. Bill represented the developer issue and Paul the admins. Their delivery of the content is mainly for fun, but they point out they are actual experiences (with the names of guilty parties removed, although hinted at on several occasions, but appeared to mainly be inside jokes) and can be learned from.

Another version of one of the most successful presentations from Lotusphere 2006 - updated with new stories. We'll lead you through the top 20 mistakes seen in live Lotus Domino environments, both from an infrastructure and an application development point of view. All of these mistakes have cost companies around the globe significant amounts of support and downtime costs -- and all could have been prevented. Common mistakes (such as not actually reading documentation), to lack of change control and training, right up to absolute disasters caused by a chain of successive mistakes are de-constructed. This highly amusing session will show you how to avoid making these mistakes in your environment.

The session was as captivating as last year, so I was only able to jot some brief notes. See the slides for some of the revealing information, but for now here are the items I was able to get down:

Configure your Anti-Virus software to exclude the Notes Data directory. The evidence was of a Client's mail "disappearing" every Friday. It seems that the scheduled av program had designated the mail as a virus and guaranteed it leaving it inaccessible. A corollary, leave transactions logs and view index temp directories also excluded as they are potential targets for av programs. If needed look to getting AV specific for Lotus.
Full Access Admin allows access to readers fields, be mindful of who has access to Full Admin rights.
User's were wondering why their Email was not routing... an attempt was made to "share a video" via email attachment...it was a half GB in size ...to 428 people...Notes would have eventually handled it, but it brought the servers "to its knees". Rules are available to set the max message size.
Black Berry users out of office (OOO) setting defaults to the last date used. This example had 200+ out of offices notices going out from the individual after not using OOO for 2 years on black berry.
A notes about about a clean up agent in DomLog.nsf...(check slides for further information)

One of the sites briefly mentioned that users can submit their own "worst practice" experience can be found at the following link.

Lotusphere Worst Practices Site