Just My Rambling Thoughts

I've moved...

2006-03-15T13:15:00.000-08:00

The new blog is up at Domino Thoughts. Come on over and check it out, all the fine content, as well as the "un-fine," from this blog has been moved, minus your comments.

If you're reading this from your RSS feed reader, please update the feed with the new one. I hadn't checked, but Bloglines says I have 8 subscribers. Thanks for subscribing!

Dominoblog 3.0 released

2006-03-14T16:46:00.000-08:00

Now that Steve has released the Gold code, I will begin the final steps to move this over to DominoBlog. I knew if I waited long enough it might happen ;-)

Look for some changes here soon is you used the domain http://www.dominothoughts.com and not the blogspot domain.

Smart Upgrade and CCH

2006-03-09T16:39:00.000-08:00

After I downloaded the CCH and installed it successfully on my PC, I wanted to create a new Smart Upgrade kit and deploy it to other users. Our server is running 6.5.4 FP2, and I've used Smart Upgrade before for updates, but never a CCH package. I created the package and filled in all the options as I have previously, but when users ran the Smart Upgrade they always were told that there was no update available for their release.

I must have checked the settings a dozen times, refreshed the design of the database, replaced the design of the database, and finally gave up and called support. They had me refresh the smart upgrade cache on the mail server (sucache refresh, in case you're wondering). Finally, Tina at support had me send her a copy of my database and she was able to recreate the issue (hers was working fine). Turns out that in 7.0.1/6.5.6 there's a new setting to say whether the target is 6.5.4/6.0.5 or previous, and also whether the kit is for the Notes client or full client. Getting that new template and applying to the database resolved my issue.

So if you find yourself in my boat, call support and request the new template. Or download 7.0.1 and take it from the install kit.

By the way, to make the smart upgrade install silently, add the optional argument "-noui" in the appropriate field of the Smart Upgrade kit.

Notes 6.5.5 CCH 1 available

2006-03-08T09:25:00.000-08:00

This is the hotfix that resolves the high CPU usage of nlnotes.exe. There's also a hotfix for 6.5.4 clients. Check with support on where to download.

7.0.1 included the fixes, so there's no hotfix to be released. Also, there was supposed to be a hotfix for the Sametime server as well, but there's been no mention of that in the message, I'm waiting for an update on that.

As part of the fix, you'll need to add the notes.ini setting to all clients, IM_WATCH_PUBLIC_GROUPS=0 . Use a policy to do this of course, but you'll need to "customize" the desktop policy (see Technote).

BES 4.1 for Domino available now

2006-03-07T10:20:00.000-08:00

The new version of Blackberry Enterprise Server, with support for Sametime, is available for download now. I'm doing just that as we speak, along with the docs, and we'll see how it looks. We have two servers here on 4.0 that have been working pretty darn well. I'm excited to see how the new version looks and performs.

Also, need to see what upgrading requires, since both BES serves use the same SQL database.

Blackberry lives on, RIM settles with NTP

2006-03-03T15:05:00.000-08:00

Looks like NTP got some money and RIM can keep on plugging away. It'll be interesting to see what impact if any this has, and also whether the "workaround" gets put in place. I've heard and seen comments that they were planning on putting it in place regardless, but this may make that point moot.

Who says blackmail doesn't work. Now it's time to fix the patent system.

Cystic Fibrosis update

2006-03-02T14:26:00.000-08:00

Andrew had his checkup last week. The doctors have been concerned that his lung function tests have been dropping over time and thought that he might need to go to hospital to have an IV line put in and start infusion therapy at home. We all, doctors and us, don't understand how his PFT test can be this low with his activity level - he plays soccer every day at school, plays little league and plays school sports (flag football and lacrosse) - and never seems short of breath or coughs. Obviously hospitalization is not something we were thrilled about, so we stepped up his current therapies at home with the intent of him always doing them correctly. Sitting in a kitchen chair while doing nebulizer treatments, instead of relaxing on the couch. Using a noseplug as well to make sure he inhales the meds instead of breathing through the nose, and other things.

Well, it looks like those improvements paid off some. His PFT test came back with a small increase of 4%, so we've avoided his first hospitalization for now. He did however drop 2 pounds since the last visit, so we're looking at making some changes in how he takes his enzymes and moving to Prevacid instead of protonix for now. We think the drop has more to do with his activity level, he's just finished lacrosse season at school, than medical.

Last thing is that the doctor's think he's a good candidate for the hypertonic saline therapy I wrote about earlier. We have to get two different strengths of saline from the CF pharmacy and mix it at home since no one sells the proper strength yet. We'll see if it's covered by the insurance!

One more thing, next week is the Wine Auction and Dinner at Onotria, benefitting the CF Foundation. Andrew's uncle thought this one up and it looks like it's going to be a fun night. Check out the Andrew's Angels site for more info.

Notes 6.5.5 , calendar delegation, and repeating meetings

2006-03-01T09:38:00.000-08:00

If you have users who manage another person's calendar, and only their calendar, we've found a problem with Notes 6.5.5 and delegation.

The delegate can no longer create a repeating meeting when then only have access to manage only the calendar. If you increase their ACL rights to author, which of course means they can now send mail on behalf of the person whose calendar they're managing, then repeating entries become available. Stepping back to 6.5.4 is the current workaround if changing the ACL isn't an option.

There is an SPR open for this, GLAS6LVQV4, but there's no KB article yet. We've been told it will be fixed in 6.5.6.

New Domains

2006-02-20T20:35:00.000-08:00

I've taken the plunge and bought a couple of domains. One for this blog - http://www.dominothoughts.com . Now to get started moving it to a Domino based template.

The other is for our site we use to support our fundraising activities for Cystic Fibrosis - http://www.andrewsangels.net . I'd like to make it Domino based as well, that way my wife could make updates to the site, instead of waiting for me to handcode the pages and upload them. Yes, we use Notes at home for some stuff, we aren't quite yet setup for a home server, but that could be coming!

Domino 6.5.4 FP3 Available

2006-02-20T12:55:00.000-08:00

Looks like it's got some fixes for regressions in both 6.5.4 FP2 and 6.5.5, along with other fixes. Look for a FP1 for 6.5.5 soon, I'd guess.

Also, hotfixes for 6.5.5 and 6.5.4 for the Sametime client and server issues appear to have been pushed back to April 1. Too bad, I'd really like to get that installed since we're not updating clients to 7.0.1 in the near future.

Lotusphere: Sunday morning

2006-01-22T11:23:00.000-08:00

After sleeping in (9am) to recover from the travel and last night, I got up and walked over to the Boardwalk Bakery for a quick breakfast and then off to the Swan for Duffbert and Julian's session on Java Jumpstart for the Domino Developer. Now, I'm an administrator by trade, but dabble in development for different needs, but I also try to be a "solution provider" at my company to help promote Domino as a more strategic application.

Sadly, my name didn't get drawn for a book, but the content and delivery of both Tom and Julian was excellent. I'm thinking about ways to use Java for some of the things I do. But the charts agent really caught my eye. Excellent job, and the light saber pointer was too cool!

Unfortunately, I tried to go to John Head's MS Office integration session, but it was full. I'll try later for the repeat if I'm not watching the games.

Forgot to pack a camera, so just check out Flickr for the Lotusphere2006 photos

I am here

2006-01-22T11:12:00.000-08:00

Well, I got up at 4am and got my tired rear-end to the airport and got to the gate in time for boarding, after grabbing a coffee and danish at the $tarbucks...never have cut it that close. The flight, once they fixed a couple of seats in first class, was nice. Two decent movies, Just Like Heaven and The Incredibles. I flew American, and this is the first time I've encountered the $3 snack box and $5 breakfast sandwich. They don't even give out peanuts/snack mix with the beverage service! I wish JetBlue flew from LA to Orlando....oh well.

Checked into the Dolphin (yeah!) and then headed over to dinner at The Flying Fish with the CertFX crew and friends. What a nice place. Had some really good appetizers, and spinach and frisee' salad and a excellent seared ahi and couscous. So I blew 2 days food stipend, it was worth it.

After we headed to the ESPN club for Turtle's Gonzo party and I stayed til 1am meeting many new people whose blogs I read. So starts off one of my goals the year, meet and get to know more of my fellow Domino geeks! (Thanks Chris for that nice pic! No I really didn't spend the whole night drinking ;-)).

eWeek Review: Nice, but a little off

2006-01-20T13:23:00.000-08:00

OK, so eWeek does a very nice review of Notes/Domino 7. It's a very positive article that highlights many of the improvements in the product. But reading through the section on DB2 integration, the author shows he's not a Domino expert:

DB2 support will allow companies to build more scalable and robust applications than they would ordinarily be able to by storing data in Notes' native NFS (Network File System) data structure. The use of DB2 won't eliminate the need for Notes-specific development expertise, however, as developers will still need to work within the Domino Designer 7 client to create views and forms.

During the initial read, I thought it was a typo, but he then goes to spell out what "NSF" is, and then continues to repeat it in another paragraph. Hopefully, this author will be in Orlando next week and will get to learn what the NSF (Notes Storage Facility) is all about.

I emailed the author and sent him a link to the Inside Notes document on the Lotus site. I also commented that I thought the Good rating for Interoperability was low since ND7 supports multiple platforms, multiple development languages, multiple clients, and now multiple data stores. How well, it was a positive review!

Ocean water a therapy for Cystic Fibrosis?

2006-01-19T07:48:00.000-08:00

My son, Andrew, has Cystic Fibrosis and has been seeing a decrease in his lung function that his doctor's don't understand. He's a very active kid, either playing outside with his friends, playing Little League, or school sports (flag football and now lacrosse?!). His activity level, and lack of bretahing problems don't support the lung function test results he's getting. My wife and I think he's figured out how to make the "nice loop" for the PFT test and stopping, and his smirk a couple nights ago may confirm that. His doctor's are concerned it's something more serious and want to possibly put him on IV therapy that would require him having an IV port put in him - something we would like to avoid if not necessary.

This morning's check of CNN found the announcement of a therapy that may increase his lung function with just an inhaled therapy of sterile ocean water called hypertonic saline. The story of it's discovery is interesting, but the bottom line of the possibility of drug companies not making it for lack of a profit is disturbing to say the least.

Strangeness with Bloglines

2006-01-17T12:00:00.000-08:00

I use Bloglines as my RSS reader, and I really like it. This morning as I'm reading, I saw that Richard Schwartz's entry has "Von Richard Schwartz op None" and didn't think much of it. I hit Rob Novak's and saw the same thing and then looking around I started noticing that all the labels on the website are in Dutch. I know I haven't been in my preferences or account settings, and when I did go to look, English was showing as my language. A simple save set everything back....strange.

Lotusphere Online logins sent

2006-01-11T09:49:00.000-08:00

Just got me Lotusphere Online login information, and we're not all numbers any more!!! For the first time ever, I can use my email address as my login. What a leap in progress. First, Lotusphere.com gets pointed to the right place, and now this?!?! I don't know if I can handle all this change! ;-)

Converting R5 users to a Single Copy Template

2005-12-07T17:23:00.000-08:00

Started the final piece of the 6.5 upgrade last night - upgrading DWA users to the 6.5 template - using a Single Copy template, of course. Just one small issue - the convert task kept the "Prohibit design refresh or replace to modify" checkbox on some items checked when they were added to the user's mail file. And then after running the design task, those items were duplicated. That led to some ugly mail files in the morning.

So now, I'm trying to figure out the best way to remove the design elements from the user's that were updated last night.

As far as the future upgrades, here's how to workaround the problem

Convert the R5 mail files to a standard D6 template, i.e. iNotes6.ntf.
"load convert mail/*.nsf * inotes6"
Convert the newly minted D6 mailfile to your SCT template, i.e. sct_iNotes654.ntf
"load convert mail/*.nsf * sct_inotes654"
Check the design to be sure no elements have the No Refresh column checked. Mostly the items are views, so that's a good place to look.
Run the Design task on the mail files/folder you just converted to replace the elements with pointers to the SCT template.
"load design -d mail" or "load design -f mail/jsmith.nsf"
Run Compact to reclaim the space the design was using.

This worked in my testing today to avoid the unwanted "No refresh". Now I just need to work on repairing the 400 or so files that weren't so lucky.

CFF Fundraiser at Pick Up Stix

2005-10-13T17:30:00.000-07:00

Want to help a great cause, and eat good food at the same time? On October 27th, Pick Up Stix will we having a fundraiser at all corporate owned stores (most of them are). Click the link in the title or the graphic and you'll get a coupon to turn in when ordering.

Go ahead, have lunch and dinner that day at Pick Up Stix!

Notes/Windows Single Logon & Password issues

2005-10-06T15:58:00.000-07:00

We've been hit hard by this issue:

Single Logon: In a multi-user installation, a user's Notes.INI file is altered after changing the operating system password
You are part of a multi-user Notes installation, but, after you change your operating system password using CTRL-ALT-DEL, you are presented with the Notes Client Configuration wizard. Why did this happen?

Part of the issue has been user and helpdesk education. Part has been a recent change in security culture that has caused user problems. But, at the root, it is likely an area that didn't get the QA it should have. And now we get to bear the brunt of the screams...

Lotusphere, Here I Come

2005-10-06T09:44:00.000-07:00

Well, approval finally came yesterday, and since I don't want to wait around to get hit by some travel freeze, I've gone in and registered for Lotusphere this morning.

Also a first, I asked (ok, strongly recommended) to stay at the Dolphin or Swan hotels instead of the usual Port Orleans. Not that there's anything wrong with the Port Orleans, we stayed there for a family trip a few years ago, but it's really hard to get back and forth when you're closing down the bars over at the Dolphin and Swan. Those cab fares rack up quickly! So unless the Travel dept screws something up, I'll get to sleep in later and stay out later this 'sphere.

News from last decade...

2005-10-05T09:41:00.000-07:00

This was one of the "headlines" in this morning's eWeek Healthcare update:

4. News: PDAs Expected to Change Health Care in Future

PDAs could change the way health care is delivered in the
future by providing doctors with easy access to patient data
and the latest information on treatment.

I swear, we've heard this every year, and still medical offices haven't caught up to technology. I remember about 4 years ago, my kid's pediatrician was using an early version of the tablet PC to update the file and write prescriptions - you just picked up the print out when you checked out of the office. That 'experiment' didn't last a year, but I'm sure cost was one concern. With managed care, HMOs, and everything else, it's very hard for them to pay for these upgrades. Maybe insurers should help foot the bill so that expenses do go down, all the way around. Better records, mean cleaner bills, which means less problems for the patients.

I'm sure my wife would appreciate that, every month she's combing over the EOBs for our son to make sure that the doctors, hospital, and especially medical labs aren't trying to get more money from us than they should. You'd be surprised how bad their billing is... or maybe not.

From the department of reverse psychology...

2005-09-29T16:12:00.000-07:00

Evidently, flight attendants think the movie-going public are a bunch of idiots and can't tell fact from fiction. They don't like the movie FlightPlan and want to make sure no one sees it. I think most of us would agree that not all flight attendants are trying to kidnap passengers. However, there have been some flights I've been on where I've thought the flight attendants would rather of had an empty flight.

Granted, most of the reviews I've seen highly suggest you don't see it either, but I think the flight attendants may cause some people to actually go and see the movie!

I'm sure Disney, the film's producer, isn't going to complain about the free publicity.

Whither MSN Spaces?

2005-08-25T17:10:00.000-07:00

Forgive me, for some reason this popped in my head while thinking of another entry idea that I've since forgotten...

So, what's going on with Spaces? It certainly doesn't seem to have caught fire, I don't recall hearing anything about it since it's launch, and the subsequent posting I made and response from someone at MS.

I'm sure people are using it, but I don't think it's up there against the other blogging tools. Maybe it's Microsoft's "consumer" version of blogging, for those that no one looks at....like mine??...no, that can't be...can it?...no, of course not.

Been on vacation

2005-08-09T11:05:00.000-07:00

Just got back from a 2 week + vacation. I hadn't been gone that long forever, and it was great! Check out the photos from the trip. We went to Montana, but drove from California, through oregon, Washington and Idaho. On the way back, stopped in Park City, UT and Las Vegas. The kids had a great time, probably better than I expected.

The reason was a family reunion in Montana, my mom's family is from there. The kids can't wait to go back, my daughter said she wants to move up there. I think she'd change her mind if we went there in January.

Domino Custom Password Policy

2005-07-14T17:24:00.000-07:00

I hadn't noticed this yet, probably since we just did the 6.5.4 Domino upgrade, but there is now the option to set custom password policies for Notes users. Thanks to some Italian legislation this has been added. So now you can set minimum and maximum lengths, whether or not usernames can be part of the password, force special characters, numeric characters, etc.

You can also force a user to change his password the first time he logs in to Notes! I think that's a very good reason to check this out.

I plan on checking this out to confirm that everything works as expected and possibly implement it once I go over it with our security team.

Read the technote documenting this new feature.