Wednesday, 24 December 2008

All I want for Christmas

All I want for Christmas is…

 

  1. I want to setup my new Domino 8.0.2 server  (Currently new in its box sitting beside my desk.)
  2. I want to setup my new SQL Reporting server.  (Also sitting in its box beside my desk.)
  3. I want to find to time to setup a server so I can install Domino 8.5 when it becomes available.
  4. I want to get my new IPS installed.
  5. I want my new SNMP monitoring software to get installed.
  6. I want my new Anti-Virus install to go smoothly.
  7. I don’t want anything to happen to any of the infrastructure I am responsible for over the holiday.

 

So what are my chances?   Probably not that great…   I do predict that numbers 1, 2 and 4 will be done by the end of January.   And hopefully numbers 3 and 5 by the end of February.   I don’t predict that I’ll get my wish on numbers 6 or 7.

 

Cheers!

XPages Workshop In Ottawa, Canada

It’s been said here that you can request a Domino 8.5 XPages workshop.   Looks like you can contact Craig Wolpert via the IBM Whois lookup and send in your request.

 

So…   What are you waiting for.   We’re a government town with a good number of Notes users…   Get off your derriere and send Craig a note already…    I’ve sent in for my 6 developers already.

 

Cheers!

Tuesday, 28 October 2008

Weather Woes

Personally, I love it when my weather person starts with a bit of humor before delivering bad news.

And this is what it looked like outside my front door this evening.

Wednesday, 22 October 2008

Data recovery in Yellowfin

So, while you’re working in Yellowfin, maybe your finger slips and you click delete, or it happens while you are thinking about something else.  However it happens, you’ve done the inevitable, you’ve deleted your SQL datasource.

 

After you quickly add it again, you realize that just re-adding it doesn’t restore your views or reports.    The CEO will be doing his regular daily review of the organization in 20 minutes and he starts with the reports.

 

No problem.

 

Fire up your SQL database client, open the Yellowfin database and manually edit the following tables.

 

Restoring your Datasource

Open the ‘ReportViewSource’ table and look for your deleted datasource.   You’ll find it because it will have ‘DELETED’ in the ‘AccessCode’ column.    Change the value from ‘DELETED’ to ‘UNSECURE’.   (You may need to change it to ‘ACCESSLEVEL’ if you had security applied to the datasource.)   While you’re at it, make note of the value for the record in the ‘SourceID’ column.    We’ll need it shortly.

 

Restoring your Views

Open the ‘ReportView’ table and look for your deleted views.  You can match them to the datasource by comparing the value in ‘SourceID’ to the number you wrote down while restoring the datasource.  To bring them back, change the value in ‘ViewStatusCode’ from ‘DELETED’ to ‘OPEN’.

 

Restoring your Reports

Open the ‘ReportHeader’ table and look for your deleted views.  Once again, you can match them using the ‘SourceID’ column to the number you wrote down while restoring the datasource.  To bring them back, change the value in ‘ReportStatusCode’ from ‘DELETED’ to ‘OPEN’.

 

Great, you’re all done.   Restart the Yellowfin engine and you will be good to go!

Friday, 10 October 2008

Running Routes

Here's a neat tool to allow you to figure out your running routes and accumulate your mileage.

http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/

Thursday, 9 October 2008

Happy Anniversary!!

Alright, I'll be honest, my wife doesn't read my blog, but if she someday happens to, she'll know that I'm wishing her a happy 3rd anniversary.

Love you dear...

Tuesday, 7 October 2008

USA vs the rest of the world



I placed 50 states in 231 seconds, with an average error of 11 miles over 6 states misplaced.

I challenge everyone else to try. I wonder who will have the best score, an American or someone from elsewhere?

Wednesday, 1 October 2008

I need a day clock.

You know, why do some weeks just go like this?

I need a day clock this week. It's the perfect gift for the overworked IT individual.


Tuesday, 30 September 2008

Woot - You may not need it, but it's often cheap...

I recently came across Woot.com during a search for a memory stick for my new camera. I never ended up in buying from them, but I did flag it as a site to visit regularly.

I now visit it daily. Here's a clip from their FAQ on the site.
I see only one item, do you sell anything else?
No. We sell one item per day until it is sold out or until 11:59pm central time when it is replaced (see next entry for details). However, each item we sell is in stock and typically ships within 2-3 business days.
What is the schedule for new items?
The short answer: we offer a new item every single day. The details: a new product is released every morning at 12am central time, seven days a week. (If you're not a morning person, this can be described as every night at midnight. Better?) If a product sells out during its run, a new item will not appear until the next release time. You will know if a product is sold out, because the main page says "SOLD OUT" instead of "I want one". (Clever, eh?)
I missed yesterday's item, can I still get one?
No. Each woot.com product is discontinued at 11:59pm central time. That's that. Period. We may get more at a later date if we're lucky, but we offer no guarantees, we allow no backorders, and we have no waiting/notification lists. Too bad.
So, essentially, they sell one item a day, for 24 hours, or until it's sold out.

Pretty simple, eh? Oh, and to see if it's actually a great deal, check here: Woot Compare

Sunday, 28 September 2008

The Omnivore’s 100 - How many have you eaten?

Very Good Taste blog came up with a list of foods that they feel every omnivore should eat in their life time, and they labeled it the “Omnivore’s 100“.

Bold means you’ve eaten it, crossed out means you wouldn’t touch it in a million years.

So here is the list, along with my results.

Remember: bold means I’ve eaten it, strike out means I won’t eat it.

1. Venison
2. Nettle tea
3. Huevos rancheros
4. Steak tartare
5. Crocodile
6. Black pudding
7. Cheese fondue
8. Carp
9. Borscht
10. Baba ghanoush
11. Calamari
12. Pho
13. PB&J; sandwich
14. Aloo gobi - I'm allergic to Cauliflower
15. Hot dog from a street cart
16. Epoisses
17. Black truffle
18. Fruit wine made from something other than grapes
19. Steamed pork buns
20. Pistachio ice cream
21. Heirloom tomatoes - Again, I'm allergic.
22. Fresh wild berries
23. Foie gras
24. Rice and beans
25. Brawn, or head cheese
26. Raw Scotch Bonnet pepper - Um... no.
27. Dulce de leche
28. Oysters
29. Baklava
30. Bagna cauda
31. Wasabi peas
32. Clam chowder in a sourdough bowl
33. Salted lassi
34. Sauerkraut
35. Root beer float
36. Cognac with a fat cigar
37. Clotted cream tea
38. Vodka jelly/Jell-O
39. Gumbo
40. Oxtail
41. Curried goat
42. Whole insects
43. Phaal
44. Goat’s milk
45. Malt whisky from a bottle worth £60/$120 or more
46. Fugu
47. Chicken tikka masala
48. Eel
49. Krispy Kreme original glazed doughnut
50. Sea urchin
51. Prickly pear
52. Umeboshi
53. Abalone
54. Paneer
55. McDonald’s Big Mac Meal
56. Spaetzle
57. Dirty gin martini
58. Beer above 8% ABV
59. Poutine
60. Carob chips
61. S’mores
62. Sweetbreads
63. Kaolin
64. Currywurst
65. Durian
66. Frogs’ legs
67. Beignets, churros, elephant ears or funnel cake
68. Haggis
69. Fried plantain
70. Chitterlings, or andouillette
71. Gazpacho
72. Caviar and blini
73. Louche absinthe
74. Gjetost, or brunost
75. Roadkill
76. Baijiu
77. Hostess Fruit Pie
78. Snail
79. Lapsang souchong
80. Bellini
81. Tom yum
82. Eggs Benedict
83. Pocky
84. Tasting menu at a three-Michelin-star restaurant.
85. Kobe beef
86. Hare
87. Goulash
88. Flowers
89. Horse
90. Criollo chocolate
91. Spam
92. Soft shell crab
93. Rose harissa
94. Catfish
95. Mole poblano
96. Bagel and lox
97. Lobster Thermidor
98. Polenta
99. Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee
100. Snake


Not too shabby... I've got 42 out of 100...

Sunday, 21 September 2008

My First Race

I ran my first ever 5km run today...   The conditions were perfect for me, about 10C (or 50F), and I did better than I was aiming for.   

My longest run to date had been 3km in about 24 minutes, but that was no more than about 8 minutes at a time intersperced with 1 minute walking breaks.

Today, I did 5km in 31:49:80.   (That would be 3.10 miles)

I'm pretty happy with myself.

Thursday, 11 September 2008

Your SSL certificate is expiring

So, I got an interesting call this morning.   I was on the phone, so it got left with our Office Admin.

 

She came up to me to tell me that XXXX from Comodo called because our SSL certificate from our web server was expiring.

 

To me, that’s very interesting, because Comodo isn’t providing our certificates.   As well, this server is only available to clients, and doesn’t appear in any search engine, etc. because everything is password protected.

 

I doubt I’m going to return that call, I’m quite happy with my current CA, but it does make me wonder how much luck they have with that cold calling schema.

 

Tuesday, 9 September 2008

Decrypting PGP via a Notes Agent

So, a business requirement has reared its head this morning, and I have no idea if it’s even possible.

 

We use Domino in a Web App environment (No client UI) and are wondering if decrypting PGP via a Lotusscript/Java agent has been done through Notes.

 

Anyone?

 

Sunday, 7 September 2008

Still in the Running

So, for those who read these, a few weeks ago, I started taking a running clinic at the Running Room. The Learn to Run program is for those people just getting into the sport.

We started off with 1 minute of running and 2 minutes of walking, the next week 1 minute of running and 1 minute of walking, the next 2 and 1 and have stepped up weekly from there.

Today marked the end of the week of 5 running and 1 walking. Me, I got separated from my group and ended up doing 11 minutes of running without a walking break. I could even carry on a conversation while doing it.

I feel great!

Tuesday, 26 August 2008

Where to go for Notes/Domino 8 Training?

I'm looking for some training for both myself and some co-workers.

Development training for xPages and Web Services and things like that. I'm looking for more of an Admin update training.

I've found some stuff here: http://www.tlcc.com/

But there must be something else? No?

Note and Domino 8.0.2 is out

Domino and Notes 8.0.2 is out.

I’m downloading mine now…

Tuesday, 12 August 2008

Server upgrade tonight

I'm doing a server upgrade tonight. Migrating a production server from one box to another. Should go pretty well, I've got my hopes up.

Files are in the process of copying as I type.

Thursday, 7 August 2008

Sunday, 3 August 2008

I've always liked astronomy....

I've always enjoyed astronomy, but never took the time to really get involved in it. I settled for photography instead. But, via http://www.cubert.net/ I discovered this really cool gallery of NASA photos. In fact, they post one a day.

Take a look.

Tuesday, 29 July 2008

I'm off and running

At the encouragement of many, I’ve started a clinic at the Running Room to learn how to run. I mean, the basics of it I’ve know since I was young, but as I’ve grown older, the exercise that I’ve been getting has slowly diminished. I still get out in my canoe once in a while, but that’s not really great exercise unless you do it for many hours, something my current job doesn’t allow.

So, I joined a Learn to Run clinic at my local Running Room store. Last night was the first night, and I ran 7 sets of 1 minute of running followed by 2 minutes of walking. To my surprise, I handled it quite well. No collapsing or heavy breathing. So, now I’ll do the same reps on Wednesday and Sunday, and then ramp it up next week to 1 minute run, 1 minute walk.

Tonight is my night off. I’m laying 150 square feet of engineered hardwood in the basement. It’ll probably be harder work.

Monday, 28 July 2008

Found this gem in my Replication Log

Found this in my Domino replication log file… Looks like I may be getting a refund from my host for using negative bandwidth.

Thursday, 24 July 2008

NotesDatabase.HttpURL Help?

Anyone know where the NotesDatabase.HttpURL method grabs it’s result from?

Thursday, 17 July 2008

Domino Developer Job in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada

My company is hiring a Domino Developer in Ottawa, Ontario.

This position is intended for a programmer specializing in internet related technologies.

Specifically we are looking for a person with a strong basis in building applications using Javascript, Java, HTML and CSS. Knowledge of building applications within the Lotus Domino environment is preferred.  Candidates without Domino experience who demonstrate interest and capability to learn Domino may be considered.  The candidate must demonstrate a strong interest in the subject of internet application development, learning and applying new technologies. Problem solving ability and initiative are also important qualities.

 

Contact me for more information!

Thursday, 26 June 2008

I have a Mac, for a little while

So, my sister's hard drive died on her MacBook in the middle of an upgrade to Mac OS 10.  

So, I have her Mac while we try and recover the hard drive data, and she has my Toshiba Windows XP system.

We'll see how I like this 'it just works' thing and let everyone know.   Who knows, I may end up with one.   My wife just looked at it and said, 'I like the screen'.   I don't recall her saying that about the Toshiba.

Tuesday, 17 June 2008

Reserved Words in Domino Web Applications

Much frustration by one of our Domino developers this morning lead us to discover that having a DOM element named “action” on a web form causes all sorts of problems.  Like not being able to refresh or submit a form.

 

Makes me wonder if there are others…   I couldn’t find any in the Designer Help.

 

Anyone know of others?

Friday, 6 June 2008

Because security is important, read Jake's article...

I saw Jake’s article entitled “Security Hole in DomCFG.nsf – is your server vulnerable?” and wanted to make sure that everyone saw it.

Security is important. (Ever the understatement, eh?)

http://www.codestore.net/store.nsf/unid/BLOG-20080606

Thursday, 5 June 2008

Any bloggers (or general Domino people) in Calgary, AB?

I'm travelling to Calgary, AB, Canada for vacation for a few weeks in early July and was wondering if there are any bloggers/Domino people floating around out there who may want to get together for a pint.

How To: Enable a Windows User Account to Logon as a Service

As a Domino admin, I don’t use Windows for a whole lot.   I basically provides a platform on which to run Domino that anyone who needs to use it is familiar with.  As such, I am occasionally called upon to perform certain tasks within Windows that I don’t do on a regular basis.

 

Today, I had to perform one them, setting a user account to be able to logon as a service.  So, in case anyone else needs to do this as well, here’s how.   It’s generally only needed on Windows 2003 server, but here are the XP instructions just in case.

 

 On Windows XP Professional

  1. At the taskbar, select Start|Control Panel
  2. Select 'Performance and Maintenance'
  3. Select 'Administrative tools'
  4. Double-click 'Local Security Policy'
  5. Within Local Security Settings|Local Policies, select 'User Rights Assignment'
  6. On the right, double-click 'Log on as a service'
  7. Check to see if the required user is listed as having this right.
    To add a user: click 'Add User or Group', type the first letter of the relevant username, click 'Check Names', select the relevant username, and click 'OK' three times to close.

On Windows 2003 Server

  1. At the taskbar, select Start|Programs|Administrative Tools|Local Security Policy
  2. Within Local Security Settings|Local Policies, select 'User Rights Assignment'
  3. On the right, double-click 'Log on as a service'
  4. Check to see if the required user is listed as having this right.
    To add a user: click 'Add User or Group', type the first letter of the relevant username, click 'Check Names', select the relevant username, and click 'OK' three times to close.

Wednesday, 4 June 2008

Jump to a specific line in Lotusscript editor

The team at TeamStudio has created a free add-on for Designer that allows you to hit CTRL-G and jump directly to a specific line number in the Lotusscript editor in Designer.

Check it out here: http://blogs.teamstudio.com/blog/blog.nsf/htdocs/CSCN6YMJTJ.htm

This was a huge thing for me when I switched to Notes Designer from Dreamweaver. (I used to do only HTML and ColdFusion.)

Tuesday, 3 June 2008

Note to Self: Invalid Internet address specified

I saw the following error in my Domino mail logs yesterday; right after a developer told me there was a problem because their e-mail wasn’t getting sent.

06/02/2008 10:52:39 PM Router: Transferring mail to domain GMAIL.COM (host gmail-smtp-in.l.google.COM [72.14.205.27]) via SMTP

06/02/2008 10:52:44 PM Router: Error transferring message 000FCE5B via SMTP to gmail-smtp-in.l.google.COM;alt1.gmail-smtp-in.l.google.COM,alt2.gmail-smtp-in.l.google.COM;gsmtp147.google.COM,gsmtp183.google.COM Invalid Internet address specified.

06/02/2008 10:53:15 PM Router: No messages transferred to GMAIL.COM (host gmail-smtp-in.l.google.COM) via SMTP

I’ll admit I was skeptical, as no one else was complaining about mail going through, but the application in question was the first one installed on a new server, so I took it at face value.

I ran some tests, tried to send e-mail from the application to a variety of e-mail accounts on different domains to see if it was a re-creatable problem, which it was. I googled “’Invalid Internet address specified’ & domino” to see what I could find, but everything I found related to internal Notes SMTP problems, but all my mail goes directly out to the internet.

I fiddled with various tests last night until I decided to go to bed. This morning at work it hit me. What is the “from” address on the e-mail?

Turns out that most mail servers will reject email coming from “@somedomain.com” without anything before the @ sign. I would have spotted that had I thought to check the memo document.

Oh well.

Monday, 2 June 2008

E-mail's not that important, right?


Right in the middle of troubleshooting a mail routing issue in my domino domain, my wife comes up and tells me to get my butt downstairs and outside.

Sometimes, the simplest things can remind you how blessed you are. Like a rainbow right over my house. If you look carefully, you can see that it's a double one...
Posted by Picasa

Friday, 16 May 2008

Windows Services not required for Domino?

I’m about to introduce a new server into our infrastructure, and this one is going to be totally dedicated to Domino, and running on a Windows 2003 platform. That said, I went looking for recommendations on what services in Windows I can completely disable in order to improve the performance of Domino without affecting the stability of the OS, or of Domino.

Reading through the scant few resources available, I came up with this list. Can anyone add anything to it?

o .NET Runtime Optimization Service

o Alerter

o Application Experience Lookup Service

o Application Layer Gateway Service

o Application Management

o Background Intelligent Transfer Service

o Clipbook

o Com+ System Application

o Computer Browser

o Cryptographic Services

o Distributed File System

o Distributed Link Tracking Client

o Distributed Link Tracking Server

o Distributed Transaction Coordinator

o Error Reporting Service

o Fax Service

o File Replication

o Help and Support

o HID Input Service

o HTTP SSL

o Human Interface Device Access

o IMAPI CD-Burning COM Service

o Indexing Service

o Intersite Messaging

o Kerberos Key Distribution Center

o License Logging

o Logical Disk Manager

o Logical Disk Manager Administrative Service

o Messenger

o Microsoft Software Shadow Copy Provider

o Net Logon

o Net.Tcp Port Sharing Service

o Netmeeting Remote Desktop Sharing

o Network DDE

o Network DDE DSDM

o Network Provisioning Service

o NT LM Security Support Provider

o Portable Media Serial Number Service

o Print Spooler

o Remote Access Auto Connection Manager

o Remote Desktop Help Session Manager

o Remote Procedure Call Locator

o Removeable Storage

o Resultant Set of Policy Provider

o Routing and Remote Access

o Shell Hardware Detection

o Smart Card

o Special Administration Console Helper

o Telnet

o Terminal Services Session Directory

o Themes

o Uninterruptible Power Supply

o Volume Shadow Copy

o WebClient

o Windows Audio

o Windows Firewall/Internet Connection Sharing

o Windows Image Acquisition

o Wireless Configuration

Thursday, 24 April 2008

And BANG... the mail stopped.

And so Monday began with no e-mail coming from one of my Domino Application servers. I did the preliminary checks, nothing strange in the Mail Event Logs, nothing strange in the Misc Event Logs. Actually there was something strange about the Mail Event logs. Nothing was in them what-so-ever. No e-mails attempting to leave at all. So, I looked at the mail.box. Same thing. Empty.

After a quick check of the application nsfs, I discovered that the memo documents were being created, just not moving into the mail.box.

I did some compaction on the mail.box looking for corruption, but didn’t find any. I could trigger all sorts of e-mails, but they weren’t going anywhere.

Eventually, after a few hours of checking, we discovered that the server couldn’t resolve itself in the DNS. One quick edit to the hosts file later and we’re off to the races.

I’m not positive, but I’m thinking it had something to do with the DNS patch released from Micro$oft. I don’t remember it’s KB, but I’ll post it once I remember it.

Wednesday, 23 April 2008

Dell closing Ottawa Call Centre

Just got a call from my wife about Dell closing in Ottawa. This’ll put a real strain on the Ottawa tech market to try and pickup the 1,000 plus jobs that just disappeared.

I have a couple of good friends who worked there, and they had nothing but good things to say about Dell.

Sounds like they called them all together this morning, with about 500 gone immediately, and the rest gone by June/July. They’re keeping about 100 on to support the Ottawa sales team. Hopefully everyone I know is in that group. But I doubt it.

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/ottawa/story/2008/04/23/dellkanata.html

Thursday, 6 March 2008

Internet Explorer 8 Beta 1 Released

Just as the subject says, Internet Explorer Beta 1 has been released.   See how much it’ll break your Domino Web Apps.

 

Download it here:  http://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/winfamily/ie/ie8/default.mspx

 

Friday, 8 February 2008

Yellowfin & Domino?

I’m looking at potential integration between Yellowfin (http://www.yellowfin.com.au/) and Domino.

Has anyone done this before? Is there anything I should be aware of?

Wednesday, 6 February 2008

I know just what to get her...

And so, with Valentine's day coming up, I find myself wondering...

Would you actually take advantage of an ad like this? Would you admit it to your girlfriend/fiance/spouse/partner that you got free software for buying them flowers?

Don't you think that they might question your motives?

Tuesday, 5 February 2008

I have a Hero.

So my daughter was sick today... She woke up at around 4:00am by calling 'Daddy?!?'. She's 18 months old. I love the fact she calls for me when she gets scared.

She's got a croup-y cough, so we decided that I'd stay home with her today.

My newest heros are the people who deal with sick children/infants on a regular basis, I thought that the day would never end in one way. Nothing I could do seemed to make her happy, nothing I could bring her to eat was what she wanted. And she couldn't explain to me what was wrong, or what she wanted. Her language skills aren't that advanced yet.

If you're one of those people who can do this every day, and keep your cool, then you are my hero.

Monday, 21 January 2008

Some Lotusphere Highlights So Far...

"BP106: Converting applications to NSFDB2. What, how and why" - See them here.

Ed Brill live blogging of OGS. - Read it here.

Frustrations of Tech Support

In talking with a vendor today, and trying to get their web software setup (it runs on Tomcat) I was informed that they aren't sure why it isn't working with SSL. SSL has always been already setup in the past.

Strange, my SSL is setup. And working fine, your software isn't... The first time I called them I was told that I was using the wrong JDK. I couldn't use 1.5, I had to use 1.4. Even though their own documentation said that JDK 1.5 is supported. As it turns out, it's supported, but it's not certified, so it may not work....

Grrr...

Sunday, 20 January 2008

Domino, SSL and xSeries

I run a series of custom domino web applications on xSeries servers and all of it is SSL traffic. Anyone got any idea how to estimate how much processor time I'm devoting to SSL encryption/decryption?

Would it be worth my while using a SSL appliance? Anyone else setup with a SSL appliance on Domino?

Thursday, 17 January 2008

Corrupt Database... Help!

Great subject eh?

So I have this Lotus Notes database, and somehow it got corrupted on me... We literally watched the database grow from 4 GB up to 64 GB in about 6 hours. Couldn't figure out how to stop it. Now I need to access the data in it, and can't open it up in the Notes client. And due to space limitations, no longer have it on the original Domino server.

I have a server I can put it on now, I just can't replicate it up to the Domino server because I can't open it in the notes client, not even to bookmark it as it tries to do a consistency check before adding it to the workspace.

Anyone have any ideas?

Thursday, 10 January 2008

Domino Blogger & Friends Weight Challenge

The weight loss thing is getting a little tough. It's hard to motivate yourself to actually lose it. So I'm going to join up with an idea Curt brought up. The "Domino Blogger & Friends weight challenge".

Of course, living with a student pastry chef from Le Cordon Bleu is going to make it a little tough.

Monday, 7 January 2008

Connecting Apache 2.2.6 and Tomcat 5.5.25 on Windows 2003 Server (Part 1)

Install the JDK (Java Developers Kit)

1. Download the JDK from the the Sun Java site. (http://java.sun.com/javase/downloads/index.jsp)

2. Run the installer and accept the defaults.

3. Setup your Java_Home environment variable.
  1. Goto Control Panel -> System.
  2. Click on Advanced.
  3. Click on Environment Variables.
  4. Click New.
  5. Enter Java_Home as the variable name.
  6. Enter the path to your JDK directory as the variable value.

4. Verify the environment variable setting

  1. Click Start -> Run.
  2. Type 'cmd' and click Run.
  3. Type 'echo %Java_Home%' and hit enter.
  4. Confirm that the screen displays your JDK path correctly.