Yeah for 6.5.1 and 6.5.1 and 6.5.1.....

Common release numbers. See the article.

Chat

Here is one of the most informative articles I have seen thus far about the Instant Messaging that one is entitled to with Lotus Notes/Domino 6.5.1.

All posted

All of the Puerto Vallarta pics are now posted. Not the best layout, but got it done pretty quick. See the post below for the link.

Pics of PTO Vallarta

I haven't gotten all of them posted yet, but you can see some pics of Puerto Vallarta here. Hope to have all of them out there over the weekend. We stayed at Casa Sirena, which I mentioned in a previous post. It isn't worth the million dollars that they are asking, but with that view I guess it goes back to location, location, location. It is a few coves over from Casa Mike (Michael Jordan's Puerto Vallarta getaway).

Why software quality matters

A good article in Baseline Magazine. Check it out here or here if you prefer it in .pdf form.

Excerpts:

This is a warning for any creator of computer programs: that software quality matters, that applications must be foolproof, and that -- whether embedded in the engine of a car, a robotic arm in a factory or a healing device in a hospital -- poorly deployed code can kill.

"Software is the most complicated thing that the human mind can come up with and build," says Gary McGraw, the chief technology officer at Cigital, a consultancy specializing in improving software quality. "Perfection is unobtainable."

"You have to assume there are some bugs in the code." -- Pradeep Khosla, Head, Electrical and Computer Engineering Department, Carnegie Mellon University

As software becomes more pervasive, software quality -- long a discussion confined to software-development circles -- becomes an issue for business executives, product managers, factory floor supervisors and, as the physicissts in Panama found out, anyone who uses software in the workplace.

Software engineer Ganssle, for one, notes that programmers don't need any form of certification or license to work on commercial software, including life-critical medical devices software. Yet, he says, "In Maryland, where I live, if you want to cut hair, you need to be licensed."

I'm back!

Got back from vacation in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico at 1am Wednesday morning. First day back in the office today. Trying to catch up on the voicemail and e-mail. I don't have any pictures to post yet other than a few taken with my phone. You can see them here.

Google

Seems like Google makes it into so many posts. I was trying to catch up on reading on Bloglines and ran across a post discussing this article. I tracked it through 2-3 posts that eventually led back to the original article, "Googling Up Passwords" on SecurityFocus and now I am linking to it as well. I think it is interesting.

Inbox

I had to work on cleaning out the old inbox so that I have a chance at keeping it from filling up and refusing mail. It is fine if it gets to the point where I can't send, but the point that it gets to can't send or receive is a real pain. Got rid of about 400 e-mails many with attachments that saved me a good amount of space. One e-mail had a 7MB attachment which I needed to hold onto, but now that we are done with that project away it goes. Many people will dump mail to a personal folder, which simply means that you are taking up the disk space in a different location and the mail in it is not backed up in the same location as the mail repository. Why not just up ones limit if they have a legitimate need for more disk space on the mail server (I said legitimate), rather than complicate matters. Some even have the personal folders on their PCs, which are not backed up. Oh well, not my call.

Blogging Break

Actually it will be the first true family vacation we have taken. With the boys being 13 and 10, it is probably about time. One of the pluses is that they are probably old enough that they will be able to remember it. Hopefully I am still young enough that I will be able to remember it too. As a result other than possibly a few post before I leave there probably won't be any activity here for a couple of weeks. Hopefully I'll have some good pictures to share when I get back.

Interesting Traffic

On my moblog @ Textamerica, they have added web stats. They are not the nicest format to work with, but they are interesting. I have had several hits on my site from Google's Australian site from those searching on the Ford Territory.

Odd one

Got a renewal notice for my e-Pro Magazine subscription. That is one of those renewal notices that I pay attention to, as I don't want to stop getting it. It was on the front of my Arpil issue. It said renew online, via mail, fax, or call. I figured online might be the quickest, so I went online filled in the info, submitted it and it stated that someone would be calling me to complete the application. Hmm. No call, but the next thing you know I have an e-mail from someone at Penton Mediawith the same questions that are on the back of the send-in form asking me to answer them and send it back. Odd. Hey NotesGirl (Libby-work/play), make sure they keep the mag coming. Thanks!

Making it difficult

I have seen this a few times lately. I don't believe that it has been limited to Network Computing either. I read a magazine, such as Network Computing, find an article of interest that I want to pass on to someone else and rather than try to pass on the magazine I will usually go out to the magazines site, find the article online and point it out to someone via an e-mail. Recently I have gone to some sights when doing this and the title of the article in the print version is completely different than the online title, making it more difficult to find.

In the example below it keeps the print title as a subtitle, but the main title is different.

In the 3-4-2004 copy of Network Computing under the Carrying On tagline by David Willis the title is "Let My People Go". The online version which is here, the subtitle is "Let My People Go", but the main title is "Employees, Home Offices and Flexibility". Hmm.

I do agree with the article, that employees that are happy with their jobs and have the right tools are more productive. Unfortunately most don't factor employee happiness into any equations and if they say they are, it is usually based on what they believe will make their employees happy.

I could see many in my group being able to work from home, but it won't be happening as to many in upper management believe that it would be unmanageable, that people wouldn't get work done. Hello! If they don't get the work done, then get rid of them. If an individual can somehow slide by without doing any work at home, then they can probably get away without doing any work while they are at the office too, which sounds like an issue with the management, not totally the employee.

Domino on S/390 Sucks

Possible alternative post titles:
"Domino Sucks on OS/390"
"Domino Rocks on Blade Server"
"Domino Rocks on W2K3"

Okay, to be fair maybe I shouldn't make such a blanket statement. Let me qualify it a bit more. Domino in the S/390 environment that we run in sucks.

We have had performance issues on the S/390 from the beginning. We thought we were rockin when we moved to ZFS as the performance improved greatly. The data center has never taken the advice of IBM/Lotus to put Domino in it's own LPAR, so there is a chance that performance could be better, but I don't know that it would be on par with the results that we have gotten out of Windows 2003 on a blade server.

One of our developer's came up with a database that we were able to use to measure performance. It gave us results that we could compare against when making configuration tweaks and ultimately getting to ZFS. Now we have been able to run that database again in the two environments. The only load on either of the servers (S/390 and W2K3) was the performance database itself. No users hitting it and no other applications running on the Domino Servers. The results even from the partial day graphed below speak for themselves. The lowest combined total time in the S/390 environment was 10 seconds with a high of 37 seconds. On the blade server the performance times never wavered from 2 seconds.

The Database Search retrieves 955 documents. The Document Collection Loop goes through the 955 documents from the DB Search. The interval to run was set at 5 minutes.

Given these results, which environment would you prefer to run in?

We hope that having these figures will help us in our pursuit to move from the S/390 environment.

Domino S/390 Performance

Blade Server Performance

By the way, it is an IBM Blade Server, so as much as I am bashing IBM, I am also promoting IBM.

Blogger issue

Blogger seems to be acting a bit flaky on posting. I'll keep an eye on it. I had posted something Friday. I had stated in the post that I would try to add to the post on Monday. Well the post was on the site, but not available for editing. I then found an earlier version of it in drafts, so simply deleted it, which then took away the real post. I'll try reposting my other Friday post about Domino on the S/390.

Maserati Quattroporte

I think I could handle it for the drive to work.

Ferrari

Acer is after me. Somehow they found out my love of Ferrari (not that I will ever be able to afford one, drive one, even touch one), but they have a portable with me in mind. I can't afford it either. Oh well.

Lookout

I have seen posts about this software on a number of sites, but added it to my own simply as a reminder of the product. It is called Lookout (Hey, wasn't that a codename used by Lotus for the R6 client or something at one point in time).

What Is Lookout?
Lookout is a Microsoft OutlookTM plug-in that provides advanced, lightning-fast search capabilities to your mailbox. You can use Lookout to search your:
email
attachments
contacts
calendar
filesystem

Anniversary

Today is the one year anniversary for a purchasing system we implemented within Magic Service Desk Suite (formerly a Network Associates Company, now a BMC/Remedy company). Everything has been working well. Not all purchases have been approved, but there have been 2,646 requests put through the system in the last 12 months. There are currently only 29 currently pending approval.

It has helped streamline the process, as it use to be a totally paper based process and the purchasing area had no idea the status of any of the request that had not hit their desk yet. Many times they would get a call from the individual that initiated the request and they had not seen it yet. It would finally be tracked down to someone's in-basket awaiting approval. Now if a question comes up an individual can check for themselves, but if they do call purchasing they can quickly see what the status is and where it is in the process.

NotesBuddy

Article on News.com about NotesBuddy, "IBM heeds message to integrate IM, e-mail". Notesbuddy has been around for some time (at least 12/10/99), not sure why the timing of the article.

Info from alphaWorks:

Update: October 1, 2003
Version 4.12b contains many small usability updates, including consistent handling of windows for mail list and buddy list, and continues to unify the experience of e-mail, instant messaging, awareness, and directory.

What is NotesBuddy?

NotesBuddy is a lightweight tool for Lotus Notes™ and Internet (POP3) mail that announces important new mail by voice, pager, or display. Instant messaging (chats) and buddy status are integrated with email to produce a single messaging tool. The goal of NotesBuddy is to provide an easy-to-use tool, with interesting presentation and interaction, for message handling and alerts.

You can download Version 4.12b here (you do have to register) and find out more about it here.