Chandler

Haven't looked at where they are for a while, but noticed that Release .2 of Chandler, by the Open Source Applications Foundation, is available for download.

Who will need to have kids anymore, you'll just buy one

See the article, "Sony's toddler robot makes strides."

Armada

I did see an Armada at our local Nissan dealer. I like it, although I am not sure I like the chrome grill. I do have to say ouch!!! The sticker on the one that they had was $42,000. Not happening for me.

Land Rover

A small SUV that I like is the Land Rover Freelander.

Lotus Cars

Speaking of Lotus cars, it looks as though they may finally be bringing the Lotus Elise over. YEAH!

Armada

From the pictures I have seen I like the looks of the new Nissan Pathfinder Armada that is based on the Nissan Titan pickup, but will wait to see it in person before making a final decision.

VOIP

Court hangs up state VoIP rules article on News.com. Ruling here. What will the future hold?

Sad story

Having a 10 year old and a 13 year old it makes one worry even more about the inability of a parent to protect their children at all times. The sad story I refer to is the 10 year old boy that became lost in the woods and today was found dead. Makes one possibly look closer at items like the tracking device I mentioned on Thursday. Would it have helped? It certainly couldn't have hurt. My heart goes out to his family.

Deadbeat

I have an eFax account that I have very rarely used, but it can come in very handy as the fax is actually directed to an e-mail account. If one directs it to an e-mail account that is Internet accessible it can be that much more convenient. I received a fax Wednesday and Thursday from "The State of Idaho Supreme Court". It was in regards to a copy card. Interesting considering where it came from that there was no fax cover sheet with any kind of confidentiality notice such as:

CONFIDENTIALITY NOTICE:

The documents accompanying this telecopy transmission contain confidential information belonging to the sender, which is legally privileged. The information is intended only for the use of the individual or entity recipient named above. If you are not the intended recipient, you are hereby notified that any disclosure, copying, distribution or the taking of any action in reliance on the contents of the telecopied information is strictly prohibited.

FAX

Someone's Name
Fax: xxx-xxx-xxxx My Fax Number
October 15, 2003
Re: Copy card

Our records indicate that you did not pay for your photocopying at the Law Library on October 14. It also appears that you left the building without turning in the copy card.

Please return to the library and settle your account.

Thank you.

I called the Law Library to let them know that they were sending this incorrectly. They stated that it looked as though someone was trying to pull one over on them and gave false information to get out of paying their copy fees. Hey, whoever you are, use someone else's fax number next time. Okay, better yet, don't give them a fax number next time.

@LOTUS.COM

As pointed out by Ed Brill's (work / play) post on his work blog, it looks as though @lotus.com e-mail addressses will begin bouncing.

"16 October 2003
This number is not in service

A few people have pinged me this week about bounced e-mail. IBM's IT department recently closed off one of the last phases of Lotus integration into IBM -- the sunset of "@lotus.com" e-mail addresses. IBMers working at Lotus software now can only be reached through their standard IBM e-mail addresses. Most former @lotus.com addresses retained their formatting -- so while I was ed_brill at lotus.com, my ibm.com e-mail address is also ed_brill , just at us.ibm.com.

Here's a useful, related resource: Many IBM employees have opted to be listed in an online directory, reachable at http://www.ibm.com/contact/employees/us/ .

So, what is next. A lot of the Lotus content is now under the IBM domain. Will IBM simply sell off the lotus.com domain name to the company that makes Lotus automobiles to make some money?

Can you say IBMsphere 2005? Or maybe we will still talk up the complimentary features of the products and just call it Websphere 2005.

Interesting Stats

Maybe a bit of a morbid topic, but check out the Cancer Mortality Maps and Graphs on the National Cancer Institutes site.

Track your kids

An interesting little gadget and service from Wherify, it is a GPS Locator for Kids. Could come in handy at times, although I wouldn't say you should simply turn your 5 year old loose and say don't worry about him, I can find him later.

Mapping Government IT

I believe Government Technology use to put a tidbit from all 50 states in each issue. Now only a few tidbits about a few states shows up under STATEments. At the University of Illinois researchers are using a radio-controlled miniature helicopter (glad they qualified that as I would have guessed a full sized radio controlled one) to help improve crops. Interesting that West Virginia is using low-flying (full size) helicopters with electromagnetic waves to detect water underground. I guess helicopters are the "in" thing.

Server Times

I have more than once stated that our servers (mostly NT & some 2000) need to have their times synchronized. More servers are added and they are not set to synchronize time with anything. I have noticed that clocks around here are not on time either. I imagine many people look at their computer time and set the clock to coincide with the reminders that pop up in Outlook. The local system time is set to the servers via the login script. The server is set right now so the local computers should be right tomorrow when everyone logs in. It will be interesting to see if the clocks get updated. I usually have my watch set to the right time, but kept getting to meetings a minute or two late. Imagine that, the main server that most of the others sync with was off by 2 minutes.

I am one of those people that knows a little about a lot of things, but doesn't necessarily know a lot about one thing, so there could very well be better ways of doing this.

Here is what we have done in the past. Simply run the "AT" command at the command prompt putting in the name of the appropriate server (assuming you are doing this remotely and you have the right permissions):

at \\servername

This will show you all the items scheduled on that server via the AT command.

Simply typing AT /? will give you the options available for the command. If the options are rolling off the screen you can always add the pipe symbol followed by more.

at /? | more

Here is what we have used on servers in the past (serverX being the name of the server that has the correct time that you want to sync with):

at \\servername 6:00 /every:m,t,w,th,f,s,su net time \\serverX /set /y

R6 saga continues

IBM/Lotus is suppose to work with our shared data center to get pricing for R6 on the Linux Zos. We are currently running R5.08 on the S/390 platform. From what IBM has told them it will be MUCH cheaper to run it on Linux Zos rather than licensing it on the 390 systems. The data center has stated that they believe they will be going to Linux for all customers they support that want to move to R6.

I e-mailed four IBM/Lotus reps last week asking them what kind of progress they were making and have yet to hear a word on that topic from any of them. I also pointed out that one of the state agencies mentioned a problem with attachments when using R6 and the recommendation by them that one may not wish to upgrade to R6. One of reps got back to me pretty quick to say that had been fixed, but nothing on the pricing.

Frustrated and tired of the responses, or lack there of, that I received from Lotus reps over the years, I also added the unedited version of voicemail noted in my post "Reps", along with the e-mail stating that I must have misinterpreted the voicemail incorrectly by thinking he would supply me with the info requested and simply asked since he wanted me to call if he would give me the names of contacts in each of the agencies. No response. Oh well, par for the course!

Sam's Club and Cell Phone Cameras

I was at a Sam's Club over the weekend and bought a new dog bed. The old one was worn out. After having it a couple of days now the dogs and one of the cats have starting to warm up to it and use it some. Anyway, back to the story. My wife noticed as we started to walk out of the store that we were overcharged for the dog bed. Trip over to the customer service desk was in order. The girl at the counter got on her walkie talkie asking someone to check it. As my wife and kids stood there I simply went back to the big bin of dog beds all the way at the back of the store and took a picture of the bin of dog beds (with my Sanyo 8100 phone) with the big price label fully stating how much the dog beds were. I got back to the counter just after someone got back with her on the walkie talkie. She said that price was for one of the smaller dog beds. You know the saying, a picture is worth a thousand words (even a small picture), I simply turned my phone around for her to view the picture. The bin held three styles of dog beds, they were all the same size and the bin was clearly marked with one price. Once seeing the picture she had no response. She called a manager up to the counter and he gave it to us for the marked price mumbling something about having someone change the sign or something. He asked the girl at the desk how she knew or something to that affect and she said I showed her a picture. He then got all bent out of shape stating that their policy was not to take pictures in the store. I showed it to him and deleted it, right before his eyes to appease him, although I could have easily uploaded it to the web on my way back up to the front of the store, which I didn't. He may as well face it, pictures are being taken, unfortunately there are more and more articles stating this is taking place in some truly inappropriate places. As the saying goes a picture is worth a thousand words and in this case the girl was quickly able to visualize the situation versus simply hearing someone on a walkie talkie telling her, no that is not the price.

The phone camera can be beneficial and will only be more so as the resolution gets better and better. One can actually take a picture of something at the store and call home, "Honey, is this the xxxx you were talking about?", and possibly get the right item making only one trip to the store.

I can see the locker room issue and the like being a problem, but one thing will always hold true, there are stupid people out there doing stupid, unethical, and immoral things.

Another place I could see some potential good from camera phones is possibly solving crimes. As the camera phone is so portable and often many carry their cell phones with them, one may see a crime in progress and get a picture that may lead to solving the crime. The make and model of a car, possibly the license plate, the perpetrator, etc. Who knows the possibilities.

Columbus Day

As yesterday was Columbus Day, I was off from work. It was nice to have the day off, but not so fun that I ended up with a plumbing job. The old cast iron pipe that dumps the water from the washerinto the line that the kitchen sink flows through from upstairs decided it had worked long enough without problems. It decided to start leaking. It does appear that after pulling it all apart, cleaning it up, packing it with Oakum and then using some plumbers epoxy, that I have it fixed. Yeah.

Hushmail

I mentioned Hushmail back on July 18th. Thought I would follow up. It appeared to me that my free account was deactivated even though I had logged in frequently enough that it should not have been. I followed up with an e-mail their support with no response. I would simply have to say, don't count on it.

Simple Ideas

I use to link to a picture of a tube of Aquafresh with floss in the cap.

You brush and you floss, so why not combine the two. What a simple idea. One of those that you wonder why someone didn't think of it before. Of course, you may run out of one before the other.

Getting the best workers to stay

Ran across this article today Getting the best workers to stay. I would have to agree with some of the points.

It seems our agency is often trying to measure itself against others and needs to find what works for us rather than trying to do what works for others.

It seems our agency also presumes employees will tell what’s really bothering them by way of a survey of course.

As it mentions, It’s often a communication breakdown. The Department has stated several times that this is a problem and it seems that it re-states that this is a problem every year or so. I guess they could be stating this more often, but it only gets to me once a year. ;-)

Thursday

As many say Thank God Its Friday or the shortened version TGIF each Friday, I heard a local weather forcaster on the radio this morning and his saying for Thursday, Sure Happy Its Thursday. You figure it out.

HTML

While I am on the subject of HTML I will also pass along a site with .html tutorials that I have been told is equally as good as a html class that an employee recently attended (and they said it was a very good class - thought it might be good to clarify that). Check it out here.

Wow, Linked to by a Big Dog

I try to keep up on several blogs. Many are Notes/Domino related. I often browse Ed Brill's site and to my surprise actually noticed a link to my own page (October 5, 2003 - New bloggers, furniture for sale?) on his personal site.

Picture of Ed, okay, so that was the wrong Ed, here is Ed Brill.

I really don't know that anyone has looked at my blog before. So it was interesting to see it on a site that has such a readership. You might ask then why blog if I don't beleive anyone is seeing what I have to say. I would have to say that it gives one a moment to get ideas and thoughts out, share information/experiences (if someone would happen to stumble across it) and it can actually be a handy reference to go back to at times. Easier than finding that sticky note that ended up in a folder, etc.

From Ed's site:

"Here's one I can't tell much about -- Bonj. From the photoblog section of this site, pretty sure Bonj is a male, but can't figure out much else. Who are u?"

Yes, I am male.

A bit more about me.

I am the manager of a small group of programmers in a state government agency (with a little effort one can probably determine which state from looking through my photoblog or moblog). I'll probably give in and mention the agency at some point.

I am a husband (starting my 17th wonderful year in this capacity last month) and father of two great boys (13 and 10, often showing up on my moblog).

I have worked for the same state agency for 17 years. Although you hear a lot of state employees complain about their jobs, and there are things that I don't agree with, etc., but must say that the state has been very good to me.

I have some college, but do not hold a degree.

I installed my first Notes Server (4.x) in 1999. The Department was looking at moving off of OfficeVision and looking at Lotus Notes and Microsoft Exchange as possible replacements.

The Department picked Exchange, but we still ended up with a couple of applications that we have written in house that run on Domino. For application purposes it would be nice if we were using Domino for our mail as well.

I am not a programmer, nor do I want to be. Not that there is anything wrong with programming, I greatly admire the work that the individuals in our group produce, but it is just not my cup of tea. I do enjoy the technical side of things, which is what got me to where I am today. Although having been in management for a number of years now I do not have the technical skills I once did. The plus is that logic hasn't changed.

I produced our Department's first web page back in March of 1996 and coordinate work between my group and the Web Team on different projects today. That first year (10 months) we had 74,795 hits on our webspace, granted we have more pages now, but we have had 17,550,179 hits so far this year on our webspace.

I received a Project Management Certificate from Boston University in 2000 and am a State Certified Project Manager through December of 2004. I have not pursued my PMP certification, but am a member of the Project Management Institute (PMI).

I graduated from our Department's Leadership Development Program in 2002.

I love my family, automobiles, and volleyball (Currently playing three nights a week. A very understanding wife I might add)! The picture below is a copy from the local Parks and Rec site. That is me in the yellow shirt.

I would say that is enough for now.

Redbook CD

Received my IBM Redbooks Lotus Collection CD today.

Just a gripe!

Let's see, I go to work in the morning of trash day. Make sure the trash can has the handle pointed towards the road, just as it says on the trash can itself. Now when I get home I should be able to drag the trash can back to it's spot right from where I left it or at least close to where I left it. Evidently the friendly waste management professional that takes care of my trash feels that I should not be able to get back into my garage until I have it moved back.

Rebound

What's with that? Ed got his e-Pro a day before I did!

Ed (work / play) mentions Libby's (work / play) editorial "Jobs, Jobs, Jobs". referring to an article from Business 2.0 stating that the job market may be looking up in the future. The July issue of Government Technology shows CEOs expect Information Technology to be the quickest industry to rebound in 2003.

"Sixty percent of U.S. CEOs rate the current U.S. economy as "stagnant", according to a March 2003 survey by TEC International. CEOs believe the following industries will rebound the fastest in 2003. (Results are ranked as a percentage of respondents) "

31% Information Technology
28% Biotechnology
24% Manufacturing
23% Professional Services
16% Retail
11% Telecommunications
3% Automotive
5% Other

IBM Redbooks Lotus Collection Follow-up

Received an e-mail today in regards to requesting the CD.

-----Original Message-----
From: IBM Employee [mailto:......@us.ibm.com]
Sent: Wednesday, October 01, 2003 9:19 AM
To: Bonj
Subject: IBM Redbook Lotus Collection CD

The IBM Redbook Lotus Collection CD you recently requested has been sent to
you via US Postal Service. You should receive a package in the next 10
days. Please reply to this e-mail if your IBM Redbook Lotus Collection CD
does not arrive within 4 weeks.

Notes/Domino 6.5 Released

Domino 6.5 is out!!

Ed Brill

I had read Ed Brill's Weblog on Lotus' site, but upon doing a search for something at one point found Ed Brill's Weblog. Yes they are two separate sites, but the first one is the Official Lotus one, the other isn't, check them both out.

Humor site linked to by Domino Unplugged

A link to some funny stuff (to some people) on the J-Walk Blog.

IBM Redbooks Lotus Collection April 2003

Just noticed a link on Laurent de Walick's blog to the Collection on CD. The best part as Laurent mentions is that it is free. There are other Collections as well:

IBM Software Evaluation CDs for Web services (2003)
IBM Redbooks Lotus Collection April 2003
IBM Tivoli Redbooks Collection CD
IBM Software Evaluation Kit for Linux CD (2003)

Don't forget there are also a lot of Redbooks and Redpapers available for download in PDF format at IBM's Redbooks site.

Reps!

I can not tell you how many bad experiences I have had with Lotus Representatives, although they have been plentiful, but somehow the product still survives. If IBM/Lotus could only get Microsoft to do their marketing for them, people might buy the product and then find out how good it is.

I had asked my local IBM rep when R6.5 would be released as well as what other agencies in our area were using Notes/Domino and what versions they were running. He passed it on to our Lotus Rep that is 100+ miles away. He is the one that I mentioned stated in his voicemail that R6.5 would be released on 9/22. Wrong!

He did finally follow up as stated with a list of agencies, but not which versions they are running. Listen to the voicemail, then you decide what kind of salesman he is. (The clip has also been edited to protect the innocent and guilty.)

E-mail exchange (appropriate place to use that word, huh)

Response to question received via e-mail (names changed to protect the innocent and guilty):

Lotus Rep

The following agencies are currently using Notes and Domino in some capacity;


Agency 1
Agency 2
Agency 3
Agency 4
Agency 5
Agency 6
Agency 7
Agency 8
Agency 9
Agency 10
Agency 11
Agency 12
Agency 13 Listed my agency here. Thanks, I didn't know I was using it!!
Agency 14


Bonjblog

Thanks. Do you happen to know what versions each is on?

Lotus Rep

Sorry, I do not have that information. You would have to contact the individual agencies.

--------------------------------------

One of the questions I had originally asked was what agencies and what versions. In the voicemail he left he said that he would have to call each one to find that out. Now he says that I will need to contact the individual agencies. HELLO IBM/LOTUS, WHO IS THE CUSTOMER HERE?

He also states that most of the agencies are still on R5. Hmm, that is saying a lot for your product. One would think that he would have an interest in knowing what versions his customers are running. He fits the old car salesman stereotype.

Domino 6.5 for Linux on zSeries

Per this weeks IBM Redbooks Weekly Newsletter I thought I might mention a Redbook that could be of interest to those looking at Linux on the s390. The Redbook that I refer to is in draft copy right now (9/25/03 @ 8:20am). It is entitled, "IBM Lotus Domino 6.5 for Linux on zSeries Implementation" (SG24-7021-00). See an abstract and table of contents here, or if you have Adobe Acrobat Reader loaded click here to view it or right-click and select Save Target As.... to download it.

The introduction appeared to have a small grammatical error that I informed them about via their online form. Read it and see if you find it as well.

High Court Resources

Check out this article (I believe you have to be registered to view the article) on Law Technology News' site for some links to High Court Resources.

R6 Training

As budgets are so tight we are looking at cheaper solutions for training. Going to try the IBM Authorized CBT from NetG. Click here to see the IBM Software Services for Lotus End User Education Order Form. If I remember I'll post what the Developer's think of the courseware.

R6.5 Continued. Need a part #

Just received this from a local IBM rep.

IBM United States
Software Announcement 203-253
September 23, 2003
IBM Lotus Notes and Domino 6.5 family of products, including IBM Lotus Enterprise Integrator for Domino, maximizes collaboration while lowering cost

R6.5?

I received a note from TLCC at 9:04pm yesterday stating that IBM formally announced Notes and Domino 6.5, but it will not be available for download until September 30th. So I guess there are announcement days and release days. ;-)

One might also be interested to know that IBM also announced a limited-time offer for Notes and Domino 6.5 customers. From October 1st, 2003 until December 31, 2003, Domino 6.5 customers with active maintenance agreements are entitled to 20 user licenses of IBM Lotus Instant Messaging and Web Conferencing (Sametime) as well as a 20 user license of IBM WebSphere Portal Express at no additional charge.

I have seen some of the past freebie licenses end up a nightmare to try to work with, but we will see.

Still no R6.5

Still waiting.

MOBLOG

Found a site for mobile device (for me that is my Sanyo 8100) photo blogs, called moblogs. It is textamerica. It is handy as you get an e-mail that you can simply upload to. Easier than my regular photo blog (having to always get the pics off the camera and find time to upload, etc.). You can check it out here.

R6.5

The 22nd is not over yet, but I have yet to see 6.5 posted.

Here is an article about 6.5 on news.com. It states that 6.5 will be available on 9/30/03. Do they know more than my Lotus Rep. Wouldn't surprise me any.

Speaking of Lotus Reps, did you catch the article in e-Pro Magazine by the Turtle, "Passports, Please!"

BMW Fans

Nice!!!

The new BMW 6 Series Coupé makes its international debut at this year's Frankfurt Motor Show. You can also discover the many qualities of this luxury sports coupé online here.

TeamStudio

Edition 19 is out!

Lotus/Domino 6.5 Release Date

Lotus Rep told me Friday that the official release date of 6.5 will be September 22, 2003. Keep your fingers crossed.

Russian to English

Looking for a site to translate Russian to English. Google couldn't help me, but Systran did.

autonewsonline?

Got an e-mail from Ed Lavent . Interesting yet odd. As I do rather enjoy automobiles and thought at one point about trying to setup a site where I might put test drive impressions, etc.., which would be an online magazine (if you will). I never pursued it and doubt that I would have gotten anyone to go out of their way to let me test drive their cars for reviewing. Anyway, it appears the site is simply an online site about automobiles. Yeah!

The odd part is that I was pointed to the site per an e-mail that I received in my blog mail. Basically stating link to us and you can go to our site and link to yourself. I don't see Ed mentioned on the site and the e-mail appeared to originate per a free e-mail account in the Ukraine (@ukr.net). After looking a bit further it looks like autonewsonline address is registered in Russia as well, yet the site lists the Headquarters in Carmel, Indiana. Looks like an interestng site to visit anyway. So check out autonewsonline and let me know what you think.

Phone Applications

I have not looked for games for my phone, but it looks as though they have some neat ones out there if that interest you. I have not looked for free applications as I did for ringers and screen savers, but can tell you about a couple of cool applications. The sad part is they are rentals as well. The first one I received a free 30 day trial and the second one I purchased (rented). One can easily be impressed when first looking at them when you consider you are simply using a wireless phone. The first one is 1KTV ($4.95/30 days). I would give it a slight edge over the second application that has similar content and functionality as it has updated baseball scores every 5 minutes (I have found that even though that is what they state, it is not always the case though). Both application supply video (okay so they are slide shows with audio) that can easily get the attention of others. The second application is RealOne ($4.95/30 days). As mentioned the two have similar features and content, so I am not sure that it would be worth having both at the same time unless you spend a lot of time stuck in airports, etc.. I would like to see some of the main content updated more often. This may be addressed per the competition and the fact that the services will likely grow as the demand grows.

Sanyo 8100

It has been a bit since I have posted anything. I like my Sanyo 8100 phone, but still say the batttery life leaves something to be desired if one does some heavy duty surfing.

Ringers, Screen Savers. I did not get into these much at all as Sprint wants to rent them to you and nickel and dime you to death as they do. I must say that with a little research I have found that there are alternatives. These may not be as attractive if you don't have an unlimited Vision plan (in other words if you are on a plan paying for each 1K downloaded). Did I mention that they are FREE! I believe they both may have a pay option, but that is a choice for storage space, etc... The free part works fine for me. I played around a bit this weekend. I like the myphonefiles site the best of the two. I like the preview options, etc.. better. You can download the files right from the browser on your phone. Pretty cool. I know that there is an option to have them sent to your phone as well, but I simply prefer downloading them. You can setup the free account by putting in your e-mail address and creating a password. Simple.

The second site is 3gwiz. Happy ringing!

Upgrading from R5 to R6?

Here are a couple of links that may be of value.

Upgrading to Notes & Domino 6 diagram

Upgrading to Lotus Notes and Domino 6

Lotus Domino 6.5 Webcast Today

IBM is having Part 1 of a 2 part webcast on Notes/Domino 6.5 today. Part 2 will be on September 16th, 2003. Click here to find out more.

MSN Mobile now working on Sanyo 8100

I can now get to my Hotmail via my new Sanyo 8100 phone. It began working about a week ago. No more message simply stating it is being worked on. It is a bit odd to get to the first time. Most sites have a button of some sort to submit right on the screen, but it doesn't. You might find your self clicking OK and Edit a few times as usually if there isn't a submit button on the screen then the option on the (left) Softkey will get you moving to the next screen, not the case here. First it has you pick the extention of your MSN Mobile account (e.g. hotmail.com,msn.com, etc..) then select OK, then click the (right) Softkey on your phone and you will notice where you normally select SYMBOL, 123, Abc, etc.. you see an additional option at the top that says Next, select it, the next screen asks for your password, same thing here, enter your password, select ok (left) Softkey, then use the (right) Softkey and select Submit from there. You are now able to access all of your MSN Mobile content. Yeah! You might want to set a bookmark to http://mobile.msn.com/ to make for easy access.

Tools for Notes/Domino

I don't think I have mentioned it before, but if you are a Notes/Domino shop working with multiple developers (and even if you are not) then you might want to look into some of the tools from TeamStudio.

Problems

Had a problem with my archives over the weekend. Kept getting an error. The only thing I found that came close to addressing the error was a document that simply said to republish, which I did, only to receive errors when publishing. Still received the error when trying to access the archive. Look today and my archives are working fine. Guess it was a system problem. Glad to see it working again.

Blog This

This is actually the first time that I have used the Blog This tool. It is kind of handy and a bit more out of the way, but I do kind of like seeing what I have added via the full screen interface.

nbtstat

I mentioned this in one of the posts I moved over from my previous blog, but thought it might be worth mentioning again. Here is my Disclaimer, I am not a Network Guru or Guru of any kind for that matter. Anyway, a nice feature of the R6 Administrator Client is that when you look at the Status Tab and select Notes Users under the Net Address it shows the IP address of the corresponding user. From there using the nbtstat command at a command prompt in Windows I can easily find out the the machine name of the individual via the remote machines name table (nbtstat -A 10.x.x.x).

I am not an expert on this, but I believe the first <00> Unique record is always the machine name. The second item listed, <00> Group record, is the Domain. It appears that there is often a <03> Unique record that corresponds to the user logged onto the machine. It even gives the MAC address.

Of course, the great thing about knowing the information about where the user actually is rather than having to look up info in the Inventory System (which isn't always up to date) is I can then do what I might need to do to connect to their specific machine administratively to check their log.nsf or notes.ini.

Dummied version of the type of info you might see.

C:\>nbtstat -A 10.x.x.x



Local Area Connection:

Node IpAddress: [10.x.x.x] Scope Id: []



           NetBIOS Remote Machine Name Table



       Name               Type         Status

    ---------------------------------------------

    ABCPC1             <00>  UNIQUE      Registered

    DOMAIN1           <00>  GROUP       Registered

    ABCPC1             <20>  UNIQUE      Registered

    ABCPC1             <03>  UNIQUE      Registered

    USER1               <03>  UNIQUE      Registered



    MAC Address = 00-00-00-00-00-00

Simply typing nbtstat at the command line will give you the options, etc.. that can be used with it.

C:\>nbtstat

Displays protocol statistics and current TCP/IP connections using NBT
(NetBIOS over TCP/IP).

NBTSTAT [ [-a RemoteName] [-A IP address] [-c] [-n]
[-r] [-R] [-RR] [-s] [-S] [interval] ]

-a (adapter status) Lists the remote machine's name table given its name
-A (Adapter status) Lists the remote machine's name table given its
IP address.
-c (cache) Lists NBT's cache of remote [machine] names and their IP
addresses
-n (names) Lists local NetBIOS names.
-r (resolved) Lists names resolved by broadcast and via WINS
-R (Reload) Purges and reloads the remote cache name table
-S (Sessions) Lists sessions table with the destination IP addresses
-s (sessions) Lists sessions table converting destination IP
addresses to computer NETBIOS names.
-RR (ReleaseRefresh) Sends Name Release packets to WINs and then, starts Refr
esh

RemoteName Remote host machine name.
IP address Dotted decimal representation of the IP address.
interval Redisplays selected statistics, pausing interval seconds
between each display. Press Ctrl+C to stop redisplaying
statistics.

I decided that might be a good idea to point to a couple of Microsoft References as well.

Link to nbtstat command info on Microsoft's TechNet site.

Link to MS Knowledgebase Article 163409 giving more insight into the output.

'Fingerprinting' a Single Cell

Excerpt: After spending the past two decades developing ultrasensitive tools to study biological molecules, Norman J. Dovichi, professor of analytical chemistry at the University of Washington, has finally put single-cell proteomics within reach by successfully studying the expression of relatively abundant proteins in single cells. Interesting article. You can find it here.

LDD Site Evolution

The letter below is from the Lotus Developer Domain (as I have mentioned before, one can still get there via the old http://notes.net address) talking about the sites evolution.

Dear LDD community,

We are entering the next phase of our site evolution (Notes.net to LDD to today) and I want to highlight some changes for you.

The first change is that we are merging several LDD programs into the developerWorks site. This effort is exciting because we're consolidating all the IBM software developer domains into a unified web site. This will create a more tightly integrated experience that will help you leverage all IBM software and hardware solutions—including Lotus—in your development efforts.

The second change is that we are reorganizing the pre-release, showcase area on LDD into a consolidated program on Lotus.com called Lotus Labs. This is the place where we will show you pre-release products in the form of live, showcase demonstrations and solicit your feedback on those products before we ship them. We greatly value the relationship we have built with you over the years in this area on LDD and hope you recognize how valuable your feedback has been to our product development teams. Frankly, we build better products when you are involved in their development and we want to keep that going.

(For the full details on our changes, you can use the welcome page below to see where the familiar LDD programs will continue to be available.)

It's been exciting and rewarding to watch the Lotus virtual community grow and to see how much of an influence you, our customers, have had both on the site and on the products we build at Lotus. On behalf of the entire LDD team, I'd like to say how much we're looking forward to our next phase and the continued momentum we have started together.

Thanks, Barb Mathers and the LDD team

Lotus Developer Domain

If you want to connect to the Lotus Developer Domain via your Notes Client then see this Article in LDD Today. If connecting through a proxy server you can get to the Sidebar document Connecting through a proxy here.

harvard.edu

Does your e-mail address end in harvard.edu? If so then you can create a blog here. I just e-mailed a friend at Harvard telling her that she needs to start blogging to keep friends and family up to date on her life.

Blog Related Articles

Blogging comes to Harvard

Dispute exposes bitter power struggle behind Web logs

More with Sanyo 8100

The battery is definitely not as long lasting if you do a lot with the pictures and online e-mail, surfing, etc..

Once the pictures are captured there are sevaral options available from assigning to a phone number, sending via e-mail, or creating an online album. Here are a couple of pics using one of sevaral enhancements available (cartoon).

CPU Utilization

I like the fact that the R6 Administrator Client now has CPU utilization showing when looking at the server tasks.

Sametime 3.1

I had previously downloaded it via Passport Advantage, but received our actual CD copy today. The CD still says Sametime.

Sanyo 8100

I got my Sanyo 8100 yesterday. It is pretty straight forward as most phones are these days.

Curious as to how good or bad pics are from a phone. Here are a couple of quick examples, just to give an idea if you grab it and take quick pics.

I didn't think about it until they were down the street, but they were spraying the trees outside my office window and thought it would be something I could take a pic of. Grabbed the phone, snapped, presto. Not that great as it has no zoom either, but with a description you can get an idea of what they were doing.

Okay, guess what time I took this picture?

Posts

Something I find handy about blogging is that when I find something interesting I can post it to share with others, but I can also use it as a reference myself to go back to. For instance, I just saw a link to a Java Text Editor that looked interesting and now I am posting the link in my blog, so that I can remember where to find it.

R6 Testing

Quick little update. Other than cosmetic issues (fonts, buttons, etc..) testing is going well on R6.

A Favorite

I have always like the Mazda RX cars. Well the RX8 is no exception. I prefer the 250hp with the 6 speed manual transmission. This was the 210hp with the Automatic, but still nice looking. I also prefer the car in Red with Black Leather and Red Leather inserts.

R6 Testing

We are testing out our applications on R6 and if all goes well hopefully we will start moving to R6.02CF1, unless R6.02CF2 or R6.03 are out by the time we get there (which is a possibility). It isn't always easy getting all players (agencies) lined up to upgrade to a newer version on the mainframe. In fact we are still on 5.08 at this writing. It was suppose to go to 5.0.10 back in October 2002, but that didn't happen.

The shared approach works nice for some things though as we don't have to worry about backups, etc.. It is handled by the agency manning the mainframe. They do the upgrades and much of the adminstration.

Sprint PCS

I have a wonderful wife. I kind of like the techie stuff, but the bad thing about that is that it always cost money. Funny how that works, huh?

Anyway, she just ordered me a new phone. She was going to surprise me, but decided that it might be best to let me know in case she picked something I wouldn't like. She picked the Sanyo 8100, which I think is a good choice. I have seen good reviews and many of the user comments on CNET commented it was better than the Samsung A500, which I would have probably considered. The camera was not a big factor but could be fun for quick little (yes little) pics.

Once I get it and get to play with it a bit I'll probably let you know what I think.

More info on Sanyo's site.

User guide in .pdf format on Sprint's site.

Did I happen to mention, I have a wonderful wife!!! In fact I would have to say that I have a pretty wonderful life and wonderful family all together.

How fitting

How utterly fitting. I was looking at an IBM Lotus Workplace webcast via the link on Ben Langhinrichs blog and upon the second or third slide popping up, my W2K SP4 gave the blue screen of death (BSOD) and a second later my PC shut down. Hmm. MS and IBM play so well together. ;-)

Notes Tips

The Learning Continuum Company offers Training on Lotus Notes and now IBM WebSphere, but did you know that they also posts some developer tips on their site as well. I have had mixed reviews on their courseware, but I think it has more to do with individuals personal preference on how they learn. Most staffers indicate that they prefer an actual classroom setting with an instructor that they can interact with and ask questions. With limited budgets though, it can be a good alternative.

Lotus Tutorials

Looks like some Lotus Tutorials possibly worth checking out on IBM's DeveloperWorks. See the tutorial titles below. Once registered, one can take it online or simply download them in a choice of two .pdf formats or zipped html.

Build custom portlets for Domino
Domino 6 password and ID management
What's new with forms and views in Domino 6
Domino 6 monitoring and statistics
Using policies in Lotus Domino 6
Lotus Enterprise Integrator 6: Creating an Advanced RealTime Solution
Build Lotus Web services into a portal
Going Mobile with Domino Everyplace
Managing your inbound spam mail in a Lotus Domino 6 environment
XML-enabling your Lotus Notes application
Creating and using the certificate authority in Lotus Domino 6
Building Web services using Lotus Domino 6
Introduction to Domino 6 setup and administration
Add awareness and instant collaboration to your applications with Sametime
Using third-party LDAP servers with Lotus QuickPlace 3.0
Create and enable Sametime bots
Publishing XML data using Notes/Domino 6
Simplified JSP page development for Lotus Domino
Turn your Lotus applications into Web services
Building a J2EE application with Domino and WebSphere
Using LotusXSL and VisualAge for Java

A Good Thing IBM!

I must say that since R6 it appears that Lotus (IBM) has done a much better job releasing the z/OS version of Domino in a timely manner. We were always given the official word with Release 5 was that the mainframe version would follow the other platforms within 90 days. HA, that was usually not the case. Of course, as is the case with most software companies, that can be the official word, their official goal, etc.., but nothing happens when they don't meet it. Well anyway, Kudos to IBM with Release 6, as we have not seen this to be the issue it was before. Hopefully we can get our environment upgraded to R6 in the near future.

Sametime 3.1 (aka Lotus Web Conferencing and Lotus Instant Messaging)

Have been wanting to look at Sametime. Have licenses for the group to test with. Got an R6 server up in a test environment and upon trying to load Sametime 3.0, it refused. Poor organizations in the world that have upgraded and found this out the hard way. (I am not saying that it isn't documented somewhere, etc.., I didn't really look.). I have been waiting for a version to come out that will run in our test environment (R6). I ran across a site today that mentioned the 3.1 was out and that it would run on R6, but that you have to be at 6.02. It would be nice if Lotus would work on the synchronization of their product launches and availabilities. I wonder how many organizations made the move to R6 and had to break their Sametime off to another server simply dedicated to running R5 for their Sametime environment.

I am not saying that Lotus is the only one, another easy target is Microsoft, with Windows Server 2003 and Exchange Server 2003. Hmm, how many companies had expected that they would upgrade to Windows Server 2003 just to find out that the only Exchange Server that will run on Exchange Server 2003, which isn't out yet.

I got the 3.1 that showed it was posted 7/3/03 downloaded. Hopefully we can get to that next week.

Notes R6 Record Locking - Eliminate Save/Replication Conflicts

Notes R6 has record locking that works pretty slick. We were actually looking at creating something ourselves within R5. We basically did a proof of concept and got it working and then looked at R6 closer and tried the record locking in it. Once you have converted your database to R6 (ODS 43) format all you have to do to enable it is simply check it on the Database Properties.

It only works between R6 clients. In other words if I am on 5.0.12 and open a document and put it in Edit mode (yes the R5 client can open an R6 database on an R6 server - not sure what problems that might introduce and I would not recommend it, but it is possible), then another user with R6.02CF1 opens the document and tries to edit it, it will let them in and vice versa. If it is accessed and put in edit mode by an individual using an R6 client and then another R6 client tries to do the same it gives a dialog pop-up stating that it is in use, by userid xxxx and does not allow you to put it in edit mode, but you are still able to view it. If the other R6 client changes something and saves and closes out of the document and you hit Edit again, then it will popup stating that something has changed that you will need to go back and open from the view. Once going back to the view and opening again you are ready to edit.

Shh! Hushmail

Hushmail is a secure web-based email and document storage system, featuring transparent, end-to-end 2048 bit encryption!

You can upgrade to a pay plan and as is the case with most they try to remind you that all the time. There big selling point is that it's total communications security, allowing users to enjoy a service with mobility, ease of use, and end-to-end encryption. Interesting.

Speaking of Boats

Check out this story in the Kansas City Star about boating at Lake of the Ozarks.

Nice Little Boat by Baja for Polaris

>

Buster Pics

Here he is.

Consolidation

Well it finally looks like something could be in the process of happening that should have happened before I even started here 16 years ago. They are looking at consolidating PC/Network Support. Of course, the usual rumor mill has started churning, and people are worried about what they'll do, will they even have a job, etc... Just the usual unrest that happens during a time of change. We'll see how it pans out.

Buster

Found out at 4:03pm yesterday that our adoption of Buster went through. Yeah! The family is excited. I'll try to post a pick of him at some point. I am off this afternoon to go pick him up. Hopefully it works out as well for him as it does us.

Leaving

There is a guy leaving and it was decided that it might be worthwhile to have him show someone some of the stuff that he does. The piece that they want us to look at is a tiny piece, but none the less for reporting, which can be of significant importance when the right person(s) is requesting information. Spoke with him yesterday. He said he would be available all day today and the morning tomorrow, just add it to his calendar. Yesterday after lunch I added an appointment for first thing this morning. He never accepted. Followed up this morning about 30 minutes before the start of the meeting and find out that he won't be in the office at all today. Oh well.

Picking Up the Pieces

I am a sucker for animals and we are quickly trying to heal the wounds and move on to making new memories. We put in an application to adopt a much smaller dog today. The shelter said that there has not been a single person look at adopting the little dog in the 4 months that he has been there. In looking, the whole family was somehow drawn to him. He may be just what the family needs. He has a lot more character than his pint size frame should be able to hold. They say it can take up to a week before they get back with individuals after checking references, etc.. Hopefully all will work out.

Sad Day

Had a really bad day last Wednesday. Had to make one of those heart wrenching decisions. I had to have our dog put to sleep. She was a beautiful dog. Everyone that saw her loved her. She was one of those dogs that has a tongue as long as a cow (believe me they are long) and would lick you to death. She was 6 years old. The last 3 years we have been struggling to keep her as part of our family. We have three other pets (2 cats, and another dog). She would decide to snack on the other animals. Upon experiencing several attack and subsequent vet bills, such as surgery on one the cats to put his intestines back inside his stomach wall and several dealing with the other dog, we had gotten to the point that she was kept separate from the other animals unless leashed with an adult. This was a big pain, but one that we were willing to deal with as we loved our Emily. We talked to vets, specialist, dog trainers, etc.. We took her to dog training classes, which she did pretty good at. We looked at options of animal shelters after each attack, but didn't have the heart to remove her from the family. She crossed the line on Wednesday by attacking my youngest son. He is no worse for wear for the most part at this point and the skin was not broken, but at that point she lost our trust and any chance of being an adoptable pet, etc... With this unprovoked incident she sealed her fate. If she were to have a vicious episode with one of the children, her 75 lbs would leave them defenseless. The choice of my childrens safety or having a dog that may turn on them at any point left me with an unfair choice. I had to have her put to sleep.

I know that it was the right choice, but it still pains me as I loved her so. Emily Lucy rest in peace. We love you!

Blog Search

Technorati is a site that allows one to see who is linking to whom in the blog world. It also allows one to do a keyword search (in Beta) across 360,000 blogs. Check it out.

Sad website - Lotus

I was just looking for some info on Lotus Notes and must say that it is official. Lotus can officially be called IBM. The Lotus web presense has gotten worse and worse. Moving to the IBM domain naming didn't help. Companies get to big to know what information they have and what information people want. Trying to get some simple info on a Lotus product has gotten to be just like finding info for an IBM product (ADSM was always a fun one). It can lead you down a long, long, did I happen to mention LONG, path. Given that the nugget you are looking for may be on the Redbooks site, the Lotus site or possibly Notes.Net or should I say http://www-10.lotus.com/ldd, yeah that is easier, more in tune with the product and a better idea (HELLO!).

Hey IBM, why don't you try collaborating with Lotus and see if you can get your stuff in order.

Court backs thumbnail image linking - no word yet on full size images.

Check out the article on news.com.

Interesting MP3s - Also said, better have broadband

I was reading someone else's blog that pointed to some Interesting MP3s. It is called the OYEZ Project. It has some archived Supreme Court arguments in MP3 format.

See the most popular cases they have here.

Related info on Creative Commons Licensing.

Lincense (metadata embedding) explained here.

As mentioned better have broadband. Just an example, New York Times vs. United States, 2hr 14m 4s, 65.2MB.

More on the Focus

2001 Ford Focus Owner's Manual