Andrew Pollack's Blog

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  1. 05/03/2006Oh joy, we've got a new I.T. crises to worry about. Lets just go ahead and call this one "BirdFlu2k", as that's how its evolving. The idea is that there's this looming deadline (sound familiar?) only this time its even better because we don't know when it actually is. Its probably at least a year or two away but nobody can be sure. When this deadline hits, it will hit suddenly, and we're all going to have to be prepared to work from home -- possibly without food or power. Yes, its up to our I.T. departments to get their plans in place now and roll out those ......
  2. 05/01/2006A lot of thought and planning, then 9 months waitingA lot of thought and planning, then 9 months waiting and finally I can show you these pictures!           Our oldest is already 22 years old. Its taken years to decide, and months waiting for it to get this far along. Delivery should be within 45 days, but I suspect it will go a bit ......
  3. 05/01/2006Its May Day! A day celebrated by state control freaks and by anachists alike -- who knows why?It is time for all the dyslexic workers of the world to untie, the misspellers of the word brake the bounds of oppression, and for the masses to seize control of industry in the name of mediocrity for all! That's right people, from those who can to those who need. As to the anarchists -- I have no idea at all why they would pick May Day as a day to celebrate. I find it incredibly funny that there is a "They" to even talk about with anarchists. How, exactly, can true anarchists organize? How did they end up ......
  4. 04/28/2006Cumberland Fire Department member Kevin Foster wins WCSH "Teens Who Care" award and scholarship!Take a minute to view this video. Most people will go their entire lives without learning how to be half as good a man as Kevin. I've known him for four or five years now and he just never ceases to amaze me. His work for the community is so tireless that this minutes long TV profile can't begin to cover more than just a few of the things he does. I've never met anyone who has raised more money for more projects, done more physical work on those projects, and been more ready to respond to absolutely any ......
  5. 04/26/2006Release name candidates for the product codenamed Windows VistaI saw this today on SlashDot, it was posted anonymously so the best I can do for attribution is a link. I like your comment on Vista becoming "XP warmed over". But there is a problem. "Vista" is non-compliant with traditional Microsoft OS names. Here are my suggested product names based on compatibility with MS standard naming convention: Windows 2007 Dull but it worked in 1995, 1998, 2000, and 2003Windows XP 2007 XP, new and improved for 2007Windows X[Q...Z] If XP is "extra pain", then XQ is ... Windows ......
  6. 04/25/2006Scott McNealy steps down from Sun Microsystems.Well, Scott McNealy has stepped down as CEO of Sun Microsystems. That's big news. I don't know much about his replacement yet, though I hear he's very P.R. focused and likes to troll the Linux world for attention. The more things change, the more they stay the same I guess. Jonathan Schwartzis the new President and Chief Executive Officer at Sun. Its no secret that I'm not a big fan of what Scott McNealy has done with Sun in the past 10 years. I hope Jonathan Schwartz has an agenda that makes more sense ......
  7. 04/24/2006In other stunning news, the Vatican may soon relax its rules about the use of condoms. According to BBC News, the Vatican is about to announce something as forward thinking as allowing the use of condoms by married people to prevent the spread of disease in cases where one has a terrible disease like AIDS. In this stunning step forward, it seems there may for the first time be recognition that sex may be considered for purposes other than procreation. Massive amounts of thought and prayer -- though of course no practical research -- must have gone into this decision. Overall, this is great ......
  8. 04/23/2006One last warm, dry day to build a new garden -- and now finally some rain to put an end to these woods fires.Yesterday was the last of a long series of warm, dry, early spring days here in Maine. Yes, I realize that you southern types are well on toward summer. Here in Maine we're still waiting for the trees and shrubs to come out of hibernation. I took advantage of the nice weather and finally got around to building Barb that new raised garden bed I'd promised last fall. The hard part is digging out the base and laying in the first layer of 4" by 6" pressure treated lumber so that it is square and level. Once in ......
  9. 04/20/2006Details about yesterdays big woods fires - it was a nice day for a walk in the woodsNearly every fire crew in the state was busy yesterday and today looks to be the same. With the onset of spring we've got warm, dry weather and brisk winds but the ground cover hasn't yet gone through the "green up" process so things are tinder box dry. At 16:45 yesterday I heard the call go out on the radio for two nearly simultaneous fires. One of our crews was requested to help Portland and Falmouth deal with a brush fire off the "Falmouth Spur" of the Maine Turnpike that sounded like quite an event, ......
  10. 04/19/200630 mile an hour winds and very dry conditions made for some good sized brush and woods fires today. I'm too tired to talk much about it tonight, suffice it to say when towns from as far as 15 and 20 miles away are all sending trucks, its a big woods fire. I ended up in charge of what started as a small group of four firefighters sent in around the back ......
  11. 04/15/2006Old stars gone, but new stars emerge - I'm impressed with what I'm seeing from IBM-LotusTalk about full cycle! In Kevin Cavinaugh's keynote he mentioned that the Notes Client is so strong in the combined Workplace Rich Client/Lotus Notes product that makes up Hannover that there is some serious discussion about not even using the "Workplace" ......
  12. 04/14/2006Back in Maine -- its good to be home.To misquote some really great music...-- you know the tune, sing along.... "I flew in from (Las Vegas) via (Southwest Air), didn't get to bed last night. All the way the paper bag was on my knee. Man, I had a dreadful flight....." Well, its only partly ......
  13. 04/14/2006My new favorite Linux Distribution -- yes, Domino runs well on it.Last week I came across CENTOS, which is a Linux distribution extremely similar to Red Hat Enterprise Linux in all respects other than a subscription cost. CENTOS is supported entirely by its community. It took me about 1/2 hour to download the DVD via ......
  14. 04/14/2006Notes on VMWARE Server (free) Beta - It ROCKS. You need this. -- and a free performance tip for the betaTIP: During the beta, turn off the debugging which slows things down by using debug = ......
  15. 04/09/2006Las Vegas - Perfect weather, a good flight, a car "upgrade".Yesterday I got up at 3am and drove to Portsmouth, New Hampshire for my 5 1/2 hour flight to Las Vegas on Southwest Airlines. I like southwest for short flights, but longer flights I really prefer the traditional carriers. Unfortunately, I don't prefer ......
  16. 04/07/2006Well friends, I'm leaving at 3am to make a flight to Vegas. If you're also going to the conference and end up being tricked into attending one of my sessions, please introduce ......
  17. 04/06/2006Serverbeach promotional event has a great deal on dedicated servers starting next week.As many of you know, I've moved from having my own datacenter to having my customer facing servers at ServerBeach. I've been generally very impressed, though the machine I'm using right now is not quite good enough for what I need to be doing. As part of ......
  18. 04/04/2006New architectures sometimes mean old planning toolsSince I've decided that the right way to build the new production website for SecondSignal is "SOA" (Service Oriented Architecture) which is the web equivalent of object oriented programming, I've been thinking about the best way to do the underlying ......
  19. 04/04/2006Its time for a party!From a reader: On Wednesday of this week, at two minutes and three seconds after 1:00 in the morning, the time and date will be 01:02:03 04/05/06 At least here in the U.S. which uses Month/Day/Year formatting. That won't happen again in your lifetime. You ......
  20. 04/02/2006Iraq issues spring directly out of our Iran & Korea policies -- We made this problem.Why is Iran so bent on having the ability to delivery fission weapons? Easy. They just look around and ask one question: "What is the difference between Iraq and North Korea?" The answer to that question is very simple. North Korea, despite not having the ......
  21. 04/01/2006Looking forward to Advisor in Las Vegas -- Just a week awayI plan to have a great, relaxing time out there. For me, its great that Advisors uses the Marriot way out on the edge of town away from the strip. Just regular stores, restaurants, and hotel rooms. The place is comfortable, quiet, and has a great pool. ......
  22. 04/01/2006Big news for meYou'll be finding the details out soon enough, but it may come as a bit of a surprise to you that I'll be doing a press release with Microsoft related to SecondSignal. I'm working with the same people who are behind the just finishing "Your Potential, Our ......
  23. 03/30/2006Safety recall on Nite-Lite products -- Please read this one.An electrical short circuit in the nite lite can cause it to overheat and smolder or melt which can burn consumers or result in a fire. U.S. Consumer Product Safety ......
  24. 03/30/2006About to get some really good press for my public safety notification tool -- need help now picking a namePretty much all of you know that I've been working toward commercializing the paging/phone system. Now that all the technical hurdles are met, its just a question of fine tuning and finish carpentry. Part of that though, is picking a name. You'd be amazed ......
  25. 03/29/2006What buttons does your phone need, but not have?I mentioned a minute ago that my Mute button didn't do what I want. I want to have one that mutes THE OTHER PERSON in the conference. I'd also like an "Assassinate" button. It would need to be specific to a single person on a conference call. What other ......
  26. 03/29/2006The mute button on my phone seems to be broken.I'm in a conference call and I keep pressing my mute button, but it isn't working. this idiot just keeps talking and talking. I need an assassinate ......
  27. 03/28/2006The first signs of spring are here in Maine...The first signs of spring have reached us here at TheNorth.... The dry, dead grass without rain had lead to a number of small brush fires, and tonight I've taken the snow tires and cheapo wheels off Barb's minivan and put the shiney alloy rims on along ......
  28. 03/27/2006Fire Department 2005 Year in Review - Town Council Meeting presentationFor anyone interested, this 15 minute video -- about 9 megs to download -- starts off with Chief Small commenting on the awards given out a week or so ago (of which mine is included) then goes into a short slideshow of pictures from training and incidents ......
  29. 03/27/2006Pork. The other white FISH.Speaking of transgenic food, some scientists are playing at intelligent design. They've spliced a gene for making oils of the kind fish make -- so called "Omega 3 fatty acids" -- into pigs. Two of the three pigs in the picture below have it. That could be ......
  30. 03/26/2006Microsoft employees at the front line are mad as hell about Vista, Ballmer, and MS quality control.If you have time, take a look at the rant going on by way of this anonymous Microsoft employee's blog. With comments like "Client appcompat % hovering at Fewer testers, less experienced, with little training, a much (ahem) 'slower' approach to testing. ......
  31. 03/24/2006A very revealing internal memo from Microsoft enumerates the changes in the division responsible for the Windows Platform.The memo from Kevin Johnson (presumably not the one who used to play for the Phoenix Suns) contains the list of new position holders along with this kind of standard issus execuspeak: "I know change is never easy but I truly appreciate the focus that ......
  32. 03/24/2006Do you now routinely ignore the top few search results?Search Engine farmers is a name I've decided to give these sociopaths who create automated tools that suck in content from as many places as they can, generate link farms, and work every other trick possible so as to be the top pick in as many searches on ......
  33. 03/24/2006Large Area Search training last night - details and picturesLast night we had a really great training event put on by some of the guys from nearby Portland, on a new technique for searching large open areas. Now you would not use this at a time when there's a rocking fire going on -- this would be used in the case ......
  34. 03/22/2006Its great when you can be reminded why you like Domino and Notes so muchHello everybody. I'm a bit south of my usual haunts. I'm doing a two day client visit as a subject matter expert on a site review project. I'm finding myself at what by all observations looks like a really successful classic Lotus Notes environment. More ......
  35. 03/19/2006The new Dr. Who on SciFi completely rocks.Watched the new Dr. Who on Sci Fi -- just now available here in the U.S. All I can say is "perfect!" -- its just captured the spirit of the old series in its essentials, added some special effects without making them so good as to lose the low-budget ......
  36. 03/19/2006An award, and some new uniform bling!You know something about all the work I've been doing on an emergency services paging & communication system,right? Tonight was Cumberland's annual banquet. Its one night a year when - out of uniform - we rent a local meeting place, put on nice clothes ......
  37. 03/15/2006I want my six hours back!I wasted about six hours today trying to figure out why despite everything appearing to work correctly, I could not make my phone client software make any noise. It would call out to the pbx, the pbx would play the congratulations demo messages, but no ......
  38. 03/14/2006Marshaling data in and out of managed vs.net code -- may have some value for Domino API work as wellPart of the work I've been doing requires that I make use of an external library in the form of a DLL. This article describes about 2/3 of the techniques needed for the process. If you like it, I'll write another one that deals with the other side of the ......
  39. 03/14/2006Got shell scripts? Get this book.Its not often I really endorse a computer technology book. In the past I can think of only two textbooks I've ever really felt were so good they exceeded my expectations. This one, "Linux Shell Scripting with Bash" by Ken O. Burtch is the third. Like ......
  40. 03/07/2006Amazing - a live capture of what was previously thought to be only a myth. I've been able to acquire a picture.A species of collateral knows as "Dominus Marketus Directum" has been captured live in the hands of a real world business decision maker. Its difficult to imagine, but true. While I waited in the safety of the Jeep, my assistant was able to capture this ......
  41. 03/02/2006Go the next step with VoIP - don't miss out. My S&TT Post for this weekForget Skype and Vonage for a minute. You may be just touching the surface if you’re using Vonage or one of its competitors, Skype, or any of a myriad other VoIP tools. There is so much more out there. My contribution to SNTT is to show you how to get ......
  42. 02/28/2006Proof that "Sender Pays" will not stop spam even one little bitFor those who don't know, the idea of "Sender Pays" is to make the cost of sending an email slightly higher than zero for bulk emails -- some say for everyone. Say a penny a message or less. AOL and YAHOO are talking about using this method for public ......
  43. 02/28/2006Where have I been?Well, aside from living in Linux, Asterisk, VoIP, Visual Studio.NET, Java, Eclipse, and fire trucks -- I was also on vacation in Florida with my family. ......
  44. 02/12/2006A shame President Bush doesn't get out more.Everyone gets tired sometimes, and clearly W needs a vacation. I'd like to suggest that he take some time and go bird hunting with his buddy Dick more ......
  45. 02/07/2006Domino & Notes version 7.0.1 now available -- contains what looks like a couple of REALLY key fixes...There are at least two fairly big deal updates in this release. If I read correctly, the very long standing issue some people have had where servers would seem to become unavailable unless you time-out and reconnect may have been resolved in this release. ......
  46. 02/03/2006Lotusphere 2006 Survey Results are in......Read 'em and weep, my friends! (Updated)I wasn't going to go to the trouble of adding these up from the website, but since all of you seem to being doing it on your blogs it only seemed fitting. Of course, now it's going to be hard to fit my head through the door after reading these. I don't ......
  47. 02/03/2006Creating a Rules Engine class in Lotusscript while cutting process time by more than 1000%Its time for a technical deep dive. I haven't done one of these in a long time and I know some of you couldn't care less about firefighting, shirts, or my daughter's soccer team (which is kicking butt). As anyone who reads this site regularly knows, I've ......
  48. 02/02/2006MS Tech Support?This is unconfirmed of course, but was forwaded to me and its good enough that I felt it could be passed along as ......
  49. 02/02/2006How often are you overwhelmed by things to do to the point of shutting down?Its 9am and I've been up and going in the office for more than an hour already. The list of tech and business items to address on my list is so consumingly huge that at present I'm unable to start any of them. I've learned that at this point there is no ......
  50. 01/31/2006Well, IBM really has set DB2 free. As Domino admins and developers, we are very well positioned to take advantage of this. So, how do we get started?First, I have to say that setting DB2 free was a fantastic move. PC based servers have never been the large part of the revenue stream for DB2 anyway, though it is for Microsoft's MSSQL. DB2 is very well regarded in the I.T. industry and compares very ......
  51. 01/26/2006Lotusphere 2006 Goes out on a high noteLotusphere 2006 came to a close with a flawless performance by Surjit Chana, IBM VP of Marketing and Partners. His fun, unscripted, and very energetic approach went over quite well. I’d heard from others they’d enjoyed his talk on Sunday. Core Lotus ......
  52. 01/25/2006C.U.L.T. 2006 Prize Awarded!Congratulations to C.U.L.T. member Christine Broome who was selected as the winner of this years prize. Christine, shown in pictures below along with our secret spotter Amy Blumenfield -- yes, we're sneaky enough to use our friend from Microsoft as the ......
  53. 01/24/2006More info on Craig Hayman -- he has quite a loyal fan baseI'm just back from the "Meet the Geeks" party (formerly known as the Iris Party) at that Atlantic, and what an earful of great news came from that! I'll sum up without breaking confidentiality by saying a few things in a general sense. Craig Hayman -- ......
  54. 01/24/2006A correction from yesterday's rant ---I should point out -- yesterday I said "almost no mention of Lotus Notes for 2 hours" -- in fact, it was mentioned right at the beginning, and there was talk about the present state of the product. I believe it was so poorly presented that it didn't have ......
  55. 01/23/2006Lotusphere 2006 Opening Session -- The Substance that Style KilledThere were good things in the opening general session at Lotusphere 2006 this year. The Sametime 7.5 announcement and features for example were well handled and well demonstrated. Jason Alexander, the guest speaker, was excellent as you would expect, and ......
  56. 01/21/2006Greetings from Lotusphere 2006! The shirts are here. I am here. Where are you? Here's more SHIRT info, including the Theme and Prize!Hi all --I've been really busy so haven't written much. On Thursday I drove two hours to the airport, waited two hours for the flight, then flew three hours to Orlando. That was the easy part. Once I got my baggage, I took a cab a few miles to the heavy ......
  57. 01/14/2006I LOVE this response on SlashDot to news of Sun and Oracle getting together for yet another potshot at MicrosoftFirst, here's the quote from "bcrowell" on /. "Y'know, I was just saying to myself, "Self," I said to myself, "you really need an enterprise datacenter architecture that leverages middleware based on robust frameworks." Wow, they must have been reading my ......
  58. 01/12/2006Only PARTIALLY hydrogenated. Damn. These people never do something all the way, do they?The image below is what happens if you leave a Cheese Puff on a piece of notebook paper overnight. This is because the cheap bastards are only PARTIALLY hydrogenating their vegetable oil. For those who never bothered to look this up, the big chemical ......
  59. 01/11/2006The economics of MMORPG's is fascinating stuffA friend forwarded a link to an article written on the impact of "Farming" in the "World of Warcraft" online game. "Farming" in this case refers to companies set up in low-wage countries where players are hired to run characters which generate in game ......
  60. 01/10/2006According to scientists, the Milkey Way galaxy is "Warped, and vibrating like a drum"....Those crazy Berkeley guys..... http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2006/01/060110094853.htm -- Isn't that funny......they say the same thing about me. Who else but those wacky guys at Berkeley could come up with THIS as a picture of the galaxy. I thought ......
  61. 01/10/2006Its funny the way yesterday's high end hardware is today's outdated toy.I'm refurbing a computer to put in my 10 year old's room this weekend. This one will replace the old Blueberry iMac that's in there now. That one will move to the six year old, now that she can read. Looking through the hardware closet to figure out what ......
  62. 01/09/2006Time for a new expression. Roommate Annoying.Ok, we all have heard of "Coyote Ugly" -- someone so ugly that if you were to wake up with them after going clubbing you'd gnaw off your own arm to avoid waking them as you got out of there. Its now time for a new expression. "Roommate Annoying" will now ......
  63. 01/08/2006Observation: High performance sportswear is really all about dressing up like a superhero.I've spent some money on a product called "Under Armor" for my daughter so she can wear these warm materials under her soccer uniform in the same way you might wear long johns or silk underwear skiing. The two big differences are that this is "High ......
  64. 01/07/2006Stop the presses! I actually took a day off today. As in, OFF. Like, REALLY.A Barb's suggestion, and with admitted reluctance (due to the huge volume of work I have to get done before Lotusphere) I took the day off and we took the three kids to Sunday Riverfor a day of skiing. The weather was perfect -- just below freezing at the ......
  65. 01/03/2006Unofficial patch for the big Windows security flaw (which does affect Notes clients) If you have a Windows 2000, XP, XP/Pro, or 2003 computer I encourage you to install this hot fix. It doesn't do anything you can see --just installs then says its done. According to SANS, it will protect you from this major exploit. I am already aware of ......
  66. 01/02/2006Its not like you weren't warned about it years before you first had to make the choiceConsider it, you were warned. Ok, the idea for this did come from /. -- I did make the graphic ......
  67. 12/30/2005My new favorite anti-spam & anti-website ads tool -- HostsManAds. I hate them. They've taken over every inch of available screen real estate on websites, roadsides, tv, radio, and even people. I went looking for a tool to help block them at their source. I found exactly what I wanted. There are others out there, ......
  68. 12/30/2005IMPORTANT - Easily Protect your PC and your Client's against this ZERO DAY exploitA flaw in a special kind of image viewer for viewing WMF files represents an unpatched security risk -- and that risk has been exploited in the wild already. All someone has to do is send you an email with an image of this kind containing the exploit to ......
  69. 12/29/2005Supersized iPod remote control for the visually impairedThe Supersized, Super-Easy iPod Remote Control The goal was to create an MP3 playing device which could be easily used by my father-in-law who is 87 on Sunday and is rapidly loosing his vision. He can now see almost no detail. Unfortunately, he has never been a technically oriented person and has had a very hard time using the adaptive technologies. Were I to give him a typical MP3 player, it would be lost in moments, and even while in his hand would be unusable. An iPod is ideal for him in other ways, ......
  70. 12/29/2005Spent all day fixing registry problems, and couldn't get iTunes to run without crashing. Finally got it.....If you ever run into a similar problem, or if you come across this blog entry through a google search on something like 'iTunes 6 keeps crashing in XP' then maybe this little note will help. Despite fixing the registry, removing old dead entries, clearing ......
  71. 12/26/2005Christmas purchase limits -- and a common misconceptionMost people take it for a given that if you and your wife agree on a limit for spending on each other, that you mean it to be the top end of the scale. I, on the other hand, choose to view it as a bottom end limit, and shop accordingly. As such, each year ......
  72. 12/23/2005Apple's On-Line store wins my appreciation -- big timeI've been trying to MONTHS to figure out how to make a solution for my 86 year old father-in-law that would allow me to give him audiobooks on tape. The problem is, he's lost most of his vision, and has never been good with technology. MP3 players and CD ......
  73. 12/22/2005A black eye for ChristmasI went to the eye doctor today and had the growth removed from my lower left eyelid before it could finish growing into my evil twin. When I planned the appointment for the 22nd of December, I hadn't considered that it would mean I shall probably have a ......
  74. 12/22/2005I MUST be special. I got "Mod Points" on SlashdotI've been fascinated by the way Cmdr Taco and his crowd have built a huge discussion site that seems to be able to keep a good conversation going even though it has a transient population of tens of thousands of people. The site is (almost) entirely self ......
  75. 12/21/2005Do you do Torrents?I'm looking for a jump start from someone who reads this blog. I've tried a few BT client side packages and like most newbies am left with a bit of an aftertaste. Aside from the fact that half the clients come with spyware (which I trap and kill instead ......
  76. 12/20/2005Professional Driver - Closed CourseEver seen those warnings? "Professional driver, closed course" or "Do not try this at home" --- It applies to I.T. work as well. This is for all of you who think you can just give your users Quickplace and leave them unsupervised. Folks, end users are the ......
  77. 12/20/2005The Life Aquatic - SuckedI just sat through "The Life Aquatic" for no reason I can determine. It started out sucking, and it sucked straight through. It wanted to be some kind of cross between "Buckaroo Banzai" and "Zoolander" and failed on all counts. What a shame, it was a good ......
  78. 12/19/2005The C.U.L.T. shirts are off to the production facility.....finally.....What a relief! This year's C.U.L.T. shirt has been quite a...treat....to work on. For the first time ever, we have 16 sponsors -- not counting Rocky & I. That means sixteen separate company logos which have be just right even though we are trying to keep ......
  79. 12/15/2005I don't know if this has made the rounds before, but its the first time I've seen it. "Who's on first?" -- applied to PC purchasesYou have to be old enough to remember Abbott and Costello and oldenough to not really understand computers to fully appreciate this. For those who sometimes get flustered by our computers, please readon. It is a reworking of the sketch Bud Abbott and Lou ......
  80. 12/14/2005Why is everyone so stunned about the narwhal's horn being a sensory organ?I would think that anything obviously long and hard sticking out of a mammal would be highly sensitive to something, now wouldn't you? ......
  81. 12/13/2005Can we execute a mass-joke at Lotusphere?This isn't something any one person could do effectively by themselves, and I'm not even sure it would be advisable at all. I also don't know exactly how the legal ramifications would play out. Maybe some of you could suggest answers. The general idea ......
  82. 12/13/2005The Law of Unintended Consequences, as a moral stance.The Law of Unintended Consequences is simply the idea that you cannot accurately predict all the ramifications of your actions. If you're someone who believes the end result can justify the means used to achieve that result, it is this law which is ......
  83. 12/09/2005Snow Day! Here's some pics of the day off here at NCT. We got DUMPED on today. The snow started about about 7am and by 4:30pm was all over. That's pretty quick for a snowstorm, but we got around 8 inches of powder in that time. Enjoy these pictures. ......
  84. 12/08/2005Andrew's FALL TV new shows reports. All opinion, no fact. Ha!With all the extra time I have, it should be no surprise that I like to end my day by using the television as a way to try shutting down my brain. It usually works. I can’t really stop analyzing and criticizing though, however, just because I’m exhausted ......
  85. 12/08/2005Surprise! For a few minutes on November 29th, I was a millionaire.It didn't last, but my Fidelity statement for November showed a bank wire transfer to my SEP IRA (Self Employed Tax Deferred Retirement fund for those of you outside the US) for exactly $1,000,000 US. I called of course, and asked the rep to whom I should ......
  86. 12/07/2005A hard fought loss -- ah well... -- and how ADD meds impact my Scrabble playing.Given the other news this morning, I thought I'd post some lighter stuff as well. I got beat last night in Scrabble by my wife. Again. We've had a long running series of games and over the years she's ahead by about 5% of games. Last night was painful. ......
  87. 12/07/2005I learned a new phrase this morning on CNNThe term "Extraordinary Rendition" -- a phrase created to describe the sort of amoral arrogant abuse of power that our government is involved in. I am sickened and disgusted (though sadly not really surprised any more) that we as a nation are doing things ......
  88. 12/05/2005Take back control of your PC -- A document I wrote to help end users deal with basic PC security issues.I wrote this document because so many of the people I know are absolutely frustrated with trying to keep their PC's running in the face of viruses, worms, scams, spyware, and other garbage. If this helps anyone, please feel free to distribute it or link ......
  89. 12/03/2005Santa is not happy. This was forwarded to me today, and may explain...A Christmas Story 'Twas the night before Christmas--Old Santa was pissed. He cussed out the elves and threw down his list. Miserable little brats, ungrateful little jerks. I have a good mind to scrap the whole works! I've busted my ass for damn near a ......
  90. 12/03/2005For the first time in years, I've got my mobile phone in sych with Notes Calendar & Contacts -- and its NOT a PDA phone.A couple of weeks ago I got a new Motorola e815 to replace my LG6100 cell phone. I hated the LG. The sound quality was terrible, the shape was odd, and the features were locked down so that anything useful cost more money to use. The Motorola e815, on the ......
  91. 12/01/2005C.U.L.T. primary sponsorships are now on "IF" list (if there's room). Secondary sponsorships still available -- here's a clarification on SIZE issues for those...Ok, so my previous post wasn't clear enough. When I said you couldn't pick your sizes, some people thought that meant a random set of shirts which could leave them will all smalls or something. Not so. There's a ratio of shirt sizes we've refined over the ......
  92. 11/30/2005Update! ** 13 ** of the 10 primary C.U.L.T. sponsorships are already committed!special update: 13 of the 10 primary C.U.L.T. sponsorships are already committed. Get them while they're hot ......
  93. 11/29/2005Insanely cool way to discover music you like -- its almost magic. Stunning.Its very rare that I repeat what someone else is already blogging. In this case, Volker Weber blogged this and its so incredible I wanted to re-blog it for both of you who read my site by not his. The site is Pandora and its just getting started. In less ......
  94. 11/29/2005Sponsors sought for the 2006 C.U.L.T. shirt! Info here --Yes, its that time again. Its past that time actually. Way, way, way past that time. Rocky and I have been banging our heads together trying to come up with a theme and an image worthy of burning in to the minds of all the attendees at Lotusphere this ......
  95. 11/26/2005Great video -- Ever wonder what firefighters do on a roof? Check this out...I'll warn you though, there's a soundtrack to this video and at the end there's a bit of harsh language. So...unless this kids are up .... turn the volume up on those fancy speakers and watch these truckies (ladder truck firefighters -- also known to some ......
  96. 11/20/2005Initial Results: Verizon Wireless "Broadband" rocks!I'm at the airport in Manchester, New Hampshire. Verizon's broadband map doesn't even show this area as launched yet. I'm connected with all the bars lit, and getting fantastic transfer speeds. Here's the result from DSL Reports... Keep in mind we're ......
  97. 11/18/2005Headed for Phoenix for the weekWell, I'll be blogging from the home of the heat next week. A thanksgiving with my side of the family should be.....interesting. Keep in mind, I am not the loudest member of my family. Not by a long shot. So, its pack Barb and the kids up then see if ......
  98. 11/18/2005King of the typos....Its not shock to anyone that I have fat fingers and frequently type a different version of what I'm saying than what is in my head. Today was a close call however, as I very nearly sent a note to a new NCT Search customer thanking him for his 'odor'. ......
  99. 11/17/2005Of COURSE MS Exchange .next will require 64 bit servers. That's the whole point of the upgrade!Its not about just selling Exchange upgrades -- its about selling Operating System upgrades. If you've been paying attention at all, you know that the real fear at Microsoft is that they're not selling as many licenses for newer and bigger Windows servers ......
  100. 11/16/2005The scoop on cellular broadbandI don't like being off the net. Its no shock to anyone who knows me. It means I can't just follow whatever crazy idea I have at the moment to create, adjust, fix, or check on something that's been simmering in the back of my mind. As such, I've been using ......
  101. 11/16/2005People -- wake up! Quit driving into trucks. They are much bigger than you!Its 01:41 on Wednesday and I'm just about to get back to sleep from yet another sleepyhead who decided to run into a tractor trailer on the interstate. He'll live, his car won't. The US Postal Service will have to do without the trailer load of delivery ......
  102. 11/10/2005Howto: Setup ASSP for anti-virus and anti-spam with IBM Lotus DominoThere's a PDF file at the end of the page if you'd rather use that. HOW-TO – Setup ASSP with IBM Lotus DominoThis HOW-TO is provided free (as in speech) and without warrantee. If you follow these directions, you are solely responsible for the results. I ......
  103. 11/09/2005Need anti-spam for Domino? Here's a good open source alternative -- and they even discuss Domino on the site!Take a look at ASSP. For geeks, its all you need. For the rest of the Domino world, put SpamJam in front of it and you've got a dynamite solution. Though nothing will replace SpamJam when it comes to end users interacting with their anti-spam tool in ......
  104. 11/08/2005Remember all those original Star Trek scenes where the earspliting noise attack would cripple the crew?Crippling high pitched noises forcing crew members to their knees on the bridge of the Enterprise as some kind of non-lethal submit-or-die noise came from the foe-du-jour was part for the course on the 60's TV series. Well, apparently the crew of that ......
  105. 11/07/2005Some thoughts on the violence in FranceAside from being a terrible thing, there is something that fascinates me about what's going on in France. By most accounts, France is a country with a decidedly strong socialist policy and economy compared with the US. The social safety net, healthcare, ......
  106. 11/07/2005Special of the day - Peking DuckBad taste? Of course. Just make sure you cook it well. Take a look at this article from CBS News.... ......
  107. 11/07/2005I don't want to do anything at all today.Do you have a long list of things you simply cannot be bothered to bring yourself to start? Mine's longer. My list, I mean. Its longer than yours. Its got lots of really cool projects on it. I don't feel at all like doing any of them today. This must be ......
  108. 11/07/2005AYSO Soccer in Maine -- late fall. Plus, a short clip for family.If you have kids over the age of 8 and live in the U.S., you probably know about AYSO. The American Youth Soccer Organization is one of the greatest things ever to happen for kids. The organization exists in regional chapters purely for the purpose of ......
  109. 11/06/2005The Soccer Finals!Well, sometimes you're the winner, sometimes you're not. Ari's team did well against a tough Kennebunk team but lost 1-Nill to end the season. They played really well, but you don't get to the state meet without being the best in your region, and none of ......
  110. 11/04/2005Yeah, I'm also speaking at LotusFear this year.I'll be doing an updated version of last year's "Admin Zero to Hero in 60 Minutes" -- I'm going to try to stuff more into it. You may want to bring a time lapse camera to get it ......
  111. 11/01/2005Just two and half turns to the left. Why can't all technology be that simple?Its pretty quickly moving toward the first real snowfall here in Maine. Sometimes that happens before Thanksgiving and other times not for many more weeks. Its time, however, while its still reasonable out to get things ready. As I do every year, I dragged out the old snowblower to give it the once over. Its nine years old now, and for small engines that means a little extra maintenance from time to time. I must have failed to properly drain the carb this spring because it was full of old fuel that had ......
  112. 10/31/2005Ari's soccer team advances to the state finals!My daughter Ari is on a competitive soccer team. She's worked hard to get up to the level of play with these kids. They play thirty minute periods with eleven girls on a side using a full high school varsity field -- and they play rough. Saturday morning ......
  113. 10/24/2005How to 'un-brick' a WRT-54G wireless router (and why) -- and other WRT-54G upgrade informationAfter some background, this post includes pictures and instructions for the de-bricking process. IMPORTANT NOTE: This blog entry was from 2005! While I'm glad people still find it useful and come across it in searches, keep in mind that most of the hardware discussed is out of date at this point and has been replaced with new versions. It's unlikely you'll still be buying this gear in the same revisions. Also, nobody is likely to answer a question you post, because it only gets read by occasional ......
  114. 10/23/2005Soccer Playoffs -- Ari the enforcer -- So far #1 and undefeatedAri (my 11 year old) plays on a competitive "travel" soccer team. The playoffs were this weekend Saturday and Sunday about 1.5 hours north of here. Sunday is rained out so only Saturday's games were played. Sunday's games are moved to next Saturday, with ......
  115. 10/21/2005If you could connect VoIP to Lotus Notes, what would you have it do?I'm playing a LOT these days with VoIP. I've got my own Asterisk PBX, and today's Penumbra meeting included a fairly large virtual attendee base (not giving away any state secrets here). It was successful for many, less so for others due to firewalling ......
  116. 10/16/2005Off to Westford for a two day meetingI'm off to visit my friends in Westford for a couple of days. Anyone have an special requests to pass along? Drop me an email or reply ......
  117. 10/16/2005Chimney fire season has started.Last night around 8:30 we got called out to assist the next town over with a chimney fire. Their ladder is our service so they called ours. Explorers can't go on out of town boxes, and the ladder 7 crew is pretty short right now so I went. A young ......
  118. 10/14/2005A remarkable personality charting toolI got turned on to this from a friend and tried it. It took about 10 minutes and was dead spot on accurate (in my opinion). I doubt any of the results are unflattering so no matter how you come out you'll find the answer is probably appealing. Still, I'm ......
  119. 10/12/2005My poor, troubled, laptop was once again put through hell -- this time by a software 'upgrade'One after another my favorite software vendors fall by the wayside as buy-outs and market pressure to feature enhance products result in bloat-ware, quality problems, extortionate licensing, and in the end my utter disgust and frustration. Merrily working ......
  120. 10/10/2005Microsoft is attempting to rationalize licensing in a world of multi-core, multi-processor, and virtual machine technologySuppose you have a product that sells for $1000 per machine on which it is run. Your revenue is based on the model of a single license handling about 1,000 users, so its a $1/user revenue stream. Now along comes Intel and AMD offering faster processing, ......
  121. 10/07/2005In other news, look what I got tonight...I got the promotion last week, but tonight at the meeting was the presentation of this new piece of hardware. By the way, proud as I am -- this is a really really hard thing to take a picture ......
  122. 10/06/2005Domino bug reported in 5.0.10 -- 2 years ago, still active in version 7I just lost the opportunity to give someone a trial version of my new software -- hopefully they'll try again tomorrow. Why? Because a two year (and three major revision) long bug hasn't been addressed in the Domino code. I can't print the technote from ......
  123. 10/05/2005Google's first big goofle.Google and Sun together. What exactly do they have in common? Nothing but a general dislike for Microsoft. Sun seems to go out of its way to back any play it can come up with that tosses mud toward Redmond, and Google's recent run-ins with the 'softies ......
  124. 10/03/2005The new server is in place, do you like it? Does it work? Is it faster?Well, it took most of the day to get all things carefully cut over, but the dns now points to the new server, and I've dropped http and smtp from the old one. That means if you're seeing this, you're using the new server. Please let me know if you see ......
  125. 09/30/2005I just got Domino 7 running properly on Fedora Core 3 with some minor tweakingIt took a little effort to get this done because Fedora Core 3 is not a supported version of Linux for Domino according to IBM. I suspect others may see similar problems in other Linux distributions so let me document what I did other than the normal ......
  126. 09/28/2005What is it that makes people think "Excel Format" is a standard for transferring data?What follows is the text of an actual response I sent to an associate of mine after reviewing a response to questions we had on an RFP. I had asked what kind of format we could expect to see for the regular updates of data to be sent to us. Only comment ......
  127. 09/28/2005I want one button publishing from the editor of my choice, to the web server of my choice.I want one button publishing from the editor of my choice, to the web server of my choice. All the talk of standards, of service based sites, and content driven applications hasn’t gotten me there at all. I’m not talking here, of using my Notes client to ......
  128. 09/27/2005The economics of hosting have changed, time to take advantage. You should try it.After nearly 20 years of hosting one or more servers of one kind or another in my home, I'm moving my servers to ServerBeach. Many of you know that I have a pretty extensive network setup here, with a professional grade firewall, standby power generation, ......
  129. 09/27/2005Site is moving -- should be faster, could be some minor interruptionI'm making some important infrastructure changes here this week. This server will be hosted on a high speed machine at a tier 1 provider. Within a week or two, I'll also have a hot standby in place. This is to accommodates a need for increased reliability ......
  130. 09/26/2005Ok -- my turn to post a questionnaire thing.This was forwarded to me by Lt. Gordon Murphy. He's on our fire department as well, serving on the Chebeague Island fire museum (yes, the NEW truck is 1980, before that they're a pair of 1973's). The idea here, is you're supposed to forward this to a ......
  131. 09/23/2005Engine 1 - Soon to be retired and replaced with a newer modelI'm not sure if I mentioned this before, but one of the exciting changes due in the spring of next year is the arrival of a replacement for our venerable Engine 1. The current truck is a 1984 Ford chassis customized for fire service by FMC. It still runs ......
  132. 09/22/2005Open Office is nice, but don't count it unseating Microsoft from the Desktop so soonDon’t count on Open Office with IBM Workplace killing Microsoft Office any time soon. I like both products, and I’d love to see Microsoft take it on the chin now and again; but the marketplace has done what it does best – and it has sent Microsoft ......
  133. 09/22/2005Its live! NCT Simple Signon -- Take control of your Authenticated AccessAnnouncing NCT Simple Signon -- Integration without Aggravation If you've ever wanted to accept a user onto your Lotus Domino based web site with credentials from another server, or with a cookie you assigned the last time they visited, our newest product ......
  134. 09/21/2005Sneak Preview -- NCT Simple Signon Documentation. Trial downloads to be released within 24-48 hours.NCT Simple Signon provides an easy to manage, secure and reliable way to accept credentials from nearly any other application, and to pass credentials for users authenticated by your server to other sites. Integration without Aggravation The whole idea of ......
  135. 09/21/2005So what does it mean to be an officer in an all volunteer fire department? My brother sent me an email asking what exactly this means. We're not paid much, its not the military, so what the difference? I thought I'd write up a partial explanation here for those who probably have the same question. Keep in mind that according to ......
  136. 09/20/2005I have a new nameTechnically speaking, its not a name but a call sign. Tomorrow morning an official email will go out indicating my change from the radio number 339 to the new call sign "Car 31" -- which indicates that I've been given the position of Lieutenant on ......
  137. 09/20/2005Convergence * Updated -- Even more convergence!Do things in your life seem to happen all at once? Convergence is a strange thing. Today I have two important meetings. They are unconnected. Both related to activities that I’ve been working toward for quite a while. I chose the date for neither. Yes ......
  138. 09/19/2005What's yer pirate name?I don't usually do this stuff, but this one looked fun. Mad Roger KiddGet your own pirate name from ......
  139. 09/19/2005Everyone go give big congrats to NotesDawg.....or he'll kick your ......
  140. 09/19/2005Shape the next version of Notes! Sign up to do usability studies early!Main TopicSubject: Help Us Find End-users for usability testing of the next version! [Comment] By Mary Beth Raven/Westford/IBM on Mon, Sep 19, 2005 at 11:40 AM. Categories: Applications, Calendar & Scheduling (Applications\Design), Community, Customer ......
  141. 09/19/2005So many ideas, so little time, and the radical personality shifts of 12 year olds.Do you have periods in your work life or home life were you have so many ideas you'd like to take forward and no time at all to finish them? My list right now is longer than its ever been, and it shows no sign of getting shorter. I think I've got at least ......
  142. 09/14/2005Some thoughts after looking at the new Office 12 -- and surprise, Outlook is the odd man out.Like so many of you, I took a look at Scobble's video of the new user interface on Office 12 -- beta supposedly due out this fall. My first thought, is Scobble -- for the love of God buy a tripod. Moving beyond that, here's my first impression.... Its ......
  143. 09/13/2005A strongly worded warning -- What do you think?As I get ready to release NCT Simple Signon into the wild, I have some concern over allowing a sample agent to come with it that will log on virtually anyone under virtually any name if they know the syntax of the command. ......
  144. 09/13/2005Making sense of eBay’s purchase of Skype, and its inherent dangerAside from the pressure for any large tech company to be in all the hot tech areas, there is a very important fit for Skype with eBay. At first glance, this looks like late 90’s internet boom craziness. eBay and Skype would seem to have little in common. ......
  145. 09/12/2005Two Bright Sparks in Software Development, means one great backup toolI've wanted a good backup software tool for a long time. Most of them are either too expensive, too complicated, or both. I've been really pleased with SyncBackSE from 2BrightSparks Pte Ltd. I read about it this month in CPU Magazine, and figured I'd give ......
  146. 09/08/2005I'll bet they didn't stop this one to search for illegal immigrationMexico sends first ever aid convoy to U.S. Food, supplies, doctors come north in gesture fraught with symbolism, irony http://msnbc.msn.com/id/9248064/ LAREDO, Texas - A Mexican army convoy crossed into the United States on Thursday to bring aid to ......
  147. 09/06/2005High fuel costs this winter mean extra challenges for firefightersHere in the northeast, home heating is a big challenge. The way some of you in the south struggle to keep the electricity bills down and still keep the house cool in the summer, we fight cold all winter with home heating oil or LP gas fired furnaces. Fuel ......
  148. 09/03/2005Visual Studio .NET -- a Thanks to Gary Devendorf -- and a RANT about "DotFuscator" from PreEmptive SolutionsWith some excellent help from Gary Devendorf, I've released the beta version of my first stand-alone (Non Notes) workstation application in something like 15 years. Its nothing most readers of this blog would be all that interested in, as it detects ......
  149. 08/31/2005...highlights and circles and items to do, these are a few of my favorite things....A few new features in D7 mail that I like. Follow-ups that are as simple as right-click to manage, automatic highlighting of mail you need to look at based on recipient (in this case, from my wife), and the little blue circle that indicates if you're the ......
  150. 08/28/2005NCT Scanner Monitor is almost in beta -- I have a feeling this is going to go over well.Yes, Domino is part of this solution, but just one part. Its my first time in probably 15 years building a commercial product that's not specifically targeted to Lotus Notes or Domino customers. This is the front end piece to be used on-site. I hope to ......
  151. 08/25/2005Help me understand how IBM, Microsoft, or anyone else will make money on Instant Messaging.Google is in the mix now with their own IM client -- including voice traffic. Why? Why not? Its easy now. All you need is plenty of bandwidth and some big servers. Pretty much all the connection protocols, encoders (CODECS), and so on are available now as ......
  152. 08/22/2005Some thoughts on Eclipse/Java vs VS.netI should start by saying that I know comparing VS.net with Java/Eclipse is ignoring the choice of which language I'm using in VS.net. IMO, it doesn't matter that much because the nature of .net is such that the object models you work with are largely the ......
  153. 08/19/2005Back from under my bomb shelter. Heavy coding this week; oh, and here are some phone behaviors really that annoy me.Well, I've spent the entire week getting deeper and deeper into Digital Signal Processing. What a complex arena this is. I've actually had to go and buy a book on Calculus to understand much of the documentation. It was either that or call Richard and ......
  154. 08/07/2005Lets get this straight -- HBO is a studio, and a broadcaster, but they are not a network.Look, I really enjoy HBO. The series work they do is everything they claim it to be -- groundbreaking, intelligent, well written, well acted, and fabulously shot. They sweep the awards every year. That said, its hardly in the same category as an actual ......
  155. 08/06/2005Sherman, to the wayback machine.....I've been cleaning out the basement all day today. Like archeology, as you dig deeper into piles of garbage you go back further in time. Some of its pretty scary stuff, though I haven't come across evidence of human sacrifice yet. Can you believe I used ......
  156. 08/05/2005I gotta get me one of these! ......
  157. 08/04/2005Cumberland Fire Acadamy - The ExplorersIf I've been a bit quiet this week, its because I've been helping out with this years Fire Academy. Each year, our "Explorer" post invites several other town posts over and we host a 5 day long "Fire Academy" for the kids. "Explorers" are kids between the ......
  158. 08/03/2005Busy night on the fire department last WednesdayAs promised (or threatened, depending on your point of view) here's the story from last Wednesday's big storm and fire. To set things up a bit, it had been hot here for several days -- temperatures in the 90's ( 32+ Celsius) and humid. The weather report ......
  159. 08/01/2005Odd googles for JulyWell, I get around 1000 google hits each month right now, which isn't much but it works well for me since clearly less than 1% are would I'd called "odd ball". The rest all have something to do with my site, my products, my company, or firefighting. For ......
  160. 07/31/2005Early Neal Stephenson re-released -- and its goodWhile I don't read at the rate of Duffbert (few do), I do read quite a bit of both fiction and I've finished the second of two books I picked up just before the trip to Las Vegas. The books, titled "Interface" and "The Cobweb" are re-released under the ......
  161. 07/31/2005Pluto isn't a planet; Domino Doesn't Scale; and other stupid things people have said.From reading this article about the confirmed discovery of another large mass orbiting our sun, further than Pluto and having more mass, I'm reminded of a really stupid presentation given at a Lotusphere BP day a few years back in which a prominent person ......
  162. 07/27/2005Big storm this afternoon.Six lightening strikes, 1 house fire, 1 down power lines -- 7 hours. I'm going to bed now. More details ......
  163. 07/27/2005Theory confirmed -- there is indeed a detectable, tangible link between Gab and Tim Davis which prevents them being separated.Its long been rumored that Gab and Tim cannot remain separated for any great length of time. The reason for that is now a bit closer as we have found a device which can clearly detect and be impacted by that very link. This is 100% true. While on our road ......
  164. 07/25/2005A shame, but it looks like Dr. Ambuj Goyal is moving from Lotus to Information Management (DB2)According to SearchDomino.com, Dr. Goyal is moving to become the General Manager of Information Management. Its no secret that I've been very impressed with Dr. Goyal's work at Lotus. I give him a lot of credit for bringing a bunch of different ideas on ......
  165. 07/24/2005Post Advisor Conference Road Trip (with pictures) with Rocky, Gab, Tim, and some childrenSorry for being so quiet this last week -- I've been speaking at Advisor then running off on a road trip. Here are pictures from the trip. Rocky brought two of his kids, and I brought one of mine. Gab and Tim were along as well, but no pictures here of ......
  166. 07/17/2005Harry Potter and the Dell Inspiron 8200 CD PlayerOn the way to advisor I picked up the new HP book on CD since the preordered books would not get to the house until after we'd left. Of course, this is for Coryn, my daughter who's traveling with me. Not for me, of course. No, surely not. Anyway.... I'm ......
  167. 07/14/2005Software Eval Key Question -- Am I being too strict this time?This time around, with NCT Compliance Search the license key problem is a little different. With a product like NCT Search I'm happy to give away full functionality for 30 days -- and extend that for people who ask. Its the kind of tool that really isn't ......
  168. 07/14/2005Help me set the price for a new NCT Product -- NCT Auto Login for Domino will debut later this monthYour parent company has a website with a secure area for your customers and distributors. Its run by the parent company I.T. center in B.F.E. You've put together a private site in Domino that is specific to the products made by your division in Cool City. ......
  169. 07/13/2005Results I can use! Add this search plug in to your Firefox and avoid pages of price comparison sites in the results!I mentioned that I'd like to be able to search Google and not have a full page of aggregation sites like nextag and pricegrabber show up. These are annoying. Well, I got exactly what I wanted. Thanks to a tip from Peter Leugner, I got what I wanted. ......
  170. 07/12/2005NCT Compliance Search v1.0 Release Date is Friday! Check out this quoteAt long last, with several copies in production `pre-release` use, I will be letting NCT Compliance Search 1.0 out into the public. The key difference between `Compliance Search` and nearly any other search product, is that normally a search tool isn't ......
  171. 07/12/2005My advisor schedule for next week is busier than I have ever been at one conferenceThis year, asside from more sessions than I've ever done at a conference (7 hours plus a lunch) I'm traveling with my 10 year old Daughter, Coryn. Rocky is bringing a couple of his Rock-etts with him, and we're all going to have some fun after the show ......
  172. 07/12/2005Firefox add-in extension that I'd really like to seeI want a "search" bar for firefox that calls google search, but automatically appends api commands to exclude a list of sites (particularly nextag, epinions, dealtime, pricegrabber, and that ilk that fills up the damn screen when you're searching for a ......
  173. 07/12/2005Will I see you at Advisor in VegasI'd like to meet as many of you who read this blog as I can. If you're going to be in Vegas at the Advisor show next week, give me a heads up by email or post here. I'll be leaving after lunch on Wednesday, so catch me before ......
  174. 07/07/2005The Great city of London -- triumphant even in tragedy -- is in our hearts today.Not 24 hours after gleefully and rightly winning the right to host the 2012 Olympics, London is beset once again by cowardly criminals who kill women and children in the name of a belief system twisted by callous, power crazed leaders. I have many good ......
  175. 07/07/2005Are you a wardriver? This guy may go to prison for it.The courts have repeatedly found that if you can pull a signal off the air without decrypting it, you can use it. If this guy had a wireless rig setup in his house and did not have a password requirement or anything preventing access, I wonder if that can ......
  176. 07/07/2005Digital Signal Processing, FFT, and CalculusFor that last two days I've been working out how to pull the 'current' dominant sound frequency (or tone) out of a digital audio stream. This is done using something called a "Fourier Transform". This is a complex algorithm based on some pretty heavy duty ......
  177. 07/04/2005Once more into the telephony breach, dear friends...In 1993 I used Phone Notes with a Natural Microsystems 4 port voice card to create a voice interactive sales tool for company here called "The Maine Idea". At the same time I set up my own office voicemail system with the same Remark product. Its been 12 ......
  178. 07/02/2005Speaking of movies -- help me understand.........zombie flicks. There's a key bit of logic I don't understand. Even with the best of the movies where attention has actually been paid to the cause (usually a virus from a lab) and thought has gone into the consequences, I don't get why the zombies ......
  179. 07/02/2005Who was in charge of packing the cooler?I took a couple of hours off today and saw "War of the Worlds" -- the new one. In the classic film, the premise was much simpler. The space badguys come down in spaceships protected by a lot of rock and land hard on the ground. The rock breaks open and ......
  180. 07/02/2005I would expect, given the wide range of topics I rant about, to get some really oddball Google hits....Would you believe that out of 1,300+ google hits in June, there are none I would consider really oddball or funny? 99% of them are directly related to the topics I favor most on this site -- that is to say IBM Lotus Domino and related technologies, or ......
  181. 06/21/2005Inserting pass through html onto a form with LotusScript, designed to used in the NOTES CLIENT.If you create a form for Notes 6, and put a field on the form where the field and surrounding text is marked "pass through html", and you use the form property to render pass through html in Notes..... It doesn't work. You see the html that you put in the ......
  182. 06/21/2005Some code I used to save time with creation of an ugly backward compatibility hackI had to create a form to be used by R5 clients and part of the form had to display a variable number of urls, with an image used for the bullet. The data had to be written from a COM call outside Notes, and the form stored with the mail send. Ugliness ......
  183. 06/21/2005Want to know what New England firefighting is like? Check out the Discovery Channel's new show ......
  184. 06/21/2005FX's RESCUE-ME starts up again tonightRescue-Me! Starts again tonight on the FX network. The show stars Dennis Leary as a New York truckie (firefighter assigned to a ladder company) dealing with the issues related to 911, a drinking problem, and an overdeveloped sense of sarcasm. It is one of ......
  185. 06/14/2005Insanely cool surreal nightmare of a film -- what a great surpriseI'm watching the end now, of "Eternal Sunshine of a Spotless Mind" and I'm so pleasantly surprised by it. It isn't at all what I thought it would be. The film jumps around, more focused on the idea than anything else. In some ways, I'm reminded of Pi (the ......
  186. 06/12/2005RIT gets real, Summer comes to Maine, Lightning strikes at a bad time, and prepping for Las VegasSorry for not writing sooner, its been a busy week. Aside from the regular client stuff, I've been working with Gab on our combined admin basics jump start for Vegas. I'm really looking forward to that. It should be a lot of fun. Had a good meeting in ......
  187. 06/03/2005THEM! Where did great, simple, fun movies like this go?Here's the description: "Scientists must defeat a horde of giant ants--before they conquer the world! With Edmund Gwenn and bit player Leonard Nimoy." People go missing in a small desert town in Nevada. After a bit, a print is identified by scientists (a ......
  188. 05/29/2005The great cable & adapter changeoverAs someone who still travels a good deal on business and used to travel a great deal my backpack/briefcase/computer bag is a wonder of modern packing. I carry such an array of cables, adapters, wires, and such as to be able to connect to, repair, display ......
  189. 05/28/2005Stupid article in Wired Magazine about supposedly new firefighting techniquesWired is carrying an article this month on a technique for using less water in a more deliberate way they call "3-D" firefighting. The method involves using thermal imaging cameras to see the heat patterns in the room, then using just enough water in ......
  190. 05/28/2005Am I getting older and yet more cynical or is the media getting more and more transparent?I'm an admitted information junkie. I read print versions of Wired, CPU, and Scientific American -- all cover to cover -- and can never resist a good article from Goggle News, which is my home page. I keep up with SlashDot (aka /.) and a dozen or so blogs ......
  191. 05/27/2005RESCUE ME -- season 2 starts June 21Rescue Me, the FX Network's firefighter show is due to start its second season on June 21st. If you haven't seen it, you should. This isn't typical overproduced garbage, instead its a riotous and irreverent comedy-drama that you'll think is over the top ......
  192. 05/26/2005The new chips are here! The new chips are here!Do you need to go faster? For only $1,150 at ZipZoomFly (one of my favorite haunts) they're now offering the newest Intel P4. If you remember what I wrote earlier about why Hyperthreading rocks, you'll understand why I love this new toy..... Intel Pentium ......
  193. 05/26/2005Running your Domino server on a consumer home network DSL or CABLE system? Bad news on the way...(updated)Information Week, and a bunch of others, are carrying an article that references a renewed FTC (Federal Trade Commission) effort to get consumer carriers worldwide to stop allowing SMTP traffic outbound to anything other than their own mail relay servers. ......
  194. 05/26/2005Selected pictures from Monday night's fireHere are a few selected pictures to go with the story from Monday night... Click on a thumbnail to see the picture in more detail. ......
  195. 05/24/2005What the hell is middleware, and why would anyone want to but something with that name?Of all the product categories and names out there, what the hell kind of name is “Middleware”? Would you ever buy something called “Middleware”? Is it attractive? What does a name like this promise? Will it make you stronger, wealthier, better looking, ......
  196. 05/24/2005A big night tonight on the fire department -- fortunately no serious injuriesIts 1:17 am and I'm just back from a long evening on Engine 1. I'm eating dinner and blogging to calm down a bit before going to sleep so forgive me if I ramble a bit. At 17:06 my fire pager went off, striking a "desk box" (a significant incident) for a ......
  197. 05/21/2005Throwing Clay, Java, and Developments at the Fire StationI have to finally admit that my new modeling clay is Java. I still don't buy into J2EE for building most applications, and I don't see the value in making standards an obsession for work being done within the application itself -- but having gotten ......
  198. 05/20/2005A stop in New York, a strange perspective on accents, and Revenge of the ReviewOn my way to Fort Lee, New Jersey for this weekend's Penumbra meeting, I stopped at the Palisades Center to wait out the traffic on the parkway. Its a huge shopping mall in the worst sense of all such things. This massive windowless, featureless, block ......
  199. 05/18/2005off to New Jersey -- as my friend Volker says, "See you on the other side"....Off for a fun filled weekend business meeting with my fellow Penumbra members in New Jersey. Yes, I know you'd think a bunch of bright people could pick a nice spot. Ah well. At least its driving distance. The new car should make it in one tank -- and I ......
  200. 05/17/2005Rabbits down holesSometimes you chase the rabbit too far down the hole. In my never ending quest for high performance, I built an in memory index that works very much like a sorted view column in that its very quick to find an entry, and even support partial matches -- in ......
  201. 05/14/2005High Performance Threadsafe Access to DataThis document started out a quick blog entry, about two and a half hours ago. Its become one of the most detailed performance explanations I’ve ever put down in writing. If you have the patience to sit and read it, I’d appreciate any feedback you have. ......
  202. 05/10/2005The de-buzzification of AJAXEveryone's talking about AJAX now. The level of attention this is getting is more indicative of the herd mentality of JavaScript UI programmers than it is of anything particularly amazing about the technology. Apparently, everyone has spent so much time ......
  203. 05/10/2005Its HAPPY DANCE TIME in Redmond, WA.....I'm sure you've heard this story already... "A pair of unpatched vulnerabilities in Mozilla's Firefox Web browser -- rated as "extremely critical" by one security firm -- could allow an attacker to take control of a PC simply by getting a user to visit a ......
  204. 05/09/2005Running with the "Lotus Domino/Workplace Consulting Business" theme under discussion on so many blogs right now.....Well, Carl, Ed, and a bunch of others are asking about the consulting business. This stems from seeing a few people leave private consulting and head for jobs in big firms of late. I suppose its a valuable question, but I think concerns are overblown. ......
  205. 05/04/2005Incremental progress on a big project - and learning to like JavaAt what point are you comfortable with a new programming language? Like all modern languages, Java needs to be approached in three distinct areas. The environment in which it runs, the lexical syntax and common practices associated with using it, and the ......
  206. 05/02/2005Bad ATM Software -- Someone should be VERY embarrassed at KEY Bank.Last week, the Key Bank in Yarmouth, Maine had their ATM upgraded. Same old hardware, but clearly new software -- and some kind of headphone jack -- for the blind maybe. Now, first I have to ask what the hell a blind person would be doing in the driver's ......
  207. 05/02/2005Intuit (Quickbooks) wasted 2 hours of my day today, by screwing up my software just to advertise to me!I hate these people. My poor accounting skills have left me little choice by to use their software or become hopeless tangled in my own finances. That said, I've never seen a product cause me to have to spend so much of my time looking at advertisements ......
  208. 04/29/2005More on the generic server -- and some code.....So I've finished two big pieces of the "current projects" list. Now I have a full blown DNS client that lets me pick a dns server and request any kind of data from it. That means I can do reverse lookups, pointer lookups, ownership checks, and real time ......
  209. 04/27/2005The Generic ServerSometimes a lot of the things you want to do start to all have some core things in common. Recently, several of my pet projects (those nobody is as yet paying for) have all but cried out for back end server functionality. I've been needing something that ......
  210. 04/22/2005Alan Lepofsky points out a few great hidden hints in his Tables blog entry...I learned at least three things that if I knew, I'd long since forgotten. In particular, check out his "Extra HintS" part at the end of the story. Nice job Alan. Its also nice to see Alan finding his own style and space on the web. This is the first time ......
  211. 04/22/2005The case for using on disk compression for your Notes Data directoryI did some very extensive testing & reviews back in the 90's when Stacker and its ilk were on the market. Microsoft bought out much of that technology and its now pat of the operating system. You can select a folder, a file, or a drive and elect to ......
  212. 04/21/2005IBM Travelstar drives are not waterproof. Aka: What not to do when starting a presentation...Well, I'm back from Munich and a great time was had, I must say. The H&T people outdid themselves with this show. It was their most well organized and run to date. I did have one problem. It was kind of a big one. 3 minutes into my first session, "Domino ......
  213. 04/17/2005Hello from H&T Verlags Conferenz in Munich!Hello all! I've been busy working on things like a hueristic anti-spam engine and a service provider application, but I wanted to say hello to you from Munich -- one of my favorite cities. Special thanks to B.G. who picked up Rocky and I, along with his ......
  214. 04/08/2005Does your company really think you're valuable?Business Week is running a big story about IBM's Sam Palmisano finding a new vision for IBM. The idea is that you won't just use IBM to get your I.T. project done. No, a company will be able to outsource everything but its "core business" to some kind of ......
  215. 04/06/2005Crack found in space shuttle tankI didn't have a lot of time to read this, but I came across a Google News headline titled "Crack Found in Shuttle Tank". Now, I'm sure I'll have more time to go back and read this, but in the mean time I must say that I'm very angry. The very last thing ......
  216. 04/05/2005The media in general is conspiring to scare the hell out of me.Lets get something really clear. The only calming factor I've had, which I've been able to count on, as a father with three girls -- one rapidly approaching teenhood, and another one not at all far enough behind -- is that regardless of what teenaged boys ......
  217. 03/30/2005(Another) Review of TeamStudio's new LotusScript class browserRather than a simple announcement, I've decided to give an early review of Team Studio's new object browser tool. It fills a big gap by providing a fairly good object browser to use with your LotusScript agents and classes. Its not perfect, but it is ......
  218. 03/28/2005So, why re-invent the wheel?One of you sent me an email asking how the code I wrote was different from simply using: import java.net.*; InetAddress addr = InetAddress.getByName("www.yahoo.com"); System.out.println("IP Address = " + addr.getHostAddress()); I have to admit, its not ......
  219. 03/25/2005DNS Lookup from LotusScript anyone?I've written some code and I'm thinking of making it available as a toolkit in a compiled script library. Using LotusScript with ls2j and a java object I created, you can easily pass in a name server and host name and get back the ip address of the host ......
  220. 03/24/2005Creating a single outbound SMTP server for your Domino DomainI get more questions about smtp routing than anything else. Here's some notes taken from a recent presentation I gave at LotusSphere 2005 that should help you resolve some of the problems. The idea here, is not to have all your Domino servers routing mail ......
  221. 03/23/2005Geekfest -- what does your home office look like?I originally posted this in response to Bill's question here Lots of people have a home office. Lots are geeks. Are you up to the challenge? What does your geekworld look like? My office is a few hunderd square feet of space off the kitchen area, with ......
  222. 03/23/2005Does Bank One really think sending me deceptively written marketing will make me a customer?Like all of you, I get credit card offers almost daily in the postal mail. I've noticed a trend though. I can almost guess the card vendor based on the type and level of deception they used to get you to open it. I've had one recently that was ......
  223. 03/23/2005Well -- Customer's data restored, my own server upgrade done, and I'm back to blogging. What a week. A customer managed to destroy about 50 gigs of data and found out their backups were 90 days out of date -- that took some real effort to clean up. Then I had my own server to upgrade. If you notice this site moving a bit faster, its gone ......
  224. 03/17/2005Did you know that using Java Agents is inherently multi-threaded? I nearly cooked my processor finding out....I discovered something interesting yesterday. I'd written some code for a project I'm working on dealing with spam management. The code examines native mime, parses and pulls out target URL's and does some things with them. This means a huge amount of ......
  225. 03/17/2005My darn desktop6.ndk crashed.....gr...If you, like me, have hundreds of database icons on your desktop and haven't got a good backup of your desktop6.ndk file -- make one. It is immensely frustrating to have to re-create that hierarchy. It brings me back to thinking about a solution that uses ......
  226. 03/12/2005Got Snow? Take a look at these pictures ......
  227. 03/10/2005Microsoft buying Groove - good for SOHO, good for Microsoft, irrelevant to IBM strategy.The truth is, Microsoft needs Groove, and Groove needs Microsoft. Microsoft needs inspiration and direction to make their play in the so-called “groupware” or “collaboration” space more complete. Groove needs backing, and a compelling suite of surrounding ......
  228. 03/04/2005How much investment do you make in your clients....when they'll never know?Its Friday night, and I'm waiting for Battlestar Galactica to start on SciFi (we already know I'm a geek) and trying to come up with something interesting that's not too contrived to put on this blog. After all, you people have been patiently reading ......
  229. 03/02/2005What a difference a week makes. Here's pictures of the latest additional foot of snowIts a good thing there was SOME sublimation between the last storm and this one or we'd be just burried.... ......
  230. 02/22/2005Verizon DSL -- 3 days of frustration for 4 days of connectionI ordered Verizon DSL for the condo we're staying at in Florida. Ordered in plenty of time with an activation date the 14th of February. Of course, when I arrived it didn't work. The DSL modem synced up fine with the CO (so it wasn't a line issue) but no ......
  231. 02/22/2005Ah, warm, calm, and relaxed at last. New car, and pics from the sand in FloridaIts sure been a stressful couple of weeks, but at long last I've got space to take a breath. First, I replaced the old car with the Pacifica (dealer pictures, not mine) shown at the end of this email. I went to a dealer I've known for years who's always ......
  232. 02/11/2005So, what's your favorite new-car comparison site? There's a really important reason I ask....Last night, about 5 hours after I backed into the garage, the Durango went up in flames. At 4am, the smoke detectors noted the haze and set the alarm off, and everyone got quickly out of the house. I then went back in and grabbed an extinguisher and put out (mostly) the car fire in the garage. Then, I went and got another extinguisher and used half of that to get it more out. Finally, I found a way into the garage from outside. and after pulling the manual release on the door was able to open it and let ......
  233. 02/09/2005Thanks, Rocky! What a great mug!Rocky just sent me one of these by mail. It came out really great! I'd never considered usign Cafe Press, but I think I'll check into it now. They really did a nice job. The picture barely does it justice -- the image comes out just ......
  234. 02/04/2005Lungs for George - Please help. * Updated Address for NTAFIn all the years I've been participating in the Lotus Domino community, I've never asked for a contribution or charitable donation to be made for any particular cause, though I've seen it done once or twice. Please forgive me if you find this an inappropriate posting to this space, but the matter is quite important. A short distance from the small town where I am, as many of you know, a volunteer firefighter is another volunteer named George Carman. George is a regular guy who chooses to donate his time ......
  235. 02/04/2005Topping my the list of people who don't get it.... John Dickinson at Messaging PipelineIn this article, an author goes out of his way to project a positive image for a colleague with one heck of an image problem. John spends four of the first five paragraphs in a story (which any first year journalism student knows are supposed to represent ......
  236. 01/30/2005Pictures from Lotusphere 2005 ......
  237. 01/30/2005Major software vendor uses update process to disable features, force upgradeAccording to this article, Intuit Software has disabled some working functionality in its QuickBooks 2002 software in order to push users to upgrade to newer versions. I'm a user of their 2003 product, and I was a user of many previous versions. I've ......
  238. 01/30/2005Great minds think alikeThis image was taken (with permission) from the screen of an IBM employee's laptop. It shows the Notes Icon that's been used for a discussion database around integration of Lotus Domino with IBM Workplace Rich ......
  239. 01/28/2005"Data from the used underwear were downloaded each day to a computer"How can you not drop everything, and go read a story that has quotes like this? Apparently "Each participant wore a special, high-tech set of underwear, which were rigged with sensors and data loggers originally designed to monitor jet fighter motion. The ......
  240. 01/27/2005How will Workplace Rich Client and Workplace Designer play for the Lotus faithful, and what about ISVs?Here at Lotusphere, some of the real news is that Workplace Rich Client and Workplace Designer are going to be very popular tools with the Domino crowd and also with the traditional I.T. shops who prefer central control. That's a pretty big change by ......
  241. 01/26/2005What does a background mean?What should the backdrop for the new IBM Workplace Rich Client look like? I mean, if you’re not working on anything, or if the things you’re working on don’t fill the space. Personally, I’d like it to be transparent. If it’s over your Win32 desktop for ......
  242. 01/25/2005how do you rate vendors at trade shows?My own rating scale runs from "I gotta get me one of these" -- Will Smith's line from Independance Day, to "Coyote Bad" -- where you'd be willing to gnaw your arm off at the elbow to escape the handshake trap of the sales ......
  243. 01/25/2005Lotusphere, Monday -- opening session, and my first twoSome random 1am thoughts from the day... Lotusphere for me this year, is the best in a very long time -- maybe ever. Attendance is up, and people are here buying products and consulting time. I've picked up more business this so far than all previous ......
  244. 01/24/2005Notes from Lotusphere, Arrival to Sunday NightHi all – it’s been a terrific time so far, and just getting started. First, let me say that I’m so honored by the people who have come up to me and said “Hey, Andrew, I read you!” It’s so amazing to me that you take time out of your day to read my ......
  245. 01/21/2005I've established my Lotusphere Base CampI've made it to the Swan, and am establishing base camp. The weather is good now, I hope to make the ascent for the summit before it turns to storms. More later. For now, its time to lay in provisions in the form of a cheap cooler, ice, beer, soda, and 25 ......
  246. 01/20/2005C.U.L.T. Shirt Prize Announced!That's right, we're stepping it up this year. Instead of the traditional $100 handed out, we're going to hand one person a brand new Creative Labs "Zen" Extra 30gb MP3 Player! So, are you going to let your geek flag fly on Wednesday ......
  247. 01/20/2005Another failure of Free Trade Agreements - Stock up on your HP printer consumables now...I picked this story up from Slashdot -- The Wall Street Journal is reporting that HP plans to start using DRM (Digital Rights Management) technologies to region code printer cartridges. Why? The fall of the U.S. Dollar makes them cheaper for folks in ......
  248. 01/19/2005This just in -- New information about Workplace Designer!Special thanks to Brandon Smith, Chris Reckling, and others who helped make it possible to get special permission to publish the following. Please keep in mind, it was written two days after I got the information, but permission to publish was held until ......
  249. 01/19/2005Great new tiny wifi router, access point, bridge from DLINKJust got this one in. Its about the size of my business card, but range is pretty good. It does all things you would expect in a wifi router, or in a wifi access point, or in a wifi client (bridge). The thing is, it does all three. Even more, you switch ......
  250. 01/19/2005If you see me at Lotusphere, say hiIn keeping with others' comments in various fora over the last few days, I just wanted to extend this invitation. If you see me, say hi. I'd be happy to introduce you to those around me. This may be security guards ejecting me from a business partner rep ......
  251. 01/17/2005Feedback requested -- BP108 - Admin Zero to Hero in 60 MinutesI've just finished the presentation for this session. They've got me scheduled to deliver it twice next week. The first time, I'm in a room set up for nearly 700 people, but at the same time as "What's new in Domino 7", "What's new in the Domino Designer ......
  252. 01/12/2005Geeze, I sure hope those t-shirts don't need any more revisions...Or that Adobe has a big sale on this software really ......
  253. 01/12/2005Taking apart the Radicati predictions 1 by 1Well, the Radicati (don't say Microsoft bought and paid for too loud) Group has predictions out again. Lets take a look at them shall we? 1 We [Radicati] expect IBM Lotus Notes/Domino to continue losing market share to MS Exchange and other players. Q4 ......
  254. 01/10/2005A professional rubber band counter!It goes to show you just how careful you need to be when raising children. This note came home with my 5 year old today.... ......
  255. 01/08/2005Child labor implicated in the production of C.U.L.T. shirts for 2005! An anonymous tip totally unrelated to UNICEF, Doctors Without Borders, the AARP, the Democrats, the Republicans, or Microsoft today reported that child labor has been used to produce materials related to this year's CULT 2005 T-Shirts. The CULT (Certified ......
  256. 01/08/2005A good little link-checker for your site, and its freeI've just set up a new linux based machine which will host a few partitions for me. Among them, will soon be this server, 'www.thenorth.com' -- which will run on the new parition "IDHL/thenorth". As I start moving stuff over to it, I need to check for ......
  257. 01/07/2005Lotusphere 2005 draws near.... the C.U.L.T. shirts draw nearer....Perhaps these will be of interest to some of you. The spy cam in effect... ......
  258. 01/06/2005Wow, I've been busy. Here's a meaty tech post, about the intermittent time-out issue some of us have seen in Domino/Notes communicationSorry I haven't been posting. I'm working on some new things here, and have been REALLY busy on client work. BTW: I am aware of at least one IBM person working on this problem. As a courtesy, I will not mention the person's name as they are not a frequent ......
  259. 12/22/2004Big Fish -- Remembering those larger than life peopleLast night I watched one of those movies that critics and viewers both are completely split on -- I loved it. http://www.apple.com/trailers/sony_pictures/big_fish/ The movie is the story of a man, who not content with the banalities of every day life ......
  260. 12/20/2004Congrats to John HeadHearty congrats to John Head, who has gone back and now finished his degree. John is now a man of letters. Excellent work, John. I'm glad someone has the patience for it. ......
  261. 12/20/2004Wow -- O.C.R. that really works WELL. A great new printer/scanner that fits my need perfectly.My new Epson CX6600 printer/scanner came with the usual assortment of utilities and photo tools. Normally, I wouldn't look twice at them but for some reason I did this time. I'm impressed. The tools are outstanding, as is the printer. You may have noticed ......
  262. 12/20/2004So really, rather than being defective, apparently I am a "Hunter living in a Farmer's World"I've been reading a fantastic book by Thom Hartman called "Attention Deficit Disorder: A Different Perception". Originally written with the central metaphor describing the traits of the person who as this "disorder" as Hunter/Gatherer living in society ......
  263. 12/17/2004 Updated -- I've released my first truly hybrid .NET / Domino production application today* Updated * I've talked before about the power of hybrid applications. This one, out in the wild tonight gives the ease of use associated with native applications combined with security and flexibility of the back end Domino system. A professional quality ......
  264. 12/17/2004Of careless peopleTwo men set out on a long, late tripof coffee or tea, barely a sip. Dark night, long road, one sleeps in his seatthe other one too, lets slumber creep. Yours truly at last laying down to restmuch undone, the place a mess. Alas our travelers have failed to ......
  265. 12/10/2004Have you reviewed your telecom costs lately?In the course of about 2 hours, I've cut my telecom bills by more than $200 a month starting next week and gotten a whole ton of better services. First, at Verizon Wireless I'm turning of Barb's old cell that's now out of contract and she's not using. ......
  266. 12/09/2004Preview the new site....Any feedback would be welcome...well, most would anyway. I hope to make it live tomorrow. ......
  267. 12/08/2004What I'm not hearing talked about, in IBM's sale of its PC business...So IBM is selling its PC business. Its in all the press, so you can read the details there. What I don't see much mention of is one of the biggest reasons why this is happening. Another business partner pointed out that the outsourced firm in Korea which ......
  268. 12/08/2004Delivering 2 sessions at LotusSphere 2005 in January! They're going to be fun.Well, they've allowed me back in this year. I'm really looking forward to delivering this new one. I think we'll have a lot of fun. If you have any ideas you'd like to see me incorporate, please let me know. Since this is a best practices track, I think ......
  269. 12/04/2004A few site notes....A few site notes -- Look for updates and additions in several of the side bar items. I've finally gotten around to updating ......
  270. 12/04/2004Tomorrow is R.I.T. "Final" DayWith all the training for the R.I.T. I finally finish tomorrow. We're doing a joint exercise with Yarmouth -- the next town over. It should be fun. My 11 year old daughter will be along to take pictures so maybe some will end up here. Don't expect ......
  271. 12/03/2004Do you "Skype" ? I do now. What a wonderful way to waste time!Much better than chatting with a keyboard. Skype ( http://www.skype.com ) lets you use your speakers and microphone (assuming you have one) on your PC or laptop (most laptops have them built in) to have a real telephone like conversation with another ......
  272. 11/26/2004Charlie Brown's Thanksgiving -- making one of the dumbest American-Centric statements I've ever heardOk. I watched this show with my kids last night. It started off with a statement by Linus (no, not Torvalds) about how important the holiday is. He actually declared that "these early American's were the first to declare a holiday to be thankful". ......
  273. 11/20/2004Announcing NCT Compliance SearchIn Q.A. testing now is the first in a series of NCT Search 3.0 products. Compliance search differs from a regular search in a key way. It is designed not to sort results and give you the top most likely useful information -- it is designed to give you ALL ......
  274. 11/20/2004Watch this space! I have seen what's coming, and it rocks!I've got a document in being reviewed for NDA stuff and awaiting permission to post -- so keep an eye on this space. Soon I can tell you why I finally think Lotus Workplace may be a place I could write code, make money, and build the kinds of solutions ......
  275. 11/19/2004A favorite (sneaky) Domino technique I've never come across beforeI've been using "notesAgent.runOnServer()" for a long time -- and It ALMOST does what I want. I have always wanted it to detach from the current process so the client doesn't have to sit and wait for it. I wanted to do it without any API calls too. Well, ......
  276. 11/14/2004Dutch Violence against Muslims Continues On Volker Weber's blog in response to a topic posted just following the election I had be vehemently deriding some of the comments I'd seen by people there and in the European press about the choices we made in our elections here in the U.S. The most ......
  277. 11/14/2004Can **insert name here** beat Google? Is Intel's new chip faster than AMD's? Will SP2 bring the known world to a halt?It must be a slow news month in the I.T. industry now that Microsoft's strategy at the desktop has been set back so far, Intel has finally dropped off the escalating gigahertz numbers game, and service pack 2 didn't bring the world to halt. In the last ......
  278. 11/13/2004Well, it had to happen some time...It had to happen at some point. A strange confluence of events left me in the "command" role at a small fire scene today. We were the second engine due, meaning we should have gone to the hydrant but the other engine made a wrong turn so we ended up at ......
  279. 11/13/2004Adobe update finally stops hanging Firefox when I read PDF files on lineFinally! I've had the problem for a long time -- open a web site which is a PDF and it works, but then if you close that page or use the back button or some combination I never quite got my finger on it would hang Adobe Acrobat Reader and Firefox. It was ......
  280. 11/11/2004When to use .recycle() in your Domino Java agents...There are some things that drive me nuts about the way Domino has implemented the Java interfaces to the back end classes. One of them is the need to call .recycle(). The problem is that if you don't explicitly call recycle() on each object your have ......
  281. 11/11/2004Some jobs are so fun you have to do them twiceI went to put the snow tires on my wife's Honda minivan tonight because we're expecting our first bit of snow tomorrow. When I bought these, rather than paying twice a year to have all four wheels remounted and balanced I purchased some cheap wheels and ......
  282. 11/11/2004My 11 year old has far surpassed my limited musical talents nowI was listening to Ari play the recorder today, and had to ask her why she was working so hard on a tune for that when she's taking sax lessons now. The recorder was last year -- a part of fourth grade, but something she really took off with and earned ......
  283. 11/09/2004Really enjoyed Baltimore -- and that was surprisingSo a week or so ago I was in Baltimore to speak at the Advisor conference. Of course, the folks at Advisor did a great job as they always do. A surprise to me was how Baltimore has become more interesting. My knowledge of that city is very limited, having ......
  284. 11/08/2004Some of my favorite pictures from this yearI haven't posted any pictures in a while. Take a look at these, all from the last several months, and let me know if there are any you really like. [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] ......
  285. 11/08/2004Bloglines processes RSS tag as a PERMALINK -- technically ok, but leads to confusion.As reported by a reader of this blog, Bloglines was parsing the tag of the RSS feed from this site instead of thetag when creating URLs. This caused many bloglines readers difficulties in accessing the brilliance (and the other 99% of the content) of this ......
  286. 11/04/2004Presentations from Baltimore on Domino / Notes 7, Domino 7 w/ DB2 Integration, and the IBM Workplace Rich ClientSchedule: 11/02/2004 08:00 AM, 11/03/2004 11:00 AMIBM Lotus Domino 7 Meets IBM DB2Andrew PollackTake a deep dive into an all-new aspect of Domino 7, and discover what it means to store Domino data in DB2. This session gives you a heavy developer focus. ......
  287. 11/04/2004Some assembly requiredFrom Rob Novak's presentation covering the installation of Websphere Portal Server, comes this slide comparing the difficulty installing that application to his new weight bench. The caption, if you can't read it, is "This is the Wieder Pro 4000 weight ......
  288. 11/04/2004Regardless of the resulting winners, the U.S. can stand proud as such a hard-fought election cycle completes peacefully and with overall fairness.Though the result wasn't entirely to my liking, I must say how pleased I am overall with the results of Tuesday's election. How great for our country that at the end of a year long vitriolic and divisive race, that record numbers of citizens packed the ......
  289. 11/01/2004Advisor Devcon - Baltimore 2004!Well folks, I made it to Baltimore. I think its going to be a good conference. If you're a reader of this blog, look me up while you're here. I'd like to meet both of ......
  290. 10/26/2004Please, make it stop!I tend to consume informational media of all kinds pretty much all day. That either makes me a fountain of obscure information or a complete bore -- the difference depends on how much you like or dislike hearing me rant about it. I wake up to NPR, BBC ......
  291. 10/22/2004The laptop has a new lease on lifeA new lease on life for this 'old' machine. I'd looked into replacing it because it can't handle more than 1gb of RAM. That's enough for most work, but for demos and things I wanted to go to 2gb so I can more comfortably run a few virtual machines at ......
  292. 10/18/2004Maine in OctoberIf you live in this area, October is the time to keep your camera nearby. All these are taken at the spur of the moment, while driving down the same roads I travel every day. The light is right and you just "see" the shot you need to take. Enjoy. Click to ......
  293. 10/18/2004And now, back to the Universal Rich Client discussionI think if you look through this presentation document you'll see why I'm so excited. Here's some highlights: 1. There is a huge unserved market of people who used to use greenscreen terminals and now use bad web applications or really bad customer ......
  294. 10/17/2004What can we learn from endlessly watching yet another "Reality TV goes Inside Industry "X" show?I was watching "American Casino" the other night. I've never seen it before, and really wasn't that interested in it, but I was working and it was on. I ended up really enjoying it, even though it was predictable, uninspired, repetitive, and filled with ......
  295. 10/14/2004Well, I held my nose and votedI'll be at the Advisor Devcon in Baltimore on Election day (maybe we should rent a car and drive to a bar in DC -- maybe the Crystal City Marriott -- that night to watch the results come in) so i did my absentee ballot. Yech. For President, I had the ......
  296. 10/10/2004And speaking of Flu -- it looks like I've brought it homeLooks like I've brought the Flu home thanks to enclosed space breathing on aircraft and such. ......
  297. 10/09/2004Forwarded from elsewhere....the new Florida Voting MachineIf you can't vote with this, you can't think well enough to ......
  298. 10/09/2004Its clear we'd rather go to war than fix our health care problemsIn the U.S., about 50% of the expected vaccine this year has become unavailable. Its a known fact that each year in our country, more than 36,000 people die as a result of complications from the flu. These are the youngest children, the most elderly, and ......
  299. 10/08/2004If Bush really is being prompted in the debates, he should fire the whole team who set it up.According to some, this picture is proof that Bush is getting help with his debate points. If true, how pitifully sad in three respects. First, that he would need the help. Second, that he would think nobody would find out. Third, that the idiots couldn't ......
  300. 10/08/2004No good choices to be foundWas responding to a note forwarded by family when I wrote this rant -- but decided what the hell, I'll blog it too... You know, its a shame again this year. Just when the Republicans have gone so far over the rainbow (hm, I don't think they'd like that ......
  301. 10/08/2004In Java, it could be expressed: (Person)andrewJayPollack.yearsOld++Strange birthday this year, as I'm getting older but feeling several years younger than last year. Healthy living, physical activity, and good friends will do that. In fact, I've managed to make it through 37 years now without voiding the warrantee. I ......
  302. 10/07/2004Found Camera at Logan AirportWalking back to my truck at Logan, around 21:00 last night, I found a note on my windshield saying "this must be your phone" and a small padded pouch. Inside the pouch was a camera -- a rather nice digital camera, nearly brand new. I've called the state ......
  303. 10/07/2004Presentations from H&T Verlags Admin + Dev 2004 in UKI'm going to add these to the site more formally at some point soon (I'm building a new structure for this sort of material) but in the mean time, here are the presentations essentially as delivered. I wish I could have taped them, as I think particularly ......
  304. 10/06/2004Lunch On-Demand at IBMI failed twice, but after considerable effort I was able to purchase Lunch "ON-Demand" at IBM's "Embassy" near Heathrow airport in England. I say "Embassy" because "Customer Center" or such doesn't describe it well at all. IBM's economy is larger than ......
  305. 10/06/2004The H&T Conference in London was great....Relief that I'm done though....I must say that once again I am amazed at what a professional production the H&T people put on. I am happy to say that in terms of real training value for the time and money, its a great deal for anyone in the area. I really enjoy how many of my greatly ......
  306. 10/05/2004Great slide from London -- more laterThe conference was great, I'll write a lot more later -- for now...Its been a long time since you could expect to see a slide like this on an IBM given Keynote.... Hats off to Bill Hume for delivering this ......
  307. 09/29/2004I sure wish I could be impressed with Spaceship OneWell, thanks to the X prize and a guy with some 25 million dollars to burn, we’ve proven that a talented engineer given enough money and a willing test subject can use existing proven technology and well known and documented science and engineering to do ......
  308. 09/29/2004Admin & Dev 2005 near London -- a great way to handle conference CD'sThese guys put on a great show. For such a small conference, the speaker list is great and the level of effort the organizers put in is outstanding. I've enjoyed both previous times I've done speaking engagements for them. One thing I really like that I ......
  309. 09/29/2004Two days off, spent at the county fairA relaxing couple of days at the county fair. This picture is from last year. I didn't bring a camera this time around so just for you I dug this one up from someone's collection. Our town hosts this fair each year, one of many such harvest fairs that ......
  310. 09/29/2004The not so golden gooseLast night as I was going to bed, we heard the distinctive honk of a goose outside. As a pool owner, this can be a very bad thing. 23:00 found me outside putting the pool cover on after chasing away the first of goose of the season. Actually, he was ......
  311. 09/26/2004So all clues point to Google Browser soon -- but they're not saying...or are they?Well, the google people are at it again. They're registered a domain, hosted the mozilla dev conference, and done a few other things that at first glance look like the worst kept secret in history. Remember though, these are the guys who created major ......
  312. 09/25/2004Ok Mac People: Name some fun software that's ok for kids and runs on older hardware....I'm giving my 9 year old daughter this G3 400mhz iMac. Its been upgraded now to 256 megs but only has 8mb of video memory. As a result, Tony Hawk Skater Pro 4 won't run. Now, to make the sale on ripping her PC out and replacing it with this iMac, I need ......
  313. 09/23/2004After an insane amount of effort, OS X -Panther is installed on the old iMacThis is why working with Macs can be frustrating to PC people. Here I am with a perfectly capable G3 iMac I found for $20. It came with 64mb and OS 9.0. First, it took links from friends, and many hours to find out just what the machine was. Then, if it ......
  314. 09/22/2004Finally, some meaning to that tired, useless mantra "Its standards based" from IBM trying to get me to try the new productsOk. Very little has irked me more in the marketing diatribe about the newer products than the hollow "Its standards based, Domino is proprietary" argument. It comes as dogma, to be accepted without further explanation as if it were obvious in the way ......
  315. 09/20/2004Curmudgeon declares Rich Client a winnerWell all; I had the privilige of talking with some of the designers, movers, and shakers on working on the new Rich Client. It'll be a day or two before I'm sure what I can and can't talk about in any detail, but at this point I can say a few very small ......
  316. 09/16/2004Wondering where I've been...For this week, and next, I'm blogging daily here: http://expertanswercenter.techtarget.com/eac/blog/0,295203,sid63_tax297876,00.html I'm a guess expert. I'm answering a few questions and writing a few thoughts. They just sent the advertising out that I'm ......
  317. 09/09/2004R.I.T. Training -- the most fun you can have on your hands and knees (in gear)Its amazing really. Just a couple of years ago I wrotethis descriptionof my first time in a live fire. I've put in hundreds of hours of training and calls since then, in the meantime getting certified to drive the Ladder and Heavy Rescue trucks along with ......
  318. 09/03/2004Response to a press inquiry about Senderid, Workplace, and IBM's directionI got a request from someone in the press yesterday for information on a few topics. Of course, the request came with the comment that he is under deadline and needs any comments quickly -- as is always the case. I try to be pretty complete when I write ......
  319. 09/01/2004A couple of things done really well in ND7 Beta M2 DB2 IntegrationSometimes things are just done RIGHT. Here's a couple of screenshots from the Admin client in the Lotus Domino 7 public beta. What you can see is how easy it is first to move a Notes database from storage in traditional "NSF" format to storage as a ......
  320. 09/01/2004Ok Apple OS-X geeks -- some advice pleaseI bought this at a garage sale for $20 -- working. After some cleaning (it was covered in stickers and the see through keyboard was literally filled with crumbs and other nasty stuff) its a great shape. I've added some ram (it came with 64 megs, now it ......
  321. 08/30/2004A great tip, and good example of using LS2J in LotusScript I don't normally do a lot of outside linking to places that require a member log-in to read the content, but this tip is particularly good. It may even be good enough to justify submitting your email address and risking getting some mail (though I've ......
  322. 08/30/2004Serious studying these days on the Workplace Rich ClientI've spent the weekend head down in red papers reading about the new Workplace Rich Client in preparation for a session I'm doing on it at Advisor in Baltimore. Its a lot to digest, and I've got some questions to get answered first, but I think a few ......
  323. 08/27/2004Longhorn to the slaughterhouse -- Now its low grade ground beefSoftware comes and software goes. You try things, they work or they don't and you move on. Personally, I don't think the story here is Longhorn's (or more accurately WINFS) ultimate failure. That's a symptom. The story is the icepick through the heart of ......
  324. 08/27/2004New meaning to the term "Bite my ....."A cancer patient has enjoyed his first solid meal in nine years - after doctors rebuilt his jaw by growing another one on his back. Four weeks after the pioneering operation, the man was able to tuck in to a sausage sandwich . The 56-year-old German was ......
  325. 08/27/2004Seeking PCMCIA Card Case -- Any ideas?I'm carrying more -- and more important -- PCMCIA cards lately. You see, the use of VMWARE (amazing tool) has pushed my laptop over the brink. My "old" Dell Inspiron 8200 has reached a point where a few of things are a bit weak. In particular the max of 1 ......
  326. 08/26/2004A big thank you to Ms. "S" -- who set up a wireless linksys with default accessI don't know who you are, but I know we were nearby. Last night I stayed at a hotel south of here with my kids. The hotel room internet wire didn't give me an IP. I tried wireless and in 10 seconds was on a wireless router in another room. Must have been ......
  327. 08/24/2004Lotus Domino 7 beta M2 - So far, awesomeSo far so good in my testing with Domino 7. I haven't done performance testing yet, but I've been running the server along with the trial DB2 and the client, designer, and admin all in a Windows 2000 Pro "Generic" virtual machine under vmware on my hotrod ......
  328. 08/22/2004Why can't my whole PC replicate?Why is it that My laptop is never quite in sync? I use it less frequently than my PC for the simple reason that my PC is way way faster. I recognize the value of having a single laptop with the "oomph" to be your only machine. I know NotesDawg does this, ......
  329. 08/22/2004Business vs. Personal in a community forumCultures are very different, often in subtle ways. What happens in a public or semi-public forum with a very mixed culture but enough long term bonds to also feel somewhat familial? In my family, as in many of yours, argument is the norm. Sometimes loud ......
  330. 08/20/2004What's REALLY interesting about the Google IPOGoogle, as a company, reminds me of some of my geek friends. They don't accept for a second that things have to work the way they have always worked. Its what made their search engine better than anyone else's for a long time. Its also why GMAIL works for ......
  331. 08/20/2004Thinking about "The Welcome Page"A strange experience yesterday -- and not the usual kind either. I was at a client's office talking about an application I'm building for them, and the conversation turned to the "entry point" on the application. This will be, for these users, the ......
  332. 08/20/2004What's your favorite new R7 feature from the Beta?I'm working to finalize the presentation for a conference that covers new things in the beta -- what are you favorites? I wouldn't want to over look ......
  333. 08/20/2004Bravo to the Brits -- new anti-spam measures take aim at the profitThis article from the BBC reports that a new policy adopted by the London Internet Exchange -- a network where most of the UK providers connect to transfer data between them -- will now shut down firms that benefit from spam even if the spam is being sent ......
  334. 08/20/2004LotusSphere 2005 Registration opens early with a discount for CLPsThis information was mailed to me. I'm happy to share it with you. I'm also glad to be hearing distant rumors of much increased technical depth and renewed focus on existing core technologies to give attendees value they can use immediately. Bravo to the ......
  335. 08/20/2004Dedicated bandwidth is very nice...You've got to love this kind of ......
  336. 08/18/2004Follow-up and pictures -- Andrew vs. Durango [] [] [] [] [] Background: Had an A/C leak. Went through an occasional can (of r134a refrigerant -- $4 at Wal-Mart), then after a while more and more. Leak detector had no effect -- could simply not find anything. Turns out, it was a common issue on these ......
  337. 08/18/2004China one-ups the U.S. by outsourcing its populationAccording to this story http://washingtontimes.com/upi-breaking/20040818-105443-7992r.htm in the Washington Times, India's population will soon swell to overtake that of China. Soon, it won't be a billion Chinese that can't be wrong unless they first poll ......
  338. 08/16/2004Lots of fun tomorrow - Its heavy car repair timeWell my 98 Durango with nearly 100k miles on it needs a bit of work. The good news, is the replacement of the part itself is about 15 minutes. The bad news, is that to get to the part needing replacement and then to put it all back its going to take ......
  339. 08/15/2004If you're waiting for a storm, a map like this can be frustratingAs you see, if there was a way to avoid this storm, Cumberland has found it so ......
  340. 08/14/2004Well, it won't be as bad as Florida, but Charlie is due to call here in a few hoursFor me, this pretty much means flooded basement calls, a few down powerlines, maybe a car wreck or two to respond to. They're saying 3-4" of rain and some good but not excessive wind by the time it gets ......
  341. 08/14/2004So I find myself with a surplus of the much sought after gmail invitations. Anyone need one?Somone want to help me fill this ......
  342. 08/12/2004Toys 'R Us getting out of the toy business.... and what is K-Mart doing?[] Toys 'R Us not selling toys? K-Mart not selling anything? What's going on? The economy in our country is getting stranger and stranger. I'm an avid listener of "Marketplace" on our local public radio station and I've heard two stories recently that to ......
  343. 08/12/2004Is High-Def TV slow on the uptake because it misses a key point?[] High definition tv has been around a while now but seems slower on the uptake than other entertainment technologies. Its admittedly expensive still, but there hasn't been a huge demand for low end HDTV either. If there were, smaller screens and ......
  344. 08/10/2004My favorite new(ish) @Functions( )[] Well, its sure been a long time since I did a really heavy duty new Lotus Notes Client application with a full blown user interface. I have to admit, I've really had to reach back into that back of tricks from way back when. I've also had to refresh on ......
  345. 08/09/2004Time for a new approach to anti-spam lawsAnti-spam laws are hung up on definitions in two fatal ways. First, they try to define spam; and second, they try to define the techniques used to send spam. Often the latter is an attempt at the former. This is a hopeless legal strategy and too easily ......
  346. 08/07/2004Avoidance -- what tricks does your own mind play on you?I'm sitting here fighting with myself to do some work. The work is important. I'm being paid for the work. Deadlines are approaching. Not doing the work is in at least a small way self destructive. It is exactly at this moment that I come up with a ......
  347. 08/07/2004Easy hack at WiFi hotspots - Defensive measuresThe recent Defcon 12 hacker conference was the scene of the release of a brilliant new tool for creating havoc on public wifi sites. Now I'm not in favor of actually doing any of this but from a purely technical perspective, I must say I love this. What ......
  348. 08/06/2004Windows XP sp2 is rolling out -- will you be the first?[] Well, its released. Windows XP sp2. The biggest patch yet and as of last week so unstable that reports of major rebuilds on analyst systems to undue the damage of test versions. Are you going to be the first? I'm ......
  349. 08/06/2004The difference between a hardware channel and a developer channelI’m reading some things on IBM’s appointment of a new top channel guy, particularly interesting was Zarly’s take on it. Opinions abound of course. Mine is that IBM are desperate for someone to turn the program into something sensible. I hope Don turns out ......
  350. 08/06/2004You work all day, and what do you get?Well, another year older ......
  351. 08/05/2004Personal Technology Defence - Not what you think[] Personal Technology Defense - no, I'm not talking about defense technology, I'm talking about all the things you have to do to protect your own technology from the ways other people -- primarily advertisers -- want to use it to get to you. It was just ......
  352. 07/30/2004Some thoughts from the conventionI mostly listened to the convention speeches this week as I've been heads down programming on client work for 18-20 hour days. One that made a big impression was Al Sharpton. Now I don't care for Al's politics all that much -- he's too far off the center ......
  353. 07/29/2004Some great practical advice on personal credit securityThis was forwarded to me by a friend. It is a list that originally (supposedly) came from an attorney who's credit was stolen. I can't verify the source, but the advice is good. The next time you order checks have only your initials (instead of first ......
  354. 07/29/2004One story about FX's "Rescue Me" show, and I'm #3 on the search listHow strange, that after simply writing a single story about FX Channel's "Rescue Me" I started seeing a crazy number of hits. Turns out that when I check I was (for the moment) the third search result returned for "FX Channel" and near the top also for ......
  355. 07/27/2004Stargate Atlantis : Science Fiction Formula - YawnOk. Create some really powerful magic technology, but then to make sure you still have a story you have to limit that technology. Now, you need a group of people large enough to have stories, but small enough to be alone and without help. Strand them out ......
  356. 07/27/2004Actual useful things that drive my brand loyalty - Great things smart companies are doingI was doing some catching up, going through my bills today and I came across a receipt from BJ's for a couple of air conditions that had rebates on them totalling forty bucks. Now if you have ADHD, you have to really think twice about taking something ......
  357. 07/24/2004An example of why hyperthreading rocksSitting and surfing the net, researching smtp proxies (I'm working on a heuristic anti-spam solution), and I get this alert on my PC indicating my processor temperature is exceeding the recommendation of its manufacturer. In this machine it shouldn't ever ......
  358. 07/22/2004My vedict on "Rescue Me" (FX Channel, Wed 10pm)I haven't done a firefighting blog entry in a while, so here's a good excuse. FX Network rolled out its new show "Rescue Me" last night. Here its cable channel 62, and I almost didn't hear about it. Like any firefighter show right now, the first episode ......
  359. 07/21/2004Workstation Wars: For the Next Generation its back to the original fightThe battle over how you’ll work at your personal computer is heating up again and the big players are aligning into sides on two distinct battles. We're already pretty familiar with the first battle. Should software be "Open" and "Standard" or "Closed" ......
  360. 07/20/2004Domino Server Capacity Planning – An Alternative GuidelineI was chatting with Richard about server capacity tonight (yeah, we do know how to live it up) and these thoughts came to mind as a result... It’s been a long time since I had to put real thought into how many traditional Lotus Notes mail client users I ......
  361. 07/16/2004Bobby Fisher Caught? He should have castled!Man, he must be getting old. Any really good chess player in that situation would have castled! Suddenly, he "Rooks" the Philipinos and is himself in Thailand! "One town, is very like another when your head's down over your pieces, brother." ......
  362. 07/16/2004The notes/domino 7 beta two new features list is out -- the list as a whole ROCKSThere are a huge number of new features listed. Hope to take some time to examine the implications of many of these shortly. Some favorites (personally) include: WebAdmin client supports Mozilla! Use Eclipse (or other 3rd party tools) as your Debugger ......
  363. 07/15/2004IBM to Acquire Alphablox, an outstanding toolkit for data miningAdvisor Magazine is reporting that IBM now plans to acquire "Alphablox" for data mining. Some of you know I took a year out from consulting to work for Rich Schwartz at a company doing some interesting transactional work around legal invoicing. My job ......
  364. 07/14/2004One of the biggest winners in this year's election cycle is already knownEven though he lost out in the primaries a few years back, Republican Sen. John McCain of Arizona has absolutely not fallen back into the relative obscurity of that southwestern state. By staying his ground in the relative middle ground and refusing to ......
  365. 07/12/2004Would the current administration be dumb enough to try postponing elections?All over the press today (try cnn.com or usatoday.com or one of the others) is the question Tom Ridge was fool enough to ask. What would need to be in place -- what laws, rules, situations, etc. -- to postpone the November elections in the event of a ......
  366. 07/12/2004The end of the e-mail centered workdayFor some, that first e-mail account came with going off to college or business school, and that first dial-up session to some big machine you envisioned being tended by white coated lab technicians in a clean, well lit, secure facility somewhere. For ......
  367. 07/11/2004Blogging from Coastal Maine todayMy wife's parents have this stunning property out on Davis Point in Friendship, Maine. Its right on the water looking into the rocky coastal waters here, on a protected inlet off the bay. The view is of rocky shores, small islands, rare birds, lobster ......
  368. 07/11/2004Security notices for Domino / NotesWell, a few security notices to be aware of: Andrew's Note: In this first one, I guess its not surprise that using an outdated embedded JVM that can't be managed outside the client install and thus can't be updated my be vulnerable. I suggest dissabling ......
  369. 07/10/2004Social networks driven by false ego gratificationHas anyone actually derived real value from the various commercial experiments in “social networks”? As part of my personal field of interest – the ways people and technology combine to produce a result that is greater than either – I’m always grateful ......
  370. 07/10/2004Network connection timeout issue on Domino?Are your Domino sessions between servers or from client to server going away? Over the last months I’ve seen this many times and had a hard time tracing it down. In a private forum for Business Partners, we’ve had some success at drawing the attention of ......
  371. 07/01/2004Saturn's Rings - Amazing PhotoCasini did it! Click here for ABC's ......
  372. 06/30/2004Wow, linux has come a long way. Here's an easy way to see for yourself.Linux at the desktop is here, and nearly accessible for even the least experienced end users. Looking at it now in terms of ease of use and software availability, most users will find it does pretty much everything they need. Most distributions come ......
  373. 06/29/2004The new blogsite is here! The new blogsite is here!Hi all. Just a note of welcome as I kick off the new blogware. Once again, I've written this from scratch myself as an exercise in web development skills. Comments and requests are welcome. There are about 20 features that aren't "live" yet, but I've ......
  374. 06/26/2004Off to go burn a house downWell, some folks on Main street want a house torn down and instead of a bulldozer, they've decided to donate it to the fire department for a training burn. Stories later, I'm sure. I've been slow on the blogging lately because i'm 99.5% done with a new ......
  375. 06/22/2004Guess I get to be one of the cool kids too -- sort of...A friend got me hooked up with GMAIL and I've played with it a bit, but today its not looking so hot. More thoughts on this really well thought out paradigm later. I like it though, I'll say that ......
  376. 06/04/2004Follow-up to the Heathcare topic - Why the Free Market is being abused in this caseI've seen comments suggesting nationalizing the healthcare in this country, and of course there's the continued arguments as there are on nationalization in general that can run on both sides endlessly. I don't think anyone would disagree that the 'free ......
  377. 06/01/2004Healthcare costs are killing this economy, and drug cards and discounts are not going to help. Living in a small town in New England, we still have small scale democracy at a very granular level. Our town of well under 10,000 people and the small town adjacent share a school district -- MSAD51. For both the town budget and the school district, a ......
  378. 05/20/2004L.L. Bean goes after spyware advertisers where it hurtsL.L. Bean filed suits in a U.S. District Court in Portland, Maine which named two department store chains (Nordstrom and JC Penney) as well as two other mail order companies specializing in supplements and coffee. These firms have advertised with "Gator" ......
  379. 05/18/2004An arm and a legFrom USA Today (always good at pictures and graphs) http://www.usatoday.com/news/politicselections/nation/president/2004-05-18-dems-gas-prices_x.htm A gas station owner in Menlo Park, Calif., expresses his opinion on the recent surge in gasoline prices. ......
  380. 05/18/2004The Pepsi Syndrome -- or coffee, or coke, or whateverSitting in a Border's books using T-Mobile and keep dropping the signal. About the 4th time, I realize its because I'm putting the nice tall cup of iced cola next to the wireless card. 802.11 wireless uses the same frequency as your microwave oven, ......
  381. 05/14/2004Evidence of giant meteor that destroyed nearly all life on earth is found - Bush blames Al QuadaScientists have discovered evidence that a giant asteroid crashed to Earth about 250 million years ago, creating a 200-kilometre-wide crater off the coast of Australia and possibly killing most of the species that lived on Earth at the time. ......
  382. 05/06/2004True Brotherhood & LoyaltySome of you know that I took a class last weekend at the CCFAS (Cumberland County Fire Attack School). I have to say that one of the coolest things about the weekend was the overwhelming sense of brotherhood when you're around other firefighters. The guys ......
  383. 05/04/2004Keeping things in perspective - from a hazmat drill, me in a class B suit[] Hi all! I thought you might enjoy some pictures of your favorite computer geek / firefighter doing a haz-mat refresher drill. This took place a few days ago on a Thursday night. The idea is to simulate a decontamination procedure at a hazardous ......
  384. 05/03/2004A "Caitlinism"Those of you who know me have heard me rattle on about Caitlin's unusually logical approach to everything she does, and how it can be a little frustrating when combined with a 4 year old's typically short attention span. Caitlin is a four year old girl ......
  385. 05/01/2004Amazing thermal imaging camera footage, showing how to avert a deadly flashover situationThis weekend, I'm taking an unbelievably amazing class at the Cumberland County Fire Attack School (an annual event). So far, aside from the techniques shown in this footage, I've learned to tie off to an axe handle, wedge it across the corner of a window ......
  386. 04/29/2004Has HBO 'disappeared' an original movie after one showing because it was controversial or was it just bad?The other night I taped a show to watch later. It was to be a "...cautionary scenarios in which two graduate students - one a female American in China, the other a male Arab in New York - are detained without hard evidence and interrogated about ......
  387. 04/15/2004Via an NPR story -- do you know what an "American Camera" is?In some parts of the world, the term "American Camera" is a reference to something that is all flash but fails to produce a picture of any value. It sounds a lot like what they say down in Texas about a person who talks a big game but can't deliver -- ......
  388. 04/11/2004Spring is finally here!Spring is finally here! A sure sign is annual host testing on Engine 1. We spent the morning yesterday pulling all the lines off the truck, filling them and holding pressure (ranging from 100 pounds on the 5" feeder lines to 250 on the inch and three ......
  389. 04/11/2004Yet another noun is 'veribized' into an I.T. termMany of you know that my wife Barbara is also in the I.T. industry. She's the Manager of Information Security at L.L. Bean and in most homes would be 'geek' of residence. I'll let you folks guess as to just how much that holds true in our place. Anyway, ......
  390. 04/11/2004Medical diagnostics suffering from the same thing as I.T. Consulting?An article in the Houston Chronical on April 10th talks about how with medicine becoming so reliant on diagnostic tests and risk factors that doctors and specialists have become very interchangeable and much of the time diagnosis is made not based on a ......
  391. 04/09/2004Working harder and harder on anti-spam I've got really great results with Mark's SPAMJAM product but as is my nature I'm always trying to improve. I've been analyzing the spam that does get through to try to figure out how best to eliminate it. Richard really believes in the idea of bayesian ......
  392. 04/06/2004Here's why you don't store gas cylinders in your carAcetylene gas has a lower flamable limit of 2.5% and an upper flamable limit of 100% (it will burn underwater). If that doesn't convince you not to store it carefully, consider this case from Newcastle, Maine. An "E" size cylinder was left in the cab of a ......
  393. 04/05/2004Two new lotusScript functions replaced some old stanby utility code todayOf course, they're not really that new -- they've been around a bit but I've never really had a reason to use them. I had my old "ParseToArray" function that did just the same thing as one, and the other -- well, its a simple enough loop. They are cool ......
  394. 04/05/2004Lotus Domino wins Network Computing's Editor's Choice!Since there is no way I can state this better than Ed, I'm going to "encapsulate" him here -- or perhaps that should be 'I-capsulate' --- heh heh heh..... ......
  395. 04/05/2004Is life better with a faster 'puter?If you followed last weeks adventure into the building a high performance PC, by now you've got to be desperate to find out..."Was it worth it?" It sure was. Here's a chart: Before (1.7ghz Celeron, 1GB RAM, StandardVideo & Sound, EIDE drive) After (2.8ghz ......
  396. 04/05/2004Excellent shopping charma today! Some neat stuff out there for geeks and geek wanna-be's.Lest you all think my life is nothing but writing amazing code by day (and night) and running into burning buildings or ripping people out of damaged cars by night (and day) I thought I'd share some more mundane fun for a change.... All I really needed ......
  397. 04/02/2004Ballmer and McNealy -- best buds again? Where does that leave big blue?So now Bill gives Scott some two billion bucks, and Scott's all smiles again. What does it mean? Windows gets the JVM, sure. What else? Will we see visual studio sprout new direct integration to the Java run time? Can you imagine a class library add in ......
  398. 04/02/2004Silence is copperThe addition of a Zalman CPU cooler (A replacement for the stock Intel heatsink and fan that came with this cpu) changed my new hotrod PC from a noisy server room candidate to a silent and well behaved desktop denizen. Silence is golden, or in this case ......
  399. 03/29/2004Well, the new PC is all built and happy -- here's a review on the hardware and buildOverall, the whole thing went fairly well. I'll give you a run down on each of the bits of hardware so you can decide if they have value to you. Assembly took about two hours, but in part that was me taking my time and getting every cable and screw just ......
  400. 03/24/2004Pay homage to our slack-jawed friends, for we have them to thank...An article in the Washington Post today essentially attributes a minor mutation in a single gene for the ultimate evolution of Humans as a species. That specific mutation weakened the jaw's "Bite" muscles, which apparently wrap the entire skull. The ......
  401. 03/24/2004Time to upgrade the workstation -- prepare to drool (if you know what this stuff means)Took the plunge today and bought the hardware for my new desktop/development machine. The parts should be in by Friday. The goal was maximum performance without going over the top on cost. Compromise just a bit off the very latest, but stay out on the ......
  402. 03/23/2004Time for another classic Notes client performance tip!Its been a while since I wrote a good performance tip. This one is a favorite since it affects the most important performance of all -- what the user actually feels. We have a busy database that resides on a server. It isn't locally replicated. It uses ......
  403. 03/17/2004Loving my Win 2003 Server and its shared use modemHaving installed Windows 2003 on a machine -- not really a high end one -- to do some streaming audio, I came across a feature that allows a single fax modem to do the job of both modem and fax for inbound and outbound use. That means with the single ......
  404. 03/16/2004Choosing a credit card company for how they do businessI'm switching credit cards too -- dropping my American Express card and going to use exclusively a card from MBNA. Why? MBNA employs thousands of people within a hundred miles of me, and many more in places around the U.S. for their massive call centers, ......
  405. 03/16/2004Parting ways with my old airlineBreakups are hard. You've been together for years. You know the schedules, the trade-offs, the rules -- you've learned to make things go smoothly even problems arise. The time comes when you have to realize that things just aren't working. You have to ......
  406. 03/08/2004The plan for Martha Steward Living is obvious --Its pick on stupid press day today, if you can't tell. Obviously a company like Martha's will continue without its founder. They'll rename themselves -- probably to just "Living" or "American Living" or maybe "Glorious Patriotic and Entirely Above Board ......
  407. 03/08/2004Hyperbole around water on MarsOk, I've learned recently that mars was "Drenched", "Soaked", "Completely Soaked" and now "Wet on both sides" --- Why can we not be satisfied with "Mars had abundant flowing water in more than one place on its surface." Drenched and Soaked both imply an ......
  408. 03/06/2004cross post: Biometics as a Technology - in my opinion is moribundAuthor's Note: I originally posted this in another venue as a response to a push for biometics. I've updated it a bit to remove references to other things in that venue that are not mine to share. Biometrics is one of those technologies that springs out ......
  409. 03/02/2004Our hearts go out to the Shiite Muslims who were attacked today.Having grown up in a Jewish household, and being American and therefore subject to the constant negative imagery associated with the Muslim and particularly some of the Shiite branches of Muslim over the years, I would like to call on everyone who bothers ......
  410. 02/26/2004NCT Search 3.0 goes Beta 1! Come give me feedbackAt long last and with great relief, NCT Search 3.0 is in Beta 1 -- the First Look version. Obviously I haven't crafted a terribly complex search form onto it yet, but give it a try and tell me what you think thus far. Note: The servlet responds with an ......
  411. 02/26/2004its the little bugs that get you....As I'm sitting here getting NCT Search 3.0 beta 1 ready to send over to Jim at Brightline, I realized that the cache is a little too good --- if you make a change to a configuration form, you have to redeploy the servlet to get it to pick up (or drop the ......
  412. 02/23/2004Followup - more test data with really interesting resultsI modified the test (described here: http://www.thenorth.com/apblog2.nsf/0/816E292DD0A455E385256E3F0079C823 ) to try to make it resist things like random server performance changes due to whatever else the machine is doing. I've also tried to eliminate a ......
  413. 02/19/2004It is REALLY better for each Thread to have its own Notes Session objectWhat's really interesting here are two distinct findings: 1. There is no question that two threads hitting different databases pretty hard at the same time, run more than twice as fast as both threads using the same session. In fact, there is a 125% ......
  414. 02/18/2004Doing it all wrong!Breakthroughs are funny. You'd think it would be frustrating to find out that what you've been doing isn't the best way to do it, but its the revelation itself that is exciting and leads to amazing success. I've you've been following my blogs as I bang my ......
  415. 02/16/2004Defragging can be helpful, but not critical and not as important as it used to beg=C800:5 anyone?) in an RLL format (30% more sectors per track) and was fast enough to handle a 1:1 interleave. I remember seeing speeds of 800k/second with that controller and an expensive 80meg full height drive from Micropolis in my 80286. ** all this ......
  416. 02/15/2004NCT Search 3.0 -- First MAJOR test in progress and it looks greatIts an exciting day for me, because at long last NCT Search 3.0 is in a real serious QA mode. Right now, I'm hammering on it with 20 concurrant sessions, each posting search after search after search (10,000 times) without pause. What I'm looking for, is ......
  417. 02/14/2004Cheap and easy wireless boost from Radio ShackHere's a simple product that does just what it says. For your Linksys 802.11b or 802.11g wireless router, Radio Shack sells part number 278-844. It is simply a pair of antennae to replace the ones that come with the router. These are longer. That's the ......
  418. 02/13/2004Cool product pick!I know this isn't new, but I really really like it... http://www.thinkgeek.com/gadgets/electronic/5da2/ The Ambient Orb is a device that slowly transitions between thousands of colors to show changes in the weather, the health of your stock portfolio, or ......
  419. 02/12/2004Just configured SSL on my serverGeez, in all this time the template design for SSL certificate management in notes has not gotten better. Its a horrible process. I signed up as a reseller for an ssl certificate firm and I think I'm going to create an online service just for Domino ......
  420. 02/11/2004Who really cares if Atkins was overweight?Friends, Romans, Countryman -- fellow geeks all; does it matter if the man who brought us the T-Bone Steak as a diet aid was himself overweight when he died? Now understand, I'm not on a low carb diet -- you can have my carbs when you pry them from my ......
  421. 02/09/2004This blog should now support SafariHi all; I've been busier than a one legged man at an ass-kicking contest lately, but one big item off my list was to make this blog work right in Safari. Turns out it was missing just a single closing "" tag at the end of a monster list -- the archived ......
  422. 01/30/2004IBM is too worried about PortalHi all. Some thoughts from LotusSphere. I got to talk to Pooter yesterday and he did more to give me a feeling for Portal than anyone in the entire marketing avalanche that was IBM plan for LotusSphere. Others I've talked to feel the same. Richard and ......
  423. 01/28/2004Day 2 - Thank you all very muchWhat a day. For those of you I got to meet today -- thanks. I gave my talk today, and expected to be talking to about 5 people. I couldn't imagine why they put me in the Osprey room which holds 400+. The room was full, but I found out later that the ......
  424. 01/26/2004Notes from Day 1 at LotusSphere!Well friends, its been quite a day for me. I spent a good part of it working in my room on NCT Search, and thanks to a little help from the guys at Brightline in finding where Tomcat had referenced my servlet, I am incredibly pleased to report that I've ......
  425. 01/24/2004I got to speak at length with Ambuj Goyal tonight...Hey -- welcome to the first of my LotusSphere 2004 blog entries. I've been away from blogging for a few weeks. Here's what I've been up to: Adopted Eclipse as my java ide of choice. Re-wrote nctSerach as a multi-threaded java object set -- more details on ......
  426. 01/16/2004well, -15 degrees (f) makes for a hard time firefightingHi all; Sorry for not posting often right now -- I've been as busy as a one legged man at a butt kicking contest. With the conference getting close I'm working to get the first Java based enterprise version of NCTSearch out the door. Tonight at 2:30am my ......
  427. 01/06/2004What didn't make the story...Well, I got quoted today in CRN about Websphere & Brightline: http://www.crn.com/sections/BreakingNews/breakingnews.asp?ArticleID=47007 A few things didn't quite make the article though, that I figured it might be a good idea to post here. (a) Maybe most ......
  428. 01/02/2004This is all I have to say on this subject..... ......
  429. 12/22/2003A foray into Mac land, from the perspective of a Wintel guruIf you're wondering where I've been for a the last several days, it has been total immersion in this the eMac. I thought I'd share some thoughts on this, since usually we only hear about these machines from their faithful -- nearly cultlike -- followers. ......
  430. 12/16/2003The efficiency of this amazes meTracking my new eMac as it is finally shipped -- a long story involving bad weather and poor communication -- the ball is definitely not being dropped by Fed-Ex. At midnight they pick up a trailer loaded by a customer in Harrisburg. By 2:22am the trailer ......
  431. 12/15/2003Does your application platform scale........down?For years I’ve been reading reports of application scalability problems at the top end. In that time, the networks have gotten more robust, hard disks bigger and faster, raid more sophisticated, operating systems handle threading better, and we’re dealing ......
  432. 12/11/2003Basement fire yesterday -- I got to play!Hi guys. I swear, tonight or tomorrow another Domino blog -- either technical or strategic. I promise. This morning I want to tell you about a basement fire. Basement fires can be really bad. Basically, the stairway down into the basement is pretty much ......
  433. 12/09/2003Disastrous customer service* Note added: Wow guys -- I'm seeing a TON of hits on this. About 5 times normal. Similar issues? I now have to write a check for more than $1500 that I should not have. Admittedly, my contract with Genuity (now owned by Level 3) gave them up to 60 days ......
  434. 12/08/2003Hey all you MAC fans out there....Yea, I know you're out there. I'm considering buying a mac -- quite possibly a used one. My only goal in using it is for testing & debugging. I'd love to get your opinions on the right one. Here are my needs: 1. Must run the current latest operating ......
  435. 12/07/2003Big storm here - lots of fun firefighter stuff...So do you guys know what happens in big storm from the perspective of the "public safety" people in your town? I'd bet you would be surprised at just how much planning and care goes into making sure someone will be there when you call for help. In our ......
  436. 12/02/2003Debunking the "Santa Doesn't Exist" nonsense!Once and for all, people, of COURSE Santa exists! Do you, like me, keep getting mean spirited pseudoscientific explanations of how "Santa cannot exist" for one reason or another? I got another one of those today. How like all those pointy headed ......
  437. 12/01/2003Subscription News SitesHave you noticed more and more that the on-line newspaper sites are requiring 'free registration' before you can view their articles? In some cases, they get quite intrusive. Forbes (a site I will not link to) even attempts to load software settings into ......
  438. 11/29/2003A hurt back, a cool fire run, and a good geek projectHello sports fans! Well yours truly managed to throw his back out (no, not on a fire call) just as the week was getting started so no cool fire calls after that. Well, not for me anyway. I missed a chimney fire and an oven fire. Damn. We did have one cool ......
  439. 11/17/2003Found a really hard problem in Domino 6 install, and a solutionWell, I lost a day that I'll never get back. No, not through a drinking binge. I had to set up two identical IBM Wintel servers this weekend. Each is a quad-processor 3.8ghz machine with 4gb of ram running Win2k. They had IBM Director, CA Unicenter, and ......
  440. 11/13/2003Finally, somone has integrated J2EE into Domino in a way that works -- but it wasn't IBMI've been waiting to blog this for a long time now, and finally got the all - clear from the folks at Brightline. What these guys have done is wrap industry standard J2EE in an easy to run install program, and a deployment mechanism for WAR and EAR files ......
  441. 11/13/2003Google builds in direct, internal support for IBM Lotus Domino!I'm not sure how I missed this when it came out, but if you did too, here's a great story about how Google, the ultimate in hip new search technology, has chosen Domino sites as the first it will be searching in a "structured" manner. ......
  442. 11/12/2003Upgraded from xp/home to xp/pro on my Dell Laptop - Ugly processWell I did it. I have the license via the Ms. "Action Pack" and I decided to upgrade my laptop to XP/PRO from home. I wanted a few features around offline files and domain login. I've waited until I had a break and didn't need the thing for a week or so ......
  443. 11/11/2003A great tool that solves a lot of problems for me, at very low costHi all. I wanted to tell you about a tool I've been testing for a while now. Its called "Absolute Eraser Pro". The product is designed to erase your tracks when you use your computer. I'm sure its meant as a privacy tool for the most part, but that's not ......
  444. 11/09/2003My take on the new Lotus direction whitepaperAlright. If you haven't yet read the latest whitepaper from Lotus that talks about strategy, you need to. Right now. Go ahead, I'll wait. Back? Ok. Notice anything? Here's some key points: Notes is not described as "80's technology" to be backburnered in ......
  445. 11/06/2003More interesting than CBS pulling the mini-series, is watching the reporting on it.Alright, so if you've been living under a stone and don't know this already, CBS decided to pull a planned mini-series about Ronald Reagan's in his years in the Presidency. If you're not living in the U.S., you may not know just how much an icon Reagan is ......
  446. 11/02/2003A treat for the kidsWell, the Cumberland main street Olympic Training Center (aka Greely High School) fielded 3 state championship teams so far this weekend. Girls Field Hockey, Boys Cross Country Track, and then Girls Volleyball. There are two more teams (boys and girls ......
  447. 10/31/2003A long day getting home, and a busy next day on the fire trucks!Well devoted readers, time for some more fun fire stuff. Plenty of time for that Technical stuff later. My trip home was long, but otherwise fine. I was up at 7am in London and walked to High street in Kensington for shopping. That was a mistake, since ......
  448. 10/29/2003A stunning city, but so coldly sterileSome thoughts about London... First, its an amazing city. It works well. You can get anywhere, things are where you need them, and it sure does reward taking a long walk. No matter where you go there is art, there are parks, the buildings are amazing, the ......
  449. 10/29/2003McDonalds is now an internet cafeOne interesting thing to note while I've been in London, is the prevalence of Internet Cafe's. They're everywhere. I'd heard that McDonalds was planning to team with T-Mobile in the states, but was surprised to see it working here (don't know who the ......
  450. 10/29/2003Well, IMNSHO, Hilton still stinks as hotel choice, while Marriott continues to be exactly what I expectWell all my dear friends out there, I'm ending another week of travel and I thought I'd review this Hilton Olympia in Kinsington, London, UK. Frankly, It stinks. Aside from bad food and expensive mini-bar prices that you'd expect everywhere this ......
  451. 10/25/2003If you care - here are a few neat pics from London, including the Thames Barrier, Big Ben, and The EyeAt the Penumbra meeting, we all went out tonight on a cruise on the Thames. Here are some pictures from that, and last night's outing on the Eye. Oh, we met a lot the last couple of days, some people came and talked to us, and we talked about a lot of ......
  452. 10/23/2003Book Review - Head First Java (O Reilly)Book Review - Head First Java (O Reilly) Among all the unlikely things that could happen, from world peace to IBM realizing suddenly that with Domino they already have the world by the short hairs, the one really unlikely thing that could have happened ......
  453. 10/21/2003The new phone book is here!Well, even if you're not a big fan of Steve Martin you probably recognize that line. If not, well I'm sorry for you. at long last, the new blog software is done enough to make live. Some of the features of this new version are related to just making it a ......
  454. 10/08/2003'Avenue A' spybot tracking cookie gets more agressiveHas anyone else noticed recently, that blocking "Avenue A" tracking cookies with a program like "Spybot" prevents web pages from loading? Ick. Message from me to site owers -- if you block me, I will not read your site. End of discussion. I'm not going to ......
  455. 10/07/2003To servlet, or to Java agent...let....(updated)So I'm sure a servlet would be "better strong faster" but do think its worth it in terms of deployment? What I have is a page of html & javascript. As part of that page, I want to insert the body of a notes document. What I've done is to insert on the ......
  456. 10/05/2003Is Java a `better` language than LotusScriptA really great comment someone made recently, was to point out through my thick skull that Java != j2ee. Of course I knew this, but at the same time it wasn't really part of my working thought. I've been lumping them together. Meanwhile, I'm finding that ......
  457. 10/04/2003Case Sensitive languages -- I just hate that.Why on earth would you write a compiler to be case sensitive? Does it really speed up the code today? Does it really speed up the compile time? Does anyone write code that uses differently cased variable names, objects, functions, or statements to ......
  458. 10/03/2003How is Sun's monopoly different from Microsoft's?Still harping on this. Sorry, if you're sick of it you can skip this one. In order to run a windows application, you must load windows. well, there are things like WINE and the emulators for the Macintosh, but mostly you need Windows to run a Windows app. ......
  459. 10/03/2003New blog template....It's almost here, I swear it. All the parts are working now and I think you'll like it a lot more. Question -- does anyone object to ......
  460. 10/02/2003Time for an open source marketing programWebsphere Studio to find tune --> Deploy to Websphere --> Portlet Tool --> user desktop via Browser, Notes Client, Workplace Client). 2. Predicted Functional Roles for People (remember the people?) (e.g. End User -> Developer Analyst (what most Notes dev ......
  461. 10/01/2003Bisconti and others talk about long term value in Domino based developmentA great story in e-Pro Magazine by Jim O'Donnell entitled "Some Say Don’t Make That Domino to Java Move Just Yet" - this one is a must read for anyone who believes as I do, that the J2EE dreams at IBM are way ahead of the curve. I believe I heard it ......
  462. 09/30/2003Thanks to Alan Lepofsky, here's a mini-compendium of Domino/Notes 6.5 pressLotus Uniting Collaboration AppsBy Dennis CallaghanSeptember 29, 2003http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,4149,1304188,00.asp Enterprises Face Barriers In E-mail UpgradesSeptember 25, 2003By Gregg Keizer , TechWeb ......
  463. 09/28/2003In marketing, if the medicine tastes good, is it less effective?Reading the pre-LotusSphere discussions in various places, I continue to be stunned by IBM total unwillingness to celebrate the success of this fantastic platform. There are so many positive things to say, with D6 being fantastically stable -- and Notes ......
  464. 09/27/2003This was forwarded to me by one heck of a server tech.Not that it it matters where it came from. Its a bit of fun. If anyone knows the original source, I'd be happy to link to it. Now that Uday & Qusay have left us, a lot of the lesser-known family membersare coming to the attention of American authorities. ......
  465. 09/25/2003Did you know your bookmarks were programable?So here I am whining at Alan Lepofsky (I'd link to him, but he doesn't blog yet that I know of) about lack of programmability in the bookmarks and desktop, when he says "hunh? Bookmarks are just documents!" -- or something like that. Well, I guess I ......
  466. 09/24/2003How to restore messages to Outlook Express's Inbox - and live a happier, more righteous lifeHaving recovered data from a hard disk for a family member recently, I sent a CDROM along that contained all the data from her directory in the "Documents and Settings" location on that drive. I just got an email asking if I could also find the messages ......
  467. 09/22/2003Extending a wireless networkHi all. Too tired to write up the Domino tech stuff I promised. I'll have to do it tomorrow. Meantime, I found a great little firm that sells all the stuff you need to extend your wireless network. I've got excess bandwidth here, so I'm going to give my ......
  468. 09/16/2003Microsoft "Onenote" -- don't discount this thing.I just checked out the on-line demo of Microsoft's "Onenote" and ordered the beta. It looks very, very interesting to me. It works without a fancy tablet pc, but it may be worth buying one for. If it does what it seems to do in the demo, this is going to ......
  469. 09/16/2003What is your 'availability' worth?Hi all. I've been posed this question a number of times in my career -- the cost of having someone on a short leash. A support contract with a minimum time service level agreement. What is this worth? I've got a few right now, and there is an expectation ......
  470. 09/15/2003Back to bloggin...Well friends, sorry for the absence. I'm just now getting over a cold from hell. Colds suck. My wife is right, by the way -- men are babies when it comes to being sick. Well, so what. Women are babies when it comes to lifting couches & refrigerators. ......
  471. 09/12/2003Anti-Spam vendor for Notes uses Spam and bogus awardNo secret here, that good friend and fabulous anti-spam software writer Mark Ramos is my own preferred hands down winner of any anti-spam software award for Notes. Its also no secret that I think good competition is a good thing. I must say though, I was ......
  472. 09/11/2003This 9/11, Remember more than just the attackAs a firefighter I have some very conflicted thoughts on this anniversary of the September 11th attacks. At the time of the attacks I had just started the process of becoming a volunteer firefighter here in Cumberland. My background check had not been ......
  473. 09/10/2003Are lower prices for consumer products always a good thing?I heard a story on NPR today, and I didn't catch much other than a quote that really grabbed my attention. The gist was that some additional free trade talks may hurt some local economies briefly, but ultimately would result in lower prices on consumer ......
  474. 09/09/2003Today's hot news....We got a new officer on Engine 1 today. A great guy, I'm looking forward to working with him more. I know you all care. Meantime, today was mostly boring from the perspective of you, reading about me. Soccer practice went well. These girls are playing ......
  475. 09/07/2003Back from trainingHi all. I spent a good part of today at a mobile home fire. A planned one. A nice person who needed it removed, donated it and the local fire departments got to come and play (er, train). I'm still new enough at all this that I learn a great deal when ......
  476. 09/06/2003Big day for youth soccer, lots of firefighter stuff tomorrow...Well friends, not much to tell here that would be of interest. I spent a large part of the day coaching soccer for my middle daughter, teaching soccer to my youngest, and waiting for soccer to finish for my oldest. FWIW, all played exceptionally well. I ......
  477. 09/05/2003More idiotic statements from a top entertainer. No surprise, her initials are B.S.So following "the most corporate and over-planned" spontaneous kiss since Al Gore tried to choke his wife on stage at the Democratic Convention, B.S. gets an interview with Tucker Carlson. Carlson, who carefully dresses so as to appear not to care what ......
  478. 09/04/2003Must read: Domino Directory FAQ -- Great stuffHi all. From the LDD discussion forums, Ken Lin posted this awesome FAQ that covers directory issues including LDAP. ND6 Directory FAQ, ver 1Posted by Ken Lin on 3.Sep.03 at 05:07 PM using Lotus NotesCategory: Domino ServerRelease: All ReleasesPlatform: ......
  479. 09/04/2003Free Market forces CD prices down - Adam Smith silently rejoices from the great beyond.Universal Music Group lowered its prices on CD's by $3 to retailers, and suggests retailers take another $3 off as well. By putting a suggested price on the cover of the CD's, Universal is putting pressure on retail chains to make a little less per unit ......
  480. 09/04/2003One less perfect little nose out there....Well friends, I'm sad to say there is one less perfect little Hollywood button nose out there today. Teams of surgeons are being flown in from the farthest reaches though, spiritual gurus are no doubt in route as well. It seems that Ms. Cameron Diaz has ......
  481. 09/03/2003Cool car crash on main street today!img { float:left; border:solid thin blue;}I know, I know. Not all of you think car crashes are cool, but this one was pretty cool. Best of all, nobody was hurt. Some of you who know me only in my "mild mannered consultant by day" persona have asked for ......
  482. 09/03/2003Happy Birthday Richard!Today is my good friend Richard's annual 39th birthday. I'm not sure how many 39th birthdays he's had so far, but its been working for him so far. Go to his blog (link is in my blog role to the left) and wish him happy ......
  483. 09/02/2003Would anyone use a NOTES CLIENT blog interface?As I'm working on the new interface for my blog -- designed to be more like looking at a stack of papers, then a cheezy iframes interface like I have now -- I'm wondering if anyone would use if Notes client if I allowed anonymous Notes connections? ......
  484. 09/01/2003Arcade Games, and the Atari 2600 - for $20Well friends. I was wandering Wal-Mart today, having promised the kids a treat for working their tails off all day while I finished painting the bathroom and re-installing all of the things you would normally expect to find in a one. What I found was ......
  485. 08/31/2003What's wrong with Java - taken from an earlier postNo secret to anyone, that I hate coding in Java. I think there's more than just personal dislike here though. I wrote this originally as part of an earlier post but its length made it insufferable, so here you go again. To quote Dennis Miller, "I don't ......
  486. 08/31/2003RIAA Uses hash keys tooIn one of my first blog entries, I talked about how the use of a hash algorithm let me drastically reduce the time it took to compare data. Well, the RIAA lawyers are using it to prove that MP3's on someone's hard disk come from on-line exchange and not ......
  487. 08/30/2003A new milkshake is upon the land.#storybody img { float:left; border:solid #001701;}Friends, there is a new milkshake upon the land, and it is good. Now some of you may know that I have a weakness for the classic vanilla milkshake. I'm not sure whenMcDonaldsreleased this new and improved ......
  488. 08/29/200340 years ago, Dr. King told us of his dreamimg { float:left; border:solid ......
  489. 08/28/2003On the subject of ConfidenceDennis Miller did a great RANT about Confidence. Check it out here: http://www.hbo.com/dml/past_rants/20020830.html Those of you who know me, may see insights into my personality ......
  490. 08/28/2003A legacy of bad standardsHere's a long rant. I KNOW I'm going to get flamed for some of this -- particularly the anti-Java stuff. Oh well. I've been told I'm an idiot before, and I didn't melt then. I guess I'll live through it again. In the weeks leading up to the opening of ......
  491. 08/27/2003Mouse Pointers?Good morning dear friends! This morning I'm soliciting advice. In the search for a comfortable and smooth mouse experience, I've purchased optical mice from both Microsoft and Logitech. Of the latter, Have both wired and wireless rechargeable. Still, the ......
  492. 08/26/2003OpenNTF - Grass Roots Notes DevelopmentHi all! So I'm writing this to respond to two questions that have been brought to me of late. First, is "Why didn't you use the OpenNTF blog template?", to which I normally give two answers. The first is that I wanted to write my own as a learning ......
  493. 08/26/2003Will blogging be the end of the shared Notes forum?For years, I've been an active participant in the Lotus Business Partner Forum. More recently, I've been very active in the forum we Penumbra members maintain. I'm seeing that a majority of the most active members of these venues are blogging. I'm also ......
  494. 08/26/2003Which, exactly, are the 10 commandments that cannot be displayed?The phrase "THE Ten Commandments" is misleading to say the least, as you'll note from this great - if somewhat provocative - article. ......
  495. 08/26/2003Change in Policy - No validation is required on replies.For the time being, I've decided to remove the requirement to include your email address and validate your reply by a linked back ......
  496. 08/25/2003Home Depot, Bad Service, and The Self Service Register LieWell friends, Home Depot lost out on my big expenditure tonight. After spending the day clearing wallpaper from the downstairs bathroom, removing the medicine cabinet with its hideous side mounted fluorescent lights - encased in bug encrusted plastic, of ......
  497. 08/24/2003Cool Tech: Live- from "Chuck -E- Cheese's"Its Sunday afternoon, and I've got all the kids to watch. My youngest (4) has a birthday party to attend, being held in Portland at the "Chuck E Cheese's" pizza & playground place. This is a brightly colored, very loud, warehouse of a building filled with ......
  498. 08/23/2003Great Microsoft Site - Blogged by Bruce Elgort Click on this picture to see the whole site. Thanks, Bruce for pointing this out to us on your blog! ......
  499. 08/23/2003Couple of fire calls this week...Couple of calls this week. The first was cool even though it was a false alarm. Cool only because I got to drive the big Ladder truck (which I'm finally signed off to drive & operate) code-3 (flashy & noisy) to the scene. Fun, but unnerving to drive ......
  500. 08/23/2003Helping friends with their PC's - Why is this necessary?As you can imagine, my somewhat double career leaves me with one circle of friends among the technologically elite, but another almost entirely devoid of basic computer troubleshooting skills. That means I get to help clean up from viruses and things from ......
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