Slem Fisk

Issue with Sametime 8.5.1 on Domino 8.5.2

2010-10-06T09:57:00.000+02:00

Just finished a week with lots of these on the server console:

Process c:\lotus\Domino\STUserInfo.exe <4472/0x1178> has terminated abnormally

When this happens, no more users can log on. Already logged-in users have no problems though.
The only way to fix it seems to be to reboot the server.

We ended up with "downgrading" the Domino server to 8.5.1 SP4. No problems after this.

Lotus Notes 8.5.2 beta for Ubuntu runs smoothly

2010-06-28T19:19:00.001+02:00

I just installed the 8.5.2 beta for Linux. No tweaking necessary - it just works :-) The speed isn't so bad either, if someone told me that this was the final release I might have beleived them.

Thanks, IBM. My little Linux laptop have suddenly changed status from useful toy to useful tool.

Interesting bug

2010-05-10T00:02:00.001+02:00

As stated in WMD gone wild, WM 6.5 is officially not supported by Lotus Traveler 8.5.1, but it's still possible to install it at your own risk :)
Here's a brand new malfunction that seems completely unexplainable: When I create a new message on the ver 6.5 WMD, and try to locate a contact beginning with 'K', the Lotus Traveler client crashes. All other characters seem to work. Anybody else seen this?

Exit LSBG 2010

2010-05-06T23:04:00.001+02:00

The Norwegian Lotus User Group's conference is over. The Farris Bad is a classy "Spa Hotel" in the small town Larvik, with nice rooms, tasty (and expensive) food and a wonderful sea view. The 115 attendees got two days packed with technical geeky stuff, presented by Lotus pros like Mary Beth Raven and Ron Sebastian, and by amateurs like myself.

My presentation of Panagenda MarvelClient did not go so well. Even though I had tested the 3-machine demo configuration over and over again, it naturally crashed just before I should start the live demo. The audience instead got a static Powerpoint presentation with none of the juicy stuff. I hope I still managed to give them some clue of what they can gain with a proper 3rd party Desktop Management tool.

During the demo I was hoping to show that you can carry out two weeks of Lotus Admin work within 3-4 hours, and perhaps even more important: Automate most tasks so you never have to spend most of your working hours on boring routine work again. TCO is becoming more and more important, and if you have not tested any management tool yet, I would strongly suggest that you do so while you still have the time. There's many product alternatives out there, for example BCC ClientGenie, Cooperteam Desktop Management, and the MarvelClient.

Other things worth mentioning: Did I see an IBM representative use Lotus Notes 8.5.2 on a Ubuntu 10.04 ? I hope I did, because 8.5.1 does not work and that annoys me. Overheard a few things about the upcoming 8.5.2: Mostly a bug fix release, but some new features: Drag a mail message to the windows desktop to create an .EML file. (I have made the same feature for version 6 and 7..), ability to set a default mail font, and a new multi-threaded replication style. There was also someone mentioning that the ID-files from v 8.5.2 on will no longer be automatically downloaded from the vault when the user logs in, but I may have misunderstood this.

Notes 8.5.1 and Ubuntu 10.04 (bah!)

2010-05-01T00:16:00.004+02:00

It was like this when ver. 8 arrived, then it was pretty easy for a period, now it's back to pain again.

Why is it so d*** hard to make a straightforward Lotus Notes version for Ubuntu - the coolest Linux distro ever ? It really shouldn't be necessary to download extra libraries and changing versions on dependent subsystems, just to get one of the world's most widespread E-mail apps to work on the world's most popular Linux version.

WMD gone wild

2010-04-28T00:37:00.000+02:00

Worried colleague on the line: "Listen, I've got three instances of every contact on my phone!"
- I'll help you delete them manually, I said, and started The Lotus Administrator.

My colleague had just received a shiny new WMD phone (Windows Mobile Device, or, as a well-known Irish Lotus dude loves to say: Weapons of Mass Destruction) and had just finished the Lotus Traveler installation.

"Uh, it's not three any more, it's six". My friend on the line sounds more stressed now.
- "No, I see at least fifteen", I said, looking at the hidden "($Contacts)" view in his mail file at the server.

A few minutes later I count 60. The contacts list soon reach 30.000 names/duplicates and still growing. My colleague's phone turns sluggish and is about to give up. My colleague is "worried", enough said.

70.000 and still growing .... Phew, this guy will soon have more names in his contacts database than there are people in China. I order him to shut down the mobile phone. Then, via remote control, I make a backup copy of his local contacts database, and delete everything from the (Contacts) view on the mail server.
Looks fine a few minutes, until all names suddenly reappear!. The WMD wasn't shut down after all, and suddenly it has filled the contacts database again.
Same operation once more, after the phone is confirmed shut down. Looks better this time, but a few minutes later the local names.nsf replicates and refills everything again. 70.000 names just won't go away that easy. New try: Delete local names, mail file on server, phone. Looks better this time.

Oh no, there it blows again. Calls colleague - have you stopped the sync process on the phone? (What process ??) D'oh! Orders colleague to delete every entry in the phone's contacts list. (YES, please do! Now!!)

Deletes local mail replica, just to reduce the number of replicating db's. Deletes everything from local names, mail file and phone. Then restores names.nsf from tape, MANUALLY COPY all contacts back into the empty names.nsf. (Otherwise the deletion stubs would remove them again)
Syncs against central mail --> OK.
Syncs to WMD --> OK.
Colleague happy again.

Reason for this? I'm not sure, but it looked to me as if there were a bunch of replication conflicts in the contacts database the first time I opened it. Could this be it? The WMD runs the newest WM 6.5 with the 8.5.1.1 Lotus Traveler.

BTW: Here is a nice tool for deleting duplicates from WMDs: http://gydarindustries.com/?page_id=4

The app called No name (a short story about nothing)

2010-04-24T01:08:00.003+02:00

No-one knows where it came from, how long it had been inside my computer, or what it actually did there. I discovered it by accident, a small piece of software stranded inside my laptop, only visible from the "add or remove" section of the Win7 control panel. It didn't even have a name, no programmer had proudly announced it to be anything special , it was just one of those strange things that happens now and then when your life orbits around computers and software: An application with no name, no meaning, nothing. No parents, no-one who cares, no evil inside, not even a trojan, according to my Forefront antivirus system.

But the app had at least a Change button. This is what happened when I clicked it:

Hmm. This is interesting. Seems like there's more inside. I choose Modify, just to see what options are available.

But nope. The No-name application refused to reveal it's secrets. Parts of it's description are marked with xxxxxxxxxxx'es, don't ask me why, I didn't do it.

I clicked the "Next" button, eagerly anticipating new mysteries, but no. No more fun and exitement, only an error message and then sudden termination.

I deinstalled it soon afterwards, knowing that my antivirus colleagues would have strangled me if I had'nt. But was it a virus/trojan/worm/other malicious code? Nope. It was just - nothing. Nothing, but with an uninstall option.

Unless someone has a better explanation.

iPhone finally OK on Traveler (D'Oh!)

2010-04-21T10:28:00.005+02:00

A good thing when you stop hitting yourself with a hammer is that the pain will go away. Unlike the rest of the world we've been having a lot of trouble getting iPhones and iPods to connect to the Lotus Traveler server. And since the rest of the world automatically figured out how to configure this, no documentation of our non-existing problem exists, naturally.

Well, up to now. This is a tip for you out there, the one in a million, which despite the fact that this piece of software is nearly self configurable, still have problems with the iPhones and iPods.

Check the Internet Site documents. Your server name must to be listed in the field "Host names or addresses mapped to this site". Your Windows Mobile based phones and your Symbian (Nokia) thingies don't seem to need this, but the Apple devices surely do.

D'Oh!

Strange MIME message on login

2010-04-16T12:32:00.003+02:00

This has happened twice this week. A user tries to log in, but is interrupted by this message:

After that: Nothing. The client hangs. Must run NSD.EXE -kill in order to remove it from memory.

The sollution: Not a good one, but the only one that seems to work at the moment: Restore an older copy of the person's personal address book and restart the client. (Of course you have a backup copy of each user's personal NAB??)

Other clues: Both users run 8.5.1 w/o service packs

New reason for the Quickr 8.2 blank screen issue?

2010-04-14T10:30:00.007+02:00

We upgraded to Quickr version 8.2 the other day and soon experienced the well documented "blank screen" issue, caused by a non-working Servlet Manager. Allthough we carried out every proposed corrective action, the problem just wouldn't go away.

It took quite a few working hours before my colleagues came up with the sollution: An extra space character had sneaked in, in the Server URL path. (NAB - Servers - - Internet Protocols - Domino Web Engine)

The field (HTTP_ServletPath) lacks a @Trim in the Field input validation event, so if you leave a space behind the parameter, it stays there. - And if you have an IBM i5 like us, this seems to prevent the servlet Manager from functioning correctly.

A few Lotus Notes images

2010-04-10T00:23:00.010+02:00

It's always nice to play with Photoshop! Here's a few notes-related images I've made/modified, feel free to use them if you want:

"Tux loves Lotus"

I like playing with Ubuntu Linux now and then, so I came up with this little Tux modversion, that has Lotus Notes close to his heart :-)

"Mr. Supernotes"

I made this as a MSN Messenger person image, and ended up using it as part of my E-mail signature. (for a short period, until our new company logo was ready.) Nice to have if your support personnel don't want to have their photo displayed in the sametime chat window.

I will be speaking at LSBG (NOLUG) 2010

2010-04-05T00:10:00.009+02:00

Normally I do not do things like that, but for one reason or another I found that it might be fun to do a presentation again, at the Norwegian Lotus User Group's seminar in Larvik 5-6. May.

The subject is desktop management with 3rd party products like Cooperteam and Panagenda's MarvelClient, and hopefully I'll manage to tell you all how fun it is to finally take control over the big and fat Lotus 8 client and make it act just the way you've always wanted to.

On the other hand - according to my schedule I've just been on my first visit to my favourite trout lake when I arrive in Larvik, so it's not impossible that I'm more interested in sharing wild stories about monster trouts instead :) (Lets hope so)

Exit Lotusphere

2010-01-23T04:53:00.006+01:00

It is Friday evening at Dolphin. Most of the others left yesterday, but there is still a few yellow and black backpacks around. One intense week of yellow technology, networking, and partying is over. Our plane leaves tomorrow evening, hopefully we'll be back here next year, but frankly nobody knows. I always feel a bit depressed when Lotusphere is over, it's such a huge and important event and I sure could need one every third month or so. But before I pack my suitcase and start the 18-hour long journey back to northern Europe, I want to write a few lines of my impressions of this year's LS.

First of all: I think "Project Vulcan" is a good idea. I like the idea of making something new and revolutionizing, something we haven't seen before. I also basically like the idea of social networking. Sites like Facebook.com have shown us clearly that social software is here to stay, and I think IBM has chosen the right moment to concentrate on this technology. The philosophy behind Lotus Notes is very close related to today's free&public social software, and the combination of GroupWare and SocialWare will sure be a winner.

One of the crucial success factors will be the clients and user interfaces. Although Lotus Notes 8.x is a nice mail client, it sure is sluggish and memory consuming. You can't use clients like this in the future unless you have significantly stronger/faster workstations. It might be too sluggish for the majority of the employees. In my own company we are lucky enough to have 2 gHz (or more) laptops with at least 2 GB of RAM, other companies are not that lucky. And that worries me some times.

I also like the effort being made to develop software for the mobile devices, and I like the focus on other OS'es than Microsoft Windows. Personally I like Windows very much, especially ver. 7, but I also feel that operating systems like Linux and Mac OSX soon may be a realistic alternative to Microsoft for our users. Linux is perhaps the most interesting since it's free, but before we will even consider to start testing it we need to know that it will integrate in our AD and that there are systems available for deploying new apps.

One thing I would really like, is a brand new and shiny user interface for Lotus Notes. Yes, LN 8.x is a whole lot better than ver 7, but it's still a very conservative UI. I would like to see things that are common in the Mac world nowadays, friendly and slick user interfaces that makes the user think: "Cool!!". Apple is very clever on this, now is the time for IBM to invest and produce something that is at least as good as Apple's design. I am convinced that this is extremely important for the users of today. I also mean that if IBM do not acknowledge this they need a couple of new leaders. GUI is more than crucial, also in the new project Vulcan.

I brought an old colleague with me to Lotusphere this year, a man known to dislike Lotus Notes intensely. After the conference I asked him what he thought about Lotus after this. He replied that even if Lotus Notes still not would be considered as his favourite, the mindset of IBM still seemed more proactive and foresighted than Redmond, and I strongly agree with him in that. IBM is gaining momentum again, it will be very exciting to see what they will come up with the next years.

LotusLive seems like a good idea, but none of the speakers managed to tell me exactly how the new Lotus Notes for LotusLive client would work. The concept is good though, we'll consider it once we feel it's mature enough. The cost per user is unbeatable, and if we can mix local and cloud based servers this sure is interesting.

Symphony 3 beta disappeared in all the other fuzz, surprisingly. Strange. bzzzz.

The more I write the more I remember. But this blog post is long enough already, I continue this subject as soon as the "Fasten seat belt" lights goes off tomorrow.

All in all this has been yet another fantastic yellow week.

I'm missing all you guys already.

LS2010 - day 4

2010-01-21T05:24:00.003+01:00

A day with a very varied agenda.

Started up early with "Meet the grumpies" - Bob Balaban and Paul Mooney with a somewhat special session about what makes us admins and developers grumpy. Catastrophic project plans, managers with no IT knowledge, or with too much knowledge, many irritating things in our business. The due date "February 14th, 2037" were for example proposed as a secret protest against all project owners and managers who request a due date but fails to give enough details around the wanted result.

Chris Miller had a really good presentation about the Sametime gateway. We both laughed and learned - a good combination.

Also had a few inputs on Lotus Notes for LotusLive, but I still struggle with my deeper understanding of this. Why can't anyone describe this in a more straight forward manner? "The servers are here, the clients are local/virtual/whatever, the clue is that bladibla" and so on.

Ended up in Disney's Hollywood Planet in the evening. Warm & nice weather today, we did not freeze at all.

LS2010 - day 3

2010-01-20T05:21:00.007+01:00

Up 06:00 - oh I really hate it - these mornings start to get both painful and stressing.

Off at 07:45 to hear Gabriella Davis and Paul Mooney talk about DAOS and ID Vault. An important session for me, as we start the implementation of these technologies in three weeks.

Also had a look at Adminblast w/ mr Mooney, and got some really nice tips there. Attended a meeting with the Lotus Traveler system architects Erich Petersen and Lee Griffin and discussed various issues with them. Some of the features we're missing in Traveler 8.5.1 will be there in 8.5.2, other were at least discussed and I'm relatively sure that many of them will be included in future releases. Also had a good time on ID101 "Deploying IBM Lotus Traveler" and got a bunch of valuable tips there.

Used the afternoon to trace a bug in Lotus Traveler causing it to refuse to connect to a particular home server, and the rest of the evening at the House of Blues in Downtown Disney.

Tired now. Logging off

LS2010 - day 2

2010-01-20T04:58:00.008+01:00

Things are speeding up.

After a workout in the health club and a very short breakfast, we all gathered in the large Northern Hemisphere at Dolphin for the Opening General Session.

Now, since

everybody already have blogged in detail about this I prefer to jump to skip this as nothing new possibly can come out of this :)

Saw BP108 "Worst Practices 4.0" with Mooney & Buchan, man those guys really know how to do a presentation!

Also had an hour with Ed Brill and friend

s showing us the way forward to 2020. Project Vulcan seems to be on the exact same track as I hoped, I'm already looking forward to see how the next client release will be. Hooked up with some old friends and had a splendid afternoon, discussing yellow technology and the future of Lotus. We all agreed that things look good and tha

t IBM definitively still has an enormous momentum on their yellow brand.

Took an early evening and went to bed. Flat batteries

LS2010 - day 1

2010-01-17T23:18:00.003+01:00

Had an early start today in the health club around 6:00 a.m, followed by breakfast and wooo there goes session #1 JMP205 "IBM Lotus Connections: From Pilot to Production". Quite heavy stuff this early in the morning but OK: Lotusphere 2010 has finally started and we still have lots of energy left.
BOOT 101 IBM Lotus Domino 8.5 administration with K. McGivney and Susan Bulloch was really fun and we learned a lot. Those ladies sure know how to teach!
The same goes for W. Morgan, who made a terrific job on BOOT104 "IBM Lotus Sametime 8.5 deployment Workshop". It's not easy to hold the audience's attention that long, but he really did.
The weather's still fine so I guess we will have a terrific beach party here this evening and not like the freezing conditions we have had in both 2009 and 2008.
We could hear parts of the sound check for tomorrow's Opening General Session through the walls. Seems like we're gonna have a rock'n roll band or something:)

Wooops, one hour left before the beach party starts. Maybe I'll manage to take a nap before that. Sure need it.

Back at Dolphin

2010-01-16T12:36:00.005+01:00

My back hurts, and the time difference makes my head a bit woozy, otherwise I'm fine. Left Bergen, Norway around 08:00 CET yesterday, and flew to Orlando via Oslo and Frankfurt. Many Norwegians with yellow back packs again this year, the Norwegian oil- and fishery based industry hasn't been badly battered by the financial crisis so I guess the economy still permits it. Arrived at Dolphin around 20:30 local time and had a few beers with friends and colleagues before bed time. Wow. Nice to be back.

This is my first stay at Dolphin, the hotel seems OK. Will try out the health club and have a sandwich before I catch up with the others. Lotusphere 2010 - yessss this rocks :-)

What is the real cost of an E-mail license?

2010-01-12T22:42:00.010+01:00

A few weeks ago we did some pre-studies on TCO for MS Exchange 2007 vs. Lotus Notes 8.5.1. We only scratched the surface this time, but it really surprised me that MS Exchange license costs seemed to be a bit cheaper than Lotus.

For Exchange, as far as I can see and have been told, you pay a license cost per server and a Client Access License (CAL) for each user. The CAL, however, can be included in an enterprise CAL covering MS Office apps and Outlook 2007, and this CAL seems to be cheaper than buying the MS Office CALs alone. I don't get this.

We do not have any plans on migrating to or from any particular mail platform at the moment, and this pre-study certainly is too brief to serve as a basis for any decision, but the study really triggered my curiosity. What is the real Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) of MS Exchange 2007 vs. Lotus Notes 8.5?

It would be interesting to hear if any of you out there had done more complex studies, and what your own conclusions are. Also, if anyone knows of any neutral and balanced reports on this subject, I would be very thankful if you would drop me a line.

"God Mode" in Windows 7

2010-01-12T10:39:00.001+01:00

Make a new folder on your Win7 desktop, with the following name:

GodMode.{ED7BA470-8E54-465E-825C-99712043E01C}

Good shit. Cheers :-)

Looking at yellow betas

2009-11-17T20:07:00.009+01:00

Just two weeks after the "IBM Software Day" we got an invitation to "IBM Beta Day" in Oslo. Didn't think that IBM did things like that, it was definitively a nice surprise. I cannot actually write about what I saw and tested, just that among other things we looked at the newly released Notes 8.5.1, an early beta of the next Quickr release, and some Sametime and Mashup stuff.

Of course it would be nice to tell you more in detail about all this, especially since it's all exiting things, but I choose to focus on something that is just as important: That IBM seems to become a more active and visible part of the software business in Norway.

Two big gigs in two weeks, and in the near future we will have the pleasure of welcoming an IBM sales team to show us more Sametime stuff. This is not IBM as we use to know them, this is more like Microsoft. And if IBM plans to win in the Norwegian software market, this might very well be the right strategy.

Found this in an E-mail signature..

2009-11-01T22:53:00.007+01:00

My Windows PC crashed again, just after I noticed the following in an E-mail signature.

"They say when you play a Microsoft CD backward you can hear satanic messages...but that's nothing, if you play it forward it will install Windows"

Agree. God I really hate my windows computers ...

Photoshopping again

2009-10-30T10:00:00.001+01:00

Video conferencing

2009-10-29T23:01:00.004+01:00

This isn't much to write about really, but this is what we did today: Connecting our Polycom equipment via a Proxy (Umoe IKT) to a company in Rio de Janeiro (who use Tandberg). This world gets smaller every day.

LS2010- reservations done

2009-10-29T01:32:00.005+01:00

We ended up on Dolphin this time.

Strange really - it seems to be significantly cheaper to spend a week at a conference in Orlando Florida than in most cities in central Europe, even when you live in Europe.

Lotusphere 2010 - here we come

2009-10-21T21:04:00.012+02:00

Studying flight schedules to Orlando, wow it's that time of the year again.

It isn't that long since we returned from last year's Lotusphere in Orlando, packed with inspiration and great ideas on how to improve our Lotus systems. We actually started the planning while we still were in the air!

Now, after most of the year has passed, we still have quite a bit of work to do before every Lotus project is completed. Things take time.

What we did manage to do, is to upgrade all servers to ver.8.5, deploy Sametime to all companies, deploy the nice looking onTime Calendar to those organisations who need it, introduce Business Mail as our corporate mail system, and introduce the smart MarvelClient as a tool for keeping the administration costs at a lowest possible level. In addition, we have spent lots and lots of time modernising and restructuring the oldest Lotus organisations in the enterprise. And I'm pleased with the result. Things run smoother, and look better.

The biggest benefit of traveling to Orlando: It's one big mental fuel station. It keeps you inspired, curious, enthusiastic, and loaded with yellow energy for the rest of the year. I guess I'm lucky to have a boss who recognizes this.

Hmm. Looks like Iceland Air have changed their schedules - no Orlando flight on fridays any more. Will probably use Lufthansa instead then.

Gaining momentum - new sandpit for the support staff

2009-10-16T07:00:00.003+02:00

We finally have our new testing environment up & running. Two servers and three workstations, all equipped with 8.5 and 8.5.1, are running in their own little VM environment bubble. First task for the test environment will be to host various workshops for the IT support staff, whom until now have complained a bit about a slight lack of Lotus Notes education. This is quite typical I guess, the Lotus specialists having so much (support)work to do, that they don't have time to train others to take care of the easiest tasks.

When our exellent support colleagues are happy, we move on to test a large scale DAOS implementation, ID vaults and other stuff. All these things are planned to enter production mode before Christmas, so I guess we'd better hurry up. And oh yes - we will also start looking at Lotus Symphony this autumn. More about this later.

D'oh - Windows killed my Domino server

2009-10-14T22:50:00.004+02:00

Yeah right. Five points go to Microsoft for excellent care.

Notes 8.5.1 Can't download the notes client/designer/admin package

2009-10-13T07:54:00.005+02:00

Downloading the new 8.5.1 version from IBM Passport Advantage at the moment, but nothing happens when I try to download the Admin/Design/Notes CZ5SoEN package. -Which is sad, because this is the one I need. And possibly you too, if you're a Lotus Notes professional.

Installing Notes & Sametime for the tough guys

2009-09-23T00:04:00.006+02:00

Had the rare pleasure of installing Sametime and Lotus Notes on a fishing boat last week. The bridge on a modern fishing boat is slightly different from many other workplaces. Imagine yourself sitting in front of your PC, chatting with colleagues on Sametime, while the ship is constantly battered by waves reaching 40-60 feet, and the air temperature is waaay below zero...

Deploying Panagenda's Marvel Client these days

2009-09-03T11:07:00.000+02:00

After a long test period we finally released Panagenda's Marvel Client in our companies last week.

The Marvel Client is a Lotus Notes plugin that makes it possible to administer the notes clients from a central point, thereby lowering the Lotus Notes maintenance costs and complexity of the client config. If you're used to Novell, this is the notes counterpart of ZEN works, for AD dudes I guess the nearest product would be SCCM (System Center Configuration Manager) .

There's quite a few of these systems available at the moment. There may be systems out there that is way better than Panagenda's , but we ended up with it because it could do exactly what we were looking for, to a reasonable price.

The Marvel Client uses a central db on your home server, and configures your notes client according to the central config settings and your group memberships. Users can still do changes to the client, but all elements controlled from the central db will be restored on the next login.

We have made a standard client config that is common among all the companies, and then applied a few company-specific config settings here & there.

Standard config:
Every company in the enterprise use the same background image and icon lay-out, which is part of the skinning possibillities to MC. (If one of the companies should prefer another lay-out, we simply make a new one and associate it with a user group containg all employees in that company)
All clients also share a set of location and connection docs, which defines three different modes: Offline, Online and Travel mode. Various connection docs makes it possible to connect to our servers via both direct and passthru connections, depending on what location mode you choose.

We also use Marvel Client to back up the notes.ini, bookmark.nsf, desktop files, ID files, and different config files on each login, and store the files in a special container database on the server. If a user messes up the Notes client, or the PC crashes, we simply roll the last saved config back to the user.
Further on we distribute a standard set of icons and shortcuts to the most important databases in the companies, and place them on both the workspace and in the notes menu. Way cool, and saves us plenty of time.

Extra config
There's a lot of databases that is interesting only to a smaller group of people. We have made a set of links and icons for these, and tied them to the specific ACL group for that application. This means that if you are a member of a group that has access to an application, the application icon will appear automatically on your desktop. If someone removes you from the group, the icon disappears again.

This functionality can be used on almost every part of the client, well at least the ones controlled by Marvel Client.

Is it worth it?
We mean we can justify the cost, based on the amount of time we use on maintenance on our yellow clients. Today, as an example, we have had two issues, where we were saved by the Marvel Client:

1) A user that had deleted his personal files and then found he had no backup. We restored the most important data files from the mc_analyze.nsf and got the user up&running again. Phew..

2) Last weekend we changed the IP address on a couple of our servers. Knowing that the notes client tends to save the servers' IP addresses made us a bit nervous, but thanks to Marvel Client, we managed to avoid chaos. We simply deployed new connection docs to everyone, assuring that the actual IP addresses were replaced with DNS pointers, and we did it in reasonable time before the IP address change started. The result was that we didn't have any complaints at all.

What could have been better?
Documentation. (Or maybe we haven't received all yet ..?)
Marvel Client is an advanced product with hundreds of options. It's not difficult to find out how it works, but it's difficult to get an overview over all features and how you configure them.
Nevertheless, we managed to make it function with little effort and only a few support mails to/from Panagenda. I have included a MarvelClient Cookbook in my wish list for Christmas, and since I have been a good guy and not written too much buggy code this year, I reckon Santa won't let me down.
If I could add some new features to my wish list, it must be the ability to control the elements in the right sidebar. I guess that's not easy to achieve, since these are independent apps rather than notes client features.

Oh my God 2 - Heaven enters Norwegian politics

2009-09-01T21:51:00.010+02:00

According to the Rev. Jan-Aage Torp, representing the right-wing "Christian Coalition Party" (Kristent Samlingsparti) in the ongoing Norwegian parliament election, he and Jesus have regular talks every morning and evening. The Lord gives him advice and directions, says the reverend.

If you can follow my (immature and slightly humorous) logical chain of thought, this is no less than sensational news:

the Rev., who has a theoretical chance of being elected to the parliament, might bring us into the astonishing situation where the Son of God directly or indirectly takes part in Norwegian politics, maybe for the first time in history.

For obvious reasons, with a relationship that close, it is likely that Jesus must have approved the party-programme as well, which again might lead us to think that the Son of God have changed his mind a bit since year 32. (The Christian Coalition Party are supporters of a strong military (No other cheek), lower taxes (keep your shirt even if you have two), and possibly no camel through the eye of a needle any more)

It will be very interesting to follow the Rev, and if elected, we will of course update the world on the Lord´s opinions on new railroad projects, bridges, school politics, war in Afghanistan, oil production, food prices, taxes and other things that we for the time being do not have any heavenly advice on. 2000 years of utterly silence will finally be over.

(A voice in my head - no possibly not the Lord - says that the Rev. might be a splendid role character for folks like John Cleese, but I find things like that very disrespectful and refuse to listen :-)

Reverse proxy, 4 mail servers, anyone?

2009-09-01T14:41:00.004+02:00

Our four Lotus Domino mail servers all have their own URL, but it would be easier to maintain a single address both for us and the users. So I'm thinking on setting up a reverse proxy that works as a front end for all four servers, but to be honest I do not have a clue on how to make this work.

If you already have done this, please feel free to post a comment :)

Not the most devastating OoO bug, but annoying enough

2009-08-31T14:42:00.005+02:00

Our colleagues are returning from vacation nowadays, which means that we have a bunch of Out of Office issues to solve.

Two brand new issues this year are:

1) If users turn on the Out of Office function from their Blackberry device, you can be sure that they do not manage to turn it off again afterwards from their Notes client. (We use RIM server 4.x and Lotus Notes 8.5) Found a tech note on Blackberry.com that states that this is a limitation in the 4.x version.

2) Some users report that when they turn on the OoO function, the system automatically sends a handful of OoO messages to people whom you not have had any contact with for a long time. This is rather sweet, a caring sort of Out of Office function that contacts your old mates just to say that your vacation has started :) I know I should contact IBM on this, but is it a bug or a feature ?

Probably one of the dumbest scams I've seen.

2009-08-25T19:36:00.003+02:00

Arrived in my mail box today. Should I go for this?

Good day,
My name is Mr. Arshad Iftikhar, I work with Euro Lottery here in UK as the operations manager who generate weekly winning numbers. I wish to offer you an opportunity to become one of our lottery winners with a cash prize of £4,528,000 GBP only if you would agree to give me 35% of your cash prize. Just as a brief, due to my position in the company I can make it happen that you would be a winner of the above stated amount in our Euro Million Lotto Program.
Naturally, every body would like to play a lottery if they are assured of winning and I am assuring you today, I can make you a winner if you would accept this offer/condition.I expect you don't take this for granted because this is once in a life time opportunity as we both stand to collectively gain from this at the success of the transaction,Please contact me immediately through my private email: accepted.offer@9.cn.
Regards,

Oh my God - guns allowed in bars ??

2009-07-14T21:23:00.007+02:00

I really enjoy being in the U.S. now and then, but I guess I'll have to avoid Tennessee after this -->
http://current.com/items/90415750_restaurant-owners-plea-fails-to-stop-tennessees-guns-in-bars-law.htm .

How primitive! What will be the next? Guns for everyone on airplanes?

Gone fishing

2009-07-06T12:28:00.003+02:00

A bad day of fishing is still better than a good day at work.
The next weeks will hopefully be packed with exciting trips to rivers and lakes.
The images below are from last week's trip to the Hardanger plateu.
Have a nice summer everyone :)
Brown trout 44 centimeters, caught on "The secret weapon" fly.

Typical lake on the Hardanger plateu. Beautiful, but don't forget your mosquito net.

52 centimeters, a real beauty.

Strange problem, simple workaround

2009-06-16T14:45:00.002+02:00

Issue:
Had a strange issue today, when Domino 8.0.2 would not install on two VMWare servers. It seemed that the setup database wasn't copied along with the other files, so when the server finally started for the first time, no setup was available.

Workaround:
Installed Domino 7.0.3, did the initial setup there, and then installed 8.0.2 on top.
Strange, though.

Is BES server 5.0.0 mature enough?

2009-06-10T23:58:00.017+02:00

Blackberry is quite new in Norway actually, the home market has always been dominated by Symbian and Windows Mobile based phones. We downloaded the BES server 5.0 last week and installed - uh - tried to install it - on a Windows 2003 server. That was not easy. We met peculiar problems, like:

1. Do not specify Norway as your country in Windows Regional Settings, otherwise the installation will fail :-D (Yes it's true) (SQL server 2005 runtime error)

2. Do not use Firefox to open the web based administration panel - it does not work! (Yes - this is 2009)

We still haven't managed to get the system up & running, but it may look like we're nearly there now. Otherwise we will have to install the ver. 4.x BES server while we wait for a more mature 5.x.x version.

============
Oh - and a few device tips as well:

1. Scandinavian characters: Æ, Ä and Å - press and hold the "a" key, then use the mouse roller to scroll to the correct letter. Ø, Ö - same procedure, but this time with the "o" key.
It isn't as easy as on Nokia phones, but you'll manage.

2. Be careful with the Blackberry device password and the NumLock function (Alt+LeftShift). This function locks the numeric keys and makes it easier to dial numbers with one finger. On the other hand, when this kicks in without you knowing it, and you're giving the wrong password, you might end up with a locked phone. (Yes - been there)
Three failed attempts, and your SIM card gets locked. (Yes - done that)
You need a PUK code to reopen it, and I really hope you still have that funny little letter from your phone company, the one containing your PUK codes ? (Yes - uh - oh ..).
Otherwise you're in for a long period without your mobile phone, which possibly will make you break down and cry a bit. (I didn't, but close :)

================
Blackberry Bold - first impressions:

Very smart and intuitive user interface. Very easy to learn

PC/Mac support software isn't really good, especially the Windows version seems crappy. (it hangs my laptop). On the other hand - most users actually don't need it either.

ON THE OTHER HAND:
I connected the Blackberry to an existing 4.x BES server, located in another of our offices abroad, and this time the shiny little device was really impressing. Mail, Sametime, policies, everything works like a charm. Once we get this up&running, we might have what we originally were looking for.

UPDATE june 15th:
We finally managed to get the ver 5.0.0 server up&running, but we never got it stable. The Lotus Domino 8.5 HF4 server crashed regulary, never leaving a reason in the log files. We're now downgrading to ver 4.x again. What a pain.

Cool Lotus things I didn't know about

2009-05-30T12:01:00.002+02:00

A good reference to NOTES INI
HERE --> http://www.admincamp.de/notesini/name?openview

Control + Break on MacBook Pro is [Cmd]+[.]

Notes.ini preferences plugin --> http://www.infosana.com/products.htm#notesini_plugin

Remote console in the sidebar --> http://www.nsftools.com/blog/blog-05-2009.htm#05-19-09
(Thanks Odd-Åge)

Norwegian Lotus User Group: Notes.ini/Gregory Engels

2009-05-29T00:16:00.014+02:00

"How many ways do you know to modify the notes.ini file ?" said Gregory Engels, implying that he knew of at least 10 himself. Hell, I didn't know more than 4.

Gregory was stand-in on short notice for Paul Mooney, who had to cancel. I was really disappointed about that, mr. Mooney's presentation skills are among the best in the Lotus world, and his "Admin Blast" is more than an ordinary admin/geek session, it's more of a show actually, with lots of humour but still packed with valuable info.

Mr. Engels, on the other hand, did not disappoint his audience. He gave us two fine hours of useful and useless info about IDVault og DAOS, and ended up with a funny session about the NOTES.INI, with it's 8000 unofficial and undocumented parameters.

Everyone knows that the meaning of life, the universe and everything is 42, but few seem to know that the longest undocumented parameter in NOTES.INI is 54 characters long, (Adminp_Manage_Folder_On_Web_Delega
te_Disable=n) or that there even exists a parameter that disables the mouse in Lotus Notes. Once activated, your notes client will start to act really weird. Try it on your manager, perhaps combined with NoExternalApps=1.

A copy of the presentation is --> here

Norwegian Lotus User Group: What Ed said

2009-05-28T13:22:00.007+02:00

Ed Brill is always exciting as keynote speaker, this time he gave us an updated overview of the Lotus family at a strategic level - not too interesting for geeks maybe, but OK.

The most interesting part is always where he (maybe) hints on what is to come in the close future. It's important to emphasize that this is what I think I heard, and not necessarily what mr. Brill actually said :)

* Lotus Notes sales is still increasing, despite the financial crisis
* Lotus Foundations Branch office will support deployment of Lotus Foundations Start as branch office solution for organizations with existing Lotus Domino infrastructure at head office.
* The widget for the Linked-In network will be released in a very close future

* Notes 8.5.1 is planned for the end of Q3 and will have several new or features:
- Catalog: Plug-ins for end users
- New Eclipse-based editors for LotusScript and Java
- Faster XPages
- plus a zillion bug fixes I guess

* LOTUS TRAVELER 8.5.1
- Early beta out 15/5 on Lotus Greenhouse
- Lots of improvements for the iPhone version

* LOTUS SYMPHONY:
- Version 1.3 ships in Q2 2009
- supports the new file formats for Office 2007
- Enhanced lotusscript APIs
- Version 2.0 planned for 1H 2010
- Will be based on Open Office 3.0

LOTUS 9.0
- Improve Search -Total Recall; simplified way of finding things more easily
- Group Calendar
- Intelligent subscription of feeds within mail inbox
- Work with others more seamlessly – Contacts and Mail Federation
- Track work more efficiently – Unified Task Management

Nokia E90 Communicator - requiescat in pace

2009-05-21T01:16:00.005+02:00

I lost an old friend last weekend: My Nokia E90 Communicator suffered a painful death after being squeezed into a banana in my backpack. My old friend lived for a couple of hours after that, but then without warning it passed away quick & quietly.

My employer refuses to let me have a new one, saying that phone models are company policy and that everyone must obey the present rules. That sounds simple, but after ten years madly in love with 9210, 9500, and 9300, my life now feels really miserable. My private economy makes it impossible for me to buy a new one, or even a second-hand model. I'm stuck. I'm alone, and slightly depressed.

So, instead of a new E90, they gave me a E71. These people can't possibly know what a good phone means to me. I can bear the fact that the E90 weights twice as much as a E71, and that the E90 technology is over two years old already. I know it is considered to be sluggish and out of date, but I really don't care about those facts. I have a "twin subscription" and can use a smaller phone on the same number as my E90 in situations where this is suitable. The big benefit with E90 is the reliability, the ruggedness and the extreme quality and user friendliness. It simply made me more efficient.

Instead of the wonderful big 5x2" QWERTY keyboard of the E90, I now have to use the 2x1" micro keyboard on the E71. Yes I see that it's working, but the speed and accuracy is gone. I use my thumb finger nails in order to hit the right keys, but I have big hands. So the speed vanished. Puff. Gone. The wonderful Calendar of the E90: Puff - gone. The easy-to-use-Notes: Puff - gone. Efficiency: On vacation. (May be back one day). The solid and reliable phone: Gone with the wind.

I have promised myself to really try to like the E71. Of course it will be easier to use in a couple of days, but if things don't improve I'm afraid I have to raise the necessary amount and buy me a used one. Do you have one you can spare?

Starship Enterprise destroyed by the Death Star

2009-05-08T23:47:00.003+02:00

Strange, they didn't show this on the national news stations this evening.

Hunting giant trout again

2009-05-07T22:12:00.004+02:00

Lake Skogseid is well known for the giant trouts and chars. Last year my then 10 year old son caught a 2 kilo (4 lbs) specimen, while his friend got a stunning 4,7 kilos giant brown trout on the same trip. This year it was more down to normal again, with 14 small brown trouts as the result of 8 hours of fishing.

On the other hand - we had a terrific dinner, I made this year's first can of coffee on the camp fire, and had yet another wonderful and memorable day together with my sons. Who could ask for more?

Required HW and SW for Windows servers (Lotus 1996)

2009-05-04T08:52:00.006+02:00

- We had hundreds of users on boxes like these! -

(Excerpt from the Lotus Domino 4.5 Server install guide)

The Lotus Domino server for Windows requires the following hardware and software:

A PC with an Intel 80486 or Pentium processor or system with a Digital Alpha processor (only if you are using Windows NT)
One of the following operating systems:
Microsoft Windows 95
Microsoft Windows NT version 3.5 or 4.0

Note If you are using the Standard Edition of Windows NT, check the list of supported software on the side panel of the box containing the Lotus Domino Server for Windows NT software or check with your reseller.
Minimum memory
16 MB of RAM for Windows 95
48 MB of RAM for Windows NT 3.51 or 4.0
Recommended memory
24 MB of RAM for Windows 95
64 MB of RAM for Windows NT 3.51 or 4.0

Note Partitioned servers on Windows NT require an additional 32MB for each additional server installed.

Spring in the mountains

2009-04-29T00:04:00.005+02:00

While my Telemark skis are resting in the cellar, the jogging shoes have plenty to do. This scenery is from a an early morning mountain trip last weekend. Spring has finally started in the mountains :)

Attending LSBG conference in may

2009-04-27T20:30:00.005+02:00

I'm attending LSBG spring conference for the first time this year.
(LSBG = the Norwegian Lotus User Group).
Rumours say that we might get a sneak preview of the new 8.5.1 client and the Quickr for Blackberry, which of course is interesting. The rest of the programme looks promising as well, and combined with keynote speakers like Ed Brill and Paul Mooney this conference should have all chances of being a success.

Word wrap fails in embedded Sametime client used with Internet Explorer 8

2009-04-27T14:02:00.004+02:00

Some of my colleagues are just like me: Give them a new version of something and they install it right away with a big happy smile. That isn't always a good idea.

It seems like IE8 knocks out the word wrap functionality in the integrated Sametime client in Lotus Notes 8.x.

IBM has a workaround for the issue, though.

A db's size from 8.0.2 to 8.5

2009-04-19T21:49:00.006+02:00

I installed 8.5 on a server this weekend, and monitored how the size of a mail db changed during the upgrade and with different compression options checked. After each change I compacted the db with command LOAD COMPACT path\dbname.nsf -c

Ver.	ODS	SIZE	OPTIONS CHECKED
8.0.2	48	534 773 760	LZH and design comp
8.5	48	534 773 760	LZH and design comp
8.5	51	533 200 896	LZH and design comp
8.5	51	511 442 944	LZH, design and data compression

Preparing for DAOS

2009-04-14T22:33:00.002+02:00

One of our mail servers has nearly reached 1 terabyte and is slowly running out of disk space. Again. My colleagues who are responsible for the backup robots aren't pleased with the situation, and neither are we, "the yellow people" as they call us.

So while the rest of the staff went on easter vacation, I started to plan for the implementation of DAOS on this particular server.

In order to free some disk space, I needed to start a general compacting job with a space reduction parameter -B.
Instead, I put this parameter in the NOTES.INI:
CREATE_R8_DATABASES=1
and then started compact with parameter "-c "(LOAD COMPACT -c)
The parameter "-c" forces a copy-style compacting job, which also changes the ODS to the newest level for all compacted databases.

Now, this isn't a Notes 8.5 server yet, so in order to implement the DAOS I will need to upgrade it from version 8.0.2 FP1 to version 8.5. The reason for upgrading the ODS level at this time is merely to see that all databases convert without problems, and to gain a little extra speed while we are waiting for the 8.5 upgrade. It turned out that two of the mail databases didn't convert at all, due to errors, and since both databases are likely to contain very important information we will have to fix these issues before we proceed with the upgrade.

I also started the same job on every 8.5 server in the organisation(s) and converted the databases to ODS 51. These are newer servers with newer databases, so these compact jobs ended as they should, without any errors.

DAOS is depending on transaction logging, and the transaction logs need to be placed on another drive than the Domino server. We have no other drives available at the moment. In our ITIL framework this triggers a change request that has to be approved by the change board, then implemented by one of the service providers, and finally configured by us, "the yellow people". Looks like we're heading for a two weeks delay.

Ulrich Krause has made a few blog posts on DAOS, some of them scares me a bit, enough to disturb my sleep at night. Is the DAOS subsystem mature enough? If the DAOS fails to function properly, it will be a hell to do a complete rollback. 900 gigabytes of data, and 300 furious users! I guess IT people may have been shot for issues smaller than this.

Anyone out there with any experience on DAOS? Please let me know :)

Making HDR images using Photomatix

2009-04-13T23:58:00.003+02:00

Downloaded a demo version of Photomatix Pro a few days ago. Here is my first HDR image:
Photomatix requires a set of exposures, and then use the best from each exposure.
Here are my source images:

The demo version leaves a water mark in your HDR image, but if you are an experienced photoshopper it shouldn't be too difficult to get rid of it. I consider buying a license, though. ($99)

The last snow

2009-04-06T20:38:00.004+02:00

Easter time in Norway means visiting the snow covered mountains one last time. This is from the Geilo area, on my way to mount Ustetind.

Upgraded to 8.5 without problems, climbed a mountain instead of doing bug fixing

2009-03-29T22:31:00.012+02:00

The 8.5 upgrade was carried out without any problems at all. We upgraded three different companies within three hours, did the necessary error checking, and then prepared ourselves for the usual user complaints. There were none..

So instead of resolving Lotus issues I spent the weekend like this:

Mount Livarden (approx 700 m) is a rather small peak, but the view from the top is just fantastic. I recorded this video on my mobile phone today, while I was resting at the top. The climb from the starting point takes about 2 hours, the downhill return takes 25 minutes.

Scene from the eastern side of mount Livarden.

Going for the first 8.5 upgrades this weekend

2009-03-24T22:43:00.002+01:00

The file sets and hotfixes are all distributed and ready!
This weekend we start to upgrade all the Lotus Domino servers to ver. 8.5.

Does this make any sense?

2009-03-24T22:14:00.007+01:00

I live 500 meters from an electrical shop that sells almost anything.
Today I visited the store in order to buy a digital SLR camera for my daughter's birthday, and found out that the cheapest Canon SLR with a normal 18-55mm lens cost roughly NOK 4800,- (approx. $762,-). I found that to be a bit too expensive, so I visited all the other electrical shops in the area, just to find out that 4800,- apparently was the lowest price available.

Then I checked the internet, and found that the same shop sold the same camera for NOK 3999,- ($634) on the web! I didn't even have to pay for the camera, all I had to do was to order the camera from that particular store, drive the 500 meters to collect it, and drive off again with the camera and the saved NOK 800,- Well, personally I don't mind, but what's the point with this?

Can Ubuntu be an alternative to XP?

2009-03-20T19:28:00.002+01:00

Last weekend I brought home two old HP PCs, both with 1GB RAM and approx. 100GB disk space. My aim is to use some of my spare time to build a Linux based workstation that can be smart enough, cool enough and maintainable enough to function properly in our company.

At this point I may need to mention that the IT management have not approved this, nor have they any plans of replacing the Windows workstations with Linux. The only achievement I see in this is to keep my knowledge of Linux up to date.

Well. Back to the Linux workstation: These are my main criteria:

1) The OS must be easy to install and maintain
2) It must be possible to log in to Active Directory and use the shared resources.
3) It must have a user friendly GUI and look quite similar to Win XP. Users should be able to switch from XP til Linux and back without major problems.
4) It must be possible to distribute new applications and printers based on user name, group membership or similar.
5) It must be free, or at least very cheap.

The apps list isn't long at this moment:
____________________________

OS: Linux Mint 6 (A very nice distro based on Ubuntu)
Mail: Lotus Notes 8.5.x
Office suite: Lotus Symphony or Open Office
Web Browser: Firefox 3
____________________________

The rest will probably take a long time to figure out, but at least I've started.
Anyone out there with any experience on this?

Winter holiday in the mountains

2009-03-04T08:34:00.012+01:00

We always enjoy a few quiet days in the mountains at this time of year, when the darkness of the polar winter is over and spring is only a few weeks away.

This time we brought an ICE mobile broadband router, which enables both me and my teenage kids to have a 2MBit internet access through the NMT450 mobile telephone network. The low transmitting frequency and the analog signaling technology gives the ICE router a wider coverage area than the more modern GSM/GPRS/3G networks, and makes it a very popular gadget among cottage owners, boat people and traveling geeks on winter vacation. It even connects from locations where GSM phones are without coverage.

So, besides getting a slight tan and playing with the kids, I also managed to solve a few problems at work, create new user accounts, helped end-users, and answered my E-mail. Shouldn't be any big surprises on monday then, I guess.

Making "Hetevegger"

2009-02-23T23:48:00.009+01:00

My hometown Bergen was for many centuries dominated by german and dutch trading companies, who bought and sold mainly fish products. Almost everyone here have at least one german or dutch ancestor, and many of the old words and traditions are still alive in the city.

This weekend we had for example shrowtide buns with icing sugar and whipped cream, and today the highly traditional "Hetevegg". The word Hetevegg origins from the German Heisse Wecken, meaning Warm Buns. It's an enormous bun, and it is to be filled with warm milk with cinnamon, and not to forget melted butter.

This is how it works:

Make one enormous bun for each family member.
Warm up milk and butter (separately). Add plenty of cinnamon to the warm milk.
Make a small hole in the top of the bun, and compress the stuff inside a bit
Fill the bun with 10-20% melted butter, then the rest with the warm milk/cinnamon.
Let the bun rest for a moment while you prepare yourself to eat a brick.
Try eating the thing. it's tasty, but it would surprise me if you manage to eat it all up.
Sing a German song if you know any. Or french. Maybe dutch.

The kids love this funny old bun and the tradition, so I guess the old specialty will be around for yet another generation.

BCC ClientGenie: First impressions

2009-02-20T19:45:00.014+01:00

Lotus Notes desktop administration isn't cheap. At least not cheap enough for us, so one of the goals with the Lotusphere trip this year was to find good 3rd party tools for automating maintenance tasks and try to bring down the TCO for the Lotus applications.

The BCC ClientGenie is a set of such tools, and at first sight just what we needed. You install two DLLs on each workstation, make the necessary configuration documents in a db on the Domino server, and woops: You can put or delete icons and bookmarks on every workspace, connection and location docs in every local NAB, and copy local files back to a common repository on the server. There's even more options, and lots of other stuff we haven't touched yet.

If you're used to role/group based application deployment in your office environment, you'll love ClientGenie. Define a db icon, associate it with a group, and volia! It pops up on all group members' workspace around your organisation. It's ZENWorks for Lotus, and we all happen to love ZenWorks and still honour it's memory.

After a few days of trial and error we've managed to put together a working desktop config, and have deployed it to 8 users for an initial test. It looks good, especially after we changed the dull background of the workspace, and it feels good. The test users seem to like it too.

ISSUES SO FAR
There's been a few:
The worst is that the ClientGenie tends to crash the desktop8.ndk if you do too many operations on the desktop file. We haven't managed to figure out which of the operations that makes it crash, but once we turn them all off the desktop8.ndk survives.

Another weird behaviour is that if you specify that you want a local copy of the mail file on every user's laptop, and then force a replication of the mail prior to the client startup, (yes it is possible:) all read marks disappear. It doesn't happen every time you log in, but it does happen.

The last of the issues isn't a bug at all, but rather a missing feature in the application. Many of our employees travel around the globe, and connects to our Lotus servers on really slow internet lines. We really love the inventory subsystem, since it makes it possible to back up every user's personal files onto the server, but what we need from BCC ClientGenie is a way to automatically disable the inventory function when a user is out in the bush on slow lines. Maybe a location doc based disabling would be sufficient.
-------

The support people at BCC seems a bit shy to be honest, it has not been easy to get quick answers from them. The BCC marketing people appologize and tell us that there has been a terrible flu paralysing the company for a week or two, and that things soon will normalise. Well, we all hope so. This product looks so promising that it would be a pity not to test it further.

One of those rare saturdays

2009-02-14T17:23:00.004+01:00

.. when you have time to do something else than house cleaning, shopping or work.

We've had some snow here now the last week. It's not common around Bergen but it sure is welcome. Here's me at the Mount Livarden, at the topmost cairn about 700 meters above sea level :)

The mountain in the background is the eastern side of the Mount Ulriken, the "signature mountain" of Bergen.

Lotusphere 09 - OGS vid

2009-02-06T21:38:00.003+01:00

Recorded with my E90 Communicator, found on my Mac two weeks later :)

Planning our notes domain 2009

2009-02-06T20:31:00.006+01:00

Last autumn we managed to migrate all companies from Novell Groupwise to Lotus Notes 8.x. It was a tough job, but we managed to get them all safely over just before the annual system freeze period started.

The system freeze period in our enterprise is soon over, so now it's time to decide what to prioritize this year. We had our first strategy meeting today, and this is some of what we decided:

First of all: Fix all issues with the current configuration (2-3 weeks)
2. Start planning for Lotus Symphony migration for one of the companies. Final rollout in june
3. Plan for a complete restructuring of the Lotus Notes O and OU levels in the same company.
4. Introduce 3rd party admin tools to automate and control the Lotus Notes workspace and configuration.
5. Take minimum three companies up to ver 8.5 by the end of May
6. Plan for migration to ID vault and Windows Shared Login for one company, and if possible: Deploy it --> May

June is the month for bug fixing and stabilizing of the Lotus environment. At June 23rd a new short system freeze period starts, due to the fact that July is the most popular vacation month in Scandinavia, and that IT personel don't want to interrupt their vacation just to fix problems that could have been avoided :)

We have not made plans for the second half of 2009 yet, but if the first half goes as planned, we will probably use the second half to implement Sametime Unified Telephony and roll out 8.5.1 throughout the organization. (8.5.1 is scheduled for august 09.) -Which should keep us all happy and very occupied until the winter system freeze period and Lotusphere 2010 both are over ..

Benjamin Zander in HD video

2009-02-06T00:19:00.005+01:00

If you were at Lotusphere 2009, you probably haven't forgot the conductor from the closing session, mr Benjamin Zander.

"How fascinating ":-)

Lotusphere 09 - What I told my wife

2009-01-30T21:26:00.010+01:00

Lotusphere '09 is history, and so is the jet-lag. Life goes on. It's good to be back in Norway, though Florida is a nice place to be in the middle of winter. It's good to be back with my family, my colleagues, the bad weather, the nice food, the tastier beer, and my good old bed.

My impressions of Lotusphere 2009? It was nice. It's no use telling what everyone else already have said, so I think I stick to that: "Lotusphere 09 was nice". Personally I would had expected more new stuff, but since my main target this year was Sametime and the new 8.5 release, I wasn't that disappointed.

My wife asked me about my impressions of this trip, and since she's not an IT techie, I wouldn't dare boring her with the geeky stuff. Instead I gave her roughly this:

THE IMMIGRATION AUTHORITIES
At the aiport it's always a bit scary with the all the guards, forms, the big weapons on display, the yellow lines that you shall not cross, uniforms, fingerprints, photos, rough questions, the suspicious looks, saying: "Are you an illegal immigrant?". I don't feel welcome, and I'm not used to that. Hell, I'm not even used to armed police officers!

Sometimes the thought strikes me: Here I am, a Norwegian citizen, coming from a stable and peaceful, highly advanced and extremely rich country - why on earth should there be any reason to treat me like I was a potential criminal or terrorist, and why should they even think that I might consider to move from Norway to the US? That's a rude thought, but after 20 hours of travelling I easily get a bit irritated.

Well, now for the good news: It has got much better. This year we really felt welcome for the first time. The officers were really nice and treated us with the necessary respect and even a bit of humor. The same thing happened when we left the US: Nice, smiling security officers everywhere. Thank you! If this continues, I might even consider to bring my family on vacation here some time. That would sure be great fun!

THE NUMBER OF ATTENDEES
I think it's childish of IBM not to tell us how many attendees there were on Lotusphere. My own guess: 5600

THE TAXI DRIVERS
I like the taxi drivers in Orlando. They are friendly, service-minded, curious, and easy to chat with. And this is not a joke.

THE HOTEL PREMISES
The Disney hotels are all so clean and well maintained. The only thing that could be better, is the TV channels. Nothing interesting there (Well perhaps the Weather Channel on #37 is OK...). The internet line in the hotel room was OK, not as fast as I'm used to but OK, and as long as it's possible to get online I really do not care that much about the TV.
A waitress told me she was working 14 hours shifts. That's a long working day.

THE FOOD
American food is delicious, but it will kill you. I have never seen food with that amount of calories anywhere else on the globe. AND it's a pity to see so many ultra-fat people struggling to move around. Please, you have to do something about this.

THE LOTUS PEOPLE
Geeks are always nice and the nationality doesn't really matter. One of the really nice things about Lotusphere is the chance to meet people from all over the world, and discover the amazing fact that everyone speaks Lotusscript fluently.

THE CULTURE (OUTSIDE LOTUSPHERE)
At first it all feels very similar to Scandinava. After a week or so you begin to notice the differences. And there are a lot of differences. In any case: I really like the USA and the citizens. Can't help it.

THE CLIMATE
Splendid. Especially in january, when we have freezing temperatures and mostly darkness in Scandinavia.

SHOPPING
Before the finance crisis it was rather reasonable and even low prices on goods in Orlando. As a result of the crisis, the Norwegian currency is now 35% weaker than last year, so the shopping is not that interesting at the moment. Forecasts predicts that the Norwegian currency "krone" will strengthen itself again during 2009, so next year may be better.

THE COST/BENEFIT
It's expensive to attend Lotusphere, but there are lots of benefits too. I have the important overview of what's coming this year, and I have the necessary knowledge on how to implement the things I want to implement. One week away from work has given me an energy boost that normally lasts for months. We have already started the preparations for ver. 8.5 .x on servers and clients, and started a project that will take Sametime to a new service level in the company. We see that the Lotus brand is still gaining momentum and feel confident that this technology will be important to us in the years to come. How do you put a prize tag on that?

I was there when Benjamin Zander spoke

2009-01-23T00:38:00.004+01:00

All you poor guys who had to leave early and didn't attend the closing session: Cry blood and bleed yellow, you missed one hell of a speaker. Conductor of the Boston Philharmonic Orchestra gave us a fantastic moment that lasted over two hours. (It seemed like a short moment though).

People laughed, cheered, sang and cried, as the old man spellbound his audience in something that must have been one of the most fantastic performances ever witnessed at Lotusphere. I dare say that he almost outperformed Neil Armstrong, and that says a bit.

Thank you, mr. Zander. I bring your wise words with me.

KALDT !!

2009-01-21T13:46:00.002+01:00

Onsdag morgen, og utenfor her i herlige tropiske Florida er det - null - grader.

Ikveld er det den tradisjonelle parkfesten, men værmeldingen sier minus tre grader og vind, så det spørs om det blir noe arrangement.

Lotusphere: Stor frokost

2009-01-20T04:23:00.002+01:00

Dette rommet tar nok 2-3000 mennesker om nødvendig.
Er du redd for store forsamlinger, er nok ikke dette plassen for deg :)

Lotusphere OGS: Lotus Online Services

2009-01-19T16:28:00.003+01:00

http://www.lotuslive.com

"Vi har tatt våre fineste tjenester og gjort dem tilgjengelig for alle"

Bluehouse heter nå Lotus Live Engage, tilgjengelig Q1 i år

Lotuslive partners:
Salesforce, LinkedIn og Skype

Dette ser faktisk bra ut! Tror jeg må kikke mer på dette.

Keynote session 8:30 imorgen

Lotusphere OGS: Portal og Mashups

2009-01-19T16:17:00.003+01:00

Nå har de endret logoen igjen, Websphere Portal server har fått en gul greie...
Ron Sebastian kjører demo igjen.
Lager en mashup av forskjellige datakilder

Lotusphere OGS: Dårlige linjer nå. Mister kontakten ofte

2009-01-19T16:14:00.000+01:00

Lotusphere OGS: UCC

2009-01-19T15:35:00.003+01:00

Sametime unified telephony: Snaddersystem som integrerer Lotus teknologien med sentralbordet.
Ron Sebastian kjører noen overbevisende demoer
Tilgjengelig i mars 09

Lotus Sametime 8.5
Sterkt forbedret videokonferanse og forbedret audio bit
Tror jeg skal se deres keynote session imorgen 03:00 pm

Lotusphere OGS: Lotus Notes 8.5 sekjsonen

2009-01-19T15:18:00.007+01:00

Kevin Cavanaugh - Lotus Notes 20 år
Bursdagstale. bladibladi

Symphony: 200000 brukere allerede
Lotusscript er støttet Lotusscript
Støtte for Office 2007 i kommende versjon

SAP: Alloy er det nye navnet til Atlantic
Tilgjengelig i mars

Og så kom Ron Sebastian omsider. Verdens mest utsatte demomann?

LinkedIn i sidebaren - kjekt

NOTES 8.5
Sametime contacts: Dra&slipp direkte fra Sametime til mail (to: feltet)
Masse nytt i notes klienten
Støtte for Google calendar
Støtte for å legge flere kalendre sammen i en overlay funksjon
Attachments deles
Notes 8.5 designer med XPages demos. Sexy

Lotusphere: Annonserer LotusLive

2009-01-19T15:14:00.001+01:00

http://www.lotuslive.com

OGS Lotusphere 2009 gjestetalere

2009-01-19T14:45:00.009+01:00

Coca Cola - Jean Michel Ares
forteller om hvordan konsernet utnytter SAP og Lotus teknologi. Litt tungt og kjedelig.
Tydelig at han snakker om noe andre har forberedt for ham.

NetJets - John Dunning
"Fractional jet ownerships". Jøss. Jeg trenger lønnsforhøyelse.
Snakker om deres bruk av Websphere Portal. Bedre enn cola duden. Skal huske det neste gang jeg trenger en privat jet.

HSBC - Ian Haynes
300000 ansatte på 9500 kontorer.
Snakker om hvordan de bruker Lotus teknologi innenfor mange områder.
Mener at det ikke finnes alternativer til Lotus når en skal samle verdensomspennende virksomheter

Blackberry - Jim Balsillie
annonserer støtte for LN 8.5 på Blackberry.
21 millioner brukere.
Enhanced Lotus suite
Client for Lotus Connections
Ny klient for Lotus Sametime
filoverføring, video
Symphony & Quickr på Blackberry
Support for Domino Designer med XPages på Blackberry!

OGS Lotusphere 2009

2009-01-19T14:39:00.002+01:00

12326 nye kunder siden slippet av Lotus Notes 8, sier sjæfen.
Dan Akroyd er årets hovedtaler. Morsom.
Salen er full! Hvor mange folk er det her i år? 6000? 7000?

Lotusphere 2009: Søndag

2009-01-19T06:28:00.003+01:00

Ny dag, tid for å finne frem og gjøre seg kjent.
Vi startet med å samle troppene og lokalisere bossholdeplassen der Lotusphere bussene skulle stoppe. Da vi endelig fant den, sto der 7 busser og ventet på oss. Utrolig!

Søndagen er litt utenom rytmen for oss som ikke er leverandører, men like fullt oppegående i Lotus teknologi. Jumpstart sesjonene, som er det vi kunder skal bry oss med liksom, er forsåvidt OK, men i mange tilfeller kanskje litt for enkle. Uansett - stor moro for nye og eldre ble det, og siden vi likevel var noe redusert som føle av jet lag og liknende, var det kanskje like greit med en rolig dag nå i begynnelsen.

Dagens faglige innslag var bra, og her er det på sin plass med litt ekstra skryt til Gabriella Davis og Andrew Pollack, som sammen gjorde en kjempejobb på foredraget "The A-Z of IBM Lotus Domino security features". Maken til begavede foredragsholdere!

Årets beach party var en stor suksess. Det var riktignok kaldt i luften i dagene før søndag, men ikveld var det heller mildt med 14-16 grader i luften, noe som gjorde de mange tusen festdeltakerrne godt. Høy stemning og morsomt party inntil nattekulden tok oss. Vi endte opp på "The duelling pianos", og avsluttet kvelden der.

Switching to Norwegian during Lotusphere 09

2009-01-18T16:35:00.002+01:00

There's so much to blog about, but so little time..
In order to tell as much as possible I'll blog in my native language for a few days.
I will try to translate blog entries to English when I have the time.

Arriving in Orlando

2009-01-17T05:53:00.003+01:00

Traveling from Norway via Iceland to Orlando means flying almost constantly in the sunset. When the plane landed at Keflavik, Iceland, the sun set. It was almost dark before we got onboard the next airliner and continued westwards. Somewhere between Iceland and Greenland we caught up with the sunset again, the dim daylight returned slowly, and suddenly it was day again !
I'm writing this somewhere over Atlanta. The airplane is quiet. Some are sleeping, while others (like me) are a little too excited to take a nap now. Inside my head the time is 01:00 A.M, I guess it will be at least 03:30 before I finally can rest my eyes. Why do I do this every year?

UPDATE
Finally in my hotel room, with Disney stuff on the TV and an air refresher that makes a terrible noise. It's been 24 hours since I woke up, and both my brain and my eyes are in a rather poor shape now.

The people at the immigrant/passport control at Sanford was so nice this time! I loved that! Thanks !

Lotus geeks from Workplace Consulting Oslo, here at Keflavik

Got Windows 7 installed on my MacBook Pro

2009-01-13T23:32:00.008+01:00

I spent a few hours this evening downloading and installing the Windows 7 public beta on a VMWare fusion partition on my MacBook, and it all went fairly well. Much better than I had expected.

The most difficult part was to locate an .ISO file with the '7 beta on. There seems to be something wrong with Microsoft's download system, at least I didn't manage to get the file from them.

Instead I went here --> http://www.downloadsquad.com/2009/01/09/direct-download-links-for-windows-7-beta-iso-surface/ and downloaded the file from MS via the direct URLs that is published on this page. (Take your time, the beta ISO is 2.1 gigs)

Note: It's always best to visit the MS Win7 download site first, to obtain a product ID before you proceed. You'll need this later to activate the Win7 Beta.

The rest of the process was pretty straightforward: I created a new 30 Gig partition in VMWare Fusion, and mounted the .ISO file as a virtual DVD ROM. The installation took approx. 20 minutes. The only unusual thing observed was some screen flickering, so I moved on to install the bootcamp drivers. This was no success, I gave it up after 30 more minutes and installed the VMWare device drivers instead. They worked like a charm, so now I have OS-X, WinXP and Win7 on the same machine. I'll install notes 8.5 on top of Win7 tomorrow.

Installing Mac boot camp 2.1 on an existing WinXP SP3 partition

2009-01-10T00:49:00.009+01:00

This must be the first time I've run into trouble with the Mac updates. I ran the update application manually from my bootcamp (windows) partition, and found new versions of Safari, iTunes, and many other pop apps. Of course I installed them all. The largest one however, the Bootcamp 2.1 update, did not complete as it should. After several attempts I ended up doing a manual download and install, and finally I was able to see an error message. Heey!

"Error applying transforms. Verify that the specified transform paths are valid"

So what does "Error applying transforms. Verify that the specified transform paths are valid" mean? I don't know. On Google it looks like this message is quite common in Windows installation issues. In this case it is caused by the fact that the installation process will not run if you're already running Windows XP SP3, although one of the fixes in Boot camp 2.1 is - exactly - support for SP3!

In order to fix this you are supposed to:

1) Uninstall the SP3

2) Install Bootcamp 2.1

3) Reinstall SP3

In my case, I used a quite new CD image with SP3 integrated, so it's not possible to uninstall it. There goes the fine new drivers and bug fixes :(

Somebody has found a workaround, though, but it is a bit weird:

It seems that if you edit the Win registry and change the language token to American, things start to work again.

Tiago D'Herbe wrote the following recipe to fix a Bootcamp issue with a Windows Vista, and it turned out that it works on my Win XP as well, even though my issue is very different from Tiago's:

Open the Registry editor, Start->on the Start Search textbox type "regedit"->Enter
Search for BootCamp, Edit->Find->type Boot Camp Services->Enter
Edit the Language D-WORD (32bit) -> Keep Hexadecimal selected -> type 409 (should be 1033 decimal)
Re-run the installer

That's it. Took 5 hours of my life, though..

Considering LotusBeer in Bergen

2009-01-09T22:12:00.007+01:00

We were quite a few Lotus geeks from Bergen at ILUG in Dublin this year, and after - uh - "a few Guinness" one night someone came up with the idea of copying the LotusBeer "conference" in Aberdeen. (http://www.lotusbeer.com/frunobulax/lotusbeer.nsf).

The idea is simple: Gather as many of your Lotus colleagues, customers and friends as possible and get as drunk as you like at a pub somewhere. (If you got the nerves, also invite a few of your competitors...)

OK, so I said I would take the initiative to the first meeting. I just haven't got time for it yet, but promise to do something in february. Maybe it would be a good idea to add some structure as well. Maybe a few presentations before we're too drunk? I don't know. Any suggestions?

What a nice evening

2009-01-07T00:37:00.013+01:00

1) I just noticed that I got an "A" on my project manager exam. .

2) I've been playing with notes 8.5 all evening, on both Win32 and MacOS. And it looks OK. I love new software !

3) And I've been looking into the Twitter thing, since everybody seem to twitter nowadays. My ID is "Supernotes", btw.

Ready for take-off

2009-01-05T20:22:00.003+01:00

Thank you all for advicing me on this matter! When I saw your replies I realized that it had to be something wrong with my prior application.

I did the registration one more time this evening, this time using a Windows XP laptop instead of the MacBook. This time there were no problems during the 4 registration steps, so now I am ready to go. Finally :)

Always problems before we reach Orlando

2009-01-04T19:41:00.003+01:00

The old Visa Waiver Program has changed. When I tried to apply electronically for a visa (the old green forms are history) I never got a receipt showing my application number, and now I wonder if the registration process just terminated or if my application form still is somewhere in the system. I did the registration 3 days ago.

Have any of you applied, and how long did it take before you got your application number?

iNotes 8.5 for iPhone also works on Nokia E90 communicator

2009-01-04T00:55:00.006+01:00

You can use your Nokia E90 with the iPhone interface in Lotus iNotes ver. 8.5.

The 8.5 final release isn't available yet, but Lotusphere Online's mail service uses this version, so every LS09 attendee with a username and password can test the new version as much as they like.

Flip your E90 open, and type in the following URL:

http://www.ls09.info/mail/XXXXXX.nsf/iNotes/Mail/?OpenDocument&Form=m_HomeView
-where XXXXXXX.nsf is to be replaced with your own LS09 mail file. Your username is the E-mail address you registered as your prime address, the password is your confirmation code.

I'll be the first to admit that it doesn't look elegant, but it works. And that's the most important thing for me. If IBM want, I'm sure they can make a generic iPhone version in 8.5.1 ...

Why do ions make hair shine?

2008-12-25T23:44:00.005+01:00

One of the more hilarious products I've seen, is the hair dryer my daughter got for Christmas: "Braun Satinpro satin ions 2200" It has a special button that produces "satin ions". These ions, presumably charged "satin atoms", are told to be soothing and calming. Here's an explanation from the outside of the box:

Why do ions make hair shine?
Ions are natural elements found in the environment. While positive ions produce static, frizzy and dull-looking hair, negative ions instantly tame frizz and static stress, making hair more manageable and shiny.

HAHAHA! Isn't it fantastic? Do they really get away with things like this? It's just buzzword bullshit, fraud, deception, please pick your choice.

The most annoying product, however, is the Gilette shaver called FUSION POWER STEALTH.

Think of it: Buy this razor, and you are the rightfull owner of a shaving device with it's own fusion reactor (advanced nuclear power), and it's even invisible on radar screens!! Big time!
What annoys me is that I would very much like to avoid products with such silly names, but since Gillette is the only razor available, I'm forced to buy this silly shit whether I like the name or not.

Wood grouse for christmas dinner

2008-12-22T13:16:00.007+01:00

Every christmas as long as I can remember, my old father has told the story of his own memories from the time he was young. Naturally it's always the same stories, and one of them is about the merry dinner party at christmas eve. My grandfather was a passionate hunter and flyfisher, so while all other families in the neighborhood had pork or fish at christmas eve, my father's family had Wood Grouse.

The Wood Grouse is the largest grouse in Scandinavia, with a wingspan of approx 1.2 meters (4 feet) and a body weight up to 4,5-5 kilos (10 lbs). It's enormous! You can't just walk into a store and buy one, so if this is your christmas dinner of choice, you'd better buy a shotgun.

The christmas dinner is only days away, and my 92-year old father shall soon tell us about his christmas memories from the 1920's once again. The wood grouse in the oven, the hunting dogs sleeping in front of the fireplace, the christmas tree with live candles... It's a sweet old story and I really look forward to hear it.

This year, however, we have a surprise for the old man: One of my friends, who happens to be both a skilled flyfisher and hunter, had tremendous luck this autumn, and shot three big wood grouses. He has heard the old man's stories, and wanted to give us a spesial christmas offer: If we arrange the dinner party for the old man, he will be happy to donate the wood grouse!

Offers like that is impossible to refuse, This evening I have made the necessary arrangements, bought red wine, and studied old receipts on how to prepare the big bird. It will be a very very special night for my dear old father.

Completing project "Big Domain"

2008-12-20T17:08:00.007+01:00

Last week we migrated the last users to Lotus Notes. The NAB now consists of seven different companies, each with their own group structure, policies and certificates. The companies have their own notes servers, and it's not permitted to access the other servers for anyone but IT support.

At the same time we migrated the users from Novell Netware to Windows server, and just to top all that every desktop computer was reformatted and reinstalled. This operation has been carefully planned for six months now, and was carried out by a team of 9 of my colleagues during the weekend. It could have resulted in a complete mess, but it didn't. There were a few home directories that did not map correctly, and a few printer problems as well, but mostly everything went just as planned. It's been quite a job, and I'm so glad we made it before christmas.

Lessons learned:

1) What the users really want: Info, info and info. Loads of it.

2) Pay close attention to the users' address books in the old mail system, and be sure to migrate every contact name. Forget one, and suddenly everyone realize that E-mail to that special person is crucial for the business, and no-one remembers the address.

3) 20% of all 8.0.2 clients will freeze. Install the hotfix right away.

4) What the users need: Training, training, training ...

5) The "Change Password" function should have been more visible. Helping the users with locating the function is one of the top tasks for IT support now.

6) It's impossible to know all details on how the old mail system is used. There's always a special function, a public mail box, or other special arrangements that someone forgets to tell you about during the planning stage.

Things often heard among the users:

Why do we ditch a system that worked so perfectly?
My neighbor/brother-in-law/sister etc uses notes and he/she hates it.
Sametime has way cooler emoticons than the old chat service.
Can I make my own folders?
How do I configure soccer/business/religious/local feeds?
Why can't I have the same password forever?
Why do I have to login to Sametime?
Lotus Notes is cool, really.

Most of you do not use IE

2008-12-06T00:33:00.005+01:00

Here's you.

I was a bit surprised when I saw the low score for IE/Windows, honestly.

Personally I use both Safari, Firefox and IE, and find all three to be excellent, so the browser war has never been really interesting to me personally. But it's sure nice to see that Linux and Mac together represent over 15% of the hits. I use both and really love them too :)

(Hit statistics from Google Analytics)

Finishing my project manager exam

2008-12-04T11:51:00.004+01:00

After two decades in the IT business I have finally got the opportunity to be a student in the evenings at the Norwegian School of Management (BI), besides my full-time job as a Lotus specialist.
The course has been very interesting, but also painful! I did not know that many of my mistakes as project manager over the last ten years are classical issues and common among all IT projects. I only wish I had done this course earlier, there's so much to learn here.

Well, the project exam lies on the table, printed in three copies and carefully stapled along the left edge. The coffee cup is empty again, it's time to shut down the computer and finally get rid of the documents. I think I deserve a large beer or three tonight.

Lotusphere 2009 OK

2008-11-28T01:06:00.004+01:00

Ah what a good feeling: Lotusphere and hotel reservation finally arranged.

It's oh so nice to have something like that to look forward to.

Old bug finally gone :-)

2008-11-22T23:42:00.006+01:00

Last year I made a script that creates new connection- and location docs. The meaning was to embed the code in a button and send it to laptop users, in order to configure the Lotus Notes client to connect to their mailserver via a passthru server when they were on travel. Unfortunately, the were several issues with the code. The most significant error was that even if the client sometimes managed to connect to the mail server via the passthru server, most times it wouldn't.

A few days ago I suddenly realized what was wrong: The "Usage priority" combo on the "Advanced" tab did not get a value.
Here's the IBM help text for this field:

Select Normal or Low to specify when to use this connection information in a search for the destination server path. Default is Normal.

Notes and Domino use the following steps when determining how to connect to a server:
1. Try to determine a path to the destination by examining all Connection documents with the Usage priority set to Normal.

2. If step 1 fails, ask the home server for connection information and/or probe all enabled ports.

3. If step 2 fails, look at all Connection documents with the Usage priority set to Low.

4. If step 3 fails, attempt to use a default passthru server to connect.

Set the Usage priority to Low if you only want the Connection documents used after attempting to connect over the LAN.

So, if the field do not has a value at all, strange things happen.
I put in a few extra lines, and voila! Works like a charm.

Here's the script. Feel free to use whatever you like of it. Most of it origins from notes.net anyway :) It creates location og connection docs for two passthru servers that are reachable from the internet. The users can freely choose which of the passthru/mail/app servers they want to use, as they are all connected in the same WAN. Location1 uses the first mail server as a passthru to other servers, while Location 2 uses a dedicated passthru server.

Remember to put in your server, IP, and connection values in the top of the script. (The section marked with blue)

Dim db As NotesDatabase
Dim view As NotesView
Dim view01 As Notesview
Dim view2 As NotesView
Dim view4 As Notesview
Dim doc As NotesDocument
Dim doc2 As NotesDocument
Dim doc3 As notesdocument
Dim s As New Notessession
Dim server As Variant
Dim Server1 As Variant
Dim Server_1 As Variant
Dim Server2 As Variant
Dim Server_2 As Variant
Dim ServerAddress1 As Variant
Dim ServerAddress_1 As Variant
Dim ServerAddress2 As Variant
Dim ServerAddress_2 As Variant
Dim uidoc As NotesUIDocument
Dim ConfigDoc As notesdocument
Dim ConfigView As notesview
Dim ConnectionsView As NotesView
Dim LocationsView As NotesView
Dim MailAddress As String
Dim FileExist As String
Dim LocationName1 As String
Dim LocationName2 As String

Dim s1 As String
Dim s2 As String
Dim v1 As Variant

Dim reg As New NotesRegistration
Dim retmailserver As String
Dim retmailfile As String
Dim retmaildomain As String
Dim memo As Notesdocument
Dim user_name As String
user_name = s.CommonUserName

Dim DomainName As String
Dim LNServer1 As String
Dim LNServer2 As String
Dim LNServer3 As String
Dim LNServer4 As String
Dim IPConnectionAdr1 As String
Dim IPConnectionAdr2 As String

' ==== SETUP PARAMETERS ======

LocationName1 = "My Travel"
LocationName2 = "Spacewalking"

DomainName="MyDomain"
LNServer1 = "My1NotesSRV/ORG" ' Location 1's main server, mail server and passthru server
LNServer2 = "MyPassthruNotesSRV/ORG" ' Passthruserver for Location 2
LNServer3 = "My2NotesSRV/ORG" ' Mail server for Location 2
LNServer4 = "My3NotesSRV/ORG" ' Application server for both Location 1 and 2
IPConnectionAdr1 = "162.197.145.186" 'Connection to the first passthru server (Location 1)
IPConnectionAdr2 = "182.34.167.67" 'Connection to the other passthru server (Location 2)

' ==== SETUP PARAMETERS END ======

Dim workspace As New NotesUIWorkspace

boxType& = MB_YESNO + MB_ICONQUESTION
answer%=7
answer% = Messagebox("This process will configure your Lotus Notes client for travel usage. The installation and reconfiguration will take from 10 to 30 minutes. Do you want to continue?", boxType&, _
"Continue?")
If answer% = 7 Then
Exit Sub
End If

boxType& = MB_OK + MB_ICONINFORMATION
answer% = Messagebox("This installation script needs your approval before performing certain operations. When prompted - always click the 'trust signer' button", boxType&, "I understand")

'step 2
Dim session As New NotesSession
Dim LNAB As New NotesDatabase("" , "names.nsf")
Dim connect1 As NotesDocument
Dim connect2 As Notesdocument
Dim connect3 As NotesDocument
Dim connect4 As Notesdocument

Dim connect1B As NotesDocument
Dim connect2B As Notesdocument
Dim connect3B As NotesDocument
Dim connect4B As Notesdocument

Dim success1 As Variant
Dim success2 As Variant
Dim success3 As Variant
Dim success4 As Variant
Dim success1B As Variant
Dim success2B As Variant
Dim success3B As Variant
Dim success4B As Variant

Dim ws As New NotesUIWorkspace
'Call WriteLog( user_name, "Creating connection documents to Mail server" , "","")
Print "Creating connection documents to Mail server"

Set db = New NotesDatabase( "", "names.nsf" )
Set view = db.GetView( "Locations" )
Set view2 = db.getview("Locations")
Set view4 = db.getview("Locations")
Set doc = view.GetFirstDocument
Set doc2 = view2.GetFirstDocument
Set doc3 = view4.GetFirstDocument

' ====== LOCATION 1 =====

Set connect1 = LNAB.CreateDocument
connect1.form = "local"
connect1.type = "Connection"
connect1.destination = Server1
connect1.lanportname = "TCPIP"
connect1.connectiontype = "0"
connect1.optionalnetworkaddress = IPConnectionAdr1
connect1.ConnectionRecordFirst = "1"
connect1.ConnectionLocation = LocationName1
connect1.Comment = "Updated automatically on " & Date$ & " " & Time$
connect.ConnectionRecordFirst = "1"

Set connect2 = LNAB.CreateDocument
connect2.form = "local"
connect2.type = "Connection"
connect2.destination = Server3
connect2.connectiontype = "2"
connect2.PassthruServer = Server1
connect2.ConnectionLocation = LocationName1
connect2.ConnectionRecordFirst = "1"
connect2.Comment = "Updated automatically on " & Date$ & " " & Time$

Set connect3 = LNAB.CreateDocument
connect3.form = "local"
connect3.type = "Connection"
connect3.destination = Server4
connect3.connectiontype = "2"
connect3.PassthruServer = Server1
connect3.ConnectionLocation = LocationName1
connect3.ConnectionRecordFirst = "1"
connect3.Comment = "Updated automatically on " & Date$ & " " & Time$

' ====== LOCATION 2 ======

Set connect1B = LNAB.CreateDocument
connect1B.form = "local"
connect1B.type = "Connection"
connect1B.destination = Server3
connect1B.lanportname = "TCPIP"
connect1B.connectiontype = "0"
connect1B.ConnectionLocation = LocationName2
connect1B.optionalnetworkaddress = IPConnectionAdr2
connect1B.ConnectionRecordFirst = "1"

Set connect2B = LNAB.CreateDocument
connect2B.form = "local"
connect2B.type = "Connection"
connect2B.destination = Server3
'connect2B.lanportname = "TCPIP"
connect2B.connectiontype = "2"
connect2B.PassthruServer = Server2
connect2B.ConnectionLocation = LocationName2
connect2B.ConnectionRecordFirst = "1"

Set connect3B = LNAB.CreateDocument
connect3B.form = "local"
connect3B.type = "Connection"
connect3B.destination = Server1
'connect3.lanportname = "TCPIP"
connect3B.connectiontype = "2"
connect3B.PassthruServer = Server2
connect3B.ConnectionLocation = LocationName2
connect3B.ConnectionRecordFirst = "1"

Set connect4B = LNAB.CreateDocument
connect4B.form = "local"
connect4B.type = "Connection"
connect4B.destination = Server4
connect4B.lanportname = "TCPIP"
connect4B.connectiontype = "2"
connect4B.PassthruServer = Server2
connect4B.ConnectionLocation = LocationName2
connect4B.ConnectionRecordFirst = "1"

success1 = connect1.ComputeWithForm( False, False)
success2 = connect2.ComputeWithForm( False, False)
success3 = connect3.ComputeWithForm( False, False)
'success4 = connect4.ComputeWithForm( False, False)
success1B = connect1B.ComputeWithForm( False, False)
success2B = connect2B.ComputeWithForm( False, False)
success3B = connect1.ComputeWithForm( False, False)
success4B = connect2.ComputeWithForm( False, False)

Call connect1.Save(True,True)
Call connect2.Save(True,True)
Call connect3.Save(True,True)

Call connect1B.Save(True,True)
Call connect2B.Save(True,True)
Call connect3B.Save(True,True)
Call connect4B.Save(True,True)

Print "Finished creating connection documents to Mail server according to Company Standards for this location"

Dim NABDB As New NotesDatabase(Server1 , "names.nsf")
Dim lookup_doc As NotesDocument

Dim mail_server As String
Dim mail_file As String
Dim mail_file_full As String

Set db = session.CurrentDatabase
Set view = NABDB.GetView("($VIMPeople)")
Print "Getting Mail File info .. "
user_name = session.CommonUserName
Set lookup_doc = view.GetDocumentByKey(user_name)
mail_server = lookup_doc.MailServer(0)
mail_file = lookup_doc.MailFile(0)
If Right(Trim(Lcase(mail_file)),4) <> ".nsf" Then
Mail_file_full=mail_file & ".nsf"
Else
Mail_file_full=Mail_file
End If

reg.RegistrationServer = Server1
Call reg.GetUserInfo( s.Username, retmailserver$, retmailfile$, retmaildomain$ )
Set db = New NotesDatabase( "", "names.nsf" )
Set view = db.GetView( "Locations" )
Set view2 = db.GetView( "Locations" )
'Set view3 = db.GetView( "Locations" )
Set db = New NotesDatabase( "", "names.nsf" )

Set LocationsView=db.getView("Locations")
Set Doc=LocationsView.GetDocumentByKey(LocationName1,True)
If Doc Is Nothing Then
Set doc = db.createDocument
End If

doc.Form = "Location"
doc.locationtype = "0"
doc.name = LocationName1
doc.MailFile = mail_file
doc.mailserver = mail_server
doc.defaultpassthruserver=Server1
doc.enabledports = "TCPIP"
doc.mailtype = "0"
doc.domain = DomainName
doc.namelookupref = "2"
doc.namelookupmode = "0"
doc.exaustivenamelookup = "0"
doc.mailaddressing = "1"
doc.SMTPRoute = "0"
doc.messageFormat = "0"
doc.mailthreshold = "1"
doc.WebRetriever = "2"
doc.replicationenabled = 1
doc.Enabled =1
doc.schedule = "12:00AM - 11:59PM"
doc.Interval = 60
doc.Weekdays = "Sun, Mon, Tue, Wed, Thu, Fri, Sat"
doc.useOSz = 1
doc.Source = "*"

Set Doc2=LocationsView.GetDocumentByKey(LocationName2,True)
If Doc2 Is Nothing Then
Set doc2 = db.createDocument
End If

doc2.Form = "Location"
doc2.locationtype = "0"
doc2.name = LocationName2
doc2.mailserver = mail_server
doc2.defaultpassthruserver=Server2
doc2.enabledports = "TCPIP"
doc.domain = DomainName
doc2.mailtype = "0"
doc2.mailfile = mail_file
doc2.domain = MailDomain
doc2.namelookupref = "1"
doc2.namelookupmode = "0"
doc2.exaustivenamelookup = "0"
doc2.mailaddressing = "1"
doc2.SMTPRoute = "0"
doc2.messageFormat = "0"
doc2.mailthreshold = "1"
doc2.WebRetriever = "2"
doc2.Enabled = 1
doc2.schedule = "12:00AM - 11:59PM"
doc2.Interval = 30
doc2.Weekdays = "Sun, Mon, Tue, Wed, Thu, Fri, Sat"
doc2.useOSz = 0
doc2.Source = "*"

Dim view3 As Notesview
Dim doc4 As NotesDocument

success = doc.ComputeWithForm(False, False)
success2 = doc2.ComputeWithForm(False, False)

Call doc.Save( True, True )
Call doc2.Save( True, True )

Print "Finished creating Location documents to Mail server according to Company Standards for this region!"

videre:

If db Is Nothing Then
Set db = s.currentdatabase
End If
Set memo = db.createdocument
memo.Form = "Memo"
memo.subject = "Location setup: User " & user_name & " has now completed the location setup procedure"

memo.sendto = "LocalDomainAdmins"
Call memo.send (True)

boxType& = MB_OK + MB_ICONINFORMATION
answer% = Messagebox("The operation has completed", boxType&, "OK")

Lotus is so happy - on facebook

2008-11-22T12:39:00.004+01:00

Cool way of marketing a new product :-)
Sad that it took so long, my Nokia is quite happy with the AOMSeven now, works like a charm.

We're using both Lotus Traveler and AOM7 at the moment. If the Symbian support on Traveler works satisfactory I guess we will prioritize this, since it's free. Time will show.

Going to Lotusphere 2009

2008-11-17T11:26:00.000+01:00

Yup, it's soon time for Lotusphere again. 8800 kilometers each way, jet lag, weariness, ... and it's still worth it:-)
We're doing the booking this week, and if everything works out the way I hope, we will be quite a few colleagues who do the journey this time.

The enterprise I work for is migrating from Novell GroupWise to Lotus, and one of our main targets this time is to sort out which third party products we need in order to make the maintenance of the growing Lotus environment as simple and cost effective as possible.

Sametime is another technology we need to know more about, the upcoming 8.5 release also. In fact there's so much interesting happening in the Lotus world these days, that I don't think 5 days will not be sufficient to learn enough.

Are you coming?

Testing AOM7 pushmail

2008-11-13T23:55:00.005+01:00

Project "Big Domain" will reach it's climax next week, as 5 new companies move into the Lotus Notes domain. While new servers pop up, we also test a new pushmail product: "Always On Mail 7" from Seven.com. We still haven't found a satisfactory sollution for our Nokia and Ericsson phones, but maybe this product will work.

We have used the mSuite ver.4.x from Commontime earlier, but the mSuite Symbian client did'nt work well with our Nokia Communicator phones, so we ditched it. Another shitty thing about mSuite ver. 4 was the awful, anti-intuitive, admin interface. Rumours say that the ver.5 of mSuite is much better, but I have'nt seen this yet. A really good thing about mSuite, however, was the support of multiple address books. I really miss this.
The Lotus Traveler works nice on Windows Mobile phones, but we can't afford to wait for the symbian support in the Traveler 8.5 version any more. So therefore: This week it's AOM7 time.

The AOM7 install process is pretty straightforward: You need a windows based server, a Lotus Notes 7 client (we couldn't find any documented support for the ver.8 client, so we ended up with v.7.0.3) . You also need to know the MAC address of your network adapter for licence purposes, an hour or so of your spare time, good optimistic mood and a few test phones.

You must also create a service user ID and give it designer level access to all the mail files.
We screwed up this, by assigning Editor rights only, to the user ID. Not a good idea. The phones managed to sync contacts and calendar entries, but not the mail. No understandable error message were given, the only way to solve the problem was to change the log level to "debug", and then search for any error messages. It turned out that the service user ID tried to create & start an agent, which it could'nt due to the missing Designer access level)

We used a Windows 2003 server that runs in a VMWare configuration. The Win2003 server has a nervous temper when it comes to the internet, it's really hard to figure out why they have left a Internet Explorer in there after all. Every time I try to use IE, it denies me access to everything unless I manually sign and state that the actual internet site is clean, cleared and accepted. Yes I know that internet might be dangerous to small Win2003 servers, but please..

The internal AOM7 server uses an external relay server, which is OK really, it makes the whole config process a lot easier. The internal AOM7 server connects to external server, and the only thing you have to do to configure a new user is to fill out a few parameters in the admin panel, and then trigger an SMS to the user. The SMS contains a URL to the client download site. When you access this site, you select your phone model from a simple interface, download the client, enter your userid , company code and password, and there you go. It's just as easy as in Lotus Traveler.

Google as a file finder

2008-11-04T09:49:00.010+01:00

Here's a nice tip about how to find PDFs, PPTs, or even MP3s using Google:

Type in the following string:
-inurl:(htm|html|php) intitle:"index of" +"last modified" +"parent directory" +description +size +(pdf) ""

-and replace "description" with the search text you want.

If you for example want to find MP3s, simply replace the "+(pdf)" with "+"(wma|mp3)" and so on.

Please look at this post as a description of how to use Google in an advanced manner, rather than an encouragement to unlawful downloading of copyrighted material.

8.0.2 CCH1 Hotfix is out

2008-11-02T00:23:00.002+01:00

Got problems with freezing 8.0.2 clients? Call IBM support for a copy of their latest 8.0.2 hotfix. In one particular office we had as much as 20-25% of the Notes 8.0.2 clients periodically out of order last week due to this freeze issue. After installing the hotfix, the problems disappeared on all computers. So get it now.

This year's last strawberries

2008-11-01T19:38:00.007+01:00

Winter has definitively arrived in western Norway, with night temperatures below freezing point and a wonderful winterly blue sky all day.

Spotted these strawberries the other day, a few pale red reminders of the summer that passed. Still tasted good though, even if it's suddenly the wrong season now.

One NAB, multiple organizations and mail servers

2008-10-28T12:49:00.005+01:00

The planning process for the "Big Domain" goes on. In a two weeks time we start to migrate more organizations and users from Novell GroupWise to Lotus Notes 8.0.2. There's still a few issues to solve, for example: When multiple organizations are sharing one single NAB, is it still possible to have separate SMTP/mail servers for each organization?

I asked the same question at notes.net. Wondering if anyone knows anything about this. Hmm.

http://www-10.lotus.com/ldd/nd8forum.nsf/DateAllThreadedWeb/5ada4b139aa2551b852574f000403794?OpenDocument