LMBlog

Category vista
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A week on and SP1 is still not raising any alarm bells or creating any problems for me.

Running on an HP Compaq nw9440 laptop, Vista Ultimate 64bit - now SP1.

Additions to the application list that are running fine: Diskeeper 2008, 7-Zip 64-bit, WinRar, Acronis True Image Echo Workstation, Logmein Ignition, Zinio Reader.

Previous list of apps working fine: Notes 8.0.1, Firefox 2.0.0.13, Trillian Astra 4.0.0.73, Skype 3.6.0.248, VMWare Workstation 6.0.2, and Trend Micro 7.6.1095.

Posted by Lawrence Micallef At 16:12 Location Albany, NY | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Category blogging lotus ND8 Notes utilities
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OK... another happy TwitNotes customer here ... the first application I am actually using in my Notes 8.0.1 sidebar (suggest some more for me!).
Well done to Mikkel Heisterberg for a great application!

Posted by Lawrence Micallef At 16:09 Location Albany, NY | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Category vista
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OK... so after downloading Vista Service Pack 1 - then re-downloading the 64 bit version (duh!) ... Installation claimed it could take several hours and require several reboots.

Well, it was correct on half of that - it did take around an hour and did need several reboots - but the reboots came after the initial "click Reboot, you have time to save bits" dialog box.

I guess my Vista is still re-optimizing itself, as it is a bit sluggish still - although some of the promised improvements (copying files for example) are definitely there.

One interesting quirk is that all my network connectivity was flaky and unreliable for around 10 minutes after my first boot and login... almost like the firewall was re-learning things.

As it is, the following are running just fine with SP1 : Notes 8.0.1, Firefox 2.0.0.12, Trillian Astra 4.0.0.73, Skype 3.6.0.248, VMWare Workstation 6.0.2, and Trend Micro 7.6.1095, as well as a herd of other things... in fact, nothing has been a show stopper yet, but then it has only been 3 hours!

Posted by Lawrence Micallef At 00:17 Location Albany, NY | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Category Notes Domino easteregg ND8
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Interesting - the easter egg in ND7 is still in ND8 :

1. Open mail file via Domino Web Access (http://your-server/mail/mailfilename.nsf)
2. Click on the  logo to get the about box
3. Type shimmer and hit enter

if you get nothing, you may have a popup blocker stopping the next window from appearing.

For those too lazy to go look, click here to get the result directly.

NOTE: requires Flash plugin/player

Posted by Lawrence Micallef At 19:04 Location Cambridge, UK | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Category Notes Domino
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So anyone out there want a job in Albany, NY? See here ... http://www.justtechjobs.com/Job.asp?ID=38F08DEA-E361-4F7D-9751-53B7BF9228A6&USR=EMP

Posted by Lawrence Micallef At 18:23 Location Albany, NY | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Category Domino Notes
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Ok... so the hiring process to find a new IT team in Albany has begun, and the job has been posted, several applicants have sent in resumés/CVs and I have interviewed 3 by phone. These three were then seen in person by the German IT manager and the Albany HR manager. The one I liked, they didn't - no reasons other than he was nervous and they didn't feel comfortable with him. *sigh* maybe he was too much of a geek.

The next batch of resumés/CVs arrive, and once again, no Domino experience. I get told that this is not a priority... which is where the hair pulling comes in - the company has a large number of Domino applications that have matured over 12 years or so, and these need upkeep... so Notes & Domino skills are pretty vital.

How to sell the need for Domino SKILLS inside an organization with Domino already is proving to be quite challenging!

EDIT: oh - hangon, the company's favourite solution - outsource it (doh!)
And then expect it to work when the person doing the changes doesn't understand the business!

Posted by Lawrence Micallef At 18:18 Location England | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

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So an hour from the airport, but two hours from Albany, I get a phonecall from Virgin Atlantic customer care:

"Hello Sir - about your flight VS002 to London at 21:25 - the flight is now at 23:40"

Just Wonderful... thank goodness I have Virgin Club house (lounge) access... where I am sitting typing this (albeit on paid Boingo as the free Wi-Fi is broken).

As it is, flight currently scheduled for 00:00 - apparently the inbound flight is the cause - a medical emergency diverted it soon after takeoff from Heathrow, and it landed in Shannon before resuming its trip to New York.

At least Virgin's Clubhouse staff keep your glass topped up and your appetite sated - appetizers delivered to your seat, hot dinner buffet served at 8pm, dessert cart about 45 minutes later.

As for Newark Duty Free - need to work out how to complain about their lack of customer service. Newark has an odd "pass through" arrangement where your purchases are sealed and shipped Airside for collection at a kiosk at the gate. Problem is, the kiosk closes at 10pm - an hour and a half AFTER I will be getting to the gate... needless to say I gave up on my purchases.

Posted by Lawrence Micallef At 00:55 Location Albany, NY | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Category gadgets recreation
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Having got the Bose QuietComfort 3 headset a while back I was interested to see a Bluetooth hands free communication kit for it when I explored the Bose factory store at The Crossings Premium Outlets after skiing at the weekend.

I took the plunge and bought the add-on. Now the headset is excellent and the noise cancelling is very good, but Bose have missed a few tricks with the Bluetooth add-on.
The most significant omission is A2DP audio which allows high fidelity stereo wireless audio. Without this, the Bose Bluetooth is only mono - to get quality sound from my PC/Phone/MP3 player I still need to use a wire!

Come on Bose - get with it!

Posted by Lawrence Micallef At 21:18 Location Albany, NY | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

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• It's snowing steadily in Albany.
• I'm starting a headcold (fever, aches etc)
• Supposed to be skiing at the weekend - big maybe depending on how I feel tomorrow

Posted by Lawrence Micallef At 18:25 Location Albany, NY | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Category notes vista bugs
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Well... been running Notes 8.0.1 for a day now - and Vista has not shut down Aero ... so looks like that glitch has been fixed!

Posted by Lawrence Micallef At 20:46 Location Albany, NY | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Category blogging recreation
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and yes... the 8.0.1 releases of Notes and Domino have spurred me into blogging again... (and have decided I like the current green theme) too many complaints over green... will keep looking for a new theme

Off to Camelback Mountain in the Pocono Mountains in Pennsylvania again (was there 2 weekends ago) at the weekend to try skiing - for the second time ever.

Posted by Lawrence Micallef At 20:44 Location | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Category notes domino quickr bugs
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OK... so Domino 8.0.1 is the latest all singing all dancing version of my favourite server software.... just a few minor annoyances.

In January I decided to fire up Quickr - having worked with the really early implementations of Quickplace... so I had Quickr running on my Domino 8.0 server.

When I came to upgrade Domino to 8.0.1 it installed okay, but crashed as soon as the HTTP server fired up the Java Virtual Machine - which is what runs Quickr.
I then checked and realised that I was still on Quickr 8.0, so uninstalled it (Domino 8.0.1 then worked fine) and downloaded Quickr 8.0.0.2.
As soon as I reinstall Quickr 8.0.0.2 Domino does not start past launching the JVM (NSD kicks in and server dies).

Now this is just annoying... since I had just started liking Quickr again.
An aside - on installing Quickr 8.0.0.2, install fails unless it can locate HaikuCommonForms.ntf ... a problem if you've already uninstalled 8.0!

Posted by Lawrence Micallef At 20:37 Location | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Category notes lotus ibm nd8
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Notes 8.0.1 is out - see announcement at IBM.com. Downloaded server (Win32) and Designer/Admin (full eclipse) code - can tell that the world and his dog were downloading it - 5 hours to download - obviously not enough bandwidth to the download servers!

Posted by Lawrence Micallef At 21:44 Location | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Category lotusphere2008
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 http://event.on24.com/eventRegistration/EventLobbyServlet?target=lobby.jsp&eventid=102626&sessionid=1&key=FCA27E2033E1016F854AEC6E36527793&eventuserid=14383492

Note: Opening link in Firefox will force RealPlayer use - Open in IE to use Windows Media Player

Posted by Lawrence Micallef At 20:52 Location | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Category notes
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this is gonna take some getting used to! (Ooh... in-line spell check just complained about a few words!) - Vista Aero still broken :(

Posted by Lawrence Micallef At 18:24 Location | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)