July 2003

Schreibfehler oder unseriös, Fortsetzung

by Volker Weber

Fortsetzung von Teil 1

Bisher habe ich vergeblich versucht, den Verkäufer per E-Mail zu erreichen. Er reagiert darauf nicht. Heute kam eine zweite Mail von ihm:

To: vowe@vowe.de
From: xxxxx.xxxxxx@t-online.de (xxxxx xxxxxxx)
Date: 31.7.2003 09:56
Subject: Ebay Kauf Ray Ban Sonnenbrille

Hallo Volker,

trotz zahlreicher E-Mails habe ich immer noch keine Rückinfo, bzw. das Geld auf meinem Konto. Meine Daten lauten: ... zuzügl. Versandkosten 13,97 Euro.

Ich bitte nun endgültig um kurzfristige Überweisung bis spätestens zum 7.08.03. Sollte ich bis dahin noch keinen Geldeingang haben, müßte ich die Angelegenheit bei Ebay melden und unserer Rechtsabteilung weitergeben. Ich bitte sehr darum, nicht zu solchen drastischen Mittel greifen zu müssen.

Viele Grüße

xxxxx xxxxxx

Ich versuche es jetzt mal per Fax. Oder hat jemand Lust, in Duisburg für mich ein Geschäft abzuwickeln?

Update: Habe jetzt ein Fax erhalten und die Angelegenheit zu meiner Zufriedenheit geregelt. Der Verkäufer wollte den Artikel per UPS verschicken, was in diesem Fall wohl eher nicht angebracht war. Er hat sich aber bereiterklärt, statt dessen ein Päckchen zu schicken. In meinem Vertrauen an das Gute im Menschen geht heute das Geld raus.

Es hat sich ausserdem herausgestellt, dass der Verkäufer tatsächlich Probleme mit dem E-Mail-Empfang hat. iNotes Web Access verschickt Mails automatisch im HTML-Format und das hat seine Software (T-Online?) nur als Anhang dargestellt. Merke: HTML-Mail ist böse.

Oliver Tunnat, Photographer

by Volker Weber

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Today, Oliver took some pictures of me for a new project. I liked this one best. Thanks, Oliver !

Bob Hope, RIP

by Esther Schindler

In memoriam: Bob Hope at the Star Wars Cantina.

Passt

by Volker Weber

sitzt, wackelt und hat Luft. Rechtsanwalt Udo Vetter schreibt:

Ich hatte mich auf eine private Immobilienanzeige bei immobilienscout24.de gemeldet und um Rückruf gebeten. Das ist die Antwortmail:

Sehr geehrter Herr Vetter, auf Ihre Anfrage teilen wir mit, dass wir bereits einmal eine Wohnung an einen Rechtsanwalt verkauft haben. Wir haben kein Interesse mehr an Geschäften mit Ihrer Berufsgruppe.

More >

How to setup a minimal Domino server

by Volker Weber

I have had Domino servers running in 64, 128, 192, 256, 384, 512, 1024 and 2048 meg of RAM. It seems to pretty much eat up whatever it gets, at least in the smaller machines with less than 512 megs. Since my own server serves only one person, I am wondering which settings one should tweak to make it use the least amount of ressources it can possibly live with. There are lots of others things my server can do besides running Domino.

On of the suggestions I read is to set the notes.ini parameter PercentAvailSysResources. Does that still work with Domino 6?

Update: After chatting with Daniel I issued a "show stat mem" command at the console and I can confirm that the parameter still works.

King Lear Consulting

by Volker Weber

Dass ich das noch mal erleben darf. Wolfgang Flamme zitiert aus King Lear:

No offense meant, but there seems to be nothing new since 1609:

"Have more than thou showest,
Speak less than thou knowest,
Lend less than thou owest,
Ride more than thou goest,
Learn more than thou trowest,
Set less than thou throwest;
Leave thy drink and thy whore,
And keep in-a-door,
And thou shalt have more
Than two tens to a score."

William Shakespeare, "King Lear"

More >

Fixing the MT bookmarklet for Safari

by Volker Weber

Jay Allen tells us how to to fix the blog bookmarklet for MovableType:

One of the only drawbacks I have experienced in using Safari and Movable Type together is the annoyance of having to edit the javascript of the generated bookmarklet in order to make it work and the subsequent loss of ability to have selected text automatically inserted into the entry.

Today, while looking for something on Mac OS X Hints, I found a little gem that has solved the bigger of those two problems and made my day.

If you want to use the MT Bookmarklet and have auto-inserted selected text, follow these easy steps

Summary: You have to change this

t=d.selection?d.selection.createRange().text:d.getSelection();

into that:

t=getSelection();

Finally using VersaMail

by Volker Weber

versamail.png

VersaMail is one of these programs I have been ignoring for a long time. It came with Clyde but I never bothered to install it. Boy, was I missing out on something. This sucker lets me connect back to my Domino server via IMAP and send out mail directly to my ISP. A neat way to check on eMail without even walking over to a computer. And obviously much faster.

I have put up a small Bluetooth access point by connecting one these Acer dongles to my server and turned on IP routing there. That's all it took for a nice access point once Palm had solved the issue I was having with the stack in the device.

Time travel

by Volker Weber

haroldandmaude.jpg

Today I took two hours off for a little time travel. Harold and Maude was cult when I was a teen. You would not have called it cult then but rather groovy. Anyone remember his car? Then I liked it more before than after his tune-up. Today I am not so sure anymore.

Music by Cat Stevens from the albums Tea For The Tillerman and Mona Bone Jakon. Still highly recommended ...

One week with Apple's iSight

by Volker Weber

After using the my iSight camera for one week, i wrote my first verdict. While I like the device very much, it will be interesting to see how often I will actually use it for real work. While iChat allows you to exchange text messages with any AIM user, audio and video chats are much more limited in scope. The other person has to have a Mac and there should be no serious firewalls between yourself and your partner. NAT routers who can do universal plug&play are no problem however.

After all, iChat is standards based. Maybe someone will write a Windows or Linux counterpart.

More >

Boys need toys

by Volker Weber

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iSight white balance adjustment

by Volker Weber

Horst Prillinger talks about a feature of the iSight camera: It tries to make your picture look very natural by automatically adjusting the white balance. You have to watch his video to see what I mean. He also raises an interesting question: What happens if your skin color is not white?

An engineer in love

by Volker Weber

Carl Tyler asks "Where's Thomas?":

Thomas Gumz my good old German buddy (and no I hardly ever mention the war) has been single for a while, and I have found like my brother when he is single he wants to go to the movies and go for drinks quite a bit. In other words they're desperate for company and call me.

Well For the last few weeks, Thomas has vanished, no more calls, his posts are down on the Forums, and I'm not getting the calls to go to the movies, and he's never home at the weekends.

It turns out he is madly in love. That is excellent news for Judy and Thomas:

JudyAndThomas300.jpg

And it is probably bad news for IBM, very bad indeed. He's most likely no longer working 14 hours a day on his next project. And there goes the weekend. :-)

Barcelona thongs

by Volker Weber

DSCN5762.jpg

I knew, this headline would work. :-) Ed was recently excited about the sights in Paris:

The women of Paris are particularly proud of their breasts this summer. I saw more cleavage (or should I say decolletage) this week than at a San Francisco strip club (not that I've ever been to one of those, of course). Particularly common are the white spaghetti-strap halter-top like garments (the Aussies call them "singlets") that seem to be 100% spandex. I'm sure the lingerie industry is pleased at how many strapless push-up bras they are selling in France this season.

Well, it is not only Paris. That happens everywhere in Europe this year. Also in Barcelona.

Help wanted: Port unACE from Linux to Mac OS X

by Volker Weber

Received this plea for help from Marc Beckersjürgen today:

Für die Portierung der Linux-Sourcen eines Entpack-CLI auf Mac OS X suchen die Entwickler des Kompressionsprogramms WinAce (http://www.winace.com / http://www.winace.de) einen versierten Mac-Entwickler, der ein wenig seiner Zeit opfern kann, um sich per Mail mit einigen technischen Detailfragen löchern zu lassen. Interessenten melden sich bitte unter macunace@winace.com.

WinACE is a shareware file compressor/decompressor for Windows. There is free command line decompressor for Linux and these folks want to port it to Mac OS X. If you want to volunteer to answer some very specific questions their developers have, please contact them at macunace@winace.com.

Groove: Ten Good Reasons Not To Buy

by Volker Weber

Robin Good:

Groove is a unique, powerful, almost supernatural collaboration tool, for which I have spent many words of praise, as it does represent a great breakthrough in terms of integration of facilities and vision for what may be the road of killer apps of the near future. Wonder why it is so hard to make Groove beyond an historical technology milestone and into mainstream use?

Here are some answers to ponder upon.

Read the ten reasons here >

Let me add a few more points:

11) Windows only. It does not run on all of my computers, or those of my peers.

12) Lives on an island. It does not talk to anything else. Not to any instant messaging or conference application.

13) No search. This looks like WOM (write only memory). You dump stuff in there and if you can't remember where you put it, it's gone.

14) No useful export. Again, write only memory. You dump stuff in there and there is no way to reuse it somewhere else. Binary XML export? Cool.

15) No print. Ooops. You can print some things. The easier ones. No calendar however.

16) No sync for names or dates. These things live in Clyde and whatever talks to this device. Groove does not.

17) Hen and egg dilemma. How useful is a telephone if you are the only person who has one?

18) No uninstall. If you install 3rd party tools, there is no way to wipe them from the system.

19) No uninstall, reloaded. Ever tried to uninstall Groove itself and then looked at the registry afterwards?

20) Did I mention it does not run on Lucy? Yes, I did. :-)

Wallpapers 'til you drop

by Volker Weber

Laetitia_Casta_87-1024.jpg

Caution: They may not be safe for work where you live. In that case these will probably be OK. :-)

It's show time, folks

by Volker Weber

Majo is all excited about the cute iSight product manager who shows us the packaging and the device. I guess he has not seen the girls with powertoys yet.

[via Bill and Rock]

Reviewing Pylon Application Server, part 4

by Volker Weber

[continued from part 3]

I am still stuck. Today I had time to once again look into the issue I was having with the Pylon task. Same error:

Pylon [1064]: Error Error creating pylonlog.txt

This file will presumably be created inside the domino/data directory tree. No such file exists there. The server is running as a systems account and it can write to local disk just fine (for instance the notes.ini file).

But I just learned that I am not alone.

Hydra 1.1.1 released

by Volker Weber

hydraicon.jpg

Hydra, the collaborative editor, has been updated to version 1.1.1. New features and improvements:

- Safari-powered live-updating HTML preview.
- Improved stability
- Includes localizations for: French, German, Japanese, Swedish, Trad. Chinese, Ukrainian

This release requires Safari 1.0 to be installed.

More >

Ah, literature!

by Esther Schindler

Steven King's article about the problems authors like Jonathan Franzen bring "guys like me" is worth the read just for this line alone:

In his article on teaching literature to teenagers, Justin Reeve points out that "smoking and drinking are tough habits to pick up, but once they are formed, they are even tougher to break. The same is true of great literature, which is, let's face it, Jim Beam for the brain."

More >

Need keyboard font

by Volker Weber

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I am looking for a free keyboard font that has english keycaps instead of the german ones above. Any hints?

Travelling cities

by Volker Weber

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Would you trust an airline with this map?

[via Scott Hanson]

Sendmail Enabler

by Volker Weber

Sendmail1.1.jpg

Sendmail Enabler is an application which allows you to turn on and use OS X's built-in mail server with just one click.

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Smart for four

by Volker Weber

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View as Quicktime or Windows Media

So you want to be a textbook author?

by Esther Schindler

This is a really delightful, laugh out loud description of the process. As I've signed a book contract for the 13th title to carry my name (let's not mention that I'm already behind schedule), I'm reminded that the advice applies equally well to the tech book writing market.

Sadly, many authors with contracts do not finish their books. Why? Because reviewers mug them. In comfortable anonymity, reviewers announce they liked everything about your book except its main premise. Or, interspersed with sensible praise, they make suggestions that are the equivalent of putting spandex shorts on Michelangelo's David or grafting a third arm to his back. Rule #5: Reviewers always suggest 50 pages of new ideas and insist the book be shorter. Rule #6: What one reviewer loves best another hates best. My advice for authors: Rule #7: Accept reviews with stoic dispassion and gratitude. Rule #8: Smash your hand only into soft objects.

More >

Notes 6 training wheels

by Volker Weber

Do you think you know Notes 6? Think again. I did not know any of these things.

Domino Admin & Developer conference in London

by Volker Weber

Mark your calendars: 27th & 28th October 2003, Hilton Olympia, Kensington High Street, London.

More >

iSight, you sigh

by Volker Weber

isight030718.jpg

Shortly after 8:00 the delivery man rang the door bell, and there it was: A new iSight camera. And it's Christmas all over again. Apple's packaging is simply unbelievable. It's almost a sacred act to unpack this thing.

I was only briefly able to test the device but what I can say for now is: Ladies and Gentlemen, get out your check books or credit cards. :-)

Warum kauft IBM Aptrix?

by Volker Weber

Zu meinem Beiträgen bezüglich der Aptrix Acquisition erreichte mich per Mail ein interessanter Kommentar:

Hat IBM vielleicht keine andere Wahl gehabt ? Nachdem man (IBM) vor gut zwei Jahren eine Vertriebspartnerschaft verkündet hat und Aptrix an eigene Kunden verkauft hatte, ist IBM sicherlich seinen Kunden über in der Verantwortung, dass es Aptrix auch in Zukunft gibt. Einen, sagen wir, hypothetischer Konkurs von Aptrix kann sich IBM sicherlich nicht erlauben.

Dieser Gedanke ist mir (leider) nicht gekommen. Einerseits ist richtig, dass CMS immer mehr zum Bestandteil von Portalprodukten wird. Man sehe etwa die Einverleibung von Epicentric bei Vignette. Andererseits ist es tatsächlich so, dass IBM aus Verantwortung vor eigenen Kunden Aptrix schützen muss, wenn es denen schlecht geht. Da Aptrix im Privatbesitz war, muss IBM niemals die finanziellen Details dieses Ankaufs offenlegen.

Reviewing Pylon Application Server, part 3

by Volker Weber

[continued from part 2]

After setting up all the required filters I was able to sync Clyde with the server once. My Bluetooth connection to my WAN is very stable now so there was no real problem here.

16.07.2003 23:45:21 Pylon [1088]: Pylon Server Mail (Volker Weber)
16.07.2003 23:47:04 Pylon [1088]: Pylon Server Date Book (Volker Weber)
16.07.2003 23:49:41 Pylon [1088]: Pylon Server Address Book (Names)
16.07.2003 23:49:46 Pylon [1088]: Pylon Server To Do List (Volker Weber)
16.07.2003 23:52:31 Pylon [1088]: Pylon Server Memo Pad (Pilot Notizen)
16.07.2003 23:52:32 Pylon [1088]: Sync finished

When I looked at Notes there was the all-to-familiar mess. Although I had told Pylon to write to the server, it did not overwrite what was there, but instead duped all addresses and to-dos. The calendar was somewhat better since it only duped the recurring items.

When I wanted to sync this mess back into the device so that I could kill the double entries off with Undupe, it failed:

16.07.2003 23:57:30 Pylon [1096]: Sync started 192.168.65.2
16.07.2003 23:57:34 Pylon [1096]: Error Error creating pylonlog.txt
16.07.2003 23:57:34 Pylon [1096]: Pylon Server
16.07.2003 23:57:35 Pylon [1096]: Sync finished

OK, enough for today. I won't have time to check these things out until monday, so I will rest my case here for now. I am a bit underwhelmed. Somehow I expected this to work better ...

Reviewing Pylon Application Server, part 2

by Volker Weber

[continued from part 1]

The server rebooted nicely and Pylon has installed itself as an add-in task. What I find most amusing is that I was asked to replace the title of this mini-review from Pylon ServerSync (the old name) with Pylon Application Server (the new one). Now look at the Domino log:

16.07.2003 20:07:12 Pylon ServerSync Release 5.2 - Initialization complete.
16.07.2003 20:07:12 Pylon: *Notes Release 6.0.2CF1

Maybe someone from marketing should talk to engineering and have them fix that as well. Funny. :-)

So, the server comes up OK and I have a bunch of new databases on the system. First thing will be to check their ACLs. Don't want any unwanted guests on my system. -Default- is Designer and Admin is Navypier/Avantgo. How bad is that? Now I need to go to the server console and fix this because I can't do it from here.

I took a quick look at the configuration database and found this entry (click on the image):

pylon1.jpg

I enabled the memo pad but will switch that over to a journal file and I will need to enable the address book as well. But first things first. Check the ACL, read some documentation (I know, I know, should have done this first, but who does that anyway?). Then make a good backup of Clyde and overwrite instead of syncing the Domino databases. TTYL.

Don't try this at home

by Volker Weber

Just received this in my mail from a long time acquaintance in the Lotus world of software:

...I'm out of the software game, but I read your site faithfully as my SOLE source for learning the latest/greatest/coolest in high tech. If it's not on your site, I don't bother!

I would strongly advise to also read other sources. But thanks anyway. :-)

A heartfelt message

by Esther Schindler

I'd like to see more 404 messages like this one.

Reviewing Pylon Application Server, part 1

by Volker Weber

Recently I installed XTNDConnect Server and wrote about my experience here. Today I learned that a Pylon license is enroute to vowe's magic flying circus. Expect to read more about this product RSN.

Update: The license key has already arrived. I am downloading the server as we speak. You can apply for a 30 day trial license at their site.

17 meg download. That was fast. One zip file with two installers: pylonServer.exe and pylonserverPocket PC.exe. So let's take down the Domino server and get the ol' Installshield going. The first thing it wants is the license key. If you don't have that already, there is no need to get started. Well, that went very well. Reboot time. TTYL.

[To german readers: Pylon gibt es in Deutschland bei Asensys. Nein, das ist kein Auto und auch kein Konzern. Das sind vielmehr nette Leute, die Ahnung haben. :-)]

Schreibfehler oder unseriös

by Volker Weber

Vor zehn Tagen habe ich eine Sonnenbrille ersteigert. Alle Kontaktversuche waren bisher vergeblich. Heute kam dann endlich eine Mail:

To: vowe@vowe.de
From: xxxxx.xxxxxx@t-online.de
Date: 16.7.2003 09:50
Subject: Ebay Kauf Sonnenbrille

Hallo,

leider habe ich auch nach mehreren E-Mails, immer noch keinen Geldeingang verzeichenen können. Ich bitte um kurzfristige Erledigung ! Meine Daten lauten: ...

Die Versandkostenhöhe beträgt 13,97 Euro.

Normal wären 4,40 Euro. Wenn das kein Schreibfehler ist, haben wir einen Kandidaten für die nächste eBay-Story. :-)

Sametime 3.1 on Linux

by Volker Weber

Now that is an interesting comment to a post on Ed Brill's weblog:

Ed Brill: 07/15/2003 09:26:24
Sametime 3.1 runs on Linux
just hasn't formally been announced. Soon.

Sametime 3.1 was a stealth release. Showed up in the download area, but nobody talked about it. Looks like engineering was done when marketing was still working on the communications. :-)

Web CMS no longer an application, according to IBM

by Volker Weber

You must have read this everywhere:

IBM today announced it has acquired all the outstanding shares of Presence Online Pty Ltd (doing business as Aptrix), a privately-held, Australia-based provider of web content management software.

IBM keeps bashing Microsoft for competing with their partners on applications. IBM does not do that. They only do middleware. Right? There seems to to be lots of partners, from the big guys like Interwoven, to smaller guys like Innovationgate, that sell WebCMS as an application. They will hardly be happy to compete heads on with IBM in the WebSphere or Domino space.

ACM Queue: A Conversation with Jim Gray

by Volker Weber

Via Hugh Pyle, a really interesting interview. This is the kind of stuff that always reminds me how limited my own thinking is:

Who would ever, in this time of the greatest interconnectivity in human history, go back to shipping bytes around via snail mail as a preferred means of data transfer? (Really, just what type of throughput does the USPS offer?) Jim Gray would do it, that's who. And we're not just talking about Zip disks, no sir; we're talking about shipping entire hard drives, or even complete computer systems, packed full of disks.

Gray, head of Microsoft's Bay Area Research Center, sits down with Queue and tells us what type of a voracious appetite for data could require such extreme measures...

More >

Mac-heads, update your engines

by Volker Weber

Software update fixes the recently discovered flaw in the screen saver password protection. Nothing I need to worry about with Lucy:

Security Update 2003-07-14 addresses a potential vulnerability when a password is required upon waking from the Screen Effects feature, which could allow an unauthorized user access to the desktop of the logged in user.

And while you are at it, you can also update iDVD:

This iDVD 3.0.1 update will increase the stability, reliability, and performance of iDVD 3. Specific areas of improvement include burning DVDs, menu highlighting, encoding, and editing enhancements.

Notbücher

by Volker Weber

Das Polizeipräsidium Südhessen berichtet:

In der Nacht zum Freitag, 11. Juli 2003, gegen 03.30 Uhr, schlugen zwei unbekannte Täter mit einem Vorschlaghammer die Schaufensterscheibe eines Notbook-Ladens in der Adelungenstraße ein. Es wurde eine bisher unbekannte Menge Notbooks im Wert von mehreren Zehntausend Euro blitzschnell aus dem Geschäft geholt und in einen dunklen PKW, vermutlich ein BMW, geladen. Danach flüchteten die Täter.

Dass die Pullizei nicht weiss, was ein Notebook ist, kann ich noch verschmerzen. Immerhin sind sie konsequent. Aber die Straße heisst Adelungstraße. Nur ein Adelung. Nicht mehrere Adelungen. OK?

Was sonst noch so passiert ist, lesen Sie hier.

Microsoft's EULA (End-User Lunch Agreement)

by Volker Weber

Since Microsoft is providing the lunches at OSCON 2003, we wanted to replicate here the EULA that goes with them.

Read carefully >


Site news

by Volker Weber

I have moved a few things around on the site. I moved all referrers, including those from Google, to separate pages and password protected them for now. I may open them up later and just lock out spiders.

The Google referrers drew too much unwanted traffic to the site. Interestingly enough Google fools itself. As I was showing the search terms that people entered in Google before they came here, GoogleBot picked up these search terms and raised my rating for these terms. That sent a lot of intellectually challenged people here who came looking for all kinds of free stuff. I won't be missing them since they only polluted the comments and sent stupid emails.

The blogroll moved to its own page so I can add more people without making the right hand column too long. I also removed the printer-friendly pages since they were hardly ever visited.

The last measure to further reduce traffic is to cut back on the front page posts, now 10 down from 20, and on the monthly archives, now 5 down from 24.

In a week or so I will see how these measures work out.

Free Lyssa Reloaded

by Volker Weber

freelyssa2.jpg

Heiko hat die Tastatur gewetzt und schon hat Lyssa ein neues Layout. Immer noch kac... ähm schokoladenbraun, aber in "richtigem" HTML. Fein, fein. :-)

Fragen über Fragen

by Volker Weber

Aus meiner Mail:

Diese Fragen über Südafrika wurden auf einer südafrikanischen Tourismuswebseite gestellt und vom Webmaster der Seite beantwortet. Der hatte offensichtlich richtig gute Laune !

F: Wird es eigentlich windig in Südafrika ? Ich habe im Fernsehen noch nie gesehen, dass es regnet. Wie wachsen dort dann die Pflanzen ? (UK)
A: Wir importieren alle Pflanzen voll ausgewachsen und setzten uns dann um sie herum und sehen zu, wie sie eingehen.

F: Werde ich in den Straßen Elefanten sehen können ? (USA)
A: Hängt davon ab, wie viel Alkohol Sie trinken.

F: Ich möchte von Durban nach Kapstadt laufen - kann ich dafür den Eisenbahnschienen folgen ? (Schweden)
A: Sicher, es sind ja nur zweitausend Kilometer. Nehmen Sie aber sehr viel Wasser mit.

More >

Der Tolle mit dem bösen Blick

by Volker Weber

Stefan Alsen in der Zeit:

Was ich gleich sagen muss, tut mir ein wenig leid. Aber ich will ethisch korrekt bleiben. Ihr Leute von BMW habt euch so viel Mühe gegeben. Habt einen ganzen Tross von Journalisten zum Autotest nach Sardinien geflogen und dann sogar noch nach Rom. Habt uns ein Wochenende lang Hummer knacken, Schampus sippen und Havannas rauchen lassen. Dafür Dank. Aber meine Meinung ist die geblieben, die ich schon vorher hatte: Der neue 5er BMW zieht ein Gesicht, als habe ihn gerade jemand vor die Haube getreten.

More >

Careful with that brush

by Volker Weber

cleanpetn.JPG

Click the image to see what this kid is cleaning.

Hydra wins another award

by Volker Weber

O'Reilly & Associates announced the winners of the second round in its Mac OS X Innovators Contest at the O'Reilly Open Source Convention in Portland, Oregon.

In the new International category, the CodingMonkeys from Bavaria, Germany won the first-place award with Hydra, and Austria's Norbert Heger claimed second place with LaunchBar for Mac OS X. First-place winner in the U.S. category is August Mueller's VoodooPad, and the second-place winner is Rogue Amoeba's Audio Hijack Pro.

More >

Scripting iTunes

by Volker Weber

Note to self: Don't lose that link to Doug's site with iTunes scripts:

Download over 200 free user-contributed AppleScripts for Apple's iTunes that will make maintaining your iTunes music easier and more fun.

More >

[via IT&W]

Freibiergesichter

by Volker Weber

For all those folks who come in from Google with these search terms: dead aim 4.0 downloads for free, free dead aim, Free + "Dead aim" + download, "Dead Aim" + download + free, DEAD AIM + Free Download, free dead aim download, dead aim free download, "download dead aim 4.0 free", download Dead AIM free, dead aim 4.0, "dead aim" freeware

I am afraid, I don't have it. You may want to try the links below though.

ASP.NET on Domino without IIS

by Volker Weber

Proposion ASPEN is an add-in for IBM Lotus Domino servers that allows them to run ASP.NET applications. ASPEN eliminates the need for Domino shops to install Microsoft's Internet Information Server (IIS) or any other web server in order to build and deploy a wide range of ASP.NET-based applications. Furthermore, applications deployed with ASPEN can now leverage the world-class security and robustness that the Domino server provides.

More >

[Thanks, Stephan]

Marketing genius

by Volker Weber

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What do we see in this picture? A woman working on her sofa. Some papers, a pen, a Bang & Olufsen remote and an Apple Titanium PowerBook. Now what are we advertising?

[via IT&W]

Case closed

by Volker Weber

Thank you all for your help with the form. We were able to resolve all of the issues with the application. I have removed the two postings from my front page to cut back on the incoming messages now. :-) As far as the HTTPS performance is concerned, there is nothing I can do about that. The general lesson is: Don't let the application server handle the encryption but rather offload that to specialized hardware. The only short term solution here is to revisit the requirements.

Free Lyssa

by Volker Weber

lyssa.jpg

Jeden Tag lese ich mit Vergnügen Lyssa's Lounge. Lyssa ist Autorin, keine Web-Designerin. Jemand hat es gut mir ihr gemeint und ihre Webseite gestaltet. Ach, hätte sie doch vorher in die gelben Seiten geschaut. Im Quelltext steht eine Menge Zeugs, über das der Browser den Mantel des höflichen Schweigens decken sollte. Das ist mir eigentlich auch ziemlich wurscht. Wenn man die lesenswerten Texte nicht immer durch dieses kleine Guckloch betrachten müsste. Das sich - nebenbei bemerkt - auch nur mit der Maus ordentlich weiterblättern läßt. Schade.

Is it just me?

by Volker Weber

Sometimes I look at a picture, and within a matter of seconds a complete story develops inside my head.

WebSphere Quickie

by Volker Weber

How do I tell WebSphere Application Server 4.02 to create rotating logs? This is the relevant definition for stdoutFilename and stderrFilename:

<servers xmi:type="applicationserver:ApplicationServer" xmi:id="ApplicationServer_1" desiredExecutionState="START" name="Default Server" id="-1" moduleVisibility="APPLICATION"> <processDefinition xmi:type="server:JavaProcessDef" xmi:id="ProcessDef_1" executableName="${JAVA_HOME}/bin/java" commandLineArguments="" workingDirectory="${WAS_ROOT}/bin" executableTargetKind="JAVA_CLASS" executableTarget="com.ibm.ws.bootstrap.WSLauncher"> <executionSettings xmi:id="ProcessExecution_1" umask="022" runAsUser="root"/> <ioRedirect xmi:id="OutputRedirect_1" stdoutFilename="${LOG_ROOT}/default_server_stdout.log" stderrFilename="${LOG_ROOT}/default_server_stderr.log"/>

Instead of two monolithical files, I would like to start new ones every day or at least once a week.

Update: This feature was introduced in WebSphere 4.04. This is from the docs for fixpack 4.

[Thanks, Stefan]

Rezension: Lotus Notes and Domino 6 Programming Bible

by Markus Nolte

benzoliverbook.jpg

Ein Buch mit einem hohen Anspruch. Als Bibel bezeichnet man schließlich ein maßgebendes Buch auf einem Gebiet.

Das Buch nähert sich der umfassenden Materie in vielen kleinen Schritten. Ausführlich dokumentierte Code-Fragmente geben Hinweise auf Detailebene. Die Abschnitte zur Integration von relationalen Datenbanksystemen, die XML-Schnittstellen und APIs sowie die Verwendung von Lotus Notes/Domino mit Webtechnologien insbesondere Java werden bis ins Einzelne beschrieben.

Einige Elemente werden jedoch trotz breiten Spektrums vermisst. Zu den Fehlkandidaten gehören Lotus Domino Driver for JDBC als auch die Verwendung des Lotus C API Toolkit for Notes/Domino.

Die Verwendung des Klassenkonstrukts von LotusScript wird kurz beschrieben. Leider geht die Tiefe der Ausführungen auf Kosten der Beschreibung von Zusammenhängen. Beschreibende Grafiken sind (außer den Screenshots) nur im Kapitel Web Services zu finden. Ein Verzicht auf einen Teil der Codebeispiele zu Gunsten von Grafiken hätte auch zur Auflockerung des Buches beigetragen.

Die Kapitel zur Integration, XML und Java machen das Buch jedoch zu einem wertvollen Ratgeber für jeden Lotus Notes Entwickler. Die Ausführlichkeit der Beispiele ist vorbildlich und hilfreich.

Excellent

by Volker Weber

© Frank Sturm
Photo: Frank Sturm

Groove 2.5e Build 1771 available for download

by Volker Weber

Groove released a silent update. Again. No notification, no changelog, no information about bugs that have been fixed. Please note this permanent address for the latest build:

http://components.groove.net/Groove/DailyBuilds/latest/GrooveWorkspacePreview.exe

Who is your customer?

by Volker Weber

Ray has posted a long rant after resting his weblog for almost a month. It is a long and winding story, touching on design points in Notes and Groove, that I don't completely agree with. What I find most interesting is his conclusion:

The technology leaders of the past - enterprise IT - are now focused (for very good economic reason!!) on cost reduction and efficiency, on "fast solutions", and on a very tough regulatory environment, through strict controls. Liability, and the sheer mass and difficulty of managing broad ICT deployments encourages conservatism, and this won't be changing anytime soon. The new leader in ICT is the fast-moving, pragmatic yet open minded ultra-small business or virtual organization.

I could not agree more. But then again: Why is Groove Networks focussing its sales & marketing on the large enterprise?

More >

PS: I said I don't agree with everything he says. Here's why: Notes' biggest problem is present in Groove as well. It is a closed environment. You can only play if you are "in". Yes, you can access a Notes server (a.k.a. Domino) via all sorts of open protocols. But the true power is only available to Notes clients or servers (iNotes or Quickplace offline capabilities depend on a hidden local thin server). Groove has exaclty the same problem. That's why you don't play if you are on Linux or a Mac. So far you don't even communicate, let alone collaborate.

New text editor for creative writing

by Volker Weber

ulyssesSmall.gifThere is a new text editor for creative writing out there. It looks like this fits my profile much better than any other editor I have come across. I need to explain why:

I have no use for formatting at all. I create text, not typeset. This is fed into an editorial process that finally goes through layout, where the formatting is added. However I do some html-style markup. That is why I use regular text editors like Hydra (Mac) or NoteTab (Windows). Word just does not fit that profile.

Ulysses now adds some features that let you handle chunks of text and keep a state for them. It also does not lock you into proprietay file formats. That's all good.

I am just not ready to shell out 60 EUR to get it. :-)

More >

Die Last des Netzes

by Volker Weber

Eine Arbeitslose bewirbt sich als Reinigungskraft bei IBM.

Der Personalleiter lässt sie ein Test machen (den Boden reinigen), darauf folgt ein Interview und schießlich teilt er ihr mit "Sie sind bei IBM eingestellt. Geben Sie mir Ihre E-Mail-Adresse dann schicke ich Ihnen die nötigen Unterlagen". Die Frau antwortet ihm, dass sie weder einen Computer besitzt noch eine E-Mail hat. Der Personalmensch antwortet ihr, dass sie ohne E-Mail-Adresse virtuell nicht existiert und daher nicht angestellt werden kann.

Die Frau verlässt verzweifelt das Gebäude mit nur 10$ Reisekosten in der Tasche. Sie beschließt in den nächsten Supermarkt zu gehen und 10 Kilo Tomaten zu kaufen. Dann verkauft sie die Tomaten von Tür zu Tür und innerhalb von 2 Stunden verdoppelt sie ihr Kapital. Sie wiederholt die Aktion 3 Mal und hat am Ende 160$. Sie realisiert, dass sie auf diese Art und Weise ihre Existenz bestreiten kann, also startet sie jeden Morgen und kehrt abends spät zurück. Jeden Tag verdoppelt oder verdreifacht sie ihr Kapital. In kurzer Zeit kauft sie sich einen kleinen Wagen, dann einen Lastwagen und bald verfügt sie über einen kleinen Fuhrparkt für ihre Lieferungen. Innerhalb von 5 Jahren besitzt sie eine der größten Lebensmittelketten der USA.

Sie beschließt an ihre Zukunft zu denken und einen Finanzplan für sich und ihre Familie erstellen lassen. Sie setzt sich mit einem Berater in Verbindung und er erarbeitet einen Vorsorgeplan. Am Ende des Gesprächs fragt der Vertreter sie nach ihrer E-Mail-Adresse, um ihr die entsprechenden Unterlagen schicken zu können. Sie antwortet ihm, dass sie nach wie vor keinen Computer und somit auch keine E-Mail-Adresse besitzt.

Der Versicherungsvertreter schmunzelt und bemerkt: "Kurios - Sie haben ein Imperium aufgebaut und besitzen nicht mal eine E-Mail. Stellen Sie sich mal vor, was Sie mit einem Computer alles erreicht hätten!"

Die Frau überlegt und sagt: "Ich wäre Putzfrau bei IBM".

Lehre Nr. 1: Das Internet rettet nicht Dein Leben.
Lehre Nr. 2: Wenn Du bei IBM arbeiten willst, brauchst Du eine E-Mail Adresse.
Lehre Nr. 3: Wenn Du diese Geschichte an Deinem Computer liest, sind die Chancen Putzfrau zu werden größer als die Millardär zu werden.

[gelesen bei Dirk Olbertz]

iSync with Lotus Notes

by Volker Weber

Note to self: Check out LipSync from Kissworks.

It lets you sync from Notes to the Mac addressbook and iCal and from there to your mobile devices. This looks rather unique. I am not sure I want to trust a stack like that but it is the first software I see that syncs Notes with mobile devices on the Mac.

[Thanks, Joe, for the hint]

iPhoto2Weblog - Merging Content Management Systems

by Volker Weber

Eric Sigler, University of Missouri, writes:

I got tired of the hassle involved with putting my photos up on the web. iPhoto could manage the images, but couldn't do much with them once they were published on the web. The myriad of HTML export plugins for iPhoto are all nice, but they still don't get me things like comments and TrackBack. So I built a plugin for iPhoto2 that exports to any weblog that supports the MetaWeblogAPI. It uploads the files to the remote server (via the metaWeblog API) and then creates a series of weblog posts with the linked images in place.

This software is still under development. It will be released as open source later. You can get the current beta here.

[Thanks, TC]

iSync, you sync

by Volker Weber

isync.png

This is just one of these things that are insanely great on a Mac. So there is Lucy who has a calendar and an address book, which is used by iChat and Mail.app, then there is Woodstock, which does not only play music but also can display your addresses and calendar entries. Then there is Clyde, who does the same things (and a lot more). You could be receiving new business cards by I/R or bluetooth, and finally there is a mobile phone which has its own address book and calendar. How do you keep all of those devices in sync: Pretty easy. You simply launch iSync and it will collect the data from all devices (at the same time) and distribute it back. It talks to Woodstock over firewire, to Clyde over the USB cradle and to the phone via bluetooth. Amazing.

I am missing a .Mac account because it does not make any sense to me to pay $100/year for things I already have. Well, maybe Apple will let me have one anyway. Have to ask them ...

ThinkPads and Mini-PCI WLAN cards

by Volker Weber

A friend just asked me a question that I have no answer for. He wants to get an internal mini-PCI WLAN card for his IBM ThinkPad R40 (2722 3GG). However there is rumor that only IBM-branded Cisco and 3com cards work. I would have dismissed this right away, if I had not seen that IBM's Access Connections is limited to the ThinkPad, so there may in fact be some BIOS signature checking.

Does anybody have experience with mini-PCI WLAN cards in ThinkPads which are not IBM-branded? Good or bad?

Google search of the day

by Volker Weber

Today's Google referrer is pure ego surfing: I seem to be number one now, at least on google.com. On google.de I hardly make the first page. My last name is all too common and vowe is unique, at least when it is spelled correctly in all lower case. :-)

And while we are at it: This is not a clever search. Everything you download from Lotus is pre-cracked for you. Well, at least someone cares. Your product does not exist if nobody tries to steal it.

But we can help you. This code works with most commercial software packages: T005T-UP1DF-0R0P3-N50UR-C350F-TW4R3

Send SMS from AIM

by Volker Weber

MacOS X Hints reports that you can now send SMS messages from AIM (and iChat).

With today's release of AIM4.6b1.1131, the capability has been added to allow AIM users to send SMS messages to mobile phones. All you do is type the message you want to send as an SMS into a new IM window and change the screenname field to +16175551212 . Replace 6175551212 with the phone number of the SMS-capable mobile phone. The "+1" is the country code, which is required; however, I don't think AOL supports non-US numbers yet, but they do plan to. To utilize this cool feature in iChat, simply type Shift-Command-N for a "New Chat with Person," and enter the phone number in the above format. When you send the message, you'll receive confirmation from AOL that it was sent. Pretty neat!

I checked it out with Ed and indeed it does work. I also checked it out with my own mobile which is in country code +49 and it does not. I am not holding my breath, since mobile carriers make huge profits ripping off their teeanage customers with this service. I doubt they will ever take messages from AOL for free.

How to fix the Notes 6.0.2 CF1 installer

by Volker Weber

notes602cf1fixedinstall.png

Lukas Karrer explains how to fix the broken installer package. You need to have a working installer like the 6.0.1 package. Thanks Lukas, that was true collaboration.

Update: No, I can't send you the working installer. You either have the broken one and apply Lukas' fix or you will have to wait for IBM to post a working copy. The broken installer has been pulled last week and they have yet to come up with the fixed one.

Gedys-Abwicklung

by Volker Weber

Gestern:

Die GlobalWare AG übernimmt mit sofortiger Wirkung die Produktrechte der GEDYS AG. Für das Kölner Softwareunternehmen wurde Anfang Juni das Insolvenzverfahren eröffnet. Die Rechte beziehen sich hauptsächlich auf die Produkte GEDYS Sales, GEDYS Office und GEDYS Help. Mit diesen Softwarekomponenten erzielte GEDYS rund 90 Prozent seines Umsatzes im Geschäftsbereich Produktlizenzen.

Heute:

Die GlobalWare AG und die INDOCS Business Solutions GmbH schließen Partnervertrag für den Vertrieb der IntraWare CRM Suite sowie einen umfangreichen Kooperationsvertrag. Die INDOCS verfügt über umfassendes Know-how im Bereich der GEDYS Produkte und wird gemeinsam mit der GlobalWare AG die Pflege der GEDYS Produkte und die Kundenbetreuung sicherstellen. GlobalWare will noch in diesem Jahr eine vollständige Migration für die bestehenden GEDYS Installationen ausliefern. Eine Weiterentwicklung einer eigenen GEDYS-Produktlinie ist nicht beabsichtigt.

Who is who: GlobalWare ist aus IntraWare hervorgegangen und die wiederum aus Analysis. Gedys, Intraware und teamwork waren die drei "dicken" Lotus Business Partner, die sich über den Neuen Markt Kapital beschafft haben. Gedys und teamwork gingen in die Insolvenz, Intraware fusionierte mit einem Eisenacher Unternehmen und beschreibt sich heute als -- Achtung tief Luft holen -- Anbieter von Technologien rund um mono- und multilinguale Informationen, insbesondere für Human Language Technology (HLT) und Customer Relationship Management (CRM). INDOCS ist ein Gedys-Spinoff. Interessanterweise erwähnen beide Pressemitteilungen nicht einmal Notes oder Domino. Vielmehr heisst es:

Wie die IntraWare CRMSuite von GlobalWare setzen die GEDYS-Produkte auf der gleichen technologischen Basis auf und wurden bisher nebeneinander im Markt für IBM/Lotus Applikationen vertrieben.

Sic transit gloria mundi.

Holy Moly

by Volker Weber

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48855 page impressions. That was an all-time high last week. Thanks for stopping by.

Old vowe.net archive pages

I explain difficult concepts in simple ways. For free, and for money. Clue procurement and bullshit detection.

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