Free tool for finding why your AdminP, Policies, and other Domino services might not be working

This little freeware tool will quickly
scan any number of servers to show you where your Admin4.nsf, Names.nsf,
or any other db has inconsistencies in the ACL, replica, and several other
items that might be preventing successful execution of AdminP, Policies,
and other services.

http://martinscott.com/MSCBlog.nsf/dx/01172010054723AMJMAENT.htm

Posted in Administration, Domino | Comments Off on Free tool for finding why your AdminP, Policies, and other Domino services might not be working

Music pirate

This little guy saved me a trip to Radio Shack. Worked (and still working) great.

 

Posted in kludge, Lego | 2 Comments

The ROI of business friendships

Andrea Howe comments on one of the magic
yet often overlooked ingredients of business success.  The value of
friendship applies equally to intra-company relationships as well as those
across customer lines.

http://trustedadvisor.com/trustmatters/485/The-ROI-of-Business-Friendships

Posted in Team dynamics, Wellness, Work life | Comments Off on The ROI of business friendships

DominoPoint’s DDay was a huge success


Italian Lotus user group DominoPoint‘s
second annual
Domino
Day
conference ("DDay2")
was a huge success by all measures.  The one-day on October 10 event
included two tracks, fourteen speakers, approximately 400 participants,
and a dozen vendors.  Like Paul Mooney’s ILUG and Warren Elsmore’s
UKLUG, this free event to attendees was entirely sponsored by vendors.
 Free admission drives up attendance, and then everyone wins.  


A picture named M2

Event planning

The organizers (Giuseppe Grasso, Daniele
Grillo, Claudio Meregalli) worked the budget magically to cover everything,
including hired help for most of the onsite labor.   Thanks to Davide
Pannuto and his IBM team for covering speaker hotel rooms.  Even Lotusphere
doesn’t offer that perk.  DominoPoint also covered a very impressive
lunch, even by Italian standards.  Easily the best food in the Lotus
conference community.  By the way, I learned that when talking about
food Italians qualify each type of food with the specific region of Italy
from which it originated.  And at the speaker dinner I learned —
and should have already known from my past travels — that some restaurants
serve upwards of 8 or 9 courses!  I was warned of this when, at about
course five, it became apparent to others that I was not pacing myself
very well!  But that was one of the best dinners I’ve had in Italy,
and I’ve had quite a few.

Language challenges

The fact that it was entirely in Italian
(except for my session and one vendor session) made it one of the most
unique Lotus events I’ve attended.  This was truly the quintessence
of a country-level users group conference.  The all-Italian participant
roster represented every region of Italy.  And it’s the only major
Lotus event in Italian.  By the way, in light of that factor, I am
particularly thankful to my
fellow
speakers
who, whenever we were
hanging out, were quick to translate to me or switch to English!

The peninsular country of Italy doesn’t
get a lot of "thru traffic", so Italians tend to understand less
English than do people from central and north western Europe.  However,
the good news for an English speaking presenter such as myself is that
Italian Lotus developers and administrators all understand at least some
English.  This is because, despite the Italian Notes Client, the Designer
and Admin Clients and their help doc are available in English only.  Here
are my
tips
for presenting in English as a foreigner
.

Personal note

Some of the DominoPoint bloggers have
since referred to me in their post-conference write-ups as their "guest
star" at DominoDay, but I’m no different than them.  I have my
specialty, and like to present on it.  The difference is that they
were willing to let me speak in some foreign language : ).  So for
that reason, it was a real honor and privilege to be the only non-Italian
at the event.  The speakers and attendees were all very friendly,
and I have a bunch of new friends in one of my favorite countries.  Special
thanks to Giuseppe Grasso for scouting me at ILUG, asking me to speak,
and making it happen.  I had a great time, and next year I’ll definitely
be interested in speaking again.

Below are my DominoDay slides on Fixing
Domino Application Performance.  Key points are in Italian (thanks
to translation help from
Daniele
Vistalli
and Cristian
D’Aloisio
), but most of the details
are in English.  Also, here is an
all-English
version
that includes these same
slides and more.


Posted in DominoPoint, Travel | Comments Off on DominoPoint’s DDay was a huge success

Tips for presenting in English as a foreigner…


I recently presented a version of a
popular session, in English,
but
to an Italian audience
.  Here
are some tips for presenting in English as a foreigner…

– Plan to speak more slowly, so reduce
content a little bit from what you would present to an English speaking
audience.  Practice the timing.

– Remove all slang and strive for simple,
short, sterilized sentence structures.

– Include illustrations wherever possible.

– Even though you’ll be speaking English,
try to have your slides translated into the local language.  Google
and Altavista translator sites don’t really work for technical content,
so sit down with a translator who has knowledge of your topic.  Make
sure to keep enough of your language in fine print or in the speaker notes
to remind yourself what each slide is about!

– If you don’t have time to translate
all the slides, translating only the slide titles and key points is much
easier and will still go a long way.  For English phrases, choose
words that share the same origin as those of the local language.

– Speaking the local language at the
very beginning (e.g., for your introduction) shows some respect.  Think
about how the reverse situation would feel to you.  But unless you’re
a fluent speaker, most audiences who can understand English reasonably
well will prefer you to speak in English.

Posted in DominoPoint, Public speaking, Travel | Comments Off on Tips for presenting in English as a foreigner…

Why Palin needs Domino email… or, why I should be doing Exchange consulting


AK state government (which uses Exchange/Outlook)
has found
a
new way to make money
.  Most
of you reading this (except you Admins) could write a LotusScript agent
to do this in a day.  And, are there no email compliance solutions
all the way up in Alaska???

"…the
governor’s office said it would take up to six hours of a programmer’s
time to assemble the e-mail of just a single state employee, then another
two hours for "security" checks, and finally five hours to search
the e-mail for whatever word or topic the requestor is seeking. At $73.87
an hour, that’s $960.31 for a single e-mail account. And there are 16,000
full-time state employees. The cost quoted to the AP: $15,364,960
"

…and …

"…That
process of deleting information is likely to be so lengthy that most requestors
won’t be able to see the records until well after the next president and
vice president are chosen, the governor’s office said.
"

…and…

"…the
governor’s office says it can provide copies only on paper.
"

Posted in Uncategorized | Comments Off on Why Palin needs Domino email… or, why I should be doing Exchange consulting

DominoPoint conference approaches 500 attendees


I’m honored to be presenting this Friday,
10 October, in Milano at the annual conference of the Italian Lotus users
group, DominoPoint.  The free "DominoPoint Day 2" (the second
annual event) has about 500 attendees signed up, which makes this event
as large as any other conference in Europe this year.  In fact, perhaps
second only to Lotusphere I think.  The dedicated DominoPoint organizers
(Daniele Grillo, Claudio Meregalli, and Giuseppe Grasso) are following
the ILUG model, whereby the sponsors pay most of the costs (IBM helps,
too), and the delegates pay no fee to attend.  This approach has proven
big attendance numbers at ILUG, UKLUG, and other events.


A picture named M2

This will be exciting for me personally,
because Italy is my favorite country to visit.  Where else can you
find the convergence of music, art, religion, architecture, archeology,
geography, cuisine, and more, all in such a small area?

I’ve been to Italy a bunch of times,
totaling probably 5 months of my life.  I speak enough tourist Italian
to get around, but certainly not in a business context.  I think I’ll
be the only native English speaker at the conference, and the only presentation
in English.  In fact, I’ll be the only person at the event who does
not understand Italian very well.  But that’s part of the fun!

My topic is Fixing Application Performance
Problems…

Does your database become
very slow in production with more documents and more users? You will learn
to prevent, identify, and fix the most common performance problems right
in the design of your applications! Over 40 Notes and Web performance tips
cover formulas, LotusScript, agents, views, forms, images, DB properties,
security, CSS, JavaScript, GZip, and even a few server settings every developer
should know.  Learn how to trace slow performance in existing applications,
including an open source tool to reveal what Notes is waiting for when
you see the yellow lightning symbol.  Emphasis is placed on balancing
performance, maintainability and functionality.

Posted in DominoPoint, Travel | Comments Off on DominoPoint conference approaches 500 attendees

9 things I learned in Lisbon, Portugal, in 72 hours…


I was in London for UKLUG a couple of
weeks ago, and wanted to visit a place new to me for the weekend before
returning to the US.  About the only country in mainland western europe
I’ve never visited is Portugal, so I booked an impromptu trip to Lisbon
for three nights.

What I have learned in Lisboa (Lisbon)
Portugal in 72 hours…

1) Football (soccer) on your first night
is a great way to get into the spirit of a European city.


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2) Lisboa is a very walkable — but
hilly — city, with lots to see every minute.


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3) Being a solo tourist for the first
time EVER was unexpectedly nice, as you can do whatever you want, stay
as long as you want, and change your mind whenever you want.


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4) Gradeschool studies of 16th and 17th
century Portugal ruling the seas hit you in the face when you tour magnificent
castles and waterside fortresses of Lisboa.


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5) Central Lisboa was mostly destroyed
by an earthquake and tsunami that killed 15,000 people in 1755, then mostly
rebuilt.


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6) The people are Lisboa are incredibly
friendly, beautiful, and full of spirit.


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7) Portuguese is the most beautiful,
and one of the most unusual and difficult, languages I’ve tried to speak.

8)
Particularly in a small peninsular
country like Portugal, the internet is the great equalizer of artistic
opportunity.  A pub booked local singer-songwriter Ana Free, but couldn’t
handle the 400+ fans who showed up as a result of her recent YouTube fame.
 This week she’s the fastest rising artist on the
Portuguese
Singles chart
with a song at #3.

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9) ‘Tho not too popular in Portugal
yet, Facebook is a great resource for recruiting a friend you’ve yet to
meet in person.  Thanks,
Vitor
Pereira
!!

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Definitely going to visit Libsoa again!

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Posted in Travel | Comments Off on 9 things I learned in Lisbon, Portugal, in 72 hours…

What does your work area look like?


Paul
Mooney
showed me his if I showed
him mine.

When I’m not at the HQ office in DC
(I almost never am), I work here…


A picture named M2

1 – 93% of the furniture budget went
into the one chair I can sit in for more than 4 hours

2 – Thinkpad in a full dock, hidden
under pile of unrecorded 2008 expense receipts as an anti-theft measure.
 Never been stolen.  Due for a Mac replacement in Fall 2008.

3 – Dual monitors… Chat windows stay
to the right.   Everything else to the left on a 20" 1600×1200
DVI (rotated with Portrait.com driver).  Webcam sits on top.

4 – "No wires allowed" desk
with Bluetooth everything.  Love the Logitech DiNovo kit… has the
Thinkpad feel.

5 – Pile of 2007 expenses not yet entered.

6 – view of students walking between
classes at the
U.
of Delaware
one block away, mostly
women.

7 – awards from Lotus industry, 2003
& 2005
WAKA
championship signed game balls.

8 – Required for breaking the monotony
of software work
, YouTube playalongs,
or whenever Notes is performing a consistency check on my 3GB mailfile.

Posted in Work life | Comments Off on What does your work area look like?

LS09 proposal: “Performance Duet: How to Get Your Apps and Servers in Tune”, with Jamie Magee and Francie Tanner-Whitlock


For three of the past four Lotuspheres,
Kevin Marshall and I have done a popular session on Application Performance
Tuning. It did well, and even earned
top
ranked feedback
a couple of times.
I still update and present various versions of this topic for developers
around the US and Europe, including at five major events this year, as
it has tremendous value to developers. But increasingly, the content has
slowly evolved toward a blend of both developer and system administration
knowledge.  This is because, in reality, performance tuning is a collaboration
between the two.  This session provides a different angle on these
popular topics, focusing on the synergy between a developer and an administrator
in live performance tuning of common issues.

Please comment and vote on this new
session concept
from myself and
Francie Tanner-Whitlock.




Posted in Administration, Development, Lotusphere, Performance, Public speaking | Comments Off on LS09 proposal: “Performance Duet: How to Get Your Apps and Servers in Tune”, with Jamie Magee and Francie Tanner-Whitlock