| Blog Posts |
61

|
It looks like they are making some progress 
Fri, Jan 9th 2009 10:51a Jim Casale On my recent errand into Manhattan from
my office in Jersey City something I saw gave me an "Ah ha" moment.
On my previous trip to Manhattan I saw some steel beams and didn't think
anything of it, figuring it is part of the construction that seems to be
going nowhere. But on this trip I was staring out the PATH train window
and saw some support structures that looked familiar. In an instant I knew
what I was looking at. The beams I saw on my previous trip were the support
beams for the ra [read] Keywords: office
|
73

|
Useful map of World Disney World 
Tue, Dec 30th 2008 4:56p Jim Casale In planning my trip to Lotusphere, I
have found myself trying to get a better picture of where things are so
I can decide if I can get from here to there in xx amount of time. Like
when I was one day short on my reservation and I couldn't figure out how
far Disney Pop Century was from Disney All Star Sports. Now I have the
task of trying to figure out how far Disney's Fantasia Gardens Miniature
Golfis from
Disney's Hollywood Studios (I will be meeting my wife and youngest son
there after [read] Keywords: lotusphere
reservation
|
151

|
My school says GMail is good for me, and they tell me why 
Tue, Dec 30th 2008 9:54a Jim Casale My school has converted all school email
accounts to GMail. They even gave me 9 reasons why it is so much better
than the old system. Well, I may not disagree with that statement in principle
since the old email system was Exchange 2003 (OWA only unless you could
get the information needed to configure a pop client). I do, however, have
an issue with those 9 reasons telling me why it is so much better. Let
me address them one at a time.
Google Mail offers many benefits:
* Ava [read] Keywords: document
lotus
notes
blogSphere
email
exchange
exchange
google
instant messaging
outlook
|
32

|
Frontbridge is giving me a break 
Tue, Dec 23rd 2008 11:53a Jim Casale Out of the kindness of their hearts
Frontbridge is going to unlist my IP address in their blacklist. How nice
of them. Turns out I have been sending "a large volume or high
percentage of spam" to their network. That's strange as I am only
a small one man operation and do not have any free time to send out spam.
All my PC's have up-to-date AV, my server
is regularly checked for relaying (overkill I admit), all PC's have port
25 blocked outgoing, and I am not on any other public DNS blac [read] Keywords: network
server
|
122

|
This might be something IBM might want to look into 
Sun, Dec 21st 2008 3:53p Jim Casale After I was ecstatic to get a Friday night
reservation at All Star Sports I had a question about my Lotusphere registration.
I sent an email to lotusphereregistration@experient-inc.com as directed
by the email instructions. To my dismay I received a delivery failure.
Seems Experient has me listed in some sort of blacklist. That's strange
since I have business class Fios, reverse DNS entries, SPF records, and
regularly check my server for relaying. The error message said to forward
the mes [read] Keywords: ibm
lotusphere
email
exchange
exchange
microsoft
reservation
server
|
44

|
Friday nights are open at All Star Sports 
Sun, Dec 21st 2008 2:52p Jim Casale If you made your reservation for All Start
Sports for Saturday but you should have made it for Friday you're in luck.
In my daily search of the elusive Friday arrival I found it is available
today through Experient.. I should have listened to the Lotusphere
old timers and booked early and
for a longer stay.
If you are looking to get there one
day early hurry and book it now before it's gone again. [read] Keywords: lotusphere
reservation
|
24

|
My BOF session is bright and early 
Wed, Dec 17th 2008 9:53p Jim Casale Thanks to Ben
from Genii software, I found out
my BOF
session (IBM Lotus Domino Backup
and Recovery Best Practices: What to Do Before a Disaster Strikes) is scheduled
for Tuesday at 7 A.M. Lucky for me I'm an early riser
Grab your coffee early and make it a
point to stop by and share your experiences with backing up your Domino
environment (and maybe learn a thing or two from a colleague). [read] Keywords: domino
ibm
lotus
lotusphere
archive
blogSphere
|
37

|
My office holiday decorations 
Wed, Dec 17th 2008 8:51a Jim Casale What kind of holiday decorations does
your office have? Is it company sponsored or do you put up your own?
Here is my personal office decoration,
complete with blinking holiday lights. [read] Keywords: office
|
23

|
A little holiday cheer just when you least expect it. 
Wed, Dec 17th 2008 8:51a Jim Casale This morning was the type of morning
I would have rather have stayed in bed for at least another 4 hours. But
being the dedicated employee that I am, I got myself out of bed, and was
at the Bellerose LIRR train station at 6:14 A.M. I was walking up the stairs
at the station, thinking to myself I am too old for this crap as it was
cold, damp, and icy this morning, when I made it to the platform and was
wondering what was on the far side of the platform. The closer I got the
bigger my smile [read] Keywords: |
60

|
It's beginning to look alot like 
Wed, Dec 10th 2008 8:52a Jim Casale Lotusphere! You can see the blog posts
starting to pick up on
all things Lotusphere. Dare I
call it Lotusfever? If you can't wait until Lotusphere and love torturing
yourself you can always add the Lotusphere Countdown Widget to your Notes
8 client (Thanks Chris)
Lotusphere
Countdown Widget - 927 hours,
56 minutes, 49 seconds to go.... [read] Keywords: ldd
lotus
lotusphere
notes
widget
|
75

|
Whoever invented LED Christmas lights should be made a saint 
Sat, Dec 6th 2008 5:55p Jim Casale I finished hanging the outside LED Christmas
lights this afternoon. This is the fourth year of use and still not one
bulb is out or broken. After 20 some odd years of constantly checking and
rechecking before I hang them it is such a joy to know they will work before
and AFTER you hand them up. I have even stepped on some the bulbs by accident,
and being made of hard plastic they have never shattered. It doesn't hurt
that they use 96% less electricity too
So to the person who invente [read] Keywords: blogSphere
|
29

|
Was just informed my BOF was accepted :-) 
Thu, Dec 4th 2008 3:51p Jim Casale Get your tape drives and note pads ready.
My session - Domino Backup and Recovery Best
Practices: What to do Before a Disaster Strikes - has been accepted for
Lotusphere 2009. Thanks to everyone that voted for my BOF.
I guess all those hours at Toastmasters will come in handy. [read] Keywords: domino
lotusphere
blogSphere
|
13

|
Remember those giving up so much... 
Thu, Nov 27th 2008 9:51a Jim Casale As we give thanks on this holiday please
remember (do something for ) those that are giving up
so much in service to our country. Make it a point to find an organization
that supports our men and women in uniform and do something to help.
Show them we appreciate all they do for us. [read] Keywords: |
47

|
8.0.1 delegation issue 
Wed, Nov 19th 2008 3:54p Jim Casale Just an FYI for all Notes 8.0.1 users.
After a couple days of frustration I finally submitted a PMR for a calendar
delegation issue. The issue is an "Object variable not set" error
when trying to add or delete a delegate. The error didn't seem to be an
issue when we first started the Notes 8 migration, but it seems to have
shown up for a few users in the last few days. IBM has fixed the issue
in the 8.0.2 template. [read] Keywords: ibm
notes
template
|
31

|
Let the Lotusphere voting begin - vote for the sessions you want to see 
Tue, Nov 18th 2008 4:52p Jim Casale Just received notification for Lotusphere
session voting. This year they will be listing ALL of the submissions for
you to vote on. Deadline is November 21. If you already have your ticket
hurry up and vote, if not get your ticket and then vote!
More
here [read] Keywords: ibm
lotus
lotusphere
|
117

|
Doesn't make economic sense to go to Exchange 
Tue, Nov 18th 2008 8:52a Jim Casale I read an interesting article about
Microsoft new cloud offering this morning. The author says
"Funny thing is one customer actually
admits it didn't make economic sense to go to Exchange."
It turns out the customer is several
versions behind on Notes. So rather than investigate all the available
options, they just go with the "me too" mentality and opt for
Microsoft's cloud offering. The question is why? Too many companies don't
take the time and effort to upgrade to the latest versi [read] Keywords: notes
exchange
exchange
microsoft
outlook
|
138

|
Notes 8.0.2 CCH1 install problem and new Interim Fix for 8.0.2 CCH1 
Sun, Nov 16th 2008 4:51p Jim Casale I am not sure if it has something to do
with the work PC and how it is setup but I ran into a weird problem
when trying to install the Notes 8.0.2 CCH1. When I installed it on my
home PC the installation finished with no issues. My gut feeling is possible
workstation rights issue or Notes policy (I do have admin rights to the
workstation). Will try again tomorrow with the work PC and see what happens.
IBM has also released an Interim fix
for 8.0.2 CCH1 which includes new Sameti [read] Keywords: admin
ibm
notes
sametime
|
99

|
Lotusphere Flights 
Tue, Nov 11th 2008 6:53a Jim Casale If you haven't booked your Lotusphere
travel yet it may make sense to shop around. After two years of jet Blue
I decide to look around and found $79 fares to Orlando out of New York
City on Delta. Best to book early as the flights are going fast.
Also, as pointed out by Greg
Eldred, the time to book a room
is running out quick. I had a hard time booking the minimum stay at All
Start Sports [read] Keywords: lotusphere
|
164

|
You can't make this stuff up 
Tue, Nov 11th 2008 6:53a Jim Casale Before I get flamed I know this situation
is dependant upon the admin at hand - but you have to laugh at this
"A
federal judge on Monday ruled against the Bush administration in a court
battle over the White House's problem-plagued e-mail system."
The real kicker is this quote
"In February, a former White House computer
expert told Congress the White House had no complete inventory of e-mail
files, that there was no automatic system to ensure that e-mail was archived
and preserved, a [read] Keywords: admin
administration
blogSphere
security
|
You can rent this space for 30 days. Interested?
|
120

|
OCS vs Sametime - first impresssions 
Mon, Nov 10th 2008 9:53a Jim Casale My first impressions of Office Communicator
vs Sametime is that Office Communicator is a rather simplistic chat program
with video and audio added compared to Sametime (I am running the stand-alone
client of Office Communicator) . It seems to me that Microsoft has dumbed
down the interface to have as few menus and choices as possible - for what
reason I don't know. In order to change options you have to find out where
they hid the options. After some poking around I found a rather small,
[read] Keywords: sametime
interface
microsoft
office
|
43

|
OCS encountered an error - from not using it 
Fri, Nov 7th 2008 9:52p Jim Casale I've been asked to use Office Communicator
2007 at work (I already use Sametime and Reuters Messaging).
I got this after an hour of not using
it. Imagine what happens when I do. [read] Keywords: sametime
blogSphere
office
|
114

|
Lotusphere 2009 bummer 
Wed, Nov 5th 2008 2:52p Jim Casale I will be attending Lotusphere 2009
but found out I will be paying out of my own pocket today. I had a "Doooohhhh"
moment after I found out I had picked a Birds of a Feather" choice
instead of a session (Birds of a Feather speakers do not get conference
passes to Lotusphere). Oh well, I will still be going and plan on having
a great Lotusphere 2009.
Note to self: Picked the right choice
next year! [read] Keywords: lotusphere
|
50

|
If you have Fios Internet you need to know about this 
Sun, Nov 2nd 2008 1:55p Jim Casale I have been conducting a security scan/audit
of my home network (Yes, I have more than a couple of PC's ) and found
a rather disturbing issue with the Fios
supplied router. My neighbor graciously allowed me to use their Internet
access to perform some external testing - what I found was rather scary.
It seems my Actiontec router had multiple ports open to the Internet even
though I never opened them to begin with. It is a default setting that
one can only assume is for remote access/troub [read] Keywords: network
php
security
|
87

|
IBM Research has done it again 
Wed, Oct 29th 2008 4:52p Jim Casale Pretty cool technology from IBM. As
someone who is concerned about personal information and identity security,
I think this is a step in the right direction. I might just do on-line
banking one day.
Banking
security on a USB stick [read] Keywords: ibm
security
|
92

|
Domino compact options and fragmentation 
Sat, Oct 25th 2008 4:58p Jim Casale There have been many discussions around
the compact task on Domino databases and how it affects disk fragmentation.
The most recent discussion
is by Adam Osborne and his company's
new product, Defrag.nsf.
I think it is safe to say that compacting Domino databases is not the same
as defragmenting databases. I agree with Adam's assessment that compact
with -c will lead to fragmentation. Compact with -B would also lead to
fragmentation as the Windows file structure will change.
So the [read] Keywords: domino
database
|
64

|
Since Paul and Chris were sharing... 
Thu, Oct 23rd 2008 8:51a Jim Casale I figured I would share mine too [read] Keywords: nd
security
|
49

|
I am not an economic expert but... 
Thu, Oct 9th 2008 8:52p Jim Casale I wonder if short selling is contributing
to the recent stock market crisis. When the incentive to make money by
lower stock prices is gone will investors (or should I say hedge funds)
still be motivated to drive stocks prices even lower? Is outlawing short
selling a good idea? I have to wonder if it is morally right to make money
by short selling stocks. Doesn't the American way of life of constantly
trying to improve, grow, and do better run contrary to making money by
betting something [read] Keywords: |
31

|
And I was going to blame Verizon 
Wed, Oct 8th 2008 8:51p Jim Casale I was checking my email this afternoon
and got a "server not responding" error message. After doing
some initial testing I found I wasn't able to connect remotely to any of
my servers. Without physically being there I assumed it might have been
a temporary glitch on the network. When I arrived home and it was still
down, I immediately thought "Uggh it has to be Verizon!". After
dealing with ridiculously lousy DSL service for years I jumped at the chance
for their Fios service when it was [read] Keywords: blogSphere
email
network
server
|
26

|
Can't they get this done right? 
Thu, Oct 2nd 2008 6:55p Jim Casale You've got to wonder about politicians
and government. You can say greed is driving the current financial crisis,
but what excuse do they have for the lack of results and the amount of
money spent at the World Trade Center site. It makes me wonder if we, as
a country, have any future.
Progress
At WTC Site Behind Schedule, Over Budget [read] Keywords: |
37

|
The old lady is back 
Thu, Oct 2nd 2008 6:55p Jim Casale It's not everyday you get to see an aircraft
carrier being pulled down the Hudson river during your lunch hour. My coworkers
and I were surprised to see the Intrepid being pulled by tugboat to its
pier in Manhattan after two years of repairs and improvements.
Intrepid
Returns To Manhattan Pier [read] Keywords: |
135

|
Lotusphere on a budget 
Sun, Sep 28th 2008 5:52p Jim Casale There seems to be a few people out there
(Duffbert, Turtle, and the Notes Apprentice to name a few) that are going
to Lotusphere on their own dime. I will also be one of them. I was wondering
if anyone was trying to figure out how to get to Lotusphere and not spend
a small fortune. Before anyone gives me grief I feel it is totally worth
every penny - I would just rather not spend any pennies I don't have to.
In looking for ways to save some of
those pennies I have been trying to dec [read] Keywords: lotusphere
notes
|
30

|
I may have to try this 
Sat, Sep 27th 2008 4:57p Jim Casale I might have to try this on my way to work
as I cross the East River and Hudson River.
FusionMan [read] Keywords: |
232

|
How NOT to rollout Notes 8 
Sat, Sep 27th 2008 4:57p Jim Casale You've got to wonder what people are thinking
when they do the things they do. Take a recent incident in our Notes 8
rollout for example. An "important" person was migrated to Notes
8 with not so successful results. When I say "important", I mean
it's someone in upper management that you really shouldn't piss off. Well,
needless to say, I got a call that this person was asking why he was migrated
to Notes 8, and that he wanted to go back to Notes 6.5. Seems he didn't
know how to use all o [read] Keywords: notes
|
110

|
It's all IBM's fault 
Tue, Sep 23rd 2008 9:52p Jim Casale There is no one else to blame except IBM.
It's their fault I am hooked on Loutsphere and have to figure out how to
justify going to the wife :-P If they didn't have great sessions, great
speakers, and a great atmosphere (not to mention competitive boat races)
I wouldn't be inclined to go. Problem is I have just recently started a
new position, and I am at the bottom of the proverbial totem pole. And
just like many others out there, the company is not really keen on paying
for me to go.
[read] Keywords: ibm
lotusphere
|
142

|
Something you should know if you don't have mail limits in ND8 
Sun, Sep 21st 2008 8:48p Jim Casale If you don't have limits on mail you need
to know about a hotfix for the folder object issue in Notes 8. This nasty
little issue pops up when the number of folder objects (not the number
of documents in a folder) reaches 50. An internal reorganization is supposed
to take place when it reaches 50. When it doesn't reorganize for whatever
reason you get the "folder is larger than supported" error. There
was a hotfix in 6, and possibly 7 but 8.0, and 8.0.1 do not have the fix.
You can get the [read] Keywords: ibm
nd8
notes
|
45

|
Like a fly on an elephants butt 
Sun, Sep 21st 2008 8:48p Jim Casale I now know what it feels like to be a fly
on an elephants butt (I am using the nice term here). I recently had an
experience with the local gas and electric utility that shows that the
little guy can fight the big bad utility. It all started about a month
ago when a neighbor called the local utility to report the smell of gas.
The utility and fire department came and they investigated by checking
the street and a whole bunch of houses for any trace of gas. After a few
hours, they said it [read] Keywords: blogSphere
email
leak
|
20

|
It's not Paris but it will have to do for now 
Sat, Sep 13th 2008 12:51p Jim Casale The wife wanted to go to Paris for our
25th wedding anniversary but we couldn't go right now because of job obligations.
It looks like a trip to Paris will be in the spring, so I planned a secret
get away to the Borgata in Atlantic City for the weekend. I got the inlaws
to watch my youngest son, read the riot act to my other two sons that I
don't want to get calls about wild parties while we were gone, and setup
the all important spa appointment at the Borgata ahead of time. I had planned
[read] Keywords: atlantic
blogSphere
|
29

|
Words can not describe it 
Thu, Sep 11th 2008 11:06p Jim Casale If you have not seen it you need to...
102
minutes that changed America [read] Keywords: |
34

|
Always a sad day 
Thu, Sep 11th 2008 6:15a Jim Casale It's that time of year again. Although
it is never really out of sight or mind, the days leading up to September
11th are always a sad time for me. As much as I try each year to not let
what happened 7 years ago get to me it still does. For months after September
11th I would cringe whenever I would walk down a Manhattan street and hear
the sirens - the wailing sound of urgency would give give me the feeling
of being punched in the gut. Often times it would take all my strength
not to she [read] Keywords: |
71

|
Does this make sense? 
Sun, Sep 7th 2008 4:49p Jim Casale This question is for all the Domino security
experts out there. I know some people might say running Domino on the Windows
platform is a security risk to begin with, but I question the wisdom or
advantage of running Domino on Windows with a certain twist. I have had
the opportunity to work in an environment where the Windows host
name does not match the Domino server name. An example would be running
a Domino server called Domino1/FakeCo on a Windows server whose host name
is SomeOtherNa [read] Keywords: domino
security
server
|
83

|
Passport Dis-Advantage 
Sat, Sep 6th 2008 3:48p Jim Casale Before anyone thinks I am complaining about
Passport Advantage let me be clear that I am not. I am, however, a
bit frustrated at my new employer since it seems to be a bigger project
than it needs to be to add me to the Passport Advantage site. I guess I
was spoiled in the past as I was the technical contact for my former employer.
You may ask "What's the big deal?"
Well, for one thing, it shouldn't be such a big project to be added to
the Passport Advantage site. If I were added t [read] Keywords: blogSphere
|
83

|
I've decided to take the plunge 
Thu, Sep 4th 2008 9:41a Jim Casale As some of you may know, I have recently
taken a new position at a global financial services company as a Senior
Lotus Notes Administrator. With this new change in my life I have decided
to change a few more things. In the past I have often thought about starting
a blog, but the time was never right - another way of saying I didn't have
the time or desire. With Lotusphere 2009 just right around the corner I
have decided there is no better time than now to take the plunge.
So here I am [read] Keywords: lotus
lotusphere
notes
blogging
|