Apathy or Retribution - Silo's Part 3
Mon, May 14th 2012 12:30p Keith Brooks Continuing on with previous posts about Silos and being an ACE or an AS we now stop to think about some reasons for the middle ground people.
The two extremes, one side uses everything and shares like beer on tap overflowing a glass and the other shares nothing and could care less. They both work in their own way and should be respected for they have made a decision.
Most of the world however, or 95% of it, if I can warp an old statistics class idea, is in the middle. Not committing to do [read] Keywords: connections
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A Manager’s Guide to Resolving Conflicts in Collaborative Networks
Mon, May 14th 2012 7:50a Keith Brooks Found this while searching on some other topics. It is an excellent paper, from 2007 which describes some of the obstacles we will face as we strive to a collaborative social business. The document is from the IBM Center for The Business of Government.
Indeed the authors: Rosemary O’Leary, Distinguished Professor of Public Administration
Maxwell Advisory Board Endowed Chair, The Maxwell School, Syracuse University
and
Lisa Blomgren Bingham, Keller-Runden Professor of Public Service, Scho [read] Keywords: administration
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The Accidental Silo Structure
Fri, May 11th 2012 1:30p Keith Brooks http://www.mabeats.com/
In the Silo's Happen previous post I started to discuss the Accidental Silo Structure. I can't use the acronym since it will get blocked by some systems, so I will use the term AS.
If you have an AS, what do you do? Do you realize that you look like an AS? Do you think that you look like an Accessible Collaborative Enterprise (ACE)?
How do you know? What can you do to test for which side you are on?
Keeping in mind that some companies are ACE on the inside [read] Keywords: connections
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Silos Happen? Part 1
Wed, May 9th 2012 7:21a Keith Brooks http://behindbricks.wordpress.com/2011/01/11/a-new-silo-a-new-obstacle/
Been a while since I posted about the competition. One reason is the competition has changed. It is no longer about this vendor versus that vendor but more insidious. It is now about Silos vs Openness.
In the past I may have painted a picture of a Silo company to look like many things but usually referred to them as Microsoft companies. Usually because Microsoft promoted the individual over the network and as an a [read] Keywords: lotus
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Firewalls Suck Time
Tue, May 8th 2012 9:20a Keith Brooks Some days you just can't argue with simplicity. Duplicity is another story.
Junior admins remember, all is not as it appears.
While knocking off a number of issues at a client site upgrade it was reported a server was not accessible from the Domino Administration client. Funny thing is, the servers were replicating with it, no problem at all. But no clients could connect to it.
I asked the usual questions, have you verified DNS names, server document references, TCPIP references, etc. [read] Keywords: admin
administration
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Sugarcon 2012 in Review
Thu, Apr 26th 2012 4:00p Keith Brooks This was my first Sugarcon as a SugarCRM Business Partner and user. As we saw on BP day, about 2/3 or 200 people in the room were also at their first Sugarcon, many of whom became partners this year, some as recently as the Friday before it started.
Impressive for any vendor to have that type of growth.
We also found out in turn that SugarCRM nearly doubled in size their employees to about 350 total including contractors/consultants. Many of the employees were here and it was great to meet [read] Keywords: ibm
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SugarCRM Integration with IBM Connections
Thu, Apr 26th 2012 10:01a Keith Brooks Over the course of the last few days here in San Francisco at Sugarcon 2012 I have had some interesting discussions around IBM, integration points, IBM SmartCloud and of course Lotus Notes and Domino.
What you probably know is there has been a few integration points for SugarCRM that have included a Lotus Notes plugin for the Notes client from the iEnterprise acquisition and the LotusLive plugin to SugarCRM itself to share meetings and files.
SugarCRM and IBM have shown the integration of [read] Keywords: connections
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IBM is using SugarCRM Internally
Tue, Apr 24th 2012 3:51p Keith Brooks One of the things heard this morning at SugarCon was that IBM is working on rolling out SugarCRM to the company.
This is a huge boost of course for SugarCRM and for IBM and it's sales teams and Business Partners. In doing so, IBM will be putting aside Siebel.
SugarCRM which is looking to grow their Enterprise business, needs this boost. In many ways it brings validity to what many of us have known for years. Mainly that older solutions are cumbersome, expensive and they preclude others fr [read] Keywords: connections
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Business Anti-Social: Why the Boss Doesn't Get It
Tue, Apr 24th 2012 12:50p Keith Brooks This is my slidedeck from the Sugarcon 2012 session I just finished about ways to help executives be more social. It also covers some ideas around out thinking your competition and how to get stuff done without approval.
The link to my slides page is here. Slideshare link as well. [read] Keywords: blogger
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SugarCon 2012 Starts Today
Mon, Apr 23rd 2012 10:20a Keith Brooks Business Partner day starts today. I flew in last night and got a phone call at 6am from a client with a server down. So much for sleep.
Took the 5 block walk to the Palace Hotel where the conference is located. Along the way saw many examples of inner city art, sculptures, exhibitions of artists work in almost any and every place. The things I miss working a 1/2 mile from home normally. Will try to get some pictures later this week. On the flip side sad to see so many homeless and questionab [read] Keywords: blogger
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Changes to the Blog
Fri, Apr 20th 2012 8:41a Keith Brooks I have moved some of my posts to a new domain. If you want to follow my Friday TorahBiz posts, you can find them now under their own blog site. www.torahbiz.com I know, original, but the domain was not available until about 2 weeks ago.
While they may still appear in my Twitter stream, they will not be here and so your RSS feeds will go back to their regularly scheduled business, technology discussions.
More changes will be coming over the next month or 2 and I will update everything acc [read] Keywords: blogger
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157
SnTT - Traveler, DA, Dircat and 13,000+ Names
Thu, Apr 19th 2012 7:20a Keith Brooks Been working with a client moving them from R5 to 853FP1. A big jump and not so simple as one would think. The usual Domino items do work properly and as we move people over all is well and good, but along the way we found some gotchas that, well, if you were not around in R5 time, you may not realize the nuances.
Traveler of course is a key part of why they are upgrading. NOT for iPads or iPhones but for Android devices. An added bonus to them is the Sametime entry which is a FREE entitlemen [read] Keywords: domino
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Ethical Hacking Student Presentation
Wed, Apr 4th 2012 8:51a Keith Brooks This week I was at John I. Leonard High School in Greenacres, Florida speaking on behalf of ITWomen on the topic of Ethical Hacking.
The nature of the discussion was not how to do it but more what it is about and why it is important. While I hit the key points in the qst half of the presentation, the second half has more details about the processes and methodology for those interested.
While discussing my time with Citibank during one of their attacks, various co-workers that presented the [read] Keywords: blogger
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81
Put the Right Foot Forward
Tue, Apr 3rd 2012 9:11p Keith Brooks Sorry, with a busy week, this got left out last week.
In 8:23 it says:
And he slaughtered [it], and Moses took some of its blood, and placed it on the cartilage of Aaron's right ear, on the thumb of his right hand and on the big toe of his right foot.And you are thinking to yourself, where are we going with this, right?
The natural question is why these 3 places, and why the right hand?
In olden times, the right side of a person was a side of strength. So naturally Moshe puts the bl [read] Keywords: blogger
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Volunteering for FIRST Robotics the next 2 days
Thu, Mar 29th 2012 7:10a Keith Brooks For those that do not know what FIRST is, it was founded by Dean Kamen.
Their mission :
Our mission is to inspire young people to be science and technology leaders, by engaging them in exciting mentor-based programs that build science, engineering and technology skills, that inspire innovation, and that foster well-rounded life capabilities including self-confidence, communication, and leadership.
It is a great idea and this will be my first time helping. In fact it is the first one held a [read] Keywords: atlantic
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SnTT- When log.nsf gets snagged
Wed, Mar 28th 2012 9:00p Keith Brooks Sometimes what we know doesn't always work.
Take this situation. Client running an R5 server suddenly gets errors on the console that the log file can not be found or unable to write to it.
It seems the server crashed or had something happen to it and the log.nsf may have become corrupted.
The simple response is to move the bad log.nsf out of the Domino directory entirely so you can review it for what caused the problem. You do this by shutting down the server and physically moving th [read] Keywords: domino
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In the Moment Don't Forget About the Future
Fri, Mar 23rd 2012 7:40a Keith Brooks In a parsha filled with totally irrelevant information for modern times, what can we learn that helps in business?
I pondered this all week and came to the conclusion that it was known at the time, much of this would not be useful forever. If you believe God dictated the Torah to Moshe then why would God go into such detail about sacrifices that would have a use for a few centuries, even a millenia, but not forever?
Sometimes in business, we also go into serious details on topics or projec [read] Keywords: blogger
Finding the Expert
Fri, Mar 16th 2012 10:50a Keith Brooks It's not easy being an expert at something. Especially when God calls you out as one. That is some high expectations.
Bezalel and Oholiab were such experts. Chapter 35, verse 30-35 Moshe is telling the people that these 2 great master craftsmen will lead them in the building of the Tabernacle (Mishkan) in the Desert. Exodus 36:2 says:
And Moses called Bezalel and Oholiab and every wise hearted man into whose heart the Lord had given wisdom, everyone whose heart lifted him up to approach the w [read] Keywords: blogger
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Where are your Horns?
Fri, Mar 9th 2012 1:30p Keith Brooks Yes, my friends we come to the Parsha, Ki Tisa, which discusses Moses horns as so many call them.
Ever wonder where this ridiculous idea came from that Jews have horns? It comes from these sentences in Exodus 34:30-35. Hebrew added for those that want the details.
30. that Aaron and all the children of Israel saw Moses and behold! the skin of his face had become radiant, and they were afraid to come near him. ל. וַיַּרְא אַהֲרֹן וְכָל בְּנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל [read] Keywords: blogger
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Help! Domlog.nsf is 1.5GB...did you..
Fri, Mar 9th 2012 10:10a Keith Brooks Follow all the directions and set up logging and all in the server document properly?
Of course you did, yet there it is that daily or monthly report log file that somehow is just HUGE!
Asked a few people but int he end, found this technote #1161104 which pointed me to an agent that had been disabled, for some reason. Enabled it back on and off we go.
The premise question was my own too:
How can you reduce the size of the Domino Web Server log (domlog.nsf)? You enable this feature to r [read] Keywords: agent
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Checks and Balances of Leadership
Wed, Mar 7th 2012 2:31p Keith Brooks Interrupting my usual schedule due to Purim which starts tonight.
Once again, the problems we face today, were faced over 2,000 years ago as well.
It was then that King Achashveros gave one of his executives, Haman, carte blanch to do what he wanted with a certain group of people he had persuaded the King were against him. That in itself is not unusual of course, but the story has more to it than this tidbit.
As it turns out, one of the King's wives turns out to be a member of this gro [read] Keywords: blogger
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2nd Session Speaking at SugarCon 2012
Tue, Mar 6th 2012 7:50a Keith Brooks An even bigger surprise to me yesterday when I was researching something for SugarCon and found out I was doing a 2nd session!
The first time, I found out via blog post, this time via Google search.
I had wondered about the session because it is one which I am quite sure no one else was doing, namely:
Full Power Collaboration with IBM SmartCloud Engage and SugarCRMThe session was meant to be about the points of integration between SugarCRM and LotusLive IBM SmartCloud for Social Business. How [read] Keywords: collaboration
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Good oil is hard to find
Fri, Mar 2nd 2012 7:20a Keith Brooks Leadership knows how to wring every last drop of effort out of their followers.
In this week's Parsha of Tetzaveh God asks the now desert nomadic Jewish people to do something nearly impossible from the first sentence (Exodus 27:20):
And you shall command the children of Israel, and they shall take to you pure olive oil, crushed for lighting, to kindle the lamps continually.Really!? PURE olive oil!? They are in the desert you remember. So olives just grow wild in the desert and they coul [read] Keywords: blogger
183
Humbled by an Expert
Thu, Mar 1st 2012 2:30p Keith Brooks Yesterday I played hooky from work. Not the whole day, just the morning.
Why did I do it? Because I was learning. I was in need of seeking out someone who had more knowledge and experience than I to solve a problem.
The problem was important and although in the end I was on the right track, and indeed had validated the conclusion the expert came up with, I also could not solve it. As it turned out, neither could he, although we worked around it.
What I lacked in experience, I made up wi [read] Keywords: lotus
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Talk About Documentation
Fri, Feb 24th 2012 7:20a Keith Brooks I was wondering where does the need for documentation come from originally. No doubt we can thank Johanes Gutenberg and the printing press but long before that civilizations had a way to document their world, lives, death, religion and games.
This week the Parsha of Terumah brings out much of the documentation about the Ark or cabinet that would hold some extremely special items. Like your data servers, this Ark had some serious specifications. Sizing and design of the UI were just the start, [read] Keywords: blogger
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I will be Speaking at SugarCon 2012
Thu, Feb 23rd 2012 7:40a Keith Brooks Decided to go back to where it all started for me. Databases and CRM.
Eons ago I wrote some of these in Dbase 3+ and through the decades went through the ACT, Goldmine and Lotus Notes home grown written CRM apps. Speaking of which John Ferrara of Goldmine has a new CRM offering, check out www.nimble.com if you like Tweetdeck and are in Marketing or Sales it has some great promise.
Since looking into CRM's again I realized something has not changed. It's still a "look at me and use me" worl [read] Keywords: collaboration
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Read The Fine Print
Fri, Feb 17th 2012 1:00p Keith Brooks The devil is in the details they say.
Sometimes in business we go out of our way not to be responsible or exempt specific cases or situations.
On the customer side we find out the warranty we thought we had really is not so useful or the insurance we were told would cover medical issues really does not.
The next step is to find someone to blame. Usually the vendor says it is your fault for not reading in details the 100's of pages of legalese.
I await a reply from AC Delco about a 6 y [read] Keywords: blogger
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Choose Capable People
Fri, Feb 10th 2012 8:30a Keith Brooks Yitro was Moses Father-in-Law and a member of royalty or a well known priest, depending on how you translate the text and understand history. In either case, Yitro was considered a wise and smart man. And so it was he came to visit his family and sees Moses trapped by mounds of red tape, petty arguments and meetings and questions of serious legal matters. I know they are roaming in the desert so how many problems could there be? Ever work in a cubicle farm? You get the idea.
Yitro says to Mos [read] Keywords: roaming
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"Cloud Cover" was the original "Air Cover"
Fri, Feb 3rd 2012 7:20a Keith Brooks Air Cover is a war expression, you know, helicopter or plane or sniper cover while soldiers tried to get a position. But maybe that was because I knew sales was a war sometimes. Yet why do we consider marketing and advertising as "Air Cover"? Perhaps it is really "Cloud Cover".
As it turns out, the reference from the Bible, in fact this week's Parsha, Beshalach, states in Exodus 13:21:
And the LORD went before them by day in a pillar of cloud, to lead them the way; and by night in a pi [read] Keywords: blogger
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Hardened Hearts
Tue, Jan 31st 2012 9:50p Keith Brooks Edit: This did not get posted Friday and I just realized, sorry.
Funny thing how you get into a discussion about technology and suddenly someone's spine goes straighter and they become indignant and refuse to believe there is another perspective or technology that could be used instead of The One. Religious fanatics on all sides of the spectrum.
In this week's Parhsa, Bo, God hardens Pharoah's heart numerous times. 10:1, 10:20 in addition to many times in the prior week it's always the [read] Keywords: blogger
272
God's Marketing Plan
Fri, Jan 20th 2012 11:01a Keith Brooks So what business lesson can we learn from this week's Parsha or section which is read this week? Veira starts the process of Moshe (Moses) being told to take the children of Yaakov (Jacob) that had become a huge nation of slaves, estimated at over 2.5 million people, back to the land of Israel and freedom. And Moshe and Aaron his brother start a sales process that would last through next weeks reading as well.
Everyone knows about the 10 plagues but did you ever stop to think about what a gr [read] Keywords: administration
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Thoughts on the IBMConnect Conference
Fri, Jan 20th 2012 10:01a Keith Brooks I didn't see much posted aside from the obvious people in the social areas, probably because many were focused on client needs, as was I, but I did manage to get to some IBMConnect sessions.
I had looked forward to them and got to meet some great speakers and people. Unfortunately the rooms were not filled and in some cases rather sparse which leaves some questions as to its return next year.
Dr. Burns should come back next year and provide updates on what they have done in 2012. His stor [read] Keywords: ibm
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On Becoming and Training Troubleshooters
Wed, Jan 18th 2012 8:21a Keith Brooks To many of us at Lotusphere, solving problems is what we do.
Having always enjoyed taking things apart and putting them back together again or fixing them is part of an innate curiosity that many of us share. The ability to learn from each other and share the information we find so the next person can benefit is part of the Lotus way.
What about the next generation of techies or Business Partners? Do they have this ability? Has Google made it too easy for people? What about your kids? Do [read] Keywords: ibm
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Uploading Files to Quickr from a Mac Notes Client
Wed, Jan 18th 2012 6:00a Keith Brooks This post comes from a discussion I had with someone around a lack of MAC Quickr connectors.
Mac Guidera has responsibility for the Connectors and last year at Lotusphere the question was asked about MAC connectors among others. The answer is we don't have any as far as I know.
SNAPPS has a product called Panda Bear which helps this problem. But what if you wanted something inside your MAC Notes client?
After the excellent session today by Mat Newman the idea came to me and while it m [read] Keywords: connections
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HUGE Thank You to the Developers Lab
Tue, Jan 17th 2012 7:31a Keith Brooks Rarely have I leveraged the Developers lab, mostly because I am not a developer.
This year, client issues in tow, I spent about 3 hours with the TDI/Connections team of Joseph and Jackie that gave a great Jump Start on Sunday around TDI.
While I still have an open PMR, possibly, we resolved, and I learned, quite a bit from these two people and this is my token form of thanks for all their help.
Collaboration comes in many forms, but you first have to be open to working with others and k [read] Keywords: collaboration
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Rachel Happe's Session at IBM Connect
Tue, Jan 17th 2012 5:30a Keith Brooks Admittedly I have not got to too many sessions Monday, client needs take precedent.But one session which I wanted to be at, I missed, Guy Kawasaki's. The other which i made was Rachel Happe's.
In her session she discussed people as an asset. Communities as a benefit and in some way an ROI for those who seek it out for "getting social".
As an Accountant by degree, it was interesting to pose the question, why are employees a liability? They are not listed as an asset on the financial pa [read] Keywords: connections
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I Will be Signing Quickr Books after the OGS
Mon, Jan 16th 2012 5:51a Keith Brooks Anyone who wants to pick up the Quikr Admin book I co-wrote and have it signed by at least 2 of the authors come down to the IBM Book Store.
Or if just want to say hi, chat about writing a book or whatever you want, I will be there after the OGS from 10-10:30 this morning.
See you there. [read] Keywords: admin
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Oh The People you See at Lotusphere and the Help They Provide
Sun, Jan 15th 2012 1:50p Keith Brooks Sunday, Business Partner Day and also Jump Starts going on. Saw the usual cast of characters plus IBMers. The great thing about the show is walking around you run into people like Luis Suarez who get Social very well. Louis Richardson does too but he was busy at the time I passed him.
When you are trying to figure out a way to help clients, no better way to do so than to talk to others in the space and ask for help.
During BP day we, the partners, were asked to do more. Stop being IT shops [read] Keywords: connections
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And There Rose a New King
Fri, Jan 13th 2012 7:30a Keith Brooks It is said that the Torah or Bible could be interpreted in over 70 ways. More likely these days 100's of ways. In light of this idea, I want to start some posts that bring a business sense to what we can learn on a weekly basis.
So what business lesson can we learn from this week's Parsha or section which is read this week?
Chapter 1, verse 8 says "And there rose a New King (Pharoah) for Egypt that did not know Joseph".
Many times in business we face this situation, sometimes at a [read] Keywords: notes
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TDI Troubleshooting Access Rights
Tue, Jan 10th 2012 7:10a Keith Brooks Been working on a TDI project for the last few weeks and it looked to be almost done, then everything stopped working.
So, what to do? Asked around but did not find any great answers, just vague ideas or theories but nothing to point at and go AHA! So I did what I advocate and called in a PMR to IBM when nothing or no one else could help efficiently. Seems everyone is busy trying to finish work before Lotusphere.
Brian H. from support was helpful in pointing me in the right direction altho [read] Keywords: ibm
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Null Users? But They Are Real People but not in TDI
Wed, Jan 4th 2012 6:50a Keith Brooks Happy New Year!
So what's wrong with TDI? (This affects 6.0 and 7.0 so far which is the versions running) It seems there is an ominous line that states:
"The population wizard populates only those entries where the value for surname is not null."And this can be found in 2.5 and 3.0 IBM Lotus Connections documentation and wikis here, here and here.
That's fine but what do you do for the Null family? Poor James, Sara, Amy, Fred, John Boy, Scarlett and whomever else with Null as a las [read] Keywords: connections
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Sad Day for Girl Scout Cookie LS Fans
Tue, Jan 3rd 2012 3:20p Keith Brooks Sad to report that Girl Scout cookies will not be available at Lotusphere this year.
The sales dates for the State of Florida do not allow sales until after the conference.
Although I tried to get pre orders and allowances they will not be delivered in time to make the trek.
Should this change I will let you know. As a number of people have been asking, I had been waiting for an answer and sadly it is not to be.
Perhaps if Lotusphere 2013 or rather Connect 2013, as it may be called, [read] Keywords: lotusphere
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Teach Yourself New Tricks
Wed, Dec 21st 2011 7:20a Keith Brooks Evidently it is still possible, in this age of instant knowledge, to teach yourself something new.
Remember when you first got into IT or MIS or whatever programming language you started on and the power you felt when you got some OS to run or "hello world" showed up on screen or you got a line of text to blink? What happened to you? Do you still get that excited?
Encouraging the next generation to follow us means we need to remember the good old days and the excitement we felt. Personal [read] Keywords: blogger
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The Admins XPages
Tue, Dec 20th 2011 7:10a Keith Brooks Tim wondered on Greg's blog post why we, that is Admins, do not extol the virtues of XPages in order to promote the long term viability of Domino infrastructures.
It is an interesting question. One which I do not have a good answer. Maybe because in many cases infrastructures get tweaked based on what we find in the wild. We don't build an infrastructure and then ask the developers to build an app for it, we build the infrastructure usually for or after an app is in place or required and tw [read] Keywords: admin
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SnTT- One way to troubleshoot SSO problems in WAS
Tue, Dec 6th 2011 10:10a Keith Brooks This was a Mashup Center server and a Connections SSO integration on Websphere.
Prior to upgrading Connections from 2.5 to 3.0 it worked fine. But some place in the upgrade this, and some other internal items, broke. I was asked to lend a hand at troubleshooting it.
I first asked the Wizard of WAS, Dave Hay if there was anything I should know about Mashup Center as I have never used it. His help in discussing ways to troubleshoot this is greatly appreciated.
For the newbie and even someon [read] Keywords: admin
connections
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mashup
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integration
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Morale DashBoards? Scary or Necessary?
Tue, Nov 29th 2011 2:20p Keith Brooks This caught my attention today on Twitter. Mike Rhodin, past Lotus GM was discussing progression and social business. And it was pointed out that maybe HR needs a morale dashboard. Presumably fed from Blogs, Comments,Twitter, Facebook, Sametime, Yammer, FourSquare and the other personal apps everyone uses on corporate time.
One company, Cubevibe, URL, Twitter, does this already. there are many sites that will track references about you or your company across the Interverse but a Dashboard? In [read] Keywords: lotus
sametime
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How Do You Maintain That Family Feeling When You Are 500 People?
Tue, Nov 29th 2011 7:00a Keith Brooks As your organization has grown, are you more like the UN than a family? Alliances being created and alternative budgets for country specific items or regional events?
When you were smaller, everyone could gather once maybe twice a year and spend some quality time together. Maybe it was technical, maybe it was fun, maybe it was brain storming, but you did it and everyone liked being one big family.
Now you are too big. The tipping point could have been at 100 people or 1,000 but there is th [read] Keywords: sametime
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Updates Gotchas
Thu, Nov 24th 2011 8:00p Keith Brooks Holiday weekends are always great times to do server upgrades and mail migrations.
Funny thing is all types of things can go wrong. Well here are some pieces for you all, just in case.
Most of this was found when doing a Domino upgrade from 8.5.2 to 8.5.3. Also a Sametime upgrade from 8.0.1 to 8.5.2IF1 and Traveler from 8.5.2.X to 8.5.3.1.
Always backup everything first.
First thing to remember is to stop Domino from restarting automatically on reboot. Installing 8.5.3 will force yo [read] Keywords: domino
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ntf
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When the Admin becomes the User
Wed, Nov 16th 2011 1:10p Keith Brooks Many of us are in management of IT or admins of some system. It's a great thing, to be lord over your manor so to speak. Just be benevolent. But what are you like when you become one of the users and not the manager?
While sub contracting some work I find myself with these amusing ideas:
Why am I unable to even edit my phone details in my NAB/Directory?
Why MUST (policy set) I use single sign-on to my Windows Domain? What if I never set foot in the home office of the Client? (I got aroun [read] Keywords: admin
policies
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archiving
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DomDoc Manager Compared to Quickr
Tue, Nov 15th 2011 11:50a Keith Brooks Good wiki article from IBM comparing Domino Document Manager (domdoc, dom.doc, domino.doc) with Quickr.
Tao YT Yan, the author, is a Software Engineer based at IBM's China Development Lab in Beijing, where he works on the Lotus Quickr for Domino product and is responsible for DDM customer support.
Really good for those still wondering what to do as support ends in 2012 for the Doc product.
We are still helping customers move their data if you need help.
Article is here: Comparing the [read] Keywords: document manager
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domino.doc
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84
Are You Smarter Than Your Phone? Or your Kids?
Fri, Nov 11th 2011 7:01a Keith Brooks Your smartphone is probably infinitely smarter than you.
Not to worry, you got it on the longevity scale, but still, do you feel insignificant or like you are in remedial life?
There are sites to show you how to do so many things, do you ever use them? Do you even look for them?
Do you understand in any way shape or form how email works? SMS(texting for you non-techies)? Web Sites? Your Phone Apps? For that matter, your phone?
Do you care? Should you care? Does it matter?
What if [read] Keywords: ibm
blogger
desktop
email
laptop
server
66
Eat Your Own Dog Food
Thu, Nov 10th 2011 9:20a Keith Brooks What do these mean to you?
Loyalty, Branding, Community, Advertising, Self-Promotion?
If you spend so much time getting your name, or your companies, out in the world, online or in print or wherever, don't you think you should also use your own tools to do that job?
Sure an auto company does not sell financial software packages but they do employ many designers and graphic artists....yet do these same people create their advertisements? They could and maybe should. Leave the wording to m [read] Keywords: connections
blogger
community
49
Shalom Rav Benny
Fri, Nov 4th 2011 1:10p Keith Brooks Very sad to hear that one of my Rabbi's from Israel passed away.
Rav Benny Eisner ז"ל, who lived on campus at BMT, well in my year of 85-86, was like the campus father. I never took his classes, but he would give classes on specific subjects and would sit and learn with us while we used to sit on the roof top doing what teenagers do when they are hanging out.
He would always have students over and his family was ours. His kids were everywhere and if you had something on your mind he wa [read] Keywords: blogger
33
Stop Using the F, S and C words to Explain Connections
Tue, Oct 18th 2011 8:10a Keith Brooks It's another one of those things which came up a few times in conversation and while you may disagree with me on this it seemed to strike a chord with people.
C is for Cookie Collaboration and be really sure you know what you are doing before you use this word. Why? Because when an IBM or Lotus shop hears this word, they think about Lotus Notes and Domino first. Microsoft shops think about Sharepoint but that's another story. Talk about sharing and security, files and finding, profiles(not [read] Keywords: collaboration
connections
domino
ibm
lotus
notes
blogger
facebook
linkedin
microsoft
security
sharepoint
61
The Parallel Life of Notes/Domino and Connections
Tue, Oct 18th 2011 7:10a Keith Brooks In response to a few people today, this theme kept coming up.
I expect others to add to this list and some to detract from it, but it's a basic view of a situation which if you have been on the fence lately, still, this may help you.
If one views IBM Connections in parallel to IBM Lotus Notes and Domino you see these parallels:
Both:
have picked up some steam with the advent of release 3.x
are a platform to run your business, or some aspects of it
provide for messaging integration in [read] Keywords: collaboration
connections
domino
ibm
lotus
notes
R4
blogger
email
integration
twitter
widgets
195
0199 Error Resolved for Thinkpads
Wed, Oct 12th 2011 10:31a Keith Brooks This is a hardware post. We don't sell much hardware, in fact we are only Lenovo dealers because of laptops and a rare server.
But I have been working on thinkpad's since 1993/1994 when i used to manage upper memory blocks so we coudl get other apps to run. In any event, the older people know what I reference and why it was important then.
Anyway so over the course of about 2 weeks we had 3 laptops and obne desktop all go bad. In 2 cases a hard drive replacement was needed, one a blown p [read] Keywords: administration
notes
blogger
desktop
laptop
password
security
server
104
SnTT - Flags or Follow-ups now highlighted in Notes Client
Tue, Oct 11th 2011 7:10a Keith Brooks Flags as I call them. But for my fellow Admins out there that don't do development here is a simple nice thing to do for clients. Mat's post last night reminded me of this.
Some people want to see the flagged items in a more obvious way, say color code the memo in the inbox view so you can see what is due when and by priority.
Thanks you to my friend Natallya of RPR Wyatt(a partner of ours) for helping me solve the problems i had with it. Any other developers out there who wish to point [read] Keywords: agent
domino
lotus
notes
notes client
sntt
application
blogger
development
email
properties
server
71
Windows7 Icon Quirks for 8.5.3
Mon, Oct 10th 2011 7:20a Keith Brooks I asked this on Twitter last week, no one had an answer for this odd event.
When I run Notes, full client meaning Standard and Designer and Admin are installed as well, on a Windows7 machine I see the Designer icon in the task bar below. One time it showed the Admin icon.
Is this some odd reference in code? Makes no difference to me or functionality just funny to see it there. [read] Keywords: admin
notes
blogger
twitter
83
8.5.3 Machine Specific Policy...Not in the Docs
Thu, Oct 6th 2011 9:50a Keith Brooks This has been asked for by many and kudos to IBM for getting it done.
What is Machine-specific policy settings and what does it mean?
This IBM Technote #1501673 explains it and is THE ONLY place for the information right now.
In prior versions of the Notes Client, and policy control, an administrator could target an individual, but not a specific machine configuration for that individual. For certain settings and customers, this made the enforcement of specific settings problematic, ei [read] Keywords: ibm
lotus
notes
notes client
blogger
desktop
laptop
server
twitter
65
CIO.com article about Nationwide and Connections
Wed, Oct 5th 2011 10:20a Keith Brooks This article appears in the October 1, 2011 issue. You may need to register to read the full article on line.
What should be of interest is this quote from the CIO of Nationwide:
IBM’s integration “was ahead of most other companies’ in terms of vision,” says Mark Gaetano, CIO for enterprise applications at Nationwide. This for years was Lotus strength, being ahead of the world, IBM also has many initiatives that are ahead of the curve and nice to see it recognized.
Mark Gaetano c [read] Keywords: admin
connections
ibm
lotus
policies
applications
blogger
enterprise
integration
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56
SnTW - $Inbox, Don't mess with it
Wed, Oct 5th 2011 8:10a Keith Brooks This is NOT a problem with 8.5.3, just about one mistake I made while upgrading, but it is about the $inbox folder itself.
While trying to edit my mail template, I ended up piecing wrong versions of code into it from an older version. In other words, I copied the $inbox to the new 8.5.3 template. Well, there's just one thing you see, I thought it was the template I pasted it to. It was my actual mail file. But I deleted teh original ($inbox) so the "new" one could go there.
Big mistake. [read] Keywords: ibm
notes
blogger
desktop
server
97
Some Notes and Domino 8.5.3 Benefits You May Not Know
Tue, Oct 4th 2011 3:50p Keith Brooks In no specific order of importance here are some things I found on 8.5.3 Notes, Domino and Traveler.
Traveler must be searched separately from Notes and Domino if you are downloading it from IBM's websites. Wish they had it all together.
The Admin Client, at least for me, is REALLY fast now. (Just my view, your mileage may vary)
Designer client, is now really slow, it is always waiting for something to close. Must know I'm an Admin. (Just my view, your mileage may vary)
Notes client gets [read] Keywords: admin
connections
domino
ibm
lotus
notes
notes client
sametime
traveler
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70
FUD Buster Friday #70: Time To Go
Fri, Sep 30th 2011 7:40a Keith Brooks Have decided after last week's event that I want to suspend these again. This is the problem with inspiration, it comes and goes. When I renewed writing these posts, I had a bunch of ideas to get out and I did. But when I reach a point that my mind is short on ideas I don't want to force a post.
There may be more down the road and maybe not just on Friday as posts and articles come up at different times. My passion still is competitive situations and helping promote better awareness from w [read] Keywords: blogger
57
Happy New Year
Wed, Sep 28th 2011 8:10a Keith Brooks The Jewish calendar says it's that time again. The start of another year, the 5782nd year starts tonight at sundown and runs till Friday night which would end at that point but because Friday night starts Shabbat, we get 3 days of holiday time. No e-readers or internet, just paper and print.
We then get 2 more 3 day holidays this year in 2 weeks when the holiday of Sukkot starts and ends 8 days later.
Those of our clients who have problems during this time know I am unavailable but our h [read] Keywords: blogger
FUD Buster Friday #69: Is Confusion, Anxiety and Denial (CAD) the same as FUD
Fri, Sep 23rd 2011 7:20a Keith Brooks At the Entrepreneur Magazine conference, titled Winning Strategies, this week in Miami Beach it was obvious no one wanted to use the term FUD. It must be because tech people use it way too often I guess.
But maybe it's because FUD by itself is an acronym and although it's hard to live in IT without acronyms, similar to the medical field, the average marketer and entrepreneur just doesn't speak that way.
They have their own TLAs (Three Letter Acronyms) but really they don't deal with I [read] Keywords: ibm
lotus
notes
blogger
google
microsoft
web 2.0
64
Should you be Gaming your Learning?
Wed, Sep 21st 2011 8:50a Keith Brooks I am at Entrepreneur magazine's Winning Strategies conference on Miami Beach today. The morning keynote was Gabe Zichermann and he discussed Gamification for those that have not heard of him.
While I personally do not "get" Farmville or the Angry Birds desires, I do like better business ideas and theories.
Taking Gabe's session to real life, how can you gamify the training systems your company uses today?
Usually companies ask employees to watch a video, use online courses, use e-le [read] Keywords: blogger
100
Fud Buster Friday #68: That "Product" is Dead
Fri, Sep 16th 2011 7:30a Keith Brooks Stick any name you want, any product, any solution, to that title above, it makes no difference to me and should not to you either if you are in sales of any sort or responsible for a product of any sort.
Why doesn't it matter? Because how you reply to this question is the key.
Many answers exist how to counter this, but here are some basics to remember.
1) Discuss with the naysayer the future road map or plans/designs or just about anything available. It is hard to continue to claim t [read] Keywords: blogger
podcast
106
Hilton and Hampton Inn Get Social
Tue, Sep 13th 2011 7:50a Keith Brooks While I have been on site at a client the last few weeks, I previously wrote about the comparison of the 2 hotels I have stayed at. This week, I am finishing at the client and had a Social Business interaction.
While watching the Dolphins watch the Brady show, I tweeted that the Air Conditioner is so loud I can't hear the TV, even at full sound. A slight exaggeration, but I seriously have to crank the volume WAY up when the A?C kicked in.
Within a few minutes HamtopFYI had responded, aske [read] Keywords: blogger
twitter
78
Fud Buster Friday #67: Social Media Should be Outsourced
Fri, Sep 9th 2011 7:50a Keith Brooks In conversation with friends last night we discussed the idea that using or creating something within the social media era is not for everyone.
Many companies hire out their social media efforts...why?
Is it really so difficult to type 140 characters? Sculpt a blog post? Send a missive to Facebook? No, of course not. But, what if your employees are not good at it? What if they don't use these things? Or what if they say the wrong thing the wrong way?
In steps the Social Media guru peop [read] Keywords: connections
ibm
quickr
blogger
blogging
facebook
office
Choices Made
Wed, Sep 7th 2011 7:40a Keith Brooks While spending my 2nd week on site at a client interesting parallels have emerged between my last two hotels and how IT works.
Let me explain.
I have to abide by certain guidelines of the clients to book my travel. Not a problem, they don't want one to be in a dump but they do want their value. In both cases the hotels offer a free continental breakfast. Mostly equal which is fine. One thing which is interesting is the juice and coffee available. In both cases, coffee is available 24x7. H [read] Keywords: blogger
68
Fud Buster Friday #66: Telemarketing works?
Fri, Sep 2nd 2011 7:50a Keith Brooks I should save this for Friday but too annoyed to let it sit.
If you do webinars, write white papers, provide some type of positioning document or think you have something important that I must read/watch/listen, think again.
If your emailing about it, fine, it either gets blocked by spam filters (I hope), auto tagged using a mail rule for the word webinar to Trash(not a good idea but I know some people that do this), or maybe gets to my inbox. Here's a hint, if I see the word webinar in t [read] Keywords: ibm
blogger
database
email
facebook
google
linkedin
twitter
83
Less IBM Moments?!
Wed, Aug 31st 2011 11:50a Keith Brooks There was a posting that came out titled We need more Apple/Google/Amazon moments, less IBM moments from Vinnie Mirchandani.
The post is interesting in his view of HP and IBM among others. He starts well:
HP’s many announcements in the past weeks led observers to say this was its “IBM” inflexion point – deemphasize consumer tech, get more into enterprise tech.And you think it will be a nice post for IBM. But it soon turns into "The funny thing is I see in different ways IBM longing [read] Keywords: collaboration
connections
domino
ibm
lotus
lotusphere
notes
apple
applications
blogger
enterprise
google
iphone
ipod
microsoft
68
Fud Buster Friday #65: Name Changing Works
Fri, Aug 26th 2011 8:00a Keith Brooks So many companies tout their collaboration and social business solutions as though they are unique. Naturally they never bring up the path that led them to be this way.
And why not? Do you discuss every teacher, class, game or boss that shaped you? Yet, do you go around saying you are better than your teachers or mentors?
But that is not how business works. Business works on bludgeoning the competition or ignoring it entirely. Stay focused on your product, your goals, the competition? Who [read] Keywords: collaboration
ibm
apple
blogger
integration
web 2.0
84
2,670 Attempts in 11 minutes
Thu, Aug 25th 2011 9:10a Keith Brooks Hackers still trying to break in using LDAP on one of our web facing Domino Servers.
If you do not use DDM on your public side servers, you may be missing hackers attempts.
This was from 2:30 am EST to 2:41am EST an average of 243 attempts per minute or 4 a second.
My phone was not happy for a little while as DDM sends me alarms for security failed login attempts.
Maybe there should be a LDAP attempt block lockout, like user logins get blocked if they fail to login properlyh after x [read] Keywords: domino
blogger
ideajam
ideajam.net
profile
security
58
Quickr 8.5 for Websphere Portal Cluster Install doc
Fri, Aug 19th 2011 10:34a Keith Brooks I have been on site all week at a client that was a little out of my depth. Sure Quickr is one thing, clustered Websphere Network Deployment (WAS ND for those in the know) with Network Deployment Manager on top of it is another story.
Most of our clients run Quickr Domino or J2EE usually in a stand alone situation.
How hard could it be to cluster it and get it all together? Right?
Let me just say building servers or clusters in a group is not easy, especially when I have no access to th [read] Keywords: collaboration
domino
ibm
lotus
quickr
blogger
network
server
websphere
websphere portal
Fud Buster Friday #63: Diet Coke is good for you
Fri, Aug 12th 2011 7:23a Keith Brooks I love this one. It just amuses me to no end.
There are people out there who really believe drinking Diet Coke is better for them, in some way, than drinking regular coke.
Got news for you all, drink water, and no matter how much you pay for it, tap water, in most civilized countries is perfectly fine for you.
Do you really think drinking a 2 liter bottle of this stuff a day or 3-4 cans is good for you? Drinking it instead of regular Coke will save your waist line?
Now what is this r [read] Keywords: blogger
65
Fud Buster Friday #62: What if They are Right?
Fri, Aug 5th 2011 7:26a Keith Brooks The ever popular, They, do everything. They go on vacation, They went out last night, They are on Twitter or Google+.
But when it comes down to knowing what is good for your company, what do They really know?
Do They understand the multinational language issues? Or do They really support every mobile device as they claim...even the ones not available in the US?
What about when the sales people come in to let you know all about how Others(a euphemism for They) have taken up with the ne [read] Keywords: blogger
google
mobile
twitter
wiki
76
Mac Quirk in Notes Clients?
Wed, Aug 3rd 2011 11:33a Keith Brooks At a client site that has not been updated to 852fp3 yet from fp2, one person using a Mac started having problems sending emails to everyone. Almost everyone is on 852fp2 clients, some home users may not be although SmartUpgrade is running.
We started seeing Word docs attached with the odd extension of .doc.hqx.
When I asked around got some funny answers but yes this is an up to date Mac user and Notes clients and server. We still have no idea what changed, or when, but here are some thi [read] Keywords: domino
ibm
ldd
lotus
notes
smartupgrade
blogger
mac
macintosh
office
server
51
A Tale of 2 Companies Social Media
Mon, Aug 1st 2011 11:46a Keith Brooks Both companies are large multinational entities, one is larger than the other but after a few 100 million what's a the difference right?
Corp A recognizes they have a left hand doesn't talk to the right hand mentality and is doing something about it.
Corp B may recognize it but does little about it.
So when Corp A has sales people or support people drop the ball and someone posts about it on Facebook or Twitter or their blog or in Google + or as a comment on someone else's postings, t [read] Keywords: notes
blogger
facebook
google
twitter
Helping a client get into Computerworld
Fri, Jul 29th 2011 7:33a Keith Brooks It was a great surprise to see and read about Flexcon in Computerworld.
Saw the post from Ed this morning.
This is an example of how social media, client relationships, marketing and time can help anyone get their message out.
It is not always about IBM or Lotus but we work with various press people to get the word out either about our company and offerrings or about our clients and in some cases like this, get our client some great press as well.
At least 3 others in the Yellow Bubb [read] Keywords: ibm
lotus
blogger
planetlotus
planetlotus.org
68
Fud Buster Friday #61: Cheap, Cheap, Fail
Fri, Jul 29th 2011 7:24a Keith Brooks There are times when you can get by on the cheap, but there are many more times where doing so will cost you much, much more in the end.
Let's say you need to get some new laptops or desktops. Naturally you have a myriad of choices and not just Dell, HP, Apple or Lenovo. Operating systems, sizes, processors, disk space and so much more. But you decided that the most you can spend per employee is $500.
What will you get? Can you get something useful? Maybe if they already have a laptop wit [read] Keywords: apple
blogger
laptop
network
wireless
71
My Comments on Bills Post
Fri, Jul 29th 2011 12:23a Keith Brooks Bill, Well written and thought out.
As pointed out, Domino is not the leader of the pack and no amount of marketing will change that now, although an abrupt closing of Microsoft would help.
I get slammed by Exchange and Sharepoint ads daily, in every magazine, newspaper and online and in emails. I also see a lot of Smarter Planet ads.
But will IBM keep with this campaign?
If history is correct, it takes at least 3-5 years before people realize what IBM and Lotus try to do. Look at KM a [read] Keywords: collaboration
connections
domino
ibm
lotus
blogger
exchange
exchange
ipod
microsoft
sharepoint
websphere
70
A Tale of 2 Mail Servers Threading
Wed, Jul 27th 2011 8:14a Keith Brooks This little server is an old Dell rack server, about 4 years old maybe and runs Windows Server 2003 and is up to date on all patches and fixes for the NOS and the Mail application.
The other is brand new (under a year) and runs Windows Server 2010, because it had to, and is supposed to be up to date as well.
The Old server is a happy go lucky type of server, runs mail, instant messaging and push email/mobile solutions in addition to a handful of applications for 6 domains.
The New serve [read] Keywords: domino
application
applications
blogger
email
exchange
exchange
instant messaging
mobile
security
server
smtp
100
Let Me Count the Ways in Lotus 1-2-3
Wed, Jul 27th 2011 7:23a Keith Brooks Those of you who follow me on Twitter know I have been frustrated about my working on a Lotus 1-2-3 SmartSuite Millenium Edition Version 9.0 Fix Pack 6.1 spreadsheet with 3.5 MILLION cells..
This is Windows 7 compatible.
SmartSuite is my backup suite, IBM Lotus Symphony has been my primary for almost 3 years.
Evidently it does not like it went I run Google+, causes problems. But other than that is fine.
One thing you may want to get when working on 1-2-3 is a program to enable mouse scroll [read] Keywords: ibm
lotus
symphony
blogger
google
properties
twitter
90
BackupExec Logs Using Too Much Space? Poor Domino
Fri, Jul 22nd 2011 10:04a Keith Brooks This is for a friend but an excellent reminder to everyone else.
If you happen to notice your C drive rapidly losing disk space even though nothing is there, no temp files, no swap files, etc.., this may be your problem.
When you installed Symantec's BackupExec, did you install it to the C drive?
And if this was an older server, did C not have too many Gigabytes, like say 25?
Well slowly over time you may experience disk space evaporation. Not as nice as the Angel's Share of Scotch W [read] Keywords: domino
blogger
database
server
wiki
121
Fud Buster Friday #60: Sharepoint is the Future
Fri, Jul 22nd 2011 8:53a Keith Brooks I love this graphic, no idea if it really was used but thanks to Sharepoint magazine for sharing it.
In a blog post, A Guide to Leaving Lotus Notes and Moving to Microsoft SharePoint, by Andrew Vevers which was a finalist entry for the Aspiring Authors Competition 2011 according to the post, we see a classic case of ignoring the obvious.
What is the focus really about here? Is it to gain Mr. Vevers new clients? Is it to be used as a sales tool to persuade companies to move off Lotus Domino [read] Keywords: domino
ibm
lotus
notes
R5
R6
R7
xpages application
applications
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microsoft
mobile
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67
Updating Symphony to 3.0 FP3 , Look for This
Thu, Jul 21st 2011 11:03a Keith Brooks I already updated my Notes client to 852 FP3 and maybe that is what this is letting me know.
Except I purposely install Symphony separate from Notes.
So imagine my surprise when I go to update it and get this warning:
And as usual, Symphony will not install for me anyway. Just been one of those days. [read] Keywords: lotus
notes
notes client
symphony
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