Recently in Technology Category

I know this is a month old, but I've been thinking about it a lot over the last couple of weeks for some reason.

On 10 June, Sean Dennehy gave a briefing at the Enterprise 2.0 conference about Intelink and how the DNI is providing tools to the US Intelligence Community and the US government in general to break down the barriers to communication and collaboration.

As part of the brief, Mr. Denehy brought up a recently declassified doc from OSS titled, "Simple Sabotage Field Manual" to help WWII occupied Europeans grind their organizations to a halt to reduce their contribution to the Axis' bottom line. Some of the highlights are:

• Insist on doing everything through "channels". Never permit shortcuts that would expedite decisions.
• When possible, refer all matters to committees, for "further study and consideration.
• Haggle over precise wordings of communications.
• Advocate "caution." Be "reasonable" and urge your fellow-conferees to be "reasonable" and avoid haste which might result in embarrassments.
• Question whether a decision lies within the jurisdiction of the group or whether it might conflict with the policy of some higher echelon.

I bet we all work with people that are like this. How many of us work in organizations where the above is standard operating procedure for the whole organization? I bet there's more than a couple people even in the small number of people that read my lil blog.

There are a lot of good, smart people at great organizations that really get this Enterprise 2.0 stuff. There are also a lot of organizations full of good smart people that totally don't get it and I don't think they even realize it.

I don't have any real data to back this up or anything but when I talk with friends and family about work issues, it seems to me that in a lot of ways things are getting worse instead of better. Happy success stories of technology enabled collaboration seem to be few and far between.

I'm going to try to be more conscious of this and make more of an effort to go out of my way to help people break through barriers to openness and sharing where I can. Will you? Maybe we can make a difference...

Update: Corrected the timing of the E2,0 conference. It was on 10 June. I meant to post June but somehow it came out as January. Commenter John Lierdal pointed this out to me.

(yes, it's been a while. I've been Twitting. It takes a lot less work than blogging because writing is hard sometimes)

So Apple has finally released the inexpensive iPhone. Entry level is $200 which is more in line with a normal modern phone than the original iPhone was. With 3G to boot. Slick. Will be interesting to see how hard it is to get one. My phone's 3 years old and I've been month-to-month with T-Mobile for years so I'm probably going to get one once the rush is over.

So, what remains to be seen between now and July is what will T-Mobile to do try to keep me as a customer? Is my $45/month bill worth it to them to do something interesting? Will see...

We were at UMCP Friday to see my sister's Masters graduation and she took us into one of the Engineering buildings she worked with. Tucked away in a corner of the room, there's a sandbox with robot rovers in it.
I think I just found the set they used to fake the moon landing. I hope the Illuminati doesn't track me down now.

In January, Chris Whisonant did a blog post called "Do guitar players really play Guitar Hero?" Most of the guitar players answered "no" in the comments. I play Guitar Hero and I play guitar, but I suck at guitar, so I don't think my opinion counts on that yet. I did find video on Youtube of a genuine guitar player playing Guitar Hero...

These are becoming interesting times for music in general and for a Nine Inch Nails fan in particular.

Last month, Ghosts I-IV was released online with no warning. My copy of the CD version arrived last week.

Then the other day, the main NIN site updated again with another "2 weeks" post...like the one that went up two weeks before Ghosts dropped.

Yesterday, the single "Discipline" drops in all its disco industrial pop yumminess with a free download. The Comments field in the MP3 says, "Go to www.nin.com May 5." A new album or EP maybe? Rock! I like the new clean, sober and beefy Trent.

The multi-track remixable download is out for download too.

Would it be snarky for me to post a remix that just clips the vocal false start at the beginning of the song?

I little while back, i am jen posted a new idea on her website. She offered up custom hand made CDs for sale. You pick the tracks and the title, she creates unique artwork to go with it.

I have a thing for signed stuff, not so much as a collector, but more for the experience of connection and closeness to the artists whose music I love. So of course I had to jump on this. I agonized about the playlist and title for a long time but got there eventually, and here's the result:

I'm really jazzed. It's a one of a kind piece of artwork to go with a custom mix and a cool way to connect with an artist. I love it and I'm glad I did it. Jen posted a video on Youtube called "Each one is Unique." You can see mine here and there in the video, especially around 00:32.

In the Domino blogging community people have been putting up posts about how and when they got into working with Lotus Notes and Domino software. I wasn't going to post anything because my story's pretty mundane. I will follow up with a "How I got out of working with Notes" posting later..

In 1998, I started with a biotech services company in a mid-level systems administration role. Up to that point, my experience was mostly in call-center and desktop support with some server administration too. When I started with this new job, I was doing desktop support but also spent part of my time doing administration. The way our department handled coverage was that everyone had a primary and secondary area of responsibility and we all overlapped. I was strong in Netware and Exchange, so I was primary for those systems. They needed someone to back up the primary Notes administrator so they told me I was going to do Notes. We had 6 or so servers with a bunch of Notes client-based applications that supported a lot of the work that our company did.

The more I worked with Domino the more I was impressed with how the server platform seemed to be able to do whatever odd thing we wanted to do with it. I'll never forget one thing we did there. Since it's a biotech company, we dealt with a lot of sensitive medical and customer business information. We wanted to replicate selected information back to our customers but didn't want to do it over the internet for security concerns. We set up a dedicated Domino server for replicating to specific customers. We had selection formulas set up so that the replication server had the required information. Then we set up a Dial-up connection to the customer's server and made our replication server replicate through that. So the server would dial out direct and push the data to the customer.

When it was time for me to leave the biotech company in 2000, I decided I wanted to make a career out of working with Domino.

My next job was at a dot-com called Eyecast. Their business model was to digitally capture closed-circuit camera feeds, transmit them back to the servers in our data center for archival, and allow for real-time viewing and control of cameras over the web from a browser. Most of the work was being done by Domino servers on an s/390 mainframe. What we were doing there was so far out, I really started to love the Domino platform. It seemed like you could do almost anything...except make money appear out of thin air. Eyecast dissolved in 2001.

Without turning this post into a long-form resume, my next job was my last job as a Domino administrator. It would probably better fit into the post about how I'm not working with Lotus software anymore.

The video edition of Samantha Murphy's SMtv launched last night and I didn't even notice til this morning. Maybe I can save my reputation by pointing out that I heard about it from Samantha Twittering it.

I watched the first episode so far. The featured artists are Jonathan Coulton (I can't get that Portal song out of my head...huge success!) and Jesse Malin who were both previously featured on the SMtv audio podcast.

I was surprised by the format. Samantha has been talking about a video version of SMtv for quite a while now and I was expecting just a video feed of the podcast recordings. Parts of the show include video from previous podcasts, there's a lot more to it. There's an interview with Terry McBride, part of Jesse Malin's performance at IOTA, and Mike Schmid fawning over Johnathan Coulton (I would too, probably so it's OK) and a couple other surprises.

It's definitely worth a look. I enjoyed it quite a bit. It's not in the podcast feed yet so you'll have to go direct from the website for now. I'm going to try to get through episode 2 before I head out to work.

Link: The Samantha Murphy Show

I have ben thinking of what to write about Ideajam since it came out this week. When I started thinking, I figured it would be easy, but it turned out to not be as easy as I hoped.

The idea behind IdeaJam is simple enough...it gives members of the Domino community to post ideas for projects, changes, improvements, etc and allows other community members to comment upon and promote or demote the idea.

With a bunch of smart, active users, IdeaJam could be really fertile ground which could grow great projects at IBM, various business partners and would-be open-source developers. From where I sit, it's a great way for the community to give feedback on what they want in a more direct way than normal.

For me, personally, it's a way to keep connected to the Domino community now that I don't work with Lotus software in my new job. I've been thinking of ways to contribute to the community over the last couple of weeks. I haven't had any great ideas on my own yet, but participating in IdeaJam is at least a small contribution in the mean time.

I hope IBM and the Business Partner community see it as the opportunity that it is.

I'm also really curious to see how the IdeaJam framework works outside of the Domino community when Elguji puts it out as a product. While I think it's a great idea, I'm wondering how big a population it takes in a corporate setting to reach critical mass for it to drive itself.

Manager Tools' latest podcast, "Getting Laid Off - Finances Rule" is a great illustration of why I listen every week.

This week's episode cuts through the BS straight to the core of the issue in Mike and Mark's typical direct style: Whether you get laid off or terminated, the state of your finances are what determine how well you are able to handle the situation.

Most folks reaction is focusing on the job hunt and totally miss the fact that if their finances are in order, and have a an emergency fund that they can live on while they search, they can afford to take the time and make better choices in resolving the situation.

In early 2001, the tech bubble was collapsing and I went through a layoff situation. One company I was in was collapsing, so I got laid off, but I quickly landed another job and thought I was set. Then I got laid off from that job a couple weeks later and spent the next few weeks without a job. I didn't have my finances together then and we suffered through that time. By the time I was able to land my next job, I was desperate and glad to drive 40 miles each way to get a paycheck.

If I was in a better financial situation at the time, I wouldn't have taken the job. On the flip side though, I spent the next seven years working there. Tomorrow's my last day there, actually, so I guess it wasn't all bad. I learned a lot and grew a lot and got to work with some really great people.

We've been working really hard getting our finances together...taking care of things, building that emergency fund, etc. I got lucky pulling out of my last layoff, but I'm not taking that chance next time.

This episode of Manager Tools comes at a good time. While I'm already working hard on my finances, but it puts financial issues in an atypical context that really hit home for me. Thanks, guys.

Next week will be the last week for me to work at my current employer. I have been working at the same org in the same billet for over six years. I've grown a lot since the summer of 2001. So has the environment I worked in. I'm excited and am looking forward to taking my career to the next level in this new opportunity.

While I'm excited about the future, there is one thing about the new job that makes me a little sad. For the first time in almost 10 years, being a Lotus Domino administrator will not be part of my job.

I really love the community that has come up around Lotus as much as I love the products themselves. There's a lot of passion and enthusiasm for the Lotus suite of products that you don't often see for enterprise software. It's almost like the cult of Mac, but I think they party harder at Lotusphere.

I don't know if I'll get to work with Lotus software in my career. Only time will tell.

In the short term, I'm going to be throwing myself into my new job. Once I get settled, I'll spend time figuring out what I'm going to do about Lotus software in the future. Bruce Elgort, with his work on OpenNTF, Taking Notes and IdeaJAM is loving proof that you can be a part of the community and not work with Lotus software in your day job. While I don't expect that I can make the kind of impact that Bruce has, I may be able to find a way to contribute anyway.

Last year, I posted a blog entry called: The problem with "mobile is that it wants to be more than it is

In it, I complained that the mobile providers are concentrating too much on gadgety, feature-bloated handsets and not enough on basic units that are just a phone and nothing else. Not long after that, I bought a used t610 on ebay. It's small, has bluetooth and the Mac can see it in iSync and that's about it. Lately, it's been blasting noise at me if I'm on a call and the signal starts to fade so I'm looking at possibilities for replacement.

What am I looking at? Helio Ocean, HTC Touch and the TMobile Shadow. You may notice that each of these is quite a bit more than just a phone. One's a custom media/smartphone, the other two are Windows Mobile phones with new clever UI's. They have decent cameras in them, and decent high-speed wireless connectivity. They're also right around $200 which is the only reason I'm considering them at all. If money was no object I would have already gotten a Nokia N95 a long time ago.

Why the change? Price, mostly. I have a hard time with the idea of spending $300+ on what a lot of the 'smart phones' go for but $200 is a lot easier to swallow. Since each of the three that I'm looking at are on different networks, I have to include the provider information in the decision as well (I'm on TMo, so I'll have to fight to get the new subscriber price, Margo's on Sprint and it's coverage is flakey for her, and Helio's poor customer service is the stuff legends are made of)..

The t610 isn't dead yet so I still have time to make a decision. I'm sure I'll post something here when the choice is made. I just wanted to go on the record as saying that, yes, I am a hypocrite before someone notices me fiddling around with a new fancy phone.

It looks like Verizon turned on their DNS Assistance “service” in my area for FiOS customers in the last week or so. When I fat-finger a URL now, it redirects to a Verizon-branded Yahoo search for what I put in as a URL.

They built this into their DNS system. You can opt out, if you wish, but it requires changing your DNS settings on your computer or your router. Below is a link to how to do this. I'll be doing it tomorrow probably.

Verizon Support - Opting out of DNS assistance

Technorati Tags: Blogging, Technology

I love Freezepop and I love Guitar Hero. I love keytars too. Good thing they come together...even if it is a bit odd that a band with no guitar is in a guitar game.

Less Talk More Rokk is one of the bonus tracks on Guitar Hero 2. When I'm just playing around, it's one of my go-to songs behind Jordan. Freezepop just put out a video for it...It's watchable below. Fun stuff.

Freezepop "Less Talk More Rokk"

Also, the new album Future Future Future Perfect is up for pre-order at Newberry Comics

Technorati Tags: Games, GuitarHero, Music

or, How and Why I Switched to the serial cable.

Since we cut over to the Verizon FiOS video service this year, we have been having occasional issues with the Tivo. I have always used the IR sprayer for the Tivo to change channels on the cable boxes but for some reason, the box that we got for FiOS had trouble receiving the channel codes sometimes…especially on 3-digit channels. That caused the Tivo to record a different show that it meant to.

I decided to give the serial cable a try in spite of the fact that a lot of people out there in the world have been saying that Verison’s disabling the serial port on the Motorola QIP 2500-3 that I have.

I plugged in and in a couple minutes the config was changed. The serial port’s definitely working on my unit. Channel changing has been reliable so far. Will be watching it closely for a while. I’m pleased…I never really liked the idea of using the IR sprayer to change channels.

Interestingly, the Wii's Mii characters have a little bit of social netowkring built into them. You can allow them to mingle with other players' Miis on their Wii. I'm not sure how that affects setting up multi-player gaming sessions over the net yet, but it's an interesting idea.

In Wii Sports, apparently other players' Miis show up in the audience to watch. There's a Mii Parade feature that's supposed to show you what Miis are currently mingling on your Wii.

The only problem I have so far is that Nintendo added a request/authorize step that needs to be completed before your Mii can go anywhere and before anyone's Miis can visit you. The procedure seems a little complicated...I'm not going to repeat it here...it in Google.

For anyone reading this with a Wii, my Wii number is: 6517 4737 3499 4541

Technorati Tags: Wii

I have an odd fascination with the supply/demand surrounding the Wii vs the PS3. Sometime since Christmas it's become a habit of mine when I'm in a store that would carry them, I wander over to the electronics department and see how many PS3's are sitting on the shelf (usually several) vs how many Wii's are sitting on the shelf (usually none).

I was in a local Target yesterday afternoon when I made my way to electronics. As I approached, there were some people walking out of there with Wii boxes in-hand. When I got to the Wii aisle, there was a Treget staffer pulling a Wii box out of an otherwise empty box and almost automatically held it out to me. I didn't reach out to grab it right away. "Do you want the last one?" Initially, I said "No thanks" and he put it on the shelf.

I had second thoughts a couple minutes later, went back and bought it.

Setup was easy. I had a little trouble getting it on the wireless network, but it wasn't that big a deal.

It's an interesting little device. The nunchuk has a lot going on with it...a lot smarter than I thought it'd be. It's comfortable to use too. Bundling Wii Sports with it was smart...it's a fun set of games that very easily gets you up to speed on how to use the controllers.

Now I don't have to pay $500 to play Guitar Hero 3. In the mean time I need to find out what the good Wii games are.

Technorati Tags: Gadgets, Technology

We can put a robot on Mars. Why can't we put robots in a mine? We're in the future now and people still die in mine collapses. WTF?

Rescuers Dig for 2 Men After Mine-Wall Collapse - washingtonpost.com

Technorati Tags: Current Events

I'm not going to tag this as "Show and Tell Thursday" but it this post is somewhat inspired by the phrase.

Sometime in 1998 I got my first taste of working with Lotus Notes and Domino. I was the new guy in the IT department of a biotech services company. The development group was doing some final pre-testing before rolling out a new application, and they asked me to check it out as a set of fresh eyes.

It was an unfamiliar application and at the time I had no idea what the intended users were meant to accomplish with it but I was willing to take up the challenge to see if I could break it...and I broke it. I got a repeatable Red Box of Death error and was able to explain exactly what I did to get it. The developers were able to fix the error and were spared an embarrassing post-lanch showstopper. I was launched into a new career as a Domino administrator.

I think I got a spot award from the department which was nice and always appreciated. The developers gave me the Lotus Notes mug pictured below which I thought was a really cool expression of appreciation. They picked this much specifically because of the tagline under the Notes logo:

"...because information has no value until it's shared.

I still frequently use this cup for my morning coffee. I also try to keep the tagline in mind as I go about my days. I think I'm a lot more valuable to the people around me if I share my knowledge rather than horde it.

Technorati Tags: Blogging, Domino, Lotus, Technology

In February, I made a post here asking that someone make an external laptop GPU. It was one of those things that make sense to me...allow part-time gamers like me to add high-power graphics cards to a normal laptop on gaming nights. I wanted to be able to play when I want without having to buy one of the big Alienware and Dell XPS laptops.

ASUS beat me to it by a month. The ASUS XG Station is exactly what I was looking for. An enclosure that houses a GPU and connects to the laptop via the Express Card slot.

Sweet. It's an interesting solution, since it doesn't require a custom connector to be built into the laptop. I wouldn't be able to use it with any new Mac laptop that I might have in the future. I might be able to pull off pairing it with a relatively cheap laptop.

It's a lot easier than lugging around a desktop and a 20" CRT. Blah.

via Engadget - Asustek's XG Station ripped apart

Technorati Tags: Blogging, Technology

I have a free idea for Dell or Gateway or Alienware or Falcon or whoever wants to run with it. It would be nice to see my name engraved on the chipset if it gets to market but I understand if it doesn't. I'd still like to see it happen.

I want to see an external PCI-X (or similar) connector on a laptop. Then I want nVidia, ATI and Ageia to make versions of their products to connect to that connector.

While modern CPUs can be throttled down to conserve power, modern GPUs and Physics cards don't so you end up with a compromise on laptops for gaming power. Either you get something something light and portable with no gaming capability or you get a gaming beast that weighs a ton and has no battery life.

External GPU and physics hardware would allow people like me game on our terms. 90% of the time, I want a laptop that is small, lightweight and portable (currently, I'm running a 12" PowerBook). But for that other 10% of the time, it would be nice to plug in some extra power and be able to play the games I want. It would also be nice to be able to upgrade without having to replace the whole laptop.

This came up from attending my first LAN party in about 8 years or so. All of the laptops I had access to had decent CPUs but way underpowered video hardware. It made for a very frustrating experience.

Technorati Tags: Technology

I didn't make it this year, obviously. I did try to keep up with what was going on in Orlando this week but life and work haven't been very helpful in allowing me to keep track of what's going on 862 miles away. I actually haven't seen the OGS stream yet either. Below I'm posting some of the thoughts I'm having about Lotusphere 2007:

Quickr looks awesome and I can't wait to get my hands on it and start testing. It looks fantastic. It looks like it's going to be a great answer to what Sharepoint gives out of the boxes (because it's hard to have a Sharepoint with only one box, no?). It's providing all of the Quickplace functionality plus blogs, wiki's, RSS feeds and some other stuff, all with a shiny new Web2.0 skin. With its integration into Microsoft Office and Windows Explorer, I'm wondering where Domino Document Manager comes in. I don't think that Quickr will absorb DDM but I can hope that using DDM as Quickr's repository will be easier. I'm glad to see that they're trying to make up for the fact that Quickplace hasn't changed much since 3.0 in 2003.
onnections sounds fantastic in theory, but I wonder about it in practice. It's probably going to be one of those things where some companies would use the hell out of it right away while it won't take in others no matter how much it's marketed. I'd be interested in seeing this in use outside the internal corporate sphere. Something like integrating it into the Notes.net profiles or something similar to allow the Lotus community to come together around.

I didn't see or hear anything about Domino Administrator, the Domino server or Domino Document Manager. They showed Notes and Designer 8 but no Administrator and there wasn't anything that I could find out about changes to the Domino 8 server. That's where I live when I do Domino...the server and Administrator. Lotusphere 2006 had a lot about R7. I hope we get more info before it comes out.

I really appreciate the Taking Notes and IDoNotes podcasts cranking it out at Lotusphere. Bruce and Julian and Chris did a great job at giving us a a good idea of the feel of what's going on at Lotusphere 2007 through their podcasts. With the madness that is Lotusphere, it's hard for those of us that aren't there to get an idea of what's going on down there. I know that blogging is hard down there and I can imagine that getting that many podcasts out with everything else going on has to be exhausting.

Technorati Tags: Jamfest, Lotusphere2007, Technology

I spent yesterday morning at the local Microsoft Technology Center today. F5 was using some of the meeting space there to host a discussion about PKI enabling applications using the Common Access Card. Specifically, they were looking for information on what challenges we were having as customers so they can work on figuring out how to get a more complete solution than they're currently offering. I think the discussion was helpful all around.

On the way to the conference room, I passed an Xbox kiosk that was playing Red vs Blue videos, which was actually what prompted this post. I just thought it was fantastic that someone decided to put up something funny and cool into a kiosk instead of just the expected demo versions of a couple of games.

Too bad I didn't bring my camera.

Technorati Tags: Collaboration, F5, Games, Machinima, Microsoft, Technology

Last year was my first Lotusphere. I had a bad plane ride over. Then I had the shuttle ride from hell over to All Star Sports where I was booked. The next five days were one heck of a ride. I learned a lot, walked a lot, had a lot of highs and had some exceptional lows as well. I had no idea how physically, mentally and emotionally exhausting it was going to be.

In the past, I always thought it would be interesting to go to Lotusphere, but never enough to really push to go. Now that I've been, I want to keep going back...I want to have another go and not be so overwhelmed like I was for Lotusphere 2006. This year's a bit different than last year for reasons I might go into later. I'm going to try to get out for Lotusphere 2008 but a lot of things can happen between now and then so I'll have to wait and see.

I'm hoping that more comes out about Domino 8 on the server side this year. A lot has been said about the Notes 8 client but the server is where I get things done. I don't think anything has been said about what's changed in the Admin and Designer clients either so it would be nice to have more information there. I haven't worked for an organization that deployed Notes clients to the end users in many years so, while interesting, the Notes 8 client changes aren't going to affect me much in the short term. I'm also looking forward to seeing more of the updates Domino Document Manager and Quickplace which are at least in desperate need of UI updates.

I'll be spending time as I can in the Lotusphere Live site if the office firewall will let me out to it. Either way, I'll be keeping an eye on the usual sources for info of the new and interesting things that come out of Lotusphere 2007.

It's supposed to be an interesting year and I'm looking forward to it.

Technorati Tags: Lotus, Lotusphere, Lotusphere2007

Cox lost a customer today.

Last weekend a few Verizon guys stopped by to sign people up in my neighborhood I'd been thinking about it for a while anyway. It's easy when I already have the FiOS internet hookup. All I had on cable was the extended basic service. I was paying $70 a month. The same level on FiOS TV has a few more channels (BBC America! Yay!) and it's going to come in at around $45. Sweet.

Margo was home for the install. It went pretty smoothly. I wasn't expecting that that they were going to replace the DLink router that they provided when the internet hookup was done. In its place is a Actiontec MI424WR router....the ethernet line from the FiOS goes into one jack, then the video comes out a coax port that hooks up to the cable that's in the house. I had a chance to talk to the Verizon tech about the new router and he said that it increases available bandwidth to accommodate the internet connection and video when things like Video on Demand are coming down on the video side. Interesting.

The set-top box is a Motorola QIP2500-3. The TiVo controls it perfectly with the IR sprayer. I haven't tried the serial connection since I can't find the cable and I've read that Verizon has them disabled anyway. The video looks good. I'm already TiVo'ing stuff that I couldn't get on Cox. It's a good day.

Technorati Tags: FiOS, Technology, Television, Tivo

"Gizmodo iPhone Hands On Part Deux: Why Isn't it White and Other Questions" via TUAW

Gizmodo's reporting that, among other things, that the iPhone isn't really running OSX and that they're not going to allow third-party developer support. I guess that answers a couple of questions that I had about it.

That's kind of disappointing. I understand Apple's need to keep the platform pristine and seamless and that they tend to do that by strictly controlling what goes on it (like the way the iPod is controlled). I'm guessing that any applications that come out for the iPhone will be handled through the iTunes store like the iPod games are.

That's a little disappointing to me. Restricting third-party development support like this makes the iPhone a prettier but less flexible Windows mobile phone. The Cingular 8525 isn't as slick, but it's a lot more flexible and ultimately usable because I can go out and find (or potentially write) the software I need to do what I want with it.

Technorati Tags: Apple, Gadgets, iPod, iTunes, Marketing, Technology

I've said before that all I want is a phone that's a phone.

Maybe it makes me a hypocrite but I want an iPhone. I can't help it. It's small, slick and smart. I think that the voicemail inbox idea is almost worth the price by itself. It would give me an iPod that has a better interface than my iPod. A phone that's better than my phone. It'd sync with iCal enough for me to be able to actually use it effectively. I'm still not really into the camera or photo functionality but I could see how some people might.

I do have some concerns though:

• Sometimes Apple screws up 1.0 devices. The first Nano, the first Intel systems, the cube for example.
• How hardy is the touchscreen? Better than the face of the first Nano's I hope.
• Movies, TV shows, music videos and music, your contacts and calendar in 8GB?
• A phone that's 5 years ahead of the rest has EDGE but not 3G?
• A phone that's 5 years ahead of the rest has 802.11g but not 802.11n?
• It's running OSX but there's no indication of how much of OSX and what the hardware's capable of. What kind of games can I play? What other software can I run? NewsFire? Ecto? Lotus Notes?? Depending on the capabilities of the hardware and how much of OSX is on it, this could be huge to me
• I don't understand the pricing when you consider it with the fact that they're putting it out with Cingular and it's going to be sold at Apple stores and at Cingular. Does that mean the price is $499 or $599 with or without a contract with Cingular, or are they going to be signing you to a contract with Cingular in the Apple stores (which seems odd to me)?

I'm looking forward to the June release of this device. I want to see what happens when this thing gets out into the world. Barring any horrible problems, I would expect to try to pick one of these up as a Christmas present to myself. I just hope my Ebay'd t610 lasts.

Technorati Tags: Apple, Gadgets, iPod, iTunes, Marketing, Technology

Maybe I missed something but, did Apple just release a new Airport Extreme base station that does 802.11n but not release an Airport Extreme Card to match it at 802.11n?

I read somewhere that the newer Macbooks are shipping with an 802.11n capable network card, but those of us with older Macs are stuck, it seems.

I get a lot of interference with my 802.11g network from nearby cordless phones so I'd bump up to 802.11n just to fix that issue. On top of that, the new N access points seem to have some more features than what was more available with the G routers....like built-in print servers and USB file servers.

Technorati Tags: Technology, Gadgets, Apple

It's been a couple years now since I got my XM Roadie2. It had a lot of use over 2004 and 2005. I really enjoyed the service...no commercials on the music stations, lots of different music stations to enjoy, and I didn't have to worry about finding new radio stations to listen to on long road trips.

During 2006, it seems like something happened to XM. Commercial music stations came up. I didn't listen to those stations anyway, but Margo did. Then it seemed that the playlists at drive time for my mainstay channels (Squizz, Boneyard, Fred, Ethel, Lucy) started getting really short and repetitive. Then the DJs started coming out to jabber more. This is the kind of stuff that got me to stop listening to FM radio.

In response, I started listening to my iPod a lot more. There's a bunch of podcasts that I listen to now, and with some playing around with my playlists, my music rotation is a lot more interesting. Around summertime, I noticed that I hardly ever even turned my XM unit on anymore. That continued through Saturday when I called XM to cancel and I removed the Roady from my car. Margo hates what has happened to XM too but I don't think she wants to mess with hooking her iPod up to the car yet so XM still has one customer in this house yet.

The funny thing is that when I got the Roady, I was trying to decide between getting it and an iPod. I figured that XM had better access to more music than I do, so I went with the XM. Eventually, when I finally got an iPod it took over my music listening in the car and at work. I could have probably saved myself a lot of time and money ($10 a month?) if I would have just gone with the iPod in the beginning. Oh well.

Update: Just to be clear, in the car, I have the iPod plugged into my car's stereo system...I don't drive with the earbuds in like I see some people do around here. I'll describe my at-work setup in a future post.

Technorati Tags: Gadgets, iPod, iTunes, Technology, Travel

This one's as much for me for future reference as anything else. I was having a hard time finding anything on Google that worked and wasn't overly complicated. Maybe I'll save someone else some time while I'm at it.

Situation: A development/test Windows 2003 server that's in a virtual machine on a VMWare ESX 3 server (I'm also using Virtual Center, but this should all hold for situations without Virtual Center and with ESX 2.x servers at least). It's been offline for a while, and is not a member of a domain in my case. Nobody seems to be able to find what the local admin account password was. Wiping and rebuilding it is an option of course, but I didn't really want to do that.

By default for Windows 2003 virtual machines, VMWare has it using the LSI logic virtual SCSI adapter rather than the Buslogic adapter. Your typical Windows account password reset program like the one found in the Emergency Boot CD (EBCD) doesn't have a driver for LSI SCSI adapters, so it won't see your virtual machine's disk.

If you shut the virtual machine down, you can reconfigure the virtual SCSI adapter as a Buslogic adapter. I don't know about how standalone ESX servers handle this change, but Virtual Center will ask a couple of times to be sure before it actually makes the change. If your Windows install was done on LSI and you switch to Buslogic, Windows will not boot..it'll bluescreen not long after the OS logo screen pops. But we're not booting into Windows now...we're going to boot up onto the password resetting tool of your choice. I know that EBCD has a driver for Buslogic adapters already so it'll boot up and see your Windows partition and do the password reset with no problems.

Instead of rebooting after the password reset, shut the virtual machine off and reset your SCSI adapter back to LSI. You'll get the same warnings about OS's having problems when you change the adapter type but it'll still do it. Then power your virtual machine back on.

It'll come back up like before, but with a known password this time. Maybe next time you'll remember to write down admin passwords even for quickie one-off test boxes that you might need later. I know I'm going to try. :D

Technorati Tags: Microsoft, VMWare, Security, Technology

So, the guitar that I won from Otto's Daughter arrived on the Saturday before Christmas. The band wanted me to send them pictures, which panicked me a bit because my digital camera's been down for quite a long time because of a missing battery charger. I got a replacement and got it done over the long weekend.

Here's the stuff that's packed with the guitar:

An Otto's Daughter yo yo (a yo yo? I love yo yo's!)
G's sticks with an initialed note that they're from the show
The setlist from the 15 Dec show
A screw with a nut on it (!)
Mo's strap (I almost feel bad about this one, but it is a comfortable strap)
A promo poster for the show and guitar giveaway signed by the band ("This ain't the poster - JVB" on the back)
An OD promo card
Four Otto's Daughter picks from HorrorPicks
A dirty rag (ooo...sweat from the show)
OD stickers
(not pictured) Bubble wrap personally squeezed by Jacqueline Van Bierk
(not pictured) A plastic tag (couldn't find it)
(not pictured) A business card for a place in CA that does guitar lessons

Not a Gibson, in front of a tree

SG Hearts OD

Everyone needs a screw with a nut on it...and staples...

Baby's first chord. With me anyway (JVB has had her way with it already). Em if it's not obvious from the way the photo came out...the 1 and 4 fingers aren't touching.

Over the next few weeks, I'm going to be poking around the local pawn shops for a decent amp. I don't think I'm up for the commitment of having actual live lessons yet. Will see what I can do with what's available online (I'm working on chord transitions with pivot and guide fingers lately, plus I'm looking through some tabs) and will do a progress check in a couple of months. The goal at the moment is to be able to say that I can play it by the time Otto's Daughter get around to playing somewhere around here.

My longer term goal is to be able to hang in there at Lotusphere's JAMfest next time I go. I'm not going to be at Lotusphere 2007 so I have at least a year to learn how to play the instrument and figure out how to work my musical sensibilities into more of a blues influenced situation.

This could be interesting.

Technorati Tags: Gadgets, GuitarHero, Jamfest, Lotusphere, Music

Happy 2007 everyone!

I have a couple of things that are a bit late (for me) that I'm going to have posted in the next couple weeks I hope. I'm not doing a 2006 in review here. It looks like I started 2007 with the site offline. Something got goofed up with my account. Should be straightened out now. Sometimes inexpensive hosting is good.

In the mean time, Overman and Zarathustra Studios has a present for the New Year:

Father Frags Best has been re-released in video format, so we can watch it without having to dig out those Quake 2 CDs. Yay! This was one of the first real hits of machinima back in 1999. It looks a bit crude watching from my 2007 eyes but I remember the tools that were available back then to do that stuff and it was heck of an achievement in Quake-based animation at the time.

I mentioned this movie in a previous posting that I'm actually in this movie for a couple of short scenes. I could only really hook up with them during production for one night but it was still fun. Watch the whole thing, but around in the section that starts at 12:33 or so, I think I was the boyfriend til he gets to the stairs. Then again at 16:44 I think I was the little brother in that scene. There was an outtake from that scene that was added at the end of the credits too. For the movie itself, the dialog was dubbed in from the guys that were picked to do the voice acting. The audio from the outtake, however, was all of us that were there on the “set” that night. It's an interesting look into a little bit of what it took to do stuff like that then..between what it looked like at filming versus what it looked like in the final release.

Technorati Tags: Machinima, Technology

I've mentioned in the past how much I hate the idea that some people have about cell phones that they're just a conduit to push marketing material to a person wherever they are. I don't want content from a communications provider. I want connectivity to the network. That holds true for voice and data.

So Verizon decides that they're going to push banner ads in addition to the web content that their customers are downloading with their cell phones next year according to a NY Times article (Verizon to Allow Ads on Its Mobile Phones). Nice. I wonder if the bits that those ads take up count with the limited data plans.

Have I mentioned that that I'm in the market for a new phone and carrier? (number portability is a wonderful thing).

I was kinda considering Verizon even with their bad selection of phones because of their recent Consumer Reports ratings. Not anymore. The article mentions Sprint is already doing this...Margo's been on Sprint for many years and hates it, so I never really considered them.

Yesterday, Seth Godin posts a message on his blog for John Harrobin, VP of marketing and digital media for Verizon because apparently you can't just contact the guy directly. Seth asks a couple of questions that everyone in marketing should ask themselves before they decide to add more advertising to something out here in the digital world:

Here are the two questions I hope you'll ask yourself:
a. what does the money we make from this effort do to the long-term profitability of our relationship with customers and
b. is this something consumers want? How many calls a day does Verizon get asking for more spam/advertising on their cell phones?

Now, the only relationship I'm interested in with my cell carrier is that they give me connectivity and stay out of my way if I keep paying the bill. Dumping more advertising down that connection isn't a good way to maintain even those minimal requirements for a relationship.

Anyone over at Verizon listening?

Technorati Tags: Cellular, Marketing, Technology

So I started feeling sick Thursday afternoon. Went home from work, started taking meds for the symptoms. Felt a little better on Friday but got worse on Saturday and a lot worse on Sunday. Went to the local Urgent Care Sunday night and it turns out that I have pneumonia. So I'm on better drugs now and I'm off work at least for today and tomorrow.

In the middle of all that, I got an email Saturday night from Jaqueline van Bierk of the band Otto's Daughter.

This probably needs a little background info before I go into the email though...

Starting in October sometime and running through 30 November, they were running a pre-order special for their upcoming album "A New Kind of Heroine". Pre-orders get a poster, get their CD signed, an early download of one of the tracks (The Truth...good stuff. You can stream it from their MySpace page), a listing on a thank you list when the album comes out, and a chance to win a Daisy Rock Dark Star guitar. I like signed stuff. I pre-ordered Becoming 001 and got it signed too, so it seemed natural to go for it again.

Back to the email...

The email was to let me know that they had the drawing and that I won the guitar! I never expected to win it. I don't even know how to play. But I'll learn to play it when it arrives...it really is a beautiful guitar and it would be a shame to have it just sit around and not get used. Who knows. Maybe this will be the making of a new rock star.

They had the drawing at their show on 15 December at The Gig (video is here, watch the whole set, the drawing's after the last song at about the 30 minute mark).

Last night they posted a three part set of videos of them packaging the guitar up and adding some extra stuff into the box while they're at it. I think I do need some staples, but it looks like they got taken back out of the box. Oh well. I hope the screw with a nut makes it through OK. G put in his sticks from the show which was a really nice gesture. Mo's guitar strap made it in there, but it doesn't look like he knew about it. Picks are always good. Too bad the chair and the stand didn't fit.

The Guitar packing part one
The Guitar packing part two
The Guitar packing part three

Many, many thanks to Otto's Daughter collectively for having the contest and then taking the time to turn it into a unique package of stuff. It's become quite a bright spot in a rather crappy couple of weeks. I'll take good care of it and maybe play some good music on it some day. And when they make it out this way, I'll be taking them up on Jim's offer to get it signed.

They want me to send them a picture of me with the guitar when it comes, so at some point I'll have an update post here with the pictures I took while opening it all up.

Technorati Tags: Health, Music

By default, the Domino web server supports the HTTP TRACE method. Retina Network Security Scanner (and probably other security vulnerability scanners) treat this as a vulnerability because for some web servers, HTTP TRACE can be used as a point of attack for information disclosure.

IBM has a technote out there called "Are there any known vulnerabilites in the Domino server related to HTTP Trace method?" . The technote states that there are no known vulnerabilities with Domino R6's HTTP TRACE method, but they also include instructions on how to disable it if the system owner wants. This is a good thing since it helps knock another hit off on a network scan by the security folks...it's much faster and easier to make that hit go away if you don't need it than it is to explain why it's there and that it's not necessarily a big deal.

The easy way to disable the TRACE method is to uncheck the TRACE box in the Allowed Methods section in the Configuration tab of the site's Internet Site document if the site is using them. Not all Domino web sites use Internet Site documents and some can't (Quickplaces still can't, nor can Sametime) since there is no Allowed Methods section in a server doc.

For non Internet Site doc Domino sites, you need to add "HTTPDisableMethods=TRACE" to the notes.ini. This will disable the method for all sites on the server, by the way, so you can't pick and choose if you're not using Internet Site docs. You can add other http methods here if you want to as well but that's out of the scope of this SnTT posting.

Technorati Tags: Domino, Lotus, Security, show-n-tell thursday, Technology

Just in case anyone was wondering, being in a server room when an FM-200 based fire suppression system kicks off won't kill you, just like the sales guys will tell you. It just leaves your ears ringing and makes you smell like a nail salon (kind of like that quick-dry nail spray).

For the record, I didn't have anything to do with this particular incident. It was the result of a fire alarm test that got a bit out of control. I just happened to be in the room when it happened.

Who says IT isn't exciting?

Technorati Tags: Safety, Technology

The first ad below is one of the new ads for the Nintendo Wii. It's the first in a series and shows some of the gameplay possibilities with its new controller concept.

I like it. "Wii would like to play." There's one with better games here but they don't want to allow embedding for that one.

This next ad is for Sony's Playstation 3.

WTF? Weird, creepy stuff. I don't get it.

Will it work? I don't know. Personally, I'm leaning towards the PS3 anyway but am having a hard time with the idea of spending $600 on a gaming machine. I can get an Xbox 360 and a Wii for less and keep my PS2 for my old games (Guitar Hero anyone?)

Technorati Tags: Gadgets, Marketing, Technology

Apple's .Mac Mail webmail updated overnight to the new interface.

Looks a lot like the Mail.app interface.
There's some small differences like the "Checking" spinner being moved from the Inbox in Mail.app to the top of the interface (below Apple.com's header). There isn't much there that's going to take any time getting used to though.

It feels faster...speed was my main complaint about the old version of .Mac webmail. The preview pane seems to work well. It's been a slow mail day so I don't know yet if it's "web 2.0" enough to automatically show new mail instead of making me click "Get Mail" like I had to in the old .Mac Webmail. Time will tell on that one.

Nice improvement at least, if less than innovative.

Technorati Tags: Apple, Technology

I just got around to watching the World of Warcraft South Park episode (Make Love not Warcraft).

Machinima.

Machinima is another one of those things that probably wouldn't have happened without the internet. Wikipedia's entry on Machinima suggests that machinima got its start in the demoscene of the 80's and early 90's. I disagree, as the the intent of the demoscene was more focused on integrating music and visuals with clever programming. Machinima is about filming and editing inside a real-time 3D environment.

Regardless, my involvement with machinima didn't start til Quake.

In the original Quake, you could record “demos” of your gameplay. Someone somewhere figured out that you could edit these files to change camera angles, add music, and stuff like that and make something more interesting than an players-eye-view of a match. Eventually, that evolved into people making movies, complete with sets and dialog inside the game engine. Tools like Keygrip made it easier to make movies by making the editing process more like working in a tratidional non-linear video editing program.

Two early big hits were Apartment Huntin in Quake and Father Frags Best in Quake 2. I was fortunate enough to have a (very) small part in Father Frags Best, so I got to see part of the hard work that is needed to put something together...and the really hard work that Overman of Zarathustra Studios put in to make it work out.

Overman's back! Actually he's been back, having put out a couple things this year. In September, a new short film was released called Male Restroom Etiquette. As expected, the quality and writing are top notch. I thought it was laugh-out-loud funny, but I appreciate bathroom humor. The release link has links to different size/quality versions. I'm embedding the YouTube version below.

Stuff like this is why I love the internet.

Technorati Tags: Music, Technology

Since I'm on a roll with videos, here's another one.

Freezepop is an odd synth pop band from Boston. Their signature sound is driven by their use of the Yamaha QY70, which makes for a sequenced retro synth kind of sound. One of the members, Kasson Crooker, is the Audio Director of Harmonix. Their music has turned up in a bunch of games including FreQuency, Amplitude, Dance Dance Revolution and Guitar Hero.

I came across another blog in my reader that mentioned the video (it was a few weeks ago so I don't have the link to cite anymore, sorry). I hadn't been to Freezepop's website in a long time so I hadn't noticed that there was a new video. Their previous video for Stakeout is kind of like a Flash demo set to music. The new video for Parlez Vous Freezepop is live action this time, and I think it looks pretty good.

The Youtube version's below. Here's a link to the higher res version: Parlez Vous Freezepop

Technorati Tags: Music, Technology

I am constantly fascinated by odd cultural phenomena that could only happen on the internet. One of those is the Numa Numa Guy (Gary Brolsma). Is there any way that a kid with a camera and a habit of videoing himself lip-sync'ing could become world famous without the internet? I don't think so. Millions of people know who this guy is.

Gary's rise and fall are chronicled elsewhere on the net. Wikipedia's a good place to start. It's probably hard to deal with the fact that you're relatively famous in a way that you can't really make any money from.

Did anyone else know that Gary's back?

Looks like someone's figured out a way to make money on this after all. There's a New Numa site with a New Numa song and video. I'm wondering why there's no mention in the site anywhere of the original video and music. Maybe a rights issue with the label that put the song out? It looks like Dan Balan was at least a little bit involved in what's going on this time so maybe the New Numa song was made especially for Gary and the New Numa site.

It looks like it's pretty well sponsored. There's some merchandising (headphones, ringtones, shirts and mugs). There's also a contest with $45k in prizes.

I think it'll be interesting to see what happens to the Numa Numa guy in round 2. Here's the new video:

Technorati Tags: Music, Technology

NumaNuma

Create Digital Music posted a link today to a collection of videos that Ableton has been posting on Youtube lately.

Some of them are videos that have been on the Ableton site for a while (like the Kid Beyond one). Some of them are demos of new functionality in the just-released Live 6.

There's a lot of interesting stuff in these videos. Lots of ideas and they show how various artists use the software. It's good for getting the creative juices flowing. Live's an interesting piece of software. Live 6 definitely sets the bar higher.

I've been thinking about what DAW software I want to start using. I've been looking at Logic, Cubase, and Live, and I'm starting to lean towards Live these days. I just wish I could afford NI Komplete too.

Technorati Tags: Gadgets, Marketing, Music, Technology

Looks like Apple is updating .Mac afterall.

In August, I posted something about .Mac mail getting old. Now, there's a new page at Apple announcing the upcoming changes to .Mac (via TUAW).

Figures.

It looks good at least. For the Windows users out there, it looks like they're replicating the Mail.app interface for this version. I'm not sure how I feel about that yet. Maybe it'll be OK, but sometimes replicating an application's UI in a browser doesn't work out as good as the idea sounds on paper. As long as it's faster than the current .Mac webmail, it'll be an improvement. Thanks, Apple.

Technorati Tags: Apple, Technology

A look behind the iPod/iTunes report - Paul Thurrott's Internet Nexus

This analysis pops up every year, it seems. Someone does the math on how many songs iTunes has sold and divides by the number of iPods are out there, and the number they end up with is pretty small.

I'm one of those people. Here's a screenshot of my Purchased folder in iTunes (7):

I've had an iPod for almost 2 years now (since the first Shuffles came out in Jan 2005) and I have five songs Purchased from the iTunes Music Store. Three of those are from the 5-track sampler that I got free when I registered my Shuffles. I deleted two of those songs since because they suck. I like TKO so that'll always be around. The other two haven't been listened to recently enough for me to decide whether to delete them...though the Blow It Out track has a 1-star rating, which I use as a "this sucks" marker. I'm a bit of a NIN fanboy, so when The Hand That Feeds came out, iTunes was the faster way to get it (I have the CD single too, and the vinyl picturedisc). I needed Cars for something relatively quickly so I didn't have time to track down a copy of The Pleasure Principle to use it from there.

I will probably always prefer buying CDs over digital downloads of songs. Gary Numan's Replicas album is $9.99 on iTunes, and it's $11.98 at Amazon. For that extra $2, I get a non-compressed version of the album, all of the artwork and a physical CD and an MP3 version for my iPod (after importing it to iTunes, of course). I consider that to be a better value than the iTunes version where all I get is a DRM'd AAC file.

There's always a risk when buying recent albums that you get a couple good songs and a bunch of filler crap, which kinda kills the value argument. Some times I do better at avoiding that issue than other times. I used to buy a lot of singles. Lately, I just avoid bands that do that altogether. Going indie helps (I love CDBaby) since unsigned bands have less of a reason to add filler crap to an album. I think that's another topic for another post though.

Technorati Tags: Gadgets, Marketing, Music

I've been keeping an eye out on the buzz about Microsoft's iPod-killer...the Zune. I wasn't expecting a lot. A portable audio/video player is an portable audio/video player these days so there's not much to compete on for features anymore. What's left to do with one, anymore? On Thursday, Microsoft dumped out a lot more details on the Zune so I'm

With the Zune preview pictures that have been coming out, I was impressed by the screen size. I'm using a Nano now (not the new one), so the music I carry with me is pretty manageable, but I think that if I had a big iPod and was carrying my whole library around, it'd get a little tough to navigate in that little iPod screen. I have no interest in watching movies on the current iPod screen. I've written before on what I'm wishing for from Apple (besides the long rumored iPhone): The full touchscreen video iPod. I could see myself watching a movie on one of those while on the treadmill or something as long as I can use my own DVDs. The Zune's screen, while not ideal, comes closer to being video-friendly than the iPod does.

What other innovation can there be with a device like this? In spite of both company's reputations, Microsoft beat Apple to the next level for mobile audio/video devices.

Sharing.

The Zune has Wi-Fi and you can wirelessly beam songs from one Zune to another. Isn't sharing of music like that kinda illegal? Probably. Microsoft has an innovative solution to that issue too. Any music that you receive stops working in 3 days and you can't share it with anyone else...and if you like the song, you can flag it to buy it from the Zune Marketplace (through URGE?).

That's a smart solution to a difficult question of how to legally share your music with friends. I'm impressed, Microsoft. Great idea.

Is it enough for me to buy one? Not yet. The featureset is impressive and the UI is beautiful but I'm not in the market for a $300 device that holds all of my music...the nano is just fine for now, thanks. Since the Zune is a Microsoft product, I'd expect that it's Windows-only which is a showstopper for me since the only computer in the house here is a Powerbook. It's definitely something interesting to keep an eye on, and I'm especially interested to see what Apple does in response.

Microsoft's Zune Delivers Connected Music and Entertainment Experience
Microsoft Unveils Zune MP3 Player

Technorati Tags: Gadgets, iPod, Microsoft, Technology

Julian Robichaux came up with an interesting idea for an advertising campaign for Lotus Notes and Domino the other day. I like it.

"Need e-mail? Yeah, it can do that. Client and web applications? Yeah, that too. Portal? Yeah. Blog, wiki, RSS reader? Yes, yes, yes. Web services? Yes, we could do this all day..."

Where I'm working, I'm pretty well known at this point as the guy who says that a lot. When I started where I'm working, if I saw a problem that could be relatively simply solved by using Domino, I'll point it out and explain as well as I can. Eventually somehow it became a cliche....problem stated, "you can do that with Domino", eye roll. Sometimes a lone admin isn't a great candidate for a technology advocate, but I try...

So what I'm saying is that while I think "yeah, it can do that too" is true and a good idea, I would hate to see it turn out like my efforts have turned out.

Technorati Tags: Domino, Lotus, Marketing, Technology

I have a hard time believing that their menu has changed when every time I call any automated phone system over the last couple of years.

I'm sure it's some focus-group-tested technique to get people to pay more attention to the prompts. Problem is that as far as I'm concerned, it doens't help and makes things take longer. When I'm calling, I only want one thing...to talk to a human that can help. If I was doing something that I wanted to deal with a computer for, I'd do it over the web.

Technorati Tags: Customer service, Marketing

I finally got around to listening to the Taking Notes Podcast number 27 about the upcoming release of Quickplace 8.

I'm glad to hear that IBM is putting a lot of thought and work into this release. Really, from my point of view there wasn't much new or of interest in the Team Workplace 8 over Quickplace 3 (I believe that the update changed the name and there was a bug fix or two, Extended Membership too). I haven't had a chance to really work Quickplace 7 out much yet. There's some good tweaks in there...the Editor access was definitely needed and I'm getting impatient about being able to use it, the doc type icons is a nice tweak too.

In the podcast, they mentioned a lot of new interesting features, and it sounds like they're holding a lot back. The standouts for me are the improved management interface, both for the system admin and for the managers of the individual Places. I'm really looking forward to hearing what info comes out at Collaboration University and if I get to Lotusphere 2007, maybe getting close-up hands-on time with it.

I haven't heard anything yet about something I've been wishing for since I started running Quickplace servers in 2.something (2.06 I think):

A user-accessuible/friendly listing of all of the Places on the server and some way to request access to the Place.

We've had the Place Catalog for a while now which has the info on all of the Places, but the database itself is a dirty tool for admins and developers and the server itself. There isn't even anything in OpenNTF or the Sandbox that addresses this functionality (someone please correct me if I'm wrong). Some orgs don't have access to their own Domino developers to write stuff like that...and frankly, I always thought it should have been part of the product all along. Sharepoint has it. :D

Technorati Tags: Domino, Lotus, Collaboration, Technology

I should have expected it.

Sametime 7.5 dropped on Friday the 18th, as reported by Ed Brill and others. I downloaded the server, client and dev kit this morning and will try to get a test server up this week. Started the process of getting the client into the software testing/approval cycle.

Looks like the first test accounts started getting issued for testing NCES' Sametime installation while I was gone too. I pre-registerest for the testing and they're rolling the accounts in small groups, and I didn't get one on the first set.

I'm looking forward to a couple different things with the NCES Sametime setup. With the 7.5 client, I should be able to connect to my local community and the DISA one at the same time. I'm also hoping that there will be the possibility of connecting existing Sametime communities to the main NCES community. Some orgs in the DoD prefer to own their services, so something like registering their users with NCES and only using that might not be doable, but if they can connect the Communities the the collaboration is still there without making the local IA guys too nervous.

Technorati Tags: Lotus, Sametime, Travel

Adam Gartenberg posted last Saturday on his blog that they were going to update the Sametime 7.5 demo site with beta 4 code this week. He also mentioned that they were pulling the Mac version of the client from the initial release. Bummer, but if it isn't ready, it isn't ready and I'd rather see IBM delay something than pug it out half-baked. I went to check the site this morning to see if they updated it yet and they did. Unfortunately, they seem to have removed the Mac client from the beta 4 code. That bites. Would have hoped that they'd want to keep testing the Mac client while it's being delayed. But then again the beta probably needs to be tested without the links to the Mac client too. Oh well. So much for ST at home for me. I'll work harder on the beta update when they bring the Mac client back, I promise! :)

Technorati Tags: Domino, Lotus, Technology

Can anyone tell me why it makes sense for the keypress to close a window is so close to the keypress to quit the application??

I have no idea how many times I've had a bunch of Safari windows open and closed them all out instead of closing the one that I meant to close. Then I have to go fishing around in my history to find what was open. This can be a lot of windows if it's been a busy day in the blogging world and I've just spent a lot of time in Newsfire clearing things out.

This sucks. I'm frustrated.

Technorati Tags: Mac, Apple, Technology

Jon at Administer IT makes a a point that I've been meaning to make about .Mac mail for quite a while now. The .Mac webmail interface is very old school, clunky and pretty slow. For a while, I tried avoiding the issue by forwarding all of my mail to a GMail account, but that just made mail management more difficult. So when I'm away from my laptop, I suffer through it, wondering why I'm paying $99 a year for the service.

To be fair, I use iDisk quite a bit. I also like the flexibility of having web and POP3 access to my email (which is something that most free web mail providers don't give). Having my email address independent of my ISP made my move from Cox to Verizon almost seamless.

I do get a lot of value from having my .Mac account. I just get the impression that Apple is neglecting the applications that make .Mac worth it. Maybe they'll get around to it after Leopard is done. Or maybe they'll improve it after they make it free like the rumors are saying.

Via Digg

Dear Steve Jobs: .Mac Mail is Getting Old

Technorati Tags: Apple, Mac, Technology

Windows Vista speech recognition failed in demo I agree with the Slashdot post that this could be the new “All your base.” Or maybe, more appropriately, the new “egg freckles.” Stuff happens. Especially in live demos. It happens to everyone, but it's still fun to poke fun at Microsoft when it happens to them. I'm surprised that it had problems though...it was on their home turf. I would think that they would have been able to keep the conditions consistent between testing and the live demo.

Technorati Tags: Gadgets, Marketing, Microsoft, Technology

http://www.breitbart.com/news/2006/07/27/D8J4BG600.html

The company said it now expects to end the year with a customer base between 7.7 million and 8.2 million, and that it would refine that range at the end of the third quarter. The company cited "current marketplace dynamics" and regulatory uncertainty regarding certain of its radio models for the change.

Um. I've been an XM subscriber for a couple of years. I've been listening to my iPod more and more. I can tell you why they're losing subscribers:

XM is learning too much from Clear Channel.

In the last year, XM has added commercials to some of the music channels, and they've really, really shortened their playlists on the rock stations during the day.

I spend most of my time in the car in the typical drive-time slots and I hear the same stuff over and over whenever I turn the rock stations on anymore. It's especially frustrating when I'm doing a roadtrip during the day. That trip to Blacksburg was something like a four hour drive. The repetition of songs was maddening. I was actually reduced to finding FM stations to break up the monotony.

The worst part is that when I hear XM at night, it's like it used to be. It's interesting. I hear music I hadn't heard in a long time, if ever. They have interesting shows (the industrial show on Fungus on Saturday nights) and not so much DJ talking.

I really wany to like XM, but they're screwing it up. They got big and they're forgetting why they got big. If they don't start to remember soon, I'm dropping my sub too. I'll get Margo a hookup for her iPod so she won't miss it.

Come on, XM, wake up! Clear Channel's destruction of FM is why you have your subscribers. Running XM like Clear Channel runs their FM stations isn't going to keep your subscribers.

Technorati Tags: XM, Radio, ClearChannel, Advice

Back in April, I did a post that was only half joking about what I was doing to prepare for the next Lotusphere JAMfest. Here's the follow-up post that I mentioned. First, a little story:

Back when I was packing for Lotusphere 2006, one of the things I packed is an M-Audio Oxygen 8. It's a small portable MIDI controller for use with some of the software I have on my Powerbook. The intent was to use then time I had between the last session of the night and the first session of the morning to work on music. It didn't end up working out that way, because in transit, the USB connector broke and I don't own a MIDI-to-USB converter...so the musical hermit routine was done and I had to find other things to do at night. Fortunately, there's a lot of that in Orlando (rather, Lake Buena Vista) during Lotusphere.

Here's what I've been working on since then:

I spent some time looking for a replacement USB connector for the Oxygen 8 when I came across an inexpensive Edirol PCR-50 on eBay. That solved most of my problems with having a broken USB connector so I bought it. I'll still get the Oxygen 8 fixed, but it's not as urgent these days. Yes, there's no external audio hookup in the picture, and there's no power line. I set this up for the picture and then put the Powerbook back where it normally lives. When I'm playing around, I either have headphones or have it hooked into the 5.1 surround system that's not in the picture.

I'm doing two things with this setup. I'm learning how to use the software and I'm learning how to play a keyboard. I'm hoping that this will give me the vocabulary I need to find and express what will eventually become my music. I'm also looking ahead to Lotusphere and JAMfest. I'm thinking of ways to fit into how that whole thing goes down both in terms of songs that I'd be able to play that other people might want to play there, and also figuring out how to improv and follow the rest of the band as it starts really jamming.

I may or may not make it to Lotusphere 2007, and it's possible that none of the above ends up working whether I do make it there or not. But I've been thinking about it for a while and I'm not going to be happy til I do what I need to do to find out if it'll work out. Who knows? It could be a wonderful thing.

Technorati Tags: Gadgets, Jamfest, Lotusphere, Music, Technology

Apple pushed out an iPod update yesterday along with the 6.0.5 update to iTunes. I downloaded the update and it pushed to my Nano. The iPod update page says the following about what's in the update:

What's new in iPod Updater 2006-06-28:

* Nike + iPod support for iPod nano
* Volume limit for iPod shuffle
* Bug fixes

I think I noticed another change. The stars used for a song's rating are smaller. I didn't notice any change in the text part of the display, but I don't have another non-updated iPod to do a side-by-side against. I don't know why I noticed it and I don't know why Apple did it and didn't mention it...but it is what it is. Makes me wonder what else gets changed on these updates.

Technorati Tags: Apple, iPod, UpdateStars

Just a couple pics that are posted here for use in a posting somewhere else. I'm trying to get to the point where everything that's on the server is linked from the blog somewhere.

Technorati Tags: Gadgets, Technology

Just a couple pics that are posted here for use in a posting somewhere else. I'm trying to get to the point where everything that's on the server is linked from the blog somewhere.

Technorati Tags: Gadgets, Technology

This would probably ideally be a Show and Tell Thursday thing but I din't have the answers so it'll have to be worked out with whoever has the answers...

Is anyone out there willing to talk about running Domino as an applications hosting platform for other organizations but not using the xSP install? There are a few companies out there that sell Domino but there's only so much I can figure out about how they manage the back end from digging around with a free account ID.

My background is more in the area of running Domino servers that are dedicated to the organization that owns the applications that they're supporting. I don't have any experience with situtaitons where you're potentially hosting applications and databases from different organizations on the same servers that don't necessarily trust each other. It's pretty simple to isolate the users and managers of different databases in SQL but you don't have to deal with certifiers and ID files and NAB access and other Domino-ish things like that. I don't see a lot of documentation out there either from IBM/Lotus or from anyone out there that's actually doing it with Domino.

Anything would help, but I'm really looking to see how people are doing it from end to end...ID/cert management, Permissions management, code updates, user/customer/application isolation, etc.

As I said at the beginning, I think that the idea form for this information would be a blog post, especially for Show and Tell Thursday, but I understand that some may not be so eager to post how their company does what it does. I won't talk about my employer on the blog here but I think I can make a pretty good case that what I'm working on isn't going to be competing with any other organizations and their products/services out there. If we have to keep the discussion by email or something, that's fine. I won't talk about my employer on the blog here but if competition is a concern, I think I can make a pretty good case that what I'm working on isn't likely to compete with anyone else out there.

Thanks

Technorati Tags: Lotus, Domino, Hosting, Best Practices

TiVo Product Watch

“Looking for a new car? Planning a family vacation? Interested in new cooking techniques? Product Watch can help. Just choose a category that interests you and the amazing TiVo® service will automatically find and deliver relevant video clips straight to your Now Playing List. Find Product Watch under ”Music, Photos, Products, & More.“

I have Seth Godin's blog in my RSS aggregator since I saw the video of him giving a speech at Google. One of the things he seems to say over and over again that marketing and products need to solve a problem or answer a question (at least that's what I got from the talk).

What problem does TiVo Product Showcase solve for Tivo's customers? I know what it solves for Tivo...”How do we make more money with advertising on TiVo DVR's?“ Is there any Tivo user out there that is asking themselves ”I wish my Tivo showed me more advertising“?

I don't know about anyone else out there but I got my Tivo to a) watch the shows I want when I want and b) to be able to skip the commercials in shows that I'm watching. Tivo Product showcase doesn't solve any problems for me. What it does do is make me wonder if it's going to start recording stuff even if I don't put anything in its watchlist. It also makes me wonder what I'm going to replace my Tivo with if they finally go over the line and start forcing me to watch Tivo's commercials instead of allowing me to watch what I want.

If I'm looking for information about cars or electronics or vacations, I would think that the best place to start looking is in the search engine of your choice...not waiting for your Tivo to cough up a paid commercial.

Is anyone out there actually going to use Tivo Product Watch?? I'd like to hear an honest ”I'd really use this because...“ response from someone. I don't see any user-oriented reasons for this ”feature“.

Technorati Tags: Marketing, ProductWatch, Technology, Tivo

...or why I shop at Amazon....

I had a series of dental visits recently (and two more to come next month) that has convinced me to pick up an electric toothbrush. The dentist recommended a Sonicare brush, which they sold and dispensed in-house (some variant of the “Elite” that's only distributed through dental offices). I didn't get it there because I like to shop around a bit before I buy. When I got home, I did some comparing of the different Sonicare models and found the top of the line Elite 9500 Custom for a couple bucks less than what the dentist was charging. Sweet. Click, click, ordered.

We seem to get really quick delivery here in Centreville, so I pretty much always pick Super Saver shipping from Amazon. They estimate 5-9 days, but I tend to average 2-3 days for most items so there's no reason normally to pay for faster shipping. I made the order on Thursday night though, and I had a change of heart thinking that Super Saver might push the delivery to the next week, so I modified my order to ship 2nd Day instead so I'd (probably) get it on Saturday.

Not long after, I get the ship notification. I check the tracking and it looks like it went out UPS Ground, and that the estimated delivery date was Tuesday (6/6/06 by the way). That's not 2nd Day. I checked my invoice and I was charged for it. I must have changed it in time for Amazon's billing system but not in time for the shipping system.

I emailed the Customer service system this morning explaining what the expected result was, what happened instead and what I wanted (my $10 extra that I paid for faster shipping).

I got an email back a couple hours later apologizing for the mixup, informing me that a credit for the $10 is being processed (and I should see it in 2-3 days) and:

Because your business is important to us, I'd like to give you a
$5.00 promotional certificate for use toward your next
Amazon.com order.

This amount has been automatically redeemed onto your account.
You will not receive a claim code.

I expected not having any trouble getting getting my $10 in unused shipping back but was completely surprised by the $5-off on top. It was a minor problem and I really didn't consider it a big deal. To Amazon, $5 is nothing but the offer says that they're interested in doing something extra to make their customers feel appreciated.

I appreciate it. Especially in an age where most companies have dropped “customer service” in favor of “customer management”. Thank you, Amazon. Keep it up.

Technorati Tags: Amazon.com, Blogging, Customer service, Shopping

Via Gizmodo

Fancy Features Don't Sell Cell Phones

Maybe because I'm paying more attention to this issue, but here's another one. PCWorld is reporting on a JDPower survey that tends to agree with most of what I've been writing about cell phones. The article goes into details of what respondents said motivated them to choose the phone that they bought. The top 2 are style and price, not any particular feature.

Read it all..it's not too long, I promise. :)

The money quote for me is:

"Ease of use was a frequently cited factor in choice of phones, Parsons said. The ideal is to be able to start up a special service in just one or two keystrokes, he said.

"As they layer these new services on the phone, it's going to be more difficult to get to that nirvana," Parsons said.""

Well put. Are you listening, TMobile (or Cinglar, Verizon, etc)? Just give me what I want and you'll have my business. Maybe next time I won't buy a used phone on EBay and grow a little loyalty while I'm at it.

Technorati Tags: Cellular, Gadgets, Marketing, Technology

Vowe posts a link to a study by Paul Lamere on the statistics that were gathered by his iTunes Registry.

The whole article is worth reading. I found a couple interesting points in the analysis:

“It turns out that 80% of all plays are concentrated into just 23% of the tracks. Perhaps even more interesting is the fact that 64% of the over 20,000,000 tracks had never ever been played (not even once). This means that the average ipod user (with 3542 songs), actively listens to about 800 songs in their collection, and has never listened to about 2200 songs.”

I think that's just nuts! I can't imagine what it's like to have listening habits like that. Are people just listening to the same songs over and over because they like to, or because the random shuffle feature doesn't take play frequency into account? I'm hoping it's the latter but I'm afraid it's the former...those numbers sound like they'd line up with how radio stations work.

Personally, I'd hate a rotation like that. I hate commercial radio because of it. I'm becoming increasingly dissatisfied with XM Satellite Radio for the same reason. I've spent a lot of time since I got an iPod trying to work out how to get a good thorough mix across my music library when I'm listening to music. My most recent thinking is based on what I found in a post I did in March about some Smart Playlist resources I found. Below is a breakdown of my iTunes library:

Collection Size: 4022
Plays: 5694
Number of songs purchased from iTunes: 2
Active songs (80% of Plays): 50%
Sings never played: 872
Manually rated songs: 1215

It looks like my persistence is paying off. I'm getting a pretty good mix of music across my library. Definitely higher than average. How much higher was kind of surprising to me to be honest. Looking at the numbers, I think I'm going to need to raise the representation of unplayed songs in my main mix playlist, and I need to get back into the habit of rating my songs.

Technorati Tags: iPod, iTunes, Music, Technology

I've been playing around with the Microsoft Office 2007 Beta that was released last week and I really like most of what I've seen.

I don't use most of Office at work so I don't really wide range of experience yet. I'm looking forward to playing with Groove with the actual server for once. Also, I'm looking forward to seeing SharePoint 2007...especially the SharePoint Designer 2007 as it seems to be a little bit of a nod to Lotus Notes and its Domino Designer client.

I appreciate the new Notebooks structure in OneNote 2007. I don't have a tablet so I'm not using OneNote to its fullest but I'm getting a lot of use out of it typing out notes, ToDo lists, etc.

I did find one gotcha with Outlook 2007 so far. Outlook 2007 does not work with an Exchange 5.5 server. Actually, when I try to connect to my Exchange 5.5 server, Outlook 2007 doesn't even let me run in offline mode...it just errors out and quits.

That sucks. I know Exchange 5.5 is old and is unsupported. That doesn't change the fact that my legacy mail server is running Exchange 5.5 and it's not going to be upgraded. I also can't connect that client to my production Exchange server...so I'm kinda high and dry for Outlook 2007. Too bad, looks like it has a lot to offer.

Technorati Tags: Domino, Marketing, Technology

So. Let's clear the whining and negativity of the last couple of posts, shall we?

Over at Garagespin, they did an interview with an interesting musician that goes by the name Brad Sucks. The day before the interview, they did a post about the music, and when I checked around a bit, I noticed that he popped up on Musicthing post about playing guitar like a superdork.

There are a lot of things to like about Brad Sucks's approach to music but I think the coolest thing is the almost Open-Source way he handles getting his music out. The album "I Don't Know What I'm Doing" is up on the website to download as MP3's along with some demos of songs he's working on. You can buy a CD copy of the album if you want, or make a donation if you want. There's a section of remixes that people have sent in, and they're downloadable as MP3's as well...or you can pay for a copy of them on a CD-R

The "source" for all of the songs are available for download. The sources for the songs are basically a .zip file with .wav audio files of each of the individual tracks of the song. This makes it a lot easier to take the music apart and do remixes.

Makes me want to try my hand at making an interesting mix-up of his music. Interactive musicianship...sweet!

Technorati Tags: Music, Technology

Via Slashdot

Some Cell Phone Owners Spurn Gadgetry

This is exactly what I was talking about the other day. The first section in the article says it best:

“Nathan Bales represents a troubling trend for cellular phone carriers. The Kansas City-area countertop installer recently traded in a number of feature-laden phones for a stripped-down model. He said he didn't like using them to surf the Internet, rarely took pictures with them and couldn't stand scrolling through seemingly endless menus to get the functions to work.”

He goes on to say that he's not a “cyber-savvy” guy in the quote, which I can't relate to but the above paragraph says what I've been saying to anyone that asks for quite a while.

Most of the rest of the article is about how the providers are trying to figure out how to get over this particular hurdle. Somehow they think that the problem is that people don't understand the technology. Some don't probably. Most of the people that the telecom industry are trying to reach just aren't interested. A phone is a phone. Can it be so hard to get a phone that doesn't suck, isn't cheap and junky, and is maybe a little sexy without being bogged down with all of this extra crap? Or at least unlock things so we can uninstall it if I want.

I made my decision on this topic at least for the short term. I just bought an unlocked Sony Ericsson T610 on EBay. I'm going to use it til it breaks (or I lose it again), and when it does, I'll take a look at what's out there...and if the market hasn't changed, I'll buy another T610 on EBay.

Technorati Tags: Gadgets, Marketing, Technology

Why is it that the big ISPs seem to think that people want some kind of content from them? I'm going to pick pn Verizon for a bit only because this is my most recent experience. I've had similar experience in the past with Cox and Earthlink in the past.

When you go to the Verizon FiOS Online Services page, it tells you that you can "Kick start your FiOS experience". FiOS experience? I thought it was a fiber-based DSL service.

The rest of the page goes into how they're offering "Verizon Yahoo! for FiOS" or "Verizon FiOS Internet wirh MSN Premium." Both are basically Verizon FiOS branded Yahoo and MSN Premium offerings. When I had my FiOS install done actually, I had to insist a couple times that a) I don't want MSN Premium or Yahoo whether it's free or not and b) I don't want them to install any other software on my computer.

I have something to share with internet providers out there....

All I want from my internet service provider is a pipe. I want them to get bits from my house to the internet and back. That's it. There's enough "content" out there on the internet that I don't need my ISP's marketing team trying to make it into a "Verizon FiOS" experience. It's like picking up the phone and chatting with the Verizon 411 operator because you want to talk to someone. Why would I do that?

Please, just give me what I'm paying for and get out of my way.

I do have to say that once you get past the marketing push, Verizon hasn't stepped in on my "experience" so far. On the install and the pre-install marketing they make it look like you need all of this extra crap, but you don't need any of it. That includes the setup/config software and their router. I just wish I didn't have to go through the marketing obstacle course to get there.

Technorati Tags: Telecommunications, Technology, Marketing

Two blog posts today really stood out to me. The first was Eileen Brown's Weblog post "The Death of the iPod?" and then Seth Godin's post "The problem with mobile."

Eileen's post was centered around an article on TechWeb about how in five years, they think that dedicated portable music devices will disappear in favor of combined cell phone/media player devices. I have a relatively long comment there that mostly boils down to the fact that I think the prediction has more to do with Microsoft trying to define the next personal electronics battlefield since they lost the last one to Apple.

Then in Seth Godin's post questions why the cell phone industry hasn't gotten as big as it should have. He answers his own question by stating:

"I think we're going to discover a whole new universe of cell phone services that people want to pay for, things that we won't be able to live without. Like... ringtones."

I don't get ideas like these at all. I really don't. I'm 32, I work in technology, I'm a gadget lover, so I would think that I'm at least a little bit in the demographic that the cell carriers are looking to tap. The problem is that I have no interest in any of it.

I don't want to watch videos on my phone, whether downloaded from my Mac or streamed live from some site over an EDGE/EVDO network...and I especially don't want to pay extra to do it. I pay enough for the music I already have, so I don't see any reason to pay even more for a chunk of a song that will play on my phone whenever someone calls (I prefer vibrate). I don't want to check stocks on my phone, surf the web from it or do instant messaging though I've done all three. Candy bar phones are the wrong format, and I wouldn't carry one of those PDA-style ones because they're too big.

My cell phone is not, nor has it ever been an accessory. It's not for display and is not any indication of my "lifestyle." It's for me to make calls when I need to and take calls when I have to.

I've had cell phones since the original Ericsson Sprint Spectrum phones in 1996 or so. Currently I have two phones. A Nokia 6010 for personal use and a Nokia 9300 for work.

The 9300 is too big, too heavy and wants to do too much. The 6010 is too big, doesn't have bluetooth, isn't supported by iSync and really makes me miss my Sony Ericsson t610.

And I have a 2GB iPod Nano. It's just the right size physically, the interface is just what it needs...no more, no less. I just wish I got the 4GB one. Or that there was a 40GB Nano. No, I don't want anything to do with the ROKR.

Yes, this has been long and rambling but there is a point here. I think that the two articles were just good timing. The 6010's screen is dying so I'm in the market for a new phone, so I've been thinking about current and near future tech as it relates to cell phones....and I seem to have a really hard time finding what I want.

I want a cell phone that's just a phone. I have an iPod and I like it better. I want it to fit in the front pocket of a pair of jeans with room for my wallet. I want it to sync up with the my Address Book on my Mac over bluetooth. I want it to also be able to use a bluetooth earpiece so I can drive and talk if I have to. I don't want any camera on it (cameraphones are banned and confiscated in certain areas and I'd rather not have a crappy camera when I need it than not have a phone when I need it).

And for the love of all that's good in this world, I don't under any circumstances don't want it to be a conduit for people to market at me through. I don't want ringtones, or exclusive music and videos whether it's over a high speed or slow speed wireless link.

Is that so hard? It's definitely hard to find. The t610 was close, except for the camera part. The Samsung t509 looks like it comes close too, but I'm waiting to see how the quality reports come out. In the mean time, I might just pick up a used t610 on eBay.

Technorati Tags: Telecommunications, Gadgets, Technology, Marketing, iPod, iTunes

E3 2006: Rock Out with Primus on Guitar Hero II (IGN.com)http://ps2.ign.com/articles/707/707004p1.html

Gamespot also has a gameplay/demo video from E3 on Guitar Hero II that shows some of what I love the game, and what it's like to play, etc here in the Live Stage Demos area.

My hands are starting to cramp up already thinking about playing the bassline from John the Fisherman. I think the Gamespot demo did this on Medium difficulty from the looks of it. At the beginning they were getting killed by Strutter and I heard them back out to the menu where you'd change difficulty. The IGN article mentions that instad of the excellent covers we're used to in Guitar Hero, John the Fisherman is going to be the album track. I'm kinda disappointed about the single-player being all about lead guitar,while you have to do multiplayer to get bass. I'll get over it though. Good excuse to get Margo playing....they're letting you pick different difficulties for the different players in multiplayer too which is smart.

I'm gonna be busy when Guitar Hero II comes out.

John the Fisherman is one of my (many) favorite Primus songs and probably one of my favorite songs period. It's definitely in my "Desert Island" playlist if I ever do one.

I love the bouncy groove that it has, not to mention that it's so opposite what people normally think about bass in a (kinda) rock band. This song is part of the reason for me wanting to learn to play bass (waaayy cool) and part of the reason why I haven't tried still (how the hell am I supposed to learn to play like that??).

For those that are unfamiliar with the song, here's a YouTube video of a live performance here.

Technorati Tags: e32006, GuitarHero, Music, Primus

I'm about two thirds of the way through the hard level. Some days I'm better than others but I'm getting better at it all the time. Won't help me with most of what I'd expect to see at Jamfest now (though Spanish Castle Magic and Crossroads, maybe Godzilla could be close). I'm having a hell of a time with Guitar Hero. It's loads of fun, and has a very playable learning curve. It's actually kind of seductive...when you start getting good you're almost left feeling that you could pick up a real guitar and play it on that too. The music's good too if you're into guitar rock.

There's a conversion out there where you can plug these controllers into USB and use it as a MIDI controller. That could be fun.

I have some other ideas for Jamfest next time. Will post on that when I have it more fleshed out. It might work out, but it might not. Will see.

Technorati Tags: Lotusphere, Review, Music, Jamfest, GuitarHero

This is also a follow-up to my FiOS install from a couple months ago.

One of the unexpected consequences of the FiOS install was that it cut the Tivo off my network. When I had Cox cable internet, I put a splitter on the cable that went to the TV in the living room. One end went to the cable box, the other went to the cable modem. The Linksys WRT54G router connected to the cable modem, and since everything was right near the TV, I did CAT5 from the Tivo to the router. No fuss no muss.

With the FiOS install, the internet connection comes from a CAT5 drop that's downstairs in a corner of the basment. I'm not pulling cable all the way across the house, so the wireless router is in the basement now.

So I bought a Netgear WRT111 USB wireless NIC, and figured I was good to go. Oops.

I tried joining the network right after adding the new NIC. It couldn't join the network. So I did some Googling and found out that Series 2 Tivos don't do WPA or WPA2...they only do WEP. That's not good. I'm supposed to drop my WLAN down to WEP? I don't think so.

Fortunately, I still have the DLink DI-624 that Verizon provides on the FiOS installs. I decided to run two wireless networks...my main one, and then one running WEP that the Tivo runs through. It's simple enough. I made sure that the Dlink router's LAN IP address is set to a different subnet than the LAN IP address of the Linksys (the defaults already are), then plugged the WAN port on the DLink to one of the LAN switch ports on the Linksys. The Linksys gives the DLink an IP address in its subnet, then the DLink gives an IP on a different subnet to its clients, and routes through to the Linksys.

I did have some connectivity trouble for a couple days. The signal strength on the DLink was almost unusable....KisMac showed 35 when I was standing right next to it, and down to 15 when I went 10 feet away. The Tivo couldn't connect to it at all. I called Verizon and got a replacement and the new one works fine.

This configuration has been set and stable over the last couple months without any trouble. The TiVo is getting its updates as needed, and I didn't have to change anything on my main WLAN.

I'm slowly but steadily junking up the basement corner with computer-related gear, but it's always been an ugly corner so I don't mind.

Technorati Tags: FiOS, Technology, WLAN, TiVo

I bet that title gets used a lot in blogging. Oh well.

I'm kinda offline for a little while. My Powerbook's hard drive started to fail over the weekend. Late Sunday and last night I was trying to see if there was anything I could do to stop the problem progression. I gave up last night. Today on the way home, I'm going to make a pit stop and get a new hard drive, and an external drive enclosure and maybe an extra external drive too.

Once the hardware comes home, I need to swap the drives install my OS back and do a backup restore. Then I need to see what I can salvage from the old disk from its external enclosure (I didn't have my music on backup), reinstall some software, etc. It might be a couple days before I'm completely back online again.

With the other external disk, I'm going to set it up as another backup disk...and I'll be archiving complete disk images to it. This crash could have been worse if I had no backups at all but it's going to be really inconvenient and time consuming. It wouldn't have been if I'd spent the time and money up front to protect myself.

Fun.

When I first heard about the 3-23-2006 update for iPods that adds a volume limiter setting, my first thought was that the lawyers won again. Personal media devices in general and iPods in particular have been in the news on and off over the last few months with studies about their contribution to hearing loss.

Then I actually started playing with it and it's actually kinda useful for how I use my iPod. I mostly listen to it in the car through the headphone jack into a tape adapter (yeah, I know). I found a balance between the volume setting on the iPod and the volume from the car's stereo that minimizes distortion and when I go back and forth between listening in the car and listening with the headphones that I have to hunt for that "best" volume level in the car.

With the volume limiter, I set the upper limit to the level that I listen to the car....so now I can just max it instead of hunting and pecking for the sweet spot.

Technorati Tags: Apple, iPod, Technology

I was skimming through technotes on the Lotus Support site and came across a technote (193337) that I hadn't noticed before, and since it's Thursday I figured I'd share because I haven't seen it anywhere else:

Does Sametime scan files for transferred viruses?

Without posting the whole content of the technote, what it's saying is that this functionality will be in Sametime 7.5. When I deployed Sametime in my current environment, lacking the ability to scan files in transit is the reason why I wasn't allowed to enable the file transfer functionality.

This feature is going to be as big for me as the new pretty UI on the client. Thank you IBM!

Technorati Tags: Domino, Lotus, Show and Tell Thursday, Software, Technology

Since the iPod Nano needs Autofill post a while back I'm still thinking of how to manage my music on the iPod and in iTunes in general. On Thursday, I came across a blog posting called iTunes Smart Playlists at Andy Budd's blog.

I don't know why but for some reason, I never noticed that one of the rules you can set for a smart playlist is to have it use another playlist or set of playlists as a source. That helps a lot of the issues I have had in the past with keeping an interesting and fresh mix of my music available. I used the playlists in Andy Budd's post as a base and took some tips from SmartPlaylists.com and I've built a decent playlist. It'll get better as I get more music listened to and rated, but it's definitely a good start.

The playlist that I'm feeding the iPod with is limited by total size which I still have to adjust up and down as the size of my podcast list. The Autofill problem still isn't solved, but at least the mix is better.

Technorati Tags: iPod, iTunes, Playlist

Here the video of Will Wright speaking at the Game Developer Conference this year. He talks a lot about his philosophy on gaming on how the more empowered you make the player of a game to make their own content, the more the player will respond to the experience. You can't argue much with the kind of success he's had. During the talk, Mr Wright illustrates with a demo of his new game: Spore. Starting with evolving bacteria up to being master of the universe seems like a tough game to put together, but they're doing it and it looks incredible.

Technorati Tags: Software, Technology

I'll put my thoughts on Show and Tell Thursday in a different post. Look for it (or not) soon. :P Here's an admin thing that popped up again recently for someone I know. It took me a while to remember what the fix was and it takes some digging in Notes.net or Google to find it so it sounded to me like a good SnTT post. This is for Sametime 6.5.1 on Windows. I can't vouch for other platforms. I haven't done this in R7 yet so I don't know if it has the same issue. If you do a lot of partitioned Domino servers like I do, you tend to try to keep all of your server-specific files in the server's data directory. Even servers that aren't partitioned I always put the notes.ini and the server.id in the data directory. It's one less step I need to do later if I need to migrate the server into a partitioned configuration. There's a problem when you do this with Sametime 6.5.1 servers on the install. You get throught the first part of the installation OK, but the second section of the install when it runs stsetup.exe, after you choose your directory type, the installer comes back with a "File does not exist" error. There are probably several conditions that can cause stsetup to throw this error, but in the environments I deal with, it's always been the same thing: stsetup is looking for notes.ini and the server id file in the program directory instead of the data directory. The fix is to just copy those files into the program directory before the Sametime install and then copy them back to the data directory when it's done.

Technorati Tags: Domino, Lotus, Show and Tell Thursday, Software, Technology

Yesterday, I posted a list of my favorite podcasts. I made a couple goofs. One of which was pointed out by one of the podcasters that I mentioned in my list. I'm still figuring this blogging thing out. Bear with me. :)

The Manager Tools podcast hasn't been doing interviews. I have no idea why I put down that it did. I guess that's what happens when I try to write a lot of words all in one post. I stand by the rest of it. Management is hard work, and it's harder work to do it right. I'm learning a lot from this podcast and I hope that I can apply their techniques effectively some day.

I also listen to another podcast that does do interviews that I failed to list in my favorites list.

The Cranky Middle Manager podcast. Another management-oriented podcast whose primary focus is on the issues that middle managers face. The host interviews various authors, consultants and managers about topics like how to lead geeks, getting over disciplinary xenophobia, and many others (the latest episode is #38).

Also while I'm thinking of it, I starting to lean back in the direction of iPod Nano's needing Autofill. The variability of the size of my Podcast playlist is making it really difficult to fill the rest of the device with music.

Technorati Tags: Blogging, iPod, Podcast, Productivity, Technology

I'm behind on putting a proper blogroll on the site. One of the categories I have is for podcasts that I listen to. Someday that'll go out on the left or right margin of the blog.

I mentioned some of the podcasts that I get to Jonvon a couple days ago, and I was reminded that a good place for this kind of list was my own blog. So here it goes.

Music:

Discoslut
This is the newest podcast in my list. It's been up for a couple months and there are only two episodes. The most recent one is the result of a project from the IDM-Making list. IDM electronic music here.

Electronic Periodic
More electronic music including ambient, IDM, electro, trance and experimental. Not as regular as it used to be, but when they come, updates are high quality.

Industrial Radio
Industrial electronic music. Spans a lot of subgenres of industrial...the mood of an episode seems to heavily depend on Jon's mood when he's putting it together. Not on a regular schedule anymore either but I really enjoy them when new episodes come out. Currently, I'm making my way through the episode archives on this one.

Mark Rushton's Ambient Downtempo Electronica Avant-Garde IDM Drifty Music Podcast
Very very ambient most of the time. Mark Rushton uses his podcast to showcase his own musc. Most of the episodes are remixes of live improv performances. I find it interesting, if not always musical.

SMtv
Weekly podcast by a very talented singer songwriter. The first and maybe the second episode (the latest episode is #37) feature her music, but the rest of the episodes, she interviews and plays some music from musicians that she finds interesting. The music tends to go between acoustic singer songwriter to light punk.

Spacemusic
Live from Rotterdam the Netherlands! Ambient sound scenes, space music, sometimes dancable electronica. Sometimes TC's own music is mixed in but usually the podcast is about other musicians and occasionally ambient soundscapes from around Rotterdam. This podcast updates every other week. I really enjoy the variation in the format of the shows with this one in addition to the great music.

Video

(I don't have a video iPod, BTW)

Ask a Ninja
You got questions, ninja got answers. Silly but entertaining. I can't get enough of it. The most recent episode is titled, "Ninjas hate Clooney." I look forward to killing you soon.

Waveform
Electronic music videos. 3-4 per episode usually. I'm enjoying it so far, but what I'd like to see is an audio-only version too.

Non-Music

43 Folders
Organization and productivity centered around the Getting Things Done framework. The blog historically has had a focus on implementing GTD on Mac's, but there are a lot of tips and info that aren't necessarily platform or software specific. The podcast isn't specific to software either. Merlin talks about more general and practical ideas for personal productivity that aren't necessarily GTD-specific, but are GTD-compatible.

Manager Tools
Management and leadership techniques podcast. Solid, if labor-intensive, management technique for new and experienced managers. Some interviews.

Taking Notes
It's the Lotus Notes and Domino podcast! I never thought I'd see one of these. Generally developer-oriented but it's hard to make administration and administrators interesting (disclosure: I'm an admin).

Update: I should probably point out here that some of these podcasts are not worksafe at times. Industrial Radio, SMtv and Waveform are marked "Explicit" in iTunes

Technorati Tags: Blogging, iPod, Music, Podcast, Productivity

I know I don't have enough readers to staer a meme or a movement but....

iPod Nano's need Autofill!

How does it make sense that 512MB and 1GB Shuffles get autofill in iTunes, but 1GB, 2GB and 4GB Nanos do not? I would think that most people that would own an iPod have more than 4GB of music to put on it. Autofill on the Shuffles is great! You point it at a playlist and have iTunes dump music onto your iPod til it fills up. Good stuff.

If you spend the extra $$ to upgrade to a Nano, especially if you owned a Shuffle previously, you're actually taking a downgrade in functionality. Suddenly, you lose Autofill and have to do it like the big iPods do....pick a playlist to sync it up to.

That's OK when you have +20GB of storage, but when you're working with as little as 1GB, you now have to create a playlist small enough to fit the Nano and figure out how to populate it with a variety of music from your library.

It gets worse if you have iTunes download your Podcasts. If you sync your Podcasts list to your iPod, now you have a second playlist to deal with that could vary greatly in size. So you have to either short the "iPod Music" list or keep adjusting its size to fill up what the Podcasts list doesn't.

If anyone knows of a less labor-intensive way to handle space/music management on a Nano, I'd be glad to take a look.

Nanos are cool, but not as usable as Shuffles. Yet. Too bad, really. I'll be submitting an enhancement request for iTunes soon.

Update -

I should have looked more before I posted. The Apple support forum has a pretty good discussion on this subject and some of the posters make a pretty good argument that with good use of iTunes' Smart Playlist functionality, you can approximate some of the functionality.

http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=874883&

This still doesn't really address how to do Autofill-like functionality when you have a variably sized Podcast playlist on the Nano as well. It is enough to get me thinking of other ways to work around it though. Will do a follow-up if I work together something interesting or satisfying.

Technorati Tags: Music, iPod, puppy, Software, Technology

Video iPod fakery exposed on video - Engadget:

Ok...so here's the original of the photo. Looks like I'm going to be disappointed Tuesday. Oh well.

Well, at least I have the potential of what Microsoft's Origami could become:

Robert McLaws: FunWithCoding.NET - Longhorn Edition : ProjectOrigami: Could This Be It? - Updated!

Technorati Tags: Gadgets, Software, Technology

I really really really hope this is a Mac tablet but I'm not holding my breath. Mac people are weird...creating fakes and ogling them seems to be part of the culture.

Via Engadget
Is this the video iPod (or Mac tablet)?

Technorati Tags: Gadgets, Technology

Kartoo Visual Meta Search Engine

I'm a visual person so this kind of thing fascinates me. You enter something on the search bar (a URL, keywords, images, all kinds of stuff) and the Kartoo digs through the major search engines and then builds a map of relationships between what you entered and other URLs out on the net.

I've been playing with it a bit this morning mostly with site URLs and it's interesting to see what it comes up with for sites that I deal with and am familiar with. I've discovered a couple other interesting sites while I'm digging around the map.

Technorati Tags: Technology

It's not often that I go to the Google front page these days. Most of my browsing time is spent in Firefox or Safari, so when I'm searching, I use the little search bar that they have.

On my test laptop at work, I've been playing with the IE7 beta. It has a search bar just like Firexox and Safari do, so I haven't been going to the Google main page on that system much either. Til yesterday...

I went to the main Google page in IE7 and they changed it. Now there's a button that shows up under the search bar in IE7 that changes it to search Google if you click it. I think this is the first time I've ever seen an ad targeted at a user specifically of a particular browser to get them to change a setting. I changed it to search Google as soon as I installed the beta so I hadn't clicked on it, but it's still clever.

Technorati Tags: Google, IE7, Microsoft, Technology

I'm staying home from work today to be here for my Verizon FiOS install. I won't be posting this until after the install is done and the service is running, but it will be written as things happen. Hopefully the install will go smooth and this post will serve to inform people in the future about the service and install and what they'll be getting into. I was going to post pictures but Im having problems uploading pictures at the moment. Will fix that.

0752 - I have an install window of 0800-1700. Hopefully it'll start earlier rather than later because I got up early for this.

0942 - Still waiting.

1050 - The Verizon guy's here. Went off to light the fiber up. Here we go.

1430 - It's done. Relatively painless. No Fuss, no muss.

I wasn't getting a signal from the DLink router that came with the install, but I was going to swap my Linksys back in anyway so it's all good. I still need to pull cable from the corner of the house to the closet under the stairs so that the Linksys will be in a more central location in the house.

I'm getting just shy of 5m down and 2m up which is about where I was with the Cox cable internet service. I'll be trying a bump up to 15/2 soon.

Technorati Tags: Blogging, FiOS, Technology

This is just too cool for words. I saw it last week and really didn't think much of it til I actually watched the video. Some of the demos that are in there are just crazy. It's a fantastic demo of just the beginning of what one could do once this technology get out there in the wild. Wow.

Technorati Tags: Technology

Or as Wired puts it:

Stop paying for Ringtones

I've seen this link a couple times in the last couple of days. Brian Benz's Software Soapbox was the latest though.

It's about time that this starts to get visibility in the mainstream press (yes, I consider Wired mainstream-ish). The conspiracy theorist in me wonders if the lack of coverage has anything to do with how much money is being made on downloaded paid-for ringtones.

There isn't any reason to go out there and pay for ringtones when you already have the music. All you need is a little knowledge and time to make it happen. It won't really mess up the revenue streams until someone puts out an app where all you have to do is click a "Make this MP3 my ringtone" button to make it happen. i've known abot rolling your own ringtones for a while, but never did it because I'm too lazy to do it (and don't think I really want a musical ringtone anyway), but I'd at least play around with it if it was broken down into a 1-2 click process...all users are lazy, but some of us are more lazy than others.

Technorati Tags: Gadgets, Technology

Technorati Tags: Lotusphere2006, Technology

Well, I'm on the flight back home (well, on a flight to Charlotte to get to the flight home). I've finally been to my first Lotusphere, and it was one hell of an experience! It's everything that's ever been said about it, and then some probably. I think my brain melted by Tuesday...I was making it through all of the sessions fine, I guess but once the structure of the sessions was over, I don't think I was handling it well. I'm not the most extroverted guy out there but the overwhelming scale of what's going on at Lotusphere combined with my being there on my own made me crawl back into my shell more than I expected to.

When I went to the BOF105 session, "The IBM Lotus Blogging Community" I actually felt pretty welcomed by the collection of established bloggers that I intentionally sat among. There was a comment at one point how the Domino blogging circle is a bit of a closed circle. I didn't really find that to be true. It is hard to feel like part of a group when it seems that everyone knows each other and you don't know anyone. But when you're right there in the middle of things, everyone's really nice and welcoming. Especially CD Exchange he came up with was a success as far as I can tell. It took some time to get it together but I gave away a bunch of CDs and got one from John and Pete Brown. There'll be another entry on their discs once I get a chance to get through them.

If you're looking for the info on my CD, it's on the entry from 22 Jan, 2006.

The JAMfests were really cool even if I didn't get around to getting up there and singing anything.

It's going to take me a while to go through and absorb everything I learned in the sessions at Lotuspere. I really think that some of the sessions had the content to make me a better Domino administrator, which was what I was hoping for. Genuine detailed technical content all over the place. The Best Practices sessions (thanks Rocky) were really good. The Infrastructure Design sessions were fantastic too, and those were most of what I hit.

I'm excited about the future of Domino as a platform more by being exposed to the people that are creating its future, than by the normal route via the marketeers. I'm ready to get back to work and fix some stuff and maybe try to do some innovating myself (while I don't talk about where I work on the blog, my employer doesn't tend to take well to change).

It was great meeting all of the people I got to meet and chat with while I was there (I'm horrible with names/faces, so I may need to be reminded of some of y'all if you make it to my lil blog. Will try to make it back next year and hopefully will be able to meet some more of you and maybe make myself a little more sociable than I was this year.

Beautiful Disgrace from the album "Punk Statik Paranoia" by Orgy

Technorati Tags: Lotusphere2006, Travel

Slow start this morning. Got to Dolphin in time to catch the opening General Session. Was more interesting and slick than the FOSE keynotes that I have to compare it to. The details are on other blogs so I'm not going to go into it. I am excited that they announced Domino R7 client for Mac and that the web admin piece will work on Firefox on the Mac.

Not quite where I want it but it's a step in the right direction.

I'm not going to be blogging the individual sessions anymore. There's too much to take in and do here for me to blog that deeply while I'm here. I might get a wrap-up in at some point.

Technorati Tags: Domino, Lotusphere2006, Technology

Well, I got in last night, so technically this is day 2 but I don't want to talk (write) about yesterday.

Got up early, hit the shuttle and got dropped off at the Dolphin. Registered painlessly. Realized that the "uncool" Lotusphere backpacks are pretty slick. Has enough space (that I didn't bring with me) for me to drop the rest of my little bags that I tote around wherever I go.

Wandered around a while, since I had time before my first session. Nothing eventful there. Forgot to get food.

More session stuff after the break...

Technorati Tags: Blogging, Lotusphere2006, Technology

OK. This is the post where I'll be putting my schedule in case someone's looking for those CDs or whatever.

Sunday 22 Jan

1030-1230 JMP103 IBM Lotus Domino Administrator Jumpstart DL S Hemisphere I
1230-1530 JMP102 An Introduction To All Things IBM Lotus Domino Clustering DL S Hemisphere II

Technorati Tags: Domino, Lotus, Lotusphere2006, Travel

It looks like I'm finally confirmed and booked for Lotusphere 2006. That means I can participate in an idea idea that Jonvon had a while back....

A Random 'Sphere Idea

I'm going to put together an audio CD and burn 10 or so copies of it and carry them with me at Lotusphere. If you want one, find me and ask for one. Simple.

I think it's a neat idea to try out some new music (I'm going to be hunting the other participants down sometime this week if I can find them) and spread around some of what I've been listening to these days.

More later maybe. See y'all at Lotusphere!

(Updated) Sat 1040am

Well, my printer is croaking. The covers are going to be in black and white. Blah. Oh well. The idea's still there. At least I got the mix down. :) Here's for getting that straightened out for next time.

Technorati Tags: Domino, Lotus, Software, Technology, Travel

I've been thinking of ways to handle my photos lately. It seems that the various changes to the website have messed up my archive of photos. When I find out I have to fix something, I try to spend some time thinking about how I'd like for it to work and then try out new ways to make it happen.

I never was completely happy with how I had the Photo blog set up. It's difficult to post a bunch of photos into with the ecto for a while to do the blog posts. I like it. The interface is clean, but feature-filled. All of the tagging (MovableType and Technorati) is a click away. I have buttons for links to my iTunes, Amazon and some other things. More important to this post is its link to iPhoto. I can easily browse my photo library and add a photo to the blog entry from there. I don't like how it's formatted and haven't figured out how to fix it.

Enter Flickr. All the cool kids in the blogosphere are using Flickr for their photo hosting. I'm not a huge fan of hosting my stuff in different places, but maybe that doesn't matter. The photos I've posted recently are in my Flickr account. It still takes more steps than I like to get something on the blog: once I export the photo to Flickr from iPhoto, I go to Flickr and push the new entry to the blog and then go back to ecto and add the Tehcnorati tags. Not efficient, but there are some interesting parts of Flickr that might overcome that. Will keep on with it for a while and see how it works out.

Wind It Up from the album "Experience Expanded: Remixes & B-Sides" by The Prodigy

Technorati Tags: Blogging, ecto, flickr, Software, Technology

I've been keeping an eye on Verizon's FiOS service since I first saw it announced. The speeds they were selling and the price they're charging is hard to ignore, but I wasn't able to get the service. You have to have fiber run all the way to the house to get the service and we don't.

Or didn't. This fall, they ran fiber through our neighborhood. Yesterday a pair of friendly Verizon reps knocked on my door and let me know that I could get FiOS if I wanted it. They were offering $5 off per month for the first year. I bit.

I have an installation date of 17 Feb. That gives me til 17 March to change my mind. I'm actually planning on go-no-go by Wednesday just to be paranoid about it.

If I do go ahead, I will try to get lots of pictures.

Technorati Tags: FiOS, Technology

Here's something interesting: myHeritage's Face Recognition Demo

One of the selections is to compare your face with a database of 2500 celebrities and it'll tell you who your face most resembles. First image I uploaded, I got Anthony Hopkins, and the second one got George Martin. I don't like this game anymore.

Technorati Tags: Blogging, Technology

I didn't get around to posting the blogroll code yet. The plugin's installed, and I have a few blogs listed in it. I need to work out where and how I want to add the list to the pages on the site. That'll take some time and thinking...I'm still not a web dev.

On a related note, I "claimed" my blog at Technorati today. Don't know what that means yet. It seems like the hip thing to do. Maybe it'll help me pay more attention to the blog too. Also, hopefully, it'll help raise the visibility of the blog in Google, where searches for my name turn up some comments on someone else's blog first.

Frosty The Snowman from the album "In The Christmas Mood" by Glenn Miller

Technorati Tags: Blogging, Technology, Writing

This is my first work-related post, I think. One of the main things I've done for work over the last several years is admin Lotus Domino servers. I don't foresee this blog becoming a Domino blog specifically, but since this is my blog and I spend a good chunk of my time dealing with Domino servers in some way, they're bound to come up occasionally.

Also, since I'm an administrator and don't do any development (I know, I know) on Domino, I've noticed that while there's a lot of Domino dev's out there blogging, there doesn't seem to be a lot of administrators. Maybe if I post some of the things I learn in my journey that I'm not already finding out there might help someone else.

That said, the rest of this post is dedicated to my first Domino post. More after the break...

Falling from the album "Outrageous!" by Alice In Videoland

Technorati Tags: Domino, Lessons Learned, Lotus, Technology

Technorati Tags: Technology

Technorati Tags: Technology

Well, I think I got some things worked out on the site.

I had some problems the last time I upgraded MovableType from 3.14 to 3.15. It looks like I goofed up the upgrade and missed some files. When I started messing with ecto again, I got some errors updating the site, tracked them down and it showed that I missed something in my last upgrade. I pulled the full download of MovableType 3.17 and went through directory by directory and updated everything again.

It looks like it's working now, which is nice. Hopefully I'll be motivated to keep up with things on the site now. I need to do some cleaning of the filesystem on the server...there's a lot of extra directories and files that aren't linked anywhere that I need to decide what to do with. I also have MT installed a little weird and I need to take the time someday to work that out.

I re-rolled my trial of ecto, so I lost the draft I had of a pen review I was working on, so that needs to be started over. Not that it's a bad thing because I have a lot to add since I first thought of the posting. I'm playing with fountain pens these days. :)

Technorati Tags: Software, Blogging

Here's a test of posting photos and testing ecto's new stuff.

Technorati Tags: Travel

The post yesterday from ecto seems to have worked. I'm thinking that I should probably work this into some kind of workflow to keep the blog stuff moving. Maybe I'll get good at it someday.

Part of the "workflow" comment is coming from what I've been getting into these days. I've been reading Getting Things Done by David Allen and have started picking up on ways to get myself organized and productive. I'm already seeing improvements...let's hope it keeps up.

Yesterday there was a package by the front door. Inside was two of the new items that Apple launched at the MacWorld Expo last week:

iWork
iPod shuffle

I spent most of the night working with Pages, the new word processor. My resume needs some work so this was a good test for me to get started. It looks like a good word processor to me. The interface isn't overly busy and complex. I don't like Word and I'm glad I can work out decent docs without having to buy Office now.

I didn't spend much time looking at Keynote 2. I don't do presentations. Maybe if I did, I'd think about using Keynote, but I have no use for it now. I think Pages was worth the $79 by itself.

I actually got two if the 512MB iPod shuffles. One for me and one for Margo. I haven't played with them yet....haven't even opened the boxes yet. Will show Margo tomorrow, then will see what I think.

Today I'll be picking up iLife 05 from the UPS dropoff point. I came to the realization that iPhoto 04 wasn't going to be enough for me in editing my photos a while back and was going to get Photoshop Elements until I heard that Apple was updating iLife. The updates to iPhoto will probably be good enough. Will see. It's what I'm waiting for before I start populating the photo section.

Technorati Tags: Gadgets, Technology

Upgraded MT to 3.14. Minor bugfixes, but I like to keep up. Especially since it lets me think that I'm doing something with the site.

What does an IT guy do when the power is out at the office? Not a lot aparently.

Yesterday morning, a construction crew cut the main power line to the area where I work. The buildings that I work around aren't part of the normal power grid like the surrounding areas are. So while the rest of the base is back up, our area's going to be down til they re-patch the power back together.

The server room is in my building so we had a diesel generator providing emergency lighting in the office space and full power where the servers are. So while all of our workstations are down, the servers and the network are still going, as long as the diesel fuel keeps coming. We're expecting to be on the generator until Monday, at least.

Normally, I would expect that it would make for a pretty slow couple of days. No calls because the users aren't in. I can't do anything from my workstation, but I can work from the server room on some housekeeping projects...filesystem cleanup, maybe an upgrade here and there, then knock off early.

Nope. Spent the day running cable and setting up office equipment. We created an office space for the organization's VIP's that is running from the network and power in the server room. Was kind of an interesting project. Didn't do me any good (won't do me any good when I have to tear it down either) but the mucky-mucks appreciated the support.

They're say that we might not have power on Monday either. Maybe I'll get to get some more of my selfish work done and then knock off early.

Yeah, Glen, this was because of your email. :P

For some history, I'm an IT pro. I deal primarily with Windows servers at my job. At home, I was a PC guy. I ran Windows because I was a gamer until 2000 when I reformatted and went Linux. Not long after, I stopped playing computer games and got a PS2. This year, I got a 12" Powerbook and my old PC deesktop hasn't been powered up since.

I don't have presence of mind at the moment to go into why I love my Mac. Maybe later. I had a Top 10 in mind, but I have some negatives to add which doesn't fit now.

Will figure it out. This blogging thing takes some getting used to.