03/29/2007
How NOT to get to ILUG 2007
Tags : Google Maps ILUGBookmark :
If your one of the lucky people to get their name on the list for ILUG 2007 then you probably have your travel plans sorted out by now but if not then beware of Google Maps. It appears that the 'Get Directions' feature may have you doing a lot of swimming if your traveling to Dublin from the USA and at a 30 day trip you only have a few more weeks to get packed and ready.
Of course buying an airplane ticket might be a better option.
Posted by Declan Lynch At 02:01:57 PM From Pittsburgh, PA | Permalink | Comments (5) | TrackBacks (0)
03/26/2007
Gadget Review : Netgear SPH200D DualPhone for Skype
Tags : Netgear SPH200D SkypeBookmark :
Last week we purchased a new phone system for the house to replace our current cordless handset. We had been looking to replace the current system for a little while as when the phone was in use the wifi network would sometimes dissappear depending on what channel the phone decided to use and because you couldn't use the microwave oven without causing massive interference on the phoneline either.
While we could have just replaced the system with a DECT system that ran on a different wavelength we ended up buying the Netgear SPH200D DualPhone that works on both your landline and your Skype account. The system consists of two parts, the base unit and the handset. The base unit plugs into your router and your landline and the handset goes where ever you want in the house. The SPH200D runs at 1.9Ghz so no distruption to out wifi network will occur.
Turning on the handset for the first time prompts you to either log into an existing skype account or create a new one and once your logged in you can see a list of all your skype contacts and their current status, you can make skype-skype calls or if you have SkypeOut credit you can make SkypeOut calls at much cheaper rates then your ordinary landline, of course you can still make calls on the landline if you need to or if you don't have any SkypeOut credit. It also supports SkypeIn and Skype Voicemail. One that that surprised me was that it could also detect when there was voicemail on our landline and set a notification on the handset's screen.
If you decide to setup a new Skype account for the phone then I would recommend using your computer to make the data entry and setup of your contacts list easier, however setting up the SPH200D itself does not require a computer in anyway, the only requirement is broadband internet.
The handset is nice and light and is charged by two recharable batteries that are supposed to give up to 12 hours talk time. The handset also has a mute button ( for when the dogs start barking in the background when your on an important conference call ) and a speakerphone option. There is also a headphone jack on the side so you don't need to hold the phone on long calls. You can link 4 handsets to a single base unit so this really is a whole house phone replacement system and while one person may be on a Skype or SkypeOut call another handset could be used to make or take a landline call.
So far the DualPhone hasn't had too much use yet at home, i've made one SkypeOut call on it and we have received on landline call, in both cases the call quality was perfect however the SkypeOut call doesn't have any sort of CallerID on the recipients phone but this is something Skype needs to fix.
Overall I'd recommend this phone if your looking to get a new system for your house or if you wantr to move into the world of Skype at home.
Posted by Declan Lynch At 09:15:31 AM From Pittsburgh, PA | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
03/21/2007
Claiming Your BlogSphere V3 Blog On Technorati
Tags : Technorati Blogging Blogsphere
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If your running or planning to upgrade to BlogSphere V3 then you may want to make use of the Technorati integration by displaying entries categories as links to Technorati and then the next logical step is to claim your blog on Technorati so you can make use of some of their advanced features.
Technorati claim process can make use of BlogSphere's built-in MetaWebLog API support to quickly determine of you own the blog or not. Before beginning the claim process on Technorati you will need to make sure your BlogSpghere configuration document has a username and password set in the interfaces section.
Once the BlogSphere configuration is complete go to Technorati and either log into your existign account or create a new one. When you are logged in go to your account profile and click on the 'Blogs' tab and enter the url of your blog into the 'BlogURL' field and then click OK. Technorati will then detect that your blog has the MetaWebLog API enabled and will enter it's Quick Claim mode and ask for the username and password. This is the username and password from above, not your Lotus Notes username or password.
Once Technorati has verified the username and password you will be able to enter in some extra details and tags for your blog and then save it to your account.
Bookmark :
If your running or planning to upgrade to BlogSphere V3 then you may want to make use of the Technorati integration by displaying entries categories as links to Technorati and then the next logical step is to claim your blog on Technorati so you can make use of some of their advanced features.
Technorati claim process can make use of BlogSphere's built-in MetaWebLog API support to quickly determine of you own the blog or not. Before beginning the claim process on Technorati you will need to make sure your BlogSpghere configuration document has a username and password set in the interfaces section.
Once the BlogSphere configuration is complete go to Technorati and either log into your existign account or create a new one. When you are logged in go to your account profile and click on the 'Blogs' tab and enter the url of your blog into the 'BlogURL' field and then click OK. Technorati will then detect that your blog has the MetaWebLog API enabled and will enter it's Quick Claim mode and ask for the username and password. This is the username and password from above, not your Lotus Notes username or password.
Once Technorati has verified the username and password you will be able to enter in some extra details and tags for your blog and then save it to your account.
Posted by Declan Lynch At 12:22:44 PM From Pittsburgh, PA | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
03/08/2007
A Spam A Day From DominoFiles
Tags : DominoFiles Spam
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I have never given my business email address to DominoFiles, I have never purchased any of their products or signed up on their website. I didn't even use this email address to register for Lotusphere but somehow they managed to get it and are sending me unsolicitated emails. Over the past few days they have sent in 1 per day.
But I have a fair idea know how they managed to get that particular email address and that was via TeamStudio, I do have a business relationship with TeamStudio and the first DominoFiles spam message was a TeamStudio related message that others in the community also received. To me it appears that TeamStudio have either unwittingly added all their customers to the DominoFiles Spam list by using their services to send out marketing or they actually sold the addresses to DominoFiles.
To TeamStudio I say please stop using DominoFiles to send out marketing information, our email addresses are not safe in the hands of DominoFiles and it is bad for your business to be associated with a company known to send spam and award themselves ficticious awards.
Bookmark :
I have never given my business email address to DominoFiles, I have never purchased any of their products or signed up on their website. I didn't even use this email address to register for Lotusphere but somehow they managed to get it and are sending me unsolicitated emails. Over the past few days they have sent in 1 per day.
But I have a fair idea know how they managed to get that particular email address and that was via TeamStudio, I do have a business relationship with TeamStudio and the first DominoFiles spam message was a TeamStudio related message that others in the community also received. To me it appears that TeamStudio have either unwittingly added all their customers to the DominoFiles Spam list by using their services to send out marketing or they actually sold the addresses to DominoFiles.
To TeamStudio I say please stop using DominoFiles to send out marketing information, our email addresses are not safe in the hands of DominoFiles and it is bad for your business to be associated with a company known to send spam and award themselves ficticious awards.
Posted by Declan Lynch At 11:50:39 AM From Pittsburgh, PA | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)
03/08/2007
A week with a mac
Tags : Apple Macbook
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Well it's been a week now with the new macbook and so far i'm very impressed. If your looking at buying a new computer or laptop then you won't go far wrong by buying a mac.One of the biggest cliches you hear about the mac is that 'It Just Works' and until you actually use one for even a few days you will never appreciate how true that statement is.
Some of the things that I really like on the mac is the ease of use. On the trackpad you can enable a few handy features like dragging two fingers down the trackpad will scroll the screen, no having to move the mouse over to the side of the window and dragging the scroll bar up and down. It's simple and saves a lot of time. Tap the trackpad with two fingers and it's as if you were right clicking something, another good time saver.
After about two days of getting used to the mac I turned off my thinkpad and switched completely to the macbook for both home and work. Even my home PC hasn't been turned on in the past week. This doesn't mean that I'm not using windows as I still need it for Sametime and Notes Designer but with Parallels running vista on the mac I can keep those apps handy for when I need them in work. I know there will be a mac Sametime client in the 7.5.1 release but I think it will be a long time before we see a Notes designer for the mac... Maybe when the Eclipse version of designer becomes a reality will we eventually see a designer client running on the mac.
Bookmark :
Well it's been a week now with the new macbook and so far i'm very impressed. If your looking at buying a new computer or laptop then you won't go far wrong by buying a mac.One of the biggest cliches you hear about the mac is that 'It Just Works' and until you actually use one for even a few days you will never appreciate how true that statement is.
Some of the things that I really like on the mac is the ease of use. On the trackpad you can enable a few handy features like dragging two fingers down the trackpad will scroll the screen, no having to move the mouse over to the side of the window and dragging the scroll bar up and down. It's simple and saves a lot of time. Tap the trackpad with two fingers and it's as if you were right clicking something, another good time saver.
After about two days of getting used to the mac I turned off my thinkpad and switched completely to the macbook for both home and work. Even my home PC hasn't been turned on in the past week. This doesn't mean that I'm not using windows as I still need it for Sametime and Notes Designer but with Parallels running vista on the mac I can keep those apps handy for when I need them in work. I know there will be a mac Sametime client in the 7.5.1 release but I think it will be a long time before we see a Notes designer for the mac... Maybe when the Eclipse version of designer becomes a reality will we eventually see a designer client running on the mac.
Posted by Declan Lynch At 09:55:53 AM From Pittsburgh, PA | Permalink | Comments (4) | TrackBacks (0)
02/28/2007
The WOW Really Starts Now
Tags : Apple Macbook
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You may have heard of the Microsoft Vista marketing campaign by now with the slogan of 'The WOW Starts Now' and I have to agree the WOW really does start now, I just bought my first Apple MAC and all I've been saying so far is WOW WOW WOW.
Having used Windows nearly all my computing career this is the first time I've had any exposure to the Mac operating system and I have to say that so far I am impressed at how wonderfully fast and easy Macs are. Installing software is simple, just drag it to the apps folder and bingo it's installed, uninstalling is just as simple, just drag the app to the trashcan and the system works it's wonders.
The included iLife software is outstanding and I can't wait to dig into them some more. All the software that I'd normally spend a day or so installing on my windows machine only took about 2 hors to install on the mac and really the only thing I'm missing is the Notes Designer client but that's no problem with Parallels Desktop, especially in coherence mode where it can mix your windows app windows on top of the mac os desktop. Notes Designer is the only thing i'm going to run on the VM partition ( until IBM comes out with a Mac Notes Designer client ) , everything else I'm going to use the native mac apps for, including this blog entry which I'm writing in the Notes 7.0.2 Mac client.
I've made the switch... Who's next...
Bookmark :
You may have heard of the Microsoft Vista marketing campaign by now with the slogan of 'The WOW Starts Now' and I have to agree the WOW really does start now, I just bought my first Apple MAC and all I've been saying so far is WOW WOW WOW.
Having used Windows nearly all my computing career this is the first time I've had any exposure to the Mac operating system and I have to say that so far I am impressed at how wonderfully fast and easy Macs are. Installing software is simple, just drag it to the apps folder and bingo it's installed, uninstalling is just as simple, just drag the app to the trashcan and the system works it's wonders.
The included iLife software is outstanding and I can't wait to dig into them some more. All the software that I'd normally spend a day or so installing on my windows machine only took about 2 hors to install on the mac and really the only thing I'm missing is the Notes Designer client but that's no problem with Parallels Desktop, especially in coherence mode where it can mix your windows app windows on top of the mac os desktop. Notes Designer is the only thing i'm going to run on the VM partition ( until IBM comes out with a Mac Notes Designer client ) , everything else I'm going to use the native mac apps for, including this blog entry which I'm writing in the Notes 7.0.2 Mac client.
I've made the switch... Who's next...
Posted by Declan Lynch At 09:17:45 PM From Pittsburgh, PA | Permalink | Comments (13) | TrackBacks (0)
02/22/2007
How Do YOU Do It : Rooms And Resources
Tags : Lotus Domino Administration
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In the past I have always setup my Rooms And Resources database on a single central database, regardless of the number of offices and users that would be using the system. It always worked well until my last place of employment where different offices started having different requests for access to the database, and requests where they wanted to make sure that staff from one office couldn't go into the database and see/edit bookings for another office. In the end it just got all messy and since then I've changed my outlook on Rooms And Resources databases and now prefer to have seperate database at each location.
So I was wondering How Do YOU do it? How many locations and staff do you support and how do you setup the rooms and resources database, as a single central database or as seperate databases at each site and is there a specific reason for doing it the way you do?
Bookmark :
In the past I have always setup my Rooms And Resources database on a single central database, regardless of the number of offices and users that would be using the system. It always worked well until my last place of employment where different offices started having different requests for access to the database, and requests where they wanted to make sure that staff from one office couldn't go into the database and see/edit bookings for another office. In the end it just got all messy and since then I've changed my outlook on Rooms And Resources databases and now prefer to have seperate database at each location.
So I was wondering How Do YOU do it? How many locations and staff do you support and how do you setup the rooms and resources database, as a single central database or as seperate databases at each site and is there a specific reason for doing it the way you do?
Posted by Declan Lynch At 10:37:15 AM From Pittsburgh, PA | Permalink | Comments (4) | TrackBacks (0)
02/20/2007
The Story Of Calvin And Hobbes
Tags : Calvin And Hobbes Robot Chicken
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I'd always wondered what had happened to Calvin and Hobbes...
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I'd always wondered what had happened to Calvin and Hobbes...
Posted by Declan Lynch At 12:08:01 PM From Pittsburgh, PA | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)
02/20/2007
Irish Lotus Users Group Conference
Tags : ILUG Lotus
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If you haven't looked at your RSS feeds or favorite domino related blogs for the past 24 hours then you might have missed the news about the Irish Lotus Users Group conference that has been organised by Paul, Bill, Warren, Kitty and Eileen. It's a two day event on the 24th and 25th of May and best of all it's FREE, all you have to do is look after your own travel, accomodation and food ( or guinness for those who like their meals in a pint glass ).
There's a fantastic lineup of speakers and IBM Ireland will be there with a lab so you can see and use some of the new innovations like Quickr, Connections and of course the Notes 8 client which should be entering beta very very soon.
Make sure you sign up at the new ILUG2007 website if your going to attend and make sure you do it fast, places are limited and will go very quickly.
Hopefully myself and Terri will see you there.
Bookmark :
If you haven't looked at your RSS feeds or favorite domino related blogs for the past 24 hours then you might have missed the news about the Irish Lotus Users Group conference that has been organised by Paul, Bill, Warren, Kitty and Eileen. It's a two day event on the 24th and 25th of May and best of all it's FREE, all you have to do is look after your own travel, accomodation and food ( or guinness for those who like their meals in a pint glass ).
There's a fantastic lineup of speakers and IBM Ireland will be there with a lab so you can see and use some of the new innovations like Quickr, Connections and of course the Notes 8 client which should be entering beta very very soon.
Make sure you sign up at the new ILUG2007 website if your going to attend and make sure you do it fast, places are limited and will go very quickly.
Hopefully myself and Terri will see you there.
Posted by Declan Lynch At 09:12:09 AM From Pittsburgh, PA | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
02/12/2007
Got XBox Live? I guess you cannot move!
Tags : Microsoft Xbox360 Xbox Live
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A few months before I left Ireland to move to the USA I purchased an Xbox360 and setup an Xbox360 Live account, part of the process was filling in my credit card details and billing address which included Ireland as the country. Before I moved to the USA I sold my Xbox360 and games and then purchased a brand new one over here so I wouldn't have any region and NTSC/PAL issues.
Fast forward on a year and the account has expired and the Irish credit card that was used to setup the account no longer exists so I receive an email letting me know that I need to provide new credit card details but what should be an easy matter of filling out a few fields on a form and updating my address details hits a brick wall. The COUNTRY field is not editable, it's fixed to Ireland, this means that the credit card verification fails so I can't renew my account.
Ok, maybe it's time to call xbox support. They answer, I give my details and tell them the issue and their answer is that I cannot change the country. I tell them that people move countries all the time, they must have some method of updating account information, they tell me that they have no way of changing the country,
Apparently once the xBox360 Live account is setup the country you select is permanent. Their solution to the problem is to delete the account and have it setup again and this sounds like a reasonable solution until you ask about all the items that you have purchased on Xbox Live that are linked to your account.
Their answer is not a good one, Once the account is deleted you will lose all the items your have purchased and they cannot be transferred to the new account but you will be able to repurchase them on the new account. Ok, what about a refund... nope their system cannot provide refunds.
This is ridiculous, who designs a system that makes it impossible to change the country field in a users account details? People do move countries and not just to the USA but all around the world.
What makes this a really laughable situation is that I want to give Microsoft money for something and they are refusing it, without the update to the country in my account I cannot use the Microsoft Live marketplace to purchase new games on the Xbox Live Arcade, I cannot access the Xbox Live video marketplace to purchase and download movies and I can't play any of my xbox Live games online without my subscription account.
So if you have an Xbox Live account then make sure you cancel any plans you may have in relation to moving countries.
Bookmark :
A few months before I left Ireland to move to the USA I purchased an Xbox360 and setup an Xbox360 Live account, part of the process was filling in my credit card details and billing address which included Ireland as the country. Before I moved to the USA I sold my Xbox360 and games and then purchased a brand new one over here so I wouldn't have any region and NTSC/PAL issues.
Fast forward on a year and the account has expired and the Irish credit card that was used to setup the account no longer exists so I receive an email letting me know that I need to provide new credit card details but what should be an easy matter of filling out a few fields on a form and updating my address details hits a brick wall. The COUNTRY field is not editable, it's fixed to Ireland, this means that the credit card verification fails so I can't renew my account.
Ok, maybe it's time to call xbox support. They answer, I give my details and tell them the issue and their answer is that I cannot change the country. I tell them that people move countries all the time, they must have some method of updating account information, they tell me that they have no way of changing the country,
Apparently once the xBox360 Live account is setup the country you select is permanent. Their solution to the problem is to delete the account and have it setup again and this sounds like a reasonable solution until you ask about all the items that you have purchased on Xbox Live that are linked to your account.
Their answer is not a good one, Once the account is deleted you will lose all the items your have purchased and they cannot be transferred to the new account but you will be able to repurchase them on the new account. Ok, what about a refund... nope their system cannot provide refunds.
This is ridiculous, who designs a system that makes it impossible to change the country field in a users account details? People do move countries and not just to the USA but all around the world.
What makes this a really laughable situation is that I want to give Microsoft money for something and they are refusing it, without the update to the country in my account I cannot use the Microsoft Live marketplace to purchase new games on the Xbox Live Arcade, I cannot access the Xbox Live video marketplace to purchase and download movies and I can't play any of my xbox Live games online without my subscription account.
So if you have an Xbox Live account then make sure you cancel any plans you may have in relation to moving countries.
Posted by Declan Lynch At 10:17:26 PM From Pittsburgh, PA | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBacks (0)
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