WUG 2008 - Will You Be There ?

'cos I will.

For further information, go here and check out the agenda.

IBM Lotus Notes/Domino 8.5 Beta 2

Please see here: -

http://www-10.lotus.com/ldd/nd85forum.nsf/DateAllThreadedWeb/2af77f70817fab8d852574b40061d30f?OpenDocument

for the full details, and here: -

https://www14.software.ibm.com/webapp/iwm/web/preLogin.do?lang=en_US&source=swg-lnd85
<https://www14.software.ibm.com/webapp/iwm/web/preLogin.do?lang=en_US&source=swg-lnd85>

for the download code, and here: -

http://www-10.lotus.com/ldd/nd85forum.nsf/7756aedc25e6d81285256324005ac76c/7141eeb6eeaf482c852574b40064e1fb?OpenDocument

for details of the release notes.

Lotus Notes 8.5 beta 2

According to Ed, here it comes ...............

Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm Mythbuntu

This weeks, I spent a few hours with one of our friends, and had a chance to play with his new Sony Vaio Media Centre ( looks like a great big white hat box - if you're old like me - or a great big white chocolate box - if you're optimistic ). This is a Windows Media Centre device, that runs Vista, and allows him to store/play audio and media files.

He's not yet got around to hooking it up to live TV, and is considering a Freesat adapter as his next purchase. He's already added a USB/SATA docking station, which allows him to simply plug in new SATA drives without a huge amount of reconfiguration - he paid about £50 for ~500 GB, which is pretty neat.

So what's this got to do with Mythbuntu ?

Well, I decided to have another dabble with PC/TV combinations, having bought a Hauppauge WinTV Nova-T USB 2.0 nadger last year ( and not really got into it in a big way ). Not wanting to invest much money at this time ( credit has crunched ), I decided to use my 4-year-old AMD Athlon64 monster ( transparent case, lights, fans, 4 GB RAM etc. called ORAC ).

I'd also tried ( and failed ) to get MythTV working on SuSE 9 last year, but had come across Mythbuntu on a random wander across the 'net.

I went here and downloaded Mythbuntu 8.04.1 ( which, quelle surprise, is based upon Ubuntu 8.0.4 "Hardy Heron" ) as a ~500 MB ISO image, cut it to CD, and installed it onto ORAC with little or no configuration.

Having done this, I fired it up, plugged in the Nova-T and ...... nowt.

Sadly, I had to do a little more configuration. Happily, I didn't need to recompile my kernel or use VI ( like Marmite, it's a love/hate thing ) to manipulate a whole bunch of shell scripts and CONF files.

This page on the MythTV wiki helped a lot.

In essence, I opened a console, cleared the message log ( sudo dmesg -c ) and then plugged in the Nova-T. When I checked the message log ( sudo dmesg ), I saw a series of messages which indicated that I was missing a firmware file for the device.

I needed to download a firmware file ( dvb-usb-nova-t-usb2-02.fw ), and finally found it here, thanks to Google. I placed this in the /lib/firmware directory, and unplugged/plugged the Nova-T. This time, sudo dmesg showed me that the device was now working.

I had to do some fiddling around with the MythTV back-end configuration, and will post more details about.

However, at the moment, I can watch live TV via Freeview without any major problems - I get a good picture, and can receive all of the Freeview channels. I've also recorded a few snippets of TV ( some inadvertently ) and seem to be able to record one channel whilst watching another ( which is nice ).

PS I didn't use this but it looks quite good.

Lotus Notes 8.0.2 - Looking Good, Coming Soon

Lotus Notes 8.0.2 offers the following: -

• Significant improvements in launch time, both from a first launch and a subsequent launch
• Changes to the start-up sequence (which contributes to the above)
• Reduction in the overall memory footprint (please note, this does not change our recommended system requirements) -> Lotus Notes 8.0.2 - Detailed system requirements
• Inclusion of Office 2007 file viewers
• iNotes Ultralite - browser-based e-mail specifically designed for the Apple iPhone interface and accessed thru the iPhone or iPod touch's Safari browser
• Performance improvements for Domino running on IBM System i

Also... Lotus Notes 8.5 beta 2 is expected before the end of August - not only does this offer some great new client features and server capabilities, but I'm also seeing a reduction in the memory usage compared to 8.0.1 (and that's with an unofficial daily build).

Searching with Domino Web Access 8.0.1

Initially, I wondered where the Search bar was in Domino Web Access ( Full or Lite ).

Then I realized that I needed to set the Enable full-text indexing for searching flag in my mail file preferences: -














Once done, here's the search bar: -












Nice :-)

QS4LD Hotfix 19 - Lessons Learnt

In short, RTFM or, to be more specific, RTFR ( Read The Flippin' Readme ).

Having downloaded HF19 as a JAR file, I did the usual (l)user thing of simply double-clicking on the JAR; saw a nice GUI but not much more.

In the end, I actually read the readme and realized that: -

(a) I hadn't copied the JAR to \Lotus\Domino\jvm\lib\ext
(b) I hadn't added \Lotus\Domino to my system path

Once I did both these things, I was able to double-click on the JAR and perform the installation which, after a couple of minutes, ended successfully with: -








PS The thing that finally triggered me actually reading the readme was the error: -

java.lang.NullPointerException
at java.lang.String.contains(Unknown Source)
at NamesFinder.runNotes(NamesFinder.java:83)
at lotus.domino.NotesThread.run(Unknown Source)
at FileMover.backUpSystemFiles(FileMover.java:209)
at FileMover.startMove(FileMover.java:48)
at Chooser.<init>(Chooser.java:115)
at ThreadLabel.main(ThreadLabel.java:122)

in \Lotus\Domino\HF19Backup\error.log.

Plugging someone else's stuff for a chance - KeyText - does what it says on the ...... website

Save time by using KeyText to automate typing and other repetitive tasks on your computer. KeyText is a useful keyboard macro and Windows automation program. It's bloomin' useful, and has made my life much much easier over the past few years. Sadly, it's only available on Windows, which is a shame, given that I'm spending more and more of my time in Linux but ..... c'est la vie.

If you need it, buy it here.

PS Did I mention that the authors, MJMSoft, are based in not-so-sunny-when-I-flew-in-this-AM Edinburgh ? Well, I just did ...

Open Mic Call - Using Lotus Quickr Connectors in Lotus Quickr Services for Lotus Domino ( or, as I call it, LQS4LD or QS4LD )

IBM Support will host an Open Mic conference call with Lotus Development and Support Engineers on the topic of using the Lotus® Quickr™ Connectors with Lotus Quickr services for Lotus Domino® on 27 August 2008.
 
The Open Mic call will be held on Wednesday, August 27, 2008, at 10:00 a.m. EDT (2:00 p.m. GMT). The call will last 60 minutes. Please dial into the call 5 minutes before the scheduled start.

This conference call is designed to be an open question and answer format, so bring your questions. There will be no formal presentation.

More details here ... with more about the Open Mics (!) calls here.

Domino Web Access ( aka iNotes ), Sametime Standard and Firefox together

I set up a combined Domino/Sametime demo today, and was wondering why IM/PA did not work within Firefox when it worked perfectly in Internet Explorer. Thanks to my friends at IBM, I found the answer here: -

Enable the Domino Web Access Contact List client for Mozilla Firefox

http://publib.boulder.ibm.com/infocenter/domhelp/v8r0/index.jsp?topic=/com.ibm.help.domino.admin.doc/DOC/H_SETTING_UP_SAMETIME_FOE_INOTES_WEB_ACCESS_OVER.html

Simply put, I needed to add the line: -

iNotes_WA_DisableFirefoxAwareness=0

to NOTES.INI and restart the Domino server.

Once done, all works like a dream.

Nice :-)

PS Am using Domino 8.0.1, Sametime 8.0 and Notes 8.0.1 on WinXP

Unread email indicator in a WebSphere Portal Theme

Potentially, a useful feature that I know at least one of my customers has been waiting for ..... here's a document from my colleague, Vince Perrin, that describes how to show an unread email indicator within the WebSphere Portal theme.

WebSphere Portal Theme Development with a focus on REST services Webcast - 4 September 2008

IBM Support is hosting a Tech Exchange webcast and call on the topic of WebSphere Portal Theme Development with a focus on REST services. This presentation will take place on Thursday, September 4, 2008 at 10:00 AM US EDT (2:00:00 PM GMT). Open Mic calls are Question & Answer focused sessions with a panel of subject matter experts covering your questions without going thru a slide presentation. Webcasts are slide presentations by a single presenter followed by Questions & Answers related to the material covered, as time permits.

See here for details.

DWA Lite on the Greenhouse - Lookin' Good

Lotus TechJam II - The Agenda - Tuesday 2 September 2008 @ IBM Staines

The event will cover the following topics, and will be delivered by a
team of Lotus technical experts from the UK and Europe.


- General Lotus Update - the technical vision

- Websphere Portal - a view from the Boeblingen Labs

- Mainsoft - Lotus and Microsoft SharePoint Coexistence

- Lotus Connections - Under the hood

- UC2 Demo - linking Sametime with VoIP

- Mashups - what the heck is it? How can it help me?

Here's the invitation

DB2 tuning for WCM JCR v6 database

Some good advice and guidance here from one of our French colleagues, Enguerrand Spindler, including some useful links to WCM performance documents on the IBM website.

Nice !

What's Coming in Lotus Notes and Domino 8.5

Saw this on Ed's blog and thought, hmmmmmmmmmmmmmm, that looks like something my customers can read .....

IBM's gone wiki-d - Welcome to the WebSphere Portal family wiki

Welcome to the wiki where you can find and contribute information about installing, administering, and using IBM WebSphere Portal and all the offerings in the WebSphere Portal Family such as WebSphere Portal Enable, WebSphere Portal Extend, WebSphere Portal Express, Lotus Web Content Management, and IBM Accelerators for WebSphere Portal.

Want to see more ? Well, go here.

Interim Fixes for WebSphere Portal 6.1

    Fix name:     6.1.0.0-WP-Multi-IFPK68671
    Abstract:     For Fixing Incomplete/partial policy value sets in case path is not found in cache

    Fix name:     6.1.0.0-WP-Multi-IFPK67104
    Abstract:     Authentication problems

    Fix name:     6.1.0.0-WP-Multi-IFPK68184
    Abstract:     Theme Policy Tracing needs improvement


All available from Fix Central.

Agenda for Lotus TechJam is confirmed (ish)

• General Lotus Updates e.g. Notes 8.0.2 and 8.5, Symphony, OSX, Linux, iPod / iPhone and DWA ( iNotes )
  
• WebSphere Portal - from the labs
• Mainsoft - from Microsoft to Lotus
• Lotus Sametime and Telephony Integration
• Connections - from the labs
• Lotus Mashups and Composite Applications

More to follow .....

Cumulative Fix for IBM Lotus Web Content Management 6.1 is here ....

Thanks to Stu and others for sharing this.

IBM has released a cumulative fix ( aka iFix or PK68139) for WCM 6.1,
which fixes a number of issues around syndication, migration and
versioning. It also wraps up a number of existing WCM APARs ( Authorized
Program Analysis Report, in case you were wondering.

It can be downloaded from Fix Central here: -

http://www.ibm.com/eserver/support/fixes/fixcentral/swg/quickorder?fixes=6.1.0.0-WCM-PK68139

Enjoy !

Bundles of fun with VMware Workstation

My beta of VMware Workstation 6.5 ( e.x.p build-91182 ) ran out a few
days ago, meaning that I needed to go back to VMware.com and download a
more recent version. During the process, I pulled down a so-called bundle: -

-rw-r--r-- 1 hayd hayd 345935635 2008-08-01 07:42
VMware-Workstation-e.x.p-99530.i386.bundle

This left me thinking "Hmm, how do I install this puppy as it's not a
normal executable file".

It actually proved to be a pretty painless process - it turns out that
the bundle is actually packaged with its own installation script, so I
"merely" needed to run: -

$ sudo sh VMware-Workstation-e.x.p-99530.i386.bundle

as per: -

http://communities.vmware.com/click.jspa?searchID=-1&objectType=2&objectID=979277

etc.

Hardy does Java

Downloaded a copy of WebSphere Application Server Community Edition ( aka WASCE ) the other day as I continue to play with WebSphere Portlet Factory on Ubuntu.

The

However, I found two very useful documents that helped me with the installation: -

WebSphere Application Server Community Edition Documentation Project - Installing a server

http://publib.boulder.ibm.com/wasce/V1.1.0/en/Tasks/Install/Installing.html#Linux_install_from_wasce_setup-version-unix_bin

IBM - Ubuntu-specific installation instructions for WebSphere Application Server Community Edition

http://www-1.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?rs=2359&uid=swg27009332

For me, the trick was to download the full-fat version of WASCE which includes the IBM Java2 SDK: -

http://publib.boulder.ibm.com/wasce/V1.1.0/en/Tasks/Install/Installing.html#Linux_install_from_wasce_ibm150sdk_setup-version-ia32linux_tar

and then convert it using Alien: -

$ sudo alien ibm-java2-i386-sdk-5.0-2.0.i386.rpm

and then install it using Dpkg: -

$ sudo dpkg -i ibm-java2-i386-sdk_5.0-3_i386.deb

Job done.

TGiF

Thankfully, have now reached the end of the week, having traveled many many miles, from southern England to northern Scotland, via Glasgow, Dundee and Edinburgh.

Spent most of the week talking about, and showing, WebSphere Portal ( 6.0 and 6.1 ) and also WebSphere Portlet Factory 6.1. Learnt a few lessons ( using WPF eventing to have one portlet trigger a SQL query/report in another portlet using a drop-down selection box ).

Just downloading an updated VMware Workstation 6.5 beta, as the license key on the earlier beta had expired :-(

Am also going to look at VirtualBox as time allows .........

Ah well, carpe diem, tempus fugit, drinkus coffeeus .............. next problem - how do I get from my hotel to Starbucks in the rain without a jacket or an umbrella ......