tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-118208312008-04-08T08:20:49.953+10:00NotesTrackerBlogger178125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11820831.post-44113978703544639682008-02-16T14:30:00.017+11:002008-02-17T11:51:11.586+11:00

An Aussie mate of mine, Ethann Castell, has recently published a very nice article that everyone who's involved with Lotus Notes/Domino applications for the Internet should read and heed. You'll find his article here: Top 10 issues when developing Lotus Notes Domino Internet applications Ethann's article for some reason triggered a bout of recalling memories about computing hardware and software

NotesTrackertag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11820831.post-1869333525920805552008-02-01T12:33:00.000+11:002008-02-01T13:09:44.991+11:00

I'm still struggling to get my head around Service Oriented Architecture and all that it implies. So far, it has only been very peripheral to what I do, so I'm ever on the outlook for pearls of wisdom about SOA. Neil Ward-Dutton of Macehiter-Ward-Dutton has come up with a very nice visual summary diagram of the key benefits of an SOA approach at SOA's five benefits in one picture (click on the

NotesTrackertag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11820831.post-54295151285371915142008-01-30T09:28:00.000+11:002008-01-30T09:47:54.588+11:00

This is the latest installment in a series of informal browser share snapshots that I've been publishing on this blog for several years now. Today's snapshot matches pretty well the browser share statistics coming from European countries as measured via XiTiMonitor, published 24 January 2008: Relance de la part de visites de Mozilla Firefox dans Les pays européens fin 2007 (Google translation

NotesTrackertag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11820831.post-45662135591207930822007-10-21T10:19:00.000+10:002007-10-23T20:42:35.205+10:00

Here's another one of my occasional posts aiming to hopefully reduce other peoples' angst ... I was happily working away with Firefox version 2.0.0.7 the other day (October 20th), when out of the blue a dialog box popped up informing me that version 2.0.0.8 had been installed and would come into effect next time that I started the browser. That seemed innocuous enough. I'd seen the update

NotesTrackertag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11820831.post-10434584213191433752007-09-17T07:51:00.000+10:002007-09-18T08:00:18.367+10:00

For sheer inventiveness, you have to hand it to some of the "darker elements" who use the Internet. Reportedly, the designers of XXX-rated sex and porn sites are amongst the earliest adopters of new web design techniques, putting some more conventional sites to shame. This also seems to apply to the scamsters behind "419 fraud" -- named after the relevant section in Nigeria's criminal code ,

NotesTrackertag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11820831.post-82421238165276408342007-08-23T18:47:00.000+10:002007-08-23T19:12:37.458+10:00

I was sent this classic by my fellow ex-IBMer and good friend Gordon Newell. He was an IBM harwdare specialist, is now proprietor of Chalcot Micro Systems, and builds all my desktop systems for me. Here it is: For the sake of the search engine robots, here's the message text: Thank you! Your from has been sent. Need more Tech Support from us? Click [Yes] to Tech support page, [NO] to Home

NotesTrackertag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11820831.post-3419508072456138152007-08-01T11:25:00.000+10:002007-08-01T11:45:04.605+10:00

Ed Brill, Business Unit Executive of IBM Lotus Notes/Domino sales, worldwide, extols the the next major feature release of Lotus Notes, due to be released any time now. Understand how these collaborative advances, are helping users work the way they want, for the better. (You can download the presentation slides as a PDF document for later review.) As earlier pointed out, we have tested our

NotesTrackertag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11820831.post-82045069033090426052007-07-29T18:15:00.000+10:002008-02-13T09:59:01.661+11:00

I've written previously about pathetically inane error messages that lurk in dark corners of otherwise good software, waiting to spring out at you when you least desire them. Today's beauty is one that lives in the current latest release 7.0.2 of the IBM Lotus Notes client (imminently to be replaced by the brand new Notes 8 client based on the IBM Expeditor/Eclipse architecture). This is

NotesTrackertag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11820831.post-40291955904069168562007-07-23T16:00:00.000+10:002007-07-29T12:50:33.529+10:00

"On a wing and a prayer" ... In poor condition, but just managing to get the job done. (from The Phrase Finder)In a desperate situation and you’re relying on hope to see you through. (from World Wide Words)- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - I've written a few posts about "Web 2.0" during the last year or two, and consider that I have a reasonable understanding of the concept --

NotesTrackertag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11820831.post-83811620614567805782007-07-18T22:34:00.000+10:002007-07-18T22:44:42.884+10:00

There's a new (13 July 2007) article over at Dr. Dobb's Agile Modeling Newsletter portal, titled Calculating Documentation Cruft Here "cruft" is designated as: C = The percentage of the document that is currently "correct". R = The chance that the document will be read by the intended audience. U = The percentage of the document that is actually understood by the intended audienceF = The chance

NotesTrackertag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11820831.post-28809267362981250002007-07-12T10:27:00.000+10:002007-07-12T10:48:20.769+10:00

Last night I again watched two of Australia's best-known movie critics Margaret Pomeranz's and David Stratton's weekly show At The Movies on ABC TV, and they both admitted that it was well into the movie Lucky Miles before they realized that it was meant to be taken as a comedy, although a "bitter-sweet" one. It was the same experience for me when I read Angsuman Chakraborty's June 2nd, 2006

NotesTrackertag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11820831.post-91264882163831972522007-06-29T18:55:00.000+10:002007-07-29T13:06:15.237+10:00

I tried to report this very bad page design about a year ago, and it was only today when I revisited Vodafone Australia's "My Vodafone" home page that I found it unchanged. I'm not surprised, actually. This is just another case of some combination of poor web page design, woeful usability testing, weak project management, who knows what. Apparently it was done by an external web design firm.

NotesTrackertag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11820831.post-36679348550192503652007-05-05T06:45:00.000+10:002007-05-05T07:07:11.860+10:00

I haven't been to China since my last business trip there for IBM in 1991, but still follow its progress with fascination. Shanghai's landscape has been vastly altered since then, and it seems that the same is now happening in Beijing due to preparation for the 2008 Olympic Games. With regard to China's technological advancement, a couple of reports are worth reading: China’s 15 Year Science

NotesTrackertag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11820831.post-16285485260867029482007-05-04T10:45:00.000+10:002007-05-04T11:07:25.622+10:00

I just came across Eclipse Ecosystem (a blog by Donald Smith, Director of Ecosystem Development for the Eclipse Foundation). This is a blog with a difference, as exemplified by the post: Measuring the Health of Ecosystems It made me wonder what some other communities of interest would look like when put under a similar magnifying glass -- if you could do it. Lotus Notes/Domino Ecosystem?Linux

NotesTrackertag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11820831.post-30797358235831141552007-04-30T14:49:00.001+10:002007-05-03T19:57:04.764+10:00

Click to view a larger image SDMS version 4.2 is now available for download. Get your copy from the download page here or here (go to the middle of the page for the download links and password). Be sure to read the Help About and the Help Using documents before using the new features, which include: Readers field security to control who can read sets of documents (a user request). Sets of

NotesTrackertag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11820831.post-20244922593941128572007-04-30T14:06:00.000+10:002007-05-01T13:16:31.991+10:00

There's a new IBM Redbook out that's worth a read by those (probably many) pf you not too familiar with the IBM mainframe world: IBM System z Strengths and Values I've talked about mainframes before. See, for example, Mainframes - the "dinosaurs" are thriving. There are some good arguments for using mainframes to consolidate workloads, simplifying systems administration (including virtualization

NotesTrackertag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11820831.post-13776779754431486912007-04-24T11:50:00.000+10:002007-04-28T13:37:13.817+10:00

Click here to view the Wikipedia article about Pi I was quite chuffed to read over at Dr. Dobb's Portal that Web 2.0 Arrives to Find Web 3.0 Underway How far will it all go? What will they claim next? What nonsensical hype! Let me remind you here and now "Web 4.0" will never be achievable, according to my very own theory espoused last year in "Web 2.0" and "Web Pi" -- Reject Reality and

NotesTrackertag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11820831.post-61972384073281179852007-04-23T09:49:00.000+10:002007-06-01T00:38:13.614+10:00

I know from my tracking of hits on previous posts -- such as Best way to install the Netgear FR114P Print Server under Windows XP -- that tips like this can save some people grief, so here's another one.I upgraded to a new purpose-built top-of-the-line desktop system late last year, and part of that involved installing my trusty old friend the Eudora mail client. I've been using Eudora since a

NotesTrackertag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11820831.post-33426386036198214832007-04-17T12:40:00.000+10:002007-04-17T13:21:36.124+10:00

Just in case you missed the release of NotesTracker Version 5.0 on 4/4/2007, you can find the announcement at our NotesTracker news and tips blog There you'll also find links for the follow-on updates to SDMS and CAPTURE both of which which have been upgraded to NotesTracker V5.0 level). If you're unfamiliar with NotesTracker, now's the time to try it out. ... And to download the NotesTracker

NotesTrackertag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11820831.post-90856550007116918362007-04-17T09:20:00.000+10:002007-04-17T12:37:48.466+10:00

Is it wise to accept fixed pricing for an IT project (or any other project, for that matter)? There's a brief but salutary article with the above title over at Dr. Dobb's Portal, well worth a read by anybody involved with software projects. Go to http://www.ddj.com/dept/architect/199001126?cid=RSSfeed_DDJ_ArchitectDebug

NotesTrackertag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11820831.post-80357541083140102322007-04-16T12:23:00.000+10:002007-05-03T19:49:08.959+10:00

I see that Dr. Songpol Somers of the Horticultural Research Centre of Thailand has advanced the state of the scientific art by breeding a variety of durian fruit that has a mild smell. Durian trees grow in south-east Asian countries (Malaysia, Thailand, The Philippines, etc), and I believe that their unique fruit come to ripeness in the first half of the year (from February onwards). These days,

NotesTrackertag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11820831.post-31035985704994583112007-04-15T13:05:00.000+10:002007-06-01T00:36:47.148+10:00

Local Aussie IT commentator Stan Beer has been trying out some Linux alternatives to Windows and on 12th April wrote Kubuntu looks nice but come on fellas, wireless input followed the next day by Ubuntu fanboys on Linux Today arise for wireless input rant I have just added my own views as a comment to Stan's blog, and thought that it would be useful to post them here in my own blog as well ...

NotesTrackertag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11820831.post-31694745776931945782007-04-10T17:29:00.000+10:002007-04-10T17:53:27.685+10:00

I had barely told you about a LotusScript compiler error that I had a few days ago (see The curious case of the "Name previously declared" LotusScript error) when I was subjected to another wasted hour or so earlier today due to a similar quirk. This time when I opened certain databases I got the message "Duplicate PUBLIC name ACTIONTYPE in USE module" (see image). Why was it happening in some

NotesTrackertag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11820831.post-75976433000626957372007-04-08T10:57:00.000+10:002007-04-09T08:45:48.070+10:00

Oh, there's so much stuff out there on the Web. I recently came across The Art of Unix Usability by Eric Raymond and Rob Landley. Talk about "memory lane" ... Not so much concerning the Unix aspects of this book, but some of the other they describe from the "dark ages" of computing: way back in the dark ages of the 1960s and 1970s. Thoughts of my first ten years at IBM (during the 1970s) came

NotesTrackertag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11820831.post-34432587766649462282007-04-08T09:56:00.000+10:002007-12-16T19:26:35.302+11:00

During final testing of the NotesTracker Version 5.0 (released on 4/4/2007), I was amazed to get an annoying LotusScript error popping up where it should never have. It turned out to be what I'd term a "quirk" of the LotusScript compilation process and happened with only one of about six databases that I was testing. The reason that I'm writing about it is to assist others who might encounter

NotesTracker