07/04/2009

All Done

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I'm closing down operations on this Blog for the time being. I'll still be keeping this domain, as I have plans for it in the near future. But for now, head on over to The Loveable Geek for more uniquely kak content

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22/03/2009

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Lynne passed away, very peacefully, at St Andrew's Hospice on Saturday 21st March 2009 at 10:30am. Rebecca & I would like to thank all of you for your kind thoughts, prayers & loving support during this time.

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10/03/2009

The Beginning of the End

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This blog entry marks the beginning of the end of this Blog, as very shortly, I will be blogging here. Unfortunately, this blog entry also marks the beginning of the end of the most important person within my life.

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29/01/2009

Time for a change

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I'll be posting some exciting startling interesting news about this blog within the next day or so. It involves the passing of one geek legend (?) and the rise of another. Stay tuned ...

(PS - No one has died, honest. All shall be revealed soon).

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20/01/2009

Happy Birthday Bill Buchan

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Bill is a great bloke who becomes a sprightly 42 year old geek Today. Happy Birthday Bill ..!

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12/01/2009

Life Goes On

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Further to this post, here is the promised update on how Lynne's cancer treatment is progressing. Please bear with me on this one, as I have gone into some detail here.
The faint of heart may not want to proceed.

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06/01/2009

I guess I *have* been away for a while

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A picture named M2

Today was the first I knew about Notes & Domino 8.5.0 being released. Seriously, it was. I think I need to start paying more attention to what's happening within Lotus-land.

Oh, and I have upgraded. Only my client though ...

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06/01/2009

Breaking Radio Silence

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I'm still here! To all of you that very kindly emailed, SMS'ed & IM'ed me during the Holidays, I thank you all from the bottom of my heart.

All of the kind thoughts and wishes that you have expressed towards my family and I are greatly appreciated.

Once I get some work things out of the way, I'll post an update as to how Lynne, my daughter & I are doing.

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01/08/2008

Priorities

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My apologies to those of you who regularly "anticipate" and read my blog posts. There's been a distinct lack of them (blog posts) over the last 2 months, and with good reason. Let me explain ...

Some of you may know that Lynne, my wife, was diagnosed with advanced ovarian cancer about a year ago. Since her initial diagnosis, she has had surgery and intensive chemotherapy treatments to help her fight this horrible disease. During spring of this year, at one of Lynne's regular hospital checkups, we were told that Lynne's cancer will shorten, and ultimately, end her life sometime within the next 5-10 years.

This news has been a real blow to all of us. The life expectancy figure may seem like a long time to some, but to Lynne & I the news was devastating. How can you carry on with your life as normal, knowing full well that at some point someone you love and care deeply about will be gone. Forever.

So, you've probably figured out by now that maintaining my blog, is way down on my priority list. Maybe it will help me deal with "things" a lot better if I start to post on a regular basis again? To be honest, I don't know if it will or not. I'm not exactly feeling up to "bleeding yellow" much these days, so it's hard to post anything relevant for the community, let alone participate within it. I guess we'll have to wait and see.

Thanks for listening.

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05/05/2008

Iron Man

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I saw this movie on Saturday, and I'd thoroughly recommend for the "leave-your-brain-at-the-door-cinematic-romp®" that it is.

If you didn't know, Iron Man is the "latest" in the long line of Marvel superheroes who has been brought to life for the big screen.

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28/04/2008

April has been a cr@p month

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Apologies for the lack of content this month. A lot has been going on at work and at home, which has been the main reason for the lack of new "stuff" appearing. Once I gather my thoughts, I'll post an update soon.

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01/04/2008

Flying Penguins?

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This is a rather good April 1st gag from dear old Auntie Beeb. It's also a decent punt for the BBC's iPlayer.

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10/03/2008

Kb vs KB - Explained XKCD style

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A picture named M2

Original is here.

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04/03/2008

Jeff Healy RIP

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29/02/2008

Happy Feb 29th

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For those that celebrate the fact that we have an extra day this year - Happy Feb 29th 2008. For those that don't ... enjoy the extra day anyway. I just wanted to have a blog post dated 29.02.2008.

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20/02/2008

What's wrong with this picture?

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What's wrong with me?

Scratches and other surface imperfections aside, I am now lop-sided, thanks to a missing nose-arm and nose-pad! I think it's time I switched to contact lenses.

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12/02/2008

There and back again ...

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Or not, as the case may be.

The Tolkien estate is suing New Line Cinema for damages. Allegedly, New Line haven't paid the Tolkien Estate a penny from the $3bn (or so) profit from the Lord of the Rings movie trilogy. (Shame on them if they haven't!)

The plaintiffs seek more than $150 million in compensatory damages, unspecified punitive damages and a court order giving the Tolkien estate the right to terminate any rights New Line may have to make films based on other works by the author, including “The Hobbit”

*Sigh* I wonder if we'll ever get to see "The Hobbit" on the big screen.

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10/02/2008

Blog Addiction

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65%How Addicted to Blogging Are You?


A reasonably accurate score I would guess. How addicted to blogging are you?

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07/02/2008

Speedcabling

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Does this really qualify as a Sport?

"Speedcabling is a competitive sport in which contestants race to unravel a bundle of wires"

Those crazy Californians! All is revealed here.

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05/02/2008

Talking of Album Covers

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A picture named M2

Useless factoid of the day -- 25 years ago, this album was still appearing within the UK album charts, some 6 years after it was first released. It makes me feel old knowing that it has been about 31 years (Yikes!) since I first listened to this album. But I can assure you that I don't feel old when I listen to it now ...

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05/02/2008

My Album Cover - Updated

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Since everyone else seems to be doing this, why the heck not. Here's my album cover:-

EDIT: After reading Chris Linfoot's post, I have decided pull the image I used for my album cover, after checking the copyright status of my randomly chosen album artwork. Suffice to say that there were restrictions on altering the image, (no derivative works), so I will respect the owners rights and remove the modified album image. My thanks to Mr Linfoot for helping me re-align my moral compass.

Album Title came from here.
Album Artist came from here.
Album Cover came from here.

It's not as inspirational as some of the album covers I have seen, but If you want to have a bash at making your own, then follow this link on Jess' blog for details.

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04/02/2008

Today is the day that I ...

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-- start my new job -- woo-hoo!
-- get to meet a lot of new colleagues and try to remember their all of names -- Eeek!
-- have a whole new set of security credentials and passwords to assimilate  -- Yikes!
-- get to enjoy all of the best things about working with Notes & Domino -- A new set of challenges!

Wish me luck peeps ..!

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27/01/2008

Race to the finish line

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This week is my last week as a contract Lotus Notes & Domino Administrator. Next week, w/c 04 Feb 2008, I start back as a permanent Lotus Notes & Domino Administrator.

Whilst I'll miss the freedom of contract work, i.e. -- not being tied to the same employer for any length of time, and the decent paycheck that comes with contract work -- I certainly won't miss my current 700 mile weekly commute. If anything, I'm really looking forward to just being at home with my wife and daughter, and being part of a family again. I know it sounds corny, but I have missed just hanging out at home with Lynne, and being my daughter's personal Taxi service. I guess my views will change after being back home for a while, but for now, next week can't come quick enough for me.

Once I get settled into my new job, I'll have the time again to compose and post some technical articles on all things admin. Stay tuned!

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25/01/2008

Burns Night

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Fair fa' your honest, sonsie face,
Great chieftain o' the puddin-race!
Aboon them a' ye tak your place,
Painch, tripe, or thairm:
Weel are ye wordy o' a grace
As lang's my arm.


--"Address to a Haggis" by Robert Burns

Enjoy your Haggis, Neeps & Tatties everyone!

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20/01/2008

Happy Birthday Bill Buchan

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Bill "Two Fish, The Billderbeast, Wild Bill" Buchan is a sprightly 41yr old Today.

Happy Birthday Bill!

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14/01/2008

Testing BBMetaBlog 1.2.2

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Just testing out Jason Hook's latest release of BBMetaBlog for the BlackBerry. Next stage is to upgrade to the latest release of the Blogsphere blogging template.

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13/01/2008

Eclectic

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I dunno what made me look, but I decided to check my Top 25 Most Played songs on iTunes. The results made interesting reading:-

My eclectic musical tastes

Does anyone else have similar, eclectic musical tastes?

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10/01/2008

Apologies

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My apologies if the RSS feed from this Blog goes a bit "nuts" in the short term. When I upgraded my Blog template from BlogSphere 2.5.X to BlogSphere 3.X, I somehow managed to leave a pile of previously-written-in-BlogSphere-2.5.X™ content behind. That's now been fixed, and all the cr@p that I have written previously is back here, where it belongs!

So, apologies (again) if your RSS reader of choice is currently being spammed by me.

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06/01/2008

Moving to a New Organisational Certifier

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No, this doesn't relate to one of the projects that I have on the go at work just now, but it does relate to something that I posted about in my 2007 year end review.

I've been working approx 360 miles away from home, during weekdays for about the last 6 months. In that time a lot has changed for Lynne (my Wife) and I, which has made working away from home during that time pretty tough to bear. Thankfully, that's all about to change very soon, as I have been offered a new job much closer to home. I'm delighted to be able to blog about this now, as I've known since about 21 Dec 2007 that the job was mine. I didn't want to go public with this news until I had a chance to resign officially from my current job, which I did last week.

The new role itself is -- well I'm sure you could have guessed -- Lotus Notes & Domino Administrator. However, there are a couple of cool things about the new job and the company I'm going to be working for, which really sealed the deal for me:-

- My new work location is only 10 miles (i.e. -- 350 miles CLOSER than where I work just now) away from home. So, I get to spend a lot more time with Lynne and my daughter again, which is something I am looking forward to immensely
- I get to be more than just the Notes Admin guy, as I'll be expected to work on and enhance my Notes development skills (woo-hoo) Believe it or not, this is a first for me. Any Notes Admin gig that I have had in the past, has always been just that - a Notes Admin gig. I'm really looking forward to getting my hands dirty on both Admin and Development projects
- They love Blackberries, (the RIM devices, not the fruit), and want to grow their Blackberry user base, whilst extending some of their Notes apps to BlackBerry hand-helds

- My new employer is a market leader in their field on a global scale, and they have operations in the USA, Europe, Asia & China. If I'm really lucky, I'll get to see some of our international operations for myself.

So, all I need to do now is finish up my project workload with my current employer during the next 4 weeks, which in itself should be fun, as there are some cool things to be done. Then, on 04 Feb 2008, I start my new job. I can't wait!!!

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03/01/2008

Re-adjusting

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Life is slowly getting back to normal around here, now that all of the Christmas and New Year festivities have passed. So much so, that I've started working on documentation for some projects at work, involving a Domino 6.5.4 to 7.0.3 migration (I did press them to go 8.0.1, but would they listen to me?), a complete user migration to a new OU structure, and a step-by-step breakdown of the Lotus Notes password recovery process. All to be done for Monday 07 Jan 2008. Eeek! I'd better get a move on.

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01/01/2008

Happy New Year

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Happy 2008 everyone! Have a safe and prosperous New Year.

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31/12/2007

2007 In Review

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I think that this will "officially" be my first ever yearly review , so please bear with me if I waffle on a bit ...

Work Life

It's been a funny old year for me work wise. In April I left the relative safety of a full time job, to dip my toe back into the Notes & Domino Admin contract/freelance market within the UK. I'm really glad that I did, as I was feeling very out of place in my full time job. The move back to contracting saw me work with some large companies and some small companies. The variety and pace of work was terrific, but of late, the location has been a wee bit too far to commute to and from. In August I took up a position based in Aylesbury, which is approx 362 miles away from where I live. Sadly, there was no work locally, and I was forced to work away from home (one of the many risks associated with IT Contracting). However, I'm happy to report that I'm just about to move back (once I submit my resignation) into a full time role again, which is only a mere 10 miles away from where I live, so a shorter commute will be most welcome. I'll blog about it some more, at a later date, once it all becomes official.

Family Life

I have been toiling over writing something about this for quite a while now, but given this is a year end review, I guess it makes sense to do so here.

As I mentioned earlier, in August I took on a role that was based away from home. Shortly after that, just at the start of September, my wife -- Lynne -- was diagnosed with Ovarian Cancer. Mid-September Lynne underwent a surgical procedure to have the cancerous tumour removed. Sadly, the procedure didn't go as well as we had hoped, (the tumour had grown too large, and couldn't be accessed from within her pelvic cavity), and her cancer was confirmed as being advanced stage Ovarian.

With her option of surgical removal negated, it was Chemotherapy or a fate too terrible to contemplate. So, during the first week in October Lynne started an intense Chemotherapy regime, and she has been having regular Chemo treatments every 3 weeks. She is about to have her 6th Chemo treatment this week, with her last treatment due at the end of Jan 2008. Once her 7th and final Chemotherapy treatment (of this session) has been completed, she will undergo a scan to check on the progress of her cancer.

Lynne is one of the most strong-willed (read "Stubborn") people I know, but this news really hit her really hard. We are both very hopeful that there will be a positive outcome to all of the pain and suffering she has had to endure over the last 4+ months. Now that I have openly blogged about her condition, I'll do my best to make regular reports on her progress.

Notes & Domino

I missed Lotusphere 2007 (due to narrow minded bean counters) and ILUG 2007, (ironically due to contract commitments), but I made sure I was at UKLUG 2007. Whilst I wasn't directly involved with the organisation of the event, I did get a chance to be part of it (in a very small way) on the day. I had the pleasure of meeting many wonderful people at the event (too many to mention), and it really helped to strengthen my desire to be a more rounded Notes & Domino specialist Geek.

Looking Ahead
My life at the moment is very much taken one day at a time. I hate to sound selfish, but I would be lying if I said that I wasn't concerned with the well-being of Lynne. She is foremost in my mind every night and every day, and I wish so much that she could be free of this awful condition. Now that I have a job which is much closer to home, I really look forward to being able to spend a lot more time with Lynne, and our daughter.

For now though, have a safe and happy Hogmanay. I'll see you all in 2008!

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15/12/2007

Computer knowledge 'undervalued'

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Surprisingly, something that Mr Gates and I actually agree on. I can see the need for the other skills to appear higher upon this list, but I didn't expect IT Skills to be in seventh place. Still, I suppose it keeps people like me in a job, knowing that others will depend upon my help to fulfil their IT Skills gap. More from Uncle Bill's thoughts on this subject can be found here.

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02/12/2007

Death Star Canteen (NSFW)

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NSFW - but very funny!


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30/11/2007

St Andrew's Day

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Somewhat belated, but Happy St Andrew's day to you all!

Slàinte

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18/11/2007

So close ..!

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*Sigh* ... Still, there's always the 2010 Soccer World Cup.

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10/11/2007

That's better!

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Back on the air (again!). I've finally managed to get round to updating my Blog to BlogSphere V3.0.1 B8. It's most likely that there will be some updates being made as I go along, and most of them (hopefully) will be cosmetic. In the meantime, I'll get back to tweaking!

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15/09/2007

Switching News Readers

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Paul posted a request on his Blog a few days ago, asking for suggestions about a news reader he could use to replace Google Reader. I appreciate that it's purely a personal thing, but I actually quite like Google Reader. I've been using Bloglines for about the last 18 months or so, and I was really happy with it. However, not all of the customer sites that I work on allow browsing to Bloglines, so I had to find an alternative. Ergo Google Reader.

I've been using it for about a month now, and I'm getting very comfortable with it. It updates my RSS feeds and sorts them into the categories that I chose for them with relative ease, it integrates really well with Firefox, and most importantly, it's seemingly benign (thanks to it's Google.com parentage no doubt) to most corporate web filtering systems. I particularly like the Shared Items widget, which lets me easily share stuff with you, my discerning reader.

Overall, I'd say it's a reasonable upgrade from Bloglines.

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18/08/2007

Loads to do ..!

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Wow! The last month has been a bit of blur for me. Loads going on both at home and at work, not leaving me a lot of time for blogging. Blog postings are likely to become even more sparse, as I'm now working away from home for the next few months. However, if I can find the time at the weekends (when I'm home), I'll see what I can do.

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23/07/2007

Happy Birthday Matt White

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Birthday greetings to Matt White. Have a great day!

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24/06/2007

Busy Busy!

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My current client has been without a regular Notes & Domino Sys Admin for about 3 months now, so I'm a very busy admin-weenie at the moment. Lots of challenging issues to be resolved,  lots of fun project work to be completed, and about a ton of infrastructure documentation to be compiled before I leave at the end of July 07. Looks like I picked a helluva month to quit my caffeine addiction ..!

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24/06/2007

When Sysadmins Ruled the Earth

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This is such a great work of fiction by Cory Doctorow. Kudos to Wil Wheaton for highlighting it.

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06/06/2007

Bandwidth-a-plenty

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I really love my ISP. OK, love is perhaps taking things a wee bit too far, but I really do enjoy the service they provide me with. More so now, as they've just upgraded my cable internet service to an up to 20Mb download / 768Kb upload.

Anyone need any hosting?

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31/05/2007

Four-0

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40 years of residence on planet Earth, as of Today.

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27/05/2007

Onwards & Upwards

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Well, my first (albeit short) assignment as a freelance/contract Notes & Domino Admin has come to a successful conclusion. Short it may have been, but lacking in workload it certainly wasn't! Fortunately, I have another assignment already lined up and starting tomorrow, and this one is scheduled to last a little bit longer this time. Better still, it's local, and the workload is all infrastructure upgrade/enhancement based. I couldn't be happier!

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27/05/2007

Word of the day

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Velcronicity

Definition from Mirriam-Webster's Open Dictionary:-

Velcronicity (verb) : The action of velcro sticking to itself.  "The velcro on your shoes doesn't stick together any more! It has lost its velcronicity!"

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27/05/2007

Pirates of the Caribbean: At Worlds End

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If you have enjoyed the previous two films within the Pirates of the Caribbean (POTC) series, then "At World's End" will not disappoint you! Suffice to say, it's a cracking 2¾ Hour roller-coaster ride (pun intended) of a movie, full of action, adventure and ... err ... Pirates. If anything, go see this movie for 3 things:-
  • Johnny Depp's reprisal of the sublime Captain Jack Sparrow
  • The brief, but awesome, cameo by Keef
  • A cracking 30 minute finale!
Oh ... If your arse bottom can tolerate it, stay in your seat after the end credits start to roll. There's an extra wee bit of the movie worth waiting for

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20/05/2007

New Toy

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I've been fortunate enough to have had access to several Blackberry hand-held (for work related things) and Sony Ericsson (for personal usage) mobile/cell devices during the last 3 or so years.

However, given that my loyal W800i is now getting a bit bruised, and now that I no longer have my trusty Blackberry 8707V, (it was company supplied in my last job), a review & consolidation on the mobile device front is probably long overdue.

Given the array of devices that are available on the market Today, I had a list of criteria that I wanted to be satisfied when I upgrade to my next device:-
  • Smartphone (I need the Email & PIM functionality of the Blackberry to be replaced)
  • Quad Band
  • Bluetooth
  • WIFI Enabled
  • Media (MP3/AVI) Playback (to replace the functionality of the W800i Walkman phone)
  • QWERTY keyboard (I can do T9 text input, but when your so used to a QWERTY keyboard, it takes time to re-adjust)
  • Small(ish) Form Factor

So, after lots of research and discarding hand-helds like the BlackBerry 8800 (no WIFI) and the Samsung SGH-i600 (too expensive an upgrade on my network), I finally settled for the Orange SPV E650, (pictured on the left), which is the Orange "branded" version of the HTC S710 Smartphone. 		Orange's SPV E650 Smartphone

It's early days yet, but initial impressions of the unit are very good, and the Windows Mobile 6 based SPV E650 certainly meets all of the above criteria very nicely. My only concern is that it can't (or won't) let me sync my contacts with my Notes client, and I have to use Outlook 2003 (yuk!) instead. I don't know if Mozilla Thunderbird is supported, (Probably not), but I'll be trying to sync with that next ... if it will let me.

Stay tuned for more updates, as I live with the SPV E650 Smartphone.

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05/04/2007

A New Chapter

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The time has come for me to move on to pastures new at work.

Today I officially resigned from my job, and I embark upon another new adventure on Thursday 19 April 2007 -- which kind of sucks, as that's when our "Lotusphere Comes to You" event is happening in Scotland -- but I'll get over it!

I'm actually quite sad to be leaving my current employer, as I have enjoyed my time with them. I've met lots of really cool people, and developed some great friendships, but suffice to say that things weren't really going the way that I would have liked/wanted them to go, hence the reason for my departure.

I'm *really* excited about my "new" role, as I'll be supporting a Notes & Domino infrastructure that is waaay bigger than the one I currently support, (circa 6500 users). I'm also dipping my toe back into the UK contractor/freelancer market, which (hopefully) will give me a wee bit more flexibility should I want to change things in a few months time.

Not that I am planning to

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03/04/2007

Blog Drought

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I wish I could say that I have been too busy of late to Blog, but the sad truth is that I have been just plain lazy! Never an acceptable excuse I know, but I have a good feeling that things will pick up very soon ..!

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01/03/2007

Caught in the middle!

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I joined the ranks of several million other people Today, thanks to a "dispute" over money (sic!).

Sky has denied Virgin Media customers from accessing it's free channels. This now means that I have lost access to Sky One, and subsequently my favourite TV shows -- BSG Season 3, Stargate SG-1 Season 10 & Stargate Atlantis Season 3. There's very little hope of getting access to these shows back anytime soon -- unless -- I change provider to Sky.

So, if I decide to move to Sky it means that I need to:-
  • Return my V+ (HDTV/PVR) tuner unit, and replace it with a standard TV tuner from Sky. If  I want the equivalent to what I have just now, I need to purchase a Sky HD box. This requires an initial cash outlay of £359 (£299 for the box, plus £60 install charge)
  • Get a dish installed. I'm assuming that's part of the £60 install for the Sky HD box, but I could be mistaken ...
  • Change my phone line to a BT phone line. For some reason, Sky subscribers need to use BT as their telco provider?

I am reasonably happy with the services I get from Virgin Media, especially my telephone and internet service provision. So, given the costs (and hassle) involved in switching to Sky, just to regain access to a handful of my fave TV shows that I can probably find on a P2P network somewhere, I think I'll stay where I am for the moment.

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18/02/2007

100

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It's not a significant milestone in blogging terms, but this is post number 100 from me on Domino|Geek|Blog. I wish I had something deeply profound to say on this auspicious occasion, but sadly I don't! Perhaps by the time post number 200 comes around I'll have thought of something more fitting to say, but until then ...

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12/02/2007

Guaranteed to get a "Sicko" response

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I just found this over on Bill 's blog. Dan the Man is making the headlines again:-

Lotus Notes is far and away the most horrible software on the planet. Sure, people grumble about Microsoft products. But that's nothing compared to how people feel about Notes. People hate Notes. As in, they want to change jobs just so they can stop using it. I'm pretty sure there are shrinks who have built practices around it. I get desperate e-mails from people whose companies have been acquired by IBM, saying that of all the bad things about having to work for IBM, by far the worst is having to use Notes.


Given the "tone" within the rest of the article, it doesn't take a genius to work out that there's a real issue with all things Lotus/IBM here, let alone with the Notes client. Cue the guaranteed Sicko response from within the Notes & Domino community over this article.

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06/02/2007

Food for thought?

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This is quite an interesting read from Charlie "I hate Macs" Brooker, as posted on the Guardian's web site yesterday:-

I hate Macs. I have always hated Macs. I hate people who use Macs. I even hate people who don't use Macs but sometimes wish they did. Macs are glorified Fisher-Price activity centres for adults; computers for scaredy cats too nervous to learn how proper computers work; computers for people who earnestly believe in feng shui.

I can't comment on this, as I'm not a Mac user, nor have I ever been a Mac user. I'm curious to see what you Mac heads out there in the Domino Blog-o-sphere think though?

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04/02/2007

Reforming

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Having read Ben's posting about the guilty pleasures of listening to and enjoying "Strumming With the Devil", (Ben -- I have a copy too mate, and it took me a few listens to truly appreciate it),  I happened across this on dear old Aunty Beeb's site, (whilst listening to Scotland getting a serious humping from England at Twickenham, via Radio 5 Live).

Anyway, the long and the short of it, is that yet another "Super Group" from my adolescence is reforming to go on tour again.


However, the bummer is it looks like the newly reformed Van Halen Mk IV-- Alex, Eddie, Eddie's son Wolfgang replacing Michael Anthony on Bass, and Diamond Dave -- are only touring North America! WTF? I guess they really don't need to feel the love and appreciation of their fans from other parts of the planet?
 

 Sigh ... I guess I'll have to make do with the obligatory live album/DVD when it's released.

Van Halen seem to be yet another band who have jumped on the "Let's-do-it-one-more-time-not-for-the-money-but-for-the-fans ©®" bandwagon, as have Genesis and The Police. I guess it won't be long before Spinal Tap reform too

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11/01/2007

BSG Season 3

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OMG!! If the feature length opening episode of Battlestar Galactica Season 3 is anything to go by, then the rest of the series should be an absolute gem! I know our friends across in the USA have been enjoying BSG S3 since September-ish time last year, but we Brits only got it back on our TV screens on Tuesday of this week. Thank goodness for PVRs.

Definitely one of the best Sci-Fi shows out there at the moment.

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09/01/2007

No Surprise?

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I think I'm in love.

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04/01/2007

Still Here ..!

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Apologies for being away for so long. Work & life (although, mostly work) got in the way of things again! Normal service (such that it is) will be resumed shortly.

Oh - and a belated Happy New Year to you all too!

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15/10/2006

Off-line for maintenance (sort of)

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Taking a few days off for some well deserved (and long overdue) rest & relaxation at this place.

See you all on the flip side. 		Beware the Sheriff's men ..!

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23/09/2006

To 'Sphere, or not to 'Sphere ...

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... that is the question?

It's probably more than a bit clichéd, but I have a feeling that LS2007 will be a great one. There's bound to be loads of new things to hear and participate in, lots of networking opportunities, and a chance to get certified in ND7 technologies. Oh yeah, and there's a birthday party to attend as well.

Forget all the hype about Hannover and the like -- Wild Bill turns 40! (If that doesn't swing it for me, I don't know what will).

However, being on the wrong side of the Atlantic ocean, attendance at this fabulous event may be more than a bit problematic. You see, I really do want to go, but it's proving a bit difficult trying to convince those holding the purse strings (i.e. - the seat polishers at work), that this is a worthwhile event to attend, and not just an excuse for a pi$$ up in Orlando. I can fund part of it myself, but not all, and time is running out ..!

If any other Brits are in the same position as me, I'd be curious to hear what approach your taking with your employers. Perhaps we could exchange ideas & strategies on how best to approach our employers about LS2007.

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08/09/2006

Happy Birthday

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40 years young Today!

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29/08/2006

... After

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A better result ..!

That's much better!

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16/08/2006

Before ...

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This (probably) won't mean much to you all just now, but it means a lot to me ... (Honest!)

A pitiful result ...

All will be revealed in a few days time ..!

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13/08/2006

Mozy

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Following on from Bill & Matt's postings about Mozy, I thought I would give it a try.

For those of you that don't know -- Mozy is an automatic backup service that allows you to protect your important files by backing them up to a secured internet server. 2 levels of service are on offer:-
  • Free - 2Gb of space
  • $4.95/Month  - 30Gb of space
I'm using the free service just now, as I don't have a great need to backup lots of files over the internet. It's pretty quick, and secure (it uses 448-bit Blowfish encryption), so your data is probably quite safe during backup. The UI is very simple and straightforward, and the client footprint is 7Mb of Memory and 10Mb of disk space.  Most backup systems are great, until you need to restore files. Thankfully, this is quite easy and very convenient with the Mozy web interface. You can either restore the whole backup or individual files if you need to.

I've got to agree with Matt & Bill though, for a free service it's very good, and damn handy too. So much so, that I'm trusting it to backup up this blog ..!

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10/08/2006

BlackBerry 8707v

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I received a lovely surprise when I was at work Today. My rather tired looking BlackBerry 7100v handset has now been replaced with the rather splendid BlackBerry 8707v.

I really wanted to get back to a QWERTY style device, as I found the SureType ™ feature of the 7100v just a tad too "fiddly" to use when composing long messages. Actually -- that's complete B*ll*cks! What I really wanted was a 3G BlackBerry handset, for faster browsing and a Bluetooth accesible 3G modem for my laptop. None of the newer devices (8700 & 7130) supplied by our carrier (Vodafone) have 3G capability, so I plonked for the chap on the right here.

Initial feedback about this device is good, but I'll reserve judgement on it until I've had a chance to live with it for a few months.
BlackBerry 8707v from Vodafone

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06/08/2006

Happy Birthday - Ed Brill

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Have a great Birthday Ed.

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03/08/2006

Firefox 1.5.0.6

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Looks like there was a Windows Media Content issue when Firefox 1.5.0.5 was released, as Firefox 1.5.0.6 looks to be release imminently.

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03/08/2006

More Wi-Fi Blogging

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Currently on my way down to one of our sites in the North East of England, and updating email and my Blog (en route) thanks to GNER's free Wi-Fi access. Not much happening on the blogging front at the moment I'm afraid, as I am very busy at work. However, I do plan on writing up some more ND7.0.X upgrade bits and pieces, as we push our upgrade program along at work.

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27/07/2006

Firefox 1.5.0.5

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A picture named M2

If your browser doesn't auto update, you can get Firefox 1.5.0.5 here.

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21/07/2006

Kubrick 2001:The Space Odyssey Explained

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This probably belongs on Bill's collection of weird & wonderful links, but I thought I would share it here. Requires [minimum]: Flash 6 player, audio, Pentium III - and lights off. Enjoy!

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20/07/2006

Disconnected

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My cable internet service died rather abruptly last night, and wasn't restored until about midday Today. Eeek! Talk about your "cold turkey" withdrawal symptoms. I was a quivering wreck all of last night, unable to immerse myself in the pleasures of the on-line world (No, Not the pleasures your thinking about, I can assure you!). It got so bad that I was even tempted to connect up my old 56Kbps Modem, or even try a spot of Wardriving (not that I would ever participate in such clandestine activities ... *cough*).

Anyway, back on-line now, and assimilating information into the collective again.

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17/07/2006

Bliss is ...

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... blogging from your garden, (ain't WI-FI great), whilst basking in glorious sunshine that the UK is enjoying at the moment. Sorry. I couldn't resist. You see, it's not often that Scotland, let alone the UK, is blessed with such a warm climate. Looks like this great spell of weather is set to continue on into the week.

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12/07/2006

Welcoming another new (Non) Domino Blogger

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Just as I get my Blog off the ground again, yet another Blogger, David McKeand, joins the fold. David is a colleague, and the "other" member of my company's Notes & Domino Admin team. Please join me in welcoming David to the Blog-O-Sphere.

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11/07/2006

Welcoming a new Domino Blogger

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Watch out, there's a Big Red Shark about!
A hearty Domino Geek welcome goes out to a new Scottish Domino Blogger. Ladies & Gentlemen, give it up for  Scott Cochrane.

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10/07/2006

Firefox Version 2.0 Beta Candidate Released

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You can get it here.
A picture named M2

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06/07/2006

Blogroll Links

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Now that I am really back on the air again (Thanks Bill), can I please trouble all you good folks out there in the Blog-O-Sphere, who are linking to my old Blog site, to either update or remove the entry you have for Me (domino-admin.co.uk). I don't own the domain any more, and it's not even hosted by someone who is remotely interested in Notes & Domino. There's really no point (that I can see anyway) in you keeping the link there, and have it clog up your blogroll link collection.

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27/06/2006

"Dammit Jim ... I'm a Sys Admin, not Developer!"

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Now that I am back in the world of Domino Blogging again, I tip my hat, and say a heartfelt "Thank You!" to the team who are/have been responsible for developing and maintaining the excellent BlogSphere template.

I really don't do application development stuff in Notes & Domino. It's definitely not my day job. I'm far happier building & tweaking breaking servers, or annoying the M$ Outlook & Exchange fanboys!

Don't get me wrong, if the need arises I can "knock together" a simple Notes application, but I struggle (i.e. fail miserably) with the more complex elements of Notes/Domino application automation and user interface programming. That's why I am really happy that I use this as the content system for my blog. For folks like myself, (Sys Admins and Geeks who want things NOW!), the BlogSphere template is a dream to install, configure and use.
Dr Leonard H. McCoy (aka "Bones"). No relevance to this story at all, but I took inspiration for the story title from his many classic Star Trek quotes!
I absolutely adore all of the cool things that I can do in my blog. I can add pictures and store them in collections for viewing on-line. I can rate the pics, or have visitors rate them for me, if I chose to do so.  I can create polls, substitute text for URLs without even thinking about it. I can even change the look and feel of the site, with very little effort. I can link to other cool Blogs, and display the links and RSS feeds in one nice little section. I can do lots of things with it!

I do all of that cool stuff from within my Notes client, but -- and this is the coolest thing of all, in my opinion -- I don't need to be a Domino Developer to do any of that stuff. So, Thank You (again) to all who made this wonderful Blog publishing system possible.

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23/06/2006

Back on the air again!

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Here we are again! It feels very strange, but immensely welcoming and (sort of) therapeutic, to be doing this all over again.

Erm ... Who are you?
Some of you will know that I have been in the Blog-O-Sphere before, but for those of you that don't know, it's been some 15 months since I last "blogged" over at domino - admin . co . uk. (Jings! Has it been that long ..!) I used to blog about lots of things over there (when I could be bothered), but mostly it was a blog all about Lotus Notes & Domino System Admin.
Oh ... and other geek things too!

What happened to your old Blog site?
To be totally honest with you, I just had way too many things (both positive & negative) going on in my personal life and career, which really made keeping the site updated and interesting very, very challenging. So, I decided to close things down, thus ending that short chapter of my Blogging adventures.

What's with www.dominogeek.co.uk then?
I had hoped to resurrect domino - admin . co . uk, but (being the eejit that I was) I didn't renew the domain name in time, and lost it! D'OH! Hence the new domain name, which I really like.

Hang on! Isn't there a www.lotusgeek.com Blog site?
There sure is, and it's one of the coolest Notes & Domino blogs out there!
I'm not trying to imitate anyone. Content written in this blog will be from me, and anyone else who reads and/or comments on what I write. I just wanted to start a new blog with a name that reflects  what I do for a living (Notes & Domino System Administrator) and who I am (i.e. a Geek, amongst other things).

Why the return now?
I didn't realise how much I missed doing this until Friday the 16th June 2006. On this day, I was inspired to blog again.

What happened on June 16th to inspire you so?
This happened! (Read some more about it here)



OK. So what happens now?
I am still riding the high that I got from my attendance at the ILUG, and this has made me seriously want to start contributing to the Lotus Notes & Domino community again. My contibution (such that it is) will be this Blog. I hope to be able to use this site as a means to assist my fellow Notes & Domino geeks in whatever way I can, by way of technical hints & tips, highlighting the latest technology updates from Lotus, or even by just making folks aware of the tremendous community following that Notes & Domino enjoys.

For starters, the next 6 months of my career are looking very busy from a Notes & Domino point of view, which I am thrilled about as it presents me with some potentially great experiences (and pitfalls) to share with you. On the horizon for me are things like:-

-- A full ND6.5.x to ND7.0.2 migration
-- Sametime 7.5
-- Implementation of a centralised Email archiving solution
-- BlackBerry server migration

I'll blog as often as I can to share my experiences of Lotus Notes & Domino with you.

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