First, if you couldn't already tell, I'm a staunch MAC convert. I'm not a zealot quite yet. I might be gaining on being an Apple evangelist. However, I am a business professional and fully support and understand the need for Microsoft Windows in the workplace. Its just an "is". In addition, my latest position also inflicts (yes, that feels right) the use of Lotus Notes on it's employees. (Don't get me started ;)
Since my conversion, I've gone about my business while quietly integrating the use of my MacBook Pro and iPhone into my daily work. Mind you, this took some imagination, experimentation, and personal investment on my part, all done outside of the normal work day. Now, I've always taken stringent security precautions when using my personal systems in the workplace. These as much for my protection as for the workplace.
So, I had finally hobbled together a workable solution integrating the Apple MBP, with the iPhone, with Windows, and Lotus Notes. I felt my productivity & efficiency increased. I didn't have to worry about the pesky virus announcements, I didn't have to reboot on a regular basis. Software didn't freeze up on me. Ah, life was good.
We were also anticipating supporting the Safari browser for some of our applications. I thought, "Hey maybe I can help with some prototype testing. Maybe, just maybe, they're starting to get the idea that choice can be a productivity enhancement."
Not to be, not to be. Shortly there after, I received a request from our IT staff to scan my MacBook Pro. Happily complying, I provided them access to see that even though I'm on a MAC, I stay current with virus scans and firewall protections. I thought, good I'm inally out of the MAC closet.
No, not to be. Next came the "cease and desist" email from IT. This was very polite and good natured. It stated clearly that all required software and systems are made available. IT could not support the OS/X environment. the PB represented a potential security risk.
All true, all true. I can't really argue with any of the points, well except the last one. Access to Facebook, external email sites, and people using work laptops at home on the open Internet provide a greater risk, I think. Maybe I'm a bit bitter?
I had a headache for 3 days as my brain fought to readjust to the look and feel of Windows. At least it is Windows XP. I resisted the urge to throw keyboards and mice. I sucked it down and trudged forward. Trudged being the operative word.
Still keep my MBP by my side with an AT&T 3g card, for those times I really, really need to get something done quickly.
Rant. Finished.
Anyone have similar experiences? How did you deal with them?
Thursday, June 04, 2009
Tuesday, November 18, 2008
Lotus Notes and iPhone still a challenge
Well, I'm sorry to say the Visto Mobile has pulled it's email service. They did extend the support for 3 months free of charge which was a nice move. This service had been working pretty consistently for me. At this point, I'm disappointed it is being pulled. The one nice feature was that you could delete messags on the iphone that would be deleted from your Lotus Notes inbox. In other words, no dual maintenance. It seems it may be offered by some of the service providers.
So far no news on AT&T picking it up.
iNotes Ultralite
Our corporate Lotus Notes servers were upgrade to the 8.0 version which now provides the Ultralite INotes interface. This has come in very handy for checking details of meetings and for email. This also provides access to all email view, but does not utilize the folder views. The calendar does not allow you to add appointments or meetings. Sending email is problematic since there is no link for the corporate directory lookup to the email capabilities. My biggest problem with this, which may be a factor of the iPhone, is the need to login each time the site is accessed. Good security, but a bit painful to review emails.
EMAIL
So, I'm back to forwarding email to a Google email account from Lotus Notes. However, I've taken a slightly different approach this time. Before getting into that I had received some questions about setting up GMail and Notes to all the response to look like they are being sent from Notes.
I took the following steps.
1. In Notes, I simply set up a Rule to forward all documents to mymail@gmail.com.
I specified to send the full copy when mail arrives for all documents,
2. In Gmail, under Settings/Accounts I added my work account me@work.com as an account I can send mail as.
This will send an email to that account to confirm you control it.
3. In Gmail, I then made the me@work.com.
4. On the iPhone, add an account (Settings -> Mail -> Add Account -> Other)
5. Enter your lotus email me@work.com
6. When prompted for the mail servers, use your gmail account and password, mymail@gmail.com.
The incoming email server would be imap.gmail.com and the outgoing would be smtp.gmail.com.
That seemed to do it for me as a basic setup. The problem was that each email I received at work dutifully got pumped to my iphone. Did I mention the need to delete or file the emails in both places? So I did some more searching.
I happened upon Wireless Mail from MartinScott.com. This is a number of agents that get imported into your Lotus Notes system that control the forwarding of emails to your gmail account. There are several really nice features to these utilities. You can easily configure the schedule of when emails are forwarded. You can remotely override the schedule from your iPhone.
For example, if you typically forward the emails from 8 to 5 during the week, but you are delayed getting into the office, you can send a short email from another specified account (me@mac.com) which will then begin forwarding all emails. There is also a lot of flexibility based on keyword and author that allows very granular control of what gets forwarded.
it still doesn't solve the dual maintenance issue, but it keeps me informed and engaged when I'm not in the office or logged into Lotus Notes. You do need Design access to your mail file, but this seems to be very common. There are some very detailed instructions at the MartinScott site.
Calendar
I'm trying something different for the calendar, also. I am still using Companion Link for Google to sync the calendar entries from Lotus Notes to Google Calendar. This is running from an always on (almost) PC at work. I had been using BusySync to sync GCal to iCal and using MobileMe to get them to the iPhone.
The approach I am trying now uses NuevaSync which push the GCal entries to the iphone using the Exchange interface. This helps to facilitate keeping my iPhone updated even when my MAC is not online.
The site gives good instructions on setting up the phone. However, you do need to create an account to access these instructions. The account is free.
Calendar entries are pushed to the native calendar on the iPhone. I have not experimented with two way syncing back to Lotus Notes. I still run into issues with duplicates being created on GCal. However, Nuevasyn also has a toll to remove duplicate entries from GCal that works pretty well, too.
I simply subscribe to the GCal calendar within iCal to keep that up to date. The one place these entries don't currently show up is in MobileMe on the web. I hardly ever reference that site for the calendar anyway,
Well, I'm still waiting for a native iPhone app like mNotes. In the meantime, I'll keep cobbling pieces together to make it work.
So far no news on AT&T picking it up.
iNotes Ultralite
Our corporate Lotus Notes servers were upgrade to the 8.0 version which now provides the Ultralite INotes interface. This has come in very handy for checking details of meetings and for email. This also provides access to all email view, but does not utilize the folder views. The calendar does not allow you to add appointments or meetings. Sending email is problematic since there is no link for the corporate directory lookup to the email capabilities. My biggest problem with this, which may be a factor of the iPhone, is the need to login each time the site is accessed. Good security, but a bit painful to review emails.
So, I'm back to forwarding email to a Google email account from Lotus Notes. However, I've taken a slightly different approach this time. Before getting into that I had received some questions about setting up GMail and Notes to all the response to look like they are being sent from Notes.
I took the following steps.
1. In Notes, I simply set up a Rule to forward all documents to mymail@gmail.com.
I specified to send the full copy when mail arrives for all documents,
2. In Gmail, under Settings/Accounts I added my work account me@work.com as an account I can send mail as.
This will send an email to that account to confirm you control it.
3. In Gmail, I then made the me@work.com.
4. On the iPhone, add an account (Settings -> Mail -> Add Account -> Other)
5. Enter your lotus email me@work.com
6. When prompted for the mail servers, use your gmail account and password, mymail@gmail.com.
The incoming email server would be imap.gmail.com and the outgoing would be smtp.gmail.com.
That seemed to do it for me as a basic setup. The problem was that each email I received at work dutifully got pumped to my iphone. Did I mention the need to delete or file the emails in both places? So I did some more searching.
I happened upon Wireless Mail from MartinScott.com. This is a number of agents that get imported into your Lotus Notes system that control the forwarding of emails to your gmail account. There are several really nice features to these utilities. You can easily configure the schedule of when emails are forwarded. You can remotely override the schedule from your iPhone.
For example, if you typically forward the emails from 8 to 5 during the week, but you are delayed getting into the office, you can send a short email from another specified account (me@mac.com) which will then begin forwarding all emails. There is also a lot of flexibility based on keyword and author that allows very granular control of what gets forwarded.
it still doesn't solve the dual maintenance issue, but it keeps me informed and engaged when I'm not in the office or logged into Lotus Notes. You do need Design access to your mail file, but this seems to be very common. There are some very detailed instructions at the MartinScott site.
Calendar
I'm trying something different for the calendar, also. I am still using Companion Link for Google to sync the calendar entries from Lotus Notes to Google Calendar. This is running from an always on (almost) PC at work. I had been using BusySync to sync GCal to iCal and using MobileMe to get them to the iPhone.
The approach I am trying now uses NuevaSync which push the GCal entries to the iphone using the Exchange interface. This helps to facilitate keeping my iPhone updated even when my MAC is not online.
The site gives good instructions on setting up the phone. However, you do need to create an account to access these instructions. The account is free.
Calendar entries are pushed to the native calendar on the iPhone. I have not experimented with two way syncing back to Lotus Notes. I still run into issues with duplicates being created on GCal. However, Nuevasyn also has a toll to remove duplicate entries from GCal that works pretty well, too.
I simply subscribe to the GCal calendar within iCal to keep that up to date. The one place these entries don't currently show up is in MobileMe on the web. I hardly ever reference that site for the calendar anyway,
Well, I'm still waiting for a native iPhone app like mNotes. In the meantime, I'll keep cobbling pieces together to make it work.
Friday, September 05, 2008
Syncing Lotus Notes, iCal, and MobileMe
The saga continues .... I think I've made this my own personal mission at this point.
Thanks Ryan for asking for an update. I've been fairly busy and haven't returned here recently.
This is my current scenario, a large amount of bailing wire and duct tape.
At work I have a Windows XP PC with Lotus Notes. This is always on.
(I basically use my Powerbook running 10.5.4 to actually work. This is running the Lotus Notes 8.5 for OS/X.)
I use VistoMobile to get my work email to the iPhone. Service with VistoMobile seems to be pretty consistent at this point.
(Oh no! Did I just say that out-loud?) Since VistoMobile is not a push solution, I have SMS messages sent to the iPhone if I receive a priority message (or one from my VP). This is done as a forwarding option within Lotus Notes.
I use Companion Link for Google to sync my Lotus Notes Calendar entries to a Google Calendar, one way sync only.
On my MAC, I use Busy Sync to sync my Google Calendar to ICal. I then use MobileMe to sync between my MACs and the iPhone.
Most of the time this works fairly well. These are the issues that I've run into.
With email, the biggest issue is having to reset the iPhone occasionally. This only seems to be necessary if I forget to turn off WiFi before I get to work. In these circumstance, the wifi networks at work do not allow access to email ports through the firewall.
I was unable to get Companion Link to auto synchronize on its own. So I turned it off. To that end I set up two scheduled tasks in Windows. The first does Companion Link Synchronization every 30 minutes. The second runs a program, aKill, that kills the synchronizations "Ok Dialogue" 10 minutes after the sync is scheduled.
With the calendar entries, on occasion ( once every couple weeks) entries get duplicated on Google Calendar. I haven't determined the circumstances that cause this yet. When this occurs, I log into Google Calendar and delete all the entries. Then in Companion Link I will do a "purge and reload" of the calendar entries on Google.
This was working fairly consistently. There were some old Lotus Notes repeating calendar entries that were messing up once in a while. However, we had gone through a Notes identity migration a few months back and I feel these are remnants of that process.
Overall, my time to manage this setup has reduced considerably to the point I didn't have to think about it too often. It just worked, surprisingly.
Until this week ... I had to do the purge and reload. Everything still syncs correctly to iCal and out to the iPhone and other MACs. However, when I view the calendar on MobileMe some of the custom repeat entries (Every 2 weeks) are showing up on the wrong week. I've spent a few hours chatting with Apple Support on this. It seems as though something is a wrong with the MobileMe account, which was converted from a .Mac account.
If I get a resolution to this, I'll post an update. As I said, bailing wire and duct tape!!
Cheers.
Update 9/5/2008 PM
BTW, I had also tried Lotus Notes GoBetween from PocketMAC which was touted as syncing directly from Lotus Notes to iCal. back in Feb. 2008. Unfortunately, I could never get that to work. From some of the other postings on the web it seems like there may be an update coming out later this year.
Thanks Ryan for asking for an update. I've been fairly busy and haven't returned here recently.
This is my current scenario, a large amount of bailing wire and duct tape.
At work I have a Windows XP PC with Lotus Notes. This is always on.
(I basically use my Powerbook running 10.5.4 to actually work. This is running the Lotus Notes 8.5 for OS/X.)
I use VistoMobile to get my work email to the iPhone. Service with VistoMobile seems to be pretty consistent at this point.
(Oh no! Did I just say that out-loud?) Since VistoMobile is not a push solution, I have SMS messages sent to the iPhone if I receive a priority message (or one from my VP). This is done as a forwarding option within Lotus Notes.
I use Companion Link for Google to sync my Lotus Notes Calendar entries to a Google Calendar, one way sync only.
On my MAC, I use Busy Sync to sync my Google Calendar to ICal. I then use MobileMe to sync between my MACs and the iPhone.
Most of the time this works fairly well. These are the issues that I've run into.
With email, the biggest issue is having to reset the iPhone occasionally. This only seems to be necessary if I forget to turn off WiFi before I get to work. In these circumstance, the wifi networks at work do not allow access to email ports through the firewall.
I was unable to get Companion Link to auto synchronize on its own. So I turned it off. To that end I set up two scheduled tasks in Windows. The first does Companion Link Synchronization every 30 minutes. The second runs a program, aKill, that kills the synchronizations "Ok Dialogue" 10 minutes after the sync is scheduled.
With the calendar entries, on occasion ( once every couple weeks) entries get duplicated on Google Calendar. I haven't determined the circumstances that cause this yet. When this occurs, I log into Google Calendar and delete all the entries. Then in Companion Link I will do a "purge and reload" of the calendar entries on Google.
This was working fairly consistently. There were some old Lotus Notes repeating calendar entries that were messing up once in a while. However, we had gone through a Notes identity migration a few months back and I feel these are remnants of that process.
Overall, my time to manage this setup has reduced considerably to the point I didn't have to think about it too often. It just worked, surprisingly.
Until this week ... I had to do the purge and reload. Everything still syncs correctly to iCal and out to the iPhone and other MACs. However, when I view the calendar on MobileMe some of the custom repeat entries (Every 2 weeks) are showing up on the wrong week. I've spent a few hours chatting with Apple Support on this. It seems as though something is a wrong with the MobileMe account, which was converted from a .Mac account.
If I get a resolution to this, I'll post an update. As I said, bailing wire and duct tape!!
Cheers.
Update 9/5/2008 PM
BTW, I had also tried Lotus Notes GoBetween from PocketMAC which was touted as syncing directly from Lotus Notes to iCal. back in Feb. 2008. Unfortunately, I could never get that to work. From some of the other postings on the web it seems like there may be an update coming out later this year.
Monday, January 07, 2008
Lotus Notes to iPhone sync update
Well it's a new year. I feel I've gotten syncing to the iPhone from Lotus Notes running fairly smoothly, comparatively speaking.
For email, I've switched to VistoMobile for the iPhone. Actually, I had tried this when it was first released. It had worked pretty well for a while, but then I began to notice connectivity issues and some inconsistencies with the emails being synced to the iPhone. I've recently given it another try and once again it seems to be working fairly well. This utilizes a Windows Desktop client component which syncs email between your inbox and the iPhone.
VistoMobile also provides access to the corporate directory for looking up contacts. Comes in handy for sending an email to 1 contact, but is not integrated enough to send an email to a group of contacts at this point.
For syncing calendars, I use a combination of iCal, Live Mail, and the Httpmail plugin for Mail now that it is available for Leopard. Within Lotus Notes, I forward meeting requests to my Live Mail account. Using the httpmail plug-in I am able to update my iCal calendar with these events. For meetings that I am scheduling I include my live mail account as an attendee.
I went with Live Mail and the httpmail plugin because I can access this mail from behind the corporate fire wall. This allows me to keep my iCal calendar and iPhone sync'd during the day.
If there are events I book on my iPhone directly, I email the event to my corporate email account. Then I import the event from within Lotus Notes.
Certainly, this is not an ideal situation. I have, however, gotten the amount of rework and reentry down considerably from previous configurations.
For email, I've switched to VistoMobile for the iPhone. Actually, I had tried this when it was first released. It had worked pretty well for a while, but then I began to notice connectivity issues and some inconsistencies with the emails being synced to the iPhone. I've recently given it another try and once again it seems to be working fairly well. This utilizes a Windows Desktop client component which syncs email between your inbox and the iPhone.
VistoMobile also provides access to the corporate directory for looking up contacts. Comes in handy for sending an email to 1 contact, but is not integrated enough to send an email to a group of contacts at this point.
For syncing calendars, I use a combination of iCal, Live Mail, and the Httpmail plugin for Mail now that it is available for Leopard. Within Lotus Notes, I forward meeting requests to my Live Mail account. Using the httpmail plug-in I am able to update my iCal calendar with these events. For meetings that I am scheduling I include my live mail account as an attendee.
I went with Live Mail and the httpmail plugin because I can access this mail from behind the corporate fire wall. This allows me to keep my iCal calendar and iPhone sync'd during the day.
If there are events I book on my iPhone directly, I email the event to my corporate email account. Then I import the event from within Lotus Notes.
Certainly, this is not an ideal situation. I have, however, gotten the amount of rework and reentry down considerably from previous configurations.
Monday, October 08, 2007
Sunday, August 05, 2007
Syncing Lotus Notes Calendar with the iPhone
So, Yahoo's mail upgrade with pop3 access turned out to be a decent solution to my email struggles on my iPhone. I'm still waiting for a production solution to push email from Notes to my iPhone.
We'll have to see what Visto comes up with.
So, I tried a lot of possible solutions for syncing my Notes calendar to the calendar on the iPhone.
I tried syncing with Google Calendar, pulling that down to iCal on my MAC and then syncing with the iPhone. This turned out to be problematic on a number of fronts. Syncing Google Calendar with iCal eliminated all of the alarms. That was a show stopper for me with my typical schedule.
I had also tried using Outlook and the Lotus Notes Plug-in for Outlook. Then syncing the iPhone with Outlook. Then I thought I'd be able to sync the calendar from the iPhone with iCal on my MAC. This may have worked, if it hadn't really screwed up my Lotus Notes calendar. Essentially, I had to delete and recreate every repeating appointment in my calendar. Drove my staff crazy I think.
There were a couple other attempts with Companion Link, GSync, etc. None worked well. Each had their own minor issues.
What I ended up doing was using a little bit of brute force. The solution I used for email actually turned out to be the solution that worked best for me for iCal, too.
It turned out that meetings, appointments, and rescheduled events are forwarded properly to Yahoo mail as ics attachments. On my MAC I can either download these from the Yahoo mail web interface when I'm behind the firewall at work. (It doesn't allow POP3 access to external mail servers.) When I'm not locked down behind a firewall, I can open these attachments from mail on the MAC.
Either way, they show up in iCAL as invitations / notifications and are easily added to iCal. The only catch is if I am BCC on the notice. These have to be manually entered.
Another glitch is that meetings that I schedule, I have to re-enter on the MAC.
But all in all, this seems to be working well for me. The alarms stay on when syncing to the iPhone. My Lotus Notes calendar doesn't get screwed up every other day. And I can have all of my iCal calendars on my iPhone.
Still banking on Visto for a full featured solution, but latest news that I saw was for an email only solution.
8/17/2007 - Update - Well, I have had to edit several of the .ics files that get forward to Yahoo in order to get them applied to iCal. Textedit works just fine. Some of the frequent issues follow.
- If I am bcc'd on an invite, I end up replacing the organizers or chairs email address with one of mine, such as the Yahoo address. It's fairly obvious in the .ics where this exists.
- For meetings where I am the chair, I've started putting my Yahoo address as an optional attendee. In some cases, I stil need to edit the .ics file to remove the Lotus format email, CN="First Last\context\domain" with CN="". I believe, iCal looks at that first against you card in Contacts. Next step will be to see if I can add that into contacts.
- The other issue I've found is room reservation show up as attendees but don't get sync'd to the iphone. In those cases, while I have the .ics file open. I add a location line.
Far from perfect, but so far it's not terribly painful.
We'll have to see what Visto comes up with.
So, I tried a lot of possible solutions for syncing my Notes calendar to the calendar on the iPhone.
I tried syncing with Google Calendar, pulling that down to iCal on my MAC and then syncing with the iPhone. This turned out to be problematic on a number of fronts. Syncing Google Calendar with iCal eliminated all of the alarms. That was a show stopper for me with my typical schedule.
I had also tried using Outlook and the Lotus Notes Plug-in for Outlook. Then syncing the iPhone with Outlook. Then I thought I'd be able to sync the calendar from the iPhone with iCal on my MAC. This may have worked, if it hadn't really screwed up my Lotus Notes calendar. Essentially, I had to delete and recreate every repeating appointment in my calendar. Drove my staff crazy I think.
There were a couple other attempts with Companion Link, GSync, etc. None worked well. Each had their own minor issues.
What I ended up doing was using a little bit of brute force. The solution I used for email actually turned out to be the solution that worked best for me for iCal, too.
It turned out that meetings, appointments, and rescheduled events are forwarded properly to Yahoo mail as ics attachments. On my MAC I can either download these from the Yahoo mail web interface when I'm behind the firewall at work. (It doesn't allow POP3 access to external mail servers.) When I'm not locked down behind a firewall, I can open these attachments from mail on the MAC.
Either way, they show up in iCAL as invitations / notifications and are easily added to iCal. The only catch is if I am BCC on the notice. These have to be manually entered.
Another glitch is that meetings that I schedule, I have to re-enter on the MAC.
But all in all, this seems to be working well for me. The alarms stay on when syncing to the iPhone. My Lotus Notes calendar doesn't get screwed up every other day. And I can have all of my iCal calendars on my iPhone.
Still banking on Visto for a full featured solution, but latest news that I saw was for an email only solution.
8/17/2007 - Update - Well, I have had to edit several of the .ics files that get forward to Yahoo in order to get them applied to iCal. Textedit works just fine. Some of the frequent issues follow.
- If I am bcc'd on an invite, I end up replacing the organizers or chairs email address with one of mine, such as the Yahoo address. It's fairly obvious in the .ics where this exists.
- For meetings where I am the chair, I've started putting my Yahoo address as an optional attendee. In some cases, I stil need to edit the .ics file to remove the Lotus format email, CN="First Last\context\domain" with CN="". I believe, iCal looks at that first against you card in Contacts. Next step will be to see if I can add that into contacts.
- The other issue I've found is room reservation show up as attendees but don't get sync'd to the iphone. In those cases, while I have the .ics file open. I add a location line.
Far from perfect, but so far it's not terribly painful.
Monday, July 23, 2007
Using iPhone with Lotus Notes email
So you're probably wondering what these things have in common. Okay, 2 are easy. iPhone and Yahoo work together for email pretty much out of the box. Well, at least they did for me.
My problem was trying to get my iPhone to work with the corporate Lotus Notes email. My employer wisely chose to not allow POP3 or IMAP access to Lotus Notes. They do offer an iNotes web interface. However, the Safari Browser on the iPhone does not support Java applets. So, while that interface works, it is pretty clunky.
Well, I was able to get my email on the iphone by simply forwarding my Lotus Notes email to my new Yahoo account. This actually forwarded the email while retaining the addresses of the original sender and other recipients. (I couldn't get this capability through gmail.)
The downside here was if I replied, it would look like it came from my Yahoo account. Which, in fact, it did.
So, I took the plunge, after doing some reading, and signed up for Yahoo Plus. This provided the capability to allow me to send emails as if from my corporate account after verifying access to the corporate email account. (gmail does provide this capability for free.)
But still no joy using the default IMAP mail setup for Yahoo standard on the iPhone.
So, I disabled that account on the iPhone and proceeded to set up access to Yahoo as a POP3 account. This option comes with the Yahoo Plus upgrade. However, I couldn't use the Yahoo directions for this.
The server addresses were correct. However incoming needs SSL turned on in the advanced email settings. For Outgoing SSL had to be off. The address on the account should be set to the corporate email address you verified earlier.
Please don't ask for the server addresses. I'm sure they are out there on the web elsewhere.
So, now I can get my corporate Lotus Notes email on my iPhone and reply to it as if I'm sitting at my desk.
Next up, Calendar and Corporate Directory as contacts.
My problem was trying to get my iPhone to work with the corporate Lotus Notes email. My employer wisely chose to not allow POP3 or IMAP access to Lotus Notes. They do offer an iNotes web interface. However, the Safari Browser on the iPhone does not support Java applets. So, while that interface works, it is pretty clunky.
Well, I was able to get my email on the iphone by simply forwarding my Lotus Notes email to my new Yahoo account. This actually forwarded the email while retaining the addresses of the original sender and other recipients. (I couldn't get this capability through gmail.)
The downside here was if I replied, it would look like it came from my Yahoo account. Which, in fact, it did.
So, I took the plunge, after doing some reading, and signed up for Yahoo Plus. This provided the capability to allow me to send emails as if from my corporate account after verifying access to the corporate email account. (gmail does provide this capability for free.)
But still no joy using the default IMAP mail setup for Yahoo standard on the iPhone.
So, I disabled that account on the iPhone and proceeded to set up access to Yahoo as a POP3 account. This option comes with the Yahoo Plus upgrade. However, I couldn't use the Yahoo directions for this.
The server addresses were correct. However incoming needs SSL turned on in the advanced email settings. For Outgoing SSL had to be off. The address on the account should be set to the corporate email address you verified earlier.
Please don't ask for the server addresses. I'm sure they are out there on the web elsewhere.
So, now I can get my corporate Lotus Notes email on my iPhone and reply to it as if I'm sitting at my desk.
Next up, Calendar and Corporate Directory as contacts.
Monday, January 29, 2007
Humble Technology Beginnings - eWeek Labs Staffers Reveal
The eWeek article, eWeek Labs Staffers Reveal ,got me thinking about how I initially embarked on the my technology journey. It wasn't so much a device that turned me onto computers but more the technology utilized in NASA during the 60's and 70's. Realizing I probably didn't have what it takes to get into the space program, I though science and technology may be a way to participate.
Well, that never worked out. I never even got to an interview with NASA, but some of the system we currently develop have been used to provide network services, such as DNS and DHCP, throughout NASA. So, eventually I guess I did get involved.
From a true technology perspective, in 4 years of college I had gone from punched cards, to using a teletype, to working remotely on a portable teletype that displayed the information on a television instead of printing it. No really! No paper required!
Those were exciting times, huh? But the rate of change in those 4 years convinced me that this was going to be a fun ride.
And so it has. The rate of change, if anything, has continued to accelerate since those early days. But that's what keeps it challenging and engaging.
What first turned you on to technology?
Well, that never worked out. I never even got to an interview with NASA, but some of the system we currently develop have been used to provide network services, such as DNS and DHCP, throughout NASA. So, eventually I guess I did get involved.
From a true technology perspective, in 4 years of college I had gone from punched cards, to using a teletype, to working remotely on a portable teletype that displayed the information on a television instead of printing it. No really! No paper required!
Those were exciting times, huh? But the rate of change in those 4 years convinced me that this was going to be a fun ride.
And so it has. The rate of change, if anything, has continued to accelerate since those early days. But that's what keeps it challenging and engaging.
What first turned you on to technology?
Friday, January 26, 2007
Back In It
So, it has been quite some time since I have "blogged" or podcast or journaled or what ever you may call it. Basically, I have been all consumed with finding new, meaningful, employment. Oh, I still am employed, but I wouldn't really call it meaningful. Other than, it pays the bills and keeps a roof over my head.
But, it seems like a good enough time to start back into blogging. This could be a nice diversion from the daily grind of the job search.
I have to say, the methods and market have changed considerably in the last ten or so years. I've been with my current companies sine 1998. Yes, that's right companies. We were first acquired as a start-up, went what felt like a re-org a year, and then went through a "merger of equals" with a 40/60 split.
Way back when, a recruiter was more like a real estate agent. You gave them the specs for your job and your credentials and off they went. Networking with their recruiting and corporate connections to find opportunities for you. Much like a real estate agent will do the leg work for you to find "the perfect home", or at least rule out those where mass murders were committed in the basement.
Now a days, it is totally in the job seekers hands to find the job. I've got a lot of experience, but it's difficult to get past the gate keepers or even get noticed by the gate keepers when the only avenue of entry is an email to a blind job posting.
Don't get me wrong, I have gotten my share of calls & interviews. I've come very close to where it was done to me or an internal candidate. But the truth of the matter is that unless you can tick off every nuance and skill mentioned in the job description, landing the job is a tough nut to crack.
I tend to look for positions where it is a win/win. Yes, a phrase that is too over used, I agree. But if I have already mastered every nuance of a new position where is the personal growth and challenge for me? After all, that is one of the main reasons I started the search. Well that and the fact that it is not really fun being in a company that is continually downsizing.
Ok, enough for today.
Where ever I find myself, that's where I happen to be !
But, it seems like a good enough time to start back into blogging. This could be a nice diversion from the daily grind of the job search.
I have to say, the methods and market have changed considerably in the last ten or so years. I've been with my current companies sine 1998. Yes, that's right companies. We were first acquired as a start-up, went what felt like a re-org a year, and then went through a "merger of equals" with a 40/60 split.
Way back when, a recruiter was more like a real estate agent. You gave them the specs for your job and your credentials and off they went. Networking with their recruiting and corporate connections to find opportunities for you. Much like a real estate agent will do the leg work for you to find "the perfect home", or at least rule out those where mass murders were committed in the basement.
Now a days, it is totally in the job seekers hands to find the job. I've got a lot of experience, but it's difficult to get past the gate keepers or even get noticed by the gate keepers when the only avenue of entry is an email to a blind job posting.
Don't get me wrong, I have gotten my share of calls & interviews. I've come very close to where it was done to me or an internal candidate. But the truth of the matter is that unless you can tick off every nuance and skill mentioned in the job description, landing the job is a tough nut to crack.
I tend to look for positions where it is a win/win. Yes, a phrase that is too over used, I agree. But if I have already mastered every nuance of a new position where is the personal growth and challenge for me? After all, that is one of the main reasons I started the search. Well that and the fact that it is not really fun being in a company that is continually downsizing.
Ok, enough for today.
Where ever I find myself, that's where I happen to be !
Wednesday, September 14, 2005
Daemons, spawning, and the reaper
Did you ever hear something said in a meeting that just seemed like it could be delivered in a completely different setting?
Today, ah what a kind of a strange day, but that's a story for another time.
But I digress...
So, I called a meeting today to try to get to the bottom of problems with the release of a new product.
Normally, my boss doesn't want me to micro manage, so I didn't. But this project, no micro management is required. Maybe I should have known that, but I'm still working on my ESP rating.
But I digress...
So in the meeting, the following statement was made "The spawned daemon had two parents because the reaper had not killed one of them yet."
No, I've been involved in software engineering for over 25 years, but that statement sounded like it should be coming from "Dawn of the Dead" or something like that.
It actually had to do with a defect that was logged against a Java service that was part of the application.
But taken out of context, who knows!
Today, ah what a kind of a strange day, but that's a story for another time.
But I digress...
So, I called a meeting today to try to get to the bottom of problems with the release of a new product.
Normally, my boss doesn't want me to micro manage, so I didn't. But this project, no micro management is required. Maybe I should have known that, but I'm still working on my ESP rating.
But I digress...
So in the meeting, the following statement was made "The spawned daemon had two parents because the reaper had not killed one of them yet."
No, I've been involved in software engineering for over 25 years, but that statement sounded like it should be coming from "Dawn of the Dead" or something like that.
It actually had to do with a defect that was logged against a Java service that was part of the application.
But taken out of context, who knows!
Monday, September 12, 2005
RSVP - New Meanings ,,,
So RSVP, more commonly know as Resource ReSerVation Protocol. A protocol used in VoIP. Oh another one, Voice over IP.
Oh another one, internet protocol.
But that is not the subject of this post. This is another case of mergers between traditional terms and hi tech acronyms
Traditionally, RSVP is the French etymology for "please reply". Trying google'ing RSVP. I think you go through a few pages before you find this meaning.
Well, at this juncture, it is the traditional definition that conerns me the most; "Please Reply".
This is because my only daughter, my only child, is getting married this weekend. In T-6 days she'll be married, new name, new home. So RSVP has been of great importance.
Who's coming, who's not?
How many are coming?
Where are they staying?
How are they getting there?
Where are they sitting?
Funny I don't remember worrying about all these things when I got married. I was probably too much in shock to worry about details.
I've tried to come up with other explanations for RSVP. You know. Funny ones related to weddings, marriage, etc.
Relative Surprive Visit Problems
Real Serious Virtual Planning
See, having a hard time with this one. Any suggestions?
Anyway, the countdown has officially begun. I've even praticed falling while walking down the isle.
Just in case I can tuck and roll and be back up without missing a beat. Of course, if I really tripped I'd probably land flat on my face and stay there.
Oh another one, internet protocol.
But that is not the subject of this post. This is another case of mergers between traditional terms and hi tech acronyms
Traditionally, RSVP is the French etymology for "please reply". Trying google'ing RSVP. I think you go through a few pages before you find this meaning.
Well, at this juncture, it is the traditional definition that conerns me the most; "Please Reply".
This is because my only daughter, my only child, is getting married this weekend. In T-6 days she'll be married, new name, new home. So RSVP has been of great importance.
Who's coming, who's not?
How many are coming?
Where are they staying?
How are they getting there?
Where are they sitting?
Funny I don't remember worrying about all these things when I got married. I was probably too much in shock to worry about details.
I've tried to come up with other explanations for RSVP. You know. Funny ones related to weddings, marriage, etc.
Relative Surprive Visit Problems
Real Serious Virtual Planning
See, having a hard time with this one. Any suggestions?
Anyway, the countdown has officially begun. I've even praticed falling while walking down the isle.
Just in case I can tuck and roll and be back up without missing a beat. Of course, if I really tripped I'd probably land flat on my face and stay there.
Saturday, September 10, 2005
Sync'd Up Follow-up
This is a follow-up on a recent post regarding the blending of the MAC, PC, and Pocket PC using Missing Sync as the blender.
Basically, this was done to allow me to keep all three platforms in sync with all my "important" data.
So far, it had been working pretty well. Couple glitches here and there with Missing Sync, but nothing I couldn't overcome or workaround. The new 2.0.2 beta release also helped.
Anyway, one problem I did run into was the partnership between my Pocket PC and my WindowsXP system got hosed. Now if this ever happened to you, you know what a pain it can be to change the name on the pocket pc, re-sync everything, and then re-authorize any software that was tied to the name of the PocketPC, which some of them are surprisingly.
I wish I had read the linked article ahead of time. It's a bit dated but still pretty much on the money regarding the registry entries used in managing the partnership. Trust me, it's better to have this stuff backed up then trying to recreate it by hand. Obviously, registry editing is not for the faint of heart. But exporting and importing valid data removes some of the risks.
Although there are many sights that say you can not re-establish a partnership between a PPC and host PC, that is not the case. I was able to do this by finding the correct PId value in the referenced partnership registry entries and re-enter that along with the host computer name on my PPC. I missed one step somewhere, because when I sync'd it saw all the contact entries as new. I think I should have just said to override with the host pc values.
Long story short, when you create an ActiveSync partnership between two devices backup the registry entries on both the Host PC and the PocketPC. If the partnership ever gets corrupted or lost due to battery failure, you can recreate it in short order.
Basically, this was done to allow me to keep all three platforms in sync with all my "important" data.
So far, it had been working pretty well. Couple glitches here and there with Missing Sync, but nothing I couldn't overcome or workaround. The new 2.0.2 beta release also helped.
Anyway, one problem I did run into was the partnership between my Pocket PC and my WindowsXP system got hosed. Now if this ever happened to you, you know what a pain it can be to change the name on the pocket pc, re-sync everything, and then re-authorize any software that was tied to the name of the PocketPC, which some of them are surprisingly.
I wish I had read the linked article ahead of time. It's a bit dated but still pretty much on the money regarding the registry entries used in managing the partnership. Trust me, it's better to have this stuff backed up then trying to recreate it by hand. Obviously, registry editing is not for the faint of heart. But exporting and importing valid data removes some of the risks.
Although there are many sights that say you can not re-establish a partnership between a PPC and host PC, that is not the case. I was able to do this by finding the correct PId value in the referenced partnership registry entries and re-enter that along with the host computer name on my PPC. I missed one step somewhere, because when I sync'd it saw all the contact entries as new. I think I should have just said to override with the host pc values.
Long story short, when you create an ActiveSync partnership between two devices backup the registry entries on both the Host PC and the PocketPC. If the partnership ever gets corrupted or lost due to battery failure, you can recreate it in short order.
FMP - What does it really mean?
FMP - another of those workplace acronyms. One that over the years has become all too common place, IMHO. In this case, it is Forced Management Program. Now that clears it up for you, doesn't it. Sounds like there are managers that don't want to manage, right? Yeah, not so much.
You probably know this by many other names: Personnel Reduction, Lay Off, Down Sizing, Right Sizing, etc.
In a twisted sort of way, it is forced management. I'm given oh about 30 minutes to review the past effectiveness, future potential, impact on current and future projects of a staff of roughly 70 people. In that time, I'm charged with determining who's lives I'm going to turn upside down. No second guessing, no sleeping on it, just decide. "And no. You can't discuss this with any of your managers for current assessments." Guess that's why I get the "BIG" bucks.
If you can't tell, I have a major problem with this. True there are departments that don't pull their own weight based on revenue and expenses. My team, since our acquisition 7 years ago, has continued to have stable or moderate growth in revenues; continued to have very good margins for software sales, continued to produce new products and updates to old products, and continued to "balance" the books for a lot of legacy software products with 1 or 2 customers. But I'm not at all bitter they also decided to cut my staff.
So for the next couple weeks, I am forced to manage my staff as if nothing is going to change. I will be forced to not react as my managers tell me we are short staff on committed deliveries. I will be forced to face those targeted in the next round of FMP's and act as if nothing is wrong. All this, wondering "Hmm, am I on my manager's list?"
The last I'm not so worried about. In some ways, it would give me some peace of mind. Part of me says "It's not your fault, don't worry about it." That's not the part that keeps me up at night and will probably do so for the next couple weeks ...
until I am forced to finally face those targeted by the latest round of FMP's.
You probably know this by many other names: Personnel Reduction, Lay Off, Down Sizing, Right Sizing, etc.
In a twisted sort of way, it is forced management. I'm given oh about 30 minutes to review the past effectiveness, future potential, impact on current and future projects of a staff of roughly 70 people. In that time, I'm charged with determining who's lives I'm going to turn upside down. No second guessing, no sleeping on it, just decide. "And no. You can't discuss this with any of your managers for current assessments." Guess that's why I get the "BIG" bucks.
If you can't tell, I have a major problem with this. True there are departments that don't pull their own weight based on revenue and expenses. My team, since our acquisition 7 years ago, has continued to have stable or moderate growth in revenues; continued to have very good margins for software sales, continued to produce new products and updates to old products, and continued to "balance" the books for a lot of legacy software products with 1 or 2 customers. But I'm not at all bitter they also decided to cut my staff.
So for the next couple weeks, I am forced to manage my staff as if nothing is going to change. I will be forced to not react as my managers tell me we are short staff on committed deliveries. I will be forced to face those targeted in the next round of FMP's and act as if nothing is wrong. All this, wondering "Hmm, am I on my manager's list?"
The last I'm not so worried about. In some ways, it would give me some peace of mind. Part of me says "It's not your fault, don't worry about it." That's not the part that keeps me up at night and will probably do so for the next couple weeks ...
until I am forced to finally face those targeted by the latest round of FMP's.
Thursday, September 08, 2005
PVS - Pre/Post vacation Syndrome
Still coming down from the recent vacation...
It seems to me that I always suffer from PVS, Pre and Post Vacation Syndrome. Let me explain. See if this sounds familiar ...
Pre Vacation Syndrome
So, its the week before vacation. Of course, the world doesn't stop while your on vacation either. The emails keep pouring in. Meetings continue to be scheduled for you, regardless of the fact that your "online calendar" shows that you are unavailable. So, you scramble to get all your ducks in a row; change the voicemail message; turn on the out of office assistant in email; get people to cover important meeting for you, etc.
Let's not forget all the planning and logistics on the home front. The mail, the pets, the house, the packing, trying to whittle down the list of "gadgets" and gear and their chargers.
So by the time the vacation starts you really need it due to the stress of getting ready for the vacation.
I have gotten much better at winding down and letting it all go once I'm at the vacation destination, or the last leg of the flight in the recent case. I still get chastised by friends and family for checking email on vacation. But now, I really just monitor it and really only reply to friends and family. Come to think of it, why are they sending me emails when they know I'm on vacation?
Post Vacation Syndrome
Ok, so now it's time to return from vacation. Can't believe it's over already! You had back with the euphoric silly grin on your face. Feeling refreshed physically and mentally.
My former boss used to wait for me when I returned. Usually welcome was "Have a nice vacation? Nice and relaxed? I can fix that!" Now by boss is remote from my location. Still sort of the same effect, but not quite so "in your face" with it.
It's now more my staff that has this effect. The larger the staff, the more issues, right? All the things they didn't want to bother me with while I was away are lined up waiting for attention. I've learned over the years to ease back into work, for the sake of my sanity and my wife's. Emails, well they can wait. Voicemails, they knew I was out when the left it. Let's just start with today's emails.
Well that works for the first hour or two. Then the daily grind kicks in with meetings andconferencee calls and a relentless stream of emails with their little reminders demanding attention. Usually, by the end of the second day vacation is a distant memory. Gone is the euphoria. Gone is the silly grin. Ah, but the memories remain.
I usually like to change my background to a recent picture just to remind myself I was on vacation.
Looking forward to planning the next one already even with the pre and post vacation syndrome.
It seems to me that I always suffer from PVS, Pre and Post Vacation Syndrome. Let me explain. See if this sounds familiar ...
Pre Vacation Syndrome
So, its the week before vacation. Of course, the world doesn't stop while your on vacation either. The emails keep pouring in. Meetings continue to be scheduled for you, regardless of the fact that your "online calendar" shows that you are unavailable. So, you scramble to get all your ducks in a row; change the voicemail message; turn on the out of office assistant in email; get people to cover important meeting for you, etc.
Let's not forget all the planning and logistics on the home front. The mail, the pets, the house, the packing, trying to whittle down the list of "gadgets" and gear and their chargers.
So by the time the vacation starts you really need it due to the stress of getting ready for the vacation.
I have gotten much better at winding down and letting it all go once I'm at the vacation destination, or the last leg of the flight in the recent case. I still get chastised by friends and family for checking email on vacation. But now, I really just monitor it and really only reply to friends and family. Come to think of it, why are they sending me emails when they know I'm on vacation?
Post Vacation Syndrome
Ok, so now it's time to return from vacation. Can't believe it's over already! You had back with the euphoric silly grin on your face. Feeling refreshed physically and mentally.
My former boss used to wait for me when I returned. Usually welcome was "Have a nice vacation? Nice and relaxed? I can fix that!" Now by boss is remote from my location. Still sort of the same effect, but not quite so "in your face" with it.
It's now more my staff that has this effect. The larger the staff, the more issues, right? All the things they didn't want to bother me with while I was away are lined up waiting for attention. I've learned over the years to ease back into work, for the sake of my sanity and my wife's. Emails, well they can wait. Voicemails, they knew I was out when the left it. Let's just start with today's emails.
Well that works for the first hour or two. Then the daily grind kicks in with meetings andconferencee calls and a relentless stream of emails with their little reminders demanding attention. Usually, by the end of the second day vacation is a distant memory. Gone is the euphoria. Gone is the silly grin. Ah, but the memories remain.
I usually like to change my background to a recent picture just to remind myself I was on vacation.
Looking forward to planning the next one already even with the pre and post vacation syndrome.
Wednesday, September 07, 2005
In the shadow of Katrina
This is not my typical entry. Hmm. Not sure I have a typical post yet. I guess that's a good thing. Anyway ...
I happend to be on vacation in the South Eastern US during landfall of Katrina and its immediate aftermath.
Travelling to GA, there happened to be a large number of armed service personnel on our plane returning from Iraq.
The flight crew gave these brave individuals the recognition and consideration that they deserved during the flight.
Most were only home for a 2 week leave.
In hind sight, I couldn't helping wondering how many were flying into the eye of the storm, literally.
On our return flight, there were also a large number of service personnel. While waiting to board it was obvious that these people were saying good bye. Fathers and mothers saying good bye to their families and friends, some sitting alone ... waiting.
Once on the board, the flight crew again gave the troops the public recognition they deserved. The reaction from the troops was much more subdued, for obvious reasons.
I also realized those young men and women on the first flight, would be back here in these seats in another 7 days.
I happend to be on vacation in the South Eastern US during landfall of Katrina and its immediate aftermath.
Travelling to GA, there happened to be a large number of armed service personnel on our plane returning from Iraq.
The flight crew gave these brave individuals the recognition and consideration that they deserved during the flight.
Most were only home for a 2 week leave.
In hind sight, I couldn't helping wondering how many were flying into the eye of the storm, literally.
On our return flight, there were also a large number of service personnel. While waiting to board it was obvious that these people were saying good bye. Fathers and mothers saying good bye to their families and friends, some sitting alone ... waiting.
Once on the board, the flight crew again gave the troops the public recognition they deserved. The reaction from the troops was much more subdued, for obvious reasons.
I also realized those young men and women on the first flight, would be back here in these seats in another 7 days.
Sync'd Up
I happen to work for a company that had a marketing line referring to "Blended Lifestyles". When I first heard it I thought ... "Hmm, is that gay and straights living together or conservatives and liberals or traditional families and not so traditional families or ..." Nah. None of those. It was simply a blend of technologies seamlessly integrated, video, voice, text, data, etc.
Now you might be wondering what that has to do with being "Sync'd up". Interestingly enough, very little. But I too feel as though I have finally conquered some level of blended technologies on a personal note.
See, I am forced to use a IBM Thinkpad with Windows XP, Outlook and Exchange at work. But, as I may have said earlier, I've gone MAC and I ain't goin' back. I've come to use my Powerbook at work running RDC to access my XP system. But I also still use my PocketPC, which at this point, I'd have a really hard time giving up.
So my dilemma, how do I keep my PocketPC, Outlook on XP, and iCal and Address Book on the MAC all sync'd up?
Well it took some doing. Short answer : Missing Sync for Windows Mobile
But the road I chose to take was quite a bit longer. I tried a number of different "solutions" involving shared group calendars between the OS X and XP, setting up Apache and Tomcat on OS X, and different flavors of OS X to PocketPC sync software. Some other applicatons attempted were XCConnect and PocketMAC.
Either due to my inability to "configure" things properly or gaping holes in the functionallity all other solutions failed miserably. Believe me, I worked with each of these until I just couldn't take it anymore. Let me be the first to blame the failures on pilot error. If I can't get something working in a few days that I plan to use every day, it's probably not worth it.
While Missing Sync is working well now, it wasn't without its miss queues. But the latest release seemed to have addressed most of the issues.
So, I typically, use four categories in Outlook, or 4 Calendar Groups in iCal; Work, Home, Holiday, Birthday. Birthdays and Holdays can be imported into Outlook as add-ins. In iCal, they are add as read only calendars (Birthdays and US Holidays), which Missing Sync doesn't support. So, this is what I ended up doing...
Birthdays and Anniversary events in Outlook I categorized using a new category Outlook Birthdays.
I sync Work, Home, Outlook Birthdays, and Holidays from the Outlook on XP to the Pocket PC.
Under OS X, I sync Work, Home, Outlook Birthdays, and Holidays.
So under OS X, I actually end up with the six categories (Work, Home, Birthdays (OS X), US Holidays (OS X), Outlook Birthdays (XP) and Holidays (XP). I don't display the Outlook Birthdays or Holidays from XP under OS X.
On the Pocket PC, I end up with the same categories as XP.
Confused yet. Yeah, me too. But it does seem to work. Continuing on from here, it seems as though I can drop the OS X Birthdays and US Holidays calendars. I guess I want to wait a while to see how all this hangs together.
The only issue outstanding with Missing Sync is that it seems to have a CPU utilization issue. Waiting on a response to that.
But after several weeks of trial and error, I finally feel like I'm sync'd up on all three fronts.
Now you might be wondering what that has to do with being "Sync'd up". Interestingly enough, very little. But I too feel as though I have finally conquered some level of blended technologies on a personal note.
See, I am forced to use a IBM Thinkpad with Windows XP, Outlook and Exchange at work. But, as I may have said earlier, I've gone MAC and I ain't goin' back. I've come to use my Powerbook at work running RDC to access my XP system. But I also still use my PocketPC, which at this point, I'd have a really hard time giving up.
So my dilemma, how do I keep my PocketPC, Outlook on XP, and iCal and Address Book on the MAC all sync'd up?
Well it took some doing. Short answer : Missing Sync for Windows Mobile
But the road I chose to take was quite a bit longer. I tried a number of different "solutions" involving shared group calendars between the OS X and XP, setting up Apache and Tomcat on OS X, and different flavors of OS X to PocketPC sync software. Some other applicatons attempted were XCConnect and PocketMAC.
Either due to my inability to "configure" things properly or gaping holes in the functionallity all other solutions failed miserably. Believe me, I worked with each of these until I just couldn't take it anymore. Let me be the first to blame the failures on pilot error. If I can't get something working in a few days that I plan to use every day, it's probably not worth it.
While Missing Sync is working well now, it wasn't without its miss queues. But the latest release seemed to have addressed most of the issues.
So, I typically, use four categories in Outlook, or 4 Calendar Groups in iCal; Work, Home, Holiday, Birthday. Birthdays and Holdays can be imported into Outlook as add-ins. In iCal, they are add as read only calendars (Birthdays and US Holidays), which Missing Sync doesn't support. So, this is what I ended up doing...
Birthdays and Anniversary events in Outlook I categorized using a new category Outlook Birthdays.
I sync Work, Home, Outlook Birthdays, and Holidays from the Outlook on XP to the Pocket PC.
Under OS X, I sync Work, Home, Outlook Birthdays, and Holidays.
So under OS X, I actually end up with the six categories (Work, Home, Birthdays (OS X), US Holidays (OS X), Outlook Birthdays (XP) and Holidays (XP). I don't display the Outlook Birthdays or Holidays from XP under OS X.
On the Pocket PC, I end up with the same categories as XP.
Confused yet. Yeah, me too. But it does seem to work. Continuing on from here, it seems as though I can drop the OS X Birthdays and US Holidays calendars. I guess I want to wait a while to see how all this hangs together.
The only issue outstanding with Missing Sync is that it seems to have a CPU utilization issue. Waiting on a response to that.
But after several weeks of trial and error, I finally feel like I'm sync'd up on all three fronts.
Monday, July 25, 2005
Take stock in stock?
Well, that would depend on the company you keep ... or the company you work for.
Never, have I seen an industry (or company more specifically) where your CEO announces to the street that "Oh yes. We have made our numbers, but we did it in an unexceptional way." Oh yeah, the street loves to hear that.
So we all bust our humps for a quarter at a time. Make our numbers through cuts and hard work. Then our CEO comes out with a statement like that. Our whimpering little (once very large) company takes it in the shorts again along with all of our investors. But I bet the CEO's retirement plan is uneffected. Probably gets that in cash not stock.
Bitter you say? No not me. Not at all. There are some far worse off than I.
Its amazing to see some writers with online services hit the nail on the head siting unexciting or nonexistant strategic vision.
That's it. That's the ticket.
Oh well, take stock in stock, but not ours.
Well, at least Monday only comes once a week.
Never, have I seen an industry (or company more specifically) where your CEO announces to the street that "Oh yes. We have made our numbers, but we did it in an unexceptional way." Oh yeah, the street loves to hear that.
So we all bust our humps for a quarter at a time. Make our numbers through cuts and hard work. Then our CEO comes out with a statement like that. Our whimpering little (once very large) company takes it in the shorts again along with all of our investors. But I bet the CEO's retirement plan is uneffected. Probably gets that in cash not stock.
Bitter you say? No not me. Not at all. There are some far worse off than I.
Its amazing to see some writers with online services hit the nail on the head siting unexciting or nonexistant strategic vision.
That's it. That's the ticket.
Oh well, take stock in stock, but not ours.
Well, at least Monday only comes once a week.
Tuesday, July 12, 2005
Twosday
So, here I am sitting in a mall, sucking a connection from a Dell store on an Apple. There's some kind of twisted justice in there somewhere.
I work for a rather large telecomunications equipment company. My group does not however make equipment. No we develop software. The soft forgotten underbelly of the internet. Its not just routers and bandwidth. Its software driving those devices and providing the underlying services. Such as the DNS server that probably pointed you to this site.
Yeah, I know. You keyed in Blog on google and eventually you selected this site. How do you think you found google site? DNS, that's right.
How did you get your IP address from your ISP? Probably DHCP, right? What's an IP address? Well for those who don't know it is simply your address on the internet. It provide routing information to the sites you contact so that they know how to reach you online. Kind of like a return address. (Yes, I know I'm oversimplifying it.)
So, where was I, that's right. DNS, DHCP, IP Addresses and more. That's what team develops. I'm sure this isn't the thread that I had intended.
I know I was going to go off about the injustice that the larger organization forces upon my little software team. But the above, may have been more infromative. (And probably served to calm me down just a bit....)
Afterall, its all just 1's and 0's.
I work for a rather large telecomunications equipment company. My group does not however make equipment. No we develop software. The soft forgotten underbelly of the internet. Its not just routers and bandwidth. Its software driving those devices and providing the underlying services. Such as the DNS server that probably pointed you to this site.
Yeah, I know. You keyed in Blog on google and eventually you selected this site. How do you think you found google site? DNS, that's right.
How did you get your IP address from your ISP? Probably DHCP, right? What's an IP address? Well for those who don't know it is simply your address on the internet. It provide routing information to the sites you contact so that they know how to reach you online. Kind of like a return address. (Yes, I know I'm oversimplifying it.)
So, where was I, that's right. DNS, DHCP, IP Addresses and more. That's what team develops. I'm sure this isn't the thread that I had intended.
I know I was going to go off about the injustice that the larger organization forces upon my little software team. But the above, may have been more infromative. (And probably served to calm me down just a bit....)
Afterall, its all just 1's and 0's.
Monday, July 04, 2005
PMSR
So, I mentioned PMSR before. I think that stands for Project Management Statistic Report. I think. I honestly don't think anyone really knows except the person that cam up with it. What was that report from Office Space, the TPA report? Well this one beats that out. Its not done in triplicate, but it probably takes 2 or 3 people to put it together twice a month.
This report attempts to summarize a software project into a single spreadsheet. Everything from estimated effort to number of "planned" defects is contained in the report. Well its true that defects are expected to be found in any software project. But expecting something and planning for it are two different things, right? My hope springs eternal with every project that it will have 0 defects.
The other factor that drives me crazy with these is the color coding:
Green - Good. On target
Yellow - Not so good. Something is being missed.
Red - You've been bad.
Now the teams not wanting to go all the way to Yellow or Red, start coming up with their own colors. Yellow-Red, Green-Yellow, etc. Gets to be like the National Threat level. And that applies to the general reaction to the colors in the review meetings.
PMSR, the 4 little letters that drive fear into the engineers working on the product. Counting defects, counting lines of code, counting test cases, count everything all the time.
Ok, I have seen a glimmer of meaning in some of these metrics when looked at as trends. But they can never tell the true status of a project. Or measure the dedication of the staff working on the project and the likelihood that we will make it on time.
My best measure of the projected status of a project is how often my quality leads show up in my office in a week.
Maybe I should add that metric to the report.
Oh well, done venting for now. Next maybe I'll need to focus on the process of purchase approvals.
This report attempts to summarize a software project into a single spreadsheet. Everything from estimated effort to number of "planned" defects is contained in the report. Well its true that defects are expected to be found in any software project. But expecting something and planning for it are two different things, right? My hope springs eternal with every project that it will have 0 defects.
The other factor that drives me crazy with these is the color coding:
Green - Good. On target
Yellow - Not so good. Something is being missed.
Red - You've been bad.
Now the teams not wanting to go all the way to Yellow or Red, start coming up with their own colors. Yellow-Red, Green-Yellow, etc. Gets to be like the National Threat level. And that applies to the general reaction to the colors in the review meetings.
PMSR, the 4 little letters that drive fear into the engineers working on the product. Counting defects, counting lines of code, counting test cases, count everything all the time.
Ok, I have seen a glimmer of meaning in some of these metrics when looked at as trends. But they can never tell the true status of a project. Or measure the dedication of the staff working on the project and the likelihood that we will make it on time.
My best measure of the projected status of a project is how often my quality leads show up in my office in a week.
Maybe I should add that metric to the report.
Oh well, done venting for now. Next maybe I'll need to focus on the process of purchase approvals.
Saturday, July 02, 2005
Live 8 (just one of the countless masses)
I'm sure all over the world, on web servers everywhere, posts on live 8 will be popping up. Some, at least 1 million around Philly, may not pop up until much later. Me, I'm at home, watching what's available on the music video channels.
My daughter is in the midst of the 1 million strong in Philadelphia. Having recently moved into the no-travel zone, she had easy access. I'm sure she'd be there anyway.
The One Campaign is not necissarily new to me. I've heard about it before and support the direct aid approach.
The one thing that impressed me, I'd have to say, Is that on the Live 8 and One websites, it was nearly impossible to find a link where you could actually donate. This give a lot of credence to the theme, we don't want your money, we want you name.
The message is clear concise and well presented.
The music, well that's the motivator to get people to listen.
Pray to God that they do.
So if you haven't gotten your name on the list, what are you waiting for.
My daughter is in the midst of the 1 million strong in Philadelphia. Having recently moved into the no-travel zone, she had easy access. I'm sure she'd be there anyway.
The One Campaign is not necissarily new to me. I've heard about it before and support the direct aid approach.
The one thing that impressed me, I'd have to say, Is that on the Live 8 and One websites, it was nearly impossible to find a link where you could actually donate. This give a lot of credence to the theme, we don't want your money, we want you name.
The message is clear concise and well presented.
The music, well that's the motivator to get people to listen.
Pray to God that they do.
So if you haven't gotten your name on the list, what are you waiting for.
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