If you are a notes user, or a power
user, or an end user teacher, be sure to go to Alan
Lepofsky’s site.  It consists
of all these wonderful little tricks on the client that you (well… ok
then… me) would never know.  It is an excellent reference for the
person that wants to get the most from the client and the mail file.

A few months ago, I posted this
error for sites that still
have R5 on the client and ND6 on the server (there are still many) whom
are using the Certificate Authority process.  Back on a site today,
the admin team have been using CA to recertify users that were due to expire.
 On the ND6 clients, it works a treat.  On the R5 clients, it
was sporadic.  What is supposed to happen?

Well, when you use the CA process to
recertify a user, it is recorded in the administration requests database
(admin4.ns).  This database should be replicating to all your servers
(along with the directory (names.nsf)).  The next time the recertified
user launches Notes and enters their mail file, their hierarchical certificates
should be updated in their id file.  This flashes briefly on the status
bar and the job is done.  With the R5 client, this doesn’t happen.
 The only time the user gets re-certified is when they seem to access
the administration server of the domain.  If they don’t go to this
specific server, they don’t get updated.

After a bit of playing around, I think
I have it sussed.  It goes back to the certlog.nsf database (certification
log).  This usually exists only on the administration server(s) in
a domain.  Only when the R5 client hits a server with this database
on it does the recertification trigger.  

Solution: Replicate the certlog.nsf
database to the mail servers.  With testing this has worked each time
so far.  I haven’t had full time to research the "why" as
yet but will get back with details.  Have the red eye to London to
catch in the morning so it can wait.  If anyone has seen these symptoms
before though, let me know.

An excellent afternoon was had by all.
 It was a busy session, with many presentations to fit in.  In
all honesty, I thought there was too many but it seemed to work out very
well.  I ran a revised version of the IBM strategy roadmap, followed
by a Workplace Services Express demo.  WSE and its ease of use/install
got many approving nods and will be an excellent first step for many companies
looking at portal based solutions.   As for the roadmap presentation,
I was happier with it this time then the one in Belfast.  There is
a lot to say in a short period of time, and I found that definitely "less
was more" when it came to the information.  Nobody fell asleep….
so I suppose that was a good sign.
After that, a brilliant overview of some really amazing Blackberry Apps,
including Idokorro
Mobile Admin, but also including
GPS software and Notes Application editing directly from the Blackberry.
 Wouter from Trust
Factory came on then and showed
on DNA
for Domino.  Class stuff.
 If you haven’t looked at this yet…. do.  Finally, we had Waterford
Technologies back again to demo
the M@ilmeter suite of products.  Again, this raised lots of questions
in relation to compliance, archiving and reporting utilities for messaging.
(Mr
Byrne, you would have liked to
been there!)  There was some great interaction from the attendees,
which is always positive.

After that…. drinks.  In fact,
many many drinks with Bill,
Declan,
Wouter (his wife) and Mark.  I think it was about 3-ish when I got
home.  Never a good thing on a school night.

Overall, everyone was very happy with
the day.  I got some positive feedback on resurrecting the Irish Lotus
Notes User Group and from the company perspective, we have a nice little
announcement to make in the next week or so.  If you’re from over
here… stay tuned.

Reported In The Daily Telegraph 14/2/05

A Letter To B & Q’s London Branch Manager (leaked by someone at the company)

—————————————————————-

Dear Sir/Madam

My heartiest congratulations to you on getting your B&Q yacht, skippered by Ellen Mc Arthur, to leave the UK on 28th November 2004, sail 27,354 miles around the world and arrive back 72 days later.

Now, could you please let me know when the f**king kitchen I ordered 96 days ago will be arriving from your warehouse 13 miles away ?

Yours sincerely

I have been involved in a few Irish
user groups over the years (as have quite a few readers here have aswell)
but they always drizzled out after a year or so.  At Lotusphere, I
went to the
Lotus User Group booth and
since have spoken to them about starting it up again.  More details
to come in the next week or so.  I would like some pre-emptive information
from any local readers though.  Is there any interest in this in Ireland
nowadays?  Post a response or email me to let me know if you think
it would be a good idea or a waste of time.

Notes Developer wanted.  Based
in Dublin 3-4 years good Domino development experience  for both rich
client and web.  Mail info@bluewave.ie if you are interested.  

I know that Frank
has had the same issue recently, but over the past week my site is being
hammered by referrer spamming from various sites.  I am reporting
and chasing these myself but has anyone else in the blogosphere been hit
recently?  

I have posted a new project on OpenNTF to update and revamp the Mean
Time Between Failure application that has been on the Sandbox for
donkeys.  I am offering to test/manage and run with the project, but
I will need developers to get this to work.. Go on, go
to the project and discuss it.
 I reckon it would be very popular..

Over the past two years, I have seen many bloggers come to the same introspective
point in their on-line world and start to look at the usefulness of their
little contribution to the web.  I have also noticed that during this
little "one year crisis" point that other bloggers then offer
positive criticism on the site and give their overall thoughts on its content
and style.  Funny to think that the site is now one year old next
week.  My first few postings were sparse to say the least, but it
has come on a little bit and now plods along at its little pace on the
old super-highway.  Apart from the vast technical resources and numerous
experts that blogging has opened me up to, the main benefit is meeting
a very welcoming, encouraging community of geeks, nerds, heavy drinkers,
potential dictators, and general nice people.  I had the opportunity
to meet some of them at Lotusphere and hope to meet many more of them in
the coming months and years. So, I find myself at the one year marker.
 Please let me know if you have found anything that I have ever posted
in any way useful……..  Any criticism and comments are welcome.
 Doesn’t matter what you post, I will just edit the comment anyway
.  

Blue Wave gave its Northern Ireland presentation in the Europa Hotel yesterday.
 Three presentations in a half day, my ND7 presentation and demo,
a presentation on M@ilmeter
by Waterford Technologies, and
then a presentation on the IBM/Lotus Roadmap.  Many of my usual northern
customers turned up, but there were a few new faces aswell, which is always
nice.
The presentation went very well, with a lot of interest in ND7 features.
 As ever, I still laugh at how its the "little things" that
gather interest.   Some very cynical looks at the performance improvements
that come with ND7 on the CPU.  Don’t really blame them.  IT
departments just are not used to hearing that you don’t have to upgrade
the hardware but the application will work faster!  Mark Mulcahy from
Waterford technologies demoed M@ilmeter.  This kit analyses your mail
traffic and can also archive mail for compliance.  Excellent reporting
and "drilling down" capability to easily user mail usage statistics.

The final roadmap presentation was unusual for me as for once, I wasn’t
demoing any product.  The presentation was aimed to clarify the Lotus
/ IBM / Workplace strategy at a high level to the room.  Firstly,
concentrating on the Lotus suite and touching on some of the competition
statistics (a mini "Boss Loves Microsoft session").  Secondly,
taking the entire ibm product suite back to its basics, outlining what
they all do and where they lie in the environment.  Finally, I spoke
on the IBM Workplace suite, and where Lotus and Websphere comes into play.
 Feedback on the roadmap presentation was positive (with some good
feedback and critisism), as I approached it from a very basic (Roadmap
for Dummies!) standpoint.  Apart from anything else, being able to
give this presentation at a level of clarity is due to the excellent sessions
in Lotusphere.   During the many, many drinks last  night in
the Crown bar, some of the customers that attended stated that "it
makes sense now".   Still, after presenting, I will be changing
it some more before the next time.