Recently, I had to endure a meeting
where I was "told" how "easy" it is to migrate from
Domino to MS Exchange…  "Yes", I agreed, "but, ahem,
if you take into account that you lose a lot of security, fidelity, scalability
and functionality , there is one, other small problem.  You have 50
applications.  What do you want to do with them?"


Well guys, I’m wrong.  Apparently,
its easy to migrate them aswell.  Microsoft even supply you with a
tool to evaluate how difficult it would be to migrate your application
out of Lotus Notes to an MS platform.  This has been tried before,
and never EVER worked (don’t even get me started on the Lotus Notes email
connector for Exchange, but that’s a different story).  But, as I
have an open mind, I was willing to take a look at the Microsoft
Application Analyser for Lotus Notes.
 First of all, what does it do?

"The Microsoft® Application
Analyser for Lotus Notes – Data Collector User’s Guide describes
how to operate the Data Collector program. You can use the Data Collector
to collect data about IBM Lotus Notes applications. This data can be used
by Microsoft Consulting Services or a Microsoft Certified Partner to generate
in-depth reports about Notes applications and to develop migration strategy.
The Data Collector also generates an Executive Summary Report about the
selected Lotus Notes applications."

Ok, it gives me a summary report telling
me how difficult it would be to migrate my Lotus Notes application to the
MS platform.  Fair enough?  I decided to run it against a few
applications of my own…..

I have provisionally set out the date
for the next Irish Lotus User Group meeting for the 24th March 2006.  So
far, there are two primary sponsors (TeamStudio
and M@ilmeter).
 Looks like I will have the means to make this a 3/4 or full day event,
and am now putting together the session list.  Any suggestions on
some interesting topics?  Also, anyone interested in speaking should
let me know (I am sure some of the fellow bloggers wouldn’t mind coming
over to Dublin for a weekend next March).  It would be great to get
the same
turnout as last year.  Hopefully,
I will be able to get a beta of Sametime
7.1 and show it off on the day.
 With the clock ticking on Lotusphere,
I know that very little will be done on this event until the end of Jan……..

http://photobucket.com/albums/c141/IndianaGrl/?action=view&current=brill.jpg

Via Bill.
 Just one of those pics that caught me off guard….  Ed, you
know you can sue for this  

On top of being quite unwell most of the weekend, my site has been down
since yesterday.   I didn’t notice at first until my one reader dropped
me a line to inform me.  So… the usual troubleshooting began.  The
domino server was running fine on the LAN and the site was responsive.
 It was only failing from external browsers.  

First thing to check – the router.

Router was fine, and I could still receive SMTP mail all the other ports
I use were directing to the domino server as configured.  That meant
that port forwarding was ok.
Next thing to check – DNS
All was fine there and the site was resolving to the correct IP address.

Next thing to check – my ISP

I called to see if they were blocking port 80 on my for any particular
reason (ready for a fight on the phone).  They said nope and all was
fine.
At this point, I was stumped.  Bill
and Ben
(hehehe) were most helpful
in troubleshooting from external points and I also had remote controlled
external machines to test inbound connectivity.   It had to
be the router, but that didn’t make any sense.  Either way, I reset
the router using the cold reset switch, and reconfigured.

Not a jot…..
Router was happy but still couldn’t come in on HTTP.  So then, I went
for the improbable.  My NAV client on my home workstation started
going mad with skype yesterday, constantly asking me to permit worm access
to various IP addresses.  A
bit of research told me that
apparently my client can be promoted to "Supernode" to assist
in the facilitation of other Skype connections.  Skype is not on my
server, but I disabled it anyway on the workstation as a "just in
case".
Still not a jot….
A 30 minute chat with Linksys support gave me nothing, so in the end I
said screw it and re-installed the firmware.
Bingo… all is well again, even with the same configuration.  Somehow
the router just gave up on HTTP packets but continued to permit everything
else, throwing me off the scent. Damn!… weird.

A friend of mine was in a college class recently, and got talking to an
IBM/Lotus employee (no names).  So, they chat about Notes and IBM
and everything related.  The parts of the conversation that got back
to me are just infuriating.  The Lotus guy was saying that the .nsf
database is being phased out and will be replaced with DB2.  In addition
to that, there were a few other little statements that are completely against
all the information that Ed
and Lotus have been pouring
out.  But the best one was his answer to questions about the Irish
Lotus User Group and the interest
it has raised in the product suite.  The response was:

"I play in the band, I’m not in the fan club"

These types of conversations made me think of Ed’s post a few days ago
about flight
attendants bitching about their employer.
 Years of advertising and millions of marketing euros can be wiped
from a person’s mind by the comments of an employee.   If you work
for a company and don’t like it.  Fine.  But, they pay your wages
so keep your bitching to a minimum and to people you know.  You never
know who will hear your comments, even through a third-party.  I am
lucky enough to enjoy where
I work and enjoy the product(s)
I work with.  Even if I didn’t, I would play the company game until
I got the hell out of that business.  If you speak to someone about
where you work, you are representing that company.  Be careful, especially
in front of strangers.

I noticed a referrer from my alter-ego
today, with a link to
Ray’s new blogsite.  I
can honestly say this is one I will watch and read with interest over the
coming months.  This is his third blog site since 2002 and he already
laid out some ground rules for himself.  Take a look when you get
a chance.  He speaks of a "fun little project" that they
want to launch, possibly through his blog.  Interesting.

>A man is sitting reading his newspaper when the wife sneaks up behind
him and whacks him on the head with a frying pan. "What was that for?"
he asks. "That was for the piece of paper in your trouser pockets
with the name Mary Ellen written on it," she replies. "Don’t
be silly," he says, "Two weeks ago when I went to the races Its
the name of one of the horses I bet on." She seems satisfied and at
this, she apologizes. Three days later he’s again sitting in his chair
reading when she nails him with an even bigger frying pan, knocking him
out cold.  When he comes around, he asks again, "what was that
for?!" She responded, "Your f**ing horse phoned."

As requested, I have pasted in some screenshots of the Sametime 7.1 client,
taken from IBM Presentations….. Is it just me that cant wait for this
badly needed upgrade!

I don’t post personal stuff often, but
this one is just wayyy to odd to not post.  For the third time in
six weeks, my valve caps from my car have been robbed while parked (Well
- it would have been interesting if my car was in motion at the time!).
 Yep, these are the things that cover the valves on the tyres.  
For it to happen twice is unusual, but at this stage its plain ridiculous!
 Am I being stalked by a serial valve cap thief?  Do I need to
electrify my wheels or just exploding ink cartridges fitted?  If a
young lad asked me for valve caps, I would give him the few quid it costs
to replace them.   I shall check the Irish Police statistics this
evening to see if this "car hate" crime is exploding in Dublin,
or if its only me.  My friends have already mailed me links to counselling
sites that deal with victims of "valve attacks" on a regular
basis….

The IBM Business Partner download site (accessed from here)
has a new look and feel when trying to find software.  Excellent improvement.
 I found the software I wanted today with ease.  Any BP who knows
the site also knows the old one was clunky to say the least.  Great
job!