Caveat to any non-Lotus readers, sorry but sometimes my world of Lotus/IBM needs dedicated posts.
Those in the know, of course, get the title of this post reference, and by now should all know that one of the greatest people from the support side of IBM is shutting down her laptop for the last time with her IBM login.
You can read her last blog post on it, here. Go ahead, this can wait the few minutes.
She finished her documentation, closed all her tickets, completed all her training of Watson and her army of replacements.
And it would need to be a big army to cover everything she touched over her career.
She is pretty good at remembering all of it, which is great for people like me who have slowly been forgetting more things than I care to admit from the Yellowverse. Ancient history to some, just another day in support to her.
I tried to find old emails to date when I first worked with her but my archives were not accessible, but it was back in the Calendar and Scheduling days when no one wanted that barrel of monkeys.
I nominated her as an IBM Champion for this year, even though the rules say IBMers are not allowed, because all of her efforts on all of our behalf this and every year. She came and spoke at our events, many times unofficially, and since she was on half time at work, I nominated her solely based on the time she spent with us unofficially.
Hopefully you will all join me in nominating her for next year.
Raise a glass, a bat, your favorite marketing stuffed animal or just send her a thank you via Twitter.
All of your support efforts will now become that much harder, longer and slower without her inside of IBM for us all to rely upon.
Thank you Susan for everything.
Thursday, December 31, 2015
Tuesday, November 24, 2015
2016 IBM Champions for ICS
For the 4th year in a row I have been named an IBM Champion. It was extremely unexpected and I thoroughly believed my 1,000th blog post would be a farewell post. For the record this is post #997 of this blog.
It seems the judges have other ideas and intended to keep me going for another year. This is not something you win by being voted on by your friends or ballot stuffing on Facebook, it is a process in which, I hear, over 25 IBMers have votes. 300,000+ people in company and 25 or so vote on us!
Ecstatically pleased some of my friends who are Champions were renewed including some one I nominated was accepted this year.
Some great friends are also now included, as are many of the people who organize some of the world wide user group conferences. I don't want to single any of them out because honestly, I feel bad I did not think to nominate some of them. Thank God other people were not so forgetful.
There are probably dozens of Champions, past and present, I would love to be with at every event, listening to their wisdom, sharing stories over drinks or just helping with problems they get stuck on and I hope many feel the same way about me.
My recent trips to Social Connections 9 and SUTOL brought me to meetup in person many Champions (and some we didn't know yet would be announced today) and friends I so rarely get to hang out with that it is like a family reunion when we do get to hang out. I got to know some people a little better than prior years. It helps to have an open mind and be respectful of each other to appreciate them even more because maybe at one time I, or they, were not in a good place or state of mind and life is too short to not be happy for everyone.
We work hard, some of us travel non stop, some of us work with multiple clients and projects, some of us are dedicated to one client or employer, some of us are not able to get to too many events or even one, some of us even find time for our families too. Some have hobbies, some do not, some brew their own beer, the rest of us just drink it, some prefer the cold, others the heat, some are artists, some play musical instruments, some run, some bike, some hike, some are administrators, some are developers, some are business partners, some are IBM Customers, and some are in sales or marketing for their organizations.
Our aim is for a better and more collaborative world for all of our current and future customers.
Sadly, this is also the end of my three years as an IBM Champion for Websphere and I appreciate all the WAS Champions I met over the years, some of whom I wish I could see more often.
Here's to the Class of 2016!
May we all enjoy the fruits of our labors and share a drink some time this coming year.
https://www.ibm.com/developerworks/community/blogs/ibmchampion/entry/Announcing_the_IBM_Champion_Class_of_2016_for_IBM_Social_Business?lang=en
It seems the judges have other ideas and intended to keep me going for another year. This is not something you win by being voted on by your friends or ballot stuffing on Facebook, it is a process in which, I hear, over 25 IBMers have votes. 300,000+ people in company and 25 or so vote on us!
Ecstatically pleased some of my friends who are Champions were renewed including some one I nominated was accepted this year.
Some great friends are also now included, as are many of the people who organize some of the world wide user group conferences. I don't want to single any of them out because honestly, I feel bad I did not think to nominate some of them. Thank God other people were not so forgetful.
There are probably dozens of Champions, past and present, I would love to be with at every event, listening to their wisdom, sharing stories over drinks or just helping with problems they get stuck on and I hope many feel the same way about me.
My recent trips to Social Connections 9 and SUTOL brought me to meetup in person many Champions (and some we didn't know yet would be announced today) and friends I so rarely get to hang out with that it is like a family reunion when we do get to hang out. I got to know some people a little better than prior years. It helps to have an open mind and be respectful of each other to appreciate them even more because maybe at one time I, or they, were not in a good place or state of mind and life is too short to not be happy for everyone.
We work hard, some of us travel non stop, some of us work with multiple clients and projects, some of us are dedicated to one client or employer, some of us are not able to get to too many events or even one, some of us even find time for our families too. Some have hobbies, some do not, some brew their own beer, the rest of us just drink it, some prefer the cold, others the heat, some are artists, some play musical instruments, some run, some bike, some hike, some are administrators, some are developers, some are business partners, some are IBM Customers, and some are in sales or marketing for their organizations.
Our aim is for a better and more collaborative world for all of our current and future customers.
Sadly, this is also the end of my three years as an IBM Champion for Websphere and I appreciate all the WAS Champions I met over the years, some of whom I wish I could see more often.
Here's to the Class of 2016!
May we all enjoy the fruits of our labors and share a drink some time this coming year.
https://www.ibm.com/developerworks/community/blogs/ibmchampion/entry/Announcing_the_IBM_Champion_Class_of_2016_for_IBM_Social_Business?lang=en
Tags:
#ibm,
#keithbrooks,
2016,
ess,
friends,
ibm champion,
ICS,
lotus,
Social Business
Wednesday, November 11, 2015
I Love Admins that want to learn here is my SUTOL Session
Having a great time in Prague, last time I was here was either the I AM tour or an LCTY in 2000/2001.
Martin and the SUTOL team did a great job with the event. It was really nice to get to see people I either never met in person or have not seen in a long time. And some of us had been at #soccnx 9 last week in Stuttgart.
It was great to speak to and meet so many admins that really know what they are doing and what to learn and know more. These Admins make it easier to present topics from new viewpoints and appreciate the time we all spend in the trenches.
As it turns out, the night before SUTOL while we are at the local bar we discussed some things around DDM and we agreed things changed, but could not at the time find good details about what and when. Luckily, when we collaborate we find conclusions.
Thanks to Ben Menesi for not only pointing out Domino DDM changed types, but having a screen that shows the changes which I added to my presentation.
I also found a reference to what happened, it changed in 8.0 and this link had this to say:
Martin and the SUTOL team did a great job with the event. It was really nice to get to see people I either never met in person or have not seen in a long time. And some of us had been at #soccnx 9 last week in Stuttgart.
It was great to speak to and meet so many admins that really know what they are doing and what to learn and know more. These Admins make it easier to present topics from new viewpoints and appreciate the time we all spend in the trenches.
As it turns out, the night before SUTOL while we are at the local bar we discussed some things around DDM and we agreed things changed, but could not at the time find good details about what and when. Luckily, when we collaborate we find conclusions.
Thanks to Ben Menesi for not only pointing out Domino DDM changed types, but having a screen that shows the changes which I added to my presentation.
I also found a reference to what happened, it changed in 8.0 and this link had this to say:
To view an event message that was generated by a pre-IBM® Lotus® Domino® 7 event generator, open the Monitoring Configuration database (EVENTS4.NSF), and then open the view Advanced -- Message by Text to view how that event message is categorized in DDM. The information on the Basics panel shows the name of the new Event Type and the Old Event Type. In DDM, there are 10 event types and in pre-Domino 7, there are 22 event types. You use the information on the Basics panel to see how the old event types are incorporated into the new event types. For example, this event message has Server as the Event Type and Mail as the Old Event TypeMy slides from my session, "DDM, Letting Admins sleep longer and stay at the Pub Later Since 2005" is available on Slideshare. I touch on how to manage non-Domino things and how I get my server and DDM to Tweet me when there are problems, like email is not flowing.
Domino Domain Monitoring, Letting Admins Sleep Later and Stay at Pubs Longer Since 2005 from Keith Brooks
Thank you everyone and hope you enjoyed the session.
Thank you everyone and hope you enjoyed the session.
Tags:
#ibm,
#keithbrooks,
#sutol,
DDM,
domino domain monitoring,
lotus,
prague,
presentation
undefined
Prague, Czech Republic
Friday, November 6, 2015
My Session at Social Connections 9
My Spotlight talk hopefully was well received.
The slides really tell you nothing about the session, you would need my speech written out.
The gist of it all was around what it is like to set aside everything, your phone or email your office, your work for 1 day a week.
In the end, this was not the text I used, but what I built to start from. Edited after I posted as format was not copied over.
The slides really tell you nothing about the session, you would need my speech written out.
The gist of it all was around what it is like to set aside everything, your phone or email your office, your work for 1 day a week.
In the end, this was not the text I used, but what I built to start from. Edited after I posted as format was not copied over.
Hello Everyone,
My name is Keith Brooks, some of you may know me from my blog, others may know me from Twitter, Facebook or previous Social Connections or IBM events and the rest of you here have no idea who I am.
I am a dual IBM Champion for Websphere and Lotus/ICS/ESS and have been working in IT since 1990 with Fortune 50 companies down to a 1-2 person businesses across over a dozen industries, multiple governments and military organizations and even did a few years managing across EMEA for Lotus.
We are involved in a religious battle which has changed over time. We previously fought Microsoft or Novell or Google and that was technology evangelism. With the advent of ESN’s (Enterprise Social Networks) like Connections, we now have many, many more religious battles.
For Example:
To Folder or not to Folder
To Search or not to search
Notifications vs. Email vs. Updates vs. IM vs. pick up the phone!
Email vs. Socmed in general
Accountability vs. CYA (see my previous social connections slide decks on this topic)
But today I am taking a step back from all of this fun, you can talk to me afterwards about any of the topics I just mentioned, or other topics. But we are here to discuss in our few minutes the possibility that shutting off everything is possible for you.I come at this from a religious perspective, not a technical one.
You see as a practicing Sabbath observant Jewish person in the 21st century, we shut everything electronic down for 25 hours every week. No matter what state work is in, who I need to respond to or if I forgot to return a call, off it all goes. Laptop, server, phone, iPad, ISP Router, TV, Radio and I get 25 hours of peace and quiet, every week. As far as I know, aside from the Amish and some indigenous tribes, we are the only modern people to do such a thing, which sometimes makes it hard to explain to the rest of the world just why I can’t call you back.
Why is this important and how did this topic get accepted to present this talk? Easy, there are fears we all have of being left behind, not being in the know, missing out on something be it a pub crawl or a cute dog/cat picture. Ok, maybe you really are afraid by not answering your boss’s email you will get fired, or worse, have to work late even more than usual. Maybe you work for IBM and just feel the need to always be on and answering IM, email, updates, requests, sows, whatever.
When we talk about life balance, I don’t see it enough from everyone, even myself, but technology makes it easier to be accessible, right????…except when we aren’t.
Have you ever been on vacation and done any of these:Check and thus reply to emails? Drag a laptop, just in case, or an iPad or tablet, because an emergency might come up? Ruin your vacation by working on something which you thought needed to get done, instead of waiting for you to return.
I’v e been there and done that as I am positive have some of you in this room.I don’t have this problem! I have it in spades worse. Why? Because the first thing I do after Shabbat, EVERY SINGLE WEEK, is boot my machine and turn on my phone to check if any of my clients are in an emergency mode. Ok, sometimes I have plans and unless it is urgent I get back to people on Sunday. Sunday is a work day in Israel, which is where I live these days after moving from Florida last year. Friday is not. Which is a problem I deal with when I manage US teams and customer sites.
Speaking of which….Out of curiosity, how many here are technical/support people?
How many business or non- technical?
Did you know there are 2 types of support people in the world? No, really there are, developers and admins… just kidding. The ones that say yes to everything or no to everything, again, just kidding.Seriously speaking, there are Friday or Monday emergency people.
As a test, how many of you are Friday emergency people? Monday Emergency People? Probably because I would leave early on Fridays, I became a Monday emergency person because some things from Friday or the weekend just did not get done, correctly. Also the last thing I ever want is to work on my weekends, no matter where I live.
In either case, you can see and plan your world when you understand where the pitfalls are found. If you are going to shut down your equipment, at least know what you are in for and select a good time to do it, not like 9am on a Monday.
Some of you may wonder how I managed to survive in IT and management when I am shutting down weekly and in the case of September like this year, lose about 6 more days in the month due to other holidays, not to mention losing my Fridays as I will explain shortly. Here is the key.
In about 25 years of doing this I have experienced office fires, terrorist attacks on the WTC, earthquakes, power outages due to hurricanes, snow storms, flooding, over 100 degrees(40c) temperatures and in one case snow in a data center as well as the run of the mill emergencies of IT like server crashes, ISP failures, hardware issues.
Aside from 2 incidents which took place over a Shabbat or holiday, there has never been anything that threatening to the business, the systems or the people that I failed to be available for my coworkers and customers. I think that is a pretty good ratio, don’t you?
Usually I have coverage from friends or other coworkers when I am unavailable, but not always. In one of those 2 cases because I was the only support person to reply to a customer and follow up with them, they became a permanent client and fired their other support companies. Why? Because they sat for over a day with zero working in their offices. ZERO! Timing is everything. Thank God. If you learn nothing else from this talk, always remember to be responsive to customers however big or small they are because you may be the only one who replies and wins the day.
It is because of this statistic, 2 emergencies in 20+ years, I can safely shut down for 25 hours a week and spend my time reading, real newspapers and magazines, hang out with friends and family, sleep, watch sunsets or sunrises and not feel guilty about work or hurrying to get here or there. If I can’t walk to it, I can’t get to it on Shabbat and so my world is local and often enjoyable.
Tonight, and tomorrow, I am in Stuttgart because I could not fly home in time for Shabbat so anyone that wants to hang out or buy me drinks, I am at the Marriott. From 4:38pm tonight to 5:44pm tomorrow I am offline so best to tell me before 4:30 if you will come by and when.
How does one balance their religious needs and their professional needs? Not easily. As an IBM Champion I am honored and humbled to have been selected, and nominated, more than once as I feel I do so much less than others given my limitations of time, kids, Shabbat and holidays. After all I am unavailable for at least 75 days a year, which when you realize that is 20% of the time when you would be working, you start to realize the extent of this difference that I overcome.
I am not backed by an employer, I am my own employer.I also home schooled my kids the last 2 years and even now help them to some extent with their Hebrew homework. The downside to religion, in my case, is I have been unable to attend or speak at at least 4 events this year because of scheduling holidays or Shabbat and already know some are out next year. Great events like Engage, ICON UK, AdminCamp, and other European events that present scheduling conflicts may never get to see me. I do not have extra time to write all my blog posts I’d like to accomplish but somehow do get some done as well. I also guest blog at a few sites, so my time is thin.
What about you? What are you doing? Can you even go a lunch hour without looking at your phone? Can you even go this 15 minutes without it? Some of you think this is crazy, but I have spent years training my employees and managers around my limitations.
Did I lose jobs because of it? Yes, awesome ones too! Like working for Capitol Records, you know, The Beatles record company?…twice! It sucks, but then I have worked with so many major companies across so many verticals that I am lucky to have done what I have over the years. Not to worry some jobs were fun too, I worked on Broadway for a theatre for 2 years as well.
Do you remember what it was like before your phone was your world? I do, it was around 1995 when I got my first cell phone. I was an oddity, few had them and they were not much better than walkie talkies, but they got the job done. I lived through the Palm phase, Crackberry craze (I supported them but only carried one for a few months), then smart phones and it was only once apps and data became ubiquitous that we started having problems. Well I should say until Facebook for Blackberry came out and you all got on it! By the way, I wonder if adults would ever get to Facebook if that had not happened. But I digress.
I imagine when Television started it was the same arguments. And yet here we are and while the screen shrunk it is still a TV. An infinitely smarter, funnier, helpful TV, but still a TV.Social connections means we should be social, not just digitally, but in person as well. We don’t need to be a slave to our devices and we don’t need to feel like we are missing something. We need to spend more time with our family, our kids, our parents, our friends and our coworkers, rather than our phones, email and IMs.
If I can do it, you can do it. And I don’t do it as well I used to either, but then more of you are pinging me now than ever before.
Technology is fun and we can learn a lot from it but there are other things more important than your phone or your company email and status updates.
When phones can turn water into Scotch, beer or wine then we will have a reason to keep them on all the time. Until then, just shut it down and take a break. Like Kit Kat ads say in the UK, Have a Break, Have a Kit Kat.
Tags:
#soccnx,
keith_brooks,
religion,
shabbat,
shut down,
technology
Monday, October 26, 2015
Did You Get the New Google Logo T-Shirt?
Last week I had the pleasure of attending the Casual Connect conference here in Tel Aviv. For those that don't know, Casual Connect is in the words of the website:
Having only slightly worked in the industry it was a chance to look into the minds and ideas around people that give corporate enterprises zero thought. Everything, and everyone, was hyper focused on the consumer and of course gaming or gambling games.
One of the things we received in our conference bags was what looked like a long bookmark and it had a Google logo on it and said to stop by the Google stand and pick up the new logo t-shirt. How could I resist, so in the name of research off I went to find Google.
They had a stand made out of large LEGO pieces with a fountain of marshmallows in the middle. perfect for the event. They had on hand people to help you with Adwords and other advertising aspects of the great Googleverse.
I stepped up and asked about the t-shirt. The woman at the stand said I needed to trade the bookmark for a shirt. Being an avid reader of physical paper books I asked if I could keep the bookmark, after all doesn't Google care about education? Nope, you must swap the bookmark for the shirt.
This reminded me of years ago when I worked on Broadway and the box office was charged per cup used and verified by how many drinks were ordered or served. Seemed like a poor way to manage the kiosk then, and this was not much more insightful.
I acquiesced and did the swap and then waited for the barcode scanner or a verification of my name or business card, they didn't ask for one. This got me thinking, was Google really all knowing that they knew who everyone was? Maybe they were getting the entire attendee list so it did not matter if they knew I picked up a shirt or not.
Maybe, this being Google, they were playing a math game. How many bookmarks were "delivered" to attendees, how many were returned for a shirt and how many shirts were actually given out. Like my Broadway kiosk seemed like trust was a factor, but for whom?
Why would Google waste time, resources, and money just to go to a conference which really was about the back office efforts of the gaming industry? If they really wanted to get their new logo and shirt out to the world they would have been better off at one of the main train stations down the road.
Could Google have been gaming the attendees? Was it an inside joke to see how any shirts could be given away without actually doing anything else? Were the shirts just leftovers from the recent rebranding exercise?
Maybe Google has gotten so big, the underlings just don't care, or know enough, because their own managers have no clue about business and how or why leads like this are important. Or maybe, because they are Google and literally see all our searches, posts and data that anytime they need leads they just do some SQL search on their raw data.
I don't know the answer. It was funny given how many people at the event were all about eyeballs and retention and while this gets eyeballs, not sure about retention.
Was it a waste of money for them? Is branding really important when you are Google? Is it because people don't want to be seen with a vintage shirt but a new modern version and Google was just playing with us?
I got a shirt, and a book called 'The Secret To App Success on Google Play" (pdf version) from Google, not sure what they got from me aside from this post.
Casual Connect Tel Aviv is about matching the creativity of the games industry with new media innovation and investment to find the next big thing for the games industry. Tel Aviv is a fun and beautiful city filled with history, culture and representing the forefront of the burgeoning games industry.I had volunteered to record the sessions and was given the last day of the event's marketing track, and a free pass to the show.
Having only slightly worked in the industry it was a chance to look into the minds and ideas around people that give corporate enterprises zero thought. Everything, and everyone, was hyper focused on the consumer and of course gaming or gambling games.
One of the things we received in our conference bags was what looked like a long bookmark and it had a Google logo on it and said to stop by the Google stand and pick up the new logo t-shirt. How could I resist, so in the name of research off I went to find Google.
They had a stand made out of large LEGO pieces with a fountain of marshmallows in the middle. perfect for the event. They had on hand people to help you with Adwords and other advertising aspects of the great Googleverse.
I stepped up and asked about the t-shirt. The woman at the stand said I needed to trade the bookmark for a shirt. Being an avid reader of physical paper books I asked if I could keep the bookmark, after all doesn't Google care about education? Nope, you must swap the bookmark for the shirt.
This reminded me of years ago when I worked on Broadway and the box office was charged per cup used and verified by how many drinks were ordered or served. Seemed like a poor way to manage the kiosk then, and this was not much more insightful.
I acquiesced and did the swap and then waited for the barcode scanner or a verification of my name or business card, they didn't ask for one. This got me thinking, was Google really all knowing that they knew who everyone was? Maybe they were getting the entire attendee list so it did not matter if they knew I picked up a shirt or not.
Maybe, this being Google, they were playing a math game. How many bookmarks were "delivered" to attendees, how many were returned for a shirt and how many shirts were actually given out. Like my Broadway kiosk seemed like trust was a factor, but for whom?
Why would Google waste time, resources, and money just to go to a conference which really was about the back office efforts of the gaming industry? If they really wanted to get their new logo and shirt out to the world they would have been better off at one of the main train stations down the road.
Could Google have been gaming the attendees? Was it an inside joke to see how any shirts could be given away without actually doing anything else? Were the shirts just leftovers from the recent rebranding exercise?
Maybe Google has gotten so big, the underlings just don't care, or know enough, because their own managers have no clue about business and how or why leads like this are important. Or maybe, because they are Google and literally see all our searches, posts and data that anytime they need leads they just do some SQL search on their raw data.
I don't know the answer. It was funny given how many people at the event were all about eyeballs and retention and while this gets eyeballs, not sure about retention.
Was it a waste of money for them? Is branding really important when you are Google? Is it because people don't want to be seen with a vintage shirt but a new modern version and Google was just playing with us?
I got a shirt, and a book called 'The Secret To App Success on Google Play" (pdf version) from Google, not sure what they got from me aside from this post.
Monday, September 28, 2015
Who's Meeting me in Prague at Sutol 2015?
The nice people in charge of SUTOL 2015 in Prague on November 11 have granted me a session at their technical conference.
Thank you Martin Jinoch and team (@sutolcz) for letting this IBM Champion visit and meet everyone!
Luckily for me this year they are not making us present in Czech have opened the event up to English speakers.
With an expected 200 people coming that are Admins or Developers, they expect a nice size audience for the sessions.
My topic, one which I have spoken about at The View Admin and Lotusphere/Connect:
"DDM, Letting Admins Sleep later and stay at Pubs longer since 2005"
I will not be hacking DDM (Domino Domain Monitor) in this session, but we will be covering:
The basics for those who do not use it yet (shame on you!)
Notifications and what to do with them
Pros and Cons to so much knowledge
Tricks and Tips along the way
How to Manage your Exchange Admins or SAP or whatever...even IBM SmartCloud via DDM
Plus more ways to keep yourself happy after hours and on weekends.
Edited: At last I can do something I wanted for some time as an admin that DDM doesn't, but you have to come to hear/see it first.
I will be coming in the day before and leaving late on the 11th so if you need me to visit your office or help you in any way, please let me know in advance.
See you in Prague!
Oh and I ran across this for my fellow non Czech speaking attendees: http://www.fluentin3months.com/why-czech-isnt-as-hard-to-learn-as-you-think/
Tags:
#ibm,
#Lotus,
2015,
DDM,
Domino,
domino domain monitor,
keith_brooks_ibm_champion,
prague,
speaking,
sutol
Tuesday, September 22, 2015
SnTT - Where'd Our Address Book Go?
If you are a Domino Administrator you know the answer to this question:
Can your Domino server start without the names.nsf file being found?
Of course not.
Yet, clients always try to prove you wrong.
A support ticket came in and it said the address book had gone AWOL. When i logged in to the network and check on the server, it was up and running. Scratching my head, I spoke to the customer and they ended up sending me a screenshot showing quite clearly how in the Admin client, the names.nsf was not visible from the left column where it usually would appear.
I pointed out that the view in the admin client is based on the Directory assistance and LDAP databases. If those are not running or configured you will not see them, but they are definitely there. (Yes, I had checked the physical files were there too) oddly enough I could not find much in searching online to explain it, so anyone with more in depth knowledge, feel free to comment and I will update this post accordingly.
It turns out LDAP had been loaded on the server manually, not via the notes.ini so at some restart they "lost" the files.
Edited notes.ini and loaded LDAP to bring everything back to normal.
The customer was adamant the server was down, yet they could tell, just like I could, that the server was up and running fine. An issue of education, or a case of change is not good which throws them off their game?
While it is our job to support and help the customers, we should also be taking the time to explain to them what is going on, how to resolve it, and why it happened. When we know.
I admit when there are just some things we don't know and the time involved to find out may not be equitable to clients. This was not one of those times, but we all run into the crazy exceptions that happen.
One can never be bored supporting customers, that is for sure.
Can your Domino server start without the names.nsf file being found?
Of course not.
Yet, clients always try to prove you wrong.
A support ticket came in and it said the address book had gone AWOL. When i logged in to the network and check on the server, it was up and running. Scratching my head, I spoke to the customer and they ended up sending me a screenshot showing quite clearly how in the Admin client, the names.nsf was not visible from the left column where it usually would appear.
I pointed out that the view in the admin client is based on the Directory assistance and LDAP databases. If those are not running or configured you will not see them, but they are definitely there. (Yes, I had checked the physical files were there too) oddly enough I could not find much in searching online to explain it, so anyone with more in depth knowledge, feel free to comment and I will update this post accordingly.
It turns out LDAP had been loaded on the server manually, not via the notes.ini so at some restart they "lost" the files.
Edited notes.ini and loaded LDAP to bring everything back to normal.
The customer was adamant the server was down, yet they could tell, just like I could, that the server was up and running fine. An issue of education, or a case of change is not good which throws them off their game?
While it is our job to support and help the customers, we should also be taking the time to explain to them what is going on, how to resolve it, and why it happened. When we know.
I admit when there are just some things we don't know and the time involved to find out may not be equitable to clients. This was not one of those times, but we all run into the crazy exceptions that happen.
One can never be bored supporting customers, that is for sure.
Tags:
#ibm,
#keithbrooks,
admin client,
DA,
Domino,
LDAP,
missing address book,
names.nsf
Monday, September 21, 2015
Social Connections 9 in Stuttgart w/Me
They say 3rd time is the charm, I will once again be speaking at the Social Connections event scheduled for November 5-6 in Stuttgart, Germany.
However, this time I have been blessed to not do a competitive pitch, nor an accountability one, but a Spotlight session you can read more about here on Friday November 6th.
I look forward to seeing many friends and many more customers at the event.
I will be wrestling with and explaining the at times conflicting aspects of technology evangelism, life and work balance and how shutting down for 25 hours a week, or sometimes more, really is helpful.
I know, not my usual session but they wanted something we felt strongly about and well this hits it on so many levels, hope you all come and listen and appreciate it.
No slides will be shown at this session aside from the thanking the sponsors slide and my contact details. You may be asked to turn your phone off during this session, if you are up to the challenge, see you there.
However, this time I have been blessed to not do a competitive pitch, nor an accountability one, but a Spotlight session you can read more about here on Friday November 6th.
I look forward to seeing many friends and many more customers at the event.
I will be wrestling with and explaining the at times conflicting aspects of technology evangelism, life and work balance and how shutting down for 25 hours a week, or sometimes more, really is helpful.
I know, not my usual session but they wanted something we felt strongly about and well this hits it on so many levels, hope you all come and listen and appreciate it.
No slides will be shown at this session aside from the thanking the sponsors slide and my contact details. You may be asked to turn your phone off during this session, if you are up to the challenge, see you there.
Tags:
#keithbrooks,
#soccnx,
conference,
Evangelist,
event,
social,
speaking,
Spotlight,
stuttgart
Monday, August 17, 2015
יבמ "Verse" עכשו בעברית
מי חושב שחברת יבמ רוצים לקחו אתנו לדואר אלקטרוני חדש.
זה לא כל כך הדואר של האמא ואבא.
יבם רוצים שאתם מוצאים דרך חדשה לעבודה.
אם אתה מעוניין ב"יבמ וורס" אנא צור קשר איתי ואני אשמח לדבר על זה איתך עוד.
ב"יבמ וורס" לומד עליך יותר אתה משתמש בו.האנשים שאתה עובד איתם, כולם יכול להיות מצא את המידע שאתה רוצה או צריך, הפרטים שאתה מחפש בקלות.
אם אתם מחפשים אלטרנטיבה מ- Outlook, Gmail ורוצים פתרון אלקטרוני מאובטחת, מודרנית אלקטרונית, כמה, אז אתה צריך להעיף מבט על יבמ וורס.
לקבלת מידע נוסף מיבמ, בבקשה ללכת ל
http://www.ibm.com/social-business/us/en/newway/
פרטי הקשר שלי נמצאים בצד של הדף
.פרטי הקשר שלי נמצאים בצד של הדף
Tags:
#ibm,
#verse,
alternative email.,
hebrew,
keith brooks,
modern email
undefined
Rehovot, Israel
Thursday, August 6, 2015
Email, and Email Services, are not a Commodity
Do you think Email is a commodity, but SMTP service is not? If you think it is, have you planned for what happens when your primary mail service, including SMTP goes down?
I doubt it, because most people do not even realize how email is broken down into parts that only a small bit are the responsibility of your own IT team.
When you have in house email, everything, except the ISP providing your bandwidth, is your own world. You break it, you fix it. You do, or do not, plan for business interruptions. Maybe you have a secondary ISP, even if it is some lousy DSL line, you have something, anything. You do, right?
What about when you get to cloud apps and you have a LDAP in one service or server, your app on one server, your mail transport on another, mobile site on another, your company website on yet another one.
When any of those parts fail, most of the rest fails and you have zero capability to resolve it. Zero. You are at the mercy of whatever Cloud provider, Host facility, kid with an iPhone controlling your VMs and whenever they get around to fixing your problem they will.
Utility? Commodity? Sure, but so are cars, yet many people will not drive a (fill in the blank for your country) because of the lousy service record or safety. Why is your Cloud provider any different.
You may ask about clustering, fail over, etc.. but that does mean you will get an answer that makes sense to you or to them sometimes.
Email is still the #1 business tool because so many rely on it. Do they have to rely on it? Not at all, but they have not made the leap yet to extended applications that notify via other methods. Maybe they did take the leap, but our customers have not yet. The customers expect to be able to interact with us through an old medium which is so easy even the term used, SMTP stands for Simple Mail Transfer Protocol, makes it sound easy. Can you plan for every contingency? No, sometimes stuff really happens you can not work around easily. But if you believe all your IT services are just commodities, then you will get what you pay for and should not expect better.
Running a mail server, and related services is not so simple and takes people that truly understand what they are looking at when they get RFC codes in reply and other "errors" as users report them.
I know, I have been doing it for 20 years, IBM, Microsoft, Google, Novell and so many long gone that it is hard to really believe anyone when they say they have a new email app. Email is an app, a huge one, and though you may argue it should just do email, we both know it does so much more and can do so much more. The problem is when the other services, which most people take for granted, stop working and your commodity or utility is unable to do anything.
Makes for a really different work day. or maybe you should spend the time thinking about how to get off the email drug and move to a better way to work.
I doubt it, because most people do not even realize how email is broken down into parts that only a small bit are the responsibility of your own IT team.
When you have in house email, everything, except the ISP providing your bandwidth, is your own world. You break it, you fix it. You do, or do not, plan for business interruptions. Maybe you have a secondary ISP, even if it is some lousy DSL line, you have something, anything. You do, right?
What about when you get to cloud apps and you have a LDAP in one service or server, your app on one server, your mail transport on another, mobile site on another, your company website on yet another one.
When any of those parts fail, most of the rest fails and you have zero capability to resolve it. Zero. You are at the mercy of whatever Cloud provider, Host facility, kid with an iPhone controlling your VMs and whenever they get around to fixing your problem they will.
Utility? Commodity? Sure, but so are cars, yet many people will not drive a (fill in the blank for your country) because of the lousy service record or safety. Why is your Cloud provider any different.
You may ask about clustering, fail over, etc.. but that does mean you will get an answer that makes sense to you or to them sometimes.
Email is still the #1 business tool because so many rely on it. Do they have to rely on it? Not at all, but they have not made the leap yet to extended applications that notify via other methods. Maybe they did take the leap, but our customers have not yet. The customers expect to be able to interact with us through an old medium which is so easy even the term used, SMTP stands for Simple Mail Transfer Protocol, makes it sound easy. Can you plan for every contingency? No, sometimes stuff really happens you can not work around easily. But if you believe all your IT services are just commodities, then you will get what you pay for and should not expect better.
Running a mail server, and related services is not so simple and takes people that truly understand what they are looking at when they get RFC codes in reply and other "errors" as users report them.
I know, I have been doing it for 20 years, IBM, Microsoft, Google, Novell and so many long gone that it is hard to really believe anyone when they say they have a new email app. Email is an app, a huge one, and though you may argue it should just do email, we both know it does so much more and can do so much more. The problem is when the other services, which most people take for granted, stop working and your commodity or utility is unable to do anything.
Makes for a really different work day. or maybe you should spend the time thinking about how to get off the email drug and move to a better way to work.
Monday, August 3, 2015
3 years down, 4.5 to go
If you have been around long enough to follow this thread, then you know this is about the Daf Yomi which I am just about at the half way point.
The 7 and a half year cycle to read and learn through all of the Babylonian Talmud.
My posts from the 1st year anniversary and 2nd year anniversary in case you want to know more about it all.
What have we learned this year?
Currently we are in the midst of Nedarim or loosely translated as vows and not just simple things but serious "I will not do this EVER" type vows. And of course, how to get out of these vows, if necessary and the consequences of making such vows.
Last August we were just finishing Megillah all about Persia, Purim, Esther and Mordechai and of course the good and bad ways of the world.
We rolled into Moed Katan which discussed the interim days known as Chol Hamoed, which are the middle days between the beginning of the holiday of Passover and Sukot and the ending of them. Naturally there are discussions about cooking, carrying, what prayers to say, or not and a very practical book.
Next up was Chagigah which went into more details around the 3 Pilgrimage festivals, Passover, Shavuot and Sukot. More stories than laws and discussions about the creation of the world, the universe and some similar mystical/mythical (depending on your view) topics. It then leads into a discussion on ritual purity.
The next section was Yevamot, the first tractate in the section called Nashim or Women. Yevamot deals with the Levirate marriage. Levirate marriage, for those that don't know, this is a simple explanation, is when a man dies and has no children to carry on his name and if he has a brother that brother would take the widow as a secondary or primary wife and have kids. While this may sound crazy to modern people, the laws around this are still followed, not the polygamy stuff, but there are documentation required to be satisfied, think of it as a prenuptial religious relinquishment. It is an interesting tractate once you understand all the relationships and names for everyone. There is a study guide that all it has is charts of who/how can be married to each other. It is that complicated to follow the lineage.
And just before Nedarim we did Ketubot. I had previously learned Ketubot, which is about marriage, marriage contracts, dowries, divorce, age of consent and documentation. The marriage contract in Judaism is called a Ketuba and tends to be elaborate artistic efforts surrounding the actual text. Like ancient illuminated manuscripts, this tradition continues on to this day. I'd show you mine, but it is still boxed as we never unpacked the hanging items when we moved. Google has numerous images here.
While I don't get to do it every day, I tend to catch up a lot on shabbat.
This year coming up will include some out there topics, like Nazir on Nazirites and Gitin which is about divorce.
Here's to 3 and a half more years
The 7 and a half year cycle to read and learn through all of the Babylonian Talmud.
My posts from the 1st year anniversary and 2nd year anniversary in case you want to know more about it all.
What have we learned this year?
Currently we are in the midst of Nedarim or loosely translated as vows and not just simple things but serious "I will not do this EVER" type vows. And of course, how to get out of these vows, if necessary and the consequences of making such vows.
Last August we were just finishing Megillah all about Persia, Purim, Esther and Mordechai and of course the good and bad ways of the world.
We rolled into Moed Katan which discussed the interim days known as Chol Hamoed, which are the middle days between the beginning of the holiday of Passover and Sukot and the ending of them. Naturally there are discussions about cooking, carrying, what prayers to say, or not and a very practical book.
Next up was Chagigah which went into more details around the 3 Pilgrimage festivals, Passover, Shavuot and Sukot. More stories than laws and discussions about the creation of the world, the universe and some similar mystical/mythical (depending on your view) topics. It then leads into a discussion on ritual purity.
The next section was Yevamot, the first tractate in the section called Nashim or Women. Yevamot deals with the Levirate marriage. Levirate marriage, for those that don't know, this is a simple explanation, is when a man dies and has no children to carry on his name and if he has a brother that brother would take the widow as a secondary or primary wife and have kids. While this may sound crazy to modern people, the laws around this are still followed, not the polygamy stuff, but there are documentation required to be satisfied, think of it as a prenuptial religious relinquishment. It is an interesting tractate once you understand all the relationships and names for everyone. There is a study guide that all it has is charts of who/how can be married to each other. It is that complicated to follow the lineage.
And just before Nedarim we did Ketubot. I had previously learned Ketubot, which is about marriage, marriage contracts, dowries, divorce, age of consent and documentation. The marriage contract in Judaism is called a Ketuba and tends to be elaborate artistic efforts surrounding the actual text. Like ancient illuminated manuscripts, this tradition continues on to this day. I'd show you mine, but it is still boxed as we never unpacked the hanging items when we moved. Google has numerous images here.
While I don't get to do it every day, I tend to catch up a lot on shabbat.
This year coming up will include some out there topics, like Nazir on Nazirites and Gitin which is about divorce.
Here's to 3 and a half more years
Tags:
#dafyomi,
daf yomi,
hol hamoed,
keith brooks,
ketubot,
moed katan,
nedarim,
passover,
thedaf
Tuesday, July 7, 2015
Quickr FixPack 47 Came Out
Look at that, a new fix pack. #47, we long ago passed the #42 and are heading to the magic #50 but first things first.
IBM would like you to know the following:
You of course would like to know where to get this, over at Fix Central.
IBM would like you to know the following:
2015/06/15
- Quickr for Domino Migration 8.5.1 to IBM Connections Content Manager 5.0 CR1
Please find the updated instructions for migration on
the IBM Connections Wiki in the Best Practices section:
You of course would like to know where to get this, over at Fix Central.
No, IBM did not update the latest fixes update technote yet, so I have no info on what is inside this one.
See here: http://www-01.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?uid=swg24029024
More details for you, the 2015 editions:
This post has been graciously sponsored by the Author on behalf of his excellent Quickr for Domino Administration Book found on Amazon.
More details for you, the 2015 editions:
FP
8.5.1.47
|
||
06/15/2015
|
GAKI9P3H88
LO81999
|
Cannot edit a member on the Member’s Page.
|
FP
8.5.1.46
|
||
03/24/2015
|
No SPR
|
In customer specific place, cannot remove
members from a the Member Page.
|
03/24/2015
|
CERM9MHSL8
LO81461
|
Crash when running qptool changememeber.
|
03/24/2015
|
YYYY9V8CCC
|
Cannot view a folder in Connectors when
certain Chinese characters are used.
|
FP
8.5.1.45
|
||
03/03/2015
|
RBJA9SYT8P
LO83523
|
Under certain circumstances, unable to
restore a folder from Trash.
|
03/03/2015
|
GAKI9RNHC8
LO83110
|
The login count is displayed incorrectly
for certain places in a clustered environment.
|
01/05/2015
|
TMAI9MJFEE
LO81444
|
Attaching an Image File to a custom Form
and then insert an image in the Rich Text Editor, the Attachments tab shows 2
files.
|
01/05/2015
|
TMAI92WAZQ
LO73082
|
Issue with sending a Task Notification
|
01/05/2015
|
LCAE9RVSDN
LO83185
|
With themes lower than the 8.5 theme, a user
sending a notification from a Room has the option to select all members, even
though those members may not have access to the room.
|
01/05/2015
|
FMCA9QUCTC
FMCA9R7T6B
|
Fixes for issues dealing with groups when
migrating to Connections.
|
This post has been graciously sponsored by the Author on behalf of his excellent Quickr for Domino Administration Book found on Amazon.
Tags:
#ibm,
#Lotus,
amazon book,
fixpack,
quickr
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