Change the Windows XP Boot Graphic

I read an old post on gHacks Tech News about how to change the windows XP Boot Graphic. I tried it and it's pretty cool so I have to write about it for those of you who haven't seen it before. Follow the intructions by downloading bootskin and get more skins at winCustomize. It's freeware and it makes only temporary changes. According to gHacks the default settings are back when uninstalling bootskin.

I downloaded and tried one with a Superman Returns theme. Take a look at it here:



Unfortunately I couldn't find a lotus related bootskin, other than the car ;-)

Technorati tags:
Windows XP Boot Graphic, Change boot graphic

Install your Lotus Notes client on a USB key

Declan Lynch reports on his blog that in IBM Lotus Notes Domino 7.0.2 Beta the feature Nomad is available. This means that the entire Lotus Notes client can be installed onto a USB key and startup will all your settings on any windows machine. It will take up approximately 340 MB.

Declan writes...
I could quit notes and move the USB key to another machine and everything worked as if it was installed locally. I also had the full notes client installed on one of the machine I put the USB key into and the Lotus Nomad install did not interfere with the installed client in any way. It was also nice to see that nomad worked perfectly when I plugged the USB key into a Windows Vista beta machine.

It will only work for the Lotus Notes client though. Here's how to make it work for admin and designer clients. He continues...
To turn your recently installed Lotus Nomad client into a Lotus Admin Designer Nomad client you just need to copy over 4 files to the USB Key :

admin.exe
designer.exe
events4.ntf
domadmin.ntf

This can be done by any user since Nomad requires only standard privileges. It only writes to the HKEY_CURRENT_USER registry key.

Technorati tags:
Nomad, Notes on USB key, Domino, Lotus Notes

Google's list of domain names

Neil Patel on Pronet Advertising has by searching the web and using a domain lookup tool gathered a list of Google's domain names, currently 520 of them and increasing with the incoming comments on his post.

The most amazing and unexpected one's (if this is true) must be googlemotherfucker.com and googleporn.com but I guess (hope) that's because no one else should get that domain name and associate with Google.

Technorati tags:
Google domain names, Google

Flock

Have you seen the new web browser Flock?
It has similar features as Firefox with downloadable themes and extensions. It's currently a beta and you can either take the tour or download it.



The different features that are most obvious is the integration with Flickr or Photobucket and blog services like blogger.com. It's possible to write blogposts from the browser.

Look at the integration with Flickr in the browser window. It also has drag-and-drop features.





Technorati tags:
Flock, Web browser

Custom Google / Custom Yahoo

Change the Google logotype when using Googles search engine, like this:



or Yahoo's:



The logo does not follow the search results to the next page though.

A funny little feature. Try it yourself here!

Technorati tags:
Custom Google, Custom Yahoo

Google Suggest

Hardly any breaking news, but for anyone who haven't seent it yet.

Google Suggest gives suggestions to search words along with the hit results as you type them into the search field. This is done with AJAX. Take a look at these screenshots:





Try it yourself at Google Suggest!

Technorati tags:
Google Suggest, AJAX

Trace server

Maybe some Notes users or IT-support personal come across this blog. Here's a tip for you.

In some organizations their are sometimes problems to connect to domino servers for a whole lot of reasons. One thing you can try is to trace the server.
If the client has lost its route to the server the trace makes the client "find" the server again.

Here's how to do it:

• Chose File -> Preferences -> User Preferences in the Notes client and select 'Ports' in the box that opens up
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Press the trace button to the right and the following box opens up
  
  
  
  You can type in the server's name in the destination field. Either you just use the common name that is 'Server1' or the full hierarchical name. Press 'Trace' and a trace is made. If everything is going well it should look something like this when searching for the common name:
  
  Determining path to server Server1
  Available Ports: TCPIP
  Checking normal priority connection documents only...
  Allowing wild card connection documents...
  Checking for Server1/OU/O at last known address 'Server1' on TCPIP...
  Connected to server Server1/OU/O
  
  If this doesn't work try tracing using the domino servers IP address. When doing so:
  
  1. You're not dependent of the DNS to work
  2. A connection document is created in your personal addressbook

Technorati tags:
Trace, Find server, Lotus Notes, Domino

Compare two databases to check for differences

I am using a tool called Teamstudio Delta when I need to compare two different databases by design or by data. I use it either to compare two replicas or to compare a database with its template.




Choose server and database and then the option on whether to compare design or data.



Using the smart filter I can look at the differences between the two databases.

Since it's not freeware it limits the use to the number of licenses you or your company have bought.

-> Read more at Teamstudio

Technorati tags:
Teamstudio Delta, Lotus Notes, Domino, Compare design

IBM releases Lotus Notes for Linux!

crn.com says:
"A Notes client for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4 Update 3, will be available on July 24."
"Technically the Linux client is a Version 7 release"
-> Read more

More on edbrill.com

Technorati tags:
Notes For Linux, Lotus Notes, Domino, Linux

Firefox 2.0 Beta release

According to Techweb Mozilla will release Firefox 2.0 Beta tuesday july 11. The release candidate (rc1) can be downloaded here today.

Read more at gHacks Tech News

How to tweak Firefox 2.0 Beta 1

Technorati tags:
Firefox 2.0 Beta, Firefox release candidate, Tweak Firefox

"I have cleaned my mail box - but nothing happens"

This is a sentence that I often hear of among users of Lotus Notes where I work. The users have mail quota restrictions so they have to maintain the mail box and delete e-mails every day. However for most users the quota is never enough and I understand that. I have no restriction myself and that is a well-deserved privilege for a Notes administrator ;-)

So why does it happen and what can we do about it?

First of all, most users don't clean their mail box as good as they claim. The users tend to delete simple e-mails that don't contain any attachments. When they have deleted 20 or so they believe that they have made a great offert and wonder why there is no difference, why nothing happens...

The key to clean your mailbox efficiently is the 'All Documents' view.



Sort the view by size and you'll see all of the e-mails in your mail database, not just the one in your inbox but also sent e-mails and e-mails that you have put in folders.



They are now sorted by size and you can more easily find the large one's that will make a difference in trying to reduce the size of your mail box.

Now either delete the e-mail directly or delete the attachment or save the attachment to disk and then delete it from the e-mail.



Deleting these e-mails will not show any effect for the user. The mail box has to be compacted. The user has the option to do so by pressing the compact button that can be found in the database properties under the information tab. Compacting performed by the user will however only be helpful if the quota hasn't been overridden. If so, white space is created where the e-mails used to be and new e-mails can take their place (or calendar entries etc.). If the quota has been reached and the user has received notifications about that, a compact will not stop the notifications to continue. The reason for this is that no file size reduction takes place when a user performs a compact. But if you maintain a mail box well and delete e-mails every day, space will be available for new e-mails and the mail box does not have to grow at all.



Press the '% used' button (figure above) to see how much space in the mail box that is being used. In this example 92,3% of the mail box is filled with data. In theory 7,7% can be set free when a compact with file size reduction is performed.

Compact with file size reduction never occurs unless an administrator does it or makes it happend. Either you can do it when the problem arises for a user or you can set up a program document that does it on a weekly schedule or so.

1. On the console: load compact mail\xxx.nsf -B (compact xxx.nsf with file size red.)
2. Program document With file size reduction:
   
   
   
   
3. Program document without file size reduction:
   
   
   

A recommendation would be to create a program document that executes a compact -b every night for all users mail files. And once a week a program document that executes compact -B for all users mail files.

Technorati tags:
mail, Delete mail, File size reduction, Lotus Notes, Domino

Blog Summer Camp beta 2006

I read on the swedish blog 'Fyra nyanser av brunt' that there is a Blog Summer Camp 2006 going on this year in Germany. It is a test/beta course about what blogging is all about and how to blog held by Oliver Gassner virtually through his blog and a Google group mailinglist.

A good idea! If I only spoke better german...

Technorati tags:
Blog Sommer Camp 2006, Blog Summer Camp 2006

Changes in Internet site documents don't work

Changes in Internet site documents, especially Web Site documents don't work. When I have made a change in a web site document like changing the number of default lines per view page, the change doesn't come through, nothing happens, still the same problem. It was very confusing and irritating until I found the problem.

What you do is that you open the server document and look at the Basics tab. Disable the field 'Load Internet configurations from Server\Internet Sites documents'.



All the settings that before could be seen and adjusted in the web site document now can be found under tab 'Internet Protocols -> Domino Web Engine'. You will probably notice that the number of default lines per view page still is the old value and not the one you tried to change it into in the web site document. Change the value here, enable 'Load Internet configurations...' and save the server document and the change finally works and is also visible in the web site document.

I should add that this happens for a Domino 6.5.4 server on iSeries and I can't speak for other environments. Please leave a comment if you have any experiences on this.

Technorati tags:
Internet Sites, changes don't work, web site document, Load Internet configurations, Domino

Red box of death

Have you ever heard of the red box of death? You probably have if you have been working with Notes for a while. Here is a bad quality screenshot from a swedish installation where the rbod occurred. This occured when a user was about to read a document in a lotus notes application like many times before. Unexplainable!



Maybe someone can explain why it occurs or what to do when it happens but from my experience the best thing to do is just to ignore what just happend or maybe reboot the client (and perhaps the server).

Take a look at this blog for a funny now and then image of the red-box-of-death. Scroll down to the post 'The New RBOD'. If someone's got anything on this, please leave a comment. It would be interesting to know.

And here is a way to make it appear.

Technorati tags:
Red box of death, rbod, Lotus Notes, Domino