JoeLitton.net

Get Thee to IdeaJam if you're considering Lotusphere!

Joe Litton — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 00:00:00 -0400

Are you considering going to Lotusphere2009? Or maybe you're already booked? Then if you have not done so already, you need to head over to IdeaJam and vote on the sessions you'd like to see. I'm waiting for management approval to attend, but did finally pop to IdeaJam and have a look at the session ideas so far (and voted on them and posted some comments). If you've not already had a look, this will make you want to attend LS09!

The HundredPushups challenge...Let's all be able to do 100 by Lotusphere

Joe Litton — Mon, 1 Sep 2008 11:42:21 -0400

OK fellow geeks. Chris Blatnick tweeted (posted on Twitter) about HundredPushups.com. It's a site with a 6-week program to follow to end up being able to do 100 consecutive push-ups (without needing emergency medical assistance afterwards). One does a 10-minute workout 3 times a week for 6 weeks, slowly building up to the goal.

So here's my thought: Let's join Chris' invitation and set our target of being able to each do 100 pushups by the time Lotusphere 2009 starts in January. My own goal is to be able to do 100 pushups by my birthday in mid-October. That ought to be a reachable goal. I did the 'challenge' this morning. My arms are now useless, but I have a starting point. And I have printed out the Week 1 program so I can get started this week.

Quick note: for those who are used to weightlifting or other excercise in which one thinks in terms of 'sets', each 'level' in the daily workouts is a set. For some dumb reason that confused me when I first read the workout schedules.

Maintaining an empty email inbox

Joe Litton — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 11:31:00 -0400

An empty email inbox offers a degree of inner peace, fleeting though it may be. Since 06 Aug 2008 my email inbox is empty at the end of each day.

For many years, I've kept the volume of mail in my inbox below a screen's worth. This requires devoting a little time at least every other day to replying, filing, and deleting; letting it go for more than a couple of days could mean sifting through hundreds of mail messages. But even with this diligence, my mail file was cluttered with dozens of folders, and using the inbox as a to-do list just doesn't work. My 'system' of keeping messages in the inbox if I needed to do something with them (write a reply or *gasp* do some more substantive task) meant that I would invariably read each message multiple times - at least once every time I was tidying up the inbox. And some of the folders would be empty, the contents having been automatically archived to a separate local archive.

Much as it pains me to admit ;) , I read one of Duffbert's book reviews - this one was about "Upgrade Your Life". I bought the book. I read the book. I applied what I read. I am re-reading the book and applying more bits here and there. But the most dramatic effect so far is on my work day after having simplified my mail file.

I no longer have Notes notify me every few minutes whenever mail arrives, instead taking a quick peek each hour. If something looks like it should be read and handled immediately, I'll do that. Otherwise, I am trying (and this does take some effort for me) to deal with email just a few times a day. During these email sessions, I strive to apply the 'touch it once' rule. Select and delete some emails without reading. For the remaining, open, skim or read, and then either reply immediately, file for follow-up (creating a To-Do entry for whatever it is that needs to be done), save the message in a 'Hold' folder (for things that just need to be monitored for a day or two), or save the email in the monster catch-all 'Save' folder. I've eliminated all the various folders I was using before. Since I've full-text indexed my mail, it's really faster most often to just search on a keyword or two, rather than guessing which folder I'd used when filing.

It's only been a couple of weeks, but I am doing this in my real work daily email, and so far it seems to be a more effective and efficient way to handle email. And I do love seeing that empty inbox!

Removed Ubuntu ... reinstalled Windows XP :(

Joe Litton — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 17:03:56 -0400

Ubuntu was getting to feel quite familiar, and I was really liking running primarily open-source code over an open-source OS. But, alas, it was not meant to be. Not yet.

My laptop is a Toshiba Satellite A75. The display adapter is ATI Mobility Radeon 9000, which unfortunately is not compatible with Ubuntu 8.04. Earlier versions of Ubuntu gave me other problems (one challenge had been getting my internal wireless adapter to work with Ubuntu using WPA encryption, and Ubuntu 8.04 was now working flawlessly for my wireless access). So I was happily getting more and more applications and features working, loading all manner of open source solutions (and the Lotus Notes 8.5 beta!) configured. One of the final items was to test things like playing DVDs, viewing YouTube and other online videos, etc ...and that's when I hit a wall. There are many postings on the Ubuntu forums and elsewhere about the incompatibility of the ATI Radeon adapter with Ubuntu. Well, I am not a device driver writer, so I had to go back to Windows. sigh

On the bright side, I have a fairly clean install now, and am running almost all open source applications (Lotus Symphony for my office suite, Firefox browser, Pidgin chat, Twhirl for Twitter, GIMP for graphics, Avast antivirus, ZoneAlarm firewall, etc.). And to dress up the look a bit, I'm using the RKLauncher for a MAC-like toolbar at the bottom, a few Yahoo! widgits on the desktop, and I snagged a wallpaper image that makes me smile from gnome-look.org.

And now I wait. Waiting for Intrepid Ibex (Ubuntu 8.10), due in October 2008. Hopefully it will work with the ATI Radeon adapter ...or I'll find a pot of gold somewhere and buy a new machine :)

Notes 8.5 running in Ubuntu 8.04

Joe Litton — Tue, 8 Jul 2008 22:30:21 -0400

Well Ubuntu is starting to feel more like home :) ...This is my first post written from Notes 8.5 running on top of Ubuntu 8.04. This machine is now only running Ubuntu - no Microsoft Windows on the machine at all. And with Notes now installed ...running natively in Ubuntu ...I am smiling! Really the hard part was NOT getting Notes installed. The hard part for me was getting Java installed so that I could use the DownloadDirector (I wanted Java for other reasons as well, but this was the first real test of Java for me with Ubuntu and with Firefox).

And, I must say, even though I've got Open Office installed, the Symphony interface is looking pretty nice to me. It looks more intuitive than Open Office, so my hat's off to the IBM/Lotus folks for delivering a very nice user experience. Lots more for me to experiment with, but my goals for tonight are met, and it's past bedtime.

If you are reading this post, it means that Ubuntu 8.04 is humming along on my Toshiba laptop, Notes 8.5 is installed properly (a super easy install!), and replication with the Prominic server has worked ...and it should work, since Notes in Ubuntu is just like Notes in Windows ...but with an open source operating system. Very cool.

Notes/Domino Developer position in Tampa Florida

Joe Litton — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 20:38:15 -0400

This is a contract to hire position at a large company here in Tampa. It is not the company where I work. I received an email from the recruiter and offered to post this. So, Notes geeks, if you're in the Tampa area and looking for a development gig, here you go. Please do not contact me with questions; please contact the recruiter (listed at bottom of the posting below)...

JOB POSTING:
Notes/Domino resource to design and develop existing applications, document existing processes and functions, and provide backup support. The Notes developer candidate will be part of significant development efforts to incorporate new migration related business requirements and enhancements to several Lotus Notes applications.

Candidate must be versatile with cross-platform development experience, dependable, available immediately, possess good time management, verbal and written communication skills.

* 60% development (LotusScript, @formula language, JavaScript, Java, VB.NET, C#)
* 20% Analysis and Design
* 20% Documentation and support

Specific Lotus Notes/Domino skills required:

R5 and R6x or higher Notes Designer, Notes Client and Admin knowledge
Familiarity with the Notes object model, specifically back-end and front-end classes
Notes/Domino development in LotusScript, JavaScript, @formula language, Java
Replication schedules and document locking
Script libraries – must develop modular and reusable functions and sub procedures
Scheduled agents (restricted and unrestricted agents)
Notes/Domino administration, performance tuning and capacity planning
Security and access control (ACL)
Ability to programmatically import, export and transform data between systems
Programmatic access to/from Notes via COM, OLE, OLEDB, LSX, LEI, DECS, Java/J2EE
Template usage, customization and application deployment
Search capabilities
Archive strategy and design
Navigators, framesets, outlines, subforms, other design elements
XHTML and CSS

Non-Notes expertise also required:

SDLC and project management capabilities– must be able to provide fairly accurate project delivery timeframes and estimates
Strong documentation and communications skills - must be able to:
- articulate/convert business requirements into functional specifications and
- Clear and concise systems documentation and UML Use Cases
Client/server, component-based or object-oriented dev. (VB, VB.NET, C#, Java, ASP)
Relational database design and development (SQL, Oracle, MS Access)
Software analysis and design special emphasis on design patterns and best practices
Data/information modeling, application migration experience a big plus
Business Process Improvement/BPM experience
Client and web-based data Access/data transport using OLEDB/ODBC, AJAX
Visual Basic, VBA (MS Access, MS Excel, MS Word) or VB.NET
Conduct systems and unit testing, test script experience

The following skills and experience would be a plus:

Microsoft Project and Microsoft Visio
Microsoft Office Sharepoint Server (MOSS), Windows Sharepoint Services (WSS)
Microsoft Exchange/Microsoft Outlook
Configuration management, version control, or change control exposure
QuickPlace, Notrix, Teamstudio or knowledge of any Notes/Domino third party tools
Web development skills - XHTML, XML, XSL, XSLT, AJAX, JSON
Web/Application server experience (WebSphere, IIS, WebLogic, Apache)
Object oriented analysis, design, or programming (OOP) techniques
Middleware, messaging and collaboration tools (MQ, LEI, DECS)

Carrie Tindell (email)
Technical Recruiter
Princeton Information
4830 W. Kennedy Blvd. Suite 590
Tampa, FL 33609
813-864-2480 ext. 235
866-748-2672 toll free
www.princetoninformation.com

Son gets his Masters from Duke

Joe Litton — Sun, 11 May 2008 19:56:39 -0400

Today my son, Ben, received his Master of Engineering Management degree from Duke University. I am so impressed and in awe of his accomplishments! One year ago I posted about his graduation from The University of Tampa ...and 5 years ago (June 2003) I posted about his high school graduation. My gosh, where did these past 5 years go, and how is it that Ben is now 23 with a frickin' Masters degree! Wow.

Chelation: Results after 10 IV treatments...

Joe Litton — Mon, 5 May 2008 20:12:40 -0400

Back in January, I discovered that I had extremely high levels of lead and mercury in my system. I don't know that I really had any symptoms, but with levels that high, I decided to begin chelation treatments. It's expensive (US$215 per treatment), and insurance doesn't cover it, so we're racking up a little debt. But health is worth it, right?

The pic on the left (click the thumbnail to see the image) shows the levels in January. Note that the lead and mercury levels are literally off the chart. Yikes!

This next image shows the report after the first series of 10 treatments. What I find interesting is that the mercury level is still in the Very Elevated range, even though it's been reduced to less than half of its earlier level. Guess I shouldn't have agreed to all that sushi with Duffbert during the Enron years! So...I was going to start the next series of 10 treatments next week. But then I realized that if I hold off until July, I can pay for this with pre-tax dollars and save at least a couple hundred dollars. For those outside of the USA, this has got to sound ridiculous, to need to spend hours of reading to figure out how one's health coverage works. Anyway, at my job the new "benefits year" begins in July, meaning that I can have a fresh Flexible Spending Account with which to work ...and that means I can use the health care debit card to pay for the chelation, and fund that account spread over the next year, using pre-tax funds. Man, this system of health care in the USA is whacky! But I'm extremely grateful to be in a position to be able to attend to the toxic metals, rather than go insane from the poisoning and do something irrational like install Vista on my home machines ;)

Ubuntu 8.04 ...laptop now works with WPA

Joe Litton — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 22:35:57 -0400

I'm now running Ubuntu 8.04 on my main (personal) laptop ....in dual boot mode. The big news to me is that I can finally easily connect to my wireless router. I'd had a devil of a time getting it to work in earlier versions ...had to really muck with things before it was happy. But with this latest version, the config was a snap, and things just work. The only real tests remaining are to see if I can connect to our wireless printer, and to see if by some miracle the old scanner will work. The printer is the only real must-have.

Assuming the printer connection works, I'll then wipe the drive, and install Ubuntu as the OS for this machine. But not tonight. It's late :)

Chelation: getting the lead out

Joe Litton — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 20:55:01 -0400

This is how I've been spending a couple of hours each Monday. I think today was the 8th treatment. I hadn't had any symptoms of lead or mercury poisoning, but some tests I'd had done just as part of my "half century tune up" (a year late) ...showed lead and mercury literally off the charts. My wife did not show similar levels. Weird.

The IVs are EDTA and glutathione, which together should be clearing out the toxins, and also having the rather nice side effect of helping clean out arterial plaque. There's been a lot of debate over the years about benefits vs risks of chelation. Obviously, I'm a believer in the positive benefits, but the real proof will be in test results. The next test for me will be after the 10th treatment in a couple of weeks. But others are most definitely interested in chelation. Here in the USA, the National Institues of Health is doing a current study of chelation at a number of sites throughout the country.

All I can say is that I feel 'clear' ...meaning that I've noticed even if I slack off on working out, it's much easier to get right back to it with no strain. I ran a few miles a week ago Saturday, did a milder workout on Sunday, and then was too busy to make the time to work out during the week. I did a few miles on the treadmill this evening, and I did not notice the sluggishness that I used to feel if I skipped even a couple of days of working out. Yes, it could be all in my head :)

So, like any good geek, I like the science aspect of it. My doc is definitely into evidence-based medicine. That's why there were hair, blood, and urine tests before starting the chelation program. The doc is an MD, board-certified in Internal Medicine, and has been for the past 25 years. I feel like I'm sitting back in a college lecture when I see him, as he gets into explaining things on the grease board :) ...not that I follow all of the biochemistry, but what I do understand is quite fascinating. So we'll see what the next weeks or months bring.

In the meantime, here's the lipid history for the past couple of years. The differences for these past months are pretty regular exercise (with occassional 'off' weeks like last week), a very low dose (10mg) of lovastatin - a US$4/month generic statin to soften the plaque and help the chelation remove it, and for many months now I've been off of cheese and generally going fairly light on milk products (and then it's only skim milk). I've been off of red meat for 30+ years.

So there's a ways to go, but optimal health is getting closer :)