Carl Tyler's Blog

Category Weights Video

It is what it is I suppose...I couldn't watch it with a straight face.

Posted by Carl Tyler At 01:45:59 PM Location | Permalink | Comments (8) |      

Category WHS restore

I came back from Las Vegas on Tuesday to discover there had been a major storm with power outages.  My main machine looked ok, but my start bar and desktop icons had all been changed, and it was acting like I had a new machine with apps not installed.  Vista was displaying some error message about using a temporary profile, and I could investigate further.  I investigated futher and the suggested solution was to edit the registry and delete this temporary profile.  Well I did this, and guess what it didn't fix anything, I was left with a machine that still had all my data, but all the buttons to launch the apps etc. weren't there.

No problem I thought, as I make a daily backup on the Windows Home Server, so I decided I would just restore my macine to the backup from the day before the powercut.  Easy, put in the Windows Home Server Restore CD, boot the machine, uh oh, the Windows Restore CD doesn't recognize my Network adapter so it can't get to the home server, as Skooby Doo would say, Wuh Woh.  OK boot back into temporary profile, do some searching.  A ha, I need to copy of a folder from the Windows Home Server (WHS) that contains the drivers to a USB drive, so that the WHS restore CD can load them.

OK copied the drivers folder, reboot CD, tell it to get drivers from USB, Wuh Woh, still no luck, no drivers discovered for the network card.  Reboot, more searching, a ha, I am using Vista 64 bit, the Restore CD is Windows 32 bit, the drivers folder that WHS has created contains 64 bit drivers that wont work with Windows 32 bit, I need to get 32 windows drivers for my hardware.  Download from Gateway 32 bit drivers, add to USB drive, reboot, no drivers found, arrghhh.  OK find some drivers straight from NVidia not from Gateway, copy to USB drive, reboot, no drivers found argghhh, this went on like this for hours, no luck at all.

After more searching I found reference to something called X:\Files I had assumed this was referrning to a folder location, but it was actually referring to a WHS hack that is out there.  Upon further investigation I discovered that there was a X:\Files restore CD, this CD has been populated with a whole bunch of drivers from driverpack and claimed to have the driver for my network card.  I decided to use the Bootable USB version that X:\Files has versus using an actual CD.  Popped in the USB driver, rebooted and voila, the Restore program could see my network!  only about 5 hours wasted so far.  OK, now I select the partitiion to restore and wait, initial estimated time for restore 28 minutes, which quickly changed to 5+ hours.  After 2 hours a "Network error occured" message popped up on the screen, unable to continue I rebooted the USB drive and started again, 5 hours to go, 2 hours in "Network error occured" arrrgghh, OK I'm going to take it at face value, maybe a network error actually did occur, I unplug the Client PC and the WHS from my home router and plug them into a spare router I have for when I travel.  Reboot PC, 5 hours to go, 2 hours in no error, 4 hours in no error, 6 hours in no error (yes the 5 hour estimate was wrong), 9 hours in restore complete!

Lessons learned, even if you have a restore CD and you think you have everything the instructions mentioned for restoring your PC, try it out.  Make sure you have lots of tea and milk, these restores can take a long time.  If a network error occured it may have actually occured, even if your network had never shown anything previously.

Posted by Carl Tyler At 10:38:50 AM Location | Permalink | Comments (6) |      

Category iPhone Conclusion

Yep, the month for deciding whether or not to keep the phone has come to an end, so what did I decide to do?

For a couple of reasons I have decided to keep the iPhone.  I still had my issues with it, and I'm sure this isn't exactly what apples want with their restrictive policies (if Microsoft followed the same policies as apple, I'm pretty sure someone would be crying to the government, hopefully it's only a matter of time until someone starts crying foul about apple's policies).  So I am keeping the iPhone primarily because I was able to jail break it and install an app that gets around my biggest frustration with the iPhone.

When the phone bleeped I just wanted to know why it bleeped without having to unlock it, just tell me which mail account has a new email, nothing complicated, concerned with security, no need to show me the email subject, just let me know it bleeped because of a new mail.

Intelliscreen totally solved my problem.  By jail breaking the phone for this app it also gave me access to MyWi which turns the iPhone into a wireless access point and works great, as there's no telling when AT&T will enable that.

But the overwhelming reason why I had to keep the iPhone is that I have yet to beat my sister and brothers score on Flight Control, it's like a much easier version of a very old PC game TRACON which did some very funky stuff to get sampled sound out of a PC buzzer speaker.

If I was to do this again, I would probably have just bought an iPod touch and stuck with my existing phone, which even though it's older than the iPhone, doesn't have a touch screen, still does email and calendaring in a much more logical way.  But then I already had a Nokia N800, so couldn't see the justification in getting a touch.

So the thing that saved the iPhone is the apps, not the email client, not the phone calling, but the apps.  Hhhhm, where else do we come across that?

Posted by Carl Tyler At 08:30:02 AM Location | Permalink | Comments (5) |      

Category Google Maps
As some of you may know, the blogging was a little quiet for a couple of weeks as I had family visiting.  One of the people visiting was my niece Bethany.  One day we happened to find ourselves in the mall waiting for my sister and my other niece.  Bethany was playing with the iPhone and we decided to try Google maps on the iPhone and the compass interaction.  Not being one to miss a perfect opportunity for a wind up, we loaded the satellite image overlay.  

I then proceeded to tell Bethany how the satellite image is live and if she was to go outside and wave, she would see herself.  I'm sure you can imagine what happens next.  Now right now this is funny, but in 10-15 years it will probably be true.    Many years ago in my Renault Espace I used to tell people it had a voice controlled radio, the alarm sensors looks just like microphones, I'd tell people to ask for a different radio station or change the volume and I would switch the volume and channel with the buttons hidden behind the steering wheel. They thought it was great.  Well now, cars come with radios that do this so I should be careful, as many of my pranks become reality.  And yes before anyone reminds me, this was the car that I had for two plus years before I realised it had a cassette player.

Posted by Carl Tyler At 10:52:34 AM Location | Permalink | Comments (5) |      

Category Sametime CU2009
Almost a year ago to the day, I bloggged that Domino customers should start to learn Websphere.  I blogged quite a while back to start learning about Websphere and DB2 as Sametime 8.5 is going to be a very different beast to the Sametime you're running today.  

I can't go into more detail on my blog yet about 8.5 and the differences because of the None Disclosure Agreement (NDA) I have signed with IBM, but we do have permission to talk and educate folks about Sametime 8.5 at Collaboration University.

So if you haven't yet learnt Websphere, have been a pure Domino/Sametime/Quickr shop and want to get up to speed on what you need to know quickly then Collaboration University 2009 is the place to be.

The speakers are finalised, and our sessions have been published, for Sametime folks, we have a great selection:

Sametime:
* Customizing and Extending the Sametime 8.5 Meeting Center
* Customizing and Extending the Sametime 8.0 Meeting Center
* Using and Customizing the Sametime 8.5 Web Client with the new Proxy Server
* Sametime 8 and 8.5 Toolkit Overview, Differences, and Examples
* Sametime Telephony Overview - TCSPI, Plugin and Unified Telephony options
* Deploying Sametime 8 on Linux - Getting to the Root of the Install
* Sametime 8.5 Infrastructure - How all the Pieces Fit Together
* New ST Client features and New "zero download' client; Working with the new Sametime Proxy
* Installing and working with Sametime Community server 8.5
* Installing and working with the new Meeting server
* Websphere Administration for Sametime
* Managing your Infrastructure with the Sametime Solutions Console - Installation and Use

For many people, this will be the first time they have had the opportunity to see up close many of the changes in Sametime 8.5

As usual, the CU staff will be very honest with what we know, that includes the good the bad and the ugly, so you can go back to your own companies and not have to waste time finding out a feature doesn't work as advertised, or doesn't install as documented etc.  We pass our experience on to you, so you don't have to suffer the late nights and lost weekends we did.

If you're on Facebook, you can now join the Collaboration University fanpage http://www.facebook.com/collaborationuniversity and you can also follow CU updates via twitter http://twitter.com/CollabU

Posted by Carl Tyler At 09:44:16 AM Location | Permalink | Comments (1) |      

Category Michael Jackson

Seriously, isn't there real news out there?  Really this story should be covering how crazy these people are not whether a tree looks like Michael Jackson.


Although it is interesting, Michael Jackson said he wanted to come back as a silver birch tree, I mean it's the whitest tree you can find and they're dangerous for kids to play on. Too soon?

Posted by Carl Tyler At 09:47:59 AM Location | Permalink | Comments (0) |      

Category Response Point

I bet most of you have never even heard of Microsoft Response Point.  Response Point is not Office Communications Server (OCS) and is not related to the OCS product, it was a a small business ip-pbx hardware/software offering.   The word on the street is that Response Point is dead Microsoft kills response point ip-pbx

Posted by Carl Tyler At 09:37:46 AM Location | Permalink | Comments (0) |      

Category Foundations Sametime

IBM has announced they will be offering a new Foundations option, Foundations Reach.

IBM Lotus Foundations Reach brings VOIP, instant messaging, presence and several more messaging and collaboration tools to its Lotus Foundations Start appliance.

IBM Lotus Foundations Reach offers the IM and presence component of a traditional Sametime Server without the Web Conferencing.

This eWeek article has more details http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Messaging-and-Collaboration/IBM-Lotus-Foundations-Reach-Adds-Instant-Messaging-VOIP-776345/

This offering is different to the IBM Smart Cube offering which looks and sounds very similar and for which an IM redbook came out earlier this week IBM Smart Business Unified Communications/Voip

I think Foundations Reach is a great step forward for getting Sametime and Domino into more small shops, and I mean the real small shops (<500 employees), not just the ones IBM considers small (500-5000 employees).  I really hope the Foundations team has been assigned some dollars to build it's awareness and get the message out there.

Posted by Carl Tyler At 09:11:16 AM Location | Permalink | Comments (0) |      

Category XOBNI Notes

It could be happening.  XOBNI is an add-in for Microsoft Outlook.  I blogged about XOBNI a couple of years ago http://www.iminstant.com/iminstant/iminstant.nsf/d6plinks/CTYR-77BK64.  I still wonder if they'll ever make any money, but they're now trying with a paid for version.  This was the thing that caught my eye though

Along with paid services, Xobni is setting its sights on other e-mail platforms, including IBM's Lotus Notes, but isn't ready to discuss time frames, he said.

In order to thrive, Notes needs a huge catalog of 3rd party support, and if if new companies like XOBNI are considering it as an option, it means there must be some opportunity there.  Hopefully IBM is all over XOBNI offering them assistance, even if XOBNI never makes any money, they have a lot of people paying attention to them.

Posted by Carl Tyler At 09:05:04 AM Location | Permalink | Comments (0) |      

Category Up review

The other day, my visiting neices and I went to see Pixar's latest movie Up.  

Straight away I will say this is well worth watching, but be warned, this movie can have you in tears within the first five minutes.  As with most Pixar movies, the storyline is great, there is humour in there for kids and adults alike.  If you have a dog, you're going to really like the dogs, they really captured their spirit well.  I'm just glad they didn't kill the dog, otherwise you could be dehydrated at the end of this movie from crying.  Obviously I didn't shed a tear, as I am a cold hearted person that complains too much but Bethany and Philippa did shed a few tears.

A great film, well worth seeing, but take some tissues.

Posted by Carl Tyler At 11:12:10 AM Location | Permalink | Comments (2) |      

Category Sametime IBM

There's been a lot of discussion lately around the OpenNTF licensing of sample code, and I'm staying well out of that discussion as to be honest it's best left to lawyers and the folks involved.  But I do have a question that is semi related, what is the license for IBM's Sample code?  The Sametime sample code all have the following:

/*
* Licensed Materials - Property of IBM
*
* L-KBIM-7KG3NS
*
* (C) Copyright IBM Corp. 2002, 2008. All rights reserved.
*
* US Government Users Restricted Rights- Use, duplication or
* disclosure restricted by GSA ADP Schedule Contract with IBM Corp.
*/

Does anyone know what this means legally? Does that mean legally customers cannot use this sample as a starting point for their own apps, even if it isn't their intent?  Can anyone comment?  Could the samples have the apache license applied to them?  I've always taken it as granted that IBM would never come after someone that used their sample code as a starting point, but legally is that correct?

Posted by Carl Tyler At 10:05:56 AM Location | Permalink | Comments (2) |      

Category None
As I use the iPhone I have to wonder if their designers actually used it in their day to day lifes?  This weeks pain point is the option snooze a meeting reminder.  Most phones, PDAs,  devices that have calendars etc. have a snooze option for meeting reminders.  Not the iPhone, nope, no snooze option on meeting reminders that popup, why not?  

I thought that with all the applications out there, there must have been someone that has developed an alternative front end or something for the calendar.  It turns out that isn't possible with the iPhone unless it's jail broken, as apple haven't exposed the Calendar interfaces in the SDK.  I'm not sure how that makes any sense really?  Mind you apple has never made any claims to be open.

Is the iPhone the emporer's new clothes?  Every one says it's great, and when you get one people start to go, oh yeah I know what you mean that sucks.  Someone said to me the iPhone is an iPod with a phone.  To be honest I really don't care about the iPod as I already have one, so maybe this isn't the phone for me.

Posted by Carl Tyler At 10:46:38 AM Location | Permalink | Comments (12) |      

Category None
These guys make it look way too easy

Posted by Carl Tyler At 07:20:32 AM Location | Permalink | Comments (1) |