Show compassion by sharing war stories posted by Jess
I'm a consultant, developer, administrator, and technology coach all rolled into one. I've spoken to mass-crowds, single individuals, and to a bunch of rowdy high-schoolers and third graders. I meet with decision makers, CEO's, HR staff, residential users, IT administrators, grandmothers, small business owners, and any other end user in any given company on a regular basis.
They all have one thing in common: they are automatically on the defensive when they meet me.
Within the technology industry, there has always been one Great Universal Irony: Here's an entire industry that exists and was created solely to make life easier for end users. However, when end users get frustrated by that very technology, they tend to get equally as frustrated with the only people that can help them.
Who remembers SNL's "Nick Burns, Your Company's Computer Guy"? When I visit small businesses, I am almost always referred to as "the computer girl". Because I know how to use a computer, I also must know how to use the scanner, copier, and fax machine all-in-one, right? Not usually, especially when it's a $15,000 behemoth called the "6000 SUX"*. However, this is where the similarities between me and Nick Burns stop. While Nick would condescendingly suggest calling the company that made the printer because he only fixes *computers*, I'll be honest about it. "There's probably not much I can do without proper training on this equipment, but I'll certainly try. As my mechanic told me, try it yourself. If it gets ugly, stop!"
Not only have I established that I may not be able to help them because this requires more than casual skill, but I have now also placed myself alongside them – I've made it clear that I don't know how to use it any better than they do, though I can probably make more educated guesses. I also have explained my own woes, such as those with my mechanic. Who can't relate to that? The defensiveness is gone, and now I'm approachable as someone to vent to about the printer without fear of a condescending response. All I need to do is remind myself that I am a user, too. All these people want is to get their stuff done. Period.
Last week I was subcontracted to do some Adobe Acrobat Professional basics training for a small business. Once the training was done, I wanted to go to one desk and watch them go through the same process I had just done on my computer, to make sure they would be all set on their own equipment. As it turns out, the client had the "Standard" version on their PC, not "Professional", and could not do the one feature they had bought the software for. They were very irate, as they felt they had explained exactly what they wanted to do to the sales person, and had spent quite a bit of money on software licenses. Naturally, as I was there on behalf of the company, much of their irateness was directed at me.
Let the war story commence. I did know EXACTLY how they felt, because I go through this sort of thing myself. So why would I not tell them that? I'm not better than them just because I know how to use computers anymore than they are better than me because they can do their jobs. At the end of the day, we are all just human beings that deserve courtesy and respect from each other.
"I'm sorry you are frustrated. I know how hard it is to get muddled and overwhelmed when it comes to software you know nothing about. I own my own business and have to go through this, too. I know computers, now ask me what I know about running a business! Do you have any idea how many versions of Quickbooks there are? It's enough to drive a woman mad!"
Instantly everything changed. Expressions softened. The supervisor and I exchanged knowing, understanding eye contact. "I'm sorry", she said. "This is not your fault. You did an excellent job training."
Once damage-control was underway, it was easy to get a solution at hand. We talked and made plans to follow up about getting the required software upgrade. Business cards were exchanged. We shook hands upon leaving and the client was happy, or at least as happy as they could be under the circumstances.
If you ever find yourself in the "defensive danger zone", watch out for these signs of defensive body language that a war story from you is imminent and necessary:
Person crosses arms or legs (this is an instinctual reaction to protect our physical vulnerabilities)
Person retreats to their desk (they are subconsciously setting up a barrier between them and you)
Person holds a folder or paper in front of them or close to them (again, this is a vulnerability barrier, like armor)
Person physically leans away from you in some manner (this can be in any manner, such as leaning away from you in a chair, or if their feet are pointed away from you)
Person presses lips together tightly
These are just a sampling of my arsenal from communication studies classes. The list goes on for all types of emotions, but we're clearly talking about defensive language here. These skills have treated me well over the years. Learn to watch out for nonverbal body language signs. Not only is it a great skill, but it's fun, too.
One of the most fun speaking engagements I ever did was as a guest speaker for the Freemasons. I was four months pregnant, and definitely showing, so at speaking engagements I always made it clear right away that I was pregnant – I wanted them to pay attention to what I was saying, not trying to play guessing games during the entire lecture. Here's a bunch of guys I'm talking to – not exactly interested in hearing tales of woe about morning sickness. However, everyone has one thing in common with someone else. Find it, and you've got a means to relate and connect with them. I'm pregnant and in a room with a bunch of men dressed to the hilt in tuxedos? What on Earth do I have in common with these guys? Food.
"Normally I love doing engagements like these, but then Bob called and asked me if I'd like to come to this meeting early for dinner. As you can see, I'm four months pregnant, so I was like, "free food! Score!" laughs
Those guys were great. When I was introduced as the guest speaker over dinner, one of the masons said, "It's about time they got some Goddess energy in here!"
Well it's nice to know not everyone is on the defensive immediately.
Ed Brill and Volker are talking about their new found enjoyment of Twitter, the social service that allows people to quickly send "tweets", that is, to broadcast 140-or less character updates about what they are currently doing.
The big question that I see brought up all the time is the Who, What, When, Where and Why’s about social networks, Twitter in particular. "Why should I be using this? What is useful about this service? How is this different than any other social service? Why do I care what anyone else is doing at the current moment?"
Usually, when we talk about social sites, we give them two classifications. They are either useful to the tween/teenagers generation and disregarded as frivolous and dangerous, or they are useful to the corporate world, in which they are embraced and welcomed with open arms to the working force.
I'm going to give you a demographic that I think has never been mentioned when talking about social networking sites, yet I feel stands to benefit the most from them.
I'm talking about the hermits. The stay at home moms. The homebound. The work at home warriors. Even though it may be by choice (though not for some, such as the disabled or ill), there is still a basic human need to belong. People whom otherwise might not be socializing enough now have a medium in which to come very close to the next thing besides face to face banter. I believe this, as I know what happens when you feel like you don’t belong. In fact, people who belong to any category of social group tend to live longer (church, organizations, extra-curricular activities); the fulfillment leads to a more generally happy and healthy life. How’s that for necessity?
According to Maslow’s hierarchy of human needs, the third element, right after basic needs like sustenance and sleep, is purely social. To belong, to be accepted, to be supported. I myself discovered what I think is the true value and spirit of Twitter when I caught a particular post by Phil Randolph, who said, (something like), "Too much change in my pocket - must procure snack. Headed to vending machine." This statement might be passed off by some as a purely frivolous statement; however to me, this captured the very essence of office banter that I get jealous of Matt for getting to have on a day-to-day basis. This sort of statement wouldn’t even get sent to me via instant message, which is what I feel makes Twitter a very unique service in that regard.
To the existing cubicle or office dweller, this chatter may seem ordinary, venturing on boring and mundane. But to the isolated, this captures a small sense of office banter that I can finally grasp. This is the sort of thing a co-worker would come up to you and say if you were in the same building.
Thank you, Twitter, for giving me a small part of a total experience.
Google has a new, free service for phones: Goog411.
From any phone, dial 1-800-GOOG-411 (800-466-4411). A fast an accurate voice prompter will ask you for a city, state, and name or category listing. It will then walk you through choosing the possible results, will speak the information for each, and then will dial the number for you.
Of course, I had to try it with "Westerly, RI - computer training."
In no time, the number one listing was announced to me - "Solace, located at 43 Broad street in Westerly." Apparently, it will read to you any information listed in it's Google business directory, or send it to your phone as a text message. You can also connect directly to it.
Could they be using this to gather marketing information? Possibly. Do I care? Absolutely not. I use Windows Mobile on my Treo. Fumbling with the dial pad is not a favorite past time of mine, and now I don't have to. I have Goog411 listed as a speed dial right on my Today screen, so it's completely hands-free.
I was quite surprised at the speed an accuracy of the voice-recognition software. Apparently, it's all volume-related. Google has millions of accents, voices, and dialects to use to train it's software; the "individual" need is now irrelevant.
Try it. Never has looking up information been quite as much fun!
I LOVE Windows Mobile. It does what I need it to do, and that's enough for me. I had a Dell Axim with a huge VGA screen, and traded it up for a Treo 700wx smartphone with Sprint (unlimited data: $15/month, wow!).
That said, there were definitely some things that have always irked me, but there is ALWAYS a way.
Here are my favorite hacks and tweaks for my Treo, running WM5.
First off, you'll need a registry editor. Without hesitation, I recommend MemMaid, which allows all sorts of neat things you can do, including editing the registry.
Secondly, you'll need to know that editing the registry will usually require a soft-reset, but only after a certain amount of time has passed. WM5 doesn't commit the changes to memory immediately. So if you make your change and then immediately soft-reset, you'll notice your changes are gone. Wait about five minutes, and THEN reset.
1. Get rid of that annoying Sprint logo that takes up so much screen real estate!
There is an easy reg hack for this, but it takes away from the speed dial screen, which won't come up anymore either. However, thanks to a renegade developer, we can use the HideLogo free utility to remove the bar AND still allow us to use speed dial.
2. Enable ClearType. This isn't a registry hack at all, but it just looks better. You'll find this in the OS settings.
Settings-->System-->Screen
3. Make your scrollbars a little less thick. There's no need for a scrollbar width to be 20 pixels, not when your screen is that small to begin with. I set mine to 10 and it's perfect.
4. Download the Crossbow theme for WM5. I don't know what it is about the theme, but the contrast works great with the ClearType, and it looks nice and sharp. You'll notice the clarity immediately, especially next to another phone that doesn't have the theme and ClearType enabled (I've tried it).
6. Get rid of the "Message Sent" notification after sending a text message. This one is just plain irritating. (
HKLM-->Software-->Microsoft-->Inbox
Add a new key called "Settings".
In that key, add the following new String Value:
I took the plunge! Canon Digital Rebel EOS Xti posted by Jess
My own little point-and-shoot digital camera that Matt got me when he went to Japan just wasn't cutting the mustard anymore. It wasn't photographing the mustard well, either.
I wanted more. I see gorgeous pictures taken from my MINI club. Where they can take panoramic views of twenty MINIs all lined up, I could only get three in one shot.
Flickr was my ultimate downfall into the photography spiral. Surfing beautiful portraits, artsy-shots of old buildings, beautiful pictures of pets, it was just too much!
I was ready for a proper DSLR camera. You know, the kind that comes with a three-inch user manual and multiple lenses!
Besides, now that we have a little'un on the way, I wanted to make sure I left myself enough time to learn it, and get good and proficient to take the best pictures! When the baby is born is not the best time to make such an investment. I don't want to spend my time fumbling.
After careful consideration (and the fact that many friends own it and can vouch for it), I settled on the Canon Digital Rebel EOS XTI.
I've had it for two days, and so far I'm thoroughly impressed! It's entirely possible to turn on the camera, set it to auto, and start taking pictures. It's also possible to customize further and further, and have the camera live up to its' true potential.
I think I made a great choice, and can't wait to learn how to use it better!
Here's the first few pictures I took, playing around with some of the different settings (such as depth and background changes).
Naturally they were of Reboot. :-)
Here she is on our bed (typical) with a bone AND her baby, Mooby. Yes, even though it's a sheep, it's named after the 'False Prophet' from Dogma!
I know it's late in the game, but sometimes acts of desperation lead to the best creativity. At least that's what I'll keep telling myself!
We all know the dilemma for R5 users (and yes, there are still R5 users out there). According to IBM's technotes, there is no timezone information stored in the fields on the calendar documents themselves, so there is no way to differentiate documents created BEFORE the system was patched vs. AFTER.
Well, I think there is.
I just gave up my computer repair business of four years, however, it seems to have it's advantages sometimes. Those Microsoft patches are durn tricky sometimes. In fact, sometimes you have to outright remove it manually, including all traces that it was ever installed (so you can reinstall it!).
It's those traces that are what interests me. All Microsoft updates have "KB" numbers. If you want to know what they are, you can go to Add/Remove Programs and click on the "Show updates" check box at the top. They'll all show up in the list. You can then cross-reference it to the technote on Microsoft's site, and it will tell you what it changed.
Whenever it installs an update, it puts a log file in your root Windows directory, such as "KB931836.log", which just happens to be the DST update patch for Windows XP. (Of course, I'm not sure about other Operating Systems, but you could look those KBs up if you had to.)
So, what does that tell us? When the log file was created, the patch was installed. If there's no log file present, the user is probably not patched at all!
For my R5 users, because time is so short, I simply created a view for them with all their appointments that fall between March 11-April 1, and October 20-November 4. (I TRIED so hard to get repeating appointments in the view, but gave up after too many hours spent on it to mention. So buyer beware, repeating meetings will NOT show up in the view below)
I then created an action button in the view for users to click on. They select a document in the view (one of the docs that falls in the extra weeks), and click the button. The button will tell them whether the calendar entry was created PRE operating system patch or POST update, and to update (or not) accordingly. It will even tell them if they don't appear to have the OS update at all.
Because time was short, I did it this way and made it so the users have to change the time back one hour themselves. If you like, you can easily transfer this code to be an agent that automatically will update only the affected documents. Of course, remember that it has to run client-side, as this is purely a relationship between the documents and a single computer! But we work with what we have. :-)
Enough talking, on with the code!
To make a short story long, the code checks the creation date of the calendar entry against the install date of the patch.
Oh, by the way - MANY thanks to Susan, our lovely NotesGoddess for taking the time out to help me with my R5 questions.
Sub Click(Source As Button)
'Declarations
Dim db As NotesDatabase
Dim collection As NotesDocumentCollection
Dim doc As NotesDocument
Dim session As New NotesSession
Set db = session.CurrentDatabase
Set collection = db.UnprocessedDocuments
For i = 1 To collection.Count
Set doc = collection.GetNthDocument( i )
If Cdat(doc.Created) <= CDat(ReturnDateOfPatch) Then
Msgbox "This document was created BEFORE your operating system was patched. " + Chr$(10) + "Confirm this appointment, you may have to move it up an hour!"
Else
Msgbox "This document was created AFTER your operating system was patched. " + Chr$(10) + "Confirm this appointment, but it's probably correct!"
End If
Next
End Sub
******
Function ReturnDateOfPatch As String
On Error Goto Handler
Dim fileName As String, fileNum As Integer
fileNum% = Freefile()
fileName$ = "C:\Windows\KB931836.log"
Open fileName$ For Input As fileNum%
Close fileNum%
ReturnDateOfPatch = Filedatetime(fileName$)
Exit Function
Handler:
Msgbox "Your operating system does not appear to have the necessary update needed to accomodate DST. Please use Microsoft Update to get the required updates!"
Exit Function
End Function
Identity Theft Prevention Tips (please distribute) posted by Jess
Wow, it's been so long since I've blogged that I almost forgot the URL to my blog posting form! Fortunately, things are changing around here, so I won't be forgetting the URL anytime soon again.
In the craziness that has ensued, one thing I have been doing is speaking locally at various Rotary Clubs, and other formal association meetings as a guest speaker.
I've recently given several talks on identity theft. Specifically, I've talked about prevention, including several eye-openers about where we give information about ourselves that we never realized.
In doing my speaking, I have handed out these double-sided sheets. I'm putting them up here also. Please send them out to your friends and family. Print them. Distribute them freely. People need to be aware.
Identity theft is down 2 million cases since 2004. Something is working. Awareness is key!
Taking Notes podcast, and working too hard. posted by Jess
An episode of the Taking Notes podcasts with Bruce and Julian has our overseas Mini-driving Notes guy Bill Buchan talking about large-scale Notes deployments. Good stuff!
And, it also has a one-minute blurb from me talking about End User Power Tools. I've already gotten great feedback from people who have been looking for a mailing label solution. One suggestion was to add a feature to be able to save templates and configurations.
I've been hard at work practicing my Lotusphere presentation, and frantically getting ready for big changes with Solace. In fact, with all these "goings on", I'm fighting a nasty cold. Gotta be healthy for Lotusphere, so I can come home with the REAL illness. Actually, I just don't want to be blamed as the one to start it this year (cough Duffbert cough).
Matt has access to my iNotes web calendar, I showed him how so he'd always have a way to find out where I am (since I visit other people, this is a safety thing). Of course, I also gave him rights to ADD to my calendar. Forgetting I also sync with my PDA, it was kind of hard not to take the hint when the other day, my PDA alarm went off with the following appointment that I mysteriously don't remember setting:
I've been thrilled with it, and still use it on a daily basis. It plays music, goes wireless anywhere to get my Lotus Notes mail, and helps me do all sorts of things.
I found another use for it two days ago when Matt and I lost our remote to the DVD player. I think we threw it out, or the ferrets took it. It's just gone. And our house isn't that big. Now, we can use basic functions like Stop and Play from the cable remote. But, we can't get into settings like 5.1 surround or DTS, or special features, etc. Most importantly, we can't play AtmosFEAR. Something had to be done!
As someone who gets asked questions about Internet use and safety all the time, a book I had been itching to read was "Computer Privacy Annoyances", by Dan Tynan. According to the cover, the book covers "How to avoid the most annoying invasions of your personal and online privacy."
The quick and dirty? The book gives very practical, real-world examples of how your data can be used, yet the author manages to avoid sounding like a doomsayer... even some of the more scary scenarios don't come off sounding like sensationalism, just honest (and sometimes even apologetic) examples of what could very realistically happen. (I thank you, Mr. Tynan.)
I'll take bets on anyone that doesn’t learn at least ten new things they didn't know about their privacy rights. Mr. Tynan has taken the proverbial "They" and reduced it to the very organizations that "they" really are. Did you know you can request a copy of your FBI files? Do you know who has the power view it? Do you know who is collecting data on you at this very moment and what they are doing with it?
The book's format allows for a surprisingly fast read. Well organized sections such as privacy at home, on the Internet, in public, at work, and even on a federal level allow for quick chapter absorption. In each chapter, the author states the annoyance, and then the fix. This allows for quick skipping over an 'annoyance' that might not annoy you that much.
I did notice that the author made no mention of the everyday information users give out about themselves without even realizing it, such as usernames that contain birthdates and such. But the Internet privacy chapter is only a small portion of the topics covered in this book. In fact, if I had to find one fault with this book, however, I'd say they lost a much larger audience that could have easily benefited from the book by calling it *Computer* Privacy Annoyances.
As a tech professional, if I could get all my clients, users, friends, family and complete strangers to read this book, I strongly believe identify theft could become a thing of the past. And it might even reduce global blood pressure, too. Bonus!
A mobile office: Think of the solution, not the problem. posted by Jess
Me and Matt's favorite book series is the Sword of Truth series by Terry Goodkind.
In it, the eccentric Zedd constantly admonishes his neighbor, Richard, to "think of the solution, not the problem" when solving issues.
I've been having a hard time keeping up with my business contacts and such during the day, mostly because I'm on the road so much and away from my computer. I have my Nextel, and I get my Lotus Notes email and calendar on it, but it's a bit kludgy.
So, I figured I needed a more streamlined way to get to my calendar so I can make appointments on the road. It's difficult to return calls, only to say "I'll call you when I'm back in the office to set something up". Then I still have to call home to leave a voice mail message to call my client back when I get home. Now THAT'S kludgy.
I looked into various smartphones, my favorite being the Treo 650, and seriously considered switching to Cingular or some service that supported it (the Treo 650 doesn't run on the IDEN network).
Finally one day, I must have had my V8 that morning, because it hit me: I was going about this all wrong.
How can I make appointments with a calendar that resides on the phone if I'm ON the phone?
I was too busy thinking about the problem, not the solution. The solution? I needed two seperate devices, and there's nothing I can do about it. That's really OK, I just need to be able to work the way I want and have to work.
I researched, and I went to ZDNet and CNet.com and all those great tech review sites. Their pick for one of the top handhelds was the Dell Axim X30.
Upon going to Dell's site, they had since come out with the Axim X50v, which is among the first handhelds to have a VGA display.
That and a fantastic sale from Dell led me to purchase my device, complete with a 1G secure digital card.
Well, I've had it since Wednesday, and I can't believe it took me this long to get here. The display is beautiful. Truly gorgeous. The Axim X50v has built-in 802.11b wireless, so no cables needed to sync, and I can hop on any wireless network and surf and do anything online. It comes with Windows Mobile 2003. It also comes with Windows Media Player 10, so I can use it in the car as an MP3 player.
But, the really cool bit is that thanks to visiting our friend Rob at dominounplugged.com and hearing Susan's recommendation during her Admin2005 calendaring session, I got Commontime's mNotes to sync my Lotus Notes mail, calendar, contacts and tasks.
In fact, to my delight, not only does it sync mail, but when I replicate to my Axim, I get the lovely unread count next to the folder structure. It's true. Sometimes it's the little things that makes you really, really happy.
I've already been more productive in a few ways. I can return all voice mails and set appointments easily in between appointments. But I can also relax and breathe easier now that I'm streamlined.
Here's to taking my business to a whole new level.
Teaching children to use the Internet posted by Jess
I meant to write about this awhile ago, but for some reason it kept getting pushed back. I was fortunate enough to be given the opportunity to teach children in grades 3-5 as part of an after-school program in my community.
The course was 6 weeks long, with just one hour a week, and I titled it "Surfing the Internet". My main goal, and this was included in the class description, was to teach children how to safely have fun on the Internet. This included learning email, fun sites to visit, how to use a browser, and safety.
I decided I really wanted to go in with an effective curriculum, as a teacher had pointed out to me that someone had tried this with the children previously, and it was nothing short of a disaster. The only way to do this effectively seemed like building on each lesson as the weeks progressed.
The class was such a huge success that the children were sad to see it end, and the teacher told me that I had done a great job and she had never seen it done so methodically. Most importantly, by the end of the class, those kids were nothing short of savvy. They understood what an ad banner was. They understood why they weren't allowed to click on a pop-up. They asked permission before signing up for something, and they certainly didn't use their real name when putting in their high-score on a game site. They sent me e-cards saying goodbye at the end of the class.
In case someone can benefit from this, here is my curriculum of the first three weeks (the foundation skills) and the tools I used.
TOOLS 1. Email accounts for the students. I chose "safe2read.com". For one low price per year, Safe2read allows one primary master account. After that, you can add up to 10 email accounts and monitor all incoming and outgoing email. You can also safely add allowed emails. So I set up 10 generic accounts such as "school1@safe2read.com", "school2", "school3", etc. Generic names allows for no compromise of the student's privacy. I also set all these accounts so the students could email each other without approval needed.
2. Letter to parents.
The first week, the students were sent home with a letter explaining the curriculum, and the generic email accounts. They were also assured that the child's privacy and security would not be compromised by the email account, and were reassured the accounts would be deleted once the class was over.
WEEK 1 - Learn to browse, and what's the Internet, anyway?
A foundation in knowing what the Internet really is becomes crucial to the students learning to respect it. Children were given rope, and each child had a worksheet. Half the sheets were about frogs, the other half were about kangaroos. Each child was told they were a page on the Internet. All the frogs then joined ropes with each other, and were told they became a web site, and were now a great site to learn about frogs! The kangaroos did the same. One child from the frogs then joined a rope to one child from the kangaroos, "linking" their sites to each other. Now, anyone could first learn about frogs, then click the link to go on to the site about kangaroos via those two linked children.
After this, students were then sat at their computers and shown an excellent site to learn navigation - www.disneychannel.com. The site is busy, yet there is lots to click on, drag, highlight, etc. And, to get there, the students have to type in the URL in the address bar.
WEEK 2 - Internet Safety
It must be said that for this week, I was better prepared to learn how to say "hands off the keyboard and mouse and eyes should be looking at me!" This also becomes crucial for the next lession, especially now that the students know how to find the Disney Channel online. :-)
Out of all weeks taught, this was the most important. It's equivalent to showing a child a circus across the street, but not teaching them to look both ways before crossing first.
The children were sent to NetSmartzKids.org, a wonderful site to teach children all about safety. The site has six 1-3 minute animated films for the children to watch. Watching them in order is crucial. The children watched them all in row together.
They involve humorous personification of all the dangers of the Internet called "Wizzywigs", such as characters like the Numbut, who spends too much time on the computer and not enough time playing outside. The Spamazoid sends the same email to everyone on their email list all the time. Then there is Follow-You-Fiona, who likes to listen to what you say, and loves it when you tell her too much information.
There's also games such as "Who Is Your Friend on the Internet?" These games had the kids laughing AND learning.
Once the movies were over, I handed out a printout of a sample online profile of a child. We went over all the bits of personal information in there and the children told me which bits were OK to have in there, and which were stating too much information. They even picked up on the subtle clues in the profile, such as stating the first name of the child's dad in a classified ad. Between that and knowing the last name of the child, the students correctly figured out that someone could put two-and-two together and could call information based on the father's full name.
After the safety lesson, we moved on to banner-ads and more privacy lessons. I explained how toy stores have fun toys spread out for kids to play with to keep them in the store. I then explained how websites contained fun games, but many of them, like toy stores, were trying to sell something at the same time. Most websites have a primary focus, and the first step is to discover what that focus is. Lastly, I explained how banner-ads were usually rectangular, but were almost always animated and were definately trying to sell something.
We went back to the kids' favorite site, disneychannel.com. I asked the kids to tell me the primary function of this site. Without hesitation, they all answered "to tell us what shows are on the Disney channel!" They were then able to correctly point out all the ad-banners on the site.
WEEK 3 - Email
This week each child was given their "school" email account and shown how to log in. Before the class, I sent each child about 5 different emails, with a task to do in each email.
The tasks consisted of "Send me a reply to this email! To do that, hold your mouse button over each icon until you see the one that says "Reply", and then send me a message!"
More tasks, such as "forward this email", "delete this email", "send a brand new email to the person sitting to your left", etc. taught each aspect of emailing in a manageable format. Children didn't move on to the next email until they had completed the task.
At this point, classes became easy as I could simply group email the children what sites I wanted them to go to and their assignments.
The last step of this class was about FUN! This should always be the most important element of each class, and should *never* be forgotten. Always end each class with some element of fun if possible.
The children were sent a link to Hallmark's free E-Cards. They could take their time and go through and pick out a card, and send it to someone in the class, or myself. Once they found a card they liked (Hoops and Yoyo were *really* popular!), I showed them how to fill out the bit (safely) to send it to someone in the class.
FUTURE LESSONS
Now that you have established a strong Internet foundation, the rest is up to you. We did scavenger hunts online through Yahooligans!, using the Internet as a reference tool, and more. Ask Jeeves for Kids is excellent. Give each child a "why" question (why is the sky blue? Why do we sleep?), or have them come up with one on their own and find the answer.
Back from Admin2005, and relaxing. And of course, catching up with the piles of voice mails and email!
Here's the quick and dirty rundown:
1. I had a wonderful time hanging out with everyone, and this time, Matt was with me, so it was even better. I got to find all my "usual suspects" and meet some new people. Matt will definately be at Lotusphere with me next year.
2. Everyone be sure to say Happy Birthday to Susan Bulloch on Wednesday! Susan was wonderful and even made sure to be up with bells on to support me at my Friday 8:30AM session. Thank you Susan, you rock!
3. Admin2005 was fun! Although, I was really nervous this year, and I think it was because I did three sessions versus the one I did last year. However, I was really happy with the take-home code (including displaying code elements such as field names, form names, agent names, view names, and view column titles from databases whose design is hidden. Also a plug-in local database that will allow any user to design and print out mailing labels from ANY database that has contact information, with no changing the design and no needing to pre-configure the label).
4. Saw Revenge of the Sith. I personally loved it. To me, I could have skipped the first two movies entirely, and went right to this one. This had the feel of the original three movies we know, love, and hold so dear to our hearts. Bad acting, even worse dialog, campy humor, a personality-filled spunky R2D2, lots of wookies, answers to questions, a really REALLY cool Vader moment when his mask gets put on for the first time, and a nice scene on Tatooine with the original score from the 80's.
It definately it not for kids, however, be gentle when you tell them they can't go. As my parents pointed out, it's gotta be hard to be a kid now, especially when Burger King is making Happy Meal toys for a movie they aren't allowed to see.
Wow, another blog from me within two days of each other. I have been working at increasing the efficiency of our software and in the process and as a little reward to myself, I have taken today off and possibly Monday. It is a welcomed break from the pre-show hustle and bustle and the post show modifications. Lately we have been focusing on increasing the efficiency of our software and I needed an easy way to time how long it took for a function to execute. A timer is the best way to do it but in C++, the best I could find were the CTime and CTimeSpan objects. We have used those in the past but they are only accurate to seconds. I needed something a bit better that was easy, or easier to use. Ya see, it all relates back to my previous post about saving key strokes. I could write up a class to handle all this for me or just a global function but in the end, everywhere I used the timer, the number of keystrokes in comparison to the macro would be exponential. That’s the purpose of a macro anyway, to save time, or in this case, to tell it.
In C++, there are a lot of practices that are frowned upon but they exist. And they exist for a reason. The problem is, most people abuse them because they are lazy. In my case, yes there is a bit of laziness, but the macros I have developed are only used in debug versions of the software. Once the software is ready for release, the macros redefine themselves to nothing. In this situation, I see no problems using them. Below is the macro
KEY:
Comment Color
String Color
Object Type Color
Code Color If you can't guess it, i am a big fan of using color in code to provide easier readablity. Most development environments provide customizable options to allow for this. I higly suggest looking into it as it makes reading code 10 times easier.
#ifdef _DEBUG
#define BEGIN_TIMER(x,y,z) \
DWORD x ## y = ::GetTickCount(); \
CString x ## y ## z(#x); \
TRACE(_T("Timer %s Started...\n"),x ## y ## z)
#define START_TIMER(x) BEGIN_TIMER(x,Begin,End)
#define FINISH_TIMER(x,y,z) \
DWORD x ## z = ::GetTickCount(); \
TRACE(_T("Timer %s finished in %f seconds\n"), x ## y ## z, ((x ## z) - (x ## y))/1000.0)
#define END_TIMER(x) FINISH_TIMER(x,Begin,End)
#else
#define START_TIMER(x)
#define END_TIMER(x)
#endif
Here is an example of its use
START_TIMER(timeUntilNextBlog);
... // do normal everyday stuff
END_TIMER(timeUntilNextBlog);
Timer timeUntilNextBlog started…
Timer timeUntilNextBlog finished in 172000.000000 seconds
Hope some of you can use this. It was a big help to us for increasing the efficiency of our software. For those of you not using Microsoft's DevStudio or .Net compiler, the TRACE portion may need to be removed. It is a macro defined by Microsoft make outputting to the debug window easier. Go figure :-P
This month's issue of TIME Magazine strikes home. The cover story? The Math Myth - The real truth behind women's brains and science. I just found out about it this morning, so I have not had time to buy the magazine, but I did have access to a sub-article online on the same topic, "Bad Idea: You'll Flunk Out".
The author, Pat Galloway, states that she had trouble in college and beyond by being told she was in the wrong field (engineering). She was in college in the late seventies, So I definately went later. But she and I had similar experiences.
Pat was told time and time again by her college guidance counselors that engineering was not for her. This is not unlike the time I had gone to ask for help after I had done poorly on a test. My professor took out his grade book. "Let's see.. as it stands right now, there are only two other people who are doing worse than you in this class." squinting at the book "Oh - wait. They dropped out. You're at the bottom of the class. It's time to come to the realization that computer science is not for you."
I can look back on that and wonder, though. Is the perceived "gender gap" sometimes just an emotional gap?
Could men shake it off and keep going, while women take it to a much deeper personal level? Maybe it has nothing to do with skill. It's interesting, because this point never comes up in articles like these. How do we, as women, know we're being treated differently? How do we know it's not just us reacting differently?
There's the science behind our brains, and the emotional decisions our brain makes for us. It's been called into play time and time again, but to me, there's no question that there are differences. It's what makes us men and women!
You do have to take this blog entry with a grain of salt... after all, what do I know? I can't read a gender-biased article and pretend to be an expert on a subject that's been under close scrutiny since the first caveman hit a woman over the head and dragged her into his cave. This is something that I can't oversimplify. But I can word-vomit... and I may even surprise myself by what I end up typing.
I'm finding that when I'm facing gender pressure about something I'm GOOD at, the more I'm razzed about my gender, the more I enjoy sticking it to them. I think I've mentioned this a few times about playing pool. I don't know how many times I've had a good run getting shots in, to hear the jokes, "You're huslting us, aren't you?" Uh, nope, I'm not. If I was hustling you, that would mean that at some point, I had previously indicated to you that I couldn't play. But you came up with that judgement all on your own! But I'll crumble when it's an issue over something that I'm not good at, as if I was expected to fail, and did.
I'd prefer to stay as objective as possible, which I suppose is kind of an oxymoron as I'm simultaneously typing how I also take things personally. I don't quite know how to explain that one. See, the only big issue I have with the article is that it didn't cover the other end of the spectrum, such as the fact that I'm sure men face the same pressures when entering fields that were traditionally held by women. However, given the headline of the magazine, it seems that would be out of the scope. Well, a future issue, maybe?
I'm ten years older now, and ready to battle my demons. But this logic also holds true; I'm ten years older emotionally, also. If I went back to school for C programming, I would not be so quick to be bullied out of my first love, nor would I hesitate to stop the class if I did not understand. Nobody but me is responsible for my actions and decisions.
Of course, as far as this guy is concerned, apparently I'm lucky I can figure out how to tie my shoes every morning...
For clarification, "this guy" is NOT Stan. I'm talking about the other commenter that kept making me feel like I had gotten a big slap in the face every time he posted. But I guess that comes with the territory of having a blog, eh? I'll take the bad with the good any day.
While I (and everyone else) recovers from what Volker named Morbus Lotuspheris, I've been trying to take it easy and stay on the couch as much as I can. This consists of watching movies in the background while I try not to stress over how far behind I am having been away all last week.
I have an extensive collection of movie soundtracks, and probably over half of them are the scores themselves. I do read and enjoy fiction, but I tend to have a problem overlooking certain things. This causes a problem in that with a novel, even missing one key word, adjective or phrase can change everything (sarcastically, sadly, gleefully, etc.). So when it comes to movies, I think this is why I'm particularly sensitive to noticing the background instrumental scores themselves, and what they actually add to the overall tone of the movie.
Take the sound clip linked below, for example. This is by Thomas Newman, and it's called Possibility, from the soundtrack of the movie Pay It Forward.
The title is so appropriate, upon listening to it, it almost makes you feel like you could do anything. But what I find most interesting about this track (aside from the fact that I love piano with agressive, disjointed chord changes) is that it also invokes a sense of mischief also. I can't listen to this an NOT think of the scene in Real Genius when the gang is plotting to take apart Kent's car and rebuild it in his room.
What does this clip say to you?
"Why, I could do anything!"
"Let's go do some Van Dammage."
"Jess really needs to get out more."
Anything else?
Click the icon to listen. (MP3 410k, 26 seconds)
(ps. If the clip sounds familiar, it should. It's so striking that it's been used in many movie trailers, also trying to set a similar tone. It is also remarkeably similar to that of the American Beauty score, also by Thomas Newman.)
- I went to the Advanced Web Development Techniques session by Scott Good, and I can’t WAIT to go home and start playing around. This was the perfect session for those (such as myself) who needed a good place to start learning how to get going in webifying a Notes app (at least to a point where you’d not be embarrassed by the way it looks to put it live), but didn’t really know how to start.
- I also went to Bill Buchan's Best Practices using Object Oriented Lotuscript, and again, I can’t wait to change some of my existing code around. It definitely will be hard to see these skills from all the sessions (web, Java, Lotuscript) duking it out which one I play with first when I get home. Oh, and what a great speaker! Entertaining and engaging. Aside from being a lot of fun, when the sessions are fun, it makes it so much easier for what you are learning to actually sink in. This is another reason why I remembered everything from Joe and Duffbert's Java session also.
- I was bummed out about the Developing Applications Using the C API Toolkit session, which had a really misleading title, and I let them know in the evaluation. This is was the session that I was the most excited about going in. However, it should have been called "What's new in R7 in the C API Toolkit." Basically the entire session was the speaker reading out loud the new functions, and what they did. But the speaker, Judy Ash, was just so genuinely exited to be there, and dearly loved her toolkit, so I thought it was worth it just to see that. It made me happy to see her happy. But I'm usually happy all the time anyway, so I'm not sure what that’s telling you…
- I did have a bit of a laugh with myself, there were definitely two types of languages of people speaking to each other over the course of the week. I heard words like momentum, clarity, decisiveness, strategy, value, etc. And then I'd hear the person on my left talking and I'd hear words like release date, upgrade, platform, SPR, standards, etc. Maybe this is why I have so much trouble understanding how things fit together, because I have to lean a little towards both sides to do my job, and yet there is a very obvious language barrier.
- Alan Bell made a great point in the Ask the Developers session to plead to please allow us to exclude databases from debugging. The example he gave was when he had code that involves the mail file, but when the debugger is on, he doesn’t want to debug the mail file! His line, which I (and Lotus) loved: "My code doesn't work. The mail file works. I don't want to debug the mail file!"
- The Birds of a Feather Blogging session was great. Everyone in one room talking about why they blog, what they get out of reading blogs, and helping new bloggers get started. Even Chris Toohey(aka Domino Procrastinator) and Derik managed to skip away from the Product Showcase for a bit to attend. I do wish it was a bit longer, though. In a discussion-like setting, it's easy for things to run long, and it was really engaging.
- I also wished I had enough sense to ask for a group picture of all of us that attended the Blogger BOF. I can see it now, the long black-and-white shot of us all standing there, similar to those nostalgia pictures you see of baseball teams while "this used to be my playground" softly plays in the background. Maybe we could have put a little flash thing together with that, and next year send it to the Radicati Group, with a big "NOT!" at the end of it. But, at the end of the closing session, Greyhawk did manage to get a nice group shot, which is posted in the Lotusphere 2005 Flickr site.
- The closing session had a "Disney moment". After the revelation of the "Here's Pluto" anagram from John Cleese, it was announced that in the spirit of Lotusphere, here's Pluto! And up on stage he walked. Richard Schwartz posted about who was secretly wondering if Ambuj was going to pop out of the Pluto suit. I recall hearing a few comments like that myself. I think Disney has this policy about never allowing the line to be crossed between people and the characters… something about permanently scarring children for life, I think.
- I definitely would have liked to have seen some more info for us smaller shops, ie. "Other Alternatives When You Don't Have a $70k Budget For Websphere". I understand there is something called Services Express that’s targeted for small business, but that's about all I heard of it. Nothing concrete, no "here's how you buy it", "here's how much it costs", and "here's what you can't do if you don't get the regular version". I did speak up about it on the evaluation, but I will take responsibility and say that it might have been discussed in detail in a session that I didn't go to. If anyone has any further iformation, or can at least point me to a link, I would appreciate it very much.
- It was definitely tough trying to get to everything I wanted to get to. I was equally as interested in the Business Development sessions, the Administration sessions AND the App Dev sessions. In the end, I forced myself to stick to my policy of choosing the session that I had the biggest weakness in, and it seemed to work out. At least I have the slides, which I'm downloading now.
- I would have liked to evaluate the evaluation form, actually. Some of the questions should have allowed for multiple selections (ie. Are you an admin or a developer? Choose ONE. Sorry, can't do that). Also, they allowed room to free-text comment on all the sessions and product showcase questions, but no comments on the Birds-of-a-feather, of which I wanted to write that they should have been longer.
- The Product Showcase was great, except on the evaluations I also wrote that it was a little confusing (regardless of the fact that I'm well aware that sometimes I live in a solid state of confusion), as I did not realize quickly that each side of the pedestal had *different* vendors on each side. So I realized I had missed quite a bit of vendors and had to start all over again, walking up and down each isle twice, each time facing a different way. And what was up with Gayle not being nominated as one of the best booth babes on the Gonzo Lotusphere site, if I say so myself? I demand a recount!
- I finally understand. For years, it always seemed like everyone was so *informed* about things like release dates, what's in new versions, what was fixed, how products work, etc., and I never knew how everyone seemed to know all this. Now I do. You have to be at Lotusphere. I feel so much better about the year to come now. I still can't believe I missed it all these years.
Quick post - This site finally renders in Firefox posted by Jess
Finally! I'm so excited to be using Mozilla Firefox (it's SO fast!), and then nearly fainted when I saw how my site looked with it.
It wasn't as bad as I thought, it was just that my CSS stylesheet was being ignored. A quick Google search led to the solution, which will fix your site if you run on Unix Shared/Apache.
In your .htaccess in the root of your site, just add this:
AddType text/css .css
Whew! Oh, and while I'm at it, I'm getting rid of the "comments must be approved" bit. Now that I have another plug-in to close off the comments completely after one month (because no one but spammers adds
comments later anyway), the spam situation is manageable now, in fact just about gone.
I have a whole bunch of stuff written up on the sessions, but first - the silliness!
- First of all, it must be mentioned that Matt is the best. I had a beautiful bouquet of flowers waiting for me in the car at the airport.
- Wednesday night was the Lotusphere party at Universal Islands of Adventure. While I was putting my cell phone in my pocket to get on Dueling Dragons, I accidentally called Bruce's cell phone. Nextel has this "feature" where if you hit the top button, it calls the last number you dialed on speakerphone. I didn't know I had hit the button. We're in the front row, sitting down to begin the ride, and Bruce says, "who's calling me now?" Once we got off the ride, he checked his phone. "Jess Stratton?" As I was right next to him, and sort of surprised at this point, I took my phone out of my pocket. It said I still had a connection with Bruce! He had put my call into voice mail, and it recorded (muffled) the entire ride! So funny. Oh, by the way, it's not Dueling Dragons, we all sort of decided that "Julian's Dragons" has a much nicer ring to it.
- After awhile, I realized how much I was geeking out telling everyone about the engineering feats of the park, such as the coaster technology and the fact that NASA's Jet Propulsion department designed the launch sequence for The Hulk. Which has it's own generator, by the way, lest it takes out power in the entire city of Orlando. The ride doesn't need its own generator. Just the launch. So if you ever need a guided tour of the park, I'm your girl. However, ss much fun as I had with the gang, Matt, it was really hard being there without you, and a little surreal, in fact.
- I had many enjoyable nights at Kimono's, and got up and sung karaoke, man that's fun (and addicting). I sung my favorites, Jefferson Airplane - Somebody to Love, Heart – Magic Man, Nelly Furtado – Turn Off the Lights. You’ll get no ballads from me, I much prefer singing loud, aggressive songs I can rock out to. Oh yeah, Evanescence - Bring Me To Life with Greyhawk! Although, they didn't have his words, so he had to wing it. We had fun, though. I hope someone got some pics of us up there together. If you have one, please send it to me.
- Tuesday I went on Mission Space at Epcot for the Salesplace "launch" party. Yes, Andrew, I didn’t believe you that they had barf bags in the cockpit of the ride, but you were right. I have a cast-iron stomach, and it was almost a little wild for me. The attendant had said that no matter how you queasy you feel, keep your eyes open and facing forward, otherwise it will just get worse. I'm glad she said that. Didn’t stop us from going on again, though! Everyone else went to go get drinks, and the group I was with (Devin, Alan, Greyhawk, Andrew and Efa) decided to do it again. We went after dinner, and nothing was funnier than Devin Olson in the middle of the line for the ride yelling, "Okay everyone, listen up. I just want you all to know that I just had meatloaf and dessert, followed by a pint of Guinness."
- At the conference, some people were mentioning again about the hastiness of the crew to pull the coffee away quickly, sometimes in mid-stir. It should be available all the time. After all, wasn't the whole focus of Lotusphere? On-Demand? Doesn't that include Java? Har... sorry. But c'mon, that was a gimme!
- Steven Wright at the closing session! Bruce, Gayle and I got a great picture with him. I'll post it... And I've talked to several people who also ran into him, and they agreed with me. His face genuinely lit up when we told him how much we enjoyed the show. We told him how great the surprise was when they introduced him, and he said, almost incredulously, "You mean you didn't know I was going to be there until that moment that I came up on stage?" We said nope, and it was a great surprise. His eyes lit up.
- There's something about this week. As the Disney staff says at the end of every phone call, "Have a magical day…." Well, this place IS magic, at least for me. For one week I got to be around people who love Lotus, administration, development, and obscure geek movie quotes as much as I do. It just doesn't get any better than this. A week among kindred spirits. This would explain why I'm running on steam right now. From 7AM till about 1:30AM every day, it was go, go, go. And I loved every second of it. Thanks guys. See you next year, that's for sure.
Wow! I finally get a chance to catch up. First off, Matt, I miss you and people here are asking about you. I'm getting a tad homesick, but that's what happens when the longest you've ever been away from your loved one is when they take off for Japan for two weeks. And I've never been away from Reboot by myself (and we spend all week together, her and I), who apparently is having difficulty coping also… Matt reports she's not eating. Though he threw some edamame into her dish and she ate some, so apparently treats DO overcome missing me. There's a surprise. Not!
I've met so many people and have had such a great time so far. I finally get a chance to put "faces to URLs", and scored my first CULT shirt ever.
There's really nothing I could say that no one else in the blogsphere has already said better, so here’s some quick highlights of my week thus far:
1. John Cleese was the guest speaker at the Opening Session, and in addition to being incredibly funny and a truly wonderful speaker, he also made this great point: He could find no more fitting place for Lotusphere than Disney, because the best anagram for "Lotusphere" is "Here's Pluto". He's one of the few people who could remain totally classy while insulting everyone, and STILL manage to elegantly and eloquently tie-in the overall themes of Lotusphere.
2. Lotus people are a really fun bunch of people with really great hearts. But we knew that.
3. I finally get it! IBM Workplace is not a tangible product, it's a concept! Oh wait, there's a Workplace client. Wait a sec, there's also Lotus Workplace?!
4. After the opening session, I don’t care if I still don't know the difference between IBM Workplace Technology and Lotus Workplace Client. I think the drag and drop content is the coolest thing I've ever seen.
5. While I've been to great sessions, the ones I wanted to go to the most didn't happen. Rob Novak was giving some awesome sessions on business development, including how to get press attention, and how to write proposals. Turns out that these were only for Business Partners. In addition, Matt's been telling me for years to figure out the C API in Notes so he can start teaching me some REALLY cool stuff. Finally, there’s a session on it. However, it's postponed until Wednesday when the speaker can get down here. I can't be selfish and complain too much, I can only imagine how he's feeling right now.
6. Rob was kind enough to explain to me that there is no cost to become a Business Partner. I tried signing up when I first went into business, and somehow ended up getting the impression that it was $1300/year to be a business partner. Not so. Seeing as it took me coming to LS to learn this, technically the first year DID cost me that much, but it was worth it. I know what I’m doing when I get home. Sign me up! I also met some great folks at the Penumbra Group, I'll be looking into that when I get home also.
7. I was really, REALLY overwhelmed with Lotusphere until I saw how easy it was to get around by following the Pocket Agenda Lotus gives us in our badges. Ahhhhhhhh. Breathe.
8. I saw Maureen Leland's session on the Workplace Designer. All I have to say is that she's endearingly sweet. And please oh please oh please oh please put some of those features in the Domino Designer!
9. Joe and Duffbert'ssession on Java for the Lotuscript person was great, along with some unintentional phallic moments in the demo. I’ll let him explain that one. The two have a great speaking dynamic, and were fun to watch. Most importantly, they explained it all in a way that was easy to understand. I’m excited to go home and try to do some tasks in Java rather than LotusScript to see what happens. I sat in the front row, along with Greyhawk68, who said "Nice shirt!" Turns out we were both wearing our "I'm blogging this" t-shirts. I knew I was in great company!
10. It's tough to make it to all the sessions I want to go to. When there are multiple sessions I want to go to in the same time slot and no repeats for any of them, it becomes a matter of deciding which one is going to benefit me the most immediately? It became easy to choose once I made a personal policy that I'd go to the session that would help my biggest weakness.
Netflix (online DVD rental) now has a great feature: friends. (No, you cannot rent friends online. You'd only be able to have three at a time regardless of the fact that you can keep them for as long as you want, and they might get mad if you gave them a low rating. )
You can add your friend's email addresses to your "friends" list, and you can click a button to send them a recommendation. On their side, they'll get sent an email, and can click to add it to their queue.
We've been doing it the hard way all this time. This consists of sending emails, "you gotta add this to your queue!". And then after deleting the email, promptly forgetting the title. And sending another email asking what it was again... And by that time, the original person couldn't remember what movie they were trying to recommend in the first place, so they get "recommendation anxiety" and pop out the first movie that comes into their minds, so the other person is sitting there one night wondering, "why the hell am I watching The Natural History of the Chicken?"
Notwithstanding the fact that I can't even do basic addition to save my life, math has always been a passion of mine. Though my lack of understanding may be the enticement, however, as I love a good enigma.
Mathematical algorithms are behind every aspect of life and nature, from being able to calculate the largest package that will fit in your mailbox, right down to the reduction of a recipe from four to two people instead.
I have just stumbled upon one answer of which the question had been driving me nuts for ages:
Which came first – the mathematical principles themselves, or our counting system, in which 1+1=2, which enables all the mathematical principles to actually work?
The answer I found here, in a paper called The Magnificent Perfect Square, by Roger Logan:
'Over the centuries, mathematicians have expanded the number system four times. Each new expansion was required because the then existing number system was not sufficient to solve certain problems.'
So it would seem the first problem is that my original question was not correct at all… 1+1=2 is not complex enough to enable all the principles to work in the first place.
Apparently, mathematics has four number systems in addition to the natural system (1, 2, 3, 4 etc.):
1. Integers (the natural system, but expanded to include 0 and -1, -2, -3 etc.)
The introduction of integers allowed many more algebraic equations to be solved, which would have been impossible to solve previously.
2. Rational (the introduction of fractions)
3. Real (which accounts for infinite decimal point ability)
4. Complex (an ordered pair of real numbers, imaginary)
I was a little disappointed in this learning… my first thought was almost a letdown, that maybe the natural system I love so much wasn’t so natural after all. But then I read this paragraph in the same paper:
'The age old question is, "Which came first, the chicken or the egg?" This simplistic summary regarding the expansion of the number system makes it appear that the mathematicians' main concern was to expand the number system so as to solve the then current number problems. However, solving the number problems is what caused the creation, discovery or invention of new numbers, thereby forcing the expansion.'
After my reading, I now have a new question.
Are the expansions considered a discovery, or an invention? And would the answer be fact, or a debatable opinion?
If I tally the facts, I'm sure I'm oversimplifying everything. But I warned you I couldn't do basic addition to save my life.
Matt's name in the credits of Game Boy Advance - The Incredibles posted by Jess
Matt's C++ Unicode page on this site gets a good number of hits, mostly from Google searches, and also Unicode.org's "Resources" links to us here.
About six months ago, Matt got an email from somebody who needed help with some code. Matt worked with him for awhile, and the problem was solved. The very next day, Matt got an email saying that the gentleman had been stuck on that doozy for awhile, thank you very much, you're a lifesaver, oh, and by the way, it's for The Incredibles for GameBoy Advance and your name is going to be in the credits.
Sweet!
This was months and months ago, and we have been eagerly awaiting the game, which is now available along with the movie. Sure enough, in a "Helixe Special Thanks" section, all by himself, there's my Matt!
So thanks Jeff, you were true to your word. And congrats Matt, I'm proud of you!
So, it only took me about 50 million trial-and-errors, but finally I got Remote Assistance via email to work successfully between two WinXP users who are both behind routers/firewalls.
Just in case anyone needs it (because once you can get it working, it's REALLY neat, mind-bogglingly useful, and surprisingly fast), here are the required steps.
1. Fat-fingering of some sort occurs.*
*: Now, this isn't *totally* required, of course. You may be the type of person that just enjoys having people come and play with your computer, but for the most part, usually some sort of breakage happens before someone else feels the need to come in and fix it for you.
2. The end-user MUST make sure the following two buttons have check marks next to them:
Right-click My Computer and scroll to Properties.
Click the Remote tab.
Make sure "Allow Remote Assistance Invitations to be sent from this computer" is checked.
Click Advanced.
Make sure "Allow this computer to be controlled remotely" is checked.
3. The end user, if using a router, must set up port forwarding.
The end user must log into their router's web-based administration panel* and enable Port forwarding for the Remote Assistance request:
Port 3389 should be routed to the internal IP address of the end users system, ie. 192.168.x.x.
The end user can perform the following steps to find out what their internal IP address is if they don't know:
Go to Start->Run
At the command prompt, type cmd.
Type ipconfig and hit enter.
Write down what is written on the IP Address line.
*: most router models have online instructions on their respective manufacturer's website as how to login via browser and find the Port Fowarding section. I mean, who keeps instruction manuals after the initial setup? Okay, guilty as charged. But it's still quicker to go online and get it anyway.
4. The end-user must send a Remote Assistance invitation via email.
Go to Start->Help and Support.
Click on Remote Assistance.
Click Invite someone to help you.
Type the Invitee's email address, and click Invite this person.
Send a message if necessary* and click Continue.
Enter a password if necessary, and communicate that password with the invitee.
Click Send Invitation.
The email will pop open in the default email program (such as Lotus Notes), and the end user still needs to hit the Send button.
*: Since you are, in fact, asking someone to help you, it might be nice to take this time to ask them how they are? If they've read any good books lately? Have they done anything fun lately? If they are the geek type like I am, the answer will most likely still be no, but hey, it was nice that someone thought to ask anyway.
6. The Invitee receives the email invitation, and tweaks the contents.
Once the invitee gets the email, save the attachment to the desktop.
Open it with Notepad.
There will be two entries one after another of the end user's internal IP address followed by the port, ie:
The first entry needs to be changed to the external IP address, and the second entry needs to be changed to the hostname of the end user, leaving you with this:
One of the neatest things that Matt pointed out to me was that even in Notes, I have the ability to use *any* WinAPI call, provided I include the .dll if it's not already part of my OS. It's just a matter of tweaking the code, parameters and data types so that LotusScript can translate it correctly.
One of the more useful calls I found was InternetGetConnectedState, which simply returns a boolean value if the code executor is online or not. Previously, I had racked my brains to come up with kludgy methods like a ping that outputs the results to a text file, and checking the text file for "reply."
Why would you even want this? The obvious example is to give to a user before clicking button code that requires them to be online, but I found other uses for it, including:
- testing toggling between wired and wireless connections
- including in additional software packages as safeguards before other code will work successfully
To test, simply put this code in a button. Run the code, then unplug yourself and try it again.
I did find that there is a delay in re-plugging in and trying the code. For a few seconds it will still say you are offline. And, on Matt's machine, it didn't work at all. However, I called Matt's machine tainted and called it a day. Experimental workstation, is not the word for it. Mad Scientist playground is more like it. He's got more SDK's, runtime environments, compilers, etc. etc. than I've ever seen. So he doesn't count. :-D
'Declarations
Declare Function InternetGetConnectedState Lib "wininet.dll" (lpdwFlags As Long, Byval dwReserved As Long) As Long
Sub Click(Source As Button)
If InternetGetConnectedState(Clng(0),0&) Then
Msgbox "You passed the Internet connectivity test! You may proceed."
Else
Msgbox "You are not online. Please connect to the Internet and then proceed."
End If
End Sub
After that, it's just a matter of heading over to msdn.microsoft.com and typing in what you want to do in the search box. If it's there, you'll find it.
Back from Boston, and words can't say how floored I am about how it was. The sessions, the people, it was just great.
Ed Brill and I attended Mike Rhodin's keynote together about Lotus Workplace, and it looked great, but I had one question that I forgot to ask Ed. I was happy because I had heard so much about it, but it's hard to visualize through the extensive feature adjective list without actually *seeing* it. I finally got to do that. But here's the question:
one of the focal points was about using push-technology to bring client apps to users. But was that LOTUS client apps, or any client apps? It's a big difference, and one I'm not sure of.
I attended so many great sessions, and had a long time to wait, as I wasn't presenting until Friday.
However, I did my session, Best Practices for Maintaining a User's Environment, and it went great, considering it was my first time presenting. Well, the microphone fell, which was embarrassing, but I just said "uh-oh, mike down!" and everyone laughed, and then it was back to normal.
But, the demo's went great. I had set my laptop up for Domino with Virtual PC, and then just to be safe, I linked it to the Notes client via the Microsoft Loopback Adapter.
The good news is that all my demo take-home materials ended up on the CD after all. Due to some FTP issues, I was told originally that my stuff didn't make it on time, and so I had to put them up for download on my website. However, I double checked, and there they were.
However, I haven't taken them off my site yet, so you can see what I had for take home here.
Once I was done presenting, I had already gone to so many sessions during the week, and the stress of presenting myself did me in... I was so tired, by late Friday we left on our way home. I had wanted to stay Friday night and hang out, but by that time, my brain was a big mushy mess (sure sign of a great conference!).
My session got great reviews, and I even got an email from an attendee that enjoyed it, so hopefully they have me back next year.
Huge thanks to Susan Bulloch and Kathleen McGivney, who sat right in the front row for support. It was more appreciated than they'll ever know, really!!
Time to go through the rest of the presentations I wanted to go to but didn't get a chance to...
Help is just an IM and a forum away... posted by Jess
So here I was. Tired from being up until the wee hours of the morning working on the error message. Matt had been up until the wee hours of the morning with me, working on the error message. And he's not even a Lotus guy! He's just good like that.
I was really, really sick and tired of the error message.
My blood pressure was really, really rising because of the error message.
My deadline had come and gone, but there was that error message.
What was it? "Attempt to execute nested events" when I clicked a button. Now I know that this is usually caused by calling doc.Save in the QuerySave event, or something similar, such as calling uidoc.Refresh in PostRecalc. I had none of these (or so I thought).
Here was my button code:
Dim ws As New NotesUIWorkspace
Set uidoc = ws.currentdocument
uidoc.EditMode = True
Call uidoc.FieldSetText("SetFlag", "1")
Call uidoc.Refresh
uidoc.EditMode = False
The error occurred between the following lines:
uidoc.EditMode = True
Call uidoc.FieldSetText("SetFlag", "1")
I also had the following PostRecalc code:
If source.Document.SetFlag(0) = "1" Then
Call RunMe
End If
I figured it was a timing issue as the error went away if I ran it through the debugger. It also went away if I put a 'msgbox "Hi!"' in between also.
I tried everything. I tried putting a sleep command, a Yield, etc. I converted it to use the backend doc instead of uidoc. I saved the doc and had the code run in the QuerySave. No luck.
(the reason for the code being done this way is to run the function RunMe, which was out of scope for the button and there was no way to use an agent. I'm just waiting for someone to ask!)
I got up early after going to bed late working on it. It's very lonely when your code won't work and no one's online in IM. :-) Finally, around 9:30 AM I threw in the white towel and posted on the forum.
All of a sudden, the help rang out. Joe answered my post with a great suggestion (which wasn't the solution, but thanks anyway!). Bruce, being the first online, got the panicky chat alert first. Bruce then kindly put out an All-Points Bulletin for me, and more help started rolling in. Rob McDonagh came up with another fantastic suggestion (that I was in the middle of trying once a fix came in on the forum by John Lanham). In the meantime, Chris Toohey was jumping on the help bandwagon, and even recruited one of his coworkers to d
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