Fixing Domino regional date/time when running as a service

Fixing Domino date/times when running as a service

When running a domino server as a user (i.e. as an application), the international settings for date/time etc come from the Windows user regional settings.

However, when running the same server as a windows service, the region settings come from the registry and there is no way to change them from the user interface.

By default those region settings are US.

If you wish to change them then, you need to do the following:

1. Login as a user with administrator rights
2. Change the current logged in user settings to those that you want
3. Start regedit.exe
4. Manually copy all of the different settings:

From:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER/Control Panel/International

to

HKEY_USERS/.DEFAULT/Control Panel/International

It is easier with a large screen so both the source and the destination are on the screen at the same time.

Getting a list of checked out documents from SharePoint online

SharePoint 2013 / SharePoint Online - List of your checked out documents

Seems to be a often asked but not often answered question.  For Office 365 you can see your checked out documents without creating any special views simply using the Content Type lists.

If you have an out of the box SharePoint 2013 or online  "Document Center" and have uploaded items of content type = "Document".  Then simply follow these steps:

1. Select the "Documents" document library from the Quick Menu
2. A tree view of the library will be shown on the Quick Menu under "Drop Off library".  It will sow "Folders" and "Content Type" options.
3. Click on "Content Type" which expands to all content types being used.  Select a content type and a view will be shown of that content type.
4. There is a column "Checked out To" in this view.  Simply Sort and filter on this column to see the items that are checked out to individuals.

Zipato  - Automatic hot water schedule

I wanted to replace my boiler timer and thermostat and add additional intelligence to my home heating so I scoured the Internet looking for a suitable system.
I ended up choosing Zipato for the following reasons:

1. Low entry cost
2. Very flexible communication protocol support (Not just Z-Wave but also 433KHz and ZigBee etc.)
3. Easy to create rules generation engine 
4. SMS message integration
5. Very good support

With everything set up I then purchased a temperature sensor and a central heating switch.

I really liked the design of the Fibaro FGMS-001 motion/temperature/lux/acceleration multi sensor which is the same size as a ping pong ball and flashes different colours when motion is detected (colours depend on the current ambient temperature).

For the switch I chose the SECURE SSR 302 which contains two switches allowing me to control hot water and central heating via the Zipabox from Zipato

Both were supplied by Vesternet (http://www.vesternet.com) who I have found to be really helpful with advice and excellent with service and price for these types of items.

Once installed by a qualified electrician I was ready to set up.

What I wanted was to build a schedule for my hot water but there is not actually a facility for that in the Zipabox system so I built one using "Virtual Thermostat Pro" which is available.

This facility is actually designed as a thermostat replacement but it has a schedule built in to change the temperate so was an ideal vehicle for building a thermostat.

Firstly I registered the switch and the motion sensor.  The Switch was set up with Hot Water on zone 2 and Heating on Zone 1.

Next, I added the "Virtual Thermostat Pro" using the Zipato interface

• Login
• Device Manager > Add New Device > Virtual devices > Virtual thermostat pro
• Configure the new device: Heating output = Switch Zone 2
• Configure the new device: Thermometer = Fibraro motion sensor

The trick is to modify the schedule now and set the required temperature.  I do not want to actually control the temperature of the water but just want to use the Thermostat Pro as a switching device so I set Required temperature to 30 C when I want hot water to be on and set to 8 C when I don't.

Simple but really effective.

Lotus Notes to Android without Traveller

I recently was working with a Sony Experia Z2 handset that was installed with Lotus Traveller software.

However, the user wanted a universal in box so that the Notes email came up along with other email accounts.

The Android in question supported ActiveSync servers and since Lotus Traveller is actually ActiveSync, we set up the Notes mail using that option in the normal Mail client.

So then we needed to remove Notes Traveller software

For some reason the "Uninstall" option was greyed out.

The reason for this is that Notes Traveller is actually set up as a Device Adminstrator.  So you have to deactiveate "Notes Traveller" as a Device Administrator first.

Got to Settings > Security > Device administrators and remove the Check box next to "IBM Notes Traveler Security"

With that setting disabled then go to
Settings > Apps > Downloaded.  Select "IBM Notes Traveler"  and now the "Force Close" and "Uninstall" options will be active

Voila!

Are we on the verge of a societal breakdown?

I have been doing a lot of reading about our modern 21st Century dependence on energy for the continuation of society as we know it.  Of course the primary energy source of our world is oil which is often referred to as ancient concentrated sunlight and this is or is very soon going to "peak" in production.  With ever increasing demand on a finite and dwindling resource then trouble is knocking - and much sooner than we are all led to believe.

Chris Martenson has a very articulate and well presented overview of our collective dilemma which he has published in a series of downloadable movies.  He calls this "The Crash Course" and explains very lucidly how we (mankind) face the “perfect storm” of crises.  Our debt based fiat money system; our complete dependence on oil as the primary cheap energy source and the rapid deterioration of the ecology around us all add up to some serious problems.  Funnily enough, whilst these issues are no doubt know to the major governments of the world, there is very little, if anything, done about it.

As a result, it seems like the majority of us are sleep walking into a crisis.

Take a look here at http://http://www.peakprosperity.com.  But BE WARNED!  Go through the Crash Course during the day or with the lights on...

Assigning license to VMWare ESXi 5

This was a little frustrating.  The ESXi host keeps nagging me to enter a license key - even though the hypervisor was free.
After some messing around I found it was actually quite easy:
1) Get your free license key from VMWare (you are given this duirng the download process)
2) Download the vSphere Client from the IP address of your host
3) Open your host in the left window
4) Select the "Configuration" tab
5) On the left hand side there is a "Hardware" section and a "Software" section.  Look in the "Software" section and select "Licensed Features"
6) On the right hand side of the screen look for and click the "Edit" button.  A pop up window will be displayed. The screen is divided into two sections and each is selectable with a radio button.  Select the "Assign a new license key to this host" radio button
7) Now, click the "Enter Key..." button and you can enter the license key provided by VMWare that you got in step 1.  Click "OK"
8) Click "OK" again to close the pop up.
Thats it, finished.

Getting a Blackberry Z10 working with IBM Notes

For everyone who wants to get a Blackberry Z10 working against IBM Lotus Notes/Domino.  

Firstly, you DO NOT need to have a BES 10 server for this to work - The BES 10 server is only for managing the devices.  If you manage your handset via BES10, then BES10 will take over all your Traveler policies overriding any Domino traveler policies (so beware).

What we did:

A - Infrastructure stuff

1. Install Domino 9.0 Social Edition (beta)

2. Install Traveler version 9 

(Some others have also had success on Lotus Traveler 8.5.3 on Domino 8.5.3)

B - Handset stuff

1. Open the "Setup" application on your blackberry z10

2. Under the "Get Connected" section there is an icon labelled "Accounts".  Tap this.

3. A menu at the bottom of the screen is shown.  Select the "Add Account" option

4. The "Add Account" screen is shown.  On the menu at the bottom of the screen tap the "Advanced" option

5. The "Advanced Setup" screen is shown.  Tap the option "Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync"

6. The "Add Account" form is displayed.  Enter the following:

• Description.  Whatever you type here will be seen on your Blackberry Hub
• Leave the "Domain" field BLANK
• In "Username" - enter your iNotes user name 
• For "Email Address" enter you notes SMTP email address
• For "Password" enter your iNotes password
• In "Server Address" enter the public URL of your traveler server
• In "Port", enter the port that traveler will use.  We configured "443" in our system
• If using SSL then turn on the SSL option
• If using a VPN then turn on the "Use VPN" option
• Ensure that you turn on "Push"
• Leave “Sync Timeframe set to 30 days”
• At the top of the screen click the “Next" button
• The handset will attempt to synchronise with your traveler server and you will get a message saying “Checking for support services and policy information.  Behind the scenes traveler will create a profile for you.
• You may get some messages about https certificates.  If you do click “Continue” past those
• At the next screen entitiled “Add Account” specify what things you want to syncrhonise (Sync Emai, Sync Contacts, Sync Calendar, Sync Tasks, Sync Memos) then on the top of the screen click the “Done” button
• You will get the message “Saving and verifying your settings”.  Again you may get a Provider Identity Not Verifiable” message if there is an issue with https certificate again, click “Continue” 

You can now go to the Blackberry “Hub” and you will have an entry for your Lotus Notes mail.