How to find out the version of IIS you are running.

Appears are simple enough question but you have to peer into the registry to find out the answer.

Open Regedit
Navigate to:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\InetStp

In that "folder" there is a key called "VersionString" which shows the version of IIS you have.

Where can I find SQL Server Managment Studio for SQL Server 2012?

Where to find SQL Server 2012 Management Studio download?

When I was looking, I could only find SQL server Management Studio for SQL 2005 which came as part of SQL Server 2005 Express

Digging a bit deeper and I found this for SQL server Express 2012.  From here you can download just the Management Studio components:

http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=29062

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...