Gregg Eldred

Friday Walk Around Cleveland

Gregg Eldred — Fri, 16 May 2008 19:06:00 -0400

Through the wonders of Twitter, I met up with Phil, and we walked through parts of downtown Cleveland this afternoon.

The Terminal Tower:

Statue outside of the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland:

My Cleveland set on Flickr is up to 67 pictures.

A couple of personal notes: 1) A policewoman, who was dressed in her formal uniform, told me why there were so many police officers downtown. There was a memorial to the fallen officers. I made a mental note to visit the memorial, down by the Justice Center. 2) Noticing that flags around town were being flown at half-staff, I asked security in the building if they knew why. It was in honor of the police memorial service and parade. And 3), Phil and I were commenting on strange, green balls on Mall C. One of the landscapers told me that it was "Art."

You'll never know the answer unless you ask a question. :-)

I think that I will have to spend some time with Flickr to map my pictures around the City of Cleveland.

CIO India: SharePoint 2007’s Collaboration Tools

Gregg Eldred — Fri, 16 May 2008 09:07:17 -0400

What I see as a pretty balanced, well written article, CIO India reports on several companies looking at and using Microsoft SharePoint (the good and the bad). My problem with the article, lies in just a couple of words (emphasis, mine):

"We're all used to Microsoft getting it wrong, wrong, wrong and then getting it right," notes Alber, "but SharePoint 2007 is a much better advance than you would expect even in that usual Microsoft pattern." Bryan Cave is not a Microsoft shop, so Alber was open to options from a variety of providers. But he found that SharePoint 2007 was much less expensive — and often more capable — than legal-information management offerings from SAP and Oracle, and he judged it much more capable and user-friendly than IBM's Lotus Notes-based collaborative tools such as Domino and Quickr (a Notes wiki tool.)

Link: CIO India: SharePoint 2007’s Collaboration Tools

Quickr Cross Site Scripting Vulnerability

Gregg Eldred — Fri, 16 May 2008 08:54:07 -0400

A vulnerability has been reported in Quickr, prior to version 8.1:

A vulnerability has been reported in IBM Lotus Quickr, which can be exploited by malicious people to conduct cross-site scripting attacks.
Certain input passed to unspecified parameters in the WYSIWYG editors is not properly sanitised before being returned to a user. This can be exploited to execute arbitrary HTML and script code in a user's browser session in context of an affected site.
The vulnerability is reported in versions prior to 8.1 with Hotfix 5.
Solution:
Apply Hotfix 5

Link: Secunia: IBM Lotus Quickr WYSIWYG Editors Unspecified Cross-Site Scripting

Technorati tag: Quickr

Permanently Use DWA Lite Mode

Gregg Eldred — Thu, 15 May 2008 23:41:01 -0400

Over the past few weeks, there have been a few posts on DWA Lite.

However, one of the leading search terms to this blog is some variation on "dwa permanently use lite mode." To that end, this is what an Administrator can do to force all users to DWA Lite:

Administrators can also set Lotus Domino Web Access Lite as the default mode for all Lotus Domino Web Access users, using the iNotes_WA_DefaultUI=dwa_lite Notes.ini parameter. With this parameter in use, mail databases accessed using an explicit URL, such as http://yourserver.yourdomain.com/mail/tuser.nsf are launched using Lite mode. In 8.0.1, however, if the Lotus Domino Web Access Redirect is in use, the mode selected during log-in is used regardless of the Notes.ini setting. More information is available in Technote #1297981, "Domino Web Access Redirect overrides the default mode set using the 'iNotes_WA_DefaultUI' notes.ini parameter."

The other three methods are found in the Introducing IBM Lotus Domino 8.0.1 Web Access Lite Mode document.

Link: Introducing IBM Lotus Domino 8.0.1 Web Access Lite Mode

URL Vulnerability in Lotus Symphony and Lotus Expeditor

Gregg Eldred — Thu, 15 May 2008 23:16:01 -0400

Lotus released a Security Bulletin for a URL handler vulnerability in Lotus Symphony and Lotus Expeditor.

From the TechNote:

IBM was made aware of a potential vulnerability in IBM� Lotus� Symphony which utilizes Lotus Expeditor code that may allow an attacker to execute malicious code on a user's workstation under certain circumstances.

This vulnerability was found to be isolated to the Windows operating system and occurs when using Internet Explorer. The issue does not exist under the Mozilla Firefox web browser.

Another reason to use Firefox?

Link: URL handler vulnerability affects Lotus Symphony and Lotus Expeditor

Cleveland Walking Tour

Gregg Eldred — Thu, 15 May 2008 22:19:58 -0400

A brisk but nice day in Cleveland and I took to the streets to get some more pictures. It gets me out of the office and lets you see the sights in my town. I hope that you like my "Cleveland Photo Tour."

Today, along the walk, I visited the USS Cod, which is here:

View Larger Map

And this is the USS Cod from eye level:

According to Wikipedia:

[The] Cod is one of the finest restored submarines on display and is the only U.S. submarine that has not had stairways and doors cut into her pressure hull for public access. Visitors to this proud ship use the same vertical ladders and hatches that were used by her crew. Cleveland can claim partial credit as Cod's birthplace, since the submarine's four massive diesel engines were built by General Motors' Cleveland Diesel plant on Cleveland's west side.

Technorati tag: Cleveland USS Cod

SnTT - Determining the Sametime Client Type

Gregg Eldred — Thu, 15 May 2008 00:00:00 -0400

A month ago, I shared with you how to determine the version of your Sametime server. How about a little tip on how to determine the clients that are attaching to your Sametime server? Further, with a small change to your sametime.ini on the Sametime server, you can limit the types of clients that are allowed to attach to instant messaging.

Evil? Perhaps. :-)

There are six (6) general methods of connecting to a Sametime server:

Toolkits
Sametime Connect Clients
Sametime Meetings
STLinks
Notes
Third-party

Whenever one of these methods is used, they each tell the Sametime server what client they are. For example, if you are using Sametime Connect Client 7.5, the client identification is 0x1304. If you are using Notes Client 8.0.1, the client identification is 0x1233. The entire list can be found in this TechNote.

That same TechNote also details what the Administrator needs to change in the sametime.ini on the Sametime server to limit the connectivity. You will need to add to the [Config] section of the sametime.ini, the entry:

VPS_ALLOWED_LOGIN_TYPES

To limit the clients to only the Notes Client 8.0.1 and Sametime Connect 7.5, the entry wold be:

[Config]
VPS_ALLOWED_LOGIN_TYPES=1233,1304

The caveat:

According to the TechNote, only the following Sametime servers accept this configuration:

Sametime 3.0 IF3
Sametime 3.1 with a hotfix.
Sametime 6.5.1
Sametime 7.x

Link: How to determine the Client Type that is connecting to a Sametime server

Technorati tag: SnTT Show-n-Tell Thursday Sametime

What's Your Favorite Lotus/Domino 8 Feature?

Gregg Eldred — Wed, 14 May 2008 23:21:08 -0400

If you have been working with Lotus Notes and Domino 8 for a while, I am sure that you have a particular feature that you really like.I realize that there are many new features in both R8 and R8.0.1. For example:

Domino Web Access Lite
Traveler
Message Recall
Lotus Productivity Tools
Out of Office as a Service
Advanced database property to allow compressed design elements.
Support for Composite Applications

All great, new features.

As impressive those are, and that is but a subset of the entire Release 8 and 8.0.1 list, I have to say that my favorite feature, introduced in R8, is that the synchronization of Contacts was moved to the Replicator page. A really simple feature, but one that makes the users very happy. It is much easier to kick off a replication, or have it scheduled, rather than having to remember to click Actions - Synchronize Address Book.

I admit that it was a shock to discover a "missing" Action, but once you discovered where it had been moved, and trained the users, it made life easier. Simple, natural, and happy users.

What's your single, best feature in Lotus Notes/Domino R8 or R8.0.1?

If you want to know "What's New in Lotus Notes," the link to the Release Notes is below.

Link: IBM Lotus Notes, Domino, Domino Designer 8 and 8.01 Release Notes

Technorati tag: Lotus

May - Spam Anniversary Month

Gregg Eldred — Wed, 14 May 2008 22:18:19 -0400

A while ago, I posted an e-mail asking if you knew its significance.

The opening paragraph of the e-mail:

DIGITAL WILL BE GIVING A PRODUCT PRESENTATION OF THE NEWEST MEMBERS OF THE DECSYSTEM-20 FAMILY; THE DECSYSTEM-2020, 2020T, 2060, AND 2060T. THE DECSYSTEM-20 FAMILY OF COMPUTERS HAS EVOLVED FROM THE TENEX OPERATING SYSTEM AND THE DECSYSTEM-10 COMPUTER ARCHITECTURE. BOTH THE DECSYSTEM-2060T AND 2020T OFFER FULL ARPANET SUPPORT UNDER THE TOPS-20 OPERATING SYSTEM. THE DECSYSTEM-2060 IS AN UPWARD EXTENSION OF THE CURRENT DECSYSTEM-2040 AND 2050 FAMILY. THE DECSYSTEM-2020 IS A NEW LOW END MEMBER OF THE DECSYSTEM-20 FAMILY AND FULLY SOFTWARE COMPATIBLE WITH ALL OF THE OTHER DECSYSTEM-20 MODELS.

That message, the first spam message, was sent on May 1, 1978 to over 300 users on ARPANET. And, if I recall properly, it brought ARPANET to its knees. Thirty years later, we are in a continual battle against spam with no relief in sight.

Thank you, THUERK at DEC-MARLBORO for that message. You should have the distinction of being "Spammer Zero" and May could be designated as "Spam Month."

"Happy" 30th anniversary.

Lotus GM Bob Picciano: Interview

Gregg Eldred — Wed, 14 May 2008 14:35:36 -0400

Lotususergroup.org has a podcast up of an interview with Lotus GM Bob Picciano.

New IBM Lotus General Manager, Bob Picciano, spent some time with Debbie Lynd of LotusUserGroup.org in his first interview to the Lotus community. Listen to this podcast to find out how Bob’s 21 years with IBM has prepared him for the challenge at Lotus. Get insight into Bob’s take of the Lotus brand and what’s in store to continue the sales growth and keep IBM Lotus on top of the collaboration market. Hear about Bob’s passion for the customer, plans for marketing outreach, and how Lotus will continue to offer greater business value than the competition. Plus, find out why "yellow is the new green", and a lot more. Spend a few minutes and listen to this engaging interview packed with insight from the new man at the helm of the IBM Lotus Brand. You’ll be glad that you did.

You will require a login (free) to access the podcast.

Link: LotusUserGroup.org: Interview with Bob Picciano