A Different Type Of Tech Post...Looking For Work

At this point in time, I'm not sure if I have much of an audience with this blog.  It is not something I post to often, but when I do I try to make it an interesting and helpful post.  I've worked in the technical field for over 20 years and in that time I've never lost a job.  To be honest, I just turned 45 and have been working since I was 15 and can honestly say that I have never lost a job.  I lost my job this year. 

It is a new experience for me.  I am lucky at the moment in that my former employer was willing to pay me through the end of 2010, but it's not helpful when jobs seem to be scarce.  I've even applied for every entry level position that is out there, but it appears that I am competing with college aged kids with no experience as well as others in my shoes. 

To make matters worse, some of the review processes seem to take a long time.  I've interviewed with one group early in October and as of now they are still deciding who they are going to hire.  That seems to be the case for job hunting these days - very long internal review processes, no notifications on if you were denied the position, and so on.  When I was looking for work some 20+ years ago you always got a letter telling you that you were not an acceptable candidate for a position.  Now, you just never hear anything when you apply for a job. 

I understand the frustration that job hunters have.  I have twins that will be 2 years old soon and I'm not sure what I'm going to do.  Nothing technical about this.  If I have to sweep floors, stock shelves in the night someplace or beg on the street, I'll do what I need to do in order to see that my family is fed. 

Let's hope I find a technical job soon.  I've been doing this a long time and really can't think of anything else to do.  But you do what you do in order to survive.  I promise my next post will actually be about a technical subject. 

-Thanks, David

A Fix for the AT&T OTA Update on Your Captivate

Like many of us with the AT&T Galaxy S (Captivate) you should have gotten the text message for the OTA update for the GPS fix (no FROYO love yet).  And like many, I'm sure your update crashed and burned at some point (or why would you be reading this?).  So, how do you get the update to install (I won't say it works, that for other bloggers to debate).  After doing some searching, I was able to find Mini Kies.  It's a very greased down version of the Samsung Kies software that only allows for the installation of patches.  It downloaded and installed the patch update to my AT&T Captivate.  I'll post a link to the software here.  Be aware that if you have rooted your phone, you will have to do that again (not saying if I've done that or not -- just pointing it out based on other reports I've read).  The patch will also put all the AT&T bloat-ware back onto your phone as well.  But, you will at least get the JH7 patch on your phone if that is what you are wanting.

Wallpapers for your Android phone

Here are two backgrounds that I like to use for my Galaxy S phone.  The Mountain Dew one I found on the Internet.  The RC Cola one I created myself.  You should be able to simply add them to your phone's gallery and then use them as wallpapers.  Hope you enjoy.

Galaxy S Captivate -- A Great Phone and Android Too!

After having a Windows Mobile phone for a number of years, I broke down and purchased my first Android phone in July.  I originally wanted to get the Dell Streak, but that turned out to be such a disaster that I ended up getting the Galaxy S from AT&T -- The Captivate.  And what a purchase it has been.  My wife has an iPhone and I have an iPod Touch (both great devices).  I have enjoyed my Windows Mobile phone (a Samsung Epix) until I upgraded it to WM 6.5, but Android has to be the best phone experience I have ever had.  Very fast (a 1Ghz processor), a very clear screen and all the apps a person could ask for.  And unlike my iPod Touch, every thing I have tried to do I have been able to pretty much do for free on my Galaxy S -- such as install and read Office Documents or PDF documents.  It has been wonderful.

The phone dialer is big and clear for us "older" folks and easy to see.  I've not had any issues with trying to dial. The dialing screen is very functional.  I assume that all the Android phones are this way as this is my first experience with Android.
I have my contacts and calender entries stored on a domain that Google hosts for me.  It was pretty simple to get the information setup to pull this data down to the phone and be up and running in a few minutes.  This of course was also my only issue with the phone since the contacts stored on the "cloud" didn't have a way to have custom ringtones set for them.  But again, as I said earlier, I have been able to always find a solution on Android.  I guess that will make for a series of additional posts about apps I have running on my phone like Ringo Lite (set custom ringtones) and others that I have found.

Disabling Norton 360 Backup

I use Norton 360 and everything that it does it does well. However, I don't use the backup feature. It took me forever to figure out how to turn this feature off. I had to Google how to turn this off. Once off, no more complaints from Norton 360 that I wasn't doing a backup! Woo Hoo!

The really simple solution: Click on the round backup restore section of the main Norton 360 window.

Once the backup and restore icon is clicked you will find an option to disable backup and restore.

Lotus Domino - Deleting a User from your system

To remove a user from your system is a multi-step process.  It is more than simply removing the entry in the public address book.  There are mail files and security lists that must be removed and changed on the system.  The “adminp” process will be used to make all of this happen.  These instructions will also tell you how to expedite the process.  Under normal circumstances, this process could take a day or more depending on the number of servers in the environment and the amount of databases to be processed.

Using the Domino Administrator client, open the People & Groups tab.  Find and select the person you want to delete.  Click on the “delete person” button.  You will be asked to verify that you wish to delete the person you selected.  If you are sure, click on yes otherwise click on no.  You will then go through a series of prompts about deleting mails files and adding the user name to groups.  When deleting the mail file you will have the following options:

• Don’t delete mail file.  This will leave the file on the server.
• Delete just the mail file specified in the Person record.  This will remove just the mail file specified in the Person record from the server.
• Delete just the mail file specified in the Person record and all replicas.  This will remove the mail file specified in the person document and any replicas of that file that may be on other servers.

You then have the option of adding the user to a group, usually a Deny Access group.  This group is typically added to your databases as a precaution to exclude specifically those users within that list from using that database.
You should then be presented with another dialog box with three options for the final deletion.  This is the last step at which you can cancel out by selecting the cancel button.  If you are certain that you wish to delete this user, then select then select “No” from your dialog.  By selecting “no”, this will submit the delete as a request to the Administrative Requests database.  While the option “yes” says it will immediately process the request, it may take some time and may not process properly across a multi-server environment.
Multiple entries will be made to the Administrative Requests database for your request to delete this person.  You need to “push” these requests through the system now.  Open the Domino console either by using the administrative client or by going to the Domino server.  At the console, issue “tell adminp process all” and press enter.  This will tell the administrative process to process all requests.  Depending on the amount of requests on your server, this process may take some time to complete. 
From your administrative client, open the Administrative Requests database (admin4.nsf).  On the left side, select the view “Pending Administrator Approval” to see a list of requests that require approval.  The deletion of a file on the server must be approved.  Open and edit the request to delete the mail file for the person you requested to delete.  You will have an “approve” and “disapprove” button.  Select the “approve” button to delete the mail file and continue processing. Return to the console and issue “tell adminp process all” followed by the enter key again.  This will start the processing of your requests.  During this processing, the address book entry is deleted, the mail file is delete, entries in Access Control Lists are updated, and Reader/Author fields entries are updated.  If you have multiple servers, these changes are replicated out to your servers and processed also.