An experiment in the world of Blogging ... http://blog.steveseymour.com/steves/blogv4.nsf en-us Sat, 24 Mar 2012 12:02:41 +0100 Sat, 24 Mar 2012 12:02:41 +0100 http://blog.steveseymour.com/steves/blogv4.nsf/dx/fantastic-customer-service-from-amazon.htm amazon Steve Seymour http://blog.steveseymour.com/steves/blogv4.nsf/dx/fantastic-customer-service-from-amazon.htm?opendocument&comments http://blog.steveseymour.com/steves/blogv4.nsf/dx/fantastic-customer-service-from-amazon.htm
Back in August 2011 I bought an Amazon Kindle 3G which has become one of the most frequently used gadgets I own. I love to read and whilst the iPad is a great device, it didn't work for me as my regular reading device due to the screen brightness, the weight etc. As I had already been using the Kindle App to consume media on various devices I decided to bite the bullet and buy a Kindle device. After collecting together various offers, vouchers and taking advantage of family discounts etc, I bought the 3G version for essentially the price of the WiFi version - fantastic.

I decided that I liked the size and feel of the Kindle without the additional bulk of a case around it - so simply purchased a neoprene sleeve to store it in when not in use. This is perhaps where I made a mistake. A few weeks back I was carrying my Kindle in the house when it slipped out of my hand and landed on a single corner on the hard kitchen floor. When I picked it up and turned the Kindle on, I was frustrated to see the top half of the screen go completely black and therefore unusable. Feeling very frustrated at my clumsyness, I assumed I'd be spending out for a new device. Given my library of 57 books to date on the Kindle - I knew I'd want a replacement.

This is where the great experience started. I found the 'Contact Amazon' page within my Kindle account, followed the couple of questions regarding a fault on the device and ended up at the conclusion of "Speak to Customer Service" There was a button for Amazon to call me now or in a few minutes which I clicked and my phone rang 30 seconds later. As I was logged in to Amazon at the time, there was no need to go through detailed security validation on the phone which started the call very smoothly. Cris (the Amazon rep) simply asked - Mr Seymour, How can I help.

To be completely honest, at this moment I was trying to decide how "creative" I could be when describing the fault to see what options I had for a replacement at perhaps a discounted price. The "damage" was clearly my fault and not a manufacturers gaurantee issue etc etc. In the end, I voted for honesty being the policy and just told Cris what had happened and asked what options I had to order a replacement. To my surprise, after a few questions to do with the height from which I had dropped it, was it in a case etc - Cris said to me "No problem Mr Seymour, I'm going to arrange for a replacement device to be shipped out to you Free of Charge" I wasn't quite sure I had heard her correctly. Amazon were going to ship me a replacement device (at their cost), pre-configure it for my account (their effort), arrange collection of my damaged device (at their cost) and simply turn an accident of my own making into a really great experience.  

Sure enough, 48hr later, I had a new Kindle, I was back reading the same books I had been a week before and my damaged device had been collected by Yodel and was on it's way back to Amazon. I was kept informed via email every step of the way and I was sure to click the "Good feedback" button on the emails!

My business and technology mind assumes that when my call was put through to Cris, she could see my spending history with Amazon, the fact I've been a long time customer, the fact I'm clearly investing in eBooks on the Kindle. This data could all have been pulled together on her screen proposing an action plan for dealing with me. Based on the outcome, I'd assume it said something like "Do your best to retain this customer up to X value of goods/repairs/discount etc if necessary". This "Customer Insight" is one of the technology areas that we discuss with our customers at Portal

Whether Amazon had profiled me like this or not - my experience was excellent and I remain a happy Amazon Customer. Well done Mr Bezos, and perhaps more importantly, well done Cris. ]]> http://blog.steveseymour.com/steves/blogv4.nsf/dxcomments/fantastic-customer-service-from-amazon.htm http://blog.steveseymour.com/steves/blogv4.nsf/dx/fantastic-customer-service-from-amazon.htm?opendocument&comments Sun, 12 Jun 2011 19:08:53 +0100 http://blog.steveseymour.com/steves/blogv4.nsf/dx/creating-a-homepage-on-bes-5-blackberry-enterprise-server.htm bes blackberry rim kbos Steve Seymour http://blog.steveseymour.com/steves/blogv4.nsf/dx/creating-a-homepage-on-bes-5-blackberry-enterprise-server.htm?opendocument&comments http://blog.steveseymour.com/steves/blogv4.nsf/dx/creating-a-homepage-on-bes-5-blackberry-enterprise-server.htm All run under SSL on your BES server but no "homepage" is create on the https://mybes.company.com URL.

I wanted to just add a homepage on this URL with links to the 3 other services and I traced the most appropriate location for the "index.html" to be here -

C:\BlackBerry Enterprise Server\BAS\jboss\ejb\server\default\deploy\jboss-web.deployer\ROOT.war\index.html

]]> http://blog.steveseymour.com/steves/blogv4.nsf/dxcomments/creating-a-homepage-on-bes-5-blackberry-enterprise-server.htm http://blog.steveseymour.com/steves/blogv4.nsf/dx/creating-a-homepage-on-bes-5-blackberry-enterprise-server.htm?opendocument&comments Mon, 25 Oct 2010 07:48:24 +0100 http://blog.steveseymour.com/steves/blogv4.nsf/dx/back-from-malawi.htm Travel Steve Seymour http://blog.steveseymour.com/steves/blogv4.nsf/dx/back-from-malawi.htm?opendocument&comments http://blog.steveseymour.com/steves/blogv4.nsf/dx/back-from-malawi.htm
Many people were kind enough to make a donation via our JustGiving page (http://www.justgiving.com/malawi2010) So far we have raised £4666 and the minimum we needed for our project was £3900 - so thank you to everyone who donated. The additional money raised goes to the Joshua charity, who will divide it between buying additional resources for the feeding centre and sponsorship for children to go to school (which costs around £75 per year). We would also like to thank everyone who donated books, toys, pens, pencils etc These items got handed over to the schools and feeding centre on our last day.

We lived and worked within the small rural village of Khola, about 10km outside of Blantyre in southern Malawi. Khola has had no help from a charity project before, so the community were very happy to see us. Our aim was to build a kitchen block and two long drop toilets to compliment the Orphan feeding centre. In the dry seasons, the ladies cook for the orphans on fires outside however in the rainy season this is impossible, as is keeping the maize dry. The kitchen will enable them to cook all year round and store ingredients away from the elements.

We all learnt new building skills, brick laying, plastering & pointing "African style" and we also spent time redecorating the interior of the feeding centre so that the volunteers that run it now have the Alphabet, Numbers, Colours etc painted on the walls to help teach the kids. All of the children know their alphabet and numbers parrot fashion, but now they can be shown what they actually look like.

Our team worked in partnership with Joshua Orphan and Community Care (http://www.joshuainmalawi.org.uk) who work in 19 villages around Blantyre supporting the feeding centres and clinics. We worked closely with the local community and made some good friends. The children were great - most under the age of 5 and we also spent time with the youth group. Whilst the village was fairly poor, the most needy were the children at the feeding centre for whom the one meal provided could be the only meal they got for the day. All of the community support this and there is a great feeling of everyone looking after each other. Older brothers and sisters (age 5) carrying around siblings on their back (age 2 or 3) and really looking out for each other.

We completed our project on time and celebrated with the locals at a handover ceremony. You can see a selection of my photos from the trip at http://photos.steveseymour.com/Travel/Malawi2010/14226761_GtH6o

More details of the project and what we did can be found on our main website at http://www.malawi2010.com and any further donations are always welcome. If you would like to know more, please get in touch. ]]> http://blog.steveseymour.com/steves/blogv4.nsf/dxcomments/back-from-malawi.htm http://blog.steveseymour.com/steves/blogv4.nsf/dx/back-from-malawi.htm?opendocument&comments Tue, 25 Sep 2007 23:09:38 +0100 http://blog.steveseymour.com/steves/blogv4.nsf/dx/photos-from-sweeden.htm Steve Seymour http://blog.steveseymour.com/steves/blogv4.nsf/dx/photos-from-sweeden.htm?opendocument&comments http://blog.steveseymour.com/steves/blogv4.nsf/dx/photos-from-sweeden.htm Fantastic week, very memorable - good people to be away with.

My Photos are here : http://photos.steveseymour.com/sweeden1
Other Photos are here : http://photos.steveseymour.com/sweeden2 ]]> http://blog.steveseymour.com/steves/blogv4.nsf/dxcomments/photos-from-sweeden.htm http://blog.steveseymour.com/steves/blogv4.nsf/dx/photos-from-sweeden.htm?opendocument&comments Sat, 7 Jul 2007 20:01:19 +0100 http://blog.steveseymour.com/steves/blogv4.nsf/dx/t-mobile-web-n-walk-3g-unlimited-for-1-a-day.htm Steve Seymour http://blog.steveseymour.com/steves/blogv4.nsf/dx/t-mobile-web-n-walk-3g-unlimited-for-1-a-day.htm?opendocument&comments http://blog.steveseymour.com/steves/blogv4.nsf/dx/t-mobile-web-n-walk-3g-unlimited-for-1-a-day.htm
T-Mobile recently announced their Web-n-Walk service which is their data offering. Its available to add onto a monthly account or on it's own for £30 per month - unlimited (well, 3GB on the Plus service or 10GB on the max service which is £44 per month). However, I don't want to be come a T-Mobile customer with a monthly fee. They also have a Pay as you Go (PAYG) offering where Web-n-Walk data is enabled by default. The key thing is there is a maximum charge of £1 per day. T's & C's say you should only use it in a phone (not in a laptop etc) and the limit is 40MB per day - measured monthly. Thats still 1.2GB per month. Not too bad .... Also, PAYG requirements are to make a call or use a service every 180 days to keep the SIM active.

So, I sent off for a SIM card (all of 50p) via the web, added £5 of credit and put the SIM in my o2 data card. Created a new profile to use the APN name "general.t-mobile.co.uk" - no Authentication, and it connected first time. I only had 1 bar of coverage on 3G at home however the download speeds were very impressive! I shall continue to try it out over the next few weeks instead of my o2 card - perhaps it may end up worth taking out a monthly contract if it continues to perform well. ]]> http://blog.steveseymour.com/steves/blogv4.nsf/dxcomments/t-mobile-web-n-walk-3g-unlimited-for-1-a-day.htm http://blog.steveseymour.com/steves/blogv4.nsf/dx/t-mobile-web-n-walk-3g-unlimited-for-1-a-day.htm?opendocument&comments Fri, 29 Jun 2007 13:00:00 +0100 http://blog.steveseymour.com/steves/blogv4.nsf/dx/supplier-of-16a-c-form--commando-cables-and-connectors.htm Steve Seymour http://blog.steveseymour.com/steves/blogv4.nsf/dx/supplier-of-16a-c-form--commando-cables-and-connectors.htm?opendocument&comments http://blog.steveseymour.com/steves/blogv4.nsf/dx/supplier-of-16a-c-form--commando-cables-and-connectors.htm RS were ridiculously expensive for these and therefore I did some searching on the web to find an alternative.
The company I ended up using who charged very reasonable prices was "Essential Supplies" - on the web at http://www.essentialsupplies.co.uk/
The 16 Amp commando range of adaptors I used were - http://www.essentialsupplies.co.uk/acatalog/Online_Catalogue_16A_Adaptors_93.html ]]> http://blog.steveseymour.com/steves/blogv4.nsf/dxcomments/supplier-of-16a-c-form--commando-cables-and-connectors.htm http://blog.steveseymour.com/steves/blogv4.nsf/dx/supplier-of-16a-c-form--commando-cables-and-connectors.htm?opendocument&comments Wed, 20 Jun 2007 11:00:00 +0100 http://blog.steveseymour.com/steves/blogv4.nsf/dx/vpn-access-using-pptp-from-a-t-mobile-hotspot.htm Work Steve Seymour http://blog.steveseymour.com/steves/blogv4.nsf/dx/vpn-access-using-pptp-from-a-t-mobile-hotspot.htm?opendocument&comments http://blog.steveseymour.com/steves/blogv4.nsf/dx/vpn-access-using-pptp-from-a-t-mobile-hotspot.htm Maximum Transmission Unit - MTU")

MTU within windows can be manipulated for LAN Interfaces fairly easily - this quite often has to happen for ADSL Broadband connections etc - see Google.

However, manipulating this for PPTP VPN connections was slightly more tricky to work out however a big of searching found the details. The registry key requiring modification is :
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\NdisWan\Parameters\Protocols\0]
"TunnelMTU"=dword:000004b0
"ProtocolType"=dword:00000800
"PPPProtocolType"=dword:00000021

Full details at : http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;826159&Product=winxp

I found an MTU of 576 (decimal) was what was needed for PPTP at T-Mobile hotspots. I then also found a reference to this at "The Air Source" (although in relation to Linux configuration)

Attached is a .reg file that creates the above key and sets the MTU to 576. ]]> http://blog.steveseymour.com/steves/blogv4.nsf/dxcomments/vpn-access-using-pptp-from-a-t-mobile-hotspot.htm http://blog.steveseymour.com/steves/blogv4.nsf/dx/vpn-access-using-pptp-from-a-t-mobile-hotspot.htm?opendocument&comments Wed, 28 Mar 2007 14:35:31 +0100 http://blog.steveseymour.com/steves/blogv4.nsf/dx/ibm-keyboard-customiser.htm Steve Seymour http://blog.steveseymour.com/steves/blogv4.nsf/dx/ibm-keyboard-customiser.htm?opendocument&comments http://blog.steveseymour.com/steves/blogv4.nsf/dx/ibm-keyboard-customiser.htm
This package provides ThinkPad Keyboard Customizer Utility for Microsoft Windows 2000 and Microsoft Windows XP users.
ThinkPad Keyboard Customizer Utility enables predefined assignments for:
- A Windows key and an Application key on the ThinkPad keyboard.
- Audio volume control buttons, mute button, ThinkPad button/Access IBM button, Suspend/Hibernate, Wireless Radio Control, EasyEject, Full Screen Magnifier, and Presentation Director on the external keyboard.

http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site.wss/document.do?sitestyle=lenovo&lndocid=MIGR-44185  ]]> http://blog.steveseymour.com/steves/blogv4.nsf/dxcomments/ibm-keyboard-customiser.htm http://blog.steveseymour.com/steves/blogv4.nsf/dx/ibm-keyboard-customiser.htm?opendocument&comments Mon, 26 Mar 2007 21:15:00 +0100 http://blog.steveseymour.com/steves/blogv4.nsf/dx/coax-crimps-and-f-type-tooling-suppliers.htm Personal Steve Seymour http://blog.steveseymour.com/steves/blogv4.nsf/dx/coax-crimps-and-f-type-tooling-suppliers.htm?opendocument&comments http://blog.steveseymour.com/steves/blogv4.nsf/dx/coax-crimps-and-f-type-tooling-suppliers.htm 1. Quality coax cable
2. F-Type crimp connectors (F-Type make a much better connection than normal arial connectors)
3. Crimp Tool
4. Cable Stripper

RS Components had most of the bits but seemed very expensive but a little more digging found me -

http://www.tvaerials.com
where I bought ...

1	Black Clips
20	CRIMP "F" Connector
1	PROception Screened Outdoor 2 Way Splitter
1	Webro 100m WF100 Black Coax Cable

and ... http://www.dataconnectsolutions.com
where I bought ...

Order Inventory:
Product: F-Crimper for RG6/59 and CT100
Product Code: DCS-106H Price: £7.65

Product: Coaxial Cable Stripper RG6/59
Product Code: DCS-312A Price: £3.75

Product: F-Connector Termination Aid
Product Code: DCS-224D Price: £2.00

All the things I needed to sort out my cabling! (The Termination Aid is a fantastic tool!) ]]> http://blog.steveseymour.com/steves/blogv4.nsf/dxcomments/coax-crimps-and-f-type-tooling-suppliers.htm http://blog.steveseymour.com/steves/blogv4.nsf/dx/coax-crimps-and-f-type-tooling-suppliers.htm?opendocument&comments Mon, 26 Mar 2007 21:10:02 +0100 http://blog.steveseymour.com/steves/blogv4.nsf/dx/plumber-in-harefield.htm Personal Steve Seymour http://blog.steveseymour.com/steves/blogv4.nsf/dx/plumber-in-harefield.htm?opendocument&comments http://blog.steveseymour.com/steves/blogv4.nsf/dx/plumber-in-harefield.htm
However, we were passed a tip by my mum who had seen a van driving around locally with signage for "www.oddjobmen.com".  My first thought was - I hope their work is better than their website!
I gave them a call on 020 8428 0557 and they said they could pop around the next day. After checking out the requirements, getting the parts and coming back the next day they got the job done brilliantly. They have even popped back and re-sealed a tap that we were a bit worried was damp/leaking. Great service and thoroughly recommended.

They are based in watford and seem happy to cover Harefield, Northwood, Ruislip etc. They also do a lot more than just plumbing so give them a call. ]]> http://blog.steveseymour.com/steves/blogv4.nsf/dxcomments/plumber-in-harefield.htm http://blog.steveseymour.com/steves/blogv4.nsf/dx/plumber-in-harefield.htm?opendocument&comments Sat, 17 Mar 2007 18:33:35 +0100 http://blog.steveseymour.com/steves/blogv4.nsf/dx/vmware-esx-3.0.1-on-ibm-blade-hs20-8843.htm Steve Seymour http://blog.steveseymour.com/steves/blogv4.nsf/dx/vmware-esx-3.0.1-on-ibm-blade-hs20-8843.htm?opendocument&comments http://blog.steveseymour.com/steves/blogv4.nsf/dx/vmware-esx-3.0.1-on-ibm-blade-hs20-8843.htm
The reason for writing this down ... Ive been struggling with it all week! ... and I don't want someone else to have the same problems. Im very familiar with VMWare - including the ESX range having installed it multiple times in various situations ... however, never on a IBM BladeCenter.

After various aborted attempts to complete this install, this is the final set of working steps. The biggest problem I had until now was that the ESX Install could see the SAN Space but NOT the local mirror - even though it had the correct driver etc.

1. Use the latest version of ESX - in my case, 3.0.1 - rather than the 3.0 CD we had to hand
2. Ensure all Blade Center firmware is totally up to date - for the Chassis 8677 - http://www-304.ibm.com/jct01004c/systems/support/supportsite.wss/docdisplay?lndocid=MIGR-54597&brandind=5000020
3. Ensure all Blade Firmware - including the LSI controller are totally up to date
4. Login to your Fibre Channel Switches and DISABLE the ports for the blade you are working on - remember to do both switch modules!
5. Use the ESX CD (real CD - not ISO otherwise you will have to do some funky stuff to make the CD contents availbale via HTTP/FTP/NFS) and boot the install - I used graphical but it doesnt really matter.
6. Choose the LSI device to install on - I was happy to use the default layout
7. Reboot at the end of the install and install the license file, set the hostname, IP - other basic config settings.
8. Re-enable the Fibre ports for the blade
9. Follow the guide "Implementing VMware ESX Server 2.1 with IBM TotalStorage FAStT" (linked at the bottom) to provision a LUN on your SAN for VMWare. - Note - the doc is aimed at ESX 2.1 but the SAN config advice is still valid. (Key thing is setting the host type on the HBA's to be LNXCL)
10. Reboot the ESX Server
11. Load the VI Client, login, go to Configuration. Check Storage adaptors now show up the HBA's and the allocated LUN from the SAN (note - if you have dual path - it will show up twice - this is ok.
12. Now go to Storage, Add Storage, Disk/LUN ... your LUN from the SAN should show up, choose it and Next, Next through the setup. I would suggest naming the Storage something sensible to make it clear where and what it is. Also, rename the local storage. ]]> http://blog.steveseymour.com/steves/blogv4.nsf/dxcomments/vmware-esx-3.0.1-on-ibm-blade-hs20-8843.htm http://blog.steveseymour.com/steves/blogv4.nsf/dx/vmware-esx-3.0.1-on-ibm-blade-hs20-8843.htm?opendocument&comments Sat, 13 Jan 2007 23:59:00 -0400 http://blog.steveseymour.com/steves/blogv4.nsf/dx/florida-keys.htm Personal Steve Seymour http://blog.steveseymour.com/steves/blogv4.nsf/dx/florida-keys.htm?opendocument&comments http://blog.steveseymour.com/steves/blogv4.nsf/dx/florida-keys.htm Front Porch Cafe and drove off down to the keys. We stopped off at tonights accomodation - Island Bay Resort - to drop off luggage and take a break. What a fantastic little privately owned place. Its a set of small villa's each containing bed, bathroom and kitchen. Its directly off the US 1 (like most things on the keys!) Both Sue and I agreed it would be a great place to come back and stay at one day to do the rest of the Keys,

Our next stop along the keys was the Dolphin Research Center. At $19.50 (discount coupon on website) each, at first we weren't sure as it just looked like a single building just off US 1. However, once you go through the entrance, it opens up a little behind directly onto the sea. They have about 10 pens out in the sea containing a total of 19 dolphins - including 3 young calf's. There are regular sessions (training, play, feeding etc) which are all narated and unlike somewhere like SeaWorld, you are only a meter or so away from the Dolphins. The staff there were brilliant and we both felt that this was definitely a highlight of the trip. Especially seeing the young dolphins. The DRC is essentially a charity and they clearly care a lot about their work and the animals.

Now well into the afternoon, we jumped back in to the car to head down to Key West - the last of the Florida Keys. We took a walk to watch the (rather cloudy) Sunset from Mallory Square then walked down to the Southern most point - apparently closer to Cuba (90 miles) than to the Florida mainland. After a drink in Willie T's and dinner at Turtle Kraal's, we drove back to Island Bay resort at about midnight for a good nights sleep! Long day and lots of miles! ]]> http://blog.steveseymour.com/steves/blogv4.nsf/dxcomments/florida-keys.htm http://blog.steveseymour.com/steves/blogv4.nsf/dx/florida-keys.htm?opendocument&comments Sat, 13 Jan 2007 07:24:19 -0400 http://blog.steveseymour.com/steves/blogv4.nsf/dx/miamibeach.htm Steve Seymour http://blog.steveseymour.com/steves/blogv4.nsf/dx/miamibeach.htm?opendocument&comments http://blog.steveseymour.com/steves/blogv4.nsf/dx/miamibeach.htm Colony Hotel, one of the original Art Deco hotels of the area. Nice clean room although a little bit of a squeeze with 2 double futon style beds!

After a wander around South Beach and a visit down to the sea, we headed west away from the front to find some food. Nice mediteranean style restaurants were to be found down Espanola Way - we ate at an Italian called Hosteria Romana - Good food and friendly staff. Time for a bit more wandering and a few drinks on the front before calling it a night - I had got to the tired and clumsy stage, nearly knocking over my drinks!

Yesterday was spent exploring South Beach. After breakfast at the News Cafe, we started off exploring. We quickly found out that it was actually Art Deco weekend. An annual event put on by the Miami Design Preservation League. We were going to do a Walking tour with them anyway but as it was a special weekend, their timing was a little later than usual. Nowhere in advance had we found any mention of this weekend however it did explain the lots of small vendors tents that had started to appear along the front!. Before the tour, we wandered toward Lincoln Way Mall - the pedestrianised shopping Mall of the area. The Art Deco style continues in this area with large colourful sculptures and constructions. We did manage to discover the Apple Store - Art Deco Style :-). The tour was supposed to be 90 mins but in reality was 2 hours 20mins! Very informative and she managed to keep everyone's attention. It involved walking around the areas of South Beach and actually going into the lobby's of some of the hotels and buildings. Very impressive and we'd recommend the tour as a good way to get some of the understanding of the Art Deco style and era.

Given we only had the one full day in the area, we decided to jump in the car and drive over to Coral Gables and the Venetian Pool. Bit chilly but we did spent about 90 mins there enjoying the location and going for a swim! Next we headed over toward downtown Miami, parked the car and jumped on the MetroMover. This is a free train type service that links all the downtown Miami Areas and is an easy way to see some of the sights. Lots and lots of building sites and a few very impressive looking buildings. Think Canary Wharf but bigger :-).

We then drove back to the hotel to spend the evening enjoying the Art Deco Weekend Parade, the various stalls and a few bottles purchased from the Mini Market. After a quick burger at Jonny Rocket's, we met up with Adam and Collette for a few drinks then carried on back toward the hotel stopping along the way at another restaurant/bar that had a fantastic Live Sax player. Next stop, Florida Keys! ... ]]> http://blog.steveseymour.com/steves/blogv4.nsf/dxcomments/miamibeach.htm http://blog.steveseymour.com/steves/blogv4.nsf/dx/miamibeach.htm?opendocument&comments Tue, 31 Oct 2006 19:45:28 +0100 http://blog.steveseymour.com/steves/blogv4.nsf/dx/sametime-mobile-install-notes.htm Steve Seymour http://blog.steveseymour.com/steves/blogv4.nsf/dx/sametime-mobile-install-notes.htm?opendocument&comments http://blog.steveseymour.com/steves/blogv4.nsf/dx/sametime-mobile-install-notes.htm http://publibfp.boulder.ibm.com/epubs/pdf/32525851.pdf on page 21! They should have been in the install .... ]]> http://blog.steveseymour.com/steves/blogv4.nsf/dxcomments/sametime-mobile-install-notes.htm http://blog.steveseymour.com/steves/blogv4.nsf/dx/sametime-mobile-install-notes.htm?opendocument&comments Mon, 30 Oct 2006 18:42:49 +0100 http://blog.steveseymour.com/steves/blogv4.nsf/dx/sametime-7.5-cf1.htm Steve Seymour http://blog.steveseymour.com/steves/blogv4.nsf/dx/sametime-7.5-cf1.htm?opendocument&comments http://blog.steveseymour.com/steves/blogv4.nsf/dx/sametime-7.5-cf1.htm
About IBM Lotus Sametime 7.5 Cumulative Fix 1 (CF1)
http://www-1.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?rs=203&uid=swg21247738

Download IBM Lotus Sametime 7.5 Cumulative Fix Pack 1 (CF1)
http://www-1.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?rs=203&uid=swg24013814

Installing Lotus Sametime 7.5 Cumulative Fix Pack 1 (CF1)
http://www-1.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?rs=203&uid=swg21248016

Lotus Sametime 7.5 Cumulative Fix Pack 1 (CF1) - Fix List
http://www-10.lotus.com/ldd/stfixlist.nsf?OpenDatabase&Start=1&Count=30&Expand=1 ]]> http://blog.steveseymour.com/steves/blogv4.nsf/dxcomments/sametime-7.5-cf1.htm http://blog.steveseymour.com/steves/blogv4.nsf/dx/sametime-7.5-cf1.htm?opendocument&comments Tue, 17 Oct 2006 10:38:12 +0100 http://blog.steveseymour.com/steves/blogv4.nsf/dx/gopher-vs-bitch-....htm Work Steve Seymour http://blog.steveseymour.com/steves/blogv4.nsf/dx/gopher-vs-bitch-....htm?opendocument&comments http://blog.steveseymour.com/steves/blogv4.nsf/dx/gopher-vs-bitch-....htm ]]> http://blog.steveseymour.com/steves/blogv4.nsf/dxcomments/gopher-vs-bitch-....htm http://blog.steveseymour.com/steves/blogv4.nsf/dx/gopher-vs-bitch-....htm?opendocument&comments Fri, 25 Aug 2006 22:55:48 +0100 http://blog.steveseymour.com/steves/blogv4.nsf/dx/25082006225358SSETQG.htm Steve Seymour http://blog.steveseymour.com/steves/blogv4.nsf/dx/25082006225358SSETQG.htm?opendocument&comments http://blog.steveseymour.com/steves/blogv4.nsf/dx/25082006225358SSETQG.htm This link is to some good IBM TechNotes. ]]> http://blog.steveseymour.com/steves/blogv4.nsf/dxcomments/25082006225358SSETQG.htm http://blog.steveseymour.com/steves/blogv4.nsf/dx/25082006225358SSETQG.htm?opendocument&comments Sun, 2 Jul 2006 17:40:31 +0100 http://blog.steveseymour.com/steves/blogv4.nsf/dx/apache-single-sign-on-sso-with-cookies.htm Steve Seymour http://blog.steveseymour.com/steves/blogv4.nsf/dx/apache-single-sign-on-sso-with-cookies.htm?opendocument&comments http://blog.steveseymour.com/steves/blogv4.nsf/dx/apache-single-sign-on-sso-with-cookies.htm Whilst re-setting some company internal Web sites, I realised that whilst there are benefits of having them all on separate virtual hosts within Apache, what I really needed was an easy way to move between them without re-logging in. Within a Lotus Domino world, this is now fairly trivial with LTPA however there doesn't appear to be that many free solutions out there for Apache HTTP.

A little googling found me mod_auth_tkt (http://www.openfusion.com.au/labs/mod_auth_tkt/) - a version of which is attached in case the source vanishes. It took a little fiddling to get it working and the documentation is not amazingly verbose however once I worked it out, I have it sorted!.

In summary, when you access a virtualhost and directory, if AuthTKT is enabled it checks for a cookie containing an MD5 token. If it doesn't find it, all it does is redirect you to a specific login URL with ?back=http://xxxx on the end (to give the path back to the calling page)
The login url which can be anywhere - I have it on its own virtual host -  is a scrip which generates the MD5 token and puts it in a cookie. I modified the script slightly to take the current REMOTE_USER value and built it from that. This was then protected using normal basic authentication back to an LDAP directory within Apache. Now that you have a cookie, you are directed back to the original site which verifies the MD5 value and lets you back in. The key bit I found was setting the AuthTKTDomain value to be the domain eg "domain.com" therefore making it get presented to any site within the domain. This basically the way Domino SSO/LTPA works.

The trick to make any of this work is to actually look in the cgi and conf directories within the tar and from there pull out the configuration examples. The module itself compiled and installed with Apache 2.0.x absolutely fine.

Download : mod_auth_tkt-2.0.0rc1.tar.gz ]]> http://blog.steveseymour.com/steves/blogv4.nsf/dxcomments/apache-single-sign-on-sso-with-cookies.htm http://blog.steveseymour.com/steves/blogv4.nsf/dx/apache-single-sign-on-sso-with-cookies.htm?opendocument&comments Mon, 26 Jun 2006 21:46:18 +0100 http://blog.steveseymour.com/steves/blogv4.nsf/dx/technorati.htm Steve Seymour http://blog.steveseymour.com/steves/blogv4.nsf/dx/technorati.htm?opendocument&comments http://blog.steveseymour.com/steves/blogv4.nsf/dx/technorati.htm Today I subscribed to Technorati - this is my Technorati Profile ]]> http://blog.steveseymour.com/steves/blogv4.nsf/dxcomments/technorati.htm http://blog.steveseymour.com/steves/blogv4.nsf/dx/technorati.htm?opendocument&comments Thu, 8 Jun 2006 07:35:32 +0100 http://blog.steveseymour.com/steves/blogv4.nsf/dx/gprs-modem-using-the-blackberry-8700-on-o2.htm Steve Seymour http://blog.steveseymour.com/steves/blogv4.nsf/dx/gprs-modem-using-the-blackberry-8700-on-o2.htm?opendocument&comments http://blog.steveseymour.com/steves/blogv4.nsf/dx/gprs-modem-using-the-blackberry-8700-on-o2.htm
1. Contact your service provider (in my case o2) and ensure that the GRPS APN for pure internet access has been enabled on your SIM. With o2 this means requesting the "Mobile Web APN" to be added. (whilst you are at it, you might as well as the WAP APN if you don't already have it)

2. Install the Blackberry Desktop Software. We use a BES (Blackberry Enterprise Server) so I chose that option during the install. Shouldnt matter though.

3. When its finished, connect the Blackberry and check in device manager that it has found the device correctly. For me, it appeared under "Universal Serial Bus Devices" - "Blackberry Device" - however the driver was not correctly installed and I had a yellow exclamation mark. Should you need to fix this, Right click the device, Update Driver. Choose to get the Driver from a specific location and browse to : C:\Program Files\Common Files\Research In Motion\USB Drivers

4. Once installed, take a look in device manager under "Ports (COM & LPT)" to see if you have a "RIM Virtual Serial Port (COMxx)". If not, use the Add Hardware wizard in control panel, choose that you have already connected it and then scroll to the bottom to "Add a new Hardware Device". Choose to Install the Hardware Manually, Show all Devices, then click Have Disk. Browse to "C:\Program Files\Common Files\Research In Motion\Modem Drivers" and then click Next etc through to completion.

5. You now have a Device, and a Virtual Serial Port to talk to it. Now would be a good time to launch the Blackberry Manager and configure anything in it you need (For me, this was my notes ID, server in DNS format etc) It should connect to the device sucessfully etc.

6. Time to Add a Modem. Control Panel, Phone & Modem Options, Add a Modem, Don't Detect, Add Standard 336000 Modem (do not be tempted to use the 33600! I could not make it work!), Connected to Port COMxx (which should be the RIM Virtual Serial Port from above). Now select it from the list, click Properties, Diagnostics, Query Modem.

7. Now assuming the Blackberry Manager is running and you did all the above, there should be no errors and the bottom box should list a pile of commands and responses. Move to the Advanced tab and in the extra initialisation commands box enter :   +cgdcont=1,"IP","mobile.o2.co.uk"
This should be usable with other networks but change the mobile.o2.co.uk to your APN name.

8. Device, Serial Port, Modem .. now just need a connection. To to Start, Settings, Network Connections, Create New Connection, Connect to the Internet, Setup Connection Manually, Connect using Dialup Modem, Choose the Standard 56000 Modem from above, Name the connection, Phone number is *99#, username "user", password "password" (they dont actually matter) - suggest unticking "make this the default internet connection"

9. Now test it ... it should dial, connect and Robert's your Fathers Brother. If it doesnt work first time, disconnect the device, restart Blackberry Manager and connect again. Ensure the Manager shows the device as connected before trying to "dial up" again.

Hope thats useful to someone! ]]> http://blog.steveseymour.com/steves/blogv4.nsf/dxcomments/gprs-modem-using-the-blackberry-8700-on-o2.htm http://blog.steveseymour.com/steves/blogv4.nsf/dx/gprs-modem-using-the-blackberry-8700-on-o2.htm?opendocument&comments