Spanky's Place

Posted by Devin Olson At 17:07:12 Location Cascade Township, MI | Permalink | Comments (6)

This pretty much speaks for itself.

Posted by Devin Olson At 20:02:11 Location Cascade Township, MI | Permalink | Comments (2)

Just having a little fun with the MarvelClient Skinning Edition for IBM Lotus Notes.

Posted by Devin Olson At 19:33:12 Location Cascade Township, MI | Permalink | Comments (2)

Florian Vogler published the MarvelClient Skinning Edition for IBM Lotus Notes the other day. I just saw it today, and thought "Self, this needs a Bleed Yellow skin!"

So went ahead and created one. While I was at it, I created several.

These are by no means "official" Bleed Yellow skins, they are just something I threw together during lunch (using MS Paint no less).

I've posted them to my downloads area.

Enjoy.

Posted by Devin Olson At 00:00:00 Location Cascade Township, MI | Permalink | Comments (0)

reason #326 why I moved away from the city

How many people are lucky enough to truly love their work?
Or to have an office like this?

Sometimes I like to take a moment and thank God for my wonderful life.

Posted by Devin Olson At 13:16:22 Location Cascade Township, MI | Permalink | Comments (6)

Does the fact that I find this absolutely hilarious mean I'm a bad person?

Posted by Devin Olson At 18:13:55 Location Cascade Township, MI | Permalink | Comments (3)

Got this in my morning email, and just had to share.

A Japanese company ( TOYOTA ) and an American company ( Ford ) decided to have a canoe race on the Missouri River . Both teams practiced long and hard to reach their peak performance before the race.

On the big day, the Japanese won by a mile.

The Americans, very discouraged and depressed, decided to investigate the reason for the crushing defeat. A management team made up of senior management was formed to investigate and recommend appropriate action.

Their conclusion was the Japanese had 8 people rowing and 1 person steering, while the American team had 8 people steering and 1 person rowing.

Feeling a deeper study was in order, American management hired a consulting company and paid them a large amount of money for a second opinion.

The consultants told them, of course, that too many people were steering the boat, while not enough people were rowing.

Not sure of how to utilize that information, but wanting to prevent another loss to the Japanese, the rowing team's management structure was totally reorganized to 4 steering supervisors, 3 area steering superintendents, and 1 assistant superintendent steering manager.

They also implemented a new performance system that would give the 1 person rowing the boat greater incentive to work harder. It was called the 'Rowing Team Quality First Program,' with meetings, dinners, and free pens for the rower. There was discussion of getting new paddles, canoes, and other equipment, extra vacation days for practices and bonuses.

The next year the Japanese won by two miles.

Humiliated, the American management laid off the rower for poor performance, halted development of a new canoe, sold the paddles, and canceled all capital investments for new equipment. The money saved was distributed to the Senior Executives as bonuses and the next year's racing team was out-sourced to India

Posted by Devin Olson At 19:01:32 Location Cascade Township, MI | Permalink | Comments (2)

Wherein I present the solution to an R7 conundrum

After a flurry of Yellow Bleeder chats and phone calls following yesterdays post, the true issue, and it's solution, have become apparent.

The issue is An LotusScript Class cannot be directly surfaced through an R7 Web Service running on a server. The class can however, be surfaced when the web service is running on a client machine.

This subtle difference is an important one, in that it can sneak up on an unwary developer and bring his or her work to a grinding halt. The reason is fairly simple. When you create a Web Service, you must define the Port Type class for the Web Service. The Port Type class is used as the basis for the WSDL generated by the service. If the method signatures of the Port Type class are changed in any way, the WSDL must be re-generated in order to incorporate the change(s).

When a developer is working on a Notes / Domino Web Service, the developer is using the Notes Designer client. When testing the Web Service on the local machine, the Designer Client will automatically regenerate the WSDL for the Web Service.

When testing the Web Service on a server, this regeneration never occurs. Which means that the Web Service attempting to surface a Port Type class defined in a LotusScript library breaks, without throwing any internal errors (ouch). The only error information available is passed back to the invoking client (the code attempting to connect to the Web Service), and is similar to this:

Luckily, the solution is ridiculously simple.

Posted by Devin Olson At 13:25:53 Location Cascade Township, MI | Permalink | Comments (5)

I feel like I'm missing something really simple, but I can't seem to figure this out.

Web service is unable to create LotusScript object.

LotusScript Class defined in Script Library cannot be created by a web service when running on a server.

Updated: Solution here!

Posted by Devin Olson At 19:17:47 Location Cascade Township, MI | Permalink | Comments (0)

9:20AM, PST Bah! I've been at a client site for the last week here in Reno. I'm going to be on-site next week as well. Travel costs (and PIA factors) being what they are, I decided to simply stay over the weekend. My brother and his wife live in Turlock, CA, which is about a 3-4 hour drive from Reno. So I figured I'd get up early this morning, check out of my hotel, and drive over the mountain (I-80 Donner Pass) to spend the weekend with them. I'd get to visit with them, and I'd save my company some $$ on air-fare/hotel costs. Double bonus.

...Or so I thought...

My plan started out well; in that I got up early, showered, packed, and checked out of my hotel. I gassed up the rental car, stopped by Denny's and picked up some breakfast to go, and headed out of town. That was some 3 hours ago.

In my haste/excitement to go visit my brother, I neglected to check the weather. Mother Nature, it seems, has decided I shall not visit this weekend. Interstate 80 through Donner Pass (so named for the tragic events that befell the Donner Party) is now closed due to heavy snowfall, unless of course you have chains or a 4x4 with snow tires. Which I do not. The southern route, which goes through Carson City and then west just south of Lake Tahoe, is under similar restrictions.

So I have returned to Reno, where I shall spend the weekend. I can't check in to my hotel until 3 PM. So I'm cooling my heels in this bar for now. At least I can get some work done while enjoying a Bloody Maria (heavy on the Tabasco). Nathan has issued a developer's challenge (employees only), which I intend to win. I'm not sure if the tomato juice / tequila "energy drink" which I have beside me will help or hurt my mad coding skilz; but I intend to find out.

If you've never been in a casino at 9 AM on a Saturday morning; it is an experience worth having. You get a whole different class of people at this time of day. Weary, bleary eyed, fueled by mixture caffeine, alcohol, and left over adrenaline; these folks are serious, die-hard gamblers. Non heavy hitters, the cast-offs and remnants of late evening revelry. Blue-grey cigarette smoke wafts about in a lazy haze above a nearby Baccarat table, at which are seated four middle-aged Asian gentlemen along with two battle worn, not-quite middle-aged professional ladies in heavy make-up and sequined halter tops which reveal a bit too much of both body and intentions. These are not people whom time or society forgot; rather they have forgotten time and society. There are no clocks in casinos, these people are the reason.

Whoah. Sorry about that. I think I'm starting to channel Hunter S. Thompson. On top of which I just remembered that sitting in the back of my rental car is the growler gift set of Ichthyosaur IPA I purchased the other night at Great Basin Brewery for my brother and his wife. Which I cannot deliver because I'm stuck here in Reno.

Posted by Devin Olson At 16:12:38 Location Danny's Bar, Harrah's Casino, Reno, NV | Permalink | Comments (2)