ok this is a quick one, if you are getting that fun fun fun error message of “The TCP/IP protocol stack reported that it ran out of memory. Consult your network documentation to increase configured memory, or reduce Notes connections by limiting clients (see SERVER_MAXSESSIONS parameter in Notes Admin Guide”, and you have run out of options or are pretty sure its not your domino server,

try “netstat -B” (on Windows XP SP2 and Windows Server 2003 SP1), it shows the exe’s that are making the connections on the box, what you are looking for is a load of connections that don’t come from any notes related task (you will need a few pages of the same one/two to have any effect), you can then pipe this out to a file, hold it up high and hunt down the swine’s responsible for upsetting your server

Now i would not have blogged on this but i have been advised to do so, i had a long suffering pair of giant Sennheiser headphones which i loved, however due to me treading on them and the fact they are a legacy from a former person in my life, i really wanted a new pair for xmas, the love of my life tried a couple of companies but they both failed her miserably, so with time running out i did a quick google search, up came http://www.hifiheadphones.co.uk/, a clean easy website with very clear postal descriptions and times (somewhat important in the run up to xmas), but also a prominent 0800 advice phone number (note to the US reader that a 0800 number is toll free in the UK), thinking i had nothing to waste trying it, i phoned them up, i was quickly answered by a bloke whom i explained my problem to and said i needed a replacement to my old “280’s”, he immediately knew what i was talking about, and presented me with a number of choices and which would be best for which circumstances (including money saving tips on based on performance rather than looks), after the most pleasant 5 minutes of informative customer service i can remember, i told my love what he advised and she dully ordered them from him, they arrived dead on time (even after some credit card fun due to the normal address joys caused by the bank)…the headphones have turned out perfect

People talk a lot about customer service, and competent staff, but its only after you experience them done properly, that you realise everyone else is being rubbish.

Some of you may have heard of Cognos (version 8), its one of IBM’s business planning bits of software that always get managers more excited than is good for an English gentleman, but for the rest of us it means one thing, reports… wo wo woohhhh, stay!!!, don’t shut down the site yet, i know you have had it up to your nostril hairs with reports but that’s not what I’m on about, I’m just going to share the pain (and eventual joy), of getting it all working in domino, so that your managers/clients can get reports off a congnos server cleanly and see them in domino, through one web service port. so here we go.

firstly, cognos is a chunk of java working on an apache box, regardless of the fact you might think its working on IIS, its reached by port 9300 (by default),

I know this sounds dumb, but I’m just going to stuff the code in with a heap load of comments in it, the reason for this is i spend ages searching the net for help with cognos stuff and other than cognoses own HEAVILY protected site (cor! don’t they want you to hire a congnos consultant), there’s is only one free support site, so i want to make it as google friendly as possible., also this code depends on you having the cognos SDK (which as far as I’m aware costs about $10000), I’m pretty sure that if i put the necessary cognos jar files from the SDK up here i would be sued to within an inch of my life, but in case you have it they are: axisCognosClient.jar, cognos-axis.jar, cognosClient.jar, axisReportNetClient.jar) anyway, click on the attachment link to get the code (its too long to just paste into blogshpere)

Im sorry that there is so little on this blog recently that is either Lotus or fencing orientated, but there are so many other interesting things going on, the one that caught my attention today was a book called “The Pictures and Diary of a Wartime Artist”, its a fabulous book, giving a never seen before view of WW1,
but the bit that makes is pertinent to this blog is the fact that not only is it available in ebook only (at http://www.greatwarartist.com/ ), but that this is not made obvious in the reviews in the newspapers or on the radio, a first i think for the UK, i certainly cant recall a ebook being reviewed on the quality of its content rather than the fact its E-book format only.
On a tech side note, the ebook format they use, works fine in all browsers (its flash based) but the off-line version only works on windows (not even on my vmware machine), and the printing is limited to 15 pages at a given time, but after 10mins savaging, i have a full size standard pdf that work everywhere (even on the Sony Ebook and kindle), again DRM proves pointless and just irritates. (shrug)

Being the dirty traitor i am, i have spent the day coding ASP web sites (Microsoft Visual Developer 2008 free version), i know, i know, but yah got to earn a living, i have to say that Microsoft basic methodology and layout style have not changed (its been 3 years since i last did .Net stuff), and quite frankly that’s a good thing, im reskinning someone else’s site, so i don’t get to take advantage of the famous Microsoft wizards, but one thing i have noticed, Microsoft development environment still throws the same hissy fit when you step out the box and start fiddling, it is however very very polished and give you a good reminder of why it so popular.

Nearer home, the Domino Beta 2 client on Linux has improved in both speed and functions (we now have spell checker back, along with some strange graphical glitches), Soooo want the Dev client.