Foundations DynamicDNS doesn't do everything...

The Dynamic DNS server included as part of the Lotus Foundations software does a good job of keeping your server visible to the world when your ISP randomly changes your IP address. Unfortunately, the DynamicDNS update process doesn't update everything...

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So if your email is still being delivered and is accessible via iNotes, but other types of access aren't working (Notes Designer client in this case) then check your Fast Forward settings.
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An IBM Call Center goof...

I've been working through a Lotus Foundations technical support issue with IBM over the last couple of weeks and my call has been bounced between call centers in Australia, India and Canada during that time. The Indian call center asked me to send them a server snapshot to assist them in understanding the problem and they also asked for remote access to my server. I don't have a problem with either of those requests and dutifully sent off the information. The Indian Call Center blew their credibility when they reviewed my server configuration and emailed me:

"I got following IP address eth0 192.168.0.1 and eth1 xx.xxx.xxx.xxx from snapshot. However unable to access LFS from both IP address. Please confirm correct IP address to access server remotely. "

I believe that people from India can be as smart and professional and technically adept as anyone else, but when a technician tries to remotely access a customer's systems using 192.168.0.1 then I think some basic network training is urgently needed.

BTW The Australian IBM Call Center was polite, professional and knew their stuff. They even assisted by sending me a CD by overnight courier when I admitted I'd already blown my 10gb internet cap for the month and couldn't download a required system update. My thanks to Graham Gill and Daniel Lui on the 127.0.0.1 Team.
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A question on formatting Text in XPages

I have an XPage and on that XPage is a table and within that Table is a Computed field containing the formula:

@DbLookup(@DbName(),"LKRegion","South","Area")+ "\n" +
@DbLookup(@DbName(),"LKRegion","South","Population")+ "\n" +
@DbLookup(@DbName(),"LKRegion","South","Value")

I'm getting out the values that I want, but the line spacing between those values is set too high - looks like 1.5 lines above and beneath each line. eg

170 sq km

470,000

>30 million

I would prefer to see it displayed as :

170 sq km
470,000
>30 million

In Notes I would go to the properties box and change the line spacing but I can't see how to do it in Xpages. I'm not using any Style sheets in this application and all of the style-related Margin/Padding/etc settings are on 'Auto'. Could some kind guru tell me where to find the line spacing setting or do I need to find a clever way to do it in Javascript?

It would also be good to change some of the text attributes depending on the calculated values eg change the 'Value' color to red if greater than $50 million.

170 sq km
470,000
>60 million

I could do it in Notes by preformatting the individual results and then using Lotusscript to concatenate them and then paste them into a Rich Text field, but I think it might be beyond Javascript.
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Microsoft DID warn you...

Naming their subsidiary 'Danger' was only a subtle hint, but the hint was there.

My last post highlighted the problem of maintaining a secure Cloud Computing environment in the face of easily guessed login names and general password apathy. Now Microsoft has had to admit that their cloud may not be as resilient as they hoped it was. One of their subsidiaries (aptly named 'Danger') has lost customer data. Note that this data is not just misplaced or waiting for a restore of backup tapes - it is no more, it has ceased to be, it has expired and gone on to meet its maker. It is ex-data.

If you were an IT Manager and you had just 'lost' some data, imagine explaining that situation to your boss. What are your chances of escaping this situation with just a formal apology and an offer to forgo your bonus for the quarter? Probably quite small, but I'm betting that's exactly what Microsoft/Danger will offer. A snail-mailed letter on good quality paper printed where-ever its cheapest and an offer of an additional three months service for free. But first you must manually re-enter all of your data into our system...

I was also interested to read of a potential problem where lost data can be retrieved, but because of a massive server farm breakdown (terrorist attack?) there is insufficient bandwidth to restore all of the data in a timely manner.

Am I the only one worried about this? Sometimes I feel like Private James Frazer from Dad's Army with his oft-repeated observation of "We're dooooomed". I see many advantages in Cloud Computing, but the whole thing is moving too fast and aiming too high for my liking. My advice? Make haste slowly with the cloud and keep on-site backups of everything.
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Is outsourced email fundamentally insecure?

How secure can you make a hosted service? I was reading about the recent Hotmail/Google username blunder and the thought struck me that the security model might be fundamentally flawed. After all, if they force the use of an email address as a login identity then you have automatically given away your login identity to everyone whom you have sent an email, and by extrapolation a hacker could figure out the login for most other employees in your company eg

'Let's see now... if "John Smith" becomes "jsmith@xyz.com" then his boss "Rita Rose" should be "rrose@xyz.com".'

The same article pointed out that around 40% of people had the same password for every website they used and when you consider that most people on that list had a very simple password then it shouldn't take too long for a dedicated hacker to get external web access to a couple of email accounts in your corporate system.

Am I missing something here or is this a time bomb waiting to explode in Google's face?
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Be careful displaying your Testimonials!

Uh oh... look out boys and girls... we now need to declare our Freebies and prove our Testimonials. The FTC has decided that bloggers need to declare all freebies associated with their reviews of products and to be more careful in displaying their Testimonials.

I think it's a good idea in principle but the Devil will be in the Detail. How are they going to enforce that US law on (say) an Australian citizen living in the UK publishing a blog on a Canadian website with the data hosted in China?
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Murphy must have heard me :(

Well, we were the second most livable country in the world until 2pm this afternoon when our Reserve Bank raised official interest rates to 3.25%. It's supposed to be a good sign that indicates Australia is coming out of recession but all I can see is the extra money I'll need to pay my mortgage each week.

It's interesting how Banks always take weeks and weeks to pass on a reduction in official interest rates but it'll probably only take them a day or two to pass on this increase in official rates.
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