Ubuntu was getting to feel quite familiar, and I was really liking running primarily open-source code over an open-source OS. But, alas, it was not meant to be. Not yet.

My laptop is a Toshiba Satellite A75. The display adapter is ATI Mobility Radeon 9000, which unfortunately is not compatible with Ubuntu 8.04. Earlier versions of Ubuntu gave me other problems (one challenge had been getting my internal wireless adapter to work with Ubuntu using WPA encryption, and Ubuntu 8.04 was now working flawlessly for my wireless access). So I was happily getting more and more applications and features working, loading all manner of open source solutions (and the Lotus Notes 8.5 beta!) configured. One of the final items was to test things like playing DVDs, viewing YouTube and other online videos, etc ...and that's when I hit a wall. There are many postings on the Ubuntu forums and elsewhere about the incompatibility of the ATI Radeon adapter with Ubuntu. Well, I am not a device driver writer, so I had to go back to Windows. sigh

On the bright side, I have a fairly clean install now, and am running almost all open source applications (Lotus Symphony for my office suite, Firefox browser, Pidgin chat, Twhirl for Twitter, GIMP for graphics, Avast antivirus, ZoneAlarm firewall, etc.). And to dress up the look a bit, I'm using the RKLauncher for a MAC-like toolbar at the bottom, a few Yahoo! widgits on the desktop, and I snagged a wallpaper image that makes me smile from gnome-look.org.

And now I wait. Waiting for Intrepid Ibex (Ubuntu 8.10), due in October 2008. Hopefully it will work with the ATI Radeon adapter ...or I'll find a pot of gold somewhere and buy a new machine :)

Well Ubuntu is starting to feel more like home :) ...This is my first post written from Notes 8.5 running on top of Ubuntu 8.04. This machine is now only running Ubuntu - no Microsoft Windows on the machine at all. And with Notes now installed ...running natively in Ubuntu ...I am smiling! Really the hard part was NOT getting Notes installed. The hard part for me was getting Java installed so that I could use the DownloadDirector (I wanted Java for other reasons as well, but this was the first real test of Java for me with Ubuntu and with Firefox).

And, I must say, even though I've got Open Office installed, the Symphony interface is looking pretty nice to me. It looks more intuitive than Open Office, so my hat's off to the IBM/Lotus folks for delivering a very nice user experience. Lots more for me to experiment with, but my goals for tonight are met, and it's past bedtime.

If you are reading this post, it means that Ubuntu 8.04 is humming along on my Toshiba laptop, Notes 8.5 is installed properly (a super easy install!), and replication with the Prominic server has worked ...and it should work, since Notes in Ubuntu is just like Notes in Windows ...but with an open source operating system. Very cool.

This is a contract to hire position at a large company here in Tampa. It is not the company where I work. I received an email from the recruiter and offered to post this. So, Notes geeks, if you're in the Tampa area and looking for a development gig, here you go. Please do not contact me with questions; please contact the recruiter (listed at bottom of the posting below)...

JOB POSTING:
Notes/Domino resource to design and develop existing applications, document existing processes and functions, and provide backup support. The Notes developer candidate will be part of significant development efforts to incorporate new migration related business requirements and enhancements to several Lotus Notes applications.

Candidate must be versatile with cross-platform development experience, dependable, available immediately, possess good time management, verbal and written communication skills.

* 60% development (LotusScript, @formula language, JavaScript, Java, VB.NET, C#)
* 20% Analysis and Design
* 20% Documentation and support

Specific Lotus Notes/Domino skills required:

• R5 and R6x or higher Notes Designer, Notes Client and Admin knowledge
• Familiarity with the Notes object model, specifically back-end and front-end classes
• Notes/Domino development in LotusScript, JavaScript, @formula language, Java
• Replication schedules and document locking
• Script libraries – must develop modular and reusable functions and sub procedures
• Scheduled agents (restricted and unrestricted agents)
• Notes/Domino administration, performance tuning and capacity planning
• Security and access control (ACL)
• Ability to programmatically import, export and transform data between systems
• Programmatic access to/from Notes via COM, OLE, OLEDB, LSX, LEI, DECS, Java/J2EE
• Template usage, customization and application deployment
• Search capabilities
• Archive strategy and design
• Navigators, framesets, outlines, subforms, other design elements
• XHTML and CSS

Non-Notes expertise also required:

• SDLC and project management capabilities– must be able to provide fairly accurate project delivery timeframes and estimates
• Strong documentation and communications skills - must be able to:
  • articulate/convert business requirements into functional specifications and
  • Clear and concise systems documentation and UML Use Cases
• Client/server, component-based or object-oriented dev. (VB, VB.NET, C#, Java, ASP)
• Relational database design and development (SQL, Oracle, MS Access)
• Software analysis and design special emphasis on design patterns and best practices
• Data/information modeling, application migration experience a big plus
• Business Process Improvement/BPM experience
• Client and web-based data Access/data transport using OLEDB/ODBC, AJAX
• Visual Basic, VBA (MS Access, MS Excel, MS Word) or VB.NET
• Conduct systems and unit testing, test script experience

The following skills and experience would be a plus:

• Microsoft Project and Microsoft Visio
• Microsoft Office Sharepoint Server (MOSS), Windows Sharepoint Services (WSS)
• Microsoft Exchange/Microsoft Outlook
• Configuration management, version control, or change control exposure
• QuickPlace, Notrix, Teamstudio or knowledge of any Notes/Domino third party tools
• Web development skills - XHTML, XML, XSL, XSLT, AJAX, JSON
• Web/Application server experience (WebSphere, IIS, WebLogic, Apache)
• Object oriented analysis, design, or programming (OOP) techniques
• Middleware, messaging and collaboration tools (MQ, LEI, DECS)

Carrie Tindell (email)
Technical Recruiter
Princeton Information
4830 W. Kennedy Blvd. Suite 590
Tampa, FL 33609
813-864-2480 ext. 235
866-748-2672 toll free
www.princetoninformation.com

Today my son, Ben, received his Master of Engineering Management degree from Duke University. I am so impressed and in awe of his accomplishments! One year ago I posted about his graduation from The University of Tampa ...and 5 years ago (June 2003) I posted about his high school graduation. My gosh, where did these past 5 years go, and how is it that Ben is now 23 with a frickin' Masters degree! Wow.

I'm now running Ubuntu 8.04 on my main (personal) laptop ....in dual boot mode. The big news to me is that I can finally easily connect to my wireless router. I'd had a devil of a time getting it to work in earlier versions ...had to really muck with things before it was happy. But with this latest version, the config was a snap, and things just work. The only real tests remaining are to see if I can connect to our wireless printer, and to see if by some miracle the old scanner will work. The printer is the only real must-have.

Assuming the printer connection works, I'll then wipe the drive, and install Ubuntu as the OS for this machine. But not tonight. It's late :)

This is how I've been spending a couple of hours each Monday. I think today was the 8th treatment. I hadn't had any symptoms of lead or mercury poisoning, but some tests I'd had done just as part of my "half century tune up" (a year late) ...showed lead and mercury literally off the charts. My wife did not show similar levels. Weird.

The IVs are EDTA and glutathione, which together should be clearing out the toxins, and also having the rather nice side effect of helping clean out arterial plaque. There's been a lot of debate over the years about benefits vs risks of chelation. Obviously, I'm a believer in the positive benefits, but the real proof will be in test results. The next test for me will be after the 10th treatment in a couple of weeks. But others are most definitely interested in chelation. Here in the USA, the National Institues of Health is doing a current study of chelation at a number of sites throughout the country.

All I can say is that I feel 'clear' ...meaning that I've noticed even if I slack off on working out, it's much easier to get right back to it with no strain. I ran a few miles a week ago Saturday, did a milder workout on Sunday, and then was too busy to make the time to work out during the week. I did a few miles on the treadmill this evening, and I did not notice the sluggishness that I used to feel if I skipped even a couple of days of working out. Yes, it could be all in my head :)

So, like any good geek, I like the science aspect of it. My doc is definitely into evidence-based medicine. That's why there were hair, blood, and urine tests before starting the chelation program. The doc is an MD, board-certified in Internal Medicine, and has been for the past 25 years. I feel like I'm sitting back in a college lecture when I see him, as he gets into explaining things on the grease board :) ...not that I follow all of the biochemistry, but what I do understand is quite fascinating. So we'll see what the next weeks or months bring.

In the meantime, here's the lipid history for the past couple of years. The differences for these past months are pretty regular exercise (with occassional 'off' weeks like last week), a very low dose (10mg) of lovastatin - a US$4/month generic statin to soften the plaque and help the chelation remove it, and for many months now I've been off of cheese and generally going fairly light on milk products (and then it's only skim milk). I've been off of red meat for 30+ years.


So there's a ways to go, but optimal health is getting closer :)

So I've nuked my 7-yr old laptop to make it into a nice little loaner laptop for visitors. The drive is wiped, and it's now running the awesome gOS distro from Google. It's Ubuntu, with links for the Google suite (GMail, Google apps, etc). It also comes with OpenOffice, Firefox, GIMP, Pidgin ...so there was literally nothing else I needed to install.

I'm blogging (via Firefox) with it now.
Bootup screen:


Desktop:


Very, very cool!