Month: December 2007

I can’t believe IT departments allow Lotus Notes on their networks

I’m having problems installing new software in my CrossOver Office Windows (non-)emulator, so I’m trying to get a VMWare Windows virtual machine working. A coworker gave me an image that’s working for him, and suggested that I just use that.

First thing I did was delete his personal account and create a new one for me. Then I copied over my .id file from ./.cxoffice/dotwine/fake_windows/data/notes/data/[foo].id to the appropriate place on the virtual machine. And when I fire up Notes, it says has my id in the drop down, and I can log in with my current password. But when I click the “Mail” item, it shows me my cow orker’s mail box. Just in case you missed that, let me spell it out for you – I used my password and accessed his email.

I mentioned that to our sysadmin guy (who takes care of the local Unix servers, and helps us work around the stupidity of corporate IT who are responsible for the Windows boxes). He said yes, you can put your Notes ID file on a thumb drive, take it to any Windows box in the company, log in with your password and read the email of the person who owns that box. Is it just me, or that just about the stupidest thing you’ve ever heard? Now, I don’t know if that’s a deficiency of Notes, or a deficiency of corporate IT, and I don’t particularly care. I’m just boggled.

But accepting that bogglement for the moment, does anybody know how to make Notes forget about the person who used to read Notes on this box and now doesn’t even have an account on the box, and allow me to read mine? The sysadmin says the only way is to remove Notes and reinstall it, but when I try that I get a Notes that doesn’t ask for any password and complains that the mail file wasn’t found when I start it.

Is it too early to start planning for Oshkosh?

Ok, I missed last year. I really want to go again, and I really want to fly. But we don’t have a Lance any more and somebody already booked the Dakota, so I’m going to have to be *really* careful about weight if I’m planning to go in an Archer. The other problem is that last time I went we camped, but after a day walking around I’m in incredible pain and I was damn near useless around the camp, and I felt bad about letting Mark do all the work. Maybe what I should do is pack a tent, a sleeping bag, and a bike to get to the Chinese buffet place across the road? Or maybe I should fly in, but park in GAP (General Aviation Parking) and find a place in one of the dorms or something?

I’m also thinking that sacrilege of sacrilege, I might not go for the whole week. Maybe come in Saturday before things get started, stay for Jay Hoeneck’s famous party on Wednesday, and leave on Thursday. Much as I hate to admit it, the air shows get pretty repetitive after 4 or 5 days, and unless you’re specifically in the market for something, you can see it all in that time as well. Plus, when I stay the full week I’m in real danger of getting talked into buying a kit. After all, I built a canoe from scratch, how much harder could an airplane be? Oh, that much harder? Ok, never mind then.

If I die

I was reading a forum thread about a scuba accident that killed a friend of my brother’s, and which my brother was also involved in finding the body after the RCMP tried and failed.

One of the thread contributors posted this thing for divers, but it made me think of Mike and Dave’s recent death in their float plane, and my own thoughts about the possibility of dying in a plane crash.

If I should die while diving.

If I should die while diving please do not hesitate to discuss the incident and assess every element with a view to furthering your understanding of how to enhance diver safety.

If I should die while diving get the facts. They won’t be readily available and will definitely not be correct as reported by the media. But get the facts as best you can.

If I should die while diving understand, as I already do, that it will most likely involve fault on my part to some degree or another so do not hesitate to point that out.

If I should die while diving some of the fault will probably belong to my buddy and that needs to be honestly assessed as well though I must admit this is one area where I hope that compassion will be in the mix.

If I should die while diving there might be those who try to squelch discussion out of a misplaced notion of respect for the deceased, family and friends. They can say nice things about me at my funeral… but in the scuba community I want the incident discussed.

If I should die while diving at least I didn’t die in bed.

I could do a search and replace of “diving” with “flying”, and it’s pretty close to something I’d like to say to my fellow pilots and my nervous but understanding wife. Well, except for the bit about buddies – we don’t use a buddy system in flying even when we should.