Wednesday, May 27, 2009
Some friends of mine in the MIS world were discussing home computing issues this past week, and one that we all encountered was how best to access old emails from previous accounts. The traditional thing is to archive old email within the confines of a desktop client, whether that is Outlook, Express, Eudora, or something else.  Several years ago, on April Fool's Day if I recall correctly, Google changed all of that by introducing GMail. GMail gave the user gigabytes of storage, and coupled that with their well-developed search feature. At the time, GMail was web only, and had no real facility for interfacing with the desktop. Since then, Google has given the end user both POP3 and more recently an IMAP implementation (albeit somewhat quirky).
Of course, many users have stuck with their old ISP email, which ties them to a single provider unless they archive it. Once archived, email is often handled within the email client, which is most likely a proprietary format. So the discussion topic that evolved from all of this was - how can the end user move old email from PSTs, Eudora archives, etc. into GMail? Gmail already has the feature of importing existing POP3 mail from active accounts, but we're talking about archive files here. Lots of tools exist to accomplish just such a thing, but require a new app to be installed (which is platform dependent, naturally), or require translation of the archive file into another format. But the solution we liked best was simply to use the tools we already have. If you combine your existing email client, its archive files, and a separate mapping to GMail as IMAP, the process is pretty straightforward. - Open up the archive file.
- Copy the emails that you want to move to GMail.
- Paste into the appropriate folder in GMail.
Sounds easy enough, and I wonder why I never gave this much thought in the past. Now, I have an archive of about 6 GB of mail dating back to 2004, all searchable, all labeled, and all accessible from any browser on any major operating system, not to mention the space freed up on the network.My only hope is that Google keeps expanding the size of their mailboxes. Otherwise, I will have to create alternate usernames for storage. UPDATE: Someone asked me about offline access. In this case, I would either use GeeMail, an Adobe AIR client that runs on Linux, Mac and Windows, or enable Google Gears for offline Gmail access.
Labels: MIS
.: posted by
Dave
9:08 PM
Tuesday, February 05, 2008
My obligatory Super Tuesday election post:
Since I am on a bridge call with technicians in four states, working to configure 2 servers, and 63 RF devices on 4 802.11g routers using 4 VLAN subnets, and myriad switches, and I am increasingly annoyed at finding ridiculous firewall issues that were supposed to be handled weeks ago, somehow, I doubt that I will even find the time today to immerse myself in any election day antics.
Whew.
Now back to our call.Labels: Election 2008, MIS, Networks
.: posted by
Dave
10:08 AM
Monday, December 24, 2007
Dave Winer gives me a new, and better reason to never buy an Apple product - apparently, if you send your Mac in for a disk repair, they will refuse to give you the old disk. Further, they can at their discretion give you a refurbished hard drive instead of a new one.
$160 for an 80 GB refurb? That's insane. I've often pointed to Apple's hard line on replacing iPod batteries, and to their obsession with being a closed operating system as reasons for staying away from their products. I'm now convinced that I'd just as soon run Linux on a 486 then own a Mac.Labels: MIS, Poor Customer Service, Ripoffs
.: posted by
Dave
1:05 AM
Wednesday, December 12, 2007
Frustrating. I was all excited that the Treo 680 has a ROM upgrade available this morning, offering ATT's push-to-talk along with some much needed enhancements.
But along the way to the upgrade path. I encountered a Big Caveat:
BlackBerry Connect is not compatible with the Treo 680 Update 2.11. Once the update has been installed, it cannot be removed.
AAUGH! So I gain some functionality at the expense of Blackberry Connect? This does not bode well for me, as I was planning to upgrade several users to PTT and BBC on their devices.Labels: Blackberry, Gadgets, MIS, Treo
.: posted by
Dave
1:14 PM
More from Slashdot: The 5 Users You'd Meet in Hell. You're preaching to the choir here, guys.Labels: MIS
.: posted by
Dave
1:10 PM
Yesterday's post about the Vista giveaway shows up on Slashdot. Nothing like a little M$ news to get the /. community stirred up.Labels: Microsoft, MIS, Software
.: posted by
Dave
1:07 PM
Tuesday, December 11, 2007
In case you haven't heard, Microsoft is giving away copies of Microsoft Windows Vista Ultimate (32-bit and 64-bit DVD), Microsoft Office Ultimate 2007, Microsoft Money Plus Premium, Microsoft Student with Encarta Premium 2008, and Microsoft Streets and Trips 2008. The caveat - you have to let them monitor your use of the program.Labels: Microsoft, MIS, Privacy Online
.: posted by
Dave
1:47 PM
Monday, December 10, 2007
I had a user this morning that spilt coffee onto one of our $3000 handheld devices. Ironic then that this little article was posted about saving wet devices. I suggested drying out the device (as does the article), but ultimately, this being an enterprise environment, I will probably issue a warranty claim.Labels: MIS
.: posted by
Dave
1:47 PM
Need a backup solution for your computer? I've used this before and liked it. Today, it's free from this website.Labels: MIS, Software
.: posted by
Dave
1:46 PM
Wednesday, December 05, 2007
A Beef with SQL Server:
So I'm trying to move a backup to an existing SQL Server from another database on the same instance today, and I keep getting an error saying that the files don't match, despite the fact that I've since deleted the original MDF and LDF files. Why this happens, I'm still unclear. I even deleted the original database container from Enterprise Manager.
It turns out that the path to the new MDF and LDF files was wrong. I changed it, recreated the original database, and I still inexplicably got an error saying that there was a user currently using the database that no longer exists. So... I went to Restore Database, and of course, in the dropdown, the database doesn't exist since I deleted it. Turns out that you need to type in the new database (well, not really new, but it is since I have deleted it. Twice.), select Force Restore Over Old Database (despite the fact that there no longer exists an Old Database), and click OK.
Voila. We have database with tables, views, stored procs, etc. intact.
This is all well, and good, but it's so non-intuitive. I think I will go back to T-SQL to do my restores. At least it makes more sense.Labels: MIS
.: posted by
Dave
1:57 PM
Tuesday, November 20, 2007
A note to developers and vendors working in our corporate environment:
- No, we absolutely cannot host IIS on a shop floor DESKTOP device. There is a reason this device is placed in the shop environment, and servers are placed in the server room. If your software cannot accommodate connectivity to a physically separate internet server, and a logically separate SQL server, then quite frankly, the architecture of your software is poorly conceived. Please understand that these are corporate guidelines as well as personal ones. If you cannot abide by them, we cannot deploy your product.
- When we say that we cannot use your process ID on the server to write events to the event log, we mean it. We're not just "teasing you". Additionally, we are perplexed that you choose to write to the event logs when only the process ID and the admin user has access to them in the first place (e.g., no one will ever look at the logs). When we suggest writing any logs to a text file, scoffing is not acceptable. We take our jobs seriously. You should too.
- We cannot give you our wireless encryption key without first waterboarding you.
- No, we cannot connect your Windows Smartphone to our Blackberry Enterprise Server. We will someday be using Windows devices on Exchange, but since BES is what we are stuck with, you will need to obtain a Blackberry-compatible device. One of the values of MIS in the corporation is its capacity to advise the end user. In this case, asking us a few questions would have alleviated any embarrassment you might experience when you return to your wireless provider and explain that you really intended to buy a Blackberry. Oops.
- There is no acceptable reason for requesting an FTP server to be installed in the corporate data center, and then expecting it to be outward facing, with RWCD privileges. Even in the most basic, least secure environments, this is unacceptable. Please use better judgment in the future when planning enterprise-level data connectivity. And try to go away from the flat files if you can. RDBMS have been around for years now. Make use of them.
Thank you, and good day. Labels: MIS
.: posted by
Dave
8:12 AM
Monday, July 30, 2007
Blackberry Connect Ain't All It's Cracked Up To Be:
I've posted this on a Treo user site and gotten no response so far. I figured I'd talk about it here, since I'm really craving some answers, and I am anticipating that managers in my organization are going to be asking me how they, too, can receive their Blackberry email on their Treos.
For those of you who aren't Treo users like I am, and might not be familiar with the product, there is a little tool called Blackberry Connect (BBC) that will allow you to receive calendar items and email from your company's Blackberry Enterprise Server (BES) onto your Treo 650 or 680. Just install, and watch the mail download, right?
Right?
Wrong.
Since we recently added a BES to our corporate environment, I hopped on board as a user. And since I have a Treo, like many of our users, I decided to give BBC a whirl and see if I could get it to work in the large corporate environment, because I figured I would be asked to look into it as soon as management got wind of the possibility of Blackberry email on their Treos.
What follows is my ordeal (as recounted from my Treocentral post from earlier this month).
First, I extracted the executable to my desktop and installed as admin. The first sync went fine as a Palm Installer Package was placed on my Treo. This self-extracting file then proceeded to install several BES-specific files onto the device, and asked me to reset.
Then the second stage started, and the desktop software was installed. "This is going well", I surmised, as I selected the Exchange Server for my corporate email provider, and went on with the install. At this point, I had expected a prompt to move the mouse around to create a unique PIN for the device, and that indeed happened (only on the first install try though... more to come on that). Then the software prompted me to wipe my calendar items and replace them with the BES calendar, which I also did. At this point, inexplicably at the time, the BBC conduit froze, and I received a response from the desktop saying essentially that the install failed and I needed to do it again.
And I did... 9 times that afternoon. To no avail. Each time, the error was the same, except that I no longer was prompted for a PIN. I checked the BBC desktop settings, and consulted some minimal help online (believe me, very little is out there on this piece of software) and decided that I might need to manually generate my PIN instead of the default automatic setting. I did so, and the PIN screen displayed "Update Pending". This never changed in the umpteen installs to come, until the final successful install.
At this point, I decided to do what every Treo owner has to face eventually, but avoids like the plague - a hard reset. I went one better, and did a full factory reset, which requires intervention from a colleague. Believe me; four hands are required. Anyway, we went forward with the reset, I reinstalled the desktop and Treo software, and...
Nothing.
Time for tech support.
First I called ATT and explained the issue. They suggested that it surely must be a Treo issue, so they bridged me to Palm. Palm had zero clue about how to rectify the matter, and suggested that I pay (literally) a visit to RIM. Well, RIM charges for support, and I was not willing to fork over the cash for that, so I called ATT back and requested a bridge call to RIM. They complied, but not before we discussed which BBC data package was the one that was needed. The second CSR insisted that the first CSR had added the wrong package, so she changed it. Still, nothing resulted in my install. After the 15th install, RIM and ATT joined hands and discussed the matter with me.
The ATT rep decided lunch was more important and left me in the hands of a seemingly incompetent RIM rep who asked me 100 questions about things I had already done. Frustration set in when the rep decided I needed to re-flash the Treo. I refused and requested that we call it a day.
On day two, I decided that I would be better off trying something new, so I proceeded to uninstall every conduit on my desktop PC along with the Palm software. What I found was a host of errors saying that sync20.dll and hotsync.dll were having problems, and I actually became stuck in an uninstall loop. After killing the MSIEXEC process and starting from scratch, I noted that the Palm software was still in the Add/Remove Programs applet, but it would not allow me to invoke MSI. After hours of headscratching and tossing of cups and pens across the room, I figured out that Palm was installed on the "All Users" account by default. I had to uninstall it as the superuser, reinstall it as the local admin user (me) and then install the BBC software.
This resulted in a clean install, but I still did not see any email. I did not receive any service books, and the account displayed as suspended. This required yet another call to RIM. Blame was passed back to Cingular and back to RIM, which led me to suspect a conspiracy of some sort. Was it the data plan? The PDA? The install package? Fate? Who knew? No one, apparently.
At this point, I requested that the BES admin delete my account entirely from the BES, and regenerate it, along with a new PIN. After that was done, I figured I would try installing YET AGAIN.
Finally, I saw success after countless hours of labor. However, I was VPNed into the server remotely at the time, and it turns out that the initial calendar syncing is painfully slow even on a LAN, let alone a WLAN connected by VPN. So, predictably, the calsync crashed. But gosh-darn it, I had my BBC email!
I surfed around, fiddled, and connected the dad-blamed thing, and it was great to finally have a successful install. However, all was not good for long.
I have found two extremely stupid issues. First, my calendar items display an hour behind. I had the BES admin change my time zone, and my calendar items show up with Central Time in the body, but the time on the calendar is still wrong. I'm not sure yet about this issue, but it's not even the most critical one.
It turns out that no matter what I try, I cannot run IM and/or Blazer at the same time as BBC. If I initiate an IM, I lose the data connection to IM/Blazer. If I disconnect from those apps, I start receiving my BB email. Apparently, I have both a bb.net APN and a MediaNet APN in the Network preferences. When I connect to IM/Blazer, the MediaNet APN is invoked. Same goes for IMAP email. But the BB APN is required for BB email.
So as I asked in my Treocentral post, is this the norm? Should I have two APNs in my profile? Since that post I have spoken to three support folks, two with Cingular and one with Blackberry. No one seems to have a great grasp of this issue. In fact, apparently no one has complained about it until me.
It turns out though that indeed there are supposed to be two APNs... one for Blackberry and one for WAP. Thus, the Blackberry.net connection apparently can only handle email transport, and the WAP connection handles everything else. So, quoting the tech support guy du jour, "if you connect to the BBC, you will not be able to use the WAP service."
So I am expected to toggle between them merrily, ignoring the fact that I use background applications that require constant data connections (IMAP, VPN, VNC, stock ticker, RSS feeds, etc.) In other words, push email isn't really push, and I might as well forward everything to my IMAP account, and poll it every 10 minutes anyway.
So, yes, this is a long post, but there is not a lot on the "Internets" available about BBC and the issues it has with the Treo PDAs. At this point, I will live with the issue during the day, and switch over to WAP mode at night, at least until the Blackberry.net APN allows WAP connectivity along with email.Labels: Blackberry, MIS, Treo
.: posted by
Dave
9:52 PM
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