Welcome

	Welcome to my blog!
This blog contains tips and info about IT related topics -- including Domino, Lotus Notes, Windows, Lunix and Blackberry etc. In addition, it covers a fair bit of topics like money saving and investment. Some articles here are also written in Chinese. 如果您需要用中文阅读，就在菜单中选择<中文版>。

Mails Get Stuck In Domino Mailbox

For the past one week, our Domino SMTP server kept having problems everyday where the mails got stuck in the "mail.box". It happened everyday at the middle of the night between 2 to 3 AM. When I checked the mailbox, it has errors prompting Symantec AntiVirus/Content Filtering scan pending.

After much monitoring, troubleshooting and isolation, I found that the problem is related to the latest definition updates from LiveUpdate where the system tried performing a scheduled LiveUpdate from the Symantec site (Oh... forgot to mention that the server is protected by Symantec Mail Security for Domino).

To resolve the issue, I upgraded the existing SMSDOM version to SMSDOM 7.5.8.

Because of the problems, I didn't have a good sleep for the last one week as I had to wake up early morning to restart the Domino (via VPN connection from home) so that the mails can be processed for delivery. Too bad, my boss wasn't aware of my little extra effort. Sigh!

Phonics Song - Ants On The Apple

Phonics (看字读音法) is the most widely used approach for the teaching of English reading and spelling.
I get to know a phonics song when my kids go for phonics learning class.
With the song, it really helps the children quite a lot in memorizing how the letter sounds.

Here is the phonics song "Ants On The Apple" for kid:-

ants on the apple a,a,a.
balls are bouncing b,b,b.
caterpillar coughing c,c,c.
dolls are dancing d,d,d.
elegant elephant e,e,e.
five flamingos f,f,f.
goats are giggling g,g,g.
helicopters are hovering h,h,h.
indian itching i,i,i.
jellybeans are jumping j,j,j.
king kicked a kettle k,k,k.
lion licking lollipop l,l,l.
monkeys are munching m,m,m.
nuts in a nutshell n,n,n.
old orange octopus o,o,o.
popcorn is popping p,p,p.
queen waiting quietly q,q,q.
rats are running r,r,r.
sausages are sizzling s,s,s.
tigers on tiptoe t,t,t.
up umbrella ah,ah,ah,
violent volcanoes v,v,v.
wibbly wobbly walrus w,w,w.
fox in a box ks,ks,ks.
yak is yawning y,y,y.
zigzag zebra z,z,z.

You may listen to the song by clicking the "play" button below...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WFFyS3PrjZk&feature=youtu.be

 

169 IP Address On Windows Vista

Last week, I encountered some problems when I was helping my friend setting up the wireless access on the broadband router.

The Windows XP PC can access the Aztech router DSL305EW via wireless but Windows Vista failed. On the Windows Vista notebook, it showed that it was connected but the IP address assigned to it was 169.X.X.X.

I confirmed it with another Windows Vista notebook and it gave the same behavior. However, both Windows Vista notebooks can access the wireless from another's router without any problem.

After searching from the internet, I tried the solution below by changing some registry entries but still can't get it work.

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx/kb/928233

-- related to DhcpConnEnableBcastFlagToggle registry key.

At last, I managed to resolve the problem by upgrading the version of router’s firmware.

Why Compact Cannot Reduce File Size

On our Lotus Domino server, it has been defined a scheduled job to perform compact task for the Lotus Notes Mailboxes (NSF files) during non-peak hours. After finishing the compact, I can see that the file’s size of databases was being reduced. Lately, I notice that the file size doesn’t reduce any more.

When I did a “load compact” manually on server, I also see that the file’s size wasn’t reduced and there was no error prompted.

After doing much research on the internet, I realized that the change of behavior was due to the fact that I enabled the transaction logging on the Domino server recently.

Before I dwell down to the point, let me fist highlight that there are three styles of compacting:
[1] In-place compacting with space recovery (means –b option)
[2] In-place compacting with space recovery and reduction in file size (means –B option)
[3] Copy-style compacting

(For detailed description, you may refer to URL http://www-01.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?rs=0&uid=swg27006573)

Here are how Domino works and behaves…

If the transaction logging is not enabled (by default) and when you run Compact without specifying options, Domino uses “In-place with file size reduction” style of compacting on databases. So, the file size of database is reduced.

On the other hand, if the transaction logging is enabled and when you run Compact without specifying options, Domino uses “In-place” style of compacting on databases. That explains why the file size of the database can't not be reduced after the compact done.

So, in order to achieve file’s size reduction, I have explicitly used the “load compact –B” option for compacting the databases.

VBScript Tutorial

Here are some of the resources about VBScript tutorial which I find it very useful:-

http://www.quackit.com/vbscript/tutorial

Tutorial for beginners

 

http://www.computer-training-software.com/vb-script.htm

Video tutorials (free)-- let you read less but learn more