Dossy's Blog

The last time I had business cards printed was back around 1995. I think I ordered a box of 250 cards, ended up giving out maybe 100 at most, and used the rest as scrap paper for disposable notes on my desk. Since then, I haven’t bothered to order updated business cards as I’ve changed phone numbers, addresses or jobs.

Recently, though, I’ve been asked by people if I have a business card often enough that saying “no” has become a pattern. Just last night, I went out to dinner with my family, and while outside smoking a cigarette, I started chatting with another patron who was doing the same. Turns out he also works a tech. job and asked me for my card. I ended up jotting down my contact information on a card for the restaurant and handed it to him.

In the past, this wouldn’t have mattered to me. But, now that I’m consulting full-time, these quick introductions could turn into valuable business leads that I could really use, now. The lack of preparedness and professionalism isn’t going to give that prospective client the sense of confidence I want them to have in my abilities and overall product.

So, last night I decided I was going to design and order myself a set of business cards. I wanted to create a card that was unusual, humorous, unique and memorable–qualities that reflect my nature and approach. The front of the card borrows from the LOLcats meme, as well as the “let me show you them” meme. I have yet to hear of anyone else making semi-serious LOLbusiness cards, so let me be the first. (FIRST!)

The back of the card is simple, informative and efficient–qualities that represent the kind of work I perform. I list my name, a title and contact information with as little clutter as possible. I use the remaining space to list popular technologies (think: keyword stuffing) that I don’t mind taking on work doing. I list AOLserver and Tcl at the top because as the recipient quickly scans down the list, they should cause a hesitation and very likely a question like “what are AOLserver and Tcl” which give me the opportunity to explain them, rather than coming across as pushing them directly.

In case you’re wondering, here’s what the proofs of the card look like, showing front and back:

In theory, the order I placed online today should be arriving sometime during the first week of December. When I get them, I might write a little something about where I ordered them.

So, what do you think of the cards? Too edgy? Too risky? Not serious enough? Fun, or funny? Would you give me your business if I handed you one of these cards?

Tags: business cards, meme, consulting, freelance

Lately, I’ve taken an interest in Novell GroupWise Messenger (GWM) because it’s one of the messaging protocols that is currently supported by Pidgin. There are several open bugs and enhancement requests for Pidgin’s GWM support, so I figured I’d see how difficult it would be to get a development environment set up.

I started with the latest openSUSE 10.3 KDE live CD. Normally, I only run Debian by preference, but since Novell is the organization supporting SUSE, I hoped that using openSUSE would be the path of least resistance.

My understanding is that the minimal software required to get GroupWise Messenger working, and what I ended up installing, was:

• Novell ConsoleOne 1.3.6h
• Novell eDirectory 8.8
• Novell GroupWise Messenger 2.0.2 HP1

The openSUSE installation and all the Novell components fit neatly inside a 6 GB partition. Installation was relatively painless and configuration was straightforward.

The one snag that caused me a lot of grief was that the Novell GroupWise Messaging Agent (NMMA) process would keep segfaulting when I tried to connect with the IM client. Here’s the backtrace I recorded:

Thread 10 (Thread 0xb727eb90 (LWP 1091)):
#0  0x00000000 in ?? ()
#1  0xb7c59b3e in spmDDCAtLoginEndCallBack ()
   from /opt/novell/eDirectory/lib/libspmclnt.so
#2  0xb6dd63f8 in MgrCloseLoginSession ()
   from /opt/novell/eDirectory/lib//libnmasclnt.so
#3  0xb6dd7af3 in NMAS_ClientLoginEx ()
   from /opt/novell/eDirectory/lib//libnmasclnt.so
#4  0xb7c5a152 in SPMClient_PasswordVerify ()
   from /opt/novell/eDirectory/lib/libspmclnt.so
#5  0xb7c56bc1 in SPM_DDCVerifyPassword ()
   from /opt/novell/eDirectory/lib/libspmclnt.so
#6  0xb7cce6cf in SPMVerifyPassword ()
   from /opt/novell/eDirectory/lib/libndssdk.so.1
#7  0xb7c9b1d0 in DCVerifyPassword ()
   from /opt/novell/eDirectory/lib/libndssdk.so.1
#8  0xb7c96f50 in DDCVerifyPassword ()
   from /opt/novell/eDirectory/lib/libndssdk.so.1
#9  0x080b2c32 in ?? ()
#10 0x403b0001 in ?? ()
#11 0x08269b00 in ?? ()
#12 0x00000002 in ?? ()
#13 0x00000000 in ?? ()

Apparently, this is a problem with direct access mode to eDirectory. Changing the NMMA configuration to use LDAP instead got things working. I did this by editing /etc/opt/novell/messenger/strtup.ma, commenting out the dirreplicaipaddr line and setting the ldapuser, ldappwd and ldapipaddr lines. I didn’t configure it to use LDAPS (LDAP over SSL encryption), but in a production environment, I probably would have.

Finally, here’s a screenshot of everything (ConsoleOne, GroupWise Messenger client) running:

(click to enlarge)

If you’re looking for help with a GroupWise Messenger installation, feel free to ask me questions. If you’re looking for a consultant in the northern New Jersey area, I’d be happy to talk to you about what I could do for you.

Tags: Novell Groupwise Messenger, openSUSE, Linux, Pidgin

del.icio.us/dossy (RSS) links since November 12, 2007 at 09:00 AM:

• Main Page – IEs4Linux
  A minimal installation of IE 5, IE 5.5 and IE 6, usable under WINE on Linux.
  Tags: software, windows, linux, browser
• WebLogic Server Virtual Edition Launcher Appliance
  BEA’s LiquidVM cuts out the guest OS middle-man in virtualization environments. This is cool, if you’re foolish enough to use Java in the first place.
  Tags: software, java, bea, vmware
• Bug ID: 6532373 xcb_xlib.c:50: xcb_xlib_unlock: Assertion ‘c->xlib.lock’ failed.
  Workaround: sed -i ’s/XINERAMA/FAKEEXTN/g’ libmawt.so
  Tags: reference, java, bug, patch
• Novell eDirectory 8.7 on Linux – Linux StepByStep
  Tags: article, tutorial, howto, novell

My wife has arranged for a weekend getaway for us up in Binghamton, NY, for my birthday weekend. We drove up last night and after we checked into our room at the Holiday Inn, we went out for a light snack and desserts. The lady at the front desk highly recommended the Lost Dog Cafe, so we decided to give it a try.

This cafe, from the outside, is really unassuming–there’s hardly any signage, just the one pictured above and a neon sign in one of the windows. However, the inside is spacious and very cozy.

I really wasn’t in the mood to eat a heavy meal after the drive up, so we just ordered appetizers and desserts. We shared a baked brie with roasted garlic which was rich and tasty, which was a great start. The real deal was the desserts: I ordered a Good PMS and a double shot of espresso, while Sam ordered a Boca Negra with a Girl Scout latte. Here’s a quick snap of me hyper-caffeinating and chocolyzing:

This was a great way to unwind after the two hour drive up here and to end the day. If you find yourself in Binghamton and are looking for a nice place to unwind and get something delicious to eat, definitely stop by and indulge yourself.

Lost Dog Cafe

Hours:
Monday-Thursday: 11:30am – 5:00pm (Lunch), 5:00pm – 10:00pm (Dinner)
Friday-Saturday: 11:30am – 5:00pm (Lunch), 5:00pm – 11:00pm (Dinner)

Telephone Number:
(607) 771-6063

Street Address:
222 Water Street
Binghamton, NY 13901

Tags: Lost Dog Cafe, Binghamton, NY

I don’t want to go into specific details, but yesterday, I made a big mistake that impacts our finances. It really got me upset, but I’m very blessed to have an understanding wife and kids as well as very caring and supportive friends. I’m determined to put this behind me and learn what I can from it.

To that end, I’ve spent a little time freshening up my resume on Emurse. Here’s a screenshot of the top of my profile tab:

If you or anyone you know are looking for a hired gun web and database developer, sysadmin, database admin, network engineer, or technology consultant and all around problem-solver, especially in the northern NJ area, I’d love to hear from you. I could really use the money, you know?