Thoughts on many things

  • Learning to love Notes’ .NTF files

    Lotus Notes is very wary of its database files, also known as .NSF-files, becoming corrupted. So much so, in fact that IBM has created a whole class of files designed to recreate these files. This class of files is called .NTF files. NSF is an abbreviation of Network Storage Facility, and each, or at any…

  • WLAN problems after Windows Update

    I’ve been seeing a problem lately with a few computers. After installing the latest security updates, their WLAN card stops working. It is unable to acquire a dynamic IP address from any router, and setting a static IP address does not work either. The cause The cause of the problem is a Microsoft recommended hotfix,…

  • Spelling it out – using the NATO phonetic alphabet to our advantage

    When instructing a user to type something, when reading a serial key or when spelling anything via a phone line, radio connection or similar, a problem arises at times; the person on the other end either does not understand what is being said, or understands what is being said as something different to what is…

  • Doing too much with a single piece of software

    I have written about Lotus notes before. I have written about solutions to problems, and to what I like and/or dislike about it. My main problem with Lotus Notes is a combination of two; on the one side, it has major usability issues, though these are adressed, to some degree, in version 8. My main…

  • Resolving "NTLDR missing" and "Non-system disk or disk error" error messages

    I thought that this solution was common knowledge all around, but it seems not to be, so here’s how. First off, the problem. When you boot your computer, an error message pops up, saying one out of two: NTLDR is missing   Press any key to restart Non-system disk or disk error   Replace and…

  • Lotus Notes: Resolving “Toolbar configuration not found” errors

    A user called in with an error message I see from time to time in Lotus Notes. The error message in question is the not very informative “Toolbar configuration not found”. Though not overly informative, this error message is simple enough to resolve. This error message is sometimes, though not always, followed by a second…

  • Windows Vista SP1 – First impressions

    So, I finally bought a new computer. It’s a pretty smooth bit of kit if I might say so. It’s a HTPC, with a 3GHz CPU and 4GB RAM. It also runs Windows Vista Ultimate, and is my first real day-to-day encounter with said OS.   The computer arrived at my place a little more…

  • Why restarting your computer resolves many problems

    As a Desktop Support Technician, one of my most common answer to a problem a user is having is “Reboot the computer, call me up if that doesn’t clear it for you.” The reason for this is as simple as it is self-evident. It usually does the trick. Why it works, now that’s another matter…

  • Firefox saving your tabs

    With the release of Firefox 3, users have gotten a few nifty little tools to use, a few of which I noted in a previous post. Another tool, which I had missed was the ability to save the tabs of your current session, so that they’d open the next time you’d open Firefox. Before Firefox…

  • Lotus Notes 8 – a Quick overview

    For one reason or another, I have a stated preference for using webmail over some sort of locally installed client. There are many reasons, but the main one is that I want to be able to read mail wherever, whenever. Now, at work, this is not really an option. We do have webmail access, but…

  • Renaming your wireless network connection

    Being one to muck about quite a bit with my computers, my wireless network connection is now called “Wireless Network Connection 5”, like so:     Annoying though it may be, it is, however, really easy to remedy. Here’s how:   Right-click the Wireless Network Connection, and select “Rename” Call it whatever you’d like, and…