A couple of pics of my C-19 #345 have appeared on Blackstone's web site at http://www.blackstonemodels.com/modelphotos/modelphotos.php#moignard
Thanks, guys, for placing those photos. Proud to be in the same company as the photos already there.
345 is a reworked first run C-19, detailed specifically as the Durango, Co., switcher in 1951 before it was wrecked in the making of the movie Denver and Rio Grande, where it sat in for #268.
Tender detailing includes all-new piping on the tender sides, and new coal. The loco has much more extensive work with many new scratchbuilt details: flanger blade on the pilot truck and the actuating cylinder and levers on the deck, new oilboxes on the smokebox sides, new soldered brass spark arrestor, rear sander lines and valves on the rear of the sand dome. The bell and whistle castings have been reworked and redetailed, and the flag holder on the right cab side was replaced with a new one in the correct location.
The loco was then carefully patch-painted where needed, and weathered according to photos taken in May 1951, and a crew added to the cab using modified Woodland Scenics figures.
Mick Moignard March 24th, 2013 12:32:31 PM
If you like the old Designer Help in 8.5, and want to continue to use it like you've used designer help for the last however many years it is, then I suggest you keep a copy of the Designer Help database before you install Domino Designer 9.
The new Designer help in 9 does not contain anything very useful, so you have to use the Eclipse-based help in Designer 9 to check stuff. I'm sure that there is a good set of use cases for this change, but I for one think it's retrograde. I find looking up syntax way faster in the old Notes database style than in the Eclipse one, and for @formula and LotusScript, rather more usable too. But I guess I'll get used to this new help management.
Mick Moignard March 21st, 2013 09:33:23 AM
We took Camp 93 to the Abingdon Club's show on Saturday, and came away with the best in show award; see the pic below.
Thanks to Phil Baxendale and Steve Probets from my club in Princes Risborough for coming along as the layout crew, and Max Brayne for helping out on Saturday.
Photo from Anne Diamond.
Mick Moignard March 4th, 2013 03:03:43 AM
Back in 2007 Andre Guirard (by the way, Andre, are you still in the Notes world?) described his Design Element Search tool. A month ago I needed a tool like this one, and Google showed up Andre's post.
5 minutes later, I was testing away, and found that it wasn't detecting some text items in some script libraries. Much debugging time later (by the way, if debugging SAX parser events, you need to set breakpoints in them before processing the SAX, otherwise you never get to see the exits in action), I found the issue.
Andre uses the DXLExporter to translate items to DXL, and piplines the output straight in to the SAX parser. And what I found was that in the piece of code that actually searches the XML for the specified strings - the function SaxChars in the object DxlScanDesElementFilter, the string "characters" was truncated at what was the first "<" sign in the code.
So what I did was this: to understand what was going on, in the Sub New for DxlScanDesElementFilter, instead of pipelining the output from the DXL exporter to the SAX, I captured it so I could look at it. And here, I could see the that the "<" characters in the code were expressed in the XML as < - along with > and & for > and & symbols. Now I was in business; knowing that these characters were there expressed like that, I could deal with it.
Here's Andre's original New for the class:
Sub New(ncoll As NotesNoteCollection, searchTerms As Variant, langFlags As Integer)
' ncoll = design notes to scan.
' searchTerms = array of strings to search for,
' langFlags = which languages to search in ("or" of SEEK_ values)
Dim dxle As NotesDXLExporter
Dim session As New NotesSession
Dim saxp As NotesSaxParser
m_langFlags = langFlags
m_searchTerms = searchTerms
Set m_db = ncoll.Parent
Set collection = m_db.CreateNoteCollection(False)
Set dxle = session.CreateDXLExporter(ncoll)
Set saxp = session.CreateSAXParser(dxle)
On Event SAX_StartElement From saxp Call saxstartelem
' We have all the info we need, so parse immediately.
dxle.process
End Sub
And here's what I did to it; running the data out of the DXLExporter to a stream, reading the stream as a single item, doing a replace on it, and then rewriting the stream before pushing it into the SAX parser.
Sub New(ncoll As NotesNoteCollection, searchTerms As Variant, langFlags As Integer)
' ncoll = design notes to scan.
' searchTerms = array of strings to search for,
' langFlags = which languages to search in ("or" of SEEK_ values)
'modified Mick Moignard Feb 2012: search all LotusScript properly...
' run the DXL export thru a stream, fix some characters in it, then parse it....
Dim dxle As NotesDXLExporter
Dim session As New NotesSession
Dim saxp As NotesSAXParser
m_langFlags = langFlags
m_searchTerms = searchTerms
Set m_db = ncoll.Parent
Set collection = m_db.CreateNoteCollection(False)
Set dxle = session.CreateDXLExporter(ncoll)
'push the DXLEport data into a stream
Dim dxlout As NotesStream
Set DXLOut = session.CreateStream
Call dxle.setOutput(DXLOut)
dxle.process
'change certain character strings in the stream to something else
Dim streamtext As String
streamtext = dxlout.readtext
streamtext = Replace(streamtext,Split("<,>,&",","), Split("#,#,#",","),,,1)
'rewrite the stream and do the SAX
dxlout.truncate
dxlout.writetext(streamtext)
Set saxp = session.CreateSAXParser(dxlout)
On Event SAX_StartElement From saxp Call saxstartelem
' We have all the info we need, so parse immediately.
saxp.process
End Sub
Worked perfectly, unless, that is, you wanted to search for strings with <> or & in them, that is. Comments (0)
Mick Moignard February 28th, 2013 07:16:14 AM
Have an application that's been running for years and years, and works just fine, apart from one user who is reporting an error.
The line of code in question is run locally on the client, from a local database, and tries to open another local database with:
If userdatabase.OpenByReplicaID("", "
It fails for just the one user with a 4060 error, User
I've checked
When I run the code in the debugger, that line of code triggers the error handler. At that point, Userdatabase is not open, doesn't have a replicaID value, but does have the filepath set - to that of the erroneous database.
Client version is 852FP3: everyone else for whom the code works is running either earlier versions of 852 or some eversion of 853, and apart from a local corruption of some sort, that's the only thing I can think of at this point in time.
Any suggestions?
Mick Moignard December 20th, 2012 04:30:16 AM
Had a problem reported last week to do with a Show Single Category embedded view showing the wrong documents; documents that strictly didn't match the embedded view selection.
The parent document has a reference number* value, and that's used to drive the selection in the embedded view, of bill documents. What we had was parent documents numbered:
- 1000
- 100000001
Fortunately, once I'd done the due diligence on the error reports: yes, there are only four bills in total here and yes, they all really belonged to 1000 and not 100000001, and yes, there was no error in how they were generated, there was an easy fix. The bill documents had the correct reference, and the embedded view, when opened as a view by itself, showed them correctly, so the issue was localised to the way Notes handles the show single category in the embedded view. What Notes is doing is a partial match, so bills for 1000 matched 1000 and 100000001.
So all I had to do was
- Change the view categorised column formula from fieldname to fieldname + "*#*"
- Change the enbedded view Show Single Category formula also to fieldname + "*#*"
And all was well again.
* It's not a real number, it's a reference value stored as a string, which like so many things of this type is referred to as a number. I know that real numbers are things you do arithmetic with. Comments (0)
Mick Moignard September 24th, 2012 08:21:40 AM
Just downloading to my iPhone 4s now....
Comments (0)Mick Moignard September 19th, 2012 12:09:27 PM
I'm now SoundTraxx and Blackstone Models Factory Trained, having been on the factory training workshop last week along with Ted Smale and Jon Jewitt from Sunningwell Command Control. We had a great week in Durango with Soundtraxx, and I'd recommend this seminar to anyone who is selling and servicing SoundTraxx and Blackstone products.
Now, Durango takes a little getting to from the UK. We took the 4:00 bus to Heathrow, then UA929 to Denver. This stops at ORD where we enter the US, and then becomes a domestic flight, requiring us to go through immigration and customs there, and then continue on a different plane, even though the flight number is the same. Good thing it was delayed about 40 minutes in departing, otherwise we'd have missed it in the delays in immigration and then getting back through security again - as it was, we arrived at the gate just as the last passengers were boarding. We'd planned a 7 hour stop in Denver, so that we could go visit Caboose Hobbies. DIA is rather well planned, and the total time from gate to hire car could not have been more than half an hour in, and when we got back again, hire car to sitting down to some dinner in one of the many restaurants didn't take much longer. Went downhill a bit after that, when we got to the gate area for United's local flights, to find that these services out of Denver were majorly disrupted because of the heat affecting aircraft takeoff weights. United's desk staff had little more idea than the passengers did of what was going on, and the line at the customer service desk - two staff on duty - was at least 200 feet long at one point. Fortunately, our flight was just late, rather than cancelled, which meant that we were three hours late to Durango, arriving around midnight-30, hotel around 01:30 once we'd collected a hire car. Yes, National's staff stayed around to deal with our reservation. Good on them.
Tuesday we went railfanning. After chasing the third train as far as the underpass beyond Hermosa, we stopped off at my friend Mark Kasprowicz's place in Hermosa. He took us to visit a huge O-scale Great Northern layout, Mark drive us up to Silverton and on to Animas Forks. 80 degree heat, even up there above 11000 feet. Fascinating stuff, especially if you've read Sloan's Rainbow Route, to see the remains of the the Silver Lake, Sunnyside and Gold Prince mills, and the ghost towns of Eureka and Animas forks.
Wednesday we started the course itself, with a meetup at the factory and a factory tour. Here we met office, development and production staff, as well as a quick view of the factory room itself. Soundtraxx design, but don't actually make, the blank PCBs for their products, but they do install the components to the boards, and do all the rest of the assembly at this now a little cramped location. Boards are populated with components that are already programmed, so once the solder operations are done, the board is ready for test and packaging. They also do any repairs to decoders here - and be assured - decoders that can be repaired are repaired. You don't automatically get a replacement. We could also see why the "purple" Tsunamis are more expensive than the board replacements, because the (incredibly expensive) flexible wires have to be hand-soldered to the decoder before the purple shrink-wrap is added.
That over, we all headed up to Fort Lewis College the other side of Durango for the rest of the week. The rest of Wednesday was a high-level overview of the company, of DCC and DCC sound, and then went on to product line descriptions - not just the Soundtraxx-brand decoders but also all the OEM ones, as well as the Blackstone Models range, and we also covered some sales tools and methods - and there was some good advice in here about how to raise footfall with clinics and other demonstrations. We then wound down at the Bar-D Chuckwagon - but no beer!
Thursday we did some installs - split into advanced and beginner groups, and worked with locos kindly supplied by Bachmann and Kato. The advanced group, which I joined, did a moderately complex install in a Bachmann 2-10-2 which involved rewiring the entire loco and tender all but the headlight, and using a DBX9000 between engine and tender. The Kato F40PH install was much simpler. The loco is already fitted with a speaker clip and the board with two LEDS, so all we has to do was add third LED to the board and solder two wires to the speaker, and snap it all back together. After that, we did some programming with NCE-supplied Powercabs - and I have to say that the bulk of this was about how to drive the Powercab rather than programming the Tsunami, but still interesting. End of the day was a D&S roundhouse and yard tour hosted by Soundtraxx's Jarrette Ireland and Blackstone's Jeff Johnson, followed by a Mexican buffet in the museum, this time with beer. Evenings don't get much better than that.
Friday was break day. Given the course material - model train DCC, and the location, Durango, a ride on the Durango & Silverton could not be missed with my favourite K-36, #486. For those who've ridden, you know what the ride is all about. For those who have not, all I can say is go and ride it. I've ridden quite a few heritage trains, and the D&S is about the best there is. It's certainly better than anything we have in the UK from a scenery point of view, and the length of the ride.
Saturday saw three breakout sessions, of which we could attend any two. Ted and Jon covered SurroundTraxx, while I did Advanced Programming and Creative Decoder Installs. Jarrette covered the programming session, two hours reviewing and hands-on playing with much of the features of the Tsumani, using the two locos we'd installed on the Thursday as guineapigs. Pity there wasn't time to cover more. I thought I knew the Tsunami well, but there were still things I learned from this session, particularly diesel-related functions. I'm more of steam man. George Bogatiuk discussed Creative Installs - particularly alternative decoder selections, speaker location planning and more. Mostly concentrated on diesels, but with some very useful hints and tips.
Rest of Saturday was a Q&A with SoundTraxx staff; where we pressed them on what's coming next, and they played coy, as you might expect. Specific questions I asked were on UK versions of the Tsunami, adding cylinder drain cock sounds to steam Tsunamis, suppressing the first chuff, and more. No promises were made, but they are listening acutely to these sorts of requests, so we live in hope.
Overall? I think that there were two things specifically that I brought away from the week. Or three. First, SoundTraxx staff are incredibly passionate about their products and about the company they work for. SoundTraxx as a company comes over as an employer with high but fair expectations of it's staff, and every bit willing to help the staff meet those expectations. Indeed, on the Friday, Steve Dominguez - President and Chief Engineer, and Nancy Workman, VP of just about everything else, missed the train ride because they were in Denver at the Colorado Companies to Watch 2012 awards. Secondly, the effort that they put into the week showed. Everything happened and worked as intended, or if it didn't, they covered up so well that nobody noticed. Nothing went wrong, and everything happened exactly to schedule. I've attended many training courses and business conferences, and none - and that includes Lotusphere - have been as well organised as this one, though some have been close. Thanks have to go to Allison, Jaime, Jarrette, George, Jeff, Jessica, Dan, Steve and Nancy for all of that and looking after us so well, and to Fort Lewis College for their facilities and services. The third point of note: Durango itself, and of course the D&S. What a location! I'll be back. .
Mick Moignard June 25th, 2012 03:47:22 PM
We've all seen pointless dialog boxes before. Here's one from Db2 Express-C 9.7:
Mick Moignard June 1st, 2012 09:15:41 AM
Went to Paul Mooney/Bluewave's Domino Ethical Hacking workshop last week, and I'm rather glad I did. Tom Duff's comment on Paul's post is pretty much on the money, very scary stuff indeed, and really made you think. Paul showed and discussed a whole range of tools and techniques that are used by the bad guys out there, and each time then brought the discussion back to what you need to do in your corporate and Domino environment to be able to guard against them. Not all the solutions, by any means, are in Domino. Some are plain and ordinary good practice. Some are education. Some are firewall and network configurations, and then there are things you can and should do in Domino - and hopefully you've already done the important ones in your own environment.
But seeing and discussing the techniques and tools Paul mentioned should make you more wary of your own internet usage, too. One hacking technique in use involves capturing logon information and stealing the web session - web sites that use SSL for logon only and then revert back to HTTP for the rest of the session are vulnerable to this technique, and there are other things that this session will make you more aware of, too.
If you get the chance, and you have an interest in keeping your Domino servers secure on the web, go along to Paul's session. And be ready to be scared.
Mick Moignard May 29th, 2012 07:51:17 AM