BlackBerry Enterprise Server Data Dictionary

If you have a BlackBerry Enterprise server (BES) you have a configuration database that is used to manage pretty much every aspect of the server and all of your BlackBerry devices.

Periodically, I need to access this database directly to retrieve information that is not exposed via the BlackBerry Manager console. But it can take a while to work out which view or table contains the information that I am after. And sometimes the name of a column doesn’t necessarily reflect its contents. So there are plenty of test SQL queries that I need to do to suss out which pieces I need.

After checking online I could see zero references to a data dictionary for this configuration database. Even checking RIM’s own tech site yielded no clues so I called them up and asked for it directly. The tech told me this was the first time anybody had asked that question (presumably of him, not ever). He didn’t know but he checked and soon sent me the following note:

Hello Marc,

Thank you for contacting BlackBerry Customer Support.

Unfortunately the information requested is not publicly available.

Should you require further information on this subject, please don’t hesitate to contact us. Thank you again for contacting us.

Sincerely,

Alan
BlackBerry Customer Support
Research In Motion Limited
Tel:
NA Toll Free: 1-877-255-2377
UK Toll Free: 0808 100 7466
Europe: +44 1753 558400
Worldwide: +1-519-888-6181
Email: help@blackberry.net
Web: www.blackberry.com

So there you have it. If anybody knows differently I’d love to hear it, but apparently we are not to have a reference to this central resource and must continue to guess our way through our reporting.

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This post was written by Marc
on March 5, 2010 at 8:00 pm

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Megabus first experience not so great

** updated March 5, 2010 **
The refund came through on my credit card.

Michelle made the return trip on Megabus and was quite impressed. The bus was a modern double decker and was clean and pleasant. I think we’ll use the service again but we’ll just keep a very watchful eye on the weather and call them for updates before we get to the airport in the future. Do not trust that they will contact you if there are scheduling issues.
** end March 5, 2010 update **
** updated February 25, 2010 **
While I was crafting this entry I received notification of the refund for my original ticket price one way. So they were true to their word on that front.
** end February 25, 2010 update **

Nearly a month ago we arranged for Michelle to head up to Canada to visit her sister. As usual the airfare to fly directly into Toronto could only be described as “bend over and take it until you collapse”, so we booked an Airtran flight with a bus trip to Toronto using MegaBus.

Michelle arrived at Buffalo international airport early this evening in good time for her bus and then proceeded to wait.. and wait.. She wasn’t alone, there were another half dozen folks waiting with her. When the promised 7:45 pm bus didn’t show up she called me and I got on it.

I first called their contact us number (1-877-462-6342 per the website) and was informed that all buses had been canceled for the entire day due to weather. The guy I spoke with seemed rather surprised that we hadn’t been alerted.

I quickly checked the weather and saw that there actually was an advisory that we were not aware of, it certainly didn’t affect her flight.

The guy at 1-877-462-6342 told me that I could contact 773-890-6342 or inquiries.megabus.com (which I later found was inquiries@megabus.com an email address rather than a web site).

Calling that number got me put on hold and then eventually I was offered the option, if my call was regarding ongoing service disruptions to speak to a dispatcher. What I got was a lady (with loud laughing and raucous people in the background) who was somewhat confused that I was talking to her and she gave me the number of the New Jersey dispatch office (908-282-7420).

At *that* number I spoke with someone who knew what was going on who contacted the megabus dispatching office in Canada and determined that there would be NO service between there and Buffalo tonight.

She further determined that Coach Canada *was* running service and that we could likely get on one of their buses. At first she offered that, if we could get a Coach Canada ticket and keep the receipt, they would be willing to reimburse is, then she backed off and offered to refund the original ticket price saying that I could send a note to inquiries@megabus.com to explain what had occurred and that they might be able to work something out with us.

She also provided me with the Coach Canada phone number (1-800-644-5197 ext 1) .

So I called Michelle back to see where things stood for her before making any arrangements and found that she, and the other stranded passengers had managed to purchase tickets on the Coach Canada bus that had been sitting there at the airport while they were waiting for their Megabus.

So I’m going to send this story to Megabus and see what they say. I’ll update this post with any response. But my main points are:

  1. We were never contacted regarding the outage. I had given them MY contact information as anybody who knows me also knows that I am VERY reachable via the web and phone. Had we suspected an issue we would have made arrangements many hours earlier.
  2. Looking at my reservation screen below which I captured at about 35 minutes *after* departure there is still no indication of an issue with the reservation even though apparently ALL buses had been canceled.
  3. I’m surprised that there is no agreement between the bus companies or that Megabus does not have any facility for ensuring that stranded passengers are handled. The new ticket was about twice as expensive as the original and, had Michelle had to wait overnight that would have been that much MORE expensive.
  4. I’m further surprised that they wouldn’t run their buses while Coach Canada didn’t seem to have an issue continuing to service their routes.

What do I want from Megabus?

  1. An acknowledgment that they screwed up the notifications and maybe some assurances that they have maybe done something to correct that issue.
  2. Obviously I want the ticket refunded. I think it would be a nice gesture if they went the extra distance and reimbursed us for the extra ticket cost too. But the amount of money is not huge.

Anyway, I passed their contact information on to Michelle so that the other passengers could make whatever arrangements they may and she is now en route to Toronto and will arrive only a couple of hours later than planned.

I post this so others can know about our experience. If it’s an isolated incident then this post will get lost in the shuffle, if it’s a regular occurrence then my voice will be added to others who may choose to post as well.

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This post was written by Marc
on February 25, 2010 at 9:27 pm

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Quicken 2010 Deluxe R7 Warning – Final word from Intuit

After a few exchanges with the Intuit folks (see the comments here) here is what they finally had to say on this matter:

Recently you requested assistance from Quicken Customer Care. Below is a summary of your request and our response. We are committed to resolving this issue to your complete satisfaction.

Thank you for allowing us to be of service to you.

Subject
Need to revert back to R5 from R7 release

Discussion Thread
Response (Shivani)    02/25/2010 01:10 AM
Dear Marc Bourassa,

Thank you for contacting Quicken Customer Care.

I can completely understand your concern.

Marc, I would like to inform that issue will resolve in next few weeks. You can visit the link given below to know more about:

http://quicken.intuit.com/support/articles/using-quicken/income-and-expenses/7733.html

You cannot revert back to R5.

I hope this clarifies.

I had found the link above on my own a couple of days ago and am waiting for them to fix the issue. In the meantime I’m keeping updates turned off and I will be ignoring future update reminders (when this issue has been dealt with) for a week or so to ensure that they don’t cock things up for me again.

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This post was written by Marc
on February 25, 2010 at 7:01 am

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Pole Dancing in the Olympics

You know, I don’t have any problem with having pole dancing in the Olympics.

It requires skill, physical stamina and quite frankly it’s from the ground up a spectator sport.

If folks sledding down an ice chute (be it “Skeleton” with middle aged moms competing or the “Luge”) then I really don’t see how anybody can argue against the pole dancers.

I know, I know *I* couldn’t do the other sports (well.. Skeleton I’m pretty sure I could do with a couple of months training). But I *know* that the Pole dancing is out of my league.

The only limit I’d say is, like the uneven bars and the balance beam, this one can be for the ladies only…

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This post was written by Marc
on February 24, 2010 at 6:12 am

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HP Laserjet 1012 Printer – I love it!

Nearly 6 years ago (March of 2004) I paid $210 for my HP Laserjet 1012 Printer. When I did so, I took a look at the cost to replace the toner cartridge in it and saw that it would run me about $80 per cartridge.

Given that the cost for just black and white inkjet cartridges at the time was between $8 and $14 (depending where you shopped and if you bought in bulk) I decided that the LaserJet was worth the gamble.

My needs were:

  • Black and White only is sufficient.
    • Printing Color photographs is ridiculously expensive, they have a tendency to fade quickly (aren’t “fixed” properly as they are in a proper photographic process)
    • While pretty, color maps and printouts are not necessary for my personal use
    • Any of the above that I need can be done for pennies a page by putting them on a thumb drive or emailing to a local Kinkos or CVS.
  • Need a printer that can tolerate relatively long periods between printing (maybe even a few weeks)
    • I found that inkjet cartridges tend to gum up if left inactive for any length of time, ruining the first page or so.
  • Would like what I *do* print to be of high fidelity
    • I did not like the propensity for inkjet printers to pick up some dust or to have a jet malfunction and have a smear or a blank spot through the entire print job.
  • To be cost-effective
    • When inkjet cartridges are reporting themselves to be empty you can ALWAYS feel that they have more ink remaning in them
    • If you have a combo-inkjet where all the colors are in a single cartridge you need to throw a lot of good ink away in the remaining cartridge cells just because one of them is empty (at least reported empty)

Here I am, February of 2010 and I still have not had to replace my original toner cartridge. I have printed literally hundreds and hundreds of pages  – I really wasn’t keeping count of how many reams of paper I’ve put through that little printer – and I’ve never had so much as a smeared page. I’ve not even had to tap the toner cartridge to loosen up any leftover toner or whatever tricks may be necessary to eek out those last few printed pages if I do not have easy access to a replacement when it finally does empty out.

If / when it comes time to replace this printer, I’ll be looking to the same technology again. Inkjet technology has likely come a long way since 2004, but I don’t see that it will ever hold a candle to the laser technology or whatever tech eventually supersedes laser.

This is easily one of the most satisfying and worthwhile purchases I have ever made in the computer sphere.

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This post was written by Marc
on February 22, 2010 at 7:15 am

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Quicken 2010 Deluxe R7 Warning

Just allowed Quicken to go ahead and apply an update bringing it from R5 to R7 and have found that my registers now no longer have a “balance” column.

To be more precise, the column is still there but it is blank. No title, no content.

At first I thought maybe the balances were off the screen so I restarted Quicken and tried running in full screen but neither inspiration worked.

I then tried to use the “pop out registers” option thinking that maybe the different approach to rendering them may help but that also did not correct things.

I’ll send an email to Quicken and see if they have any ideas.

But just a warning, if you use Quicken 2010 Deluxe, you probably want to put off applying the latest update until this issue has been resolved.

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This post was written by Marc
on February 21, 2010 at 1:58 pm

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Action Shots of Michelle

From our shore excursion “Lost Canopy Tour” in Belize, here are a couple of animated Gifs of Michelle.

This first is of her doing the zipline (click on the image)


Mich-Zipline

And her rappeling (click on the image)

Mich-Rappel


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This post was written by Marc
on February 15, 2010 at 7:29 am

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