I am now back at KodeeXII.Net. You will be redirected automatically to the site in about 10 seconds. If you're not, then click on THIS. Thank you...
It's been quite a long while since Kepompom.Net was online. Let's see now.. If I'm not mistaken, it's been offline for more than a year now. It was once a place where local malaysians could open up a blog space for free.
We had to to shut it down back then as the server was needed in another project. Since then, it was never brought back online. Now, the domain is expiring soon.. in about 60 days. I'll be renewing it in a while - it's just USD8.50 anyway... In the meantime, figuring out a suitable application to run on the domain space. Any ideas?
Hahaha.. this particular sticker on the back of a Proton Waja really cracked me up. The sticker said "Jika cara saya memandu merbahaya, sila dail 1-800-GIMAMPUS". Translated, it means "If my driving is dangerous, please dial 1-800-GO DIE". The driver of the car - a sweet, innocent looking young lady. Hahaha.
Here in Malaysia, you get to pick the number of your car's license plate, at a cost. The cost, depends on the number you're going after. The nicer the number, the higher the price is. For single digit numbers, you'd probably have to go through a bidding process of some sort. The number will go to the highest bidder. Now, I may be wrong about this, for I have no personal experience in this. I've never attempted to buy a license plate number before.
A normal license plate in Malaysia, currently, consists of at most 3 alphabets and 4 digits (eg: JCJ 5858, WBH 4971, etc.). Then there are those special plates such as Tiara 947, Proton 123, etc. Occasionally, there are the likes of XOIC 234, XIII NAM 221, etc. for those special events which happened here in Malaysia. Now, what are the chances that you'd get a license plate to your liking if you're not going to fork out the extra mulahs for it? Lets see now. Single and double digits are certainly out of the question. What about three digits? Most likely out too (not too sure about this, though). So, you're left with just four digit numbers then. That's like from 1000 to 9999. Between the two, there are also quite a few which are also reserved for the bidders. Sequential numbers like 8888, 2828, 7777, etc are also probably taken by some bidders.
So, what's left? If I were to bid for a license plate number, I'd go for 1212, 7112, or 7175 (my beloved would go for 1104, or 7904) for some personal reasons. What are my chances of getting any of these numbers? Slim would be an understatement, I'd say. The chances of me getting them numbers is like slightly less than 1 in 10,000. However, would I pay RM200 (I was told, that's the amount I'd have to pay to make a license plate number booking) to get any one of the numbers? I'm afraid not. They're just numbers. They don't mean a thing.
Well, today must be my lucky day (if you want to call it that). Yes, I've just registered my brand new Hyundai Accent earlier today. For those interested, here's what the new ride looks like: (different color and body kit, though) 
Hehe. All I can say, Alhamdulillah.
I kinda like the way MS is doing this. In Start.com, clicking the title of the news item expands the news right on the current page. It also shows the entire content of the news item. Not just a few lines. This way, I don't have to be redirected to the actual web page to read the entire story of a news item. I also like the way the selected feed is displayed as a layer on top of the page. It makes for easier reading of the selected news item. Cool.. love the shadow too.
Google's offering is currently still a little bit behind in terms of features. As of this writing, it offers only a limited number of functionality. As a matter of fact, there's no support for personal news feeds - you can't add your own feed into the site. The feed source they provide are also limited. Only 5 news feeds are made available to users - BBC News, New York Times, Google News, Slashdot, and Wired.
This is what Google Homepage looks like:
Both sites support drag and drop within the web page. You can, to some extent, personalize the way the page looks in your web browser. However, for Start.com, the drag and drop thingy is still not working in Firefox. Basically, for now, start.com is not fully supported in non IE based browsers. Google's work fine in both IE and Firefox.
Start.com does not require any login, while Google requires users to sign up (you can use your GMail user id if you already have one).
Personally, I'd prefer to use Start.com right now. Google's site is just way too limited in functionallity currently to impress me. However, I'd stick to the likes of Bloglines for news aggregation functionality. MS and Google will have to really beef up their offerings if they want to compete against the existing Web based News Aggregator like Bloglines. However, I do believe that both will turn out to be great when the final release is launched.
Start.com is currently in its so called version 3. The older versions are still available, however. If you want to test drive all the Start.com versions, head on over to Start.com V1, Start.com V2, and Start.com.
What I like the most about DasBlog is it's storage system. No database is required. It uses XML as it's storage. One less software to install. 
DasBlog 1.0 is a weblog engine derived from Chris Anderson's BlogX and built on top of ASP.NET and the Microsoft .NET Framework. DasBlog is a simple content management and content presentation system that allows simple, chronological and categorized management of usually small notes and articles. To allow aggreation of the content using common tools, the system supports the RSS 2.0 format, which can be generated for several types of views, including the "front page", per-category views, and a view for the comments on every article.
Moving from blogger to DasBlog would require an export of some sort from Blogger database to DasBlog. Thus, a Google was performed. The google result did not dissapoint. The first two results provided me with the solution I'd require to move my blog from Blogger to DasBlog. The first is a template mod to redirect all hits on blogger to the actual site automatically. The other is the export method and utility. Will have to try it out first though, before I actually do the blog migration.
Actually, wayyyyy before I begin this exercise, will need to bring up the Kodeexii.Net server first. Heheh.. Think it's almost renewal time too. Is my salary in yet? Hmmmmmm
I guess, the best I can do is to catch it via the Tech Ed 2005 Webcast Series then. Provided that I haven't gone to bed, they are like 18 hours behind. By the time they start webcasting, it's almost midnite here. Bummer. Will try to catch at least one of the webcast though. Just hope the Streamyx line is up to it.
The next bet in getting some info from Tech Ed would be to check out the Tech-Ed Bloggers site. Think I'll head on over there to check it out a bit. Hmmmm... way too many postings already. Perhaps I'll just subscribe to the feed instead. There are 6 feeds altogether. Which should I subsribe to?
All
AMD is also streaming a live feed from their exhibition booth in Tech-Ed. Check it out here. I haven't seen it yet as it's not up right now. Will check it out later.
Just checked out Tech-Ed 2005 Worldwide, didn't see Malaysia listed in there. Does this mean there is no Tech-Ed in town this year? MS Malaysia.. Why is this so? Awwww.. come on.. I missed it last year. Thought of going to this year's Tech-Ed. 5 Tech-Ed's in India alone? Can't one of those be transfered here instead?
Time to feed on some blog feeds.. heheh
I can't recall when I enrolled into Google Adsense. As a matter of fact, I've just realized that this site's Adsense script was missing. So, I went over to Adsense to check out how my account is doing? How much have I made since my enrollment? Check it out.. heheh.
Interesting.. I've actually just earned a mere $0.39. That's from two web sites. Oh well.. So, I've added Google Ads back into the site.. Let's see what happens now.
Registered this site into a blog exchange site - BlogExplosion. What's a blogexchange? Well, it's a site where the members are obligated to read other members' blog. What do you get out of it? Basically, more hits to your blog (hopefuly).
So, I've registered a couple of blogs into this exchange. Let's see if it really hikes up hits to the sites. Here's how it works.
The concept is very simple. You read other blog sites and they in return visit your blog. Blogexplosion is the internet's first blog exchange where thousands of bloggers visit each other's blogs in order to receive tons of blog traffic.
Will be checking on my site traffic stats. To see if there is any spike in my hits after joining this.
We (I and me wife) spent some time in Alamanda the other day. I managed to stop by the MPH bookstore. Guess what I found? It's the Joel on Software book. Who is this guy, you ask? Well, I've been reading his blog for about a year plus now. An excellent technical blog for those into software development stuff.
Did I say technical? Yeah, I did. It's not really technical, though. You're not gonna get sample codes and stuff from his blog nor the book. What you'll get is an insight to the world of software development. The book, will not turn you into a super programmer overnight. It does not provide codes that make you the star developer in your company.
So, what good does it do, to read the book, you ask? Well, the book will prepare you to handle the mental and emotional pressure of the software development world. Joel explains, in his "unique sense", how and why things are as they are in the software development world. As an example, you'll understand why it's important to have functional specs before you even begin to write code.
I'd say, the book is a should have if you intend to be successful in the software development world. Not to say that it'll ensure your success. It'll more likely guide you in your successful journey in software development. The book is not only good for developers, it's also an excellent guide for the managers and CTOs of software development companies.
Another good thing about it is its' price. I've always thought that good IT books in Malaysia will cost like RM120+. Was I surprised to discover that this book costs just RM50+ (can't recall the exact value, but it's not even RM60). An excellent value for money purchase I'd say. However, if you don't feel like forking out RM50+ for the book, but still want to check out Joel's writing, the book is also available on line at his website. I prefer the book, as Joel puts it:
" .. (to) take on the bus, hold in your hand, read in the bus, and throw at your boss."
I'm halfway through the book already, now. Next, would be to find Joel's other book - "User Interface Design for Programmers", which is also available online. Didn't see it in Alamanda. Will enquire, soon.
I'm not able to update my blog postings into my server right now. Though it is still accessible via http, all attempts to connect via remote desktop or ftp fails. I have no clue to why it's behaving this way. Looks like I'll have to head on over to the hosting site and check it out myself.
Luckily, I can still post this into blogger. So, for the moment, until I can find some time to check the server physically, I'll be posting stuff into blogger. Once I've got the server fixed, will then resubmit everything into the server.
Oh well..
You want a GMail invite but can't find someone who is willing to send you an invitation (you mean you don't know anyone with a GMail account?)... Well, fear not. There is still hope for you yet.
There is a site in the world wide web that is currently pooling together a whole lot of GMail invites. What? Pooling GMail invites? Yeah, that's right. As of this writing, the site has got close to 300,000 GMail invites spooled in its system.
All you have to do to get an invite is by entering your email address into a field provided and click a button. The Gmail Invite will then arrive in your mailbox with a link to claim your GMail account.
That's all there is to it. No frills.
So.. what are you waiting for.. You do want that GMail account don't you.. Then head on over to this site here and happy GMailing.
StrayHorn is the given name for the latest release of WordPress - WordPress 1.5. Released at the end of last week - February 17th 2005. By the time the released was announce here, about 12,126 people have downloaded it.
I'm not a WordPress user though. I did however downloaded one of it's earlier versions some time ago. Must have left my email address some where in their database since I received their announcement by email. Oh well..
Among them many new features of this release:
* Easier template system
* Gorgeous new default template
* Great comment management
* Refined administration
* Faster, more secure, smaller, cuter, et cetera
Hmmmm, perhaps, I will check this new release out. Who knows.. They may have something I like... If you're interested to try this new WordPress Release, head on over here.
Got a surprise from GMail today. I logged into GMail and discovered that I've got like 50 invitations to give away.
So.. Any of you out there needs a GB of mail storage? Just drop me your email address. I'll gladly send you the invitation to open a GMail account. I heard that some folks are even selling GMail invites on eBay. Not sure if that's true, though. Never visited eBay.
Version 2 of my currently favorite digital photo organizer is out. Yeah, Picasa 2.0 is now available for download. From the looks of it (I haven't run through it yet), this new version is loaded with new image manipulation functions.
I do hope it comes with a Caption editing function, though. Perhaps it does come with a Caption Editor, since the caption element was already available in its XML output previously. Why put the Caption option if it is not going to be there? Another hope of mine is that it churns out a properly indented XML file.
Aaaahhhh.. just finished reading up bits on what's new in this version. Hey, looks like captions are in. Hmmm.. looks like I can now put in a few words for my photos.. hehe. Okay, so here are some of the new features:
- Captions
- Labels
- Image fixes, tuning and effects - sepia, black n white, soft focus, etc.
- Collage creations
- ScreenSavers
- Gift CD
- Poster creations
- Photo archiving
- etc.
Wow.. check it out. That's a handful of new features. I will certainly try every single feature out. Hmmmmm.. screen savers eh..
With Picasa, if you have a Blogger blog, you can post your photos into your blog, directly from within Picasa itself. However, a Blogger account and the Hello software is required. So.. allow me to run through this new version before I make further comments and reviews about it.
Here's a bit of news from the Liga-A site. A couple of soccer tournaments are currently running. Piala Jaya Ansara and Piala Salam Ansara. Liga-A Rugby have just concluded last weekend.
Piala Jaya Ansara 2005 kicked off last weekend. The only match played was between Ansara Muar and Ansara Beseri. Muar will be playing in the second division of Liga-A this season. The team is perhaps sending an early signal to the other teams in the second division, though they are made up of mainly students, never under estimate their capabilities. Read all about their first game this season - here.
While there seems to be some hiccups in Piala Jaya Ansara, Piala Salam Ansara went along smoothly with Ansara Taiping winning against Mozac (3 - 1), and Ansara Serting winning against Asputra (2 - 1). Catch a short review on Piala Salam - here.
Soccer is not the only sports being organized by Liga-A. This season, Liga-A introduces Karnival Ragbi 10s Ansara 2005. Read about it - here. Note: this url did not display correctly when I opened it up in my FireFox. Have not tested it out on IE though.
Next in line, after this Piala Jaya and Piala Salam would be the Liga-A Futsal Tournament. This tournament begins February 2oth and ends just before the start of the 2005 Liga-A season, on April 3rd. Liga-A kicks off with the Charity Shield between SDARA and STAROBA on April 17th.
Looks like I've got my work cut out for me once again. Need to start looking for sponsors once again... Oh well..
So, do you belong to a high school alumni? If you are, and you would like to get involved in all t he activities organized by Liga-A, just drop them a line at the web site. Would like to start your high school alumni but have no clue on how or where to begin? Drop a line at the Liga-A web site. They can help you out.
Speaking of extensions, wanna check out the extensions I've got installed so far? Here they are:
Web Developer 0.9.2 SwitchProxy Tool 1.3.1 fireFTP 0.86.1 Download Manager Tweak 0.6.3 ColorZilla 0.6.5 Disable Targets For Downloads 0.8 Google Preview 0.8 infoRSS 0.7.7 Sage 1.3 Html Validater (based on Tidy) 0.3.1 LiveLines 0.3.2 JavaScript Debugger 0.9.84 jsLib Lite 0.1.234 Tabbrowser Preferences 1.1.1 ScrapBook 0.12.0 SmoothWheel 0.43.1.20041107Am I a Mozilla Extension freak? Sure hope not! But then, there are still a whole lot more extensions I've downloaded and will be installing soon. Bummer..
Just noticed a strange behavior with Blogger's Atom output. My postings have different content types when Blogger export them into the atom.xml file. Some are exported as application/xhtml+xml, and some as just text/html. Is this a bug in Blogger or it has something to do with the contents of my postings? Hmmmmm.... Any one have a clue?
Running out of Torrent sites? While the likes of MPAA and RIAA are working hard in trying to shut down existing torrent sites, the creator of SuprNova.org - Sloncek, in partnership with an unnamed company is currently pushing out beta versions of a new P2P software. This beta product, called eXeem, is currently undergoing beta testing by numerous beta testers - in the range of 5000 testers. So, if you're interested in this upcoming P2P software, head on over to - eXeem Review - SuprNova successor hands-on. A pretty interesting review of the product.
I've been monitoring my site's stats lately. Guess what I noticed? Close to 60% of the people who visits my site use the Mozilla Firefox. I too, am a Firefox user myself. Been using it for quite a while now. If you're still wondering about Why Firefox?, try it out yourself and 
fireFtp - I now have a FTP client running inside my browser window. FoxyTune - I am listening to my favorite tunes within my browser window. GMail Notifier - I'm now notified of new mails in my GMail account. InfoRSS - I've got an RSS ticker in my Firefox's status bar. Sage - An RSS / Atom reader right within Firefox.The above mentioned extensions are just a few of the many available. And of course, if you read my post yesterday, there is also an extension for viewing annotations on websites. A whole lot of people are really into Firefox. Over at the Spread Firefox! Community Site, work is in progress to create a Firefox logo mosaic from pages of web sites. Here's what it looks like right now:
If you'd like to get the actual image, it's here. Be warned that it's a whopping 2MB file.
Do I still use Internet Explorer then? Unfortunately, yes. For some strange reason, which I do not fathom, there are sites out there that can only be viewed with IE. Thus, I still use IE whenever I have to. Oh well..
Folowing up from my last post about XML and XSL StyleSheets, I've ventured the net in search of the best XML Development tools or IDE. I've so far tested a few of them. Open Source and commercial products. Among the products I've tinkered and will be tinkering with are:
Stylus Studio XMLSpy CookTop 2.5 AmayaThe last two are Open Source products. XMLSpy 2005 Home Edition is free, though not open source. Of the four, I like Stylus Studio the most. Why so? Perhaps, mainly because of its' documentation and tutorials. Not forgetting, its well designed development environment (IDE) that also comes with the tool tip assistant, which they call Sense:X intelligent editing. I'm currently in the midst of going through the examples that comes with the product. All I can say, I'm getting the hang of all these XML, XSLT, XPath, etc. thingy. Amaya, on the other hand, is not only a tool to develop XML stuff. It is also a browser. A very advance browser I might say. I say this, because it's developed to support a whole lot of the W3C technologies. As mentioned in their web site:
.. to showcase Web technologies in a fully-featured Web client. The main motivation for developing Amaya was to provide a framework that can integrate as many W3C technologies as possible. It is used to demonstrate these technologies in action ..Among the technology already supported by the product: HTML 4.01, XHTML 1.0, XHTML Basic, XHTML 1.1, HTTP 1.1, MathML 2.0, many CSS 2 features, collaborative annotations and SVG support (transformation, transparency, and SMIL animation on OpenGL platforms). Of all the technologies supported by Amaya, I'm really impressed with the Annotea. Here's what it looks like:
Imagine, putting comments and annotations on a specific web site and sharing them with everyone. Hmmmm.. interesting way of making comments to a blog eh. Pretty cool stuff, this Amaya. and did I mention? It's Open Source.
Speaking of Annotea, there is a Mozilla implementation of Annotea for Mozilla and FireFox browsers named Annozilla, still in Beta. If you're interested, get it. FireFox uses, however will only be able to view the annotations.
Ok. Looks like that's all the time I have right now. Will be covering the other products in another posting.
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