A Lil Upgrading Work

Currently, I’m busy upgrading our Covalentia.Net Portal. I receive quite a number of minor errors everyday (it’s now running on the old version 2.0), and I’d like to stop all these annoying e-mails immediately. On the Danial Portal, I’m still waiting for the designer team to give me the front-end so that I can do the integration part which shall take a lot of my time.

I’ve nothing else to tell. Well, not really. I'm working on another project, but it has got nothing to do with IT.

It's hmm.. a secret ;)

Have You Seen It?

If you haven't, check it out. The latest Covalentia Version 2.2 at http://www.covalentia.net ;)



Oh, by the way, here's a reply from exabytes regarding the previous hosting issue:

I wrote:

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Dear Exabytes,

I think you should clearly state in your website that the MySQL supported is version 4, and not the latest version 5. Version 5 has been around for quite sometime. If you only put just 'MySQL', a lot of people will assume that it is the latest version.

In regards to my client's hosting (www.danial.com.my), my app runs on ASP.NET 2.0. So, to host on Linux is not an option. My solution now is to advise them to either terminate, refund their money and look for another hosting company, OR pay an extra RM 380 per year for your Microsoft SQL database service. We'll let you know then.

Reply:

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Hello Cozta,

Thanks again for your feedback.

I have reported your suggestion to our management for further review.

Hope to hear for good reply from you.

If you have any enquiries, please do not hesitate to contact. Thank You!

[Censored]
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Customer Service Manager
Exa Bytes Network Sdn Bhd

Web: http://www.exabytes.com | http://www.exabytes.com.my
Helpdesk: http://support.exabytes.com

Yeah. Whatever.

When a Good Day Turns Ugly

Of late I’m working on two projects – The Great Hunt Community Portal and Danial Portal (www.danial.com.my). Both portals will be running on my latest version of Covalentia Version 2.2 which I haven’t released. The Great Hunt Community Portal, a new Employment and Project Outsourcing Portal, was initially scheduled for a soft-launch today. However, due to the recent upgrade of Covalentia (due to the recent release of ASP.NET 2.0 AJAX 1.0 RTM), I have to postpone the proposed launch date, hopefully before the end of this month. And, I will post the project’s source codes on our Covalentia Community Portal. Yes, you heard me right, I will reveal everything, how it is done etc. So, stay tuned ;)

As for the Danial Portal (www.danial.com.my), if you’re in Malaysia, switch your TV on to channel 1 (RTM Satu - Saluran Info Anda ie. Saluran Propaganda BN), and watch the new local cartoon series, Danial, every Tuesday at 7.00 PM GMT +8. Covalent Technology has been awarded by MediaCal (www.mediacal.com.my) to develop this portal using our Covalentia platform. Everything is going well until today after we signed up for a web-hosting solution from exabytes.com. Well, they claimed that they’re the no. 1 web-hosting company (don’t they all do so?), but still they can’t give me what I need. I need ASP.NET 2.0 with AJAX 1.0 and MySQL Server 5.0 to run Covalentia. If you look at their website, it is stated there that they do support MySQL (without stating which version that they support). And it turns out to be MySQL Server 4.1.22. I could switch to Microsoft SQL 2005 instead (since Covalentia supports both Microsoft SQL 2005 and MySQL 5.0 as well as PostgreSQL 8.1+), but I have to pay extra (which they don't tell on their website too).

I admit that it is partly my mistake. I should’ve asked first before signing up. But, being a customer (in this case I am when usually I’m the vendor), and a customer is always right, I think exabytes should highlight CLEARLY in their website what version of MySQL that they support. And they should put the extra payment that I have to pay to use Microsoft SQL 2005 too. I just hate hidden charges. I mean, what’s wrong with putting all the information up there? It’s not like somebody is gonna get killed if you tell the whole world how much you charge extra or if you use the old MySQL Version 4.1. And you claim you’re the no. 1? Geez.