Covalentia on Mono

We’ve been working around the clock tweaking and replacing components in Covalentia to make it run on Mono and Fedora Core 4. So far, we’ve managed to deploy it using Xsp2 but fail to do so using Mod Mono Apache 2.2 (see figure below – the “localhost” is clearly highlighted to show that we’re not bluffing). The mod_mono_server2.exe doesn’t seem to execute correctly and it fails to even run the simple ASP.NET 2.0 samples. The deadline is September 1, 2007, and we shall release it by then ;)

Job Vacancies at Covalent Technology

Yes, that’s right, we’re hiring. We’re looking for junior programmers or fresh graduates and business development/marketing executives to help us enhance Covalentia, service our existing clients and develop new products using Covalentia. But, before I go into the details, let me just inform you how happy I am to finally receive a check from the Government of Malaysia via Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation (MOSTI). I’d like to thank the people there who’d worked towards the disbursement of this fund even without the official signing and stamping of the grant agreement, especially, Mr. Mohd Yusree Yusof.

Now, I just can’t wait to go to the VW showroom to pay for the down-payment of a new Passat. I’m just kidding :)

So, I need the followings ASAP:

C# Web Developer – Junior Programmer / Fresh Graduate

Requirements

• Knowledge in object-oriented programming, C#, ASP.Net, Javascript, AJAX, any database
• Knowledge in Mono is an advantage
• No experience/certification required – training will be provided
• Willing to learn and use our platform – Covalentia (www.covalentia.net)
• Positive, creative and innovative
• A minimum of Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science/Information Technology

Scope of Work

• To assist in developing/enhancing Covalentia
• To assist in servicing Covalent Technology’s clients (may be located from time-to-time on-site at clients’ places) – implement changes in design and coding using Covalentia and provide technical expertise
• To develop new products using Covalentia

Salary Range: RM 2,000 to RM 3,000
Job Type: 6-month to 1-year Contract (3 months probation)

Business Development/Marketing Executive – Fresh Graduate

Requirements

• Some knowledge/skills in Information Technology (Software) industry – training will be provided
• Good public relation & communication and critical thinking skills - able to work independently and interact well with all level of people
• Well organized, self-motivated and results oriented
• A minimum of diploma in any disciplines, preferably Information Technology

Scope of Work

• To assist in compiling business requirement studies of the existing clients – attending meetings and providing follow-ups & feedbacks
• To assist in compiling product documentations and help files
• To assist in promoting/marketing of Covalentia, Covalent Technology’s products and getting new businesses

Salary Range: RM 1,700 to RM 2,200 plus commission on any new business
Job Type: 6-month to 1-year Contract (3 months probation)

Interested? Send your CV/Resume to career@covalent-tech.com

Covalentia Version 2.4

Business is as usual. Covalent Technology is back on track, and soon I should be able to see positive numbers on my spread sheets. I don't wanna sound optimistic because I am not (I am known to be very pessimistic, negative and evil), but I believe I may be able to turn this company around as planned. I've pretty much completed the 1st phase of my job here at MOCCIS Trading Sdn Bhd, and payment is so far very good. I'm working on my 2nd phase at the moment which is to revamp their current Loan Management System using Covalentia. It's going to be a pain in the ass, but a valuable pain in the ass, for it marks my first entry into the financial industry. Well, sort of.

I'm supposed to release Covalentia Version 2.4. I am already using it to develop three applications. On the contrary, it's probably better not to release it until I find and fix all the bugs. For your information, Covalentia Version 2.3 is quite buggy, and I don't recommend you to download it (say what?). It's a transition between the old version and the new one that supports Oracle, and I didn't have enough time to test it. But, the latest version should be very stable and I will freeze further development of Covalentia after this point so that I can concentrate on tweaking it to run on Mono or Grasshopper framework. The dateline is September 2007.

Now, where the heck is my grant money? The government hasn't got back to me for such a long time, and I wonder if I'm ever gonna get the fund. It's been almost 2 months since I last submitted the agreement to be signed by the Chief Secretary of Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation and it’s most probably sitting at the very bottom of a very thick stack of documents. Oh well. No hope there. Forget about it.

I will release the latest version soon. I just don’t have enough time to come up with the help files. I'm supposed to meet this one programmer who has a Master of Computer Science from Carnegie Mellon and is gettin' much higher pay than myself. He's my junior, so to speak. And, I'm planning to hire him to help me out. Hmm, does it make any sense to you?

I now realize that I am underpaid. I made some calls and found out that junior programmers out there are making more. Seriously.

Covalentia Version 2.3: Powered by Oracle

Covalentia may not be as good as other code generators such as Iron Speed etc to have version compatibility, but at least, it’s FREE of charge (since I’ve consumed a lot of other FREE stuffs from the internet, I’d say it’s time to give back to the community). I realize that this is a big issue - whenever Covalentia gets upgraded, migration from the previous version to the latest one is going to be a pain in the ass. But, worry not – we’ll address this issue later on when we come to that stage ;)

I’ve spent tremendous hours trying to include Oracle Database as one of the databases supported by Covalentia. And it ain’t an easy job. Oracle Database has got some limitations compared to other databases such as Microsoft SQL, MySQL and PostgreSQL. Perhaps, this is the reason why it’s faster? No? I have no experience in using Oracle and so I can’t say much about its real performance compared to others. Now, let’s talk about these limitations, and you’ll soon find out why I had to do the changes that I did in the latest release.

• Renaming SystemTbl table to ConfigurationTbl
  Oracle doesn’t seem to like that name, anything ‘SYSTEM’ is probably a reserved word. So, we have to rename the table to ConfigurationTbl. And while we’re at it, why not remove and add the following items:
  • Remove SystemPath column – put this variable in the web.config file instead and rename it to ApplicationPath.
  • Add a new column – ErrorLogEmail to store the Error Log E-mail address.
    
    
• Renaming of the following tables (and their corresponding primary keys) and stored procedures because Oracle limits the length of identifiers (table name, column name etc) to only 30 characters.
  • UserGroupSubModuleFunctionTypeTbl table to UserGroupSmftTbl
  • UserSubModuleFunctionTypeTbl table to UserSmftTbl
  • DeleteUserGroupSubModuleFunctionTypesByUserGroup stored procedure to DeleteUgsmftByUg
  • DeleteUserSubModuleFunctionTypesByUser stored procedure to DeleteUsmftByU
  • DeleteUserSubModuleFunctionTypesByUserGroup stored procedure to DeleteUsmftByUg
    
    
• Naming convention
  Covalentia uses the following naming convention for tables and columns respectively: TableName and ColumnName
  Oracle (and PostgreSQL), however, doesn’t allow this. Well, not really, you could preserve the case but this will cause some major problems when coding Covalentia as I have to add “TableName”.“ColumnName” here and there (with “) in the SQL queries. So, we have to stick with TABLENAME and COLUMNNAME (all capital case) for Oracle and tablename and columnname (all lower case) for PostgreSQL. As you may already realize that this may cause problems when generating Business Objects, Component and Control classes and User Controls (classes names, variables names and web controls IDs etc).
  
  MySQL, on the other hand, strictly sets the table names to be lower cases. This, however, doesn’t hurt much as we can manually change them before we generate the Business Objects. The rest, ie. the column names, are fine and work like a charm. If you’re deploying your database server on a Linux machine, don’t forget to set the lower_case_table_names=1 in the my.cnf file under the [mysqld] section.
  
  We’re going to come up with a solution to this problem in the next release (Covalentia Version 2.3 Reloaded).

So, stay tuned ;)

Moving Forward

Covalent Technology has just secured a grant (fund) under the Enterprise Innovation Fund Scheme from the Government of Malaysia (Ministry of Science & Technology). We've returned the draft agreement and signed the acceptance letter on May 03, 2007. Now, we're waiting for the official agreement to be released and signed by both parties (that'll take some time or a lot I suppose). The fund which amounts to RM 177,020 (~USD 50k) will help to sustain FREE Covalentia for another year. We've outlined a few things that we want to do:

Objectives

• To further develop Covalentia to become an open source cross-platform Rapid Application Development Tool for .NET that supports not only web-based application development, but also windows and console applications, and windows and web services
• To help beginners or junior programmers of local companies and government agencies to quickly produce .NET applications faster and more efficiently to lower development costs and risks
• To develop Covalentia E-Learning & Certification Program and online interactive support to help ICT students and unemployed graduates to learn and use Covalentia, polish their skills in .NET programming and be market-ready – to produce more highly skilled human capital

Milestones

• Multi-database Version
  • To redevelop and test Data Access Layer and Object Relational Mapping component to support other major database servers such as PostgreSQL and Oracle servers
  • Target Completion Date: 01 June 2007
• Cross-platform Version
  • To tweak, compile and run Covalentia on Linux operating system using Mono and Grasshopper Frameworks
  • Target Completion Date: 01 September 2007
• Multi-project-type Version
  • To develop and test multi-project-type components to support:
    • Web Application (Done)
    • Console Application Template (Done)
    • Windows Service Template (Done)
    • Web Service Template (Done)
    • Windows Application
  • Target Completion Date: 01 December 2007
• Covalentia E-Learning & Certification Program
  • To finalize contents, release and market Covalentia E-Learning & Certification Program and online interactive support/help
  • Target Completion Date: 01 March 2008
• Product Documentation, Testing and Benchmarking
  • To finalize product documentation and tutorials, and to run final test and benchmarking on Covalentia
  • Target Completion Date: 01 April 2008

When there's money, there'll be a lot of possibilites. A lot of things could happen. We might end up buying a beamer instead. Just kiddin' :) But, definitely, we're going to require more resources to reach these objectives and milestones. So, if you're interested to join us, do contact us, and we'll see what we can do together ;)

Oh, and preferrably women and married :)

Setting Up a Linux Box

I spent numerous hours last week trying to recuperate my skills on setting up a Linux machine properly to run a dedicated MySQL Database for our Showcase - list of applications powered by Covalentia. The Mirror Site is now running two separate machines - one application (web server) and one MySQL Database server.

Please refer to my previous entry on how to install MySQL on a Fedora Core 4. After doing all that, I had to tweak a few things to make it work:

• Configuring MySQL database
  • gedit /etc/my.cnf
• Add the following line under the [mysqld] section:
  • lower_case_table_names = 1
• Configure the Replication Slave Section, please refer to my previous entry
• Save the file
• Restart the MySQL Server
  
• Next, configure the VNC Server so that I can access the server remotely
  • gedit /etc/sysconfig/vncservers
  • Uncomment VNCSERVERS:"1:cozta"
  • Uncomment VNCSERVERARGS:"-geometry 1280x800 -depth 16
  • Save the file
    
  • gedit /home/cozta/.vnc/xstartup
  • Uncomment unset SESSION_MANAGER
  • Uncomment exec /etc/X11/xinit/xinitrc
  • Save the file
• Restart VNC Server
  • service vncserver restart

I think that's about it ;)

And NO, we don't host gold or moolah on any of our server. So, if you're a hacker, DO NOT try to hack them because you're not gonna get anythin'. Go play someplace else (or with somethin' else or with yourself) :)

Installing Firefox 2 on Fedora Core 4

Well, before I forget, I better jot down everythin' that I did today for future reference :)

Fedora Core 4 comes with Firefox 1.0.5 or lesser, I can't remember. You could upgrade this to Firefox 1.0.8 using yum install firefox, but apparently, this version doesn't support my new Covalentia Showcase page which I just uploaded. It just hanged and so I decided to install the latest version of Firefox Version 2.0.0.3. Unfortunately, it doesn't have an RPM which would definitely make my life easier. And the installation instruction at Firefox totally sucks, ie. there is NO instruction. Well, I couldn't find any.

• Download firefox-2.0.0.3.tar.gz from www.firefox.com
• Execute the followings:
  • mv firefox-2.0.0.3.tar.gz /usr/local
  • cd /usr/local
  • tar xzf firefox-2.0.0.3.tar.gz
  • mv /usr/bin/firefox /usr/bin/firefox1
  • ln -s /usr/local/firefox/firefox /usr/bin/firefox
• Download compat-libstdc++-33-3.2.3-47.fc4.i386.rpm
• Execute the followings:
  • rpm -i compat-libstdc++-33-3.2.3-47.fc4.i386.rpm
• Finally, close all your Firefox browsers and start a new one

And we're done!

Installing MySQL 5.0 on Fedora Core 4

By default, I’m a Windows user. The last time I used Linux or Unix platform heavily was back then in Cornell, around 10 years or so ago. I have lost my touch and limited skills, and I think it’s time to hone them.

The goal is to run MySQL 5.0 and PostgreSQL on Fedora Core 4 so that I can do various testing and development works, such as replication (I don’t have enough machines to do clustering and so that has to wait) and perhaps start on my Mono project.

The first thing to do was to Google on ‘how to install fedora core 4’ and ‘how to install mysql 5 on fedora core 4’. Well, I didn’t really like what I saw – a lot of people complained about plenty of problems. But, surprisingly, it didn’t take me too long to successfully get the box up and running. Or may be I was just lucky, heh.

• Pentium 4 1.4GHz
• 256MB of RAM
• 40G Hard Drive
• Boot to Fedora Core 4 DVD and install using the graphical interface
• Skip the Media Check
• Select the Server installation
• Disable the Firewall and SELinux
• Add the followings in the Packages:
  • Gnome – IMHO Gnome is much better than KDE, but some other people think otherwise. It’s totally up to you
  • Graphical Internet
  • FTP
  • MySQL Database
  • Development Tools
• Click through to complete the installation
• Create a default user
• Login to the box using root
• Open up Firefox and download the followings:
  • http://dev.mysql.com:
    • MySQL-server-community-5.0.37-0.rhel4.i386.rpm
    • MySQL-client-community-5.0.37-0.rhel4.i386.rpm
    • MySQL-shared-compat-5.0.37-0.rhel4.i386.rpm
    • mysql-gui-tools-5.0r11-rhel4-i386.tar.gz
  • http://rpm.pbone.net/index.php3/stat/4/idpl/1991817/com/ptt-beta2.i386.rpm.html:
    • ptt-beta2.i386.rpm
  • http://rpm.pbone.net/index.php3/stat/4/idpl/1692645/com/j2re-1.4.2-11.2.el4.rf.i586.rpm.html
    • j2re-1.4.2-11.2.el4.rf.i586.rpm
• Remove the existing MySQL 4.1:
  • yum remove '*mysql*'
• Install MySQL 5.0 Server & Client:
  • rpm –i MySQL-server-community-5.0.37-0.rhel4.i386.rpm
  • rpm –i MySQL-client-community-5.0.37-0.rhel4.i386.rpm
• Start, Stop & Restart MySQL Server, and create a root password:
  • /etc/init.d/mysql start | stop | restart
  • mysqladmin –u root password ‘’
• Login to MySQL Client:
  • mysql –u root –p
  • Enter your root password
  • mysql> drop database test;
  • mysql> quit;
• Install MySQL GUI Tools (Administrator & Browser):
  • rpm –i ptt-beta2.i386.rpm
  • rpm –i j2re-1.4.2-11.2.el4.rf.i586.rpm
  • rpm -i MySQL-shared-compat-5.0.37-0.rhel4.i386.rpm
  • tar –zxf mysql-gui-tools-5.0r11-rhel4-i386.tar.gz
  • rpm –ivh mysql-gui-tools-5.0r11-1rhel4.i386.rpm
  • rpm –ivh mysql-administrator-5.0r11-1rhel4.i386.rpm
  • rpm –ivh mysql-query-browser-5.0r11-1rhel4.i386.rpm
• Finally, run your MySQL Administrator (from Start Menu -> Programming -> MySQL Administrator) and enter your login information:
  • Server hostname: localhost
  • Username: root
  • Password:

And we're DONE!

At the moment, I have this box running as a Slave server (READ only) for the Covalentia.2.2 (Enterprise Edition) Live Demo at our Mirror Site at covalentia.dyndns.org. Feel free to check it out ;)

Covalentia Version 2.2 Enterprise Edition

One my clients complained the other day that their application using Covalentia with MySQL database has become a lil bit slower than usual as the data grows in size. So, I thought I should come up with a version that supports Master & Slaves (MySQL Replication) servers. The idea is to execute the CREATE, UPDATE and DELETE functions on the Master database server, and READ on one of the Slave machines. In addition, I will have to move the Reporting Service to another machine which will Read from another Slave machine. This way I can minimize the load on the current application and database servers.

And apparently, it didn't take me too long to do this:

• Changed the web.config file to add the following connection string for the Slave database server:
  <add key="SlaveConnectionString" value="server=localhost; UID=<slave_user>; Password=<slave_password>; Database=covalentia_v22; Max Pool Size=500"/>
• Opened up the /DataAccess/Objects.cs file
• Looked for GetObject & GetObjects regions
• Looked for methods under these two regions that do not have "string connectionString" parameter - these methods load the connection string from the web.config file
• Added the following codes:
  if (System.Configuration.ConfigurationManager.AppSettings["SlaveConnectionString"] != null)
  {
  return whatever - edited to System.Configuration.ConfigurationManager.AppSettings["SlaveConnectionString"]
  }
  else
  {
  return whatever - no change
  }
  
  There should be 4 methods in total.
• Compiled

However, before I could proceed with the testing, I needed a Slave database server. Luckily, I still have my old-and-underutilized iASUS notebook which I primarily use to back-up my files. And so, I installed MySQL Server 5.0 on this machine and set it up as a Slave as follows:

Slave (old notebook - Windows XP Professional):

• Opened up the my.ini file
• Added the following:
  log-error
  master-host=
  master-user=
  master-password=
  server-id=2
  replicate-do-db=covalentia_v22
  relay-log=-relay-bin

Master (my current notebook - Windows XP Professional):

• Opened up the my.ini file
• Added the following:
  log-error
  log-bin=
  server-id=1
• Opened up MySQL Command Line, entered and executed the following command:
  mysql>grant all privileges on *.* to ''@'%' identified by '' with grant option;
  
  
• Restarted the MySQL Master database server
• Restarted the MySQL Slave database server

And that should be it. Done! Oh not quite. I needed to test it to see that this setup's really working. And the simplest test was to logon to Covalentia and browse to Administration Module --> Log Management --> User Log, and hit the Search button. I could see the latest log entry and, thus, the READing from my Slave server was successful.

I shall be a good slave and upload this latest version ASAP ;)

Back in Business

Covalent Technology is back in business. My goal is to turn this company around – solve the financial crisis that has long haunted my Excel spread sheet – before the end of this year, before I move on to another venture.

Our Covalentia Community Portal is back, newly hosted at VPSLand.com. Like I mentioned previously, the price that they’re charging is relatively cheap and they provide excellent support and fast response. I’d recommend this company to anyone who wants to try out Virtual Private Server. But if you just need a simple ASP.NET hosting, well, you can come to us. It’s not FREE, but it’s so cheap that it becomes negligible or relatively FREE ;) Contact us at support@covalentia.net (we have a new e-mail now, it's no longer support@covalent-tech.com).

On the MOCCIS Trading project, I managed to sort all the problems out. In fact, I’ve learned a lot about IBM DB2 and I might consider putting it in the next release of Covalentia. NOT!

And finally, my Enterprise Innovation Fund (EIF) from the Ministry of Science, Technology & Innovative Malaysia, has been approved. It took them 5 months to evaluate and I don’t know how long they’ll take to disburse the money. 6 months perhaps? I asked for RM 250K (~USD 71K) but the total amount approved is only RM 177,020.00 (~USD 50K). I’m not sure how they came up with that figure, on what basis etc. But why not just round it to, say, RM 177K or 178K? Oh well, in any event, I’m just glad and I hope that the fund WILL be disbursed. This money will be used to buy me a lot of lunches and dinners that I’ve skipped. And the rest will be used to further develop FREE Covalentia. I’d say, may be, 10% of the total amount. Hmm that should be more than enough eh?

Oh, and if you guys would like to donate, to add up to this amount (help me fill my belly with food and more food), DO NOT hesitate :)

New Hosting For Covalentia.Net Community Portal

We are in the process of moving the contents of our lame server to a real hosting provider, from BolehLand to VPSLand.com. The previous provider wasn't real, our server was hosted under a FREE plan not available anywhere else in the world :) Unfortunately, some network guy in the company which happens to be the largest ISP provider in Malaysia, audited the network and detected our unused-and-not-supposed-to-be-there network and decided to close it down.
Fudge.

Oh well, in any event, this migration process will take awhile, perhaps a week or so. I've never used a Virtual Private Server before, and I think that it's kinda cool. So, why not try it out. And the price isn't that expensive (I can still afford it, well, may be I have to skip a few breakfasts and lunches in a month, that'll do) at USD 38 per month, equivalent to approximately RM 136.80 per month.

Donation anybody? Help us out so that we can continue to provide FREE Covalentia. Stay tuned ;)

To Err is Human

To really fuck it up, you need a computer :)

Well, we got a new job at MOCCIS Trading (Malay Officers Cooperative Credit And Investment Society). But, it's not the kinda job I had in mind. The previous developer, Meridian Diversified, which provided a Java solution for day-to-day operation at MOCCIS decided to pull out two weeks ago and refused to hand over the source codes properly. However, the biggest problem isn't the source codes, but the complex month-end back-end reporting services executed via scripts which sat on one of their workstations. And the workstation was taken away.

Hmm. So, Covalent was called in to solve these problems by performing some miracles. Reverse engineering in less than 15 days? Yeah right. Whatever source codes that they left were not documented. The codes really suck. And, I freakin' don't understand their naming convention. Some LF_SHIT, SF_SHIT, what the heck is LF? SF? The connection strings and schema names were hardcoded which have to be changed and recompiled every single month. And guess what, they're still using Corba, and IBM DB2! Oh geez, it couldn't get any worse. Tell me, how do you truncate a table in IBM DB2? You can do it easily in MS SQL, MySQL and PostgreSQL. Just one sql statement "TRUNCATE " or "TRUNCATE TABLE " would do. Oh wait, IBM DB2 doesn't support this. We have to drop and re-create the table or load it with an empty fuckin' dummy file. IBM DB2 costs around RM 50K, and it can't even do a simple truncate function. Fuckin' hell.Do you know how much this Meridian Diversified which apparently doesn't even have a website charged MOCCIS Trading? RM 50K a month since 2004, just to execute some silly back-end services that they refused to automate. And the development work? I heard a fuckin' RM 3 Million for such a lowsy java solution (with hardcoded connection strings, fuckin' stupid developer) using IBM DB2.

And how much would Covalent charge? Well, we're going to charge 'em, let's see, hmm... RM 15K a month for performing miracles, and redeveloping the whole thing using ASP.NET. Cheap eh? Yeah, we are cheap mofos ;)

If anyone of you out there thinks that I haven't done enough community or national service, well, think again!

Bull

We're in the news - Software giant to help local ISVs.

First of all, The Star spelled the company's name wrongly. It's supposed to be Covalent Technology Sdn Bhd, not Covalent Technologies. And, secondly, we're not a public listed company (Berhad).

What help? The only thing that I got was one free lunch with that Microsoft Malaysia Managing Director and that Boyd guy at some lowsy restaurant. That's about it. And I had to listen to all the entrepreneurship bull plans which will never materialize for an hour or so. And let's not go into MDeC. I will not waste my breaths on this super bull organization. The way I see it is that we're the one who's helping them to come up with some bull events and programs (which some other people make a lot of money) and to show the rest of the world, and their bosses that they're doing something to help (bull) the ICT industries in Malaysia.

So, who's helping who? You're not helping entrepreneurs. How can you tell entrepreneurs what to do when you're not successful entrepreneurs yourselves? You rely on the government, and get paid every bull month.

Stop this bull, and find us some real jobs.

Mr IP Address 66.249.65.171

The upgrading work for Covalentia Portal is pretty much done. However, if you encounter any error or missing links, please do not hesitate to e-mail me at support@covalent-tech.com. I plan to add more features, but that can wait. I still have other things to work on, especially the Danial Portal (a local cartoon series in Malaysia, please tune in to RTM 1 every Tuesday at 7:00 PM GMT +8).

Now, I received a lot of errors from this guy, Mr. IP Address 66.249.65.171. If you do a look-up here, you'll find that he's from Alma, Michigan. And I can't seem to reproduce these errors. The portal is working absolutely fine on my laptop. So, what could go wrong? What exactly is going on here? What version of IE or Firefox is Mr. IP Address 66.249.65.171 is using? My outlook is clogged with e-mails (error log) because Mr. IP Address 66.249.65.171 doesn't seem to wanna stop browsing Covalentia.Net Portal over and over again (man, he must love this site so much), even as we speak. Well, I don't mean to be rude (no pun intended), but for the love of Mother of Ganja, could you please tell us what you really are doing oh dear Mr. IP Address 66.249.65.171 so that I could fix these errors? Sometimes, the IP Address changes to something else like 65.55.209.141, 65.55.209.140, 65.55.209.133, 65.55.209.134, 60.51.164.249, 207.46.98.74 and so on. Anybody?

But, if you're a web crawler, hmm, well then just forget about it :)

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:

--------------------------------------------------

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:

--------------------------------------------------

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]
--------------------
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.

Microsoft AJAX RTM

Microsoft has just released the ASP.NET 2.0 AJAX 1.0 RTM. Please note that if you’re using the current version of Covalentia Version 2.1.1.27388, you’ll get numerous errors because it is still using the Microsoft AJAX 1.0 RC (Release Candidate). A few people have already e-mailed me, and I will do the migration as soon as I can. In the mean time, if you want to do it yourself, you can simply follow the migration guide:

http://ajax.asp.net/documentation/Migration_Guide_RC_to_RTM.aspx

I don’t see that many changes, so I think that it should be relatively straightforward.

If you have any question, please don’t hesitate to e-mail me at support@covalent-tech.com. Oh, and thank you for your support ;)

A New Venture

So it begins. One of my business partners has partly left Covalent Technology and joined another team, Innovation City (Innovasia), and I am pretty much alone in this nice office. However, this new development will not affect Covalentia in any way. The direction will stay the same – Covalentia will be FREE for all to download and use, and Covalent Technology will continue to service its customers. In fact, there are some new leads and possible funds that may come into play and fit nicely into Covalent’s sustainability equation. And in addition, by the end of this month, I will launch a new community portal, codenamed The Great Hunt – an Employment & Project Outsourcing Community Portal. This portal will complement Covalentia’s Training Program – to provide trainees with a channel to market themselves to the outside world and get better exposures.

So, despite my early plan to join IPerintis for a better pay, leave Covalent Technology and let it sail down the drain and rot (just kidding), I am the one who’s being left behind :)

On another note, along with my other partner who owns this office, we are venturing into a trading business. As a result, a new company, Covalent Engineering, is formed. In its early inception, Covalent Engineering plans to become an authorized distributor for Proguard which carries a range of personal safety products. It’s a tough market out there, I know. But, trading is relatively a good business, and I have to start somewhere ;)

Covalentia Version 2.1 Reloaded

There are a few minor bugs in the recently released Covalentia Version 2.1 which I came across while working on Covalentia Version 3.0. I’m going to upload the files again once the internet connection here gets better. It’s very slow at the moment but has got nothing to do with the recent Taiwan’s earthquake. The portal is hosted at some place which I can’t mention for FREE. And so, you can’t expect much from a free stuff ;)

I saw the total downloads this morning was around 128 (6 days or so after it was released). Not bad eh? If you’ve already used it to develop your application, you might want to replace (or do some changes to) the following files:

• Covalentia/Controls/Globals/Excel.cs and ExcelResults.cs:
  The #linkpath# string replacement at the bottom of Page_Submit method should spell #LinkPath#.
  
• RDT/Skins/Default/Administration/User/Edit.ascx:
  The ControlToValidate property of ConfirmPassword’s RequiredFieldValidator should be set to ConfirmPassword.

That’d be all ;)

New Release & Commitment

Happy New Year to all! I know it’s rather late to wish now but I’ve always been a late bloomer, and it’s better late than never ;)

Well, I’m back from a good long holiday, and ready to resume work and continue to develop FREE Covalentia. In fact, I’ve already uploaded Covalentia Version 2.1 as promised earlier. This release includes:

• PostgreSQL 8.1 database support
• Database tables and stored procedures optimizations
• Codes optimization
• ASP.NET AJAX 1.0 Release Candidate
• New look for Sub-Tabs using AJAX DropDownList
• Relocations of folders, files and images
• Bug-fixing of globalization issue
• Better documentations for codes, tooltips and help (partial - this is a lot of work)

At the moment, I’m working on the next release (Version 3) which will contain a lot of major changes, especially in the Data Access and Business Object Layers. It will also include other new features such as .NET Framework 3.0, ASP.NET AJAX 1.0 (if they decide to release it soon enough), Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF), Oracle database support and more. If you are one of the users who frequently download Covalentia (one of the 300 or more people registered at the Covalentia Community Portal) and you want to contribute some ideas on how the future Covalentia should be or look like, feel free to e-mail me at support@covalent-tech.com.