So near but yet so far.

When I woke up yesterday, all the new DNS setting propagated and I ended up with non functional address for my other blog blog.sapphireknight.com

*Sigh* .. Finally, I have made up my mind. I have downloaded WordPress, and I will host everything on my very own server. Hahaha. There goes another customer of blogger and here I come WordPress. Within half and hour, I managed to set up everything on my local server.

I have uploaded test page to my server. At the moment, all the blogs are still in blogger.com. I will move them (and I mean ALL of my blogs including this one) to my server.

Firefox vs Internet Explorer 7 - Different Behaviour

Follow up to my DNS screw up earlier, I notice that FireFox 2.0 and Internet Explorer 7 behaves differently when it comes to interfacing with the DNS.

In FireFox 2.0, this is what I get when I tried to access my web server http://www.sapphireknight.com.


And this is what I get in Internet Explorer 7


Now, in Firefox, what I get is the placeholder page in GoDaddy.com. It is the default page if you have not set up or upload any other page yet. While in IE7, the screen is the default placeholder for Apache web server in Fedora Core. My server is actually a Linux server running Red Hat Fedora Core. So, IE7 obviously right in this sense. I am so sure why Firefox does not give me the right page. It am really confuse. Again, I am not so sure if my DNS setting is correct or not.

The only different is that I have set up a proxy in Firefox. While in IE7, it is direct connection. On personal notes, I do use Firefox 2.0 heavily and IE7 is just for checking the output of my web pages to make sure that all I do is at least compatible to these two major web browser.

I messed up my DNS again ....

It is the second time in 2 months that I messed up my name server again. Everytime I add a new domain, everything just goes hair wire ...

The first time when I shifted my first domain www.asianbatik.com from Yahoo! Small Business to GoDaddy.com, everything just does not work. I have to recommission my new server after just 14 days. Luckily, I don't have much yet except all the files from my previous shared hosting server in Yahoo!.

This time, it happened yesterday. I add in new domain, sapphireknight.com and every domain just pointing to each other. I am not sure whether what I did was wrong or right. It takes several hours for the DNS to take effect. Ha ha ha.. poor me. But I am learning. Being an impatient species, I just keep changing the setting .. Now, my domain www.sapphireknight.com and sapphireknight.com is actually pointing to GoDaddy.com server where my free web hosting account is located. It actually should point to my server where the rests of the domain and DNS is located..

The problem is, for each of my domain, I would have one sub domain named blog pointing to my blog in Blogger.com. Somehow, it does not work the way I wanted..

Hopefully, everything would be fine soon. As I am moving this weekend, I will be off line for several days until the telco shift my phone and my broadband to the new location. Well, it is just next block to where I am staying now. But, it might take days before the technician come to fix it.

It really scared me because I still have another domain, phpwebcounter.com yet to be moved from Yahoo!.. It is just a domain park server. Now, it is pointing to my server fine. When I need to shift it in June, only then I will worry. Hopefully, I am already good at managing my name server by that time.. Again, wish me luck !!!

I am on the move !!

I will be shifting house again this coming weekend. It is just another block in the same housing complex. The reason - bigger room and more space. I have been working on my dining table for the last few months or so.

There are more and more projects coming in. I have used half of my dining table for my work stuff - smart card reader, reference book, several wires, blank DVD etc. So, I need special room for my own office at home. Now we are talking about a real SOHO.

Thanks Allah for all these. I am also expecting twin baby in late April or early May. So the space is really justified. I also have my wife's twin sister moving in to safe cost and to help her around after my twin delivery.

Electronic Toll Collection System - Revisited

On August 2006, I was contracted to develop a new toll collection system for one of the highway in Kuala Lumpur Malaysia. The last time I did the toll collection system was in 2000 working for one of the Government Link Company (GLC).

This time, I was working for one of the Scandinavian company. It has been a long time since I left the field and working in a cozy office cubicle. It was tough for a start but at the end, the project was completed on time successfully. All 4 lanes was up and running just before new year.

Soon after that, a contract for 2 additional lane was awarded by the project owner and of course I was again called in for the project. This time, it was quicker than I anticipated even though there are several major changes required to be done as the lane configuration was different. Also, the equipment used were different. These new lanes installation were completed few days ago just before Chinese New Year.

Cashing on VoIP

Voice over IP (VoIP) is moving into the mainstream of latest adopted technology. There are more and more providers start to offer the service either paid or free. Yahoo and MSN already has one. Well before that Google Talk is also available. Don't forget Skype which has become a defacto reference for VoIP services.

Going into corporate world, I have been working on my own version of Instant Messenger and all other related technology stuff (File Sharing, VoIP, Voice Message, SMS service etc). The product codenamed Universal Communicator will include email client. As the project is highly confidential, I could not disclose much except that the application will be available very soon. Wait for the announcement later.

This is going to be my baby for the many many moons to come. Wish me luck !!

Happy New Year to a new Server

Happy New Year !!

I am on a shopping spree for a new server for my web site. I hope everything will be finalized by this week. I have been on Yahoo web hosting for the last 3 years or so and it was really easy to maintain. The customer service is great. However, at a cost of USD11.90 per domain account, it is pricey. Well, if I only have one domain, it would have been fine. However, I will be registering more domain soon. Already have additional one, while the third one is on paper already. At USD11.90 per month each, that would be quite a burden to me and not very cost effective.

Three different domain would cost me close to USD36.00 per month. With a virtual dedicated server account, I could have all the bell and whistle for my web sites at a much cheaper price per domain. And I could have virtually unlimited domain parked or active on the server. Another thing is that I could have virtually unlimited sub domain and direct manipulation of domain name server (DNS). Yes, I would have my own DNS, email server and other stuff. It is going to be fun to learn Linux server.

Well, of course the maintenance would be tough but some how, I would learn a lot more. I will announce the domain name very soon. The first not so successful domain get some income from Google Adsense and other affiliate program. I did not make much but it is enough to cover the hosting cost. That is what I want. Cover the cost first, work harder and make profit later. Good huh ?

I will be working on my eCommerce project soon. Actually, it was started but was abandoned mid way due to some technical and financial constrain. Since I will be having my own server, the idea just pop up again. Along the way, I have sorted out the technical constrain to my eCommerce project. I have one or two software products which will be available as download from my web sites soon. And finally after spending almost 2 decades on programming, I will sell a software product. More on this later when I release a beta version.

Everything works as plan and hopefully, this new year will be a good year for me and my family - not to forget my juniors.