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 !!!

Umrah 2004 - Medinah and Mecca

In 2004, my company was very generous to sponsor long serving staff to Umrah during the fasting month Ramadhan. I was a great pleasure for me to accept the offer bcoz it has been my dream one day I want to go to Mecca for Umrah and Haji.

In the first photo was (from right) myself, Kamal, Nik and his wife. The photo was taken when we were at one of the historical site in Medinah. At the back is the graveyards of Mujahideens died during of the great war between Muslims and Kafirin. The Muslims led by our great Rasulullah Muhammad S.A.W lost the war simply because the Muslims Mujahideens failed to adhere the advice by our Rasullulah.

This photo shows some of us on the bus during excursion around Medinah. I was right at the back of the bus - my favourite place. Generally speaking, Medinah is quite small compared to Mecca. However, the town is full of stories and history. At the end of the outing, we were brought to one of the famous market for shopping. Medinah is so famous of dates and other dried fruits like At-tin and Zaitun. Not to forget other dried nuts. The famous "Kurma Nabi" cost about RM25 per kilogram. Malaysian Ringgit and Saudi Riyal is almost the same value. So, you can really shop in Medinah and Mecca using any currency. The traders accept Malaysian Ringgit as it is. Also, most of them speak Malay as the second language. The reason is very simple. Other than Arabs, other nationals that come to Arab Saudi and spend a lots of money are Malaysian and Indonesian. And ironically, Malaysia and Indonesia shares the same language. Very interesting ..

After 3 days in Medina, we are getting ready for the real stuff. Doing the Umrah in Mecca. The photo shows the group right in front of the hotel Anwar Movenpick just around the corner from Masjidil Nabawi. Everyone is in their Ihram waiting for the bus. Its is going to be a very long journey back to Mecca and the time is approximately 4 hours.

The next photo shows my Egyption boss Khaled posing at the corner of the hotel. Right behind is Masjidil Nabawi where out great prophet Muhammed S.A.W lies in peace. One more point to note that, Muhammad spirit is alive everywhere in Medinah. You can see that every body is calm and very friendly. One of the traders hug me as if I know him for many years. Every body is well behave. It was really amazing. You just don't appreciate it until you go to Medinah and stays there. I could tell you that the feeling is different. Mecca could not beat Medinah on this sense.

If you have the chance to go there, don't forget to visit Rasulullah tombs. It is the best place in Medinah. Right in the mosque where you perform your solah. Wake up early well before Fajr prayer and go to Raudhah and do your sunat prayers. It is a small area in the mosque where it is used to be the original mosque during our great prophet Muhammad time. The area ia marked with light carpet and you could notice the different. It is just next to Rasulullah tombs. The area is between the "minbar" and the tombs is noted as one of the garden in paradise.

New Dream Job as Senior Software Engineer

1997 Asian financial crisis was the biggest hurdle in my live. I have no option but to close down my newly set up software business. I was a very tough time but I manage to go thru it chewing every bite of its bitter experience.

During that period, I manage to land several small projects and they are enough to meet my end needs. Once the project completed, I spend most of my time at home developing software for one of open source project on the internet.

Lucky enough, my beloved BMW E30 still went strong and did not give me much problems. It was a huge relieve knowing that most beemers give lots of problem. Somehow, I have lost the pictures of my E30. It was a good car but somehow the reliability was not that I would admire.

One night in September 1998, I received a phone call from one of local company specialising in IT solutions. I was surprised when the manager ask me to send my resume by the next morning. I never apply for a job !. She got my contact number thru one of my friend. To cut the story short, I started working for the company in October 1998.

I was very happy because I always want to work for a software warehouse but it was very difficult to get one. The main reason was that the economy was not that good. Secondly, my background was in Civil Engineering. I designed highways and not computer software. During old days, managers are sceptical about the idea of non IT graduate doing computer programming. It was a different story in US, Australia and Europe. So, at the end, my dream come true. Very happy and relieved.