19 May 2010

Troll

Microsoft has filed suit against Salesforce for infringing the following patent:

  1. Method and system for mapping between logical data and physical data
  2. System and method for providing and displaying a web page having an embedded menu
  3. Method and system for stacking toolbars in a computer display
  4. Automated web site creation using template driven generation of active server page applications
  5. Aggregation of system settings into objects
  6. Timing and velocity control for displaying graphical information
  7. Timing and velocity control for displaying graphical information
  8. Method and system for identifying and obtaining computer software from a remote computer
  9. System and method for controlling access to data entities in a computer network
via 37signals.com

Patent troll is troll. Nobody likes troll.

17 Feb 2010

On The Value of Personal Information

Also worth considering: We charge $99 per year for a MobileMe subscription. Google gives you the same stuff and all they ask for is, um, permission to totally invade your privacy and to “monetize” (God I hate that word) your personal information. You think your personal information is worth less than $99 a year? Then you’re getting a hell of a deal with Google. The rest of us would rather spent $99 and keep the contents of our email to ourselves.
via fakesteve.net

All my credit card statements, software licenses information, electronic receipt, password reminder, everything, goes into Gmail.

Maybe it's a good idea to ditch gmail altogether, for a system with better privacy. But not MobileMe, I've read some bad experiences with that. And of course not the rumored facebook mail. Maybe I could roll my own email server somewhere?

31 Jan 2010

New World - Old World

When the iMac came out, Apple drew a line in the sand. They said: we are no longer going to ship a computer with a floppy disk drive. The entire industry shit its pants so loudly and forcefully that you probably could have heard it from outer space.
via stevenf.tumblr.com

A good read about the old world and new world of computing, and of course, iPad.

18 Aug 2009

The Time Machine

Browser has become one of the most important piece of software in human life. Take one example, me. I use web based application to track a project. One day, I can't access the website. I was literally pulling my hair trying to figure out what's wrong. The ISP? The web? The whole internet broken?

After a dozen of refreshes and restarts, I am somehow able to access the site now. After I log in, I see something wrong. The CSS and JavaScript files were not loaded. The site is a AJAX-heavy site (which is cool), but has no alternative when the browser can't load JavaScript. See, the J in AJAX is JavaScript, and it's not AJAX if you can't do the J. In conclusion, I can't see or update my task list, I can't do anything for two days.

I tried re-installing Safari, tried with Firefox (two different versions of it), nothing worked. 3 am in the morning, in desperation I pull one last trick. Time machine. I restore Safari and some of its configuration files from a few days back (before the latest update), and shutdown the computer (without trying opening that damn site again, too tired). Later that day I tried again, and to my surprise it worked. Life is good again. Now I can continue my life.
23 Nov 2008

Contacts Synchronization: Macintosh and Windows Mobile

I've been looking for a free solution to move my Contacts in my mobile phone (Windows Mobile 5) to my MacBook (Address Book.app). Why? I don't know why, maybe just for precaution, just in case I have to replace my phone or I lost it. I'm fully aware of software like Missing Sync and SyncMate. I don't want to pay for Missing Sync, and from SyncMate's website, they say that it doesn't support my phone (HP iPAQ rw6828).

I am also aware of Dashwire, a very good web application that lets you sync your phone (contacts, SMSs, call logs, pictures, videos) to the web. And I have done that as well. But they don't provide a way to synchronize those data back to the computer, only mobile phones.

One day, I bumped up to this web application called Soocial. It says that it lets synchronize your contacts in PC, Mac, Gmail, and mobile phones, even Blackberry, for free. Wow, what a promise. Apparently, they haven't implemented all of those features. The only available features are synchronization from PC (MS Outlook), Macintosh, Gmail, and some Nokia, LG, and Sony Ericsson phones (but not Windows Mobiles and Blackberries).

I finally managed to copy my phone's contacts to my mac, for free. Here's how, and I assume you already have a copy of Windows (XP or Vista) and Outlook, or able to get access to it somehow.
  • Install windows, and Microsoft Outlook (2003 or 2007) on it. Lucky me I have a (legal) copy of MS Outlook, I got it from a door prize.
  • Download either Activesync (if you use Windows XP) or Windows Mobile Device Center (if you use Vista). Search for it in Google or Microsoft site. I downloaded and installed WMDC. It's free but it require a valid (i.e licensed) copy of Windows.
  • Plug your phone to the Windows. If you're like me, running Windows in virtual machine, make sure that Windows detects your phone. It should automagically detected by the WMDC (or Activesync).
  • Tell the software to sync your contacts, and whatever else you want to sync. When it's done, check your Outlook contacts whether it contains the contacts from your phone.
  • Now go to Soocial, register (if you haven't had an account), log in, and go to Connection, and pick Outlook. It should provide a link to download a software to let you sync your Outlook contacts to the web.
  • After you installed the software, run in, set your user name and password in it, and start the sync. You might find out that the Windows sync software for Soocial isn't that good (i.e. crappy), but it should do what the label said.
  • Check your Soocial contacts page when you done with that, it should shows your contacts.
  • Go to your Mac, go to Soocial website, and download the sync software for Mac. Install it like the instruction says, and you could find it in System Preferences. Input your log in information to the software and start syncing. Note that if you already have some contacts in your Address Book, you should back it up (File->Export in Address Book.app), just in case.
  • You're done, and your Address Book should contains whatever contacts in your phone.

As a final note, it will be great if Soocial could provide a better sync software for Windows, and for Windows Mobile as well. Even better if Missing Sync provide a free version, or SyncMate support my phone.
5 Nov 2008

Data Masking

What is data masking?

Let me give you an example. You have developed this super-cool system, which can crunch big data instantly (just example). You show this to your client, and he wants a demo, using production-like data. But sometimes, you can't just copy the data as is, because it contains some confidential data, such as name, social security number, email address, etc. You need something like that data, but not exactly that one.

To protect the confidential data, one usually modifies that data (by UPDATE-ing all sensitive data to scramble it). I had experience like this, where we used dummy data, which contained people named "ABCDE". It's difficult to debug, because everything looked the same. Another way to do this is with data masking. With data masking, you could anonymize your data, and preserving its properties (length, field type, format). See the picture below.

Its main usage is for development and test environment, where people need production-like data, but constrained with confidential issues. Another example is when you want to outsource some parts of your system, you could provide test data without revealing your customers' phone numbers. I remember this one time, I worked as developer, and our test data contained data about people in a city who're customers of the only electricity company in this country (which is basically everyone). So, I was able to see who hadn't paid their electricity bill, who had the biggest spending in electricity, and their telephone numbers. Even for the test, we used production database, and tested the system by paying the electricity bill of certain people (they got free electricity for a month). I don't think they have policy on customers' confidential data, but I think they should, and if they do have that kind of policy, they're in big trouble. I don't want some outsource developers messed up electricity in my house, by changing my payment status, and the electricity company could cut off my electricity, and then the developers come to my house and laugh.

So, back to topic, Oracle has this product option for its database, called Data Masking. You should check it out.

Link:

8 Oct 2008

Oracle Beehive

Oracle Beehive is the next-generation collaboration suite from Oracle. Integrated, complete, open-standards and secure are the keywords. It consists of several tools for collaboration, such as instant messaging, web conferencing, and calendar tools. Users can access all the informations securely via web-based interface (Zimbra for email if I'm not mistaken), or with a commonly-used tools such as MS Outlook, Thunderbird (and a plugin to access the calendar features), pidgin (for instant messaging via XMPP protocol). Oracle Beehive also can coexists with other technology such as Microsoft Exchange and Lotus Notes. It is hot-pluggable, meaning organizations can just plug it into their existing database and applications, and embed collaboration tools to their business.

By the way, Oracle offers a 30-days complimentary trial. The trial software will be delivered on-demand, meaning it will be hosted by Oracle, and users will be given 5 accounts to give Oracle Beehive a try. So, head here for more info.

Source & for more info:
27 Sep 2008

Problematic Planet

It's Planet IF. I have this problem, it's been here for too long, but it wasn't here at the first time I setup the planet. The problem is, most of the entries in Planet IF link back to itself, not to the owners' site. Most (if not all) blogs from wordpress.com have this problem, and not the self-hosted wordpress sites. 

There are some possibilities. I don't think the problem is from the planet itself, because planetplanet has been in version 2.0 for too long (since I setup Planet IF until now), and I think nobody has this problem. But, that doesn't mean it's bug-free. Second, I think it's the new wordpress.com. Maybe it can't works well with planetplanet,  wordpress.com spit out feeds that couldn't be handled by planetplanet. Third, the problem could be from my planet template, config file, or stylesheet (which is very unlikely, because it's just stylesheet). I think if the problem is from the config file or the template, other feeds originating from everywhere other than wordpress.com should have the same problem, and it's not.

By the way, Planet IF itself now has 100+ blog feeds (some of them are active, some other aren't). And people usually to put just the excerpt on their feed, not all of it, so their reader should go to their blog to enjoy the whole thing. And it's good, people could just skip the entries that they don't really enjoy, and focus on what they like. But somehow, with that problem mentioned before, it's difficult to go to read the whole story because if you click on the links, they link to Planet IF, and nothing happen. It annoys me, and maybe some other people as well.

I will try to solve it, but don't expect too much. For the time being, hmm, I don't have any suggestion other than to dump wordpress.com (which is a very good blog provider). So, just bear with it, or give suggestions to me.
25 Sep 2008

HP Oracle Database Machine

Hardware by HP, Software by Oracle 
  • Extreme performance
  • Unlimited scalability
  • Enterprise ready

   

21 Sep 2008

HTML Problem With GMail and Posterous

In my previous post, I tried to add some background color and one hyperlink, and I used GMail. I posted it to posterous, and with autopost everywhere, to my blog and my tumblr. It seems that GMail produce invalid HTML. The hyperlink linked to the wrong URL, with some goog_<some-weird-number-here> at the end of URL. I have to manually edit the post, in the posterous and my blog, but I'm too lazy to edit the tumblr one. Maybe in the future I shouldn't do too many HTML thingy in GMail.

By the way, is it possible if I edit one post and automagically every autopost will change as well?
16 Sep 2008

About Oracle Tech and Apps

Hello again,

This time I want to write about something I learned after I got into
Oracle. Most people know Oracle by its database, which is still the
market leader until now. But, Oracle also has middleware (i.e. Oracle
Fusion Middleware), and a lot of application for various industries.
This segmentation follow the concept of "three-tier architecture",
which is a term for "database, application server, web browser / other
visualization".

Database is, well, you know, store whatever data you want to store,
mostly in tables. Oracle database also has some "enhancements" called
"Database Options". These database "enhancements" are optional
products, which if you "apply" it, your database can do more than just
storing and retrieving data. One example of this are functionality
such as clustering (called "Grid" by Oracle, another terms for
"running one database in a lot of computers").

Middleware is, for me, the most confusing one. In essential,
middleware is an application server. For example, you code some php
programs, and you put your files in a directory, in a computer which
runs a web server, that's a middleware (in the most simple form).
Middleware runs the logic on your code, accessing your data, and give
the data to your applications. Actually, some people like to think
that middleware is everything else which is not database or
applications.

Applications, is the one people interacting with. Most Oracle
Applications runs on web browser. Most Informatics Engineering major
people like me usually thinks application as a stand-alone software
that you can install such as PaintBrush, iTunes, or some other little
program that I code, etc. But in enterprise terms, application is a
big software, used by a lot of people, to access a lot of complicated
stuffs such as ordering stuffs from your supplier, generating
financial reports for tax, submitting data about a new employee, and
so on. Those applications runs somewhere in the company, accessed by
everyone with web browser, in real time (not so real actually,
sometimes it's very slow). In simple term, web application. For
applications, Oracle has application suite such as Oracle e-Business
Suite, JD Edwards, and PeopleSoft, and all those names comes with a
lot of modules inside, for many industries (from banks to factories to
mobile network providers).

That's all for now :)

Amudi Sebastian's Posterous

Hi, my name is Amudi. I make apps, websites, and (sometimes) video games in Singapore. Here, you will find some interesting stuff I found on the internet, and probably boring writings that I wrote.


You can email me: amudi@amudi.org


*The views expressed on this blog are my own and do not necessarily reflect the views of my current or past employer*

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