user conference ... ESRI South Asia...

Hi there, its back again this year.... in Malaysia. This is like the most important GIS Conference in Malaysia:
13th User Conference
Date: 6 - 8th September 2006
Venue: Sheraton Subang Hotel & Towers, Malaysia

Hope to see some of you folks there. Find out more at: http://www.esrisa.com.my/uc2006.htm

For myself, its gonna be my second time handling a technical workshop. This time its more on Geodatabase and RDBMS:
Day 3 - 8th September 2006
TECHNICAL WORKSHOP
1100 – 1230pm SESSION 2
Room A - Workshop 4: Geodata Management

Most GIS conferences in Malaysia are not so technical or deep enough to cover software, database, project, implementation, trends and development issues. Only the ESRI conference caters specifically to these needs. Thats why its so special.

Worldwide... the GIS community waits in excitement for the ESRI conferences... its a fact. No other conference can create such euphoria and anticipation. That's probably because it has so much to offer to all levels in the GIS industry... from managers, GIS engineers, GIS analysts, surveyors, developers, DBAs, urban planners, environmentalists to students in colleges and universities.

If you are coming to my workshop... feel free to request what you want included. You can leave a message in this blog for more info. See you there.

conflict of interest...

Does it make any sense??

War, terror, fear, shame, hurt, pain, hunger and suffering....??? When can this stop?? 5000 years of human civilization... will peace prevail?? What can we do about this today?? Everyday we are bombarded and reminded with news, reports, mails and talk about war, bombs... and more pain. Depressing and sick. What’s so great about 'live satellite news' on how many bombs and destruction?? What’s so cool about 'live TV reports' on suffering and pain??

The only species in the animal kingdom that kills its own kind for no apparent reason... human beings. Intelligent beings?? Able to reason and think??

People, especially children... all over the world are living in a state of fear and pain. Lots of questions but no answers. Lots of talking but no decisions. Political leaders elected by common people becoming ruthless killers. Religious leaders proclaiming God's words and deeds sending bombs that kill innocent children. Human politics and religion??

Smart people with great credentials making sure their voices are heard. But what are they talking about?? United Nations or Untied Nations??

In our own country... leaders fighting like small kids quarrelling about how many marbles they have. Do you have better marbles than me?? Not satisfied with their win... they want more. Greed. Is this helping the poor and hungry in our country?? Is this helping you and me, suffering from bad pollution and work stress?? Why is there so much crime... raising prices... poverty... lack of education?? Some say its money... Malaysia talks more than she earns.

Does it make any sense?? Tell me..

The stupidity of the India-Pakistan partition... 10 million people moving across borders longer than Malaysian length... by walking, in carts or carried. Just look at the small kids and human loss.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/shared/spl/hi/pop_ups/06/south_asia_india0s_partition/html/1.stm

Don't talk about Middle East conflicts... India till today still cannot solve its own problems with Pakistan, Bangladesh and Kashmir!!! Merciless bombing of civilians is worse than any Western terrorist attacks... one attempted bombing in UK gets more coverage than hundreds of bombs blowing in India every year.

Stupidity kills. Greed destroys.

no... not that "MCP" :D

Hi there ppl, como cava??

I just recently found out that Microsoft has changed their certification syllabus... to cater for Visual Studio 2005 and SQL Server 2005 exams. This is a significant and huge change in policy for MCP (Microsoft Certified Professional). http://www.microsoft.com/learning/mcp/newgen/

Well ... some may argue what's the point of getting these certs?? Some may also argue what the point in upgrading from current certs?? To me ... I strongly believe in certifications ... especially in the computing industry (GIS or otherwise). Salary and remuneration improves with certifications... trust me. Though some just mug and memorize for these certs, majority gain insightful experience and skills. So far the highest demand in certifications has always been Cisco, Oracle and Microsoft exams. Slowly but surely Linux and Java certifications are gaining popularity.

What has this got to do with us... GIS Professionals.. or GIS Developers?? Everything!!! GIS cannot run by itself... it needs a programming platform, software, database and network... among others. All these don't just fall from the sky... it requires new and changing technology to improve our profession... speed and quality of delivery. I believe we in the GIS profession should look seriously into these computing certs... and not fall behind. If not GIS will be an isolated component in the world of computing... and we in the GIS industry will slowly fade away..

enterprise geodatabase ... in SQL Server

Personally, Microsoft SQL Server 2000 and 2005 are the easiest database to install, configure and tune as compared to Oracle or DB2. Easy in the sense ... a lot of operations and functions are hidden from the user and the software handles them. One of the beauty in SQL Server is the ability to blend with Windows and its authentication. A lot of the memory and processor issues are tied with the O/S itself. This makes the management of SQL Server relatively simple.

SQL Server is set to groe dynamically in its usage of memory and processing power. You can even use the Windows performance monitor to check the consumption of hardware and O/S resources. This is quite neat.

When ArcSDE is installed with SQL Server we now have an Enterprise Geodatabase. The ArcSDE installation is divided into 2 steps.... software installation during which ArcSDE configuration files and executables and written to disk ... AND... post installation setup, during which the ArcSDE repository and service are created.