storm

statistics and numbers ...

2011-07-04T13:26:00.004+08:00

I have a few good ideas for anyone interested in GIS Masters thesis / technical books ... hope some of you might take it up with good funding. If you're in the habit of pleasing lecturers and pengarahs with their warped sense of research techniques, plagarising internet materials and copying other peoples papers ... please don't continue reading this. You need to be unbiased, independent, hard working, creative and professional ... I know its hard to find graduates or analysts like this in Malaysian universities or gov agencies these days ... but its worth a try.

Research 1 - Analysis, Economic Impact and Planning of Public Transportion for Klang Valley using GIS (special focus on MRT).

Research 2 - Future of Healthcare policies and Emergency Response management with GIS statistics for Urban Planning in Malaysian major cities.

Research 3 - Understanding Employment, Economics and actual Race economics in Peninsular Malaysia using GeoSpatial empirical analysis.

Research 4 - Analysing climate change and pollution with emphasis on forest and plantation management in Malaysia using GIS statistical methods

Research 5 - Utility planning and regulatory improvements for water and waste management in Selangor with GIS data models

I would recommend anyone pursuing these studies to obtain RM$5-10 million grant from the gov ... it will prob take 4-5 years to complete each of this with proper international peer review, technical software, data collection, documented analysis methods, qualified research assistants and most of all unlimited access to all government agencies.

GIS in Malaysia ...

2011-05-17T22:41:00.005+08:00

Talking to an old industry friend recently ... he raised a few important questions:

1. Why GIS companies in Malaysia propose excellent shiny projects ... but there's no follow through?? everyone (esp sales) only aim to win the mega tender ... but why not make it a sure win 5-10 years down the road?? how come success is only measured by short term project deliverability … but not long term user satisfaction or department productivity?? How will the government or public support GIS anymore with these failed (and overpriced) projects???

2. why Malaysian universities churning out GIS graduates who can't speak or write good English? why graduates these days not willing to work (and think) hard like us before ... but so very clever to demand high salary and benefits? They always think so great of themselves ... talk big ... when in reality otak udang. not much original work ... too much 'copy and paste' ... too little creativity … cannot communicate and worse of all … damn lazy.

3. whatever happened to the art in GIS? making great maps is a prestigious, satisfying and proud profession ... sadly the quality of maps in this country is getting worse. how much pride do we still have in making good (readable) maps? Sometimes I wonder if these so called mappers (GIS) are really colour blind ... totally outrageous color choices, disgusting fonts, messy labeling and elementary cartography skills.

Ask yourself please ... are you proud to be in this industry? Do you have the right GIS skills? Trust me ... if its money you're after ... find another job / business.

things to look out for ArcGIS 10

2011-03-31T10:20:00.003+08:00

1. edit using map templates -
feature templates define the geometry, attribution and symbology. its also useful to use the new construction tool ... and editing 'tooltip' during mapping.
2. borrow licenses - you can check out licenses and take your GIS work home. this is definitely useful for some of us ... we tend to work better late nights at home with lotsa coffee. in the era of flexi working hours ... this license is long overdue ... I also think its more productive to work when you are in the 'zone' :-)
3. ArcPy - I don't think its fully complete yet ... but the latest Python package includes a mapping module that interacts with map documents. creating map series from indexes will help bulk map production workflows for sure

arcgis 10 ... 2011

2011-01-06T18:05:00.000+08:00

Alamak ... so long since I updated this blog ... busy with work (and riding). happy new year old and new readers (hopefully still interested) ... wishing everyone healthy, prosperous and peaceful new year.

Before 9.3 (and turbo 9.3.1) settled in ... we have ArcGIS 10. I wasn't too impressed with the speed of this release (see how fast Arc10 service pack 1 released) ... its better ESRI really test and debug thoroughly ArcGIS software before actual release. Release should be in 3 year cycles ... not 2 releases in a year ... very disruptive and unproductive for technical ppl like us. A lot of precious man hours wasted updating service packs and re-installing ... job security for some consultants (and ESRI developers) I suppose. Also it really doesn't help if hardware, graphic card and RAM needs serious upgrading for Arc10 ... if the release was planned properly large agencies can budget and plan hardware refresh better (don't say I didn't warn about the hardware spec upgrade for Arc10).

Arc10 has new features long overdue ... mainly the new editing environment (templates, toolbar, mini-toolbar), selections and snapping. I really think all this should have been featured in Arc92 ... I was promoting these features from my earlier blogs too ... editing was really bad in comparison to AutoCAD and Microstation. ArcPy and Python in Arc10 looks promising ... especially since it can interact with ArcMap interface better now ... am not too sure how it will replace the popular VBA but its in the right step. Python still has to communicate with COM classes to make things run in ArcMap ... so am not too sure how much faster scripts will run. Map Navigation and the new display accelerator does a good job too ... not really that impressive because other software packages have it already ... its about time ArcGIS caught up ... the display refresh and white end-corners when panning / moving has always been a thorn for ArcGIS.

I've not really looked at other stuff yet. Will keep you folks updated ...

malaysia boleh ker ...

2010-10-03T02:00:00.002+08:00

I think there's way too much talk on politics, racism and bumi rights in Malaysia these days. There's not enough understanding, maturity and tolerance anymore. Don't be fooled by politicians ... they dance like lalangs (or cobras) ... all for their own selfish greed … constantly raising unnecessary fear among us to gain better control.

Well unfortunately … we can't live without politicians ... even cockroaches exist and survive whether we like it or not. Why are they like that ah? Politicians are the best pretenders (which explains so many actors becoming politicians) ... extremely greedy for easy life without working hard (addicted to luxury and 7 star service) … master liars (uses the poor and deserving only for newspaper covers, demonstrations and RTM news).

We can’t move on, improve and compete without removing these old chronic obstacles. Notice how the rakyat bow and kiss politicians hands these days? They are ‘wakil rakyat’ not sultans … elected to serve the ppl … the ‘new colonialist syndrome’... absolute power mentality. Many ignorant voters don’t realize … they are mere puppets for their political masters … useful only during elections and demonstrations.

Why our education, healthcare, security, public services and competitive edge keeps slipping over the years? What happened to the great manufacturing / semiconductor factories, agriculture industry, mining and natural resources, top class education??? We were the best in Asia at one time. Politicians blame the rakyat … rakyat blame the politicians … I blame ourselves. Nobody's friendly to neighbours, understand other religions, considerate to unfortunate (yes ... you too disable warriors) … cliché as it may sound … the future is in our hands (i.e. age group 18-40) . Malaysia has changed more than we know … it never can be the same … no point looking at the past ... your can hear knocks on door to the future ... the sooner we realize this … the easier to move forward.

ESRI data 9.3

2010-01-14T16:23:00.003+08:00

ESRI Data is an annual dataset that comes with ESRI Software. Its distributed in 5 set DVD. The most significant change is StreetMap USA with 2003 TeleAtlas data.

In the World dataset (besides cities, countries, admin lines) we also have Time Zones, UTM Zones, Lat-Long grids. It also has 20GB of elevation and imagery data (majority of this from NASA and NGA's SRTM dataset).

World Elevation Data includes ETOPO2 (2x2 minute elevation) and ETOPO30 (30 Arc Second). Image data includes Landsat imagery for various regions.

There's a lot of US based data too (i.e. StreetMap, Census, Demographics). US data has better scale than the rest ... with better accuracy too.

Using this data complements local datasets but the scales might be too small for areas outside US. Check out World at Night images ... awesome stuff.

Flash Builder 4 (or Flex Ver 4)

2009-12-10T16:19:00.001+08:00

Recently Adobe released Flash Builder 4 … and for those working with Flex … this is a significant release … especially the integration with Flash Catalyst. I suppose after years of working with IMS, ArcGIS Server and Open Source GIS … Flex really leaves a great first impression (and still does now)... a giant leap for me personally after years of toiling with Java, .NET, ASP etc. I got so confused (and mental) with ASP.NET and the whole JavaScript integration. I think most web developers (maybe UI crazy ones like me) prefer fast prototyping IDEs with great graphics and animation. We should not be stuck with confusing callbacks and server side codes.

Here are some cool links and tutorials … be prepared to blow your mind:
Flash Catalyst (to create UIs for Flash Builder 4) - http://labs.adobe.com/technologies/flashcatalyst/tutorials/

Flex 4 or now known as Flash Builder 4 online training videos:
http://www.adobe.com/devnet/flex/videotraining/flex4beta/index.html

Also ESRI has released Flex 1.3 with some new features and sample codes. I can’t wait for ESRI Flex 1.4 … this will support online web editing. Suppose its bye-bye Web ADF and sayonara Java after this. Finally something we can develop with cool Web GIS design in mind and not boring old interfaces.

http://resources.esri.com/arcgisserver/apis/flex/

F1 = fool's one

2009-09-22T22:01:00.003+08:00

Nelson Piquet’s car in Singapore … how stupid can they get really? Looking at the crash again … its so damn dangerous esp at a sharp corner like that.

There were cars close behind and Nelson had to cross the track quickly. Looks like every major team in F1 is cheating … Ferrari, McLaren and now Renault? With a high tech and high adrenaline sports like F1 … competition is naturally high and tense but cheating really mars and shames such a great sport. So many good races and memories are now tainted with these scandals.

Now we have a new team … Malaysia F1 with proposed budget of USD200 million. I cannot imagine why on earth with this economic downturn we need an F1 team. We already have Petronas sponsored Sauber in F1 for years. Again the logic behind this is totally mind boggling … esp when so called smart people and newspaper editors think its great for the country. Isn’t one sponsorship enough? This is plain ignorance and wastage of public funds. We are still 3rd world but sponsor 2 F1 teams!!!

kampung buah pala ignored

2009-08-15T10:45:00.000+08:00

Now this is something huh … images of anguished Indian women … mothers and aunties mainly … fighting and pushing cops and FRU personnel without fear or second thought. I cannot think of any other reason except desperation and family pride that pushes these women to the forefront of Indian struggle and national headlines. They have been sidelined, discriminated and ignored … no political mileage and definitely no economic voice.

It’s strange and amusing … in an island of expensive condominiums, 5 star hotels and luxury apartments … smack in the middle is a village that time just stood still. I just can’t believe how authorities and city / state planners all these years can sit back and not do anything. To run a state successfully with progress and development is not an overnight job … it takes years of careful planning and more often than not … at least 10-20 years of strategic urban / state planning. This village has been around for more than 100 years lah … and ignored all this time?

For me … this somehow reflects how poor Indians are ignored in this country … yes … ignored = to refrain from noticing or recognizing. The British brought our ancestors to labour in plantations, railways, roads, telecommunication, public sector, schools and energy. With hard work, low pay and perseverance under the hot burning tropical sun, steaming humid afternoons and deplorable living conditions … we have these great roads, railways, power and telco grids … and pushed this country as one of the largest exporter of rubber, palm oil, coconut and sugar in the world. Indians were outsourced even then. Kampung Buah Pala is a reflection of ignored struggles, uncivilized govt policies, inhumane ignorance and pure unadulterated selfish greed.

Indonesia bombings awakening

2009-08-15T10:43:00.001+08:00

It’s been some weeks since I wrote … but events of late are too disturbing not to comment on ...

Firstly … the Jakarta bombings in Marriot and Ritz by Islamic terrorists. They have not found the actual perpetrators but the furious hunt is on for the so called mastermind. Whatever the outcome … I think Indonesians don’t deserve this … especially now. If the religious struggle is for the majority then the bombers might get more support but this time they just did it for pure ego, cowardice and selfish reasons. I think these groups are funded and brainwashed by selfish rich politicians / businessmen to create unnecessary fear, confusion and anger.
Indonesia under the current leadership has made considerable progress in the last 10 years … both in economics and standard of living. People generally have more job options, better savings and stable working environment which helped Indonesia push for impressive growth. Chaos and mayhem now might be a cunning way to make more money for some selfish bigots and surely will take advantage of people’s misery and fear.

At the end of the day … the welfare and well being of Indonesians is more important than this flawed jihad against the Americans. I think these terrorist conveniently forget that Java and the Indonesian archipelago has rich heritage with proud and hardworking people. Their history is much older than any western country … and this lame excuse of western persecution, colonialisation, religious struggle and manipulation is so stale and yesterday. Java was once a mighty rich empire … great people, beautiful culture and wonderful minds … I hope they are awakened now.

this is a classic ...

2009-06-12T14:33:00.000+08:00

sounds familiar?

2009-06-12T14:27:00.000+08:00

flex vs silverlight - arcgis server 9.3

2009-04-23T20:20:00.001+08:00

I think for me ... after working with ArcIMS, ArcGIS Server and other Web GIS products ... my bias is always based on speed, interaction, appeal, informative and well animated web GIS applications. All these years we had Coldfusion, JSP, ASP, JavaScript, Java Applets, AJAX and others ... trying hard to make this 'rich experience' happen. Silverlight API for ArcGIS Server came into play only recently and we can blame ESRI for not releasing both APIs same time. I believe ESRI created unnecessary anxiety (sorry guys, its true ...) in the web GIS community.

Most Web GIS developers in this region (Asia) are moving in the Flex dev direction. Some of the ESRI developer offices (i.e. ESRI Australia) focus a lot on Flex. From a design, animation and UI standpoint ... Microsoft doesn't have good tools (unlike Adobe) to design skins, animation, buttons, frames, layouts and charting. Silverlight's biggest drawback is web visual design tools, CSS support and IDE for these. I've been prototyping small apps in Flex and find its handling of events, listeners, navigation and states very innovative ... I dare any developer not to find this cool.

If we are looking from enterprise coding standpoint, Silverlight wins... no doubt. The power of Silverlight is the .NET framework. Coding C# or VB.NET is so much better and efficient with the .NET Framework. Adobe will never have the power of programming like .NET. I suppose familiarity with Visual Studio and .NET style of coding makes us lean towards Silverlight more. ActionScript is a steep learning curve for any developer.

Tough choice ... esp for GIS developers ... we are not really mainstream web developers to decide on which platform..

arcgis clear hung license

2009-03-24T05:16:00.000+08:00

Hey, am sure many of you have come across arcgis licenses stuck in flexlm without releasing for other users. Sometimes this happens when PCs are shutdown too fast and Arcmap crashes.

Here are steps to clear ArcGIS licenses (only) in flexlm license servers:

1. Run lmstat from cmd to list all ESRI licenses in use:
lmutil lmstat -a -c C:\flexlm\ESRI\arcgis.lic

2. The result is something like this -

Users of ARC/INFO: (1 licenses available)
X:%#($1:0.0 (v9) (/ ), start Wed 5/1/03 10:38

3. Run another cmd to kill the specific ESRI Feature (i.e. ArcInfo, Spatial Analyst or ArcView licenses)

lmutil lmremove -c C:\flexlm\ESRI\arcgis.lic -h ARC/INFO SERVER001 27004 1204

lmutil lmremove -c -h

This will help remove hung licenses without rebooting the license server or disrupt other live users.

tongkat ali, ah chong and maniam ...

2009-02-28T18:49:00.003+08:00

What we have my friends … is “conflict of interest”. This phrase is never more apparent in Malaysian politics, national unity and economy today. Nobody is innocent in politics or business … and above all everyone has an agenda for themselves and their ambition. Today survival of the greediest while having the most outrageous lifestyle drives Malaysians to worst extremes. It’s not about Malay, Chinese or Indian … it’s about the powerful, greed and their interest safeguarded.

Malaysia has changed a lot since Independence … more than what our forefathers ever envisioned. Our ancestors had to live through war, poverty, famine and terrorism… but they still believed in this nation … they had hope. Was it because we had better leaders then? Were people more idealistic and patriotic then? I think not!

I believe … as Malaysia grows more mature and our population increases … it’s much harder to please everyone. Our history is full of selfless individuals … the police, army and politicians worked for a nation … sacrificing family and wealth to serve the nation. Today … when income disparity increases and unfavourable government policies dominate the economy and politics … some say even the law … everything gets skewed … everyone is suspicious. It’s not fair game anymore ... it’s not equal opportunity for all … and definitely very unreasonable.

he is a great guy ... but not for a president

2009-02-18T17:42:00.001+08:00

Watch the kid at the end ... he steals the show :-)

tips to make ur windows xp faster ...

2009-02-10T14:28:00.004+08:00

here are some new tips I found out:

1. defrag your prefecth file for faster booting up - XP monitors the programs we use regularly and rearranges these files so that most frequent applications can be loaded quickly. This is called prefetching .... best thing to do is defragment it by Click Start > Run and type defrag c: -b. Boot files will be optimised

2. unload unnecesarry DLLs from memory - normally when we close a piece of software, an y associated DLL its been using will also be terminated. This isn't always the case with Windows (wink). To ensure the DLLs are always unloaded from memory, perform this registry edit.
Start>Run, type regedit and navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\ SOFTWARE\MicrosofWindows\ CurrentVersion\Explorer. Choose Edit>New>DWORD value. Name it AlwaysUnloadDll. Double click it and change its value to 1 to enable this tweak.

I have not fully tested this with ArcGIS, but it should work. Have fun and remember to backup your registry all the time. Cheers.

halo 2009 ... party like 1999

2009-01-02T11:47:00.004+08:00

Here comes 2009! It’s been a whirlwind December … holiday in Phuket, mad shopping, Christmas binge and NY Eve party. It’s also an expensive month … money can just disappear so fast with no warning and ATM machines in KL can seriously break down this month. It was good to see so many good bargains tho … 50% to 70% off on quality stuff.

Anyway, we decided to hit MOS Euphoria in Sunway for New Year Eve … what a mistake! Its full of ah bengs and ah lians dancing dunno-what to techno, rap and hip hop blasting. Its over priced and very tacky. The place is crawling with wide-eyed school kids and college wannabes … acting cool and tough. So much different from Singapore MOS…. Euphoria is not cool at all.

Also so many weird people in Sunway Pyramid lah… just hanging around like zombies … with fake laughs and squeals… am wondering … are these people genuinely happy …. seriously mental cases. People just sit and do nothing … staring like dead brains … occasionally releasing fake "happy" laughs. Of coz u have the usual morons with spray cans and merajuk gfs making a huge scene and wanting so much attention. Amazing how dumb it all looked …

We had to make a quick exit from all this madness … ended up in the new HQNine in TTDI … what a relief… good music, great crowd and fantastic service. We reach in time .. the wine arrived and NY countdown began. It’s a cool and cozy club to party and … really … no qualms about the atmosphere. Its hip, cool and trendy … my kinda joint. The DJ needs a bit more experience when changing discs and it needs better international House selection … but am sure it will improve as nights go by.

two wheels...

2008-12-14T11:51:00.001+08:00

I remember passing the huge Aprilia signboard near the KL Hospital roundabout as a kid… every time thinking if I can take one of the showroom bikes for a ride. It was a huge poster… and if advertising can brainwash us… this is it… after many years… the Aprilia image still has some influence. I think Aprilia had only 2 showrooms in KL… another being Gentali in Jln Ipoh. Now the official Aprilia showroom and distributor is Moto Millia in Bangsar.

I started riding bikes early… crashing a classmates new Honda EX5 … age 15… it was my first ride and it was his father’s bike. He took the blame… and even paid for the repair... nice fella. My 2nd crash… was another friends bike… Yamaha 110 … slide on a puddle of water… and luckily it did not have any serious damage… did not tell my friend tho… coz no one will lend me their bikes again.

I had a ‘chopper’ bicycle too… with a fake gear change. I think my hatred for chopper bikes started from this bicycle actually… I can’t stand the small wheels in front and the difficult to maneuver handles. I couldn’t really race with the other kids… they had BMXs and real racing bikes… adding further to my dislike of chopper bikes since young.

flames of hate... ashes of sadness

2008-12-01T14:50:00.005+08:00

Mumbai… Bombay… the most colorful and exciting city in India now thrown into a fire of chaos and suffocating in a cloud of panic. A city that was drenched in vibrant and modern atmosphere now soaking in sadness and anger. Unlike others… I cannot watch CNN or BBC… it makes me extremely sad to see the innocent (esp children) suffer and cry in pain on live TV.

If the reason is to fight a ‘holy’ war (or any war) … why kill innocent children and women? Is it brave or holy to hurt or inflict pain on those who cannot fight back? Some of these babies and children will never know their parents or enjoy a normal family life. What honour is it to die this way? Which God will approve of this act… so called ‘holy’ war? Why use bullets on weak, soft and old bodies?

These cowards have hearts and mind full of hate, spite, insecurity, frustration, ugliness and anger. These are the same type that killed Gandhi… and we can surely bundle them together with the genocide perpetrators in Rwanda… Nazi’s war criminals … and Palestinian Arab oppressors…

I believe ANYONE who kills children or women for ANY damn reason doesn’t deserve to be called human beings. They are nothing but egoistically pumped up brain dead morons who don’t have purpose living.

My heart goes out to all the victims… all over the world… not only in Mumbai. The world is affected by this hateful, racist and unjust killing… a crime against humanity… mankind.

jerry yang... who?!!!

2008-11-18T13:22:00.003+08:00

Yahoo to replace Yang… this is a real shocker. I remember in varsity (USM)… some of my faculty mates were busy sending ‘online flowers’ to their gfs from the faculty lab using Yahoo mail. I only had the USM email account (at first)… in boring text fonts and had to queue to use the terminals. These faculty dudes were already into Yahoo so fast… this was in 1995… the excitement was everywhere… electrifying.

Net connection is only found in varsity labs or some funky internet cafes outside campus back then… with network speeds not much different from now. I just can’t understand why Malaysia cannot improve the broadband speed and move with the times. Chat rooms and bulletin boards just mushroomed… everyone wanted to ‘talk’ with everyone else… its like using the telephone for the first time. My Yahoo account is almost 10 years now!

Anyway, before Google… Yahoo had the ultimate search engine… I suppose it was also driven by the porn site searches and just the dotCom excitement... to be IN the ‘web’. My favourite use of Yahoo in campus is to search for anything GIS… lotsa GIS technical articles and online lessons over the web (mainly from US). These tech articles, news and tips were so valuable… I aced my GIS projects… often leaving others bewildered at my IT skills… standing on the shoulder of giants... :-)

diwali facts...

2008-10-28T11:39:00.000+08:00

Here are some interesting facts regarding Diwali... Deepavali... I did not even know... :-)

The festival marks the victory of good over evil, and uplifting of spiritual darkness. Symbolically it marks the homecoming of goodwill and faith after an absence, as suggested by the Ramayana.

On the day of Diwali, many wear new clothes and share sweets and snacks. Some North Indian business communities start their financial year on Diwali and new account books are opened on this day.

Hindus have several significant events associated with it:

Return of Lord Rama to Ayodhya: Diwali also celebrates the return of Lord Rama, King of Ayodhya, with his wife Sita and brother Lakshmana to Ayodhya after a 14 year exile, and a war in which he killed the demon king Ravana. It is believed that the people of Ayodhya lit ghee lamps along the way to light their path in the darkness. Since Lord Rama traveled from South India to his kingdom in North India, he passed through the south earlier. This is the reason why the festival is celebrated a day earlier in South India!

The Killing of Narakasura: Celebrated as Naraka Chaturdasi, two days before Diwali day, it commemorates the killing of Narakasura, an evil demon who created havoc, by Lord Krishna's wife Satyabhama. This happened in the Dwapar Yuga during this time of Lord Krishna's avatar. In another version, the demon was killed by Lord Krishna (Lord krishna provokes his wife Satyabhama to kill Narakasura by pretending to be injured by the demon. Narakasura can only be killed by a woman) himself.[citation needed] Before Narakasura's death, he requested a boon from Satyabhama (believed to be an Avatar of Bhudevi), that everyone should celebrate his death with colorful light.

Austerities of Shakti: According to the Skanda Purana, the goddess Shakti observed 21 days of austerity starting from ashtami of shukla paksha (eighth day of the waxing period of moon) to get half of the body of Lord Shiva. This vrata (austerity) is known as kedhara vrata. Deepavali is the completion day of this austerity. This is the day Lord Shiva accepted Shakti into the left half of the form and appeared as Ardhanarishvara. The ardent devotees observe this 21 days vrata by making a kalasha with 21 threads on it and 21 types of offerings for 35 days. The final day is celebrated as kedhara gauri vrata.

Birth of Goddess Lakshmi: According to the Puranas, the goddess of Wealth, Prosperity and Luck Lakshmi was born from the churning of the Milk Ocean, along with other magical beings and objects including Amrit, Kamadhenu,Chintamani, Halahal aka Poison, etc. She was sought by both the Devas (Gods) and Asuras (Deamons) but in the end she chose her husband as Vishnu.

Krishna defeating Indra: Govardhan Puja is celebrated the day after Diwali. It is the day Lord Krishna defeated Indra, the deity of thunder and rain. As per the story, Krishna saw huge preparations for the annual offering to Lord Indra and questions his father Nanda about it. He debated with the villagers about what their 'dharma' truly was. They were farmers, they should do their duty and concentrate on farming and protection of their cattle. He continued to say that all human beings should merely do their 'karma', to the best of their ability and not pray for natural phenomenon. The villagers were convinced by Krishna, and did not proceed with the special puja (prayer). Indra was then angered, and flooded the village. Krishna then lifted Mt Govardhan and held it up as protection to his people and cattle from the rain. Indra finally accepted defeat and recognized Krishna as supreme. This aspect of Krishna's life is mostly glossed over - but it actually set up the basis of the 'karma' philosophy later detailed in the Bhagavat Gita.

why are ppl like that...

2008-10-13T17:51:00.002+08:00

Insecurity breeds fear and this leads to incompetence. We try to hold on to whatever we have, blaming the rest of the world instead of looking deep into our own limitations and deficiencies. Many people portray themselves to be something they are not... and these are clearly habits of typical hypocrites and liars.

Greed overcomes the need to be rational and calm... which over time causes unnecessary fear and stress for themselves. This greed can be traced to their self-lying nature in finding the easy way out... looking for loopholes to make themselves comfortable and popular. They lack good understanding and skills at work but manipulate and twist their way round all situations by playing games, challenging authority and gossiping.

Incompetence is a by product of laziness and mostly an attitude problem that’s very hard to change. In this age of globalization… expecting spoon fed jobs… safe monthly incomes … not having personal growth plan… and just staying put only rots the mind… affecting every aspect of company, human and national growth. Change is the only thing certain in this world… and change is not really that bad.

ESRI - User Conference 2008 - San Diego - Part 2

2008-10-07T09:21:00.004+08:00

Sorry... I've been so busy with work... forgot to update this blog. Got some emails asking me on more updates for the ESRI UC. I really had some memorable experiences during the UC... and it was quite fun.

I reached the conference centre and surprised to find everything seems orderly. In a strange way... everyone knows where to go too. I passed so many coffee corners (with long silent queues)... thought prob the plenary might be boring and ppl really need to keep themselves awake with coffee. Reached the hall to find an ocean full of people... this GIS community is really huge. I felt a tinge of pride and some consolation ... so many people in my industry... never really imagined so many ppl interested in GIS.

I found a seat a few rows in front of the stage... the seats were close and small... but at least I get to see the whole show closer. I think the San Diego weather helps too... everyone seems comfy in their summer clothes... some in shorts ... many in their ESRI t-shirts. I was in my usual jeans and rock t-shirt... should have brought a baseball cap tho.

With a short intro music... Jack arrived! No time to waste I suppose. He tends to tilt his head to the side when talking... prob in anticipation for some crowd challenge or challenging the crowd to react. He made a good long speech... introduced new functionality and capabilities. He cracked some jokes too... and I was surprised GIS people laughing... we do have a sense of humour after all. Phew!

Technically, I think the 9.3 release is more for the server side enhancements ... the Desktop version is quite cool but ArcGIS Server upgrade is what the buzz is all about. Shared Applications, Web 2.0, Flex API, JavaScript API, 9.3 ArcGIS Server Manager enhancements and ArcSDE improvements caught my attention the most. I think we still have a long way to go before web applications can replace desktop software but the advent of Mashup Applications and integration of multiple web services.... allows for better information dessemination and solves a lot of enterprise integration. GIS is now definitely in the mainstream IT arena and gone are the days I use to spend time in university labs experimenting and prototyping.

ESRI - User Conference 2008 - San Diego - Part 1

2008-09-09T15:57:00.002+08:00

1. Arrived in San Diego, excited … this is my first ESRI UC and can’t wait to experience the best GIS conference in the world. Reached the W Hotel (http://www.starwoodhotels.com/whotels/index.html)… it hits you in the face… only one of a kind… cool and funky. They have a nice room tho… everything is functional and well designed. The shower needs some re-design I believe… they need a sliding door.. cause if you are tall… the water splashes. I attended 2 Pre-Conference Seminars – ArcGIS Enterprise Systems: Performance & Scalability on Sat …. and… Cartography with ArcGIS : Map Design for GIS on Sun.

2. ArcGIS Enterprise Systems: Performance & Scalability - This was more cramped than I thought… they wanted to cover AGS 9.3, ArcSDE and Desktop Performance issues in 1 day. The ArcGIS Desktop performance issue is a tradeoff between cartography and functional performance… esp designing and creating MXDs. I believe we have better workstations and graphic card engines now and ESRI should take advantage of gaming display engines to render maps faster. We should not rely too much on Microsoft or OpenGL. AGS 9.3 Map Cache and optimizing AGS map services is another headache we face in deploying GIS web apps. How do we estimate and make decisions on deployment architectures… esp when AGS licenses are so expensive across CPUs / Sockets? I’ve attended this before and some of the similar subjects include Tracing, ArcObject Tips, Oracle Tuning and GDB Toolset. I am quite happy AGS 9.3 has better log reports, load tests and tracing now. We can also leverage on a more stable geoprocessing web service in AGS 9.3. I still see this issue with performance and scalability as a thorn in ESRI’s future direction… they need to clearly release stable and fast performing GIS apps without compromising technology and IT trends.

3. Cartography with ArcGIS: Map Design for GIS – I was pleasantly surprised to see such wide range in the crowd… cartographers, mappers, GIS specialists and consultants… all very experienced and prob more hands-on (skill) than myself. I was interested in new Carto Representations features, Color Ramps / Schemes, Advance Symbology and Thematic Mapping and Mapping Tips. Some of the stuff here is just to refresh my knowledge on better map making. A lot of times when digitizing data… we tend to focus on presentation and layouts instead of building a GIS database… and this fine line between CAD / Graphic Design and GIS is ever present in our daily work. I really think we need to move forward and spend more time and effort in building quality GIS datasets instead of making pretty maps. ArcGIS has great tools and functions to amalgamate GIS and CAD / Graphic Design but it takes honest enthusiasm, skill, experience and good training. Many of the users in this crowd are experienced cartographers and mappers with clear understanding of the end product and long term GIS benefits. Instead of hiring CAD / Graphic Design based digitisers to populate data… we need to progress further in defining and migrating projects into true GIS use.

London - Part 3

2008-08-18T11:28:00.004+08:00

7. Finally, I got to visit the Tate Modern… it has some of the best modern art collection in the world. I got to see Picasso, Chagall, Kandinsky and so many others. Tate itself is an impressive place… so huge and spacious… gives you another perspective … another way of having… “illusions of grandeur”. Some paintings can be disturbing… and I walk quickly pass them. I prefer to view ones that I only saw in magazines or art books before. Overall, its brilliant they manage to purchase these great works of art and hang them in one place. I also liked many of the sculptures and exhibits… it has profound effect on our senses. On first look, we may dismiss it as crazy… but reading the description and understanding the artist frame of mind… we cannot deny how inspiring these works can be. I was awestruck… another motivation for me to stop delaying and start painting again. I also got to meet Jackie on Fri and we all went to a local pub. The place was packed but with the new no –smoking rule… the crowd disappeared by 11.30. You cannot come into the pub if you smoke… that’s a local by-law. Anyway, the English Ale is nice and smooth… I like it. I really need to start learning to drink wine tho… beer and whiskey is so yesterday.

8. The whole of Sat I spent strolling along parks, sidewalks, Thames river bank and visited the Buckingham palace. Actually, I really like the fountain opposite the palace… it’s a pleasant area to sit and watch people. So many ppl from so many parts of the world… its amazing to see how they come from all over and the various languages they speak. Everyone seems happy and excited to be there… esp the kids. Its like a fairy wonderland… soaking in the grand atmosphere is like traveling back in time to another magical era.

9. One thing I noticed is how crowded London can be… its really VERY busy everywhere… you find ppl on the sidewalks… pubs, offices, parks, galleries, roads… everywhere! The attraction with London is also the many tourist events and how well they manage the tourist calendar all year round. You can find so many activities all over London and it never gets boring. Obama was in London too… how cool was that. There is something for everyone… but you have to spend in pound tho… and that’s expensive. Overall, travel makes us realize how small we are in this world and makes us more aware of how much more we have to improve our lifes as a whole.

London - Part 2

2008-08-18T11:10:00.004+08:00

4. On the 2nd day… I walked around the Kensington area and saw the old part of central London… they have all these awesome lawyer offices too. Passed Lincoln’s Inn, Templar’s Inn, King’s College and lotsa historical office buildings. London has so many pubs… and every single one … is packed. Then I ‘discovered’ St Paul’s cathedral. It’s really an awesome building… rising from the city like a huge beacon. The surrounding areas are excellent too… lotsa classic old buildings… well refurbished and must be cool to work there. The public transportation in London… makes it so easy for ppl to move around fast and I believe its one of London’s great success stories. I could find my way almost everywhere (even if I prefer to walk) and I am also amazed at the number of superbikes on the road. Ducatis, Aprillias, Triumphs and MV Augustas all over the place… its really a bikers paradise. The summer in London … sun goes down around 9pm… so there is so much to do… parks are filled with couples, teenagers, friends and families till 8pm!!!

5. On 3rd day I visited the National Gallery… near Trafalgar Square. Its open on Wed till late evening. I was surprised to see so many great works of art from so many different times. Van Gogh, Matisse, the Italian masters and Renaissance greats were displayed in well arranged manner. I was also surprised to find so many British master painters … never have I ever seen the great works from UK itself… and this was an excellent experience for me.

6. On Thurs… I got to walk over to see the Big Ben, Parliament House and Downing Street. It was interesting and inspiring to absorb the great London architecture by slowly walking along the pavement and occasionally stop to feel the history behind these buildings. Its interesting to know that many of these old and historical places are still well used and house a lot of offices till today. In the evening, I manage to get some cancelled tickets for Lion King and what a show that was! I have never seen a world famous theatre production and this was really special… the costumes, props, music and set was nothing short of spectacular.

London - Part 1

2008-08-18T10:54:00.003+08:00

1. Flight to London was good... great service from MAS. Flew 747-400 and the journey was pleasant... movies did not work tho. Am not really into fine dining or western food… so the meals were not to my liking. 13 hours can be a little long but flying Business Class can get addictive

2. First day in London was just sleeping in hotel room… trip from Heathrow to London city on a Sunday can be unpredictable.. took 2 hours to reach the hotel. I had a good driver tho… he kept talking about his life in London… well dressed Indian bloke (stripe pants) with Gucci sunglasses. Stayed at Hilton Waldorf… near the West End… surrounded by theatres and quite lively till late evening. The first thing that struck me was the weather… its so pleasant… not humid or hot. The occasional cool breeze… really helps when you daydream and kept me in a constant melancholy zone...

3. Visited Jeff on Monday evening… it’s a few station stops from central London. Jeff has a nice place… with a garden behind…. I like the quite and peaceful surrounding. He made chicken curry for me and we talked about life back in Msia

2 car salesmen selling petrol - anwar and shaberi

2008-07-16T17:27:00.000+08:00

So I watched the debate last nite. Anwar (with his crazy eyebrows) and Shaberi (with his foamy mouth) hitting each other with pot shots and lame wit. What did we get from all this? What did we learn? Of course this event is unprecedented in the history of this nation... but we have to ask ... what the whole purpose of this debate was?

There might be some confusion as to the whole purpose of the debate. BN wanted to ease some pressure and blow some steam from so many scandals and controversies. Anwar wanted to make more noise and prove he can make it as PM or leader of the opposition. So we have 2 different reasons for the debate. At the end of the day.... did we achieve anything? Did the rakyat get any benefit.... besides the entertaining drama on stage? Nothing.

We now know... all this while... public funds were wasted and bad decisions made. Any foreign investor will laugh at this and think how shallow our gov economic experts are. What is the gov paid employees doing when all this happened? What are the police and gov economic agencies doing when all this happened before? Nuts.

why we ride?

2008-07-02T17:50:00.002+08:00

The Falcon Koboi speaks...

I somehow feel some inner peace... the feeling of a flying bird. How appropriate... Aprilia Falco.

Why we ride? Click Here

spain... the worthy champions

2008-07-01T12:16:00.002+08:00

ok... here is my take on the champions league lah. liverpool won it for spain. torres and xavi won the trophy... thanks to benitez. its also back to the great days of attacking football... something maradona, platini and zidane mastered. too bad the final should have been holland and spain... germany and france have the worst moronic players in the tournament!

now... how about the ronaldo fiasco? claimed to be the greatest MU legend... wonderkid from Ferguson... end up playing ur backside. Also recently revealed... MU owners took euro 600 million loan to finance the club and desperate to sell ronaldo. bankrupt club, greedy players, ungrateful footballers... and naive asian fans... a great cocktail of disillusionment!

geodatabase schema ... design... import and export

2008-06-10T18:38:00.000+08:00

There are 2 ways in ArcGIS to export empty schemas, check this out: http://webhelp.esri.com/arcgisdesktop/9.2/index.cfm?id=2043&pid=2038&topicname=Copying_the_schema_of_a_geodatabase

This is a 3rd party tool I use a lot to design geodatabases (Geodatabase Designer v2).... its an excellent design tool: http://arcscripts.esri.com/details.asp?dbid=13484 and you can use this to export any design.

me in jakarta ... from my blackberry

2008-06-02T19:03:00.006+08:00

View from the Jakarta Office. Nice buildings and great view. Architecturally, Jakarta offices have good interior design... compared to KL.

View in Hotel Mulia. Great atmosphere and nice design. Staff is friendly and ever helpful.

Tom Cruise in self pose. Notice the Byford t-shirt... my favourite and most comfortable :-)

The Lobby in Hotel Mulia. I really like the layout and design flow. Indonesians have good taste in hotel design.

The AWFUL Jakarta traffic jam... car stuck for 15 mins in same position.

Still not moving. Amazing ppl just don't horn... I think they are so used to this driving.

I can't take it anymore... I nearly wanted to jump out from the cab. Lucky traffic moved a bit and the cab driver did some stunts... he saw I was not happy stuck in traffic for 1.5 hours!!!

oracle / arcsde login using windows authentication...

2008-05-27T09:09:00.003+08:00

You can configure ArcSDE Direct Connect to read Windows login. When we add the login parameters in ArcCatalog, we just need to specify the tnsnames.ora name for the Service params.

I always thought this was an option in SQL Server and by default this works in ArcGIS 9.2 release.

Firstly, you need to add the Windows user into Oracle DB. Then you need to configure the tnsnames.ora in the remote Oracle Client workstation.

Voila... you can make connection now. This seems an easier option because users don't really need another Oracle pwd to remember and everything is tied to the Windows domain login.

I heard about some security issues doing this but am not sure if there is any recorded hack. Cheers.

good luck...

2008-05-21T10:39:00.001+08:00

Wei... as a former Champion's League winner... we are happy for 2 English clubs to be in the finals.

For Zidane (to me the greatest footballer EVER) to place his support on Ronaldo... am placing my bets on MU to win. I also think MU can ONLY win if they can be less arrogant, more humble and concentrate on real football... after all ... their players are the highest paid and most spoilt... bankrolled by a bankrupt club and adored by disillusioned fans!!!

All the best.... take care.

buzz on Adobe Flex

2008-05-19T17:15:00.002+08:00

Here are some links from bloggers on Adobe Flex:
http://www.spatiallyadjusted.com/2008/03/18/2008-esri-developer-summit-plenary/

http://www.spatiallyadjusted.com/2008/03/18/2008-esri-developer-summit-using-the-arcgis-server-rest-api/

http://blogs.esri.com/info/blogs/

http://fantomplanet.wordpress.com/category/arcgis-server/

http://api.arcwebservices.com/devguide/awx/v4/index_Left.htm#StartTopic=flex/extensions_using.htm#SkinName=aws

http://www.spatiallyadjusted.com/2008/03/21/so-wait-what-was-that-flex-api-for-arcgis-server/

http://www.blueraster.com/

http://www.trollingthevoid.com/index.cfm?event=aggregator.browseEntries&feedId=348

http://www.roktech.net/devblog/index.cfm/2008/3/18/ArcGIS-Server-Flex-API-announced

http://thunderheadxpler.blogspot.com/2007/10/hey-arcgis-users.html

kerja baru di Hess....

2008-05-15T11:36:00.004+08:00

I joined Hess Corporation (http://www.hess.com/) as a GIS Specialist. Am part of the Global GIS team and report to bosses in UK and Houston.

My regards to ALL. We are a global GIS family, after all!!

Hess Corporation is a leading global independent energy company, engaged in the exploration and production of crude oil and natural gas, as well as in refining and in marketing refined petroleum products, natural gas, and electricity.

when the innocent cry without anymore tears..

2008-05-14T20:36:00.001+08:00

When news about both these catastrophes flashed in front of me, the first thing that came to my mind are the fate of the small children and babies. How will they fend for themselves if they get lost, swept away, buried or separated from their parents or friends? How will they recover from injuries, bruises, broken bones and trauma without medicine and first aid? How will the poor kids live without food or water for more than a day? No milk, cereal, porridge, clean water, biscuits or even bread.

Its unfortunate that times like this politics, diplomatic rows and suspicion takes control over common sense and good faith... esp for Myanmar and its people. The worst effected by all this are the kids... and they will surely be scared forever even if they survive this horrible event. Am sure the great powers, politicians, medics and our very own parliament can stop their daily routine for a few days and ponder ways to help our fellow neighbors. This is about mankind and kids suffering... lets not walk away and ignore the innocent.

how to use date in queries and selections

2008-05-12T17:41:00.000+08:00

You need to follow some syntax rules for Date data type in ArcGIS Queries or Selections.

An example query for features selected before 1970 would be: "Datefield" < date '1970-01-01'

File geodatabase, shapefile, coverage, and other file-based data sources
Dates in file geodatabases, shapefiles, and coverages are preceded with "date".
"Datefield" = date 'yyyy-mm-dd'
File geodatabases support the use of a time in the date field, so this can be added to the expression:
"Datefield" = date 'yyyy-mm-dd hh:mm:ss'
Shapefiles and coverages do not support the use of time in a date field.

Personal geodatabase
Dates in personal geodatabases are delimited using #.
For example:
[Datefield] = #mm-dd-yyyy hh:mm:ss#
It can be shortened to [Datefield] = #mm-dd-yyyy#
An alternative format
[Datefield] = #yyyy/mm/dd#

If the dates are in Text field, you need to use Format([date_field], "dddd, MMMM dd, yyyy") or you can convert the whole text field into a new date field.

chart overlap in arcgis desktop...

2008-05-07T16:42:00.002+08:00

Have you tried to overlap a 2D pie chart in ArcMap with another layer? Or can we create transparency for the charts so that we can see the underlying data layers? The answer is NO. I tried all kinds of ways including changing the symbology type and color.

Finally, I manage to solve this by setting the selection of features as a specific symbol or colour. Only then the layers can be visible on top of the charts.

Another way is to convert the pie charts into Graphics (as graphic layer) an manipulate fromt there... but this is really messy if there are many features and you have to move or edit them individually.

Hope this helps.

its time to say goodbye...

2008-05-02T16:59:00.002+08:00

I have enjoyed my tenure in ESRI South Asia and I sincerely appreciate having had the opportunity to work with everyone. Thank you for the support, guidance, and encouragement you have provided me during my time in ESRI.

I humbly look forward to this new challenge and to start a new phase of my technical career. There is so much more to work on and I hope my new experience can be beneficial.

I can be reached at my personal email address (tone.joseph@gmail.com) or via this blog. Again, my humble appreciation.

What I have learned is but a handful of sand, what is left unlearned is the Earth itself - Hindu proverb

liverpool... wow

2008-04-11T11:32:00.006+08:00

Liverpool 4 - 2 Arsenal

Awestruck with that performance... no matter what fans or opponents may say… Liverpool is hell bent to win the Champions League this year. Somehow on that magical night… our failure in the Premier League is all forgotten as they showed logic defying drama, yet again...

No other club in the European arena has shown such outrageous comeback so frequently in such high performance… high speed… high level game.

An epic win and a tough fought match that deserves all the praise for both Liverpool and Arsenal players for true grit and great skill. Unbelievable goals from both sides in a contest that should go into football folklore.

Somehow this love and passion for Champions League for Liverpool should silence many critics but I still believe true glory is in winning the Premier League next season. It’s been too long and this Liverpool chapter needs closure VERY soon.

The best striker in the world today... give him an inch in the box... and he scorches the net. Reminds me of Van Basten.
The heart of Liverpool midfield... great attacking and defensive skills... admire his work ethic and passing vision. What a penalty... under such pressure!!

why all this nonsense

2008-03-28T11:37:00.002+08:00

Dutch MP posts Islam film on web - A Dutch right-wing politician posts a controversial film critical of the Koran on the internet:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7317506.stm

I am a Catholic of Indian ethnicity living in Malaysia (a Muslim country). I believe religion should be used to UNITE all class, colour or creed. We choose our own religion as a way of life and the best path for spiritual enlightenment. Some of my friends are Muslims and being matured about our life choices is true freedom. There is no such thing as total freedom of speech, talk is VERY cheap. Some people love to shout and that’s not the freedom we need. There should be only more tolerance, love and friendship.

Hypocrites are everywhere… among Christians, Hindus, Buddhists and Muslims too… all ages and levels of society. These religious fanatics preach and force religion on others just to feel good about controlling people. Control makes them powerful… and power is addictive. Violence is the normal means to power. What is right and wrong is not from human interpretation but should be from God’s definition of truth and justice.

When both sides (Christians and Muslims) are pointing fingers at each other, there will never be peace. The blame game will never cease. Only with compromise, forgiveness and love we can all make this planet a better place to live.

Come on lah… take it easy... stop this nonsense... stop fighting please.

lame excuses for liverpool's defeat... again..

2008-03-24T16:08:00.000+08:00

All I can say about yesterday’s game… Liverpool was outclassed and outplayed throughout the whole game. They looked nothing short of misguided and unbalanced team of amateurs. MU played a smart game… waited and waited… they did not push too hard and the players were not over pressured.

Liverpool on the other hand could not take in the pressure… they played without much vision or direction. Am sick and tired of Benitez and his excuses… he should see the whole mess unfolding way before the send off. The red card was too harsh… but that might not happen if Liverpool had a good game plan or a working tactic to beat MU.

Competition is stiff and every game should improve the player’s performance… but in Liverpool’s case… it’s the opposite. Every season starts with promise only to end with bitter disappointment and frustration. This season is no better.

Election 2008 – Rawang

2008-03-08T16:57:00.000+08:00

Gan Pei Nei

Saturday in Rawang was kinda quiet… maybe there is some sense of change in the air. Went to my old primary school… Sinaran Budi wit my sister and mother. As I am walking along to cast my vote… I remember running around this school… playing all kinds of unique Malaysian games (i.e. galah panjang, police & thief, marbles, top, kite, konda kondi etc)… making so many good friends… some of them still keep in touch till today. There were no race or money issues then… no segregation… no politics… it was fun to be in school. Some of my best teachers were Indians, Malays and Chinese. Sinaran Budi built a reputation for the most secular school in Selangor then for racial integration. We also had the best results for government exams together with San Yuk Chinese School.

So then… walking into the old classroom… the old block up on the hill… everything seems so small and narrow now. Its here in the same classroom…. I attended my Standard 3 lessons. This will be the very same room I will be making a political statement. Seeing so many familiar faces in Rawang … esp old timers… brings back a sense of nostalgia and sadness. Everyone had this new look about them… a new face. It all went peacefully tho… as if even the ruling party voters wanted some change. I can sense frustrations for the local issues we face in Rawang and admit a lot of work is yet to come for PKR, esp Gan Pei Nei.

We lost our golden era in Rawang… 70s and 80s. Those were the days when everyone knew EVERYONE in Rawang. The market, library, football fields, APMC club and the illegal video arcades had so many fond memories. We had better comradeship among various races, creeds and beliefs then. I suppose Rawang has changed a lot since... changed in the era of globalization and the ever moving job seekers. The youngsters (many of them my good friends) moved to KL and Singapore. Once or twice a year… the pilgrimage back to Rawang brings back so many of the children of a lost era … but that is also slowly dying. More old timers are moving out too… loosing the battle to stay independent in Rawang (a haven for gritty hard working people then).

This brings back the issues we face these days in Rawang and the amount of damage Tan See Hang and BN brought to this great town. So much new development and damaging changes in Rawang brought destruction to its identity and sense of belonging. Unplanned development also brings about more destruction to the environment and carnage to the great quintessential charm of this city. No more public libraries, parks or public places to meet and mingle among the local folks.

More and more shoplots that are not only esthetically ugly… but also damaging to the very fabric of social interaction. When we plan cities for human beings, we must take into account not only the economic aspect but the social, environmental and spiritual well being of its people. Of course we need these shops, nasi kandar restaurants, supermarkets and banks… but not right in the city centre. The city centre should have a place to meet… like a piazza or a park. There is nothing in this town that builds a common interaction ground among its people.

Rawang had a bygone era of neo-classical bond among its people. There were the APMC club, the football fields, LIONS club, library, coffee shops, churches, temples etc where people met and migled. Seriously, even in schools we had this great interaction among students and teachers. Our tamans had residential clubs and rukun tentangga... all this vanished when BN and Tan See Hang decided to blind the people with these horrible development. The damage might not be overcome... but a lesson for the upcoming candidate... u need to bring back the glory of the old days... and thats tough. Rawang boleh... :-)

geodata services... arcsde service... performance and speed

2008-03-05T10:05:00.002+08:00

Hi there, we get a lot of support calls regarding SDE performance and speed. Now with ArcGIS Server and Geodata Services (publishing GIS data as SOA web services) there is a lot more confusion. Actually its pretty easy once we get the hang of it... and ESRI provides a lot of tuning tools to make your work as a DBA much easier.

Firstly, am beginning to slowly migrate all the older SDE Service (traditional windows and unix/linux SDE processes) to direct connect (DC). We can push many of these server processes to client machines (coz there are faster CPUs and bigger RAM these days) and take advantage of more tuning parameters in the RDBMS itself (Oracle 10gR2 / SQL Server 2005). I don’t think there is any problem with this… based on my experience. The default SDE service was designed many years ago coz client machines were slow and traditionally we depended a lot on high end servers for performance and speed. With direct connect, we can bypass SDE service and make direct connection to databases.

Secondly, IF you still want to make use of the traditional SDE services… then make sure you understand the tuning issues. Most ppl make the SDE installation by following the wizard. This is ok for most cases, but as data grows bigger and more users connect … tuning is paramount. In any database implementations or any serious DBAs will tell … tuning is all about optimizing hardware, o/s and software. Fortunately, the traditional SDE service has tuning parameters inbuilt:

giomgr.defs

Populates the SERVER_CONFIG repository table. Server initialization parameters that define how ArcSDE uses memory. Before creation of the repository tables, edit the giomgr.defs file with a text editor. After the SERVER_CONFIG table is created, use the sdeconfig administration command to alter parameters.

dbtune.sde

Controls table and layer storage, populates the DBTUNE table. Configuration strings that ArcSDE appends to CREATE TABLE and CREATE INDEX SQL statements. Before creation of the repository, edit the dbtune.sde file in a text editor. After the DBTUNE table is created, use sdedbtune to edit the table.

Finally, there’s a NEW update with ArcSDE now. This is extremely EXCITING. With the release of 9.2 and the merger or ArcSDE in ArcGIS Server. ESRI has released Geodata Services. This web service is totally different from the traditional SDE Service prior to 9.2. Geodata Service uses Web Services technology to provide access to the contents of a geodatabase for data query, extraction, and replication. This capability is always enabled when you publish a geodata service. Web Services is part of the SOA capabilities of ArcSDE that is released with 9.2. You can activate this Web Services if you already have a web server installed.

arcgis server - tips

2008-02-26T12:01:00.001+08:00

Here are some tips for you folks:

Netscaler - this tool from Citrix helps with network performance. It can optimise packets and network stress. Check it out.

Try to estimate 2GB memory per core for the servers. This helps in managing web requests and pools in ArcGIS Server.

1 processor per SOC (service) - 1 Dual Core Socket = 2 Processors = 2 SOCs = 2 Services. So with this you can estimate the processor count for the ArcGIS Service services and threads. So lets say you have 1 map service (based on 1 MXD)... this will take up one whole processor minimum. The more you add SOCs and Instances then you need to take into account the processor counts.

Try to set limit for instances in ArcGIS Server. So if there are MAX number of instances set... then you can limit the number of connections and processor loads.

Monitoring performance - use perfmon in windows

MS Fiddler - check the HTTP get and post for ArcGIS Server

MS App Centre Test - Visual Studio - stress test for the codes and also the webpages

recent pics...

2008-02-06T17:49:00.002+08:00

Here are some pics taken at Zilan's Raya Open House in Kelana Jaya last year. These are my colleagues from ESRI Malaysia.

This is a group photo taken from the ESRI Asia Developer Workshop for ArcGIS Server 9.2 in Bangkok, Thailand last December. These are the .NET developers super cool group. There is another parallel session for Java developers... they had to seperate us (after the second day) in different buildings due to fist fights... just kidding.

Programming Resources...

2008-02-03T20:35:00.000+08:00

Here are some handy resource list for .NET or VB6 programming:

http://www.devarticles.com/c/b/C-Sharp/
http://www.codersource.net/
http://www.codeguru.com/csharp/
http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/vbrun/default.aspx
http://vb-helper.com/
http://www.codeguru.com/
http://www.planetsourcecode.com/
http://www.vbcity.com/
http://www.vbforums.com/
http://www.codeproject.com/

I use the a lot to search for coding tips, source codes and also sample projects. We in the GIS Industy are integrating with a lot of external systems these days... this is a fact. As GIS Engineers, Consultants or Specialists... programming is part of our everyday work.

asp.net web services

2008-01-24T10:39:00.000+08:00

Coding for server-side applications have changed drastically (in the last 2-3 years) with the advent of web services. ASP.NET and JSP are all full fledged web services proponents... and we need to understand how this effects us in the GIS industry.

Now.. in any GIS Web Development... we need to think about how to consume web services in order to work with live data without full page postback, to update/read database tables directly, remote connection / control of functions, interactive websites, powerful interfaces, faster websites and of course... using AJAX.

Here are good references:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/310143
http://www.developer.com/net/asp/article.php/3657826
http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/prognetws/chapter/ch02.html

microsoft and windows tech updates...

2008-01-11T10:08:00.000+08:00

First up: Expect "Fiji," the new version of Windows Media Center, to resurface. Fiji, which probably now has a boring codename like Windows 6.5, will reemerge from information lock-down in early 2008. I wouldn't be surprised to see Microsoft field a private test build of Fiji as soon as January (timed with the Consumer Electronics Show). Because Fiji allegedly requires Vista Service Pack 1 to work, a public beta is probably unlikely until spring. Final Fiji release: I'm betting late summer 2008 (in time for Holiday 2008 preloads).

Apple is none too happy when it can't maintain its shroud of secrecy. That's why Apple still hasn't announced -- even though it would make many business customers happy -- that it licensed the ActiveSync protocol from Microsoft that will make it easier to sync the iPhone with Exchange Server.But Apple can't hold off forever. CEO Steve Jobs might admit Apple inked the licensing agreement with Microsoft at Macworld in January. Or he might wait until later next year to acknowledge the deal. But in 2008, Apple will admit publicly that it has sought Redmond's blessing, yet again.

When Roz Ho left her post as head of the Microsoft Mac Business Unit earlier this year, she disappeared into the depths of the Mobile and Entertainment Division. Word is Ho is heading up the mysterious "Pink and Purple" project, which is all about bringing Zune features and functionality to Windows Mobile devices. It sounds like Ho also is part of the oft-denied skunkworks project to create a Microsoft ZunePhone. Word is some of the new Windows Mobile music features will see the light of day (in beta or final form) in 2008.

Even though Windows 7 isn't expected to ship until 2010, word is that Office 14 is still on track to be released to manufacturing in 2009. If Microsoft sticks to schedule, the company could field Beta 1 of the product in 2008.

Windows 7 exists. Folks inside Microsoft are running early builds already. Does that mean we can count on seeing test builds of Windows 7 in 2008? I bet not. I'd be very surprised to see any kind of broad tech preview out next year.

Source: TechRepublic

security tech tips

2008-01-07T13:54:00.000+08:00

Its important to note there are more and more irritating threats to our computers these days. We need to be super vigilant and careful about our workstations and home PCs.

Here are some IMPORTANT tech tips to note:

I remember suggesting a few years back to use Trend Micro's Housecall (a free online scanner). Now Kaspersky has won the best anti-virus and anti-spam software battle for 2007. Please use this free online scanner http://www.kaspersky.com/virusscanner. If you detect anything, run Symantec to clean it. If it cannot clean, download the client version of Kaspersky.
Spywares have an effect on ur net privacy and slows down ur internet connection. First of all, spyware or adware progs are installed on ur system (most of the time w/o ur permission or knowledge) to monitor ur net behavior, return back some sensitive data or spam emails. Careful of the pages you visit. Try to start with my blog page everyday... u will be safe :-)
I also suggested a few years ago (still recommend) that u use Ad-aware and Spybot Search and Destroy for this, their both free and effective: www.lavasoft.nu and www.safer-networking.org
I would also recommend using a Net browser other than Internet Explorer. IE regardless of its version is prone to attacks coming from spywares and is very vulnerable. I recommend using Firefox (http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/).
Please update your Windows Patches and Service Packs (click Start>Programs>Windows Update)
Uninstall any freeware, Google toolbar, Yahoo toolbar or unauthorized software from your PC
Run XP Defrag and Checkdisk once a week
Please ask if dunno
Pray that Step 1-7 is completed successfully :-)

Cheers and Happy New Year all :-)

inspirational... fantastic!!!

2007-12-20T22:59:00.000+08:00

In times like this we should look for inspiration... and this dude is truly amazing. A phone salesman... discovered by UK Talent Show... now singing opera. I got this clip from a friend... and its blowing my mind. Just look at the judges’ expression when he walked in... thats awesome TV lah.

Talent and skill cannot be hidden for too long. You can try... but it surfaces at the right time... the right moment. Empty cans make the loudest noise... I know a few who talks a lot but delivers nothing. This guy.... talks less... looks relaxed... but delivers the best and most powerful performance.

Some ppl think they are helluva great... think they know a lot. Lotsa ppl also claim to be smarter and super talented... super good looking. This dude puts all to shame and humbles the proud. Way to go dude.. u got it.

macam budak kecik...

2007-12-05T16:49:00.000+08:00

Aiyah… all this Malay, Chinese and Indian talk… so boring lah. So many blogs and comments written about each race as if they are the greatest. Seems like everyone is more concerned with history and past glory. Let’s be Malaysian’s first lah. There are so many things we can talk and write about Malaysia… what for all this unnecessary racist talk. We have achieved so much as a country… a nation of various races. Lets move towards better living standards and economic prosperity. Bickering over the past and blaming the present shows how childish these leaders have become.

Firstly, we have to admit there are problems in this country… esp with poverty, education and the government. We need to change and think for the better. That includes ironing out all forms of racial prejudice and discrimination. Admit there is inequality in decision making and economic dispersion. Remove all forms of racial economic and educational barriers and subsidies. Work and compete in a globalised world openly. If a strategy cannot work for 30 years… why continue another 30?

The Hindu Rights Action Force (HINDRAF) gathering

2007-11-26T10:14:00.000+08:00

I am no sociologist or an expert in politics... but I do believe economic deprivation causes social unrest. With all the checks, warnings, arrests and threats from the authorities... the movement went ahead. With all the repercussions and consequences to be faced... the protesters marched forward. They want to be heard... let’s hear their story and not just ignore or play the blame game.

In the spirit of Mahatma Gandhi... any peaceful procession or protest should be allowed. Gandhi's non violence movement not only brought down the mighty British but paved way for Malaysia to gain independence. Malaysia should remember India's contribution for the independence movement sweeping across Asia. Peaceful marches and protests is part of the democratic movement... it is enshrined as fundamental human rights. The authorities should not be the aggressors and intimidators... that is wrong.

Throughout history Indians were brought into this country to work as laborers, estate workers, police force, military, navy and as government servants. The railroads, electricity and water utilities in this country owes a lot to these hardworking laborers. The roads and bridges across this country are built by Indian laborers working under the hot blazing sun. Their contribution to building this nation must be remembered if not cherished. Sadly, these days their intake into goverment agencies, ministries and public services has been thwarted by red tape and prejudice. Educational deprivation hits the hardest among Indians bcoz they are fighting against the tide of unfair meritocracy. Promotions and major positions in the military or police are seriously lacking.

Loyal, trustworthy and hardworking are the traits of these Indian labourers… that’s why the British brought them to work in so many economics sectors… not only in Malaysia… but throughout the British occupied lands. This Hindraf movement should also raise the eyebrows of the British present… and make their young ones understand... all their comforts, luxury and pleasures is derived from their shady military past. The wonderful buildings and great monuments all over London and Britain is built from the vast profits of the East… and this movement should at least create some awareness among the young Brits or the West in general.

We live in a wonderful land... we are Malaysians... lets all work and strive for the better. Please!

Bersih March - my comments..

2007-11-18T12:29:00.000+08:00

I dun choose sides and am not affliated to any political party.

I REALLY think this whole issue is about education...

We need school kids, university students and the public in general to be better educated and better travelled. With more knowledge, experience and education ... we make more mature decisions. The biggest decision we need to make is to realise how dear this country is to us. Malaysia is a wonderful country with great people... but these things are slowly fading.

We live in a wonderful land... a place we call home. I grew up with many friends... from all races... mixing freely and having a fun filled childhood. We played games together, ate together... and visited each other... no problem. Even today... am still in contact with my school friends... malays, chinese and indians. We all share some special bond, I suppose.

I also think our education system BEFORE Anwar or Najib screwed it. Before they became Education Ministers... it was so much better and had great quality. No KBSR or KBSM bullshit! My sister had Moral Studies classes (why??!)... and I find some of their history and geography lessons so shallow and really stupid. The English language is at its worse during the KBSM / KBSR time... Mahathir's legacy... and means to please the rural folks... make things easy. Science became a single subject.. combination of physics... chemistry etc. Even the books look cartoonish.

If you look at Malaysians born after 1976, you find the integration among kids lost at schools and universities. They have such patronising and brainwashing school papers and lessons... and their exams get much easier (close one eye you can get an A). Every year the education dept releases more and more As. I can't believe how these many students can score so many As. I was one of the best students in Sgor for my SRP exam in Form 3... scoring 8A1. I had 5As for Std 6... one of the top students in school and state. It was hard to find high scorers during my time because the exams were tougher. These days kids are scoring much higher and they get it so easy in school. Exams are so easy now. I suppose the teachers are not the same too. I respect my primary and secondary school teachers... some of them still in my memory. How many kids these days can claim to have great and dedicated teachers?

The easier these exams and challenges in school and university education... the lazier you become. Everything becomes easier... including university entrance exams. When people are not challenged to learn... they find it hard to compete in this globalised world. When its hard to compete... you can't find good jobs... without "connections" and "strings". So this results in more and more dissatisfied people... not earning enough or not doing the job they want. Many graduates are unemployed or unhappy. I dun blame them... they are not competent to fight in this world... everything is so easy for them now.

So Bersih should NOT be fighting for better elections... they should be fighting for better education in schools and universities. When people are smarter... they make wise decisions.

The price of oil and its true value...

2007-11-04T16:43:00.001+08:00

http://www.bloomberg.com/energy/

http://www.oil-price.net/

http://www.wtrg.com/prices.htm

If you do think out of the box... and look at the bigger picture... or read the papers recently... please be aware that crude oil prices are going at USD96 per barrel... and rising. Suddenly the feared USD100 per barrel doesn't seem far fetched. What has this got to do with us? What is the impact for us Malaysians?

Everything you own or work for is related to oil and the energy industry. Food, transport, homes, clothes, utilities, electricity, economies, computers, manufacturing, plastics... EVERYTHING is related to oil. If the price of oil continues to increase, for sure every other man made material price also increases. That seriously includes our daily cost of living. Malaysians are so worried about the price of flour and roti canai but that is only a small factor. The bigger worry is our goverment spending more money subsidising petrol prices and cutting back on more important expenses. Budgets and projects for local councils, police, hospitals, roads, cleanliness, education, universities, environment etc etc will be seriously damaged
If the government decides to cut petrol subsidies, then the normal man on the street will feel a deep hole in their pockets... and thats not good politically or socially. Election is around the corner and politicians cannot afford to make people more upset than they already are. Without subsidies, quite a number of industries and sections of our economy will fail. This in return will result in job losses and severe unemployment in Malaysia. Without subsidies, the normal citizens will not be able to spend money on books, knowledge building or even tourism. It will stress our daily routine and cause damage to national psyche.

Its not easy to run any government and we cannot afford to make mistakes. The Malaysian government must start to think wisely and long term now. We have to make smart and decisive decisions now. The Malaysian government needs to wake up and see the bigger picture. We need an efficient and lean machinery to run this country. That means spending prudently and wisely on things that matter most. We need to award projects to companies and people who can deliver the best. We need to employ the best minds to run agencies and departments. The government cannot afford anymore wastage or embarking on grand projects. Malaysia Mungkin Boleh!!

you can only go so far...

2007-10-22T18:02:00.000+08:00

Its hard to swallow wat happen last weekend. A true romantic's disaster weekend.

Hamilton loosing his nerve and blowing up a great chance to create history. I believe he got carried away from the start and his emotions took control of him. You cannot blame Ferrari for making that amazing move at the start. If the 2 McLaren drivers were smart they should have worked together and fight it among themselves. Instead they decide to fight it heads-on... headless.

England loosing the rugby finals is totally unacceptable. They had the tougher route to the finals, legendary wins and grit. Great determination and wonderful spirit. In the end technical ability, team work and true skill won the game… well done Springboks. I really admire the Springboks defense and their ability to read the game so well.

This brings me to conclude only ONE thing… technical ability, good team work, talent, skill and precision will win the game… spirit and passion can only bring you thus far.

true grit...

2007-10-07T11:18:00.000+08:00

What a Saturday!!!

France beat All Blacks
England beat the Aussies

When we overcome prejudice, discrimination and physical adversities... sportsmen will show their true spirit and colour. The fanciful and the hype does not determine history. Its sheer hard work, passion, true grit and lots of heart that changes results. And what a result this is. Am getting goose bumps watching these rugby games... a game of monsters with gentleman rules. Awesome.

Hamilton's poll position!!!

What else can we say about this rookie? Can you believe it’s his first season? Again the spirit and talent of any man cannot be shoved under the carpet. It’s being the best and some men are born to be the greatest. It’s got a lot to do with attitude and talent... also real hard work. I think this dude is a motivation for me to work harder and role model for doing the best. Cool.

That’s the beauty of sports... the passion and thrill of winning.

golden stuff...

2007-09-11T21:06:00.000+08:00

Another gem from Sesame Street

Yo Yo Ma... the Great on Sesame Street

This is so cool lah... sitting on the balcony watching this stuff. Children should watch this kinda stuff and not that horrible MTV and violence on TV. So much fun and cool things we can find without compromising quality.

how funky is this...

2007-09-11T20:24:00.000+08:00

Sitting on my balcony... bored... I decided to do a search on YouTube for Sesame Street video clips. Sesame Street characters always makes me laugh... except for Big Bird and that horrible Snafu friend. Guess what I found.... totally unbelievable... check it out

How cool is this? Stevie Wonder and his funk classic Superstition on Sesame Street.

Borneo - truly malayAsia

2007-08-13T10:05:00.000+08:00

Another trip to Sarawak... looks like this wonderful Borneo land keeps calling me back year after year. This time its to Miri, Shell in particular. I really like this land, the people and weather. Whenever, we talk to Sarawakians... they say it’s a boring place and nothing much to do. Not for me!!!

I am one of those who love the jungle, waterfalls and the quiet life. There are so many things happening in the jungle... how can we say its boring? No way. One thing for sure... the clean air is so refreshing and cool. And you really can feel the peace and tranquility. There is no kiasu drivers, bad jams, super hot afternoons and badly planned cities.

The Sarawakians are very special, they pride in their unity and togetherness. I think there is more unity among Malaysians in Sabah and Sarawak than Peninsular Malaysia. They can identify themselves as Sarawakians so well that its hard to distinguish the various races and indigenous groups. Wonderful, peace loving and super nice folks.

inspire or inspiron?

2007-08-02T21:24:00.000+08:00

We live in a world of contrasts and similarities. A world full of news and happenings. Constrasts in daily life and work. Similarities in love and feelings. Why are we this way? What is it about us that makes us think? Why do we think? To reason is human but we fill the daily news with horror stories. There is no need to watch movies of monsters, the human race is worse. Why can't we have newspapers print only news that makes us happy in all its pages?

If life is about survival then are we really surviving? If surviving is to find happiness then is happiness within our reach? Happiness and pleasure can be entirely misintepreted, in many cases confused. Am just asking questions, thats all. Confusion reigns when we ponder our existance and how we want to live. Survival in the jungle is cruel, only the fittest survive but what defines fitness? Fitness of the mind or body... or soul?

Wake up in the morning and see the shadow of sunlight on your window as you struggle to get to work or school. Why do we struggle so hard to find motivation and energy? Why the stress of finding time or timing? We try to seek answers or just keep ourselves busy to avoid answers. Somewhere out there are answers waiting. Do we really need to know the answers or do we keep ourselves busy with our existing present needs? Who are we trying to please?

Transformers sucks .... mengarut...

2007-07-25T10:16:00.000+08:00

I watched Transformers last weekend, regret!! First time to Cineleisure (The Curve). The place is super huge. Anyway... the movie flopped big time. After waiting in anticipation... what a disappointment. WHY?
10 reasons:
1. This movie was made for the demographic masses and not for real fans like me who watched this cartoon series since young. The whole movie lacked focus, rojak components and the storyline was written for 6 year olds. Gone are the great robot cartoons of the 80s and 90s. I really feel cinemagoers in Malaysia... going backwards.

2. The Hero (Sam) is some wimpy perverted nerd who talks too much. You will notice similarity with other Hollywood no brainers... weak hero gets the girl. Nerdy talk, bad jokes and lotsa self pity. I guess these are the type of guys paying for the tickets anyway these days and prob brought some girl to the cine to impress... and feel good afterwards. You really think in the real world this kinda fellas become heroes? How corny!!

3. All Spark? How lame!!! Why would the mighty Megatron be so stupid to crash on the artic and get frozen? They are suppose to be super smart? The All Spark looks like some really dumb playing cube... what... is this a rip off Superman? Kryptonite?

4. Notice how stupid Bumblebee looked? He has really 'cute' and 'pityful' eyes ... I suppose its to please the cutie girls watching the movie. All the robots have weird looking faces... they have no character or genuine features to remember. After watching the movie... do you really remember how Prime and the rest of the Autobots look like? No.. because you were too busy pitying that weak and retarded Sam. In the original cartoon... you can clearly remember their faces and character.

5. The jokes are sooooo lame. Though some of it is quite funny... 80% of it gets irritating after 45 mins. We are not watching comedy here... we want action. We want to see robots fighting and lotsa ammunition. We don't want to know Sector 7... we don't want to know the corny parent-child jokes... we surely don't need idiotic teenage pity. How stupid they looked searching for the eyeglasses. Don't let me start on that eyeglasses.

6. Notice the action scenes are too fast? The transformation of the Decepticons and Autobots looked rushed after 45 mins. The fight scenes are so short. They use speed to cover up the bad CGI work. The movie editing is also horrible... you get scenes cut and actions end suddenly. The first 45 mins were interesting but as soon as the Autobots landed... it seems the CGI developers were rushing for time because they are late for delivery or probably spent too much time developing the first 45 mins. This reminds me of the last few Star Wards episode... they add so much complexity that the real flow and essence disappears.

7. Why do the Decepticons blow up an army base in Qatar to get all that secret info? Doesn't it sound stupid to attack an army base with all that stupidity just to connect to the American military network? Errrr.. if you can hack the network in "less than a minute when its built to withstand 20 years".. you can just intercept their communication line right? That Aussie accent... oh God. How did the Decepticons find out about Project Iceman in the first place? Why hack the military network? Aaaarrrrghhhh... bodohnya.

8. These robots never seemed human... the movie is about them... NOT that pathetic pervert Sam. The robots seems too metallic and without any character. At least the cartoons had some life in them. Do we really need to know about Sam and that hot girl? Do you really think in the real world... the hot chick goes for guys like Sam? Oh... maybe... you need an alien invasion for that to happen!!

9. Rachel Taylor the aussie hacker... errr.. what the hell is this? What did she ACTUALLY find out from the hacking? She found out 2 waves sound the same... like that is some super smart hacking. They have all the people in Pentagon.. but a hot chick with mini-skirt is the smarter one. And... what is that black dude all about... he could detect alien programming languages from his home PC? Can this get anymore ridiculous? The interrogation room scene looks more like up Eddie Murphy's alley.... loud shouting and verbal abuse.

10.The last scene is classic moronic Michael Bay... where is Sam running to with the All Spark? Where is he taking it too and what is the purpose of Autobots defending him? To run where? The Autobots could have just flown it out of this world ... the US Army is going to do that? Errr... all communication is down... and they need to use code? Where are they running to??????

Think carefully about this movie. Its a sign of our times.

thrashed...

2007-07-20T10:21:00.000+08:00

What happened to Malaysian football lah? Sick and tired of that question. When I was in school, I dreamt of playing for Selangor and then Malaysia. I am fairly good in football and my natural position is right wing or midfield. I am not striker material and I knew that early. Somehow the way Malaysia played against China, Uzbekistan or Iran showed we don't have the brains to play this game. They don't even know their positions. They played like schoolboys and totally without direction. We can have all the skills in the world with a deadball... but on a level playing field and a moving ball... we screw up big time.

This bring me back to the question of why I did not play for state or country. The politics and favouritism in Malaysian football is full of shit. There is always a question of "quota" and race. How many Malays, Indians or Chinese in the team ah? Instead of worrying about how many games won or the game statistics... Malaysians are more worried about which race is better represented in playing national football. This has a serious impact on sports and football development in schools and among kids. We can always blame the officials, coaches or even ministers but it actually boils down to each and every citizen's mentality in this country.

I personally don't care if there are no Malays, Chinese or Indians playing in the team as long as we win games. I don't care if the whole team are Nigerians. This is our country and our national team. Look at France, do they care how many whites are playing. Half the team is blacks and Zidane "the great" is Algerian. This racist mentality has to change. Only then the team and country can win.

unfair and unkind world.. for children

2007-07-09T10:14:00.000+08:00

http://www.thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2007/7/9/nation/18250550&sec=nation&focus=1

The life of an innocent girl lost in such a horrible and despicable way. A small child has no hate or anger like an adult. A child's mind is totally free from the pollution and hypocrisy of adulthood. They live a simple life of happiness, playfulness and curiosity nurtured by their parents or grandparents. They had no choice to be born in this cruel, selfish and evil world. They surely don't deserve to leave so early. No parent should bury their own child.

Why are people so cruel to kids? Why adults victimize these helpless beings? Why take advantage of people who cannot fight back? Why did Shearwey Ooi Ying Ying die like this? Why?

Values of honour, love and respect in family is regressing as fast as global warming. Families are broken and small children suffer. Imagine the pain and suffering of a child growing in this world full of cowards and hypocrites. Small children can't do anything about their destiny... they can't find a job, they can't drive and they can't live without adults support.

And yet these cruel and despicable acts are directed towards them. There is no justice for Shearwey Ooi Ying Ying. I just cannot imagine the fear, fright and pain she had to go through in that ordeal. I cannot think straight today. Sad day.

that 80s show ;-)

2007-06-25T11:10:00.000+08:00

Halo Sinaran Budi and Sri Garing friends from the 80s and 90s. Hope you guys and gals can remember the amazing times we had there. I cannot forget how our schools in Rawang were really cool, fun and happening then. We really had some nice memories, cool times and awesome experiences to share. I still think kids these days are weirdly raised and have no spirit of friendship or belonging. All they do is study... study... study and maybe play piano after school ;-)

What made me nostalgic? Transformers movie is out!

At a time when TV3 transmission was only for the Klang Valley, we in Rawang by luck... enjoyed shows like MacGyver, Alf, G.I. Joe, M.A.S.K., Saber Rider and the Star Sheriffs, Thundercats, The A-Team, The Centurions, Transformers, Knight Rider, Cheers and much more. I still remember waking up early on Saturdays, cycling as fast as I can to the nearest mamak shop and bungkus roti telur back. Rush back home and watch Japanese cartoons from 8am to 11.30am. Memories of those days are coming back slowly. Transformers were one of my favourites... not the best... but a favourite.

I think cartoons now have more interesting stuff but kids these days are not amazed about it anymore. We in the 80s prob started watching cartoons at age 8 or 9 only. Nowadays, kids from age 1-2 already watching cartoons. So the element of surprise, suspense and thrill is gone. They can get CDs and DVDs these days, we had to wait a week before the next episode is shown. Now you have Astro with 24 hours of cartoon, we had to wait in the morning or evenings for an hour or two of cartoons. The best ones are shown Saturday mornings.

I think the ones who will enjoy Transformers the most are people my age... not the kids or the youngsters. I can't wait.

virtual world...

2007-06-08T11:45:00.000+08:00

I read recently Microsoft is funding academic research programs to develop new applications using Virtual Earth and SensorMap. Microsoft is funding a Harvard project called CitySense... sensors that monitor pollution, temperature, rain falls and car traffic in a city. The data collected will be displayed on SensorMap, a technology from Microsoft that lets users publish and share sensor data. That means users can browse this live data on Virtual Earth.

Also Microsoft has acquired Vexcel, a company founded in 1985 that developed the UltraCamD Aerial Camera System that delivers large format aerial imagery.

Why? It seems Microsoft is VERY serious about GIS... and is a direct competitor for GIS Web Services. This is also following the footsteps of Google and Yahoo. Am just thinking out loudly... if ESRI server products will be pushed back in all this GIS Web Services competition. ESRI might just concentrate on GIS data production, imagery editing, survey software tools, field data collection, modelling advaced industry applications, 3D mapping, advance analysis, digitising, storage, data cleaning, map making, charting and cartography etc. Its really very vague now in GIS Web Services.

prison break...

2007-05-28T22:44:00.000+08:00

Some people look at building structures or mechanical parts and see the form and shape. We drive our cars and ride our bikes from one place to another without really understanding how engines work. Some very special ones look at buildings and see not only how its built... but the materials used... the artistic expression... the flow of movements and environment... and also the complex engineering formulas to construct one. I heard this from an episode of Prison Break. OK.. OK... its my latest craze now... after Sopranos. Its probably true too. I think there are such special people who can invent ideas and nourish creative design spontaneously.

It could be from childhood experiences and motivation to live life to the fullest. Its probably from how early we perceive and understand our surroundings and feelings. When we look at something... lets say the computer monitor.. do we really take time and see its form. We are so rushed and live in a dog eat dog world... there is no time to sit back. There is no time to be creative. How did the ancient Greeks, Indians and Chinese build such amazing engineering marvels? They never had calculators or engineering books. Sometimes we take for granted the amazing history of man and his achievements in art, engineering and design. Its also hard to believe how we are able to build bridges, monster ships, sports cars... or even computers.

Where do we stop and where do we go from here? Some of us have hardly started. Its hard to think we live in a globalize world with flights zipping across the whole world... sharing ideas and creativity over the internet. I am truly excited at the thought of new and better things to come. Some say its depressing to feel small in such a huge creative explosion, but to me... its the dawn of true friendship and sharing of creative ideas among citizens of this planet.

the future is here ...

2007-05-23T14:50:00.000+08:00

Tonight we face the future. The greatest Champions League Final ever, we won. But tonight we have a thing to prove... to the world and to football. It wasn't fluke... it wasn't luck. Its hard to counter all those critisms all these years. Why must 'Sir' Alex Ferguson say those mean words to a fellow English team last week?? We Liverpool fans just know it all too clearly. He does not deserve the knighthood, he is nothing more than a sour loser.

I just don't understand why we need to prove to him or the reason Manchester fans have this 'thing', but I know Liverpool has great footballing spirit no other team can ever compare. Its hard for non-fans to understand, but time and time again we show true grit and exceptional skill when it matters. We are all over the world a united force and our footballing spirit reflects the true colours of the team.

Steven Gerrard.. to me you are a true footballer and a super character. Personally, you will be in same league as Pele and Zidane if you win tonight. The Gods of football is with you and the team. If ever in a million years you read this, please know how happy you make us feel.

2-0 is my prediction.

we need zidane in the finals... Liverpool will win!!

2007-05-04T12:29:00.000+08:00

Growing up watching John Barnes, Ian Rush, Dalgish and Keegan winning game after game... Liverpool has etched its massive influence on me for ages. Liverpool's own style of passing and team work can never be repeated by any other club. Liverpool fans are really one of a kind... humble and passionate about real football. We don't fancy pretty boys, big money or arrogance in our game or team support.

What else can we say about reaching the Champions League finals... again. Epic is the only word that can describe the next encounter with AC Milan.

Its true testimony of Liverpool's resilience and footballing spirit if they can reach this finals... this year. Even with a squad barely reaching the salaries of Chelsea, Real Madrid or MU... we are playing with such passion, skill and love for the beautiful game of football. We fans are super special in our unity and strength as we face so much critism and sarcasm through these years.

We will do it... and win.

Personally... I wish Zidane plays for us. He has the Liverpool spirit.

time warp in Ijok and Batang Berjuntai...

2007-04-29T22:48:00.000+08:00

Ijok and Batang Berjuntai have somehow become quite famous in recent weeks. I lived in Rawang for 23 years, about 45 min drive to these small and quaint towns. As a kid, I remember cycling there in my old rusty bike and even hitchhiked to Kuala Selangor via these old estate trunk roads. I also remember its surrounded by some scenic rubber estates and a lot of Indian quarters. Palm oil plantations took over from rubber estates and many of the romantic and beautiful rubber estates have disappeared. The British used to run these rubber estates, employing thousands of migrant workers from all over India... Tamils, Malayalees and Ceylonese. A few of my close relatives worked around the estates in Batang Berjuntai and Ijok as clerks, managers and planters.

The election brought victory to the deserving Barisan winner, Mr Parthiban... but it also brought out the worst in Malaysian politics. People here, mainly the Indians, are deprived of so many economic and social opportunities. They live in a cycle of poverty as social outcasts in their own country as ignorant citizens. Afraid to voice out their daily struggles and fear for being branded as troublemakers, Indians from this region (and Malaysia in general) constantly fight emotional battles to survive and find work. There are many remnants of the colonial days still prevailing and used in Batang Berjuntai and Ijok.. including schools, hospitals and places of worship. These rundown buildings still stand proof of a bygone era in Malaysian plantation history. It’s sad to see so many promises made during this by-election … as if since the British left… there was a time warp till Mr Sivalinggam died.

Poverty is a vicious cycle. Its hands and fingers reach out and grab every opportunity to inflict pain, suffering and tears. Just an hour’s drive from KL, the capital of Malaysia. On a clear day… you can reach Batang Berjuntai via PLUS Highway, head north… turn off at Rawang intersection and turn left from the first traffic light. That’s how near (or far) these "big gun" politicians have to travel in the Mercedes or BMWs to campaign. With them are thousands of supporters and millions of ringgit in campaign money. As they drive promises and hope into these folks, it’s not that hard to ignore the poverty and suffering. It’s not difficult to notice how less the Indians from these estates have achieved after 50 years of independence. It’s also very hard to shut their silent pleas for more financial and educational help. From the heart of our country in Kuala Lumpur, the short artery to these poverty stricken Indian settlements suddenly underwent a "bypass surgery". I wonder how long this will last… it’s been having too many “strokes” ;-)

None of the major newspapers or news channels highlights the history of these estates and charming life of a bygone era. They don't even bother to mention how many places like these toiled to make Malaysians rich and wealthy in rubber and palm oil exports... only to have the migrant Indian workers fall further and further behind.

I can only smile at headlines in Star and NST… as usual… job well done. The national agenda and ruling party propaganda worked. The ministers, chief ministers and party leaders will return back to their air conditioned mansions and pat their backs for a job well done. Am sure their shoes will need replacement… from the dust and mud as they walked door to door… shaking their hands… during this campaign period. Am sure Batang Berjuntai and Ijok will forget about all this … and go back to sleep.

what's new and cool with ASP.NET 2.0 ?? Part 2

2007-04-20T12:25:00.000+08:00

One of the biggest issue with Web Applications and/or Web Portals is the authentication and authorisation of web users to access data and applications. This includes validating different user credentials and helping them manage the passwords. ASP.NET introduces a new Membership Service that provides APIs to create new users, validate credentials and get user information. Both membership and role management separates functionality from the data store. You can also store these memberships in SQL Server or Microsoft Access. See how membership works here: http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/yh26yfzy.aspx

There is substantial work involved in improving support for data access with ASP.NET. As a web developer, we have so many issues to bind data to Web Controls. Data source controls automatically fetches data and manages it when the page runs. The Data Source Control is a higher level API as compared to ADO.NET. There is also improvements with the data display controls that display and update data from web pages. All controls can use Data Source Control as data source, instead of working with datasets (ADO.NET). The GridView, TreeView and SiteMapPath controls have been enhanced to cater for ObjectDataSource.

Okei... so ... many would really wanna know... what are the new Web Controls available? ASP.NET has many improvements to Web controls, including enhancements and adding new controls. The new controls are Gridview, TreeView, Web Parts and Personalisation.

nature gateway...

2007-03-26T00:19:00.000+08:00

I love Kuching dude... its a cool, refreshing and relaxing place. Was there for the ArcGIS 9.2 update to SAINS Sarawak team. The trip began badly because Air Asia was late for 5 hours from LCCT Terminal in KLIA. They really need to improve on the timing lah. Once touchdown in Sarawak, my mood immediately improved. Nice to be back here. The first thing you can feel about Sarawak is the air, its very fresh and there is no much pollution here. You can take deep breaths and inhale the cool and crisp air here. Nice.

Its actually my fourth time to Sarawak... the first being a student exchange program organised by Ministry of Education called Titian Emas. The program in selected best students from Peninsular Malaysia (after SRP exams) and live with natives in Sarawak. There were 5 selected from Selangor. If any of you guys reading this, drop a line okei?? I was there for 2 months, living with a Melanau family in Sarikei. I learnt to appreciate the simple and immensely satisfying lifestyle of the Sarawak natives. I was 15 then and the experience in Sarawak was surely a defining moment.

We can learn a lot from the natives in Sarawak. One of the most important aspect of their life is to appreciate and respect nature. They have traditions and 'pantangs' to walk in the jungle, to swim in the river, to respect elders or to hunt for food. I attended a few traditional ceremonies there and drank the infamous 'tuak' more than I should ;-)

For those who want to know more about Sarawak, check it out here:

http://www.sarawaktourism.com/

me on the far left... job done in Sains

Lessons in Fishing - Part 2

2007-03-26T00:15:00.000+08:00

Its exhaustive, lotsa work, lotsa skill, tiring... but the thrill of fishing is like no other.

The Catch.

Gelama Fish - its about 5 to 7 inches long. To eat this you need to deep fry it.

Sam Ngah Fish a.k.a. 3 Tooth Fish - it looks a lot like the Gelama fish... slightly longer... but it has 3 teeth... seriously ;-)

Snapper Fish - its about 8-10 inches long. Its actually the best catch.

You can see we also caught stingray and a 'dragon fish'... looks like an eel.

This is the boat ride back to Kuala Selangor, Sasaran jetty. By now, 8-9 hours in the sea... we are half dead.

This is a view of Pulau Angsa, a small island off the coast. You can see some chalets there and a lighthouse nearby.

That's my rod. Teik Mun help me buy it.

The Joy of Fishing - Part 1

2007-03-23T00:09:00.000+08:00

I have never been good in fishing, trust me... but the deep sea fishing trips thought me a lesson or two in patience, hard work and more patience. Since a kid, I used to fish at the ponds behind my house... not so successful. Also in Penang, I tried to follow the guys to the jetty by the harbour... still not much luck. I mean... I catch some... but nothing to shout about. Most times, I just fish for the sake of relaxing by the lake, pond or sea.

This time, I took the offer to go deep sea fishing. Been doing this a few times already. Man... this is real fun. It really helps you relax and unwind. There are minimum 8 of us on each trip. Sometimes if there is more we rent another boat. We leave from Sasaran in Kuala Selangor and it takes around 2-3 hours to reach the fishing spot.

Thats me, tired after 5 hours in the sun... trying to act cool. That cowboy hat is from Australia but its not really suitable for the hot and humid weather... its better to get a straw hat.

The boys ... back to land.

This is the tekong ('captain') of the boat and myself. His boat is right behind us. We call him "Ah Pek". He is 70 years old and has been a fisherman all his life. He has a great sense of humour and smokes non-stop. Super macho grandpa.

what's new and cool with ASP.NET 2.0 ?? Part 1

2007-03-08T16:36:00.000+08:00

Hi there, the new buzz in the GIS community is the new features of ASP.NET 2.0 using Visual Studio 2005. I am not about to compare it with Java, PHP, Macromedia etc but its worth knowing and learning the new features in ASP.NET. Why?? Because ArcGIS Server 9.2 is using a lot of its cool features. So maybe its worthwhile listing it:

Application-wide registration of custom controls
These are controls in web forms that we normally use - like menus and buttons. What if you have custom controls and wanna declare them globally - you can use add the Register directives to the web.config

Web Part controls
This is like a personalisation tool we use for each user's preference. Let me gice you an example: A user would like to log on to ArcGIS Server and selected a few tools he likes to use. Everytime he logs on, this is personalised for him.

With Web Parts, the ASP.NET team has given us a way to do that without writing any additional code. The WebPartZone control is used to define an “area” of the page that can be customized. Each zone can be made up of multiple parts which can be a ContentWebPart control, a custom control, or a UserControl. Used in conjunction with the WebPartManager controls, you can give your end users the ability to change where the controls in their page are displayed.

Posting to other pages
This is something web programmers scratch their heads with. Normally in application programming, we can send variables to other forms by declaring module or class based variables... its all in the same memory. Enterprise Web applications are not the same, the variables and results are in the server... server side programming.

ASP.NET 2.0 gives controls that cause a post-back to the server the ability to change the action of the form in the HTML page, causing the page’s state and data to be posted directly to an ASP.NET page other than the one that created it.

Master Pages

How many of you used Master Slides in Powerpoint presentations?? You can create a Master Slide and then add more content slides to your presentations. All the format, colouring, logo and design looks the same across all.

Well... in ASP.NET 2.0 there is a new feature called Master Pages. Master Pages are essentially ASP.NET syntax in a file with the .master extension. A Master Page can be created and serves the same purpose as the “master base class”. There are two main differences with the Master Page model in ASP.NET 1.1

One, the .master pages are visually designable. Not only that, when a .aspx page uses a Master Page, the visual elements from the Master Page are displayed in the design view of the .aspx page – grayed out. Two, the Master Page isn’t used as the base class for the .aspx file.

Check out these sites, there were developed using ASP.NET 2.0:

LondonStockExchange.com

Dell.com

Monster.com

de ja vu with Borat

2007-02-12T13:53:00.000+08:00

I remember writing about Python scripting in ArcGIS a long time ago in my earlier blogs. Well if you are too lazy to browse my earlier blogs... ArcGIS Geoprocessing tasks can be time and process intensive since they are often performed on a number of different datasets or on huge records. If we were to use Desktop software to automate all these task... its kinda tiresome. Might as well we write scripts to execute them without launching the Desktop software every single time. I mean these tasks can be sequenced in orderly steps and workflows. These scripts are recyclable... it can be used over and over again. Its kinda like programming... but like in the days of BASIC, AVENUE or AML programming... its sequential... or also known as procedural. Even if you have never thought of yourself as a programmer, after reading the scripting documentation in ArcGIS... you will be able to write scripts to perform geoprocessing tasks easily. You can include loops, batch processing or "if' statements for conditional control.

Enuf of this mumbo jumbo... lets talk about the inspiration for Python itself. From what I gather its based on Monty Python, or The Pythons, is the collective name of the creators of Monty Python’s Flying Circus, a British television comedy sketch show that first aired on the BBC on 5 October 1969. A few years back my brother in law got me the DVDs for 2 of their movies... Monty Python and the Holy Grail... and... The Meaning of Life. I mean... if the Americans have Saturday Nite Live and Late Nite Show... the British have Monty Python. Its kinda crude their jokes... but true to British dry and wry humour... it has excellent gaffs and laughs for sure. Watching Borat recently (and Ali-G before that) reminded me about Monty Python and their unique sense of humour. Its slapstick in a way but funny nevertheless.

The Python programming language by Guido van Rossum is named after the troupe, and Monty Python references are often found in sample code created for that language. Additionally, a 2001 April Fool's Day joke by van Rossum and Larry Wall involving the merger of Python with Perl was dubbed "Parrot" after the Dead Parrot Sketch. The name "Parrot" was later used for a project to develop a virtual machine for running bytecode for interpreted languages such as Perl and Python.

The best of all the term SPAM, as used to denote unsolicited email, comes from Monty Python's "Spam" sketch.

marshall... law and order

2007-01-18T12:07:00.000+08:00

Hi there, I was curious to find out if COM compliant components in ArcObjects still exists in 9.2. Since the release of ArcGIS 8.x, COM has been the technology driving ArcObjects to run on Windows. ArcGIS Desktop needs this to run the Windows app. So with the advent of 9.2 and all the accompanying dotNET classes, I thought that COM is replaced. But not so... I found out.

The programming functionality of ArcObjects can now be accessed using 4 APIs: COM, .NET, Java and C++. The choice of which API to choose is not a simple one... it depends on a number of factors actually... the ArcGIS product that you are developing with, the end user functionality and development experience.

As I mentioned before, code running under the .NET Framework control is called managed code (read my blog on JIT). COM is a fine example of unmanaged code. So how does ArcObjects's COM object speak to .NET based application... well... its via a technology called COM Interop. For COM Interop to work, the Common Language Runtime (CLR) requires metadata for all the COM types. This means that the COM type definitions normally stored in type libraries need to be converted to .NET metadata. Once the metadata is available .NET clients can seamlessly create instances of COM types as though they were native .NET instances. ESRI provides primary interop assemblies for all the ArcObjects type libraries that are implemented with COM. The Interop API provides Runtime Callable Wrappers (RCW) to use COM Objects in .NET

Let me give an example in C#:
ESRI.ArcGIS.Geometry.Point pt = new ESRI.ArcGIS.Geometry.Point()

What happens when this code runs?? A Runtime Callable Wrapper object is defined instead of the actual COM object itself. When the object is instantiated (using the NEW keyword), the wrapper object creates the appropriate COM object. When you call the members of the object in .NET, the parameters of the method will be marshalled from the .NET process to COM process and the return value will be marshaled back. This is what happens behind the scenes in ArcObject ... for now.

Sounds complex?? Many times ArcObjects programmers don't realise this but when performance issues hits the roof we need to know why the memory allocation screws up sometimes. This could also explain why ArcGIS desktop is kinda slow for certain GIS processes. However, this is minimal impact considering the vast advantages of using ArcObjects and .NET programming to create cool and exciting apps.

Tech Transfer 2007 - ESRI South Asia - 11 January 2007 - Malaysia

2007-01-04T07:21:00.000+08:00

Next week on the 11th ... Thursday I believe... we are having the ArcGIS 9.2 Rollout technical sessions. Many of you have already received the ArcGIS 9.2 DVDs and wondering... What's New?? Well there are a lot of changes... super major changes.

Basically over the last 4 years ESRI has been developing this 9.2 version in 3 major areas:
1. Cartographics Representation
2. Geodatabase
3. ArcGIS GUI and User Experience

Cartography has been an area no GIS vendor dare venture... but now ESRI is the first to develop a cartographic product for the commercial GIS industry. This has always been the final map production development headache for many GIS organisations. ESRI has another product called PLTS to do cartography before but with 9.2... cartography in GIS is complete.

There is a totally new Geodatabase in 9.2!!! High Precision geodatabase and new formats with better performance is provided in this version. Geodatabase has come a long way and now with this new geodatabase many users will be VERY happy to know there is no more cursing... over domains, extents, precisions, performance and tolerances etc.

From the feedback ESRI received from users, their own staff as well as projects all over the world.. the software now has incorporated many new cool tools, GUI features, shortcuts and ease of use. This is due to the ever increasing demand among users for better productivity when using any of the ArcGIS software range. Very cool.

Its free .. so come and see for yourself.

youtube rocks...

2006-12-28T17:51:00.000+08:00

You never gonna guess who this is...

One of the greatest guitarist of all time... Jimmy Page at age 14. This legend is a real master in making unique sounds and glorious music from guitars that no other human can even invent. When I first started listening to Led Zeppelin... figure I was around 10 years old then... there was instant joy and happiness. Some people say you are happy when in awe... like standing in front of a waterfall ... or admiring the amazing art work in the Louvre. I get that same feeling listening to Led Zeppelin over... and over… and over… again. Am gonna be 32 in 2007, their music still inspires.

This one is another classic. Johnny Cash and his wife June on the Tonight Show with Carson. This is really a cool time for musicians and fans .. the 70s and 80s. Just look how she talks... not like the Britneys or Paris we have today. Most pop female singers (ok... lets throw in male rappers, crappers and boy bands) today have no talent and zero brains. Even the girls with awesome talent like Gwen Stefani has jumped ship... sad times we live in.

beauty in the eyes of the beholder...

2006-12-20T11:22:00.000+08:00

Artists since the beginning of time try their very best to capture and paint the beauty of the female face. Somehow potraits are just plain potraits cause they only try to capture the best facial features of the subject model. A master artist on the other hand.... captures the emotions, sadness, trauma, silence, pain, joy, happiness and inner desires in their painting... this is a skill Picasso and Da Vinci have... and thats why their works are priceless.

This is what we are faced with today... artificial beauty.. click play.

point decimal.. code

2006-12-13T11:52:00.000+08:00

In ArcGIS 9.1 ... its kinda hard to select a point and display the coordinates in complete decimals... cause it gets truncated. You can try to use edit sketch to see the points... but the decimal placings is not complete.

Here is an ArcObject code that can do both:

Private Sub MovePointTo()
Dim pInput As String
Dim pOrigPoint As IPoint
Dim pFeat As IFeature
Dim pEnum As IEnumFeature
Dim pX As Double
Dim pArea As IArea
Dim pEnv As IEnvelope
Dim pY As Double
Dim pDestPoint As IPoint
Dim pMx As IMxDocument
Set pMx = ThisDocument
If pMx.FocusMap.SelectionCount = 0 Or pMx.FocusMap.SelectionCount > 1 Then
MsgBox "select only one point feature"
Exit Sub
End If
Set pEnum = pMx.FocusMap.FeatureSelection
Set pFeat = pEnum.Next
Set pOrigPoint = pFeat.Shape
pInput = InputBox("Enter XY coordinates separated by space: Ex 100 -100")
pVal = Split(pInput, " ", -1, vbTextCompare)
If UBound(pVal) > 1 Then
MsgBox "Enter only XY: Example 212.55 522.11"
Exit Sub
Else
pX = pVal(0)
pY = pVal(1)
Set pDestPoint = New point
pDestPoint.PutCoords pX, pY
Set pFeat.Shape = pDestPoint
pFeat.Store
Set pArea = pFeat.Shape.Envelope
Set pEnv = pMx.ActiveView.Extent
pEnv.CenterAt pArea.Centroid
pMx.ActiveView.Extent = pEnv
pMx.ActiveView.Refresh
End If
End Sub

Private Sub UIButtonControl1_Click()
MovePointTo
End Sub

object oriented dotNet apps

2006-12-11T16:01:00.000+08:00

Bonjour... over the years there has been a lot of confusion and also misunderstanding of what is object-oriented programming. Many consultants and programmers claim to know object-oriented programming... but its so easy to get distracted. Here is a good anology of what it means in lay man's term:

Object -
Consider that a Car is an object. It has fields and properties, such as Color, Make, Model, Age, GasLevel, and so on. These are the data that describe the state of the object. A Car object might also expose several methods, such as Accelerate, ShiftGears, or Turn. The methods represent behaviors the object can execute. And events represent notifications. For example, a Car object might receive an EngineOverheating event from its Engine object, or it might raise a Crash event when interacting with a Tree object. See... that describes members, methods and events of an object.

Encapsulation -
Returning to the Car example. If a Car object interacts with a Driver object, the Car interface might consist of a GoForward method, a GoBackward method, and a Stop method. This is all the information that the Driver needs to interact with the Car. The Car might contain an Engine object, for example, but the Driver doesn’t need to know about the Engine object—all the Driver cares about is that the methods can be called and that they return the appropriate values. Thus, if one Engine object is exchanged for another, it makes no difference to the Driver as long as the interface continues to function correctly.

Polymorphism -
For example, a Driver object can interact with a Car object through the Car public interface. If another object, such as a Truck object or a SportsCar object, exposes the same public interface, the Driver object can interact with them without regard to the specific implementation of that interface.

Simple huh... its easier to understand this way.

members... types... in DotNet

2006-12-03T15:45:00.000+08:00

Halo again... am writting a bit more on .Net variables and data types this time. Its the bits and pieces of programming that makes up a good application. Banking, National Registration, E-Commerce, E-Mails or even computer games at the most basic level uses variables. In any programming language, the result of the application or algorithm requires some user input.... it can be your credit card details, addresses, calculations, pictures, movies, music and much more.

To process or keep this information a smart programmer must know how to manipulate the data correctly. I mean... almost all applications need data to run... and this data comes in many forms and shapes. At the end it all boils down to bits and bytes for the processor to run.

The .NET Framework provides a robust, strongly typed data system. Different types represent integer numbers, floating-point numbers, Boolean values, characters, and strings.

In Visual Basic .NET, Option Strict On enables type checking at design time and prevents type mismatch bugs that could be time-consuming to find otherwise. Whenever possible, you should develop with Option Strict On.

The .NET types provide built-in functionality specific to the type. The Parse method is implemented by all the built-in value types and is useful for converting strings to value types. The String class exposes several useful functions that allow you to easily manipulate strings.

Some samples of number types:

System.Byte - Byte - 8-bit unsigned integer (0 to 255)

System.Int16 - Short - 16-bit signed integer (-32768 to 32767)

System.Int32 - Integer - 32-bit signed integer

System.Int64 - Long - 64-bit signed integer

These store values which are numbers and some of them can be signed (that means positive and negative).

shaken or stirred??? do I look like I care?? ;-)

2006-11-17T11:12:00.000+08:00

Hey there ppl, got to watch Casino Royale last night... it was a special preview. My first impression was... not another lame Bond flick with brainless gadgets. How wrong!!! This one has style, good storyline, great acting, full of spy suspense and first class fight scenes. So unlike the sissy Brosnan or Moore... its much closer to Connery. This Craig dude will do very well. Eva Green... I fell in love with her the moment I saw her in Bertolucci's Dreamers movie long time ago... in this one she is again her usual demure intelligent self... french women... what can u say eh ;-)

Highly recommend everyone to catch it. Watch in cinema for best effect.

http://www.sonypictures.com/movies/casinoroyale/site/

What made me smile after the movie... most ppl were not happy this Bond had less gadgets, talks very smart, witty... and they just cannot catch the fast storyline or conversations. It's just not like the usual stupid no-brainer Bond... many left disappointed. At some point only a handful were laughing... the others did not even get it. Shows the kind of cinema going crowd in this country.

p.s. am sure many will rush to Genting after watching

dotNET ... in the beginning

2006-11-02T09:46:00.000+08:00

Hi there, I think there is some major confusion and also apprehension from GIS developers on using dotNet … this is also a major issue among ESRI ArcObject programmers. Let’s face it … dotNet is not going away … its here to stay and Microsoft Windows is installed in almost all o/s installations. Now with Vista on the way… its gonna be an exciting year for dotNet developers.

If you read my earlier blogs … I did mention about the older programming languages and also how ESRI development was done before (i.e. from AML, Avenue, VB6, VC++, Java and now dotNet)

The brain behind ANY dotNET development is the .NET Framework. The .NET Framework is a managed type-safe environment for application development and execution. The .NET Framework manages all aspects of your program’s execution.

The .NET Framework consists of two main components:

common language runtime
.NET Framework class library

Common Language Runtime is also called CLR…this is the actual engine that runs your code. It can be thought of as the environment that manages code execution. It provides core services, such as code compilation, memory allocation, thread management, and garbage collection. Through the common type system (CTS), it enforces strict type-safety and ensures that code is executed in a safe environment by also enforcing code access security.

The .NET Framework class library is actually what we use to develop applications. They contain classes, methods and objects that we import into our code. It provides a collection of useful and reusable types that are designed to integrate with the common language runtime. When we start programming... we call classes from the class library to begin coding.

An example is Integer or Int is from the .NET Framework class library... and we access them through namespaces.

Visual Basic .NET
Dim myInteger As Integer

Visual C#
int myInteger;

more arcobjects... try it.. create a button in ArcMap

2006-10-27T17:53:00.000+08:00

OK... here are a few steps you follow in VB6 or if you want... even VB.NET.

Firstly when you start Visual Studio for a new project... choose to create a DLL... cause this is gonna be compiled as a DLL... not EXE okei !!!

Add this code:
Private m_pApp As esriFramework.IApplication

Private Sub ICommand_OnCreate(ByVal hook As Object)
If TypeOf hook Is esriArcMapUI.IMxApplication Then
Set m_pApp = hook
Set m_pMxDoc = m_pApp.Document

' Get the extension
Dim u As New esriSystem.UID
u.Value = "CmdToolbarExt.SampleExtension"
Set m_pExt = m_pApp.FindExtensionByCLSID(u)
End If
End Sub

Know what its doing?? Its to create a Command in ArcMap and reference its interface. This ICommand interface determines behaviour and properties for simple commands in ArcMap... like buttons or menus. This interface also controls command properties like caption, name, category and status bar message. So what is happening with the above code??

Its actually starting something... when the command in instantiated... or when ArcMap is launched... it provides a hook or a connection to the ArcMap application. Its also important to see what type of object is passed by the hook... in this case its to ArcMap (IMxApplication).

Next add this:
Private Property Get ICommand_Enabled() As Boolean
If m_pExt.State = esriESEnabled Then
ICommand_Enabled = True
Else
ICommand_Enabled = False
End If
End Property

This is kinda straightforward... its actually specifying when the command is gonna be enabled.

Now add this:
Private Sub ICommand_OnClick()
' Zoom to the full extent
Dim pActiveView As esriCarto.IActiveView
Set pActiveView = m_pMxDoc.ActiveView
pActiveView.Extent = pActiveView.FullExtent
pActiveView.Refresh
End Sub
Private Property Get ICommand_Caption() As String
ICommand_Caption = "SampleCommand (zoom to full extent)"
End Property
Private Property Get ICommand_Name() As String
ICommand_Name = "ExtendingArcObjects_SampleCommand"
End Property

This also is self explanatory... when the command is clicked... there is an action or method.... in this case... its zooming to full extent. The Caption and Name is set with the following codes right after. Simple huh??

Now... compile this as DLL and then add it into ArcMap Customize function and you already have a working command.

Easy or not??

all talk, no solutions... all handshakes and smiles, no answers...

2006-10-17T14:49:00.000+08:00

Its back... the scourge of South East Asia, the curse of deforestation, the sting of nature, the mourning of children... and OF COURSE the illogical excuses. THE HAZE IS HERE TO STAY.

It never went away... just a minor postponement… an annual mist of death, anguish, pandemic, illness and diseases that engulfs all the little fresh air we take into our lungs. The smaller our lungs... higher the effect... babies, todlers and children suffer the most.

Where are the skies, stars, clouds, sun or the moon?? Where are the bright tropical colours?? WE now live in a perpetual haze. No more children in playgrounds, no more picnics, no more swimming by the beach, no more laughter... all replaced… by worried whispers, sad glances and cries of pain.

Some of the satellite photos taken by NASA images… created by Jesse Allen, Earth Observatory, using data provided courtesy of the MODIS Rapid Response team. Image Acquired: October 04, 2006 to October 08, 2006

certs and exams... recognition - Pt 2

2006-10-04T15:02:00.000+08:00

OK so... where were we?? Oh yes... GIS certs.

Besides the ESRI Virtual Campus where you can learn the software... and get kinda certified... there are Instructor led courses in ESRI that serve the interest of various industries and cover the latest versions of ESRI software. Now... these courses are done by CERTIFIED ESRI Sofware Instructors... that means we need to sit for exams and pass before we get to train others. All ESRI technical staff in Malaysia sit for these exams periodically and need to pass... its part of the management decision.

I still remember getting scared when they mentioned exams... I HATE EXAMS. I was thinking... NOT AGAIN!!! Enough with STPM... that was the toughest exam any human can take on this planet... trust me. Those who went thru STPM cannot be considered humans... we are aliens. Anyway, as the exam date came closer we were told that its an open book exam and that gave me some relief. When I saw the actual exam questions... it then hit me... tricky objective questions and no straightforward answers... the passing rate is 85%. Sat for the exams... toiling thru each question and testing out the software same time.... that takes a lot of time. You need to work on each of the objective answers in that exam. Haiihhh... I HATE EXAMS.

Its been 5 years now in ESRI Malaysia and I have sat and passed the ArcGIS Desktop ArcInfo 1&2 for 8.x and 9.x ... also ArcSDE 8.x and ArcSDE Config and Tuning 9.x. So far I think this is a good certification to sit for and it really helped me understand better the ArcGIS technology. We are always learning new things...

certs and exams... recognition

2006-09-28T14:49:00.000+08:00

Hey there... been asked a few times about GIS certifications and if there are any exams a GIS professional can sit to master the ESRI range of software. As in other software and hardware vendors like Microsoft, Cisco, Oracle, Linux or Solaris... certifications help not only in finding better jobs but also to equip technically oneself with the product thoroughly.

I know in the GIS industry there are a few certifications out there... but many of them are theory based and not specific to any software. Its kinda popular in the US, I think. Also many Built Environment or GIS graduates do not learn good software skills in Malaysian university but only get serious when they start working. In universities... graduates tend to focus on getting the assignments done fast and not really use the full functionality of the GIS software itself. So they lack programming and database skills. As for me... I can consider myself kinda lucky to have Dr Lee Lik Meng from USM Penang as my lecturer in my final 2 years. He showed me the path towards GIS when I was at a crossroad between Architecture and Interior Design. He guided me towards the ESRI products like ArcView and ArcInfo Workstation then. Also we got to work with a few other fellow students in real GIS projects in Penang. We got paid a bit... at least enough to spend on a few drinks and cigarretes. I had to study ArcView using ESRI Virtual Campus then in the university lab... there were no formal classes or lessons on GIS and internet connection was scarce. Many of the lab lessons we received in USM were using CAD based software like Microstation, AutoCAD and some obscure 3D software. GIS was in infancy then.

Anyone from USM remember this 3D software?? I think it was developed in Malaysia, right?? Share with us if you remember the name.

steve... the real dundee...

2006-09-18T12:15:00.000+08:00

Either you love him or hate him. Steve has his own style... his own way with animals. Initially, it was a big turn off for me to see this Aussie bloke jumping up and down like a kid ... yearning attention and always being sensational. Also his style of presenting is as if we are stupid or something... but hey.. thats him. What's amazing about Steve is his LOVE for wildlife and animals. This... I must admit... is his greatest gift to us. He has such passion and care for these animals that he treats them like his own kids. May you rest in peace.. mate.

PLTS...

2006-09-12T16:02:00.000+08:00

Hi there... nice to meet so many of you during the recent ESRI User Conference in Sheraton Subang. Glad to know some of you read this blog. Please also contribute by adding some comments...

Anyway... one the queries that I seem to get a lot recently... is the PLTS extension for ArcGIS. Probably because its something quite new in this country and JUPEM is currently using it. Okei... let me explain... PLTS actually enhances the functions of ArcMap and ArcCatalog applications for enterprise production agencies. Survey, Military, Aeronautical and Marine mapping are some of the agencies that has set standards, workflow, production, map series and symbols. These agencies produce maps to be printed in various scales. PLTS stands for Production Line Tool Set.

PLTS offers an efficient production, digitisation, map layouts and maintainance for cartographic databases in various map making agencies. You will have a lot of tools that help in the creation and editing of maps / plans specific to these production environments. Its a streamlined production process that follows a strict workflow ... and also has error correction methodology. Its main purpose is to increase quality and efficiency of the organisation and the production line. In earlier days, GIS was not at all used to make these plans and maps... they had so many other software that can do this work... mainly CAD, Graphic Software and Image Processing software. Now with PLTS and ArcGIS these agencies work in a single software environment. How cool is that ;-)

We will cover more of PLTS in the coming blogs.

Again... nice to meet so many of you... and hope to see more in the next user conference... prob in Singapore.

user conference ... ESRI South Asia...

2006-08-24T12:26:00.000+08:00

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...

2006-08-15T12:23:00.000+08:00

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

2006-08-04T11:09:00.000+08:00

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

2006-08-01T12:21:00.000+08:00

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.

zidane... its okei... I can relate..

2006-07-11T20:17:00.000+08:00

Zidane, what you did... is right.

110% right... even if its against FIFA rules... even if it means sending off... even if it means France loosing the Cup. I know and every other non-Italian knows you are absolutely spot on ... that Italian rat deserves more than a head butt... you should have embarassed him with a face spit too. Insulting opposing players in any game is so low... there is no honour or grace in that. If FIFA does not stop this... then international football is a disgraceful game... you just cannot get away with personal or religious insults. Many of the greats... the brilliant ... don't care about what happens on the field... its what happens in life that matters most. Let the truth speak for itself. If that Italian rat said a racist slur or cursed your family member then no World Cup game should tolerate such behaviour. Its not the red card that you deserve that day... you deserve respect.

France in the FINALS... mama mia...

2006-07-06T05:55:00.000+08:00

WOOOO HOOOOOO.....

They better play better than this if wanna beat the Italians. France took a lot of risks against the Portugese and can count their luck with some near misses. Barthez is playing like a fool again, missing some important shots and fumbling at the goal line. Against the Italians you cannot afford to make these mistakes. Well done France... you can go all the way!!!

Mapping concepts ... getting started...

2006-07-05T16:41:00.000+08:00

In additionto my earlier entries about plan or map features (point, line and polygon)... there are other technical factors that define them for users (i.e. engineer, surveyor, urban planner etc). These include scale, resolution, accuracy and projection.

Map Scale - to diplay these map features (point, line and polygon) that represent object on the earth surface (i.e. waterpipe valves, roads and buildings) the area must be reduced. The extent of reduction is expressed as a ratio. For example 1 cm = 2000 m is also defined as 1:2000. Map scale indicates how much the given area was reduced. For the same size map, features on a small scale map (1:100000) will be smaller than on a large scale map (1:1500). Each scale represents what you can and cannot see in a plan or map. You can see more details in a large scale map than in a small scale map.

Map Resolution - this refers to how accurately the location and shape of map features can be depicted for a given map scale. Of course... in other words... scale affects resolution. In larger scale maps, the resolutions matches closer to ground survey. The minimum sizes and dimensions are sometimes called minimum mapping units.