Malaysia PHP Programmer, where are you?

It is weired that PHP Programmers are so hard to find in Malaysia. I never realized that until I have to find one.

As I know, the following company in PJ/KL area is actively looking for PHP programmer:

• Zeltran
• DragonBack

Of course they are looking for "good" programmer, but "good" is hard to define and maybe that scared lots of ppl away. They are actually looking for CONFIDENCE PHP Programmer. It means, you are confidence in your skill and are able to deliver. The best is, you have involve in developing some web application and are able to show your portfolio.

Most of them will allow you to work in:

• Contracted
• Part time
• Full time

So, my friends, please don't hide up, please contribute your skill and get paid!

Projects on hands...

I think i have too much projects on hands... but I am blur as I think I lost the list of their priority.

Thus, i started this post trying to keep track all of them. Writing them down as a list make me feel better.

Web Application:

1. MacroPages (still in alpha version... beta is in minimax server, once release, sure kill off all other competitors... still searching for the right marketing plan and partner)
   
2. Davatar (still in beta version... dunno when will release, but i enjoy checking the hits every day)
   
3. BCLNShop - an online e-commerce store (is done... just need mantainance, thinking of open source the system for the good of mankind, since no one appreciate it here)
   
4. xxx Pages (can't tell, it is my secret weapon)
   
5. elib - Books and Library management system (i do for my housemate, might consider open source it)
6. phpluto - Open Soruce profile and project social networking site (something that i wanted to do back in uni time, but is not completed... will see...will see)
   

Game:

1. HoverEx (no matter how good the code is... looks more like an abundance project now)
2. Maggot Galaxy (this project is officially terminated as Seven Seas kick started, graphics created will be my personal portfolio and experience learn will not be wasted)
   
3. Seven Seas (is now on the top of my priority, something that will push me learn flex and web services in depth, and let me complete the dream of terminating maggot and web88 projects)
4. RPG Storytelling Game (always wanted to use poser and camera to create some reality mix virtual characters game... figuring and forming the idea in my mind and i just found a right tool for it)

Research:

1. Flex Research (I forsee it to be the next big things in next 3 years)
   
2. Learning PHP Zend Framework (I hope it can beat RoR!)
   
3. Learning regular expression (damm, why this thing is fucking hard to master?)
   
4. Flashlite mobile Research (thinking of getting a 3G phone now... FYI, i still using nokia 3310)
   
5. Project Management (am exploring the advance features of SVN and just get Branches and Tags idea works)
   

Community Works:

1. MGDC and Chinese Cari Forum Game Development Moderator (hmm.... i seldom go there nowsaday)
2. Some secretive project for some secretive groups of ppl... (:-$)

Others:

1. Some educational course ware things (boring but just for the $)....
2. miniMAX Portfolio (need lots of writers to help, on process, on process...)
3. Freelancing work for kiosk system
4. Getting a dedicated server
5. Setting up a studio in China (my boss said one and i trust him 50% only)
   

Roommart member get caught

Got this news from a fren's email asking me is this the guy who started Roommart. At first i thought, he must be getting some new prizes from XXX cup or XXX award again... but I am wrong.. he got a bad luck this time.

This is definately a shocking news for Multimedia University (which the names were not mentioned in the report) and Microsoft Malaysia. Room mart is the startup project that they and Mavcap Cradle fully funded and i can remember how much effort was spend on publicity at the time. I too remember how big was their partition allocation in the startup room located in MMU Incubator, Cyberjaya. They owned 4 partitions, which is 50% of the room, than any others startup.

Is him the guy that I read in previous newspaper: who selling quality DVD (bought from Penang Street) on the Internet, blocking all Malaysian IP, and delivers with DHL? I am not sure, but i admit that i admire that guy for being creative. And I laugh at Malaysia police force that announced they got the collaboration from Australia police force to discover the site... cos the malaysia IP is blocked..

hmm... If you are geek, you will understand this is a joke, coz we all know there is something called proxy.

I think... the guy here is not a MMU student, but he is definately part of Roommart startup.

Well, I am sure room mart is very famous now, but i am sure the CEO is not interested continue the biz now. The last thing i heard about him was that he is selling lamb burger. If you are Malaysia, you will know what I mean.

Sorry for being sarcastic, I neither get any funding from MAVCAP nor award from Microsoft Imagine Cup. I also din get such big partition for miniMAX in the incubator.... :(

Last, my advice to all tech savvy, don't think Malaysia Government is stupid o.... they are watching you and collecting your data quietly, just that they haven't react yet. This is what MR M used to do to his beloved colleague too.

Full story below from Thestar Online:

PENANG: An IT expert was fined a total of RM8,000 after he pleaded guilty in the Sessions Court here to three counts of offering to sell four pirated DVDs over the Internet.

Poh Wee Leng, 30, from Petaling Jaya, was fined RM2,000 for each infringing copy while his friend, Huan Su Ling, 25, who was jointly charged with him, was freed after the prosecution withdrew the charges against her.

FINED: Poh being led out of the Sessions Court in Penang after he pleaded guilty yesterday. Huan (below right) was freed of the charges.

Poh, who is currently pursuing a master's degree in Business Administration, yesterday admitted committing the offences at a house at Solok Tembaga Dua in Island Park here at about 1pm on Oct 12.

He and Huan had claimed trial when they were first charged on Oct 17.

The four titles of the pirated DVDs were Garfield: Tale of Two Kitties, Garfield, The Da Vinci Code and Mean Girl. The two Garfield titles were stated in the first charge.

The offence under the Copyright Act 1987 carries a fine of RM2,000 to RM20,000 per copy or maximum five years' jail or both.

Judge Hadhariah Syed Ismail ordered Poh to serve a total jail term of 18 months if he failed to pay the fine. Poh, who was represented by R.S.N. Rayer, paid up.

Poh was funded by Malaysia Venture Capital Management Bhd (MAVCAP) in 2004 to develop a portal for ROOMMART that allowed users to find roommates and accommodation.

MAVCAP is wholly owned by the Ministry of Finance Inc.

Huan, who is pursuing a master's degree in Computer Science at Universiti Sains Malaysia here, was given a discharge not amounting to an acquittal.

She had represented Malaysia at the Imagine Cup in Brazil in 2004 organised by Microsoft.

Imagine Cup is the world’s premier student technology competition.

Phing

Phing is a project build system based on Apache ant [ant]. You can do anything with Phing that you could do with a traditional build system like Gnu make [gnumake], and Phing's use of simple XML build files and extensible PHP "task" classes make it an easy-to-use and highly flexible build framework.

Phing is a build tool for PHP projects with builder written in XML. It is able to do nightly build, encode php code before packaging with ioncube or zend encoder, automatically include pear package and more...

Read More: http://phing.info/docs/guide/2.2.0/

All you need to get started as a web developer just like me

Browser
Thanks to browser war, you need lots of different browser to stress test is the website you created is either "what you see is what you get" or the opposite one.

Firefox
Firefox is always my best friend during development process. As an open source project that respect W3C standard, firefox should always be the standard in HTML and CSS rendering.
Get it here: http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/

Opera
As an alternative browser that have its own loyal community, Opera Mobile Edition has also been well known in latest smart phone. In most cases, pages that display well in Firefox will have no problem in Opera too.
Get it here: http://www.opera.com/download/

Internet Explorer
The long cursed browser by all web developer, be it you happy or not, still monopolize the large naive user group. Most Malaysia, Korean and China users are still using Internet Explorer and do not aware of Firefox. Thus, you still need to test your website on this sucky browser.

Microsoft do not allow you to install more than 2 different version of IE on the same machine. However, there is always a solution from the hacker group.
Get standalone IE from version 3 to 6 here: http://browsers.evolt.org/?ie/32bit/standalone

Wap Browser
Sometime web developers do WAP page as well. And not all developer is rich, like me, i am still using Nokia 3310 that are not WAP enabled.

Firefox WMLbrowser plugin
Simple and nice and integrate into your Firefox browser, a must for all developers that developing dual version of a website with WEB and WAP compatible.
Get it here: http://wmlbrowser.mozdev.org/installation/wmlbrowser.html

Klondike WAP Browser
A standalone browser but is lightweight and accurate.
Get it here: http://www.apachesoftware.com/download_kwpe.html

Text Editor
I prefer to write plain HTML code and CSS code for greater control, rather than those spaghetti code generated from FrontPage. The following editor is what I recommend:

Scintilla and Scite
SciTE is a SCIntilla based Text Editor. Originally built to demonstrate Scintilla, it has grown to be a generally useful editor with facilities for building and running programs. It come with syntax highlighting and utf-8 unicode support (turn on manually), is my best friend no matter what i code.
An installer that includes extensions contributed by Bruce Dodson.

NVU
In case you forgotten how to write fancy html tables with many complicated rowspan and colspan, a WYISWYG tool became handy. NVU as an open source project, respect W3C standard, are able to generate the minimum HTML tag and code for your need.
Get it here: http://www.nvu.com/index.php

CSS
Firefox WebDevelopers Toolbar plugin
I cant develop website without it. It allow you to turn on and off every single function of your browser, such as cookie, css display, images display and so on; Thus, allowing you to stimulate your users browser configuration. (We know there are still freak that refuse to turn cookie and javascript on, or... still browse in text-only browser).
Get it here: https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/60/

Firefox CSS Viewer plugin
This tool allow you to mouseover any HTML entity and get the rendered CSS result. Very good for debugging CSS directly in your Firefox browser!
Get it here: https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/2104/

Javascript
Firefox Firebug plugin
A quick overview of FireBug's features:

• JavaScript debugger for stepping through code one line at a time
• Status bar icon shows you when there is an error in a web page
• A console that shows errors from JavaScript and CSS
• Log messages from JavaScript in your web page to the console (bye bye "alert debugging")
• An JavaScript command line (no more "javascript:" in the URL bar)
• Spy on XMLHttpRequest traffic
• Inspect HTML source, computed style, events, layout and the DOM Javascript
  

Get it here: https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/1843/

Reference
W3Schools.com
Lots and lots of tutorial and reference here layout systematically and are newbie-friendly. It is so good until my University lecturer have to steal contents from here as teaching material. I pointed him out and got a B- for my Internet Computing subject. A lesson I learned here: Don't let anyone stop you from being a great developer, especially those unqualified one.
Go: http://www.w3schools.com

GotAPI.com
This site is super as it crawl all sort of docs from the Internet and put them all under one roof. Highly recommend for all geek.
Go: http://www.gotapi.com/

Moving towards AS3/Flex Development

While tired of choosing which PHP framework is better, or even asking stupid question such as is RoR is better than PHP, I decided to move my focus away from PHP and back to Flash platform.

This is a big step for me, as moving focus from server side to the client side. However, it seems like this is what currently happens in the WWW since some bastard started the hype of web2.0.

The merging of Adobe and Macromedia together with Microsoft announced .net framework 3.0 and their own competitive tools against flash & acrobat platform brought the new generation to Internet application. We can foresee the future is belong to cross platform and open standard. Those who think they can ignore open source world is going to be ignored.

However, this doesn't mean that staying alone as an open source project without collaborating with commercial world can remain competitive, or the other way round. These extreme will not work in future, as the world is gray and with the following example:

• Zend and Microsoft is working hard to make php run better on IIS
• Adobe and Mozilla is working hard to make Tamarin runs better for flash player 9 and mozilla 2 engine
• Lih-Hern is working in new phoenix team (John Gould Game?? shit, i not good in memorizing name) to build better game engine that going to release to open source. :P
  

Regardless it is long term or short term collaboration, i like to think they are all moving towards making software works better for human.

So, after 4 years of loyalty to PHP programming, I decided to move my focus away from server side towards client side, and I have made my choice to Flex and Apollo. I believe both of them are great platforms that will bridge the future devices-web-desktop barrier. As a result, we developers should be able to create real software/game that write-once, run everywhere.

This transforming too means I will be putting more time back in research more than development, at least, 30% more of time spend.

However, this doesn't means i am putting all my current project or career into the end. What i learn in flex will be helping me to improve my current projects, with better features, performance and faster development time.

Is this mean i am sure that all web application will be written in flash in near future? Definitely nop, it is still a long way to go as macromedia had tried hard in past 7 years to make it works but people still have the perceptions that as long as not 100% browser in world supporting flash player, Javascript and HTML still rules! It is weired that people don't apply this to Adobe Acrobat format. At least, nobody said: I wont use Acrobat format as long as not 100% of the computer are not installed with Acrobat reader, thus i will continue writing in plain text.

I was uncertain with Adobe and Macromedia merging, but with the recent Free Flex2 SDK, Adobe open source projects, Adobe lab... I am confidence that Adobe merge well with Macromedia. For sure, Mr Bill will get lots of headache for the next few years.

Mobile technology is another strategic point in future that I would love to explore. Afterall, in country like Malaysia and China, web gave people the perceptions that it is FREE while mobile means PAID!

Year 2007 sound like a tech breaking years. What works in the past might not work after this breaking point. It will also means a great opportunity for new comers. Thus, learning new skills is a must, in order to stay competitive.

It is not a switching, as i believe i can find the nice balance to put flash and php working together. I will like to use it in near future, and would love to explore how i can build game and app more faster and easier with it.

People used to have a wrong impression that I am a web developer, and again, I would like to position myself as a Multimedia Developers which like to explore new possibility. There should have no diff between web and desktop, or even programming and art.

Software is a process or a product

Some said software is a product, because you can sell it on the shelf. However, to most web application developer and open source software, it is a process as it is never ending; you have to keep patching, debugging, update, add features, next version....

Microsoft sales software as a product. They put it into a box to make it looks solid. They added in manual, CDs, Catalog and maybe xbox to convince you that you are actually buying a product. However, they never tell you the thing you purchase can be updated, or not even completed.

• Bugs is still in it (thats why you get attack by viruses)
• You have to run live update to patch your operating system
• and... you expecting to spend another RM400 3-5 years later, for next version of windows.

All these proved that software is a process than a product. A process is never complete, never ending and never be perfect. It is always on going and you are ensure that the next version will always better than this version. That is why, programmer wont running out of job.

I used to dream to build some system that will run by it own and require only minimum maintenance. However, when i get older, i realized this is the ultimate dream of all software engineer which is impossible to achieve. Thus, when you started a software project, it is either ended up dead or you get users for it. If you successfully get users, you will have to spend more effort to make them more dependence on your software, such as getting their feedback, add in features they suggested...

Thus, a software project is a huge project. One should never ever start one without thinking much. Else, it is destiny to failure.

Anyway, i still dream that, software will be added AI in future so that they can self improve, self debugging themselves.

Comments...comments.....

It has been a long time since i have got my last blog post comment. I kept wondering where all my reader go... ?

How stupid i am: i activated the comments moderation functions! I just found out i have over 50 comments to moderate. Thanks for all your comments and please feel free to write in :)

My first flex application

Was playing around with flex2.0, as adobe hav released the sdk for free and only charge on the IDE usage.

Thus, i built a simple application by following a tutorial, then added a feature to display your davatar images.

http://exiang.xullum.net/flex/test1/

For more information about learning flex, please visit: http://www.flex.org

Accidentally swallowed Chewing Gum..?!

It is a boring afternoon in office, i was happily chewing Juicy Fruit chewing gum i bought during lunch time. Then i felt thirsty and i took a glass of drink unconsciously while chatting with frens over IM.

15 minutes later... i suddenly get syok! where is the chewing gum? Did i trowed it to the dustbin or i actually swallowed it???

"If you swallowed chewing gum, it will stick on ur lung and you will not be able to breath"..then i recall what my mum said to me when i was a kid.

Shit, it is true that i feel breathless.... did i swallowed it?

being a geek, i googled the keyword: "accidentally swallowed chewing gum".
Thanks google (nop, they din pay me to advertise), i found that i have been cheated for over 20 years and no one told me the truth. Luckily, i am not the only one on earth. Thus, to all parents, please stop cheating your kids.

I used to believe

When i was about 5 i used to believe that if you swallowed chewing gum, it would get stuck in your stomach and you would die. One day i accidentally swallowed a piece when i was at my friends house, and ran all the way home screaming i dont want to die. when i got home my mum told me that 1 piece would not kill me, and reminded me how often my sister swallowed gum.

http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0IBX/is_2_9/ai_92282679

According to officials at Wrigley, makers of Big Red and Juicy Fruit, it only takes a few days to digest when you accidentally swallow a wad of the chewy stuff. Chewing gum consists of five basic ingredients, four of which dissolve in your mouth--flavor, sweeteners, corn syrup and softeners. The fifth ingredient, gum base, doesn't dissolve but eventually passes through your system undigested, much like fiber.

http://health.yahoo.com/topic/nutrition/foods/qanda/mayoclinic

Q: My 6-year-old daughter accidentally swallowed chewing gum. Should I be concerned?

A: No, it's not harmful to swallow chewing gum. The body doesn't digest gum, so the gum passes through the digestive tract relatively intact and is excreted through the stool.

Adobe Lab

It seem like a common practice for all these IT company to have lab.xxx.com. Obviously copy from Google idea, but i think it is definitely something cools.

Today i visited adobe lab... surprise to see they have many cool things under development:

1. action script 3 and flash player 9
2. adobe soundbooth, an audio editor that can save file in wav, wmv format..
3. an ajax library that not working on IE..
4. an actionscript doc generator

For more, please visit: http://labs.adobe.com

My China Web Hosting Experience

Am working on an e-commerce site for a China client called BCLN. In the process, I faced one of the difficulties for oversea people to enter China Internet Market.

China is well-known for its Internet censorship, extremely slow surfing speed and others horribles experience. Some descibe it is protected by the CHINA GREAT FIREWALL. No one can get throgh this, not even Google.

I was a loyal lunar pages supporter until i realized their server connection is too slow accessing from China. I actually purchased their dedicated hosting package for my client and have totally no problem access in Malaysia. However, after i get here, it is totally different.

My client complaints that it is slow and unstable. In the end, i decided to find a local hosting.

In many cases, China IT is quite similar with Malaysia IT.. full of pirated software and pro-microsoft. That means, i cant easily get a quality PHP server that comparable to lunarpages.

I believe my requirement is low: Cpanel, PHP5, MySQL with unicode support, Mod Rewrite enabled. Maybe i had a bad luck, i din get to find my favorite server here. Most of them are IIS and ASP base. (Probably, setting up a unix hosting company in China is a good idea)

Like many others that wish to setup website that is accessible in China with China local server, i switched from one host to another. None that i encountered can provide me Cpanel. If you can get a PHP4 with mod rewrite enabled, you should feel satisfied.

It came to the last day before i present to the client. I was trying my last and googling to solve this problem. And last i came to a blog, setup by a "Guai lou" that studying in China. His blog lead me to HostGator.

For some unknown reason, HostGator is extremelty fast, both in China and Malaysia. I have totally no problem access it from Shen Zhen, and the speed is even faster than my access to lunarpages from Malaysia.

I am quite happy with this oversea web host that work well in China. I think I will continue using it for a long time.

Btw, my client site is http://www.bclnshop.com