The most important step in fixing any programming bug, is accepting the fact that there is a bug in the first place. After years of coding, sometimes we think that we are immune to writing buggy code. If a customer complaint or an issue,we might think, “ah, he just misconfigured his server” or that something went wrong during installation. That would be the first hurdle towards finding the bug, fixing it and making our software better.

So, if an issue arise, accept it as a bug in our code and start looking for solution. Ehm, this actually remind me of the 5 stages of grief.

1. Denial – There is nothing wrong with my code.
2. Anger – Damn it, can you just let it go and check your server you idiot.
3. Bargaining – Ok, maybe there is something here, but could you please ask your web hosting company or maybe this is really extremely rare situation.
4. Depression –Shit, the problem is still there. What the hell is going on here.
5. Acceptance – I see, there really is a bug in my code. Ok, I’ll get to work to fix it.

P1 wimax sucks!

While looking around, one thing I notice is that, the moment I mention that it will be a software house, everyone seems to think that we need a server room. At our current office, we have a small dell server that runs our bug tracking and subversion system but I always feel that it is unnecessary. All these application can really be hosted somewhere else. So, I have decided that our office shall run completely server-less!

Seriously, there is no need for us to have a server at all!. Almost everything that we need can actually be hosted somewhere else, on a remote server. There are several advantages of running all these application on a remote location. First and foremost, continuity. Most competent hosting environment should have a good continuity and backup strategy. Other than full raid setup, regular image backup normally comes standard. You will also never need to worry about hardware failure. They should also have reliable network which makes access from any location a snap. Again, any competent hosting company should have a technician on stanby 24/7 . Trying to replicate all this in-house takes a lot of time away from your real work. Having our data off-site also means that we don’t have to worry so much about theft or fire, or flood destroying our work. The office runs quieter, cooler, cheaper.

Amazingly, going server-less is easy. I grab a cheap Windows VPS package (hosted in Malaysia), with just 380Mb. I successfully moved all svn data to the new server. Next, I’ll be moving our fogbugz on the new server and perhaps relocate our build script on this server too. I can then shutdown our dell server forever or donate them to charity. Anyone wants one ?

Its all in the cloud…

As an employer, I am always on the side of cautious. Do understand that as employer, we are actually scared to get that offer letter out. Just work a little harder and you will be fine.

I could not have summarize it better than this. http://www.howtonailaninterview.com/

For the most part, P1 is OK. During the first week of using their service, it wickedly fast. For 1.2 Mbps package, I can consistantly hit 900 kbps. On international sites, speed of 500-700 kbps is not uncommon. But obviously as more as more people are signing up, I rarely see the 900 kbps nowadays, with 600-ish being a norm. These figure, isn’t bad at all, ad is comparable to StreamyX on a good day. All and all, it does edge StreamyX slightly.

Now, the bad news. For some reason, P1 seems to enjoy a late night detour. Almost every night, the service will go down at some wee hours in the morning, typically 15 to 30 minutes, sometimes up to an hour and even a few times a day. The excuse given is ‘maintenence mode’, which is acceptable if it was done on a monthly, or even a weekly basis, but come on, this is becoming a daily occurace. P1 might think that no one uses the internet at night and it is ok to disrupt the service, but imagine is TNB uses the same logic. Hey, at 3 am, most people are asleep right ?, lets cut off the electricity for a while, no one will notice.

My worry is that, there is no sign of this getting any better and P1 seems to take it for granted that no one complaint. So, here I am now. For those thinking of signing up with P1 and work late at night, be prepare to have your chat with your business partner across the globe to be cut short.

1. My first session, which is also one of the most useful one was about Economic 2.0 . Oh man, we are so far away. The world are moving at such a rapid pace, I don’t think most of us realize what’s coming. I thought I knew what Enterprise 2.0 is before, but to the extends it is being pursued is mind-boggling. It is a challenging environment we live in and the pursuit of business efficiency has never been this ruthless.

2. I feel that, we have an unhealthy culture of celebrating those who talk about entrepreneurship rather than those who actually do it. It is liberating to hear stories and experiences, direct from the actual entrepreneur themselves. They (most, but not all) talk with such passion, clarity and honesty, which are rare, locally.

3. Get real. We need to be honest to ourselves and start asking some real, hard questions. Will our business survive the global competition. Do we really have any competitive edge, or are we just syok sendiri ? Is our revenue model sustainable ? 5 years from now, how will people remember us? a loser who talk to much? Have we been resourceful ? or have we been complaining about lack of resource ?

Well, the thing about Airport edition is, once I am no longer bored, I no longer feel like writing!

While everyone blame each other and making promises, I flip to the next section knowing that, I better not hold my breath, waiting for any improvement, anytime soon.

.cc is the Internet country code top-level domain (ccTLD) for Cocos (Keeling) Islands, an Australian territory.

Why would a Malaysian politician use a .cc ? A .com is good enough. I remember, when they change it, I lose all my rss feed and have to configure everything all over again. As I type this, they just changed it to .co.cc which is a bloody redirection service, typical amateur.

Oh yes, this bunch of amateur also at one point uses http://test.chedet.com as a live production url. Shocking.. now, they happily apply redirection whenever they feel like it, with zero consideration for SEO. As I type this, the url is http://chedet.co.cc/chedetblog/ . Hello! we all know it is a blog, why change it to /chedetblog/ ? .

Why not use this url instead ?. http://test.chedet.co.cc/chedetblog/

Another thing that annoys me is me, such a high traffic site can easily make a lot of money. Instead, this clueless amateur quote a ridiculous amount of advertising rate. Last time I check, it was RM 300 per day.

Enough rant. Some advice.

1. Let someone else run the site.
2. Just keep the damn site at http://chedet.com . DONE!
3. To make money, deploy Google AdSense. Charge a more reasonable rate. A full traffic stats need to be disclosed.

Sadly, the excitement only last a couple of seconds. The 3G-based broadband is NOT accessible within my existing voice account. You will be given separate sim card purely for the broadband access which cannot be use with any voice services.

I don’t understand why DiGi would want to chase the most crowded space, land-based broadband when there are simply tons of other providers. I am sure there are thousands of Edge user who would readily upgrade their account to 3G-based network in an instance. Instead, they roll out yet another wireless internet services that require expensive modems. Opening this service to their existing customer, who already own 3G phones would greatly speed up their adoption. It will also reverse the voice user migration from their service to other 3G enabled provider.

I am so disappointed with DiGi..

Momentum is a great thing and I need to get back at it.