Victor's Blog about the Web, Security and Life

The New Facebook Sneak Peaks

2011-09-29T14:26:56+00:00

Facebook is undergoing a lot of changes recently especially after the release of Google+. The link below provides sneak peaks about the NEW facebook profile and features that Facebook will be introducing shortly... http://mashable.com/2011/09/21/prepare-for-the-new-facebook/

NASA Satellite to Crash Back to Earth this September

2011-09-21T09:49:00+00:00

NASA has recently announced that an out-of-control, retired satellite will come crashing into the earth's surface "sometime" towards the end of September. Furthermore, the satellite, which is about the size of a school bus and weights over 6 tonnes (6.6 tons), will impact the earth in an unknown location between Canada and South America. The exact time and location will remain a mystery until two hours before the event, and that's with six thousand miles (10,000 km) of uncertainty. Read More

Google Desparate for Gmail?

2011-07-29T09:04:22+00:00

Today, I received an email message from http://www.emailintervention.com/ The message is simply asking me to switch from my "traditional" email service to the "modern and spam-free" Gmail service. While this request may sound normal, a quick question popped into my mind. "Why would Google build a website to ask people to join Gmail if Gmail originally started on an invitation-only basis? More precisely, why would Google build this website now and not when it first opened Gmail for the public?" Is Google desparate to advertise Gmail? Is this just another indirect way of advertising Google Plus? Is it just a sub-service provided by Google to Gmail users to allow them to invite their friends?

Shortcuts to Official Exam Results on www.schoolnet.edu.lb

2011-07-05T10:42:18+00:00

UPDATE I just learned that one of our clients is also providing a copy of the official results for the Lebanese exams. Check their website out: http://www.sawtelfarah.com/ ORIGINAL POST I think some of you have faced this before. You want to check your kid's results in the official exams and cannot open the website www.schoolnet.edu.lb because it is under too much pressure. The URLs below will save you from having to wait forever to reach the page where you fill in the form to get the result. Simply pick up the URL that is for you and replace the with the number and paste it into your browser and voila. I hope this helps. For BREVET RESULTS: Beirut: http://www.schoolnet.edu.lb/exam1/brevet.asp?idd=1&id= North: http://www.schoolnet.edu.lb/exam1/brevet.asp?idd=2&id= South: http://www.schoolnet.edu.lb/exam1/brevet.asp?idd=3&id= Mount Lebanon: http://www.schoolnet.edu.lb/exam1/brevet.asp?idd=4&id= Nabatieh: http://www.schoolnet.edu.lb/exam1/brevet.asp?idd=5&id= Bekaa: http://www.schoolnet.edu.lb/exam1/brevet.asp?idd=6&id= For SG RESULTS: Beirut: http://www.schoolnet.edu.lb/exam1/sg.asp?idd=1&id= North: http://www.schoolnet.edu.lb/exam1/sg.asp?idd=2&id= South: http://www.schoolnet.edu.lb/exam1/sg.asp?idd=3&id= Mount Lebanon: http://www.schoolnet.edu.lb/exam1/sg.asp?idd=4&id= Nabatieh: http://www.schoolnet.edu.lb/exam1/sg.asp?idd=5&id= Bekaa: http://www.schoolnet.edu.lb/exam1/sg.asp?idd=6&id= For SE RESULTS: Beirut: http://www.schoolnet.edu.lb/exam1/se.asp?idd=1&id= North: http://www.schoolnet.edu.lb/exam1/se.asp?idd=2&id= South: http://www.schoolnet.edu.lb/exam1/se.asp?idd=3&id= Mount Lebanon: http://www.schoolnet.edu.lb/exam1/se.asp?idd=4&id= Nabatieh: http://www.schoolnet.edu.lb/exam1/se.asp?idd=5&id= Bekaa: http://www.schoolnet.edu.lb/exam1/se.asp?idd=6&id= For SV RESULTS: Beirut: http://www.schoolnet.edu.lb/exam1/sv.asp?idd=1&id= North: http://www.schoolnet.edu.lb/exam1/sv.asp?idd=2&id= South: http://www.schoolnet.edu.lb/exam1/sv.asp?idd=3&id= Mount Lebanon: http://www.schoolnet.edu.lb/exam1/sv.asp?idd=4&id= Nabatieh: http://www.schoolnet.edu.lb/exam1/sv.asp?idd=5&id= Bekaa: http://www.schoolnet.edu.lb/exam1/sv.asp?idd=6&id= For LH RESULTS: Beirut: http://www.schoolnet.edu.lb/exam1/lh.asp?idd=1&id= North: http://www.schoolnet.edu.lb/exam1/lh.asp?idd=2&id= South: http://www.schoolnet.edu.lb/exam1/lh.asp?idd=3&id= Mount Lebanon: http://www.schoolnet.edu.lb/exam1/lh.asp?idd=4&id= Nabatieh: http://www.schoolnet.edu.lb/exam1/lh.asp?idd=5&id= Bekaa: http://www.schoolnet.edu.lb/exam1/lh.asp?idd=6&id= I will try to add a form to simplify this but you can use the links above for now ;)

10 Dirty Little Secrets You Should Know About Working in IT

2010-12-14T10:21:49+00:00

This article discusses 10 dirty littles secrets about working in IT. It was shared with me through email by my friend Dominic Halajian. I liked it, so here it is. 10.) The pay in IT is good compared to many other professions, but since they pay you well, they often think they own you Although the pay for IT professionals is not as great as it was before the dot-com flameout and the IT backlash in 2001-2002, IT workers still make very good money compared to many other professions (at least the ones that require only an associate’s or bachelor’s degree). And there is every reason to believe that IT pros will continue to be in demand in the coming decades, as technology continues to play a growing role in business and society. However, because IT professionals can be so expensive, some companies treat IT pros like they own them. If you have to answer a tech call at 9:00 PM because someone is working late, you hear, “That’s just part of the job.” If you need to work six hours on a Saturday to deploy a software update to avoid downtime during business hours, you get, “There’s no comp time for that since you’re on salary. That’s why we pay you the big bucks!” 9.) It will be your fault when users make silly errors Some users will angrily snap at you when they are frustrated. They will yell, “What’s wrong with this thing?” or “This computer is NOT working!” or (my personal favorite), “What did you do to the computers?” In fact, the problem is that they accidentally deleted the Internet Explorer icon from the desktop, or unplugged the mouse from the back of the computer with their foot, or spilled their coffee on the keyboard. 8.) You will go from goat to hero and back again multiple times within any given day When you miraculously fix something that had been keeping multiple employees from being able to work for the past 10 minutes — and they don’t realize how simple the fix really was — you will become the hero of the moment and everyone’s favorite employee. But they will conveniently forget about your hero anointment a few hours later when they have trouble printing because of a network slowdown — you will be enemy No. 1 at that moment. But if you show users a handy little Microsoft Outlook trick before the end of the day, you’ll soon return to hero status. 7.) Certifications won’t always help you become a better technologist, but they can help you land a better job or a pay raise Headhunters and human resources departments love IT certifications. They make it easy to match up job candidates with job openings. They also make it easy for HR to screen candidates. You’ll hear a lot of veteran IT pros whine about techies who were hired based on certifications but who don’t have the experience to effectively do the job. They are often right. That has happened in plenty of places. But the fact is that certifications open up your career options. They show that you are organized and ambitious and have a desire to educate yourself and expand your skills. If you are an experienced IT pro and have certifications to match your experience, you will find yourself to be extremely marketable. Tech certifications are simply a way to prove your baseline knowledge and to market yourself as a professional. However, most of them are not a good indicator of how good you will be at the job. 6.) Your nontechnical co-workers will use you as personal tech support for their home PCs Your co-workers (in addition to your friends, family, and neighbors) will view you as their personal tech support department for their home PCs and home networks. They will e-mail you, call you, and/or stop by your office to talk about how to deal with the virus that took over their home PC or the wireless router that stopped working after the last power outage and to ask you how to put their photos and videos on the Web so their grandparents in Iowa can view them. Some of them might even ask you if they can bring their home PC to the office for you to fix it. The polite ones will offer to pay you, but some of them will just hope or expect you can help them for free. Helping these folks can be very rewarding, but you have to be careful about where to draw the line and know when to decline. 5.) Vendors and consultants will take all the credit when things work well and will blame you when things go wrong Working with IT consultants is an important part of the job and can be one of the more challenging things to manage. Consultants bring niche expertise to help you deploy specialized systems, and when everything works right, it’s a great partnership. But you have to be careful. When things go wrong, some consultants will try to push the blame off on you by arguing that their solution works great everywhere else so it must be a problem with the local IT infrastructure. Conversely, when a project is wildly successful, there are consultants who will try to take all of the credit and ignore the substantial work you did to customize and implement the solution for your company. 4.) You’ll spend far more time babysitting old technologies than implementing new ones One of the most attractive things about working in IT is the idea that we’ll get to play with the latest cutting edge technologies. However, that’s not usually the case in most IT jobs. The truth is that IT professionals typically spend far more time maintaining, babysitting, and nursing established technologies than implementing new ones. Even IT consultants, who work with more of the latest and greatest technologies, still tend to work primarily with established, proven solutions rather than the real cutting edge stuff. 3.) Veteran IT professionals are often the biggest roadblock to implementing new technologies A lot of companies could implement more cutting edge stuff than they do. There are plenty of times when upgrading or replacing software or infrastructure can potentially save money and/or increase productivity and profitability. However, it’s often the case that one of the largest roadblocks to migrating to new technologies is not budget constraints or management objections; it’s the veteran techies in the IT department. Once they have something up and running, they are reluctant to change it. This can be a good thing because their jobs depend on keeping the infrastructure stable, but they also use that as an excuse to not spend the time to learn new things or stretch themselves in new directions. They get lazy, complacent, and self-satisfied. 2.) Some IT professionals deploy technologies that do more to consolidate their own power than to help the business Another subtle but blameworthy thing that some IT professionals do is select and implement technologies based on how well those technologies make the business dependent on the IT pros to run them, rather than which ones are truly best for the business itself. For example, IT pros might select a solution that requires specialized skills to maintain instead of a more turnkey solution. Or an IT manager might have more of a Linux/UNIX background and so chooses a Linux-based solution over a Windows solution, even though the Windows solution is a better business decision (or, vice versa, a Windows admin might bypass a Linux-based appliance, for example). There are often excuses and justifications given for this type of behavior, but most of them are disingenuous. 1.) IT pros frequently use jargon to confuse nontechnical business managers and hide the fact that they screwed up All IT pros — even the very best — screw things up once in a while. This is a profession where a lot is at stake and the systems that are being managed are complex and often difficult to integrate. However, not all IT pros are good at admitting when they make a mistake. Many of them take advantage of the fact that business managers (and even some high-level technical managers) don’t have a good understanding of technology, and so the techies will use jargon to confuse them (and cover up the truth) when explaining why a problem or an outage occurred. For example, to tell a business manager why a financial application went down for three hours, the techie might say, “We had a blue screen of death on the SQL Server that runs that app. Damn Microsoft!” What the techie would fail to mention was that the BSOD was caused by a driver update he applied to the server without first testing it on a staging machine.

Turkish Airport Smoking Terrace

2010-11-16T07:11:49+00:00

One thing I really liked during my trip today is my smoking transit in Turkey. The airport has a Smoking Terrace where you smoke in open air within the airport. What I really liked about it is that for the first time I don't really feel that I am jailed while smoking in an airport or that Cancer is really polluting the air all around. Yet, I can imagine a small debate taking place between anti-smoking activists who push hard to make the life of the smoker so miserable as to stop and what the Turkish airport did by giving smokers a privilege (somehow) by smoking in open air. Oh and the view out there was great that you will barely want to go back inside. Go Turkey Go!! ps. Of course, my favourite airport still is Beirut International Airport where you can smoke while checking in or at Passport control while, at the same time, a recorded message keeps asking everybody to smoke in designated areas only with no signs about where these designated areas are :)

10-10-10 10:10: TEN DIGITAL CHEERS!

2010-10-10T09:13:57+00:00

We all know that computers understand only bits: 0s and 1s. Since their inception, computers have worked hard to try to recognize dates that we use in our daily life. Human life was never fair to them in return until today. Today, we are giving PCs two dates that are written purely in their own language using 0s and 1s: 10-10-10 10:10 am and 10-10-10 10:10 pm If you are reading this out there and love PCs, grab a beer and shout out loud: 10 Cheers to Bits ;) If you read this later after it's too late, remember that you lived through these two moments at least. These are unique dates at least for PCs. Let us all spread this through sharing.

Alfa Statement Roaming Charges

2010-05-01T09:08:45+00:00

I just got off the phone with Alfa Call Center regarding a weird charge that occurred on my detailed bill where I found many roaming charges for the number +9613488888 each being charged at $0.299. The charge occurred within the period of my my last trip to Tunis. The weird thing about it is not only that I don't know what this number is, but also that the invoice is for the period 27-March till 27-April while the charges in question are for the period of 21-23 March. After spending 34 minutes with the Alfa Customer Service representative on the phone, below is the conclusion for how your Alfa Invoice displays charges as well as the detailed explanation about this issue. Whenever you travel outside Lebanon and use the SMS Romaing service, 2 charges apply: The first charge is related to the Alfa SMS service for the number that you are sending the SMS to. Currently, if the number is in Lebanon, the charge will be $0.09. If the number is outside Lebanon, the charge will be $0.18. The second charge is for the Roaming Service charged by the network that you are roaming through. This cost is variable from one country to another. For Tunis, the cost is currently at $0.299 per SMS. On your invoice, you will find one of two cases: If the charge occurs within one line, you will see it as type R (for Roaming) and the cost will be the cost of SMS + the cost of Roaming. If the charge is split into two entries, you will see it as one charge of type S (for SMS) and another charge of type R (for Roaming). For example, if you send an SMS from Tunis to Lebanon through roaming, the charge can appear either on one line as $0.389 or on two lines where the first line displays the cost of SMS as $0.09 and the second line displays the cost of roaming in Tunis ($0.299). If you send another SMS from Tunis to a country different than Lebanon, then the charge will appear either on one line as $0.479 or on two lines where the first line displays the cost of SMS as $0.18 and the second line displays the cost of roaming in Tunis ($0.299). Another thing that should be noted as well is the fact that all roaming charges from external networks (Tunis in this case) are not charged in real time and can take up to 4-5 days for the charge to arrive to Alfa. If you travel around the end of your billing cycle, the SMS charge can occur on one invoice while the roaming charge will occur on the next bill. This last fact is what resulted in large number of charges of $0.299 being listed for the number +9613488888 which turned out to be the SMS Center number of Alfa. My trip to Tunis took place on March 21-23. Thus, the SMS charges appeared on my March bill. The Roaming charges, however, were not charged back due to the delay explained above and, thus, my April bill was charged with these numbers. If you ever face this situation with Alfa, now you can know the details without having to spend half an hour with them analyzing the charges over the phone.

Google Analytics vs Log File Based Statistics

2010-04-19T10:46:43+00:00

The way Google Analytics works is very different from the way log file based statistics work. Log file based statistics follows a very clear process. It opens the log file at the server side, parses its contents and generates results based on that content. Google Analytics, on the other hand, uses JavaScript technology to create a cookie within the user browser and uses that cookie (and JavaScript) to track the user's behavior on the website. Although both tools provide VISITS statistics, Google Analytics tends to be more accurate due to the fact that cookies allow for differentiating between two users on the same virtual network while IP-based differentiation (the technique used by Log File Based Statistics) fails to work. There are many differences (when it comes to accuracy) between the two tools. The first tool, Log File Based Statistics, is intended for accuracy in number of hits, pages, bandwidth consumption, server load, etc. The second tool, Google Analytics, is intended for user behavior tracking, number of visitors, entry pages, exit pages, landing pages, etc. The above general description is very crucial for website administrators to understand where each tool is more effective and to also highlight the fact that using one tool does not eliminate the need to the other. Both tools are still needed to achieve all results properly (and effectively). If your concern is only statistical (hits, pages, consumption, etc.), Log File Based tools are the key. If your concern is marketing-oriented (i.e. visitors, behaviors, etc.), then Google Analytics is king. Why Are Numbers of Google Analytics Lower Than Those of Normal Log File Based Statistics? The following list is not an exhaustive one but is intended to list the many cases where numbers will look different: 1- JavaScript and Cookies: Google Analytics relies on JavaScript and Cookies. As such, all user agents that do not support these two will not be counted. An example of user agents that do not support these two are: PDAs, a large sector of hand-held devices, a large portion of mobile phones with default settings, referrals (websites that refer to portions of your website like an image, video, etc.), computers with hardened security settings on their PC, search engine bots, etc. 2- Cache Engines: Some cache engines serve pages to visitors from their internal cache engine without referring back to the original website. In this case, the cache engine will send what is known as a HEAD request to the server to check whether the page has been modified or not since last time it was fetched. The HEAD request is counted within LOG FILE BASED STATISTICS but is not counted within Google Analytics since some cache engines only request updates to main information files (like PHP) but not for each page entry (like JavaScript files or CSS files) 3- Visits Calculation Algorithm: the to tools are very different in terms of identifying a visit. Log file based statistics attaches a certain IP address within a certain amount of activity time to a certain visit. In other words, if an IP address is active within the log file (fetching content) for 20 minutes and then inactive for 30 minutes, and then active again; Log File Based Statistics might consider this activity as 2 distinct visits from the same IP address. Google Analytics, on the other hand, uses the cookie to track the visit and, thus, can be more relaxed in terms of the time for the visit to timeout. Some echoes are that Google Analytics might consider any activity within the next 3 hours as valid for the same current visit. Thus, don't expect the number of visits to be any similar at all.

Ziad Baroud Spamming?

2010-03-02T06:32:57+00:00

Today, I received an email from Mr. Ziad Baroud, the Minister of Internal Affairs, asking me to check my listing on the DGPS website. While the majority would like the fact that Mr. Baroud is using a one-to-one communication method to reach as much Lebanese citizens as possible, I did not like the fact that Mr. Baroud is encouraging spammers to send out such emails. Lebanon is already a spammed country. Tens of companies send out SPAM / JUNK emails every day. We all nag and complain from such emails and spend 20-30% of our email time identifying and deleting SPAM / JUNK emails before starting to actually reading legitimate emails. It would have been nice if Mr. Baroud had: Avoided spamming me by sending me an email that I did not ask to receive (this is what SPAMming is after all) Used a more modern e-Marketing tool to spread out the word. A banner on a few websites (Facebook, Google, Yahoo!, MSN, Tayyar, Yellow Pages of Lebanon, etc.) could have done the same effect if not better since it wouldn't be dropped into the JUNK folder like what happened with this message. Of course the banner would have cost him a little bit more but I don't believe that budget is a problem in this case. Used this case as an exercise to help him identify Lebanese SPAMMING companies and warn them to stop providing this service. Used this article as an alert to start pushing an Anti-SPAM rule / law into the Lebanese system. I would love to see a minister / parliament member / president / anybody in the Lebanese government starting to handle rules and regulations related to Technology. Digital signatures and Anti-SPAM rules are just the beginning.

A Couple of Amazing Tricks!

2010-02-23T20:19:02+00:00

This guy is marvelous! Watch and try the trick. You will like it...

A New Speed Radar That You Cannot Fool!

2010-02-22T19:10:36+00:00

The new Sensys radar (shown in the photo) is a clever radar for speeding drivers. This radar does not flash and, most importantly, does not need to measure your speed at the moment where you pass near it. In other words, if you speed between two cameras and slow when you reach the radar, it will uncover your trick. Most of us, speedy drivers, go over speed between any two radars and slow down when the radar is within range. This radar is a bit more clever in this sense. It will record your speed and time (after identifying your plate number) when you pass by the first radar and will record your speed ad time when you pass by a second radar. This information is transmitted, through mobile connectivity, to a central system that will analyse your speed based on the given speeds, the distance between the two radars and the time taken to travel between them. If the time taken is shorter than the maximum allowed, the radar will report your car as a speeding one and, thus, you will get the ticket. The ticket has been recently installed in many locations in Doha and I am pretty sure it is either being used where you are or will be shortly deployed. Therefore, it is time for us all to start admitting that technology is finally being used where it is supposed to be used. Drive safely and take care and beware!

Standard Chartered Email & Website Phishing

2010-02-21T00:39:33+00:00

If you receive an email related to the suspension of your Standard Chartered account with a link to www.standardchartered.ae in it asking you to login in order to update your account settings, don't click on it. Beware of it. This is a phishing email leading to a phishing website and has been reported as such. Just don't click the link in that email. The website it takes you to is: http://sinhwatech.com/V1/Standardbankae.html I checked it again right now and Google is reporting it as a phishing website but it is good to note it here just in case you didn't have the Google bar installed.

Huge Lighters Security Alert

2010-02-20T12:01:39+00:00

Recently, I am noticing many individual walking around with huge lighters in hands and (barely) in pockets. Huge lighters (similar to the one shown in the picutre) are being considered as pretty cool these days by many. While I agree that such a thing is somehow cool, we must be aware of the many risks associated with this type of lighters especially when using them in crowded places (like restaurants) or when temperature is high (like the summer). It is a well known fact that a small lighter (almost 1/8 the size of the huge lighter) can cause sever damage to the ears if it explodes. Small lighters usually explode under high temperatures only. If a small lighter falls down from a table, for example, it rarely explodes and, as such, you are usually safe carrying it into crowded places as long as you keep it away from direct contact with fire. The huge lighter, however, does not share these same characteristics. The lighter that I bought as tall as a half-liter water bottle (check picture). While experimenting, it exploded from a height of 2 meters as soon as it touched the floor on its base. Another lighter exploded after 1 second from touching the fire. Don't try experimenting unless you are extremely careful. An exploding huge lighter is very dangerous. Tens of small pieces fly around randomly and can cause harm and cause sever damage to the eyes and other body parts. This leads us to conclude the following simple points: Huge lighters can explode easily if they fall down from low heights (1-2 meters) Huge lighters can explode after 1-2 seconds from being exposed to direct fire contact (unlike small lighters that can bare around 5 seconds) Huge lighters cause sever damage to humans when they explode especially to ears (the explosion sound is very harmful) and to the eyes (from the small flying pieces) Huge lighters should not be allowed in public places (for public safety) It would be better if you simply avoid buying them especially if you have kids around at your place I hope this helps us all learn about the harm that may be caused by this type of lighters so that we can enjoy the forthcoming summ

Few Blog Updates to Share

2010-02-14T22:05:20+00:00

Today, I spent some time updating my blog with few stuff that should have been here a long time ago. AddThis is now active for you to share / bookmark articles A print button is finally there with an empty layout suitable for printing ReCaptcha is now implemented instead of the old AuthImage plugin Related articles are now displayed when you view an article Emails are required now when posting comments (so that I can reply to you at least) A mobile version is now available. To use it, simply go to www.victorsawma.com/mobile/

NetDesignPlus in Kuwait

2010-02-05T18:53:44+00:00

In December 2009, NetDesignPlus officially opened its newest branch in Shuwaikh, Kuwait. With this opening, we will be able to better serve our Kuwait clients by being closer and in direct contact with them regarding our online services including web development, design, hosting and consultancy.

Hidden Fees with Malev Hungarian Airlines Online Booking System

2010-02-04T15:18:11+00:00

Yesterday, I booked my first ticket online with Malev Hungarian Airlines. My trip is from Beirut to Gotenburg on July 2010. The total fare to be charged "as per the website" was 567 USD for the roundtrip. The confirmation email (and yes I still have it and is attached below) confirms that the total charges should 567 USD. Yet, my credit card was charged 609 USD. Being pretty familiar with Credit Card charges, I decided that this should be some sort of conversion between USD / Euro while processing the payment through their payment gateway. Thus, I gently sent them an email asking them to refund the difference. Today, I received a reply back from them asking me to contact client service on a Hungarian phone number. I did. The woman on the other side simply checked, confirmed the price (567 USD) and said that everything is OK lol I told her that the card was charged 609 USD. She was surprised first but, then, she remembered (surprisingly she did) that there is something that they call a "Service Fee" that is worth 30 Euros for the Lebanon region and that changes from region to region. What a joke! She couldn't even confirm that the service fee is 30 Euros. She said that it should be around 30 Euros but there is no way for her to know the exact figure. The worse part is that she is admitting that they have hidden fees. The worst part is that she cannot now what the exact fee should be. No comment from me on this. I know that this will be my last time to book with them online unless some magic occurs and someone points how something so unprofessional can happen with an airline reservation system.

IEEE High Availability Database Workshop

2009-12-13T08:41:04+00:00

Today, I guided a workshop about high-availability database solutions at NDU. The workshop went for 6 straight hours (from 9:30 till 15:30) and was attended by more than 50 students from various universities in Lebanon. The workshop was organized by the NDU IEEE branch in collaboration with the Computer Science Club. I started the workshop with a general overview of availability issues in Database solutions. Then, I moved to a more detailed description of Database Replication and Database Clustering before moving forward to the hands-on implementation that included the following: How-to install / configure MySQL Cluster on Centos How-to configure a database for asynchronous data replication How-to configure a Cluster for real-time synchronous data mirroring How-to configure load-balancing using the "balance" tool and Linux VFS (overview) The unique thing behind this workshop was the ability to achieve a working solution that includes a Cluster Manager, 2 Cluster Nodes, 2 Cluster API nodes and a load-balancer while using only 3 server machines. The solution architecture was simple and included the following machines: 192.168.0.1: this machine acted as the load balancer and the cluster manager. All requests to database operations in applications have to go through this machine which will, in turn, forward them to either 192.168.0.2 or 192.168.0.3. A slightly different solution will be to use Linux VFS to share a load-balanced IP address (e.g. 192.168.0.10) on 192.168.0.2 and 192.168.0.3. In this case, application database operations will have to go to the shared IP address (192.168.0.10) 192.168.0.2: this machine acted as a cluster node and a MySQL API node. 192.168.0.3: this machine acted as a cluster node and a MySQL API node.

Halloween 2009

2009-12-05T08:10:14+00:00

This year's halloween gathering was exceptional with the large number of babies present lol Enjoy the pictures ;) [Visit this halloween's album]

One-Million Dolar Picture

2009-11-16T07:13:58+00:00

The creator of this picture won a million dollar in Van cogh' talents competition which took place in Italy. Please take a closer look at the picture.