Backup...backup...backup

Last week I’d formatted my hardisk using Partition Magic moving 10gig space from drive C to D. in the middle of process, Partition Magic hit the error something about bad partition etc and etc. So I restart the computer as usual. When I open the My Computer windows I can’t see my D drive, its not there. So I open again Partition Magic to see what happen to my D drive. I really shock that the unrelocated space was there depict the lost of drive D during the process before. All my files were gone forever. I hit my head to the wall because I not backup all important data to external disk.

When I told this to my wife, she was crying because all pictures before and after marriage were lost. All my daughters’ pictures and movies also lost. Can you imagine if you’re lost memory of your first kids. Very sad. She was two year old now. We have a sweet memory with our daughter as she was cute and of course special to us, our first kid.

I was not happy to come to office and about to take EL. But I think I need to find a solution to recover all lost files. So I found EASEUS Data Recovery Wizard. When I read user testimonial I smile my self because chances to recover my data are high. You won’t believe this. It’s working. The software cost you usd69 only. At the same day I went to digital mall at PJ and bought external hardisk western digital 250gig for RM169.

The motive of the story is backup your important data to external hardisk. Yes you can recover your data using this brilliant EASEUS software, but it will not work if your hardisk is broken or burn with fire. It only can recover your deleted files and lost file during partition.

You may need to know how EASEUS work. Ok when you delete your file, the space of that file is not deleted on hardisk. It only hidden for operating system. Even you formatted your drive D for example. The files still can be recovered. Be careful if you send your computer for repair. Someone outside can steal your data even you’ve cleared up everything. So always save your important files to external hardisk directly.
However there is an option called low level format to clean up your hardisk by deleting your files permanently. You can googling on how to do so.

From Wordpress to Blogspot

Blogspot is the world famous blogging platform that administer by Google, one of the biggest IT company in the world. Every person who loves to surf internet or looking the information on the net cannot avoided from logging in into Blogspot website. Most people outside use blog to share information or express their voice, suggestion or complain. If you think Malaysians blogger is normal writers or journalist, think again. Blog or website is only information medium that can’t be controlled by government even they tried to do it years ago. Very funny there is some politicians urges to register blogger so they can diminish those bloggers who are not same opinion with them.

Blogger like to use Blogspot because it is free, totally free. Wordpress is another option that comes to fight with Blogspot. I’d used wordpress several months before jump to Blogspot. My previous address is myjavaland.wordpress.com. Here are some reasons why I don’t like to use Wordpress;

1. Its slow. You will realize it if you have experience using both wordpress and blogspot.
When you submit the button, it will wait you for minutes before the effect take changes. You will surely feed up during the peak hours. Fyi, internet connection in Malaysia can be considered slow compared to our neighbor, Singapore. No need to compare with US, UK or Japan. Maybe next Wimax connection speed can reduce this problem. Wordpress should provide both basic and advance configuration. So the bandwidth can be reduced with the default basic configuration.

2. Upload image problem. I don’t know what the problem with the image upload functionality is. Sometimes ok sometimes not. What I mean is when I upload the image, sometime button ‘ok’ is missing so I can’t complete my upload. I use Mozilla firefox and I don’t know if the browser is not compatible with some wordpress features. Furthermore, upload images also confusing and time consuming. Its really give headache to the beginner mostly. What I can say is its not user friendly. You need to know that images uploading are the most important aspect in Blog. Google realize this so they allow blogger to upload images on their Blogspot in fly.

3. Too many items. Too many configuration or setting is also not good. Normally blogger only updates their text or images. Only few of them really appreciate to use or try all the features available on wordpress. Many items mean high bandwidth which will cause slow connection problem. I totally give up when I can’t find how to change header text. It so naive if IT people like me can’t find it. It not my fault my friend, it is wordpress, but who care. You never pay for what you use. If you don’t like it, ‘get out’ and find another blogging platform.

If you looking for best platform for your blogging activities, I strongly suggest you to use Blogspot. You can learn on how to use it by reading free tutorial online or buy an ebook in English or Bahasa on your favor. If you are hobbyist who likes to get experience on different platform, you can try Wordpress or any other blog platform.

Source Control (Versioning)

Source control for developer collaboration is very important in software development team. It maintain the single version of source code even two or more developer working together. It also allows developer to work with other developer source code. Imagine that small group of reporter writing news without any control from their editor. At the end of the day they may write the same news.

Let imagine two employees access the same file at 9am by copying it from server to their PC. emp1 update the file to the server at 10am. Now come emp2 update the same file at 11am. What happen to that file? Any work that made by emp1 will be overwrite. This situation happens to my team before I introduce them source control. They face the issue where an update by one developer to the server is always overwritten by other developer without his/her awareness.

I used CVSNT as cvs server and SmartCvs as cvs client. You can get them by free for basic edition. It allows you to work with source control even with free version. You also can use WinCvs for cvs client but for me it not user friendly. SmartCvs is quite straightforward but lacking some important features like locking. If I’m not mistaken WinCvs has the locking feature. Locking is important when you don’t want other programmer touch your code while you working on it. This will greatly benefit in term of consistency.
I notice that SmartCvs is created by using Netbeans platform with Java language. It looks nice and you’ll think it was Microsoft application.

CVSNT interface

Oracle SqlDeveloper also provide versioning feature. You may want to know why database has this functionality. Developers can connect to same database, when one developer make a change, it will appear at other developer. The answer is performance issue. when you use cvs for sqldeveloper, you can work on your local database. This can reduce database server performance. developer also can do their work even database server is down/switch off. when you complete your work on local database, you can update it to the server. any new changes on server, you can make it update to your pc.