OmanDev

This Months Video: Metaweb

khalid.almamari — Sat, 17 Jul 2010 18:50:19 +0000

Maybe you already saw this video from a company has bean just bean acquired by Google.

both video and acquisition happen yesterday. interesting work this company is doing: “maintains an open database of things in the world”.
see the video

http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/07/deeper-understanding-with-metaweb.html

http://www.metaweb.com/

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This Month Video: The marshmallow Challenge

khalid.almamari — Fri, 23 Apr 2010 07:24:54 +0000

lool interesting observations about team building and project management..
…or simply about spaghetti and marshmallow

Marshmallow Challenge

This Months Video: Metaweb

Exchange 2010 DAG problem?

khalid.almamari — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 10:30:37 +0000

Hay,

So I was working on Exchange 20210 and I thought of sharing this with you. As you all know Exchang 2010 comes with new database availability feature called “Database Availability Group” or DAG.This Clustering feature allow creating database copies across servers, data centers, or even across countries. DAG works as replication boundary for databases and it works per membership . if a server is member of a DAG it can create and get copies of databases in the DAG when needed (you can specify which database or databases).

If you are working with Exchange 2010 and try to create Database Availability Group (DAG), then u may have come across this weird error message that does not tell you anything when you try to join the first node in the DAG. Ok, let’s recap a lab scenario:

You installed 2 exchange servers.
You already successful on creating the DAG.
When u try to add the first node this error come up:

” A server-side database availability group administrator operation failed. Error: The operation failed with message: Error 0×6f7 (The stub received bad data) from cli_RpccCreateCluster

Error 0×6f7 (The stub received bad data) from cli_RpccCreateCluster

Warning:

The operation wasn’t successful because an error was encountered. You may find more details in log file

“C:\ExchangeSetupLogs\DagTasks\dagtask_XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX_add-databaseavailabilitygroupserver.log”

The solution: it is a small thing you missed actually. Just adding the default gateway on NIC will solve it. The second server I added was smooth I didn’t have to add the gateway!

The reason is that it seems the DAG creation is not complete (specifically the cluster related resources and configuration) until the first node is created.

I hope that was informative for you.

More Resources:

TChat event for 15 feb 2010

Ali AL Lawati — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 18:39:41 +0000

TChat event for 15 feb 2010
Last Monday we had a very interesting TChat event Held in the final years project room in SQU (what is TChat here)

The topics were as follows:
1-Qais, Yamani and Ayman AL Fadhaily discussed the current issues that our T-Chat and omandev group are facing to become a recognized group

Initially Ahmed AL Yamani welcomed the attendees of the Tchat and gave an overview of who we are and what we are trying to achieve. Then Qais started explaining the current statues of the group and how much it has actually done. During the talk lots of issues and problems faced by the group has been raised and discussed. Later Ayman AL Fadhily joined the talk by giving advices of his previews experiences and mentioned few success & failure stories that he went through. It was very help full and productive discussion so thanks very much Ahmed Qais and Ayman.

2-Mohammed Hassawi : Go Green Initiative (PrePeat Desktop Printer Can Erase/Write Documents

Mohammed discussed a product from Japan, which is a re-writable printer. This printer prints on a special kind of sheets with a very special technique without the use of tuner. An important information regarding these sheets is each sheet could be re-used (get erased and get printed on it again) 1000 times. The printer is considered environment friendly printer cause it is not using tuner and in the same time reduces the need of lots of papers and by doing so it reduces the number of trees got cut every day.

After demonstrating how printer actually works the group had discussion on how it could be used in Oman and how can organizations in Oman move their paper printing from regular printers to these printers.

3-Saif AL Sharji : Ypeer

After Mohammed saif gave us a detailed and very intresting presentation regarding Ypeer (who are they , how they started, their mission , vision & objects. To get more information regarding Ypeer please visit http://www.youthpeer.org/

Then Saif explained Ypeers role in Oman what they have done till now and what are their future plans. Finally the group had discussion and suggestions around Ypeer’s activities. This talk was one of the very intresting talks ever in T-Chats and everyone was very glad to attend it. Thank you siaf.

4-Mohammed AL Hassawi : Oman Dev Brand new

The last topic was the re-design on Omandev.net and it was given again by Mohammed AL Hassawi. Mohammed showed two designs for the mainpage which we choose the current one from. Then Mohammed discussed and explained the design and coloring of the internal parts of the site. We are trying (slowly and lazily) to implement those designs to our site as you can see few parts of the site already has been changed to go with the new designs still there is lots of work to be done. Special thanks to Hassawi for helping us with the design.

Finally we would like to thank all the speakers of this T-Chat and also special thanks to Ahmed AL Habsi who preserved the memories of this T Chat into very nicely taken pictures with his camera and Khalid AL Mamari for audio recording the important parts of the topics.

PS: a newer TChat already took place yasterday , but i was very lazy to finish this post before know any how i hope khalid will be much better than me and most about yasterday’s TChat soon

T Chat

The First Symposium on Free Source in Oman

khalid.almamari — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 12:30:14 +0000

open source logos

“

We are pleased to announce that ITA will held the first symposium on free software on the 9th of March 2010, the main objectives of the symposium is to shed the light on ITA national initiative to promote

This initiative comes as part of Information Technology Authority (ITA) strategic directions to play a neutral role towards promoting different technologies.

The symposium shall raise the awareness about the importance of free software because of its potential and competitive characteristics comparing with the commercial software.

The symposium will host a number of key speakers from different countries who will present different topics on issues related to free software movement and philosophy, Arab world initiatives towards promoting the use of free software at different levels and also the symposium will address the local needs to develop such industry in the Sultanate.

During the opening ceremony of the symposium ITA will sign a number of memorandums of understanding with Sultan Qaboos University, Nizwa University and Muscat Higher College of Technology to support the national initiative implementation.

“

The previous is an internal circulation coming to you (after taking permission) directly from ITA internal website.

As many of you know this is the first symposium on free source , in fact this the first Government organized free source related event ever (as far as I know ). It is a great that the young Information Technology Authority (ITA) already exploring the Free Software as a way to implement eOman initiative. For me I will be eagerly waiting to meet Richard Stallman the founder of Free Software Foundation.

My second most exciting thing is ITA signing memorandums of understanding with the educational institutes. It seems that it will be the start of free source movement in Oman. If true, this will make the educational institutes into active and direct contributors to eOman vision through free software.

Check the event website : http://www.ita.gov.om/fss

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O’Reilly, Developing Android Applications

Arkan Hadi — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 16:11:38 +0000

android

Last week, O’Reilly started a free training Android course, I had the chance to attend it, all of it, unlike some of my friends who couldn’t stay up till late night

I also had the chance to take notes, .. I will post the notes of the first lecture at the end of this post (its my notes, do not expect to understand everything from it because you did not write it )

the lecture started with the basic principles on how Android works, … you know .. the “useless things that is good to know” sort of things, than some tips on installations and some basic “flash light” program, .. and during that whole thing a lot of questions were made by the people watching the course, .. some questions are really irrelevant and useless, while others were interesting.

Before i post my notes i would like to mention my opinion about the course from the first lecture (this opinion is merely my personal opinion). It is my first time coding Android, .. but it is NOTmy first time coding

My opinion on Tony the lecturer

He seems to know somethings on Android, more than most of us obviously, but i am afraid that I expected the lecture to be more professional, I mean during the lecture, Tony was exploring the code and how things work, i did not find him mastering the language, … but in my opinion as long as he is ahead of us at least one step, than praise him

My humble opinion about the Android programming language

Android relies heavily on user-defined XML tags (or that is what i saw from the first lecture). its not a good or bad thing, .. it is just … different i guess.

It is a very interesting course and i would like to encourage anyone who has the slightest interest in developing mobile applications to attend this course

Anyways .. without further dues, … here are my notes

————————-
linux>Native Libraries > Run time + Dalvik VM > andriod framework (activity manager, content Provider, Location manager, Notification manager,..) > System apps (contacts, Phone Dialer, Email, Web Browser)

app: code + R resources (movie, xml, pic)

Activity: single screen. app have many activities

intent: code to accomplish a verb (call number, open contacts)


developer.andriod.com/sdk/eclipse-adt.html
package name > unique

min SDK Version, "API LEVEL", Andriod 1.5 > 3
manifest (Like in J2ME, configuration file)
main.XML have app configuration (like orientation, gravity position of the test")
String.XML

"@String/Hello" > Macros, u can use it for localization
"@String/Red" >> you can set Red= "Red hat" in String.XML
Color.XML
#FFFF0000
android:background="@color/red"
activity > screen > .java
R class generated automatically, each new resource will be added automaticallyin the R class
you can add new elements in main.xml like "button" and you can set its attributes (via XML Tags)

the @+id adds unique ID by default
in JAVA (RefFlashActivity.Java)

Button greenButton = (Button)findViewById(R.id.green_button);

greenButton.setOnClickListener(new View.OnClickListener(){...})
Intent intent = new intent(activ.this, act2.class);

startActivity(intent);
the above will change from one screen to another.
Here is answer to right to left: Google tracks issues and feature requests at Google Code's site. As of January 2010[update], the most requested ("starred") feature is the support for right-to-left languages such as Arabic and Hebrew.[90][91]
http://developer.android.com/reference/java/text/Bidi.html

——————-

T Chat

Ali AL Lawati — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 09:01:26 +0000

TChat

The Name:

TChat (could be interpreted as Tea Chat and also as Technology chat and both are correct)

the Design:

t-chat is a small talk about virtually anything technical. the main purpose of it is knowledge sharing. T-chat is used in collages, workplace, friendly meetings for one speaker (or few) to share a thought or knowledge with the others in the group. talks are usually small 10-20 minutes to keep them short and interesting. the sesion usualy include having hot drink (tea or coffee , hence the name Tea-chat ).

T chat was first introduced in our group couple of years ago by Khalid AL Mamari to share knowledge while we were in our final year. then it continued for several months and stopped. few months ago we started it again and it is taking its form slowly (I think :p ). This week we have decided that we should expand the audience of our T-Chat people outside of our group should also get the benefits of our topics and in the same time we also should be able to get back to the information we gain in these T-Chats. To make that, it was decided by our group to relate it to our site “Omandev.net” and hopefully we will be able to put a weekly update with abstract information at least on whatever we have discussed in that week.

So here is a very abstract view on what we had this week in T-chat (hopefully next week we will put more details regarding all points).

Ahmed Yamani : Assembly visual simulator (project demo)
Ahmed Yamani & Saud AL Zakwani : Tips , Ideas on getting Omandev.net back to life
ALL : Snacks
Khalid : Tutorial on how to make Tutorials
Ali AL Lawati : SQL quiz (the one who solve it first will have his dinner for free (on me) ) — no one answered it
ALL : Dinner

TChat event for 15 feb 2010

China shuts down Major training website for hackers

szakwani — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 05:26:53 +0000

China has closed down what is believed to be the country’s biggest training website for hackers, state media has reported.

They say the site, Black Hawk Safety Net, gave lessons in hacking and sold downloads of malicious software.

The reports say three people suspected of running the site were arrested.

Hacking is a sensitive topic for China, especially since the internet giant Google recently threatened to pull out of the country.

Google said China-based hackers had attacked its operations but the Chinese government denied any involvement.

The hacker training operation openly recruited thousands of members online and provided them with cyber attack lessons and Trojan software, the China Daily and the Wuhan Evening News said.

Trojans, which can allow outside access to a computer when implanted, are used by hackers to illegally control computers.

Black Hawk Safety Net recruited more than 12,000 paying subscribers and collected more than seven million yuan ($1m: £650,000) in membership fees, while another 170,000 people had signed up for free membership, the paper said.

The Hubei government refused to comment on the reports.

It was unclear when the shutdown had taken place but the Black Hawk Safety Net site was unavailable on Monday.

Cyber attacks

In January Google threatened to pull out of China unless the government relented on censorship.

It said it had uncovered a computer attack that tried to plunder its software coding and the e-mail accounts of human rights activists protesting against Chinese policies.

Government officials have defended China’s online censorship and said the country is the biggest victim of web attacks.

China has some 350 million internet users – more than any other country – and provides a lucrative search-engine market worth an estimated $1bn last year.

Google holds about a third of the country’s search market, with Chinese rival Baidu having more than 60%.

The BBC’s Damian Grammaticas in Beijing says that the reports made no link between the hacking site and Google’s allegations.

But the case will help authorities show that China is taking action against those who hack into computers, says our correspondent.

BBC Reports

Life without google

Oman Government Sign New Enterprise Agreemant with Microsoft

khalid.almamari — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 12:15:52 +0000

The government have now license for Windows 7 Congratulations for all for the renewal of Oman-Microsoft agreement. It has been known that the actual signing was last week but it only showed up today on the ITA.Gov.OM . the greemant with microsoft has new proxy (Exceed) insted of the last agreemant (OHI).

Ok, here is the great news: in addition that we will have Exchange 2010, Windows 7, Office 2010, and all the other cool Microsoft products we will have 60 training opportunities (on Microsoft Products) for college graduates! The new (renewed) agreement has more focus on training and accountability on number of the actual used licenses unlike the previous garment. I will update this post as i have more details on the terms of the agreement. You can read the news on the ITA website: www.ita.gov.om .

As conclusion I would like to say:: YaaaaYYyyyy Windows 7 for my Laptop Wooohooo.

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SQL Hacks , book review

Ali AL Lawati — Sat, 26 Dec 2009 06:05:07 +0000

Well i am not the kind that reads lots and lots of books (still i am trying to be like that), but one of the special books i have ever read is SQL Hacks

This book is really special , it can really change the way you write SQL. To clarify one thing first, if you are completely new to sql and have never worked with it before this book is not for you, to use this book you must have used sql at least very basic statments of it). Anyone with initial use of sql will find things that are hard to query or looks like imposible to do with sql if you are one of these people this book is best for you cause it will show you in very easy simple way that the thing you thought it is impossible is actually very easily done in sql!!

The book is devided into categories of sql uses (basic, search, web,…etc) which make all the information and tips & tricks easily accessable to the reader.

One of the most wonderful and helpful feature of the book that it is not specific to a signle DBMS solution, it provides the tips&tricks in all sql formats of the most used databases (Oracle, MYSQL, MSSQL, PostgreSQL, Access) and explains the differances between the sql statment of the current tip in each DBMS.

The SQL Recipes provided in the book covers reall world database related problems’ best solutions. Many of theser recipes (hacks) will improve sql you write day to day (it did improve mine few years ago) few others explain very special cases that you may face in rarely, but knowing the best solution will keep you ready to tackle that problem once you are facing it.

although the book is published in 2006 (it isn’t a new book) and i wanted to write about here long time ago but never got to write about till now, but this book don’t have time span. it never gets old. since the industry uses Oracle,MYSQL ,MSSQL Server , etc the book will be very valuable asset to any developer.

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