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Live Event: Apple introduces thinnest Nanos ever!

The September 9th Apple event in San Francisco is usually about iPods. And Steve Jobs has announced that all the thick iPods will be discontinued. YES. SCRAPPED.

Instead, you’ll get Classics with 120GB at US$249. So they’re all thin Classics with an upgraded size.

But that’s nothing. Jobs is now introducing the thinnest ever Apple iPod Nano! more »

Prayer Time Widget for your blog or website

I released a free widget for use with your website or blog. It’s the prayer time widget but it’s for Singapore only at the moment.

It’s not taken from a database. All the prayer time is calculated using the Egyptian method and the Sunrise and Sunset time has been set specifically for Singapore. Please note that you may notice a +1/-1 difference with the published timings.

It’s very easy to use. And you can apply it to your entire domain. Just get the API key and you’re ready to go.

Just go to http://www.typecanvas.com/widgets/prayertime-sg/ for the widget and instructions.

DNS exploit writer tastes his own medicine

Never do unto others what you don’t want others to do to you.

PHP On Racks Preview

Returned to focus on PHP On Racks. Trying to finish it by end August. Everything seems to be on track.

Take a look at this fascinating work I’m doing.

vimeo Direct Download PHP On Racks Preview

First Singaporean Certified MySQL Associate

Apparently, I realised I’m the first CMA in Singapore! The Certified MySQL Associate is an entry level certification for MySQL professionals. It’s particularly useful for programmers and developers that work primarily with the XAMP Stack (X Operating System, Apache, MySQL, PHP).

Now that I’m a CMA, this will help me stand out from the crowd. I scored a 90% and got only 5 questions wrong. I scored 100% for 3 component chapters, 85% on 2 of them and 75% on one of them. But I won’t stop here. I’m retaking the CMDEV (Certified MySQL Developer) next year which consists of 2 very long exams. I missed the pass grade by 7 points on Paper 1 and 2 points on Paper 2 a year and a half back. Pass grades are very high. In the case of Certification Exams, a pass grade would mean I have to at least get 75% of the questions right. So noting how close I got to passing the more difficult certifications, I am now going to prepare myself better by spacing out the 2 papers, so I can study the material more thoroughly.

I intend to take the Zend Certified Engineer which certifies me as a competent PHP developer. But the only barrier is the high costs that come with it. I’d have to spend at least $1,380 just for the exam and study material. The A-Dev pack which will get me a 90-day track would set me back $3,795. It’s unfortunate that the government doesn’t seem to consider this a critical certification. My MySQL certification costs are borne out of my own pocket as I can’t use the CITREP grant for this.

I feel that the government should be fair to people who are subscribers of the Open Source movement instead of over-emphasising the Microsoft certifications.