Gdo, Gazetteer Database Online

There are 3/4 variants of the Cambodia Gazetteer after UNTAC created the list; now it time to put this mess to rest one and for all.

Ministry of Interior, Department of Local Administration currently setup a task force to reconsolidates the master list and make it an only office Gazetteer.

Now my colleague expected to write up a forward document about this project; which I’m not going to discuss here.

What you should know in the near future there is only one set of Cambodia Gazetteer and you can access it online absolutely free, so stay tune …

And you don’t have to guess how I built or when it goes live since I had 3 projects developed & maintenance in parallel no doubt I no longer had time to enjoy playing JXII :(

Feature Highlight:

- Online browsing Province, District, Commune, Village meta data

- Province, District, Commune Map (produced by external consultant)

- Download Gazetteer data in Excel format for offline use.

I love this job ;)

Weekend => app.goLive ;)

Early this month I got into a busy schedule in order to release my new database application. I needed to run & check a final test, wrote up manual and do some paper work to invite my colleague across the country (2 staffs from each province X 24) to attend a 3 days training workshop in total we get approximately 48 staffs which is too much for an IT training so we split it into 2 batches 12 provinces each.

In term of the actual database I allocated 2 days and for the first day of the training I leave it for general IT update lesson which include Khmer Unicode orientation half morning, and for that session alone I am very lucky to have Mr. CHEA Sok Huor a Country Project Leader from PAN and his colleague came in for help. Without them I wouldn’t know where to get such precise Khmer Unicode Orientation somewhere else, so thank you from the deepest of my heart.

Oh! Talking about helping there is another gentle who I owe him as well, that gentle is Mr. Tuy Pheap my long colleague. We share room in the last 3 years before he moved on to his current job and come back to seat behind my back :) “Again :D”.  I disturb him from time to time :D policing what my system do against his employer needs (the World Bank) not only that he also help me correct my Khmer Translation + Spelling :) and this phrase “ខ្ញុំយល់ហើយ!!!” for a button which in English say “I Understand” was his innovation :) let me tell you about this joke

In our new application if there are any problems or errors detected a list of detail explanation will show up ( jQuery modal )  what I originally did was to have user click on “Ok” button to close the message. But without anything special user might just click “Ok” and go on … that not fun. So we came up with an idea instead of naming the button “Ok” we called it “I Understand” :))

And as a side effect during the training we forget to translate a few messages so default message showed. Since the user  do not read English and he dare not click on the button to close the message :(

I am glad with the result as it turn out and thanks to all the backend libraries that I used without them I wouldn’t know how much I would need to damage my brain cells to get this job done :)

What I used?

• NHibernate
• Castle (MonoRail, ActiveRecord)
• Rhino-Tool (Rhino.Security, Rhino.Common)
• Oh ! ASP.NET for sure :) but I a brail devil don’t blame me for not using webform
• Log4net
• jQuery & it plug-in(s)

Challenges:

• For the past 5 years most of them get use to do data entry in desktop mode (VB6)
• Some of them using the Internet for the first time; right this is (1==1).
• The amount of data that we collect had increase 1.5X
• More restriction in term of data modification – they used to have full control over there data and that cause me alot of headache over the past years.

At the end of training session I got a request to setup a demo URL (
http://db.ncdd.gov.kh/pid-train
) so that when participant get back to their duty province they can teach their colleague, by doing this I get a few additional feedback on how to improve the process of data entry as well as knowing how user interact with the application.

For sure: “No one is perfect” and “No software ever release bug free” as long as it could do it main job properly I would call it V1.

Now the weekend is coming I had to switch on actual URL and for that mean I had to copy a folder change connection string to get another URL up and running KOOL stuff ;)

5,000 riels for a life

I was deeply sad to witness an accident on my way back to work around 1:20 PM I am not sure I could express my emotion or be able to give you the image of the scense but I’ll do my best.

On a stop light turn blue a young man driving his motor on direction of Olympic stadium to Royal Palace shuddenly he saw the polices waiting on the otherside of the street (Monivong) wanted to stop him (his motor didn’t wear glasses) he began to speed up when on the opposite side there was a motor drive by a school girl and her female friend. The girl was tried to pass a car on the right hand side.

In just a second both motors positioned in the middle of the street where the accident occured where all passengers fall down on the street; about the card that the girl passed was immediately hit the break and it right wheel stop an inch from the girl’s motor back wheel I am not quiet sure if it front light was destroy or not as I changed my focus to the result of the accident.

What left on the scense? the man and the girl drivers was lightly injured BUT there was a body of the girl seating behind her friend still laid down on the street; her leg and hand was shocked. She was in a fatal condition as her head was hit hardly on the street.

Protection both motor drivers got their helmet on; but the girl seat behind was not although she did wear a mask to protect her health; but helmet should have been use instead.

I’m so sad really reallysad all of this could have not happen if the young man accepted penalty from the police then the lost is just 5,000 Riels (max) instead of the life of an innocense.

Save the world

It all about us saving the world let make it happen print a copy or more and stick it to a wall.

Cover your Cough Poster

For a better print resolution download PDF file bellow:

• Khmer Version
• English Version

Good health, bright future !

Storm The Castle

I hope Ayende won’t mind if I steal the name :D well, he did used that name for one of his sample project. Anyway let me throw some good news out to all of my blog trackers “who loves coding :D” I just check-in a sample project using Castle minutes ago.

As I am not sure how many of you understand what I am blogging about or even had trouble try to replicate my trip. Now I make it simpler if you want to catch-up or debate with me on my future Castle posts you got a chance to start it  now just go grab a stick and stone from 
http://code.google.com/p/storm-the-castle/

If you have any question/suggestion/request you can post it on the project site I am happy to help it out as time allow ;)

Oh by the way this is my 100 posts :))

Happy Chinese New Year everyone.

.Net C# open lecturing session calendar

From my previous post on giving “free C# lecturing session” I have had a good time guiding friends into my own world. To make it a better hours to spend time I manage a temporary agendar in my google calendar where you can subscribe and get inform on the next session.

As I already mention the agenda is not fixed you can propose additional item as long as it fit within the scope of C# programming.

Why not x, y language and platform z? Of cause not only I want to share something that I learn but I want to iron the knowledge as well so yeah if you are inspired setup your session one I might be your first guess but I don’t want to waste time talking about something unrealistic which beyond my ability. I want participant walk out of each session learning something that they apply to their daily tasks “I expected”.

What should you bring?

• Pen & Notebook
• Questions – check the session agenda prepare your questions.
• Laptop – I can’t afford to get a proper room & LCD so bear me try it on your own laptop with your own risk “kidding” but yeah we do a round table session.
• Beers? yeah that would help clarify most cases

Let hit the jackpot.

podcasts that change developer’s life

A part from rely on google search to craw for new knowledge I did enjoy listening to various developer’s podcasts. I don’t know about you but if you believe me I did learn something from each podcast show.

So my dear friends why don’t you tune in your iTune and subscribe to a few of these podcasts and check it out ;)

• .NET Rock Podcast by Carl Franklin & Richard Campbell
• ALT.NET Podcast
• Herding Code
• ThoughtWorks – IT Matters Podcast
• Hanselminutes talk show

is there anymore? you tell me :)

free C# lecturing session

Guy, I feel all the time I have been blogging to myself. I knew cause I usually got zero comment :) not sure how many of you are developer that really understand what I am talking about.

I believe over the years of self study I had possessed something beautiful which become my liability not sharing to someone locally.

my lazy friends

So my dear lazy friends are you interested to get a free C# lecturing session? I would be able to give it that as long as you provide me a room with LCD projector if you can bring some beers that would be best ;)

Alright I want to try something a bit hot (make sure you not fall asleep along the way) here are a few topic I love to cover:

• C# OOP Q&A Session
• C# Test-Driven Development (TDD)
• ORM introduction (NHibernate)
• ASP.NET Development with Castle & Rhino-Tools

I might not be the best in town but I’ll try the hardest shot. So what your thought? Are you ready to be burn?

Note: this program is only available on Saturday/Sunday in Phnom Penh, Cambodia only.
Requirement: leave your comment and i will get back to you.

Our first Joomla! Article go live

The first Joomla! article “Joomla! Users Group of Cambodia (JUGCAM)” is published; this article was me in collaboration with JTD our aim is to introduce and promote the JUGCAM.

it was fun experience we did take advantage of docs.google.com to work on this article. So if you are an existing Joomla! user or wish to learn more about Joomla! come an join our group
http://groups.google.com/group/jugcam
and ask your questions the hardest the best.