Nokia Music (Store)

Nokia Music is just like iTunes and Windows Media Player and etc. It is designed with the concept of ...

• One stop music manager
  
• Music portal
  
• Software interface for hardware

It is a hybrid software (Desktop with built-in Internet browsing capability).



The first screen for setup is rather interesting because it reminds me of just how to get users to stick to using your software which in this case is which music audio format do you want Nokia Music as the default player ?

So, I am rather 'stingy' here, for some reasons, I really want to offer royalties which I know that all of these formats would have already been assigned to a default player such as Windows Media Audio (WMA). So finally I decided that I will just allow Wave Audio(wav) and Music CD (cda) to play with Nokia music.

Nokia Music should create proprietary format to increase stickiness.

The software is in version 1.0






It has built-in ripping function which is for you to convert and copy music from CD into the hard disk to appropriate formats.

It is targeting Nokia handset users but you can also connect it to use with other handset's brands. This is a good strategy to penetrate the already saturated market.

Check out the Nokia's Calling All Innovators.

Check out more about Music from this blog.

Computer Games, Software, Best Practices and Marketing

Image via WikipediaI do play some computer games and would like to play more. I am currently playing Ceasar III, Starcraft, F-16 Allied Forces and etc.

Playing computer games can make you become smarter in a gig way, it is good for computer programmers. It is just like going to gym where it provides the following benefits:

• Forces one to take pressure (yes, playing game can be pressuring if you keep losing).
• Trains one to be more patience.
• Trains one to think about strategies and solutions to problems on the spot.
• Trains one to not to give up until you find a solution (this has more to do with spiritual side of it).
• Helps computer programmers to stay at the computer; to eat and sleep computer.
• Trains one to stay focus.
• Trains one to be innovative (in certain ways).
• Trains one to think about best practices.
• Get to become an expert in many things if you play many different games (it is good way to acquire knowledge).

In many ways, it is helpful more me because I enjoy think-out the logic behind the games which is what made up of the games and essentially, the core logic is what going to help you to win the game; enlightenment. For reasons that every game has limitations and it is by understanding such boundaries that one can conquer the game.

Check out here too and here where games can help the fight of survival.

I don't regard myself as a great gamer, but I do like to share out my experiences. Check out some of the strategies I have recorded here.

As what mentioned earlier, computer software is about best practices. And best practices not only help to make the product better, it is also helpful to allow the innovator to take a technical lead in the industry as well as gives edge for more marketing. One very typical example of this is Apply computer. Check out this video of new ways to make laptop. Fyi, Apple will take off respective videos after certain period of time (this is another strategy to wade off competition).

And wait a minute, about marketing, I have discovered that one good way to promote games is to put up a lot of screenshots. Check out these screenshots from Starcraft II, it is simply amazing, I just wouldn't mind getting one piece just for the sake of good graphics.

Check out the following list of games which I would like to play and what compelled me to desire it?

Games	What Interest Me ?
Trism (iPhone)	Because the creator made a lot of money by doing part time
Rock Band	Because the creators made a lot of money
Spore	Because it is considered the best invention of 2008 and it is featured in TED and everybody is like playing it

The conclusion of good marketing for computer games:

1. Good graphics
2. Everybody is playing it
3. Makes a lot of money

Tech Blog Malaysia Statistics (Nov 08)

What People Search on Tech Blog Malaysia (Nov 2008) ?

As usual, check out the analysis for 2007.

For month of Jan 2008
For month of Feb 2008
For month of Mar 2008
For month of April 2008
For month of May 2008
For month of June 2008
For month of July 2008
For month of Aug 2008
For month of Sep 2008
For month of Oct 2008

For Nov 2008, we have the followings:

• The brand of this blog
• A company providing HAPS technology
• Malwares and Phishings
• A Common MS Windows' Problem
• A common VB6 programming problem
• Problems with accessing Apple store in Malaysia

Overview:

• Total monthly traffic decreased by 7% (This is a significant decrease)
  
• Traffic from referring sites improved by 1.68%
  
• Google still tops contributor (68.17%). Slightly up from last month.
  
• Top 5 countries (Malaysia, US, UK, India, Singapore). Check out here.
  
• 86.51% of visitors are new visitors. (A slight decrease from last month, this is attributed to the total monthly traffic decrease.)

Juniper Networks Introduces Data Center Infrastructure Solutions that Significantly Reduce Complexity and Total Cost of Ownership in Malaysia

Juniper Networks today introduced its new Data Center Infrastructure Solutions in Malaysia. Designed to advance IT initiatives for data center consolidation, server virtualization and sustainable information technology, the Juniper Networks Data Center Infrastructure Solutions can significantly reduce network complexity and total cost of ownership by up to 52 percent in capital expenditures, up to 44 percent in power, up to 44 percent in cooling and up to 55 percent in rack space in the data center.

Industry leaders increasingly depend on their information infrastructure to accommodate growth and maximize revenue. To remain competitive, they need to provide a growing number of users with robust applications and services while lowering costs. In the data center network, however, these businesses are constrained by legacy architectures that cannot scale with increased information processing demands and energy requirements. With Juniper, customers can achieve greater operational simplicity, agility and efficiency for accelerating the deployment of new applications and services.

Juniper simplifies data center network design with the combination of its’ EX-, MX- and SRX-series products to consolidate services and data center switching layers resulting in significant capital cost savings. Juniper’s Virtual Chassis technology in the EX 4200 series Ethernet switches combined with line-rate 10 Gigabit Ethernet (GbE) performance on its chassis-based products can significantly reduce the number of interswitch links and the amount of equipment required in the data center by up to half. Juniper’s data center approach, which includes switching, routing and security technologies, all running on a single network operating system – JUNOS® software – is supported by strategic partner IBM and customers.

Check out the full press release here.

Adobe Issues 2009 Adobe Design Achievement Awards Call for Entries

Adobe Systems Incorporated (Nasdaq: ADBE) today announced the call for entries for the ninth annual Adobe Design Achievement Awards (ADAA). The competition honours the best student graphic designers, photographers, illustrators, animators, digital filmmakers, developers and computer artists from accredited higher education institutions worldwide. Now in partnership with the International Council of Graphic Design Associations (Icograda), the awards ceremony will be held during the Icograda World Design Congress in Beijing, China in October 2009. The Congress will bring together 2,500 delegates from around the globe at the China National Convention Center, located in the heart of the Beijing Olympic Green.

In August this year, Adobe announced the winners of the eighth annual Adobe Design Achievement Awards for 2008, which marked another record in submissions with more than 2,700 students from 33 countries competing in the program.

The Awards had been were extended to include entries from Malaysian institutions of higher learning for the first time in 2008, resulting in over 70 entries from Malaysia and 20 semi-finalists. Malaysian submissions to reach the semi-finals included entries in the Designer/ Developer, Motion Graphics, Illustration, Packaging, Photography, and Print Communications categories.

For Malaysia in 2008, there were:

• 13 semi-finalists from The One Academy of Communication Design College, including 8 in the Packaging category, 3 in the Print Communications category, 1 in the Motion Graphics category, and 1 in the Design/Developer category
  
• 3 semi-finalists from Limkokwing University of Creative Technology - in the Illustration, Print Communications and Photography categories respectively.
  
• 2 semi-finalists from Multimedia University, both in the Illustration category
  
• 1 semi-finalist from University Putra Malaysia (UPM), in the Photography category
  
• 1 semi-finalist from KDU College (Penang Campus), in the Photography category

In Malaysia, the availability from the Communications and Multimedia Commission, of a Networked Content Development Grant for local companies has created interest in digital content development for online digital TV, 2.5/3G mobile data services for information purposes (ie.Tourism, e-Government, e-Learning, e-Health), entertainment, E-commerce, and interactive Education. Use of Adobe software can and does help local organisations nurture local talent and develop innovative offerings.

In Education, Adobe Systems’ products are actively used by nearly every institution in Malaysia - both in the pre-tertiary education sectors as well as in universities; because of their ability to advance digital literacy amongst schoolchildren and students. In particular, Adobe has forged an effective collaborative partnership for digital literacy tools in schools, with the Malaysian Ministry of Education. This extends from the provision of Adobe Presenter for up to 60,000 teachers’ laptops, to further initiatives. Adobe provides MoE with very strong consultative support and resources – including training and curricula development, along with access to Adobe’s regional Education technology specialists, in support of MoE’s vision and initiatives in Pembestarian Sekolah and IT provisioning for the Malaysian education sector.

At the Adobe Systems Education Leadership Forum in April this year, high-level education decision-makers, principals and vice principals of education institutions and schools, teachers and lecturers, heard how Adobe products can help deliver engaged learning to prepare the next generation to compete in the global economy. 190 international participants from Australia, China, Hong Kong, India, Korea, New Zealand, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Taiwan and Thailand, as well as from Malaysia, heard about the status of digital education in Asia, the latest digital media education trends, and new digital literacy tools for educators.

Check out the full press release.

VB6 Custom Installer for MSSQL Software Application

Previously, we looked at Installing MSSQL Together With Software Application where we use batch file (command prompt) to perform the following three things.

1. Install MSSQL 2005
   
2. Setup database using osql
   
3. Install the software application
   

However, the method illustrated has the following flaws:

1. Doesn’t run well with Vista (if you just double click the SetupTas.bat)
   Unlike Windows XP, Vista default each ‘command prompt run as administrator’ to ‘C:\Windows\System32’, thus after you have run SetupTas.bat, it will not find any file through the related folder ‘.\’
   
   
2. ‘osql’ utility will not work when the machine was freshly installed with MSSQL 2005.
   
   
   
   

Solutions:

Problem 1:

We need a way to set the relative path to the CD ROM. To that, we will create a custom installer (using VB6) which will point to the relative path of SetupTas.bat

Problem 2:

Since ‘osql.exe’ is a utility which doesn’t required to be installed, it can be copied into the CD (together with its dependencies file) and we can invoke it from the CD itself.

Check out here for full description.

And download the custom installer code(VB6) or here (Planet Source Code).

VB6 Tracking A Process

This sample code illustrates the usage of Windows API to track a process ID belonging to a command prompt process whether or not is already terminated before proceeding to perform other task.

The command prompt process in this example is to perform a timeout for 10 seconds before auto-closing the window. When this happens, the command prompt process terminates by itself.

The VB6 program will pick up the signal and then will send out notification.



You need to use two kernel32 APIs namely..

Private Declare Function OpenProcess Lib "kernel32" (ByVal dwDesiredAccess As Long, ByVal bInheritHandle As Long, ByVal dwProcessId As Long) As Long

Private Declare Function GetExitCodeProcess Lib "kernel32" (ByVal hProcess As Long, lpExitCode As Long) As Long

Check out the code here or download here or here (Planet Source Code).

Thanks to these reference sites which offers incomplete descriptions.

• URL 1
  
• URL 2
  
• URL 3