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Google +1 Button

d0rr — Mon, 11 Jul 2011 16:17:22 +0000

You should have heard about Google+ by now.

Like it or not, you have to add it onto your already lengthy social media todo list for your customers, clients or your ownselves.

Default button embedding code can be as simple as follow:

But wait! You don’t have to be bounded by the same old boring button!

Go on and get your customized Google +1 Button now!

Secure Your Web Application Using Acunetix

d0rr — Mon, 27 Jun 2011 03:57:23 +0000

If you are in the website/web application industry, you should most probably be familiar with (or at least heard of) the name of Acunetix.

To put it simply, Acunetix is web security scanner which you can use to audit your website/web application, the Enterprise way.

In Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC), you should be aware that there is an additional essential and crucial step in website/web application SDLC, which is Security Testing. Ranging from the common Cross-site scripting (XSS) to SQL injection, Acunetix is able to preamp you with the security loopholes and possible vulnerability before it’s too late.

It is kind enough that Acunetix offer free Cross-site Scripting (XSS) scanner for you to get a hold on how Acunetix is and how do we operate them.

If this is your first time installing and running Acunetix, you may want to refer to the official getting started step-by-step manual.

The pricing of Acunetix is relatively cheap if you consider what it does to give your clients piece of mind.

Do you have anything to say about Acunetix?

Or do you know of any other (open source) alternative solutions?

Please share!

Send Email from Gmail using ASP.NET

d0rr — Thu, 16 Jun 2011 02:49:19 +0000

Cut the chase and let’s dive into the code right away.

VB.NET code

Try


			Dim mailUsername As String = "YOUR-USERNAME@gmail.com"

			Dim mailPassword As String = "YOUR-PASSWORD"

			Dim mailToEmail As String = "TO-ADDRESS@EMAIL.COM"

			Dim mailSubject As String = "this is the mail subject"

			Dim mailBodyFormat As System.Web.Mail.MailFormat = Web.Mail.MailFormat.Text

			Dim mailBody As String = "this is the mail body"

			Dim attachmentPath As String = ""
			Dim myMail As New System.Web.Mail.MailMessage()

			myMail.Fields.Add("http://schemas.microsoft.com/cdo/configuration/smtpserver", "smtp.gmail.com")

			myMail.Fields.Add("http://schemas.microsoft.com/cdo/configuration/smtpserverport", "465")

			myMail.Fields.Add("http://schemas.microsoft.com/cdo/configuration/sendusing", "2")

			myMail.Fields.Add("http://schemas.microsoft.com/cdo/configuration/smtpauthenticate", "1")

			myMail.Fields.Add("http://schemas.microsoft.com/cdo/configuration/sendusername", mailUsername)

			myMail.Fields.Add("http://schemas.microsoft.com/cdo/configuration/sendpassword", mailPassword)

			myMail.Fields.Add("http://schemas.microsoft.com/cdo/configuration/smtpusessl", "true")

			myMail.From = mailUsername

			myMail.[To] = mailToEmail

			myMail.Subject = mailSubject

			myMail.BodyFormat = mailBodyFormat

			myMail.Body = mailBody

			If attachmentPath.Trim() <> "" Then

				Dim MyAttachment As New System.Web.Mail.MailAttachment(attachmentPath)

				myMail.Attachments.Add(MyAttachment)

				myMail.Priority = System.Web.Mail.MailPriority.High

			End If
			System.Web.Mail.SmtpMail.SmtpServer = "smtp.gmail.com:465"

			System.Web.Mail.SmtpMail.Send(myMail)
        Catch ex As Exception
            Response.Write(ex.Message.ToString)

End Try

C# code

try {


	string mailUsername = "YOUR-USERNAME@gmail.com";

	string mailPassword = "YOUR-PASSWORD";

	string mailToEmail = "TO-ADDRESS@EMAIL.COM";

	string mailSubject = "this is the mail subject";

	System.Web.Mail.MailFormat mailBodyFormat = System.Web.Mail.MailFormat.Text;

	string mailBody = "this is the mail body";

	string attachmentPath = "";
	System.Web.Mail.MailMessage myMail = new System.Web.Mail.MailMessage();

	myMail.Fields.Add("http://schemas.microsoft.com/cdo/configuration/smtpserver", "smtp.gmail.com");

	myMail.Fields.Add("http://schemas.microsoft.com/cdo/configuration/smtpserverport", "465");

	myMail.Fields.Add("http://schemas.microsoft.com/cdo/configuration/sendusing", "2");

	myMail.Fields.Add("http://schemas.microsoft.com/cdo/configuration/smtpauthenticate", "1");

	myMail.Fields.Add("http://schemas.microsoft.com/cdo/configuration/sendusername", mailUsername);

	myMail.Fields.Add("http://schemas.microsoft.com/cdo/configuration/sendpassword", mailPassword);

	myMail.Fields.Add("http://schemas.microsoft.com/cdo/configuration/smtpusessl", "true");

	myMail.From = mailUsername;

	myMail.To = mailToEmail;

	myMail.Subject = mailSubject;

	myMail.BodyFormat = mailBodyFormat;

	myMail.Body = mailBody;

	if (!string.IsNullOrEmpty(attachmentPath.Trim())) {

		System.Web.Mail.MailAttachment MyAttachment = new System.Web.Mail.MailAttachment(attachmentPath);

		myMail.Attachments.Add(MyAttachment);

		myMail.Priority = System.Web.Mail.MailPriority.High;

	}
	System.Web.Mail.SmtpMail.SmtpServer = "smtp.gmail.com:465";

	System.Web.Mail.SmtpMail.Send(myMail);
} catch (Exception ex) {
	Response.Write(ex.Message.ToString());

}

Simple yet useful. Let me know if it works for you.

Cheers!

Erroneous Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Express R2 Installation

d0rr — Thu, 26 May 2011 04:22:05 +0000

Issue

You have installed Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Express R2 on Microsoft Windows Server 2008.

You completed the installation.

However when you try to start SQL Server service, you were thrown an error message “The service did not respond to the start or control request in a timely fashion.“

Or, you did not get any error message, but your SQL Server service did not start either, and when you dig into Application Event Viewer you see “FileMgr::StartLogFiles: Operating system error 2(The system cannot find the file specified.) occurred while creating or opening file ‘e:\sql10_main_t.obj.x86fre\sql\mkmastr\databases\objfre\i386\MSDBLog.ldf’. Diagnose and correct the operating system error, and retry the operation.“

Retry for a few times and you may get slightly different error messages, but all have to do with not able to open file at location e:\sql10_main_t.obj.x86fre\sql\mkmastr\databases\objfre\i386\, be it for the files model.mdf, MSDBData.mdf, modellog.ldf or MSDBLog.ldf

If you have followed and encountered the same (or similar path) mentioned above, read on.

Possible Fix

Many have blamed the problematic Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Express R2 installer.

Some managed to fix it without reinstalling (but it failed on me).

However, no harm giving it a try as it may work on your installation.

Run the following:

C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\100\Setup Bootstrap\Release\setup.exe

with the parameters:

/ACTION=REBUILDDATABASE /INSTANCENAME=SQLEXPRESS /SQLSYSADMINACCOUNTS=

My Solution

I uninstalled my SQL Server 2008 Express R2.

I downloaded and installed Microsoft .Net Framework 3.5 from http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=AB99342F-5D1A-413D-8319-81DA479AB0D7&displaylang=en

Last but not least, I downloaded and installed SQL Server 2008 Express SP1 from http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=01AF61E6-2F63-4291-BCAD-FD500F6027FF&displaylang=en

To play safe, I downloaded SQLEXPR_x86_ENU.exe which suppports installation on both 32-bit and 64-bit (WoW) O/S, though I was running 64-bit O/S.

Whats More?

Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Express installation will not be completed without Management Studio.

You may want to download it from: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/en/details.aspx?FamilyID=08e52ac2-1d62-45f6-9a4a-4b76a8564a2b

Let me know if the above solutions works on you.

Group-buying from Consumers’ Perspective

d0rr — Thu, 17 Feb 2011 03:48:05 +0000

“$28 for 120 min Massage or 60 min Massage + 10 min Hot Stone Back Therapy (Worth $125)”

“70% off Private movie screening for up to 25 pax at luxurious Film Theatre Screening Room”

These are familiar offering headlines you see on group-buying sites, among the popular ones are Groupon, LivingSocial etc.

It’s a hype now, as if you are so outdated for not knowing what group-buying business is about.

How It Works

Basically how group-buying sites work is that you will be convinced to subscribe to their newsletter (so that they can spam you every day), check out deals you are interested in, hit a “Buy Now” button and wait for minimum number of people to be on the same deal before the deal is on.

This way, you tend to lure people around you to get onto the deal (simply because you want the deal to be on). And once the deal is on, they will charge into your credit card, send you printable voucher via email and you are good to redeem your voucher and enjoy your deal.

Merchants’ Perspective

It has been a mixed response from the merchants.

There are happy merchants who deliberately write good testimonials about the services, while some 55 percent of people who have run a daily deal campaign said they would not do so again. Some even claim that using group-buying site was the biggest mistake of her life, and angry merchant list goes on.

Let’s be fair. My personal view on this is that group-buying is merely yet-another-marketing-tool.

The merchant pays in hopes of getting new customers in the door that will hopefully love their service and come back again. Most group-buying sites offer no upfront cost to the merchant, and the total cost per customer is likely to be lower than other forms of advertising.

The main factor in the game is to know how to cap deals. To know how many customers you can manage at one go. Imagine you run a coffee shop which serves 50pax at a time, and you sold 10,000 deal vouchers which can only be redeemed within one month. That’s essentially 333 customers per day on average, and what’s more if customers tend to show up only when they realise the expiry is around the corner?

These situations do not only happen on group-buying deals, but it’s a business risk that every business person should consider before running any deals. What’s more sites like Groupon even go to the extend of offering merchants a series of services and advises for merchants to ensure success.

Just like double-edged sword.

What About Consumers’ Perspective?

There’s a need to have merchants happy and customers happy to ensure good businesses.

From group-buying sites, we see happy consumers and angry customers. But I believe most of the consumers are logical and matured enough to make their own buying decisions.

However since group-buying is fundamentally a marketing tool, it is designed to lure consumers to buy the products and services. It happens to print-ad and other medium of advertising, isn’t it?

Personal Experience

Perhaps I would share my personal experience on group-buying site as a consumer.

It was one fine day when I came across my friend’s Facebook update on a deal that starts with “65% off on 4D3N for 2 pax at Lombok’s exclusive boutique resort …”

Out of curiousity I clicked on the link and read through the deal.

Here are some summarized details of the deal:

- 4D3N stay in a 1 bedroom suite at exclusive boutique resort Imaj Private Villas
- Top up SGD$100 to upgrade to 2 bedroom villas or Honey Moon villas
- Valid for 2 years
- No blackout dates, no peak season surcharges
- Vouchers are transferrable, inclusive of all taxes
- Above sweet deal at only SGD$200

To add onto the details, Lombok is the island to the east of Bali and SilkAir flies there 4 times a week or a short 15min flight from Bali or a speed boat are available.

And the deal page looks like this:

I was thinking, how about getting this as a gift for my soon-to-retire parents? SGD$200 sounds like a sweet deal for them to get onto a short relaxing getaway.

The participant bar showed that the deal is 70% to reach the maximum cap, and the deal was on with 80 people already on the deal. The clock was ticking and without further hesitation, I signed up an account with StreetDeal.sg, keyed in all my personal and credit card particulars. Right before I hit the Pay Now button, I decided to seek for second opinion.

I started to look out for other details and figured out a few drawbacks:

- cheapest all-in SilkAir return ticket costs SGD$304.2/person
- return speedboat ticket from Bali to Lombok costs SGD$153/person
- not much activities for elderly in Lombok to keep you staying for 4 days
- journey from my hometown to Singapore is another hassle of 6-8 hours double transit flight

After thinking through all these considerations, I decided to just cancel my purchase and look at something else for my parents’ retirement gift.

I had to admit that the countdown counters, with fine-tuned headlines and attractive photos on the group-buying site, the deals are too good to resist!

My advise for those of you out there would be to seek for second opinions before you make your purchase on group-buying sites. If you really want to make a purchase, put away the deal and come back after an hour or so. You may then be thinking, “how silly am I if I would have purchased that!?” *grins*

So, is group buying really a good deal?

I’d say it varies on individual cases.

If you are a regular, say, spa customer and you get a chance to try out a new spa service with $200 spa voucher at $90, it could be a good deal.

It’s essentially the consumers’ decision making that matters.

Kansai Winter Trip 2011 (Heads Up)

d0rr — Wed, 12 Jan 2011 14:20:35 +0000

Based on my past experience, it would take some time to process any trip’s photos before they are available, hence I’m posting some photos taken using my iPhone 4 and some heads up of my Kansai（关西）winter trip 2011.

Four of us were on free and easy this time round, and we covered Osaka（大阪）- Kobe（神户）- Kyoto（京都）this time round. In order to save cost we opt to stay at my friend’s place located near Sakai-Higashi（堺东）in Osaka.

Good thing about free and easy is that our schedule is superb flexible, but also a challenging thing to do on the other hand as we had to figure everything out from taking trains to what and where to eat. And the best part is that, we don’t know Japanese.

We didn’t visit much places of interests in Osaka as the group would prefer shopping more. Osaka shopping area is generally focused on Umeda and Namba area, where you can find almost any brands that you see in Tokyo.

Osaka Castle (大阪城天守閣) is one place I’d say you shouldn’t miss in Osaka. The building is majestic, you have to be there and see it yourself.

We didn’t go up the castle but the view at the base is already breathtaking. Do note that walking from nearest JR or Subway stations will take 15-30 minutes though. There wasn’t much to see during winter, but we all believed that it would be an excellent stroll during Spring or Autumn.

Apart from the castle, we also went up the Hep-Five Ferris Wheels and be there to see Umeda Sky Building (梅田スカイビル). They were both amazingly built and structured. We skipped the Underwater World as we are less underwater world fans.

Kobe was initially not in our plan, but it was not a bad one day trip too. Kobe Port (神戸港) is well known with night scene but since we couldn’t afford to stay there and wait for twilight to fall, below is the panoramic view from Kobe Harborland.

We stopped by Motomachi (元町) and walked down the Motomachi Shopping Street. Since it was the 3rd day of their New Year and the coldest winter in recent years, we don’t see a lot of people on the street and only a few shops were open. We managed to buy some nice shoes at very cheap price though. And oh did I ever mention that I would always get a pair of shoe whenever I visit Japan?

In the middle of our trip in Kansai, we spent 3 days 2 nights in Kyoto. All of us agreed that Kyoto is a much better place to visit, and would not be hesitated to come back again solely for Kyoto!

It offers a totally different experience than Tokyo and Osaka. Once the largest city and capital of Japan, to me Kyoto is a mixture of all elements in Japan. You get tons of shrines and temples to visit, while at the same time there are big name shopping malls like Takashimaya and Isetan. There are also small souvenir and handicraft shops along interestingly laid out walking streets. And oh there’s also Kamogawa river with arrays of cherry trees laid along the sides. And the list goes on.

We decided to visit only the two most well-known shrines. The first would definitely be Kiyomizu-dera (音羽山清水寺) temple as it is the nearest most well-known shrine in the city. It was amazingly built up without using a single nail.

Kinkaku-ji (金閣寺) temple is another must visit. The temple contains a total of 20kg of gold leafs and is one of the most iconic buildings in Japan. We purposely woke up very early just to catch the moment when the morning sun shines on the glowing temple. Truly breathtaking.

Kamogawa River (鴨川) is a place where you should take some leisure time and have a stroll along the riverside. It is beautiful even the cherry trees are bald. Imagine spending one whole day there during Spring just for the cherry blossoms!

If you plan to visit Kyoto, do remember to get the daily city bus pass that costs only 500 yen, the most worthwhile pass we ever purchased in Japan! Yes, you can reach most of the attraction spots by using this pass. Although there’s also a daily Subway pass, I don’t think that is necessary. Taking city bus in Kyoto definitely brings out the whole experience in Kyoto.

Something notable during this trip is that I get to visit Yodobashi Camera (ヨドバシカメラ), one of the biggest electronics product chain stores in Japan. The interesting part about Yodobashi is that they have one whole floor dedicated for toys, inclusive of action figurines and anime stuffs. I myself is not really a fan of these stuffs, but I was simply amazed by the variety they have. If you ever visit Osaka, find time to visit Yodobashi Umeda.

The thing about Japan that never fail to amaze me is about variety. It’s the same for their electronics product store, it’s also the same for their convenience stores, pharmacies, food stores etc.

There are so many things to talk about Japan. The food, the people, the culture, the public transport, the language, the scenery, the shrines etc. etc. etc. If you ever thought of visiting Japan, I’d say just plan and go. In fact Japan trip is not too expensive after all. You could be just paying SGD$500 or so more than if you visit Hong Kong (that’s what the other members of the group told me)

Yokoso! Japan