LTNP (April)

Long time no post. When was my last entry posted??? Hmm… December 16. Almost 4 months already. Well, I am just using Twitter and Tumblr more.

Now, I am working full-time. So, I don’t have much time to write here, plus nothing interesting to talk about these days. Yep, at the end of January, I went back to Yangon (Rangoon of Burma). I stayed there for 1 month + 10 days. I had a great time there. I went to Chaung Tha beach and Maw-La-Myein (Moulmein) with my family. 

I came back to Singapore on March 10. I stayed home for a few days and I started looking for a job. Thank God. I got a job within a couple of days. I thank Chris, Wai Phyo and Pyisoe for this.

Working full-time, I couldn’t even update my Burmese blog very well. But, we’re thinking about purchasing some web space. Hehe. Web hosting for personal usage and some undisclosed project. A project for Burmese people. Hint: It’s a blog. Blog, again!??

I also wanna buy 160GB portable HDD. It is getting cheaper. But, actually, I am not even using my old 40GB Ext HDD. Hmm., I don’t think I’m gonna buy that.

Oh yep! last Monday, I went to SMU to sit for admission Interview. It was an awesome experience. It took us 2 hours to complete the entire interview process. During the interview, I got to understand Fermi Question and its significance. (Classic Fermi Questions)

Actual question that we encountered was:

How many mandarin oranges were sold during Chinese New Year 2008?

Haha… my answer was 65 million. Don’t ask me how I come up with that answer. Anyway, it’s time for bed. Let me stop writing. I hope I update this blog regularly. (Most posts will be personal things, perhaps.) 

That’s all for now. Peace out.

FYP done. MTS done.

Back again. After serveral hours of hard work, our Final Year Project has been (gracefully) done. I’m (personally) really satisfied with what we have done(, it ain’t bug-free though). Well, even OSes are not bug-free. They need patches, too. =)

Our system (frontend) is flash-based. It’s a music explorer and player (yeah, a jukebox). Our system consists of three main parts.

Backend Database and Management System

We used ‘mysql’. MS SQL is just too expansive. We used ASP.net (using VB.net) to create backend pages, in conjunction with Atlas framework (AJAX for ASP.net released by MS). AJAX extension is used in order to cater ‘Ajaxy Sensation’ to users (admins of System).
These backend pages features all the necessary functionalities to handle datbase data – that is – Adding, Updating, Deleting, and Querying records for every entity in the ERD.
Entity range from “Artist”, “Album”, “Track” to “Tag”, “Theme”,” Bestseller” and “Advertisement”. =)

Those backend server pages retrieve the data from the database and writes XML files on the server.

XML – middleman

Those XMLs can then be downloaded to client computers with a Control Panel application we’ve written. Those XMLs can then be read by the frontend Flash application which is running on those client computers. Sometimes, some values are just read from the XML documents (e.g. album title and artist name) but sometimes, values are just filepaths to the server (e.g. music files and artwork files). They are, let’s say, “streamed” from the server.

Frontend Flash Music Jukebox

After XMLs are download to the client computer, Flash frontend reads them and searches keywords in them. Yeah, our flash frontend neither will ever connect to the backend nor database directly. Searching is local. But, in order for flash to search the most up-to-date data, backend must write XMLs regularly and client computers must download those XMLs regularly as well. Thus, flash searches the data as if it’s searching mysql database.

No, flash is not running locally always, There are some occassions it tries to connect to the backend database (via aspx pages). For example, whenever user searches a keyword on the flash frontend, the keyword is sent back to the server on the spot. If the keyword exists, its frequency will be increased. Similar functions are available for Album Select Count, Track Play Count, Advertisement Click Count, etc.

Well… I hope I cover the basic working of our Final Year Project. In fact, it has many more features that I do not cover in this post. (I won’t because I ain’t writing a report). =)

Our supervisor seem very satisfied with our good effort. Report has already followed. And, FYP has been accomplished.

Well, how about our event – Myanmar Traditional Show 2007? Yeah, it’s great, too!!

Performances include

• Rakhine(Arakan) Candle Light Dance
• Myanmar Traditional Dance
• Myanmar Traditional Orchestra (with Myanmar percussion instruments)
• Myanmar New Year Festival “Yein” Dance
• “San Daw Chane” Myanmar Male Solo Dance
• “Karen” Ethnic Dance
• All 8 Major Ethnic Couples’ Walk
• Myanmar Sketch
• Myanmar “Anyeint Tha Bin” (Profound Dance Performance+some amusing jokes)
• Myanmar Band

Event ended successfully with applause. I’m elated, again. =D

Final Year Project

Back. These days, we are having sleepless nights (and sleeping days). =) Tight schedule. Many things to do.

• Must finish the product (Musikr Interactive Music Billboard) by coming thursday.
• After that comes final report for the project.
• Dance performance for Myanmar Tradition Show 2007 must all be ready by coming 28. (The event is on 5th of August. 28 is first full-rehearsal.)
• Arrange costume for those performers.

Hope everything just goes fine. Will be back soon. =)

Peace:
mgthantzin