Himalayas in Burmese

You know Himalayas, rite? In Burmese, we call/pronounce it Hea(t)-Ma-Wun-Dar. Hea(t) sounds like heat without ‘t’. They are quite different, aren’t they?

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

My Blogging History

Childhood

I started blogging at Blogger by posting some of my photos I took in Singapore. They were primarily meant for my family and friends in Yangon. And, after some months, I started writing I.T related posts and my daily-life post in WordPress. I kept writing until I realized that my WordPress blog was only read by me.

I thought why? And, I found out these:

• I happened to be trying to make a dent in the universe?? =)
• And, it’s in English.

Frankly thinking, none of my friend ever wanted to read tech thingies (in English) written by me.There are millions of tech blogs there in blogosphere. They would go to one of them to read about what they wanna know. Why would they need me?

Did I say another reason was ‘English’? Yeah, I discussed with Theik and she advised me that my friend (Burmese people) would rather read posts in Burmese. And, what she said made me think of some (successful) Burmese bloggers. I agree. Everyone including me would not hesitate to read posts in Burmese, or simply, Burmese posts.

A Burmese blog

So, I introduced mm.it.lad to you all. Remember? =) I’ve got many visitors. And, I was very happy because it’s so boring or fruitless to keep writing while no one is reading. I’ve had it enough. My friend suggested ‘short and sweet’ style. It really made my blog ‘a place to read’ (when poeple are bored.. may be) Anyhow, I could find a few (Burmese) people across the world in my site stat – from Canada, Thailand, Malaysia, Japan, US, UK and..

So, why this blog?

But again, after writing many posts in Myanmar, what I realized is that I was not writing to my liking, but for the readers. I felt happy when some people I didn’t know contacted me and said ‘hi’. Good. I really appreciate it. But, after all, I am writing, writing for others. =) On the other hand, I want to keep my personal existence.

So, I created this blog. I decided to write in English because it’s more open and free. Writing daily stuff in my own language will be quite ridiculous, I guess. And more, I feel like blogging in English.. personally. And, this blog was born.

‘Hi!’ to you all, again!

Yours,

mgthantzin