CakeFest the CakePHP conference

The 2nd CakeFest in 2008 will take place in Buenos Aires, Argentina this coming 2-5 December 2008. The conference will feature both English and Spanish spoken talks.

Organized by the Cake Software Foundation, CakeFest is a programming conference with a strong focus on CakePHP. CakePHP is a rapid development framework for PHP scripting language that provides an extensible architecture for developing, maintaining, and deploying web applications. Using commonly known design patterns like MVC and ORM within the convention over configuration paradigm, it reduces development costs and helps developers write less code.

Click here to pre-register for the CakeFest conference now.

If you experience slow Internet access, OpenDNS can be your remedy

Recently, I experienced slow Internet access both from my office and home. Even the Google search page also took a long time to load up. However, the "ping" and "traceroute" results to external sites seem to be normal, this made me suspect the DNS service of TMNet, the ISP.

Then I tried to change to use the free DNS service from OpenDNS. Woolah! My Internet access speed finally come back to normal.

If you are facing the same Internet access speed problem, you might also want to give OpenDNS a try. Just go to this website: https://www.opendns.com/start and click on Computer, select the operating system you are using, and there is step-by-step guide to help you make use of OpenDNS service. If you are connecting to Internet using ADSL, and your computer is configured to automatically get its IP address from the DHCP service in your ADSL router, then click on Router, select your ADSL router's brand and model, and follow the steps for the DNS configuration.

Hope that your slow Internet access problem can also be solved by OpenDNS too.

Now you can change service provider and retain existing mobile phone number

The Mobile Number Portability (MNP) service has been talked about in Malaysia since 2005, and finally it is materialized by today!

With the MNP in place, mobile phone users, be it prepaid or postpaid, and regardless consumer plan or corporate plan, can now port from one mobile service provider to another, for example from Maxis to Digi, or Digi to Celcom, or Celcom to Maxis, and so on... but retaining the same mobile phone number as before, including the prefix number.

This is a good news to all of us, because with this MNP service, we can freely change to the mobile service provider that provides the best service, the best price, and/or the most features & benefits, without worrying about the change in mobile phone number anymore. Our relatives , friends, colleagues, customers, ... can still use the same mobile number to contact us, and the same number being used for banking services, online services, etc. can still be used.

Prepaid consumer plan users in Klang Valley can start porting from today (29 August 2008) onwards, while postpaid consumer plan users in Klang Valley can start enjoying the MNP service from 15 September 2008 onwards. A Nationwide Launch to cover the whole country and including business plan users as well, is planned to commence in October 2008.

To perform the porting, you need to apply with the new service provider, a maximum service fee of RM25 will be charged, and your service with existing service provider will be automatically terminated upon successful porting. All supplementary lines must port together with the principal account. Supplementary line that doesn't intend to port to new service provider must detach and register as primary line with the old service provider.

During the porting process, you can still enjoy the same mobile services as before. Only the International Roaming Service will be affected as this service will be suspended upon your porting request.

Click here for the FAQ document about the MNP service.