Visual Foxpro 8 + MySQL5 + FreeBSD6 = Client/Server Application

Visual FoxPro is one of the fastest database program in the market. It is used for small scale database applications. Its limit of 2GB for its database tables makes it for small scale only.  It does not have a feature that secures the data (unlike MS Access you can assign a password for your database).  I will recommend Visual Foxpro + MySQL5 + FreeBSD or LINUX platform to solve this kind of problem and boost the speed and data security of client/server applications for a smaller fee (actually MySQL5 and FreeBSD or LINUX are all downloadable for free from their respective websites. Of course, you can purchase a copy of Visual Foxpro from Microsoft ).

This combination for me is more practical and cheapest compare to other software combinations.

For Filipino computer programmers and students studying DBMS and Visual Foxpro, you can start the study of MySQL and FoxPro combo by installing first the MySQL5, MySQL .NET Connector and other MySQL GUI Tools. Download all this programs and tools from the official website of MySQL.

Then look for the topics from the help file of Visual Foxpro regarding the SQLCONNECT and other SQL commands. Study the topics that deals with creating Remote Views and Local Views. That will be the beginning. 

If I have time after I'm done with my recent project, I'll try to prepare a demo program that uses this  combo. For FreeBSD, visit their website at www.freebsd.org for info and downloads. Good luck

Computer Science Week 2007

Hercor College hold its 3rd year Computer Science Week beginning this March 1, 2007 with a theme: Dream. Believe. Conquer. See the detail of the story by clicking the following link: http://www.hercorcollege.edu.ph/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl?board=news

Computer Virus attacks HC Lab!

There's a strain of computer virus that infects the file server and workstations of the computer laboratory of Hercor College, Roxas City, Capiz, Philippines. It hides itself by using the name ctfmon.exe (Ctfmon.exe monitors the active windows and provides text input service support for speech recognition, handwriting recognition, keyboard, translation, and other alternative user input technologies.) It was detected by TrendMicro 2007 as PE_VBAC.A virus and as MianCrypt.Gen virus by AVAST.

The said virus hides itself inside a folder named Recycled. The folder has a hidden/system/read-only attribute, that's why you can't see it if you will use the Search window. When your system is infected by the said virus, it infects every drive connected to your PC by dropping VCAB.DLL to the internet temporary folder and creating the CTFMON.EXE to folder Recyled & AUTORUN.INF to the root directory of every drive. That's why when you connect your USB sticks to the infected PC it will be infected immediately, the USB disks will be the new carrier for the virus. The program runs every time you start your computer because it copy itself in the Startup folder of the Start Menu. It also run every time your insert the infected USB disk and it triggers every time you Double-Click the infected drive (bcoz of the AUTORUN.INF). The virus infects .EXEs and .DLLs.

To check if your system is infected by the said virus without using an antivirus, do the following steps:

1. Go to command prompt.
2. Type CD\ in drive C to go the root directory
3. Type DIR /AH and press ENTER key. This will display all hidden files in your drive C
4. If you see a file AUTORUN.INF and a folder Recycled, then your system is infected.
5. Try doing this to your USB drive and check if your USB stick contains the same folder and AUTORUN.INF, if it does then your system is really infected.

To remove it download and install a trial version of Trendmicro and scan your system.

To manually remove it (but i'm not recommending it especially if the infections of Bacalid is very high try using an anti-virus such as McAfee or TrendMicro's PCCillin) follow the following steps (This is the step I take when i repair my computer without an internet connection. Note you should understand what you're about to do, you try it at your own risk!)

1. Boot your system in Safemode
2. Go to command prompt, in Drive C do the following commands.
3. Type -> ATTRIB -H -R -S AUTORUN.INF then press enter
4. Type -> DEL AUTORUN.INF then press enter
5. Type -> ATTRIB -H -R -S Recycled then press enter
6. In Windows Explorer in Safemode, remove the folder Recycled in drive C use Shift-Delete to delete the folder.
7. Repeat Step 3 to 6 for all drives of your system including the USB drive.
8. Search for CTFMON.EXE in your system using the Search of Windows found in Start Menu. If you find a file that is not located in C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32, delete it immediately. Dont forget to empty the recycle bin afterwards (Usually the virus will copy itself in the Startup folder of the Startmenu. Check if the file is present there and delete it then.)

To disable autorun of drives (i.e. everytime you double-click a drive or cd or usb, it is auto open) follow the following step:

1. Click Start->Run->type REGEDIT.EXE
2. Go to this key from the register HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\ Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer
   
3. Look for the entry NoDriveTypeAutoRun, double click the entry
4. Type a new value : 0FF (Hex) for the NoDriveTypeAutoRun, this will turn off the AutoRun for all drives, and press ENTER
5. Reboot the system.

Good luck everyone!

The origin of the term "WEBMASTER"

I decided to post a blog regarding the term "Webmaster" because I encounter an incident last week on the guestbook of Hercor College regarding the term. A person from Roxas City, Capiz, Philippines, maybe a student or a newbie teacher that mistakenly misunderstood the term webmaster and post offensive words regarding my personality. I used the term webmaster to indicate that I'm the one who designed and maintained the website and he or maybe she was really pissed about it. Some of his comments were true but his comments regarding the term webmaster really caught my eye. He was saying that I was so conceited that I used the the term "webmaster" and I concluded then that the person really don't understand the term. Now this blog is for that person and to those who are interested to know the origin and the definition of the term 'webmaster'.

The following are the information I gather from different websites that I found from Google & Yahoo!:

• The alias or role of the person(s) responsible for the development and maintenance of one or more web servers and/or some or all of the web pages at a website. The term does not imply any particular level of skill or mastery. The webmaster's e-mail address often appears on the home page of the site. Failing that, you could try sending e-mail to postmaster (from which the term is probably derived) or root at that host, possibly after removing an initial "www.".(1999-04-01) - excerpt from Dictionary.com
• The term webmaster has become a vague term encompassing anyone that has acheived a certain level of expertise making web sites (i.e. a Master of the Web). However the origin of the term is more akin to that of Postmaster, as in the person in charge of a post office. The Postmaster wasn't necessarily masterful at every nuance of delivering mail, rather he/she was simply the manager in charge of the office.
  If we stick to the definition of webmaster as akin to postmaster, the webmaster is the person in charge of the web server, making sure the server is up and running. He or she does not necessarily know how to produce the wide array of content and services on the server, but is simply in charge of keeping the server running smoothly. - excerpt from http://www.webmastermac.com/article.php?story=20040121012919589&mode=print
• Webmaster. An individual who manages a Web site. Depending on the size of the site, the Webmaster might be responsible for any of the following:
  Making sure that the Web server hardware and software is running properly
  Designing the Web site
  Creating and updating Web pages
  Replying to user feedback
  Creating CGI scripts
  Monitoring traffic through the site - excerpt from wobopedia.com

Hope this will enlighten the lost soul of the person that commented against me because of the term webmaster! Smile para masaya tayong lahat! Mabuhay ang Pilipinas!

CAPTESA Computer Skills 2007: Why Hercor College win a LANDSLIDE victory for the 2nd time around?!

Last January 24-26, 2007 Roxas City, Capiz, Hercor College won a landslide victory again on 2007 CAPTESA Computer Skills Competition.

 I 've mentioned to my collegues that this year's 2007 competition will be very hard for us to repeat the record we had last year 2006. (read CAPTESA 2006), because I believe that if I'll be the school to compete against Hercor College, I'll train my students very well so Hercor College will not win a landslide victory again. But in the case of other participating schools, they fail to do it. They commit the same error they had last year. They were not able to catch up to Hercor College's record and instead they lost badly to our participants.

The reasons behind the success of our participants are the training of the students that the faculty of Hercor College conducted before the contest proper and the good attitude of the Hercor Participants. Some schools from Roxas City, Capiz lack this kind of factor during those time and they fail to see it for two years.

Ang hirap pa they blame their failure to the test package given to contestants. Its fair because every contestants were given equal opportunity to study it for weeks before the contest. The problem they did not give "TIME and EFFORT" to train their students. Maybe other schools really exert effort but Hercor College really give its TIME & EFFORT to have this result. Actually our President did not ask for it but I guess our students deserve it.