Saw this over at “In search of simplicity, quality and tranquility in software engineering“; a series of posts on SDLC – Software Development Lifecycle. Thought a good series to follow and read it over the weekend. Love the graphics on each post!

1. SDLC – Software Development Lifecycle … what’s the point? (part 1 of many)
2. SDLC – Software Development Lifecycle … closer look at basics (part 2 of many)
3. SDLC – Software Development Lifecycle … exploring common models (part 3 of many)
4. SDLC – Software Development Lifecycle … agility strikes back with energy (part 4 of many)
5. SDLC – Software Development Lifecycle … is prototyping  part of the good, the bad and/or the evil? (part 5 of many)
6. SDLC – Software Development Lifecycle … analyzing the battle ahead (part 6 of many)
7. SDLC – Software Development Lifecycle … designing the blueprint (part 7 of many)
8. SDLC – Software Development Lifecycle … testing, the moment of truth (part 8 of many)
9. SDLC – Software Development Lifecycle … flashback, component-level design principles (part 9 of many)
10. SDLC – Software Development Lifecycle … Visual Process & Estimating (Guessing) Software Deliverables
11. To scrum or to Run … that is the agile question? (new)
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Yesterday, we received this note from ANZ regarding the Credit card usage overseas. Correct me if I understood it wrongly, but does that mean we cannot use credit card for anything except travel related like buying flight ticket? So how can we pay for other online purchases like:

• online shopping (general, hosting, domain, etc),
• online membership/subscriptions fees (World of Warcraft subscriptions, etc),
• online visa application fees (not necessarily a travel visa),
• online education fees (MS Certs/Distance education)
• and many other expenses

And why do we have to send the bank statements and stuffs – “for our confirmation that card has been used in line with the new guidelines”. What a bother!

I don’t understand what’s going on with Fiji economy and foreign exchange policies. I don’t study economics, I don’t care about it; what I don’t care, I don’t want to know. But what I do know is that I want to use my own money in any way I like and I want no restrictions placed upon it.

The main reason I got myself a Credit card was to use it overseas related expenses and online payments. I don’t need a Credit card for any of the local transactions. I’m really unhappy about this new rules; first they rob us of 20% of our wealth (via devaluation) then they want to say I can’t buy stuffs with my own money. Ridiculous!

Dear Customer

Use of Personal and Business Credit Cards Overseas

We advise that the Reserve Bank of Fiji (RBF) has recently reviewed its exchange control guidelines in respect to the operations of Credit Cards when used overseas and has made the following changes with immediate effect:

• The Credit cards are to be used only for travel related expenditures which include reasonable expense for shopping etc, and to pay for small amounts of miscellaneous imports;
• A cash drawing/cash advance limit while overseas has been set at FJD1,500 per month;
• Credit card payments via Internet or Phone banking are limited to only $5,000 per month. You are required to forward a copy of the Bank statement to Customer Relations, 7th Floor, ANZ House for our confirmation that card has been used in line with the new guidelines;
• Business Credit Cards – are exempted from restriction on usage, however, RBF’s prior approval is required for any payment in excess of $5,000 for a purpose other than ‘travel’ related;

The monthly repayment limit delegated to commercial banks remains at $5,000 per month for overseas transactions for personal credit cards and a new limit has been set at $20,000 per card holder for Business Credit cards. Any payment above these limits must be referred to RBF for approval. To this end, customers are required to submit the original bank statement fo the cards account to RBF and seek their approval before payment can be effected by the commercial bank. Please note you would have to get this approval as RBF may seek clarification on overseas transactions.

In the event you breach any of these new guidelines, you would be reported to RBF. This could possibly lead to the cancellation of your credit card facility. Please call Contact Centre on phone 132411 should you require any clarification in respect to these advices.

Yours faithfully
Haroon Ali
Head of Retail Banking

Two more free e-books offer in celebration of Microsoft Press’s 25th anniversary, so it says.

Celebrating 25 years
For 25 years, Microsoft Press books have focused on helping you take your skills and knowledge to the next level. Celebrate our 25th Anniversary with a “Free e-book of the Month” offer! Simply sign up for the Microsoft Press Book Connection Newsletter for notification of offers, register, and download the selection of the month.

Whatever the event, it’s free books yay!!

Microsoft® Visual C#® 2008 Express Edition: Build a Program Now!
By Patrice Pelland
ISBN: 9780735625426

In this lively, eye-opening, hands-on book, all you need is a computer and the desire to learn how to program with Microsoft Visual C# 2008 Express Edition.

Windows Vista Resource Kit, Second Edition
By Mitch Tulloch, Tony Northrup, and Jerry Honeycutt with the Windows Vista Team
ISBN: 9780735625969

In-depth, comprehensive, and fully updated for Service Pack 1, this Resource Kit delivers the information you need to administer Windows Vista.

Via: Microsoft Press

Just a short post. Grab this if you’re interested. “Understanding Microsoft Virtualization Solutions” By Mitch Tulloch with the Microsoft Virtualization Teams, ISBN: 9780735693371

This guide will teach you about the benefits of the latest virtualization technologies and how to plan, implement, and manage virtual infrastructure solutions. The technologies covered include: Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V, System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2009, Microsoft Application Virtualization 4.5, Microsoft Enterprise Desktop Virtualization, and Microsoft Virtual Desktop Infrastructure.

Download the first chapter or sign up to download entire e-book. (PDF, 14.4MB)

In case you don’t know, DreamHost is giving away 10,000 DreamHost Apps accounts for phase 2 of their beta testing.

There are nine different supported web applications you can try out and more to come later (so it says). It’s free hosting and you can host your own domain or use their free dreamhosters.com subdomain. Very easy one-click installations and everything will be done within minute.

Available Free Web Apps

It’s a very good way to try out all those application for free so better grab one now.

My brother, Aung a.k.a Zatlite, has started blogging yesterday after a few years of persuasion from me. He started off with twittering ,which was also the result of my persistent persuasion, and has been a good regular twitterer to date. Yesterday, he suddenly made himself a blog and now he’s crazy about it.

His very first blog, “The private life of a badminton maniac“, talks about all his passion on racquet sports, especially badminton and racquet breaking hobbies. I’ve posted some of his actions on the past Badminton games in this post and; photos and videos of his squash tournament here. (more…)

Did I mentioned I purchased 2 years DreamHost plan? I think I’ve twitted about it. I got some good promo code and got a good deal of $42.96 for 2yrs. That great deal is already passed but if you happen to purchase a year plan, you can try this code 117M, that should chop down a few bucks.

I’ve been wanting to switch over DreamHost for ages but due to my limited knowledge on LAMP platform and DreamHost price is a bit expensive compare to my .net host, I couldn’t dare to test it out. But with this good promotion deal, I can afford to play around on DreamHost for 2years.

I want to keep my current DotNetPark windows hosting too in case if I happen to host .net site but I don’t plan to publish a new site anytime soon; I only have this mayvelous blog and 1 hosting should be sufficient enough.

Anyhow, now mayvelous.com is sitting on DreamHost and I’ve placed quite a lot of plugins which I couldn’t with previous Windows host. Mayvlous is now with,

• Friendly URL
• Related Post Links under each post
• Photo Gallery
• Post Rating stars
• Affiliate Logos & Links at the side bar
• A few widget ads programs which can only seen by certain countries

and many new plugins I’m still playing. I want to change my theme too but I still love the current one and too lazy to search for good themes so I’ll leave it as it is for now. Ok, Just drop by to say hello and let you know the updates…right, that’s about it.