Lets win a HP TouchSmart PC! :D

Yup! The title says it all! HP is having a competition for the bloggers who were invited to the HP TouchSmart Blogger’s Event last month. The unique twist of this competition is that 2 HP TouchSmart IQ500 PLUS PCs worth $1999 each are up for grabs, one for the blogger and one for the READER .
 

Here’s how the competition goes:

What will your life be like
with a HP TouchSmart?

All you have to do is leave a comment answering the above question as creative and innovative-ly as you can. HP will read through the comments of participating blogs and the reader who left the most interesting comment and the blog it is hosted on will be the winners. In other words, if YOU left a comment here and YOUR comment was selected as a winner, both you and I will win HP TouchSmart PCs!
 

Deadline: 12 July 2008 (00:00:00)

Time is running out so do comment before 12 July 2008 if you wish to participate. I understand that it is hard to imagine how life would be like with a HP TouchSmart PC as even I myself don’t own one. Hence I’ve put together some videos and articles that is sort of like my “Dummy’s Guide to the HP TouchSmart PC” to help you understand the coolest things about it in the shortest amount of time.

Witness the power of “TOUCHING”:

 

Demo showing some cool features:

 

Found this cool ad introducing the HP TouchSmart. Doesn’t say much about the PC but putting it here for fun!

Alright! So that’s about it for my “Dummy’s Guide”. Hope it helps and happy coming up with creative and wild comments! ^_~
 

Before I sign off, some basic rules & regulations:
* Only Singaporean based bloggers and readers are entitled to participate in the competition
* Collection of prizes by bloggers only (Bloggers to receive prize on behalf of readers).
* Bloggers need to ensure that all the comments are time-stamped. For different/duplicate ideas on different blogs, the earliest one will be selected.

So yea, don’t forget to leave your e-mail address when you comment so I can contact you if your comment won ^__^

Friendster dying? More like growing

On Wednesday, The Digital Movement(TDM) had the privilege of hosting Jeff Roberto, Marketing Director of Friendster Inc who was here in Singapore for the Ad:Tech conference! It was a closed lunch session at the porsh Global Kitchen located in Pan Pacific Hotel with 10 people consisting of TDM’ers, bloggers and thought leaders in the social media space.

What I really liked about this session was how everyone was seated together on a round table and had ample opportunity to ask Jeff questions while he talked about Friendster’s plans to move forward and grow in the social networking(SNS) scene of Asia. Okay I know you’re probably thinking “Who cares about Friendster? They’re dead” with most of our friends having moved their attention to Facebook. However, we often forget they only represent one sector of the Gen Y population from the age of 20 onwards from a small segment of Asia.
 

Interesting Statistics (Global)
Here are some statistics from Jeff (source of data: ComScore Inc.) that gives a better picture of Friendster’s position globally:

7th Largest Website in the world with 22 billion page views. The only SNS ahead of it is Facebook

Monthly page views increased from 6 billion to 22 billion over the past year. Looks like Friendster is actually growing. My interpretation of this is the number of people joining/spending time on Friendster has increased and is more than the number of people leaving.

 

A variety of statistics showing Friendster’s growth over the past year

 

This graph shows the average number of minutes spent monthly on each site. I find this information very interesting. Even after Facebook introduced Facebook chat, people are still spending more time on Friendster. Could it be the explosion of noise from the insane amount of Facebook apps that is causing this? Might explain why the upcoming Facebook profile interface will be separating apps from the main profile page.

 

Interesting Statistics (Asia)
Alright I know you have had enough of Statistics. I’ll get to the Q&A part soon. Just one more graph to show how Friendster is doing in Asia. ^^;;

Currently Friendster is at least twice the size of any SNS in Asia but as Facebook has just started picking up its pace around the region and I don’t have the growth graph for Asia, it is hard to say where Friendster will stand in the future

 

Future Plans

1) Users leaving
One of the questions I asked Jeff was whether Friendster has any plans to reduce the number of older youths from leaving to other SNS like Facebook. His response after a quick laugh was that they are definitely very interested in retaining their users but currently their main target group (which is a majority of their users) are in the age range of 16 to young adults. If users want to move to Facebook which has an interface that caters better to the mature audience they won’t stop them.
I would relate this to the business analogy:

Instead of customizing the product to fulfill everyone’s changing taste and interests(and risk having a bad product), it is better to focus on the needs of one segment and deliver a really good product

To me his response makes sense as most of the teenagers (at least those I know from Malaysia and Singapore) are still actively engaged and signing onto Friendster and not Facebook as most people their age are not on it. However on the other hand if the tastes of these youths change to liken that of Facebook’s interface and content, Friendster might be facing a problem just like how university and college students are moving now.
 

2) Tapping on local celebrities

Another question I asked was about Friendster’s marketing plans to continue growing their user base in Asia. One of their plans is to partner with local celebrities to set up Fan Profiles to not only encourage their fans to support them on Friendster but to also build their fan base among the Friendster community. I thought this was a very interesting strategy that have not been done by any SNS in the region.

An interesting point about Fan Profiles is that unknown artists have built a larger fan base than well known ones. One of the success stories is Karen Kong, a Malaysian singer who built her career and fan base on Friendster. She has done some interesting things to build her popularity like broadcasting an online concert series. She now has 168K fans as compared to famous singer JJ Lin’s 40K.
 

3) Building content with local companies and developers
Instead of leaving the community to develop content for the platform, Friendster will be working closely with local companies and developers to develop content that is attractive to the locals of each country in the region. This campaign has been tested with Rexona’s campaign in Malaysia and Nokia’s iTalentStar contest. The Rexona campaign was a competition where users had to sign on to Friendster and add the Rexona Room Makeover app to participate. Nokia’s iTalentStar was an American Idol style online competition with participants from Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia and the Phillipines with users voting for their favourite talents on the contest pages. Both campaigns received tens of thousands of fans on their fan pages.
 

4) Going mobile with text alerts!

So yea, Friendster has gone mobile but there’s no big deal about that. Everyone is mobile. The difference though is text alerts. Not everyone in Asia can afford a 3G connection and have access to Wi-fi but everyone has access to a phone service. With text alerts, they will be able to literally keep up to date when on the move. Think about it as Twitter for Friendster.

The nice thing about this is that it is not one-way. Users can use text alerts to update shoutouts, post bulletins, send messages and friend requests. When I asked Jeff about the costs, he said that they’ll be partnering with local telco companies so that only standard text messaging rates will apply. I must say it is a good and unique mobile strategy for Asian countries. Now they just have to add the application feature and users will be hooked on their profiles all day.
 

Lastly….
To sum the meeting up, after meeting Jeff my perception of Friendster’s current state and future changed as the statistics presented looked positive, the plans sound solid and Jeff’s excitement gave the impression that the team of 65 at Friendster’s office is equally confident. Looking at their plans to open country offices in Asia, we can expect some exciting things coming along our way very soon.

Alright! Before I sign off here are some pics
 

Side note: About offices, I asked Jeff whether the offices in Asia will be doing any development work coz as we all know, most APAC offices do sales and operations. He is unsure of the exact arrangements but the office in Phillipines will be doing development work while the rest will focus more on sales and marketing. Oh well…
 

The press kit comes in a small, elegant tin box.

Inside is a USB drive containing the press kit, data and presentation slides. I just love the USB drive. Its so cute!

The small group of us

By the way, food was fantastic!

HP TouchSmart PC Blogger’s Event

Update: Special competition announced: Lets win a HP TouchSmart! Click here

A quick introduction
Last night I was invited to attend the HP TouchSmart PC Blogger’s Event at the mod and cozy Brotzeit Bar in VivoCity. It was a really great event for me as apart from pressing, poking and hacking the gadget till my heart’s content I had a lot of fun putting faces bloggers whom I’ve only heard of or been Twittering with like the infamous Marina, Daphne and NTT.

Daphne and me!

Oh and I met NTT, Jerrick and Daniel, from Tech65 too! Bunch of fun guys!

The presentation…
The event started off with Hwee Koon (HP Director of Consumer PC & Handheld Business Units) giving a quick presentation of how the idea and concept of the TouchSmart came about with an emphasis on the idea of creating a touch screen PC that would revolutionize the way people used a PC and is small enough to fit into a messenger bag. By messenger bag, they don’t mean it will fit into your laptop but convenient to move from one place to another. It is after all a PC, not meant to be portable like your laptop.

The next part was about the purpose of the event which was to not only let us be the first in Singapore to toy with the prototypes but also gather feedback to be incorporated into future upgrades/versions of the product. At first I thought it was all just part of the PR “gimmick” to make us bloggers feel like we’re providing more value than just our blogs helping create some early publicity. However, upon conversing with the HP staff who were actively throwing us questions as we toyed with the gadget, I realize that they were quite serious about it (which of course motivated me to poke around more!).
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“Touching” The Gadget!

Haha sorry if I’m looking sleepy! Kind of tired after work ^^;;;

The TouchSmart actually runs on Windows Vista but has a specially written by HP program called the HP TouchSmart Home which hosts applications made specially for the TouchSmart like Calendars, Photos, Music Player, Video Player and etc.

The interface is very intuitive and friendly where all the icons and buttons are really huge making it easy to navigate by sliding and dragging stuff around (although I have to admit it kind of reminds me of the iPhone). I tested out their multi-touch technology which they fervently refer to as “dual-touch” by performing the infamous 2 finger zoom in and out feature. The technology is definitely there but currently only the main menu supports it. They have not incorporated it into the other softwares or applications in the TouchSmart Home as of yet.
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What I really like!

1) The huge high-resolution screen
The screen is really huge and sharp making it superb for watching videos, browsing through pictures and viewing notes. You can actually convert it into something akin to a fridge door where you have lots of “Post-It” notes with the Notes application. It really makes sense to do this as the touch technology makes it easy to write, drag and toss notes around.

2) Product design
Being like a flat panel and having a stand of its own, it is one of those devices that would be useful in the kitchen, living room or even on a shelf in the common area that would make your home look at lot more digital.

3) HP TouchSmart Home
I really like their software because it makes things intuitive even for a non-techy person like maybe a housewife or child. Even though the applications currently available are basic, the learning curve is quite flat making it easy for anyone to just poke around and get their favourite music/video playing in less than a minute.
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My recommendations
1) The SDK
I hope they will release an SDK for their HP TouchSmart Home program so developers can start developing some useful applications catered to different customer segments for a variety of purposes. This will really help boost what the HP TouchSmart is capable of doing as I believe the software combined with the touch technology has the potential to bring a new dimension to the PC and make it a truly centralized digital home system that even a techno-phobic person can handle.

2) Ease of adding applications
I’m not sure whether the developers have already thought of this but the HP staff present were unsure of the mechanism for adding applications in the future when more are released. If they can create a function in the HP TouchSmart Home where users just press a button, get connected to the Internet, see a list of latest applications with descriptions, select the ones they want added and everything will be downloaded and installed automatically. This would keep consumers engaged and more able to pack the TouchSmart Home with applications to suit their daily needs and activities.

3) Pre-set Windows Vista settings to huge icons
Currently when the TouchSmart is booted up, it goes directly to your typical Windows Vista interface. It is great that it runs Windows Vista meaning you can still go on with your daily PC activities that are not supported by the TouchSmart Home software. However, using Windows Vista in its default settings and a hand is a HUGE PAIN because the selection menus were all built for the “point and click” mouse. You have to literally position your finger to quite a high precision to select what you want. Usability would improve tremendously if Windows Vista was already preset to huge icons and selection menus that are touch-friendly upon start up.

4) Skype Video-Conferencing!!
This is in my wishlist of applications. I would really love to see Skype incorporated into the TouchSmart Home. Imagine pressing a button that opens up your contact list, selecting someone you want to call and a video conference starts immediately! It’d be like picking up a phone to call someone, only diff is that this is on a touch screen with a high-resolution video. If this was possible, even my grandparents would know how to do video-conferencing. (I tried teaching them how to use Skype and it didn’t work. Too many things to click).
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Some last words..
So that’s my account of the HP TouchSmart PC that has already been launched in Berlin(10th June) and will be launched in Singapore on 18th July (its coming to Asia quite fast I must say). Honestly, if I bought one I don’t think I would use it for heavy-usage like design/development work or hard-core gaming. Some casual games like Bejewelled and Diner Dash are fun to play on it but I would like to use it for things that I can’t do on my normal PC like those mentioned above that would enhance my digital lifestyle. Having said that, I am really thrilled by the technology and potential of it and am sort of impatient to see in what creative ways consumers use this device at the end of the day.

Alright! Before I leave, here are some pictures I took from the event. I’ll leave you to figure out who is who (and what is what) :D.

Links you might want to check out:
HP TouchSmart PC Announcement in Berlin
From Sheylara
From Darryl
Great video demo from Claudia!
My Qik videos from this event (very low quality though due to bad lighting :(… )
Bernard’s account of the event

Su Yuen in the papers!

In February, Sharon Foong, a journalist from The Sun newspaper in Malaysia contacted me for an interview on an article about female gamers she was working on. After about 3 months the article was published and I’ve finally managed to get hold of an online copy of it! I’ve uploaded it online so if you’re interested in reading about what female gamers think about games and fellow “guy-gamers”, you can read it here. There are a few quotes from me in there.

One of the more interesting questions asked was whether there was a bias among developers to develop games oriented for guys with all these sexy warriors, violent weapons and mass explosions. I wouldn’t say that there is a bias because these games appeal to some girls (yours truly) as well and if they were a girly game, I wouldn’t be playing them coz then they would be uncool. On the other hand, there is a growing number of developers (but maybe less well known) who are developing casual games that are more suited for girls like those on Facebook(Fluff Pets), BeJewelled and Maple Story. However, we can’t deny the fact that most hardcore gamers are guys and it only makes sense to develop games of these type oriented towards the male gender.
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On a side note, I’m still stuck on deciding whether to get a Sony PS3 or Xbox 360 with my limited income. As some of you know, I’m a RPG junkie and both of these consoles seem to lack RPGs what more decently engaging ones. I miss RPGs like Final Fantasy 7, Xenogears, Skies of Arcadia and Grandia 2. I know there are great games of other genre(which I love too) on the Xbox 360 but I’m still holding on to that small glimmer of hope that some developer will develop a great RPG to help me make up my mind. I’m biased towards RPGs coz they have the ability to bring one into a “fantasy-dreamy-like state of awe” for a long period of time even after the game is finished. If you know of any RPG of this sort out there on either of these 2 consoles, do let me know ya!

PointUI: Better than iPhone skin

Honestly having owned a Dopod 818 Pro for 2 years, there isn’t that many ways you get to woo your friends with your PDA other than everyone going “COOL phone”(from its physical appearance) or “Wow! You have Windows on your phone”. Sadly, it all ends there. It isn’t enough to convince them that owning a PDA is cool unless of course the person you’re showing it to is a true techy who’d be imagining all the hacks he could do if he owned one. I decided that there must be something cool out there that would make even laymen understand how cool a PDA is. So… I spent 2 days hacking my PDA and one of the biggest change which “wow”ed a lot of people is the interface!

No, I did not get an iPhoney interface because it isn’t really a skin. To those of you who are curious, there are 2 versions of the iPhone interface for Windows Mobile.

1) Just the surface
This version is actually more of just an application “layer” with a look-alike of the iphone screen. The buttons load the appropriate Windows Mobile applications when pressed on but the huge problem is when you do that, the interface is gone and you’re back to plain old Windows-looking app. In other words, you only have a “layer” on top of Windows Mobile and the interface is not integrated with any of your apps. Kills the excitement. However if you still want this skin, you can get it here along with instructions.
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2) Integrated iPhone skin
There is however a version of the iPhone skin here that integrates with Windows Mobile applications including cool stuff like sliding contacts, missed call and message notifications but it requires a LOT and a LOT and a LOT of hard work. I gave up half way through because I couldn’t get most of the files needed and things were getting complicated.
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3) PointUI Home
After many hours of tweaking and disappointment, I decided to abandon the iPhoney journey. Decided to find NORMAL Windows Mobile skins that would just make my PDA look cool and voila! I came across the fantastic PointUI which beats even the iPhone skin! (And a lot easier to install too!). Don’t believe it’s cool? See for yourself

The demo is using v0.92 but I’m using v1.5 which has a waaay more sleek and sexy interface now:

Ok! So since I got this fully up and running as the “default” skin on my PDA, I’m going to post up the easy steps on how you can have this on your PDA as well here:

1. Download the .cab file from here
2. Transfer into PDA and run .cab file
3. PointUI is now installed. Everytime you want to run it, just go to Start > Programs > PointUI Home

Here’s the making it your default skin part: (Thanks to capt_harlock77 from the PointUI Forum)

1. Download MORT Script from here
2. Transfer the file into your PDA and run .cab file
3. Write this script in your favourite text editor

Run("Program Files\Pointui\Home\1.51a\Home.exe")
Run(”Windows\StartUp\script2.mscr”)

Change the path of the first line if you installed PointUI Home according to where you installed it. For me I installed it into the default location on my PDA’s memory

4. Save as script1.mscr
5. Transfer to PDA location “Windows\StartUp”
6. Write this script in your favourite text editor
WaitForActive("Desktop", -1)
If(WndExists(”PointUI : Home”) = 1)
Show(”PointUI : Home”)
Else
Exit
EndIf
Run(”Windows\StartUp\script2.mscr”)

7. Save as script2.mscr
8. Transfer to PDA and paste in location “Windows\StartUp”.
9. Restart your device and you’re done!

Hope this helps! Enjoy your newfound “Windows Mobile”. Honestly, after going through this weekend I realized that Windows Mobile is actually a really powerful OS with lots of undiscovered potential. It also made me realize how software can make a huge difference on the impression it gives people of a device. The iPhone is not the only cool communication device out there after all.

Update: Don’t get me wrong. I’m not saying that PointUI is better than the iPhone but rather better than the WM iPhone skins currently in existence out there. Also, I’m not comparing WM and the iPhone OS coz there are quite a number of features which WM has and iPhone doesn’t and vice versa. Hence depending on the type of user you are, you will prefer one over the other.
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On a side note, apart from all the tweaking and hacking I spent my weekend with a long-time friend Cheryl whom I’ve known since secondary school. We watched a really good band performance at The Esplanade by The Philharmonic Winds titled An Evening with Tim Reynish which was held in conjunction with Reynish’s 70th birthday. (He is 70 but jovial like a 35 year old). I really enjoyed the performance (loved 4 songs out of 6) as it was really fun hearing how the individual instruments came together while figuring out which instruments were playing the different phrases. It was a really good getaway from all the techy stuff I’m doing at work right now. Thanks lots to Jiin Joo for the performance and tickets!

Before I leave, here are some pictures!

Creature that can survive in space!

I’ve been back in Malaysia for about 3 days and after catching up with all the good food and shopping, I decided to spend some time at home writing. I was wondering what would be interesting, went through my drafts and saw this! I’ve been wanting to blog about this since last year but never found the time. Special thanks to Jiin Joo for telling me about this “alien”-ish creature!

The Waterbear!

This creature is no other than the Waterbear which bears the scientific name Tardigrade for slow-walking animal. For starters, (this will disappoint you) they are not your average-sized mammal but microscopic creatures that resemble a GUMMI bear with a face, claws and paws. They come in Gummi bear colours of orange, red and green too!

Check out this video of the Waterbear walking. You can actually see its paws and feet:

Where can you find them? According to Microscopy UK, they can be found almost anywhere especially in water droplets of dark moss. Among some of the extreme places where their existence has been encountered are at the top of the Himalayas, in hot springs and under thick layers of solid ice. One of the unique traits of the Waterbear that allows them to survive in literally any condition is their ability to “sleep” and “revive” themselves again. They are capable of deactivating their metabolism turning into a suspended state which will “reactivate” when exposed to water. Talk about people who need a bucket of water splashed on their faces to wake up. Watch the video of the Waterbear’s “returning from the dead” process here.

The other extreme conditions they are able to survive in (where most living things suffer/die) are temperatures over 100C, absolute zero, pressures many times the atmospheric pressure, in vacuum and even a decade without water. There are a few parties online who mention a NASA Space Shuttle experiment (which I failed to find on the official NASA website) where a few microbes including the Waterbear were placed on a rock and put in outer space. Upon entering the vacuum, the microbes went into a suspended state and despite long-term exposure their DNAs were not affected by any radiation. In other words, the Waterbear’s DNA is radiation resistant. This rare ability to survive in vacuum and withstand radiation has caused speculations that these creatures are capable of interplanetary travel and may have come to Earth from other planets. It still remains a question of how long the Waterbear will be able to survive in this suspended state(some say a few years) and whether it is able to withstand the harsh conditions that deep space holds to travel to another galaxy.

The Waterbear is certainly one of those marvels of science (and mystery of outer space?) with a lot for us to learn from. Who knows, when we discover the secrets behind their DNA we might be able to apply the knowledge gained to modify and make our DNAs more resistant to radiations and MAYBE… (a huuuge maybe) hibernate long enough for inter-galactic travel. Mysteries are knowledge waiting to be mined and as the saying goes, with knowledge comes great power
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Interesting resources you might want to check out:
The incredible waterbear!
The Waterbear it is! from Scientific Blogging
Earth Life could possibly reach Titan from Slashdot. (Discussions under comments are really interesting)
Hunting for ‘bears’ in the backyard

The NUS Facebook Module: A student’s perspective

Exams have just come to an end for me today! (Woohoo! FINALLY!). It has definitely been an interesting semester with me being in the pioneer group of 2 subjects, one of which is the famous Facebook module. Reflecting on all that’s happened in the past 5 months, I thought some of you might be interested on how the Facebook module went considering the many pre-semester “speculations” about it. So here’s a quick write-up of my experience and thoughts. All comments and questions are welcomed!
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Quick introduction (skip if you already know what the module is about…)
For starters, the official name of the module is CS3216: Software Development on Evolving Platforms. The main objective of the module wasn’t so much to teach students how to create Facebook applications but rather to learn how to use Application Programming Interfaces(APIs) of various web platforms (Friendster, Open Social) to create applications. As Facebook is one of the rapidly growing platforms among students in Singapore, it became the choice of this module. Class is very small with a total head count of 51 students from various faculties (including Law). For more info, read the official introduction here.
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The class structure…
Many thought that non-computing/engineering students won’t be able to contribute much as they can’t code but this turned out to be quite different because of the way the class is structured. The assignments are very open ended with only minimal requirements. By requirements, I don’t mean concrete things like “Your application must be a wall that people can scribble on” but rather “Your application should allow interaction between users and those interactions should be visible to others“.

Grading for the assignments is not based on technical aspects alone either with 70% awarded for meeting stated requirements and 30% for creativity (Final project is FREE FOR ALL with no requirements). Hence having a team with technical prowess alone is not enough to do well in this module. It takes a combination of various skill sets like creative-thinking, design, marketing and coding which gave room for everyone to contribute in their own respect.
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Opportunity to explore
To be honest, I didn’t do much coding even though I am a Computing student (I hate coding!! ^^;;). I contributed more in terms of idea-generation, conceptualization, user interface and incentive design. The way the class was structured allowed me and I believe others to really focus our skills in where our interests truly were and take the leap to try out new things. For example, I got a first hand experience at game architecture and mechanics design which was waaay more brain-draining than I expected. (If I’m not wrong, some musically-inclined people got to show their composition skills as well)

However not everyone had the opportunity to delve deeper into their interests. I know a few who wanted to improve their PHP coding skills but as there was a shortage of talent (e.g: design), they ended up doing what they do best for the benefit of the team. I guess I was lucky to be in teams where both my interests and skills were complementary to the rest of my team members.
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Do what you like for homework
Yea!! This is the part I can’t stop loving. I used to complain and whine about how university assignments take up so much time that I hardly have any left to work on my own ideas. This module was an opening for me. Due to the open-ended nature of the assignments, we could literally do ANYTHING we wanted for homework. From the list of applications created for the final project, one can see that majority of the class’ interest lied in games (guess it goes with the class being composed of more guys than girls). How many modules allow you to work on your dream idea and earn credits for it?

Some cool games: Farm Wars 2, Ant Rush, Alt Real and Law School (Haha the concept behind Law School is interesting.)

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Exposure exposure exposure…
I’d say that the learning curve is extremely steep for this module not in the technical sense but in the post-production segment. Being on Facebook, most of our applications are exposed to the public and hence there is a lot of work to be done once user feedback and statistics start trickling in. I find myself spending more time cracking my head on how to convert user feedbacks into changes that lead to improved user experiences than development. Of course this is not a bad thing because how often do you get to show your homework to the world and know what people think of it? This is definitely one of the most practical module I’ve taken at NUS thus far.

Another element that my professor and teaching assistants have been working hard on was getting exposure for our work and skills among business people. There were many sessions where we could meet with company CEOs, form potential partnerships and showcase our work to them. Even though not many teams took up the deals offered during the company pitching session, it resulted in a few interesting outcomes:

- MTV MyCribs which is a Facebook version of yes, MTV Cribs haha.
- RateMyTurban, Facebook version of RateMyTurban.com.

(And of course not forgetting the free lance project opportunities out there from the exposure…)
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Lastly, is this module for everyone?
The workload was definitely heavy towards the 2nd half of the semester when all the other module deadlines started clumping up leaving most of us with sleepless nights. With 3 assignments, 1 application seminar presentation and 1 final project, I have to say it was quite a handful for many to handle including myself but most of us pulled through in the end. Then again, the module is still new and many things are being changed as more feedback is provided. I heard that the next time this module is offered, the workload will be 2 assignments and 1 final project and they will be less open-ended (and it’ll be using Adobe AIR? Cool!). To tell you the truth, MOST OF US stressed ourselves out not because the module was hard but rather because we had high standards to meet set by our classmates. After seeing stunning applications created in Assignment 2, most of us tried to create even better quality work for Assignment 3 which burnt out a lot of us.

Personally, I think the module is more oriented for students who love a challenging and risky but creative environment. With no bell curve, no exams and open-ended assignments, brute hard work is not going to help much in this module without the passion and creativity for your projects. The module’s focus is not about creating viral Facebook applications with 100K users(but of course if you do I’m pretty sure you’ll definitely get an A) but more on helping students learn be it in terms of coding, design or even communication. Hence I believe students who like to explore new things and challenge themselves in a rather open environment focused on practicalities will be well suited for this module.

Note: If you want to check out all the applications created for the final project, go here.

Are humans really THAT special?

Everytime a documentary runs on National Geographic saying “Humans evolved from apes”, I switch the channel as it is usually a repetition of the same facts proposed over and over by many researchers. E.g: Pictures of hunched humans, bone structure comparisons and capability comparisons. Today however, Wayne told me about this TED video which proposes something along similar lines with a unique twist.

The presentation was made by Susan Savage-Rumbaugh, a researcher who has spent decades in the field of ape language studies who believes that the unique traits(intellectual thinking, language learning) human beings possess may have been culturally nurtured rather than biologically in-grained into our DNA. Her research with the Bonobo ape species has shown that in a culture of interaction where researchers are not “aiming to teach” but rather be part of the Bonobos’ daily lives, these mammals were able to learn through observation very human tasks like starting a fire with a lighter, playing Pac-man and delicately using a scissors to groom their offsprings. A comparison made between stone knives crafted by the Bonobos and those by pre-historic humans from 2 million years ago show stark similarities, creating the notion that we may have once lived like how the Bonobos are living today.

After watching the presentation, I was very convinced that humans developed the traits and capabilities we have today through millions of years of cultural interaction and development. If what Rambaugh proposes is true, then does the widely championed phrase “Humans are special” still hold? Or are we just equals of animals who happen to culturally advance through some chance encounters and interactions with a mix of other species’?

Here’s the video to fascinate your mind:

SG Tech events coming up in April

Noticed that quite a number of my friends are involved in organizing quite a number of interesting events this coming month! If you’re into entrepreneurship and technology, you should consider attending some of these:

Friday, 4th April 2008: Entrepreneurship in Asia & Europe
Europe has a long history in developing advance technologies, particularly in green energy technology, telecommunications and chemical technology. As Asia is growing, the need for such technologies escalates to accommodate the improving Asian living standards.

Together with venture capitalists, entrepreneurs, graduate students, and MBAs from INSEAD, NUS, and NTU, come learn from the entrepreneurial scenes across continents. Come network with an audience of Asian and European background, it will be thrilling explore the opportunities lie within.

Organizers: Asia-Pacific Student Entrepreneurship Society
Date: 4th April 2008
Time: 7.30 - 9.30 pm (Registration starts at 7pm)
Venue: Munchie Monkey, Yusof Ishak House, NUS (Map)
Fee: SGD10 (Dessert + Free-flow drinks provided)

Saturday, 5th April 2008: Live Recording: 65th Episode of 65Bits Podcast

Tech65 is the one stop place for all your tech information, witty rants, high pitched whining and NTT’s calm and collected voice. We come to you live every weekend with our flagship programme, 65 Bits.

On the week of 5 April 2008 (Sat), Tech65 will be celebrating their 65th Episode! Come and join them for their Live Recording session at Geek Terminal!

They also welcome audience participation - chip in and help shape the news.

In the spirit of 65-ness… they are aiming to get at least 65 people in the audience…

… because 64 just ain’t enough!

Organizers: Tech65
Date: Saturday, April 5, 2008
Time: 10:00am - 12:00pm
Location: Geek Terminal
Street: 55, Market Street (Near Raffles Place MRT, opp. Golden Shoe Complex)
City/Town: Singapore, Singapore

Wednesday, 9th April 2008: Tech Showcase: Beyond PHP
Listen to entrepreneurs from the Python/Django & Ruby on Rails community showcase their sites and strut the technologies used to build them.

Presenters:
Michael Lim, Founder of Comiqs.com
Chew Choon Keat, Founder of SharedCopy.com
More details…

Organizers: Singapore PHP User Group
Date:9 Apr 2008
Time: 7pm - 9.30pm
Venue: SMU, School of Information Systems (Seminar Rm 2.4 (level 2))
Fees: Free of Charge! (Just BYOL - Bring Your Own Laptop)

Feel free to drop me an e-mail if you know of any other upcoming events ^_~.

Bringing a new dimension to web browsing

After BumpTop’s appearance at TED with the 3D Desktop where you can bump things around, I became skeptical of applications that attempt to turn traditionally 2D interfaces 3D with fancy animations, special effects and features at the expense of usability. When I came across SpaceTime on Mixx, I was adverse to trying it out but upon watching the YouTube videos I decided to give it a try.

What is SpaceTime?
SpaceTime is a web browser that introduces a new dimension to web browsing with the “hope” of enhancing the user experience. For starters, lets check out the interface.

The first thing I did when I started using SpaceTime was search for myself using the built-in Google search located on the top right of the screen. This generated a bunch of result “windows” arranged in a queue.