It's my LIFE!

Many years ago in a small village, a farmer had the misfortune of owing a large sum of money to a village moneylender. The Moneylender, who was old and ugly, fancied the farmer’s beautiful Daughter. So he proposed a bargain.

He said he would forgo the farmer’s debt if he could marry his Daughter. Both the farmer and his daughter were horrified by the Proposal.

The cunning money-lender suggested that they let Providence decide the matter; he told them that he would put a black Pebble and a white pebble into an empty money bag. The girl would Have to pick one pebble from the bag.

• If she picked the black pebble, she would become his wife and her father’s debt would be forgiven.
• If she picked the white pebble, she need not marry him and her father’s debt would be forgiven.
• But if she refused to pick a pebble, her father would be thrown into Jail.

They were standing on a pebble strewn path in the farmer’s field. As They talked, the moneylender bent over to pick up two pebbles. As he Picked them up, the sharp-eyed girl noticed that he had picked up two Black pebbles and put them into the bag. He then asked the girl to pick a pebble from the bag.

Now, imagine that you were standing in the field. What would you have done if you were the girl? If you had to advise her, what would you have told her?

Careful analysis would produce the following three possibilities:

1. The girl should refuse to take a pebble.
2. The girl should show that there were two black pebbles in the bag And expose the money-lender as a cheat.
3. The girl should pick a black pebble and sacrifice herself in order To save her father from his debt and imprisonment.

Take a moment to ponder over the story. The above story is used with The hope that it will make us appreciate the difference between lateral & logical thinking.

The girl’s dilemma cannot be solved with Traditional logical thinking. Think of the consequences if she chooses the above logical answers. What would you recommend to the girl to do?

Well, here is what she did ….

The girl put her hand into the moneybag and drew out a pebble. Without Looking at it, she fumbled and let it fall onto the pebble-strewn path Where it immediately became lost among all the other pebbles. She said,

Oh, how clumsy of me… but never mind, if you look into the bag for the one that is left, you will be able to tell which pebble I picked.

Since the remaining pebble is black, it must be assumed that she had picked the white one. And since the money-lender dared not admit his Dishonesty, the girl changed what seemed an impossible situation into An extremely advantageous one.

Tags: General, Story by Wen Bin
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If there’s one thing a hippo doesn’t like it’s being interrupted while having lunch. This unlucky guy in Uganda runs for his life after disturbing a hungry beast having its favourite meal of grass.

Above picture: The man saunters casually past the hippo as it chomps through the long grass

He fled as the angry three-ton beast – which can outrun a man – charged at him.

Above picture: Look out! The hippo turns on the man after being disturbed while eating grass

The man, armed only with a walkie-talkie at the Murchison Falls National Park, somehow managed to escape on this occasion.

The hippopotamus is one of the most aggressive creatures in the world and is often regarded as the most ferocious animal in Africa. Hippo jaws are capable of biting a 10-foot crocodile in two.

Above picture: Running for his life: The man flees as the hungry hippo charges at him. Hippos are some of the most aggressive creatures on Earth

They regularly attack humans and boats. Despite their stocky shape and short legs, they can reach speeds of 30 miles per hour and can easily outrun a human.

They are the third-heaviest land mammal. Males can weigh up to 4,000 lbs and measure 17-feet long. Adults think nothing of taking on crocodiles, which often live in the same pools and rivers.

Above picture: Faster than Usain Bolt: At 30 mph, hippos have a more impressive top speed than the fastest man in the world. Bolt can only reach 29mph

——

Facts about Hippos

• Hippos have killed more people in Africa than any other wild animal
• Their gaping yawn is actually a threat, displaying long, thick canine teeth that can bite a boat in half
• They are the second heaviest land mammal after elephants, at up to 4,000lb and as much as 17ft long
• The creatures, whose name is Greek for ‘river horse’, can stay under water for five minutes

Source: Daily Mail

Tags: Random by Wen Bin
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Today I watched the movie – The Proposal. It’s a really nice show, which explains why its tickets are selling so fast, compared to other movies.

It’s a really nice movie which could make you laugh like crazy for a moment, and then at times make you keep quiet and listen, put yourself in their shoes.. and then laugh again! Cool huh?!

The plot is rather interesting, most of them can be guessed but some are quite a surprise; But definitely, there are several hilarious scenes in the movie that makes everyone in the entire cinema theater to sudden burst into laughter!!

Here’s the review by IMDB (Please skip this part if you’re afraid of spoiler):

Margaret Tate (Sandra Bullock) is the executive editor-in-chief of a book publishing company, Colden Books, who forces her assistant Andrew Paxton (Ryan Reynolds) to marry her in order to avoid being deported to Canada. He grudgingly accepts, under the condition that he is promoted to the position of editor. When the government investigates, the two are forced to spend the weekend with his parents in Alaska in order to sell the lie. The family suggest they could marry the same weekend, and they reluctantly accept. They start to fall genuinely in love as they spend more and more time together. Because of this, during the wedding ceremony, Margaret decides she cannot do this to Andrew and confesses the business arrangement in front of everyone–including the immigration officer handling their case. She is then told that she has 24 hours to get back to Canada, and thus goes back to New York to pack her things. Upon doing so, however, Andrew shows up at the office and confesses his love for her in front of the entire office staff, proposing marriage all over again.

When high-powered book editor Margaret faces deportation to her native Canada, the quick-thinking exec declares that she’s actually engaged to her unsuspecting put-upon assistant Andrew, who she’s tormented for years. He agrees to participate in the charade, but with a few conditions of his own. The unlikely couple heads to Alaska to meet his quirky family and the always-in-control city girl finds herself in one comedic fish-out-of-water situation after another. With an impromptu wedding in the works and an immigration official on their tails, Margaret and Andrew reluctantly vow to stick to the plan despite the precarious consequences.

AND the ending is a happy one! What more do you wish to see in a movie? :p

Let’s go check it out!

Tags: General, Movie by Wen Bin
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Three technology heavyweights are joining a coalition to fight Google’s attempt to create what could be the world’s largest virtual library.

Amazon, Microsoft and Yahoo will sign up to the Open Book Alliance being spearheaded by the Internet Archive. They oppose a legal settlement that could make Google the main source for many online works.

The Internet Archive’s founder Brewster Kahle says the following,

Google is trying to monopolise the library system, if this deal goes ahead, they’re making a real shot at being ‘the’ library and the only library.

Back in 2008, the search giant reached an agreement with publishers and authors to settle two lawsuits that charged the company with copyright infringement for the unauthorised scanning of books.

In that settlement, Google agreed to pay $125m (£76m) to create a Book Rights Registry, where authors and publishers could register works and receive compensation. Authors and publishers would get 70% from the sale of these books with Google keeping the remaining 30%.

Google would also be given the right to digitise orphan works. These are works whose rights-holders are unknown, and are believed to make up an estimated 50-70% of books published after 1923.

Comments on the deal have to be lodged by 4 September. In early October, a judge in the Southern district of New York will consider whether or not to approve the class-action suit.

In a separate development, the US Department of Justice is conducting an anti-trust investigation into the impact of the agreement.

Source: BBC News

Tags: Random by Wen Bin
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Summer, usually a slow time for search, has given Microsoft something to smile about: The company’s Bing search engine gained market share.

Microsoft’s share of the U.S. search market grew slightly in July, while Google and Yahoo experienced slight declines. Of the 13.6 billion U.S. searches conducted in July, 64.7% were conducted through Google sites, a 0.3 percent point decline from June, according to ComScore. Yahoo sites in July served 19.3% of those searches, also a 0.3 percentage point decline from the previous month.

Microsoft Bing’s search share increased by half of a percentage point in July. Its gain accounted for most of what Google and Yahoo lost. Microsoft sites served 8.9% of U.S. searches last month.

As a percentage change, Google’s search query total fell by 4%, Yahoo’s fell by 5%, and Microsoft’s increased by 2%. Ask and AOL accounted for 3.9% and 3.1% of the search market in July, respectively.

ComScore’s search share figures do not include searches related to mapping, local directory, and user-generated video sites. While any gain is good news, Microsoft still has a long way to go. In February, prior to Bing’s launch, ComScore put Microsoft’s share of the U.S. search market at 8.5%.

In terms of worldwide search market share, Google processed 78.45% of all searches in July, according to NetApplications. Bing had 3.17%, behind China’s Baidu (8.87%) and Yahoo (7.15%). Not only does Microsoft have a lot of ground to cover before it draws even with Google, but it also faces a competitor that isn’t standing still.

Google last week unveiled a developer preview of its new Web search architecture called “Caffeine.” The search leader clearly has no intention of letting Bing’s gain go unchallenged.

Microsoft, congrats!

Tags: General by Wen Bin
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I remember that time when I was with my friends at Tampines, we saw some interesting games at the game shop; we wanted to buy it, but don’t know if it worth the money. Thus we wanted to go online to check for the game’s details. However, my phone don’t have WIFI, only has GPRS. So we checked the details and bought the game etc…

At the end of the month, I almost cried when I look at my phone bill! O_o” it was so expensive! I complained to me friends and one of them laughed at me, and told me that I should have used WIFI to search instead; using GPRS from phone to surf the internet is purely silly!

He then recommended me to sign up for the SingTel BroadBand on Mobile Youth Plan, which is the first broadband on mobile for youths! I was shocked when I hear that, guess what?

I didn’t know that such offers even existed in the first place! >.< I didn’t believe him at first, until he gave me the official website to see at www.singtel.com/youth.

(Click on image to view enlarged version)

It is an exclusive offer to students and NSFs only! Since I am going to be enlisted to army in this coming October, this is exactly what I’m looking for!

With this youth plan, I can relax and surf the internet whenever and wherever I am, be it watching videos on Youtube, check for movie time and slots, using search engine to find information on projects, chit chatting with friends on MSN and many more!

And the best thing is that I don’t even need to hunt for WIFI spots! I can stay connected through seamless internet wherever I am! Wahahaha! Cool right?! xD

Not only that, after you signed up for this Broadband for Mobile Youth plan, your SIM card will become so godly – you’ll gonna love it if you have a laptop! Because all you need to do it just to slot it in to the portable modem provided to you, and then plug it into your laptop to enjoy the seamless wireless network access!

This wireless network access is not only fast and stable, it is not bounded by any school firewall, just imagine yourself being able to play Maple Story or AuditionSEA or even Dragonica in school! Because you are not using the school’s network which has very restrictive firewall!

Also, you would be able to surf the full fledge website when you plug it into your laptop instead of surfing from your phone – this is especially useful when you often surf social sites like Facebook, just like me!

To be able to get yourself connected to seamless wireless access is just so great isn’t it? To be able to do online streaming and watch Naruto with friends at chalet or at the beach, don’t need to connect to the very limited and slow network access while at school, can meet your friends to do project at places with no internet access such as parks, gardens, & etc. Wow… the thought of it just makes me felt so excited!

Simply log on to www.singtel.com/youth to find out more details about this exclusive offer! Oh yeah, you get a chance to win F1 tickets worth $596 each, and there are 4 pairs available to be won! xD

What are you waiting for?! Let’s go sign up at any SingTel Shop and pay only $14.50 instead of the usual price of $29.00 per month! Whoohooo~!!

Live Life Online. Yet another way you can express yourself freely!

Tags: General by Wen Bin
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President Ma Ying-jeou of Taiwan has apologised for the slow official response to Typhoon Morakot. Hundreds of people are still trapped by mudslides and floods. More than 120 have been confirmed dead. Families of nearly 400 people feared dead in the village of Hsiaolin returned there on Saturday to the site to grieve for their loved ones.

Taiwan President, Ma Ying-jeou says the following,

We could have done better and we could have been faster.

Relatives were seen calling out to the buried victims and burning incense, while TV pictures showed one man being restrained as he tried to bang his head against a wall. Some families have demanded to have the bodies of victims dug up, but many believe digging them out would harm them.

The official said the wishes of relatives would be respected and the site would be turned into a memorial park. Survivors would be housed elsewhere.

President Ma also said the following,

We could have done better and we could have been faster. But we weren’t better and we weren’t faster.

And the following,

Of course we are very sorry.

Thousands of troops have been sent to help rescue them and provide shelter. They have been struggling across shattered roads and collapsed bridges to reach stranded communities.

Critics say the authorities were too slow to realise the magnitude of the emergency, while some of those stranded have said they have received no help for days and have been short of food and water.

Many have been waiting for days at the rescue operation centre in Qishan for news of relatives missing since the typhoon struck.

Officials says rescue teams have been hampered by sustained rains in the centre and south of the island and a badly damaged road network which means many villages can only be accessed by air.

Many of the worst-affected villages are inhabited by aborigines, who farm the mountainous terrain. Thousands more people are believed to be stranded in remote settlements elsewhere in southern and central Taiwan.

The government has requested from foreign countries prefabricated buildings to help house those left homeless by the flooding and supplies of disinfectant, to try to prevent the spread of disease.

In China, which claims sovereignty over Taiwan, companies and charities have raised more than 100m yuan ($14.6m) in donations.

TAIWAN’S WORST-AFFECTED AREAS Qishan - rescue operation centre established here, thousands of troops drafted in to help. Liukuei - 200 people awaiting rescue from hot spring resort as of Thursday, with another 700 survivors in the area. Hsinfa - 32 people reported dead, survivors pulled to safety using ropes thrown across river. Hsiaolin – hundreds feared dead following mudslides the morning after Taiwan’s Father’s Day. Taoyuan - residents told to run to higher ground as embankment holding back lake gave way.

Source: BBC NEWS

Tags: General, Random by Wen Bin
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The common complaint when it comes to videogame cut scenes is that they’re not really part of the game at all, but rather protracted breaks where control is wrested from the player. It certainly doesn’t help when the stuff that happens in these sequences is way cooler than the action that goes down when the player is calling the shots.

Dissidia: Final Fantasy, a new brawler for the PSP due Aug. 25, is an admirable attempt to reconcile the gap between the far-out fights that unspool during Final Fantasy cut scenes and the deeds that players prompt with button and joystick. Unfortunately, the fisticuffs come off more clumsy than they ought to — especially when the role-playing structure beneath is executed with the utmost precision.

The game’s premise is promising, as it pits a who’s who of Final Fantasy heroes against a similarly diverse supergroup of villains, including beloved Final Fantasy VII antagonist Sephiroth.

Dissidia’s best moments happen when fights between the members of this all-star cast go slightly nuts. A well-placed punch can send an opponent flying heavenward. With a single button-press, the aggressor can leap after the victims and whack them again.

But let’s face it: Action has never been Square Enix’s stong suit. The gamemakers have spent decades refining the nuts and bolts of stat-based role-playing games. In Dissidia: Final Fantasy, they apply this prowess with great imagination and achieve some good results.

A general disregard for the laws of physics seems to be the rule in Dissidia. Subtle yellow arrows all around the landscape mark areas where players can press another button and do the impossible. Some send heroes spiraling skyward. Others allow them to cling to walls and run up the length of pillars.

Difficulty settings don’t just determine how hard fights will be, they dramatically change the way the game plays by simplifying or complicating the tactical maps that players navigate to get from battle to battle. Experience points are doled out generously, even when your PSP is tucked away in a drawer. And once a bit of the story has been conquered by hacking and slashing, players can opt to tackle the game in the traditional turn-based fashion, selecting their moves in advance rather than mashing them out in real time.

With this empowerment, however, comes a few hassles. Because the PSP has only one analog stick, there’s no way to manually control where the game’s camera points. Players can track enemies and other items by squeezing one of the shoulder buttons, but the camera remains unruly — especially when fighters transition between terra firma and perpendicular walls.

Still, with experience points flowing like wine, there are plenty of opportunities to strengthen characters, customize their look and their combat styles, and tweak their performance. All the hooks are in place to make Dissidia: Final Fantasy a compelling role-playing experience. If only the fights and the reason for fighting them were as inspiring.

Plot here is paper-thin. An eternal war between good and evil has taken a turn for the worse. Heroes from multiple Final Fantasy dimensions have been called to a sparse purgatory to carry on the fight, but first the warriors must each seek and find — you guessed it — a crystal to aid them in their quest.

There’s some interesting character work at play. Watching former foes and allies reconnect tickles certain nostalgic nerves, and when heroes from different worlds team up, things get truly interesting. But in this abstract setting, one of the major motivators of the RPG is totally lost. There’s no sense of exploration or discovery. The hybrid gameplay, in an attempt to offer the best of both worlds, ultimately fails to satisfy either as an RPG or an action game.

Unlike The World Ends With You, the under-appreciated Square Enix RPG for the Nintendo DS, Dissidia: Final Fantasy is unsuccessful in its attempt to fuse action and role-playing experimentation in a meaningful way. The pieces are all there, but the glue is too thin.

There’s got to be a potion that’ll fix that.

Tags: Game Reviews, General by Wen Bin
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Tags: General by Wen Bin
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Typhoons are wreaking destruction across Asia, with rescuers using helicopters to try to reach a mountain village in Taiwan where as many as 400 people are feared missing after a huge landslide slammed down on their homes.

Television footage shot from helicopters over the village of Hsiaolin showed a few rooftops peeking through rivers of dark grey mud. Only one house was visible and the main bridge to reach the village had been swept away by the rains dumped on the island at the weekend by Typhoon Morakot.

One 46-year-old man, identified only by his surname, Weng, told a local cable news network that he had narrowly escaped as he checked a makeshift wooden house near his home, but his10 other family members had disappeared in the mud. He wept: “All of them were gone.”

Eight specifically trained rescuers and 13 soldiers from an elite unit were flown in by helicopter to check reports that hundreds of villagers were still unaccounted for. Reports ranged from 200 to 400 missing, possibly buried in the mud. Rescuers earlier flew 45 people to safety and survivors spoke of family members being engulfed.

Lin Chien-chung, a rescued villager, told the United Evening News Paper that his home and neighbourhood were buried and up to 600 people could have suffered the same fate. However, rescuers said that the figure was an overestimate. “The mudslide covered a large part of the village, including a primary school and many homes. A part of the mountain above us just fell on the village.”

Another man could not hold back tears. “The mountain buried everyone in the middle of the night. There was no escape.”

Authorities plan to send up to 160 rescuers to the village, an official from the disaster contingency centre said. “As long as weather permits, we’ll send more people there. To tell the truth, we don’t know how many people were trapped there.” Taiwan’s official death toll from Morakot stands at 14. Another 51, not including the people in Hsiaolin, are listed as missing.

China relocated around one million people as Typhoon Morakot, which means emerald in Thai, pounded the coast after moving west from Taiwan.

Another powerful typhoon killed 13 people in western Japan as rivers burst their banks, washing away houses and drowning people in their cars. Tokyo was bracing itself this evening for its arrival.

More than 47,000 people were ordered to leave their homes, as winds as high as 78 mph (117km/h) dropped up to 638mm (25in) of rain on Hyogo and Okayama prefectures and the island of Shikoku. Troops of Japan’s Self Defence Forces, as the country’s post-war army is called, were deployed to the town of Sayo, where almost 500 houses were washed away and people drowned as they struggled to escape the rising waters.

One local government official in Sayo was found drowned in his car and the body of a woman was recovered from a gutter. In Okayama, a 68-year-old woman was killed by a landslide as earth loosened by the intense rain bore down upon her house. Cars were upended and wooden houses were half toppled by the waters. The lower floors of even stronger buildings were inundated with mud and debris.

Half a dozen domestic flights were cancelled after an All Nippon Airways flight into Osaka was struck by lightning, although there were no injuries or serious damage to the aeroplane. This evening Typhoon Etau, or Typhoon Number Nine as it is classified by Japanese meteorologists, was heading towards the Kanto plain, Japan’s most intensely populated urban area, containing the cities of Tokyo, Yokohama and Kawasaki.

Japan’s Prime Minister, Taro Aso, was forced to cancel a trip to Hyogo and Shikoku to campaign for this month’s general election, when his Liberal Democratic Party is expected to suffer a crushing defeat.

Every summer and autumn Japan endures dozens of typhoons, although Etau has been unusually destructive. The worst typhoon season in recent memory was 2004, when dozens of Japanese died.

——-

Source: Timesonline

Tags: General by Wen Bin
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What is your favorite search engine? Google? Bing? Yahoo? Well these are probably the more popular ones, or at least that’s what I think it is.

You can try out this “Blind Search” tool to find out: http://blindsearch.fejus.com

It provides results from Google, Yahoo and Bing in three columns but doesn’t tell you which column is which search engine. You then tell it which one you think shows the best results, and you then see which answers are from which engines.

Most users tend to think Google results are better just because they’re from Google. If you take any search engine and put the logo on top, it tests better. So Yahoo results with a Google logo will always test better than, say, Google results with the Yahoo or Bing logo. People are just used to thinking about Google as the best search.

Frankly speaking, I did a few search on this blind search website and the ratio of me choosing Yahoo search results is 3:1 when compare to Google and Bing search. And I always thought I only use Google search!

Perhaps I’m one of those people whom always think that Google search results is always the best~ LOL! xD

Tags: General, Random by Wen Bin
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Police received calls that two bodies were found near the railway track in Upper Bukit Timah Road on Saturday morning. The young couple, believed to be a 19-year-old Chinese boy and a 20-year-old Chinese girl, were pronounced dead at 6.08am.

A Singapore Civil Defence Force spokesman said that the boy’s left leg was amputated and he suffered an open head wound and multiple body fractures, whereas the girl had multiple body fractures, and her right leg was nearly severed at the knee.

Ms Shahriza Embi, a Keretapi Tanah Melayu Berhad (KTMB) spokesman, said that an empty KTM train heading to Johor Bahru knocked down the couple. She also said the following,

We had no idea how they got there.

The morning shuttle between Johor Bahru and Singapore was cancelled. Four other train services were delayed for between one and two hours. The young couple is believed to be students from Republic Polytechnic, and they were apparently sitting on the track when the train came.

Police investigation into the unnatural death is currently still ongoing.

I don’t understand why must they sit on the railway track, didn’t they see the track there? If they thought that no trains would pass by that railway, then it is even worst – they should have find out more about their surrounding area if they were to go there for an adventure or something (?)

It’s really upsetting to hear that such unpleasant event happened right before Singapore’s birthday.

Anyone who want to share your views could leave a comment here.

Cheers~

Tags: General, Random by Wen Bin
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Finally, one week has past since I start working at Microsoft Singapore as an intern! The experience was great already. It’s really cool to work in such a well establish company and to work with a group of amazing people!

All of the fellow interns are university level students, and all of them are top rated ones! Just amazing lah! Enough said!

Yesterday is so far, the day where I stayed at office for the longest time: I reached office at 7.55am to meet Mr John for breakfast together with my other colleagues, he’s an amazing guy! So cool. And at the end of the day, I left the office at around 9.30pm if I’m not wrong. And guess what?

I did not have my dinner! =.=” Actually when my colleagues went for dinner at around 6pm+, I did not go because I thought I just left a bit more to complete that part before I go home for dinner. Then when I finish that part, it’s not yet 7pm, I thought I could finish another part before leaving, end up I got stucked and settle it at only 9pm+ =.=” ARGHS!

First weekend ever since start working at Microsoft. Felt really tired but love the challenge. I know my main assignment already, it’s super challenging! Got to think of idea already.. >.<” haha. Anyway I slept until around 11am today, been so long since I last slept till so late :p wahaha!

Alright, that’s all for today, till I blog again!

Cheerios~

Tags: General, Random by Wen Bin
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NYP has once again, made its mark at the prestigious Microsoft Imagine Cup. Team PlanetKY took second prize in the MashUp category at the worldwide finals in Cairo, Egypt.

A total of 444 students from 149 teams representing 70 countries and regions competed in nine categories: Software Design, Embedded Development, Game Development, IT Challenge, Robotics and Algorithm, MashUp, Photography, Short Film and Design.

“PlanetKY” comprises of two third year Diploma in Multimedia & Infocomm Technology students Kong Wen Bin and James Yeo.

The team created “VENews – Virtual Earth News” that uses MashUp technology to gather the latest environmental news from RSS feeds around the world and present them intelligently on Microsoft Virtual Earth. VENews uses a Mashup application to retrieve information from various sources and re-mixes them, enabling the user to view a holistic environmental picture of the Earth.

Unfortunately, James could not go to Egypt as he was due for enlistment in National Service. It was up to Wen Bin to represent his team.

For Wen Bin, the experience has taught him how to cope with unexpected changes. It was only close to midnight on the first day of the competition, all six finalists of the MashUp category were informed that they had to make a presentation the following day. “Everyone was a little shocked as it was late at night. We were told that we were required to convince the judges as to why our projects deserved to win,” recalled Wen Bin. To prepare for this presentation, Wen Bin and his mentors thought of possible questions and how best to answer them.

Wen Bin added, “It was a very stressful experience especially when I felt the judges seemed impressed with the other teams’ projects. So I was ecstatic when PlanetKY was announced the second prize winner together with the Monastry of Innovations Team from Poland.”

PlanetKY won a trophy and USD$4000 cash.

This is not the first time which NYP has done well in the Microsoft Imagine Cup. Last year, another NYP team “Trail Blazers” won the Embedded Development category.

Our heartiest congratulations to PlanetKY!

It’s finally up! It took so long for NYP to post this :/ even 938live and Singapore Polytechnic has post this longggggg ago~ lols

Source: NYP News

Tags: General, Random by Wen Bin
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Hello everyone! It have been quite some time since I last blogged, due to the fact that I’m working now and is still trying to adapt to the LIFE+WORK+FUN+SPORTS+ETC life! >.<

Previously, my life has been busy due to Imagine Cup 2009 competition, but I still got free time – since I’m working at my own free time, I still can relax at times, go out with friends, play sports, play online games and etc. And I’m so used to that kind of life after adapting it for like 3 or 4 months already.

Now I’m working 9am to 6pm daily, and I always stay until around 7pm+ to continue my work, when I’m back home it’s around around 8pm+ or 9pm; thus I’m still not very used to the life yet, and as a result, I didn’t get to blog often recently. :p

Not to worry, it’s still my first week working at Microsoft Singapore! In fact, not yet to even end my first week :p I believe that I will get to adapt to it soon! I have confident, hahaha!

Something for me to felt excited about is that I’m currently blogging using company’s laptop, which is installed with Windows 7 Ultimate edition. Cool huh!? It’s really good. Something which shocked me is that there’s only 2gb ram and the processor is not even quad core, but the whole system runs so fast like as though it possesses 4gb ram and quad core processor!

I have been doing a lot of installation work on it recently, Visual Studio 2008 professional edition, Expression Studio 3, Silverlight 2 & 3 SDK and many more – I know that it runs really smooth. I guess I’ll upgrade my own computer’s system to Windows 7 too when it’s available!

Speaking of Expression Studio – do you guys know what is it? I guess most of you doesn’t know, but not to worry because I’m going to tell you now!

Microsoft Expression Studio consists of Expression Web, Expression Blend, Expression Encoder, and Expression Design. They are similar to the Adobe Creative Suite, where Expression Web is similar to Dreamweaver, Expression Blend is similar to Flash, Expression Design is similar to Illustrator! It’s quite cool uh.

During my study in diploma course, I did not come across the term “Expression Studio” or any applications within at all, only heard of Flash, Dreamweaver, Photoshop, Fireworks, and etc. However, I’m making use of those skills I learnt previously to pick up Expression Studio tools quickly!

So far so good, all my colleagues and superiors are nice and friendly people, and they will share their knowledge with me and teach me new stuffs. There are so much things for me to learn from them, I hope I can prove myself useful!

I will work hard! And yeah, I will try to adapt to my life soon and blog more often! Stay tune yeah!

My apologies if this post is messy, I’m typing it fast as I’m going to continue my work after this post. Cheers!

Tags: General, Random by Wen Bin
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I am so excited about the 2 months internship program that is going to start tomorrow, on the 3 August 2009!

Many people find that working is somewhat suffering, no freedom, and there is always a burden on the shoulders – work can never be do finish; no matter how you do, there will still be work for you. Well that’s true, work will always be there, especially when you’re a perfectionist like me. :p

My beliefs is that, working is something for us to enjoy. I’m serious, because I find that one should work on something they like and they enjoy doing. Like for example, policeman:

A policeman who like his job, would be a happy person – when he see anyone committing crimes, he will be more than happy to chase them down and get rid of these people whom do harm to our society. Whereas for a policeman who doesn’t like his job, he will find it so troublesome and sickening to chase a criminal, and thus give up easily and find his job tough.

Thus I believe that when one finds the job which interests him, he will find it an enjoyment. As for freedom, it will always be the standard one – Weekdays 9am to 6pm, weekends free for you, or Saturday halfday and Sunday off. That’s office hours though, if you’re working as hawker or businessman then it might be different already..

Anyway, I have a feeling that I am so gonna love my job and enjoy working in the 2 months internship program, reason being I’m going to spend my time meaningfully, and learnt new stuffs, and also make my resume even better, and more importantly, get to experience the company culture & make new friends, get to interact with many different people! Which is so cool! wahahaas. and a big bonus – I heard from my boss that the working hours are flexible! whooohooo~!!

Okay, I’m looking forward to start my work tomorrow!

Tags: General by Wen Bin
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