hackathon « Mr.Buyot’s Orgy Observations

April 1, 2009

BarCamp KL. Can you hear the music?

Filed under: Colors Of Muhibbah, Weird Wild Web — Tags: barcamp malaysia, hackathon, OpenSocial — Mr. Buyot @ 2:09 AM

barcamplogo

Well well, it’s that year again. BarCamp KL has come again. After an exciting & hyped up first year, the BarCamps are starting to mushroom in Malaysia. And hopefully, it’s all for the good of knowledge.

Most people would still ask, what is BarCamp? You can have the technical answer for that. The answer varies, but the reasons why the spirit of BarCamp (and FOSS.my) lives on will always be the same. It’s like an underground community coming together and actually share stuff, whether it be for professional or personal benefit and it’s for all. That’s more important. The idealistic & holistic understanding of what we are doing together is for all & for everyone. It’s important for everyone. It’s interesting for everyone. And would it be great if everyone to know about it? Of course!

And that’s what BarCamp is all about. It can be about anything: art, drama, theatre, tech, business, finance and oh so many knowledge & interesting stuff that is out there and living inside us that is just waiting to burst out. If you have that feeling, come to BarCamp. You will feel just right at home.

And I’ve been thinking. These two tweets made me think about how I can put things into, well, maybe, perspective. I have no idea yet what to talk about, and time is running out. Ok, enough. The first thing came up to my head is a title. And here it is:

The Grassroots: Music, Infinity and Beyond!

What it’s all about? While typing this post down, I might have an idea. It’s an update from my last presentation at BarCamp about music. I will also probably talk about 2 communities that I personally and together with several close friends built. The spirit. The reasons to believe. The problems. One will be about a music community & the other, we’ll see. Also, I will probably put in some ideas about the future of digital music & other stuff. It’s probably more on like how to get your own groupies, like in a good way. Ya know? Hmm…

Whatever it is, OpenSocial hackathon is still on. And I’ll see you at BarCamp KL!

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December 21, 2008

5 things I learned from OpenSocial hackathon

Filed under: Colors Of Muhibbah, Poetic Code, Weird Wild Web — Tags: google, Google DevFest, hackathon, OpenSocial, oshsg — Mr. Buyot @ 2:03 PM

Aside from learning about OpenSocial, I observed a few good real life examples that can be taken as an example for Malaysia’s corporate/creative workplace.

Junk food is important. It’s fuel for the brains. – The pantry at Google.sg office is stocked up just like a tiny sundry shop where I lived. Having a pantry with a high complex mix and balance of (brain) power food & junk food will keep any developer happy! It’s a happy pantry!

Never be afraid of your idea, no matter how silly you think it may be. – Ideas make the world go around. Ideas hatched every second, everywhere around the world. The best way to find out if your idea makes the cut is to share it with like minded individuals or just throw it out to the wild general public & react to their responses. People say to think outside the box. I believe there is no such thing as a box.

Never to be afraid to share. – People might steal your ideas, copy your thoughts, but hey, doesn’t that what makes the world a little bit interesting? Most would think “my idea is original. no one must know about it.” That’s the way of the old school. We are the new school.

Hire developers/staff who are naughty. If they are pranksters, they have a better chance to get things done. – Humor, laughter. The best medicine. This is a requirement in any organisation. You need at least one prankster that can come out with the silliest (funniest) prank or activity in your office. It keeps your environment fee alive.

Always surround yourself with great, good, fun people. – Anti social is good, to a certain extend. Being around like minded individuals stimulates you in ways you couldn’t even imagine.

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November 3, 2008

DevFest Singapore 2008, a disposable pictorial

Filed under: Colors Of Muhibbah, Poetic Code, Weird Wild Web — Tags: e27.sg, Entrepreneurs.my, google, Google DevFest, Google Maps, hackathon, OpenSocial, youtube — Mr. Buyot @ 10:54 AM

I took a 12 hour train from Kuala Lumpur to Singapore. I was really excited coming for DevFest.

Arrived in Tanjong Pagar train station at about 8 in the morning. Groggy, sleepy & I smell like the train.

Decided to get a room in Little India. Went to the same backpackers hotel I stayed with One Buck Short for a show in Singapore. It’s called Nava’s Place, and Uncle Nava is a really cool guy. I took a picture with him but it didn’t turn out.

According to Uncle Nava, they closed the whole stretch in Little India for Deepavali celebration. I was 1 day too late.

Got myself to Singapore Management University which was only 10 minutes walk from Little India. Met Jason Costa from Google. Fadhil of JomCode is trying his best to persuade Jason to give him the shirt Jason was wearing. Can fit ah?

Cam-whoring with Arzumy of JomCode.

The registration line for the event. They used a Google Spreadsheet form for registration. Pretty neat, I must say. They could have used the manual “tick-my-name” way to speed things up.

The crowd in the conference hall.

Pamela Fox from Google Maps API. She’ll be coming to Kuala Lumpur for FOSS.my 2008 to present this weekend.

Arzumy & Malaysia’s first line of defense. I must say, Arzumy is a cam-whore, instantly setting a pose whenever the camera is pointed at him. Hahaha…

Patrick from the OpenSocial team. His daughter made the best explanation of what “social” really means. Pure innocent.

On the left side of Malaysia’s first line of defense. Okay, we just sat in the front row seats.

Man, I forgot his name. But he’s one the guys behind the Shindig project. No Perl version yet. Hmmm…

Update: His name is Bruno :) Thanks Pamela.

Break time. Food, munchies, drinks!

Jeff from Friendster.

The presenters & Googlers.

e27 dudes. They sure know how to hold an event. Thank you guys!

The only swag I got from the event. Sorry, no stickers guys. Do you notice something odd about this t-shirt?

Group photo! The Malaysian contigent.

My participation certificate now hangs on my wall of short-lived-fame. I need to get a new frame.

Overall, it was hell of an experience attending DevFest. 12-hour train, running around Changi airport like a dufuss, but DevFest made it all worthwhile. Although the hackathon never really did happen, but the talks & being able to converse directly with the people that created and pushed these technology really made me want to contribute more. You can checkout their APAC Developer blog for updates.

And one piece of advice, 30 minutes before your flight departure with AirAsia is considered late & the gates will close & they will sell your seat. So, come super early. Like 1 hour. Or more. And I was only 30 minutes “late”. Ungh.

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