CodeCom 2011

Hello all, pardon me for my lack of posts - this frequency really indicates how much work I have in school the past week.

To make up for that, here's a really interesting update regarding a Tri-University competition organized by NUS Hackers last Saturday!

 

This competition is really cool as it is a Ruby programming tournament conducted on Singpath - a game platform designed & developed by my Professor, Chris Boesch, for anyone to learn programming languages like Ruby, Javascript, Java and Python. Try the game to learn a new language if you are free too! Being a student in Chris's cloud computing class, I have learnt the Python language in a few weeks by solving almost all the questions there. If I can do it, so can you. We can discuss about the solutions too! (:

Anyway, I signed up for the competition one day before with practically zero knowledge about Ruby. Knowing at the back of my head that I will be pitting myself up against other more experienced Ruby programmers, I commented on Facebook that I must be insane - well, my competitors are related to 'NUS Hackers' for a reason right? So.. I kept my expectations low, did some practice the night before, went for Japanese class in the morning, and turned up for the competition at NUS Extension after that.

Now then, how did the competition go? To my surprise, my boyfriend, Adrian, and I rocked the first round by completing all the questions in less than 3minutes!! Woot! I guess the weekly Python drilling in class helped, but it was nevertheless extremely exciting yet intimidating at the same time to code in an environment with near 40 people frantically typing on their laptops, all vying to enter the next round.

 

After near 20minutes, the top 20 competitors emerged and we proceeded to round 2. This time I was more afraid as the difficulty of the questions increased, and we had no access to any notes or APIs. Soon, the competition began. 

As Adrian had some background knowledge in Ruby, he solved the questions in top speed, 'blazing ahead of us', and completed real fast. As for me, I was stuck at question 11 as I did not know the for loop syntax for Ruby. The only for loops i knew was  for(int i=0; i<n; i++) or for i in range(0,len(n)), for i in x. How to write it in Ruby??! The clock ticked, I was back to back with 2 other competitors. I could not search Google for the syntax. Seriously, I almost fainted. -- After LOTs of trail and error + squeezing my brain cells to recall the ruby syntax, the solution for i in a..b worked! Then, seconds later, the API could be accessed by everyone! Oh my I really sped up like crazy and wooolala! I got second! Yes! Guys don't look down on girls. Girls can code too! (:

So with that, I am a happy girl with a new 19" LCD ViewSonic Monitor.

What an adventure. We had fun, made new friends, more details can be seen here. In summary, it is really worth it to do something insane once in a while.

Life is short, live it to the fullest! (:

Business Analytics + SaaS

Other then being excited about a mini blog experiment project i'll embark this weekend, here's one intriguing mind titbit from Mr. Lau Shih Hor, CEO of Elixir Technology, in a seminar today:

Do you ever wish you can predict the future?

In reality, huge companies with large pool of resources have been investing heavily to do this via Business Analytics (BA), and they can to some extent read, analyse, and predict behaviors of their customers and inventory levels etc. They purchase this capability via established BA vendors like SAS, the company that gave me a scholarship which I will soon intern for.

However, what happens to smaller companies in Singapore with limited resources? Is there really no avenue for them to tap on such intelligence for themselves? This remained as a question until Mr. Lau shared with us his current quest to create a world where Business Analytics meets SaaS to serve SMEs in the long tail.

Though he could not disclose the specifics of his projects due to NDAs and various confidential experimentations, he shared enough to explain how BA SaaS work. Being someone who likes to pick up knowledge on any new technology and fires up with passion once these dots are connected to deliver business value, I can deeply relate to this subject matter. (Some past 'dots' I have explored - Technical: Done a scalable project with A* IHPC, cloud project on Google App Engine, data warehouse project on school facilities, data mining research on huge traffic data Business: Developed a simplified trend analysis tool for a local food chain to understand their business needs)

Thus, I am now constantly thinking of the mechanisms behind this new business model. It seems like in near future, this market will go through some vast improvements, and like how I am currently intrigued by the mechanisms of Social Media, I am also intrigued by the thought on how BA SaaS will work out. -- Just imagine, what will our world be like if in the near future, every food outlet/ retail outlet you go can predict and recommend accurately what you would like to eat and what products you'll buy based on your past habits?

Ok, that's all of my scratching-on-the-surface thoughts on the subject matter, any further elaboration will make this blog post a report. :P. For the benefit of those of you who may be lost with all my jargons despite the wiki links, here's a simple diagram I drew out to try to explain everything(will make it better resolution after class later) so that you don't leave this post empty handed:

Have a great day! :)

Happy Rabbit New Year!!

HAPPY CHINESE NEW YEAR EVERYONE!! :D

Ok, I know some of you must be thinking of whacking me now as this greeting seems wayyyy overdue, but hey! It's only day 7 out of our 15 days of new year, CNY is not over yet! Also, since today is 人日(human's birthday in the chinese tradition), happy birthday to all of you! :)

Anyway, the main purpose of this post is to let you know that I am still alive, just that I disappeared a few days to reflect on how to go about delivering the best content for you. On one hand, I would love to update daily to share my everyday thoughts, on the other hand the following phrase: "So if you're just churning out the same-old same-old content, stop it! Think about how you can make sure that you're keeping social media the way it's supposed to be: fun." -- from a really interesting article on learning about social media via angry birds got me to think about my approach...

To sum things up, here's one good news: I do have a few ideas I want to share you, and I will do it really soon. Watch this space for more updates!

And here's a photo of the bunnies pasted at the wall of my house holding signs to wish that you'll have luck, fortune and a harmonous family this coming year. Have a great new year! :)

Living in a Grateful World

Recently, most of us in school have been really busy with multiple project deadlines, quizes, endless readings etc, all amplified and compressed due to CNY being around the corner. With stress, fatigue and many unexpected reasons, if you happen not to receive support from your loved onces, it is natural to think that the world is a dark, lonely place.

For my friends who fall in this category and is distracted from your goals, do remember that just as the cup is half empty, it is half full too. There is always two sides to a coin. Don't doubt yourself unnecessarily. Here's a poem which have brought me out of my darkest moments in the past. Have you counted your blessings? (:

Living in a Grateful World

Be grateful to - those who have hurt or harmed you,

for they have reinforced your determination.

Be grateful to - those who have deceived you,

for they have deepened your insight.

Be grateful to - those who have hit you,

for they have reduced your karmic obstacles.

Be grateful to - those who have abandoned you,

for they have taught you to be independent.

Be grateful to - those who have made you stumble,

for they have strengthened your ability.

Be grateful to - those who have denounced you,

for they have increased your wisdom and concentration.

Be grateful to those who have made you firm & resolute

and helped in your achievements

Author: Unknown