Game Tech for this Generation by Jack S

Hello readers, it’s me, Mr. Jack S. again, here with some more stuff for you to read, consider about and then go out and buy and spend 10 hours with it. That’s right, more games.

As you all already know, the Wii has revolutionised the way games are now sold on the market, attracting the younger crowd with more family friendly games like Carnival Games and the Nintendo produced Wii titles like Wii sports, Wii move, Wii Music and recently released Wii party. Nintendo sales have never been better, and they still begin to sell all over the world, and there doesn’t seem to be an end in sight.

Sony and Microsoft, although originally mocking the Wii as a ‘fad’ and a ‘cheap toy’ have now turned 180 after seeing the market and have sent forth their offerings onto the world of casual gamers: The Microsoft Kinect and the Playstation Move.

The Microsoft Kinect has been touted as the new way to play games, no remote, and no wireless. It’s just you and a camera. That’s right, the Kinect is a motion capture device that will see your movements through the camera and let you play the games from there. From dancing to fighting, this is a new innovation that has not seen any predecessors. (Apart from the Playstation Eye) No more cumbersome controls and constant battery changes, this is the future in your living room, and you’re playing your games with it.

The Playstation Move is a safer approach to the gamers. Rather than try to make something new that could potentially fail, they decided to refine the shortcomings of the Wii. Motion sensor is now two tiered: Using motion capture via a camera of the remote controls and the movements of the controls themselves, utilising the tech from both Nintendo and Microsoft. They also have a wider range of games coming out for it, and this seems to be a promising show from the heads of Sony as it will also affect future gamers everywhere.

Probably you’re wondering, what Nintendo is going to do to retort to these obviously attacks to the Wii motion sensor approach to games. Well, they’re not. Instead of trying to fight in a 3 way tango, they decided to take the market that is everywhere: the Handhelds, with something that has never been seen before, 3D handheld without the glasses. Yes, you did read that right, 3D without any red and blue glasses.

The 3DS, Nintendo’s secret ace in the hole in the gamers war, this is really nothing like the world has seen before. A handheld that will propel 3D games, using technology from the science books that let you sees a 3D image without glasses. Not only that, it has cameras, nice quality screens, the ability to tweak the 3D and much, much more, there are no words for this. This is the gaming revolution at its best, breaking the glass ceiling and rising to new heights in the technocratic society.

One thing is sure: Games are once again changing for the better, and you can only expect one place games are going to go, and that’s up. Till next time, have fun, and cheers.

An Enriching Internship Experience

By: Renga Murthi, IMI Senior
SIP company - Optimatic Pte Ltd
Attachment period : July - October 2010

Renga, (2nd from left at the back row), with his team members

Smiles of Success - Work Well Done!

Success always comes with hard work!

I have inevitably come to the end of my Internship. As much as I would want to spend as much time as I can with my colleagues at E27 but of course, the next leg of our Diploma studies is awaiting - Major Project. E27 is under the care of my SIP company Optimatic Pte Ltd.

I would very much say that I had quite of the best time with E27. As an events and social media-centric company that aims at Web innovation in Asia, E27 has come a long way from holding talks and seminars to holding the very recent - Asia's Largest tech Conference, Accelerate 2010.

Accelerate 2010, recognized as Asia's Largest Tech Conference, was done for the first time in Singapore, at the Suntec City Conventions and Exhibitions Centre. Co-organized with SingTel, a major key player with over 3 million user-strong market in Asia Pacific, the conference was a huge success among the major market players in the tech and Innovation field, also seeing attendees such as Developers, Innovators, Business people and Research Institutions.

As an Events Executive with E27, I handled many aspects of the conference, from maintaining the event website for the conference, to arranging Accommodation and other assistance for Speakers of the conference, and also crafting Sponsorship and Exhibitors Package for the conference.

Check out these websites for more details :
-E27 website >E27 – Web Innovation in Asia
-Event Website >Accelerate 2010

Maintaining the website is not much of an issue at all, as we all have learnt about websites and HTML and PHP etc. The challenge came in when I was required to perform tasks which was not taught in school - how to network with delegates, how to liaise with speakers and other guests to the conference, how to arrange for accommodation and transportation, who are the suppliers etc.

However, there wasn't really anyone to guide me along the way. Nevertheless, the work experiences from my previous company as an Event Coordinator gave me the relevant knowledge and know-hows to perform these tasks.

Of course there should always be challenges for us, otherwise life would get boring at times. So without much hesitation, I took up the job of crafting sponsorship and exhibitors packages for the conference. These scopes require a good knowledge of profit and loss when making considerations for the package amounts, such as $100,000.

And after the exhibitors were confirmed, they were put under my handling to liaise with them and arrange for their logistics requirements for the conference. As part of my handling, I had given several walk-through sessions for these Exhibitors to familiarize themselves with the specific venues of the conference within Suntec. I also did the allocation of exhibiting spaces for my exhibitors and sponsors.

And finally, before we knew it, it was the day of the Conference in Suntec! Of course we were all anxious and excited as well, to see how the conference being held for the first time in Singapore, goes. And again, before we knew it, the 2-day conference was over! We were all very busy during the conference. As I was in the Organizing Committee of Accelerate 2010 conference, I was required to oversee several aspects of the conference such as my Exhibitors as well as my Manpower for assistance. So I was just running around and making sure everything was running smooth for my sponsors and exhibitors and also ensure that my manpower is wisely utilized.

Being part of E27 and being in the Organizing Committee of Accelerate 2010 has brought upon many opportunities for me especially in this conference. Networking with top Keynote Speakers as well as other international delegates for the event was really something I really enjoyed. Talking with these people really enlightened me with much knowledge of the Tech and Media field as well as Business Startups and Incubation. It was also good that these guys actually recognized me from my previous conference - Echelon 2010.

It was also a pleasure working closely with SingTel as the main organizers of Accelerate 2010. Working with fellow corporate is something I have always wanted to do.

Overall, the Asia's Largest Tech Conference was a huge success with more than 2000 attendees in total turnover. It was also a huge success for us, the Organizing Committee for having worked without sleep and food several times and putting in so much of hard work. It was indeed a rewarding experience!

Thinking back, I see a lot of changes in me compared to before going for my internship. I have learnt the ways of corporate communications as well as working with Corporate. I have picked up the skills and knowledge of the Events and Conference Management field. I have also enlightened myself with the facts of the tech and Media market out in the world.

Ask me if I am ready to go out and start work in this sector - my answer would be a Yes of course. While I might not be perfect, but I did my best and accomplished what I wanted while being in E27 and having done my yet, another biggest project - SingTel Accelerate 2010.

All in all, I really enjoyed my time and I still do remain as a Part-time employee of E27, still helping them to coordinate other smaller-scale events.

Now, wouldn't you want to accomplish what you wanted to do, out in the working world? Go for it! All the best!

IND Graduates - Part Three of Three

Hey y’all! Jaiden here once again! This is the last part – Sadly.. *sniffs* - of our coverage of the IND graduates & their reflections.

This last reflection is from IND graduate, Eugene Neo.

Reflection from Eugene Neo:

Needless to say, my most memorable experience in IND is being able to know a bunch of good friends and classmates. We work together, play together, eat together, hang out together and undertake projects together. Doing project work that requires grouping with other classmates certainly performed its task in helping us to bond. The memorable APEL – Applied Principles of Effective Living - class also played a part. Also, the fun-loving lecturers helped in creating a very beautiful experience in my poly life.

Although it's sad to say the programming languages and programs that we have been taught in school is rather different from what the industry is using, I feel that IND actually prepared us for the real world by imparting skills that are required in the industry like communication skills and allowing us to have valuable experiences from internship and lecturers sharing their experience.

If you want to go university, go to a JC. That is like the easiest route to university in my opinion. But well, even though I forsook JC for a polytechnic even though my aim never changed, it is to get into university. So for those of you, who have an aim to go to university like me, play hard! And work harder! Aim for a diploma with merit! It will open up a lot of door in university!

There is much more stress and it is very fast paced. It will be quite a struggle to keep up even if you are very good in your polytechnic life. It is like knowledge bombardment everyday.

Weekdays are all tutorials, labs and lectures in your mind every hour.

There are computing in NUS or computer science or engineering in NTU. That will be like the mainstream degree for it diploma although I know a friend who was from IND who went to a business course in NUS.

Well, wasn’t that interesting? We’ve come a long way. I hope that this coverage is useful for y’all aspiring IMI students out there!

& wow, even this post, the content corroborates with the other posts. Therefore, it is safe to say that no matter what you do, just work hard. Put effort into everything you do, & before y'know it, the fruits of your labour will be borne.

Thank you Marcus, Guan Hong & Eugene for sharing your marvelous experiences in IND & TP itself!

There, those were three very interesting, informative & summative reflections of how TP & IND – now IMI – is like. Get the urge to join this big family of TP yet?

Alright, it’s time for me to go off.

Y’know y’love me, XOXO.

Gossip J, Your source for all information IMI related, & more.

Sheldon - Connecting with Friends with Formspring

M Blogger is back in action and no, he hasn't gone crazy yet but he is still on the fringe of going insane with his erupting passion for FAME. Today, the awesome M Blogger is going to show you a platform where you can answer the questions which your fans are dying to know. How can this be done? You may ask. It is simple! There is a website called formspring which allows you to answer questions.

What is Formspring? It is a website which allows its users to set up a profile page whereby anybody can ask the users questions. After answering the question, the question together with the answer will be posted to the user's profile page.



Features
Privacy setting:
You are able to set certain privacy setting.
1st : Allow anonymous questions on your profile.
2nd : Allow anonymous questions, but only from people who are logged in.
3rd : Don't allow any anonymous questions.
If you don't want to have creepy people asking you weird questions, number 3 is the best choice.
If you want to make sure that the person you blocked will not be able to ask you anonymously, number 2 is the way to go.
If you want to make sure that you get proper questions, number 3 is the ideal choice since you are able to block people who ask you stupid/dumb questions and they won't be able to harass you anymore.

Social Networking:
You are able to connect Formspring to your social network accounts. So, whenever you answer a question, they will be posted to the selected social websites and people will see them, thus on the route to FAME. You are able to select Facebook, MySpace and Twitter as options.

Blogs:
You are also able to connect Formspring to your blogs and whenever you answer them, they will be posted to your blogs and your loyal readers will be able to see them and know more about you. You are able to select Blogger, Tumblr and Wordpress as options.

Widgets:
You are able to embed a widget from formspring to your blog so your readers will be able to ask you questions from your blog itself, combined with the social networking and blog features. Overtime, you will become famous. However, do remember that this alone can't make you famous. You still have to post quality content to attract people to your blog.

All this wonderful features is what enticed me to use Formspring, I am able to connect to many of my real life friends and ask them question that I don't know about them and learn new things about their daily life. Formspring is fun and everyday without fail I will check Formspring to see if I have any questions to answer.

So hey! WHAT ARE YOU GUYS WAITING FOR? Join me, M flaming blogger, on our conquest to achieve fame by letting people know more about us. The answers of FAME will guide you through.

Stay on the look out for my next erupting post, you have to and you will be in awe by my awesomeness. =D Remember to bookmark this blog for more insanity!

Signing off, the M blogger
P.S if you want to know what M means!? Keep guessing.

Worldskills Singapore 2010 Qualifying Round Experience

 The team comprising of Junming, Alisha and Yu Ling before competition

Worldskills Competition Passes

Hello readers!

I'm Yu Ling from Year 2 of Interactive Media Informatics. So the reason I'm blogging is because I participated in Worldskills Qualifying Round 2010 - Web Design. The results have been just announced, and all 3 students representing Informatics & IT School have successfully made it into the finals!

Firstly I will share with you what's Worldskills is about. WorldSkills International is open to agencies or bodies which have a responsibility for promoting vocational education and training in their respective countries/regions.

It is held every two years and there are many and diversed categories ranging from web design, software applications to even cooking and caring. The qualifying rounds and finals are held by individual countries and the winner of each category will represent their country in competing on the international stage, in this case, London 2011.

For the category I participated in, Web Design, we had to spend 8 hours to design a website from scratch with functionaility such as login, register, posting of messages etc. The website will be like a portal or forum, something that is taught in our diploma in the subject Web Application Development.

The school provided us with training for about 2-3 months. We learnt coding languages such as HTML, CSS, JavaScript and PHP. Training had been a tough process as it required a lot of patience and committment. But neverthless it was a very enriching learning experience and we had benefited much from it.

On behalf of the team, I thank our lecturers who have taught us everything they know to equip us with the neccessary skills for the competition. The journey has been long and tedious, but the effort has been worth it.

To all the juniors and freshman, you can be part of this if you dare to take up the challenge! It will be a tough yet enriching journey, but the effort will be worth it!

And now that we have successfully made it into the finals, we will continue training and work hard to go to London 2011!

IND Graduates- Part Two of Three

Hey y’all! Jaiden here again! This is part two of our posts on the IND graduates & their reflections!

The reflection showcased today is from IND graduate, Guan Hong.

Reflection from Guan Hong:

The most memorable experience that I had in IND was probably the first week of school in IND. I could feel that the dreadful stress of the ‘O’ Levels were over and I could finally study something that I enjoy.

Throughout the course in IND, I had several opportunities to hone both my technical and creative skills. It definitely has prepared me for my future career in many ways. The special thing about IND compared to the other IT courses is that it allows us to explore not just the technical aspect of computing, but also to realise the creativity in all of us. In this way, we could find out what we truly would enjoy to do and further on it.

If all a student wants is to get a degree, then the mission is simple - be a GPA aimer. As long as your GPA is high enough, you could easily get into university. However, if the student doesn't believe in spending 90% of his time on academic studies and prefers hands-on, I think probably getting into a liberal school that also offers a decent degree is more ideal.

The difference between university and polytechnic is huge. In polytechnic, the pace was a lot more digestible compared to the lessons being conducted in university, at NUS at least. A lot of independent learning is also required. The workload is definitely many times heavier than polytechnic. In short, university is surely not a playground, especially for those who wish to do more than just academic studies in their life.

Generally, life in university is hectic and tough. This is just my opinion though. Probably the minority elites would think otherwise.

While many IND students, including myself, prefer to go into a more creative aspect of computing, it seems many still ended up in very technical computing courses in university. Although IND and IMI are courses under the umbrella of IT school, it does not restrict us to only the IT related majors in university. A few of my friends and myself are victims of this ignorance and it is totally a great pain in our ass. I believe IMI and IND students could explore other majors in university too. As mentioned above, this is the unique thing about IND and IMI students - We are given a chance to explore on both the technical and creative aspects of computing.

Thank you Guan Hong for this wonderfully precinct summation of how TP & IMI is like! Does this inspire any one out there to join us here in TP?

One thing I noticed from this reflection of Guan Hong that corroborates with Marcus’s reflection is that university life is hectic. Therefore, my point still stands. One has to work hard to be able to achieve their goals. Without hard work, nothing will be achieved.

Alright, time for me to sign out.

Y’know y’love me, XOXO.

Gossip J, Your source for all information IMI related, & more.

IND Graduates - Part One of Three

Hey y’all!

Jaiden here again! This is part one of three posts that link the reflections of three IND – That’s what IMI was formerly known as! – graduates about the course itself, & how the course affected, & helped them in their lives.

This reflection today is from IND graduate Marcus Su.

Reflection from Marcus Su:

My most memorable experience in IND was during my final year when I was involved in several projects simultaneously. At that time, I was working on an educational multiplayer intranet game, a mobile voting application and my major project, a online game for Ministry of Finance. I would admit that the stress was tremendous, but it gave me great exposure and opportunity to put my skills to good use. I also saw how many of my lecturers never fail to help me in terms of mentorship.

Temasek Polytechnic's Infomatics and IT School focused on building the student's ability to seek new knowledge and skills as an independent learner, and providing sufficient technical and presentation skills to kick start a career in the IT industry. Students would be able to get an entry level IT job after graduating from the diploma, but given the ever-changing nature of our field of study, we need to constantly upgrade our skill set and keep up with the times in order to be competitive. Therefore, it really depends a lot on the attitude of the student.

To be more competitive especially with the majority of university students being from Junior Colleges, do pick up more advanced Mathematics not covered in TP, such as Calculus, on your own free time. The other aspect to work on would be to learn to be flexible and proactive.

In university, technical skills are considered a given and thus they are looking more of the ability to achieve higher order thinking. It is no longer only about facts and figures, but knowing how and when to apply our skills on what. We are given a lot of power in shaping our own learning as well. But as the saying goes, great power comes great responsibilities. It is a fast-paced, self-directed and deep learning experience. Students can choose to go into multimedia or computer science courses.

Thank you Marcus for that marvellously informative reflection. Let’s hope that this information will be relevant to any of you aspiring IMI students out there!

My pick out of this whole assortment of meats is that it does not really matter whether you go to a polytechnic or junior college to go to university, it merely requires a lot of effort to be put in & that you stay focused on your eventual goal of going to university for your degree.

As Mad Eye Moody would say, constance vigilance!

Y’know y’love me, XOXO.

Gossip J, Your source for all information IMI related, & more.

How to Manage Both Finances & School

Seriously, in the all the seriousness of reality, it remains evident that cash is indeed, important. Without cash, you will not be able to purchase simple things like clothes or food, which are by & by basic necessities.

Well, even though one could be schooling, it doesn’t mean that one has to focus on studies all the time. One could also take baby steps to learn how to manage their finances. This is an important skill for everyone as eventually, one must learn how to manage their own finances.

There are a few methods in which one could achieve this, either by starting up a simple online business, or taking up a part-time job. Both methods have their pros & cons, let me explain.

Part-time job:

Pros:

• Stable pay
• Fixed working hours

Cons:

• Work time may be inflexible & clash with timetables
• Work may be too tiring if manual labour is included - & this is most if not of all of the time.

Online business:

Pros:

• Flexible hours
• At own time, own discretion

Cons:

• Credit/debit card required
• Lots of travelling needed to do sales or posting

Those are just some of the general pros & cons. I could go on for ages, but I won’t let out all my trade secrets, will I?

Piece of advice though, if y’wanna earn money, then you just have to be patient, hardworking & meticulous. This can apply to school too. In the very end, your efforts will be rewarded. It just takes time, therefore patience has to be required in achieving success in learning how to juggle your time.

Alright, that’s all for now. Will do up a post again soon, having a very hard time over here. Don’t have to pity me, if you see me on the street, just buy me a new cardigan & you’ll make my day! Hint: I love those from River Island!

Y’know y’love me, XOXO.

Gossip J