2008 - Yahoo! Mobile Developer Awards

About 2 months ago, 4 teams from Mobile and Wireless Computing represented TP to take part in a competition organized by Yahoo! These teams are given 1 month to develop widgets for one of the four sponsors, namely, DBS Bank, Kellogg’s Asia Sdn Bhd, Malaysia Airlines, and UEEEU.com. Only one team from each category will be selected as the winner.


Congratulations to our senior students Wong Jing Xuan and Suhaimi Bin Bohari for doing us proud! Their widget were picked by Kellogg’s Asia Sdn Bhd as the top developers for the widgets they created for the company.


Some photos taken at the Yahoo! Developer Awards Ceremony:
The event is held at Zouk.

The winning team won SGD$1,000 each while the rest of the participates(and winning teams) are given an ipod shuffle each. Indeed, the sponsers are very generous!

Before I end this entry,

Congratulations to Wong Jing Xuan and Suhaimi Bin Bohari again!

MWC Freshmen Napfa

MWC Napfa training for Freshman

Firstly I will like to apologise to all MWC blog supporters as i have been really busy and manage to squeeze time for now. HAHA! Diploma in Mobile Wireless Computing just held their first ever Napfa Test for the freshman at 17th October 2008. Basically the purpose of this event is to create awareness among the freshman male to tell them where they stand and they could spend 2 years more to train up before their NS napfa. We believe that this first ever freshmen Napfa in Temasek Poly is a huge success. Just look at the tremendous response :

Now lets take a look on they are warming up :

A Napfa test consists of 6 station but due to wet weather we were unable to conduct a 2.4Km run. However now lets have a look at 5 other station starting from shuttle run:

Standing Broad Jump:

Pull Up :

Sit And Reach :

Sit Up :

Above are all the pictures of how happening that day is, now lets look at their tired face as our intructors gave them a final debrief !!

So have you readers come up with a conclusion about Diploma in Mobile Wireless Computing? In MWC we prepare student in all area whether in studies, napfa or in the future working society =)

*Updated- Additional Photos for the event

Kumamoto National College of Technology Visit to TP

Games Convention Asia (GCA)

Just last Saturday, 20th Sep, the Games Convention Asia (GCA) was held at Suntec Convention Hall. Many many games were displayed there, from the popular to the soon-to-be-released, from big huge companies to small private organisations. There was just no end to the games as well as their consoles. Terminals and consoles were packed with the young and the young at heart, and several mascots roamed the hall.

TP's GET even had their own booth, showcasing games that the students had developed!

Well, I never knew THAT many people were into cosplay(CosCon - Cosplay Contest): numerous groups of friends gathered in and out the convention hall, preparing their makeup and and image to portray their favourite characters in the games. Everyone had great fun with cosplay, posing for photos and taking pictures. =)(Nice Photos at CosCon - Here and Here and Here)


But the main highlight of the convention had to be the competition of a number of games. Amongst these games, one of them, DotA, had 2 team finalists compete with each other, with their match flashed on a great big projector screen for all spectators to see. The battle was intense; both sides put up a good fight. It was a pity I couldn't stay to watch the match end.

So much for the wordy paragraphs, we'll let the pictures do the talking:

*Update
More nice photos that we took

I am a Linux

Yup! I use Macbook pro as well as IBM thinkpad. I run Linux on both of them. Well ....

let's start with Mac first then
Mac 01


Mac 02


Mac 03


Mac 04


Well here is a cool one!!!!!!!!!!!!


So fun right?
Let see what Microsoft Says
PC 01


PC 02


PC 03


Sometime I like to be Mac.




Sometime I like to be PC.


Well I used Linux quite often as well.
Novell 01


Novell 02


Novell 03

Now you see, Now you don't

The Large Hadron Collider (LHC)(Wiki) is the world's largest and highest-energy particle accelerator.

Click the following picture to see the specification of LHC.


Large Hadron Collider Rap.



What does this has to do with Mobile Communication?
Well, Let think about Global Positioning System (GPS). GPS requires very actual clock (atomic clock) (Wiki) to measure location. This technology comes from particle physics. We learned particle physics by experimenting with particle accelerator.

Quantum Teleportation may be further enhance through the LHC.

What is Quantum Teleportation (Wiki)


So what has Quantum Teleportation to do with Mobile Communication?
For current state, it can help to provide secure wireless communication. Today there are many engineer and scientist that are working in this area. (IEEE Paper)

You may want to ask how does LHC comes into the picture then?
One thing of which is Superluminal (Wiki) Communication. We are still not able to achieve Superluminal communication, we can make use of LHC.

Okay, okay what if LHC still cannot resolve no-communication theorem (Wiki) and the theory still holds?

Well, we still can make use of LHC to learn more about neutrino!

What has neutrino has to do with communication? Well today, all mobile communication uses electromagnetic wave for communication. Some scientist belief that neutrino communication are more efficient than electromagnetic transmissions. (Original Story)

Comics on LHC

*Updated
More Comics on LHC

Bug in DNS

Well, I know I'm slow, and the news is a little late, but better late than never, they always say.

Just wanted to share this piece of news, that, from my understanding so far, has been a little hushed-up. Its regarding a bug that hackers have exploited in Domain Name Servers / System(DNS), to re-route internet traffic to their own websites. These malicious hackers use their own websites to impersonate official / commercial websites, for reasons such as collecting personal information. This bug in the DNS vulnerability is a great security issue, and many top security researchers are concerned. Several patches have been developed to address the issue, so the situation is generally under control.

*DNS - name-to-address mapping system that translates names you can remember (such as www.doxpara.com) to numbers the Internet can route (66.240.226.139)

You can read the full story, news and updates at:
http://www.doxpara.com/?p=1162 OR
http://www.doxpara.com/

This is what I understand of the situation so far, and it has been most interesting, considering the fact that I learnt this from a gaming forum. Thus, games DO benefit us. =)

To pass or not to pass

Let's continue with the RFID security issues.

okay, we know that RFID on credit is not safe, but you don't have a RFID credit card, do you think that you are safe? Well read the following and determine it for yourself.

"A German computer security consultant has shown that he can clone the electronic passports that the United States and other countries are beginning to distribute this year. " This story <here> runs 2 years ago!

What is e-passport?
E-passport contains your bio-information in RFID chip that is placed in the passport. All US Visa Waiver Program country passport would be in have that in place and Singapore is one of the country.
The standard is from ICAO BAC International Civil Aviation Organization Basic Access Control which US Feds think that it is safe <Original Story from here>.

Singapore new passport is ICAO BAC standard using NXP chipset <Get more info from here> and <here>.

"Dutch chipmaker NXP Semiconductors has sued a university in The Netherlands to block publication of research that details security flaws in NXP's Mifare Classic wireless smart cards."
<Get the story from here>

Here is the youtube video from the running story that crack the NXP card from london tube (*tube is MRT from UK):



Some more information about the RFID passport.


Can the clone passport be fake proof? Yes for
<Original Story here>

What can we do then? This may help to solve the problem.

New staff in the house

Our diploma has recently had a new addition of staff!

Miss Pauline joined TP just 1 week ago, and had her staff orientation of TP. Here is what she has to say thus far:

How did you become a lecturer in TP?

I wanted to have the opportunity to team up with the young and fresh programmers, and impart my knowledge to them. This is due to my work in my previous company, where I managed several younger programmers.

What were you doing previously?

I worked at a company writing software applications and developments.

How did you find the staff orientation?

The HR people were very warm, and they taught me many things about TP.

What module(s) will you be teaching?

I'm not too sure yet, it hasn't been finalised. However, I expect that it will be more related to desktop or mobile programming.

How do you feel to be part of the TP IIT MWC teaching team?

So far, I'm new here, so I don't know what's ahead at the moment. I don't know how it will be like later on, but I am happy, and I want to value-add to the teaching.

When will you start teaching?

I'm not too sure yet, it also hasn't been finalised. But it could be the upcoming semester or the following one.


Well, let us welcome Miss Pauline with a warm round of applause!!
*applause*
=)

Smart or Dumb Card?

The famous MythBuster are not allow to show the security weakness on (credit card that embedded RFID in it) smart card

" Texas Instruments comes on along with chief legal counsel for American Express, Visa, Discover, and everybody else... They were way, way outgunned and they absolutely made it really clear to Discovery that they were not going to air this episode talking about how hackable this stuff was, and Discovery backed way down being a large corporation that depends upon the revenue of the advertisers. Now it's on Discovery's radar and they won't let us go near it.



Well luckily we still have BoingBoingTV



Do you know that you are using RFID everyday, and you are also subject to the same security risk?

BRIC

What is BRIC?

BRIC means (Brazil, Russia, India, China)

Currently they are bigger growth in terms of mobile subscriber.
Singapore currently only have 6 million, these countries have:

Brazil 135.9 million mobile subscriber
Russia 87.26 million mobile subscriber
India 296.08 million mobile subscriber
China 680 million mobile subscriber
(wiki for other countries)

Why they are important? They are so call the emerging markets, as they are rapidly growing their economy, and they have so many internet user (wiki) and mobile subscriber.
(Story)

Go2 Netbook

There are many choices for Notebook. Well there are also many choices for Netbooks as well. You can purchase a Intel Go2 Netbook through Amazon for US$400.


They can run both XP and Linux that comes with 1.6Ghz CPU, 1GB RAM, 9" LCD, with up to 40GB Harddisk.

Or you can choose to look at the other alternatives.

Well here is a web site (liliputing) that compares most of the various Netbook out there in the market.

Temasek Poly Alice programming Competition

Welcome to............

Stop taking snapshot of my handsome face when i eating!(above)

Different Schools that took part(above)

29th of August will be remembered by several secondary schools espically Zhong Hua Secondary School as they clinched top in the ALICE competion held by Temasek Polytechnic while Raffles Secondary School came in runner-up. Our MWC team of students reporters went there to get the first hand information on how the participants felt after the competition.

First runner-up - Raffles Institution (above)

Reporter: Who introduced and taught ‘Alice’ progromming to your group?

Raffles Institution: We got to know this programme through this competition. Nobody really taught us this programme, we did quite a reasonable amount of research online and with the help of our teachers we managed to make our project work.

Reporter: Did you encounter any difficulties ?

Raffles Institution : Computer’s processing speed has been an issue as only our school computers have the programme. We also felt limited in some ways and we did not have much time doing the project as we are preparing for our exams at the same time. Beside these problems, we had no problem with it as we are rather familar with programming.

Reporter: Will you join Temasek Polytechnic’s School of Informatic and IT after your ‘O’ Levels?

Raffles Institution: We will think about it.

Zhong Hua Secondary School(above)

Reporter: Who introduced and taught ‘Alice’ programming your group?

Zhong Hua Secondary School: We got to know this programme when we are in school. Our school send us for the training that was organized and held in Temasek Polytechnic.

Reporter: Did you encounter any difficulties ?

Zhong Hua Secondary School: We had certain constraints but we found an alternative way to solve the problem.

Reporter: Will you join Temasek Polytechnic’s School of Informatic and IT after your ‘O’ Levels?

Zhong Hua Secondary School: Maybe as we do not know if we are able to enter. *Laughs.

IEEE 802.11r

IEEE 802.11r is part of the Wi-Fi Standard. (Wiki) This happened for quite a while, but however, it takes some time for people start to notice it. (Story 1) (Story 2)

Well these stories did not get some of the facts correct. Indeed, IEEE 802.11r roaming faster when compare with IEEE 802.11i (Security)+ IEEE 802.11e (Quality of Service). (See my conference paper). But it is does not do roaming any faster when compare with no security at all.Well just to add on, IEEE 802.11k has become part of Wi-Fi Standard last year 2007.

So some work has completed, some work has just began. IEEE 802.11y, IEEE 802.11z, and IEEE 802.11aa is now work in progress.

Removal of Cbox

Today finally found the culprit for pop ups for the blog site! Hence I have to remove Cbox and replaced it with Shoutmix. Please continue to support us!

iPhone 3G

Getting your iPhone 3G soon? Well, Here is something that you need to be aware of....



If you have been following with arstechnica news, the antenna is working fine. With the firmware patch and the network working fine. The only possibility is the chipset.
I hope they figure out the issue soon enough. Well I still hope to get iPhone 3G myself.

iPhone 3G's infineon Chipset.

Qik for National Day Rally

If you have seen the National Day Rally on Aug 18, you would have seen this footage.



Here is the story from Straits Time, and Here is the Story from Qik

So are you on Qik now? iPhone is Supported too! Well, if you own a Nokia Phone S60 Service Pack 3, you can still check this out!

最美打工妹 iPhone Girl

It has quite sometime that we update this blog. If you been following up news on Apple iPhone, the latest news is of course iPhone Girl.

Here is the Original Story.

Click Here for the chinese version of the story from another site.



Of course, the other side of the story is iPhone has reached Singtel. We have checked that some Singtel iPhone 3G does not have iPhone Girl. I think it may come from a different production line.

HTC Touch Diamond™

Recently, a friend of mine recommended me a phone, which is called "HTC Touch Diamond".
After visiting the website and read the review on it, I have decided to recommended to all readers out there as well.

HTC Touch Diamond:

This touch phone has the best capabilities compared to other touch phones I have seen so far. It's touch-screen interface,named, TouchFLO™ 3D, and the efficient HSDPA internet connectivity allow users to get connected to the internet easily and instantly,without any problems, just like a normal notebook. You will not need to keep hitting the screen in order to navigate the phone menus.

With the "TouchFLO 3D" function, accessing photos, videos and etc will fun and better to look at!

Here's more:
- 4GB of Internal Storage!
- 3.2 MegaPixels Auto Focus Camera
- 2.8 inch Touch Screen
- VibrantTouchFLO 3D User-Interface
- HTC Weather
- Integrated GPS
- Talk Time (270-330 mins)
- Standby Time (285-396mins)
- Video Call Time (145mins)
- ETC (it's for you to find out!)


I have one word to comment about this home: MARVELOUS