Venue: Ngee Ann Kongsi Auditorium, Singapore Management University

PyCon Asia Pacific 2010 represents a conference dedicated to the Python programming language in Asia-Pacific and hosted for the first time in Singapore. As in all PyCon conferences, PyCon Asia Pacific is an independent, community-run, community-controlled and not-for-profit conference. We are encouraged by the country-level initiatives presently. PyCon Asia Pacific will serve as a perfect platform for Python users throughout Asia-Pacific countries to come together to meet with fellow Python users. The same can be said for anyone adopting an exploratory perspective towards Python. It is our hope that different Asia Pacific countries will take turns to host as the momentum of Python develops in this region.

Latest news
Win an Apple iPad at the Python Coder’s Tournament at PyCon APAC ! Open to all conference participants.

Steve Holden, Chairman of the Python Software Foundation (PSF) will be coming as one of our keynotes!

Quote :

“…Python development in the Asia Pacific region is proceeding rapidly… I would very much like to highlight the special nature of this conference… I hope that my presence will help to further international cooperation on Python development”

Mark Hammond, author of Python Programming on Win32 and the primary maintainer of the pywin32 package will also be coming as one of our keynotes!

Wesley J. Chun, MSCS, is author of Prentice Hall’s bestseller ‘Core Python Programming‘, its video training course ‘Python Fundamentals’ and co-author of ‘Python Web Development with Django‘. He is a software architect and developer advocate at Google and runs a consulting business called CyberWeb. And you’ll meet him at PyCon APAC.

Martijn Faassen, long standing member of the Zope Foundation will be at PyCon APAC. Martijn helped the founding of the EuroPython series of conferences and served as a member of the Zope Foundation board from 2006 until 2010, being chairman for 2 years.

Registration

Registration for attendance at conference and tutorials is now OPEN. Hurry… regular registration closes on the 1st June 2010.

IT Project Manager

Report to: IT Manager

Role:

• Work with technical and business teams to understand their requirements and provide appropriate solutions.
• Prepare project feasibility and project documentation according to PLM methodology
• Develop, coordinate and monitor project plan
• Maintain project tracking and control within budget
• Ensure upgraded or new applications developed, tested and deployed to meet expected objectives and to comply with internal controls
• Interface with other stakeholder groups including senior management and end users
• Interface with technology and application teams within PepsiCo
• Manage third party vendors
• Lead IS project team

Candidate’s Specifications:

• Knowledge: Knowledge of enterprise applications supporting finance/ logistic/ sales & distribution / manufacturing, system development, database (Oracle and SQL), and project management
• Qualification: At least University degree (major in Information Technology/Information System is an advantage)
• Experience: At least 5 years working/maintaining/managing enterprise applications; at least 2 years in managing projects with medium and large scale
• Be able to communication in English fluently
• Skills: Strong communication skills; business partnering attitude; cooperative/collaborative, team work, persuasive, influencing and effective negotiation

Location: District 1, HCM City

If interested, please contact us at this web link:  Contact Hakata Consulting

The launch of the new Wordpress site is a milestone for SLG Vscapeone after the difficulties we faced since last October.  Most of you are aware that SLG Vscapeone company was a victim of embezzlement and fraud by my chief accountant/business partner.  This forced me to refer several of our clients to other companies while I unsuccessfully dealt with my Vietnamese business partner.  Revenue was lost but when compared to many other companies in Vietnam set up jointly with Vietnamese and Expats, I was very, very lucky.

SLG Vscapeone was left idle for about 6 months trying to resolve the problems but with the support of my team and past clients, we decided to give Saigon Linux Group (SLG) Vscapeone a second life about three weeks ago.  During this short time, we received roughly 4 requests for services from companies in and outside of Vietnam [Edit: We now have had 7 requests in over 3 weeks].  So now we are moving ahead.

I got a great team of consultants.  Just take a short look at their profiles at this URl: http://www.saigonlinux.com/about-slg-vscapeone/ We all have a strong background in implementing open source technologies and a passion for Linux.

This is turning out to be an exciting time for us in the next phase of the Saigon Linux Group (SLG) Vscapeone.

Visit our website: http://www.saigonlinux.com

Edit: We had to use drop SLG Vscapeone as our name at the moment and will operate under Hakata Consulting.

Ubuntu 10.04 LTS will be released today.  Chris Dollmont gave me a demonstration on his Thinkpad last weekend and I was very impressed.  It is one of the most talked about releases for Ubuntu that WILL change how people view and use Linux.

Two years ago, Mark Shuttleworth, the main promoter of Ubuntu and the Linux community, challenged developers  to make Linux much more visually appealing and exciting than the Apple Macbooks.  Well, I think they did it and now Ubuntu, yes I am using just Ubuntu instead of the full Ubuntu Linux, has a chance to bring a larger group of users to the Linux desktop.

For me here in Vietnam, I have introduced Ubuntu and Linux Mint to my students with success.   At the school I am forming, I will start offering Ubuntu Linux courses for high schools students and adults.  This release is perfect timing for me to offer my courses.  Macbooks are expensive for the average Vietnamese here in Saigon but Ubuntu can run on any laptop, old or new.  Who knows, you may see an increase of Thinkpads and Dell laptops which Ubuntu supports very well.

I feel this will be a great time for Linux thanks to the efforts of Shuttleworth and and the open source developers.

I can’t wait to download the latest release of Ubuntu tonight…

Kevin Miller, Jr., is the Founder of the Saigon Linux Group (SLG) Vscapeone.

Cross-posted from: http://www.saigonnezumi.com/2010/04/29/ubuntu-10-04-lts-will-change-linux/

Operation Reunite

The Wordpress site project was completed by Kevin Miller, Jr., the founder of the Saigon Linux Group (SLG) Vscapeone who has over 10 years experience in web development, 4 in Wordpress.

(Vietmindo Weight Bridge – SLG Vscapeone)

Last August, 2009, Chris Dollmont and I headed to Uong Bi, Vietnam, for an IT consulting project with PT Vietmindo Energitma, a coal mining company run by Indonesians. We were hired to do an IT audit of the RFID-based Coal Weight Bridge Project.

The trip was very productive, we had a great time with the staff from Vietmindo. They were impressed by Chris’s knowledge of the mining business and IT in general. Overall, the project was successful and we both hope to work with each other again in the future.

Below is our gallery from the Vietmindo IT consulting trip:

[View with PicLens]

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This is actually my third academic year using Linux and open source software at AIS.  For their ICT projects, the majority of my students are using either Synfig Studio, Blender and/or GIMP this quarter on either Ubuntu Linux or Windows platforms.  I am impressed at how fast they transitioned to Linux and open source software.  My 10th, 11th, and 12th graders this year are definitely my brightest open source users to date.  I will blog about some of their projects in late January, 2010.

The visit by VTV was went okay.  They just visited one class and got the footage they needed.  Long, my ICT student, and I were interviewed outside the classroom.  That was a little nervous for a guy who hates cameras.

I am glad that Vietnam is taking a stronger look into open source now.  I also thank AIS for supporting open source and Linux from the first day I started there back in 2006.  Our students will be some of the leading IT experts in the future, in my opinion…

Kevin Miller, Jr., – Founder, Saigon Linux Group (SLG) Vscapeone

Cross-posted at: http://www.saigonnezumi.com/2009/11/26/vtv-visited-my-linux-lab-today/

My friend, Phu, from the Vietnam Investments Group, recommended Gala Royale as our meeting place.  It turned out to be a good location.  VIG’s IT Manager, Cuong, also attended.  Other in attendance included Leon Sikes (Managing Partner – MNG JVP), Vinh (Director of Software Development – SLG Vscapeone), Cuong (CTO – Buffalo Tours), Mark Tran (Managing Director – Transcend People Limited), Dr. Heiko Rudolph (RMIT Australia), Long ( my ICT student from the American International School) and Chi (who worked on an open source project with NEC and the Linux Foundation).

Hopefully in the near future, we will see a stronger involvement with Google in Vietnam.

Cross-posted at: http://www.saigonnezumi.com/2009/11/25/google-developer-dinner-saigon/