Strange Symphonies

Purchasing MFT Fisheye in Malaysia

aizatto — Wed, 16 Oct 2013 15:03:32 +0000

I’ve been looking for a fisheye lens for my Olympus OM-D E-M5, and had to decide between two choices:

Samyang/Rokinon 7.5mm f/3.5 @ USD $269 (approx RM 852)
Panasonic Lumix G Fisheye 8mm F3.5 @ USD 639.95 (approx RM 2035)

I’ve been looking around and the cheapest I could find for the Samyang was through ebay.

For the Panasonic, the cheapest was on DDElectronics. It lists for RM 2,252 but when you check out you can get a 2% discount if you do a bank transfer, bringing the price to RM 2,206.96

Panasonic Reviews

Samyang Reviews

Comparisons

Micro 4/3rds Photography

Other lenses to consider

Olympus 9-18 f/4.0-5.6 @ $599
Panasonic 7-14mm f/4 @ $969

Using time more effectively with audiobooks

aizatto — Wed, 16 Oct 2013 14:47:41 +0000

Yesterday I had to drive to Klang, then drive back, then go to Samanthas place, then go with her shopping. All in all, because of all this driving and waiting around I was able to listen to 2 and half hours of audio books.

Thats ridiculous. I wish I had started earlier so that I could have read/listened more books in my life.

Listening to Audiobooks

aizatto — Tue, 15 Oct 2013 03:01:21 +0000

I’ve been listening to audiobooks quite regularly on my drives, and can get in about 30-45 minutes a day. So that means I spend a lot of time just getting around. I noticed some days I can put in 2 hours. That’s ridiculous.

But I feel great about using this commute time listening to audio books as usually I get lost in my own thoughts. I feel like I’m putting good time to use.

Queen – Is This The World We Created

aizatto — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 18:10:04 +0000

Just look at all those hungry mouths we have to feed
Take a look at all the suffering we breed
So many lonely faces scattered all around
Searching for what they need

Is this the world we created
we made it on our own
Is this the world we invaded
Against the law
So it seems in the end
Is this what we’re all living for today
The world that we created.

You know that every day a helpless child is born
Who needs some loving care inside a happy home
Somewhere a wealthy man is sitting on his throne
Waiting for life to go by

Is this the world we created
we made it on our own
Is this the world we devastated
Right to the bone?
If there’s a God in the sky looking down
What can he think of what we’ve done
To the world that he created

Hackweekend Gamification in Review

aizatto — Tue, 02 Aug 2011 15:14:05 +0000

A month ago I wrote down my thoughts on what a hackathon is about.

Let’s review how Hackweekend compares to it.

What Hackathons are about:

Moving fast, and breaking things.

Done is better than perfect.

Building things.

Social events.

How did Hackweekend measure?

Moving fast, and breaking things

Well I didn’t see anything break, but people moved fast. After the idea pitches, the people quickly got together in to groups are started working. Granted that some had already preformed groups and ideas, there were still quite a few which were unsure who to join. Nonetheless they managed to sort themselves out. Everyone was focused, no one looked lost.

Mini demos were scheduled at 8p and, teams came out to describe what they were going to work on, and some even showcased mock ups and designs. Teams were also told to discuss what problems they were running into.

Throughout the night you can see the apps being developed and worked on in ready for the next day demo.

Working together to solve problems by blowing them up.

Done is better than perfect

Late into the night, teams recognized that they couldn’t build everything they had planned and needed to scale back on their projects. Whilst not perfect, they were determined to get a working demo by morning.

People even bring in their desktops. Hardcore.

Building things

There were a lot of ideas pitched, but ideas are a dime a dozen. At the mini demo session, there 14 applications being worked on. By morning there were working demos for 13 applications. While I think the quality of the applications were above average, it was exciting to see so many things built in a short period of time.

Its a reminder of what can be accomplished when your mind is focus on something.

By making Hackweekend invitation only, I believe we were able to increase the quality of the applicants, and hence the results produced.

Fadhil rocking the floor

Social event

Hackweekend was an extremely social event. At the event everyone seemed to get along well with each other, even people who did not know each other. It was great that there was a lot of time for people to mingle with each other. One benefit of having a lot of meals is that people can take breaks and socialize.

This is one of the benefits of making Hackweekend by invitation only. We can limit it the event to like minded fun people.

Online interaction took place on Twitter with the #hwkl hashtag. People who didn’t receive an invite became highly envious of participants because of how awesome the event was turning out to be.

Mini Demo to show everyone what is being built

Conclusion

Hackweekend was an awesome hackathon, and a lot of other people think so too.

This will definitely be hard to top, but definitely something we would want to do.

Everyone give a shout out to all the participants at Hackweekend for making it awesome!

Till the next Hackweekend.

Other Coverage: