Posted on July 29, 2013 by orbital

This week’s Mission Control is back over at Blk 71. IDA and SLA will be joining forces to give you and the general hacker public a tutorial about OneMap.  With the summer finishing up, and more of you back around campus, we hope you can join us for this session.  Don’t forget to register your attendance so IDA can cater enough food for everyone!!

OneMap API Workshop

Location: Plug-in@Blk 71 (Blk 71, Ayer Rajah Crescent, #02-18, S 139951 )

Date and Time: Tuesday, 30 July 2013 6.30pm – 9.00pm
Register here: http://apps4sg-onemap-api.eventbrite.sg/

OneMap is an integrated map platform for public agencies to publish information and deliver map-based services. OneMap makes location maps and data from various govt. agencies available through its web portal (www.onemap.sg) and also makes it available through an Application Programming Interface (API) for others to consume in their applications.

Using OneMap API, agencies can embed maps into their web and mobile applications providing a consistent and common map identity across different platforms and websites. OneMap makes streetmap, address, and other geospatial data available to all as a service.

The data layers in OneMap are also open to the private sector or community for development of innovative mapping applications.

For more on OneMap visit http://www.onemap.sg/home or watch this for a quick intro (http://youtu.be/AnoLVGt4JPg)

Posted on July 19, 2013 by orbital

Photo Credits: AgileScrum.org

This coming Tuesday from 6-8pm in SoC SR3, Winston Teo of NUS returns to his alma mater to talk to us about Agile Methodologies.  See you there!

What is Agile? In this talk, we will first learn about the origins of Agile and the Agile Manifesto. Then we’ll take a look at the differences between Agile and the traditional Waterfall SDLC. As a daily practitioner of Extreme Programming (a flavor of Agile), I’ll also share the working practices that make Extreme Programming work. You’ll learn something both as a Product Manager or as an Engineer.

About Winston Teo: As a Lean Engineer with Neo, Winston help to create great software for companies using Agile methods and Lean Startup principles (think Pair-Programming, Test-Driven-Development, Continuous Integration etc.).  He is also the organiser of RedDotRubyConf 2013 (the annual Ruby conference in South East Asia), and runs monthly Ruby meetups (http://www.meetup.com/Singapore-Ruby-Group/) in Singapore too.

Posted on July 15, 2013 by orbital

Hi all:

As the IDA / Google Developer Group Meet-Up will be featuring the PHP runtime for Google App Engine tomorrow at Blk 71, we’re asking you to attend the session in lieu of Mission Control this week.

Make sure to register for the event by visiting http://gdgsg-20130716.eventbrite.sg/

Summary:

In the second of this three part series, we will be covering the new PHP runtime on Google App Engine. We will be porting a popular website, currently powered by wordpress and LAMP stack on AWS, to run on Google App Engine. We will do a live load test this deployment to show the scalability.

Speakers:

Dr. S. P. T. Krishnan & Dr. Louis Shue

Please note we will aim to start the talks at about 6:30-6:45pm, and it’s unnecessary to bring the ticket for this meetup.

Posted on July 4, 2013 by orbital

Dear Orbital students:

Please take note of the opportunity from IDA to help shape the future of data.gov.sg while being reimbursed for your time.  If you’re interested, please contact Liyana directly at liyana_muhammad_fauzi@ida.gov.sg.  Thank you!


The Infocomm Development Authority (IDA) has embarked on a pilot project with the National Library Board (NLB), to explore the use of linked data technology to better manage and share data.  We are looking for developers to test our pilot project.

If you are interested, do read on below for further details and if you are keen to be part of this pilot, please provide me  with the required information in point 3 below by 8th July 2013. Thanks!

Liyana Bte Muhammad Fauzi (Miss)

Assistant Manager | Data Management and Analytics Division | Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore (IDA)
D: 6211 0834 | HP: 9620 4842 | F:
6659 2517 | E: liyana_muhammad_fauzi@ida.gov.sg | W: www.ida.gov.sg

1.       Background:
The objective of the pilot is to enable better sharing of government data with linked data. (If you are interested in linked data, read more about it at http://www.w3.org/standards/semanticweb/data)

For the pilot project, we have created a mobile app, LinkMe and a web browser app, Pathfinder with government linked data. The types of government data used in the pilot include land and routes data (SLA), traffic data (LTA), weather data (NEA), parks data (NParks), etc. As part of Pathfinder, we have also made available some data for developers to test. These datasets are shared via APIs and SPARQL queries.

As a participant, you will explore the above and provide feedback on your experiences at a focus group session. You will also be entitled to receive incentives amounting to $40.

2.       What will be expected of you:

Step one :  Attend briefing for focus group participants (at National Library Board Academy, co-located at Toa Payoh Public Library)
Step two : Use or explore the apps/datasets for a certain duration during the period of end-July to early Aug
Step three : Provide feedback via survey after using the apps/datasets
Step four : Attend a focus group session (at National Library Board Academy, co-located at Toa Payoh Public Library)

3.        If you accept our invitation and would like to participate in our focus group sessions:

Please provide the following details :

Name (on NRIC) :
NRIC no. :
Age :
Gender :
Mobile no. :
What smartphone device are you using, and what is the version currently (E.g.: iPhone 4/5, Android phone, Windows phone, etc.)?:

 

We would also like to seek your cooperation not to divulge any information or data related to this pilot project.
(Note: All focus group participants are required to sign an undertaking for your participation in this.)

Posted on July 1, 2013 by orbital

Picture Credits: courtesy nodejs.org

Tomorrow’s Mission Control will be held at PlugIn@Blk 71.  Pallav, one of our teaching assistants, will be reviewing and having hands-on exercises for Node.JS, a library for writing capabilities to be able create scalable Internet applications, notably web servers.

Node.js is a packaged compilation of Google’s V8 JavaScript engine, the libuv platform abstraction layer, and a core library, which is itself primarily written in JavaScript.

See you tomorrow at Blk 71!  Please make sure to follow the preparation instructions below (after your submission deadline tonight)!

Installation
 
If you’d like to participate in the workshop, please install node before-hand. Instructions for different Operating Systems are listed here:
 
Windows
Go to http://nodejs.org/. Click INSTALL. Follow through the installation process. To check that it works, go to the start menu and search for “powershell”. Run it. Now type “node –version”. If you see a number, you’re set.
Mac
Go to http://nodejs.org/. Click INSTALL. Follow through the installation process. Run Terminal and type “node –version” and press enter. If you see a number, you’re set.
Linux
Go to http://nodejs.org/. Now you have two options. You could, if you wish, click DOWNLOADS and get the Linux Binaries for your computer. However, you might prefer to install from source. To do this, click INSTALL, extract the folder, open it in a terminal, and follow through the process inside the README.md file (follow the “Unix/Mac” instructions). Run “node –version” to check that it works.
Note: For the purpose of keeping up-to-date with the latest version of Node.js, avoid using a package manager to install it.
Important Downloads
Download this file before the workshop starts, to avoid network-related delays later. This will allow you to code along through the entire workshop offline.

Posted on June 28, 2013 by orbital

Photo courtesy Google SingaporeA message and call for participation from Google, one of the partners in developing Orbital — a programme specific to Orbital students!

If you’re keen, please apply!
Dear Student,

Are you enthusiastic about self development? Would you like to be better prepared for the workplace? We believe possessing technical and soft skills are essential to high performance.

The Grow Beyond program is a great opportunity for you to develop your soft-skills. As a participant you will be able to develop the following skills:
– Self Awareness
– Ability to work well in teams
– Presenting with impact
– Create a strong personal brand
– Creative thinking and effective brainstorming

We will select up to 20 students to participate in this program. To qualify you must be enrolled in the NUS Orbital Program and able to attend the 2 sessions.

Time commitments – you must be able to attend the following sessions:
August 3, 9am to 3pm
August 6, 4pm to 8pm

Location: Google Singapore Office

Please submit this form (http://bit.ly/19H4r6D) if you are interested in applying.

Deadline to Apply: 16 July 2013

Looking forward to meet you,

Grow Beyond with Google team

Posted on June 24, 2013 by orbital

Photo credits: adesigna @ Flickr

Modern applications ranging from enterprise to social network applications are essentially designed and implemented based on the widely-adopted three-tier architecture, in which user interface, functional process logic and data storage/access are developed and maintained as independent modules.

For tomorrow’s Mission Control, we shall go through basic concepts and techniques in designing and implementing the data storage and data access component for those applications.

In the process, we will learn about various sub-phases of database design including conceptual, logic and physical design.  We also have some hands-on practice on designing databases with a CASE tool (RISE Editor), and working with a popular open-source database management system (MySQL).

The following pieces of software will be used in this mission control:

1.) RISE Editor for drawing ERDs (Entity Relationship Diagram)

http://www.risetobloome.com/clickonce/riseeditor/riseeditor.htm

2.) WAMPServer for developing three-tier applications

http://www.wampserver.com/en/

Posted on June 13, 2013 by orbital

Hi all:

As the IDA  / Google Developer Group Meet-Up on Cloud SQL is happening at Blk 71 overlapping exactly at 6-9pm on Tuesday evening, we’re postponing Tam’s session on basic databases for a week.

Head on over to the Cloud SQL Workshop at Blk 71 instead!  Make sure to register for it (see the details in the previous post)

 

 

 

 

Photo Credits: Gustavo da Cunha Pimenta @ Flickr http://www.flickr.com/photos/guspim/

Posted on June 13, 2013 by orbital

Dear all Orbital students:

Photo credits: JustGrimes @ Flickr http://www.flickr.com/photos/notbrucelee/

We have been in talks with the InfoComm Development Authority of Singapore (IDA) to have them over to talk about the data.gov.sg initiative.  They have also told us that they are in the midst of organizing some events that might be of interest to all of you.  You may want to consider joining in these two events happening next week (of course, please log your attending hours as part of your Orbital timesheet, as with everything else). Some of these events are happening at Blk 71 (again!).

[Snip — what follows is from IDA]

 

 

 

 

 

A.      Google Cloud SQL Workshop on 18th June 2013 (Tuesday)

We will be working with developer groups in Singapore to bring to you workshops which incorporate the latest technologies with government data.

The first of our workshops will be a collaboration effort between IDA and the Google Developer’s Group :

Theme : Google Cloud SQL and Big Query with Government data.
Date : 18 June 2013 (Tuesday)
Time: 6.00pm – 9.00pm
Location : Plugin@Blk 71. 71 Ayer Rajah Crescent #02-18, S(139951)
Register : http:/bit.ly/gdgsg1306

B.      Tech Talk on Entrepreneurship and Civic Innovation 

Join us for an evening with speakers from Google Ventures and Washington DC’s iStrategy Labs. Innovators in their own right, Bridgette and Peter will share tips on how developers and start-ups bring their solutions forward by dreaming big and aiming high.

Date : 19 June 2013 (Wednesday)
Time: 7.00pm – 9.00pm
Location : Plugin@Blk 71. 71 Ayer Rajah Crescent #02-18, S(139951)
Register : Email ida_dgs_admin@ida.gov.sg with your name and contact number.Seats are limited so register asap![Refreshments will be provided]

Agenda:

  • “Google, Entrepreneurship and Innovation” by Bridgette Beam, Global Entrepreneurship Manager, Google ventures
  • “Citizen Innovation for Smarter Cities” by Peter Corbett, Chief Executive Officer, iStrategy Labs
  • “Sharing on Apps4SG Competition and an upcoming Hackathon –  Looking for the brightest and most creative minds in Singapore to help improve the way we live, study, work and play” by data.gov.sg, IDA
  • Q&A with Bridgette and Peter

event logo (horizontal)_4Event Venue_4

Posted on June 13, 2013 by orbital

For tomorrow’s Mission Control, we will be going over two common web application vulnerabilities (including some live examples, Demo God willing) and their mitigations.

In the process, you will learn a little bit about cookies, sessions, password storage, and several web development and debugging tools that can make your life easier as a developer, or form part of your arsenal as an attacker.

The talk is rather unlikely to be recorded. Parts of the presentation containing personal information that was magically obtained may be omitted due to their sensitive nature.

Update: If you attended yesterday’s Mission Control session, you might be interested in these links: http://qxcg.net/how-websites-are-broken-resources.html.

 

Photo Credits: KatieJean97 @ Flickr http://www.flickr.com/photos/katiejean97/