This week we have some interesting meetings that isn’t so technical. Hey, whoever said HackerspaceSG were just for geeks?

Cambodian Comics & Web Comic
Mon, Mar 8 7:30 pm Mon, Mar 8 8:30 pm

John Weeks, comic researcher and an entrepreneur living in Cambodia is visiting us at hackerspace.sg this Monday. He will be talking about Cambodian comics. John is also keen on discussing the future comics. John is a member of ‘think tank’ Sang Salapak, co-founder of House 32 Web Design, and advisor to nonprofit publisher Our Books as well as numerous other organisations. He enjoys sharing his interests via blogging, drawing and varied writings. John’s opinions on art, culture, and technology have been cited in publications ranging from Time and USA Today to Punk Planet. Web: http://www.jweeks.net

ABAF Cocktails
Tue, Mar 9 7:00 pm Wed, Mar 10 1:00 am

We are hosting the Asian Business Angel Forum Cocktails and After Party for them. ABAF brings together for the first time early-stage venture players and participants: angel networks, investors, startup companies, policy makers, fund managers, and investment professionals from across Asia, Europe and the US.

Book Club Meetup
Wed, Mar 10 7:30 pm Wed, Mar 10 10:30 pm

We’ll be reading and discussing The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde – we’re a small but open group – all who’ve read the book or are interested literature are welcome.

2 months ago, Mariko from LG approached me to do a review of their latest LCD monitor, the LG W2486L. I thought, “Hey, why not?” not quite knowing what I was getting myself into. Among all my other friends that got a unit to review, it seems like not everyone had an idea how to review this. It is a little tough to review a monitor, but hey, I’m going to try and I hope you find this useful.

Table of Contents

Specifications
Notables
My Take
Summary
Photos
(more…)

1st week into March and have a whole slew of events lined up. I hope everyone had a great Chinese New Year and are ready for more events at HackerspaceSG than ever!

Hackerspace Hack Time
Mon, Mar 1 6:00 pm Mon, Mar 1 11:59 pm

We currently have the following projects being worked on – Sucktionator, Water Rocket, Stop Motion Animation, and many other miscellaneous projects currently worked on by our members. So come join in and hack on any of your projects!

Singapore Ruby Brigade Meetup
Wed, Mar 3 7:00 pm Wed, Mar 3 10:00 pm

This month, the topic for our regular Ruby meetup will be on Rails 3. That’s right! Rails 3 Beta was released last month, and we’re meeting up to discuss about what’s new with Rails 3, and possibly how it impacts your current Rails code. I always love a good Ruby discussion.

Introduction to Programming for Beginners Workshop (1/2)
Thu, Mar 4 7:30 pm Thr, Mar 4 10:00 pm

Please note this event is by registration only.

If you have always wondered how computer programs are written and whether you can write a program yourself here is your chance to find out! Over a 2-session workshop you will learn some of the fundamentals of programming and start writing your first programs almost at once! The workshop is designed to be hands-on and fun for complete beginners. We will be using the Python programming language. If you have always wondered how computer programs are written andwhether you can write a program yourself here is your chance to findout! Over a 2-session workshop you will learn some of the fundamentals of programming and start writing your first programs almost at once! The workshop is designed to be hands-on and fun for complete beginners. We will be using the Python programming language.

Online and Tech culture in Cambodia
Fri, Mar 5 7.30 pm Fri, Mar 5 8.30 pm

We will have two popular Cambodian bloggers visiting us on Friday, 5th March. Nearirath is a lawyer and one of the  Barcamp Phnom Penh organizers. Kounila is a writer and is currently planning her first documentary film. They will be talking about the adoption of technology and online culture in Cambodia and tech events in Cambodia.

GenJuice Meetup
Sat, Mar 6 6:00 pm Sat, Mar 6 9:00 pm

It’s basically a meet-up for young people to “get together to discuss their goals and how they market themselves to reach those goals.” (from the site). A personal branding meetup for young people, if you will. RSVP here.

I’m truly moved and convinced by Jamie Oliver that we need to do something to fight obesity. For me, that will be utilizing Social Media to educate the masses in a social way, a crowd sourcing way, a way that I know will make a difference in my own way.

Even though obesity is not as rampant in Singapore as the US or the UK, but we still need to be aware of what could happen. The Singapore Health Promotion Board is doing a great job right now curbing the increase number of obese children, but with the effluence of current society in Singapore, are we slowly moving towards becoming an obese society, especially when eating is a common past-time, more importantly eating out? I think we need to continue to be cautious and promote a healthy lifestyle.

Here is an article from 2008 on Obesity Prevention and Control Efforts in Singapore which I think touches on various issues and initiatives by the Singapore Health Promotion Board to control obesity.

How can you do your part in this fight? Teach your children, educate your parents. Always have a balanced meal – grains, meat, vegetables and dairy.

Are you making a difference to fight obesity today?

Here you go! Promotional videos of Windows Phone 7 Series.

Demo: Phones for a “Life in Motion”

See how Windows® Phone 7 Series reorganizes the phone, Web and applications to deliver a mobile experience that will help make the most of customers’ busy lives.

Partner Support for Windows Phone 7 Series

See what Microsoft partners are saying about Windows Phone 7 Series

Behind the Design

Albert Shum, Director of Mobile Experience Design at Microsoft, discusses the design inspiration for Windows® Phone 7 Series.

Windows Phone 7 Series Demo

See what happens when you push the envelope. Check out this video to get a first-hand look at the latest Windows Phone that brings your people, photos, music, and video into an unrivaled mobile experience. With a holistic design that brings together web content, applications and services into a single view, phones worships you now, not the other way around.

Yes that’s right. I’m travelling again, and this time it will be a longer trip. I’ll be back in 2 weeks! Don’t be alarmed if there are very few posts across the next 2 weeks. Cheers!

I’ll be primarily in these 3 major cities:

Vancouver, Canada

Seattle, US

Seoul, South Korea

I think this is a great read, even for non-designers out there.

Color Theory for Designers, Part 1: The Meaning of Color

Color in design is very subjective. What evokes one reaction in one person may evoke a very different reaction in somone else. Sometimes this is due to personal preference, and other times due to cultural background.

Color Theory For Designers, Part 2: Understanding Concepts And Terminology

If you’re going to use color effectively in your designs, you’ll need to know some color concepts and color theory terminology. A thorough working knowledge of concepts like chroma, value and saturation is key to creating your own awesome color schemes.

Color Theory for Designer, Part 3: Creating Your Own Color Palettes

Here we’ll be talking about methods for creating your own color schemes, from scratch. We’ll cover the traditional color scheme patterns (monochrome, analogous, complementary, etc.) as well as how to create custom schemes that aren’t based strictly on any one pattern.

The first meeting of the Singapore Silverlight User Group at HackerspaceSG went pretty well yesterday.

We had Michael Sync talk about the new features of Silverlight 4.0. We had a bunch of guys who came from Microsoft Singapore to witness the formation of this group. We had about 10 people who turned up just to join the group! After that, we had a great discussion on MEF with Silverlight, F# and C# language features, and various other discussions on the side. I thought it was a great night with a good mix of discussions, random thoughts, Mac vs Windows clashes, and I hope that the community loved it.

Our next meeting will be sometime in March, so look out for the announcements!

Take a look at some of the photos.

There isn’t a lot of events happening this week, in anticipation of Chinese New Year and Valentines Day. However there is 1 important event happening at HackerspaceSG this week.

Singapore Silverlight User Group
Wed, Feb 10 7:00 pm Tue, Feb 10 10:00 pm

This is the FIRST meeting of the FIRST Silverlight User Group in Singapore, and it is also the FIRST time we have a Microsoft-oriented event at HackerspaceSG. Yes. That’s right. There will be a very short lap around Silverlight 4.0, followed by a discussion based meeting. Come and join the fun if you’re writing Silverlight applications, or if you’re interested to find out more.

Our Cellphone episode. Whip out your search engine and start looking for all these old cellphones we’ve been talking about.

DigressCast Episode 10: The Cellphone Episode