Man in the Coffee... nice one

Received this image long time ago forwarded by friends. Although has already found the man's head in the image last time, after a while, we still need to refresh our mind to find that man. Anyone able to find in less than 3 seconds?

Let's get your brain to work! Can you find the man in the picture in 3 seconds?
According to medical research,

• If you find it in less than 3 seconds, your brain is developed above the normal brain.
• If you find it in a minute, you have a normal developed brain.
• If you find it between 1 and 3 minutes, your brain is responding slowly. Protein intake might help.
• If it takes you more than 3 minutes, your brain is responding too slow and perhaps more exercise like this might help you to develop that part of your brain.

It's not a joke... the man is really there.
Have fun.

14-08-2008 Microsoft Tech-Ed SEA Fourth Day (Last Day)

There's only 3 slots of session today as this is the last day, ended with Ka-boom! Party at 5pm. I didn't stay there that long as I need to catch a cab at 4pm to KLIA to get an earlier flight back to Penang together with my other colleagues.

I attended only 2 sessions today:

• DAT441 - Microsoft SQL Server 2008 - Data Mining Internals (by Wee Hyong Tok)
  --> learn about the data mining concepts, how to tune and test various data mining techniques for forecasting. Also touch on Data Mining Add-Ins which can help anybody in forecasting (eg. financial planning)
  
  
• WUX241 - Creating a Web-enabled Corporate Data Access Layer (by Prasanna Amirthalingam)
  --> talks about the ADO.Net data esrvices to create a global data access layer within the corporate. Just put some filters in the URL and the results are returned through the web.
  
  

Today's lunch was in level 3 outside the conference hall and the exhibition hall. The queue to get the food still the same... LONG!

Ka-Boom! Party starts at 1.30pm and there are lots of activities held in the hall. There's Ka-Boom! Time, Rock It, Sha-Zaam, Vrooooom, Whack and Zap. Not to forget there's a local rap band to rock the house down... It's KLG SQWAD.

• Ka-Boom! Time - funtastic games to join and win great prizes which is held at the stage area, host by the MC.
  
• Rock It - A game where a team of 4 will perform live on the stage, playing guitar, drum and singing.
• Sha-zaam - Get a great snap shop of yourself with the super hero and you can keep the photo as a momentos. (** no physical super hero is there, I was expecting some cosplay wearing the super hero clothes and pretend to be one. )
  
• Vrooooom - If you think you are the next Lewis Hamilton, get the engines roaring and speed up. Play the game and get the best lap time to win the prize.
  
• Whack - As the game title speaks, whack of be whacked. Quite an interesting game for the guys but might seem a little voilent for the gals... pushing the other party to fall from the area.
  
• Zap - Capture a create and inventive photo with a given toy (prior to the event due date), and selected photos will be displayed for voting.
  
• Collectibles Corner - An expansive, exclusive and unique range of marvel comic collectibles by a specially invited collector.
  

Reach KLIA airport around 5.20pm and manage to get an earlier flight at 6.10pm. Packed some dinner from Burger King and rushed for check in. Finally get to be back to PG around 7.10pm.

What can I say for this Tech-Ed event? Fun, cool, interesting and useful information downloaded through the track sessions and instructor labs which helps in my work as well as personal interest. Food has improved, with more choices and better taste. However, this year's freebies and gifts are not as good as last year.

13-08-2008 Microsoft Tech-Ed SEA Third Day

Yay, today I won the consolation prize in the Bingo activities... and the prize is a T-shirt.

Haven't really see how it looks like, will examine and show you guys tomorrow as today I'm quite tired.

What I did today?

1. Normal usual stuff: Wake up, bath, breakfast
2. Tech-Ed stuff: Attend sessions and labs which I'm interested (8 sessions & labs in total)
3. Additional stuff: Visiting exhibition hall, participating in some games/activities by the booth
4. Nice dinner in Jogoya with Beatrice, Ing Chen and ex-colleague, KK
5. Checking emails and blog

Photos of some pretty gals in the exhibition hall (ignore the guy. )

Sessions & labs attended today:

• SBP031-ILL - Developing Workflow Services (by Nigel Watling)
  --> a lab session on how to build, configure and host a WCF service as well as consume the service from a website. (lab duration too short to finish all the exercise (1.15 hours), suggest a longer time for labs)
  
  
• ARC311 - Dude Where's My Business Logic (BL)? (by Chad Hower)
  --> a room pack with people, just imagine that I need to sit on the floor to attend this. He shares on where we should put the BL, what we are doing wrong and solutions to it.
  
  
• DAT333 - Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Features for Developers (by Bikesh Lakhmichand)
  --> shows some of the new features from SQL Server 2008 to ease developers job.
  
• WUX334 - A Developer Who Hacks Your Application (by Walter Wong)
  --> similar with last year's session on "Hack or Being Hack" session. Demos on how you can actually hack into an application, example: SQL Injection and Cross-site scripting
  
  
• SVR035-ILL - Windows Server 2008: Web and Applications Platform (by Ken Schaefer)
  --> lab session that shows the benefits and major features of IIS 7.0 and
  provide step by step on how to configure an application pool, create a web service, IIS roles management, and many more.
  
  
• DAT335 - Security Enhancements in Microsoft SQL Server 2008 (by II-Sung Lee)
  --> focus on the encryption and decryption, SQL Server 2008 enhancements like Transparent DB Encryption, Extensible Key Management and Auditing
  
  

Today's dinner is superb. Kim Kiat meet us in the hotel and we go to Jogoya in Starhill for buffet dinner. There's varieties of food and far more choice on the desserts.

Beatrice, KK, Ing Chen, Me

Some of the food taken

Back to hotel around 11pm... Quite late and tired, missing t-shirt still not yet found. Will need to check with the housekeeping tomorrow morning before checking out from hotel. Free t-shirt from bingo game comes in handy again. Oops, it's already 2am. Didn't notice that time flies very fast. Need to get some rest now. Good night.

12-08-2008 Microsoft Tech-Ed SEA Second Day

Collected my green t-shirt today for Blogging Contest 100 early participants.

This t-shirt comes in handy as I realize my t-shirt for wear in hotel room went missing today. Maybe the house keeping has mixed it up with the bedsheet as my t-shirt is white in colour. Waiting for them to check whether they are able to find my t-shirt. Luckily that I have this green hulk t-shirt to wear tonight, else....

Among the sessions attended today:

• TLA321 - Understanding C# Lambda Expressions (by Bikesh Lakmichand)
  --> it showcase samples and demos on using lambda expressions (=> syntax) in C#, use it as needed.
  
• WUX223 - Ultimate Data Visualization Experience with WPF (by Walter Wong)
  --> interesting session, effective presenter, shows you how to leverage the power of WPF, collabrate VS2008 WPF and Expression Blend. Plus, there's freebies up for grab as well.
  
  
• WUX221 - WPF Performance & Best Practices (by Dirk Primbs)
  --> shares on how to optimize apps that use WPF, what are the perf tools you can use and demos on how to use it.
  
  
• Innovative Geeks - Nurturing Entrepreneurship & Leadership for Women in Technology
  --> specially designed event for women in ICt industry, with useful tips for women, sharing life experiences and advices from the well-known women in entrepreneurs.
  
  
• OFC024-ILL - Using Microsoft Office Excel 2007 Spreadsheets for Web Service-Based Calculations and Browser Rendering (by Y-Mi Wong & Patrick Yong)
  --> a lab session that teach you how to publish and work with Excel 2007 Services in MOSS 2007.
  
  
  
• WUX224 - Introducing Silverlight 2 - Media (by Oliver Scheer)
  --> learn how to use Expression Blend and VS to create a WOW websites and UX. also on Silverlight Streaming
  
  

Meet with some of my coursemates as well. Really long long time didn't meet time after graduation...

Huei Sian and me

Shen Long and me

Loo Toon and me

After all the sessions, went back to hotel, drop all the stuff, and heads to Pavilion for dinner. Go to TonyRoma's restaurant for steak feasting.

Strawberry Baiquiri

Roasted Garlic & Rosemary Chicken, Bountiful Beef Ribs

Good night for now... More to go tomorrow!

11-08-2008 Microsoft Tech-Ed SEA First Day

Today, wake up at 7am, bath and get ready for breakfast at 8am. Start a great day with a full stomach. ^_^.

Walk past Wisma UOA to KL Convention Centre and straight to the Handout Counter to get my cap. Wonder why my other colleagues couldn't get the cap?? The cap looks cool with the words.. "Certified I am. You are not". Maybe is it just for MCP? Some of my colleagues are MCP as well. Wonder why...

Attend the Keynote session at Plenary Hall, Level 1. Some snapshots of the keynote speakers:

Saw Ken Wye, VP, Asia Pacific, Microsoft

Dato' Badlisham Ghazali, CEO Multimedia Development Corporation

Ward Ralston, Group Technical Product Manager, Microsoft

Forgotten his name...

Some of the Wow Thing..

After the keynote session, its lunch time. The lunch this year is better than last year. They also have more rows of food so that people don't cramp up in a lane. Thumbs up for the food, especially the desserts. But this round, the coffee and tea are not auto-served. Need to ask for it from the waiter/waitress.

After lunch, take a visit to the Exhibition Hall for some games, product and services information from participating companies... and some goodies... ^_^ There's some exhibition hall activities like Bingo, Crazy Word Mix, Geeks Face-Off, Hunt the "Fugitive", Speed Typing and many more other activities going on.

First track session starts at 1.30pm and each session is 1.15 hour long with 15 minutes interval break between each session.

I attended 4 sessions from 1.30pm until 7.15pm. Phew.. It was a tiring day, but at the same time an exciting day with lots of new knowledge, latest technologies information to learn.
Some of the sessions that I wanted to attend but are not able to attend due to crash with other session. Anyway, the 4 sessions that I attended are:

• The Real-Estate Architecture Role
  (discussing more on the UX experience and the importance of it, relating to the real estate property, interesting session and great speake -- Aaron Tan Dani)
  
• Developing a Windows Presentation Foundation Application
  (instructor lead lab ILL, not enough time to really go through all of the content, should allocate longer time for ILL)
  
• Building Next Generation Data Access Layers with the ADO.NET Entity Framework
  (more to overview of Entity Framework, see that many people rate this session as Below Expectation, as for me Average)
  
• What's New in Microsoft Visual C# 3.0?
  (ILL, great presenter/instructor, easy to understand lab, worth the time to attend)
  

Bump into Alex, my ex-colleague. ^_^

Going back to hotel around 7.45pm, then walk to Equatorial Hotel for dinner in Kampachi with Ing Chen. Nice dinner served and the food is good. ^_^

Finished dinner near to 10pm, back to hotel room, check some company emails, replying emails and bath. Then blogging until its 1.15am now. Gotta get some rest for Day 2's session.

Good night!