Merry Christmas to all

It's year 2008 Christmas! Wishing everyone a Merry Christmas, and not to miss, to my lovely sister who's now in US. And of course, a day to rest for everyone who's not working.

Thanks to all my friends who wishes me and sms-ed me "Merry Christmas".

Singing Carol songs... "Silent Night, Holy Night, ..."
Enjoy a special Christmas night ^_^

GPTW Social Linkage 21-8-2008

Backdated blog... Time machine back to 21st August 2008.

We had our GPTW social linkage in Deluxcious Restaurant, Penang as a token of appreciation for all hard work done by all the GPTW members in our department.

It started with a lunch, followed by a list of activities planned by each individual.

Deluxcious has a variety of lunch set offered. All the set comes in a 5 course jumbo set which includes Smoked Salmon Salad, Soup of the Day, a Main Dish, Dessert and Coffee/Tea. Among those main dishes from their menu:

Set A @ RM33

• Marinated Miso Lamb
• Crisp Skin and Vanilla Scented Chicken with Cheese Sausage
• Baked Seabass Fish with Basil Crumb
• Confit Salmon
• Pan-fried Salmon with Mushroom
• Seafood with Tomato Bisque

Set B @ RM39

• Pan-Braised Barramundi Fish with Fresh assorted Mushroom
• Keith Marinated Chicken with King Prawn
• BBQ King Prawn with Linguine Mushroom
• Grilled escolar fish with citrus jus

Set C @ RM58

• Petuna Ocean Trout Fish with Ratatatuille
• Baked Ocean Cod Fish with Crusty Potato
• Halve Lobster with Cheese Sausage
• Pan-Braised Ocean Cod Fish with mackerel stock

Set D @ RM75

• Rack of Lamb with Gallette Potato
• Seared Tenderloin Beef with red wine and shallot jus (180gm)
• Seared Rib-Eye Beef (230gm)

Set E @ RM99

• Pan-Seared Beef Tenderloin and Foie Gras

Set F @ RM109

• Halve Lobster, Cod Fish, King Scallop, Mussel with Tomato Bisque

Those in red are highly recommended by Chef Keith.

I ordered the Grilled escolar fish with citrus jus set.
After the lunch, we started to play games. The first games which is "Guess Who Am I".

Next, we played "Tangram" where the first team to complete 3 of the picture given will be the winner.

The last game we played was "Charade" and one person will be acting while the rest in the group will guess what he/she acts.

Overall, it was a fun get-together with GPTW team after all those extra time spend organizing activities and events for our department. Looking forward for another social linkage end of this year !

And KUDOS to our GPTW team members, with Karen as the President.

Our gals group...

For more photos, please visit: http://sherlynchew.multiply.com/photos/album/137

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!