I was taking part in the codeXtremeApps coding competition over the weekend, an event organized by the ITSC (Information Technolog Standard Committee) of Singapore. It is a 24 hours coding competition held in SMU, where you will have to come out with a web application in 24 hours time with a specific theme (given on the competition day itself).

Theme given was Tourism and/or Participative Society, so we decided to kick in with a simple gallery written in Ruby on Rails. Unfortunately we did not win out, but did not regret the 24 hours of efforts our team puts in. In the end, its the experiences that counts. We are still happy with it :-). and the team was awesome (Good job guys). Here’s our end product if you are wondering what we’ve build from scratch in 24 hours time. Here’s a list of what other participating teams had done.

The Prizes

So what do you get for winning the competition? Organizers throw in 3 attractive prices. Each team member of the winning team gets $5000 in value where they get to visit Google headquarters in California, all expenses covered. Team members for 1st and second runner up gets $3000 and $1000 in cash each. Attractive prices, but too bad none goes to our team :-) Here’s some photos I’ve managed to take during the event.

Room that gathers all programmers before event kicks off.

Organizers telling us a geek joke.

Where the event was held.

Participants, part of them.

The room where I’ll stick my butt in for the next 24 hours.

The Wordpress tees I ordered about a month ago was satisfying, so I went searching for other geek t-shirts and end up buying some from Digg store. It took folks at JiNX less than 10 days for the product to arrive at door steps. I did not pay extra for fast shipping, so considered the international shipping to Singapore was quite fast.

Together with the purchase are some free stickers and discount code. So here’s something for readers of hongkiat.com. If you intend to buy some digg merchandise or anything from JiNX, let me know so I can pass you a promotion code that entitles to 10% discount.

My schedule here in Singapore is quite tight; gonna meet up some bosses for interviews and business opportunities, also friends for old time’s sake. But in the mean time, let’s play some Wii. To my surprise a Mii Character of me has long exist inside the Wii. Jim must have missed me bad enough.

What happen when you have constant post everyday and you just stopped for 2 days in a row? Your readership drops, especially from loyal followers. My feed readers were constantly rising from 800-900 over the month and I was predicting to break 1k this month end but due to the lack of posting during weekend, I see a 40% drop in feedburner readership. It doesn’t affect much in revenue but still it’s painful though. But I’ll make it back :-)

A lot of blog articles out there use to say, blogging can only earn you side income to pay some bills and 99% of bloggers never really make much from blogging. Here’s what I think, if you really believe into something, with determination and effort you will succeed no matter what. Friends and colleagues (former colleagues now) have been telling me how risky I am for not having an alternative job in hand when quitting, honestly I don’t really see it that way.

Now that I’m jobless, anyone’s up to hire me? Lol. Oh wait, does this makes me a Problogger now? :-)

The balance of my life – mahjong. If you think this is an old man’s time passing entertainment, you are fucking wrong. I read blogs about singaporeans, famous ones, stupid ones, everyone. Seems like Singaporeans like to play mahjong too, but Singaporeans play 4 sided mahjong – often call 4-kah mahjong.

Now, that is way boring. I don’t know what they like in it. It’s slow, annoying, time wasting. Sian, even my brother in Singapore plays 4-kah mahjong. Damn it. People around me play 3-kah mahjong. Fast, heart stopping, big credit turnover and fast thinker required. That’s what I call a game. I’m such a junkie, will spend most weekends playing. Weekdays too if I have the kakis.

I’m looking forward to accomplish all patterns in the mahjong-finishings. Let’s see,

I’ve finished in these ways,
渣糊
5番（鸡） – 9番
全筒字
全筒字平糊
全筒字对对
小三元
全10番 爆

and of coz these patterns, that pissed people off

天湖
地糊
大四西
小四西
大三元
肮脏糊
全字 爆
九子连环 （九莲宝灯）
盖盖糊
起手4飞天糊
4飞满糊

and my collection is lonely without these :(

[满清18罗汉]
[起手14花]

once I complete this 2 patterns, I think my journey will end and I shall die :)