The talks, on topics from gigapixel photography to entrepreneurship risk, were generally interesting, but I would have enjoyed the evening more had I not had to battle this ridiculously persistent cough.
Computational Social Science Researcher and Software Engineer
Showing posts with label 2010. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 2010. Show all posts
Friday, October 22, 2010
Saturday, October 2, 2010
Singapore 2010
View from 26 floors up in Ang Moh Kio
The lush natural beauty of the tropical evergreens combined with the glowing constructed monuments of global cities. My now-annual Mid-Autumn pilgrimage to the Lion City had me see some of the old, and some of the new - people, food and places. It just keeps getting better.
And I got to see the cutest baby on earth.
Sri Lanka 2010
Near Pinnawala elephant orphanage
Lush natural beauty, tons to see, great food, tourist-friendly, easy on the wallet.
Friday, April 30, 2010
Clash of the Titans (2010)
| Rating: | ★★★ |
| Category: | Movies |
| Genre: | Action & Adventure |
Regarding the myth on which this was based, it was ok on a lot of important points, but someone really needs to tell the writers that the legendary Perseus did become a king, and in fact has a major Hellenic dynasty named after him. Other than that, the new Kraken was magnificent, and I liked the characterization of Medusa in this version better than the one in the original stop-motion film, but what the flip was Io doing in this story? I mean, someone had to do the talky background/introduction bits, but that could be have been achieved in more subtle ways. And some of the lines in the film were aggrandized to the point of sermonizing.
Ah, well. See it for the visuals, see it for the action, but leave your brain at the concession stand.
Saturday, April 3, 2010
Taste of Dubai 2010
Taste of Dubai is here again, tickles the 'buds in 2010. An annual event for the last couple years, this year's ToD (17th - 20th Mar) saw the heavyweights of Dubai's restaurant scene and F&B-related industries converge on DMC Amphitheatre to sell teaser morsels and hopefully brands as well.
Few freebies to be found - just samples of cookies, coffee and iced lemon. Hats off to the Fair Play Projects for some more-than-fair playing of music.
We did catch a free demo of the preparation of sea bass baked in a salt/herb crust with asparagus risotto, courtesy of the Tefal Chef's Theatre. A demo by none other than Atlantis' Giorgio Locatelli AND his mother.
Enough free stuff! Time to cough up big heap "dellah" coupons for little heap food. For starters, pea gazpacho, from Magnolia.
Then melt-in-the-mouth fish & chips with a pea mash, from Rivington Grill.
Followed by delicious tenderloin with black bean sauce and pepper, from Zheng He's.
Topped off with absolutely dreamy iced strawberry with clotted cream, from Gary Rhodes's restaurant Rhodes Mezzanine.
Friday, March 12, 2010
DemoCamp Dubai 2010
Held at DKV this year, DemoCamp Dubai (#DemoCampDubai) is a periodic forum for select Dubai-based entrepreneurs to, well, demo their nascent tech business forays to industry experts, venture capitalists and the interested public. DemoCamps have apparently been held in Canada, Saudi Arabia and Egypt as well, and this one was the fifth in the Dubai series. Led by a brief on entrepreneurial tactics by a VC guest speaker, the six presenters were then given 10 minutes each to describe their businesses. As this was my first DemoCamp, I cannot confirm the gripes, but the previous ones seem to have been more casual and geek-oriented than this one, which was accused of being too corporate. Well, there were plenty of suits not to mention a VIP sofa row. Anyway, my observations on each presentation:
A service-provider for "advergaming" - the insertion of paid-for advertisement sprites into web games built on their compatibility platform. One of the most interesting, original and globally-envisioned, they made a good business decision to only provide the service. Thus, they leave the game-making to the relevant professionals, but can capture the business by providing and encouraging adoption of the platform standard and building up a network effect.
An exclusively B2B platform for furniture designers, furniture suppliers, hoteliers and real estate developers to post, buy and sell furniture in bulk. It's got a very well-designed search tool and a highly navigation-friendly site with cross-linking everywhere.
An aspiring Amazon for the Middle East. While facing significant barriers of cross-border discontinuity in delivery and payment, it has some good points with linguistic and regional customization, as well as aiming for a real-time approach to pricing and logistic decision-making. I wish them the best, as the region could do with a good online shopping economy.
A MENA-specific version of LinkedIn. An employee of a MENA-focused SME myself, I can say that, despite the naysayers, there is nothing particularly disadvantageous in targeting a geographical niche with an existing global business model, as long as the business seeks depth, nuance and engagement in regional coverage, rather than merely following a generic business model while selling to a regional market. It has some teething issues, and took the most flak during the Q&A.
A service that charges customers to assemble albums of images that are stored in different places on the web. Its selling points appear to be simplicity and various temporal and geographic customization filters that can be applied to visitors. However, this is a service that could easily be replicated by existing social networking sites or photo-hosting sites for free. It could do with a more community-oriented approach, perhaps, and think of other value-added services that would justify whipping out a credit card.
Information and advertising site for Arab weddings. Targeting a very lucrative market with detailed, relevant information and a highly niche-specific approach. Seeking scalability, but faces barriers in outreach to an otherwise very offline business community. Still, they can count on their current depth and breadth of coverage, and try to hold onto their first-mover advantage.
Friday, January 22, 2010
StanChart Dubai Marathon 2010
My first time participating, and it was not too bad, actually. My company sponsors employees who register, so I signed up and headed out to the venue at Media City today at 06:00. It was well organized for the most part, except the crowded registration point for medals. LOTS of people turned up. And most oddly, Vittel was marketing water.
Starting out at 06:45, I did a mix of walking and jogging, and completed the 10K in about 75 minutes - an average speed of 8 km/h. As expected, the Ethiopian dude won the men's full 42K marathon (exceeding the record he set last year by 2 or 3 minutes, unfortunately), although some new lass won the women's (keeling over and throwing up right after crossing the finish line, I heard).
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