The Journey ends...or does it?

So let me begin in the typical way. Its been a hell of a ride. This may sound cliche but, well, it sure was a hell of a ride. There are not many such modules on NUS (I think I can safely say none). All impetus is given on the practicality and the real world implications of anything and everything you do or develop. I got to talk to real users. I got to pitch to REAL people who actually were there to see what we had done. I got to do real user testing and it wasn't some cooked up survey or surveymonkey. When all of this began, I had no idea how important user feedback was, well, now I know. I don't know how to say this in any other way but CS3216 is one of the most awesome modules in NUS and it made me realize how much I really love building stuff that people use (funny when its put that way but yeah). CS3216 gave me such an opportunity. Professor Ben gave me this opportunity and I am happy to say I didn't waste it. Before I go on to summarize what I learnt in these few short months, I would really like to thank Professor Ben for CS3216. I can't believe 3216 will be offered no more. The students of NUS are really missing something here, but I guess everyone needs to take a break every once in a while even Professor Ben :)
Now, on to summarize what I've learned. Lets do a comparison with my first blogpost

Level-up my Porgramming skills

Lots of improvement in that department. My coding quality has improved significantly and this has become an indispensable tool when different members of my team used to just dive right into each others' code, picking up where the other person left off. Though we didn't need to implement any complex algorithms and the code was basically quite simple, I learnt the benefits of knowing the tricks of the language or framework you're working on. Don't do take 5 steps when all that is required is one.

Upto speed on Mobile/Web Development

Really got what I wanted here. I had only worked on small parts of projects and mostly only on the back-end with Java. But on MoneySlate I worked on the front-end and got to design as well as implement most of the UI interactions and I must say it was an enlightening experience. I got to work at the Bleeding edge with Jquery Mobile and HTML5, literally tracing how JQuery Mobile got better and better with each release (I was there for it from Beta2 to RC2 and am still active reporting bugs on its forums). I am quite upto speed on Web and Mobile Development here. All those memory considerations and speed optimizations you thought weren't necessary are back as requirements when you develop for the mobile. I had to redesign an entire User interaction for MoneySlate when what we saw on the desktop wasn't what we got. We got some laggy browser-crasher on the mobile.
So, I more than exceeded my expectations in this area, but of course there is a lot more to learn. Only the tip of the iceberg here

A little from everyone

There was something to learn from everyone in 3216. There were so many brilliant people and not to mention the plethora of talks given. I have never learnt so much varied stuff from one single module. My writing skills were brushed up. I learnt the art of a good presentation while working for the FB app seminar presentation (and also found how not to do presentations). My teammate Aaron showed me how powerful the words 'I can do it' can be. My FB assignment teammates showed how preparing in advance and planning ahead make life easier close to the deadlines (though this was only SHOWN to me and not LEARNT by me as yet :P ). The animated discussions in class were also fun to follow and this was one module where I loved the lectures.

Communication Skills

A definite level-up over here. Though I still have quite a long way to go before I can say I am a bit of a communicator, it sure is quite a few steps in the right direction. I never had any problem with communication in small groups, infact I am pretty good at it. Its just the large gatherings that knock me over. However, I managed to present in front of the class for the final progress report. However, the real deal was at the poster session when I really faced lots of people and pitched about my app. Doing that for quite sometime gave me more confidence and having that amount of confidence actually shows on the other person.

Collaboration and Teamwork

Got to work with different 'kinds' of people ranging from silent and efficient to even a loud-mouth. Conclusion is I can get along with anyone. I just can't get some of the local Singaporean or the Chinese jokes but no harm. I would like to take this opportunity to thank each and everyone of my teammates. I would definitely like to work with them again. Of course my MoneySlate team is still 'working' together :P

Time Management

Absolutely no luck here :P Some day I might get the hang of this but until then, the last minute camping technique seems to work well enough.

So what else?

Well, the past few months just flew past and I ave so much to look back at, so many mistakes and goof-ups to laugh back at. I would like to finish saying that the most important thing is not to know everything but to keep learning and keep yourself updated. In our fast-paced world, things change before you can say 'change' and we must always be ready to adapt quickly and keep learning. Lastly, I have nothing more to say other that he fact that CS3216 Rockss...

Not the last blog Yet

UOMe to MoneySlate

As Darren correctly pointed out, there was an entire mess around the name UOMe and it just made no sense to try and stand out from the meaningless melee of search results on google. So we decided it was name changing time. I am sure a few of them were surprised with this almost eleventh hour name change but it was really worth it as people are able to find our app more easily and the name is not as 'insensitive' as it apparently was before.

The journey is not yet complete though. We got a lot of feedback for the app and will continue developing it. One funny thing I found myself doing during the poster session was pitching for my app as well as the entirety of HTML5 webapps and how they might one day trump native apps. I even got into long debates with random people and the entire experience was fun. I had never actually done a real sales pitch before but today was awesome and kindof got the hang of it. By the 3rd time I was pitching I was so confident that everything went like clockwork and believe me, this confidence you show really sways people to your app eventhough they might seem to be reluctant to the idea at first. The icing on the cake was when Aravindh and myself got the Vice-Dean interested in our app and made him forget the fact that he had given us only 5 minutes to talk (Ofcourse we knew he was the Vice-Dean only after Prof. Ben told us). Summarizing, I feel this has been a great step for me in presenting as well as selling my ideas more clearly and the fact that I could convince so many people is testament that it was indeed a great step forward. Well, time to sleep now and look at what is happening in the other modules too.

My hand at Vsee

Ok so its blogging time. I seem to have random stuff scribbled into my ipad (thanks for that Prof. Ben :)) which I dont want to let die.

So here comes the first of many blogposts.

This one pertains to Vsee. As I was going through my notes i was surprised at how graphically I could remember his talk and recall whatever he said. Now why doesn't that happen in my other modules. Well probably its because I am half asleep :P but I just realized the importance of notes, notes made by us I mean rather than the abridged powerpoint lecture notes.

Anyway, Milton Chen, you're awesome. I was astonished at how you could work seven days a week, yet travel all around the world and keep you employees happy too. When it comes to striking a balance, kudos to you. What I gathered from this lecture was that being passionate about what you do somehow gives that extra amount of energy and pushes us more. Ofcourse its a cliche we have all heard, be passionate about your work...blah...blah, but here you could see that passion.

Recently, one of my friends got a Vsee account for his own group project and I wanted to see if the quality of the video conference was as good as I saw in the lecture. However, I was a little disappointed as there was some lag and quality did dip at times. Well, I am sure it will get better. Afterall its driven by a persistent and passionate Mr.Milton Chen.