CyanogenMod Bootcamp in Hanoi

Back in Hanoi after a long trip, it is time to do yet another hack event. This weekend I organized an CyanogenMod Bootcamp. If you haven't heard about CyanogenMod project, it is an aftermarket firmware for a number of cell phones based on the open-source Android operating system.

We got two Samsung Galaxy S2 mobile phones and a Nexus 7 tablet to work with at the bootcamp. The goal was to try to install CM10 Android Jelly Bean on devices without bricking them. The three teams worked in parallel and jotted down their notes on etherpad.

Before you start, Understand the basic terminology. Now Get, Set .. Go!

Nexus 7 running CM10 Android Jelly Bean

Samsung Galaxy S2 I9100 running CM10 (Nightly release)

Samsung Galaxy S2 I9100G running Android 4 Jelly Bean CM10 (Stable release)

Keep watching this space for detailed instructions on how to install Android 4.0 Jelly Bean on these devices.

Kinect-Powered Interactive Ads Display System

Spotted this interaction Ads display in a shopping mall in Warsaw. Watch the video here

Marketed by Lemon & Orange, this Kinect powered gesture controlled interaction display shows talk bubbles with products over the heads of shoppers walking by.

It is a nice hack. No, it doesn't read minds.

GNOME Asia Summit 2012, Hong Kong

The city of Hong Kong hosted the Gnome Asia Summit this year. GNOME is a popular open source desktop environment for gnu/Linux Operating System. This annual event attracts people from diverse open source communities across Asia.

GNOME Asia Summit kicked off with the pre-event GNOME Design Workshop. The workshop helped GNOME contributors and developers understand GNOME environment design process. The workshop was intended for novice and experience UX designers, graphic artists and experienced desktop users.

The usability of the Open Source desktop environments has always left something to be desired. The keynote talks at the event delivered by GNOME Developers were very interesting. The GNOME community which was mired by conversation and dissent. Recently the developers revamping the software under the 'Every Detail Matters' initiative. Efforts to bring new UX paradigms into GNOME are also in full swing. Check out the GNOME team mock-ups here.

3D software used to create eye-popping prototypes. Don't believe me, check out this YouTube video Channel.

Graphical User Interface's visual elements such as icons, graphics are being re-designed. You can look at the latest icon theme from the GNOME project here. Graphic designers can use Inkscape and Blender to create high-quality visual graphices. You can download the basic symbolic gnome icon set from here.

In the last few years, Javascript programming language had become very popular. Today applications written in Javascript are just as fast as native applications. Gnome-shell window manager is written using Javascript, thanks to GObject Introspection libraries such as Gjs and Seed. This means you can use your web development skills to enhance and extend your GNOME Desktop functionality.

The Gnome-shell add-ons is integrated closely with the Gnome Extensions service. It lets you share your extensions easily, search and enabling new features is a breeze.

The summit also featured talks related to teaching Open Hardware concepts, Gnome Accessibility, Community development and Gender equality in Open Source communities and Localization tools and GNOME predictive text input system

Startup Investment Hour in Hanoi

Opportunities abound for those who think big in Vietnam. Recently 5Desire, a local startup accelerator organized Startup Investment hour. The event attracted a large gathering of young bright eyed entrepreneurs in Hanoi City.

After some informal social networking over a cup of coffee. The event kicked off with an interactive session on investment opportunists for startups in Vietnam. Four startups did elevator pitches and fending some real hard questions from the investor panel and the audience.

Startup culture in this booming economy is still in its infant stage. Events like do help young entrepreneurs learn more about the opportunities startups with some great ideas.

View more pictures from the event on 5Desire page

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Buying Arduino in Hong Kong

Didn't expect it would be so hard to buy Arudino open source prototyping platform hardware in Hong Kong. On a brief stopover in Hong Kong to attend Gnome Asia 2012. It would take a lot of time to hunt for Arduino boards in Hong Kong's famed electronics markets. It would be wise to do some homework before hitting the markets.

Got a lucky break while digging through the Dimsum Labs facebook page. Found the Candy Chan's shop address in Sham Shui Po in Kawloon. The shop's website lists all the Arduino boards, shields and various electronic components. Navigating the maze of shops in Sham Shui Po is not for faint hearted. You won't have any problems finding these shops with the direction given below.

• Tell How Technologies

• G37, Wonder Building, 161-175 Fuk Wa Street, Shamshuipo, Kawloon, Hong Kong
• Phone: 27427881 / 68085307 / 86-15012528870
• Email:tellhow37 (at) yahoo (dot) com (dot) hk
• Website: www.tellhow-tech.com

Take the MTR to the Sham Shui Po station, exit through Gate D2 on to Fuk Wa street. You will find yourself facing the Golden Computer Center, the Wonder building is on your right. You will find the shop on the ground floor of this building.

Stumbled upon Man Wai-Yun's shop that offered a large collection of sensors, kits from DFRobot.com. You need to wait few days for the components to be shipped in from Taiwan.

• Rainbow Computer Peripherals

• LG No.60, Golden Building 146-152 Fuk Wah Street, Kawloon, Hong Kong
• Phone: 2728-1819
• Email: info (at) abcde (dot) com
• Website: www.rcpcomputer.com

The shop in the basement level of the Golden Computer Center. The best way to find the shop would be to ask the guard at security desk to guide you to the shop No. 60.

It is easy to find open hardware online but finding a shop that stocks them would be really hard. Next time I'll buy the open hardware online at DealExtreme.com .

Hanoi Co-Working Space Now Open

Good news for digital nomads around the world. Hanoi now has a co-working space. 5Desire startup incubator and consulting company helped us create this co-working space. Register here and come prop yourself up on a couch for free!.

If you are feeling generous we could definitely use some money for a dedicated high-speed Internet connection and a coffee machine.

Hanoi Co-Working Space: How came to be ?

I had moved to Vietnam two years ago. Had been looking for a co-working space in Hanoi ever since. Working out of bedroom at night and coffee shops by day just works, but soon you'll start craving for some company of your own kind. Finally after a year of work the co-working space is now a reality. A big hug to all my friends in Vietnam and across the world for all the support.

Barcamper Preetam Rai once shared his vision of building a inter network of hackerspaces, co-working spaces and startups across South East Asia. These spaces could be a harbinger of innovation, exchange of ideas and foster new startups.

Leave a comment and let me know what you think?

Ideas for Improving Locale Management in Firefox

Mozilla Firefox Localization project spans 90+ languages across the planet. If you haven't used Firefox in a different language, try downloading a language pack and change Firefox user interface language by editing general.useragent.locale preference setting using about:config. Captian Caveman created an easy to use Quick Locale Switcher Firefox addon for this purpose.

In this post, I'll explore some ideas to improve the locale management experience inside Firefox. The idea adds unified search, installation and language switching capabilities to Firefox Language panel. You will find Firefox Language panel under Tools > Addons menu. Currently the language panel on Firefox Nightly build looks like this.

Firefox Language Panel Mockup

The mockup below describes searching, installing and switching locales workflow. This is similar to existing Firefox Add-ons workflow.

• Enable Firefox Language Tab:Make Tools > Languages visible at all times. Currently Firefox hides this dialog when no language packs are installed.
• Switch Firefox Default Language: Default Language Switch button "Default Language is 'English (US)', Do you want to change the language of Firefox?"
• Search Languages: Modify search box to limit search to language packs on addons.mozilla.org.
• Language Management: Provide Switch Locale toggle button next to each installed language pack.
• Switch Language for this session only:Allow users to switch locale for this session only.
• Get New Language: List download-able Locale packs on the main screen.

Please share your thoughts, suggestion and criticism using the comment form below.

If you are a Firefox hacker looking for something new to hack on, this is your lucky day! .