Pics from 7/25 Surfing Session I

Weather helped us unite! As planned, we held the 1st site-wide surfing session. Instructors are usual suspects (Jennifer and Stacey). 9 people joined this session. "Are we ready to get wiped out together?" "Yeah! Bring it on!"
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First in first, Stacey explained the basics of surfing with demonstration on land for 1st timers. Positioning, paddling, standing, etc. You can not get better lesson than this even if you pay ;-).

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To make the session safe for beginners, we took buddy method. Benjamin buddied up with Jennifer. She is explaining how window works (timing that waves are calm and easy to walk in the water). Benjamin is using fixed N-Gage board from last year (http://teamsnap.blogspot.com/2007/09/wave-is-coming.html).

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There were not many people and the beach looked like our private beach! Jennifer is helping Benjamin hand in hand to walk into the water and position him at the right area to catch waves. Again, free personal lesson! You got to take advantage of this!

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Matt, the sailor, buddied up with Stacey. Matt got Jennifer's board and his ride will be very fast once it catches white water... **********
Stacey is helping Matt to go in and position him in the right area. Water was not that cold. Great day for beginners to try. **********
Lesson continues. Team Jennifer and team Stacey are going in again. We had nice white water. White water has lots of air in it and has more power to push the board, which make it easier to take off.
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Benjamin was great student! Paddling well and catching lots of waves. He even stood couple times (amazing). "I am going to fly!" **********

Rick, who lives close here and surfs a lot, was in deep rough water catching waves here and there. He just came back from the session. He tried Mavericks board first time and seemed to like it.

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"Matt, you did awesome!" Instructor Stacey congratulates Matt's hardwork (including drinking) and is offering a sign of courage "broken tail of N-Gage board" (left over when fixed the board...).
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"Benjamin, you did awesome as well!" He caught the most number of waves in the whole team and we are offering him again a sign of courage "broken tail of N-Gage board".

Never tried surfing? Please join us next time to get the broken tail!

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Of course, we broght a cooler box full of Corona and Heineken ;-). Another nice afternoon with nice people...

GCP (games community platform) offsite meeting

As some of you might know, SNAP Mobile platform became a part of Games Community Platform (GCP) as of July 1st. To encourage information sharing among new teams, typical in Nokia, we held an offsite session (whole Tuesday and Wednesday morning). To achieve the proximity/minimum cost requirements, we went to Tiburon, 20 minutes north of San Francisco.

This is the conference place. The area is pretty popular with many people during weekends but it is very quiet during weekdays.
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This is the room. Each member was serious about improving own team to contribute to GCP. As always, SNAP Mobile' goal is to support our partners with our best effort and the highest quality of service. We verified that we need to support existing/new developers/publishers better, invest in key regions such as China/Taiwan/HongKong along with other part of the globe, improve developer support/certification, work better/more closely with GFT to manage game launch manamgemt, technology development (SDK/features), ongoing quality activities, process creation/streamlining, etc. Yes, we have to be much faster and better...

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After heated discussion and brainstorming, we had 1 hour cool-off break and went for "walk & chat" excercise. We enjoyed looking around beautiful houses and nature.

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Next to ferry dock (there is a ferry service between here and SF pier 36), there is a nice long walk along with water. Boss HeGe is talking to Mr. Obi-Wan Wilson and Dan the Jyujyutsu master.

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It was such a nice day and we could see San Francisco downtown across the bay. 2nd day, after morning session, we went back to office to catch up with routines. It was short but very effective session with lots of information. Now it is time to execute. Let's improve SNAP Mobile and GCP!

Session Pics from July 4th

It was good session for Paul you see...

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Jennifer is ready to get some yellow energy drink!

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Atsushi did three rounds and satisfied...

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Five of us (Jennifer, Rob, Paul, Markus and Atsushi) are waiting for waives. Very calm and nice day for surfing at Montara beach.

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Jennifer's perfect timing take off!

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And cooool ride...

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Atsushi is going after the open face!

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Board runs too fast and Atsushi is falling!

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Markus got the wave and Atsushi got wiped out!

Surfing Session I

Hi SF site members!

Summer has come and it is time to get your feet wet! Since many asked, we will hold a "board" meeting at beach ;-).

(Date/Time)

7/25(Fri), 8/1(Fri) or 8/8(Fri) afternoon depending on weather/tide condition

(Place)

Lindamar Beach at Pacifica

(Target Audience)
Anyone who is interested

(What needed/Guidelines)
[Wet suite]

If you have one, great. If not, individual can rent at Norcal ($15)

[Booties]

If you have one pair, great. If not, you do not need one. It is a sand beach. If you want, you can buy one pair at Norcal ($30)

[Board]

1st Timers/beginners: If you have not surfed on glassfiber board nor stood on board, please first rent a nice foam/epoxy board at Norcal ($15). We also have two epoxy boards with us for you to try (Jenn's board and N-Gage's board being fixed).

Experienced: If you have surfed before with glassfiber board, you can use one of SNAP Mobile or N-Gage Maverick's boards (you need to fix if it gets damaged. Please read the board policy posted in SNAP Mobile room).

(Logistics)

1. Please leave comments, send email or talk to Jenn, Stacey or Atsushi if interested
2. We will decide if we hold the session or not by 11am that day based on weather and tide condition.

3. Leave office together (carpool if needed) around 12:30 or meet up at Norcal in Pacifica at 1pm
4. Rent stuff if needed and start surfing around 1:30pm
5. Surf lessons for 1st timers from 1:30pm to 2:30pm (Jenn, Stacey and Atsushi will do basic instruction on land and help people take off in the white water)
6. If it is hot, beer break with beer in the cooler box ;-)
7. Free sessions from 2:30pm
8. You have to return rented stuff by 5:30pm

(e-learning)

We strongly recommend 1st timer to go through at least the following "Basic I " e-learning when have a chance.

(Basic I - how to paddle/stand - 2:28 minutes)

(Basic II - how to paddle/pass through waves - 5:10 minutes)

SNAP Mobile Bowl

Result and pics/videos from SNAP Mobile Bowl!

(Results)
-Team
1st: Team Andrew (274=61+102+111)
2nd: Team Dya (251=64+95+92)
3rd: Team Matt (234=88+59+87)

-Individual
1st: Stacey (160)
2nd: Dya (105)
2nd: Atsu (105)

(Pics/videos)
Captain Matt vs little kid next door



















Rob's drunken shot














Matt's karate chop shot














SNAP Mobile Image Girl and Boy
No comment...



















Jenn's chic shot














George's spiral shot















Guneet's shot














Video!

SDK2.1 is out and let's Bowl!

Thanks to our friends in Forum Nokia, we have finally published SDK2.1!

This SDK includes sample game code with community plug-in module. It also has UI framework to speed up the development process. Great work team!

Now, it is time to celebrate...We are gonna hit bowling alley to do a team competition competing for cool shwag!

"Team Andrew"
- Andrew (captain)
- Ben
- Uma
- Atsu
- George

"Team Dya"
- Dya (captain)
- Sally
- Matt F
- Rob
- Paul

"Team Matt I"
- Matt I (captain)
- Jen
- Guneet
- Kath
- Stacey


Let's see who is the best bowler. We will upload funny video soon ;-)

One California Day

We are not as good as they are... but we share the same spirit!



Surfing in California is the way of life. Appriciate to nature, be nice to everyone and be happy!

July 4th Ride

Happy July 4th! While other people are BBQing in the garden, Jennifer proposed to have "ride and drink"(not the other way...) gathering.

We headed Montara beach, 40 min from San Francisco downtown, where you find a beautiful sand beach with good shape/size wave.
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Rob is first time trying Jennifer's board. New wetsuits and new booties. He is ready to get wiped out with us! By the way, we got loads of beer in two cooler boxes ;-)

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Here is the team this time. Surfer gal Jennifer is taking care of boys. After this, we went in and surfed couple rounds while injecting golden energy drinks ;-). We will upload our surfing pics soon.

Last Ride

Time has come and our friends from N-Gage Developer Support have to go back after one month intensive training in Java platform in SF.

Well, then, we got to hit beach one more time and it is Friday! Jesus took Jennifer's long board and I took SNAP Mobile Maverick's Fish. We left office around 3pm for a short session.


By now, Jesus is paddling, taking off and standing here and there. He is pretty athletic and good looking guy, you know. We had a nice session and got back to office and finished some work left, as usual.

Good luck to Jesus and Leslie and see you guys again soon!