Legazpi City and Mount Mayon

Celine, Wayne and I were invited to be one of the speakers for the Bicol Youth for Technology Exposure (BYTE) 2013. The event is on October 19 at Capitol Convention Center (Pili, Camarines Sur) but Celine and I went to Legazpi first to see Mount Mayon.

Photo of Mount Mayon from the plane

Our Cebu Pacific plane arrived 15 minutes ahead of schedule. Lignon Hill was our first stop. The base of the hill is a tricycle ride from the airport. With our bags in hand, we walked up the hill for around thirty minutes. It was still early in the morning so it was not yet that hot. It even drizzled a bit so we wore our jackets.

We had a few stops before reaching the top. When we reached the top, we enjoyed the view and started to take pictures. Using my phone, Celine took a Photosphere of Mount Mayon from the Lignon Hill.

View the Photosphere of Mount Mayon here

We rested at the top for a bit and bought water (and chili keychains) before going down. Going down took us longer because it's already starting to get hot. We had fresh coconut juice at the base of the hill before going to our next destination, Cagsawa Ruins.

Photo of Mayon from Cagsawa Ruins (Photo taken by Celine)

It was already hot when we arrived in Cagsawa. We didn't stay that long there. After buying water and a few stuff, we already went to Daraga Church (Our Lady of the Gate Parish) and stayed there for a few minutes. Afterwards, we rode the jeep to Legazpi City proper. We went to the St. Gregory the Great Cathedral for a few minutes before having lunch.

Daraga Church (Photo taken by Celine)

We walked to Red Continent Diner & Cafe for our lunch. Our orders include pinangat, bicol express and tinapa rice. Too bad the pili butterscotch shake was unavailable. The pinangat and bicol express tastes good! For desserts, we had the chili ice cream (ube flavor). I liked the spicy after-taste of the ice cream.

(Photo taken by Celine)

After having lunch, we rode the tricycle to the terminal of vans going to Naga.

Google Cloud Developer Challenge 2013

Google recently launched the Google Cloud Developer Challenge 2013. Google Cloud Developer Challenge (GCDC) is a "contest designed to motivate and reward entrants who develop applications that are based on Google's Cloud Platform that are original and relevant to the region in which they live."

GDG Philippines is also organizing a series of workshops called GCDC Workshop Wednesdays this month. These includes Google App Engine (October 2), Usability/Accessibility (October 9), and YouTube API (October 23). For more details about these events, check the blog post and add GDG Philippines in your Google+ circles.

Aside from events like these from Google Developer Groups and other communities, the organizers are also conducting various hangout sessions. The playlist of these videos and recorded Hangout sessions can be found here.

Submissions for the first round will start on October 22 and will end on November 21. For more details about the rules, prizes and updates about GCDC, check www.google.com/events/gcdc2013

Two of the winners last year are from the Philippines: Collabspot Notetaker and Events KIT. It would be great if for this year, both winners will be from the Philippines. I'm also hoping I can submit at least an entry to join the competition.

GDGPH-GSA Android CodeLab @ DLSU

GDG Philippines and the Gooogle Student Ambassadors from DLSU organized a MapUp and an Android Code Lab at De La Salle University last September 28, 2013.

It was a whole-day workshop. Wayne was in charge of the MapUp and I handled the Android Code Lab. In the morning, I taught the basics of Android and Android Studio. Here is the slides I used during the Code Lab:

After lunch, I had a quick talk about the different kinds of views they can use and how to move from one page to another. We tasked them do to anything that they can finish in less than two hours. I roamed around and helped the participants with their questions. After the coding, they were asked to demonstrate their apps and we gave special swags to the apps who found to be promising. I encouraged them to continue developing their apps and to publish it to Google Play later on.

[Photo from Celine]