But it seems that a new warfront is being fought in the sphere of soft drinks with Bing Soda, Microsoft Soda and Ubuntu Cola

Post-it declarations

Genius at work do not disturb

The HackFest started off at Geek Terminal. The turnout was hardly shabby We had post-its stuck to our laptop, indicating who we were and our development interests. However, the venue proved a little unconducive for any serious coding, no thanks to the changing volume of music as well the cacophony from some teenagers.

Thanks to the Neng Giin and Microsoft, we were able to shift our coding party to Microsoft office at 1 Marina Boulevard Lvl 22 at around 3pm. The room we were given was definitely more suitable than Geek Terminal for a HackFest.

Junk food and Coke were plenty. And we were also treated to Pizza, courtesy of Microsoft. At the end of the HackFest, the gang switched from being coders to Guitar Heroes!

Besides having fun, the session was also a great place to share knowledge. Some of the things shared were Parrot and Recess PHP Framework. More photos by Ruiwen on Flickr.

Many thanks to Neng Giin for helping us organise this event and Microsoft for being such a wonderful host.

Of course, many of you have already downloaded Windows and Linux applications off SourceForge. If you take a look at the interface for downloading applications and source code via CodePlex, you’ll see many similarities there with the SourceForge layout. But then again, why reinvent a good idea, right?

Either way, it isn’t too bad that the Seattle giants are taking up the idea of sharing code. Do check out some of the projects on CodePlex, and maybe contribute one or two to the mix! (A set of wrappers allowing Windows programs to call Linux system calls, maybe?) It’s really easy to add a project, just sign up for an account, verify it, and upload your code

It may be weird to see an open source interest group, especially one with Linux in its name, promote a Microsoft product, as it were – but I feel there is much room for open-mindedness in the open source community, for it is a rare quality among us. Let’s code and let code!

April 6: Microsoft Codeplex Yap Neng Giin TR6/SOC1 7pm-8pm

Ever wonder what Microsoft is doing in the way of an open source project? Yes, Microsoft does open source too. It’s called CodePlex, and hosts thousands of open source projects in .NET, C# and Sharepoint, among other Microsoft languages. The community may be relatively new, but it’s thrown up quite a few interesting projects like the Vista/XP Virtual Desktop Manager and My Web Pages Starter Kit – look them up at http://www.codeplex.com, or sign up to join the community!

We’ve invited Microsoftie Yap Neng Giin – OK, he’s an alumnus – to share a little bit about the CodePlex and to take your questions.

Do come by TR6 at SOC1 (across the road from LT27) this Monday, the event starts at 7pm and will end at about 8pm. Feel free to hang out for dinner or supper afterwards with whoever’s there!