Jeremy Yong's Full Audition on AGT

Jeremy Yong's Audition

Chinese Students Attacked on Sydney Train

Will try to approach police ... a screen grab of Kevin Rudd's message on Weibo.

The controversy surrounding the alleged bashing of Chinese students in Sydney is showing no sign of abating as China's largest television network and consular officials warned that Australia was no longer safe for Chinese students.

Six people, aged 14 to 18, allegedly robbed passengers, including two Chinese students, on a train between Central and Rockdale about 12.30am on Monday.

Officers were called to Rockdale station about 15 minutes later, where they arrested three men, two aged 18 and one 19, a 14-year-old boy and two girls, aged 16 and 17.

They were all charged with a number of robbery and assault offences. The alleged robbery included racist taunts.

China Central Television, the state network with hundreds of millions of viewers throughout the country, has warned the rising youth crime rate in Australia posed a threat to the safety of Chinese students.

"Once upon a time, Australia had one of the lowest crime rates in the world and was considered one of the safest places to study. However, the safety of overseas students studying here is under threat from escalating youth crime," CCTV reported.

The news report also alerted viewers to the spate of shootings in Sydney this week and said some cases involved under-aged offenders.

The Chinese consulate-general in Sydney also posted a travel warning on its website and warned its citizens to avoid unnecessary travel after dark.

A Foreign Ministry spokesman said that China was very concerned about the incident and urged Australia to improve its public security.

He refused to comment on whether the Chinese government still considered Australia a safe place for Chinese students to study.

The outrage among the students community is still brewing and Fairfax Media understands that more than 3000 students have signed a petition and are considering the option of staging a rally.

A Chinese mother from Nanjiang expressed her concern over the safety of her child studying in Australia and she said she was "extremely concerned about the safety issue over there. It breaks my heart to hear about my child's fear of going home after dark."

Peak students bodies in Australia have also issued strong statements in support of their overseas peers.

"The train attack on Chinese students in Sydney over the weekend will not be a welcoming prospect for those considering to study in Australia in future and we request an inquiry into making these services safer for our valued international student cohort,” said Chamonix Terblanche, national president of the Council of Australian Postgraduate Associations.

One of the victims of the attack, known as Xuan, suffered from a fractured nose and burns from a lit cigarette.

The international student from China is seeking a master's degree at the University of Technology, Sydney.
A translation from Xuan's blog on the Chinese social media site Weibo reads: "I really wish all of this is just a nightmare. However, the smell of blood in my mouth and body pains reminds me that this city is so dangerous.

"A gang of hooligans attacked us. Our noses are fractured and our bodies are covered in blood. My friend's cheekbone was crushed. They attacked us with glass and burnt us with lit cigarettes. My face is burnt and totally disfigured! Worst of all, I really hated their racist comments.

"They were calling us Asian dogs and pussies while they were beating us. When my friend tried to wipe blood from his nose, a teenaged girl stuffed my friend's mouth with her tampon removed from her pants.”

After receiving a report of the attack, former foreign affairs minister Kevin Rudd raised the issue with various interested parties, such as the Chinese ambassador in Canberra and the Minister for Immigration Chris Bowen.

The Mandarin-speaking MP also put his language prowess to use and posted sympathetic comments on the Chinese social media site Weibo.

Peter Cai is The Age's Asian Affairs Reporter.

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Keep your eyes out for 7yr old Jeremy Yong on Australia's Got Talent 2012

Keep your eyes out for Jeremy Yong (http://www.facebook.com/JeremyYongMusic) in the 2012 series of Australia's Got Talent (AGT), a 7 year old rock musician from Sydney. Please "Like" his FB page and visit his website (www.jeremyyong.com.au) to get regular updates.

(Thanks Chris)

View his audition on Youtube here.

 pic source

Aussie reveals secret ingredients for successful app business

Timing, passion, and a little bit of luck. These are the key ingredients developers need for success in the competitive world of mobile app making, according to Tony Lay, one of the founders of Melbourne’s IronMonkey Studios.

The launch of the iPhone and its app store may have completely changed the market for mobile development  – or as Lay says, “it made mobile development sexy” – but IronMonkey’s story began years earlier in 2003.
This, conveniently, was a good time to get into mobile development for Lay and founding partner Toby Charlton.

“We started when [mobile games] just went from black and white – Snake was one of the most popular games at the time – and then colour started coming in and that’s when we got involved,” Lay says. “They were great days.”

They were also successful days.

IronMonkey’s first mobile game, a side-scrolling adventure dubbed Samurai, was put together by the duo and sold almost immediately to the wireless publisher Jamdat. The demands for a higher quality version saw the company double its staff shortly afterwards, rocketing them into a leadership position in the mobile development space.

But when the iPhone was launched, Lay admits it failed to take immediate advantage of the situation.

“We probably didn’t react fast enough. But we knew that we were already making 3D games and we knew that we could hit that level,” he  says. “So we were preparing for it. But then we were called up [by Electronics Arts] to create Need For Speed: Undercover.”

"The market is open. There are fewer and fewer barriers to entry when it comes to being a developer" ... Tony Lay.

The delay didn’t hurt the company – Need for Speed was a huge success. In fact the Electronics Arts partnership flourished, helped largely by EA’s acquisition in 2005 of Jamdat, the company that sold IronMonkey’s first game.

The Melbourne studio quickly became one of EA’s leading contractors, being given responsibility for some of the company’s biggest brands, such as The Sims, Need for Speed and The Simpsons.
In 2009, it was logical that Electronic Arts, which was trying to rapidly expand their mobile offerings, acquired IronMonkey.

The acquisition opened the door for IronMonkey to really begin pushing the boundaries of mobile game development. In 2011, it released Dead Space for iOS and Android, a unique story based in the Dead Space universe that was widely regarded as one of the best games ever created for the platform.
This month the company is hoping to continue its success with the launch of Mass Effect Infiltrator, an iPad game that can directly influence the outcome of the highly anticipated console-based Mass Effect 3.
According to Lay, it’s the culture of the company that delivers  success in a super-competitive market.
“I think it’s just the quality bar we set for ourselves. That set the culture early for us – we’re always about making the best titles. It’s never worth releasing anything that we’re not happy with, so we’ve held titles before in the past,” he says.

Lay also believes that the current climate offers a massive opportunity for passionate developers.
“The market is open. There are fewer and fewer barriers to entry when it comes to being a developer, so everyone should be trying to do it if they’re passionate about making games,” he says.
But in a world of hyper-competitive app stores, coming up with a successful product isn’t something you just leave to chance.

“Part of it is timing, and a lot of it is passion. Make a game that you think is fun and for wide success, it should be a game that is simple enough that people will understand as soon as they pick up and play,” Lay says before adding: “Then I think it’s part luck.”

Source: WA Today