Mac users punished for using a pc

Xu Weiting and Joelle Lai exclaim during the presentation of the “For Goodness Sakes, No More Kopi Luwak Please! (not the actual campaign name) presentation at the Raffles Museum Toddycats’ recent Howl at the Moon.

These two mac users were startled when the Windows OS on the laptop decided to time out for a system upgrade – in the middle of the presentation. Really? This can happen? How quaint.

To the rescue, my MacBook Pro.

Admittedly, OS X’s Keynote pouts when reserve power kicks in instead of fighting to the dying second.

An important disctinction in Dropbox – allow others to read only OR edit/delete files`?

Dropbox is a wonderful file-sharing tool which I use with my students (they have no choice).

Mostly they share their project files with me, which ensure its backed up to the cloud, and sometimes I share papers with them from my collection. This had become easier last year with a simple control click to enable sharing.

However, sharing folders has no granularity in permissions – when I use the “Share This Folder” option in Dropbox, I am enabling full access sharing. and my students can edit, remove and even delete files! There is no middle ground.

They are a careful lot, I have backups and there is a 30-day revision history to correct errors so its pretty safe still. Still, best avoided by simply using the “Share Dropbox Link” option instead. This makes files read only.

Are you sharing files correctly?

Visiting students surf with EduRoam!

Gladys Chua, back for a couple of week from her Bachelors of Marine Science Programme at James Cook University, Townsville is online in NUS today, via EduRoam.

This service is available to staff and students from the international research and education community at participating institutions.

So Gladys, who is here to work on some matters for the International Coastal Cleanup Singapore logged in with her JCU account. So there was no need for me to set her up with a guest account through NUS’ Visitor Account Portal.

Pretty neat!

See http://www.eduroam.org for details.

Talking about long-tailed macaques with Sabrina Jabbar at ACRES

I dropped in at the ACRES (http://www.acres.org.sg) office at Jalan Lekar with two of my students Lai Chui Ting (Hons) and Joys Tan (UROPS) who will begin investigations into aspects of human-macaque conflict in Singapore.

We had a thorough discussion with Sabrina Jabbar from ACRES’ Macaque Response Team. I have been following her Facebook updates which have been very informative, so I had a ready set of questions to tap on her field experience.

After meetings at ACRES, it is always pleasant to hang out in the garden and with the dogs.

Sabrina talked about how Mocha the dog dreams at night, chatting with an imaginary friend. Meanwhile Brownie listening in here is a sweetie-pie who once rescued an abandoned Siberian hamster. He had picked it up in his mouth and laid it down gently at ACRES’ door.

They of course looked after it, like they do, with so many other creatures.

Chloe is colour-coordinated! (For her Love MacRitchie briefing)

Chloe Tan appears to be colour-coordinated with her slides? Cool!

She is briefing us about Toddycats’ Love MacRitchie project events for 2014 – the walks and talks to introduce Singaporeans to their natural heritage.

Fortnightly walks will be offered from 15 Feb – 12 Apr 2014 and will be advertised at the Love Our MacRitchie Forest webpage.

And the little bird that she is, she told us to expect a long-awaited delightful update on Valentine’s Day!

How many Toddycats does it take to setup a projector? (Toddycats HOWL)

We’re holding tonight’s session of Toddycats HOWL (at the Moon) in the Science Library Seminar Room.

The Toddycats who come include students and staff of NUS, from life sciences and environmental studies, NParks and most excitingly, the odd student from SOTA and JCU. Anyone with a passion for nature and the environment can join!

Today Toddycats will enjoy updates from the Asian Otter meeting at Bangalore by Ottergirl, Project Luwak by Civetgirl, the Love MacRitchie project by Chloe and our 2014 event lineup ahead of us by Joelle.

It’s really important to get together every now and then to chat and exchange notes. I’m encouraged that we’re now on our 8th session! And that’s partly due to Chloe Tan pinning me down for dates!

Howl at the Moon sessions in 2013 with Raffles Museum Toddycats

1. Tue 26 Feb 2013 (ALR): Introductions (N. Sivasothi & all)
2. Tue 30 Apr 2013 (LT27): Pulau Ubin Forum (Debby Ng & Chong Jun Hien; Faizah Jamal & Joseph Chun)
3. Thu 6 Jun 2013 (ALR): Meeting with Toddycats alumni Ong Say Lin, Director ACRES Laos
4. Wed 17 Jul 2013 (ALR): Social media strategies (N. Sivasothi), Festival of Biodiversity review (Joelle Lai), Student Exchange at Yale University (David Tan) & Volunteering with Philippines Biodiversity Conservation Foundation Inc. (Chloe Tan)
5. Fri 16 Aug 2013 (ALR): The Love Our MacRitchie Forest campaign (N. Sivasothi); Long-tailed macaques (Amanda Tan) & Love Sharks (Kathy Xu).
6. Wed 26 Sep 2013 (ALR) – Terrestrial conservation in Singapore, talk with Subaraj Rajathurai & Tony O’Dempsey
7. Mon 02 Dec 2013 (HV) – Discussion about the URA Master Plan

My merry band is signed up for OCBC Cycle Singapore 2014!

65 days to Cyclists Unite!

I just signed up the last of this merry band for the Community Ride on 30 Mar 2014. Hope they see more costumed characters during their ride this year.

Since I like the darkness and the distance, I’ve opted for the 60km 5.15am Super Challenge the same day with Zendogs Kenneth Pinto and Kevin Lim.

Let the rides begin!

Is that a Green Lantern/Incredible Hulk morph?

A carefree holiday

A reminder just appeared in my inbox of a few carefree days during a recent holiday – here we conducted an impromptu coastal cleanup in Langkawi after a walk along a new coastal forest trail. This was much easier than coordinating the International Coastal Cleanup Singapore (ICCS) by 60–70 organisations spreading out along our coasts from behind a desk.

I have decided to make an effort to recruit help this year, to find hearts which beat in resonance, whom I know are out here somewhere! And I’ll do this at expense of my annual lecture circuit on marine lfie and marine debris in the first half of the year. I’ve been been conducting and coordinating coastal cleanups since 1997 and I might have neglected sustainability of this effort of late.

Here’s to a smarter year ahead.

Surly fat tyre cyclists back, after a night out in KL

Kevin & Weili, secondary school classmates and Surly fat tyre cyclists are back from the Mayor’s Night Ride, a unique addition to OCBC Cycle Malaysia.

They took a spin through KL streets and enjoyed the city vibe. Now back at DoubleTree at Jalan Tun Razak, they await keys to lock up their Surly’s at the hotel’s bike park, a neat arrangement that will let us pick up our bikes safely in the morning.

Tomorrow morning at 5.30am, we rendezvous with them to cycle down to Merdeka Square (Dataran Merdeka) to take on The Challenge, a 48km circuit through KL streets and its hilly environs!

For now, though, we’re just enjoying their attitude.

Photo by Julian Lim, our harried OCBC host.

OCBC Cycle Malaysia 2014!

I’m back in Kuala Lumpur for OCBC Cycle Malaysia. Invited to last year’s 48km The Challenge through the city, I enjoyed the hilly early morning ride so much, I secured my early bird ticket to this year’s event.

The Criterium is in play now and we are watching the King of Sprints about to unfold!