NUS’ “Historical Maps of Singapore” portal

I was glad when SLA-NHB introduced One Historical Map in 2015 which now allows users to compare six street maps between 1966 and 2017. We first had that facility first via iRemember in 2009 but it disappeared, and so I was glad to see it return. And the site is easy to use – after an alumni reunion, we could validate our observation of how crowded the Faulty of Science in NUS had become! 

Topographical maps were not available as yet and so it was with great excitement that the community greeted NUS Libraries announcement that they had mounted a “Historical Maps of Singapore” portal, consisting of topographical maps from between 1846 – 2018, which had been digitised with great effort, by a team from the Department of Geography.

You may view the maps online or stream them on Google Earth or other WMS (web map service) viewer. This is a treasure trove for teaching, research and an exploration of our landscape, and the changes it has experienced over time. A good place to start is your very own neighbourhood! Review the introductory guide by NUS Libraries here. 

For example, in the Sungei Mandai Mangrove cleanup project, we will invite the volunteer Site Captains to trace the rivers from the mouth to their origins at the foothills. These topographical maps before the relentless pace of urbanisation in the 1960’s and 1970’s will prove to be an eye opener for us all,. I love how it’s available for close examination on our desktops – it will sure make for some exciting tabletop exploration by the LSM2251 Ecology class! 

Reviving my upgraded MacBook Air mid-2012

With my five and a half year old MacBook Pro in the shop for the third time, it was time to revive my mid-2012 Mac Book Air (MBA) which was on hiatus last semester. Having maxed its RAM at purchase to 8GB, and having changed the battery last year, it is in reasonable shape.

The internal hard disk is a fast SSD but small at 500GB. So my most immediate files are on the cloud in Dropbox, GDrive or iCloud (and at work, nBox or the office server). I’ll survive with some discomfort and that will spur me to replace the faulty 1TB SSD I got from from OWC (I bought the kit below). Once I get my replacement, the MBA will be ready for some heavy lifting.

Back up happens by virtue of working on cloud drives, and a background programme, CrashPlan Pro. And just in case, for the most current presentation, I have an emergency 200gb microSD card.

This mid-2012 Mac Book Air has a few ports: one thunderbolt, two USB3 and an SD card port. And I pack thunderbolt adaptors for VGA, HDMI and ethernet with it so that makes it functional in most places.

Some archives are residing on external 4TB and 5TB drives and must be backed up to Crash Plan Pro. Their subscription includes  unlimited backups on multiple devices including external drives, so less e-waste at the user’s end eventually. I tried retrieval off files and its not bad. Important when pulling out relevant photos or videos from a field site ages ago!

If you have old Mac laptop and want a second life with it, check your model (Apple venue > About), and then examine your options at the OWC upgrades page. If your unit is DIY-capable, there are videos to guide you through the process. With the SSD HD and battery upgrades (and some repairs), my laptops are soldiering on in their sixth year and the iMac is doing well in it’s ninth year.