Posts

Posted on

bringing up boys/children

chanced upon this TEDx sharing by Colin Stokes on his views, observations and experience in bringing up children. while the title of the talk highlighted boys, the influence of movies are apparent on both boys and girls. therefore this provides food for thought for parents regardless if you have boys or girls in the family (:

one new thing i learnt from Stoke’s sharing is the Bechdel Test, which examines movie to see if it meets the following criteria:

  1. It has to have at least two [named] women in it
  2. Who talk to each other
  3. About something besides a man

how many movies can you name that pass the test? off-hand i can’t think of any :O

but if you are curious to find out, you can visit here (:

Posted on

cleaning camera sensor (sony SLT)

a dark spot appeared in pictures taken on my sony alpha 57 (SLT-a57 ) today! originally i thought it’s dust gotten into my lens. but the dark spot doesnt go away when i switched a lens. and the auto cleaning function doesnt help too. the last thing to try before sending in for servicing, is to clean the camera sensor. i googled and found the following steps shared by Undah (“thank you”) very helpful:

1) Perform the cleaning operation from the menu (the vibration).

2) Detach the lens at this point (instead of turning the camera off as you would normally do)

3) Push the V mark on the mirror lock lever (below the mirror, in the center of the plastic) with a finger to lift up the mirror. The mirror flips up.
• Be careful not to touch the surface of the mirror!

4) Use your hand blower.

5) After the cleaning is finished, lower the mirror with a finger until it clicks.
• Lower the frame of the mirror back down with a finger. Be careful not to
touch the surface of the mirror.
• Lower the mirror down until it locks firmly.

6 Attach the lens and turn the camera off.

sony’s own set of instructions isnt quite helpful at all, and the instruction manual is nowhere insight too. thanks to google, and the folks who share knowledge freely!

i believe the above instructions should apply and help to clean all current SLT models, including SLT-A33, SLT-A33L, SLT-A33Y, SLT-A35, SLT-A35K, SLT-A35Y, SLT-A37, SLT-A37K, SLT-A37M, SLT-A37Y, SLT-A55V, SLT-A55VL, SLT-A55VY, SLT-A65V, SLT-A65VK, SLT-A65VY, SLT-A77V, SLT-A77VK, SLT-A77VQ, and probbaly the latest SLT-A99V too (:

Posted on

windows 8 installed (:

finally gotten in hand my pre-launch copy of windows 8 and started the installation almost immediately. one should always backup your important data files before attempting such a move, but all my data’s in cloud storage so i slotted in the DVD and the installation soon begins.

there isn’t much options to click during the upgrades. the only important one is whether you are going to keep your existing progs & data, or just data, or a fully clean install. as highlighted on screen, the machine will go reboot a few times. not too exciting, and the upgrade installation’s complete.

the EXCITING bit happened when after the first boot up into windows 8. my built-in wireless network card detects only 2 networks around me, but none of these are my own network!  *gasp*   which means after the upgrade, i have in front of me a crippled machine in today’s term. imagine a computer that cannot hook up to any network, wireless or physical :O  i tried plugging in my Linksys AE2500 N-adapter hoping it will work. and yes, you guessed it.

the lesson here is, one should always have another internet-enabled machine with you when attempting any OS upgrade. i tried to look for an updated driver for the AE2500. and guess what, there exists no official release for a win8 driver yet :O   i tried my luck to download a win7 driver pack, run. and thsi time i was lucky, it worked!  once the AE2500 spring to life, it can detect and connect to my wireless networks, and the next thing to do is to go to “Control Panel” –> “System” –> “Device Manager” and check for updated drivers for the built-in wireless adapter.  and to my pleasant surprise, there’s an updated driver. but i wonder why this isn’t downloaded and updated prior to the OS upgrade.

when the d/l’s completed, i regained a fully networkable machine, both wireless and physical. then next thing to run is definitely “Windows Update” found in the right swipe bar under “Settings” –> “Change PC settings”.

ok, so here’s the report so far. still have much to explore. but the current feeling i get is i’m using a Tablet-Hybrid. cos the default Metro UI is new, and it works perfectly with my Z5801’s touchscreen, albeit only two-point. once you launch a “legacy” software (cos win8 supports Metro apps similar to iOS and Android apps), you will be brought back to your good old familiar windoze desktop. EXCEPT the Start button’s no longer there which gives a funny feeling :O

shall update and report back here if there’s any interesting findings. otherwise, no news is good news (:   oh yes, one qn you may have is “should i upgrade from win7?”   if you own a laptop/PC without touchscreen, i think the tablet experience will be missing for you. another thing you need to be aware of is that the existing hardware may not have updated win8 drivers, and you may need to have workarounds like what i did. if these are no concern, or you just want to try it out like me (worst case scenario is to insert the recovery CDs to get back a fresh win7 desktop), JUST DO IT [tm] via online upgrade is cheaper during this time. enjoy (:

Posted on

the KE Pentagon

— updated on Mar 6, 2013 with local mirror address —
the KE Pentagon – the first online forum set up for hostelites of the NUS King Edward VII Hall (aka Keviians), back in Jan 22, 1999. can’t recall the motivation for setting this up, but this was a new initiative the KEVII Web Team (another new committee set up in 1999 headed by me). it’s later shifted and hosted on our own server at 137.132.142.65.  a walk down memory lane when i look at some of these threads (:


(the old server location may still be live: the KE Pentagon)

Posted on

an insightful sharing of personal experience of the flipped classroom

the idea of flipped classroom(s) has gained attention in the recent 1-2 year or so. in her blog post “The Flip: End of a Love Affair“, Shelly Wright shared her flipping experiment and why she gave up flipped instruction. at one glance, it appears that the idea of flipped classroom doesnt work, but in fact as Shelly shared in her experience, the experiment worked out so well that her class has moved beyond the usual conception of a flipped classroom. not sure how many teachers would be as excited as me in learning how things had worked out and evolved. one thing i’m quite sure is Shelly plays a key role in this evolvement. imagine, a teacher who only asks students to watch videos at home, and babysit students in class to do their homework and act as a tutor if help is needed doesnt appear to be the way a flipped classroom will work out imho.

one of her ending statements serves as food for thought too:

“I’ve learned that inquiry & PBL learning can be incredibly powerful in the hands of students. I would never teach any other way again.”

 

Proudly powered by WordPress