Unique@SGP (2)

A panorama taken from onboard Superstar Libra berthed at Singapore Cruise Centre, Singapore. From left to right: Singapore Cruise Centre, Vivocity, Keppel/ Brani Container Terminal, Sentosa Causeway and the new Sentosa Integrated Resort (IR) under-construction. Click on image to enlarge.

Do-It-Yourself (DIY) Drybox

Instead of the dry boxes available in camera/ electronic shops, I have been using Do-It-Yourself (DIY) dry boxes to protect my digital cameras and other electronic gadgets from fungus and moisture-induced defects. My dry box consists of two parts, viz (i) an air tight plastic container and (ii) a household dehumidifying cartridge. These items are easily available at major supermarkets and they are relatively cheap. I simply put the items that I want to protect together with the dehumidifying cartridge in the the air tight container.

Depending on the effectiveness of the seal between the continuer and its lid and how often the container is opened, a single cartridge (600 ml) can last as long as six months. When the cartridge is depleted, it is replaced with a new one - no fuss.

I live in the tropics (Singapore) where the outside humidity is high (>80%RH), I can check the effectiveness of the mositure absorbing cartridge by opening the box a little and putting my hand into the box , if the humidity inside is lower (due to the moisture being absorbed by the cartidge), I will feel a cooling sensation, so I don't need a humidity sensor to check if the box is working.

I have been using this for more than 2 years. So far it is working very well for me.

On-line Guides

Hereś a great source for on-line guides to Linux and Open Office

http://www.linuxtopia.org/online_books/index.html

Palm OS - Customise Shortcuts on Graffiti Area

The 4 soft shortcut icons on the left and right of the Graffiti area of the Palm Tungsten TX can be customized. Use your stylus to touch and hold the shortcut icon that you want to change for a few seconds, a menu will appear to let you select the new application icon.

Unqiue@SGP (1)

Unique@SGP will be a photo series featuring scenes unique to Singapore. The first installment above is a panaroma of the Singapore Skyline taken from the Singapore Flyer.

Palm OS - SMS Application

I am a Palm TX user. I am also using a Nokia 6021 mobile phone and I use the bundled SMS application to read and aswer SMS.
If you are using a similar configuration, you may have noticed that ocassionally, the SMS application will return an error message that the phone has returned an invalid response even though the correct phone driver is used (ie the Palm identifies your phone by name).
It seems that, in order for the SMS to work properly, all the messages stored on the phone (including those in the Outbox, Archieve, etc) must not contain characters that are not compatible with Palm SMS. Incompatible charactors include multimedia (including primitive bitmaps) and chinese characters. If such characters are present in your SMS, these SMS need to be deleted before you use the Check function in the Palm SMS application.

Calculating Change

Sometimes when making purchases, it could be difficult to determine change due mentally. Here's a method that is frequently used by shopkeepers/ hawkers, it uses mental addition instead of mental subtraction that most perople find difficult. It helps if there is a pool of money to make out the change immediately.Say $50 note is used to pay for a $6.35 item, what is the change due? First, put down 5 cents to make 6.40, then put down 60 cents to make 7.00, then put down $3 to make $10, lastly put down $40 to make $50. The required change is now on the table.