Bulli Rock Platform

After visiting the Mount Kembla Mining Heritage Festival Shao Ping, Fiona, Michelle and I went to Ruby's Cafe at Bulli Beach to grab a bite to eat. I wandered about the rock platform at the water's edge and took some photographs of the intricate designs in the rocks. The weather was fine and the light was good. Explore the gallery.

Mount Kembla Mining Heritage Festival

Shao Ping, Fiona, Michelle and I checked out the Mount Kembla Mining Heritage Festival. We watched the parade and wandered about. There were lots of stalls, vintage cars & bikes and historical displays. We walked up to the cemetery and I took some photographs of the tombstones of the miners that perished in the 1902 mining disaster. The festival was most entertaining. Explore the gallery.

Mount Keira Bush Walk

The adventurers went for a hike on the Mount Keira ring tack today. They took the walk up to the summit and then descended via the Dave Walsh track. The adventurers then took the ring track back around to the starting point in Mount Pleasant. Stay posted for the update on the Adventurers' Club site.

Must be raining in Singapore right now

A Mac OSX dashboard widget linked to the expressway cameras in Singapore shows rain on some of the freeways just now...Can you guess which expressway?

CD volume name changes from one device to next...

Hi all

A friend "burnt" an audio CD and when it is placed in different devices its volume name as well as the single audio file name included on the audio CD changes. Here is his description of the problem...

1. Audio recording made on iBook #1
2. File burnt to CD on iBook #1. Name of CD is "Audio CD"
3. CD tested on iMac desktop computer and volume name appears as Paris which is the name of a previous disc burnt on the iMac.
4. Same CD tested on iBook #1 volume appears as Jo Logan -the name of the previous burn on iBook #1.
5. CD tested on MacBook Pro appears as "Audio CD".
6. On each occasion the recording plays as recorded but volume and file names change.

Has anyone seen this problem before?

The Arrival by Shaun Tan

I recently purchased an award winning book created by the artist Shaun Tan. The title of the book is The Arrival and via a captivating series of beautifully illustrated pictures it tells the story of an immigrant as they travel and adjust to a new land. It is a superb book. The story is told without a single word. It is a truly beautiful book. The following two links provide more information on the book.
1. University of the Sunshine Coast item.
2. Good Reading Magazine.
It can be purchased via Amazon.

Jing Project

A colleague, Alan, shared this amazing piece of software with me today. It is called Jing Project. It captures video or stills from your computer's screen. It is cross-platform ~ Win or Mac. The team has a blog as well.

New gallery over at the Adventurers' Club

My friend Larry just dropped a line to say that the The Adventurers' Club has uploaded a gallery of images taken on their recent excursion to Botany Bay and Cape Solander on the 6th July. The adventurers took in the rugged coastline and paid a visit to the birthplace of European settlement in Australia. Why not have a look at the excellent photographs and historical mementos Diamond captured with his brand new camera?

Eerie sounds from the transmission towers

During the bush walk across to the peak at Broker's Nose we had to pass the transmission tower that sits atop the site. There was a fresh wind and as the breeze blew through the construction an eerie sound emanated from the tower... like a metallic symphony coming down through a long, cold pipe. Listen to it here.

The sound of metallic ghosts

Macritchie Reservoir to Bukit Timah hike

My friend Siva went on a hike with some friends from Macritchie Reservoir to Bukit Timah in Singapore today. Wish I was there! These are some of the sights they may have seen...

News from the Adventurers' Club

The adventurers embarked on another expedition... a bush walk to the peak of Broker's Nose. The peak was formally known as Brooker's Nose however local historians believe that the miners at the Corrimal Colliery below the peak renamed it Broker's Nose because they were always broke.


Read about the adventure here.... View the gallery of photographs as well.

Life imitates art ~ interactive Sootie

Shao Ping and I have this little cat on our web sites. The animated cat reflects the current weather conditions. Tonight the comfortable cat on Shao Ping's blog mirrored our cat Sootie as he luxuriated in his bed, cleaning himself, before he settled in for the evening. It was almost as if the web based application knew that Sootie was grooming himself!

Telegraph pole on the lean...

Nearly every day I notice this telegraph pole leaning rather precariously in Figtree. I wonder if it will ever topple over? Are they still called telegraph poles? I think they no longer carry telegraph wires.

Burst water mains...

While driving home last night I spotted this a fountain of water where one should not be. I proposed to hetho and dobbo that we should investigate and I captured the photograph and movie. It was soon stopped by Sydney Water.

Creek in Jamberoo

Last Monday I attended a staff development day in Jamberoo. There was creek running alongside the property. It was quite pleasant. It was simply relaxing to sit there and to watch the water flow down the creek.

Downloading those videos...

I was in the Cave at school today and chanced upon my colleague Rick who was in a video chat with Jeff at St John's. Jeff was making inquiries about downloading video from YouTube. You know, have you ever chanced upon a video hosted on YouTube or even TeacherTube that you thould would be useful as an icebreaker for a lesson or an excellent example of a scientific principle? Then you wish to download it for later use? Well, here are two solutions:

1. A quick search on Google unearthed TubeSock. A nice piece of software. It is not free but it is excellent.

My friend Siva from Singapore entered the iChat conversation and I shared with him our dilemma and he fired this suggestion at me:

2. Firefox browser add-on: Video Downloader 1.1.1.

3. As above, alternative URL for Video Downloader 1.1.1.

Enjoy!

Mind and Visual Puzzles!

Archimedes' Laboratory had a range of mind and visual puzzles that science and mathematics teachers should find quite useful. There is a rich array of materials covering topics from geometry to optical illusions. Inspire your students, ignite conversations and get them thinking.

Web 2.0 in Education

Shambles.net has some nice annotated links that describe applications of Web 2.0 in Education. Grab a cuppa, take a seat and have a read.

Free web tools for educators : thinking 2.0

Thinking 2.0 has this page, Free web tools for educators : thinking 2.0, that eloquently describes a suite of nice Web 2.0 tools that educators can take advantage of and readily use as part of their teaching back-pack. Tools such as Flickr, del.icio.su, wikispaces, eduBlogs and others are covered in this post.

Teaching Hacks

Teaching Hacks is an excellent resource for educators wishing to take teaching and learning one step further. There are materials relating to Web 2.0, wikis and even a section on cyberbullying ~ a serious problem that is infecting classrooms and playgrounds. Explore the links on the left hand side of the web site. Plenty of material to sink your teeth into while you drink a cup of coffee.

Twitter, Web 2.0 and education

Last night I read a comment on a blog ~ a teacher was wondering how Twitter could be used in an educational setting... perhaps you could open a single twitter account and share the details with your students. At random moments you could 'twitter' a challenging question and the students could 'twitter' their responses. You could provide rewards based on their responses including a prize for the first correct response. A tally of results could be kept for each of the following twitter challenge activitities. I wonder if this will work? I will give it a go.

David Bowie ~ Young Americans reissue

Listened to the re-issue of Bowie's 1975 album Young Americans. It was remixed by Tony Visconti. It sounds brilliant. I was disappointed with some of the remixing done with the Ryko reissue of Young Americans 15 or so years back. I missed the original rippling stereo saxohpone mix on Win for example. This 5.1 remix is luxurious. Win sounds wonderful. I have mixed feelings about the strings on It's Gonna Be Me. The video stuff from the Dick Cavett show is nice. Why they left off 'After Today' from this special edition is a mystery.

Lost June Archive

The June archives still exist on the server. All of them were test posts created on the 30th June. I will keep an eye on the archives when August comes around.

What happened to the June archives?

I have just observed that the June archives have disappeared from the links... where are they? i will republish the entire blog...

Wikis established for Year 11

I set up Wiki accounts for 24 students last night. We worked in one of the computer labs where they accessed the invitation I had sent them via email. [Five of the computers did not work so five of the students had to complete the task in the library]. They opened the wiki online application, created a username and password and linked up to their wiki page. Each student can access their wiki and edit it as they wish. They shall work on their Year Eleven Ancient History Investigation within the wiki. I can keep tabs on their progress this way.

July Singapore galleries updated

Added commentary to the galleries displaying photographs taken at various points across Singapore including River Valley Road, Zion Road, Bukit Batok, Chinatown, the Funan Centre and Toa Payoh.

Year Eleven Ancient History Wiki

Set up a couple of Wikis tonight. One in particular for Year Eleven Ancient History. Set up accounts for the class. Tomorrow I plan to take the class through the Wiki project that ties in their Historical Investigation.

Blogger template fights with Firefox

The template for this blog has elements from my own web page and material from the original blogger template.

I removed the blogger menu bar at the top and this seems to create the weird spacing, among other things. As well, the page looks fine in Safari but it looks crap in Firefox when it downloads.

I will need to do more work on it. The style sheet is a little complex. Well, keeps me busy.

Site updates and Twitter...

Tonight I updated the home page and added some more links to the Web 2.0 workshop pages. I also installed a dsahboard widget for Twitter. This will allow me to post messages to the Twitter announcements on my blog as well as to the Jaiku badge on my home page. Neat. I will gradually let my classes know so that they can be informed about wiki updates, etc.

Web 2.0 Workgroup

An interesting collection of like minded individuals focused upon Web 2.0.

Media Socialists ~ Singapore Meetup

Last Thursday evening Siva invited me to a meeting of the "media socialists" in Singapore. Our common bond is exploring the benefits of Web 2.0 technologies, particularly in education. There are some photographs recording the meeting attended by myself, Siva, Kenneth and others in Toa Payoh on the Thursday night during my trip to Singapore.

We were all discussing the possibilities associated with the benefits of Web 2.0 technologies in fields such as education and business. I gave a quick, albeit faltering, demo of Swickis. I think I was just too tired. Kevin introduced the group to the world of Jaikus.

We left the Toa Payoh Library meeting room at 9:00PM and adjourned to a nearby McDonald's to continue the general discussion. We stayed on till about 11.00PM or so and then returned to our respective homes. I met a couple of gentlemen who had attended the University of Wollongong! Stay tuned for my post on that coincidence!

Galleries Update

Linked up a number of the recent photographs taken in Singapore last week to the appropriate categories in the various galleries. Quick correction to a link on the Podcasting Workshop page as well. Thanks for the tip Lay Kock!

Singapore Events Gallery Update

Just updated the events gallery in the Singapore section of my photography galleries. This is my last morning in Singapore following a week of conducting Web 2.0 and Podcasting workshops. Photographs taken at the the Web 2.0 and Podcasting workshops are included. Plus some nice photographs of Vivien and Paul during dinner in Holland Village.

Dinner with Paul & Vivien

Went out for a great dinner with Paul and Vivien at the Jade Garden Restaurant in Holland Village, Singapore. I too a few photographs around Holland Village after that. Posted some photographs on Flickr

Around Singapore ~ July 2007

Presently in Singapore conducting workshops on behalf of Nanyang Technological University. I have been to a few different parts around the town and the images can be found in this gallery.

Arrived in Singapore July 7th, 2007.

Just arrived in Singapore for Podcasting and Web 2.0 workshops at the MOE and NTU. 7th to 14th July.

I flew QANTAS and it actually wasn't all that bad. Watched Groundhog Day again then watched The 300 in full. The flight was packed yet uneventful. While I waited at Sydney airport I went to that quiet area on the top floor. Found a comfortable seat near a power point and brainstormed some new ideas for the workshops on a blank word page. Came up with some good ideas and some stupid ones. Managed to recharge the iPod as well.

July 7th, 2007 ~ 07/07/07. How often does that happen?

Korean BBQ with Amy and Sun

Last night Shao Ping and I had dinner with Amy and Sun at a Korean BBQ restaurant in Hurstville, Sydney. Amy was one our homestay students when she studied at the University of Wollongong. The dinner was great! We love cooking the food on the fly over the charcoal burner on the table.

That afternoon we had been in Sydney. We paid a visit to the Australian Computer Society to check out their projection and networking facilities prior to a presentation that is happening tomorrow, Thursday.

Trip to Taipei

I am in the process of uploading four galleries of photographs taken in Taipei back in 2002. Shao Ping and I attended her sister's wedding in Taipei and Kyoto.

Kyoto Photo Galleries

I have finally published a selection of the photographs I took in Kyoto back in 2002. Shao Ping and I attended her sister's wedding. Shao Chi married Roy and they now live in Los Angeles. It was Autumn in Japan at the time and the colours are quite amazing.

Blast from the past...

I have been sorting through old photographs and I came across a few shots I captured at a Singapore Mac Meetup. It was held on the 9th November 2002 at the Burger King, Millenia Walk. We all had a quite a lively night. All of the usual suspects were there. Siva uploaded some photographs of the evening as well

Storms across the Illawarra

A severe low pressure weather system during the days from the 8th June through to the 12th June brought heavy winds, flooding rains and big seas to NSW. On the 9th and 10th June Shao Ping and I drove to Wollongong Harbour and took a number of photographs of the heavy seas battering the coast. We walked across to the breakwater and took a number of images showing the waves crashing across the rock wall and soaking the spectators.

Referrer Spam

Not long back the stats file for my domain was attacked by referrer spam and the end result of that was my page rank in Google was lowered and my email filtered out by some organisations. I protected the stats files and created a .htacess file to begin bouncing the referrer spam back.

Anyway, I did a whois lookup for all of the domains responsible for the referrer spam and they all have a single Registrar that is
Go Daddy Software Inc and the registrant is Domains By Proxy, Inc.

The individual that owns the Go Daddy Inc company is Bob Parsons. I cannot help but think of Bob from Bob's Country Bunker in the Blues Brothers movie. He has a blog at www.bobparsons.com. His blog's banner features a picture of him (the lights are on but no one is at home?), a big motorbike, girls in tank tops, a 4WD and, you guessed it, the star spangled banner. Get the idea?

Domains By Proxy Inc protects the identity of the real owners of the domains. When you visit their web site there are two links on the home page as follows: "If You Are Law Enforcement ~ Click Here" and the other is "For our subpoena policies click here". It makes you wonder where one should draw the line when it comes to privacy and the rights of the individual. Are they really protecting the privacy of individuals and families or are they actually providing a cover for the owners of web sites that represent the ugly side of the Internet?

Technology tips

I have wanted to do this for some time and at last my little project has a beginning. I have created technology tip sheets in the past and with this project I plan to bring them altogether in a single place. Anyway, the first few tips deal with finding files, searching the Internet and creating slideshows. Explore the tips here.

Swicki

Read about Swickis today in the Sydney Morning Herald in an excellent article by Brad Howarth. In the article he made a reference to a relatively new technology called Swickis ~ a combination of a wiki and a search engine. I added one to my web site and I shall see how it works out. Another tool for Web 2.0.

The Adventurers' Club

Created a new web site today. The Adventurers' Club. I hope this project proceeds as we hope.

Festival of the Hungry Ghosts

I have been electronically rummaging through all my old digital photographs and created a few new galleries for the web site. There are photographs of the Singaporean CBD taken on an impossibly clear day as well as shots taken at Pulau Ubin, Jurong Bird Park, Bukit Timah Nature Reserve and Chinatown ~ back in 2000.

There are two other quite different galleries... one is of the Thai pop singing duo "China Dolls". I had gone to Bukit Panjang Shopping plaza to get a haircut and the duo were making a publicity appearance so I took some photographs of the performance and the crowd that had come to see them. Finally there is some photographs of my wife Shao Ping making offerings down by the void deck of our flat in Choa Chu Kang during the Festival of the Hungry Ghosts. I like those photographs in particular.

Taiwan photography

I added a sequence of image galleries featuring photographs taken in Taiwan during 2000, 2001, 2002 and 2004. Our wedding banquet is incuded!

Historical sites

I added five galleries of photographs taken at various points in Singapore and Southeast Asia during 2001 ~ 2005. The photographs were taken in Kanchanaburi, Thailand and three points in Singapore: Kranji War Cemetery, Labrador Park and the Ford Factory Museum. I also added a gallery of photographs taken at the ANZAC Day dawn service at the Commonwealth War Graves in Singapore.

Photographs of Malaysia

I added four galleries of photographs taken at various points in Malaysia during trips made in 2000 ~ 2002. The photographs were taken in Johor Bahru, Pulau Besar, Tioman Island and Kuala Lumpur.

Building the new web site

My web site has recently undergone a major revision. I had been constructing the revised web site using Apple's iWeb software application however the actual web pages took an eternity to download. They looked absolutely brilliant but each page element did take an age to download. I tried two different web servers just to check. One in Hong Kong and the other in Melbourne. Each web page looked messy as it downloaded as well. It was a real pity.

I borrowed the style of the iWeb "Gazette" template and built this using Macromedia Dreamweaver and simple html. Nested tables. I did not wish to play around with style sheets too much at this point. Maybe later. I used Adobe Photoshop Elements to create all of the photo gallery pages. I love the way you can manage sites in Dreamweaver and make site wide changes. Excellent!

Bintan image galleries added

I added three galleries of photographs taken on the Indonesian island of Bintan during trips made in February 2001, May 2001 and January 2002. Bintan is part of Indonesia's Riau Archipelago and is only 40 kilometres from Singapore. There are a number of resorts on the island. I believe they are funded by Singaporean capital and are somewhat separate from the rest of the island. The black amd yellow mangrove snake in the photograph was one of the highlights of the first trip. Shao Ping and I were being given a tour of the local mangroves in a small boat and the mangrove snakes were curled up on the branches overhanging the water. I took that photograph holding my camera in my right hand and the branch with my left hand. Took a few quick snaps and carefully retreated.

Station To Station Colour Sleeve

Bowie released Station To Station in 1976. The release number was RCA APL1-1327. The album released to the public had artwork with a black and white still from the Man Who Fell To Earth movie. Apparently plans had been made to release a full colour sleeve and some artwork had been undertaken. The colour artwork attracts considerable debate among collectors as to what was printed and what was not printed. It seems that in the UK RCA had 24" X 12" flat mock-ups printed. In the USA RCA printed proofs of the sleeve. Some collectors glued the proofs together to make up the sleeve.

This was further complicated in the late 1980s when an English collector obtained one of these US full colour proofs and had counterfeit copies made, possibly by a printing company in Japan. They were then sold by record dealers in England. Occasionally these counterfeits are now sold to unwitting collectors as authentic RCA USA sleeves. I think that is patently unfair. Check out this link for photographs of the UK 24" x 12" mock-up and one copy of the aforementioned counterfeit.

Anyway, Ryko reissued the album with the full colour artwork in 1990. Subsequent issues on CD have also included the full colour artwork. This year Toshiba reissued the album as a Mini LP CD with the original 1976 black and white artwork. In many respects the original 1976 black and white RCA album sleeve (especially the UK pressing) in mint or sealed condition would be a valuable acquistion.