Old Maps of Singapore

Old Maps of Singapore

https://hm.onemap.sg/
This site provides old versions of maps published from 1954 to 2009.
At the home page, move the slider to the year of interest. If there is an edition for that year it will show a full map. If there is no edition for the year it will say so.
Click on the thumbnail for the selected map.
Alternatively click on the full map to get an enlarged version. Click on "Download all maps for this edition" to download a zip file for the year.

Tray Return or They Don't Deserve Clean Tables

Last Saturday at Food Republic in Parkway Parade, I managed to get seats for my wife and me. Now the layout at the new food court have tables in a row like in a school canteen. There was a Gen X couple on one side and a family of four (with two pre-teen kids) on the other.

My wife came back with her char kueh teow and was preparing to remove her plate from the tray to put on the table so that she could return the tray. I reminded her to keep the plate on the tray so she could use it to bring to the tray return section after eating. This should be audible to my neighbours.

Minutes later the Gen X couple finished their food and left. I was surprised that they did not return their trays. They must have heard my earlier comments but they chose not to support the tray return campaign. Another couple came along to 'chope' the table but were disgusted and left.

Later on the other family also left their trays behind. Besides that they left the table in a mess with ice cubes on the table. They were with two kids and the parents were setting a lousy example. A cleaner came by and was complaining loudly. As I finished my meal, I tidied my area with my used tissue (re-cycle, re-use!) and prepared the tray for return. Seeing my effort the cleaner said she would return it for me. What a kind caring gesture!

Two educated families versus the lowly paid cleaner with their contrasting attitude. What can I learn about our 'me' society?

The Plant Observatory

The Plant Observatory

This site was created by Kwan to document his collection of tree related photos. It helps us identify the plants in Singapore. He has amassed a database of 1500 plants since 2007 on this website.

It catalogues by botanical names, common names, plant family and plant grouping.

He has expanded into field trip series and nature observation series to share his encounters during his field trips.

On his terms of use page he described how he started the site and the difficulties encountered in cataloguing the plants. He uses only his own photos, so we can imagine the amount of time and effort involved. He demonstrated a passion for nature very rare in our materialistic environment.

Singapore Next Bus Arrival Times

SG Buses App

There are several apps providing next bus arrival times. Some are clunky, some are slow or hang. I now stick with SG Buses. It is fast in retrieving bus arrival times and can do so for both SBSTransit and SMRT buses. It is available for iPhone and Android.

Quickest way to find out arrival times of buses at a bus stop is to touch the Nearby icon. Immediately it will display a range of nearby stops. Select the one you are at and it will present a screen showing all the bus services calling there. Click on the black button against the bus service and it will display the arrival times of the next 2 buses almost immediately. It is even faster than the one produced by the bus company.

When you first start the app you get this screen.

Touch the Nearby icon resulting in this screen.

 
Tap on the bus stop you are at. Check for the bus stop number from the bus info board or the bus stop pole in case there are more than one bus stop with the same name.

You will see a list of bus services calling at this bus stop. Tap on the black icon for the bus service to get the arrival times for the next 2 buses. You can tap on several bus services and then decide which service to use.

Sometimes you may accidentally tap on the road name. Just backtrack to the previous screen. In case you want to bookmark the bus stop just tap and hold on the bus stop at the Nearby screen. It will bring up a menu for you to choose. Tap at the Bookmark icon.

In the unlikely case you cannot find your bus stop, another approach is to tap the Roads icon at the Nearby screen and search the road listing from here. To speed up the search you can touch the scroll icon and drag it.

Singapore Bus Routes Explorer

Singapore Bus Routes Explorer

Ever want to see the whole route for a particular bus service? This site helps you visualize the whole route. Click on the bus service number you are interested in. The tool will show you the whole route. Zoom in to check out the bus stop location. Make sure you are in the right direction. If not, click on either route 1 or 2.

Want to check out another route? Click the cross on the green bar on the top right hand corner and it will return to the default, listing all the bus service numbers. Scroll to the bus service you want and click on it.

EveryTrail - Sharing Routes Online

EveryTrail - Travel Community, iPhone and Android Guides for Sightseeing, Hiking, Walking Tours and more

Before embarking on a trip check out this website on available routes in the country you are visiting. Hundreds of thousands of routes are available. More than a thousand routes are updated daily.

Get tips on where the trails are, view the photos of the locations uploaded and tips provided. Upload routes if you wish to share what you have discovered about the route.

You can use your iPhone or Android phone to record your route and pictures to be uploaded to the site.

TuneIn: Listen to Online Radio, Music and Talk Stations

TuneIn: Listen to Online Radio, Music and Talk Stations

You can listen to more than 50,000 radio stations all over the world. To check out your local stations, click on Local Radio menu button and it will list your local stations for your listening.

Or you can browse by genre such as Latin, or Oldies or Classical. Just click on the icon and you will be given a choice of stations.

How to Get Rid of Fruit Flies

Fruit Flies Trap

Fruit flies are attracted to many types of fruits, wine, vinegar, etc.

So we can make a fruit flies trap by using empty mineral bottles containing these to attract them.

1. First cut away the top conical part, then throw in some fruit discards such as grape stalks, pieces of pomelo skins, or vinegar. Try different types of food to see which will attract these flies.
2. Cover the top opening with a clear film such as Reynolds.
3. Use a sharp pointed stick to poke a small hole just big enough for a fly to crawl in.
4. Set the bottle in a place where you want to trap them

The principle is flies have an acute sense of smell and can home in on them until they find it. They will crawl through the hole to reach the fruit but later cannot find the hole to leave as the bottle is transparent. They will crawl or fly about aimlessly until we choose to throw away the bottle and make another trap.

BeFunky.com - Online Editing and Photo Effects

BeFunky.comwww.befunky.com

This online photo editing site provides190 photo effects in 30 different categories.

Some of these include: 

• Turning pictures into cartoons
• Fixing photo problems such as bad lighting, digital noise, fuzzy colors and details
• Adjusting: contrast, brightness, exposure, hue, saturation and colors
• Adding speech bubbles, frames and cool shapes

For Power users, there are additional features such as:

• Fullscreen photo editing
• High Resolution Output
• Work with large photos
• Photo Storage and Tracking

You can save your work onto your computer or share them on social networking and photo sharing sites.

You can also see a before and after version of your photo while you edit.

boo-n-bouquet

boo-n-bouquet

This site documents both the good and bad experience of consumers when they interact with service providers such as airlines, banks, F&B outlets, etc in Singapore.

There is a case of missing the fine print in refinancing a mortgage after a cold call and incurring additional charges from both banks.

It praises Coffee Bean for its flexibility in handling a customer request to waive the order lead time and thereby secured her gratitude and order.

FlickrPoet - Building Stories from Flickr Images

FlickrPoet

Enter a line of words and this application will select pictures from Flickr to tell the story. Hit the Show Story button again and it will select different images.

Password Strength Checker

Password Strength Checker
This site helps you check whether your password is up to scratch. Passwords should be at least 8 characters long and consist of mixture of upper and lower case letters, numbers and symbols.

After entering your trial password, the site will give you a numeric score and classify its complexity. You can then adjust your password to improve it.

Walking Checklist

Checklist of items to bring while walking in Singapore keeping in mind the hot, humid and occasional heavy downpour.

• Water - essential when away from urban areas
• Umbrella - protect against sun and rain
• Camera
• Cap
• Sunglasses
• Sunblock
• Towel
• Tissues
• Antiseptic cream
• Insect repellent or bring a friend who attracts those creatures
• Plastic bags - to take away rubbish
• Muesli bars
• Torch
• Knife
• T shirt to change due to heavy sweating or rain
• Slipper in case of shoes getting thoroughly soaked
• Walking stick for use in the forest trails

Or use this to create your own list

Durian Picking at Pulau Ubin

Our experience on 2 July was most enriching. We spoke with a young guy who was with a group that included his mum. Turned out he was a regular and most knowledgeable in durian lores. They had collected a few durians and waiting by a tree for more to drop. His mum was resting by the track.

He revealed that on one occasion they collected 500 fruits! That is a lot - 11 baskets full. He led us to a junction near where were a number of durian trees. There were people busy eating or hoarding the fruits they picked. He pointed out to us which tree was productive and produced fruits with red flesh, which tree was not good and so on. We noted that the popular trees had lots of empty cans nearby, evidence that gatherers were willing to spend the night waiting - this was the best time too.

We were also taught how to recognize trees that were ready to drop their fruits, which fruits were prematurely dropped due to rain, etc.

We continued our walk and came upon a tree where we managed to find some fruits. We also decided to wait for more to drop. However we were caught in a heavy downpour but the promise of finding more fruits kept us going. After an hour of enduring the rain, we sloshed through the flood water on the road to return to the area recommended to us to look for dropped durians. We observed that there were a couple of locals going on their rounds to check for the fruits to gather. By luck we observed one dropping in front of us.

We were lucky to find a few and we did not waste time opening up the fruits. One of our guys was skillful in this task and we were happily enjoying the fruits. We decided to come back in 2 weeks. It was a really enjoyable experience - not to be missed despite the heavy rain.

Orchard Road Flood

Orchard was transformed into the Rochor Canal on 16 June. The typical Singaporeans came out with their guns blazing. It's the fault of the leaders, the PUB, etc, etc. We are quick to condemn and slow (or never) to praise. Apparently we hate to admit when people do a good job.

But they failed to note or failed to comment that:

1. the flooding subsided very fast after the rain stopped - this implies we have good drainage!
2. the MRT was not flooded whereas Lucky Plaza (LP) was - we know how to prevent it!

Did they ask why? Why didn't LP take preventive actions - although they were not required by law, why didn't they think of their tenants?

QuickScrib -- Online notetaking

QuickScrib -- Online note taking

Ever feel the urge to note some idea down. QuickScrib allows us to write a note and post it on the web for all to view.

You can use it to share an idea, a joke, a recipe or a lyric. Just type in the title, then a minimum of 100 characters of content and you are ready to publish!

Second Shot - Recording Snippets of Singapore

Second Shot - Recording Snippets of Singapore

This blog aims to record little snippets of local life and background through words and photos. The author uncovers our past and finds obscure heritage sites related to events and personalities.

One example is explaining the meaning of names of certain places such as Simei and Ang Mo Kio. Simei means four beauties.

FORA.tv - Emma Shulman: Maximizing Your Memory

Emma Shulman: Maximizing Your Memory

In this video Emma Shulman states that our brains need exercise also.

She suggests some of the ways we can do so, such as:

• learn a language - conversational
• remember important things - focus, repetition and visualize
• try something new - new way to supermarket, use different hand
• read a para then summarize it
• look at grocery list after shopping
• remember names - keep repeating, use mnemonic
• finding keys - provide a hook
• forget why you go to kitchen - keep repeating why you are going there
• tel no - repeat
• finally write it down if its important

flickredit - Flickr photo display

flickredit

This Java application allows you to display and edit your Flickr photos on your desktop. You can download, upload or backup your photos.

Food Wishes Video Recipes

Food Wishes Video Recipes

This is a blog that provides recipes in the form of videos so that we can have a better idea of how to go about preparing the food. The recipes range from desserts to pastas to soups to vegetables, etc a wide range indeed.