If you’re a Singaporean, and you’re going overseas for work or travel, it’s probably best if you register your details with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA).

I don’t know how much information is used for ‘surveillance’, but I think it’s always good to be prepared in the event of any emergencies.

BTW I found out about this thingy after submitting an Overseas Travel Notification to the Ministry of Defence – not because I want to, but because it must be done.

Anyways, there was a nifty little link provided at the end of the confirmation page which brought me to the MFA eRegister system, and I thought I’d share it with everyone because I think all of you should know about this.

Also, since the Civil Service often gets more brickbats than it does bouquets, I thought I’d take some time to express my pleasure at a good idea (IMHO) and a good example of synergy at work.

Okbye.

1. Allow students to ‘book’ a meeting slot with me based on mine and their available meeting times without much hassle.
2. Automatically ‘pull’ info from my Google Calendar to determine when I’m free/when I’m not free + ‘push’ info to my Google Calendar to automatically update my schedule for me.

I don’t think anyone has come up with something like this yet so if any computing whiz wants to work on this, I’d say go for it (and let me know when you do come up with this so that I can use it! It’s my brainchild after all!). You can most likely sell it to companies/organisations that need this service when you’re done creating the program for it.

Our pet peeve is not being to get an early enough headstart because of the lack of a proper notification system. The current technology we use is Windows i.e. we look out of the window in the I & E room where we’re seated and guesstimate when it is we should leave.

Bad jokes aside, we also make use of the NEA’s Local Weather portion of the website quite a bit. But being the humans that we are, pulling the information from the website can be quite a hassle sometimes.

So what does one do? In an age where humanity’s kinship with that of electric currents has long been recognised (i.e. we follow the path of least resistance, LOL), ‘push’ technology comes into the picture.

Presenting to you, ladies and gentlemen, the Weather Widgets for the Mac OS X Dashboard!

The best part is: it didn’t require much technological know-how, just an awareness of Safari’s Web Clip feature in Leopard. For the real Windows users: no worries, there’s something in this for you too, cos I’m a very inclusive person You might wanna try this Singapore Rain Map Yahoo! Widget, or keep your eyes peeled for NEA to develop its RSS notifications, which you probably might be able to convert into an SMS notification… Somehow. But we’ll cross that bridge when we get to it.

Anyway, he says he’s been using Google Reader to read my links. At last count, there were three subscribers to my feed – so I’m guessing the other two subscribers are Dr Ashley Tan and Mr Andrew Chong. Right?

Google Reader via kwout

Kar Wee was also asking where I get my links from and how I post them up. It’s also related to Google Reader – this post should explain everything. Google Reader rocks, but my readers rock more!

(via)

By the way, I may have been the one (or at the very least, one of the people) who provided the tip-off about the story… And believe it or not, it was through Twitter. Here’s the chronology of tweets with some background information:

Twitter / Laremy Lee: Back at NUS now for India … via kwout

I posted these, and other ‘web’ tweets using tweet.sg when I returned to NUS for the India Trip exhibition thingy.

Twitter / Laremy Lee: Also, just found out that … via kwout

I learnt about the expulsion from Zee, who was “one of the KR guys” I met. I’m not going to comment too much on the punishment, but let’s just say that I believe it’s a fallacy for every action to deserve a punitive reaction, especially one of this measure.

Twitter / Direct Messages via kwout

It took a sharp-eyed journo who’s very in tune with the workings of social media to spot my Tweet, and before long, the reporters were on their way.

Twitter / Sent Direct Messages via kwout

Twitter / Direct Messages via kwout

So ladies and gentlemen, if you ever need an example about how collaborative Web 2.0 technologies are, and the potential for these technologies, here’s a classic one for you. Cheers, and have a great weekend.

P.S. My reply:

Twitter / Sent Direct Messages via kwout

1. Run diagnostic test. Find out who has strengths in the subject, who has difficulties – use these profile for configuration/reconfiguration in class.
2. Cater to diverse learners. Use results from diagnostic to let independent ones learn independently. No point making them run when they can fly.
3. From (2), less people in the classroom = more time to concentrate on the rest. They are the people who need the most focus, anyway.
4. Communication. Need to be connected to the network the school uses to ‘speak’ with the students. Alternatively, make sure contact list is up as soon as possible to have more channels to transmit/receive information.
5. ICT the enabler. Google Documents for feedback, peer-editing, submission of work, etc; wikis for collaborative work; blog to share thoughts/interact with others. I’m totally not doing that now because I can’t find any way/space to introduce it – and not for want of trying.

To be updated over time too.

It fits my needs because I read a lot of stuff using Google Reader, and I like to share what I read with people, but find the whole copying and pasting of links very laycheh. So far, have only been able to port my ‘reading lists’ into my Facebook feeds, but haven’t been successful in automatically porting it into my blog feed – until now.

Hope you enjoy reading my shared items, or if you blog and use Google Reader too and have been looking for something like this, hope this has been a useful discovery for you too!

1. Go to ‘System Preferences’.

   

2. Click on ‘Print and Fax’.
   
   

3. Click on the ‘Plus’ sign (+) to add a new printer.

   

4. Input the following values:
   • Protocol: Line Printer Daemon – LPD
   • Address: 155.69.86.56
   • Queue: printer_level4
   • Name: printer_level4
   • Print Using: HP LaserJet 8000 Series.

   Click ‘Add’.
   

5. Place a check next to the ‘Duplex Unit’ option, and change the Total Printer Memory option to ’36MB or more’. Click ‘Continue’.

   

6. Your printer should’ve been added. To confirm, double-click the ‘printer_level4′ icon, click on the blue ‘Info’ button and check to see if the values match what you see in the picture.

   

7. To print: Go to File -> Print or hit Cmd-P to send your file to the printer.
8. Go to the release station, and type in your user name. It’s usually the name which you use to log in to your computer, but without spaces. Mine is Laremy Lee (c.f. Step 1), so the user name I input is ‘laremylee’.

Hope this helps!

Anyway, the posts are automatically ‘fed’ in from my blog, because Facebook allows you to feed your blog posts, among other services, into your profile. How to configure this:

When at your Profile Page, click on the ‘Settings’ Tab just under your ‘What are you doing at the moment?’ input field. Follow the instructions after that.