Just to be thorough, I decided to load the newly minted poi.gpi file into my GPSMap 62s to see if it would work. So I plug in the 62s with the mini-USB cable, fire up POIloader and use express install. For some reason, my first attempt failed. POI loader did not recognize the sdcard as a device because I had not given the card a name. So I had to install the POI file using the Computer option. I pointed it to the SDCARD/Garmin directory. At that time, I had not yet created the SDCARD/Garmin/POI directory. I then manually moved the poi.gpi file...
Thursday, December 8, 2011
Sunday, December 4, 2011
Garmin custom POIs on a Mac - revisited
Posted on Sunday, December 04, 2011 by littlemapper
Take a look at http://www8.garmin.com/products/poiloader/creating_custom_poi_files.jsp#mapsource.
Look at the section describing custom POI and MapSource. You can use the same method with BaseCamp. This is yet another way to do it. The good thing about this method is that you can use BaseCamp to organize your custom POI's. The downside is that you will have to assign icons and audio files upfront, when you are creating the POI's. This could potentially be a problem when trying to change proximity or speed alert parameters for a large number...
Garmin custom POIs on a Mac
Posted on Sunday, December 04, 2011 by littlemapper

After a recent road trip up North I realized I wasn't all that familiar with my Nuvi 1490T and it's capabilities. Then I came across custom POIs while searching the web for Nuvi related articles. Here are a few useful links:
Gary Hayman's Garmin GPS, Tricks, Tips, Work Arounds, Secrets and Ideas
Dave Brillhart's GARMIN GPSCustom POI Alerts & TourGuides
Garmin's POIloader utility
The CSV method is simple and works nicely but it doesn't...
Saturday, December 3, 2011
Problem communicating with the Garmin device
Posted on Saturday, December 03, 2011 by littlemapper
Got this error message this morning when I started BaseCamp and plugged in my 1490T. A quick search on Google revealed the possibility of a corrupt .GPX file. In this case, I had to remove the current.gpx file from my 1490T. Everything worked nicely after that. Strange. Here's a forum post on the topic: http://forums.gpsreview.net/viewtopic.php?t=226...
Friday, December 2, 2011
Installing MalSingMap into Garmin BaseCamp on a Mac
Posted on Friday, December 02, 2011 by littlemapper
Having only used MapSource on a PC, I was not familiar with the BaseCamp equivalent on a Mac. I had just tried loading maps into BaseCamp (Mac version) by plugging in my GPSr only to discover that it would not detect MalSingMap that was installed on a uSD card.
I came across an article in the MalSingMaps Forums with a brief but incomplete description of the process. So here's my idiot's guide version to getting all this to work on a Mac. I really should get around to including some screenshots. But that's a labour intensive task that will have...
MFM and MSM and Garmin BaseCamp on Mac OS X Lion
Posted on Friday, December 02, 2011 by littlemapper
Sorry about the clumsy blog title, but I can't think of something else that clearly captures the essence of this post.
This may sound silly, but I had been wondering how to load maps into BaseCamp running on Mac OS X Lion. It turns out that all you have to do is plug in your Garmin GPS receiver (GPSr) via the USB cable and fire up BaseCamp. Wait awhile for the GPSr to boot and BaseCamp will detect and cache any maps it finds in your GPSr (it works with Nuvi and the 62s). The available map titles are displayed at the top of the left hand panel....
Monday, November 21, 2011
Mac OS X Lion Java Update and Opera 11.52
Posted on Monday, November 21, 2011 by littlemapper
Java would no longer run in Opera 11.52 after the latest Lion update on the 13" MBA. Re-installing it wouldn't fix the problem. Ended up having to install Opera 11.60 beta to get things running again. At least there's a work arou...
Sunday, September 18, 2011
Surly Karate Monkey is no more...
Posted on Sunday, September 18, 2011 by littlemapper

Low crime doesn't mean no crime. Chaining your bike to a lamppost for 3 weeks is a sure way to lose it.It does say something about locking up your bike with a U-lock though. It works. The frame is still there. Everything else is gone -- even the headset!! Ok, the chain ring, bb and crank are still attach...
Dude's third beach ride
Posted on Sunday, September 18, 2011 by littlemapper

Dude and I cycled to the beach. It was his first beach ride on the Trek MT60 kids MTB. Unfortunately, someone was not in a mood to be photograph...
Thursday, September 15, 2011
OliveTree BibleReader: first impressions
Posted on Thursday, September 15, 2011 by littlemapper

The decision to take a look at Olivetree came after my iPhone decided to permanently mute it's speaker output despite several resets. In the end, I decided to update iOS 4.3.5 and restore as new phone. This fixed restored my ringer but delete all my apps since I wanted to restore as a new phone to avoid copying back corrupted application data. Since Laridian had not yet been reinstalled, I decided to take a look at Olivetree.And it looked good. Text...
Sunday, September 11, 2011
Introducing Stuart Townend
Posted on Sunday, September 11, 2011 by littlemapper

Just downloaded this album on iTunes and am enjoying all the trac...
Saturday, September 10, 2011
Paragon NTFS
Posted on Saturday, September 10, 2011 by littlemapper

Decided on Paragon NTFS over Tuxera. It's cheaper. Version 9.0 appears to work fine in the 2011 MacBook Air 13" running Lion. Here's the 32GB SD card that syncs my work stuff between the office computer and the MacBook A...
Friday, September 9, 2011
Wednesday, September 7, 2011
Sticking out
Posted on Wednesday, September 07, 2011 by littlemapper

Yep, the SD card definitely sticks out the right side of the MacBook Air -- by about 10mm. Leaving an SD card mounted also slows the shutdown from 4 seconds to... many many secon...
Tuesday, September 6, 2011
Monday, September 5, 2011
FaceTime on the 2011 MacBook Air 13"
Posted on Monday, September 05, 2011 by littlemapper
Like quite a number of people, I had problems getting FaceTime to work. First off, it complained about problems with the server. Then it sent a confirmation email to verify my AppleID email address. Problems with verification in FaceTime persisted even after I had followed the link in the confirmation email. I finally got past the verification stage after multiple attempts only to get stuck at the dialog asking for the preferred email to associate with FaceTime. The "Next" button remained greyed out.
It turns out to be a common issue. One workaround...
The Dell Replacement
Posted on Monday, September 05, 2011 by littlemapper

It's here! Well its been here since Saturday, 3 Sep. Placed the order on Sunday, 28 Sep. Missed the first attempted delivery on 2 Sep. Well, here are my impressions so far:Nice display despite the smaller colour gamut. It's glossy but is significantly less reflective than honey's 2010 MPB.
It boots in 20s, wakes from sleep in 1-3s. Goes for hours on one charge (ok this isn't saying much without actual numbers, give me a few days). Shuts down in 4s.
Applications...
Saturday, September 3, 2011
Rocky the penguin
Posted on Saturday, September 03, 2011 by littlemapper

Introducing Rocky the penguin. Baby Pie's favourite soft toy of the moment. One eye's missing.....
Wednesday, August 31, 2011
Surly Karate Monkey
Posted on Wednesday, August 31, 2011 by littlemapper

Spotted this u-locked to a lamp post on the way to church on Sunday.
It was still there when I passed the spot on Monday. H...
Monday, August 29, 2011
Finally succumbed...
Posted on Monday, August 29, 2011 by littlemapper

My Dell Inspiron 8600. Everyone said it would not last. Well, it has been 7.5 years and it's still soldiering on, though not quite as spritely as it used to be. Converting an 18 megapixel RAW file does require a fair amount of patience. But its 1920x1200 pixel 15.4" screen remains the ultimate notebook screen resolution to this day. It's still a champ.I finally succumbed to the allure of Mac and ordered a MacBook Air 13" with the i7 processor option....
The Long Way Home
Posted on Monday, August 29, 2011 by littlemapper

Commuted to work by bicycle last Friday and took the long way home. I rode home with a colleague, making a left at Seletar West Link instead of the usual right. This took us over the bridge to Pulau Punggol Barat and Pulau Punggol Timor. Traffic was light and we only had trucks for company.
Crossing the Punggol river, we made our way through the Northern perimeter of Punggol new town on several unopened roads.
We picked up the trail to Lorong Halus...
Saturday, July 30, 2011
Changi Coastal park connector
Posted on Saturday, July 30, 2011 by littlemapper

The Principia with front and rear Old Man Mountain Sherpa racks. Panniers are from Ab...
Friday, July 29, 2011
Honey's Pashley Sonnet
Posted on Friday, July 29, 2011 by littlemapper

Here's honey's Pashley Sonnet posing amidst the trees in the Changi Coastal Park Connect...
Monday, July 25, 2011
Cycling home from work
Posted on Monday, July 25, 2011 by littlemapper

This is what's left of Seletar Camp after it's transmorgrification to an aero-services h...
Saturday, July 23, 2011
Touring with the Principia: Part 3
Posted on Saturday, July 23, 2011 by littlemapper

I realize the title of this series of posts is rather misleading. I haven't actually done any touring on this bicycle. But I intend to. Hopefully.Well, I finally took the plunge and ordered two Sherpa racks from Old Man Mountain--one for the front and another for the rear.The original plan was to order Tubus racks with QR adaptors. When he found out that i wanted to mount racks onto my MTB front suspension fork, Wayne from The Touring Store suggested...
Tuesday, July 19, 2011
Bicycle Commuting in Singapore: Why?
Posted on Tuesday, July 19, 2011 by littlemapper
Here's the first in a series of "thinking out loud" articles on bicycle commuting in Singapore. It's an attempt to address a fundamental question: Why? Why should we ride a bike to school? Why should we ride a bike to market? Why cycle to work?
Cost
Convenience
Health
Social Fact...
Wednesday, June 8, 2011
Bluetooth workaround for Ubuntu 11.04
Posted on Wednesday, June 08, 2011 by littlemapper
Bluetooth functionality was broken after upgrading my old Dell Inspiron 8600 to Ubuntu 11.04. The Bluetooth icon was greyed out and I could not get the service running. After Googling around a bit, I saw this:
sudo killall bluetoothd
sudo bluetoothd
That worked. But I had to type this in manually every time I rebooted. Google found a better suggestion. Edit the rc.local file:
sudo vim /etc/rc.local
by adding the following line before "exit 0":
sudo service bluetooth restart
Make it executable:
sudo chmod 755 /etc/rc.local
Tested with a restart...
Friday, June 3, 2011
Finally, a straight seatpost
Posted on Friday, June 03, 2011 by littlemapper
The adjustments to the Principia are almost complete. Individually, they might be too small to make a difference, but the sum is greater than its parts. So with a really short reach Sel-Cof stem, a few degrees of sweep in the ITM handlebars and a straight Aerozine seatpost, the old Principia now bits better than it did when I first built it up. Not exactly brand name parts, but they look well made and are light to boot.
What's left? I'm still eyeing the Tubus Logo rack and QR skewer adaptors. And perhaps a front SKS fender? The rack stops most...
Saturday, May 28, 2011
Trip to the bike shop
Posted on Saturday, May 28, 2011 by littlemapper
Took the Principia to the bicycle shop today. I had wanted to swap out the Maxxis Detonator 1" tyres for the Panaracer Tserv 1.75" only to discover a puncture from the inner tube contacting the rim hole. Turns out the rim tape had degenerated. So off to the bike shop.It also turns out the the FSA headset had rusted badly enough to seize. That explained the strange tendency for the handlebar to snap back to centre, almost like a center detent. This made it difficult to track a narrow path between cars and the sidewalk since it was impossible to...
Thursday, May 26, 2011
Panaracer Tserv 26x1.75
Posted on Thursday, May 26, 2011 by littlemapper

Decided to try the Panaracer Tservs at 1.75" sizing. The Maxxis Detonator 1" tyres are really nice in terms of rolling resistance and are really light. But it takes a little too much concentration to steer clear of drain gratings and road imperfections. I could not locate the 1.5" Detonators and so decided to give the Tservs a shot. I expect the Principia to feel a little less sprightly than before... Let's see what happens. Will install these puppies...
Thursday, May 19, 2011
Dude's handwriting
Posted on Thursday, May 19, 2011 by littlemapper

This is dude's attempt at good handwriting. He wrote this for spelling practice. There is hope :-)...
Sunday, May 15, 2011
Dude rides to church
Posted on Sunday, May 15, 2011 by littlemapper
Dude and I rode our bicycles to church this morning. We kept to the pavement as much as possible and ventured onto the road only when it was safe. We experimented with dude riding in front and behind. It turns out that it's probably safer to have dude ride ahead. That way I can keep an eye on him while watching out for traffic.Dude was ecstatic after the ride and proudly announced to everyone he bumped into that he had cycled to church. I think he felt a real sense of accomplishment and freed...
Friday, May 13, 2011
To work on my bicycle...
Posted on Friday, May 13, 2011 by littlemapper
Cycled to work on the Principia hardtail today. It took all of 1hr 20mins to cover the 21km in each direction. It was a refreshing change from the usual driving commute despite my rather inadequate physical condition.Dark clouds gathered towards the evening and I decided to leave work a little earlier than planned to avoid cycling home in a downpour in the dark--a decidedly poor combination. As it turned out, I had a drizzle accompany me all the way home. The Marmot Precip rain jacket kept my perspiration in and the rain water out. I wasn't sure...
Sunday, May 8, 2011
The Sonnet Bliss joins the fold
Posted on Sunday, May 08, 2011 by littlemapper

Honey decided on the Sonnet Blis...
Spelling illustrated
Posted on Sunday, May 08, 2011 by littlemapper

Honey drew this on the chalkboard so the dude could learn his spelling wor...
Wednesday, May 4, 2011
The Principia gets an update
Posted on Wednesday, May 04, 2011 by littlemapper
Finally decided to swap the Easton EA50 110mm stem and straight handlebar for an X-brand 50mm stem and an ITM 10 degree swept back handlebar. Reach is about 3-inches shorter now. Easier on my arms and back. Perhaps a straight seat post next?
Here's a Cateye mirror attached to the bar end on the right. Haven't decided if it should point up or do...
Tuesday, May 3, 2011
Dude's first bike ride on 2 wheels...
Posted on Tuesday, May 03, 2011 by littlemapper
We managed to convince dude to give two wheels another chance last Sunday. I aired up the tires, lowered the seat and pushed him up and down the driveway several times. Then we took off down the street with him pedalling and me jogging alongside holding on to the collar of his t-shirt. He was pedalling solo within 10 minutes.
Lessons learned:
Learning to balance on a two-wheeled scooter shortens the time needed to learn how to balance a bicycle on two wheels. This saves on the scrapes and bloodied knees.
If at first you don't succeed, try again....
Monday, April 25, 2011
East Coast Park to Changi Point
Posted on Monday, April 25, 2011 by littlemapper
Cycled an old route with an old friend :-). About 35km. I am definitely in need of exercise. My old Trek 570 felt lifeless, as did my legs. Some faint "eek, eek" noise from the drive train. I need to take a look. Must have been sapping horsepower from the wheels. My excuse.
View ECP-ChangiPt in a larger ...
Thursday, April 21, 2011
The Middlebrook Method
Posted on Thursday, April 21, 2011 by littlemapper
Here's a link to a nice little technique used to simulate open loop transfer functions without having to "break the loop." See this artic...
Opera 11 bookmark panel favicons
Posted on Thursday, April 21, 2011 by littlemapper
For some reason, the bookmark panel favicons were not displaying. In their place were these boring "star in book" icons. It turns out that someone much smarter than me had already figured it out here. To save you from having to navigate further, here's the solution rehashed in my own words specifically for Ubuntu 10.10:
In your favourite terminal, type: rm -rf ~/.opera/icons<enter>
Restart Opera.
Click on your bookmark in the bookmark pane. The favicon should update as the page is loaded (unless you opened the page in a Private Tab).&nbs...
Tuesday, April 19, 2011
Miking a choir
Posted on Tuesday, April 19, 2011 by littlemapper
Was helping out at the sound board trying to get the best set up for a 40-strong choir with ~8 men. We had a problem trying to tone down the edginess and harshness in the sound.
In the end we moved the mics back another 2 feet and up 3 feet, and had them aimed at the top row. We rang it out for feedback with some pulsed pink noise and decided not to adulterate the EQ too much--hoping to keep things smooth as possible. Only problem was that the choir had left by then and we'll have to wait for the actual performance to find out if it works, or...
Monday, April 18, 2011
Beverage can stove
Posted on Monday, April 18, 2011 by littlemapper
Dude and I attempted a beverage can stove yesterday evening. We fashioned one out of two emptied cans of Jolly Shandy. It sort of worked. We can see Mark II down the road. It's too cool to leave it as is. We are aiming for a better version next weekend. I need to post some pictur...
Friday, April 15, 2011
Touring with the Principia: Part Two
Posted on Friday, April 15, 2011 by littlemapper
The Principia is an old (circa 2001/2002) 18.5" Mac SL aluminium hardtail frame. It was built with Shimano XT components, Avid Single Digit Ultimate rim brakes, Easton stem, handlebar and seatposts, X brand saddle, Panaracer TrailBlaster tires, Mavic rims with DT Swiss butted spokes and a RockShox SID Race (2000 model). The frame is a little too large for me, but it rides fine.
For some reason, I've never ridden it as much as my old Trek 470 (1997 model). The two bicycles feel very different.
Problem No. 1How to mount racks? The Principia has...
Opera 11.10 and Speed Dial thumbnails...
Posted on Friday, April 15, 2011 by littlemapper

Opera 11.10 is out! Still my favourite browser, but still with niggling problems like Google Docs compatibility issues. Google Spreadsheets still suffers from cell alignment problems when you click on a cell.
Speed Dial now auto-zooms into a web-page when presenting thumbnails:
It works for some pages, but is really ugly for others. If you want the old style full page thumbnails, right click on the thumbnail. Set refresh Reload Every > 30mins....
Tuesday, April 12, 2011
Touring with the Principia: Part One
Posted on Tuesday, April 12, 2011 by littlemapper
Back when I decided to purchase the Principia, bicycle touring was the furthest thing on my mind. Today, the allure of a leisurely bicycle tour through a European country seems almost impossible to refuse.
Since the Principia is the finest bicycle in my inventory, it makes sense to perform a thought experiment (a.k.a. daydream) about the possibility of converting a lightweight, single-track hardtail mountain bike into a fully loaded tourer? Is that even possible?
Stay tuned...
Dude does math
Posted on Tuesday, April 12, 2011 by littlemapper
Dude appears to have broken the 2nd decade barrier for addition. He wrote himself a sum on the chalkboard:
10+11=?
Whipped out his fingers and managed to add to 21. All by himself. This is progress. So as dude's dad, I said, "Great job! I'm impressed." Dude was over-the-moon. But there's a possibility, as with all real-life experiences, that it may be 3 steps forward and 1 step ba...
Lens test: sharpness
Posted on Tuesday, April 12, 2011 by littlemapper
Stay tuned for a shootout between a Canon EOS550D and two Canon point and shoots. We will be using the technique described in Norman Koren's tutori...
Monday, April 11, 2011
Psalm 46:10 (kiddy version)
Posted on Monday, April 11, 2011 by littlemapper
"God says, "Be quiet and know that I am God.""
Not wanting to be left out of the hip and cool memory verse craze, baby pie has requested to memorise this o...
Galatians 2:20 (ESV)
Posted on Monday, April 11, 2011 by littlemapper
"I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me."
Dude has been assigned to memorise this verse. This means daddy has to memorise it too. Good for dude and good for dad...
Friday, April 8, 2011
Why no inventors?
Posted on Friday, April 08, 2011 by littlemapper
An epiphany struck me today. I have been reminded an uncountable number of times about the dearth of great inventors on this tiny little red dot of an island. Then it struck me: inventions come from garages. How many homes in Singapore have one?
See the problem? There is no infrastructure.
:...
Thursday, April 7, 2011
Displaying Garmin tracklogs on Google Maps
Posted on Thursday, April 07, 2011 by littlemapper
This is how I did it with my Garmin GPSMAP 62S:
Connect the GPS to Dell Latitude E4310 with supplied USB cable.
GPS powers up automatically and enters USB mass storage mode. The USB icon shows up on the GPS screen and a Garmin icon shows up on my Ubuntu 10.10 64-bit desktop. If you have a micro-SD card installed in the GPS, that will show up too.
Double click on the Garmin icon. You'll see a Garmin folder. Keep going into Garmin -> GPX -> Current. In this directory, you'll see a file named Current.gpx. This is what you need. Unless...
Wednesday, April 6, 2011
Little Maps gets a makeover
Posted on Wednesday, April 06, 2011 by littlemapper
Got a little bored with the old template and switched to Simple. This variant of Simple even comes with a map image in the banner! It's now customized with Kranky and Coming Soon fonts, and some minor tweaks to the column widths.
Finally, something I rather like. Hope you like it too.
Now to concentrate on conte...
Monday, April 4, 2011
Farewell Corgi...
Posted on Monday, April 04, 2011 by littlemapper
Corgi was euthanized today. The vet said he would have had about a week to live otherwise. He was 13 years and 4 months old.
He had been ill since Saturday, not eating and walking with difficulty. This was a relapse of his first bout of illness 3 week ago.
We'll miss h...
Circumnavigation of Marina Bay
Posted on Monday, April 04, 2011 by littlemapper

We took a leisurely cycle ride around Marina Bay on Saturday. Here's a photograph of MBS taken from the Lower Boardwalk.
Here's the route we took.
View Marina Bay Circumnavigation in a larger ...
Wednesday, March 30, 2011
A jaunt up North
Posted on Wednesday, March 30, 2011 by littlemapper
Honey, dude, baby pie and I took a road trip up to Kuala Lumpur to attend a wedding last weekend.
The Silver Tortoise made its way there and back with an average fuel consumption of 17km/L. This isn't a good number. We have done previous trips to Malacca at 20km/L. My excuse for the poor showing this time around is the frequent attempts to follow a lead car through KL traffic. Not an ideal situation for hypermiling.
** Silver Tortoise is a 2007 Nissan Latio with a HR15DE and CVT under the bonnet. Also known as the Nissan Versa or Nissan Tiida...
Saturday, March 19, 2011
Bleach...
Posted on Saturday, March 19, 2011 by littlemapper
Household bleach is amazing stuff. General consensus on the Internet is that bleach isn't the chemical of choice in the fight against mold. My take is that it can be the ultimate solution in two common household scenarios:
• A mold and scum infested washing machine
• Moldy silicone sealant on the bathroom sink
For the first problem, add two small cups of the stuff into the detergent tray and run a hot wash without any clothes. Never ever keep the door closed on a front load washing machine after a wash. Always leave the door ajar so that moisture...
Saturday, March 5, 2011
10 excuses to buy a Gpsmap 62s
Posted on Saturday, March 05, 2011 by littlemapper
Here's a short list of excuses to justify that toy you always wanted...
The Battery Contrary to popular belief, the iPad/2 is not the only device with 10hrs of battery life. The Gpsmap 62s chugs along for 15hrs on a pair of NiMH AA cells. Really. Now, can your Nuvi do that? Besides, you can always pop into a store and pick up alkaline cells for those rare emergencies.
MCX Connector The Gpsmap 62s has an MCX connector for external antennas. You won't find this on an Oregon nor a Dakota. And only the older discontinued Nuvis have them. It's...
Thursday, March 3, 2011
iPad 2 imminent?
Posted on Thursday, March 03, 2011 by littlemapper

Looks like Apple is preparing to launch the iPad 2... Singapore online store is temporarily unavailable...
Wednesday, March 2, 2011
Gilsson GPS Antenna
Posted on Wednesday, March 02, 2011 by littlemapper

Here's my Gilsson active GPS antenna with the MCX connector. Comes with a suction
mount for the windshield. The antenna itself is magnetic so you can stick it on the car roof. But that would ruin the aerodynamics.....
Tuesday, March 1, 2011
At the playground
Posted on Tuesday, March 01, 2011 by littlemapper

Dude working out... his smile...
Monday, February 28, 2011
Frangipani Grove, Part 2
Posted on Monday, February 28, 2011 by littlemapper

Baby pie scootering through The Frangipani Grove...
Sunday, February 27, 2011
Frangipani Grove
Posted on Sunday, February 27, 2011 by littlemapper

Frangipani flowers. Singapore Botanic Gardens, urban refuge...
Friday, February 25, 2011
MalFreeMap postal code search on Gpsmap 62s
Posted on Friday, February 25, 2011 by littlemapper
Hit the Find button. Click By Address. Leave the house number field blank, proceed with Done. Key in the postal code in the street address field. Hit Done on the soft keyboard. Viola. Okay, okay, you knew that alrea...
Tuesday, February 22, 2011
Gpsmap 62s backlight settings
Posted on Tuesday, February 22, 2011 by littlemapper
I've found that it's easier to have the backlight set to "on always" in the main menu and to rely on the backlight level screen to turn it on or off. This is quicker since backlight level adjustment is accessed by a short press of the power button while the backlight duration configuration item is buried in a subme...
Saturday, February 19, 2011
Lovely aren't they?
Posted on Saturday, February 19, 2011 by littlemapper

My mum planted these for us. They are sitting next to the window. Gorgeous...
Not again!?
Posted on Saturday, February 19, 2011 by littlemapper

I like Apple products. But sometimes ownership can be a pain. This is the second time we've been hit by the vertical pixel wide strip of stuck pixels. I hope the next screen replacement fixes the issue.
Contrast this with my 7 yr old Dell Inspiron 8600 with the 1920*1200 pixel screen. Beaten up, but still soldering on flawless...
16hrs and still going...
Posted on Saturday, February 19, 2011 by littlemapper

Here's a picture of the Gpsmap 62s after 16 hrs on a set of Imedion 2400's. Good enough for a trip to KL and back with plenty of juice to spare....
Monday, February 7, 2011
GPSMAP 62s
Posted on Monday, February 07, 2011 by littlemapper

The new toy :-). Brimming with old world charm... When was the last time you saw an RF device with an external antenna? My kids thought it was a walkie-talkie.
A Gilsson active antenna and Garmin bike mount came in the same package. Figured that the Gilsson would be a potentially useful gadget to have under heavy tree cover. This was one reason why I chose the 62s over the Oregon 450. Now to take it to the great outdoo...
Ubuntu 10.10 and RawTherapee
Posted on Monday, February 07, 2011 by littlemapper
Installed Ubuntu 10.10 32-bit into my old Dell Inspiron 8600 over the Chinese New Year weekend. Took a while to work out the BCM4306/2 wireless driver (bc43legacy) because of a bug in the firmware installer package. Anyway, I now have a working installation of Maverick on a 27GB ext-4 partition on my little 120GB hard disk.
Turns out that http://www.rawtherapee.com/releases_head/linux/ does not offer a 32-bit build for RawTherapee and that the Maverick package doesn't like EOS 550D raw files... So that left me with no choice but to compile the...
Why do they all have to be 16-by-9?
Posted on Monday, February 07, 2011 by littlemapper
Why is it that all new laptops and computer displays come in 16:9 aspect ratio? Laptops aren't just for watching movies. I miss the old 1920x1200 or even the 1600x1200 displays. 16:9 aspect ratio screens just aren't great for the rest of us who work with documents, spreadsheets and CAE tools. Here's hoping that the industry will come to its senses and end the infatuation with "full HD" screens. We need more vertical pixe...
Thursday, January 13, 2011
My first OpenStreetMap edit...
Posted on Thursday, January 13, 2011 by littlemapper
OpenStreetMap is to maps what Wikipedia is to encyclopedias.
Made my first contribution to the OSM database. Decided not to be too ambitious and restricted the changes to one realignment of a street in Kembangan, Singapore. The tool of choice was JOSM running in Ubuntu 10....
Tuesday, January 11, 2011
Hello World!
Posted on Tuesday, January 11, 2011 by littlemapper
So this is it. My own blog. Hello Wor...
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