Author Archives: Preetam Rai

Visiting Cambodia with Anirudh Bhati

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Anirudh Bhati on Cambodia

I talk to our friend Anirudh, who is always on the move. He spent six months living in Cambodia and traveling in the surrounding countries. I first met Anirudh at a Wikipedia editors meet in Taiwan. Anirudh shares travel tips for Phnom Penh, getting to Seam Reap to visit the Angkor temples, the bamboo train in Battambang, Rabbit island  and visits to neighbouring Vietnam.

The links from this episode

Wikitravel link to Cambodia- http://wikitravel.org/en/Cambodia

Cambodia eVisa - http://www.mfaic.gov.kh/evisa/

Vietnam Online Visa Application - http://www.myvietnamvisa.com/

Phnom Penh events guide - http://ladypenh.com/

Phnom Penh Hackerspace - http://hackerspacepp.org/

Video Clip of Battambang Bamboo Train- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cLYcOLib0KM

Rabbit island - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Koh_Thons%C3%A1y

The naval confrontation between China and India in Vietnamese waters - http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/world/test-looms-for-china-over-india/st…

Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City) travel guide - http://wikitravel.org/en/Saigon

Dalat (Central highlands) travel guide - http://wikitravel.org/en/Dalat

Cite This Extension for Chrome Browser. Helps you cite URLs in your presentations and reports

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I make a lot of presentation and often grab images or research notes from websites. I want to credit the site on my presentations or reports but It is tedious to type out the citation. I made the “Cite This” Chrome extension that lets one capture a simple citation text from the current web page.

Let’s say I am working on this presentation and I get this image from a website.

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And I want to cite the website on my presentation slide.

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I will have to copy and paste the URL from the website to the presentation and also add some leading (the word “From”) and following text (perhaps the retrieval date).

The Cite This Chrome extension makes this task less tedious. Go to the Chrome webstore and search for the Cite This extension.

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Once you find the extension, you can add it to Chrome.
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Once the Cite This extension is installed, it shows up on the browser. myWPEdit Image

When you are on a website that you want to cite, just click on the CIte This button. A popup appears with the citation text. Just press CTRL+C key on your computer (Command+C if you are on a Mac). This send the text to your computers clipboard.

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Next, just paste the text on your presentation slide or report. Hope this extension saves you some time.

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Link to the Cite This extension

FAQ

  1. Why don’t you send the citation text directly to clipboard when I press the Cite This button? Why do I have to copy it from the popup?

Chrome browser does not allow me to send text to clipboard. This is a security restriction. That is why I have to get you to initiate the copy action by pressing Ctrl+C or Command+C on your keyboard.

PDFpen for iPad, great for form filling

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Hoping to be in the Union of Myanmar soon so I had to fill this visa form. I normally use Tiny PDF Editor on the mac to fill such form but these days I am trying to use iPad as the sole traveling companion. I was happy to find the PDFpen software on the iPad app store. Let me show you how easy it is to fill a form using this app.



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I browsed to one of the Myamar Embassy websites, and clicked on the download link for the PDF form. You can even open PDF files that are in your Dropbox folder.

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iPad loads the PDF form and then offers you the “Open in” button. I chose PDFpen.

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PDFpen loads the form. Now I can use the option to type in the text.

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Here I am typing the text on the PDF form. Don’t you think it is funny that the form asks for my complexion.

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The feature that I like the most is the one that allows me to sign the document.

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Signing documents is so much easier on touch screen.

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Another nice feature allows you to bring in your picture from your iPad’s photo stream of photo album to the form.

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Once you are done, you can send the form to Dropbox or other destinations.

Link: Download PDFpen for iPad. http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/pdfpen/id490774625?mt=8

Frequent travelers do you carry multiple SIM cards? I am trying out JumpSurf

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I am tired of carrying multiple SIM cards. So for some time now, I was watching with interest what the folks at Jumpsurf were doing. They have an interesting gadget that is a lot like a mobile access point. The difference is that you never have to change the SIM card. It comes pre-installed with a SIM card that behaves as a local SIM when you are in a different country. There is a flat usage charge – 20cents/MB – yes you probably won’t use it for YouTube but works well for emails and basic web surfing. It does save you a trip to the mobile store. And in some countries, you end up wasting a lot of time registering your passport/id cards etc – see my earlier post about India).

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The device can used without the power plug for about 3 hours.

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Size compared to an iPhone 4.

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The device takes a couple of minutes to initialize, once you turn it on. After that you will see an wi-fi network with prefix Jumpsurf. The password is on a sticker behind the device. You top up your Jumpsurf account (online payment on their website) when you need it – no monthly fee or subscription. At the moment, the device covers most of South East Asia, Hong Kong, Macau and parts of Europe. I bought mine (the folks behinds this devices are friends but I like to support stuff that makes my life easier) for 128 USD and they gave me 18 $ worth of credit.

Jumpsurf – Safe & Secure borderless data access. No prepaid SIM Cards required.

Buying a mobile SIM card in India (see the middle of the post)

Visiting Bangalore’s Hackerspace

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I was in Bangalore and Mangalore for a few days. It is always fun being here. The weather was great in Bangalore.

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Smartcard based bike borrowing rack.

I had to get a mobile data SIM so I spent some time getting photocopies. In India, you need to have photocopy of your passport first page, the Indian visa and a passport size photo to get a SIM card from a phone shop. We visited this photocopy shop that was offering co-working space near Brigade road. In India you must ask “Where is the nearest Xerox shop?”. Not many people will know the generic term photocopy.

The SiM card was easy to get once we had the photocopies. We ended up getting TATA Docomo SIM card. I bought the basic SIM for about 8 USD. And I topped it up with 6GB data for another 2 USD. Here you see customers buying a bluetooth headset. Mobile phones and accessories are very popular.

The is the entrance to the hackerspace in Bangalore. it is called Jaaga and is at No 68, KH Double Road. In the local Kannada language “jaaga” means “space”. http://jaaga.in/

Seems they have just moved to this space from another location. This space is quiet large. Thanks to @jackerhack for showing me the place.

The workshop downstairs were still being worked on.

The floor upstairs is a large gathering space.

The day I was here, they had some folks from the US (I think Geeks on a Plane) visiting them.

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Power socket in the Bangalore to Mangalore train. After Bangalore, we visited Mangalore, a city on the Arabian sea coast.

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One of the beaches near Mangalore

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IT books are inexpensive in India.

If there is one thing you can say about India, it would be that India is getting mobified or internet-ified at a massive scale.

Even these competitive test preparation guys are offering a tablet to prepare for exams.

A better fly-swatter with science

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Often in our Saigon, I get interesting ideas.

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We were at a shop where the mom was trying to get the kid to swat the insects with an electric fly swatter such as this. But hard to interest angry-bird playing kids these days in such physical activities.

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What if we add a counter to the swatter – the counter keeps a track of the number of insects killed. And build a leader board that ranks fly kills around the world.

Never a dull moment at Barcamp Saigon 5

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They say you come to Vietnam and you understand a lot in a few minutes. But the rest has got to be lived.

And what better way to do this than by joining the barcamp in Saigon.

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This event brings together local technology and design enthusiasts, entrepreneurs and people working on interesting projects for a day of intense discussions.

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A call for presentations ideas and discussion topics. You put up your idea on the topic board. If the participants like it then they vote for it. Once you have accumulated enough votes, your topic goes into the time table projected on the screen.

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Then we make our own timetable, we figure out what room we want to at what time.

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We ran out of coffee soon. Why? see the next photo.

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Many people were up the previous night looking at the lunar eclipse. Here our friend Hoa shows the photos she took of the moon. She is from the Vietnamese Amateur Astronomy group.

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Once the presentations start, we are not sleepy any more. This year we saw even more local presenters taking on topics of local interest. Here is a discussion on raising funds for local ventures.

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RMIT, the venue sponsor had their students do a mini-trade fair. They had a room with projects that their students had built. Here is a Zigbee (a wireless protocol that enabled inter-device communication) based car parking aid. I enjoyed talking to the students, they were confident and knew how to answer even the non-technical questions.

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Don’t you love when school are proactive in hosting un-conferences and giving their students the opportunity to interact with people outside academia. This is the fifth Barcamp that RMIT is hosting in Saigon.

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A discussion on connectivity around the world.

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I also got to play with the Kindle Fire at a booth that one of the sponsor Tiki.vn had set up. Tiki sells books online, they also import Kindles for local customers.

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A discussion on improving photography skills. Our friend Thuy talking about Vietnamese online forums where they discuss photography. My own session discussed making engaging presentations. Another session that I did urged the Vietnamese to come to BarCamps in South East Asia specifically the ones in Cambodia. We also talked about running more BarCamps in other Vietnamese cities. I truly believe that such ground up events can help us connect the wider region and also help people within a city learn from each other.

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The awesome volunteers. I must say that this year’s t-shirt design was distinct and fresh.

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Yet another memorable events. The highlight this year was 1.seeing more Vietnamese leading sessions, both in English and in Vietnamese language, 2.the participants moving away from presentations to running discussions and 3.meeting such active participants. The Saigon barcamp is a good venue to get the pulse of VN technology and popular culture scene. Thanks to the #barcampsaigon organizing team and volunteers. I am eagerly waiting for the next one.

Just a reminder that Barcamp Yangon will be happening on February 12 and 13. We will be putting up travel and accommodation information soon on the http://www.barcampsingapore.com/upcoming site.

Adverts prompting viewers to search Facebook for the brand

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Not unusual to find adverts that suggest users to search for the company name on Google or other search engines (many train ads prompt users to search for the brand  in Japan, typing URLs used to take time on older phones). Brands usually feature their Facebook page URL but this is the first time I have seen a suggestion to search for the advertiser on Facebook.

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Zooming in

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Creating an Appointment System with Google Spreadsheets

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I often have my workshop participants wanting to discuss stuff with me.

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I want to show them my free slots and get them to book the slot convinient to them . I have tried various web2.0 appointment tools but I find the user interface too cumbersome. I wanted something simple that students can use without creating accounts. Doodle is probably the best. Google Calendar now has an appointment feature built in but it requires the students to have a Google calendar account.

I finally settled on hacking this system via a Google Spreadsheet. The idea is simple. I create a Google spreadsheet with my free time slots and my location. Then I share that spreadsheet with my students and make it editable. They can come and fill in the slot they want to take.

To create a Google spreadsheet, you need a Gmail or a Google account

1. Go to https://docs.google.com . Create a new Spreadsheet from the menu on the left.

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2. Below is a screenshot of the google spreadsheet that I created. You could create something similar to this.

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3. Next we will share these spreadsheet with our students. Select File -> Share

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4. In the Sharing settings, click on the “Change…” link

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5. On the next page you will see more Sharing settings. Click on “Anyone with the link”. In the “Edit access” area tick the “Allow anyone to edit” option and Save.

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6. On the next page, you will see the public link to the document. Copy this link

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7. This link is too long. Usually I go to URL shortening service such as bit.ly or tiny.cc to shorten this link. Below I pasted the link on bit.ly and bit.ly creates a short URL for me.

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On bit.ly you can customize the short URL if you have an account otherwise it will give you some random URL. In this example you can try our my spreadsheet. It is at http://bit.ly/meetpreetam

That’s it, you can pass the URL to your students and they can edit it to select the meeting slot they prefer.