Merry Christmas and have a wonderful new year 2015

Earlier this year, I was in New Zealand. I have yet to sit down and write about my first and most wonderful trip there. Hope to find time to do so soon. Here’s wishing everyone a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

One of my favourite things to do…

Immediately after graduating from uni, I worked in a multinational company. Each day, I'd be walking through an office filled with computers and buzzing telephones and fax machines. Today, this is my "office", the jungle is where I go to "escape" urban life, it's where I go to relax and at the same time, learn more about the world around us. I love Sarawak, my beautiful home.

Licuala species (fan palm) - July 2014

Went exploring this morning (such a hot day! 33 degrees Celsius in the jungle and 45C under the sun!) and found several kinds of palms in this swampy area but I was only interested in the licualas, my favourite! There were so many of them but I believe they are all of the same species though am not sure which. Came upon only one with mature fruits.

The pea-sized fruits (orange-red/brown) have a sweet and juicy mesocarp (husk/pulp surrounding the hard shell which protects the kernel). This suggests that seed dispersal is probably by birds and small mammals (and me!) :-)

The inflorescence pictured above had its growth obstructed by some dried leaves and twigs. It would otherwise grow straight up.

Those found growing in the denser parts of the jungle with little light had very long petioles. Since they're stemless, this would be the only way for them to grow "lanky" to reach for light.

Licualas have palmate leaves and are often called fan palms. This one has very tiny thorns on the lower part of the petiole and is stemless.

Others in more open areas were very bushy with short petioles; some were very dense, such as the one in photo below. I had to separate the mass of leaves and petioles to expose the inflorescence to be photographed!

If anyone knows which species this is, drop a line in the comments section, thanks!

MASwings Viking Air DHC6 Series 400 Twin Otter

MASwings, a wholly owned subsidiary of Malaysia Airlines, has finally replaced all of its museum pieces (DHC6 Series 300) with brand new DHC6-400 planes. The 400 seats the same number of people (19) but is much newer and more modern, powered by a newer engine model and featuring a new cockpit outfitted with modern technology.

While the older ancient planes only had oscillating fans to keep the cabin cool as well as very hard seats and an interior that felt more like a country bus, these new planes now feature a modern cabin with comfortable seats and yes, gasper vents and LED lights (see photo below). :-)

Did you know that the Twin Otter has a respectable range of around 1500km or more? It also has a service ceiling of around 7500m and a cruise speed of about 280km/h.

I noticed that MASwings christened their new planes with names of rivers such as Padas and Kinabatangan (the plane in this album, which brought me from Miri to Lawas and back) - both are rivers in Sabah.

I have flown on the twin otter with Maswings a number of times now but this was my first in the 400. It was not unsual to see daily goods and sundries packed under the seats in the past as the planes often were the only means to quickly bring in perishable items from the larger cities to the interiors of Sarawak. On this flight and the return, saw no such thing and the cabin remained clean and comfortable.

The older planes were notorious for getting into accidents (a few fatal ones). Hope the new planes will have a clean record for as long as they remain in service.

For more info, check out this news article:
https://my.news.yahoo.com/maswings-phases-ageing-twin-otter-090849961.html

Toshiba FlashAir 8GB SD Card Review

Just got this card for my Olympus OMD-EM5 (about RM70 for an 8GB card, they used to cost so much!). It’s a wifi-enabled SD card which enables easy photo transfers from camera to mobile devices such as phones, tablets and laptops. I can also use it to quickly slowly but conveniently transfer one or two files to my desktop if I need to.

How it works
To use the card, all I had to do was insert it into my EM5, turn on the camera and then on my tablet’s browser, enter the URL “”http:/flashair/” which then brought me to the initial setup screen. On this screen, I had to enter a new SSID name and a password.

Once that was done, each time I wanted to transfer or browse photos on the card, I just had to switch on the camera and connect to the card (the card automatically creates a wifi network) and go to the above URL. However, this method is slow and not practical for transferring multiple files.

For easier browsing and transfers, I use an app by Olympus called Olympus Image Share (OI Share). Toshiba also has an app called FlashAir but it has fewer features compared to Olympus’ app. Both can be downloaded from the Android  Play Store.

OI Share app features include:
1. Transfer multiple files
2. Setting file sizes (instead of full sizes, we can select smaller sizes for quicker transfers)
3. Transfering movie files (.mov on the EM5)

I find the Toshiba’s FlashAir app is sometimes rather problematic and often takes a while to connect.

Pros
Useful for older cameras without built-in wifi. For example, I can now easily browse photos on my EM5 with my tablet and then select any which I’d like to share with friends either by email or social apps.

Cons
The card is always turned on. Toshiba says that by locking an included image on the card on the camera (by using the lock or protect feature used for protecting files from being deleted), this turns off the wifi. However, in practice, I have found this to be hit and miss. Sometimes it works, most times it doesn’t.

Also, write speeds are slow, much slower than what I would expect from a Class 6 card. Transfer speeds over wifi are also very slow. To transfer an 8 megabyte jpeg, for example, takes roughly a minute and a half on my tablet and desktop PC. View the video demo I created below, showing just how slow the file loading is:

Slow transfer speed (video demo)

Conclusion
This card has given my EM5 a much needed feature and although I do wish it was faster (write/transfer), I have no regrets. I am pleased that I am now able to browse photos on my EM5 with my tablet and I can recommend this card to others using compatible cameras, as long as you do not mind the slow write/transfer speeds.

I rate it 65/100