Plan Travelling to Give a Presentation - lessons learned

I recently gave a slide presentation using a Microsoft PDF at a club venue I know well in Singapore. I had the choice of using a borrowed laptop with a larger screen. Or a smaller laptop which would be lighter to carry.

I chose to usu the larger laptop. The screen would be easier to see if I had to turn it to the audience if I could not connect my laptop with the screen.

Lesson Learned
By the end of the afternoon the laptop failed - no battery power. No connector to the wall socket for mains power. I had the connector which links the laptop to the display screen in the office, and to the screen in the demonstration classroom. But I did not have the power! When using my old Apple machine, the power cable with the square power block was obvious. With the black laptop, just a lot of unfamiliar leads and bit and pieces and cables.   So much to remember and carry! I should have made a checklist of cables and connectors required.

Luckily, I had a print out of all the slides as a reminder.

Feedback
The feedback I got was:

Font Size, Shape and Colour
1 Use a minimum of 18 point font so people in the back row of even a small classroom can read it. I later looked on the internet to research this and found varying recommendations on a website called Quora.

The respondents also discussed which fonts are best for changing from an apple to a Mac system, for dyslexics, which colours are best, less tiring than black and white, yet acceptable and readable for the colour - one suggestion was the blue on yellow or yellow on blue). Sans serif which I prefer apparently makes you read on, whilst serif (with the feet like Times Roman, which I hate - to me it looks old fashioned and confusingly cluttered) apparently leads the eyes along the line of text

Acting Out
2 'We enjoyed the way you acted,' said Teresa.
 'You managed to act out grammar.,' said Trevor.

Acting Singlish
I had demonstrated the English phrase, 'an off day', folding my arms and looking glum. 'Having a day off' - short for 'a day off work' - running towards the door gleefully. Finally, the Singlish phrase 'an off day' which sounds to English speakers like the first (demonstrate glum again) when what they mean is the second (run to the door).

Singing
I demonstrated bring and take. For bringing and bringing back (alliteration!) I sand Bring Back My Bonnie To Me (an old Sottish folk song, well known in the UK, more of a novelty in Asia).

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker.

Help loading up photos, and solving problems with your laptop and mobile phone - especially for the MacBook and iPhone

Problems
TRANSFERRING PHOTOS
1 I used to have trouble loading up my photos.
EDITING PHOTOS
2 Then editing them.
FROZEN LAPTOP
3 Later my laptop froze. Nothing was happening. (Glossary at end for basics.)

Reasons
1TRANSFERRING PHOTOS
If the laptop has been carried about and has only just been plugged in, you may need to wait a short while for both the laptop and the mobile phone to be moderately powered before they start talking to each other and downloading photos from the phone to the laptop.

2 EDITING

If you are in the middle of editing, that stops other functions. For example, if you have a window open for Information and change the title of a photo, on my system you cannot do anything else until you have shut that window.

FROZEN LAPTOP
Is my laptop on? First check the plug is secure in the socket, the switch is on, the multiple extension socket is plugged into the wall. (Somebody could have plugged in a table lamp or coffee maker or vacuum cleaner or another laptop and disconnected the extension.

If the green light is on, the power is getting through to the laptop.

If something is on the laptop is on screen but nothing is moving, that is good sign(s); it's not dead, just in a coma.

1 Try re-starting.

2 If that doesn't work, turn it off. Hold down the power (circle with a line pointing through 12) for several seconds until the screen goes blank.

Wait a minute.

Press power on again.

You should hear the whirring, the start up tune or warning, then on comes a symbol, then a useful screen.

You might need a password.

With luck, you get back to the menu.

Routers
Is the problem my router?

Mobiles
Is my mobile on?
If the screen has something showing, probably on.

Laptops
Laptop
1 You are in the middle of an activity and you need to close that before starting anything else. Check all over your screen. Shut everything else down.
If all else fails, go to the brand sign top left of the screen (the apple for a MacBook Air or Pro) and click on it. Try restart. If it says this will shut in 57 seconds, and you are impatient, there's probably a sign in effect saying click here to do it now.

2 Your laptop is asleep although it is connected because the power is not yet firing it up. (Just like somebody coming into the room and shouting a question at you first thing in the morning. You may have your eyes open but you are not yet awake.)

Phone Fails
You cannot use your phone whilst it is attached to the socket soaking up the power to recharge its battery. (Like you when you are drinking water.)

You have to disconnect the mobile from the cable linking it to the power supply and then it will work.)

The phone keeps asking me for my pin number. Why is it doing this?

Because you have been busy doing something else. Just in case you put your phone down on the table in a restaurant, ignored it for a while, and somebody else picked it up, your phone is set to switch off automatically when not used and ask for the PIN (personal identity number) before it starts. In 'Settings' you can decide how long you want it to wait before asking for your pin number.

Solutions
First check if the blue or green lights are flashing.

If the lights are on, like the saying goes, that usually means somebody is at home or the machine is working.

No lights? Once I unplugged the router, not knowing what it was, when I was vacuuming. Somebody else in the family checked the router, saw it was disconnected and plugged it back in.

Re-setting the router.
Like everything else electrical and with a cable, sometimes you need to unplug and re-plug and that is all it takes to get the machine going again. Note how many things are being unplugged and where they connect. You might like to take a photo before unplugging.

If you have only one circular piece and one circular hole, that's easy. Pull it out, wait a minute, then plug in again. (Unplug everything at the same time and then re-plug everything, to be sure and not get in a muddle or forget to re-plug, or forget to unplug and replug one cable. But disconnect each one by one if you are checking which connection is faulty.)

If you have several sockets, all identical, maybe it doesn't matter which one you use. If all else fails, just in case a socket is faulty, plug the cable back into a different socket later. (Just in case the socket is faulty or you damaged it when yanking, you could try another one later.)

Router Pin Number Needed
Now you may be asked for the pin number for the router. This is usually on the back of the router. However, it tells you how to re-set the pin number.

If the pin number is not working, maybe somebody in your home or office has re-set the number.

You could have a piece of concealed paper with the information, or have it on a pinboard which cannot be seen from a window. Or turn the router around and photograph it (I tried that but my picture was out of focus). Or write it down in a password book, or write it on a piece of paper which you later shred.

Settings on Your Mobile Phone
Settings - Changing how your mobile phone works. Click on settings and various options come up, including times and dates, sounds for the ringtone. You can choose from the options of ringtones, or import your own unique tune so when you are in a supermarket or public place you know it's your phone, not somebody else with the same ringtone. If you have two phones, you can have different ringtones, so you know immediately if its work related or personal, your home country phone meaning it's the family, or the one you use overseas.

Anything you want to change, look at settings. Every now and then, when you are doing nothing else, have a look at settings. Maybe something you never used before will be useful.

Alarms
On holiday or a business trip, maybe the alarm you set at home is waking you up too early on a holiday and you can change it. Maybe you need a new alarm to catch a plane or remember an important meeting.

On Planes
Settings is also the first place to look to shut down your mobile on a plane, turn your phone on again or turn on the wifi or roaming, cancel roaming so you don't get charged, and so on.

Recording Instructions
If you are a bit blank about phones and keep forgetting, and somebody else has the same phone, record them instructing you. Re-play the instructions until you remember them or get the lightbulb moment when you see the logic.

Calling Applecare in the UK
Have you Applecare helpline number for the laptop in your mobile phone so you can call them when your laptop fails.

You get a recorded message asking which device you are calling about. Is it a mobile phone, which model, a laptop, the Pro or The Air. (Why? They probably have one person dealing with and trained in each product.)

How To Find The Model Number
Next, they want the model number. You can find this by clicking on the apple symbol and going into the about my Mac section.

If your screen is blank, you cannot do this! They tell you that alternatively, look at the box the machine came in.

Or you or a colleague or family member might have written down the number in a password book, on a pinboard, a file on your possessions, your tax and invoices file, somewhere else.

Don't panic. Stay calm. Finally, they offer you the option to go ahead without the information, warning you that the first thing the company will want to do is learn the model number. They will also want to check your name and address or other details to confirm it's really your machine.

Online Help
After you have spoken to Apple, you will get a follow-up case number, later a question asking how your session went and was your problem solved.

Other Laptops And Phones
Most problems can be solved by a process of elimination. If you have the instructions for one type of phone or laptop, you can probably work out what to do with another. is somebody else can't help with your machine, ask what they do when theirs goes wrong.

I shall deal with another brand of phone next month.

Glossary
PC Personal computer.
Router - a little box like a switchboard which connects your laptop(s) to the outside world.

Settings - symbol on iphone looks like a circle with battlements. Lets you set the alarm, screen, sound, lots of other things.

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, speaker and author. Please share links to your favourite posts.

Fun Facts For Everybody About Formula One, and Cars In California and Worldwide

Formula one race took place in Singapore yesterday, Sunday September 19 2016. Even if you have little interest in Formula one, and cannot see the race or attend it, you must have seen information on it in the newspapers or on TV.
How might it affect you?

1 You can watch the race if you can afford a ticket.
2 You can watch the race on TV.
3 You might have to avoid the area during the race time - I saw signs in advance warning of road closures and I took pictures of the signs.
4 You might have to listen to a family member telling you about the race.
5 You might be wondering whether it will be going ahead (what could stop it - the haze) and if it goes ahead, what's in it for you?
6 You can see pictures of the finish with fireworks online.
7 You can learn about the race and cars and its implications for cards worldwide.

Last year when I was in Singapore we were all worried about the F1 potentially being cancelled because of the haze. Cancellation would have been bad for the Singapore economy. Our friend who goes to the FI race for his birthday would have been disappointed.

Fortunately no haze this week this year - apparently the winds over Indonesia blew away the smoke from forest fires leaving lovely clear skies so everybody was breathing easy in Singapore. However,

FACT 1 DRIVERS ARE HOT
Yes I know that if you are a racing car enthusiast your favourite F! driver is 'hot' metaphorically, but drivers are physically hot. They can be inside a car up to two hours, driving around a circuit, strapped inside a car, going around a race track inside a car at high speed, one short stretch inside a tunnel.
It's hot inside the cars. It's so hot that the drivers have to drink water during the race. Some drivers ask for a reminder message to be sent that they should drink water.

FACT 2 WHEELS ARE CHANGED IN 2 AND A HALF SECONDS
Have you ever needed a wheel change? How long did it take? The F1 drivers who need a wheel change get it done in two and a half seconds.
Did I hear right? Surely that's twenty seconds - under a minute - really impressive.
Not twenty seconds, two and a half seconds!
How is that possible?

FACT 3 HOW THEY CHANGE WHEELS FAST
They have a man in front with the stop and go flag.
Car races in.
The jack - up man or men raise the car.
A team of people for removing wheels. One person with a large electrically driven rotating bolt turner to remove bolts from one wheel; later re-fix bolts on the next wheel. Four of those.
The wheel lifters. On each wheel, somebody to remove the released wheel; and somebody to replace with the new wheel.
After the wheel is lifted off -
The bolt or screw on machinery holders leaps forward.
After wheel is on - Four people raise a flag by each wheel.
When all four flags are raised the man with the stop-go flat raises his flag.
Driver roars off.

At the end the winners are announced and then the fireworks light up the skies.
If you are sitting at home you can see the fireworks on your screen.

It's over. So how does the knowledge of it benefit me or change my world?

One of my friends celebrated his birthday by going to the F1 race. You might buy somebody a ticket for their birthday.

FUEL in F1 cars
The braking in F1 cars is used to provide energy to re-charge the battery. Why? Because it's efficient and the manufacturers and organisers want to be seen as environmentally friendly.

This is the same system used in hybrid cars. They use braking energy to convert into power to keep the batteries going.

Did the F1 and racing car development necessarily cause the development of cars this way? My informant, (a racing car enthusiast in my family) told me that cars for the road and cars for the races were both probably working on the same idea and development independently. It's all a bit technical for me. If you want to know more, check it out on line.

CALIFORNIAN INFLUENCE
The idea of using brake energy to recycle energy for use by cars came from California where the laws about vehicle emissions prompted research and development of the use of less polluting of air from emissions from diesel and petrol (which Americans call gas).

BIRTHDAYS & FIREWORKS
So, now we have ideas for birthday presents, a glimpse of life in Singapore and Indonesia and how one affects another, how California influences cars production and cars on roads worldwide, and how racing cars and hybrid cars on our roads operate. I'm off to look at fireworks on line.

Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker