N4SZO

Rant mode on:

I forgot just how annoyed MS products used to make me feel until recently when I was forced to use Access for one of my classes. First the software would not install with the supplied key so I had to resort to the internet to solve that one. No biggie, but still annoying. The non-intuitive way of working with the software was not fun (menus missing) but hey even Apple has that at times like when installing software.  I guess I am just too conditioned to the way Unix operates (Picky yes, buggy no) and it’s just really frustrating having to go back to this.

But as long as Access has been around you’d think they would have fixed some outstanding bugs like pop-up text boxes in forms years ago. I found people complaining about it all the way back to ‘97 and it’s alive and well in version 2007.  Apparently it can be caused by several reasons, including the size of your form, non referenced fields, or even missing files. They have a feature to check for the missing files and guess what: when I tried to run this check that feature was missing itself !! That brought back memories from 10-15 years ago when greyed out features- aka- features that didn’t exist or broken were common in many MS products.

I had not seen the greyed out bug in years and thought that went out with the 90’s but I guess it’s making a comeback in Office 07.

At least now the MS wizards are no longer forced on you like they were back then.   Remember when IE used to refuse to load the first time unless you ran the wizard?  Even if you had a perfectly good and working internet connection, IE would not load without running the wizard unless you knew a workaround. The reason for this was to try and sell you MSN. The workaround was to delete the MSN icon on the desktop and then IE would work normally.  Seems Outlook was kinda the same way for awhile but that didn’t last too long.

To be fair we have been testing this software at work and some of my staff think the issue is with the 2007 version. That might be as while I have limited experience with Access, I sure don’t remember Excel being such a pain but maybe I was just lucky.

The point of this rant is that I don’t like to be annoyed by buggy expensive software and it has prompted me to look for alternatives. I have been using Google docs for some time and while not perfect, it is decent and coming along. Open office has some good reviews and it sure would save my library some coins not to have to fork out $150.00 or so per machine every upgrade cycle.  Our new health kiosks should be on order soon and they already have O.O.  loaded so that will be a good time to investigate that further.

Rant off.

Have a nice weekend.

I have been playing around this afternoon with the new Google Browser named Chrome. So far I like it and impressed with how fast it loads pages and how it doesn’t appear to be a memory hog like others. But Google is making BIG claims on the new technology and claim to solve some of the biggest complaints of current browsers:1) Java can take control of the whole browswer and crash it along with anything else you are working on in other windows.    Chrome is supposed to be true muli tasking in the sense that is one buggy app in a tab can’t bring down the whole show and along the same lines this also stops memory leaks from spreading.

 2) Each tab works like a virtual machine . If that tab gets infected it can’t spread to your whole machine.  We will see how this plays out and already they have admited they can’t completly control plug-ins, but if even half of what they claim is true we have just taken a nice step forward in browser technology.  

Back online as of 430 pm Central. Lots of leaves and little branches but nothing else in my area. Coastal roads flooded but not unexpected. Tornado warnings all day long and looks like even during the night but so far so good.

Because the storm may intensify during the night I have decided to pull the plug on the WX station. It now safely sits on a garage shelf but will be back soon. Disregard any data after 7pm. Good luck to all, Fletch

p.s. Barometer and temp readings will be somewhat valid but you won’t see any wind data unless my garage blows down

Right now it looks like the hurricane will pass to the west of us but if that changes and it comes near us N4SZO weather will go offline.

Why? Because like many in the area, I have had my issues with insurance companies and would expect delays getting the outside sensors replaced. They are about $500 total and I just don’t have that kind of money to buy new sensors. The server that runs the station will stay online as long as I have power and cable to run the blog. After the storm if cable returns I will try and get the server back online as I have 2 Honda generators but we will see how things go.

In preparing for the hurricane, I got ready to move 2 of my vintage bikes out of storage as the building is right next to a huge pine tree. I mention this because both bikes have not been started in 2+ years. The most vaulable , a ‘71 Honda Mini trail 50 was the first bike I attempted to start. The first kick failed because the bike was in gear but she fired right up on the second kick without fail. Nothing like a Honda! If the storm should come this way, the Mini trail comes inside my house.

Hopefully we will miss most of the action and this area’s preparation will be just a good exercise.

Good luck to all!

Fletch

For the past few days I have been trying to get my sister’s new cataloging application working for her.  Basically this cataloging application consists of a hand held scanner along with database software so you can catalog your books/CD’s etc.  The package looked really nice if it actually worked. To be fair, the company was nice and sent my sister a second scanner which worked better but still was a pain. Long story short she gave me one of the scanners to play with(the company didn’t want it back) and with a bit of troubleshooting I got it working. At the same time one of my classmates told me about a free online cataloging service called Library Thing. I used Library thing to troubleshoot and fix the scanner and along the way realized it is a pretty neat application. You walk around your house and scan the ISBNs off your books  then connect the scanner to your computer which uploads your data to Librarything. Librarything then does a search to fill in the title, cover page image, etc. There are several applications which already do this but this one is free and offers tagging, cloud views and other web 2.0 features.  And to me the most important feature is the application allows exporting for backup or importing into a commercial package.  You don’t see companies like MS offering this unless they are forced into it so their willingness to play fair and be open earns  a forthcoming membership from me.

Check it out:

 http://www.librarything.com/profile/Fletchb

note:  I tested adding multiple books remotely and it works fine as the only extra step is to download your scanner’s buffer into a text file then import.  You do have to wait in a queue though. On my test the site said it would be aprox 30-50 minutes before completion.

The delay turned out to be only about 2 minutes.

While this probably won’t help the Mac folks, Some in the Linux community have figured out to totally bypass NBC’s web site  and directly access both live and recorded events.  The main web site  was blocking Mac, Linux and older windows users so some clever Linux users bypassed the main site and went directly to the streaming servers. You get a schedule and  apparently do not get any advertisements as well.  Sorry Microsoft, you lose yet again. Someone should let those advertisers know that Microsoft / NBC forced users to take matters into their own hands and in doing so their ads are not being seen.

How to bypass Microsoft/NBC foolishness

No not the Olympics, but the online viewing protocol surely is.  Instead of using a multi platform video protocol such as flash, NBC decided to use a proprietary protocol from Microsoft called Silverlight. Yes, flash is not really open but at least they make it available for just about any machine out there. Plenty of sites use it and it has pretty much become a standard yet NBC chose to use a protocol few have used much less heard of. By using Silverlight, NBC has blocked Mac and Linux users as the software only works with Windows machines and reportly a few of the latest Macs. They will also block you if you tell them you have an outside antenna-as you must enter your zip code and tell them you are on cable as crazy as that sounds. I wonder if NBC’s advertisers know NBC is going out of it’s way to block viewers??

LA Times story on this issue

Please note some are reporting the Silverlight software will not uninstall once added to your system so you may wish to use a public machine at work if you don’t want to get stuck with it.

As you may or may not know I have been wanted to build a solar powered rain barrel for some time. I have been looking around trying to decide whether to build the whole thing or buy the barrel ready for modification. Well these things are pricey and paying $150 plus shipping seems to be the norm and I can’t figure this out as the main “unit” is simply a plastic barrel.  I found one site that had a great price of $60.00 but they wanted another $60.00 for shipping (via greyhound) and I was thinking it over when they apparently stopped taking orders.  So with that in mind I decided to do the first barrel myself. First you will find it is hard to find barrels for whatever reason and the folks that do sell them, don’t give them away. I have recently found one potential good source and I am going to check on them for barrel # 2.  I say #2 because I have several ideas on how to do the solar part and one way involves mounting some of the electronics inside the barrel. Well that is more involved and I want a traditional barrel first to study then  I can do the fancy stuff to #2. So lets buld my “beat the system” rain barrel

DYI Rain Barrel:

There are plenty of sites on the net on how to build your own but while I did get some ideas from them. most are not very good in the sense they are not detailed enough to really  build a rain barrel. Just saying things like “get a spigot and connect it to the bulkhead after drilling a hole.” does not tell me much. What is a bulkhead and where do I get it? What size? One so called rain barrel guru actually said something very close to that in a YouTube DYI video.  And when several people asked him where to get the bulkhead he never answered. It may be because several of these “gurus” are now selling rain barrel plans and want to keep  things vague and their parts sources secret But I think some are just poor writers and I never thought I find folks far worse at writting than me

I am going to do this over the course of multiple blog posts but want to start with the bulk of the parts list:

1) Who needs a barrel when you can sub it with a cheap trash can? I picked up a Rubbermaid Roughneck 50 Gallon trashcan at walmart for $29.95 This model is dark-dark gray and squared shaped with wheels. I couldn’t find it on Walmart.com but here is what it looks like:

This was easy to come by and cheap. They make a super heavy duty version but it’s $100.00 which is a waste for this project.  You shouldn’t have to spend more than about 30 bucks on your can and if you want enough color you can get Fusion spray paint for plastic items which will work just fine .

2) The mysterious bulkheads: What these do in plain English is allow you to hook up a water hose, spigot, etc to the outside of the barrel to water your grass etc. These were the hardest parts to find and I think it is do to the fact that the plumbing industry has no taxonomy to speak of. They call the same part different names at different times. Maybe this is really a problem with Lowes/etc and the way their databases are setup but regardless it is the wild wild west when trying to locate parts from the big box type stores. I am going to give you the stock number and database name (what is on the cash register reciept) but you will still probably have to ask the store for help, least with Lowes. They don’t even have some of these parts in their online database. Regardless the parts I am specify here will allow you to hook up a *standard size* garden hose , coupler , or spigot. They say these are 3/4 threads but regardless, your hose at home should work with no issues.

Lowes # 53617 3/4″X1/2″ BUSHING MXF S80   -Get 2 of these for total cost of $4.28

Lowes # 56001 1/2X CLOSE SCH80 NIPPLE     - Get 2 of these for a total cost of  $0.76

Lowes # 112770 PLASTIC FAUCT SHANK NUT 8  Get 2 of these for a total cost of $1.90

UPDATE: I started this post at the beginning of summer semester but had to stop before I could finish. I was able to test what I had done so far and needless to say it doesn’t take much rain to fill up a 50 gallon container. I also learned that while the 1/2″   is great for the spigot, this size hole will not be enough for the overflow outlet. I am going to look for a larger size bulkhead for that so I can connect to a aprox 1 1/2 ” buried overflow pipe that routes around my garage. Bottom line just take the above prices and cut them in half.  The other thing I have found is this system needs to be powered to get any kind of flow out of a hose. While I have a solar powered design in my head, I may go with a regular pump at first just to get it finished and fully functional. Here are the pics of the bulkhead parts :

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More pictures of the barrel in test mode coming soon.

We had several storms over thepast weekend, nothing too major in my area but still enough to knock power off probably 6 times or so over the weekend. Well more are projected this weekend too so I broke down and did some quick research to get up to speed on UPS systems. They have come a long way since the early-mid nineties when they were very expensive, hard to set up and basically only network admins knew about them.. I bought a cheap APC home unit for $80.00 that is far better than the $500.00 commercial server version I had in the mid 90’s.

APC’s software for the unit doesn’t include unix servers, but when did that stop the linux community?

The software is now set to  cleanly shutdown the server if power has not returned within about 6 min till the battery is discharged. It also allows simple web status monitoring. If you check out the link below check out the other 2 links on the main page as well. 
http://n4szo.servebbs.net/cgi-bin/apcupsd/multimon.cgi

Happy 4th!!!