Spoke Calculator 2.5

Its been a long time since i updated my Spoke Calculator, i have actually had the new version working for some time but lacked the necessary time to get things tested and updated.

So the time has come.

whats new?

Improved Code.
I added the ability to add rims and hubs to groups in bulk, so no more one at a time! i got tired my self of grouping 1000s of pieces of information.
Refreshed the design.
Accordion sorting in the Get info section for calculations.
Refined the search field to be more intelligent.
Improved the manage page and how you can sort information.

Demo Spoke Calculator Pro

If you like this script, please help support it by making a donation.

Raw – Black and White Conversion Process

Not to long ago i made a tutorial on how to Creating Black and White Images in Photoshop CS3. This tutorial though centered around JPG was will an nondestructive method and has worked well for me in the past. But there are many methods in creating black and white images. Some involve a bit more understanding of colour and manipulating the colour channels in Photoshop. The method i have been using lately is done with RAW photos in Adobe Camera Raw 4.4.1.

Read on..

Spring snowstorm slams northern Alberta

Spring is in the air, or is that snow? We went from +15 to -15 with about 8″ of show in 2 days and it apparently isn’t stopping any time soon. Lovely weather too! nice and windy.

I have been riding the past 3 weeks to work and now I’m back on the old bobsled.

Usually Eastern Canada gets the spring dumb, but mother nature is making up for all the years of good weather we have had.

Link: http://www.cbc.ca/canada/edmonton/story/2008/04/21/snow-storm.html

Zenphoto and PicLens

I have been trying to get Gallery2 to work with PicLens and realised that trying to get the simple RSS feeds to work was more effort that i wanted to apply. So i reinstalled ZenPhoto and will be using that again as soon as i integrate it into wordpress and get a theme built up for it.

But after a few minutes of trial and error i have a working RSS feed for ZenPhoto to use with PicLens.

How?
Its simple! Rename your old rss.php file to back it up, upload the new file to the root of your ZenPhoto installation.

That’s it!

Google Chart API

The Google Chart API lets you dynamically generate charts. The thumbnail for this article is generated by Google’s Chart API. The API is simple, the image is generated from URL parameters. The following Code chunk breaks down the images into its basic components.

Read on..

Full Moon

last night was a full moon, and i had tried many times to take a picture of the moon with my film SLR. I never really got a pleasing shot. That was until now. It is much easier to get a good shot of the moon. I tried the Sunny f/16 rule, i don’t want to get to much into that as i didn’t have a lot of success with film or digital. If you would like to learn about it check Wikipedia.

I however learned later that its better to get a photo of the moon later at night, at least when its higher in the sky.

The first shot is some atmosphere distortion being it wasn’t to far above the horizon.

The second shot is a Half Moon but has much more detail in the craters since the sun light came from the right.
Read on..

Microsoft ‘Milan’ Surface Computer

Microsoft has come put with a Surface computer that has a table top interface allowing users to control objects on the screen with there hands. its a lot like the Minority Report and defiantly looks very futuristic. In the room there are infrared cameras that will recognize objects on the screen, so something like a glass will tell the computer first were it is, and maybe play an animation around it. so imagine being at the bar and you put your pint glass down and seeing advertisements floating around your drink.

The same goes with wireless devises. put a camera on the table and the pictures will flow out of it. manage the images by tossing them around rotating by hand and then if you want to move them over to your PDA then place it on the table and drag the content over and there you go, you just transfered the data without hooking them up to a computer.

Watch the movie: Read on..

Canada targeting dirty two-stroke engines

I found this interesting, if you were to run your lawn mower for about 1 hour it will produce about the same amount of pollution as a car that has driven 500km.

Using a two-stroke lawn mower to cut a decent-sized lawn can produce as much smog-forming pollution as driving a modern car from Ottawa to Toronto.

If Canada wants to have the average household drop there green house emissions then lets have a look at some flexible numbers.

It took me 1hr to mow my parents law, thats 50′ x 100′ lot, thats more or less the average size of an older lot in Edmonton (before the housing boom) so in that hour the lawn mower potentially released as much pollution as driving a modern car 500km. The grass usually gets cut at least once a week. So in a month thats 2000km most people don’t drive that much in city conditions.

It make sense for Canadians to look into more efficient small engines, i would assume this would account for small boats, dirt bikes, chain saws, and land escaping equipment.

People also seam to want the perfect golf course looking law, cutting the grass so its 1″ long. Believe it or not having your lawn cut that short will cause the lawn to loose moisture and is actually hard on the grass. Remember its a plant, grass grows long, so leave it longer. This will allow it to shade its self keeping i’m moisture and reducing your water bill.

Source:
http://www.cbc.ca/story/news/?/news/2001/03/26/ott_lawnmowers010326

nForm my new home.

I have been working at United Cycle for close to 4 years now, i have gone from green thumb enthusiast to one to the key people involved in almost everything from training, service writing and just plain do it all. I have learned from some really great people. I have had the opportunity to accomplish more in 4 years at United Cycle that pretty much any other bike shop in Canada and probably North America, i say this not only based on volume of customers and variety of work but with the amount of mechanics that work there as well. Any given time there is probably close to 100 years of experience to draw from. I have seen the store progress in there way of thinking to grow with a changing market and I’m proud to say i was a part of that. I am grateful for the friends i have made in the staff and the regular customers that ask for me.

Read on..