Thursday, March 18, 2010

Clever!

Posted by david on 4. July 2009 04:20

Perhaps not so practical, but you must give him credit for the idea:

Rechargeable Batteries with Solar Cells

Mirror backside of PV cell

ve: back to work

Posted by david on 25. June 2009 19:08

restarting a project is hard!  muddling through where I was - where I need to go ... especially not easy with my stream of conciousness blog style.  So, Going Forward,  I'll really really try to be succinct.

Where I was - I've had two working map pages, loading up from RSS feeds & from a DB.  When I was last working on the project I had put aside the mapping & was working on manipulating the data - aiming at a flexible tag system that connected to a db of "Places of Interest".  My first data set is the King County Parks, for which I have 54 attributes.  

All I wanted was a list of OffLeash parks!  Now I'll have parks with offleash areas, lacrosse fields, and handicap accessible restrooms.  Cool. 

Where I am - I've got a db & the data from the february work.  Alot of the records had not been geocoded yet.  My first task was to get them geocoded so I could start loading up the maps again. 

There are a few solutions floating around out there for batch geocoding from SQL Server.  My server is on shared hosting that does not give me CLR abilities - so I was hosed for that path.  

I already had a web service attached to MapPoint to get geocodes one at a time.  So, yesterday, I started exploring how to iterate through grid, calling the service.  

Which led me back into the gridview & updatepanel messes.  I got the iteration through the grid just fine, in fact I was surprised to find the whole list had been geocoded, save 20 or so with bad addresses.  However, I got stuck trying to figure out how to have a UpdateProgress panel indicate what record was being processed, dynamically.  I beat my head against that wall for a few hours before I passed out from the pain.  I will get back to it.  

For now, I've got a healthy list of geocoded parks.  I've now got to get the tag system displaying & available for filtering down the list. 

Also, I am absolutely committed to using a ObjectDataSource for the maps - so I will continue working on the data only - no maps - until I can make those gridviews dance.  Dance, I said! Bang! Bang! 

 

how can i produce an image with a semi-transparent border?

Posted by david on 28. April 2009 21:41

this technique works:

!-- Outer Div -->
div style="width:300px;height:200px;background:url(http://www.mandarindesign.com/images/calla.jpg) repeat;border:1px solid white;">
 
!-- Opacity Border -->
   <div style="width:280px;height:180px;border:10px solid white;filter:alpha (opacity=50);-moz-opacity:.50;opacity:.50;-khtml-opacity: 0.5;">
   </div>
    
!-- End Outer Div --> 
</div>
but – the picture is declared in the css.  Which makes it hard to update.  I need to be able to use an img element. More...

baked potatoes & steak with chimichurri sauce

Posted by david on 1. April 2009 08:42

the definitive nuked&baked potato recipe

For this recipe, look for evenly sized russet potatoes with firm, unblemished skin. You can substitute sweet potatoes or yams for the potatoes. If you don’t want to use the microwave, place the potatoes directly on the middle rack of a 350-degree oven and bake until tender, about 1 hour and 15 minutes.

Ingredients

2 medium russet potatoes (1 pound), scrubbed and dried

Butter (for serving)

Table salt and ground black pepper (for serving)

Instructions
  1. 1. Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 450 degrees. Poke several holes in each potato with tines of fork and microwave potatoes on high until slightly soft to the touch, 6 to 12 minutes, turning them over halfway through.

  2. 2. Carefully transfer potatoes to oven and cook directly on hot oven rack until skewer glides easily through flesh, about 20 minutes.

  3. 3. Remove potatoes from oven and make dotted X on top of each potato with tines of fork. Press in at ends of each potato to push flesh up and out. Serve immediately with butter, salt, and pepper.

[1]

---------------------------------------------------

Chimichurri sauce

Ingredients

3/4 c washed, dried, and chopped fresh parsley ( i used italian flat this time )

1/2 c evoo

1/4 c lemon juice

2 tbs finely chopped garlic

2 tsp crushed red pepper flakes

Instructions

Put the parsley in a bowl and whisk in the oil, along with the lemon juice, garlic, red pepper, and salt. Taste and adjust; let sauce rest at room temp for an hour or two. Several hours if possible.

[2]

 

the chimichurri topped a petite sirloin which I found in the freezer … kinda tough, but tasty.  Skillet cooked.

 

1. http://www.cooksillustrated.com/recipes/detail.asp?docid=8505

2. Bittman, Mark. The Minimalist Cooks Dinner. NY: Broadway, 2001.

Temporary Post Used For Theme Detection (65aaeac3-9c99-43f9-a7b6-abea724b99b1 - 3bfe001a-32de-4114-a6b4-4005b770f6d7)

Posted by david on 31. March 2009 11:14

This is a temporary post that was not deleted. Please delete this manually. (2384f074-6d1e-4407-b871-7e87018bcae0 - 3bfe001a-32de-4114-a6b4-4005b770f6d7)

buythismiata.com

Posted by david on 31. March 2009 11:00

I am finally selling my Miata … it’s been hiding out in the garage waiting for me to clean it up, fix a few issues, & give up the idea of driving a sports car.  I thought it would be handy to have an easy to remember URL that I could plaster onto the car so that people wouldn’t have to scribble down a phone number.  BuyThisMiata.com was available for $10 … unfortunately I couldn’t get BuyMyMiata … that would have been more fun.  So, I bought it, got a dirt cheap linux hosting account, then forwarded it to my northshore domain.   

Got the page working after a few days of wrestling with CSS.  I was really excited about the display:table property that is supposed to be supported in the new IE.  Takes a lot of the hassle out of laying out the page. Ultimately, I had to give up … it worked in Firefox, but couldn’t get it to work right in IE8 …   Now, the authors of this book suggest that I should code my pages for the display:table property anyway, adding conditionals to support older browsers.  Their theory is that coding the old way just prolongs the non-standard quagmire that we are in.  Agreed – but just not now – gotsta figure out just how to do that.   That book is available through KCLS online tech books, btw.

Finally got the page working – though not as nice as I want it yet … but presentable.

The following are just notes and references

 

Get down! How to keep footers at the bottom of the page

How to implement Tables using CSS

Layout Gala a collection of 40 CSS layouts based on the same markup and ready for download!

mostly working 4 col liquid with bottom sunk footer – little bit of issue with width of footer.

 
 
 
top-section {
border: thin dotted #000000;
position:relative;
left:0;
top:0;
padding: 5px;
}
#mid-section {
 border: thin dotted #000000;
position:relative;
left:0;
top:0;
}
#bottom-section
 
  border: thin dotted #000000;
  position: absolute;
  left: 0;
  bottom: 0;
  width:99%;
  padding: 5px;
  height:60px;
  
 
 
 
#top-col-1 {
border: thin dotted #FF00FF;
position:relative;
padding-left:20%;
padding-right:10px;
}
#mid-col-1
 
  border: thin dotted #FF00FF;
  position: absolute;
  top: 0;
  left: 0;
  width: 10%;
 
#mid-col-2 {
border: thin dotted #FF00FF;
position:relative;
top:0;
left:10%;
width:50%;
}
#mid-col-3 {
border: thin dotted #FF00FF;
position:absolute;
top:0;
left:60%;
width:30%;
}
#mid-col-4 {
border: thin dotted #FF00FF;
position:absolute;
top:0;
left:90%;
width:10%;
}
#bottom-col-1 
{
 border: thin dotted #FF00FF;
 position:absolute;
 bottom:0;
 width: 98%;
 height:55px;   /* Height of the footer */
 background:#6cf;
 
}

the html:

<%@ Page Language="C#" AutoEventWireup="true" CodeFile="TestTables.aspx.cs" Inherits="buythismiata_TestTables" %>
 
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN"
"http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd">
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" lang="en-US">
  <head>
    <title>Welcome to Tidmouth Zoo and animal park</title
    &lt;meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"/>
    <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="3col-csstable-liquid.css"/>
  </head>
  <body>
      <form id="form1" runat="server">
 
            <div id="top-section">
                <div id="top-col-1">
            header
 
                </div>
            </div>
 
            <div id="mid-section">
 
                <div id="mid-col-1">
 
                    midcol1
 
                </div>
                
                <div id="mid-col-2">
 
                    midcol2
 
                </div>
                
                <div id="mid-col-3">
 
                    midcol3
 
                </div>
                
                <div id="mid-col-4">
 
                    midcol4
                    
                </div>
             
            </div>
 
            <div id="bottom-section">
 
                <div id="bottom-col-1">
 
                    footer
                
                </div>
 
            </div>
    </form>
  </body>
</html>

 

before adding css for jqueryui:

<%@ Page Language="C#" AutoEventWireup="true" CodeFile="Default4.aspx.cs" Inherits="buythismiata_Default4" %>
 
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">
 
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
<head runat="server">
    <title></title>
    <link href="css/BuyThisMiata_v4.css" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" />
</head>
<body>
    <form id="form1" runat="server">
    
           <%
   1: --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
%>
            <div id="top-section">
                <div id="top-col-1">             
                    Buy<i> This </i>Miata.com
                </div>
            </div>
           <%
   1: --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
%>
            
            <div id="mid-section">
 
                <div id="mid-col-1">
 
                    midcol1
 
                </div>
                
                <div id="mid-col-2">
 
                               <div id="accordion">
                <h3><a href="#">Overview</a></h3>
                <div id="OverviewContent">
                    <p>
                        Spring is here & summer is coming!
                    </p>
                    
                    <p> OK ok ok ... spring will be here soon & summer probaby will follow</p>
                    
                    <p>
                        1995 Miata - black with black cloth interior
                    </p>
                    <p>
                        134,772 miles
                    </p>
                    <p>
                        manual transmission, softtop, AC, alloy wheels
                    </p>
                    <p>
                        runs well,  good gas mileage, looks sharp
                    </p>
                    
                    <p>
                        selling because I had to buy an Element - Miatas and babies do not go together
                    </p>
                    
                    <p> asking price: $3500.  Or Best Offer, of course - but I am showing this car through every possible channel - so if you're bid is well under the asking price, I can take your contact info & bid amount & see how things go.</p>                   
                    
                </div>
               
               
                <h3><a href="#">Details</a></h3>
                <div id="DetailsContent">
                
                        <ul>
                            <li>
                                1995 Mazda MX5 1.8l 4cyl - <a href="http://www.edmunds.com/mazda/mx5miata/1995/consumerreview.html">reviews</a>.         Purchased 6/02 from a Seattle dealer
                            </li>                    
                 
                                                                                        
                 
                            <li>
                                VIN: <a href="http://www.carfax.com/cfm/check_order.cfm?VIN=JM1NA3535S0618571&PopUpStatus=0">JM1NA3535S0618571</a>  I've got a hardcopy of the carfax report through 2002 & most repair/maintenance docs since.  No serious accidents in car during my time - someone backed into it once had to have minor body work done.                                
                            </li>                    
                 
                
 
                        
                    
                            <li>
                                5 Speed Manual Transmission
                            </li>                    
                 
                      
                 
                            <li>
                                Air Conditioner
                            </li>                    
                 
                        
                 
                            <li>
                                Wheels: Konig Alloy .... not factory.  They were on the car when I bought it, so I don't know model num.
                            </li>                    
                 
                        
                 
                            <li>
                                Tires: <a href="http://www.toyotires.com/tire/pattern/proxes-tpt">Toyo Proxes TPT </a> P195/60R-14 85H  All Season, Blackwall. Purchased 10/05 from Les Schwab @ 117,228 miles ... less than 15k on them.  
                            </li>                    
                 
                        
                 
                            <li>
                                New black softtop, purchased 7/08.  and the car has been garaged pretty much 24x7 since April so the top looks ( is ) brand new. It has a plastic rear window.
                            </li>                    
                        </ul>
                </div>                    <%
   1: --END DetailsContent--
%>
                
                
                
                <h3><a href="#">The Good, The Bad, The Ugly</a></h3>
                 <div id="GoodBadContent">
                    <h4>The Good</h4>
                        <ul>
                            <li>Still looks great</li>
                            <li>Fast enough to be fun, but not stupid fast</li>
                            <li>New Top</li>
                            <li>New Battery 3/09</li>
                            <li>New Serpentine Belts (2) 3/09</li>
                            <li>New catalytic converter 7/07 because it had failed emissions. Passed after that</li>
                            <li>New Master & Slave Clutch cylinders 5/07</li>
                            <li>Radiator was replaced 10/02</li>
                        </ul>
                    <h4>The Bad</h4>                    
                        <ul>
                            <li>This car has needed new shocks ( i think? ) since I bought it.  It is noisy over bumps. & am sure it would handle even better with new suspension. However, it is not critical ... which is why I never got it done. </li>
                            <li>Midas sez it will need new front brakes soon</li>                                              
                            <li>The seats are worn - not terrible, but they sure don't look showroom new. All the cheap seat covers in the stores just don't fit well and look worse.  There are some well made covers out there, though - <a href="http://www.wetokole.com/MIAT.html">Wet Okole </a> covers <a href="http://www.miata.net/products/interior/wet_okole.html">apparently </a> fit nicely</li>
                            <li>Midas sez it will need new front brakes soon</li>                            
                        </ul>                                   
                    <h4>The Ugly</h4>                    
                        <ul>
                            <li>It is overdue for a timing belt change. I have seen recommendations online that they be changed every 60k.  I got the car at 85k and have not ever changed it, and it's at 138k.  Midas has suggested that I change it, of course.  It's a doozy of a repair, though.  Several hundred bucks.  Just so ya know.</li>
                            <li>Oxygen Sensor ( probably )  the check engine light comes on intermittently ... really intermittently.  No noticable change in performance, it goes off by itself after a while, or especially after stopping the engine.  Unfortunately, you can't really computer diagnose it unless you manage to get to a shop when it is on - which is rare.  I asked Midas about it a couple weeks ago, they think it's probably the oxygen sensor.  Found <a href="http://www.sunriders.com/articles/sensor.html">this</a> online which agrees with the Midas diagnosis.</li>
                            <li>Every once in a while, when shifting, 1st to 2nd, there is a metal ting sound. That's all. A single ting.  I have never had clutch trouble beyond having the master cylinder replaced.  The sound is intermittent - but troubling when you hear it.  It has been around for at least a year.  Last time I mentioned it to a repair shop, they shrugged it off - meaning that it could be the clutch giving up the ghost, but they couldn't be sure ... and there are no other negative symptoms - so they said let it go until it gets worse.  Again, it is very intermittent - but with my luck, you'll hear it on the test drive :)</li>
                        </ul>
                
                </div>                                  <%
   1: --END GoodBadContent--
%>
                <h3><a href="#">More Pics</a></h3>
                <div id="MorePicsContent">
                    <p> <a href="http://northwest.smugmug.com/photos/swfpopup.mg?AlbumID=7697077&AlbumKey=3oGcF">
                           More pictures in a fullscreen slideshow</a> 
                    </p>
 
                </div>
                <h3><a href="#">Contact Me!</a></h3>
                <div id="ContactMeContent">
                    
                    <div id="googleVoice">
                    
                    <object width="230" height="85"><param name="movie" value="https://clients4.google.com/voice/embed/webCallButton"></param><param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param><param name="FlashVars" value="id=a5a8905b5253eff3aedde8301a102b5589ae045f&style=0"></param><embed src="https://clients4.google.com/voice/embed/webCallButton" type="application/x-shockwave-flash"wmode="transparent" width="230" height="85" FlashVars="id=a5a8905b5253eff3aedde8301a102b5589ae045f&style=0"></embed></object>
 
 
 
                    
                    </div>
                    
                    <div id="telephone">
                    
                    <p>
                    or at: 206 569 4418
                    </p>
                    
                    </div>
                                        
                    <div id="email">
                        <p>
                        or email me using this form:
                        </p>
                        <p>
                            <a href="http://kontactr.com/user/wildanimus"><img src="http://kontactr.com/pics/small.gif" border="0" width="90px" height="16px" /></a>
                        </p>
                    </div>
                    <div id="thanks">
                        <p>
                            I am located in Lake Forest Park, WA.  You are welcome to take a look and give it a test drive.  Thanks for checking it out!
                        </p>    
                    </div>                                    
                </div>
            </div>  <%
   1: --accordion--
%>
 
                </div>
                
                <div id="mid-col-3">
                    <object align="middle" height="400" width="400">
                        <param name="movie" value="http://www.smugmug.com/ria/ShizamSlides-2007090601.swf?AlbumID=7755431&AlbumKey=5e42p&transparent=true&crossFadeSpeed=500&clickUrl=http://www#46;smugmug#46;com">
                        <param name="wmode" value="transparent">
                        <param name="bgcolor" value="000000">
                        <param name="allowNetworking" value="all">
                        <param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always">
                        <embed src="http://www.smugmug.com/ria/ShizamSlides-2007090601.swf?AlbumID=7755431&AlbumKey=5e42p&transparent=true&showThumbs=false&showLogo=false&crossFadeSpeed=500"
                        wmode="transparent" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowScriptAccess="always" allowNetworking="all" height="400" width="400">
                    </object>
 
                </div>
                
                <div id="mid-col-4">
 
                    midcol4
                    
                </div>
             
            </div>
 
            <div id="bottom-section">
 
                <div id="bottom-col-1">
 
                    footer
                
                </div>
 
            </div>
    </form>
</body>
</html>
 
 
#top-section 
{
 border: thin dotted #000000;
 position:relative;
 left:0;
 top:0;
 padding: 5px;
 }
 
mid-section {
  border: thin dotted #000000;
 position:relative;
 left:0;
 top:0;
 }
 
bottom-section
 
   border: thin dotted #000000;
   position: absolute;
   left: 0;
   bottom: 0;
   width:99%;
   padding: 5px;
   height:60px;
   
 
 
 
top-col-1 {
 border: thin dotted #FF00FF;
 position:relative;
 padding-left:20%;
 padding-right:10px;
 }
 
mid-col-1
 
   border: thin dotted #FF00FF;
   position: absolute;
   top: 0;
   left: 0;
   width: 10%;
 
 
mid-col-2 {
 border: thin dotted #FF00FF;
 position:relative;
 top:0;
 left:10%;
 width:50%;
 }
 
mid-col-3
 
   border: thin dotted #FF00FF;
   position: absolute;
   top: 0;
   left: 60%;
   width: 30%;
   text-align: center;
 
 
mid-col-4 {
 border: thin dotted #FF00FF;
 position:absolute;
 top:0;
 left:90%;
 width:10%;
 }
 
bottom-col-1 
 {
  border: thin dotted #FF00FF;
  position:absolute;
  bottom:0;
  width: 98%;
  height:55px;   /* Height of the footer */
  background:#6cf;
 
 }

 

near final version:  working slideshow, contained accordion, sunken footer. needs some more style, though. just like me.

<%@ Page Language="C#" AutoEventWireup="true" CodeFile="Default4.aspx.cs" Inherits="buythismiata_Default4" %>
 
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">
 
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
<head runat="server">
    <title></title>
    <link href="css/BuyThisMiata_v4.css" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" />
    
    <link href="css/cupertino/jquery-ui-1.7.1.custom.css" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" />
    
    
    <script type="text/javascript" src="js/jquery-1.3.2.min.js"></script>
   1:  
   2:     <script type="text/javascript" src="js/jquery-ui-1.7.1.custom.min.js">
   1: </script>
   2:        
   3:  
   4:     <script src="js/buythismiata.js" type="text/javascript">
   1: </script>      
   2:  
   3:     <script type="text/javascript">
   4:         $(function() {
   5:             $("#accordion").accordion({ fillSpace: true });
   6:         });        
   7:     
</script>
    
</head>
<body>
    <form id="form1" runat="server">
    
           <%
   1: --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
%>
            <div id="top-section">
                <div id="top-col-1">
                    <b class="spiffy">
                      <b class="spiffy1"><b></b></b>
                      <b class="spiffy2"><b></b></b>
                      <b class="spiffy3"></b>
                      <b class="spiffy4"></b>
                      <b class="spiffy5"></b></b>
 
                          <div class="spiffyfg">
                            Buy This Miata! 
                          </div>
 
                      <b class="spiffy">
                      <b class="spiffy5"></b>
                      <b class="spiffy4"></b>
                      <b class="spiffy3"></b>
                      <b class="spiffy2"><b></b></b>
                      <b class="spiffy1"><b></b></b></b>             
                </div>
            </div>
           <%
   1: --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
%>
            
            <div id="mid-section">
 
                <div id="mid-col-1">
 
    
 
                </div>
                
                <div id="mid-col-2">
 
                    <div id="accordion">
                            <h3><a href="#">Overview</a></h3>
                            <div id="OverviewContent">
                                <p>
                                    Spring is here & summer is coming!
                                </p>
                                
                                <p> OK ok ok ... spring should be here soon & summer will, hopefully, follow</p>
                                
                                <p>
                                    I'm selling my 1995 Miata - black with black cloth interior
                                </p>
                                
                                <p>
                                    134,772 miles
                                </p>
                                <p>
                                    manual transmission, softtop, AC, alloy wheels
                                </p>
                                <p>
                                    runs well,  good gas mileage, looks sharp
                                </p>
                                
                                <p>
                                    selling because I had to buy an Element - Miatas and babies do not go together
                                </p>
                                
                                <p> asking price: $3500.  Or Best Offer, of course - but I am showing this car through every possible channel - so if you're bid is well under the asking price, I can take your contact info & bid amount & see how things go.</p>                   
                                
                            </div>
                           
                           
                            <h3><a href="#">Details</a></h3>
                            <div id="DetailsContent">
                            
                                    <ul>
                                        <li>
                                            1995 Mazda MX5 1.8l 4cyl - <a href="http://www.edmunds.com/mazda/mx5miata/1995/consumerreview.html">reviews</a>.         Purchased 6/02 from a Seattle dealer
                                        </li>                    
                             
                                                                                                    
                             
                                        <li>
                                            VIN: <a href="http://www.carfax.com/cfm/check_order.cfm?VIN=JM1NA3535S0618571&PopUpStatus=0">JM1NA3535S0618571</a>  I've got a hardcopy of the carfax report through 2002 & most repair/maintenance docs since.  No serious accidents in car during my time - someone backed into it once had to have minor body work done.                                
                                        </li>                    
                             
                            
 
                                    
                                
                                        <li>
                                            5 Speed Manual Transmission
                                        </li>                    
                             
                                  
                             
                                        <li>
                                            Air Conditioner
                                        </li>                    
                             
                                    
                             
                                        <li>
                                            Wheels: Konig Alloy .... not factory.  They were on the car when I bought it, so I don't know model num.
                                        </li>                    
                             
                                    
                             
                                        <li>
                                            Tires: <a href="http://www.toyotires.com/tire/pattern/proxes-tpt">Toyo Proxes TPT </a> P195/60R-14 85H  All Season, Blackwall. Purchased 10/05 from Les Schwab @ 117,228 miles ... less than 15k on them.  
                                        </li>                    
                             
                                    
                             
                                        <li>
                                            New black softtop, purchased 7/08.  and the car has been garaged pretty much 24x7 since April so the top looks ( is ) brand new. It has a plastic rear window.
                                        </li>                    
                                    </ul>
                            </div>                    <%
   1: --END DetailsContent--
%>
                            
                            
                            
                            <h3><a href="#">The Good, The Bad, The Ugly</a></h3>
                             <div id="GoodBadContent">
                                <h4>The Good</h4>
                                    <ul>
                                        <li>Still looks great</li>
                                        <li>Fast enough to be fun, but not stupid fast</li>
                                        <li>New Top</li>
                                        <li>New Battery 3/09</li>
                                        <li>New Serpentine Belts (2) 3/09</li>
                                        <li>New catalytic converter 7/07 because it had failed emissions. Passed after that</li>
                                        <li>New Master & Slave Clutch cylinders 5/07</li>
                                        <li>Radiator was replaced 10/02</li>
                                    </ul>
                                <h4>The Bad</h4>                    
                                    <ul>
                                        <li>This car has needed new shocks ( i think? ) since I bought it.  It is noisy over bumps. & am sure it would handle even better with new suspension. However, it is not critical ... which is why I never got it done. </li>
                                        <li>Midas sez it will need new front brakes soon</li>                                              
                                        <li>The seats are worn - not terrible, but they sure don't look showroom new. All the cheap seat covers in the stores just don't fit well and look worse.  There are some well made covers out there, though - <a href="http://www.wetokole.com/MIAT.html">Wet Okole </a> covers <a href="http://www.miata.net/products/interior/wet_okole.html">apparently </a> fit nicely</li>
                                        <li>Midas sez it will need new front brakes soon</li>                            
                                    </ul>                                   
                                <h4>The Ugly</h4>                    
                                    <ul>
                                        <li>It is overdue for a timing belt change. I have seen recommendations online that they be changed every 60k.  I got the car at 85k and have not ever changed it, and it's at 138k.  Midas has suggested that I change it, of course.  It's a doozy of a repair, though.  Several hundred bucks.  Just so ya know.</li>
                                        <li>Oxygen Sensor ( probably )  the check engine light comes on intermittently ... really intermittently.  No noticable change in performance, it goes off by itself after a while, or especially after stopping the engine.  Unfortunately, you can't really computer diagnose it unless you manage to get to a shop when it is on - which is rare.  I asked Midas about it a couple weeks ago, they think it's probably the oxygen sensor.  Found <a href="http://www.sunriders.com/articles/sensor.html">this</a> online which agrees with the Midas diagnosis.</li>
                                        <li>Every once in a while, when shifting, 1st to 2nd, there is a metal ting sound. That's all. A single ting.  I have never had clutch trouble beyond having the master cylinder replaced.  The sound is intermittent - but troubling when you hear it.  It has been around for at least a year.  Last time I mentioned it to a repair shop, they shrugged it off - meaning that it could be the clutch giving up the ghost, but they couldn't be sure ... and there are no other negative symptoms - so they said let it go until it gets worse.  Again, it is very intermittent - but with my luck, you'll hear it on the test drive :)</li>
                                    </ul>
                            
                            </div>                                  <%
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                            <h3><a href="#">More Pics</a></h3>
                            <div id="MorePicsContent">
                                <p> <a href="http://northwest.smugmug.com/photos/swfpopup.mg?AlbumID=7697077&AlbumKey=3oGcF">
                                       More pictures in a fullscreen slideshow</a> 
                                </p>
 
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                            <h3><a href="#">Contact Me!</a></h3>
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                                or at: 206 569 4418
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                                    or email me using this form:
                                    </p>
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                                        <a href="http://kontactr.com/user/wildanimus"><img src="http://kontactr.com/pics/small.gif" border="0" width="90px" height="16px" /></a>
                                    </p>
                                </div>
                                <div id="thanks">
                                    <p>
                                        I am located in Lake Forest Park, WA.  You are welcome to take a look and give it a test drive.  Thanks for checking it out!
                                    </p>    
                                </div>                                    
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jQuery

Posted by david on 24. March 2009 22:48

“Once the program is on the client's computer, the client can do many nasty things to the code itself before sending it back to the server. As with any other Web programming, you should never trust any data coming back from the client. Even if you've used JavaScript functions to validate the contents of forms, you still must validate this input again when it gets to the server.” [1]

I was trying to use the asp.net ajax control toolkit accordion for my BuyThisMiata.com site.  Man was it freakin slow.  When an accordion panel was expanded, it would stutter open.  Not good.  So I then took a look at the Tab control.  Might have been OK, but I was having to seriously dig for instructions on how to style it.

Jquery is in the air everywhere, lately … & my friend sez it’s super easy.  So, I’ve taken a look at that.  Looks good, the controls are all there & it forces me to go ahead and get on top of javascript.  I’ve been avoiding it for months now – particularly with the mapsite, instead trying to use the ASP.NET C# control.  I still think that’s a valid direction – for the mapsite … I’ll have better data control using the C# in back end code.  But it seems that, for presentation, the ajax controls are just clunky & pure javascript, through JQuery, just does things a lot better and more efficiently.  I currently understand it like this:  javascript is for presentation – it lives in the page - it’s client side.

So picked up a new book [2] & am also reading Learning jQuery 1.3 [3] through Books24x7.

 

Picking my way through the jQuery site …  i begin to understand that Jquery UI is a separate beast.   Very cool – effects & widgets … and even better, choose a theme & download the css files … plug em into your page

The themeroller looked very cool – but it seems to be generating bad zip files.  Turns out that it works fine in Firefox, not IE.

Smugmug Flash Slideshow help: Flash Slideshow - SmugMug Wiki

OK – I don’t have versions on this page like I had on the mapsite … but I took it from not working at all, fumbled around with the jQueryUI stuff for a while – and, after a few iterations, got it working with all the previous elements there too, like my slideshow and all the page layout divs.  I was even able to easily go in & tweak the theme to customize it.  Freakin cool.

 

 

 

 

asd

 

1. Suehring, Steve. "Chapter 1 - JavaScript Is More Than You Might Think". JavaScript Step by Step. Microsoft Press. © 2008. Books24x7.

2. McFarland, David Sawyer. JavaScript: The Missing Manual. O’reilly. 2008

3. Chaffer, Jonathan, and Karl Swedberg. Learning jQuery 1.3: Better Interaction Design and Web Development with Simple JavaScript Techniques. Packt Publishing. © 2009. Books24x7.

blog citations

Posted by david on 19. March 2009 22:52

a nice example [1] of citation in a blog post

 

 

[1] http://blogs.msdn.com/expression/archive/2006/02/24/538262.aspx

What project management task timing solutions are out there for an ultra small web dev operation

Posted by david on 19. March 2009 20:51

cool tool: Balsamiq form making mockups of apps or websites

also Product Planner – for designing user interfaces

What project management / task timing solutions are out there for an ultra small web dev operation?

trying:

ClockingIT  free, hosted, time tracking; extremely well engineered, but not very nice to the touch - but hey it's free. i've

5pm - well reviewed, lovely looking, pricey ($18 5 users, 10 projects) though I'm trying to talk 'em down for a one man show ($10 1 user, 10 projects).

the 5pm team seems to have forgotten to include a calendar.  This app is completely project focused - the calendar section is a timeline of projects. This is difficult for my mixed life right now - do I need to have a project for Olivia?  so that the task Pediatrician visit has a deadline that show on the project timeline?  jeez.

Action Method – nice design … free for 50 tasks, max is $12 month …looks really nice … almost GTDish with it’s focus on next actions & backbuners … actually I’d say it’s a clever knockoff … without mentioning mr.allen at all.   No apparent client view …

ok so it looks nice, but the time tracking is not really there, it's an estimate to completion.  the program is nice, it's basically a nice gtd application - very loose drag & drop tasks etc ... but, it doesn't have the hard edged time tracking .... time tracking could be a side app, I suppose. 

there's another time tracking app coming out soon, minuteglass.  I signed up for beta but no word when things will open up.

-------------------------------------------------

others:

ClientSpot – looks fugly, but it has a nice simplicity & good collaboration tools  $free for 2 projects. $15 for 10

Liquid Planner $25/mo no client view yet …

fogbugz  $25/mo  no obvious client view,

my intervals  free 1 project plan, invoicing, 20/mo 4 projects … client dashboard

creative pro office

ontime 2009   free hosted, or free self hosted with a customer portal … complex

zoho project 12/mo 10 project

http://www.sixcentral.com/  client proposals – don’t think it’s fully baked yet.

Project Pier

Wrike 4.99 mo is great, but no time tracking with that

http://veoproject.com/subscriptions.aspx no time tracking till 85/mo

http://www.planzone.com/online-project-management-software/document-sharing.html  not bad,

http://www.onstageportal.com/pricing/

http://keeptempo.com/signup no obvious client interface … but nice looking & $5/mo for unlimited projects & 2 users – definitely more timetracking than project planning

Why Time Tracking is Important to Freelancers

doodle – it’s good for you

Posted by david on 12. March 2009 03:45

I knew it !