archshrk » News/Updates

Another Bag of Crap

archshrk — Sat, 03 Jul 2010 01:30:23 +0000

Came home to a nice surprise…

Another woot.com Bag of Crap. Not familiar? Read this post first, then come back here or see what I got last time. Usually, I miss getting the BoC because of a simple mistake like forgetting to enter all my credit card info or my paypal email, but not this time. This time, I was prepared and this is what I got for my $8.

(1) Reusable Lunch Bag – the proverbial BAG of crap (as promised)

(1) Giant Gold Limited Edition Musical Charlie Brown Washington Nationals Pez Candy Dispenser by Brand New Products

Giant Pez Limited Editon Pez Candy Roll Dispenser stands over 12 ” tall and plays “Take Me Out to the Ballgame”. Charlie Brown is shiny gold and wears a Washington Nationals Baseball Cap. This Giant Pez opens just like the smaller version, but dispenses rolls of Pez Candy. Two 1.5 volt batteries and 12 packs of Pez Candy are included. For ages 4 years and up. An officially licensed product of the MLB.

(1) TrueFire Gourmet Cedar Grilling Plank – 12 Pack. Environmentally Responsible – Planks are 100% natural Western Red Cedar from sustainable and renewable sources

(2) Argus Bean Sprout Digital Camera Li-on Battery

This bundle features two Argus ‘Bean Sprout’ Carabiner Digital Cameras in Yellow and Blue. Kids can take this camera with them everywhere they go. The carabiner design allows it to be clipped to anything, while the rubberized grip makes it easy to handle. 0.3-megapixel CMOS sensor captures images up to 640 x 480 pixels 0.25″ status LCD; Real Image viewfinder Functions as a Web cam 3-image burst mode allows you to capture high-speed shots Autofocus with auto white balance modes Movie mode lets you record videos 2MB of internal memory for storing images and videos USB interface allows you to connect the camera to your computer Carabiner clip design and rubberized grip for easy handling Includes Arcsoft PhotoImpression 4 and camera driver software for storing, editing and arganizing your photos Includes USB cable, lithium-ion battery and wristband

Not that exciting but not a total waste either. Check out my site for the video soon.
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Another Bag of Crap

Boosters are a GO!

archshrk — Mon, 28 Jun 2010 16:43:59 +0000

Corbin is at the size where we need to consider moving him to a booster car seat. California Law allows children over 40 pounds to use a booster seat used with lap and shoulder belts. He can’t use just the lap and shoulder belts until he is 60 pounds. At his last appointment, he weighed in at 33 pounds and 37 inches. Now he is currently in the Britax Boulevard which is rated up to 65 pounds and a standing height of 49 inches, so he still has room to grow but Benjamin probably won’t last as long in his car seat.

Benjamin is using Corbin’s [now-discontinued*] Britax Companion infant carrier and while he easily fits, he doesn’t seem to enjoy it the way Corbin did. We’re not sure why, but we suspect he gets too hot because the material doesn’t “breath” enough for him. Corbin loved it when he had it but he was also a winter baby so the extra heat may have been good to him. Corbin also outgrew it around the 6 month mark so never had to use it in the summer heat.

So…
While they both have room to grow, I’m thinking it may be a good idea to move Corbin up to a convertible booster like the Britax Frontier 85 Combination Booster Car Seat now, and move Benjamin into the Britax Boulevard. This should address a couple things;
1) Corbin is big enough to get into his seat by himself, he just has trouble climbing up and over the high-based seat. The Frontier has a lower base and no “wings” on the sides, just armrests.
2) Since we don’t carry Benjamin around in the infant carrier anyway, putting him in and taking him out won’t be much different than it is now, plus he likes to be more upright than the infant carrier allows. But the real benefit is that the car seat’s fabric will be more comfortable (in theory) and thus keep him cool enough to enjoy the ride.

Of course, safety is priority number one (which is why we’re willing to pay a premium), so we won’t make the switch unless everyone is physically ready, including us. Corbin (33 lbs) can already make the switch since the Frontier is rated for 25 to 85 pounds as a 5-point harness and 40 to 120 pounds as a belt-positioning booster seat. The Boulevard is rated 5 to 35 pounds rear-facing and 20 to 65 pounds forward-facing (and 1 year old) so Benjamin should be ready too.

We’ll conduct a couple of usability tests this week and see if it’s practical to make the switch, then we’ll decide if we move forward or rethink our strategy. In the mean time, take a look at the multiple positions of the Frontier 85 below. Oh, and if anyone is feeling extra benevolent, we like the “Canyon” color best.

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Boosters are a GO!

Goodbye WPG2, hello headache

archshrk — Wed, 23 Jun 2010 20:53:18 +0000

I recently discovered something was wrong with my site. One of my most successful and popular posts was not getting much love. Worse than that, it was no longer on the top of the search engines for it’s keyword/phrase. Turns out the page in question wasn’t displaying correctly. In fact, it was pretty much a blank page. A little trial and error revealed the problem. A plugin I used to embed images into the post was not working right and thus messing up the whole page. Remove the offending image and the page displayed fine (minus the pretty picture). Problem is, I’ve used this plugin for quite some time and the problem exists on quite a few pages. What to do, what to do…

Kill it!

That’s right, I’ve made the hard choice of deactivating the plugin. Couple of reasons. One, it won’t support the next version of Gallery. Two, it doesn’t look like my web host is going to get better at PHP memory limits (I suspect this is the root problem). The issue now is, how to repair all the missing images. I’m not sure how that’s going to work but I’m going to try a couple things. But for now at least, all my pages will show up.

In the mean time, you could help by leaving a comment about the missing pictures when you find them so I can easily and quickly replace them with the built in image gallery. Look for random 4-digit numbers within any post and let me know what you find. Also, if you see any other problems, let me know about those too.

Want to help me get a jump start? Search for <WPG2> and leave a comment with the phrase “Kill It”. Comments will be edited or deleted after each page is fixed. By the way, you can also search for wpg2id (thanks Aylwin)Similar Posts:

Goodbye WPG2, hello headache

3 point Oh my gosh!

archshrk — Thu, 17 Jun 2010 22:01:35 +0000

So I’m about to upgrade my WordPress install to 3.0 which is supposed to be a very major release, aka – sure to foul things up, but I’m going ahead with the upgrade none the less. Unfortunately, my site may be down for a few minutes or a few hours (if it really blows up my site). One thing I have to do is disable plugins to make sure there’s enough memory for my massive site to upgrade (on my bargain web hosting). Wish me luck.

Update: Everything went smoothly except WPG2 which may be simply hitting the memory limit. I’ll work on it but I suspect this is the end of the road for WPG2. It’s not going to be updated for Gallery3 so I’ll be looking for another option soon anyways. Let me know if you see any problems or errors as you visit the site.Similar Posts:

3 point Oh my gosh!

My collection is nearly complete

archshrk — Thu, 20 May 2010 05:03:32 +0000

So one thing I’ve been wanting to do is create a catalog of all my movies and books so that I could identify any items that were missing or share which items I had to loan out. Unfortunately, its no easy task. I started by adding items to my Amazon aStore but that wasn’t very user friendly as it only showed 9 items at a time. The advantage to this was that I managed to build up my collection using ASIN numbers. Problem is, this is exclusively used by Amazon. So when I started looking for a program to create a proper catalog, I only found one that could import ASIN. MediaDB by William Lee Sims was a god-send. Not only was I able to generate a catalog of DVDs, but it grabbed various data (including a picture) and could be exported to an .html or .csv file.

The downside of MediaDB is that it isn’t as versatile as I would like and doesn’t include a description. Don’t get me wrong, it is very versatile, it just didn’t let me customize the display/output the way I wanted. Nothing I couldn’t fix by editing the .html file but I still wanted something a little more user friendly. That’s when I turned to Amazon’s Your Media Library (YML).

I’ve tried using Amazon’s YML before but importing DVDs was just as time consuming (if not more) and couldn’t be exported. But now I had a .csv file which I could use to quickly add items to YML*. Except YML kept saying You got an error son!. (double punctuation and all). So I did the next best thing, I cheated.

Since I had a file that listed all the ASIN numbers (thank you MediaDB) I simply copied that column of numbers and pasted them into the “search” field for adding to YML – all of them, all at once. Success! With the exception of a couple items which dropped the leading “0″, everything went swimmingly.So now I have a DVD database on my computer and an online library linked directly to Amazon (handy for getting more info).

Next step, add books and music to both lists and look for ways to make a handy printed version of my collection for quick reference. This all would have been a bit easier if I had a webcam or if YML had an Android app but I managed just fine.

*So it turns out that the option to upload items into Your Media Library is no longer supported. All your purchases (books, music, video and DVDs) are added to Your Media Library automatically (that part I knew).Similar Posts:

My collection is nearly complete

Easter earthquake

archshrk — Sun, 04 Apr 2010 22:48:31 +0000

3:44pm just experienced a major earthquake. We don’t have any details but everyone is safe and sound no apparent damage

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Easter earthquake

Snow in Tucson?

archshrk — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 18:13:03 +0000

It may look like Tucson got snow last night but closer inspection reveals that, if it was, it was limited to the UMC Hospital. Turns out that what looks like snow is actually Foam from the roof top Heliport Fire Suppression System. Someone activated it last night around 9pm and the foam “runs off” the roof to the street below.

This is especially relevant to me because you see that ramp and stair to the right of the entrance? I did that. Just the stair and ramp part – nothing else. I was brought in at the end of the project’s construction phase to resolve some issues related to a change in parking. Nothing too exciting but sometimes it little things like accessibility that can hold a project up.Similar Posts:

Snow in Tucson?

Did I do that?

archshrk — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 23:31:12 +0000

For the gamers who frequent my site (especially when at school) I must apologize for the down time earlier today. My wife emailed me to let me know there were some problems with our sites and that I had an email from the hosting company I should read. Here’s what it said:

Recently we have noticed that your web site(s) is consuming a
disproportionate amount of server resources (including memory and/or CPU
time). Because of this, we have had to move your account off of the
shared hosting server to an auxiliary server. We now request that you
consider purchasing a Managed or other Dedicated Server in order to
continue hosting with 1&1 Internet.

The decision to move your account was made by the system administrators
in order to improve the quality of service for the rest of our clients
on the shared server from which you were previously hosted. The
resources consumed by your account threatened the ability of that server
to capably operate as as a shared host, so it was required that your
account be moved in order to mitigate server load. Though we could move
your site back to the original shared hosting server, it is not
recommended. Your account activity has demonstrated that your site
deserves its own server to better suit its performance needs.

Please visit 1and1.com to review the server products we offer. You will
have one (1) month to make a decision and migrate your account over to a
1&1 server or another host provider. You can choose to return your
account back to the shared server, provided that you take steps to
reduce the load generated by your websites. If the account has to be
moved off the shared server system again you will only have the option
of purchasing a dedicated server account to continue hosting with 1&1
Internet.

Please reply to this email promptly. Further questions/comments should
be directed to abuse-team email.

Thank you for your compliance in this matter.

Apparently, the new archive plugin I installed was using over 20% of the resources on the shared server- the entire server. To put it in perspective, shared servers like the one I use can host 1,000 websites or more. That’s entire websites, not just pages.

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Did I do that?

Oh no! Site Maintenance

archshrk — Sat, 19 Dec 2009 22:55:07 +0000

This is a simple message to warn you that the site may experience some down time while I perform some site maintenance on the database. When this message is gone, the work is done. If the site looks normal, then it went well – if broken, well then it didn’t go well. If the site is working but something looks odd or is missing, let me know (somewhere) so I can track it down and fix it. Otherwise, enjoy the holidays (this should be resolved today or tomorrow)Similar Posts:

Oh no! Site Maintenance

Whew!

archshrk — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 06:54:38 +0000

That’s all I can say.

Some weeks are busier than others but this past week was jam-packed, thus the blog silence. It all began 37 years ago…

Earlier this year Julia and I signed up for Free Admission on Your Birthday! to Disneyland.

Celebrate your birthday with the most magical birthday gift of all — free admission on your birthday during 2009 to one of the Theme Parks of the Disneyland® Resort!

There were only two hiccups. One, it is only valid on your birthday. Two, Julia was busy on her’s. This may not seem like a big deal but our birthdays are only five days apart (Corbin’s is five days after that) and we’re both late November birthdays. Late November, as in Thanksgiving.

Saturday, we dropped Corbin off at Grandma’s so we can get an early start Sunday to head up to Anaheim before the gates open. You remember Anaheim don’t you. Just over 90 minutes later and we’re at the gates. The off-site parking gates but close enough.

Getting in was no trouble and the day was great, even though Julia was barred from most rides – “Expectant mothers should not ride” is a lot more common phrase than you think until you need to read it. Luckily, Disneyland is still a place for kids so we hit as many “safe” rides as we could (see Family Adventures and Fun For Little Ones).

One of our normal favorites is Astro Blasters. Anytime you can compete for points is fun (so long as you win or look good doing it). This time we tried a few different rides including the Davy Crockett’s Explorer Canoes (yes, canoes) and Finding Nemo Submarine Voyage (which was being renovated last time we were there). In fact, I can’t remember the last time I went on the Submarine ride. More on the rides later – like what its like to paddle the mighty Rivers of America behind a 6-year old girl.

Oh, I almost forgot. Since its your birthday, they give a big button with your name on it so all the cast members (and more than a few guests) can wish you a happy birthday as you enjoy the park. And yes, its a little unsettling to have strangers wish you happy birthday by name.

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Whew!