My Twitter Client Search - Ended
Posted by RyanG in Cloud computing, linux, twitter on June 10th, 2009
Okay, so as you may already know I’m a big fan of any software solution that does what I need in a portable and platform agnostic way, particularly if it does it “in the cloud“.
What you may not know, is that I’m addicted to Twitter and I’ve been going through desktop based Twitter clients faster than my Cadillac beer bongs fuel! My affair with desktop clients started with TweetDeck, since it’s used by a lot of my friends on Twitter and it seemed to be a front runner. The problem is that it’s in beta, and it’s a bit buggy still. Worse yet, it doesn’t run on my linux box. In fact, no decent Twitter client does work on my linux box. I’ve also tried Twhirl, and DestroyTwitter. Both of which lack all the features TweetDeck has, and none of which work “quite right” on my linux box.
And, as if to add insult to injury the company I work for has recently been acquired by a MUCH bigger company which is imposing a lot of new restrictions to the use of our desktop computers. Meaning I’ll likely not be able to install a Twitter desktop app on my computer in about a month.
Enter TwitterGadget, pictured above. It’s an iGoogle gadget so it runs in my browser, on windows or linux, without installing! And it’s quite featureful too! It has built in URL shortening which is one of the features I miss most from other desktop apps. The one feature I hope to be included soon is TweetShrink integration, but I’ll live without it.
Hopefully I won’t have to change Twitter clients for a while now! 
‘67 Caddy - Trunk Opening Safari
Posted by RyanG in 1967 Cadillac Sedan Deville on June 9th, 2009
As you can see, when I bought the Deville it lacked a lock cylinder for opening the trunk! Yesterday I set out to try to get it open, and possibly rig something up to be able to continue to do so until I can do a proper repair.
Though I do now have a factory service manual, I couldn’t find any detail on the trunk latch anywhere. I’m sure it’s in there, but I was too impatient to keep leafing through the PDF, and just went to work at it.
In my ignorance to the operation of the latch, I assumed I would have to remove the rear seat and either crawl through the space into the trunk, or poke at the mechanism with a stick. After getting the rear seat out, I discovered a few interesting things.
First, there is a bit of a dried puddle of rusty water on the passenger side. I didn’t shoot a picture of it, but I’ll be sure to capture it next time. The rust doesn’t come as a huge surprise to me as I was aware of some small holes around the bottom of the rear window where rust has completely consumed the metal. However, I didn’t expect the volume of water that has apparently entered the vehicle. I suspect there is a good chance that there is more serious damage to the roof, and window opening in the back. We’ll discover more as we go along.
The next realization was that there is NO WAY I was going to crawl into the trunk from the back seat. In fact, I’m not sure any adult, or even a child old enough to understand the task could fit. Worse still, my assumption that there would be some failsafe lever or latch in the trunk was faulty. I know in more modern vehicles this was added due to some legislation or similar relating to people being locked in trunks.
So, I got my flashlight, and started peering into the keyhole to see if I could figure it out. Lo and behold! It appears as though I can just stick a nice flat head screwdriver in there to open it up.
I had hoped to find something interesting in the trunk, but it was the usual. Some “spare” parts for the car and a cardboard box, probably used to lay on while working on the car. Pretty typical, nothing really exciting that might give some hint of the glamorous history of the car.
What I did find however is something that surprised me. I knew that Cadillac has had a mechanism for their trunks which gracefully pull it closed, so you aren’t required to slam the hood, but had no idea that this was standard or optional equipment on a car this old! I noticed that the latch was kinda strange, and seemed to “float”, and had a small contact for a switch. Further investigation showed some sort of hydraulic cylinder which probably does most of the work, which is pictured below. I’ll have to do some research on this to see if it was standard or optional. The best part, it even still works!
More interestingly still, there appeared to be some sort of solenoid attached to the latch, which you can sorta see on the right in the picture above where the screwdriver is in the lock. It has wires going to it and everything. This leads me to believe that there may be some electronic release for the trunk, but I have no clue where the switch for it is!
All in all, a successful hunting expedition, and rather informative, and my helper seemed to approve!
‘67 Caddy Day 1 - Triage
Posted by RyanG in 1967 Cadillac Sedan Deville on June 4th, 2009
She arrived today at around 10:50 am. I used Express Auto Transport by the way, this being my first experience with auto transport, it went quite seamlessly and I’m quite happy!
When I bought her, I knew that the water pump was leaking so she’s got no coolant right now. Got to pull it off to determine if this is a “single” or “double” inlet pump for replacement. Going to do the pump, hoses, and thermostat and flush/pressure test it quite soon.
When the driver pulled it off of the trailer, evidently the brakes surprised him. The brakes have NO resistance until the very last bit of the pedal travel. The master cylinder is new, and the fluid looks clean, so it’s either a bubble in the system or a brake line or wheel cylinder is leaking. That’s definately #1 on the list. If I need to do anything serious here, I’ll probably be upgrading it to a later model disc brake system.
I knew that the power door locks didn’t work, what I didn’t know is that the door locks don’t appear to work at all! I very meticulously made sure all the doors were locked when I parked it on the street, then went to the DMV to transfer ownership. When I arrived back home I wanted to put the new registration into the glove box. So, I tried my key in the passenger door lock cylinder. Hmmn.. Wouldn’t fit. That’s okay, lets try the drivers side! Uhhmn… Nope, not that one either. “Great, did I just lock myself out of the car on the first day?!” I thought to myself. Then, on a whim I tried the drivers door, though it appeared locked.
I was simultaneously relieved, and paniced when the door popped open without trouble. Yay! I didn’t lock myself out! Crap, I can’t lock the car!
One good thing I did discover though is that the steering column is indeed tilt AND telescoping. I was expecting the telescoping adjuster to be in the middle of the steering wheel like on the older models, but as it turns out it’s hiding on the top of the column just behind the wheel. Pretty stoked about that.
Of course, that comes with a down side, the turn signals and emergency flashers don’t work apparently because of the switch in the column.
Ohh, and the trunk is missing it’s lock cylinder entirely, going to need to pull the rear seat and crawl into the trunk to get her open.
She needs lots of love! Gotta get the brakes and cooling system in check right quick, and go from there!
What I’ve been up to…
Posted by RyanG in 1967 Cadillac Sedan Deville on June 3rd, 2009
First, I’m amazed that I didn’t mention this here yet! The picture above is of my previous daily driver, a 1999 Ford Explorer. On April 7th my wife was driving it home after a light rain, and while accellerating onto an onramp she lost control, spun around 180 degrees and rolled it one time.
Fortunately, she was mostly unharmed. A few bruises, some cuts, and a few pounds of glass in her hair (only a slight exaggeration) was all she suffered.
I got our insurance company on the case the very next day, and they paid out in about 2.5 weeks from the initial claim. “In good hands” indeed! I paid the salvage fee so I could keep the wreck and part it out.
So, what I’ve been busy with is dismantling this, working on a few computer jobs, and shopping for the X’s successor. And, I’ve found it…
It’s a 1967 Cadillac Sedan Deville. My wife, our son, and I all jumped into the van and drove down to LA this past weekend, and took a look at her. I picked this car up for a cool $1000, and promptly scheduled an auto transport company to tote it from Fontana to our door step in Santa Barbara.
As we speak it should be getting loaded onto the auto transport rig, and I should have it here by tomorrow.
Stay tuned as I have LOTS in store for this car since it’ll be my new project, and daily driver!
Web development environment - “On The Go”
Posted by RyanG in drupal, php, software development, website on April 7th, 2009
Over the past few weeks I’ve been spending most of my spare time developing a couple of web sites. These sites are based on the Drupal CMS written in PHP. And I’ve taken a bit of a crash course in Drupal module design.
When I set out developing these, I faced a challenge that I’d been aware of, but managed to avoid in the past. How do I work on these projects in a predictable, constant environment, and still bring my code with me to work on my home machine, work machine, laptop, and anything else I happen to sit down in front of?
This blog post is about how I’ve accomplished this so far. Read more after the break…
Read the rest of this entry »
Drupal Flickr Module. Now with URLs!
Okay, so I’ve been a bit preoccupied with a couple projects which have slowed my efforts at blogging etc.
In both cases, I’ve been working on websites that leverage the PHP based Drupal CMS. One of those projects is over at http://www.chasejarvisshoeproject.com. That site is basically a small community forum for some folks that are sending a pair of shoes around the world, and taking pictures of them in various locations and situations. Pretty cool. The result of this effort is a Flickr photo pool and a good time.
So, of course a website devoted to a group on Flickr, is going to require some integration with Flickr. Enter the Drupal Flickr Module. When I started using it, this module was still in either an alpha, or beta (can’t seem to remember) and has released it’s 1.0 as of the 25th of March. Throughout the time I’ve been using it however, there’ve been a few functions of the Flickr API which I needed, and the module didn’t support. Those were.
Since the framework of the module did the hard work of making the calls, it was easy to write my own methods which performed these Flickr API functions for me. And as the module developers released new versions, I just copy/pasted my code back into the new file, and went about my business.
Well when 1.0 was released, I took a closer look. It turns out they’d implemented the call to get photos from a group pool, but still nothing for the URL’s. So I figured I’d contribute and write a patch for the two calls I was still in need of. And that, is what you see here.
569,597d568 < } < < /** < * @param $nsid < * nsid of the group whose pool url will be returned < * @return < * The URL portion of the response from the flickr method flickr.urls.getGroup < */ < function flickr_urls_get_group($nsid) < { < $response = flickr_request('flickr.urls.getGroup', array('group_id' => $nsid)); < if($response) < return $response['group']['url']; < < return FALSE; < } < < /** < * @param $nsid < * nsid of the user whose photostream url will be returned < * @return unknown_type < */ < function flickr_urls_get_user_photos($nsid) < { < $response = flickr_request('flickr.urls.getUserPhotos', array('user_id' => $nsid)); < if($response) < return $response['user']['url']; < < return FALSE;
As you can see, pretty basic but I figured I’d contribute. I posted this as a feature request/issue over on the Flickr Module’s issue queue, but have yet to receive a response. If nothing else, I can use this to patch the next version. Hopefully it helps someone else as well.
Tethered Shooting - Professional Chimping?
Posted by RyanG in photography, rants on March 8th, 2009
Okay, first.. This post/rant was inspired by a few tweets from Chase Jarvis. That said, I’m not throwing stones, or trying to start a fight. The topic just got me thinking and I wanted to share my train of thought. Chase, and any other professional who shots tethered, I’m actually jealous. I wish I could shoot tethered.
Read more after the break… Read the rest of this entry »
Me and my iPhone
Well, I’m not exactly what you’d call an early adopter, and I’ve only recently rediscovered a place in my heart for Apple based computing devices.
That said, there was a lot of internal debate an struggle when it came time for me to upgrade from my Cingular 8525 HTC/Phone/PDA device. Initially, I was convinced that I wanted the newest HTC the Fuze, since it was a logical upgrade from what I had. But there was just soooo much hype about the iPhone, I had to give it a fair shake. Fortunately, my sister and brother-in-law each got one a few weeks before my wife and I were due to upgrade. I got a real good chance to check them out. After seeing the HUGE amount of apps, and overall support that existed for them, the choice was easy. Sign me up, I’m a lemming..
I’ve had my iPhone for two and a half weeks, and I’ve made a lot of changes, tweaked a lot of configuration, and jailbroke the device. The rest of this post will serve to document that for my own sake should I ever have to recover the device, but also to hopefully shed some light on why you might jailbreak your phone, and what apps a techie like me finds useful.
Read more after the break… Read the rest of this entry »
No Internet For You!
Posted by RyanG in Uncategorized on February 17th, 2009
You might have noticed a little change to the look of the site. Until the 23rd of February it’ll continue to look this way. You can see some detail in the right column, and in the following paragraphs.
There is a little piece of legislation that’s been passed in New Zealand which could set precedence for similar laws elsewhere. In short, this legislation says that any copyright holder can accuse an internet user of copyright infringement or theft, and their ISP is compelled to disconnect them without any burden of proof.
You can read more about it here and here.
Be sure to sign the petition and if you do, please comment here, I’d like to know my contribution to the cause.
I’ll gladly pay you Tuesday for water today.
Posted by RyanG in photography, rants on February 12th, 2009
For the past few weeks there have been a rash of issues with our water supply lines here in our apartment complex. We’ve been without cold or hot water or both for hours at a time.
It’s culminated into our landlord deciding to basically gut our water lines and replace them. So since last Friday we’ve had folks coming in and tearing out large chunks of our drywall to reveal the plumbing, then the plumbers running new source lines along the outside wall and into each apartment. Then water was turned off Monday night around 9PM. The plumbers were coming in on Tuesday to finish hooking up the lines that had been run in parallel to the existing lines. Well, the water remained off through Tuesday, and we’d already forgone bathing for one day so we weren’t looking forward to another day without running water.
That brings us to the image above. We chose to check into the Ramada Inn that’s directly next to our apartment complex. They have this awesome koi pond/lagoon which the hotel surrounds, and as I was walking to the jacuzzi that night, it struck me how pretty the whole scene was a night.
So in an attempt to find a silver lining, I took some timed exposures of the lagoon at night. I didn’t quite get the effect I was looking for, but I think this is a cool shot none the less.
