Posted By RichC on April 24, 2012
I finished wire brushing, sanding and painting the black iron railing last night and greeted the masons over lunch to see how the progress of the thin pavers is coming along. Sort of glad I hired them and am not tackling this project myself. (I was actually was up on the roof yesterday – birds in the attic – and twisted my knee. Am I getting older or what?)
Posted By RichC on April 24, 2012
Google’s latest doodle is a zipper down the center of the search engine’s homepage marking the birthday of Gideon Sundback, the Swedish-American electrical engineer creating the “zipper” which revolutionized the clothing industry. How many times have you “zipped” without thinking that some inventor created this.
Before Sundback’s intervention, the idea for a fastener based on interlocking teeth had circulated among engineers for more than 20 years but no one had perfected it.
His innovation was to place a dimple on the underside of each tooth and a nib on the top that would sit securely within the dimple of the tooth above it.
As a result, the join between two rows of teeth was then strong because no single tooth has enough room to move up or down and come apart. He also created the manufacturing machine for the new zipper.
Posted By RichC on April 24, 2012
Well it looked like a horse to me … but since my wife is the one with the chemistry background I don’t feel so bad. This structure is for CH3CH2SH or the organic compound Ethanethiol (EtSH), commonly known as ethyl mercaptan. It is most notably added to liquified petroleum gas (LPG) to help warn of gas leaks. According to Wikipedia, Ethanethiol has a strongly disagreeable odor that humans can detect in minute concentrations. The threshold for human detection is as low as one part in 2.8 billion parts of air. Its odor resembles that of leeks or onions. Ethanethiol is intentionally added to butaneand propane (see: LPG) to impart an easily noticed smell to these normally odorless fuels that pose the threat of fire or explosion.
According to the 2000 edition of the Guinness Book Of World Records, ethanethiol is the “smelliest substance” in existence.”
Posted By RichC on April 23, 2012
Here’s what works and what doesn’t work when using the Hana Flv Player plug in with my WordPress install in an attempt to figure out the best way to post video that will play in all browser/hardware combinations.
Embedding test video with the Kodak Playsport Zx5
1. Safari on the iPad 2 only post description of flv player .mp4 embed and plays the Mediaelement.js + H.264 .mp4 file embed.
2. Google Chrome 18 plays both the flv player .mp4 embed and the http://wpmarketing.org/wp-plugins/hana-flv-player/
3. Internet Explorer 9 plays the flv player H.264 .mp4 but “looks” as if it is just buffering and loading the video with a spinning icon
4. Firefox 11 plays the flv player just fine with the H.264 .mp4 video. The Mediaelement.js H.264 .mp4 just paints a black box.
So unless there is a combination I haven’t tried, the best way currently to serve my own content is to use H.264 and .mp4 wrapper and two different embedded players … unless all viewers at this time use Chome. Unfortunately the HTML5 isn’t universal and it doesn’t look like Apple is going to make there devices compatible with flash anytime soon. Unless I’m missing something? (a couple test video clips in both embeds “without pre-loading” to save bandwidth below)
Self explanatory if you can watch one of the two embedded clips. (testing)
Posted By RichC on April 23, 2012
The U.S. and its allies finalized operations in Iraq last year, but continue to struggle with what victory looks like in another theatre of operation (Afghanistan). The sabers also rattle a bit louder this weekend regarding another possible middle-east war. 
This weekend Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) Chief of Staff Benny Gantz was interviewed by the Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper and stated that “In principle, we are ready to act.” Ynet.com reported that Gantz emphasized in a pre-Israel Independence Day interview that their intelligence assessment is that given the strategic reality and instability in the region that the change of deteriorating into war is higher now than in the past and that 2012 is going to be a critical year. “The State of Israel believes that nuclear arms in Iran’s possession are a very bad thing, which the world should stop and Israel should stop. We are preparing our plan accordingly.”
You will hear of wars and rumors of wars, but see to it that you are not alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come.
– Matthew 24:6
Posted By RichC on April 22, 2012
Testing the Hana plug-in with H.264 mp4 files. This first is with the Kodak Zx5 at the lowest setting. (iPad compatible)
ADD — Test 2: Palm Pre raw video upload test
Posted By RichC on April 22, 2012
I’ve been using embedded flash video for everything up to this point on my blog and unless the services like YouTube offer Apple H.264 mp4 versions, viewers have been out of luck with my posted video. I spent a few hours looking at different option and will give Hana FLV Player a try. Hopefully it will detect devices and deliver appropriately.
Here’s a video of my friend Mark hoisting his wife up the mast. 🙂
Here’s an HTML5 version for Chrome and Apple devices … smallest file size too.
Posted By RichC on April 22, 2012
Posted By RichC on April 22, 2012
I’ve been following Ben Erikson’s sailing, great photos and videos since he was sailing his NorSea … 
a boat like we once owned. Over the years he has used his talents to share information on a couple blogs while he reconditioned his sailboats (plural) – the most recent his BCC Elizabeth. Eventually he met up with another NorSea singlehanded sailor, Teresa Carey, and they decided to sailed separate but together up and down the east coast and to the Bahamas. Eventually it was easy to tell they were becoming a couple and they ended up making a movie together aboard one boat. (One Simple Question – Quest to Find an Iceberg)
Although Brenda and I were far too conventional for this kind of adventure, I’ve regularly daydreamed about the liveaboard cruising life and admire Teresa and Ben for doing it. Ben, alsa Volkswagen TDI guy, happened to check in with me by email the other day and it triggered my thoughts to embed the trailer to their movie. (below)
Posted By RichC on April 21, 2012
Solar3D, Inc. (solar3d.com) is developing a breakthrough 3-dimensional solar cell technology to maximize the conversion of sunlight into electricity. Up to 30% of incident sunlight is currently reflected off the surface of conventional solar cells, and more is lost inside the solar cell materials. Inspired by light management techniques used in fiber optic devices, our innovative solar cell technology utilizes a 3-dimensional design to trap sunlight inside a photovoltaic structure where photons bounce around until they are converted into electrons. This next generation solar cell will be dramatically more efficient, resulting in a lower cost per watt and it will make solar power affordable for the world.