Disqus - Latest Comments for FirstClown

Re: My Journey in Self-Sufficiency … So Far

FirstClown — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 20:52:21 -0000

That is a great site! I'm slowly finding sites like this and hope to find one more Ohio focused (since that's where I'm at right now). I've thought about how complicated the intercropping is going to be and figured I'd start small in that area and grow into it. Hopefully resources like www.landshareco.org can help me with that some.

Re: Why I’m Against the Federal Health Care Bill

FirstClown — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 18:07:37 -0000

I can see how the argument might break down. I think that I'm assuming a certain mindset here that not everyone has. This is usually the problem with political arguments anyway and something I hope to avoid in general. I read it now and see where you're coming from.

My central argument still remains, this country is not in good financial shape. Passing any kind of big spending bill like this will cause us more debt and more pain. We just saw what happens when the American public takes on too much debt and I would like not to find out what happens when our government takes on too much debt and overextends itself (if it hasn't already).

I think the ethical choice is not allowing the government to do this because they won't do it right and will kill any future attempts at letting people do it right. We may have a philosophy that is ethical in nature and not economic, but I don't believe economic forces will care.

Re: Using LaTeX with Lulu

FirstClown — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 17:50:14 -0000

You might want to look at a tool called Pandoc that can help with conversion from HTML to LaTeX. I use it for a lot of other conversions and it works great.

Re: Adding Icons to Your Android Application

FirstClown — Sat, 19 Sep 2009 10:19:47 -0000

Here's the whole class (hopefully it formats properly):
package us.firstclown.android.steap.tea_timer.activity; import us.firstclown.android.steap.tea_timer.R; import us.firstclown.android.steap.tea_timer.TeaDAO; import android.app.Activity; import android.content.ContentValues; import android.content.Intent; import android.net.Uri; import android.os.Bundle; import android.util.Log; import android.view.View; import android.view.View.OnClickListener; import android.widget.Button; import android.widget.EditText; import android.widget.ImageButton; import android.widget.TextView; public class AddTea extends Activity { private TeaDAO dao; private long id = 0; private String iconUri; private String name; private int iconWidth = 50; private int iconHeight = 50; private static final String TAG = "AddTea"; public static final int CREATE_TEA = 1; public static final int EDIT_TEA = 2; public static final int ADD_ICON = 3; public static final int CROP_ICON = 4; /* * (non-Javadoc) * * @see android.app.Activity#onCreate(android.os.Bundle) */ @Override protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) { super.onCreate(savedInstanceState); setContentView(R.layout.add_tea); dao = new TeaDAO(this); Bundle extras = getIntent().getExtras(); if (extras != null) { id = extras.getLong("id"); ContentValues values = dao.fetchTea(id); iconUri = values.getAsString("iconUri"); name = values.getAsString("name"); String type = values.getAsString("type"); String time = values.getAsString("time"); ImageButton iconField = (ImageButton) findViewById(R.id.iconButton); showIconButton(iconUri); iconField.setOnClickListener(cmdIconListener); TextView nameField = (TextView) findViewById(R.id.nameField); nameField.setText(name); TextView typeField = (TextView) findViewById(R.id.typeField); typeField.setText(type); TextView timeField = (TextView) findViewById(R.id.timeField); timeField.setText(time); } Button saveButton = (Button) findViewById(R.id.saveButton); Button cancelButton = (Button) findViewById(R.id.cancelButton); saveButton.setOnClickListener(cmdSaveListener); cancelButton.setOnClickListener(cmdCancelListener); } protected void showIconButton(String iconUri) { if (iconUri != null) { ImageButton iconField = (ImageButton) findViewById(R.id.iconButton); Log.d(TAG, "iconUri: " + iconUri); iconField.setImageURI(null); iconField.setImageURI(Uri.parse(iconUri)); Log.d(TAG, "Cache is " + (iconField.getDrawingCache() == null ? "" : "not") + " null"); iconField.invalidate(); } } protected OnClickListener cmdSaveListener = new OnClickListener() { // @Override public void onClick(View arg0) { String name = ((EditText) findViewById(R.id.nameField)).getText() .toString(); String type = ((EditText) findViewById(R.id.typeField)).getText() .toString(); String time = ((EditText) findViewById(R.id.timeField)).getText() .toString(); if (id != 0) { dao.updateTea(id, iconUri, name, type, time); } else { dao.createTea(iconUri, name, type, time); } Intent i = new Intent(); setResult(RESULT_OK, i); finish(); } }; protected OnClickListener cmdCancelListener = new OnClickListener() { // @Override public void onClick(View arg0) { Intent i = new Intent(); setResult(RESULT_OK, i); finish(); } }; protected OnClickListener cmdIconListener = new OnClickListener() { // @Override public void onClick(View arg0) { Intent i = new Intent("android.intent.action.GET_CONTENT"); i.setType("image/*"); startActivityForResult(i, AddTea.ADD_ICON); } }; protected void onActivityResult(int requestCode, int resultCode, Intent data) { // See which child activity is calling us back. switch (requestCode) { case AddTea.ADD_ICON: // This is the standard resultCode that is sent back if the // activity crashed or didn't doesn't supply an explicit result. if (resultCode != RESULT_CANCELED) { Intent i = new Intent("com.android.camera.action.CROP"); i.setClassName("com.android.camera", "com.android.camera.CropImage"); i.setData(data.getData()); Log.d(TAG, "path: " + data.getData().getPath()); i.putExtra("noFaceDetection", true); i.putExtra("outputX", iconWidth); i.putExtra("outputY", iconHeight); i.putExtra("aspectX", iconWidth); i.putExtra("aspectY", iconHeight); i.putExtra("scale", true); if (iconUri == null) { ContentValues values = new ContentValues(); values.put(android.provider.MediaStore.Images.Media.TITLE, name + " Icon"); values.put( android.provider.MediaStore.Images.Media.BUCKET_ID, "STeaP_Tea_Timer_Icons"); values .put( android.provider.MediaStore.Images.Media.BUCKET_DISPLAY_NAME, "STeaP Tea Timer Icons"); values .put( android.provider.MediaStore.Images.Media.IS_PRIVATE, 1); iconUri = getContentResolver() .insert( android.provider.MediaStore.Images.Media.EXTERNAL_CONTENT_URI, values).toString(); } i.putExtra("output", Uri.parse(iconUri)); startActivityForResult(i, CROP_ICON); } break; case AddTea.CROP_ICON: if (resultCode != RESULT_CANCELED) { Log.d(TAG, "Data String: " + iconUri); showIconButton(iconUri); } default: break; } } }

Re: New Podcast Project: Your Number One Podcast

FirstClown — Sat, 22 Aug 2009 10:55:24 -0000

LOL. The monthly filming wasn't a nightmare, the weekly editting was. You
certainly weren't the problem.

Re: Great Deal On a Drobo

FirstClown — Sun, 23 Nov 2008 20:52:07 -0000

I know what you're saying. It is true that the Drobo uses a proprietary format when saving the data to the hard drives and if you have a Drobo failure, you will have to buy another Drobo to read the data off the drives. I personally view this as okay since my system has been rock solid and there is a one year warranty on the product.

My backup plan right now is to get another Drobo, but that may not be the answer for everyone. This is a good point and I would say to be aware that if your Drobo dies past the one year warranty, you will have to get another Drobo to recover your data.

Re: Designing a Backup Plan

FirstClown — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 18:14:58 -0000

Actually, both of these topics are in the works, so stay tuned.

As far as backups go, you're plan sounds awfully complicated. I use JungleDisk (which I'll talk about soon) for my backups and it will only backup things if they've changed from the last time it was run. I have it set up to backup everything nightly and if I've added or changed photos that day, it backs them up, but doesn't bother with the ones that haven't changed. If I was backing up every time, I would look into a strategy like yours.

But that would leave me open to data loss a little too much for me to be comfortable. If I took a lot of pictures and my computer crashed in the middle of the month, those pictures are gone for good. That really doesn't sit right with me.

If your set up is due to the software you're using, you may want to look into using different software.

Re: Do You Need It?

FirstClown — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 07:54:55 -0000

There seems to be stories that Apple will help out if you have a problem and allow you to redownload your purchase history. I know a personal story of a friend of mine that was able to do it once and here's a story from a couple of years back of someone asking about redownloading their music from iTunes. I'll update the post though, since it doesn't seem like it's officially in the iTunes Terms of Service.

Re: WPA Key Exchange Cracked

FirstClown — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 22:19:52 -0000

If it's a truly open network, meaning that you don't need a password to get onto it, then anyone can see your activity. They can read the webpages your looking at, if they're not over HTTPS, your email, everything.

If you're logged in via WEP, you're basically in the same boat. If you're not sure, you should be able to go to your wireless icon on your computer and select something like "Get Info" for the connection. It should tell you what you're using.

I'll talk more about this soon (I need more hours in the day!), but if you aren't putting in a password, everyone can see the data you're sending over the network.

Re: Dropbox: Remote File Syncing

FirstClown — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 11:07:56 -0000

You will want to check the law as well, of course. I am not a lawyer. :)

Re: Dropbox: Remote File Syncing

FirstClown — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 10:51:14 -0000

You should be worried and I would not put that information unencrypted on Dropbox.

I'll be talking about this very issue soon, but if you want to read ahead in the book (High School reference! Get it!) check out TrueCrypt. TrueCrypt is a program that lets you set up virtual hard drives with very strong encryption. One great thing is that it also runs on Windows, Mac, and Linux.

So what you can do is create a TrueCrypt volume, which is just a file on your hard drive, and put it into your Dropbox folder so that it's available from home and office. Then, when you want to work on the files within it, mount it to the computer you're on and it shows up as a hard drive. When your done working (and this is important) unmount it in TrueCrypt and Dropbox will sync it up again.

Since it's encrypted with only a password you know, even if someone gets it off of Dropbox somehow, they won't be able to read anything within it.

Like I said, I hope to go into detail soon on that set up since I use it myself. Feel free to email me any questions you have if you're bold enough to try it out.

Re: The No Consume Week

FirstClown — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 19:00:12 -0000

I agree, but sometimes that balance doesn't get reached. I know I don't always reach the balance anyway. It was nice to go 100% in the other direction for a while, but I certainly wouldn't stay there.

Re: Testing Django Applications

FirstClown — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 11:03:22 -0000

This is great! This is a great way to keep the development database clean while using a test database for the Selenium tests. I've been running into this recently too as I build up my test suite. It's always hard to not "mess up" the database and cause Selenium headaches on the tests.

I'm definitely downloading this and using it. Thanks!

Re: FriendFeed, Social Media Gateway

FirstClown — Sat, 02 Aug 2008 21:06:16 -0000

I hear ya. A lot of the battle is just figuring out what give you the most bang for your buck and FriendFeed might just be one of those things that just doesn't do it. I am a big fan of aggregating everything from all the social networks into one place. I guess I've sort of made FriendFeed into my neighborhood.

And You can set up FriendFeed and then import the whole thing into Google Reader via an RSS feed. I don't like using that way, but you can certainly do it.

Re: Intense Debate V. Disqus: Centralized Comment Systems

FirstClown — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 20:36:43 -0000

Replies seem to work fine and I'm not sure if it plays well with the Viddler plugin or not. I assume not. Studionashvegas might actually know better than I.

I just checked. Nevermind, he's using Seesmic.

Re: FriendFeed, Social Media Gateway

FirstClown — Sat, 26 Jul 2008 09:38:37 -0000

The real key here is going to be using Ping.fm to post to all. You can post to Ping.fm via a couple different methods, including AIM, EMail, iPhone, etc. You can't post via Twhirl to Ping.fm sadly.

http://ping.fm/ - Email me for a invite code, since the code changes often enough to make it useless to post here.

Re: Transcoding DV to Widescreen MP4 in Linux

FirstClown — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 09:21:36 -0000

Well, it is true widescreen in that it's 16:9. That resolution is actually going to be lower though due tot he fact that the camcorder is recording onto a 704x480 image and then stretched to the widescreen (or smashed to standard 640x480, depending on the camcorder's settings). With consumer camcorders like the Panasonic H200, the only reason to switch between widescreen and standard is to help frame the shot, not to get better quality somehow.

And for those who don't know, the podcast she's talking about is STeaP.