Tag: technology

Minivan + kids + interior lights = dead battery

Our family vehicle is a Honda Odyssey. The dome lights are toggle switches. Push the light, it’s on. Push again, it’s off. There’s no visible way to tell which position it’s in. If a child pushes the light and it gets left on, the next morning we have no minivan until after a date with Mr. Battery Charger. Since the kids were able to reach the dome lights, we’ve been vigilant. There are ways to be vigilant. We’ve tried:

  1. Exit the vehicle. Close all doors. Lock with the remote so interior lights turn off. Peer inside to see if any lights are on.
  2. Disable interior lights entirely with switch on dash.
  3. Re-enable interior lights, but forbid children from ever, ever, ever touching the light switches.

The third solution works most of the time. On Nov 3rd, I gave some neighbor kids a ride home from school. When they got out, one of them pushed the light switch to turn it off. The lights don’t turn off when the door is opened, so nothing happened. The child exited the van. Having trained my kids not to touch the switches, I didn’t perform #1. On Nov. 4th, we biked to school while Mrs. Odyssey and Mr. Charger hooked up.

On Nov. 5th, I found this post on the OdyClub site, detailing the LED bulbs another Honda owner ordered from China and installed in his Odyssey. I paid $28 for the following ten LED bulbs, shipped: (1) 51109, (4) #51002, (2) 35725, (1) 34641, and (1) #34608. When they arrived a couple weeks later, I installed them in about 15 minutes.

Last night, both kids were reading books on the ride home from swim classes. Both kids left their interior lights on. Both parents failed to notice. This morning, I opened the garage and saw the lights on. I smiled. When I got in, the van started. Mission accomplished.

My Top iOS Apps

iPad Most Used Apps: Mail, Notes, Epicurious, Safari, Instapaper, FeedlerPro, PasswordWallet (PW)

Mail & Safari: neither require much explanation. Both apps are mature and reliable. Mail works great for presenting a unified view of my 6 email boxes (iCloud, Gmail, 2 personal, 2 business). Reading mail and browsing on the iPad are more enjoyable. If the iPad is nearby, it gets grabbed before an iPhone.

Notes and I weren’t very fond of each other at first. The awful Marker Felt font and no decent sync consigned it to an unused app screen. When iOS 4 brought sync support, I finally began using the Notes app as well as Notes feature in Mail.app on my Mac. On the Mac, I can change the font. What a relief! Since the two sync, I can make changes on the Mac or iPad.

I enter my recipes as notes on my Mac. Then I view them on the iPad in the kitchen. I often make small edits in the kitchen too. All those, “I should update that…” things actually happen now, while I’m thinking of it. Here’s a few of the notes I have: Apple Pie, Whole wheat pie crust, Gordon’s Chili, Carrot Cake, Yogurt [making] notes, Blackberry Pie. I do use notes for other things, like Perl Best Practices, Javascript Cheat Sheet, W3C DOM, Climbing: Plan Trip, Climbing: Packing List, Seattle Bucket List, and notes I’ve taken while reading numerous books.

Epicurious: I like the Epicurious app. It’s rather poky, but it has a recipe sync feature that makes it worthwhile. I can browse through the epicurious.com site and find recipes, add them to my “recipe box” and then go to the kitchen, pull up Epicurious, and then view the recipe I just chose. The laptop in the kitchen idea never worked well (I tried several times) but the iPad in the kitchen is delicious!

Instapaper: Go get it. Use it for a week. You will love it. Trust me.

Feedler Pro: RSS feed reader. An excellent one. If you subscribe to RSS feeds, it’s indispensable.

Password Wallet: I have 788 passwords. Every web site, computer, app, software registration, etc has it’s own password. Most are randomly assigned by PW. They are stored in an encrypted file that syncs between my Mac, iPhone, and iPad.

Less Used But Great iPad Apps: Twitter, Facebook, AIM, iSSH, Photos, Redfin.

iPhone Most Used Apps: Mail, Grocery IQ, Calendar, Camera, Safari, Notes, PW, FeedlerPro, Instapaper, Google Maps, OmniFocus, USAA (killer feature: deposit checks with my phone), Chase (killer feature: the only business checking with iPhone deposit, else I’d be rid of my TBTF bank account entirely), Scrabble, Facebook, Instagram, Reminders.

I have at least a dozen other apps I love, but only use on occasion. For example, the Airport Utility, for configuring my WiFi. I don’t use it often, but when I do, I’m really glad to have it. Apps like that: Stocks, Vanguard, Waze, AIM, WordPress, Skype, NPR, My TSA, FlightView, iBooks, Kindle, Remote, Youtube, Allrecipes, Dropbox, Zillow, Reunion, Epocrates, WordBook, iGrill (bluetooth remote for my kitchen temp probe), and of course, a handful of games and edu apps for kids.

wordpress blank page when updating

WordPress provides an upgrade feature that makes it point and click easy to upgrade themes, and plugins. For years, this has never worked for me. Anytime I click the “update” button, I get the FTP login tab. I enter my credentials and then I get a blank page in the right pane. No error message. No error logged. This broken feature didn’t bother me much because it’s pretty easy to update the plugins manually. But it was annoying.

Today I installed another WP blog for a client and decided I really ought to make this work. I double checked permissions, and then noticed that even after providing credentials, I wasn’t seeing a FTP connection arrive when I attempted an upgrade. It was then that I had my ‘duh’ moment. I have a minimal PHP install, with only required plugins. I installed the FTP plugin for PHP and voila, plugin and template install/updates work.

If you are getting a blank page when upgrading a wordpress plugin, verify that PHP’s FTP module is installed and active.

Form 1120S Schedule K-1 Worksheet

After my corporation bought back some stock certificates, the method I used to calculate Item F, “Shareholder’s percentage of stock ownership for tax year,” became more complex. Neither Google nor WolframAlpha led me to an equation so I set about creating a spreadsheet to simplify the problem.

The IRS instructions for form 1120S Schedule K-1, Line F, describe the method to use thusly:

Each shareholder’s pro rata share items are figured separately for each period on a daily basis, based on the percentage of stock held by the shareholder on each day.

…..

If there was a change in shareholders or in the relative interest in stock the shareholders owned during the tax year, figure the percentage as follows.
• Each shareholder’s percentage of ownership is weighted for the number of days in the tax year that stock was owned. For example, A and B each held 50% for half the tax year and A, B, and C held 40%, 40%, and 20%, respectively, for the remaining half of the tax year. The percentage of ownership for the year for A, B, and C is figured as presented in the illustration and is then entered in item F.

IRS Form 1120S Schedule K-1 Item F table

I built myself a spreadsheet to calculate Item F correctly in the simple and complex cases. My spreadsheet implements the IRS described method without requiring the preparer to manually perform all the interim calculations. The only required inputs are the quantify of shares held by each shareholder and the number of days they were held.

Without any alteration, it supports up to 4 changes in shareholders and there’s no limit to the number of shareholders. I just plop in the raw numbers from the Stock Transfer Ledger and the spreadsheet does the rest.

I post it in Numbers and Excel formats, hoping that others will find it useful as well.

1120S_Schedule_K-1_Worksheet.xls

1120S_Schedule_K-1_Worksheet.numbers

City of Seattle – Home heating fuel costs


City of Seattle – Fuel Costs

Notice the oil and electrical resistance heating systems. Even with a newer 80% efficient oil furnace, the cost of fuel is still more than double the cost of an older natural gas furnace. If I had a house with oil or resistance heat, buying a new gas furnace would be a no brainer. When paying $1,000 extra per year, it doesn’t take long to pay for a more efficient heating system.

But look at that high efficiency heat pump! It costs only $350/yr to heat the house. Because it’s a heat pump, it’s also an air conditioner. By switching to a heat pump,  A/C is included.

Using a heat pump is also the best choice for our environment. Here in Seattle, the vast majority (91% – http://www.seattle.gov/light/FuelMix/) of our electricity is generated from hydro. An electrical powered solution burns almost no fossil fuels and contributes almost zero pollutants to the environment.

If that still isn’t enough reason to choose a heat pump, consider the rapidly declining costs of solar power generation. The installed costs declined from 2009 to 2010 by 17%.  Costs have further declined by 11% in the first half of 2011. Solar now costs less than $6/W installed. Germany and Japan are further ahead, and installed costs there are under $4/W. In a few more years, residential solar will be the cheapest way to purchase energy. Having all electric appliances is preparation for that future.

MacBook Pro sleep causes network failure

A short time ago, my MacBook Pro developed a new and annoying habit. After putting it to sleep by closing the clamshell, and then waking it, the WiFi network wasn’t working.

Safari would report “You are not connected to the Internet” and DNS queries via dig in Terminal would fail with an “Unknown host” error message.  Interestingly enough, ifconfig reported that I did in fact have an IP address:

en1: flags=8863<UP,BROADCAST,SMART,RUNNING,SIMPLEX,MULTICAST> mtu 1500

ether 60:33:4b:XX:YY:ZZ

inet6 fe80::6233:4bff:fe0a:d552%en1 prefixlen 64 scopeid 0x5

inet 10.0.1.43 netmask 0xffffff00 broadcast 10.0.1.255

media: autoselect

status: active

And netstat reported that I had a default route which pointed at my default network gateway:

$ netstat -rn

Routing tables

Internet:

Destination        Gateway            Flags        Refs      Use   Netif Expire

default            10.0.1.1           UGSc            7        0     en1

10.0.1/24          link#5             UCS             4        0     en1

Upon further examination, I was also able to ping the default gateway. And I was able to send DNS queries (dig example.com. @10.0.1.1 syntax) to the gateway and get them resolved. But attempts to resolve hosts using Snow Leopard’s DNS recursion failed.

The workaround was turning WiFi off and then back on. Voila, problem solved until the next time I put my laptop so sleep. Today I decided to find and fix the problem. The solution was disabling IPv6 support on the WiFi network interface (in Network control panel). Voila, problem solved.

 

HDR arrives for the masses

Dynamic range has been a limitation of photography since its inception. Film and digital photographers have used a number of techniques over the years (merging film negatives, dodging and burning of film, bracketing on digital cameras) to enhance the range of their photos. The historical problem of achieving High Dynamic Range (HDR) has always been the amount of time spent post-processing the images. With film, the process could take days. With digital photos, it was reduced to hours. With the introduction of HDR on the iPhone, the process takes two seconds.

Apple added HDR functionality to the iPhone with the recently released iOS 4.1 update. With a single tap of the shutter, the camera takes three photos and merges them. When shooting a stationary subject with a steady hand, the results are excellent. Otherwise, the results are mixed. I’m certainly glad the camera I have with me has it as an option.

It’s not just backhoes

From, Mother Earth Mother Board

In 1870, a new cable was laid between England and France, and Napoleon III used it to send a congratulatory message to Queen Victoria. Hours later, a French fisherman hauled the cable up into his boat, identified it as either the tail of a sea monster or a new species of gold-bearing seaweed, and cut off a chunk to take home.

When written well, history is fascinating, and often hilarious.

iPhone 4 early impressions

The good:

  • FaceTime. It works. It is easy. Video quality is surprisingly good. Audio quality is excellent. The audio quality I’ve experienced is better than an iPhone call, Skype, or iChat AV.
  • The video camera does remarkably well in changing lighting conditions. I can walk around the house while on a FaceTime call and my image remains clear and well exposed as the lighting change. It’s far more fun to FaceTime my sleeping babies to a friend with an iPhone than a laptop.
  • Phone voice quality is improved. Callers sound better and they report that I sound better too. My buddy Mike, 2,000 miles away in Michigan, reported that the quality was as if I was standing next to him.
  • The Retina Display is amazing. After getting the iPad, I had reduced my  reading on the iPhone to those times when I didn’t have a computer or iPad. I still prefer reading on the iPad, but I find myself reading more on the 4. While the iPad is in arms reach. I am continually surprised at the rendering and legibility of teeny tiny type.
  • Speed. The 3GS was a huge performance boost over the 3G. While the 3GS was no slouch, I still saw occasional pauses and delays in responsiveness. I have yet to see any lags or pauses on the iPhone 4.
  • Reception. My experience has been entirely positive. I was able to drive all the way home from work while holding a call. For the first time. I explained the reception issue to a friend, “Imagine you have an AT&T phone with poor reception (nearly all of them, including iPhones) and suddenly you get one with very good reception. Except when you have poor coverage and hold the phone wrong. Would you be disappointed?”
  • Battery life is greatly improved. I’ve had my 4 for a week and have charged it three times. Every previous iPhone had to be charged nightly. I suspect that when the novelty wears off and I’ve beaten all the levels in Angry Birds, I may get 3 days of ‘normal’ usage from a charge.

The Bad

  • I love how pocketable the 3G is. I carried the 3G and 3GS in my front pants pocket, vertically, with the glass against my leg and the curved plastic back facing out. The curved back nearly matched the profile of my leg, and that position protected the glass screen. I rarely noticed its presence. Being narrower, the 4 likes to  slide down and ride sideways. That produces a larger and less comfortable bulge, which I regularly correct. While the 4 is thinner, it often feels thicker while pocketed.
  • The 4 is glass on both sides. When I heard Apple describe the glass as 20 times stiffer and 30 times stronger than plastic, warning bells went off. While working in mechanical engineering departments, I enjoyed spending time in the prototype labs. Especially when that time ended by filling out forms with the words, “consumed in testing.” Whether plastic, metal, or glass, harder materials are more brittle. I do believe the 4 will be more scratch resistant. And possibly more impact resistant. But it’s still glass. If I’m out rock climbing and drop it while taking a picture, I believe the 4 is more likely to be significantly damaged. This will be the first iPhone I buy a case for.

To Be Determined

  • I was able to get 8 hours of backcountry GPS use out of the iPhone 3GS. That’s with the 3G, WiFi, and Bluetooth disabled and occasional use of the camera. For comparison, my buddy has an Android phone that lasts 3 hours while using GPS. I’ll be trying out the 4 soon with the recently updated Motion GPS, updated for background use in iOS 4. It would be great if I can get a weekend of use from a single charge.