learning to be human, since 1984
quick tip
What You Should Keep in Your Bike Tire Repair Kit
0Howdy folks. I was just working on my bike and decided to write a quick post about what to keep on you at all times while biking. Here goes.
I keep the small stuff in an old, rectangular Altoids tin:
- patches – & contact cement if necessary
- emery/sand paper – to roughen up the tire rubber
- presta-schrader adapter – for gas station compressor, if you have presta valves.
- razor blades – to get out tough bits of glass/metal/rock/etc.
- money – for gas station air compressor, phone call, spare tube, food, etc. I have at least $3 in quarters, several singles (for change), and a $5 or $10 bill.
I keep the rest in my bag (either shoulder bag or seat bag):
- tire levers – 2 minimum. I usually have 3 on me.
- compact air pump – get one that has a small hose, especially if you stick with Presta valves. You’ll pay a little more, but the kind without the hose will break Presta valves somewhat easily. I personally avoid the CO2 pumps (the cost/benefit just doesn’t seem even close to worth it) – but if you have one, take spare CO2 tanks till you get it down.
- if you ride a bike with bolted skewers, make sure to have the appropriate wrench/es
- if your wheels won’t come off because your brakes are in the way – check to see if you have a quick release brake. If not, bring a tool to allow for easier removal of the wheel.
That’s all folks! Feel free to add/comment on what you take along on your rides.
Restoring PC Stickies
0I use a program called “Stickies” to temporarily keep track of notes throughout the day (similar to the OS X program with the same name, but for Windows). It creates resizable, styleable post-it-note-esque boxes on my desktop that can be repositioned, deleted, or serve as reminders (visually, and with audible alarms). I restarted my machine a few days ago and was prompted to choose a file from which to restore my stickies settings. My heart sunk as the backup restoration failed – but I knew somehow I’d get them back, and I did. Here’s how:
- Right-click on the stickies icon in the taskbar hidden icons area
- Select “About Stickies v7.0beta” – yours may say something different
- A window will open. At the bottom, click the ellipsis (…) to go to the data directory folder
- Right-click again on the stickies icon in the hidden icons area and select “Exit” to quit the program
- Go to the data directory folder you just opened and duplicate the last file that contains usable data (you can usually tell if the file size is larger, or open it with a code editor and search for significant text)
- Duplicate the backup file by copying and pasting it (ctrl+c, then ctrl+v)
- Find the file stickies.ini in the data directory and rename it stickies.ini.old
- Rename the file you copied stickies.ini
- Restart your Stickies program, and you should be back in business
A Letter to Myself – or – How to Get Carmex Out of Your Eye, Idiot
0Dear Me,
It’s been about a week since I got sick, as you’re well aware. One of the worst sinus infections I’ve ever had has also imbued me with an unexpected and very much unpleasant “treat”.
That is to say, something happened to me that I never could have anticipated. Prepare yourself for a tale of musicial mucous and chapping skin!
After blowing my nose constantly for 2 days, my flesh started to get dry and irritated. Naturally. For the following 4 days, I had been applying carmex regularly, to keep my nose and upper-moustache region that-oh-so-supple tenderness that it is used to.
Well. Somewhere in there, a hidden smidgen got on my eyelashes. At first I couldn’t figure out why they kept sticking together every time I blinked – afterall, I hadn’t realized it even had it on my finger.
After some detective work in front of the mirror and feeling the wet, almost waxy texture around my eye, I had a Eureka! moment (which was rather fitting, considering I had just watched a documentary on Archimedes). Ahem.
I proceeded to wash my eye with soap and warmish water, and hit the hay. Four hours later I woke up – gasping for air, as my throat and nasal passages had both filled entirely with a thick, disgusting mucous whose color you certainly don’t want me to describe – only to find my eyes were sealed shut with the gluey residue that clearly hadn’t washed off.
In my delirious awakened state, I wiped my lashes off with a towel. Minor success – back to bed. I awoke again, 4 hours later to a similar situation and finally fixed the problem.
- Run the hot water, as hot as you can ******* stand.
- Make gobs and gobs of lather with some bar-soap.
- Rub the suds in really ******* hard.
- Rinse with hot water.
- Repeat at least 3 times.
- Breathe a sigh of relief.
This, mind you, is after scouring the internet for a solution. Maybe my search query was trash. Maybe I couldn’t read with my eyes fused shut. I really don’t care. It’s done. Hopefully this will never happen to you again. If it does, you’re a total muppet, but at least you know what to do. Common sense isn’t so common after all, especially when you’re in a weird mental state.
Write back soon.
Love,
Your Jackass-self
301 Redirects in Drupal Pages
0I recently ran into a problem with a Drupal site I designed and maintain. Here’s a quick explanation of the problem, and then the solution.
The front page has a Views Slideshow Block that grabs node data from custom CCK types. These types contain an image to be displayed in the slideshow (but not the node itself) and a checkbox for enabling or disabling the node from appearing in the Slideshow Block. The slideshow images by default link to the nodes from which they were created.
The problem is linking to a page rendered by Views. Since I can’t add a field for the image or checkbox in a view page (not that I know of, let me know if I’m wrong on this) I had to figure out a different way. And I did, but not without further glitches.
I added the image and checkbox fields to my Page content type and created a node with the appropriate image. It appeared in the slideshow and linked to the page. I then tried several methods to redirect the alias to the correct page. First, the Path Redirect Module. Fail. Then, cpanel’s .htaccess redirect configuration tool. Fail. Then manual .htaccess configuration. Fail.
I don’t really know why the .htaccess failed – I have suspicions it has to do simply with Apache not updating, the fact that I have the Global Redirect Module installed, the clean url directives that already exist in the .htaccess file, or some similar url rewriting conflict.
In a pinch, I added this snippet of code to the body of the page I created:
<?php
header("HTTP/1.1 301 Moved Permanently");
header("Location: http://www.mysite.com/aliasname");
exit();
?>
This delicious morsel did the trick, but not without a headache first. You’ll have to have access to posting PHP code, and post it as source, even if you select the PHP option.
Quick Printing Trick for Barrel Folded Tri-Fold Mailers
0I recently designed and printed a two-sided barrel-folded mailer for an upcoming fundraiser. I ran into an issue that I had to resolve quickly, as I was printing the job on a client’s printer, from their computer, using limited software (read: MS Word).
I know, blasphemy – but we needed a quick fix and I got the job done.
Problem
Barrel-folded mailers generally require the two outer end-panels to be printed 180° to the angle of the main body copy. The top panel is where the return & mailing address go (the first flap you open), and other is inside the flap (the second flap you open). Thus, some text needed to be upside-down.
Solution
After fumbling through Word (I cringe as I capitalize it) I decided against flipping the text in the program, opting instead to flip the paper and slide the text to the bottom of the page. This achieved the desired result in much less time than searching through help or online. While this technique isn’t revolutionary, it is a good reminder to think beyond software and into the actual material you are printing on. A simple flip or fold could lead to a creative solution for a complex problem.
Weird Enter Key Bug – Disable AVG Plugin
0I installed AVG’s latest free anti-virus software, including browser plug-ins. Shortly thereafter my Enter key stopped working when trying to type in a URL. I didn’t know AVG was the issue – I tried using other browsers (they all worked) but Firefox has all my web development toolbars and bookmarks – it’s annoying to use anything else except for testing. After searching online, I figured it out. Just uninstall or disable the plug-in and you should be fine.
A Quick Note on Image Visibility in Drupal’s Views_Gallery Module
0819 days
For anyone whose views_gallery module seems to be installed and configured correctly:
Don’t forget to enable anonymous user permissions. This goes for most uploaded content, including attachments.