AllenKll: the blog

That is NOT a plane!!!

2010-01-29T00:13:00.002-05:00

What is it with people these days that are calling anything with a prop, that is able to lift itself off of the ground, a plane?

Take for instance the thing in the picture. That is the so called shooting star. See a video of it on youtube They call this "A plane built from trash"

I would offer a contrary opinion. Just because they made some control surfaces, and put enough grunt in the front to get it off the ground does not qualify this thing as an airplane. An airplane as defined as a powered heavier-than-air aircraft with fixed wings from which it derives most of its lift. This is not one of those. At best One could call it a Helicopter. (Or rotary wing aircraft, if you prefer)

It does not derive lift at all from its "wings." In fact the wings are little more than immovable control surfaces... anti rotation flaps, even. It derives its lift from an overpowered prop/motor combination. Strapping control surfaces to a toaster, and a huge ass, brusless motor, that enables it to get off the ground, still only makes it a flying toaster, NOT a plane!

A hundred years, of airplane design, is being cut off at the knees, by these so called planes, and their designers, and I just can't frickin' stand it anymore!

Designers? Did I write Designers? Maybe only in the academic sense, that they thought about what shape to cut the foam, and how to rig the control surfaces. I would think a real airplane designer would need to take into account things like drag coefficients, airfoil lift curves, thrust, and gravity, as well as shape and control surfaces.

I have spent many hours, designing and simulating different airfoils, and power to weight ratios and Lift surface area, and I'm not saying I'm better than these so-called foamy plane designers, but I at least know more about what makes a plane work then their simplistic... "it doesn't go in the air? Get a bigger motor! Get a Bigger prop!"

I've also made some of these things before too, it's cheap, and it requires very little thought, and it's fun to mess with, but I knew that no self respecting model RC flyer would dare call these particular type of abominations "planes"

Ugh! STOP IT! if you need a name, stick with rotary wing aircraft... and stop making the Wright brothers spin in their graves!

Fruitcakes...

2009-12-28T16:27:00.003-05:00

What the hell is wrong with fruit cakes? I just read on CNN that they aren't edible, and so should be turned into biofuel. What!? Give me a frickin' break. Fuitcakes are edible, and if properly prepared, quite tasty! I dont' understand where a big news organization like CNN can get off telling people that fruitcakes are not edible. For crying out loud they are a combination of FRUIT and CAKE! (and in the normal case, rum) I know everyone eats fruit, and cake, and most people drink rum... so what's the deal...

Stop the hate people. Go get a fuitcake, or better yet make one, and try it.

Gosh Darnit, I am upset.

AllenKll out.

8 years and 4 months later...

2009-12-09T19:39:00.000-05:00

I never thought my warrenty would run out, next to a chicken shack in downtown Patterson

Webcam IIII

2009-10-06T00:24:00.003-04:00

Now, why would I go with IIII instead of IV? look at a clock with roman numerals... and ask the same question... Now onto the main content...

atspace is damned fucked up. Apparently there is an interesting leak in their FTP server, or in their file system. This leak, over time, has caused the server to believe I have reached my 50Mb limit, when in reality I had used les than 750k... silly thing... oh well...

Onto a new image server... this time I am using T35.com Same hotlinking workaround was required, as in Part III, But I have it up and running once again.

Let's see how long this one lasts :P

-AllenKll

awesomest mr potato head ever!!!

2009-09-29T23:43:00.000-04:00

he comes with a ghost costume...fangs? Alien ears... Glow in the dark eyes..a pumpkin.. And the standard hat, nose, and feet... Just awesome.

My first tomato soup...

2009-09-23T19:20:00.000-04:00

it's good!! Not as 'tomatoy' as I would have liked, but very tasty. I had to add and extra can of tomatoes halfway though... Because I added too much milk... And praise the lord for my Thunderstick Pro!

The Webcam Part III

2009-09-17T19:51:00.003-04:00

Well, there are issues.
I think the issues are with my web hosting company. I've had issues with them for a while with doing rapid FTP uploads, or having multiple attempts at downloading e-mail lock up. And after using 3 different web cam programs, that use ftp of course, to see what the issue could be, I determined it is not the software, but either the web host, or my somewhat flakey internet connection.

Given the fact I can still web surf even when the FTPs are failing, I tend to believe it is the web hosting computer freaking out from having a log in every 1 minute. Yea.. don't ask.. it's a really cheap hosting company, and you get what you pay for. The upside is that they are nice people.. at least the 4 times I required tech support from them, in the last 6-7 years.

So I set out to find a free web host with unlimited transfer to act as the back end for the web cam images. Yes, this is a little hokey to have my images hosted, on a different machine than the main server, but maybe I can find one that can deal with getting FTP'd to every 60 seconds. This is a practice known as hotlinking. Most places HATE hotlinking as it uses their bandwidth, with no compensation... more on that in a moment.

So far I found a list of them at http://www.free-webspace.org/ and the first expressly prohibits exactly what I want to do in its terms and conditions, I moved to the second one which seems okay, it didn't even seem to have terms and conditions... odd... maybe they figure that there is not much you can do with only 50mb of web space, and a file size limit of 200k.. well 200k is plenty for a webcam picture! ha! fools to them! I might even set up a real camera with better resolution... with 200k I could do something around... say 1.5 megapixels with a not too bad amount of jpeg compression. Also I don't know if the 200K size limit applies to ftp transfer, or only to their web interface transfer. I'll have to push that one, and give it a try.

oh... I could also just adjust the jpeg image compression on the fly to get it to 200k... so images with highly compressible areas, will have better resolution than those with less compressible regions... hmm interesting concept: on the fly compression to allow for fixed file size, with maximum resolution... Not sure anyone has ever done that. It seems rather novel. I doubt I'll find web cam software with that built in. so I'm probably going to have to start hacking up an open source one, or roll my own. I vote for hacking up a free source one... or maybe... maybe I can find a standalone image compressor to my specs, then just pipe the image from the capture software to the image compressor, then to the ftp server. I would definitely need a program to coble together those three parts, but it shouldn't be too hard.

Well... maybe later... but to the issue at hand. Hotlinking. Apparently the web service I am going with now, does not like images to be hotlinked. The main issue of hotlinking I think is theft of intellectual property, and copyright violations, but since I am not doing that, I figure I should be able to. Well, they have a techno way of defeating hotlinking images.. I'm guessing it's a simple .htaccess file on their apache server.

So I come up with a somewhat brilliant idea, of hotlinking a whole page in a frame, so that the requester for the image is local, and it get around their hotlinking restriction. This works. But I don't like the fact that I have to download other crap that is not my image... that actually uses more bandwidth. Granted, it's less than 1k, but it's still something.

So, option 3. I ran a little test where the webcam software stores the image with a non-standard extension. First I tried html, as I know that should work, and it did! So I went with something a little more descriptive. I called it a ".image" file. I believe my assumption of their using a .htaccess file is correct, based on this test and ultimate solution, as in a .htaccess file one would make rules regarding extensions, and how they are to be treated. Since they can't redirect ALL extensions to their "You suck, you hotlinker" page, I just needed to pick
one that wasn't in the filter.

-AllenKll

Welcome...

2009-09-16T18:44:00.000-04:00

Back to the Rock!!! It's Hockey time people!!!!

the webcam...

2009-09-16T09:19:00.002-04:00

Grr. just set the bastard up, and am relizing there are issues with keeping a constant internet connection to my media pc. I blame the wifi repeater. But it could very well be the wireless PCIE card. I've never had problems with the card before, but then again, I never tried to keep up a constant internet connection before either...

Maybe I could write a little program/script that pings google every 5 minutes, and if it doesn't work, disable and re enable the wireless card, and renew the IP address. Seems a lot of work... well not really, but it does seem unnecessarily complicated.

Such is my life.
-Allen

The new addition

2009-08-14T07:41:00.001-04:00

Greybeard! Found yesterday, will try to look for owners... But if none are found, I will love him just as much.

Update: Greybeard was renamed to Mr. Piggy. My God, that bird can eat.

Novenas...

2009-08-05T08:07:00.001-04:00

I don't know what a Novena is.
I don't want to know what a Novena is.
I do know that whenever I get sent one, it makes me incredibly angry.

Just saying....

Happiness is...

2009-08-01T19:14:00.000-04:00

Good Beef Negamaki

Seperated at Birth?

2009-07-28T08:21:00.001-04:00

Some People believe that I look like Dr. Mark Green from E.R. (Anthony Edwards) What do you think? Comment on my facebook.

A fair...

2009-07-25T19:51:00.000-04:00

is a varitable Shmorgasborg, orgashborg, orgashborg...

The Fish Tank is up and running!

2009-07-25T19:21:00.000-04:00

In a week, I'll add some fish! Yay

It's good to be in first class part 2

2009-07-14T00:01:00.000-04:00

ravioli with shrimp, tortilla soup, fresh salad, and a red wine..

It's good to be in first class part 1

2009-07-14T00:00:00.001-04:00

Free booze!

It's good to be in first class part 3

2009-07-14T00:00:00.000-04:00

PIE!

It's good to be in first class part 4

2009-07-13T23:59:00.000-04:00

Power for the lappy...

This is it...

2009-07-13T13:36:00.000-04:00

This was my home for the past 5 days... Almost sad to leave it, but it will be good to get back home to friends, family, and loved ones.

Pop Quiz...

2009-07-13T11:37:00.001-04:00

You know what is better than a $5.99 steak and eggs breakfast?

That's right... A 99¢ steak and egg breakfast!!!

Update...

So apparently the Victorian wouldn't take my coupon for their breakfast "Special" So, after a minute or two of arguing, I left. The cafe in Harrah's also has $5.99 steak and eggs, but I decided to try the buffet instead. It was absolutely huge, and with plenty of choices, including Chilaquiles :) and other wonderful mexican foods, and american foods, an omelet bar, and a jelato stand (not that I'd have jelato for breakfast... but to each their own. They were also making fresh cotton candy. I was tempted to bring some with me, be decided it better to not.

Duke

2009-07-13T11:08:00.000-04:00

I will never forget Duke...Duke came into the poker room at the IP the other night looking for some action. Duke was all of 5 feet 6, in his black wingtips. He wore a dark grey suit with a faint pinstripe. The jacket was 6 button double breasted, with 4 button cuffs. He had on a black shirt with a french collar, and possibly cuffs, with a pure white medium width tie, neatly tied with a half windsor. I couldn't see his cufflinks. On his lapel was a fresh pure white carnation. On his left wrist he wore a 5/8 inch wide gold flattened chain bracelet, and his left hand had a huge gold ring with a 45 degree rotated bevel set, square cut, diamond that must have been at least 3 carrots, if it was real. He wore a short brimmed grey fedora, with the back rim turned up, and the front rim turned down. He had a weathered tan face, with a pencil thin seperated mustache, a half inch wide soul patch, and a ponytail about a foot long. He sat down at the table, chewing an invisibly small piece of gum with his mouth open, and kept looking around the room to see what else was going on. He had a funny accent that I couldn't place but seemed almost to have a faint mix of boston, and bronx... But he claimed he grew up in vegas, and I believe it. This guy was a clichéd schyster to end all schysters, and he flaunted it. He was only at the table for a few minutes, then got moved to a 2-4 limit game, but during that time, he chatted with the player next to him, about how he always has to look good as you never know when the right woman will come along. When asked for a players card, he exclaimed, "No, Thank you, I buy my own lunches." This guy was old vegas to a degree what would have paelentologists and social historians salivating. Like I said he was only at the table for a few minutes, but I never took my eyes off him, and will never forget the short time I played poker with Duke.

TI's new show...

2009-07-13T00:02:00.000-04:00

Well it was okay... I liked the old British Versus pirates show was better... But this was okay... Plenty of pirotechnics....

The Treasure Island show..

2009-07-12T23:28:00.000-04:00

Happens at 1.5 hour intervals, starting at 7PM and has 4 shows/ night. The original show was good I thought, but this new one is called the call of the sirens.... We shall see...

Volcano!!!

2009-07-12T23:12:00.001-04:00

Pre eruption, and during... The volcano at the mirage lights off every hour on the hour from 8pm to Midnight.

Is it just me or are the blogs turning into a las vegas guide book... ROFL

Either way, I'm enjoying relaying my experiences