Musings and Memes

Yes. If just every household replaced one incandescent bulb with a fluorescent one, they could look forward to this when they inevitably break one:

Before Clean-up: Ventilate the Room
1. Have people and pets leave the room, and don't let anyone walk through the breakage area on their way out.
2. Open a window and leave the room for 15 minutes or more.
3. Shut off the central forced-air heating/air conditioning system, if you have one.

Clean-Up Steps for Hard Surfaces
4. Carefully scoop up glass fragments and powder using stiff paper or cardboard and place them in a glass jar with metal lid (such as a canning jar) or in a sealed plastic bag.
5. Use sticky tape, such as duct tape, to pick up any remaining small glass fragments and powder.
6. Wipe the area clean with damp paper towels or disposable wet wipes and place them in the glass jar or plastic bag.
7. Do not use a vacuum or broom to clean up the broken bulb on hard surfaces.

Clean-up Steps for Carpeting or Rug
4. Carefully pick up glass fragments and place them in a glass jar with metal lid (such as a canning jar) or in a sealed plastic bag.
5. Use sticky tape, such as duct tape, to pick up any remaining small glass fragments and powder.
6. If vacuuming is needed after all visible materials are removed, vacuum the area where the bulb was broken.
7. Remove the vacuum bag (or empty and wipe the canister), and put the bag or vacuum debris in a sealed plastic bag.

Disposal of Clean-up Materials
8. Immediately place all cleanup materials outside the building in a trash container or outdoor protected area for the next normal trash.
9. Wash your hands after disposing of the jars or plastic bags containing clean-up materials.
10. Check with your local or state government about disposal requirements in your specific area. Some states prohibit such trash disposal and require that broken and unbroken mercury-containing bulbs be taken to a local recycling center.

Future Cleaning of Carpeting or Rug: Ventilate the Room During and After Vacuuming
11. The next several times you vacuum, shut off the central forced-air heating/air conditioning system and open a window prior to vacuuming.
12. Keep the central heating/air conditioning system shut off and the window open for at least 15 minutes after vacuuming is completed.

Don't you feel green now?

Posted by Eric Gockel at 08:01 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

If you're using Subversion version control, one GUI option for Mac users is svnX

Getting started isn't immediately intuitive with the multiple windows, so here are some steps I put together for one of my guys today:

1. You need to setup the connection to the SVN server in the 'repositories' window:
- name: whatever you want to reference it as
- path: https://www.yourdomain.com
- username
- password

After that's entered, you can double click on its listing above the edit fields. It should then try to connect and display the most recent log messages. That's the first step to getting going.

2. Create the folder on your machine where you want the files to live. Go back to the svnX window that has the logs, below the log listings it should show "root" in the first column, Click on that and "trunk" should appear and begin to load its subfolders. With "trunk" selected, click svn checkout at the top and choose the folder you created. You can click show output to see the files getting added.

3. Then, in the svnX Working Copies window, create a new item. The 'name' should match what you used in #1 above for the connection name and the path should be the folder that you created, just the root, not the 'trunk'.

4. After you've added the working copy, double click its listing in the copies window. A new window should launch. Click Update to pull down the latest. Click Show output to see what changes if any were pulled down.

5. So every time you start a new session, you just need to fire up that last window to 'get latest'. Hit refresh to see any changes you've made.. click 'update' on the side to post your changes to svn and 'add' for any new files that aren't in svn.

Certificate Errors
You may get certificate errors when trying to connect for the first time, you'll need to subvert it by using the terminal

Hosted Subversion
I recently ran across Beanstalk, a hosted version of Subversion. I haven't tried it out,but it is supposed to integrate with Basecamp, another online application we use.

Posted by Eric Gockel at 12:42 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Recently, we were hired on to redesign the website for a client, however they didn't have the FTP information for their website.

As a 3rd party, it is a bit difficult to obtain this information from an ISP if you don't have certain bits of information to identify yourself. Here are some steps that we had to go through to finally gain access:

1. Have the ISP send the login information to the email on record with the account. In this case, the person was no longer with the firm and their email was no longer active. However since email is something that we have control over, we will recreate that email address again so we can receive the account login instructions.

2. If the email on record is for someone with an email in a domain not in your control, then you have other steps. The ISP will probably ask you for the last 4-digits of the credit card used for payments as well as the name on the card. Our luck, this client didn't have this either.

3. Lastly, the ISP will require you to send them a fax with your information and requested changes on your company letterhead. Unless they verify the incoming fax number, this obviously can be pretty easily faked, IMHO.

If you don't have the login information for your website hosting service, you really should make sure you have it in your possession. If your web guy/gal is reluctant to give it to you now, it won't be any easier/better down the road when you really need it.

Posted by Eric Gockel at 12:25 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Congratulations! You've finally decided to enter the world of online commerce. You've setup an online store, hired a web designer and have something that looks pretty legitimate. But before you flip on the switch, make sure you have a secure checkout! Nothing will make web shoppers hit the back button faster than having a page asking for credit card information that isn't secure. And putting a logo up like Verisign or Authorize.net (shown) won't make it secure by itself.

For a page to be secure, it needs to begin with HTTPS, which also puts the friendly padlock icon in the bottom of your browser, telling folks that everything's kosher.

You have to be a little comfortable with setting up websites and dealing with ISPs and whatnot to install your own SSL (secure socket layer) certificate. Otherwise, ask your webguy or gal to make sure you have one setup (and test it out to make sure your checkout is HTTPS and you get the padlock icon w/o any error messages!). It'll cost you about $60/yr to maintain a certificate from a place like RapidSSL.

If you're using a site like Yahoo stores, they include SSL with their package, so you should be cool with them. Same goes if you're using PayPal

Posted by Eric Gockel at 11:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

The latest hubbub in Chi town is Ald. Cardenas wanting to add a 20-25 cent tax to bottled water. According to Channel 2: (hey Kristyn, don't you and Chris be strangers!)

"Cardenas also said a bottled water tax would help the environment by dissuading people from buying the plastic bottles that end up in landfills."

Hmm... then why not tax ALL plastic bottles at lower rate? If your goal is to dissuade people from buying the plastic bottles, you won't be seeing as much tax revenues either.

But finally, if the tax were to go thru, bottled water would conceivably cost more than sugary soda pop. So when the lower income folks and kids stop by 7-11, why not give them another reason to stay healthy?

Posted by Eric Gockel at 10:10 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

who needs enemies...

"Because I think we will lose the battle with global warming [eg: eh, "battle?" are SUV owners "insurgents"?], and because I think a nuclear device will be exploded somewhere on the planet, New York will be quite a different place. The less fortunate will go hungry and some may be crippled, but there will be enclaves of great opulence.

The likes of a Lincoln Center will be constantly under surveillance and surrounded by police officers. Our cultural landmarks will be supported by private individuals with private armies. Dance will enjoy a precious place; it will be a darling of these survivors.

People will want artists to return them to certain periods. They will suffer what I call hyper-nostalgia as they look back to a time when people talked robustly about ideas like democracy. Our age will be seen as a glorious last hurrah. Period dancing will be highly prized, almost like an exotic sweet. There will be some people who lose themselves in looking backward. "

--Bill T Jones, via The World of Tomorrow, NYT

Posted by Eric Gockel at 09:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

So my latest pair of Gap jeans today went on a tear, and kept tearing. Time for new jeans... what's my size again? Well no problem, I'll just check the inside of the pa.. what, no size? When did they stop putting the sizes on jeans?

No worries, I'll just go online and check my prior order status, they'll have the size AND style that I previously bought, making my repeat purchase even simpler. Nope, sorry, gap.com only keeps your order history for 14 days?

Amazon keeps it for years. Comon' guys.

Posted by Eric Gockel at 09:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)