The Bubba Test
Posted by Dave Minor Sat, 28 Apr 2007 18:30:00 GMT
Filing IFR
Posted by Dave Minor Sun, 08 Apr 2007 02:47:00 GMT
I wrote a bit drearily abou passing my instrument rating and not really feeling super excited about it. The time came when it really helped out and I failed to note it here.
On a recent trip (first trip after passing the rating in fact), the forecast was for partly cloudy skies on our return trip and Sarah was scheduled to work that night. When I popped my head out of the house we were at a couple of hours before our intended departure, the sky was about 2000 overcast. The airport lobby (KTKI on the edge of DFW Class B airspace) was filled with VFR pilots waiting for the ceiling to go up.
We filed, strolled in, and took off. Popped out on top about 4000 feet and enjoyed the remainder of the trip punching holes in the top of fair weather cumulus clouds. Sarah rode in the front with me for the first time in our plane. She flew a lot of the way home.
Later that week, I was able to take a business trip that otherwise would have been called off due to weather. It was a great feeling to be able to make those 3 flights that week without having to scrap them.
Tomorrow we were scheduled to make a 2 day cross country to Arizona. Easter winter storms are causing those plans to be rearranged. I’m not sure how fun dodging mountains with 25 knot headwinds would be….
No One Belongs Here More Than You
Posted by Dave Minor Sun, 08 Apr 2007 02:46:13 GMT
It was just mildly cute until I came to the realization that she was actually using this to promote a product. Then I couldn’t stop smiling.
No Audio in Some Apps
Posted by Dave Minor Sat, 31 Mar 2007 03:46:42 GMT
for my future reference (since this has happened to me a couple of times and it always takes me a long time to determine what the problem is):
Instrument Belt Notch
Posted by Dave Minor Fri, 09 Mar 2007 20:32:28 GMT
I’m not sure why I haven’t gotten really excited about this yet. Without a lot of pomp and circumstance, I passed my instrument rating checkride this past Tuesday. I felt solid about the material and the flying, so I wasn’t worried about not passing, but I worked really hard to get it done and now it is.
Maybe I know that without a goal to work towards, I probably won’t fly as much for a while. Maybe it’s because I haven’t been able to use the rating yet. Maybe it’s because I don’t know what to work towards now.
I know that there will be times I will use my instrument rating, but I’m not sure what I would use a multi-engine rating or a tailwheel endorsement or even a commercial rating.
I really want to get a commercial rating, but I’m not sure what I would do with it. I don’t want to instruct and I don’t want to become an “on call” pilot for a charter. I would love to earn some money as a pilot, I just don’t know how to get there.
Redrawing World Maps
Posted by Dave Minor Mon, 05 Mar 2007 21:16:00 GMT
Among other things, the toy import/export maps are so very heavily weighted!
Diff a Tree and Copy
Posted by Dave Minor Mon, 05 Mar 2007 20:32:00 GMT
When maintaining older projects that don’t have deployment scripts written and where production is not under version control, I find a lot of times that I need to diff the two directory trees looking for which files have changed and then copy them to production.
Today I had a bunch of those to do. I worked up a shell one-liner that will handle this and I’m posting it here to remember the next time this comes up.
diff -q -x .svn -r . ../production_root | awk '{print $2}' | xargs -i -t cp {} path/to/production_root/{}
Let me know if you see a better way.
UPDATE: ok, so this totally fails when there are files in the current tree that don’t exist in the production_root because my awk outputs ‘in’ instead of the filename.
I guess I really need to suck it up and implement a capistrano deployment system for my non-rails apps.
Scroll QT Frames
Posted by Dave Minor Thu, 15 Feb 2007 00:02:33 GMT
I just stumbled across this accidentally and thought it was cool. When pausing a QuickTime video, the scroll wheel on my mouse advances the movie by frame in both directions.
what would call negative advancing? advancing and departing, no. advancing and de-advancing, hmm. shuttling by frame in both directions!
Schedule Group Meetings Tool
Posted by Dave Minor Tue, 30 Jan 2007 20:36:00 GMT
yes, I know it’s been a while. lots I could write about. lazy I guess.
This is super cool though.
This simple web app allows you to send one or more people an invitation to a meeting and offer them one or more dates for the meeting. Each person reponds to the app with their preference and the app reports back on the best time for the meeting. I can’t wait to use that.
Mayor Daley Confirmed Ignorant
Posted by Dave Minor Fri, 13 Oct 2006 23:59:00 GMT
I was disgusted when Mayor Daley of Chicago illegally closed Meigs Field in March of 2003. Daley’s excuse was that having airplanes so close to downtown was a “security threat.”
Meigs was such a great general aviation field and a landmark in Chicago. Even when I’ve flown commercially into Chicago, it’s such a hassle to get downtown for the airports. Meigs was perfect!
With this weeks tragic accident in New York, Daley has again shown his ignorance in understanding general aviation by pushing for a no-fly zone over downtown Chicago. Give me a break. There are much bigger threats in downtown Chicago than airplances overhead. Daley just has a prejudice that flames it’s ugly head again and again. Phil Boyer, president of AOPA, has hit the nail on the head with his rebuke of Daley today. Too bad the nail wasn’t in Daley’s head. Go read Boyer’s post. I’ll wait… back?
So now when I fly my family to the Chicago area to visit our old neighborhood or go for business and land at a non-Chicago airport, I think I’ll spend my money at non-Chicago hotels and non-Chicago restaurants and visit non-Chicago attractions. If my airplane is not welcome in Chicago, then my money must not be welcome in Chicago either. I love Chicago, but Daley and his anti-GA attitude have to go before I enjoy any more time there.
Join me in boycotting the Windy City and let me know you’re doing it.
