Welcome To My Web Site!
This site contains information that I find interesting. I also use this site to play with different CSS ideas and techniques. I have a list for Biometrics, Fireworks, Linux, MythTV & Matrox Marvel G200, Global Warming, Politics and More!
FIREWORKS!!
The chronicles of a helpless pyro...
April 29, 2009
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June 18, 2007
I have been working on the music and pyrotechnic choreography for the show. Here are a few videos that demonstrate my plan .. though I have not yet figured the prder out other than it will start with The Rolling Stones - Start Me Up and finish with the 1812 Overture.
Carl Orff - Carmina Burana - O Fortuna
2001 Space Odessy - Theme Song
And, in the works....
Star Wars Theme Song
Wagner - Ride of the Valkyries
April 26, 2007
I made a miscalculation on my shipping ... the order was significantly less than I had anticipated.
... Add a case of Knockout Brocade please!
April 25, 2007
Three short years ago I thought the key to backyard pyrotechnics was quantity over quality. After all, Phantom Fireworks "is" the only place to get fireworks. Right? And it was the suckers that paid for all those big old boxes of clever marketing. I was smart. I bought grosses of bottle rockets, roman candles and a few of those boxes of small cakes. For a couple hundred bucks, I got hundreds of shots. Those other guys paid $100 bucks for something that only shot 12 shots!! Fools!
Introduce the heroin of the moden pyro - www.pyrouniverse.com ... How wrong I had been ...
2005 was a milestone, no pun intended, in my pyro journey. I made a trek to Wholesale Fireworks of Canton Ohio. For $650 I was able to purchase 4 times the quantity (and probably quality) that I would have been able to purchase retail. What's more, I actually knew what I was purchasing!! Thanks to PyroU, the days of getting gouged by retail are over!
2006 brought some advances in my technique. Cakes were no longer lit from smallest to largest. There was some order to things! Whole boards were timed with fuse. The boards were built in pairs to spread out the effects. Things had progressed nicely injust a year ... and the budget bloated.
What's next?
2007 will, hopefully, bring in the era of electronically fired shows! I might actually get to watch this year!!! The ematches are made. The wireless relay board purchased. Parts bought or sourced ... only until showtime!!
So what is on the menu for this year?
| Code | Mortars | Dur | Cases |
| PYK05 | Pro Pac #7 | 1 | |
| MWC0054 | Critical Acclaim | 1 | |
| WB-05A | Sky Tiger – Night | 1 | |
| PYK719B | Double Lightning | 1 | |
| PV310 | Shotgun Shells | 1 | |
| LD9016 | Lidu Shells | 1 | |
| Code |
200g Cakes | Dur | Cases |
| SSM1130-200C | Shogun Crackling Saturn Missle Battery | 1 | |
| PYK603 | Hot, Hot, Hot | 33 | 1 |
| BP2172 | Victoria Falls | 1 | |
| PYK609 | Wild Stallion | 1 | |
| BP2905 | Red, White & Blue Salute | 23 | 1 |
| BP2924 | Wild West | 20 | 1 |
| WB0218B | 4th of July Spectacular | 31 | 1 |
| MWC0060 | Crazy Exciting | 1 | |
| PYK653 | Master Mine | 35 | 1 |
| PYK615 | City Crasher | 34 | 1 |
| PYK606 | Silver Razzle | 33 | 1 |
| Y23-203 | Exotic Mash | 1 | |
| PYK621 | Gold Brocade Bash | 36 | 1 |
| PYK618 | Red Razzle | 42 | 1 |
| PYK644 | Buck Fever | 1 | |
| Code |
500g Cakes | Dur | Cases |
| PYK630 | Magnum Bravo | 36 | 1 |
| KM801 | Big Package | 1 | |
| BP2208 | Rock On | 16 | 1 |
| GPH3048 | Golden Crown | 38 | 1 |
| PYK670 | Nice Rack 12shot | 30 | 1 |
| BPA013-2 | Hydrogen Bomb | 28 | 1 |
| BP2253 | One Perfect Thing | 1:02 | 1 |
| BP2221 | Labyrinth | 1 | |
| KM-802 | Loyal to None | 1 | |
| PYK623 | Pyro Overdrive | 48 | 1 |
| PYK641 | Bling King | 54 | 1 |
| BP2207 | Wicked Cool | 21 | 1 |
| PYK631 | Solar Flare | 1:03 | 1 |
| BP2257 | Knockout Brocade | 41 | 1 |
| PYK635 | Vegas Baby Vegas | 1 | |
| Code |
Misc | Qty | |
| FUQP | Vulcan Quick Match | 2 | |
| STMR | Sticky Match Fast | 1 | |
| STMS | Stick Match Slow | 2 |
The order has been sent!
April 26, 2007
I made a miscalculation on my shipping ... the order was significantly less than I had anticipated.
... Add a case of Knockout Brocade please!
Biometrics
In a word (well maybe three): Biometrics Are Cool!
Loosing key is one of my least favorite past times. Unfortunately, I'm way to good at it! Fortunately, I have found the solutions to all of my problems ... biometrics!! Oh yea, no keys.
Disclaimer: I do web design work for the company that operates some of the web sites below - the first three. My company is in no way responsible for anything on this site! These are my words and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the company that I work for or the owners of the sites below. Ok, that's that! Besides, I pay for this site so I can say whatever I want! Right?!?
Anyway, here's the scoop: this stuff really works! I was amazed how well most of the technology performed. The fingerprint door locks work great. I personally use the SLM-3000 at home. Installation is a breeze as it only requires 1 small hole to be drilled into the door. After that, the front and back are pushed together and fastened with a few bolts and wham! Your done! Enrolling in the biometric lock is easy - push a quick pin combo and place your finger when you see the LED's flashing.
Since I do work for the company that sells this stuff, I was able to play with most of these fancy sci-fi biometric devices. My favorite fingerprint lock is the DL-250. It uses an international standard mortise - basically a heavy duty door latch - instead of the typical "American Style" mortise that the SLM-3000 uses. Otherwise, it operates the same and looks really neat!
Seeing as I'm a web designer type, the big boss man of the company asked me to evaluate/play with their new Biometric access control device. This device is called the ACTAtek and it provides fingerprint access control to any type of facility. It's all configured via a web browser and allows the administrators to craft access control polices for different people at different doors during different times. It's really powerful and a piece of cake to figure out ... particularly for any computer geeks out there. More info can be found at the products site here ... hope you like the site ... I designed it!
Oh! One other thing ... It runs on a Linux kernel so it should be rock solid! ;-)
- www.fingerprintdoorlocks.com - An awesome site featuring all kinds of biometric devices such as fingerprint door locks, biometric access control products - like the ACTAtek - and biometric safes!
- www.actatekusa.com - A site dedicated to the ACTAtek product. The ACTAtek is a cool biometric access control device that has an embedded web server for use and administration. It also is networkable so you can use it for access control throughout an entire facility.
- www.actateksecurity.com - Another site with information regarding the ACTAtek. I think they also have a demo link to a simulated unit
- www.sequiam.com - They manufacture an awesome fingerprint gun safe called the BioVault 2.0 (though I think you can only buy it at the fingerprint door locks site above).
MythTV and the Matrox G200 Marvel
Update: I have abondoned my G200 efforts and bought a Hauppauge PVR350. The prices have fallen to the point that it doesn't make any sense to continue to try and get the G200 to work.
I have been desperately trying to get MythTV to work with Matrox G200 Marvel. I've decided to document my journey here:
Thus far have been unable to get MythTV to play live TV well with the Marvel. I read that the new version 0.18 supports mjpeg - i.e. what the Matrox Marvel G200 uses. I have not had a chance to build this yet.
Links
- Marvel Driver Home Page - The "home" page for the Matrox Marvel G200 Linux driver. Seems to be kinda outdated ... info appears to be best found in their mailing list (link below).
- Marvel Driver Mailing List Archives - This is the place to seach for answers regarding the Matrox Marvel Linux drivers. You can also subscribe to the mailing list here.
Other Stuff
Mozilla Firefox! - The greatest thing to happen to the internet since CSS
Firefox is a new browser from the Mozilla Foundation - basically the NEW Netscape. It has tabbed browsing which allows you to open new links in a "tab" instead of a new window ... as IE forces it's unsuspecting minions to do. This is great because if you open the Drudge Report and and want to read a bunch of stories, all you have to do is middle mouse click and *bang* you have a new tab loading that page .... and you can keep doing that with other links. Then when you satisfied that you have wisely chosen all the important articles of the day, click on the tabs and the articles will already be preloaded! Really, Super Cool!
Firefox also nukes those pesky pop-up ads! You don't even need to install the Google Toolbar ... though you still, by default, can use a search box that's embedded next to the location bar.
.... But that's not all ....
Firefox, by default, is a very small but efficient web browser. The idea is to keep it simple and not load it up with garbage that the user may not need. This however, is not where the story ends .... Firefox has the ability to load "Extensions". What are these mysterious thingies all about? Well, you're probably bright enough to figure out that they extend the functionality of the Firefox browser. And boy do they! You can use AdBlock to block ads form ... say the Drudge Report ... sorry Matt.
- AdBlock Extension - This extension is a must! Block all those darn ad from tribalfusion and doubleclick and any other ad annoyance. This combined with the built-in popup blocking creates the best possible web page experience!
- EditCSS - CSS allows a web developer to create styles that dictate how a web page looks. Very cool stuff! Anyway, EditCSS is an awesome tool that allows you to tweak the css of any web page and see the results in real time! - Note, though it is nothing fancy, the layout of this page is entirely done in CSS ... no tables!
