Kiteboard Helmet Search

I am looking for a helmet for kite boarding. I have a large head. With short hair, my head is 24-1/4". My local stores do not have helmets that fit. I am looking for a helmet that fits and has good safety features.

I read this from an excellent post:

"Liner: There are three main types of insulation. Expanded Poly-Propylene (EPP) is the most common. It’s very stiff, not affected by moisture, and will take multiple impacts, according to Halstead. Expanded Poly-Styrene is "the very best" energy attenuating substance. It’s what’s used in bike helmets, but generally is only expected to be hit once, and with one exception noted below isn’t used in whitewater helmets. Finally, there are closed-cell foams. The best of these are otherwise known as Vinyl Nitrile, which is a PVC synthetic rubber, heavier in a safe density than EPS/EPP, and will absorb water, but it is usually much softer. A closed-cell foam will also absorb sweat along with water, which can make for a ‘funky’ brain bucket. A fourth insulation, Ethyl Vinyl Acetate or EVA, "isn’t a functional energy attenuator because it’s so springy," says Halstead.

Halstead says stiffer is better. "When you look at the stuff that will actually protect your head, it ought to be so stiff that you think, ‘my God, this is going to hurt.’ But you need that much stiffness to spread the impact. If you pick up a helmet with soft foam inside, the chance of it protecting you is slim." Of course, not everyone agrees with Halstead. Jay Norfleet from Grateful Heads thinks EPP is not a multiple-impact foam because it compresses. And Doug Poe of Pro-Tec believes EVA gives the same protection as closed-cell foam."

It is impossible to find a water helmet that fits a large head. My head is 62.5 cm. That is the upper limit of some helmets and above the limit for most.

Liquid Force XL 24in

ShredReady makes some helmets that are one-size-fits-all. I bought the Standard cut helmet and removed all the padding. I also cut away some of the mesh liner. It fits, barely.

Using Yii Framework

I have downloaded the Yii plugin for NetBeans, but first I had to install NetBeans 7.3.

Download the .nbm file for the plugin.
Go to Tools -> Plugins and add a plugin.
Navigate to the location of the .nbm file.

Immediately after installing the plugin, I noticed that there were some updates for it.
After update, Yii was no longer installed. Actually, it is still there, but it is part of PHP. Click 'show details' to see that Yii is installed.

Yii documentation is asking me to set the path to yiic.php. I cannot find it on my Mac. Ignored it and continued.

Create new PHP project in NetBeans and set the framework to Yii. It is taking a loooonnnngggg time to create the project. After 5 minutes, I closed the new project wizard. Lather, rinse, repeat. I am able to open the project. When I view properties, it indicates that yii is part of the project.

I am trying this tutorial: http://www.larryullman.com/series/learning-the-yii-framework/

Now I see. The plugin is not Yii. Yii must be installed separately. Download Yii from http://www.yiiframework.com/download/. Lather, rinse, repeat.

In NetBeans, set the path to yiic.php from Preferences -> PHP -> Yii.

Create new PHP project, select PHP framework. Project has been created with lots of files.

Uploaded framework and requirements folder to remote PHP server. I accessed /yii/requirements to test the PHP installation for conformance with Yii. All passed, with some warnings for databases that I am not using.

PHP does not run out of the box with NetBeans. It is necessary to install PHP, Apache and MySql. Download MAMP at http://www.mamp.info/en/index.html.

Tutorial for installing: https://netbeans.org/kb/docs/php/configure-php-environment-mac-os.html.
There is no MYSQL option in the Services -> Databases. Trying to add new connection.

I already had a MYSQL server set up. I deleted it and was able to access the server config window.

Set up admin properties for MAMP, not MySql tool. Am able to start/stop mysql from IDE.

Created PHP project. Created index.php in Source Files. Ran project. Index file appeared.

Created a Yii project. Be sure to set the path to yii.php or the require statement will not work and the page will be empty.

Configured Yii to use Gii to create models, views, controllers. When creating the model, I had to rename some columns in the database that had embedded spaces.

http://localhost/appname/index.php/gii/default/index

Gii created the model, but only in the destination folder, not in the NetBeans source folder.

Created new NetBeans project in htdocs of Apache. Now I can use Gii to generate code. I do not like using htdocs. I will add alias that points to location of PHP projects.

Alias /php "/Users/xxx/yyy/zzz/php"

I had to stop Apache before adding the alias.

I edited the URL for the configuration (config/main.php) for the PHP project to include the new alias.

When I use Gii to generate code from the URL, the NetBeans project is updated. The source for the project is in the user folder, not in the MAMP application folder.

I bought the book Yii Application Development Cookbook Second Edition by Alexander Makarov. It has more information than the above tutorial. The tutorial allowed my to get my app running, but the book is showing me the inner workings of Yii.

Be careful not to set up a general route like => website/page, as it will prevent gii from running.

 MAMP has phpMyAdmin.

Edit the protected/components/UserIdentity.php file to add authenticated users. Modify the accessRules in each controller to give access rights to each user.

Modify .htaccess

Modify .htaccess in the root of the project folder, so that index.php does not have to be added to each URL. I had to modify the Apache server httpd.conf to allow options to be overridden in .htaccess.

Options +FollowSymLinks
RewriteEngine on

RewriteBase "/alias-to-php-projects/"
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d

RewriteRule (.*) php-project-name/index.php/$1

Place this in the .htaccess folder that hosts the yii application.

Alternate Rewrite

Instead of repeating this in all the .htaccess files, I used a Directory tag in httpd.conf for Apache. I created an Alias to a folder that contains all my Yii projects, then add the rewrite for that folder.

  Alias /php "/Users/xxx/yyy/zzz/php" 

   
   
        Options +FollowSymLinks
        RewriteEngine on

        RewriteBase "/php/"
        RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
        RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d  

        RewriteRule ^([^/]*)/(.*)$ $1/index.php/$2

   

The regex strips out the first part of the path and treats it as the name of the project, then appends index.php, then appends the rest of the path.

 Revisited Several Months Later

Several months after the initial controller, I wanted to create another one. Of course, I had forgotten everything!

Important files:

• components/UserIdentity for adding users
• config/main.php for defining URLs and other configurations
• controllers
• models
• views

Renaming PHP project for NetBeans

To rename the PHP project, I had to copy the project to a new folder with the new name, then use the new project in NetBeans and delete the old one.

Change the project URL in the Run Configuration of Properties.

This does not work for a yii project, since the model was created for the original app.

MIME_PDF missing from org.apache.fop.apps.MimeConstants

I am building a Java app that uses Apache FOP.

I downloaded the source from http://xmlgraphics.apache.org/fop/download.html

I tried creating an instance with
            Fop fop;
            fop = fopFactory.newFop(MimeConstants.MIME_PDF, out);

I received the error that MIME_PDF did not exist.

I neglected to include the xmlgraphics-commons jar that is in the build folder of the fop install.

These are the jar files I needed to include:

xmlgraphics-commons
avalon-framework
fop

Next, I received an error for any XSL files that used the ends-with xpath function. I needed two more jars from the fop build folder.

serializer
xalan

Screen Casts on Mac

Screen casts can be created on a Mac using QuickTime. To improve resolution, use a selection rectangle that is smaller than the screen. Be sure to maintain the correct aspect ratio, or parts of the final video will be cropped.

I use dimensions of 760x570 when creating screen casts of applications (4:3 aspect ratio).

After creating the video, I can share it to iMovie and edit it.
Share -> iMovie

In iMovie, Import -> Movies and select the screen recording. Create a new project and new event. The event will hold the movie clips. Drag clips into the project.

Share -> Export to QuickTime as MPEG-4

MPEG-4 was scaled too small. I exported it to youtube and it was full sized.

Virtual Box Additions for Fedora

When installing the vbox additions in Fedora 16, I encountered errors.

First, I had to install a kernel development kit.

The suggestion kit was not found:
yum install kernel-devel-3.6.11.4.fc16.i686

I tried command completion and was suggested to use
yum install kernel-devel.i686

It was found and installed.

I switched to the /media folder where the vbox additions .iso was mounted and switched to the vbox folder. I ran the VBoxLinuxAdditions.run. It could not find gcc.

I ran
yum install gcc

It installed.

Once again, I ran
./VBoxLinuxAdditions.run

No good.

I looked in the vbox additions /ver/log/vboxadd-install.log file and saw that my kernel needed updating.
After doing rpm -qa | grep kernel I saw that two kernels were installed. I removed the older one.

Tried guest. Failed.

Rebooted.

Tried guest. Failed.

Ran /etc/init.d/vboxadd setup

Tried guest. Failed.

Rebooted.

Tried guest. Failed.

Ran yum update -y. Lots of stuff to update. Install 29, update 409.

Tried guest. Failed.

Ran  /etc/rc.d/init.d/vboxadd setup

Tried guest. Failed.

Rebooted.

Tried guest. Failed.

Tried the recommendation from the vbox log file
make oldconfig
make prepare
I ran these in the source folder for the installed kernel. Error.
no rule to make .../syscall_32.tbl

Trying to rebuild kernel with
make xconfig

Cannot find qt
yum install qt4-devel

I still cannot install the guest additions.

I read in a bug report that getting the additions from RPM Fusion will work.

Went to this page and installed the free and nonfree versions of RPM Fusion
http://rpmfusion.org/Configuration

From the GUI add/remove program application, I searched for guest additions and then installed the Virtual Box Guest Additions. IT WORKED!!!

Automating Book Edits

Automating Book Edits

When I published my book, I used NetBeans and Tomcat to automate some processes.

I created special tags for the index and the table of contents.

The IndexController determines what resources can be accessed. All additional resources can be accessed from the IndexController: preface, references, TOC, appendix, index pages for each chapter.

The anchor tags add information to a static list when the tag is used. The TOC tag writes the list to the TOC file.

The table of contents is generated when the TOC is requested from the IndexController:
http://localhost:8084/book/Index/TOC/

The index is processed

Connecting Mac to AppleTV

I am visiting a friend who has AppleTV. I wanted to show some photos.

My friend already had set up the AppleTV. He switched the input on the TV to the AppleTV.

I found a manual for AppleTV at Setup Guide

From my computer, I did the following

• In iTunes, select File -> Home Sharing -> Turn On Home Sharing. The documentation indicated this menu was under Advanced, but it was in File -> Home Sharing.
• Open the same menu and select Choose Photos to Share with AppleTV. It is better to limit the number of photos to share, if you have a lot of photos. It takes a long time for AppleTV to load a lot of photos.
• I had to have my friend authorize AppleTV to use my computer. Only five computers can be authorized.  

Viewing a slideshow.

• From AppleTV, select Computer and then Photos.
• From the settings, select the type of the slideshow. Leaving the mouse over an option will preview the option.
• Move to the top of the slideshow list for some options on music. Select music for the current slideshow or set default music from the library of the computers connected to AppleTV.

On a separate topic, iTunes has another menu for connecting to AppleTV to play music only.

• In iTunes, find the rectangle with the arrow in it. I could not find it where the documentation indicated, but I did locate it next to the progress bar for playing a song. 
• Select AppleTV from the list. 
• When you play music in iTunes, it will play through AppleTV.
• Playing music directly from iTunes will override the soundtrack from a slideshow in AppleTV.