Author Archive for iamstuffed

Text2D class

Published
by
iamstuffed
on June 10, 2008
in Programming
. 0 Comments

At work, I’ve been working on a new Java3D project.  Java3D has been great so far, and I’ve gotten a simple visualization program up and running in two weeks.  Today, I had to figure out how to determine the actual width of a Text2D object.  Creating a BoundingBox with the Text2D object’s getBounds() method doesn’t actually help, since it seems the dimensions are always a power of two.  I needed the actual width (the height can be calculated by multiplying the font size by the the rectangle scale factor), but the bounds returned didn’t give the the value I needed; it was close, but I needed to position the text to create an annotated axis.

My solution?  I had to rewrite the Text2D class.  I read a forum that mentioned this as a solution, but it didn’t give the code or how to do it.  If you go to the Java3D website (https://java3d.dev.java.net), you can browse the source code.  The Text2D class is located in the j3d-core-utils subproject.  I just copied the source file, added two private variables (height and width), created accessor methods getWidth and getHeight, and stored the height and width when it is calculated in the setupImage method.  Just change the package name and you can use the new class the same way the regular Text2D class is used.

What I don’t understand is, why didn’t Sun or the community in general do this?  It’s a really simple fix.  How do people even use the class if they can’t accurately determine how much space the actual text uses?  I’ll post the code (with the simple modifications) tomorrow.

Text2D.java

My experience with Bike Friday’s customer service

Published
by
iamstuffed
on May 13, 2008
in Biking
. 0 Comments

At the end of April, I purchased a used Bike Friday Tikit from the shop in College Park, MD. It was sold to me at a good price, and I’ve had fun riding it over the last couple weeks. After all the rave reviews about Bike Friday’s customer service, I expected something spectacular, but I am not impressed.

For the past few weeks, I’ve been trying to register my Tikit. Why is it so difficult? My bike doesn’t have a frame number, or rather, it doesn’t have one that I can see with my eyes. I’ve taken several pictures, examined it closely in the daylight, with a flashlight, and with my camera and flash. I don’t think there’s a frame number on the bottom of my bottom bracket shell. Bike Friday seems to disagree and says the frame number is there.

Last week I called the bike shop and asked them for some help, and they told me it may never have had a serial number. I’m not sure I believe that, but whatever. They also told me that the bike was a preproduction bike and was one of the first two Tikits sent to the Mt. Airy, MD store. Even armed with this helpful information, Bike Friday just can’t seem to help me out. I’ve called them more than five times, I’ve emailed them several times, I’ve emailed them pictures, and I’ve asked them for pictures of other Tikits (to see where the serial number exists and what it looks like). Everytime they tell me they’ll call me back but they never do. They haven’t sent me pictures either.

Another possible location of the frame number, according to their website, is under the folding stem. The problem with my bike, if that were the case: the hyperfolding stem was upgraded before I picked it up. I’m not sure what was involved with upgrading the folding to the new style, but if the serial number is still there, I can’t see it. If the stem was replaced to upgrade to the new style, then the serial number is no longer there. Maybe a blue Tikit wasn’t an early color? I have no idea how they came to the conclusion that the serial number has to be on the bottom bracket shell (since their website states the folding stem as a possible location as well).

This is so frustrating. I can’t believe they can’t take the time and effort to research this more.

*UPDATE*
2008 May 14
They have contacted me and everything seems to be set. At least they made an attempt to help me.

SRAM Dual Drive hub

Published
by
iamstuffed
on May 11, 2008
in Miscellaneous
. 4 Comments

Recently, I won an ebay auction for a wheelset that came off a Cannondale hybrid bike. I was mainly interested in the SRAM Dual Drive hub, since I’d like to use it with my Tikit. When I got home today, I finally got a change to play with it. At first, when I tried spinning the cassette, the movement wasn’t smooth, and something didn’t seem right. After taking the hub apart, I found a metal piece on the edge of the hub’s shell.

IMGP3384

IMGP3385

IMGP3386

SRAM’s website and parts list shows this as “Assy Planet Gear Carrier Dual Drive” and part number 65 0372 111 100 . I’m not sure how much this part costs, but I’m not really in a hurry to install it. Maybe tomorrow I’ll give the bike shop in College Park a call to see if they can find out how much it’ll cost.

Packed Car

Published
by
iamstuffed
on May 11, 2008
in Miscellaneous
. 0 Comments

Today I drove back from PA with four cases of water, one 27″ CRT Television, two backpacks, two boxes of bike parts, one Bike Friday Tikit, one Downtube 9, one dvd player and speaker system, and four cases of water (for my brother). Impressive isn’t it? I can’t believe how much weight the water added, but everything (including my brother) made the handling of the car much different.

IMG_2000.rotated

IMG_2001.rotated

Google Map of my commute

Published
by
iamstuffed
on May 7, 2008
in Biking
. 0 Comments

Here is the map of my commute on my Tikit:

Map

My commute to work with the Tikit

Published
by
iamstuffed
on May 7, 2008
in Biking
. 0 Comments

Today I biked to work using my Bike Friday Tikit (19.5 miles? I stopped measuring the distance after the security gate). Overall the bike handled pretty well, but I had some issues with the pannier bag on the front rack. Eventually I’ll post the google maps version of the route based on my gps watch, but for now, here are some pictures:

IMG_1907

IMG_1953

IMG_1940

I attached one of my Arkel XM-45 panniers to the front rack and used that to carry all of my clothes and stuff I need for the day. I don’t really like the placement of the metal curved noodle looking thing on the front brakes. It pushes against the pannier bag and pushes that side of the brakes closer to the rim. Just by moving the curved metal piece toward the stem helped that issue, but I wish it were on the other side of the brakes.

IMG_1967

The rest of the pictures are here:
Tikit Commute

Tikit frame number

Published
by
iamstuffed
on May 6, 2008
in Miscellaneous
. 0 Comments

I recently tried registering my Bike Friday Tikit with Bike Friday but they can’t seem to help me find the frame number (serial number?).  The location the website lists is either the folding stem or the bottom of the bottom bracket shell.  I checked both locations and don’t see any frame number.  The stem was replaced prior to my purchasing the bike (it was retrofitted with the new cable, clamp, and stem).

I just send another email inquiring about the location of the frame number.  If anyone can send me a picture of it’s actual location, that would help me out.

I uploaded pictures of the bottom of my bottom bracket shell here:
Tikit

Phishing email at work

Published
by
iamstuffed
on May 6, 2008
in Miscellaneous
. 0 Comments

Dear E-mail Users,

The new NASA™ Webmail is a fast and light-weight appliction to quickly and easily access your e-mail. We are currently upgrading our data base and e-mail center. We are deleting NASA™ Webmail to create more space for new email.

To prevent your email from closing you will have to update it below so that we will know that it’s a present used email.

***********************************************
CONFIRM YOUR EMAIL IDENTITY BELOW
User ID:    ……… …..
E-mail Password : ……………
Secret Question : ……………
Secret Answer     : ……………
***********************************************

Warning!!! Account owner that refuses to update his or her account within Seven days of receiving this warning will lose his or her account permanently

Thank you for using NASA™ Webmail!
Access Number:    859480KBM

Thanks,
NASA™ Webmail Center
https://webmail.nasa.gov <https://webmail.nasa.gov>

——–

The above was a phishing email being circulated at work.  I think if an employee fell for that email, they weren’t paying attention.  Why is NASA a trademark? What is the supposed secret question and answer?  The web address is correct, but that’s probably because they forwarded the plain text version of the email.  People really do need to pay more attention to the details!

Bike Friday Tikit

Published
by
iamstuffed
on April 30, 2008
in Biking
. 1 Comment

Last week I bought a used folding bike by Bike Friday called a Tikit (the hyperfold version, Tikit2Ride).  I was a little surprised that they allowed me to purchase the demo bike, but that was fine with me.  It saved me a couple hundred dollars and weeks of waiting.  

It looks pretty small next to my other bikes, but it actually rides like a regular bike.  The steering is a little twitchy and will probably be something that I’ll have to get used to.  I replaced the saddle that came with the bike, since it was oh so manly (it had a leopard stripe down the center), with the seatpost and saddle that came with my Cannondale Synapse road bike.  The seatpost diameter used by the Tikit and my road bike are identical; the Tikit uses a shim to work with 27.2mm seatposts.  The bike was a demo at the bike shop and the leopard striped saddle was whatever it had on it when I purchased it.  This past weekend, my dad came to help my brother move and to test ride folding bikes at some local bike shops.  He tested two models of Dahon folding bikes with 20″ wheels and seemed to like them, but he was more interested in bikes with 16″ wheels and non of the stores seemed to have any.  He liked my bike the best of the bikes he test rode.  

One of these days, I’ll get up early enough to attempt my 20 mile commute to work on one of my bikes.  Thursday would be the perfect day to attempt it (high of 20 C).  I’m entertaining the idea of taking the Marc train from Jessup to Greenbelt and just biking to and from the Marc stations.  I have a folding bike, so I can take the bike on the train now.

Since I want to do my part to stimulate the economy, I won a bunch of bids on ebay for random parts that I can use to upgrade the components on the Tikit.  Eventually, when everything is done, I’ll have: a new bottom bracket and crankset (SRAM Rival), a different saddle (Specialized Toupe Gel), a new seatpost (Thomson Masterpiece), a new rear derailleur (SRAM X.9), new shifters (SRAM X.9 for now), a new cassette (11-32t 9spd) and a new rear wheel (SRAM Dual Drive hub).  It was pretty fun bidding for stuff on ebay.  The only real way to win those stupid auctions is to bid at the last minute, or bid reasonably high for something.  I don’t even know why they have auctions that last for a week.  Hopefully I can figure out how to install all this stuff; my only fear is the bottom bracket stuff (removing the sealed bearings bottom bracket and installing the external bearings bottom bracket), but honestly, it can’t be that hard.  Maybe the new parts will lighten the bike by a considerable amount.  I’ll weigh it before and after the replacements.



Compiling p7zip for OSX 10.4

Published
by
iamstuffed
on March 5, 2008
in Miscellaneous
. 4 Comments

p7zip is a unix command line version of the 7-zip program.  Generally, the algorithm used by 7-zip to compress files (LZMA) produces smaller files than zip, gzip, and bzip2.  Recently I tried installing it on my work laptop, an Apple MacBook Pro, by downloading and compiling from source (version 4.57).  Compilation finished just fine but whenever I tried running the command line utility, it would crap out and give the following message:

dyld: lazy symbol binding failed: lazy pointer not found
dyld: lazy pointer not found
Trace/BPT trap

After searching for a little bit, the fix for this is simple: just remove the -s flag from the ALLFLAGS=${OPTFLAGS} line in makefile.machine. Recompile the code, install it, and it works fine. According to the gcc man page, the -s removes “all symbol table and relocation information from the executable”. This is probably just a problem with the compiler on OSX Tiger.

make
sudo make install