Tralfaz

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  • Some weird shit – Microsoft Office to HTML

    So, I run a website for a great group of people. It is a non-profit that rescues greyhounds.

    Sometimes, they need to post something, so I get a file in Microsoft Word, and I need to get it HTML formatted.

    Their website is based around Joomla, and I use the JCE rich text editor. In general, it works pretty good, but sometimes it is thrown for a loop by what Microsoft outputs as HTML.

    An example:

    <p style=”margin-left: 60px;”>1. &nbsp; Identify caring and responsible homes.</p>
    <p style=”margin-left: 60px;”><span style=”line-height: 1.3em;”>2. &nbsp;&nbsp;</span><span style=”line-height: 1.3em;”>Re</span><span style=”line-height: 1.3em;”>scu</span><span style=”line-height: 1.3em;”>e</span><span style=”line-height: 1.3em;”> </span><span style=”line-height: 1.3em;”>s</span><span style=”line-height: 1.3em;”>i</span><span style=”line-height: 1.3em;”>ck</span><span style=”line-height: 1.3em;”>,</span><span style=”line-height: 1.3em;”> </span><span style=”line-height: 1.3em;”>i</span><span style=”line-height: 1.3em;”>n</span><span style=”line-height: 1.3em;”>j</span><span style=”line-height: 1.3em;”>u</span><span style=”line-height: 1.3em;”>r</span><span style=”line-height: 1.3em;”>e</span><span style=”line-height: 1.3em;”>d</span><span style=”line-height: 1.3em;”> </span><span style=”line-height: 1.3em;”>an</span><span style=”line-height: 1.3em;”>d</span><span style=”line-height: 1.3em;”> </span><span style=”line-height: 1.3em;”>abandone</span><span style=”line-height: 1.3em;”>d </span><span style=”line-height: 1.3em;”>g</span><span style=”line-height: 1.3em;”>r</span><span style=”line-height: 1.3em;”>eyhound</span><span style=”line-height: 1.3em;”>s.</span></p>
    <p style=”margin-left: 60px;”>3. &nbsp; Seek to return lost greyhounds to their owners.</p>
    <p style=”margin-left: 60px;”>4. &nbsp; Teach the principles of kindness and humane dog care.</p>
    <p style=”margin-left: 60px;”>5. &nbsp; Promote birth control by neutering/spaying all intake animals.</p>
    <p style=”margin-left: 60px;”>6. &nbsp; Provide pre-adoption health services.</p>
    <p style=”margin-left: 60px;”>7. &nbsp; Provide residential foster care to assist greyhounds in becoming acclimated to a home environment.</p>

    Note the second line item, it is supposed to be :

    1.  Rescue sick, injured, and abandoned greyhounds.

    It has become some gawdawful bunch of span’s that make no sense whatsoever.

    Sigh, I get to clean this mess up…

  • Music: iRadio FTW(?)

    In the past I have pitted Spotify against Google All Access, and while the Google offering was slightly cheaper, it had enough warts to drop it into second place. At that time, I mentioned that I looked forward to Apple’s offering, and would revisit when it was officially launched.

    iTunes has long supported internet radio stations, but they were all third party, and of quite varied quality and availability. At first, I thought this was the offering of Apple, and I was disappointed (until I found the Live365 feeds at least).

    With the launch of iTunes 11.1, and iOS 7, Apple has put out its own radio service. I have been using it pretty extensively since last Thursday (before I even updated my iPhone), and I am quite impressed.

    There is no doubt that Apple has an amazing selection of music in their grasp. But could they do a good job defining stations and genres to tailor the music. I should add that I am not a demographic for top 40, or much of the pop/country/hip hop music. I am a guitar player, so my tastes tend to classic rock, blues based rock, some folk, and generous helpings of heavy metal.

    One of the first “predefined” station is a “Beatles” station. ITMS has the Beatles, and Spotify doesn’t. I fired it up and enjoyed several hours of mid – late 60’s pop-ish, and deep cuts/covers and related tunes. Awesome.

    I dove into creating my own stations. They have genres that make sense. In the “Metal” category, they have british, classic metal, progressive, and the harder stuff. All these sub genre’s are great.

    In the blues, I have electric blues (Stevie Ray Vaughn, Buddy Guy, Gary Moore), and Delta Blues (Robert Johnson, and his ilk). Great stuff.

    The selection, and the mixes have been awesome. I don’t think I have heard the same song twice in probably 20 hours of listening. (One area where Spotify could improve, is that you seem to get in a cycle and the same song can come up 2 times a day.)

    A long time back, I was a Pandora user. I never subscribed to them, because if I wanted to listen to Gary Moore, I didn’t want a radio station based on Gary Moore. So I went to Spotify when it came to the US. But I always liked the Pandora stations. They seemed to have awesome algorithms to select music, and a deep playlist that went on forever. I believe, from what I have heard over the last 5 days, that Apple has come really close to this algorithms.

    The best point? Since I am a iTunes Match customer, the radio is ad free. And free is better than $10 a month.

    Yes, I see my monthly spend to Spotify going poof.

  • Some Evernote Love

    I have been a premium subscriber of Evernote for a few years. At first, I paid to get the larger amount of storage, and to toss them a bone.

    It is the premier cross platform notebook. I have written in the past that Microsoft’s OneNote is a better app, but being Windows only means that I am not going to adopt it.

    At first, the disparity in features between OneNote and Evernote were pretty wide. But with the last few updates, the gap has narrowed greatly, and in some ways, Evernote has surpassed. The ability to toss PDF’s, Gmail messages, and pretty much all documents at it is impressive to say the least. Its apps for the smartphones are also excellent.

    And, as a premium subscriber, it will OCR documents for me in the background, so they become searchable.  Adobe Acrobat does that as well, but it is nice to just send them to Evernote and let it chew on them.

    Lately,  I have been using Evernote for collaboration. I have invited some people to share my “Marketing” notebook, and it has fostered some great idea sharing.

    I am beginning to use it more and more for my daily workflow, and it is improving my productivity. I have no doubt that trent will continue.

    If you are a “free” Evernote user, consider taking the plunge and go premium. You will find a lot more uses for the product and service.

  • Why so much Apple Hate? iOS7 edition

    Being a “geek” I frequent a lot of geek-y websites. One topic that comes up over and over is a raw hatred for all things Apple. Macs, phones, ipods, ipads, you name it, and you would think that Apple, instead of being one of the most loved companies on the planet, is staffed by the Antichrist.

    The thing that really bugs me, is that much of this hate, and virulence is completely offbase and misdirected. Last week, someone said that if you bought a Mac Book Pro with the SSD, you couldn’t change it, as it was soldered to the motherboard. Clearly this basher had no idea what he was talking about. Apple laptops use the mini PCI form factor SSD’s. There are lots of them used in netbooks, and now ultrabooks, but they are standard, they are available, and you can upgrade change them. Fortunately about 10 other people piled on to call him an asshat.

    The same thing about the iPhone. It’s a walled garden ecosystem, and Apple does control the content. They have standards that you must meet to submit and publish, but by and large, it is filled with useful, high quality applications. But the fact that without “jailbreaking” your iphone/ipad you can’t side load (install miscellaneous binaries circumventing the on board controls) applications, and that pisses them off. Of course, the geeks all view this as the antichrist rising. But, if that is your preference, you can jailbreak, and you can load whatever the hell you want.

    About a year ago, I bought an Android device. I wanted to like it, to see if it was as good of an experience to use as my Apple gear. I even bought a Google branded Nexus tablet, so I wouldn’t have a system encrusted with carrier installed crapware. I used it exclusively for several months, I bought many applications, I tried to live with it. In the end, I went back. Yes, I am biased, and I am used to the Apple way, but there were enough annoyances that even having an unencumbered open system couldn’t make me forgive the Android experience.

    Now Apple has retreated from the Skeuomorphic experience, offering a plainer, less lifelike experience, that I associate with Win 8. I did upgrade my iphone, a 4S that is getting long in the tooth, and I was surprised. It took no time to get used to the new stuff, and I think I got lucky by having a dark wallpaper, but it just works.  Of course, I am sure Steve Jobs is spinning wildly in his grave.

    The real surprise, is that it is quite snappy on my 2 year old phone. I was hesitating to update, as the last time at the end of life for a phone, the 3GS, I upgraded to iOS 5 and that made the phone almost unusable.

    And, at the same time, Apple launched their radio service as part of iTunes. You know what? It is AWESOME.  Great selection of genres and sub-genres, great music, and a hugely better quality experience (listening, navigation, and selection of included tracks) than the Google Play all-access service. Heck, it might be too soon to tell, but this might replace my Spotify account.

    Love, love, love the radio.

    As I said, I am biased, I have tried to venture from the vine, but I keep coming back.

  • Idiot Bicyclists

    The weather is (finally) cooling down, and that brings more people on the roads and trails.

    A while back I posted on the lunacy of cyclists here (not knowing hand signals, riding against traffic, riding on the sidewalk etc), but today I saw some new ass-hattery on the canals in Gilbert/Mesa.

    First, I was passing a slower cyclist. Wide open path, plenty wide, and he was well to the right. So I called out “On your left” and breezed by. I am no longer surprised by cyclists wearing earphones, but as I was passing at 22+ mph, with a bit of wind noise in my ears, I could clearly hear his music. Wow, that is one dude who will be having a date with a set of hearing aids.

    I never ride with headphones/earbuds. Running?  sure, I jam out, but cycling on the road, and even on the car-free path of the canals, you need to be aware of your surroundings, and you can’t while blocking an essential part of your sensory input.

    Second, some jackass with his little kid trailer on his bike just pulled across the trail (there was a bridge). No looking at what he was riding into. The fool was fiddling with his smartphone, headphones in, and completely oblivious that he almost took out someone walking on the path as well as making me jam on my brakes hard. He never once glanced up from his phone.

    Third, as I was approaching a street crossing, a couple were riding on the sidewalk, the wrong way (against traffic). I am usually looking left to get an idea of when it is safe to cross. I was luckily able to see them in my peripheral vision and stop, but again, completely oblivious.  They did say “sorry”.

    Why the hell do people (adults) ride on the sidewalk. There are bike lanes all over this town. I swear the police could make bank just hassling stupid riders.

    Fourth, the group riders. I cut slack for families with kids. Nothing like a family outing, and they are usually very polite as you pass (slowly so as to not scare the kids). But today, there was a jackass pack. I saw them pass me the other direction before I made the turn, so I knew I would see them again. But maybe not, they looked pretty serious, so I hoped that they would stay well ahead of me. Alas, my fears were confirmed. I caught them almost instantly, and had to trail them for far too many miles until I could pass them at a major road crossing.

    These idiots were riding 2 and three abreast, taking the whole trail. They were going fast enough that it would have taken a heroic effort to blow by them cleanly, but they were slow enough to let them comfortably talk while they rode.  And they were about 3mph below my “pace” so following them really sucked.

    I will admit it, I am not a group rider. Even riding with one or two other people is something I don’t like to do. I consider bicycling to be me, the bike, the road, and the elements all out there doing battle. I get in a groove, and I keep pushing myself. It is why I like running, and hiking as well.

    I don’t hate coming across groups of riders, but I do try to get by, or redirect my route to not be caught up in their ride. Not my thing, but more power to them. I do hate groups who are completely oblivious to their surroundings, and who are completely inconsiderate of others.

  • The crazies are back – bad drivers

    My commute is a nice sedate 7.5 miles up a major street.  No freeways, no HOV lanes. A couple of schools so you get the dropoff madness, but in general it is a smooth trip. Heck, if you time it right, you can miss almost all the red lights on the way in.

    Lately, the traffic load has gone up. Significantly. Not sure whether it is the seasonal uptick (the snow birds slowly making their trek back to the sunbelt), or just something in the water, but at my usual time, it has been heavy enough that traffic doesn’t flow at or slightly above the posted speed limit.

    Well, living in Arizona, where compensation is all around (re: truck vs. penis) I am seeing a lot of aggressive, stupid driving. Cutting in and out of traffic lanes. Passing one car and immediately cutting it off. Squeezing between a gap that barely fits your vehicle. All to go maybe 2 mph faster in aggregate.

    You are still going to have to stop at the next light. Or, if you run it (blushing) you will be waiting at the next light when I catch up to you.

    Of course, this increases the likelihood of an accident, and alas, today I was rewarded with an extra 20 minutes to get by some idiot who tried to turn left in front of a Suburban. Minivan vs Suburban = unhappy commuters.

    I am just going to the office.  I am never in a hurry. And I am watching for the zany antics. The Chandler po-po could fill the coffers ticketing these idiots.

  • Some good things about being “smart”

    Today, I got to flex some intellectual muscles.  We had our monthly engineering meeting, where we bring our founder in (from the local university) and we discuss technical projects.  I am a mere marketing flunky.

    Before the meeting started, we were discussing swimming pools, and how here in Phoenix, with our uber hard water, and high evaporation rate, that your pool accumulates a lot of “metals” as part of the cycle, and needs to be changed.

    Someone was talking about the metals build up over time in the pool water. I piped up with that you typically use EDTA to eliminate them from the water(usually part of a “clarifier”). Our director of engineering (a pretty damned smart dude) didn’t know what EDTA was. I got to pipe up with ethylene-diamine-tetra-acetate, and explain that it is a chelating agent used to isolate metals and let them be processed.  (Thank you time spent as an analytical chemistry technician)

    Now everybody thinks I am smart.

    (Until the next time I open my mouth)

  • A passion rekindled: Cycling

    Off and on throughout my life I have been more or less a serious cyclist. From my first used Schwinn Stingray (I wish I still had that bike) to my current road bike, I have at times been engrossed with the sport, pushing myself to the extreme, and at times I have backed off, not riding much at all.

    I am now going through a phase where I am increasing my cycling, and I am enjoying it. I am currently comfortable doing 25 – 30 mile rides. We have it pretty flat, but I know where to find some good hills that are challenging but not too brutal. Waiting for the weather to cool off a bit for that.

    One thing that has changed is the electronics that you can use. Phones with GPS’s and cool apps for tracking your ride abound, and really help you track your progress. Way back, I remember my first Cateye cycle computer (I still have one) and logging my rides on a paper notebook. Now I use my iPhone, and one of the awesome apps to track and monitor my progress. Added a heart rate monitor, and I now track my cardio (important for a heart attack survivor).  I will be adding a speed and cadence sensor, again, to help optimize my conditioning.

    So much fun.  If you have Strava, follow me on the journey

    Definitely on an upswing. The passion is growing.

  • Really? That’s your advice?

    I have been battling with my HP work laptop for what seems like since the day I joined my company.

    Lately, it has gone through a few system boards, and a handful of tech visits.

    Nothing has been able to fix the latest issue.

    If I hibernate the system and undock it, when I go to spin it back up, about 50% of the time I go straight to a bluescreen.

    If I sleep the system, it goes into zombie mode (it never powers off, the HD spins and continues access, until the battery dies. Only way to recover is to force power off – 5 seconds holding the power button).

    The latest advice? Update the bios (done), re-install the video drivers (done more than twice), and I might have too little disk space left (I have about 180G).

    ARGH, throw this POS away already.

  • Death of a once mighty brand – HP

    From this awful laptop that is a hopeless pile of crap, to the core strength that was once HP, their printers, it is apparent how the mighty have fallen.

    I have posted before on the travails of my lousy laptop. Suffice it to say that it works, but the power management bits are pretty messed up (not sure if it is windows, or the hardware, and frankly at this point, I don’t care.)

    This post is on the HP multifunction printer we have.  In theory, they are great machines. Color, black and white, scan to email, fax, they just work. But there are some glitches that will drive you bonkers.

    By default, they print in duplex. Not too much of a problem, but sometimes you really want to print one-sided. So you end up fixing the settings and printing a second time.

    Where they fail miserably is in the collation. For some reason that I haven’t been able to determine, if you print 8 or more pages, the first two are properly sent to the bottom tray, in the proper orientation. Then all the rest will be sent to the top tray, in backwards order.

    Is it the shitty HP universal print driver? Is it the shitty onboard software/firmware? Or is it gremlins? Our support organization seems to have given up the search for a solution (as I am sure the only real solution will be to push these units off a ship’s deck into the ocean and replacing them with a better device, canon, brother etc)

    So, I am manually collating a 36 page document that has no page numbers, and is backwards in its order.