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Saturday, August 15, 2009
New work… different evnroment
Indianapolis is better than I thought it would be. I say this from a technical perspective. It is significantly large enough where vendors will actually promote their stuff here. Just this week I went to a half day “Barracuda and Steak” presentation at Ruth Chris’ Steak House. It was about a block and a half from my work. It was an hour and a half of showing Barracuda products followed by steak, chicken or salmon. And it all was for free.
Tuesday, August 11, 2009
I installed a ceiling fan
Probably to most of you this does not sound like a big deal. For me it is for several reasons.
First, it was a complicated ceiling fan with lights. It was complicated not only in and of itself but also because of the location and the wiring. The ceiling is a 10’ ceiling and we have a 2’ step ladder. There are two outlets - presumably one for the fan motor and one for the lights. There was a bare ground wire, a white, a black, and a red.
I figured out how to remove the ceiling plate (it screws). I then pulled the wires down. I then got my nifty little probe out. I had my wife turn on each switch and I tested with the probe to figure out which “lit up” when the power was on. Red+white then black+white was the combination. So all the power travells down the white and then gets sucked up through the red or black. Got it.
I then had to read and understand the directions to build this ceiling fan. However, you don’t just build the fan then attach the fan, it is a combination where you build it in steps and then attach each step to the ceiling (or the parts already attached to the ceiling). When I got to the point where I was attaching the wires in the ceiling to the wires in fan it said to attach the blue and black wires to the blue wire and the white wire to the white wire and then the green wire to the green wire. Umm… blue wire?
Fortunately, I had done the work ahead of time and understood the electrical schematics enough so that I understood what was meant. In addition, I was wiring for two separate switches not a single switch. So, I ended up with two different circuits not one circuit with multiple wires coming together.
Well, after I got it all up and going we had the test. First test was to turn the switches on with the fan and lights off. The hope here was to not start an electrical fire. I knew there were no exposed wires - other than the ground - so I didn’t think it would be an issue. But, I am not an electrician. Some would say I am not a handyman. FYI… no smoldering.
Next test… turn off the switches, pull the strings on the fans. Then, turn on a switch.
FAN MOVED!!
Still no smoldering!
Turn on next switch.
Lights came on!
No smoldering and the fan still running!
Turn off switch
Fan off… lights still on.
Turn off switch…
Can’t see to turn it back on, but hey, everything went off!
Tonight… bedroom ceiling fan.
Comments:
phydeaux on 08/12 at 07:23 AM said:
Just a quick FYI - and this doesn’t affect the final outcome of your project at all but we want to make sure that the smoldering remains non-existant. But the cute little electrons actually come riding down the black and red (if it’s there) wires and take the White Wire Turnpike back home.
White (aka “common") is connected together throughout the entire system whereas the black (aka “hot") get broken out into circuit at the breaker/fuse box. BTW - it’s called “hot” for a reason. Don’t touch it without a potholder. 
Monday, August 10, 2009
Getting better at apache rewirtes and regular expressions
Apache is just over 10 years old. I have been using it for most of that time.
I am *finally* starting to get rewrites. This is something my friend decided to master many years ago, and did so. Slowly (very slowly if you were to ask him, I am sure) I am coming around.
Here is one of my recent attempts:
RewriteRule ^/dir/location/atc/?((index|mobile).html?)?$ http://mobile.usablenet.com/mt/www.in.gov/atc/mobile.htm [R,L]
This is part of a
Here is what it means…
^/dir/location/atc - this means if the location begins with (^) /dir/location/atc
/? - has an optional / after the directory
((index|mobile).html?)?$ - broken down below
index|mobile - means index OR mobile
.html? - means with or without the trailing l - so .htm or .html
the outer () followed by ? means that this part may or may not be there
The $ means it ends here.
So, what does this really mean?
If url is http://blah
and directory is /atc
Then these would be valid:
http://blah/atc
http://blah/atc/
http://blah/atc/index.htm
http://blah/atc/index.html
http://blah/atc/mobile.htm
http://blah/atc/mobile.html
Everything else would be invalid, so, for example,
would fail.
And we’re Back!
And We’re Back!
Well, as you, my faithful reader, may have noticed, this site has been down for a week or more. The last blog entry I had was about us moving. Well, we have moved. We have a new IP address and we are back on line. We have a LOT of unpacking left to do. There is a LOT of CHAOS at my house. CHAOS does not do well at my house. It runs amok and creates havoc. The quicker it can be removed the better.
Getting this working is just part of it.
So, what I told my better 90% the other day… “Welcome home Pitts family, welcome home!”
Friday, July 24, 2009
Moving in one week
Well, my better 95% and I will be moving in a week to Indianapolis. We have lived in our current town since 1999. In fact, our current location is the longest we have lived at one place together. I won’t miss the town. I will miss my friends. They are my joy and my treasure. Fortunately, distance does not diminish friendship.
