Monthly Archives: August 2008

Web

“Instant web site?”

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In the midst of bringing the first public revision of flyGarmin to a close at work, a friend emailed me and asked if I could whip up an “instant web site” as his new startup company was about to get national attention. I had a week.

So I worked a normal busy day every day that week, and every night I came home and worked on the new site, kept company by my bride and my new John Adams DVDs. It went like this:

First weekend
Assess and install content management system (CMS) packages (Drupal, Joomla, etc.)
Monday
Meet and plan; project actually starts
Tuesday
Planning with pencil and paper… no touching the computer until I had a perfectly clear plan
Wednesday
Build the XHTML and CSS framework
Thursday
Fill in the templates images and colors
Friday
Final touches to template and custom javascript enhancements
Saturday
Install Drupal onto live server; convert template to Drupal; learn to hate Drupal; install Joomla onto live server; convert template to Joomla; learn to use Joomla
Sunday
Finish polishing Joomla template; add all content, images, and video
Live Monday AM!

It was quite a week, but we got a pretty nice site out of the deal. And the great part was that I was able to make it client-maintainable right from the beginning. Open source is the coolest. I know that folks who love Drupal really love it, and I can tell it’s really powerful, but it just wasn’t “jump-in” intuitive like Joomla.

Oh, the site… weathernation.net. :)

Faith, General

So then I went to Oshkosh

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The EAA air show in Oshkosh in Wisconsin, that is. flyGarmin was going to be released to the public for the first time in conjunction with the beginning of the air show. Garmin had a Monday morning press conference announcing all sorts of stuff, and flyGarmin was on the list. I was pacing around the whole day like an expectant father. How’s the site doing now? How’s the site doing now? The image to the left is the display we had to show flyGarmin off to folks. I got to “work the booth” occassionally, and the feedback was fantastic. Folks would come up as though they were paid to be in an infomercial; “Tell me you’ve done something to make updating my databases easier” “Why yes we have!”

So I hung out in Oshkosh for a few days, gathering feedback, seeing the kinds of things people were showing off at the show.

On my last evening, I decided to run out and get a bite to eat for supper. I drove around downtown Oshkosh wondering what I should get, and then I saw this:


I was driving when I took that photo. Yes, it says zero MPH. And see how all of the P, R, N, D, 1, 2 lights are on? That’s called “limp mode.” It means the computer sees something wrong with your car, and the transmission has been essentially shut down. Yeah, hundreds of miles from home, the day before I’m finally heading back home, and the transmission had gone out.

And I really wanted to go home. I’d been away for days.

Well, I limped back to where I was staying. Emailed Helen… “pray please”. I searched the internet looking for ideas. I found some transmission shops nearby, so I could get there first thing in the morning.

The next morning, I went out and tried the “turn the ignition on-and-off five times fast” to get the computer error codes. No luck. I tried the “hold down trip reset while turning on the ignition” to get the error codes. No luck.

Then my car just started working perfectly fine. The engine light was still on, but I took it for a one mile drive, and then a 20 mile drive… all seemed fine. I met my last commitment and headed home. The trip home went perfectly; I got 29 MPG.

And the car has been fine ever since. The engine light even went off before I could hook up my code reader to see what had been going on. I took this as a Nehemiah 9:21 thing. :)

General

flyGarmin launches

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flyGarmin home pageI know that may not mean anything to you, but that’s a big project I’ve been working on at work for the last many months. It’s been a fun, complicated project focussed on making it a lot easier for pilots who use Garmin equipment to keep their equipment up to date.

It let’s pilots enter their aircraft and equipment into their own account, and then offers simpler-than-ever ways to update their databases.

I’ve got an awesome group of guys that I work with in Minnetonka, and literally dozens of people from all over the US have contributed. It’s been a great project for a pilot wannabe like me. And there’s still lots to do. :)