I have a few ideas for blog projects involving sound and music files. This is a test:
Hmmm. I would like it to play while you browse the blog. I will have to do some more research on this…
YES! This is cool. I will explain what I did later.
My oldest son and I have built the central planter box for the side yard butterfly garden. The idea is to have a three tier system after we till the ground around the base of the box.
Speaking of tilling, we are very happy with our new Troy-Bilt 26cc 4-Cycle Gas Powered Cultivator
Butterfly garden lower box.
Upper and low planter box for butterfly garden.
Troy-Built 4-cycle tiller (review coming soon).
Happy Mothers Day! to all Mothers past, present and future.
Today we went to All Seasons — we are getting pretty excited about this garden. My oldest son spent a few hours last week measuring the positions and sizes of all immovable features of property. Tonight, he and I set about creating a computer model of our property using Google Sketch-up. We gave the model enough detail to look neat without overloading our computer too much. All this model has to do is give us a rough idea of what different arrangements of raised beds, trees and shrubs will look like. So here it is, showing only those things we do not intend to move. Our next post will hopefully show the plan we decide on.
Map, West -->
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Looking North West
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Looking South West from the ground. This creepy looking guy has been stairing at our fence ever since we moved in. 
In previous years our gardening activity has been pretty, well, lame.
Our younger kids are now to the point of being able to carry through on chores and they are very excited about this years garden. My wife and I are trying to establish a decent plan and my oldest son (14 in June) is using Google Sketch-Up to make a computer model of our yard. (Check out the book Wiley Pathways Introduction to Google SketchUp
Something I have wanted to try for a long time is a butterfly garden. Because all gardening is regional in nature I checked our County Extension Office. Sure enough, they have a great Introduction to Butterfly Gardening with information specific to our region (upper plains, US). I am looking over it and writing a shopping list to take to All Seasons, a locally owned gardening store we are fond of.
As for the food portion of our garden, a good friend of our has turned us on to a type of gardening called Permaculture. Specifically we are interested in the work of Sepp Holzer and his book Rebel Farmer
I am still very new to HTML, CSS, scripts etc…
So to start off I decided to find a simple template and modify it. This is how my website, veryhelpful.info/Blaise.Mibeck came into exisitance; I used the Zenlike1.0 Template by Node Thirty Three. I am very grateful to them.
For anything fancy I would search for “insert description of fancy thing” plus “html code” and see what solutions came up.
This has gotten me a long way rather quickly except for photo galleries. I am able to find photo gallery templates all right — but getting them to work with my photos was practically impossible for me. Ease of use is a big concern due to time limitations. Until now my solution was to make a table of thumbnail images — this would look more or less ok most of the time.
The solution was sitting on my computer. I am a fan of Picasa and it never ceases to amaze me.
1. Edit and select pictures,
2. Pull down the [Folder] menu,
3. Select [Export as HTML page...]
That simple! It all ends up in a hermetically sealed file. The HTML can then be tweaked and modified; for instance, by including the type of license I have decided on for the use and credit of the images.
First, go to the Dasher Online Demo. If your connection is slow, you might want to download the software and install it. even if your connection is fast the online demo can get sluggish a bit. The demo is mainly for the curious.
Step 1: Clicking stops and starts Dasher. The red line is the vector. The speed is controlled by controlling the length, the direction by changing the angle of the vactor.
Step 1
Step 2: “Drive” the vector towards the letter you want next. When you get closer to a letter it increases in size. Like magic, Dasher predicts the next letters you may be looking for and also spaces. Just go with the flow, think about what you are trying to write and let Dasher do the work.
Step 2
Step 3: When you get to a word that isn’t in Dashers dictionary, you might have some trouble. Just Dasher will do its best to help you but will also stay out of your way. I believe after using an unusual word once, Dasher adds it to the list so that prediction improves later on.
Step 3
Step 4: You will notice colors are helpful in Dasher. When you need a comma, period of other puctuation, aim for green. When you need a capital aim for yellow. For everything else colors just make it easier to distinguish what you are aiming for.
Step 4
Conclusion: The guy who came up with the idea for Dasher is a freak’in genius! His name is David MacKay. The group of people who made Dasher what it is today are also very awesome.
Dasher
A very cool project –Dasher is a free text input program that uses a pointing device interface. I discovered this when my arthritis was at its worst and I began searching for anything that could help me.
It works like this: You control the speed by lengthening the pointer vector. You drive the vector towards the letter you want next. When you hit that letter you will see certain letter enlarge based on what dasher thinks you will need next.
It takes 30 minutes to learn Dasher. When I did learn it, I could enter text faster than typing.
Dasher is mainly for assisting physically disabled people interact with computers; this, in turn, helps them interact with the rest of us. In these applications the text can be fed directly into Text to Speech software (Text2Speech, T2S) giving these people the ability to talk!
There are joystick devices for people to control with their heads or whatever hand control they happen to have. There are also eye movement trackers; using special glasses and your eyeball you can control the pointer in Dasher. Imagine talking with your eyeball!
The people who developed Dasher could be charging for this software — but they don’t. They want people who need it to have it.
People who don’t need it should try it. Solidarity with the physically disabled — Dasher gives them an ability we take for granted. It is a good thing to see how others live.
I don’t need Dasher to input text. Even though I have only used a mouse to write with Dasher and my arthritis doesn’t actually bother my typing ability, I believe I have a better understanding and respect for people who do things despite disabilities. I also appreciate keyboard typing - I don’t take it for granted.
Try it!Dasher Java demo It’s actually pretty fun! Makes writing on a computer a kind of video game experience. 
Peace to all my disabled brothers and sisters — you are awesome!