Orville Chomer

Importing AVI File Into Moviemaker

2008-01-20T22:49:00.001-05:00

Click to Play

Importing AVI file we converted from our Canon HG10 camera into Windows Moviemaker

Formats available: MPEG-4 Video (.m4v)

NOTICE: All my Posting is Moving...

2008-01-11T15:12:00.000-05:00

Hello all, besides posts to this site of videos done automatically by blip.tv, no more posts are going into this blog. That means, that unless something changes, this is my last manual post to this blog: http://orvillechomer.blogspot.com/

I'm consolidating everything onto my main site of Chomer.com. So, to view my active blog, go to: http://blog.chomer.com/

So stop on by, read, and post your comments!

Thanks!
Orville

Some thoughts this December 27th, 2007

2007-12-27T13:26:00.000-05:00

Well, it's been awhile since I directly posted to this blog. The year is winding down. My time working on my website: http://chomer.com has been steadily going up. This is a good thing. I've removed a ton of links on the site that went to nowhere or went to pages that might say something like: "This is a Test."

There were pages that had a high likelyhood of generating ColdFusion errors, now, no links to them! I've been distilling the sap down to good maple "syrup."

There were links that used to go to something but were broken. I've fixed them. The results of all this is many fewer links on the navigation bar on the left but a wholey more statisfying experience going to the site. It's still not were it needs to be though.

I've added stuff too. Mainly video stuff. This is cool. Stuff like the "Orville Chomer Show" which, incidentally cross-posts to this blog. Also, my webcam page. On this page are posts (via Kyte.tv) that I can recording and post easily on a whim. It is a very nice way to get a message out or clear my brain!

You will notice, if you've seen the site in past years, that I changed the look of the site. Right now there is a nice view of snow cover trees in the woods! I also changed the Home page so that actually is something!

I'm focusing in on two main things:

Video. Having a video show, and posting thoughts from the web cam.
Coldfusion information. Bringing my Adobe Coldfusion section up to snuff. This is going to take awhile! It is getting better though. My plan is to focus on one tag or function at a time and really write some good stuff on it, add instructional videos on it and then, when it's done well, move on to another tag or function. Check out the information on the cfoutput tag. This is my first really good Coldfusion page. Note that there is one instructional video on the page two. I've recorded video for two more videos to go on this page. I've not edited them yet or posted the results. But that is coming.

Ok, let's see, I rearranged my Google Adsense ads. Based on some stuff I've read, hopefully I will get a better click-through rate.

Also I've added Google Analytics to the site. Now I can track just how well the site is doing with charts and graphs and all sorts of cool tools!

Happy New Year!

Episode 7 - Christmas Special

2007-12-25T09:56:00.001-05:00

Click to Play

John and Kathy Atwood share some Christmas music.

Formats available: MPEG-4 Video (.m4v), Flash Video (.flv)

Tags: music, christmas, carols

Episode 6

2007-12-17T12:51:00.001-05:00

Click to Play

Join Orville Chomer on a healthful climb of the stairwell at work.

Formats available: MPEG-4 Video (.m4v), Flash Video (.flv)

Tags: stairs, climbing, exercise

Episode 5

2007-12-03T08:13:00.001-05:00

Click to Play

Formats available: Windows Media (.wmv)

Episode 4

2007-11-21T22:05:00.001-05:00

Click to Play

Formats available: Windows Media (.wmv)

Episode 3

2007-11-16T08:27:00.001-05:00

Click to Play

Video Comments Regarding: Naked Conversations 2.0: How Google is disrupting the social media starfish

2007-11-01T09:43:00.000-05:00

Robert Scoble left a post on his blog yesterday in which he speculated on how Google might change the social media game. It included two videos. They were allot of fun and got me thinking. My imagination was kindled. I could see Google giving me allot of leverage on what I do with my Internet real estate. Stuff that could save me allot of heavy lifting. Chomer.com might become something more special in less time. Only time will tell!

Well, sometime today, Google will announce whatever they announce.

Here's the video of my thoughts in response to Robert's videos:

Annoying Things on Blogger Blogs

2007-10-26T17:57:00.000-04:00

There are times I am bored and I click the ol' "Next Blog" button at the top of blogger pages to see what I can see. Here are some things that annoy me that come up. I'm sure you too... but I want to vent:

The "Next Blog" button and "Flag Blog" button are missing. So, if the site is indecent you can't flag it. Also, if you want to move on to another "Next Blog" you have to hit your browser's back button and click the "Next Blog" button on the previous blog.

Spam Blogs. They're popping up all the time and they are truly annoying! Many times they are guilty of annoying thing #1!

No Blogger Directory that I know of. If the writer of the blog has left it open to the world, I wish there was a directory to browse by subject, etc. The site GlobeOfBlogs is lame in my opinion and not automated.

I wish the directory could have a place for users to rank blogs, and post comments about the blogs.

I annoy myself: How many different blogs do I have that I've bearly updated that are wasting space on servers out there. Most blogs are like that I've heard. I can live with this I think.

Excel Formula Parser Progress

2007-09-26T14:12:00.000-04:00

Well, my Excel formula parser in VBA has been coming along abit. It has turned out to be a little harder than I expected. Some formulas work fine. There are some tricky parts though. I'm working on some debugging log code to hopefully make it easier to figure out.

I admit that I'm lazy though and I find it hard to sit still and work on it. I kind of attack it in little surges with large gaps of whatever else in between. I get bored way too easily!

Blog Update

2007-09-21T10:30:00.000-04:00

I've been doing a little bit of work on my version of the Movieland Directory for the iPhone. I've been getting home from work tired though and just not want to deal with things so the amount of time I've put in has been disappointing.

I'm tired.

Also been working with Excel VBA at work. I'm learning new stuff here. I'm also trying to write an Excel formula parser. If I get this sucker working it will take a complex nested formula and make it easier to read and understand by a human.

Cosmo the Kitty and Thumper not on Speaking Terms!

2007-09-19T12:20:00.000-04:00

Perhaps they can't decide who's going to put up the window blinds?

Taken with my iPhone.

Blog now Showing up on Orville.Chomer.com

2007-09-12T17:31:00.000-04:00

You can see my blog on my "home" page now.

New iPhone Obsessed Blog

2007-08-01T15:57:00.000-04:00

FYI: A new blog on the iPhone. Check it out.

Chicago iPhone Tech Talk: Will I go?

2007-08-01T14:32:00.000-04:00

I got the time off with my boss to go to the August 28th iPhone Tech Talk in Chicago. The question is, will I get an invite? I submitted my request plenty early. Are they ignoring requests that they might think are "riff-raff?"

"Oh, this Orville Chomer dude doesn't work for a company that develops Apple software... Strike 1... and look... according to the info he entered on-line he doesn't own an iPhone yet... Strike 2.... And we looked at his crummy Chomer.com site and we don't want to give info to someone whose site is a total mess like this one! ... that can be Strike 3! Yes! Strike 3! Let me see here, is this Chomer-dude an A-List blogger? No? .... Well.... not even that to consider!"

I'm thinking about showing up regardless and seeing what happens. Though I'd much rather get an official "you're in" note from Apple!

Ajaxification Disabled

2007-08-01T14:25:00.000-04:00

I've created a spiffy bit of Javascript and CSS to "Ajaxify" my blogger blog. Problem is that the browser's Back button doesn't work properly with this. Right now I don't have time to work on this, so I disabled the functionality. Besides that problem, it is really cool. It caches pages visited, so, if you click on a link to a post you've looked at already in the same session, it doesn't go back to the server to get it, it gets it from the cache. Neat-o! I have other ideas for this besides having the Back button working... but it will have to wait!

Arkonoid Game on the iPhone?

2007-07-27T10:19:00.000-04:00

Somewhere I found after fishing around on the internet, an Arkonoid clone done completely in DHTML. Although not perfect, this game by Scott Schiller I consider it well done.

To play go to: http://www.schillmania.com/arkanoid/arkanoid.html

I did notice that the game did not work in IE6. I haven't tested it in IE7 yet. It worked fine in FireFox and Safari running on a Windows XP box.

And, what I'm really trying to get to is it runs on an iPhone (sort-of). Scott mentions that he modified the game to work on the iPhone (sort-of), so, Wednesday night after dinner, I bid my wife ado and went off to the Apple store at the Oakbrook Centre. In my pocket written on a yellow index card was the URL listed above. I entered the URL into an iPhone there and tried out the game. Below are a few comments I have regarding it:

First some positive things... The game is playable, unlike the one I'm working on. But bearly so. More on this later.

The ball / paddle speed in the game is good. I have a ball and paddle in my game but they move much too slow on the iPhone.

The graphics for the game (on the iPhone or in a regular web browser) is very sharp and professional looking.

Despite self-effacing comments at the top of the main Javascript file, I think the coding is pretty well documented (not perfect but still pretty good). There is alot here that a Javascript developer can learn from.

Now the negative... I had to do the finger-pinch (or is it unpinch) move to zoom the page big enough to play the game.

The button to start the game is way too small for iPhone usage. I had to zoom the page even more just to get it so I could barely press it will my finger without pressing buttons on either side.

The hack he implented for the iPhone is that you can press a spot on the x-axis to move the paddle to. You cannot slide the paddle back and forth. This works rather clunky.

Application
I plan on studying the Javascript for this game. The main reason, I want to find out how Scott kept his game performance good even on the iPhone. I have some ideas on how to track paddle movement based on a post I read on the iPhoneWebDev Google group. I want to create a test event page more suitable to my needs and post it on Chomer.com. Then I will go to the Apple store again and try out my test page to collect more detailed event information. And, finally (I hope), I will update my game so that it actually works correctly!

iPhone event handling frustration

2007-07-23T12:44:00.001-04:00

I went with my wife on Friday evening to Oakbrook Centre to the Apple store and tapped in the URL for my iPhone game.

The game fits in the screen properly.
The game's attract mode worked pretty good, but it ran WAY slower than it did in the Safari browser on my PC at home.
Tapping the screen did start the game, but...
onmousemove did not work.

I've been scouring the internet looking for information on how to use the proper event handlers in Javascript to make it so the user can use his finger to move a paddle back and forth over the screen (this info is a little hint on the game I am working on). I've had very little luck so far.

As far as speed, I might be able to set the setTimeout timer value to a smaller value when running on an iPhone.

I'm somewhat stumped regarding the paddle control right now. Any ideas regarding how to do this in Javascript?

iPhone Tech Talk in Chicago

2007-07-20T12:44:00.000-04:00

Apple is going to have an iPhone Tech Talk in Chicago on August 28th this year. I work in Chicago so this is a great opportunity. I submitted a request to attend. I hope I get in! That would be a fun day. I think I can get the day off from my boss.

The "World's Handsomest Man"

2007-07-20T12:36:00.001-04:00

You might be wondering why the heading of my blog says:

Also known as "The World's Hansomest Man."

My wife Yvonne calls me that. I think it's going to my head!
She is such a joy. We've been married 5 years today.

Developing for the iPhone

2007-07-20T12:23:00.000-04:00

Though I don't own one yet, I find this subject intriguing. A cool site that gets you off to a good start is: http://www.iphonewebdev.com/ Click on the Examples button. This is where there is some really good stuff!

It's a fun place to poke around. Yes, I am working on a game for the iPhone. It is well along it's way to completion. I'm initially testing it in Safari on an XP box. Once I think it is ready, I'm going to the Apple store to test it out on one of their showroom models.

What is the game? I'm not telling until it's done!

iPhone First Impressions

2007-07-16T17:55:00.001-04:00

Sunday evening my wife and I were at the mall. Ah! The Apple store. We went inside and I played around with an iPhone that they had tethered to the table. Here's a few comments that I'd like to make:

The fonts are pretty amazing, i.e. it's amazing what you can read even before you zoom in on a web page. I could read the page of the Movieland Directory without zooming (in landscape mode).
One bad thing, I seemed to have to press down rather hard to get it to register my touch.
The right edge of the display seemed less sensitive than the rest of the screen.

It could be that the iPhone I was playing with had gotten alot of abuse being on the "floor" so it might have been abit "beat up." Who knows! Still can't afford one now.

Using Blogger editing - Some Problems

2007-07-16T10:36:00.001-04:00

First of all I've noticed that uploading pictures in IE7 does not work.
Next, if you insert pictures into a blog post, they end up inserted at the top of the blog, NOT where the insertion point is!

Suggested placing of pictures in a blog post:

Use IE6 or Firefox for the post.
Begin your post with some spaces, then move your insertion point somewhere in the middle (this makes editing easier later).
Before writing one word of your blog you should insert your pictures first, starting with the last picture to appear first.
Do one picture at a time to keep from getting confused.
Then add the text to your post.
To do some "fixing up" you may want to click on the Edit Html tab and edit there (assuming you are HTML literate).

Grosse Point Lighthouse "photo walk"

2007-07-16T07:49:00.000-04:00

My wife and I went to the Grosse Point light house in Evanston, Illinois on Saturday. It just so happens to be the place that I proposed to my wife! I like light houses. I had driven by this one many times without knowing it was even there!

One day I was looking through a book on lighthouses of the Great Lakes, and there it was. I know where that is! There on, it has become a favorite place for me to visit. The following pictures were taken with a simple Canon Powershot A70.

Walking over to the Lighthouse
On the left we are walking from our car over to the lighthouse. This shot is is facing East towards Sheridan Road which the lighthouse is on (on the other side of the street).

The Lighthouse Keepers House
Here is a shot from across Sheridan Road of the lighthouse keeper's house. The lighthouse itself is not really visible itself because of all the trees.

In Back: Passageway connnecting keeper's house to lighthouse
This is a nice shadey spot.

Sign about the Grosse Point Light Station
It's a National Historic Landmark.

Shot from front.
In this shot you can see the lighthouse towering overhead.

Lighthouse Wildflower Trail Garden.
There is a little garden in the back with a path that leads down to Lake Michigan.

A shot looking up at the tower (1).

A shot looking up at the tower (2).

Behind the lighthouse.
The building on the left used to house a large fog horn which was used to alert sailors when it was foggy and they couldn't see the lighthouse light. You can see some of the wildflower garden growing by the building.

Lake Michigan (1).
Looking over some bushes.

Lake Michigan (2).

Wildflower Garden.
The garden is small but nice.

Sand Dune.
Walking up this sandy path over the ridge will take you to the shore of Lake Michigan.

Lake Michigan Beach, Swimmers and Life Guards.

Beach Volleyball Anyone?

The Lighthouse peaking over the Tree Tops.
This picture was shot from the beach.

Lighthouse tower.
Shot from the wildflower garden.

Scale model of the lighthouse.
The lighthouse keeper's quarters is now a small museum. Tours are $5 per adult during summer weekends.

Lighthouse keeper's uniform.
This thing is made out of wool! As a worker for the U.S. Government, a lighthouse keeper was supposed to wear this thing at all times when on duty. This includes hot summer days.

Stepping up into the top of the tower.
The light uses a 2nd order Fresnel lens (pronounced: "Frenel").

Lighting Gearbox.
The Grosse Point lighthouse has a white light with flashes of red in it. This gearbox would control the flashing of the red by moving a red piece of glass in from on the light approx every 15 seconds. It had to be wound up every two hours. A big weight in the hollow wall would cause it to run. Rewinding it pulled the weight back up.

Opening to the top from the staircase.
You have to watch your head when you come up these babies! By the way, there are over 100 steps.

View West from the top.

View North East from the top (1).

View North East from the top (2).

View East from the top.

Frenel lens.
Note that it can be over 100 degrees up here. Imagine wearing one of those wool uniforms!

Yvonne and myself posing for a picture.
My wife and I get someone to take our picture.

Another shot South East.

The Fresnel lense is easy to scratch.... don't touch!

The Bahai Temple off in the distance.
Unusual building that resides in Wilmette Illinois.

One more view South West.

It was a lovely day.