Author: Daniel

Daniel https://turnings.phrasewise.com/ In the 4th grade Daniel was asked to step in into the hall because he was coaching fellow students on a similarity assignment he provided the class. Since then, Daniel’s passion for helping people has propelled him to be a creative developer of software and systems, and a team coach who excels at successfully delivering business value. Daniel founded QuietlyHelping in 2009 in order to have a direct hand in helping families with the struggles of debilitating disease. QuietlyHelping is an organization of compassion and empathy that brings ease, comfort, smiles, laughter, healing, and love to people battling cancer and other diseases. Spare time activities include cycling, occasional work as a musician, woodworking, photography, and reading books he never got around to in school. Unsurprisingly, Daniel is able to cook minute rice in just under thirty seconds.
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Nuclear Elephant: iPhone Wipe

Nuclear Elephant: iPhone Wipe: Since my posts regarding the iPhone restore mode being insufficient for wiping data (and Apple’s own refurbishing process also being insufficient), many have emailed me asking for instructions on how to properly wipe personal data off of the iPhone. I’ve been very quiet about how to properly lift data in a forensic manner, as my goal is to avoid seeing a bunch of evidence erasers pop up in the wild (I’ve already been approached by Symantec about this). What I will share, however, is the way in which I wipe my own devices before I resell them, which I believe the consumer has a right to do. Mind you, I make no guarantees about this and accept no responsibility for you hosing your iPhone. This is what works for me. [Anyone try this?]

Title Case for Ruby

Title Case for Ruby:

There’s been a great response to my request to convert Title Case, Gruber’s nifty perl-based title-casing tool into Ruby so the rest of the world (just kidding, Perl people!) can make use of it.

Here are the initial responders:

Source: The Hivelogic Narrative

Jack Brown Green’s… a little Hampsten for my commute

jack_brown_green.jpgAmongst my other chores today was replacing the skinny, fast, tires on the fixie with something a bit more plush. Now there’s lot’s more cush and they’re smooth rolling. It’s a commute, not a race (mostly :~)

I love that the tire dimensions are listed on the package as 622 x 33.33333… you can see the continuation line on the tire itself (below). They make a “Brown” version that is slightly heavier and reinforced.

On the right is my Salsa Casserole in it’s current minimalist config, now with the JB Greens. I got mine through Rivendell, a bastion of practical cycling.

Below is Andy Hampsten’s Strada Bianca Ti. Same tires… but I’ve never won the Giro. Make of that what you will. Credit for the picture of Andy’s bike credit goes to the irrepressible James Huang of Cyclingnews.com.

Andy_Hampstens_Hampsten_Strada_Bianca_Ti_tire.jpg

[Update: I did 15 miles on this setup. As nice as I could hope for. Onward!]

Snowy Mountains

There’ll come a time when the pictures friends send me from their epic vacations (mountain climbing, skiing, frozen biking) will once again appeal. Their crisp blue skies, the carapaces and undulations of the mountain wearing a mantle of whitest snow, the gray, almost smoky clouds hovering low over a brilliant orange or yellow tent, bike wheels packed with snow, and water bottles frozen solid all meant to inspire a longing for a road less traveled. But for now even the notion of cold is entirely lacking in merit in my eyes.

Seriously. I get up fairly early every day. Generally 5AM somethin’. And all autumn, winter and through most of spring that means it’s at least chilly outside if not cold as a witches elbow. It makes it hard to get up, hard to get out, and it’s really demotivating when what you have to do is not fun. Getting up that early in the cold to go skiing? Doable. Getting up that early to get ready for work and take out the garbage? An effort of will. I rode my bike throughout the winter regardless of temperature or precipitation. I hustled my little family out the door t the ridiculous hour we leave for jobs and school. But I’ve kinda had it with the cold for now.

So for the time being, if you live in Alaska, or climb in the Himalayas, or are running some program in the Arctic, or Antarctica, please spare the snowy, cold pictures. No matter how beautiful. Wait ’till maybe the end of August or September when the oppressing humidity of a New York summer has kicked in with sufficient strength to cause even the staunchest of summer folks to wilt. By then I’ll be toast. Then bring them on!

As always your support is appreciated. (wink)

Taking Things Apart

Taking Things Apart:

John August, asked by a working screenwriter how he can keep improving throughout his career:

My advice for you is to dedicate one day a week to disassembling good movies. Take existing films (and one-hour dramas) and break them down to cards. Think of yourself as an ordinary mechanic given the task of reverse-engineering a spaceship. Figure out what the pieces do, and why they were put together in that way.

I think this true for any craft.

[It’s a great way to hone one’s touch and grow new skills. I especially like doing it as a group exercise to learn what others see in something that I don’t.]
Source: Daring Fireball

Winning Sweetwood

Winning Sweetwood: There was a climb up Fifth Street last year when I nearly cracked the Animal then blew up and finished fifty feet behind him, and that means more to me than any of the times I’ve finished ahead of everyone else. [I know exactly how he feels. Last Sunday on the short and steep opening climb I passed a friend who says she’s not a fast climber, but certainly climbs better than I in general, and nearly caught someone else whom I never have caught, and may never catch, on a climb. It meant more to me to almost latch onto his wheel than a lot of other cycling related things. I don’t finish climbs ahead of everyone else, but it’s nice to think that one day, with continued perseverance, I might. Head for the hills!]
Source: Sitting In

merb-slices

merb-slices are “Little slices of MVC cake”. These are self contained merb apps with models, controlers, views and assets that you can distribute as rubygems. You can mount a merb-slice at a specific point in your router definition and you can override any part of the slice up in your main app. So in a way these are similar to what Rails-Engines promise, except merb-slices are built into the framework and will not break when merb itself is updated.

Check out the tutorial/screencast for a peek at how merb-slices work.

[Nice. Merb continues to impress.]
Source: Brainspl.at

A short story: AJ, the cyclist, and a large brown dog

A short story: AJ, the cyclist, and a large brown dog: He noticed when there were no cars coming towards him, cars would swing over to the other side to pass. However, when there was traffic in both directions, they passed by a 60 mph with no thought of slowing down, often missing him by inches.

At one time, a large eighteen-wheeler went by, and although it missed him by at least two feet, its shear size, and those huge wheels, gave AJ the scare of his life. And the back draft almost blew him off his feet [If more folks would have to get out of their cars and trucks, and for that matter, lived with fewer bits of insulation between each of us the world would be a better place.]
Source: Dave Moulton’s Bike Blog