Handy Code

New Salary Guide - Salary Comparison Tool

2009-04-22T21:30:00.003-04:00

I've just coded up a new salary guide tool. It lets you find the mean salary for hundreds of occupations across the U.S.

The data is taken from the Bureau of Labor Statistics' ftp servers. The goal of the excercise was to create a quick Ajax enabled interface to the data, so that users could search quickly with natural language questions.

Try it out, let me know what you think.

best practice: when using javascript to check a radio button

2008-12-20T11:50:00.007-05:00

When you have radio buttons on a web page, and you want one of them to get checked automatically when a user does something on the page, it's best to get the javascript to check the correct button by having the javascript look for the button with the desired value. Not by looking for the button that is in the correct spot in the array of radio buttons.

It's a little easier, simpler, and lazier to code it the latter way, but the latter way can lead to mistakes when:

for some reason the order of the buttons changes (template redesign, dynamic design change)
in Safari there is a subtle bug (or feature) where if you give a radio button identical name and id attributes, the array of radio buttons gets confused, or counts the same radio button twice, or doesn't count it, thereby messing up the array order that you expect your code to be looping through.

So here's the best practice code for how to check the correct radio button by determining value:

function checkRadio(radioArray,regExVal){
 for(var i=0;i<radioArray.length;i++){
  if(regExVal.test(radioArray[i].value)) radioArray[i].checked = true;
 }
}

You would call the function like so:

checkRadio(paymentOpt,/CC/);

where paymentOpt is the array of radio buttons, and /CC/ is the regular expression that contains the value you are looking for.

Boats Adrift

2006-12-11T17:24:00.000-05:00

Last week's norther sent two boats adrift from the anchorage off of Fleming Key. Winds only reached 25 knots, so these guys were just careless.

I found one sailboat happily drifting down the harbor around 9 PM last Monday. Its skimpy lines had chafed through. I tied it to an empty mooring on the east side of Christmas Tree, and one week later, no one has claimed it. It is a 90's era 26 - 28 foot sailboat, with an American flag wrapped around its boom. Lousy way to protect a sail, in my opinion. No name on this one's transom.

The second sailboat was coming down the same route, but was dragging its anchors, and is now banging its keel on the flats just north of Christmas tree. It started dragging late last week, and is still there today. This is a 34 foot monohull with a nice paint job. Seems to be in pretty good shape, called "Lost Soul". Yes indeed.

-Colin

SailBoat Sold - But she's a beauty, so I'll keep the description up just for the memories...

2006-10-18T10:25:00.001-04:00

This is the Aeolus. It is an Aleutka, a 26 ' bilge keel double-ender. Great, simple cruising boat. 2'9" inch draft, great for the Florida Keys and the Bahamas. Given a 4 coat Awlgrip paint job and bottom paint summer of 2005. This design is featured in Ferenc Mate's "Best Boats to Build or Buy".

For more pictures, go here

Below the waterline, this boat has two keels, flared out on either side of center, set amidships. Draft is 2'9". Boat can cruise across the Exuma Banks, or the Lakes west of Key West. At low tides, it can sit upright on the bottom. When I run aground , I just get out and push it off. Rudder swings up, and is held down with a sheer pin. All in all, these features make for some pretty neat boating.

The rigging system is very cool. The boat is rigged using old style deadeyes and lanyards, rather than norse fittings or some other fixed rigging system. The deadeyes are made of lignum vitae, the lanyards from 3 strand UV resistant line. The benefit of this system is that it is easy to maintain and repair (i've actually never had to repair it) and the lanyards flex nicely, removing stress from the Stainless Steel chainplates. Basically, you don't have to check all your metal rigging hardware for cracks all the time, you just have to make sure your lanyards are tight. The shrouds and stays are 1/8 and 1/4 stainless 1x19 wire.

The boat was designed in 1970 by Jonathan Letcher, in California. He designed it to sail the Aleutian Islands in Alaska, where the tides are very strong. Hence the twin keel design, and the design name "Aleutka". This particular boat was built in California in 1985.

Why Am I Selling It?

Because I've had my big adventure with it, and may be moving back up North.

Who would this boat be good for?

A young person who wants to go sailing on a solid boat but who doesn't have the tons of cash needed to buy a Compaq or Island Packet.
An older retired person who has a dock on his property and who wants a really cool sail boat to take out on nice days and who doesn't mind doing a little bright work now and then.

Equipment List:

Electric/Navigation

New Icom VHF - October 2006
New top of Mast Shakespeare Squatty Body VHF Antenna - September 2006
New top of Mast Aquasignal Tricolor and Anchor Light - September 2006
New mast wiring and radio cable - September 2006
Two 12V cabin lights, 2 12 volt Cabin Fans
New Plastimo 101 Compass, with cover - 2006
Absorbed Glass Matt Batteries new in 2004, no maintenance required. two 6 volts wired in series. Charged by Solar Panel via Solar charging regulator.
Siemens Solar Panel: 3.2 Amps/60 watts

Plumbing/Galley

Fold away galley table
Large Fold away teak/mahogany dining table
New Porta Potty - never used :)
New Blake Lavac vacume toilet, with holding tank, ready to install
New 21 Gal Nauta flexible Water tank
2 Whale Gusher Bilge pumps, 2 electric bilge pumps
Shipmate 2 burner propane stove with two level oven
One 4 pound propane tank in teak storage locker. (there are two lockers, for a total of two tanks)
Icebox
New Bronze thru-hulls - August 2005

Safety

GPS EPIRB new in 2004, never used.
9 ft sea anchor with 200' of half inch rode - new in 2004, never used
Complete Flare Kit, fire extinguisher
Single handing jack line
3 life jackets and 4 throwable PFDs

Propulsion

1985 Evinrude 2 stroke 8 hp Outboard, runs fine
11 Sails

1 battoned main with 3 sets of reef points. (used condition)
1 spare canvas main (never used)
1 130 genoa (used condition)
1 spare genoa (less used condition)
1 jib (used condition)
1 spare jib (less used condition)
1 stay sail with 3 sets of reef points (used condition)
2 small high wind head sails
2 large light wind head sails

25 lb CQR with 120' of chain, or 120' of 5/16 nylon rhode (both chain and nylon are stored in anchor well, changing rhodes takes 5 minutes)

What's Not To Love:

small storage lockers on deck right behind mast need new covers. These covers got blown off in Hurricane Wilma. No other hurricane damage to the boat. Lockers do not lead to cabin. Used for rope storage.
Center part of deck, between bow and coach house roof, could be reglassed. Old teak veneer getting thin there. The old teak veneer has already been replaced with fiberglass, epoxy and awlgrip everywhere else.

For more pictures, go here

How to put Skype Links in a web page

2006-06-19T14:52:00.000-04:00

<a class="skype" href="skype:skypeUserName">Skype Me</a>

or,using the generic VoIP instruction "callto":

it also works with regular phone numbers:

How To Use JavaScript on Blogger

2006-01-04T19:15:00.000-05:00

In "Settings:Formatting" turn off the setting that says "Convert Line Breaks < /BR>" between your html lines.
Create your post in "Edit Html" mode. Add all the JavaScript you want, as nicely formatted as you like.
When you publish your post, you'll get an error message that says "Your HTML cannot be accepted: Tag is not allowed: <script>". Just check the checkbox beneath that says: "Stop showing errors for this post" and republish. Your post will go through.

Date String Deciphering

2006-01-04T18:11:00.002-05:00

Go here for handy date string manipulation tools: http://www.ruddwire.com/codingtools/date-to-millisecond-calculators.php