Fun with PHP and GD

Before I created the gas log on my site, I was using Green Hybrid to log gas usage/mileage. And since that time, they’ve had a graphic that you could add to your site, or in my case, forum signature that shows your mileage.

But, since I created my own log, I stopped updating Green Hybrid, so the data was out of date. I’ve long wanted to do something like this myself, so I went about creating a basic one last week.

Mileage Image

It doesn’t look the best, but it works, and it updates based on the info in my DB. The image code is pretty simple, using the PHP GD functions, and it’s pretty quickly generated. If I ever got a LOT of traffic, I’d probably have the code write the image out to disk and regenerate it every so often, but for now, it’s generated on the fly.

[Read more...]

EveryDay Carry (EDC)

I’ve been a big fan of “murse’s” for a long time. I carry way too much crap to fit in pockets, and I used to use belt holsters, but it was just too much. It seems like rather than being called murse’s anymore, they’re referred to by EDC, or Everyday Carry. Often this refers to a firearm as well, but in my case, it’s usually gear like a computer, multitool, firstaid kit, business cards, iPhone, and various other items.

When I got an iPad, I moved from my rather large Timbuk2 Messenger (for a 15″ laptop), to a more reasonable bag by Caselogic that was cheap at BestBuy ($10). It’s served me well, but I’ve been looking at other bags.

Right now, I’m largely looking at the Hazard4 Kato Mini-Messenger here. But $100 is a lot to part with for this type of thing. The advantage, though, is it’ll hold an 11″ Macbook Air (which is on my shortlist), and with all the Molle loops, you can pretty much add on about any other pouch to hold what it won’t “stock”.

[Read more...]

Brave

This evening, I went to see Brave with wife and friend, and I’ll admit that all of us went in not knowing what to expect. The previews all largely left the viewer wondering. Basically, a girl is being forced into a life she doesn’t want to live, so she wants to change her “fate”. First though, let’s step back to the Pixar “short” the movie started with.

The short is called “La Luna”, and it basically is about 3 generations of Moon “cleaners”. The idea being the moon collects star pieces (al la Mario Galaxy), and these cleaners head up there and sweep them all away, or to the side, which is what gives us different moon phases. It was an adorable little short, rather than being more humorously bent, it was more sentimental. As typical with Pixar shorts, it, by itself, justifies part of the ticket price in and of itself.

Back to the movie! So, basically, the trailers for the movie largely center around the first 20 minutes of the movie or so. The rest of the movie takes a relatively predictable path, yet not quite what one would expect. If you don’t want any semblance of spoilers, don’t expand the following.

Anyway, the daughter is being fixed to be married. She doesn’t like this, runs off to change this, and ends up having a witch change it for her. This then results in her mother being “changed”, and a joint adventure ensues to get the mother back to how she was, and in the process, both grow. So basically, it is kind of similar to Shrek, or maybe some Mulan, or any other number of movies.

That said, Pixar gives its usual beauty and flavor to the movie, though I found the movie less humorous that previous Pixar movies (many of which seem to have a good amount of humor aimed at the adults in the crowd, which this had minimal). The acting was good, the score was well done, and the animation as usual was excellent. I am sure I’ll see it again on DVD, and I may enjoy it more, but for now, I’d rate it right around “UP”… enjoyable, but perhaps not a Pixar “classic”. Which, is a shame, given its standing as the first with a female protagonist12.

Rating: ★★★¾☆ 

  1. actually, you could argue the 3 most important characters in the movie were female: Merida (the star), Elinor (her mother), and the witch []
  2. My wife tells me this is very Wiccan/Neopagan symbology-wise with the Mother, Maiden, Crone (wikipedia) []