Just an everyday normal web geek trying to figure out how to live life. I thought I would document the journey and help those who might be doing something similar. Critical Path Method
The Critical Path Method is the longest path of planned activities to the end of the project. It shows the the earliest that tasks can start and show the latest they can be completed. The critical path is the activity that will hold up the project.
An example of Critical Path
In the example below, the critical path is the Frame -> Electrical -> Drywall, as it will take the longest time. The total is 17 days.
Frame (3days) ------> Plumbing (8 Days) -----\
\ -wait--> Drywall (4 days)
\----> Electrical (10 days) -------------/
Shorten/Change critical Path
It is possible to change the critical path however, if you wanted to double the number of electritians, you could speed up the process. Now the Critical path has been moved from Electrical to Plumbing. The total is now 15 days.
Frame (3 days) ----> Plumbing (8 Days) -----\
\ ---wait--> Drywall (4 days)
\--> Electrical (5 days) ---/
\-> Electrical (5 days) --/
Takeaways
There are a number of things that you have to wait for when completing a project. This can help you identify which one need additional resources. This information would become useful if you had a deadline and knew how much money each phase was. This also illustrates how certain activities can be completed at the same time.
Much of this information was derived from Wikipedia
SMeltery
A number of interesting and cool looking fonts. Some are free, some cost money, but very cool little website.
Am I missing something
Apart from this site being very quite beautiful, the web designer did a neat little trick. Many of the images are transparent png with a background set behind them. This makes them look normal when you first look at them, but when you investigate the code, you will notice that they’re title and subtitle have no colour to them. In fact, they font is a mask, and only the background is visible.
Now I am not totally sure why one would do this, it would really difficult to maintain, but I do see a few benefits, mostly
- Changing the colour scheme of you site and all your logos can now be done with one vim command
- No bot will be stealing you images, they just won’t understand
- Sets you apart and shows that you really are on the cutting edge of design
Whatever the reason, I am sure there is a good one, and I will definitely think about that for the future, if I can think of a good reason to use this technique.
Great Pizza in Seattle
I took this photo in our trip to Seattle back in February. We didn’t have a car and we wanted to try this pizza. So we spent about two hours on the bus to get to this joint, it was worth it. Delancey makes good pizza. You can even see the guy making pizza dough in the background.
Simple Lunch
This is part of the reason why I love Victoria so much. When you are out riding, you can stop at a ton of places to pick up some good bread, purchase some amazing smoked meat at the Whole Beast and find a nice quiet and interesting place to eat it. This time we went to the Government House and enjoy a great meal in the warm sun in May. So perfect.
Life is a journey, not a destination.
— Ralph Waldo Emerson
I find that I enjoy life more when I have this frame of mind. In our busy lives, we are always trying to go somewhere, but what is wrong with right now? And, since Tanya and I are expecting a child soon, I know it will always be about the journey, not the destination.
Spot Prawns
Spot prawn festival opened this month, and it was about time we ate some.
Trees
Taken from my balcony, on a great spring day.
Aubergine coloured kool-aide
How does one become an open source user? All my life I have been surrounded by proprietary software solutions, solutions that required money, or were freeware. I never really knew about open source software. It wasn’t until I bought a netbook while traveling in India that I would get the opportunity to use a real free operating system.
A good idea at the time
After purchasing the EeePC I started to read up on it. I read a number of posts that claimed that “netbook were perfect or Linux.” That got me thinking, “I should install Linux on this machine”.
Freedom through obscurity
Lots of people will tell you that by running Linux in itself you are being obscure, but I wanted to take it one step further, I downloaded some little known distro which promised an experience all itself. To be honest, I don’t remember what it was, all I remember thinking is that I would dual boot, so no matter how bad or odd it was, I could always use Windows.
This distro didn’t have a nice smooth installer like the one you find with Ubuntu, and I didn’t know what I was doing, never mind the difference between ext3, ext4 and ntfs. After installing this obscure distro of Linux, I rebooted and waited…but something didn’t work right. It wouldn’t boot, and there I was, with a brick, wondering what to do next.
Windows?? gone Linux?? won’t boot oh shit
Pass the aubergine coloured kool-aid please
I didn’t have a choice, I had access to another computer (which was 5 years old…running Ubuntu). I tried to get Windows installed, but when you don’t have a CDrom drive, there isn’t much you can do. So I drank the kool-aide.
Installing Ubuntu is a snap, and it kind of fun. As the installer chugged away, I was given tips of what I could do with my machine. I was told of the software the was included and shown screen shots of my new future life working with Ubuntu.
Never look back…well sort of
After being forced to use Ubuntu for 5 months, you soon realize that you can everything you want to do on your computer with free open source software. In fact, in a lot of ways it is better then Windows. Setting up a server is easy, getting software is easy, getting geeky is easy, all the tools are part of the standard installation.
After arriving back in Canada, I turned my main computer into a Ubuntu machine and started to use it everyday. I started designing websites, built on Drupal, and having a Linux OS makes things easier (Drush). I started to learn terminal commands, and to this day my favourite tool is vim. In fact, I would using nothing but Linux (at work, at home) if it wasn’t for one program, Illustrator (and a lesser extent, Photoshop).
Current state
Last night I installed the newest version of Ubuntu, and it is pretty good. Sure there are some problems, but overall, it is pretty good. The new HUD is great, it is fast, it even works with my nVidia video card. So if your wondering whether you should try Linux, I would say, do it, you will likely be surprised how much Windows actually sucks.
Tanya, in Mexico
This photo is an old photo taken in Mexico, and then edited by darktable. This feature rich program is kind of fun and allows you to make some fun photos with ease. No more actions on photoshop, I got this one now.
And this is why I like open source software.
Radish
What the heck are you supposed to do with radishes? I only really know about placing it in a salad of some sort. Now I am not a huge fan of radish, I don’t like that spiciness that it has (although, I do like spicy foods, radish spice is different).
Part of my Saanich Organics veggie box I was lucky enough to receive a bunch of radishes. I went onto food gawker for some inspiration. It looks like you are supposed to roast them (unless you want to eat them in a salad, then you can eat them raw). So I roasted them, for about 15 minutes at 325. I also covered them in olive oil and thyme.
Not enough Time
I pulled them out of the oven, and they looked tasty, so I took a photo. They probably could have been in there for another 10 minutes, but they were still tasty. So now I know what to do when I get some radishes in my veggie box.