The site has had some major changes again. I am no longer running on one VPS. The company that originally hosted the VPS was sold, the new company did not seem to care about over-selling their space. My VPS kept crashing due to no physical disk space available. My site was using less than 5GB of the 20GB my plan was supposed to include. So I moved.

I am now running on not one, but two VPS’. One in CA and one in FL. I have MySQL set up for what boils down to Transact Log Shipping. (I forget what MySQL calls it… )

I will go into more details in the next few days, as I go through updating the site. I have spent a lot of time lately on bringing up another wordpress blog hosted on my servers. It is finally up and running solid, so I should have more time to devote to my site for a while.

More to come later.

Red-Go-Glider-Right

     Our son spent almost a year and a half bouncing from one training wheel to the next.  He just never could keep the bike up.  We tried all kinds of things, but nothing seemed to work.  Then we found out about balance bikes.  Some research later and I had narrowed it down to either the Trek Float or the GlideBikes GoGlider.  The main reason I settled on the GoGlider was price.  We do mainly mountain biking and the Trek Float just did not seem like it would be a good mountain bike for a kid.  So, I would have had to buy the Trek Float and then a good Mountain Bike for the kid.  With the GoGlider I would still need to buy a Mountain Bike for Joshua, but atleast the GoGlider was considerably less then the Trek Float – and it comes in a small and large size.

     I started looking for dealers in the DFW area and came across only two.  The Owl’s Nest Toy Store in the Southlake Town Square had one of the large GoGliders left in stock, and it was red (Joshua’s favorite color.)  The other store, well, they didn’t answer their phone – their loss.

     What we thought would be one quick trip, turned into over an hour spent inside the store.  If you have children you would love this store.  They have all kinds of great educational toys for children, and tons of European toys that are hard to find here in the States.  Eventually we pried ourselves away from the store and made it home with our new GoGlider.  Then we headed for the school’s parking lot:

Joshua on Glider Bike

     We ended up giving up due to the wind and cold.  It was in the 30′s with 20mph wind.  Joshua just could not handle it and we headed home.

     Monday after school was different, the weather was in the 70′s and the wind was manageable.  Joshua started off pushing himself along up and down my parent’s street.  After about 10 minutes of this he decided to try a little downhill.  One of the driveways on the street has a decent slope on it.  The house is currently vacant, so he would walk the glider up the driveway and then glide down.  After a few minutes he was resting one foot on the foot pegs and pushing along with one foot.  We stopped after about 15 minutes of this.  (About 30 minutes total on Monday.)

     Tuesday started off where we left on Monday.  Joshua would use both feet to push the glider bike up the driveway, and then coast down it with one foot on the pegs.  After about 10 minutes he was coasting down the driveway with both feet on the pegs.  10 minutes later and he was turning at the end of the driveway and continueing down the street.  Soon he was even turning around in the street and heading back to the driveway.  Another few minutes or so and he was turning up the street, coasting some, and then turning circles.  (About 25 minutes total on Tuesday.)

     At this point we drove home to break out the bike (minus the training wheels.)  He could now hold his balance while I held on to him.  A couple of tries of pedalling up the street with me holding on and he was ready to quit for the day.

     Wednesday through Friday continued with just a few minutes a day of me holding on while he pedalled up and down the street.  Saturday he was able to go a short distance with me jogging beside him, about the length of our yard.  He was still unsure of himself and scared to let me let go.  Everytime he felt me let go he would slam on the brakes and stop.

     We did not get any time to practice on Sunday, Monday we worked for about 10 minutes, and then nothing on Tuesday through Thursday.  Friday we were out at Cedar Hill State Park, our family’s Easter Camp Out.  He was now willing to try without me holding on, the first time I let go he just took off.  He could all ready do it, he just was not quite ready to, he was now ready.  That day he rode as much as he could.  He still needs someone to hold the seat while he gets his feet on the pedals and then push a little as he starts to pedal off.  The next step is learning to start on his own, and then how to work the shifter… 

     So, these things work wonders.  The only problem I have with them is no one just rents them.  We used it for a few hours and now the thing will sit in the garage waiting for our newborn to be old enough to use it.  You really should be able to just rent it for a week and then return it.  Or maybe a local bike shop needs to have a Glider day class or something. $20 per child, two or three days at 30 minutes a day.  Afterwards the $20 goes towards purchase of child’s bike and helmet.

     I could not recomend this thing any higher.  From what I found this glider\balance bike had the best of what I was looking for, but there are several options out there, and they will all probably work very similarly.  What I liked about this one vs the others were:

PRO’s:

1.) American company with Lifetime Warranty

2.) The Foot pegs.  This gets the kid used to being in a position similar to how they would sit while pedalling.  On other balance bikes the kids just lift their feet off the ground and hold them up.

CON’s:

NONE!

So, if you have a child that is struggling with learning to ride, contact me, I will rent you a GoGlider.

     Three of us, my two brother in laws and myself, set out early on Thursday to get things set up.  However, we didn’t make it to camp until mid afternoon.  We got the tents set up, and then sprayed them down with some water sealer since the forecast called for rain on Friday.  (Only some minor leaks, two on our tent.)  

     The normal camping loops we choose were closed so we had to drive around the park looking for sites.  This worked to our advantage as we found much better spots.  The sites we ended up with were huge.  We ended up setting up 3 tents (two of them were 8 person cabin tents,) a 4 person tent, a 10×10 canopy, and two 12×12 canopies all in one site.  With all but one of the 12×12 canopies we made a base camp type setup:

Easter Family Camp - Base Camp

      This gave us a nice place to sit and play while it rained on Friday.  It was nice to be able to step out of your tent without being rained on.

     The DORBA mountain bike trails at Cedar Hill were closed (have been since October we found out.)  So we ended up just riding the bikes around the camp loop.  Joshua finally learned to ride his bike without someone holding on.  He could do, and had done it a couple of times at home, but he seemed to still be a little scared of doing it alone.  With his cousin arriving shortly he quickly got over it though.  He wanted so much to be able to show his cousin that he could ride alone.

    Sunday as we were packing up the kid’s got a visit from the Easter Bunny.  There were a ton of little plastic eggs scattered all over the campsite.  I think they had a blast - I was busy packing the trailer up.  Christa got some pictures from the easter egg hunt, when I get some time I will dig through the camera and upload a few of the pictures and update this post.

     Well, back home and back to work.  Looking forward to our next camp out.

We got a starter bike for him from Walmart with training wheels and set off.  After several months of that not working we tried this balance bar thing.  It attaches like training wheels, but comes up and looks kind of like a huge sissy bar.  The parent’s are supposed to be able to hold on while the kid learns his balance.

Six months later still no go.  Back to the training wheels.

This last weekend we had a Family camp out planned.  It has somewhat turned into a family tradition and usually sets off our camping trips for the year.

This year Joshua’s cousin would be coming.  Joshua absolutely adores and looks up to his cousin.  His cousin is about a year older.  For the last few years we have had a family tradition of celebrating their Birthday’s together.

Well long story short, two weeks before the camping trip and Joshua found out his cousin would be there.  So now he just has to learn to ride because he wants to show his cousin he can ride a bike.  Joshua figured his cousin could ride and they could ride around together.

After scouring the internet for ideas on how to get Joshua riding in two weeks I came across the Glider Bikes.  Now determined to find one, I start looking locally. Only two stores in town sale them.  On has the size Joshua needs, and in his favorite color.  The other, didn’t answer their phone.

Joshua on Glider Bike

Two 30 minute sessions later, one on Monday, one on Tues and Joshua is riding.  Now, back to the bike without training wheels.

Throughout the week we kept trying.  Joshua could do it, and wanted to ride with his cousin, but he was scared to do it alone without someone holding on.

We practiced until the day we left for camp.  The first day Joshua was there (I went on Thur to set up, he came just in time for bed Thur night,) he finally did it on his own.

A couple of days prior, we found out that his cousin could not ride a bike, and Joshua offered to bring the glider so he could teach him.

The boys stayed busy at camp with all kinds of other things to do, and Joshua never got around to trying to teach his cousin.  Joshua is now riding his bike every where he can

Now, what do I do with a barely ridden $120 Glider Bike?

I took the week off of work to help out.  We have the new baby, and most of the time I was running Joshua back and forth to school, and holding Aidan up in the hotel room.  

The week started off with me hauling Joshua back and forth to school.  He would get to the hotel and spend the evening with me sitting in the hotel room.  For the most part he was bored out of his mind, but he managed to behave most of the time.

Thursday night they had a Casino night, to go along with the whole Bond theme this year.  We got a really good family picture taken:

The photgrapher was Tim Randall a pro from the DFW area, his site is here. 

Friday morning I woke up and Christa and Aidan were gone.  I found them sleeping on the couch in the suite:

Wednesday night it started snowing, and it didn’t stop until Friday morning.  I can’t remember the last time I have seen so much snow here, so I will leave with a few pictures:

I am normally a MS guy, I have been supporting MS Windows and IIS at work for more then 10 years. Optimizing the OS and IIS for speed comes pretty easily, on Windows. I don’t have a lot of experience with Linux. So I started out by trying to map the different components.

OS – Linux Kernel
Apache
PHP
WP
MySQL

For the OS I am running the hosting providers default install of CentOS, with Virtualmin\Webmin installed for management. I have all ready followed several different guides on locking it down via firewall, removing unneeded virtualmin\webmin modules, etc.. So I figured the OS was all ready somewhat optimized. (I know, not really and I do need to re-visit this someday.)

For Apache I started digging around and found several great guides. In the end I followed advice from a few different places. Namely I followed this site.

The only issue I had is when trying to restart Apache I had several errors regarding missing modules. I just went through and re-enabled the modules one at a time as they gave errors. It turns out that the default install of Cent-OS and Virtualmin\Webmin required some additional modules above and beyond those that the article suggested.

Beyond that I had gone through several other forums and guides, etc. regarding what values to actually use for the MPM prefork module. I ended just playing with it. Since my site does not get a lot of visitors or hits I tweaked the settings to attempt to use as little resources as possible, but would still serve my homepage fast enough for my liking after restarting the Apache service. I played with both, restarting the Apache service and letting the server sit idle for a few minutes between visits.  I can not remember what settings I ended up with, but I think I ended up close to the suggested ones in the guide.

Next came PHP.  I could not find any good guides on optimizing PHP.  There were several that pointed back to a guide that they claimed showed how to optimize PHP but really it discussed the same MPM settings in Apache and talked in detail about how PHP and Apache work together, but gave no real guides or points to actually optimizing PHP itself.  In the end about all I could do is fine opcode cache services.  I found three, eAccelerator, XCache, and Zen.  After looking at several different comparisons (I would link to them, but I spent hours scouring through google and I doubt if I really could go back now and find them all, besides it would be a ton of links.)  For WP it seemed that eAccelerator performed slightly better, so I ended up installing it, per the instructions found here.

Now for WP.  I had tried several different plugins.  PHP Speedy, and several other WP cache plugins, as well as an eAccelerator plugin.  I could not get the eAccelerator plugin to see that eAccelerator was in fact installed, so it kept wanting to just run normal WP Caching.  I double, and triple checked my eAccelerator config, and just could not get it, so I removed the plugin.  I ended up removing PHP Speedy too.  I finally came upon the WP SuperCache plugin.  The only thing I have not fixed yet is the Random Picture Widget on my Sidebar.  The SuperCache plugin caches complete pages.  I tried adding their trick about setting a certain variable name to true in order to not cache the page.  I added this line in the php file for the widget, but it caused the whole page to not be cached.  Since this widget appears on every page it defeated the whole purpose of caching.  I am now looking into something I saw the other night (but was too late to mess with) regarding modifying the the code to add additional scripts or something to get the SuperCache plugin to not cache it.  (I am not sure, at that point I may have been hallucinating…)

For WP I also went through and downloaded all of my pictures and images used, ran them through Yahoo’s SmushIt and then re-uploaded them.  I then installed this plugin WP Smush.it, hoping that for now on all of my images will be successfully smushed. 

Then on to MySQL.  I dug and dug and dug.  I found so many contradictory guides on how to optimize MySQL that I gave up.  One would say do this, then another would say don’t ever do that… Then another would be totally different.  In the end I did find one thing that helped.  I disabled InnoDB.  This cut a huge amount of resources being used by MySQL.  Since this VPS will only ever host (as far as I know) this WP blog, and maybe a WPMU or Joomla site on another Apache Virtual Server, I don’t need it.

Overall I learned more then I wanted to about Apache, PHP, WP, and MySQL.  But in the end my site loads a good 10x faster, and I have cut the memory utilization of my VPS (at idle) down from 400MB of RAM down to around 220MB. 

So, the site is back up, it is faster then ever, but for now if you want a new set of random pics on the right, wait 6 minutes and refresh (Chances are you are the only one looking anyway…)

So far so good.  It can log in, and pull down my entries.  Now lets see if it can submit entries.

And with pictures too..  Just some random pictures of Joshua’s soccer cone spiders that he made after a practice:

Soccer Spiders

BTW, it is called Poster.  It is in the App Catalog, and here is their site.

Ryobi Durashot RP4200 Front

Ok, so I have plenty of Ryobi’s 18v One+ Tools, and I recently saw this at Home Depot while browsing through the new Tek4 display. I bought this camera not for me, but for my 5 year old son. You see he loves taking pictures.

For his fourth birthday I bought him the cheapest digital camera I could find at Best Buy. It was a little black and green 4.0mp (I think) camera. He likes to be able to look at the back of the camera and see what he is shooting, like most point and shoots. The problem is that none of the kid camera’s do this, the Fisher Price’s, etc., all have viewfinders that they expect the kid’s to look through.

His first camera from Best Buy was taken every where, but he hardly used it. The problem was the menu system was impossible for a 4 year old to use, and the flash was incredibly bright. I had taped some paper over the flash in order to dim it some. Every time the camera was turned on the flash was off, and you could not change this setting. We went camping one weekend and it started raining on us as we were packing up. His camera was thrown into the camping supplies and ended up missing. It was found a couple of months later in the garage, but would no longer even power on.

His second camera was a Wal-Mart special. It was horrible even for me to use. The buttons were tiny, the menu was confusing, etc. When the AA’s that came with the camera died, the camera died. New batteries, but the camera would not turn on.

So, that’s when I saw the Durashot at Home Depot. I bought it, and the Tek4 flashlight to take advantage of a coupon they had at the Tek4 stand to get the free double charger. This camera has been great for my son.

He carries it everywhere, and actually uses it. Some days while at home he will break it out and just play with it. The buttons on the back:

Ryobi Durashot RP4200 Back

Are huge, rubberized, and clearly labelled. My 5 year old has been able to figure out how to use all of the features of the camera. He can use the timer mode to take self portraits, or what he likes to do is set the camera on a table and set the timer then go and hug his dog and take a picture of him and his dog. He uses the time lapse mode to take pictures of himself while he is playing games, playing with his dog, or just watching tv. He has even figured out how to put it into video mode and take video’s. One of the other features he really likes, after he figured out how to look at the pictures he has taken, is recording a voice memo for some of the pictures.

The pictures are decent. They with the digital zoom turned off, they look about like any ordinary 8mp. The part where the image quality suffers is the shutter speed ( I will explain below.)

Now for the negatives.

The flash, like most of the cheaper cameras, is insanely bright. I tried taping paper over it like I had on my son’s last two cameras, but the paper started burning! After a few flashes and the paper was smoking and was singed. This flash is not only bright but hot.

Without the flash the shutter speed is not fast enough. When taking pictures outside, or even inside sometimes, the flash is not needed. The problem is without the flash not even I can hold this camera still enough to not induce camera shake on the pictures. They come out just slightly blurry, almost but not quite as if the camera was not in focus. Those more familiar with digital cameras would know what I mean. Even if sitting on a table, or a tripod, fast moving objects come out with motion blur. I tried sitting in one place in our living room, taking pictures of the same object over and over and over. The only thing I changed were the ISO speeds. I tried every setting, but without the flash I could not hold the camera still enough to get a good picture. The problem was, with the flash the picture was washed out, way too bright. I had registerd this camera on Ryobi’s website and opened a support ticket regarding it. I stated in the ticket that I was taking pictures of the same object, under controlled lighting, and all I was adjusting was the ISO setting; and I could not get a non-blurry picture without a tripod. I asked if there was a way to adjust the shutter speed independent of the ISO setting and flash. The response I got back was, have you tried changing the ISO setting in the menu? I was about floored. So, I kindly replied that I had, and asked the same question again. I was told that no you could not. So, I asked about firmware updates, the guy simply replied that if the camera was not functioning properly I could take it back. He did not even answer my question directly.

So, for a professional that needs a good camera this may\may not work. It depends on if you can deal with the washed out pictures from the bright flash.

Pros:

1.) Very sturdy build. The rubberizing, extra shock proofing, etc. really make this a durable camera.
2.) Price. $200 may seem expensive for only an 8mp, but it really is comparable to other decent (non Wal-Mart or blue bin specials) on the market.
3.) Menu and buttons are very easy to navigate and use. So easy in fact that my 5 year old has figured out all of the advanced features and can do everything except adjust the ISO.
4.) Water proof to 1m. I have not tested this, but I read a review elsewhere that the reviewers took a few under-water pictures and bounced the camera off the floor of the pool.
5.) Batteries. The Tek4 batteries are nice. I got the boxed set of Tek4 tools for Christmas and now have 4 batteries. The fact that his Camera uses the same batteries means I always have a charged one sitting around. If this were my camera and not my son’s it would be a nice addition to the tool kit.

Cons:

1.) Flash. WAY too bright. WAY too hot. I don’t think this is fixable, even with a firmware update, and it would not be an issue if I could take decent pictures without the flash – see Con #2.
2.) Shutter Speed. The ISO adjustments seem to almost do nothing. I was testing by taking pictures of the couch in my living room. Even at ISO 1600 I got self induced camera shake. I don’t have the steadiest hands in the world, but they are steady enough to let me take One to Two second exposures on my Canon Digital Rebel with no camera shake (I guess the extra weight helps.) However, on this Durashot I just simply can not hold it still enough to get a good shot. My son has to leave the flash on, even outside to get a good picture. This I am sure could be fixed with a simple firmware update to allow shutter speed or arpeture changes seperate from the flash. Maybe just introduce a real simple, fast shutter speed setting. Something that sets the shutter speed to the same as with the Flash on, or faster.

Recommendations for the camera:

Professionals that don’t need a stellar picture, but do need a camera that will take some abuse. My in-laws are Home Inspectors, and I believe this camera would probably fit right up their alley. Especially with the batteries being used in the other tools. They all carry flashlights, digital cameras, infrared thermometers, powered screwdrivers, among other tools. The Tek4 line does suite this perfectly, and the Durashot takes good pictures, and is extremely durable.

Kids. I know, a $200 camera for kids. But the way I look at it is this: the Best Buy camera had a 30 day return policy, same with the Wal-Mart special. They both lasted over 45 days; just not much longer then that. I had all ready spent over $200 in cameras for the kid, and all of the “Kid’s” cameras had the following problems:

Viewfinders instead of Live View.
Were all made of plastic and looked cheap.
Were HUGE, no the Durashot is not small, but go take a look at Fisher Price’s kids cameras…
Did not have any nice or advanced features.
Were not waterproof, shock proof, dust proof, etc…

This is a $200 camera with a 2 year warranty that Ryobi and Home Depot expect to be used on job sites, etc, by ‘men’ that are not easy going on their tools. The first time my son dropped this camera and it bounced across the floor without even scratching or denting itself I knew he was not going to be able to destroy this thing. The only piece I worry about is the plastic piece on the end of the steel barrel surround the lense. This piece may get scratched up over time. Maybe Ryobi should make this piece screw off, or offer replacements for it.

Overall I would have to give this Camera a 4 out of 5 stars. If Ryobi can release a firmware update and resolve the shutter speed issue this thing would get a 6 out of 5 stars.

(If they do this before they descide to discontinue it or only have it available over seas like all the really good 18v One+ tools…)

***** Update – 12/30/2010 *****

Well, almost one full year on, and my son is still using this camera. He has managed to lose the bag the camera comes with, but all in all this camera has held up to the all the abuse a now 6 year old can throw at it. It has outlived all of the other digital cameras that he has had by months.

Still no update from Ryobi on the Shutter Speed. My Brother in Law tried the camera for inspections, but again the shutter speed being so slow was causing pictures to come out blurry. Ryobi really needs to fix the ISO speed adjustments and provide a way to adjust the Shutter Speed.

On 12/31/2009 at 10:10am CST we had a new addition the family. Little Aidan Wayne Trantham was born. 7.3lbs and 19.5″ long:

He is doing great and all ready gowing like a weed; on 1/4/2010 (just 4 days old) and the Dr’s office measured him at 21″ a gain of 1.5″. This kid is growing…

Long, tall, and skinny. His older brother is going to have cut him off at the knees…

As for the older brother:

Joshua is playing indoor Soccer this season and he is having a blast, but his team is taking a beating. He was placed on the house team, with all the other kids that were not all ready assigned to a team. It turns out every other team they are playing are pre-arranged teams that have been playing together for some time. Two of the teams are select (at 6 years old.) This means they have try-outs and kids compete to be on their team. He can’t wait to return to outdoor soccer, which picks back up on Feb 20. (His team was the best team in their league last outdoor season, and his entire team is returning this season…)

Joshua does have new camera, and just LOVES taking pictures. This is his third camera in about 6 months. The first one died after spending about a month in the garage after it was thrown in the wrong bin when returning from a Camping trip. The second one died after about a month when the batteries that came with it died. His new one seems to not only be indesctructable, but easy for him to use. The funny part is I bought it at Home Depot, and it is made by Ryobi. It is from Ryobi’s Tek4 line of power tools, we love it, and I will have to do a review or something on it later… If you know the URL to our photo album you should take a look at the “Joshua’s Pictures” category; these were all taken by him.

Mommy is doing good, not quite getting enough sleep, but she is trying:

I am doing ok… I took off two weeks to be at home and help Mommy with Aidan, and I am finding it hard to get back to work. The second week I was home I came down with the Flu, so I wasn’t much help the second week anyway. I am still slightly getting over the Flu as I still have a bit of a cough, but that is about all that is left.

I guess that is about it…

Well, I think the other project, cooptree.com is dead for now.

I have not heard from the developer since before Thanksgiving, it is like he fell off the face of the planet. Looking over the forums at TNG it looks like the Joomla plugin developers have made some headway. It almost has all of the issues resolved that I wanted to have working. If they keep going I may just implement it here and forget about WPMU for cooptree.com.

As far as localhub.com goes, I am guessing this is about it. I like the theme, so I will live with it’s shortcomings. No new Smugmug plugins, so I will live with that for now. I have added Google Ads. I guess about the next thing I will do is continue to post updates, and start adding categories and content… imagine that, my site with actual content. I don’t know if I can handle that.

So the first new Category is going to be Family. We’ll see how that goes…