A quote from Bruce Schneier
“[…] trying to make digital files uncopyable is like trying to make water not wet.” — Bruce Schneier
Pace Setter Landscapes
If you live or work in the Dallas-Fort Worth area and are considering the services of Pace Setter Landscapes and its apparent owner, Bryan Thayne Folkman, this post is for you.
Late last summer, upon recommendation from a friend of a friend, we hired Pace Setter to clean up some debris in our backyard, till up the underlying soil, and lay down some fresh Bermuda sod. My wife negotiated a deal that was favorable to both parties, and the work was done one day while we were at work.
I was excited to come home to a yard full of sod. It was a huge improvement over the wasteland that had once occupied the same space. I began the typical routine for new sod: watering, watering, and more watering.
The sod appeared to be doing quite well in some places and horribly in others. It was mostly around the edges of the lawn that it was having problems, and I noticed in those areas that it seemed to be almost floating above the dirt. In fact, there were some spaces where there was air between sod and dirt. So I began stomping on these spots, trying to work the sod down to the dirt’s level.
After a few weeks, while walking around on the lawn, I accidently kicked up a loose piece of sod. Underneath, I discovered a big part of the problem. Pace Setter had neglected to remove the black landscape fabric that had been covering the dirt—fabric which we had specifically asked them to remove. This was a bit of an annoyance, but I wasn’t upset enough to begin complaining because the new grass seemed as though it was improving.
So then a few weeks later, while out mowing the grass that hadn’t died off, I stepped on a nail. This nail was attached to a large piece of wood and was just below a piece of landscape fabric, which was in turn just below the sod. At this point, I was furious. Pace Setter had obviously taken advantage of the fact that I was not there to see whether they removed any debris from my lawn before laying down the sod.
After I went and paid to get my Tetanus shot, we began calling Mr. Folkman. It took a couple of tries before we reached him. When we spoke with him, he was quick to inform us that he was not actually present when the work was done and that he was surprised that his workers had done this. He stated that he had never had a problem like this before. He apologized and was supposed to talk to his workers and call us back ASAP.
That was about seven months ago. We haven’t heard a word from Bryan Folkman since, and unless he reads this post, I don’t expect him to call.
So there’s my story of our encounter with this company. Caveat emptor.
In support of Google Static Maps
Google released their new static maps API a few days back, and it prompted me to finally dig into their tools a bit to see what I could accomplish. I still didn’t get into the real API, but the static API provided a bit of entertainment. The developer’s guide answered all of my questions, and I was easily able to create the map to my house attached to this post. There’s also a wizard that can be used if you don’t want to read the docs. Also interesting: the real maps API and mapplets.
iPhone WebClip Bookmark Icons
After downloading firmware 1.1.3 for the iPhone today, I quickly noticed that Google Mobile and Mowser, when added to the home screen, displayed custom, and I just had to know how they did it. So I dug around for a bit until I figured out how it works.
From the iPhone Dev Center:
To specify a bookmark icon for all pages of a web site, place a PNG image named “apple-touch-icon.png” at the root directory of your web server - similar to the “favicon.ico” for site icons. To override the site bookmark icon on a specific web page, insert a <link> element similar to <link rel=”apple-touch-icon” href=”/customIcon.png”/> within the <head> element of the page. The bookmark icon dimensions should be 57×57 pixels. If the icon is a different size it will be scaled and cropped to fit. Safari will automatically composite the icon with the standard “glassy” overlay so it looks like a built-in iPhone or iPod application.
Strobist Lighting 101 PDF
Welcome Strobist readers!
Lighting 101 is the foundation on which Strobist is built, and is the best place to start. The PDF version of the tutorials is mirrored here as a service to the Strobist community.
8125 Hacking Update
Just a quick update on the prior Cingular 8125 Hacks post. NBD 8.0 turned out to not be the most stable ROM for my phone. I’m now running NBD X Update 1. I’ve been on this ROM since it was released in October without issue.
Well, there is one minor issue that I have noticed, actually. To me, it’s so minor that I don’t really even consider it to be a problem. When the phone is ringing, on the original ROM, I could hit the volume down button to silence the ring without sending the call immediately to voicemail. With NBD X, the volume button has no effect when the phone is ringing, and I’m instead forced to just hit the ignore button if I don’t want to take the call. For me, this is really not a big deal, especially considering that every other feature is rock solid.
A quote from Barack Obama
“My understanding is President Clinton’s not on the ballot.”
— Barack Obama
Dirt Cheap Ring Light
From what I have been seeing in the DIY Ring Light arena lately, it doesn’t get any cheaper than this.
My Firefox Extensions: Year 2
It’s been almost a year since I first posted a list of my firefox extensions here, so I figured it was time for an update. A lot has changed over the last year.
