Antique Store Plane

 

I found a few things, among them, this Stanley transitional plane.  It is 17 inches long and has an iron 2 1/8", but possibly originally had an iron 2 1/4" wide.  So it could have been several 3 32 like jointer planes.  It appears to have been cut down from it's original length by using a handsaw.  Aside from the iron having been ground square, it looked like it good still function as a plane.   

 We looked at a few other plane irons and ground it to a suitable angle. 

 

And it cuts pretty well.  

 A little sharpening and tuning, and voila!

Pretty awesome at Jill Outside.

Barbequed Turkey

The Pearly Gates

Reposted from Saturday, February 25, 2006.  IK like this post.  I have my moments. 

 

"It's all in the journey," the mystery biker states as he rides away from our conversation climbing up the "backside" of Usery Pass. I had remarked that at 7 miles an hour, it was going to some time to get up that 4 mile incline. He had a cool seat mounted holder for two water bottles. I'll need one of those in a month or so. Notice the temperature of today's ride is over 80 degrees. Today's ride was quite thought provoking. I guess there's some advantage to spending 3 hours in the saddle. Gilby will be happy to note that my love affair with my Brooks™ saddle has started. Maybe I won't be so lonely from now on.

Date: February 25, 2006
Today's Mileage: 34.12
Temperature at Departure: 83 F.
Average Speed: 11.7
Total for February: 192.8

One thing that it wasn't today is lonely out on the road. I had conversations with several people today, including one interesting group of hikers over at the drinking fountain at the base of the Wind Cave trail. I don't know if this is just because I spent more time out, or as a result of the rather outstanding weather. The hikers were talking about a 50 mile ride tomorrow. So I asked them what the thing I just climbed was called -- "The backside of Usery Pass" was the definitive answer. It seems this is one of the more notorious climbs in the area. Another -- namely "King Kong," or just "Kong," was responsible for last weeks cramping incident. During this conversation -- I learned of a third, The Pearly Gates. "That will break your hump," says the elder hiker.

The Pearly Gates was a nice ride. I don't know how far it was, but it actually required me to use all my gears. The ride requires that you one, trespass, and two, avoid the copious amounts of coyote crap on the road, and three, work. I can just hear her saying it now, "Coyotes do not prefer to crap in the road. I know you say you've seen them, but it just isn't true." Coyotes and foxes, both share this desire (perhaps wolves too). They would really rather do thier business in the middle of the road. I have seen them more than once, me slamming on the brakes to avoid killing them, trying to take their picture, them, hobbling off so as not to soil themselves, and me again -- failing to get the picture. I want to show it to my friends, and say "See, if you spent any time outta the house you would know this. I secretly suspect they like to do this because it is warmer in the road (you know how you like it warmer in the john than anywhere else). The other possibility is that they know that this is one part of the world that is pretty much screwed, so no one (none of the other critters - except maybe the crows who eat off the road) will mind if they take a squat there.

Anyway, the road to the Pearly Gates is closed (go figure, eh?), which means all those instances of Coyote squat, aren't getting run over, so there are many there to prove my theory, which finally may become a law. It is interesting to note that coyotes seem to urinate and deficate in the same place, leaving two kinds of evidence to both prove my theory, and prove that they are not dogs. The ride, as a result of the road being closed (not the coyotesquatsi) was very nice. With the exception of the automatic machine gun fire from the neighboring shooting range, the ride was oh so quiet and worry free.

Out on the road I was reflecting on this article I read last night, and thinking yet again that I have too much stuff (she -- the woman from above -- said that too), and wondering if I could change my life just by cutting down on the stuff I have (not that I want to suffer a fire), when I remembered the end of that article, which reminds me of what inevitably happens as we force ourselves to dig deeper:

I've learned to recognize a particular moment on a backcountry trip. It's the moment when I can't remember what I'm doing there. It usually comes after some grueling slog, after the pack mysteriously gains weight against all rules of fairness and physics. Everything rubs against me-the shoulder harness, the salt of my sweat, the relentless weather, the earth against my feet.
It's like pushing through a membrane, that instant when misery transforms into surrender. Nothing becomes lighter, faster, easier. Now I can keep on, just for the power, the quiet ecstasy, of keeping on, discarding burdens as I go, growing lighter and lighter with every step, because this-this freedom, this moment, this willingness to trust myself in an untrustworthy world-this is the one thing I cannot do without.

Meanwhile, Pearl the Cat is out the window trying to catch a cottontail. It's hysterical. It's all in the journey, kitty. Look for that quiet ecstasy. Discard your burdens.

Hoppy the Crow

Hoppy the crow.  My pet for 9 years.  Some time ago. he's enjoying a shower in case you wonder.

Pigeon Point Light

Near the Pigeon Point Lighthouse

This was taken 11/21/2010 in Yoosemite

Migrating Your Bugtracker Database to Jira

I have been working on this new project, It's a bug database migration.  Not necessarily simple but pretty straight forward.  Take the entire contents of a BugTracker.net DB and migrate it to a new DB, Jira.   


Step one, analyze the DB for current fields, number of records, organization of date and export capability.  Although the BugTracker.net (BT) has export to excel and some backup capabilities it doesn't look all the smart or convenient or easy, in terms of exporting the entire DB.  I start by reading the docs on Bugtracker and searching for info from other folks that have done.  I ask the guy the who wrote it, Corey Trager.  He's happy to help, if I pay him (Gee, thanks guy).   There's not that much info about it out there. 


So I start looking around -- find the front-end code and reverse engineer it -- pull out the connect string for the DB.  Its a SQL Server 2005 Database (it could have been Mysql, just as well)  running on XP or whatever.  I download a SQL Server Management Studio and connect to the DB.  Pick it apart. 


The initial take, ~6500 records, ~70000 comments and updates, 3211 attachments.   


Next I analyze the target, Jira.  Jira has a great and robust import tool.  If you have to do this project.  By all means use it.  The only convenient way, though, from the BT was to use the comma seperated value method of the Import Tool.  So that became my target.

Create a tab delimited file containing the BT database in it entirety.  Programmatiaclly and reliably extract the entire content of the BT and convert it into a tab delimited file to be ingested by the Jira Import Plug-In. 


I wrote three queries to extract the data from the BT backend SQL Server DB.   I wrote 6 tcl scripts that assemble the BT data into a huge tab delimited file.   


For the comments, attachments, updates, and emails:

set nocount on SELECT a.bp_bug, a.bp_type, b.us_username, a.bp_date, a.bp_comment,
        a.bp_email_from,
        a.bp_email_to, a.bp_file, a.bp_size, a.bp_content_type, a.bp_id,
        (select '#@#@#@#' newcol) #@#@#@#
    FROM dbo.bug_posts a, dbo.users b
    WHERE b.us_id = bp_user
    ORDER BY a.bp_bug, a.bp_type, a.bp_date;

For the bug relationships:

set nocount on SELECT re_bug1, re_bug2, re_type 
    FROM dbo.bug_relationships 
    ORDER BY re_bug1;

For the issues:

set nocount on SELECT bg_id bugtrackerID,
        (select pj_name from dbo.projects where bg_project = pj_id) project,
        (select 'projectKey' newcol) projectKey,
        bg_short_desc summary,
        (select us_username from dbo.users
              WHERE bg_reported_user = us_id) reporter,
        (select ct_name from dbo.categories 
              WHERE bg_category = ct_id) issueType,
        (select pr_name from dbo.priorities 
              WHERE bg_priority = pr_id) priority,
        (select pr_name from dbo.priorities 
               WHERE bg_priority = pr_id) urgency,
        "Custom Field 1" customField1,
        "Custom Field 2" customField2,
        (select us_username from dbo.users 
               WHERE bg_assigned_to_user = us_id) assignee,
        (select st_name from dbo.statuses 
               WHERE bg_status = st_id) status,
        (select 'newcol' newcol) resolution,
        bg_reported_date reported_date,
        bg_last_updated_date lastUpdatedDate,
        (select udf_name from dbo.user_defined_attribute 
                WHERE bg_user_defined_attribute = udf_id)
        component from bugs,projects
WHERE bg_project = pj_id
ORDER BY bg_id ;

That should get you started. 

Ultimately Corey Trager did give me a one interesting clue, asking me "what are you going to do about attachments, like screenshots, if they were posted as blobs into the db?"  I looked all over for evidence of inline attachements, blobs in the db, or a way to post them.   I didn't find that at all.  I did find the attachments in a very unusual place on the file system for the Web front end to Bugtraacker.  They were in c:\Temp\Uploads.   Basically these were copied into a place were the Jira import tool could find them and poof ... it was done. 

The import tool for the Jira went extremetely well.  There were issues around the organization of data and arranging the file for the successful import of comments, and attachments, but overall the tools is well designed and works quite well.  Error reporting is good and the process can be a bit tedious, but that is just the way it is with delimited files. 

Here's a snippet from a conversation about the import between my colleague and I:

4:50 PM L: Ah no
4:50 PM Shawn Kielty:ok
4:50 PM L: it's shows up correctly in the wizard !
4:50 PM Shawn Kielty:yeah ... stunning thing -- that wizard
4:51 PM L: Ok, importing issues is in progress
4:52 PM Shawn Kielty: sweet
4:52 PM L:Yes, this wizard is very good

Johnny's Cookies

These are a big hit around my family at Christmas and originally came from my grandmother Gertrude Kielty.

1 cup shortening (I use butter)
1 cup brown sugar
1 egg
1 3/4 cup sifted flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon soda
1/4 cup thick sour milk (I use sour cream)
3/4 cup pecan haves broken into pieces
1 cup candied cherries (a small container) cut into pieces.
1 pecan half for the top of each cookie

Mix all the ingredients together reserving the pecan halves for the cookie tops. Drop small teaspoonfuls of dough onto a greased cookie sheet. Place a pecan halve on top of each cookie. Bake @ 400 degrees for about 10-11 minutes.

Makes 3 dozen cookies or so.

Zipfizz

Near the end of last year, someone at zipfizz contacted me to ask if I would consider reviewing their product.  Since this is not really the kind of product I would normally use, I was somewhat reluctant.  I agreed. 

It came in the mail, and got mixed in with Christmas.  It was basically their Multi-pack deal with an addition in the form of a zipdrive containing promotional materials.  So, nice water bottle, small free zipdrive, and some sample flavors of the energy drink mix. 

Everyone, you know me.  Good food, good tasting and hearty.  That's what I like.  Foods with names like eggs, butter, cream, meat, fries, rice.  Wholesome foods.  During an expedition in the desert, I might drink a 50% solution of Gatorade™ and water.  But Gatorade™ is this huge success story, a victory of the mind over the failings of the body.  In a crazy pinch on a bike ride or wicked hike where I need some real calories I might use a Honey Stinger™.  Typically, I am opposed to this kind of food.    Like Dr. David Agus, I am opposed to vitamins, prefer "a good fat diet, olive oil, canola oil, heart healthy eggs, cold water fish."  Real food.  Good food.  On a regular schedule.

Skeptically, I unwrap the package, look at the stuff.  Go to the web site and look at the ingredients.  A little scary.  There's a lot of what I call science ingredients. I notice a couple of foods I recognize, ginger root, ginseng, caffeine.  I mix it up.  Taste is good.   Generally good, a bit vitaminey. 

I have a formula for fueling my body during extreme activities, It's an extension of my normal diet. Nothing is quite as good as a pint of ice cream to overcome a major calorie deficit. Possibly, I will keep a few of these zipfizz around for those moments when I need an extra shot of caffeine.

If you like this sort of thing, zipfizz™ is probably a good choice. 

jade Beach at Big Sur

Temple Man

9/24/2011, Anshan, Liaoning, China. Near the temple of the largest jade Buddha in the world. 

Fox Parang XL

This is a jungle knife, that I just got from Fox Knives.  It's made in Italy, I guess, or the USA since there are lots of flags on the website. Nether place has all that much jungle.  I have several different jungle knives.  Maybe I'll write some reviews, but first I will have to test this one out.  Since I don't have a jungle or forest right here in the yard ... well, it might be a few days. 

Typically, jungle knives fall into one of two general categories, slashers, and choppers.  With a fairly thin blade and knife like edge, this appears true to it's name.  A parang is a jungle knife from Borneo, and it's a slasher. 

The sheath on this knife is comfortable and has nice features, and appears to be thoughtful.  It appears cozy even while wearing it around the office.  More later ...

Hey, Did You Ever Ask Yourselves ...

Dear  readers, 

Andy Rooney died today.  An icon of our generation has passed.  Sad, albeit true.  He's gone.

... so I have to ask.  Did you ever wonder why t-shirts and other comfortable clothes have those irritating little labels on them?  Don't you find it unusual that the only part of a  100% cotton t-shirt that isn't cotton is the hive inducing label which says same.  There ought be a law.

All my life I am with the shirt trying to figure out how to remove the label with out destroying the shirt. Im my opinion the best tool is the razor blade.  I remove all labels from all clothes.  Seriously.  If I don't remove the label, I get a small square rash direclty under it.  Amazing.  2 square inches of hives on the back of the neck.  Really not fun. 

I understand that dissident spies alway take their labels off all their clothes.  I saw that on television.  I uderstand that regular spies do this as well.  Alledgedly, they take the labels off thier clothes so that no one knows where they shop.  I once even had a woman I know ask me if I was a spy because I had no labels on any of my clothes.  I don't know why she noticed that, but she did. 

I suspect though, that spies actually remove the labels from their clothes because they are so freaking irritating.  Imagine James Bond doing his spy job, suddenly having to stop and uncontrollably scratch his label itch.  I don't think so.  So he removes the labels

There ought to be a law, seriously.  Write your congressmen and congresswomen and ask them to pass a law prohibiting irritating label materials and expressly prohibiting labeling which claims "100% cotton" unless the entire shirt including the label is cotton. 

Do it now.  And save the spies of the world from having to cut the labels out of all their clothes. 

Re-Entry

Re-entry is interesting. I landed in San Francisco in the morning (October 10) and had lost some of my normal sensibilities. I had grown weary of dense crowds, pushy Asianess. Once I had reached San Francisco, I found myself comfortably shoving some overly pushy Asian guy out of the way so I could gather my bag. I am sure he felt that it was reasonable to shove me into the person behind me repeatedly to create a large open space in front of himself, and didn't realize that I might find this objectionable. Regardless, I felt guilty after I shoved him into his precious space to make some room for me and my bag.

I felt miserable from the eleven hours of plane discomfort and the extenuating test of patience that it is, and was dehydrated from the air conditioning ... I was parched and stripped of my well being by the tragic environment of flight. I was also coming down with strep or pneumonia, or some other contagion..Thirty-six hours after my arrival, I will be in the doctor's office with scarlet fever and a thirty-nine degree temp.

I slipped into a cab for the quiet ride home, and a series of joyous reunions. Eighteen days in Asia leaves me wanting for my own bath mat, a bar of soap and drinking water from the tap. The dog runs up and tries to be cordial, but is angry, and doesn't really greet me. It will be days before the dog will greet me properly. I am tired of travel, and glad to be home to the scowling dog.

The comforts of Asia unfold from my satchel. The shorts I wore for days on end work their way toward the laundry ... the shoes that I still haven't put on since my return come out. The camera and 15 or so compact flash cards, it will be a week before I look closely at these. For now, I am afraid to look at my work, fearing the worst.. There's tea, Anxi Tie Guanyin, Iron Goddess, Steel Buddha, Oolong; it comforts me. Sunflower seeds, which will still be on my desk a week later, flavored with some substance, clearly marked on the package in perfect Chinese, wholly unidentifiable to me by taste or other means, feed me. Peanuts, which my mother reminds me are fertilized with “human excrement,” feed me.

This culturalism I hear from my friends and family plagues me. “They use human excrement for fertilizer there.” It's a disease of misinformation. Of misunderstanding. I call it culturalism because it's not directed against the Asian Race, only against the culture of China. The Chinese people are reasonable healthy today, the agricultural practices may be different than ours, but centralization of sewage treatment and composting of wastes, help to make the foods safer to eat.

When I mentioned that I had been to China,. Even my doctor was quick to associate my illness with China, claiming that, after all, ”They are still living close to the animals there,” as a justification for his assertions. His assumption that I was the vector binging disease from China into the US seemed disturbing. Everyone, it seems, knows a lot about China. I think back, and I don't remember these things from my trips to China, from my experiences. I don't remember that anything I was taught about China was necessarily true once I got there. I can't make the stereotypes stick.

By now it's ten days later. I crave for the companionship of my friend in China. I want saucy foods with rice and fish with bones in them. I miss the drone of conversation in another language that I don't even need to try to decipher. I miss that smell of the street, the interesting chatter and compelling noise that is the street in China, interesting places like the Beijing's Hutong, where quiet neighborhood charm and narrow streets make some essential life spill out of the doorways and alleys.

Here it's quiet, the keyboard chatters as I write, David Letterman idles in the background. I am no longer (extremely) sick. I am tuning up my bicycle and the noises of suburbia surround me. And it's a bit boring right at the moment. I am eating with a fork and contemplating stealing some red plastic chopsticks that say “Tsing Tao” on their sides. My culture shock has passed. Welcome to America. Re-entry is complete.

1928 Hawthorne Deluxe

Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T

Bikes in Yingkou, China

Dear Canon, ...

Here's a copy of a letter I received from Canon today regarding my inquiry about repairing my Canon 17-85mm lens:

Dear Shawn Kielty:

Customer service is our number-one priority at Canon U.S.A., Inc. We take great pride in providing you with the best service possible and strive to make your Canon ownership experience enjoyable.

Please take a few minutes to complete a brief online survey and tell us about your experience when you phoned our Technical Support Center on 10/13/2011 14:04:51regarding your Canon product. To access the survey click on the link below, or copy and paste the address into your browser.

https://www.customersat3.com/e.asp?IID=84DBA0FFFD72F0C08357C63910FE1D79

You must be 18 years of age or older to participate. Thank you for your feedback and for being a valued Canon customer.

Sincerely,

Canon U.S.A., Inc.
Customer Support
Please do not reply to this e-mail unless you are having difficulties completing the survey.

That's right, please do not reply ... yeta, yeta, yeta.  I don't want to complete your survey.  What I want to do is take a few moments to tell you about my experience with your camera on my recent trip to China.  During my trip I carried one camera, a Canon 20D, and two lenses, A 10-22mm zoom and a 17-85mm zoom.  I'd like to be able to tell you that I made this decision because your gear has been so reliable in the past, but it wouldn't be true. 

Last year just before my trip to China, I had to rent a 17-85mm zoom because mine failed miserably, just a few days before I left.  

So off I went to China for 18 days with a stripped down version of my normal gear, and a few days into my trip, my 17-85mm lens stops working all together, producing repeatedly the oft reported "err99".   Done.   Epic Fail.  I don't want to hear and talk how good your customer service is. 

I want to hear and talk about how good your product is.  I want to hear you tell me that the quality of your product is your number one priority.  I want to brag to my friends about how great your camera is.  The way I used to.      

Alas, I cannot!

China, Goodbye

This trip has been amazing, I saw some of the greatest landmarks the world has to offer, the Great Wall, Tiananmen Square. I went to a hospital in China. I was on a tour boat, probably inside the borders of North Korea, I saw several cities, including Beijing. I saw great things, met great people, ate outstanding food and have a myriad of new stories to tell. I was fire cupped. Plus what, I caught a fish! I have been to farms and out to the coast, literally, in every way, off the map (well, my map anyways). I enjoyed reconnecting with the folks I met last year. I think every aspect of my comfort zone was stretched on this trip. It was a good adventure.

Tomorrow, I will say goodbye to China with a tear in my eye. It will be sad to leave my friends. It will be sad to leave the good food, good health, and vibrant energy that I have seen and felt on this trip.

Huge thanks to my friends here in China, who have opened up their lives to share with me and make my stay so enjoyable. So much hospitality. So welcoming and friendly. Thank you.