DonRiep.com

110V Anytime, Anywhere

2009-06-14T22:36:00.006-06:00

In a continuing effort to make ourselves self sufficient while we go camping, I decided to invest in a professional inverter for our RV a few weeks back. I was looking for something affordable, yet something that I could wire into my RV permanently so that our 110V outlets would be powered whether our site had power or not. As well, with an investment in some good batteries last year, I was ready to invert! Enter stage right, Xantrex Freedom HF inverter.

The Xantrex Freedom HF 1800W will replace your converter in your unit (the device that detects 110V and converts it to 12V to power most everything in your trailer, as well as charge your main batteries). Like your converter, it detects 110V (aka, shore power), and once powered, will charge your batteries at 40Amps, as well as provide pass through power to the 110V panel on the output of the inverter. When 110V isn't present, the inverter kicks in, and powers the 110V panel via your batteries.

The device is relatively compact for what it does (I got the 1800W unit, pictured below). Inputs are 12V pos / neg (battery), 110V in (shore power), and 110V out (inverted devices). The panel / display is also removable so you can mount it where your inverter isn't. Comes with a 20' cord. (see below, I mounted mine near the existing control panel)

I ordered on a couple weeks ago, it came in last week, so I decided to make it a weekend project and install it into my RV this weekend . Took about a full day including numerous trips to the electrical store. I chose to run just run my 110V plugs off the inverter, and not my microwave. Air conditioning definitely will not run off this unit. Need many batteries, and a large inverter to get anywhere with A/C. The inverter needs to be within 5 feet of your battery, so I chose to install it under our bed in the front of the RV, and run 110 back and forth from the inverter to the main power panel. The panel in the picture is a sub panel that is just for the inverters 110V out. Bascially the power receptacles now run through this panel, connected to the inverters output. Confused yet? If you are looking to do this to your RV one day, buy me a coffee, we'll chat. Pretty straightforward once you understand how your R/V's 12V / 110V system works.

Install went great for the most part, and now we'll be able to camp in the most remote spots, complete with phone chargers, computers, TV....wait...that's not camping? For the Rieps, it's all about balance. ;-)

We'll miss you Grandma...

2009-04-21T09:42:00.004-06:00

Today my family attends a funeral to mourn the loss of Gladys Rouleau, a wonderful grandma, great grandma, great great grandma, mother, sister and friend of many. Last week, my mom's mother passed away days short of her 94th birthday, in a battle against Alzheimer's. Today is a day of mourning, but at the same time, the suffering is over, and we are thankful for that, as Grandma is in a better place now.

The mother of 7 kids, in everything you'd expect from a picture perfect loving, caring, nurturing grandmother who always put family ahead of herself, it is truly a sad day, as grandma is the last of my grandparents to pass away. So many memories. So many stories of hard times raising the kids, while granddad was out working on the railroad to provide for a large family of hungry mouths. Times that we cannot imagine in today's world. I only wish that I had asked her more about her childhood, and learned more about the good times and the bad times, and her road of life.

As family travels in for the funeral, and come together to share memories and share pictures of a truly wonderful person, I am in awe of how much love everyone had for grandma, and how much she will be missed by so many people. Sometimes you don't realize what you've lost until it's too late...Take time to give someone you care about a hug, and tell them you love them.

Grandma, I'll miss you. We'll all miss you.

Rogers Rocket Stick - Mobile Highspeed Internet

2009-03-08T12:51:00.009-06:00

Rogers just released their new version of USB high speed internet, and have a great promotion going on if you are looking for a good portable internet solution for your notebook.

The Rogers ZTE MF636 USB modem, or "Rocket Stick" is available at Rogers stores and Rogers dealers. The stick is compatible with both PC and Mac, and is pretty simple to install. The stick has a MicroSD slot so you can use it as USB memory, and as well (and very convenient), the PC and Mac drivers exist on the the stick, so there is no need for a CD.

Currently, if you commit for a year, there is no charge for the device. Regular price, device only with no plan, is $199. Data plans seem to have come down in price, although still not where they should be, I think are quite reasonable for the casual 'on the road' user. If you are thinking of using this as a full time connection, forget it. You'll pay through the nose (although, billing is capped at max $100 over your plan, with no discontinuation of service). The FLEX plan they have seems pretty good, and for my use, I think I'll be in the lower to mid range of this plan ($35-$50/mth)...and probably lowest...

Initial testing shows very easy / quick install, on the net within a few minutes. The tech specs tell of up to 7.2 Mbps download, however, after initial usage, I don't ever see that happening. It uses their 3.5G network in major centers, and edge in rural areas. I am getting right around 1 MB on average from my home, and am anxious to try it from a well covered area. Even at 1 Mbps, it's pretty punchy and very usable.

Details here... check it out.

RC Air...A New Level...

2008-07-16T13:14:00.008-06:00

Well, I'm on vacation camping, and it's becoming routine that I build an airplane or something. As you know, it's a hobby I enjoy, and I love the satisfaction of putting many hours into an airplane and taking it to flight for the first time.

This summer, I built the Reactor Bi-plane (or Bipe for short), pictured here. It's my first plane that isn't a trainer, isn't a glider, and isn't a foam of some sort. This is the real deal, has scale aerodynamic surfaces, and really is meant to fly like a real plane.

It took me about a week and a half to assemble, and this morning, I took it on it's maiden flight. Out in the Shuswaps here, I found a full size grass airstrip that doesn't see much action from real aircraft, so I chose it to fly my Bipe here. This am, wind socks were telling me about 10-15 knots of wind, which is a little on the heavy side for a first test flight of the Bipe....but what the hell.

This plane flies SO much nicer than all the others I've flown so far (I've got 6 others...most of them still flyable). It's a very striking plane on the ground, and even more so in the air. It's much more stable than my other aircraft, as it's a bit bigger, and with two wings, it floats a lot nicer. Rolls are precise. Loops are accurate, nice and round. Landings are easy as you can bring it in so nice and slow .... lots of lift.

Stay posted. I'm going to get Dianne to try and get some video. Not real easy trying to track this all over the sky...but we'll give it a shot.

I truly enjoy building and flying RC. I keep saying to myself, I enjoy it because I'm fortunate to not have had too many written off aircraft....My goal is to keep it that way.... ;-)

Camping?...Not really...Its much more than that...

2008-05-19T20:52:00.012-06:00

May long weekend, and we decided this year, we would be one of the die hards and head out early in the year for the first practical camping of the year. Truth of it is, there is nothing 'die hard' about what we do. We purchased an RV last year, and we'd be lying if we said we were really 'camping'. It's RV'ing for us, and we love it.

We headed out to Jasper Thursday afternoon, and got back Monday night, and had just an awesome weekend. As a family, we really have found a passion, and we wish we could do it more often. This year, we have made an oath to use our RV as much as possible.

There are many things that I personally enjoy about hooking up the trailer, and heading out. First, and foremost, we are 'heading out'. That means, escaping the city, work, the computer (I admit, I brought my notebook, with an Aircard, but used it all of 10 minutes), and everything that we do 5 days a week, and spending focused, quality time as a unit. (I love that word. Reminds me of my grandfather who had a motorhome...always called it 'the unit').

Getting out to the mountains (or whereever), provides lots of time to do what you want to do. This weekend, we spent a LOT of time together. Throwing ball with the kids, Mark loves baseball...spent lots of time chucking around a tennis ball. Court loves football. She's getting the hang of it. We took all our mountain bikes, and rode a few trails. Dianne spent some good quality time reading, while I built an airplane, and fixed up my pal Greg's Mini-T monster truck.

We ate. Oh ya, man, we ate like kings. Almost the number 1 reason to go camping. BBQ steaks. Eggs and bacon in the AM. Sandwiches. Beer. Jasper fudge. Coffee and Baileys by the fire. Ice cream. Eat Eat Eat. Drink. Eat. Drink. Drink.

The other thing I really enjoy about RV'ing, is just being out in mountains, and being self sufficient. Having the RV certainly helps, and I love having all the ammenities (Call me spoiled, but I'm far from done 'camping'). The fridge. The running water. The 120 Volt inverter. The bathroom. The BBQ. The cookstove. The Coleman lantern. The furnace at night. The air conditioning during the day (if needed). I'm a bit of a mechanical nut, so I enjoy seeing all this stuff work.

This year, I invested in two GOOD 6V high capacity batteries, wired them in series to power the 12V system in the trailer. These are made by a company called Trojan batteries (T-125+), and have WAY more power than a traditional 12V deep cycle battery (and they weigh a freakin tonne). The batteries I had last year lasted about 2 nights. These babies lasted through the 4 nights we were there, with the furnace on every night (a serious battery sucker), and showed only half run down by the end of the weekend.

All in all, our camping adventures are memorable for all of us, and we intend on creating more memories all summer long. Beats the hell out of work, and helps to provide some balance in our busy work and regular life schedules.

Indoor RC!

2008-03-09T21:54:00.007-06:00

Last year, I was re-introduced to the world of Radio Controlled technology by a friend (who is an R/C genious and has been doing this for 30 years). Previously, I played a bit with R/C cars, and quickly found myself lacking the excitement to stay interested. But it's different now. I'm now dabbling with R/C aircraft.

I've always been interested in aviation, so much so that I got my private pilot's license about 6 years ago. Flying real airplanes is a joy that I will always cherish and be thankful that I have the opportunity to do. But it's expensive, time consuming, and doesn't happen as much as I'd like. Radio controlled aircraft is a refreshing substitute.

Last year, I got my first R/C aircraft. It's an EZ Star by Multiplex, and is pretty much a big powered glider. I recommend it for anyone who is looking to get into the hobby. Docile, easy to fly, very flexible, and easy to maintain. But it's meant for park flying. So what happens when winter comes?

Indoor flying. They call the foamies, and tonight, I flew my first foamie in a huge, empty warehouse. It's called a Sobre (pictured), and is made by E-Flite. My R/C genious friend Darin put it together, and it flies solid. (Not that I have much to compare with). It's really amazing to see how far battery, motor and radio technology has come. These indoor planes are powered by tiny, powerful motors, thin, light Li-PO battery packs, and tiny servos and receivers. This Sobre is a full 3D airplane, meaning you can do all the normal aerobatics that the big planes do....I'm happy to just fly it in square circuits and keep it in the air.

....I'm also happy to report, my plane came back in one piece. :-)

I can see where this hobby can get extremely addictive. So many planes to build. So many motors to choose from...so much to learn....

Google Street View - What next?

2008-01-28T21:29:00.000-07:00

Today, someone told me about Google Street view. I was blown away. It's been out for a while, but this is the first I heard of it.

If you don't use Google maps, today, you should start. These guys think of everything. What they have here is revolutionary...and seemingly impossible, but once again, a reality.

It's really great to have maps on your computer. Very cool to have a satellite view to go along with it. What about a street view? What does a given street look like from a car? What do the buildings look like? The roads and sidewalks? The trees? Google street view can show you.

It's only available in major cities, but it's amazing to see how much Google has mapped out already.

Take a look at times square below. Click on the arrows and move yourself around. Awesome!

Want to know how they do it? Check out these posts:

The Camera...

Immersive Media - One of the companies hired to shoot photos

This girl is rockin!

2008-01-27T14:39:00.001-07:00

I came across this video and had to post it. If you listen to classic rock, you'll recognize this tune. Its Carry on My Wayward Sun by Kansas.

This young girl is simply amazing with the way she has reproduced this tune on an organ. The rythm, tune and effects are pretty darn good considering she doesn't have a 5 man band behind her...

Happy New Year!

2008-01-01T18:20:00.000-07:00

Well, another year has gone by, and as I look back on everything that has happened in 2007, and wonder how 2008 can be any more fullfilling at home or at the office.

It was truly a busy year. 2007 brought us some new family adventures with our RV this year. We spent some great weekends away from our busy home / work lives at some beautiful spots in Alberta, as well as a relaxing vacation in Radium and the Shuswaps. 2008 will hopefully bring some US travel down the Oregon / California coast...

Mark started playing hockey this year, and he absolutely loves it. He's turning out be a great little player, and I really think it's due to his love for the sport (between NHL 08 on the PS3, street hockey, Oilers games and Flaming pucks, he doesn't leave much time for anything else). It's awesome to watch these little guys progress throughout the year as they get more ice time under their belt. This Christmas, the Flaming Pucks (Marks team) played in a city wide tournament and won 4 out of 5 of their games. The whole family was present for all the games, and we had a blast cheering on the team. We've definitely turned into a hockey family....and we all love it.

On the work front....where do I start? Dianne is getting busier and busier, and puts in 3-4 days a week, depending on the time of the month (billing / payroll etc). She does the bookkeeping, and although it's turning into almost a full time job, she really enjoys it (at least that's what she tells me :-). Our team at the office has really gelled. We've got a great team of 8 people right now, everyone is working hard, and it shows in the progress we made this year. In fact, this year, we were published in Alberta Venture magazine as one of the top 50 fastest growing companies!

This year our company launched the ProExchange, which is a content library of training titles that our training sites can tap into and either sell training on their site, or consume for internal training. Along with launching the ProExchange, we also upgraded our training software to be fully SCORM compliant. Unless you are in the training industry, you probably don't know what SCORM is, but if you do want to run a training site, SCORM is very important as it provides a standard for learning content that you create and upload to our system.

This coming year will bring more innovation at ProTraining. We are currently working on a project that is due to be launched inside of a month or two that will allow us to penetrate a new market for us, and build our volume of retain training sites. Oh, and in between mainting putting up new sites and working on a couple other special projects, we plan on launching a new version of our website....again.

Other than than, our kids had a great year at school, family is healthy, we have finally settled in one place and don't plan on moving for a while. We had an awesome break between Christmas and New Years, and look forward to another great year!

Happy New Year!

High Definition TV and no HD box?

2007-12-08T15:47:00.000-07:00

I have a friend. Let's call him Mr. Deprived. Mr. Deprived was telling us about all about his wonderful new 67" HD TV. Watching movies, weekly programming and your favorite sports channel on a 67" HD TV would be truly awesome, especially with all the growing list of HD programming available on digital cable and satellite.

But then, Mr. Deprived mentioned that he didn't have an HD cable box or sat box. "huh? Ya right, you don't... Why would you have a 67" HD TV and no HD tuner?"

I have a 50" HD TV with Shaw HD Digital cable. Compare it to normal programming, it's night and day. Now when I turn on the TV, I immediately search the HD channels first for something that I like, and watch it in HD.

If you have an HD TV, and you have yet to upgrade your box to HD, you need to hit the Tim Hortons drive thru, buy yourself a coffee and box of timbits, and head over to your local Future Shop. Plunk yourself down on the couch and watch some of their HD. After you do, stand up, slap yourself a couple times, and walk over and pick up an HD tuner.

Let's talk about PVR now. When I first got my PVR, I wondered if I would ever use it. Now that I've had it for a year, I don't know what I would do without it. I don't watch a whole lot of TV, usually because it's not convenient to catch my favorite programs when they air. No problem. Find the program in the program guide, select series record, and the PVR will record all episodes of your favorite program for you to watch on a Friday night. Watch sports? When Gagner makes his triple-head bob shootout goal to win the game, you can hit rewind/play and watch it 4 times if you like. Need to take a leak, but don't want to leave the tv set? Hit pause, do your b'iness, and come back and hit play.

Back to Mr. Deprived. Mr. Deprived thinks that an HD tuner would be great. Well Mr. Deprived, I'm here to reinforce your thoughts and, despite any outside forces that say you don't need it, you must look at the precious 67" TV minutes you are wasting in Low Def without a very necessary HD tuner. You are doing your 67" of 1080p a major disservice by not having one.

Your HD Support Team

Radium and the Shwaps - 2007

2007-11-11T20:10:00.000-07:00

This year, the Rieps invested in a holiday trailer, and headed out to BC for a couple weeks. We were quickly reminded of how much we enjoy hitting the road and travelling with the kids with an RV. RV'ing forces you to get away from day to day life, and delivers good quality time with family and friends.

This year, we managed to get out 4 or 5 times, but the best part of the summer was our vacation in the Shuswaps. My folks have a place on the lake that we can pull our RV into. We have easy access to the lake, dad has a great boat, and with an endless supply of cold beer and margaritas, it makes for a nice spot in the summer.

I'm just now, finally editing together a video. This video is a small segment of 'life on the lake'. This summer brought hot, hot weather, and lots of fun.

Your business needs you at 40,000 feet!

2007-11-07T19:39:00.000-07:00

Today I spent a second day in a boardroom with my business partner Chris and a business strategy coach discussing our company ProTraining.com. We decided to take on a third party company to facilitate some strategy sessions in order to evaluate our business and determine where we are today, and where we need to be going tomorrow.

I've not been through such an intense strategy session before, and although it was an exhausting exercise, the end result is everything we could have imagined and more, and has gone a long ways to help us refine a vision that we both believe in and can continue to carry forward.

After thinking about what we went through in two days, and what we accomplished, the thing that continually surprises me is how much a few engaged minds can accomplish and sort out in less than 2 days of concentrated effort.

The other thing that I've come to realize, that is probably a weakness of most small, busy organizations, is that it is so easy to fall into the trap of spending all of your time working IN your company (day to day operations), and not at the 40,000 foot level working ON your company. Some might think that this level of thinking isn't really that necessary in a small company....I beg to differ. It might be tough. It might be seemingly impossible. But every time we visit the 40,000 foot level, there is most definitely a payoff.

Try and remember what those creative, entrepreneurial days were like when you first started your business. If you haven't been there in a while, force yourself to go back there. Do what it takes. Hire a coach. Whatever it is, take the time. Trust me, it will make a difference.

Mark Tends the Net for the Flaming Pucks

2007-10-17T22:29:00.000-06:00

This hockey season, right out of the gate, Mark was given the opportunity to be a goaltender for his team, the Flaming Pucks. To say the least, Mark was ecstatic, as he loves goaltending.

Well, our shining star worked hard tending the net, and produced a shut-out with a 5-0 win, so it was a great first experience. He played a second game, where the pucks lost 5-4, but it was a well matched opposing team, and Mark held his own.

In this league, the goalie equipment goes around the team so everyone has a chance to play the position, and Mark was pleased that he got it first.

Great job, Mark. You did awesome for your first time!

T2 Platform Becomes SCORM Compliant

2007-10-16T20:55:00.000-06:00

If you want to be someone in the e-learning / training industry, and you are a training software platform, you need to be SCORM compliant. SCORM, short for Sharable Content Object Reference Model, is an industry standard protocol that allows e-learning content and LMS (Learning Management Systems) to communicate with each other. So what does that mean, really?

Well, in short, if we at ProTraining.com want to be 'compatible' with all the major e-learning content creation tools out in the training software sphere, we need to be SCORM compliant. If we were SCORM compliant, then anyone could create content with such e-learning tools, and upload it to our T2 Platform. Our platform would then be able to launch, track, and control the users training experience without the need to for fancy content programming or LMS programming.

So how do we make our platform SCORM compliant? Well, you could download two 3" binders full of SCORM architecture and coding guidelines, take a 6 month hiatus, hire 3 developers, and attempt to code a SCORM engine.

...or you could call on Rustici Software (http://www.scorm.com/). Rustici has a powerful product for both LMS software companies (like us), and content creators. We decided to engage Rustici for our SCORM implementation, and let me tell you, I am nothing short of impressed with the company.

Rustici is a top notch Internet company, and in many ways, reminds me of ourselves at ProTraining.com. A down to earth group of ambitious, focused, organized individuals, with a great product, and A1 customer service. They have equipped many companies with their SCORM driver, and you can tell. Their integration expertise, and product knowledge show it.

Today, we launched a BETA version of our SCORM functionality. If you have a powerpoint presentation, you can convert it with a product like Articulate Presenter (the #1 e-learning content creation tool on the internet, and one that also uses the Rustici SCORM driver), and literally, within seconds, upload it through our SCORM interface to have your own trackable internet based e-learning course. This is one of the long awaited holes that needed to be filled in our offering, and allows us to aggressively compete with most of the LMS companies on the market.

In product development, one has to weigh out the pro's and con's of going with third party software, and usually one of the tradeoffs is lack of tight integration with your software. The Rustici SCORM driver is an exception. It's integration is smooth, powerful and seemless. I would highly recommend it to any LMS company looking for SCORM.

Hockey Coach 101

2007-10-03T20:47:00.000-06:00

This year, Mark is playing his first year of hockey. He's quite excited, and so far loves it.

I decided that the best way to get involved was to sign up on the coach roster. Well a couple days ago I heard that I'm officially one of the assistant coaches.

Tonight was our first practice. Turned out our head coach couldn't make it, so myself and a couple of the other coaches took on the task. None of us have any experience coaching, so it was an interesting night.

Luckily, on the other half of the ice, was a seasoned coach with his kids, so he basically ordered the drills for our kids and we coached them through it. At the end of the night, we had a scrimmage against the other team, and it was a bunch of fun watching and skating with 10 aimless kids, congregating like bees on a honey bear.

All in all, it was a great night. I'm jazzed about coaching. It's great skating around, mentoring these little guys, helping them skate, hold their stick, handle the puck, and on and on. What's even better, is that I get ice time with Mark, get to follow his progress, and most importantly, do something we both love doing....together.

Fort McMurray Flight - 2007

2007-10-02T22:11:00.001-06:00

This week, for business (and convienently, for pleasure), my partner Chris and I rented an airplane and flew up to Fort McMurray. Ft Mac is about a 4-5 hour drive, but takes us about 1.5 hours in a 4 seater. We chose to fly. :-)

We rented our new favorite airplane, the Diamond DA-40. This is the plane we recently trained up on, and has the new Garmin G1000 glass cockpit. It's a pleasure to fly...a bit on the complex side, but nevertheless, really great to fly. It has an airspeed of roughly 125 knots which is about 230 km/hr, so it will get you places quick. Having two pilots in the cockpit is also refreshing. There is an obvious advantage in that you can bounce things off of each other and keep each other sharp.

Ft Mac was a great adventure. I piloted the DA on the way up to Ft Mac, and it was very much non-eventful. Pretty smooth ride all the way in, with clouds at about 5500 ASL, which left us plenty of margin. Landing into Ft Mac was also a non-event.

This morning, we attended our meeting at the Albian Oil Sands to discuss our training platform (T2 Platform). There was definitely some interest in our software for certain areas, and we will explore these opportunities. For us, this is a foot in the door in oil country, an industry we haven't yet ventured into.

We decided to take an extra hour on the way out, and fly around the oil sands. This is the first time up to Ft Mac for both of us, and we wanted to take in the sites from the air. I was nothing short of impressed on the activity up there, and level of chaos with all that is going on. You really don't realize how fortunate we are to live in Alberta when you see the magnitude of what our natural resources up north bring to our economy here.

The last part of the video (and the last site) shows the CNRL site, which my cousin David Rouleau works at. He is the Manager of Mining Operations and has a large responsibility as this site builds out. He was telling me that this is a 7.5 Billion dollar project, and is about a year away from starting production. Once operational, their site will pump out a stunning 110,000 barrels of synthetic crude oil per day. Future phases of construction will increase that to upwards around 500,000 barrels per day.

Chris flew on the way back and got to land the rainy windy landing you'll see at the end of the video :-) I had the opportunity to take some video of the sites on the way back (as well as some video on the way up as well - thanks to autopilot ;-)

Warning: The video you are about to watch has been severly impacted by light turbulance. If you are at any level affected by motion sickness, please take 2 gravol before you watch this video, and have your air sickness baggie handy.

Jeppesen Flight Planner - The only way to fly

2007-09-30T19:33:00.000-06:00

Tomorrow I head out with my business partner to Fort McMurray. It's about a 5 hour drive, but we rented an airplane that we're going to pilot tomorrow, and it will only take us 1 hour and 38 minutes.

When embarking on a cross country, you have to calculate your flight time, fuel time, factor in winds and weather, calculate your weight and balance for passengers and fuel, and more. There are two ways to do this... You can either do all these calculations with your aircraft manual and charts with countless calculations (pilots need to learn how to do it this way for proper understanding), or you can flight planning software such as Jeppesen Internet Flight Planner.

Jeppesen has been selling flight planning software for years, but within the last year, released their Internet version that you can 'lease' for about 15 bucks a month. This software is simply awesome and highly recommended. Creating and calculating your flight plan is easily done in just a few steps. Enter your departure point, departure time, and your destination and click plan route. You can even download real time weather and forecasts through the software, and it will chart your cloud levels and wind speed and direction, and factor it into your flight plan, adjusting your altitude and flight time as necessary.

JIFP also lets you download and store your aircraft specifications and will assist you in calculating your weight and balance so you can determine if your fuel and passenger weights are within limits and it's safe to fly.

Once you are done entering your criteria, and you have your flight plan all complete, you can save it to their servers for future flights. As well, the JIFP allows you to print your ICAO flight plan that you are required to submit before you flight, as well your nav log and overall flight plan.

Got a GPS with a memory card in your plane? The software even lets you upload your calculated plan to your plane.

It's technology and advances like this (along with all the new avionics, live cockpit weather, glass panel cockpits etc) that excite me most about the future of aviation. This kind of technology, providing it is properly harnessed, will only make general aviation safer, easier and more fun for everyone.

Hunting Trip - 2007

2007-09-25T20:41:00.000-06:00

Huh?

Hunting? Me? Yes, I know. Say it now. I'm no hunter. Well, you are right, I am not an avid hunter. In fact, I have VERY limited experience hunting. My biz partner Chris took me bird hunting for an afternoon last year. That was the first time. This trip is the second time. So why did I go? Well, how can you know if you like something unless you try?

Hey, I got an idea. Let's pitch a tent the middle of friggin nowhere.

So my Uncle Rick and Cousin Sid invite me out to a hunting trip this year up in the middle of nowhere with them, and I jump at the opportunity. Now when I say out in the middle of nowhere, I'm not kidding. Sid and Rick managed to find a 'spot' about 100 km southeast of Grand Prarie. We drove in about 80 km on a forestry trunk road, then about 25 km on a dirt (actually mud, more on that later) road further into the middle of nowhere. If I didn't have a GPS to get me there, I'm pretty sure I'd be sleeping with the moose right now, still trying to find them.

We are geared up.
Between Sid and Rick however, we've got a pretty nice setup. Like a 16 x 20 'tent' with a porch that you can stand in, pro tent furnace / stove to keep our extremeties toasty, a Polaris Ranger and another Polaris quad, about 15 lanterns, a 3 burner, industrial camp size stove, 3 propane tanks, bbq, and more. I mean, we were comfortable. It was raining outside, close to freezing, and we were in t-shirts in the 'tent'.

But the shower. Damn. Where was the shower? Uncle Rick, I thought with all the fancy gear you had, that you would have some sort of automatic push button, fold out shower stall. Nope. We had a bag of water. Lemme tell you, my boyz were chilly out there.

Oh well, I can't complain. I was just happy to have a shower. And even more happy that THEY could have a shower.

The first hunt....

The first day Rick and I went out and burned around looking for grouse. We managed to pick off 3 of them and brought them back. Rick demonstrated looney toon style skinning. Pretty small bird, but instead of just breasting them, he defeathered the whole thing. Damn cute little things. Hell with them. Let's eat! We cooked them up on the bbq, and they were quite tasty. Doesn't get much more fresh.

The second hunt....
So, what am I out there to hunt, exactly? Well, I really had no clue.... I was told to get my upland game bird, and a deer ticket. Rick had a license for everything under the sun, so he was shooting anything that moves. So I've got birds so far. Friday morning will be big game. So there is this crazy rule that you have to be off your quads in the AM in certain areas (including ours) a half hour before sunrise, until 12:00. So guess what time sunrise is? 7:30. And guess how much time it takes us to get there? 45 minutes. and guess what time we have to wake up to get ready and head out? 5:30. Yes, 5:30 in the friggin AM. Shit, there goes my 'holiday'.

So this is the most screwed up part of 'hunting' as far as I can tell.... See that picture to the right? That's bear shit. Yes, bear shit. Don't tell me how Rick and Sid know that (I certainly didn't take animal dung 101 in high school), but they somehow knew, and I'm wishing they didn't know, so that I didn't know.

Now its 6:30 AM, and we are just about to head out. It's PITCH BLACK, and we are heading out in a quad, up in some remote forest that no one but us knows about. With the bears. Now don't get me wrong. I have a gun. That's great. But hell, I've fired a gun maybe 3 times in my life. Do I know how to use one? Well I got my restricted and non-restricted FAC about 6 months ago, so in theory, I can use a gun. But put me in front of a bear, I'm not really sure what I'd end up shooting. Hopefully the bear.

So if you can imagine, we're driving up the side of a mountain in darkness, with two little dim rays of headlights piercing the dark void around us, and really no clue whats in the bush. At this point, I'm just hoping the sun decides to come up....eventually....

We find our spot, park the quad, gear up, and start walking the trails. The sun is coming up now, and all is good. It's quiet, peacefull really, and litterally 10 minutes into our hike along the cutline, a large animal quietly walks out in front of us about 150 yards away. Apparently it's an elk (all along I thought it was a deer. I was later corrected. I think I better put the gun away and stick to computers). It was looking right at us. We both had our sights on it, but it was looking at us and we couldn't count the points on it's antlers for us to tell how old it was and if we could take it down. It started walking straight toward us. We held up until it turned it's head. Then suddenly it just bolted into the trees. Rick took a shot, but it was too late. He missed and it was gone.

And that was it for the weekend big game experience. We spent the rest of our morning trudgine along, looking for more action, but turned up nothing.

More Birds....
Well, if you can't land a deer or elk, you just go out and shoot the poor, helpless little birds with the big gun. (Did I mention they are tastey little bastards?). So we did. I think we got 8 that afternoon. Sid and I roamed around in his ranger shooting them with .22's and shotguns. Was a blast.

Dirty, dirty little grouse....
Time to clean them. This time, I partook in the festivities. I have a video below demonstrating the first step. The first couple were a bit disturbing, but after a few, it became quite simple, and didn't really bother me. In fact, I began to enjoy it. Trying to perfect the debreasting, being carefull not to wreck the meat. Call me crazy.

The night of the bear incident...
ok, I'm going to clear the air right now. Friday night, I awoke at 3 AM. SOMETHING was out there. Hell If know what it was, but it was BIG. I know it was. It had claws. It snorted. It grunted. It brushed up against the tent. It was on our porch looking around. And dammit, I wasn't gonna let it get my favorite cousin sid (he hadn't had a shower in 3 days, so I knew the animal was going to eat him first). I poked Ricky, and grabbed my rifle in preparation. I was ready. Alert. I was taking him down.

Well Ricky brushed it off as nothing. Ladies and gentlmen, boys and girls. I'm smarter than that. I knew there was something there. Ricky turned on his flashlight, and that probably scared our 600 lb grizzly away. He was there. End of story. I saved both of your lives by waking up. We'd all be breakfast right now if it wasn't for me. Thank me later gents.

We are back...again....you stupid little birds.

So Saturday, we get up, have a liesurly breakfast, clean up, and head out later in the morning for more birds. And we drive down the same roads as we did the previous days. And they are still hanging around there. You think they'd clue in and notice that their pals are dropping like flies every time the quad goes by. Nope, they are back. I guess they have really small little brains. You can't blame them. BLAM-BLAM. More bird to eat. I love this.

Saturday night...more big game hunting...
This time, Ricky and I separate at dusk, and man two posts. I was manning a field, while he was manning another behind me. We waited for about an hour and a half. No action. Too bad. Damn deer. or elk. Or whatever the hell I was supposed to shoot.

Fireball....Don't touch the stuff
So we head back to camp, clean up, have dinner, and have a few drinks. Ricky brings out 'Fireball'. Cinnamon flavoured whiskey. "Here, try it. It warms you up.". Warms you up? Shit man, after only one glass, I had a headache, and was developing a case of the runs. No thanks. I stuck to my Crown Royal and was happy with that.

Sunday was an adventure....
Time to go back. Packing was painless. The hunting tent is the shit. Unfortunately, Sid has come up with flu like symptoms. I blame the fireball.

The drive home, however....not so painless. Sid takes the standard forestry trunk road and another safe route back to GP as he is pulling a trailer (Plus he drives a hummer with huge wheels, which helps). Ricky and I however, decide to 'cut an hour' out of our drive, and take a forestry road that goes direct east. Oh ya, this will save us an hour. Well, about a quarter ways in, this road turns to complete shit, and was a ridiculous mess. I wish I had video of Ricky's truck. It was sliding all over the place with the weight in the back. I thought for sure we were setting up camp again, and waiting for the helicopters to come fly us out.

Well this route took us probably an extra hour and a half to get thru. Oh well, live and learn. Adventure it was. We're lucky to have made it out. It was a complete mess. Over the couple hours we travelled that road, I think we saw 3 vehicles. There was a reason.

All in all, a great trip.

Besides almost getting eaten alive Friday night, it was a great trip. Would I do it again? You bet. Rick and Sid were great to camp with. (After all, they have all the cool hunting and camping shit). I realized that half the fun of this hunting trip was, well, hunting, but more importantly, they other half is hanging around the fire with uncle Rick and cousin Sid with a coffee and Baileys (and god forbid...Fireball) and just shooting the shit. Cousin David often attends these trips and is an avid hunter, but couldn't make it this year. Hope to see you next time I'm out! (p.s. Bring a fold up shower stall)

Check the photo album here, as well as the video below. Sorry, not too much editing on this video. Who has time for that? :-)

T2 Platform is being retrofitted with ColdFusion 8

2007-09-11T21:26:00.000-06:00

ColdFusion 8 is out, it's hot, and we got it on order for our T2 Platform at http://www.protraining.com/. After upgrading to MX7 only 8 months ago, here we are again already, spending more cash again to upgrade our servers to the latest version. But this time, it's well worth it...

The latest version of ColdFusion brings a LOT of great new, powerful features. Now I don't want to get into any ASP.NET / PHP / ColdFusion debates about which web development platform is the best and why, because at the end of the day, I believe its the end result that counts, and providing the application provides all the features, stability and scalablility that your client requires, I don't really care what you use.

But let me tell you, for rapid app. development, ColdFusion 8 has some pretty powerful new features that provide awesome functionality to your web application without the need to reinvent the wheel. I don't think I know of any other web application servers that provide as healthy a featureset as ColdFusion 8. Here are some of my favorites:

New Adobe PDF doc features (pdf creation, form field population, pdf manipulation)
New Ajax features for creating Ajax tools
New interactive debugger
On demand E-Learning presentation builder (although I'm curious to see how much overhead this requires)
ZIP file manipulation
Server Monitor diagnostics
Image manipulation object

I have to say, after the takeover of Macromedia by Adobe in 2005, I was a bit leary of ColdFusion's future product development path, but with a beefy release like ColdFusion 8, I am quite confident that Adobe takes its web server application development just as serious as it's design tool software.

Check out a complete list of features at www.adobe.com/products/coldfusion

Widescreen Video and Vimeo.com

2007-09-11T21:12:00.001-06:00

I did a bit of poking around, and finally figured out how to upload 16 x 9 video. I also found out that only certain video hosting services will host widescreen video in its full format, and not 'letterbox' it (16x9 video in a regular 4x3 box with black strips top and bottom). Vimeo.com is one such service.

Vimeo is easy to use, they have lots of features, and their support guys were a great help. You can upload 250 MB worth of video per week, control access to each clip, tag and index the clip, and even format your embed code properties.

The also have an API which I am looking forward to playing with. My goal is to use a service like Vimeo to upload, convert and host my videos, and then create a nice video library page on my site, with my brand etc, using their API.

The conversion to flash video comes out awesome. I uploaded the video below that I created a while back, and it came out great...

It's worth the time to play with if you are looking for a good video hoster, and has been rated highly by internet video experts alike.

Picasa the Great.

2007-09-10T21:30:00.000-06:00

So I've started step one of organizing my photos, and that's getting them organized into dated folders, and running Google Picasa thru them to index them.

If you don't have a good tool to organize your photos, and you are also looking to host them somewhere, Picasa is a great tool.

Easy to manage (all client side), easy to organize into web albums, and a snap to upload to Google Web Albums.

Got video? It can organize and upload video as well.

Now I have the daunting task of sifting through 3500 photos in my "My Pictures" folder, but Picasa will go a long way to making it easier.

I've a got a few photos at http://picasaweb.google.com/donriep.com , and more to come... ;-)

What's the deal with 16x9 video?

2007-09-09T23:50:00.000-06:00

ok, I've spent, maybe 3 nights, trying to find a video hosting site, or a proper video format for uploading 16x9 video.

I convert video into 5 different formats, upload them, and they all come out encoded in 4x3, and the video is squashed. Albeit, it makes all of us look nice and skinny, other things just don't look so right.

So if you know of a site that accepts and hosts 16x9 video, I'd appreciate you dropping me a comment.

Lots of HD widescreen cameras out there now....what gives?!?!?

Maligne Canyon

2007-09-09T21:47:00.000-06:00

This summer, we took our RV out to a number of spots, and Dianne and the kids and I had a great time. The last trip we made was to Jasper. We had great weather, and spent a lot of time in the great outdoors.

About 20 minutes from Jasper is Maligne canyon. It's a great trek atop some spectacular gorges up to 165 ft deep. Several foot bridges cross the canyon at 5 different points, and some of the sights are awesome.

It's about a half hour walk, maybe 5 km in length. Nothing too serious, so if you are ever in Jasper, be sure and take it in.

I've posted some video of the canyon below. If you look closely in the second and third clip, you'll see water emptying into the canyon from below the mountain. Pretty cool sight....

ProTraining.com Does Chicago

2007-09-09T21:18:00.000-06:00

We recently came back from Chicago at the ASAE tradeshow. The ASAE is the American Society of Association Executives, and we chose to exhibit at their annual tradeshow.

As one of the owners of the company (http://www.protraining.com/), believe me when I say, you do everything you can to make the show a success, as the show costs are coming out of your own pocket, so to speak. :-)

So in preparation for this show, we upgraded our booth, designed and printed professional brochures, had great USB drive promo items, and sent our best 'tradeshow worthy' people down (Chris, my partner, Greg our sales person, and myself).

It was a great show. A Fairly good turnout, and best of all, our company and our product (T2 Platform) had very little competition at the show, and gained great interest from a lot of prospective customers.

They say the real work begins when you get back, so we've been busy with post show marketing and follow up. Time will tell, but we are pretty sure we'll be back for the show next year.

Mark survives his first hockey tryout

2007-09-09T20:27:00.000-06:00

Yesterday, Mark went through his first hockey try-outs for his first season of hockey. We are very proud of him, he did great, and he is very pleased.

Not knowing what to expect, he was nervous going into his evaluation. This is his first time, and being a late starter, there were many others his age that had done this 3 or 4 times already. This was Marks first time.

But his confidence, and hard work pulled him through, and he pulled off a great evaluation. 2 weeks of hockey camp, and a whack of skating lessons last year certainly helped, but more than anything, he didn't let the pressure get to him, skated his drills, and finished up with a big smile on his face.

This year Mark is really looking forward to hockey. And so am I.

Getting him dressed, tying up his skates in the sweaty dressing room, seeing him out there with all the other kids, brings back lots of fond memories when I played at his age. He's got the itch. I've got the itch, and I can't WAIT until the season starts.

I'm proud of you Mark, to start this late, and have the confidence you do, you are going to do awesome, and are gonna have a great time!