I’m a do-it-yourself kinda of guy. I generally like learning new things, and was contemplating learning PHP and MySQL to build a content management system for a website. I figured I would tie that in with something that I was planning on building at work – an internal website with technical resources for our Customer Care agents.
I took a quick look and realized this wasn’t going to be a quick task to learn all I needed to and then implement it. Time being a big more of the essence than would permit such meandering, I looked at my web host and checked out what they provided. Of all the packages for handling content, Joomla really stood out.
After some tweaking and playing, I decided that will be the way I go for the website I’m building for myself too. It’s fairly easy, quite configurable and has a plethora of support forums and free ad-ons.
my girlfriend’s uncle and his girlfriend gave me a very nifty unexpected Christmas gift this year. The Picoo Z is a very mi nature (fits in your hand) remote controlled helicopter! The body is a molded-foam shell around minimalist electronics that do the job just fine. It takes 20 to 30 minutes to charge the on board battery which will yeild about 5 to 10 minutes of flying time.
I must admit that I’m not very good at flying it as of yet – but I’m getting better. I’ve been playing too many computer games where the impulse to release the accelerator and jam the brakes are the solution to most trouble spots. With the helicopter the opposite seems generally needed – dropping into a hazardous area of your home? Gun it and the little thing zips upwards.
It’s not suited for outdoor use – a slight breeze will alter it’s flight path and the sunlight will interfere with it’s infared reciever. I think there was some wisdom to the use of infared instead of radio transmitters – many homes and offices are ripe with radio waves bouncing around. Electronics devices, wireless networks, cellular and cordless phones all would create interferance. Infared is much less likely to recieve crossed signals in such conditions.
They offer three different models (varying in appearance not construction) which allows you to fly three simultanteously since each has it’s own channel. Once I get the hang of getting mine to fly where I want it to go it’d be fun to get some dog fights going.
With less than ten minutes left to Christmas day, I’d like to extend to all my readers a Merry Christmas! greeting.
Regardless of spiritual beliefs towards the meaning of December 25th, I’ve come to appreciate that it’s a time of year where family, friends, and loved ones can get together and appreciate each other’s company.
The gift exchanging is nice, and I found much joy in the giving this year.
I got some things I wanted and a few toys that’ll keep me feeling like a kid for the next while, but that’s for another post.
Happy Holidays!
Comments (0) 
Themocracy