The most interesting things on the web! (hah!)

I finally have something really cool to show from my job. We have a client who wanted a “Kiosk” in their rental office that guests could browse through the various units they have available. It did not need to do anything that different than our normal web work….choose arrival date, number of nights, number of guests, etc. The challenge was how to do it all with JUST a touch screen for input. The “kiosk” was going to be one of the new “all-in-one” MSI Wind Top PC’s with a 20″ touch screen.

Index Page.... simple, no nonsense. Also -- Boring

I had some idea of what was going on since I built a small .mobi site for this company last year geared toward the iPhone/iPod Touch. It turned out OK, but was nothing I really felt stood out. It works, but I honestly don’t think it gets much attention. I’d like to revisit it sometime and make some improvements with what I’ve learned on this project.

Date and Nights Selection

The site will not be available outside of this office, but I’ve got some screenshots AND A VIDEO showing off the functionality. I’m not much of a designer, so it’s not as pretty as it could be probably, but it works I think. I’ll post a couple of the fun jQuery stuff I found/did as well. I think the most instructional and entertaining part was modifying the jQuery quicksearch plugin from www.rikrikrik.com to be able to use an on-screen keyboard.

And somehow I don’t have a screenshot of that…will update later

Rather than creating a separate keyboard and try to tie it into the event handling for quicksearch, I ended up extending the plugin, adding new functionality through the options passed during the .quicksearch() call so the keyboard was fully integrated. It took some trial and error, and it likely could be done “better”, but it works, and functions great.

$('table#cabin_names tbody tr').quicksearch({
				position:'after',
				attached:'#uber_wrap',
				labelText:'',
				inputClass:'sel wide',
				watchElement:'li.alpha_btns',
				keyboard: true,
				keyboardId: 'alpha_btns'
			});

The ‘watchElement’ option is the elements that should trigger the qs() function in quicksearch. ‘keyboard’ defaults to false, but when set to true, it renders the html to insert the keyboard and bind the events to do the proper stuff. ‘keyboardId’ just lets you define the element Id so you can style at will. This extension of the plugin likely has no real use beyond sites designed for touch screens, but it was still educational, and was an interesting introduction to plugins in jQuery. I’ve never written my own, but if I find some functionality I need in the future, maybe I can break into that field too.

# of Guests

Anyhow, there’s not much else to say. This site was designed specifically for this screen, specifically to run in Firefox, specifically in Fullscreen mode. If I had more time I think it could be made to be a bit more flexible, but I suck at CSS, and I just didn’t know how to make a few things flow fluidly on different sized screens. Enjoy!

kiosk_demo

List of cabins available for selected dates and # of guests

One of the other really fun things to write/integrate was the scrolling buttons. I realized after the initial design that having regular scrollbars just wouldn’t be usable with a touch screen interface. Theoretically I could have altered the Firefox userContent.css to enlarge the scroll bars to the point they would have been usable, but that just didn’t feel right. Once again, though, jQuery plugins to the rescue! I found a nice little scrolling plugin that allowed me to bind relative scroll positions with easing to click events on the fixed-position nav-box on the right side. Not sure I’m thrilled with how it looks right now, but at least it’s functionally complete. Can always tweak it down the road.

Fun screen to write. "Buttons" are actually labels for hidden checkboxes. jQuery styling changes make it look fancy

Individual cabin page...small photos are clickable to rotate through pictures

Jo-Ann Fabric’s recently began the “Winter Warm-Up” sale and I was there coupons in hand. I purchased fourteen patterns for the price of one (they were only $.99!) and hope to use them soon. I also bought two magazines: Quilting Arts: Stitch and Sew Beautiful.

my new magazines

There are so many projects and patterns in both that I am eager to attempt. The Stitch magazine had two patterns that I completed this past weekend.

Stitch projects

What on earth did I make, you ask? Why, it’s a velvet muff and chiffon shawl, of course!

Every girl needs a velvet muff, but oddly enough, I could never find one in stores.

velvet muff with wool

The brooches on the muff are made from velvet ribbon with the tutorial in my Sew Beautiful magazine.

velvet flower brooches

I think the pins are very pretty and would look nice on a shirt for Valentine’s Day.

The chiffon was interesting to work with, but aren’t the ruffles lovely?

gorgeous

Anyone who knows me knows I adore accessories; the more capricious the accessory, the more I love it. Therefore, I couldn’t help myself when I saw the patterns and immediately purchased the materials to get started. I’m telling myself it was good practice. I worked with velvet, wool, and chiffon. I learned about the construction for lining (my spacial skills are lacking, so this was good practice), the use of different needles for different fabrics, French seams (for the chiffon), and elastic thread (did not master this, but I’ve had a decent introduction).

Not only did I get good sewing practice, but now I have a wrap for my next visit to the opera house and a muff for my next one-horse open sleigh ride.

my finery

In addition to the magazine patterns, I also finally sewed a buttercup bag. I just used fabric that I had from my second skirt and Jeanette’s pencil case.

my buttercup bag

I love its little pleats and think it’s very cute, but it’s definitely too small for me. I’m accustomed to carrying a large satchel. We’ll see if it gets much use.

My next sewing project will be tackling one of my new patterns or starting Mom’s quilt:

fabric for Mom's quilt

I can’t wait to get started this weekend!

Love,

Tiff

P.S. Brendan has shorn his lovely locks. He caused quite the stir at Church last night. I miss his hair, but it is nice to see so much of his handsome face again.

my sweet boy

Today was a snow day due to the “Arctic Blast” that swept the nation. Look at the drifts of snow behind our apartment:

Blizzard of 2010

Brendan and I slept in a little and then enjoyed a breakfast of freshly made cinnamon rolls and hot tea.

yummy

teacup from Mom for Christmas

We spent the morning out shopping at World Market, Jo-Ann’s, and Gander Mountain. Later, I went out by myself to Hobby Lobby and look what I found in the Valentine’s Day aisle:

mini ceramic cupcake!

It is so cute and perfect for my new kitchen decor. I think I’ll keep sugar in it for the few types of tea that I do sweeten. Speaking of, I think I’ll have another cup after braving the tundra.

Tennessee Tundra

Love,

Tiff

As I mentioned in my previous post, I recently went to Chilhowee Sportsman’s Club for the second time. This trip was planned at the last minute after having a conversation with one of the member’s named Curly on the ShotgunWorld.com forums. He and I were discussing the components needed for reloading on Friday night and he invited me out to shoot with his group on Saturday. I went out there about 11 and we sat in the clubhouse drinking coffee and getting to know each other. I actually did not realize that we were going to be shooting Sporting Clays at first. I’ve been so caught up shooting skeet the past few weeks, I just assumed that’s what we were going to do. But after getting one of the carts, we headed on up the hill and started one of the most interesting afternoons of shooting I’ve had yet.

I learned today that Sporting Clays and “5-stand” are not the same game. They have similarities, but are vastly different in terms of scale. In 5-stand there is one shooting platform with 5 positions, and in the field there are 6 or 7 different clay presentations and you shoot a combination of those presentations at each station.

Sporting Clays has (at least at Chilhowee), 14 stands that are scattered around the woods above the club, and each station has it’s own two throwers. All stations are thrown as either report or true pairs, and can be very challenging. All of them are difficult to some degree, and learning how to lead a target that’s dropping down a hillside is quite a challenge, as well as a test of patience as some of the incoming birds come towards the stand from far away…much too far to try to hit with the imp. cyl. and mod chokes I was shooting today. I can see the advantage of extended, knurled chokes in this game….one stand might have two very close crossing targets similar to skeet where a cyl and imp. cyl choke would work perfectly, and then the next stand would have two LONG range targets launched as a true pair where I was wondering if even a full choke would put enough shot out there to hit them. One of the guys I was shooting with proved it was possible though It was astounding seeing him break both targets well past where I would have guessed the shotgun would be useful.

All in all though, I really enjoyed the 14 stand circuit at Chilhowee. The flight paths are extremely varied, and you have to take trees into account as some paths cross between groves of trees so you must time your shots well and do not always have continuous picture of the bird. Even without that fact, the staff at Chilhowee uses the mountainous terrain there to great effect, aiming some birds along ridges, or rising out of a gully. One of my favorite presentations was two birds launched as a true pair, coming up the valley from about 11 o’clock and behind trees almost the entire way. There was a very small window about 20 feet wide where you had to hit the targets between a few trees, otherwise they were in the ground just past the next tree.

If you are in the Knoxville, TN area and enjoy clay sports, you should definitely try out Chilhowee. They are a bit on the expensive side for non-members, but the experience is worth the slightly higher cost compared to most other fields I’ve been do. Check them out at http://www.chilhoweesportsmansclub.com

One of the main purposes of this trip as I mentioned before was to meet these guys who all reload their own shells and were willing to help me find some hulls that were good for reloading as well as showing me some of the benefits of doing so. The light 3/4 ounce loads that Curly uses were amazing. Very light recoil, almost no gun movement, and still capable of breaking every target out there. Even ignoring the cost effectiveness of reloading, merely the wonderfully light, shoulder-sensitive loads you can create makes it worth it. The 1-1/8oz factory loads I have been shooting feel like monsters in comparison. I am definitely looking into the equipment and components I need to start loading my own hulls as soon as reasonably possible. Problem is you kinda have to buy in bulk to make it cost effective….i.e. large chunks of money out the door at once rather than the current method of buying smaller amounts of ammo, but at a greater cost over time. So we’ll see. I’d like to get started soon, but I’m not sure it’s financially that wise/possible.

Mom and I made this sewing machine cover for my Kenmore 15408.

machine cover

I brought my machine to Ohio so that we could sew. Mom and I agreed that I needed a cover for it, especially if I am going to be transporting it for my sewing circle. The machine has a handle and we created a bag with overlapping flaps that the handle of the machine fits through.

I bought this fabric from Jo-Ann’s with the gift card that I received from the Sullivans.

quilted fabric

We definitely “winged” this project. Mom made some measurements and cut some rectangles.

side panels

Mom sewed with her Kenmore:

vintage 1979

to make a cover for my Kenmore:

Kenmore 15408

We both received our Kenmores as Christmas presents. Mom got hers from my dad on their first Christmas as a married couple. Mom bought mine for me for Christmas the year before Brendan and I got married.

Mom did most of the sewing; I did the finishing touches.

me sewing

The cover design is really quite clever.

1. Place machine in bag:

step 1

2. Fold over flap, inserting handle through the super-long buttonhole:

step 2

3. Fold over opposite flap, inserting handle through buttonhole again:

step 3

4. Zip up the sides:

step 4

Notice the darts on the side to keep it from gaping open.

5. Button it up to keep the flap down:

step 5

It’s so cute! I didn’t really write up a tutorial since every sewing machine is different in dimensions. It’s a basic box bag design and took a little bit of trial and error. Mom and I just brainstormed and kept our seam ripper handy.

I sewed the pocket, side darts, buttonholes, and buttons.

I'm having fun!

I can’t wait to travel in style.

Love,

Tiff