Using Flash to Record Hurricane Wilma's Effects

Somewhat back on topic (as if this blog has a topic) I thought I'd share some of the ways that Flash was put to use by the two major newspapers in my area to record the damage caused by Hurricane Wilma.

This aerial tour from the Palm Beach Post of the area from Ft. Lauderdale to north of West Palm Beach has some great photos of the damage caused by the hurricane. Adding an audio narration by the photographer certainly makes this a more interesting presentation than simply posting the photographs themselves.

Less accessible is this Flash photo slide show, also from the Post, of reader submitted photos of storm damage. There an awful lot of photos listed here as I write this, which makes the use of Next and Back buttons a little less useful than other methods for listing the files. Nice pictures, but I would have liked a menu to navigate along with the buttons.

This second slide show displays images taken during the hurricane as well as immediately afterward. More of these can be found at the Post's multimedia page.

And no, this one isn't done in Flash, but for pure entertainment value this Quicktime home video of a cow that got out of its pasture and into a suburban swimming pool is worth a look.

Down in Ft. Lauderdale the Sun-Sentinel has always been a big user of Flash, and they haven't disappointed in their coverage of Hurricane Wilma. Their Hurricane Wilma Scrapbook uses Flash as a gateway to blog entries, photo galleries, and more about the storm. It seems a little odd that so many of the links take you out of Flash and back to straight HTML entries, but in some cases that isn't such a bad thing.

On the more useful, and less voyeuristic side of things, the interactive lesson on repairing a roof is a nice use of Flash. I also like the way this Flash sequence of satellite images tracks the Wilma as the storm pauses over the Yucatan peninsula and then finally races across Florida.

So there we have it. It's nice to see the local papers getting things together and publishing more Flash content. Now, if they'd take all those videos out of Windows Media and convert them to FLV files life would be easier and the videos would have fewer failures to load.

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Neener, Neener: We Have Electricity

Far be it from me to gloat, but we have electricity again. To those of you who don't? Well, I could write some comforting words of encouragement, but to be honest that's not how I feel. I'm happy for me and for us. I'm sorry you don't have power yet, but the truth is, all I feel like doing is my own little happy dance around the warm glow of an incandescent bulb that is actually plugged into the wall, and not an extension cord snaking through the house.

Does that make me a bad person?

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Will Today Be the Day for Electricity?

Things are inching ever-so-slowly back to normal here following Hurricane Wilma. We're actually hoping that today will be the day that power returns and we can resume our regular modern existence, with luxuries such as a refrigerator that works and lights that come on merely by flipping a switch.

Last night after returning from a friend's house we turned on to the main street leading to our home to see--wonder of wonders--streetlights! And what's that? Everyone on that street seems to have power! Look! Porch lights! And the unmistakable glow of televisions in their windows!

Asa we rolled down the street we could see block after block where the lights were most definitely on. Oh my. We won't have to live in the dark tonight. Won't have to light candles and stumble around with flashlights. We won't have to get by with generator power, a single lamp, and put up with the roar of generators in the neighborhood. Bliss! Joy!

And then we turned onto our own street. No porch lights. No blue glow of TV's through our neighbors' front windows. Drat! (Or similar words to that effect.)

But we're looking on the bright side, or would if we could see it from here. As we left to go to dinner last night we saw the trucks from the power company working away. Perhaps it just got too late for them to finish our street. They'll be back first thing this morning to take care of us, right? There's no major problem like there was last year that kept us in the dark for a week longer than all of the neighboring streets like last year, right? We'll have power today. Right?

Well, we're hoping anyway.

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175,000 Students Out of School

Life inches back towards normalcy here in Palm Beach County, with one major hurdle still facing us and one question in the back of all parents minds--When will schools open again?

Right now all schools are closed in our county, affecting all 175,000 students and all 167 of our schools. As of yesterday (Friday) only 42 schools have power, which makes it seem highly unlikely that schools will open on Monday. The decision will come down later today, but considering not only the lack of electricity in so many schools and the still treacherous conditions on the roads, with 90% of traffic signals inoperable, it appears that we'll be on an extended holiday a bit longer.

Of course, for many parents, this is hardly a holiday. How do you entertain the kids when you can't go anywhere or do much of anything--at least not the usual things that most kids would do. With many parents going back to work on Monday as business and government offices open again, the dilemma will be what to do with the kids.

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Something to Be Thankful For: Electricity by Thanksgiving

Well gee. I feel ever so much better now. Never mind the three hours that I spent in a gas line this morning so I could keep the generator running and the truck fueled up. After reading this from Florida Power and Light I feel so relieved at the rapid pace in which our lives here in South Florida will be able to return to normal:

The utility said it had returned power to roughly 45 percent of the more than 6 million people who lost it, but said restoration of service for all of the remaining 3.6 million people might take until Thanksgiving week.

(Update: FP & L has now provided this handy map (237 KB PDF) of the affected areas with the worst case dates for full power to be restored. We live in that little slice above Lake Worth Road, so it looks like we should easily have power before Thanksgiving. I am so happy.)

So hey, not bad, huh? Only 4 days after Hurricane Wilma passed through only 3.6 million of us are without power.

Truthfully, things are inching back towards normal, but we have a long way to go. I watched from one gas line this morning as a generator was being installed at a gas station across the road, so that's one more place we can wait in line. We can also wait for ice and water and food if we're so inclined. It's great to have options like those. Grocery stores are opening, but with power still at a premium we're still missing out on some basics like milk and other perishable items. Thankfully, there has been no reported shortage of PopTarts.

Last night we piled into the car and had our first really hot meal (that is, not heated over a camp stove) in downtown West Palm Beach at a nice French restaurant. Not exactly the kind of place that we might normally frequent, especially with kids in tow, but they were open, seating was immediate, and we were really really hungry. It was fun in a twisted sort of way to see the Very Rich making their way over from Palm Beach to grab a bite to eat at one of the few places available that had the kind of food, wine, and sparkling water that they are accustomed to. So while munching on burgers we got not only a good meal but an excellent side show put on by Paris Hilton wannabes, men who spend far too much time on grooming, and women who have such a highly-developed fashion sense that I had to ask my wife several times what exactly it was that they were wearing. One woman looked as if she'd been attacked by one of the draperies in her home, and, having subdued the offending curtain she had decided to wear it as a trophy around her neck.

So, electricity by Thanksgiving. Things could be worse. At least we can now stay out until 9:00 p.m. with our new somewhat relaxed curfew. And with that freedom maybe we'll have the chance to eat out and be entertained by the human saga going on around us in new and novel ways.

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How a Web Geek Deals With a Power Outage

I learned my lesson last year during Hurricanes Frances and Jeanne that the primary, number one thing that you miss after a storm is the modern conveniences that electricity brings you. So I was quite happy to have my little power inverter that I could hook up to the truck to bring some simple, but important creature comforts into the house. If nothing else, a lamp and a TV allow you to read and watch the news.

This year during the eye of Hurricane Wilma I hustled outside and hooked up our little power supply so we could watch the hurricane pass over us and keep an eye on the radar. It was great to have just that little bit of information available. The little power inverter kept us connected and out of the dark through the storm and into the next day.

And then on Tuesday I did a Stupid Thing. I attempted to run a power drill from the inverter to remove plywood from our windows. It was quite interesting to open up the inverter and see that the fuses were not only blown, but literally melted into the circuit board. Rats. No power.

So, bright and early the family and I set out to see if we could find an auto parts store that had a replacement in stock, as well as to see how our little city had fared. Finding no replacements (although we were offered a $450 generator at one store for the low, low post-hurricane price of $750--and yes, we will be reporting the store to the Attorney General's office for price gouging) we returned home to the prospect of candle light and, worst of all, no Internet connection or TV.

Luckily, out phone line was working and the laptop had enough power to get connected via dial-up. So, off I went to Crutchfield, by far my favorite car electronics store, where I placed an order for a new inverter and happily plunked down the extra cash for next day delivery via UPS.

Lo and behold, yesterday afternoon the UPS driver showed up, despite the fact that out airport had only been open for a half-day, with power inverter in hand. Last night we ran off the truck battery and were able to watch a movie in the relative comfort of our home. This morning there was real brewed coffee to be had, instead of the drip hot water through the filter kind that we had been surviving on. Combine that with reheated pizza courtesy of my wife's trip to the one open mall in our area and our little camp stove and we almost felt like things were normal.

Of course, things aren't really normal yet, but it sure is good to have electricity, even if we can only run a few things at a time (computer and DSL modem included).

So here's my thanks to Crutchfield and UPS. We may not have restaurants to eat in, or work to go to, but at least we have some of the basics of our modern existence back in place. And it's pretty amazing that in only two days after the passage of a major hurricane we can have hurricane supplies delivered to our door. Now, if I can just figure out how to get a hot hamburger delivered by FedEx or UPS we'll have this whole thing licked.

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Hurricane Wilma Redux

Ah yes. There's nothing quite like the gentle roar of the generator blaring away in the pre-dawn hours. After 3 days without reliable electricity we have some of the basics this morning. Brewed coffee from a real coffee maker not least among them. A live connection to the web comes a close second for me.

Hurricane Wilma struck here in West Palm Beach on Monday morning as the one of the largest hurricanes ever to strike the US. During its passage across Palm Beach County the eye of the storm was 65 miles across, effectively covering the entire county. Contrast that with Hurricane Katrina that had an eye about 1/3 that size and you get a feel for just how large this storm was--and how widespread the damage would be.

Luckily the strength of the storm was nowhere near that of Katrina, but it was plenty bad as it was. We watched from the small windows that we left uncovered in the front and the back of the house as the wind whipped trees about, blasted down our street, and slowly worked its devastation on the area. The 40 year-old avocado tree in our backyard went down early in the storm, leaning precariously against the house, but thankfully missing the boat that sat beneath it. We watched as branches as big around as my thigh snapped off of neighbors trees and went hurtling across the landscape. A stop sign made its way down our street blowing from east to west during the first part of the storm, only to return and lodge itself in our front yard after the eye passed and the direction of the winds reversed. That's going to be our souvenir of the storm, along with all the wonderful memories we have and the bill for tree removal.

For the most part South Florida is dark this morning, with something over 2.5 million people without power. There has been major damage done to the electrical grid with many of the huge transmission lines snapped and laying on the ground. Some of these cross remote areas of the Everglades to our west--the one place that it is most difficult to get to for repairs. On the east side of town where we live concrete power poles are snapped in half and power lines snake across city streets. Needless to say it will be some time before electricity returns. Current estimates are that it will be weeks in some areas before the lights come back on.

Unlike Hurricane Frances last year--where most of the damage was to neighborhood power lines--this time around the basic infrastructure of our electrical grid is more seriously damaged. From a practical standpoint this means that there are few places to find the basics of life such as gasoline, milk, ice, or a hot meal. Last year we could easily drive a few miles to find a restaurant open when we just couldn't face another PopTart or peanut butter sandwich. It may be days still until we reach the point where we can have a deliriously delicious hamburger. But, I trust my wife, whose motto is "I'm not going to live like this" to snoop out the places where we can grab a meal when the time comes. Today most likely.

Just as last year there are the clueless, the hopeless, and the helpless who are in more serious condition than we are. We prepared for the storm with ice, full tanks of gas in our cars, non-perishable foods, and water. Even though some supplies are running low, we can survive like this and avoid the weird craziness we see on the news. People driving for hours to get gasoline and then waiting more hours in line to get it. The lines for ice and water were hundreds of cars deep on the first day after the storm, and you have to wonder--just what were you people doing in the two days that we had to prepare for the hurricane? I can certainly understand the many elderly that we have in the area having difficulty getting out to stock up, but what exactly did the others anticipate from a hurricane passing through? That nothing at all would happen? That life would go on as normal as soon as the storm passed? That there would be no damage? Even most poor folks can afford a few gallons of water, some cans of food, and gas for their car. Why would they not prepare for the storm? Why do I see so many complaining on the very first day after the hurricane that they're without the "basic necessities of life"? I mean come on. If you live in South Florida you have to take these hurricanes seriously and see to your families needs. You sure can't rely on the government to bail you out when you do nothing to take care of yourself. Did these folks learn nothing from last year's storms? Did they learn nothing from the images from New Orleans? It takes time to gear up the recovery and get things in place. It's during that time that everyone has to depend on themselves or their family and neighbors to make it through. And yet, as I watch on my portable TV the newscasters are blathering about relief supplies not getting through in a timely fashion and all the many poor wretches who must live without food, water, or ice. Please.

Life will move forward here in fits and starts. Areas of South Florida will have power restored, gas stations and grocery stores (and restaurants!) will come back on line and life will slowly return to normal. School is out for the rest of this week, and we have serious doubts about reopening schools for the 175,000 students in our county even on Monday. Many of our schools have serious roof damage, 95% have no power, and there are few working traffic signals, making it difficult for buses to get around. That bit of normalcy may take a while to return.

As for the rest of modern life, well, we have some electricity, even if it's fueled by noisy generators filling our neighborhoods with a constant drone. But, despite the inconvenience we're thankful to have a solid roof over our heads, hot water (hooray for gas water heaters!) and wonderfully cool weather to make the nights with no air-conditioning bearable. Now, as long as I don't have to eat too many PopTarts for breakfast life will be bearable until the pieces of our modern existence can be put back together again.

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Frickin' Hurricanes

Tiresome:

adj : Causing fatigue or boredom; wearisome. "the deadening effect of some routine tasks";

Yeah well, that about sums up how I feel about being forced into full blown hurricane prep mode for the third time in a little over a year. This time we're getting a visit from Wilma, with the storm predicted to be directly over us tomorrow afternoon.

Gosh, this is so very much fun! Yesterday was good deed hurricane prep day, putting up shutters for the in-laws and a friend's in-laws. If you've never put up shutters before let me detail the experience for you.

1. Find shutters
2. Lug shutters out of storage. Watch for wasps and hornets.
3. Find the coffee can with the wing nuts needed to secure the shutters.
4. Go to the hardware store to find new wing nuts after spending a half-hour or so in a fruitless search for said wing nuts.
5. Lug shutters around the house.
6. Sort shutters for the proper windows.
7. Stick shutters into place.
8. Screw shutters down.

Boy that's good fun! But for even greater fun, you should definitely use plywood to cover your windows like I do. (For the very last time. As God is my witness.)

In the case of plywood we have the added advantage of extra weight, splintery edges, and difficult to align screws. So the plywood process goes something like this:

1. Clear everything out of the shed so you can get to the plywood. Remove bicycles, lawn maintenance implements, fishing gear, and other assorted junk that has piled up in front of the plywood.
2. Lug plywood around the house to the proper windows. Embrace the joy of the extra workout you get by hauling 50 pound sheets of plywood all over the place.
3. Lug out drills and ladder.
4. Muscle sheet of plywood into place.
5. Spill entire can of screws into the grass. Curse loudly. Pick up screws.
6. Muscle first sheet of plywood into place.
7. Pinch finger. Curse loudly. Bandage finger.
8. Muscle first sheet of plywood back into place. Screw to windows.
9. Move ladder.
10. Muscle second sheet of plywood into place.
11. Break screw off attempting to screw plywood into place. Curse loudly.
12. Get pliers to remove the broken screw.
13. Screw second sheet of plywood into place.
14. Move ladder.
15. Repeat until all windows are covered.
16. Try to avoid additional episodes that lead to loud cursing.

Anyway, that's what's ahead for me today. And like so many of my neighbors I am already over this whole hurricane thing. Best case for us is that this one will fall apart before it gets here and we'll feel little more than tropical storm winds. The practical impact of that is we rarely lose power or have any serious damage. Life rapidly returns to normal after a weak storm passes through.

But once the weather becomes hurricane-ish, Category 1 or 2, things change in a big way. Traffic lights come down and even getting around town can be a major pain for a day or five. (Or 12 as was the case in last years visit from Frances.) Trees are down, roads are blocked, lights are out, stores and restaurants are closed, and your life goes on hold as the infrastructure we all take for granted has to be repaired.

We'll be in wait and see mode after this afternoon. This morning the plywood drill begins and then we'll do what we in South Florida have become pretty good at. Hunker down.

Just one of the many terms that has become, well, tiresome. Hunker down. Eye of the storm. Feeder band. Forecast track. Cone of error. Max Mayfield and Jim Cantore on my TV. The local weather guys hyper ventilating.

I'm sick of all of that. And I'm damned tired of all these frickin' hurricanes.

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Testosterone Induced Stupidity Syndrome

We men do some pretty stupid things, much to the amusement of women from Uzbekistan to Alabama. Despite language differences I think it's safe to say that women from cultures all over the world could find hours of amusement in the various goofy things the men in their lives have done.

But we have an excuse. We're men. We've been biologically wired to take action, be decisive, and have what may seem to be an unnatural fascination with things that explode and things that smash into each other and things that can be used as tools. It's the testosterone. We can't help it.

Case in point. Saturday I decided to take some time away from the computer and do something more manly--namely install my new car stereo. Cool. Electricity, fastening devices, tools, and complicated instructions. And in the end some new tunes in the truck with the iPod interface that comes with my new toy.

So, off I go, instruction manual in hand. OK, first, I have to pull out the old stereo. Oh boy. Deconstruction. This is going to be good. Armed with my instructions and the stereo removal tool thoughtfully provided by the company where I bought the unit, I set about to take the old factory radio out. Easy enough. Except 5 minutes into my operation, the radio was definitely not coming out. And this is where the testosterone took over.

Now, a woman would probably read over the instructions and make doubly, even triply, sure that they are doing things correctly. Not a man.

No, my reaction was to examine the recalcitrant dashboard, and come to some plan to defeat it. How dare this piece of plastic come between me and my desire for aural excellence? So, armed with the knowledge that only two screws could be found, and that those were easy enough to get off, a better solution seemed to be to take those screws out and remove the entire dash unit holding the radio. The screws were out in a flash, but of course the dashboard was not coming loose.

Time for testosterone attack #2. A basic rule of dealing with immovable objects (for most men) is simply this: When faced with something that won't move you should apply more force. And that is what I did, gently--and then with increasing manly determination and force--I pried and pulled at the dash until the a satisfying Pop! was heard and the dash came loose. Oh. What was that? Seemed like a piece or 4 went flying off into space when the dash came off. That's probably not good.

And, as it turned out, it was not good. In forcing the dash loose I broke 6 retainers and a switch housing. Now, some 15 minutes into the installation, I was faced with having to fix what I managed to break in an effort to get something done.

And for that, I blame the testosterone.

That's the ticket. I'm not stupid, I'm in the grip of forces beyond my control. It's Testosterone Induced Stupidity Syndrome, and I am in fact a victim.

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Five Little Things to Love About Fireworks 8

I've heard a few rumblings here and there that the latest version of Fireworks lacks that "killer" new feature that makes everyone want to rush right out and get the newest upgrade. While it's true to a certain extent that there are no new earth-shaking features in Fireworks 8, there's still plenty to like. More advanced users of the software will find lots to love in the new blends, marquee to path, and shadow tools, and the more I play with Fireworks 8 the more I come to appreciate those things.

But sometimes it's the little things that make a software better, and there are some nice new features in the latest Fireworks release that I really like. Today at Community MX I've released 5 short Captivate video demonstrations of just those things. In Five Little Things to Love About Fireworks 8 I take a look at new tools and capabilities found in Fireworks 8, that while not hugely different from previous versions, still make an improvement in how I get my work done. From editable text on a path to improvements to the Layers panel, to some nice new panels that have been added these little changes are very welcome, and show the continued refinement of Fireworks.

(Tutorials at Community MX are free to subscribers or available for a nominal fee to non-subscribers.)

By the way, you might want to check out my previous Fireworks 8 video tutorial as well. Exploring Lighting Blends in Fireworks 8 shows how 4 basic vector shapes can be converted to a 3-D object with the help of some of the new blends available in the latest Fireworks version. I really like the new lighting blends and the possibilities those present for creating getting more realistic 3-D drawings done.

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What to Say When Your Wife Comes Home With a Bad Haircut

Men, what should be your reaction when your lovely wife or significant other comes home a little less lovely due to an ill-advised hair styling decision? I've found this to be a very useful thing to say:













Or, of course, you can try this:














The tricky part isn't saying those things (or not saying anything at all as you've probably discerned by now) but not rolling your eyes, chuckling, snorting, or making other noises that might give away your true opinion of her new hair style. This is not easy.

But you should consider what a poorly-timed shrug of the shoulders or funny look may cost you in terms of withheld affection (at least). Or maybe "being mean" will cost you a nice dinner to make up for not closely guarding your opinion. Now combine that with what the actual trip to the hair stylist cost, and you can see that you'll be far ahead by just keeping your mouth shut.

Or, lie. Effusively. This occasionally works.

If you'll excuse me now I need to make dinner plans and buy some flowers. Or something.

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First use of Macromedia Captivate for Political Satire?

I posted this a few weeks ago in my spasm of reactions to the Hurricane Katrina debacle., but I think it might have gotten buried in the original article.

Since I believe that this little interactive movie could be the very first recorded use of Captivate for creating political satire, I thought I'd post a link here again. So, when you're ready, head on over and play The Blame Game.

One of the things you have to love about the Web and all the software programs that are available is just how easy it is to publish your own little individual rants. In this case I was after an interactive quiz to play a "game" and the built-in features in Captivate made it quick and easy to toss this together.

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Thanks to Those "Activist" Judges

I never know quite what to think when I hear the term "activist judges". Seems to me that in most cases judges are upholding the rule of law. Sure, there are those cases where the law gets stretched a bit, but those are few and far between and usually struck down by higher courts. Such is the beauty of our American legal system, where even government officials have to obey the law.

Case in point, here locally we have a huge battle brewing between development interests and environmentalists over a huge expansion into an undeveloped area of our county. The land in question is ringed by wetlands and a water catchment area, is the source for one of the nation's officially designated wild and scenic rivers, and has been drooled over by developers for years.

When the Scripps Research organization decided to locate to Florida, Palm Beach County was chosen for their new home for biotech research to much acclaim from the governor on down. And for sure, the jobs they'll bring and the emphasis on high-tech research is welcome. But in choosing a site for the new facility, state and local officials dove heard-first into bed with developers who saw this as just the ticket they needed to expand into the last "buildable" land in the county. (Never mind that there was available land in a part of the county that already has infrastructure in place.) Instead of getting an environmental impact statement for the entire massive project, they attempted to pull a fast one by only submitting a plan for a small portion of the land that will be developed. Instead of submitting plans for the whole shebang, as the law requires, they tried to sneak just that portion of the plan through that includes all the environmentally friendly pieces. Lo and behold, the U.S. Corps of Engineers said it all looked fine and dandy to them. Never mind the 1,000 plus acres that still will be developed when all is said and done. Let's just look at the nice easy part over here.

Now Judge Donald Middlebrooks has temporaily halted the development while an environmental impact statement is done--as the law requires. The judge didn't write this law. The judge didn't make it up. What he did was enforce the law, and that is exactly what we expect him to do.

While I'm sure that the usual mouth-pieces for the developers on our county commission will cry foul, and I'm sure we'll hear that Judge Middlebrooks is an "activist", but the truth is that when the government tries to run rampant like this it's a good thing to have legal protection for the rest of us.

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If We Could Just Abort all the White Babies That Might Grow up to Be Incredible Fatheads...

Come on Mrs. Bennett. You could have done us all a big favor and saved us from this kind of crap.

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