Showing posts with label General. Show all posts
Showing posts with label General. Show all posts

Wednesday, May 17, 2017

A new API way of looking at this Blog

A new API way of looking at this Blog

You can click on Get Posts to see the post, Clicking on a label will make a Pop Up Window

http://s3.amazonaws.com/bloggerapi/index.html


Pop Up Window

Friday, November 13, 2015

Chapter 3 of RAH's (Robert Heinlein) Have Space Suit - Will Travel - Technical Writing Example

Chapter 3 of RAH's (Robert Heinlein) Have Space Suit will Travel, Scribner's Juvenile from the 1950's in which hero Kip in  great expository RAH style refurbishes a used space suit.  A great book along with A Door into Summer for a young engineer of any age.
""But I didn't get tired of it; a space suit is a marvelous piece of machinery-a little space station with everything miniaturized. Mine was a chrome-plated helmet and shoulder yoke which merged into a body of silicone, asbestos, and glass-fiber cloth. This hide was stiff except at the joints. They were the same rugged material but were "constant volume" -when you bent a knee a bellows arrangement increased the volume over the knee cap as much as the space back of the knee was squeezed. Without this a man wouldn't be able to move; the pressure inside, which can add up to several tons, would hold him rigid as a statue. These volume compensators were covered with dural armor; even the finger joints had little dural plates over the knuckles.
It had a heavy glass-fiber belt with clips for tools, and there were the straps to adjust for height and weight. There was a back pack, now empty, for air bottles, and zippered pockets inside and out, for batteries and such.
The helmet swung back, taking a bib out of the yoke with it, and the front opened with two gasketed zippers; this left a door you could wiggle into. With helmet clamped and zippers closed it was impossible to open the suit with pressure inside.
Switches were mounted on the shoulder yoke and on the helmet; the helmet was monstrous. It contained a drinking tank, pill dispensers six on each side, a chin plate on the right to switch radio from "receive" to "send," another on the left to increase or decrease flow of air, an automatic polarizer for the face lens, microphone and earphones, space for radio circuits in a bulge back of the head, and an instrument board arched over the head. The instrument dials read backwards because they were reflected in an inside mirror in front of the wearer's forehead at an effective fourteen inches from the eyes.
Above the lens or window there were twin headlights. On top were two antennas, a spike for broadcast and a horn that squirted microwaves like a gun-you aimed it by facing the receiving station. The horn antenna was armored except for its open end.
This sounds as crowded as a lady's purse but everything was beautifully compact; your head didn't touch anything when you looked out the lens. But you could tip your head back and see reflected instruments, or tilt it down and turn it to work chin controls, or simply turn your neck for water nipple or pills. In all remaining space sponge-rubber padding kept you from banging your head no matter what. My suit was like a fine car, its helmet like a Swiss watch. But its air bottles were missing; so was radio gear except for built-in antennas; radar beacon and emergency radar target were gone, pockets inside and out were empty, and there were no tools on the belt. The manual told what it ought to have-it was like a stripped car.
I decided I just had to make it work right.
First I swabbed it out with Clorox to kill the locker-room odor. Then I got to work on the air system.
It's a good thing they included that manual; most of what I thought I knew about space suits was wrong.
A man uses around three pounds of oxygen a day-pounds mass, not pounds per square inch. You'd think a man could carry oxygen for a month, especially out in space where mass has no weight, or on the Moon where three pounds weigh only half a pound. Well, that's okay for space stations or ships or frogmen; they run air through soda lime to take out carbon dioxide, and breathe it again. But not space suits.
Even today people talk about "the bitter cold of outer space"-but space is vacuum and if vacuum were cold, how could a Thermos jug keep hot coffee hot? Vacuum is nothing-it has no temperature, it just insulates.
Three-fourths of your food turns into heat-a lot of heat, enough each day to melt fifty pounds of ice and more. Sounds preposterous, doesn't it? But when you have a roaring fire in the furnace, you are cooling your body; even in the winter you keep a room about thirty degrees cooler than your body. When you turn up a furnace's thermostat, you are picking a more comfortable rate for cooling. Your body makes so much heat you have to get rid of it, exactly as you have to cool a car's engine.
Of course, if you do it too fast, say in a sub-zero wind, you can freeze- but the usual problem in a space suit is to keep from being boiled like a lobster. You've got vacuum all around you and it's hard to get rid of heat.
Some radiates away but not enough, and if you are in sunlight, you pick up still more-this is why space ships are polished like mirrors.
So what can you do?
Well, you can't carry fifty-pound blocks of ice. You get rid of heat the way you do on Earth, by convection and evaporation-you keep air moving over you to evaporate sweat and cool you off. Oh, they'll learn to build space suits that recycle like a space ship but today the practical way is to let used air escape from the suit, flushing away sweat and carbon dioxide and excess heat-while wasting most of the oxygen.
There are other problems. The fifteen pounds per square inch around you includes three pounds of oxygen pressure. Your lungs can get along on less than half that, but only an Indian from the high Andes is likely to he comfortable on less than two pounds oxygen pressure. Nine-tenths of a pound is the limit. Any less than nine-tenths of a pound won't force oxygen into blood-this is about the pressure at the top of Mount Everest.
Most people suffer from hypoxia (oxygen shortage) long before this, so better use two p.s.i. of oxygen. Mix an inert gas with it, because pure oxygen can cause a sore throat or make you drunk or even cause terrible cramps. Don't use nitrogen (which you've breathed all your life) because it will bubble in your blood if pressure drops and cripple you with "bends." Use helium which doesn't. It gives you a squeaky voice, but who cares?
You can die from oxygen shortage, be poisoned by too much oxygen, be crippled by nitrogen, drown in or be acid-poisoned by carbon dioxide, or dehydrate and run a killing fever. When I finished reading that manual I didn't see how anybody could stay alive anywhere, much less in a space suit.
But a space suit was in front of me that had protected a man for hundreds of hours in empty space.
Here is how you beat those dangers. Carry steel bottles on your back; they hold "air" (oxygen and helium) at a hundred and fifty atmospheres, over 2000 pounds per square inch; you draw from them through a reduction valve down to 150 p.s.i. and through still another reduction valve, a "demand" type which keeps pressure in your helmet at three to five pounds per square inch-two pounds of it oxygen. Put a silicone-rubber collar around your neck and put tiny holes in it, so that the pressure in the body of your suit is less, the air movement still faster; then evaporation and cooling will be increased while the effort of bending is decreased. Add exhaust valves, one at each wrist and ankle-these have to pass water as well as gas because you may be ankle deep in sweat.
The bottles are big and clumsy, weighing around sixty pounds apiece, and each holds only about five mass pounds of air even at that enormous pressure; instead of a month's supply you will have only a few hours-my suit was rated at eight hours for the bottles it used to have. But you will be okay for those hours-if everything works right. You can stretch time, for you don't die from overheating very fast and can stand too much carbon dioxide even longer-but let your oxygen run out and you die in about seven minutes. Which gets us back where we started-it takes oxygen to stay alive.""

Saturday, May 16, 2015

To My Visitors - Visitor Stats for SWMM5.NET

If you ever wondered how many people visit SWMM5.NET it is currently 1500 sessions, 1200 users and 2500 pageviews per month according to the ever changing Google Analytics.  Thanks to one and all for visiting!


Thursday, April 16, 2015

What would be the perfect format for a Water Related Engineering Blog?

What would be the perfect format for a Water Related Engineering Blog?

A note for my readers.  I am having an internal public discussion with myself.  If you have other ideas or suggestions please email me.  I get a lot of emails and very little non spam comments on my blogs. It is probably a characteristic of engineers who work for a living. 

What would be the best or perfect format for a  Water Blog?

  1. A general introduction to why the blog matters to the reader and what will either be explained or demonstrated in the blog.
  2. An introduction to the feature discussed in the blog.
  3. An equation or psuedo code to illustrate the fundamentals of the item discussed in the blog,
  4. A few images showing how the feature discussed is used in the Water related Software.
  5. Sensitivity Analysis for the feature or a least a mention of how sensitive the parameter of feature is in the model
  6. Drawbacks of the feature, or known workarounds.
  7. Related Blogs and URL's
  8. Summary of what was discussed.

Here are other blog making ideas

http://www.successfulblogging.com/16-rules-of-blog-writing-which-ones-are-you-breaking/
Here is a long snippet from the above mentioned post


16 Rules of Blog Writing and Layout

1. Format every blog post Careful formatting will make your blog posts easier for people to scan. Write your posts with the page layout in mind or edit them to make sure they’re well formatted for scan reading.
2. Constrain column width Keep the blog post column width about 80 characters or less (including spaces) and your readers will thank you for it. Check out these before and after screen shots of Under the Mango Tree. I advised Stacyann to update her blog to make it easier to read and changing the column width for the main body of text was one of the first things we sorted out. Wide columns of text are an instant turn off and very hard to read. The difference is incredible and it’s such a simple change.
Rules of Blog Writing and Blog Post Formatting
3. Use Headers and Sub-headers Headers and sub-headers will break up long blog posts, help people scan read your blog and convince them to read the post. Read How to Write Hypnotic Headlines to read more about the importance of headlines and headers for blog writing.
4. Use lists Numbered lists or bullet pointed lists help people scan blog posts fast and find the information they’re looking for quickly.
5. Use punctuation Use full stops, commas, dashes and colons to break up each paragraph into smaller pieces of information that make sense quickly. No one wants to read the same sentence several times to try to make sense of it. If you’re not confident about punctuation keep sentences short. As you practice writing and start to improve you can experiment and lengthen your sentences, chucking in a long one here and there to keep things interesting for readers, and make sure they’re really paying attention. Long sentences are fine but check that every sentence makes sense and the meaning is clear.
6. Short paragraphs Because reading is harder online it’s best to break text into manageable chunks. Paragraphs should be much shorter online than on paper with two to six sentences per paragraph a good guideline for blog posts.
7. Font type Sans-serif fonts (without the squiggly bits) are generally supposed to be easier to read on-screen, in particular Verdana. Successful Blogging uses the sans-serif font Roboto (without the squiggly bits) which is also designed for easy reading on-screen.
8. Font size Big is better. Teeny tiny writing is hard to read online, even for people with 20/20 vision like me. Make it bigger. Check out some of your favorite blogs, compare the font size they use and decide what works best for your readers. If they’re older they might prefer even bigger text than the average blog reader.
9. Be bold Don’t overuse bold text or it loses its effectiveness but do use bold text to make a splash and highlight important sentences that will catch people’s attention and draw them into, or on with, the blog post. 
10. Drop the italics Italics are hard to read in print. Couple that with on-screen reading already being challenging and banish italics from your blog writing. I hate them. If you can avoid italics please do.
11. Capital letters Use capitals for proper nouns and at the beginning of sentences but avoid writing all in capitals because it’s harder to read. PLUS USING CAPITAL LETTERS CONSTANT IS THE ONLINE EQUIVALENT OF BEING SHOUTED AT. Sorry, just wanted to get the point across.
12. White space
Readers need somewhere to rest the eye and a good blog layout leaves plenty of blank space.
CLICK TO TWEET
Make sure your blog isn’t too busy or distracting and gives readers somewhere to rest their eye from time to time.
13. Background color Most blogs and websites get the contrast between text color and background color right, but make sure your blog background doesn’t make the text hard to read. It makes me sad that a white background with black text has become the default for most blogs. Bright yellow text on a black background is easiest to read but that’s a confrontational look. Dark text on a light background has a wider appeal but consider using another light color for the background as white gives off a harsh glare. There are plenty of choices which look good and are still easy to read but without the glare of white: try light grey, minty green or pale yellow.
14. Use images
Good use of images will draw readers in to your blog posts. Sometimes I read a post purely because I like the image. Ideally your images will add to your blog or emphasize your message. Even if they can’t do that use them to break up text, draw your reader’s eye down the page and reward them for reading and spending time on your blog. Some blogs likeViperchill turn their headers and sub-headers into images which makes the text look more attractive and helps people scan read.
15. Be consistent  You don’t know how readers found your blog. You can’t be sure if they arrived straight at your latest post, on your about page or via an archived post. You can’t know which order people will read your blog in so every post you write needs to tell the same story about you, your message, your blog and your values.
16. Tell a story Speaking of stories, every blog post needs to have a beginning, a middle and an end. Think of it as an introduction, the main information and conclusion if you prefer. Even if you don’t give use those sub-headings because, hopefully, you’ve come up with hotter ones, do follow the convention to avoid confusing your readers.

Sunday, February 22, 2015

How to make Centered Twitter Embeds on Blogger

This is how you get the code for an Embedded Tweet from your Twitter Feed

1. Click on the Four Dots
2. Choose to Embed your Tweet
3. Copy the HTML Code
4. Make a new Blog or use an old blog and paste the HTML Code from Step 3

This is how you get the code for an Embedded  Tweet

This is the key line for centering the embedded tweet (use the HTML Tab)


" "

Here is an example of how it looks in the HTML Tab





Friday, June 6, 2014

Clouds and Water in NYC via @Boonsri

Urban frogs adapting to Urban Stormwater Networks in Taiwan

Urban frogs adapting to Urban Stormwater Networks in Taiwan

"The frogs have learned to overcome that limitation by calling from within storm drains, since the drains enhance both volume and duration, allowing the frogs' calls to reach receivers both nearby and farther away.
"Concrete drains are miniature canyons, but are not analogous to anything in Mientien tree frog natural habitats," the researchers say. "Therefore, it is interesting to find those frogs preferentially calling in the drains." The frogs have taken the human built environment and turned it into a tool, rather than an obstacle to overcome, allowing their species to survive an environment dominated by our species."

Saturday, April 19, 2014

Top 10 #tips and tricks for @Snagit in a short, illustrated PDF guide

I love Snagit and Jing, which are very good screen capturing and editing programs.  The 2nd Tweet allows you to download a PDF file of Tips from Snagit




Monday, March 3, 2014

TinyURL Code Maker

Enter a long URL to make tiny:

A very handy tool for making those pesky long URL's shorter and easier to see on Twitter and Email.

Saturday, March 1, 2014

Link to A Single Document about Compiling and Debugging SWAT with GFortran and Eclipse

 who is a Visiting Fellow at Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada posted an interesting link on LinkedIn called 

Single Document about Compiling and Debugging SWAT with GFortran and Eclipse - Please give comments

with this table of contents.   Personally, I am interested as I would like to modify some of the tools in SWMM 4.4 and have lost my original Fortran Compiler. 

Monday, February 10, 2014

2014 Stormwater & Urban Water Systems Modeling Conference, Toronto, Canada, February 26-27, 2014

http://www.chiwater.com/images/CHI_Conference_Logo_Banner1.jpg

47th Annual International Conference
Toronto, Canada
February 26-27, 2014

Interested in any aspects of urban drainage or watershed engineering? Do you use computer models in your work?
If so, you should consider attending this conference, where you will hear about 50 presentations related to your interests, and talk to over 100 like-minded, friendly and thoughtful professionals.


The annual International Conference on Urban and Rural Water Systems Modeling is a forum for professionals from across North America and overseas to exchange ideas and experience on current practices and emerging technologies. This is the 47th annual SWMM Users Group Meeting, the 23rd in the current series of annual Toronto conferences, and the 34th to be held in Canada. The atmosphere is relaxed, presentations are of a high standard and by accepting papers up to the last few weeks before the event, a spontaneity is achieved which gives this conference special character.

Register Today:

There is still room to register for the '2014 Stormwater & Urban Water Systems Modeling Conference' which takes place on February 26 and 27, 2014. Please register today.
We would also like to inform you that our 2-day PCSWMM workshop will be held on Monday, February 24, and Tuesday, February 25, 2014 at the same venue, and leading up to the conference.

Hotel Reservations:

The Marriott Courtyard Toronto Brampton has a number of rooms blocked for this event but please reserve your room right away. To book either a Double Queen or a King room, please go to the hotels website. For international reservations, please visit Marriott Courtyard worldwide reservation telephone numbers to find a toll free number from your country.
The Marriott has complimentary on-site parking, free internet access throughout the hotel, easy highway access and is short cab ride from the airport.
For more information about the conference and to register, please visit www.chiwater.com
Please take a moment to forward this notice to a colleague and we look forward to seeing you there.

Best Regards,
Meghan Korman
Conference Organizer
Computational Hydraulics International (CHI)
Tel. (519) 767-0197
meghan@chiwater.com

If you have any other questions, please contact CHI.
You may unsubscribe if you no longer wish to receive our conference emails.

Thursday, January 23, 2014

The Life-Cycle of a Single Water Drop, in a Pop-Up Book Animated in Stop-Motion

From Maria Popova

The Life-Cycle of a Single Water Drop, in a Pop-Up Book Animated in Stop-Motion

by 
Nature’s rhythms in masterful paper engineering.
Given my soft spot for pop-up books, I was instantly taken with this collaboration between paper engineer extraordinaire Helen Friel (who brought us those amazing 3D paper sculptures of Euclid’s elements), photographerChris Turner, and animator Jess Deacon, visualizing the life-cycle of a single drop of water as a pop-up book animated in stop-motion, nearly a year in the making:

Thursday, January 2, 2014

From 3QD - WATER RISK AS WORLD WARMS

WATER RISK AS WORLD WARMS

Quirin Schiermeier in Nature:
WaterWhen pondering the best way to study the impact of climate change, researcher Hans Joachim Schellnhuber liked to recall an old Hindu fable. Six men, all blind but thirsty for know­ledge, examine an elephant. One fumbles the pachyderm’s sturdy side, while others grasp at its tusk, trunk, knee, ear or tail. In the end, all are completely misled as to the nature of the beast.
The analogy worked. Although many researchers had modelled various aspects of the global-warming elephant, there had been no comprehensive assessment of what warming will really mean for human societies and vital natural resources. But that changed last year when Schellnhuber, director of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research in Germany, and other leading climate-impact researchers launched the Inter-Sectoral Impact Model Intercomparison Project. This aims to produce a set of harmonized global-impact reports based on the same set of climate data, which will for the first time allow models to be directly compared. Last month it published its initial results in four reports in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences1–4These suggest that even modest climate change might drastically affect the living conditions of billions of people, whether through water scarcity, crop shortages or extremes of weather. The group warns that water is the biggest worry. If the world warms by just 2 °C above the present level, which now seems all but unavoidable by 2100, up to one-fifth of the global population could suffer severe shortages.
More here.
- See more at: http://www.3quarksdaily.com/#sthash.OdCTZwaq.dpuf

Sunday, December 22, 2013

Guidelines for Help Files and Examples

Guidelines for Help Files and Examples

I have written a lot of software and have used a lot of software in my
career. I thought it would be good for me to list some guidelines I
try to follow when using and making software. I emphasis the word
guidelines as I often do not follow these guidelines. Think Wish list
when you read guideline. I have actually learned a lot from using
software without access to the source code though knowing the source
code is always very helpful.

1. Some mention in the help file of the feature – at least some place to start the process of understanding.
2. Help file information to explain the background of the feature and common values for the parameters of the feature,
3. An example of how the feature is used – How do you even get it to work?
4. Rules and sensitivity of the feature – how is this feature linked to other features, what are the rules for using the feature and how sensitive is the feature?
5. An example of the feature along with 
6. A bullet list of how to use the feature 
7. How do I see if the feature is actually working?  Some options or features are not always used 
8. More to come in the future  

GitHub code and Markdown (MD) files Leveraging

 To better achieve your goal of leveraging your GitHub code and Markdown (MD) files for your WordPress blog or LinkedIn articles, consider t...