Years ago I wrote a series of in-depth "secret sauce" posts. Since then, I've written a number of niche how-to posts. However, I saved our followers from seeing these obscure posts in RSS and Twitter feeds.
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These incognito how-to's are in our XML sitemap and I figured they'd be picked up by the search engines and help out random people. In fact, they are all indexed and collectively pull a fair amount of traffic. However, recent client-related SEO work brought it to my attention that not linking to your own stuff can appear sketchy to the search engines.
This evening I wrote a couple posts for the OpenUpstate crowd about hacking USB devices with PyUSB. I figured I'd better link to these posts. While I'm at it, here's a list of all the how-to pages.
List of Jimmy C's How To's
We're working hard to spread the word of What If. We believe there is real value in an easy system for collecting ideas and connecting people with similar ideas. A big goal for 2013 is to get more cities, organizations and companies using an improved What If system. Anyone who could see the value in something like this, let's talk. Anyone who uses the term, "ideas are cheap" as a pejorative then we should talk too. I've got a theory on that line of thinking.
Now, I'm off track. Back to the cover at hand. It was a very nice surprise to see this morning. Thanks to Lori Coon and everyone over at GBM for the support.
Some previews from our Dribbble account for the What If Greenville Quarterly Report
After six years on Stone Avenue we've moved to Main Street. There are couple of different reasons we're moving, but the main one is that when you're the only people in the room you're both the smartest and dumbest people in the room. We don't want to be either. The space we've moved to is called the The Forge and is part of the larger Iron Yard project. It's a space made up of artist, programmers, startups, videographers, photographers, architects, designers, successful long-term business people, and plywood. Here's to not being the smartest people in the room.
PS: We took the OrangeCoat sign off our building and have been trying to build anagrams ever since.
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We need more brave bearded men (and women) in office and fewer plastic department store clothing mannequins. Let’s face it, figuring out the solutions to the terrible unemployment numbers and the potential meltdown of the Euro is hard work. Even the smartest and most skilled politician might not be able to solve these problems.2 Nonetheless, we are sure a President who thinks while stroking his beard stands a much better chance.
Darwin, Einstein, and Santa Claus all prove that substantial facial hair leads to true genius. Barack, Mitt, and Newt: if you want our vote, throw the razor away and embrace the beard.3
What’s the Big Idea
For the month of February, the month of Presidents’ Day, we celebrate the bearded and bald Presidents of the United States. Roxy Koranda and Evan Tishuk took turns creating 10 minute4 pieces of art inspired by the 16 Presidents who were bald, bearded, moustached, sideburneded, mulleted, or any combination of those. We’ve shared these drawings here and on Dribbble. If anyone else wants to join in with their own art, we encourage you to do so.
Which Presidents Make the Cut
George Washington by Roxy
George Washington didn’t have a beard. Nor did he have a moustache. Some people claim he was bald and wore a wig, but others claim that he let his natural hair flow freely. Either way, sideburns are present in most depictions of Washington that I’ve seen, and that’s the reason he made the cut. Sure, some images show fuzzier sideburns than others, but they really don’t get enough credit. Even though his teeth weren’t real, knowing he had noteable sideburns should’ve given George something to smile about.
John Adams by Evan
It's pretty clear to rise high in the Freemasons you need to grow facial hair. Is it a coincidence that many of the founding fathers also had mighty facial hair? Maybe. What is clear is John Adams hits a trifecta with sideburns, a mullet and a substantial bald spot. Freemasons don't give damn. Not that he is a Freemason. Maybe.
John Quincy Adams by Roxy
John Quincy Adams had mutton chops, a pet alligator, and swam naked in the Potomac River every day.
Martin Van Buren by Evan
Let’s be honest. We’ve all asked ourselves, “What would it look like if Doc Brown was President?” Thanks to 1.21 gigawatts and a little artistic license we now know. On a side note, the most exciting thing about the Martin Van Buren presidency was his hair. Good for him.
James K. Polk by Roxy
James K. Polk: the first president with a mullet. He was all ready for the 1980s more than a century early.
Zachary Taylor by Evan
Zachary Taylor was easily one of the most disheveled-looking American presidents. Just look at one of his more famous mug shots. It's day three of one of his epic whiskey benders somewhere on the frontier, which might be close to the truth because he died only 16 months into his term. His official cause of death is "bilious diarrhea," so perhaps we should cut him some slack.
Some interesting side-notes:
Abraham Lincoln by Roxy
Aside from holding séances in the White House and shooting lasers out of his eyes, Lincoln also had a beard.
Ulysses Grant by Evan
Grant was, by most accounts, a bad president that happened to have a thick beard and a full head of hair
Evidently there are many people here in the South that will not accept $50.00 bills to this day. So I made him a cartoon demon-zombie
Rutherford Hayes by Roxy
Rutherford B. Hayes really liked guns and croquet. More notably, he had the longest beard of all the presidents, and it looks pretty good recreated in wool
James Garfield by Evan
Chester Arthur by Roxy
Chester A. Arthur had expensive taste when it came to clothing and furniture, and he rarely went to bed before 2 a.m. because he enjoyed nightclubs and late-night walks. Like many other presidents, he also enjoyed ham.
Benjamin Harrison by Roxy
Benjamin Harrison was the last president with a beard. Though he was the one who decided to have electricity installed in the White House, he had the staff operate all light switches for him because was terrified of being electrocuted.
William Howard Taft by Roxy
Taft was the last president with facial hair. He also was the last president to ride a water buffalo.
Honorable Mention
- Grover Cleveland
- Theodore Roosevelt
- Dwight D. Eisenhower
Footnotes:
- Back in 2001 I worked in politics. Bob Peeler was running for governor. At one big event, someone came up to me and said, “I’ll never vote for Bob Peeler. He has mustache and men with facial hair have something to hide.” (Back)
- That’s a lie. The jobs one is easy. Educate our damn workforce to be able to handle work at modern jobs. Now, figuring out how to pay for the education, that’s a little tougher.(Back)
- Newt still probably won’t get our vote. Colonies on the moon are cool and all, but we can’t pull the lever for a man name Newt. (Back)
- So far, they’ve all taken longer than 10 minutes, but we use our whole ass here at OrangeCoat and sometimes that takes longer than one would like. (Back)
Background
Few people know I was a mean propane filling machine in my high school days at Taylor Hardware. As a result, I know a few things about tank tare weights (an empty tank's weight) and other propane lingo.
For the last 7 years I had my trusty Weber grill hooked into a 500 gallon underground tank at the house in Taylors. When I moved earlier this year to an all-electric house I had to switch back to a standard 20 lb BBQ grill tank. I also considered 30, 33, 40, 60, and 100 pound cylinders, to avoid refilling as often. I found that new 30 or 33 lb cylinders are at least double the price of a 20 lb, and finding lightly used ones on Craigslist wasn't happening.
I picked up a new 20 lb tank at the Home Depot for 29.97, minus 10% off competitors coupon and a 10% discount on a gift card purchased on eBay. (Costco sells tanks for 28.99 compared to Amazon's roughly $45). Now, where to fill it?
A Little About Propane Tanks
These "20 lb" tanks are designed to take up to 20 pounds of propane. You may get a pound or 2 less, depending on the temperature of the tank and surrounding air when the tank was filled. Cooler = more propane in, hotter = less in. Tanks can actually fit another 20% in the tank, but that extra space is designed for expansion as the temperature rises.
In very cold winter climates, like Canada, there may be more concern/rules about filling a tank to a complete 20 lbs. This is because if you leave a tank outside in very cold temps, filled the tank when the tank is cold, and then bring it into a hot basement/garage for a space heater, the gas will expand as the tank warms. With enough of a temperature increase, the tank's pressure relief value will release a bit of gas. This would be less of an issue if the relief value were bleeding to outside air.
All propane tanks have a "tare weight" or "T.W." stamped on the collar of the tank. For a grill sized tank you simply calculate the tare weight + 20 lbs, and that's how much the tank should weigh when it's full. Most 20 lb tanks have a tare weight of +/- 17 pounds when completely empty. This means a "full" propane tank should weigh about 37 pounds.
There is also a month and year on the collar indicating the date the tank was made. For 20 lb propane tanks, you have 12 years from the manufacture date before the tank must be re-certified with a new date stamped on it. The re-certification only adds 5 years before having to re-certify again. The cost and inconvenience of re-certifying almost always outweighs the price of a new tank.
Brand new propane tanks may come with air inside and need to be "purged" before the first fill. Some newer tanks, like Bernzomatic, will have a sticker on them saying they don't need to be purged within 6 months of the manufacture date.
Purging requires a special adapter to allow a small amount of propane in. The pressure then pushes air out of a one-way bleeder valve. Purging may add another $3-4 dollars to a new tank, though some places don't charge, especially if you buy the tank from them.
The Math on Refills at Costco
Internet searches suggest the following:
- 1 gallon of propane weighs 4.2 pounds
- A "full" 20 lb cylinder should have 4.7 gallons or propane in it
I called around and the local U-Haul place wanted $16 for a refill. I remember Costco has a sign for $9.99 refills. I thought I was getting a great deal, but it turns out I pretty much got no deal.
Costco in Greenville, SC is a bit deceiving because they first hand you a slip that says "20 lb cylinder". When you pay inside the receipt says "20lb PROPANE", and the filling print out says "Cylinder: 20S lbs." The only defense is that the filling print out is honest and says "3.6 gallons". However, nobody knows off the top of their head that a propane tank is supposed to have 4.7 gallons to be considered "full". By saying 3.6 gallons, they are masking the fact that they put in 75%. If they wanted to be upfront they'd say "we will put 15 lbs of propane into this 20 lb cylinder".
This means Costco puts in 15 lb of propane.
3.6 gallons / 4.7 gallons = 75% of the normal fill.
or, said another way
(4.2 pounds/gallons) * (3.6 gallons) = 15 pounds
The word on the web forums is that the Blue Rhino and AmeriGas similar exchange services put in 75%, or 15 lbs.
If you do the math on Costco, it's actually not a bad price. It's in line, if not cheaper, than paying $16 for a full 20 lbs. Though, Costco's use of the "20 lb" phrase is unfortunate. I think their motivation is to have a cheaper price, so members think they are getting a great deal. Plus, by only filling 75% they make members come back more often, and go inside to shop while they wait.
Conclusion
- If you're looking for the best price, owning a propane tank and re-filling it is going to be cheaper than using an exchange service. As always, you pay a premium for convenience.
- Ask how much propane is going into the cylinder. There should be 20 pounds going in for full capacity.
- Weigh the tank when you get home and it should be about 37 pounds. If it weighs 31-32 pounds then you know they only put in 15 lbs of propane.
- Costco's propane price is still fair when you do the math.
Bonus - Weber Grills
I also assembled the grills at Taylor Hardware. Weber Grills were by far the best we sold. Reasonable care and a cover will easily give your Weber grill 10-20 years of life. You can buy other cheap brands and they will have steel parts that rust out in 2-3 years. You can buy a fancy looking stainless steel brand from Home Depot and it will likely not rust, but it will cook unevenly or the handle or wheels will break off and you'll be back to the store in 5 years for a new grill.
Bonus - Side Burners
I also helped sell the BBQ grills. We sold a few with side burners, but we never pushed them. I recall many conversations with customers who had paid more for a side burner in the past and never used it, despite their best intentions. Chances are that you will use the side burner once or twice, so don't spend the money unless you are absolutely sure you're going to use it
REST Fest 2011 \ Jim Ciallella \ FiveInFive from REST Fest on Vimeo.
Overview of How the System Works
- Gateway - interface between merchant and processors
- Processors - History Banks found that it was not within their skillset to convince every small merchant to accept credit cards, and they began to outsource the selling of such services to small companies called ISOs (Independent Sales Organizations). They also found that massive scale helped reduce the cost of processing credit cards, so they began to outsource processing to a few giant processors. Carl at First Data said, "banks don't do credit card processing. they outsource it to processing companies but they keep their names on it"
- ISO/MSP - reseller of processing services and merchant accounts
- Member/Sponsoring Bank - hold a risk escrow account for ISO/MSP's
- Debit Network - automatically selected by the processor based on the issuing bank
Gateways
- Full Pricing, good API, combines gateway with Wells Fargo merchant acct
- $99 setup, $35/month
- Recurring Billing/Subscriptions
- .10 per subscription per month
- Requires the Vault @ $20/month + .01 per record
- Vault - method of storing Payment Profiles - $20/month + .01 per record
- Payflow Pro - your own merchant account and charges are done through an API
- Direct from Paypal - $249.00 - Monthly - USD $59.95 (Up to 1,000) $0.10 per additional transaction
- Via Heartland - $199 setup, $35/month, $95 application, .08 per transaction
- Recurring Billing/Subscriptions - $39.95 setup and $29.95/month
- Payflow Link - a hosted solution that works with a merchant account
- Website Payments Pro - over 10K/month - 2.2% + .30 -- $30 month. Gateway solution with no merchant account.
- PayPal Standard Payments - hosted solution with no merchant account.
- Customer Information Manager - CIM - method of storing Payment Profiles
- Recurring Billing/Subscriptions - Automated Recurring Billing - ARB
Processors
- Merchant Accounts Can be Sold Directly from Processor OR via reseller/ISO/MSP
- Relationship is between the processor and the merchant - and merchant account is setup and #/username/password is sent from processor to the merchant's email address
- Merchant Banks underwrite the risk of ISO/MSPs based on various factors and traditional banks also sponsor ISOs, but they don't actually do the processing.
- Annual or month subscriptions are higher risk than one-time charges or monthly recurring.
- A helpful list comparing Merchant Account Providers.
- Becoming an ISO requires a substantial investment, like $5000 year to Visa and $5000 to Mastercard
- Processors and ISOs have sales agent programs with lower barrier to entry. Processors will refer agent leads to larger ISOs . Gateways like Authorize.net have Resellers (large) and Reseller Agents who get commission of merchant account setup and recurring sales.
- ISOs (a small sample for the sake of comparing prices)
- PaymentMax - sells Authorize.net and GlobalPayments gateways
- BluePay - ISO/MSP and reseller for Wells Fargo
- NexCommerce - pricing
- Dharma - pricing
- GoEmerchant - $99 setup, $19.95/month, $29.95/annual, .10 per transaction
Fees
- The discount rates include the Interchange Rates + the Merchant Services Providers (MSPs) and Processors markup and "Network Costs" which are a function of the MSP/ISO's risk (if using an ISO)
- Interchange Rates vary by many factors, such as industry, credit vs debit, card brand, swiped vs card not present, signature vs PIN, and meeting rules like 2 day variance between authorization and clearing. These are published by Visa/Mastercard/AMEX and are the same regardless of the processor.
- Many MSPs and processors will bundle Interchange Rates into Rate Tiers charge qualified or non-qual, others further split into mid-qual.
- Qualified: regular cards with no rewards/miles/points
- Mid-qualified: rewards cards and some business cards
- Non-qualified: Most business cards and government cards. ex. First Data 2.99%
- AMEX: ex. First Data 3.5%
- Though AVS and CVV codes may not be required by the gateway the processor may charge a higher "non-qualfied" discount rates if these fraud protections are used.
- AMEX and Discover don't do Interchange as they act as both the card issuing bank and the merchant bank, so they keep all the
- ISO's Profit - LEPS .2%, $59 every February, doesn't normally charge a setup fee
- PCI Compliance Fee - processor may scan the website, but no fees (LEPS) $39.95 (non-profit) $99.95 (for profit)
- Gateway Fee - ex. $20/month Authorize.net
- Gateway Setup Fee - ex. Authorize.net $99, First Data Global Gateway $199
- Gateway Per-transaction Fee - ex. Authorize.net $0.10
- Merchant Account Authorization Fee - ex. First Data $0.29 (range is roughly $0.24-0.35) $0.30 seems to be mode
- Gateway Batch Fee - ex. Authorize.net $0.25 per batch
- Merchant Account Batch - ex. First Data $0.35 per batch, waived for non-profits.
- Monthly Services/Statement Fee - ex. First Data $10/month, waived for non-profits
- Interchange Fee + Authorization Fee (is the money there) +Transaction Fee (charge the card) = $.24 to $.30
- Monthly Minimum Processing fee - if variable transactions don't exceed this amount then you still pay it.
- Client side validation can save on authorization transaction fees by preventing failed authorizations
- Check length of card number 15 for AMEX and 16 for VISA, MC, Discover
- This Luhn algorithm checksum is used by all major credit cards.
- Fees Diagram - "For one example of how interchange functions, imagine a consumer making a $100 purchase with a credit card. For that $100 item, the retailer would get approximately $98. The remaining $2, known as the merchant discount [9] and fees, gets divided up. About $1.75 would go to the card issuing bank (defined as interchange), $0.18 would go to Visa or MasterCard association (defined as assessments), and the remaining $0.07 would go to the retailer's merchant account provider. If a credit card displays a Visa logo, Visa will get the $0.18, likewise with MasterCard. Visa's assessment is fixed at 0.0925% of the transaction value and MasterCard's assessment is fixed at 0.0950% of the transaction value. On average the interchange rates in the US are 179 basis points (1.79%) and vary widely across countries"
To start, this blog title isn't the name of Rick's wedding singer band which, by the way, will travel virtually anywhere and perform at your wedding for free.
Rather, I started forwarding 2 links to the OC crew with 1 thought. It became an ode, sans poetry, to Rick Harris on his last day at OrangeCoat. It also turned into a brain dump of the next iteration of the web, and beyond. I had to cut the "beyond" portions out for my sanity and yours.
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Rick Harris
Rick came to OrangeCoat a few years back as a fresh front-end programmer and a hell of a nice guy with a knack for teaching himself. He's moving on from OC as a quality back-end developer with mad front-end coding skillz. He's now a solid "Coder of the Web", as printed on his remaining 997 of 1000 business cards.
I'll miss having Rick around for the occasional technology debate, and to back me up when Evan has a "what if we" idea. Hopefully he's not too cool for school and we can still find time for beers and idears, talking about which technologies are best fit for the next iteration web technology.
The Near Future of Web Technology
Here are a couple examples of how the big guys are delivering different doctypes, compression, etc, based on the particulars of a device.
Nothing shocked me in these links, but it got me thinking. It's interesting to take a step back and remember that developing and supporting N different devices, and their associated mobile apps and web browsers, is going to require extra work. This being the same variety of extra work front-end developer's have been tackling for years due to browser dependencies introduced by IE vs Firefox vs Safari vs Chome.
It used to be your back-end web server delivered HTML, CSS, JS and images, and maybe XML if you had an API to expose. Lately, mobile operating systems like iOS and Andriod have come on the scene with no standard to hold them back. It's the wild wild west out there, like when IE6 would decide to do its own thing in an attempt to innovate at the expense of standardization.
The resulting innovation of the last few years has been very fast and raises the big question of what to do if you, or a client, want a web service accessible by as many means as possible? All of a sudden there are a lot more front-end options on the new devices side of the curve. At the same time, there is still the various web browsers in the middle, and aging devices on the other end. Where do you draw the line on either end of the bell curve?
On top of that, the ever growing list of new devices, like smartphones, tablets, TV consoles, gaming consoles, and e-readers, have brought even more considerations to the table. Now we add media attributes, like different screen sizes, and new hardware components, like GPS.
What would appear to be front-end problems are quickly manifesting into opportunities for back-end solutions which browser specific CSS/JS hacks and responsive design aren't likely to solve, especially since not everything is a web browser anymore.
How does this change your back-end? What does a web server back-end look like if it's servering up the pieces of various front-ends?
- HTML/CSS/JS for the browsers
- JSON or XML for consumption by an app front-end
- structured data via an API
- semantic data formats for the semantic web
Oh, and how long before the server-side needs to adapt to the ever growing number of components within the ever growing types of devices?
- Video
- Sound
- GPS
- Blinking/Notification LEDs
- Camera
- Bluetooth
- Gyroscope
- Magnetometer
- Microphone
- Phone
- WiFi
- SMS
- Accelerometer
- Radio transmitters
- Lasers (for the sharks)
- 3D
- Biometrics
- Cloud-based storage
- and more, oh my
Given all of this, should we make all back-ends into an API that responds to CRUD requests and shift more logic to the front-end, like the days of thick-clients and desktop applications?
I don't have it all figured up, but I surely don't want to develop, let alone support, X front-ends and Y backends. However, it's increasingly clear that the web standards aren't going to move fast enough to be a one-size fits all solution.
On a positive note, at least we have MVC frameworks like FuelPHP, media queries, and responsive design already making these changes more managable.
Conclusion
In the long term, I can see the line between web browser and mobile OS blurring until we circle back to a world of competing OS super cloud brOwSer A vs super cloud brOwSer B, likening to the days of IE6 vs Firefox or Windows vs Mac.
Perhaps I can go ahead and coin the name web brOSer. That could actually be a useful term if these Google Glasses, and such immersive technologies, don't leepfrog everything by combining life + browsing + OS and tap directly into our brain's visual cortex.
The future of the web is going to need more Rick Harris's. As much as I hate to see Rick go, I hope Treehouse is able to produce more folks like him to help iron out the ever changing details.
Worth More Research
Regarding the findings of the earlier Google and Facebook links, it looks like media queries are not used, presumably because 2 of the 3 devices tested are not likely to support them. I'm curious to see whether the big guys are using media queries and responsive design on the front-end when network transfer speeds are not a concern, like on tablets and smartphones.
Over the weekend Jeff Papenfus died.
I can’t say we were best friends. Business friends more than anything. I’d see Jeff at the Coffee Underground every couple weeks (especially when he was working on Main Street) and the usual “hi and a handshake” would always turn into a half-hour conversation.
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We travelled similar paths for a while. We both owned web development companies and, at first, our conversations mainly focused on business. Jeff had an amazing energy and was always willing to share his experiences, provide advice, and contribute to an impromptu clients from Hell session.
I saw Jeff at probably his most high in business. He had just moved to a two story building on Main Street and had hired several new people. For Greenville, the growth in both size and stature of his company was meteoric. At the Grand Opening party Jeff bounced around with energy and confidence. We made jokes, had some drinks, and talked about the wonderful prank possibilities a second story window overlooking Main Street provided.
I saw Jeff at probably his lowest in business as well. His company wasn’t able to sustain the growth and pretty soon the company of ten people was down to just Jeff. He still came by Coffee Underground. We still talked for 30 minutes at a time. And he still was happy to share and advise. He still had energy, but some of the confidence was gone. Business can wear on the most fit person and business had clearly worn on Jeff.
I saw Jeff refocused as a person beyond business too. After a while our conversations at the Coffee Underground focused less and less on the web and business and more and more on his new addiction as an adventure racer. I’d sit back in amazement and pepper him with question. How long are you racing? You did what? Are you insane?
His energy, confidence and passion were back. Jeff had found something outside of business that drove him. I’d see him in the morning at the Coffee Underground and he’d talk about trying to finish his work by 11am so he could go ride his bike all afternoon. He’d tell me about the next adventure race he was preparing for and I'd sit in awe.
I’ve heard and read lots of people say fantastic things about Jeff over the last couple days. Lots of people who knew him much better than me. His energy and passion were mentioned often. It’s this energy and passion that drove him as a racer and athlete. It’s what I’ll think of most of when I think of Jeff. Running into him at the Coffee Underground, asking him where he’s racing next and walking away from the conversation convinced he was insane.
But, I’ll also think of one the last conversations we had. It was at InnoVenture. He mentioned that he had once tinkered with building a motorcycle that was both extremely energy efficient and fast. He said there were competitions for such bikes and the winners made some pretty good money. I said he should start working on that bike again. He pushed back saying he was no mechanical engineer. Then he started to talk himself into the idea. He started to smile and his eyes started to brighten as the gears in his head churned. He would partner with Clemson. Maybe pull CU-ICar into the mix. They could sell advertising on the bike and website. It could work. “Maybe I should do it,” he said. I laughed because that entrepreneurial energy was revving up and it was fun to be around a person with that energy. It was fun to be around Jeff.
E-waste is technically banned from landfills in SC as of July 1st. Greenville County locations will now take the majority of your e-waste.
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Have a closet full of old electronics? It's easier than every to recycle them.
Greenville County recycling facilities now take TVs and additional e-waste, whereas before it was more limited to what Goodwill accepted.
I dropped off electronics today and the staff guy told me anything with an electronics "board". He said they will take computer accessories, misc cables/chargers, printers, monitors, and keyboards/mice, routers, modems, set-top boxes, etc.
Items like cellphones, CDs, printer ink or toner cartridges and batteries can be recycled at county locations or at the downtown Greenville location on Stone Ave. and Park Ave.
