Jun 6, 2011

I Came for the Post-Apocalyptic Setting, I Stayed for the Nerdiness

Jon Lim Amazon, books, Kindle, Marcus Alexander Hart, The Oblivion Society Blog, Books 0 Comment

I finished reading The Oblivion Society by Marcus Alexander Hart on Friday. I enjoyed reading it, especially when you have gems like this:

“I’m with you,” Bobby agreed. “Let’s eat already. I feel like somebody did an ‘rm star’ on my stomach.”

It makes me sad that I read that, understood it, and laughed so hard that my fellow subway riders probably thought I was crazy.

Of course, there was this as well:

“We should all find souvenirs,” she said. “Look around. There’s probably some stuff we can use in here. At the very least we should all find something to wear to keep warm.” “Hell yeah,” Sherri said, loosening the belt on her coat. “I call dibs on the first thing anyone finds that’s black and encrusted in metal studs!” “Fine,” Bobby said. “I’ll let you know if I find Dennis Rodman.”

And don’t even get me started on all of the Canada-related puns on the billboards they kept running into. Oh boy.

Great read.

Jun 4, 2011

The Cake Isn’t A Lie

Jon Lim blog, CakePHP, coding, PostageApp Coding 0 Comment

Yesterday, I tweeted out that I was going to give CakePHP a try over the weekend, with the end goal of creating a plugin for CakePHP to be able to send emails via PostageApp.

CakePHP!

Welp, I’ve done the bare minimum to give it a try – I went through the ‘create a blog’ example they had in their documentation.

What you end up with is a pretty simple web page that lists all of the posts (title and body) that are in your database, and you can add, edit, or delete posts as you see fit. It was pretty darn easy to set up, and it gave me a much better understanding of the MVC coding process.

I’m going to fiddle with it some more until I can actually add functionality to it (thinking of adding comments) and some sort of layout. If you want to check out what I’ve built so far, here’s the link: hellocake.upatom.com

Feel free to add/edit/delete posts on the site, and even feel more free to leave me weird messages!

Let’s see how far I can get with this!

Jun 1, 2011

Tracking Ye Olde Expenses Using Google Chart Tools

Jon Lim expenses, Google Chart Tools, Javascript Blog, Coding, Life 2 Comments

Since I’ve started my hunt for a proper place to live downtown, another activity I’ve proactively started is to be a lot more careful about where and how I spend my money, in an effort to be able to afford rent and have enough money to continue to save.

Bob Newhart, why am I so broke?!

As a way of making myself accountable, I have created an expenses page that tracks my month to month expenses, which I track through Quicken Essentials.

I create the chart using Google Chart Tools, which is a pretty nifty way to display all your data using JavaScript. Though it’s a bit difficult to integrate it into WordPress posts, I took the simplest solution (NOT having to pull and parse data from custom fields) and just passed the data into the header manually.

Here’s the code I used:

<script type="text/javascript" src="https://www.google.com/jsapi"></script>
<script type="text/javascript">
	google.load("visualization", "1", {packages:["corechart"]});
	google.setOnLoadCallback(drawChart);
	function drawChart() {
		var data = new google.visualization.DataTable();
		data.addColumn('string', 'Month');
		data.addColumn('number', '2011');
		data.addRows(12);
		data.setValue(0, 0, 'Jan');
		data.setValue(0, 1, 2610.62);
		data.setValue(1, 0, 'Feb');
		data.setValue(1, 1, 1973.72);
		data.setValue(2, 0, 'Mar');
		data.setValue(2, 1, 3303.36);
		data.setValue(3, 0, 'Apr');
		data.setValue(3, 1, 2836.86);
		data.setValue(4, 0, 'May');
		//data.setValue(4, 1, 882.64);
		data.setValue(5, 0, 'Jun');
		//data.setValue(5, 1, 882.64);
		data.setValue(6, 0, 'Jul');
		//data.setValue(6, 1, 882.64);
		data.setValue(7, 0, 'Aug');
		//data.setValue(7, 1, 882.64);
		data.setValue(8, 0, 'Sep');
		//data.setValue(8, 1, 882.64);
		data.setValue(9, 0, 'Oct');
		//data.setValue(9, 1, 882.64);
		data.setValue(10, 0, 'Nov');
		//data.setValue(10, 1, 882.64);
		data.setValue(11, 0, 'Dec');
		//data.setValue(11, 1, 882.64);
 
		var chart = new google.visualization.ColumnChart(document.getElementById('chart_div'));
		chart.draw(data, {width: 920, height: 240, title: 'Monthly Expenses',
		                  vAxis: {format:'$#,###', minValue: 0, maxValue: 5000}
		                 });
	}
</script>

Just drop that into your header file (copy and paste the header from header.php and drop it into your template file to isolate it to particular pages) and create a div with the id that matches whatever you put into this line:

35	var chart = new google.visualization.ColumnChart(document.getElementById('chart_div'));

And if we used that, you would use this to place your chart anywhere on the page like so:

1	<div id="chart_div"></div>

Ta daaa!

My eventual goal is to be spending less than $1500 a month, before rent, which ensures that I am saving at least SOME money. Well, here goes nothing.

Enjoy watching me waste my money, thanks for reading!

May 29, 2011

Lessons From Shooting With the SLR

Jon Lim Canon T2i, SLR, Video Technology, Video 2 Comments

Shooting with a Canon T2i It has been just about 3 months since I have bought my Canon T2i, and I have done my best to really get to know it better. I have done quite a bit of video in the past, and I have done some video with SLRs as well, but there are just tiny little tips and tricks you figure out along the way.

Here are a few for the beginner videographers to help you along your journey to shooting better video!

Tip #1: Autofocus in video sucks with the T2i.

Seems rather silly, but autofocus on the T2i in video mode is… well, it’s shoddy. It is slow, it is loud, and it opens up your aperture as wide as it can while it does it, and will whitewash your entire video. Instead, get comfortable using manual focus and zooming in to check on the focus. At least that’s how I do it.

Tip #2: Invest in a good microphone.

This is especially important if you have people speaking on camera. I recently filmed an interview with Wes and Darcy of Dealpage, and we were on the roof of my office building on a rather windy day. If I didn’t have a mic, I am pretty sure my audio would consist of bits and pieces of their answers, but mostly the wind blowing right into the mic. And nobody wants to interview the wind.

The mic I use is a Rhodes VideoMic. I’d love to buy a wireless lavalier mic in the future, but for now it isn’t viable for me.

Tip #3: Don’t cheap out on the SD card.

When I took the camera to Austin for SXSW, I had JUST purchased the camera along with this cheapo 32GB SD card from Canada Computers. Worked great for photography, but when you used video mode and you moved in the slightest, you would memory buffer right out. Why? The SD card just wasn’t fast enough. Instead, invest in a card that gets at least 30mb/s and memory buffer issues should be a thing of the past.

I bought the SanDisk Extreme 16GB card, best purchase ever.

Tip #4: Auto settings are versatile enough for most situations, but get comfortable with manual settings.

This is something I have only recently started fiddling with, because for the most part, auto exposure settings were just good enough for anything I was doing. However, setting it to manual is the best way to control image quality and the look and feel of your video. Get some practice down by shooting a still scene and changing the settings until it looks right to you. Soon enough, you’ll get comfortable enough to change the settings on the fly and while on the move.

This has been the largest effect on my work, simply because being able to change the settings at will has given me the control I need to make it look just the way I want it to look.

So there you have it, a few nifty tips I have picked up along the way, and I hope they help you out too!

May 23, 2011

Awesome Link: OliviaTech

Jon Lim OliviaTech, photography, Video, video tutorial Photography, Video 1 Comment

I love discovering useful and/or educational content that is well made. That’s why I was quite happy to discover about OliviaTech, a blog of Olivia Speranza, sharing her tips and tricks about audio, lighting, photography, and videography. This is my favourite kind of site to stumble upon, because you immediately learn a million things.

There’s an even better part: her video tutorials and reviews!

She has a collection of very professionally made videos on YouTube and Vimeo that educate us amateurs about different equipment and techniques. They’re short and they pack a lot of good, educational content.

Thanks Olivia, you’re doing great work!

May 16, 2011

More Books Than a Library

Jon Lim Life 3 Comments

Last week, I tweeted about how quickly I read. I took a look at my Kindle along with my purchasing behaviour and was flabbergasted – I read, on average, one book a week. Seriously, for a guy who read at most one book per semester while in school, this is a maddening pace.

Because of this, I wanted to track my reading habits by title and date, and just see what happens after an extended period of time.

Amazon Kindle

The product of this is the Books I’ve Read page on JonLim.ca.

It shows you the book cover, the title, the author, and what date I started reading it on. I use Amazon Affiliate links on this page, after all, reading this many books is not cheap! Feel free to go around it however, these are great books for the most part!

Of course, I have to give most of my credit to the Amazon Kindle for re-sparking my love of reading, and I would highly recommend it to anyone who wishes to get back into reading. It’s light and compact, and it’s way easy to read everything on it.

May 14, 2011

Best Flight Ever, Thanks Porter!

Jon Lim Chicago, Porter Airlines, travel Life, Travel 2 Comments

Last weekend, I flew down to Chicago to get some rest and relaxation under my belt, and of course, eat mountains of food while I was there.

One of the best decisions I had made was to fly with Porter Airlines. Now, I had never flown with Porter before so I wasn’t sure what to expect. I had been told that they flew with prop jets and that they had great customer service.

Understatement of the year.

They had sent me an email the night before my flight to remind me of my flight and any steps I would be able to take to save time at the airport, as well as a warning to try to arrive 60 minutes prior to my flight in case of any customs snafus.

I left work at about 3:00pm, got to the Porter building at about 3:15pm and waited for the ferry. Had to correct something on my boarding pass, went through inspections, and I was sitting down in the lounge at about 3:45pm. Wait what? I got from the front door to waiting for my flight in 30 minutes? Keep in mind my flight was at 5:30pm, so I had plenty of time to hang out. When I looked around, I realized I really had no problems with that.

The Porter Lounge is amazing. It’s a huge space with a cafeteria area, seating area, and a business area full of iMacs in case you need a computer for something else. I went and got myself a coffee (or four), a couple of snacks, and a bottle of water, sat down and enjoyed the free wifi that they provided for everyone.

I thought the pleasantries had ended there, but when I boarded the rather small prop jet, I felt really odd… my legs weren’t squished up against the seat in front of me and I could comfortably sit down.

To top it off, every flight also gets you a free drink (wine, beer, coffee, juice) and a snack box.

We touched down in Chicago, and I spent another 15 minutes going through customs, and I went on my merry way.

In all honesty, that had to be the best flight experience I have ever had. To break it down, here’s what you get when you fly with Porter:

Speedy check-in procedure.
Great lounge with free wifi, drinks and snacks.
Ample leg room and relaxed atmosphere.
Snack box and free drink.

Cannot wait to take another flight with them. Going to fly with them when possible. Thanks Porter!

Apr 16, 2011

Kickass Weekend Ahead

Jon Lim ruby on rails Coding, Life, Ruby on Rails 6 Comments

You know how I know my weekend is going to rock?

Let’s do this.

SIDE NOTE: Hopefully I can blog the progress I am having with learning this – I spent a portion of my lab day yesterday setting up Comfortable Mexican Sofa, and it was so easy. Can’t wait to actually build things.

Apr 5, 2011

Keep Dreaming, Pal

Jon Lim Life 6 Comments

A friend of mine, who spends a lot of his non-working hours working on his music career, recently asked me to give him some feedback on the new video he had released. We’ve had a good back and forth every time he releases a new video and/or song, and I give him my honest feedback about both the music and the video production.

At one point in the conversation, he said this:

“I just think… that this is my ticket out of accounting.”

And I’m sure he was half joking, but that he half meant it. Quickly evaluating the state of the music industry and the difficulty one can encounter trying to break through, I quickly typed this reply:

“Haha, keep dreaming, pal.”

I hesitated to send it. Throughout my entire life, I’ve had people tell me to keep dreaming.

You want to make video games? Keep dreaming, Jon.
Dunk on a basketball net at your height? Keep dreaming, Jon.
Create a career out of something you love? Keep dreaming, Jon.

And then it hit me: why should I be someone who dismisses the dreams of another? There are enough of those in the world. We should spend most of our efforts supporting those around us and making sure they get every opportunity to succeed.

I quickly revised what I had written…

“Keep pushing, bud.”

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