lumis.com

Mobile Alabama Skyline

David Rencher — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 19:22:48 +0000

Took this last night. Turned out pretty good. Mobile Alabama Skyline taken from the train yard on Mobile’s North Side

Some HDR Shots of Mobile

David Rencher — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 08:17:10 +0000

Jim Ward, Jamie Ward and myself went out tonight to take some night Photos. These are 2 of the long exposure High Dynamic Range (HDR) shots i did from the train yard in Mobile looking toward Downtown Mobile.

WKRG Analog Sign Off

David Rencher — Sat, 13 Jun 2009 06:31:11 +0000

Terry pressing the button to turn of the Analog transmitter for WKRG. Terry has worked at the WKRG transmitter since 1968 and had recently retired. Our chief engineer let him have the honors of permanently taking the WKRG analog signal Off Air.

WKRG's Terry Hammond. Photo taken immediately after he turned off the WKRG analog signal. Terry has worked at the WKRG transmitter since 1968. To me this photo is a bit moving. maybe i am a nerd but imagine turning off 41 years worth of your work.

WKRG chief engineer Jim Richardson watching the sign off of the WKRG analog signal.

Key West Lightning

David Rencher — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 03:26:54 +0000

A few lightning Photos I captured while in Key West this past week.

Dauphin Island Race

David Rencher — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 01:33:40 +0000

Dauphin Island Race. I did not get to take allot of photos because i was driving the boat. but it was fun and i got a good sunburn to prove it.

ExpressionEngine Twitter Search

David Rencher — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 05:18:06 +0000

EE Twitter Search This ExpressionEngine plug-in allows you to search Twitter by various different operators or by Twitter Geo Location

{exp:twitter_search:find} Params
q="" Returns tweets that match a specified query. You can use a variety of search operators in your query.

Find tweets containing a word: q="lumis"
Find tweets from a user: q="from:lumis"
Find tweets to a user: q="to:lumis"
Find tweets referencing a user: q="@lumis"
Find tweets containing a hashtag: q="#junkie"
Combine any of the operators together: q="moped :)"

optional Params

lang="en" restricts tweets to the given language, given by an ISO 639-1 code
rpp="" the number of tweets to return, up to a max of 100
since_id="" returns tweets with status ids greater than the given id
convert_url="yes" converts url's in the {text} into a link
word_censoring="off" turns off the ee badword filter
cache="yes" refresh="5" cache tags output. (please use this)
geocode="" returns tweets by users located within a given radius of the given latitide,longitude,radius based on there profile location e.g. geocode="30.686935,-88.071213,25km" q="" is not necissarily required if you use this

vars

{text}
{to_user_id}
{from_user}
{location} only works with geocode=""
{id}
{from_user_id}
{iso_language_code}
{profile_image_url}
{relative_date}
{created_at format="%D, %M %d %Y - %g:%i %a"}
{switch="one|two"}
All vars can be used as conditionals.

example

Code Sample

Download: ExpressionEngine Twitter Search 0.9.9
Visit the EE Forum for Questions

ExpressionEngine ImageSizer

David Rencher — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 06:36:03 +0000

This ExpressionEngine plugin will resize any JPG GIF or PNG image to the desired size specified in your EE tag and cache the resized image to the cache folder. If you update the original image a new resized version will be created. If the image is not on the server the tag will not return anything. The general architecture of this plug-in is setup in a way that it only processes images when needed.

Install
1: put plug-in in plug-ins location :)
2: create a cache folder in your images folder called "sized" /images/sized/
3: make sure you "sized" folder is writable (chmod 777)

Parameters:
src= (required) the path from "webroot" to the image or the URL to the image. /images/news/moped.jpg or http://www.lumis.com/images/news/moped.jpg

width= the width you wish the image resized to. The height is resized proportionately.
or
height= the height you wish the image resized to. The width is resized proportionately.
or
auto= the size of the longest side. If the image is landscape, then this sets the width, else it sets the height.

NOTE:

if you use only width or only height the image will be scaled to match that width or height proportionately
if you use auto, The image will be scaled to the longest side proportionately.
if you use both width and height the image will be cropped from center to that width and height.
if "width" is = to "height" the image will be cropped from image center to make a square sized image.
when cropping the image is always scaled proportionately by the longest side

quality="90" (optional for JPG images) ranges from 0 (worst quality, smaller file) to 100 (best quality, biggest file). The default is the default value is (100).

greyscale="yes" (optional) if set to yes imagesizer will convert color jpg images to greyscale

justurl= (Single Tag only) if 'yes' the tag will only return the path to the image.

alt= (Single Tag only) the alt tag of the image.

id= (Single Tag only) the id of the image.

class= (Single Tag only) the class of the image.

cache="no" allows you to turn off image caching (not a good idea) setting this to "no" means your images will be reprocessed everytime the page is loaded (this param defaults to yes)

base_path= (optional) by default the base_path is set by ExpressionEngine to your webroot you may override this by altering this value to something like "/web/htdocs/lumis.com/"

base_cache= (optional) the base cache folder is where all your cache images are stored within sub directories of your base cache folder by default it is base_path+"/images/sized/" you can change this to anything you wish as long as it points to a folder structure in your sites document root example: base_cache="/web/htdocs/lumis.com/sized_images/"

experimental
remote= set this to "on" if you pass a remote URL through the src=

refresh= (only used with remote) this sets how often to update the cache of the remote image in minutes. Default is 1 Day

remote_user= (optional) use if the remote server requires a username and password.
remote_pass= (optional) use if the remote server requires a username and password.

suport
this is a free plug-in so i do not offer any kind of support for this. if you need support please ask in the EE forums

to view errors turn on template debugging in the EE cp
example tags in the plug-in info portion of the CP

Download: : imageSizer v2.6 for ExpressionEngine 2

Download: imageSizer v2.5.6 for ExpressionEngine 1.6.8

Bush & Obama BeatBox

David Rencher — Sun, 22 Mar 2009 06:15:43 +0000

Willie Bean boozing at Mardi Gras

David Rencher — Sun, 15 Feb 2009 00:00:28 +0000

Moon Ring Time Lapse

David Rencher — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 17:37:08 +0000

This is a Moon Ring Time-laps i shot with my Still Camera of a lunar Halo.

here are some Still Photos i have of Moon Rings.

Found More Frozen Mobile Bay Pictures

David Rencher — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 05:52:00 +0000

I found 3 more old Photos of Mobile Bay Frozen which were taken along the Fairhope Beaches

Old News Animations

David Rencher — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 05:10:10 +0000

These are a few old animations i did for WKRG TV in the late 90's -2000

Mardi Gras Bump

March Madness Station ID

News Re-Open

Countdown

News bump open

ecoFont.. Simple but Brilliant

David Rencher — Mon, 22 Dec 2008 18:49:16 +0000

A Dutch company looking for ways to reduce the environmental costs of printing has developed a new font that it says cuts ink usage by about 15 percent.

In essence, the "Ecofont" has little holes in the letters.

You can download the Font here

Mobile Christmas Skyline

David Rencher — Sat, 06 Dec 2008 07:49:24 +0000

I stopped on the causeway on the way home tonight and got a few shots of the Mobile skyline lit for Christmas. The well lit battleship against the dark backgrounds is always a hard photo to take.

Show Me Your Richmond

David Rencher — Sat, 06 Dec 2008 07:00:41 +0000

Saw this on Current TV tonight... a quick HS appearance cruising on the mopeds is always nice when i am randomly watching TV.. Makes me miss Richmond.. and dirt woman is always a plus.

Sunset Time-Lapse

David Rencher — Sun, 23 Nov 2008 22:49:01 +0000

495 Still frames Taken In Fairhope of a Sunset over Mobile bay... Wish i had let it run longer into the night

at work Time-Lapse

David Rencher — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 22:46:08 +0000

just messing around.. 837 Still frames. in the Newsroom at WKRG in Mobile Alabama

Obama Newspaper Frontpage Mosaic

David Rencher — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 17:51:05 +0000

Mosaic of Barack Obama That I made from the Front pages of 477 Different Newspapers around the world Announcing his Election

Hurricane Frederic Anniversary

David Rencher — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 23:55:07 +0000

Today is the Anniversary of Hurricane Frederic. So here is some old archival footage From WKRG of news reports before and after the Hurricane.

Hurricane Frederic was the sixth tropical cyclone, third hurricane and second major hurricane of the 1979 Atlantic hurricane season. Frederic was one of the costliest hurricanes to ever hit the U.S. Gulf Coast. Starting with heavy rains over the Virgin Islands & Puerto Rico, Frederic weakened to tropical-storm force across Cuba, regaining hurricane force upon landfall in Alabama on the night of September 12, 1979, at Dauphin Island with 125 mph (201 km/h) winds and storm surge of 8-12 ft (2-4.7 m). Frederic crossed the state line, slowing to a tropical storm near Meridian, Mississippi.

Goin’ Mobile

David Rencher — Sat, 12 Jul 2008 07:05:51 +0000

Our language is full of terms that misleadingly suggest geographic origins for common products. Panama hats weren't made in Panama, French fries didn't originate in France, India ink didn't come from India, and German chocolate cake was named after a person, not the country.

Far rarer is the reverse case, when a product's name does indeed reflect a geographic origin but over time has mistakenly become associated Mobile home with a completely different meaning. The subject of today's article is one of the more prominent examples of this phenomenon: the mobile home.

[Before we begin, let's define our terms to avoid confusion. In this discussion, the term "mobile home" refers to a prefabricated house that is hauled to a plot of land and (more or less) permanently situated there for use as a residence. We do not use the term "mobile home" to refer to a type of living quarters on wheels which is driven from place to place by vacationers, either as a self-contained unit (e.g., a Winnebago brand motor home) or as a trailer towed behind another vehicle.]

The origins of the mobile home are tied to the end of World War II. The rapid downsizing of the U.S. armed forces after the surrenders of Germany and Japan in 1945 brought back millions of servicemen (and servicewomen) to the United States from overseas in the mid-1940s, many of whom were coming of age and anxious to establish their independence, attend college, get married, and raise children. This demographic bulge, coupled with America's burgeoning post-war recovery from the Great Depression and a wartime economy, created an unprecedented demand for housing — both for standard residential units and for quarters to accommodate the many servicepeople who were taking advantage of G.I. Bill benefits to complete their educations at colleges, universities, and other types of schools.

The widespread use of military-style prefabricated housing eased the severe housing shortgage temporarily, and the eventual creation of suburbs such as Levittown took care of much of the long term need, but neither of these solutions addressed a potentially lucrative marketing niche — people who were dissatisfied with living in barracks-like housing but didn't want to (or couldn't) wait years for the construction of affordable suburban housing. It was James and Laura Sweet, a couple from Prichard, Alabama, (a town just outside of Mobile) who came up with the concept that fulfilled that market niche.

James Sweet, a machine shop supervisor by trade, was reportedly finishing off his workday lunch one afternoon in January 1946 when a newspaper article about the post-war housing shortage caught his eye. What if, he thought, someone could manufacture a type of housing that could be put together cheaply and quickly at a central location, but was small and light enough to be transported to wherever the purchaser wished to locate it? Something like the prefabricated structures of the era, but much nicer and more home-like — a prefab housing unit divided into discrete rooms (rather than one large open space) with all the electrical and plumbing fixtures already in place. They could be built as one- or two-piece units, then loaded onto flatbed trucks and delivered wherever the purchaser desired.

Sweet's wife, Laura, was a commercial artist who did illustrations for magazines, and she drew up a few simple floor plans according to her husband's directions. James Sweet built a couple of prototype units in his off-work hours to prove his concept viable, and then, satisfied with the results, used the couple's savings, mortgaged their home, and borrowed against his life insurance to establish Sweet Homes, a company dedicated to the manufacture and sale of prefabricated
homes.

Sweet Homes was initially neither a smashing success nor a disappointing failure. Sales were modest to good, enough to keep the company in business and provide the Sweets with a nice living, but their marketing area was primarily limited to the Alabama/Mississippi region due to the difficulties involved in hauling their product across longer distances on the system of roads that existed in the late 1940s and early 1950s. Not until the passage of the Interstate Highway Act in 1956 and the resulting construction of thousands of miles of highways across the U.S. were the Sweets able to expand the reach of their business. Unfortunately for them, by the late 1950s they had plenty of competition, primarily from firms which had set up shop in the nearby Mobile area, where they could take advantage of a readily available, large, cheap (and primarily African-American) labor pool.

National advertising was still something of a rarity in the 1950s, but as the new national highway system enabled the sale of prefabricated homes to spread outwards (mostly to the north and west) from the Alabama/Mississippi area, more and more consumers were exposed to the houses, liked them, and began clamoring for their own "Mobile homes." Business boomed, more manufacturers entered the fray, and factories were established all over the U.S. to better serve local customers. Eventually whole communities of these types of homes (colloquially known as "trailer parks") were created all across the country, populated by homeowners who preferred them to more expensive and more closely-quartered suburbs full of site-built housing. (So ubiquitous did these homes become that by the 1970s Congress had enacted federal standards regulating their quality and safety.)

Over the years, however, as the generation who fought World War II aged and prefabricated homes became commonplace throughout the U.S., newer consumers were unaware that the appellation "Mobile home" was a geographic reference, a term coined in acknowledgement of the area in which the industry got its start. The name was more and more frequently rendered as a common compound noun ("mobile home"), leading many to mistakenly conclude that it referred to houses that were "mobile" — that is, movable from place to place. While "mobile homes" can indeed be transported, they are of course far from mobile — in the vast majority of cases they are never moved off the sites to which they are originally trucked. (Most "mobile homes," once situated, are moved again only if their owners replace them with newer models, or if they have to be removed because the land on which they sit has been converted to other uses.)

So, while we ponder the mysteries of how Panama hats, French fries, India ink, and German chocolate cake came by their misleading names, let us not forget that their poor cousin, the Mobile home, has been unfairly stripped of his home ties.

Trivia: The 1974 Lynyrd Skynyrd hit "Sweet Home Alabama" was a reworking of a 1951 radio jingle advertising "Sweet Homes, Alabama."