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So I decided to start reviewing interesting websites in my spare time, hopefully you will find some useful information in this review
Website Being Reviewed: www.vrbo.com
VRBO.com seems to be a good concept for anyone looking to rent their vacation home or any home they are wanting to let out. The main page is uncluttered with no advertising. I am not real keen on the pastel colors, and the map needs to be bigger, but it still scores an 8.5 out of 10 for cleanliness and ease of navigation.
(Here is a screen shot of the top portion of the main page)
I am partial to the tropical regions (even though I have not had the chance to go yet, so I will navigate over to Belize).
The first thing I clicked on was Caribbean and then Belize. One of the other hard things is I am not totally sure when I am over the country that I am intending to click on. It would be nice if the text emboldened or italicized when the user hovered over the intended click.
So here is a small sample result.
Again, I’ll give it an 8 for ease of use and readability, however, it would be much nicer to have the ability to sort with more control, such as a sort column on the left side like this:
As you can see, on another website, it is more intuitive to sort by a number of different attributes.
I think the best thing about VBRO is the Listing Detail Page. It is visually appealing with all of the necessary information that a person, looking for a place to stay in Belize, would need. At the top is the location, accommodations, a description of the location, pictures, an availability calendar, a phone / contact number, email, rates, near by attractions and amenities whether pets are allowed or not and much more.
(Here is a partial screen shot of the particular ad I pulled up)
Since finding VBRO, I would definitely use them when trying to find a place to vacation rather than a hotel. There is a whole lot more exploring I have to do on this website which may involve a follow up article.
How to build a Box Jump Part 3: “The Landing”
The Landing:
In this, the last part of the build, we are going to be looking at how to build the landing for our box jump. First, you will need the landing sides and the center support. These consist of 3 Sheets of 3/4″ CDX Plywood. The 3/4″ CDX Plywood (23/32″) at Lowes are $18.47 each for a total of $55.41. The 2 x 8 stringers are on 8″ spacing with the first one being 8″ from edge to center and then the rest being 8″ center to center. This measurement is on the arc, not point to point, so the spacing may actually be more like 7-15/16″. The last 3 at the bottom are flat instead of on edge and the last 5 plus the first, top most one are cut between the plywood, not notched into the plywood. (see picture). You will need (19) – 2 x 8 x 12s which are $7.21 each for a total of $136.99. You will need (8 or 9) sheets of 3/8″ CDX Plywood at $10.97 each for the landing for a total of $98.73. The Grand total is $291.13 for this portion, which makes the rough total for the project $770.00 which includes a 10% overrun in cost and $75.00 for nails or screws, not including paint (which I recommended and detailed in my first post).
 The BMX Box Jump Landing
How to build a Box Jump Part 2: “The Deck”
The Deck:
So, we are building a 4′ tall deck which is by far the easiest part. The spacing for the deck studs is 8″ from the front edge to the center of the first stud and then 8″ on center for the rest of the deck studs. First you will need (4) – 2 x 12s which at Lowes today are $12.17 for 12′ers for a total of $48.68. These will make up the 4 sides of the deck. the inside structure will be made up of (13) – 2 x 6s on 8″ centers, these are $4.91 for 12′ers, for a total of $63.83. You will also need (2) 2 x 8s which you are going to cut in half for the legs at 4′ (usually they are a touch over 8′ which gives you enough to cut them in half. These are $4.79 each for a total of $9.58. You are going to also need (4) – 3/4″ CDX sheets for the deck, these are actually 23/32 and are $18.47 each for a total of $73.88. This brings the grand total to $195.97. This doesn’t include the box of nails for around $50.00 or if you are screwing it together, probably more like $100.00. Below is the diagram for all of the parts. The legs need to be notched for the 2 x 6s and you can improvise as you wish; Happy Building and “Part 3″ soon.
Installation of Windows 7 is supprisingly easy. It is pretty much stick CD into drive and go, which is why I will not be covering any aspects of the install. I will give you an account of installing another copy of windows 7 on the same drive different partition. I had a hard time finding any information on this one, windows 7 & windows XP, sure a plethora of information, installing a second copy on Virtual Box or VMware, no problem, but not two copies of windows 7. I keep an emergency install on hand in case I tank my main OS which seems to happen somewhat often. That way, I always have a way to look at the other system or get online to try and find out what I did.
I usually at some point manage to mess something up in a serious way at some point or another. This all started when for what ever reason Windows XP decided to give the ol’ BSOD (Blue Screen of Death). A screen of meaningful but cryptic information that usually I don’t give a crap about. Every once in a while, it is more serious, than just restarting, which is what happened in this case. I went to restart the computer and it hung, right after the splash screen. I tried to re-boot in safe mode, same thing. Now it might have been a corrupt MBR or something of that nature, but it was the excuse I needed to upgrade to a clean Windows 7 64 install anyway.
Here are some steps I took before formatting my 2 drives (by the way I previously had XP 32 installed twice in a dual boot setup):
- Backup all Outlook PST files. These files may be anywhere if you modified their location previously, but can be found by either performing a search of the C: Drive for “*.pst” (not including the quotes) or their default location is C:\Documents and Settings\User Profile\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\Outlook\ and the local settings folder is hidden by default; to make it visible go to Control Panel, Folder Options, View tab, and show hidden files and folders.
- I also use a program to backup a secondary copy of my emails called MailStore, and it also works great (free version on there somewhere).
- Backup all browser history. This may seem strange, but I do a lot of research online and I would be lost if I were to loose my browsing history, so I use a little program called MozBackup, works great, and don’t forget to backup the files that the program creates also.
- Of course backup all personal / business files, pictures, Quickbooks files, anything that you will not have when deleting all the files on the harddrive.
Ok, you backed everything up, great; format drives, grab windows 7 disk and install.
The tricky part for me, however, was when I installed the second operating system, it booted straight into the newest system and did not give me the option for any dual boot. So most of the following parts were done from the new naked operating system (This is all at your own risk!!!! I am just telling you how I did it, if you BSOD your computer, your problem). You might give easyBCD a try, it may be way easier to do this, but who knows, I did not use it.
- Click on the start menu and type CMD in the search area of the start menu, then right click and “run as administrator”
 
- Once in CMD, you will type cd c:/
- Then type bcdedit.
- You will get part of this screen.
so, I had 2 drives as c and the other one was unassigned. You will have the part below the words “Window Boot Manager” which describes what the areas are. First, you will want to name the current Operating System so that you can tell the difference between them. I named the first one “Windows 7 64 Ult – Emergency OS”.
- To rename the current OS you are in, type bcdedit /set {current} description “your text goes here“
You should then get a message The operation completed successfully.
- Now, you are going to copy your settings for another entry by typing bcdedit /copy {current} /d “the os you are adding text description goes here“
You should get a message that gives you a new boot loader identifier which you need to write down or copy to notepad. Note above that “d” was where my first operating system from above was. In other words, I looked from this operating system (second one) to see what drive letter it had been assigned, “D” may be different for you.
- Next type bcdedit /set {} device partition=D: make sure that you enter your new # between the brackets, mine was {e64c18b8-49ad-11e0-a892-bbcc9dce7198}, yours will be different.
- Next type bcdedit /set {}osdevice partition=D: make sure that you enter your new # between the brackets, mine was {e64c18b8-49ad-11e0-a892-bbcc9dce7198}, yours will be different.
- Next type bcdedit /default {} where {} is the identifier for which operating system that you want the boot loader to default to (as if you did not take any action and the count down expired and windows automatically loads).
- Finally type bcdedit /displayorder {} /addfirst where {} is the identifier for which operating system that you want shown on top of the list of operating systems.
I just recently (couple months ago) received a credit card offer. I went through a bankruptcy a few years ago, and basically vowed to operate on a cash / debit card basis. I would name the soliciting bank, but I am not sure if that is legal. So, here was the offer:
Credit Limit $500.00
Fees Assessed before using card,
One Time Processing Fee: $25.00
First Year Annual Fee: $100.00
On top of that, the APR is 36% and after the first year, there is a $124.80/yr fee.
If I was a coffee drinker, I would have spit it out of my mouth. I have one word; “extortion”. I would rather sleep under a bridge than allow a bank like this to bend me over. If you get an offer like this, please rip it up. There is no good that can come by engaging in a contract such as this…
Why is it that we are always trying to tell other countries how to run their country? Would we put up with any other country telling us how to conduct the internal affairs of the United States? We would think “the audacity of so and such to tell us what to do”. I know, your saying, “ we need to protect ourselves or ensure that we have a friendly government so we can get cheap oil”, blah, blah…
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What we really need is to become self-sufficient enough so that when some country does something we don’t like, we just stop doing business with them. It is kind of like Wal-Mart; I personally love cheap products, or better said targeted “price point” products, some people hate ol’ wally land, so they shop at Target. They pay more for the same Chinese product, but somehow they feel as if they aren’t being part of such a mega corporation. But to step outside of these convenient places to shop requires both less convenience and sometimes higher prices. We need to be Wal-Mart like, internally and externally; internally meaning that we have reliable, low cost, diverse products available from within and externally meaning that we are a large enough force from within (GDP) that we can sway without having to send in troops, (excluding Islamic causes). We are relying on countries that, if all things were equal, would have no problem in purposing to actively extinguish us.
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When I was a kid, I dirt jumped at a local spot we built. It took me and a friend 8 years to hand dig a 5 acre piece of property into a park of sorts. We always had problems with people wanting to smoke, drink, ride their motorcycles on, throw trash anywhere, etc. 70% of the kids complied with our rules out of respect, 25% complied only after some sort of peer pressure, and 5% either had to have their ass kicked and/or didn’t come back. That experience, at an early age, taught me something about the human existence that many on the left don’t get; you can try and put rules in place that are “good” for society, but there will always be that 5% that for whatever reason they have, will never go along with your best laid plans. They are the ones that will either not participate or you will have a fight on your hands. You can’t reason with those people, on any level, as they have decided they don’t want to reason with you.
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The point is, we had our rules and if you wanted to ride, you had to comply, period. In 8 years, the place was, for the most part, immaculate, and family safe. We didn’t tell people how to act anywhere else, and we were pretty chill to most offenses. We need to get back to that here, the rules in America are thus and such and if you don’t like it, move, don’t immigrate, whatever, but they are our rules and you have to comply with them to be here or do business with us .
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P.S. We won’t tell you how to run your country any more.
I never understood why some of the citizens in this country insist that spending is the only way to get us out of this debt. If I have a cavity, the solution can’t be to eat more candy can it? It seems like a better approach would be to go to a dentist (economist) and get the cavity filled or if bad enough, pulled. The challenge:
Can you show with high school math, a simplified way to “spend” ourselves into prosperity (please give examples)? I dare you!
How to build a Box Jump Part 1: “Overview & The Lip”
The intent for this multi-part article is for the average BMX or Skatepark rider to be able to build a decent box jump with a minimal investment.
Usually I start any project with a bunch of “napkin sketches”. This preliminary work will help shape the project early on. I have started down a project with a bunch of money and time invested and then had an unanticipated change or hiccup which causes the project to either stop, slow, or cost more. As you decide what your box jump is going to incorporate, keep in mind that obviously the more elaborate you make it, the more it is going to cost.
A few ideas:
- Get friends and said friend’s parents involved, maybe one or a bunch of them would be willing to go in on the cost.
- Start out with a ballpark figure on what you think you can afford, again some quick napkin figures with an accompanying call to Lowe’s or Home Depot should verify whether or not you need to think smaller or possibly get more elaborate with your ideas.
- Have an area where this behemoth of a jump will not have to be moved. Believe me, moving a 20′ Box Jump is no fun!
- Make the Box Jump sectional. This is the best idea that I had for mine, so if you do have to move it, it is feasible.
- Make the landing curved. This is the worst thing about my box jump, the flat landing (other than the fact that it is 5′ tall, more on that later).
Let’s get started.
I wouldn’t recommend a box jump any taller than 4′. Mine is 5′ tall and to clear it, you have to go big all the time; there isn’t really a choice to racer it.
I will make suggestions, feel free to add your own numbers:
The Box will be 3 sections, the lip, the deck and the landing. So we are going to build a 3′ 10-1/2″ tall box (this is so that 1 – 8′ sheet will span from the bottom of the lip to the top with out having to add any little strips) with a 7’6″ radius lip, a deck of either 8′ or 10′ and a radiused landing with a 2′ radius at the crown and a 20′ radius for the body of the landing. You also have the choice to make it either 8′ or 12′ wide and I wish I would have forked out the extra dough for 12′ as it is kinda scary 360ing the 5′ box out back with such a narrow landing. Side Note: When I made a visit to Utopia in Raleigh, NC,their box was nice and wide which made trying things way less scary.
The Lip:
So, we are building a 3′ 10-1/2″ tall lip which works nice with whole sheets of plywood. You should be able to get both sides out of 1 sheet (see diagram below, click on for larger image).
There are 2 ways of construction for the lip, I have always done it the old school way using1-1/8″ plywood and notching the plywood for the ribs. This is time consuming and the ribs are harder to attach to the side sheets, but it is stronger. The easier faster way which will also allow you to use 5/8″ to 3/4″ plywood is to just nail through the side sheets and into the end grain of the ribs for the lip. If you are going to build it this way, I would recommend galvanized ring shank nails or the proper sized and coated screws as they have less of a tendency to loosen over time. Let’s assume you made the wise choice and went with the 12′ wide option. I would put the ribs at 8″ on center if you are using 2X6s or 6″ on center if you are using 2X4s. You will need (14) – 2X6X12s or (18) – 2X4X12s. I searched on Lowe’s website and 2X4X12s are $2.73 ea. & 2X6X12s are $3.99 ea. (At Lowe’s in Medford, OR as of 1/24/08). So total cost on 2X4s is $49.14 or 2X6s is $59.85. One sheet of 15/32 CDX is $25.77, 23/32 CDX is $31.88 and 1-1/8″ T&G Sturdifloor is $36.88.
Lay the studs out in this fashion for 2X6s:
Lay the studs out in this fashion for 2X4s:
You must measure point to point for the ribs, by that I mean you measure from the end of the side pieces at the ground and mark up the plywood 8″ for the first rib. Measure from that first mark, 8″ up, to the second rib, and so on. If you lay out all the marks from the bottom, your ribs will be closer together than 8″ and your plywood break will not land on a rib (for larger ramps). Same instructions for the 2X4 Design except spacing is changed to 6″. Toe nail the ribs in, nailing through the plywood from the side into the rib so that if they warp or whatever, they will be pushing against the nails.
So your framing is all nailed up, last thing is to put on the sheeting. I have been able to bend 15/64 CDX with pretty good success; it will bend one way and not the other. I have seen quite a few ramp builders put it on an angle like a 45, but I just run it vertically. You will need a few friends to start it and I work from the bottom to the top. You will need (3) – 15/64 CDX sheets of plywood for a plywood cost of $77.31. I on occasion have had one want to break, in this case, I get it wet on both sides and let it set over night, that usually does it. If you have a sheet that just does not want to bend, then use it for the deck or something else. Also, if you have a decent budget you can go on to purchase Skatelite or some comparable product and it depends if it will be indoor or out door. For an indoor box jump, you could just purchase Masonite or something like that (Masonite might be too slick). My box jump is out door and sees from 100s in the summer to 20s a few nights in the winter. I usually have to paint it yearly as it is only plywood. I would use screws to put the plywood on as it is the first thing to go bad and consequently the first thing needing replacement. You can purchase returned paint at any local paint store and it is usually $5.00 a gallon. I get 15 gallons at a time of some really good out door paint, and mix it all together so the ramp is a uniform color. I add some sand to the paint which enhances grip and coat it twice.
Site Preparation:
It is a pain in the ass to clear off the site for the ramp,but you should do it. I would recommend putting the ramp on piers if it is to be out in a field or something like that and keep the grass and crap off of it as wood ramps will rot if constantly exposed to water where they can not dry out. If it is on asphalt or concrete, I would still shim it up to protect it as best as possible from water damage and add a piece of sheet metal to the front bottom of the lip so there isn’t a little bump as you jump it.
Viola! Your lip is done, stay tuned for part 2: “The Deck”
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