InfoDabble - What's new

Free Spirit support

Space shuttle Endeavour

The Free Spirit bumper stickers and T shirts are turning up in all kinds of interesting places.

Meanwhile, the rover team is still running further tests using a test rover in the sandbox at JPL. No specific date has been set for Spirit to try and get out of its sand trap.

Opportunity rover

Free Spirit (the Rover)

The Mars rover Spirit has been stuck in loose Martian soil since April. Show your support for the Rovers and the Rover team members with Free Spirit themed T-shirts, hats, and all kinds of other stuff - now including bumper stickers!

I've been really busy

I've been really busy at new job doing amazing things with mobile and desktop computing. More soon...

New 2009 Wall Calendars

The calendar family keeps growing, with new Shuttle and Saturn calendars. All of the older Saturn, Shuttle, Spaceflight, X-15, Mars, and Robots calendars have been reprinted with dates for 2009. And don't forget the wall clocks and mugs.

HowTo: Create a boot-from-CD browser kiosk with Firefox and Linux (Updated again)

I needed to turn an old PC into a cheap, dedicated, browser appliance. The cleanest choice is a Linux/Firefox boot-from-CD; the hardware demands are minimal, and it's impossible for users to make any permanent changes. After a little research, I decided to go with SLAX, a small and beautiful Linux operating system which fits on and runs directly from a CD-ROM disc. With the addition of Firefox 2, a Firefox kiosk mode extension module, and a little fiddling with xinitrc, I was able to create a small, clean kiosk boot CD that works on practically any PC without changing the hard disk at all.

MediaWiki extensions: DynamicSkin and BreadCrumbs2

The DynamicSkin MediaWiki extension allows the skin layout and content to be defined using normal wikitext articles instead of PHP script files, and to be modified dynamically depending. Menus, styles, navigation can change depending on the contents of the page being rendered. i've published the extension on MediaWiki.org and a description of the InfoDabble skin which shows how a derived class is used to further customize the skin for this site.

I've also published the BreadCrumbs2 extension which generates "breadcrumbs" to help users navigate around the wiki, highlights the active navigation link and/or tab, and optionally changes the site logo based on page categories.

How to get the Google Data API to work with PHP on GoDaddy servers

As part of its web application framework, Google provides the Google Data APIs, a set of web services for read/write access to google applications. Even better, the Zend Google Data Client provides a PHP 5 component to execute queries and commands against the Google Data APIs. And that's all you need. Unless you're using GoDaddy as a cheap host. You get what you pay for ... With low cost comes great hoop-jumping responsibility.

MediaWiki extension: EmailForm

The EmailForm MediaWiki extension is used to create email response forms. Both the input form and the results, which are defined on the same wiki page, can be fully formatted using standard wikitext. The extension has been published to MediaWiki.org and is used for the Contact me form on my web site.

Now running on MediaWiki

I'm pleased to say that my web site, InfoDabble, is now (mostly) running on the MediaWiki platform. Here's why, and how.

HowTo: Install MediaWiki on a GoDaddy Value Plan (Updated)

I like to think of GoDaddy as the McBurgers of hosting and domains - they're huge, they're everywhere, they're relatively cheap, and they're utterly consistent. Just don't ask for anything that's not on the menu. Fortunately, MediaWiki fits with just a little trim...

Apollo 17 Flight Journal

The (not the) Apollo 17 Flight Journal is back in business - new, improved, and much fuller. The site is also a showcase for how to use MediaWiki as a platform for project documentation and research.

Mugs from Space...

The Planetary Society Year in Pictures 2007 Calendar

"I'm pleased to announce that a reader, Eric Hartwell, has put together a lovely 2007 calendar based upon the Year in Pictures feature I posted looking back on some of the great pics from 2006. You can order it from Cafepress in either a large or a small format (the large looks better, but both are nice). I think Eric did a great job selecting the images and laying them out; the calendars are absolutely beautiful..."
-- The Planetary Society Weblog By Emily Lakdawalla - January. 31, 2007

2007 Wall Calendars

Why doesn't NASA make better use of their fantastic photo resources? The official NASA wall calendar, as usual, gives the impression that the only thing they do involves manned space flight. Sure, that's what most of the bureaucracy does - but what about all the exploration going on in other parts of the solar system? So, I decided to make my own. I've updated the 2006 calendars to show 2007's dates, but for 2007 I've also made new calendars using the new, glorious, "oversize" format which is almost twice the size. Large: Saturn, Mars, Flying in Space; Small: Saturn B&W, Saturn, Mars, Robots in Space; Planetary Society

HowTo: Build a web site with FrontPage, Community Server, and MediaWiki

This series of tech notes documents my progress in building a unified web portal using Community Server, MediaWiki, and static web pages - using FrontPage shared borders, style sheets, a bit of JavaScript, a bit of PHP, a bit of brute force, and even more duct tape.

HowTo: Integrate FrontPage webs with Community Server

I wanted my web to use the Community Server 2.0 look and feel, while working within the limitations of FrontPage 2003. This tech note documents my progress using FrontPage shared borders, style sheets, a bit of JavaScript, a bit of brute force, and a roll of duct tape. The whole thing can be saved as a FrontPage Page Template.

Apollo 17: The Blue Marble

"The Blue Marble" is one of the most widely distributed photographic images in existence. NASA officially credits the image to the entire Apollo 17 crew - "The identity of the photographer is unverifiable."But is it really? A lot of detective work makes a strong case to identify Jack Schmitt as the photographer.... and produces a compilation of Earth photos taken during Apollo 17's coast to the moon