The mantra is "mobile first" and it means that if you think about designing for a mobile screen then you get the desktop but if you think about the desktop you seldom reach the mobile screen.

The problem is that most development and design tools make no distinction. So, if "mobile first" is a new concept, how do you remind yourself? Here is an easy solution – desktop wallpaper!

If you click on the image that accompanies this post, you will get a 2048×2048 PNG file that has graduated lines both horizontal and vertical at most of the common desktop, tablet, and smartphone screen dimensions. Make this your computer wallpaper (remember to ’tile’ so it aligns top left and does not scale).

The visual is very handy for resizing your work or just visualizing how small a given screen is. The image can also be imported into GIMP or Photoshop as background to compare visual designs – although I recommend that designers get away from static designs and learn some basic HTML, CSS, and eventually JS.

windy and low humidity

The day started out foggy, misty and generally just yucky. Not anymore!

Douglas TBD Devastator paint scheme

For the past *almost* four weeks, the RV-8 has been at Chorman Airport (Greenwood Delaware) with Russell Aircraft Refinishing with Jim Russell. Yesterday, the finished airplane was rolled out into the sunlight *and the sun blushed*. OK, that’s a bit too dramatic but the paint scheme definitely held its own against the backdrop of puffy clouds and the on-field monster Ag planes. To say I am pleased, is conservative use of the English language.

So, the question I got most – from the first day I brought the airplane home – what color will you paint it? The answer is now silver, bright yellow, pale yellow, black, blue, white, and red. Seven colors in all !

The design is One of the Navy markings for the Douglas TBD Devastator – a torpedo bomber from the early years of the USA in the second world war. *I took advantage of the common meaning of TBD to keep friends in the RV community a bit confused.* The Devestator did not have a long service life. The rapid evolution of aircraft design and speed pushed the original aircraft into obsolescence quickly. Only 129 TBD’s were built. By comparison, there have been more than 1000 RV-8′s built. It is also interesting to note that the basics of the Van’s aircraft design has not changed significantly in 40 years and yet its total performance is still near the top of the rants of current aircraft designs.

Four weeks ago the plane was bare aluminum and fiberglass. It was already 3-1/2 years old. Russell Aircraft had to clean it up, strip off the oxidation, and start the prep work. It’s an understatement that “good prep makes a good finish”! The prep work was worth the time. Once the preparation was done, filler-primer was sprayed to allow the fiberglass to be smoothed out *and to hide some booboos that happened over the previous five years*. The engine compartment, interior, and wind screen were masked and wrapped and the paint started with a lot of metallic silver. *The clear coat over silver really makes the metallic shine.* The process of masking and painting continued with the Stearman yellow wings, the pale yellow stripes, the black tail, and finally the white, blue, and red of the roundels. When you consider that a typical paint scheme is three colors, having seven made for a lot of steps to reach the finished product.

One significant change took place to the aircraft during the pain process – the FAA authorized the N-number change. “N125TH is dead. Long live N86472.” That particular number is a long story of its own and will have to wait.

Am I happy with the results? Definitely. Is this a national award winner? Probably not. The plane was not built for that purpose and the painting choice was in line with the original mission. Was it worth the cost? Definitely – it is a quality job at reasonable price using professional materials by an experienced craftsman. I was not looking for a five-figure finish.

It doesn’t hurt that Jim also painted the local Vans Aircraft demonstration RV-12 as well as a number of personal RV airplanes for the local Van representative and pilots. While the majority of Russell’s business is refinishing, the RV’s – and designs like the TBD – give him the opportunity to do some different and fun airplanes.

There is a cool App available for iPhone and iPad call Arqball Spin. It creates those 360 degree rotating product shots.

The App is designed to work with a "spin table" but most people don’t have one of those and Arqball hasn’t yet started producing and selling their $80 unit. So what is a person to do ?

Hack of course !

The trick to the whole "spin" is that the app records 20 seconds (20.02 seconds based on the company’s spokes person). The object needs to rotate smoothly one complete revolution in 20 seconds. For this, you need two things – a rotating surface and a motor .. a pretty slow motor. The rotating surface is easy. You may already have one in your kitchen. If not, they are under $10 – a Lazy Susan. The motor is equally easy, inexpensive, and you may have one as well – an electric screwdriver. I had a nice hand panted turntable on my dining room table and I had previously purchased the electric screwdrivers from a local big box store for $8.88 (the price should tell you the ‘falling prices’ store). For convenience, you will also want some way to have something to hold your iPhone (I grabbed a suction cup mount from my car).

Now for the only real trick – getting the turntable to rotate every 20 seconds.

Since the App uses an iPhone, just use the "clock: app which ahs a stopwatch. Place a small mark or something near the edge of the turntable (I used a kernel of popcorn). Gently press the electric screwdriver on the edge of the turntable and press the ‘on’ button. You may need to add something to the screwdriver shaft to add some friction (I used a little double stick tape). Now time how long it takes for the turntable to make one revolution. If it is slower than 20 seconds, you can wrap some tape around the screwdriver shaft. If it is faster than 20 seconds, you can use some tape of a bit of foam or something to make a tapered cone on the end of the shaft. The goal is to be as close to 20 seconds without going under. (If you are a little over 20 seconds, the final ‘spin’ will have a tiny jump at the end but if you are under, the recorded ‘spin’ will be a little over 360 degrees and it will look like it suddenly jumps backs at the end.)

With the timing corrected, place an object on the turntable, start the screwdriver and then start the app ‘record’ feature. The App will finish the recording automatically after 20 seconds and it will then render the final ‘spin’. If you like it, upload it to their website and share it !

Recently there has been a convergence of sorts here on the farm. After nearly two years, I took a few hours and upgraded my media center to XBMC 11.0. Shortly there after my Verizon phone service (plain old telephone service aka landline) went dead. When the service tech came to resolve the issue (a dead switch a half mile down the road) I made my usual plea for faster Internet. After just 15 minutes and two phone calls my “barely life support” 1.0mbps down and 330kbps upload was improved to 1.6mbps and 700kbps.

Yes, those numbers are still so embarrassing I cringe to say then in civil conversation. However, they are *just good enough* that I can stream TEDTalks.

XBMC has a nice plugin for TEDTalks an it could hardly be easier to install and enable.

Now I can watch lots of inspiring speakers on lots of inspiring topics! (This translates to feeling inadequate but that’s life at the speed of 1.6 megabits per second).

_ . . _ _ _ _ . . . _ . _ Glen Salmon 202-480-9248

Do you have some dining room chairs that are not in the dining room? This is a common phenomenon in less than formal homes where the dining room table has removable leaves and is often not in it’s full size configuration.

Do have fewer side tables than you need next to your favorite living room or den furniture?

The “Chable” may be your solution!

They are easy to make. Are very stable. And can be customized to your decor.

This pictured Chable has a faux suede pained finish. There are three key features when making a Chable …

• semi-circular cutouts to fit around the back supports of the chair
• small pocket indents on the underside near the front to coincide with the front leg risers (if they exist on your particular chairs)
• a support bar on the underside near the back to level the top

Chables are easy to make and can be stored away when you need that dining room chair to be pressed into service as a chair!