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Zovirl Industries

Mark Ivey’s weblog

URIs Moving documents

I came across one of the first tests of my new URI format today. I wanted to post an update to the timezone plugin, but I wanted to keep the previous version around. Hmmm…multiple stories on the same topic? That sounds like a job for a category. Sadly, the obvious category for this (/software/blosxom/plugins/timezone) was already taken by my previous version, which was sitting on these URIs:

I’m not using the full date in my URI, so I only get to reuse a path once a year. Fortunately I got lucky because we just entered a new year. That means /2004/software/blosxom/plugins/timezone is available for me to use. Here are the new URIs I laid out:

So, I moved the old files to the new locations, added the new files, and updated my metadates so they were all correct. I then updated my .htaccess to add 301 redirects for the old URIs:

...
Redirect permanent /2003/software/blosxom/plugins/timezone_about \
   http://zovirl.com/2004/software/blosxom/plugins/timezone/
RedirectMatch permanent /2003/software/blosxom/plugins/timezone_about\.(.*) \
   http://zovirl.com/2004/software/blosxom/plugins/timezone/index.$1
Redirect permanent /2003/software/blosxom/plugins/timezone \
   http://zovirl.com/2004/software/blosxom/plugins/timezone/timezone_0_0_2
Redirect permanent /2003/software/blosxom/plugins/timezone_pod.html \
   http://zovirl.com/2004/software/blosxom/plugins/timezone/pod_0_0_2.html
...

Finally I posted the new version. Overall it was a fairly simple task. I got lucky with the new year, in the future I’ll have to be more careful when I post stories I know will turn into categories in the future.

Update: Found one more gotcha: my internal links are generated using the absolute plugin. When I move files, old references to them need to be updated in my blosxom stories, otherwise absolute can’t find the files and doesn’t generate the right links.

Update 2: It really makes more sense to set the directories up like this:

http://zovirl.com/2004/software/blosxom/plugins/fullcategory/v0_0_1/about.blosxom
http://zovirl.com/2004/software/blosxom/plugins/fullcategory/v0_0_1/fullcategory
http://zovirl.com/2004/software/blosxom/plugins/fullcategory/v0_0_2/
...

Airplane Tuneup and Flying

It isn’t too hard to fly these laminated paper planes, but here are some tips that can make it work better.

First, look at the plane straight-on from the front, back, and top. Make sure all the pieces are straight and lined up. Bend them gently if they aren’t.

Ok, ready for your first flights. Best to do this on a dry day with no wind. Grip the plane under the wings and throw it straight ahead (not up or down). Ideally it should fly straight ahead in a nice smooth glide.

If it turns left or right look at the plane and try to figure out why. Is one wing warped differently than the other? Is the rudder (the back edge of the vertical part of the tail) straight? If you don’t see anything obvious just bend the rudder a little to the left or right, or bend the trailing edge of one wing down and the other one up.

If the plane pitches up, then drops its nose, then pitches up again, bend the trailing edge of the horizontal part of tail down. If the plane noses down too quickly, bend the trailing edge up. You want the plane to follow a nice smooth glide, almost but not quite pitching up.

For really long flights, you want to adjust the plane so it turns to the left. Then throw it straight up. If everything goes right it should climb almost straight up, then roll out and start a slow spiral back down to the ground.

High Performance Paper Airplanes: G-1

New Designs!

If you’re interested in the G-1 glider, you might also like some of my newer designs.

Paper Glider Paper Glider

See newer designs


G-1

I’ve played around with laminated paper airplanes some and now that I have a webpage I can finally post some of my designs for download. This is a pretty cheap hobby. The plans are free and you just cut them out and glue them together. The only thing most people won’t already have around the house is heavy paper.

This isn’t the kind of airplane we all used to fold in school. It is made from heavy cardstock, using many laminated layers for strength. Properly adjusted and thrown it can fly a long ways. I would suggest going to a large open space, like a park, to test it out. When I flew it from my driveway I ended up retrieving it from my neighbor’s yards most of the time.

Materials you will need:

Download G-1 plans (rev. 2):

Once you have downloaded the plans print them out on heavy paper. Follow the directions to construct the plane. Once the plane is finished let it dry overnight. Then look here to see how to tune and fly your plane.

If you are interested in this sort of thing you might want to check out some of the Whitewings kits. That’s where I got my start from. Their designs are much more elegant than mine, and at least the kit I have came with a very nice booklet containing construction and flying tips.

Timezone 0.0.3

Version 0.0.3 is now available. This version adds the ability to use the server’s default timezone and a new variable, $timezone::offset. This gives the offset from GMT (for example, for PST it will be -0800).

Download timezone 0.0.3. Be sure to rename it to “timezone”

Documentation is available here.

Timezone 0.0.2

This is an update to Raffi Krikorian’s timezone plugin. In addition to the previous functionality (which allows Blosxom timestamps to use a different timezone than the server), the plugin now exports a variable, $timezone::name, so flavors can display the timezone next to times.

For example, this bit of flavor:

$mo_num/$da/$yr $hr:$min $timezone::name

might produce this output:
12/25/2003 11:19 PST

Download timezone 0.0.2. Be sure to rename it to “timezone”

Documentation is available here.