I really like being able to archive links for later review, and Instaper is a new toy I’ve found to handle that nicely. I really feel like there’s a lot of cool stuff that I can accomplish with it in the future.

Tonight (Feb 9, 2012), I joined Instapaper as a paying customer so I could use the Search capabilities (searching your links on the web site is only available to those customer who sign up for the $1 per month subscriber account). But, after signing up and finally getting to use Search, it does not appear to be searching the way I was expecting… In fact, I couldn’t get the Search feature to return anything. Evar!

“No results.” it said… (which is not true, in that I have links with HTML5 in the title, url, summary, etc.)

“No Results” ?!?!?!  What the heck is going on here? I know there are some links in my account that have this text in the URL, Title, and/or Description. Why won’t the Instapaper web site find any results?

I want to be able to do a search on the URL, Title, and Summary of the bookmarks, (not the actual contents of the link pages, which I don’t expect it to search anyway). I think most of us usually remember some keyword or tags as we save the links, so I expected to be able to search my links on the Instapaper site and search for “CSS’” or “HTML” or “GIT” or something like that to find links that I’ve stored.

So, I’m going to try to do something about this…. I’ve applied for an oAuth application token to see if I can build a better searching and filtering interface than the one they have now.

This will be a good exercise to sharpen my Ruby on Rails skills.

Boy, I sure hope they approve me…

Update 2012-02-10:

Instapaper sent me my app tokens later on in the same day. (Man, that was fast). And I found a gem on github (https://github.com/spagalloco/instapaper) that provides a nice wrapper around the Instapaper API, and I’ve already banged out a few lines of Ruby code which use the gem to connect to my Instapper account and post a few dummy links. Now I can move on the real work of pulling down all the bookmarks from an account, and providing a search/filter interface for searching through them for keywords or tags in the URL, Title, or Description.

I thought it would be fun to record this old screenshot of GoFish 4 as it appeared at the time of it’s original release on VFPx in April 2011.

And, here is a screenshot of 4.2.059:

In this modern day of iEverything, I wanted to go old-school on you with this fun and simple brain teasing number challenge. So turn off the T.V., print this page, grab a pencil and let’s see what you can do here. I’ve had this in a simple TXT file for over 20 years. This beauty has made its way from one hard drive to another as I’ve upgraded computers over those years; it’s too good to let go. I wish I could remember where I got this.

If you can’t get them all, get in touch with me and I’ll help you out. And, if you can add any to the list, please send them to me and I’ll update the post.

INSTRUCTIONS:
Each question below contains the initials of a word that will make it correct.

EXAMPLE: 16 = O. in a P. Ounces in a Pound

1.    26 = L. of the A. ______________________________________________________

2.    7 = W. of the A.W. ____________________________________________________

3.    1001 = A.N. ___________________________________________________________

4.    12 = S. of the Z. ______________________________________________________

5.    54 = C. in a D. (with the J.) __________________________________________

6.    9 = P. in the S.S. _____________________________________________________

7.    88 = P.K. ______________________________________________________________

8.    13 = S. on the A. F. ___________________________________________________

9.    32 = D. F. at which W. F. ______________________________________________

10.    18 = H. on a G.C. ______________________________________________________

11.    90 = D. in a R. A. _____________________________________________________

12.    200 = D. for P. G. in M. _______________________________________________

13.    8 = S. on a S. S. ______________________________________________________

14.    3 = B. M. ( S. H. T. R.) _______________________________________________

15.    4 = Q. in a G. _________________________________________________________

16.    24 = H. in a D. ________________________________________________________

17.    1 = W. on a U. _________________________________________________________

18.    5 = D. in a Z. C. ______________________________________________________

19.    57 = H. V. _____________________________________________________________

20.    11 = P. on a F. T. _____________________________________________________

21.    1000 = W. that a P. is W. ______________________________________________

22.    29 = D. in F. in a L. Y. _______________________________________________

23.    64 = S. on a C. ________________________________________________________

24.    40 = D. and N. of the G. F. ____________________________________________

Good luck.

Want more brain fun? Check out http://www.brainbashers.com/games.asp

Job postings chart for some programming common languages (as of 3/24/2011).

Hey – What’s that BLACK line down at the very bottom? (Answer: FoxPro)

You can see that C# has about 3 times the job postings as Ruby or Python, and that that Ruby and Python are on a path to overtake Visual Basic.

Use this link to view the chart and explore others: http://www.indeed.com/jobtrends?q=C%23%2C+Ruby%2C+Python%2C+FoxPro%2C+Visual+Basic&l=

Basically, head over to this link: http://GOmetricUSA.org/metric-limits-and-fits-convert.html

They have a simple web tool that will convert lookup metric limits and fits from the metric standards book!

Now, for the background…

Metric Limits and Fits Tolerances

Converting a metric limit or fit designation can be a real pain. A mechanical drawing may have a metric size and tolerance like “50e6″ or “80 H8/f7″. What in the world does that mean? Well, there are tons of charts all over the internet to show you the amounts to add and subtract to a basic size for a give limit specification. However, it takes a ton of time drag out the charts or a book and look up all the numbers. Plus, the whole process is error-prone; one small mistake and you’ve just created some bad data.

Convert from metric to inches

Also, in our machine shop business, after we complete the conversion process on the metric sizes and limits, we usually convert them to inches to help out with production on the shop floor.

Web software to the rescue…

Well, let me point you to a site where you can actually lookup and convert metric limits and fits right from your web browser: http://GOmetricUSA.org/metric-limits-and-fits-convert.html Give this wonderful tool a try on the Design or Convert tab on the page, and you’ll wonder how you ever lived without this.

Announcing a new blog post on our Jordan Reduction Solutions web site comparing the different functions of a shredder versus a grinder versus a granulator. Our engineering team has compiled a brief summary comparing each of these pieces of equipment used in grinding, shredding, and granulating processes in industrial applications. Follow this link to compare a shredder, a grinder, and a grinder to a granulator.

I’ve been at Jordan Machine Company for about 18 years now, and for many of those years we have been a key vendor to what is now Jordan Reduction Solutions – a manufacturer who designs and installs heavy duty industrial shredders, tire shredder (like the PT-6000 Passenger Tire Shredder).

All of these machines are really quite impressive in their brute force way of ripping and tearing apart anything you throw at them. You can see several impressive videos on their web site on the shredder videos page.

Granulator

For instance, the granulator machine is for fine shredding and grinding of materials like plastic, PVC, wood, and just about anything else you throw at it.  These are the smallest of all the machines, and cut with a high-speed rotor machine from solid steel, and has replaceable hardened knives that can be swapped out when the wear.

Tire Shredder

I’ve personally stood over a tire shredder and looked into the cutting chamber while it ripped up a car tire in seconds and dropped out little bits of rubber through the discharge screen. The sound is absolutely incredible; like something you’d hear in a scary movie. They can shred up the whole tire all at once, even that heavy bead that’s on the inside where the tire mounts to the rim.

Rubber Grinder

Some of the rubber grinder machines can even separate the wire out of the rubber, since that is required in some applications. The tire rubber (sometimes called “tire shreds” or “crumb rubber”) is used for a variety of things from Tire Derived Fuel to manufacturing rubber hoses and mats, to playground coverings. Jordan doesn’t market the rubber products that these machines generate, they just specialize in helping companies get the tires shredded up.

Hog Mill and Hog Grinder

These Grinders machines were once actually called “hog mills” or “hog grinders” because way back in time, they were commonly used to grind up, well, hogs for the food processing industry. These days they have become very popular for other industrial grinding applications like plastic grinding. These machines were originally designed and sold by Mitts and Merrill, so many of them would be known by that brand.

Twin Shaft Shredder

Then there are the dual shaft, or, twin shaft shredders. These machines have two shafts, rotating in opposite directions, and each shafts is loaded full of thick cutting knives with hooks on them to grab the product and pull it into the machine, chop it up, and discharge it out the bottom. The shafts are hex shaped, and the knives also have an internal hex shape so they can be driven by the shafts. The machines typically rotate at slower speeds, and they can also be equipped with screens to filter and refine the product size that comes out of the shredding process. Other ways to refine the process include using thinner knives, or adding more hooks onto the knives, and even altering the reach of each hook to grab more or less of the product being processed.

Wrapping up

They also have plenty of shredding equipment set up in a test lab where customers send in samples of product they’d like to be shredded up into various sizes. I’ve seen them chop up carpet scraps, entire wooden pallets, and they can even grind up large bails of rubber and various plastics into small shavings or pellets. The machines use a qualifying screen to determine the final particle size, so they can swap out the screens and achieve different output.

So that’s a little info on what it’s like to be involved in the shredder industry. Jordan Reduction Solutions is a great company to work with for your shredding, chopping, and grinding needs for industrial applications. Please check them out at the links I provided at the top of this article.