Once again I found myself in the lovely neighborhood of Fremont here in Seattle enjoying the coming of summer at the Solstice Parade. It would have been more fun if the family was in town but I still managed to have a good time. I know I’ve been saying this every year but I think next year we’ll have to join in the fun.
Oh, and I didn’t fee like taking any pictures but I’m sure there will be plenty of them posted on flickr. You can check them out here.

Well, the weirdest thing happened to me on my ride today. For some unknown reason the tire slipped right off the front rim of my wheel. This would not be such a big deal except for the fact that I was riding my bike down a hill at the time. As I turned I flipped and face planted on to the pavement of a parking lot. It hurt quite a lot but lucky for me nothing is broken. Just a few mere flesh wounds.
Needless to say I will be getting new tires and tubes.

Just fixed a couple of silly bugs with the plugin parameters not working correctly. Just let me know in the forum if there are still issues.

Please visit the SimpleFlickr Plugin page to download and get the details on the latest version of the plugin.

I thought I should do a little clean up of the comments on this site to help promote the use of the new Support Forum. I have deleted all the useless comments and moved all helpful comments to the forum. Now it should be easier for people to search for help related to the projects I have developed including the SimpleFlickr Plugin and Flickr Tag Cloud Widget.

I finally decided on a new bike. I was back and forth between building up a bike and just purchasing a new pre-built bike. For a while I was set on a Surly Long Haul Trucker but I just wasn’t happy with the components the stock bike came with. So, my friend Rory helped me spec out a very nice setup based on a Long Haul Trucker or Cross Check frame. It would have been hot but the price was a little steep for me. I guess if I did not have the $500 deductible with my insurance I would have went for it.

Instead, I ended up with a 58cm Lemond Poprad Disc 2007. Take a look:



It is a Cyclocross bike with Shimano 105 components and some sweet disc brakes that are really growing on me. I think it will make a great commuter bike and will definitely fit all my needs at the moment.

Once again the weather man was wrong with the next-day forecast here in the lovely Northwest. But this time is was for the better. A predicted gloomy day turned nice.
Laura and I decided to take Jack on a quick trip out of Seattle to enjoy the weather. We ended heading out to Rattlesnake Mountain just outside of North Bend, WA. It is a super quick drive via I-90 and includes a nice view overlooking the area. I will have to say it was quite interesting hauling a 30 lbs. one year old on my back with a pregnant lady in tow. Let’s just say I don’t think we have any super long hauls in our near future. Jack had a blast and everyone enjoyed the day. Let’s hope this weather stays.

So against my better judgement I decided to go with the forum software my hosting company provided for automatic install. I thought this would save me some time and hassle. boy was I wrong.

The software was phpBB which is a pretty popular open source forum software. I was not too thrilled about it but since it was so popular I thought I’d give it a go.

Once installed I determined that the administration controls were way too convoluted to even get the registration working. Which for some reason was turned off by default. So much for trying to save time.

I have ended up installing and using punBB which has already been a relief. It actually has a administration section that is navigable. And the key, it actually is working.

So head to http://forums.joshgerdes.com for all your support needs related to my projects.

I have noticed that the comments on my plugin pages have gotten a little unwieldy as of late making it hard for people to find solutions to some common issues related to the installation and running of my plugins. I decided to remedy this by creating a new support forum for my site. The new Support Forum is located at http://forums.joshgerdes.com. I hope this will help people having issues with my plugins and I hope it becomes a central place for discussing my projects.

My celebration for Cinco de Mayo came to an abrupt stop yesterday after a quick stop at the grocery store.

Around 6pm at May5, 2008 I stopped at the Ballard Market on the corner of 15th Ave. and 56th Street. I parked my bike by the Southern entrance of the store and locked it up with a OnGuard cable lock around a post. I went in and grabbed some lettuce and a tomatoes for burritos. And when I came out my bike was gone.
I was just floored.

I ended up chatting with a man named Burt Stubbs who was drinking a coffee outside. He mentioned that he had seen a guy bike off like a ‘bat out of hell’ which he thought was a tad strange. He also mentioned another man in a white, 2-door, older Japanese model car. By the speed at which the theft occurred you only can assume that they were casing the place just waiting. He also mentioned the man who rode off on the bike was scruffy, mid-40’s, Caucasian, with glasses.

I reported it to the police but as you know the likelihood of finding it is pretty minimal. I am scanning Craigslist and hoping that my insurance will cover the loss.

So if you are purchasing a bike in the Northwest (Seattle, Portland, Vancouver) area please contact me if the bike fits these specs:

Year: 2005
Make: Giant
Model: OCR1
Size: L
Color: Blue
Serial: GS564552

Browsing the web the earlier this month I noticed that there was a new release of the SimpleViewer flash application as well as a new release of the script for embedding flash content. Because of this I thought it was time for some Spring cleaning.
I did a complete overhaul of the current SimpleFlickr code base. Now the admin section has the same standard look and feel for Wordpress 2.5+. In addition, I with the arrival of new attributes related to the new version of the SimpleViewer flash application (v1.8.5) decided to add the ability to define URLs to static SimpleViewer XML configuration files. This means that you can display your local galleries with the SimpleFlickr Plugin now.
I’m pretty happy with the results and I think you will be pleased as well.

Please visit the SimpleFlickr Plugin page to download and get the details on the latest version of the plugin.