Author: clearwaterstream

Learner. Dreamer. Degustator of fine code.

Scorpion Exo 700 vs Scorpion Exo 400 Review

On By clearwaterstreamIn Uncategorized3 Comments

I’ve bought both the Scoripon Exo 700 (for myself) and the Scorpion Exo 400 (passenger) helmets and decided to do a review on them. These helmets are very popular and people often ask which one to get: the 400 or the 700. Let me first say that these are my first helmets so I cannot compare them to any other helmets I’ve had.

I am very pleased with both helmets, so there will be no winners or losers in this review. I will just point out the differences between the two.

First, the Scorpion Exo 700.

https://goo.gl/photos/rytj1oHnHoiA9WQn8

I bought this one @ http://www.sportbiketrackgear.com/ for $108.95 + $35.00 shipping to Canada. That’s $143.95 USD in total (and no tariffs!). It pays to order a previous year model, STG often has them on sale for a fraction of a price of a current year model.

PROS:
Light
Very good build quality
Ventilates very well
Does not fog up

CONS:
If you wear glasses, they are not as easy to put on as with Exo 400
A bit noisy (b/c it ventilates so well)

Second, the Scorpion Exo 400

https://goo.gl/photos/qyGWtUxJ9YYXvKur9

I bought this one as STG as well, for $64.95 + $35.00 shipping to Canada. That’s $99.95 USD in total. This is a previous year model as well.

PROS:
Same shield as on 700, does not fog up
Just as light as the 700
A bit less noisy then the 700
Easier to put on glasses then with the 700
Price

CONS:
The plastic looks cheap comparing to Exo 700 (the shell looks just as nice though)
Does not ventilate as well

In conclusion, I would like to repeat that I am very pleased with both helmets. If your budget allows for it, go for the Exo 700. Otherwise, get yourself a 400 and rest assured that you are not missing out on much.

Idea: Digital Receipts

On By clearwaterstreamIn Uncategorized1 Comment

Many times when I get a receipt, at a grocery store for example, I simply toss it away at the scene or when I get home. Sometimes I even crumble it up and try to get it into a garbage can form several feet away. With the amount of receipts I get you would think I’m a pro by now. I am. Sad.

Enter digital receipts. Or receipts 2.0. iReceipt maybe? The idea is this: the clerk would ask you “would you like a receipt with that?” If you say yes, then a paper record is given to you right a the spot like in the good old days before this idea. If you say no, then a paper record is not given. In either case a digital record gets entered against your credit or debit card.

The record would contain an itemized breakdown of what you bought, just like a regular receipt does. Also extra info like warranty, store info, date time etc etc. You can view that receipt by logging into your bank’s online banking site.

Credit and debit card companies would have to agree on a standard, so would the POS software companies (some sort of XML). A store can upgrade their POS software (or buy a new one) that would support that feature. If the store chooses not upgrade their software or buy new one — all is good, they would function just like they do now. This feature will not be forced on anyone.

Benefit to banks (or credit card companies) — they now hold the data that describes what and where a customer purchased something. They can sell that data. For example, say Kellogg wants to know what else customers buy when they purchase their Kellogg’s cereal. Stuff like that.

Benefit to consumers — you have full access to info about your purchasing habits. Your bank maybe nice enough to provide you with free reports about how much you spend on food, bills, etc. Also, when you go back to the store to make a return/exchange you need not bring the receipt with you — just the card you used to make the purchase. The bank will swipe the card and read the necessary receipt.

Idea: TV Style Subscription Service For Games

On By clearwaterstreamIn games, service, subscription, TV1 Comment

Games can be developed same ways TV shows are produced. You play an episode of a game and wait until next week to play the next episode. This will make it easier for game developers, for example, to push out the game. All they have to do is produce the first episode (which is much shorter than normal game) and release it into the public. In the meantime the developers can work on the next short installment, due next week. The consumer would then subscribe to a cable style service where he/she can opt to play several different games that are released in TV show fashion. Similar to having 40 channels in a basic package. Either that or the consumer pays per game.

Give users the chance to shape the series.
Since the game is being developed in short installments, ask the audience using things like polls (and/or by collecting statistics) how the next episode should play out. This will make the game a bit more interactive and feel more custom tailored should your vote influence the outcome.

Idea: OS Level Spell Check

On By clearwaterstreamIn Spell check, spell-checkingLeave a comment

The newly introduced Firefox 3 has built-in spell check. That got me thinking, why not introduce spell checking in the OS level rather than trying to implement it for each program? It will allow all the spell check development to be focused in one place, providing better product. There are already system-wide spell check programs out there, now we need OS development folks to implement the same idea.

Idea: HTTP Get Multiple Files

On By clearwaterstreamIn HTTP GETLeave a comment

This functionality can easily be jammed in into existing browser and server code.

Summary:
Basically, a browser will parse html file and compile a list of files (like JavaScript, images, etc…) that it needs to get from server(s). For example, if the browser sees something like this in html <img alt="google logo" src="http://www.google.ca/intl/en_ca/images/logo.gif” /> it will not make a request to get the image but rather will add it to the list of files to get.
Once the list is ready, the browser sends an HTTP GET request to each server (links within HTML can point to many locations) with the list of files it needs.
The server gets the files and compresses them to an archive (zip for example) with correct relative directory structure and serves it to the client.
The client, knowing the file received is in fact an archive, extracts it and gets multiple files in one shot!

How to implement in Browser:
In the ProcessHTML() function, that’s before DisplayHTML() function, get all the links that need a GET request and add them to an array. There will be an array for each server. For example, my HTML might have links to 10 images located somewhere on google.ca and another 10 somewhere on advertize.com.
For each array execute a GET with the filename being “?this is a multi file request. filenames are “. So the filename will not be a legal URI.
The server will return an archive with the files and relative directory structure.
Extract the archive to a temp location and replace all the links within HTML that point to external locations to the ones that point to your local hard drive. For example: <img alt="google logo" src="http://www.google.ca/intl/en_ca/images/logo.gif” /> will be replaced with <img alt="google logo" src="file:///C:/BrowserTempFolder/www.google.ca/intl/en_ca/images/logo.gif” />.
Then, invoke the DisplayHTML() function.

How to implement in Server:
If the incoming GET request has a filename that start with “”?this is a multi file request. filenames are” DON’T try to do an I/O operation as the filename is not legal and the I/O operation will fail. Instead, jump to a function that will parse out the filenames and put them in an archive that has relative directory structure.
Give the archive to the client, that’s it!

Notes:
The browser should have logic that will determine if doing the above makes sense. Say I am parsing a web page that has 40 images. Would the above functionality have benefit? Yes (assuming the images are tiny). How about one or two images? Probably not. This also assumes that the client / server already have support for HTTP Compression, which modern servers and clients do.