Amazon S3, Backups and Other Things

Posted on July 23, 2008 by Ian R. Sandy

Most folks these days have a digital camera, and as a result have hundreds and possibly thousands of digital photos and videos littering the hard drives of their computers. Certainly this is true for me and of course it highlights one of the dilemmas if living in a digital age. Crash your hard drive, and your photos are gone forever. Admittedly not all of them are ‘perfect’ shots, but out of every hundred or so there are bound to be a few that are precious to you and which you really do not want to lose.

In prior generations, there were generally lots of ‘hard copies’ of photos either in photo albums or boxes stashed away in closets, and copies of the more memorable photos would be made and sent around to relatives etc. This was a good thing, and back then, if I were to lose a copy of the photo of my great aunt Lulu (I actually don’t have an aunt by that name, but you get the idea) there would have been a good chance I could either dig through my shoe box full of negatives and have a new photo printed, or perhaps could ask a family member for a copy of a photo they had and I’d be back in business. That was then, and this is now.

Like many people, I starting burning CD copies of my photos, and then as the numbers and sizes of the images grew and video clips were added to the mix, eventually DVD copies which I keep in a safety deposit box at a local bank. This has the advantage of it being a relatively cheap option and also of the photos being kept off site so if the house burns down they will still exist. Of course it has the disadvantage of me having to constantly update and replace these discs as new photos are added, which is time consuming and like most people, I’m not quite as disciplined as I should be.

Off site storage for a few photos in something like WebShots is an option which many people use, and there are many others like it, as well as the various ‘social network’ solutions such as Facebook, but in general the advertisements drive me crazy, so I refuse to use them for photos. To avoid all the ads, and for displaying a handful of photos that you really like, there is the option of putting a few photos up on your own web site as I have done, or as a friend of mine has done. But what do you do to replace the shoe box full of negatives you used to keep filed away, ‘just in case’, and how do you ensure it is not computer dependant as well as being easy to use ? Well, I’m not sure what you are using, but I am using Amazon S3.

Before retiring from Shell, I did a writeup on the various Amazon Web Service offerings, and I like what they have done – they have platforms for applications development, commercial platforms for managing and running applications, collecting money etc., and they also have a bulk storage solution. The storage solution (called Amazon Simple Storage Service, or S3 for short) distributes your data across many servers, is highly fault tolerant, is accessible from any computer (Linux, Mac or Windows) anywhere that you have a decent internet connection, is hugely scalable, and is pretty cheap (you just pay for what you actually use). All of this makes it quite attractive.

By itself Amazon S3 is not even slightly user friendly, as it is targeted toward developers, but there are a few companies who now offer beta (of course !) software you can use as a user interface for the S3 service to allow you to store all your ‘stuff’ on the Amazon S3 servers. I actually have about 17 GB of files sitting up there ‘in the cloud’ and other than a couple of horrible moments which I’ll get to in a minute, I recommend it. For me at least, as a back end storage service Amazon S3 has been stable, reliable and accessible. But you do need a front end interface of some sort to use it, so read on.

Before starting, you need to decide what it is you actually want to be able to do – in this instance, although you can use Amazon S3 as the storage location for the data displayed on your web site, what I was looking for was a replacement for the shoe box I had for my negatives. I admit only a few of the photos are masterpieces (to me at least), but on the other hand saving everything gives me the freedom to pick and choose whenever I want. Having decided on the ‘shoe box’ approach, there are quite a number of commercial alpha and beta products out there – many of them are listed in the Amazon Solutions Catalog. Some of these are good – some of these are frankly awful, but all of them demonstrate the possibilities and will get better with time.

Three of the interface solutions that I tried out to allow me to just be able to drag and drop files from my hard drive into Amazon S3 buckets (which is what they call the storage locations you have access to in S3) are S3Fox, Bucket Explorer, and Jungle Disk.

S3Fox looks nice, but I (and many others) could not reliably get it to work – no idea why. For the moment, I’d suggest it be avoided till it has a few of the kinks worked out. It also requires Firefox and does not work with Microsoft Explorer, which I think is OK as Firefox is what I’d recommend anyone to use if asked, but it does freeze them out of a large part of the market

Bucket Explorer and Jungle Disk are roughly similar to the casual eye, but did offer me a few stressful moments. After creating a bucket with Bucket Explorer and filling it with my photos, I then tried to open it with Jungle Disk – no go. Everything appeared to be gone, other the the top most level which only had the bucket name. Likewise when I created a bucket in Jungle Disk, Bucket Explorer could not read the name of the bucket, or the names of the files it contained. I’m sure things like this will get fixed over time, but for the moment – for the casual user – I’d suggest picking one or the other and not to try to mix and match.  By themselves, both work and are good choices.

I will continue looking at new options as they become available, but for anyone looking for a digital shoe box for their digital images, I think the Amazon S3 product with the user interface of your choice is definitely a good option. For the moment I’m happy – and sticking with Bucket Explorer !

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Its Lively !

Posted on July 18, 2008 by Ian R. Sandy

I’ve taken a 60 minute break from the motorcycles, and have been playing with Google’s new offering called Lively which is a new entry into the virtual world space similar (but also quite different) to Second Life. Unlike Second Life in which there is a whole virtual world within which you are free to roam, in Lively it is a series of user created non-contiguous ‘rooms’ which you visit. These rooms can be open (visitors can add, delete and move elements), interactive (visitors can move around, but not add or delete) or private which is self explanatory and requires a specific invitation. Second Life of course allows private areas also, which owners can restrict access to, but the spaces created are closely linked, whereas in Lively each user actually builds many standalone interactive virtual experiences.

I’ve created a room here, which is nothing special, but on the other hand it only took me a very few minutes to set up – this is a very easy to use application. To create and interact with Lively virtual rooms you must download the Lively application (I’m using the Firefox plug in), but it appears that you can visit any room to at least see a screen shot of it, having just the URL. The application frequently crashes (it is beta after all), but when it is running, the response using my internet connection at least is quite good. There is an interesting Facebookconnection which I still need to look at, plus the code to allow you to embed your virtual space in your personal web site is provided – I expect I will be able to play with that sometime in the next week.

IBM has done quite a bit of work in the virtual world space, and business use of this technology appears to be growing in companies like Shell, where pilot sites are well advanced. Shell actually took first place in the R&D section of the TEC Intraverse 2008 competition in Paris this year for its Second Life pilot. In contrast to the sorts of business focused testing that you see major companies working on, the offering from Google seems to be more of a pure consumer play. At this stage at least it is difficult to see how it fits in as a longer term product within the Google universe (Docs, GMail, Sites etc.), and what it might be best used for in a business context, but it is intriguing.

Quite a number of rooms have already been created in Lively by other users who are much more creative than I am – it will be interesting to see how this evolves.

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GT750 Restoration Continued

Posted on July 13, 2008 by Ian R. Sandy

Things are moving along. As per my previous BLOG entry, I have the rear wheel and disc brake assembly, exhaust, and a dummy engine fitted, and have been looking at options for fitting the rear master cylinder and its brake fluid reservoir. Space is tight on the right side of the frame due to the injector oil tank and also just the way the frame is designed.

I was originally thinking of using a long link from the underside of a modified brake arm, to a remote mounted master cylinder as per the photo to the left. There is enough space to run the link back from the underside of the brake arm, under the frame member which supports the rear passenger foot rest and exhaust pipe mount, to the clevis of the master cylinder, as the Gibson pipes allow quite a bit more room that the stock Suzuki exhaust. After discussing this with a few folks in the local Rocky Mountain CVMG chapter, and looking at a bike here in Calgary with a similar conversion, as well as searching the web for photos of other completed rear disc conversions on GT750’s, its obvious there is no ‘right’ answer as each one seems to have been done differently. For my conversion, I’ve decided to use a mechanical linkage from the existing stock rear brake pedal, to a bell crank which will be attached to the master cylinder. This installation has the benefit of preserving the same ‘period look’, preserves the stock mounting for the rear brake light switch, and also gives the same mechanical advantage to actuate the braking action as is found on the 1976 GS750 that I’ve been using for donor parts. Preserving the same mechanical advantage will ensure maximum brake pedal effect on the master cylinder, which is not a bad thing when you are trying to stop ! You can see the mocked up installation in the photo to the right.

The linkage is salvaged from an old CB350 Honda front brake assembly and the master cylinder and remote brake reservoir are off a 1980 Suzuki GS750EC, all of which I found at TJ’s Cycle, I cleaned up the surface rust on the linkage with that old standby – Coca Cola (traditional, not the diet version !) – and it now looks quite nice ! To ensure sufficient clearance between the master cylinder and the swing arm, I will need to modify the injector oil tank reservoir slightly, or use something off a different model of bike, or possibly just make a new one as I want everything to fit properly under the stock right side cover. The plastic used in the stock injector oil tank is soft – possibly ABS or perhaps a urethane. In any case, with a bit of luck (and a lot of cleaning !) I should be able to solvent weld it using one of the newer adhesives on the market used for automotive repairs, or possibly just deform it as required using a heat gun.

I’m pretty much at the point where the next step will be to get the frame and fittings welded up, after which I need to strip the frame and swing arm down for painting.

The ‘home’ site for the project is here.  Till next time ……….

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The Buff Has New Shoes !

Posted on July 10, 2008 by Ian R. Sandy

The 1975 GT750 Water Buffalo is starting to take shape. One of the things I had to attend to first of all was to replace the right rear upper shock mount which had been damaged beyond simple repair by the previous owner. To do this I had to grind out the welded plug, and substitute a replacement from a donor frame. This took a couple of hours, but it can now be welded up and should be as good as new.

The other item I wanted to look after, was to update the rear wheel to be a disc brake rather than the stock drum brake as you see to the left. What I’m looking to create is an approximation of what a 1978 GT750 might have looked like, had one actually been built. Adding a rear disc brake is a logical assumption as Suzuki did introduce this with the four strokes that replaced the GT series. The donor bike frame I have is a 1977 GS750, and it shares many of the same components with the 1977 GT750 frame, although the actual frame itself is quite a different design due to the engine differences. As it turns out, the swing arm, with the disc brake fittings just drop into the GT750 frame. The lower shock mounts are different, as they are a clevis mount on the lower fitting, but otherwise just bolt on. The front forks, triple tree and brakes likewise are just a bolt-on fitting, with the GS750 calliper under slung behind the fork, rather than in front of the fork as on the GT. At this point I haven’t decided whether to go with a single front disc, or dual front discs.

So far so good – the interesting bit it where to put the master cylinder for the rear brake. With the GT frame, the oil tank is in the way as of course these were not required with the GS750 engines, and so space is at a premium. To check the clearances, I ‘dry mounted’ a scrap engine I keep for parts in the frame, with the Gibson expansion pipes mounted as well as the air box, oil reservoir tank and side covers. I want to use the round fluid reservoir, rather than go with a newer square style as those weren’t common in 1977/1978, as again I’m going for a look that is a natural progression from the last real GT750 model, made in 1977. The mockup can be seen to the right.

I realize that a lot of people remove the stock GT750 air box and just go with individual filters on each carburetter, but that isn’t the look I like, plus I already have a few new foam air filters that are available from either Twin Air or Moto Air – interestingly, both are Dutch companies, but the Moto Air prices are better. Both companies offer replacement filters that are exact matches for the original factory foam filter elements, for less than what you pay at your friendly local Suzuki dealer as filters by themselves are not readily available. From a dealer, you have to buy the filter mounted on the wire support frame which adds cost. Just changing the filter element and recycling the old wire frame makes more sense to me.

This evening I checked with a few colleagues at the Calgary Loyal Order of Water Buffalo sub-group of the Rocky Mountain Section of the Canadian Vintage Motorcycle Group (CVMG), to see what John and Fred thought about mounting options for the master cylinder. That was a very useful discussion, and I’m glad I waited to get some additional input before finalizing the design. Now that I have a better idea of how it should look, I can move on and modify the rear brake lever and stop switch assembly, grind off a few redundant tabs, scout around for a couple of parts – possibly off a Suzuki GS1100, or perhaps a Kawasaki or Honda of similar vintage, and also have some additional welding done.

At the moment, I do like the look – with the new pipes on, the recycled rear wheel and disc, swing arm etc., it looks ‘right’. Of course there is still lots of work still to be done…

The ‘home’ site for the project is here.

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1975 GT750 Water Buffalo

Posted on July 9, 2008 by Ian R. Sandy

I have been riding, repairing and rebuilding motorcycles off and on for very nearly 40 years. When we were overseas, I was forced to take an extended break, so now that we are back in Canada it has been nice to get the shop set up and be able to once again start ‘bending some wrenches’.

For a few years, I did a lot of work with Honda’s – one of my early experiments (a ported, hot cam’d, over bored and overly temperamental CB350) was well known to my friends. It was dubbed by Colin Train (a high school classmate of mine), as the ‘ external combustion machine’ as it caught fire several times – once while I was riding it ! Since the late 80’s, I have tended to focus on Suzuki GT750 motorbikes – these are the big three cylinder, water cooled 2-stroke touring bikes built between 1972 and 1977, and which were affectionately tagged by their owners and the press in Canada and the USA as the ‘Water Buffalo’ (or ‘Wasserbüffel’ in Germany, ‘The Kettle’ or Water Bottle’ in the UK, and ‘waterbucket’ in Australia ). All the large bore 2-stroke bikes built by Suzuki, Yamaha and Kawasaki were phased out due to environmental concerns and legislation, mainly driven by the USA, in the late 70’s. They generally do tend to smoke a bit, although the amount of visible smoke is often controllable with the use of modern 2-stroke injection oils, careful tuning and the use of electronic ignition systems. I suspect that today with the availability of fuel injection, advanced computer controls, and clever engineering, a modern big bore 2-stroke could be made environmentally friendly, although the required investment to make it happen would be considerable. At any rate, there is a large global community of enthusiasts who keep these old bikes on the road, with really big Water Buffalo clubs in Europe and the UK, as well as in North America.

I currently have two licensed 1976 GT750’s which I ride occasionally, (plus of course the 1966 Yamaha YA6 I bought recently) and I have a third 1975 GT750 shown to the left which is in pieces, and which I have been saving for a suitable ‘quiet’ moment. Now that I’ve retired, that moment has arrived. While it may not look like much at the moment, it is all there, plus I have quite a few new parts and pieces for it that I have been collecting over the years.

While I was in Europe, I took the opportunity to track down a few Water Buffalo parts suppliers who have started to supply after-market, new manufactured parts and pieces. One of these is a small one man operation in the north of The Netherlands operated by Erik Potze, and I managed to buy a nice set of new Gibson exhaust pipes from him, as well as some other trim, water pump and carburettor repair kits . After market exhaust systems are pretty much the only option available to owners of most old Japanese motorbikes as new old stock (NOS) ones practically non-existent, and good used ones are as rare as hen’s teeth. The GT750 specifically was not known for having great ground clearance in the corners, so most pipes that you see show some scuffing or scrapes from contact with the pavement. The Gibson pipes are made in the UK and should look really nice once I get them installed.

The ‘home’ site for the project is here. We’ll see how it progresses !

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The Squadron

Posted on July 8, 2008 by Ian R. Sandy

One of my interests post retirement is to learn how to fly radio controlled model planes. I have one plane which I recently just finished mounting the servos and radio into, and this fall the plan is to actually try to get some air time in with one of the local clubs. The two that are most convenient for me are CRAMS, and the Chinook Winds clubs. Both clubs seem to have good facilities and also good reputations so it should be fun.

Dad and I

When you are learning, you do tend to make more than the occasional ‘hard’ landing , so having a few spare parts is not a bad idea. My Dad has been flying model aircraft for years, and in fact built the one I already have, so when he recently decided to do a bit of a cleanup in his garage I jumped at the chance to pick up a few bits and pieces. I was not disappointed – the selection was closer to being a small squadron than just some ‘parts’, and with them came a number of well used but serviceable engines, radios, servos and useful odds and ends such as extra wings for the model I have, as well as an extra fuselage. In the mix was an electrically powered R/C sailplane, which brought back many memories. Every glider I ever built and flew as a teenager seemed unfailingly able to find a tree to land in. Presumably with the radio control the odds will be more in my favour !

One plane I was especially pleased to take delivery of was one that we had bought for him as a kit many Christmas’ ago. It is a model of a WWII Bell P39 Aircobra fighter and it is pictured to the right sitting in his backyard. To be honest, I will probably make a static display of it and hang it from the ceiling of my den rather than risk crashing it, as he did a really nice job of building it and it has already had quite a bit of time in the air.

At the least, it will be a nice conversation piece, and as well also a nice keepsake.

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Grade One Revisited

Posted on June 25, 2008 by Ian R. Sandy

Crosby Heights Public School in Richmond Hill opened in 1958, and I was in one of its Grade One class rooms under the tutelage of (I think) a Miss. Spence. Many of us went on to high school together at Bayview Secondary High School, and then went our many separate ways in life, but my formal schooling started at Crosby Heights and after 50 years there are a few folks from those days I’m actually still in contact with after all this time. I’m fourth from the right in the back row in the photo to the left.

A few weeks ago, my wife and I attended our older son’s graduation from Trent University, and as may be imagined there were several hundred parents, all in open seating watching the event. The guy sitting in front of me seemed familiar and just to prove yet again how small our world is, incredibly it turned out he was one of those folks from 50 years ago – in the class photo of Miss Nighswander’s class to the right, he is the young lad on the right in the second row !

Terry and I have been doing a ‘roll call’ of sorts, and think we can name: Bob King, Rick Haas, Ed Kay, Diane Jamison, Paula Triance, Ann Whitworth, Gail Hitchenson, Steve Marshall, John Smith, Paul Fountain, Bob Bradley, Bob Imeson and perhaps a few others. As it turns out, Crosby Heights is planning a 50th anniversary this year, so It would be interesting to see how many folks can be located.

I had lost touch with Terry after high school, but when we were 17 or 18 we actually both had the same model of first motorbike (Yamaha YA6’s) and we used to compare notes and information on how to fix them when they weren’t working – which seemed to happen frequently ! He and his wife were vacationing in Western Canada this past week, so last night we met up to swap old motorcycle stories here in Calgary before he and his wife returned to Toronto.

Lots of only slightly embellished stories (!), and quite a pleasant evening.

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Way Too Busy !

Posted on June 24, 2008 by Ian R. Sandy

It has been a busy couple of weeks ! Since my last note, we have managed to successfully bring the newest addition to the stYA6able across the border into Canada. The little Yamaha YA6 was given an inspection by the US and Canadian port authorities at the Wild Horse border crossing between Montana and Alberta. I’ll admit, I was really very pleasantly surprised with both how helpful and easy to work with the folks were on both sides of the border. It was such a different experience to that of a couple of months ago when we had some ‘discussions’ on the Canadian side of the border at Midway in BC. The Midway Canadian border agent was quite rude, and appeared to resent the the fact he actually had to do some work ! In contrast, the Wild Horse (and you have to admit it is a great name for a border post eh ?) US and Canadian border folks were great, and they have restored my faith in government employees. The funny thing, is that without Google Maps, we would never have known of the place, and we would have missed out on both a good experience, and also some great scenery. When I pumped in a request for directions on the best way to get from Delaware to Calgary, that was the border crossing that Google automatically selected. It is actually quite an isolated location, and I suspect possibly doesn’t get a lot of traffic as it is in the southeast corner of Alberta, just south of the Cypress Hills Provincial Park area. At any rate, once the paperwork had been completed, the tax paid, etc., we stopped to take a photo to mark the occasion of the YA6’s entry to Alberta !

The round trip from Calgary to the east coast and back again, covered 9,085 km. In contrast to the outbound trip , the average speed on the return was 89 km/hr and the average fuel consumption rate was worse at 12.8 l/100 km or about 22.1 mpg (imperial gallons). The fuel consumption no doubt was impacted by having to cross through the Appalachian hills (they call them mountains, but they are actually just hills when compared to what you see on the west coast), the crawling along for half a day in road construction through Wisconsin, and I have to admit also due to enjoying the pure exuberance of the 75 mph limits (the traffic was actually moving along at over 80 mph) in the mid-west states of Minnesota and North Dakota ! The average fuel cost on the US leg of the trip was just over $1/liter for premium, or roughly 70% of the cost of the same fuel in Canada – I’d say the Americans really have nothing to complain about when it comes to the cost of gasoline ! As on the outbound trip, we saw lots of wildlife – many more prong horn antelope (typically in the same fields with the cattle as you can see to the right), but also quite a few deer.

Since arriving home, the Yamaha has had an oil change and a minor tuneup, and is now running a bit better. Over the next few months I will likely pick up a few eBay sourced bits and pieces, as well as talk to the folks here in town at Walt Healy Motosports and elsewhere to see what they have in the way of NOS parts and bits. The Walt Healy shop has been in business here in Calgary since 1931, and the staff have been helpful the few times I have gone in to talk to their parts counter people.

The next project I’m about to start is the restoration of another GT750 Suzuki water buffalo – the ‘home’ site for the project will be here. – busy times !

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125 cc’s of Nostalgia !

Posted on June 10, 2008 by Ian R. Sandy

Many years ago – actually many, many years ago – I bought my first vehicle.  At the time, I was 18 years old and I most definitely did not have my parent’s permission – in point of fact, my Dad had expressly said ‘no’ to the idea. The vehicle in question was a 1966 Yamaha YA6 125 cc motorcycle which was in much less than ‘good’ mechanical shape, but did at least run and was plated. The school friend I bought it from coached me on how to drive it – driving along side of me on his motorbike down Bayview Avenue north of Richmond Hill, shouting out ‘shift’ whenever I had to change gear as I had never driven a standard before. This was complicated by the fact that at that time, Bayview wasn’t really paved  and was a mix of gravel and pot holes, as well as the fact that the shift lever was missing and in its place was a pair of vise grip pliers ! I also didn’t have a driver’s license valid for a motorbike, although I did have insurance. At any rate, I managed to drive it to a friend’s house where I hid the bike as I couldn’t take it home. This worked well for a few weeks, but eventually it leaked gasoline on his driveway and his father demanded it disappear, so I had to take it home and face the music from my Dad.

I put a lot of miles on that bike, and even took my driver’s license test on it eventually in early winter and in several inches of snow – not my choice actually. I’d been caught by a friendly police officer who gave me a bit of a break as I did have a drivers license for a car – he gave me a couple of weeks to take the test etc., and it was just unfortunate that we had an early snowfall. At any rate, lots of good memories, including driving it up to King City to see the girl I’d eventually marry.

I’d been watching for a decent YA6 to come up for sale over the past year or so but they were all in the US and generally too far away to make buying them feasible. When I recently found this one (photo to the left) near my brother’s place on the east coast of the US, I jumped at the opportunity as we owed them a visit and as well we were going to be ‘in the area’ for our son’s graduation in Ontario so it seemed like a great opportunity. My brother was good enough to pick the bike up after I bought it, and then store it at his place (which is a lovely home) till we were able to get there this week.

The bike is in really good shape for a 42 year old machine . It runs, although it probably could use a bit of a tuneup, the paint is good and to cut a long story short, I’m really happy with it.

Now all we need to do is get it home !

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One down, and one to go !

Posted on June 6, 2008 by Ian R. Sandy

June 4th was a big day in the Sandy household, as our eldest son Sean graduated from Trent University in Ontario. It was a very good day, which will only be matched when our second son graduates next year.

The rain held off long enough that the event could be held out doors, and while it was overcast and a bit on the cool side, the weather was not a problem. The chancellor of Trent in the photo with Sean, and who presided over the event is Roberta Bondar, probably best known as the Canadian astronaut on a shuttle mission in 1992 – quite the lady !

All in all – a great day to remember.

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