Weblog of Neill Horsman

Came across Project Deploy via a friend on Twitter last week.

Great little app for designers where you can create a project framework.

Are you tired of creating a new project folder, images folder, css files, linking in jquery.

This app asks you what items your project will need from css including a reset, jquery, images directory, project name, doc type etc, then lets you download a zipped file with folder structure complete.

Just extract in your web server directory and away you go.

Just came across this awesome video on YouTube. check it out, clip is directed amazingly, and some great driving

Today while browsing the wide wide web i came across an ad for Flock, although i had heard the name before i saw it as another social networking site or product and passed it by.

Not that I’m against the social network scene but the reason was i just have too many logins and accounts floating all over the place.

So today I decided to see what it was.

Flock is basically Firefox….. but uses twice as much ram again if you know what i mean.

Included in the browser we have a social side bar, where once logged in (or signed up) to all our favourite social media sites we can view all of them together in a simple yet effective view. When i say view them I mean.

• Status updates
• Friends online
• New wall posts
• New Digg stories
• Twitter friends and posts
• Youtube videos
• etc..

You can also post to your own social sites and blog… all from the browser..

In fact I am blogging to my new wordpress.com blog from the flock interface as we speak.

So what are the pro’s and cons.

I am going to start with the negative first because  it is a big problem and has been for sometime, and now will be further more, and that is memory. Flock is based on Mozilla technology, which is great don’t get me wrong, the only reason i have IE6 and 7 is to test my web designs to make sure they work.. i am and always will be a Firefox user. but we all know Firefox is a memory hog, and now with flock just adding on all these social tool bars and sidebars… you can imagine what it is like

Now i haven’t had a chance to see what extensions work or don’t work with it so i cant comment there yet, hopefully I can add in all my favourite web extensions and have Flock just like my Firefox, but then i guess we will see the memory usage spike some more.

As for Pro’s

the social interface is lovely, works well, although it is bloated with options and features, it feels very lite and easy which is what i love. everything is where it should be and works like it always has.

Final say: I would open flock every other day to have a play, but at the end of the day if i open face book in Firefox, its going to work without using 200-300meg of ram.

Adobe released details Monday about Creative Suite 4, its first update to more than a dozen design and editing tools since Adobe CS3 some 17 months ago.

The costs of the applications, set to reach consumers in October, haven’t changed since CS3, but remain hefty. Should longtime users upgrade?

Of course that depends on the specific tools you need. However, we suspect that only the most well-heeled will jump at the chance, as CS4 shares the majority of tools with its predecessor. Perhaps more dramatic, life-changing alterations will come with the next Creative Suite. That said, time-saving tweaks to Illustrator and Flash in particular could lure professionals immersed in them to upgrade.

With CS4, Adobe aimed to unify the interfaces of more than a dozen applications, including Flash and other former properties of Macromedia. You’ll see similar pull down menus for toggling among workspaces that you can customize, as well as Flash-based panels that nicely snap open and shut. Corporate design departments will find plenty of enhancements for their teams to share work more quickly.

Adobe continues to improve integration among the applications. After Effects, as only one example, can import Photoshop 3D layers and export content directly into Flash.

Options for working with high-definition video and mobile content expand too, with support for the latest formats as well as for making Adobe AIR applications. Among other highlights:

Photoshop CS4 will use your computer’s graphics chip for the first time, while offering support for 64-bit Windows.

At long last, you can handle more than one project at a time in Illustrator, thanks to the new multiple Artboards feature.

Flash CS4 has a rebuilt animation model, so you can make objects move on the stage in two quick steps. And Flash introduces a new, XML-based file format.

Dreamweaver provides plenty of shortcuts to CSS coding, including within the Properties panel.

We’ve been toying with the beta code of CS4 for several weeks. Check out our first take reviews and videos of the six suites and their individual applications for more details. We’ll report back with rated reviews after working with the final code.

Taken from cnet.com

Today the letter box also was nice enough to supply me with my oil block (tuneagent)

Again will i state before this install that my engine is out, and i also have the intake manifold off making this task mush easier. Also at the bottom of this post i will included the few problems i encountered

First off me start with removing the old oil filter adaptor plate

Filter adaptor

In this photo we can see the oil filter and a plug which is the standard oil pressure switch that is connected to your dash light.

Also we see to Allen key bolts, there are 4 in total that you have to unbolt.

Once removed we end up with this.

Filter plate removed

Filter plate removed

Now a VERY IMPORTANT NOTE HERE! in the first image we see two orange seals on the filter adaptor plate. As there is no gasket on this surface these seals seal the oil flow into the filter plate. I tried to remove these seals to see if they were any good to use again, but years old they just fell apart.

Luckily i have a box full of water and oil o’rings and seals so i found some that matched the size i needed.

Rubber seals

You can see here on the new adaptor there is a recess for seals and i have a seal on one of them.

Use some grease to hold them in place while installing this back on.

Now was time to put the gauge senders in place. On either side of this adaptor is a small hole for a gauge sender. i decided to put the stock oil pressure switch in place as well as my vdo oil pressure sender for a gauge i have.

Gauge Senders

When putting in these kind of thing, use thread tape around the threads to create a nice seal, also the thread is tapered as to get tighter when screwing in. Be careful not to do them up to tight or too loose. Too tight can damage the thread or crack something.

Now time to screw it back on. Check again now to make sure your two rubber seals are still in place, if you think for 1 sec that these have come loose or fallen out while putting it back on, CHECK.. these are very important.

install the 4 allen key bolts back in and tighten.

New oil block

Here it is installed. looks good!

Now onto the important notes!

********************************

Firstly I will repeat, make sure the oil seals are in 100%.

Now in this image above you can see the gauge senders sticking out each side, one thing i check before putting it all together was if they were going to fit and clear everything. You can see a wiring coming off the standard sender, this is because there was just enough room for it to fit in there with the stock nissan plug, but enough for a spade terminal..

The VDO oil pressure sender was an even tighter fit against the starter motor, the starter actualy touches the poll coming out of it so i am going to cut this down a tad shorter..

All done

So the steering spacer arrived today along with a almost everything else id been waiting on.

Steering Bush's

Here you can see the solid bush to the left and the standard rubber bush to the right.

So to start off documenting the install of this part i will first mention, my engine is NOT in the car.. making this task 100% easier.

First i started by undoing the 4 nuts that run through the bush, now the threads on the bolts have been intentionally damaged by Nissan after it was put together, so if one every came undone while driving the nut could never 100% fall off causing loss of steering, so these nuts are a bit difficult to remove.

It is best to have the wheels pointed straight for this and the steering lock on so nothing moves and the column wont turn while undoing the nuts..

Once i had everything undone i still couldn’t separate the two ends as the column was still tight onto the steering rack. As i am swapping steering racks next week i undone the knuckle to the rack and pulled it off from here so i could split the bush.

Bush removed

Steering column knuckle

You can see in the above photos first with the Bush removed and 2nd the Steering in knuckle i undone and pulled off the splined shaft. With the knuckle, spray some WD40 down there to loosen, also try to pry the knuckle apart a bit where the bolt goes through to loosen more, then grab onto it and pull/wiggle with all your might!!!

Now with all the parts on the bench pull you will have:

• 2xMetal braket things
• 4xPlastic collars
• 4xMetal collars in the rubber bush

Now we want to use all these parts on the metal bush. memorise how it all goes together on the rubber one as we want to run the same configuration on the metal bush.

With this next step i had heard that the holes in this particular Metal bush are too small for the collars and this was correct. I had to drill out the holes a tad, no more than a mm as you still want them tight.

try use basically the same size drill bit as the hole, and just gentle move the drill side to side in the hole to pull off a small layer of alloy.

Now the metal collars will still need a tap with a hammer to go in, but will now fit and fit snug.

Place the rubber collars over the metal collars, 2xeach side. then add the metal brackets to each side..

Assembled

Now the next step is tricky.. installing this bush back in with the column unbolted from the rack.

Once you bolt the 2 sides of the column to the bush you may or may not be able to get the steering knuckle back onto the splined shaft off the rack as there is now no play/flex in the bush to have the room to get it over.

As i mentioned i am swapping steering racks so will have mine out and when installing the new, i can fit it up then.

But for most this is not the case,.

On the steering column just above the knuckle you will see another bolt and some more splines, you need to losen this bolt and seperate like with the lower splines section, and slip the lower part of the column down into here further.. to get the room you need to get everything back on. Once everything is bolted back on you will need to slip this back to the same or near abouts place.

And then your done

Finished and Installed

Gettaclue.com.au. what is it you ask,

A friend of mine approached me over facebook while i was doing some in your face advertising on there

He works for a new company named gettaclue, they attend a lot of Sydney’s clubs, pubs and events, writing reviews taking photos talking to the crowd etc and then write up articles and newsletters on whats hot and whats not..

Currently that site is just a basic landing page where you can submit your name/email to receive updates on the sites launch, once we launch it with the new look and feel, you will be able to read reviews on everything in Sydney, and even find photos of yourself.. I am hoping to go a step further and build a Web 2.0 Social side to it..

Members profiles, tagging and commenting on photos, discussion board, something where everyone can figure out who they met the night before and find them on here and make a fun environment for people…

More later!

Well its Friday morning, I’m laying in bed on the laptop doing some work enjoying the sun shining in my window… i could get more used to this

Already popped down to the letter box and so far none of the parts i ordered this week and last have arrived.. really hope they do so i can spend the weekend working on the dori car..

Also planned for Saturday on top of a BBQ and drinks is seam welding the 180sx, a friend of mine from Image Limousines is bring their welder over to do all the welding as I’m really not that great still.

So if he can make it i will have photos of how we done everything, from prepping the car to welding and where to weld.

So been a few weeks since a car update.

Work has picked up so flat out designing some websites, might do a blog to show off them later.

Also while making a battery mount bracket i slipped with the angle grinder and took a bit off my finger, so been a tad sore to work on it.

Although i have arranged a few things and purchased a few parts for it.

First off, from Tune Agent a alloy oil adaptor

Tune Agent Oil adaptor

With this instead of using a restrictive sandwich plate where the oil filter sits, i can unbolt the oil filter adaptor and bolt this on in place, with holes for pipes to the remote filter and oil cooler, and two bosses for gauges senders (oil temp/oil pressure)

Next on the list was a set of alloy light weight pulleys from midnightmods for the alternator, water pump and crank

Midnight Mods Pulleys

They don’t really do a great deal, they are a bit lighter so can gain an extra kw, maybe half haha, but got them for some work i done for midnightmods, so no loss there.

If you get the proper jap set, they are different sizes to slow down the alternator so it wont wear out/over charge as much from high RPM while racing/drifting.

1 last thing for this week was a solid steering bush.

Steering Bush

This replaced the rubber one in the engine bay that wears out and has a lot of movement in it. Will increase steering feel and more direct.

Also grabbed a steering wheel boss so i can chuck on a nardi or OMP deep dish wheel. With the car being hicas originally, but all is removed i will show you how i did this in the next post..

Lots of updates this weekend

So finally on Saturday we got out to pick up Johns Toyota 1JZ twin turbo 2.5litre engine for his RX7.

Got to the guys house, turns out John already knows the guy through his family, so we stayed for a bit to chat.

In the garage is a Toyota Soarer that the engine has just come out of, it had been stripped to build a sports sedan with a Lexus V8 motor. The thing was immaculate, lots of prep work done to it, and was getting seam welded soon.

The owners friend was there, turned out he worked for Cigweld and was going to take on all the seam welding.

5minutes later i had a crash course on structural welding from the guy and some good tips on how to do chassis etc on cars. Planning on maybe doing a bit to the 180sx to get it a tad stiffer and safer. Just have to practice welding some more to make sure i dont burn holes all through the floorpan..

I will document all this and include photos in the coming months..