Blog for Nayan

The cherry had to pop sometime 😉 and it was meant to be yesterday 10/23/08, i have heard a lot of people complain about beach diving with the sand, getting in through the surf and just getting in one dive etc. So it was about time i saw for myself what was the fuss about. 

Corral Beach in Malibu was going to be the dive and Ice, Kim the buddies, thank you for letting me tag along . The plan was to meet at 8pm and then go ahead with the dive. I had to get an air fill so it took me while and i reached the site almost at 8ish, Kim was there almost half an hour early.  

Ice briefed us about the dive site and since it was my first beach dive we decided to go towards the little reef which is easily accessible and also the conditions were great with 1ft waves and 1-2 ft surge etc. that mean’t the visibility would also be good and it indeed turned out to be so. 

So we geared up, did all the buddy check and then headed out. Even with the small waves and surge you have to put in fair amount of effort so that you don’t get tossed around. It wasn’t that easy getting in but wasn’t that bad as well. Ice was going to lead this dive since he knew the site well. I was getting toasted in my wet suit but as soon as we entered the water i was fine. 

After a surface swim of about 100ft or so, we decided to drop down and then head towards the reefs. After 5 mins or so, swimming through the sandy bottom we hit the reefs. We came across a lobster and Ice grabbed it but it was below the legal size. There were quite a fishes which would show up all of sudden and it was cool. My dive light was doing its job very well and it seemed that the fishes were less active. This was my second night dive so i didn’t know what to expect as such.

There were times on the reef because of me kicking up the bottom or something the vis would drop to 2-3 ft but through out the dive there were lot of particles in water and most of my pics sucked. We spotted a couple of spanish shawls, there were these shells which i have never seen before in water. I have played a lot with those things in india but never seen the creatures as such. There were lots of kelp fishes, Gorgonians, star fishes and it was really nice.

I was enjoying the dive a lot, being pushed around in the swell, let the water do all the work in moving me rather than me spending energy. I got few good pics but then i had difficulty managing everything, the light was hanging, holding my new camera isn’t easy and then i wasn’t checking my computer often as well. 

Since I was the one with the smallest tank in terms of air it was because of me we had to end the dive, i started with about 2100 PSI courtesy my steel 72 and then at about 900 psi it was time to head to back, had to save some air for the way out. 33 mins of dive time, wasn’t that bad at all. When we ended the dive the plan was go out and then head back in since Ice and Kim had about 1800 psi left. 

Getting out wasn’t that hard, i tried to take off my fins but could manage to only get one out, i was able to walk backwards so it wasn’t a big deal as such. By the time I reached the car was exhausted and didn’t want to be back for second dive. Also it was 10 pm already so it was time to head out home. I had a great time and i enjoyed every bit of beach diving, specially at night. 

For future dives, I need a bigger tank a HP 100 or 95 for sure so that i can fill that sucker with lots of air.

Dive Details:

Max Depth: 28 ft.

Time: 33 mins

Air Consumption: 1031 psi

Min/Max Temp: 15.6 – 17.6 Celcius

Anyone who has written code using Flex Builder Plugin for Eclipse or just the Flex Builder by itself will agree with me completely that writing code using Flash IDE is not fun anymore. 

So when i had to write something in pure AS3 i decided to use FB for writing all the classes and Flash only for compiling the FLA. It is a bit of hassle but the efficient provided by FB far exceeds that hassle. Also in my case the project is integration of Flex and Flash, the pure AS3 swf is going to be loaded into a Flex project so i have to launch the project through FB. 

Some tips/suggestions from my experience of using this methodology,

• For debugging the code in FB you have to select permit debugging check box in the Fla options.

• Some of the advantage of using FB is lost because the child instances of movieclips have to be declared as movieclips even if they have some class attached to it.

public var sample:Movieclip; this is how you would declare it or this is another way 

public var sample:Sample; Flash doesn’t like this declaration and it freaked out on me. 

you won’t get any compile errors but when you run the movie it won’t be as you expected. So because of this it has to be a movieclip and therefore the FB autocompletion is not much of use there.

• Major annoyance is that every time you change the code and have to test out the swf, you have to compile it and then copy paste is into the bin-debug folder of your flex project. Cleaning the project takes long time.

I had booked this trip way in advance and then i tried canceling it late because of dandiya plans on saturday night but then i ended up not going to dandiya and boarded Spectre for a day of diving on Anacapa Islands.

I was planning to drive out early morning so I woke up at like 4.15 am and then got ready for the day of diving ahead. I left the house at about 5.15 and was on the boat at like 6.30. Met up with Amit and then just waited for the dives ahead. 

The conditions were great unlike yesterday when there were 15ft swells and the whole boat was rocking, it is about hr and half to the island. Amit and I buddied up and i was going to lead the dives. 

Dive 1: Gold Fish Bowl, Anacapa

That is the dive site name, don’t ask me why they choose that name. nope there weren’t any gold fishes at this site to see. The site was on the stern side and at a depth of like 40 ft or so. I was really looking forward to playing with my camera. I decided to dive with 6 lbs of weight on me since i wanted to get an accurate estimate of the weight i need. 

We descended along the anchor line on the stern side and then take it from there. The visibility was really good about 25 ft or so and there were so many star fishes to see at the bottom. I have never seen so many different kinds of star fishes, it was nice. I really wanted to find some nudis to take macro shots of and see how it went. I was trying to play with the settings but my glove was preventing me to do so effectively, i tried tightening it around the thumb but it wasn’t that helpful. 

The screen of my camera also was being shut after 30 secs to preserve battery and it was kinda annoying, i decided to switch the power saving feature off for the next dive and my battery ran out at the end of dive two :D. Well to be fair it wasn’t a new battery so i am going to use a freshly charged one the next time. 

We explored a bit and i came across a few spanish shawls as well but nothing too exciting initially but a seal zoomed past by us which was cool. I was more than happy to see all the different varieties of star fish and also the anemones were colorful and plenty. 

We were about 45 mins into our dive and then we decided to surface, making a safety stop at 15 ft was really hard for me because of the less weight, there was hardly any air in my BCD to remove, i tried to stay at 15ft but it was tough and then after a while i decided to surface, since our max depth was only like 37 ft.

Surprisingly even though the water was only 62F i was cold by the end of the dive not that much but still enough cold that it was necessary for me to get rid of wetsuit and warm up on deck.

Dive 1 Details:

Max Depth: 37 ft.

Time: 49 mins

Air Consumption: 1653 psi

Min/Max Temp: 16.8 – 18 Celcius

Dive 2: Canyons, Anacapa

We moved to the south side of the islands, in my past two trips on this boat we always moved to Santa Cruz but not this time. We were going to stay near anacapa all the time. This site had some currents and minor swells as well so it was going to be an interesting dive.

We decided to descend along the anchor line and then swim in opposite direction of the current so that on the way back we would be along with the current. We dropped to about 30 ft and then started swimming against the current, also we were told that there were chances of some rays being there in sand so i was near the sandy area and decided not to get into the thick kelp and explore the reef.

It was really fun with the mild current and the swell pushing us around little and as we were moving along the edges of the reef there were couple of huge lobsters and also a huge dead one, sad. We didn’t catch sight of any rays along the sand, after about 7 mins (yes i was keeping watch on my time since i didn’t want to get lost with currents even though it was mild) into the dive i decided to head out into the reefs and the thick kelp.

 

At about 15ft we could feel the swell moving us around and i really enjoyed that and the kelp was really dense. Passing through it in those conditions was little tough and tiring as well, we explored the reefs for a while but it was getting too much for me so i decided to head out for the sandy bottom and we didn’t go into the thick kelp after that.

As we were heading in the opposite direction, i figured that we were going too far so i decided to head back, we also came across a few lobster pots and stuff and the usual anemones etc. Since i had turned off the power save option in my camera, the battery ran out but i wasn’t complaining since i had taken few good pictures. The sea lions came out to play in the next dive but i wasn’t that bummed about not taking their pictures.

Doing the safety stop was little better for me this time as i was prepared and was swimming hard to keep myself at the right depth, it was nice to be upside down and look at the school of fishes swimming and the sun shining above them. We surfaced not too far from the boat and I was really tired at the end of this dive.

Dive 2 Details:

Max Depth: 37 ft.

Time: 50 mins

Air Consumption: 1775 psi

Min/Max Temp: 16.4 – 17.6 Celcius

Lunch was served as we headed out to the next dive site and when we reached the dive site there were sea lions coming out, so it was certainly going to be a fun dive.

Dive 3: Underwater Arches.

Before the dive Amit told me that he was feeling tired and we might have to end the dive early, i was totally fine with it since i was tired myself and my legs were not happy. I was excited by the sea lions and didn’t want to sit out this dive at all and this site had an underwater arch which is always cool to explore.

The dive plan was same, descend along the anchor line, find the arch and then explore around it. We dropped down and as we were swimming along the arch there were sea lions. Those things are one of the most graceful creatures that you will see underwater, their movement is so smooth. They approached us once in a while and then swam past by, they were in mood of their own.

We came towards the arch and then swam underneath it, I saw quite a few spanish shawls out there. During the entire dive i must have seen at-least 8 of them. We swam along the edge of the reef structure and there were few big schools of fishes on the reef, amit pointed out that to me. I didn’t want to go there since it was probably at 10ft depth and i wasn’t in mood to struggle to stay buoyant at that depth.

We were just swimming along the archway and once in a while a sea lion would swim at us, i tried acting stupid in effort to interest him but he wasn’t amused. They were in their own world and didn’t bother to interact with us. Also tried to get fishes interested in my flashlight but the sun was out and my light wasn’t doing that much. After swimming around the archway and 40 mins into the dive i was getting tired so with about 700 psi left in my tank we decided to surface. Safety stop was relatively easy as compared to other dives and this time we surfaced right near the boat mainly because the structure was easy to navigate.

Dive 3 Details:

Max Depth: 33 ft.

Time: 45 mins

Air Consumption: 1413 psi

Min/Max Temp: 16 – 20 Celcius

I was really tired at the end of this dive, my legs were just killing me so i decided to call it a day and not do the final dive. I got into the hot tub, showered up, packed my stuff, immediately went downstairs and found myself a bunk. I slept the entire way back and woke up when we were near the dock. We reached the dock at about 5 pm which was kinda early, i didn’t expect us to be back so soon.

 

I reached my place at about 6.30pm, on my way picked up food from california vegan and finally after washing my gear etc, hogging all the food i dozed off at 11ish. It was a tiring day of diving and was fun as well.

After night of drinking on Friday, I woke up late on sat and i headed out for groceries. The weather was simply amazing, overcast skies, cool breeze with no rain. After the hot week that we had it was really nice to have this sort of change in weather and i felt like going for a hike.

It was about 1.30 pm by the time i decided that i should take advantage of this weather and go out for a hike. I needed to find a hike which was short and also close by. It had to be either Runyon Canyon or Griffith Park but since i didn’t want to drive i decided on the former. 

There is only one hike out there i believe and its a loop which runs across the park. So at about 2.45 pm i got out of my apt and started walking towards the park. I also took my new olympus 1030SW to take some pictures. It felt nice to just walk in this cool weather, after 15 mins or so cutting across the hoard of tourists on hollywood blvd i reached the park entrance. 

Its a really easy hike and there is a nice paved road going all the way up, there was another steep trail which went on the ridge in opposite direction but i decided not to venture on that route since it was my first time. So i just continued on this gradual uphill slope, initially the weather was changing there was no breeze and the sun was started to come out but as i was reaching the top it was coming back. 

I hiked at a fairly brisk pace and took some pictures as well in the meantime. I reached that bench on the top at about 3.45 or so and it felt really nice to see beautiful views, i could see all the way to santa monica, west wood to my left and the griffith park, hollywood sign to my far right. It was really beautiful and just standing there feeling the breeze with my eyes closed, i felt calm and relaxed. 

I decided to take an offbeat path to come down and it didn’t take me that long to reach the park entrance. On my way back i decided to skip the crazy walk past the tourist crowds on Hollywood Blvd and finally i reached my place at around 5ish. It was my first hike (certainly not the last) in Runyon Canyon and i look forward to more hikes in that place.

 
The Views of the City

The Hollywood Sign

The Panorama Shot. Click Image for bigger pic

Data binding is one of the best things about Flex, frameworks like Cairngorm rely heavily on data binding. But what if you want to detect a change in variable value and then also do something else. Changewatcher comes in handy during times like those.

 

import mx.binding.utils.ChangeWatcher;

This is the class i am talking about, it lets you listen for changes in a variable. Lets say we have a class variable totalItems and we need to detect changes to that variable. This is a simple class.

Now to detect changes to this variable, the code would look something like,

So you can see that this is very easy way of detecting changes, the only thing to keep in mind is that the variables being watched have to be Bindable. You can also detect changes within chain of classes.

For Eg. ChangeWatcher.watch(model,[“shoppingCart”,”totalItems”],itemsChanged); the variable totalItems is inside the class ShoppingCart which is initialized in Model. So your chain of variables can be as long as you want.

Other Important thing to note is that the line code after the variable will be executed only after your listener function is called. Its not asynchronous like URLLoader etc.

EDIT: 02/20/09 Imp Note:

If you are tracking changes to a number, your changewatcher function will fire only if the number changes. Lets say your variable totalItems is 1 and after performing some calculation its again 1, in this situation your changewatcher won’t fire because the value of variable hasn’t changed. It can cause crazy bugs in your application and i have been bitten by this couple of times now. 

The example below shows how you can watch a chain and also how every variable has to be bindable etc.

Click here for the source.