Monthly Archives: July 2016

How to fit your Tilley hat (sorta)

My wife bought me a Tilley hat last year while we were at REI.  I read the sizing instructions that come on a small pamphlet inside of the hat many times before choosing the size. My wife said several times that it seemed big. I kept saying that based on the sizing instructions it was correct. After a few weeks I started to get comments and realize that I might be wearing the wrong size. It turns out my dad has been wearing a Tilley hat for over 25 years and was kind of an expert on how to fit these hats, but I’ll get back to this later. In my opinion the sizing instructions describe a very different fit then what the sizing chart specifies. Here are the sizing instructions:

The Tilley Hat fits more comfortably than other hats. It’s designed to be worn low on your head and slightly loose. It should be held on by gravity, not by painful pressure on your forehead! For the proper fit, you should be able to easily insert two fingers, flat, between the middle of your forehead and the front of the Hat. The Hat should be loose enough that you can rotate it to the left and right, and lift it up and down, without friction on your forehead. When it’s windy, use the cord! I think you’ll be pleased with the way it fits and feels – especially on hot, muggy days.

To me these instructions describe much different fit then what the chart specifies. Shown below:

sizeChart

Sizing instructions vs the sizing chart

The sizing instructions says it should, 1. Be held on by gravity, not painful pressure. 2. That you should be able to easily insert two fingers between the middle of your forehead and the front of the Hat. It also says, 3.The Hat should be loose enough that you can rotate it to the left and right, and lift it up and down, without friction on your forehead. Based on these instructions I picked at hat that sat low on my head, I could easily put two fingers between the hat and my forehead (without pulling the hat forward to create space), and one that I could rotate left and right. Basically a bucket type of fit.

When I started to suspect that I purchased the wrong size I called Tilley to ask about the fit. The woman told me to measure my head, then gave me my hat size. When I told her the size I purchased and she laughed, and said something to the effect it was several sizes too big. My head measured 22″, and I had purchased the 7 3/8″ It sat low as described, and matched all of the other characteristics of the sizing instructions. The hat actually became uncomfortable because it would either curl my ears over or they would go under the brim. Neither was comfortable.

Back to my dad. I went to Florida to visit my parents recently and one of the first things they said to me was my hat was too big. My dad let me wear his hat the entire time I was there, it was 7 1/8″, he said it was a much better fit and that my actual fit should be just a bit smaller. He was so right! I won’t mention that he may be the best Tilley hat salesman on the east coast. I noticed several people in his housing area with Tilley hats and he later told me it was because of him.

The way my proper hat size fits is not at all like the sizing instructions. It’s snug!, It’s not strangling my head, but I would call it snug. I have not tested this but, I think if I hung upside down it would not fall off. I can fit two fingers between the front of the hat and my forehead but, I have to pull the hat forward by the brim with a bit of force to create the space. I can rotate the hat left and right on my head but there is friction. Done fast enough I’m sure I could create a fire. The nice thing about wearing the proper size is that it no longer fell over my ears (which caused irritation). And, I could comfortably wear the hat with sunglasses and it did not interfere with the arms of sunglasses.

Below are the images of the hat on Tilley’s website:

LTM6_Image4LTM6_Image7LTM6_Image1LTM6_Image8

In all of the above photos the hat sits above the top of ears which does not coincide with  the sizing instructions. There is one photo below that show a fit more in line with the sizing instructions. In the above photos the hat sits down to about the middle of the forehead.

LTM6_Image10

This photo above seems more like the bucket style fit that the sizing instructions describe. We cannot see her ears, but I suspect it’s over or touching them. The hat sits down to the bottom of her forehead.

I believe there is a great great disparity between what the sizing instructions describe and what the sizing chart specifies. Which happens to be the LTM6.

I know somewhere deep within the Tilley headquarters sits one of my dads old hats on display demonstrating the durably, quality and longevity of this hat and the company behind it.

Elgato HD60 with Mac OS and Twitch

hd60

I chose the HD60 for a few reasons.  It got really good reviews, and I also asked streamers that had good quality streams what they used. What I didn’t realize is that support for the HD60 on Mac computers is limited. They don’t write the drivers for Mac so you can’t capture the stream directly for use with OBS*. In most cases you will be relegated to using the Game Capture HD software with this device. This software works well but, it’s limited. Currently the stable version does not support overlays. The beta software does though, but it’s still limited. With the beta software you can set up a webcam and a few overlays on your stream. You cannot setup Twitch notifications, or any of the other cool integrations you can have with OBS.

*You can use OBS with this card, but you can’t capture directly from the device itself,  you have to use Window capture or Screen capture and both have issues. If you use window capture I found that it works but, the video in my Twitch stream was rickety. For example, if a character turns his head the movement wouldn’t be smooth. It’s hard to explain.. If you try to use display capture you’ll have to have a high resolution or a big screen so you can separate the OBS screen from the Game Capture Screen. This is because display capture captures everything in a certain area, if you have any overlap with OBS you get an infinity effect. This was too big of a problem for me to overcome. So, I’m left with only using the Elgato software.

After the Mac updated to version 10.11.5 of El Capitan I’ve had issues with Game Capture HD. The stable version of the software has major video quality issues. I’ve tried the beta versions but they have issues too, which I’ll describe:

gchdm_203_970 [stable version]  — Worked great before the 10.11.5 Mac update. Now it has video streaming issues, stream quality completely brakes down if there is any movement. If you played a game without much movement like a card game it might be okay. I play Splatoon and it’s completely unusable for that.  (Since the 10.11.5 update the video has been broken for streaming and recording, this version is no longer usable)

gchdm_204_981  [stable version] — This is the updated stable version I downloaded on August 11, 2016. It has the same issues as the previous stable version. It is unusable for streaming.

gchdm_21b66_1036_PB  [beta version] — This fixed the video issue, but there is a recording issue, if I grab 2 mins of a 2hr stream, the 2min segment file size will be as big as the entire 2 hour stream. (This is the version I use now, it’s the only one that streams video and audio correctly)

gchdm_21b84_1084_PB  [beta version] — This may have fixed the recording size issue, the file size was 85mb for a 2 minute segment of a stream, so I’m not sure, but this introduces a microphone issue during streaming. The audio is robotic and broken up. (Unusable for streaming)

gchdm_21b85_1101_PB  [beta version] — The microphone audio is still an issue for streaming. (Unusable for streaming)

October 2017 update: 2.8(1315) Same voice audio issues. Voice audio breaks up. This article was published in August of 2016. It’s now October 12, 2017. Game capture HD still has the same exact issues it did a full  year and 3 months ago.

I have been working with Elgato support from June 18th until today, July 20th) We haven’t really gotten anywhere, but they are trying to help. Based on my testing, the issue is with their software, but Elgato support personnel continue to pin the issue to my computer.

Update: August 11, 2016. After I updated El Capitan to version 10.11.6 the video with all versions of the Game Capture HD breaks up and is unusable for streaming.

I really wish Elgato would write a driver for Mac so that video could be captured directly. I could use OBS with all of it’s features. So, based on all of this I would say if you have a Mac you may want to look for another streaming card, at least to stream on a service like Twitch. You may want to look into the AVerMedia Live Gamer Portable 2. They have Mac drivers and you can use it with OBS. Update: Apparently, they do not have Mac drivers. Update October 2017: Avermedia does have drivers for Mac now and OBS can be used. I’ve been using it with OBS for months now.

I really liked the Elgato HD60. I call it a river rock because it looks and feels like one. My wife got it for me for my birthday. I think the hardware is sound, and it’s well made. So far I’ve had a lot of fun streaming too. However the technical issues and limitations are taking the fun out of it.

Note: I am a independent computer consultant. I support Windows, Mac and Linux. My experience range from hardware to software and networking.

 

A few things to consider about Donald Trump

If you’re considering voting for Donald Trump, consider some of the things he has said. These are all direct quotes with links that show the source.

When asked about abortion.
"There has to be some form of punishment”. For the woman? "yea"
When asked about how to deal with the enemy and enhanced interrogation techniques.
"I would bring back waterboarding, and I would bring back a hell of a lot more worse then waterboarding."
When asked about Mexicans,
"When Mexico sends its people, they're not sending their best. They're not sending you. They're sending people that have lots of problems, and they're bringing those problems with them. They're bringing drugs. They're bringing crime. They're rapists. And some, I assume, are good people."
Trump was having a dispute with Megyn Kelly from Fox news, Trump said,
"You could see there was blood coming out of her eyes, blood coming out of her, wherever."
This is one of Trumps tweets,
"Sadly, the overwhelming amount of violent crime in our major cities is committed by blacks and hispanics-a tough subject-must be discussed."
Regarding John McCain,
"He's not a war hero," "He's a war hero because he was captured. I like people that weren't captured." 

"I never liked him after that, because I don't like losers,"
RE: Voters that support him
"I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot people and I wouldn't lose voters,"
Global warming
“It’s freezing and snowing in New York – we need global warming!”
RE: …
“I have so many fabulous friends who happen to be gay, but I am a traditionalist.”

You hear people talk about the “real Trump” as if to say that the things he says may not actually be his real opinion. However, I believe his statements above reflect his true thoughts or lack there of. There are threads of racism, sexism, and ignorance. I believe he is gaslighting America. He has also openly admired Vladimir Putin, Saddam Hussein. And has been admired by Kim Jong-un.

Regarding the truth about anything, Trump exhibits a reality distortion field similar to what I’ve read about Steve Jobs.  He will literally say anything if he thinks it will benefit him, it does not matter to him whether it is true or false. It does not have to matter, he has manipulated people his entire life in order to get what he wants, and many have and still suffer because of this. This is really important because he uses  gas-lighting  to manipulate his followers. This is why he can says he can shot people in the middle of Fifth avenue and not loose voters. His followers are gaslit. The reason he says believe me so much is because he has no real plan and someone with no plan would require peoples belief.

This article is a work in progress. I will to continue to refine my thoughts over time.