Uncategorized (3/5)
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- Dive Sites ...
- Artificial Reefs ...
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- Gear & Training ...
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- Cozumel ...
Welcome to NJScuba.net, a website dedicated to exploring the New Jersey / New York region underwater -- "Wreck Valley". Here you will find information on dive sites, marine biology, artifacts and activities, gear and training, and many other subjects.
More: Home ...
I just received my signed copy of this new book, and I must say I am very impressed. It has over 400 pages of information, charts, images, and GPS numbers. This is a must-have for any New Jersey wreck diver.
https://www.amazon.com/New-Jersey-Fishing-Reefs-Wrecks/dp/B0CGKVD3CP
Artificial Reefs
The charts on this site have always been a pain to update. Starting with a spreadsheet of coordinates, converting DMS to decimal and then to pixel coordinates, then precisely placing markers in an image editor. Then generating a corresponding html image map for the links, and putting the whole thing in WordPress in such a way that WordPress doesn't simply eat it, as it is prone to do with a lot of things.
More: New Reef Charts ...
Dive Sites - pick your starting point
I figured out how to customize the map graphics and made them much better for the purpose here.
More: Not Quite Done ... ...
This website has a link checker, and it just informed me that the OMS link was bad. Sure enough, the website is gone. But it looks like DUI has taken over OMS - the full line of OMS stuff is in the 'OMS' section of DUI's site. So it's probably a good thing, especially in this economic environment. DUI will be around for a long time - they make most if not all of the military's drysuits. Now they have a full line of tech gear; as I recall, I was never too impressed with their own BC designs. Just checked on Dive Rite - they're still there.
More: OMS Taken Over by DUI ...
All the content from the old site has been loaded into the new one. I didn't leave out anything. After fixing obvious errors, now it is time to start improving.
Six new lines of PHP code allow me to now have two titles for each page. The standard WordPress title is used for all the navigation structures, where it needs to fit in a prescribed space, hence needs to be short. In most cases that is also fine for everything, but sometimes I'd like something more descriptive for page title, headers, etc. Now the short title can be very short, and the long title can be very long - no more need to compromise. This is actually a simple fix for a major shortcoming of WordPress. I am continuing to force it into becoming a real CMS.
More: Polishing ...
I added a slew of new features and capabilities to my standard "Simple" theme, and I think I'm done ( except for the inevitable bug fixes. ). It is still simple to use, but actually pretty sophisticated behind the scenes. The major additions:
More: Programming Done ...
Started putting the content in. Figured out how to replicate almost all of the styles of the old site. This is going to take a while - there are over 1100 pages to fill in. Most of them should be quick and easy, I've been tackling the tough ones to start with.
More: Progress ...
SS United States Finally Leaves Philadelphia to Begin Its Last Chapter
By Forrest Brown and Danny Freeman, CNN
Wed February 19, 2025
After months of multiple delays, the SS United States finally left its longtime home of Philadelphia just before 1 p.m. ET Wednesday. The storied ocean liner's next stop is Mobile, Alabama, where it will be prepared for its final mission - to become an artificial reef off the coast of the Florida Panhandle. The American maritime icon, nearly as large as the Chrysler Building, was launched in 1951 and set the transatlantic speed record in 1952.
"Today, the nation's sole surviving ocean liner will glide down the Delaware River to begin the next chapter in her uniquely American story," said Susan Gibbs, president of the SS United States Conservancy and granddaughter of the ship's designer, William Francis Gibbs, in statement just before ship left. After spending nearly three decades docked empty in Philadelphia, the tow to Mobile is expected to take about two weeks.
More: Reef Program Dodges a Bullet ...
ShipBuildingHistory.com is a resource that I have often used to look up many of the reefs and a few of the wrecks in this website. I recently sent in an update, and received a notice that the author had passed away. The next thing that usually happens in these cases is that the website disappears when the hosting goes unpaid, so I immediately grabbed a copy for myself.
That's when I found that the original site was almost a terabyte in size, and 95% of that was formatting. So I cleaned it up, and cleaned it up, and cleaned it up, and added some navigation structures and other niceties that you would expect. Then I posted my copy as a sub-site here:
More: ShipBuildingHistory.com ...
A small spray bottle of soap solution is an extremely useful item to have in your kit.
Much better than soap is baby shampoo. A solution of roughly 50% baby shampoo and 50% water is useful for many things:
- Lubricating dry suit seals
- Lubricating gloves and boots
- Finding leaks in suits, hoses, etc
- General cleaning-up
This is also the best mask defogger I have yet found - much better than anything you can buy, and it won't sting your eyes ( although it doesn't taste too good. )
More: Spray Soap ...