leukophobia

A PIC!!!

timford — Sun, 30 Jan 2011 02:17:17 +0000

some comments

…what?

timford — Sun, 30 Jan 2011 02:15:36 +0000

Here is a comment below the picture.

timford — Sun, 30 Jan 2011 02:12:13 +0000

got some birds on the feeder

timford — Sat, 11 Sep 2010 14:04:55 +0000

Since this place isn’t getting used very much, I figured I’d post some of my projects and goings on. Maybe it will start something … Yeah, you’re right. Probably not. Oh well. Here it goes anyway.

For those who haven’t been following me on Twitter, I recently purchased some bird feeders for my apartment balcony. I enjoy watching birds, and I enjoy it even more when I can watch them from my couch. With the location of my bird feeder, I have a great view of it from the comfort of my living room. There is only one problem: most of the sunlight and, therefore, most of the bird visits occur whilst I am at work. So how do I enjoy a bird feeder while I’m away? I could drop several hundred dollars on a feeder with a built in camera and dvr, but who has that kind of cash for bird feeders? Not me.

So began the search for a remote bird watching solution on the cheap – preferably on the free. Fortunately for me, on the free is possible. Here’s how.

The Hardware

The hardware components of the system are simply a camera and a computer. For the camera, I used the one built into my netbook, which takes care of the other hardware need. If you don’t have a good enough view of your bird feeder from your window, you might need to invest in an external webcam. If your bird feeders are far enough away from your house, you may need to go wireless. In that case, you will likely invest in a webcam like this one and have no need for what I’m about to say. As for me and my house, there is a cheaper way.

The Software

I needed a piece of software that would allow me to automate the picture taking process. I was looking for something that would at least allow pictures to be taken on a schedule, but motion detection would be ideal. For my setup, I chose YAWCAM. It is a free program that has all the features (and more) that I needed for this project.

With YAWCAM, I could actually stream video from my webcam and watch a live video feed, but I wanted something a little more asynchronous than that. Because this is not primarily a how-to blog (although this post has morphed into one), I’m not going to delineate the steps to setup YAWCAM. It’s insultingly easy, anyway. In short, I told it to take a picture of my bird feeder when there is motion at most once every 30 seconds. There are plenty of settings to toy with, so you should be able to find a setup that works for you.

As it stands, the system would allow me to come home and review the birds that have visited my feeders, but what about viewing them throughout the day? I want to benefit from my feeders no matter where I am! And I can.

Option number one: have them emailed to me. YAWCAM has an awesome feature that allows me to specify a command to run every time there is a picture taken. So, with the help of a python script, I could have it email me whenever it detects motion on my bird feeder. If you are thinking that this could get annoying and is a little excessive, I agree. So …

Option number two: use dropbox. I told YAWCAM to save the pictures in my dropbox folder so I can view them anytime and anywhere I desire.

If you are wondering why I care so much about bird feeders. Read this.

That’s a wrap. Peace out, brosefs.

Now you see me . . . now you don’t

organicgladiator — Tue, 05 May 2009 20:21:15 +0000

Ever dreamed of being invisible? Well, keep dreaming. This article doesn’t say that invisibility is possible. But they have found a way to bend light around objects. So maybe by the year 3000, your great grandkids will disappear.

no, it’s not a robot

Jigs — Sun, 19 Apr 2009 03:15:40 +0000

d30. sounds like R2′s estranged cousin, but as it turns out it’s something much cooler. but first lets take a trip back into your childhood. do you remember cornstarch? that good ol’ non-newtonian fluid that was like a liquid without pressure, but a solid when pressure was applied? wacky huh? just imagine cornstarch, except this cornstarch can stop bullets. d30. apparently when made rigid (by application of force) this stuff can reduce the strength of a bullet by half. that along with the classic standby of Kevlar you have a pretty dynamic duo. not to mention that the producers of d30 are working with other retail people in making products like gloves, pants, and hats that can take a hit like you have football pads on. there’s even a video on youtube of a guy getting hit in the head with a shovel, to no avail though. this stuff apparently was designed “to work in synergy with the material properties in areas where there are high levels of geometric change (e.g. elbows) such that the texture “densifies” on flexure to optimize the protection afforded.” pretty intense in my book. all I can say of all of this is . . . I want some.

new york, new york

Jigs — Sat, 18 Apr 2009 07:29:42 +0000

Last week was the annual academy mission trip to new york. I attended for the second year in a row (last year as a SONS member). it started out saturday night with a trip to the promenade (read: mla-ma-mla as opposed to promenaad). we got a sweet view of downtown manhattan and good ol’ lady liberty and other such things. sunday we heard the first message brought by evangelist kent prain. we then headed to the rockefeller center to get a cool view from the top of the rock. it was fairly crowded, so it took a while to get up there and get back down, but the view was still awesome. monday we went and helped out another pastor in the area by handing out tracts and helping him with his street preaching ministry. tuesday we had a kids rally that was attended by twelve kids and was a bunch of fun. wednesday we walked down wall street, saw ground zero, the NYSE, AMEX, and NASDAQ buildings. we hit up pier 17 for lunch (tasty chinese food) and then walked across the brooklyn bridge before riding the subway back to the church. thursday we walked across the street to an old folks home where we gave a small service to those who would come. (I got volunteered to sing at one of their weddings, but I don’t know when). we also had another kids rally that was attended by a little over twenty kids and was very fun, probably more so than the one on tuesday (the green team dominated). friday we took chinatown by storm, wherein I got a sweet pair of aviators and some little elephant figurines. we saw guys carrying gutted pigs into a cellar, heard random guys sining unintelligibly on the sidewalk, offered fake ID’s, and were asked every few feet if we were interested in buying a rolex. needless to say our chinatown experience was complete. all throughout the week we would go to the nearby parks and public schools to play soccer, basketball, 4-square and the like with people and hand out tracts and invite them to the services. we ate out a pizza joint that night, before hearing the final message and then beginning the long bus ride back home. overall it was a good week, a lot of fun, and good memories were made.

Take a Deep Breath . . . And You Might Grow A Tree

organicgladiator — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 21:58:52 +0000

This article states that a Russian surgeon was removing what he thought was a tumor. Apparently, it turned out to be a fir tree. It might be a hoax because it does seem pretty unbelievable.

more like slaveground

Jigs — Sun, 29 Mar 2009 03:13:44 +0000

Last friday (march 20th) marked the end of a bleak period in history. I will attempt to accurately chronicle it for you. I’m of course talking about the Electronic Playground physics labs. I must admit that when I signed up for physics, this project was in the forefront of my mind. “It’ll be pretty cool” was what I would think maybe even “sweet.” could I have been more wrong. . . probably, but still. we get handed a cardboard stand with 2 led’s, an antenna, many capacitors, resistors, a variable resistor, a transformer, a 9V battery, and a myriad of wires with which to connect all of these fascinating electronic devices. we then are handed 4 labs, apptly named labs A, B, C, and D. you might think: “four labs!? that thing must be jam-packed with all sorts of fun and excitement if it needs four labs!” I thought something similar, until I looked through these labs. of the huge aforementioned list of devices, we used led’s, resistors and the battery. you can imagine my shock, horror and disappointment. meaning you had to stare longingly at the transistor-radio-that-could-be but not for too long, or you might accidentally hook up your ammeter in parallel to the circuit and blow its fuse, cutting that night’s lab work unmercifly short. needless to say I probably spent to many lab days during 6th hour building a morse code device or what-have-you instead of measuring the voltage on a complex circuit of resistors. you had to be careful when continuing a lab later on though, because some of the lab work drained the voltage out of the battery to a dangerously low level, and if you start a lab with 9V but then finish it later with 8.7V the difference could be devestating. all in all it was a fun experience that gave me newfound respect for people working in powerplants and such for when the power goes out as they struggle running various tests to figure out how best to fix it quickly. they always seem take their sweet time though. . .

How much is a trillion dollars?

Chris — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 17:57:52 +0000

This is amazing. This guy uses Google Sketchup to provide a visual illustration of a trillion dollars. You are expeciting it to be a lot…It will be more than you expect.