Like a thunderstroke: a way to adjust the focus ring on the Vision Command camera that doesn't involve cutting up any LEGO. Hooray! I haven't implemented the control yet, but it's coming.

Future toys for the webcam: bird feeder cam, cable car cam, LED lights, Magic Eight Ball, rover cam, trebuchet for Tohunga, remote light control.

Hey Manjit and Vince, I can't get that South Park song (the one that blew up the mascot) out of my head. Who was the original artist? Minnie Something? I curse you. Dood'nt doodn't: dew oo ...

To the loyal viewers (you know who you are): Thanks for the alerts and trouble reports. I blame McAfee anti-virus. I don't have any actual evidence except that the webcam troubles began when I installed it and went away (I think) when I uninstalled it. Holy Moses, what a fiasco.

I've set up a server that will allow the house automation to be controlled from the internet. I'll have to put up a page to make it usable. Watch this space. It may be possible for viewers to turn on the lights only when they are needed.

The Monster Inc toys are spiffy optical illusions. When viewed from the front, they are nondescript but when lit from behind they take on a convincing 3D effect.

The Star Trek edition of Weakest Link was pretty amusing. Wil Wheaton was so not cool. And the most fatiguing part: during his exit interview, he claimed to have been putting on an act as an annoying young actor but hoped he didn't come off as too big a jerk! Argh! And his charity? The EFF! Jesus! Everybody else was playing on behalf of blind orphans and pediatric this and social that. Apparently they generated the highest score ever. In spite of William Shatner's horsing around. Actually, the most painful aspect was that LeVar Burton beat Robert Picardo.

The webcam software has been updated and is running on a faster machine with more memory, blah blah blah. Let me know if you find it in a non-up, unpreannounced down state.

The webcam controller will be down for the duration of the combination book club (The Sparrow and The Children of God) and birthday party, but the camera is pointed in the general direction of the goings-on.

Leave a message in the guestbook. --->

VS writes:
"Can you elaborate (on the image below -ed)?"

Why, yes I can:

William Stromberg is a conductor of film scores and he has conducted (for label Marco Polo) an amazing string of recordings of film scores that are otherwise unavailable. Unavailable usually means the original masters are lost or unusable.

Lots of those had to be performed from reconstructed (by listening to the movie and interpreting - a rare skill), from incomplete or un-annotated short score, or sometimes from scraps of parts scores.

They record using eastern European (ie cheap but skilled) orchestras, mostly the Moscow Symphony Orchesrta.

This will get you to a search result of 'Stromberg' on the Naxos (parent of Marco Polo) site.

Bill also has composer, orchestrater and arranger credits on some new-ish movies.

Bloggers watching bloggers blog

While browsing around the Nitrozac cam, I spotted this:



I think that this is the credit from Election.

Look DOWN to see the compass. Unfortunately, it blocks the view of the floor. I'll think of something.

modded cat

computer case modding hilarity from Australia:


plus

equals

multiplied by n



(No cats were harmed in the production of this image. Professional cat on a closed course. Do not attempt. Side effects include, but are not limited to, furballs, lint, dustbunnies, nausea, baldness. Slight monsterism reported in less than 2% of users.)

Events to look out for in the Samurai Jack drinking game:

• Someone's hat is split in two.
• Jack's hands descend from his sleeves.
• The screen is split into three panels.
• Someone besides Jack says 'Aku'
• Jack says 'mystical sword'
• Jack is hungry/thirsty/cold.
• Cartoony sound effect.

Extra-concise episode guide to Samurai Jack: (episodes not originally broadcast in numerical order because of production exigencies)

I When Aku is reborn to set forth his reign of terror, the Emperor’s son is sent off to learn the ways of the samurai. That boy becomes a man and attempts to slay Aku with a mighty sword, but Aku banishes him to the future.
II Jack arrives in the future and discovers the widespread evil of Aku and meets new allies.
III Jack gets weapons and beats back Aku’s army of beetles, saving the canine race of the future.
IV Jack encounters a race of cruel nerds.
V Jack defends a community of renegade scientists from Aku's minions.
VI A woman needs help to free her father from Aku.
VII Jack seeks a tower guarding a well that will grant any wish.
VIII Jack loses his temper when his sandal breaks. He also must fight his doppelganger.
IX Jack seeks a time machine in the lost city of Oceanus.
X Jack is lured to a mountain of traps.
XI Jack discovers that Aku has a bounty on others beside himself.
XII Gangsters. Water. Aku. Kitties.

The webcam was probably down all day Saturday because I wasn't around to reboot things. Uptime! Ha!

Hello Netherlands

Hello Netherlands!

Hell Canada!

Hello Canada!



The camera that I am using is from LEGO. It's actually a Logitech product. The gizmo that makes it move is also LEGO. The design is included with the cam (but you'll need more parts.)

The controlling software is Webrick (there's a link under the cams screens.) I did very little tweaking to get it all going.

Having a reasonably stable DSL line has helped me.

My DSL ISP sold their dial-up service to Earthlink. Fine. Earthlink sent me a notice that they had set up an account for me. I told them that I didn't need them for email or connectivity. They said they would take me off their books. But every month they send me a bill. Every month I call them up and remind them that I am not their customer. The stupidest part: when I ask for written confirmation that my account has been closed they say that their legal department tells them that they can't send written correspondence. What a pile of dooky.