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A friend of mine at church, Ryan Miller, was killed yesterday in Iraq. He was 19 and a wonderful young man.
He died doing something he passionately believed was absolutely right and he was faithfuly doing God's will in his life.
May I die the same way.Current Mood:  crushed |
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Okay... because I'm a geek and wanted to play around with something new, I created a new site over at Windows Live™ Spaces.
I'm making this Live Space my technical home away from home. Here I will post technical articles (mostly about programming stuff I'm playing with). I don't know how prolific I will be... certainly no less prolific than I've been here ;)
Anyways, this is fair notice to all of you who read my blog (both you you!) that there is additional kermit-authored content over there.
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Houston, we have streaming!
We posted information about our webcam on a popular PurpleMartin forum. This had two side-effects. One, our net-connection got swamped and the webcam didn't work very well, and two... one of the members of the forum offered to donate bandwidth to the cause. Awesome.
It turns out that he runs an ISP up in Minnesota and he just happens to have a spare Windows 2003 server laying around doing absolutely nothing. Don't we all ;) So I did some quick learning about Windows Media Services on Windows 2003. Turns out to be pretty easy... well so far anyways. In a bout of creativity I purchased the domain "purplemartin.tv" and voila... we have bandwidth.
The way it works is that the WMServer reads the stream from my IP address, remote clients connect to the WMServer and it broadcasts the video stream to each client. WMServer is smart enough to detect the bandwidth between itself and the client and send the most appropriate bitrate (assuming one has been provided by the video source). Since I'm only providing one bitrate, that's a non issue.
So I quickly cobbled together a basic website at www.purplemartin.tv and now anyone can watch the webcam from a webpage or directly in Windows Media Player.
Thanks to SSMNET in Minnesota. You guys rock! |
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The $40 cam broke :( The audio went out (video was fine)... so I made the obligatory Fry's trip to get a replacement. I ended up picking up a very similar model by Q-See for $50 except that this one has infra-red as well as color. It has a ring of IR LEDs around the outside of the lens to shine IR on the scene being filmed.
I took the opportunity at this point to change the way the camera was mounted. Before the cam was taped with electrical tape on the inside of the SuperGourd lid. That was fine for young babies lying in a small area, but it was really too close to see the whole nest (even with the wide-angle lens), so I took one of the do-it-yourself gourd neck extenders we got from S&K for fitting on natural gourds, and fit it to the lid of a SuperGourd. This allows me to mount the camera 2-3 inches further away from the nest. I got a wide-angle lens for the Q-See camera as well and the field of vision is perfect... you can see the whole nest. Perfect.
Unfortunately, the wide-angle lens does not apparently support IR... something not mentioned by Q-See. I need to call their help line and see if there is a solution. Until I have a solution, no night vision :(
While at Fry's, I also picked up a second camera that I want to put outside looking at the nests. That will be cool.Current Mood:  accomplished |
| » Nestcam is now a Webcam |
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The nestcam itself is a fairly cheap wired miniature security camera that I picked up at MicroCenter (a local computer store) for a little less than $50. We've got a 150ft cable running from the nest, down the pole and across the yard into the house. The cable brings power from the house to the camera and brings back composite video and mono audio (ie, the yellow video plug and the white audio plug, but no red audio plug which you would have with stereo audio like you have with home audio equipment).
Inside the house, this analog audio/video signal is attached to an older Dell computer that was lying around. Here are the specs (after some upgrades):
2Ghz Intel P4 CPU
1GB of PC3200 RAM
ATI All-in-Wonder Radeon 9600 (2006 Edition) video card
Airlink PCI Wireless G networking card
Internal 20GB IDE drive
External 200GB IDE drive via USB 2.0
I say this system was lying about because it was an older system that was given to me by a friend when they were upgrading at his work. It only had 128MB of RAM... ie, pretty much useless to run XP (though Linux would run fine I guess). Anyways, after picking up the additional RAM and the ATI video card from Fryes (got a good deal on the card!), this is now a very reasonable system... in fact I may upgrade it to Windows Media Center sometime, but that's another story ;)
The analog video from the nestcam is attached to the video input of the ATI video card and the output is attached to our main TV/stereo system in the living room (that's why I needed the Wireless network card... no ethernet cable there yet).
The webcam stream is being provided by the freely downloadable Windows Media Encoder from Microsoft. This is the primary low-level authoring tool for Windows Media technology and it supports providing video streams. Unfortunately, a limitation of WME is that it only supports 5 connections (and 2 of them are used in my house!).
The other limiting factor is bandwidth. Capturing the video to a file and uploading it would not be a problem... there are lots of solutions for that... LOTS! Home video capture/editing software is getting fairly mature now. Unfortunately there appear to be less (good) choices for streaming live video (ie, a webcam). Streaming is a different ball game. With most video downloads, you are downloading a pre-recorded video file from a remote computer and playing it on your computer, but you are now disconnected from the remote computer. With a webcam, you stay connected to the remote computer and continually download the video stream.
With traditional file upload/download you send a file across your relatively slow internet connection to your ISP or other internet service (such as Earthlink, Flickr, Yahoo, or whatever). At that point you are out of the loop... people go to this online service to get your data. With streaming video, people have to connect to the live data stream, which means they have to connect directly to the source... me! When you guys are connecting to the webcam, you are actually connecting to that Dell computer sitting in my living room. The data you are receiving from me is sent through the upload connection which (with digital cable in my area) is limited to a little less than 1Mb... not bad, but as one of the previous posters remarked, with a 300Kb video stream, this is limited to around 5 (or less) connections without maxing out the data connection.
I have configured WME to provide several qualities of video (ranging from 28Kb up to 330Kb) but apparently everyone is connecting at the top speed which is further limiting things. Not sure why... I need to research why this is. If anyone knows anything about streaming WMV video (or other formats), PM Donna and she'll put you in touch with me.
To be honest, the best solution I can imagine would be to find a streaming video hosting service on the internet that can act as a repeater for this signal... that way I can send one high quality signal using as much of my bandwidth as is feasible to the hosting service, and the rest of your can connect to the hosting service to see the video. This is the ideal solution... but I can't find one that doesn't charge lots of money. If any of you know of a way that I can do this, please let us know!
I've got a fair amount of experience with computers and internet technologies, but streaming video is new to me so bear with me as I work through the learning curve.
May. 14th, 2006 @ 11:03 am
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| » Does Visual Studio Rot the Mind? |
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Some of you old-timers remember a guy named Charles Petzold... you know... the guy who taught all of us how to program for the Windows platform... yes, THAT Charles Petzold. Well, he's still alive and kicking and being as cantankerous as ever ;)
I stumpled across an interesting post by him on his website about whether or not Visual Studio (and other uber-IDEs that do so much for us) make us better or worse programmers.
For your enjoyment, may I present...
http://www.charlespetzold.com/etc/DoesVisualStudioRotTheMind.html
May. 5th, 2006 @ 03:58 pm
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| » Purple Martins |
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If y'all didn't know already, Donna (and I, I guess) are Purple Martin landlords. We have 30 nests of various types in the back yard (16 gourd nests and 14 nests in metal housing). We are in the middle of the egg-laying season and we had our first hatchlings this morning. Donna has posted pictures in her journal (![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) dgillbee) if you are intested.
May. 2nd, 2006 @ 12:49 pm
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| » SuperBowl Commercial Review 2006 (Part I) |
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Here is the SuperBowl Commercial Review 2006.
( Part I )
Feb. 5th, 2006 @ 06:34 pm
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| » The ultimate sign of geekness... |
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What do I do when I am armed with a TiVo on Superbowl Sunday?
Do I pause TV at a critical catch to see if the receiver's foot was really in bounds?
Do I slow-mo to see that awesome hit and count the QBs teeth spraying across the field?
Perhaps a quick review of the cheerleaders?
( No! (well, maybe the cheerleaders <g>) )
Feb. 5th, 2006 @ 06:01 pm
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| » Network problems |
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Well, I can tell that Ashley's back :)
That's a good thing... I missed her... but it's also a frustrating thing because she can be a ( bandwidth hog. )
Jan. 31st, 2006 @ 04:07 pm
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| » I have gone over to the dork side... |
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I am now officially a Firefox user. I have kicked my IE habit and have now joined the growing list of MS rebels.
Use the Firefox, Luke!
( Yee haw! )
Jan. 27th, 2006 @ 02:04 pm
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| » I not dead yet... |
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It has been pointed out to me that I have not posted to LJ since hurricaine Rita [almost] hit Houston. This could [inadvertantly] have resulted in the impression that I was washed away.
My apologies.
You may now go back to your normal lives since you have no doubt spent the last several months agonizing about Simon's fate.
We thank you for your concern ;)
Jan. 27th, 2006 @ 01:33 pm
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| » The squalls are coming... the squalls are coming! |
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For those of you who don't know, I live just SE of Houston in Pearland, TX. That means that I'm about to weather Hurricane Rita :)
All my Windows are covered and Donna (my wife) and I are hunkered down. The yard is cleared of all things which could fly around... at this point we're just waiting. The wind has started to pick up at this point (probably gusting up around 30mph) and it is slightly raining (very light squalls). Ashley (my daughter) went with her bf to Austin and Lynn (my Mother-in-law who lives with us) evac'd with my sister-in-law to Hockley (NE of Houston near Hempstead). If Ashley and Lynn did not evac, I would probably have left and gotten them out of here, but Donna and I are okay here.
Actually at this point it doesn't look like we're going to get winds more than about 70-80mph. That's good news since the possibility of 150mph gusts was very real a couple of days ago when the storm was headed to Freeport to my south.
We actually lost power about 3:15 this afternoon (which was a surprise because the wind had barely started) but Centerpoint got the power back on about 20min later. Yay! Go Centerpoint!
I post more interesting stuff if it happens (and I don't lose power)
Sep. 23rd, 2005 @ 05:54 pm
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| » Morty est Mort |
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Morty died this morning :(
All yesterday he was acting kind of lethargic... he didn't want to eat and he was not his usual chirpy self. Last evening he was definately fading. It was obvious he was not going to make it, and yet we still hoped and prayed.
By 4am he was gone... just a cold shell of the little critter that has brought us such warmth and joy over the past week.
We'll miss you Morty. Thanks for giving us a unique experience and some small insight into God's wonderful creation.
Jul. 26th, 2005 @ 08:00 am
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| » More-ty |
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This little guy is just too cute. I've heard of cat and mouse... but bird and mouse?!?
( More pics... )
Jul. 23rd, 2005 @ 09:58 pm
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| » Mortimer |
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World... meet Mortimer...
Mortimer... meet world!
( Click here for more on Mortimer... )
Jul. 23rd, 2005 @ 08:52 pm
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| » A little math to brighten your day... |
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... but first ( a little humor... )
Now that you are done groaning, here is a little math puzzle given to me by a friend. I will admit that some of the math skills involved have fled my brain over the years and I did not solve this, but perhaps you will:
Mar. 23rd, 2005 @ 10:10 am
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| » Right2Life vs ProChoice (Part II) |
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This is Part II. This is a reply to Part I which you will probably need to read first in order to get the conversational context.</o:p> ( Read the reply... ) Well... I could go on, but I have to get back to work :)
Mar. 10th, 2005 @ 02:36 pm
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| » Right2Life vs ProChoice (Part I) |
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I am a member of an email list consisting of current student and graduates of my old high school (the Talented and Gifted Magnet in Dallas, TX if you care <g>). Anyways, this email list is always good for political and philosophical debate. I am copying here a post from my CompSci teacher, Dr. Allen Scott (who is a totally kick-ass teacher, btw!). I am posting this not because I agree with it, but so that I can reference it in my next post where I want to talk about it! Just as reference, this debate started as a discussion about non-traditional marriage such as legal unions and multi-partner unions.
( From: Allen Scott... )
Mar. 10th, 2005 @ 02:21 pm
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