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Penguins Invade the North Pole
An Anonymous Coward writes "Thanks to a project of the U.S. National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), a webcam has for the first time been installed at the North Pole -- one which runs on Embedded Linux (uClinux), no less! The device was installed on April 28, 2002 and is now logging four images a day, which are available for viewing on NOAA's publicly accessible website. This article at LinuxDevices.com describes the Linux-based webcam (called the NetCam), opens up the device to see what embedded hardware and software are inside, and explains why the NetCam's developers used Embedded Linux as the basis of their design."
its really "cool" in all senses of the word:):)
however i wonder how cool the webserver of NOAA is
Vikram
... Cause I don't see anything that looks like elves.
remember, tundra is the eskimo word for 'nothing' (dave barry joke)
"I would say that 99 per cent of what my father has written about his own life is false." - L. Ron Hubbard Jr.
However, would these wonderful creatures survive if we were to transport a colony of them to the North Pole? The environment should be about the same weatherwise, but what about the predators. Any insight?
You idiots, penguins have always been in the north pole.
At least thats what the penguin told me before I shoved him down my pants, with hot grits.
Help me please! My ass has been invaded by penguins. :( And it hurts. Help me with this, please!
-- Anal Cox
Penguins at the North Pole! It's about time we counteracted the mass of all those penguins sitting in Antarctica, screwing up our moment of inertia!
Jouster
Did anyone else notice that at the bottom of the web page it says "the images are transmitted using the Iridium network"?
Neat.
This is the most exciting webcam since the coffee machine one
Bite-sized snack food for polar bears!
Phear the day someone introduces a mated pair of polar bears to the south pole.
What time zone is the north poll in? All of them? None of them? I see the pics say GMT...
Morphing Software
Wow, Linux really has had a polarizing effect on the computer world.
Penguins are no match for a Boa.
Hopefully all their studies work out and they determine that the north pole is livable. Then I finally might be able to boot my damn AMD box without turning my room into hell.
can't sleep slashdot will eat me
A great (and probably the only) opportunity to run a fanless Athlon and they select a puny Motorola. Duh!
Gentlemen, you can't fight in here, this is the War Room!
Four pictures a day? Jeni-cam shelled more pics in 1997 than these guys.
;-D
Besides, all the pictures are from the same place and angle, that is boring.
I suggest they ditch the pinguin and come up with a mobile cam, mounted on a
remote controlled mouse.
Better yet, mice, and GPL the SDK for the controller, and doom3 will not
sell a copy
--
I will tell you one thing about the article. It's not insightful, it's boring, and it's just a computer with an attached camera. This is a really weak article. I bought a shirt from ThinkGeek. WHY DO YOU WASTE MY TIME LIKE THIS?
Despising the living crap out of you. --ManBeef
Where is the power coming from? I read the article, and it is not explained where does this device get it's power. I imagine that should be quite a challenge by itself, since
a) at those low temperatures batteries do not work at all.
b) 6 months in a row each year it's dark, so solar panels are not a viable source of energy.
What, then? Quite an engineering problem, huh?
Sigged!
Quick, someone tell these people about FreeBSD. Once you know that the BSD unix(tm) they know and love is available, no one would run a copycat minix knockoff.
It's great the images have the temperatures on them
on THIS ONE the temp got up to a blistering
20.5 F -- but most are around 8-15 degrees.
I wonder how long the hardware will last in extremes like that.
A year? two?
Doubt whether the North Pole is quite as big as the Chinese market, but hey!
One word: Linux.
/.
You should know by now that if anything is linked remotely to linux it gets posted on
Hell, if you submitted a story to slashdot that you are making coffee right now and have heard about linux somewhere the editors would post it... and if Timothy posted it he would probably add some inane comment like "The nerve of this guy, calling himself a coffee drinker while having only berely heard of linux"
Then there would be 50 posts telling people to go to your [now] slashdotted homepage to read the article while it turned into a discussion about big brother.
Just my CDN$0.02 (US$0.01)
they should strap cameras on the backs of
penguins with wireless remote connections.
Give them a combination of solar power and a
little propeller that spins when the penguin
swims to generate electricity. It would
have to be waterproof, but you could get
lots of different pics from real penguin
colonies....
I think we're about to slashdot the north pole for the first time in history!
Hope it doesn't make the ozone hole bigger...
Am I the only one who thought that penguins actually did start migrating to the North Pole?(Due to global warming?) Had me worried for a while there...
Wasn't there a Slashdot article about StarDot not making their GPL embedded webcam source available about a year ago?
You have demonstrated that your time is worth nothing anyway. Only a complete and utter tool would buy a ThinkGeek shirt.
This could be one of those times where overheating isn't such a bad thing...
I guess there's not too many security guards blocking my way. Too bad for you but I need that one. I've always wanted to have such a thing.
Leave it to some brilliant human to wonder how pengiuns would do at the North Pole. By 2010, the North Pole will be covered in pengiuns, and all the polar bears and seals will have died off because the pengiuns ate all the fish. Another brainiac will try to solve that problem by genetically modifying fish to be toxic to pengiuns. The gases from all the decomposing pengiun carcasses will trap sunlight, heating the atmosphere to the point where there's a chance that kudzu might survive at the North Pole, so of course another human with Great Ideas will bring kudzu and starlings and tree snakes to the North Pole, and then...
Seriously, the only solution to the problem of people modifying Earth in irreversible and unforeseen ways would be if we all hurled ourselves into the sun right this very instant.
Ever wondered? Maybe the end of the world really is when all that ice there melts. :)
20.5F -> -6.4C
8F -> -13.3C
15F -> -9.4C
This is quite warm actually.
Who knows, maybe it will engourage people who own land on other confluences to put web cams there.
- Sam
The secret to enjoying Slashdot is to realize that it should not be taken too seriously.
Was that Anakin proposing hot man-sex to his "master" Obi-Wan? Will they do it? Is it in the movie?
If it is, I'm going to see it!
Yeah, I'm a geek.
Is this the geographic or the magnetic north
pole we're talking about?
For every problem, there is at least one solution that is simple, neat, and wrong.
because then they'll be saying "All your ice are belong to us!"
Hahahah...aaaaarrrggghh!!
What time is it/will be over there? Check with my iPhone app!
uClinux
;)
Now, tell me... What does that look like at first glance... Linux in getting around
First he tries to destroy Gotham City, and now he's going after Santa? What is that wacky Penguin guy up for next? Suing Linus for the rights on his logo?
/^[A-Z0-9._%+-]+@[A-Z0-9.-]+\.[A-Z]{2,4}$/i
I AM THE GOLEM and the fucking pole they are talking about is my 12" GOLEM POLE!
The north pole is a big chunk of ice that floats around. So at some point the camp of scientists camping up there will drift away from the pole.
How often does that happen? Do they need to move camp regularly? Isn't that a big hassle?
It seems like it would be a pain in the butt to have to move camp every other week because the ice kept moving around...
The Axis 2400 video server also uses embedded Linux, not sure which flavor.
We have an older 2400 and when I recently upgraded the firmware they had switch from whatever they were using to Linux. I was impressed. In addition to adding a number of new features, including a doubling of the frame rate, I got a command line on the server!
The server is used to post images on a weather site here
Well I know it points south. Um, which direction is it pointing anyways, by some more useful reference I wonder?
W9x:Thanks for the make-work project Bill.
What about the 1/2 year that there isn't any light? Even though the images would also be dark, I want to see the stars above the horizon!!
Motorola's Coldfire 5206 Memory-Management-Unit-less processor, is powerfull enough to decode a single mp3 "audio"o el/index.html
channel with standard included uClinux 'mp3play'
utility , (it is possible to stream mp3 into an
atached 5206 speaker -one channel- 10Mbits-ethernet based) thank's to the uClinux
team (et. al., and yes Greg Ungerer), great work,..
I wonder if SMP is possible?.
joel@itensenada.edu.mx
http://www.cicese.mx/~j
> the temp got up to a blistering 20.5 F. I wonder how long the hardware will last in extremes like that.
:)
I've been living in Wisconsin for 23 years. It can get that cold or colder from around December through March - 4 months for argument. 23*4/12 = 7.6 years that I have been exposed to that kind of cold. I figure if I can do it, so can the equipment.
Seriously though, I'm sure it will need maintenance at least once a year assuming it isn't disturbed by anything more than weather.
So now polar bears face their toughest competitors...
Well, they would have used Embedded XP, but there was no browser. :)
Lack of eloquence does not denote lack of intelligence, though they often coincide.
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I never knew there were parts of the North Pole that had trees and grass!
4 11-1914.jpg.tmp 4 11-0144.jpg 4 11-0149.jpg 4 16-1632.jpg
http://www.pmel.noaa.gov/npole/images/noaa-2002-0
http://www.pmel.noaa.gov/npole/images/noaa-2002-0
http://www.pmel.noaa.gov/npole/images/noaa-2002-0
http://www.pmel.noaa.gov/npole/images/noaa-2002-0
It looks like a nice place to live, actually.
I keep expecting to see desperate, lost explorers begging and messaging for help in front of the camera.
our written thoughts are gifts to our future selves
What timezone would the Noth Pole be, exactly? I think it's US Central but my stupid neighbor says it's Eastern.
.
How great! It's the same damned picture...every time.
Hugo
Not trying to troll here... I really do mean this...
:)
But isn't this like... a really boring use of technology? I looked at a few of the photos... they all look exactly the same except time of day...
I could understand maybe using a motion detector to catch some sort of activity but uh...
But eh... *confused look*...
Maybe I am just not understanding the significance of this?
Maybe there are some photos that have something of interest in them, anyone care to post links? Personally I don't really care to go through a bunch of similar photos looking for that one unique one *smiles*
It is pretty out there though...
Luke
..considering how many people want to look at a barren tundra..
The Truth: There is no string:)
Hey ! I can see Buzz Aldrin !
it is, in fact, the planet Hoth.
Enlighten us instead
Infuriate left and right
I couldn't see either superman's home or santa clauses home in any of the photos!
Canon makes a great linux-based webcam too, called the VB101..
In my opinion, they have the best java user interface for pan/tilt/zoom.
Check out a live camera demo at http://vbcam.nuspectra.com (from Alameda CA).
When I read the title, I think NOAA is going to release penguins to North Pole again. I was a little bit disappeared, it is penguin the sofware, rather than the bird...
,then taken the bird to a pub and said something like "What's wrong with that fat, stupid bird? It can't fly!!"
;London : Whittet, 1994.
IIRC, there was an attempt to release penguins to Sweden (or may be another Scandinavian countries) just before WW2. About 40 birds were released to somewhere near an arctic fishing village. All of them were killed within 60 days: penguins did not know polar bear would attack, fisherman did not know what it was...
The fate of the last bird was like this: A fisherman's wife hacked the last penguin to death
From "Penguins", John A. Love
It always seems to point south. Bah!
;-)
enough said.
The journey is better then the end.
Hu ... everybody knows that Penguins only live at the south pole(and in the arctic streams comming from there) ... so I click as fast as possible on that miracle link that they now inhabit the north pole also just to realize that the Linux Penguin is ment .... does the posters have no clue?
Linux invades north pole would have been a much cooler headline.
BTW: The physics research center at University of Strasbourg, France (in case you are ignnorant), has linux boxes running Debian 1.x or Slackware 0.93 since about 9 years in the automatic weather reporting stations planted everywhre in the arctic and antarctic ice deserts.
So that NEWS is a pretty old storry.
Regards,
angel'o'sphere
Cost free eBook I read (by iBook/Kobo/Amazon/ObookO/Gutenberg etc.): "The Green Odyssey" by Philip Jose Farmer.
from the not-as-good-as-jennycam dept.
I believe you were referring to Jennicam and not a porn site, right?
right?
:-P
"Man", I thought, "this is gonna be cool!"
So, I hurried and clicked on the link...
...and all I saw was snow.
Oh well.
-brain
There is a study that is monitoring the north pole, yet all you can think about is your stupid linux? Get a life... linux isn't as great as you all make it out to be...
The USians are invading Canada! Surely this is simply a ploy by the military-industrial complex to use the "NOAA" (an organization known for its close ties to the Bush administration!) as a front for surveilance of soverign Canadian territory!
How to they make sure the camera remains at the north pole? It's just sitting on an ice flow in the Arctic Ocean, a flow which moves with the currents...
Anyway, great idea. The world needs more webcams in remote areas... Soon we'll replace 'Global Village' with 'Global Desktop' (yes, Katz, you'll have to get my perission to use that phrase).
The land mass located at the geographic north pole moves between 5 and 10 miles per day... Do they have someone that will be moving the webcam to account for the ice cap drift??? What about during the summer when the ice becomes dangerous that walking on it is a hazard????
Good idea, but hard work!
Let's see...
4 images a *day*... that makes 1 image every 6 weeks, right?
T'would be cheaper to send a photographer for that.
Geez.
That seems to be one of the very first pictures that the webcam took... It was probably when they tested it someplace else, before it found its way to the North Pole.
Particularily interesting is the below picture, which shows a temperature of over 120 degrees F!!! WTF is that at, Arizona?
http://www.pmel.noaa.gov/npole/images/noaa-2002- 04 11-0149.jpg
Wow! Looking at those pictures sure makes me glad I live in Florida!
No matter where you go... there you are.
They say they are goign to gie us different pictures. Yeah right, the whole thing is a hoax. Some guy took one picture and is gonna leave it on the website the whole time. No need to change it, everythign look the same in the artic anyway!
Why don't polar bears eat penguins?
- Polar bears don't come from next door, they come from the antarctic.
- They can't get the tins open
and a brand new option...
They can't get through the shell.
Boom boom!
I thought that even in the US, the scientific establishment uses either Kelvin or Celsius, so why do I see Farenheit in the bottom right?
Reading the headline I thought they were populating the north pole with real penguins (animals). Luckily, it seems I'm not such a Linux geek after all.
Pokey The Penguin already lives in the Arctic Circle with his delicious Arctic Circle Candy. Tux is an Italian.
PRAY FOR MOJO
What happens when the penguins poop on the solar panel?
What a feat for mankind.
On that topic. Can anyone actually give reasons why uClinux is better than other embedded systems? OTHER than "It's free man!" because we all know that already.
In this 21st. century you'd expect UTC for time and either Kelvin or at least Celsius for temperature.
"The likes of Facebook and WhatsApp are free to those whose privacy is of zero value."
They've been there for years, didnt you ever read the book "Mr Popper's Penguins" when you were kids :-P