Slashdot Mirror
Christmas Lighting in Abundance
gral writes "My boss really gets into setting up Christmas lights. He has been interviewed by a couple TV stations, because of his displays. He usually has them setup at his house. This year he has moved to a Church Yard for more space. For 2003, his display sports over 200,000 lights, each string is controlled by computer to light to the tune of a Radio Station playing christmas music. Check out his website at Planet Christmas. Some pictures of this year's display can be seen as well. Have fun and Happy Holidays."
Further proof that Management is useless.
Sorry, forgot this in the writeup, but there are some Gentoo packages out for lighting for your Christmas trees and houses.
Check out Gentoo.org for more details.
You may need a 3D card to view demos though.
I highly doubt that you will get anymore money out of him. Your Xmas bonus is going to more lights and your co-workers are going to start calling you Rudolph the Brown-nosed reindeer.
I had a friend who did something like this. He hooked 8000 (yes, eight thousand) lights up and made one continuous string across the entire yard, then set it up as a chaser. It looked REALLY good.
As soon as he finds out that it was you that slashdotted him...
Here is the house about 5 minutes from mine which is by far the most decorated house in the area. It is actually some Elvis impersonator, so his display always has an Elvis theme and usually has Elvis music playing. The display requires the police for traffic control, and it's been said that the gentleman has worked out a special agreement with O&R (or maybe PSEG), the local energy company. I haven't been to the house in about 5 years. They say he adds more lights every year, so I have no idea if it still looks like the pictures.
I guess, he watched too many episodes of "Home Improvement".
Windows 2000 - from the guys who brought us edlin
Do we really want to encourage this sort of behavior? It may be cool and pretty, but not cool and pretty enough for the resources it consumes (both in electricity and also manufacturing, etc). Not to mention less explicit costs like the impact on traffic, wildlife, neighbors, and stargazers.
They've just raised the national terror alert level to ORANGE. YES, ORANGE! Orange means high, by the way, or 4 out of 5 on the chart.
This is due to two factors:
1, they suspect that terrorists are collecting funds by standing in front of Walmarts with a red kettle, and ringing bells.
2, They discovered 12 Saudis that were taking leasons on how to fly sleighs and getting instruction on basic deer husbandry.
The Dept. of Homeland Defense requests that anyone spotting any flying sleighs that are being led by deer like animals assume it is a Saudi terrorist. Initial indications are they plan to attack on the eve of birth of Christ, as a religious statement against the "infidels". If they try to land on your roof, you should take necessary defensive action. Deadly force is authorized.
We now return you to our regularly scheduled nonsense, already in progress...
Tequila: It's not just for breakfast anymore!
He didn't happen to test those out on August 14th this year, hmm?
As a source of mass employment, we have moved from agriculture, to manufacturing, and now into aesthetics. It is not that agriculture has disappeared from the US, but it is down to about 3% of the economy.
Anyone pick up some of those LED strands? Ugh. The flickering. They don't convert the power from AC to DC, so naturally the LEDs being one-way things flicker at 60hz (maybe its 30 at that point? I dunno).
Anyone know of someone that sells a solution to this? I'm thinking a few capacitors and a few diodes would do it?
60Hz (50Hz in Europe and some other places). But the nature of LEDs would mean they flicker would not be as bad as it would seem (they dim down slower than they ignite). Traditional fluorescent lights flicker at 60Hz too (not new starterless ones, the ballasts operate at 25kHz to 110kHz).
I have used LEDs to turn a pot plant into a Xmas tree (it was the 80s, what can I say) and simply used a wall wart style transformer(12vdc). You don't need capacitors to turn AC into DC, although it will be smoother electricity (less ripple). Not needed for just lighting LEDs, since they simply consume and burn the electricity.
All you need is 4 diodes to turn AC into DC. Go google "bridge rectifier" and I am sure you can find plans. It is very very easy to make. The typical basic rectifier has 4 diodes and 2 capacitors (optional). But its still easier to buy a universal transformer/rectifier for small loads. For medium to large loads (3 to 30 amps) you may try a car battery instead. Another option is a regulated power supply, basically a poor man's Variac. Those are under $50 for up to 8 amps or more.
There are some other methods as well, such as using a power inverter that works at a higher frequency (LEDs don't care what Hz you use, just the direction of the current flow). Any Hz over 85 is going to appear flicker free. You might have trouble finding an inverter that works at these higher Hz.
Another possible but ludicrous option is to get a surplus military generator. Most of these have dual taps, 60Hz for basic power, and 400Hz for aircraft recharging. The 400Hz side will work nicely for powering LEDs. These can be purchased at auction for a couple grand or less. They run on anything remotely "fuel oil", even corn oil.
Tequila: It's not just for breakfast anymore!
In related news... 1/3 of San Francisco without power
Personally, I don't decorate for Christmas or other holidays - it seems too commercial for me. But I enjoy driving around with my family to see what others do.
However, being somewhat of a geek and in lawschool, I had to search to see if any people like the good boss here were ever sued for being a Public Nusiance. I came up with the following:
Osborne v. Power (Ark, 1994) - guy ordered to reduce his amount of lights so as to not attract the large numbers of sightseers coming to the neighborhood.
Rodrigue v. Copeland (La., 1985) - from the case: "Defendant is enjoined from erecting and operating a Christmas exhibition which is calculated to and does attract an unusually large number of visitors to the neighborhood." The court also spent some time arguing that this limitation did not infringe his rights of free speech.
Klein v. Copeland (La., 1986) - followup suit from the previous - the guy apparently didn't comply.
ok how about a string of lights where each was individually controllable - each socket contained a simple switch that would look on a serial data bus for its individual code and switch its light on or off accordingly. To set it up you would drape the lights around randomly and then point a camera at the tree/house/bush etc. A computer would use the camera to calibrate by switching each light one by one and noting the position on the camera until it built up a rough pattern of light positions (this would take anything from seconds to minutes depending). Then you could use the lights as a crude dot-matrix display. The light detection routine wouldn't be that hard to do, and you could even have the lights pulse at a certain frequency to make detection easier for the computer. A step further would be to place the camera more than once to build up a 3D model of light positions. I think there are already mass produced components that can respond when they detect their code on a serial interface, imagine the possibilities given enough lights and cheap production?
This comment does not represent the views or opinions of the user.
They just don't get it, do they?
I suppose the FAQ could've been better written on the monetary point, but if I'm reading it correctly he's expecting the electic bill for the display to be about $156 [1]. Not per day, not per week -- $156 total. This is not a lot of money, nor an outrageous amount of power. An interesting point in the FAQ is that the lights are never all on at the same time, so it's not as extravagent (at least not power-wise :-) as it might appear at first glance.
Waste of time? The guy does it because he likes doing it. Some folks spend their free time rebuilding old cars, or tinkering with homebrew computer rigs, or smacking around a golfball. Any hobby probably looks like a waste of time to those who aren't interested in it, but if you're having fun doing something then it's not wasted time.
The "shoulda given the money to charity" point is a slippery slope. The PlayStation in Little Timmy's stocking costs a pretty penny -- should he get his toy when there's starving people in the world? That's a moral question, and different people will have different answers -- and I for one couldn't say which answer it "right". (And just so I don't sound too terribly pompous, I know that I'd keep the PlayStation. :-)
But isn't there something to be said for giving to your community? By all reports, a whole lot of people come by to see the display. It might not be your cup of tea, but there's many in his area who truly enjoy what he does.
[1] Total based on the 2003 portion of the FAQ that estimates the cost will increase by $100, combined with the 2002 portion of the FAQ where he estimated the bill at $56.
BTW, Google cache of the PlanetChristmas FAQ, since the original page is Slashdotted right now.
A marriage is always made up of two people who are prepared to swear that only the other one snores.
"Destroy science and religion. Science would re-emerge exactly the same; but not religion." - Penn Jillette, paraphrased