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X10 Hallowe'en Display

Spic writes "I'm sure alot of us remember the Christmas light display using X10 that was up for last Christmas, well, the same guy has a Hallowe'en display up. Pretty neat idea. You can even vote for your favorite politcal candidate: Bush, Kerry, or The Incredible Hulk. Looks like he also anticpated our arrival."

47 of 151 comments (clear)

  1. Comment removed by account_deleted · · Score: 4, Funny

    Comment removed based on user account deletion

  2. heh.. by hookedup · · Score: 2, Funny

    I like the javascript alert.. he's like a kid who touched an oven element.. he remembers last time wasnt fun..

    2 hours till the controls come online, wonder if he'll last..

  3. X11 by brilinux · · Score: 5, Funny

    Geez, shouldn't they be using X11 by now? I mean, how long has it been out?

    (Joking)

    1. Re:X11 by boredMDer · · Score: 4, Funny

      The sad thing is, someone modded that Insightful...

      Hey, mod! Yes, you! Leave Slashdot immediately!

      You do NOT belong. :)

    2. Re:X11 by evilviper · · Score: 2, Insightful
      Hey, mod! Yes, you! Leave Slashdot immediately!

      Hmm, and unfair moderation on /.

      I'd say he does belong here, and the rest of us should leave.
      --
      Slashdot gets worse every day... Pipedot: News for nerds, without the corporate slant
  4. Re:awww by zors · · Score: 4, Informative

    Actually, his "Incoming Slashdotter" Java Pop up indicates he's fairly well prepared.

    RTFA

  5. For those of us unaware... by weiyuent · · Score: 3, Insightful

    ...could you please explain what the Christmas thing was about?

    1. Re:For those of us unaware... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      DUHHH.

      It's celebrating the birth of Santa Claus.

    2. Re:For those of us unaware... by techwolf · · Score: 4, Funny

      Peter: As we all know, Christmas is that mystical time of year when the ghost of Jesus rises from the grave to feast on the flesh of the living! So we all sing Christmas Carols to lull him back to sleep.
      Bob: Outrageous, How dare he say such blasphemy. I've got to do something.
      Man #1: Bob, there's nothing you can do.
      Bob: Well, I guess I'll just have to develop a sense of humor.

      --
      I don't do this for karma, I do it for cash. It's much better.
  6. slasdotted... *zot* by TheHawke · · Score: 3, Funny

    Looks like he didn't prepare very well, only 3 posts into the thread and his server turned into a christmas goose.

    --
    First rule of holes; When in one, stop digging.
  7. explanation by Anubis350 · · Score: 5, Funny

    because since the site isnt dead, all the /.ers are busy being wowed by the lights instaead of posting....
    /.er 1:woah man, pretty lights
    /.er 2:and controlled by X10!
    /.er 1: Duuuuuuuude
    /.er 2: maybe we should post....
    /.er 1: pretty lights!!

    --
    "goodbye and hello, as always" ~Prince Corwin, from Zelazny's Amber series
    1. Re:explanation by ScrewMaster · · Score: 2, Funny

      Yes! And they're SHINY too!

      --
      The higher the technology, the sharper that two-edged sword.
  8. Mastercard by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

    250,000 lights: $100,000

    2,500 kw of electricity: Who knows?

    Slashdotting some guy's house for no readily apparent reason: Priceless

    For revenge on your boss, there's cash, for everything else, there's mastercard.

  9. What's X10? by Altima(BoB) · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Perhaps I sound like an insufferable n00b, perhaps I sound like I'm too lazy to do a google search (Umm, guilty) and perhaps I don't actually remember this guy's Christmas display, but what is this X10 thing?

    There was a message saying control would be activated in 2 hours or so, does that mean we can control the decorations from the webcam? If so, what can be controlled?

    Annoying questions aside, the "Incoming Slashdotter" message was cool. Nice to be part of an internet locust swarm.

    --
    Yup...
    1. Re:What's X10? by hookedup · · Score: 3, Informative

      http://www.x10.com

    2. Re:What's X10? by sdo1 · · Score: 5, Informative

      NO! X10 is a communication protocol. X10.com is a company that sells (mostly) X10-based equipment. You know, X10.com is a company that had lots of lots of pop-up and pop-under ads touting the wonders of secretly recording video of women. I hate it that they effectively hijacked the technology and have seemingly convinced the public, through their scummy advertising tactics, that X10 the protocol equals X10.com the company.

      -S

      --
      --- What parts of "shall make no law", "shall not be infringed", and "shall not be violated" don't you understand?
    3. Re:What's X10? by Macrat · · Score: 3, Funny

      I didn't know that you could do anything else with X10. What else is there to do beside secretly recording women?

    4. Re:What's X10? by sstidman · · Score: 2, Informative

      No, actually, it's not. Pico Electronics Ltd created the protocol at the request of British Sound Reproduction. See here for a history of the X10 protocol (you may have to scroll down a bit).

      --
      Send/track messages to 100K people: www.xPressAlert.com
  10. No, he didn't by ShallowThroat · · Score: 3, Funny

    Looks like he also anticpated our arrival.

    Umm, with his webserver being slashdotted after less then 10 comments, I think it's safe to say he didn't expect our arrival. Anyone got a cache?

    --
    The "Insert Quote Here" line is almost as predictable as inserting an actual quote.
  11. Re:awww by antoy · · Score: 3, Funny

    Actually, his "Incoming Slashdotter" Java Pop up indicates he's fairly well prepared.

    If you build it, they will come indeed.

  12. Christmas linky by jangobongo · · Score: 5, Informative

    Google cache page to save the website from being /.ed:

    Christmas lights

    --

    Sig cancelled due to lack of interest
  13. Anticipation... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    >Looks like he also anticpated our arrival.

    "Anticipation is only half the battle" -- Old Slashdot saying

    1. Re:Anticipation... by grcumb · · Score: 3, Insightful

      I just read that as:

      "Anticipation is only half the bottle."

      Worse, I almost modded it Insightful.

      --
      Crumb's Corollary: Never bring a knife to a bun fight.
  14. Possible FIre hazard by d3ity · · Score: 3, Interesting

    "Replaced one X10 switch module that felt warm, but otherwise the various hardware, circuit breakers, and web server (go Apache/Perl!) are hanging in there" Felt warm...hehehehe, lets light the thing up! in 2 hours now we'll have some major slashdottage.

    1. Re:Possible FIre hazard by rwolf · · Score: 2

      Finally, an opportunity to turn slash-dottage into slash-wattage BAHAHAHAHAHAHA ROTFL

  15. Hah! by orangesquid · · Score: 4, Funny

    Man, I sure got that beat. Here's an X11 Halloween display!
    mozilla http://images.google.com/images?q=halloween&hl=en& btnG=Google+Search ;)
    Seriously, though, this guy impresses the crap out of me. The most I ever did was turn my bedroom lights on and off over the Internet and freak my parents out.

    --
    --TheOrangeSquid Is it any wonder things seem so awry? We swim in a sea of confusion and don't have to think to survive
  16. I might be out of line here... by SteakandcheeseUm · · Score: 4, Insightful

    but wouldent it be more intelligent to NOT put perl and other dynamic elements on your webpage if you are expecting a ./ effect? I would have also expected him to invest in a more commericalized system for camera control like NuSpectra They are pretty cool

  17. *sigh* Mirrordot... by Sarcastic+Assassin · · Score: 2, Informative

    Here's a MirrorDot. As for the Christmas thing, it seems to be a yearly tradition.

  18. Slashdotted - Mirrors Here by Kinetic · · Score: 5, Informative

    MirrorDot has the page with the pictures.

    --
    ~Jay
  19. X10 Halloween Display by sH4RD · · Score: 3, Funny

    Wow....the slashdot editors edited something. Amazing. Now can someone tell me why?

    "X10 Halloween Display" -> "X10 Hallowe'en Display". Same change in the article text.

    Huh?

    --
    WASTE - The Secure P2P
  20. No fair by sik0fewl · · Score: 5, Funny

    That's not fair! The Hulk is taking votes away from Kerry!

    --
    I remember when legal used to mean lawful, now it means some kind of loophole. - Leo Kessler
    1. Re:No fair by Hard_Code · · Score: 5, Funny

      Well, he is the GREEN candidate.

      H4r h4r!

      --

      It's 10 PM. Do you know if you're un-American?
    2. Re:No fair by Anne_Nonymous · · Score: 2, Funny

      Bush, Kerry, and Hulk. Now that's a debate that I'd like to see. Did I say "debate"? I meant "ass-woopin'".

  21. Hah! by Guppy06 · · Score: 5, Funny

    "Looks like he also anticpated our arrival."

    No one expects the Slashdot Inquisition!

  22. so... by WormholeFiend · · Score: 2, Funny

    this Friday he got Farked, and today he's getting Slashdotted...

    this guy must love the Internets now!

  23. OH CRAP!!!! by xmas2003 · · Score: 5, Interesting
    There was a definite Slashdot Effect last year when you guys hammered by Christmas Lights ... but that had a 5-second throttle ... whereas the halloween decorationshave a 1-second throttle - I got FARK'ed on Friday (earlier in the day) ... this could get ugly ... just called my neighbors to warn 'em about a HUGE light show tonight - more updates from me in this thread ...

    P.S. The pop up is an HTML body alert=message based on the referrer

    --
    Hulk SMASH Celiac Disease
    1. Re:OH CRAP!!!! by xmas2003 · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Load factor is currently 3, but web server is barely responding (and I guess I shoulda used mod_perl) ... but it does load the page (minus the graphic) half the time - I'm going to pull the graphic for now to help things out ... for those interested, I CAN load the latest web stats - you guys are POUNDING me!

      --
      Hulk SMASH Celiac Disease
    2. Re:OH CRAP!!!! by moosesocks · · Score: 4, Interesting

      You know you've been successful in life when you've got these in your stats:

      28: 0.14%: 10: 0.16%: 533,805: 0.17%: .mil (USA Military)
      5: 0.02%: 1: 0.02%: 63,463: 0.02%: .arpa (Arpanet)

      7: 0.03%: 3: 0.05%: 95,263: 0.03%: Amiga
      3: 0.01%: 1: 0.02%: 43,369: 0.01%: OS/2
      10: 0.05%: 0: : 121,863: 0.04%: Mozilla/3.01 (WIERD)

      honestly.... major props to anyone who gets hits from os/2 AND the arpanet!

      --
      -- If you try to fail and succeed, which have you done? - Uli's moose
    3. Re:OH CRAP!!!! by xmas2003 · · Score: 3, Informative
      Load factor is currently 5+, but the web server is actually a bit more responsive now that I have pulled the images from the webcam and halloween page. I pushed the start time back to between 2100-2200 ... gotta let things cool down a bit ... so take a break on it guys - will be up for another 2 weeks so I promise everyone will get a chance to vote! ;-)

      P.S. Some bizzarre perl/apache errors popping up occasionally in the errors_logs - YIKES!

      PPS. Good points moosesocks - I'd mod you up if I had any points.

      --
      Hulk SMASH Celiac Disease
    4. Re:OH CRAP!!!! by Myen · · Score: 3, Informative

      Depending on his setup, .arpa could mean within the network. (IIRC, stuff like 192.168.* gets resolved as *.in-addr.arpa)

      The OS/2 stuff is still cool though :)

    5. Re:OH CRAP!!!! by complete+loony · · Score: 3, Funny
      What no C64?
      Some other funny moments (yes a log can be funny)
      2: : 1: : 16,642: : Mozilla/8.0 (compatible; Quit looking here and get back to spanking your monkey.)
      3: : 2: : 30,776: : Mozilla/8.5 (Aww fuck. Now they want my license and registration.)
      2: : 0: : 9,790: : Mozilla/8.0 (compatible; Woo-hoo, I'm in a famous site's Web log. HI MOM!)
      1: : 0: : 11,460: : Mozilla/8.0 (compatible; ...What? You mean people actually READ this shit?!)
      --
      09F91102 no, 455FE104 nope, F190A1E8 uh-uh, 7A5F8A09 that's not it, C87294CE no. Ah! 452F6E403CDF10714E41DFAA257D313F.
  24. Webcam image by sploo22 · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I noticed that the webcam is using quite a long exposure to compensate for the low light levels - people on the sidewalk appear very blurred. Even so, there is almost no visible graininess aside from compression artifacts. Obviously this is not a cheap webcam.

    --
    Karma: Segmentation fault (tried to dereference a null post)
  25. Re:Wikipedia answers all but the question asked by aaza · · Score: 2, Informative
    Halloween derives from Hallowe'en.
    Hallowe'en derives from Hallow's E'en.
    Hallow's E'en derives from Hallow's Even.
    Hallow's Even derives from Hallow's Eve.
    Hallow's Eve is the day before All Hallow's Day (or All Saint's Day) - the day that celebrates the saints that have no day of their own (eg, Saint Patrick, Saint George, Saint Valentine).

    Useless fact #37 for the day. Enjoy.

    --
    In theory there is no difference between theory and practice.
    In practice, however, there is.
  26. OT- Modding, Karma, and funny by mekkab · · Score: 4, Informative

    Funny no longer earns you any karma;

    so the new thing is to mod up things that are really funny with something other than funny; underrated is typically the best option (it maintains the previous "funny" tag but ups the score and ups the karma) but not everyone got the memo.

    That being said, it'd be pretty fresh if my halloween display next year could indeed run Xwindows... or at least Xbiff and Xeyes.

    --
    In the future, I would want to not be isolated from my friends in the Space Station.
  27. don't try to visit ... it's a gated community by morcheeba · · Score: 2, Informative

    Ok, first I considered the facts...

    - the guy has a big public display of lights at his house, twice a year
    - he encourages zillions of people see his house & publishes it on the web
    - he publishes detailed pictures, the address, and lan/lon coordinates of his house.

    You would think he'd want people to come see his house, right?
    I saw he lived pretty close to where I was so I decided to visit - I thought it would be neat to post a video of what the house looked like as people voted.

    so I drive there only to find, IT'S A GATED COMMUNITY!!

    I got to the head of Blue Heron, and there's a gate that closes at 7 pm. I could call and ask to be let in, but it was 9:15pm on a Sunday night and I know this guy has two little kids, so I don't bother calling - it would be rude. As a faithful slashdotter, I would have tried the "911" entry code, but I saw there was a special key for emergency personnel, so I didn't try (plus, they put they keypad in a hard-to-reach place)

    <RANT>What is it with gated communities?! I don't see how crime is much of a problem in this place because it's pretty much alone in the countryside. It's not like there is a crackhouse next door. And, since most burglaries occur before 7pm, the gate won't help much. And, if you want to commit some crime at night, just get there before 7pm, wait, and then make your getaway whenever you want -- the gates will always let you out.</RANT>

    I'm sure he's a nice guy, but I think he should reconsider where he lives, or push the homeowner's association to remove the gate.

    So, anyway, don't try to go there. You're not welcome... unless you come before 7pm, and then sit on their lawn until dark.

    1. Re:don't try to visit ... it's a gated community by xmas2003 · · Score: 3, Informative
      morcheeba: I mentioned your post casually to my wife and ... it was ... not good ... that's why I shut things down at 2300 tonight. I really DO appreciate you NOT knocking on my door late at night (yes, we do have two little kids) - I assure you (and others) that will almost guarantee shutting down the whole operation for good ... and HEY, we got 2 more weeks before the election! ;-)

      There's a bit of controvery over my lights since in 2002, the Boulder Camera wrote about them and a lot of people drove by (the gates are opened for about two weeks then) and the homeowner's association was not too happy about that. You are welcome to Send HULK an Email (from the webcam page) if you want more info.

      And on the "gate issue", while I'm a technical guy, I don't do layer 8 of the networking stack - i.e. except for "Vote for Hulk", I stay outa politics.

      P.S. BTW, "Beware of Dog" (really!) - see D-6 in the webcam FAQ

      --
      Hulk SMASH Celiac Disease
  28. Opinion on decorations by beaverfever · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Over the past few years I lived in suburban areas (as opposed to downtown living) and noticed that hallowe'en lighting schemes on houses were becoming more popular. I don't get it. The spirit of Hallowe'en is to frighten people, or at least to pretend that you are trying to frighten people. A midnight graveyard lit with neon wouldn't be scary (except in regards to taste). Having your house brightly lit with orange lights isn't scary, not even to the wimpiest of little kids. Darkness is scary. A few well placed lights throwing ominous shadows is scary. Having your house lit up like it's Christmas is not scary, unless you have an unnatural fear of Christmas.