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Linux-Powered Christmas Display Puts Rudolph To Shame

Posted by Soulskill on from the happy-humbug dept.

xmas2003 writes "Over at Linux.com, Zonker writes about Alek's Controllable Christmas Lights for Celiac Disease. This annual Internet tradition uses a hi/low-tech combo of LAMP'ed Redhat Web Servers, a 7+ year old Thinkpad running Ubuntu for the X10 control, and an old-school webpage design that could be politely described as Web 0.0 — wait until you see the animated cursor — D'OH! The site is free (and totally fun) as it also raises awareness and donations for Celiac Disease — over $70,000 to the University of Maryland. Nifty pictures of the crazy christmas display can be seen on the Christmas Blog (notice Clifford Stoll's The Cuckoo's Egg in post #220) plus watch videos of it in action with comedic history. Nothing quite says Christmas like a giant, inflatable HULK wearing a Santa Hat... along with three wise men of Elmo, SpongeBob, and Homer Simpson. The Slashdot Effect of turning 21,000 Christmas lights ON & OFF this evening should provide quite a Christmas Eve show to Alek's neighbors... and also the International Space Station."

8 of 68 comments (clear)

  1. The site loads faster than Slashdot by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Old school rules.

    1. Re:The site loads faster than Slashdot by IANAAC · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Old school rules.

      Maybe. Doesn't mean you know what to do once you're on the page. That page was just painful.

    2. Re:The site loads faster than Slashdot by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

      It's about a technological implementation of extreme tackiness. I say he is right on target with the web site.

    3. Re:The site loads faster than Slashdot by Ethanol-fueled · · Score: 3, Informative

      I spent my holidays lying to my kids, for the first time, about the existence of Santa Claus.

      I sure hope they don't get their feelings hurt about why Santa has unlimited gifts, but he still chose to give Johnny across the street his own PS3 while my kids only got a shared, second-hand Nintendo DS. Someday in a few years my kids will hate me, but that's okay because, until then, I will lie to them and say Santa Claus exists while encouraging awkward materialism. Then the kids will experience a huge disappointment years later figuring out that Santa isn't real, possibly not trusting me for the rest of their lives, and I'll say LOL YA SRY SNTA AINT REAL. HIGH-FIVE, TROLLFACE!

      I feel sorry for all those black kids in the hood who perceive Santa as a white guy, then they wonder why they get government cheese while their white peers get thousand-dollar gifts. What could possibly go wrong?

  2. Yeah! by Svenne · · Score: 4, Funny

    Backslashdotted!

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    Slagborr
    1. Re:Yeah! by bejiitas_wrath · · Score: 4, Funny

      Windows can use mount points as well silly, you can mount a drive to a folder and then remove the drive letter, leaving you with the mount point that is just another folder like Linux. You need to learn a little more about computers before spouting BS. Did mummy forget your Christmas present.?

      --
      liberare massarum ex ignorantia, clausa descendit molestie.
  3. It's melting! by wbr1 · · Score: 3, Interesting

    The site has gone from blinking 'Server Overtemp' to 'Server Meltdown!'
    I think /. is killing it:(
    Don't forget to donate if you can .. Merry x-Mas all!

    --
    Silence is a state of mime.
  4. Re:All you negative people... by MarkRose · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I'm curious what fund raising for celiac disease is truly needed. As someone with it, it's as simple as not eating gluten, and that's as simple as not eating grains (they're not good for you anyway). The only trouble is eating out or with otherwise unlabelled food.

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    Be relentless!