When the halloween webcam votingclosed last night, the numbers were: HULK: 15,020 BUSH: 14,531 KERRY: 14,192
but it is open for voting (for the last night) in 2 hours.
But I don't see the Big Green Guy listed in Slate's numbers, so it doesn't bode well for Hulk for President
The halloween webcam allows you to vote by toggling the lights - current vote totals are: HULK: 9,684 BUSH: 9,472 KERRY: 8,937
This is despite at least one "Kerry-Bot" that tried to stuff the ballot with hundreds of electronic votes (I guess it would be hard to stuff the 7/11 cup vote!) - needless to say, those votes were discounted and that IP address was banned.
You guys might like what I ended up - definately something "different" - (see link above) and the space.com guys put it in their eclipse photo wrapup which includes more of the "standard" eclipse pictures.
According to the halloween webcam (which has been FARK'ed, Slashdotted, Ernie House of WhoopAss'ed, MajorGeek'ed, etc.), the current standings are: HULK: 9,151 BUSH: 8,910 KERRY: 8,391
This is despite at least one "Kerry-Bot" which tried to stuff the ballot.
Here's some lunar eclpse pictures that I shot of the last one on November 8th, 2003. I was just shooting random pictures of the moon, and didn't realize until I looked at 'em afterwards that I had caught a kinda neat sequence showing the movement of the moon through the branches.
Weather forecast is looking good for tomorrow night in Boulder, Colorado... so I'll be shooting a few pictures and be curious what I end up with.
For those Do-It-Yourselfer's that want to measure the water pressure for PC cooling, take a look at this manometer which, while it doesn't look that dandy, works quite well as the principals of pressure are pretty simple.
And then stress-test with Slashdot ...
on
Optimizing Perl
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· Score: 4, Interesting
I use Perl for my halloween webcam - same code is used in the christmas webcam... and thought I had it in pretty decent shape... until the Slashdot thundering herddescended on it and gave it one heck of a stress test.
For instance, flock is your friend... and as I outline in my slashdot effect analysis you had better be prepared to handle race conditions. Ignoring the web server overload (mod_perl would have helped here), the code actually hung in there fairly well as I've learned from past "mistakes" when I've seen some pretty funky error messages crop up... but even this time around, there was two minor corner cases I failed to account for (had never been "tickled" before)... but those are fixed now so I'll be "more" ready if my christmas lights show up on Slashdot again... but then again, you are never really "ready" for Slashdot!;-)
As outlined on the halloween webcam updates I'm going to leave it on all night so the overseas/.'ers can trash it during their work day - have fun!;-)
And as noted, I was driving to work a few days ago, and I heard on the radio one of those "Bud Lights Presents Real Men of Genius" commercials for "Mr. Halloween Decorations Man" - needless to say, it struck a chord with me!;-)
I've Google'd to the end of the Internet, but can't seem to find this. So if anyone out there can find a web site with it will Email me the URL, I'll be happy to lockout the Halloween Webcam for your dedicated use for a couple of minutes - swing it left, swing it right, zoom it in, zoom it out, and turn all the lights on and off - whooopeeee!!! And perhaps more importantly, you'll benefit all your fellow surfers who really DO need to hear this important commercial message!;-)
Please step on brake, gas, and clutch simultaneously to reboot.
All three of those pedals are on the floor - humans have two legs - not a very good user-interface!;-)
P.S. Want free dedicated solo access to the halloween webcam - help me find the "Bud Lights Salutes Real American Heroes - Mr. Halloween Decorations Man" - more info here
I have a "Bush, Kerry, HULK" lightboard out as part of the halloween webcam that so far has been unscathed (famous last words). Maybe have The Incredible HULK looming over the display has discouraged would be vandels (?)
And oh yeah, since I allow you to "vote" for a candidate at the above web site, the current vote tally's are HULK: 6,380 BUSH: 6,214 KERRY: 6,049
YEP - right now, a retail copy of Windoze sells for something like $300 (my guess is bundled cost to Dell/Compaq/etc. is around $50 or so)... so for the $500 hardware PC, the incremental cost of the OS from the manufacturer is 10%... so it's still somewhat "hidden" - I DO wonder if they actually sell much Windoze at the retail price of about $300.
Now... PC hardware drops to $100... so now the cost of the OS is 50%... becomes a LOT more visible to both the manufacturers and also the end-users.
And finally, as the parent points out, what happens when a service is provided and the hardware is provided for free... ala how Cell Phones are done today.
Parent should be modd'ed up as insightful... in addition to being funny!;-)
Ummm... so if the Internet crumbles in 2006, I may only have one year left for my halloween webcam to be on display - maybe a good thing since it got abused by both FARK and Slashdot... but if Hulk doesn't win for president in 2004, I was hoping to do again in 2008.
Oooops... this is what happens when you surf in the early morning - you read the linked article, go off to do other things, and then read the comments... and forget it was basically a repost - good point countbrass and DUHHH on my part.
pieroxy: I agree with you technically (and yes, this does make a difference - kinda similar to the 802.11g wireless gear that isn't too happy and an 802.11b client shows up), but I still believe that in the mind of most consumers, USB2.0 is equal to "Hi-Speed" and this is an example where the industry did itself a dis-service in the long-term.
I blame the USB committee for allowing devices to be touted as USB 2.0 when, in fact, they are the same speed as USB 1.1
The USB folk's naming and packaging recommendations actually discourage the use of "USB 2.0" since it is confusing as heck... but I agree with the parent that they kinda created this monster by saying that there is a "Lo-speed" and "Full-speed" USB 2.0 that are the same speed as USB1.x... so most consumers (myself included) see USB 2.0 and unless we look carefully for "Hi-Speed", then things aren't any faster than 1.x... which is an issue for still photography and a BIG issue for video.
BTW, have we ever seen a first post that has been so informative - mod the parent to +10 - nice work roman mir
morcheeba: You were cool about it and didn't come off as bitter - I actually have mixed personal feelings about the gates. BTW, when you drove up, did you notice the security camera on the pole just past the gate - it (and a few others that are well obscured) actually DO work (they digitally record now) and I understand have been useful in a couple of vandelism cases - be nice if not neccessary, but there are always a few idiots out there in the world.
Enjoyed that "Tacky Christmas Lights of Northern Virginia" website you mentioned - right up my alley!;-)
Re:don't try to visit ... it's a gated community
on
X10 Hallowe'en Display
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· 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
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.
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!
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
On the Vote for HULK website there is "one-click voting" for your favorite candidate... and that certainly "does not involve consumer goods or Amazon-specified prices, which the Judge argues are essential 1-Click ingredients"
Yea, don't leave out us Perl folks... which BTW, is used on the Vote for HULK website... and so far, is showing the Big Green Guy in first place, followed by Bush and then Kerry - polls open at 8:00PM MDT tonight!;-)
Slashdot Mirror
Just to echo the parent, if you have any doubt, take a look at research by Ben Edelman on this topic ...
Since it appears to be /.'ed, here a Google Cache of the Demo Page and the S5 page
HULK: 15,020 BUSH: 14,531 KERRY: 14,192
but it is open for voting (for the last night) in 2 hours.
But I don't see the Big Green Guy listed in Slate's numbers, so it doesn't bode well for Hulk for President
HULK: 9,684 BUSH: 9,472 KERRY: 8,937
This is despite at least one "Kerry-Bot" that tried to stuff the ballot with hundreds of electronic votes (I guess it would be hard to stuff the 7/11 cup vote!) - needless to say, those votes were discounted and that IP address was banned.
You guys might like what I ended up - definately something "different" - (see link above) and the space.com guys put it in their eclipse photo wrapup which includes more of the "standard" eclipse pictures.
HULK: 9,151 BUSH: 8,910 KERRY: 8,391
This is despite at least one "Kerry-Bot" which tried to stuff the ballot.
Weather forecast is looking good for tomorrow night in Boulder, Colorado ... so I'll be shooting a few pictures and be curious what I end up with.
For those Do-It-Yourselfer's that want to measure the water pressure for PC cooling, take a look at this manometer which, while it doesn't look that dandy, works quite well as the principals of pressure are pretty simple.
For instance, flock is your friend ... and as I outline in my slashdot effect analysis you had better be prepared to handle race conditions. Ignoring the web server overload (mod_perl would have helped here), the code actually hung in there fairly well as I've learned from past "mistakes" when I've seen some pretty funky error messages crop up ... but even this time around, there was two minor corner cases I failed to account for (had never been "tickled" before) ... but those are fixed now so I'll be "more" ready if my christmas lights show up on Slashdot again ... but then again, you are never really "ready" for Slashdot! ;-)
And as noted, I was driving to work a few days ago, and I heard on the radio one of those "Bud Lights Presents Real Men of Genius" commercials for "Mr. Halloween Decorations Man" - needless to say, it struck a chord with me! ;-)
I've Google'd to the end of the Internet, but can't seem to find this. So if anyone out there can find a web site with it will Email me the URL, I'll be happy to lockout the Halloween Webcam for your dedicated use for a couple of minutes - swing it left, swing it right, zoom it in, zoom it out, and turn all the lights on and off - whooopeeee!!! And perhaps more importantly, you'll benefit all your fellow surfers who really DO need to hear this important commercial message! ;-)
click here for more info ... and Mr. Restroom Toilet Paper Refiller is always worth a listen! ;-)
All three of those pedals are on the floor - humans have two legs - not a very good user-interface! ;-)
P.S. Want free dedicated solo access to the halloween webcam - help me find the "Bud Lights Salutes Real American Heroes - Mr. Halloween Decorations Man" - more info here
And oh yeah, since I allow you to "vote" for a candidate at the above web site, the current vote tally's are
HULK: 6,380 BUSH: 6,214 KERRY: 6,049
So looks like our next president might be Green!
Now ... PC hardware drops to $100 ... so now the cost of the OS is 50% ... becomes a LOT more visible to both the manufacturers and also the end-users.
And finally, as the parent points out, what happens when a service is provided and the hardware is provided for free ... ala how Cell Phones are done today.
Ummm ... so if the Internet crumbles in 2006, I may only have one year left for my halloween webcam to be on display - maybe a good thing since it got abused by both FARK and Slashdot ... but if Hulk doesn't win for president in 2004, I was hoping to do again in 2008.
pieroxy: I agree with you technically (and yes, this does make a difference - kinda similar to the 802.11g wireless gear that isn't too happy and an 802.11b client shows up), but I still believe that in the mind of most consumers, USB2.0 is equal to "Hi-Speed" and this is an example where the industry did itself a dis-service in the long-term.
The USB folk's naming and packaging recommendations actually discourage the use of "USB 2.0" since it is confusing as heck ... but I agree with the parent that they kinda created this monster by saying that there is a "Lo-speed" and "Full-speed" USB 2.0 that are the same speed as USB1.x ... so most consumers (myself included) see USB 2.0 and unless we look carefully for "Hi-Speed", then things aren't any faster than 1.x ... which is an issue for still photography and a BIG issue for video.
BTW, have we ever seen a first post that has been so informative - mod the parent to +10 - nice work roman mir
Enjoyed that "Tacky Christmas Lights of Northern Virginia" website you mentioned - right up my alley! ;-)
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
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.
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!
P.S. The pop up is an HTML body alert=message based on the referrer
On the Vote for HULK website there is "one-click voting" for your favorite candidate ... and that certainly "does not involve consumer goods or Amazon-specified prices, which the Judge argues are essential 1-Click ingredients"
Yea, don't leave out us Perl folks ... which BTW, is used on the Vote for HULK website ... and so far, is showing the Big Green Guy in first place, followed by Bush and then Kerry - polls open at 8:00PM MDT tonight! ;-)
Now how is your Japanese?!?
Hulk drop Ceramic digicam - still works.
Hulk get angry, SMASH ceramic digicam - stops working.
Hulk running for president. /.'ers vote for Hulk here!
Puny Human