News

July 7, 2002 19:54

Is This Site Fake?

The great majority of the people who visit here realize that this site is real. Some of you are sceptical at first, but after playing around for a couple minutes settle your doubts. However, there is always a small percentage of you that figure this MUST be fake, and brag your halfwashed theories about it elsewhere. You only display your own ignorance.

I understand that the very nature of the internet has given people cause to be sceptical. We get dozens of emails every day promising things we know to be fake, sometimes in the form of chain letters forwarded by people we supposively know and trust. "girls" you talk to on IRC might not look like the picture they send, or they might be FBI agents. The whole dotcom fiasco was built from the ground up on the basis that a few people should get rich off of the suffering of many. So yes, its simple to stumble upon something unusual and instantly assume its not real. However, to accuse people of being fakes without evidence makes you look like an idiot. So to save you the potential embarassment, I will give you a guide to figuring out if this site is fake.

First of all, consider if this site is POSSIBLE. Its it POSSIBLE for lamps to be controlled from a web page? Has ANYONE ever done it before? Is there, anywhere in the world that people have computers controlling electrical appliances? If your answer is no, then go check out X10. This is a company that sells simple consumer grade modules to do this very thing, and they're so easy to operate that it literally is as easy as plugging it into the electrical socket.

Another thing to consider about web pages. If a computer can do it, you can do it over the internet through a webpage. YOU might not know how to, but that doesn't mean its not possible, or even simple for someone with a little bit of experience. This means, that it is very possible and even simple to get internet controlled lamps online. The only remaining factor is the webcam. However, there are THOUSANDS of webcam based sites on the internet. Some of them are more interesting than mine. This is nothing new. If any of this really shocks you, you've been living under a rock the last 20 years. Perhaps you should pay attention to the world around you and get your head out of your ass. Just a suggestion. Check the HOWTO page to gleen more detail on how this site was constructed and how it works.

July 5, 2002 17:08

Tonight is my monthly 2600 meeting. Depending on how the job I'm applying for goes, it might be the last one I attend for a while. A dear friend of mine won't be there and chances are I won't be able to see her any other time because she's apparently developed an addiction to an online game. She asked me to drop her an email telling her what's going on in my life. I suppose she forgot about my news page.

10th Year High school reunion is sometime this summer. Do I want to go? Well, the last time I talked to a friend from high school was 6 years ago. Recently I talked to someone that I NEVER want to see again, but he'll definitely be there. So I think back. Who were my friends? My best friend in high school didn't even go to my school. I never finished college, I don't have a glamourous job. I haven't made my first million yet. In fact, my dream of going back to shine up those who looked down on me seems so far away, I can barely recall ever feeling that way. So do I need to go to hang out for a few hours with a bunch of people that never gave a shit about me, only to discover that nothing has changed?

This weekend, other than some much needed yardwork, I plan to test out an idea to get a 2x zoom on some of the cams without any special hardware. The only issue is that this will put an extra load on the server. It remains to be seen how well this can be handled.

July 4, 2002 9:46

Happy Independance Day!

Well, I've finally rolled off the front page at cfox.com, but not off the geek page yet. Someone thought they had to link me from the description of Wil Wheaton's site. So I suppose another week of minor hits from the page, but it shouldn't be too bad.

And so now my 15 minutes of fame are up.... again. Although this run lasted about 3 weeks. Starting with a plug in one of my comments on slashdot.org, within a day, fazed.net posted a link to my site. That was a nice surge of hits that slowed down after a week, but fark.com promptly picked me up and the surge continued.

Now, fark.com will only keep me famous for 2 days, before I roll off the top page and back into the realm of the unknown, but unlike most sites, this one resulted in a LOT of other sites linking to me. Mostly forums and livejournals and the like. A LOT of livejournals. :)

So even after fark.com's direct traffic dies off, the other sites keep a pretty steady flow for the next several days. And then, last thursday, CFOX radio in Vancouver airs their weekly "Geek of the Week" segment, of which I happen to be the star. And so the traffic surges again. And that remained pretty steady all week long. Until today. And today, I wake up, and the hits are back to a the normal steady dribble. Like I'm used to!

Now that things are back to normal, I'll probably give it a rest for a bit. My lights haven't stopped flickering in 3 weeks. I'll probably avoid any plugs that might spark another avalanche of publicity, although if a local radio station wants to do a segment on me, I COULDN'T BE HAPPIER!!! HINT!!!

Anyways, going to go do stuff today, watch fireworks, clean house maybe. And chat with all my new regulars that I've obtained over the last week.

There's also been some discussion about a convention of sorts here sometime, to give everyone a chance to meet me in person, and to meet everyone else that constantly drops by to chat. There are of course no dates set yet, but chances are good that the first such opportunity will be sometime around October/November after things cool down, but before it gets too cold.

July 3, 2002 17:10

Ok, made some cosmetic changes to the site. I got the sidebar on more pages, the doorbell and motion sensor logs are now in a easier to download format. The news is now going to be segmented into 10 or less articles per page, with links to get to the rest of them. Not sure how I'll implement accessing individual postings yet.

July 3, 2002 17:06

I have moved all the old news to here. Its a pretty large document, but the new format will make reading the new news easier.

News test #1