This short timelapse video shows three Starlink satellite trains passing over San Francisco.

I use findstarlink to look for good viewing conditions after a launch. It's tough to get both a good pass and reasonably clear skies but last night was excellent for both. According to the site the first train is Starlink-18 and the second is Starlink-25. The third train wasn't listed. It certainly looks similar but I guess it could be something else. The timelapse shows all three as they happened and then zooms in for a better view of each.

Shot on a Sony A7C, 20mm f1.8 1s ISO800 (2s interval) and then post processed with LRTimelapse. Lightroom Classic, DaVinci Resolve and Filmstro Pro.

(Previously: Starlink Train)

(More Timelapses)

Kidlapse, the service I launched a little over a year ago to make timelapse movies of your child growing up, is shutting down on May 31, 2021. At that time all accounts, photos and movies will be deleted. If you use Kidlapse please make sure that you have downloaded anything you need by the end of May.

The main innovation in Kidlapse was generating a good looking movie from any photos of a person. The system used machine learning to recognize a face, and then zoom and rotate as needed so the face is in the same position in each photo. From there a timelapse movie was created with tween frames generated to cross-fade between each photo. While this was a lot easier than doing this work manually I think it was still too much time and effort for most people and so the product attracted few paying customers. It's too expensive for me to continue to run as a free service. I love the movies that the product creates, and I hope to release the underlying system as a downloadable software package at some point.

I learned a lot launching Kidlapse and I'm sad to put it in my own personal deadpool. When something isn't working though it's time to clear the space and time to launch something new. Subscribe to find out what.

(Previously: Kidlapse - Make a Movie of Your Child Growing Up)

Updates

• Kidlapse - Make a Movie of Your Child Growing Up
• Kidlapse

Kidlapse - Make a Movie of Your Child Growing Up

Kidlapse is now live. This is a service I've been working on that uses machine learning to recognize faces and then rotate and zoom you so get pretty good alignment between each photo. You upload one photo per month and Kidlapse then creates a timelapse movie of your child growing up. If that sounds like something you'd be interested in sign up and give it a try.

Kidlapse

I'm working on a project to generate a timelapse of a kid growing up. I wasn't organized enough to shoot my kids in the same pose on the same background so it's quite a tough problem. To fix this I'm using machine learning to recognize faces in photos and then automatically rotate and align them so the face is in the same place in every shot. From there it's just a matter of generating frames that fade between the different photos and stitching them together into a video. If this sounds interesting check it out at kidlapse.com and sign up to get notified when the service launches.

(All Etc Posts)

Google Pixel 4 XL 4mm f1.7 1/3,900s ISO62

Google Pixel 4 XL 4mm f1.7 1/2,000s ISO57

Google Pixel 4 XL 6mm f2.4 1/1,800s ISO40

Google Pixel 4 XL 6mm f2.4 1/640s ISO40

A set of photos from Marshall's Beach in San Francisco. Two views of the Golden Gate Bridge, Fort Point and a large rock.

(Previously: Golden Gate Bridge from Marshall's Beach)

(Recent Photos)

Some changes to the ITHCWY coronavirus visualization page.

For reasons that I'm struggling to understand California's cap and trade system adds a discount to my energy bill.

Catfood WebCamSaver 3.24 released.

Previously:

• 2020: Using the Azure Monitor REST API from Google Apps Script
• 2019: Improving the accuracy of the new Catfood Earth clouds layer
• 2018: How does the Nest Learning Thermostat work?

Links for April 2021

(All Etc Posts)

Real Tigers (Slough House, #3) by Mick Herron

4/5

 

Dead Lions (Slough House, #2) by Mick Herron

4/5

 

Slow Horses (Slough House, #1) by Mick Herron

4/5

 

(All Book Reviews)

I've just made a few changes to my daily Coronavirus Visualization post.

The daily version is now based on seven day moving averages. This helps with the rate at which different regions report statistics and makes the animation a but easier to follow. The shading is based on the difference between the average yesterday and the average for the previous day (i.e. today it's the increase from April 17 - 23 to April 18 - 24).

Population scaling is now different between the daily and cumulative versions. Daily frames are scaled to the worst recorded case and death increase for that region. Cumulative frames are scaled to the cumulative highest case and death levels, but each region is scaled by population so the highest level is on a per capita basis not an absolute total. For the US animation this uses 2019 estimates from the US Census Bureau. The global animation the figures are 2018 World Bank estimates.

Finally the frame rate for videos has increased to 24fps from 5fps.

The post Visualizing Coronavirus Cases and Deaths by Country and US County updates around 8:30am PST every day with images summarizing yesterday and videos that show the course of the pandemic so far.

(All Etc Posts)

Catfood WebCamSaver 3.24 is available for download. This release includes an update to the default list of webcams.

(Previously: Catfood WebCamSaver 3.21)

(All Code Posts)

A Sun Halo photographed from the Marine Cemetery Vista at The Presidio of San Francisco.

(Recent Photos)

Once in a while I'm stupid enough to read my email. This month I'm getting a climate credit! Must have done something right? No:

"The California Climate Credit is part of California’s efforts to fight climate change. This credit is from a state program that requires power plants, natural gas providers, and other large industries that emit greenhouse gases to buy carbon pollution permits. The credit on your bill is your share of the payments from the State’s program."

So... apparently part of fighting climate change is making my energy bill randomly cheaper?

It's hard to think of anything less likely to help. Just as I'm starting to feel the pain of winter bills I'm paying slightly less and so I'm slightly less inclined to turn down the heating or finally do something about my beautiful but effectively absent front windows.

A problem with carbon taxation is that it's regressive. So why not use this money to make the first $xx cheaper, and maybe even charge more at the high end of usage?

(All Etc Posts)

The New York Times: How Brexit Ruined Easter for Britain’s Chocolate Makers

Interesting that there also seems to be a shortage on British supermarket shelves as well then.

--

Easter egg hunt: UK shoppers disappointed by shortages | Easter | The Guardian

Here's the Guardian on the shortage. So British chocolate can't be found in Europe or the UK. Where is it going? Eezy Freezy!

--

The story behind Kidlapse

Latest update on Kidlapse.

--

Search Engine Roundtable: Google: User Generate Content Products Reviews Will Have A Hard Time Ranking Well

And instead we get affiliate link stuffed fluff pieces?

--

The Washington Post: We should soon stop catering to the vaccine holdouts

Yes

(All Etc Posts)