News: Frozen sequel announced by Disney

By Robert Ellison. Updated on Saturday, September 24, 2022.

Not to be anal but (any number of dogs...)

By Robert Ellison. Updated on Monday, February 15, 2021.

Not to be anal but (any number of dogs...)

Google is going to start ranking pages based on facts. I'm game. This MUNI sign has always bothered me.

The highest capacity vehicle in the MUNI fleet has to be a two-car light rail vehicle. Capacity 436 people. The average weight of a person is 185 pounds. So we're looking at 80,660 pounds per rush hour train.

The lightest dog is a 1.4 pound Chihuahua named Ducky.

So at the absolute outside with no other passengers the limit is 57,614 dogs. I'm going to have to make some stickers...

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(Published to the Fediverse as: Not to be anal but (any number of dogs...) #etc #muni #google How many dogs can you fit on a MUNI vehicle? It's an important question. The upper bound is something like... )

Volcanoes Back (Catfood Earth 3.30)

By Robert Ellison. Updated on Monday, May 31, 2021.

Volcanoes Back (Catfood Earth 3.30)

Catfood Earth fans will want to download Catfood Earth 3.30. This update fixes a problem where volcanoes were all plotted in the middle of the screen.

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Book reviews for February 2015

By Robert Ellison. Updated on Friday, February 24, 2017.
Neanderthal Man: In Search of Lost Genomes by Svante Pääbo

Neanderthal Man: In Search of Lost Genomes by Svante Pääbo

4/5

Fascinating story about sequencing the Neanderthal genome with a lot of frank insights into the scientific process - both highs of clever breakthroughs and lows of petty rivalries. Excellent.

 

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ITHCWY WebCam

By Robert Ellison. Updated on Saturday, October 1, 2022.

ITHCWY WebCam

I Thought He Came With You now has a WebCam looking out towards the Pacific Ocean from West Portal, San Francisco.

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Capture DropCam (Nest Cam) frames to Google Drive

By Robert Ellison. Updated on Monday, July 12, 2021.

Capture DropCam frames to Google Drive

Updated June 17, 2019: This is now broken for Nest/DropCam devices. It will still work for anything that has a web accessible image URL. Clint points out in the comments below that you can fix up the URL for Nest cams but it looks like you need to be logged into nest.com so it doesn't work from Apps Script. Google is also retiring Works with Nest because they're "...reimagining how technology and services can deliver simple and helpful experiences in your home..." which apparently translates to only working with Google Assistant. I'll update this post if I figure out a work around.

Here's an easy way to capture frames from a DropCam to Google Drive. This only works if you have a public feed for your DropCam.

Go to the public page for your DropCam (Settings -> Public -> Short URL Link) and then view source for that page. Near the top you can find the still image URL for your DropCam:

<meta property="og:image" content="https://nexusapi.dropcam.com/get_image?uuid=12345&height=200" />

In Google Drive create a new Apps Script (If you don't already have Apps Script you can find it via Connect more apps...). Paste in the following code:

Replace the uuid parameter in the URL with the uuid from the still image URL for your DropCam. Note that the height parameter in the script has been changed to 1280 to get the largest possible image. A timestamp is being used to add a random cache busting parameter to the still image URL and is also used as the filename for the image.

The script will save the images to a folder called DCFrames - either create this folder in your drive or change this parameter to the desired folder.

Run the script and check that it's working. If everything looks good go to Resources -> Current project's triggers in the Apps Script editor. You can now set up a timer to save a frame as frequently as every minute (which I'm using to collect frames to make a daily time lapse movie). You can also ask Apps Script to send you an email when the script fails.

Updated 2015-07-01: DropCam is now Nest Cam - assuming that Nest keep the API going everything should keep working as above for both types of camera.

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(Published to the Fediverse as: Capture DropCam (Nest Cam) frames to Google Drive #etc #drive #google #dropcam Use Google Apps Script to automatically save images from your Nest Cam / Drop Cam. Keep an archive or create a timelapse movie. )

Book reviews for January 2015

By Robert Ellison. Updated on Friday, February 24, 2017.
Odyssey One (Odyssey One, #1) by Evan C. Currie

Odyssey One (Odyssey One, #1) by Evan C. Currie

1/5

Stopped reading after a couple of chapters. It's excruciable. Cliched, lazy, boring and self-contradictory. The most charitable thing I can say is that it might get better after I gave up (but I doubt it).

 

Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng

Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng

3/5

Depressing novel about a dead girl. It's very well written but left me a bit cold. Unhappy families may be unhappy in their own way but that doesn't necessarily make them interesting.

 

The Girl with All the Gifts by M.R. Carey

The Girl with All the Gifts by M.R. Carey

4/5

Not particularly into zombie fiction but this is great - different perspective, interesting plot and a stunning ending.

 

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News: AI will not kill us, says Microsoft

By Robert Ellison. Updated on Sunday, November 6, 2022.

Baby tech should let everyone sleep

By Robert Ellison. Updated on Wednesday, February 22, 2017.

Baby tech should let everyone sleep

The range of baby technology now available is astonishing. You can load up with a smart sock, smart diapers, smart pacifier, phone connected scales (doppler, ultrasound...), Nespresso for formula, a cry translator and of course a wide range of ultra-sensitive, night-vision stalking, shrieking / vibrating baby monitoring systems.

But all this innovation is mostly being wasted on paranoid first time parents who need to obsessively check that everything is OK every five seconds (not judging, have been there).

What I need is a baby monitor that does one thing: wait a minute per month of age and see if there is still a problem. Stay silent until this threshold is passed.

As usual, billionaire investor readers please call me.

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(Published to the Fediverse as: Baby tech should let everyone sleep #etc #parenting #baby #sleep #tech #lazyweb A proposal for a baby monitor that waits a minute per month of age before it alerts you to anything. )

Every House I've Ever Lived In

By Robert Ellison. Updated on Thursday, November 12, 2015.

Every House I've Ever Lived In

Here's a list of every house I've ever lived in. It's 32 across four continents - a different one every 15 months or so which is impressive as I lived in one of them for ten years.

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(Published to the Fediverse as: Every House I've Ever Lived In #etc #bio #houses A project to document every house I have lived in through Google Maps - so far 32 of them. )