It's a well known fact that whenever you go on holiday your home town experiences once-in-a-generation levels of good weather while you sit inside with increasingly insane children watching unseasonably torrential rain.

As this is a universal experience it has to be more than bad luck.

Every time anyone takes a vacation a parallel universe must be created where the traveler inflicts stormy weather on one branch and summer continues as normal on the other.

​Tags: random, quantum, weather​

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(Published to the Fediverse as: A vacation based proof of the many-worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics #etc #quantum Is it possible to prove the many worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics just by going on vacation? )

Probably not.

I tore into Hulu last year for the miserable user experience, dreary ads and vanishing content.

Back then I estimated that Hulu could ditch the ads for another $6 a month. TechCrunch is reporting today (via the Wall Street Journal) that Hulu is considering an ad free tier for $12-$14 a month. $14 would be a $6 bump over current pricing. If they can fix the UX as well I'll be back in. And I still want my OTT TiVo.

(Previously)

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(Published to the Fediverse as: Hope for Hulu? #etc #hulu #tivo #ott I nailed the cost of an ad-free Hulu experience, but it's still the one streaming service I'll never pay for. )

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... )

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. )

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. )

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. )