Following on from my “boredom” post, here’s something that has been keeping me busy for a while. I have a home server called Frankenputer, and it runs a package called Zoneminder along with the web server.
Connected to it I have two black & white outdoor cameras (el cheapo $30 things from Harbor Freight) and one indoor colour wired ethernet camera. The outdoor cameras are connected via very long cables to individual video capture cards in the server. The problem I am having right now is that the picture quality at daytime is fairly noisy:
At night though, it’s plainly crap:
Zoneminder is also fairly terrible at motion detection, requiring a very clean image to work with, and very precise fiddling with “blob counts” and other non-intuitive variables. If I connect either of the cameras to a proper TV, there is absolutely no interference, leading me to believe that the interference is being generated inside the server. However, if I connect a closer source of video to the server (such as a VCR), the picture is also perfect! I think what is happening is that the long run of camera cable (100 feet) is causing the composite video voltage levels to drop, and interference in the server is becoming more noticeable. Any hints would be appreciated though.
I am wondering whether to retire Frankenputer and get a new motherboard, CPU and memory, or to get ethernet cameras all around. Here’s a snap from the ethernet camera:
Is boredom a good thing or a bad thing? I used to view it as being a bad thing, but now I see it as essential time to relax when you can’t think of anything else you could possibly do at that moment in time. When people are bored, they catch up on TV, clear out the email inbox, and potter around the house. It helps rest your brain from the day’s work and allows you to do those little things you wouldn’t normally have time for. If you’re really bored, you might not even have anything remotely interesting to do and may take a nap!
I have noticed that for perhaps the last four and a half years (since I graduated) that I have had absolutely no moment when I could say I was bored. I have always had something I needed to do, something nagging me at the back of my mind to finish.
For reasons related to my life, I am not permitted to call my car “my other love”. So, I will just say that last week I said goodbye to my Lancer Evo VIII, and picked up a Lancer Evo X MR. Goodbye, faithful old car!
Hello, new:
The new car has a 6-speed sequential gearbox, which is technically a manual, but it has three automatic modes. In sport and s-sport, the car will downshift in anticipation of a corner and blip the throttle, similar to how racing drivers do heel-toe braking (that is, pressing the clutch and brake with the same foot). It also has S-AWC (super all-wheel-control), which is an evolution of the previous stability enhancement device that has been a part of the non-US Evos for a number of years. This version will actually kick out the back end of the car during a turn if understeer is detected in order to push the car to the centre of the corner!
Edmunds recently reviewed the Evo against the Nissan GT-R, Audi R8, new Porsche 911, new Elise and 2008 STi, and the Evo surprisingly flattened the $80,000 911 around a test track and mountain road. Only 2 seconds behind the R8, with some minor performance upgrades it would beat all of the cars in the test.
The car also has an altimeter, for when it is flying.
For the last few weeks I’ve been building a deck. My “bible” is the Home Depot Decks 1-2-3 book, which does a fairly good job of explaining how to build a deck to someone with reasonable carpentry skills.
This is actually only my second carpentry project – the first being some shelves in the garage.
If there’s anything I have learned, it’s the following:
- Don’t be afraid to buy the right tools.
- You will need at least two drills (corded and cordless). You will need a cordless one for difficult areas, and a corded one for the screw that won’t go in or the hole that won’t appear.
- You always need more screws/nails.
- Measure twice, cut once.
- Your posts will try to sink to the centre of the earth. There is nothing you can do to stop it, so you may as well make the posts stick further out of the ground in anticipation.
- If you are British, get some SPF-50 and a hat.