Earlier this year @johnjohnston posted animated GIF images of the sky/weather. Being a bit of a weather nerd the idea appealed to me so I created scripts to capture time lapse MP4s outside my home. Welcome to Window on Weather.
Window on Weather - creating time lapse images of the local sky
Earlier this year @johnjohnston posted animated GIF images of the sky/weather based on a Raspberry Pi setup. I’m a bit of a weather nerd and the idea appealed to me especially since I had an older Raspberry Pi and Pi camera sitting idle. But I wasn’t much interested in animated GIFs based on a general aversion but also because the video quality is rather poor.
I set up the Pi with the camera pointed at the sky on the front of my house and created a Window on Weather repo in Github comprised of a couple of bash scripts and a Python script. Every 10 minutes the Pi captures a short set of still images which are compiled into an animated GIF but more usefully to me an MP4 time lapse covering 10 minutes of real time. The resulting MP4 is about 10 seconds in length. I also created a script which creates a 1 hour MP4 compilation which has a viewing time about 1 minute. The file size of a 10 minute time lapse MP4 is a typically less than 10MB and, rather interestingly to me, is smaller than the animated GIF. The MP4 compilation of 1 hour of sky time comes out to less than 50MB. Images for the most recent 3 days are available on the Pi via Apache.
I enjoy looking at the MP4 time lapses on a regular basis. Even when the sky seems uninteresting the time lapse often reveals lovely changes. I feel like I should make stills or the MP4 publicly available but I haven’t yet delved into a hardened and usable method of providing a gallery. Plus I’m not sure there is an audience.
I finally found a use for my old Flickr account 😃 and posted a couple of sample videos there. This is a MP4 from a mostly sunny day and this one is of a day with clouds coasting by. Unusually for Texas the weather the past week has been flipping between severe clear and a pretty uniform overcast, neither of which makes the most interesting viewing. I think this project will be especially interesting when thunderstorm season starts.
The repo includes a housekeeping script that removes old files periodically so the SD card doesn’t clog up as well as the crontab entries I use to run everything.
Oh this iPhone home page app grouping is da bomb: Envy, Gluttony, Wrath and more! 👍🏼
Has anyone used a good app for doing a room layout (2-D) for placing furniture etc? I don’t care if it is “pretty” mainly just lookin for the layout aid. I’ve always done it on paper up until now. I do it rarely and just dont’ want to pay $$$.
I’m a happy computer scientist dad. Today at his 3rd Micro:bit class the instructor officially switched my 10 year old son from the graphic MakeCode programming tool to JavaScript. Because his concepts are too complex for MakeCode.😍
Out of 550 potential jurors 70 were assigned to the same case as me. After 5 hours 13 jurors were seated - I wasn’t one of them. Serious charges of continuous sexual assault of a girl younger than 14 plus indecency charges. Based on the lawyer’s questions it will be a tough case.
As I continue to go through the jury selection today, apparently my George Washington socks are a big hit with my fellow juror candidates.
Last time I was called down I was seated on the jury for a capital murder case. It was later turned into a TV show.
When a man and his girlfriend are attacked, the evidence leads detectives to his ex-wife’s door.
You have been summoned. Yep, sitting here with 550 of my fellow residents waiting to be called, or dismissed. It was a good chance to talk with my kids about civic duty this morning.
Today’s flight. 🍷
I’m thinking of picking up a HomePod next time I see one at a big discount. Wondering if I’ll regret it (new model coming?).
Re-stringing my daughter’s acoustic guitar. The Elixir strings will be an upgrade from the originals. I’m hoping it will now hold tune better and it should certainly be easier to play.
This. Totally. Sucks. Bite me patent trolls. Getting to an Apple Store for repairs or pickup is going to feel like a day trip. Apple closing stores in Dallas Suburbs
@manton we’re catching “down” with Austin.
I made good progress on a side project a couple of days ago, getting my Python scripts imported so they could be added to my repo. Seemed to go great that is. Went to edit some of the files this morning and every file in the .gitignore list is gone locally and from Github. 💩
Based on results and their very poor narrative of actions to recover, the leadership should be without jobs come Monday. Won’t happen to execs tho.
Kraft Heinz discloses SEC probe, cuts dividend, misses earnings forecasts, sending its shares down more than 20% after hours
‘Merica. Watching a 🚀 launch on a iPad on my lap with payloads from 🇮🇩 🇮🇱 🇺🇸 .
Thinking about gratitude for small things:
Thankful for all the people who I bump into during my day, but don’t know, who share a friendly smile and greeting. They’re tiny little gifts in my day.
For the first time in my adult life its February and I still haven’t made a vacation plan for the year and don’t even feel inclined to come up with one. I typically have an idea by the time we finish our last vacation. I have no idea why.
A New Independent Coffee Shop Opened
I found out a new indie coffee shop opened a couple miles from my house. The cappuccino is good, the decor is pleasant and there is great variety of seating choices from leather chairs to community tables to 4 seat table tops. As a plus they are using beans roasted in town by a small indie roaster. I feel all trendy this morning.
I am not winning today: followed my normal morning routine, shuffled into the kitchen, put coffee in the pot, turned it on, enjoyed the aroma of brewing coffee. Went to grab the cup from the machine to drink it and… I forgot to put a cup in. So yeah. 💤
A reminder why I refuse to have their devices in my home. Note how customers are not even part of the discussion. The US is so in need of customer privacy laws.
Amazon and Google ask for non-stop data from smart home devices
As someone who is disturbed by my country’s issues being painted as extremes for political gain I found a lot to like in this NYT piece.
it can be hard to rally the people behind a message of pragmatism, compromise and limits
It’s amazing the shipwrecks Paul Allen’s team is able to find. This one amazingly intact and upright. Look at that tractor just sitting there!
This is an usually destructive hack of a small provider. Still it is a good reminder of why it is important to have offline backups of critical files and info.
assailant who wiped out almost two decades’ worth of data and backups in a matter of hours
My Micro Monday is @diplomaticdiva. She’s a delightful person and posts great photos of London that reveal a keen eye for light.