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Internet is up!

Perl

I needed this script last week… See, our ISP had a bit of downtime, roughly 7 hours of downtime actually, but throughout the day there were some periods where our connection would be up for a few minutes before it went down again. 

#!/usr/bin/perl

use Net::Ping;

$p = Net::Ping->new("tcp", 2);
$p->{port_num} = getservbyname("http", "tcp");
$host = 'www.google.com';

while (1) {
if ($p->ping($host)) {
print "Internet is up!\n";
# the next two lines will only be useful on osx
$cmd = 'say -v Victoria "Internet is up"';
system ($cmd);
}
else {
print "...\n";
}
sleep(5);
}

To alert me to these few golden minutes of Internet connectivity I whipped up this script. It keeps trying to reach some server (in this example I’m using the highly-available www.google.com) waiting just 5 seconds between each check, and if it reaches the server (meaning our Internet connection is up) it prints “Internet is up!” and on Mac OS X it also says “Internet is up.” I made it say that so I could keep staring at what I was working on and be alerted audibly when the connection returned.

I was tempted to run this on our Mac jukebox so it would announce to the entire office when the connection was up, but by that time things seemed back to normal.

Obviously you could reverse this code to check if a server is up instead of down, and in fact one of my monitoring systems does just that. If you’re ever at the 2XL Networks office and hear “Attention! The server is not responding!” being yelled from one of the Macs… you know there’s a problem.

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Now More Than Ever: Make, Do, Create

Nails

In thinking about how I love to make and create things, be it art, music, electronic things, software, blog posts, cookies, photographs, accessories…. I think about why I want to make and create things, and I think it has to do with a few things.

I’m Cheap. I’ll be the first to admit I don’t like spending money. My regular purchases tend to be things like food, gas, and rent. I pay the bills and I while I do pay for the tools I need to do my work (whether that work is “work-work” or “make/create-work”) I really don’t like to frivolously spend money on things, especially if I think I can make it myself. I prefer baking many of the foods that I eat over buying packaged food. I like knowing what’s in my food, and try to avoid certain things, so this helps a lot.

I’m DIY. I’m not sure how much the Do-It-Yourself label has been diluted (or perhaps spread is a better word) in the past 20 years or so, but 20 years ago I was printing my own zines, and stickers, and patches and t-shirts, and starting my own bands, and booking our tours, and booking shows for other bands, and putting out our own music (all of which was much harder to do without the World Wide Web) and for me, it feels good to do things myself. I see so many services online nowadays that provide things I can do myself, so I do them myself. There’s all this talk about outsourcing everything and putting it all in the cloud, but I often like to do it myself and be in control of things a bit more. I fear we’re creating a generation of people who expect “someone else” to do everything for them.

I’m a Legacy. My dad, and his dad, were both what we now call “makers.” They were both experienced woodworkers who build their own furniture, and could repair things, and had great collections of tools and knew how to use them. To this day, when I visit my mom’s house, I love the fact that the end tables were built by my dad. I’m a terrible woodworker in comparison, but I’ve taken to making other things, and when I do make something out of wood, I tend to paint it black to make it look cool, and to cover up my poor craftsmanship. When I make things, I sort of feel this connection to my family, who also made things.

I’m Fun. Who in the hell would ever think a pair of servos and a puppet would get such attention? Much of my making and creating things is done in the name of fun. Getting an idea and being able to execute it, to me, is a formula for a good time. If others enjoy it, it’s that much better… but I’m fine with being selfish and saying that it’s enjoyment in making and creating things that keeps me doing it.

I’m Cool. OK, I’m probably not cool, but what is cool is that it inspires people, like… my kids. (They might be the only people left who think I’m cool.) My daughter made me a cake and I’m still floored by how awesome it was. Knowing that they see me make things, and in turn want to make things, is top notch. I love it… I don’t even care if I’m not cool anymore.

So my plea to you, dear reader, is to Make and Create… Do Something! Don’t just be a passive consumer, buying a pre-packaged life, figure out what it is that you can bring into this world. If you’ve got ideas, take action on them, make them a reality, don’t be afraid of failing because failing is just what you do before you succeed.

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Mac Flag

Mac Flag

Mac Flag

(With apologies to Black Flag, Cat Flag, and Pack Flag…)

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Red What!?

RED What!?

Despite what appears to be confusion in this photo, I really do know how to assemble and operate a RED ONE camera… Really. You need something shot? Let me know. I mean, it’s not like you’re going to shoot it on your Scarlet. Of course, if you’ve got an EPIC, we’d make a great second unit.

Photo by Mike Krukowski (Thanks Mike!) Processing by me and Photoshop CS5.

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Time Lapse Bot 3

Time Lapse Bot 3

I built the original “Time Lapse Bot” in September 2009 before BarCampMilwaukee4 happened. I managed to get an old office chair that someone was throwing away and thought I could put it to good use to move around the iMac and camera rig I had attached to it. You can see the original Time Lapse Bot post for more info.

The main issue with the original Time Lapse Bot was that if you unplugged it, you had to boot it up again, set the clock, and then restart the image capture. We thought about a UPS to give it a bit of “unplugged” time, but never added one.

Next up was Time Lapse Bot 2 which used an old clamshell iBook in place of the old iMac. This made everything much lighter but because the battery couldn’t hold a charge we still suffered the inability to unplug it and move it while it was running. (We typically solved this problem with really long extension cords.)

Time Lapse Bot 3

Time Lapse Bot 3 is the next step in Time Lapse Bot technology. We’ve taken an old PowerBook G4 (donated by Matt Gauger) which has a good battery in it, and paired it with a Canon ZR800 MiniDV camera, which also has a good battery. The result is a unit that can run on battery (at least for a few hours) and starts charging the batteries as soon as you plug in the AC power cord.

The entire unit is housed in a custom case which allows for easy transport. By “custom case” we’re referring to the plywood box that I constructed and painted black. That’s what we consider the pinnacle of “custom cases” around here.

The software that runs Time Lapse Bot is EvoCam by Evological. It’s $30 and well worth it. It’s feature packed, and rock solid. If you’re putting together a Mac-based time lapse rig that uses a video camera, or a web cam, or whatever, I highly recommend it.

Here’s a few of the time lapse videos we’ve made with the help of Time Lapse Bot.

We’ve finally reached a point where we are fairly pleased with Time Lapse Bot and it’s performance, so this is obviously not the time to sit still and relax. We’re currently working on a few upgrades to Time Lapse Bot, and hope 2011 brings even more Time Lapse Bot goodness to all the folks who enjoy time lapse videos…

(Thanks for reading this. If you’re reading it on Facebook or Google Reader or somewhere else it got syndicated to, consider visiting the original post, especially if you’d like to leave a comment.)