RasterWeb!
I give you… Time Lapse Bot 2!
This is an upgrade for the original Time Lapse Bot, although we lose a few things, we gain some others… specifically, better mobility and a lighter weight Time Lapse Bot.
We’ll be testing this guy out at BarCampMadison…
Update: See the result: BarCampMadison: Time Lapse Video
I remember hearing about Synergy many years ago as a way to share a keyboard/mouse between multiple computers with different operating systems sitting on your desk. This would have been a dream come true for me back when I had a Windows PC next to my Mac at previous jobs, but nowadays I tend to use Windows only through virtualization software, so Mac OS X is always underneath.
It used to be that I’d have my MacBook on my desk next to my left monitor, and I’d lean over and use the keyboard and touchpad for various tasks, testing web sites in other browsers mainly, but it also comes in handy when your main Mac is beachballing it, but now…
teleport has completely changed the way I work!
I was about to dig into Synergy when I came across teleport, which is pretty much the same thing, but Mac OS X specific, and since I don’t need the cross-platform stuff, I skipped Synergy and grabbed teleport.
I’m basically controlling two completely separate computers with one set of controls. I can jump between them by just sliding the mouse to the edge of the screen. The power this provides is simply amazing… really, I can’t think of another thing that’s changed the way I work so dramatically in recent history.
If you’ve got two computers on your desk, look into Synergy or teleport. It’s that magic stuff you hear about from time to time…
Update 2010-07-30: See Also: Setting Up Encryption for teleport 1.0.1
Motion Designer Paul (conigs) posted about using IOGraphica to create an image that tracked his mouse usage, and hey, that’s pretty damn cool, so I had to do it too!
Here’s my first attempt. I don’t know why there is all that space on the right side. I mean, it appears to be off my monitor. (Even though I have two displays, it only tracks the main one.) I like the orbital qualities of the lines on the right side though…
This one was an attempt to actually “draw” things… Hmmm, maybe I should demo this at DrawCamp…
I’m a fan of open source… I’m a user of open source… I’m still a believer in open source… but I don’t always use open source. So by The Book of Doug, I’m a sinner…
I own/admin at least 5 Linux servers, have a Linux netbook, use Firefox, Thunderbird, OpenOffice, NeoOffice, Perl, PHP, MySQL, Adium, jEdit, VLC, ffmpeg, Audacity, Apache HTTP Server, WordPress, Drupal, and on and on… I’ve also contributed to open source software projects, typically not with code (since I’m just a hacker) but with support, add-ons, and even monetarily. I’ve written and released applications, code, scripts, and various media (photos, video, audio/music, words) under open source and open content licenses.
Look… I use Mac OS X, and I know it’s not open source… I’m a sinner. Please forgive me. I do my best by installing and promoting open source software on Mac OS X. Every Mac I set up has the best open source software on it for the user that will use it.
It’s still not enough. Doug wants me to try harder.
I’ve also worked towards putting on things like BarCampMilwaukee, in fact, we just had the 4th one, but Doug wasn’t happy because of “Microsoft putting their dirty paws on events like BarCampMilwaukee4…”
I’m not sure what they did, other than helped feed everyone there. Like all other sponsors, they supported the event financially, and got no special treatment in return. No keynote, no booth, no 20 foot wide banner. I heard no reports of Larry Clarkin forcing anyone to install Windows or insulting Linux. If anything, Brennan pushed more Microsoft propaganda my way, and he doesn’t even work for Microsoft! And Doug, I’ve asked open source companies, including Red Hat, to sponsor BarCampMilwaukee in the past, and never got any response.
Oh yeah, back to Doug… I like Doug, I really do… His intentions seem honorable, but he seems frustrated, and is convinced that talking to people won’t change things. Still, he writes a blog post about it. Doug, don’t give up! Talk is cheap, but discussion has value! Try talking to people, not at them, and follow it all up with action, but be nice about it. Nobody likes a jerk talking at them, but plenty of people like a friend talking to them.
Now go open some source and bridge that open-closed divide!
Behold… Time Lapse Bot!
No, this is not a wikibot… it’s the Time Lapse Bot, built out of old, recycled material, it is capable of doing time lapse captures using a sophisticated Apple iMac Computer, with an XLR8 InterView USB Video Capture Device connected to an old JVC Video Camera sitting on an old chair base which allows it to easily wheel around (within the length of the power cord.)
I actually spent $0 putting this all together, if you don’t count the fact that I paid about $499 for the video camera 10+ years ago, and $99 for the InterView back in 2005. Pretty much everything else was somehow attained for close to nothing. I could add wifi to this thing if I had a USB hub lying around, which might make it just little bit more neat-o, but hey, It’s a work in progress…
I’ve been testing it a bit this weekend, but the real test will come at BarCampMilwaukee4.
