Author: randyaa

Hawaiian Tsunami Timelapse

~ randyaa ~ 2 Comments

I heard about the possible Tsunami hitting Hawaii on Saturday about an hour before the predicted time.  As any photographically inclined programmer would do I went searching for some WebCams.  Once I found some that were returning images (most were timing out or saying too many users) I decided it would be neat if I could capture the images over time and throw them together into a video later.

About 15 minutes later and  WebCamTracker was born.  It’s nothing fancy, just a small Java class that’ll pull down a single image or multiple from the specified URL. To run it just use:

java WebCamTracker <webcam URL> <output directory> <?Max Duration?> <?Delay?>

Fortunately (but unfortunately for the video) the Tsunami didn’t really amount to much in Hawaii.  The video does however show the surges so it’s still pretty neat.  I ran WebCamTracker on 3 WebCams: Kanaha, Sprecks, & Hilo Bay. They turned out pretty sweet even if they don’t show much wave action.  Pretty good for my first time-lapse, even if I didn’t actually take the pictures myself.  Something I might play with soon though…

Anyway, Check it out:

side note: Music by JukeBox the Ghost, one of my favorite bands.

WebCamTracker.java

New Mobile Theme

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We just installed WPTouch which automatically re-themes the website when viewed on a mobile device.  Probably should have done so a long time ago, but it’s a nice touch and makes the site look respectable on your mobile devices rather than miniature unreadable text.

Here’s a brief history of what the site has looked like over time.  Unfortunately it’s only a partial history because I never kept screen shots until now.  The first one I nabbed from archive.org.  In the interest of moving forward we’ll just keep track of it from now on.


Some time in 2007 through some time in 2008



Some time in 2009 through current


February 2010 through current

Snowstorm in Fairport

~ randyaa ~ 1 Comment

Took a little walk with my Camera and MonoPod tonight.  It was my first time using a Monopod and it’s alright, but I couldn’t drag the shutter as much as I wanted to so I had to crank the ISO a bit more than I’d like for pictures like these.  Ahh well, turned out ok anyway.  Kinda fun to shoot too.

I love the snow and I love snow storms. They make Fairport so pretty.  Glad I took the time to go out even if it was for only a few minutes.

Space Monkey News

~ randyaa ~ 1 Comment

Ricky Gervais was on The Daily Show Monday night and they showed a short clip from the new HBO show ‘The Ricky Gervais Show.’  It looked hilarious so I took a look around the net and was able to find some of the videos.  The Space Monkey Monkey News video was particularly hilarious.

Rachel and I haven’t laughed this hard in years.  Seriously, there were tears… Watch it!

It may be a little hard to follow unless you’re already familiar with Karl Pilkington or at least know he’s really this dumb.  Then again we didn’t know anything about him until we saw some of the Ricky Gervais videos so you’ll probably do just fine too.

The Lone Grave of Benj Miller

~ randyaa ~ 2 Comments

Ran into a strange site while snowmobiling last weekend.  The Lone Grave of Benj Miller.  At least that’s what I’m calling it…

It’s a single grave surrounded by a chain link fence on the top of a small hill along route 56.  The snowmobile trail goes right by it (2 ft away).  There’s a small GAR flag symbol and grave posted next to the gravestone so we know he was a (cavalry) soldier in the Union army during the Civil War.

I’ve done some digging on the net and the best I’ve been able to locate is some others who found the grave and were interested as well.  According to one of the sites I found there might be some more info in The Story of a Cavalry Regiment but I couldn’t find it.

The gravestone reads:

Benj Miller
Co B 11 NY CAV
Died About 1870
Age About 23 Yrs

I might contact the town to see if there’s any more info.  If it happens to intrigue you, and you find any more info than I have, please leave a comment and let me know.

Thanks!

The Pinecone

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The Pinecone is one of those places that is incredibly seasonal. It services mostly boaters and snowmobilers. It’s in Wanakena at the opposite end of Cranberry lake from Cranberry Lake Lodge and there’s only 2 ways to get there on snowmobile: the alice brook trail (a narrow windy mess I don’t recommend) or the river.

This time of year the river is your best bet as long as you’ve got the equipment (a snowmobile and lots of warm wind proof clothing). Just make sure you’re off the lake by dark, and you’re not caught out there in a blizzard. Lots of hazards out there on the ice and it’s a longggggg lake. Just about 10 miles from end to end.  If you can’t see the other end, it’s awfully hard to know where you’re going.

The food at the Pinecone is pretty darn good. They’ve got a 1/2 lb burger that worked wonders for my appetite. Their hot chocolate hit the spot too after being out on the lake for that long, although I’m fairly certain it’s just your standard store bought hot chocolate.

Anyway, not a bad place to visit as long as the ice conditions are good (which they were, best I’ve ever seen) or you have a boat. You can doc your boat and eat there in the summer.

Check it out, if you dare.

Perfect Snow & Perfect Bonfires

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Delayed Post: written 2/14/2010

I don’t know what the Inuit word is for this type of snow (yes I know that myth isn’t really true) but I know mine: Perfect. It’s nice and grainy, packs just a little, blows just a little, isn’t wet (until it melts). Just perfect.  We haven’t had a ton of snow up here lately, nothing like what they just got down south. But the stuff we do have is just right.

We ran into a nice couple at the intersection of 81 and the (new?) trail towards Degrasse. A few minutes of discussion informed us of a big bonfire being put on by the Cranberry Lake Snowmobile Club just down the trail from our original destination (the Windfall).  Cheap lunch and supporting the club? Sounds good. We said thanks and headed on out towards the bonfire.

Whoa! Talk about fire! And the hot chocolate and hot dogs were free to boot! Met a nice guy named Randy Paige (sp?) who told us about a new 4-wheeler association which is going to make most of the trails we snowmobile on accessible by 4-wheeler this summer.  Sweet!

They had 2 groomers there open to let people climb in and check them out. About. 100 sleds, tons of raffle tickets for a gun, a 50/50, and the state raffle tickets for new snowmobiles. Was a good time, put some money in for the 50/50 but they were out of gun raffle tickets. Ahh well, one thing we probably don’t need more of anyway.

After the (free) lunch we headed for the open trail and made our way home.

Miles on the sled this season: 336

Rochester's Broad Street

~ randyaa ~ 7 Comments

The plans to rip up Broad Street and reconstruct the original Canal Aqueduct over the river are progressing.  I’ve mentioned the plans before and I’ve always thought it was kind of a neat idea but never thought it would get anywhere.  Now that it seems to be getting some traction it deserves more thought.

I for one think it’s completely ridiculous, and the City has more important things to do with its money.

The following is a letter I sent to:

  • Louise Slaughter
  • Paul.Holahan@cityofrochester.gov
  • info@broadstreetcorridor.com
  • Hackt@cityofrochester.gov
  • info@cityofrochester.gov (The closest I could find to Mayor Bob Duffy)
  • Patricia.malgieri@cityofrochester.gov
  • darryl.porter@cityofrochester.gov

Regardless of how you stand on the issue, I suggest you do the same.

Broad St Closure – A Concerned Citizen

The closing of the broad street bridge this week has me frustrated.  It’s something I cross on the bus at least once a day and has increased my bus commute time by about 5-10 minutes in each direction. In the morning due to the detour, and in the afternoon due to the additional build up of traffic on Exchange st.  Even in the past two days, the inconvenience this has created has been significant.  This has also been during a week of school closures and lighter than usual traffic.  I’m concerned how the effects would be during events at the Convention Center and War Memorial.

Why is the bridge closed anyway? Are we really going to tear out the bridge and flood the original aqueduct to create a POND over the RIVER?  Or are we just going to blow millions of dollars planning it and studying the effects of possibly doing it and then do nothing?

Rochester citizens have watched many other big projects fail and cost them millions of dollars with no gain.  Sure we got a new port building from the Fast Ferry debacle, but now it sits mostly unused and unoccupied.  One of the few ideas (The Casino) which stood to bring in direct revenue for the city was even voted down.  Now we plan on sinking millions into a plan to create another Manhatten square Park or another Genesee Crossroads with a manmade water feature in the middle instead of a river.

Rochester has proven time and time again that it can’t deliver on ideas like this.  Therefor we need to spend the money on things like better public transportation systems, Better education, maintaining (or improving) the parks we do have.

We don’t need another money pit, we need something with some real return on investment.

Stop wasting our money and end the study of the Broad St bridge closure early.

A Concerned Citizen,
Randy Aldrich

Snowpocolypse – or How I'll Enjoy the Weekend

~ randyaa ~ Leave a comment

63.5″ is a lot of snow. I don’t care where you are or where you’re from.  It’s not unheard of in the north country but for the southern areas which are getting slammed right now, it’s a ton.  Some of these cities only see 12″ of snow for a whole season, others only see a few inches occasionally.  to get almost 70″ in one week… wow.   The biggest problem is their lack of equipment.

Take a look at the satellite aftermath of the storm:

eastcoast_satellite_image-small

Looks like a scene from The Day After Tomorrow.

Either way, I’m headed right into the middle of snow country this weekend.  Spending a long weekend at camp snowmobiling and otherwise enjoying the winter weather and beautiful scenery.

60″ sounds like nothing but fun to me.  If you live in this area of the country, you need to have outdoor winter hobbies.

I’ll see you from the top of littl blue!

The Coolest Thing Since… The Last Ultrasound

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Wow!

Technology is amazing.

I know Ultrasounds aren’t really all that new but they can show you some really cool stuff! Seriously, this is the coolest thing I’ve ever seen.

Our little baby is gonna be an acrobat or something, she sure is active and flexible!  You can almost make out her face if you watch closely.

I just wish the offices would catch up with their technology.  We’re forced to record the Ultrasounds on VHS.  Seriously… VHS.  We even bought a 4 pack of them (smallest available) from Target for the first one and it was like $8!  All we do with them is convert them from VHS->DVD for archival storage and then rip the DVD->Computer for your enjoyment and our viewing purposes (we’re all digital).