1740109
submission
Penguin Fan writes:
For those /.'ers with idle time, check out the Growing Pengiun Webcam and "watch it grow 600% in 72 hours"
There is also time-lapse videos if you aren't able to maintain a constant vigil.
834285
submission
A Grass Fan writes:
Slashdot's new Idle Section has gotten mixed reviews from readers, but as Cmdr Taco wrote "We hope you will enjoy wasting a slice of your day with us" and what better way to do that than Watching Grass Grow. Yes, a webcam providing live coverage of a grassy lawn that has been running since 2005 that has over 4,000 comments on a grass blog from web surfers worldwide — certainly a candidate for "We intend to fill our idle section with ... the very best the net has to offer."
Some of the picture and video highlights are actually somewhat interesting such as the Baby House Finch Bird saga (sad ending) and even a full year time-lapse that shows how truly exciting life in suburbia is. And for those /. readers who are bored this Friday, tune in for live coverage at Noon to see the lawn get mowed.
For the nay-sayers out there, remember that Taco's closing words were "Now go about your day — it's mid August, so I'm sure everything you do is urgent, exciting, and oh-so-interesting."
799601
submission
alek writes:
A few weeks ago, there was a good discussion about
Gmail, SPF, and Broken Email Forwarding. So I took the "easy" way out and setup Google Apps for Domains to handle my Email, and have Thunderbird and Outlook (my wife) POP'ing for Email. It works great ... except for one very annoying problem — you can't send an Email to yourself. Turns out a lot of people are affected and rightfully miffed by this violation of the "Principle of Least Astonishment"
Specifically, if you send yourself a message (and forward via Google's SMTP servers), your POP client will never get it. This is because Google is "smart" enough to realize that it already has a copy in the Sent Folder, so it doesn't making it available in the "POP'able" area (for lack of better words) for download. You can see it in the Inbox if you login to the gmail interface ... but it won't auto-download to your TBird, Outlook, etc. POP client.
Since this affects anyone using POP, there are LOTS of people that have complained and
this thread pretty much nails it.
Note that some folks from Google chimed in to say they "passed the suggestion along to the team" ... but that was over two months ago.
Yes, there are some solutions, but (except for switching to use IMAP) they are all kludgy and require the end-user to "do" something rather than just have it "work" as they would expect.
A very nice solution would be a simple checkbox in the gmail interface that would basically say something like "if you want your POP client to retrieve messages you sent to yourself, click here" ... or heck, make that the default behavior if you enable POP as arguably this is the expected behavior. Maybe all /.'ers can suggest that!
Doesn't seem like that complex of request (although it may requiring some fiddling of the innards of gmail) ... but it would be darn nice (and benefit a LOT of people IMHO) if some Googler could do this as part of their "20% free time" project — hint, hint ... ;-)
764847
submission
alek writes:
I recently stopped getting Email from a friend ... which turns out to be related to his use of SPF records and my forwarding to gmail. This "lost Email problem" may get worse with
Google implementing Domain Keys.
Background: Like many people, I have me@mydomain.com as my public facing Email address. When Email comes into my server, I forwarded it to me@gmail.com. But since my friend has published SPF (Sender Policy Framework) records that say only his server is allowed to send Emails for friend@frienddomain.com, gmail apparently rejects (silently buries actually!) the Email since it is forwarding through my server. Please note that this is exactly what SPF is designed to prevent — spammers from sending Emails with your address — but it breaks forwarding and has other problems.
What's *really* strange is that if I look at the raw sendmail logs on my server, the Email from friend@frienddomain.com comes in, and is forwarded to gmail ... with an "OK" as the response — i.e. the gmail MTA doesn't reject the message as it ideally should. However, the Email then disappears — it's not even in my gmail spam filter ... so there is no trace of it at all. If my friend sends directly to me@gmail.com, it shows up ... since his domain sends directly and the SPF test is passed.
Note that on my gmail account, I associate me@mydomain.com with my me@gmail.com account ... so perhaps there should be a recipient test applied before SPF is tested on the sender ... although this arguably defeats the purpose of SPF.
The logical solution is to configure sendmail on my server to do Sender Rewriting — anyone have an easy FAQ to do this? But many people/domains aren't doing this ... and my Email forwarding to gmail is quite common, so I'm surprised that this issue hasn't gotten more attention. Is there another solution?
606556
submission
Pixel Peeper writes:
Being a photography geek, I do a lot of testing of my camera gear. So I've pixel-peeped at countless pictures of objects at varying distances checking for accurate focus, but it's a lot of work and often hard to be certain what is sharpest. However, I recently came across an easy approach that is deadly accurate using moire' patterns to test auto focus.
Wikipedia has more about moire', but you basically just point your camera at a pattern on your LCD screen, let it autofocus, and then use the Live View mode to check how well it did, applying manual focus as required. And since some cameras have the ability to micro-adjust your autofocus on a per lens basis, it allows you fine tune your photography gear to be spot-on precise for super-sharp pictures.
281027
submission
alek writes:
So a few days after it was announced, I ordered a Canon 40D DSLR from Amazon on Aug 26th ... and it shows an estimated shipping date of Sep 24th. A few days later, I read how people are getting their shipping dates moved by just fiddling with the shipping method ... and BAM, it then says scheduled to ship August 30th. A day later it won't ship until Sep 28th. Then it changes back to Sep 4th ... a few days later, it's now Sep 10th. It actually shipped on Sep 5th and here is the whole play-by-play with screenshots. On a semi-related point, Amazon accidentally leaked the Canon 40D details before Canon got their Press Release out ... which probably has an interesting behind-the-scenes story onto itself.
From the buzz online, I thought it would easily be over a month before I got the camera and Amazon's Order Page currently says "In stock soon ... item is in high demand" So despite the hijinks, I thought Amazon did a good job getting the camera to me in 10 days (including Labor Day Weekend). Plenty of time to get familiar with it so I can take pictures of my halloween decorations — D'OH.
Since this camera was in high demand, I bet it was a real challenge to their shipping algorithms. As an IT person, I wonder what goes on behind the scenes that causes this type of whip-saw behavior as observed by me, the end-user. Heck, at least the algorithm just oscillated and didn't diverge! ;-)
143045
submission
alek writes:
/. recently discussed patching (computer chip) hardware with software. On a related somewhat related note, an interesting new feature in Canon's recently announced EOS-1D Mark III digital SLR camera is (scroll 2/3'rds down) Auto-Focus Micro-Adjustment.. Turns out that some camera lens' are slightly out of alignment and don't always focus that accurately, so photographers who feel they aren't sharp have had to send these back to the manufacturers for adjustment. However, with the Mark III, you can bias the focus adjustment in-camera via software ... with a few limitations — RTFA. I had a back focus problem with my Canon gear which cost $118 to fix — would have been cheaper/easier to simply push a few buttons on the camera! Maybe if enough people suggest this to Canon, they will port this feature across their entire line of DSLR's and release a firmware fix with this new functionality so all DSLR owners can benefit.
129105
submission
Some Voyeur writes:
As cameras, webcams, and Internet access get increasingly
cheaper, easier, and faster, time-lapse videos are a growing
approach to providing an entertaining way to visualize things.
Slashdot's own Roblimo provides a
beautiful Florida sunset,
see an evening of
the Northern Lights,
and Cassini shows a
Saturn ring plane crossing.
Other more down-to-earth examples including a
woman's face every day
and the
2006 Open Source Convention.
You can even watch grass grow for a year.
Any /.'ers want to share their favorite time-lapse videos, along with
any hints/suggestions on how to best produce these.
