Follow Slashdot stories on Twitter

 


Forgot your password?
Close
typodupeerror
It's funny. Laugh.

X10 Hallowe'en Display 151

Posted by timothy from the buahahahaha dept.
Spic writes "I'm sure alot of us remember the Christmas light display using X10 that was up for last Christmas, well, the same guy has a Hallowe'en display up. Pretty neat idea. You can even vote for your favorite politcal candidate: Bush, Kerry, or The Incredible Hulk. Looks like he also anticpated our arrival."
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.

X10 Hallowe'en Display More

X10 Hallowe'en Display

Comments Filter:

  • Comment removed (Score:5, Funny)

    by account_deleted ( 4530225 ) on Sunday October 17, 2004 @07:41PM (#10552846)
    Comment removed based on user account deletion

    • Re:awww (Score:5, Informative)

      by zors ( 665805 ) on Sunday October 17, 2004 @07:43PM (#10552861)
      Actually, his "Incoming Slashdotter" Java Pop up indicates he's fairly well prepared.

      RTFA

      • Re:awww (Score:3, Funny)

        by antoy ( 665494 )
        Actually, his "Incoming Slashdotter" Java Pop up indicates he's fairly well prepared.

        If you build it, they will come indeed.

      • OH CRAP!!!! (Score:5, Interesting)

        by xmas2003 ( 739875 ) on Sunday October 17, 2004 @08:55PM (#10553153) Homepage
        There was a definite Slashdot Effect [komar.org] last year when you guys hammered by Christmas Lights [komar.org] ... but that had a 5-second throttle ... whereas the halloween decorations [komar.org]have a 1-second throttle - I got FARK'ed on Friday (earlier in the day) ... this could get ugly ... just called my neighbors to warn 'em about a HUGE light show tonight - more updates from me in this thread ...

        P.S. The pop up is an HTML body alert=message based on the referrer

        • Re:OH CRAP!!!! (Score:5, Interesting)

          by xmas2003 ( 739875 ) on Sunday October 17, 2004 @09:12PM (#10553241) Homepage
          Load factor is currently 3, but web server is barely responding (and I guess I shoulda used mod_perl) ... but it does load the page (minus the graphic) half the time - I'm going to pull the graphic for now to help things out ... for those interested, I CAN load the latest web stats [komar.org] - you guys are POUNDING me!

          • Re:OH CRAP!!!! (Score:5, Interesting)

            by moosesocks ( 264553 ) on Sunday October 17, 2004 @10:01PM (#10553455) Homepage
            You know you've been successful in life when you've got these in your stats:

            28: 0.14%: 10: 0.16%: 533,805: 0.17%: .mil (USA Military)
            5: 0.02%: 1: 0.02%: 63,463: 0.02%: .arpa (Arpanet)

            7: 0.03%: 3: 0.05%: 95,263: 0.03%: Amiga
            3: 0.01%: 1: 0.02%: 43,369: 0.01%: OS/2
            10: 0.05%: 0: : 121,863: 0.04%: Mozilla/3.01 (WIERD)

            honestly.... major props to anyone who gets hits from os/2 AND the arpanet!

            • Re:OH CRAP!!!! (Score:3, Informative)

              by Myen ( 734499 )
              Depending on his setup, .arpa could mean within the network. (IIRC, stuff like 192.168.* gets resolved as *.in-addr.arpa)

              The OS/2 stuff is still cool though :)
            • Some of the obscure browsers and operating systems may be spoofed to confuse any attackers.
          • Just be glad this happend on the weekend
          • guess I'll have to check back next week though to fool with it. Thanks for your efforts, I played with your christmas stuff last year. TOOO much fun!

            didja see this browser in your stats called "woo woo!"

            what is that???

          • Re:OH CRAP!!!! (Score:4, Funny)

            by complete loony ( 663508 ) <Jeremy,Lakeman&gmail,com> on Monday October 18, 2004 @01:13AM (#10554209)
            What no C64 [sourceforge.net]?
            Some other funny moments (yes a log can be funny)
            2: : 1: : 16,642: : Mozilla/8.0 (compatible; Quit looking here and get back to spanking your monkey.)
            3: : 2: : 30,776: : Mozilla/8.5 (Aww fuck. Now they want my license and registration.)
            2: : 0: : 9,790: : Mozilla/8.0 (compatible; Woo-hoo, I'm in a famous site's Web log. HI MOM!)
            1: : 0: : 11,460: : Mozilla/8.0 (compatible; ...What? You mean people actually READ this shit?!)
          • We've talked browser stats here before, but this is likely more accurate than a poll:

            57.36%: Mozilla
            27.46%: MSIE
            5.88%: Safari
            4.23%: Opera

            for me, Mozilla (Firefox) just works. It is ready for prime time, general use. We may be early adopters, but 57% is awesome!

        • Re:OH CRAP!!!! (Score:4, Informative)

          by xmas2003 ( 739875 ) on Sunday October 17, 2004 @10:25PM (#10553556) Homepage
          Load factor is currently 5+, but the web server is actually a bit more responsive now that I have pulled the images from the webcam and halloween page. I pushed the start time back to between 2100-2200 ... gotta let things cool down a bit ... so take a break on it guys - will be up for another 2 weeks so I promise everyone will get a chance to vote! ;-)

          P.S. Some bizzarre perl/apache errors popping up occasionally in the errors_logs - YIKES!

          PPS. Good points moosesocks - I'd mod you up if I had any points.

      • Well, apparently not. The site's slagged.
    • how to make some quick $$$$

      Get /.'d and stick some adsense on your webpage!

  • heh.. (Score:2, Funny)

    by hookedup ( 630460 )
    I like the javascript alert.. he's like a kid who touched an oven element.. he remembers last time wasnt fun..

    2 hours till the controls come online, wonder if he'll last..

  • X11 (Score:5, Funny)

    by brilinux ( 255400 ) on Sunday October 17, 2004 @07:43PM (#10552858) Journal
    Geez, shouldn't they be using X11 by now? I mean, how long has it been out?

    (Joking)

  • For those of us unaware... (Score:3, Insightful)

    by weiyuent ( 257436 ) on Sunday October 17, 2004 @07:44PM (#10552865) Journal
    ...could you please explain what the Christmas thing was about?

  • slasdotted... *zot* (Score:4, Funny)

    by TheHawke ( 237817 ) <{moc.rr.xts} {ta} {nipahcr}> on Sunday October 17, 2004 @07:45PM (#10552872)
    Looks like he didn't prepare very well, only 3 posts into the thread and his server turned into a christmas goose.

  • Mastercard (Score:4, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday October 17, 2004 @07:48PM (#10552884)
    250,000 lights: $100,000

    2,500 kw of electricity: Who knows?

    Slashdotting some guy's house for no readily apparent reason: Priceless

    For revenge on your boss, there's cash, for everything else, there's mastercard.

  • What's X10? (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Altima(BoB) ( 602987 ) on Sunday October 17, 2004 @07:50PM (#10552892)
    Perhaps I sound like an insufferable n00b, perhaps I sound like I'm too lazy to do a google search (Umm, guilty) and perhaps I don't actually remember this guy's Christmas display, but what is this X10 thing?

    There was a message saying control would be activated in 2 hours or so, does that mean we can control the decorations from the webcam? If so, what can be controlled?

    Annoying questions aside, the "Incoming Slashdotter" message was cool. Nice to be part of an internet locust swarm.

    • Re:What's X10? (Score:3, Informative)

      by hookedup ( 630460 )
      http://www.x10.com
      • Yeah, although if you want newer technology and better-quality stuff, check out Smarthome [smarthome.com] instead. (Plus, you're not directly giving money to the evil-pop-under-ad people.) Smarthome also has a decent What is X10? [smarthome.com] page.

      • Re:What's X10? (Score:5, Informative)

        by sdo1 ( 213835 ) on Sunday October 17, 2004 @09:25PM (#10553296) Journal
        NO! X10 is a communication protocol. X10.com is a company that sells (mostly) X10-based equipment. You know, X10.com is a company that had lots of lots of pop-up and pop-under ads touting the wonders of secretly recording video of women. I hate it that they effectively hijacked the technology and have seemingly convinced the public, through their scummy advertising tactics, that X10 the protocol equals X10.com the company.

        -S

        • Re:What's X10? (Score:3, Funny)

          by Macrat ( 638047 )
          I didn't know that you could do anything else with X10. What else is there to do beside secretly recording women?
        • X10.com IS X10! Sure X10 is a protocol too, but the parent company of the website is the company that came up with it. I personally wonder whatever happened to CEBus???

          • Re:What's X10? (Score:3, Informative)

            by sstidman ( 323182 )
            No, actually, it's not. Pico Electronics Ltd created the protocol at the request of British Sound Reproduction. See here [hometoys.com] for a history of the X10 protocol (you may have to scroll down a bit).
        • For the past few months I have been using a "BSR System X - 10 for remote control of lights and appliances" that my father bought in the early 80s or late 70s. BSR is the company that made many of the cheap turntables built into all-in-one "hi-fi" systems. I found a box with the owners manual, "Command Console," and two lamp modules, so I couldn't resist trying it out.It still works fine for dimming and switching lamps. It had available appliance modules, wall switches and an "Ultrasonic Command Console" (

    • Re:What's X10? (Score:1, Informative)

      by Anonymous Coward
      "Use the halloween webcam to view live images of a buncha halloween lights and also CONTROL them - i.e. YOU can turn them ON and OFF via your web browser! The halloween webcam has PAN and ZOOM capability that you can also control. The webcam and webcontrol demo are ONLY operational between 2000 and 2400 Mountain Time. Each web surfer can only update the webcam 10 times, change the lights 3 times, and play with the pan/zoom 5 times, withen 5 minutes - this limits the load on my server/Internet connection and

    • Re:What's X10? (Score:1, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward
      It's something you should never use because the sneaky bastards who make it were the ones who popularized pop-under advertising.

  • No, he didn't (Score:3, Funny)

    by ShallowThroat ( 667311 ) on Sunday October 17, 2004 @07:53PM (#10552901)
    Looks like he also anticpated our arrival.

    Umm, with his webserver being slashdotted after less then 10 comments, I think it's safe to say he didn't expect our arrival. Anyone got a cache?
  • http://66.102.7.104/search?q=cache:Ma6sL9h3OMYJ:ww w.komar.org/cgi-bin/halloween_webcam+&hl=en&lr=&cl ient=firefox-a&strip=1 poor poor home server.

  • Cool (Score:1)

    by Lanzaa ( 761994 )
    This is a pretty cool setup. Not very different from the other online controls for stuff the webcam is watching.

    Although i do like being able to change the webcam pan/zoom setting. I have not seen that before

    But i don't really look for this stuff.

  • Anticipation... (Score:5, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday October 17, 2004 @08:03PM (#10552951)

    >Looks like he also anticpated our arrival.

    "Anticipation is only half the battle" -- Old Slashdot saying

  • I got so excited, seeing the word "Halloween", hoping it was the latest leaked Halloween documents http://www.opensource.org/halloween/ [opensource.org]

    After all:

    Halloween XI: Get The FUD
    22 Jun 2004

    ... was WAY too early, and nowhere near as juicy, as we've come to expect.

    Oh, well - guess I'll have to wait for this year's slashdot halloween costume poll http://slashdot.org/pollBooth.pl?qid=1007 [slashdot.org]

    Favorite Halloween Activity?
    _2% Knott's Scary Farm
    _3% Braving local haunted houses
    25% Turning my home into a pit of evil
    10% Tr

  • Possible FIre hazard (Score:3, Interesting)

    by d3ity ( 800597 ) on Sunday October 17, 2004 @08:06PM (#10552963)
    "Replaced one X10 switch module that felt warm, but otherwise the various hardware, circuit breakers, and web server (go Apache/Perl!) are hanging in there" Felt warm...hehehehe, lets light the thing up! in 2 hours now we'll have some major slashdottage.

  • Hah! (Score:5, Funny)

    by orangesquid ( 79734 ) <orangesquid.yahoo@com> on Sunday October 17, 2004 @08:08PM (#10552975) Homepage Journal
    Man, I sure got that beat. Here's an X11 Halloween display!
    mozilla http://images.google.com/images?q=halloween&hl=en& btnG=Google+Search ;)
    Seriously, though, this guy impresses the crap out of me. The most I ever did was turn my bedroom lights on and off over the Internet and freak my parents out.

  • I might be out of line here... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by SteakandcheeseUm ( 191173 ) on Sunday October 17, 2004 @08:09PM (#10552976) Homepage
    but wouldent it be more intelligent to NOT put perl and other dynamic elements on your webpage if you are expecting a ./ effect? I would have also expected him to invest in a more commericalized system for camera control like NuSpectra [nuspectra.com] They are pretty cool [pitt.edu]

    • but wouldent it be more intelligent to NOT put perl and other dynamic elements on your webpage if you are expecting a ./ effect?

      Most of the time it's the pipe that gives up under a /.ing or it's a server configured to not become completey useless (other than web), although sometimes the box probably does become a smoking hole.

      Remember the Gmail Machine, the page that generated a random number and it if matched the correct one you "won" a gmail invite? That page was PHP and for every hit it locked the cou

  • Here's a MirrorDot [mirrordot.org]. As for the Christmas thing, it seems to be a yearly tradition [slashdot.org].

  • Slashdotted - Mirrors Here (Score:5, Informative)

    by Kinetic ( 3472 ) on Sunday October 17, 2004 @08:15PM (#10552998) Homepage
    MirrorDot [mirrordot.com] has the page with the pictures.

  • X10 Halloween Display (Score:3, Funny)

    by sH4RD ( 749216 ) on Sunday October 17, 2004 @08:40PM (#10553082) Homepage
    Wow....the slashdot editors edited something. Amazing. Now can someone tell me why?

    "X10 Halloween Display" -> "X10 Hallowe'en Display". Same change in the article text.

    Huh?

  • No fair (Score:5, Funny)

    by sik0fewl ( 561285 ) <xxdigitalhellxxNO@SPAMhotmail.com> on Sunday October 17, 2004 @08:47PM (#10553112) Homepage

    That's not fair! The Hulk is taking votes away from Kerry!

  • Hah! (Score:5, Funny)

    by Guppy06 ( 410832 ) on Sunday October 17, 2004 @08:52PM (#10553134)
    "Looks like he also anticpated our arrival."

    No one expects the Slashdot Inquisition!

  • so... (Score:3, Funny)

    by WormholeFiend ( 674934 ) on Sunday October 17, 2004 @08:54PM (#10553145)
    this Friday he got Farked, and today he's getting Slashdotted...

    this guy must love the Internets now!

  • Webcam image (Score:5, Interesting)

    by sploo22 ( 748838 ) <dwahler.gmail@com> on Sunday October 17, 2004 @08:57PM (#10553160)
    I noticed that the webcam is using quite a long exposure to compensate for the low light levels - people on the sidewalk appear very blurred. Even so, there is almost no visible graininess aside from compression artifacts. Obviously this is not a cheap webcam.

  • Bush is winning (Score:1, Troll)

    by Jack9 ( 11421 )
    According to all polls including this guy's webcam, Bush is more popular than Kerry. This bothers me. Hulk is clearly winning, as expected.
    • I think it's fairly safe to say that those with a sense of humor (Hulk votes) would vote for kerry over bush ;-)

      Seriously, it should be a close race, the polls are usually polling likely voters, and for the first time in over a decade we've got a major rash of young people registering to vote, and as long as the Democrats continue to register more new voters, we'll be fine.

      In the end it will boil down to voter turnout. If there's high voter turnout the dems will win, if it's low, then the republican
    • Yup, I must be a troll because I comment on THE MAIN TEXT OF THE ARTICLE AND A RELEVANT PART OF THE SITE. How is it that the most paranoid mods get the points?
  • Tis working [nyud.net] a bit faster :)
  • His house is about 5 miles from where I'm sitting (in downtown Boulder, CO) ... sounds like a fun sidetrip on my way back home - I think the real-time updates will look better than the website.

    2510 Blue Heron Circle Lafayette, CO [komar.org]
  • Spic writes "I'm sure alot of us remember [snip]

    'A lot' is two words.

    Sincerely,
    The 'a lot' grammar Nazi

  • don't try to visit ... it's a gated community (Score:3, Informative)

    by morcheeba ( 260908 ) * on Monday October 18, 2004 @12:32AM (#10554076) Journal
    Ok, first I considered the facts...

    - the guy has a big public display of lights at his house, twice a year
    - he encourages zillions of people see his house & publishes it on the web
    - he publishes detailed pictures [komar.org], the address, and lan/lon coordinates [komar.org] of his house.

    You would think he'd want people to come see his house, right?
    I saw he lived pretty close to where I was so I decided to visit [slashdot.org] - I thought it would be neat to post a video of what the house looked like as people voted.

    so I drive there only to find, IT'S A GATED COMMUNITY!!

    I got to the head of Blue Heron, and there's a gate that closes at 7 pm. I could call and ask to be let in, but it was 9:15pm on a Sunday night and I know this guy has two little kids [komar.org], so I don't bother calling - it would be rude. As a faithful slashdotter, I would have tried the "911" entry code, but I saw there was a special key for emergency personnel, so I didn't try (plus, they put they keypad in a hard-to-reach place)

    <RANT>What is it with gated communities?! I don't see how crime is much of a problem in this place because it's pretty much alone in the countryside. It's not like there is a crackhouse next door. And, since most burglaries occur before 7pm [crimereduction.gov.uk], the gate won't help much. And, if you want to commit some crime at night, just get there before 7pm, wait, and then make your getaway whenever you want -- the gates will always let you out.</RANT>

    I'm sure he's a nice guy, but I think he should reconsider where he lives, or push the homeowner's association to remove the gate.

    So, anyway, don't try to go there. You're not welcome... unless you come before 7pm, and then sit on their lawn until dark.

    • Re:don't try to visit ... it's a gated community (Score:4, Informative)

      by xmas2003 ( 739875 ) on Monday October 18, 2004 @01:31AM (#10554260) Homepage
      morcheeba: I mentioned your post casually to my wife and ... it was ... not good ... that's why I shut things down at 2300 tonight. I really DO appreciate you NOT knocking on my door late at night (yes, we do have two little kids) - I assure you (and others) that will almost guarantee shutting down the whole operation for good ... and HEY, we got 2 more weeks before the election! ;-)

      There's a bit of controvery over my lights since in 2002, the Boulder Camera wrote about them and a lot of people drove by (the gates are opened for about two weeks then) and the homeowner's association was not too happy about that. You are welcome to Send HULK an Email (from the webcam page) if you want more info.

      And on the "gate issue", while I'm a technical guy, I don't do layer 8 of the networking stack - i.e. except for "Vote for Hulk", I stay outa politics.

      P.S. BTW, "Beware of Dog" (really!) - see D-6 in the webcam FAQ [komar.org]

      • thanks for responding... hope I didn't come off as bitter, I'm just not a fan of gated communities, but I respect peoples' choices.

        Where I grew up there were lots of neighborhoods that decorated. My favorite, in Pimmit Hills, even put xmas lights on their vw beetle. [tripod.com]). We always took family and visitors on evening car tours to the best houses. People respected the privacy of the homeowners and the neighbors... hopefully people out here don't ruin it and do the same.

        Keep up the good work!
        • morcheeba: You were cool about it and didn't come off as bitter - I actually have mixed personal feelings about the gates. BTW, when you drove up, did you notice the security camera on the pole just past the gate - it (and a few others that are well obscured) actually DO work (they digitally record now) and I understand have been useful in a couple of vandelism cases - be nice if not neccessary, but there are always a few idiots out there in the world.

          Enjoyed that "Tacky Christmas Lights of Northern Virgi

    • I've been to gated communities that -don't- let you out. I'll stay short on the details, lets just say I still have scars from drunkenly trying to dismantle the gates with a pair of vice-grips.
  • Ralph Nader and The Hulk are always drawing votes away from the Democrat.

    If it's not Consolidated Lint, it's just fuzz!

  • Opinion on decorations (Score:5, Insightful)

    by beaverfever ( 584714 ) on Monday October 18, 2004 @02:02AM (#10554355) Homepage
    Over the past few years I lived in suburban areas (as opposed to downtown living) and noticed that hallowe'en lighting schemes on houses were becoming more popular. I don't get it. The spirit of Hallowe'en is to frighten people, or at least to pretend that you are trying to frighten people. A midnight graveyard lit with neon wouldn't be scary (except in regards to taste). Having your house brightly lit with orange lights isn't scary, not even to the wimpiest of little kids. Darkness is scary. A few well placed lights throwing ominous shadows is scary. Having your house lit up like it's Christmas is not scary, unless you have an unnatural fear of Christmas.
    • ObSimpsons:

      Lisa: Hey, I thought Krusty was Jewish.

      Bart: Christmas is a time when people of all religions come together to worship Jesus Christ.

      and


      Kent Brockman: Yes, whether your Christian or just non-Jewish everyone loves Santa Claus
  • Look at the Halloween Webcam web stats pages. Specifically the when the Slashdot crowd hit [komar.org]. Scroll down to the Browser Summary section, Mozilla tops IE by 3 times!
  • As outlined on the halloween webcam updates [komar.org] I'm going to leave it on all night so the overseas /.'ers can trash it during their work day - have fun! ;-)

    And as noted, I was driving to work a few days ago, and I heard on the radio one of those "Bud Lights Presents Real Men of Genius" commercials for "Mr. Halloween Decorations Man" - needless to say, it struck a chord with me! ;-)

    I've Google'd to the end of the Internet, but can't seem to find this. So if anyone out there can find a web site with it will

Slashdot Top Deals

Their idea of an offer you can't refuse is an offer... and you'd better not refuse.

Close