Christmas Lights and Google Maps 68
Anonymous Coward writes "SantaStars.com uses the Google Maps API to show the locations of some great Christmas light displays. Everyone is encouraged to post a picture of their Christmas lights and you can vote for your favorites. Some of the houses are quite elaborate like this house in British Columbia that has 87,625 computer controlled lights synchronized to an FM radio station."
A day late and a dollar short? (Score:4, Interesting)
But not to scrooge anyone's Christmas fun, Here's a display [coxnewsweb.com] put together by an electrical engineer in Ohio that's worth checking out (link goes to a
xmas light geeks (Score:3, Interesting)
The real geeks of this sort of thing hang out at Planet Christmas [planetchristmas.com]
More Re:xmas light geeks (Score:4, Informative)
Re:A day late and a dollar short? (Score:1)
Re:A day late and a dollar short? (Score:2)
Why the giant star? (Score:1)
Re:Why the giant star? (Score:1)
warning (Score:5, Funny)
Not for epileptics.
Re:warning (Score:1)
New year's resolution (Score:5, Funny)
[ ] Help the poor
[ ] Feed the hungry
[x] Buy more christmas lights
Re:New year's resolution (Score:1)
[] Exercise more
[] Read less Slashdot
[x] Go outside (to put up massive light display)
the power of slashdot (Score:1)
Probably can be seen from space (Score:5, Interesting)
Holy cow! Even if the average power consumption of each light was only 1/2 watt, that's still about 44KW. This guys power meter must by zinging around like a table saw.
Re:Probably can be seen from space (Score:2)
Maybe the server is a pretty show, instead
Re:Probably can be seen from space (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Probably can be seen from space (Score:1)
That gives me an idea... (Score:1)
If enough houses were bright enough "pixels", seen from high enough, you really could make the world's largest electronic billboard. Remember, the eye doesn't see gaps as well as it sees light sources, so you don't need every house in an entire district to do this. From, say, an aircraft at 35,000 feet, three or four houses with 80,000+ ligh
Re:That gives me an idea... (Score:1)
Just make sure... (Score:2)
Re:Disgusting (Score:1, Funny)
Re:Disgusting (Score:3, Interesting)
The U.S. uses 21.93 million barrels of oil per day, of which 13.21 million barrels is imported.
4.7 billion barrels / (13.21 million barrels / day) = 355 days
If we imported all our oil from Alberta we would run out 10 days before Christmas.
Re:Disgusting (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Disgusting (Score:2)
Also look up Nexen or Opti. Their process eliminates expensive NG and uses waste product as fuel for the process.
Disclosure: I worked on a part of the project, but I do not have detailed information or any financial interest in the project(s).
Re:Disgusting (Score:3, Insightful)
Which gets its electric power from BC Hydro.
Which, it may interest you to know, does not burn oil to generate electricity.
No fossil fuel is being wasted here.
Re:Disgusting (Score:1)
This message brought to you by the Elect Lloyd Testerman to the Office of President of the United States of America and get free gas for a year! Campaign.
Re:Disgusting (Score:2)
Two words:
Back Bacon!
Don't let the squirrels know to take those lights! (Score:2)
Somebody... (Score:1)
Obligitory (Score:1)
Google maps lights? (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Google maps lights? (Score:2)
have mercy on neighbours (Score:3, Informative)
Please use some courtesy when you go to see lights!
And if you are someone who puts lights on, please use some courtesy as well. My house is blasted by the huge number of lights across the street and we get all that extra traffic and annoyance. Please show some common sense and do NOT advertise it widely and do NOT run the lights week after week at all hours.
Re:have mercy on neighbours (Score:1)
Re:have mercy on neighbours (Score:2)
Nobody here would be scared of a scarecrow holding a mock shotgun because everyone would know it wasn't real.
And if it was real, they'd be shut down in less than a day by the law.
Of course... if the Conservatives win next year, ironically our already conservative gun laws may be in for a large overhaul.
Re:have mercy on neighbours (Score:1)
Re:have mercy on neighbours (Score:3, Interesting)
Easy one. (Score:3, Funny)
Re:have mercy on neighbours (Score:2)
Advertisements on Slashdot (Score:3, Informative)
Hmm...
Re:Advertisements on Slashdot (Score:2)
D
My House (Score:1)
Re:My House (Score:1)
Re: (Score:2)
The true question is (Score:1)
The Best (Score:1)
The very best displays are those that show up on NASA's GOES East 1km Visible [nasa.gov] Satellite Imagery.
Too many lights. (Score:1)
These huge displays are kind of useless if you ask me. You spend all this time setting them up, then a huge amount of time taking them down. All you do is piss off the neighbors and spend a huge amount of money on an astronomical electric bill.
Now, I can understand trying to make a huge display on some public/office building with a huge amount of lights using a bunch of volunteers just to have fun, or to raise money
Re:Too many lights. (Score:2)
Bright Christmas (Score:2)
All I can think is, how do that family and their neighbors sleep? They have their own artificial freakin' sun in their yard.
Come on Bob, we're trying to sleep over here. Shut those damned lights off!
Hmm (Score:1)
Also, can't forget this guy http://www.komar.org/cgi-bin/xmas_webcam [komar.org]
actual website (Score:2)