I suppose that this is really a blog, though I hesitate to call it that. The real bloggers seem so much
more interesting. I cover stuff which I find interesting, and I hope that you will too.
If you really want, you can get an RSS feed of Chateau Gladstone news here:
For more information about what I'm interested in, see the Ponding pages.
Pondcam repairs
3 Aug 2001
This weekend should see the pondcam reactivated. I bought
a CMOS 640x480 camera that seems to work nicely, and I was
also given a piece of coated glass to use as the front window. By passing a small current from the glass and another electrode, the idea is to prevent algal growth.
Apparently this scheme works in the ocean, but according to
the literature, nobody seems to use it in freshwater.
more...
|
|
A Salamander arrives
16 Jul 2001
OK -- the salamander arrived by car from a friend's
swimming pool where it had fallen in. You can see a picture
of it on the Pond life page. I stuck
it in the top pond as I suspect that the big fish might
eat it. We will see whether the frogs eat it anyway.
|
|
Another big storm
30 Jun 2001
Another big lightning storm came through and destroyed
various bits of equipment. This is the reason that the
weather readings stopped after 6pm today until I replaced
the 'dongle' that is used to interface the sensor network
to the computer. I also lost the mouse (it melted!) and
various bits of networking gear (hub, print server).
It was all on my UPS and surge supressors, but I guess
that not much can be done for lightning. I have a whole
house surge supressor as well. I'll put up the lightning
photographs soon -- I managed to capture some strikes on
video.
Update The print server has recovered but it looks
as though the webcam didn't make it. Still, this may be
an excuse to get a better camera!
Update I had disconnected the 1-wire network from
the dongle on Sunday July 1 before the next storm came
through. Unfortunately, one of the temperature sensors
seems to have gone shortcircuit in the second storm. It
was just wired to the end of a long peice of wire, and I
guess that the induced voltage was too large (although since
it is all twisted pair, I don't really understand it).
I think that the new network will have more voltage
supressors, but I'm nervous about the capacitative loading
that it will introduce.
|
|
The storm of June 20, 2001
20 Jun 2001
In spite of the weather forecast, this wasn't a bad
storm. I did get a couple of lightning pictures.
See the storm page. I've also included
the various weather charts for the day, and the graphs
are somewhat interesting (if you like that sort of stuff).
|
|
Added new pages for plant and pond life
19 Jun 2001
I finally started to split up the main page into
other pages. I now have a plant life
and a pond life page. I hope to fill
out the photographs there as things happen. Check 'em out.
|
|
The hummingbird came back
10 Jun 2001
We saw the hummingbird for the first time this year. (I
guess it is the Ruby Throated as that is the only one that
is found in Massachusetts). I hope to get a decent photograph
of it. I suppose that we ought to put out the hummingbird feeder
now!
|
|
New camera position
5 Jun 2001
I realized that the camera was facing south -- i.e. into the
sun. I moved it round to the other side of the pond so that
the sun will normally be behind the camera. This should
improve the image.
Right now it is not pointing in quite the right direction, but
I'll fix that in the next few days. It certainly does
seem to work better. You can see the stems of some of the
water lily leaves and the leaves floating on the surface.
|
|
Frog hopped away
30 May 2001
I fear that the Leopard frog has hopped away. We haven't seen it
for a few days. I think that it probably heard its friends
calling from over the field, and went to join them.
|
|
Weblog installed
30 May 2001
I finally took the plunge and made PHP work. What a nightmare!
Anyway, I'm now using weblog to maintain the diary.
more...
|
|
Bullfrog eviction
20 May 2001
When we started up the
ponds in 2001, we found a
bullfrog here.
Unfortunately he (or she)
escaped before he could be
transported to a nearby
pond. I don't want him
eating the fish!
We finally found three bullfrogs and managed to evict all of them. Two of them went to local schools (pre-K) for the kids to
look at. One of them was sent to the pond next door.
|
|
|
|
Rolodex
docsearls The Doc Searls weblog -- he seems clueful and I read him.
ffmpeg Open source audio/video streaming software -- this drives my pondcam
cwop The Citizen Weather Observer Program is a loose collection of amateur weather station operators.
spf-pobox Information about SPF (Sender Permitted From)
gunnera Neat description of the Gunnera Manicata -- a truly monstrous plant!
jreceiver Open source server for the Rio Receiver -- this is what I use.
|