I've got a little free time over the weekend, so I'm playing with my Pi cameras. I'm pretty unhappy with the quality I'm getting from my Logitech webcams, but I haven't been able to dial them in yet so there still might be an ideal combination of parameters that will produce good material.
Their photos are inconsistent because their auto-adaptation features are adjusting with every shot. Even when that doesn't happen, the results aren't great. Here's the birdbath taken with the Pi3 powered by a solar battery using a Logitech C920e webcam.
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| Meh. |
I'm creating a PHP web page that will allow you to change the settings on the camera and then take a shot. I also want to set up a webcam page where I can just see what's coming out of the camera in real time. I had to fight with it for a bit this morning because the Linux photo app didn't want to allow the website to take the picture. An hour of debug solved the permissions problem and we're past that hurdle. Now on to video and manipulating the camera settings.
I don't think I'll have time today to swap the Pi3 for the Pi4 on the TomatoCam so I can play with my new high-quality Pi camera. That one has a real lens, not a pinhole like the Logitechs. It has a great deal of promise, but there's no time to explore it.
Soviet News
I thought this essay by Matt Taibbi was brilliant. I recognize his name, but I can't associate him with a political side, so I don't know whether to love him or hate him. Instead, I just read the essay. Matt is a nut for Soviet newspapers and has quite the collection. He's making the connection between the Soviet rags and our own news media. Tidbits:
Some of the headlines in the U.S. press lately sound suspiciously like (Soviet newspaper) kind of work:
— Biden stimulus showers money on Americans, sharply cutting poverty
— Champion of the middle class comes to the aid of the poor
— Biden's historic victory for America
The most Soviet of the recent efforts didn’t have a classically Soviet headline. “Comedians are struggling to parody Biden. Let’s hope this doesn’t last,” read the Washington Post opinion piece by Richard Zoglin, arguing that Biden is the first president in generations who might be “impervious to impressionists.” Zoglin contended Biden is “impregnable” to parody, his voice being too “devoid of obvious quirks,” his manner too “muted and self-effacing” to offer comedians much to work with.
I thought the same thing when I saw the Biden Stimulus headline. Nauseating. Matt goes on, comparing the coverage of absolutely identical policies from Trump and Biden:
When Biden decided not to punish Saudi Prince Mohammed bin Salman for the murder of Washington Post writer Jamal Khashoggi on the grounds that the “cost” of “breaching the relationship with one of America’s key Arab allies” was too high, the New York Times headline read: “Biden Won’t Penalize Saudi Crown Prince Over Khashoggi’s Killing, Fearing Relations Breach.” When Donald Trump made the same calculation, saying he couldn’t cut ties because “the world is a very dangerous place” and “our relationship is with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia,” the paper joined most of the rest of the press corps in howling in outrage.
My bet is that the news media, needing clicks, is simply feeding its readers what they want to hear for fear of driving them away. Conservatives ditching Fox because they called Arizona too early was a warning for all of them. Their readers are strict and voracious carnivores and demand raw meat at all times.
That would be fine if you thought the newsies were cynics, able to tell the difference between nuanced reality and the Party's latest talking points, but I'm not sure they are. My interactions with one AP writer showed him to be precisely what conservatives suspect - a blinkered ideologue who shuts down the conversation when confronted with doubt-inducing questions.
Oh well. We're called to serve our fellow man and that calling isn't dependent on the political climate of the moment.
Off to learn how to create beauty. Have a nice day, everyone.
8 comments:
"I can't associate him with a political side, so I don't know whether to love him or hate him"
I really hope you're joking, here. You should love/hate people on their own merits, not based on what gang they are in.
Tim - When I read "I can't associate him with a political side, so I don't know whether to love him or hate him", I immediately reached for a towel to mop up the sarcasm...
Yeah, it was a joke.
I got the joke, for what it's worth.
Matt goes on, comparing the coverage of absolutely identical policies from Trump and Biden:When Biden decided not to punish Saudi Prince Mohammed bin Salman for the murder of Washington Post writer Jamal Khashoggi on the grounds that the “cost” of “breaching the relationship with one of America’s key Arab allies” was too high, the New York Times headline read: “Biden Won’t Penalize Saudi Crown Prince Over Khashoggi’s Killing, Fearing Relations Breach.” When Donald Trump made the same calculation, saying he couldn’t cut ties because “the world is a very dangerous place” and “our relationship is with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia,” the paper joined most of the rest of the press corps in howling in outrage.
My recollection is that Trump refused to blame bin Salman and actually repeated what the prince said, which is not the same as the the calculation that we won't punish him for it. Of course, that's only a meaningful difference if you value truth.
SNL has had few problems parodying Biden.
Tabbibi doesn't mention which newspapers are running these headlines. There are certainly far-left newspapers that would run this stuff, and they have been around for a few decades now. That doesn't make them government dupes.
Off(your)topic ==
I have a somewhat technical question for you, KT.
I use two under-counter refrigerators. The thermostat of the newer one is suddenly acting flakey. It's staying on constantly and freezing the contents. I don't see how I could get-and-install a replacement thermostat, and I'd rather not throw the refrigerator away.
So, is there some reasonably inexpensive way I could rig a thermostat placed inside the refrigerator to control an external power switch?
Or, might I plug the refrigerator into a timer of some sort?
Ilion,
There are often hardware stores that sell appliance replacement parts, and usually they will give you advice. Locally, we have one called Don's Hardware.
If you have the tools and the will, bring the old thermostat in with you, and let them look it over. Sometimes it turns out to be something you didn't expect. I had to make a second tip when I thought my dryer heating element had filed, but it was a fuse.
The appliance replacement parts store in this area isn't so flexible/helpful; you have to be able to tell them exactly what you need.
So far, I don't see a way to remove the controls without busting up the inner shell of the refrigerator, which rather defeats the hope to be able to continue using it.
It may well be cheaper, and certainly less aggravating, to simply buy a new refrigerator. It's funny, the one I've have for 30+ years is still plugging along.
I can't just start using it as a freezer, because when the thermostat is acting up, the compressor runs non-stop; it wouldn't take long to waste enough electricity to pay for a new refrigerator. For that matter, even if I could rig up some external control, there is no guarantee that the thermostat won't flake in the opposite direction, and never let the compressor turn on.
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