ICU

Suspicionless surveillance does not become okay simply because it's only victimizing 95% of the world instead of 100%.

Edward Snowden

How to fool a criminal?  First, order a fake CCTV camera.  It looks pretty authentic and, once the batteries are installed, flashes red on and off once a second.  Semi-convincing but proper CCTV can be made to react to movement, so regular flashes are not as realistic.

Maybe design a better circuit which flashes two LEDs randomly to simulate both target acquisition (red) and data transmission or recording (green).

To make the battery requirements minimal, program a small micro-controller to flash the lights. Include in the code the ability to "sleep" when required to further minimise energy requirements.

Wired and ready to go

A little bit of soldering...

Damn small those soldering points!

 ...and then sneak the whole thing into the barrel of the fake camera.

Which begs the obvious question - where are the real cameras? ;)

P.S. Computer music for the CCTV video footage provided for by...a computer!

Some little birds come back to the nest

The bond that links your true family is not one of blood, but of respect and joy in each other's life.

Richard Bach

Even those with a merely a passing interest would know how influential Richard Bach has been - featuring, for instance, in 50th birthday speeches.  This weekend we were surrounded by family, some related by blood and others through intertwining bonds of Richard's "respect and joy".

We dined, we rode around in the car marvelling at the scenery, we went to church and in general had a great and relaxing weekend.

Say "Fromage!"

It also snowed again - such a treat here in the hills but do drive carefully in the black ice as there have been quite a few cars upside down which is not the ideal way to travel.  It is lovely when it snows, and the fireplace is roaring, AND there is an abundance of good food, wine and good conversation...

Lovely outlook across a balcony rail of snow...

There snow business like snow business

This morning of the small snow I count the blessings, the leak in the faucet which makes of the sink time, the drop of the water on water.

Charles Olson

It's been a while since we have lived in snow.  This morning we awoke to the driving white which ironically means no driving for us.  I am wondering if we need to invest in chains?  Time will tell...

Skiing anyone?

Open the sauce

Certainly there's a phenomenon around open source. You know free software will be a vibrant area. There will be a lot of neat things that get done there. 

Bill Gates

As part of our plan to automate some stuff around the new house (including eventually the greenhouse and irrigation), I'm relearning programming microprocessors (or to be more correct microcontrollers).

After years of mucking around with the Raspberry Pi, including using it to teach coding at various schools, I've moved to the Arduino platform where both the coding and the control interface is a little more intense, but perfect for the job/s at hand.

In the following video you'll see a very simple LED pulsing program designed online, and then downloaded, compiled and uploaded to an Arduino-clone connected to a breadboard.  Small steps I'm sure you will agree, but pretty neat and all open source.

I've been on the open source bandwagon for nearly 20 years, and to this day don't understand why people are still using Micro$oft for their OS and pay for crappy software when there is so much free, stable and productive software out there.  Are we an innovative bunch Mr Turnbull?  Perhaps still a little risk-averse...

P.S. Sorry for the raspy voice, as always when school holidays hit my immune system relaxes and then gets smashed!

Holy Daze

The morning ritual is to chop wood and feed sheep.  The sun was just peeking over the hills when all that was happening this morning, bathing us in a lovely golden hue.

Irony - too hot from chopping to light fire afterwards!

The meek shall inherit the stock nuts

Other than that there is a steady stream of tradies as we get on top of the usual teething issues when taking over a house.  Joy!  Turn on the fire hose!

Empty Nest? Fill it with animals...

One of the best gifts you can give to an animal is a donation of a blanket to your local animal shelter during the winter months.

Carrie Ann Inaba

We moved the sheep today, a successful manoeuvre involving a bucket of "stock nuts" (try asking for them at the store without smirking) and some audible cajoling.  The three little blankets on legs then went about happily mowing the grass in the orchard for a few hours before being encouraged back to their regular pasture.

No mower required. (✓)

Speaking of blankets, Oskar finds it quite necessary to cover himself when sleeping - he's rather taken with his new Scottish-themed spread.

Zzzzzz

The other dog is in disgrace so I won't mention her name, but suffice it to say that another nosy wallaby is now cruising the other side of the life/death abyss after last night's canine capers.

That's three down since we arrived in Tasmania and a few million to go....stay out of the dog yard you mad macropods!