so this weekend i set up a website image capture script to save off images of huffingtonpost.com and drudgereport.com on my file server. this is in reference to drudgingtonpost.com. it’s still running strong after first starting in january 2009. so i have headline data for the past 30ish months. not bad! the huffingtonpost database has 100,996 entries and drudgereport has 75,421. so yea, i have a lot of politically bias data just sitting there. and now i plan to add more.
now i’m taking a screenshot of each of those sites every half hour. i was inspired by a timelapse video of the nytimes recently going around. i think it would be really interesting to see a timelapse of huff and drudge side by side during parallel times. especially during election season.
a couple of notes. first, i’m wary that i had to set this up on my file server. i wish i could do this on my webhosting server. but its difficult to get things to execute on a remote server you don’t have control over. i don’t even think i have to permission to execute that crap. so now i have to worry about power outages and backing up. is there a way to boot up a machine after a power outage? should i get a ups? as for space, each image is say 1 MB. (1 MB)*(2 sites)*(48 captures/day)*(365 days/year)=35 GB/year. that’s not bad at all. let’s hope it plays out that way.
maybe i can do a timelapse of the headline word clouds as well?
anyways, now i just wait and let my server do it’s thing for a year or so.
create super cool timelapses!
so now that i’m done reading a dance with dragons…i can do other stuff! i’ve always meant to add this on the list, but haven’t thought about it in a while. anyways, i’m infatuated with timelapses. i’ve already done some already.
here are some for reference:
marine corps marathon: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eMyIC_6Js7Q
building a lego at-st: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Px6hNzL8quI (someone gave me a thumbs down!!!)
driving through kansas: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EMpXZKyicBk
car camping: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ST7tKxX9tXE
my first timelapse!: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5-WAsaB4Gh8
so the current idea is to make timelapses with good image quality. aka, use a slr. i currently have my old d80 that i use. last year or so, i did a mini project where i built a wifi arduino intervalometer. it works. but it’s too clumsy to be practical. so i’m looking for other options for the d80 now. anyways, i want to create some epic timelapses! more coming soon!