eBirdseed.com Wild Bird Feeding Blog: Finishing Unfinished Business

Hi,

Back around my 800th post, I mentioned that I wanted to do something special for the event... I never did. That got me to thinking about other things I've promised along the way and never followed up on. (Yeah, I know... I finished off that last sentence with a preposition... tough.) Anywho, here are two projects that go unresolved: the streaming eBirdseed.com Web cam refinements, and that pesky encryption contest from long ago... One thing at a time...

First, here's a screen shot from our streaming Web cam mid-day.

scrn shot_2011-11-09_133916.jpg

Not very exciting is it? The original plan was to house the cam in some sort of protective enclosure outside (see the link above), but that sort of fell by the wayside... Maybe it's time to re-visit that idea... The first step is to find the acceptable operating temperatures for the camera (a Logitech Webcam Pro 9000). Bummer that the Logitech manual and site doesn't have that info; I put in a tech request for same. We'll see.

Next up... that nasty old data encryption/decryption contest... Truth be told, it really isn't that nasty, and offers tremendous insight into the ease of data encryption. (Whether or not you know it, you're probably using some form of data encryption as you read this -- your banking, credit cards, and medical records all use this stuff.) Anyway, all it takes to win this is a brief bit of learning and then doggedness... Alright... Your silence (and the silence of those who read two other blogs) concerning this contest has been deafening. So, it's now closed... I need to simplify the contest, and at the same time change the rules and prizes. How about this? I can boil it down to a 30 second solution, change the rules as to who can enter (previous winners will be allowed), and up the ante on the prize. Let me mull it over... But in the meantime, here is the single lump sum prize for that future lone winner...