Comments on: Hey, Where Did Seattle Go?

By: Philip

Philip — Tue, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Thanks for the explaination. In my previous post (iPhone Update) I was apparently getting “crap weather, display nothing but name,” and it was, after all, 2am.
Personally I’d like to see #3, and was thinking of that option before I read your list of choices. Taking some nice Seattle night-life photos to display would be pretty cool. Actual night-life, or just cool shots of the city and its lights at night. Fog images might be a little harder, but I’d place money on you being able to figure something out.
One other thing I was wondering about was why, even on a good day, the image is never really clear. Obviously you are styling it, but why not make the colors a bit more real (it isn’t always grey and wet up there, I saw it in color myself last week!) and clear? Just seems that if you are going to show Seattle, show it!

* drops two cents in jar *

By: Mike D.

Mike D. — Tue, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Philip: Yeah, the clarity is related to the fact that it’s a videocamera doing the capturing. I did recently find out that there is precisely one brand of digital-still camera (Canon) which will operate in unattended mode and FTP images up, so I’m thinking of trying to snatch one off eBay or something. I’d buy a new one but not sure if I want to spend $300 for a camera I’m not even taking with me anywhere. Anyone have an old 2-3 megapixel Canon they want to sell? I’d even consider trading my Optio S4 for a decent one.

By: Chad Baker

Chad Baker — Tue, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

I like the idea of Seattle pictures as well. Something other than Puget Sound, maybe. Not the Seahawks, though… they’re looking pretty ugly at the moment. Anyway, nice site and great articles.

By: rhoward

rhoward — Tue, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

I’ve got a Canon PowerShot S40 that I rarely use and would be willing to trade.

By: JD

JD — Tue, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Great explanation!

I really enjoy reading everything you post up here. I like the thorough explanation of how you worked out ImageMagick, reminds me of something I attempted a while back.

Thanks for the great writing, keep it up.

By: Mike

Mike — Tue, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

I have a Canon Powershot S30 sitting here by my desk. I’ll drop you an e-mail.

By: Robbert Broersma

Robbert Broersma — Tue, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

By example, I personally really dislike pictures of people posing because a picture is taken. Holiday pictures: Hey, look at me, I am standing next to this statue!! So what?! Like this we don't get see what the holiday was like! Why aren't there any pictures of you guys waiting for the plane that was to depart seven hours later than scheduled?

So called 'real live soaps' are cool because you can basically see everything. The point of live pictures is that the scene is not moderated. The whole thing is intersting because you'd like to visit your site again when the photo might be considered abnormal, might be moderated.

What would it look like when it's all foggy? Honestly, I remember me thinking this when I discovered your live theme. Please, choose #2.

By: Joel

Joel — Tue, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

I just discovered your site earlier today. It’s great. I live in Seattle and immediately noticed the masthead. A long long time ago I used to have a company called Shoreline Media and we had a similar masthead on our site. Ours wasn’t live and we always talked about making it into a live picture or making it throw different photos based on the time of day. We never bothered, but I like it. It’s a cool feature.

Earlier this morning when I found your site, the weather was pretty gray and the masthead wasn’t much to look at. A few hours later I looked out the window and saw the sun was out and thought “I wonder what that site looks like now,” so I came back. But instead of seeing a sunny view, I saw a blank masthead and I noticed your “where did Seattle go” post. Now it’s a little grayer and the masthead is back. I wonder if you have the if/then in your script reversed so that it’s only showing when the image is low contrast??? Just a thought.

As for what to put in it’s place, the plain gray doesn’t look bad at all. If you do substitute other Seattle images, it would be a good oportunity to use nice Seattle shots from other vantage points. It would be nice to have “Puget Sound View” replaced with “Seattle at Night (stock image)” or some other indicator that it’s not the live feed. And it would be nice to still have the weather and temp even when the picture feed is down.

Again, great site.

By: Mike D.

Mike D. — Tue, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Ladies and gentlemen, meet Mike West... the most generous person in the world! I'll take the S30! Thanks so much! Better quality images to come very shortly...

By: Gordon

Gordon — Tue, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

I only ever visit here in the evening UK time so hadn’t realised that it changed! (I don’t visit that often mind you).

I think option 3 would be best, as long as you state that “this is the view when it’s a clear day/night” or something.

Great idea though!

By: John Dowdell

John Dowdell — Tue, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Nice story & application, thanks.

You used “contrast” as the metric on the server to determine whether to switch sources. Could the client engine also use “motion” as the metric?

(Apologies if I misunderstood the problem, though… I don’t see Live theme in the sidebar.)

jd/mm

By: Dustin Diaz

Dustin Diaz — Tue, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

I’ve never seen anything but the dark gloom at night…
Probably ’cause I only visit in the evenings…

By: Don

Don — Tue, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Stay live and improve the picture when you can. If you want to add a div over for likely bad weather about why they are seeing what they are seeing … then okay. But showing some wonderful shot to cover bad images is as you suggested, not live.

By: greg

greg — Tue, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Personally, I was extremely impressed with what Dunstan did on his site. Might be a lot of work for a 'sometimes' solution. But DAMN! It's sweet! Don't get me wrong, of the options listed, I'd personally live it live - live is as live does!

By: David Robarts

David Robarts — Tue, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

The live theme is great on clear days at sunset. I agree that if you replace the live image with stock it should be indicated. Perhaps you could create a true live theme and a “location” theme that replaces the images as you described. The “location” theme could even add stock photo randomly when it is clear on occation. Of course this will cause the problem for all of your readers of needing to choose between two very interesting headers.