Two false charges in Electra, Texas. Prosecutor tries to add more at pretrial. And so much more. snesin 2014-02-11 | I verbally objected to an unconstitutional search of my vehicle in Electra, Texas. Police officers Matt Wood and Gary Ellis maliciously responded by issuing me two false citations. I got a copy of the dashboard-camera video at the pretrial hearing. It showed all. City attorney Todd Greenwood demanded I give my copy of the evidence back, and tried to have me arrested when I refused. Todd Greenwood then compared rural Texas to the movie Deliverance, and warned me "What's written down in the Constitution is one thing, and the real practice is another."All charges dropped. Section 1983 anyone?
Dropping 100ft of ball chain off a 40ft tower (slow motion). snesin 2013-09-08 | Ball chain is often used on ceiling fans and hanging lights for pull switches. This is 100 feet of ball chain dropping off a 40 foot tall tower. The chain gets pulled up out of the jar at the same speed the other end is falling. The upward momentum creates an interesting loop at the top.
Solar furnace time-to-ignition: about 1.5 seconds. snesin 2013-06-22 | A solar furnace made from a satellite dish. We use it on cookouts sometimes. This video was taken at solar noon the day after the summer solstice. It takes the wood about 1.5 seconds to burst into flames.
Microwave Plasma? Do not try this at home. snesin 2013-05-19 | Rumors are a burning toothpick in a microwave creates plasma. I can confirm a giant ball of glowing gas leaps off. Contain under an upside-down glass vase or it will burn the top of the microwave. Neat to see.
A kite battle with my oldest boy. GoPro on board. snesin 2013-04-08 | Home-made 0.75 square meter kite, with GoPro camera attached.My oldest built his own kite, doing the sewing, bridle, and everything. He said it was his battle kite, throwing down the gauntlet. Of course his old man has to make a bigger kite. Mine does not fly nearly as well as his though. We battled it out, trying to tangle each others lines. He won (twice), and I ended up with a broken vertical spar.He helped me launch mine, then he had to rework his lines, so it pretty long and boring.At about 10:05 I start dive-bombing the boy, harassing him. A couple of really close calls there, at 11:55 I almost had him garroted. :)He gets his going at about 14:15. At 15:40 he tangles me up and it is a slow, inexorable spiral to the ground for me.
Solar furnace from a satellite dish. snesin 2013-02-19 | The kids and I converted an old 2.8 square meter satellite dish into a solar furnace. Lots of sanding, then painting with reflective paint. The surface was not great, but good enough to start fires and boil water pretty quickly. And cook s'mores of course.Come the summer solstice, we will try Mylar and see what sort of temperatures we get.Sorry I did not pilfer any music.
More swing set fun. snesin 2012-12-21 | Try to watch the whole video without getting queasy. Sorry about the sound quality...
(RESOLVED) GoPro Hero 3 Black freezes / locks up after one second. snesin 2012-12-21 | ***Expand video description to see resolution***GoPro Support Case #472760GoPro Hero 3 Black locks up after about 1 second. WiFi works while camera is off. SD card is sound. Firmware up-to-date.Contents of MISC/version.txt file:{"info version":"1.1","firmware version":"HD3.03.02.00","wifi version":"3.4.2.9","wifi bootloader version":"0.2.2","wifi mac":"d896850c20a3","camera type":"Hero3-Black Edition",}RESOLUTION:I recieved following email from GoPro support (in less than half an hour!!!), The first option (about the shutter button) did not work for me.The second option (manually reinstalling the firmware) did. I bought a second, small microSD card and repeated the firmware download the next day and saved it in the camera bag. This way if it happens again on the road I will have an emergency firmware install card.================Hi Scott,thanks for getting in touch with us.We're sorry to hear you're having issues with your HD HERO 3.Please try to follow the steps below to hard-reset your camera:- Remove SD card and Battery.- Press and Hold Shutter Button (it will need to be kept pressed throughout the whole process)- Insert the Battery- Click the Power/Mode Button.Camera should power up. Make sure you insert a recommended micro-SD card (For the HERO3 Black a Class 10 is required) and update the camera's firmware through the portal.This should get everything up and running.Please follow the procedure below in order to re-update your camera manually:1. Connect you camera to your computer with the USB cable and power it on.2. To manually update the HERO3's firmware you'll need to have JAVA disabled on the Browser 3. Go to http://gopro.com/support/product-updates-support and choose your camera model.4. You'll get a message 'install Java' on your screen, please don't do so.5. Please click the manually update camera link on lower-right. (you'll need to click it twice to confirm). Fill in the registration fields.6. On the next screen you'll need to type in the camera's serial number (it's case sensitive, so make sure that you have Caps Lock ON)7. Following will be the registration information for the WiFi connection.8. You'll then have the link the download the firmware update files, which are downloaded in a standard zipped folder.9. After you have the zip file on your computer, place ALL files that come inside the zip onto the root of your micro-SD card.10. Power Off the camera, and unplug it from the computer.11. Power On the camera, the update process will begin automatically. Please do not press any buttons at this stage. (edit: I believe you need to press and hold the shutter button [top] button while you press the power button [front], and keep holding the shutter button until the update starts.)The firmware update can take between 5 to 10 minutes, and the camera may power off and back on by itself.This should get your HD HERO 3 back on track, but let us know how it goes.Many Thanks,RiccardoGoPro Supportgopro.com/support===========================I have been asked a few times if I recommend buying the camera. My short answer used to be no, but since the firmware update on April 4th, 2013, I have changed it to a maybe.The reliability is still iffy. I you are doing a once-in-a-lifetime event, or anything you are going to spend a lot of money on and are depending on of having video of, you had better have more than the one GoPro 3. In my experience, it is going to fail to capture at least some part of it.But for everyday videos, it works well. The pictures are beautiful, and the range of focus is staggering. Just know that it will not always be a smooth process.I love the camera, but it is a lot of money for such a flaky system. I do not regret my purchase, but there will be those of you who will, and for good reason.The battery life sucks. 1 to 1.5 hours of video with wifi controller on. Sometimes the camera heats up, and seems to lock up and drain the battery even faster. The wifi remote controller battery stinks too, but seems to match camera well.When charging the wifi remote controller, when it gets full, the damn thing turns on and tries to mate with a camera. It is easy to put it back in the bag not realizing it has turned its self on, and then its dead when you need it.If you do get the camera, I recommend more than one memory card. I had one fry (not sure if the camera fried it, but possible), and was unable to take pics. One or two smaller ones to carry as backups, in the 8G to 16G range.If you are going to be out and about on an expensive trip away from the internet, I would buy yet another extra card (small, 1G or whatever is the cheapest) ahead of time, load it with an emergency firmware reset, to carry with you just in case.
On The Swing Set snesin 2012-12-07 | A 5-year-old who thinks she is not going high enough unless there is slack in the chains at the top.
Dice-O-Matic snesin 2009-05-24 | Dice rolling machine used by GamesByEmail.com to generate random dice rolls for play-by-email games. Capable of generating 1.3 million rolls per day. http://GamesByEmail.com/News/DiceOMatic
