Power's Back!

That planned power outage took longer than I'd expected.

The good news is that the webcam is back online.

The better news is that this house has significantly better wiring now, than it did yesterday.

Related post:

• "Planned Power Outage"
  (June 27, 2012)

Planned Power Outage

Sorry about this. My house will be without power for part of this morning: it's a planned outage, so that some electrical work can be done.

That will put this webcam offline for at least an hour.

I expect the outage to start in about 25 minutes: 8:30 a.m. in this time zone.

Thank you for your patience.

Hummingbirds: Refills

It took the hummingbirds three weeks to go through a pint this time. I'm not sure why they're not taking as much now. Maybe I caught some that were passing through. Or maybe someone else set up a more attractive station.

Whatever the cause, I'm still seeing at least one come by every hour. Probably more often than that, since I don't keep close watch on the window or the webcam.

I've adjusted the webcam's focus: with noticeable improvement. Now I get a sort of 'stop motion' effect with the hummingbird wings as they hover.

Related post:

• "More Hummingbirds"
  (June 4, 2012)

Back Online: Ustream Malware Issue Resolved?

The webcam's back online.

I've got some pretty good security keeping a virtual eye on my in-house software. Not even that trigger-happy crew of AI guards got concerned when I checked Ustream.tv out a few minutes ago.

Whatever was behind the malware issue that apparently affected every Ustream feed earlier today, it seems to be resolved.

Chris Crumn's updated post about the malware alert issue that plagued Ustream.tv today is the best I've found so far:

• "UStream Hacked Ahead Of Apple's WWDC?"
  Chris Crumn WebProNews (June 11, 2012)

Hats off to Chris Crumn, by the way, for providing detailed information: including (screenshots?)

Judging from some of the, ah, imaginative postings I saw elsewhere, there may be new versions of the old Google conspiracy theories brewing.

More-or-less-related posts:

• "Offline, For Now"
  (June 11, 2012)
• "Mayan Apocalypse Transition: Book a Galactic Cruise; or Take the Cosmic Bike Tour"
  Apathetic Lemming of the North (February 3, 2012)
• "How to Not Sound Crazy - or - THE PARANOIDS ARE AFTER ME!!!"
  Apathetic Lemming of the North (June 12, 2011)
• "Nuclear Weapons, Space Aliens, Conspiracy Theories, and Getting a Grip"
  Apathetic Lemming of the North (September 24, 2010)
  Particularly
  • Threat From Boogabooga!
• "Want to be Paranoid, but Just Can't Find the Time?"
  Apathetic Lemming of the North (August 27, 2008)

Offline, For Now

Streaming video from this webcam won't be available for a while. Something's gone wrong with Ustream, the service I use.

First: You're okay, and so am I. Like the fellow says, "no problem."

Second: It looks like someone's hacked Ustream. My malware/virus alerts tell me 'don't go to that site,' so I didn't. Webcam service got dropped at about the same time.

You're okay, because there's nothing coming from Ustream. I'm okay, because I pay attention to 'don't go there' alerts.

That's the good news.

The bad news is that I won't be looking out the window through my webcam until whatever went wrong got fixed. And there's nothing I can do to help fix it: apart from wait, and not joggle Ustream's elbow with 'is it fixed yet? is it fixed yet?' messages.

Back Online - Again

If you tried using this webcam last night or earlier this morning: sorry about that.

My household lost internet and telephone connections last night. Service got restored momentarily, but then connections were gone again. For hours.

We're back online now, happily.

This is the second major interruption in about as many weeks. Loss of the Internet is a major nuisance, since that's how I update my blogs and websites. A more serious issue is losing telephone service. After this outage, I've started setting up backup procedures for emergencies.

Related posts:

• "Intermittent Internet Interruptions: Irritating!"
  (January 15, 2012)
• "A Few Power Outages, a Brownout: Otherwise Okay"
  (December 22, 2011)
• "Offline, Again: 'Service Unavailable' - **Frustrating!**"
  (October 11, 2011)

Less Sky, More Birds

Now, why didn't I think of that?

Someone asked me about where this webcam is pointing - and I realized that I'd been leaving it in the same position for - well, for a long time.

This isn't a big change, just twisted a little to the left and tilted a bit more down. The sky isn't visible now, but the entire hummingbird feeder is inside the frame now, plus a little of the airspace around it.

The hummers will still probably show up as streaks and little ovals - but now we'll see them when they're around the 'left' side of the feeder.

More Hummingbirds

Yesterday I refilled the hummingbird feeder. They'd gone through nearly a pint of the 'one to four' sugar-water mix in a week.

It's a satisfactory arrangement: the hummingbirds get food - or fuel, anyway - and I get to watch them.