Christmas/Halloween webcam & webcontrol screen shots through the years
As somone who works in the computer business, software
is never "done" ... it's always work in progress. Here's the
evolution of the holiday lights webcam/webcontrol over the years.
- Christmas 2002: Version 1.0!
- Halloween 2003: Increased image size capability (640X480) and Pan/Zoom capability ... plus the Hulk!
- Christmas 2003: Add clickability
directly on the image, add some CSS for bells & whistles such as
bullseye cursor and client-side image zoom, general cleanup of HTML code
to be HTML 4.01 transitional compliant, other general user interface stuff,
tighten Perl/CGI code so better equiped to handle heavy load (aka Slashdot)
and misc. interfaces with analog X10 devices.
- halloween 2004: Tune
user interface via html/css, optimize hardware handling code so we should be
capable of 1-second update, near-real-time web stats available.
- Christmas 2004: Running with mod_perl, misc. tuning and polishing.
After a media frenzy, I disclosed that it was a
fun little hoax so all of the above
included an "image generator" back-end. But for 2005, I decided to
do it for real ... although the
front-end user interface provides the same basic capability.
- halloween 2005: Used
iframe's to split the webcam view and controls - provides much cleaner look
since only the image updates. Misc. performance turning and code
optimization. Increase use of Javascript and CSS to enhance user interface.
Add second server for image serving only and finally (!) upgrade to Apache2.
Add blogging capability.
- Christmas 2005: Three webcams are better than one! More AJAX stuff and misc. CSS/HTMl tuning. Highlight charity fund-raising/awareness for Celiac Disease.
- halloween 2006:
Three webcams (plus each webcam is on a dedicated 100 Mbps server) with
much smoother Javascript updates rather than meta refreshes.
Added "Instant Messages on Webcam" where you can
type a message and displayed on a visible laptop - see
halloween messages.
Used Google API to create halloween maps showing where web surfers came from. Add
background halloween music - Adams Family Theme Song! Misc. CSS/HTML/Javascript tweeks on the client-side and on the server-end, major code rewrite to version 2 of include files
and external config files for much better portability and flexibility.
- Christmas 2006: Similar to above with improved (but not perfect!)
anti-spam/profanity filter on
Christmas Instant Messages and Christmas Blogs.
Other misc. CGI/CSS/HTML polishing ...
and for the
christmas music,
I have selected Jingle Bell Rock!
- halloween 2007: Two Hulks, misc. CSS Rollovers for flag on blog & last-20 on IM, Hi-Def mode, and even W3C validation! ;-)
- Christmas 2007: Forgot to do screenshot (circuit and X10 control box layout), but misc. polishing of the above - what else to add besides the kitchen sink! ;-)
- Halloween 2008: Presidential Election - Obama, McCain, or THE HULK!
- Christmas 2008: Wins Nationwide KFC Christmas Contest - $1,000 for Celiac Disease plus free Extra Crispy for a year - BUURRPP!!!
- Halloween 2009: Just more craziness! ;-)
- Christmas 2009: Added 15' inflatable Santa Balloon
- Halloween 2010: Took a break - no spooky display ... :-(
- Christmas 2010: Added Santa Heli, Plane, and Skier ... plus Santa Workshop Sign
- Halloween 2011: Back with full spooky power after a year off! ;-)
- Christmas 2011: Added another Homer-Santa ... plus hi-def webcam
- Halloween 2012: Front Yard and Haunted Office Webcam gets upgraded plus Presidential Election that the Green Party wins ... so the Hulk goes to the WhiteHouse! ;-)
- Christmas 2012: Hi-def webcam in Santa's Workshop
- Halloween 2013: Few minor software and system tweeks
- Christmas 2013: Few minor software and system tweeks
- Halloween 2014: Last Year ... :-(
- Christmas 2014: Last Year ... :-(
Latest
Halloween Webcam
and
Christmas Webcam plus main pages for
Halloween Decorations and
Christmas Lights