Proof In Concept: GoPro HD Camera on Dog

I've seen others do this, and now that the weather's cooled down a bit, I was able to do some of my own field testing recently.  Here's a movie of a GoPro HD Hero in a waterproof housing mounted on Vegas.  I used the neoprene harness from an old Garmin DC 20 dog tracker -- works pretty slick. 

As you'll see, it's a little Blair Witch Project-ish, but I'm really excited about the possibilities as a dog picks up scent, slows down, and goes on point.  I think the viewing angle is wide enough that I'm going to get some pretty sweet covey rises, and maybe some retrieves, too.  Combined with myself wearing one, we could have some pretty fun videos this fall.

Road Photo Friday: World's First eCollar

I snapped this shot a couple of weeks ago at the National Bird Dog Museum a couple of weeks back, while visiting Grand Junction, Tennessee for the recently-concluded National Championship.  It reminds me of the old World War Two radios you'd see in black and white photos.  I bet that it used to shoc-- er, stimulate the hell out of dogs back in the day, don't you?

A cursory internet search (always reliable, of course!) doesn't offer much history on the collar.  It's pretty rough around the edges, I'll say that.  The Bill Boatman Company is a venerable dog supply company -- I can remember reading their photocopied mail-order catalog as a kid.  But I'm not certain if the company actually manufactured these units, or if they were simply a reseller.  Any ideas, anyone?

And The Winner Is...

Lots of good entries... well, actually, there were surprisingly few entries, but damn fine advice from the folks that did enter.  We'll highlight all of this stuff (cuz as far as I can tell, it's all good endorsements from good people), but without further ado, here's the winner - who can email me at koenig721@gmail.com

Here's to tryptophan.

"Social Media" My Ass

Southwest Flight 17 from Kansas City to Dallas touches down on runway 13R, and it immediately begins. Twenty-some-odd rows of six people reach for their iPhones, Blackberries, and Droids as soon as rubber meets runway. We make phone calls, check emails from the office, text loved ones (legitimate and otherwise), update Facebook walls, tweet our most mundane thoughts, and let the world know our location on apps like Foursqure. This, in the 21st Century, suffices for social interaction.

At a bar the other night with a few buddies, the conversation lulled, and we all impulsively reached for our phones -- seeing if there's anything important we might have missed in the last fifteen minutes. I take my laptop into a work meeting so I can keep up with emails while I half-assed pay attention to the meeting going on around me. Riding shotgun with my wife last Sunday, I find myself checking my work email -- on Christianity's highest of high holy days -- instead of enjoying the beautiful spring day.

Please stop this bus, I want to get off.

The World Wide Web -- the great liberator and disseminator of information and communication -- seems to be limiting our ability (or at least willingness) to have good, old-fashioned, face-to-face analog communication. This is becoming more and more acute as the internet moves from our homes and offices into the palm of our hands. The world is literally at our fingertips -- and yet we're all becoming more insulated and antisocial.

I'm no luddite. I like technology, gadgetry, and anything else that makes my life easier. And I, for one, don't want to go back to the days of IBM Selectric typewriters, rotary phones, paper maps, and VHS tapes.

But back in the day (and by this I mean 2003, for chrissakes), I used to spend my down time at the airport walking around, checking out the pretty girls, or maybe even starting up a conversation with the random guy sitting next to me at the bar. Now it's spent staring at a tiny display, hoping to keep up with everyone else who is trying to keep up with me.

It's not going to change, of course. And it'll more than likely get much, much more pervasive. But we're forgetting that you can't spell "technology" without "no."

And the latter is a word I need to keep in mind the next time I think about reaching for my smartphone.

What Are You Doing, Dave?*

I have two members of my family that I've not formally mentioned, yet are becoming increasingly indispensable. They're our robots, Fuzzy and Dustin.

I know... robots are the things of sci-fi Jetsons and 50's-era Popular Science magazines. Well, I'm here to tell you folks, that they live among us. And we must let them control our lives. First is Fuzzy, or more properly, Neuro Fuzzy.

You've never heard of Neuro Fuzzy? It's the ship that made the Kessel Run in less than 12 parsecs, Skywalker.

Sorry, that was a bit of Han Solo coming back on me. Neuro Fuzzy is a rice cooker. The Best Flippin' Rice Cooker On Earth (as well as the Dagobah System). Seriously, we've thrown gumbo rice, sticky white rice, brown rice, wild rice, and sushi rice into Neuro Fuzzy's sizable maw, and he throws down the grain that's loved by damned near 8 billion Asians, plus a bunch of the rest of us. But the best testimony? I fixed a woodcock, wild turkey, and wild boar gumbo for my office last fall, with Fuzzy in tow, cooking up some Texmati. I work with a few first-gen Asians, and I caught them whispering in awe at The Fuzz. Instant cred... and the gumbo won the departmental cookoff that year, by the way.

The other robot I love is Dustin, our Roomba. I'm late to the party on this one, I must admit. Both Nothemingway and Mrs. Scampwalker's sister has one (or more) of these 'bots, and now I know why. Roomba is a robot vacuum. And a damned fine one. It may be slower than you, and it may make crazy patterns that are more idiotic than you after a 750 of Makers, but he gets the job done, and well. And it's all while you're doing something else more enjoyable than vacuuming.

So some things are better done by robots. Others, like the fireflies in my backyard, are purely organic, and always should be. So go get 'em. And may the Force be with you. Always.

*Hal, from 2001: A Space Odyssey

Woot for Rednecks

An alert reader and hunting buddy forwarded me the link to Camofire, a deal-a-day site that features hunting-oriented equipment. It's similar in concept to Woot, which features one close-out, remanufactured, or overstocked item each day for cheap.
I can't personally vouch for Camofire, but Woot does have some great deals... I've purchased my Media Center PC and Roomba (appropriately named Dustin) through them, and the price and service has been great.
And if you're a gear guy like me, at least this may be a cheaper way to feed the beast.