Busy Nest Box

They come and go by day...

...and they come and go by night.

The owls will win control of the nest box, but not before the starlings have made complete and utter pests of themselves, as long time viewers can attest. Also, the starlings continuously dump new bedding material into the box. I cleaned out the box this weekend to ensure that it wouldn't pile-up so high that it would block the view of eggs (when those start to arrive in a month or so), or bury any of the infrared illuminators (LEDs) that make nighttime pictures possible. Unfortunately, it appears that little short of daily cleanings would ensure that, and there just isn't time enough for that. On the plus side, once the starlings are persuaded to give-up, owl activity should trample and compress most of that material into a less problematic mass.

Meanwhile, I experiment with a means of performing video capture that is as hardware, software, and platform independent as possible. The ultimate in such solutions seems to be stand-alone boxes that accept analog audio/video input, digitize it, encode it using standard codecs, and transmit it over Ethernet using standard streaming protocols. With modifications, my custom owl cam software should be able read those frames, clean, adjust and timestamp them just as it has for years, and produce the familiar still images.

That's great in principle, but making it happen may be a bit tricky with the video server box (an S2071 from 3Svision) I'm currently experimenting with. Among other problems, customers can't get firmware updates [they have since provided one in response to an email request], the manufacturer's specifications are wrong in several areas (as is often the case), and those just happen to be the areas I was depending on (as is often the case). The problems can still be solved, but the software won't be as simple, or (possibly) as platform independent, and that means more potential points of failure (if not now, then in years to come), which is disappointing.

So, two things: (1) If anyone has experience with better video servers, at comparable price-points, please tell me about them. (2) The owls could begin nesting any time, and my system is not yet adapted to the new gadget, so images from the box are likely to begin a bit late this year. Sorry about that; I don't like it either.

On the other hand, the S2071 has some very nice features (one of which was left undocumented in the specifications, but may make the S2701 almost as good, in practice, as having a DVR recording everything), a price-point per video channel digitized that's lower than any other devices I've used, and it produces higher quality (very good noise reduction and de-interlacing), and slightly higher resolution, images than any video digitizers I've ever used.

Finally, there's this tantalizing possibility: Provided I upgrade my home broadband service to something with higher and more dependable upload speeds than Time Warner is currently providing me (my cable bill is already stunning, so giving TW even more money is not a good option), and I can find some well-connected, high capacity server to replicate and re-serve the video streams that the S2701 produces (ideally without reducing their quality or size, or presenting them surrounded them with advertisements), I might finally be able to offer to viewers live audio & video of the same quality I see, which, believe me, will transform what you will learn about the nesting process as you watch the cam'. That said, please, do not get your hopes up. There are a number of big "ifs" associated with this potentiality, and no guarantee of solving the various technical, financial, quality and other problems. All I can say is that using a video server like S2071 should solve the first of the problems, which is an obvious prerequisite for solving the next problem, and the next, and so on. So, for the first time, I'm in with a chance.

FireWire 400 Devices Incompatible with FireWire 800 Macs?

If anyone knows of a solution to this, it'd sure come in handy.... I'm dealing with several converters that turn analog audio/video signals into standard DV video. All of them use the FireWire 400 interface, as is traditional for DV devices. My problem is that my Mac, a Mac Pro (4,1), has FireWire 800 ports. I've bought two different FireWire 400-to-800 adapters, both of which make the DV encoder boxes visible to most video capture applications (QuickTime Pro and iMovie, but not to Apple's example code for performing QuickTime video capture on the modern Mac OS). However, in no case can I capture video. No preview of the video shows-up prior to initiating the capture, and clicking on "record" in QuickTime Pro or iMovie produces nothing (literally zero byte movies - no data whatsoever is captured).

I've Googled for answers, and found indications that other people have had the same, or similar, problems, but I haven't found any answers. (At this point, I'd even settle for an explanation of why Apple seems to have screwed me.) If anyone has any insights, please share.

Owls Preparing to Nest

A depression in my nest box's bedding material has suggested for several days that a female screech owl is planning on nesting there. Last night, I finally saw one of her visits, when (sure enough) her primary concern was moving the bedding material around to create a depression for the eggs that are on their way. This is normal pre-nesting behavior for a female screech owl, so it's a very good sign that my Owl Cam' will return this year.

Therefore, yesterday afternoon I brought the box down and gave it a thorough cleaning, and a new floor covering beneath the usual bedding material. The new floor covering is composed of unjoined, loose fitting segments of wood that are positioned end-grain-up. It should provide better thermal insulation (more like a cavity in a tree), while wicking away moisture in the bedding material (again, like a cavity in a tree, where the dead, interior wood of the tree is potentially a large moisture sink), providing a barrier to insects like last year's ants, and allowing the box to drain if a meaningful quantity of rain should ever find its way into the box (which has never happened). The latter two requirements border on being contradictory: providing good drainage means allowing unobstructed access to the large drain holes in the box's floor while keeping insects out means, in part, obstructing access to those holes. Realistically, it probably won't be perfect at either, but I think it'll be an improvement over my previous approaches to the problem.

Last night I observed both the male and the female in the box at various times. The male arrived first, examined the cleaned-up interior briefly, then climbed into the entry hole and called for his mate with great vigor. After 5-10 minutes of that, he left. Perhaps his mate had arrived in the area, or maybe he needed a stiff drink after all that calling. Several hours later, his mate appeared in the box, gave it a careful looking-over from the safety of the entryway, and then entered and proceeded to give the bedding material a thorough kicking about, until she had created a shallow depression that met her specifications.

In my experience, that behavior means that nesting could begin at any time.

David Bamberger on 60 Minutes Tonight

My friend David Bamberger—who has been working since 1969 to restore the worst piece of land in Blanco County, Texas (and maybe the rest of the Texas Hill Country) in order to prove that what's good for the environment is good for the rancher, and vice versa—will appear on “60 Minutes” tonight as part a of piece on “hunting ranches in the U.S. that offer exotic big game species.”

David’s ranch offers deer, and maybe turkey, hunting in season, and it is scrupulously supervised. It’s an important source of income for the ranch, and, of course, keeps the deer population within the land’s carrying capacity. No exotic big game species are hunted on the ranch, but there is such a species present: the extinct-in-the-wild Scimitar Horned Oryx, a type of large antelope that once lived in sub-saharan Africa and is said to have been able to kill lions (when you see their horns, you’ll understand). When he heard, many years ago, that zoologists were looking for land where the surviving remnants of otherwise extinct species could live in reasonably familiar, and reasonably wild, conditions, David offered them a square mile of his ranch, and the zoologists decided the Scimitar Horned Oryx was a good fit. The herd has been there for a long time now, bred to exact instructions from the zoologists in order maximize genetic diversity, and thereby give the species the best possible chance of survival if it can ever be reintroduced to its native wilds.

I think I can guess at the rest of the story, as least as it concerns David, the ranch and the Oryx, but to go on I’d have to start speaking for David (we’ve discussed the matter in some detail, but I’m sure I don’t know every part of it, and few people can tell a story like David can, in any case, so best not to try). Suffice it to say, I agree with David. What remains to be seen is what 60 Minutes makes of it all.

Tune in tonight to find out.

Watch the Solstice Approach (and Recede)

As an equinox or a solstice (in this case) approaches, my year clock starts indicating the time of the event with increasing precision, using indicator arrows like the one shown below (each equinox and solstice has a unique arrow; this one is for the winter solstice).

While such arrows are visible year-round in the clock’s year ring, as the month of the event is entered an arrow appears at the exact point around the month ring’s outer circumference that corresponds to the time of the event. As the week of the event is entered, same thing … and so on for the day, hour, and minute rings. So, the approach (and retreat) of the event can be observed in real-time, if you happen to be of a mind to do so.

(If you only want to know the times of equinoxes and solstices, see my perpetual table of them.)

The year clock requires any version of Firefox, or the WebKit-based browsers like Safari and Chrome (WebKit currently has the better SVG engine, IMO), that have been released since about 2008. The latest Internet Explorer can probably handle the clock, too.

Check Your Drug Interactions, Avoid Rude Surprises

I recently found myself in a situation in which an over-the-counter pain medication prescribed by one of my doctors began to poison me, and, given enough time, probably would have done permanent damage to some major organs I've come to depend on over the years. I didn't realize what was happening at the time, I just lost feeling in a section of one hand, as the pains that were supposed to be treated by the drug rose to entirely new levels.

What allowed me to diagnose the problem, and realize that I had to stop taking the pain medication immediately, was a combination of the National Institute of Health's MedlinePlus drug data, and an automatic drug interaction checker that I found about a year ago: Medscape Multi-Drug Interaction Checker. (That's a link to the web version of the checker, but there is also a free iPad/iPhone app. The app has the virtue of remembering the medications you've previously entered, among other things.)

Just enter the name of every drug, supplement, etc. that you're taking, or being told to take, and see what the interaction checker comes-up with. Interactions are classified by their severity, and their effects are described.

If an interaction turns-up, there's a good chance that the description will be very specific, like a reduced ability of the kidneys to eliminate some medication. However, it won't tell you what effects you may experience as a result. In a case like that, logically you know that a build-up of any drug could lead to an overdose situation, but you'll need the NIH's Medline Plus data to learn what effects you might be experiencing as a result. Therefore, neither service is necessarily sufficient by itself, but, together, they can let you ask specific and important questions of your doctors, and maybe spare you some serious nastiness. Of course, when you have to catch a problem yourself, following-up with a good doctor as soon as possible is prudent.

Now, ordinarily, I won't use dot-com sites for health information, because there's no reason to assume they are remotely objective, employ quality controls, keep material up-to-date, etc., but this interaction checker was unique, as far as I could tell, when I found it. Since then, it's done me very good service. So, this is the exception to my rule.

If you know of something even better out there, leave a comment or drop me a line. If you don't, I recommend getting in the habit of using the interaction checker, even if you never take anything other than supplements, over-the-counter meds, caffeine, etc. Forwarned is forearmed, as they say, and since some doctors can't be bothered to gather basic patient histories (like what drugs you're on), to check for drug interactions, or to otherwise demonstrate even rudimentary competence in their fields, you're going to have do that for them, just to protect yourself.

(Old joke: "Did you know that 50% of all doctors graduated in the bottom half of their class?" Unfortunately, the joke's on us patients.)

Disclaimer: I'm a software engineer, not a doctor. I have a better grasp of logic, rudimentary statistics and the basics of the scientific method than some of the doctors I've dealt with over the years, but not one, single medical credential. Don't trust your health to me, please.

Be well, folks.

Wolfram|Alpha: How it Came to Be, What it Does, How it’s Done, How it Grows

I’ve been sending this link to people for a year or more. I think I’m overdue to make it available to everyone:

Making the World’s Data Computable

Personally, I found it fascinating and illuminating after being left clueless about what Alpha was by the industry press.

Need some specific examples to understand how to use Alpha? See their examples page.

And if you try Alpha and it doesn’t meet your needs now, try it again in a week; a new version is put into production every week (or that was the case at the time the blog post referenced above was written).