Dove's life

I found a dov'es nest on a tree right in front of my porch so I put the camera in timelapse mode (CHDK) and started shooting. I have no projector to have enogh light or nightvision and I'm using a 200mm zoom so I hope that the 2 eggs don't hatch during the night :)
shooting starts at about 8:00Am each day and finishes at about 5:30PM, a frame each 10 seconds.the camera is in Aperature mode in spot measureing to minimize the lighting difference. from the results I've noticed that the hole palm tree the dove resides on moves in a "breathing" motion, each day it rizes a bit and I guess each night it lowers. in day 2 i've noticed there's a branch that really doesn't help the view so I've cut it. in day 6 we had strong winds that shook the tripod a bit but it still runs! :)
started shooting: 03/03/2011, the first 6 days look like this (HD) :
1 day = 1 minute:

1 day = 20 seconds:


I'll keep an update each week.

Google has made my day

Google have just sent me a 200NIS voucher to use in Adwords as I see fit.
I'm not used to receiving printed mail other than bills and subpoenas, Since it's the first Email I've received from Google, I was quite shocked that they gave me such a nice gift, hope to use it wisely :)

Google Adsense made my day!

Solar Optimizer preliminary draft

After a longer than expected render I've come up with a preliminary draft which I'll keep abusing...
for more information about the study visit here

Sun view of the 2 trial array

An additional Idia rose while I was addressing this, that the dynamic panel could also be an additional reflector for the rest of the array, so for this experiment I've used only 2 panels, one stationary and one facing the sun.

Close up PV

and a parrallel video output you can view here:

a second version of 3 tracking panels here in this video:

Solar Optimizer thoughts

After encountering technologies such as Tigo Maximizer units and having short conversations about some of the issues that rise when developing the photovoltic solar installations, It seems that such an array could have additional management and control for the following:

Capitola restaurant 3D building, Google Earthed

Uploaded a new model to Google Earth 3D layer, This is a restaurant Ron and Eti have invited us to dine in while spending our Honeymoon in the states

Click to view

The Tech Museum and dining

We visited the Tech museum in the morning, still one of the first drives in the US without any GPS, took a green stick-note from Eti's kitchen and drew a little map of the area, We found a distant place to park the car there, the places we've seen "public parking" cost about 10$ an hour so we had to walk a bit in the cold.

And Perli found a nice colored car

The museum is very playful, most of the artifacts are very interactive, when we have kids we should visit there (also next time we should also get to Epcot Center...)

We finished the visit in a diner named "Johnny rockets" there we had a meal we also put the camera in stop motion mode (CHDK) and it turned out like this:

Additional pictures from today can be seen in this link

Taste buds day

We started the morning at Santana Row which is a very nice place to visit we wanted to see the "movies" but they were all so "Family" rated but we wanted a scary movie, There's a bakery there named "Cocola bakery" that has really good cakes.

Sadly, they have no place to wash hands so Perli used a cup with water to wash her hands...

but we soon found a bathroom that was camouflaged by a large ornament made of mirrors

After a short walk there we also went to a mall that has about 15 movie theaters but they all were PG rated (PlayGround?) at the toilet I've found you can buy a fake mustache for a quarter, stupid but had to test one...

 we spent most of the day just traveling and wondering.

 Eti and Ron invited us to a dinner at a sushi restaurant (I believe it is Sushi Kuni) near their house and it was very tasty :)
it was a nice finish to that day and I ate some kind of sea porcupine that was too large to put in the mouth but went down well :)
I've made a 3D model of Sushi Kuni, Now Live in google earth: