Literally within an hour of finding the API docs, I had a Python script grabbing temperature readings from the thermostat and pumping them intro a Pachube feed. It took longer to get the thing attached to the A/C and reliably connected to wifi.

Code

I used the requests module for retrieving the JSON. Here’s the short version (config variables have been hardcoded and error checking remove for brevity .

response = requests.get( 'http://192.168.1.123/temp' )
indoor_temp = json.loads( response.content )['temp']

It helped speed things along significantly having the Pachube part mostly taken care of by the eeml module. Adding that temperature as a new datapoint to my feed goes something like this.

import eeml
pachube = eeml.Pachube( PACHUBE_API_URL, PACHUBE_API_KEY )
# This particular feed has named datastreams -- if you're posting to one with a numerical ID instead, enter that here.
datastream = 'temp'
pachube.update( [ eeml.Data(datastream, indoor_temp) ] )
pachube.put()


Excuses

I was about to wrap this up with a list of reasons I haven’t posted the entire chunk of code on github yet. But like many unpublished personal software projects, it really comes down to some combination of perfectionism and (perceived) lack of free time. “The perfect is the enemy of the good enough” and all that. The right way would be to just post it already – having code out there publicly means other people can spend their free time to help me make it perfect.

Maybe next weekend.

Making a lamp out of a bottle is pretty straightforward, but for fun I thought I’d document how this one was thrown together.

Ingredients

• a bottle (save the cap) – empty (depending on how you empty it, best not to do this all at once)
• filler – I used green sand. The hobby store had sand in many colors, $2 for a 1.5 pound plastic jar. It only took half the jar to fill this 750 mL liquor bottle. So, roughly 1 pound of sand per liter of volume you’re filling.
• a lamp kit – includes the fixture, wire, harp, etc
• a lamp shade – It seems not many places sell green ones. Finally stumbled on this one at Ikea. SKIMRA. It was sold as a shade for pendant light.
• a light bulb
• a house, apartment, or other building – this should have some sort of power outlet, where you’ll plug in your lamp

Assembly Notes
The basic process is this: make an extra hole in the bottle; string the bottle onto the lamp wire; close the extra hole (hot glue!); fill the bottle with sand; assemble the bottle cap (with a new hole in it) and all the lamp parts and screw it into the top of the bottle; plug it in.

Some tips:

• When drilling the hole in the glass, remember that glass would rather be sand again, and will try to break to accomplish this. Drill slowly.
• After feeding the wire through the bottle, the plug end should be dangling out the back of the bottle. If the plug end is coming out the mouth of the bottle, you did something wrong.
• If the wire and plug are inside the bottle, you may be using a Klein bottle. Re-orient yourself and the bottle and start again.
• Don’t forget to clean up your mess!

Having some wildlife so close to work makes it easier to take a quick photo field trip during the day. And I get to play with my new zoom lens more.

I poked around for “flickr screensaver linux” on Google and was a bit disappointed. Most of the results a) discuss Mac- or Windows-only solutions, b) link to programs that no longer exist, or c) are more complicated than what I need.

Well, it is Linux … time to roll my own. Maybe this solution is so obvious that no one bothered to document it, but this is what I came up with.  Maybe it will save time for someone else.  Besides, I need a new post to break in the new theme on this blog.

The basic formula: RSS feed from Flickr + podcast downloader + cron +  “Pictures folder” screensaver.
Read on for the details …

Actually, any RSS feed with images as enclosures will work, since that’s what the podcatching software looks for.  However, podget does not handle Atom feeds with enclosures, so make sure you reach for the RSS.  The tricky part of this setup was finding a feed for the Interesting pics on Flickr.   Flickr does not supply an official feed, but someone has already solved this problem.  (His APOD feed is nice as well.)

You want step-by-step?  It’s actually pretty Easy In Linux (not to be confused with regular easy):

• Install the podcatcher:
  sudo apt-get install podget
• Tell podget to download to the ~/Pictures directory.  Here’s the relevant line from my ~/.podget/podgetrc:
  dir_library=/home/mythtv/Pictures
  ( alternate: tell the Pictures screensaver to grab images from the podcast directory )
• Add feeds to podget.   Here’s my ~/.podget/serverlist:
  # FORMAT:    <url> <category> <name>
#
# my photostream
http://api.flickr.com/services/feeds/photos_public.gne?id=31073629@N00&lang=en-us&format=rss2 screensaver Flickr mine
#
# my favorites
http://api.flickr.com/services/feeds/photos_faves.gne?id=31073629@N00&lang=en-us&format=rss_200 screensaver Flickr faves
#
# Flickr pictures with "interestingness"
http://feeds.feedburner.com/seanreiser/flickrinterestingness screensaver flickr interesting
#
# Astronomy Picture of the Day
http://feeds.feedburner.com/seanreiser/apod screensaver APOD
• Tell cron to grab new pictures once a day:
  Run crontab -e and add this line:
  0 5 * * * podget  # run podget at 5am every day
  (You may need to give a full path for podget)

So I’m in my second semester studying information. Classes this semester are

• Intro to Usability – links
• Human Information Interaction – links
• Digital Libraries – Principles and Development – links

About those “links” links: for fun (and reference) I’ve been tagging class-related links on del.icio.us with the course number. Which brings me to my other point: if you get bored watching this space and its non-updated-ness, try the super-duper feedburner feed which includes those delicious links and my flickr photos, as well as the main nonsense here. But wait there’s more! I threw together a Yahoo! Pipes feed that comes with all that, plus the amazing Twitter feed!

That is all. See you in May?

 update 2/22/2008: a)The title of this post was inspired by this OK/Cancel comic from 2004. b) This post is now the 3rd google hit for the term “usamajility.”