2. Webcam and Webcontrol may have pan & zoom capability! The Webcam and WebControl (which allowed folks to not only view the lights in real-time, but turn them ON and OFF) was a BIG hit. For 2002, the webcam imaged a fixed image ... but for 2003, you will be able to you to pan (move/slew) the camera across the lights and even zoom in to certain sections. Here are screen shots of the various webcams that show the evolution/changes. Read more about it from the 2003 Halloween Webcam FAQ and here is the new-n-improved halloween webcam in actual operation.
3. Additional Real-time weather data! Real-time data collection of various weather data such as temperature, pressure, and winds using various x10 sensors.
4. Beefed up web server and faster ISP connectivity!
Last year, the web server was a 1GHz Pentium3 with 128 MBytes of RAM
connected to the Internet via a single T-1. Needless to say, this got
pretty saturated, especially after word got around about this site.
This year, it is a 2.4 GHz Xeon with a GByte of RAM and the ISP
connectivity is (basically) a T-3 ... so we should be able to handle
the traffic much better. Hosting and misc. assistance provided by
Komar Consulting and Earthnet Data Center, So when/if the
Slashdot crowd
comes around again, we are much better equiped to handle it!
Send alek a public Email with any other ideas
and be sure to check back here after October 1st, 2003 to see and
control the lights!