Eric Carlsons Blog

March 28th Tornado Chase

2007-03-30T22:02:00.000-06:00

During the March 28, 2007 outbreak, me and my dad traveled out to the Texas/Oklahoma panhandles. We witnessed 6 tornades in the span of one hour, an amazing amount. Needless to say, this was my best chase yet. We got just about every type of tornado possible! I don't feel like writing up a detailed report, so just check out the video:

Credits:
Editing/Videography: Eric Carlson
Music: "The Gravel Road" by James Newton Howard
Thanks to my dad for getting us out there and mostly staying awake during the drive back. :)

Green Screen Studio: Complete

2006-12-09T12:59:00.000-07:00

So I've finally got enough green cloth and lights to make me happy. It's got enough coverage to support an entire person. It's made out of junk, but it works great. While I don't have many uses for it right now, It'll be nice to have it around for when the time comes.

And in an unrelated note, the NASA World Wind team released a video showing some new features in the latest version. While the satellite photography isn't as high res as Google Earth's, it has plenty of amazing weather and topography features that blow Google Earth out of the water. And it's free.

August 26th chase

2006-08-27T21:29:00.000-06:00

We went out around eastern colorado to catch two storms. No tornadoes but lots of rain and lightning. Some of the lightning was so strong it managed to glitch my camera, as seen in the picture above. Video:

August 20th chase

2006-08-21T00:34:00.000-06:00

Some lightning and rain.

2006-08-17T21:26:00.000-06:00

The Wonderful World of Geocaching

2006-08-11T16:14:00.000-06:00

I found my first geocache today. For those of you who don't know, it's basically modern day treasure hunting. People hide containers with logbooks and items all around the world. Then, people with GPS units enter in the coordinates and try to find them. I've been hearing of this game for awhile, but only recently decided to check it out. I was suprised to find about ten all within walking distance of our house. I went out to find "Mondo's Just an Ammo Can", a small cache down by the Lafayette Rec Center. After two previous unsucessfull attempts to find it, I finally got it in this stump.I'm going to go try for another today before the sun goes down.

Lightning fest!

2006-07-12T17:48:00.000-06:00

More weather timelapses

2006-06-09T00:09:00.000-06:00

There was some cool cloud action, so I filmed it. Theres also some plane and flag video included. The raw DV video looks much better, but Youtube works well enough (Although it keeps converting the video from NTSC widescreen to PAL widescreen.)

New camera test.

2006-05-27T23:00:00.000-06:00

Just a collection of video clips from my new Panasonic GS500.

Time Bomb Movie Prop

2006-02-23T19:30:00.000-07:00

I have recently been given the task of constructing a fake time bomb for an upcoming project. I drew some plans by hand, but since I don't have a working scanner I recreated them on the computer. They horribly suck but they should give you an idea of what it'll look like.
It has to have a working countdown timer so I went to king supers an bought an overpriced digital timer, not unlike this one:
I removed the plastic covering without damaging anything inside and also gutted an old alarm clock. I plan to swap the alarm clock screen, which is a red LED screen, with the current one. It'll look much better with it. I'm probably going to go to the hardware store and pick up some plumbing and wire for the rest of it tomorrow.

Homemade camera stabilizer

2006-02-05T02:13:00.000-07:00

I figured that it would be a good idea to create one of these for any shots witch require movement. Sure it looks crappy and unstable, but the results are quite amazing. It's mostly made out of PVC pipe and a camera mount from an old tripod. Even though I've vastly improved the design, this video shows how well it works. I recommend anyone who has some spare time and a need for steady shots to go and build one of these.

Dealing with Myspace customer support part 3

2006-01-29T16:47:00.000-07:00

The results are in folks! It's been a few hours since I sent my message, and a reply has just been dropped into my inbox. So is it automated? The answer is yes. For the third time since I first tried contacting them I have received the exact same email instructing me to make sure that my password is correct, despite the fact that I sent them something completely off topic. Now an automated system wouldn't be so bad if they didn't try to hide the fact that you aren't actually contacting a real human. Doesn't it seem rather silly how they tell you to write a detailed description of the problem when they are just going to throw it away?

Dealing with Myspace customer support part 2

2006-01-29T13:26:00.000-07:00

So I received a reply to the message I sent Myspace earlier this week. Wanna take a guess at what the message said? Here's your options:

They read my mail carefully and sent me a helpful reply that fixed my problem.
They didn't have a fix but thanked me for reporting the bug and started working on it.
They sent me the exact same unhelpful mail as before.

If you guessed one or two you're a clueless moron. Myspace has once again proven their complete idiocy by not even taking the time to look at my mail and send me yet another automated FAQ entry. What's the point of having a form on the webpage that allows you to mail a specific question if you're only going to get a generic answer? Infact, I'm going to send them something and see if they even read the damn mail.

Hello Myspace.com,
I'm just mailing in to see if this whole system is automated and completely useless because I have received the same unhelpful reply from you guys twice. Please reply back.
Regards, Eric Carlson.

I'll post the results when they come in.

Dealing with Myspace customer support

2006-01-28T21:53:00.000-07:00

I created a Myspace page awhile back for the sole purpose of communicating with my friends easier. All was well for awhile, but a couple days ago I ran into a severe bug. The loggin screen would keep looping back on itself and my ability to access my profile was hindered. Doing what any sensible person would do I looked through the FAQ to see if my problem was already addressed. Seeing no entry that could help me, I mailed customer support:

I cannot log into my profile. It says that I have to enter a verification code and the rest of my information. Upon doing so and checking that the information is correct I click login. It takes me to another screen saying I have to wait 15 minutes due to exessive login attempts. After the time is up the same prosses repeats. I do not exessivley try to log in so the reason I'm getting the messages is unknown to me. I have been stuck in this loop for several days now, please help me!

A few hours passed and then I recieved a reply from Myspace. I was suprised by the quick reply until I read its content.

Hello,

Please verify that you are logging in with the correct password and
username. We also recommend clearing your browser's cookies and
temporary internet files and then try logging in again.

Often, changing internet browsers can do the trick. For example, try
Internet Explorer if you are using AOL. Note: Mac users should use
Safari or Firefox for the best browsing results.

Also, try lowering the your browsers security settings. If you are
using a firewall, try lowering those settings, if possible.

If you have already tried the methods above, check to make sure your
profile still exists by finding your profile on the site. Also, look for
comments you posted on your friends' profiles. If you cannot find your
profile, it may have been deleted. MySpace may delete profiles if they
violate the site's Terms and conditions. You cannot retrieve a deleted
account.

If this should not answer your question, either reply to this thread, or
click

http://viewmorepics.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=misc.contact

Thanks
MySpace.com

It was apparant that they did not actually read my mail very well. All they did was copy and paste an entry from the FAQ that I read earlier. I replied back with this message:

I have checked my information, cleared my cookies and cache, tried logging in on both Firefox and Internet Explorer, and shutting down my firewall. I still seem to be having the same problem with the login looping back to itself. I checked to see if my profile was deleted, but it is infact there, waiting for me to log in. I am almost certain that it is not a problem on my end because nothing I have tried has changed my results. I hope this problem can be resolved.
Eric Carlson

I waited a couple days for them to contact me back. After awhile I came to the conclusion that they didn't recieve my reply, so I resent my original mail. This time however I added an extra line of info:

Please note that I have done everything the FAQ says I should do in a case like this. It is not a problem on my end, it is a bug that should be fixed.

I have yet to recieve a remedy for my problem. I doubt I'll ever get an answer from them. My profile will probably just sit there and recieve comments from my unknowing friends for all eternity. Thanks Myspace.

Monkeyjoe Radio

2006-01-18T19:33:00.000-07:00

Yea, I'm such a looser that I actually made my own radio station. I don't know yet how many listeners I will be able to handle but it should be a reasonable amount. Open this file with winamp to tune in.

Guy commits suicide on a forum

2006-01-18T17:01:00.000-07:00

This is shocking. A forum poster killed himself after posting this http://boards.gamefaqs.com/gfaqs/genmessage.php?board=2000075&topic=25527152&page=0
Death is a sad thing.

CS_Hambolian Update

2006-01-16T17:49:00.000-07:00

Now that I have the gameplay smoothed out I went ahead and started doing textures and details. It's looking quite nice so far.

Cool timelapse videos

2006-01-16T15:24:00.000-07:00

The website is pretty slow, but the videos are great if you can get them to play. They're timelapse videos that let you see clouds move and such.
http://scienceview.berkeley.edu/view/view_archive.html

RIAA and their crazy propaganda attempts.

2006-01-16T12:37:00.000-07:00

Oh silly RIAA! Now they have informative leaflets that warn parents of the dangers in P2P sharing. They make the children seem like mindless idiots. In one of the illustrations they even have a kid sharing his dads tax return over the internet. What's really interesting is how they talk about other parties suing P2Pers when infact they are the ones doing the act.

You can find the whole leaflet here.

CS_Hambolian Dev Screenshots

2006-01-16T01:37:00.000-07:00

This is a map I'm currently working on for Counter-Strike: Source. It will be futuristic looking, but right now I'm balancing it out so I left the dev textures in. I've only tested it with bots so far so it's going to be a bit before I can make it pretty. Enjoy.

Horray for new blog!

2006-01-16T00:18:00.000-07:00

This is pretty neat stuff. Right now I'm using a default template, but soon I'll make a custom one. Laa dee daa!