Tuesday 30 June 2009

Helicopter Coast View Around Cork Harbour, wget and ffmpeg fun

Video here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5TVB7KPXAts

Image data Copyright:
http://gis3.dcmnronline.ie/imf5104/imf.jsp?site=Helicopter
It would be nice if GIS info were available to taxpayers! poke. poke.
And if GIS browsing site had more features.
Basic bookmarking/linking would be nice.
Anyone want to write a cloudy app?
It's not fantastically wonderful data really .. maybe,


BASEURL=http://gis3.dcmnronline.ie/sorted/
for (( i=87198 ; i<=88123 ; i++ )) ; do
echo i=$i;
wget -c $BASEURL/$i.jpg ;
done

for (( i=87198,j=0 ; i<=88123 ; i++,j++ )) ; do
ln -s $i.jpg $j.jpg;
done

# -r is framerate in fps, -b bitrate
FFFLAGS=-title 'Helicopter Coast Cork Harbour http://gis3.dcmnronline.ie/imf5104/imf.jsp?site=Helicopter'
ffmpeg $FFFLAGS -r 3 -b 1800 -i helisound.mp3 -i %d.jpg HelicopterCoastCorkHarbour.mp4

# ugh, yes. sorry about the audio
# 995 images, 8M video.



http://gis3.dcmnronline.ie/output/ENG_HELICOPTER_dcmnrgis-web134762684331.png

http://gis3.dcmnronline.ie/sorted/87685.jpg
Cuskinney, Cobh

http://gis3.dcmnronline.ie/sorted/87654.jpg
The slip in Cobh

http://gis3.dcmnronline.ie/sorted/100741.jpg
Dublin joyce martello tower sandycove

http://gis3.dcmnronline.ie/sorted/104513.jpg
Dundalk

http://gis3.dcmnronline.ie/sorted/1.jpg
Throat of malin

87k * 100000 images = 8700000k = 8.7G
Hmmmmm >;)

http://gis3.dcmnronline.ie/sorted/88123.jpg
out to R of Roches Point (and of Cork harbour)

http://gis3.dcmnronline.ie/sorted/87198.jpg
well out of (Cork) harbour to left


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HNLMS_Amsterdam_(A836)
http://www.defensie.nl/marine/operationeel/schepen/hr_ms_amsterdam/

http://gis3.dcmnronline.ie/sorted/87638.jpg
http://gis3.dcmnronline.ie/sorted/87639.jpg
http://gis3.dcmnronline.ie/sorted/87640.jpg
http://gis3.dcmnronline.ie/sorted/87641.jpg
http://gis3.dcmnronline.ie/sorted/87642.jpg

87638 bow -> 42 stern


http://gis3.dcmnronline.ie/imf5104/imf.jsp?site=Helicopter

Thursday 11 June 2009

Some fun taking down election posters & kids school Play

Kids were in school play last 4 days.
Very good actually combination of variety Irish dancing, singing and music by kids and teachers mixed in with two stories.
Snow White and Prince Hugh
Kate on Mon (F&M saw her) + Tue (F&M&I saw her and Daire).
Daire was Prince Hugh who was a bit too popular with the girls for comfort!
Daire was Prince Hugh on Tue and today (Thur), on Wed Daire was in Larch hill with scouts.
(Maeve and I dropped Daire, Cian and Conor over to scouts.
We left Kate with Moya to get lift to play.
Maeve & I watched play and collected Kate.)
Kate was very funny and nice as a dwarf.
She marched around very confidently.
She was very expressive - especially when they saw snow white had collapsed!
She stared very concerndly at snow white at the end.

Had great fun with Daire collecting some more election posters.
He was really good at spotting them from car and great help carrying snippers and posters and ties.
He was still dressed in sandals and pants with rope lashing on them for costume and still with moustache of Prince Hugh.
He got hit on the arms with one poster on the way down. :(
I got some myself on way back from dropping him down to do school play.
Met Catherine and Kevin also collecting posters.
Kevin has a magic long snippy rope stick.
It almost flies like a broomstick!
We have 10 of Elizabeth's, 4 of Adrianne's and 1 each of Terence's and Deirdre's.

We met a friendly drunken person drinking through a plastic bag full of cans at the Goat.
He offered to help but we had our ladder.
He was asking how much might the fine be if they were left up and if you could make money putting the posters up or down.
He scooted off real fast, hopefully not to get a ladder!!

Fionn's really busy with Residents stuff.
Delivering flyers about AGM, collecting subs, getting photos ready, making presentation for AGM, arranging things with roads/greens/sports&social, stuff needs to go up on web and be printed. http://lhra.info

I'm suffering form VERRRY annoying cough.
It was a teeny possible allergic sniffle coming back from camping. :(
The heat seemed to initiate it.

Saturday 6 June 2009

Irish elections. "Waaah. It's not faaaair! :("

€€€ jobs banks €€€ jobs banks €€€ jobs banks €€€ jobs banks €€€ jobs banks €€€
Irish people: "Waaah. It's not faaaair! :("
vote vote vote vote vote vote vote vote vote vote vote vote
Me: "Waaah. It's not faaaair! :("

Good to see FF down loads.
However Green Party have been decimated in the local councils.
(I'm a bit sorry FF people, actually I'm liking the current FF government (heavens forbid!) compared with the opposition! However you have a long history to overcome before I would trust you.)
IMHO you need a good scattering of crazy green people especially at local council level.
This is why I'm Waahing.

And who has gained? Labour (Which is okay by me, I think.)
And FG have gained who I view as being the same as FF (except for not being in power for last long while so perhaps more innocent).
But one definate thing is I don't hear anything about solutions or politics from FG or Labour.

Dammit.

Bah.

Meh.

One thing I think I can say for sure is that the voters are expressing displeasure.
I think that might be all that I'm sure about.
What exactly are they displeased with?
The current state of the economy right now I think.
Did people vote in council people based on their performance in this council term and the past ... ?
I think even some very solid local people suffered this time just through association with being in government.

Why have the Greens been punished so much?
Perhaps their vote is not that strong anyway so when you're in a negative place you are going to be decimated.

IMHO Greens in government is good. If you are out and always stay out you're irrelevant. If you are in you can influence policy and make a real difference and influence the people you're in government with and make them greenish left liberal honest too. I don't quite see why the banks have to get such huge support when they are still inclined to squander but apart from that I think this government is generally doing okay. I think on the Environment with the roads through Tara and with Shell in Mayo the Green agenda has had to hold it's tongue in government and that's hard but you can't just stay out of government and leave FG/Labour allow things to be even worse for planning generally as well as worse for Tara and Mayo.

It's too late to vote this government out of office!
2 years ago was the chance to do that!
There were plenty of people, Greens especially warning about the economy, about wasting money, about the overinflated property bubble 2 years ago.
And what happened 2 years ago? I would have loved for FF to be booted out.
FF got quite a nice proportion of the vote, not quite 50% seats but a very comfortable amount.
The people spoke (and sure it was a nice sunny day as well).
Did FG/Labour want another election then?
They seem to want another election now.
Isn't that like voting a few times on the Nice Treaty? (or abortion, or divorce, or contraception)
A necessary thing actually! :-) In time.

If it was a national election would people really bash FF?
I don't see any good proposals from FG and Labour.
If the running of the country was really on the line would people see the lack of anything solid from FG or Labour?

FF === FG as far as I can see so to increase the vote for FG is surely a stupid reaction.
They are the same with regards policies (which they generally don't write down/publish and keep vague!)
Their policy on honesty and corporate donations are the same (yes, we'll have that €€€€ thank you very much ka-ching!).
They've a long history in local government (and across the country planning decisions especially have suffered from bad decisions from many councils).

Labour are also playing the sure we are green anyway and we we do planning as well card now, which is a bit annoying seeing as they've a long history in government and on local councils without making a difference. Come on Labour! Put your money where it matters and show you can be honest by supporting strict regulation of donations.

I have been looking to FG or Labour for something and would have liked to support them but they have put nothing sensible forward. SO I found in this election I voted Green and for a couple of good local councillors and then there was nobody else worth a vote :(.

What should the Green party especially do now?

The morally correct / honourable thing would be to stay in and influence this government as much as possible in the right direction. If they stay in government green voters and people could get more disillusioned with the party "selling it's soul". We're not "selling our souls" guys! We're taking evil parts of FF souls and making them a little bit green, a little bit pink and generally more colourful. If the Greens go out of government ... well, I think there is no good reason to go out of government (no good moral reason!). I also think Greens could be just decimated by an election now and even if not the government dynamics would probably make it that we have 1 or 2 big parties in power (the parties with the vague not-written-down poolicies!). A National Government fills me with that warm squirmly horribly sick feeling - but that's okay - it looks like it gives the same feeling to FG and Labour.

What would be the thing to do for the green party if they just wanted to grow in size and power?
People (I hope I hope) will vote for good candidates people who work hard on local issues for councils.
People are a bit stupid when voting quite often maybe? And will vote for celebrity. Will vote AGAINST things much easier than voting for things. Do people really not care about party policies just about more single issues that crop up.
So appearance/media is everything. To get elected by Irish voters you must look and sound good, make good impressions and manipulate the system to stay looking good. I don't think Green people want even to be thinking about this!
Maybe the best policy for greenish-pinko-liberal people is to hide their good policies and agenda and work on that in quiet and on the surface manipulate the system as much as possible in whatever political vehicle is handy.

Maybe(Hopefully!) good people working away locally (2 greens left with council seats! :() and nationally, out of power and in can build up a good reputation which would be apparent to people generally. And maybe that would translate into votes and into a good influence in the right place.

Hopefully.

Monday 1 June 2009

Camping in Wexford. Morriscastle Strand Caravan park

Beautiful warm summery weather all this week.
Not too hot on motorbike. Strangely.
Collect things a bit Wed and Thur evening.
Daire brings lots of gear down from attic himself.
I go help waider move Fri and we pack car Fri night.

Pictures here:
http://picasaweb.google.com/gaoithe/2009MayJuneCampingMorrisCastleWexford#

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&q=Morriscastle+camping,+wexford,+ireland
By the way, googling for "camping|campsite|caravan|park" as a business search is really handy.
Lots (not quite all) places can be found there.

Sat morning we set off, arrive in grand time, set up camp in caravan/camper van area.
Pitch tent right next to playground.
Could be fun!
Daire meets some kids and plays football with them straight away "I'm Barcelona!" "I'm Man-U!" (heh heh _ I think doh on behalf of 1st kid, Man-U have just beaten Barca yesterday).

Morriscastle to Wexford, heritage centre and then later Johnstown castle for picnic:
http://www.openstreetmap.org/user/gaoithe/traces/403865
http://www.openstreetmap.org/?lat=52.5187&lon=-6.2349&zoom=14
Important to get the sun-cream on!
Fionn has arranged all the food. Lunch and picnic for later. Brilliant!

Go to Enniscorthy to eat in the evening.
Nice Portuguese place (? Galo) after walking around lots of Enniscorthy (which was nice though with tired kids).
And visit vinegar hill for fun on way home.
I navigate with map on way home.

Next day lots is on the beach.
We do life-jacket wearing practice for Kate and Maeve and play in dingy - they get to feel what being half in water with lifejacket is like.
In evening beach walk.
Lovely marsh lagoon under windmills BUT someone warns us that locals think it has sewage in it :(
SO that dampens things down a bit :(
Or rather ...
Anyway.
Daire and Kate join in a massive game of chase on the dunes.
Bad from dune conservation point of view probably (as is having the campsite and paths on/through dunes to beach maybe).
:-7