|
HamsterTracker™ News Archive- Online since September 5th, 2004 - |
 |
My hamster Lucy, tracked with HamsterTracker™Powered by Peacoque Labs, Eindhoven, the NetherlandsCreated by Mathijs van der Paauw RSS feed: http://feeds.feedburner.com/HamstertrackertmRssStream |
|
|
|
|
|
News Archive: (click here for current news) |
|
|
June 15, 2005 Hopefully a hamster adoption within 10 days from now!ISP changes!My ISP changed some stuff today (which I wasn't aware of it was comming)! All my hit-counters on every page stopped working... Sadly I lost all statistics on this. Needless to say it's a ton of work to replace all counters by new ones. I have sent my helpdesk an email about this today, so I hope to get good news soon. 
Behind the scenes, I'm still working on my RSS feed server software. I am getting close to finishing the software development. Once finished I'll document it all on this site. Reason enough to check back, even without a hamster... 
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
June 9, 2005 Can't seem to find a hamster for adoption yetStill not much luck at the adoption centers (= petshops). Seems that female hamsters are a bit hard to find right now. The site is a lot more interesting when run by a hamster....! Behind the scenes, I am working on some HamsterTracker™ server improvements! I've developed some software that generates a RSS file. RSS is: (Really Simple Syndication) A syndication format that was developed by Netscape in 1999 and became very popular for aggregating updates to blogs and the latest news from Web sites. (see: Answers.com for a full definition) Check out the RSS file the HamsterTracker™ server software generated: HamsterTrackerRss.xml But please remember it's still in the development stage!
You can even subscribe your RSS-reader to it. Though it will not be updated as much now as opposed to having a hamster, but you can subscribe and it's free and anonymous! Firefox users can subscribe by simply clicking on the orange RSS logo in the statusbar below. |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
June 3, 2005 Still Gettin' ReadyI've made some calls to petshops asking for female hamsters. Sadly the two I called only had males. Because I want to compare results a female hamster it must be. Tomorrow I am going 'hamster huntin' by phone; my quest is to find a female hamster, ready for adoption! I'll keep you posted... (No news means I couldn't find one yet...) |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
June 2, 2005 Gettin' Ready part III've finished updating Lucy's page and I finished with her Data Charts. I also did some hardware tests; and ofcourse (Murphy's law:) it all works fine! I guess I am really gettin' ready to get a new hammy very soon! |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
June 1, 2005 Gettin' Ready
After a wonderfull birthday, things are getting back to normal. I'm starting to get ready for a new hamster. I've updated Lucy's page. The cage is cleaned, and has been 'aired' for some time now. Fresh food is in the house, so I'm all set to go. I still have to do some software checks, and some hardware maintenance... But my aim is to get a new hammy really really soon! |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
May 26, 2005 
Early birthday presentToday I got some of the Funkiest, Groovin' Ultra Mega Cool mail in my (snail)mailbox! My dear friend, DJ Quincy Jointz (www.quincy-jointz.de) sent me his LimeSorbet mix no. 7 on CDROM! I am really flattered by Quincy's gift, and I do love that mix. It will be available for download soon on LimeSorbet (www.citrona.net/sorbet.htm)! You can listen to a new mix every week on that terrific funky site! Have a look and hear yourself! How cool is this??? Ultra Freakin' Groovin' Funkiest' Cool! I've got a premiere here! Thank you Quincy Jointz! |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
May 24, 2005 
Upload detailsDuring Lucy's little life she generated a total of 75.879.323 bytes with HamsterTracker™That's an impressive 72.36 Mb or 494 KB a day on average! That's excluding the website updates (which I do manually) and excluding the webcams.Behind the scenes I've been doing some HamsterTracker™ stuff, but not as much as I have to. (Got my birthday comming up (may 30th)) and I do want the place to be all neat and tidy when my friends come to visit, this takes a bit more of my spare time than anticipated... But, I am preparing for my new little hamster, I've disinfected her cage, and I've made a start in software preparations. Ofcourse last weekend, when I'd planned to do some major work (because it has been raining a lot here) it was gorgeous weather; so I went to Tilburg to a Salsa Festival, that's today's picture. |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
May 18, 2005 Lucy's final graph version 2I noticed that somehow the Y axis of the treadmill graph changed. Now I changed it back to what it should be: 
Now it's a lot more clear that Lucy was taking it very easy the last few weeks (even months). Next time this happens I will contact my Vet sooner. At the time I thought it could be well possible that Lucy didn't like running for a while... |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
May 17, 2005 Lucy's final graphsIt took my a while to set myself to process all of Lucy's last data, but today I've done it. 
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
May 13, 2005 A card today!Today I was very pleasantly surprised to get a card from my Vet and assistents! 
Inside: 
of your dear and loyal housemate Lucy How sad, that she still didn't make it! Veterinarian (assistents) / \ Niek Soepnel and Loes, Daisy, Marijke HamsterTracker™ greetz to Niek, Loes, Daisy & Marijke!!! Thank you, I really appreciate this! |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
May 12, 2005 HamsterTracker™ will continue!I also have to rewrite some of the website to make room for my new hamster friend! I'm still thinking about this one; I want maximum result with as less work as possible! Meanwhile, I'll keep a log on how everything is developing from here! (Al I can tell you is that a lot is goin' on right now...) HamsterTracker™ greetz to: Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Bolivia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, China, Colombia, Costa Rica, Czech Republic, Denmark, Egypt, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, India, Indonesia, Israel, Italy, Japan, Korea, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Mexico, Morocco, the Netherlands, Norway, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Puerto Rico, Russia, Singapore, Slovenia, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, Tunisia, Turkey, Ukraine, United Kingdom, United States, Uruguay & Venezuela. All these (52!) countries have at least one person who has met Lucy during her (too short) life. HamsterTracker™ shouts also go out to my favorite Italian DJ; DJ Mitch for signing my guestbook, and expressing his grief about Lucy! Thank you! I would also like to thank my collegues @ work for givin' me support (Angela & Stefan to name a few I hadn't named)! |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
May 11, 2005 (16:05) 
The day after...I would like to thank the following people for supporting me yesterday & today:Dup Raymond Silvia Johanna Ewald Paul My manager @ work for expressing his simpathy and letting me have the afternoon off to start cleaning! 
My Radio 42 friends:
Alessandra oronzo n8eule Vibrella (www.vibrella.de) "I wanted to tell you, that I'm very sorry about Lucy, I really feel with you." Last but certainly not least my friend Byron send me a mail of which I would like to quote the following: "...I was dealing with several sick hamsters that had wet-tail. In all, 4 of my little guys ended up passing on, including my first hamster, Fluffy, who I really cared about the most. Anyway, I'm very sorry to hear about Lucy. I took it pretty hard when Fluffy left me. She had been going down hill all weekend, and finally left me late Saturday evening when I was trying to keep her warm and calm in my hands. I'm not going to discribe it now, but what my Fluff went through I hope to never see another hamster go through. I guess I can say I have a little idea what your going through. I was crushed must of Sunday to the point that I didn't want to do anything else, and I'm still sad of her loss. But I know that your Lucy had a good life. She had a great owner, was well cared for, and was an inspiration to many other hamsters and hamster owners. What more could a hamster ask for in the brief time they are with us. I know it may be a bit pointless now, but just on the off chance that you ever decide to bring some joy to another little hamsters life, and continue the great work you've started... - Byron " My thoughts are also out to you Byron! HamsterTracker™ will continue!Yes, I will continue the HamsterTracker™ project! But first I have to clean the cage, and let it dry for a week. I also have to find a nice new hamster as well as doing some work on the HamsterTracker™ server software and the Website... I'll keep you posted here! STAY TUNED! |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
May 10, 2005 - day 150 - Treadmill total: 107.390.50 meters! (14:11) 
I'm very sorry to announce that
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
May 5, 2005 - day 144 - current treadmill total: 107.389,81 meters! (13:39) Lucy is listening to Radio 42), at this time of writing! 
Lucy's medicationThis morning when I woke up, she woke up and demanded attention. Because my HamsterTracker™ system makes an audible beep when Lucy leaves her bedroom, it was easy to detect. After I gave her a small treat (pine seed), she almost climbed out of her cage. I took her in my hand and we sat on the couch. This gives me the opportunity to administer her medicine (0.05 ml.) I've got a small seringe (without a needle ofcourse) in which I have to get in her mouth. The first two times my Lucy was a bit afraid. But now she almost seemed to like it. (It must be the strawberry flavor!). Although she still keeps her ears flat, I do notice an improvement over these last two days!!! In the picture is the package of her medicine prescribed to Lucy van der Paauw! |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
May 4, 2005 - day 144 - current treadmill total: 107.389,81 meters! (13:39) Lucy is listening to Radio 42), at this time of writing! The VetHe (a very nice doctor) examined my hamster. He immediately spotted her red nose, something that I had missed. Then he took his stethoscope and listened to Lucy's lungs. It seems to him that Lucy has a bit of a cold or something. Lucy actually coughed! He gave me a medicine (which tastes like strawberries) which I have to give my Lucy 2 times a day. I just gave her her first dose (0.05 ml)! I also now know that lucy weighs an approximate 85 grams. |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
April 27, 2005 - day 137 - current treadmill total: 107.389,34 meters! (19:39) Lucy is loungin' (and listening to Radio 42), at this time of writing! The vitamine project:Anyway, on the box it clearly states that hamsters should get 2 drops of this stuff every day, "For a full, gloss coat and Optimal condition!". It suggests that applying it to the hamsters food or water. There's the catch; my littl' Lucy puts her daily food in her pouches, and stores it in her 'Bedroom'. By that behaviour I'm not sure she'll get her (needed?) vitamines. 
Because it's also possible to administer this vitamin-stuff via her water, I started calculating; Facts: 2 Drops a day of Multi-Vit. Lucy drinks on average 5 ml. a day. Her water bottle is approximately 110 mm in height. See also: January 11, 2005 on Water Consumption Automation. That's a volume of:  = 44 = 138.230(ml)
When Lucy drinks 5 ml. a day, she can do with a full bottle for approx. 27 days (138.230/5=27). This will require: 27 days * 2 drops a day = 55 drops per water bottle. I'm still thinking of doing this (because every 5-7 day's I refresh her water (sometimes sooner)), I waste a lot of that expensive vitamine stuff. On the other hand, then I'm certain that my Lucy will get her vitamines! I've found a study on the volume of a drop of water = approx. 0.0251 ml. Lucy will require 1.3805 ml. of Vitamin drops per drinking bottle. A bottle of Vatamin drops is 20 ml. so this should last me about 20 ml / 1.3804 = 14.5 bottles. This should last ( 3 days per bottle * 14.5 bottles = ) 43.5 days to ( 5 * 14.5 = ) 72 days. At € 4.95 per bottle of 20 ml, that's about € 0.07 - € 0.11 per day! I guess I shouln't cut down on costs here! This simple calculation made it clear! Share your opinion or thought, by sending me a mail or signing my Guestbook. |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
April 25, 2005 - day 135 - current treadmill total: 107.388,06 meters! (17:30) Lucy is loungin' (and listening to Radio 42), at this time of writing! Did you know that hamsters only have four fingers on each hand?I guess that's why hamsters make terrible accountants!Hi Mathijs, I'm sorry to hear about your Lucy not wanting to run in her tredmill anymore. I'm still working with my first batch of hamsters (Fluffy, Fozzy, and Spice), and all 3 of them love running in the hamster wheels I have, so I'm not sure what the problem might be. However, sometimes I have found that re-arranging the cage gives them something new to explore. Maybe finding the hamster wheel in a new spot will spark more interest. As I'm sure you know, hamsters have a natural need to run, thus why they like hamster wheels so much, so if you have checked Lucy out and she is fine, and she likes running in other places, maybe there is something else wrong. They have a great sense of smell, so maybe something bad happened at or near the wheel that she can still smell? a transister fry or something that is making a burning smell. I'm just kind of guessing here, but maybe it will give you a few more ideas of your own that you havn't thought of yet. Anyway, my original reason for writting you is that I've noticed your working on being able to support multiple webcams. I would be very interested in figuring out what the usage requirements are, and possibly using the software you are making. I have been wanting to expand my own hamster cam. Right now I'm still on a camerade's site (hamstercam1.ww.com), but I'm looking at moving over to my own server, and I would love to support more than one cam, since the home for my hamsters is currently made up of 5 different cages, a single cam can't show everything. Well, good luck to both you and Lucy. - Bryon HamsterTracker™ greetz to you Bryon for your input and supportYou really gave me some good ideas to try out!Also, HamsterTracker™ greetz to Fluffy, Fozzy, and Spice, from Lucy! |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
April 21, 2005 - day 131 - current treadmill total: 107.386,00 meters! (22:10) Lucy is loungin' (and listening to Radio 42), at this time of writing! 
Lucy's ignored her treadmill totally last night!Lucy is taking it awefully easy these last few days, eh weeks...I've given her a checkup and she seems absolutely fine:
So to me, she doesn't seem sick or anything!!! Maybe just a bit bored with her treadmill! |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
April 19, 2005 - day 129 - current treadmill total: 107.385,72 meters! (19:30) Lucy is sleeping (and listening to Radio 42), at this time of writing! Lucy's a bit lazy!
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
April 17, 2005 - day 127 - current treadmill total: 107.359,91 meters! (11:30) Lucy is sleeping (and listening to Radio 42), at this time of writing! Happy 75th Birthday, Gold Hamster!
Unbelievable, but true: the Gold Hamster aged 75! Some zoologists discovered a Gold Hamster species with a single female and eleven youngsters, near the Syrian city Aleppo, on April 12th 1930. This started it all…
The hamster we own as pets today, descent from these eleven youngsters, which crossbred with each other. Original (German) text can be found www.vetcontact.com. Pointed out to me by: DJane Vibrella. HamterTracker™ shouts to you! |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
April 14, 2005 - day 124 - current treadmill total: 107.349,75 meters! (17:30) Lucy is sleeping (and listening to Radio 42), at this time of writing!
FINEST ELECTRONICA CHILLED WITH AMBIENT & DOWNTEMPO, MIXED WITH HOUSE &
LATIN, STIRRED WITH NUJAZZ AND BLENDED WITH SOULFUL FUNKY BEATS. |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
April 13, 2005 - day 123 - current treadmill total: 107.345,41 meters! (19:15) Lucy is sleeping at this time of writing!
Great news: Tomorrow
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
April 7, 2005 - day 117 - current treadmill total: 107.308,09 meters! (17:30) Lucy is sleeping at this time of writing!
Working on my own and new Webcam server software!Another disadvantage is that I cannot control the snapshot by my HamsterTracker™ software. Therefore I developed my own. Currently the Camera no. 2 is driven by my own software! Now I have to make it support multiple camera's. So if the camera is offline a bit these comming days, then you know that I'm probably working on it... |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
April 5, 2005 - day 115 - current treadmill total: 107.234,25 meters! (18:10) Lucy is sleeping (and sadly not listening to Radio 42 ), at this time of writing! Our favorite internet radiostation - Radio 42 closed down!
Due to legal resons!
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
April 2, 2005 - day 112 - current treadmill total: 107.037,25 meters! (17:10) Lucy is enjoying spring, sleeping (and listening to Radio 42), at this time of writing! Two webcams online!
I've put out the table in my backyard today. It was lovely weather today over here. So I took out the laptop, and using wireless internet, I've developed a small webcam server that uploads a picture every minute. Because the webcam freeware I use doesn't support multiple camera's I decided to develop my own. Even though my software doesn't support multiple cameras, I can now run this webcamserver as well as the freeware webcam server. Therefore enabling 2 camera's. |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
March 30, 2005 - day 109 - current treadmill total: 106.767,81 meters! (17:10) Lucy is sleeping (and listening to Radio 42), at this time of writing! A new Lucy picture today!
The picture above is Lucy having a wash. I took the picture from beneath her. Her right foot is clearly visible on the left. The 'Eye' in her face is the plastic texture of the floor of her meditation room. So are the letters and logo on her butt. ;-) |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
March 26, 2005 - day 105 - current treadmill total: 106.287.25 meters! (21:20) Lucy is sleeping (and listening to Radio 42), at this time of writing! Just some fresh new Lucy pictures today!
The picture on the right shows lucy with a clear reflection of the camera that took that shot. Lucy is taking it extremely easy in her treadmill these last couple of weeks... |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
March 22, 2005 - day 101 - current treadmill total: 106.011.78 meters! (21:00) Lucy is sleeping (and listening to Radio 42), at this time of writing! Statistical graphs update
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
March 21, 2005 - day 100 - current treadmill total: 105,931.56 meters! (20:40) Lucy is sleeping (and listening to Radio 42), at this time of writing! Webcams and stuff
Today is day 100 that I have the pleasure of taking care of my little Lucy! She has been out of her cage just now (I think it's her 20th time, but I haven't really kept a log on this). She now knows that biting me, will cause bleeding and pain, so she decided not to do that anymore! Lucy is taking it a bit easy on the Treadmill front. I suppose it's got to do a bit about her new cage enlargement. I guess it's much more fun running aroung in that, than running around in her Treadmill. We'll see if her old treadmill achievements will repeat... |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
March 20, 2005 - day 99 - current treadmill total: 105,748.31 meters! (13:40) Lucy is sleeping (and listening to Radio 42), at this time of writing! I modified Lucy's cage today!
Because Lucy had removed everything from her toilet, I dicided to make it a bit more difficult for her to do that again. I hope this works. |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
March 16, 2005 - day 95 - current treadmill total: 105,066.00 meters! (17:25) Lucy is sleeping (and listening to Radio 42), at this time of writing! Another Speed record for Lucy!Lucy ran new speedrecord last night; on day 95, between 0:08:28 and 0:10:48 CET (or GMT+1) , she ran a dazzling: Mach 0.0012137! or 0.8028078 Knot that's an impressive 41.3 cm/s (or 1.49 km/h) 
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
March 15, 2005 - day 94 - current treadmill total: 104,750.16 meters! (17:25) 
Lucy is sleeping (and listening to Radio 42), at this time of writing! It took Lucy only 28.23 minutes to slaughter the Kräcker |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
March 13, 2005 - day 92 - current treadmill total: 104,637.59 meters! (20:00) 
Lucy is sleeping (and listening to Radio 42), at this time of writing! Ultimate Website promotion:I gave him a poster which they hang in his great barbershop! Isn't that awesome? HamsterTracker™ greetz go to Kinki Kappers Eindhoven! And cheers go out to Ellen, who was also getting a haircut at that time, for signing my guestbook! |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
March 8, 2005 - day 87 - current treadmill total: 103,841.31 meters! (17:00) 
Lucy is sleeping (and listening to Radio 42, at this time of writing! Lucy's BREAKOUT
When I picked her up, it felt like she was really scared and impressed by her adventure.
She was so sweet, sitting absolutly still on my hand; it looked a bit like she was as glad as I was myself when we found eachother again! I put her back in her cage, and gave her some treats and a lot of TLC (Tender Love & Care). She drank some water (9 ml, while her average is 6 ml.), investigated her cage and went to sleep. I'm sooooo glad she's back!!! |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
March 7, 2005 - day 86 - current treadmill total: 103,316.28 meters! (17:30)
Lucy is sleeping (and listening to Radio 42, at this time of writing! Lucy's mansionI've increased Lucy's living quarters a bit. It will get larger in the future, but first Lucy has to get used to this...The picture show's the extention(s) of her main quarters. Now Lucy has her own meditation space as well as her own bedroom! |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
March 6, 2005 - day 85 - current treadmill total: 103,276.09 meters! (18:20) 
Lucy is sleeping (and listening to Radio 42, at this time of writing! Behind the scenes:I've been working on various 'behind the scenes' improvements:
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
March 5, 2005 - day 84 - current treadmill total: 103,009.03 meters! (18:20) 
Lucy is sleeping (and listening to Radio 42 with Simon Harrison (www.basic-soul.co.uk), at this time of writing! It took Lucy 85 days to drink half a liter (500 ml) of water!Data miningI noticed that the Total time spent by Lucy in her Treadmill was incorrectly recorded. So this required a software fix, which I think I've resolved now. AND, yeah major, I had to go through all Lucy's statistics, to calculate the total days spent in her treadmill manually. This small error took me 85 days to notice and 2 hours to fix!On day 85, Lucy spent 5 days 1:11:29 in her treadmill!That's an average of approx 85 minutes a day! ((5 days = 5*24*60 = 7200 minutes) + 11.5 minutes) / 85 days |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
March 4, 2005 - day 83 - current treadmill total: 102,660.72 meters! (17:50) Lucy is sleeping (and listening to Radio 42, at this time of writing! 
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
March 3, 2005 - day 82 - current treadmill total: 101,477.00 meters! (18:30) Lucy is sleeping (and listening to Radio 42, at this time of writing! Update of Lucy's statistical graph:
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
March 2, 2005 - day 81 - current treadmill total: 100,763.66 meters! (19:20) Lucy is sleeping (and listening to Radio 42, with a mix of DJ Quincy Jointz currently playing), at this time of writing! I've just finished playing around with JavaScript and html! The result is a rotating banner, which rotates every 15 seconds to another internet DJ which Lucy and myself are fan of. These DJs are at this time of writing: (alphabetical order) DJ Mitch (www.djmitch.it), DJ Quincy Jointz (www.quincy-jointz.de) and DJane Vibrella (www.vibrella.de). Thanks DJane Vibrella for congratulating Lucy on her 100 kilometer milestone, by signing the (her) guestbook, Lucy appreciates that! Lucy ate some cooked chicken for the first time last evening, and loved it!I guess the little loveable deserved some extra's after reaching this milestone yesterday. This morning I had the pleasure of having Lucy on the couch for the 11th time. I was having soo much fun these 5 minutes that I haven't shot any pictures... Ah well at least it's a good memory. |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
March 1, 2005 - day 80 - current treadmill total: 100,254.69 meters! (17:20) 
Lucy is sleeping (and listening to Radio 42), after reaching her first milestone last night, at this time of writing!
Lucy past her first 100+ km milestone last night!
During these 80 days she drank 479 ml. of water.
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
February 28, 2005 - day 79 - current treadmill total: 99,610.12 meters! (20:05) 
Lucy is sleeping (and listening to Radio 42), after some quality time on the couch and in my sweater, at this time of writing! Just 389.88 meters to go for Lucy's 100 km milestone!I had some fun with Lucy just now: When sitting with Lucy on the couch, she accidently discoverd my sweater (which I was wearing). She had some fun exploring everything. Whe she discovered my sleeve was a way out, she immediately went back in my sweater. That tickles ;-) Just found out: DJ Quincy Jointz (www.quincy-jointz.de) linked this site! Check out his Lime Sorbet mix no. 5; (you've got until march 2nd to do this!); click on the Lime Sorbet logo on this site. |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
February 25, 2005 - day 76 - current treadmill total: 98,930.97 meters! (20:05) Lucy is sleeping, grooming and Loungin' (with Radio 42) at this time of writing! 
I had some quality moments with Lucy today: I shot an awesome video, which I'm planning to publish soon, and some pictures. I'll publish more pictures I took on Lucy's page soon.
Lucy is just needs another 1069.03 meters for her (first) 100 km milestone!According to her statistics she should reach that easily tonight. (But that was also the case yesterday, so who knows...)I know that DJane Vibrella is still on Lucy's mind; she feels her love. |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
February 23, 2005 - day 74 - current treadmill total: 98,052.41 meters! (20:05) Lucy is getting used to her cleaned cage (and listening to Radio 42) at this time of writing! 
I was chatting with my Radio 42 friends, when DJane Vibrella said:
Vibrella: Hi Lucy , old girl! Howz Mathijs??? °  °
After a nice chat, with all my friends on Radio 42 and DJane Vibrella, DJane Vibrella notified my of placing a link to this HamsterTracker™ site!Isn't Lucy getting popular with DJ's or what? She (and I) love it!Lucy is getting even closer on her (first) 100 km milestone! |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
February 22, 2005 - day 73 - current treadmill total: 97,665.44 meters! (20:05) Lucy is sleeping (and listening to Radio 42) at this time of writing! 
SPAM!I got an email today with a Treadmill advertisement, this was Total SPAM, that's why I only show the picture and don't share any details (I can't because I've deleted the mail after saving the Treadmill picture).
Looks like the lady is trying to catch a bus the hard way!Personally I'd rather watch Lucy running in her treadmill. Which I hardly ever see, because she does that sooo late. ;-) Lucy is closing in on her first 100 km milestone!Maybe that's why she took it easy today. |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
February 21, 2005 - day 72 - current treadmill total: 97,295.56 meters! (19:52)
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
February 19, 2005 - day 70 - current treadmill total: 95,585.97 meters! (11:38)
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
February 18, 2005 - day 69 - current treadmill total: 94,995.75 meters! (16:38)
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
February 17, 2005 - day 68 - current treadmill total: 94,493.16 meters! (19:44)
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
February 16, 2005 - day 67 - current treadmill total: 93,453.50 meters! (18:54)
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
February 14, 2005 (Valentines day) - day 65 - current treadmill total: 91,393.78 meters! (19:45)
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
February 12, 2005 - day 63 - current treadmill total: 87,842.47 meters! (16:00)
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
February 7, 2005 - day 58 - current treadmill total: 86,868.62 meters! (18:15)
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
February 2, 2005 - day 53 - current treadmill total: 84,197.38 meters! (16:40)
I've also started on a page about (a side project:) the new HamsterTracker™ server. |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
February 1, 2005 - day 52 - current treadmill total: 82,912.69 meters! (17:23) Lucy is sleeping (and listening to Radio 42) at this time of writing! I was listening to yesterday (As I do every day these last few weeks...) and I was having a nice chat:
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
January 31, 2005 - day 51 - current treadmill total: 81,309.72 meters! (19:43) Lucy is sleeping (and listening to Radio 42) at this time of writing! 
I just noticed that I've got all the years (2005) set incorrectly since january 1st on this page. A quick Search & Replace solved that problem! |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
January 29, 2005 - day 49 - current treadmill total: 79,529.06 meters! (16:34) 
Lucy stuff:Lucy is sleeping (and listening to Radio 42) at this time of writing!This morning I had some fun with Lucy; When I entered the room, she (also) came out of her bedroom, and greeted me! I thought this behaviour was pretty cute, so I rewarded her with some treats... I am spoiling her, I know, but hey, this is Lucy! 
Technical stuff:I've done some experiments with installing an AGP Video card. Nvidia Vento (8 MB). I wanted to test the following:
It does speed up the display of WinTv2k (Tv 2000 for Windows, by Hauppauge) a bit. The CPU usage dropped from 99% to approx 70%-90%! I'm trying to imagine what will happen once I install a 32Mb (or maybe 64 or 128Mb) video card with 3D accellerator (and TV-out); this should be awesome! |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
January 26, 2005 - day 46 - current treadmill total: 76,673.00 meters! (16:34) 
Lucy is sleeping (and listening to Radio 42) at this time of writing! This is the first time I update this site using the new HamsterTracker™ server. Although this server isn't hooked up to the HamsterTracker™ interface, I still allows me to test everything thoroughly. ;-) That's something I don't mind doing! The screendump on the right shows the HamsterTracker™ server software running under Windows XP! Pretty cool look! Click image for a close up view. |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
January 22, 2005 - day 42 - current treadmill total: 71,039.97 meters! (16:34) 
Lucy is sleeping (and listening to Radio 42) at this time of writing! Lucy has been at work all day; she removed all the bedding and paper from her bedroom and rearanged her food. After this, she put all the bedding and paper back in her bedroom. I've been installing the new HamsterTracker™ Server. Windows XP sure does need a lot of software updates, they take forever to download and install. I've upgraded the server with 4 USB 2.0 ports (the other 4 USB ports are v1.0). And I put in a massive 80 Gb harddrive extra, in this machine. Totalling a hefty 90 Gb! See pictures below for details. 
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
January 20, 2005 - day 40 - current treadmill total: 69,158.06 meters! (20:30) Lucy is awake, but staying in her new bedroom (and listening to Radio 42) at this time of writing! Lucy has been at work all night, decorating her new bedroom. She removed all the woodchips (for a nice clean floor), and moved a lot of paper to her bedroom. I guess that's why she has not ran much in her treadmill today. The New HamsterTracker™ Server has arrived! At some points better than I expected, at other points a bit less. Overall value: AWESOME! I'm installing Windows XP (!) updates as I write this. That's why I'm not telling you all about it now; I'll do that later... This is going to be a really cool HamsterTracker™ server! |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
January 19, 2005 - day 39 - current treadmill total: 68,511.75 meters! (19:30)
Lucy is sleeping. (and listening to Radio 42) at this time of writing! I've expanded Lucy's cage today. I've found that there is something wrong with the IR-sensors. I'm not quite sure if this is due to the slow pc, or Windows 98 (which is not famous for it's multitasking abilities). This will definitely need more study... ps. Still waiting on delivery of the new HamsterTracker™ server... (Hoping tomorrow will B tha Day!) |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
January 18, 2005 - day 38 - current treadmill total: 66,251.28 meters! (19:30) 
Lucy is sleeping & having a very relaxed day. (and listening to Radio 42) at this time of writing! I'm thinking about expanding Lucy's cage. See the picture on the right. This involves introducing the next HamsterTracker™ Sensor! I've tried to get Lucy's attention; but she was sleeping. Actually she was sleeping so deeply, that she hasn't noticed that I opened up her cage. Because I didn't get her attention, I've tried to make an overview picture of the HamsterTracker™ system and Lucy's cage. ps. Still waiting on delivery of the new HamsterTracker™ server... |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
|
January 17, 2005 - day 37 - current treadmill total: 65,615.50 meters! (17:05) 
Lucy is sleeping (and listening to Radio 42) at this time of writing! Lucy the toilet roll killer:She is actually the first hamster, that I've had, that does this!Lucy ran another speed record today:
I've therefore updated Lucy's Statistical Graphs page.
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
I can't keep it a secret any longer:I ordered a new (second hand) HamsterTracker™ server last week, and I'm expecting delivery tomorrow! (Picture on the left, without that ugly speaker!).Because It's second hand I'm not 100% sure on it's specifications: It's a:
Because of the specs in bold the system IS HamsterTracker™ compatible! |
|
January 14, 2005 - day 33 - current treadmill total: 60,782.16 meters! (18:25) 
Lucy is sleeping (and listening to Radio 42) at this time of writing! Technical note:I've made some improvements on the Water Consumption data entry screen in the HamsterTracker™ system.Screen design must improve, but that requires some more thought first. Also the icon on the top-left is not an appropriate icon... I also have to think about that icon; a glass with water, a coctail glass, Lucy's waterbottle ... ? ... ? Picture shows test data, not actual data! |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
January 13, 2005 - day 32 - current treadmill total: 59,173.34 meters! (18:00) Lucy is sleeping (and listening to Radio 42) at this time of writing! Technical note:There where some backbone problems last night! I have received an email from my ISP (Internet Service Provider) that communications where slow.This might be the cause of the following problem I spotted: The Statistical page of today shows a Distance today = 82.00 meters. But if you subtract the Total Distance of Today with the one of yesterday: 59173.34 - 58856.03 = 317.31??? That's a difference of 235.31 meters! Though I thought I've made the software stable enough to cope with Internet Blackouts, I still have to do some work on that... At least I know that the Total Distances recorded are actual Total Distances, regardless of the state of the internet. I guess that's wat caused the individual sessions not being logged! Looks like my software is alive, (and therefore sometimes moody,) as me and my dear Lucy!
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
January 12, 2005 - day 32 - current treadmill total: 58,782.00 meters! (18:30) 
Lucy is sleeping at this time of writing! And again a milestone: Lucy ran at record speed:22.5 cm/s (0.81 km/h)!Though she hasn't ran much today (888.44 meters), she sure was fast! (See orange line on her graph, click it for more detail). |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
January 11, 2005 - day 31 - current treadmill total: 57,548.16 meters! (20:56) Lucy is awake at this time of writing! Again a milestone: Lucy lives with me forthe first full month!(since december 11, 2004.)During this month Lucy has:
Water Consumption Data Administration Automation:
I've also (finally) automated her Water Consumption data processing. (I finally finished it; worked out the, hopefully, last bugs!). I used to measure the water bubble in her water bottle. Calculate the amount that was missing from the bottle, log that, count how many day's it's been & calculate average... = Consumption(ml)
Now I only have to enter the amount measured (in milimeters), and the HamsterTracker™ software will do all calculations, and update the 'Daily Note' on the statistical page automatically! It even automatically detects if I have refilled Lucy's waterbottle, as you can see in the screendump picture above. When a new measurement is less than the last measurement, the HamsterTracker™ system will assume that Lucy's waterbottle was refilled, and adjust calculations accordingly! (I still have to work on the screen design though; there's some info missing right now. But at least it's functional right now!). COOL! |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
January 10, 2005 - day 30 - current treadmill total: 54,220.91 meters! (21:48) 
Lucy is sleeping at this time of writing! Another milestone: this site has had a 1000+ hits!since september 8, 2004.That's about 250 hits a month! from a total of 37 countries! almost all continents (all except South Africa)! Shouts go out to all HamsterTracker™ visitors! Thank you for visiting! Please come back any time, 'cause this site (hamster statistics) is updated in real time! Depending on Lucy's mood, this could be frequent. |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
January 8, 2005 - day 28 - current treadmill total: 49,248.44 meters! 
Lucy is sleeping at this time (15:49) of writing! Have a look at the new pictures on Lucy's page. |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
January 7, 2005 - day 27 - current treadmill total: 46,086.97 meters! Lucy is sleeping at this time (17:35) of writing! Yesterday I've made a foto-shoot of lucy. Difficult to photograph with the light I'm using. Have a look at the pictures on Lucy's page. I've also updated the Data Graphs page: 
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
January 6, 2005 - day 26 - current treadmill total: 43,120.84 meters! 
Lucy is sleeping at this time (21:15) of writing! The HamsterTracker™ system is running stable now for approx 7 days! The last 3 days, the system is running outside the Visual Basic IDE (Interactive Development Environment); that is, it's running as a single application, without the protection of the Visual Basic developers environment shell! That's doing well! I've also added hit counters to almost every page. They don't log anything, just how many times it's downloaded from the server. (The statistical pages already had/have hit counters.) |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
January 5, 2005: (day 25) Lucy is sleeping at this time of writing! Frequent visitors may have noticed, I've made some changes to the website layout... The toolbar on top of this site; has a changed order of sections, and a new button; Site Map I've also made some changes 'behind' the screens/scenes... But you have to be an expert to notice them... Working towards XHTML compatibility; I'm waaay off now... |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
January 4, 2005: (day 24) My hamster Lucy is maturing! "A female hamster, when in season, will 'freeze' or 'stand' - that is, she will stand completely still with her head pointing forward, stomach pressed to the ground and tail in the air, ready for a male hamster to mate. Often a female hamster will 'freeze' in this manner if her back is stroked or if you attempt to pick her up" [ From the great book: Pet Owner's Guide to the Hamster by Lorraine Hill ] Lucy showed this behaviour this morning. |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
January 3, 2005: 
Lucy ran another personal long distance record today!
3.443,47 meters!The day isn't over, so it could increase! But when calculating: 4 hours 24 minutes = 15.840 seconds 344.347 cm / 15.840 seconds = 21,7 cm/s Average! So it seems that the HamsterTracker™ still has a bug in the recording of the maximum speed. (I assume that the maximum speed is greater than the average speed; although they could [theoretically] be the same.) |
||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
January 2, 2005: Lucy ran a personal long distance record today! 2.989,16 meters until 4:38 am. (3.099,81 meters until 23:35). Updated Lucy's page and Graphs page on Lucy's statistics. |
|||||||||||||||||||||||
|
January 1, 2005 
Happy New Year!May all your wishes
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
December 30, 2004: 
Sadly the HamsterTracker™ PC crashed last night! The system didn't record anything! (Again) I've made some software mod's, 2 B sure. Lucy was busy last night creating a mess in her cage. I guess she is allowed to do that! The picture on the right shows the mess I found this morning! |
|||||||||||||||||||||
|
December 28, 2004: 
Created a Graphs page on Lucy's statistics today.
The system didn't record all individual sessions last night. When I was checking the software (I thought that I'd accidently deleted some code or something), my PC froze! I guess I should reboot more regularly. I also made the GhostBuster software a bit different, it should now log each (valid) session again. I've done some tests; added approx. 1 meter of (invalid) data. On these figures I guess it is ignoreable. I refreshed Lucy's water today! Her cage doesn't need to be cleaned because she learned to use her 'toilet' this week! Also added a new Video starring Lucy! |
||||||||||||||||||||
|
December 26, 2004: 
Looks like Lucy is taking it easy these last few days.. Remember: In the graph, the first 8 days are incomplete data collections, due to software crashes! |
||||||||||||||||||
|
December 22, 2004: 
Lucy is running her little legs off. In the graph the yellow line is the maximum speed recorded each day, while the blue bars is the distance she covered each day. Looks like she's starting to run less, but faster. Remember: The first 8 days are incomplete data collections, due to software crashes! 
|
|
|
December 21, 2004: 
Yesterday I had a photo oportunity with Lucy, So I've updated her page.
Yesterday I put my hand in her cage; she reacted immediately by demanding a treat. Needless to say she got it! Looks like the taming/training with food is starting to pay off! I've added a page on Lucy's expenses. Software status:System is running stable now for four consecutive days! :-)I've made some minor changes and additions to this website. Seemed that the Stats Update frame didn't automatically update (every 10 minutes) when viewed with Firefox. I've corrected it now; seemed that dirty html saves bandwidth, but is still dirty. Now (I haven't tested it but) it even should be html compliant (and also Xhtml, and that is strickt)! Because the current statistics page also didn't refresh properly, I added a hitcounter to it. This enforces Firefox to refresh the total page! Internet Explorer didn't have these problems; it allows dirty html (ie. no closing tags etc.). Not really sure what Safari does with this, but because my html is pretty clean, I don't expect problems. |
|
December 20, 2004: 
Yesterday I cleaned Lucy's cage for the first time. This could be a real trauma for her, so I'd done my preperations in advance. In the picture you can see her temporary home for when I'm cleaning. Within 15 minutes she was back in her cage and all went back to normal
I guess that trauma, isn't really an issue here. Software status:System is running stable now for three consecutive days! :-)
Ewald (www.magicball.com) showed me this site on his Windows CE enabled PDA yesterday! Cooool! Though not ideal (small screen), the site is viewable under Windows CE. We only took a quick look, but photo's seem to display well and the readability was pretty OK. What I noticed that the lack of background coloring. Though I don't use much of this background coloring, I do think, of what I use is functional. Sorry Windows CE users!
|
|
December 18, 2004: 
Lucy came out of her cage this morning! She sat on my lap, exploring my sweater. After about 4 minutes, she started complaining so I put her back.
Cool isn't it? Software status:This morning I was studying my software to try to find out why my PC freezes at night. I've done many experiments this last week, all without the desired result. Then it hit me!A while ago, don't really know when, I introduced a third-party control in the software. This was a high resolution timer, used for accurate treadmill speed calculation. While developing, I was struck with all kinds of wierd results; my system froze regularly back then! So just to be sure, I removed that timer completely. The timer I use now, lacks the high resolution, but what's the use of precise calculation, if the system crashes all the time? I know I shouldn't be cheering too early, but at least, it's worth to try! The real test is tonight. |
|
December 16, 2004: 
Factsheet:Lucy has drank in the last 5 days: approx. 36 ml of water.That's about 7 ml per day! Where I live a cubic meter of water costs around 1,10 euro (including taxes). I've calculated that a cubic meter of water contains 1.000.000 ml. If that's correct then it will take my Lucy about (haven't got all the leap years in this calculation!) 391 years to drink for 1.10 Euro! That's cheap! Today I spend 700% that much on nice treats and food for her! In the last couple of days the HamsterTracker™ system recorded Lucy running 4.890,84 meters in her Treadmill. Because the system hasn't recorded two full nights (at least); we could say that 4.890,84 meters is approx 3/5th of what she ran. So if we use some math she statistically ran: 8.151,40 meters, (or 5,094 miles). That's about 1,6 kilometers a day!  Promote Lucy!Download the Lucy promotion poster here!Promote this website at your favorite store, pub or where ever! Help me promote this site. I need your support. (download is 551 kb in size Microsoft Word document PromoteLucy.doc). 
By the way these pictures I took one hour ago, at this time of writing!
|
|
December 15, 2004: 
Lucy ran 3368,72 meters since 0:00 hours yesterday until 5:04 am today!!! That's 3,36872 km or 2,10545 miles!. Who could have thought that little (baby) hamster could do?
 Promote Lucy!Download the Lucy promotion poster here!Promote this website at your favorite store, pub or where ever! Help me promote this site. I need your support. (download is 551 kb in size Microsoft Word document PromoteLucy.doc). |
|
December 14, 2004: 
At the time of writing Lucy is sleeping.
Also check the Competition results page. Sadly; the HamsterTracker™ system crashed again last night! There must be something in the software... |
|
December 13, 2004: At the time of writing, 19:01 pm, Lucy is sleeping. Have a look at her Photo page of some pictures I took earlier. Also check the Competition results page. I guess Murphy's law is applicable here; the HamsterTracker™ system crashed again last night! The Lcd display showed that Lucy started to run at around 23:45, but when I woke up last night and checked on Lucy and the HamsterTracker™ system. It seemed to have frozen... So I quickly rebooted... The machine was still running at around 5 pm! That's good news! Because it implies that there is nothing wrong with the hardware! I've also made adjustments to the '0:00 hour timer', this timer triggers an automatic webupdate so that the daily data is correct. I guess, because I never tested that in the past, that there is trouble when the treadmill is in use at that time. I hope these modifications prevent a crash tonight. |
|
December 12, 2004: Competition results page. First night and day with my hamster Lucy! She was really annoyed after the trip from the adoption office (=pet store, but don't tell her). She walked about her cage making sounds, like a hamster with a cold. I was a bit worried, but she doesn't make those sounds while sleeping, so it probably isn't serious. Except for her first trauma, that is. Sadly the HamsterTracker™ system crashed last night. When I checked the system at 6:00 am this morning all seemed to go well, but sadly... It seemed it didn't. So I've made some software changes that all data is saved on every webpage update; so when the system crashes now, at least all data is retained. I've spend some quality hours today, watching my beautifull hamster Lucy! Took some pictures, but haven't found the time to put them on the website. Check back soon... |
|
December 11, 2004: I Installed the cage and HamsterTracker™ system and I am going to pick up the hamster. 
Meinke gave me a coupon for a hamster around one and a half years ago. She came along, to shoot video of me buying (ahum: ADOPTING) my new hamster LUCY. The yellow arrow on the left picture points to the Pet Shop, where I adopted Lucy. Thanks Meinke!The winner of the 'Guess my next hamsters name competition' is: Robert! See Competition results page |
|
December 10, 2004: Hoping to install the cage and HamsterTracker™ system today! Tests went great yesterday, last night and this morning! I've also updated the preview of the Hamster Name competition results. I've made a hamster reservation at my local petshop today. Tomorrow I'll pick her up together with Meinke! I have to make a shoppinglist for all the hamster stuff I need... food... bedding... etc... |
|
December 9, 2004: Made some cool stuff today! Fixed a bug with the daily message. Seems that all daily messages I'd entered misteriously dissappeared. Corrected that in the HamsterTracker™ software. Added another cool feature: Buffering of the files to upload, when my internet connection fails (for some reason). Because I've got some warning emails on system maintenance by my Internet Service Provider. I'd decided to test the HamsterTracker(tm) software to when such an event occurs. Seemd that the system went heywire! Therefore I made a sort of a Upload buffer, which keeps track of which files to upload, and tries to whenever it can; still enabling other interrupts! [How Technical!] I've also added a new paragraph in the Hamsters section, the preview of the Hamster Name competition results. Tests still continiue... |
|
December 6, 2004: Looks like the first tests are going like they should... [Maybe I shouldn't say this out loud!] |
|
December 5, 2004: 
Some more Ghostbusting! The HamsterTracker™ test went reasonably well tonight. Except for some Ghostdata on the IR-ports. Not the treadmill this time!!! But the LCD screen was also messed up. There still was a faulty connection. I think I've fixed it now, wait an see... |
|
December 4, 2004: No more Disk errors! After 158 hours of doing a surface check and finding 90 bad cylinders and reinstalling Windows 98 the HamsterTracker™ server is finally back online! Doing HamsterTracker™ hardware tests tonight. Lets hope the Windows 98 system is stable, as well as the HamterTracker™ software; no more ghost data I hope. |
|
December 3, 2004: 
More Disk errors, are are still causing delay! The system is still crunching the Surface Scan; so far it has found 68 bad cylinders on the harddisk. Marking them as bad, takes ages and ages.... Could this be causing the crashes I've been experiencing? The picture is the same picture as on November 30; the screenshot hasn't changed that much, just some counters on the screen. I hope the system will finish the surface scan soon, and I hope that my trustworthy (?) Windows 98 will restart... |
|
November 30, 2004:
Disk errors, are causing delay! The system crashed and now I am running a surface check, which takes ages and ages. After finally making some good sense repairs I was really ready to put the system to the test. Sadly my Windows 98 crashed (it never does ????). After rebooting it began to do its usual (!) Scandisk procedure. This time it found more errors and a Suface Scan procedure was suggested. So I did. But this scan takes ages and ages to complete. Those nice guys at Microsoft, thought that it would be nice to ask its user to confirm each error. While some errors take a few hours to detect and correct, the system also waits for me to press I just hope that after all this trouble the HamsterTracker™ system will still run... (And SOON!)! |
|
November 28, 2004: 
Finally found the fault that caused the Ghost Data! I was electrical! It seemed to get worse overnight. Even the LCD display of the HamsterTracker™ system started to show wierd characters. So I opened the HamsterTracker™ system (again) and started to experiment... Then I found that one of the connections of to the system, that is connected to the computer, was a bit flimsy. After soldering it, the LCD worked again! |
Bought the bottle of Beaujolais Primeur today! (The main prize in a small 'guess the name of my next hamster' competition amoungst a few friends!). This picture is just to show that the prize is actually there.
After analyzing the actual data I noticed two things: first the distance is 0.00 meter and/or (the second:) session time is 0 seconds. So I've modified the software that it ignores events as these. (I programmed that yesterday actually, but didn't want to tell before testing).
Updated the Software Stats page and the Camera Fix page.
Still haven't solved the Treadmill problem! I thought I'd solved it. I thought that direct sunlight confuses the HamsterTracker™ software. I've used all kinds of stuff to shield the sensor of direct sunlight. Seemed to work fine all weekend! But it didn't... ( See: October 25 data). I guess I could try to modify the electronics to make it less sensitive to external circumstances, or...I could... 
Still Working on the HamsterTracker™ software...
Got an email today from Robert; he confirmed that my site is can be viewed with a Safari browser (Mac-OS X)! I did get my '\' and '/' mixed up. After changing these, all pictures where visible in this browser!
I had a pretty tough side project a few days ago. My Ultra High Tech And Mega Cool Video Camera (=UHTAMCVC) had broken down.
© Copyright 1994 - 2010, Peacoque Labs
ing. Mathijs A. van der Paauw
Just an update of Lucy's graph today.
I've taken a closer look at Lucy's statistics, and concluded that a hamsters behaviour is very much influenced by light. (Seems pretty logical for a nocturnal creature!)
