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HamsterTracker™-Proud
to have
been blogged by:
january 31, 2009
october 27, 2008
march 3, 2008
december 3, 2007
october 4, 2007
june 28, 2007
april 27, 2007
january 9, 2007
august 24, 2006
july 27, 2006
june 20, 2006
may 10, 2006
march 29, 2006
march 12, 2006
april 5, 2008
january 12, 2008
october 26, 2007
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june 20, 2006
may 23, 2006
june 19, 2006
august 25, 2005
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This morning I entered the HamsterTracker™-Living room at approx. 6:03 AM.
When I entered, just before turning on the lights,
I noticed some unfamiliar and loud sounds,
that Lucy doesn't generally make.
Being alert, I pointed my eyes towards Lucy's bedroom (and cage)
in a split second,
before switching all lights to the 'ON' state...
Here's a Re-enactment on my 6-AM-Experience :
" Lucy was exploring the outside of her mansion ... " - Mathijs
The lighting startled her, (as well as me on her reaction )
" PLEASE OBSERVE, to get the full picture ...
Lucy jumped from the top to the
(spot the 'stand in hamster's ')
newly aquired position ... " - Mathijs
Then .. just like a full blown modern action movie ..
( At least, that's how I remember it, : )
" I jumped in 'Slow-Motion' making a double-salto, side flip and triple something,
while ultimately positioning my hands along the way,
to make an one or never go shot at ...
trying to catch (my dearest) Lucy,
with both hands in one go " ...
which ... I DID DO ... !!!
[ In a carefull and charming way,
as you would expect in a good movie! ]
We where BOTH impressed !
Milliseconds after,
( flip-flop back )
I returned Lucy to her cage,
She was all baffled, (as well as me),
after a few minutes she showed up...
" * giggle * " - Lucy
" This was the problem: ...
The Heavy-Duty-Connector broke... " - Mathijs
Since today where (re)-using the 'old-less-secure-one's as pictured on right, again!
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Why is it, that's it is always All Of A Sudden when you notice these things:
" Lucy's Meditation Room DOES smell as bad as it LOOKS!
Ofcourse, the HamsterTracker™-Cage Clean Dept was away AGAIN,
this time to a Cage-Clean-Training Camp...
Therefore I started this daughnting task myself, AGAIN :) " - Mathijs
" What's up Doc ? " - Lucy
It didn't take long for Lucy to get curious and up and about,
just when I replaced her newly cleaned Meditation Room.
" The second Lucy left her bedroom,
I disconnected it... Lucy is having a treat off-camera here. " - Mathijs
" The 'Silver-disc' is the bedroom temperature sensor " - HamsterTracker™-Geek Dept.
" the 'old' one on the left,
new to be furnished on the right ! " - Mathijs
After installation,
it took Lucy only seconds to explore,
leaving the bedding papers for what they are (check the dome),
checking the 'Pillow-without-a-Pillow'-treat.
" ... .... " - Lucy
Concluding with a Question ...
This is actually a pretty exciting one for HamsterTracker™
We're very proud to have been blogged by :
That's like MAJOR 'WOW' !
Checking it out, I found the following:
" So I got out, to get me a Gardian for myself ! " - Mathijs
" Here's the Proof ! " - Mathijs
Unfortunately the version I got in The Netherlands doesn't have the Preview section...
Therefore I am asking
Can anyone send in a scan of the printed version ??? PLEASE !
( email can be found at the bottom of the page).
We would appriciate a copy of HamsterTracker™ mentionings
in a newspaper for this first time !!!
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It's always fun to observe Lucy pouchin' her dinner...
" Her body gets more and more an 'Eight-shape' when Lucy's pouching. " - Mathijs
" Excuse me for a minute, Dude ... " - Lucy
" Almost there ... " - Lucy
" Now comes the tedious task of selecting and (re-) arranging. " - Mathijs
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Lucy IS a princess !
" HamsterTracker™-Snack Time, Dude ! " - Lucy
" Hmmmm, I see ... only ONE ... " - Lucy
" It IS a legit Pine-Seed ... " - Lucy
" Dude ... We need to talk ... " - Lucy
" Note Lucy's persuasive right hand " - HamsterTracker™-Observational Dept.
" There MUST be MORE than that ! UNDERSTAND ? " - Lucy
Thinking:
" Yeah, I understand,
but I just LOVE to serve them one at a time ! " - Mathijs
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Normally when Lucy's near a TV-remote on the couch,
she doesn't hesitate to switch to the cartoon channel.
This time it was a bit different:
" I have a plan ...
So I just act natural ... " - Lucy
" The Dude, THINKS I've changed the TV-channel...
so he's sooo distracted right now ... " - Lucy
" Peep-a-Boo, Dude ! ... " - Lucy
Yeah, she got me !
That tickles !!!
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Besides being Yucky it also shows a bit of my own stupidity...
Regular HamsterTracker™-readers could have been noticing
that Lucy changed her Meditation Room, to Bathroom.
When I cleaned the Meditation room last friday,
I left out the bedding, hoping that Lucy would change her behaviour.
I then caught Lucy going to the just cleaned room.
" Just before this photograph,
I had noticed that Lucy HAD used it AGAIN ! " - Mathijs
(You can see it on the bottom-left ... )
" Lucy is workin' it. " - Mathijs
" Every effort is made to delay the NEXT bathroom visit ! " - Mathijs
It then happened:
" Say what ??? " - Lucy
" I'd better wash my hands ! " - Lucy
When Lucy returned to her BED-room,
" ... it became appearant that Lucy has some more cleaning to do ! " - Mathijs
Please note that This is NOT : Wet Tail Desease (which is a potentially deadly desease) !!!
I know, because Lucy's tail was dry before she went 'Meditating'.
(And it is still dry when I checked today !!!)
I'll share you my stupidity now ...
Because it does seem messy leaving whee (or pee or urine or No. 1),
laying around, producing smells, in the HamsterTracker™-Living room.
So I made the Stupid mistake of not giving it a few more days:
I did put some woodshavings on top of it, hoping it wouldn't smell.
This last weekend, I did notice Lucy going to her OLD bathroom again !
(After this little incident)
Untill she discovered the bedding in her Meditation room ...
[ This experiment needs to be re-done soon, by (stupid-) me ! ]
Sorry Lucy...
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Lucy does so have her ways with me ...
" Hi Dude ... Wink ... " - Lucy
She IS Flirting, right ?
This must be due to the influence of Mr Whiskers and Butters (see below).
I therefore offered her a nice treat:
" Nice, Dude ... Wink ... " - Lucy
" That's NOT a Pine-Seed, Dude ... Wink ... " - Lucy
" I dunno, Dude ... " - Lucy
You'll get your Pine-Seed later, Lucy !
" Oke, Dude ! " - Lucy
" (Works EVERY time ... *giggle* ...) " - Lucy
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We have been getting some awesome stuff in the HamsterTracker™-Mailbox(es).
" This (mouse) came in via snail-mail. " - Mathijs
I couldn't wait to tell Lucy ...
" I love mail !!!
Is the any more mail, Dude ? " - Lucy
Fortunately there is
Dena sent us an update (around chrismas-time),
about Mr. Whiskers, the newly adopted hamster:
" This is our new hamster, Mr. Whiskers posing with Lucy.
Happy holidays!! " - Dena
as well as
Amanda sending in a fresh new picture of her new hamster Butters:
" I'm sending along a lovely picture of Butters,
who is very shy and skittish still.
But he'll come along, I hope! " - Amanda
" Mr. Wiskers and Butters are cute guy hamsters, Dude " - Lucy
HamsterTracker™-Shouts to Amanda, Butters, Dena and Mr Wiskers
Thank you for sharing !
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Today I did my weekly groceries.
While being near, I just had to drop in the petstore.
" I ALWAYS over-indulge in the pet shop ... " - Mathijs
" I got all this, while shopping for HamsterFood.
At the checkout ... I remembered ... " - Mathijs
" Hamster Food !
I did have run to the back of shop to get it !
Introducing : 'Vitakraft Emotion Sensitive' ...
How Cool ! " - Mathijs
Unfortunately Lucy is in deep sleep, while writing this.
Therefore no Emotional Sensitive reactions by Lucy as of yet.
" The HamsterTracker™-Data Entry Dept. is (unfortunatly) on a world tour.
I guess I have to compile a new
spreadsheet like I did for Lucy2.0, by myself, again !" - Mathijs
To keep YOUR HamsterTracker™-Alertness alive,
We present you this following little puzzle:
" You can submit your thoughts in the poll below ! " - Mathijs
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Yesterday we left off awaiting Lucy to wake up,
so I could make the change of (cleaned) bedroom
( yes, I have TWO sets)
( which does make life that little easier; )
also with the HamsterTracker™-Cleaning Dept. always being
on Holiday when cleaning needs to be done :-)
" Nice Treat !!!
Sadly AGAIN without the pillow ! " - Lucy
" Gonna get me some m'self, Dude !!! " - Lucy
" 'cause I've seen it on the way in ... " - Lucy
" There's something nice ... " - Lucy
" I tell you ; this is HARD work !!! " - Lucy
" FFFFFFffff-I should get paid for Ffffffffdis ... " - Lucy
We're servin' Pine-Seeds in 10 minutes, Lucy !!!
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Since the HamsterTracker™-Cleaning Dept. went off
for yet again, another holiday break ...
I had to do the cleaning myself (again !), not that I mind ...
" Pillow-treat without the Pillow,
in the bedroom (below left) ... " - Mathijs
" Pillow ... without the treat ...
( In the making ... ) " - Mathijs
" Admiring the work done so far ... " - Mathijs
" Waiting for Lucy to wake up, to make the switch ... " - Mathijs
" Dude ... I pressed 'SNOOZE' for the first time just now ... " - Lucy
I could be in for a long night ...
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We have been running a power consumption meter for over a year now.
On the last day of 2008, I shot these following photographs,
thereby collecting some power usage data:
" It has been taking measurements for 8.889+ hours
thats, one year and a little over 5 days ! " - Mathijs
The Duk-Tape blinds a grean led, therefore keeping the nights dark for Lucy!
" It has to be noted that since the last past six months,
ALL peripherals (incl. monitor) are recorded too. " - Mathijs
So this might distort the actual measurement,
in that not all peripherals where not hooked up all the time..
Although (in my defense), I did improve on power savings by
using a Solid State Drive (SSD) as boot drive (see: day 556 below),
giving all the other harddisks a moment to shut down ( equals saving energy ).
I am interested if that would compensate the measurement ...
(We WILL know on january 1st, 2010 !)
" At € 0.19 per KW/h ... " - Mathijs
That totals to :
" That's less than an Euro a day !!!
( approx. € 0.72 to be a little more accurate ... ) " - Mathijs
In HamsterTracker™-Mode, that's when I am not using the system,
the Dream-Machine and ALL other HamsterTracker™-hardware
currently consumes an approx. 175-190 Kw/h.
peaking at 220 - 260 Kw/h when printing and while GAMING.
That's pretty respectable for the computing power it provides !!!
I didn't dare to bore Lucy ...
" ... ZZZ ... zzzz ... " - Lucy
Fortunately she slept through this blog item :-)
Now I am waiting for her majesty to wake-up ...
Only to spend a KW/h's-worth of Pine-Seeds on her...
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Lucy is very busy lately,
pouching the greens (7 different kinds from Vitakraft) for her bedroom.
" I have the perfect technique to pick the right one ... " - Lucy
" ... Carefully selecting ... " - Lucy
" ... together with a professional pouchin' technique ... " - Lucy
" ... Then you carefully select the next one to pouch ... " - Lucy
After only a FEW minutes :
" Lion-King Lucy !!! " - Mathijs
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Two days ago I made this following photograph
of Lucy in Deep Meditation:
" Lucy isn't meditating here ...
She is using the Meditation room as ... " - Mathijs
( Today I discovered the following )
" ... a very SMELLY bathroom !!!
YUK, YUK and YUK !!! " - Mathijs
" So the HamsterTracker™-Cage Cleaning Dept. was set to do their magic ! " - Mathijs
" I also ordered some fresh new greens for Lucy ... " - Mathijs
Then, seconds after installation:
" Lucy's chomping and pouching ... " - HamsterTracker™-Photography Dept.
" Oh Hi !
I would like to order a Pine-Seed ! or TWO !
[ then we can share them Dude ! ] " - Lucy
51 ... 52 ... 54 ... 55 ... 55.5 ...
and counting as you read this :-)
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It has been 32 (!) days since Lucy's last graphs update ...
HamsterTracker™ Server crashes/ISP blackouts/Sensor misalignments:
Day 4, 19, 55, 56, 66 - 69, 121, 239, 252, 457, 541
[ Dream Machine operational since day 114,
day 121, 239 & 377 where forced reboots by Windows XP during night time, after (unauthorized) auto update. ]
Treadmill time graph year 2
Treadmill time graph year 1
The more vertical the above line is,
the more distance Lucy ran in her treadmill.
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Lucy has been struggling with her new treat,
trying to hoard it in her bedroom
(approx. two feet of tubes away from where these following photographs where shot)
" Lucy's seriously thinking it all over ! " - Mathijs
" Try again (number so many + 1) ... " - Mathijs
" Oooops, Do- & Nuts ... ! " - Lucy
Eventually:
" Touchdown !!! " - Observed by Mathijs
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We HAVE CERTAINLY been chillin' over here :
" Last night a huge pack of snow drizzled down ...
That's probably why I've slept SOO GOOD !
Cold weather tends to do that, if you're not used to it ... " - Mathijs
" Taking it easy, we measured Lucy's water consumption ... " - Mathijs
" As well taking some time, to note that Lucy doesn't really like her new kräcker-flavor ! " - Mathijs
( Otherwise there would be nothing left by now ).
Meanwhile
" Cold weather also has that deep-sleep effect on animals, I suppose ! " - Mathijs
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If you thought that yesterdays Blu-Ray Drive installation was exciting,
then be prepared of the following High Tech:
Two of the main HamsterTracker™-Dream-Machine design issues are;
Low Power Consumption; the less the better,
as well as Quietness... We don't want to disturb Lucy ...
So this next uprade is inevitable:
Please meet our new addition: OCZ 32 Giga Byte Solid State Drive :
" Ain't it cute ? " - HamsterTracker™-Geek Dept.
Here's the specs:
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Size
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100.18 x 69.83 x 9.3 mm
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Operating Temp
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-10 °C - +70 °C
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Performance
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Read: 120 - 140 MB/s
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Write: 80 - 93 MB/s
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Shock Resistance
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1500 G. 0.5 ms
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vibration
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20G peak. 10-2 kHz with 3axis
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MTBF
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1.500.000 hrs.
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Mean Time Before Failure = approx. 171 YEARS !!!!
Being a Solid State Drive,
it doesn't have any moving parts,
it's all chips !!!
The power consumption is lower too ... since no (drive-) moters are involved.
" They do have a sense of humor at OCZ ... " - HamsterTracker™-Geek Dept.
" It can REALLY take 1500 G's ??? " - HamsterTracker™-Geek Dept.
" Because we didn't have a 2.5" drive bay,
we're using zip-lock-cable-ties ! " - HamsterTracker™-Geek Dept.
" It also has a USB (2.0) port ! " - HamsterTracker™-Geek Dept.
" Sigh ... We love these pictures of the HamsterTracker™-Dream-Machine !!! " - HamsterTracker™-Geek Dept.
Transferring the boot-drive
Now we just have to copy the system drive to this new SSD one.
" Using Powerquest, this was easy ... " - HamsterTracker™-Geek Dept.
" After selecting source and destination, it took only 11 minutes to copy ... " - HamsterTracker™-Geek Dept.
It took a reboot to realize that it wasn't booting from the new drive.
So we rebooted (for the gazilionth time), after running the BIOS Setup:
" Simply set the new drive as bootdrive !
And away it went !!! " - HamsterTracker™-Geek Dept.
Does it work ? You may ask
YES !, it does !
The system (after re-installing sound- and video-drivers) is working properly and it's much more quiet !!!
No more quirks from harddisks while running the HamsterTracker™-Server !!!
We've also been doing some cage cleaning
So Lucy can have a quiet rest in a new clean bedroom:
" Lucy's Meditation room has fresh new bedding;
Lucy has been seen using it as a second bathroom (YUK!) " - Lucy
" ZZZ ... zzz ... ZZZ ... " - Lucy
Maybe it's all too quiet now ???
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Although Lucy has not been running much in her treadmill these last two days,
(we suspect the fireworks on New Years Eve, did mess Lucy's will up a bit),
she still is a very active little hamster:
While Lucy was busy, I asked :
" I've got a treat for you ! Dear Lucy ! " - Mathijs
" Dude ! Is that For Me ??? " - Lucy
" You are So Nice ! " - Lucy
After Lucy pouched the wallnut,
it took her just a flash, to get going again ...
" Now you got me 'hooked', Dude !!! " - Lucy
Lucy unpouched it in her Meditation-Room
after which she had a (long) nibble ...
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