Category Archives: Videos

You Raise Me Up

YouTube, at its best, can be a wonderful way to discover real talent.  A little while ago, I came across some songs by the Cotton Pickin Kids – a very talented family from Alabama – and I shared one or two favourites, like this one, with friends and family.

Well, after that, the YouTube algorithm decided I must like groups of talented siblings, and offered me so many of them that I expected I would suddenly be presented with the Von Trapp family’s previously undiscovered channel…

Just as I was thinking that all of this might be a bit too much of a good thing, today I spotted a girl and her two brothers who call themselves ‘Life in 3D‘… for the simple reason that their names are Devon, Daylon and Daura.

Oh well, I thought, let’s give them a try.. and I’ve since been browsing through their songs, and been seriously impressed.  To inject a little positivity into your day, I offer, somewhat at random, the one I discovered first:

(Direct link)

The story they tell on their website is that they used to sing while doing the dishes and other household chores, and when they finished, their parents said, “Hey, don’t stop!”. So a couple of years ago, they bought a proper microphone, recorded themselves, and posted their first video to YouTube.

Man, what a start!

(Direct link)

Not only can they sing, but there are some pretty impressive production values here.  It was listening to them with the volume turned up that made my realise how good the speakers are on my MacBook Pro.  Treat yourself, and don’t just listen to this on a tinny little phone speaker.

If you like what you hear, you might enjoy their fabulous rendition of Leonard Cohen’s ‘Hallelujah’, or watch them having fun with U2’s ‘With or without you‘.  

But I’ve enjoyed lots of them, and I hope they improve your day in the same way they did mine!

Coffee Pot – The Movie

For a long time, it has both bugged and bemused me that, though the first webcam ran for 10 years taking photos of our departmental coffee pot, there are almost no original images saved from the millions it served up to viewers around the world! I had one or two.

Then, suddenly, in a recent conversation, it occurred to me to check the Internet Archive’s ‘Wayback Machine’, and, sure enough, in the second half of the coffeepot camera’s life — from 1996-2001 — they had captured 28 of its images. I wrote a script to index and download these, and turned them into a slideshow, which you can find in my new and very exciting three-minute video:

Peak Campervanning

At the end of November, I popped up to the Derbyshire Peak District for a weekend, and posted some photos here. At the time, I mentioned that I had taken some video footage too, and I finally got around to editing it into something watchable, at least by those who enjoy amateur travelogues. 🙂

(Direct YouTube link)

Dumb switches and smart lights?

Almost all of our lights are now ‘smart’: controllable by software, timers, motion sensors etc as well as switches.

If you’ve done this, though, you’ll know there’s a problem: how do you stop people turning things off at the wall, at which point your smart lights become remarkably dumb?

Here’s how I do it:

(Direct link)

Now I want to learn to play the double bass…

(direct link to video)

The Thames, they are a changing

Like many people, I’m familiar with the vast River Thames that flows under the big bridge at Dartford, and the grubbily majestic Thames that passes the Houses of Parliament.  I’ve even been fortunate enough to enjoy the rather spiffing Thames that flowed past us when we visited the Stewards’ Enclosure at Henley Regatta.

But until a couple of weekends ago, I hadn’t experienced the delightfully bucolic upper Thames, which winds past herds of cows, under weeping willows, and passes through locks manned by lock-keepers who still live in cottages on the waterside, surrounded by their beautiful gardens.

That, I think, is my favourite Thames. And I would have made a better video of it if I hadn’t been so taken up with enjoying and navigating it!

(Direct Link to video)

Zappi Days

When I installed my home solar system, I also replaced my perfectly-functional car charger with a new one: a Myenergi Zappi. Why?

The Zappi is a popular charger, designed in the UK, and rapidly finding favour in other parts of the world. Here, I talk about what it can do, things you might need to take into account if connecting to a car like the Tesla, and a little bit of magic geekery I set up to make it fit my needs even better.

(Direct Link)

Q Tips

Some simple tricks for Mac users.  Do you know all of these?

 

Direct link

Mustelidae

I’ve just started playing with one of those ‘trail cams’ or ‘camera traps’. You attach it to a tree or similar and it captures movement using an infrared camera sensor, and illuminates the scene with a number of IR LEDs on the front. These cameras are not particularly expensive, and I think it’ll be quite fun.

My first attempt in the wood next to our driveway didn’t quite have my subject facing in the direction I’d hoped! I also spotted several rabbits and a muntjac, but mostly I got clues as to where I should put the camera next to capture more of the nocturnal social life. Coming soon, I hope…

Google Tip of the Day

Here’s a quick two-and-a-half minute video which might save you some time one day, if not now!

Measuring distances and areas in Google satellite view

(A direct link is here, in case you can’t see the embedded video.)

Happy MMXXII

Today, I.I.MMXXII, we visited Mevagissey, never having been there before, and found it a really delightful spot to start the New Year (though many of its normal attractions were, of course, closed today).

Here’s a quick view of what we saw.

(Also available here, and there’s a 360 panorama here.)

The Alpine Butterfly Knot

As someone who has done a fair amount of sailing in my youth, I like to think I’m more familiar with knots than the average bear. But there was one that I’d heard of in the past but knew little about: the Alpine Butterfly Knot (or Loop). It looks like this:

and it turns out to be jolly useful, but if you just look at it, it’s very tricky to work out how to tie it quickly.

There are lots of different techniques and lots of different YouTube videos about them, but today I found the method I liked the best:

© Copyright Quentin Stafford-Fraser