It's no secret Amazon.com's prices change frequently. Sometimes, many times a day. CamelCamelCamel.com is a good place to track the price of items at Amazon. You can see the history and also get an alert when the price falls below a certain point. The only problem is, you can't track digital items such as Kindle Books. I decided to make a Python script that tracks the price of items on Amazon and e-mails you when the price falls below a certain point.
I like to use Rottentomatoes.com to figure out what movies to watch. The Top Rentals is a good source to start with. It lists the rank and the critics rating for the top 50 movies. The only problem is, sometimes the critics' ratings will be far off from the audience's rating. You have to go to the movie's page to find out the audience's rating. I made a Python script that finds all the audience ratings of the top rentals to help find a movie to watch.
VLC is my favorite program to watch any video. It has so many features and plays every format.
One of my favorites is the ability to change the playback speed of the video. It will play the video at a faster rate without changing the pitch of the sound. It is very helpful if you are watching something like a Lord of The Rings, which are 3 hours long each. I find that playing at 1.5x is very easy to follow, and will cut down a 3 hour movie to 2 hours.
A problem I face when watching a movie at a faster pace is that the time left does not correspond to how long it will take to finish the movie. I found a useful VLC extension called When Will This Be Over? I modified it to display what time the movie will be over, how many minutes and seconds are left, and how much time you will save
I wanted an infrared receiver for my home theatre PC. The main goal was to use any remote to control Windows Media Center. There are very few remotes for Media Center and they are kind of ugly. After searching for universal IR receivers, the only thing I could find was USB-UIRT and LiRC. USB-UIRT cost $50. LiRC requires a serial port, which is not found in new computers. I decided to build my own
IR remotes work by sending out a series of pulses of IR light. Each key of the remote has a different pulse pattern.
I salvaged an IR receiver from a Hauppage TV card and hooked it up to an Arduino.
Most people do not wash their hands properly. Many sources say that you should scrub your hands for at least 15-20 seconds. A good way to keep track is to sing a song like Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star.
Here is a Lysol LYSOL® Healthy Touch® No-Touch Hand Soap System that has been modified using Arduino to show a countdown and play Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star.
The house I was renting did not have a washer or dryer hookup. I asked the landlord if he would add one. He obviously said no, but I could add one at my own expense. After adding it, I found that the drain was too slow. The drain would overflow and flood the kitchen.
Here is a creative solution for the problem. Most of the water goes straight down through the drain. When the water reaches a point that it would overflow, it is redirected into the washing machine. The washing machine continues to pump until all the water has been removed.
Everyone gets busy. Sometimes, our four-legged friends get neglected. Here is a prototype dog walker. It follows your dog and keeps it on the sidewalk and away from water, grass, fire hydrants, and other people.
For my senior design project, I made a wireless weather system. It monitored temperature, humidity, rainfall, wind speed, and wind direction. This was transmitted wirelessly and displayed indoors.
Living in Florida, you are expected to encounter a hurricane now and then. Even though it is not a direct hit, you still can get some damage. Even with tropical storm winds, you are likely to lose your power.
I lost power during one of these storms. Life wasn't too bad, but it was very hot without AC. It was hard to fall asleep in a 90F room.
After borrowing the fans from my computer and a some hurricane supply batteries, here is a way to get some relief. Originally, there were two fans. This provided enough cooling that I needed my comforter.
