HamsterTracker™ News Archive

- Online since September 5th, 2004 -
© Copyright 2005, Peacoque Labs

My current hamster Lucy 2.0!

My hamster Lucy, tracked with HamsterTracker™

Powered by Peacoque Labs, Eindhoven, the Netherlands
Created by Mathijs van der Paauw

RSS feed: http://feeds.feedburner.com/HamstertrackertmRssStream
It is really doing what it has been designed to do; Tracking my hamster Lucy!

Our favorite internet DJ's, (6 banners, rotate every 15 sec.) DJ Mitch, DJ Quincy Jointz, DJane Vibrella, Simon Harrison, Christina Long & DJ Elliot:
Our favorite internet DJ's: (alphabetical order)
DJ Christina Long (www.citrona.net/sorbet.htm), DJ Mitch (www.djmitch.it), DJ Quincy Jointz (www.quincy-jointz.de), DJane Vibrella (www.vibrella.de), Simon Harrison (www.basic-soul.co.uk). To name a few.

News Archive: (click here for current news)

radio42 - Music for Lounge-Lovers. Our favorite internet radio station:   


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.

(re-)bookmark this site with http://home.iae.nl/users/mathijs/hamstertracker


Screenshot of the new HamsterTracker(tm) RSS Feeder software

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...

Screenshot of HamsterTracker(tm) RSS feed in FeedReader

June 9, 2005

Can't seem to find a hamster for adoption yet


Still 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!


Picture of the FireFox RSS indicator in the statusbar
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' Ready


I'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 II


I'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

Picture of cage being ready for my new hamster...

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

Note from DJ Quincy Jointz: Hi Mathijs, happy Birthday to you. Hope you like the new LimeSorbet mix and you will have a nice party. Stay Funky! Greetz Quincy Picture of the CD that DJ Quincy Jointz sent me.

Early birthday present


Today 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

Picture of impression of the Salsa festival I went to last weekend.

Upload details


During 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 2


I noticed that somehow the Y axis of the treadmill graph changed. Now I changed it back to what it should be:

Last graph of Lucy's treadmill statistics (version 2).

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 graphs


It took my a while to set myself to process all of Lucy's last data, but today I've done it.

Last graph of Lucy's treadmill statistics.

Last graph of Lucy's water consumption.


May 13, 2005

A card today!


Today I was very pleasantly surprised to get a card from my Vet and assistents!

Front:
Front of postcard from my vet and assitents!

Inside:
Inside of postcard from my vet and assitents!


Fortitude with the loss
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!


But please give me a moment to disinfect the cage (takes a week of drying in order to get all smells out of it). I have to do some HamsterTracker™ hardware fixing, because the Sensors 1 & 2 are not functioning as they should...

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) Picture of Lucy's former residence.

The day after...


I would like to thank the following people for supporting me yesterday & today:



Dup who immediatly called me on my mobile, as soon as I'd sms-ed her. She will also miss Lucy, even though Lucy has bitten her once fierce!

Raymond My collegue, for signing my guestbook and expressing his grief!

Silvia She sms-ed me as soon as she'd heard the news from Dup. Thanks!

Johanna Another collegue, for sending me an email for support!

Ewald (www.city-sms.nl) for sending me the following sms: "Lucy in the sky with diamonds" - I think that's beautifull

Paul My manager @ work for expressing his simpathy and letting me have the afternoon off to start cleaning!



radio42 - Music for Lounge-Lovers. My Radio 42 friends:

Alessandra "Math.... I just don't know what to say... I'm so sorry..." & "So sorry... she was so nice..."

oronzo "Lucy will miss to all people that have learnt to love her and this is thanks to you, Mathijs"

n8eule "Hi, Mathijs! I've read about poor Lucy. Whats on??"

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) Picture of Lucy after she passed away.

I'm very sorry to announce that
my dear littl' Lucy just passed away!



I took Lucy to the vet (again) this morning, because I was really worried...
Sadly she didn't make it...

I'm sooo sad now, that I'm unable to write more at this time!





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! Scan of Lucy's medication

Lucy's medication


Looks like my dear littl' Lucy is improving on her health!

This 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!

Go Lucy!


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 Vet


Because I was really worried about my dear littl' Lucy I took her to the vet today.

He (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:


Yesterday I bought Multi-Vit for my hamster Lucy. Because of her lack of Treadmill interest, I must confess I am starting to get a bit worried.

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.
Picture of Lucy's waterbottle
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:
110 (mm) * 0.4 * 3.1415926535897932384626433832795 = 44 3.1415926535897932384626433832795 = 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!

Who ever told you Mathematics is boring?


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!

Today I received an email by my virtual friend Bryon:

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 support

You 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 webcam 1.

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:
  • She doesn't smell;
  • She is still very inquisitive;
  • She loves a treat (or two);
  • She runs around like a marathon hamster in my couch;
  • She wakes up every morning to greet me (and get a treat for it ... )

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!

Picture of Lucy attacking a Kracker.



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!

DJane Vibrella 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!

radio42 - Music for Lounge-Lovers.is back on (internet) air!

FINEST ELECTRONICA CHILLED WITH AMBIENT & DOWNTEMPO, MIXED WITH HOUSE & LATIN, STIRRED WITH NUJAZZ AND BLENDED WITH SOULFUL FUNKY BEATS.

Lucy is loving Art:

Lucy is loving the art by Christina Long In the picture on the right is a painting made by Christina Long, called "Oil Fire". I love that painting! Sadly it's sold already...

I guess I commited a possible unintentional crime by printing a digital copy of that painting on a sheet of A4. When I showed it to Lucy she demanded that I put it above her bedroom... I took a (not too clear) digital-photograph of it and mailed Christina, asking her permission to publish this photo.

I wasn't Long (Christina ;-) before she send me a reply:

"... You're more then welcome to use that photo. I think that is great.
Maybe I should just paint you a set of those paintings for your place. What do you think?
Free of charge.

Big kiss to Lucy.

Best wishes,
Christina
"

How cool is that? I think that's Uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuultra cool!

Thank you Christina, for your HamsterTracker™ support.

April 13, 2005 - day 123 - current treadmill total: 107.345,41 meters! (19:15)
Lucy  is sleeping at this time of writing!
Lucy's webcam 1.

Great news: Tomorrow radio42 - Music for Lounge-Lovers. will be broadcasting again!


This is very very good news! This should help the webcam development!

Too happy to write more at this moment! ;-)

April 7, 2005 - day 117 - current treadmill total: 107.308,09 meters! (17:30)
Lucy  is sleeping at this time of writing!
Lucy's webcam 2.

Working on my own and new Webcam server software!

Currently I'm working on the new Webcam server. I had a webcam already running using SpyCam by Bill Oatman. This webcam software does exactly what I want (take and upload a picture every minute, adding date/time stamps to the picture) but only works with one camera.

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!

radio42 - Music for Lounge-Lovers.

Due to legal resons!
We're sooo sad... that I'm speechless now...



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!

Lucy's webcam 1.  

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!

A picture of Lucy sleeping.
A picture of Lucy having a wash photographed from beneath her.

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!

Picture of Lucy trying to get out of her cage. Another picture of Lucy with a reflection of my camera.

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


Lucy's statistical graph made on March 22, 2005 - 21:00.
Lucy's statistical graph made on March 22, 2005 - 21:00.


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


Snapshot of Lucy's webcam. Another Snapshot of Lucy's webcam.


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!

Picture of new cage setup. Another picture of new cage setup.


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)

Lucy's statistical graph, made on March 16, 18:00

March 15, 2005 - day 94 - current treadmill total: 104,750.16 meters! (17:25)
Picture of Lucy's favorite food
Lucy is sleeping (and listening to Radio 42), at this time of writing!


It took Lucy only 28.23 minutes to slaughter the Kräcker
in the picture on the right



Lucy is taking it easy this last week, I guess her breakout adventure on March 8th, took a bit of energy. So I've dicided to enlarge her cage again, so she would be motivated to get up. It's working, see the picture on the right...

March 13, 2005 - day 92 - current treadmill total: 104,637.59 meters! (20:00)
Logo of my barber: Kinki Kappers
Lucy is sleeping (and listening to Radio 42), at this time of writing!

Ultimate Website promotion:

Last friday I went to my favorite barbershop (Stratumseind, Eindhoven, the Netherlands); Kinki kappers. After a great haircut, the manager of the shop, offered me free HamsterTracker™ advertising space in his shop!

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)
Saved Webcam snapshot.
Lucy is sleeping (and listening to Radio 42, at this time of writing!

Lucy's BREAKOUT

This morning I made a horrorfying discovery; my dear Lucy had managed to get the top of her new meditation room off (in the picture on the right, where Lucy sits in). She ventured out in my livingroom (The following is a (possible) reconstruction)
  • She totally took everything from her snack glass,
  • Then she ventured in my CD collection; killing a few CD booklets on her way,
  • She then threw out two CD's (Supperclub no. 6 and 7), and probably jumped off the bookshelf. That's a drop of approx. 100 cm,
  • My wallpaper in the corner of the room was her next victim
  • After this she unplugged the antenna cable of my tv (which was already pretty loose)
  • After intense searching I found her behind the refrigerator; I was calling her in my most unpanicly voice and shaking her favorite treats in a glass. I looked behind the refrigerator but I couln'd find her, even though I'd heard some noises that came from there. But when I was ready to get up, there she was: Miss Lucy was sitting in front of me! When I tried to pick her up, she didn't hasitate one microsecond! (She usually does, because she knows that she's going back to her cage when I do that.)

Picture of CD inlays after Lucy's breakout. Picture of my wallpaper in the corner of the room, after 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)
Saved Webcam snapshot. Saved Webcam snapshot.
Lucy is sleeping (and listening to Radio 42, at this time of writing!

Lucy's mansion

I'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)
Picture of my webcam
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:
  • The transitions of the DJ banners (above) are as smooth as they can be now. (The images in these banners are now preloaded using JavaScript).
  • Lucy's Webcam page has also got smoother by only updating the image, instead of the whole page.
  • I'm using an other freeware webcam software; SpyCam. Works like a dream, as opposed to the other freeware I've been using!
But there are some things that SpyCam can't do; I can't trigger a webcam picture by a software event. And it doesn't support multiple camera's. That's why I've been studying how to develop my own webcam software. This is quite a bit of work, so in the future I will get back on this subject...

March 5, 2005 - day 84 - current treadmill total: 103,009.03 meters! (18:20)
Simon Harrison - www.basic-soul.co.uk
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!

Isn't that interesting? I've read somewhere that a hamster drinks approx. 15-20 ml. a day! Lucy proves otherwise with an average of 6 ml. per day!

Data mining

I 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!
Picture of Lucy sleeping.

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:

Picture of Lucy's statistcal graph, compiled by HamsterTracker(tm).

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)
Picture of Lucy running in her treadmill on the first day I adopted her. Lucy past her first 100km milestone last night! 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!


She did this in 80 days (uhm nights actually)!

During these 80 days she drank 479 ml. of water.
That's an impressive 4.79 ml. per km or
208.77 meters per ml. !!!

The treadmill had to make 200,000+ revolutions to reach this milestone!

At this rate it will take Lucy 32,061 days (78 years and 283 days [incl. leap-years]) to run around the world ( Circumference of the earth is approx: 40,075.16 km.)

DJ Quincy Jointz, Lime Sorbet

You've got until tomorrow (March 2nd, 9 pm CET), to listen to Quincy Jointz Lime Sorbet mix no. 5! I think it's awesome! Click on The new Logo Quincy Jointz just mailed me!!

February 28, 2005 - day 79 - current treadmill total: 99,610.12 meters! (20:05) DJ Quincy Jointz, Lime Sorbet
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!

Picture of Lucy meditating. Picture of Lucy trying to let me know she wants out of her cage. 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!

Picture of Lucy enjoying her new treat. 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!

Picture of a treadmill SPAM mail!

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). Picture Lucy running in her treadmill.

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)
Lucy is sleeping at this time of writing!

Picture Lucy on the couch, for the 8th time!

Quality time on the couch!

It's funny how fast you learn to notice those little things with hamsters. About 20 minutes ago, Lucy begged me for attention. I opened up her cage and held my hand in front of it; so she could climb out if she wanted to.

She seemed to get it straight away and almost rushed in my hand. This is the 8-th time she has done this, and it seems like she is getting the hang of it. I think Lucy should decide when she wants to get out of her cage, circumstances permitted ofcourse.

Lucy is approaching her first 100 km milestone in her treadmill any day now!


February 19, 2005 - day 70 - current treadmill total: 95,585.97 meters! (11:38)
Lucy is sleeping (and listening to Radio 42) at this time of writing!

Picture of record player

Ultra Mega Cool!

You know there are people who are fan of DJ's. And there are DJ's who are a fan of HamsterTracker™ and Lucy.
DJ Mitch, from Italy, who I think spins some really awesome and ultra cool music, send me an email today.
He wrote me that he linked this site from his website www.djmitch.it

Isn't that ultra cool? Well Lucy and myself think so! So check out his new redesigned website!

Lucy's new speed record

I totally forgot to mention that my little Lucy ran another speedrecord; on day 56, saturday February 5, 2005, she ran a dazzling:

Mach 0.0009198!
(that's 31.3 cm/s or 1.13 km/h)


The speed of sound at sealevel = 340.29 m/s. (approximately because you have to take the temperature of the air into account.) More details can be found here

February 18, 2005 - day 69 - current treadmill total: 94,995.75 meters! (16:38)
Lucy is sleeping (and listening to Radio 42) at this time of writing! Picture of new HamsterTracker(tm) server fully installed!

Cleaning up...!

Picture of new HamsterTracker(tm) server newly installed!
The picture on the left shows the new PC newly installed. Hardly any wires at all.
(Keyboard-, mouse-, monitor-, sound-, some USB 2.0 device-, network- and power-cables).

On the right, it shows the new HamsterTracker™ server fully installed (all except the HamsterTracker™ hardware). A bit more wires (!). As you can Imagine I wanted to clean this up...
(Keyboard-, mouse-, monitor-, sound-, DvD burner-, TV-tuner-, Webcam-, S-Video-, network-, power- and various adapter-cables).

Because I was installing all kinds of hardware in this PC, I had let it go for a while. But when Dup mentioned that all these wires are a bit extreme (about two weeks ago) it got me thinking. So I bought some extension cables for my keyboard, mouse & monitor.

Picture of new extension cables I got for my Mouse, Keyboard and Monitor!

New stuff:

The mouse & keyboard extension cables do their stuff! They're functioning as they should. BUT: As it turned out the monitor-cable on the right (left picture) was a waste of money! The picture on my monitor blurred very very much; all text had shadows. I bought this awfull cable at shop called BCC, and I don't recommend it to anyone with a 17" screen!

Picture of a good VGA extension cable!
So I bought a new monitor extension cable (see picture on the right), and everything works like a dream! It's about three times thicker, has two ferrite rings and double shielding! Ofcourse this works! I can recommend this one to everyone who wants to extend their VGA cable!

Now my new PC is near the HamsterTracker™ hardware, so it should hook up easily in the near future.
Right now my new PC only acts as a Webcam server, which is sometimes a bit buggy due to freeware. I'm thinking/experimenting with my self developed webcam server, but this will require a bit (a lot) more time...





Below: Picture of new HamsterTracker™ server setup.

Picture of new HamsterTracker(tm) server setup!

Now my monitor, mouse and keyboard (that's very clean [see: February 12,2005] ;-) are only three cables away (and approx. 3.5 meters) from the pc.

This is ultimate!

This is a major step in the new HamsterTracker™ server installation.

February 17, 2005 - day 68 - current treadmill total: 94,493.16 meters! (19:44)
Picture of Lucy sleeping and dreaming! Lucy is sleeping (and listening to Radio 42) at this time of writing!

I've observed that my littl' hamster Lucy dreams in her sleep!

Yesterday, I took the picture on the right. Was pretty funny to watch: it looked like Lucy was climbing, the way she moved her paws and legs. It also looked like she was talking in her sleep!

When I took a few pictures (all of them blurry except the one on the right), I wanted to make a video of it. So resetting my camera to shoot video's instead of pictures, I was ready...
But Lucy had decided it was time to take on another relaxed way of sleeping. Not a position in which I could shoot some video, sadly. But it was really fun to watch. Have you ever seen a dog dreaming? Then that dog is moving and twitching etc. Well this is what I saw Lucy do!

February 16, 2005 - day 67 - current treadmill total: 93,453.50 meters! (18:54)
Lucy is sleeping (and listening to Radio 42) at this time of writing!

Lucy's Statistical Graph, February 16 2005, 18:45. Just an update of Lucy's graph today.


February 14, 2005 (Valentines day) - day 65 - current treadmill total: 91,393.78 meters! (19:45)
Picture of Webcam setup.
Lucy is sleeping (and listening to Radio 42) at this time of writing!

What HamsterTracker™ taught me:

Picture the Webcam light timer. 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!)

It could well be that on those nights that Lucy ran hardly anything, that I've kept the light on. At least I know that that prevented Lucy for running in her treadmill for four days! Sorry Lucy!

I've programmed a timer that controls the webcam lighting! Now I can never forget to switch it off.

I wouln'd have noticed this if I hadn't developed the HamsterTracker™ system!


February 12, 2005 - day 63 - current treadmill total: 87,842.47 meters! (16:00)
Webcam Picture of Lucy's sleeping quarters.
Lucy is sleeping (and listening to Radio 42) at this time of writing!

Lucy stuff:

I couldn't figure out why Lucy didn't use her treadmill these last couple of days. I figured that it could well be the software that stopped recording. However, when I gave the Treadmill a manual spin, everything worked fine!

But this morning, it hit me: Since Lucy stopped using her treadmill, I've kept on a light for the Webcam. So this morning (I woke up at around 6:00 am, like I'm used to), I switched off the light (and returned to bed ;-)

Within an hour (or so) Lucy ran a small kilometer! So I've decided to 'unplug' the webcam at night. (Sorry)

Technical stuff, because I was a bit stupid:

Picture of my Microsoft Natural keyboard taken apart Picture of my Microsoft Natural keyboard taken apart
A few days ago, I spilled a quite large portion of my drink over my trustworthy Microsoft Natural keyboard. The keyboard went heywire (needless to mention). I cleaned it completely only a week ago, by removing all keys and scrubbing them. So there was nothing else to do than open up the keyboard and let it dry.

After a few days, my PC didn't go bezerk everytime I plugged the keyboard in, but it still didn't function as it should. So I decided to open it up completely, figuring that it was useless now, it could only improve. Well it did improve! It's like new now. It took a couple of hours, but it was definitely worth it, it's as clean as the first day I got it. (That was approx. 10 years ago). I don't remember the exact price, but it was a bit more expensive than any other keyboard. Now I know why!

There are some pictures of me working with this keyboard on this page: September 10,2004.

Picture of my Microsoft Natural keyboard put back together again.


 

February 7, 2005 - day 58 - current treadmill total: 86,868.62 meters! (18:15)
Picture of a 7Up soda can
Lucy is sleeping (and listening to Radio 42) at this time of writing!

Lucy took approx. 54 days to drink 33 cl of water, the equivalent of a soda-can


I'm doing some experiments with Lucy's new Webcam!


 

February 2, 2005 - day 53 - current treadmill total: 84,197.38 meters! (16:40)
Picture of the Lucy in her self-cleaned bedroom.
Lucy is sleeping (and listening to Radio 42) at this time of writing!

Lucy was busy all morning, cleaning her bedroom! She removed all her bedding (and paper) out of the bedroom. Then she rearanged her stash of food and went to sleep. She still is sleeping at this time of writing.

I've checked it all, and it looks like the little lady saved me some work!


On the other picture, Lucy is sleeping in a quite funny pose!


Picture of the Lucy in her busy cleaning bedroom. Picture of the Lucy sleeping in her bedroom.

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 radio42 - Music for Lounge-Lovers. yesterday (As I do every day these last few weeks...) and I was having a nice chat:
Picture of the white house.


HamsterTracker™ Cheers go to Soul and Kira today!

Lucy 4 President!


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!

Graph of Lucy's statistics as of January 31, 2005 (19:43)
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)
Picture VGA adaptercard I used for the experiment.
Adapter placed in the HamsterTracker(tm) server.

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!
Picture of WinTv2000 application

Technical stuff:

I've done some experiments with installing an AGP Video card. Nvidia Vento (8 MB). I wanted to test the following:
  • Does my AGP port work?
  • Will it speed up my computer when watching TV on my computer?
Well, the AGP port does work correctly! I needed to install a software fix from IBM, but after that everything worked fine! (Before, the CDROM player wasn't recognized as well as my new USB 2.0 ports).

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)
Picture HamsterTracker(tm) server software running under XP!)
Latest picture of Lucy
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)
Picture of the new HamsterTracker(tm) server!)
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.

Picture of the new USB 2.0 PCI interface Picture of the new HamsterTracker(tm) server!)


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) Picture of new cage layout.

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) Picture of Lucy's upcomming cage expansion.

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...
Overview picture of the HamsterTracker(tm) system, and Lucy's hamster cage. Picture of me trying to get Lucy's attention.

January 17, 2005 - day 37 - current treadmill total: 65,615.50 meters! (17:05)

My hamster Lucy on the couch. Picture of what my Lucy does with a toilet roll.
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:
28.8 cm/s (1.04 km/h)!

I've therefore updated Lucy's Statistical Graphs page.

Picture of the new HamsterTracker(tm) Server I ordered

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:

Pentium III logo
  • 800 Mhz, Pentium III (currently: 166 Mhz Pentium 1)
  • 128 Mb (Max. 512 Mb) (currently: 72 Mb)
  • 10 Gb hard disk (ATA/133?) (currently: 2 Gb)
  • Intel 810 video card (AGP 2x) (currently: not really sure...)
  • 1 x parallell port (DB25) (currently: same)
  • 1 x serial port (DB9) (currently: same)
  • 1 x Lan interface (10/100 Mb/s) (currently: 10 Mb/s)
  • 2 x USB (v2.0?) (currently: none)
  • 48x CD-Rom (currently: 24 speed)
At least this is what I hope to get

Because of the specs in bold the system IS HamsterTracker™ compatible!
It will still require a bit of time before this beauty is online: hard disk upgrade, memory upgrade, (maybe sound upgrade, and video upgrade; I have to test before I decide!). Because I want to use the system with my other (external USB) hardware, therfore I think about these upgrades, but there not essential for the HamsterTracker™ system.

These specs? I hear you thinking; well these specifications are quite sufficient for me at this moment! And remember, these machines can come pretty cheap! That was my main consideration; as much power for the best buy, while still respecting the minimum specifications.


January 14, 2005 - day 33 - current treadmill total: 60,782.16 meters! (18:25)
Screendump of Water Consumtion data entry window, version 1.0 Beta
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's statistical graph made on January 12, 2005 - 18:30 am.
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)!

That's three milestones in three days! Wow, Lucy!

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 for

the first full month!

(since december 11, 2004.)

During this month Lucy has:

  • 1 published video!
  • sat with me on couch 2 times!
  • bitten me 3 times pretty fierce!
  • been out her cage 4 times!
  • 47 pictures of her published in this site!
  • ran 57.5 km in her treadmill!
  • starred on another, approximately 143, blurry (unpublished) pictures!
  • drank approx. 208 ml. of water!
  • provided me with countless moments of pure (hamster-) fun!

Water Consumption Data Administration Automation:

Screendump of Water Consumtion data entry window, version 0.1 beta - but functional! 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...

Height(mm) * 0.4 * 3.1415926535897932384626433832795 = 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)

Picture of proof of 1000 hits since september 8, 2004
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! Picture of lucy having a stare at me.

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: Lucy's statistical graph made on January 6, 2005 - 06:00 am.

January 6, 2005 - day 26 - current treadmill total: 43,120.84 meters! Picture of the HamsterTracker(tm) system, running stable...

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 beside her treadmill. Lucy ran another personal long distance record today!

3.443,47 meters!

(from 0:29 til 4:53 am)
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

Lucy exploring my couch. Lucy examining HamsterTracker(tm) designs.

Happy New Year!


May all your wishes
come true in 2005!


December 30, 2004:

The result of Lucy's destruction! Lucy's first cardboard box

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:
Hi! 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:
Lucy's graph of statistics collected by the HamsterTracker(tm) system.

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:
What do you want?

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! Lucy training in her treadmill

December 21, 2004:

Lucy training in her treadmill 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:

Lucy waiting for her cage to be cleaned 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! :-)

Picture of Windows CE logo 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:

Another picture of Lucy 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:

Another picture of Lucy

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!


Another picture of Lucy

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).

Another picture of Lucy By the way these pictures I took one hour ago, at this time of writing!

December 15, 2004:

Another picture of Lucy 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?

Another picture of Lucy

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:

Picture of Lucy climbing in her cage 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 and my hamster Lucy. Another picture of Meinke and my hamster Lucy.
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: Opened up the HamsterTracker(tm) system again.



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: Picture of the screen of the HamsterTracker(tm) computer still running a surface check!


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: Picture of the screen of the HamsterTracker(tm) computer running a surface check! Detail picture of the screen of the HamsterTracker(tm) computer running a surface check!


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 every time an error is detected!

I just hope that after all this trouble the HamsterTracker™ system will still run... (And SOON!)!

November 29, 2004:

Made a page on the repairs of the HamsterTracker™ system.

November 28, 2004: Picture of the faulty connection that caused invalid data


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!


November 26, 2004:

Today I trained my Ghost Buster. [Other way of saying, that I've made some more software modifications today].
I just hope that the next rules are sufficient.

Facts:
So I've trained my Ghost Buster to obey the following rules:

Lets hope this works!


November 25, 2004:

<--

Still Ghost Data

--> Still ghost data; so I'm not going to adopt a hamster next saturday :-(

That's the sad news... I figure that the system should be stable and not take ghost data in to account.
Therefore I need to do some further software developments and testing. This can't be done in less than two days...

But there is some good news! I think I might be closer to resolving this... Look at todays data; notice that the totals of the Treadmill data of each session ends (?) at the same time: 08:06:08. Maybe I can do something with that...

I've also started to setup the Final (?) installation page
November 24, 2004:

I know I've mentioned it before, but I am starting to think that I've got the Ghost data resolved.

Look at the data on the right. These are the pulses triggered by the Mppp-i interface. As you can see november 24 generated 146 false interrupts!

I made a mistake in the software, that it ignored such an interrupt, but still marked it as actual data! Now, the software should work ok, but needs further testing to be sure.
November 23, 2004:

Picture of a bottle of Beaujolais Primeur 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.

The data generated today seems alright! Except for the Treadmill reset... The maximum speed of today is still the same as the speed yesterday. It should have been reset to 0!

I did more work to do on the software. Testing tonight!


I've updated the Software Stats page.
Seems I've added 294 lines of code, 23 lines of comments, 2 files, 8 subroutines, 6 functions since october 26, 2004.

And I added the latest screen dump of the HamsterTracker™ software on the Screens page.
November 22, 2004:
I've made some changes to the FTP software, which uploads the latest HamsterTracker™ data to the Web. Because I've experienced a full Internet Blackout yesterday (for the first time), I became aware that my software wasn't prepared for these circumstances.

So I've made modifications that the files that need to be uploaded are stored in a list. Upon succesfull upload of this file, it will then be removed from this list. Otherwise the HamsterTracker™ system will try to upload all files in list, untill succesfull.

I've also made some changes to attack the Ghost Data effect. Seems that after modifications of the HamsterTracker™ data, the Ghost Buster didn't work anymore. I hope that it does so now.

I've made the design decision today that if the treadmill registrates only one pulse (3 centimeters); it will ignore that.
November 21, 2004:

The ghost data has returned sadly. I don't know if it was that my ISP had troubles with the backbone, and therefore I couldn't access the internet all day today. I don't know if this caused the HamsterTracker™ system to loose it's mind... or it might be something else.

Check out the picture Michiel Jansen made in response to the news messages which contained the words Crash (my Windows 98 crashed), Test (Needs more testing), Hamster (before I can finally get a new hamster).

Picture of Crash Test Hamster by Michiel Jansen
Check out his website: www.michieljansen.nl
!
(Published with permission, this genuine Michiel Jansen!) Thanks Michiel!

Please remember, this is not a hamster I take care of... It's just a piece of art!
(No hamster got hurt during the making of this picture, as I was assured!)

November 20, 2004:
I guess it's because of my sisters birthday today,
I made some great advances in the HamsterTracker™ software!!!

Happy Birthday HESTER!


The ghost data seem to have disappeared by the modifications yesterday. The treadmill was not triggered by what so ever...

Today I corrected the statistical bug that the sum of the session totals differed from the total daily sum. It seemed that the session counter incorrectly ignored the first 3 centimeters. This has been corrected now

Also made a change in the software that the software will try a forced webupdate at 0:01 hours (local time). Testing this tonight!
November 19, 2004:
Still working on the HamsterTracker™ software.

I've made some changes to the interrupt handler which handles the Treadmill sensor data. I hope the system doesn't generate ghost data anymore. I could also try to get in contact with the Ghostbusters...
November 15, 2004:
Working on the HamsterTracker™ software... (I'll keep you posted!)

November 11, 2004:
This has been a tough week, I'll spare you all the Slimy details here, but I think I'm on the right track of recovering of my flu! Therefore, I've done absolutely nothing this last week... except...

Today I've put some pages online that I'd made earlier; a page on the Powersupply and a HamsterTracker™ Video.
November 4, 2004:
Because I've (sadly) got the flu, I've done nothin' today... except trying to recover!
November 3, 2004: Get Firefox!
I've downloaded a copy of the Firefox browser today.

It seems that my site wasn't really compatible with this browser. I've changed about 5 pages on the site so that the background colors are displayed correctly in this browser. BUT there are still a few pages which are displayed differently than in the Microsoft Internet Explorer-browser. I've got to devote some time to that soon (History page, IR Sensors page, Camera Fix page, Palm page, to name a few)...

I've been at it for a few hours now and I think I've got it. Seems that the Firefox browser is much more strict in html. So I've use my trusty Notepad.exe and made ALL HamsterTracker™ pages fully Firefox compliant. Now I have to check if it's still Safari browser compliant though!
And I still have to do some work on the HamsterTracker™ software...
November 2, 2004: Picture of my camera with one of the two cheap lenscaps I made.

I've made some modifications in the HamsterTracker™ server software; seems that the previously mentioned bug (see news October 26, 2004) corrupted other data as well.
Though I'd fixed it that the correct session data was uploaded to the web, the ghost-data still corrupted the daily statistics. I'll leave the server running tonight, to check if I've got that fixed.

Still remains the problem of the daily data adding a 3 cm, to the distance (as well as the Total Ever distance), per session!. Though I've made countless observations these last couple of days, workin' on it BUT I still haven't cracked it... Yet...

Updated the Camera Fix page, with a picture of the lens shield on my camera.
October 27, 2004:

Fixed the statistical date bug! Or at least I think!
But I've discovered an other abnormality; the total distance of the treadmill data on a daily basis differs from the sum of the distances of all the individual sessions.
So why is this? ... Thinking of this right now as you read this!

"Could well be that the session data is incorrect. Or is it the daily data? If it is the daily data is incorrect, is then therefore the Total Distance Ever incorrect? Or is it just the session data"

Are some of my current thoughts, thought out loud... Quite important to sort out, I guess...
Probably quite boring to read about! But these are the 'laatste loodjes' (as we say in Dutch).

Updated the page on the capture of HamsterTracker™ software Screens
October 26, 2004:

Treadmill data, seems OK now!!!

I've run the system all night and day, occasionally giving the treadmill a spin, and it seemd to work fine. No more GHOST-DATA! Seems it didn't have to do anything with incomming light or anything. That was the reason I choose IR-light in the first place. But I suspected that our sunlight might have more IR-light than usual. This is probably a stupid thought otherwise my TV and Stereo would also go bezerk. Let me know what you think!

Picture of camera safety cord fix. 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).

But, sadly, I have found another small bug, this time when the date changes. It might be that I've fixed it... further testing needed, so I'll reboot; and restart the HamsterTracker™ server and start testing...

Updated the Software Stats page and the Camera Fix page.


October 25, 2004:
Very blurry picture of the prototype fix, for the treadmill against direct sunlight.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...

While writing this, and a little thinkin' & examinin' tha data; I've come up with a (possible) software solution. Going to test it 2night! Please keep your fingers crossed! :-)

Test started at 21:57:45!
October 22, 2004:
Tried the endurance test yesterday/today; everything worked fine!!!
Except...The Treadmill data collector! Look at today's data, seems like the Treadmill trigger is triggered by some reason, many time s during the day. This of course, corrupts the HamsterTracker™ data! (96.3 cm/s is also a bit unbelievable, without a hamster!) Definitely needs more study here!
October 20, 2004:
I haven't done much today, but I think I've got the timing of the treadmill just about right! It now includes the total time today which my hamster has spent in her treadmill, as well as the total time ever! (Been working at this for days now...still more testing to do). See HamsterTracker™ data for exact details.

Another problem is that my Windows 98 system is unstable. I don't know if it's me, (too many applications open), or something else... further testing (therefore delay) needed. But for now, at random times, my system is frozen in the morning, only a cold reboot can cure this. Seems like I'm never going to be ready for my new hammy...
October 19, 2004:
Close up of the new Lcd screen layout Still Working on the HamsterTracker™ software...

Here a picture of the new startup layout of the HamsterTracker™ LCD-screen. (Difficult thing to photograph; the reflection is horrorfying. Took me several (digital-) shots before you could actually read the text on the LCD in the picture. And still, this could be done better, even if I don't know how right now...) If you know a trick, please share!
October 18, 2004:
Working on the HamsterTracker™ software...
Created some time functions (time+time, time+seconds etc). Not really much, but a lot of fun 2 do! I need these functions for the missing statistical data; how much time has my hammy spent in her treadmill today (for instance). See Software Stats for dry statistical info on the HamsterTracker™ software (for freaks only!).
October 15, 2004:
Got a big compliment today which totally flattered me! When I was talking to my (virtual) Lounge fans on Radio42.com, the Best Lounge Internet Radio Station in the Galaxy! I was talking with my (virtual) friend Nebelbeisser. He at one time said;

"@ Mathi´..I could not agree with you more. You are quite a genius eh? I have just taken a look at your website. Phew!! Respect respect."
(Quoted with permission)

I just hope he's also a HamsterTracker™ supporter from now on :-) Virtual HamsterTracker™-Cheers go out to Nebelbeisser!
October 14, 2004:
Picture of Safari browser icon. 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!
HamsterTracker™-Thanks go out to Robert for testing this!

I've move the Introduction page to the History page, because it's more a description of what I've made in the past than an actual introduction. And I started to create a new Introduction page.
October 13, 2004: My Guestbook was signed for the first time today! Cheers to ReNate!!!

Also added more details on the Camera fix page. Did you know this project was sponsered by Dup? She kindly provided me with two kinds of glue (dutch site); one for hard plastic and one for 'general use'. Those glues worked perfectly! Dup has been (and still is) a close HamsterTracker™ supporter! She has provided me hours of patience when trying to explain, show and demonstrate the HamsterTracker™ developments. Hamster cheers to DUP!

Received an email (by Sandra); she's already promoting this site at her new job! (Just her 2nd week already!). How's that for HamsterTracker™ dedication?? HamsterTracker™ needs more people like her; so tell the world you've visited this site.

During my lunch break I've surfed the web trying to find out why the Safari browser (Mac OS 10) doesn't display any graphics on this site. (as reported by Robert). While I'm writing this, I think I've got my slashes '/' and '\' wrong. Modified those slashes on all pages which contained graphics (which are almost all pages on this site!). Now I hope everyone can see these images.
October 12, 2004:
Started documenting setting up the real test setup
on the new Test Setup page. (How's that for a sentence?)
I also introduced the Side Projects chapter. See the Camera Fix page.
October 8, 2004: Started setting up the real test setup...
October 6, 2004: A slight delay... again...
But hey, it's a hobby project!

I've made arrangements with Meinke on getting my new hammy. She gave me a voucher for a new hamster two of my birthdays ago. When I got it, I asked Meinke if she would mind helping me pick one from my local petshop. She agreed, and 1.5 years later she still does!!! That's good news!

I had set my mind on getting my new hammy next saturday, October 9. But I don't think I can make it... I still have some problems trying to get the automatic update to work. The problem is that testing a few days ago resulted in Windows 98 crashes every time. (Now, how could that happen? ;-P ) I guess I'm still trying to do something the wrong way, but at this time of writing, I really don't know what.

I also had a problem with "Disc Quota Exeeded Error" with my ISP. I couln't update the HamsterTracker™ site at all. I've then discovered how HamsterTracker™ software reacted to it, but that wasn't really clear; the FTP Logon screen kept reappearing. (A tell tale sign that something went wrong while FTP-ing to my website.) It took some studies before I found out that I'd exceeded my Webspace quotum. I still think I'd used only about 50%. I've mailed my helpdesk about it, but I haven't recieved an answer yet. A quick fix was to clean up my website, by removing some unindexed pages.
September 30, 2004: Trust 782 AV LCD Camera I had a pretty tough side project a few days ago. My Ultra High Tech And Mega Cool Video Camera (=UHTAMCVC) had broken down.

As you can imagine this piece of equipment is vital when adopting my new 'Hamstress'. I hope to shoot as many pictures and video as possible, while being responsible of my (to be) Hamster.

It took quite some evenings, but then I achieved some major results! Exact details will follow, I've already made drawings and pictures. But I've still got to find some time to write about it. Details will follow on my precious UHTAMCVC...
September 26, 2004: I've done a lot of work behind the scenes. Finally I can report that the various treadmill data is correctly detected, processed and stored in the HamsterTracker™-database.

Made some changes to the layout of the HamsterTracker™ data. Now full descriptions of the various events are displayed as opposed to the HamsterTracker™ codes.

Still have to get the automatic update of the website automatic. Now I must update the site by selecting "Update web with todays data.." from the Web menu. I've automated it when starting and stopping the application; the data is sent to the website on these events. But some more work is required to have this done on other events as well.
September 23, 2004: I've made some changes to the menubar on the left and the top menu bar. They are now displayed in the same font and size, independent of browser settings.

Found a great Habitrail® hamster cage site today. It's a bit for kids, but very neat-ly done.
September 22, 2004: Still working on the Treadmill data collection.
I've got the storage of data in order! I don't store data in centimeter or meters but in pulses. The conversion of these pulses to actual distances enable me to make more precise distance calculations at a later stage. although I think I've got the distance calculations pretty accurate; there could always be a time for improvement.  

Now I have to get the speed calculations and storage in working order. Still some work to do here.

I've changed the layout of the hamster Statistics pages. Check current statistics to see results. These statistics now contain newly gathered (test data) info on the treadmill distanse.
September 19, 2004: Working on the Treadmill data collection. I've made some improvements on speed calculation, but I still have to figure out how to store data by session, day and total.

This is not really difficult but there is just some precise programming required.
September 18, 2004: I've been working on the HamsterTracker™ software today. On the web, I've added the pink Stats Update window on every page on the site!

This window is automatically updated with the date and time, that the HamsterTracker™ application updated the web. When you click on the date or time, the Hamster Statistics of that day are automatically displayed. The uploaded files are also logged by the system. I've included a Sample logfile.

I'm currently working on the speed and distance calculations in the application...
September 17, 2004: Updated : Requirements page.
Also moved the hamster pages to the new Hamster section

I added some counters to the main pages of the different sections. These are harmless counters, they only display the number of times the page is retrieved from the server. It doesn't collect anything; it only displays. This is a service from my internet provider.

Breakthrough! I've achieved a major breakthrough today! I developed some new software that automatically updates the Stats Update on the top left of the screen, below the main menu bar on the top.
September 16, 2004: Added the HamsterTracker™ Requirements page.

I've decided on a name for my next hamster!


But I'm not going to reveal it to you now. I will, as soon as I have adopted my new hammy.

But, I first want to get the HamsterTracker™ system fully operational, before I get my third hamster. All I can say is that I hope to finish all the technical details soon.

September 15, 2004: Added a technical note on the IR Sensors page. Also added a Guestbook! It show's some ads, sadly, but it works! So, please make sure to leave a message.
September 14, 2004: I've added some new scans on the Julie page and on the IR Sensors page.
September 13, 2004: Found some screen dumps of the Palm Pilot Hamster Database ( my HamsterTracker™) application. See the Palm page. I also added the hamster logo I designed for that application (icon 22 x 22 pixels) and put it on the statistics listing. (I enlarged it to 44 x 44 pixels for clearity).
September 12, 2004: Scanned some photographs today. Jamy and Julie, my first two hamsters. And also scanned some new pictures on the Treadmill page. Added a closeup of Jamy on her page. Also added a new scanned photograph on the IR Sensors page. Created a totally new page of my second hamster Julie. Also created a new page of the HamsterTracker™ software on the Palm M100.
September 10, 2004: Updated Treadmill page and the Principles page by adding text and some new pictures. Also the Schematics page has been improved. Also improved download speed of various pages by reducing the image file sizes, while still remaining quite detailed. (The whole HamsterTracker™ site has been reduced from aprox. 2.5 Mb to a acceptable 1.57 Mb!)

This is me programming to the max. This is me programming to the max.

Here I am, programming to the max!

I use two machines while developing this website;
  • The laptop from my work, to view the online results on.
  • The HamsterTracker™ Laptop, on wich I created this HamsterTracker(tm) website (with help of Notepad).


  • This is me, again, still programming to the max.

    September 9, 2004: Updated the following pages,
  • Introduction,
  • IR Sensors,
  • Treadmill and
  • added a 'historic' (2000) link in Principles page. (Principle #4)!


  • By the way: I forgot to mention that this site has been entirely created by Notepad and myself as well as the HamsterTracker™!
    That's a testimony to html dedication, isn't it?
    September 8, 2004 : I put some screendumps on the web. As well as a menu structure on the top of the web page. A NedStat counter is also added. Because of testing, the count is up to 26! now. All by myself!

    September 7, 2004 : Dumping schematics on the web. No other documentation currently available (working on it!). So check regularly. Also Added Statistics Legend (By request of Sandra!).

    September 5, 2004 : Website Launch!
    This site can also be accessed by http://tinyurl.com/5hkrv


    © Copyright 1994 - 2010, Peacoque Labs
    ing. Mathijs A. van der Paauw