So before even publishing my new hexo blog on the real internet I thought that a first requirement was to get some analytics in place so I can see utilization. I figure and suspect that the whole injecting javascript and calling home tends to freak people out and is probably pretty prone to a cat a mouse game of evasion (therefore more ops time to keep it working) therefore I have opted for log analytics. I will achieve this using a docker “on-premise” instance of Matomo (formally Piwik).
Disclaimer: I uploaded this to the blog in January 2025 but I have set the publish date to 21/08/2020 which is when I finished building the first version of the Pi Arcade. This post was taken from my Synology Note Station page pretty much word for word but there are also updates after the 21/08/2020 date, and I imagine in the future there will be new updates as well. Read on for context and the build process!
For the last 3 years I have been celebrating what has now become an annual summer ritual: finding some cool spot, timing my arrival with the changing of a tide, setting up my camera rig, and spending 5 - 6 hours contemplating a bit of everything while my camera takes a picture of the changing tide every 5 seconds. This ritual I have baptized as my summer moment of zen (all credit of the “Moment of Zen” concept goes to Jon Stewart and the Daily Show).
This summer I coincided my excursion with a perigean spring tide.
Oh what is a perigean spring tide you ask? It is when a spring tide (nothing to do with the season but when there is a FULL moon or NEW moon) coincides with the moon closest to the earth in its orbit (perigee). Let me draw you a picture:
On august 3rd the moon was only 603,305 KM from the earth and coincided with an almost new moon causing a gravitational double whammy, bulging tides to higher and lower levels than are normally witnessed (a tidal differential of nearly 4 meters):
So I got up early and positioned myself on a nice perch overlooking the bay of the Eo River:
and setup my camera rig (camera, solar panel, Mexican blanket, and a thermos of coffee):
and hung out from 07:45 and until 12:45:
Here is how it was when I arrived and when I left:
And then i combined all the pictures into a timelapse video:
Enjoy!
Thanks for reading and feel free to give feedback or comments via email (andrew@jupiterstation.net).
Disclaimer: I uploaded this to the blog in August of 2023 but I have set the publish date to 01/07/2013 when I finished the second prototype.
In early June 2013 I saw a guide on Adafruit about using a Raspberry Pi as a Mame game console. What I really loved was the idea of using the GPIO (general-purpose input/output) pins to directly connect the joystick and buttons. Not long after I was reviewing material in a warehouse to ensure that none of our networking equipment was stored there because the next day a chatarrero (scrap collector in spanish) was coming to take everything away. I did not find any of our networking equipment, but I did see an old Sony Trinitron security monitor that I immediately thought would make a great game console due to it’s form factor like the old Vectrex from my youth. So read on for the implementation and evolution of the project!
