Archive for October, 2007

It’s been a while coming, and i’ve promised to deliver entertainment on Irish roads and i’m very happy to announce i’ve edited the first hour of footage i got (taken yesterday, 1st Oct) and put together a two minute clip

It’s my first edited video believe it or not, so that in itself is an achievement for me.. we all see this every day here in Ireland, but now i can promote our driving skills around the world

It’s all fairly light stuff, nothing too dangerous, but yesterday was a good day in general. Believe me, i’ll have more hardcore stuff later on in the week It takes quite some time to download/upload/edit/crop/add text/audio etc.. so bare with me if i don’t get another video uploaded for a few days..

Let me know what you guys think

Yesterday was day one for Dash Cam.

I got an hours footage. Today, i got almost 2 hours footage thanks to some battery saving wizardry

But i’m bitterly disappointed.. the battery died 5 minutes before i came across possibly the most dangerous manouver i’ve seen yet.

This wasn’t bad driving, it was deliberately bad driving which is even worse…

Two northern reg cars, both tailgating (obviously friends) overtake me and long line of cars. This is common enough.. i’m used to it. One overtakes first, and the second car then overtakes the first car on the hardshoulder of the wrong side of the road

So in effect, a single lane carraigeway was turned into a 3 lane carraigeway in one direction… i was absolutely delighted with all of this as it would have been great to replay and publish on the net to shame these guys, but i found out the battery died about 5 minutes before this happened

Nothing i could have done about that… but sooner or later i’m going to happen on something really shocking, all captured on camera and the quality is so clear on the camera, i could probably pick up reg plates and nail a few of these guys…

I’ve got almost 3 hours of footage now, and loads of bad driving to show you guys but that side by side overtaking manouver would have been the icing on the cake. You just had to be there to believe it…

I’ve started Dash Cam as an experiment but also as a safety/peace of mind thing as i’ve had some scary experiences going up and down to college..

Here’s my dash cam by the way.. i have it hooked in to the passengers sunvisor clip and sort of wedged in place by blutack to stop it from wobbling too much..

If i get hit by someone overtaking or pulling out of a junction, in a lot of cases it’s your word against their’s. I’m by no means a perfect driver, but i don’t do anything stupid and try to stick to the rules. I’m confident if i have a crash i won’t be at fault. So video evidence will protect me/save me (financially/legally) if i can produce it.

Anyway, this got me thinking… all modern cars are technology laden… Stereo system, GPS, rain sensing wipers, ABS, heated mirrors, parking sensors etc.. etc…

A camera would cost what? €100 to fit and install. (low-res, basic setup). a 250 gig hard drive would cost another €100 perhaps. So lets say a mounted camera synced with 250gig hard-drive and dedicated power pack would cost €500 (being very generous). The camera could auto record the minute ignition is started. 24 hours of video would take at most 25 gigs of space. So you could easily store a full week 24/7 worth of video in the car’s harddrive.

If you don’t need it/haven’t crashed, had no incidents etc, the harddrive would auto format and free up space for the following week and so on… All of that would cost €500 max. It would surely lower insurance costs as gardai would have video evidence from two vehicles involved in a collision. It could save legal costs/hassle/insurance companies in those your word against mine situations as the video would provide conclusive evidence.

It’s an unecessary expense, i’ll give you that. But surely it’s as helpful/valuable as reversing sensors or rain sensing wipers?? It would act as a ‘black box’ in cars and provide closure to many accidents/deaths that occur on our roads. Think of the joy it would bring you if some guy pulled out in front of you, claimed you were at fault and demanded you pay for the damage and you then turn around and produce the video That would have to be the best feeling in the world

ReviewMe = $5

PayPerPost = $32.50

TLA = $53.01

Kontera = $1.82

Total: $92.33

Down on August’s earning’s of $121.72, but not too far off that elusive $100 mark. I set a target of $130 last month, but that was a little optimistic.. my real aim was $100 and i wasn’t too far away from it so i’m fairly happy…

Believe it or not i actually turned down a $15 review plus i decided not to bother cashing in on a few posts i *could* have worked in to the theme of this blog, but i thought you guys wouldn’t like them

So had i been really greedy i could have beaten last month’s earnings easily.. but again i can’t start blogging about poker/finance/off topic stuff.. that’s not my area, that’s not what you guys want to read. So it’s all about knowing when to say no, even it it means turning down the green paper It’s a very fine balance.

My Kontera experiment isn’t doing so well $1.82 in 30 days. CTR is normal (around 1%), and at an average of 5c per click, it’s not exactly going places. I know i said i’d pull them if they didn’t perform, but i’ll give them another 2/3 weeks just for the craic.

So $121 and $92… at last i’m starting to hit that average of $100/month Also, keep in mind i started college this month.. that’s basically like a full time job so i haven’t done at all bad when you look at it. That doesn’t mean i’ll settle for $100/month… onwards and upwards

For the past week or so i’ve been trying to get operation Dash Cam up and running..

I said i’d have it working last week, and i did momentarily The camera was in place, on the dash, held together by cellotape and propped up by blutack..

The minute i took the first hard corner, it fell apart and it was back to the drawing board. I tried suction cups, but the camera was too heavy and pulled them down after a while.. I need something stable, something that wouldn’t fall down or roll about…

The answer: 2 hair bobs, a paperclip and some blutack I found a little hook that usually holds the passengers sun visor in place.. not anymore It’s become a home for my camera and gets a bird’s eye view of the road ahead.. no wipers in the way, no bit of dashboard in the foreground, a perfect view out the windscreen.

I’ll post some footage later on in the week (bare in mind like 60mins+ per day of footage has to be reviewed and edited down). But dash cam is up and running, so we can sit back, relax, get the popcorn out and watch some good old fashioned mad Irish driving.

I’m in college at the minute, but got my full 60 minute journey this morning captured on video.. yes, i know. That is very sad and boring , but it’s entertainment for you guys at the end of the day… seeing people do stupid things on the roads.. i *think* it all came out ok, but i’ll have to review it when i get home (battery died just as i was reviewing it on the camera).