October 2013 – Page 2 – Bus Driver Jim

Resolution

I’m still trying to find the optimum video capture setting for my Hero3+ camera. The settings menu defaults to 960p at 60fps (frames per second) with an ultra wide FOV (field of view) which results in a screen resolution of 1280 x 960 (4:3) which is the standard resolution of a typical flat screen monitor along with a fisheye look.

I’m not sold on the fisheye look yet so I flatten it out while converting down to 1280 x 720 (1/2 = 640/360). The 60 frames per second may not be such a great bonus because YouTube makes the decisions as to which frames get kept, merged, or dropped when the file is uploaded and converted to 30fps.

The content portion of my blog (what you’re reading here on the left) is built around a 640 pixel horizontal width. Each main (large format) photo is in the long-standing standard format of 640 x 480 and the supporting photos are in mathematically scaled smaller sizes.

While I was writing this, Steph came in and informed me of a mushroom formation she found on one of our berms, so I decided to use it for an example. Here’s the video I shot and uploaded at 1280 x 720 x 60, presented as 640 x 360 x 30:

I can do better. Today I experiment with 720p, not wide, at 30fps. I’m thinking native format aimed at the upload destination (YouTube), with a minimum of conversion, is the way to go.

Steering View

I attached the GoPro Hero3+ to the top of my buses steering wheel today before driving to Victor. It was non-intrusive to the driving experience because there was no video coming out the back to distract me. The video preview, along with all the visual controls, were on my smartphone, which was sitting off to the side in my cup holder. All I had to do was reach over and press the red record dot, and take off.

This created a very interesting video effect as the line-of-sight constantly changed as I steered the bus down the road:

Speaking of cup holders, I was able to put a standard size Basin Travel coffee cup in the hole this morning. Yea!

An Amazon shipment arrives shortly with some more cool adapters, including a head strap that’s going to wrap around my Tilly Hat. I’m thinking the local brothel might make a good walk around, or maybe Broulims…

Quick Commute

Sometimes you just need to get to work in a hurry and sometimes you need to drive in the left lane because everyone’s drunk and they’re all driving in the wrong lane…

Sunday Mush

I’m going to throw things I’m working on up here to the blog wall and see what sticks, updating it during the day with new content as it rolls off the old creative block.

As a testament to the proclivity of my blog, I get bombarded daily with spam comments from around the world. I have to filter them out individually from the occasional real comment (or in the case of Betty, frequent comment :-)

Yesterday set a record with 660 spam comments. I could turn the Comment feature off I suppose, but I won’t. I value every meaningful contribution to my blog!

Steph spotted this bird in the front yard this morning and I took this shot through the window. It’s a good sized bird, maybe a young hawk…

Here are my latest short clips:

GoPro To Victor

I had to run down to Victor this morning to retrieve my new bus from the tire shop so I brought Steph along to drive the truck back. I also took my new GoPro along for the ride, to film the whole trip.

The skinny little dash on the truck along with a sharply sloped window required me to mount the camera upside down at the top of the window where the rear-view mirror would normally go. Fortunately, the GoPro App installed on my Nexus 10 tablet was controlling the whole thing so I just selected the upside down setting.

Upon playing it back, it was a mirrored image and it was like I was driving on the left side of the road. I have some great video tools so I just flipped it back over during the mixing down process, which took over an hour for this fifteen minute video.

Here’s the result below. My new bus has a much more spacious dash so upside down and backward video conversion won’t be necessary. It should also be much better quality, although this ain’t bad at all…

GoPro Hero3+

I got my hand on a GoPro Hero3+ Silver Edition today. This is 1080p at 60 fps and 720p at 120 fps video goodness in a tiny little camera that comes with a waterproof case and mounting hardware that attaches to everything that moves. Here’s the hype:

Not only is the HERO3+ Silver Edition 20% smaller and 15% lighter than previous models, it’s 2x more powerful—making it the most advanced Silver Edition camera yet. Wearable, gear-mountable and waterproof to 131’/40m, it captures professional-quality video at resolutions up to 1080p60 and 10MP photos at up to 10 frames per second. With 4x faster Wi-Fi, enhanced low-light performance, 30% longer battery life and compatibility with all GoPro mounts and accessories, the HERO3+ Silver Edition makes capturing and sharing your life easier than ever.

So, I own this camera now, which means that I can record great video from my bus, or my truck, or my hand, and post it here on the blog that I also own. Life is good!

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Winter Ride

The new Chevy bus, number 474, will be my main ride for the winter and snow tires are being installed today. I have to say, it is a sweet little bus.

There’s a lot to like: It only has 3300 miles, it has great acceleration after an initial hesitation, the pre-trip is a breeze with convenient placement of the oil and transmission dip-sticks, and it’s a front loader (W/C lift).

It also has it’s oddities: The cup holder is totally useless due to it’s proximity to the controls above, the A/M radio has interference caused by the engine and the side mounted seats are not ideal in my opinion.

The true test will come when the snow arrives but I have a good feeling about her. She handles rock solid and the turning radius is excellent, a valuable attribute in the tight confines of the Community School.

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Politically Correct

Our local High School has some inspirational flags hanging on the light posts at their front entrance, Dream, Pursue, Pride! Very nice… but wait!

What’s with the counterpart Spanish flags? Really guys? What kind of Redskin spirit is this, either your pro-indian or pro-mexican. How about some signs in native-american?

My position on this is really simple and straight-forward. If you choose to live here, learn the language and implement our traditions. Making overt politically correct accommodations to your heritage is bullshit. Enjoy your stuff in the privacy of your home, and talk to me in English.

I realize that I’m getting old and grouchy. For years I’ve just brushed aside those moments when you initiate a greeting or a goodbye and you get no response. To me, that’s the height of rudeness and as a bus driver, I experience it frequently.

Since I’m older than 90% of the people I deal with, I’ve decided that I deserve more respect and I’ve subsequently developed some new rules when dealing with the public:

I no longer initiate a greeting or goodbye. If a kid boards my bus, or a parent drops their kid off, and neither says a word, neither do I. If they leave my bus without saying anything, I don’t say anything either.
If the person dealing with me only knows two words in English (i.e. Hello & Goodbye), I don’t respond. If you can’t speak my language, don’t waste my time.
When people initiate a greeting, followed by a genuine query as to my physical and mental well-being, I’m the friendliest, most concerned bus driver you’ve ever met!

The results have been interesting. More and more people are saying hello and goodby…

Art Box Project

I’ve been putting together a very cool project for the 2013 Driggs Art Box event. This is the second year that the Teton Arts Council has commissioned electrical vault boxes around Driggs to be painted. In 2011 they did ten and they have ten more this year.

I recently tracked down all of the new boxes around town, took pictures of their current state, and logged their coordinates. I’ve created a Map with links to all the new boxes, which in turn link to their individual photo pages here on the blog.

The photos are stored on my server, as opposed to Flickr, which will allow me to update them quickly as the boxes are painted, without losing the projects overall structure.

So, to get going, check out the Map or dive into the Master Post with all current photos.

My God

The computer on my bus is my god, I live and drive by it. If a pick-up shows at 11:00, I arrive at 11:00. If the customer really wanted an 11:30 pick-up it’s up to them to call the company and get it changed. I drive, I don’t arrange.

I also don’t worship this god, in fact, most of the time I’m swearing at it. I do appreciate the technology though, a combination of GPS and cellular which allows changes from the Idaho Falls dispatch center to occur instantly.

My Little Pony

Steph has created a costume from scratch for her niece Raylee. I don’t profess to understand the concept, but I totally appreciate the creativity.

Elk Faces

Coming back from a trip down to Rexburg last Saturday we ventured off on a country road that had the Tetons in it’s sights. Tomi‘s GPS smarts told me that Home was reachable on this road, so we kept on.

We came upon an Elk refuge and some animals with attitude. I’ve seen these looks before, contempt for humans runs amok here.

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The Grand

A beautiful Fall afternoon in the Valley yesterday allowed me to push the great 25-500mm zoom lens on my little Canon out to its limits. I mounted the camera on a tripod and shot with 2 second timed release so my finger press wouldn’t shake the shot.

The camera‘s zoom has a feature called Optical Image Stabilization that kicks in when zoomed. Have I mentioned I love this camera.

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Stolen Tires

The following text is headed to the Letters to the Editor sections of our two local newspapers next week:

Five TRPTA bus snow tires were stolen from our 5th street base last week. These tires protected the public and our customers last winter. We still have enough tires left to mount on our two primary vehicles but our backup bus will probably go without for a while.

A lot of folks worked out of the Public Works yard this summer and obviously the tires were too much of a temptation for someone, as winter approaches. If you notice slightly used LT 225/75R 16 Hankook (I*Pike RW11) tires mysteriously appearing on a truck nearby, please call the sheriff’s office at 208-354-2323. Thanks, from BusDriverJim!

You may recall my recent Winter Ready post. There were three stacks of six tires each and yesterday I discovered the stacks lower by one, and a couple of older street tires stuck into the third stack. Four snow tires and a spare for some thief!

I went down to the base this morning and locked up the remaining 13 tires in the back of my bus. Our tire dealer will clean them up on Monday.

Update: The tires have been recovered…

Counter Creep

I noticed this morning that counter creep was running amok in our kitchen and Steph said she was going to tackle it this weekend. I added a bunch of stuff to the other end of the counter this afternoon after dumping morning coffee into my man-purse (a Craftsman bag) but since this is my blog, I’m not showing it.