I have to laugh at myself. I'm an old man now, retired from Kodak and NTG. My life is filled with so many beloved activities, most important, my granddaughters, when I can be with them. Lately I've been so busy that I can't even squeeze in my afternoon nap, which I cherish. All that to say, I find it humorous when this past Saturday I ordered a "CanaKit Raspberry PI 2 Ultimate Starter Kit". I haven't programmed in over a decade. Now I find myself all excited about receiving this kit and digging in. Back in the 70's I programmed with Machine and then Assembly languages on Digital Equipment PDP-8 computers, interfaced with shop floor manufacturing equipment. What a delight. I have to ask myself why I feel so excited and I decided that there is a void in my life and that void requires a "toy" to fill it. My "toy" is scheduled to arrive next week.

I ran across this video the other day about "poo splash" and was totally fascinated by it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-XNDM4eAn1U
It seems to fit this topic of yours.
@Dominica

I worked as a Thermal Engineer on the Manned Orbiting Laboratory (MOL) just out of college until the project's cancellation by Nixon. I loved working in the thermal area. Many years back I came across a four channel data logger kit(http://www.electronickits.com/kit/complete/meas/ck110.htm) that serial interfaced with my Windows 95 computer. With that I could store data readings every 30 seconds. My house uses a heat pump, which is common down south, but not so much up north. I used this data logging system to monitor the performance of the heat pump. Thermistor 1 is located outside. Thermistor 2 is located near the house thermostat and Thermistor 3 is setting on a register. The resulting graphs were amazing, helping me to tune the system and watch for degradation of the heat pump's performance. I learned the exact temperature swing at the thermostat. I can see when and how long "Defrost cycles" are. I can tell at what point the electric supplement heaters (bank1 and bank2) turn on and off.

I've had a couple of people ask if I could do a performance analysis of their heating and air conditioning systems. I'd love to but carrying the old computer around is a pain. I thought it would be neat to have the Raspberry PI be my data logger. Obviously I have to develop the data logging application and also deal with the USB to Serial conversion situation, which should be no big deal. After all that, my first project is to learn Python and then project 2 will be to design and build a cheap data logging system.

Obviously I need to design the data logger to handle many types of inputs, not just thermal needs. I think there may be applications in the Dairy business, monitoring tank temperatures and flow rates and alarming appropriately. Remember, I'm retired, so it's all PLAY.

Thanks for your interest.

That would be awesome, especially for you young guys. It would provide "milestones" to relate to when trying to remember different events, even those that weren't recorded somewhere. Great idea.

Since getting my Mini iPad, watching TED & other podcasts has become so easy and I love. Next to TED my favorite is "Smarter Every Day" and this is one of my favorite episodes;
Youtube Video

Currently I'm reading "Putting AMAZING back into GRACE" by Michael Horton. I just completed Father Brown's Mystery "The Secret of Father Brown" by G.K. Chesterton (1874-1936). It was an interesting read given the new PBS series based on some of these stories. I also completed "Grace" by Max Lucado. I found this to be a joy to read, very easy but packed with thought provoking ideas. I also recently finished a short book "The New Life in Christ Jesus" by Scofield (1843-1921) which is an old book but seemed so contemporary as I was reading it. It is available in the public domain. I obtained my copy from the Toronto Seminary.

A few years back I had this happen on the farm. It was really neat. It had the same sharp delineation between the fog and non-fog areas.

It's Here! And it is so cute. It was left in my backyard for several hours at 5 degrees, so it's thawing out right now. It arrived 3 days early and my quick inventory shows that all the kit parts are there. That's it in the middle next to the credit card, added for size comparison. More to come as I play with it.

We'll done.

Your mind goes wild with ideas of what you could do with this. What fun!

@thecreativeone91 There is a warning that compiled apps for the previous models will have to be recompiled for the new CPU. https://learn.adafruit.com/introducing-the-raspberry-pi-2-model-b/what-to-watch-out-for There are differences and not everything transports over to the new model.

@coliver That's interesting. If I can pull off this first phase, taking it to a higher level should be a breeze. I'll keep you informed of my progress. Keep in mind, it's not the top priority on my list, but it sure has my interest currently.

I worked as a Thermal Engineer on the Manned Orbiting Laboratory (MOL) just out of college until the project's cancellation by Nixon. I loved working in the thermal area. Many years back I came across a four channel data logger kit(http://www.electronickits.com/kit/complete/meas/ck110.htm) that serial interfaced with my Windows 95 computer. With that I could store data readings every 30 seconds. My house uses a heat pump, which is common down south, but not so much up north. I used this data logging system to monitor the performance of the heat pump. Thermistor 1 is located outside. Thermistor 2 is located near the house thermostat and Thermistor 3 is setting on a register. The resulting graphs were amazing, helping me to tune the system and watch for degradation of the heat pump's performance. I learned the exact temperature swing at the thermostat. I can see when and how long "Defrost cycles" are. I can tell at what point the electric supplement heaters (bank1 and bank2) turn on and off.

I've had a couple of people ask if I could do a performance analysis of their heating and air conditioning systems. I'd love to but carrying the old computer around is a pain. I thought it would be neat to have the Raspberry PI be my data logger. Obviously I have to develop the data logging application and also deal with the USB to Serial conversion situation, which should be no big deal. After all that, my first project is to learn Python and then project 2 will be to design and build a cheap data logging system.

Obviously I need to design the data logger to handle many types of inputs, not just thermal needs. I think there may be applications in the Dairy business, monitoring tank temperatures and flow rates and alarming appropriately. Remember, I'm retired, so it's all PLAY.

Thanks for your interest.

It's Here! And it is so cute. It was left in my backyard for several hours at 5 degrees, so it's thawing out right now. It arrived 3 days early and my quick inventory shows that all the kit parts are there. That's it in the middle next to the credit card, added for size comparison. More to come as I play with it.

I have to laugh at myself. I'm an old man now, retired from Kodak and NTG. My life is filled with so many beloved activities, most important, my granddaughters, when I can be with them. Lately I've been so busy that I can't even squeeze in my afternoon nap, which I cherish. All that to say, I find it humorous when this past Saturday I ordered a "CanaKit Raspberry PI 2 Ultimate Starter Kit". I haven't programmed in over a decade. Now I find myself all excited about receiving this kit and digging in. Back in the 70's I programmed with Machine and then Assembly languages on Digital Equipment PDP-8 computers, interfaced with shop floor manufacturing equipment. What a delight. I have to ask myself why I feel so excited and I decided that there is a void in my life and that void requires a "toy" to fill it. My "toy" is scheduled to arrive next week.

A few years back I had this happen on the farm. It was really neat. It had the same sharp delineation between the fog and non-fog areas.

Check out those pants. His mother made his fashion choices back then. I was his barber. Also this frame is grabbed from a video that was made from a Super 8 Sound movie, Sept 30, 1979. Sorry Scott, AJ made me do it.

The rope Scott used to swing on is still hanging from one of this tree's branches. He'd shoot me if I included a picture of him swinging there I've been wanting to get a picture of his girls swinging with that rope

Here's one you might enjoy. Being one of those people who were deep into computer punch cards (well, maybe early mag tape) when these boys were playing in their garage, this really tickles me. Enjoy.

http://www.imore.com/original-apple-1-goes-905000-auction

I just accidently came across this yesterday and have tried it twice already. It has worked very well in both cases. It's called CloudConvert. It will convert almost any video file from one format to another and it does it off line. In my two examples I stored my original video (m4v) on my Google Drive, selected mp4 conversion and told it to put the results back on my Google Drive. Each of my videos were around 450 Mb, so the conversion took around an hour. It has a progress bar, so I was able to watch the progress.

I work with video files on occasion and often get frustrated about which tool I should use for a specific format change. Each tool has its strong points. It would be nice to have one place to go and not have to download software.

https://cloudconvert.org/m4v-to-mp4

I just thought you might be interested. Have fun.