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Slashdotted again

Well, it looks like I got slashdotted for the second time in a few months. The server went a bit wibbly for a few hours, but that was eventually taken care of and Ben has mirrored the KiteCam video clips.

It was a conversation in an IRC channel that led to the idea to put the KiteCam page on the intarweb:

<dmc> Paul: stick the avi up somewhere. open a paypal account and advertise for donations. I'm sure if you can get the ball rolling you could get 300 quid from idio^H^H^H^H sympathetic punters
<Paul> oooh, clever idea :)
<dmc> if you get more than 300 quid I want the difference in royalties :)

And the donators are certainly sympathetic (while I am the idiot for doing something so stupid in the first place). The KiteCam fund has broken through the £100 barrier now! One kind chap donated $40! I am overwhelmed by everyone's generosity. To be honest, I wasn't expecting the page to generate any donations, but there was nothing to lose in trying. I guess the slashdotting helped a bit :) I'll be sending thank-you emails to everyone who donated.

Some good points were made amongst the slashdot comments, along with some not so good points, such as:

If it rendered it unusable... then what did they use to get a picture of it?

Like, duh. Someone else's camera?

The good points generally raised the question of why I used such an unsuitable kite and such an expensive camera when a cheaper one would have been better. Well, I already had this camera, so going out and buying another one would have cost me money (don't forget I'm a poor student). And I already had the kite. As unsuitable as it may have been, it was there. And no, I can't afford a helium balloon just yet :)

And the good news(?) is that I have other plans for aerial photography, this time using some less expensive equipment... I'll be sure to make another web page when I get round to trying it.

27 Jun 2004 - 9:42:33 BST
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