In preparation for the Crystal sex cruise, June 17, 2018, I wrote a program to capture live views from the Crystal site. (Yes, I know, that's somewhat perverse. Don't judge me - at least I admit it!) It turned out, though, that Crystal stopped refreshing the live computer lab view for that cruise.
I wrote on that other message board that Crystal should shut down the computer lab live view. It's not all that high tech anymore, and only reinforces my belief that Symphony should be renamed Crystal PC Load Letter. I think also, MalbecWine, on that other message board, mentioned in another context, that many Crystal cruisers don't like their images shared on social media. So shut it down Crystal - I know your minions read this board - it's their perverse pleasure.
Anyway, my first program attempt was simply to view the computer lab on my own page, and let it refresh every X seconds. That didn't work, though, because the file name was always the same, and the image was already cached. So I designed the capture, which I call Reloader, to save the image under a unique file name on Big Dog Foto. And this is how I captured the images from the very popular August 10, 2018 Grand Panama Canal cruise.
I don't intend to continue capturing these images beyond the Panama Canal cruise ... but I will on request for any drib critic member. All you have to do is ask in advance, so I can add the Reloader capture to the cron schedule.
I really am enjoying the images from the Panama Canal cruise. And since I am no longer posting on that other message board, I thought I'd share this link to the Reloader thumbnail viewer.
There are 11 folders as I write. I will add today's images tomorrow. They're captured on schedule, every five minutes, but I like to purge most of the night time photos, and resize the images to save space. (If anyone wants the original, larger image, just ask me for it. I save them off-site.)
This is what you should know about that web page:
- i don't recommend this if you have a slow internet connection
- i don't recommend this on a smartphone - i don't own one so i can't test how it works
- click on a date up top to change the path
- optionally, you can use the time of day selectors to narrow the display
- you can choose a thumbnail size, but it's always using the full image, so it does not affect load speed
- press "b" on your keyboard to jump all the way to the bottom
- press "t" on your keyboard to jump back up to the top
- click on the left arrow, or press the left arrow on your keyboard, for the previous image
- click on the right arrow, or press the right arrow on your keyboard, for the next image
- click on the file name in the banner to open just the image in a new window
Prior to August 19, the computer lab image was captured on the hour, 15 after, thirty after, and 45 minutes after. Once I captured the image of the gang above, I changed the schedule to twice an hour. I know many of you will think that all those computer lab images are boring, but I like observing small changes from one image to the next.
The capture schedule, starting August 19, is as follows:
- 0,30 - pc load letter computer lab
- 5,35 - pc load letter bridge view
- 10, 40 - pc load letter port view (unfortunately always tilted)
- 20, 50 - pc load letter starboard view
- 25, 55 - a random image chosen from all the other Crystal live views (there are 21 of them overall, including the 4 on pc load letter)