Welcome to the ShipWatcher Blog

I've set this blog up to make it easier to let you know what's happening at http://shipwatcher.com/ and to make it easier for you to communicate with me. You don't need to be a member of blogger to leave a message.

I just wanted to let you know how much I love this project!

I write a lot of software. Some of it is pretty cool. I enjoy doing it, and I get paid for it.

But the ShipWatcher project is so much fun. I don't get paid a cent for it. It's a labor of love. And it works!

The latest fun thing I've added is the ShipWatcher picture feed.

Basically, the system looks at all the webcams every hour and "decides" which ones look like they might be interesting, and logs them. It's smart enough to know not to copy a photo at night time. It also avoids the middle of the day and tries to get in the early morning or late afternoon.

You can see the "Photo of the hour" at http://photos.shipwatcher.com/. It uses the Flickr engine to store the photos, and tags by ship name, and company name. E.g. The Queen Elizabeth 2 is tagged as "Cunard" and as "Queen Elizabeth 2". Carribean Princess is tagged as "Princess" and "Carribean Princess".

If you've got a Flickr screensaver, tell it to download from the Flickr user: ShipWatcher. If you're only interested in one specific ship or cruise line, just specify that in the screen saver.

Have a look at http://www.flickrbits.com/ for cool programs you can use to display Flickr photos as Screen savers and Desktop backgrounds.

Hope you enjoy it all.

Regards

Neil

P.S. I said I don't get paid for running this site, but I do have some unobtrusive ads on the site which I hope (eventually) might cover the website costs.