My kids note that I spend way too much time at my computer managing WUWT. So rather than fight it, they embraced the dark side for Father’s day. I love evil but harmless technology. TubbyCat, not so much.
BTW, the USB Missile Launcher is harmless, it shoots nerf missiles which you control via desktop app or via remote web controls that use your webcam (or the built in one in the launcher) to help you aim.
No animals were harmed in the making of this film.
Interesting, I had this very idea years ago only with a different goal in mind. Our garden was constantly raided by starlings. After chasing them out of the garden they would simply perch on the phone wire and laugh at me. I thought at the time that I would like to develop a .22 rifle with a servo mechanism and a webcam through a scope. I could sit inside and aim with a trackball and pick the starlings off at my leisure. Just check the wide angle cam every once in a while and if there were any starlings on the wire, plink them off. Never did build it, but it was a nice fantasy when they got into the garden.
Lol, very cool!
LMAO!!! Purrfect!!!
James, surely you mean ‘lolcat’…
My cat hates it when I type.
She also prefers that if I must I type I wear nice soft sweats and not get dressed up to go out.
Like my kids she is always worried I do not understand my essential role in life.
I don’t suppose I do.
Happy Fathers Day everyone.
That won’t happen again. Next time the cat hears the servo noise, it will be gone. =;<)
When I was a kid Dad wouldn’t let us get a BB gun. He loved birds and had several bird feeders. Then a cat showed up. He got us one upon the promise that we wouldn’t shoot birds but we would shoot any cats that showed up in the yard. Very low powered. It couldn’t really hurt them even if we did manage to hit one. Might as well have been a Nerf gun. But we were all happy. (Except the cats.)
crosspatch: Bolt the plinker to the wire. But you lose the fun of aiming.
With regards to the BB gun and cats. “Two pumps on the rump” usually does it. For the stubborn ones three usually does the trick. Use six on the birds in the tomatoes. I’ve heard it takes ten to get the attention of a deer.
Shame on you…poor kitty. lol.
Funny as all get out. I want one.
a thousand times better than a tie or slippers!!
happy father’s day!
This one is for the kids age 5 to 70. Nerf darts (available @ Wmart in packs of ~ 10 to 20ea) plus ~20″ lengths of 1/2 in pvc pipe. It’s blowgun city! Sometimes even the cats love it.
My beagle has a thing about… his favorite thing is cats for target practice… he will even throw them up in the air for me! Who needs to spend money on paper and clay targets when cats are free?
“No animals were harmed in the making of this film.”
But at least one was seriously pissed off.
REPLY: Nah, he’s back on my lap now – A
crosspatch says:
June 17, 2012 at 7:34 pm
… a .22 rifle with a servo mechanism …
I had an old coil from a VW Rabbit and wired that to my bird feeder that fed more squirrels than birds. First a bench power supply, then with a Heathkit CD ignition kit that didn’t precharge the coil when the points closed.
It didn’t save me any bird seed, but boy, did I have some paranoid squirrels!
Now we have to find Anthony a Michael Mann bobble head doll for a target. 🙂
LMAO! Brilliant.
BTW, the USB Missile Launcher is harmless…
I know a way to rectify that.
Happy Father’s Day, Anthony and all! Great gift BTW!
If you want to do the job properly, you want a system like ths :
Militarizing Your Backyard with a computer vision controlled anti-squirrel water-cannon — http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QPgqfnKG_T4
Careful there. Cats have a perfect sense of timing when it comes to revenge – and it is often a complex scheme involving a dog taking the blame.
Anthony,
You do realise alarmists will now have proof that your in the pocket of Big Business – using your blog to advertise – just how much money did you receive $50m? ? ? Come on, ‘fess up 😉
A little respect for the cat. It is the greatest blessing for mankind that they keep mice under control . Feeding the world would be a big problem without them. It’s Tom we need as a friend ,not Jerry.http://www.tomandjerryonline.com/animgifs/angry.gif
Hey! A Rag Doll. We have two. They’ll forgive anything if you give them a belly rub.
H.R. . . . you’ve never met my sister’s rag doll. So mean we had to put it on prozac to even allow it in the same room as the nieces and nephews. No kidding.
Modify it to shoot paintballs.
funny but PETA would not approve.
RE: Use laser beams to scatter birds.
During winter time here in Burnaby, BC, crows congregate in tall trees at sunrise before starting the day’s hunt for food. They cackle quite loudly and wake up the neighborhood. I have found that shinning a small laser pointer ( 640-680 nm, ca. 5 mw) on the flock perched high in a tree will cause them to disperse PDQ.
I point the laser at the flock and slowly sweep the beam back and forth. Shortly after the beam hits the main body of the flock, the birds fall silent and in a blink of eye, they take flight with a furious flutter.
I have read that a combination of a video camera and laser beams are used to keep birds out of blueberry orchards. Here in BC propane cannons are used to keep the birds out of the orchards and prevent them from devouring the yummy blueberries. Everybody complains about the cannons since they are in operation from sunrise to sunset when the berries are ripe.
crosspatch says on June 17, 2012 at 7:34 pm:
Interesting, I had this very idea years ago only with a different goal in mind. Our garden was constantly raided by starlings. After chasing them out of the garden they would simply perch on the phone wire and laugh at me. I thought at the time that I would like to develop a .22 rifle with a servo mechanism and a webcam through a scope.
Not a good idea. A 0.22 has a range of about a mile. You should a 0.22 with fine birdshot.
I have an AirSoft Colt-Browning 0.45 semi-automatic handgun, I shoot plastic pellets at crows walking about the backyard or on the roof. However, the range is about ca 30 feet, but it works. Just pointing the gun at them will caus them to take flight.
Harold Pierce Jr says:
June 18, 2012 at 4:49 am
I have an AirSoft Colt-Browning 0.45 semi-automatic handgun, I shoot plastic pellets at crows walking about the backyard or on the roof. However, the range is about ca 30 feet, but it works. Just pointing the gun at them will caus them to take flight.
Walk into a cornfield full of crows carrying a stick and they’ll take off in onsies and twosies and circle just out of reach as you pass by. Walk into that same cornfield carrying a shotgun and the whole flock will take off en masse and scatter into the trees until you leave.
Don’t let Concerned Scientist Kenji near the controls if he and TubbyCat have “issues.”
Looked up this gadget… surfed… and discovered… magnetic buckyballs
Oh Anthony – I’m still rolling on the ground in laughter with this one. Do you realize that you can do some “Pavlov” work with this? Attach a pen laser to the device. (Turned on.) Fire at TUBBY CAT.
Cat will condition to firing and the laser. Thereafter, laser will make the cat jump.
REAL EVIL!
Max
Not only TubbyCat must be jealous of Kenji for not having its own Concern Scientist membership, but now he is getting picked on… you should get TubbyCat a David Suzuki Foundation membership.
Try thinkgeek.com for about $25. CyberGuys used to carry them, but no longer.
thinkgeek.com also has one with a webcam for real accuracy 🙂