Window on the World

Just some ponderings today on the WWW - Wild West Web - the Internet.  The portal to the world.  It sure has changed the world and believe it or not I was a "late adopter" of the internet, so to speak.  I really figured it was a fad, much like the CB radios of the 70's.  Boy, was I wrong - never listen to me regarding stock picks or anything else - my crystal ball obviously has a big ole fat crack in it - more like a snow globe.

Anyway, one of the neat things about the internet is that it "opens up the world" in so many ways.  One of the things that really enthralls me is webcams.  Webcams give a glimpse into the happenings in some distant place.  It allows one to "check the weather" and see what is going on.  I think every city and town and village should have a webcam.

Some of my favorite webcams are in Omsk Russia (Siberia).  Russia and the Russian people have always fascinated me.  I keep doing my best to land Synchro32 a customer in the region so that I can tag along.  My ultimate dream vacation is to travel from St. Petersburg all the way to Vladivostok on the Trans-Siberian railway.  Along the way, I want to hop off and pickup the Trans-Mongolian railway so that I can say I have been to inner and outer Mongolia!  Now, here is the kicker, I want to do this in the DEAD OF WINTER!  Why?  In order to understand the people of Russia, you have to understand the elements that they endure.  Not many things "worse" than a Siberian winter.  Of course, along the way I want to stop off at various locations and tour about.  In Mongolia, there is also a ski resort that I would like to partake in!

It's really too bad that we didn't have the technology to send webcams to the moon during the lunar landings.  It would be so cool to sit at my desk and view the lunar landscape and the "earth rise".  Also, the space craft Voyager is about to be the first man made object to leave our universes, it would be so cool to have a webcam on that unit - of course when it was launched in 1977, there was not much in the way of computers and what computers there were took up entire floors of buildings.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-11988466
Here are three of my favorite webcams.
http://abonent.omsk.skylink.ru/webcam.php
http://abonent.omsk.skylink.ru/webcam03.php
http://abonent.omsk.skylink.ru/webcam04.php

and here is a chart of webcams in "Oh Canada"
http://www.metcam.navcanada.ca/hb/index.jsp?lang=e

Little do my comrades at  Synchro32 know it, but I've secretly installed webcams during my visits in their homes and in the offices!  That way I can see what is going on :)  My little window into the Synchro32 world.

The weather fascinates me, and through www.weatherunderground.com, I have a complete dash board setup of my favorites - places that mean something to me, places that I long to visit or have visited.

The West Texas Trans Pecos Big Bend Region is a favorite area of mine...
http://www.tceq.state.tx.us/compliance/monitoring/air/monops/webcams.html
http://observatories.hodar.com/mcdonald/webcams.html

http://www.nps.gov/bibe/photosmultimedia/pj-cam.htm

Well, all is well with Synchro32, Simon right now is in 
http://traffic.houstontranstar.org/layers/gc.aspx?cam=1106&loc=Beltway_8-North_at_Aldine_Westfield&fr=6&ps=300 and will be traveling to http://www.wunderground.com/webcams/pcnet/1/show.html

Well, that's all for now.  I'll be back at you again before the end of the year!  Be careful out there and I'll see you on down the road...  Shane