 |
July 27, 2002 The GOOD : I got a new monitor to replace the thirteen inch spare I'd been forced to squint at for the past few weeks. The monitor of my dreams sits in front of me as I type this, glowing happily back at me as I to it...
The BAD : Weezil Cam is still down.... however I will be finally getting a new one, which brings me to ... The UGLY : Replacing Weezil Cam is going to run me about $300. That is more than I have to spend on hand right now. So, it's back to the budget with the knowledge that sooner or later a new cam setup WILL be mine .. oh, yes - it will be mine .... |
UPDATE : July 14, 2002
Just when I thought things were not going to get any worse with my computer....
The Weezil Cam is still down, my CD - readable/writeable is FINALLY working so I can start backing up my computer, because.... are you ready.... I'M GETTING A BRAND NEW COMPUTER! Yep, my nineteen-inch monitor finally bit the dust, so here I sit, squinting at an old thirteen inch monitor we saved from years ago ... It is cheaper to get a new system than to just buy a new monitor, since I was going to upgrade in the fall anyway. Now I REALLY can't take any sick time off of work, needed or not! 
So until I gather up the information and funds to replace this ailing technological reject, I will try to keep my sanity while looking at this mini-monitor, dreaming of the day I can be overwhelmed by pixels and screen real estate once again....
|
|
Weezil Cam Woes
It is said that a wise person knows when to ask for help. Well, I may not be wise, but I'm certainly seeking some outside help! Here is the scenario:
For over a year the Weezil Cam was running fine. We even had TWO cameras running on our Windows 2000, networked, DSL connected computers. The system worked virtually [get it?] flawlessly, even after stringing together half a dozen USB cables up through the ceiling and down into the ferret room of our then-new house. Then one day, Weezil Cam stopped working. Windows informed me that the video driver that my camera uses was currently being used by another software program. The problem is, I didn't run anything that uses a video driver. I did all the diagnostics, dll tracing, and related methods of trying to figure out what went wrong. I uninstalled the web cam software AND the camera software. I wiped my hard drive completely clean three separate times, each time reinstalling one software program after another and checking the cam function, looking for a conflict. 
At first, the camera would not even work at all. Then, it worked for a few minutes then stopped doing so, giving me that driver conflict message. Finally, I think I figured out what may have happened. I believe that the latest version of the anti-virus program was somehow corrupting the install process of the web cam software. That was the final time I erased my hard drive and started from scratch. Still, Weezil Cam is not working.
Now, for the nitty gritty details, as written by the Extreme Weezils' Dad in response to an offer to help us a while back:
Win2k Pro SP2 PIII 500Mhz 256meg RAM 30 gig ATA 100 Hard drive (plenty of HD space avail) Vid card: Matrox G400Max (drivers are current) primary web cam: 3com HomeConnect (discontinued) secondary web cam: Logitech Quickcam 
Hands down the 3com HomeConnect webcam is the best camera out
there
for low budget cameras. Nothing comes close to this thing, and I
really did my homework before buying it. We realized last year before
we bought it that 3com discontinued the camera, but that there were
still some out there to be found. I decided that despite the
discontinued product that we would buy it for two major reasons: 1)
fantastic low-light capability 2) interchangable lenses including a
very wide angled lens that we primarily use
I knew when we bought it that there could be issues with the drivers, since they would no longer be updated. Thousands of reviews raved about the camera's qualities - when it worked on people's computers. Nearly all complained about the unstable drivers though (see CNET's reviews). Still, after getting it, it set up nicely with no problems and worked beautifully for years. We even had both the 3com and the Logitech running at the same time on the same computer...for a while. Down the road, the computer running them both became a bit flakey. One day it just decided that it no longer could use the 3com camera, and that I'd always get a message about another application accessing the camera (even though I could never find out what). After a hard drive wipe and reinstallation of everything, I could only ever get ONE of the two cameras working. It didn't matter which one...but the computer would not handle both at the same time again. So we went with the superior quality 3com. That ran fine for at least a year. Then we moved to our new house, and now instead of the weezil room being 6 feet from the computer, it's now closer to 60 feet. The only way I could find to get a USB device to work properly at that distance is to use USB active extension cables. I'm assuming you're familiar with active extension cables, so I won't go into details about their purpose. We've had to connect 4 extension cables (through the wall, into the attic, and down into the weezil room) to reach the current location. This is all connected directly into either the back of the computer or the USB 4 port hub. We've tried both, and both have worked. In fact, this setup worked from day 1. 
Then one day it stops working. Suddenly it decides that there is no
camera driver installed, and despite my best efforts I could NOT get
the driver to reinstall. Win2k would report that the driver needed was
not the correct driver on the disk. With enough looking into, the
driver it wanted was USB.inf...but it would not accept the driver on
the disk. Also...Win2k would report there was a new component
installed but that it could not identify it. Eventually, looking in
the Systems hardware device list, I realized that Win2k was
recognizing the active extension cables as an unknown USB hub
device.
This had not been happening in the past. For some reason, the
computer
would not recognize the camera on the other end of the extension
cable...only that the active extension cable was a USB hub device, and
it wanted the drivers for that. Of course, there are no drivers for an
active extension cable.
So, I worked around it...plugged the camera directly into the computer and reinstalled. I thought for sure it would work, but this time it would not show any picture. The drivers installed though, but no picture. Nothing I did could get a visual picture from the camera. I thought it had broke. 
To test that theory, I plugged the 3com camera into the other computer
(my computer), and it worked great. Perfect picture. So, we started
running weezilcam from this computer. That worked great for a few
months, and then one day...poof, it no longer works. Same problem as
on Heidi's computer. First it would say that another application was
using the device. No matter what I did, I could not get it to work
again. I eventually wiped my drive clean (reformatted, reinstalled the
OS) and reinstalled the camera. It worked fine again for a week or so.
Then suddenly, my I/O connections would fail...locking up the
computer. When that happened enough times I plugged the camera
direction into the back of the computer, rather than through the 4
port hub. Now suddenly it wouldnt' recognize the active extension
cable...same problem as before. No matter what I did, it would not
recognize the camera on the other end of the cable.
So I suspected the cables to be faulty. Well, they were all replaced...same problem. I know that I'm within my distance limit...according to the specs I could connect 5 cables. I'm only using 4. I know the cables are working fine. I know that this entire setup has worked just fine in the past. It worked for over a year trouble free. Now suddenly, all these problems pop up...on multiple computers. I've tried everything I can possibly think of. With just the computer, mouse, keyboard, monitor and webcam...NOTHING else installed...no software, no antivirus....NOTHING, I still can't get the camera to show a picture. Either there's no picture at all, or the other times I've tried to install it it cannot recognize the active extension cables. It makes no sense why one time it would install only to show no picture, while other times it doesn't even go that far and just doesn't recognize the cables. 
This is happening on two separate computers. They're both identical
specs, except mine has about 500meg RAM on it and a much better
video
card (ATI Raedon 64mb).I should also say that we've had the same luck with the Logitech....same problems. The newest thing though is that the I/O connections fail whenever we try to reinstall either camera into the back of our 4 port hubs. Oh, and by the way, the camera is the ONLY thing plugged into the hub. The logitech will always work when plugged directly into the computer though...and not through the active extension cables. I still get the I/O failure though. One more thing I noticed. If you install the Logitech camera on a computer, and then try to install the 3com, the computer doesn't like that there are two cameras and neither of them will work. The thing is, you can't uninstall the Logitech and still hope to install the 3com. The only way past that is to wipe the drive. Only when no other camera has been installed will the 3com actually install and work...even if only for a short while. So, there you have it. That's not the complete story, but that's most of it. I've tried many many other things. The biggest problem I have is: 1) There are 60 feet from the computers to the weezil room. I can't change that. 2) I have a GREAT camera with flakey drivers. I want to go to WinXP but I know there are no drivers for that. The camera is fantastic in low light and has a wide-angle lens. That's something that we REALLY want in order to capture the whole room. 3) EVERY low buget camera out there absolutely stinks in low-light conditons. Our weezil room is 90% of the time in low light. Someone contacted me from the Ferret Mailing List with a generous offer to help. It has been over a month since I've heard back from this individual [if you are out there - and you know who you are - drop me a line, willya?] If ANYONE has any ideas about how I can fix this problem, PLEASE contact me via the Extreme Weezils Feedback Page ... |
|
The Extreme Weezils have a brand new house, and of course a brand new room ... It may not be the center of our daily lives in a physical sense, as the ferret room was in our apartment, but it continues to be the center of our thoughts most of the time. However, as the weeks go by in our new home, now two and a half months since our Big Move, I become more and more aware that the ferrets seem disconncted from us in a way they were not when we lived in our small apartment. No longer can we see our fuzzies from the living room/computer room/family room/kitchen. In our house, the only time we interact with our ferrets consists of when they are out and about on a romp or when we are in their room. Sometimes I will sit in the ferret room with a book, a notebook, and a pen to write, read, take notes, think, all while being in the presence of my weezils...  The photos on this page were snapped from video footage, as are many of the pictures on this web site. I am standing at the only door of the room taking these shots, a plywood blockade stands waist high, just like at the apartment. There is a slight 'L' extension to the room which creates a cubby hole area right in front of the door of the room. We have blankets, afghans, and various soft and fuzzy things for the ferrets to snuggle in, under, and on top of, creating a semi-permanent crash pad space directly blocking the entrance. It is no small gymnastic feat to climb up and over the plywood barrier while avoiding whichever ferrets may be asleep in the blanket pile on the other side.  This new room has more square footage than the last, but not nearly as much natural light. From observation alone, it seems the diminished light is a positive change for the ferrets, as they sleep out in the open more often than not, from the middle of their room to the Cozy Corner they have designated as an Official Extreme Weezil Napping Place...  Also, it is believed that light exposure has a correlation to adrenal disease in ferrets, so we try to maintain some consistency with turning on and off the light in their room. We really try to bring Weezil Cam to all as much as possible and in the best lighting as possible, but of course the health of the ferrets come first. |
The Final Installment of The First Extreme Weezils' Room Why is this the final installment of the first Extreme Weezils' Room? We are MOVING into our first house at the end of November, so things will pretty much just get cycled around that already are in the room. We won't be purchasing anything new until we relocate. So, on with the topic at hand...
We have created several incarnations of our first ferret room. As I state down the page, the Ferret Room is the space where our dining room goes - off the kitchen and connected to the living room - creating a circular living space for us, the ferrets, and the door. The rest of the house consists of hallway and bedrooms/bathrooms, all of which the ferrets find great pleasure in scurry through. If you check out the Extreme Weezils' Ferret Cam page, the first shot [on the left] is a wide angle view of the ferret room. Go ahead. Check it out. I'll wait right here.... Did you see it? The camera is mounted on top of one of the hard shell plastic tubes that are positioned over the ferret wall seperating the ferret room from the living room. The two tubes are held in place via strong string hanging from the ceiling. Unfortunately, you cannot see the giant Midwest cage that my husband so expertly converted from three partial floors to three full floors. See the below pictures for more details on that... There are many unusual items in our Extreme Weezils' Ferret Room. The large plastic container that sits underneath the ceramic water dish - against the wall along the right hand side of the room as you look via Weezil Cam - is there to catch any splashed water as well as providing a deterrent to trying to tip over the large ceramic water dish. We have seen the ferrets do some pretty intensely destructive things when they don't get their way, so we try to prevent them from being able to destroy things as much as possible. 
I'm sure everyone who has seen Weezil Cam recognizes the green comforter. What a treasure THAT old thing has turned out to be! Instead of tossing it when we got a new comforter for our bed, we put it in the Ferret Room to provide a bed, play area, and especially to create the Extreme Weezils' favorite sleeping place : The Tent. When we make a tent for them [also known as The Ferret Fort] they tend to sleep longer and more deeply. All six usually spend most of the day and night snuggled beneath the protective warmth and darkness the tent provides.
Visit the Extreme Weezils home : A Taste of Ferret Nirvana
One of the most important details to attend to for your ferret is the cage or living area [or as in our case, both.] The ferret cage is usually where your fuzzy buddy spends most of his hours and should be as large, clean, safe, and comfortable as possible...
FUZZY FACTS ABOUT FERRET HABITATS IN GENERAL :
 All ferret cages must be ferret-safe and ferret-comfy, including NOT having wire floors or stairs [claws, feet get caught] and keeping rubber or other chewy nondigestable products OUT of reach.
We are officially owned, totally and completely, by our ferrets, shaping our lives almost completely around them. Our home is set up in such a way that has the kitchen open to a dining room area, complete with ceiling fan and huge wall-sized picture window with the view overlooking the Cascade Mountains. The other side of the dining area opens to the living room. Both openings are blocked off with waist-high plywood barriers, screwed tightly into the walls and checked regularly for sturdiness. The main setup of The Ferret Room starts with the three cages, all connected via a series of soft and hard shell ferret tubes. Starting with the smallest cage .... 
The smallest cage is for travel only, acting as a combination pet carrier / addition to the ferrety habitat it is one of two original cages we got for the fuzzies. It has the fleece hammock that came with the Midwest Ferret Playpen [we refer to that hammock as their "baby" bed] and a brown fuzz log hanging above it. There is just enough room for the two hanging beds as described, a relatively large ceramic crock for food, and a large water bottle, plus a corner litter box. When in the ferret room, this cage is on the floor, attached to the main cage via a long soft shell ferret fun tube running the length of the wall having the large window. Blitz and Bear seem to favor sleeping here on occasion, both in and under the hammock. A large bath towel serves as a cage floor covering: soft, easy to clean, and inexpensive to replace on occasion. The large food crock in this cage has the 8 in 1 Ultimate Pro food, the only kind Bear will eat and also enjoyed intermittently by the other five Extreme Weezils. 
Before describing the main cage and its various stages of metamorphosis, we skip to the medium - sized cage. This is a regular ungalvanized metal cage, with three floors and a pull out tray at the bottom. It is smaller than the main cage but still big enough to hold all six ferrets comfortably if they choose to all be in it at once. James connected this cage with the main cage using two sets of hard plastic tubing, acting as a skyway from the top floor of the main cage, over the wood barrier leading to the front room, and into the medium cage, which sits in the front room. Since we spend most of our time in the front room, we wanted to provide the fuzzies with another way to be near us without having to let them out all the time. Amazingly enough,none of the ferrets have ever relieved themselves in this cage, with or without a litter box available. We took the litter box away after the first day or so to see if they would use the floor, but every time, they find the means to wake up, run through one of two tubes into the main cage, and use one of the four litter boxes available to them in their room. Inside the front room cage is a miniature version of every ferrets' hearts desire in a living space [besides the litter box, as explained above.] One of the plastic tube bridges exits to a fuzz cube; a cube lined with fleece on the inside and clips to the cage roof. All six ferrets LOVE the cube, so we got them a second one which is in the main cage.... Each floor of the front room cage is lined with fleece, attached to the wire flooring with double-sided [carpet] tape. The floor is covered by two thick towels, and has a large crock of ferret food and a water bottle available. The handmade hammock that we received in return for a monetary donation to a ferret in need [Hi Jumper! We love you!] hangs at the second floor level. It was designed to comfortably sleep three fuzzies, but has been tested and can sleep up to five at one time. Of course, the yarn gets quite stretched out from time to time, but a quick machine-wash and dry remedies that. Along with the hammock we received a wonderful blue afghan, ferret sized. We move the afghan [referred to as the fert blannie] to the three floors occasionally. All six ferrets enjoy burrowing inside the towels on the floor and their blanket. It is a common sight to see a blue material ghost moving around in the front room cage. That tells us that some lucky fert is settling in for a nice warm comfy nap or is waking up from one.
The first incarnation of the MegaFunCage is shown with the hammocks, tubes, and other fun ferrety stuff all throughout the main cage. The way the Midwest Playpens are set up leave a lot of vacant space, allowing for free falls from the top shelf that made us uneasy. So, my husband James decided to see what he can do to fill it up and make some fun activities for the ferrets to do while in their ferret room. Using the now forbidden and defunct Ferret Balloon of Danger as a hanging hammock surrounded by hard and soft shell ferret fun tubes. This not only provides much more fun per square inch, but a cushion for any fall that may happen to occur [which, as far as I know, never did.] Although the novelty period was just as interesting as it is with any other new addition to the ferret room, we noticed it wore off somewhat quickly. When we found out about the dangers of what we had in our fuzzies main home, we took everything down and started again ... This is where my husband decided to modify the main cage completely, adding entire floors to create more "living space" for the ferrets. I am hoping to get a detailed description of how this was done from him, but I can outline the basic steps here.....
The Extreme Weezils' Perspective on the Terrorist Tragedy 11 Sept. 2001 
It has been some time since the terrorist attack on the American Way of Life took place, but I felt compelled to write about it at this time. The shock has worn off, the event is now real to me, and I have had time to think about things amidst the media coverage and opinions of every customer I waited on...
Our American Flag is hung at the large bay window in the Ferret Room, much to the curiosity of it's denziens. Reactions to this new addition were mostly of the curious kind, occasionally warranting a sniff or peeking under it to see out the window better. Something about having The Flag hanging in the Ferret Room seems right, as if the way ferrets live represents our ideal version of American Society. Freedom. Individualism. Rights. 
I wonder how much longer I will periodically break down in tears when I read the names of so many of the victims of this tragedy, many who were from the Boston, MA area like myself. The only comforts I have received is the gelling of our nation in this time of crisis; personal, societal, and financial crisis; cohesive under The Flag.
Inspired by the patriotism displayed all around me, I have created a few ferret clip art pieces that sum up this little editorial bit. They are free to download and use as desired, and a link back to us would be appreciated if possible. GUEST EDITORIAL : The Extreme Weezils' DAD Shares HIS Perspective Ferret Poop Carpet Death
Let's face it. If we could figure out a way to sell ferret poop for some kind of constructive use, ferret owners could rejoice in that we would all be billionaires by now. Alas, until some crafty ferret owner discovers the answer to that elusive puzzle the rest of us will just have to make dook.
As an owner of six, I see my share of poop on a continual basis. And let's face it folks, even the best behaved ferret has the occasional miss, whether it be over the side or just finding it more convenient to go next to the litter box instead of in it. Even if your ferret is using the litter box, he/she has by now already discovered that the carpeting near his litter box makes great toilet paper. Our feeble attempts to lay paper all around the litter box often only offers a wider target area for those weasels too lazy to actually get in. And newspaper is fine but most spills can still go right through to your carpet. And if your ferrets are like my six, then your carpet has seen better days.
With all of this comes a lot of cleaning. I highly recommend a nice steam cleaner or rug doctor. I was amazed, and a little horrified to see what I could actually get out of the ferret room the first time I power-cleaned the carpet. And of course, it doesn't take long before a few more misses has the carpet looking much like it did before you cleaned. Most of us want to find a way to prevent ourselves from ever having to use a steam cleaner in the first place. I nearly cried each time I saw my poor carpet becoming more and more soiled regardless of the amount of paper I would lay down to catch the spills. I was determined to find a way to save my carpet, without having to replace it for a linoleum or tile floor. I came up with something for very little money that really helped. If you're willing to spend just a few bucks, this idea might save you some grief and save your carpet some life. 
Carpet-tape. That's right, the very same stuff you lay down on carpets to prevent drips and spills when you paint. You can find this stuff in relatively large rolls about 18" wide by 50', although I think you may find it in other sizes as well. I think a roll will cost you about $7 at your local home improvement store. This stuff looks like a very wide roll of regular gift-wrap tape. It's sticky on one side and just about as thin.
First of all, make sure that your litter boxes are placed in areas you know your fuzzies will use the bathroom. For you new ferret owners, it's fine to place the litter box where you want them to go, but for us veteran ferret owners, we know that our fuzzies pick their own spots. Lay down your carpet tape, making sure to get right up to the corners against the wall if possible. The idea is to seal off any area where spills might actually get down into the carpet. I've found that a squared area of about 25" works well. I also lay down newspaper on top of this, and although the newspaper still allows some wetness to seep through, it never reaches the surface of the carpet with the carpet-tape in place. Cleaning the surface of the carpet-tape is a breeze as well. The surface is smooth plastic, so it will wipe up very easily with some mild cleanser and a rag. You'll want to replace your carpet-tape occasionally, as it does eventually wear. Surely not anyone who ever actually owned a ferret ever said that ferrets were neat and tidy animals. Eventually, our carpet inevitably loses the battle to the many spills, digging and butt-scooting that our little fuzzies seem to do so joyfully. But with a little carpet-tape, perhaps you can help your carpet to last just a little longer for your fuzzies to enjoy wreaking havoc on. [ James is Dad to the Extreme Weezils and spends a lot of his time running after them, picking up after them, and being general ringleader to our six ferrets, the Extreme Weezils, and two cats, Dusty and Pepper ]
|
CAUTION : Self-Expression Ahead .... Beware of Opinionated Views To Follow
It has been over a year since I have been actively involved in all things ferrety online and off. When I say involved, I mean participating in reading web sites, newletters and egroups, and even posting a few times myself. I have been in contact via email and snail mail with several relatively well-known pillars of the online ferret community and have donated a significant amount of money to various ferrety causes.
Various trends have repeated themselves over and over, being reincarnated repetitively and showing themselves in slightly varied but recognizeable forms. I am not sure what to think of all of what I have seen and perceived, so I will merely express it for now and allow rumination to take its course... 
A lot of personal differences find their way onto ferret-specific groups, from email to newsgroups, bulletin boards to newsletters ... Either ferret enthusiasts are a tempermental lot, or the internet in general allows normally socially supressed opinions to be more easily expressed than in 'real life.' I tend to lean towards the cause being a bit of both, as I am guilty as charged in both factions.
There seems to be more questions than definative answers regarding actual facts about ferrets, ranging from their domestic origins to current disease states. I find it difficult to understand how ferrets can be the third most popular domestic companion in the United States for several years in a row yet the number of qualified ferret vets and/or specialists seems disproportionately small. One bothersome situation is slowly disappearing: the lack of authoritative ferret books on the market. Two that I highly recommend are "Ferrets for Dummies" by Kim Schilling and "Biology and Diseases of the Ferret - Second Edition" by James Fox. |
Animal Rights, Ferrets In Need, and Every Ferret Lovers' Duty
Every day I read my various ferret newsletters and animal rights news with a mixture of apprehension and enthusiasm. Somewhere in each day's delivery of fuzzy happenings I find myself shockingly heartbroken, overwhelmed with rage, succumbing to tears of frustration, or bursting out in uproarious laughter. This is the kind of thing that I get just from READING about fuzzies, never mind the party that life with ferrets has in store for me each and every day...  |
 « last WEEZILIZED JULY 2005 · » « Copyright© 2000-2005 · All content is the property of the Extreme Weezils » |
This last part is frequently overlooked, as it does not seem important, but it is quite the contrary! Ferrets need to feel that they can get away from any and all prying eyes. An inexpensive but safe box is just the thing to provide this. They are found in almost every pet store and cost a pittance compared to the peace of mind it give your ferret! Without this "secret place" your ferret may get CAGE STRESS: pacing, chewing on bars, and upturning litter pans and food dishes are common symptoms of this easily solved malady....
The Extreme Weezils have an incredible setup to live in. Their environment can only be described accurately as ferret nirvana. I have some pictures taken a while ago here, but I need to stress the ferret balloon hammock that is shown here [the long hanging balloon - like hammock with the netting in the middle] is VERY DANGEROUS AND HAS KILLED FERRETS. So when we found this out, we took it down, cut it apart, removed the netting, and allow the fuzzies to crawl in the fleece part.
large roll of medium gauge wire