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Presence Examples From CNN Homeowner takes holiday light display online 'The electric meter really spins' Tuesday, December 14, 2004 LAFAYETTE, Colorado (AP) -- After festooning his house with 17,000 Christmas lights, Alex Komarnitsky wanted more than just drive-by gawkers to be able to enjoy the spectacle. He got his holiday wish, and then some. His interactive Web site that allows Internet users to turn the lights on and off with the click of a mouse is attracting thousands. "It's out of control," Komarnitsky said. Another Web site recently alerted users about his interactive page. "It said, 'This guy's Web site is funny. Turn the lights on and off and annoy the neighbors."' This month alone, more than 1.3 million Internet browsers -- including about 38,000 from a German domain, more than 2,400 from a French domain and nearly 1,000 from a domain in Singapore -- have visited the site. As of Monday evening, 31,483 people had tinkered with the lights. Traci Keller, who lives across the street, said she likes the production. "I just think he has a lot of Christmas spirit," said Keller, 40. "He is entertaining." Keller's 10-year-old daughter, Jordan, said the display reminds her of "National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation." In the popular film, Clark Griswold, played by Chevy Chase, drains a city of its electricity in an attempt to illuminate every inch of his home's facade with thousands of tiny bulbs. "They are the Griswolds of our neighborhood," Jordan said. The family's displays went online beginning in 2000, when Komarnitsky strung 12,000 lights. He added the interactive feature last year. He said he turns on the display for five to six hours a night, and his December electric bill typically reaches $150. "The electric meter really spins," he said. "I've gotten a little carried away."
From USA Today Lights? Not quite; "interactive" setup a happy hoax By Angela Gunn, USATODAY.com So who wants to be a skeptic during the holidays, especially about Christmas lights? A Colorado programmer who drew worldwide attention for stringing thousands of holiday lights and then giving controls of the switch to visiting Net surfers admitted Monday that though the holiday spirit was real, the tech accent was not. Alek Komarnitsky said he started the site two years ago to see if it would be possible to write a program to make it appear as if the lights were being turned off and on. But just as the displays have gotten larger each year, in 2004 the "interactive" component became a very big deal as press action focused on the site. At one point, with a TV station helicopter hovering overhead, his wife was inside, turning the lights off and on to keep up the facade. The Web site was featured in numerous holiday stories, including pieces by The Associated Press and USAToday.com's Hot Sites section, and Komarnitsky explained he had decided to unveil the multi-year hoax at the end of the season because it had gotten "a little out of hand." Even if the technology isn't what visitors thought it was, though, Komarnitsky emphasizes that no harm was intended -- and that the actual tech used to pull off the project was impressive in its own way. "For the overwhelming majority of people who read about [the project], it will continue to provide a little Christmas chuckle," Komarnitsky said after the Wall Street Journal posted a story on its Web site Monday. "It will be interesting to see what my e-mail box looks like in the morning. I'll probably get some 'nastygrams.'" On his site, Komarnitsky explained in detail how he set up the site using a "technology puzzle:" a series of photographs of his house from three angles with the lights on and off, and with varying amounts of snow on the ground. Komarnitsky then programmed the site to occasionally add passing cars to the photos used to generate the basic image array. One in five generated images included a "post-production" airplane image, a nod to the Komarnitsky home's proximity to an airport. Other semi-random visual events included a human-shaped shadow walking past the home and an open garage door. (One wag on slashdot.org commented, after seeing a description of the effort undertaken, "It seems like for all the trouble he went through to set up this hoax, it would actually have been easier to hook up the X10 to his computer and plop a real webcam outside.") All the technology means that though the lights existed (as does the home, of course), when people clicked on the site they saw the lights turn off on images that already existed and were reconfigured on the fly. Nothing was actually happening at the home. As the site grew in popularity, Komarnitsky found that not only technical ingenuity was necessary to keep the project afloat. When one television reporter came to view how the display worked, he said he told them that the Web cam was broken. (The AP picked up a story from a local newspaper and checked out the Web site but never visited the house; a USATODAY.com writer corresponded with Komarnitsky and visited the site but also did not behold the house in person.) Komarnitsky's neighbors, who were quoted in various news stories, were also in on the project and appreciated the effort he put into it -- in some cases, expressing surprise that visiting reporters hadn't investigated more thoroughly. "Nobody looked over to say, 'Where's the Web cam?," said Marjie Hargrave, whose tree supported the camera. "He put an extension cord that didn't go anywhere. It wasn't until the fourth (media) interview that he said, 'I'm going to put a camera up.' According to the Journal, the extension cord went into Hargrave's garage, and the rest of the neighborhood likewise cooperated with Komarnitsky's efforts to keep the spirit (and the hoax) alive. "Nobody asked us what we thought about the lights blinking at all hours," she added. "They didn't blink." Other technically inclined folk online also assisted with the project. "While the Internet is not as 'nice' as it was a decade ago," writes Komarnitsky on his site, "people are still willing to help you out and there were countless examples of this. I had people clean up my audio recordings, save and convert videos, provide mirroring, and just all sorts of stuff. Was truly impressive that when I'd post a "can someone help me with XYZ", I'd get an e-mail within a day offering assistance and you'll notice that I thank people in various places in the web site." Tech-oriented sites such as Slashdot were generally appreciative of the effort that went into the ruse. Technologists have a history of staging elaborate pranks (known as hacks, before the term "hacker" took on certain negative connotations). One Slashdot writer remarked that the project "qualifies as a hack in my book. Required some technical skill, was harmless, and quite funny." Artists and social commentators such as Joey Skaggs have previously created elaborate Web hoaxes designed not to fleece the public but to draw attention to social issues. Komarnitsky's goals were somewhat less complicated; he describes the project as essentially "all in good fun." Besides spreading cheer, Komarnitsky made a small amount of money from advertisements posted on the site. He said it amounted to only "pennies" for each hit on the ads, adding he couldn't disclose the amount because of a deal signed with Google. A spokesman for Google declined comment until officials could look into the matter further. Komarnitsky said he's received more than a thousand e-mails from appreciative visitors to the site. He describes the hoax in greater detail, along with the response the unveiling has received, at komar.org/xmas/hoax. |