Monitoring data captured from various sources on the Internet isn't anything new, however the method of display can always be different of creative. One example of this has been demonstrated by Matt Stultz in his weekend project - the "Data Dial Dashbord". This consists of an Ethernet-enabled Arduino board that controls three servos.
The servos then act as analogue gauges for data from a weather service, however the Arduino sketch could scrape data from almost any web site and thus display the required data. This could be network load, temperature, number of unread emails - or much more. The basic design and use is demonstrated in the following quirky video:
However you can find very detailed instructions plus the required code on the Make: website. And for more, we're on facebook, Google+, and twitter - so follow us for news and product updates as well.
When putting together your next Internet-enabled Arduino project - save time, space and money with the Freetronics EtherTen. Apart from being fully Arduino Uno-compatible, it has onboard Ethernet, microSD socket, full USB interface (so you don't need a costly FTDI cable just to upload a sketch!) and supports optional Power-over-Ethernet.