Friday, January 13, 2006

Yawcam update

Well, I guess you get what you pay for. Yawcam seems to have quite a few errors. I can't pin down what is causing these errors, because they are so seemingly random.

Sometimes, it seems like the uploads (FTP) just stop. That is usually when there is an error message saying that the destination folder doesn't exist. Those are actually the most rare and, really, are best errors. The picture on the site remains the same and I can tell by the time stamp that the uploads ceased at a particular time.

The most common error is the strangest. I get no error message on my computer, but the programs seems to freeze, or is at least unresponsive. There is some kind of upload happening though. The image on the site remains the same, but the time stamp continues to update. That is the worst. I'm trying to use this to let people know when I'm in my office, but with this error that get's confusing. I'm not worried about the picture freezing when I'm not there. I'm worried about the picture freezing when I'm there and then I leave. It makes it seem like I'm at my desk and ignoring people who try to contact me.

It looks like I'm off to shop for alternatives. I'll let you all know if/when I find anything.

Monday, January 9, 2006

Yawcam

Yawcam stands for Yet Another Webcam and it is a nice freeware for Webcam functions.

It's a nice, simple application that I have set up to upload an image (FTP) to my server every 20 seconds. While it's not streaming video, it puts a pretty small load on my server and, therefore, my wallet :)

I was able to find a script that refreshes the pictures every 20 seconds. Initially, I was refreshing the entire page using a Metatag. That was not a good solution because the page would reset (to the top of the page) each time it reloaded. On a page that scrolls, that is really annoying. On my phone, it made it impossible to view the image.

I'm considering using this as a sort of "in office" indicator for my students. Obviously, I can use MSN Messenger (or other brand) to do this, but this is nice because I can use it any place that I can use a picture. Or, at least, any place where I can point to the URL of a picture.

I'm looking for other ways of using my Webcam in-between video conferences (which don't happen too often). Anyone have any ideas? :)