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Wednesday, July 30, 2008

Setting up a web cam... maybe.

So, I was thinking that I might set up a webcam.

The technicality is that it seems too complicated... at least the way I want to set it up.

So, here is how I think I'm going to do it (this weekend...)

I will set up a ftp server and Apache web server on my desktop pc.

I have an app on my laptop that will upload image webcam.jpg to my desktop every 30 minutes via FTP.

I will use cron to run a small shell script on my desktop every 25 minutes and rename the images as so:

webcam04.jpg becomes webcam05.jpg...
webcam03.jpg becomes webcam04.jpg...
webcam02.jpg becomes webcam03.jpg...
webcam01.jpg becomes webcam02.jpg...
webcam.jpg becomes webcam01.jpg...

Then in apache I will create an a simple web page that will display all six images.

which requires me to: make one shell script, configure two servers, write one web page, configure camorama on my laptop, and configure port forwarding on my router.

the down side is then I will have 3 computers running constantly in stead of only 2...

I would have the laptop connected to my TV upload images to my FTP server, but then the camera would be in a bad spot to watch Jaani during the day... then it would be looking at my couch. I would rather have it set up to watch the front door or something...

So, I need a little more planning. I suppose the whole process would be a lot easier if I just paid for image hosting at a site that offered FTP access... or if I had Conduit sync a local folder with picasa and then had an album in picasa for my webcam... but I don't know if I really want that or not yet.

Anyway, a little more thought is needed, but I think it's about time I got back into the whole webcam thing. The other idea I had is to just have a live stream via shoutcast... like I did for a while in high school... that way I could have live video and sound, but you could only watch things in real time... which I kind of like the idea of having pictures spread across the past 3 hours better. Oh well, I'll think of something.

Just keeping everyone posted with my plans... lets see if I actually get around to it.

Later,

SteveO